Intro: And it is specifically good news about our relationship with God. We all like to receive good news, especially if it addresses some bad news we've just received. If you've just been told that you have cancer, for example, it's good news when the doctor tells you that it is a type that readily responds to treatment. The gospel is like that. It is the good news that directly addresses the ultimate bad news of our lives.
Some think of the term “gospel” as Old Fashioned and irrelevant.
We hear the term “gospel” and we can’t help but conjure up thoughts of our grandparents faith. Gospel quartets, Gospel choirs, Southern Gospel music, Gospel meetings…. All those terms come to mind and they all ring of old fashioned, out dated, irrelevant Christian faith.
Some will say the Gospel is Old Fashioned.
(Pictures of old people at church.)
Some will say the Gospel is that we all should be healthy and wealthy.
(Pictures of Copeland, Hagin, Hin, etc…)
Some will say that the Good news is that Jesus wants us to be rich and prosperous and if we are not, it is because of sin in our lives. This is often times referred to as the Health and Wealth gospel and you can get an ear full of it on some cable TV stations.
Some teach that the Gospel is being happy with Jesus.
(Picture of Joel Olstein – others….)
Others say that the Good News is that Jesus loves you and you should feel good about yourself and life and just be happy because Jesus loves you. This is a “Happiness Gospel” that you might hear from Joel Olstein and other popular speakers that claim to be preachers but preach a different Gospel than the one we see in the Bible.
Some say positive thinking
(Picture of Robert H. Schuller – Crystal Cathedral)
Still others water down the good news and try to tell us that the gospel is that in the end, God being a loving God will save everyone and that your OK and I’m Ok and were all OK.
Trans: The problem there are many different ways people will define the term Gospel. And this is not a new phenomenon.
2 Corinthians 11:3-4 (NIV)
3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
Galatians 1:6-8 (NIV)
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
So, let me ask you, how would you answer if someone asked you: What is this news that you Christians go on and on about? And what’s so good about it?
The problem with a lack of a clear understanding of what is the Gospel is that we fail to keep the main thing the main thing. We end up individually and as a church making other things the priority. Good things, but not the things that should be first and foremost. The true Gospel message needs to be proclaimed and lived, and put forth as our priority! Anything less, just hurts all that we do. If we don’t get this right, everything else will be effected in one way or another in a negative manner.
“An emaciated gospel leads to emaciated worship. It lowers our eyes from God to self and cheapens what God has accomplished for us in Christ. The biblical gospel, by contrast, is like fuel in the furnace of worship. The more you understand about it, believe it, and rely on it, the more you adore God both for who he is and for what he has done for us in Christ. “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” Paul cried (Rom. 11:33), and it was because his heart was full of the gospel. – Greg Gilbert
The apostle Paul knew the importance and necessity of keeping the Good News accurate and in the forefront even while some in his day felt that perhaps the Gospel was too simplistic or even for fools. He wrote:
Romans 1:16 - “I am not ashamed of the gospel,” he begins, “for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16).
Trans: So where do we go to get a clear picture of the what the gospel is? Obviously, like anything we do, we need to turn to the Scriptures and ask, “What does the Bible say about the Gospel?” And that is exactly what we are going to do over the next several weeks during this series.
Today I would like us to turn to the book of Romans. This letter was written by God as He spoke through the Apostle Paul and it was a letter to a group of people Paul had never met and in the beginning here, he wants to help them understand the gospel right up front. So, we are going to look at the first 4 chapters and see if we can wrap our brains around what is the Gospel according to the Bible. In Romans 1-4 we see 4 major themes related to the Gospel.
INTRO to Romans: After his introductory remarks in Romans 1:1–17, Paul begins his presentation of the gospel by declaring exactly what he wants them to know up front. He writes verse 16 saying that he is not ashamed of the Gospel because he knows the power of this good news first hand. Paul had experienced it personally and he had seen many people have their eyes opened and their lives changed as a result of it! He was a follower of Jesus and he was convinced by the Scriptures, his personal experience, and the testimony and observation of the experience of so many others. As a result he comes to this letter with confidence and boldness!
He says in verse 17, a verse we often times over look because of the focus on 16, “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith." The gospel shows us, gives us a righteousness we can have before God. The gospel, then, is the news of how we can be “right” with God. So let’s look at four key components of the Gospel that will help us remember what it is.
