The Gist Of The Gospel

Word. I want to invite you to take your Bibles and turn to one Peter chapter three. If you're visiting with us this morning, we are working our way through this letter that Peter wrote to the suffering Saints all over Asia Minor and we're in chapter three. And this morning I just want to look at verse 18. First Peter chapter three, verse 18. And every once in a while, as you're going through books of the Bible verse by verse, normally you take several verses or a whole paragraph at once, but every so often you come across a verse that just strikes you as needing to have a little extra time, a little extra attention. And so you just kind of hit the parking brake and you sit there and marinate in the words that are so profound. And so that's how I view first Peter chapter three, verse 18, which says, for Christ also died for sins, once for all, just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God.

God, we thank you for the gospel, this message of good news straight from you in the person and work of your son, Jesus Christ. And Lord, there may be someone here today that's never heard the gospel before or maybe not as simply and clearly as Peter states it here. And so I just ask Lord that you would be merciful to them and open up their ears and open up their eyes and open up their heart that they would receive this glorious good news. And Lord, for those of us, probably more of us who have heard the gospel responded to the gospel and maybe have even shared the gospel with others for many years now, would we hear this text with fresh ears, with a fresh heart and that it would just once again thrill our hearts and our minds and that we would respond with great joy and gladness with wonder, praise and awe at your goodness to us in Christ. We pray this in His name. Amen.

Well, it always feels like an extra special Sunday to me whenever we have the joy and privilege of welcoming a new batch of members into our church. And today, 45 people are joining our church. And while they are a diverse group of folks who vary in age and experience and come from different parts of the country, in fact parts of the world, they have unique backgrounds, they have unique testimonies, but they all have one thing in common. They understand and embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ. And those of you who have gone through the membership process here at Lakeside, you know that there is only one requirement that we have to join this church. You need to be a Christian. We figure we should make it harder to join our church than it is to get into heaven. And so that's the only requirement to get to heaven is that you're a Christian.

And so that's the one requirement here at Lakeside Bible Church. Now let me qualify that. However, by Christian, we don't mean a nominal Christian, someone who calls themselves a Christian or declares their religious affiliation as Christian as opposed to identifying as a Muslim or a Hindu or a Buddhist or an atheist, which by the way don't exist according to Greg's shirt. If you saw his shirt walking around today at church, atheists say God doesn't exist. Well, God says atheists don't exist. No such thing according to Romans one, right? But we're not talking about nominal Christians that well, I'm not an atheist, I'm not an agnostic, and I'm definitely not a Muslim or Hindu. I'm a Christian. America's a Christian nation. I'm a Christian. We also don't mean a cultural Christian. By cultural Christian, I mean someone who thinks they're a Christian because they grew up in a Christian culture.

They grew up in the Bible Belt, they grew up in the South, they were raised in a Christian home, they've gone to church their whole life. They may have even been baptized, but they have never truly been born again. They don't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And just because a person shows up at this church claiming to be a Christian and expresses a desire to become a member of this church, we feel the need to vet them a bit. And one of the ways we do that is we have them write out their personal testimony of how they came to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And so you may remember that when you joined the church, but we gave you a membership application and you told us a little bit about yourself and your church background. But then the most important piece is this personal testimony sheet.

And it's personally my part of the whole membership process is while I enjoy teaching the class and love doing the interviews and love welcoming them on those Sunday when they join, having lunch afterwards with them and getting to know one another better, my favorite thing is sitting on the couch or sometimes even laying on the couch and reading through these testimonies and hearing the myriad of ways that God saves people. It's so cool. In fact, one of the individuals who's joining the church today got saved while he was eating Cheerios and watching cartoons go figure right when the Lord brings it all together in a little kid's mind, right after hearing the messages preached and the Sunday school lesson and the Adventure Club and all those Bible verses they memorize and the prayers mom and dad pray for them by the bed. It just all kind of comes together.

It's a supernatural work of God. And so that personal testimony sheet that we require people to fill out has three sections. The first section, we asked them to share what their life was before they came to know Christ. Second, we asked them to explain the specific circumstances of how and when they became a Christian, what they heard, what they understood, who shared what with them about God, about sin, about Jesus, about our response that God requires if we want to have our sins forgiven. And then finally, we ask them how their life has changed since they became a Christian. How has God transformed your life as a result of your relationship with Christ? And if that wasn't enough, we add three more questions as kind of a follow-up to drill down a little bit deeper. And so the three questions that we ask people to answer are this, number one, if you were to die today, do you know for sure you'd go to heaven?

