The Gospel Is the Reason to Go to Church

I have posted in response at my blog, here: http://www.hantla.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=110

What are the elementary principles and teachings that we are not to again lay the foundation for?

Thanks
mike

I don't know if I can say for sure what those may be, but I don't think Heb. 6 conflicts with what I've said. Sure, the author of Hebrews is exhorting readers to press on to maturity, but if Paul had thought the best way to do this was to stop teaching the Gospel, he wouldn't have said he desired to know nothing among the Corinthians except "Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2).

Again, when I say "preach the Gospel," I don't mean repeating verbatim the Four Spiritual Laws each time you preach. I mean that the Gospel (the good news of the grace of God in Jesus Christ) has innumerable facets applicable to every area of life, and each text of Scripture ought to be refocused in light of who Jesus is and what he has done for us.

There is a basic understanding of the Son of God dying for our sins to reconcile us to God that can be taught to someone in a few weeks, and once you're a Christian who understands this, there should be no need to repeatedly convince you that it is true (except if you're struggling with assurance of salvation). It's the application of that truth to every area of life that the Gospel preacher must do.

Just as the sinner's despair of any hope from himself is the first prerequisite of a sound conversion, so the loss of all confidence in himself is the first essential in the believer's growth in grace. - A.W. PINK

To embody the gospel as God's people we can never look to our own spirituality but rather to the righteousness of Christ. As soon as we are tempted to think that there is anthing else in us in us that recommends us to God then we are forgetting the gospel. That is why the Lord has us continue to take the Lord's supper "till he come". It is a visible gospel which points to what Christ has accomplished for us (even as believers), not what we have done for him. We come to the table only as sinners.

If anyone thinks that now that they believe the gospel they have already arrived ... then what need have they of the table or Christ? What qualifies us to approach the table is that we continually admit our need because of our sinfulness. If you are already without sin (an impossible supposition) then you have no more need of a Savior. But we can neither attain nor maintain our justification before God. It is not what our hands have done ...NOR will do that makes us right with God, but only Christ.

Eric is pointing out a timeless truth that unless the gospel is continually preached to Christians, pride will sneak in corrupting our continual need of Christ. Christians are also susceptible to wanting autonomy ...so anyone who says that gospel is "elementary truth" that we need to move on from is in effect saying that Christ is something we grow out of which is absurd, of course.

Christians must continually repent of their bad and good works...that is, trusting in them. Christ alone from beginning to end us our righteousness. The fact that we still sin as Christians is a reminder that we need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day.

Wow! You've really challenged me to look at Sunday morning services a different way. My conviction of late has been that services are becoming more and more for the unsaved...and the saved are not getting the meat. While this is most times true...your post served as a warning to me to not lose the point...THE GOSPEL!

Thanks for the refreshing reminder!

A book that was very helpful to me on this whole topic is Christ Centered Preaching by Bryan Chapell. If you can get your hands on a copy, I would recommend that you glance through it.

http://www.monergismbooks.com/christcentered985.html

Also Graeme Goldsworthy's Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture. But you're right—Chapell's probably the best I've read on this.

I should note that I was not necessarily disagreeing with you. In fact, I do think that if most every message does not in some way drive us to Jesus then we are failing.
My only concern is that it does seem that 'Church' is becoming more and more about the unbelievers rather than equipping the saints. One of the things I enjoyed about your article was the Gospel being proclaimed to and for the benefit of the Saints.

Thanks a lot,
mike

In response to mike, the “elementary teachings” of Hebrews 6:1 refer to, re John Owen, the contrast between the Aaronical priesthood and Christ’s priesthood. The laying aside is not to be taken as absolute but as applying to the present occasion, that is, that point in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

As to Eric’s original post, “Right on!” All of Scripture is to be taught as the Gospel, fully orbed. This is not a particularly good example because it is so obvious, but my Sunday morning Bible study class has spent weeks (19) working through the Romans 1-6 (and this has been much too quick). In every section we are confronted with God’s nature, man’s nature, grace, and so forth. For the believer the Gospel benefits pour off every page of Scripture. What encouragement in this life and hope for the age to come.
Speaking humanly, what more could we say that would whet the unbeliever’s appetite for salvation? Would that all preachers put aside the purpose-driven life, or experiencing God, or other man-centered “gospels” and fully exposit the Gospel.

I really don't agree with Gospel being the main reason for us to go to church. I know that we are saved by the Gospel / Jesus' blood. The reason I believe is more important is fellowship with our brothers and sisters.

