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Luke 24, verse 44.

“Then He said to them, ‘These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.’”

Well, let’s look to the Lord.

Father, we are thankful again we can come as Your people, we can come and open up our Bibles; and we can cry to You our Father, cry to You our Great High Priest, and even cry out to the Holy Spirit. We ask You to come and bless, take the words that will be sounded from the preacher tonight, and bring them to the hearts and minds of sinners and saints. Show us again, Lord, that Your are the God that hears and answers prayer. Show us, Lord, that You are the God who can save sinners. Shows us, Lord, that You are the God who can deepen our own convictions, and bring us to deeper levels of godliness and holiness. Work in our hearts, Lord. May we never, never be content as to where we are, but may we always strive to become more and more like Your Son. We pray this in His name. Amen.

Luke’s gospel has been called the gospel of amazement. Luke uses at least five different Greek words that could even be translated ‘amazement’ or ‘spellbound’ or ‘astonished,’ but when people saw Jesus, when they heard Jesus that’s what happened. They were amazed; they were spellbound; they were astonished. They had never seen anyone like Him before, and they would never see anyone like Him again. He is one of a kind, and it doesn’t take you all that long to figure that out when you read through Luke’s gospel or any of the other gospels.

Luke’s gospel opens up with the miracle of miracles. He tells us of the virgin birth. In the words of Thomas Goodwin, the Puritan: “When the Son became flesh, heaven and earth met and kissed one another, namely, God and man.” But every time we see Him in action—whether it’s stilling the storm, whether it’s casting out demons, whether it’s walking on water, whether it’s simply listening to His prayers, listening to His servants, or parables—you can’t help but be amazed.

Now, if you read the story as it should be read, after reading all that Jesus said and all that Jesus did, there’s nothing more shocking than this: Jesus was killed. They murdered Him. What makes it even all the more shocking is that those who planned and crafted it were from the upper echelon of both the religious and the civil world. The Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish court, and also the Romans, who had a high sense of justice.

Jesus dies in the worst of ways. He was crucified. Why? What did He do that was wrong? Nothing. He was innocent. He was perfectly innocent. While men meant it for evil, God meant it for good, and God always overrules. He saved sinners while His Son was on that cross. There was an awful descent of darkness, an experience of God’s forsakenness. Then Jesus finally breathes His last breath (Luke 23:46) and within hours He was taken down from that cross and He was buried in a borrowed grave. In Matthew’s gospel we’re told that the tomb was sealed by a huge rock, and guarded by Roman soldiers. The Sabbath Day arrives, and you can well imagine that it was the darkest Sabbath Day ever in the history of mankind.

But this is not the end of the story. Is it?

In fact, this chapter, chapter 24, opens up on a rather somber note, with a few of His disciple friends, women, who are going to that tomb to anoint His dead body. When they get there they hear the most shocking news ever to come into the ears of human beings.

Luke 24, verse 6, “He is not here. He is risen.”

This becomes the Resurrection Day. Later, on that very same day Jesus will make a number of ‘resurrection appearances’ they’re often called. We are told of several of those appearances here in Luke chapter 24, but it will be an unforgettable day. Jesus has conquered the grave.

I want you to notice that Luke continues this story. Here more at the backend of Luke 24, beginning at verse 44 we have something of a summary of several of the days put together, maybe even over a course of weeks, where Jesus speaks to His disciple friends. It’s also possible that these words were spoken of the evening of that very first Resurrection Sunday. But it’s a crucial passage that he brings to the ears of His disciple friends. It is the gospel message. Now, I realize not everyone thinks that the message of the gospel is wonderful good news, but it is. What I want you to hear tonight is that very gospel that Jesus want to bring to sinners.

Notice what our Lord says about the gospel message, at least five things: the basis of the gospel, the focus of the gospel, the demand of the gospel, the promise of the gospel, and the extent of the gospel. So let’s work our way through this passage with those five considerations.

1) The basis of the gospel.

