What Was Jesus Doing On The Cross?

# 12 (He was) giving us the gospel 

2 Timothy 2: 8b + c ‘After Jesus died, He was raised from the dead. This is the gospel I tell others.’ ERV, ISV combo 

Sadly, over the years many Churches have abandoned the gospel in an attempt to attract more people to their Sunday Services who they think are (Firstly) ‘seeking God’ and (Secondly) may be offended by the gospel 

These churches usually avoid talking about sin, repentance and the cross of Christ and instead they talk about issues that will help ‘seekers’ improve their lives. 

Many of these Churches even change their Church name in the hope of attracting more people to their Sunday Services - they give their ministry trendy names like: 

‘Ignite’, ‘Vida Explosive’, ‘Submerge’, ‘Re-Think Life Church,’ and ‘H20 Church’  

(These are real names – I'm not making them up) 

Let me tell you a funny story: 

One of the trendy Church names in New Zealand is ‘Arise’ - that’s OK, I don’t mind that, it’s a groovy name. In the mid 1980’s in New Zealand, there was a nation-wide Evangelical-Outreach trend that was called ‘Arise New Zealand’. At that time, I thought it was the cool thing to do to ‘Arise’, so I bought an ‘Arise’ sticker to put on the front of my letter box at the front of our house 

One day, one of my non-Christian friends said to me that he noticed I had an ‘Arise New Zealand’ sticker on the front of my letter box and “was I selling self-rising flour!?” 

At this point I would like to remind us of a couple of very important things: 

Firstly, the Scriptures says, Romans 3: 11b ‘no one is seeking God’  

In a previous Message in this Series, we talked a lot about how in our ‘fallen’ sinful condition we were not seeking God but rather we were enemies of God, Romans 5: 10b ‘while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son.’ 

Ephesians 2: 5b ‘(It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)’ 

And secondly, the Apostle Paul talked about, Galatians 5: 11b ‘the offense of the cross’ 

Why is the cross offensive? 

Because people prefer to believe that if they do enough good things in life they become good and therefore God is obligated to save them – and “how dare you question my goodness!?” 

Have you ever heard people say things like, “Oh my goodness!”? 

Jesus said, Matthew 19: 17b ‘Only God is good.’ 

Romans 3: 10a 

People are offended by the truth about sin – they are offended that they must confess it to God and receive His forgiveness 

I’d like to inform these Christians and Churches that are trying to attract seekers and shield them from the offense of the cross that one of the largest Churches in the world is called ‘The Yoido Full Gospel Church’. (They never gave it a weird ‘Seeker Sensitive’ name) 

The Church was started in 1958 and now has about 800, 000 members www.theworld.org  

They also have at least 12 large regional Churches with an additional membership of about 100, 000 people 

The big strength of the Church is prayer and in 1999 the Church called a Prayer Meeting in Yoido Plaza and 1, 000, 000 people came together to pray 

Testimony: Many years ago, Jennifer and I had an urgent prayer request, so I wrote a letter to the Senior Pastor of the Church and asked him if his Church could pray for our family - He wrote back to me and said in his reply that his Church would pray us 24 hours a day, very day, for 3 months  

Yes, the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross is offensive to the unbeliever but as the Apostle Paul said it is, 2 Timothy 2: 8c ‘the gospel I tell others’ 

Let’s 'tell others' these 3 things: 

1. The gospel is good news 

The word ‘gospel’ in the original language of the New Testament is the Greek euangelion and means it good news   

Instead of using the 2 words ‘good news’, several Bible versions use just one word - ‘gospel’ KJ21, ASV, AMPC, BRG, CSB, CEB, EHV, ESV, ESVUK, GNV, ISV, PHILLIPS, KJV, AKJV, LSB, MEV, MOUNCE, NASB, NASB1995, NCB, NET, NIV, NIVUK, NKJV, NTFE, RGT, RSV, RSVCE 

The principle of the gospel, the good news, is not limited to the New Testament alone 

The Apostle Paul said that God even proclaimed the gospel, the good news, to Abraham the great Patriarch of Israel 

Galatians 3: 8b ‘God proclaimed the gospel – the good news to Abraham a long time before it happened when He said, “All nations will be blessed through you.”’  NLT, KJ21, EASY combo 

Can you imagine Abrahams’ reaction when the Lord told him, “All nations will be blessed through you.”!? 

He might even have said, “God told me all nations will be blessed through me, wow; that’s the best thing I’ve heard all day – that's good news”!                                   

I love what the Apostle Paul said 2 Corinthians 2: 12 ‘When I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, the Lord opened a door of opportunity for me.’ CEB, NLT combo 

2. The gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ 

Let me ask you a question: 

Do you think the suffering and death of Christ on the cross is good news? 

No! 

Do you think that the burial of Christ is good news? 

No! 

(Following the death and burial of Christ the Jewish Religious Leaders went to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate and demanded that he seal the tomb of Christ to prevent the disciples from stealing the body of Jesus and creating a hoax that Jesus was alive  

Matthew 27: 62-66) 

Do you think that the resurrection of Christ is good news? 

Yes! 

Matthew 28: 1-10  

Following the resurrection, the Jewish Religious Leaders even paid money to the Roman soldiers to lie and say that the disciples had come and stolen the body of Jesus 

Matthew 28: 11-15b ‘Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today.’ 

And 2, 000 years later people still believe that lie 

 “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on in the morning.” ― Sir Winston Churchill 

1 Corinthians 15: 3-4 ‘I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and He was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.’ 

3. The gospel is the power of God to save us  

Romans 1: 16a ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel - this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.’ CEB, NLT combo