Have you Heard the Good News? Part 1 "The Death"

A story about a jungle tribe falling in love with Jesus until the crucifixion shocked them sets the tone for a clear-eyed look at the good news. We walk through what the gospel actually claims—Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose on the third day—and why the first part, the death, demands both honesty and hope. With medical precision and pastoral care, we unpack the brutality of scourging and crucifixion, the signs of hypovolemic shock, and what the water and blood from Jesus’ side reveal. Then we lift our eyes to the deeper mystery: the Son absorbing righteous wrath, the cost of sin measured by the depth of love that paid it.

Legalism often sneaks in wearing religious clothes, promising progress while stealing joy. We contrast the Corinthians, who held the core while growing, with the Galatians, who drifted from grace into rules. The result is a practical map for everyday faith: keep your eyes on Jesus, not on yourself. The more you try to conquer sin by willpower, the tighter its grip; the more you trust the finished work, the more your desires shift. We also explore the torn temple veil—an 18-inch-thick barrier ripped from top to bottom—signaling full access to God without fear or delay. Burial matters, too, as historical confirmation and the fulfillment of ancient prophecy.

If God left any part of salvation for us to finish, we would break it. That is why the call is simple and life-changing: receive and stand. Believe that Jesus died for your sins, that your shame was swallowed, and that you are welcomed without a veil between you and God. Come hear a love measured not by sentiment but by substitution, and walk away with solid ground under your feet. If this speaks to you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a quick rating so more people can find this message.

