Field Training 2

Sunday Morning Bible Study

July 26, 2009

What is the Gospel?

Our series is called “Field Training”. Our topic this week is the Gospel.

We get the title of the series from Jesus saying to His disciples,

(John 4:35 NKJV) "Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!

When wheat fields are ready to be harvested, the stalks turn from green to white.

The time for people to come to know Christ isn’t some distant time in the future.

I wonder if we lifted our eyes up and off of ourselves if we might realize that there are people all around us who are ready, people who need Jesus.

Some people who call themselves Christians actually believe that evangelism is wrong.

Earlier this month, the Episcopal Church's presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, made an interesting comment on the subject of “personal salvation”. In speaking to her denomination’s annual convention, she said,

“... the great Western heresy -- that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God. It's caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus. That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of being. That heresy is one reason for the theme of this Convention.”

While I admit that salvation involves more than just repeating the words of the “sinner’s prayer”, the concept that you can know that you are saved is quite biblical.

Paul wrote,

(Rom 10:9 NKJV) that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

The apostle John wrote,

There are some wrong ideas about “the gospel”

Some folks confuse the word “gospel” with “Gospel music” (Play “Gospel”)

There is a correct gospel and a wrong gospel. Paul wrote,

(Gal 1:6-7 NKJV) I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, {7} which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.

Paul rebuked the Corinthians because they didn’t seem to care about whether the message of the gospel or of Jesus was correct:

(2 Cor 11:4 NLT) You seem to believe whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach about a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed.

What are some wrong ideas about the “gospel”?

Too much – adding to the gospel

The issues that Paul addresses with the Galatians was that people were trying to make salvation based upon your works – that you have to earn your salvation.

You will hear things like this coming from the Mormon missionaries, the Jehovah Witnesses, even the Catholic church.

Along these lines I hear people who make the gospel into some sort of exact “science” – that unless you talk about their specific list of ingredients, that the person isn’t going to be truly saved.

Though there are some very important elements to the gospel, the preaching of the gospel is not a completely exact science. Look at the messages that the apostles preached in the book of Acts – you’ll find that their messages don’t exactly fit the standards that some people set up.

Too little - Watered down gospel

Some will teach that God forgives everything and that repentance is not important.

Others make Jesus an “additive”, He simply makes your life better, more successful.

Others say that Jesus wasn’t the only way – Play Oprah clip.

Gospel Basics

(1 Cor 15:3 NKJV) For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…

Someone once asked C.H. Spurgeon if he could describe his Christian faith in a few words. He replied, “It is all in four words: JESUS DIED FOR ME”

If you look carefully at what both Paul and Spurgeon were saying, you find that there are two parts to the message. There is good news and there is bad news.

The word “gospel” actually means “good news”.

But to fully appreciate the good news, you also have to understand the bad news.

Illustration

The Carrot Saga

One day two carrots were walking down the street. They were the best of friends. Just as they started to step off the curb a car came speeding around the corner and ran one of them over. The unhurt carrot cradled his buddy, telling him over and over again that he would be OK. Finally the ambulance arrived and rushed the injured carrot off to the hospital. His friend rode with him. Once at the hospital the uninjured carrot paced back and forth in the emergency room waiting to hear how his pal was going to be. After many minutes of agonized waiting the doctor came out. He walked over to the distraught carrot and said “I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is that your friend is going to be alright. The bad news is that he is going to be a vegetable all his life”.

The Bad News

1. We are all sinners.

(Rom 3:23 NKJV) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

(1 John 1:8 NKJV) If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Some people are confused about this. They say that man is basically good. I’d say they ought to look at the news every once in a while…

Play Video clip from The Truth Project – the depravity of man

This does not mean that man is incapable of doing good things.

Man can do good things.

A soldier falls on a hand grenade to protect his buddies.

Secular governments send aid to countries devastated by natural disaster.

To say “all have sinned” does not mean there is no good in man, but that there is no good in man that can satisfy God.

Man is not able to live up to God’s holy standards.

(1 Pet 1:16 NKJV) because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy."

What are those “standards”?

You get a hint at God’s standards in the Law of Moses, summarized in the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments were not intended to be the thing that saves you. Many people think they will go to heaven because they try to keep the Ten Commandments.

Have you ever stolen, lied, or taken God’s Name in vain?

Scripture says that if we offend in one point of the Law, we are guilty of all of it (see James 2:10).

The Law was intended to show man what a failure he is at keeping God’s standards and to show us that we need a Savior.

(Gal 3:24 NKJV) Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

Some people think that God is going to pull out some cosmic balance scale, put all your good works on one side and all your bad works on the other side. They hope that all their good works will somehow balance out the bad things.