If I asked you to explain the gospel of Jesus Christ from the Bible, where would you take me? What gospel text would you use? Well, there are many gospel texts that you could use, right, that give us a wonderful distillation or a summary of the gospel. I’m sure some would say, “Well, John 3:16.” That’s a wonderful gospel text. I couldn’t agree with you more. And some might say, “I would go to Luke chapter 19, where Jesus says, “The Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost.” Now, that’s another one of those gospel texts. I’m sure some would say, “I would go to the book of Romans, and maybe even start with that great thematic statement of Romans 1:16 where Paul says, ‘I’m not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation.’” Yes, those are wonderful places we could all go to when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ. But I want you to notice where Jesus takes us here in Luke 24.

He doesn’t take us to any of those precious gospel texts. No, when it comes to explaining, expounding, and delineating the gospel Jesus goes to the Old Testament. Know this? What He does here He does it in fact twice. Remember on that road to Emmaus He speaks to those two disciples? Verse 27, “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself.” Then again He opens up the Old Testament Scriptures in verse 44. “All the things that are written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me..” Jesus turns to the Old Testament Bible to explain the gospel, more precisely, “The things concerning Himself.” In other words, the gospel is about Him.

There’s a book titled Jesus On Every Page, and it’s written by Dr. David Murray. It’s about the Old Testament. Jesus On Every Page. Jesus turns to the Old testament to tell His disciples about His suffering, about His resurrection, and even about His Second Coming.

This might surprise you, but everything you would want to know about Jesus—think about that—everything you would want to know about Jesus: the virgin birth; His character; His compassion; His wisdom; His miracles; His office as a Prophet, Priest, and King; His promises; why He came into this world; why He hung on a cross; what happened on that cross; even the very words He spoke from that cross. You can go to your Old Testament Bible. You can learn about the Resurrection from the Old Testament Bible! Yes. To learn even of the love of Christ, or the love of God and gospel forgiveness, we can turn to our Bibles. What am I saying? I’m simply saying this: the message of the gospel is rooted or grounded in the Old Testament.

Now, we shouldn’t forget that when Jesus spoke these words to His disciples and the apostles this was a post-resurrection context. They had been eyewitnesses of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but even though they had firsthand experience or exposure to the resurrected Christ, Jesus doesn’t want them to forget the infallible source: the written Word of God.

Kent Hughes puts it this way:

Jesus did not want them to rest their belief in His resurrection on their personal experience alone, but He wanted them to ground the experience of His life, death, resurrection on the massive testimony of Holy Scripture.

Jesus clearly sets a wonderful example here of how we ought to use and understand our Old Testament Bible. Too often—I don’t know if you’ve heard this, but I’ve heard this when people talk about the Old Testament—they often talk about it in a very negative sort of way. “Well, it’s a book about law.” Some even think that the Old Testament gives us a different picture of God, a bloodthirsty, vengeful God, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Who knew the Bible better than anybody else? Jesus. Who knew the thrice holy God better than anybody else? Who knew the moral law in its absolute sanctities? Who knew all of those judgement stories? Sodom and Gomorra? The Noahic Flood? Those ten plagues that were brought upon Pharaoh of Egypt? When Jesus picks up His Old Testament Bible He says, “Basically it’s about Me. That’s where you’ll find Me: in the Old Testament Scriptures. They testify of Me, My life, My death, My resurrection, and even My future glory.”

Listen brethren, if you only had your Old Testament Bibles, if that’s all you had sitting here tonight, you could still preach the gospel from the book of Genesis, from the book of Exodus, from the Psalms, from Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. While it is true the New Testament contains the full, complete, final disclosure of salvation, Jesus essentially is saying here that the Old Testament Scriptures give you a clear understanding of who He is, and why He came into this world.

If you were to ask Peter—remember Peter—what was the Old Testament all about, he would have said the same. Remember what he does on the Day of Pentecost? What does he do? He preaches his Bible; he preaches from his Old Testament Bible. He preaches from the book of Amos, Psalm 16, Psalm 110.

When the Apostle Paul, the Hebrew of Hebrews, seeks to explain the gospel in Romans chapter 4, who does he reference? He references two Old Testament saints: Abraham and David. In arguing that the same gospel—the gospel of faith alone, Christ alone—it was believed and embraced by David and Abraham.

So, yes, we can say that the basis of the gospel is found in the Old Testament. We have a solid basis for what we believe about the gospel from the Old Testament Scripture.

That’s the first consideration, but now secondly, the essence or the focus of the gospel.

