The Gospel Of God Series

INTRO.- The word “gospel” means glad tidings or good news!

Good news! Know some? Heard any lately? Good news seems to be few and far between these days what with the poor economy, high gas prices, unemployment, decent jobs hard to find, falling housing market, etc.

ILL.- A farmer went into his banker and announced that he had bad news and good news. "First, the bad news...""Well," said the farmer, "I can't make my mortgage payments. And that crop loan I've taken out for the past 10 years -- I can't pay that off, either. Not only that, I won't be able to pay you the couple of hundred thousand I still have outstanding on my tractors and other equipment. So I'm going to have to give up the farm and turn it all over to you for whatever you can salvage out of it.

"Silence prevailed for a minute and then the banker said ,"What's the good news?" "The good news is that I'm going to keep on banking with you," said the farmer.

Is there any good news in our world or country today? Well, yes, you may have to look hard to find it. It depends on what you’re talking about whether national news or personal news.

ILL.- It’s like the lady who had a pain in her side and went to her doctor. He said that she had appendicitis and needed an operation. She decided to get a second opinion from another doctor who said she had some heart problems. She said, “I’m going back to my first doctor. I’d rather have appendicitis than heart problems.” Of course, as we know when we age, sometimes we don’t always get “good news” from our doctors.

But there is some good news in our world.

Luke 2:8-11 “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

Acts 5:42 “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.”

Acts 8:12 “But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women."

Acts 8:35 “Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.”

Acts 17:18 “A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.”

Here is the good news in Jesus.

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

PROP.- Let’s consider several different looks at this “good news” gospel.

1- It’s the gospel of the apostles

2- It’s the gospel of the prophets

3- It’s the gospel of the Son

I. IT’S THE GOSPEL OF THE APOSTLES

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.

ILL.- Did you ever see the 1997 movie entitled, “The Apostle” starring Robert Duvall as the preacher/apostle? Here’s a short take on that movie.

Eulis 'Sonny' Dewey is a preacher from Texas living a happy life with his beautiful wife Jessie. Suddenly his stable world crumbles: Jessie is having an affair with young minister Horace. Sonny gets enraged and hits Horace with a softball bat, putting him into a coma. After that he leaves town, takes a new name, 'Apostle E.F.' and goes to Louisiana. There he starts to work as a mechanic for local radio station owner Elmo, and Elmo lets him preach on the radio. E.F. starts to preach everywhere: on the radio, on the streets, and with his new friend, Reverend Blackwell he starts a campaign to renovate an old church.

It was pretty good movie, in the sense that Duvall played his part well, but his life was not what I’d call the life of a true apostle. In the first place, he was never qualified to be an apostle just like preachers today who might call themselves apostles of Christ. In the second place, Duvall did not live the Christian life. You just don’t go around beating up people with a ball bat. You may want to, but you don’t do that. You don’t give in to your sinful nature to that extent. Maybe to a lesser extent we do, however. In the strictest sense of the word “apostle,” there are none today. In the broader sense of the word we all could be apostles.