TEXT : 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
TITLE: The danger of forgetting ‘first things’ : Keeping Christ in the Center
Date : 13/11 /2011
The year is rapidly
drawing to a close. Our bodies and
minds yearn for rest from the
routines of the year behind us . We
just want to ‘ chill ‘ , as the
young people say. Rest and
holidays are important in the scheme of things , but as with everything good that God gives us , there are peculiar
dangers attached even to legitimate “ rest
and relaxation” . We must never loose our spiritual vigilance ! Peter
says : “ Be sober-minded ; be watchful . Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour…” ( 1 Peter
5:8) .
But there is another
matter I want to put before you at the end of this year , and it is a
problem for all of us who regularly
read the Word and who participate
in regular worship , and who are busy ,
committed Christians . It is the matter of forgetting the most foundational
truths , among the many other
important things that we are called to focus
upon . There always is that danger of being so busy
even with many good things that
we forget
the important things – things that belong to the core of our faith !
The most foundational , or “core truth”
for us all is the gospel . In all our good work for God , in all our worship , in
our raising of kids
and in our keeping our
marriages in good shape , and in doing our regular jobs and in our
recreation , we can so easily
forget the main thing - the
gospel that saves us , and therefore the gospel that should move us in the core of our being ,
·
first
, in loving , faithful worship of our
God
·
secondly,
in loving faithful service to our brothers and sisters
·
thirdly
in loving , faithful evangelism of this desperately lost and needy world around us !
But it is the gospel
that we must retain in our
hearts at all costs . In writing to
Timothy the apostle Paul pressed
this fact upon the conscience of his young son in the faith, who
by now was becoming a busy pastor in Ephesus
: “ Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of
David , as preached in my gospel . “ ( 2
Tim 2:8)
You have been with me as we have worked our way through much of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians . I have shown you time and again that the greatest problem of this Corinthian
church was that they had forgotten the main thing – the gospel – the Lord Jesus
Christ . Whilst they were doing many things
( and sinning badly against one another in the process) they had forgotten what the church was all about and where it derived its source of true life from . And therefore Paul the founding father of the church at Corinth
had to stop them dead in their tracks
and remind them once again of ‘ first things ‘ in 1
Corinthians 15:1-11
[15:1] Now I would
remind you, brothers, of the gospel I
preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, [2] and
by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to
you—unless you believed in vain.[3] For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also
received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
[4] that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance
with the Scriptures, [5] and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the
twelve. [6] Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one
time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
[7] Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. [8] Last of
all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. [9] For I am the
least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted
the church of God. [10] But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his
grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of
them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
[11] Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. (1 Corinthians 15:1-11 ESV)
Now what you
read here is , is what you have heard so often . And this is the problem –
we easily become bored , we become familiar with the sacred , so that , as AW
Tozer says, we loose our Oh’s and Ah’s [1] . The fact of the matter is
that it is utterly sinful to loose
this divine love with which our hearts were inflamed when we
first met the Lord Jesus Christ as
Saviour. The Ephesian church ( Rev 2:4ff) was told that the absence of her first
love for Christ was cause for repentance !
My brothers and sisters when we read the inspired Scriptures, there
are no imperfections to be found there .
The deep wisdom of Scripture
must always cause us to say with
the apostle Paul “ Oh, the depth of the riches and
wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how
inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33
ESV). We Christians should watch lest we loose that “ oh”
from our hearts – particularly when it comes to the gospel . And this is exactly what we are seeing . All
around us we see Christians and churches
relaxing their grip on the gospel, fumbling it, and in danger of letting it drop from their hands
altogether , because we have lost the “oh” !
So then , in the
light of the Lord’s supper being served
to us today , let us remind ourselves
of what this text says as
Paul reminded the Corinthian
Christians concerning that which was of
first importance :
1.
“Now I would remind you, brothers of the gospel I preached to you “ : This gospel must continually be shared with the world ( as did Paul with the pagan Corinthians ) and then again and again by way of a reminder . Paul did not stop preaching the gospel just
because people had become
Christians .
2.