2) The essence of the gospel.

Certainly, one of the most important questions we could ever ask is this: what is the gospel? What is the gospel? Now, you would think that would be a very easy question to answer, especially for Christians, right? It would sort of be like asking a bank-teller what is a dollar bill, or asking an electrician what is a wire stripper, or a carpenter what is a hammer. But there is a lot of confusion today as to what makes the gospel the gospel. If you had one person to ask what makes the gospel the gospel, who would you ask? Well, it would be Jesus, right? Jesus, the Master Preacher, and He tells us here.

I simply want to say this about the gospel, and make it as simply as I can: the gospel is about three persons. Three persons.

The first person is God.

The gospel is about God, a holy God, a just God. When the Apostle Paul opens up the gospel in Romans chapter 1, where does He begin? He begins with God. He begins with a holy God; he begins with a God of justice; he begins with the wrath of God. Yes, the God of the Bible is a thrice holy God, a God of inflexible justice, a God of perfect righteousness, a God who cannot overlook sin. So, you need to understand who God is to understand the gospel.

The second person you need to know and understand if you want to understand the gospel is you have to understand man.

Who is man?

We know that man is made in the image of God, but the Bible also tells us that man is a sinner. So, when it comes to understanding the gospel you have to understand a holy God, but you have to understand that man is a sinner.

What makes man a sinner?

Well, he has defied God. He has rebelled against God. He’s broken His law. Man is all messed up because of sin. He’s messed up psychologically. He has a deceitful heart. He’s messed up relationally. He’s alienated from God. God is not his friend, but his enemy. Man is in rebellion against God.

To understand the gospel, what is the gospel, you have to understand three persons. You have to understand who God is, you have to understand who man is, but the third person you and I need to understand if we are to understand the gospel—we have understand who is Jesus Christ.

The gospel is about Him. He’s the remedy for sin. The remedy for sin is found in a living Person. That explains why the gospel is described the way it is!

Listen to how it’s described.

Mark 1:1, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Romans 1:9, “The gospel of His Son.

2 Corinthians 4:4, “The glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.”

It’s about Jesus Christ! Well, who is He? Jesus tells us right here. He doesn’t tell us everything, but He certainly gives us a good sense of who He is right here. He brings Himself into focus. Notice what He says. One word.

Luke 24:46, “Christ.”

That word ‘Christ’ is a transliteration of the Greek word Christos. It’s the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew messiah. That word messiah was based on a verb that meant ‘to spread a liquid over’, or ‘to anoint.’ One of the liquids that was actually used in the Old Testament when it came to anointing was olive oil. They would actually smear it, they would pour it over people and sometimes even over things. You might remember when Samuel anointed King Saul and later on he anointed David to be king. There was a ceremonial, a symbolic anointing or pouring of oil. Most times, the Old Testament word ‘messiah’ brings into sharp focus ‘king.’ Twenty-eight of the thirty-nine occurrences in the Old Testament, ‘messiah’ refers to ‘king.’ Kings were messiahs; they were anointed.

You’ll also find in the Old Testament priests and prophets were anointed. The Messiah was a chosen Prophet; He was a chosen Priest; He was a chosen King. All of those kings and all of those priests and all of those prophets were little messiahs. They were little christs all pointing to the ultimate Christ: Jesus Himself, the One who would be Anointed—not with olive oil, but with the Holy Spirit.

Think of what happened back in Luke chapter 4 when Jesus arrives in His hometown of Nazareth. You might even turn back and see for yourself. He steps here into a Jewish synagogue, probably the same synagogue He grew up in as a young boy in His hometown of Nazareth. You can image the crowd pretty excited. The famous Preacher, this famous Miracle-worker has come back to His hometown. They were going to hear Him preach a sermon! But they weren’t ready for this, were they? What did Jesus do?

Well, He goes into the Jewish synagogue, He’s handed a long scroll—we don’t know exactly how long they were, some think they were many, many feet long—but He’s handed this long scroll of Isaiah’s chapter 61 and He unrolls it and He begins to read verse 18. Notice what He says in Luke 4, verse 18,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me.”