And if so, what are you basing your hope or confidence in? The second question is if you were to ask God, or excuse me, if God were to ask you why he should let you into heaven, what would you say? Hypothetically, you were to stand before God. He says, Hey, why should I let you into heaven? What would you say? What would your answer be? We're curious to hear what people would say, how they respond to that. And then lastly, we ask them this question, if someone asked you what does it mean to be a Christian and how do I become one? How would you answer that question?

What would you say to them? And of course what we're looking for there is can this person explain the gospel? And really all those questions are designed to reveal whether or not they truly understand and embrace the gospel. Because if a person can't clearly explain the gospel, it's possible that they've never truly embraced the gospel. I mean, how can you accept something or affirm something that you can't articulate? Now, obviously, we're not God and so we can't know for sure whether or not someone is truly saved, but our goal is to help them know for sure that they're truly saved because what matters more to us than someone becoming a member of our church, we want them to be an official member of the church. The church of Jesus Christ. Church membership is meaningless without a real personal relationship with Jesus Christ and a real personal relationship with Jesus Christ requires and results from understanding and embracing the gospel. So the question for the day is, what is the gospel? What is the gospel?

Peter answered this crucial question in today's text, which is one of the most important verses in one Peter. And in verse 18, he provided us with what is perhaps the shortest, simplest, richest summaries of the gospel in the entire Bible. And since this verse leads into one of the most perplexing and difficult to interpret text in the entire New Testament, I'm referring to verses 19 through 22, which some Bible scholars and commentators say is the most or the hardest passage in the whole New Testament to interpret. I didn't want the clarity and the beauty of this gospel gem to get missed or minimized in any way by what comes after it. And if you come next Sunday, we are going to be in the weeds, okay? There's going to be a lot of things we're going to have to sort out in these verses that are ahead of us. But again, I wanted to make sure that we didn't miss what I would call the very heart of the gospel. What is the heart of the gospel? You ready?

God's sinless son died in the place of sinful people to reconcile us to God. God's sinless son died in the place of sinful people to reconcile us to God. The word for there in the beginning of verse 18 indicates that Peter was giving a reason for, or an example of what he was talking about in the previous verses. And if you remember from two weeks ago, we looked at verses 13 through 17 and Peter laid out a strategy for what we're calling exile evangelism that he'd been kind of hinting at up to this point in the letter. And we know he wrote this letter from Rome where he was observing how persecution of Christians was intensifying in the capital city and he knew it was only a matter of time before it spread throughout the entire Roman empire. And so he wrote this letter to help prepare his readers for this coming storm and equip them to stand firm amid suffering in a world that was becoming increasingly hostile toward the gospel. But Peter knew that the more the persecution increased, the more chances Christians would have to share the gospel. And so we didn't want them to hunker down, to huddle up, to hide out, but to capitalize on and take advantage of this God ordained opportunity to witness for Christ. And he assumed that if you are a bold witness for Christ, you will be persecuted. You will suffer.

And rather than being surprised or discouraged, if God wills it that you experience unjust, undeserved suffering, you should expect it. Verse 17, for it is better if God should will it so that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. Four, Christ also suffered or died for sins once for all, just for the unjust so that he might bring us to God. Peter's point is simple, that Jesus's unjust suffering was willed by God. And in fact, it was the very means that God used to reconcile you to himself. Now we know that Peter was the one who originally had strongly objected to the thought of the Messiah experiencing any kind of suffering. In Matthew chapter 16 verse 21, it says, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day. And Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him saying, God forbid it, Lord, this shall never happen to you.

But 30 years has passed. Peter is now a seasoned saint, probably in his late sixties, early seventies, and he was using Jesus's suffering that he had witnessed with his own eyes to incentivize those who were suffering for the cause of Christ. And I think this is a good place to remind all of us that our willingness to suffer for Christ's sake should be motivated by his willingness to suffer for our sake. Did you hear that our willingness to suffer for Christ's sake should be motivated by his willingness to suffer for our sake? And just like Peter, when he was beaten for sharing the gospel in Acts chapter five, verse 41, we should rejoice that we have been considered worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ. Peter has already exhorted us to follow the example of Christ and presented him as the best example, the best illustration of how we should respond to unjust suffering.