Transcript

A Tribe Meets The Gospel

Receive It And Stand In It

Grace Versus Legalism

The Gospel In One Sentence

Truth Claims And Evidence

How Crucifixion Kills

Hypovolemic Shock Explained

The Veil Torn And Access Won

By His Stripes We Are Healed

Burial As Proof And Prophecy

Believe And Hold Fast

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Today's sermon is called Have You Heard the Good News? Part one, The Death. Next week will be part two. Yay! Good job. You guys name my sermon for me. All right, so part one, the death. There was this jungle tribe that had never seen white people. And this missionary discovered them and he went and he built a relationship with them. Once he had learned their language, he began to tell them the gospel story. So he's telling them all about what Jesus did. He's telling them about the miracles and the words that he said, and this tribe just fell in love with Jesus. They were so excited. They were like, man, this definitely was God come to earth. This definitely was our hero. And every night he would tell a little bit more of the story. Well, eventually he gets to the crucifixion, the betrayal of Jesus. And this tribe was horrified. This tribe recoiled in horror as their new hero is brutally murdered on the cross. And they stood up and threatened to kill the missionary. And they're like, Why would you say these terrible lies? We don't believe we will not believe. And he said, Hey, hey, Jesus did die for you, but let me finish the story, right? It's all true though. He absolutely did die. And he was barely able to calm down this tribe of natives to finish the story. After he finished the story, the entire tribe fell on their knees to receive Jesus as their savior. It's a really cool story. And it reminds us that we sometimes look at this with sanitized glasses. The story of Jesus. Today, we're not. We're going to get in. This is going to be brutal, all right? I'm just warning you right at the beginning. We're going to talk bluntly and medically about the death of Jesus, and it's going to rock your world. So if you're a crier, get ready. It's going to be brutal. Just let warning you. He says in chapter 15, verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel that I preached to you, which also you received, and in which you stand, by which you are also saved, if you hold fast that word which I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. Okay, so we're just going to break this down of what he's talking about. So he says the gospel, and that's the good news. So in verse 3 and 4, which we're going to talk about in a minute, he's going to talk about the content of the gospel. But here he just describes how the gospel can benefit a person. The gospel is only a benefit to you if you if it's received and if you stand in it. So the gospel can benefit you, it can save you, but only if you receive it and then stand firm in it. So what does it mean to receive it? It means you got to believe it and embrace it. Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica in his letter to the Thessalonians, for this reason we also um thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. So the gospel is the word of God, the message that God has for you. As a person, as a human being, his message is Jesus died for you, Jesus rose for you, it's for you. But you have to believe it and receive it. If you believe it, he says, you are believing the message of God, you're believing the word of God. That's what this is all about. So then you have to stand in it, he says. So despite all their problems with carnality, this church in 1 Corinthians, remember, we've talked about they had sexual immorality, they had they were drinking too much, they were doing this, they were doing that, they had a whole list of things that they were messing up on. And despite all of that, they stood for the gospel. They believed in Jesus, they believed he died for them, and they were moving forward in that, and they were standing firm in that. And got and Paul was able to deal with all their stuff. He's like, just stop messing around with this, stop messing around with that. You're just not seeing clearly how God has changed your life and transformed your heart. And so he he wrote this whole letter to them to just correct them. And because it's fine, it's easy to correct a believer who believes. It's easy to correct them. You say, hey, this isn't who you are. Once you become a believer, you don't want to sin anymore. That's your real true identity. But it feels like I want to sin, I know, but your feelings are lying to you. You don't really want to sin. You're really pure, you're really holy. That's who you are the moment you believe you've been transformed and born again. Amen is right. I love that. But contrast this with the work he had to do in Galatia. So in the church in Galatians, they had fallen away to a different gospel. They it says literally in 1 6 of Galatians that they didn't stand firm in the gospel that they heard because they got tricked into legalism. So some people called the Judaizers came in and said, It's great that you follow Jesus, but if you want to be a super Christian, you're gonna follow all of these rules too. You're gonna get circumcised, you're gonna do this, you're gonna do that. And they had a whole list of rules, bringing back all the Jewish rules and all the old covenant stuff to bring them back under bondage. And Paul said they did not stand firm, and so they were having a much more difficult time. And Paul said when he was doing ministry with them, it was like having to give birth again. Moms, do you feel like giving birth again for the same baby twice? Well, Paul said bringing them to Jesus the first time was like