#8 What is A Gospel

Show Notes

Anthony and Cody discuss the word gospel and the context of gospel in the Ancient Near Eastern Setting. Before we can understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we need to first understand how the word Gospel was used in the biblical world and how the genre of gospel contributed to ancient society, both in the Hebrew context and in the Pagan/Roman world.

Music: Nightfall by Oleg Fedak

Podcast Transcript

Anthony Delgado: [00:00:00] This light momentary affliction is preparing an eternal weight of glory for us beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the unseen, 2 Corinthians 4, 17 and 18. In a post materialistic world filled with the immense spiritual noise, we are here to uncover the ancient Near Eastern context of the Bible, to recover the truly mystical faith of our spiritual forefathers.

Welcome to the Biblical Re Enchantment Podcast, where we bridge the gap between the ancient Hebrew story and modern insights. I'm Anthony Delgado, your host for this journey into the often overlooked mystical dimensions of the Bible.

Cody Urban: And I'm Cody Urban, co host and lover of the [00:01:00] Bible. This is episode eight titled, what is a gospel?

Anthony Delgado: In this episode, we're going to be looking at the ancient near context of the Bible to discuss what a gospel is. You heard me. That's what a gospel is. We're going to be talking about what the word means, how it was used and what it is that we can begin to talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we'll be doing that for quite a few episodes.

Yeah, so let's start off, uh, before we start defining it, figure out what the, uh, the official definition is. So I'm going to read it here. A gospel is an announcement of good news. In particular, the gospel is the announcement that Jesus life, death, and resurrection have brought about salvation for Israel and the world.

When the word gospel is capitalized, It may refer to one of the four New Testament narrative accounts of Jesus's life, death, and [00:02:00] resurrection. And I'm reading that from the Lexham Theological Word Book.

So we don't want to comment on everything in that definition, because that'll infuriate you. content for future episodes, but we wanted to throw it out there because it's, uh, because that's the somewhat concise and technical definition, um, may not be what most of us think of when we think of the gospel.

We're probably thinking of a programmatic way of sharing a way of salvation with someone or something to help someone become a Christian or something like that. Or at least most evangelical Christians, I think, are thinking something like that.

Cody Urban: Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm, I've been a Christian for, oh, I've lost count of how many years, and, but the majority of my life now. And when I first, you first hear the gospel, you become a Christian, you start learning, well, part of your faith is sharing your faith. And so I would take classes, right? Workshops, things like that at summer camps, everything.

How do you share the [00:03:00] gospel? And like you said, it would be usually distilled to this. formulaic, real quick, something that you can remember on, you know, one hand. And one of them was, you know, one on every finger. I think it was, you know, God, man, sin, Jesus. salvation, something like that. And it, you're supposed to use that to remember, you know, these five steps on how to share the gospel.

And we could talk about those. I remember hearing once a, an analogy about a baseball game, like the baseball diamond, instead of the five fingers of the four bases, including home plate that is. And it just, After a bit of, like, growth and maturity, studying the Bible, walking with other Bible scholars, reading, praying, drawing closer to the Holy Spirit, you know what I mean, where you go from the milk to the strong meat, you start to kind of grow and realize, I think, I believe, that that five finger [00:04:00] thing just is such a flat caricature, and that the gospel is so much bigger.

Right. There's so much more meat to it than just that. Yeah.

Anthony Delgado: I mean, it's really funny cause it's not even the way that we use the gospel, the word gospel outside the church. It's really a modern invention. I mean, I, I remember one church I was at, we had these little bracelets that we used that like had beads on it and the beads might've spelled the word gospel or something like that, but each bead meant something.

And even we were like that, the adults were taught to use these bracelets to share the gospel with people. And like, if that's how simple it is, like. Like, is that, is that complete enough? Is that complete enough to teach someone the way to salvation? And, and I think that because outside the church, we use this word gospel, and we use it because the church used it for a long time, but the church used it in a far more profound way.

