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Reevangelizing the Church: What is the Gospel?...Continued from page 1
Michael Craven
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:18– 19, ESV)
When Jesus finishes speaking, he closes the book, he sits down, and when every eye is fixed on him he says: “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Jesus is describing the kingdom of God in which all that has resulted from sin and the Fall is being restored by him, the Anointed One, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords—this is the good news!
A pastor friend of mine described the in-breaking reign of God, or kingdom of God, quite well when he said the following:
There is a great conversation in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings where Samwise is talking to Gandalf and he asks Gandalf a great question: “Will everything sad come untrue?” The Kingdom message is Christ (because of his death and resurrection) setting things right again—making everything sad come untrue.
In essence, the church bears witness to the in-breaking reign of God and serves as the instrument by which God is making “everything sad come untrue”!
The call upon humanity in the wake of this pronouncement is to repent, turn from your self and sin, and enter the kingdom of God, receiving salvation. It is the reign of God (or this full gospel) that the church is sent into the world to bring forth as God’s instrument and to which it bears witness. Again, we do not invite Jesus into our lives; he invites us into his! Jesus’ mission is the missio Dei or redemptive mission of God in which he is making all things new. And, this is the mission of every follower of Christ.
Next week we will examine how, practically speaking, the gospel mission in light of this kingdom reality is to be expressed.
© 2009 by S. Michael Craven
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S. Michael Craven is the President of the Center for Christ & Culture and the author of Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity (Navpress, 2009). Michael's ministry is dedicated to equipping the church to engage the culture with the redemptive mission of Christ. For more information on the Center for Christ & Culture, the teaching ministry of S. Michael Craven, visit: www.battlefortruth.org
Michael lives in the Dallas area with his wife Carol and their three children.
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Jesus is God almighty who became a man, He is the Messiah of Israel (ie the fulfillment of prophecy about the coming world ruler), that Jesus of Nazareth died on the cross and bodily rose from the dead. (1 Cor. 15:3-4, Rom. 1:1-4, John 20:30, 31, 2 Tim 2:8, 1 Jn 5:1). The gospel Jesus preached was the gospel of the kingdom (also preached by John the Baptist). They are different because the kingdom was a genuine offer, but now we do not know when the kingdom will come and the issue is faith in who Jesus is and what He did. I have evangelized for nearly 20 years now. I meet all kinds of "christians" who have "asked Jesus into their heart," "made Him their personal Lord and Savior," but do not believe He is God incarnate. The gospel preached by the church today is wrong because Jesus Himself is not preached. This article, sadly, is exactly what's wrong with the "gospel" preached today.
And WE are to: break the reign of God into the world, continue to bring forth His kingdom, and complete the consummation (which just might trigger Christ's return).
That sounds difficult until we remember that this will all be accomplished by the Holy Spirit, working through us upon our complete surrender!
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