The Gospel of God [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Allen Wright. We announce it. We help people see it.

When you see it and you see what God's done in Jesus Christ, it changes you. This is what I want everyone to understand. You don't need more good advice.

That doesn't change you. You need good news. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light.

I am Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series we call O Bologna, a study of Romans chapters one through three, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. Now, if you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, we sure want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Allen Wright Ministries.

So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. And you can contact us at Pastor Alan dot org. That's Pastor Alan dot org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Allen Wright. Isaiah 49. Go up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news. The messenger of the euangelion. In ancient Rome, after a decisive battle had been won.

They would send a runner with the message of the victory, and they would sometimes run great distances to carry the news the battle has been won. And so when the announcement would come, the victory has been won at the battle of such and such. That was euangelion.

That's the good news announcement. Interestingly, we find the word euangelion in ancient inscriptions. And this particular inscription that we have found in town in southwest Turkey, just sort of south of Ephesus, in a town called Priene.

Priene. It is a place where there is an archeological dig and ruins that are there. And then this inscription that was found there that translates as, whereas finally the birthday of the God, Augustus, has been for the whole world the beginning of euangelion. Good news concerning him. So the gospel, the euangelion was even attached to the birth of Caesar Augustus.

Good news has come. The transformation of the world because Caesar's been born. So it's hard to imagine that Paul didn't at least in part have that in mind when he began his letter to the Romans and said, I've been set apart for the gospel of God, not Caesar, not of any human being or human institution. This is the gospel of God. And gospel is therefore very simply an announcement. It is the heralding of good news.

And this is more than anything else. What I want us to learn from Romans deeply is that this good news message just by being announced has within it power to change everything. It's an announcement like the angel that comes to the shepherds and says, don't be afraid because I bring you good news of great joy.

I bring you a euangelion of mega Chara. I bring to you the greatest joy the world's ever heard. And I just want to announce it to you unto you this day in the city of David has been born a savior. It's Christ the Lord.

And there you have it. It's the announcement. The announcement has in it power for transformation, so much so as we'll see. And we get to verse 16. Paul says what may be the actual theme of all of Romans. I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To the Jew first and also to the great to everyone. It is the power of sozo, which means healing and wholeness and peace and well-being and everything of Shalom that you could ever imagine. This is the power of God is being released in this gospel. If it is an announcement, then you might wonder, well, how does that actually change somebody? I was in an Uber this week for about 25 minute ride, and I'm I'm sort of shy and I don't usually get in the Uber and talk to this person that I'll never see again. You hear all the preachers tell stories about getting on airplanes and leading people to Christ.

And I get on airplanes and read books and write sermons and try not to talk. But this lady named Mary, we're riding along, mentioned a grandchild. Well, that just sucked me right in. I had no choice.

I'm in it now. So I'm talking to Mary and then Mary begins to share that she'd been going through some very difficult times. And I just felt of the Lord, I don't do this all the time just because I'm a preacher, I don't preach to every stranger, but I've got I'm all into Romans. And I just said, well, Mary, you know, there's a place in the Bible where it says that suffering produces endurance as you bear up under all of this and endurance produces character. And character, hope, and it won't disappoint you in the end.

And I said, I just think. God's making you stronger, said. Then I look up and she's grabbing Kleenex, she's driving me, she's weeping and she's driving. And she said, I have started praying again and I've wanted to return to my faith that I once had. And this is the very thing I was asking God for. And and so we spent the rest of our trip talking about the things of Jesus.

I didn't do anything for Mary, I just gave her a little bit of good news. John Piper said, imagine that there were American soldiers in captivity in a prison of war camp towards the end of World War Two behind barbed wire with little food. And they were hungry. They were thirsty.

They were sick. Some were dying and they're about to despair and give up all hope. And then a spy sneaks through and gets a note handed through the barbed wire fence to one of the American captives and announces the war has been won.

They will be liberated very soon. Then word spreads through all the captives and there's a new joy in the camp and the captors don't know why, but the captives do. You can imagine a scenario like that, just the word of good news, of the victory. It changes everything, doesn't it? It could be someone who is ready to despair of life itself, maybe fearing upcoming torture, who might not want to endure it, thought of taking his own life, but suddenly he's re-energized.

Someone perhaps who has been malnourished and might not be able to make it through, but finds himself sitting up in bed and taking the morsels that he can because he's quite intent on living now. And where there once had been nothing but sadness, there's joy. Just because a note got slipped through a fence, an announcement can change everything. And that's what we do. We announce it. We help people see it.

When you see it and you see what God's done in Jesus Christ, it changes you. This is what I want everyone to understand. You don't need more good advice.

