Experience Matters
The men of our church have started this year studying the book of 1 John. So starting today I will be writing some of my thoughts about this book as we dive deep into its pages over the next 12 weeks.
1 John 1:1-10
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our[a] joy may be complete.
John starts his letter to the believers in Ephesus in much the same way he does in his gospel. He points to Jesus' eternality but also to his humanity. But what is great about this passage is that he is not merely speaking conjecture about a subject he has heard about or read about, John is saying “look I have got the receipts” This is real. I have the evidence. I saw with my own eyes, I heard with my own ears, I touched with my own hands.
And the best part is.. what I am telling you is Good News. (i.e. The Gospel)
THE GOSPEL
The gospel is the core of the Christian life. The gospel is the message, the hope, and the firm foundation of those who follow Christ. It's the foundation upon which the church and is built, AND the foundation on which our homes SHOULD be built as well.
But do we know what the gospel is? And a better question might be could we explain it or tell someone about it if asked?
If you were to ask a Christian about the gospel, and what it is, you are likely to get 5 answers from 5 people. Some will tell you it is about asking Jesus into your heart, or they may say it is the plan of salvation or give you a tour of "The Romans Road".
But few will identify the gospel as the good news of God's redemption of fallen man through the person and work of Jesus Christ. But the reality is, that's precisely what the gospel is; it's the announcement of good news to man, that God has not forgotten them, God has provided grace and forgiveness to them, that through his son, Jesus, he has eliminated our inability to "earn our way" to heaven by our own works and strength. (which we never could do).
John Hendryx offers a succinct definition of the Gospel:
In short, the Gospel is the life-altering news that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man, lived a sinless life under the Law, died for sinners, and rose again to reconcile them to himself, eternally victorious over every enemy that stood between God and man.
The gospel is not about a lonely God pining over the prospect of an eternity without you. The gospel is not man-centered sentimentality. God is Holy. God is not in "need" of anything, us included. But he loves us and he has a heart for us. We read in Genesis that when he created us he created us in His image. Hhe created us to for relationship with Him and with others.
Michael Horton says, "The biblical writers chose the word "gospel." The heart of most religions is good advice, good techniques, good pro-grams, good ideas, and good support systems. These drive us deeper into ourselves, to find our inner light, inner goodness, inner voice, or inner resources. Nothing new can be found inside us. There is no inner rescuer deep down in my soul; I just hear echoes of my own voice telling me all sorts of crazy things to numb my sense of fear, anxiety, and boredom, the origins of which I cannot truly identify. But the heart of Christianity is Good News. It comes not as a task for us to fulfill, a mission for us to accomplish, a game plan for us to follow with the help of life coaches, but as a report that someone else has already fulfilled, accomplished, followed, and achieved everything for us. Good advice may help us in our daily lives but it does not save us.'
It is Good News because it does not depend on us. It is about God’s faithfulness, promises, purposes, and100% of the time it is not man centered. It is not about living a better life, being a better you, changing the world, or maximizing your gifting. All of those things are likely to happen when we place our live in Jesus's hands. They are all by products of the transformation the Bible talks about taking place when we realize our need for a savior and allow ourselves to die to self so that we can be raised to new life. But that is not the gospel.
The Gospel is always God centered, Christ centered, and Cross centered, and instead of requiring our living a perfect life with no mistakes, flawlessly following all that Christ has commanded it simply requires repentance and faith.
And when that happens the Gospel produces all of those things I just mentioned and more and in ever increasing measure. It produces our obedience to the commands we read in scripture. It is the catalyst for the transformation in the way we think, speak, act, respond to others, live our lives, and how we treat others. In a word all of those things happen differently because of the gospel.
We truly are New Creations. As the apostle Paul writes in Romans, the old is gone the new is come.
The gospel is not merely the first step, the gospel is what we as believers orient our entire lives around for the rest of our life. It goes to the heart of everything we think, everything we do, and everything we say. But this does not happen magically on its own. We have to put our faith into practice. We have to wake up intentionally each morning and plan to orient our day around the gospel.
But one of the biggest battles we face as Americans is our need for distractions.
The average American consumes 10.5 hours of media every single day now. (tv, radio, social, podcast, etc..) And the reality is that this number is not static. It has been steadily increasing year on year for the last 20 years. And when you take a look at Gen Z as a whole and the average amount of media they consume daily the number actually increases even more.
Here is the problem: we will never have a Christian mind without reading or listening to the Scriptures regularly because what we allow into our minds greatly influences it. We cannot be profoundly influenced by something that we know nothing about. If we are filled with God's Word, our life can then be informed and directed by God.
And the more we put that into practice the more we see that experience play out. We begin to see our domestic relationships, our parenting, our career, our ethical decisions, and our interior moral life radically look more and more like the gospel. And in turn it becomes more and more evident to the people God has brought into our lives. The way to living out the gospel and to a Christian mind is through God's Word!
The gospel is also NOT just the 2 great commandments. Love God Love People. Jesus tells us plainly these are actually the summary of the Law.
We have to remind ourselves constantly that the gospel is news to be proclaimed. The more that we emurse ourselves in this mindset the more that it will flow from us. It helps to be reminded over and over again that the gospel is God centered, Christ centered, cross centered and GRACE centered.
And that experience matters as we continue to pursue God, His kingdom and His righteousness, and his plan for our lives.
So this year I want to start spending time with one another and in Gods word in a great way. So that we can be better about living out and proclaiming the GOOD NEWS.
