The Gospel and You

We're going to go out to Badger's Weir today, which is just in Healesville, just out of Healesville, the next thing. And there's a beautiful little river there. And while we're out there, we're going to have a look around and I'm going to talk to you about the Gospel and you. Gospel is an interesting word because over the years it's come to mean a number of different things. Well, really, it only really means one thing. It means good news. In the early church time, well, in Jesus's time when he used the word gospel, he was kind of stealing it from the Romans because it was a Greek word, evangelion. And the evangelion is what they would send ahead of the king when he was coming, or when a new king had been coronated, they would say send out the good news, the evangelion, the evangelistic good news to the people, and that there's a new king. Or if the army had just won a major war, the Roman army, they would say send the evangelion to the emperor that there is a new— there we've won a new battle and we're the winners, the good news. So when Jesus said the good news of the kingdom, tell them the good news, or I've come here to bring the good news of the kingdom of God, he was saying basically there's a new kingdom on the block. And this kingdom is new in the sense that it's winning. There's good news about this kingdom and For years, the good news had meant to be happening in the life of the Israel— the Israelite people. They were supposed to be a light on a hill. They were supposed to be taking the good news that God is love and that all people can be healed and can be brought to joy through the kingdom of God, through the one true God, Yahweh. And Jesus came and he said, "I've come to bring this 'Evangelion,'" this good news. So when he used the term "good news," he was referring to the coming of what he was teaching about, what he was doing. He was actually healing people, he was doing miracles, he was casting out demons, but he said that wasn't his primary work. His primary work was to teach, and that teaching was to be about the Kingdom of God. So in Mark, when Jesus says at the beginning, that this is the gospel that I have come to preach. And then he says, let us go from town to town where I can continue preaching this good news, which is the reason why I have come. He was talking about his mission statement, which he had proclaimed at his hometown from the book of Matthew. Well, no, from the book of Isaiah. It's written in the book of Matthew where he says that I have come to bring the year of the Lord's favor. And in that year, all debts would be free. It was once every 50 years they had the Year of Jubilee, or they were supposed to have. There's actually no record of there ever being a Year of Jubilee held, but it was an idea that they were supposed to do every 50 years. So the 7th Sabbath year, so 7 years of 7, the Sabbath of 7 years, you have 7 sevens and you have 49 years, and then the 7th of those, the next year, the 50th year, is the Year of Jubilee. And they were supposed to celebrate God's presence. And they were supposed to celebrate the forgiveness of debts. And they were supposed to do that by forgiving their debts, forgiving and setting slaves free. Anyone who owed anybody any money, those were supposed to be written off. And it's even written in the Old Testament, don't resist giving loans to people when you get to year 46, 47, you know, when you're near the year of Jubilee, You should still give loans if you're wealthy because people still need help, even though you know that loan is going to be forgiven in the Year of Jubilee. So Jesus used the word gospel in that way, that it was about that year of all things being made right, and he had come to preach that gospel.

