A Facebook post from March 4, 2015…. I remember when this first occurred to me in 2015 about Jesus Christ, it flabbergasted me, it revolutionized my life in many ways and continues to almost 10 years later.
“All that God was, and is, and will be, all he did, and does, and will do is poured into, gathered up, and summarized in the person of Jesus Christ!
There really are not enough books in the world, to contain all he has done, is doing, and will do.
When we realize this, most of life’s confusion, unfairness, and ambitious pursuits become small side-distractions.”
This is a message I shared on Sunday September 15, 2024 at Bethel Fellowship church in Montour Falls NY. The message was split into two parts, it was 52 minutes in length. The title of the message is Jesus Christ as a King, the message begins around 26 minutes into this video if you want to jump ahead through the singing. Also, part 2 of this message is the final 7 minutes of the message.
This message is about seeing and knowing Jesus Christ as a King and all that implies and should mean to us. Not only viewing Him as a savior but as a personal king and a collective king.
“The very word or term “Gospel” has come to imply something less than “the whole counsel of God”, and to be applied almost exclusively to the beginnings of the Christian life.”
T. Austin Sparks (1954)
…for teachers and preachers today to share the gospel and salvation, and to make it exclusively about the beginnings of Christianity and heaven, is to neglect much of it. It produces a church obsessed with only the beginnings of Christianity and they struggle to mature and go beyond those beginnings. It also leaves the Christian in the dark about things such as, why God created, Jesus’ role in the present and future universe, the
We should understand ‘gospel’ to mean “the whole counsel of God” and if we have that gospel it should take months to preach and teach it all. Not 3 minutes conclusions at the end of random, entertaining topical sermons. There should be some accountability for those who claim to be ‘preaching the gospel.’
To Paul ‘salvation’ meant all the work that God has done to get us into his kingdom, and that includes all the work he intends for the church to do in the earth, here and now. Not only the future experience of heaven and resurrection.
Hebrews 2:1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For if the message spoken through angels proved to be so firm that every violation or disobedience received its just penalty, 3 how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was first communicated through the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him,
Whichever apostle wrote the book of Hebrews, perhaps Barnabas or Paul or maybe Silas. He warns here in Hebrews 2 to watch out for a drifting away from the gospel and neglecting it. So this is something they were already experiencing and concerned about in the first century. We have no right to dumb down the gospel, and to condense it so it will fit into our 45 minute sermon conclusion, is to strip it of much detail. Condensing it and stripping it also robs those who hear it of much insight into Jesus Christ, into our current dispensation. And understanding of the purpose of creation, Christianity itself, and the ministry/ calling of the church. The gospel preached produces the church. A partial or a dumbed down gospel, changes the church that embraces it. It hinders it, it turns it into something the Lord never intended it to be. A mere idle audience of hearers, being told elementary things repeatedly, who are often used as tithers in support of a salary or a building fund.
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