Christianity A-Z

Welcome to Christianity a to z. We are looking at to g today and they're gonna be talking about considering the word gospel. And you can find lots more resources at so just kingston dot org. You can download sermons, read articles, and blogs, you can go on our social media channels to find out some of the things that it up to and if you are watching or listening to this through YouTube, then you can subscribe and like so that you can stay update with the videos that we're releasing. So this is g, this is gospel, gospel music.

It's great, isn't it? Something to sing about. You love gospel music, don't you, Pete? I do like real goss yeah. I like the sort of the original gospel music.

I mean, it's a very interesting thing gospel music where where it's come from, the history of gospel music. A lot a lot, if not all music today, is based really back on into into gospel music, because gospel music was sort of came from the old blues music, which came from the sort of negro spiritual music, you know, like them bones, those sort of stuff. And the funny thing is, sorry, we're not here to talk about this, but it it's been traced back that that spiritual music back to Scotland in yeah. In singing the Psalms. Oh, pretty.

It's really really interesting. Yeah. Anyway. Brilliant. Yeah.

So gospel music, but presumably the reason that it is a, you know, a category of music is because there's something to sing about, isn't it? There's something good to sing about. Yeah. And even today, many of the many of the the top singers even though they may be atheists or actually quite repulsive in in the things they're singing about, a loads of them come you would have their roots back in church, gospel music. Great?

Okay. There we go. So let's think then about, you know, what what led the gospel music, what led people to start singing. What the good news was, and that is basically all that gospel means, doesn't it? It means it means good news, it means important news.

Take us to a verse to help us understand what the gospel is and the content of the gospel. Where would we go for that? Well, you could go to lots of places. 1 Corinthians 15 is very helpful because it's so clear. So here is poor writing to this church and he says now brothers and at verse 1, 1 Corinthians 15, now brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received on which you have taken your stand.

By this gospel, you are saved. If you hold firmly to the word I preach to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. And then it goes on and he explains it. For what I received, I passed on to you, as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, but he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to cephas and then to the 12, and after this, he appears to and and it goes on.

So you've got loads of elements there. You've got The gospel is something that is preached, proclaimed, announced. You've got the gospel is something to be received, So it's not just a sort of thing in the air that, you know, okay, that's fine. But it's actually to be personally received It's something that you're to take your stand on. In other words, you live in the light of this, it saves you I mean, everything's here, isn't it?

It saves you. And and it's all about what Jesus Christ has done according to the historic scriptures and in this case that would be the old testament. Brilliant. Ben, other things we learn about it here? Yeah.

Well, I mean, there's all sorts of stuff there. It is the thing of first importance. There is nothing more important than this. And that's really really clear. And I've got Mark's gospel opened.

And in Mark chapter 1, it says at the beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet. So again, there's another overlap there with the fact that this is something that's been proclaimed in the Old Testament scriptures. This is it's not a new sort of message, but it's it's the good news, it's the fulfillment of the old testament. Sort of links back to a sermon I preached recently. But but but there's just so much in it.

I mean, sorry, I don't wanna go away from don't wanna go away from your passage, Pete. Maybe we'll come back to it. But just I mean, there's there's so many things at Dovetail here. So in in Mark, gospel. The good news is about Jesus.

That he is the good news. He's the good news. And he's the Messiah, so he's just promised 1. He's the son of God, and there's just so much stuff in there. The good news is not that there's another way to save ourselves.

But the good news is God himself coming to to to to be the 1 who saves us. Yeah. There's so much there. And I mean, there there is crossover between these these 2 passages. And I'm sure the more passages we turn to, the more links that we'll see.

But you're you're absolutely right. These are, you know, the the new testament writers are showing us that this is a promise this is a promised message. It's not something that was just made up. It wasn't plan b. You know, plan a was the old testament.

That went wrong. Quick, we better have a plan b. This this has always been the plan. It centers on the person and work of Jesus, both who he is and what he's done. And that's what you see in 1 Corinthians 15.

The content of the gospel is about a person in Christ. And it is about an action, something that he did. He died for our sins. So suddenly we're included in this message because it was for up for us, died for our sins. And he rose and he appeared.