giving birth. Well, he's having to like go through all of that again in his work with them, and he said it is not fun. So holding fast to grace, to the gospel was very important. You don't have to be perfect, but you do need to believe and hold fast that it's what Jesus did that matters, not what you do that matters. You are free from that way of thinking. You have to hold fast because something is pulling you away. Something's pulling you away. The enemy is pulling you away. And the enemy simply wants you, he doesn't care if you go to church. He doesn't, I mean, he'll pull you away from church if he can, but he really doesn't care if you go to church. He wants to pull you away to think about yourself. That's all he has to pull you to. As long as your eyes are on Jesus, you are unstoppable. Jesus will live through you, Jesus will help you, you will be living in his grace. The moment we get our eyes onto ourselves, the enemy has his thing over us. Okay, like it's weird, but the more you try to stop sinning, guess what happens? The more you sin. The more you try to stop sinning, the more you're gonna sin. The more you lift your eyes up to Jesus and say, I believe that you have trans delivered me and forgiven me and made me new, the more you will walk in that identity that Jesus has already given you. This is the beauty of the gospel. And so we gotta hold fast the gospel, which says, It's not about you, it's about Jesus. We come to church not to focus on ourselves, but to focus on Jesus. So today the gospel is gonna be like a bazooka to blow away our self-trust life. So get ready, he says in verse 3. For I delivered to you the first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and rose again on the third day according to the scriptures. So this is very simple. That is the gospel. That's what people travel the whole world to share to people who don't know it that Jesus was the Christ, that means he was the Messiah, he was God Himself, he became a man, and then Jesus died for our sins, meaning he was a substitute, the sacrifice for our sins. We sang, we sang that he's called the Lamb, and that's why we call him the Lamb, because the Lamb was the sacrifice that would cover the sins. Well, Jesus is a sacrifice that takes away our sins, he doesn't just cover them. And then Jesus was buried, and then Jesus rose again the third day, and all of this was foretold in the Old Testament, thousands of years before Jesus came, so that when it happened, we would all know this was it. This was the plan of God, this was the salvation of God, this was the redemption of God, this is the only thing that matters. This we call it the good news. Gospel in Greek is evangelion. Evangelion means good news. So gospel is simply good news. And it's the best news in the whole world. People will live and die based on this news. Billions of eternities lie in the balance based on if they have this information and choose to receive it and stand firm in it. Receive it and stand firm in it. What do I have to do with this knowledge? Receive it and stand firm in it. He says, I delivered to you that which I also received. So Paul didn't make up this gospel, but Jesus literally gave him this gospel. He received it from Jesus. According to Galatians chapter 1, he went off in the desert and Jesus taught him this gospel. And when he met Jesus, Jesus appeared to him. And these things really happen. This isn't just a religious fantasy or a man-made thing at all. We have historical proof. We have evidence that demands a verdict. If you want to read a really great book that talks about all that evidence, it's called Evidence That Demands a Verdict. And it's weird because people really just don't want to look at the evidence, to be honest. They want to just repeat what the news tells them or what their favorite skeptic talks about. Anyone who really will investigate the truth will, if they're honest, say, yeah, Jesus definitely lived, he definitely was God, he definitely did miracles, and he definitely died, and then he definitely was buried, and he definitely rose again. We're going to talk about all of that. This is about truth. Some say you can have your view and I'll have mine, and that's called relativism. It's a philosophy that's gained a lot of popularity in the day and age that we live in. Oh, it's fine for you to believe whatever you want, that can be your truth. But my truth is going to be this, but that destroys the meaning of truth. Truth is truth, and lies are lies. And this just happens to be the truth. It is reality. There's one truth that holds for all men at all time, and Jesus is that truth. And these are the things we can stand on. This is the confidence we can have. And then it says, and this is the crux of what we're going to talk about today, that Jesus died. According to scriptures, that Jesus died. So the death of Jesus is obviously a central message for our eternal victory for the gospel. And it's totally counterintuitive that the death of someone produces life for us. How did Jesus die? Well, the Romans executed him by one of the most cruel and excruciating forms of capital punishment ever devised. It was called crucifixion, as you guys know. It said, although the Romans did not invent crucifixion, they perfected it as a form of torture and capital punishment that was designed to produce a slow death with the maximum pain and suffering that they could that you could possibly achieve. So it was designed to be the most painful thing ever invented. What exactly was it like to be crucified? Well, first the victim's back was torn open by scourging. The clotting blood after they had finished the scourging was ripped open again when the clothes were torn off the victim because they were crucified