You see what He’s saying? “I am the Christ. I am the Anointed One. I am the One that has been prophesied. I am the One that has been told and foretold by prophet after prophet.” He’s been given the spirit to equip him for the task to proclaim the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captive, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks the question: “What are the offices of Christ that He executes as our Redeemer?” The answer says, “Our Redeemer executes the office of Prophet, Priest, King.” Three offices He executed. Think about it. We needed someone just that powerful; just that pure; just that holy; just that perfect; just that wise. We needed a Prophet, a Priest, and a King. We needed a Prophet, Priest, and King!

When man fell he lost knowledge of God. We became ignorant; we became blind. We don’t know God! We need Christ the Prophet of prophets to reveal God to us! When man fell he became weak, impotent, without strength, taken captive by the devil under the dominion of sin, man becomes a slave of sin. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot set ourselves free.

We need a King, a powerful King! We need a mighty Conqueror, but we also need a Priest, because we’re defiled, polluted. We need to be cleansed. The Priest, this Priest, not only does He bring a sacrifice, but He sacrifices Himself.

The gospel is about Christ. The Chosen One; the Anointed One. It’s about the Chosen Priest, the Chosen Prophet, the Chosen King.

3) The demand of the gospel.

The basis of the gospel, the focus of the gospel, thirdly, the demand of the gospel.

The gospel begins by telling us what God did, what God accomplished. The gospel isn’t so much about what you and I do, is it? It’s about what God has done.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones called it “The triumphant indicative.” The gospel is the triumphant indicative.

Have you ever heard about the grammar of the New Testament? It’s basically shaped this way: indicatives and then imperatives. But if you read through the first three to four chapters of any one of the Pauline epistles you’ll find indicative after indicative telling us what God had done. In the backend you have imperatives. Imperatives! “This is what you must do.”

What has God done? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son.” That’s an indicative! “Christ died for our sins.” That’s an indicative! “The just for the unjust.” That’s an indicative! He rose from the grave; He conquered death; He reconciled a world to Himself. The gospel is about what God has done, what He accomplished.

Now don’t think that the gospel doesn’t have anything to say to you or to me and tell us what we must do. There are the demands of the gospel, or the imperatives of the gospel.

You must obey the gospel. I remember saying that from the pulpit once, and one of the young men who was a pretty cocky young guy—ended up leaving the church, by the way—he didn’t like the word ‘imperative.’

There are imperatives you must obey. You must obey, and Jesus gives us an imperative here. Notice what He says. It’s one of the commands of the gospel, verse 47,

“And that repentance should be preached.”

That’s not a popular word today, is it? But it’s an indispensable, fundamental word. We can’t forget to tell sinners to repent, because sinners have sin they need to repent of. Jesus says repentance and remission of sin should be preached. It is not optional.

Again, remember Peter when he stood on that Day of Pentecost and he preached Christ? He preached Christ crucified, and told that Christ had risen from the dead.

He told them, “You have put Him to death. He was put to death by lawless hands.”

And they cried out, “What must we do?”

And he says what? “Repent! Repent!”

When Paul confronted the intellectuals on Mars Hill, remember? What did he tell them to do?

“God commands men everywhere, everywhere to repent.”

Jesus is still using His Old Testament Bible, by the way, right? Repentance is found in the Old Testament. The prophets preached a lot about repentance. It carries this idea of turning from evil.

Ezekiel 18, verse 21, “But let the wicked turn from all his sin.”

Ezekiel 18, verse 30, “Repent and turn from all your transgressions.”

The Old Testament prophets preached repentance; John the Baptist preached repentance; and Jesus preached repentance. In fact, there’s no preacher who preached more repentance than Jesus.

Luke chapter 13, “I tell you, unless you repent, you will likewise perish.”

Luke’s gospel really does put a stress upon repentance. Luke chapter 15 as well, where you have that trilogy of parables—the parable of the Lost Son, the Lost Coin, the Lost Sheep—every one of those parables ends on a note of repentance. Jesus says, “I tell you, there will be more joy in Heaven over one sinner that repents than ninety-nine who don’t repent.” Repentance was graphically illustrated, wasn’t it, in that parable of the Prodigal Son. He came home to his father. To come home he had to turn his back; he had to leave; he had to turn away from the pigpens of sin. He has to come home to the father; there had to be a forsaking.

