How Big is Your Gospel?

Introduction

Introduction

My Gospel/ the Gospel Galatians…

Wrong Gospel, leads to Curse

Small gospel? Leads to lack of blessing….

What is the gospel?

Christ Died and rose again for the forgiveness of Sins?

Christ heals, Christ saves?

Christ redeems

Jesus is coming back.

Text:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in 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 them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

1. What is the Gospel?

The gospel is Good news, a good announcement!

You might remember the message of John the Baptist Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand (coming). The arrival of a new King.

The Messiah had been awaiting this king for hundreds of years. The expectations of the Jews’ is that he would come and smash their human enemies. But Jesus has a different agenda…

So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; (Freedom) To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Year of Jubilee)

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

This fact that Jesus claimed to be messiah is indisputable, yet he wasn’t what Israel were expecting. Even John the Baptist had second thoughts.

And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, saying, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” When the men had come to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’” And that very hour He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight. Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”

Jesus declaration and demonstration is that we don’t need a political solution. What we need is spiritual, social, emotional and physical rescue from the curse of Sin and from Satan’s kingdom.

Illustration: Story of Kate McGeech. Sin destroys lives, Christ rescues…

2. Death, our greatest enemy is defeated because of Christ’s death and resurrection. Don’t ignore the significance of Christ’s resurrection in the fullness of Christ’s atoning work of the Cross.

for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Christ the first fruit.

The truth of the scripture is that you and I can have full confidence in God’s ability to raise us to eternal life because he raised Christ from the dead!

We find even resulting in that charge being written above his cross in three languages. The message from Rome was, this is what we do to any leader of an uprising!

3. Kingdom of God has come but it is still to come: We still wait for the fullness of the redemption that has been bought at Calvary. Some are healed straight away – while others seem to wait for their final healing. We all ultimately die until one day, death is made no more at Christ second coming. Because Christ was raised, we also shall be raised, the Righteous to eternal life while those without Christ are raised for punishment.

4. The Gospel promises the complete undoing of the curse from the fall! We experience much of it in the present, but we need to be sure that eternity promises way beyond our present relief.

Illustration (Tell the Story of the Ethiopian Eunuch.)

The minister of finance for the country of Ethiopia. A man who had risen as high as he could in the ranks of his government. He was Rich. He had position. Many thought that he had it all. But he new better. He had no family, he had no children, he had no great expectation for his future. All he could see for his future was more of the same. A bleak dreary live of servitude.

He decided that he would go on a pilgrimage seeking for God. He got some time off from his Job. This was a very difficult thing to do but finally he managed. He jumped in his very expensive Horse and Cart and drove for a week or two until he reached Jerusalem.

He couldn’t believe his luck, There was some kind of religious festival going on. He decided that he going to go to the temple to see. He was just about to enter the temple courts when someone said. “Sorry sir, Your not a Jew, Your not welcome in this part. We have a special section for you around the corner.”

He was about to enter the court of the Gentiles when he was told, Sorry sir but no Eunuchs are allowed into the court of the Gentiles. His heart was broken. He jumped back into his Chariot and started for home with his copy of the book of Isaiah.

But, It was on this trip home that he met with the Evangelist Philip who explained a portion of to him. From this part of the scripture he preached Christ to him. He moved through the scroll a bit and showed him that God had a plan for his life.

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3Do not let the son of the foreigner Who has joined himself to the LORD

Speak, saying, “The LORD has utterly separated me from His people”;

Nor let the eunuch say, “Here I am, a dry tree.” 4For thus says the LORD:

“To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, And choose what pleases Me,

And hold fast My covenant, 5.Even to them I will give in My house

And within My walls a place and a name Better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name That shall not be cut off.

The end of the story is that the Ethiopian Eunuch was Baptised. He returned to his home with such excitement about the message of Christ that the whole of the Kingdom of Ethiopia turned to Christ. To this day, there exists in Ethiopia, the Oldest church. Even in what is now a Muslim Country, A church dates back to the time when a man who couldn’t have descendants, had more spiritual children than one man can have Naturally.

5. Christ is not just your personal saviour. Yes, he came for the forgiveness of your sins and to make sure that you get to heaven. But his mission was and is so much bigger than just you or me. Christ is our saviour in the context of His being the saviour of the world.

6. We might see sin reigning in certain ways in this world at present, yet the promise of God is that there is a time coming when all will be put right. But I am not talking about our having a hold the fort mentality. I am talking about, spread the good news because the promise of salvation is for the present! This promise of healing is for today! The promise of salvation starts now and continues for all eternity. The promise of God’s help in the here and now and it is for us to experience and enjoy.

7. Redemption: the gospel brings change. Changed lives, changed families, changed nations. Historically, we have seen this. So many of us have experienced this in our lives and families. For others, the truth of God’s promise is to be experienced. Don’t give up.

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