Break it Down/ LIFE

Introduction: The last few weeks we have been in our BREAK IT DOWN series. If you haven’t been with us for the last few weeks or you are visiting with us this morning, the purpose of this series is to break down the gospel so that we may better understand it and better communicate it.

In 1 Peter 3:15 Peter says to “honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” We have been using this acronym to guide us through the series, God Our Sins Paying Everyone Life. At the start of the series we discovered how the gospel is the good news because it starts with God. Then we looked at how Our sins separate us from God and require a price to be paid that we can not pay ourselves. This week we will be jumping to the end of the acronym and looking at LIFE. We will look at how the gospel grants us eternal life, and how that eternal life doesn’t start when we die, but rather, as believers, it starts NOW.

ILL> In March of 2015, Astronaut Scott Kelly left the surface of the earth to embark on a mission aboard the International Space Station. What was interesting about this mission was the duration of his stay. He had already been to the ISS before but this time he was staying in space for almost an entire year. Scott holds the record for the most accumulated days spent in space among all of his flights. In his book, Endurance, Scott talks about reading a book called, ‘The Right Stuff,’ by Tom Wolfe, when he knew he wanted to be an astronaut.

“This wasn’t just an exciting adventure story. This was something more like a life plan. These young men, flying jets in the Navy, did a real job that existed in the real world. Some of them became astronauts, and that was a real job, too. These were hard jobs to get, I understood, but some people did get them. It could be done. What drew me to these Navy pilots wasn’t the idea of the ‘right stuff’ –  a special quality these few brave men had – it was the idea of doing something immensely difficult, risking your life for it, and surviving.” – Scott Kelly, Endurance, p11

Scott began to realize that this decision would effect his past, his present, and his future forever.

Gospel… Let’s read this together…

BIG IDEA> Eternal life starts now and lasts forever.

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1. The Gospel Saved You (v1a)

“received…” παραλαμβάνω / paralambanō / ‘to join to oneself.’

The gospel is a gift we don’t just receive but we join ourselves to.

This is the same word that is used the in greek ‘took her as his wife.’

How has the Gospel saved you?

A) By Grace –  Ephesians 2:4-5 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he love us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by GRACE you have been saved”

B) Through Faith –  Ephesians 2:6-9 “and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through FAITH. And this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Why am I reminding you of this? Because paul knew the Corinthians needed reminding. The Corinthians were divided and often caught believing false teachings.

A group of bible commentators put it this way…

“Paul took these Corinthian believers back to the basics of the message that they had welcomed and received. Because acceptance of that gospel had saved them, they should hold firmly to it. To do otherwise would mean that they had believed in vain. If they could be so easily swayed to other messages, tangents, and untruths, then perhaps what they claimed as belief was not belief at all. If the faith they thought they had could not assure them of salvation, the that faith was worthless.” Life Application Bible Commentary (p217-218)

APP> He saves you from your sin and to Himself.

Galatians 2:20“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

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2) The Gospel is Saving You (v1b)

ILL> Growing up in DFW there were ALWAYS roads and commercial lots under construction. Driving to grapevine mills mall from where we lived in Euless would always take longer than it should because there were lane closures and exit ramps closed off. I moved out of state from DFW in 2008 and my wife and I have moved around a bit since then which brings us to southeast Missouri. But EVERY time we go back to DFW to visit family, over 10 years after moving away, the story is still the same! There is always something under construction in the DFW area. Why? Because it’s always growing? Our Christian lives are like that.

The Christian life is always under construction because it is always growing.

Romans 7:18-20 “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but no the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”

Romans 7:24-25a “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!..”

How does this effect my life today? When I struggle… Am I struggling? Weary of non-strugglers.

APP> As believers we are not sinless but we sin less.

So where do we go from here?

Romans 6:22-23 “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become bondservants of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. ”

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3) The Gospel Sustains You (v2)

The theme here is the resurrection. History of Corinthian church and their divided beliefs on the doctrine of the resurrection. Why does the resurrection matter?

“If you believe what you like in the gospel and reject what you do not like, it is not the gospel you believe but yourself.”

-Augustine

Paul goes on to say later in this same chapter that if Christ is our hope for this life only, then we of all men are the most to be pitied! (1 For 15:17-19)

ILL> This is a picture of William Cowper. He was a poet in the mid 1700’s and in 1763 he was offered a position as the Clerkship of Journals to the House of Lords. At this time he underwent a deep state of anxiety and depression. Attempted to take his own life three times. A year later he recovered. Nine years later he would write the Hymn, ‘There is a Fountain Filled with Blood.’

Contemplate, when the sun declines,

Thy death with deep reflection!

And when again he rising shines,

The day of resurrection!

How the gospel has effected your life.

1. Have you trusted that Christ has saved you by grace, through faith?
2. Does the life you’re living today reflect this?

APP> Eternal life starts now and lasts forever.