naked. But that scourging was the one of the worst parts because it was done with this thing called a flagrum, which was like a whip that uh had braided leather thongs with metal balls weaved into it, and pieces of bone or glass braided into it. And the balls, the metal balls added weight to the whip, causing deep bruising as the victim's back was hit, and pieces of the bone and glass would cut into the flesh. As the beating continued, the resulting cuts would be so severe that the skeletal muscles and the veins and the sinews and the bowels of the victim would all be exposed as they continued doing this. And most times it was so severe that the victims, the weaker ones, would not even survive it in order to be crucified. So they would just take them over to the grave at that point. Then Jesus would have been thrown on the ground to nail his hands to the cross beam, where his wounds again would be torn open and contaminated with dirt. And then as he hung on the cross with each breath, the painful wounds on his back would scrape against the rough wood of the upright beam, which would further aggravate his pain. And when the nail was driven through his wrists, it would sever the large median nerve. And this would uh produce excruciating bolts of pain all the way up his arm through both arms, and it would cause his hands to make a claw-like grip. Beyond the excruciating pain, the major effect of crucifixion was that it inhibited normal breathing. So the weight of the body would be pulling down on the arms and the shoulders, which were just whipped, and the hands which were just nailed. And the it would push all as your weight would pull you down, it would push all the air out of your lungs. So then you'd feel like you have to take a breath because you're suffocating, and so you would have to push up on your feet, which had nails in them, and up on the hands, causing more pain to get the little bit of breath you could before you would collapse again, and all the breath would be pushed out of you again. Each breath was agonizing and more painful than the last. Finally, death in normal crucifixion would come by many sources. You could it could come from acute shock and blood loss. It could be, you know, you're too exhausted to breathe any longer, so you just suffocate. It could be from dehydration, from stress-induced heart attack, or congestive heart failure leading to a cardiac rupture. And if the victim didn't die quickly enough, they would they would break his legs with a bat, and they would just suffocate very, very quickly after that because they couldn't push up anymore. We have a clue, we have more clues as to what was actually going on medically with Jesus during this time. See, he says those who flogged would also often go into, and doctors tell us, something called hypovolemic shock. Hypovolemic shock. And that's a term that refers to low blood volume. So you've lost so much blood that your body is trying harder and harder and harder to pump, your heart is trying to pump that blood, but there's nothing to pump. It's like the hose is is empty, right? In other words, you know, your body's going into shock. And there would be four things that would happen to a body in this condition. The heart would begin to race, trying to pump blood that wasn't there. Number two, the victim would collapse and faint due to low blood pressure. Number three, their kidneys would shut down to preserve the fluids in the body, and then the person would experience extreme thirst as the body desired to replenish the lost fluids that it had lost, right? Because the body's still trying to live. And so in scripture, we see that Jesus experienced hypovolemic shock as a result of being flogged. So Jesus carried his own cross from to Golgotha, from where he was beat, and and he collapsed on the way, showing that loss of strength that he had. And a man named Simon was either forced to help carry the cross or he carried it all the way uh up the hill that he was going, right? And that showed that indicates that he had that low blood pressure that we were talking about. And then he when he was on the cross, he said, I'm thirsty. And that was a clue that he was also in this hypovolemic shock because his body had this desire to replenish its fluids. Now, prior to death, he sus uh the sustained rapid heartbeat caused by this hypovolemic condition causes fluids to gather around the heart and the and the lung. There's a sac that that gets uh filled with fluids if you're in this kind of condition. And so it would start filling up around the heart, which is called pericardal effusion, and around the lungs is called pleural effusion. So you have, and I like that you got the we have like a medical guy that's like, yeah, yes, all this is right. I'm right, right? And so what happened is as he's dying on the cross, the all the fluid that's left is is putting pressure and pressure and pressure on his heart and lungs. So after he dies, the Roman soldier checks to see if he's dead by putting a spear in his side, and it says specifically that water and blood came out, and that is a very clear indicator that this is exactly how Jesus died. He died because his heart was crushed. By the pressure of the physical pain and torture that he went through. But I think it's so deep and impactful that Jesus died from a crushed heart. Because we know the the real suffering and pain that Jesus went through on top of all the physical that we've just talked about. Was the abandonment of his father. His father abandoned him so that he could have the wrath of God against all sin poured on him, and it crushed him spiritually, on top of the physical crushing that he experienced. How bad was crucifixion? Well, we get the English word