Recharge | The Church: Foundation - The Gospel

What is the gospel—really? Could you clearly explain it if someone asked you today?

In this message, we examine why the gospel is the unchanging foundation of the church and why it remains of first importance for every believer.

Key Takeaways:

• The gospel is received—not created or culturally adjusted
• The message of Christ crucified and risen is inherently offensive to human pride
• The gospel is of first importance, not one doctrine among many
• We never “move past” the gospel—it fuels sanctification and maturity
• The gospel is the foundation of unity in the church
• The gospel anchors us in suffering
• The gospel must be proclaimed—inside and outside the church

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:1–5; Romans 1:16; Galatians 1

Learn more about First Baptist Church Boerne at fbcboerne.org.

https://www.fbcboerne.org/sermons/

https://www.facebook.com/fbcboerne

Transcript

Setting The Series Foundation

SPEAKER_00 0:04

All right, good evening. Happy Wednesday to you. Very glad to be back with you. And uh for Recharge, a special thanks to Chad, who filled in the last two weeks in Recharge. Thank you to Chad. So on Wednesday nights, we've been walking through just kind of a step-by-step uh analysis of the church. Who are we is where we begin, like who we are as the people of God, the called-out ones. And then uh this is gonna be the third week in a row where we're laying kind of the foundation of the essentials of the church. And so, Pastor Chad, walk through the foundation of Jesus, right? The church, the foundation is Jesus that God has revealed himself perfectly in his son. He is the exact representation of the Father. So if you want to know what the Father is like, look at Jesus. And then last week, uh, Pastor Chad walked us through the scripture, right? So God's uh word is the revelation of Jesus to us. Not only that, it was from uh from the beginning, uh starting in Genesis with Moses, this unfolding of God's plan for who God is so that we can know God. Uh, right, the the uh the gospel writer John uh in 1 John articulates what we saw with our own eyes and touched, uh we now portray to you. So the church has the foundation of Jesus, the church has the foundation of God's word, and thirdly, the church has the foundation of the gospel. The gospel, and that's what we're gonna talk about tonight. Now, we never want to assume the gospel. So I want you to imagine you were put on the spot right now, and someone asked you, what is the gospel? Right? Could you come up with a quick articulation? What are the essential elements of the gospel? And hopefully, if you were given just a second, you would be able to begin to formulate together. You might come up with something like this that although man was made in God's image, man has been separated from God because of his sin. God is holy and perfect and must judge sin. And therefore, man's sin separates him from God, and he has no ability to earn his way back to God with any favor. If man was left to himself, he would stay separated from God forever. But God, in his love and kindness, in his justice and his mercy, sent his one and only Son, who lived his entire life to perfection. And at the end of his life, he uh he died on the cross intentionally for our sins as a substitute so that we might be forgiven. And he was resurrected on the third day, proving that he was the Son of God and that his sacrifice had been accepted in defeating death. And now there is a call to any and to all to come and to repent and believe in the finished work of Jesus and what he did for you on the cross and with his resurrection, and you too can be saved. The gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Listen uh to Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, beginning in verse 1. Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached you, which also you received, uh, in which you also stand, by which you also are saved if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the twelve. So the foundation of the church is the gospel. First point I want I want us all to be able to uh understand is that the church received the gospel, that the gospel was not created. Okay? The gospel is always received, it is not created. Paul said that here I delivered to you that which I also received. Okay, Paul didn't create Christianity, the apostles didn't create Christianity, the church didn't create Christianity, no, the church is simply the steward, okay, of that which it received. As uh Paul emphasized in Galatians chapter 1, he was uh wrestling with the Galatians. One of the things he said is, listen, I didn't receive this from any man, I received it as a revelation from God Himself. Okay? That is, the gospel happened in history, in real time and space. It was delivered to the apostles, and therefore, the reason this is such an important point, it it cannot be culturally adjusted. Okay, in a world that is always trying to innovate, trying to improve, okay, um, the church simply receives and proclaims the gospel. Now, the reason that this is, again, so important is because the message of the gospel is offensive in its nature. Because in reality, uh, the message of the gospel is that every one of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That there is none righteous, no, not even one. The message of the gospel is offensive. And we would like to view ourselves as righteous, but the gospel gives no category for that. That you in and of yourself have no ability to make yourself right with God. The gospel also articulates that God has a wrath and that God is just and he must punish sin. Now I know in our contemporary culture we like to think ourselves far more benevolent than that. But the reality is, is we haven't thought very well about the holiness of God. The gospel articulates that it is only by God's grace. See, we're always tempted to soften sin, to remove God's wrath, to minimize substitutionary atonement. You get in all sorts of theological circles, and they will say things like, I cannot believe you believe in something so crass as substitutionary atonement. That God in his wrath poured out his wrath upon his son. That is sick. What sort of sick child abuse is that? The gospel doesn't give you wiggle room there. The gospel is offensive.

unknown 7:50

Okay?