Paul could tell the Ephesians whose pre-conversion lifestyle was dominated by stealing, “Steal no more.” Remember that woman caught in adultery? What did Jesus say to her? “Go and sin no more.” Repentance means you stop sinning. You stop it. You cease, you turn, you forsake sin.

Remember that man who came running to Jesus? The rich, young ruler? He came eagerly seeking to know what would he have to do to inherit eternal life and he asked the question, “What must I do?” Jesus essentially said to him, “You have to repent. Go sell all that you have and give to the poor.” The guy was having a love affair with money, and Jesus said, “If you don’t turn your back on your lover, money or mammon, you cannot have Me as your Saviour.” You must repent; you must turn. That is a crucial imperative. You remember what he did? He walked away sorrowful. It wasn’t the tears of repentance. It was the fact that he didn’t get what he wanted. He wanted to go to Heaven still holding on to his sinful pleasures, and Jesus said you can’t have it both ways.

The gospel demands repentance. It also demands faith. You can’t separate those two things. They’re like Siamese twins. They always come together. A true sinner who trusts Christ will also be a true penitent, and one who turns from sin, who repents, will also look to Jesus Christ by faith. True faith will show itself with real tears of repentance.

The gospel, the greatest message in the world, the message our world so desperately needs. What is the gospel? Well, let Jesus tell us. He gives some of the contours for the gospel right here in Luke 24: its basis, its focus, its demands, but in the fourth place, the fourth thing that we see here is the promise of the gospel or the privilege of the gospel.

4) The privilege of the gospel.

There is a cost factor when it comes to conversion. We have to turn from our sin, but Jesus wants us to understand there’s also a privilege, there’s also blessing, there are gifts. The greatest of gifts are found in the gospel.

One of those gifts He specifies right here. What is it? Look: it is the forgiveness of sin. Now, we could spend a lot of time, couldn’t we, opening up that one blessing of forgiveness. Let me tell you a few little things about forgiveness.

That forgiveness is found in Christ, and it is a full, it is a complete forgiveness. When you believe on Jesus all of your sins are forgiven. There is this once-for-all justification. Every sin is washed away. Every sin is cleansed; every sin is remitted; every sin is forgotten by God. “I will remember them no more.” And there are wonderful pictures, aren’t there, of forgiveness in the Old Testament.

Isaiah gives us some pictures, so does the Psalmist. Think of Psalm 103, verse 12. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” If you start going west and continue to go west, you’ll always go west. They will never meet. When God removes our transgressions there is this infinite distance.

Spurgeon said, “Sin is removed from us by a miracle of love! Yet it is removed so far that the distance is incalculable…So far removed, that there is no scent, there is no trace, there is no memory of it.” It is entirely God. That’s one graphic.

Another graphic is in Isaiah, like I said. He tells us of sin being put in the very back of God, “You have put all my sins behind your back.” It’s almost as if God becomes blind. He can’t see them, but He knows everything! Yes, it’s a picture to let us know what He does with our sin. He can’t see them! You’re forgiven! Grace and mercy has put them behind His back.

Another picture of forgiveness, Micah 7:19, it’s the picture of water in the sea. “I’ve hurled your iniquities into the depths of the sea.” No human person has ever, ever gone to the depths of the ocean. They’re buried down there. Buried! No one can see them! Gone forever. Forgiveness in Christ is total, complete, full.

Isaiah 43 gives us another beautiful graphic. “Even I and He who blots out your transgressions and remembers them no more.” No more; never, never. That’s right. He’ll never bring them up again. When sinners put their hope and trust in Christ, when they abandon themselves, stop trusting themselves, look to Christ and Christ alone, they are forgiven. That perfect, sacrificial Lamb—they take ahold of Him by faith, and He has satisfied the wrath of God. It’s done, and as soon as you look to Jesus, you’re forgiven. Forgiven. “White as snow.”

The gospel, at its very heart, is a gospel of forgiveness. That’s why Christians, even though they can go back to a bad kind of thinking—we’re all recovering Pharisees, by the way, so we have a hard time believing grace and understanding forgiveness—but we don’t have to live under a load of guilt and shame.

