The Gospel of Jesus Christ (1)

​“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God - the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rm 1:1-4)
 
Introduction
Starting today, I want to talk about the greatest and most important subject that we should all know about as Christians: the gospel of Jesus Christ. The importance of understanding what the gospel is as Christians can’t be emphasized enough because it’s the foundation of what we believe, and it affects us not only in the church but also in our daily lives.
 
What I’ve found from my past experiences in churches is that there aren’t many Christians who really know what the gospel is and whose faith and lives are built upon it regardless of how long they’ve been going to church.
 
It seems that they are more familiar with the culture of the church than the gospel. So they come to church, participate in religious activities, and have fellowship with other Christians, but they still haven’t met Jesus and so their lives haven’t changed.
 
They might still get some benefits from going to church, but I would say, if they haven’t met Jesus personally, they are missing the greatest blessing they could have.
 
Even though many people go to church on a regular basis for various reasons, there are not many Christians in the church who really accept Jesus, the head, foundation, and cornerstone of the church, as their Savior and Lord. That makes me sad. It makes God sad as well.
 
So, what’s always much more important than how long you have been going to church is whether or not you’ve truly met Jesus. Coming to church without knowing Jesus means nothing because we’re not saved through church attendance but by believing in Jesus who built the church.
 
In this sense, the gospel of Jesus Christ plays a significant role in Christian life because that’s what truly makes it possible for us to meet Jesus, believe in Him, and build ourselves upon His firm foundation.
 
That’s what I want to see happening while we’re re-exploring the meaning of the gospel. I really want to see all of us here in this space, including myself, truly understand what the gospel is so that we know who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for us to bring us the good news of salvation, so that our lives may be revived in the truth and re-aligned with God’s will for us based on the gospel.
 
What Is the Gospel?
Then, the first question that we need to find the answer to is ‘what is the gospel?’ I believe most of you are familiar with the word ‘gospel’ because it’s probably the word that you hear the most in the church. But over time, this word has lost its meaning and power by becoming too familiar.
 
So, you know the word. What do you think is the gospel? How would you define it? If you had to summarize the contents of the gospel in one sentence, what would it be? These are the questions I hope all of us find answers to through this sermon series.
 
But, first, let’s begin with the word ‘gospel’ itself. The English word gospel is derived from the Anglo-Saxon term “god-spel.” Here, god means good and spel means story, news, or tidings. So, godspel basically means good story, good news, or good tidings.
 
This word was a rendering of the Greek word euangelion, which is also a compound word. Eu means good, and Angelion means announcement or news. So, the word euangelion can be translated as good news. That’s what the word literally means. But, what kind of good news?
 
The first thing we need to know about the word euangelion is that it wasn’t invented by Christians. When Jesus and the apostles used the word, they were using a nonreligious word from their contemporary culture. In fact, it was an extremely political word at that time that was often used in relation to an empire or an emperor.
 
It's said that it was mostly used in three cases—when an emperor was born, was crowned as the ruler, or gained a victory in a war. So, it was quite dangerous to use the word with regard to someone other than the emperor when the New Testament was written because Roman emperors were considered like gods at that time. History tells us that emperor worship was prevalent in Roman society.
 
But in today’s passage, Paul applied the word euangelion to someone else. Let’s read it together one more time.
 
“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God - the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rm 1:1-4)
 
Here, Paul introduces himself as an apostle set apart for the gospel of God. Then he begins to briefly explain the gospel that he was called for. Here we see some important factors that compose the gospel.
 
First of all, Paul said that the gospel was promised beforehand through prophets in the Holy Scriptures, which refers to the Old Testament.
 
Even though the word ‘gospel’ doesn’t appear in the Old Testament, it’s filled with the good news that God would ultimately bring to the world. The good news is mentioned directly in the passages called the messianic prophecies and revealed indirectly through signs and indications.
 
Throughout the Old Testament, God revealed that there would come a day when He would perfectly achieve His plan to save the whole world through one person whom He would anoint for the salvation of all human beings. And the anointed One, the Messiah, would be no one but His Son.
 
So, Paul said that the gospel that God revealed and promised both directly and indirectly is about His Son, Jesus Christ. That’s why we understand the Old Testament as promises of the Messiah who would come.
 
And all the prophecies came true in Jesus’ life. He was born, lived, and suffered and died according to the promises written in the Old Testament. Jesus’ life on earth is written about in the New Testament.
 
So we can understand the New Testament as testimonies about the Messiah, or Christ in Greek. But that’s not the end. We also find promises about the Son of God who will come back, which we’re waiting for as Christians.
 
So, even though there are many stories and figures in the Bible, both the Old and the New Testament actually point to just one person, the Messiah and the Son of God, who would come, who came, and who will come back. That’s what Jesus meant when He said,
 
“…These are the very Scriptures that testify about me” (Jn 5:39)
 
Luke 24:27 also testifies that all of the Scriptures are centered on Jesus Christ.
 
It says, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he [Jesus] explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” (Lk 24:27)
 
That’s what we’ll explore starting next Sunday. We’ll look at the Old Testament to see how God revealed His Son and how He would achieve perfect salvation for the whole world.
 
Back to today’s passage, after revealing that the gospel is about God’s Son promised in the Old Testament, Paul defines it further by introducing how the Son of God would bring the good news to the world. Paul goes on,
 
“Who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead” (Rom 1:3-4)
 
Here, we find some important truths about the Son of God. First, He had an earthly life, which referred to the incarnation of Jesus. Even though He was God in His very nature, He chose to come down to the world in human form and lived among us. We’ll talk about why He had to have a body like us to save us from our sins later.
 
