The Gospel is the Good News that Jesus Christ calls us to Follow Him              (Mark 8:34-38)

 The first thing you’ll notice about Jesus’ call in verse 34 is that he gathers both the crowds– those who are still investigating His claims– and the disciples– those who have already publically attached themselves to Jesus. These relative veterans, we suppose, need to hear the same call as those who are just beginning to investigate Christ. Whoever follows Christ continues to live off of the gospel.

 First, the gospel is the good news that Christ is calling you  to deny yourself. It is a call to a new identity. We naturally get our identities from our families or our nationalities, our popularity, our careers, etc. As philosopher Michel Fouchald says, we  try to find a self. But Christ calls us to find our identity in Him. Deitrich Bonhoeffer concludes one of his prison poems: “Who am I? They haunt me, these lonely words of mine. Whoever I am, O Lord, I know I am thine.”

  Then, the gospel is the good news that Jesus calls you to “take up your cross”. It is a call to a new destiny. Following Christ removes the pursuit of comfort and prosperity. The new agenda is “the business of God.” Jesus is clear: the way of discipleship is the way of the cross.Your life is now as urgent as the man who will die at sundown. The freedom, humility and love in Christ that results will constantly conflict with people and systems around you.(see John 15). Take up your cross.  Display with your life the person and work of Jesus Christ. You are now a person with an urgent destiny.

 The gospel is finally the good news that Jesus calls you to follow Him. It is a call to a new delight. The further you follow Christ two things will happen:

  i.      You will see your sin as worse, deeper and bigger

  ii.      You will see more and more of Christ’s holiness, humility, love and greatness. Your delight in Him and in following Him will grow.

C.S. Lewis sums up the message of Christ’s call to discipleship in his book,  Mere Christianity: “Look for yourself, and you’ll find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin and decay. Look for Christ and you’ll find him and with him everything else thrown in.”

The answer to that question seems obvious, but it’s not  . These days it seems the gospel can be about almost anything. Some think of the gospel as  a morality, a code of life. Adopt the code and you’ve got the life. Some think the gospel is a therapy. It’s good for what ails ya; the soothing solution to emotional and relationship issues. Some think the gospel is a prosperity. To them it means that God makes those who trust Him rich — your best life now. And others see the gospel as a cultural agenda for revolutionaries & nationalists; it’s God’s big stick for political justice.

There’s something about each of these versions of the gospel that is true. But look at Mark 8:27-33 to discover the gospel’s core.

 The Gospel is the Good News about Jesus Christ                    (Mark 8:27-33)

It’s about who He is.

Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?” And Peter replied: “You are the Christ”. (:29), the One who was to come: the Seed to rescue us from the curse (Gen. 3:15 ), the Seed who would bless all the families of the earth (Gen. 12:3), the prophet who would lead us to God, (Deuteronomy), the King, son of David, who would reign in peace and righteousness (2 Sam. 7). 

Jesus confirms Peter’s confession in verse 31 when He called Himself  “the Son of Man”, a name under the old covenant reserved for the Messiah to come.

 Then Jesus said: “On this rock I will build My church”. The Church is build on something bigger than Peter. It is built on the conviction, arrived at by revelation from God, that Jesus of Nazareth is Messiah, the Christ. The church Jesus is building therefore revels by grace in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

  The gospel is also about what Jesus did.                                                                      

In verse 31 Jesus declares “I am the Christ who dies”  that “the Son of Man MUST suffer many things, etc” The very idea was blasphemy to the first century Jewish mind. That’s why Peter began to rebuke Jesus (32). But Jesus is like no other King. Jesus brought His kingdom with humility and sacrifice. He “humbled Himself in obedience all the way to the cross” (Phil. 2: 5-9) This majestic Christ-Messiah, not only came into our world, but willingly came into our sin, in order to cancel God’s curse against us. (2 Cor. 5:21).

 Jesus is also ” the Christ who lives.” Verse 31 tells us that “after three days (He MUST) rise again.” Hebrews 2:14-15 remind us that Christ defeated death with  His death and set f ree from the fear of deatheveryone who trust their lives to Him.

Christ’s death was so strong that He could take away the sin of world. His life was so strong that He gives life and a perfect record to all who believe.

