The Good News!
Notes
Transcript
What is the good news?
Illustration from Malaumanda:
“We know that Jesus died.”
Crosses on the gates
Illustration from Peru:
(for a few days after a baptism the people wouldn’t go to the river to bath)
“We don’t want their sins to get on us.”
America:
We know Jesus died.
What difference does that make? Well, I try to be a good person.
Remember Mickey Cohen, “What’s the matter with being a Christian gangster?”
Charles W. Colson and Eric Metaxas, Loving God: The Cost of Being a Christian (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 112.
God accepts everyone for who they are.
Everyone will be saved. Love wins.
You don’t need to Old Testament.
We just need Jesus.
Jesus taught us to love.
All love is good. Love is love.
Just believe.
Don’t tell people they are wrong.
All religions are the same.
Be a good person.
Follow your heart.
Is that the gospel?
We need to see the whole picture to understand the gospel, the good news. We need to know what is wrong before the good news becomes the good news.
What did we learn about God and Man?
Creator… Created in His image
Source of Life… Spiritually Dead
Separated from God
Isaiah 59:2 “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”
Holy and Righteous… Unholy and Unrighteous
This separates us
Sovereign… Rebellious
Loving… Self-Centered
Good… Self-pleasing (what is good for me?)
Kind… Ungrateful
Merciful… Vengeful
Cain
King Saul
Gracious… Blames Others, won’t take responsibility
Cain
King Saul
Patient… Angry and Bitter
Patient with Cain.
Patient in the days of Noah.
Patient with Abraham.
Patient with Isaac.
Patient with Jacob.
Patient with Jacobs descendants.
Just… Deserving Punishment / Fearful
If that is where we ended, there is not good news.
but without this, there is also no good news.
If people are basically good, and God accepts people as they are, or if love wins, then there is no need for the good news.
But this is the foundation. This is the reason we need the good news.
And what is the good news?
Just as God promised Adam and Eve, he was going to send one, born of a woman, who would break the power of sin.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.
After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.
This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.
But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
“We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross,
but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.
All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
“Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.
He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
The one who believes is a new creation
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
not by works, so that no one can boast.
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Sent as Ambassadors
Recreated: Ephesians 4:24 “and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Spiritually Alive: Ephesians 2:4–5 “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”
Holy and Righteous: 2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Son: Galatians 4:5 “to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”
Loved: 1 John 4:10–11 “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
Seeks Good of Others: Philippians 2:3–4 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
Grateful: Hebrews 12:28 “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,”
Merciful: Luke 6:36 “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
Accepts responsibility: Luke 15:18–19 “I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’”
Romans 14:12 “So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.”
Justified: Romans 3:24 “and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Ambassador: 2 Corinthians 5:20 “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”
Motivation?
It is enough that Christ commanded us, and we do not want to live in rebellion any longer.
But there is another motivation:
Ephesians 2:12–13 “remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
2 Corinthians 5:10–11a “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others.”
2 Corinthians 5:14 “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.”
