*What is the gospel?

G - God so loved the world, that He gave His
O - Only 
S - Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
P - perish but have
E - eternal
L - life​

~ The Gospel according to JOHN 3:16 

The gospel (good news) is the announcement of Jesus as the one true king of the world, the Creator of all the universe, and the promised Savior who fulfilled the prophecies of Scripture, who reigns with power not sourced in rank nor weapons, but in servanthood and self-giving love. By bearing all the evil and sin of this present age in His own body to death on a cross, Jesus inaugurated a new age in His resurrection where sinners are now accounted with His righteousness and His new life (life now in reconciled fellowship to Him and life eternally to come with imperishable bodies likened to His). The gospel declares that God, in His great love, justifies the ungodly by His own declarative word on the account of His own Son's sacrifice, legally declaring sinners innocent although having been proven guilty, and adopting them as full sons and daughters into His covenant family, as well as full heirs to inherit and rule His Kingdom (the new heaven and new earth) to come upon the present and fallen creation (ROMANS 8:17-23).

This gospel began with God's promise to Abraham to give him a family as countless as the stars in the sky (GENESIS 12:1-3; 15:5-6; 22:17), growing a people for Himself (Israel) to be His blessing into a depraved world of idolatry and evil, entrusting to them the mission to extend His glory and membership into His covenant family to all the peoples of the earth. This promise from God to Abraham would come by means of a representative of all the countless offspring - a singular offspring - Jesus Christ - who would be the fountain of blessing for Abraham's entire global family (GALATIANS 3:16). Through Abraham and His global covenant family, God would bring forth His Savior as its representative to fulfill the global mission by giving a fatal bruise to the head of the devil (GENESIS 3:15), reversing all the effects of fallen creation and inaugurating a new creation. This covenant promise of His Savior was reiterated to Israel's second king, David, whereby the LORD declared that He would raise up a distant descendant after David's days were past - from David's own body - who will establish the house, throne, and kingdom of the LORD forever (2 SAMUEL 7:12-17). So this Savior from David's line would be no ordinary son, for he would have an everlasting kingdom that has no end. This son would be an eternal son of David, eternally reigning on the throne as God the Son.

This gospel came to its climax when, in the fullness of time, God the Father sent His only eternal Son Jesus Christ, clothed in sinless humanity while still retaining the fullness of His divinity as God in the flesh, fulfilling His prophetic word to Abraham, David, and now to Israel through the prophet Isaiah some 700 years prior, as Isaiah prophesied concerning the coming servant of the LORD to carry upon Himself the sins of His people with great suffering and eventual death, in order to make many to be accounted righteous (ISAIAH 52:13-53:1-12). Through the sufferings of His servant, God's plan for Israel to expand His covenant family to the ends of the earth was fulfilled, for the Church was born out of the finished work of the servant Jesus, who became head of the church as her saving LORD - where all (both Israel and every other nation) are now included to sit at the same table together as His people, to partake of the same promises, to be adopted into the one covenant family of God the Father as His children marked by the righteous shed blood of His servant-Son Jesus Christ. By the covenant faithfulness of Jesus Christ (and not by our faithfulness or level of faith in Him), the prophetic word to Isaiah was fulfilled, opening up Jesus' cleansing forgiveness and resurrected new life to all people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to be grafted into His covenant family and promises (ROMANS 3:3-4, 21-22; GALATIANS 2:6, 20; PHILIPPIANS 3:9; HEBREWS 3:6). In Jesus, the promise to Abraham and David were fulfilled, and the curse on the first Adam was reversed (ROMANS 5:18-19). Jesus is the life-giving last Adam, reversing the effects of the death-giving first Adam, and all those included in Him are now stamped with His image to reflect His image into the world (1 CORINTHIANS 15:21-22, 45-49). Until He returns again from the heavens just as He ascended up to the heavens, Jesus remains vicariously present with His people in the sending of His holy Spirit - the equally divine yet distinct God (alongside Father and Son) present with His people at all times by indwelling their bodies as His residence. God the holy Spirit teaches, renews, brings to remembrance, and seals all that the Father and Son have said and done (JOHN 14:26; EPHESIANS 1:13-14; TITUS 3:5). The holy Spirit is the promised guarantee of salvation. The holy Spirit's permanent indwelling presence in His people is the promise that salvation can never be lost nor forfeited, but forever secure by the empowering holiness of the Spirit and faithfulness of Jesus Christ alone.

