Jesus Christ and the True Gospel

Transcript

I’d like to begin this afternoon by talking about last weekend.  It was the fiftieth anniversary of a congregation of the Radio Church of God being founded or established in the State of Florida.   There is a little bit of a debate in Florida as to which church was actually the first Radio Church of God congregation, but there appears to be no doubt that it was Miami, since Miami began on the Sabbath of August the 15th in the morning, but Lakeland was that afternoon.   So they both began on the same Sabbath, and so there is a little bit of a controversy, I discovered, as to which one was actually the first.

I want to read an excerpt from the letter that was written.  It was especially interesting to me because my family and I received a very similar letter in July of 1961, when my mother, who was already a member of the church, received a letter announcing the very first Sabbath service in Memphis, Tennessee, and we lived in Arkansas and we were to drive over for services.  It had been ten years since my mother had begun her association with the Radio Church of God, and finally there was a church to attend, and it was really exciting around our home.  My father wasn’t very excited, because he wasn’t interested in the church at the time, but my mother was extremely excited, an opportunity to go to church, after for 10 years observing the Sabbath at home with her two children.  So it was quite a remarkable thing.  So this is a similar letter that was sent out to us.

The heading says, “Radio Church of God, World Headquarters, Pasadena, California 91109
Herbert W Armstrong, President and Pastor, Broadcasting the World Tomorrow, Publishers of The Plain Truth.”  This letter is dated August 11, 1964.  It says, “Dear Brethren in Christ, Here is good news.   We are now able to begin holding regular Sabbath Services in Miami, Florida.   The first meeting will be held at 9 a.m. on this coming Sabbath, August 15 at the North Miami Jaycee’s, 12100 West Dixie, North Miami, Florida.  This hall is an easy to find central location, and there is ample parking available at the rear of the building.  Mr. Kenneth R Swisher, district superintendent over your area, will be pastor of the new Miami church.  He is a graduate of Ambassador College, an ordained minister of Jesus Christ, married and the father of four children.”   And it goes on to write, and this is the last paragraph that I wanted to share with you, “So now you are blessed with the opportunity to meet together right there in the Miami, Florida area, in regular Sabbath Services.  Remember, the first meeting will be held Saturday, August 15, in the North Miami Jaycee’s building at 9:00 a.m., and every Sabbath thereafter at the same time and place.  Show your appreciation for this opportunity, which Almighty God has provided.  Be there.   Sincerely, in Jesus’ name, Herbert W Armstrong.”

So that was the beginning of the Miami congregation, and this past Sabbath we had the privilege of being there for the celebration.  We had over 200 people, and it was just a wonderful time and a wonderful evening.  But it calls for a lot of reflection, whether you recognize it or not, and I think most of you would recognize, many things have changed since 1964.  Now I found that 1964 was a very interesting year for a lot of reasons.   In 1964 America was recovering from the assassination of President John Kennedy, an event that forever changed our nation.  PBS did a documentary this year titled 1964 and they selected this date because of the social changes that occurred in America that year.   The subtitle of the documentary was The Year America Lost It.  The year America lost it.   Here is a quote from the PBS documentary.  It says, “The most pivotal year of the 1960’s was arguably 1964.  That’s the year American culture fractured and eventually split along ideological lines.  Old versus young, hip versus square, rich versus poor, liberal versus conservative.”   It was partly based on a book written by Jon Margolis, which he titled The Last Innocent Year: 1964.

A lot of things happened at that time, and a lot of things have changed since then.  You may or may not, depending on your age, be aware that the Beatles debuted in America in February of 1964, and forever changed the music scene and maybe you could say the cultural scene in America as well.  

A new home in 1964 cost $12,700.00.   Three bedroom home.   The average income was $5,315.00.  A gallon of gasoline cost you 25 cents.  A new car cost $2,600.00.   Or if you wanted to buy a Volkswagen Beetle you could pay $1,760.00.   A hundred dollars in 1964 would purchase the equivalent of $679.00 today.  The most popular TV shows were Perry Mason, Rawhide,  Hogan’s Heroes, Gilligan’s Island, The Twilight Zone, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and Maverick.  The smiley face was first introduced in 1964.  Lucky Charms, Diet Pepsi, and Pop Tarts made their debut.  A postage stamp cost 5 cents, a loaf of bread cost 20 cents, and a movie ticket cost $1.25 in the summer of 1964.  

It was interesting being there last Sabbath and talking to some of the members who were there for that very first service who are still there.  I’m not sure exactly how many were there from that first service, but there were at least a handful of them who were still there.  It was quite remarkable to talk to them and their feelings about 1964, when they attended their very first Sabbath service.  And then to transport them and all of us 50 years later, and to say how the world has changed.  But there are some things that have remained the same.  There are some things that are just as important today as they were in 1964.