Of First Importance

Never Getting Over The Gospel

Grace Levels The Ground

Walking And Suffering By The Gospel

SPEAKER_00 7:51

And we cannot redefine what repentance means. So it's very important you understand. You received the gospel. You didn't create it. You're not the author of it. Okay, you simply proclaim it. Secondly, we heard Paul here say that uh he he gives the gospel of first importance. Of first importance. That means it's not one doctrine amongst other important doctrines. Okay? Uh it's not like there's, yeah, throw that in there. It's it's uh even the doctrine or the structure of the church. No, no, no. Listen, the gospel is of first, primary, ultimate importance. And it is also, friend, not an entry point that you ever get past as a Christian. It's not like you enter Christianity through the gospel, and then after that you're done with the gospel. Not even close. I remember when I was in seminary, I was deeply moved by this. I had I had a pastor in seminary, his name was Al Meredith, uh, the church that I attended when I was in seminary. And I remember uh, you know, you're in all these classes, you're learning all this uh deep stuff, systematic theology, all these different systems and all this stuff. And then I remember showing up to church on Sunday, and I had a pastor who would weep over the gospel. And I remember just being in awe of that. He was in his upper 60s and just thinking, wow, he never got over the gospel. Thinking how compelling that is. Friends, we never get over the gospel. It's not just an entry point, it is your entire life. It's not milk for beginners. Now listen, as Paul says in Romans 1:16, the gospel is the power of God for salvation. The power of God for salvation to take you from death to life, eternal life. The gospel makes you alive. It is the power of God. Secondly, it's the foundation for our unity as a church, okay? As the people of God. That we all got here by grace. Amen. We're all equals in this room because we all came in by grace. None of us earned it. Every one of us is gonna get into heaven solely because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. The ground is level at the foot of the cross, and you can't outsin it. Think about that. You are not better than grace, and you cannot go so far that you are beyond God's grace. It's the unity that humbles every one of us and says, Have you found grace? Because I have. Yeah, that's how you started. That's also how you become, learn to walk in him, is through your understanding of the gospel. Because the gospel, yes, it is substitutionary atonement for your sins. But the gospel is also, do you do you know that Jesus like came to be your identity? He's the second Adam. You are no longer in the first, you are in the second Adam. Do you understand those things about yourself? That's the gospel, like the depth of the gospel you can never get to the bottom to. And it is through the gospel that you actually learn to walk this thing out. Not by learning some other self-help uh tips or any of those things, it's through the power of the gospel. And fourthly, I would say that the gospel is our anchor in suffering. It is your true north. When the waves of life overflow, you can always remember this one thing. He sent his son to the cross for me. He loves me. Even if I don't understand what I'm going through, I know that. I know the gospel. And finally, in closing, uh, well, I'm gonna skip over three, I'm gonna go right to four. The gospel must be proclaimed. The gospel must be proclaimed, both inside the church and outside the church. It is the foundation for the church. You, as a church member, must have an expectation. Every time you come to church and hear teaching, you must have the expectation that it is through a gospel lens. Okay? You would ask yourself, was that a Christian sermon? Or was it just moralism? Okay? Was that a Christian sermon? Was it rooted and grounded in the gospel? You have to have that expectation. In an age and in a culture where everyone expects demands to be entertained, to have programs, to have all sorts of dancing monkeys, you must have the expectation that when I hear a sermon, when I hear preaching, it is the gospel of Jesus Christ. You understand? Anywhere you go, and it's only when the people of God rise up and say, This is real food. Okay? This is what anchors my soul. It must be that way. And the gospel is never meant to be held in, it always goes out, doesn't it? It always goes out. Who are we and what have we become if we say, you know what? The gospel has gone far enough because it's reached me. And that's far enough. May it never be. There's always so many more. And remember the truth that unifies us all. Right? We're all here because of God's grace. We're all sinners before a holy God who found the mercy of God. And they're out there as well. And God has placed them in your life, in relationships, in so many areas, and the gospel always goes out. It must be proclaimed. Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have entrusted us with the gospel, the good news of your Son, that you have saved us by your mercy and your grace. We praise you for that. We want to be good stewards of that. Help us to have courage, that we would not change the gospel, that we would not uh fall to the tendencies to either want to dilute the gospel to make it so much more palatable, or to add to it with legalism or rules to make ourselves self-righteous. God, allow us to see and truly understand and proclaim the good news of your Son. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.