What's So Special About our Gospel? - A Donelson Fellowship Pocket Paper

What’s So Special About our Gospel?

A Pocket Paper
from
The Donelson Fellowship
______________

Robert J. Morgan
February 26, 2006

If we all left right now for Africa, there wouldn’t be anyone here to maintain the home base, but I do know that the Lord wants us to be a high-impact church that knows how to produce world-changers for Christ. Whether we are serving here or abroad, our lives are to be centered around the Gospel.

The problem is that we don’t recognize the Gospel’s value as we should. This week I read a story in the newspaper—I didn’t clip it out and I can’t recall the specifics—but it was something to this effect. A lady got tired of some sketches and drawings in her house. She wasn’t fond of them on the wall, and she stored it on the attic, then in the basement, and then behind the furniture; and finally she just gathered them up and took them to the Goodwill store. It was there that a man saw them and instantly recognized them as being very rare and valuable. The store tried to return them to the woman, but she hadn’t left any contact information; but in dropping those sketches off, she lost a fortune. She didn’t realize the value of the treasure she possessed.

There’s a hotel in Indonesia called the Hotel Tugu Bali that bills itself as a museum hotel. The owner is a man who started collecting antiques when he was twenty-five years old. At that time, Indonesians were trying to modernize their lives, and as they bought new things, they tossed out their old furniture, photographs, silver and gold and paintings and artifacts. He said they were tossing out their heritage for the sake of cheap, modern things. Over the years, he had furnished his entire hotel with the things he has collected over a lifetime, and it is every exclusive place that has been featured in magazines like “Architectural Digest.”

I think it’s that way with the Gospel. We don’t value it as we should, and a lot of people are tossing it out for more modern ideas. But in so doing, they’re trading in something of immense worth for cheap modern trends that quickly fade and break and become obsolete.

Today, I’d like to take a look at the subject, “What’s So Special About our Gospel,” and our text is from the first chapter of the New Testament book of Colossians.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints—the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the Gospel that has come to you. All over the world this Gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit (Colossians 1:1-8, NIV).

***

The key word in this passage is this wonderful word GOSPEL. Notice how Paul uses it in verses 5 and 6: …the Gospel that has come to you. All over the world, this Gospel is bearing fruit and growing.

Our English Word Gospel comes from the old Anglo-Saxon term “God’s Spell” or “God’s Story.” The Greek word on which it’s based literally means the “Good Word” or the “Good Message” or the “Good News.” This isn’t a word that was coined by the Apostle Paul; it had a greater originator than him. As we read the New Testament, we find it was the Jesus Himself who introduced this term in the Bible and chose it to summarize and encapsulate Himself and His message. As I searched this out in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, I found that Jesus used the word Gospel exactly four times.

The first time was in Mark, chapter 8. Jesus was in the far north of Israel, in the region of Caesarea Philippi, where He issued a call for people to follow Him with committed lives. He said in verses 34ff: “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me and for the Gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”

Notice those words …for Me and for the Gospel. Jesus was identifying Himself with His Gospel. He is telling us that He Himself is the Good News, the message that our planet so desperately needs. Notice also that the first that Jesus used the word Gospel, it was in the context of calling people to full discipleship and predicting that many of His followers would be called on to lay down their lives for Him and for His Gospel. He was telling us that the Gospel is so important that it’s value is greater than the value of all of the rest of everything that there is in the world, for what does it profit us to gain the whole world but miss the Gospel. I’m sure you read this week about the people up in Nebraska who won the Powerball lottery. Maybe you read about the bank robbery in England that netted over forty million dollars. Suppose you were given the Powerball lottery, the proceeds from the bank robbery, Bill Gates fortune, and all the rest of the world thrown in to boot. Suppose you owned this entire planet. None of it can compare to the value of possessing this one word—the Gospel. Have you denied yourself, taken up your cross, and decided to follow Him?

The second time Jesus used this word was an interesting follow up in Mark 10:28-29: Peter said to Him, “We have left everything to follow You!” “I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for Me and the Gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (home, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecution) and in the age to come, eternal life.

