Teaching Tuesday | Lesson 3: The Gospel with John Cueto

Welcome to the Teaching Tuesday for March of

2025. Today we're going to be talking about the

gospel. Most Christians have probably heard the

word before and have a vague idea of what it

means. They know it's got something to do with

Jesus' death and resurrection, but they may not

be able to articulate exactly what it is. Our

goal for today is to figure out what the gospel

is, what it isn't, and how to share it with others.

Our resource today is the book Systematic Theology

by Wayne Grudem. Systematic theology takes all

the information about a topic in Christianity

and groups it together in one place. It's a huge

time saver anytime we're studying a particular

topic, since the alternative is hunting through

the Bible looking for every reference to a topic

yourself. And you can probably imagine just how

many references there are to the gospel, so this

could potentially save us dozens, if not hundreds

of hours. Now within the church there are three

common uses of the word gospel, so which one

or ones are we talking about today? The first

is gospel music. You know, great music, a lot

of fun, not what we're talking about today. And

plus, you probably don't want to hear me sing.

There's also the Gospels, the four books of Matthew,

Mark, Luke, and John that tell the story of Jesus's

life and ministry. And it turns out that these

are actually what reveals the gospel itself.

And that's the meaning we're studying today.

It's the message that Jesus shares in those four

books that gets repeated for the rest of the

New Testament. Now, we're going to start in a

slightly different place than you might expect.

Instead of starting with what the gospel is,

we're going to start with the question that sets

the stage for everything else to help us understand

the importance of what we're learning about today.

And that question is, what is the purpose and

importance of the gospel? Theologians consider

it the central purpose of the church. They call

it the reason for its existence. It's been called

hope for a hopeless world and perhaps the single

most important piece of information that has

ever existed. It's definitely a big deal. Let's

see if we can find out a little more straight

from the source. Word studies, where we look

up where and how a word is used in the Bible,

are always a good first step. We get the word

gospel from the Greek word evangelion, which

translates to good news. You'll see these terms

used interchangeably in the New Testament in

many translations. One of these is the verse

we just saw in Greek, Romans 1 .16. Here it is

in the NLT version. It says, the Jew first, and

also the Gentile. So point one, the gospel has

to do with the eternal fate of our souls. We

also know that it's not something passive we're

just supposed to receive. The gospel of Mark

ends with Jesus telling the disciples to go into

all the world and preach the good news to everyone.

That's Mark 15, 16 in the NLT. It's also incredibly

important that we get the meaning of the gospel

correct. In Galatians 1, 9, Paul writes, Let

God's curse fall on anyone, including us, or

even an angel from heaven who preaches a different

kind of good news than the one we preach to you.

It's so important that we should be willing to

suffer greatly to share it. In Acts 5, the apostles

are arrested and put on trial for preaching the

gospel. They were whipped and beaten, but they

refused to give up, and the chapter ends by saying,

the apostles left the high council rejoicing

that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace

for the name of Jesus. Now that we've established

why the gospel is so important, we can finally

answer question two. What information comprises

the gospel? In other words, what is the kind

of good news that Paul preached that was such

a big deal? Now, unfortunately, there's no single

verse that defines the gospel completely, but

there are many that give pieces of the whole

gospel message. We can use them to start putting

the puzzle together. One of those is Romans 1,

3 -4, and we'll look at it in the NLT version.

It says the good news is about his son. In his

earthly life, he was born into King David's family

line, and he was shown to be the son of God when

he was raised from the dead by the power of the

Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ, our Lord. And

there are three things that we want to highlight

in this passage. First is when Paul refers to

Jesus as his son or as God's son. Second is that

it talks about Jesus's earthly life. And then

finally, it talks about the son of God being

raised from the dead. So we've got three things

here. We've got Jesus being divine or God's son,

we've Jesus living an earthly life, and then

Jesus dying and being raised from the dead. We

can also look at 1 Corinthians 15, 3 -4 in the

NLT. This verse says, Christ died for our sins

just as the scriptures said. He was buried and

he was raised from the dead on the third day

just as the scriptures said. And there are four

things we can point out in this one. We again

see that Christ died, but we see the reason why

he died, and that was because of our sins. We

see that he was buried, and we also see that

he was raised from the dead on the third day.

And then the final verse that can help us put

the puzzle together is John 3, 16 -17, also in

the NLT. This verse reads, And there are three

big points here. We see that God loved the world.

Jesus was sent for the world. We also see that

people who believe in Jesus are meant to have

an eternal life. This has something to do with

our eternal destiny. And then finally, we see

that Jesus is going to save the world that was

mentioned in that first point. And so this allows

us to put these verses together and the points

that we pulled out, and we can build a picture

of the gospel. Putting all those together, we

see that Jesus is God's son. Jesus is also a

human. Jesus died for our sins. Jesus came back

to life after dying. Something about what Jesus

did gives us eternal life, and there's also the

idea of the world being saved through Jesus'

actions. And it turns out we're almost there.

Christian theologian Miller J. Erickson analyzed

every verse in the Bible that refers to or describes

the gospel and came up with this short summary.

He says the essential points of the gospel are

Jesus Christ's status as the Son of God, his

genuine humanity, his death for our sins, and

his burial, resurrection, subsequent appearances,

and future coming and judgment. So let's take

a 30 -second look at each of those seven points.

