Just a couple weeks ago we received an incredible praise report in our weekly Sunday afternoon prayer meeting.
It was on a Communication Card, and it came from our precious Denise Miller. If you don’t know it, Denise works as the secretary of Esther Bennet Elementary School in Sun Valley, where Jeanie worked for years as a first and second grade teacher.
The principal at Esther Bennett Elementary is a born again believer. Her family is originally from Mexico, and her, born in Mexico lives here in the U.S. Her mother, a native of Mexico who is in her 80's has also come to saving faith in Jesus. She has been very concerned for the family members she left behind in that remote part of Mexico. Finally, after years of praying for the salvation of her family back in Mexico, she began to insist that her family here take her back to Mexico so she could personally share the Gospel with these members of her family there.
Now her family members live in a part of Mexico that is controlled by the drug cartels. So it was an especially dangerous journey for anyone, but especially for someone in her 80's. She was particularly concerned that family member who was a devout Roman Catholic wouldn't welcome the message. But guess what happened! All six of her family members trusted in Jesus as their Savior, were born again and assured of eternal life, and the person she was concerned might reject the message, was one of them, and had the most dramatic response at hearing the good news. When she heard the message she just cried and cried and cried--I suspect--tears of joy. She was simply someone who didn't know any better, and was doing her best to be right with God when she discovered God had already taken care of that for her through Christ's death on the cross. Al she needed to do was believe.
All six of these people are now engaged in follow-up, being discipled to be followers of Jesus through Zoom and they have found a nearby Bible-teaching church within walking distance. So I want to say, Hallelujah! And that's what is happening in heaven, a celebration that these six who once walk in darkness and were isolated from the Gospel, have heard, and are guaranteed heaven as a result.
And the passage that immediately comes to mind, is Romans 10:13-15: "For 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'” 14 How then are they to call on Him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? 15 But how are they to preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who [a]bring good news of good things!”
This 80-year old had become the one whose feet were beautiful, because she brought the message of good news to people she loved who were about to perish in the darkness of this world. Wow! And if she could do it, who of us cannot?
But there's an odd phenomenon going on among Christians in the U.S. It's the notion that the Gospel is not good news, and we have no business sharing it with people who aren't believers in the hope that they will become believers.
In 2019, a survey by the Barna Group in 2019 found that nearly half of Millennials who claim to be born again Christians believe that it's wrong to share their faith with another person with the hope that they will become Christians! And another survey done by Lifeway in 2022 found that 44% of all U.S. Christians don't think it's very important to encourage non-Christians to trust in Jesus as their Savior.
Now, I have to confess, I am appalled. I want to ask, are these so-called believers living on another planet or something?! How could they ever come to such an unbiblical conclusion about the purpose and direction of their lives as followers of Christ.
And so, I have a question for you this morning. Is the Gospel Good News for You? Or have you allowed the world to influence and determine for you whether the Gospel of Jesus Christ is such good news for everyone that's it's worthy of sharing it with others?
My contention this morning is this: If you understand what Jesus is all about, then you'll understand that sharing the Good News of Jesus is an essential part of following Jesus. And if you don't understand that, then you have allowed yourself to be influenced not by the Word of God and Jesus, but by the World. And, as a result, you're not following Jesus.
And so, if you struggle with the idea that the Gospel is Good News either in theory or in practice, it's time to get back to what the Bible really says about the message of Jesus Christ--that it is indeed good news.
First, please understand and accept that God defines the Gospel as Good news in Scripture.
This is evident as soon as Jesus shows up on the scene. It is understood by the angels from heaven as they announce the birth of Jesus Christ to the shepherds in the fields that first Christmas evening. For they announce Christ's birth in this way: " “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is [a]Christ the Lord."
Now this is incredibly great news for all people--for all the world-- whoever they may be, whatever their false beliefs may be. Why, because a Savior has been born, the Messiah, the Deliverer, who will save people from their sins." There could not be any greater news in all of history that God has sent His Son to save mankind from the sin and death that awaits us, apart from such a Savior.
And notice, it's good news of great joy. When people realize the eternal implications of having a Savior, it's cause for great rejoicing, even as it was cause for tears of joy by that lady in Mexico who finally found a sure foundation for eternal life in her Savior Jesus Christ.
And this theme that Jesus Christ and what He did for us to save us is good news, even great news, is found throughout the New Testament. It is the central truth and fact of the Christian faith; it is the message by which we, and all mankind who will accept it, are saved from eternal hell for eternal bliss, and is called Good News almost anywhere we find it in the New Testament.
The English word Gospel actually literally means good news. In the Old English, word god meant good. The word spel meant news. Putting god together with spel ultimately resulted in the modern English word Gospel, which means good news.
