Post by Watchman on Nov 27, 2005 14:31:55 GMT -5
At the end of the Old Testament, God inspired the following prophecy: "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith YHWH of hosts. " (Malachi 3:1). According to Mark 1:2-4, the first messenger mentioned here refers to John the Baptist who prepared the way before Christ's First Coming. Christ is referred to next as "the Lord… even the Messenger of the covenant." So Jesus Christ was sent as a "Messenger." A messenger bears a message from someone else-and so Jesus did, as He made plain by stating, " ... and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. " (John 14:24). God the Father sent Christ to announce a message from Him. What kind of message was it? The word "gospel" originates from the Old English word godspell, meaning "good news" or "announcement of glad tidings." The New Testament translators used "gospel" for the Greek noun euaggelion. The English word "evangelism"-preaching the Gospel-is derived from it. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have come to be known as "the four Gospels" because they relate four separate accounts of Christ delivering His announcement of Good News! What was this Good News all about? Let God's Word answer! Open your Bible and turn to Mark 1:14-15." Read what God inspired Mark to write: " Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel'." This is THE Gospel. There is only one-and it is about the Kingdom of God. Some will attempt to deny the prominence of the "the kingdom of God" in the Gospel by pointing out that Mark 1:1 mentions the "Gospel of Jesus Christ." It is also referred to as the "Gospel of God" because it was a message from God. But the New Testament overwhelmingly calls it "the Gospel of the Kingdom of God." That is what the Gospel is about! Look at what one scholarly work attests: "There is clear agreement among the synoptic Gospels [Matthew, Mark and Luke] that the kingdom of God was the PRINCIPAL THEME within Jesus' message…. In aggregate, they present some fifty sayings and parables of Jesus concerning the kingdom…. It is, then, a matter of consensus within the canon that the kingdom constituted a PRIMARY FOCUS of Jesus' theology"[Oxford Companion to the Bible, 1993, p. 408].
Do not blindly believe this post-or any commentary or Bible study aid. Believe your Bible-believe God! People have gone off track spiritually by relying solely on men. God's Word commands you to "prove all things" (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Check up on this and examine it for yourself. Suspend your prior opinions and just read what God says. It will soon be clear in your mind that the Gospel of Christ is His Message, from the Father, about the Kingdom of God. Jesus affirmed this after teaching in the city of Capernaum by saying, "...I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent. " (Luke 4:43). Matthew 9:35 testifies that this is exactly what He did: "And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people."
According to Jesus, what should life's primary focus be? "seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. " (Matthew 6:33). In what has come to be known as the "Lord's Prayer," Jesus said, "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come" (vv. 9-10).
The Gospel that Christ brought is indeed the Good News of this coming Kingdom. That is the Message Jesus preached. He sent His disciples out preaching that very SAME message. And they did preach it-the rest of their lives!
It was not until false teachers began to subvert the early Church that Christ's Gospel began to be perverted. Paul, writing more than 20 years after Christ's death, was aware of one such distortion: "Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ." (Galatians 1:7). Among a growing number of heresies, perhaps none was gaining as much momentum as the new gospel about the events of Christ's life and of simply believing on His person to be saved. Gradually, then, the true Gospel of Christ was supplanted by a false gospel about Christ.
"In the mouth of Christ and those who, while He was on earth, He sent forth to proclaim it, it was the good tidings of the kingdom of God which He had come to establish…. After Christ's death and resurrection it became the good tidings ABOUT Christ" [James Hastings, A Dictionary of the Bible, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988, p. 233].
Do you believe the True Gospel of the Coming Kingdom of Heaven?
Do not blindly believe this post-or any commentary or Bible study aid. Believe your Bible-believe God! People have gone off track spiritually by relying solely on men. God's Word commands you to "prove all things" (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Check up on this and examine it for yourself. Suspend your prior opinions and just read what God says. It will soon be clear in your mind that the Gospel of Christ is His Message, from the Father, about the Kingdom of God. Jesus affirmed this after teaching in the city of Capernaum by saying, "...I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent. " (Luke 4:43). Matthew 9:35 testifies that this is exactly what He did: "And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people."
According to Jesus, what should life's primary focus be? "seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. " (Matthew 6:33). In what has come to be known as the "Lord's Prayer," Jesus said, "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come" (vv. 9-10).
The Gospel that Christ brought is indeed the Good News of this coming Kingdom. That is the Message Jesus preached. He sent His disciples out preaching that very SAME message. And they did preach it-the rest of their lives!
It was not until false teachers began to subvert the early Church that Christ's Gospel began to be perverted. Paul, writing more than 20 years after Christ's death, was aware of one such distortion: "Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ." (Galatians 1:7). Among a growing number of heresies, perhaps none was gaining as much momentum as the new gospel about the events of Christ's life and of simply believing on His person to be saved. Gradually, then, the true Gospel of Christ was supplanted by a false gospel about Christ.
"In the mouth of Christ and those who, while He was on earth, He sent forth to proclaim it, it was the good tidings of the kingdom of God which He had come to establish…. After Christ's death and resurrection it became the good tidings ABOUT Christ" [James Hastings, A Dictionary of the Bible, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988, p. 233].
Do you believe the True Gospel of the Coming Kingdom of Heaven?