I've Got Good News and I've Got Bad News

The Gospel

How many of you have heard people talk about the Gospel?

15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

You may have heard people say “I am not ashamed of the Gospel”, or when talking about a preacher, some people say he really preached the gospel.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

How many of you have heard people talk about the Gospel? You may have heard people say “I am not ashamed of the Gospel”, or when talking about a preacher, some people say he really preached the gospel.

But my question tonight is this — what is the gospel?

In fact, he took the 10 commandments and turned them up to 11!

Well, here is a couple things that you may not know. Did you know that The Gospel is a word that we get from the New Testament. For instance Jesus instructed us to

15 “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

But what does that mean? What does it mean to go and proclaim the Gospel? Well, as some of you may know, the Bible was written in a Greek and, if you look up this verse in the greek translation and look for the word Gospel you will find this word

εὐαγγέλιον

εὐαγγέλιον simply means good news.

Ok, so now we are getting somewhere, we know that when we hear the word Gospel it simply means Good News

So when Jesus says “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” he is asking us to share good news with everyone.

But that still leaves us with another question — what is the good news?

But still leaves us with another question and that is — what is the good news?

For the longest time I don’t think I could explain what was so good about my faith.

The way I viewed Christianity, the way I viewed my faith ultimately revolved around behaviour. In other words, my faith was about acting a certain way in the world. It was about obeying a set of cosmic rules handed down to mankind from God on high as a sort test that — if we obeyed the rules, then we would get into heaven.

And we see much of this type of teaching in the Bible.

In my mind, that is why we have the ten commandments. He gave us the Ten Commandments as rules for us to obey.

7 “ ‘You shall have no other gods before me.

1. You shall have no other gods before me.

2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

4. Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.

5. Honor your father and your mother.

6. You shall not murder.

7 And you shall not commit adultery.

8. And you shall not steal.

9. And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.’

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English Standard Version Chapter 5

6 “ ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

7 “ ‘You shall have no other gods before me.

8 “ ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

11 “ ‘You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

12 “ ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

16 “ ‘Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

17 “ ‘You shall not murder.

18 “ ‘And you shall not commit adultery.

19 “ ‘And you shall not steal.

20 “ ‘And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

21 “ ‘And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.’

And then in the New Testament, Jesus comes on the scene, and he takes the ten commandments and turns them up to eleven. (grab clip from You Tube ??)

Do a comparison slide between the Ten Commandments and Jesus’s interpretation of the ten commandments.

Jesus comes on the scene and says  “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” (.)

Then he says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. ( .)

Then he says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. ( .)

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Lust

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

Lust

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

You see what Jesus is doing? He is showing us the proper interpretation of the 10 commandments. And then, to make matters worse Jesus finishes his sermon by saying:

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. ( . )

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

So in my brain,

The Great Commandment

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing to say to people who do not know they have done anything to repent of and who do not feel that they need any forgiveness. It is after you have realized that there is a real Moral Law, and a Power behind the law, and that you have broken that law and put yourself wrong with that Power—it is after all this, and not a moment sooner, that Christianity begins to talk... Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will... It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death. Remember, this repentance, this willing submission to humiliation and a kind of death, is not something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off if He chose: it is simply a description of what going back to Him is like. If you ask God to take you back without it, you are really asking Him to let you go back without going back. It cannot happen.

C. S. Lewis, Words to Live by: A Guide for the Merely Christian, ed. Paul F. Ford, Adobe Digital Edition (HarperCollins e-books, 2009), 249–250.C. S. Lewis, Words to Live by: A Guide for the Merely Christian, ed. Paul F. Ford, Adobe Digital Edition (HarperCollins e-books, 2009), 249.