I. The Content Of The Gospel V. 16a
A. Man’s Problem With Sin
1. Man is born with a sin nature and an inclination to sin. (Romans 3:10-23)
2. Man proves he possess this nature by choosing to sin.
3. Man is worthy of God’s judgment: eternal death apart from God. (Romans 6:23)
4. God has the right to judge man for his sin.
B. God’s Solution For Man’s Problem
1. Though God is right to judge man, He loves man, and devised a plan to forgive man.
2. God the Son, the 2nd person of the Triune Godhead, became a man.
3. He lived a perfect life, and then died on a cross to pay for the sins of mankind.
4. Jesus willingly paid the debt that all mankind owed to God.
C. Jesus: God’s Solution
1. He was a low class Jewish man, who claimed to be God.
2. He had a questionable birth, supposedly being born of fornication.
3. He taught people, healed people, and raised some for the dead.
4. He predicted that He would be killed by the Jewish leaders, but that He would come back to life after three days.
5. This, He fulfilled, and was seen by over 500 witnesses who were available to testify and/or be interrogated by any who doubted their story. (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)
6. Jesus then ascended to heaven, but will come back one day to receive His people to Him, and then eventually return to judge the nations.
II. Objections To The Gospel
A. Regarding Man’s Sin
1. Men will usually admit that they are not perfect.
2. They admit to making mistakes, and having weaknesses. But that is as far as it goes.
3. The Gospel tells mankind that they are guilty, and deserving of God judgment.
4. People fight hard against the idea that they are worthy of God’s judgment.
5. They will say that they are better than most men, and that everybody fails as times.
6. The Gospel message makes unilateral statements about the guilt of man.
7. Those objections and that kind of unflinching announcement can make people very angry, and can make the Christian tend to be ashamed of the Gospel.
B. Regarding God’s Solution
1. Men will admit to some faults, but will often claim and believe that they can do more good things to outweigh the bad.
2. They claim to be sincerely sorry for their wrongdoing.
3. They try to make up for their mistakes, and they can believe that they can make the scales of Heaven tip in their favor.
4. It seems unreasonable to most that there is only one way to be forgiven. (John 14:6)
5. It steps on their pride to have to admit that they cannot make things right with God through their own efforts and good works.
6. Man’s angry objections and the Bible’s uncompromising position can make some Christians embarrassed of the Gospel.
C. Theological/Philosophical Objections To The Gospel
1. To the Jew, it was a theological stumbling block: Jesus claimed to be God in the flesh.
2. To the Greek, it was foolishness. It was an unsophisticated story about a lower class man with a band of ragamuffins that got himself crucified by the Romans.
3. Read Acts 17:16-18,32; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
D. Other Reasons Why Paul Or Us Might Be Ashamed
1. Because of how people react negatively to the Paul’s preaching of the Gospel
a. Paul had been imprisoned in Philippi
b. Chased out of Thessalonica
c. Smuggled out of Berea
d. Laughed at and mocked in Athens
e. He was stoned and left for dead in Lystra
f. Ran for his life out of Iconium
g. Paul could have been ashamed of what people thought of him, and stayed quiet
h. To be a Christian meant to be associated with Paul and others who were mocked and treated horribly. You would be guilty by association.
2. Christians can be ashamed of the Gospel in these days, because of some of the wrong, sinful, and embarrassing things done by the church and/or Christians.
a. I and many of us have been marginalized or mocked because of the actions of guys like David Koresh, Ted Haggard, or the Christian down the street, or politicians.
b. It can cause us to be ashamed of sharing the Gospel for fearing of being judged.
c. Early Christians were accused of cannibalism and orgies. (Communion/love feasts)
3. Sometimes we are ashamed of sharing the Gospel because we are ashamed of ourselves.
a. We are not walking closely to God, and we are flirting with or indulging in sin.
b. We feel unqualified to speak about the Gospel
c. The power of the Gospel is not a reality to us.
4. It is the Gospel that we are not to be ashamed of. Those other things are not the focus.
III. Who Is Not Ashamed Of The Gospel?
A. Everyone Who Believes
1. The Gospel leads one to faith in Jesus and into relationship with Jesus.
2. The Gospel speaks of God’s plan to rescue man from sin, and then God works powerfully in the Believer’s life. The Gospel is God’s message to mankind.
3. The Gospel is something to be experienced and lived, not studied and acknowledged.
4. Kenneth Wuest- (the Gospel) …“is demonstrated, not by argument, but by what it does; and looking to what it can do, Paul is proud to preach it anywhere”.
5. To the degree that one accepts the Gospel message and walks in it, is to the degree that they will not be ashamed, and will be ready to speak the Gospel to others.
6. The Gospel must be a vibrant reality in the Christian’s life, not just a theological code.
7. If you would not be ashamed of the Gospel, then embrace it and be changed by it.
B. The Power Of God To Salvation
1. The Gospel speaks of God’s power to save and make whole
2. Salvation- deliverance, preservation, safety, salvation, deliverance from the molestation of enemies, in an ethical sense, that which concludes to the soul’s safety or salvation, future salvation.
3. God’s power to forgive, to save, to preserve, to deliver from enemies.
4. 1 Corinthians 1:18 18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
5. Rome had power to conquer nations, but not change human hearts. Rome had a high suicide rate. God’s power can change people. We are the proof of that statement.