The 3D Gospel
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· 15 views- Def. of the Gospel - Def. of Transcendence and Immanence --> Illustration: God - The Gospel is holy//we don't see this story no where else. Although it is unique, it speaks to every culture Cultures are guilt/innocent shame/honor fear/power http://theculturetest.com/
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One year of many. // story
And I hope that we were successful in conveying that the gospel is central to us.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
I am not ashamed of the Gospel.
It is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.
EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES.
Let’s pray.
Today’s message comes from my time in seminary,
when I was learning about different cultures.
The book,
the 3D Gospel really inspired me with my thinking on today’s sermon.
...
How have you heard the Gospel?//gospel
You probably heard,
if you were blessed in hearing good preaching,
that the Gospel consists of the fact that your transgressions,
your sins,
your downfalls have separated you from God.
Therefore, you are guilty.
You deserve punishment.
But Jesus died for your sin.
So,
if you believe in him,
your sins will be forgiven.
This gospel presentation is not bad.
If you believe in this,
your faith is genuine,
then your sins have been forgiven and you can enjoy a new life in Christ.
——
However,
that’s only looking at it through one perspective
one lens
That’s through the innocence/guilt perspective. // draw
We were guilty of sin,
but God made us innocent through Christ.
This is true, and we need to preach this.
But it’s not the whole pie.
The Gospel speaks more than to the innocence/guilt perspective.
If you meet someone from central Asia,
or from a different framework,
this innocent/guilt presentation of the Gospel will not be fully understood.
There was a person from Asia who believed in the innocent/guilt presentation of the Gospel.
But this one time,
this woman Gulzel,
was returning to the city via taxi.
Well,
the taxi had a male driver,
and three male passengers.
The men began inviting Gulzel home for tea.
The young girl felt uncomfortable and tried to downplay the situation.
Halfway through the ride,
the men stopped for a round of vodka shots.
They were intoxicated,
and the men began to be physically aggressive.
...
Horrible.
...
But just when they started to become aggressive,
Gulzel saw her uncle in an oncoming car, heading in her direction.
Instead of jumping into the road and flagging her uncle down,
she hid..
Gulzel hid.
Stayed in the car,
because she did not want her uncle to see her.
Gulzel’s primary concern in that moment was avoiding shame and maintaining family honor.
Not everyone might just understand,
okay,
I’m in danger.
No,
some people also think about,
I’m shameful,
I’m embarrassed.
And Gulzel was a Christian,
was forgiven,
but that understanding of forgiveness didn’t really speak to her being honored.
That she’s honored regardless of what she did,
as she is forgiven, regardless of what she did.
She was honored despite what others did.
...
A few years later,
Gulzel’s brother died.
He was the oldest son,
so it brought a lot of pain to the family.
Gulzel then began to have dreams,
where spirits that looked like her brother appeared to her.
The spirits told Gulzel to go eat dirt from the brother’s grave site to appease the spirits.
...
Mind you, Gulzel was a Christian.
But she listened to the spirits.
She only knew the Gospel through this one lens,
through the innocent/guilty view,
but she didn’t see the Gospel as something that also brought honor, and power. // draw
...
We, as westerners, mainly see things as guilt-innocence.
Of course, we have other paradigms at play.
But by and large,
Westerners see things as guilty/innocent.
People who break the law are guilty
People seek justice or forgiveness.
But not everyone sees things like that.
...
I know most of us are Latinos.
In that culture,
shame and honor are more important than guilt and innocence.
You are shamed for not fulfilling groups’ expectations.
——
There’s also a fear-power perspective.
Like we’re afraid of evil and demons,
these invisible powers.
That have been present in the spiritual world.
Maybe you have family members who mess with brujos,
or witches,
for this reason:
they have this fear-power paradigm.
...
The Gospel answers and helps through all of these perspectives.
Look at Paul in the book of Ephesians.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
We have redemption through his blood.
We have the forgiveness of sins.
made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
God made us alive when we were guilty in transgressions.
Dead in transgression.
But that’s not just it.
Paul says in Ephesians 1:5
he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—
We are not only forgiven,
but now we are sons and daughters.
