Stay On Mission – 3rd September 2017

Stay on Mission
The Gospel Story

If you and I were sitting down over lunch and I asked you, “What is the Gospel?”, what would you say?
Hopefully, you would give an answer similar to this one…The Gospel is the story of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. And that is true because in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Paul tells us that very thing.
But does that mean that the Gospel Story is solely a New Testament story. Not at all.
The Gospel Story is the larger story of Scripture, declaring to us this grand narrative of a God who is on mission from the beginning to redeem and rescue mankind from the curse of sin. It is a story that begins in Genesis and weaves its way throughout the entire Old Testament, revealing to all of us why Christ came, why He died on the cross and why He rose again.
Remember Jesus’ encounter with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection? In Luke 24, we are told that Jesus (withholding His identity) drew near to these two men as they made their way to Emmaus, discussing with them the recent events concerning Jesus’ death and His possible resurrection.
They were obviously still confused about all that occurred and were questioning why it all had happened.
Notice how Jesus responds beginning in verse 25:
25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
In other words, Jesus shared with them The Gospel Story beginning with Moses…which is another way of saying, beginning with Genesis. And then He walked them through the writings of all the Prophets, revealing to them how ALL the Scriptures pointed to Him and why the recent events they were discussing had to take place.
At The Rooftop, we are committed to helping Christians understand how to engage the culture in which we live with the Gospel. But to do that effectively, it is imperative that we understand that the Gospel is more than just the New Testament story about Jesus…The Gospel Story is the story of the Bible. And it is a story that speaks into the everyday stuff of life.
It is a story that begins with Creation, tells of the Fall of man into sin, reveals to us God’s amazing plan to Rescue us from sin, and ends with the wonderful story of Restoration as God makes all things new.
Creation…Fall…Rescue…Restoration. That is the Gospel Story. And that is the story we will look at over the next few weeks.

John Whaley

Rooftop US Pioneer