Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

The word importance refers to the state or fact of being of great significance or value.

Today’s Scripture starts off mentioning the Gospel as of first importance.

As we go through what this message of first importance is today, I pray that you take some time and reflect on your own life.

What is of first importance in my life?

How do I even discern what is of first importance in my life?

What do I want to be of first importance in my life?

We all have something that takes the prime location, or first place, in our thoughts and actions.

We all have something that is of first importance.

What is yours?

Join me as we read God’s Word:

Let us pray.

Prayer

As we discuss the reasons that the Gospel is of first importance, I pray that it becomes more and more clear why you should trust the truth of the Gospel.

The first reason is:

I.

You Should Believe the Gospel Because… The Testimony of the Cross (3)

Paul delivered this message to the church in Corinth.

This highlights the fact that the Gospel must be shared.

People believed because they heard.

We see that people must hear the Gospel in order to be saved by it.

That is our job as believers.

Share the Gospel with others.

What message did he deliver?

We will get to that in a minute.

But first we need to understand that there are a lot of messages people can deliver.

The weather, the news, governmental mandates, etc.

But the message that he delivered was of first importance.

This phrase is actually one Greek word that means first or before or of most importance.

He wanted them to know that there is nothing more important than the message of the Gospel that he delivered to them.

This message that he delivered.

He also received.

He received it from Christ Himself as he alludes to in Galatians 1:12!

Today we are going to break down this message that Paul delivered to them and why it is a trustworthy message to believe.

Verse 3 gives the first part of this message.

Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.

There is so much truth packed into this short sentence.

Christ died for our sins.

You see, God is a perfect God.

Sin cannot be in His presence.

God is also a righteous judge.

Just like a good judge wouldn’t let a guilty criminal off without justice, God is a good judge and will not leave the guilty unpunished.

So in order to still be a righteous judge but extend mercy to us, God sent His son, as the Person of Jesus Christ to die for our sins.

And this was done in accordance with the Scriptures.

What does that mean?

This means in accordance with the Old Testament.

In order to go through the entire Old Testament foreshadowing of Christ, we would have to be here for a long time!

But the Old Testament points to Christ throughout its pages.

Here are just three of the many examples:

As Abraham was going to make a sacrifice to the Lord, his son Isaac asked where the lamb was.

God had actually commanded Abraham to go and sacrifice his son Isaac as a test and as a foreshadowing of our Heavenly Father in heaven who would sacrifice His son for our sins.

Abraham asserted that God would provide the lamb.

And God did provide the burnt offering at that time - a ram in the thicket was given as a substitute for Abraham’s son Isaac and this foreshadowed the Lamb that was to come who would be the substitutionary atonement for our sins - Jesus Christ - the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Next we see the Passover that we mentioned a few weeks ago is another foreshadowing.

Found in Exodus 12 we see the death of all of the firstborn of Egypt as a final plague on Pharoah and his people.

These plagues came because Egypt refused to let God’s people go.

God commanded the people of Israel to sacrifice a lamb and place its blood above the doorposts of their homes.

This blood would cause the Angel of Death to pass over their house and God’s people would be safe from harm.

Jesus Christ is our Passover Lamb.

His blood covers our sins so that eternal death passes over us and we are given eternal life.

Finally we come to Isaiah 53:4-5:

Christ took on our sin and died in our place.

His punishment brought us peace and by His wounds we are healed.

This means that through His sacrificial death we can have eternal life.

The testimony of the cross screams loud and clear.

No greater love has been shown throughout the history of all creation than what Christ did for us on the cross.

While we were still sinners Christ died for us.

While we were enemies of Christ, He died for us.

I pray that His great kindness leads you to repentance.

I pray that His great kindness and sacrifice on the cross helps you see the love that He has for you.

That He would suffer such a gruesome death on that cross.

He was whipped 40-1 lashings that took Him to the point of death even after already being beaten by many other people.

And then He took the nails in His hands and feet and suffered a terrible death on the cross for the sins of the world.

And He did this so that all those who would repent, or turn way from their sins, and place their trust in Him, would have eternal life.

And He did this to glorify His Father.

My friends, you should believe because of the cross.

You should also believe....

Scripture References: Galatians 1:12, Romans 6:23, John 3:16, Genesis 22:8, Exodus 12, Isaiah 53:4-5.

II.

You Should Believe the Gospel Because… The Testimony of the Christ (4)

The word Christ means anointed one and is another word that refers to the Messiah.

The Messiah was the promised deliverer for Israel.

Many Scriptures pointed to this deliverer that would come out of Israel and rule over the world in righteousness.

Yet, there were also many Scriptures that described this deliverer like we saw in the first point.

Little did Israel know, their Christ would come as a servant the first time.

Jesus didn’t seem like the Messiah they were looking for.

And because of that we see the first four words in our English translation of verse 4.

That he was buried.

The Christ they were expecting would deliver them from the hands of their enemies.

His first coming did not do what they wanted and so they crucified Him.

Yet, Christ offers deliverance to us and to all.

We might not get deliverance from our enemies on earth immediately - but we are delivered from the greatest of enemies - eternal death.

You see, the rest of verse 4 lets us know why Jesus came the first time.

His earthly body was killed.

He died and was buried.

He was placed in a tomb for three days.

As an aside - to clarify for those who may struggle with understanding these three days - Jewish culture counted each day as 1.

So this would count both the day of death, day in between, and day of resurrection.

Although some have tried to refute the fact that Christ died - none can do so with any integrity.

He had undergone the 40-1 lashings that took him to the point of death before He even was crucified.