That doesn't change you. You need good news. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. We're excited to tell you about Pastor Alan's latest book, Seeing as Jesus Sees.

It's just been released, and it's the giant secret of real transformation. Now, followers of Christ tend to focus on doing, so we've been told to ask, what would Jesus do? But even our noblest efforts to be more like Jesus ultimately fail for the same reason that pledging to keep the law never works.

There's no gospel power in our self-striving. But what if the secret to personal transformation and victorious living isn't found in doing as much as in seeing? Anyone who has ever had an aha moment or has suddenly discovered the truth of a situation knows that fresh vision changes everything. In his eye-opening new book, Pastor Alan Wright invites readers into a new, simple spiritual practice, a little breath prayer that can be prayed throughout the day. Jesus, how do you see this? It's a prayer that the Savior loves to answer, because after all, Christ came to be the light of the world. Clear away confusion, win over the darkness, and open your heart to wonder and joy by getting your copy of the book right away. And when you make a gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's new beautiful hardcover book. And as an additional thank you for your support, you'll also receive a free six-week Seeing as Jesus Sees companion video series from Pastor Alan, along with a study guide and a daily reading plan. Let Jesus take you by the hand and show you a whole new perspective for your life as you learn how to ask Christ for his eyes.

You'll start seeing as Jesus sees, and you're going to love the view. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. I often refer to, I guess, one of my favorite stories of the Old Testament, David and Goliath, which is such a great illustration of how good news changes you. Because there's a story about the army of Israel that is being taunted for 40 days by a Philistine giant named Goliath. And they're afraid of him.

Now, it's a story, therefore, about people who are living contrary to their identity and destiny. Their identity is that they are the army of the living God and their destiny is to conquer and maintain a land, not be overrun by the Philistines. But instead of being the ones that they are called to be, and that is the most courageous ones, the soldiers of Israel, they are the biggest cowards in the world because the Philistine giant has offered a battle of champions and said, you bring out your best and fight me and whoever wins will win on behalf of the whole army and eat on behalf of the whole nation.

And not one person, even King Saul himself, would be willing to fight Goliath. They're all cowards. They get there and they're dressed up for battle and no one will fight. They look like they're ready to do something and they do nothing.

They are a people who want to look courageous but inwardly have nothing but fear. Until this boy from Bethlehem comes, named David, bringing some bread to his brothers. And he gets there and he hears this giant and he says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should taunt the army of the living God? He begs King Saul to let him, David, the boy, go fight Goliath. Saul finally lets him put his armor on and Dave said, I don't want this armor.

He's familiar with a sling, an expert in the projectile military style of a sling. Malcolm Gladwell has written an interesting book about David and Goliath and unlikely heroes. And he says in there, David always knew he was going to win because he wasn't going to fight on Goliath's terms. But he picked up a stone, slung it.

Experts say it could go with such velocity that most certainly if it lands in the right place in the forehead could kill a man and it did. And then David runs over and the part we don't even read in our children's classes. Didn't tell my children until they were teenagers that David pulled out Goliath's own sword and decapitated the enemy. And word began spreading through the Israeli army. Somebody at the front saw it and they said, Goliath is down. David has killed him.

And then somebody says, he's beheaded the enemy. And word starts spreading like wildfire through the Israeli army, the cowards. And maybe the best line of the whole story comes at verse 52 of 1 Samuel 17. And the men of Israel and Judah rose up with a shout and pursued the Philistine as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron. So the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaarim as far as Gath and Ekron. I looked it up on the map one time, they chased him down for five miles. Five miles, they're just tearing them up, plundering them, taking them over, defeating the whole thing.

Because here's what happened. This group of cowards who dressed up for battle every day and fought nobody, all of a sudden got a good news message. A young Gileon came to them that David has defeated the enemy.

Our champion has won. The headship of evil has been decapitated. And all of a sudden they were completely transformed and they let out a big war cry.

Wahoo! And they started chasing them. Don't you know how these Hebrew people, they're just like us. They were just chasing them down. I know one sort of say, I was going to fight them myself tomorrow. But anyway, they're just like, you know, like I was always courageous.

Here we go. And they're just chasing down. They got energy, they chase them down, they fight them like the warriors they were supposed to be. What happened was a good news announcement of what their champion had done. And so suddenly the most cowardly people became the most courageous.

The people who were paralyzed became forward thinking. They were transformed by good news. And if good news of what David did against the enemy could transform someone, how much more so good news of what the son of David has done once and for all in the heavenlies, having decapitated, eliminated, conquered death, conquered disease, conquered evil, and reigns forevermore. He has removed the headship of evil already through his cross and resurrection. And when we hear the announcement, when we see it, when we believe it, when we receive it, we're changed.

