Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What's the Gospel According to Jesus? | Who Is Jesus? | Luke 4.43

Episode Date: November 25, 2020

The Gospels tell the story of Jesus's life and ministry, but they're so much more than that. Learn what the Gospel mean to Jesus from https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/patrick-miller/ (Pastor Patrick Miller) as we continue our series on https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcast-series/who-is-jesus/ (Who Is Jesus?) Interested in more content like this? Check out How the Gospel Preached Treason and https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/what-makes-faith-revolutionary/ (What Make Faith Revolutionary) from our earlier series on https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcast-series/how-to-follow-jesus/ (Learning How to Follow Jesus). Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. To learn more, visit our https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (website) and follow us on https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks (Facebook), https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (Instagram), and https://twitter.com/thecrossingcomo (Twitter) @TheCrossingCOMO and @TenMinuteBibleTalks.  Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we are asking, who is Jesus? What's the gospel according to Jesus? Maybe that sounds like an obvious question to you. So how would you answer it? Seriously, give an answer. I've asked this exact question to more groups than I can count. And the answers I tend to get back are usually pretty similar. It's all really. good stuff. Some people think of the gospel as a set of beliefs, like, we're saved by grace, or were justified by faith, or Jesus takes away my sins and gives me his righteous status. Other people think about the gospel as actual news, right? So Jesus died for my sins. Jesus wants to live in my heart. Jesus wants to have a personal relationship with me. Now, these are all true statements, but can you find a single verse in the Bible where Jesus calls those specific,

things, the gospel. Because Jesus, believe it or not, actually had a lot to say about the gospel. In fact, I want to give you a few highlights, and I want to see if you can catch the theme here, okay? Matthew 423. Jesus went throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people. Luke 443, but he, Jesus said, I must proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God to other towns. also because that is why I was sent. Or Mark 115, The Kingdom of God has come near, repent, and believe the gospel. Did you hear a theme? Did you hear one word repeated more often than any other word? Did you notice that Jesus doesn't use the terms that we tend to associate with hearing the gospel,

or at least parts of our quote-unquote gospel presentations? He doesn't talk about holiness. He doesn't talk about sin. He doesn't talk about grace, although those are all important things. No, he consistently repeats one word, kingdom, kingdom, kingdom. Now, I don't think that this would have surprised anybody in Jesus' day because the word gospel was a political word in Jesus' day. In fact, it was even a military word. You see, the phrase gospel, that little word, it actually just means good news. Now, like all news, it's not good advice. It's not just good ideas. It's not just good ideas. is it's a specific kind of news. An event has happened and something has happened to which you need to respond. Now in that world, a gospel was, again, a very particular kind of good news. It was almost always

political, often military, right? So the good news might mean that our enemies have been defeated, or the good news would often mean that there was a new king's reign which had begun and there was peace being proclaimed in his name. And so maybe it's no surprise that the first time that we actually see the word gospel in the Bible, it comes in 2 Samuel 1821, and it's in a story about David. At the time, there was a revolt which had been led by David's son, and someone comes to David proclaiming a gospel. The person who was leading the insurrection, his son had been killed, and now David could once again sit on the throne. Now, as you can imagine, for David, this wasn't quite good news, but it was still called good news because it was good news for

the kingdom. The right king was on the throne. The enemy of the kingdom was defeated. peace could be proclaimed now in David's name. Closer to the time of Jesus, did you know that there was a gospel proclaimed in Caesar's name? I didn't know this until probably five or six years ago, but I find it so interesting. Check this out. There was an inscription found in Prian, and it was carved maybe three or five years before Jesus's birth.

Check out what it says. Providence has brought our life to the climax of perfection in giving us the emperor Augustus, who being sent to us and our descendants as a savior has put an end to war and has set all things in order. Having become God manifest, Caesar has fulfilled all the hopes of earlier times. The birthday of the God Augustus has been, for the whole world, the beginning of the gospel concerning him. Did you catch it? Augustus became an emperor only after having a tremendously bloody civil war with Mark Antony. And his ascension to the throne of Rome, the defeat of his enemies, was announced as a world peace. Everybody knows that the wars are finally over, and that was called