This is the gospel. It is the good news about Jesus Christ. And this is the Christ who says, “Follow Me.”

If you believe what was said last week, that to lead your children and others to Christ is the kindest gift you can give, then you will want to explore the next starting position that parents and trainers must assume:

God-given authority kindles a confident leadership in the gospel that leads to Christ.

In order to gain confident leadership in the gospel, we must

• Cultivate an inner disposition of authority
• Establish an outward position of authority

What’s at stake here?

Our Culture is averse to authority. Post moderns question everything that hints at power. So, we tend toward a culture of facilitators rather than leaders. We have the mistaken idea that we cannot both serve and lead. This is especially true of many contemporary parents. Just ask yourself the questions:

Do my children determine the atmosphere of our family?

Do my children set the mealtime routine and menu in our home? [hint: check the pizza bill.]

Do my children set the sfamily schedule?

Do my children choose the church our family attends?

 It is also true of the contemporary church. Church leadership asks often of it membership, “What do you need?” Yet new followers of Christ need a leader who can say, “Here is what you really need!”

Children and new followers of Christ have to be “in a position” to be confidently led under God-given authority. We must submit to the care of those God has placed over us. We cannot be “independent brokers” in the training process.

Young followers of Christ, look at Timothy’s relationship with Paul: He submitted to Paul’s confident leadership under God-given authority. Timothy accepted Paul’s authority as an “Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” Some of us are suffering because we will not place ourselves under God’s authority. God has assigned people to train us and care for us. Even Pastors thrive under the discipling authority of mentors. And Elders thrive under the discipling authority of their pastor and other older men. This is the normal Christian life. That’s why Paul says that when believers are filled with the Holy Spirit they  “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ…”  (Eph. 5:21)

Children, you  have been given parents to train you in the gospel, to lead you to Christ. Ephesians 6:1-3  says that you are to “obey your parents in the Lord for this is right” and “Honor your father and your mother.” The book of Proverbs gives us a picture of how this looks in practice: Proverbs 1:8, 2:2:1, 3:1 4:1, 10, 20. At every point, the child is giving his eyes and his ears to his father and mother, respecting them, ready to be trained by them.

 Parents, God gave you the authority and the responsibility to train your children to walk in the gospel. Deuteronomy 6 reminds us that we are to teach our children the words of God and Ephesians 6 tells us to “raise them [our children] in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” If we do not win the battle of the wills with our children, they will either rule the atmosphere and values of the family, or they will engage in incessant guerrilla warfare with us until they either leave or are kicked out of the house.

However, winning the battle of the wills is not the goal of parenting, it is the first step of bringing your children under your training. If you win this battle, there are two results:

1. Your child will be more likely to grow into a healthy person
2. Your child will be more likely to follow Christ. By submitting to the grace the Holy Spirit offers them through their believing parents. 

So parents, when you train your children with God-given authority you prepare them for Christ and a  life of submission to Him in His church. Parenting is always about Christ. Always point to Him:  He is the authority to whom you submit. He is the One most offended at sin.  He is the ultimate Provider and Protector.

Eli’s sons were church-yard bullies, throwing orgies in the temple courts. And all Eli could say to them was “Why are you doing these things?” Eli, for all his greatness, was a feckless, faulty father who did not understand authority well enough to lead his family.

 I hope you see how critical is a position of authority as you parent or train in the gospel. But it is possible to operate the machinery of authority, yet have a life void of personal authority.

        True authority comes from within. the Greek word for authority is “Exousia” which means that authority is primarily something that comes “out of one’s essence”. It comes from who we are. So how can we… Cultivate an inner disposition of authority ?

 An inner disposition of authority is cultivated through submission to Christ, a relationship modeled by Paul in verse 1. Every true follower of Christ has the privilege of being personally trained to walk in the gospel by Christ Himself.  Paul was an Apostle , a “sent one”. That means that Paul was  at Christ’s disposal. Also, Hear that preposition of attachment, “of”? Paul belonged to Christ, whose purpose for His followers is that they increasingly delight in being with and following Him. (Mark 8:34-38); that His love produce in them a ready obedience to His will. “If you love me, you will do what I command.”   

