What is ‘the Gospel’? What is the ‘good news’ of Christianity?
If you go to some churches the message seems to be, ‘Believe in God and be nice. God is nice. Jesus is kind. Let’s all try and be nice and kind like Jesus.’
Now of course we need to believe in God and yes, it would help things along if everyone would try and be nice and kind but that’s not the Christian Gospel. To find the core, the heart and foundation of Christianity we need to study the original message as it was presented by Jesus Himself and His Apostles Peter and Paul recorded for us here in the Bible.
Now Jesus, Peter and Paul all do speak of loving and doing good to one another but that’s neither the heart nor the foundation of their message and many people will tell us to be kind to each other without any reference to God or Jesus.
So what is the Gospel, the ‘good news’?
We’ve been reading Matthew’s eyewitness accounts of things Jesus said and did and in Acts 2 when Peter gets up to preach on the day of Pentecost that’s where he begins. Men of Israel, think about the miracles and wonders you saw Jesus do. Those were signs that God was at work among us! You saw Him being crucified but we have seen Him alive again! Jesus is no ordinary man, He is Lord and Christ, the divine Saviour we all need!
So let’s understand that the Gospel is a very specific message and it’s centred on Jesus, in particular His atoning death on the cross and His powerful resurrection.
It’s a sad irony that you can go some places where they have lots of crosses but no one seems to understand what happened there. They admire Jesus’ love and courage but they don’t actually get the principle of sacrifice. On the cross Jesus offered himself as the substitutional lamb. He took our guilt and the capital punishment it requires on Himself. He suffered pain and death to make up for our failure and disobedience.
Without the cross there’s no forgiveness, no salvation and without the resurrection there’s no heaven. So the Gospel holds these central truths, Jesus, Son of God, suffered that we might be saved and rose victorious to give eternal life to those who trust in Him.
Don’t miss the implications – Peter finishes his Pentecost sermon with a promise and a challenge. We all need forgiveness and the help of the Spirit and these are freely given but we need to turn from sin and openly profess our faith in Jesus. Many expressed their response by being baptised that very day.
That illustrates what Paul would later write in his letter to the Christians in Ephesus ch1. This is not just a specific message, it’s a powerful message! The Gospel transforms lives and transformed individuals make for better communities and bring light to a darkened world.
Almighty God brings wonderful change through apparently weak human flesh. He did it through Christ at the cross. He was doing it through the witness and ministry of very human disciples like Peter and Paul. God fills followers of Jesus with the Holy Spirit so we can be like Him, pleasing God by walking in righteousness and serving effectively in bringing the good influence of His kingdom to all around us.
How encouraging this is for weak, flawed people like us. It doesn’t depend on our limited skill or resources. It’s the power of God the Spirit, the same mighty power by which Jesus rose from the dead that is being made available! I can’t persuade others to follow Jesus, I don’t know what to say or how to say it but like Peter and Paul I can come to the Lord empty and become fruitful in service by His wisdom and strength.
‘Oh how strange and divine, I can sing, ‘All is mine’
Yet not I but through Christ in me’!
It’s His Spirit within us that helps us know Him and serve Him and so the Gospel spreads!
After His resurrection Jesus appeared to His disciples and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’. Paul echoes this in Ephesians saying Jesus is risen and enthroned ‘far above all rule and authority, power and dominion’. In other words our risen Lord is Master over every human government and every spiritual force at work in the world. In His name, empowered by His life-giving Spirit Christians can break binding addictions and tear down evil strongholds. Our humble testimony can be used by God to bring transformation and build His kingdom of righteousness and love, one family of disciples from all nations, saved by His grace and destined for glory.
This is good news indeed. This is the Christian Gospel.
If you go to some churches the message seems to be, ‘Believe in God and be nice. God is nice. Jesus is kind. Let’s all try and be nice and kind like Jesus.’
Now of course we need to believe in God and yes, it would help things along if everyone would try and be nice and kind but that’s not the Christian Gospel. To find the core, the heart and foundation of Christianity we need to study the original message as it was presented by Jesus Himself and His Apostles Peter and Paul recorded for us here in the Bible.
Now Jesus, Peter and Paul all do speak of loving and doing good to one another but that’s neither the heart nor the foundation of their message and many people will tell us to be kind to each other without any reference to God or Jesus.
So what is the Gospel, the ‘good news’?
We’ve been reading Matthew’s eyewitness accounts of things Jesus said and did and in Acts 2 when Peter gets up to preach on the day of Pentecost that’s where he begins. Men of Israel, think about the miracles and wonders you saw Jesus do. Those were signs that God was at work among us! You saw Him being crucified but we have seen Him alive again! Jesus is no ordinary man, He is Lord and Christ, the divine Saviour we all need!
So let’s understand that the Gospel is a very specific message and it’s centred on Jesus, in particular His atoning death on the cross and His powerful resurrection.
It’s a sad irony that you can go some places where they have lots of crosses but no one seems to understand what happened there. They admire Jesus’ love and courage but they don’t actually get the principle of sacrifice. On the cross Jesus offered himself as the substitutional lamb. He took our guilt and the capital punishment it requires on Himself. He suffered pain and death to make up for our failure and disobedience.
Without the cross there’s no forgiveness, no salvation and without the resurrection there’s no heaven. So the Gospel holds these central truths, Jesus, Son of God, suffered that we might be saved and rose victorious to give eternal life to those who trust in Him.
Don’t miss the implications – Peter finishes his Pentecost sermon with a promise and a challenge. We all need forgiveness and the help of the Spirit and these are freely given but we need to turn from sin and openly profess our faith in Jesus. Many expressed their response by being baptised that very day.
That illustrates what Paul would later write in his letter to the Christians in Ephesus ch1. This is not just a specific message, it’s a powerful message! The Gospel transforms lives and transformed individuals make for better communities and bring light to a darkened world.
Almighty God brings wonderful change through apparently weak human flesh. He did it through Christ at the cross. He was doing it through the witness and ministry of very human disciples like Peter and Paul. God fills followers of Jesus with the Holy Spirit so we can be like Him, pleasing God by walking in righteousness and serving effectively in bringing the good influence of His kingdom to all around us.
How encouraging this is for weak, flawed people like us. It doesn’t depend on our limited skill or resources. It’s the power of God the Spirit, the same mighty power by which Jesus rose from the dead that is being made available! I can’t persuade others to follow Jesus, I don’t know what to say or how to say it but like Peter and Paul I can come to the Lord empty and become fruitful in service by His wisdom and strength.
‘Oh how strange and divine, I can sing, ‘All is mine’
Yet not I but through Christ in me’!
It’s His Spirit within us that helps us know Him and serve Him and so the Gospel spreads!
After His resurrection Jesus appeared to His disciples and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’. Paul echoes this in Ephesians saying Jesus is risen and enthroned ‘far above all rule and authority, power and dominion’. In other words our risen Lord is Master over every human government and every spiritual force at work in the world. In His name, empowered by His life-giving Spirit Christians can break binding addictions and tear down evil strongholds. Our humble testimony can be used by God to bring transformation and build His kingdom of righteousness and love, one family of disciples from all nations, saved by His grace and destined for glory.
This is good news indeed. This is the Christian Gospel.
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