1 Corinthians 15:1-11 “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.”
This last Sunday, pastor Kyle continued in our church’s sermon series through the first Pauline Epistle to the Christian church in Corinth, stating that the fifteenth chapter begin with the Apostle saying: “I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel.” Reminders can be very helpful since we as human beings can be so prone to forget. And, we all have people in our lives that are so good at reminding us of important things that we need to keep in mind. And thank God for those little reminders that the Holy Spirit gives us to stay on track in our Christian life, but the reminder we need the most every day is the one that gets dumped at the bottom of our list in our busy lives; the reminder of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Christian life centers around the Gospel reality and life-changing and empowering message in a person’s life. When the centrality of our life is based around the truth of the Gospel, then everything else falls into place.
When a person repents of sin, accepts Jesus as Savior and Lord, and believes by faith that Christ rose from the dead on the third day, ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, interceding for us until He come again for them, God steps in to transform them from the inside out. The power of the Gospel is obvious, but if we are not intentional then the significance of the gospel in our daily lives slips into the background, instead of the forefront, by familiarity, distracting interests and busyness, which compete for our attention and obscure the view of the Gospel foundation and truth. We need to remind ourselves of the Gospel, be reminded of the Gospel, and remind one another of the power of the Gospel.
Pastor Kyle highlighted four important reasons that we need frequent Gospel reminders. The first one is (1) Gospel reminders help us keep the Good News refreshed; to give new strength to; to invigorate; to relieve after fatigue; To revive; to reanimate after depression; to cheer; to enliven. The Gospel in which you received, in which you stand does not expire or go out of date, but what we have to do is refresh the Gospel in our hearts and lives. It is not nefarious, but because of our fallen nature and our finite human capacity, we quickly forget whatever is that we fail to keep refreshed in our minds.
Every Christian has to work hard to keep the Gospel and the Word of God fresh in their mind and heart. Do you remember all the information that you were diligently taught in High School, College or in occupations that you no longer work, or people, places and event details from long ago? The details fad quickly, but when someone reminds you of those details, it refreshes your memory. But, the fact is that we have to fight and work to keep the Good News fresh in our minds, just like everyone else or else it becomes part of the foggy and distant past in our life. There are few topics in our lives that we are going to stay locked in our mind, that we can pick up without even thinking about and we can expect to have right there at the forefront of our minds. We need to receive reminders and to remind ourselves, while growing beyond what we know and continue to expand our knowledge. No one can coast on past success or past knowledge; we need to keep ourselves refreshed, reminding ourselves of the Gospel in our heart, mind and soul.
Let's continue PAstor Kyle's message on Gospel Reminders in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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