This gospel will come to its final consummation at the second coming of Jesus Christ (promised at an unknown and unexpected hour in the future), when those who have fallen asleep (died) in Him will rise first to imperishable bodies, and those who are alive at the time will be caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air (1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-18), whose earthly bodies will also be changed imperishable in a twinkling of an eye (1 CORINTHIANS 15:52). Then all the saints of the ages, together with Jesus Christ, will usher in the new heaven and new earth upon the old heaven and old earth, making all things new (REVELATION 21). The saints in Christ, as co-heirs and co-rulers with Jesus, will rule over the new creation (His Kingdom that will come upon the earth) with everlasting joy, justice, compassion, and glory for eternity, where the Lord Jesus Himself will wipe away every tear, death shall be no more, and neither mourning, nor crying, nor pain, nor the former things will remain, for God will dwell with His people in overflowing love like a bride adorned for her husband (REVELATION 21:1-4), restoring the the lost paradise of Eden's garden from original creation - just as it was meant to be before sin entered the world. However, those who have died without Christ and are alive at the time without Him will also be raised bodily to meet the Lord, yet this meeting will be for judgment to everlasting suffering and condemnation. This will be their second death to a never-ending torment for eternity, absent of the presence of God's grace by their own willful rejection of Him (REVELATION 21:8).

*Respond to the gospel today:


BELIEVE in the risen Lord Jesus
​
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
~ The Gospel according to JOHN 3:16

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.... For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
~ The letter to the ROMANS 10:9-10, 13

"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life."
~ The Gospel according to JOHN 5:24

"I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”
~ The Gospel according to JOHN 8:24


​EAT the Living Bread

"This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”  The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
~ The Gospel according to JOHN 6:50-58


LOVE God and in like manner, LOVE one another

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
~ The Gospel according to MATTHEW 22:36-40


TRUST in the LORD with all your heart

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
~ PROVERBS of Solomon 3:5-6


REPENT of your sins
and BE BAPTIZED, you and your children

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
~ ACTS of the Apostles 2:38-39

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
~ The Gospel according to LUKE 13:1-5

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
~ The letter of SECOND PETER 3:9


BE RECONCILED to God by Christ's blood

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
~ The letter to the ROMANS 5:6-11


BE SAVED by Christ's own mercy
and BE WASHED by the renewal of the Holy Spirit

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit
~ The letter to TITUS 3:4-5


BE BLESSED with every spiritual blessing in Christ
and PRAISE HIM for His glorious grace

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
~ The letter to the EPHESIANS 1:3-14


BE DEAD in your trespasses and sins,
BE MADE ALIVE by His great love, mercy, and grace,
and WALK IN THE GOOD WORKS that He's prepared for you as His workmanship

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
~ The letter to the EPHESIANS 2:1-10


GO and BEAR good fruit, 
ABIDE in Jesus, His words, His love,
LOVE one another as He has loved you,
and KEEP His commandments

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
~ The Gospel according to JOHN 15:1-17


SHOW your faith by your works

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
~ The letter of JAMES 2:14-26

*Share the gospel in six words:

​G - God - God created us to be with Him. (Genesis 1-2)
O - Our - Our sins separate us from God. (Genesis 3)
S - Sins - Sins cannot be removed by good deeds. (Genesis 4 - Malachi 4)
P - Paying - Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew - Luke)
E - Everyone - Everyone who trusts in Him alone has eternal life. (John)
​L​ - Life - Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever. (Acts-Revelation)

*Then, give an opportunity for response: 
(1) Does that make sense? If not, explain it again. If yes, ask (2) - 
(2) Is there anything holding you back from trusting in Jesus right now?

4020 Marchant Blvd Carrollton, TX 75010
​*northeast entrance doors near
​Hebron Pkwy & Nazarene Dr
*Every Sunday, 10:40AM, Ezra Chapel
*co-located with
​Bethany Korean Church of Dallas