The Gospel is God’s gift of salvation through Jesus, who paid for our sins on the cross, offering eternal life to those who believe. This sermon titled “This is the Gospel” was preached by Jordan Robb on Sunday 10th November 2024.
Sermon Transcript:
Last week John Warwick shared a great message with us about what the Joy of the Lord is and during his message he spoke a great deal about Jesus and the joy that was set before him at the cross, which was the salvation of His people and their reunion with the Father. Interestingly enough, I believe that God has put it on my heart to be talking about this same topic and it’s a message that I recently shared with the youth as well. The title of my sermon this morning is “This is the Gospel” and I believe that the gospel is something that we don’t talk enough about, even though it is fundamental to our faith. It is the truth that leads us to Salvation, the reason that Jesus died on the cross and the wonderful fulfilment of God’s plans for us and yet sometimes we only think about it when we talk to someone else about our faith, if we even do that, or maybe we don’t think about it for days, weeks or months at a time. I hope that isn’t the case in your life, but I know how easy it can be for life to get in the way of your faith sometimes! This morning I want to encourage you with the beautiful story of the Gospel, the Good News of God – does that sound good?
Let’s Pray.
The story of the Gospel starts in a very simple place and that is God. In fact it starts right at the beginning of the bible with Genesis 1:1, funny that hey?
God always was and always is, before anything was created, God existed. He created the heavens and the earth, he created the land and the waters, the sky above and everything to fill them, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea and the animals of the land. His power is so immense, simply the speaking of what he wants brings things into existence.
Genesis 1:3 (LSB)
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
It honestly always astounds me the power and majesty of God. We see it time and time again throughout scripture, just think of the flood later in Genesis 6, the 10 plagues that God brought upon the Egyptians, the parting of the waters for the Israelites to pass through, the times when God leads his people into battle and they overcome seemingly insurmountable odds and there are so many more examples. The Psalmist puts God’s power beautifully in Psalm 8:1-5
Psalm 8:1–5 (LSB)
O Yahweh, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who displays Your splendour above the heavens! From the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have established strength because of Your adversaries, to make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I see Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have established; What is man that You remember him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You crown him with glory and majesty!
What I find most amazing is that this mighty and powerful God created us humans and crowned us with glory and majesty. In fact humankind is so special to Him that we are the only thing in creation that is made in His image.
Genesis 1:26 (LSB)
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, so that they will have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
God made all the other things, yet he made humanity to have dominion over the rest. We were made to have a relationship with God, to enjoy him and his generous gifts toward us, to worship him and to be his representatives on this Earth. He calls us to draw near to Him, and He will come near to us. Mankind needed only to obey God and enjoy his generous blessings of freedom in a perfect world, or paradise as John put it last week, but unfortunately this is something that man decided he knew better on and he rebelled against God. Have you ever thought you knew better than God? How did that end up for you? Even though we might not say it out loud, sometimes we act as if we know better than God for our lives – how silly could we be?
In Genesis 3, we find the story of humanity’s first rebellion against God. Unfortunately, it would not be our last rebellion either. In this story, we are introduced to the character of the serpent who we come to know as the deceiver or the Satan and this serpent challenges Eve with a simple question of “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
Eve answers the serpent that they may eat of any tree of the garden, except for the tree which is in the middle of the Garden, for God said ‘You shall not eat from it, and you shall not touch it, lest you die.’ It was a pretty simple command from God, and his generosity is on full display here, giving them every tree except the one in the middle of the garden for them to enjoy, but the serpent was cunning and pulled on an ego that still plagues humankind today. ‘You surely will not die’, the serpent responds, ‘For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing evil and good’. This desire to be like God is a driver for so much hurt and pain in the world today. It shows a complete lack of trust and faith in God’s generosity and goodness, that we have to be like him because we think we can do better, and that’s what Adam and Eve chose – they chose that they knew better than God. At that moment, sin entered the world.
Now sin is a word that comes with a lot of baggage and has become a very religious word, but it simply means to miss the mark of the standard that has been set and Adam and Eve missed the mark here big time. God had created this perfect paradise for them where they had been given freedom and everything they could ever need and they even had God walk with them in the Garden. God asked them to put their trust and faith in Him as their creator, to trust that he knew what was best for them, but instead they chose not to trust Him when they ate of the fruit. From that choice, a separation came between God and his people, because they chose not to trust him and missed the mark or sinned. God is a Holy God and cannot allow sin to be in his presence, but sin had now stained people. God created and blessed his people, but sin came in and corrupted and destroyed. It brought death into the world and the world would never be the same as it once was.
