THE GOSPEL IS GOOD NEWS Sermon preached by Pastor C. John Steer Autumn Ridge Church, Rochester, MN October 1-2, 2016

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1 1 THE GOSPEL IS GOOD NEWS Sermon preached by Pastor C. John Steer Autumn Ridge Church, Rochester, MN October 1-2, 2016 No. 2: Scripture: What is the Gospel? The Gospel of Luke We are considering the intriguing question, WHAT IS THE GOSPEL? We have discovered that the word gospel is used in different ways by the biblical writers. Last week we saw that Mark tells us the gospel is about Jesus. In its simplest form the gospel states that Jesus is the Son of God. He died on the cross for our sin. He rose to give us eternal life. He is now seated at his Father s right hand where he makes intercession for us until that day when he will come again in glory and power. So the gospel is not a program or a philosophy. It is a person that we can know and love and serve. Today we move on to Luke who informs us that THE GOSPEL IS GOOD NEWS. This is wonderfully encouraging because there is such a shortage of good news in our world. Each week I try and make my way through TIME Magazine, The Week, and The Post-Bulletin. They all report the local, national and international news and usually it is predominantly bad. How lovely then to have good news. We have an inbuilt longing for good news. Think of a time you have received good news. I think back forty years when I met a young lady in Los Angeles. I asked her to marry me and she emphatically said no. Her mother had taught her to stay away from strange men. I was well qualified for that category. Undeterred I kept asking her every day for six weeks. Her reply was always the same. No. But one glad day, in a moment of weakness, she said yes. That was very good news. Some years later I was on study leave at Cambridge University. Gretchen called me and asked, Are you sitting down? I replied Yes. She said I have some news. We are having another baby. That was very good news because we thought our family was finished. A few months later our daughter Hannah arrived. She has brought so much joy into our lives. It is wonderfully exciting to receive good news. And that is what the gospel is. The New Testament word that Mark and Luke use is euangelion. From this we get our word evangelical.

2 2 Autumn Ridge is an evangelical church. That means we are a gospel-centered and a gospel-proclaiming people. There are two English words used to translate euangelion. The first is gospel. The second is good news. They are interchangeable. The New International Version often chooses to translate euangelion as good news whereas the English Standard Version prefers the word gospel. They are both accurate. So God has given us something the world really needs which is a message of incredibly good news. Luke has four great statements about this good news. First, he wants us to know THE GOSPEL IS GOOD NEWS TO THE WORLD. Luke begins his story with the birth of Jesus. Luke is the only writer to tell us about the visit of the angels to the shepherds and the angel s extraordinary announcement, I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. (2:10) Notice this good news is for all people. We have a global gospel. This means no one is beyond the merciful reach of God. The gospel is not just for Rochester, but for Romania, Russia and Rwanda. The good news is also for countries who presently regard the gospel as bad news like Saudi Arabia, Yemen and North Korea. Now we don t keep good news to ourselves. We share it. When Gretchen told me she would marry me I phoned my parents in England. Back in those days I never made international phone calls as they cost the price of a small car. But I had a great need to tell people. So whether it was my barber or the postman or the lady in the grocery checkout line, they heard my good news. I m getting married. So this good news of the gospel is for the whole world. In Luke s second volume, which we call the Book of Acts, we see how the first Christians impart this good news, starting in Jerusalem and taking it to the furthest points of the known world of their day. Luke wants us to know that this good news smashes barriers. For the good news of Jesus is for Gentiles as well as Jews. When Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple when he was six weeks old an elderly man called Simeon holds Jesus in his arms and offers a prayer of thanksgiving, saying For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel. (2:30-32) So the gospel united Jews and Gentiles, Hebrews and Palestinians, blacks and whites. Now while this good news is for everyone in the world, we need to personally receive it. The shepherds are told by the angel, I bring you good news... You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. (Luke 2:10&12) The shepherds heard the good news but they had to go looking for the baby.

