09/21/2023 – The Gospel: The Best News in the World
Luke 4: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Our Lord Jesus Christ revealed in a synagogue in Nazareth the central purpose of his ministry. Christ was empowered by the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel. The Greek original expresses the purpose of Christ’s ministry in a single word: euaggeliz, letting us know that more than noun, it is verb: to evangelize.
The Lord Jesus Christ reveals to his countrymen in Nazareth, and to us, that the Word of God is not a reference book, but a journal that exclusively announces, with great enthusiasm, as its front-page headline the greatest and most wonderful of news: THERE IS FORGIVENESS, JUSTIFICATION, SALVATION AND ETERNAL LIFE IN CHRIST!
This news never gets old, rather it is renewed every day. If the essence of the Bible is love, the central theme of the Bible is the Gospel. The word gospel comes directly from the Greek and it literally means good news. There is a similar reaction in every person when we hear: I have good news for you…
But this isn’t just any news. The word gospel in its original meaning was used to refer to a news of victory in battle. In times when the first and only communication from the distant battlefield was a messenger, the news of victory or defeat traveled with a man running to the city eagerly awaiting the outcome of the struggle and the condition of its soldiers. Sentinels on the wall fixed their eyes on the horizon, waiting as long as necessary to see a distant point move slowly towards them. As soon as the sentinels could distinguish the figure that ran, they began to try to decipher the message simply by the way the messenger ran. The one who brought news of victory ran differently than the messenger of bad news.
There are many waiting for the good news. Let us run to them like messengers of the Good News.