The problem is that they have greatly underestimated the cost of what it takes to balance out a single sin.

2. Sin has consequences.

Sin separates us from a holy God.

(Rom 6:23 NKJV) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If you want to balance out your sins, then for each sin that you commit you must die.

You can pay for your sins if you want, but that means spending eternity in hell.

That’s the bad news.

God does not want you to have to pay for your sins. That is why God sent His Son Jesus to die in our place.

The Good News

Jesus died for my sins.

The entire Old Testament lays a foundation of sacrifice, the idea that an innocent animal can die to pay for your sins. It all led up to the day that God would take this principle of substitutionary sacrifice and have His immortal, eternal Son die to pay for our sins.

Paul wrote,

(Rom 5:6-8 NLT) When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. {7} Now, no one is likely to die for a good person, though someone might be willing to die for a person who is especially good. {8} But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

Jesus died for us.

Illustration

In the movie The Last Emperor, the young child anointed as the Last Emperor of China lives a life of incredible luxury with a thousand servants at his command. In one scene, his brother asks, “What happens when you do wrong?” “When I do wrong, someone else is punished,” the Boy Emperor responds. As an example, he breaks a jar, and one of his servants is beaten.

Now, with the gospel, the very opposite is the case. Jesus reversed that pattern—when the servants sinned, the King was punished.

Paul also wrote,

This is why Jesus would make such a bold statement such as:

(John 14:6 NKJV) Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Only Jesus has paid for man’s sins.

The apostles understood this was well when they said:

(Acts 4:12 NKJV) "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

When we tell others that Jesus is the only way to heaven, we don’t say this out of being “narrow-minded”. We simply speak the truth.

Jesus is the remedy for the disease we have.

Let’s say you become sick with a certain form of cancer, and the doctor says, “this form of cancer is very easily treated if you follow this special regimen of radiation and chemo-therapy”.

Would you respond to the doctor and say, “I think you are being narrow minded, I am going to eat M&Ms instead because I think they will cure my cancer.”

You certainly have the right to believe and do what you want, but you are a fool. And we will mourn over you at your funeral.

Jesus is the answer to our sin-problem.

This is good news indeed.

Applying the gospel

When a person has heard this simple of message that Jesus came to die for their sin, what do they do with this message? Jesus gives us something that helps:

(Mat 11:28-30 NKJV) "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. {29} "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. {30} "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

1. Come to Him.

Jesus invites people to come to Him.

It is not enough to just think about the truth of the gospel, there is a decision that’s involved.

If you walk into an auto dealership, it’s not enough to just think about buying a car. It’s not enough to want to buy a car. You must make a decision. You must make a commitment.

The Prodigal Son was in a “distant country” and knew he needed to go home. But wanting it and doing it are two different things. He had to make up his mind and start walking home.

What does it mean to “come to Jesus”?

Believe – to trust Jesus to forgive you

(John 3:16 NKJV) "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Receive – open your heart to Him.

(Rev 3:20 NKJV) "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

We need to encourage people to make a decision to come to Jesus.

Don’t be afraid to ask people to make a decision.

“Is there a reason that would keep you from receiving Christ right now?”

2. Take His yoke

People in Jesus’ day would understand what this “yoke” thing is all about.

It speaks of letting Him be the one that guides and directs your life.

It’s pretty difficult to separate Jesus being your Savior from being your Lord. He is supposed to be both Lord and Savior.

yoke – a yoke was a wooden frame placed on the neck of an ox or team of oxen to help it pull its load.

I’m told that it was a practice to pair a younger ox with an older ox. The younger ox wants to drift off and go its own way. The older ox knows just where to go. The older ox trains the younger ox how to pull the plow.

Taking His yoke speaks of learning to let Him guide your life.

Jesus said His yoke was “easy”. The word in Greek is chrēstos, which can mean well-fitting. In Palestine ox-yokes were made of wood; the ox was brought, and the measurements were taken. The yoke was then roughed out, and the ox was brought back to have the yoke tried on. The yoke was carefully adjusted, tailor-made to fit each ox. A good yoke would not hurt the ox, but help it do its job.

There is a legend that Jesus made the best ox-yokes in all Galilee, and that from all over the country men came to him to buy the best yokes that skill could make. In those days, as now, shops had their signs above the door. Wouldn’t it be interesting if the sign on Jesus’ shop said, “My yokes fit well.” (From Barclay)

What Jesus means about His “yokes’ is that the life He wants for us is not one to harm us, but one that is tailor-made for us. Whatever God has for our lives is made to fit our needs and abilities exactly.

Jesus wants us to get under His yoke with Him. He wants us to serve Him.

He wants to be the Lord of your life.

