"How Important Is the Gospel?"
Sermon on 2 Co 11: 2-4, 24-29
Weekend of August 6, 2000
Saint Mark's, Watertown, WI
Pastor Karl Walther
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Amen.
God's Word for our special consideration this morning continues our series on Second Corinthians. Today's it's Second Corinthians, chapter eleven, verses two through four and twenty-four through twenty-nine. There the Apostle Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes to the Corinthian congregation as follows:
I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough....
Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
This is God's Spirit-inspired Word of Jesus Christ.
Introduction: Some Things Are Important Enough to Insist On & Suffer For
Dear fellow Christians-- who insist on the gospel and even suffer for the gospel:
From history -- or: if you're old enough, from your own experience -- do you remember what happened fifty-five years ago this morning? ...The first atomic bomb ever used in warfare was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. It, taken along with the second such bomb on Nagasaki three days later, brought this world's biggest war to an end.
It reminds me that fifty-five years ago there were people, even some of you people, who considered our freedom as a nation so important that it was worth insisting on and even suffering for. Likewise: fifty years ago in Korea, and thirty-five and thirty years ago in Vietnam, there were people who considered our freedoms so important that they were worth insisting on and suffering for. The people in today's military feel the same way.
Theme: How Important Is the Gospel?
Well,
in God's Word to us today, the Apostle Paul takes up something even more
important than our freedom as a nation.
He considers the freedom-giving, good news of Jesus the Savior. And you could say he asks the question: * HOW
IMPORTANT IS THE GOSPEL? God answers
that question in his Word today by assuring us
(1) THE GOSPEL IS WORTH INSISTING ON! and (2) THE GOSPEL IS WORTH SUFFERING
FOR!
Exposition One: Paul Proclaimed the Gospel Is Worth Insisting On
You remember that it was about the year fifty-five ad. The Apostle Paul was on his third mission journey, and he had gotten as far as northern Greece. Now he was writing to a congregation in southern Greece which he had founded on his second missionary journey a few years earlier. It was the congregation in the city of Corinth.
The Corinthian congregation had run into considerable trouble since Paul had founded it. Apparently: after Paul had left, some false teachers had invaded Corinth and infiltrated the ranks of the Christian congregation there. They said, essentially, "God's Word which Paul brought to you was good, but it was only the basics. You need to know more from us. And the Jesus whom Paul announced to you was fine, but he was only a start. You need our help beyond him to move on in your Christian lives."
Paul's reaction was quick. He said-- and this is God's Word to us today: I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. God is a jealous God, remember. He wants his people all to himself. And likewise Paul was jealous and zealous to make sure the Lord kept all of the Corinthians to himself.
Then he expands upon that thought, using the picture of marriage: I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. God doesn't want you Corinthians fooling around with other Christs. That's the sense of Paul's words.
And then Paul introduces his concern by way of an illustration from Bible history. He says: But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. This is as much as saying to the Corinthians: Watch out for the devils among you!
And then Paul gets specific: For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached (likely some sort of guru who lets you in on his secret knowledge) or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received (likely some sort of evil spirit of outward power and action, rather than the gentle inward Holy Spirit of God) or if someone preaches a different gospel from the one you accepted (likely the "good news" that if you obey God enough, he'll be pleased with you), Paul says: you put up with all of it easily enough.
In other words: Paul is saying that the Corinthians don't consider the genuine gospel worth insisting on. And he says: That had better change!
Application One: We Consider the Gospel Worth Insisting On
So, how about us? Do we consider the genuine gospel worth insisting on? -- Well, I'm sure your answer is the same as mine. "Yes!" we say. "The genuine gospel is worth insisting on!" But just to make sure, let me run you through a sort of a checklist of things....
• If the genuine gospel is worth insisting on, it's worth insisting on every day. Do we? Do we read a chapter of our Bibles -- or a good Bible-based, Christ-centered devotion -- every day?
• If the genuine gospel is worth insisting on, it's worth insisting on every week. Do we? Do we attend this church -- or another good Bible-based, Christ-centered church -- every week?
• The genuine gospel is worth insisting on in every sermon. Do we? What if we're somewhere listening to a sermon and we don't hear the gospel: a nice, solid, clear proclamation of the good news that Jesus is our Savior? Do we speak up about that?
• The genuine gospel is worth expecting whenever we're sitting in a Bible class or even just visiting with our pastor. Do we insist on it?
• If the genuine gospel is worth insisting on, it's worth insisting on even when we hear somebody speak against it. Do we? When a friend, a relative, or a co-worker of ours says something dumb like, "We all worship the same God anyway", or, "I can't believe that God would punish most people in hell", are we willing to speak up and refute that? Are we willing to say, "There's only one true God: the God of the Christians-- the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; through Jesus Christ he accomplished our salvation, and that's the only way to heaven"? Are we willing to say that?