Adopted and honored.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household,
You are not just innocent in the eyes of God,
but you are a citizen of his kingdom.
A member of God’s household.
And Paul addresses the fear-power paradigm.
and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
The one who has forgiven us,
adopted us,
he has power over all rule,
all the authority,
all the power and dominion
all of the visible and invisible world.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
The Gospel gives us the power to stand against the devil's schemes.
And we could see these three paradigms in his prayer.
Ephesians 1:18–19 (NIV)
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength
We have hope because we have been forgiven.
We have a glorious inheritance because we have honor in God’s family.
We have power because we believe.
We have the power to conquer anything and any demon.
Sometimes we just focus on one aspect of the Gospel,
but the gospel,
the gospel addresses all three perspectives.
The gospel is like a multi-faceted diamond.
God wants people in all cultures,
in all understandings,
to experience his complete salvation.
Here we just emphasize one aspect,
because that’s how we understand things.
But we can’t neglect these other facets since they are uber important in our lives.
Essential to our lives.
When we just focus on one aspect,
we are unintentionally putting God in a box.//Circle guilt/innocence
Gulzel’s understanding of Christian salvation,
adopted from Western Christianity,
was only one-dimensional.
Consequently,
she defaulted to cultural practices to access honor and power,
bypassing God’s grace.
But she should’ve walked in Gospel honor and Gospel power.//draw Gospel honor
Let’s try to understand these perspectives better.
I think C.S. Lewis’ quote about integrity summarizes what this perspective is about.
“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when nobody is looking,” C.S Lewis.
This culture does not just emphasize rules and laws,
but our independent code of conduct.
We don’t care about what others say,
we just do what is right,
in this way of thinking.
Not all cultures think of this.
Look at a quote from a Shame-honor culture
“Honor is the good opinion of good people,” Seneca, famous Roman philosopher
...
Maybe you remember the tragic Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.
Well, the media found the suspects’ uncle.
In one public television,
the Chechen uncle denounced his nephew:
“You put a shame on our entire family—the Tsarnaev family. And you put a shame on the entire Chechen ethnicity. . . . Everyone now puts that shame on the entire ethnicity.”
The view was more on shame than guilt.
...
The shame-honor societies focus on the group.
It’s not so individualized.
Honor is when other people think well of you,
and you have harmonious social bonds in the community.
Honor comes from relationships.
Shame is a negative public rating.
The community thinks lowly of you.
You are disconnected from the group.
You could really hear about this shame-honor perspective in the Psalmist’s writings
You have made us a reproach to our neighbors,
the scorn and derision of those around us.
I live in disgrace all day long,
and my face is covered with shame
Like, we wouldn’t care what others think of us.
But other cultures did and do.
And I’m not saying that it’s a right way of seeing things,
or the wrong way.
I’m saying there are humans who see things through an honor/shame perspective.
And to be honest,
most people in the Bible experienced life through this paradigm.
In a guilt perspective,
People say, I made a mistake.
In a shame perspective,
people say,
“I am a mistake.”
...
Then we have fear-power cultures. // draw
It’s not even about doing the right thing,
following some ethical standards.
What is important is manipulating the spiritual powers to help you.
Think of tribal shamans or Caribbean voodoo practitioners.
Or a businessman praying to a saint or a Washington politician consulting an astrologer.
Fear-power cultures stem from the belief that there are spirits inhabiting the physical world and these spirits can be manipulated through magical rituals.
With this mentality,
you are always scared of invisible powers.
You don’t want to offend the powers or the cosmos—the universe.
...
To gain power,
to become aware,
they use amulets,
interact with curses, charms, recitations,
incantations, witchcraft, horoscopes,
or the evil eye.
The moral logic of fear-power cultures says:
do something in the seen world to manipulate the unseen world into helping you.
...
To protect a vulnerable newborn baby from harm,
parents may paint an image on her forehead to ward off spirits.
...
To inflict revenge,
an offended person may burn a picture of an enemy.
...
To promote fertility,
a couple may visit a holy mountain to pray.
...
To contain a contagious disease,
the village elders may sacrifice a bull to appease the gods.
