Become the person God has for me to become ...
become • the gospel  

 What is this "gospel" that everyone is talking about?

How Jesus and the New Testament authors) use the word (gk. "euaggelion," meaning "good news" or "glad tidings") : the teachings and restorative actions and death of God (in the person of Jesus Christ) that made it possible for us to re-join Him in His Kingdom, starting here and continuing in the next life. The gospel is something Jesus spoke and did (and something we are commanded to speak and do) to bring hurting human beings (all of us) back into God's presence. It is words and deeds working together.
  • Mat 4:23 Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. (something Jesus was teaching, along with acts of restoring broken people.)
  • Mat 11:5 {the} BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT and {the} lame walk, {the} lepers are cleansed and {the} deaf hear, {the} dead are raised up, and {the} POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM. (something that broken people get revealed to them by God.)
  • Mar 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. (something tied to Jesus Christ; like the account of what He did and said.)
  • Mar 1:14 Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, :15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." (Jesus' ministry that followed John the Baptists' ministry.)
  • Mar 8:35 "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. (something we can lose our life for, so something visible to others.)
  • Mar 16:15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation."
  • Luk 4:18 "THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, (God's message of restoration to the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed.)
  • Luk 9:6 Departing, they {began} going throughout the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. (God's message of restoration accompanied with restoring acts.)
The gospel is God's invitation, through His words and His works, for you and me to join Him in His Kingdom. How? By responding with a faith that works. When Jesus was "the gospel on legs" in A.D. 30-33, He invited men and women to drop everything they were doing to follow Him. He was spreading the gospel when He was teaching and when He was healing.

Have you and I "dropped our nets" today to follow Him (the "Invitation on legs" / Jesus / the "Gospel on legs")? What would our family and neighbors and co-workers say? The King issues the invitation continually, daily: "Follow me." Will I follow Him today? (Or will I follow society instead?)

The gospel is not merely something we hear or read. It is something we do as much as it is something we speak. The gospel today is still God's invitation on legs (ours.) The gospel is God (and us) serving people into the Kingdom.

The gospel is God's attempt (through words and actions) to restore a broken world (and specifically it's broken people) unto Himself. It's not God's Priceline.Com-like reservations system for Heaven. It is God's all-encompassing plan and actions to bring us back into the unbroken world He created us for. God won us back to Himself through his actions and His words. The gospel today is (1) God wooing us back to Himself through His actions, then immediately inviting us to respond (to follow Him) and (2) you and me getting on our knees (following Him) serving a hurting world back into God's Kingdom.

  • God started the Song at Creation by singing Creation into existence.
  • Jesus continued the Song in AD 30 by singing a broken Creation back to Himself.
  • If the Song is to continue to be heard in the 21st Century, it is you and I who must sing on.
A hurting world needs to hear His song. Will you join us as we get on our knees and sing (serve) them back to the King?