The Glorious Gospel

Today’s Bible readings are Exodus 39:1-40:38, Mark 1:1-28, Psalm 35:1-16, & Proverbs 9:11-12

Mark 1:1-3

1 This is the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. It began ² just as the prophet Isaiah had written: “Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way, ³ He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming!
    Clear the road for him!”

The opening of this gospel is incredible. I absolutely love that fact that it declares the “Good News” about Jesus Christ. I love the story of Jesus & all that it does for me & you. In fact, it is good news for whosoever will repent & believe it. There is no other story that offers such wonderfully great news to humanity.

Let’s examine what this “Good News” is.

 1.      Jesus saves.

This is the most important aspect of the Good News. Jesus Christ saves us from our sins. According to the bible all have sinned & fallen short of God’s standard.

Romans 3:23

²³ For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

The standard that God uses to measure our success is the 10 Commandments. He also says that if we break one of the commandments that we are guilty of them all. The payment for the offense is death.

Romans 6:23

²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

The “Good News” is that Jesus has paid the penalty for our sin. He died in our place. He has freed us from the wrath that was on us for the sins we have committed. The Good News is we are forgiven & God is on our side. That is worth shouting about. God is for you now in Christ!

2.      Another part of the Good News is Christ was beaten so you could be healed.

Isaiah 53:3-6

³ He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. ⁴ Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! ⁵ But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. ⁶ All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

This is great news. You don’t have to earn your healing. You don’t have to be good enough to get it. You don’t have to be a member of the team for a certain amount of time. Christ was beaten so you could be healed. It is a faith thing. If you are sick, receive your healing the same way you received your salvation—BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH.

3.      The next aspect of the Good News is you are saved from poverty.

Luke 4:16-21

¹⁶ When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. ¹⁷ The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free, ¹⁹ and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

²⁰ He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. ²¹ Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

What else could the Good News to the poor be? I will tell you—YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE POOR NO MORE!

2 Corinthians 8:9

⁹ You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich.

4.      He saved you from death.

John 3:16

¹⁶ “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

John 11:25-26

²⁵ Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. ²⁶ Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”

In examination of these 4 points, we see that 4 of the main things that people fear & stress about are nothing to fear & stress about if we are in Christ. We have the Good News. We are not subject to those former things in Christ. We are new creatures operating under a New Covenant.

This is the Good News! Let’s get busier than ever sharing this Good News with others. This will change their lives & yours!

Pastor Richard Schlotter