Have You Obeyed the Gospel?

Introduction Personal work  Begins with contacts and acquaintances  Becomes service and friendship  Leads to discussions about faith Last lesson, we looked at some conversation starters  Now where do we go from there?

Introducing the Church As the conversations about faith begin, introduce the church  “Church” is your fellow-believers, not the building One person is a good example, a group of believers is a powerful demonstration John 13:34-35; 17:20-21  Include other Christians in your social / recreational activities with your friend A dinner that includes a Christian or two Not “let’s gang up on the unbeliever” Let them see the love and unity of believers  May lead to some new or further home Bible studies But don’t force the issue, let it grow naturally

The Invitation Eventually, either through home Bible studies, the correspondence courses, or casual discussions  You will realize your friend has all the information necessary to become a Christian  You may start wondering why they don't act on what they know  You may need to invite them to take action Some will be like the Ethiopian eunuch and leap forward to action (Acts 8) Others will be like those on Pentecost who asked “What shall we do?” (Acts 2) Others will be like Saul, waiting for someone to tell them what the next step is (Acts 22)

Have You Obeyed the Gospel? A question you can bring up at any time  Bring it up early as another way of starting the conversation  Bring it up in the middle to provoke a more serious study or to bring the studies back to salvation  Bring it up later, to focus on putting all the information together and seeing the next step From this point forward in this lesson, imagine you are your friend (I will be you)  Let me ask you a question

Have You Obeyed the Gospel? 2 Thes 1:7-8  God is going to take vengeance on those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel So, have you obeyed the gospel? Before you can answer that question, you need to know what “the gospel” is?

The Gospel We use that word in many different ways  Webster's has seven different definitions From “a message about Christ”, to “what someone believes is true”, to “the first four books of the New Testament”, to a kind of religious music The word “gospel” is a middle English word from around 1000 AD, meaning “good news”  Why? Because the Greek word in the New Testament means “good news” But that should make you wonder, “What is the good news?” and “How can you obey good news?”

The Gospel 1 Cor 15:1-2  Paul says he is going to declare the good news, the gospel, “by which also you are saved” Great! We know it must be the same gospel he mentioned in 2 Thessalonians which we must obey  Now, let's read the gospel 1 Cor 15:3-4  Probably a lot shorter than you imagined  The gospel (the good news) is that Christ died for your sins, was buried, and arose By extension, we refer to the story of how the gospel happened as the gospel (Mk1:1)

Obeying the Gospel We know what the gospel is, but what do we do with it? Romans 1:15-16  The gospel is “the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” The gospel must first be believed  Obviously, it must be preached and heard so that it can be believed (Rom 10:14-17) Once believed, the gospel ”is the power of God to salvation”  It does not say, they are then saved  Just as Jn 1:10-13, those who believed were given the “right” (NKJV) or “power” (KJV) “to become children of God” The gospel is the power, but how can we use the power or obey the gospel?

Obeying the Gospel The gospel was a historical series of events  The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ  How can we “obey the gospel”? How do you obey a series of historical events? Rom 6:1-11  We are “dead to sin”, our old man “crucified with Him”, “dead with Christ”  We are “buried with Him by baptism into death”, “we have been planted (KJV) united (NKJV) together in the likeness of His death”  “...as Christ was raised from the dead … we also should walk in newness of life”, “we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection”

Obeying the Gospel Col 2:11-14  “putting off the body of the sins of the flesh”  “buried with Him in baptism”  “ raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead” Death, burial, and resurrection  Is that how people who believed the gospel obeyed the gospel?

Obeying the Gospel Acts 2:36-41  They believed (v37)  They were told to repent (a death to sin) and be baptized (burial in water / raised from the water) for forgiveness of sins (v38)  They were not yet saved (v40)  They were baptized (v41)  They were being saved (v47)

Obeying the Gospel Acts 8:30-39  He was reading a prophecy of the gospel  Philip preached Jesus, the fulfillment of the prophecy through His death, burial, and resurrection  He asked to be baptized  He confessed his belief  He went down into the water and was baptized  And he came up out of the water and went his way rejoicing

Obeying the Gospel Acts 22:6-16  He was confronted with the truth of the gospel  He was told he would be told what he needed to do  He was told to “Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord”

Conclusion They heard the gospel, believed it, they were told to repent (dying to sin), they were baptized (buried with Christ), and they arose (with Him) to a new life  They obeyed the gospel and were saved 1 Pet 3:20-22  2 Thes 1:7-8 Have you obeyed the gospel?