Remember verse 21 of chapter two, just look back there for a second. He just got done exhorting his readers to endure unjust suffering. He says, for you have been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps, who committed no sin nor was any seat found in his mouth, and while being reviled, he did not revile in return while suffering. He utter are no threats but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously and don't miss his next phrase, and he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross. Notice that in this passage and also now in chapter three, verse 18, Peter made it clear that Jesus' death was not merely exemplary, but it was expiratory expiratory. You may not be familiar with that word. It's kind of an old fashioned word, expiate or expiation, which is a word that refers to Jesus, atoning for or paying for our sin. In other words, Jesus' death doesn't just serve as an example for us, but it actually atone for or paid for our sin. When Jesus was dying on the cross or died on the cross, he wasn't just setting an example for us, he was actually saving us from execution.

The cross of Christ is far more than a good illustration. It's the ground of our salvation. And even so, the suffering Christ endured for us should assure us that any suffering we endure for him will result in the same victorious outcome that he experienced, that he ultimately triumphed over the grave and was resurrected and exalted to the right hand of God. This is where Peter's going with this thought here. Notice the end of chapter three, verse 22, who at the right hand, who is at the right hand of God having gone into heaven after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to him? And so he's heading for this hopeful triumphant expression of the gospel. But before we get there, I want us just to camp out this morning on this first sentence of verse 18, and I want us to see how Peter highlighted four facets of the glorious gem that we know as the gospel that should cause us to be joyful and hopeful as evangelistic exiles who regularly share the good news of salvation with others while we eagerly wait for the salvation of our souls.

Now, someone asked me in first service, what are you talking about while we wait, I thought we already were saved. Well, we know salvation, right? The overarching view of salvation is that we have been justified. We are being sanctified and we will be glorified. And the scripture talks about that there's a future aspect of our salvation. We're right with God, but we look forward to that day. We'll escape his wrath and we'll be made like him in heaven. So let's look at these four facets of the gospel this morning. Number one, Christ compensated for our sin, Christ compensated for our sin. Now, the word compensated is a synonym for atoned or expiated, both of which describe our sins as being canceled out or our guilt being removed. Notice what Peter says here for Christ also died for sins.

Some of your translations if you have a ESV or NIV, it says, for Christ also suffered for sins, which in light of the context, I think it's the better translation because that's what's on Peter's mind. In fact, the immediate context verse 17 for it is better if God should will it so that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong for Christ also suffered for sins once for all. He said back in 21, chapter two, for you have been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you. We know that one of the underlying themes of this letter is suffering.

And so I like that translation for Christ suffered for sins, and that phrase for sins is used in the tugen, which is the earliest Greek translation of the Old Testament, and it was used in regards to the sin canceling effects of the sacrificial system in the Old Testament, as you know, God required his people to sacrifice animals to make atonement for their sins. And so they would bring that unblemished animal before the high priest and they would lay their hands on the head of that animal before it was killed or sent away into the wilderness, which pictured their sins being transferred to that animal and their sins being canceled or that guilt being removed. And that picturesque imagery of that scapegoat as they let that animal go off into the wilderness to wander away outside the city was a picture, a visual reminder that God takes away our sin, he removes our guilt, it goes away.

And we know that in the New Testament, Christ served as the perfect sacrifice who fulfilled all the Old Testament types and symbols and a tone for all the sins of all those who would ever repent and believe. I think that's what John the Baptist had in mind when he introduced his disciples and encouraged them to transfer their affection and their devotion to him, to Christ in John 1 29 when he said, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world so Christ compensated for our sin. Secondly, Christ completed the work of our salvation. Christ completed the work of our salvation. Notice again, verse 18, for Christ also died for sins. Here it is. We just sang about it once for all, once for all. A wonderful little phrase that we find throughout the scriptures and really based on building off of Old Testament, the sacrificial system there where God's people offered sacrifice after sacrifice over and over again in what appeared to be this never ending system of making amends for their sins.

And literally millions of animals were slaughtered and gallons of blood was spilt over the centuries. I mean just in the annual Passover celebration, a quarter of a million sheep were sacrificed every year. I mean you just do the math. There was a lot of death, a lot of blood, and all of this pointed to the sacrifice that Jesus would make on the cross as the flawless unblemished lamb of God. Peter's already mentioned this in chapter one, verse 18, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your fetal way of life and inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless the blood of Christ.