Second, Paul said that He was resurrected from the dead. Jesus’ death and resurrection are also very important factors in understanding the good news that He brought to the world. We’ll see how His death and resurrection played significant roles in salvation in more depth later.
 
Now, while explaining the gospel, the good news that he was called and set apart for, Paul concludes the paragraph by referring to what the gospel is truly about: Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 1:4)
 
Even though there are lots of things to say about the gospel, it can be summarized in just one name. The gospel is about one person: Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The name of Jesus is enough to explain what the gospel is.
 
I said earlier that the word euangelion was mostly used in Roman society at that time to refer to the emperor when he was born, enthroned, or gained a victory.
 
But Paul used it with regard to Jesus Christ, not the emperor. It’s like he was saying that the good news was not that the emperor was born, but that Jesus Christ was born. The good news was not that the emperor had been crowned as the ruler, but that Jesus Christ was the King of kings. The good news wasn’t that the emperor had won the war, but that Jesus Christ had defeated the authority of sin, death, and Satan and was raised from the dead.
 
That’s the good news that we must hold on to as Christians. It is the good news that Jesus Christ who, being in very nature God, came to this world as a baby just like us to save us from our sins. It is the good news that Jesus Christ became the Lord of all, the Lord of our lives, even though we were corrupted and dead in our sins. It is the good news that Jesus Christ defeated death and rose again and by doing so freed us from the chains of sin and death and gave us His righteousness and eternal life.
 
This is the good news to which nothing can compare. The gospel is Jesus Christ our Lord Himself. That’s the good news that we must build ourselves upon. That must be the foundation of everything we think, say, and do.
 
Again, the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ. And what’s important here is the definite article, ‘the’. Even though the word ‘the’ is used a lot in English, one its uses is before nouns that are unique, such as the Earth, the sun, and the moon. So the fact that we call the news about Christ ‘the gospel’ gives us some important insights about it.
 
While living on earth, we’re surrounded by a lot of news, both good and bad. There might be good news that we’d like to hear and that we hope for such as success, good health, getting a job, being promoted, meeting good people, and more.
 
But, even though these things are good, none of them can be ‘the’ good news. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can be the eternally good news to which any other good news in the world can’t compare.
 
The good news of Jesus Christ is fundamentally different from earthly good news in that the good news is about our eternal life that we can enjoy both now and forever, while earthly good news is about our temporary lives that are limited to here on earth.
 
No matter how good and successful our lives are here on earth, they will disappear like morning mists. But the good news we see, hear, experience and enjoy in Jesus Christ will never fade away. It is the good news that exists forever. That’s the eternal value of the gospel of Jesus Christ that I want all of us to find today.
 
People who belong to this world are tied to earthly things. They are interested in things that will decay soon. It makes me really sad when I see people who say, "I’m a Christian," but only follow things that belong to this world.
 
Christians should live differently. We should profess that only Jesus Christ is the good news because in His name we find forgiveness of our sins, salvation, eternal life, and the power to make us new. He is the good news on which we must fix our eyes.
 
I don’t know what you think of Jesus. I don’t know how you think of the gospel He brought to us through His suffering, death, and resurrection.
 
So, I want us to look back on our faith now. What kind of faith do you have? Is Jesus Christ the only good news or is He just one piece of good news to you? Would you willingly give up everything else if that were the way you could get the truly good news? I want us to answer ‘yes’ to these questions today. That’s how we should treat the gospel, if we truly believe that it’s the best, incomparable, and everlasting good news given to us by the grace of God.
 
So I really hope that God opens up our hearts and enlightens them with His truth so that we may truly understand who Jesus is and what He’s done for us so that we know the gospel in more depth and experience its power changing our perspectives, values, and entire lives.
 
All right. Let’s wrap up with prayer.
 
[Closing Prayer]
Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us this great opportunity to learn about the gospel, the good news that You brought to us through Jesus Christ, Your only Son.
 
Oh Lord, we’ve heard about the gospel a lot, so we think we know it and are very familiar with it, but we confess that there have been many times that we’ve lived without regard to the gospel and failed to live out our faith in Christ.
 
We’ve been going to church for a long time, but we see no changes and no growth in faith. We know something is wrong, but we haven’t really tried to fix it. Rather than following Your will, taking up our own crosses, we’ve been busy following the ways and values of the world while neglecting Your special plan for us.
 
Oh Lord, please have mercy on us and open our minds and hearts to You and to Your word of truth so that we truly understand the gospel, the good news that You’ve given us by sacrificing Your only Son on the cross.
 
Soften our stubborn hearts so that we may hear Your voice and find the true, eternal value of the gospel of Jesus Christ and so that we may return to You and experience our souls being revived in You.
 
We ask that You guide our hearts and lives while we’re exploring the gospel of Jesus Christ in more depth.
 
We thank You for everything You’ve done to save us.
We love You, Lord.
 
In the precious name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
 
[Reflection Questions]
1. What is some good news you hope for nowadays?
 
2. What do you think is the gospel of Jesus Christ? How would you define it? How do you think the good news is different from earthly good news?
 
3. Have you had a moment in your life when the gospel of Jesus Christ became real? Please share your experience if you have one. What changes did it bring to your life?