The Gospel Matters | 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11

We'll be looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 1 through 11. If you don't have a Bible, you can use the pew Bible in front of you. We are continuing a topical series, which means we won't be staying in 1 Corinthians 15 for the entirety of the sermon; we'll be jumping around different passages as we examine a topic.

Last week, we looked at how Scripture matters, how Scripture created the world we live in. It also creates salvation in our hearts, as well as creating churches, and that Scripture commands what we do in obeying Christ. This morning, we'll be looking at the Gospel message—one step further from Scripture—to see how the Gospel matters, transforms us, and then produces church life.

The Enduring Power of the Gospel

Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born at the wrong time, he also appeared to me. For I am the least of the apostles, not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it is I or they, so we proclaim and so you have believed. — 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 (CSB)

Let's pray. We pray that you would help us to be able to trust in this Gospel that we've received, that we've taken our stand on, and the message that we continue to hold on to. We pray this in Jesus's name. Amen.

The Reformers, in the recovery of the Gospel during the Protestant Reformation, talked about two principles. You may have heard of the Five Solas. There were two principles that they hung onto in determining how Christians were supposed to live their lives, as well as how they were supposed to conduct the life of the church. The first principle came from the first Sola of the Reformation, *Sola Scriptura*, which was the formal principle—that Scripture would literally form their lives. It would form how they would be saved in terms of the message they believed in. It would also form the way in which they would do church, the way they would decide how their gatherings would be ordered, how they would be structured, and how decisions would be made. In other words, in order to determine what faithfulness to the Lord would look like, they would look to the Bible. They would look to what God's Word said. That's part of the reason why they moved the pulpit to the center of the stage—so that they would understand that the Bible had the final authority, not any man, not any member, but what God's Word alone would say, what it formed, what it did.

The second principle of the Reformation was the material principle. The material principle. If you think of formal as "forming," think of material like "matter," the substance. What are you mining out? So, if you use Scripture kind of like a pickaxe, what are the actual minerals that you're pulling out from the Scriptures? What are you gaining from it? And the material principle of the Reformation is the Gospel: *Sola Fide*, justification by faith alone. The message about Jesus, what he did for us, would be the substance of our entire lives, and it is essential that we understand this Gospel. 1 Corinthians 15 says that this Gospel is of "first importance." And by "first," it doesn't mean the thing that you get first so that you can then move on to other things. It's not talking about "first" as in just getting you into the doorway of church life before you start focusing on other methods or other priorities for the church. The reason why it's first is because it is first in priority; it is of first importance.

So, we'll be looking at the Gospel message, and in particular, what I want to do is show how this substance of the message that we have then applies to what you and I do in the life of the church. In particular, there are four things that the Gospel does, this material principle gives, that this substance provides us as we seek to be faithful to Christ in the life of this church.

The Gospel Saves

First, point number one: the Gospel saves. The Gospel saves. Look again at 1 Corinthians 15. Let me read verses 1 through 4 for us.

Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. — 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (CSB)

The good news of the Gospel begins with the good news of what Christ did. What Christ did for us: that Christ died, and he died for a reason. Verse 3 tells us that Christ "died for our sins." The Gospel begins because we believe in a holy God—a God who created and ordered the universe by his Word, as we read last week. He created man to be stewards and caretakers over creation. And we, in response to God's good rule, decided to rebel against him. You and I are sinners. What we do is we take God's good rules, his good Law, and we have rebelled against a holy God. As a result, you and I are deserving of punishment due to our rebellion. Romans 6:23 tells us that "the wages of sin," the direct consequence of sin, "is death." There is a direct consequence because of our sin.

Now, you may be sitting here this morning, you may not be a Christian, and the idea of God sending someone to hell or someone dying as a result of rebellion against God may seem unusual or an overreaction. That telling a white lie isn't worthy of spending eternity in hell. I could understand that kind of response, especially in light of a world that's so broken. In a world where sin, deception, and evil are so common, it can almost seem like an overreaction for the result of sin to be eternal death. But the reason why sin is so important isn't just because of the degree of badness of the action itself, but because of who that action is against.