I think, I think of like movie franchises. [00:05:00] You know, like, so like people would like study, like all the Star Wars movies and not just the Star Wars movies, but then all the books that came out and like you get the, the, like the, yeah, the whole cannon of, of, of the Star Wars universe. And then, you know, people would, you know, like study the, all of those things.

And then somebody will say, Oh yeah, well, Chewbacca would never do that or whatever. Right. And, and, you know, or, or. You know, they call something a canon event or they would say, but that's gospel, right? You can't, you know, or they'll try to write a fan fiction, right? And they'll share it with a friend and they go, well, no, Chewbacca would never do that.

He would do this. Well, why, why not? Well, because that's gospel, right? Like certain things are like gospel events. They're they're things that have to happen a certain way within that universe. And you can't change them because they're parts of the story that, that have to happen a certain way. Comic books do this, do this.

You have the Marvel [00:06:00] Universe, the DC Universe, um, you have book series, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter. There's ways that the universe works, storylines that have to go a certain way throughout the storylines, and they're gospel stories. They're, they're, they're, they're threads that permeate that cannot be changed that have to operate a certain way.

They're gospel truths.

Cody Urban: Yeah, the gospel truth. I mean, I think that is permeated into Secular culture in many different ways where you know Somebody would be saying something and you know instead of saying like I swear to god or something like that They might say yep. That's the gospel truth, right? And so there's even a song in the hercules the disney movie, the Disney animated Hercules, where there's the, these, uh, the, I think they call them the gospels.

I don't know. They sort of have like a real soul, uh, Motown feel to them and these animated characters and they sing the song and they call it, and that's the gospel truth type of [00:07:00] thing. And that's, you know, Greek mythology predating Jesus, um, but yeah, I know. I know. And so I think in the, even in the secular world, that term gospel has probably come to mean truth.

Right. And so like, to your point, you know, if that's, if that's not canon, that's not gospel. That's not true. That doesn't fit in this, this paradigm that we have for whatever story or, or, you know, Truth that we're we're believing in

Anthony Delgado: it and it's so much more than like little pieces of data though I guess was is the bigger point to it that it's always it's always like this narrative thread that permeates things So so like let's think about what the word actually means So if you look at like just the word itself, it's it's In the English, like, cause if you go back to the Greek, the word gospel is not a Greek word.

Um, the English word gospel comes from the old English word Godspell. Godspell. [00:08:00] And that word means something like glad tidings. Or glad tidings announced by Jesus, or something like that. And it's a word that was sort of invented to mean that. It can also refer to one of the four Gospels, obviously.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. And, and God's spell literally is, A compound word that comes from good or god for that matter good or god and spell and spell doesn't mean Spell like I yeah, exactly. It doesn't mean Spell in old english means story and so you're looking

Cody Urban: It's funny how god is a word that can in old english mean good Uh, like like god spell good spell good story like even how we say goodbye Most of us forget where that comes from.

And it's actually a contraction of saying, God be with ye. Ye as in like how people would say you. You know what I mean? So like God be with you. God be [00:09:00] with you. Goodbye. You know, somehow that like became like one word. Goodbye. Yeah. And

Anthony Delgado: yeah, no, you're right.

Cody Urban: Nerding out on words. That's what I do. That's what it is.

And it's

Anthony Delgado: weird how it, and it is interesting how many of our words that we use today were kind of like multiple words in the old English. And they've just kind of become what they are today. Um, and we just take it for granted that they are what they are. And we just use the words. Because that's what we were taught to do and that's goodbye.

Right. And, uh, you know, but, but yeah, so God be with you, right. Or God be with you is goodbye and good story or God's story is gospel. And so a gospel is a God story. And that's, that's not entirely off base from what it is in the Greek, except that they're completely different words. So let's take a look at some of the Greek words that underlie God's spell or God's story.

