The Message of a Disciple
I Corinthians 15:1-5 and Eph 1:18-23
Do you know the Gospel message? In our Scripture passage today, Paul gives the Gospel message in a condensed form. He tells us the story of Jesus, focusing on the main events of Jesus’ life: Jesus died for our sins, was buried, was raised from the dead and he appeared to the disciples. Since the time of the disciples, this is the Gospel message which has been preached and shared throughout the centuries as millions have given their life to Christ. But is it enough?
David Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw tell the story of one Sunday in worship when they offer an opportunity for members to share a story of wonder of what God has been doing in their life in the previous week. That morning, a young man named Dustin stood up and began talking about his job at Starbucks. He had been working there for more than two years cultivating relationships with fellow employees and customers. He had been praying for months asking for God to enable him to see what God was up to at Starbucks. His desire was to be used as an instrument of the Gospel. That week, a woman named Sarah he had known for 2 years asked him if he could talk. She sounded serious and downcast. So they moved over to a table away from the store traffic and she began to open up her life to him. She told him her boyfriend, who was a heroin addict, had left her, her parents had split up and she had been denied admission to a graduate program. Everything in her life, she said, was imploding. As she looked to the future, she couldn’t imagine anything to live for. She was spiraling downward and isolating herself from the few people she knew. And for the last two nights, she was having thoughts of killing herself. As Dustin was telling the story, the sanctuary became still. Many stared empathetically. And then Dustin said, in that moment with Sarah, he didn’t know what to say or do. Having grown up in the church, he had been taught the Four Spiritual Laws:
1. God has a plan for your life
2. But we are sinful and separated from God
3. Jesus died on the cross for our sins
4. If we receive him as Lord and Savior we can be forgiven and receive eternal life
Dustin said he didn’t see how the Four Spiritual Laws were appropriate or could connect with Sarah and what was going on in her life. Dave and Geoff said, “We asked ourselves a lot of questions that day as a community (of faith). Was our understanding of the Gospel too small? Does it address only one problem (moral guilt) without dealing with others (relational devastation)? Is our Gospel limited to a ‘decision’ that means little for the everyday lives of those around us?...How does the Kingdom of God actually deal with sin? How does it overcome the relational strife of a broken world? How does it heal the alienation of a rebellious humanity?” The answer is the radical Gospel that “Jesus, the crucified and risen Messiah, is Lord.”
In the 15th century, there was a split in the church. Prior to that time, European towns and villages had their life centered around the Roman Catholic Church. In this time, there was a strong sense of the justice of God seeking out all sin and punishing all unrighteousness. The Christian faith was grounded in the idea of penitence where you confessed your sin, did penance and then were absolved. This served to order the lives of Christians and release them from their guilt. In the midst of this, there was a growing awareness, particularly as cities grew and industrialism and poverty increased that we lived in a sinful world. And there was a growing desire to lead holy lives for God. Because we sin, we are separated from God, need forgiveness and so must confess our sins and receive Jesus Christ. This approach to the faith and evangelism is based on guilt in world where personal sin before a Holy God was an all- consuming problem.
But being able to answer the question, “Will I be forgiven by a just God when I die?” did not speak to the reality of Sarah’s brokenness and circumstances she was facing. Dustin was equipped with a plan of salvation and forgiveness based on sin when she really needed a story of hope and power. A plan of salvation focuses on the moral aspects of sin, offers Christ as the solution and pleads for a decision to trust in Jesus and receive His forgiveness. Now we don’t want to deny this part of the story of salvation. Sin is destructive, and very much alive in our world today. Sin brings darkness, isolation and separation. But Sarah didn’t need a Gospel based on sin and guilt.
Here’s the thing we Christians often forget about Jesus and the Good News. He didn’t just come to die on the cross for the sins of the world. He came to offer healing, hope, new life and wholeness in a broken world. Too often we forget the message of Jesus’ preaching: “Behold, the kingdom of God is at hand.” The kingdom of God is breaking in and with it, Jesus offers us hope, new beginnings and new life in Him in the midst of our tragedies, failures, losses and sins. In the midst of our lives, we need a radical in-breaking of the Kingdom of God. We need to experience relationships being mended, brokenessness being healed and evil being brought down around us. We need to see that Jesus is Lord over all, even the very worst circumstances and problems of our lives. We need to see the power and transforming grace available to us in our lives TODAY as manifested in the Kingdom of God. Anything less does not match the extravagant purposes of God for our lives.
