A winter ice storm caused our worship services to be cancelled this past Sunday. Unbelievable, right? It’s mid-April!
Anyway, since I didn’t have a chance to preach this message, I thought I might post an overview of what I was going to say on Sunday.
Any careful reader of the Gospels will notice that Jesus was always talking about the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven
Mark, the earliest of the Gospel writers, and probably a primary source for Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels, tells us what Jesus’ message was:
“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is near; repent and believe in the Good News” (Mark 1:14-15).
Matthew records an almost identical message:
“From then on (after baptism and temptation) Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near” (Matt. 4:17). Just one chapter later, Matthew writes, “Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom” (Matt. 4:23).
And, not surprisingly, Luke agrees with Mark and Matthew:
“I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God in other towns, too, because that is why I was sent” (Lk. 4:43).
We see it all over the pages of the Gospels. Jesus’ favorite topic was the gospel of the kingdom. He preached it wherever he went.
You get the idea from Jesus that you can’t talk about the full gospel without also talking about the kingdom of heaven (kingdom of God is also synonymous).
The good news of God for the world was that the kingdom of God was breaking into history, and it was doing so in and through Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah.
The good news of God for the world is that Jesus, the Messiah, has come to take up his throne and resolve the story of the Old Testament.
Unfortunately, the gospel gets watered down into a message that ignores the storyline of the Bible, the storyline that is all about the need to restore the kingdom of God on earth.
“One reason why many Christians don’t know the OT is because their “gospel” doesn’t need it.” – Scott McKnight
“The gospel cannot be holistically comprehended without seeing the manner in which the incarnation fulfills God’s promise to David.” – Matthew Bates
Sadly, for many American Christians, the gospel is all about getting our sins forgiven so we can go to heaven when we die.
We are quite comfortable skipping from Genesis 3 to the New Testament, or worse, skipping from Genesis 3 to the doctrine of justification by faith in Paul’s letters.
The gospel gets reduced to an itty-bitty atonement theology, in which the good news only includes the forgiveness of sin and the avoidance of God’s anger.
Of course, being forgiven from sin and avoiding God’s punishment is certainly a very integral aspect of the gospel, and without it, all of redemption is no longer possible. Justification by faith and personal salvation matter, but they don’t tell the whole story.
“If the gospel is only about individual salvation, then it misses the larger story about Israel, the church, and how the entire universe will be redeemed. The gospel is more expansive and exhilarating than most Christians realize.” – Mike Wittmer
“The way in which personal salvation matters is similar to the way in which the rotor blades of a helicopter matter. You won’t get off the ground without them. But rotor blades alone don’t make a helicopter. And a microcosmic theology of atonement alone does not make up the entirety of the gospel.” – N.T. Wright
The plan of personal salvation (forgiveness and atonement for sin) is not the entire gospel.
When Jesus talked about the gospel, he clearly taught that the gospel was much bigger and better than mere personal forgiveness and individual salvation.
To Jesus and the apostles, the gospel was all about the good news that a new and great king is restoring order and blessing and peace to the world of God’s creation.
Graeme Goldsworthy offers a very succinct summary of the Gospel, which is also the storyline of the entire Bible.
“What Adam was to do in the Garden – that is, to govern this world on God’s behalf – is the mission God gives to Israel (Abraham’s family). Like Adam, Israel failed, and so did its kings. So God sent his Son to do what Adam and Israel and the kings did not and could not do and to rescue everyone from their sins and evil and Satan. The Son of God is the one who rules as Messiah and Lord.” – Graeme Goldsworthy
Today, as in Jesus’ day, we repent and believe in Jesus, the rightly king of creation. Through faith and repentance, Jesus has created a new society called the church with Holy Spirit empowerment to apply love, peace, justice, and holiness to this broken world.
So we now, under the authority and victory of Jesus, rule and govern the world through the power of the Holy Spirit as redeemed image-bearers of God. And someday the perfect image-bearer will come back, and Jesus will be the temple, and the garden will become the eternal city, and the whole earth will finally and ultimately be filled with peace, love, joy, and holiness.