The longer we follow Christ  and the more we are trained by Him, the more His authority will reside in us. It will simply be part of who we are. Knowing the authoritative Christ makes us confident of His authority as we lead others. Think about Peter and John as they stood before the powerful Jewish Sanhedrin. There was something amazing about these two men. As Acts 4:13 says,

“” Now they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated anduntrained men, they wer amazed and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.”

Parents, Do you want your children to think you are amazing? Then look at the impact of God-given authority.

• Matthew 7:28-29  When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching;  ²⁹ for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
• Matthew 9:8   ⁸ But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
• Mark 1:27  They were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”

Jesus said, “I did not come to be served but to serve and to give My life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). There is no servant greater than Christ. There is no one with more authority.  

The outward order of authority is necessary. The inward disposition of authority is essential. Will those we serve with confident leadership recognize by our authority that we have been with Jesus?

Starting Position #1

2 Timothy 1:1-2

A crisis of confidence is eating away American evangelical churches. We are plagued with an uneasy timidity about introducing and training others in Christ.

In contrast, this is Paul’s final passion in writing 2 Timothy. In our culture, however, some people object to the enterprise of training our children and others to walk in the gospel.

“Isn’t it an abuse of power to indoctrinate other people, especially little children?” they ask.

Our culture loves the enlightenment ( an 18th century philosophical movement) and the radical freedoms that it preached. “The mind must be left free to decide for itself. Train people to think, critique, discern. Then let each person chose according to his own inclinations,” it argues — even today! 

But not even the most ardent advocate of radical freedom lives by this doctrine consistently. We don’t lecture our children at the street corner, explaining the comparable masses of their 25 pound bodies and a ton-and-a-half truck. We would like for our children to live, so we train them, sometimes rigorously, not to walk into the street.

Also, it is no safe assumption that when educated in the freedoms of the enlightenment, a person will choose life. Even common observation teaches us that people have a stubborn inner-inclination away from sound-judgment.

In contrast, the Bible shows the kindness and goodness of training our children, and others, to walk in the gospel. How?

  Is this a good thing…

To train our children, and others, to walk in the gospel? Yes!

 First, because the gospel tells us the truth. J. I. Packers classic, “Knowing God”, asks us to consider dropping a stone-age tribesman into the middle of a large city.” The tribesman would have true freedom, but would be, rightly so, in terror of his surroundings. The best life is the life lived on the basis of the truth.

The gospel tells us the truth about ourselves, that people are broken and sinful. So are you. Titus 3:5 reminds us all that our fundamental nature is one of hatred and passions.

The gospel also tell us the truth about life and how to live it. To hear, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths”  is liberating. Life is meant to be lived in the presence, context and guidance of the God who made us. [Prov. 3:5-6]

Finally, the gosepl tells us the truth about God. He is the God who is there and to whom every one must ultimately answer. Most people agree that if there is a God, He is a God of love ( 1 John 4:7), but few are ready to grapple with the implications that God is just. For He says in Exodus 32:7, “I will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.” To walk according to the truth about ourselves, life and God is the only way to live life to its fullest.

 The gospel does more than tell the truth.

The gospel offers…

a life of eternal value and power.

We need a life that wants to walk in the truth. Left to truth alone, we have no inward ability to want the truth. Some kindness beyond ourselves must shift our wills, our “want-to’s,” toward truth.

We also need a life that is able to walk in the truth. We admit there’s plenty we want and cannot do. We need a new power of action, some kindness that can efficiently put a desire to walk in the gospel into gear. See, we need the powerful life that only God can give. That’s why the gospel is such good news. The gospel provides the only way this truth and life may be attained

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.”

The gospel is not religious methodology by which we may discipline ourselves to please God. The gospel is the entrance into — and a life relationship with — Jesus Christ. To have Jesus is to have this truth. To have Jesus is to have this life. There’s no other way. Now He offers you His gospel truth and life as a free gift. The gospel is good-simple. Just take it — take Christ — and you will live.

 So, training our children, and others, to receive God’s gift through Christ and to walk in the gospel is not just a good thing. It’s the best gift we ever give to someone, especially our children. So, lay aside this impediment to gladly, and often, interjecting, asserting and boldly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ with those around you. Any decent person would do no less.

