What is the Gospel? week 4

What is the point: The Gospel-what it means-your points; in community

Open with prayer:

Tim Keller: “The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”

Our goal in this 4-week lunch study is to make fresh our view of what the gospel is

Our focus this week … the death and resurrection of Jesus, and critically our response to it

‘Follow’

1 Corinthians 15 v 1-4

1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

1 Corinthians 15 v 14-19

14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

IN SMALL GROUPS

What do these passages say about the gospel and the importance of the resurrection?

Take a fresh look at your definition of the ‘gospel’: think about how you would rewrite this as an ‘objective’ through God’s eyes.

Significant events demand a response – what is yours?

‘A gift’

follow

IN SMALL GROUPS

What are your experiences of sharing the gospel, good and bad? Has anyone been surprised that you’d not done so before? Do Penn’s comments make you think any differently about sharing your faith?

Take a fresh look at your response: if you were to describe your response to the gospel as an objective what would you put down? What holds you back from achieving this? What would help you achieve it?