Why the Good News is So Good

In this session, I want us to really answer the question what's so good about the good news? Because ultimately that's what missions about. Missions about the good news, right, And we need to be able to answer that question, what's so good about the good News? And while I think we would assume that we immediately know the answer to that question, here's what I want to ask, because I think when I asked that question what's so good about the good News? We would all be in general agreement that you know, we're pointing to the Gospel and the good news of the Gospel. Yes, And then when I talk about the fact that that's the heart of our mission, we would all sort of shake our head and go, yes, if that's true, then how come nine times out of ten when somebody tells me that they're involved in mission work, there's no gospel involved. But why is that? And it's because there's a disconnect. There's a disconnect between our understanding of what makes the good news good and our understanding of what people's greatest need is. And so if you combine that, then we would say, what makes the good news good is that it provides drinking water, or what makes the good news good is that it provides housing. What makes the good News good is that it provides clothing, shelter, food. By the way, there's nothing wrong with any of that, amen, other than the fact that none of it is what makes the good News good. Because you can be. Clothed, fed and housed, sheltered and go to Hell. And that's not what we want. That's not what we're looking for. So I want us to focus our attention here. Another reason this is important is you know, for the last seven and a half years, it'll be eight years in August. You know that we've lived and served in Zambia. And if you were to come to Zambia, if you were to come visit us in Zambia and you were to find a tree just anywhere in Zambia and you were to throw a stone into the tree, a twenty something female Western missionary would fall out of that tree, like any tree, any tree in Zambia. Right, you just throw one up there. There's a twenty something, you know, passionate female Western missionary with a heart for missions, almost no theology, and no accountability to a local church either from where she was sent or they're in Lusaka. They don't go to church in Ousaca. They're not going to church on the mission field. They don't respect the church on the mission field because the people on the mission field are beneath them. But they've got a heart and a passion. Those are the words, their words, not mine. I've got a heart for it, whatever that means. I've got a passion for it, whatever that means. And there's zero gospel attached to it. And most of them couldn't find the gospel with both hands and a highlighted Bible. I'm just being honest. And if you've had any missions experience, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And the problem is that the more we engage in that, and the more we encourage that, and. The more we support that, the more of that. We get, and the less we get of that, which makes the good news good. So what I wants to do this morning, so look at the passage scripture. We're gonna go back to Ephesians. Okay, we're going to go to Ephesians chapter one. And as you go to Ephesians chapter one, me do this for us this morning. The Book of Ephesians. I love the Book of Ephesians because it does something that I really want us to grasp. It's divided neatly into two halves. Right, In the first half, it's about our calling, and the second half is about our conduct. First half really about right believing, second half is about right behaving. The first half is about indicatives, the second half is about imperatives. Now that's really important for us, just to simplify it. Indicatives, imperatives, indicatives, I'm indicating what something is. Right. This is a microphone, right, that's an indicative. That's a microphone, And imperative would be speaking to the microphone telling you something to do. Right. And it's important that we keep these things in mind when we're reading scripture. The difference between indicatives and imperatives, difference between law and gospel. It's important that we keep these things in mind. Indicatives, those are the things that God has accomplished on our behalf through the person and work of Jesus Christ. That's who we are because of what God has accomplished on our behalf through the person in the work of Jesus Christ. Those are the indicatives. The imperatives, those are the things that we're called and enabled to do. Watch this as a direct result of the indicatives. We can't separate those things. If we separate them, then we're confusing what the gospel requires and what the gospel produces. Now, all the Gospel requires is repentance and faith. That's it, nothing else. I pause there intentionally because some of you are really uncomfortable right now, because you're. Going, well, what about obedience. That's not what the gospel requires, It's what the Gospel produces. If the Gospel were to require obedience from us, then that would mean that we could be obedient apart from the person and work of Christ. And Jesus died for nothing. The Gospel produces obedience in us, joyful obedience in us. And again, if we get these things. Mixed up, that's where we end up in legalism and moralism and works righteousness. And that's when the good news is really not good news at all. It becomes burdensome. So here's what's just mind boggling about Ephesians. You don't have imperatives in the first half of Ephesians. You just got indicatives. And then you have the indicatives there in the second half of Ephesians, beginning in chapter three, and he gives you this for this reason, Oh, I mean sorry. Beginning there in chapter four, he begins with I, therefore he just does those indicatives in the first three chapters, and then he