Too often, we focus the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the cross where our personal sin is taken away. Or we focus on the Kingdom of God as the place where we work to build the kingdom in our midst. We need to proclaim that the cross is the place where God’s final victory is accomplished and inaugurated, and the reality that the kingdom and a new creation breaking forth into our world and our lives. In the cross, not only are our sins forgiven, but the power of sin and death over our lives has been defeated as well. The Good News is about the cross and the Kingdom! The Gospel is not just about what Jesus did on the cross, but what God is doing in the world, even in the midst of all the brokenness, pain and suffering. It is not just a story of God’s saving act 2000 years ago but also God’s continuing story of salvation in the world through the Kingdom of God. Paul speaks to this power in the opening of his letter: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes…” Romans 1:16 Paul is proclaiming both the kingdom and the cross, the power of forgiveness of sins in Jesus death and the power to overcome all things for living today. In Romans chapter 5, Paul uses the phrase the “Lord Jesus Christ”, and in it he is saying that Jesus was Lord back when, Lord even on the cross and Lord today in our world and our lives. That’s the Good News! When Sarah is feeling like there is no hope, that relationships are breaking in her life a and that doors and hopes and dreams are being closed on her, it is Good News to know that God is Lord and still in control! God is still reigning over the world, making it right. In the victory of the cross, his kingdom is being built and His Lordship ovcr everything is established.
At the end of the traditional Gospel presentation, we often ask, “Are you ready to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior?” But in a situation like Sarah’s, we need a different question. Instead, we need to ask something like, “Are you ready to let God be Lord over this situation in your life and experience his salvation in the midst of your circumstances right now, as he is seeking to do in the whole world?” It’s no longer about asking Jesus into your heart. It’s now about entering the kingdom of God and experiencing his Lordship in your life, your circumstances and your soul.
David Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw offer four ways of proclaiming this Gospel in our culture today. First, God is reconciling you in all your relationships. When we look around, we see enormous isolation, brokenness and even abuse in our relationships. It’s seen in families, marriages and friendships where sin has entered and separation has occurred. Now we need to help people understand that through the cross, God is reconciling all things to him, including our relationships to one another. Sometimes, this means we need to call people to receive forgiveness and other times it means challenging them to offer forgiveness. By doing this through the love and grace of Jesus, they can enter the kingdom and invite people into right relationships.
Second, God is at work. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17 There is much going wrong in the world: business, marriage, morality, murder, tragedy and crime. In the midst of all of this, it is easy to come to believe that the world is going to hell and a handbasket and there’s no hope. Yet we need to proclaim that Jesus is Lord and is making all things new. We can point to places where the Spirit is at work and regeneration and rebuilding is occurring. He is at work in the world establishing His kingdom and is Lord over that person’s situation. We need to help people see that God is at work in their job, marriage or financial situation and learn to ask them, “What is God saying to you? What is God doing?” We then need to invite them to take steps of obedience in response to what God is doing. As they enter the kingdom, salvation will spread to all areas of their lives.
Third, God has put the power of sin to death and is calling you to new life. Our culture is a place of addictions. People find themselves powerless, trapped and overwhelmed. They ask if things will ever change and they begin to believe they never will. We need to proclaim that Jesus reigns over the powers which have gripped their life, whether that be addiction, abuse of something else. We need to invite people to put their desires to death on the cross in order for new life to spring forth. If the invitation is accepted, then they can enter into the kingdom and experience new life as it spreads into all the areas of their life.
Fourth, God is calling you into mission. The great mission of God is to bring the whole world to God’s own righteousness, justice, new creation and reconciliation. He invites those who have experienced this in their life to take it into the lives of others by inviting them into God’s kingdom and mission. Some may not even fully trust or know God, but that should not keep them from joining God in working for justice, peace and meaning in Jesus Christ. So we need to issue the invitation to people to come join us in discovering the Kingdom and Jesus’ Lordship over all as we reach out to the least, the last and the lost. If the invitation is accepted, then they can enter into the kingdom and experience new life as it spreads into all the areas of their life.
We must never forget that the most familiar call for people into the kingdom is through the forgiveness offered through Jesus death on the cross and release from the guilt and shame of sin. God is making all things right, even in the midst of sin, but especially because of the sin in our lives. But in today, people need to hear a Gospel message which offers them, healing, power and hope in the midst of their circumstances. We need to proclaim for all to hear that “Jesus, the crucified and risen Messiah, is Lord!”
What if Dustin had begun to talk with Sarah about how the kingdom of God had broken into his life and helped her explore how it might be breaking into circumstances. And when the time was right at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, Dustin could say something like, “Jesus is Lord in your circumstances.” He’s working in the midst of these things in your life to make you and all things new. Can you believe it? Can you claim it and can you join him in it?” We can say these things because we know that God has already been working in Sarah’s life and circumstances as he has in yours and mine. And when Dustin’s life intersects with Sarah’s, he can proclaim the Gospel story that Jesus is Lord. It is a Good News but it is also an invitation to see and enter in the kingdom of God because God is at work in the midst of the world’s hurting and lost. “Jesus, the crucified and risen Messiah, is Lord!” He comes into our dirty, confused and troubled lives and seeks to establish his kingdom and rule in the midst of our lives. Jesus enetrs the world of sin, darkness and death and is working to set the world free.
Scholars believe the original ending of the Gospel of Mark ended with two women named Mary who had gone to Jesus’ tomb to anoint his body. They didn’t find it but did find an angel who said to them, “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’” And then it says, “Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.” And that’s it. I believe Mark wanted his readers to inwardly cry out, “No! It can end there! Somebody has to tell them the Good News!” Someone did and it changed history. But someone needs to today. And if we don’t go out and proclaim this Good News that Jesus is Lord over all, how will people ever know? Amen.