And so promised in Jesus for us, salvation. These are all aspects of the gospel, aren't they? And it's interesting. I remember listening to something about this word, the original word for gospel. And apparently, it meant both you know, a a good news announcement, but also an important news announcement.

And in many ways, it was just a declaration of something that was true. So when when like a a messenger had come from the battlefield, he would run back into the city and say we have won. Or even something like 1 of Caesar's politicians would stand up and say, he's lowering taxes. You know, apparently, they would use the word gospel about that. It was just it was just a a good announcement.

And it wasn't something that you could say that you could argue with or that was only true if you believed it, It's true whether or not you believe it. It's just an announcement of facts, of truth, of good news. And so that's what we do when we preach, we're not saying this is true if you feel like it's true or this becomes true if you believe it. We're just declaring something God has done for the world in Christ and inviting people to be part of it, I mean? Mhmm.

I mean, it's slightly different word that is used for for gospel preachers. It is is ambassador, and the ambassador doesn't make up his own message. The ambassador has to whether he likes it or not, has to pass on the message of the king that or the the the kingdom that he's representing. So it's it's the same thing, isn't it? It is a set message that needs to be proclaimed and announced as you say.

Yeah. Yeah. Other thoughts on this then, other, you know, places we might go to think about the gospel to flesh out Well, it's just sort of where you don't go. That's the problem. I mean, you you can go to Romans 1 and it's sort of spelling out the same stuff.

In a in a in a slightly different way to to 1 Corinthians 15. Well, it's not a slightly different way. It's almost exactly the same. But it it's interesting that Paul calls himself a servant and an apostle, and he set apart for this, and then he calls it the gospel of God. This is God's message.

And so we we've got to I don't know whether I'm jumping the gun a bit, here, but it's a very important thing that the the message and the method do go together because it's a message a precise message about who Christ is and what he's done, then you can't just sort of mind that. Or you can't just have a sort of atmosphere of that. The way that you the way that that's gonna be received is that it has to be spoken clearly And so he talks about preaching and proclaiming. And as you say that the word gospel goes with that very So I think the trouble is what happens in some churches. We we separate the method and the message and then you but you can't do that.

Did you see what I'm saying? Think that is a really important point and you might you may have both heard this so comment if you have. But I don't even know if if this chap actually said this, but there's a quote that is attributed to Francis of a CC, I think. Yeah. But I don't know whether it's just myth or whether they actually said it.

Where he said something to the effect of, you know, I preach the gospel at all times and if necessary use words. Yeah. I hate that. Okay. You hate that, Ben.

What Well, I've grown to understand that it's it it's it's a nut it's it's 1 of those things that when I was younger, I was like, yeah. It's behind it awful. Yeah. Because it's Why why why why did think it was Well, because the it's it's a funny thing, isn't it? Because when you when you come with good news, you think the people who are about to hear it are gonna receive it as that.

Yeah. But the problem with the problem is that people will hate you for it. And so sometimes it doesn't sound like good news to people. And it's sort of 1 of those things where I can still be a Christian without people hating me because I'm preaching the gospel at all times. And not offending people because I'm not using words.

I'm use I'm showing my example in life. And sometimes there's there's truth to that. People will see how you respond to death, perhaps or how people how have Christians responded to this pandemic. It's different we hope to how non Christians would have responded. So but but even that is But that's not the gospel.

That's not the gospel. That's the fruit of the gospel. Yes. That's it. That's a witness to the gospel.

Yes. Yeah. Because here's a bloke who's acting in a different way or whatever -- Yes. -- what has he got in his life. Sure.

Yeah. It's almost an invitation That's why the gospel isn't just good works. So there was a whole thing wasn't there a few years ago where we were encouraged as churches. I mean, honestly, this is true to just go down our road and pick up the dog muck that people left behind. To show the gospel to the world.

Right. That is not the gospel. I mean, I'm happy if you wanna pick all a dogma up. Yeah. I'm more than happy.

I'll be rejoicing. I'd say, that's good news. Ben's picking all the dog muck up outside on the grass outside of my house. Nice people. And they're lovely.