I’d like for you to open your Bibles to Mark the 8th chapter.  In the Bible there are verses that are hard to be understood.  There are other verses that are easy to understand, but are hard to do.  This verse falls into that second category.  If you read the account here in Mark 8, you see the story about Jesus Christ and some of the things that were occurring in His life, as our Savior on this earth.  The feeding of the four thousand, the misunderstanding by the disciples when Christ mentioned about leaven, that it wasn’t because they had brought no food, and of course the loaves of bread that were taken up.   But in verse 31 He predicts His death and His resurrection.  And there is an unusual event that occurs here.   Peter stops Him and he says Well no, you are not going to die.  We won’t let you die.   Christ looks at Peter and He says “Get behind Me, Satan!”  Jesus Christ recognized of course the plan of God, and His part in that plan, and Peter did not.  And Peter, in his sort of bravado, was wrong.  And whether he was just simply influenced at that moment, obviously we don’t imagine that Peter was possessed of Satan, but it was an attitude that Satan would have:  That I can protect you, I can take care of things, I am….  And you talk about pride, and you talk about what Peter was exhibiting represented Satan to Jesus Christ, who saw that whole event occur when Satan rebelled and was cast back to the Earth.    So then we come to verse 34 though.   It was in this setting that Jesus Christ chose to say these words. When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”  Not Peter.  Not that you can take care of it all by yourself.  Follow Me, take up My cross.   

Now when you were baptized, whenever that event may have occurred, you probably had either this scripture read to you or you had other scriptures that say something similar; that you must follow Christ, you must take up your cross, you must be willing to endure hardship if you are going to be a Christian.   And it wasn’t as easy as Peter made it out to be, where he had a sword and he could take care of anything. Nothing would hurt him. And Christ said Well you know that’s really Satan’s attitude, this pride and bravado, whereas a Christian must humble himself or herself, and walk the way I walk, behind Me.  And then verse 35, this is the verse, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Verse 36-37  “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”  What would you be willing to do?   What is the cost of Christianity?  What is the price you would be willing to pay?  

A lot has changed in 50 years.   A lot has changed in the last 10 years.  But this has not changed.  The commitment to Christianity is the same today as it was if you were baptized in 1964, or if you were baptized in 1994, or if you were baptized in 2004.   Jesus Christ expects the same of you today as He would have, and as He did, 50 years ago.  

Now when a congregation would begin at that time, 1964 is an example, there were congregations starting every single year back in those days. The 60’s saw just an expansion of growth in the church, and that was after almost 30 years before that really began to occur.   In fact it wasn’t until 1961 that the attendance at the Feast of Tabernacles for the Radio Church of God passed the 10,000 mark, which is approximately what we will have this year at the Feast.  1961.   That meant that Mr. Armstrong who began in 1933, had been preaching and teaching and working for almost 30 years, (some people would consider that a career and a lifetime) and very little, in the physical sense, to show for it.  But it really blossomed after that.  In fact, about 6 years later, by 1967, there were 45,000 people keeping the Feast of Tabernacles.   10,000 in 1961; in 1967 more than 45,000 people.   But things have changed.   Things have changed in the last 50 years, as I said things have changed in the last 10 years.   But this particular issue, your commitment  --  and I want to notice something interesting here.   This verse, or this saying of Christ, is recorded in all the gospels to one degree or another.  Slightly different in John, but Matthew records it twice, Matthew 10:39 and Matthew 16:25.  Luke records it Luke 9:24.  It’s found in John 12:25.  But this is the only place that Christ chose, or at least that Mark recorded, and there is some historical evidence that Mark may have been the first of the four gospels actually written (by that I mean in time, I don’t mean he was maybe the first one to record this, but actually for it to be written down, Mark is often considered of the synoptic gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – to have been the earliest).  Mark is the only one that records the addition here.   The others record that unless you are willing to give your life for My sake, you will lose it, but Mark records for My sake and for the gospel.  So Mark equates preaching the gospel, or the gospel message, as being something in addition that we commit our lives to.  But he puts it on a par with a commitment to Christ.   I believe it’s an interesting concept, that the preaching of the gospel, the good news of the Kingdom of God, is central to who we are and to what we are.  

We live in a world today that is very confused about the gospel, about Jesus Christ actually.  The real Jesus Christ isn’t being taught in the world today.  In fact in the world today, the term “Christian” is more of a philosophy than it is a real lifestyle.  And again I’m not saying there aren’t people who profess Christianity who don’t live a good lifestyle and believe in values, but I’m simply saying that “Christian” is a term that’s used like you refer to Republicans or Democrats; it’s simply something that people are, it’s their philosophy.  It’s something that they maybe feel they are, and whether they’re a Baptist, a Methodist, or a Presbyterian, it’s sort of a generic term that they are “Christians”.  But the Christ that they are teaching is not the true Christ.  The gospel they have is not the true gospel.  Again it doesn’t make them bad people, it simply means they don’t have the truth.

We in the Church of God have been privileged, and whether you came to your first service 20 years ago, or 30 years ago, or 40 years ago, or as in my family’s case more than 50 years ago, it’s irrelevant in one sense.   When you came to church you were introduced to the true gospel.  You were introduced to a message that has the capacity to change the world.  It isn’t just a message about Jesus Christ, and accepting you may be just as you are, and making you feel good.  It is a message for the ages.  It is a message that transcends time.  It’s a message that is as old as the beginning of scripture and the creation of man, and will extend as far into the future as you can imagine, and then further.  It is life changing.  It is changing, and will change, the world, if you understand the true gospel.  

