I Love to Tell the Story
Notes
Transcript
Introduction: If you ever register on a job site to find a job you will always get notifications of jobs that may fit your qualifications. This week I received a notification for an evangelist from a secular job site. As you can imagine it caught my attention. When I went to the job it was a company looking for an evangelist for the AI industry within education. They were looking for someone to be a pioneer for launching AI based education into school systems.
So, the meaning of the word evangelist has become associated with a pioneer, advocate, or salesperson.
In the same way preaching has become associated with ranting or promoting.
What about the term Gospel? Gospel has become associated with speaking your mind, venting, or telling your version of the truth.
Do you want an interesting search for google? Search, what is the Gospel! You get all sorts of information about the content of the Gospel. Most of them are really good so I recommend watching. You hear me often reinforce the content or the characteristics of the Gospel:
Jesus came — an event in history when the creator stepped into history.
He lived a perfect life that we couldn’t and wouldn’t live — we are sinful, fallen people that could never live a life pleasing to God and if we could we wouldn’t live it because we are pridefully selfish in our very nature.
Jesus died paying in full the debt of our sin. Securing our forgiveness by His blood. Satisfying completely God’s justice, breaking death’s hold on us.
He rose again from the dead justifying us completely. Proving that his righteous life and sacrificial death was accepted as payment for our sins. Demonstrating that eternal life is only through Him.
He ascended to right hand of majesty and is given THE NAME above all names.
He is coming again to receive His church and execute judgment.
I try to go over this on a weekly basis so that you will hear it and it will become second nature. This is the characteristics of the Gospel message, but what I want us to look at today is the nature of Gospel message. In Revelation 10:8-11 we see the nature of the Gospel in visual clarity. Read with me these four verses.
8 Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.” 9 So I went to the angel and said to him, “Give me the little book.” And he said to me, “Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.” 10 Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. 11 And he said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”
You remember last week we talked about the covenants and how all of those find their fulfillment in Jesus. The Gospel is God’s covenant to us! Through the Gospel God offers us reconciliation. He offers to restore everything that Adam lost. He offers us access to HIM! This little book represents the Gospel covenant ratified by the eternal blood of Jesus Christ. In this text we see the nature of the Gospel
The Gospel is a Gift to Be Received.
The Gospel is a Gift to Be Received.
I want us to notice some details in this narrative.
First, there was a voice initiating John’s actions.
Go, take the book
This was a prompting to take the book.
The Gospel is a gift from God. It was thought by the Father, bought by the Son, and wrought by the Spirit.
We know that unless the Spirit is active in calling us through the Gospel we cannot be saved. The conviction of the Spirit is an intense moment.
The Gospel is a Gift that must be recieved.
Notice Revelation 10:9
9 So I went to the angel and said to him, “Give me the little book.” And he said to me, “Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.”
This text reminded me of the words of the woman at the well in John 4, Give me this water that I may not thirst again.
You hear me say often that the Gospel is available but it’s not automatic. It is a gift but it calls for a response from us.
Have you ever turned down a gift? Well of course you have for one reason or another. Either you felt you didn’t need it or it was given for the wrong reason, or you didn’t want the person to think you needed it.
It doesn’t make the gift any less valuable or the giver any less gracious.
It is a gift that must be received and received into the depth of our soul.
Notice the command of the angel: Take and eat it.
Don’t carry it in your hand, don’t put it on your head, don’t wear it on your shirt, but ingest it.
This is where I believe we fail in our presentation of the Gospel. I believe prayer is a valid expression of our heart and intentions so I don’t criticize leading someone in a prayer, but we’re not trying to get people to say some magical words.
We want them to drink Jesus and the Gospel in.
We want them to believe with their soul, mind, spirit, and being.
One aspect of the nature of the Gospel is it is a gift to be received at core of our being.
The Gospel is Bittersweet.
The Gospel is Bittersweet.
Notice the irony of this little book. It was sweet in the mouth but bitter in the stomach.
The Gospel by definition is the Good News!
It is certainly that Good News for humankind. News of a rescue. News of a relationship being restored. Good news about life, forgiven, our future.
For those who receive the Gospel it is great news, but it brings some bitter affects.
The world may hate you because of your faith.
Friends may leave you.
You may face rejection, scorn, and persecution.
But the benefits far outweigh the costs.
For those who refuse, reject or discount the Gospel; it is not good news for them.
They turn away for the love, grace, favor, and rescue that God offers and chooses to face the punish they deserve for their sin.
Pierre talked about hell Wednesday night. The fact that is a place of eternal suffering and separation from God. People will say a loving God will not send people to hell.
No! A loving God would give them every opportunity to escape hell by coming, living the life they couldn’t, dying the death they deserved, and raising from the dead to give them victory. A righteous God would make a way to legally redeem sinners, and that is what He did.
The Gospel is sweet to the recepient, but bitter to those who reject. But listen the greatest benefit of the Gospel is not missing hell. The prize is knowing God.
The Gospel is a Proclamation that Brings God to Us and Us to God.
The Gospel is a Proclamation that Brings God to Us and Us to God.
Listen to Revelation 10:11 again.
11 And he said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”
The Gospel is to be proclaimed. It must be visually and verbally shared in tandem.
What does the proclamation of the Gospel do? Proclamation brings God to the people and people to God. When you share you’re taking God to those you share with and when the Gospel is received it is bring people to God.
One of my favorite passages of scripture is 1 Peter 3:18
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,
The entirety of the Gospel in one verse and then the purpose of the Gospel — to bring us to God.
I was meditating on this passage this week and a thought came to me. In this vision that John shares with us we see the mighty angel. We have already likened Him to the OT angel of the Lord — an OT appearance of Christ. Christ is standing with one foot on the Land — the Jews and one foot on the sea — all other people and His hands are raised to heaven. What is this a picture of? The humanity and deity of Christ. He came among us and identified with us — His humanity, but He bridged the gap between us and God deity. Jesus represented God to us and represented us to God. The words of a song that we sing came to mind:
How great the chasm that lay between us
How high the mountain I could not climb
In desperation, I turned to heaven
And spoke Your name into the night
Then through the darkness
Your loving kindness
Tore through the shadows of my soul
The work is finished, the end is written
Jesus Christ, my living hope
What a privilege to share the message that brings people to God.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
The message today is one that you can participate in. Let me tell you how.
If you’re here an you have believed and received the Gospel deep into your being; you can share the Gospel with others. It doesn’t matter how long you have been a believer or you have never shared before. You can commit today to be a proclaimer of the Gospel visually and verbally. The Gospel answers to this world’s needs.
Second, this text presents the necessity of internalizing the Gospel message. What does that mean? It’s the idea of deep rooted, transforming faith.
Last, the Gospel is good news to those who receive it, but bad news to those who reject, refuse or try to stay neutral.