Yes. But he must be a Buddhist. Right. Yeah. Or he must be a communist because they did that sort of thing in the early days.

Yeah. So there has to be a proclamation, a set word, a set proclamation. And Jesus is called the Word of God. Yeah. So it isn't just the experience of God or the nicest of God or just the good works of God.

It's a word. It has to be proclaimed. Yes. Yeah. And as with all sayings like that, you know, they'd I mean, what would be bad is if we were big on proclamation, but our lives were it's after.

That's why people like that. That's why people like it. Yeah. Although I think, to be honest, France is a cease. It was a bit of a nut watching bleaching to the animals and stuff.

It's all nonsense. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It reminds me when we were at a certain Christian exhibition.

And we were going around the stands, looking at the various different stands, and there was this organization called the proclamation of the Goss society. And, you know, when we first saw that It's a good start. Yeah. We thought what a what a superb name for our ministry. But it turned out that this organization, all that they actually did, was weave together mats, which allowed Muslims to prey on.

And that was that was an expression of kindness from Christians to Muslims. But to call it the clamation of the Gospel is quite tame. Wovenly misunderstands what what the gospel is, what Yeah. And and and the Christian Gospel would call the Muslims to repent of doing that. Yeah.

Yeah. And not give them the Matt to say, I'm not giving you a Matt because you're facing in the wrong direction. You're believing in a god that doesn't exist, and you're believing in a god that doesn't actually help you in any way. Yeah. Whereas our gospel, the the Christian message, is that God has come into this world in the person of lord Jesus Christ, He is the king of the universe.

He is this is the message of God and that we have to believe in him and receive him. So So actually, they are anti gospel, those people. They they should call themselves the anti proclamation of the gospel. Yeah. Okay.

Good. So that's cleared up some things. So do do we because this this gospel is what we, you know, is what we preach. And when we read the new testament, we see that it is evangelistic in a sense that, you know, the apostles and Jesus are going around calling people to believe in this message. Do, you know, do Christians ever outgrow the sport in the sense that, you know, some people might think this is just the beginning message.

You know, you hear this, you believe it, and then you you you kinda move on. But You know, is that right? Do we outgrow the gospel in any sense? Not really sure what that means outgrow. I mean, if you get bored of it or you think that you have sort of superseded it, you probably haven't understood it correctly.

Actually, the opposite I think happens with a with a Christian, that the more you go on in life, the more sinful you see you are, the more glorious Christ appears. You get more taken up with Jesus and the gospel. The more you walk with the Lord, I think. And there's such incredible depth to it. I mean, we've barely touch the surface looking at the scriptures here.

But the more interconnected you see that they are, the more you look into the old testament and see the promised Messiah, the son of God, and the good news it's coming. Mhmm. There's there's just more It's sort of I mean, CS Lewis writes in his final battle that sort of the last section of that book is is that them going sort of further and further in. And as they go further up and further in, things get wider and bigger and taller. And there's definitely a sense with the good news that Absolutely.

The further in you go, the bigger it gets. Yeah. I think that's so important. And the bible that that's really what I was getting at in the sense that if we you know, if we just, you know, do sort of simple ABCs every week with the same language and the same phrases, we would be doing a disservice to the scriptures, because it's it's it's the the the gospel is the scriptures, isn't it? It's all about Christ and Christ's work.

That is the beating heart of the story. But it gives us it in so many ways, doesn't it? And there's so much language rich language that sheds light on the gospel. And I can't remember who it was, you know, who too talked about here. All the gospels crisis aren't holding up a diamond to the light.

You know? And as you turn it, you just see this the spectrum of light flashing through the different sides of the diamond. And that's what the bible is all about, isn't it? So And, you know, week by week. Of course, we you know, in church, we work our way through the bible, but the gospel in the sense that Christ and his work is always at the center, isn't So we never kind of graduate, you know, to the deeper things, you know, if you like.

The gospel is always central, isn't it? Absolutely. I mean, Paul writes the book of Romans. I mean, that will keep you going for the rest of your life, wouldn't it? In in the treasures in in that book.

