Leadership Training - Session One - The Gospel

Session One: The Gospel

So where do we start as shepherds? What should be the foundation of everything we do in evangelism and discipleship ?

Take a look at Romans 1:16

16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

The answer? The Gospel. It’s translated from a greek word (Euaggelion) that means “good news”. It was used by Roman emperors that would announce the coming of their reign which in their estimation was a tremendous gift to humanity. Ruler after ruler came through Rome proclaiming their rulership as good news yet each would come and go and leave things more or less like they found them or worse.

The Christian Gospel is the proclamation of the reign of a ruler that is unlike anything the world has ever seen. It is a message that is profound and life changing, and it is not only for Romans and Jews but for all the nations of the world. It is an invitation to join a country that is above and beyond any political regime. A country that is even above and beyond this world and the existence that we experience here.

Reflection question: How would you characterize Paul’s attitude toward the gospel as is expressed in Romans 1:16?

Notice the kind of confidence that the Apostle Paul (writer of the letter to the Romans) has in this gospel. It is the “power of God”. How can gospel = power of God. Doesn’t this seem a little strange? Shouldn’t the power of God simply be the power of God. How can this good news be the power?

The reason for this is that the Gospel message (we’ll define it in a moment) is what God has chosen to be the means for his power to be released in the world. It certainly has no power apart from God but God has so exclusively limited himself to working through the gospel that it almost seems that the gospel itself is the power. We cannot forget this as shepherds. No gospel = no power. That is true both in evangelism and discipleship. If we do proclaim the gospel in our disciplemaking efforts, it will set the stage for a powerful intervention by God in the lives of those we seek to influence.

Reflection question: What is the Gospel?

So if this Gospel is so powerful and essential, then what is it? One of my favorite places to go to answer this question is 1 Corinthians 15. Paul writes:

3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

Paul grew up in Jewish culture where passing on tradition was of utmost importance. One of the reasons we know our Old Testament has been accurately translated is how the Jews painstakingly copied their biblical manuscripts. For example, they counted the number of letters from the first one to the middle of the Torah (first five books of the Bible). If their count was off by one, they would burn the manuscript and start over. Paul is using Jewish technical language (what I received I passed . . .) to describe the passing on that Christians are to do. They are to be diligently passing on the Gospel. Then he defines what that is in a nutshell.

“Christ died for sins”

It is essential that we understand that central to the gospel message is that our king (Jesus) died a sacrificial death in our place for sins that we committed. We can see right from the start that this is not your ordinary king. Before He is our Lord, He is first our Savior. Jesus himself proclaimed this in Matthew 20:28 – that he came to serve humanity by dying as a “ransom for many.” We, who had been kidnapped by sin and Satan were rescued, ransomed, by our Savior through His death on the cross.

“that he was buried”

He wasn’t faking his death. He really suffered and died. His heart, which was fully human, really stopped. His lungs, which were just like yours and mine, really ceased to take in air and he was laid in a cold dark tomb. As far as Jesus’ followers knew this was the end of their leader.

“and on the third day . . . he appeared”

Wait a minute? This is odd. Many a great leader has died for their cause. From William Wallace to MLK, leaders have died brutal deaths that spurred their followers on to participate in their movement with even greater zeal than before. This leader is different. This leader died, was buried, and rose again as a victor.

As might be expected, most people are skeptical of this claim. Perhaps this is metaphor? Perhaps Christ resurrected spiritually in the hearts of followers? A dead man rising? Come on. Paul is prepared for this and lets us know that the events that make up the Gospel happened in history in front of eyewitnesses. In fact that more than 500 people were eyewitnesses to the risen Christ.

A few of these eyewitnesses (and one who had access to eyewitnesses – Luke) wrote about their experiences with Jesus. We call these written records “the Gospels”. They are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and make up the first 4 books of the New Testament. They have often been described as very long introductions leading up to the body of their works which is the story of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

This is the core of the Christian message. In the only two religious rituals instituted by Christ, the church role plays this story. Through communion and baptism we again and again point to the center of our faith - the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. In the words of Christ we do these “in remembrance of him” (see Luke 22:19). And what are we remembering while we are chewing on symbols of flesh and blood? It’s not that we should be nice to everybody and never tell lies. It is the Gospel, the foundation of our faith.

“According to the scriptures”

You may have noticed the phrase “according to the scriptures” being repeated twice in Paul’s telling of the gospel story. Why would he see the need for repeating himself like that in such a short verse? Paul is letting us know that the Gospel is part of a much larger story. It’s not something that dropped out of thin air in the 1st century in Palestine. This Gospel is the pinnacle of God’s work among humans that has been going on since the beginning of time. The church throughout history has often summarized that larger story into the following three acts: Created, Fallen, and Redeemed.