You’re accepted in Christ. You know what that means? You have a perfect righteousness. Perfect. Perfect. One hundred percent perfect. It’s like you passed every exam you ever took. You passed! One hundred percent! You have a perfect righteousness. It’s staggering when you really begin to think about it, and again, it didn’t cost you a penny. It’s free. Free forgiveness freely offered in the gospel.

That’s the message that Jesus wants us to bring. That’s what He’s telling His first disciples, “Bring this message to the world.” Can you think of a most wonderful message? Can you think of a more thrilling message than the gospel message? You can receive eternal life. You can be forgiven of all your sins. You can be set free from guilt and shame because of what Jesus Christ accomplished. The basis of the gospel; the essence of the gospel; the demand of the gospel; the privilege of the gospel; but notice the fifth point here in Luke chapter 24.

5) The extent of the gospel.

Jesus has one more thing to tell us about the message we call ‘the gospel,’ and I put it this way: the extent of the gospel. Notice how far Jesus wants us or one of them to take the message.

Verse 47, “That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name..”

Where? To whom? You see it?

“To all nations.”

All nations. That means every tribe. Every kindred. Every nation. It doesn’t matter where you go in the world. The gospel is for them. It’s offered to them freely! It doesn’t matter what color of skin they have—black, yellow, red—it doesn’t matter! It’s a gospel for the world! Even that is in the Old Testament. You see, Jesus is still using His Old Testament Bible.

Remember the promise given to Abraham? “I will bless you so that you will be a blessing; by you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:2.)

Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 8, “That all the people may know Your name.”

The Old Testament is full of prophecy that the gospel will be a gospel for the Gentiles. Jonah takes the gospel to the Ninevites. You might remember back in Luke chapter 2, the very first thing said about Jesus in terms of the birth narrative. We’re told that, “He will be a light to the Gentiles.” To the Gentiles. You remember Jesus in Luke chapter 4? Again, that’s really what got those Jewish people in that hometown of His so upset, because that’s really what Jesus was saying: that this gospel was for the world. He told them the story of Elijah who went to that Gentile woman, remember, living there in Zarephath, and Elisha who went to that Syrian general named Naaman. They were Gentiles! Jesus is saying that the gospel is for Gentiles. God has mercy upon Gentiles!

Even again we see that coming through, don’t we, in the New Testament, when the gospel is actually preached. It’s a gospel that Paul brings to the Gentile world.

If you’re a Christian, then you are a penitent, right? You’re a believer, and you know the gospel, the gospel that Jesus gave to you—maybe it was your father, maybe it was your mother, maybe it was your brother, maybe it was your pastor—but you received the gospel. Our good friend Matthew Henry put it this way, “Penitence should be preachers.” That’s right. You should be preachers, not in the formal sense of the word, but proclaimers.

When we come to the Lord’s table everybody becomes a preacher, right? You’ve done it before. We proclaim His death until He comes. Are you telling others about Christ? I know some of us find it easier, some of us are more extrovertish, but are you praying to that end?

You look again into the book of Acts and it’s obvious Peter, who heard these words from Jesus, got the message, because Peter follows the words of our Lord right to the T. Doesn’t he? On that Day of Pentecost he preaches Christ; he preaches Christ from his Old Testament Bible; he preaches repentance. He also ends his sermon on a note of grace, offering them the promise of forgiveness: “Whoever believes on Him shall receive remission of sins.” Again, we have a wonderful message. We are witnesses. No, we’re not the eyewitnesses that the Apostles were, but we are earwitnesses.

Is there anything more urgent on your agenda than this? Is it more urgent than buying a home? I don’t think so. Is it more urgent than getting married? I don’t think so. Is it more urgent than graduating from high school, college? No. Is it more urgent than getting that job you’ve always wanted? No.

Can I remind you why that message of the gospel is such an urgent message? Will you listen to me for another five minutes? I’ll give you four reasons why we need to bring this gospel to the world. It’s urgent.

1. It’s urgent in light of the exclusivity of the gospel.

That means there’s only one gospel. There’s only one gospel that saves. It’s the Jesus-only gospel. “There’s no other name under heaven by which men will be saved.” Jesus is the only Saviour. Men cannot save themselves!