And thu, it is a proper translation of the Greek noun for Good News, euaanngellion, which means Good news or Gospel, and that's how it is translated in the New Testament. It's the Greek word from which we derive the English words, evangelism, evangelical, and to evangelize. And this noun form of the word occurs 76 times in the New Testament, and it's verb form, to evangelize or to preach the Gospel, or evangelizomai, occurs another 25 times. And to evangelize literally means to preach the Good News, or to preach the Gospel.
Now the noun form of the word, euangellion, repeatedly occurs in vital places, and in my mind most notably in I Corinthians 15, where the Apostle Paul explicitly defines the Good News, or the Message of Good News, or the Gospel. He makes it clear here just how important it is, and why it is so important. Listen carefully to I Corinthians 15:1-5: "Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve."
Notice just how important this Good News is, and why it's Good News. Paul tells the Corinthians here precisely what the core message of the Gospel is, and he says about it in verse 2 that it's the message by which you are saved. Some, here might ask 'Saved from what?" It's the message by which we are saved from the judgment of God for our sins, which the Bible tells us is eternal hell. Now that's a pretty big deal, and that's why it is such good news. And for that reason he also calls it the message of "first importance" because it's the message when accepted and believed, saves us from the consequences of our sin, and guarantees heaven. That's good news, any way you slice it. How could any true believer possibly come to the conclusion that sharing the Gospel with someone is morally wrong?
And then don't miss exactly what the message is: It is this: that Christ died for our sins and was buried and rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures and that He appeared to Cephas and the twelve." The core message is that Christ, the sinless Son of God, the God-man, died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins so we wouldn't have to, and proved it by being raised from the dead. And these facts are attested to by the Scriptures, the Word of God, and thefacts of history, eyewitness testimony.
Now that is incredible news, because it's the difference between life and death for eternity for those who will believe it. It is the manifest expression of God's bleeding heart for the lost--it is how God demonstrates His love for us, the love of the Prodigal for his erring son, who longs to be gracious to sinners, and demonstrated it by sending His only Son to die in our place for our sins.
What great news that is! And if it is great news for you, why wouldn't you want to share it with others? Why wouldn't you want them to know, and to know for their sake, since it is also so important to them--it's the difference between life and death for eternity!!!
Now let me ask you a simple question. What do you do when you get great news! You share it with others. That was the point of Jesus' teaching last week in Luke 15: A shepherd finds his lost sheep, a woman finds her lost coin, and they call their friends to join them in celebrating what they've found. In the same way, God rejoices over one lost sinner who repents and is saved! It's definitely good news to God, and if we follow Jesus, why wouldn't it be good news for us? Why wouldn't we share this message with others? Is it possible we have adopted the world's perspective on the Gospel, rather than Jesus Christ's?
What happens when you have a baby? It's generally considered great news and you announce it to others. Same thing when you get a great job. Or someone gets engaged to be married. You let other people know and ask them to celebrate with you at something called a wedding.
What happened when WWII ended? I wasn't here when it happened, but I still see news reels and photos of what happened. There was great celebration in the streets. There's that picture of a sailor grabbing a nurse and kissing her on the streets of New York City. It was a wild celebration, because it was good news. Can you imagine anyone keeping that great news to themselves--the long war that had cost millions of lives had finally ended and the U.S. had won! Hallelujah!
And even so, this is the greater news ever, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And if it's good news, and you really believe it's good news, you will want to share it with others.
So, though we've already stated it, let's examine why it is such good news.
Believe the Gospel is Good News because it frees us from everything we hate in life. Believe the Gospel is Good News because it frees us from everything we hate in this life.
What do we hate in this life? We, generally speaking, hate evil, We hate wickedness. We hate sin. The problem is that the sin we so often hate is not always someone else's sin, it's our sin, our evil. It destroys not only other people's lives but our lives.
And then the other thing we also hate is sin's consequence. We hate death. We wonder why there's death. We want to live forever. The Bible is clear as to why there is death, from Genesis 3 and the Fall of Adam onward. Death is the judgment of God upon sin. For the wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23). Sin causes death. Since sin is universal, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, so is death. Apart from Christ, no one gets out of this life alive. Physical death is the absolutely assured destiny of absolutely every person in this room, and every person on this planet.
So, our greatest problem is sin, our sin, and the death that results. Paul in Romans 8:2 calls this the law of sin and death. The universal law which we observe everyday is this, that our sin results in death, beginning with the physical and ending with the spiritual and eternal.
