The Gospel, Pt. 1
Our Values • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 28 viewsThe Gospel is the announcement of a new king and new kingdom who brings peace to the whole world.
Files
Notes
Transcript
Vision Statement
Vision Statement
to see the world and especially the communities in which we live, work, and worship filled with disciples of Jesus Christ
Mission Statement
Mission Statement
to abide in Christ through the Anglican tradition so that, filled with the Holy Spirit and living transformed lives, we may love and serve God and our neighbors as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord
Eight Values
Eight Values
The Gospel
Genuine Worship
Biblical Living
Transformed Lives and Communities
Perpetual Prayer
Unity through Christ
Compassion and Care
Missions and Evangelism
The Gospel, Pt. 1
The Gospel, Pt. 1
What is the Gospel?
What is the Gospel?
Justification by Faith
Justification by Faith
The typical answer, especially for Protestants, is some form of justification by faith. Here’s how Richard Hays defines Justification in the Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary: “A term that describes the event whereby persons are set or declared to be in right relation to God. The word is often used to summarize the central message of the gospel proclaimed by Paul” (Richard B. Hays, “Justification,” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 1129).
You have been made right with God because of what Jesus Christ accomplished in his death and resurrection apart from any work or merit on your own.
But if justification by faith is the Gospel, then there is a follow-up question:
Did Jesus preach the Gospel?
Did Jesus preach the Gospel?
Yes and No. The Four Gospels certainly seem to think that Jesus preached the Gospel.
And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,
One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up
But what was Jesus preaching?
But what was Jesus preaching?
Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7)
Preaching at Nazareth
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.
And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
There is nothing about the cross. Nothing about the resurrection. Nothing about justification by faith.
Part, But Not the Whole
Part, But Not the Whole
So, if Jesus preached the Gospel (and he did) then Justification by faith, which is normally what we call The Gospel, is only part of the Gospel (or maybe even the result of the Gospel), not the whole of the Gospel. The Good News is bigger than the fact that you and I are justified by faith alone.
Scot McKnight, an Anglican deacon, New Testament scholar, and Canon Theologian in C4SO, says of the church in America, “We have developed a personal salvation culture at the expense of a gospel culture. We have a culture of justification and personal salvation that is concerned with who is in and who is out, and we’ve lost contact with the meaning of the word Gospel.”
If he’s right, we’re on very dangerous ground. We are supposed to be Gospel people, but it seems that the Gospel people have forgotten the meaning of that word. So, over the next 8 weeks or so, I want to recover the meaning of the word Gospel. I want to ask and answer:
What is the Gospel?
What is the Gospel?
εὐαγγέλιον, ου, τό
orig. ‘a reward for good news’, then simply ‘good news’
Does not have a distinctly Christian meaning in ancient literature. In the New Testament comes to have a distinct meaning for Christians, but the Christians didn’t invent the word. Instead they took a word they already knew and filled it with distinctly Christological content.
But before that happened, the word did have meaning in both the Greco-Roman world and in the Old Testament, and that’s where I want to begin our study.
[From Wikipedia] Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius or simply Octavian; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) was the first Roman emperor, reigning from 27 BC until his death in AD 14.
one of the most effective and controversial leaders in human history.
The reign of Augustus initiated an era of relative peace known as the Pax Romana. The Roman world was largely free from large-scale conflict for more than two centuries, despite continuous wars of imperial expansion on the Empire's frontiers and the year-long civil war known as the "Year of the Four Emperors" over the imperial succession.
His maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, and Octavius was named in Caesar's will as his adopted son and heir, after which he took the name Gaius Julius Caesar, though later historians would take to calling him Octavian to avoid confusion with his great-uncle.
He, Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar. Following their victory at the Battle of Philippi (42 BC), the Triumvirate divided the Roman Republic among themselves and ruled as de facto dictators. The Triumvirate was eventually torn apart by the competing ambitions of its members; Lepidus was exiled in 36 BC, and Antony was defeated by Octavian at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC.