A simple analogy would be that an action can result in different consequences depending on who I interact with. So, we have Brandon who thoughtfully played music for us so well today. If I spit in Brandon's face, I think Brandon would be upset. I think he'd be so upset, he would probably throw hands, lay hands on the sick maybe. But that would probably be the extent of it. In contrast, if I spit in the face of our U.S. President, I will probably die. And if I don't die, I'll be thrown to prison for a very long time. The difference isn't the action, but who the action is against. Greater authority results in greater punishment. The reason why sin is such a big deal isn't just because of the intensity of the action, even though the actions are certainly evil and deserving of punishment themselves. But not only that, it's about who that action is against. If you have a greater degree of punishment for someone who rules an earthly nation, how much more for the ruler of the entire universe? How much more for the ruler of the cosmos, the one who commands all matter, all atoms, everything that exists in the world? A sin against that kind of universally authoritative God ought to be an eternal punishment.

But the good news of the Gospel is found not just in some kind of redemption arc that we do. It's not based on some action that we do to rehabilitate ourselves into becoming better people, but in what Jesus did for us. It says in 1 Corinthians 15 that "he died for our sins." Jesus does what you and I can't do: in living a perfect, sinless life and dying on the cross, he pays the penalty that you and I deserve. He bore the wrath of God on his shoulders, and he bears the full consequence of sin. If the wages of sin is death, he dies because of the sins that we committed. And he was buried. And then he was raised on the third day. He paid the penalty of sin in full and showed that that check cleared by rising from the dead. It's because of what Jesus has done for us that you and I are able to be saved. That is the content of the message that we believe. Scripture speaks to us, and as Scripture speaks to us, the words that it speaks to us are this Gospel message. The substance of our faith is about Jesus.

The way you and I get saved, the way that our faith starts, is with Jesus, not yourself. If you start your salvation story with yourself—your own knowledge, your good works, even your own belief—you will not be saved. The good news of the Gospel begins with Jesus, what Christ has done for us. And the good news is that Jesus did it. He actually died for your sins. He was actually buried. He actually rose from the dead, and it's because Jesus did those things that the message of the Gospel obtains its resurrection, soul-saving power. If Jesus is not the substance of our faith, then regardless of how motivating, regardless of how inspiring that message may be, it bears no hope for you and me. It would be the same as if I wrote you a million-dollar check. If I pulled out my checkbook—I've written maybe 20 checks in my entire life—and wrote down a check for a million dollars, and gave that to you, do you know how much that check is worth? Nothing. I'm broke. It's not worth anything because the check is only as good, it is only as reliable, as the person who wrote it. A Gospel message without a Gospel Savior is completely empty. But the good news of the Gospel is that we believe in a Savior who actually died for our sins, as Scripture said, who has actually risen as Scripture says. And because Jesus did these things, the message of the Gospel has everlasting, eternal power.

That's also why the message of the Gospel matters so much, because the way that you and I get saved isn't by activating some kind of faith or saying some kind of mantra or incantation. The way that we obtain salvation is by trusting in this message. That's what verses 1 and 2 say here in 1 Corinthians 15: We receive the message. We take our stand on the message, and we hold on to the message. That's how you and I get saved. That's the way we respond to this good news about the Gospel. You know, just a week ago, we celebrated Juneteenth, which, if you take all the politics aside and look at what it actually means, it is a beautiful holiday. Not just about emancipation of the slaves, which Abraham Lincoln did when he wrote his Emancipation Proclamation, but the liberation of the slaves. Slaves that were actually freed but had no idea about it until the pronouncement of the news that they were no longer slaves, that they were freed in the eyes of the government. They were celebrating not just the action or the declaration that happened on the part of the government, but the reception of that freedom that was available to them. It completely transformed their lives. It changed who they were, their future. And even more for us who aren't just enslaved, but are active rebels. The good news of the Gospel gives us an opportunity to hear from a heavenly King that you and I rebelled against, and gives us the opportunity to switch allegiances to him—to drop down our weapons, to stop seeking to try to save ourselves or to protect ourselves, but to lay our power down before this King, instead of facing his wrath and judgment. If you're not a Christian, you're here this morning, that's how you become a Christian. It's not just by praying a prayer. It's not just by coming to church on Sunday. It is by laying yourself down before this King and pledging faithfulness, loyalty, your whole life to him, receiving this good news of the Gospel.