 [If we are going to be intrusive with the gospel in our relationships, we will need authority, authenticity and affection. Next week, we will examine how Paul equips Timothy toward these three qualities.]

2 Corinthians 5:17 seems to offer a new start in life, doesn’t it? Its words do not erase the past, but they declare a new power and significance for everything that’s ever happened in your life.

 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come.”

But why would you want to start your life over?

If you trace Paul’s thinking back to 2 Corinthians, chapter 3, you discover that in the old  way of living you get tired of being condemned. It’s hard to shrug off the feeling that right and wrong are real. And every time you hear someone talking about God and His law, His right and wrong, it gets to you. You just know that something’s not right with you. Paul says that God’s law has a “ministry of death” – 2 Corinthians 3:6-7. Right is chiseled in stone and you can’t change it, so it stands as an immovable monument of condemnation.

Second, the old way of living make you tired of hiding. Paul explains that when Moses brought God’s law to ordinary sinners like us, we just couldn’t stand it. Israel said, “put a veil over your face. Even the reflected glory of God was too much to bear. The veil has to come down  (3:7) and you have to hide. 

Paul says we hide our old lives because of shame” (4:2). And we walk in craftiness, avoiding the truth. And we adulterate the word of God” (4:2), working to make it say something it really doesn’t say. After a while we don’t see truth at all. The veil is over our eyes.

Third, Paul describes the old way of life as “living for one’s self” (5:15). If life is not about you, you lose interest quickly.

 So, you want to start your life over again because the old way of living is killing you!

 How do you start over again. You need to meet The One  who gives a new start (who makes New)

If you go in for important surgery, you want to know something about the surgeon who will perform the operation. If you send your child to a school you want to know something about the teacher to whom you turn over your child. So before you trust Christ to give you a new start you need to know something about Him.

He is the Christ. That means:

1.  He’s the anointed Prophet, the Word Himself, who speaks to us.
2. He’s the anointed Priest, on the inside with God, who invites us in.
3. He’s the anointed King, who rules over us and welcomes us into His victory over sin and deaththrough the cross and resurrection. (Romans 6:8-10, 4)

You need to meet the One who can give life a new start.

What  kind of relationship  can you have with the One who gives a new start?

Paul writes “The one who is in Christ is a new creation”. That little preposition “In” points to

1.  a position/posture  with Christ, a position or posture of trusting, receiving, and resting upon who He is and what He has done.
2. a relationship/closeness  with Christ, an intimate, dependent relationship with Him.

Think about how much an unborn child needs her mother. Everything that gives life and hope for life comes from the mother. It’s the same with Christ. A life changing relationship with Him in which everything that gives life and hope for life comes from Him.

In Christ, the old life is gone; the new life just keeps on coming!

What is a new start in Christ like?

 First, Paul says you are a “new creation”. Ezekiel, the prophet says (11:18 – 21), “I will give themone heart and put a new spirit within them.”  As C.S. Lewis once wrote that Christianity is like a museum in which there is a rumor going about that some of the statues are coming to life.

When Paul calls those “in Christ” a new creation he reminds us that creation is a work of God, accomplished by the Word of God and according to the will of God. As the Apostle John says to Nicodemus: “You must be born again, or born from above.” This is something God must do.

So the question I ask you is, “Who’s writing on your heart?” Is it the Spirit of the Living God ( 2 Corinthains 3:3) who gives life. This is a glorious new start indeed!

In this new life acceptance replaces condemnation. God removes condemnation on the cross and gives acceptance from the cross.

In this new life in Chist there is no more hiding but freedom instead. Paul says, “When a person turns to the Lord the veil is taken away” ( 3:16), there is liberty through transformation and there is new light. “God has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (4:6)

 Finally in this new life in Christ one no longer lives for self but  for Christ. The love of Christ controls the output and direction of your life (5:14). You live for Him who died and rose again on our behalf. (5:15) Christ, the One who starts your life over again, is the loving and delightful center of your new life in Him.

 Those who are in Christ are a new creation.

The old is gone and the new just keeps coming!