Proclaiming the Gospel

MEMORY VERSE: “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” —Romans 1:16

LUKE 4:16-21

THE title of our lesson, “Proclaiming the Gospel,” calls for an understanding of what constitutes the Gospel. Our memory verse emphasizes the same point. When we say, as Paul did, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ,” what do we mean? The word “Gospel” simply means “good news,” or “glad tidings.”

Paul explains that the Gospel was preached beforehand to Abraham when God said to him that through hi.; “Seed” all the families of the earth would be blessed. Paul identifies Jesus as this promised seed of Abraham, and explains that as many as are baptized into Christ are also the seed of Abraham, and heirs according to the promise.—Gen. 12:3; Gal. 3:8,16,27-29

The Gospel, then, or good news, is the fact that God has provided blessings for all the families of the earth. The angel who announced the birth of Jesus spoke of him as a Savior, and in the plan of God he is just that. Through his death and resurrection he provided salvation from death for all who believe in him, and all will be given a full opportunity to believe—some in this age, and the remainder in the age to come. Through belief in him the people of the age to come will receive health and everlasting human life; those who believe and continue faithful during the present age, suffering and dying with Jesus, will live and reign with him.

Shortly after his baptism, and the three temptations which the Devil brought upon him, Jesus returned to Nazareth, his home town, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He was given a scroll which contained the Book of Isaiah, and he read from what we now identify as the 61st chapter: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Jesus’ anointing by the Holy Spirit identified him as the promised Messiah, the word meaning Christ, or Messiah. Many in Israel expected that their Messiah when he came would identify himself with powerful military forces, and become, by this means, a deliverer for them from the Roman yoke. But instead he indicated in this lesson that his ministry was to be on behalf of the “poor,” the “brokenhearted,” the “captives,” the “blind,” and the “bruised.”

Jesus, of course, did literally heal many of these, and blessed them physically in other ways, but his ministry of the Gospel gave assurance that at the future time of his kingdom, all prisoners of death would be released, and all the blind and bruised given health and an opportunity for everlasting life.

ROMANS 10:14-18

Here Paul stresses the fact that in order to call upon the name of the Lord one must believe in him; and that in order to believe the Word must be preached, and that this calls for preachers to proclaim the Gospel. Actually, all the faithful followers of the Master are “anointed” to proclaim the Gospel, which places a great responsibility upon each one of us.

Paul, in Romans 10:15, quotes in part from Isaiah 52:7: “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” To this Paul adds, “But they have not all obeyed the Gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?”

Paul explains further that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God,” and then asks, “Have they not heard?” Paul declares that they had heard. “Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world” In Paul’s day the world was rather a small place. The lesson here is directed largely to unbelieving Israelites, and the Gospel beginning at Pentecost, being carried from place to place by the faithful of that time, had doubtless reached the vast majority of them. But there were few who believed.

QUESTIONS

What is the Gospel?

Review Jesus’ outline of the Gospel as he presented it in Nazareth.

What is the source of true faith?

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