Thursday, May 3, 2012

The Very Core of the Gospel Message

"1 Corinthians chapter 15...starts out as we read and we’ll look at again, that Paul says: ‘I make known unto you brethren the gospel’. And what that means as he begins to unfold this for the Corinthians and then we enter into this is the fact that when Paul and really the Spirit of God is trying to reveal and kind of unload the message of the gospel to us, he doesn't do it like we would in our age. If we wanted to really think about a very, very serious subject I might take a young person by the hand and say, ‘Hey let’s go to the university lecture halls and really get someone to give us some deep [insights]....’ Paul doesn't do that, and neither does the Spirit of God. He doesn't take us to some scientific laboratory and say, ‘Let’s kind of just look at all the elements in a worldly sense.’ He doesn't set us down in a psychologist's chair and say you know: ‘How do you feel?’ Paul takes us to the empty tomb. This is the very core of the gospel message. This is what makes the gospel message real, and forever powerful in our life. He takes us to the place where the angel said: ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen indeed.’1


1 Don Myer, “Truths to Value – ‘The Gospel’ 1 Corinthians 15:1-5,” Northwest Community Church, transcribed from a sermon dated January 24, 2010.

2 comments:

Jonathan Perreault said...

No wonder Charles Spurgeon has written:

"1 Corinthians 15:4. And that he was buried,
That is an essential part of the gospel.

Commenting on the same Scripture, he goes on to write:

"1 Corinthians 15:4. And that he was buried,
This was necessary as proof of his death, and as the ground work of his rising again."

(Spurgeon, "Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon. I Corinthians XV. 1-20." Spurgeon's Expository Encyclopedia [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1952], 15 Vols., Vol. 13, p. 227, italics his.)

Jonathan Perreault said...

Spurgeon makes a similar comment in his sermon titled “A Royal Funeral” (Jn. 19:38-42), where he says in regards to 1 Corinthians 15:4:

"4. And that he was buried, That is an essential part of the gospel."

See C. H. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit (1894), vol. 40, p. 588, italics and bold his.