The Gospel Creates

And that Gospel does more than just save us. It also creates. That's point number two: the Gospel creates. The Gospel creates.

So last week, we looked at how the Word creates. This is how the Word creates. The Gospel message itself creates. It creates salvation, and it creates the church. And the primary picture of both of those Gospel realities—about it creating salvation and it creating the church—is through baptism. Turn your Bible to the right, to the book of Colossians. There's just a couple books to the right; the book of Colossians is after Philippians. We'll be looking at chapter 2, verse 11. This is Paul meditating on the good news of the Gospel in light of everything that Christ has done. And this is the image that he chooses to capture the picture of what happens to you and I when we trust in the Gospel message.

You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. — Colossians 2:11-13 (CSB)

You see a picture of what he's trying to say. He's saying, baptism pictures being buried with Christ and being risen to new life. That you are buried with Jesus in his death, and that you are raised with him in resurrection life. That's the picture of what happens in the Gospel. That's the picture of what happens when you turn from sin and you trust in Jesus. The idea is that your old self is crucified with Jesus on the cross when you are united to him in faith. And he's buried in the ground. And then now you rise up in new life as you trust in Jesus. In other words, the act of being baptized, being buried in water and then risen from the water, is a physical Gospel message. Baptism is a physical Gospel presentation. It proclaims the good news of what happened in the heart of the person who's baptized. It's a sign. That's precisely why, by the way, we only baptize Christians. That's the way that Paul talks in Colossians chapter 2 about baptism: "You're raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead." And "while you're dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses." That's the reason why we only baptize believers, because that picture of death and resurrection applies to those who have truly turned from their sin and trusted in Jesus. You were buried with him; you were raised to new life. It's a sign; it's a proclamation; it's a sermon.

In fact, that picture of baptism itself points to new birth. This picture of being buried and dying and rising to new life symbolizes that you have a new life in Jesus. In fact, this is part of God's intention through all of creation. Turn back in your Bible to Genesis chapter 1, verse 28.

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” — Genesis 1:28 (CSB)

So, you have the Garden of Eden. You have Adam and Eve placed inside this garden. And they're told, according to verse 28, to do a couple things. What they're supposed to do is they are to be fruitful: to have children, to multiply, to fill the earth, and to subdue it—to command it, to order it. So, if you think of the Garden of Eden kind of having its borders and the rest of the earth being wilderness, what Adam and Eve are doing are several things. The first thing that they're doing is they're multiplying workers. They're having kids. They have other image-bearers that are like God. And they are doing what God does. They create other humans and they order the garden. They are cultivating; they are pulling out weeds; they are taking disordered wilderness and cultivating it. And as they do, this border of the Garden of Eden is spreading around the whole earth. And by extension, the glory of God is filling the whole earth as they are being fruitful, as they're multiplying, as they are ordering the earth.

That picture gets picked up by Jesus in Matthew 28. Go to Matthew 28. This is the last words of Jesus to his disciples at the very end of the book of Matthew. Look at verse 18.

Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” — Matthew 28:18-20 (CSB)

Notice what Jesus is telling them to do. He's telling them to go and make disciples—reproduce disciples. And as you reproduce disciples, you are to teach them to obey everything Christ commanded. In other words, you are ordering their life around what God commands, around what Jesus wants them to do. Does that sound familiar to you? It should remind you of Genesis chapter 1. It's the exact same thing happening, except instead of the original creation, now it's the new creation. Jesus, in his new creation order that he's making, is ordering the earth by creating new creatures, new humans. As we turn from our sin and we trust in Jesus, we are made new creations. As we share the Gospel, as we baptize, as we teach them to observe everything that Christ has commanded, we are spreading the glory of God through the church over all of the earth. That's what you and I are commanded to do.