begins chapter four with I, therefore listen to this and four one. I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling in which you have been called. Now here's what's interesting. The whole first half has been about your calling, and Paul's demanded nothing of you. There's no imperatives. He's just going, here's who you. Are because of what God has done on your behalf through the person and work of Christ. Here's who Christ is, and here's who you are because you're in Christ. This is Jesus, this is you, This is Jesus, this is you, this is his work, this is your benefit. This is who you are, over and over and over again in the first three chapters. And then he says, I, therefore, as a result of all the things that you are because of what Christ has accomplished that you didn't accomplish, prison of the lawyer, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. Notice how he roots that even here's the imperative, and he roots it in the indicatives. I'm calling you to walk a certain way, calling you to walk a certain way in light of and because of who I just told you you are in Christ. You see that. With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit, the bond of peace. And then he goes to some more indicatives. There's one body, one spirit, just as you were called to, the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all was overall through all, in all, but grace has been given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and gave gifts to men. So even when he starts in with his first imperatives, he roots it in the indicatives. This is very important to note when you're reading the book as a whole, but also when we're answering that question what makes the good news so good? So let's look there at those first fourteen verses and answer that question. Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the way of God to the saints poor in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That grace in peace. It's kind of a gospel shorthand right. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He shows us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be wholly and blameless before Him and love. He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Christ Jesus, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace. With which He has blessed us in the beloved. In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in our wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven things on earth. In Him, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be to the praise of His glory. In Him, You also, when you heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of your inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. That's just good. But we need to look at it two more times in order for you to see how good it is. I'm not going to read the whole thing two more times, but I'm going to take two passes because i want you to see something first. I want you to see that this good news is good because of what God did in verse three, who has blessed us. In verse four, he chose us. In verse five, he predestined us. In verse six, he has blessed us. In verse eight, he lavished upon us. And then in verse nine he made known to us. This is what God did Amen. The good news news is good news because of what God has done. The good news is good news because we were not asked to do it. And the good news is good news because if we had been asked to do it, we wouldn't have been able to do it. You can't get there from here. That's why this is good news. God did this on our behalf when we could not do it for ourselves. That's what makes the good news good news. Another pass, if we make another pass, we see that this is good news not only because God did it, because God did it in Christ. Verse six blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Verse four chose us in Him. Verse five prodestioned us. And then what through Jesus Christ Verse six the last part of the verse in the Beloved. Verse seven begins with in Him, and then in verse seven we have through his blood. Go down to verse nine He and the verse nine in Christ. Look at verse ten in Him, look at verse eleven in Him. We get the point in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. This is good news because God did what we could not do for ourselves. And this is good news because God did it in Christ. Now to unpack that God does this in Christ, we understand that he does this in Christ because Christ is the god Man. We understand who does this in Christ because Christ is fully God and fully man. We understand that God does this in Christ because it is only as the god Man that Christ can keep the whole law and suffer death and overcome death and hell and the grave. But we understand this. Important for him to be the god man because as man, he has to take on our sin and be our federal head, like Adam was our federal head. Adam was our federal head. So all of us sin and Adam, and then Christ is the federal head of all of those who have faith in Him, so that his righteousness can be imputed to us and our sinfulness can be imputed to him. And all of that is summarized in the phrase in Christ. So God did it, and God did it in Christ, which means He did it on the behalf of all of those who are found in Christ. Here's another thing. The good news is good news because God did it all. An amazing thing happens when you sort of examine these first fourteen verses, And that amazing thing is that you see all of the order salutists, or all of the order of salvation, and I mean all of the order of salvation, not the order of salvation that we've now. Most times when people talk about the order of salvation, they say justification, sanctification, glorification, and I say, stop, you miss the step. It's justification, adoption, sanctification, glorification. That adoption piece is important, Amen. And all the Greek confessions of faith have that adoption piece in there. But modern Christians, who have forsaken all the confessions of faith now have also forsaken adoption and their consequences for that. But let's look here at this again, and let's see the order salutis. It doesn't come out necessarily in the same order. But we see all these places, all of these pieces. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, we should be holy and blameleous before him. He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. By the way, Verse four chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, for what that we should be wholly in blameless before him that sanctification. And then He predestins us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, there's adoption. Then in verse seven, in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our tres trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. That would be justification. And then go down beginning of verse eleven. And him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we were the first of hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. And him, you also, when you have heard the Word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory. There's glorification. There's glorification. So God did it. Amen, the good news is good because God did it. He did it. On number half. The good news is good news because God did it in Christ, which is the only way it could be done. Our sin had to be paid for, it had to be dealt with, but it had to be dealt with by a representative of us. So there had to be the God Man to deal with our sin. Such good news. Thirdly, the good news is good news because God has dealt with it completely. In other words, God doesn't say, listen, I'll meet you halfway. Amen, somebody, because if God said I'll meet you halfway, he'd be there waiting on us. Amen. That's just not gonna happen. God doesn't even say I'll most of the way. No, that that that's not the way it happens. Right. The old illustration that we use, you know, I love the old illustration. Anybody love it? I mean I hate it, the old illustration that we use it. You know, we're there and we're drowning and and and and we're going down for the third time. And then and God throws us the life reserver, you know, and all you have to do is reach out and grab it. No. Why, We'll go to chapter two. And you were dead in the Tresvestors and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at working, the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. And we're by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. You were dead, not almost dead, not mostly dead. Don't do that. You were dead, And listen. I am not a physician, nor do I play one on TV. But I know this. Dead men don't grab things. Amen. Dead men don't even see things to grab. We were dead in our transgressions, not going down for the last time, but bloated corpses with absolutely no hope whatsoever unless someone outside of us breathed life into us again. And by the way, that's exactly what we find in verse in chapter two. Look at verse four we left off. But God, that's just the best in it, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us even when we were dead, and our trespasses made us alive. Together with Christ. We were dead, and He made us alive. He did it all. We didn't do anything. The only thing we brought to the party was the sin that needed to be forgiven. That's what makes the good news good. Fortunately, what makes the good news good is that it dealt with our ultimate problem. We've got lots of problems, Amen, more than we realize. The longer I live, the more problems I realize I have. You know, It's like you live and you go, okay, fine, I see these problems. I'm going to work on these problems, and then we work on those problems, only for those to reveal other problems that we got to work on. More mature in Christ, Praise the Lord. I'm more mature in Christ. Now I'm mature enough to see the problems that I wouldn't mature enough to see before I became this mature in Christ. We've got lots of problems, but the good news is good news because it deals with our main problem. It deals with our original problem. It deals with our source problem. All the other problems that we have arise from our sin problem. Amen, All the other problems that we have. In fact, not just the other problems that we have, but all the other problems that the world has. Go back to Genesis chapter three. So Adam eats sin enters the world by the way. That brings alienation between Adam and God, and it brings alienation between Adam and Eve. Amen, it also brings alienation between Adam and the rest of creation. Will listen beginning of verse fourteen to the curses, the Lord God said to the serpent, because you've done this curse to you above all livestock, and it will all beasts to the field on your belly, you shall go and dust usually lead all of the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his. Healed, there's our war with the devil because of the fall. Amen, there's our war with the devil. Now this alienation, this alienation between Adam and God, and Adam and Eve, and Adam and the world. We see this in our war with the flesh. Verse sixteen. To the woman, he said, I will surely must apply your pain and child bearing, and pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, and he shall rule over you. There's that alienation being manifested, but also the pain and child bearing being manifested all because of sin. But look at seventeen and to Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain. You shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat of the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face. You should eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken for your dust, And to the dust you shall return. There's myriad problems here, basically every problem that we face here. But what's the root of all of them. The root of all of them is that our federal head Adam eight and when Adam ate sin entered into the world and everything was broken everything. So is it important that we address all of these issues that we see. It's absolutely important that we address them. But these things are secondary because they all arise from our sin problem. Failing to see the sin problem is really failing to see Christ. And what he accomplished. Listen to just. A few verses of scripture that described his work Isaiah fifty three to six. We talked about last night. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. The Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us. All it's sin, Sai Corinthians five twenty one. For our sake. He was made to be sin, who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God. Look listen to Romans five to eight. But God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Don't this is related to our sin one John four, nine and ten. And this the love of God has made manifest among us. That God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. And this is love, Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins, to satisfy the righteous wrath of God for our sins Colossians two thirteen to fifteen. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made a live together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by concealing the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and the authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them. In him, it's sin. It's sin. That is our ultimate problem, and everything else that we deal with arises from that. Look with me if you will it Romans, Romans Chapter eight, Roman Chapter eight, and look beginning of verse eighteen. Trying to figure out a way to not have to read this whole chapter. Let's look at anything. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation weights with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now, and not only creation, but we ourselves, who had the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we were eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies, For in this hope we were saved. Not hope that is seen. Oh I'm sorry now, I hope that it seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it in patience. So we must absolutely recognize the fact that sin has impacted and has scarred and marred and damaged and corrupted every area and aspect of the created order, and we need to be about the business of dealing with that. But I want you to. Recognize the fact that the answer to this ultimately is in redemption. Creation is groaning and waiting for redemption, just like our bodies are groaning and waiting for redemption. And that happens at the end of the age. Amen. So whatever we're doing to mitigate the effects of the fall, it's good that we do that, but it's penultimate because ultimately our greatest need is for our sin debt to be paid and for us to be reconciled to God. So whatever else that we do in mission, it has to be attached to and it has to flow from the proclamation of this good news and the explanation of why this. Good news is good. It's so difficult, and people talk about it all the time. Right, going to a people group that was thought to be unreached or has been recently reached, and going there with the gospel, trying to proclaim the gospel to a group that says, oh, no, no, no, we know that we've heard that we're Christians, and they know absolutely nothing of the Gospel. And what they are is what is often referred to as rice Christians, right, referred to him as rice Christians. The missionary comes in, brings something right, bags of rice, whatever gives the bags of rice and a shallow presentation of the gospel, and the grateful, hospitable people respond the way grateful, hospitable people in their culture are supposed to respond. And then the people are told that they're now Christians, and all the people who paid for the trip are told, we preach the gospel, and the whole village got saved. And then people who are on the ground trying to do the real work in the soil of that culture first have to help those people understand that what they received was not the Gospel, and that what they are is not Christians. What makes the good news good is that it does indeed answer our greatest need, does indeed lay the foundation for properly addressing all other needs in ways that honor God. And promote human flourish. So whatever else we do, let's remember what makes the good news good. Let's pray. Our gracious God and Diary, Heavenly Father, we thank you and we praise you for the goodness of the good news, the good news of the Gospel, the good news of our redemption in Christ, the good news of the work that you have done on our behalf through the person and work of the God Man. Grant by your grace that we might embrace that good news. Be embraced by that good news, flee to Christ in repentance and faith first and foremost, And that having done so, we might then turn and proclaim that good news that has found us and saved us. Proclaim it to others who are in desperate need of this news as well. Proclaim it broth both here and abroad, so that Christ might indeed have the fullness of the reward for which he died. Grant by your grace that whatever else we become known for out there. Whatever else we do for men that blesses them, that all of us isot, all of it is rooted and grounded in a clear, consistent, relentless proclamation of the only good news that is good news, the good news of the Gospel, without which all of the rest of our work is in vain. And grant that as we do this, it might be done in the power of your spirit. It might be done to the glory of your name, and it might be done to the exaltation of our Lord, Save your Master, Redeemer and King. For we ask this in his name and for his sake. Amen.