“(The gospel) which you received, in
which you stand, [2] and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to
the word. “ . It is the gospel preached , received and stood
upon ( persevered in) that will save you i.e.
bring you to heaven . Nothing else ! By not
holding to that gospel with
perseverance means that you have not received it .
3.
This gospel which
Paul received ( Acts 9) is of first importance : “For
I delivered to you as of first
importance what I also received” . It was the preaching of the gospel that was Paul’s primary work ( 1 Cor 9:16 : “ Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel “ ) ,
and we must never criticize our preachers for bringing before us the gospel
too often ! One man I know , came
from a Christian family , claimed to be a Christian , went
to seminary , became a pastor , dropped out
and wandered around the wilderness for many, many years , and eventually heard the
gospel in this congregation and was converted, and now lives
to the glory of God !
4.
Lest we forget : The
content of the gospel is not
only a message , but it proceeds from a
person : The Lord
Jesus Christ ! Paul’s gospel message was this : Christ
died for our sins.. was buried… was raised… and appeared ( 15:3-9) . So when you think about the gospel you must
understand and treasure up these 4 things in your heart :
·
Christ died for your sins ! If
He had not done that , you would
not inherit eternal life ( heaven) , but you would
inherit eternal condemnation (
hell) . The words that Jesus spoke on this
are very clear . There is no
middle road . “ I am
the Way , the Truth and the Life . No
one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14:6)
·
Christ was buried ! Your sin
really killed Him ! He was dead . The
thing that He had feared most in life had come true . He was forsaken by His Father (Matt 27:46) with whom He had to this point enjoyed fullest , loveliest fellowship! At this time He bore , to the
fullest extent , the terrible and righteous wrath of the Father , and all this out of love
for His sheep – the people that the Father had given Him from before the foundation of the world ( Jn 17 :6, 9 ). We will never know
the agony of the grave for
Christ , but this is what Jesus did for
you , dear believer – never loose the “Oh!
” on that !
·
Christ was raised ! Thank God that He raised Christ from the dead , after He had fully satisfied
(propitiated) the wrath of God . The following
thoughts are important in
relation to the resurrection :
(i)
God was faithful to His eternal plan . Thank God
that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures ( i.e. the OT
Scriptures). He is trustworthy , and the same God who sent Christ , and gave
Him up as a sin offering , and raised
Him from the dead , shall send Him again
from heaven to subdue all things and to judge the living and
the dead.
(ii)
Christ lives ! A dead Saviour is no Saviour – that is the point that
Paul makes in 1 Cor 15: 12 -19 . We
worship and serve a living
King and we can’t wait to see Him , and
even though we have not seen Him we love Him !
(1 Peter 1:8)
(iii)
We shall live !
Christ’s resurrection from the dead by the power of God is our hope of the resurrection also ( see 1 Cor 15:20-27 )
·
Christ appeared ! Thank God that there were many witnesses to His resurrection appearances. Four
times in this passage Paul says : “Then
He appeared…” . Christ’s resurrection is a historical fact . The Jewish historian Josephus , who did not claim to be a
Christians wrote : “ Now there was about this time Jesus, a
wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful
works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over
to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the]
Christ. And when Pilate, at the
suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross ,
those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to
them alive again the third day , as
the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things
concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named for him, are not extinct
at this day.[2] This helps us greatly , for we know
that Jesus is not a myth or a
fable . He is a real person , and if what He
said was true , then He is
not only a man , but He is God . Therefore our worship today is right and
meaningful and also necessary.
5.
This gospel changed Paul’s life
completely ! “ But by the
grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.” (v.10) This is actually a bit of an understatement .
The power of God in Paul was amazingly manifest , and yet Paul receives this
knowledge not in boasting , but in humility , because he knows that the gospel is not his invention – it has been given to Him , and he
worked hard with it , and today we are witnesses to the power of
God’s word through Paul .
So , in the light of all this , we must
make sure that we never loose the sense of wonder of the gospel . And when the vision grows dim
within you , plead with God to restore
it to you . This is no minor thing . It is a major matter . Your life , your joy , your meaning
in life depends on the gospel , which is Jesus Christ in you , the hope of
glory ( Col 1:27) . Amen
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