That's why the picture of birth changes in the New Testament from giving birth to children to now giving birth to Christ's disciples. That's part of the reason, by the way, in the New Testament, the command to get married changes. The reason is because, like Isaiah prophesied, you don't need to procreate physical children in order to participate in this creation mandate. What God desires for you is so much sweeter than that. The way that God accomplishes his purposes, now that Christ has come, isn't from us just producing babies. Though they are a blessing from the Lord, though they image God, that we want to raise them to follow after the Lord. The way that you and I participate in this new creation mandate, fulfilling what God wants from us and seeing the glory of God spread, isn't by producing physical babies, but by producing spiritual ones. If you look around in the church, if you look around at the community, as you share the Gospel, as you minister the Gospel to people, you are doing garden work. You are doing fruitful work. You are doing eternal work. That is your legacy that you get to participate in.

And that's precisely why in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17, Paul says:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! — 2 Corinthians 5:17 (CSB)

That's why baptism is the first thing that a believer does in response to repenting and believing the Gospel. Remember the pattern that we saw in Acts chapter 2 last week: they hear, they believe, they're baptized, and they're added to the number. In other words, you could think of conversion and what it looks like in three steps: you have faith, they trust in Christ, they're baptized, and then they join the church or membership. Faith, baptism, membership. And all three of those pictures are intertwined together; they're supposed to go together. In other words, if you believe in Christ, you will get baptized. If you are baptized, then you're added to the church. Those three things work together.

The Gospel does more than just save you as an individual. It creates a new creation. Adam and Eve didn't just get created and live in a vacuum; they lived in the garden. In the same way, baptism does more than just create a new creation individually. It creates an entire community of new creations. Baptism is someone's new birth into a new world. And as we share the Gospel, as we baptize people into the church, this Garden of Eden, this temple of the Holy Spirit, spreads around the earth. Which is why if you're a new believer, you need to get baptized. That's what you need to do. And that's why we as Christians want to share the Gospel. That's why we baptize, why we go through the same process as we do in church membership. If you want to get baptized at our church, it's really simple: you go to the "Church Matters" classes, you do a membership interview with me, and then we vote you in as a church, as a member, pending baptism, because we want to make sure that that picture of true faith and true participation in the church are connected as baptism happens. You get baptized, you get to proclaim the Gospel that you believe in, and you get joined into the church at the same time.

The Gospel Protects

Point three: the Gospel protects. The Gospel protects. The Gospel message itself is connected to Gospel practice. Go back to 1 Corinthians, but let's look at chapter 11, verse 17. While you turn there, I just want to give some context. The church in Corinth is divided. They're divided because of lots of different things. They have favoritism, they have preference for different leaders, they have people that think that they're superior to other people because of spiritual gifts. In chapter 11, in particular, Paul is willing to go super aggressively and hard on the fact that they are eating a meal without everyone there. You see why he's so upset there in verse 17. Read with me:

Now in giving this instruction I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. For to begin with, I hear that when you come together as a church there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. Indeed, it is necessary that there be factions among you, so that those who are approved may be recognized among you. When you come together, then, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. For at the meal, each one eats his own supper. So one person is hungry while another gets drunk! Don’t you have homes in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I do not praise you in this matter! — 1 Corinthians 11:17-22 (CSB)

Notice what's happening. There are some that are eating food before other people get there. And it is so important to Paul that he is willing to say that the Lord's Supper that they are eating is not really the Lord's Supper. They have desecrated this picture of what the Lord is supposed to do because their practice connects directly to the picture of what they're trying to proclaim. You can see that in verse 23. Read with me:

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. — 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (CSB)

