Why the Gospel is Good News: The Manifested Messiah

This is part three of the series “Why the Gospel is Good News.” You can read the first two here and here.

I love Christmas. I’m the annoying kind of guy that will sing the songs wherever I am, talk about how much I love Christmas to those who are Scrooges, and decorate everything I can. I love saying “Merry Christmas!” to complete strangers. I love the food, presents, family time, music, movies, smells, and decorations. I could seriously write this whole blog on all the things I love about Christmas.

However, I will just write about the ultimate reason I love Christmas: God the Son became a man.

Most people, when asked how the Christmas story begins, will say something like, “Jesus was born in a manger,” or “Joseph and Mary couldn’t find any room in the inn,” or “An angel appeared to Joseph and Mary.” Well, I believe the Christmas story begins long before that.

I’m talking about before, “In the beginning…” I’m talking before the table of contents in your Bible. I’m talking about even before the cover of your Bible. I’m talking way before anything ever existed, except for God.

The Gospel of John begins, “In the beginning was the Word…” (Jn 1:1). Whatever this “Word” is, it is eternal. There is an obvious parallel to Genesis 1 here in John 1. John wants his readers to know that this “Word” has always been.

The Greek word for “Word” used here is logos. In Greek philosophy, the logos was the divine reasoning that gave order to the universe. In Jewish theology, the Word of God and God Himself were interchangeable. John was using this word to identify with the pagan cultures along with the Jewish culture. Their logos was merely a concept; John’s logos was a Person.

The Trinity is a difficult concept to grasp and this blog is not meant to explain all the mysteries and doctrines of the Trinity. However, a brief explanation is needed so you and I are on the same page. John 1:1 continues, “…and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  Two observations can be derived from this: the “Word” is separate from God, yet it is God. That’s the doctrine of the Trinity in the smallest nutshell I know. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all one hundred percent God, yet they are separate from each other and have different roles. For the sake of this post, understanding that the “Word” is God here in the text is sufficient.

So this logos is God. Okay, but what does that mean for us?

Well the story doesn’t stop there. Jump down a few verses and you see the importance of the logos being God. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14).

So let’s go back to the original question of the blog series: “Why is the Gospel good news?”

The Gospel is good news because God the Son became a man to save us.

The logos became flesh. This God who is eternal stepped into time, “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant” (Phil 2:7), and remained a human being. That’s right. Jesus is still human. Granted, He is the “first-born from the dead,” meaning He is the first resurrected, glorified human body, but He is still one hundred percent human. His decision to come to earth and identify with humanity in every way was not a temporary decision. He made the decision to be human for eternity.

Why? I mean if I was God-- possessing all things, self-sufficient, could do anything I wanted-- why would I want to become a human being on this Earth? And not to merely live on the Earth, but come fully aware that ultimately I would be beaten, spit upon, and hung on a cross?

There are many specific, theological answers to that question, but there is one overarching reason: love.

If some random person walked up to you on the street and said, “I love you” (much like this girl) you would probably be freaked out and tell them to leave you alone. But if some random person said “I love you” and pushed you out of the path of an oncoming truck and took the hit for you, you would be more inclined to believe them, wouldn’t you?

God the Son did not just tell you He loves you from His throne in heaven; He came down in human form and took our place on the cross (which we will discuss more in depth next week). The most effective way that God could show us that He loves us was to come here and tell us Himself. Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you” (Jn 15:9). God the Son compares His love for us to the Father’s love for Him. The inexpressible love of the Father was made manifest to us in the incarnation of Jesus. By this we know the love of the Father for us: while we were yet sinners, Christ (God incarnate) died for our salvation.

I don’t know of any better news than this, God has come as a man so that you can be saved. That is good news.

Boys Don't Cry. But Men Should.

Almost every boy has heard it some time in his life.

Almost every boy has told himself it every time something bad happened.

Almost every boy has made it a characteristic of what it means to be a male.

“Boys don’t cry. Boys don’t cry. Boys don’t cry. Boys don’t cry.” That’s what I remember telling myself over and over again whenever my first dog died. She was only a dog and why should I cry over that? I’m a boy, and boys don’t cry! I have seen this modeled in my life by the men closest to me. I believe many men reading this right now can identify.

There is this masculine lie that has arisen over the centuries that males are to be unsympathetic.

We are to not show that we have any emotions invested into any living thing. I say that last phrase because it is culturally acceptable (maybe even demanded) to be emotionally invested in sports, war, sex, work, and religion as long as those ominous concepts stay just that.

