Sunday Gathering 10:00 am, Bur-Mil Park Clubhouse

Week Night Small Groups Office Phone: 378-0062

The Gospel

The phone rings, I pick it up, and an unfamiliar voice says, “May I speak to Mr. Joel Gillespie, please.” “This is he,” I respond. “Mr. Gillespie,” the voice continues, “I have great news for you. You have been pre-selected to receive the new no annual fee Bank of Missoula credit card!” Wow. I’m thrilled.  When the voice pauses for three microseconds to catch its breath, I interrupt. “Thank you for calling, but I already have enough credit cards.” I hang up.

There is so much hype. Everything is awesome. Everything is incredible. Everything changes your life.

Now if the voice on the phone had said, “Mr. Gillespie, you have won eighteen million dollars!” then, yea, that would have made for a good day. But I haven’t had many calls like that lately.

Most people I know are working hard to survive and make a living, to keep themselves and their loved ones alive and healthy, and to know a measure of success and happiness. It’s not a foregone conclusion that one will succeed at all this. Life is unpredictable. Even if we can control what we say and do, we can’t control what everyone else will say and do. We can’t control the weather. We can’t control disease and sickness. We can’t keep our company from being bought out. We can’t control what other nations may do. Not only that, we realize that we are not so able to control even ourselves. Inside, all mixed in with goodness and kindness, is anger, resentment, lust, greed, sadness, confusion, pride, and arrogance. It seems that underneath and surrounding all of our hard work and best efforts are the twin pillars of chaos and emptiness. They are ready to devour us. Evil surrounds, decay presses, and death awaits. It seems, frankly, that we’re all alone in a great big empty universe and, “ah ha!” the joke’s on us.

So is there any good news really? So I win the lottery. Big deal! It doesn't change the world, and it doesn't change me inside.

But the message of the Bible is in fact a message that there is good news. This is what the word “gospel” means – “good news” or “glad tidings” or “positive reports.”

The good news of the Bible is the news that in fact we are not alone in the universe. We and the entire universe have been created by an infinite and personal and good being whom the Bible calls God. This God has made us as human beings “in his image.” He has made us to find our happiness in knowing and loving Him. He has shown us how to live in a way that brings honor to him and happiness to us. He has shown us how to live toward one another and toward our neighbor.

The bad news of the Bible is that we have messed up. We have decided that we don’t like the way that this God runs His universe. We have decided to look elsewhere for our fullness and happiness. Because of our rebellion, our world is fallen. We are alienated from God, from one another, and from the earth. And God has honored us, as creatures made in His image, by allowing us ultimately to experience the full weight of our choice to reject his authority and presence in our lives. He has prepared a place and environment called hell where we get to live forever without Him and His presence and blessing. Hell is God’s ratification of our anti-God choice.

The good news of the Bible is that evil, decay, and death have been defeated. The good news of the Bible is that though we have rejected our creator, he has not rejected us. He has provided a way for us to be restored to Him and to begin to regain what we had lost.

How has this come about? This good and powerful God has embraced the world that has rejected him. He has indeed become a person – Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth. In word and deed this Jesus has revealed to us what our creator God is like. He has taught us what our creator God seeks to do in and with His world. In word and deed Jesus has also shown us what we were created to be like. He has shown us how to live toward God and others. He has shown us how to love God and love our neighbor.

This Jesus has also done the most remarkable thing. Something really incredible. Something definitely life changing.

Jesus has taken upon Himself the full weight of human sin and rebellion. He has “borne our iniquity and carried our sorrows.” He has experienced in our place God’s justifiable displeasure with our rebellion against Him. In other word, Jesus has “died for our sins.” He has suffered hell in our place.

But Jesus has done more. He has defeated death itself. He has been raised – bodily -- from the dead.  He has ascended into the presence of God, where he now rules over the world and intercedes for His people. Jesus is alive, and is coming back again.

Jesus has opened up a way back to God. He has put the world back on track. He has dealt with the chaos and uncertainty, with death and decay and evil. Jesus rules over the universe.

The good news of the Bible is that as we believe in and embrace and cling to this risen Jesus as our Lord and master, we will be forgiven of our sins, we will be declared acquitted of the charge of rebellion against God, we will be adopted into God’s family, we will begin again to be remade into the image of God, and we will be raised from the dead to an eternity of fellowship with God in a renewed heaven and earth. Now this is good news indeed!

Covenant Fellowship is committed to proclaiming and bearing witness to the good news that Jesus Christ is alive, that he is King over the world, that he has borne our sins, that he has defeated death and Satan, and that he is coming back as judge of the earth. This is good news indeed!!