The Gospel -- Mark 8
We have lost something very important . . . the gospel. When Jesus preached the Gospel it sounded like this, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." (Mark 8:34-35)
When the gospel is infused with consumerism and selfcenteredness it comes out sounding like this. It you want to better your life, and go to heaven when you die, ask Jesus into your heart, and He has a wonderful plan for your life.
We must find what we have lost . . . at the core of our faith. Following Jesus means giving your life away for something. The very thing Jesus gave his life away for; the gospel which is the good news of the kingdom of God. Jesus gave his life away serving, loving, being filled with compassion for the needy. I think part of the reason we get so frustrated over the fruitless form of Christianity that we see is because we have made the narrow road wide, and it has a lot of travelers just standing and talking.
Let's be careful when we present the Gospel to people to give it the way Jesus did. After all the Gospel is worth giving your life for, and young people today are looking for something to give their lives for. The Gospel is compeling . . . let's present it.
When the gospel is infused with consumerism and selfcenteredness it comes out sounding like this. It you want to better your life, and go to heaven when you die, ask Jesus into your heart, and He has a wonderful plan for your life.
We must find what we have lost . . . at the core of our faith. Following Jesus means giving your life away for something. The very thing Jesus gave his life away for; the gospel which is the good news of the kingdom of God. Jesus gave his life away serving, loving, being filled with compassion for the needy. I think part of the reason we get so frustrated over the fruitless form of Christianity that we see is because we have made the narrow road wide, and it has a lot of travelers just standing and talking.
Let's be careful when we present the Gospel to people to give it the way Jesus did. After all the Gospel is worth giving your life for, and young people today are looking for something to give their lives for. The Gospel is compeling . . . let's present it.
posted by Jon Knapp at
8:01 AM
5 Comments:
Great thoughts. If the church fully embraced the true Gospel of Jesus, would they be smaller or larger than they are today? I'm not sure.
Good question. It would at least be different.
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Well Said! Young people and old people alike are looking for how to apply the good news to their lives today. Yes going to heaven is important to us, but that is not the first thing to comes to mind when faced with a delima, a doubt, or anything else that troubles us. We think less of the future and more of the right here, right now. We want assurance for where we are at right now. Jesus speaks of both our future and our present.
That's how the Good News needs to be presented. Not as a ticket to a heavenly playground.
ticket salesman . . . hmmm . . . I have felt like that before.
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