What is the gospel?
Partial story or full story?
On this side of eternity, we will never fully answer this question. We will never understand all
the mysteries of who He is.
God will you show me something deeper? Something new?
We often answer this question with part of the story, so we want to expand our understanding to
know the whole story.
How were the gospel and salvation addressed in your youth group? If you were not in church,
what was your perception of Christians and salvation as a youth?
- Apologetically an intro to the Gospel. Looking at the history and the question of his
divinity.
- Jesus in my place.
- Youth Leaders sharing testimony.
- Focusing on what happened after salvation. Repentance and the after-effects emphasized.
- The gospel meaning, we would be set apart and persecution. (What is the
difference between what we’re set apart from and what were set apart to.)
-The King Jesus Gospel by Scot McKnight
What does he mean that the Gospel was preached to Abraham (Gal. 3:8)?
God revealed the Gospel to Abraham in Genesis 12.
Is there a difference between making a DECISION and being a DISCIPLE? What is the
difference?
- A decision is a one-time thing and being a disciple is a lifestyle.
- A decision is a turning point and being a disciple is a long-time obedience.
- A decision is a certain point in time and being a disciple continues and is eternal/
ongoing.
- A decision has a time of turning away and being a disciple is a commitment.
Jesus called people to discipleship – “Follow Me”
Think about how our cultural context influences our understanding of the Gospel. Are there
things in our broader cultural context that have changed our view of the gospel?
This area of decisions and discipleship is something that we should consider.
How have we had a partial view of the gospel, whereas we want to make it more full and
complete.
75% of Americans say they have made a decision to accept Christ.
- Only 25% go to church.
60% of teens say that they have made a decision
- 6% report habits of a disciple
(King Jesus Gospel)
Stop Asking Jesus into Your Hear: How to know for sure you are saved by JD Greear
Are we focusing so much on decisions that we forget about the discipleship aspect of the gospel.
Accepting Jesus into your heart?
[video] David Platt – Why ‘Accepting Jesus in your heart” is supe…’
God is 100% justice, judgement, and wrath, but He is also 100% love and grace. It is sharing all
of this together, that reveals that good news as not just good news, its great news.
We want to make it easy to make it palatable to our culture.
Is the church to be a club or is it a place to be a hospital for the broken.
The Gospel IS offensive.
Oftentimes, we as the messenger are the ones who make it offensive. How do we as His
followers communicate it so that it is not my words that offend, but the gospel itself.
The Gospel gives me meaning and hope and significance to my life today. We need to be
preaching the gospel to ourselves too.
What is the point?
American Cultural Christianity
- “Get saved” or “Pray the prayer”
- Who is in/out?
- Transaction
- Avoiding Hell
- Salvation culture
Our goal is not to be critical, but to be discerning. We have to measure what we hear and
compare it back to the Word of God.
Don’t be content, dive into it. Discover for yourselves.
I need to be reminded of the gospel today.
Are we so excited to see people respond that we push it on them before there is an actual
understanding?
We’re so focused on what we’re saved from than what we’re saved for.
Authentic Biblical Christianity
- “Follow Jesus”
- “Jesus is King”
- Who is a disciple?
- Transformation
- New Life
- Kingdom gospel culture
- John 10:10
Going from a salvation culture to a kingdom culture.
I understand life because I know Jesus.
Have we reduced it to a partial story, because we’ve missed a bigger story.
So…what IS the gospel?
-Is it simple or complex? Yes, both
- What do we usually say?
- What do people hear?
- We are going to practice listening…
•What is emphasized?
•What is left out?
The gospel? [video] Jesus > Religion
- What did you hear emphasized?
•Not their for the ritual, but for the person to worship.
•Against religious legalism.
•Emphasis on grace.
- What was missing?
•Sounds upset in the deliverance think about the things that we leave out and the
way that we communicate it.
•Let’s make sure we know the story well enough so that we can meet people in
the midst of it.
•Didn’t focus on the after-effects.
•The reality of sin and brokenness and necessity for repentance.
We are very quick to confess the things we are struggling with. But when we look at Scripture, it
says confess and repent turning away from.
Confessing that I’m struggling with it, and then asking God to bring us away from those things.
Is that something that is being left out of the Gospel as we communicate it.
Are we so overwhelmed by His love that we want to honor and obey and glorify Him?
God is such a crucial player in the gospel. We make ourselves the main characters of the gospel.
Are we surprised that we’ve made the gospel all about us?
You never never never never never outgrow your need for the gospel in your life. We’re
also never in a place where we don’t need it on a daily basis. We need to preach the gospel
to ourselves. Figure it out for yourselves. Dig into it. Ask God to bring more understanding
to it for you.
[video] Pipeline Generation – The Gospel in 4 Minutes
Many of the ways, we have been taught to share the gospel, with a preexisting foundation of the
basic facts of the gospel (e.g. that there is only one God, etc…)
First must stop to ask the question of where they are in their understanding and worldview.
We tend to begin with the “You are sinners and need to be saved” when that may not be the firs
tthing they need to hear.