What happens today is that we often get distracted.  We’ve been distracted probably a lot. A lot of us have, probably in the last 20 years, with all the events that have occurred.  The world is on the verge of so many disasters every single day.  There is a financial disaster that’s just looming out there, for our society, for the world.   Thirty-three percent of Americans today are seriously in debt, so seriously that their name appears on a collection agency list.  Thirty-three percent.   Global public debt reached the all-time high of $50.6 trillion last year.  For comparison, in 2003 it was $22 trillion.  Milton Friedman was an economist of the last century.  His philosophy was that the government cannot solve all the problems; in fact the government is the last one that should be solving financial problems.  And Friedman wrote this, sort of a cynical statement.  He said “If you were to put the Federal government in charge of the Sahara desert, in five years there would be a shortage of sand,” which illustrated his view of what the government can or cannot do.  So you see America following sort of the socialist concept of Europe, which produces its own set of problems.  That can be distracting.  If you’re having financial difficulties it does distract you.  

But the day you walked into the church, whether it was 1964, or 2004, or last year – it was encouraging to visit the church in South Florida and to meet several new people.  And I’ve visited a number of churches in the last several months, and I’ve met new people consistently.  Now not large numbers of new people, but a few here, a couple of families here.  There were at least five people that were there for just maybe a second or third time last Sabbath.   And it was encouraging to hear their perspective, and side by side with someone who has been there for 50 years, and the perspective.   What they have found, and what this other person has held on to, because a lot of people have not.  But from the first message, the day you walked into the door of Church, you were told certain things.  You were told that you should be committed, you were told you needed to focus on what was right, you needed to set priorities, change your life, give up your life, obey the commandments, not let the true gospel slip away from you.  Those were all principles and values that you were taught from the first day you walked into the church, whether it was 50 years ago or whether it was just a few years ago.  

You know, over the years we’ve looked at, and if you look back over the last 20 years, you would have to say, “Well where has the growth been?”  Where has the growth been?  Where are the new people coming from, and where are they? And are we doing something wrong, which it’s always good to evaluate yourselves.  We often focus on our young people as to why do they… and of course it’s not just the church, the Church of God, but you see it commonly in society that young people leave religion when they reach the age of 18 or 19.  In fact, the ages of 18 to 26 are often referred to as the areligious age, in other words they don’t have a religion, they don’t want a religion, it’s not really all that important.   But the truth of the matter is that young people today are like young people of all generations:  they want something to believe in, they want a cause to fight for.  We assume that they are innately selfish, but have we only assumed that?  It has been proven that young people become bored with a gospel that talks only about what they are going to get out of it, rather than what they must invest in it.  One third of all young people today, or young adults under the age of 30, refer to themselves as “nones”, not n-u-n-s, but n-o-n-e-s, nones.  That is, non-religious.  They may be spiritual, but they don’t have a religion.  

The Christian world has abandoned the true gospel, the true Christ, and has accepted an inferior substitute.  One that attempts to make you feel good about yourself, and about what you are going to get, with little investment.  Christ said if you seek to save your life you will lose it.   If you are only getting something for yourself then you will lose your life.  Now that’s not a difficult verse to understand, but it’s a difficult verse to wrap your mind around as to how it affects every part of your life.  Every day, every month, every year, everything you do is affected by that decision.  And it’s not a matter of what you get; it’s a matter of what you are willing to give.   What value is it?  What has changed in 50 years?  

Janet Bernardi wrote a book that she co-authored with William Mahedy titled A Generation Alone:  Xers Making A Place In The World.   And this is what she wrote, it says, “But we are still searching for God, we are still trying to fill the God space.  We are looking for a place to rest, someone we can trust.  We are looking for a community and like all people before us we want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.”  The most telling thing she said about the Xers, this current generation, says “We want to believe in something.”  We want to believe in something.  Now these are important concepts in understanding our priorities today.   

The question is pretty simple:  Are you willing to lose your life for Christ AND the gospel?  That’s the question.  Whether you’ve been around for 50 years or 5 years or you’re brand new, the commitment is the same.   You know, there is no place in scripture that it says after 50 years you can retire from Christianity.  Or after 30 years you can just quit.  You don’t need to do anything anymore, you’ve done enough.   It doesn’t say that.  The commitment is the same.  While things have changed dramatically in 50 years, that has not changed.  It is the same today as it was the day you walked into the door of the church. 

A lot of books recently have been written and a lot of surveys done on why churches fail.  Now you may be surprised, every year in America there are about 4,000 new churches begin.  The other side of the story is that every year in America about 3,500 close their doors for lack of attendance.  It’s a cycle that continues.  This is one survey.   It says the 10 reasons -- this is from a blog site called The 10 Reasons Churches Fail.  I’m only going to give you the first three:
1.    People leave church when they don’t see or don’t find Jesus.  By that they mean the church should look, talk, and act like Jesus did.
2.    They are lonely.
3.    They are looking look for something authentic.  Hypocrisy always drives people away. 

Dr. Richard J. Krejcir, from the Francis A. Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership studied 1,000 churches, and concluded that the top four reasons people stop attending are these:
1.    Conflict and gossip.
2.    Hypocrisy.
3.    Wanting to know where I fit.
4.    A failure to deal with sin.

These are distractions.  People get distracted from their purpose, from why they’re there.  And I thought this was probably the most telling:   Thom Rainer studied 52,333 churches in the U.S., and he gave the four reasons most churches are not successful today, from his perspective:
1.    A lack of leadership development.
2.    An unbiblical understanding of church membership.  He describes this as being self- centered.  Members have the attitude that the church exists for me and my preferences, and therefore they don’t stay.
3.    An unclear purpose.
4.    A lack of an outward focus. 
The primary reasons, from his study, that churches fail.