In sports, we are to root for our teams but show no sympathy for players when they make mistakes. In war, we are to do whatever it takes to take out the enemy without thinking about the people who we will affect. In sex, we are to live as we are conquerors instead of lovers of the person. In work, we are to get the job done without thinking about those working below or for us. In religion, we are to do our religious duties without thinking about the commands to love our neighbors, wives, poor, and needy.

I want to argue that men should cry. We need to cry. Crying means we are emotionally involved. More than that, I want to argue for the need for selfless sympathizing and empathizing within the male community.

Women have been said to not be as good of leaders as men because of “their emotions.” What the heck does that even mean? What kind of emotions? Because they are able to sympathize better than men? Are men scared that women might begin to think about actually people and not just a vague group?

Most women have empathy and sympathy built into them, men do not. They are naturally mothers, and men can learn so much from women in this respect. Men are scared of becoming emotionally attached to any person, and when we do, we feel less manly. The world needs more men to step up and be so empathetic towards people that they cry. A lot.

• Men should cry because sex slavery is one of the fastest growing underground industries in the world.

• Men should cry because there are approximately 125,000 abortions A DAY.

• Men should cry because divorce rates continue to climb and we are typically the ones causing the problems.

• Men should cry because most child problems are due to lack of a father.

• Men should cry because pornography is the biggest business in the entire world, and we are the main consumers.

• Men should cry because the church is shrinking, and the people group that is leaving at the largest rate is men.

There is much more.

Men should cry. But crying is not enough. The goal of emotional involvement is action. Action is the result of crying. So men, cry about something, then do something about it!

Why the Gospel is Good News: A Promised Messiah

This is part two in the series “Why the Gospel is Good.” You can read the first post here.

We all make promises. Even though you may not say, “I promise” after every little thing, you promise many times throughout the day, like: “I’ll be right back,” “I’ll see you tonight,” “I’ll talk to you later,” “I’ll get back with you on that” or the notorious “I have read the terms and conditions.”

Then there are more formal promises we often make: signing a contract to pay your car, phone, and house bills, or saying “I do.”

I haven’t done any research on broken promises, but I would assume everyone breaks at least one a day. If you live an average age of 80 years, that would be approximately 29,200 promises broken. So if you were having a good day, allow that to make you feel like a failure.

There is Someone who has never broken a promise. He always follows up on His word no matter how “insignificant” His promises may sound. He is totally trustworthy of all things. Not one thing He has uttered has failed to be completed.

The Gospel is good news because it is the fulfillment of all of God’s promises.

For all the promises of God find their Yes in [Christ]. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory (2 Cor 1:20).

The Good News of a People of God

The first section of Genesis tells us of a God who is deeply personal with His creations. God needed no one to accomplish His tasks, but He chose men to be a part of His activities.

In Adam, God chose to create mankind.

In Noah, God chose to save mankind.

In Abraham, God chose to display His glory to all mankind.

“And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing… and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen. 12:2, 3b). This is called the Abrahamic Covenant. This was a promise made to Abraham by God that He would use him in the grand salvific storyline.

God could, at any time, appear in the sky and reveal Himself to everyone. That’s not how He works. He works through people. Mankind is such a favorite medium for Him that God the Son became one so that He could accomplish His work. To bless the nations, God chose to do it through a man. From that man would come a people that would bless every people group on Earth.

But they didn’t. Israel was not serious about their own psalm, “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!” (Ps 96:3). They cared little, if at all, about declaring God among the nations. Israel was not the fulfillment of this promise.

“And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God's promise to Abraham belongs to you” (Gal. 3:29).

The Church is the people by whom God will fulfill His promise to Abraham. To us all the promises of Abraham belong. We are Abraham’s true children. Being a descendant of Abraham has nothing to do with his blood but his faith. That’s the argument Paul makes in Romans 4 and Galatians 4.

The good news is that we once were not a people, but now we are the people of God.

The Good News of Relationship with God

A few years passed after Abraham had left the scene and things didn’t look so great for the Hebrews. They had become enslaved by the Egyptians after Jacob had moved the whole family there because Joseph was in such good standing with Pharoah. The Hebrews were multiplying and getting very large in number. Most of whom had never heard the name of YHWH their Lord.

God led a man named Moses to free them from Egypt. Their first stop outside of Egypt was Mount Sinai. What happened here is called the Mosaic Covenant. God made a promise to the Hebrews to continue His relationship with them as long as they were obedient to the Law.

Most people today look at the Law as a bad thing. However, God reached out to the Hebrews time and again to show them His grace. He did not have to free them. He did not have to call them His people. All of it was done in grace and so was the law-giving.

