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Introduction to Bible Basics

Lesson 10
The Gospel

The good news the apostles preached, how old it turns out to be, and what it asks of the person who hears it.

About 20 minutes Lesson 10 of 12 A tutor is available

Lesson 10

By the end of this lesson

You will be able to:

  • Say what the word gospel means, and where the English word came from
  • Show that the kingdom of God was the main theme of Christ's own preaching
  • Trace the same good news back through David, Abraham and Eden
  • Say what the gospel asks of the person who hears it
  • Explain what repentance is, and what it is not

Part 1 of 4

Two old English words

The word has been in English so long that it has stopped sounding like what it means. Taken apart, it is very plain.

Good news

God spell

In this Study we shall bring together many of the facts which we have learnt in earlier Studies. The English word “gospel” comes from two old English words, “god spell” meaning “good news”, or, as it is sometimes used in the New Testament, “glad tidings”. This is a good translation of the Greek word ‘enaggelion’.

Good news.

A messenger with good news. That is all the word says.

Check your understanding 1 of 10

The word 'gospel' means:

Good news

The centre of Christ's teaching

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all tell us that Jesus went throughout the land of Israel preaching the gospel - the good news - of his coming kingdom. Open each one.

Preaching the gospel of the Kingdom

“And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom”

Matthew 9 v 35
Four records, four different messengers, one subject.

“Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” John 18 v 37.

Check your understanding 2 of 10

Which of the following verses tell us that Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom? (select more than one)

This one has four correct answers. Choose them all, then check.

Part 2 of 4

Handed on, and not changed

He did not keep it to himself, and when he handed it on he was specific about what was to be carried and what happened to anybody who changed it.

Handed on

The disciples taught the gospel

When Jesus had told the good news to the disciples, he sent them out to teach others.

“And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick”

Luke 9 v 2
The same subject, in other people's mouths.

After his death and resurrection, Jesus told the disciples to go on with the same work,

“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved”

Mark 16 v 15 to 16

Believeth, and is baptized.

Handed on

The order is in the sentence

Put them in the order Jesus did.

Put them in orderUse the arrows to move each one up or down

What comes first, and what follows.

  1. and is baptized
  2. shall be saved
  3. He that believeth

Check your understanding 3 of 10

In addition to Jesus, who also preached the Gospel?

Handed on

The power of the gospel

From these last words we see that we need to know, believe and obey the gospel in order to receive salvation.

Know it. Believe it. Obey it.

Because of this, the apostle Paul wrote,

“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek”

Romans 1 v 16
The power of God unto salvation. Paul's phrase, not an overstatement.

We need to understand clearly the good news that Jesus and the apostles taught. Paul wrote again,

“Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed”

Galatians 1 v 8

Handed on

What the disciples thought it meant

“We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel”

Luke 24 v 21
Their disappointment says exactly what they had been expecting.

“Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”

Acts 1 v 6

The disciples went out preaching the good news of the kingdom of God before the crucifixion of Jesus. What did this ‘good news’ mean to them? When two of them spoke to Jesus after his resurrection, they told him they expected Jesus to set up the kingdom of God there and then. It was such good news that they wanted it immediately. Jesus told them that the time had not yet come. “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” Acts 1 v 7.

Check your understanding 4 of 10

When will the Kingdom of God be set up on this earth?

Handed on

Two men in white apparel

“This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven”

Acts 1 v 11
Two of them, promised his return.

This promise is the repeated theme of the apostles’ teaching as we read it in the Acts of the Apostles, and their letters. They looked for the return of Jesus to fulfil all of the promises which God had made concerning His kingdom.

Check your understanding 5 of 10

Who told the disciples as they watched Jesus going to heaven that he would return?

Handed on

The commission, with three words missing

Put the three words back.

Put the missing words backSelect a word, then select the gap it fills

“Go ye into all the world, and preach the to every creature. He that and is shall be saved”Mark 16 v 15 to 16

Check your understanding 6 of 10

How can you receive the promise of salvation offered in the Bible?

Part 3 of 4

Older than the word for it

For, although the word ‘gospel’ is only to be found in the New Testament, the good news of the kingdom of God is the basis of all God's promises from the beginning. The good news it names is as old as the third chapter of the Bible.

Older than the word

The gospel in Eden

In the beginning, after Adam and Eve had disobeyed God's commandment, we remember His words to the serpent,

“I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel”

Genesis 3 v 15
Spoken on the worst day in the record, and it is good news.