And the incredibly great news is this, that Jesus Christ overcame those two problems for all of mankind in one weekend. On a Friday, 2,000 years ago, he died on the cross to take away our sins, to take away the guilt and penalty for our sins. And on a Sunday, He rose again, demonstrating that since sin had been taken away, so had it's consequence, death. So, the great news offered by the good news that Christ died for our sins and rose again is that God took away the guilt and condemnation for our sin and placed it on Christ, and then at the same time, eliminated the consequence for sin, and that is spiritual death, and proved it by the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And there we have God's assessment with what's wrong with this life, what's wrong with us, and how He resolved it. What's wrong is that we have all sinned, and our wickedness is an affront to a holy God and by it we do violence to each other; and Jesus died for our sins, to free us from both sin's guilt, penalty and power. And in so doing, He freed us from sin's great consequence which we all hate, and that is death, ultimately spiritual and physical, and he proved it by Christ's resurrection from the dead.
Now that is great news; is it not? And if you believe it, why don’t you share it with everybody? Is this Gospel, this Good News Good for you. Then share it with others!
Now I urge you to believe that it's good news, great news, because of all it offers. Be convinced the Gospel is Great News because it's a free gift for everyone who believes and guarantees forgiveness and life forever.
Do you know what? According to the Bible, we live in a golden age, the age of grace. It was predicted hundreds of years before it came to pass by the prophet Joel. In Joel 2:28-32 we read this incredible prediction of the future golden age in which we now live:
"It will come about after this
That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind;
And your sons and daughters will prophesy,
Your old men will dream dreams,
Your young men will see visions.
29 “Even on the male and female servants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
30 “I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth,
Blood, fire and columns of smoke.
31 “The sun will be turned into darkness
And the moon into blood
Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
32 “And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Will be delivered" or saved.
Now for our purposes we are going to focus on two things this great prophecy predicts. That the Holy Spirit would be poured out on all flesh. That God's spirit would live in His people. And the second that in that great day, it will come about that whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved."
Now both of those were revolutionary ideas when predicted. That God's Spirit would be poured out on all flesh, when you could hardly approach His presence in the Temple, and secondly that whoever (Jew or Gentile, sinner or righteous) could and would call upon the Lord and be saved. That was written in a time when only Jews were generally thought to be saved.
The Apostle Peter makes it clear in Acts 2, on the Day of Pentecost, that that day and age had come. He quotes this verse when the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles in Acts 2 and says that the Day of Pentecost was the beginning of the fulfillment of that prophecy. And then he ends his sermon with the statement that the thousands of Jews standing before Him had been part of the Jewish generation who had brutally murdered their own long-awaited Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. Now convicted of their sin, that they had murdered God's Messiah, they feared God's great judgment upon themselves. So, they asked Peter and the Apostles, "Brothers what shall we do." And then Peter proved that the predicted day of salvation for all who call upon the name of the Lord, that name being Jesus, had come by offering these great sinners the forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation through repentance from unbelief to faith in Jesus as their Savior. A repentant faith that would save all who called upon the name of the Lord--even those whose hands were still wet with the blood of their Messiah. Wow!
Good news? Great News! And that, among other reasons is why the Gospel is Good News.
It's Good News because it' for everyone, anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord, Jesus will be saved. Doesn’t matter how great their sin or who they are.
It's Good News not only because it's for everyone, it's also free. Christ paid for our eternal life. We cannot earn or deserve. It's a free gift that comes by faith. Jesus even said so, He says to the Woman at the Well in John 4:10, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who speaks to you, you would have asked of Him, and He would have given you living waters." "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, that no one should boast." How many people would jump at the chance of eternal life if they only knew it could be had for free, just by repentant faith? It's good news.
And on top of that, it's Good News because it is the best bet you're going to find for eternal life. As I often say around Easter, who else in all of history has predicted his won resurrection and fulfilled it to the day. Only Jesus. Who else has been raised from the dead never to die again, but Jesus of Nazareth? Who else guaranteed everyone who believed in Him will be raised from the dead just like He was. And who has the testimony, the witness of so many other to His resurrection who were willing to die to proclaim it, just as Jesus did, in the persons of the Apostles.
There is no more compelling Good news that that of the Gospel.
And if it's such good news why aren't we sharing it? Have we believed the lie of the devil and the world around us that it's not good news.
So, in closing I ask you to turn to what Jesus and the Apostle had to say about that. Refuse to be ashamed of the Gospel--because it's the power of the God unto Salvation.
Jesus, in Mark 8:37 said this: " For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
Now that's a pretty serious warning. A warning that the Apostle Paul, despite all the suffering he experienced as a result of preaching the Gospel was not willing to test. That's why He said in Roman 1:16-17: " For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."
Therefore, I say, "I will not be ashamed of the Gospel or Jesus, no matter what? Why, because it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes."
And my question for you this morning is this: If the Gospel is really good news for you, why don't you share it.?" It can be good news for others.
Share you good news with others. It only makes sense doesn't it?