You know the word that B.B. Warfield—who was at one point in time called “The Greatest American Theologian”—you know the word he used to remind sinners that they can’t save themselves? It was the word ‘autosoterism.’ Self-salvation. You can’t save yourself. He said essentially there’s only two kinds of religion: autosoterism (self-salvation) or supernaturalism (salvation by Christ).

There’s only one Person who can save sinners, and that’s Christ. Sinners need Him. They need the whole Christ. They need the Prophet, the Priest, and the King, or they will be lost forever. So the exclusivity of Christ; the man’s urgency.

2. It’s urgent in light of the mortality of man.

The mortality of man demands urgency. We are dying creatures! Just get up in the morning when you reach 45 to 50 and it seems you see a new wrinkle every day. It’s a reminder that you’re going to a grave. We’re all dying! Just go up the road a block here, and what do you meet? A cemetery. What’s that for? Dead people. We’re all going to die.

“Three score and ten; fourscore by reason of strength,” maybe you get eighty at the most. We’re going to die. Every three second someone dies! So you’ve got to tell them the gospel. They need to hear the gospel. Who can tell them better than you? You’re witnesses. There’s only one way to be prepared to meet God, and that’s by being found in Jesus Christ.

The gospel is an urgent message. Why is it so urgent? The exclusivity of Jesus or the gospel; the mortality of man; but you know why else it’s so urgent? In light of the reality of Hell.

3. It’s urgent in light of the reality of Hell.

Jesus—you’ve probably been told by your pastors many times over—preached more about Hell than He did Heaven. He described it in some very frightening terms.

Jesus used the words, “Their worm diest not.” Jesus said, “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Jesus said, “It’s a place of utter darkness.” Jesus said, “It’s a place of eternal fire.”

It’s a reality, and all of those pictures, all those graphics that Jesus gives us points to that awful reality of pain and suffering. Certainly one of the most frightening things about Hell is that it is forever. You can’t get out!

Jonathan Edwards wrote, “It’s for a million of ages, and after you have worn out the age of the sun and the moon and the stars, you’ve only just begun.” Again, there’s no hope of deliverance; there’s no purgatory.

One more reason why we need to bring the gospel to the world, why it’s so urgent, brethren, is not only the exclusivity of the gospel, the mortality of man, the eternity of Hell, but also the responsibility of disciples.

4. It’s urgent in light of the responsibilities of disciples.

We were given a task, and Jesus uses the word, “Go.” It’s an urgent word. “Go.” There’s unconverted people out there. They need to hear the gospel. There are people you are conversing with every day of your life who don’t know Christ! You’re rubbing shoulders with them; you’re having coffee with them; you’re talking about sports with them; you’re talking about weather with them; but they don’t know Christ! Maybe they are children; maybe it’s your son, your daughter; maybe it’s your grandfather, your grandmother; maybe it’s your next-door neighbor; maybe it’s the guy at work.

Jesus says, “You are My witnesses.” You’ve heard the gospel. You’ve embraced the gospel. You’ve seen the Living Christ. You know He’s the crucified One; He’s the One who rose from the dead; He’s the One who ascended to Heaven. You know the Christ, and surely, brethren, we want others to know the Christ, right? To taste the forgiveness that we’ve tasted; to have the peace with God that we have.

Can we not, can your pastors not, can I not say this: at least, can’t we be more prayerful? Can’t we be more zealous? Can’t we be more bold? Can’t we be more loving? Can’t we be more opportunistic?

We have the message. There’s only one message. It’s the message the world oh so desperately needs. It’s the only message that can save men from the wrath of God and from Hell and from the enslavement of sin. It’s the gospel message. It’s the message that calls men to repent and to turn to Jesus by faith.

If one sinner does it—think about this—Heaven rejoices. There’s a party time in Heaven. Heaven rejoices. God is a happy God, but He even gets happier, you could say, when sinners repent. Just one sinner repents, and angels rejoice.

Let’s proclaim the gospel.

Let’s pray.

O Father in Heaven, we again thank You for Your Word, for its clarity, but also, Lord, let us feel the impress of its authority upon our minds and consciences. Help us, Lord, to be more faithful. Help us to be more prayerful. Help us, Lord, to show more love towards our neighbor. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.

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