Euangelion

Intro

Welcome to River’s Edge this morning

As you know we have been on a series here at REC where we are talking about words..

And the reason why we are taking so much time to talk about words is because there are a few words in the Bible that when you really dig into them

they go from the beginning of the Bible to the end, they tell the story of the entire Bible in just one word, they give meaning to who God is and they challenge us to act

These are words like:

Ruakh or the Holy spirit of God. God’s Spirit is present in creation and then we find it resting on believers in the book of Acts.

Words like Khata…or Sin…Sin makes us less than human and breaks our relationship with God but we serve a Holy God who took the cross to break the power of sin in our lives

We looked at the word Shalom: This peace that existed in Eden that Jesus gives to each one of his new creations

We looked at the word Tov....Tov is both who God is (Good) and what God created all of us for goodness

Last week we looked at the word for Witness…It is What we are…If your life has been changed then you have witnessed God’s power , and you get to be a witness for him

And today, our last word is “Gospel”

Gospel

And if you are a Christian you may have said before, I believe in the “gospel”…or I will only go to a church that preaches “the gospel” and you say this as a short-handed way of sort of summarizing all that you believe about Jesus into one word right?

But the problem is that when you say it so often it will sort of lose its power

And not only that, often times we will say things in church like, Do you believe in “the gospel?”

And you might know what that means but you might also be clueless

This is an impotrant word…in the New Testament alone it is used 117 times

I find that so many times we use the term in an incomplete way....So today I hope to fill that word out a little more

in its simplest form, Jesus’ rule and reign, his life, death and resurrection is the gospel.

You can even get as simple as saying “Jesus = The gospel.”

Jesus is the good news, and that is all true

and while it is in-fact that simple, my hope today is to deepen that word for you so that you can see this word all over the Bible.

So the concept of the gospel or good news begins in the Old Testament

Now you don’t read the word Gospel in the old testament, but you will see the phrase “Good News” or “Glad Tidings” It means the same thing

So first let me give you a quick overview of Israel’s history ...

Abraham has decedents that are supposed to bless every nation

These are the 12 tribes of Israel

all these 12 tribes are held captive in Egypt as slaves

The book of Exodus in the Bible is all about God saving the 12 tribes of Israel from slavery

for 40 years the 12 tribes wonder in the dessert until they get to the promised land

and once they get there, there are a lot of people so they have to have a way to govern all of these people, God wanted them to be unlike the other nations.

God wanted a holy people who were unique…In fact over and over again in these stories you see this idea of set-apartness for israel…and specifically that they are not like the other nations that are around them...

So there is this system of judges & priests that gets set up …because again…Israel is not supposed to be like other nations

But eventually the people want a king.

1 Samuel 8:4–7 (NIV)

So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.

Now this is the clearest instance that we have in the Old Testament that God is always supposed to be the king

Now from this point on, the word for “good news” is used a lot in the Old Testament

It is primarily a royal announcement.

Now the reason why I bring this up is that when we come to figure out all what the gospel is in our lives it is impotrant to see that it always has to do with a king

Now in Hebrew the word for Good news is Bisser

So we see it used in 2 basic ways

Usually kings had runners and they would come and give the news of what happened in battle

Good News! Your kingdom has survived

Kings would literally have runners who would run to tell them the good news.

And the second most impotrant way is the good news that God himself will be king again

So in 1 Samuel 8 we see bad news…that God is rejected as king

But the prophets will tell of this good news that is to come...

So flip wit me to Isaiah 52 for a second

Isaiah 52:7–8 NIV

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes.

Now Isaiah 52 is all about the exiles returning from exile

A return form exile is essentially salvation…It’s a return from being lost

So Isaiah is saying that the good news is about how God himself comes into Israel to be with his people

and people will shout, your god reigns...

What do kings do? Kings reign right?

So Isaiah is absolutely setting up this idea that where God was rejected as king in the past, there will be a day when the Lord himself waltzes into Israel and gets celebrated as king!

This is good news!

This is the gospel!

Then in at the end of Isaiah 52 look at verses 13-15

Now in the book of Isaiah there is this idea of a servant that God will send...

Its all over the book

This servant’s name will be Immanuel, he will suffer for his people and take their sins on to himself!

So lets keep reading

Isaiah 52:13–15 NIV

See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him— his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness— so he will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.

I mean could this be right? Could this be part of the good news?

That when God comes into Israel he will take a beating ?

And somehow what Isaiah is setting up is that God’s servant will be king of kings?

And then Isaiah 53 will talk more about this coming king

Isaiah 53:4–6 NIV

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

See Hundreds of years before Jesus was ever born Isaiah would say that the good news is that there is a new king who will come and bring a new kingdom...

He will take his throne back!

But that king will take a beating and he will suffer

but somehow this king will take on all of our sin and our punishment

He will bear the brunt of our punishment so we can be saved!