Our church is coming with the concept of G-Cube. It has 3 important G's that we are trying to follow. The first G is gathering where we gather at church once or twice a week and worship together. The second G is growing. Growing environment happens in house churches / small groups and discipleship groups. We have quad groups which are the discipleship groups. The last G is going. We are encouraged to go out of our comfort zone to preach the Gospel to the unsaved.

My whole point is that the Gospel is the reason we are here and church is for fellowship and worshipping the Lord together.

Abs: First let me apologize if I misled anyone into thinking that fellowship and worship are not reasons to go to church. I just wanted to say that the primary reason is to hear the Gospel.

Sunday mornings are usually the only chance people have to hear the Gospel explained to them by someone older and wiser (i.e., an Elder). Throughout the week there are many chances for one to fellowship with other Christians, and one's whole life ought to be worship (Rom. 12:1). Indeed, a big problem with today's church culture is that it doesn't acknowledge the sermon part of the service as worship, though it really is.

Also, the Gospel drives and motivates healthy fellowship and worship. If you're a Piper fan, you know that worship is a heart/soul/mind response to the Gospel. And fellowship is Christian if it overcomes boundaries that only the Gospel can overcome—otherwise, we're just hanging out with people we like, "just like the Gentiles do."

The Gospel has been the historic focus of the church in worship on Sunday mornings, as well. Our church's liturgy (based on historic liturgies) has two main parts: The Word, and The Table (hearing the Gospel and participating in it). Both parts include singing, which is worship. But everywhere—in the Scripture readings, prayers, sermon, singing, even the offering—the Gospel is the heart of what we're doing and why we're doing it. I would just say that it's especially true of the sermon, since it is the direct proclamation of the Gospel to the congregation.

Unless we are energized by hearing the Gospel preached weekly, we will not properly be able to fellowship with God or one another, our worship will not be full and true, our lives will be empty as we go out into the world, and our evangelism will not be motivated by a properly humble and earnest desire for the good of others.

Abs, you have raised a legitimate issue: fellowship is a vital part of what constitutes our gathering together as a church. I think it might be helpful for you to give some serious consideration and study now to what the scriptural idea of fellowship really is. It is not just being together and interacting. It implies a common foundation, reality, and goal, a partnership in which we are striving together. And the only ground for christian fellowship is the gospel. The advance of the gospel is why we're partnering together in missions as a church. The blessings of the gospel are why we rejoice and worship together in fellowship as a church. The deeper knowledge of the gospel is why we partner together to seek the mutual growth and edification of one another as a church. And really, the ultimate reality of the gospel is that, through it, we have fellowship with God, and hence fellowship with one another. So fellowship is indeed essential to the church, but that fellowship is indissolubly related to the nature of the gospel.

If you do feel that it would be beneficial to study the biblical concept of fellowship, I would suggest that you begin with First John chapter one for a doctrinal analysis, together with Acts chapter two for a practical outworking of the doctrine, i.e. what it actually looks like in the life of the church. I'm already learning from the things you've brought up, and I know I would benefit greatly by hearing the results of such a study, if the Spirit should so direct you.

I once tried to work out what it was that can be considered the "elementary principles".

The fact is that the Gospel is both simple and complex. It is simple enough for a child to understand, but complex enough to cause confusion amongst its students.

To me, the gospel is like a tapestry. Everyone, even a child, can understand the simple message that the entire tapestry portrays.

Theologians, however, are also interested in how the tapestry was made. They examine how each strand was woven together and how it fits into the entire picture.

Justification by faith, regeneration, adoption, forgiveness, justice, repentance, calling, the substitutionary atonement - all these things are biblical, all these things can be quite difficult to understand, but all these things make up the Gospel.

So if I were to make a simple Gospel proclamation every Sunday, God would certainly use it, but it would not be good at deepening the spiritual life of the listeners. Instead, it is better to preach, in detail, one of the aspects of the gospel (mentioned above), and then relate it back to the simple Gospel we believe in.

And, of course, the way to work out which aspect of the gospel to preach on is through systematic expository preaching. As the preacher explains and applies a specific section of scripture, he will naturally bring out the Gospel - after all, all parts of scripture need to be kept in their Gospel context.

So, on the one hand, we need to remind our congregations that the Gospel is both simple and essential, while at the same time explaining in detail the aspects of the Gospel that God has revealed to us in the scriptures.

Excellent comments! In response to the main article, I am one of those who has been anxious about the pastor leaving (I go to Eric's church), because I never heard the Gospel preached like this before. I don't mean the witiness, I mean the Gospel for Christians as well as non-Christians. I found this article most reassuring!