excruciating from the Roman word meaning out of the cross, excruciating. And I want you to just listen to this quote and think about it. Consider how heinous sin must be in the sight of God, that it requires such a sacrifice to be able to forgive it. God's intention and desire was to deliver us, to redeem us, to save us. And this is what was required to accomplish that. Our text again says, I delivered to you first that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Why did Jesus do all of this? Why was this his mission? Because he loves you. You have to know that you, your name, your face, your life was in his mind and in his heart, and he was thinking about you while he was experiencing this suffering. And he never had a second thought about doing it for you. He was absolutely willing to do it for you. You had a severe problem called sin, right? And each and every human has sinned and fallen short of God's perfect and holy standard for living. And Jesus knew our sin, yet he chose to do something about it, not just condemn us and say, Well, you get what you get, you get what you deserve. No, he became the only solution for us by becoming our substitute. He had to suffer and die the death that each one of us deserved. And by his stripes we can be healed. How does the death of Jesus do anything for our sins? How can he how can he be our substitute? How do we know that this did anything for us? I mean, couldn't this just be some random dude that died 2,000 years ago? There's been a billion people that have died. What makes him different? At some point before he died, the veil in the temple was torn in two pieces from top to bottom. Now, this veil was like 30 feet tall, like three stories tall. I mean, it's big, big thing. It was 18 inches thick of woven, woven fabric, and it was torn. This had to be a supernatural thing, torn from top to bottom. What was the temple? What was this veil separating? There was a veil separating where the Ark of the Covenant was, where God's presence was from all the people. It separated people. And that was the best people had back then of having a relationship with God. You had to go to the temple, you had to make sacrifices, and one day a year, one dude, the high priest, was able to go into the holy presence of God and talk to God one time a year. It's called the Day of Atonement. And one time a year, we people had connection with God. Why? Because God is holy and we were not. But as Jesus is hanging on the cross, there's an earthquake. The sun is blocked out. And God, to be perfectly clear about what this death accomplished, He rips and tears open that veil and says, We no longer need a veil. My presence and people do not have to be separated anymore. Because the only thing separating them was sin. And now all sin has been dealt with. All sin has been paid for. There needs to be no more separation ever. When Jesus said, it is finished, this happened. A price was paid. And the veil was torn. What happened is God the Father laid on God the Son all the guilt and wrath that our sin deserved. Jesus bore it all, totally satisfying the wrath of God. So God will never be angry with sin. He doesn't have to just ignore sin because sin has literally been paid for. All our sin. He's not just faking himself out, saying, you can be holy, you can be righteous, you can be forgiven, you can be a child of God. He does not have to fake himself out. He is can truly make you can be holy and righteous by just faith in Jesus. You can become a child of God by faith in Jesus. As horrible as this physical suffering of Jesus was, the spiritual suffering, the act of being judged for sin in our place is what Jesus really dreaded when approaching the cross. He wasn't scared of suffering. Even though he would suffer more than any man who'd ever lived, he said that there was a cup that he was afraid to drink. And that cup was the cup of God's righteous wrath. He trembled at drinking that cup. On the cross, Jesus became, as it were, the enemy of God, the God that he loved, the God that he had been connected to, himself. He became God's enemy for us. God the Father had to pour out the wrath of God, the righteous wrath of God, and the only one who could take it would be God the Son. He was the only one that could do this work. The Father's fury was so intense that no one can drink the cup except Jesus. He is the hero, he is the Savior. Isaiah 53 puts it powerfully. Isaiah 53 says, He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. In our text it says, He was killed for our sins. It was not the Jews that killed him, it was not the Romans that ultimately killed him, it was me. And it was you and our sins. He died for our sins, not just as a martyr for a cause, but he paid the price for a debt that you and I owed. Jesus swallowed our sins like someone swallowing a grenade. And he died. How could we ever doubt the love of God? How could we ever doubt that you have been freed from shame? There is nothing you ever need to be ashamed about. You say, God, but what about when I did this? Doesn't that mar your opinion of me? I think I'm a jerk. I think I'm an idiot. And God says, What are you talking about? Because the thing you're talking about was swallowed by Jesus on the cross and he's taking care of it. So live in that freedom. What I think about you is that you are holy and righteous and just. That's my opinion of you. Rejoice in it. Live in it. You see, if we just believe this, the devil has no power in our life. He can't suggest anything to you because believing this truth sets you free from all lies. Our struggle is only to believe this. Alright, the next thing it says is that he was buried. And we don't often think of the burial as being part of the gospel, but