Defending the Heart of the Gospel; Luke 9:21-22

Delivered during the Sunday morning worship service, 1/29/2023. For the first time in Luke's Gospel, Jesus reveals the inevitability of His Passion to His apostles. This stunning announcement seems to stand in sharp contrast to the profound confession just made by Peter, that Jesus is the "Christ of God". But in this statement, Jesus expresses the underlying reason for His Incarnation-- the consummation of all Redemptive History, the reversal of the curse of the Fall, the redemption of sinners, and the reconciliation between God and those made in His Image. This will be accomplished through His Crucifixion and subsequent Resurrection in a process (and doctrine) known as the Sacrificial Substitutionary Atonement. But this very core doctrine of Christianity has come under blistering attack by a growing number of so-called "evangelicals". Therefore, after making our way through the text we will defend the Sacrificial Substitutionary Atonement of Christ from Scripture, and thereby defend the very heart of the Gospel.