I. The Gospel Must always begin with an accurate understanding of God . (Romans 1:18-21)
Starting in verse 18 Paul writes of, “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven” (v. 18). With his very first words, Paul insists that humanity is not autonomous. We did not create ourselves, and we are neither self-reliant nor self-accountable. No, it is God who created the world and everything in it, including us. Because he created us, God has the right to demand that we worship him. He also makes it clear that there is no excuse as this truth has been clearly seen. Romans 1:20 – “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. Look what Paul says in verse 21: “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Thus Paul indicts humanity: they have sinned by not honoring and thanking God. It is our obligation, as people created and owned by God, to give him the honor and glory that is due to him, to live and speak and act and think in a way that recognizes and acknowledges his authority over us. We are made by him, owned by him, dependent on him, and therefore accountable to him. That’s the first point Paul labors to make as he explains the good news of Christianity.
II. The Gospel includes an acknowledgment of humanities problem. (Romans 1:22-3:20)
Paul tells his readers that their problem is that they rebelled against God. They—along with everyone else—did not honor God and give thanks to him as they should have. Their foolish hearts were darkened and they “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (v. 23). Then in verse 25 it tells us that “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen”. It is hard to believe yet we see it happened in Biblical times and today as well. Human beings consider their Creator and then decide that a wooden or metal image of a frog or a bird or even themselves is more glorious, more satisfying, and more valuable is the height of pride and rebellion against God. It is the root and essence of sin, and its results are nothing short of horrific.
Because of this, verse 28 says that God, “gave them over to a depraved mind” and humanity did what ought not be done. Then look at verses 29-32. Sounds like the condition of humankind today doesn’t it?
For most of the next three chapters Paul presses this point, indicting all humanity as sinners against God. In chapter 1 his focus is on the Gentiles, and then in chapter 2:17 ff. he turns just as strongly toward the Jews. It’s as if Paul knows that the most self-righteous of the Jews would have been applauding his lashing of the Gentiles, so he pivots on a dime in 2:1 and points his accusing finger at the applauders: “Therefore you have no excuse”! Just like Gentiles, he says, Jews have broken God’s law and are under his judgment.
By the middle of chapter 3, Paul has indicted every single person in the world with rebellion against God. “We have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin” (v. 9). Then in verses 10-18 Paul quotes 8 different Old Testament Scriptures that speak of the truth of God’s Word that we are all in a cesspool of trouble. And his sobering conclusion is that when we stand before God the Judge, every mouth will be silenced. No one will mount a defense. Not one excuse will be offered. The whole world—Jew, Gentile, every last one of us—will be held fully accountable to God (v. 19).
Trans: Now, strictly speaking, these first two points are not really good news at all. In fact, they’re pretty bad news. That I have rebelled against the holy and judging God who made me is not a happy thought. But it is an important one, because it paves the way for the good news. That makes sense if you think about it. To have someone say to you, “I’m coming to save you!” is really not good news at all unless you believe you actually need to be saved.
III. The Gospel is God’s solution to the problem: His Son, Christ. (Romans 3:21- 26)
Paul says that God’s solution to humanity’s sin is the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Having laid out the bad news of the predicament we face as sinners before our righteous God, Paul turns now to the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ. “But now,” Paul says, in spite of our sin, “now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law” (v. 21). In other words, there is a way for human beings to be counted righteous before God instead of unrighteous, to be declared innocent instead of guilty, to be justified instead of condemned. And it has nothing to do with acting better or living a more righteous life. It comes “apart from the law.” So how does it happen? Paul puts it plainly in Romans 3:24. Despite our rebellion against God, and in the face of a hopeless situation, we can be “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Through Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection—because of his blood and his life—sinners may be saved from the condemnation our sins deserve.
But there’s one more question Paul answers. Exactly how is that good news for me? How do I become included in this promised salvation?
IV. The Gospel is humanities Response to Jesus Christ by faith. (Romans 3:27-4:5)
Finally, Paul tells his readers how they themselves can be included in this salvation.
That’s what he writes about through the end of chapter 3 and on into chapter 4. The salvation God has provided comes “through faith in Jesus Christ,” and it is “for all who believe” (3:22). So how does this salvation become good news for me and not just for someone else? How do I come to be included in it? By believing in Jesus Christ. By trusting him and no other to save me. “To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly,” Paul explains, “his faith is counted as righteousness” (4:5).
Then, in the first two verses of chapter 5 the Word says, “ Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
So we see 4 components that are necessary for the Gospel to be Biblical. This is the Good News! God, man, Christ, Response.
This same pattern is seen throughout the New Testament. We do see this pattern clearly in Eph. 2:1-9
Conclusion:
Video – man in a hole. – Bluefish TV
