What is the gospel?

Transcript

Hey, my name is Jonathan Parnell. I'm the lead pastor here at Cities Church.

If you were to visit our church on a Sunday, or if you were to check out our website like you're doing now, the main thing that we want you to know is that Jesus is real and he saves sinners.

That's the main thing that we're about. That's the very heart of what we're about as a church, and so that's what we want you to know. And so, I want to take a minute and I want to tell you that as clearly as I can.

1) You are a sinner.

You were created as a human in the image and likeness of God, and you have the dignity of being a human, but you have rebelled against God. All of us, as humans, are sinners who have rebelled against God.

We have forsaken God, and we have tried to find our meaning and our joy in other things. We have worshipped other things that are lesser than God, and this is a great evil.

We deserve God's judgment because of our sin. That is true of every human to ever live – except for one, and his name is Jesus Christ.

2) Who is Jesus?

Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who God sent into the world to save the world.

In his first promise to Adam and Eve way back in Genesis Chapter 3, God promised that he would send a Savior. God promised Abraham that he would have an offspring through whom the entire world would be blessed. God promised King David that he would have a Son who would reign as king forever.

All throughout the Old Testament, we see there's this hope for a Messiah who would come and he came. Jesus came.

Jesus Christ came to this earth, and he became a human, and he walked in our shoes. He experienced every temptation that we have experienced, except Jesus was without sin. He never sinned. Jesus was perfect and he was faithful all the way, all the time.

3) The Cross

Yet, though perfect and though faithful, he went to the cross to die in our place, to die for our sins. Jesus took upon himself our sins, our guilt, our shame, all of that. He took it upon himself as if it were his and he suffered the punishment from God that we deserve.

That's what it means when we say Jesus died in our place, he took the punishment we deserved. He was dead, he was buried but then on the third day, God the Father raised Jesus from the dead.

And being raised from the dead, Jesus ascended, and he is seated right now at the Father's right hand and he is reigning as the Lord of all.

And as the Lord of all – as the sovereign Lord – Jesus has sent his Holy Spirit to inhabit everyone who trusts in him, and to accompany the message of this gospel that I'm sharing with you right now. Which means that right now, as you hear the message of this gospel, as you hear the good news of Jesus right now, you can turn from your sin, you can put your faith in Jesus and you can be forgiven.

You can become a son or daughter of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Turn from your sin, turn from trusting in your idols, and hope solely in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That is the gospel and that's what we're mainly about.