What is the Good News?
Mark 1 . 9-15: What is the Good news? "Have you heard of the Four spiritual Laws?" Do you know what they are? (Laws is perhaps not the right word: it made some of us, talking about it, think of the Ten Commandments and the Great Commandment!)
The four "Spiritual laws" in the booklet of that title are 1. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. 2. Because of your sin, you cannot experience God's plan for your life. 3. Only through Jesus can your sin be taken away so you experience God's plan for your life. 4. You must receive Jesus personally in order to experience God's plan for your life. I don't want to knock them It is good to be able to write down the basics of the Gospel on a serviette -- or in 4 tweets. The "Four laws" booklet was written by a man who simply loved Jesus. Bill Bright is the man who was once being interviewed by a journalist who routinely asked "what does Jesus Christ mean to you?" In response, Bright's eyes filled with tears. So I don't want to knock the "Four Spiritual Laws". But I do want to improve them. Because the Good News, the Gospel, includes you and me personally, but is bigger than you and me personally.
So what is the Gospel? What is the Good News? It's about the kingdom. At exactly the right moment, when John the Baptist has been put in prison, Jesus starts his life’s work, by proclaiming the Good News of God. His preaching is summed up in three sentences: (1) The Time has come! (2) The Kingdom of God is at hand.
And (3) Repent and believe the Good News.
1. It begins with God’s Kingdom. The fact is that “The earth is the Lord's” (Psalm 24. 1) by right because he made it. When God made the earth he saw that it was Good (Gen 1. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25) And verse 31 says when the work was completed “God saw that it was very good”. That means Seriously, good. Utterly good; powerfully good.
God is a good God who made a good world.
The earth is the Lord’s. He has the right to rule in his world. When he made the human race, he made us for a special relationship with himself. God has always intended to have a people who would be his. Plan A was for the whole human race to be that people, that community. He wants us to know him; to be in fellowship with him. So, Yes, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life: but that is part of a bigger plan for the whole of creation.
Tweet number 1 is: God is good and made a good world, where he intended to rule as king.
2. The world isn't the way God planned it. If God has the right to rule, why is Jesus saying “The time, the right time has come; the kingdom of God is at hand”? Why the big fuss?Why was a good man like John (the Baptiser) put in prison? John was a challenging sort of guy. He tore into people whose religion was all talk and no life-giving action. He told the rich to share what they had, the powerful not to use their power to make a few extra bucks. He challenged what was wrong in his world. So, "wrong" – in the form of Herod Antipas – hit back, and John was jailed.
And back of the evil in the world, there is a spiritual battle. The same power that used Herod to stop John in his tracks, tried by a direct head-to-head attack, to stop Jesus in his tracks: for forty days Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness. The world is not the way God planned it, because the world is in the control of Satan and the forces of evil. There is a spiritual battle. Evil is a reality, and our evil, our sin, has allowed that evil to run wild in God’s world. So yes, “All of us sin and our sin has separated us from God.” But our sin is part of a bigger, cosmic problem.
So Tweet number 2 is Rebellion against God, has ruined the world, separating it -- and us as people -- from God's rule.
3. The kingdom of God is at hand. That’s what Jesus announced. For hundreds of years, the Jewish people had waited for the time when God would begin to rule in his world. When his Mighty arm would be laid bare – sleeves rolled up for battle or hard work (Isa 52. 7, 10). But now, says Jesus, “The time has come”. He has come to make God king in his world.
As Jesus heals the sick, drives out the demons, and teaches truth, he demonstrates the Kingdom at work. People see the quality of life in God’s Kingdom, what life is like when he rules. His Father looks at him and says “This is my son. I am pleased with him.” But the Father being pleased with Jesus wouldn’t be good news. It still leaves us with an unsolved problem, an unresolved conflict: rebellion, sin.
This rebellion thing – this sin – can’t just be left hanging. When he was baptised, Jesus was committing himself to doing whatever it would take, to make God King. That’s why his Father was pleased with him. And he made that commitment, knowing that what it would take, was his own death. Jesus says he did not come "to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom in the place of many." (Mk 10. 25) To rescue us, save us from our sin and rebellion. Paul says Christ (which means Messiah) died for our sins (1 Cor 15. 1)
And when he died, he won the battle. He dealt with our sin and defeated the whole rebellion against God. Death was defeated so completely that itcouldn’t hold him any more. (Acts 2. 24) So Jesus rose again. Through Jesus, sin is dealt with. The thing that opposes God’s Kingdom is defeated.
His kingdom is at hand, nearby; it will eventually replace all others because Jesus has won the decisive victory. So yes, Jesus Christ is God's only provision for our sin. Through Him we can know and experience God's love and plan for our life. But more: through |Jesus, the universe will know God’s rule. And we can be part of that.
So Tweet number 3 is:
Through Jesus' life, death and resurrection, sin is dealt with, the rebellion is conquered and God becomes King.
4. Repent and Believe this Good news. This Good News deserves a response. John did it. He stuck his neck out and preached. Jesus did it. He was baptised by John, not because he had any sin to wash away, but
is a commitment to washing away ours. And he demands that we do it too. That response is simple, and it is there in one form or another through the NT (see for example Heb 6. 1) The response is "Repent and believe."
“Repent” means to change your mind. In Greek it had the idea of realising too late that you have been wrong. But in Hebrew, the language of the OT, it means “to be sorry enough to change” and “to turn back” or change direction. It’s what happens in the story of the prodigal son, when the lad decides to leave the pigsty and go home to his father. To respond to the Good News, we need to be sorry enough to change; we need to turn away from the pigsty, and turn back to God.
And Believe the Good News: that the Kingdom has come near through Jesus. That the Kingdom is opened up for us by Jesus through his Cross. That Jesus is alive and able to get us into the Kingdom. Professor AM Hunter says "Turn again to God and make this Good News of God’s Reign your own.” That is a good way of expressing the challenge.
So the fourth tweet says
“We can be part of God's present and coming kingdom through Turning (from ourselves and our idols) to God and Trusting in him.”
So what are we to do about it?
If you haven’t already, Turn to Jesus and Trust in Jesus.
And for those of us who have, “We are witnesses to Jesus as Messiah/King and Lord, the one who saves.” (Says Scott McKnight of Northern Seminary in Illinois). He goes on “ Our responsibility is first of all to live in such a way that we embody what Jesus calls us to do. Our responsibility is to point people to Jesus, to tell the Story of Jesus, and to tell of our own story with Jesus." And we could add with Pentecostal scholar Andrew Gabriel we do that can Invite people to talk with God (that’s the point of “Try Praying”) Pray with people. God will work in their life and they will see it. And listen to people. A feature above the beds in the local hospital, is a visual chart with the question “What matters to me?” Finding out what your patient holds important, helps you be a better carer. And it helps you be a better witness. Find out what is important to people, and think how God might speak to those needs.
And when people are ready to be told, be ready to tell them: “God is good and made a good world, where he intended to rule as king. Rebellion against God, has ruined the world, separating it -- and us as people -- from God's rule. God’s rule comes through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Turn to him and trust him.”