And because Christ was spotless and unblemished, in other words, he was perfect, his death completely and permanently solved our problem with sin. In other words, there's no need for any more sacrifices for sin to be made because his death was totally sufficient. And the writer of Hebrews highlighted this once for all concept and because we're there in the same neighborhood, just turn back with me a couple pages to Hebrews the book of Hebrews and look with me with your own eyes at some of these passages. Hebrews chapter seven, verse 26. Hebrews chapter seven, verse 26. It should just be a couple pages to the left of one Peter. Just jump over James, back to Hebrews there. This is Hebrews chapter seven, verse 26. For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens who does not need daily like those high priests to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people because this he did once for all when he offered up himself.

In other words, Jesus is unlike any of the other high priests that came before him. Look at chapter nine, verse 24, Hebrews 9 24, for Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands a mere copy of the true one. In other words, he didn't just enter into the temple here on earth but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor was it that he would offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise he would've needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and in as much as it is appointed from men to die once and after this comes judgment. So Christ also having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await him. And then one more chapter 10, love this one, verse 10, 10, 10. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins, but he having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right hand of God.

I find it interesting that in all the instructions for building the tabernacle and the temple, there's not one mention of a chair, a place or a bench, a place where the high priest could kind of take a load off his feet and sit down and rest because they never rested. They were constantly in motion every time they were in the tabernacle, every time they were in the temple, they were offering sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice. But the imagery here is that Jesus died on the cross, was buried. He rose again, was exalted to the right hand of God where he is seated. In other words, the work is completed, it's done, it's finished.

And I think that's what was on Jesus' mind in John 1930 when he hung on the cross and said, it is finished. So Christ compensated for our sin. He completed the work of our salvation. Thirdly, Christ covered for us. Christ covered for us. Notice back in one Peter three 18, for Christ also died for sins, once for all, just for the unjust, or your Bible may say, the righteous for the unrighteous and really that phrase, however it's translated the just for the unjust, the righteous for the unrighteous is simply contrasting the sinlessness of Christ with the sinfulness of man. Romans 10, Romans three, verse 10. There is no one righteous, not even one for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God. Whereas Christ on the other hand was perfectly righteous. He never had a single thought or word or action or motive that displeased or disobeyed God.

I can't say that, can you? I can't go a day sometimes I can't go an hour without saying something or thinking something or being motivated by something that displeases or disobeys God. And the fact that Christ was perfectly righteous without sin is affirmed throughout the New Testament. In fact, Peter has already mentioned it in chapter two, verse 22. He said, Jesus who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. Remember Pilate's wife warned him to not let Jesus be convicted of a crime that he was not guilty of. Matthew 27 19, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message saying, have nothing to do with that righteous man. She knew he was innocent. So did the soldier that oversaw his crucifixion. Luke 23, verse 47. Now, when the centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God saying, certainly this man was innocent.

I wouldn't be surprised if we meet that centurion in heaven someday. Acts three 14, Peter was laying into his fellow Jews and said, you disown the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. One John two, one, my little children. I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And then perhaps the most important verse talking about how all this works. Two Corinthians 5 21, it says that God made him Jesus who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might be become the righteousness of God in him.

In other words, God transferred our sin or credited our sin, our sinful life to Jesus on the cross and treated him as if he lived our sinful life. And at the same time, he credited or transferred Christ's righteousness, his perfect life to us and now treats us like we lived his perfect life. And so even though Jesus never sinned, he didn't deserve to be punished for sin. He took all of our sin upon himself and experienced the punishment that we deserved. Again, chapter two, verse 24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross. He died for us. He died in place of us. He died instead of us.

Romans chapter five says this very familiar terms for while we were still helpless at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man, someone would dare even to die, but God on the other hand demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us. So he served as our substitute and probably the clearest, most compelling text in all the word of God regarding Christ substitutionary atonement is Isaiah 53, the prophecy of the Messiah. Isaiah 53, verse four, surely our griefs, he himself bore and our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed, stricken spin of God and afflicted. In other words, oh, he's being punished by God for claiming to be God. No, he was pierced through for our transgressions, not his. He was crushed for our iniquities, not his. The chastening of our wellbeing fell upon him, and by his surgings, we are healed. All of us like she have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.