The primary, uh, use of the word gospel that we're familiar with is the one that the early church used when they wrote the gospels. Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And when they wrote their letters, Paul wrote his letters to everyone, and James wrote his letter, and, um, so many other little letters were written, and many of them made it into what we call the Bible now. But those letters all refer to the gospel as being saved by grace through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that's the primary use of the word gospel in the New Testament. And it is the primary gospel that we are called to share with the world. One of the best illustrations of it, or kind of a good story illustration of it, is the story of when Peter comes into Jerusalem and they have a council in Jerusalem about whether or not new believers who aren't Jews, so Gentile believers who are now Christians, should be circumcised and should have to follow the laws of Moses. —and Peter is quite adamant that they shouldn't have to. But it says in the passage in Acts 15 that there were Pharisees who were now believers in Jesus. And so these Pharisees come at what it means to believe, what it means to be a practicing follower of God, very law-oriented, very legalistically, and very much what should we do. We have to do stuff. So what do we have to do to be saved? And they agree that you only can be saved, in fact, by, by Christ. And what Peter actually says is, you sent me out to the Gentiles and I gave them this message that they could be saved by grace through faith in Jesus. And this message is the only way to be saved. In fact, it's the way we're saved. It's the way they're saved. It's the way everyone is saved. So Therefore, we can't say, so you need to do this and this to be saved. But then he does an interesting— you could call it a trick. It's not really. He's speaking to the Pharisees, but he talks about a long ways away, a long ways away. Anywhere where the gospel goes, there's always good, God-fearing Jews that live nearby, and those Jews should be respected. So why don't we say— and we'll send a letter out to all the new converts that they shouldn't do these things. And, and there's specific things that would really deeply offend Pharisees: eating blood, eating meat that hasn't been properly drained of blood, so strangulated animals, eating any animal that's all been offered to an idol. Basically, it's about food things because culturally the Jews were very careful with the way that their food was prepared. And then also, um, as they started mixing and then being around other religions that offered food to their idols, where that food had come from, if that food had been offered to idols. And so what Peter does in this— and this is, they all agree to it— yes, okay, we're— we can tell them you're saved just the way you are, just because you believe in Jesus and what he did for you on the cross and his resurrection. That's why you're saved. But to be part of the community, to show respect for each other, do these things. And it's teaching this principle that what they were teaching in the early Christian church. Like Paul said, I can go into any community, and if you give me Christ and him crucified, I can take that with me, and I can create believers in Jesus and in God and what he did through Christ on the cross. But all the rest of it is stuff where you look at the culture around you and you say, how can we be the most kind, the most compassionate, the most cohesive in community, and So Peter's message to the early church, and really the message that was taken right around in this letter, was you're saved only one way. You're saved by Jesus, and you're saved through his death and resurrection on the cross. That's it. You're saved by grace through faith in the death and resurrection of Christ. But look around you, join a community. We want you to be part of a community, and those communities will have people in them who— some of them are more sensitive to certain days and ways and certain foods and certain practices. Be kind to them. Don't tell them they have to change and be like you. Tell them that they're okay to come just the way they are and be saved in that way. So that's the Christian gospel. That's the early church gospel. And the final use of the gospel It's called the eternal gospel, and it shows up in the final book of the Bible, the New Testament, Revelation. And in the middle of that book, in Revelation 14, you have these three angels that are flying in, and John is writing down what he's hearing from Jesus. And he writes this: Then I saw another angel flying high overhead with the eternal gospel. There it is, that eternal good news, the good news that goes on forever and ever and ever. And this good news is that that it connects all the other gospels and it brings to fruition God with us eternally. So he says, um, the eternal gospel to announce to the inhabitants of the earth, to every nation, tribe, language, and people. And that phrase, nation, tribe, language, and people, is a flashback to Jesus when he said, take this gospel and go, and therefore, and make disciples of every nation, tribe, language, and people. And so this is who's supposed to have heard the gospel by now. Everyone's supposed to have heard. And when this angel flies over, he says the first message is: Honor God, fear God, and give him glory. Remember God, for the hour of his judgment is here. So here it is, it's here. This gospel is saying it's wrapping up. God's wrapping up the picture and has come, and judgment has come. Worship the one who made heaven and earth, the seas and springs of water. That's a flashback to Genesis. So it's saying worship the Creator. Remember the Creator in the days of your youth as a, as a nation, as a people, as a, as a creation. We are to remember that creation moment of our— when our Creator created. And then the next angel says, a second angel followed saying, it