What Is The Gospel?

Introduction

When we think of a legacy, we often think towards something profound we want pass on to our children that identifies us uniquely. For instance, maybe we want our children to be a renowned doctor or scientist or engineer. Or maybe a great writer whose books are identified on the NY Best seller’s list. To some it might be the passing on a trade or family business that we want kept alive. But in any case, what is common to most of these is that we somehow want our kids to carry on that which we feel most passionate about, ultimately making a lasting mark on their generation.

Similarly, the apostle Paul, in writing to his young protege Timothy, is writing from the perspective of one who is about to die and is passionate about passing on to him a most valuable trust, of which Timothy is responsible to use, preserve, and pass on to qualified, trained, faithful men who will do the same. This trust will make a profound mark not only on their generation, but every generation to follow if used, preserved and passed on properly. This trust, is of course, The Faith, or The Gospel, and this process of, using, preserving and passing it on, is carefully described throughout 2 Timothy, and is specified in the key verse found in chapter 2, verse 2.

2 Timothy 2:2 ESV

2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.

This word entrust is used 47 times in the NT, and in 46 of those cases, it refers to the Gospel. The Gospel is our sacred trust! All throughout this short letter, Paul unfolds for us how not only Timothy, but all of us, as faithful men, are to preserve this trust and pass it on. What will become most evident, is that the best way to preserve this trust, is to proclaim its contents, faithfully and accurately.

Text: 2 Timothy 1:1-5

Main Idea: Because we have been entrusted with the Gospel, we must understand what it is, and how we got it.

Background:

Paul is imprisoned and on “death-row” in Rome, and his execution is immanent. After surviving his first imprisonment in Rome (where he wrote his four prison epistles, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon), he was released and it is believed that he was involved in a fourth missionary journey, which ultimately ended back at Rome. During his initial hearing, all his companions deserted him except for Luke and Onesiphorus (possibly the runaway slave he spoke of in Philemon). But instead of being angry and bitter, he uses the opportunity to express his hope and confidence in the Gospel to which he was entrusted, and now willingly and excitedly passes the baton onto to Timothy and others.

One more reason Paul wrote this last epistle, was to request that Timothy visit him, and to bring with him a few important personal items.

1. The Gospel is the Promise of Life (v. 1)

Interestingly enough, it is the promise of life that motivates Paul as he awaits his physical death.

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 5:24 ESV

24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

So, how do we know that we don’t already have this life, aren’t we all guaranteed that a loving God wouldn’t just naturally give it to us?

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Promise, a covenant, or commitment, only as sound as the ability of the promiser to keep it.

a) This Promise is the will of the Father (1)

The will of God is seen in calling Paul to be an apostle (1 Cor. 9:1), for the purpose of declaring the promise of life.

b) This Promise is only found in Jesus Christ (1)

Let’s not miss this exclusive declarative statement…this promise of life is only found in Jesus Christ. In other words, if you are not in Christ, you will die the second death under God’s judgment in Hell!

John 14:6 ESV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

2. The Gospel breeds the Intimacy of Family (v. 2-3)

Though there was no biological connection between Paul and Timothy, yet there was a greater more intimate connection as children of God, and as Paul being the spiritual Father of Timothy.

a) Intimately Cherished and Loved Unconditionally (2)

The adjective beloved has at its root the greatest word for love, agape.

The relationship to one another as believers is rooted and ground in the love of God.

b) Intimately Blessed by our Connection to the Father and Son (2)

Grace, mercy, and peace are family blessings

Grace, God’s unmerited favour extended toward His children giving them salvation, and equipping them for service to Him

Mercy, God withholding His wrath from His children, and condemning His on Son in our place

Peace, having propitiated God’s wrath against us, Jesus’ sacrifice provides us with peace with God (Rom. 5:1), and the peace of God (Phil 4:7)

c) Intimately Remembered by one another (3)

Remembering is a part of the intimacy of a close family

Remember you in consistent prayer

Remember your tears

I long to see you…desiring to fellowship in person is a naturally organic result of God’s family…of Christ’s church. The church of Jesus Christ cannot exist in isolation!

3. The Gospel was Conceived in Antiquity (vv. 3-5)

a) The Gospel originated with God (v. 3)

Revelation 13:8 ESV

8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

b) The Gospel flowed through the ancestors (forefathers) (v. 3)

Paul’s defense before Felix...

Acts 24:14–15 ESV

14 But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, 15 having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.

Baker New Testament Commentary: The Pastoral Epistles 1:1–7

What Paul stresses, therefore, is that he has not introduced a new religion. Essentially what he now believes is what Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Isaiah, and all the pious ancestors also believed.

c) This Gospel produces present time indwelling faith (v. 5)

1. Indwelling faith is a non-hypocritical, genuine faith

2. Indwelling faith is modeled and taught by godly parents

The importance of passing on the faith legacy is the most important function of the family.

Circumcision in the OT was a sign to the parent and child that they were a part of the covenant community of believers. Though that sign and membership in that covenant community did not guarantee salvation (the child still needed to believe on his/her own), they nonetheless where immersed in the indoctrination of the faith community.

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 ESV

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

In the NT, we see examples of whole households coming to Christ (Acts 16:30-31), and the responsibility to train up a child in Eph 6:1-4

Ephesians 6:4 ESV

4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Of course here we see how Timothy’s grandmother Lois, and mother Eunice trained Timothy in The Faith, that dwelled in them.

So What?

We have been given a sacred trust, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the promise of life, to use, preserve, and pass on. Is that our passion and motivation in every area of our life?

Do you know for sure that you have this promise of life? This can only be found in Jesus Christ. If you are counting on anything else, your good works, being an American, being raised in a religious home, you are trusting a counterfeit gospel. You must repent of your sin and put your faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross for you.

Next Week:

We will be looking at the responsibility of a believer in developing this sacred trust in his or her life here on earth.