And then it goes on and says, this closes Isaiah 53. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I'll allot him a portion with the great. He'll divide the booty with the strong because he poured out himself to death. He was numbered with the transgressors, yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors, Christ covered for us. And then finally, Christ conciliated between God and us, Christ conciliated between God and us. Notice the last phrase there in verse 18. For Christ also died for sins once for all, just for the unjust so that he might bring us to God. So the ultimate purpose, the ultimate aim of Christ's death was to restore our relationship with God that we had destroyed through our sin. Sin separates us from God.

Isaiah 59, 2, our iniquity have made a separation between you and your God. Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God. I imagine most of you have seen and perhaps even used that illustration of the two land masses coming here with this huge chasm in the middle. Maybe somebody drew that picture out for you when they were sharing the gospel. Maybe you've actually drawn that picture out for your children or for someone you're sharing the gospel with. But it's just a very simple picture. You've got man and his sin over here, and you've got God and His holiness over here, and there's this huge chasm and there's nothing that we can do to bridge this gap. And that's where Christ comes in. Christ is the bridge and it's the cross. And you draw a picture of a cross and it acts as the bridge that gets sinful man into a relationship with a holy God.

Sin not only separates us from God, it also alienates us from him. The Bible likens us to God's enemies who've rebelled against him, and our greatest need is to be reconciled to him. Psalm 58, 3 says, the wicked are estranged from the womb. These who speak lives go astray from birth. I mean, you're separated from God, you're estranged from God, you're alienated from God the moment you're conceived. And that's why Paul said in Romans five 10, for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Colossians 1 21, although you were formally alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him holy and blameless and be beyond reproach.

So Christ serves as our mediator, our mediator between God and us, one Timothy two, five. For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And so it's as if Christ takes us as God's enemy, and he takes us by the hand and he brings us into the throne room of God and he introduces us to God. And from then on, we have direct access to God. Why? Because now we're friends. We're no longer enemies. We're friends now. And I like to do that here at the church. If I meet somebody new and they start telling me some things about their life and it makes me think of someone else who has some similarities, and I think, oh, you got to meet this guy or this person. And so I try to connect them and I love introducing them to each other, and then I just kind of back away and let them enjoy getting to know one another. Then I go back the next Sunday or a month from now, and I still see 'em kind of hanging out because now they're friends. They've developed a relationship.

Romans chapter five, verse one says that having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. Ephesians two 18. Through him, we both have our access in one spirit to the Father, Ephesians three 11, this was in accordance with the eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in him. By the way, that's what was going on when the temple veil tore from top to bottom when Jesus was hanging on the cross, what was going on? It was a picture. It was a symbol. God wanted us to know that because of Christ's death, we now have access to his holy presence.

There's no veil any longer, and we don't need a priest. We don't need a human mediator. You don't have to go sit in a little box somewhere and confess your cynicism, fellow human being. You can confess your sin straight to God. So Christ serves as our great high priest, and we can now come boldly before his throne again, the writer of Hebrews expounded on this Hebrews chapter four, verse 14. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is his flesh. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.

That's good news. And so God's great goal in sending Christ to die on the cross was to remove the sin that had separated us, that had alienated us from him in order to reconcile us to himself. One more passage and we'll be done. Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 18. Now, all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God, we're making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God, and borrowing that language of the Apostle Paul this morning, I would beg you today to be reconciled to God if you walked in here knowing that you are separated from God, you're alienated from God, or perhaps you walked in here thinking you were good with God, but after hearing this message, you're like, whoa, apparently I'm not good with God.

I need to be reconciled to God, and now I understand how I can be reconciled to God. It's through what Christ did for me on the cross, then made today be the day of your salvation and for the rest of us, boy, what a joy, what an honor, what a privilege to be considered ambassadors for Christ that we get to share this message of reconciliation. I mean, this is good news. It's like we've got the cure for cancer. If you had the cure for cancer, trust me, you'd be going around telling everybody, and we have something far greater than a cure for cancer. We have the cure for sin.

William Tindale, who we have to thank for our Bibles, he was the one who translated the Bible into English, said this about Yuan Gallion, which is the Greek word for the gospel. He says, it signifies good, mer glad and joyful news that makes a man's heart glad and makes him sing, dance, and leave for joy. I hope that's your response today, as you have been reminded of the gospel that you'll leave here singing and dancing and leaping for joy, that your life has been changed by the grace of God who has enabled you to understand and embrace the gospel. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this short, simple sentence that is just chock full of truth for our souls. I pray that you would accomplish your work through these words that you gave Peter to write by your Holy Spirit, and people's lives would be transformed today, that people would be saved and people would be further sanctified for your glory. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.