Notice again how Jesus spoke of “Me and the Gospel.” He was again fusing together His person and His message. And He again spoke of the commitment we must make to Him and to His Gospel, and to the reality of persecution.

The third time Jesus used this word was in Mark 13, which was His Olivet Discourse near the end of His earthly ministry when He sat on the Mount of Olives and talked about the signs of the times and the end of the age. Here again, He identified Himself with the Gospel and warned of persecution. Mark 13:9ff predicts that the last days of world history will be marked by intense religious persecution against Christians: You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of Me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. And the Gospel must first be preached to all nations.[1]

The fourth and final time Jesus used this word was in Mark 14, when the woman came with an alabaster box of very expensive perfume and broke the box, pouring the perfume on His head. When some of the people at the reception spoke disparagingly of the woman, Jesus said: Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have Me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the Gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.

There are several things about all this that interest me. As I mentioned, Jesus identified Himself with His Gospel, as though He and the Gospel were virtually one and the same. He predicted that this Gospel of Himself would be preached throughout the world, but He also predicted that those who bore the message of the Gospel would encounter opposition, persecution, and even death. Every time He used the word Gospel, those were the common denominators.

When we turn to the book of Acts, we find to our surprise, while all these things began to come to pass just as Jesus predicted, the actual word Gospel rarely appears. There are a few references to preaching the Gospel, but the actual word itself is used sparingly.

But then, when we turn to the letters and to the writings of the apostle Paul, the use of this word just explodes. It was Paul’s great word that he adopted from Jesus Christ, and he used it seventy-six times in his letters.

He used it to summarize the great message, that Jesus Christ is God Himself who came to earth in the actual person of humanity, that He died for our sins, that He shed His blood for our guilt, that He rose from the dead for our justification, and that we find new life in Christ be trusting in His finished work on the cross.

Paul said on one occasion: I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes… for in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: The just shall live by faith.

So the Gospel is a thing of great value; it’s the wonderful message about Jesus Christ; in fact, it is Jesus Christ and the blessings of forgiveness and eternal life He brings to our lives when we are born again by His grace through the simple act of trusting Him as our Savior.

Now with that bit of historical and linguistic context, let’s go back to Colossians 1 and notice what our key passage for today tells us about the Gospel.

The Nature of Our Gospel

First, it gives us the nature of the Gospel. It is true. The Gospel is the very word of truth. Notice verse 5 again: …the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven, and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the Gospel.

And the end of verse 6: …since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.

The Gospel is inherently and inerrantly true. The Psalmist said, “Forever, O Lord, is Your word settled in heaven.” Jesus said that His word cannot be broken. 2 Timothy 3 says that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. The inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy of the Gospel is based on the omniscience and truthfulness of God who cannot lie, and when we hold the Bible in our hands, we are holding the Gospel of truth.

Ø The evolutionists say that the Bible is wrong about the origin of life.

Ø The entertainment industry says that the Bible is wrong about morals of life.

Ø The cults say that the Bible is wrong about Jesus.

Ø The liberal philosophers say that the Bible is wrong about inerrancy.

Ø The atheists say the Bible is wrong about God.

Ø The De Vinci Code says the Bible is wrong about the four Gospels.

Ø The Social Pundits say the Bible is wrong about abortion, homosexuality, and sexual mores.

Ø The Pluralists say the Bible is wrong about its missionary and evangelizing zeal.

But…

Ø The Bible is right about the origin of life.

Ø The Bible is right about moral standards of life.

Ø The Bible is right about Jesus.

Ø The Bible is right about inerrancy.

Ø The Bible is right about God.

Ø The Bible is right about the four Gospels.

Ø The Bible is right about marriage and sexual restraint.

Ø The Bible is right about its missionary and evangelizing zeal.

This is the Word of Truth, inspired by God; and the Scriptures cannot be broken. That’s the nature of the Gospel.