Created (Genesis 1,2)

In order to be a Christian, one must believe that there is a God and that this God has created us. Back in Genesis 1 and 2 we find God creating the world culminating in the creation of human beings. Those human beings are created to be in relationship with God, themselves, each other, and the earth.

If you take a look at Genesis chapter 2 you will find those relationships represented. Adam’s relationship with God is one of being the child with a father. God is providing for him, protecting him, instructing him. Then God tells Adam that “it is not good for man to be alone”. This is God’s way of introducing the need of every human to be in relationship with other humans. God solves this problem by creating Eve and giving her to Adam to be a companion and helper to him. Adam responds by professing his thanksgiving to God and admiration of Eve.

Then we find out that they are also in perfect relationship with themselves. They are said to be “naked and unashamed”. They are not self-conscious in any way wondering what the other might be thinking of them. And finally they are in perfect relationship with the earth. Adam and Eve are cultivating the garden that God planted for them and it is responding by producing good fruit for food.

Fallen (Genesis 3)

In Genesis chapter 2 (verses 16 and 17), we also see that there is a ground rule in the garden. God inserts an opportunity for Adam and Eve to choose to continue in relationship with Him or choose to separate themselves from Him. The ground rule is to never eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The consequence for disobeying this rule (i.e. forsaking their relationship with God) is death.

It doesn’t take long before we see that there is another voice in the garden. A serpent (we know to be Satan) adds to the laboratory of choice in the garden. He offers an alternative view of Adam and Eve’s existence. He proposes that God isn’t as good and trustworthy as they first thought. That eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil will actually not bring about death but instead bring about an illumination and an empowerment that God is trying to hold back from them. Adam and Eve choose to believe this other explanation of their existence and the result is horrific.

Just as God had promised, the consequence of their choice was death. While this death certainly included physical death, it also encompassed much more. This “death” spoken of by God included a separation within all those relationships that were mentioned earlier.

The first one that becomes obvious is the death in their relationship with themselves. They immediately try their hand at sewing so that they can cover up their naked bodies because now they are feeling shame and self-consciousness for the first time.

We then see a death in their relationship with God. He shows up for his daily afternoon walk with his son and daughter and instead of jumping into his arms, they are hiding in the bushes. This is the first time humans have known separation from God. God in his mercy, pursues Adam and asks him if he has eaten of the fruit. Adam reveals the death of his relationship with God and Eve by letting God know that it was “the woman” that “God gave him” that caused him to eat the fruit.

We don’t find out about the death in their relationship with the earth until we read the section in Genesis chapter 3 called “the curse”. It’s a listing off of the consequences that resulted from Adam and Eve’s decision to choose against God. In Adam’s section we find out that work will now be “toil” and that the earth will produce “thorns and thistles” instead of responding with fruitfulness to human cultivation.

It is a sad moment for humans. Like opening the exit door of a plane at 30,000 feet, a deathly chaos has replaced what was once a paradise. Paul describes this in Romans chapter 5 verse 12:

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned--”

But even in Genesis chapter 3, all hope is not lost. We see 2 glimmers of hope. The first glimmer is that God doesn’t seem to be done with humans. He sees the pathetically sewn fig leaves that they are wearing and responds by killing a few animals and giving their skins to Adam and Eve as clothing. It seems tragic that God would kill his own creation to take care of these two rebellious children but it is a foreshadowing of things to come in this larger story. Many animals will die for the good of humans before this story ends all pointing to the death of something much more precious than animals that will have to die to benefit humanity.

The other glimmer of hope is contained in Satan’s curse. In this curse, it is explained that Satan and human beings will be at war with one another for a good part of this larger story. The way this is stated is that God will put “enmity” between humans and Satan. Not only is the war predicted but so is the outcome. It is stated that Satan (a serpent at that moment) will strike the heal of the offspring of Eve but that this same offspring will crush Satan’s head.

While heal striking does not sound fun, it isn’t nearly as devastating as head striking. The hope in this is that somehow a human being will one day reverse the mess. The Apostle Paul follows up the problem of death in Romans 5 verse 17 with the solution:

“For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. “


Jesus eventually comes through the travail of many a birthing mother for the purpose of dying a death that would take on the consequences that were experienced by all humanity starting in the garden. The Apostle Paul writes it this way in Romans chapter 6 verse 23:
23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The wages for sin had to be paid by us or by someone else. That someone else is Jesus Christ. This then allows for the great exchange whereby through faith we receive the free gift of eternal life because Jesus was willing to receive an underserved death for sin.