Good story. Uh, euangelion and angelion, those words mean good news or message. [00:10:00] And, uh, then we have a couple of other words. So angelos would mean mess would be message. would be messenger or angel is how we see it translated in the New Testament. And that's actually kind of a cheater word. Uh, you can hear it.

And, and hellos Angelos angel, uh, really we should translate that as messenger and then let the context tell you, well, this is a messenger from heaven. That's God's messenger. Uh, instead of, instead of forcing a word in there that doesn't really belong in English. And, and then we have another word.

Evangelos, or evangelos, if we want to anglicize that a little bit, which, which then sounds like evangelist. And that's where we get our word evangelist from. And so that, that word evangelist means good messenger. And it's the, it's the bringer of the good news. And we'll return to some of those terms. in a minute, but let's talk a little bit about general usage of these terms in the Greek word world.

So the evangelist is one who brings a message of victory, [00:11:00] um, one who brings a message of victory or other political, and, or sometimes occasionally it could be personal news, but it's, it's news that is supposed to bring joy. And in the Hellenistic period, this, this period in the Greek world that Jesus, you You know is born into the word can also mean someone who announces oracles and that has some interesting crossover With the with with jesus story.

So in religious usage It can mean a speaker of promises, um, in, in Greek religion, for example. And that's not entirely different than, that's not entirely different than the announcement of our oracles or prophecies, but it might have a broader meaning than Oracles. So prophecies are sort of in non-specific oracles.

So when we talk about the gospel or the evangel, the evangelian. It's the message of victory that is proclaimed by the evangelist. [00:12:00] Cody, give us an idea of how that might play out in the context of, of, of like a king and, and a victory that he's pursuing.

Cody Urban: Yeah, I'm picturing you have your king who has sent out a general to battle and saying General and army, you know, they're out and he's waiting to hear word.

He needs a messenger, right? They didn't have email Or Twitter feeds to find out so somebody had to come back and that person would be a messenger a messenger Angelo or Angelist, right? You know what I mean? And they were coming back, but because it's a good message, victory, you know, King, your, your army has won.

The general has conquered, you know, the, the, the day is saved, right? All the, what would be perceived to be good news would make that a good message from a good messenger, right? Good news, gospel, you know, most Christians have, you know, Put those two together. And so that would be [00:13:00] essentially that where, where that has come from, uh, a victorious pronouncement of good news.

Yeah,

Anthony Delgado: exactly. And so it's, it's, it's what's interesting about that though, is you can clearly see how that could take place in the context of like, we just want to battle, but then reflecting on how it could work with like prophecies or oracles, we actually see this playing out in some specific ways in some of the Roman literature.

And so Evangelion, or Euangelion, it's notably connected with sort of the imperial cults in ancient Rome regarding the oracles of the divine ruler's birth, um, and the enthronement of the emperor. And we see this in some of his speeches and decrees, um, and their, their fulfillments in, in, in, in sort of the, the Roman world and these promises of happiness and peace, you know, the, the Roman empire was supposed to be this like, uh, [00:14:00] uh, sort of utopian society that was sort of the promise of Rome.

And so an instance of this is the decree of the Greeks of the province, province of Asia in nine BC. And, and this is really actually kind of interesting because nine BC is getting right up there next to the birth of Jesus. And so this marks actually the birthday of Augustus on September 23rd, the beginning of the civil year.

And it says this. It is a day which we must justly count as equivalent to the beginning of everything. It is not in itself, and in its own nature, at any rate, in its benefits it brings, inasmuch as it has restored the shape of everything that was failing and turning into misfortune. given us a new look at the universe at a time when it would gladly have welcomed destruction if Caesar had not been born to be the common blessing of all men.

Now, that's kind of a bold claim to make. It's like, it's like they're claiming that this is like a remaking of the universe [00:15:00] because Caesar Augustus has been born. So he goes on, whereas the province, which has been ordered the whole of our life, showing And Concern and zeal has ordained the most perfect consummation for human life by giving to it.