Now for us to conclude that well we are very different, and we are different – we do have the truth, we do have the gospel, we understand the true Jesus, we know what that means, we are not out here teaching a Jesus Christ that says come to Me just as you are.  We have a world, in fact our society today, if you took a survey, the majority of Americans believe that homosexuality is wrong, but they wouldn’t dare say that, because you see the intimidation would be overwhelming.  It has affected churches, in a generic sense, in our society today.  We have the truth, we have God’s way of life, we understand these things.   But we must ask the question:  Are we willing to give our lives?   Have we continued to give our lives since that first day we walked in the door of a congregation?

A number of years ago I had an experience with the Church of God Seventh Day.   This goes back to the early 1990’s.   They held a major conference here in the Dallas area, and I was the regional pastor in the area at that time, and they invited me to come.   So I attended their conference and it was quite interesting.   The Church of God Seventh Day, if you are not aware of their demographics, their largest membership contingency is Hispanic.   They have many, many times more members in Mexico and Latin America than they do in the United States.  They are very small in the U.S.   But in Texas, they will have in a community like Dallas, and I don’t know if this is still true today, I assume it is, they might have 6 Spanish speaking congregations and 1 English.   In Houston I believe they had 8 or 9 Spanish speaking congregations and only 1 English.  So it was overwhelmingly Hispanic.  And the Church of God Seventh Day in 1993 was trying to change their format for services and to introduce more modern music with the very stated intention of attracting more young people.  And I witnessed something I had never seen before that time and really haven’t quite seen anything like it since then.  They announced to the ministry gathered there, two-thirds of them are Hispanic, and they announced to them that they’re changing their format.   They are going to introduce more modern music to attract young people to church.  And a whole line-up, virtually, of Hispanic ministers came to the microphone, one after another.  And one man I remember very clearly, speaking in very broken English, began to cry, because he said “What’s happening to our church?”  It wasn’t so much the music.   The focus was to attract young people by entertaining them.  And his comment was very clear and very much to the point.  He said, “If our goal is to entertain, then we will have as many people go out the back door as we do the front door and we will accomplish nothing.”  And he was followed by several others who said the same thing.  It wasn’t so much to change some of their format, because that wasn’t set in stone.   It’s not laid out in scripture A, B, and C.  But their goal was to attract young people by entertaining them, and that was so offensive to these gentlemen, that they in great emotion were asking that they not do that.  Their message was that we should be able to attract young people because of our commitment to the gospel and our commitment to Jesus Christ, whether we have rock music or whether we have very sedate music.  That isn’t who we are.

I’ve titled my sermon today “Jesus Christ and the True Gospel” with a subtitle.   The question:  “Is it worth giving up your life?”   Is it worth giving up your life?  I believe that after the last 20 years, to some degree, and this would vary I suppose from person to person, in fact I’m sure it would, that to some degree we could be classified as somewhat dazed, somewhat disillusioned, because of all that we’ve seen in the last 20 years.    Some people, when that occurs, they choose to focus on themselves.  Focus on ourselves, on our families, or even on our local congregation.  None of that’s bad, but if that’s our focus, then who are we, and what will happen to us in the future?  Why did Christ make the statement that if you are not willing to give up your life for Him and the gospel, then you should not expect that you will save your life?

I remember years ago, and probably some of you have had this experience before, where someone comes up to you or comes up to your home and he says what – “Have you been saved?”  Now I remember as a teenager the first time that happened when someone asked me if I had been saved.  And I said “No.”   He said “Well what do you mean?”   And I said “Well salvation…”   And I knew enough of the church even as a very young person to say “well no, I’ve not been saved.  I hope I will be saved.  I’m looking forward to being saved.  But I am not saved now.”   And the young man who was talking to me was startled, because that is common verbiage in churches today that you are saved.  Now it means different things in different groups, but the concept is that you have it made.  From the first day that you walked into church, whether it was 50 years ago or whether it was last week, you have never been told that you have it made, that you are now saved.  Because you see it isn’t true.   Christ said IF you give up your life. Now your life isn’t over yet.  You are still here.  So it isn’t something you do once, it is something you do for the rest of your life, then you CAN BE saved.  Now that’s a very different gospel and a very different philosophy than you will find anywhere else.   Anywhere else you will be told: Well, come just as you are, God loves you so much that He will let you be in His Kingdom just because you pronounced His name and you showed up for maybe one service.  It simply isn’t true.  It’s the biggest lie.  It’s the biggest lie that’s been foisted off on human beings today.   You must give up your life.  That’s the standard that Jesus Christ gave.

Over the years historically you can find that there are many people that did give up their lives.  Now I don’t believe, of course I believe it’s always there, but I don’t believe that Christ intended for that message in Mark 8 to mean that you have to give up your physical life, by that I mean you die.  But for some, they did.  And for some, they will.  We know there will be martyrs before the end of the age.  But the stories of the early years, certainly the first century of the church, are quite telling.  The people that Christ spoke with there, every single disciple that Christ said this to, gave up their lives.  They died as martyrs.   Every one of them, except John.  

One of the more famous books in church history is called Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.  James Miller Dodds, an English poet, once wrote that, “After the Bible itself, no work so profoundly influenced early Protestant sentiment as the Book of Martyrs.  Even in our time it is still a living force.  It is more than a record of persecution.  It is arsenal of controversy, a storehouse of romance, as well as a source of edification.”