Before one letter of the New Testament was ever written Isaiah told future generations what the good news was…He told them what to look for in the gospel...

So if your following along....All of the essential elements of the gospel are found in the Old Testament…

The king (God) that was rejected will come back…And actually get rejected again…he will take a beating but somehow that in that beating, he will take my sin and my shame away....And somehow in that beating he will be king...

Are you with me? I mean these are some of the essential elements of the Gospel!

So let’s get into the New Testament

The word for gospel is

Euangelion:

Its where we get the word Evangelist...

Its because someone spreads the good news

It actually goes back to the idea of the royal runners who would come to bring news from the battle field!

The whole book of Mark starts this way

Mark 1:1 (NIV)

The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,

So what Mark wants you to know as he is writing his account of Jesus down is that all of Jesus’ life is good news

But Bonus word…He calls him the messiah…At its core the word Messiah means “anointed one” and the messiah was supposed to come from the line of David, Israel’s greatest king…its a world that is royal

So in light of everything we just read in the old testament…You can read this…The beginning of the good news about Jesus…the God king coming to reclaim his throne...

and this is good news!

The coming kingdom of God

Mark 1:15 NIV

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

So whenever we read words like this that the kingdom of God has come near…You kind of think back to the whole story...

God was supposed to be king

He was dethroned

Isaiah talks about God reigning again

And now Jesus, the son of God is saying that God’s kingdom is back

And I am convinced that the original hearers of Jesus both knew what he meant but couldn't grasp the full significance of Jesus as king until they saw Jesus on the cross with a crown of thorns and a sign that says “King of the Jews”

See and Jesus says something that is so impotrant about the gospel

He says…The reign of God, his kingdom has come near

See every religion in the world says that you have to do stuff to be good enough to get near to God

The gospel is that Jesus comes near to us not that we try to get near to him.

in our broken and sinful states and comes near to us

see its not about what you can do go near to God...

God comes up to us! He makes himself available!

Maybe you’re here today and you have begun believing in a lie that somehow in your life you need to appease God. Like the stuff in your past is so bad that you need to do stuff for God to find favor with you...

Not true....

The good news is that he is coming to seek you out. God is Love and the greatest embodiment of that is Jesus

But here is the other thing that you need to know…The gospel announcement is that Jesus is king so here is your next fill in

kingdom applications

Jesus is King and I’m not

See the gospel is so good but yet cuts to the heart so much

Because I want to be king of my own life

I want to be in charge

But to accept the gospel is first to put Jesus on the throne of your life as king

Our world constantly conditions us to believe that we are kings or queens and that that is how we should see ourselves

But the difficult reality of the gospel is that Jesus calls us to a full surrender of our own lives over to his kingdom

Jesus will say things like

Matthew 16:24–25 NIV

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

The cost of the gospel is surrendering yourself to the authority of the king

The promise of Jesus, and the good news is that when life isn't about you any more then you will find the true meaning of life

And its so hard because we do live in a culture where we are told over and over again its about you…Your desires, your wants, your life…your choices...

And to come to Jesus is to lay that down and say its not about my opinions

Its not about my politic

its not about my own life even

When you can do that then that is the door to entering the kingdom of God

That is Good news because then God is freed up to remake you in his image and all that you were intended to be

Thats Good news because now the king of your life will be Jesus and He will be freed up to bless you and walk with you

Your life will be good news for others because you will point the way to the cross!

The good news is that this is all a free gift!

God is the king who took the cross and rose from the grave comes to us and he wants to be in relationship with us.

The Apostle Paul was writing to a church who kind of went astray in their theology so one of the things that he does at the end of the letter to the church in Corinth is that he reminds them of what the gospel is…The core elements

Salvation

1 Corinthians 15:1–4 NIV

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

And then later in 1 Cor 15 Paul will say

1 Corinthians 15:25 NIV

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

What Paul does here is he gives the basic story line

By the good news you are saved:

Jesus died on the cross for our sins

He was buried

On the third day He rose again

He is reigns as king

The gospel is that we have a king who conquers death

In fact. Jesus is on the throne alive right now!

So maybe your here today and you have never accepted the gospel

It starts with surrender

You have to surrender your sin to Jesus because that’s what he came for…The good news is that he will take your sin and shame from you and replace it with his goodness

What Jesus has done for you

And today we are taking the meal of the church. Its called communion.

And in this meal you get a micro-chasm of the gospel

First when you eat it, you are supposed to become it and proclaim it

Second, the bread is his body and the cup his blood

Every time you take it you remember the good news...

that the king of the universe stepped out of heaven to take the cross for you

To take your sins

Communion is open to all who have said yes to Jesus. If thats you then this meal is open to you

This meal can be an opportunity for you to say yes to Jesus, to accept his sacrifice on the cross

Or maybe your here and your just not ready yet, thats okay…You don’t have to take communion today

Luke 22:19–20 NIV

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.