Augustus by filling him with virtues for virtue. I'm sorry, by filling him with virtue for doing the work of a benefactor among men and by sending in him as it were a savior for us and those who came after us to make war to cease. To create order everywhere. And whereas the birthday of the God Augustus was the beginning of the world of glad tidings, the evangel that have come to men through him and the mindset of the imperial cult.

The proclamation of the gospel does not merely herald a new era. It actually brings it about the proclamation is itself, the UN and hellion, since the salvation of proclaims is [00:16:00] present in it. Man,

Cody Urban: I just, that. That's crazy. And like you said, it's so close to the birth of Jesus, like literally right there.

I'm like, wait, there's so many keywords that sound familiar to me as a Christian. And so I just quickly pulled up Luke two, eight through 10, the shepherds were in the field near Bethlehem, right? There's a Christmas story. We read this all the time. Um, taking their watch, uh, of their flock during the night, an angel, right, a messenger from the Lord.

Suddenly appeared to them the glory of the Lord filled the area with light and they were terrified the angel said to them Don't be afraid I've got Good news for you, a message that will fill everyone with joy. That's one translation. You know, it's just, I've heard many translations that are very similar to some of the things.

It's like glad tidings of great joy. This is peace on earth, goodwill to all men. And it seems like it's taking this idea of what humanity is doing in such a blasphemous way, saying the birth of this [00:17:00] human baby is going to rewrite the cosmos. And then all of a sudden it's like, no, Here is the baby that actually does rewrite the cosmos, you know, Jesus Christ.

Anthony Delgado: Yeah. And it's kind of amazing in that way, you know, and, uh, I think what we're seeing in this is that the idea of the, the evangel, right, that the gospel is a way of producing an Oracle even beforehand, right. To say victory is on the horizon. That we don't need to have, um, that we don't need to have our victory in hindsight, that it can be used prophetically.

As much as it can be used in hindsight that even before the battle has been fought or even before the battle is over That a gospel can be proclaimed And so if the evangelist were a prophet for example in this case in the context of luke Proclaiming the gospel of of [00:18:00] christ and the glad tidings and great joy before even Christ has been You know, been born or the inauguration of the kingdom is, has come or in the case of, you know, which is blasphemy, but the, the birth of Caesar Augustus, right?

That this Oracle has been spoken about him, uh, but, but this idea that this, that this word gospel can even mean that, that a gospel can be spoken beforehand, um, about, About a Savior, or it can be spoken, uh, in, in hindsight and, and reference back. And so, I do want to now place this, and you've taken us there, um, already, I want to place this gospel in context of the biblical storyline.

And, uh, and, and so, for me, and if you, you know, if you've, uh, for those who have, to, I'm not sure to what degree we've covered this in the podcast so far, but, um, I know for followers of, of, of my sermons and my ministry and [00:19:00] for readers of my work, it won't seem strange to know that for me, the central image of the gospel of Jesus Christ that really comes from the gospel accounts is where we see it most clearly is that Jesus is King.

And I think that for all the effects of the gospel, the forgiveness, the forgiveness of sins, the adoption of as sons, um, so on and so forth, that the kingship of Jesus is central to the message of the gospel. And I think that we actually see this in the scriptures, both being proclaimed beforehand, as you've shown us in Luke, um, and we see it in retrospect.

So I think that the, one of the places that we see it. Being proclaimed beforehand, I think I think would be in Daniel 7 where we see the Son of Man And this is a passage that's gonna come up a lot So I'm just gonna be quick about this, but we're gonna see this in the prophets the Son of Man Ascending to the ancient of days where all [00:20:00] dominion is laid before him and it's placed upon his shoulders, right?

And so we see the Son of Man and that's Jesus is referred to Repeatedly as the He even refers to himself as the son of man, and it's for this specific reason, uh, because he's identifying with the son of man of Daniel seven, one, like a son of man, uh, came to the ancient of days, you know, and so I, I think that it's, it's that son of man who receives all dominion, all of authority, um, that proclamation happens beforehand to give hope to Israel, um, that, that one, like a son of man is coming to have dominion over the earth.