...
To ensure prosperity, a family may sacrifice food to ancestors at the family altar.
To procure lifelong supernatural influence,
a person may purposefully invite dark beings into their life.
...
The voluntary submission to these spirits promises protection, spiritual provision,
and perhaps a respected place in the community as a shaman.
I think everyone is influenced by these three paradigms.
Of course we have one more that influence us than the others.
At any rate,
the Gospel restores all of these negative positions:
guilt, shame, fear.
In the Guilt-innocence narrative,
and this how I learned about the Gospel,
and really became convinced and convicted.
It speaks about God being holy and just in all of His ways.
He acts with perfect righteousness.
Sin never enters His innermost presence.
This righteous God created the entire world out of nothing.
God created humans,
placed them in the Garden of Eden.
Humans rebelled against God.
They were guilty,
thus they face the consequences of physical and spiritual death.
Because of the sin of Adam and Eve,
people are born into a state of sin.
Naturally, humans oppose God.
Humans can never reach the divine standard of holiness by themselves.
But God always gave an opportunity for forgiveness.
In Israel,
with the atoning sacrificial system,
the Israelites would receive forgiveness.
The sacrificial system foreshadowed the work of Christ.
Jesus Christ, God’s own Son,
became the perfect sacrifice to take away the sins of humanity.
Jesus lived a perfectly sinless life.
Having no sin of his own,
he took our sin.
Jesus was the perfect Lamb of God.
He was pierced for our transgressions and bore the consequence of our iniquities.
Jesus’ death on the cross forgive our trespasses and cancels the record of debt that stands against us.
Then, Jesus rose from the dead and went to heaven.
God is now building His church with those who repent of their sins and believe in Jesus.
To become a follower of Jesus,
one must recognize and confess the truth of their sin before God, as moved by the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Because Jesus reconciles us to God, our efforts towards moral perfection are in vain.
We are saved by faith as a gracious gift from God, not by our own merit.
Being forgiven of our sins, we are now called to forgive others.
When Jesus returns to the earth,
God will judge all people justly and punish sin,
the sin people chose to carry.
The wicked will be condemned to hell and the righteous will spend eternity with God in heaven.
We should all say “Amen” to that.
We should all believe that.
And hopefully, that is not the first time that you have heard that.
But this isn’t just the only narrative,
the Gospel, in another perspective,
in an honor perspective is this. // point to this
In the beginning,
God existed in eternity.
in full glory.
in honor.
God is an honorable King.
He is a Father.
He is pure, faithful, and glorious.
He is the source of all true honor.
To bring him glory,
God made the cosmos.
He made humans,
crowned them with his image.
Humans and God were in partnership to rule over creation.
As God’s children, Adam and Eve had God’s name.
They walked in honor,
unashamed.
But the first humans were disloyal to God.
They gave up their honor to pursue their own,
self-earned,
honor.
Their rebellion created shame,
so they hid.
Adam and Eve brought shame to everyone.
God then banished them from his presence to maintain his dignity.
Descendants of Adam continued to bring shame.
They committed abuse, acts of anger, gossip, boasting, racism, violence, war.
God wanted to restore human honor.
So he partnered with Abraham to make his name great,
to bless him with land, a nation, and many children.
And Abraham and his family would become God’s instrument to bless, honor,
all nations.
And God honored Israel.
Desired to partner with them,
but Israel sinned.
They brought dishonor.
Over and over.
But then, Jesus entered the picture.
He was eternally glorious and honored
in heaven as God’s son,
Jesus became a lowly human being in order to save people from shame.
He healed and ate with people who were social outcasts.
Jesus honored them.
He restored divine honor.
And he taught to welcome all, regardless of what society says.
Jesus’ ministry threatened the earthly honor of established leaders.
So they responded by shaming him, publicly and violently.
Jesus was arrested, stripped, mocked, whipped, spat upon, nailed, and hung naked upon a cross before all eyes.
...
He was shamed.
But through this,
Jesus was taking our shame.
And he dealt with it,
and broke its power.
The cross restored God’s honor and removed our shame.
God publicly approved Jesus’ shame-bearing death by resurrecting him to glory.
Jesus now sits at God’s honorable right hand with a name above all others.
Those who commit themselves to follow Jesus have their shame turned to honor.
Honor is restored.
We don’t find honor through social manipulation, or status construction.
You are part of God’s family,
a family that transcends ethnicity, reputation,
and religious purity.
As one writer said,
God exchanges our old status as unclean, worthless, and inferior orphans for the status of pure, worthy, and honorable children.
Those who follow Christ to the cross of shame will also follow him into resurrection glory.
...
Being welcomed into God’s family allows people to welcome and accept other groups.
Christians are able to honor others and glorify God since they possess God’s eternal honor and empowering Spirit.
Upon Jesus’ return, unbelievers will be stripped of all worldly honors and banished to everlasting shame
while believers will receive crowns of eternal honor
as God’s glory fills all creation.
This perspective should sound very familiar,
because it’s connected to the kingdom theme,
it’s connected to the overt culture of the Scriptures,
which is predominately shame/honor.
Now,
the last one for today:
Fear-power narrative.
In the beginning,
the creator God made the world just by saying the word.
He spoke,
and it was.
God is in control over everything in creation.
Over the heavens,
and over the earth.
In love,
he rules with absolute authority and power.
Creation praises his might and his strength.
God established this world as his kingdom,
and he set Adam to reign over it.
God shared his power with Adam.
Adam was to walk with authority over the world.
But at some point,
this adversary came to the picture.
This serpent planned to lead a rebellion against God.
He persuaded the first humans to go under his rule.
Adam was supposed to use God’s power to subdue everything on the earth,
including this serpent.
But instead, the serpent became their ruler.
He became the new prince.
And humans are now born into his kingdom.
...
One writer said,
Sin, spiritual attack, and idolatry enslave human souls to dark forces.
...
God used the nation of Israel to defeat the enemy.
And they defeated Egypt and its gods.
they were free.
God gave the Israelites victory over battles,
when the they relied on Him.
Sadly,
shortly after,
and repeatedly,
Israel would ally itself with the gods of Canaan and rulers of larger nations
because they thought that those spirits and gods would bring them power.
The prophets of Israel would tell them,
return to the true source of power,
return to God.
God’s liberating power became flesh in Jesus Christ.
Jesus brought the power of God.
He resisted Satan’s offer of co-rulership.
Jesus demonstrated what it means to rely on the power of God.
Jesus also helped people, a lot of people, be free from demons.
He delivered people who held captive by Satan.
He healed the sick,
raised the dead,
and casted out demons.
...
Jesus used his power to save all those who are under the power of the devil.
On the cross,
the evil powers thought that they had won.
They had killed God’s Son.
But in reality,
Jesus Christ was the deathblow to the evil forces.
The cross disarmed the powers and authorities and publicly triumphed over them.
And to top it off,
Jesus rose from the dead!
...
Death had no power over him.
Evidently,
Jesus has dominion over the living and the dead.
...
Believers continue to experience Jesus’ liberating power.
They transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.
God raises us up with Christ,
seats us in heavenly realms,
so that we too have power and dominion above all other authorities.
God restores our authoritative position in the world.
We are co-heirs with Christ.
We now have the power against Satan,
against any demon,
any evil spirit.
We don’t need black magic,
white magic,
or any type of magic.
God’s spirit is enough.
...
As we close,
let’s understand this.
Sin is a big deal.
Our shortcomings,
our downfalls are a problem.
Sin causes us to be guilty,
to be shamed,
to be fearful.
Therefore,
we try to solve the problem.
We chase innocence, honor, and power,
by ourselves,
by our merits,
apart from God.
...
But the God of the Bible desires to make us
innocent,
honorable,
and powerful.
...
We need to live out this Gospel life,
if you haven’t started by believing,
I encourage you to do so.
Talk to me, or some other believer in the church.
We could pray for you.
...
If you have stepped into gospel living,
then walk as an innocent person,
as a person with honor,
as a powerful person,
as a person with good power.
I want to end with Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:18-19
Ephesians 1:18–19 (NIV)
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.