This is the process known as “repentance” where I turn away from my old sinful lifestyle and am willing to follow Jesus.

Peter said,

(Acts 3:19 NKJV) "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,

“Repent” means more than feeling “sorry”.

The girl who finds out she is pregnant outside of wedlock is sorry. The person who gets caught in a lie is sorry. The criminal who gets caught is sorry.

Does this “sorrow” lead to change? No, the girl will now just try to have “safe sex.” The liar will just be more careful. The criminal will just plot his next crime with more foresight.

“Repent” means a change of mind, a change of direction.

When Jonah preached, the people of Nineveh repented:

(Jonah 3:10 NKJV) Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.

3. Learn from Him

Becoming a Christian may start with a prayer, but it is also a lifelong process, learning more and more from Jesus.

How can I know if a person has truly become “born again”?

You can tell if there is a change in their life.

John gives us some ideas about the changes that Jesus makes in a person’s life.

a. Admitting that Jesus is Lord

(1 John 4:15 NKJV) Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

b. Less sin

(1 John 3:9 NLT) Those who have been born into God's family do not sin, because God's life is in them. So they can't keep on sinning, because they have been born of God.

This doesn’t mean that once you become a Christian, you will never sin again. It doesn’t mean you become “sinless”. It means that you will “sin less”.

Sin loses its attraction. When you do give in to temptation, you are miserable.

c. Loving the family

(1 John 5:1 NLT) Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too.

This is what church ought to be all about, learning to hang out and love the people that God has changed.

d. Obedience

(1 John 5:3 ICB) Loving God means obeying his commands. And God's commands are not too hard for us.

A person who has truly come to know God will begin to make changes, doing things they’ve never done before.

The story of David Sharp

Tall and rail-thin, with brown hair and a passion for Bob Marley, David Sharp was a former engineer from Guisborough, England, who had quit his career to become a math teacher, which allowed him more time for his true calling: climbing mountains. He looked the part of the mathematician, with wire - rim specs and a goatee that had grown scraggly since he’d arrived in Tibet. While his neighbors in Advanced Base Camp (ABC) had iPods, satellite phones, and laptops, Sharp was resolutely low- tech. In his 10-year-old Berghaus backpack he carried old but adequate climbing gear and two books (Shakespeare and a Bible). He hadn’t even bothered to bring a camera.

Those who knew Sharp asserted that he was a strong and experienced climber. In 2002 he summited Everest’s 26,750-foot neighbor, Cho Oyu, and then went on to Everest itself in 2003 and 2004.Twice he’d climbed Everest’s northeast ridge, and twice he’d come tantalizingly close to the top, just below the Second Step, 1,000 vertical feet below the 29,035-foot summit. In the 2003 climb he lost a few toes to frostbite.

“If he didn’t summit Everest this time, that was going to be it,” says David Watson, an American climber from Vermont who befriended Sharp at the base camp this year. “He wasn’t coming back, because he couldn’t afford to. So he was determined. And he said he was willing to give up more fingers and toes to do it.”

It’s believed that Sharp reached the summit on the afternoon of May14^th,, 2006, but the achievement came at a high price. He would freeze to death under a rock ledge next to the route not far above High Camp. As many as 40 climbers passed Sharp along the ridge as he lay dying.

A few paused, long enough to hear him say, “My name is David Sharp and I am with Asian Trekking!”

Even Sir Edmund Hillary, the first to conquer Everest in 1953, spoke out. “The whole attitude toward climbing Mount Everest has become rather horrifying,” he told the press. ‘A human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.”

The story almost sounds like a modern version of the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Some Christians are so busy on their way up to the Summit that they pass by lost people on the way without so much as a twinge of concern.

We watch them slowly die or worse, never even notice them to begin with.

Has God put people in the path of your “climb”?

Do you have a heart for them to know Christ?

Do you realize that you have the answer to their deepest need?

Are you open to letting God use you?

Paul wrote,

(Rom 1:16 NKJV) For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

Don’t underestimate appeal of the gospel.

Don’t be ashamed of its simplicity.

Don’t add to it or take away from it.

Just proclaim it and stand back and watch what God will do.

What is the Gospel?

Our series is called “Field Training”. Our topic this week is the Gospel.

We get the title of the series from Jesus saying to His disciples,

(John 4:35 NKJV) "Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!

When wheat fields are ready to be harvested, the stalks turn from green to white.

The time for people to come to know Christ isn’t some distant time in the future.

I wonder if we lifted our eyes up and off of ourselves if we might realize that there are people all around us who are ready, people who need Jesus.

Some people who call themselves Christians actually believe that evangelism is wrong.

