The Gospel: Chapter 5 -- Jesus

Intro Story/Illustration

We left the last session with 400 years of silence from God. Israel was left in exile, wallowing not only in their sin, but in the consequences of their sin under the thumb of foreign powers.

They were left for six centuries in this state, wondering if God would actually be faithful to His commitment to bless the world through Israel — if God would keep his promises to bring redemption through Israel, through the Messiah.

Story coming together in an unexpected way? Ex: Tale of Two Cities with Sidney Carton?

The Gospel

When the time was right, when the tension was at its height, the story reached its climax.

God Himself, the protagonist, the main character — steps into the story in an unexpected way:

John 1:1–3, 14 (ESV)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us . . .

Jesus is born to a virgin in Bethlehem, the royal city of David, fulfilling numerous prophecies about how the Messiah would be born. A true Israelite in the line of King David, Israel’s greatest king.

Jesus, fully man and fully God, lives the perfect human life.

He passes through the temptation of the enemy in the wilderness and unlike Adam, he does not sin.

He lives in perfect unity with the Father, loving Him with all of his heart, mind, soul, and strength.

He works miracles and frees people from bondage to sin, sickness, and death, exercising His power over the works of the devil.

He teaches about how to live in accord with the kingdom of heaven, and gathers a large following as people experience the abundant life He promises.

It appears as if God is finally going to make good on His promises to Israel. It appears as if Jesus, the Messiah, is going to finally lead His people to victory over the foreign powers enslaving Israel.

They expect a militaristic overthrow of the current system, over their Roman overlords.

They expect the inauguration of God’s Kingdom on earth in the same vein as King David or Solomon after him — an earthly palace, an expanding kingdom, prosperity to Israel unlike the world had ever seen.

They expect Jesus to soon draw the sword and lead the people in victories war.

What they soon realize is that they are right to call Jesus the Messiah, but they are wrong in their beliefs about what the Messiah will need to do in order to bring God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Jesus hints at this truth with His disciples, telling them that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. But the disciples don’t understand, and even rebuke Him.

Later, after observing a final Passover meal with His disciples, Jesus, like Adam before Him, finds Himself in a Garden, tempted to abandon God’s will — tempted to rebel against the will of the Father in order to do what seemed better in His own eyes.

Faced with the prospect of physical pain and spiritual torment, Jesus

Unlike Adam, Jesus resists the temptation. Through blood, tears, and sweat, he prays:

Matthew 26:39, 42 (ESV)

“My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

[And again:]

“My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”

The guards find Him in the Garden. He’s tried in a kangaroo court, delivered to the Roman prefect, Pilate, and beaten and mocked. He’s charged with blasphemy for claiming to be the King of the Jews. Pilate finds no fault with Him, but the Jews insist He be crucified — the harshest sentence for insurrectionists and criminals.

He stumbles up a hill to the place of the skull, Golgotha, and is nailed to a wooden cross, lifted up for all to see.

Above His head a sign was hung which read “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

After several grueling hours of laboring for every breath, His mutilated back rubbing up and down the splintery wood of the cross, his full weight pressing against the nails in his hands and feet — Jesus neared death.

John 19:28–30 (ESV)

28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

He is speared in His side to confirm His death, then His body is removed from the cross and placed in tomb, newly cut in the side of a rock face. Roman guards seal the tomb to ensure none of Jesus’s zealous followers try and remove His body.

And just like that, the would-be Messiah — God’s King set to bring the world to rights once and for all, set to fulfill the promises to Abraham and bless the world through Israel, dies. And with Him, the hopes of all of His followers.

“It is finished.”

What was finished? Jesus’s hopes for restoring the kingdom to Israel? The hopes and dreams of His followers, who had given three years of their lives to believe and follow this man?

Or was it something else?

For two days His followers wait in hiding. They grieve the loss of their friend, their Rabbi. They grieve the loss of all they thought was to come through Him. They fear for their own lives — if this is how they treated Jesus, wouldn’t they come after them next?

Another silence from God for God’s people. Another waiting, but this time without hope.

Then, on the third day — the first day of the week — some women who followed Jesus rose early to go to the tomb, wanting to anoint the body with spices as in the Jewish tradition. But when they arrive, they are surprised at what they see.

The stone which sealed the tomb is rolled away.

Inside, the tomb is empty, with graveclothes folded neatly and set aside.

Outside, shining messengers from God greet them:

Luke 24:5–9 (ESV)

5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” 8 And they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

The resurrected Jesus soon greets His disciples, first on the road to Emmaus, then again in a closed room. Some doubt, but they see Him in the flesh — they see the scars in His hands and feet — and they believe.

It is because many of us have failed to understand the Gospel in the context of this larger story that we have failed to understand how the Gospel must impact every facet of our stories.

Void of context, for both us and the nonbelieving world around us, reminders that “Jesus loves us” and “Jesus died for our sins” sound nice but slightly irrelevant. Void of context, the story of the Gospel simply doesn’t make sense.

How must nonbelievers unacquainted with the Bible feel when we try to tell them that Jesus loves them? So what?