THE GOSPEL

What is the gospel?  In our evangelical fervor it is easy to forget the fact that most people are fairly content in their lives, and the gospel has very little draw.  For most people living today, there is little thought beyond tomorrow, and even less thought given to eternity.  Yet, in most evangelical services you will be bombarded with the threat of an eternity in hell without Christ Jesus.  This is not the Kingdom message Christ sent His disciples into the world with. Gospel is almost always translated as "Good News."  

So, what is the good news?  What was so different about the message of Jesus?  

You have to look at what HE said, and what HE did to come to an answer.  

John 3:16 is the encapsulation of the salvation message, but it isn’t the good news.  Prior to Jesus, and for many centuries after His death, and resurrection, the governments of this world operated on the idea that you had value only as long as you were valuable to the ruler over you.  It didn’t matter whether you thought you were valuable, only someone above you could give you worth. The idea of imputed worth flowed from the family who needed sons as a captive workforce.  It was also given to you if you were of worth to the tribe, city, state, or nation you were in.  Your worth was determined by what you did, or who your family was.  This was never God’s intention.  Kings, and rulers believed they were either chosen for their role as rulers, or that they themselves were gods and were fated to rule.  

Then came Jesus!  

The incarnation of the godhead didn’t come to this earth in splendid array, dressed in gold, nor did He come in adult form.  If a ruler ever stooped to live in the poverty and squalor of the poor, He would have been quickly dethroned.  More than that, Jesus came to restore individual worth, and liberty to all people. If you ever wanted to know what the Kingdom of God is supposed to look like, all you have to do is look at Jesus’ first message.  

Let’s look at Luke 4:14-30

This passage was a description of what Jesus said immediately after being baptised, and then being tempted in the wilderness for 40 days and nights.  

You can’t preach the kingdom without being in the power of the Spirit.  Jesus taught in the synagogues as He made his way to Nazareth, and we’re told He was glorified by all. 

Then He gets to His hometown where he goes to the synagogue of His youth.  He is given the scroll of Isaiah (He didn’t choose it), and proceeds to read from Isaiah 61.  This is the mission statement of the Kingdom.  God didn’t come down with angelic armies (even though He had in the past.)  He didn’t enter with great pomp and circumstance as men would do.  

He said; The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, (if the Spirit isn’t upon you, you aren’t anointed to proclaim the good news.)  because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. 

Unlike any other King before Him Jesus wasn’t interested in the rich and powerful.  The poor were the ones who were treated the worst, and were often forced to sell themselves as slaves to those who were better off.

He said; He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives.  The slave, servant, or indentured servant could be free.  Freedom is why Jesus came.  

What does a good God do?  He heals the blind, gives liberty to the oppressed, and declares the year of God’s favor.  

If there is one thing that defines the Kingdom of God, it is liberty, healing, and deliverance.  These blessings have flowed independently at various times throughout history before Christ, but never together.  While many want you to believe that the miracles of Christ were done to convince men of His divinity, I would argue that they were simply the expression of the Kingdom, and were meant to continue in us, through us, and as gifts to mankind.  They were never meant to be signs, but were simply the heart of God being revealed to people everywhere, in every time. If as Paul said in Romans 8:29 that Christ was to be the firstborn among many brothers, then the same Kingdom purpose should be in us. Throughout the history of the Church, the greatest threat to the Kingdom has never been from the outside, but from men and women of God focusing on only one aspect of the Kingdom message. The mission statement of Christ should prompt us to be like Him. There is nothing we can do to rectify past failures of the Church. What we can do live up to the high calling of Christ, and become  what God predestined us to be. The Kingdom has come slowly over the last 2,000 years, but there is a resurgence as we take Christ’s words to heart.  Jesus is speaking throughout the nations to His brothers to break the bonds of enslavement both physically, and spiritually.  We have to ask ourselves

What is good news to the poor?  

What is good news to the captive?

What is good news to the blind, deaf, and lame?  

What is good news to the oppressed?

We don’t have to guess what the good news is. God spoke it through His Son, and the Son showed us what the Kingdom looked like through His actions!  God’s first ambassador revealed what the Kingdom looks like in heaven, and what it should be on earth. Because God is Love, everything Christ did was love. The Kingdom abhors poverty, enslavement, disease, and oppression. Most people today don’t know what the Kingdom is, because we’re fulfilled by the things of this life. The carnal nature rises up if it feels threatened by the Spirit working within us, and justifies itself by using scripture to push away Holy Spirit.

For example, caring for the poor is often shut down by quoting Jesus saying that ‘you will always have the poor among you.’  During the early part of the Evangelical movement, the Second Coming of Christ was used to bludgeon people with fear to accept Christ. The fear of hell was preached so often, that no one knew what the Kingdom of God looked like. The Church has focused on eternity and getting out of this present life for so long, that we don’t know how the Kingdom flows beyond salvation.  Physical death comes to all of us all too quickly, and we waste most of this life wanting to escape it.  

Jesus came to give everyone who will believe in Him a taste of the Kingdom so we will know that we have worth, and value to the Father. The poor, the captive, the crippled, and the oppressed all have hope because the Kingdom is here. 

What Jesus said about individual worth:  Matthew 10:31, Matthew 6:30-32, and most especially the Parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son found in Luke chapter 15.  In Luke chapter 19, Jesus reaches out to Zacchaeus (A tax collector) and offers to eat with him.  Through one act of kindness, the Kingdom came to an entire family.  This is just like what OCC does with one shoebox.  One child gets the box, and an entire family finds salvation. Individual worth for one is the light that shines on others.