If you were to ask the average church member today...(anyone who might claim or profess to be a ‘Christian’) to share or explain the ‘gospel’ with you, I would imagine it would include the following verbiage...

John 3:16 might be a starting point, followed up by the ‘4 spiritual laws’ and then a quick tour of the ‘Romans Road to Salvation’. A short summary would include how we are all sinners, in need of a Savior and God loved His fallen creation so much that He offered up His only Son to die on a cross as a form of ‘payment’ for our sins. Then after Jesus was buried ...three days later God raised Him up from the dead. He then sent His disciples out to proclaim this news that whoever ‘believed in Him’, and ‘accepted Christ as their personal Savior’, they too could go to heaven and live for eternity after they died. In the meantime, join a local church and hang out with likeminded people because God has a wonderful plan for your life and wants to use you to do great things for Him.

Give or take a few of those points... that is, in a nutshell...a modern day ‘gospel’ presentation.

So here’s something I would like to challenge you with; think of this as a short ‘homework’ assignment to do today. I won’t be ‘grading’ this but we can ‘compare notes’ tomorrow, Lord willing.

In the very first chapter of Mark, we read that “Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, saying ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent...and believe in the gospel.’” (Mark 1:14-15)

We also read in Matt. 9:35 where “Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.”

Keep in mind that this defined or marked the ministry of Jesus for 3 years, leading up to His arrest, trial, eventual crucifixion and of course His resurrection. But nobody had any clue or inkling that that His ministry would culminate in such fashion. So clearly, the message, or ‘gospel’ that Jesus spent so much time preaching and proclaiming would not have included much of the verbiage we would use today, if/when asked to share this ‘gospel’, or ‘good news’.

In hindsight, it seems simple for us to share what happened to Jesus and what that means for us today. But...what was the ‘gospel message’ that Jesus preached to the multitudes during those three years, before there was any ‘death, burial, and resurrection’ to believe in?

This is your ‘assignment’. Give some thought and study as to what His ‘gospel’ message might have included. Yes, He told many stories and parables; but that doesn’t mean, for example that the parable of the sower is/was the ‘gospel’. It was just a simple illustration He used.

This does not have to be some ‘deep, theological’ dissertation. What do you think the gospel that Jesus taught included? See you tomorrow?

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