Of First Importance

1 Corinthians 15:1-6a

29^th April 2022

Last time, I wrote briefly about the two - and only two - sacraments given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. These sacraments are Baptism and The Lord's Supper, sometimes called Communion or the Breaking of Bread. As I said then, these are given to us, and commanded, because they are means of grace to us; they do us good. They both speak about what is of first importance: that Christ died for us, and that, because Christ died for us and rose again, we can live a new life, in the love and power of God, though the Holy Spirit.

This week, let's look more deeply at what is of first importance.

Paul said:

1 Corinthians 15:1-6a
Now, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time...

I pray that not one of my readers will miss the salvation that God offers us through Jesus Christ. Paul makes it clear that, if you believe what we call the Gospel, you are saved, and if you don't, then all your church attendance, and all the good things you've done, will not be enough to save you. You will not truly know God in this life, and you will not stand on the Day of Judgement.

The Gospel - the Good News - the best news in the world - is that, as Paul says, Christ died for our sins. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on the cross because the price for your sins, and for mine, must be paid. God is just. Justice will be done. Somebody must pay the due penalty for the things you and I have done wrong. Jesus died to pay for your sins. If you believe this, then you will be forgiven for all your sins. If you don't believe this, you will pay for your sins yourself. There is no third option.

If you don't know that you've done bad things, or if you won't admit it to yourself, then you can't become a Christian. If you will admit to God that you've done bad things, and accept Jesus Christ's offer to pay the price for those things, then you can. A Christian is not somebody who goes to church, or who reads the Bible, or who tries to be good. A Christian is somebody who believes that Jesus has paid for his sins. God promises to forgive everybody who repents and believes in the power of the sacrificial death of Jesus.

By His death, Jesus paid the price to wash you free from all guilt, to give you a fresh start, to make you a new person, to give you a new heart. Is that what you want?

You have the choice. You can stay as you are. You can be eaten up by your guilt, or you can pretend you're a good person who never hurt anybody. You can slowly decay, physically, mentally, morally, spiritually, and you can burn in hell, if that's your choice. Or you can admit that you need forgiveness, and you can accept God's gracious offer to receive Christ's death in the place of your own. Then you will be born again. You will become a new person, free, eternal, a child of God, and will be slowly made holy, pure, gentle and kind. It's your choice.

As Paul says, Jesus was raised on the third day. Having done all that's necessary for you to have a new start, to be clean, to be made loving and good, He rose again from the dead. He conquered sin. He conquered death.

If you can believe that Jesus rose from the dead - and He did - then you know that with God anything is possible. God can transform your life, if you'll let Him do it.

You have a choice. You can hold on to your sins. You might enjoy some of them. You can hold on to the unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, resentment, hopelessness. You can try to fix yourself and your circumstances. Or you can give it all to God, and let Him sort it all out. Have you realised yet that God is much, much better at sorting things out than you are? Have you learnt to trust Him? He can fix anything, including the human heart, if you'll give Him all the pieces.

Paul knew that all this is true because, after His Resurrection, Jesus appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. Paul knew those men, and he trusted their word. He knew they wouldn't live the way they did, and suffer persecution as they did, if they weren't certain the Gospel is true. And He knew because the risen Jesus also appeared to him, in the famous encounter on the road to Damascus.

And, when he'd thought it through, Paul knew it was true because all this happened in accordance with the Scriptures. Once Paul met Jesus, the Bible began to make sense to Him, as many Christians have found. Paul could see that all the Old Testament was looking forward to the coming of Jesus, and His sacrifice on the cross. He could see that those ancient books told a consistent, coherent story, and that they predicted what happened centuries later, that Jesus is the true Messiah, sent from God to set us free.

And Paul knew it was true because, when he accepted that Jesus is Lord and Saviour, the Holy Spirit came to him, as He comes to all who accept Jesus, to begin the work of changing us from the inside out.

When Paul understood that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, that Jesus died to pay for His sins and rose again to defeat sin and death, it changed his life. It's changed the lives of many millions of people for 2,000 years. And it can change your life.

Do you want an encounter with Jesus? Do you want Him to reveal Himself to you? Do you want Him to send the Holy Spirit to touch you heart? Ask Him! Your experiences of God will be different from Paul's, and from mine. God treats us all as individuals. But God will give you what you want, although not necessarily in the way you expect. If you genuinely want to meet Jesus, and if you ask Him, then it will happen. Paul said:

Romans 10:9
if you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Saved! Saved from guilt! Saved from sin! Saved from death! Saved from yourself. Saved from moral decay. Saved from bitterness and despair. Saved so you can experience real life, God's life. Saved so you can be filled with God's Holy Spirit! Saved so you can know real joy, real peace, real love, real power - real life! Accept no imitation.

Like I said, I wanted to remind you of what's of first importance. That's what I've tried to do. Please, please, think about it. We talk about all sorts of things here, but the bedrock of Christian faith is the reality, and the meaning, of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

You have this choice: the choice to accept Jesus and all He's done for you, to let Him be your Saviour and your leader, and your doctor, and your counsellor, and your redeemer, to be the answer to every question, the solution to every problem, or to reject Him. You have the choice to work with God instead of against Him, or to ignore Jesus's redeeming sacrifice, to go your own way, and decay and die.

And if you've already made this decision, the most important decision anybody can ever make, then please let nothing deflect you from serving the wonderful God who has saved you, adopted you as His child, and given you His Holy Spirit. Please do all you can to help your local church to thrive and to get the Gospel of peace, the Gospel of life, the Gospel of hope, the Gospel of Jesus, to as many people as possible. Please be an active member of that community of God's redeemed people. Let your church be a beacon of truth, love and hope to a nation that really needs truth, love and hope.

As Paul also said:

Romans 12:1-2a
… I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God — this is your true and proper worship.