3 3 Had they not searched for Jesus they would have missed the exciting implications of the angel s message. Second, Luke shows us that THE GOSPEL IS GOOD NEWS TO THE DISADVANTAGED. This is so encouraging because there are so many who are disadvantaged and their numbers are growing all the time. The United Nations reports there is a record number of people displaced by persecution and war. It is the downtrodden who need good news more than anybody else. They are the ones who have always been most open to the message of the gospel because they welcome the hope of transformation the good news offers. Luke shows us why the gospel is good news to the disadvantaged when he describes a Sabbath service in Jesus own synagogue in Nazareth. Jesus stepped forward to read the scripture. Unrolling the scroll of Isaiah Jesus declared, The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free. (Luke 4:18) Jesus is announcing a ministry to the marginalized. For the rest of his life Jesus demonstrates how this works out in practice. One day John the Baptist sent some of his disciples to ask Jesus if he is the Messiah. Jesus gives them this message, Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. (Luke 7:22) One of the most dramatic stories of transformation of a socially and spiritually stunted individual is seen in Zacchaeus. It is hard for us to grasp how hated tax collectors were in those days. None of us enjoy paying taxes but we understand why they are necessary. But first century Jewish tax collectors were collaborators with the Romans. They stole from their own people by taking too much tax. In the first century Jews thought of tax collectors the way we might think of child molesters. And Zacchaeus wasn t just any tax collector. He was the chief tax collector and so was immensely wealthy as a result of defrauding his countrymen. When Jesus came into Jericho everyone wanted to see this man who had made a reputation for himself by his miracles and his teaching. Zacchaeus dare not join the crowd fearing what they would do to him. So instead he climbed a sycamore tree hoping to get a good view of Jesus. Zacchaeus is just one person among many. But Jesus knows his name and when he reaches the spot Jesus looks up into the tree and says, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. (Luke 19:5) It was the best news Zacchaeus had ever heard.

4 4 No good Jew would have gone into the home of a tax collector, but Jesus did. Inside Jesus told Zacchaeus about the love of God and how to love others with the result that by the time Jesus left his home Zacchaeus is able to say, "Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. (Luke 19:8) That is the transforming power of the good news. Jesus tells this marginalized man, Today salvation has come to this house... For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:9-10) A man on the outside of society is brought inside the kingdom of God. Luke s gospel is filled with stories of such reversals describing people who are completely turned around by the good news. These reversals are turned into a song in Mary s Magnificat when the mother of Jesus sings of the work of the Messiah: "He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty." (Luke 1:52-53) We find the same transformation of the disadvantaged described in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus tells the people: Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh." (Luke 6:20-21) The gospel is good news to the disadvantaged because Jesus causes the last to be first, the lost to be found, and the dead to come alive. Luke loves to tell stories of the underdog who receives the commendation of God. So in the parable of the self-righteous Pharisee and the sinful Publican the Pharisee gives his fancy prayer while the Publican just beats his breast and says, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. (Luke 18:13) Yet Jesus says it was that man who went home justified before God. The thief beside Jesus on the cross is one of the most disadvantaged people we meet in the entire gospel. This criminal has no freedom of movement. His hours are numbered. He has led a wretched life and is experiencing a ghastly death. Yet just as he is about to die he says to Jesus, Remember me when you come into your kingdom. (Luke 23:42) Jesus hearing the sadness in his voice and knowing the repentance in his heart responds, Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43) Can you imagine what those words must have meant to that dying man? He now has hope, probably for the first time in his life. He has heard words of kindness instead of the curses of his executioners. The gospel was good news to that penitent thief just as the gospel is good news for you and me.

5 5 For we too are spiritually disadvantaged. We will never enjoy the good news of Jesus until we recognize that fact. Jesus explains why when he said, It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (Luke 5:31-32) Until we recognize that we are sick and need the Great Physician the gospel cannot do us any good at all. Yet we have to be honest and acknowledge that for many the gospel is not good news. On the contrary, they see the gospel as intolerant and hateful and out of step with 21 st century society. Now this is nothing new. Jesus faced the same opposition in the first century and so did Paul. So how do we persuade antagonistic people that the gospel is good news? Part of the answer is the work of the Holy Spirit. But another part is the work of Christians as we express the love of Christ to the disadvantaged. We can learn from other Christians how they have demonstrated that the gospel is indeed good news. An excellent example is the Salvation Army. They are universally admired although the Salvation Army is a Christian church. Back in 1865 William Booth was conducting street corner services in London s East End. It was an area filled with slums and appalling poverty. People were so wretched they would buy a pint of bootleg gin for a penny. Men would get desperately drunk on this brew and as a result would be violent to their wife and children. William Booth and his wife Catherine realized these men needed some self-respect and dignity. Now back in Victorian England the military were looked up to so God gave the Booths the idea of creating the Salvation Army. They gave their members military uniforms and military titles. They instructed them on the need for discipline as Christian soldiers. They taught them to play musical instruments and sang hymns in what essentially was a military band. Initially their efforts met with derision and criticism from British society, but the Booths didn t care. William published a book called In Darkest England and the Way Out. It became a best seller. It showed Victorian England how to deal with the problems of poverty and vice. This gospel movement spread around the world. By 1900 the Salvation Army had won respect for their efforts on behalf of the poor and forgotten. King Edward VII even invited General William Booth to attend his coronation. We sometimes think of the Salvation Army as a social agency, but first and foremost it is a Christian church that preaches the good news of the gospel to the disadvantaged.