The list of martyrs in history reads quite interestingly as well as in scripture.  Stephen was stoned, as we know, with the apostle Paul looking on.  Stoning was a particularly gruesome death.  One was pelted with stones by the onlookers until one caught him in the head and he went down.  Then he was pummeled until he was no longer moving.  According to Foxe, about 2,000 Christians in the first century alone suffered martyrdom by stoning.  James the son of Zebedee, the elder brother of John, was beheaded.  We witness today such horrendous ways that people are killed.  Phillip was scourged, thrown in prison, and later crucified.  James the Less, the brother of Christ, at the age of 94, was beat and stoned by the Jews and finally had his brains dashed out with a fuller’s club.  Age 94.   It is recorded that Peter was crucified upside down.  Paul was beheaded.  Jude was crucified.  Thomas was thrust through with a spear.  Luke was hanged on an olive tree.   Simon was crucified.  And John was the only apostle that did not die a violent death.  

So when Christ was talking to the disciples in Mark 8 it was real for them.  They didn’t know it at the time, but over a period of time they had to give up their very life, their physical life.  I don’t think Christ by and large, obviously this was intended for the ages, was intending that you have to give up your physical life, that is you have to die.  But of course the implication is you must be willing to – but this is what I want, I want your life, I will settle for nothing less than your life.  That’s a pretty powerful thing.

There is a recent book that came out I believe earlier this year written by Elisabeth Sifton and Fritz Stern.  The title of the book is No Ordinary Men.  It’s the story of Deitrich Bonhoeffer and Hans von Dohnanyi, who was his brother in law. Now you’ve probably heard of Deitrich Bonhoeffer but you may not have heard of Hans.  Dietrich was a minister, protestant minister, during the time of – I believe he was actually a Lutheran minister – during the time of WWII who was actively involved in the underground to overthrow Hitler and the Nazis.  Bonhoeffer once said that the reason he felt compelled to do that was because of what they had done to the Jews, and when the truth began to come out about the atrocities.  And he went on to say that when human life becomes of no value, then again there is no recovering.  When someone crosses that line that human life has no value, then there is no recovering, and therefore their goal was to destroy, kill Hitler and destroy the Nazis.  But his brother in law Hans was a member of the government, and was arrested in 1944 and was accused of espionage, or accused of plotting against Hitler.  But they had no real evidence against him, not until after the plot in 1944 in which Hitler was almost killed and there were some documents that contained his name, and finally they had enough evidence to put him to death.  But the story of his imprisonment during time is quite remarkable.   He actually had his wife come to the hospital where he was sick and infect him with typhoid, which would keep him in the hospital and out of the prison.  So she brought water and infected him with typhoid.  He almost of course died from that, but it kept him in the hospital which was better than being in the jail cell where he would have been.  The story, the sad part of the story, is that Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Hans were both killed within six weeks of actually driving the Nazis out of, or overcoming, the end of WWII. Six weeks before it ended they were both killed.  And my point in bringing up their story is not so much that they were standing up for the gospel or that thing; they were standing against something.  

But giving up your life for something that you believe in is an important principle, important principle.  Now again it can be used for evil – there are people giving up their lives today for evil causes.  That’s not my point.  But Jesus Christ used that terminology of giving up your life for Him and the gospel.  For Him and the gospel.  

Let’s look at Matthew 10.  The disciples were sent out to preach.  And what was their message, what were they to preach about?  Matthew 10.  Now I don’t know if we fully comprehend what a powerful message that Jesus Christ and the apostles took to that world of that day.  Later on in the book of Acts it says that this way was turning the world upside down.  The message of the gospel was unique in one sense among the Jews because it wasn’t the message that you would hear in the synagogue.  It wasn’t the message you would hear from the Pharisees in the streets.  But it was a message that Christ gave the disciples.  Beginning in verse 1 And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.  Verse 2  Now the names of the twelve apostles are these:  (And of course they are listed there).  Then verse 5-7  These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying:  “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans.  But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  And as you go, preach, (as you go, preach) saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” The opportunity for salvation, the coming of that Kingdom was a pertinent message.  It was a message that was alive in the first century.  It was a message that was alive in the second century, the third century, the fourth century, and now in the twenty-first century.  It is THE message.  It is central to who we are, it is central to what we believe, and it carries throughout the ages.  The apostles were given that message, and they delivered it to the world in the first century.  And as I said, they literally gave their lives.  

The gospel is the message of the Kingdom of God.  Look at Mark 1.  But there is more to it.  We don’t stop with just the message of the Kingdom of God.  Notice what else is included.  
Mark 1:14  Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, (well what did He say?)  Verse 15  “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent, and believe in the gospel.”  (Repent and believe in the gospel.)  Now the message that is heard today is the message about Jesus Christ.  And to a certain extent you might say well that’s fine; Jesus Christ is central to the message of the Kingdom.  But there is something else here.  It’s a message of repentance.  It’s a message to change your life.  You must change your life if you are committed to this message.  This message will change your life.  You cannot remain unchanged.  You must be willing to change.  That’s the message that’s inherent in the gospel.   