This was not Him being a ruling dictator but a loving Father.

Once again, they could not hold up their side of the deal. They disobeyed continuously, and God forgave continuously. They failed to cherish their relationship with God.

Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17). Jesus came to fulfill the Law. This means that He came to complete the purpose for them. He came to make them do what they were supposed to do, connect God with man.

The good news is that through Christ, we have a perfect relationship with God.

The Good News of a King from God

David had a rocky start to becoming king of Israel, to say the least. Despite all of his failures, God gave him a promise, the Davidic Covenant:

“You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me” (2 Chro 16:6).

This was a conditional promise. Israel’s requirements were the same as the Mosaic Covenant: keep the law. As long as they keep the commands, a man from David’s lineage will sit on the throne. As we see throughout the Bible and as we discussed earlier, they did not. The Davidic line was cut during the Babylonian exile of Judah. Is God “legally” obligated to fulfill His side of the covenant then? Not at all. He has every right to leave the Israelites to their own demise.

However, He makes promise to another man, Ezekiel. He said, “And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them” (Ez 34:23-24).

Whoa whoa whoa… This promise is given around 400 years after David died. So will he be resurrected to reign? No. Not David. But another One was.

Jesus said in John 10:11 and 16, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

This is why there are two chapters in the New Testament dedicated to the genealogy of Jesus. He is from the line of David. Just one problem though, is He reigning?

Someone who can say “All power and authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt 28:18) seems to be King. He was prophesied by Daniel saying, “To him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed”  (Dan. 7:13-14). Jesus’ kingdom is not of this earth. It cannot and it will not be destroyed. Ever.

The good news is Jesus is on the throne of the universe and rules with perfect justice and love.

The Gospel is good news because it is the fulfillment of all of God’s promises. We would be foolish to keep these great truths to ourselves.

How Your Church May Resemble the Sochi Olympics

We have all seen the pictures.

They are terrible: the sub-luxurious hotels, the bugs in food, the unfinished roads, the unsafely constructed jumps and courses, and probably much more than we have not seen.

They tell of a city that may have bitten off more than it can chew. Russia bidded and won the most expensive Olympics in history. So this caused expectations to be high. We demand only the best of the world’s most popular sporting event. When a country spends over 51 billion dollars on something, there needs to be something to show for it rather than a place that made us all wonder if the Olympics should even happen.

People sometimes view the church this way.

Those looking from the outside in may look in to see people that appear to not be doing their jobs. All these people giving money, and where is it going? Was all the money the Russians were spending going to where it needed to go?

Does the fact that the church is serving Jesus mean that everything and everyone looks and performs sloppily? Sometimes we say, “People should just come to church to worship Jesus!”

Yeah well I can’t worship Jesus when I notice the guy in the nursery has a creeper stash and ungroomed hair. He would not ever touch my kids (if I had any). Oh another technical difficulty? No problem, we are just here to worship Jesus. Oh, the powerpoint looks like it is from the 1800’s? It’s okay because we are doing it for Jesus. The gardens and playground looks like it has not been cared for in a year? The roof is leaking and paint is chipping? No one greeted me when I came in? I had no where to park? It’s okay, because this is Jesus’ house and we are only here to worship Him.

Some churches have become the epitome of unprofessionalism.

There is a verse for that (10 points to whomever gets that reference). Actually a couple.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Col. 3:17).

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ (Col. 3:23-24).

Should churches get “professionals” to do everything? Of course not. But if the person in a position is being disobedient to the passages above, they should be disciplined in some way. Excellence should be a characteristic that defines the church.

The church should not be thought of as a joke like the Sochi Olympics. She is the Bride of the Lamb who was slain. Therefore, she should act like it.

Why the Gospel is Good News: A Needed Messiah

What is “good?”

Really, what makes something “good?”

Is “good” merely a relative opinion or an objective moral characteristic? Is something good only because the onlooker deems it good or is it good in of itself?

If you say to me, “Brussel sprouts are good!” I may chop you in the throat. They are not. They spring from the depths of Sheol to cause calamity on taste buds all over the Earth. Again, if you say my grandmother is not a good grandmother, I would just hope you have dental insurance because you will need it to reconfigure your mouth.

What if I say to you, “Jesus died for you?” Is that “good” news or is that just as relative as the taste of brussel sprouts? When the Good News is proclaimed, are we giving our mere personal opinion of “good” or are we declaring an objective “good” truth?

Christians are making a claim of objectivity. This Gospel is good whether or not you or anyone else finds it as good.

