The next thing we notice in our two scriptures is that the Gospel is an event which has already taken place. When the Apostles preached the Gospel they pointed their listeners back to an event which had happened in History. They did not point to present or future events but rather to that which God had already done in Christ in history.

In Acts 2:22-24 they preached the past event of the life death and resurrection of Christ.

In Acts 2:25-32 they preached the past event of the resurrection.

In Acts 2:33 they preached the exaltation of Christ because of the past event of the Gospel. As a result of this exaltation the Spirit was sent forth.

In Acts 2:34-36, they preached the past event of the crucifixion and exaltation of Christ. As a result 3000 people were saved. The Holy Spirit moved in power in response to the proclamation of the past event of the Gospel.

The sinner was mentioned in verse 23 but the good news was about the past event of Jesus the Christ. The Spirit was mentioned in verse 33 but not as the central player in the drama. The work of the Spirit was a present reality while the work of the Son was an event which had taken place in the past in history. Indeed without the past work of the Son there would be no present work of the Spirit.

In Acts 3;13 the Christ event was preached as a past historical event. Gospel applications are made such as the need to appropriate faith (v16) and the call for repentance (v19) but neither faith nor repentance are presented as the center of the message.

Read through the apostolic sermons and you will find the same pattern. They always pointed back to events in the past which concerned Christ. They did not point to any thing present as being the Gospel. Unless we are looking back and pointing to something that happened in the past we are not preaching the Gospel. We do not come to people with some vague philosophy about God but rather with concrete historical events and facts.

Since the Gospel is an event which has happened in the past it makes our job very easy. To share the gospel all we have to do is tell the story -----the story of the doing and dying of Christ. I don’t even have to tell my listeners to do anything because the minute I go to the realm of “do” I’m not preaching the gospel. Of course we have to eventually bring the hearers to the “Do” stage but asking them to “do” something is the application of the Gospel and not the Gospel itself. If I preach all night on repentance then all I’ve done is preach all night on repentance. I’ve not preached the Gospel since I’ve not preached a past historical event. If I preach repentance, I’m preaching what should be a necessary application of the Gospel but how can I have anyone repent and exercise saving faith unless they first hear the Gospel?

In the 1620’s a fierce preacher, John Glendinning, preached the law and dread of God to his listeners in Sixmilewater, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. By all accounts his listeners were cut down in terror and actually swooned with fear----but they did not get saved. They believed every word Glendinning said but because the Gospel had not been preached they remained lost. Another minister, Robert Blair was then sent into the area and he preached the saving acts of God in Christ and the poor tormented souls got saved.

It is vital that we grasp the pastness of the Gospel because, since the Gospel is a past historical event, it can not be experienced. It is vital that we grasp this. The Gospel is uniquely about Christ’s unrepeatable experience. It is not about my experience or your experience. His life was the only one of its kind. He will never repeat his accomplishments or death. The Gospel is uniquely about the experiences of the Divine Human Saviour, Jesus Christ. As he hung upon that never to be repeated cross, the experience was uniquely His. We can look back to that event and identify with it but we can not travel back in time and climb on the cross with Him. I can, however, by faith receive all the gospel mercies, benefits and inheritance He obtained for me but I myself can not experience the Gospel. I can only experience its benefits.

Living he loved me; dying He saved me
Buried He carried my sins far away,
Rising He justified freely forever:
One day He’s coming---Oh glorious day

Now let’s look at the third essential element.–



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