• And the genuine gospel is worth insisting on in our relationships. Do we? Do we really care enough about others to tell them about Jesus-- no matter what the effect on our relationships?
Exposition Two: Paul Proclaimed the Gospel Is Worth Suffering For
...You know, the Apostle Paul did. He did care about others that much. Take a look in the second part of our text. There Paul proclaims that not only is the gospel worth insisting on, it is even worth suffering for-- in order to proclaim it to others. And the Apostle Paul gives his own life as an example of that....
He says: For the gospel Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. That was, basically, the maximum whipping that the Old Testament allowed. Paul took it-- to proclaim the good news of Jesus the Savior.
Three times, he says, for the gospel I was beaten with rods. That was the Roman mode of punishment. As a Roman citizen, Paul never had to undergo such a beating. But for the sake of the gospel -- to show others it was worth suffering for -- he did not always invoke his citizenship. And so in Philippi, and apparently in two other places, the Romans beat him with rods.
Once I was stoned, Paul says. That happened on his first missionary journey-- in a town called Lystra, in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey. For proclaiming Christ as Savior, the Jews of that area gathered a mob against Paul, nabbed him, grabbed some great big rocks, hurled them at him, did it so effectively they were sure he was dead, and dragged him out of the city. By a miracle God had Paul survive-- for the sake of the gospel.
Paul goes on: three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea. Now, that does not even include the shipwreck we know about toward the end of the book of Acts. That one took place some years later. These were three other shipwrecks. Paul suffered them as he proclaimed the gospel. And they represented, among other things, some amazingly bad "luck".
And Paul continues: I have been constantly on the move-- absent the peace and quiet most people take for granted.
He says: I have been in danger from rivers, because he often had to flee in a hurry without the benefit of bridges, in danger from bandits, whose presence was rampant in the mountainous regions within which Paul often traveled, in danger from my own countrymen the Jews, in danger from Gentiles; I have been in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and I have been in danger from false brothers. If you count those up, those are eight dangers. That noun "danger" is only used one other time in the New Testament!
It's makes you tired even to read it...: I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.
And finally, he says: Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn? Paul is saying: the gospel is so important is worth suffering for not only outwardly, it's even worth facing inward grief, in order to proclaim it.
Application Two: We Consider the Gospel Worth Suffering For
And my friends, it's got to be the same for us. We've got to consider the gospel worth suffering for.
• For example, and God prevent this from happening-- for example, suppose some years from now something happens through which we no longer have the guarantee of the freedoms we enjoy today. Maybe it's that the courts go wacko on us, or that we're conquered by a communist country. (And don't think these things couldn't happen!) Well, as the blood of martyrs down through the ages has testified, the gospel is worth suffering for, and even worth dying for-- if it comes to that.
• Another example, and this happens all the time these days-- suppose you face verbal persecution for proclaiming the gospel. You write a friend that Jesus is the only way to heaven; you tell a co-worker the same. And you're lambasted for it. Your friend, your co-worker, responds: "Wow! That's narrow-minded of you to think that only Christians -- and even only strict Christians -- get to heaven. You're a Neanderthal!" Listen: the gospel is worth suffering for, like that. You keep proclaiming it!
Conclusion: What Is the Gospel?
But why? Why is the gospel worth insisting on and worth suffering for? And, by the way: what exactly is the gospel?
Ah, that's the million dollar question! What is the gospel-- whose importance I've been trumpeting so loudly this morning? Well, "Gospel" means "good news". And so, the gospel is the good news: that Jesus is our Savior.
° The gospel is the good news that: although we were conceived and born with the inherited fatal disease of sinfulness, Jesus was conceived and born without it. And God has made his holy birth count for us.
° The gospel is the good news that, although we've done hundreds of thousands of evil deeds, and spoken hundreds of thousands of evil words, and thought literally millions of evil thoughts, Jesus lived thirty-three years (that would be twelve thousand days; it would be one billion moments)-- Jesus lived thirty-three years without so much as a single sin. And God has made his holy life count for us.
° The gospel-- it's the good news that: although we deserved death and hell for every one of our sins and millions of hells for our millions of sins, Jesus suffered death and hell on the cross for us-- and you may as well say millions of hells for our millions of sins, and billions of hells for the sins of this world's billions of people. That's amazing! That's good news!
° And the gospel is the good news that the grave couldn't hold Jesus in. He rose alive. He lived in bliss. He ascended on high. And everlasting paradise is now his home. And it's our home, too. The good news is that we are connected to Jesus through God-given faith-- and so: what he has undergone, we must also undergo. We will rise. We will live in bliss. We will ascend on high. Everlasting paradise is now our home.
Friends, that's the gospel. That gospel-- it's worth insisting on, isn't it? That gospel is worth suffering for-- even worth dying for. Who can deny it? Amen.
In the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith." Amen.