As a result of this original sin, humanity is now born into sin, even the cutest of babies like my two littles ones. Have you ever noticed how you don’t need to tell them to do the wrong thing, they just instinctively do it? Sin became human nature and we all have a leaning towards it. Romans 3:23 tells us that
Romans 3:23 (LSB)
…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
It doesn’t matter how good of a person you think you are, all the good things that you have done in your life, the people you have helped, the money you have made or given away or even all of the bad things you have done in your life, the bible tells us that each and every one of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, we have all missed the mark. That can be quite a confronting thing for many people, a lot of people think that they are good people and live good lives, they think that because of all the good things they have done surely God would want them in Heaven right? But the truth is that by the standard of God, none of us can or have lived good lives. And what is even scarier is that our sin or disobedience towards God has an outcome. Romans 6:23 tells us that “the wages of sin is death”,
Romans 6:23a (LSB)
For the wages of sin is death…
The promise of the serpent in the Garden was that ‘Surely you will not die!’ if you disobey God, however Paul clearly tells us in Romans that death is the required payment for sin. The serpent straight up lied to Eve and it led to the downfall of humanity. Throughout the history of the bible, God provided ways for humankind to come back into relationship with him through the Law and the sacrifices, however time and time again, humanity proved that they truly did not want to be in relationship with God. For a period of time, the Israelites (the chosen people of God), would follow him wholeheartedly and they would be in relationship with God, but before long they would forget everything that God had done for them and go and worship other lower case g gods, who had no true power. It would be a cycle of ups and downs for hundreds of years. Does that up and down cycle sound like your life sometimes – sometimes you are seeking after God and other times you feel like you couldn’t be further away from him? Clearly humanity could not find it’s way back to relationship with God, but thankfully God had another plan. Romans 6:23 goes on to say that the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23 (LSB)
For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This gracious gift of God is His way to bring us back into relationship with himself. You see, sinful humans could never fully pay the price for our sins, it required a sinless sacrifice and that came through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Son of God and the second person of the Trinity. He was born of a virgin through the Holy Spirit, so that he could be born both God and Man, allowing him to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. He lived on Earth for 33 years and during his 3 years of ministry he showed his power as God through healing many and performing many miracles. He was the fulfilment of many many prophecies from the Hebrew Scriptures (or the old testament) and lived a life of no sin. Hebrews tells us that Jesus was tempted in all things, yet did not sin.
Hebrews 4:15 (LSB)
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin.
At the end of his time preaching, Jesus was betrayed by Judas, one of his 12 disciples, and was hung up on a cross to die by the Jews and the Romans. At this moment, Satan thought he had won by destroying Jesus who spoke truth to the world, but little did he know, this was all a part of the plan for God to redeem his people. When Jesus was put on that cross, the sin of every person, past, present and future was placed on his shoulders. He was the perfect sacrifice because he had no sin, so he could be the full payment for our sins. Our sins required a payment that we could not pay and without payment our only option was death and eternal separation from God. But on that cross, Jesus cried out “It is finished”, declaring that all sins had been paid for – what an incredible sacrifice!
Through the blood Jesus spilt, we could now be seen as righteous to God and have a relationship with him. What’s even more amazing is that we didn’t do anything to earn that righteousness, we couldn’t possibly earn it because as we established before, no one is good enough. This righteousness is the free and gracious gift of God!
After Jesus had died on the cross, he was taken down and laid in a tomb where he was until the third day. At the time, the disciples weren’t even sure what was going on because they had just seen their leader die what looked like quite a human death. But when they went to him on the third day, the stone was rolled away and behold Jesus was not there! Jesus had risen from the dead, and in the process of doing so he conquered death, so that those who call on his name would no longer be subject to death and eternal separation from God.
This gift of God really is an incredible thing and it’s something that we definitely don’t deserve, but God in his wonderful generosity, freely offers it to all. But there is one really important thing about this gift and that is that you need to take hold of the gift for yourself. No one else can do it for you, your husband, your wife, your mum or dad, your children, your friends or anyone else you can think of can’t take hold of this gift for you – it is something you have to do. Imagine seeing the most amazing gift you can think of, maybe the latest gaming system, the coolest random widget you’ve seen on tiktok, the fastest lamborghini, or even a brand new mansion sitting there offered to you as a gift and the person offering it has paid the price for it so that you don’t have to. Would you just leave it there and walk past it or would you run to it and grab it with both hands full of gratefulness and thanks? The gracious gift that God offers is sitting there waiting for you to take it with both hands and embrace it. Jesus paid the price with his suffering on the cross, so that it could be given to you freely. What are you waiting for?
We need to stop thinking that we are good enough to get into heaven on our own merits, we need to stop thinking that we can do it all on our own or that we can trust ourselves. God won’t just let us into heaven because we are “good” people, we could never meet his standard of good. But if you reach out and accept the gift of salvation which is freely given, you will be seen as righteous in the eyes of God and will be able to live in eternal relationship with Him.
You might be wondering how you can accept this gift and I think that Jesus’ own words are a pretty good start here. Matthew 4:17 says
Matthew 4:17 (LSB)
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
We must repent of our previous actions and choices and decide to put our faith in Jesus alone. Repenting means to make a full 180 degree turn away from our sinful choices and instead run towards God. Our lives need to become more like Jesus’s, showing love to those around us and love for God. We need to trust him in all aspects of our lives and realise that we truly don’t know better than God.
This morning I’d like to give you an opportunity to make this decision. I’ve laid out to you the truth of the Gospel today and the truth cries out for a response. God is a Holy God and he created mankind to be in relationship with him. Mankind decided that he knew better and chose disobedience which brought sin into the world. Sin separates us from our Holy God and requires a payment, which no human can fully make. God, in his gracious generosity, sent his own son Jesus to be the sacrifice for our sins and in doing so, gave us a way to come back into right relationship with him. John 3:16
John 3:16 (LSB)
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Becoming a Christian doesn’t necessarily mean that your live is going do be all daisies and roses, in fact at times it can be quite the opposite, however there is nothing more important or worthwhile than a relationship with God. Jesus tells us in the book of Mark that
Mark 8:34–37 (LSB)
“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? “For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Your soul and your eternal relationship with God is so important. So I would like to ask you this. If you have never given your life to God before, would you like to do so this morning? Would you like to make the courageous decision to take hold of the freely given, but greatly paid for, gracious gift of God. If that’s you, I would love you to put your hand up high so I can see it, because I would love to pray for you.