The Content of our Gospel

The second special thing to notice here about our Gospel is its content. What message does the Gospel really give us? Look at the text again, beginning with verse 3:

Paul told the Colossians that they had heard in the Gospel about the hope that is stored up for them in heaven. Here was a little town full of people in west-central Turkey who knew they were going to die, and they had only a vague hope about whether or not there was anything beyond the grave. Their lives were shrouded in a nagging despair. But suddenly they heard the Gospel, and it was like turning on the floodlights on a football field. They heard about the hope that was stored up for them in heaven.

As I pondered this, I couldn’t help but think of Jesus’ words in John 14, which must have been conveyed to these young Colossian believers: “I go to prepare a place for you.” Could there possibly be a more comforting and reassuring verse in all the Bible? Jesus said, “I go…,” or literally, “I am going….” In other words, I’m not going to remain much longer on this little, blue planet that I’ve come to redeem. I’m going to lift off from the earth, sail into the sky, disappear in the clouds, and return to My own home of heaven.

But He went on to say, “I am going to prepare a place for you.” Now, all my life I have taken vacations. That’s one thing my dad was good about; he always took us on a summer vacation, even when I was in college and graduate school; and when Katrina and I married, we continued the tradition. We’ve been all over the country and all over the world. But I have never had anyone say to me, “I’m going to travel to our destination ahead of you and get everything ready. I’m going to make sure the accommodations are pleasant. I’m going to check out the restaurants. I’m going to check on the agenda and schedules and attractions. I’m going to buy all our admission tickets, and I’ll make sure the water in the swimming pool is just the right temperature. I’m going to get everything ready for you.”

If someone did that, he would either have to be a very good servant or a very good friend. But that is exactly what Jesus said to us in John 14: “I am going on ahead, in advance, to get everything ready for your arrival here. I am going to prepare a place for you.” This is the hope of the Gospel that is stored up for us in heaven.

The Scope of our Gospel

The third special thing about our Gospel is its scope. Notice this wonderful missionary emphasis in verse 6: All over the world, this Gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s truth.

The actual Greek wording here is quite interesting. The Greek uses the words pan and cosmos. The Gospel is Pan-Cosmos. The word pan means all. Do you remember the old Pan American Airlines. It served all the Americas. The Pan American Games are athletic competitions for the Americas. And the word Cosmos means universe, although here it seems to have a more limited meaning of the entire inhabited world. The Gospel is Pan-Cosmos in its scope. Jesus said that it would be preached through the whole world to every nation, and then the end would come. That’s the driving motive for our missionary zeal.

The Transmission of our Gospel

And finally, notice the transmission of the Gospel. This tremendous treasure—the Good News of Christ—came to the city of Colosse by the mouth of a little known biblical character named Epaphras. Paul never visited this town, to the best of our knowledge. It wasn’t a large city, and it wasn’t on his circuit. But this man, Epaphras, brought the message to this city.

You don’t have to be well-known. You don’t to be great. You don’t have to be a fine communicator. The Gospel is shared one person at a time, person-to-person, and anyone who knows Christ can share His message with someone else.

Last week while my wife and I were in Georgia, we visited with a couple who had attended our church in the early 1980s, Gary and Teresa Smith. They have a 29-year-old daughter named Heather, who has been highly involved in campus evangelism and has gone on several mission trips. Gary and Teresa told us how Heather had come to know Christ as her personal Savior. Our own daughter, Victoria, was five years old when she gave her heart to Christ and prayed to become a Christian. She was so excited that she witnessed about it to Heather, who was six years old. Heather asked her parents about being a Christian, and the next Sunday she came forward and was saved at the altar. It was a case of a five-year-old winning a six-year-old to Christ—and it was a decision that has made the fundamental difference in her life all these years.

Now if a five-year-old can be the means of leading someone to Christ, don’t you think you and I can do the same? We can if we recognize and understand the exceeding greatness of the treasure we have in Jesus Christ, and if we say, like Paul:

I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of god for the salvation of everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

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[1] The parallel to this is in Matthew 24:14 when Jesus said: And this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.