God’s Presence and Power is very near and He is setting right people, places and things.
The Gospel Includes . . . .a Sacrificial Way (atonement), a Messianic Way (fulfilling promises to Israel), a Mystical Way (receiving eternal life; being in Christ), a Legal Way (a righteous judge who pronounces the unrighteous righteous; justified), a Personal Way (a Father reconciling His wayward children), a Salvitic Way (slaves who are rescued), a Cosmic Way (a universal Lord; victor over all evil powers and demonic).
There are four common elements in the Gospel:
1. The Gospel is always about Jesus. It is presented in different ways by different authors in different epistles. For example, Paul talks much of Jesus, the Risen Lord; John notes His majesty and Authority; Peter shows how Jesus was fulfilling Old Testament prophecies.
2. The Gospel is always portrayed as God’s responses to our sin and its consequences. There is a response to the guilt we feel, to the loneliness we feel. There is help for our sense of the lack of meaning or our lack of sense of identity. The Gospel connects with that. It brings reconciliation and healing where there is sickness & brokenness in a fallen world - where there are broken relationships.
3. The Gospel always brings benefits and blessings that stem from faith. We receive forgiveness; we receive also the Gift (and the gifts) of the Holy Spirit. We receive His enabling and power to do ministry and to look and live like Jesus. We are joined together into community (addressing our needs related to being lonely, isolated, alienated). There is reconciliation (with God & people); and new life (for people who feel they are dead).
4. The Gospel always invites a response. It calls for repentance and faith - and for a turning away from my own way, toward God’s way.
We need more faithfulness and integrity to the Gospel and sensitive and awareness of people and their need. We must be both deeply immersed in the Gospel and deeply immersed in the world, for we are living between two worlds.
The Gospel, as story, can be told in many different ways - according to different ages, cultures, etc. Though it is the same basic story, it must be adapted to its hearers.
Christian theologian, professor and writer, N.T. Wright, notes that we can think of the Gospel as a six act play
1. The creation of a beautiful, alive, incredible world - male & female live in mirror image of the One who made them . . .
2. Things go horribly wrong: humans try to play God - instead of the dance with one another, with God and with creation - they become self-centred and angry . . .
3. God starts over with one couple and talks of restoration of the dance for all nations . . .
4. The climax comes when God, the Author, writes himself into the story - making it possible for us to meet and interact with the Author . . . He speaks and explains the dreams & hopes we have for this world; He does this in the Person and Name of Jesus . . .
5. The Story (History) is still being written - by the choices and actions and words we make. Our job is to submit our role to the director of the play, to seek His script and the way he’s shaped us, and our world, to play our part with individuality, creativity and courage . . .
6. We receive tantalizing glimpses of what’s coming - restoration to beauty and order and place. We become aware of a dance of beauty and harmony that is once again to be fully restored. We come to see that the seeming end is only the beginning of the real story . . .
The big story of the gospel avoids our magic, fairy-godmother story of little events about Jesus. It takes the focus off God meeting 'my needs' - important and true as aspects of that thinking and approach may be . . . Repentance is not just being sorry for little things: it is a decision to throw in my whole lot with the big Story that God is writing in the world - to find my place in the big story of the universe - to steer my canoe into the stream of history of God’s activity, into what God is doing in history in all of time
We need the Big Picture and the Micro-Picture (the personal) - to see God’s work in creation to end of time. The effects will impact each person differently - individually, for each one is searching for his or her true Way and true Home.
We need to juggle these things - the big picture AND individual personal interaction at point of need, questioning, wrestling and search. Otherwise it is all too cold, personal and distant. the Gospel also comes at the micro-level to the individual - so one may well ask: What is the Gospel according to you? In what sense is Jesus good news in your life today?
“Every year you grow you will find me bigger” . . . Aslan, The Tales of Narnia
The Gospel Includes . . . .a Sacrificial Way (atonement), a Messianic Way (fulfilling promises to Israel), a Mystical Way (receiving eternal life; being in Christ), a Legal Way (a righteous judge who pronounces the unrighteous righteous; justified), a Personal Way (a Father reconciling His wayward children), a Salvitic Way (slaves who are rescued), a Cosmic Way (a universal Lord; victor over all evil powers and demonic).
There are four common elements in the Gospel:
1. The Gospel is always about Jesus. It is presented in different ways by different authors in different epistles. For example, Paul talks much of Jesus, the Risen Lord; John notes His majesty and Authority; Peter shows how Jesus was fulfilling Old Testament prophecies.
2. The Gospel is always portrayed as God’s responses to our sin and its consequences. There is a response to the guilt we feel, to the loneliness we feel. There is help for our sense of the lack of meaning or our lack of sense of identity. The Gospel connects with that. It brings reconciliation and healing where there is sickness & brokenness in a fallen world - where there are broken relationships.
3. The Gospel always brings benefits and blessings that stem from faith. We receive forgiveness; we receive also the Gift (and the gifts) of the Holy Spirit. We receive His enabling and power to do ministry and to look and live like Jesus. We are joined together into community (addressing our needs related to being lonely, isolated, alienated). There is reconciliation (with God & people); and new life (for people who feel they are dead).
4. The Gospel always invites a response. It calls for repentance and faith - and for a turning away from my own way, toward God’s way.
We need more faithfulness and integrity to the Gospel and sensitive and awareness of people and their need. We must be both deeply immersed in the Gospel and deeply immersed in the world, for we are living between two worlds.
The Gospel, as story, can be told in many different ways - according to different ages, cultures, etc. Though it is the same basic story, it must be adapted to its hearers.
Christian theologian, professor and writer, N.T. Wright, notes that we can think of the Gospel as a six act play
1. The creation of a beautiful, alive, incredible world - male & female live in mirror image of the One who made them . . .
2. Things go horribly wrong: humans try to play God - instead of the dance with one another, with God and with creation - they become self-centred and angry . . .
3. God starts over with one couple and talks of restoration of the dance for all nations . . .
4. The climax comes when God, the Author, writes himself into the story - making it possible for us to meet and interact with the Author . . . He speaks and explains the dreams & hopes we have for this world; He does this in the Person and Name of Jesus . . .
5. The Story (History) is still being written - by the choices and actions and words we make. Our job is to submit our role to the director of the play, to seek His script and the way he’s shaped us, and our world, to play our part with individuality, creativity and courage . . .
6. We receive tantalizing glimpses of what’s coming - restoration to beauty and order and place. We become aware of a dance of beauty and harmony that is once again to be fully restored. We come to see that the seeming end is only the beginning of the real story . . .
The big story of the gospel avoids our magic, fairy-godmother story of little events about Jesus. It takes the focus off God meeting 'my needs' - important and true as aspects of that thinking and approach may be . . . Repentance is not just being sorry for little things: it is a decision to throw in my whole lot with the big Story that God is writing in the world - to find my place in the big story of the universe - to steer my canoe into the stream of history of God’s activity, into what God is doing in history in all of time
We need the Big Picture and the Micro-Picture (the personal) - to see God’s work in creation to end of time. The effects will impact each person differently - individually, for each one is searching for his or her true Way and true Home.
We need to juggle these things - the big picture AND individual personal interaction at point of need, questioning, wrestling and search. Otherwise it is all too cold, personal and distant. the Gospel also comes at the micro-level to the individual - so one may well ask: What is the Gospel according to you? In what sense is Jesus good news in your life today?
“Every year you grow you will find me bigger” . . . Aslan, The Tales of Narnia