Cody Urban: Yeah, but that's just one of so many throughout the Old Testament. I mean, just thinking about, uh, Genesis three, you know, it's like the seat of the woman, the serpent will bite his heel, but he will crush the head of the snake, you know? And so when, when it comes later on, Jesus does crush the head of the snake.

He says it is [00:21:00] finished when he's on the cross. He says, after his. Death and then resurrection right before his ascension. All authority in heaven and earth has been given unto me. Therefore go and make disciples. I've, I won, I won the battle. Now you go be evangelists, right? Go be bringers of this good news that we are, we are, we are Well, uh, angels in the most actual, yeah, we're messengers, right?

We are messengers and we're messengers. You know, what's interesting is we're messengers in the, yes, we're after the head has, or the, the snake's been crushed, but it's also not been crushed in a way. You know, we're kind of in that, that now, and not yet, Jesus has done the work. He has had this victory. And so we're retrospectively sharing the good news of that victory.

And at the same time, we're still also proclaiming. The ultimate victory to come, you know, I think of when in World War [00:22:00] Two, when there was D Day versus V Day, D Day, many, many historians will say, yeah, on the, on D Day when the allied forces landed, the, the war was essentially over, but it was still a long time until V Day when it was all right.

It's done. Like we've like ultimate victory is done. There's just this, this chunk of time. So it's, I feel like us as messengers, we are proclaiming the victory that has happened and the victory that's still to come. And it's all the good story, the God story. Of christ jesus our lord. Yeah,

Anthony Delgado: and so so in either case whether we're looking from the old testament looking from the position of uh, genesis 3 the promise of You know crushing the head of satan or the promise of uh, jesus ascending to uh The right hand of the father and receiving all authority sort of that fulfillment of daniel 7 that we see in philippians 2 or in [00:23:00] the great commission um Or I just recorded with, uh, Carrie Griffel and, uh, on her podcast, uh, Genesis marks the spot.

And we talked about the, the day of atonement sacrifices, and we see Jesus in both sacrifices of the day of atonement sacrifices. And we talked about, uh, specifically the second sacrifice, the scapegoat sacrifice, and, you know, it's just everywhere, especially on, frankly, all throughout Leviticus, you see Jesus, Jesus, Jesus everywhere.

And it's like, it's like, um, you're. You're constantly seeing Jesus in all of these sacrifices and, uh, and in everything you're, you're going, you're going to find, uh, this look forward. And the old Testament is proclaiming the gospel beforehand. That's, that's what I think that we're supposed to see there.

And then in, and then looking back, we as [00:24:00] evangelists are proclaiming the gospel. Retrospectively, looking back on the message of Jesus Christ. Um, and what are we doing? Uh, I guess would be the question. Um, when we look back, yeah, what is the gospel? Yeah. What is, what is it? What is the gospel? And I think that's, I think that's really kind of challenging because, and, and we're going to talk somewhat about this more.

Podcast in the next podcast, so I don't kind of want to ruin that here but I think what's really interesting is that we often reduce the gospel to things like well Jesus died for the forgiveness of sins, for example, and We've been talking about The gospel as a God story as a story of what God has done Mm hmm To, well, you [00:25:00] could say what God has done to reconcile humankind to himself.

Well, and if that's the case, then when we say Jesus died for the forgiveness of sins, then yes, Jesus, what Jesus did there was Jesus died, but we don't really need a whole Bible for that. You know what I mean? Like, like if that's all that the gospel is, we don't really need a whole Bible for that. There's, there's, there's got to be more to the gospel than Jesus died.

For the forgiveness of sins, well that's an effect of the gospel. That's an effect of Jesus death on the cross, um, is the forgiveness of sins. And I think that what happens sometimes is we conflate. the effects of the gospel with the gospel itself [00:26:00] and when we Then we start to prioritize effects of the gospel.

