The DNA of a mature church in 200 Words:#4: A Church that Proclaims and Promotes his Holy Gospel.
They say one must 'preach the gospel to yourself’, since the ‘eu-angel’ removes my guilt through Jesus my Saviour, evoking in me both humility and confidence. ‘We are more sinful than we imagined, more loved than we dreamed’.Discuss.
However, the Scriptures reveal a Gospel about Jesus, not me. The earliest preachers preached thus: ‘This Jesus (whom you crucified) has been raised as Lord’. This is eu-angelion: Grand News. Jesus (not Caesar) is Lord and Judge of the quick and the dead. He is the image of the invisible God, through whom and for whom all things were created and will find their sum.
What makes this grand news, good news? There will be peace and justice. What makes this grand news, personal news? That in love, this Messiah died for me, to bring me to God. Yes, the one to whom I submit loves with an everlasting love.
Not everyone is an Evangelist, but the global plan is that the Church spreads this evangel. She hopes in Jesus, preaches him crucified, declares him Lord, calls for repentance. She prays and pays its way. She walks worthy of and acts in line with its truth.
Try preaching that only to yourself.
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Scripture references can be read by clicking on the yellow links, or on one page by clicking HERE. (Acts 2:36, Colossians 1:15, 1:16, Ephesians 1:9-10, Isaiah 9:7, Galatians 2:20, 1 Peter 3:18, Jeremiah 31:3, 1 Timothy 1:1, 1 Corinthians 2:2, Colossians 4:3, 1 Timothy 5:17-18, Philippians 1:27, Galatians 2:14.)
Pic on Flickr by SeenyaRita.
2 comments:
At uni it really clicked for me that that my personal saviour Jesus was also the rightful Lord of the universe. The gospel wasn't just a personal secret to be discovered, but it felt more and more like a weighty newsflash to be broadcast to the world...(although we only managed a feeble start as far as some of Sydney Uni campus!)
Yay! I love this! The Gospel must be about Jesus: it must start with him and end with him. The focus is on his holiness, his drawing near to broken humanity, his death and his resurrection. We put our hope in THIS rather than our own need (our sinfulness) - though you wouldn't know this from the amount we talk about things. I have friends who talk about us conservative evangelicals as "the ones who tell you you're a miserable sinner in the nicest possible way". Yes, we are sinners and I don't want to hide that but if I have to be known for one thing I want to be known as someone who talks about Jesus!
If sin is self absorption and in particular cutting ourselves off from God - I want our evangelism to be as far from this as possible (about God and with God and in God)
I had a thought the other day - why are we so slow to talk about the Trinity in evangelism? I wondered if it's because it one of the parts of Christian doctrine that isn't so obvious in it's involvement of us compared to, say, the Incarnation or the Atonement.
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