Introduction

[00:00:03] Hello and welcome to The Gospel Course. My name is Thomas. I'm a pastor here in Portland, Oregon, and today we get to learn what is the gospel. Maybe you've searched it out, maybe you've got one of our flyers. Well, we are glad to be able to share it with you. And throughout this course, that's what we're gonna learn, what is the gospel and why does it matter?

Defining the Gospel

[00:00:24] Today, we get a definition for the word. Perhaps the most important thing we do together is to define what that word means. Because maybe you've heard it used and something else comes to mind for you, like maybe music or a particular way that you were raised. Well, let's jump into the Bible and get a definition for what the gospel is.

[00:00:45] We can go to the book of 1 Corinthians and chapter 15, and the Bible tells us very clearly, and I wanna encourage you to be willing to be challenged for your definition of this word and what it means and what you believe about it. In the book of 1 Corinthians, the Bible says, I declare unto you the gospel."

[00:01:05] So we're gonna get a great definition of what that is. The word itself means good news. So we know that it is translated in other places glad tidings. It is a good message. It's called in the book of Romans the gospel of peace. So this is gonna be a good message if you will hear it and believe it. And that verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 goes on to say how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.

[00:01:36] So you could say the gospel is a death. It is the good news about a death, and that is the death of Jesus. It goes on to say in verse three there that Christ died for our sins, but not just an ordinary death. The gospel is a death about one who would pay for the sins of another. The Apostle Peter writes in his epistle about Jesus, he says, "Who his own self bare our sins."

[00:02:06] In His body on the tree. So we know that Jesus didn't just die a regular old death. He died a death that took sin upon Himself. But it goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 15:4 that He was buried. So Jesus didn't just die, He was placed in the grave.

[00:02:25] We know three days that He was in the grave. That's something that He said during His life He was going to do, be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth and then rise again. This is also fulfilling prophecy. In the Book of Isaiah chapter 53, it says of the Messiah, of Jesus, that He made His grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death. So He was placed in a tomb. You can read about that in John 19:40-42 if you wanna learn more about it. And the third thing about the gospel, it is a death, it is a burial, and then we see that it is a resurrection in verse number four in 1 Corinthians 15, "And that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures."

Death, Burial, Resurrection

[00:03:11] This is the good news. The good news is that someone died for you, was buried, and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures

[00:03:22] how does that compare to the gospel that you have heard before or what you currently believe? Is it the same thing? There are many other versions, but if we get the one straight out of the Bible, the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Accepting the Gospel

[00:03:41] So what do we do with that message when we hear it? What should we do? It says in verse one that the audience that received this message, it says, "Which also ye have received." They made a choice to believe that. It To receive it is not just to receive it as information.

[00:04:00] It is to receive it as something being true. And we have this record in the book of Acts chapter 18 in verse eight, " Many of the Corinthians hearing believed." And were baptized. So this is the order of someone that chooses to put their faith in what Jesus said on the cross. They hear it, they believe it, and then they identify with it later in believer's baptism.

[00:04:26] This is something that Jesus said was very important in his earthly ministry. In John chapter 6, Jesus says, "I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life." Because you see, it is faith in the gospel message that activates it in your life. It's not just intellectual. It is placing your trust in that happened.

[00:04:50] And if you believe that, the Bible says for every Christian, there's a time we had to choose to believe that. Romans chapter 10 says, "We believe in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and will be saved."

Change Made by the Gospel

[00:05:03] When we choose to believe that, something happens. When you hear that Jesus died for you and he rose again, you choose to believe it. There is a change made in your life. We see this same change made in the Corinthians that chose to believe it. In verse one it says, "And wherein ye stand."

[00:05:24] These Corinthians stood firmly upon the fact of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And this is the same for every Christian. The thing that we place our hope in is not how good we can be. It is how good God has been to us through what he did in Jesus. the book of Romans says it this way, Romans chapter 5, " By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand."

[00:05:54] You see, it reminds me of the psalmist. If you go into the book of the Psalms, in chapter 40, it's one of my favorites, it says that, " He hath set my feet upon a rock." And when we choose to believe what Jesus did for us, God gives us a foundation to stand upon. It's like standing on a rock. The second thing that happens when you choose to believe the gospel is that you are saved from your sin.