it is because it was important for a couple reasons. First, it's proof that he really did die. Right? You don't bury someone unless they're really dead, and Jesus' death was confirmed in several ways. One of them being he was stabbed, another one through the heart, and another one being he was buried. Secondly, uh it's important because it fulfilled the scriptures because the Bible said he would be buried. It says he would be buried in a tomb close to where he was crucified, in the tomb of a rich man. And literally, you can throw a rock from where Jesus was crucified to where he was buried. I've been there. It's not that far. It's like maybe from here to where the ice thing is right there. You could you could literally throw a rock to where the tomb is from the the hill that he was crucified on. All right. I want to look back at verse one and two real quick because you'll see something really interesting. Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which you've received, and in which you now you stand, in which you were also saved if you hold fast the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. So for everyone here today, and for everyone watching online, will you receive this death? Will you stand in this death? And then what we'll talk about next, which will be the resurrection. This death is God's love letter to you. If someone hands you a love letter, all you have to do is receive it. Will we fix our eyes on his sacrifice? Or are we gonna get distracted by all our other interests? Are we gonna get distracted by all our self-centered temptations? This is life. This is the whole point of life. This is the most important thing you will ever hear and make a decision about. What are we gonna do? Let his blood flow down the cross and cover you. People are like, man, church is so weird. I was talking about the blood of Jesus cleansing me of sin. And oh, but they don't understand. It's the blood of Jesus that makes us white, because Isaiah chapter one says, Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, red like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are like crimson, they shall be white as wool. God says, use your brain, use your brain. I don't, I tried not to do this sermon in an emotional way to cause you to be like, oh, I want to respond. No, I want you to use your brain. God says, use your brain, use your logic. You know that you're dying and guilty if you have not received Jesus. And he offers grace. And God says, here's the offer, take it. You don't have to die. I don't want you to die guilty. I want you to be innocent and freed and forgiven and as white as snow. Snow, by the way, is when water rain freezes. We don't get that down here. I know I don't know how many of you have never seen it. Where I come from, you get snow a lot. All right, our last verse is Acts 16, verse 30. It says, And he brought them out and said, Sirs, what was what must we do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, you and your whole household. So this is the gospel. And God says, What do you have to do to be saved? All you have to do is believe the gospel. Believe that Jesus died for you. Receive it. Well, do I have to get baptized? You don't have to. It's a really good idea, and it's it's gonna be something that you grow in, and it's gonna be something that's really good in your life and gonna encourage you and help you grow. Oh, it's gonna be wonderful. But what do you have to do? You have to believe. That's all that's required. How low could God put the bar? He said, if I left anything up to you, you would mess it up. So I'm removing you from the entire equation. Jesus will do everything for you. All you have to do is believe and receive it. And he will come, he will invade your heart, he will chant, transform who you are, and we'll talk about that much more in the following weeks as we talk about the resurrection. Next week, like I said, we're gonna be diving into the life. All right, so the team's gonna come back up and we're gonna sing to the Lord. But before we do that, if you guys would all stand with me. If you're able. That is God moving in your life, making you alive, causing you to believe. So just surrender to his lordship. Believe in in Jesus and ask him to come in your heart, in your life, and take over, and he will. It's so beautiful. It is new life, and you can be forgiven of everything. There is no limit. Jesus' death paid for absolutely everything. This is why we sing. This is why we worship him as God, because he is God. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We worship him, we serve him with our lives. That's why we love difficult people. This is why we sacrifice whatever he calls us to sacrifice for his kingdom's cause. He is worth it. Father, we worship you. Jesus, we praise you. We bow our whole lives down before you. We could never do or be anything apart from you, Jesus. And for anyone in here who today wants to make it a day where they have made a decision to believe in you, God, I pray that you would give them strength. Build their faith. Give them the faith, Jesus, to both receive you and then to stand fast in believing the truth in the power of your spirit. And for us, all who already believe and were too, and we've already chosen to uh uh begin that relationship with you, Father, hold us fast. Give us the strength to hold fast to the truth of the gospel. You have done all the work, and we stand in the completed, finished sacrifice of Jesus. You proclaimed on the cross it is finished. The veil was torn, and now we have perfect access to God, and God, you have perfect access to us, and we have become one in the Spirit because of this great gospel. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.