We find in Matthew 24:14 and in Matthew 28:19 that this message is not to be hidden.  It’s not to be kept among ourselves.  It’s not a message that we should use to entertain ourselves Sabbath after Sabbath.  It is a message for the world.  And whatever your view or theory on who will preach that gospel to the world, there should be no doubt that the gospel must be preached to the world.  People have come up with various ideas and various theories as to how that occurs or who will do it.  Some say well no we don’t have to worry, the two witnesses will do it, or the everlasting gospel taught by the angel in Revelation 14, or some other idea.  But let there be no mistake about it, the gospel must be preached, the gospel will be preached.  It’s that important to God that the kingdom will not come, that Christ will not return, until it is done. We can debate on how, we can debate on who, maybe, although I don’t think there is any debate on who,  but we can.  We cannot debate on the fact that it will be done. What does that tell us about the gospel?  My point isn’t to establish the fact that the gospel message is central to us.  I believe it is.  But it is to establish the fact that it’s so important to God that it must be preached in all the 
world.   In all the world.  Not in the United States of America, but in all the world.  The gospel has to be exciting and all encompassing.  It cannot be limited and it must include a message of hope for today and tomorrow.  

I found an interesting article in an old Good News magazine.  This is 1985.  Herbert Armstrong wrote the article and he titled it “What is the True Gospel?”   This is what he wrote:  “Notice Jesus said he who believes and is baptized will be saved.  Believes what?  Why believes that which is preached of course, the gospel. Not a gospel, not any gospel, THE gospel.  Now how may we enter into that glorious kingdom?  Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying repent and believe the gospel.  Just two things we do:  repent and believe.  We must believe the gospel.  That means also believing on Jesus Christ, the King of the Kingdom, and coming King of Kings over all the families and peoples of the earth.  It means believing in Him as personal savior, as High Priest, and as coming King.”

The term gospel is found in the New Testament.  Eighty verses in the New Testament have the term “the gospel.”  If you include the verses that also have the word “gospel” you have a total of 97 verses.  Then you have “this gospel” another 3 times, and “everlasting gospel” is found once in Revelation.  

Paul warned about “another gospel” in Galatians 1.  Don’t allow yourself to be betrayed by another gospel.  Now you can question or wonder what was that gospel that was going on during the time of Paul.  It appears that it was a gospel that included Jesus Christ.  I say it appears, we don’t know exactly, we can speculate.  It was a message that included Jesus Christ, else how would anyone be confused who is a Christian if it didn’t include Jesus Christ?  So that gospel probably included Jesus Christ.  But it wasn’t the real Jesus Christ; it was a counterfeit.  And so therefore the gospel itself became a counterfeit.  We know, because we know Satan is active, we also know from history, that there was another church that was beginning that professed to be Christian that adopted a lot of ideas from paganism.  But you know today, and of course I remember as when we came into the church, and as a child, if you said something was pagan, well that meant it was terrible, it was awful. Today there is no doubt, and people know it, I mean you don’t have to be in the church to know that Christmas comes from pagan origins.  But guess what, it doesn’t matter.   Why does it not matter?  Because we have declared it to be okay.   We didn’t bother to ask God, but we’ve declared it to be okay.  It’s good, and we rationalize.   So we live in a day today where we can rationalize because something produces something that might be good it’s therefore okay, it’s right.  But it’s a false gospel.  It’s a wrong message.  And the world has been saturated by it.   Paul saw the beginning of it in Galatia, and he says be careful.   Look at Galatians 1.  Paul had very stern comments to make.  My point isn’t to debate or to try to figure out what this gospel exactly was, but here is my point:  that it was so upsetting to Paul when anyone strayed from the true gospel that he denounced it vigorously.  

Galatians 1:6-8  I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,  which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you, let him be accursed.  (Paul said even if you heard it from an angel, and you could verify it was an angel, you heard a voice and everybody else heard the voice, but it wasn’t the true gospel, then, he said, you will be accursed.)  Again, my point isn’t what was it they were preaching.  We could talk about that and we could speculate on that.  But the point is that anything that deviates from that message, Paul considered a serious problem.  

In Galatians 3 Paul also went on to say that this gospel isn’t new even though it may have sounded new.  The gospel has been around for quite a while.  Notice Galatians 3:7-8  Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.  And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham (preached the gospel to Abraham).  Hence by argument, that the gospel, the true message, salvation, the message of the Kingdom of God, has been there from the beginning and it has not changed.  Now Jesus Christ brought a change.  Jesus Christ, as the Savior, kicked in that process of salvation that we see in the New Testament church.  But the gospel, God’s plan, has never changed.  

The first sermon we have recorded of Jesus Christ is found in Luke 4.  In this particular message he quotes from Isaiah and He talks about preaching the gospel to the poor.  Preaching the gospel to the poor.  Peter’s first sermon in Acts 2 convicted people to repent.  The gospel is there.  Stephen’s message in Acts 7 condemned the Pharisees because they failed to teach the gospel.  And Stephen preached the gospel by talking about the history of God’s people.  It isn’t new.  And look at Acts 28 where the apostle Paul under house arrest preached what message.  
Acts 28:23  So when they had appointed him a day, many came to him at his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the Law of Moses  and the Prophets, from morning till evening.  (The message of the kingdom of God.)  Then notice down in verse 28  “Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!”  Verse 29  And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves.   Some get it, some don’t.  Some are called, some are not.  But the gospel message was preached to them all.  It wasn’t just selectively to those who were being called.  It wasn’t something to entertain themselves.  It was something that was given to all.  Verse 29-30  And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves.  Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, (all who came to him) preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.  He preached it to all.  Some understood, some did not.  The apostle Paul, to his dying breath, preached the gospel.  