Notice what he's saying. He's saying, because Christ's body and blood was broken and spilled for you, for you to break up Christ's body—being the church—by dividing the church with the Lord's Supper is evil. That it's a direct denial of the Gospel itself. Because the Lord's Supper is more than just juice and a cracker. It's more than just some fun thing that we get to participate in. It is a symbol. It points to a greater reality. That when you take the bread and drink the cup, it is a physical reminder of what the Lord has done for us through the work of Jesus. It's not that it literally becomes Jesus's body and blood. That's not what happens. There's no hocus pocus that happens with the elements here on the table. Jesus himself understood that, by the way. When he breaks the bread and he lifts up the cup in the Lord's Supper room, and he says, "This is my body and this is my blood," you know who was also in the room physically? Jesus. None of the disciples are wondering whether or not they're literally eating his flesh and his blood. The reason why he's willing to say that this is my body and this is my blood is because of what it would point to: his work on the cross, his body broken for you, his blood spilled for you.

In other words, the Lord's Supper is a physical Gospel message. It lets us know what Christ has done for all of us, for all of Christ's people, which is precisely why you need everyone there. Because to deny someone the Lord's Supper is to show them physically that they should not have that Gospel message applied to them. That the community of the Gospel excludes that person. Which is why, in light of the Gospel message, we need to make sure that we proclaim the Gospel effectively in the way that we proclaim the Gospel in the Lord's Supper. You can see that in verses 27 through 34.

So, then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself; in this way let him eat the bread and drink from the cup. For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep. If we were properly judging ourselves, we would not be judged, but when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we may not be condemned with the world. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, welcome one another. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you gather together you will not come under judgment. I will give instructions about the other matters whenever I come. — 1 Corinthians 11:27-34 (CSB)

How do you take the Lord's Supper correctly? You examine your own hearts, and you make sure everyone's there. In other words, you make sure that you're in the right place, and you make sure everyone else is in the right place. We recognize the body when we take the Lord's Supper together. We're recognizing those who are in the body of Christ, those who have trusted in Jesus. That's precisely why, by the way, we don't let just anyone take the Lord's Supper. We're going to take the Lord's Supper today. Consider this your warning that the Lord's Supper is not for everyone. It's for people who meet this criteria: who have examined themselves, who have trusted in Christ, and have done what we just talked about. They believe in Jesus. They have publicly proclaimed their faith in Jesus in baptism and membership in the church. Those are the people who can participate in the Lord's Supper. It's those who have proclaimed accurately.

In other words, the Gospel message as it's proclaimed through baptism and the Lord's Supper creates the church by causing people to turn from their sin and trust in Jesus. And the Gospel message also helps us determine the dividing line between those who are in the church and those who are outside of the church. Does that make sense? In other words, by faithfully administering baptism and the Lord's Supper, by faithfully practicing this, by making sure that the people who partake are true believers who have trusted in Christ, who have turned away from their sin, by making sure that these are people who have publicly professed their faith in Christ through baptism and membership in the church—that's what enables the Lord's Supper to accurately convey the Gospel message to a watching world. That's also why we're able to partake in the Lord's Supper with other Christians who are also baptized members of Gospel-preaching churches, because we're all part of the community of Jesus together. In other words, if you want to faithfully proclaim the Gospel message together as a church, what we do is we faithfully divide between those who meet this criteria and those who do not. I'm going to talk about that in future sermons, but for now, just understand this concept that the Gospel naturally creates a dividing line between those who have publicly professed and those who haven't. And by extension, it creates the community of Jesus. It creates the church.

The Gospel Cultivates

And number four, lastly, the Gospel cultivates. The Gospel cultivates.

Sometimes we think of the church in light of its structure, in light of what it's made of. And I think that's important. I think that's of eternal significance. If you think of baptism and the Lord's Supper, baptism kind of functions like a gate that opens up to allow you to come into the community of Jesus. And the Lord's Supper kind of operates like garden walls, this protective barrier that separates between the inside and the outside. But the reason why those structures matter so much isn't just so that we know the dividing line. In other words, the church isn't just primarily in the business of saying, "You're in and you're out." The reason why the Gospel message matters is because when we do this right, when we create the structures of the church correctly—by faithfully administering these practices—it results in cultivating life.

Think about a gardener. A gardener builds walls and kills weeds. That's essential to a gardener's work. But the reason why the gardener does that work isn't just so that he has a bare field with a bunch of dead plants. The reason why the gardener is invested in protective work, in structural work in his garden, is so that the fruit in the garden grows, so that it bears fruit, so that the plants grow in a healthy, fruitful manner. In the same way, the good news of the Gospel cultivates life in the life of the believer.

Specifically, in ministering the Gospel through baptism, Lord's Supper, membership, and the proclamation of the Gospel, when you do this correctly, it cultivates two attitudes about the Christian life. It cultivates two attitudes about the Christian life. You could turn back to 1 Corinthians 15; we'll end with this passage here. If you understand this Gospel message with the Gospel ordinances—baptism and the Lord's Supper—correctly, it does two things.

The first thing it does is it humbles us. It humbles us. Look at verse 9: "For I am the least of the apostles, not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain." See what the Gospel did for Paul. Paul thought he was extremely righteous. You can read the other epistles to find his description of all of the spiritual qualifications that he had as a Pharisee and as a Jew. And yet, what the Gospel did was utterly expose his heart in light of who he actually is. He understands that he is the worst, the least of the apostles, that he's not worthy to follow Jesus because of who he is. And that's what we celebrate in the Gospel message. Every single time we partake in the Lord's Supper, it is an acknowledgment that you and I bring nothing to the table. There's nothing that we do to make ourselves worthy enough before the Lord. It humbles us; it completely flattens the playing field. This is not a tier-based system based on how good you're doing, but completely based on what Jesus does for us.

The second thing that it does is it empowers us. It empowers us. Look at the second half of verse 10 there: "On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them. Yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it is I or they, so we proclaim and so you have believed." Notice what Paul immediately follows up his newfound identity in Christ with. He says that he works harder than anyone. He works harder than anybody, not to earn, not in order to gain status before God, but because of what God has done in him. The Gospel empowers. In other words, the grace of God inside us compels us to pursue godliness, to pursue the work of the Gospel, and to let others know about the life that we've received. This is how the Gospel message works. It has both grace and work together. But it's all rooted in the person of Jesus.

You see, if you have Gospel grace, if you have Gospel forgiveness without Gospel work, you will just live a rambunctious, sinful life. It's just complete lawlessness. And if you have Gospel work, Gospel commands, without Gospel grace, you will be a legalist. You will be chasing after God's approval for the rest of your life, and you will not obtain it. But if you have Gospel grace with real Gospel work, it results in Gospel power. It results in a transformed life. It results in a life where you're simultaneously not having to be concerned about yourself, while also willingly giving up yourself for the sake of the Gospel and the spread of his Word to the ends of the earth.

This is the kind of life that we want to embody as a church. A church that doesn't think much of itself, while being willing to work hard and make much of Christ. A church that's willing to acknowledge that we are sinful people that are stumbling along in this life, seeking to follow Jesus, while also eagerly being willing to go out of our comfort zone for the sake of helping others to know Jesus. That's what the Gospel does. It frees us from the prison of having to focus on yourself, while also liberating you to be able to give up yourself if it means that you get to obtain Christ. If we want to be a healthy church, if we want to be a church that seeks to follow after Christ, this needs to be at the core of our DNA. Not just because of what the Word tells us to do that's right, but because the material, the substance of the Gospel, helps us understand what's good. It helps us understand what really gives us life. What tastes good to us. What looks lovely to us, that when we clearly understand what Jesus actually did for us, then we become hungry to share that kind of love with others.

Have you received this Gospel? Have you taken your stand on this Gospel? Have you held on to this Gospel? Because if you see Jesus, if you trust in him, if you proclaim him, if you've done these things, then know that this message of hope is for you. And every time that we take the Lord's Supper, every time that we gather, every time we encourage each other, every time that we sit under the Word to hear this Gospel again, we get to know that Christ will continue to hold on to us by his power until the day that Jesus returns. Let's pray. We do thank you for the good news of the Gospel. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to be faithful stewards of it, that our church would be built on it as we seek to serve and love those who are around us. We pray this in Jesus's name. Amen.