[00:06:22] In verse number two, we see, "By which also ye are saved." So what we learn about the gospel is that it is something that will save you Christ died for our sins, it says. And this is really the crux of the whole matter, is how am I made right with God? Is it through the atoning work of Jesus on the cross, or is it through some other means that I hope to accomplish?

[00:06:51] The Bible says every man has a problem of sin. We don't always do what we're supposed to. And Romans says the wages, or what we earn from that sin, is death. But it contrasts that with what the Bible calls the gift of God, being eternal life through Jesus Christ. And so salvation, to be saved, is a gift that God gives us, that we receive, and it's not based on our own works.

[00:07:19] We'll talk more about that in our future episodes. So now let's look at what do we do with this good news? Well, I wanna go back just to our last point really quickly, because you've gotta make sure that you receive this for yourself. This is a personal matter. It's about us as individuals and what we believe before we're ever able to share it with other people.

Receiving It for Yourself First

[00:07:43] The Apostle Paul, who wrote these words and took this message to the Corinthian church that they could hear and believe, said in verse number three, " For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received." You see, Paul had received this message for himself. There was a time in his life, that was Acts chapter nine, that he chose to hear from Jesus and call Him Lord.

[00:08:07] And that has to be true for each of us. The good news is, though, you do not have to be a good person to receive the gospel. In fact, the one that wrote these words says later in this same chapter, 1 Corinthians 15 in verse nine, that he persecuted the Church of God. So anybody can believe the gospel and be saved, even if you were an enemy of it.

[00:08:34] Maybe you can relate to that. Maybe you listened so far, and you are an enemy of the gospel, that you hate everything to do with God and religion and Christianity and the truth. And I just want to encourage you that you can still be saved if you will receive and believe what Jesus did for you on the cross.

The Gospel Is for Everyone

[00:08:53] The gospel is for everyone, even the most unlikely candidate. It's for everyone. It's even for you. And the Bible says in Isaiah 53, " All we like sheep have gone astray." That is all of us. There are no good people. There are only saved and lost people, and you can be saved if you will simply believe. But once you have chosen to believe it, and it makes that change in your life, now we are compelled to share this news with others.

Sharing It With Others

[00:09:25] You see, this is the best news on the planet. There is no greater news that you could share with somebody. There's no end of wars or there's no social programs that will accomplish what the gospel will in your life. The saving of your soul was through the gospel on the cross. In verse one, we see, "Which I preached unto you."

[00:09:50] And Paul had came, he had changed his whole life to be able to go and share this message with others, Because if we truly understand the cross, we have a duty to share it with others. Jesus himself told his disciples, his last words to them in Matthew chapter 28, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations."

[00:10:09] We have this responsibility. Only Christians, only people that have believed and received the gospel, can really take it and share it with somebody else. So I wanna encourage you that sharing the gospel is a lot simpler than you think. If you can simply share with somebody that Jesus died for them, he was buried and rose again, that's the message that we began this lesson with.

[00:10:35] All you need to do is get a few verses to be able to share that with them, perhaps your testimony, or you can hit us up. Join us. We go out regularly and share that message with others. We'd love to help you learn how to do that for yourself Before we go, I do wanna mention one last thing. in these verses, it says it's possible that you can believe in vain.

What It Means to Believe In Vain

[00:11:01] It means it's possible that you believe something that did not save you. It's empty. It has no power. So once again, I just wanna challenge you with what do you actually believe about the gospel? Who is Jesus? Was he really crucified, buried, and rose again? This is saving faith. There are many imposter versions of the gospel and of Christianity.

[00:11:30] And what this is referencing here is as the chapter continues, people that would deny the resurrection altogether. Paul says later in verse 12, "How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?" And if you will just listen to what people say about Jesus, if it is not a crucified, buried, and risen again Jesus, it's a different Jesus than the one in the Bible.

[00:12:00] One famous author has said it this way, "In vain is it to profess faith in Christ if we deny the resurrection. Take away this, you make nothing of Christianity." You see, not all faith is saving faith. Only faith in the gospel will save you from your sins, give you eternal life, and a home in heaven. I hope that you'll choose to follow along with us in our next series of lessons where we answer some questions like, "Why do I need the gospel?

Preview the Next Lesson

[00:12:33] Maybe there's another way to heaven," or, "Can I truly be forgiven for what I've done?" Or, "If I believe that, am I actually secure in that? Does it last forever? Do I have to keep re-upping on that?" So I hope that you'll join us. Tune back in and follow along with the gospel course.

[00:12:52] See you on the next video.