Gospel Focused
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We will be a church where love is sincere; faithfully trusting God, taking His Word as revealed truth and teaching it unequivocally and without compromise; we will hate what is evil and hold on to what is good; we will be devoted to one another in brotherly love; honoring one another above ourselves; never lacking in enthusiasm; but keeping our spiritual passion; serving the Lord; being joyful in our hope, patient in suffering, faithful in prayer, sharing with God’s people who are in need and practicing hospitality. We will be a church that is committed to joining God wherever He was working and devote ourselves towards manifesting His love, grace, and peace.
We will be a church that refuses to be inwardly focused, but rather we will see the world as God sees it, and resolve in each of our hearts once and for all to faithfully love and seek those who are lost and be a beacon of light to our community, country, and the world that so desperately needs Him. We will be a church where the nations of the world are represented in the believers that worship and serve in our community of faith; we will be a church that celebrates our diversity, yet fellowship in unity.
We will be a community of faith that is so intimately in love with God and overwhelmed by His grace and mercy that our hope is renewed and our relationships restored. This will awaken our faith so that we can no longer stand aside passively. We will pro-actively serve our church, our community, and each other. Together, we will change the world. This is what we believe God has called us to strive toward and by His divine grace we will be the church that He created us to be.
Introduction: It’s January. A new year. An it would be good for us to have a church reset. We need to get back to basics. So over the next 5 weeks, we’ll be looking at what makes up an authentic church. More and more today, we are asking, what is the church? I think we’ve learned these last few years that the church is not a building. But I hope we have also learned that we are not the church apart from a community of faith. The church by definition gathers. And we’ve had to get creative in meeting.
We’ve gathered on Zoom. We’ve gathered socially distances. But we’ve gathered.
We’ve learned more than ever that we need the church. People want to talk about the universal church. Only one person ever talked about the universal church....Jesus. All of his followers talked about the local church.
It is the local church that the Bible emphasizes.
But someone once told me, Nothing does more good than the local church when it’s working. Nothing does more harm than the local church when it isn’t.
So we ought to know what a local church ought to be like.
Transition to the Text: Turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:2. Since Paul was charged by God to start the first churches, he had to define what a church was and more importantly what a church does. Now if you want to learn how to do something, a good place to start is with some bad examples. Learn what to do, by learning what not to do. And we’re in luck, because the Corinthians didn’t have a clue what a church was supposed to do. So Paul had to do a lot of explaining....about everything. He gets down to be basics from the start.
After a brief introduction, Paul gets to the heart of the church.
Introduce:
Authentic Principle: An Authentic Church KNOW and SHARES the true Gospel.
Authentic Principle: An Authentic Church KNOW and SHARES the true Gospel.
Read:
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Authentic Principle: An Authentic Church is focused on the gospel.
Authentic Principle: An Authentic Church is focused on the gospel.
Paul readily admits that the Gospel does not make sense to the the world. He goes so far as to say it is “folly” or “foolishness.” So right off the bad, the church is countercultural. It’s never going to make sense to the world and at best we can hope that they will tolerate us for a time.
The church is not explainable by worldly wisdom.
For Paul even his primary method for telling the Gospel, preaching, is admittedly foolish. Paul would preach for hours. He preached so long one time that a young man fell asleep and fell out of a window. Me, I’ll try to keep it to 40 minutes.
But the message of the Gospel is also simple. Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.
In this we learn that Jesus is the Savior of the World and His crucifixion is the means by which God chose to save the world.
1. A Gospel Focused Church emphasizes Jesus as the savior of the world.
1. A Gospel Focused Church emphasizes Jesus as the savior of the world.
Explanation: And this gets more to the foolishness. From the very beginning of the Bible, the Messiah is said to be a savior. He will save His people from their sins.
Now Christians know that they need a savior. They know what they’ve been saved from.
The world…not so much. Probably the biggest barrier to people accepting the Gospel is admitting that they need a savior. Admitting that there is something from which they need saving. And that which they need to be saved from is their own fault.
It would be one thing if they needed to be rescued from bad people. But to admit that they are the bad people is too much.
We don’t need to be saved from bad people. We don’t need to be saved from Satan. We need to be saved from ourselves.
Illustration: Typically if someone says that they are your only hope, you should probably run from that person. Sadly people who want to save you, usually have ulterior motives. They are usually politicians and their saving comes with strings.
But with Jesus, the only strings are that you must believe in Jesus. And he must be Lord of your life.
Application: Jesus is the savior of the World. And on top of that…he’s the only way.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
This is another thing that is foolishness to the world. The exclusivity of the Christian good news says, that if you try to come to God through any other person…Mohammed, Buddha, The Pope, The President, even your Pastor…that’s bad news.