And the whole point of that book is opening up what the gospel is. And he has this wonderful summary right at the beginning, and there are phenomenal little summaries sort of prompt prompt throughout the book. But, you know, there is some deep stuff here. And that's the beauty, isn't it? People say, you know, like a child can grasp the gospel, can receive the gospel, because it's just Jesus coming to save us.

And yet, you know, the greatest professor can't can't fathom the depths of that. Because you've got books like Romans that are gonna take you deeper and deeper and deeper in understanding. Yeah. And then Once you understand that, you go to the book of leviticus and you see all of the, you know, the sacrifices and how they give different, as you say, specs of of this diamond of Jesus. It's just greater and greater, isn't it?

But I think you're right in saying, It doesn't mean because the word gospel can sometimes be overused in our church -- Yeah. -- the word and we can nullify it by taking away what it is and talking in manners that make it dull and irrelevant. That's the preachers. Disaster. You know, if we make something exciting like this so dull, then it's we we failed as ambassadors and preachers.

Mhmm. That's a really good point. And I was gonna I was gonna come on to something like that now, which is 1 of the things that, you know, might because it's interesting, when we read 1 Corinthians 15, what we've discussed, we we wonder how anyone could misinterpret the gospel, you know, because it looks so so plain and so simple, doesn't it? Now 1 of the ways we might sort of fail the spill, if you like, is to is to make it boring. Sometimes people might use the expression, or they, you know, that person's lost the gospel or that church has lost the gospel.

What do you know, what what might people mean by that? And in what other ways can can churches sort of move away from the gospel? This is what we've tried to do in this series. In order clarify what something is, we talk about what something isn't and how we can go wrong. Any thoughts on ways in which the church can lose the gospel and what that might look like?

Well, loads. 1 is we've already touched on is we're we're thinking that our it's good works -- Yeah. -- that will save people Now that doesn't mean to say the church doesn't do good works in its neighborhood. It does. But it's the fruit of the gospel.

Yeah. So people would use the word the social sport. Yeah. Well, what the heck is that? Yeah.

Yeah. I I guess that's just sort of being nice to people and picking on often the world's got export. The world's gospel is save the planet, environmentalism, you know, don't eat so much meat, vegetarianism, all of that sort, you know, they're the world's gospels, aren't they in order to save the planet? Nothing wrong with any of them. If you wanna do that, but that's not our message.

This message of God is that we have to preach Jesus and all of the things that we've talked about with him. And so not to do that is to lose the gospel. Again, it doesn't mean to say, you know, if if you want the church to go down the road and pick up the dogma, fine. If that's to get attention for the road in order that we can then speak the gospel, then, okay, I'm all for those sort of things. So so you can lose it in this sort of a social way.

You can lose it because you're slightly embarrassed by it. And so Paul emphasizes doesn't he in quite a few times in Romans, in Timothy, when he's writing to Timothy, do not be ashamed. Don't be ashamed of this message. And there's lots of reasons to be ashamed of it because it's not religious and people want religious stuff. It's it may be not popular.

It may be seen as a dated message. But that's, you know, how you how you lose it when you start being ashamed of it, playing it down a little bit. Not gonna talk about the judgment of God because why did Jesus die on the cross just just sort of I'll I'll just emphasize or over emphasize just the fact that he sort of loves us. But what's dying on the cross and love got to do with us? If there's no judgment there, that sort of stuff I remember you saying 1 of the advantages of being being older in ministry.

Yeah. Since you've been been in ministry for a long time is that you see like trends and fads come and go. And when when you're in the middle of 1, you know, it makes you think, yeah, I got it wrong, doesn't it? Maybe we do need to sort of emphasize this a bit more and but they go away again, don't they? Very quick.

Yeah. And in the end, sticking to the old message, isn't it? That is so hard. Other other ways, Ben, you think a bit? Yeah.

I think it's you you have to understand what the objective of the gospel is. The objective of the gospel is to preach a forgiveness a repentance for the forgiveness of sins. That's the gospel that Christ stood up to preach. And in Mark's gospel, he stands up proclaiming the good news. The time has come King of God has come near, repent and believe the good news.

So the objective of preaching is not to fill your church with people who want to be there listening to a speaker. The the objective with the gospel is to get people to repent. And because of that, some people are going to listen and be convicted of their sin and repent, and other people are gonna hate you for it and walk out the church. I think some churches are so afraid that this sort of this idea that Jesus is so attractive to everyone that if only everyone would hear about him, stay in them. But actually, the reality is, I mean, Christ has to be the best preacher of all time, doesn't he?

He has to be the greatest preacher and yet he was the most divisive preacher. There wasn't room in his preaching for people just to sit and listen because he was nice to listen to. Quite often, people left him or wanted to stone him, they hated him. And so preaching the gospel is not always gonna be a pleasant thing to do, unfortunately. And so we just have to know what it is we're trying to achieve.

We're trying to be faith with the message of God. I I think I think as you've touched on a really, really big thing because we all want to be successful. And there's something of God Godliness in that and we want lots of people to come to Christ. But if our basis, as you sort of said, is to have a bigger church. If that's our main aim, we need to attract people and have a bigger church.

Mhmm. We're going to lose the gospel. Yes. Because as you say, the gospel itself is is a dividing thing. And so that's not what we should have.

We want to grow. Yeah. Yeah. I want to speak to millions of people. But, you know, you can do that if you just become a comedian and have some crude words.

Yeah. So it's not hard to get a big gathering. But but that's not our main aim. Our main aim is to be faithful ambassadors to the message that God has given to us. And God in His kindness will either give us thousands that will hear us or maybe a few.

Yeah. So if if people are leaving the church, it's not a Maybe good. Yes. Exactly. It's not a reason to panic in we're not doing our jobs properly.

Yeah. We we need to say why are they leaving? Are they leaving because we're not taking care of them because Yeah. But if if people just come in and can't deal with the gospel, then that's not a failing of us. People will come in and leave and that's part of ministry.

Yeah. It's always a lot of noah, really. You know, it's a hundred and 20 year year sermon. Yeah. The biggest illustration anyone's ever made.

Well, it wasn't he -- Yeah. -- he was preaching all times, but not using words. Well, no, no, because he was I think he was preaching. Okay. But it's a 120 year sermon.

Massive illustration to make the point that judgment is coming and there's 1 salvation and 8 people get on. Yeah. You know? But was he successful? Yes.

Because he obeyed God. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's really interesting that.

And the the the the sort of talk about sin and judgment that that needs to be part of the gospel because I was just I was just thinking as you were speaking there about Noah, that in Romans 2, it's quite interesting that Paul says that judgment is part is part of the gospel. Yeah. So when he says in verse 16, he's talking about the judgment, and he says this will take place on the day when God judges people seek through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares. Yeah. So central to the message of the gospel is Christ crucified and risen.

Yeah. And sin and that he's coming back to judge the world and he's gonna, you know, he's gonna judge sin and he's gonna save his people. So you know, there's always a temptation because no 1 likes to be judged by anyone, do they? There's always a temptation to water that down, but that is part of a faithful gospel decoration. That's what makes it good news.

I mean, what what -- Yeah. -- what because what makes something good news. It's when there's a resolution to a problem. Yeah. Otherwise, you know Well, I mean, the illustration I give is, you know, when people say, you know, Jesus died on the cross, that's good news.

Well, what that that's ridiculous. So the illustration, I get can you imagine that you've got a girl and boyfriend. They're walking along lover's lane on top of the cliff. The boy says, I want I love you. And I'm gonna demonstrate my love for you and she and it and she thinks what's he gonna do?

And then he starts running and chucks himself over the cliff. And smashes and dies. Yeah. How on earth does that demonstrate love? Now, if you change that illustration, and she's walking near the cliff and falls over, and he throws himself in and and saves her and dies in the in in saving her, then you can equate death and love.

So why did Christ die on the cross because he loved us? But what? But no, he died on the cross just because he loved us, to save us. Otherwise, it doesn't mean anything. We're in peril.

We're on the way to hell. Approaching us -- Yes. -- that illustration. The bad news is that we are, you know, blinded by the devil born already ruined stone cold dead as we stepped out of the womb. We're on the road to hell under the judgment of the living God, all rightly so.