6 6 Laurence was a deacon in the church in Aragon in the third century. During one of the dreadful persecutions of those days he was ordered to bring some of the treasures of his church to the Roman official. What he brought were some of the poor, downtrodden and lame people. He explained, These are the treasures of our church. It is this compassionate behavior of lifting up the fallen that has persuaded some of the skeptical that the gospel is indeed good news. Then Luke shows us that THE GOSPEL IS GOOD NEWS TO THE SAD. There are plenty of reasons to be sad in our world. There is great inequality and injustice. I was listening this week to a report on Zimbabwe and the dreadful conditions that many people are experiencing there today. In our own country there has been a rise in the suicide rate and an increase of drug overdose deaths. That speaks of the despair many are feeling. Some are struggling financially. No matter how hard they work they can t get ahead. Others are unemployed or underemployed. There was a tragic story in the news last month. A 70 year old Kansas man called Lawrence Ripple robbed a bank at gunpoint. He then sat down in the bank lobby and surrendered to police when they arrived. He told them he preferred being in jail to going home to his wife. That s really sad. How bad must your marriage be when you prefer prison. But the gospel gives Mr. and Mrs. Ripple and us something to rejoice about. Those shepherds in the fields around Bethlehem had a crummy job. They were despised by just about everybody. Yet the angel tells them, I bring you good news that will cause great joy. (2:10) Joy is a recurring theme throughout Luke s gospel. Mary says, "My spirit rejoices in God my Savior." (Luke 1:47) Jesus even tells those who are being persecuted, "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven." (Luke 6:23) When Jesus sends out the 72 on a mission trip, they return with joy having seen God at work. Jesus encourages them to Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:20) The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son all end with joy. The gospel closes with joy as the disciples return to Jerusalem after witnessing Jesus ascension to heaven. Luke shows us that Christians should be the happiest people in the world for we have complete forgiveness of our past, innumerable blessings in our present and guaranteed security in our future.

7 7 Then Luke tells us that THE GOSPEL IS GOOD NEWS FOR THE TRUSTING. Although the gospel is good news, not all respond. Many actively oppose it. Luke is very realistic about this and shows how the presentation of this good news had vastly different outcomes. In his first chapter he contrasts an old man called Zechariah with a young teenager called Mary. Both of them are brought good news by the angel Gabriel. Their stories are presented alongside each other with the challenge how will we respond to the good news? Zechariah can t believe that his wife Elizabeth can have a baby in her old age. He should have known better because he was an Old Testament scholar. He knew that Sarah and Rebecca and Rachel and Hannah had all received the gift of a child after almost giving up. He knew those stories and he believed those stories but when it comes to his own situation he asks the angel, How can I be sure of this? (Luke 1:18) Some of us hear the message of the good news. We see what it has done for others but we can t believe it will work for us. We too ask How can I be sure of this? As a result Zechariah loses the power of speech. In contrast Mary didn t have any of the knowledge of Zechariah. She too is visited by an angel who tells her that although she is a virgin, she will give birth to the Messiah. It sounds incredible. Yet her response is quite different as she tells Gabriel, I am the Lord s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled. (Luke 1:38) As a result of Mary s faith God fills her mouth with praise. So although the gospel is offered to all, we must trust it. This trust must continue each day. The gospel is not an archway we pass through in order to get saved. Rather the gospel is the room in which we live as Christians. For the gospel is the basis of our salvation. The gospel is what gives us assurance that we belong to Christ. I was listening to a message by Alistair Begg last week. He said Every Christian needs to soak in the gospel. He s right. That s what gives us our assurance. The gospel is good news because it gives us our confidence that we belong to Christ. There is no greater joy than to live in the gospel and to live out the gospel. Jesus ministry was summarized by this good news and Luke tells us, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. (Luke 8:1) Proclaiming the good news was the ministry of Jesus and it is the ministry of his people. So what is the gospel? THE GOSPEL IS GOOD NEWS.

The Gospel of Luke. Who was Luke? An Outline of the Gospel of Luke Zechariah in the Temple and announcement of birth of John

The Gospel of Luke. Who was Luke? An Outline of the Gospel of Luke Zechariah in the Temple and announcement of birth of John 1.5-25 Zechariah in the Temple and announcement of birth of John http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/art/h/hals/frans/02-1626/22stluke.jpg The Gospel of Luke 24.53 and they were continually in the temple blessing