has fallen, this earth, it has fallen. Babylon the Great has fallen. She has made the nations drink of the wine of her immorality, which brings roth. So now basically the first message is that God's coming, his judgment is coming. This is good news, and that helps you to remember this isn't actually a threat. This is good news. He's coming as he's promised, and all evil is going to fall. That's over. And God is bringing an end. He's bringing his wrath, which is his removal of himself. So he's gonna separate himself from all the, the sin in the world and, and anything that is without God, is without life. And so then finally, the third angel— and another, a third angel followed them and spoke with a loud voice: If anyone worships the beast— and this is an image in Revelation that it uses for, um, the devil and those who follow the devil— if anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or his hand, his thoughts or his actions, he will also drink the wine of God's wrath. God's presence will remove from him, and he will be no more, which has poured full strength in the cup of his anger. And then down a little further it says, this calls for patient endurance from the saints who keep God's commandments and have faith in Jesus. So you have these three good news packages. The first one is what the Israelites were supposed to bring. They're supposed to bring the good news of a God who loves everyone, a God who includes everyone, the one true God, the maker of everything. And they didn't do it so well. And so Jesus came and he said, I've come to bring that kingdom. I've come to show you that God is love and that God loves all and that God wants to heal you. And he drove out demons and he healed people and he taught, he taught about the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God, the one Jesus presented, was basically a kingdom of equality, a kingdom of balance. And, um, things were justified, including us. We were justified through the death and resurrection of Christ. Not by any work of our own, but by his work on the cross. So that's the second gospel, the Christian gospel, the middle gospel that we're supposed to take to the whole world is telling our story from one person to the next and the next and the next so that it spreads across the world. And that's what Peter did in that Jerusalem council. He reminded them, he said, you remember when I came and I told you I had a vision at the same time as a pagan, as Cornelius, he had a vision and the visions both said the same thing, go meet each other. To find each other and eat with him and spend time with him and listen to him, learn from him. He had already received the Spirit. You remember this story I told you. That's why you sent me out to the Gentiles. And that's why we have been sent out to all of the world is because this story is our story. And so we have moved out from just saving our own to saving as many as we can, telling it, that gospel message so that then becoming all things to all people so that in all ways we might save some, as Paul says. So here's the question: how do we know which gospel we should be focused on? Should we be like the first Gospel when Jesus came and he said, "I've come to make all things right for all people." Should we be out doing healing ministries and feeding the poor and looking after people who need help with basic life? Or should we be out preaching the Gospel of Jesus and him crucified, Christ and him crucified, and traveling to all parts of the earth like missionaries and or just even to our neighborhoods and telling them and having that kind of, really, that drive to constantly be confessing our faith in Jesus and what he did for us on the cross? Or should we be focused in on that final gospel and telling people that God's judgment is here, it's coming, Jesus is returning soon, and when he gets back, all things are gonna be made right eternally, eternal gospel. And step away from the world and step into the kingdom of God because there isn't going to be a choice much longer. All three are important messages, but we live in not a post-Christian society, but a pre-Christian society. A society where the only way that most people who have heard the name of Jesus have heard it is as a swear word. As an expletive. They've heard somebody stub their toe and say our Lord's name, and we call that blasphemy. What's interesting is, okay, sure, it's bad, you shouldn't do it, but that's not blasphemy. Blasphemy is saying that you believe in God and then not following him because you're misrepresenting him. So how do we represent Christ right now if we live in a pre-Christian society, a society that has not even heard of Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the answer to evil, the answer to the eternalness of us. You know, there's so many people who say, "I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual." And what that actually means is they know there's something, there's something in them, there's something about them that's different than the animals, that's different than nature, that's different than the trees, that's different than the rivers. There's something in them. There's a soul. And people innately get this. And they say, "I'm not religious. I've seen what religions do." Religions are what people create to stay busy with what they believe. And often they create a whole bunch of practices and stuff that really just fill their lives up, keeping them away from the things of the world, which is admirable, but may not be— is not what we're called to. We're not called to religion. We're called to sharing the story of Jesus. So how do we do it? Well, it could look different. I want to suggest that what we should be doing is we shouldn't be telling people that God's judgment is coming if they don't even know about God. We should be sharing with them Christ and him crucified, and to do that looks different for different ones of us. I was in a Sabbath school class