1 John 1:1-10
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our[a] joy may be complete.
John starts his letter to the believers in Ephesus in much the same way he does in his gospel. He points to Jesus' eternality but also to his humanity. But what is great about this passage is that he is not merely speaking conjecture about a subject he has heard about or read about, John is saying “look I have got the receipts” This is real. I have the evidence. I saw with my own eyes, I heard with my own ears, I touched with my own hands.
And the best part is.. what I am telling you is Good News. (i.e. The Gospel)
THE GOSPEL
The gospel is the core of the Christian life. The gospel is the message, the hope, and the firm foundation of those who follow Christ. It's the foundation upon which the church and is built, AND the foundation on which our homes SHOULD be built as well.
But do we know what the gospel is? And a better question might be could we explain it or tell someone about it if asked?
If you were to ask a Christian about the gospel, and what it is, you are likely to get 5 answers from 5 people. Some will tell you it is about asking Jesus into your heart, or they may say it is the plan of salvation or give you a tour of "The Romans Road".
But few will identify the gospel as the good news of God's redemption of fallen man through the person and work of Jesus Christ. But the reality is, that's precisely what the gospel is; it's the announcement of good news to man, that God has not forgotten them, God has provided grace and forgiveness to them, that through his son, Jesus, he has eliminated our inability to "earn our way" to heaven by our own works and strength. (which we never could do).
John Hendryx offers a succinct definition of the Gospel:
In short, the Gospel is the life-altering news that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man, lived a sinless life under the Law, died for sinners, and rose again to reconcile them to himself, eternally victorious over every enemy that stood between God and man.
The gospel is not about a lonely God pining over the prospect of an eternity without you. The gospel is not man-centered sentimentality. God is Holy. God is not in "need" of anything, us included. But he loves us and he has a heart for us. We read in Genesis that when he created us he created us in His image. Hhe created us to for relationship with Him and with others.
Michael Horton says, "The biblical writers chose the word "gospel." The heart of most religions is good advice, good techniques, good pro-grams, good ideas, and good support systems. These drive us deeper into ourselves, to find our inner light, inner goodness, inner voice, or inner resources. Nothing new can be found inside us. There is no inner rescuer deep down in my soul; I just hear echoes of my own voice telling me all sorts of crazy things to numb my sense of fear, anxiety, and boredom, the origins of which I cannot truly identify. But the heart of Christianity is Good News. It comes not as a task for us to fulfill, a mission for us to accomplish, a game plan for us to follow with the help of life coaches, but as a report that someone else has already fulfilled, accomplished, followed, and achieved everything for us. Good advice may help us in our daily lives but it does not save us.'
It is Good News because it does not depend on us. It is about God’s faithfulness, promises, purposes, and100% of the time it is not man centered. It is not about living a better life, being a better you, changing the world, or maximizing your gifting. All of those things are likely to happen when we place our live in Jesus's hands. They are all by products of the transformation the Bible talks about taking place when we realize our need for a savior and allow ourselves to die to self so that we can be raised to new life. But that is not the gospel.
The Gospel is always God centered, Christ centered, and Cross centered, and instead of requiring our living a perfect life with no mistakes, flawlessly following all that Christ has commanded it simply requires repentance and faith.
And when that happens the Gospel produces all of those things I just mentioned and more and in ever increasing measure. It produces our obedience to the commands we read in scripture. It is the catalyst for the transformation in the way we think, speak, act, respond to others, live our lives, and how we treat others. In a word all of those things happen differently because of the gospel.
We truly are New Creations. As the apostle Paul writes in Romans, the old is gone the new is come.
The gospel is not merely the first step, the gospel is what we as believers orient our entire lives around for the rest of our life. It goes to the heart of everything we think, everything we do, and everything we say. But this does not happen magically on its own. We have to put our faith into practice. We have to wake up intentionally each morning and plan to orient our day around the gospel.
But one of the biggest battles we face as Americans is our need for distractions.
The average American consumes 10.5 hours of media every single day now. (tv, radio, social, podcast, etc..) And the reality is that this number is not static. It has been steadily increasing year on year for the last 20 years. And when you take a look at Gen Z as a whole and the average amount of media they consume daily the number actually increases even more.
Here is the problem: we will never have a Christian mind without reading or listening to the Scriptures regularly because what we allow into our minds greatly influences it. We cannot be profoundly influenced by something that we know nothing about. If we are filled with God's Word, our life can then be informed and directed by God.
And the more we put that into practice the more we see that experience play out. We begin to see our domestic relationships, our parenting, our career, our ethical decisions, and our interior moral life radically look more and more like the gospel. And in turn it becomes more and more evident to the people God has brought into our lives. The way to living out the gospel and to a Christian mind is through God's Word!
The gospel is also NOT just the 2 great commandments. Love God Love People. Jesus tells us plainly these are actually the summary of the Law.
We have to remind ourselves constantly that the gospel is news to be proclaimed. The more that we emurse ourselves in this mindset the more that it will flow from us. It helps to be reminded over and over again that the gospel is God centered, Christ centered, cross centered and GRACE centered.
And that experience matters as we continue to pursue God, His kingdom and His righteousness, and his plan for our lives.
So this year I want to start spending time with one another and in Gods word in a great way. So that we can be better about living out and proclaiming the GOOD NEWS.
2 Comments
Good words
Thanks James. Hope you are having a great week.