Paul also wrote to the Ephesians in chapter 6 when he said  verse 11 Put on the whole armor of God.  And he said your feet should be shod with the preaching of the gospel.  Everywhere you go that message is with you.  Everything you do that message is with you.  Everything we do must be central to that message or a part of that message.    We are not here to entertain ourselves.  We are not here to attract people by being entertaining.  We want to be effective, we want to be wise, we want to use the tools that are available, but the message, the message is the same. 

There was a time in the church, and I’m not saying it isn’t here now, either.   But there was a time when we longed to hear the gospel.  I was talking to some of the people in Miami last week and they were telling me what it was like to come to the very first service, and to have listened to a broadcast at home, to have been baptized by a baptizing tour, and to have had no contact with the church or other people, to come to a church service.  And as they said it was “electrifying.”  It was electrifying.  The sermons were probably long by our standards today.  Maybe they would not have been all that exciting.  There probably weren’t a lot of stories, but a lot of scripture, a lot of teaching from the Bible.   And they said “it was electrifying.   We hung on every single word, and we looked forward to every Sabbath to hear about the progress of the gospel.”   

And in those years, every Sabbath, I remember those years as a teenager sitting in a congregation, and every Sabbath there were five new churches started last week.  There are three new Bible Studies beginning this week.  There are more graduates of Ambassador College going out to local congregations.  The energy that came in those years from those who certainly came from Ambassador College, many of them young individuals, who drove thousands of miles.  Even back in a time when I came out into the field ministry I remember driving 75,000 miles in one year, just visiting people, seeing people.  You were visiting every single day and there was excitement and there was energy.  It was an incredible period of time.   Now that’s 50 years ago, over 40 years ago.   Here we are today.  You say well I’d love, I’d be excited if I could hear some of that today, new congregations and that type of thing.  But it wasn’t just that that excited the people at that time.  It was knowing the gospel message.  There was such a stark difference in, and I agree with this, there was such a stark difference in let’s say the 60’s to the message that was being preached as compared to what else out there.  There was a stark difference.  Today there is so much confusion, and so many that bite around the edges of the truth.  It’s constantly somebody will be either giving me a book, or saying “look at this on the internet.  This guy he almost has the truth.  He’s very close.  He even talks about the Holy Days and what they mean.”  That wasn’t true 50 years ago.  So it’s a bit more difficult to find today where that true gospel and that message really is.  

Look at Acts 8.  How much, how important should the gospel be in your life?  How important should it be?  Acts 8 is an interesting story.  It’s used by some in a wrong way.  But it’s an interesting story and it’s one that does have a very important message to it.   Notice Acts 8.  This is the story of the persecution and the Christians out of Jerusalem were being scattered. Verse 1  Now Saul was consenting to his death.  (That’s the death of Stephen.)  At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem: and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.  Verse 2-3  And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.  As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.  Verse 4  Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.  Went everywhere preaching the word.  Now who were these people, and what were they doing?  As I said, some have used this in a wrong manner, in a different manner, to try to, years ago, well everyone should be preaching.  Everyone should go out and find a street corner or somewhere that he should be preaching.  But that isn’t what is being said here at all.  We find here an interesting comment.  The word for preach here is not the normal word for preaching.  The word for preach here is much more the concept of announcing, and as Barnes says in his notes, Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament, that these individuals weren’t going out standing on street corners and preaching; the message was so central to their lives, it was the way they acted and what they said to people who talked to them.  They could not contain themselves.  The gospel was there.  They weren’t preaching in the sense of standing before a crowd, but wherever they went, they had something to say.  And when someone asked them a question they knew what to say.  It was so much a part of who they were, it just came out.  And that impacted and affected the church and the growth of the church at that period of time in a remarkable way.    This is what Barnes has in his commentary.  He says “The Greek here is evangelizing or announcing the good news of the message of mercy or the word of God.  It’s not the usual word which is rendered preach, but means simply announcing the gospel news of salvation.  There is no evidence, nor is there any probability, that all these persons were ordained to preach.  They were manifestly common Christians who were scattered by the persecution, and the meaning is that they communicated to their fellow man in conversation wherever they met them, and probably in the synagogues, where all Jews had a right to speak, the glad tidings that the Messiah had come.   It is not said that they set themselves up for public teachers or that they administered baptism or that they founded churches.  But they proclaimed everywhere the news that a Savior had come.  Their hearts were full of it, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and they made the truth known to all whom they met.”  This is the story of what happened.  It was so much a part of who they were.

We also find the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:16  Woe be it to me if I do not preach the gospel.  Woe be it to me.  You find a message here.  You find a tone and a theme throughout the scripture that this was so important to them.  And that’s why Christ says in Mark 8 unless you give your life for Me and the gospel, this truth, this message, then you will not save your life.   That’s a very powerful statement.  