Paul preached Jesus as the only means by which we are to be saved.
Peter agreed.
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
2. A Gospel Focused Church emphasizes the Cross as God’s way of saving people.
2. A Gospel Focused Church emphasizes the Cross as God’s way of saving people.
Explanation: I don’t think many of us realize just how offensive the cross would be to the jewish people. They believed that to hang on a tree was to be cursed. Paul writes elsewhere:
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
But the cross is mirrored in the OT sacrificial system.
22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
And again the idea that one person could pay for your sins seems foolish to the world. Not necessarily for our sins, becuase of course Jesus would die for me because I’m not that bad. But when we start seeing Jesus saving murderers and people who are completely evil in our eyes. Then it doesn’t make sense that Jesus would die for bad people.
But we’re all bad people who need a savior.
Illustration:
Application: Jesus isn’t your savior because he’s a good guy. A good teacher. A prophet. He didn’t even give you an example of loving people. Jesus is your savior because he paid the penalty of your sins.
Response: Are you a Gospel Focused Christian?
Response: Are you a Gospel Focused Christian?
Summation:
Authentic Principle: An Authentic Church KNOW and SHARES the true Gospel.
1. A Gospel Focused Church emphasizes Jesus as the SAVIOR of the WORLD.
2. A Gospel Focused Church emphasizes the CROSS as God’s WAY of saving people.
Response: Are you a Gospel FOCUSED Christian?
Closing Illustration:
Martin Luther was asked, “Pastor, why is it that week after week after week all you ever preach to us is the gospel?”
Luther responded, “Well, because week after week you forget it, because week after week you walk in here looking like a people who don’t believe the gospel. And until you walk in looking like people who are truly liberated by the truth of the gospel, I’m going to continue to preach it to you.”
And I would add, that we preach the Gospel week after week because we don’t see people sharing it.
The gospel is for the believer as well as the unbeliever.
Now again, if our goal is to be Gospel Focused, you might think, well of course we’re Gospel focused. I mean what else would we be?
Well you can be program focused.
You can be survival focused.
You can be pastor focused.
You can be age focused.
You can be building focused.
You can be community focused.
And you might say, well are any of those things bad? Not at all. But they aren’t the focus.
The Gospel if the focus.
And then you evaluate everything through the lens of the Gospel.
Does a program help advance the gospel? Yes, how can we do it better? No? Then we stop doing that program.
Pastors are Good but Jesus is the leader of the church. Now I don’t call out other pastors as a matter of principles. But when ever we listen to a sermon, at the end the question shouldn’t be was it engaging. Was it practical? Did it make me feel good. But was the Gospel presented in a way that unbelievers are called to repent of their sins and believe and were Christians called to live their lives in light of God’s great mercy and love at the cross.
If you listen to a lot of youtube pastors chances are you will never hear the Gospel.
Everything we do should be looked at through the lens of was the Gospel Presented. Was the Gospel presented the true Gospel.
Some people attribute to St. Francis of Assissi “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” Now he probably didn’t say that. Because no true follower of Jesus would ever say that. You have to use words. The foolishness of our words and the message of Christ and him crucified is what saves people.
Let’s pray.
Week 19 of 2020-2021 Sermon Series: Authentic Church: Gospel-Focused1 Corinthians 1:18-2:2Authentic Principle: An Authentic Church KNOW and SHARES the true Gospel.
1. A Gospel-focused Church emphasizes Jesus as the SAVIOR of the WORLD.
2. A Gospel-focused Church emphasizes the CROSS as God’s WAY of saving people.
Response: Are you a Gospel FOCUSED Christian?
Opening Discussion: Imagine you are on an elevator with a person who is willing to hear the gospel. How would explain the gospel in 2 minutes or less?
Sermon:
How does Paul describe the gospel in 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:2?
How is this different from how the Gospel is typically described in churches today?
Why are Christians and the gospel “foolish” to the world?
What is pragmatism and why is it so dangerous to the church?
How can embracing the foolishness of the Gospel help you boast in the power of God?
Why is Paul’s emphasis on the cross so important to him?
Application:
How do you respond when people think that Christianity is foolish?
What are some ways that Christians try to make the gospel less foolish?
Why is there always the temptation to compromise the gospel in this way?
What are some things in the church that distract us from the Gospel?
How can focusing on the Gospel help you to avoid compromising your values in the church and the world?
Why does Paul admit that he's not always an eloquent speaker?
Why does the world seem to value eloquence over truth?
How can you focus on the centrality of the Gospel, Jesus, and the cross in your life this year?