What is the Gospel?

2 Timothy 1:8-12

1. yesterday afternoon I was over at the coast, near Rockaway. The radio reception was bad. I couldn’t pick up the Oregon – USC game. I wanted to hear some good news. I wanted to hear that Oregon was winning.

2. last night I was at Canby Grove’s benefit dessert. They weren’t giving World Series updates throughout the evening. I wanted to hear some good news. I wanted to hear that Boston was winning.

3. in ancient Greece or Rome I would have said – I want to hear some gospel.

4. turn to 2 Timothy 1:8-12. Paul, at the end of his life, confined to prison in Rome for his faith in Christ, writes these words to his protégé Timothy. According to William Barclay, few passages in the New Testament have in them & behind them such a sense of the sheer grandeur of the gospel.

5. I want to talk today about the gospel. and I’ll tell you why at the end of my message.

this word ‘gospel’
1. the word gospel is an old word. It can be found in Homer, the Greek poet, who wrote the Iliad & Odyssey. Some date him as far back as 1200 BC.

2. The noun form of gospel means messenger. The verb form means announce. The word came to describe the message of victory over defeated foes. Or the message of personal or political news that brings joy & gladness.
3. I finally heard the ‘gospel’ of Oregon’s victory over USC listening to the post-game report. I read the ‘gospel’ of Boston’s victory over the Rockies on the internet after I came home from the dessert (Jacoby Ellsbury of Oregon State was one of the game’s heroes!).

4. gospel came to describe the good news of the life, death & resurrection of Jesus & his victory over sin, death & Satan. The good news that brings gladness & joy.

5. in 2 Timothy 1:8-12 the gospel unfolds in 5 stages

1st the gospel begins as grace before time (9)
1. the grace of God’s saving gospel was given to us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. If we trace the river of the gospel to its source, we must look back beyond time to the eternal past. Literally, before eternal times.

2. think of this. We were given grace in Christ before…
Þ the world was created
Þ history unfolded
Þ we were born
Þ we did any good works

3. this is called election, predestination. God’s choosing of us for salvation before time began. Election is difficult to wrap our finite minds around. How does God’s sovereign choosing dovetail with human choice & responsibility? God chooses us in the eternal past & we choose him in the eternal present. Our choice is fueled by his grace.

4. John Stott writes that election should 1) engender deep humility & gratitude on our part & 2) bring us a sense of peace & assurance.
2nd the gospel enters time in the historical appearing of Jesus Christ (life, death, resurrection)
1. Paul links God’s electing, saving grace to a person – Christ Jesus. How? Through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus (10).

2. what was decided about grace in eternity past, makes its way into history in the person of Christ. The Word became flesh. God become a man. Jesus, God’s Son, was born to Mary.

3. God’s eternal purposes become rooted in history, in space & time, in Jesus.

4. Jesus destroyed death. We know of 3 kinds of death. All 3 are due to sin. And Christ in his life, death & resurrection has destroyed them all (10):
Þ physical death – separation of the soul from body
Þ spiritual death – separation of the soul from God
Þ eternal death – separation of body & soul from God forever

5. all 3 forms of death have been destroyed in Christ’s death & resurrection, in part now & in whole later.

3rd the gospel comes to us as God’s personal call through preaching & teaching
1. and of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher (11).

2. apostles formulated the gospel; heralds proclaimed, preached the gospel – Christ died & risen from the dead with a summons to repent & believe; and teachers instructed people in its doctrines & ethical implications.

3. notice, what is to be preached & taught is the gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ.
4. the gospel is our defining characteristic as a church. This is what we have to offer people. This is our specialty. NOT a new building. NOT a bunch of programs. NOT a great pastoral staff. NOT you-fill-in-the-blank. But the gospel as we attempt to get its message out however we can through word & deed.

4th the gospel calls us to live a holy life
1. what happens after you respond to the gospel & say “yes” to Jesus as your Savior & Lord? Is it all over? Do you just sit back & wait to die & go to heaven? No, no way! The journey has just begun.

2. the gospel calls us to a holy life (9). Salvation is far more than forgiveness of sin. Salvation is to be progressively transformed by the Holy Spirit into the likeness of Christ.

3. 4 of our high school students ran on the Canby High cross country team this fall – Lindsay VanAcker, Hannah Bennett, Molly Minson & Liz Barton. All 4 joined the team. That was just the start. Mr. Millbrooke’s mission was to RUN them into shape. They were called to a running life.

4. saying ‘yes’ to Jesus is just the start. Living a holy life, becoming like Jesus, follows, till the day we die.

5th the gospel promises us life now & life to come
1. brought life & immortality to light through the gospel (10). Jesus brings life. Life now & eternal life to come. Immortality. We’ll never die. We’ll live forever in the presence of God himself.

2. this is what makes the gospel so important. The stakes are sky high. It’s not just about now – it’s about now & then. It’s about forever. It’s about heaven & hell. It’s about where you’re going to spend eternity.

a mature church
1. what is the gospel? It is the good news that brings gladness & joy. The news of Jesus Christ. His life death & resurrection that saves us when we say ‘yes’ to him.

2. gospel begins as grace before time + enters history in the person of Jesus Christ + comes to us through preaching & teaching + calls us to live a holy life, becoming like Jesus + ushers us into eternal life! The gospel stretches from eternity past to eternity present to eternity future. It transcends time.

3. Thursday night our elders met together – me Norm Beck Mike Higgs Mel Yamase Marlin Myers. The main agenda item was the annual review of my job performance. I was asked to share some elements of my vision for the future.

4. I referenced Stu Weber, pastor of Good Shepherd Community Church out in Boring. After his sabbatical he wrote in Leadership Journal, I want to help Good Shepherd become more assertive in the community. I want to help the church blossom to a new level of responsibility and impact as a truly mature church.

5. I told the elders that part of my vision for the future is this – I want CAC to collectively grow to the next level of maturity. And I defined that maturity, in part, as sacrificial service for our community, even globally.

6. I heard Bono say at their U2 concert in Portland, we attempt to live life as large as we can. To live our Christ-following lives as large as we can means to live Christ-following lives for others. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that the church is the church only when it exists for others.

7. We are beginning to do this more & more. We’re off to a good start. I wonder & I pray what God has in store for us next. Maturity for us will mean, in part, a fuller understanding & practice of the gospel:
Þ election – we participate in something far bigger than we are; ours is to live lives of gratitude; ours is to make ourselves available to God’s work to touch others called by God
Þ Jesus Christ – ours is to make Jesus the Center of all we are & all we do. Jesus is our vision. NOT Jesus + my job, my bank account, my dreams BUT Jesus period
Þ witness – the apostolic preaching teaching part. Getting the gospel out. Spreading the word. Living the life. Making the main thing the main thing. We exist by the gospel & we exist for the gospel.
Þ holiness – we’d better be different for having confessed Christ. If our lives don’t match our words the game is over. Is there anything different about us?
Þ life – spiritual life, eternal life, life everlasting THAT impacts today.

8. it’s time to grow up. To take this gospel thing seriously. To reach the next level of maturity. To not only grow deeper in Christ but to grow further outward because of Christ.

Music I listened to while sermonizing this week – Coldplay, U2, The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens

Books I read & studied this week while sermonizing – Scot McKnight, A Community Called Atonement; John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals; William Barclay, the Letters to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon; John Stott, The Message of 2 Timothy; Gordon Fee, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus