Preparing for corporate worship: The joy of the gospel

One of the many joyous passages in the New Testament comes in Acts 13. Paul and Barnabas are in Pisidian Antioch a week after Paul preached the gospel in the synagogue there. God granted a great response, and they return to the synagogue the next week to proclaim the same truth again. Nearly the whole city gathers, but the Jews – apparently the leaders at least – oppose the gospel message and blaspheme. Luke describes what happens next beginning in verse 46:

Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, ‘I have placed You as a light for the Gentiles, that You may bring salvation to the end of the earth.’” When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region. (Acts 13:46-49)

Wow! You can picture the Gentiles’ exuberant, overwhelming joy at the realization the gospel is for them as well – Jesus is the Savior for the world, not just Israel. That gospel never becomes outdated or ineffective. It is simple, yet profound. Children can grasp it, while intellectuals stumble over it. It is all of God’s grace. The simplicity of the gospel is expressed in a song by Bob Kauflin and Drew Jones of Sovereign Grace Ministries we as a church have sung in recent months. It is simply “The Gospel Song:”

Holy God in love became
Perfect Man to bear my blame;
On the cross He took my sin;
By His death I live again.

We will rejoice in the gospel of Jesus again this Sunday. We will gather because it is true. We will gather because He is the only Savior. We will gather because He has saved us, sinners undeserving but sinners rescued. May we all come prepared to glorify God for His grace, exalt Christ our Redeemer, remind each other and ourselves of the gospel, and humble ourselves before Him and with one another.