The Gospel: Power of God

9/10/17

Living the Story, Sharing the Story:

“The Gospel: Power of God”

Romans 1: 8-17; Luke 4: 16-21

Pearl: The gospel is the true power for life in and through Jesus Christ.

Function: To empower worshippers with the very gospel of God, the power which leads to true life.

What does the word “gospel” mean to you?

1. Here at Highland and in many churches you stand for the reading of the “gospel.” Just so that you know, it is not because you are idolizing the Bible. You stand for the gospel reading because by and large the readings from the “gospels” Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John contain the words of Jesus. So the gospels communicate the will and way of Jesus. So out of tremendous respect for the Lord Jesus Christ, you stand.
2. The scriptures use other words to describe “the gospel”:
   1. Good News
   2. Good Tidings
   3. Glad Tidings
3. The gospel is really the distillation of The Story of the Bible: “The Story” was a good way to describe the biblical message because it narrowed it down to a message which even further narrowed down and simplified is called: “The Gospel.”
   1. This must be why Eugene Peterson titled his version of the Bible: The Message.
   2. The point of the Bible was to convey a message: The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ.
   3. In part this is what led to the Great Reformation 500 years ago. It was an effort to reform the church back to its chief end. Too many distractions had cropped up and led the church to stray from its “main thing:” the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel is “what it’s all about” because it is the power of God which leads to the life that is truly life.

No matter what your preferred description: gospel–good news–good tidings–glad tidings–message, the essence of the gospel is revealed in Jesus Christ.

1. You cannot go wrong in defining the gospel as “Jesus Christ.” In fact He is the good news! He is the personification of the good news. The most profound description of the good news is Jesus Christ.
2. His life and message is the life and message of true life. He opened the way to true life. He is the reconciliation of all things.
3. His message was life; his way was life; his purpose was to reveal the life that is truly life.
4. He spoke of the “kingdom of God.” This was his message. As the gospel he introduced this “reign of God” on earth.
   1. He brought it about through his life, death, and resurrection.
   2. He established it “in part;” it will be “fully realized” when he returns one amazing Day.
5. The gospel in Jesus Christ is all about the “restoration of all things.” It will lead to what the bible calls the “new earth and the new heaven.”
   1. It is what a favorite author N. T. Wright refers to as the “bringing of everything to the right” (not the political ‘right’). Deep down so many people look forward to and long for this world.

Paul wrote that the “gospel is the power of God for salvation…”

1. What is this “power of God for?” What is the purpose of the “power of God?”
   1. It is to transmit life in all of its fullness.
   2. It is to confer and lead to true life for all.
   3. The essence of the gospel is for the righting of all wrongs. It is for the restoring of all things. It is wholeness of life in every respect.
2. Words come up short!
   1. The painting of “The Peaceable Kingdom” shows wild animals calmly living in harmony with other animals which are usually their prey. This depicts “life as it is intended to be one day.”
3. This gospel is needed by our world as much as it ever was.
   1. Think of all of the rancor.
   2. Think of the threats we live with today:
      1. Nuclear war—again.
      2. Deep and wide philosophical division between friends and enemies over what is right and good and fair.

• In the heart of Hurricane Season we are well aware of the natural disasters which always threaten including fires, famine, hunger, homelessness, addictions, and so on.
  1. It is the power of God which motivates all of the helpers, the first responders, and the volunteers who go to the scene of disaster to lend aide.

The gospel is the power which leads to the life that is really life.

The gospel is the force at work in the world bringing restoration and life.

1. The movie “The Zookeeper’s Wife” is the story of Jan and Antonina Zabinski who used their Warsaw Zoo in Poland to secretly house and protect Jewish people saving them from certain death at the hands of the Nazis beginning in 1939.
   1. As we watched the movie and thought about just how brave these people were who worked in The Resistance I wondered at how they were able to do it.
   2. I was so impressed with them and others who were so truly heroic.
2. Jesus Christ provides the power which enables people to do such heroic things.
   1. Not every believer follows the lead of that power within. Most Christians, sadly, did nothing for the Jews who were being destroyed.
      1. Too often Christians ignore the power of the gospel within which leads to what is true and righteous. But that power is within and can be accessed.
   2. As the “power of God for salvation” the gospel is fully capable and the very “power” which saves and restores and makes new.
3. The gospel is the very power at work in the world which
   1. Makes you brave;
   2. Gives you courage;
   3. Helps you endure;
   4. Makes you whole;
   5. Shows you how to live;
   6. Reconciles enemies and makes them into friends;
   7. Helps you to bless and not curse enemies; even to pray for them;
   8. And on and on are the ways in which “the gospel is bringing everything to the right: the restoration of all things which will one day be the new heaven and the new earth!
   9. The gospel of Jesus Christ is about life as it was always intended by God to be!
      1. Don’t we all long for that reality!
      2. It is not about getting back to some reality of sometime in the past.

• It is about getting to that reality which is yet unknown but longed-for!

This is the gospel: it is the power of God which leads to the life that is really life.

Today as you celebrate The Lord’s Supper you receive the power of God for salvation…for life…the power you need to live within and according to the ways of God’s reign revealed in Jesus Christ.

1. Receive that power and then seek with all of your strength to understand just what kind of power is within you.
2. It is the power that does not Lord over but humbles itself seeking to serve and make whole.
3. It is power that does not destroy; it is the power which heals and makes whole.