Earlier this month, the Episcopal Church's presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, made an interesting comment on the subject of “personal salvation”. In speaking to her denomination’s annual convention, she said,

While I admit that salvation involves more than just repeating the words of the “sinner’s prayer”, the concept that you can know that you are saved is quite biblical.

Paul wrote,

(Rom 10:9 NKJV) that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

The apostle John wrote,

(1 John 5:13 NKJV) These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

God wants you to know that you have eternal life. There’s nothing heretical about this at all.

There are some wrong ideas about “the gospel”

Some folks confuse the word “gospel” with “Gospel music” (Play “Gospel”)

There is a correct gospel and a wrong gospel. Paul wrote,

(Gal 1:6-7 NKJV) I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, {7} which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.

Paul rebuked the Corinthians because they didn’t seem to care about whether the message of the gospel or of Jesus was correct:

(2 Cor 11:4 NLT) You seem to believe whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach about a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed.

What are some wrong ideas about the “gospel”?

Too much – adding to the gospel

The issues that Paul addresses with the Galatians was that people were trying to make salvation based upon your works – that you have to earn your salvation.

Along these lines I hear people who make the gospel into some sort of exact “science” – that unless you talk about their specific list of ingredients, that the person isn’t going to be truly saved.

Too little - Watered down gospel

Some will teach that God forgives everything and that repentance is not important.

Others make Jesus an “additive”, He simply makes your life better, more successful.

Others say that Jesus wasn’t the only way – Play Oprah clip.

Gospel Basics

(1 Cor 15:3 NKJV) For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…

Someone once asked C.H. Spurgeon if he could describe his Christian faith in a few words. He replied, “It is all in four words: JESUS DIED FOR ME”

If you look carefully at what both Paul and Spurgeon were saying, you find that there are two parts to the message. There is good news and there is bad news.

The word “gospel” actually means “good news”.

But to fully appreciate the good news, you also have to understand the bad news.

Illustration

The Carrot Saga

The Bad News

1. We are all sinners.

(Rom 3:23 NKJV) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

(1 John 1:8 NKJV) If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Some people are confused about this. They say that man is basically good. I’d say they ought to look at the news every once in a while…

Play Video clip from The Truth Project – the depravity of man

This does not mean that man is incapable of doing good things.

Man can do good things.

A soldier falls on a hand grenade to protect his buddies.

Secular governments send aid to countries devastated by natural disaster.

To say “all have sinned” does not mean there is no good in man, but that there is no good in man that can satisfy God.

Man is not able to live up to God’s holy standards.

(1 Pet 1:16 NKJV) because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy."

What are those “standards”?

You get a hint at God’s standards in the Law of Moses, summarized in the Ten Commandments.

The Law was intended to show man what a failure he is at keeping God’s standards and to show us that we need a Savior.

Some people think that God is going to pull out some cosmic balance scale, put all your good works on one side and all your bad works on the other side. They hope that all their good works will somehow balance out the bad things.

The problem is that they have greatly underestimated the cost of what it takes to balance out a single sin.

2. Sin has consequences.

Sin separates us from a holy God.

(Rom 6:23 NKJV) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If you want to balance out your sins, then for each sin that you commit you must die.

You can pay for your sins if you want, but that means spending eternity in hell.

That’s the bad news.

God does not want you to have to pay for your sins. That is why God sent His Son Jesus to die in our place.

The Good News

Jesus died for my sins.

The entire Old Testament lays a foundation of sacrifice, the idea that an innocent animal can die to pay for your sins. It all led up to the day that God would take this principle of substitutionary sacrifice and have His immortal, eternal Son die to pay for our sins.

Paul wrote,

Jesus died for us.

Illustration

Now, with the gospel, the very opposite is the case. Jesus reversed that pattern—when the servants sinned, the King was punished.

Paul also wrote,

(2 Cor 5:21 NLT) For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

At the cross, God made a huge exchange. God took our sin and placed it upon His Son. God then took the righteousness of His Son and gave it to us.

This is why Jesus would make such a bold statement such as:

(John 14:6 NKJV) Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Only Jesus has paid for man’s sins.

The apostles understood this was well when they said:

(Acts 4:12 NKJV) "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

When we tell others that Jesus is the only way to heaven, we don’t say this out of being “narrow-minded”. We simply speak the truth.

Jesus is the remedy for the disease we have.

Let’s say you become sick with a certain form of cancer, and the doctor says, “this form of cancer is very easily treated if you follow this special regimen of radiation and chemo-therapy”.

It’s believed that Sharp reached the summit on the afternoon of May14^th,, 2006, but the achievement came at a high price. He would freeze to death under a rock ledge next to the route not far above High Camp. As many as 40 climbers passed Sharp along the ridge as he lay dying.