Good News!

Good News! Mark 1:9-15 New King James Version (NKJV) 9 It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. 11 Then a voice came from heaven, You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 12 Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. 13 And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him. 14 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel. This is the Word of God, for us the people of God, thanks be to God Let us pray Heavenly Father, Lord of hosts, The Alpha and the Omega. You who breathed life into us all. We come to you today and askfor your presence among us as we give all of our praise back to your. We know that you hear the prayers of your faithful and we pray for a word from you once more. We ask this in the Name of the Prince of Peace, our Savior Jesus Christ....Amen. Repent and believe in the gospel. Repent....and Believe...in the gospel. It sounds simple enough doesn't it? To some people it sounds too simple, even laughable. To some people, it's a joke, while to others it's their only hope. Some will listen to these words, while others will ignore or outright refuse them. But, what exactly do these words mean? Contrary to what many people believe, to repent does not mean you say 'I'm sorry God' and then go back to whatever it was you were doing. To repent means to stop what you are doing, turn away from it, go in another direction. In fact, the Merriam Webster dictionary defines it as: to turn from sin and dedicate onself to the amendment of one's life. This means that when you realize that you are on a path that is self-destructive or harmful to your spiritual well-being, you turn around and head down another path. It means that you give up those old habits, stop hanging around in those old places, maybe even stop hanging around with those old friends, just stop putting yourself in the situations that lead you back to your old vices, to your old self, and to your old sins. Now, what does it mean to believe? It means to have firm religious faith or to accept something as true, genuine, or real, and lastly; to have a firm conviction as to the goodness, efficacy, or ability of something. I thnk that about says it all. Lastly, what does the word 'gospel' mean? It's derived from the word godspell, which means 'good news'. When we go to Merriam-Webster's definition, it says that the word gospel means: the message concerning Christ, the kingdom of God, and salvation. It's also defined by other sources as the 'word' that comes out of the mouth of God. So, 'Repent and believe in the gospel'. Turn away from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life while having firm conviction in the goodness of the message concerning Christ, the kingdom of God, and salvation as found in the Word from out of the mouth of God. It doesn't mean to say 'I'm sorry God' and go on about our business.It doesn't mean that we believe some of the things in that book 'the bible' sound good, but some of it just isn't fair and we shouldn't tell them to people. It doesn't mean that we can recite a prayer or a pledge without any meaning to us and receive salvation. Notice I said recite, not pray. It doesn't mean that we can give God lip service and get away with it, because definitely cannot. It means getting real with ourselves and with God. It means honestly giving up on our ways and giving ourselves over to God's ways. It means working toward living a life that reflects Christ's ways in our own ways and we do that by believing in the gospel, and reading and studying the gospel, so that we may learn how to live a better life. So lets dig into the gospel, the good news, the holy scriptures. There's nothing more beautiful than God's love, the gift of His grace, and salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. There are many scriptures from several books of the Holy Bible that speak of love, grace, and salvation. Everyone loves to hear these scriptures preached. They love to hear what God is going to do for them and all of the gifts He has for them, but don't we owe something to God? Yes, we do! Right beside of these scriptures about love, grace, and salvation are scriptures telling us that we must make a change in our hearts and be held accountable for our actions. So, lets take a look at both kinds of scriptures as they appear together in the gospel. The most popular scripture and probably the most preached of our day is John 3:16, 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. There's not a more beautiful image of God's love for us than this verse of scripture, but lets look at the scripture as a whole and not just this verse of it. John 3:14-20 New King James Version (NKJV) 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 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. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. There's a lot of conviction in those verses. We're not just to listen to this beautiful verse of scripture and feel good about ourselves. We're to listen to all of the scripture, believe in it, take it to heart, and live in it. Let's read a few more verses from John chapter three. As Jesus is talking to Nicodemus. John 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him. 3 Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Jesus is telling His follower that he must be reborn. He must have that spiritual change or a change of heart. In other words, he must repent and believe in the gospel. Another scripture we seem to be seeing everywhere we turn is from the book of Phillipians. Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Just as with John 3:16, Phillipians 4:13 is very beautiful, encouraging, and inspiring. It tells us that Christ will give us the strength to make it through anything, which is true. How many times have we been sick, hurt, brokenhearted, or alone and Jesus was there for us to lean on and comfort us? At the same time though, we you read just this one verse from Phillipians, everyone is just thinking of what Christ can do for them. They're not hearing about any commitment, accountabilty, or responsibility on their part. Once again, let us read more from this book of the bible. Let's read the whole message about the gospel that the apostle Paul is giving us here. Starting at Phillipians 4:10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ[b] who strengthens me. 14 Nevertheless you have done well that you shared in my distress. 