“For the message of
the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being
saved it is the power of God.”
1
Corinthians 1:18
We learned, last week, that God’s chosen method for spreading
the Gospel is through preaching. However, before we can take the Good News of
Jesus Christ to the four corners of the earth, we have to know what the message
is! What is the Gospel message?
On one occasion, after His resurrection, Jesus told His disciples:
“This is what is
written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and
repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
The core of the gospel message is centered on Christ! The
gospel message includes proclaiming that Jesus suffered and died on Calvary’s
cross, explaining that He died a sinner’s death in our place so that we might
be forgiven. The Apostle Paul believed in this message so strongly that he
wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:23-24:
“But we preach Christ
crucified; a stumbling block to Jews and a stumbling block to Gentiles, but to
those who God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the
wisdom of God.”
The gospel message
includes proclaiming that after three days He conquered death, hell and the
grave when He victoriously came out of the tomb to give us eternal life. The
gospel message includes proclaiming the need for repentance as we were all born
into sin, and because of our sinfulness we deserve death. We must repent and
turn from our sins. The gospel message, also, includes forgiveness. We must
turn to the Lord Jesus Christ confessing our sinfulness and ask Him to forgive
us of our sins.
Jesus left His disciples with a very concise message! It is
a message that is still desperately needed today. A message that you and I have
been called to carry to a world that desperately needs salvation. A message, we
have not only heard, but witnessed in our own lives. I challenge you and leave you with this
departing passage of Scripture from Romans 10:14-15:
“How, then can they
call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one
of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to
them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How
beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Jesus concludes His ministry on this earth with this
statement in Matthew 28:18-20:
“Then Jesus came to
them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore
go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
YOU HAVE BEEN SENT!
Pastor Scott Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com/
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