So we say things like Well, if you don't have the forgiveness of sins Then you can't be saved So forgiveness of the sins is essential Well now I think that forgiveness of sins is essential. I absolutely do Um And so then, and so do you, I'm sure, and every other Protestant Christian out there. So then we say, start to formulate a system of thinking around, well, then how are sins forgiven?

And the next thing you know, you've got cute little systems of sharing the gospel to teach people what they need to know to believe that their sins are forgiven, and pragmatic means of helping them to believe that their sins are forgiven to come under that forgiveness. And the next thing you know, you're counting on your [00:27:00] fingers and you're, you're showing beads and you're, you've got cute little systems and tracks and things of that sort.

Um, and, and, and I, and I think, um, I, I think that's trying to create a distinction between the story and the effects. Uh, where I don't think that we can ever create a perfectly clean separation between the two and I, and I don't really think that we ought to create a perfectly clean separation between the two.

Um, but I, I think that on some level we need to understand that there's a distinction. It's an important distinction and I think we're going to, and we're going to flesh out that distinction. Um, On a fairly significant level two episodes from now, we're going to keep working on this idea of what a gospel is, what isn't the gospel, what is the gospel.

I want to work on this. The gospel is so important to our faith as Christians that, um, I really, I really [00:28:00] just want to chew on this for, you know, several episodes. Um, yeah.

Cody Urban: Yeah. I'm so glad you are. I'm glad to be along on this road with you because I just know. Going from the, the, you know, the gospel on your five fingers type of, of thinking and then just reading in Mark, Jesus is just baptized.

He's tempted in the wilderness and then he goes around proclaiming the gospel. And you're like, This is like, he hasn't even called up the apostles yet, you know, any of the disciples. He's definitely not died on the cross, resurrected and ascended. So what is the gospel he's sharing there? And then you start, okay, so what is the gospel he's sharing?

And you look at Matthew, and it's like he's proclaiming this good news, and then here's the Sermon on the Mount, right? Oh, what is that the crux of that? What would be the thesis of what [00:29:00] he shares there? And it seems like maybe that could be the thesis of this whole God story of Jesus, which will eventually include his death and resurrection and forgiveness of sins and all of that.

I, I, I've had this conversation, I've led Bible studies on, on really trying to analyze the gospels and, and try to make that point like, okay, so what is the gospel that Jesus is proclaiming long before his death on the cross? But make sure let's hear me when I say I'm in no way trying to like water down the fact that he died on that cross for my sins.

Yes. Thank God for that. Seriously. Um, but that it is so much more and so much bigger than, than only.

Anthony Delgado: Well, and it's so interesting because I think sometimes it's, it's theological decisions we make, right? Because sometimes I feel like the people that, you know, we're most likely to get into an argument with, right?

Like, like [00:30:00] somebody who's received a kind of a thin sort of Jesus died for my sins type of gospel. That's not the person you're going to get into an argument with about Jesus as king being the central figure image of the gospel, right? That kind of person is like, yeah, I mean, whatever, you know, it's going to be somebody who has like a fairly robust.

Theology, right? And so somebody with a more robust thinking about God and the Bible you're gonna ask them Well, do you believe Jesus is King and they're gonna say well, of course I do right and so for them It's just a theological ordering and so they believe that Jesus is King They're you know, or they might use the word Lord, but whatever, you know, and they're gonna say yeah I submit my life to God Jesus Christ, of course, I believe he's king.

Of course, I believe he's Lord, and I submit to him. And, you know, they're just, but they're going to say, but the forgiveness of sins is central to the message of the gospel. [00:31:00] And so I just had this conversation with somebody the other day, just as I was taught having this conversation. I said, well, let me ask you a question.

You say the forgiveness of sins is central to the gospel. Can you define sin for me? Right? And they will go, well, will God define sin in his word? Sin is What offends God and that was the way that they described it that sin offends God and I go, okay So God decides that what it what is sin? Would you agree that God is sovereign over the definition of sin?