The apostle Paul also said in Philippians 1 that there are those who preach the gospel for personal gain.  Is it possible to preach the gospel, the true gospel, from a wrong motive?  Paul says it is.  Now he goes on to say I’m happy the gospel is being preached – the true gospel, not a false gospel, but I don’t think we conclude from that that Paul says it’s okay if your motive isn’t right.  Our motive for preaching the gospel should be pure.  Our motive for preaching the gospel should be to obey God.  Our motive for preaching the gospel should be to share this with other people and to want their lives to change as our lives changed.  Not to get something for ourselves.  Not to gain whatever that gain may be for ourselves.  Paul said that’s what some were doing.  You cannot claim the gospel message to cover up bad behavior.  You cannot say Well they’ve done this, or they’ve said this, or they’ve said that, but you know they’re preaching the gospel, and that somehow equalizes bad behavior.  A part of the gospel message is living by it.  You will never convince someone that you feel strongly about the gospel if it makes no impact on your personal life.  You cannot convince someone to change his life if you’ve made no changes in your life.  You may be preaching the true gospel, but if you are not attempting to live by it, shame on you, because that isn’t what the Bible teaches.  We must have our own house in order.  We must be prepared to preach the gospel and live the gospel so that the world sees the true gospel, in our lives, in our words.  

So what does all this mean?  How do we bring this to a conclusion?  What does it all mean?  Some would say well it’s sort of philosophical, we’re talking about philosophical things, what does it mean to give up your life, what does it mean to sacrifice your life.  For those who have been in the church since a long, long time, you’ve heard many, many messages and sermons on the practical things to do.  There are practical things that we should be doing that center around or are focused on preaching the gospel.  They are simple things.  There are things such as studying God’s word.  There are simple things such as praying every day.  There are simple things such as fasting periodically.  There are simple things like attending church to worship and to learn.  Not to just simply get something, but to be a part of something, to be a part of a cause, to commit to it totally and completely.  To be willing to support and to help and to strengthen every part of that message.  It’s an incredible thing.  You’ve heard already today the concept of being focused.  We must focus on that message now.  We cannot be confused by what the world is doing.  We must focus on the reality of the Kingdom of God.  Jesus Christ is really coming back.  What will you say to Him when He comes back?  He will really be on this earth.  That’s not a dream, that’s not a vision off in the mist.  It is real.  When we go to the Feast of Tabernacles we will celebrate Jesus Christ reigning on this earth.  He will walk up to you and talk to you.  What will you say?  Was the gospel not worth your life?  Was being a Christian not worth your life?  You know as I’ve said several times, I grew up in the church, more than 60 years involved with the church.  And over those years I’ve been privileged to know a lot of wonderful people, and that’s probably one of the greatest things that I consider over all the years, is to know so many wonderful people.  People that gave up their lives and you know without a doubt their entire being was focused on preaching the gospel; getting this message out to the world and living it as well.  You know a few years ago – not just a few years ago, it’s been around for a while – the idea was to put forward that well the time for preaching the gospel is over and now we need to, and term used was “prepare the bride.”  Well there’s no problem, and those are not contradictory concepts.  We must be prepared.  We must be changing our lives.  But that IS the gospel.  If you are preaching the gospel you ARE preparing the bride.  You don’t stop preaching the gospel and claim to be preparing the bride.  It just simply doesn’t work.  Someone will fulfill Matthew 24:14.  Someone will do it.  I believe God has given us the opportunity to be that someone.  We don’t have to, He’s not going to make us, but we have the opportunity to be that someone.  And a lot of people have gone before us, and there will be other people in the years ahead to preach the gospel.  

While the youth are leaving churches today in record numbers, leaving religion, we have the greatest opportunity ever to preach the gospel and to reach the young, the old, and the in between.  The message is timeless and ageless.  It is for all.  It is a message for life.  It changes your life.  It makes you a part of something that will change other people’s lives.  It’s the greatest opportunity to do something that doesn’t just give you something; it gives to others, because it will change their lives as well.  

Mark 8:35  We’ll end where we began.  Jesus Christ said if you are willing, if you are willing, if you are willing to give up your life.  Mark 8:35  “whoever desires” (if you would like to save your life, who wouldn’t like to save his life?)  “whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”  Verse 36 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”  It is actually counter-intuitive to say that if you want to keep your life you must give it away.  It’s like saying if you want to keep your money you must give it away.  But it is true.  If you want to save your life you must be built upon the principle of giving away yourself, your time, your energy, and your focus.  

We live in a period of time when people are dazed, disillusioned, who seem to have trouble focusing.  I mean that as a society.  We can choose to focus on ourselves, our families, or even our local congregation.  And those are all good things.  I don’t want to see you abandon or neglect your family or neglect the local congregation or any of those things.  But if that’s our focus, then it takes our focus off the gospel and our desire to give our lives and to change our lives.  We, all of us, must restore trust and we must begin to build.  It’ll be a slow process, but the reward is there.  The fruit will once again be an impact on a dying world.  We have a work to do.  There is a lot to be done.  But the reward saves your life.  You have something to gain.  But you don’t start out to gain something.  You start out to give something.  We must be preaching that true gospel and we must be doing it now.  If we don’t, then what will we say to Jesus Christ when He sets foot on the Mount of Olives and sets up His government from Jerusalem, and wonders why we didn’t preach the gospel, why we didn’t give our lives to Him and the gospel.  It’s a very important question for all of us to consider.  What will we say?  Will we give our lives for the gospel and for Jesus Christ?  If we do then we will save our own lives and many, many others.