After the demise of the Second Triumvirate, Augustus restored the outward façade of the free Republic, with governmental power vested in the Roman Senate, the executive magistrates, and the legislative assemblies, yet maintained autocratic authority by having the Senate grant him lifetime tenure as supreme military command, tribune, and censor. A similar ambiguity is seen in his chosen names, the implied rejection of monarchical titles whereby he called himself Princeps Civitatis ("First Citizen") juxtaposed with his adoption of the ancient title Augustus.
He reformed the Roman system of taxation, developed networks of roadswith an official courier system, established a standing army, established the Praetorian Guard, created official police and fire-fighting services for Rome, and rebuilt much of the city during his reign. Augustus died in AD 14 at the age of 75, probably from natural causes. Persistent rumors, substantiated somewhat by numerous deaths in the imperial family, have claimed his wife Livia poisoned him. He was succeeded as emperor by Livia's son – also his by adoption and former husband of his only biological daughter Julia – Tiberius, who consolidated the Principate into a de facto autocratic monarchy, the Roman Empire.
The Priene Calendar Inscription
the Priene inscription, containing the official calendar of the Asian League (9 BC), mandated that the birthday of the emperor Augustus would mark the beginning of the Asian new year. The decree celebrated the birth of Augustus as a renewal of the natural order and his life as a means of beneficence and benefaction to all the peoples of Roman Asia:
It seemed good to the Greeks of Asia, in the opinion of the high priest Apollonius of Menophilus Azanitus: ‘Since Providence, which has ordered all things and is deeply interested in our life, has set in most perfect order by giving us Augustus, whom she filled with virtue that he might benefit humankind, sending him as a Saviour, both for us and for our descendants, that he might end war and arrange all things, and since he, Caesar, by his appearance (excelled even our anticipations), surpassing all previous benefactors, and not even leaving to posterity any hope of surpassing what he has done, and since the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the good tidings for the world that came by reason of him,’ which Asia resolved in Smyrna. (OGIS 458)
Providence has ordered all things to bring Augustus to the world.
His birth marks such a turning point in history that is resets the calendar.
He is Savior.
He surpasses all who came before him and not will be greater than him.
He is a god.
His birth is good news to the world that came about because of what he’s accomplished.
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
But it wasn’t merely Augustus who was referred to in this way.
Flavius Josephus
Flavius Josephus
Jewish historian in the first century
Vespasian (Emperor Titus)
Vespasian (Emperor Titus)
Roman emperor from 69-79 AD.
While Vespasian besieged Jerusalem during the Jewish rebellion, emperor Nero committed suicide and plunged Rome into a year of civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors. After Galba and Otho perished in quick succession, Vitellius became emperor in April 69. The Roman legions of Roman Egypt and Judaea reacted by declaring Vespasian, their commander, the emperor on 1 July 69.
Second, among Diaspora Jews, Josephus refers to the report about General Vespasian’s accession to the imperial throne, narrating how:
… every city celebrated the good news and offered sacrifices on his behalf. (Jos. War 4.618)
On reaching Alexandria Vespasian was greeted by the good news from Rome and embassies of congratulation from every quarter of the world now his own … the whole empire being now secured and the Roman state saved beyond expectation. (Jos. War 4.656–7)
Cicero (1st century BC)
Cicero (1st century BC)
Cicero (writing in Latin) uses the Greek word twice in his Letters to Atticus. So, it seems that the word did have something of a specific sense. Cicero couldn’t come up with a Latin equivalent, or at least he chose not to.
What is the Gospel?
What is the Gospel?
We’re only looking at one side so far. The Greco-Roman side, but what do you notice?
The word ‘Gospel’ is used for the announcement of a new king and a new kingdom that brings peace to the world.
Jesus is Lord
Jesus is Lord
The Gospel is announcement. It is a declaration. We have turned the Gospel into an invitation. “Do you want to make Jesus Lord of your life.” But that is not the Gospel. The gospel in its simplest form is “Jesus is Lord.”
Did Jesus preach the Gospel?
Did Jesus preach the Gospel?
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.
And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.
And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”
“The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.
Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him,
and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.
And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.
proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.
When we preach the Gospel, our job is to announce the rule of Jesus Christ over heaven and earth. Our job is to announce that every caesar, every president, every king, and every would-be ruler are subjects of Jesus Christ.
The Gospel is an announcement, not an invitation.
The Gospel is an announcement, not an invitation.