Yeah, that's exactly the word I would use and I think this person had Calvin Calvinistic tendencies They love that word sovereign. God is sovereign God sovereign over all things You know, and then I go, okay, do you know what sovereign means? Yeah, it means that he has authority over everything. It means that he, he's the one who decides what's right and wrong.

I go, okay, so, so if he decides what is right and wrong, wouldn't you say that that's a decision that a king makes, you know, isn't that what he is the king of the universe, right? [00:32:00] Yeah, I guess so. So like, doesn't his kingship precede Your sin like doesn't isn't that a necessary factor before you can even be a sinner?

Well, yeah, that's actually true. And so like yeah before we can even say that somebody's a sinner We actually have to say that christ is king. And so if christ isn't king then we can't really even define sin To even say that Christ died for our sins. And so like, I just, you know, and it doesn't even, it's, it's clever.

I mean, but it's clever, but like, it's, there's sort of a theological ordering that no matter what you want to put central, none of the effects of the gospel makes sense if Christ isn't first King. And so, um, you know, I always want to go there first. And so as I reflect, reflect sort of on the early gospels, the early Matthew, Mark, Luke.

I'm going to reflect, you know, John was written much later. It's one of the later books of the New Testament and [00:33:00] but it's very theological, but especially Matthew, Mark, Luke. I kind of have these kind of stories, you know, they're largely God's stories. There are largely details of what Jesus did in life and what he taught and things like that.

And so I think like, why, when we share the gospel, do we tend to communicate theological ideas about God, humans, redemption, without first telling the story of Jesus? If telling the story of Jesus was good enough for the gospels, why isn't that good enough for us today? Why are we starting with theology?

Why are we starting with Ideas about humanity, ideas about, you know, about sin's effects and about redemption's effects. Why aren't we starting there? And so that's just my thinking on some of these things. And um, as I reflect on sort of what a gospel is. I just want to [00:34:00] return to that. How can we get back to thinking about the gospel as a gospel, the way the ancient people, you know, 2000 years ago, how they were thinking about a gospel, a God story, get back to that and, and see how that reshapes, I guess, first our, our thinking about what the gospel is and then how that can then retool the way that we share the gospel with others.

And, um, and then I wonder also about how that will, will change the effectiveness of the gospel as we return to sort of an ancient way of sharing the gospel. How's that? How? How will that then affect the, uh, change the effectiveness of the gospel? Because I know, I know largely, and maybe you can comment on this too.

Um, I know largely that There's a discouragement among evangelical Christians Where a lot of people most people say that the reason [00:35:00] they don't share the gospel is because they don't know how to And then we go on doing these silly little classes on, you know, here's your five fingers and so on and so forth and there is nothing else that we Communicate that way in this world Using a means like that.

There's nothing we do that way. And then we're like, well, here's a bracelet, you know, it's like, here's a bracelet. So you can share, share sports facts with your buddy. You know, like we don't do anything like that. It's so awkward and unnatural. Um, but who doesn't tell stories? So I think, I think like if we can retool this and just go back to something so natural, how might it affect the way that The gospel goes forward through the church.

I don't know. What are your thoughts on that?

Cody Urban: Well, I mean, it just makes me think of like what you were saying where you're the ordering, uh, you know, what's, what is most central. And if that forgiveness of sins is most [00:36:00] central, that becomes the, the thesis of the message. And so our message is all about trying to convince people that they are sinners.

And I'm not saying that's not true, but I'm saying if that is what you're approaching people trying to convince folks in this world, you, you, you're just, you're just wrong. You're evil. You're, you're, you're offending God. All of those things. It's like, it just, it's not, I don't see it as effective, you know, and, and we're, we're going up against the culture of, of celebrating.

Calling what is evil good, calling it love, calling, coming up with all these different names, living your truth, right? And, and all that type of stuff. And so that becomes such a barrier to try to break into and coming in with like, you're evil and sinful and going to hell. It's like that wall is just going to get thicker and [00:37:00] stronger and, and just don't talk to me.