This was the good news, that the power of sin and death would eventually be destroyed. This was the work that Jesus came to do. Look up Hebrews 2 v 14 to 15.

Check your understanding 7 of 10

Which promise of God foretold that the power of sin and death would be a struggle for the human race?

Older than the word

Preached to Abraham, in the Bible's own words

We have studied God's promises to Abraham. The apostle Paul wrote,

“The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed”

Galatians 3 v 8
The same good news, told to a man in a tent.

When Jesus returns, he will raise Abraham from the dead, and all God's promises to Abraham will be fulfilled in every detail. These promises were confirmed to Isaac and to Jacob, and they too will be raised from the dead at the return of Jesus, and will receive places of honour in God's kingdom. Matthew 8 v 11.

Check your understanding 8 of 10

Which verse in the New Testament tells us that the Gospel was preached to Abraham?

Older than the word

The gospel to David

The good news of God's kingdom was told to David through the prophet Nathan - read 2 Samuel 7 v 12 to 16.

“I will set up thy seed ... I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever ... thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever”

2 Samuel 7 v 12 to 16
A real throne, in a real city, for ever.

Although the Israelites later forsook God, He did not forget His promises. We find them over and over again in the Psalms of David, and in the writings of the prophets. God, through the prophet Ezekiel, spoke to Zedekiah, the last king of Judah,

If the throne was promised for ever and the last king was about to lose it, something has to give. What did God say would happen to the kingdom?

When Jesus came, the angel renewed the promise to Mary, “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” (Luke 1 v 32 to 33).

Older than the word

The same good news, three times over

Match each promise to the person it was given to.

Match themSelect one on the left, then its partner on the right

Who heard what?

Check your understanding 9 of 10

Which prophet of God told David the good news of God's Kingdom?

Part 4 of 4

And now to us

The same good news, arriving in the same way it always has, and asking the same thing it always has.

And now to us

The gospel to us

This is the good news of God's kingdom that comes to us in the Bible message. Jesus will soon be back on earth to set up God's kingdom. Read Matthew 25. The three parables in this chapter teach us to watch, to work, to reflect the love of Christ if we too would have a part in God's Kingdom.

Turn each card here for what it teaches.

Watch. Work. Reflect his love.

And now to us

Repent, and believe the gospel

What repent is notAn apology, or a mood. Feeling sorry, and staying put.
What repent isChanging your ways. Turning round, and then walking the other way.

We have to repent, to change our ways,

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel”

Mark 1 v 15
Repent. To turn your life around.

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you”

Acts 3 v 19 to 20

“And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.” (Acts 17 v 30 to 31).

Before you go

The next step, and the next lesson

We need to follow Jesus - to change our hearts and minds - to be reborn through baptism, and our next study will teach us what that means. This, too, is necessary,

“For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ ... And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise”

Galatians 3 v 27 to 29
Abraham's seed. The promise in lesson 5 was about you.

Before you go

Which is why we pray for it

This is the gospel, the good news of the kingdom of God. We, like the disciples, long for it to be fulfilled soon. This is why we pray, as Jesus taught his followers, “Thy Kingdom come”.

“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”

Luke 11 v 2 to 4
Millions say it. Not many notice what it asks for.

Lesson 10

Summary

  • The word ‘gospel’ means ‘good news’.
  • The good news of the coming kingdom of God was the main theme of the teaching of Jesus and his disciples.
  • Knowledge, belief of, and obedience to, the gospel are necessary to gain salvation.
  • The gospel is taught throughout the Scriptures, in Old and New Testaments.
  • The good news is still preached to us.
  • We can gain a place in God's kingdom if we hear, understand and obey the gospel message.
  • We have to make a positive response to the call of the gospel just as Abraham and all the faithful servants of God in the past did.

Before you go

Passages for Bible reading

Read these passages

  • 2 Samuel 7
  • Psalm 96
  • Isaiah 55
  • Acts 9
  • Psalm 1
Acts 9 is the one. It is the lesson, happening to somebody.

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Check your understanding 10 of 10

Which disciple helped Saul (Paul) to be baptized as recorded in Acts chapter 9

You have finished lesson 10

You looked at what the word gospel means, at how much of Christ's own preaching was about the kingdom, at the same good news given to David, to Abraham and in Eden, and at the three things it asks of anybody who hears it.

Lesson 10 complete