2. Gather to Remember the Most Important Gospel Truth/Teaching (the D.B.R.)
THINK ABOUT LAST WORDS / DEEDS OF LOVE
“If you only had a few last words to say to those for whom you cared, what would you say to them?”, a father asked his family. “If you could only speak one small sentence to them, and no more, what would you say?” Everyone was silent for a few moments. Then his five year old daughter said, “I love you.” The father said, “Right! That’s what I would say to you.” It seems that God the Father’s last words to the world that He created and cares for are, “I love you.” This is revealed to us in His last will and testament (in a sense, His last words to us).“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.” (Jn 3:16) As Paul explained below, this loving giving of God’s Son is the first and foremost Gospel teaching.
THE MOST IMPORTANT GOSPEL TEACHING
(A) Paul Told Us What It Is
He informed the people of Corinth how God so
loved the world in the giving of His Son for it.
Paul said, “For I delivered to you as of first
importance what I also received, that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and that He was buried, and that He was
raised on the third day according to the
Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas,
then to the twelve.” (1 Cor 15:3-5)
That is how God gave the world His Son, to die for its sins. And Paul said that this was the very first thing that he shared with the people of Corinth. The death, burial, and resurrection of the Messiah is the most important Gospel teaching. Specifically, the death of Christ Jesus is the most important Gospel teaching. But why? Because it demonstrates God’s loving will to forgive a world of people of their sins, if they come to know Jesus and obey His gospel (2 Thess 1:8, 9). What an awesome thought, that there is enough forgiveness power in God’s Son to relieve the whole world of the consequences for its sins, if it would only take advantage of it. So this is God’s love, that He would die for us, and He did in a sense, in His Son. This happened before we were worthy to die for (1 Jn 4:19; Ro 5:6-8), if perhaps someone is ever worthy to die for. Now consider the memorial that Jesus created to help remind us of this most important gospel teaching.