Here comes Savior, Jesus. Yeah. And he dies in our place. He takes our punishment. He rises again to show that that's been paid for.

That's the message that is good news. So sometimes in our proclamation of a message, especially to a world, that thinks it's lovely is to proclaim that it isn't lovely. So that you show you need you need the lovely gospel. Great. I was just thinking, I don't know whether we I was just thinking, so there are sometimes phrases that we might hear in the church like that's not a gospel issue or that's a gospel issue, you know.

And so some people might say, well, you know, all churches in an area should be united just because they're all churches, and they're about the same thing. And and you can't say, well, no, because, you know, there are gospel issues here or there are secondary issues Just maybe briefly as we finish. What what do we mean by a gospel issue? You know? Because people talk about that, don't they?

It's interesting that the passage we read out at the beginning, which is the, you know, what I passed on to you, I passed on as first importance that Christ was that Christ died was buried and was raised. That's that's the gospel -- According to the scriptures. -- according to the scriptures. Yeah. So Gospel issues are to do with that.

That that and and so there cannot be unity with the church that doesn't believe that. Not really. No. Well, I wouldn't call it a church either personally. No.

But, no, they they they can't be. Well, You know, it depends what you mean by unity. Yes. There's all levels of unity. I can have unit unity with the the bloke in the center of Kingston who doesn't believe anything.

It's worth an atheist, as far as I can see, in the sense of wanting to get rid of parking attendants. Yeah. You know. So I I might be on the same panel as him -- Yes. -- to say Kingston's gone mad with fining people in parking.

We need to open Kingston up a bit So I have a unity there. Yeah. But when it comes to things of God, I can't pray with him. Well, I don't know whether he prays. You know, he he's got a completely different idea of who God is.

If he even believes in God, I don't know. I guess it doesn't. No. Yeah. So that's that's that's really what I was trying to get at.

That our unity is not just in the virtue that we call ourselves churches. Our unity is in truth. Truth is our unity. Yes. And we have people who join the church, and some people, you know, they might be from different church backgrounds, and they'll have issues that they may have or secondary beliefs about how things should be done.

And that's okay, isn't it? Providing that we are united around Christ, his person, the scriptures, his death, his resurrection. If there is a unity in those fundamentals, then we can love and grow together, can't we? But sometimes it's possible to take secondary things and to make them primary, isn't it? To say, If you don't believe that this worship style is exactly the way we should do it and I'm leaving and it becomes a first importance issue.

Yeah. When really we should all say, do you know what? I can put that to death -- Yeah. -- for the sake of uniting in the in the in the central issues. It's the amazing thing how love covers a multi tude of sins and as well.

So if if you are alongside a brother or a sister who haven't who love Christ, who are passionate about proclaiming the gospel of his death is resurrection and his sacrifice for sinners. If someone's passionate about that, then they will by virtue of being a Christ filled person sort of tolerate other kind of secondary issues, won't they? And that's why we can have unity and sort of diversity within the church. And that's why if you're sat there going this worship style is not really my thing. You you don't you you sort of put that to aside and go, well, they look they're honoring Christ, aren't they?

Isn't that song honoring Christ? Yes. Well, that's what I care about. More than whether it's got a good beat or or not. Or it's the type of tune I like.

Yeah. Wonderful. That brings us back to music, isn't it? Gospel music. Where we've been.

Well, I wish we hadn't. Well, it depends what you mean by gospel. The trouble is it depends what you mean by that. Yeah. Is it a gospel issue?

Maybe we could Original gospel music I I love. Yeah. And and they were innovators. You get sister Rosetta Tharp. Have a listen to sister Rosetta Tharp.

She was a woman, you know, guitarist, amazing guitarist, and all of the big guitarist would go back to her and say, you know, she laid the foundations and stuff. Yeah. There we go. You can Google her, YouTube her. Well praise God Brothers for the gospel, the gospel which we've taken our stand on the gospel which sotas and we hope something about.

We can sing about. Yep. So as I said at the beginning, any more resources like this, cornerstone church kingston dot org is the place to go. Make sure you visit our social media channels and subscribe if you haven't already and join us next week. Thank you.