The gospel is the power of God for salvation. Don't try anything else. Don't try anything more. Don't try anything different.

Don't try anything to mix in with it because that's the power. This gospel of God, Paul says, was promised beforehand. It's not new.

Not new. And he says, verse three, it was concerning a son who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the son of God, not declared in the sense of all of a sudden he became the son of God, but he was validated to be the son of God as he always was in power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection. He was confirmed.

This is God. So the gospel is the gospel of God, and it's all about the son of David, the son of God, Jesus Christ, who had been promised by the prophets, who became flesh, was proven, validated to be the son of God by the very power of the resurrection and is raised eternally. In order to really understand good news, though, as we will discover in the Roman epistle, you've got to understand the bad news. In other words, if there had been no Goliath, and the people had not felt enslaved by their fear of Goliath, then David's triumph means little. The joy of the good news only really makes sense in the context of the bad news. And that's why in these opening chapters we're going to see how Paul explains the problem of sin, what it is, and how much damage has happened by the blinding of our spiritual eyes. So if someone sees no need for what Jesus has done, then there's no good news to that person.

Nobody's ever saved without realizing they need to be saved from something. It's like someone has said that too often we present the gospel as if it's a flight attendant walking through the cabin on a smooth flight at 35,000 feet and saying, here is a parachute, put it on, it'll make your flight more comfortable. So some people take the parachute and they put it on, and they realize it's bulky, it's uncomfortable, and the other people that don't have it on look far more comfortable.

Why would anybody want that? But if the captain came on and said, we've lost all engines, we're going to crash, and there is nowhere to land, but the good news is we have a parachute available for anybody that wants one, all of a sudden the parachute looks wonderful, doesn't it? And we'll give you instructions on how to wear it, how to use it, and you'll be able to arrive safely. Now all of a sudden the parachute's really good news. Good news is only good news in the context of what's such bad news, and so we're going to learn about that and see what's the problem with humanity, and Paul explains all of that. This gospel that he references, I think beautifully, I love this phrase in Acts 20-24, the gospel of the grace of God, and New Testament references sometimes call the gospel of Jesus Christ or the gospel of His Son or the gospel of the kingdom or the gospel of the grace of God, the gospel of the glory of Christ, the gospel of peace, or an eternal gospel, Revelation 14.6.

Regardless of what you call it, there aren't multiple gospels. There's one gospel. Allen Wright, our Good News message, the gospel of God.

It's from the series O Bologna, a series of Romans, and specifically chapters 1 through 3. Now stay with us. Pastor Alan is back joining me in the studio sharing his parting good news thought for us all in just a moment. And we're excited to tell you about Pastor Alan's latest book, Seeing as Jesus Sees.

It's just been released, and it's the giant secret of real transformation. Now followers of Christ tend to focus on doing, so we've been told to ask, what would Jesus do? But even our noblest efforts to be more like Jesus ultimately fail for the same reason that pledging to keep the law never works.

There's no gospel power in our self-striving. But what if the secret to personal transformation and victorious living isn't found in doing as much as in seeing? Anyone who has ever had an aha moment or has suddenly discovered the truth of a situation knows that fresh vision changes everything. In his eye-opening new book, Pastor Alan Wright invites readers into a new, simple spiritual practice, a little breath prayer that can be prayed throughout the day. Jesus, how do you see this? It's a prayer that the Savior loves to answer because after all, Christ came to be the light of the world. Clear away confusion, win over the darkness, and open your heart to wonder and joy by getting your copy of the book right away. And when you make a gift to Allen Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's new beautiful hardcover book. And as an additional thank you for your support, you'll also receive a free six-week Seeing as Jesus Sees companion video series from Pastor Alan, along with a study guide and a daily reading plan. Let Jesus take you by the hand and show you a whole new perspective for your life as you learn how to ask Christ for his eyes.

You'll start seeing as Jesus sees, and you're going to love the view. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAllen.org. Back here now with Pastor Alan, sharing our parting good news thought for the day on the gospel of God. So the gospel means good news, but it also is a power that changes things. So the gospel is an announcement.

It's a heralding. It's a proclamation. It's not good advice. Good advice may be handy, but it doesn't necessarily change you or empower you. It's not good instructions.

It's not good principles. This is good news. So when there's an announcement of good news, there's something powerful that takes place that just absolutely moves you. And so let the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ, let that fill your heart to empower you for change. So it's like if an angel says to shepherds, I have good news of great joy, it does something to the shepherds. And every time you hear the good news, there's something that happens on the inside of you. So fill your heart with good news and you're empowered for change. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.