with some elderly people, and I asked them, is there a time in your life— we were looking at the book of Mark, and the book of Mark has a line in the middle of chapter 16, and it says, this is where most early manuscripts finish. And it is right after the women run away and it says, "And they told no one." And then there's a line that says, "This is where the most reliable manuscripts finish." How can it finish there? Obviously the story got out, so why finish there? And I believe that Mark was using a teaching strategy that says basically, if you finish— one good thing about being a storyteller, you get to start where you want and you get to finish where you want. And Mark finishes with, "Nobody said anything." And then you go, "Oh, come on, we know the end." Who's gonna tell the end? Who's gonna tell how it finished? And so someone in the room gets up and says, "I'll finish it. I'll tell you how Jesus came to life in my life." And so I asked this group of people in the Sabbath school class, "Can you think of a time in your life when the cross of Christ came to life, the death and resurrection of Jesus came to life in your life?" And the stories that came out were such a good example of what it is to share our story of faith. The first gentleman said, said, I've been reading through the entire series of Ellen White books that have the historical series, so the Acts of the Apostles and the Kings and Prophets and Prophets and Kings and, and all of those. And, and he said, and when I finished the final one, The Great Controversy, as I was reading the last page and that picture is painted— he said it took years, it took years to read through this as daily devotions. And he said, when I got to the end and that picture is painted at the end of how much God loves us and all that Jesus has done for us, he said, I just started to weep because I realized that was done for me. If I had been the only one, Jesus would have done all that for me. That's the gospel come to life in your life. The next person was a gentleman who said, when I was a teenager, I was in a hospital and I was next to this other kid and he had a whole bunch of stuff wrong with him and he was going in for an operation the next day. And his internals were just all messed up. And he said, he came over to my bed and we talked for a little bit, and he was a Catholic, and I felt like I should tell him that I have assurance of my salvation in Jesus, and I didn't know how to do that, and so I let him go back to his bed. And then later he came over when we were supposed to be going to sleep, and he said, what do you think happens after we die? 'And then,' this gentleman, he said, 'then I told him the gospel. I told him what Jesus did for us, and I told him that we could have assurance that after we die we are saved. I mean, after we die, we can have assurance now that after we die we are going to the kingdom of God, because I'm going to be with God when he comes back.' And he told him the whole thing, and he said, 'Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, and because he came back to life, we come back to life if we believe in him. He was— that gentleman too was crying by the time he finished. The next person was a lady, and she said, "Oh, I don't know why everyone's crying," she said, "but I'm going to cry when I tell this story too." And she said, "You all know my story of addiction and how I've come out of it," which I don't know her story of addiction and how she's come out of it. I was new to that Sabbath school class. But she said, "I went through all kinds of counseling and all kinds of groups and everything," and she said, "And it wasn't until Someone sat me down and showed me the gospel and showed me that we are not saved through our works, that we don't come out of evil on our own. We come out because of what Christ did for us, and that he conquered sin for us, and that we can live the righteousness, in his righteousness now because of what he's done for us. His death and resurrection is our life now. She said, I didn't happen overnight, but I was able to put my addiction onto Christ's gift on the cross and say my sin was nailed to the cross. I can live with him, and his righteousness was continually put on me until that addiction faded. And it was through knowing that he loved me enough to do that for me. And by this time she was crying. And I said to him, you know, to the whole room, I said, this is what the gospel should do to us. It should make us cry. Our story of how Christ, the God of the universe, how he interacted in this world to save us from it, how he saved us from sin. That is a story worth telling. And it's a story that, like Paul says, you can become all things to all people because you just go down to the core element of what your story is and you tell that story in a way that helps people connect through you to Christ. You know, Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ. That is all of us as Christians. We walk behind Jesus, and those who hear our story and who live near us and with us walk with us. And that is what it is to share the gospel of Christ and him crucified. Once we've shared that gospel, it comes naturally then to care for the needs of those around us and to be the people of God living in the kingdom of God, making all things right with those around us. And it comes as a joy to say to those people who know Christ and know what he's done for us, "Jesus is coming soon. The eternal gospel is a promise to you and to me." My invitation to you today is to make that middle gospel, that core Christian gospel, Christ and him crucified, your daily story so that you can connect people through you to him. Let's just finish in prayer. Dear Lord, we love you so much. We ask that you would help us in our reflection of you to tell the story in a way that shows your love to others and draws them through the cross to you, to eternal life, and then to joy in your kingdom forever and ever. Amen.