15 Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only. 16 For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities. 17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. 18 Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. 19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. 20 Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. Now, by reading the entire message, we see that it is about how fellow believers sacrificed of themselves to help Paul in his evengelistic travels. The people of the church had sent gifts to Paul to support him in spreading the gospel. Christ was strengthening Paul for serving Him by way of his fellow believers and was also strenghening the faith of these believers for taking part in the body of Christ, the true church. They were being strengthened because they were bearing fruit through their faith and God expects the same of us today. We are to help our brothers and sisters in Christ as well. Just as Paul was in need, we have those that we know that we can give encouragement to, cook a meal for, take up an offering for to cover bills in a time of need, or just be there to talk to when they are hurting. When we take part in the body of Christ, Christ will strenghten us as well. Let's look at one more example of a popular scripture which is true, but when it's spoken as one verse by itself, isn't giving you the whole truth of the gospel. In 1 John 4:8 we are told: He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. There's nothing more beautiful or true than that statement because God truly is love, but That's not the entire message of that scripture. When we read the surrounding scriptures, we get the whole picture. Let's read more from 1 John Chapter four. 1 John 4 1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that[a] Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. 4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Knowing God Through Love 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Again we see that there's more to the message than 'God is love'. The apostle John is warning us of false prophets and showing us how to decern who they are as well as telling us that we are accountable to God. He expects us to show our brothers and sisters in Christ the same kind of love the He has shwon us through sending Christ as a sacrifice for our sins and thus giving us salvation. My friends I'm not trying to rain on the message of love that Jesus Christ gave to us, but I'm trying to show that there's more to the story. I don't know if some of you remember him, but a popular American radio personality, Paul Harvey used to begin his radio program by saying 'And now, the rest of the story'. That's what we need to be hearing today. There's more to the gospel or the good news than all of the great things that God can do for us through Christ. There's more to it than hearing about God's love for us, God's gift of grace, and salvation through Jesus Christ. Today, people want to twist the gospel and tell us that the God that they believe in is a God of love and could never condemn anyone no matter what their sin is. They also try to say that since Jesus didn't preach on it in the New Testament gospel accounts, that it must not be a sin. Here's the thing about that, God is the same God from Genesis through Revelations. People hear the word gospel and think of the four books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Jesus didn't just step into the story at the beginning of Matthew my friends. He's always been there my friends. Let me throw a few more scriptures at you: John 1:18 New King James Version (NKJV) 18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. So John is telling us that no one has seen God the Father at any time, but the only begotten son has declared Him. Remember that God appeard to Moses as a burning bush and on Mt. Sinai Moses had to hide behind the cleft of a rock, because seeing God in all His glory would kill him, but we know that Abraham saw God several times, right? Genesis 18:1-3 1 Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre,[a] as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. 2 So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, 3 and said, My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. So who did Abraham see and call Lord in Genesis 18 if no one has seen God at any time? Who else could it have been other than Christ and His angels since He is the King of the angels? We must remember that after this conversation with Abraham that the one he called Lord was about to go witness the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah and would destroy all of the cities on that plain because of their terribly sinful ways. We can also see that the gospel of Christ starts even earlier in our bible if we look closely at the word. In Genesis 1:26, we read: Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. The scripture tells us 'Let Us make man in Our image'. Who is 'us? What is 'Our' likeness? It's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, here from the beginning, and everlasting. Jesus has been there the entore time. The same Jesus that loves us enough to die for us to give us salvation from our sins is the same Jesus who was there for the judgement and destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah for their evil ways. The same Jesus who gives us the gift of grace is the same Jesus who was there when God told His people that greed, theft, lieing, lust, gluttony, coveting, unfaithfulness, homosexuality, murder, rape, cheating, and every other evil thing that we do IS sin. The same Jesus who loves us is the same Jesus who will be there for our Judgement, but take heart my friends. The good news is that when we repent and believe in the gospel, we have a Savior in Jesus Chirst. So, 'Repent and believe in the gospel'. Turn away from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life while having firm conviction in the goodness of the message concerning Christ, the kingdom of God, and salvation as found in the Word from out of the mouth of God. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit God bless you my friends.