a gospel. It was good news. The right king was on the throne. The right enemies were defeated, and peace was being proclaimed in his name. When we start to realize how the word gospel was used, both in the Old Testament and in Jesus' own day, we can begin to understand why the gospel was so incredibly dangerous and subversive. I mean, it was treasonous for Jesus to go around proclaiming a gospel, not of Caesar, but a gospel of a different kingdom. Jesus is going around, he's marching through Roman territory announcing that in reality a different king from a different kingdom is in charge. This could only mean one thing, that Caesar is not king and that his gospel is a false gospel. This could only mean that a new kingdom was coming to unthrown Caesar. This could only mean that

true peace and true justice could come on earth as it is in heaven through a different king who's not Caesar. This could only mean that there would be peace, but rather than the peace which Caesar made, which was built on the blood of others, this would be a peace and a forgiveness built on the blood of the king himself. You see, Jesus wasn't trying to be coy about the meaning of the gospel. I've heard people say that Jesus never explains the meaning of the gospel and the Gospels, which, I mean, just think about that sentence for a second. No, Jesus was crystal clear. The good news is that God is returning as king to reestablish his rule of love, justice, and mercy on earth. Jesus' gospel was a countergospel. It was a counterg gospel to Rome's gospel. And so it's no surprise

that that ends up landing Jesus on a cross. Jesus wasn't crucified for preaching a nice message. about salvation by grace. As true as that is, he wasn't put on the cross for announcing a new pathway to heaven. He wasn't put on the cross for giving people good advice. He was crucified for insurrection. During his crucifixion, his kingly aspirations, they were all mocked. He's given a crown of thorns. The soldiers robe him in purple and pretend they mock bow down to him. The Romans actually affixed his conviction above his head on the cross. And this was a totally normal thing to do. You would say what the crucified person was convicted for. And do you know what his conviction was? King of the Jews. The message was clear to anybody who walked past Jesus on that cross.

Anyone who seeks Caesar's throne is going to end up just like Jesus. Of course, Jesus didn't just announce the coming of God's kingdom. He wasn't just the herald of the good news that God was returning. He was the one who embodied it. He was the one who enacted it. He's the one who inaugurated it. He's the one who inaugurated it. When he healed the blind, the sick, and the disabled, he was showing that God's kingdom of healing was coming. He was enacting the kingdom. He was making it happen on earth as in heaven. When he cast out demons, he was showing that the kingdom of darkness was falling. You see, he didn't come to actually take Caesar's throne ultimately. He came to do something far bigger than that. He came to defeat the powers of evil behind Caesar. He came to take a throne which was much

greater than Caesar. Caesar's throne was too small for him. When he taught his disciples that the first would be last and the last would be first, he was teaching them how to live as citizens of the kingdom. Again and again and again, Jesus was living, walking, breathing the kingdom of God. He was the living, walking, breathing announcement and enactment of the kingdom of God. He really was heaven itself coming on earth. Jesus' disciples, this took them a while to get, but they slowly began to realize that Jesus wasn't just a prophet or a healer or a herald. No, he was the Messiah. He was actually the king himself. And more than that, he was somehow Yahweh, the living God. He was Yahweh incarnate, returning to earth to rule. The part that no one expected about this good news,

that no one ever would have guessed could have been part of any kind of good news, was that Jesus' throne would actually be a cross. No one expected that this kingdom would come by the king dying to defeat and win over and rescue his enemies. You see, the worst and greatest weapon of any empire, the worst weapon of evil, of human sin, of idolatry. The worst weapon has always been death. And on the cross, all of those powers coalesced and they thrust death upon God himself, upon God incarnate. And just when it seemed like they had won, Jesus broke through death. and he came out alive on the other side.

Jesus cuts a path through death for all of us. Anyone who repents and gives this king their allegiance, finds their sin, which is their worst enemy, defeated and forgiven by the king. And they're invited to live new life in this new kingdom, which is being empowered by God's spirit and coming to life right here on earth. What's the gospel?

Well, the gospel is news. It's really good news. It's not a set of beliefs. it's not a bunch of good ideas? No, it's news. It's fact. It's something that has happened and you are called to respond to it. Here is the good news. Jesus is king, period. End of sentence. He is enthroned. Jesus is king. That is the gospel in three words and it's a gospel, a good news that we have to respond to. What do we do with that news? Do we start rebelling against the king or do we kneel before him and give him our allegiance? Just remember, this king has dealt

evil sin and injustice, a mortal blow. And all are invited to give him their allegiance and ultimately participate in his resurrection. And not only the resurrection of our lives, but the resurrection of the entire world. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with? Texting an episode to A friend or a family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.