I am afraid that sometimes we fail to preach the full story of the gospel. We focus on Christ’s death for sin (as we should) but we sometimes neglect the primary emphasis of gospel presentations in the Book of Acts – the victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ and his exaltation as Lord of all! We need to proclaim both the substitutionary death and the glorious resurrection of Christ.
Here is a message I preached August 19, 2012 at Southern Hills Baptist Church, if anyone is interested. A couple of things:
1) The video and audio get crossways about halfway through the sermon, so the video and the sound are not in sync. Annoying, I know.
2) Remember that the camera adds 125 pounds.
I had this set to post when I had nothing ready to go. Then, I got deluged, so I kicked it back till Saturday. Enjoy it if you’d like.
Dave,
Before I listen to the video, I want to clarify your #2 statement. How many cameras do you have on you? 🙂
Point to Mr. Rogers.
And you, sir, are a liberal.
That is funny, Tim!
Dave, I have not watched the video yet, but Scot McKnight in King Jesus Gospel has some really interesting ideas about making sure that we recognize that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel – that in seeing him as Savior, we do not forget how 1st century Jews would have seen him as their Messiah. He says that the Plan of Salvation is not the Gospel – at least not the totality of it. He says that it is central to it, but the Good News of Jesus Christ – the Gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus preached – is far more all-encompassing than just how to get saved or how to go to heaven when you die. I have been exploring this for years and there is a way to see it that protects justification by faith alone as key, but also brings in these other aspects of the Lordship of Christ as the direct implication of the Gospel.
‘Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven’
. . . . the kingdom of heaven that Jesus preaches is both present and future, both something which has already begun, but is not yet complete
Alan, I’m glad you said this.
At this point, I *have* seen the video. Excellent. To add to Dave”s message, and what Alan said, I’ve been finding the implications of Rom 8:29,30 to lead this way, too (and even though the word ‘predestination’ appears here, I think it’s a mistake to read these verses from a Calvinist vs Arminian frame of thought. The logic (which I’m not going to get entirely into here) works the same from either viewpoint, and trying to pry Calvinism or Arminianism from it will likely mean you miss what’s being said in the verses).
I find it interesting that the primary “target” of predestination in verse 29 is not getting saved, or getting to heaven, it’s being conformed to the image of Christ. We usually think of the primary “purpose” of predestination as getting us saved and into heaven, but here it’s not – it’s God having a people conformed to the image of His son. Verse 29 follows on to say that those He predestined (to be conformed to the image of His Son) he also justified (being saved) and glorified (going to heaven). We tend to think of the latter two as being the primary goal, but they’re not. Being conformed to the image of Christ is the engine of this train, getting saved and going to heaven are, so to speak, cars being pulled by the train. They’re necessary to it, but they aren’t the end goal.
And the way that this logically links with verse 28 (which we all like to quote) indicates to me that the ”good” in verse 28 is essentially getting us closer to comformity with the image of Christ(instead of what we want to think – a comfortable lifestyle, etc, etc.). That work won’t be complete until heaven, but God doesn’t intend that it be entirely deferred until heaven. It’s still God that’s doing it, not us.
Seeing salvation and heaven as the end game makes the Gospel self-centered – it focuses on what we get out of the deal. Seeing conformity to Christ as the endgame, less so, and I think, helps to focus back on the issue of Christ as Lord.
Thanks Dave,
I agree the message of the resurrection of Christ is essential to the message of the Gospel. It drives me crazy when people neglect that element and then claim to be preaching the Gospel.