But when I want to share. Something that genuinely feels like good news, you know, like, Hey, you know, how, like all, there's all these problems in the world. I think we can all look at the news and agree. There's a ton of problems politically and social economically. I mean, you, you name it. I don't want to name it because it's going to take forever.

What is good news in that? Oh, did you know that no matter who wins the upcoming election or whatnot. There is a true king that sits on that throne. He, he is good. He is God. He is king of kings, lord of lords, and he has a plan. And he's working all things for the good. And there is ultimate victory coming.

And his kingdom. Can be right here. And now Jesus came saying, you know, the kingdom of God [00:38:00] is at hand, right? Or it's near. It's Welcoming us into this kingdom that though I'm in this world Surrounded by all the problems that I am living in I can come and enter into that kingdom here. And now I can shift my focus from all of the Liars that that are, you know, on the stage in the news, all this stuff and all the messages and all the rhetoric and go, you know what, I'm just gonna tune that out to focus on the one who is King of Kings, Lord of Lords.

And then in that in that kingdom is is peace is purpose is healing. There's there's there's genuine reconciliation. I mean,

Anthony Delgado: yeah,

Cody Urban: I want to live in that kingdom.

Anthony Delgado: Mm hmm.

Cody Urban: And that's good news that you can right here and now you can actually begin living in that kingdom Underneath jesus as king.

Anthony Delgado: Yeah, so

Cody Urban: and how do I live in that way?

Oh, yeah. Well, let's let's change that behavior That's gonna come you know that identity change [00:39:00] the the moving away from sin. I'm not saying we we're not sinners I'm not saying oh, yeah, you You follow Jesus and just you're, you're, you're good to go. I'm not saying that like none of that's going to be addressed.

Those, those changes need to come, right? That's all part of the story. But if that's the central message, do you feel like you're sharing good news? For me personally, when it was the come at somebody to convince them that their sin is estranging them from God and they're going to hell, it doesn't feel like good news.

And it's really hard to even try to bring in that conversation When I come in and i'm selling them that Hell is all around us man. Yeah There's there's brokenness You just have to look five feet away Whether or in yourself, I mean, I mean, it's it's it's at hand, you know what I mean? It's all around us And that there is another kingdom that we [00:40:00] can come and live in underneath a much better king Right here now.

I just feel like I'm riveted. I feel like I have genuine good news to share. Yeah, and that Feels like a better story.

Anthony Delgado: Well, and it's just so interesting how that's a story That's just like rooted right here in the world You know what? I mean? like it just reminds me just like we were reading earlier like about like Caesar Augustus's birth and like just Those bizarre ties with like the language of Jesus birth and it's like Jesus birth Was like so appropriate.

It was exactly You know, we're told in the scriptures that Jesus came at just the right time. Like it was exactly what needed to happen in the world at that time. And guess what? Even the pagans knew it. That's why these prophecies existed. Like even they knew it. And so like, why not just speak the truth of what the scriptures are teaching us in the gospel?

Like, just tell the gospel story. What is supposed to be [00:41:00] happening? Because that's the reality of what the world needs right now. And that's kind of what I hear you saying is like. It's like we don't, we don't need cute gospel presentations to lead people to Christ. What we need are the core historic gospel truths that Jesus is King.

He's in control. Everything else is out of control. But he's got this. And so, yeah, I dunno, I think, I think that's a good place to wrap it up. I appreciate your thoughts, Cody, and your insights into this. And, um, I'm looking forward to next podcast. We talked today about what is a gospel. And in the next episode, we're going to be talking about what isn't the gospel.

And so we did, we hit that a little bit too much probably today, but we're, we've got lots more to hit. In the next episode. And so we're going to be going over what isn't the gospel, and that's going to be a lot of fun in the next episode. So listeners make sure that you are ready for that one. God bless you guys.

[00:42:00] And, uh, and we will get back with you very, very [00:43:00] [00:44:00] soon.