I want to explore some gospel history and gospel truths that make the Good News good. This will be a series of posts all building on one another. So let’s start at the beginning when everything was good…

One tree. One tree among thousands of trees. Just one was commanded to be left alone. Adam and Eve were to be the workers of the perfect world with only a few commands. “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28) was a fairly easy one. Rule over the the land and animals (Gen. 1:28) is simple enough as well. However, there was one “do not.” “Do not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2:17). Really? There are hundreds of “thou shalt do this” and “thou shalt not do this” commandments in the Bible, and they only got one at the beginning? The destiny of the entire human race hinged on this one command. The warning that came with the command was that it would bring death, a force that was unknown to the universe at the time. I think I could have handled it.

The first couple most likely talked about this tree. I am sure they speculated what it was about and why God did not want them eating of it. One day when this command was probably on their minds, a snake appeared. Now we could go off on a tangent about if animals could talk in the earliest times or what in the world they were doing listening to a talking snake anyways, but that is for another day. The point is, this snake is evil. That is not a subjective claim; he went (and still goes) completely against God’s will. He is a bringer of all that is wrong in the world. He is the Adversary, the Father of Lies, and the Great Serpent. How he got that way, we do not know, but God allowed such a creature into this perfect paradise.

He talked to Eve, tricked Eve, coerced Eve into thinking that the fruit is good. Genesis 3:6 says, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good…” (emphasis mine) she bought the Snake’s lies. Her husband who sat silently like a coward as this was happening, partook in the fruit as well.

That moment caused a snowball effect that would echo through every generation who has or ever will live on this planet. Everything that was good had now been marred by rebellion and disobedience. Something must be done to reverse this.

God confronts Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. He lays curses on each as necessary consequences of the Fall. But there is one that sticks out. God tells the Serpent, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall crush your head, and you shall bruise him on the heel” (Gen 3:15). In the first appearance of Satan in Scripture comes also the promise to destroy him.

This is often described as the protoevangelion. It simply means “the first good news.” Before sin entered the world, there was only good news… “Hey Eve! My crops are growing perfectly!” has no weight unless there was a chance of them not growing perfectly. The “protoevangelion” is the first realized good news. There was now something to compare the good with, evil.

“The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn 3:18).

When Jesus started His ministry, exorcism was a frequent occurrence. He was even blamed of having a demon to drive out demons. Many of the Pharisees accused Him of being under Satan’s power because He was so frequently confronting the works of Satan and his demons.

One of the main works of Satan was bringing sin into the world. That is the ultimate work that Jesus came to abolish and reverse altogether.  He swallowed sin up on the cross as He became sin for us. He conquered the consequence of sin, which is death. He began the new age of the reversal of the fall.

Satan bruised Jesus’ heel on that torturous day, but the Serpent’s head was crushed by the Lion of Judah.

Satan has no power over those who have faith in his Destroyer. They are more than conquerors in and over all things, including him. Those in Christ, were once followers (Eph 2:2) and sons (Jn 8:44) of Satan, but now they are new creations. They have been freed of the curse of his works. They have been liberated from him for all eternity. They will be among those who judge him on the Last Day. They will witness and partake in the final destruction of the Ancient Serpent.

And to them has been given the promise, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Rom. 16:20).

That is good news.

Regret.

I am by no means a poet. This is an older one but I really wanted to have at least one blog post on here. Hope you enjoy.

Regret.

One of the sharpest swords in the world that stabs you when you’re bored
Memories begin to flood, then comes the thought of shedding your own blood.
Looking back it was insane to think this vicious chain could bring you joy.
But it was a decoy placed to destroy.
Sin dripped with the sweet nectar that you jump after,
While the Enemy got in touch with your funeral director.
It’s a word everyone knows, deep down in the depths of their souls.
It’s a feeling that cannot be swayed nor an enemy that can be paid
But it’s a lingering feeling that never finishes healing.
It sucks your life out like a leech that always needs feeding.
But what if there’s a cure, something more pure.

Forgiveness.

Something that only few believe while others just grieve over regret.
Something that many agree should be achieved though they’d rather just forget.
Regret cannot forget it owes a great debt to a sinful mindset.
Though forgiveness owes itself to the one who gave Himself.
A man who did not just possess forgiveness but is the concise definition of this business.
Accept this as a gift just as swift as you gave regret a lift
And He will lift regret right off your shoulders,
The same regret that used to crush you like boulders
Your sin of the past is just that, old news.
It may have left a bruise but His grace will cover you like tattoos.