When we say that Jesus is the Son of God, we're

pulling in a whole lot of different ideas into

that one sentence. First, we mean that he is

God because God is Trinity. There is the Father,

the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and Jesus is that

second person of the Trinity. It means that Jesus

is fully divine. We're going to see in the next

point that he's also fully human. But the fully

divine point is very important because when we

sin and that sets us apart from God, it can't

be a human that sets us right with God because

there's no human that can't sin. If someone is

going to make us 100 % right with God, it would

have to be someone perfect. And the only someone

that could be perfect enough to do that is God

himself. But then Jesus' human nature is also...

crucial to the gospel message. Jesus being human

allows him to be our representative and to take

the punishment that was meant for our sins. But

it also shows us the essence of what it means

to be human. Jesus is the perfect human. He lived

a life, he faced the same trials and temptations

that all of us do, but he was sinless. Now that

also leads into the third point of Jesus dying

for our sins. Because he was both fully God and

fully human, and he lived a perfect, sinless

life, he was able to take our sins. One illustration

I like to use when I'm teaching the kids is I

will pull out a trash can and a bunch of pieces

of paper. And I'll write different sins on the

pieces of paper, you know, like anger or lust

or stealing or lying. And I'll show them that

when Jesus died, it was like those pieces of

paper being thrown away. And we move the kitchen

into the trash can. But when Jesus comes back

out, or when I come back out of the kitchen without

the trash can, all of those sins have stayed

dead, just like the trash can stayed in the kitchen.

And when we talk about Jesus dying, it's really,

really important that we emphasize that Jesus

actually physically died and was buried. That

it's not just a theological thing, it's also

an actual physical death. He was beaten. He was

whipped. He had a crown of thorns put on his

head. He was nailed to the cross. He was stabbed

in the side. You know, he physically died. A

bunch of people took his body down, prepared

his body, saw his body, touched his body, and

then put him in a tomb and closed the tomb. He

was 100 % physically dead. And that's important

because Jesus was actually physically dead, but

then he actually physically came back to life.

This wasn't a ghost or a spirit or a hologram

or a hallucination. This was Jesus being reborn

in an actual physical body. completely healed,

just like the same one that had died and was

buried. And in this, you know, resurrected body,

Jesus appears to his disciples and many other

people after he came back to life. Now, the Gospels,

people used to think they were written decades

or hundreds of years after Jesus' life, but it

turns out that The Gospels were written very

soon after Jesus' life, some of them as early

as 30 or 40 years. Paul's letters were also written

much earlier than people used to think. The importance

of that and the importance of Jesus appearing

to the disciples and many other people is that

there were tons, hundreds if not thousands of

people who were alive, and if Jesus hadn't appeared

to them, they could have set the record straight.

And then finally, there's Jesus' promise to come

again. We know from many of Jesus' parables,

many of his lessons, and also from the book of

Revelation, that Jesus will come back a second

time. And on this second coming, he'll fight

the final battle against the devil, and then

the world will reborn into a perfect paradise,

and we'll all be reborn into our perfected bodies.

Let's also apply the lessons we've learned over

the past two sessions to make sure that our concept

of the gospel isn't being skewed by a modern

Western perspective. In other words, let's make

sure that our gospel is the same gospel Jesus

and the apostles taught. Now we could spend hours

on this alone, but let's take advantage of a

tool that the early church developed called creeds.

They're statements designed to express the fundamental

aspects of the Christian faith. They were often

created to push back against heresies that were

threatening people's salvation. Paul records

one of the shortest and simplest creeds in 1

Corinthians 15, 3 -5. It's a good sign that it's

endorsed by one of the apostles. It reads, Christ

died for our sins, just as the scriptures said.

He was buried, and he was raised from the dead

on the third day, just as the scriptures said.

He was seen by Peter, and then by the twelve.

And this is great. It doesn't get into the theology

of Jesus being both divine and human, and it

doesn't discuss Jesus' second coming, but it's

remarkably complete for only two sentences. One

of the more complex and complete ones is the

Nicene Creed. Since its creation, it's been the

gold standard of Orthodox Christian belief, and

was only updated to address certain heresies.

It includes everything from Erickson's essential

points. Although there have certainly been doctrinal

and denominational splits throughout history,

most modern Christian churches treat all other

Nicene -affirming churches as legitimate. Now,

we could look at other creeds, and maybe we will

in a future class, but the result will be the

same. Our understanding of the gospel is compatible

with those who first taught it. Now that we have

a good idea of what the gospel is, it's time

to revisit a point I made at the very beginning.

It's not enough to understand and believe the

gospel yourself, and it's not even enough to

just attend a church that faithfully teaches

the gospel. Jesus and the apostles taught that

we must be out sharing the gospel with the world,

even if it causes us great inconvenience or suffering.

It's a huge topic that some people dedicate their

lives to studying, so there's no way I could

do it justice in just a few minutes, but let's

look at some common evangelism techniques. The

first disease is called the Roman's Road. This

is an evangelism technique that was developed

by a pastor in the 20th century, and his goal

was to use the Bible to express the gospel message

in a short and simple way. It works really well

for a patient adult audience, especially if they

already have some respect for the scripture,

but it's less effective against a hostile audience

or people who are impatient or if you're very

short on time. The four verses that it uses are

all from the book of Romans, hence the name The

Romans Road, and they go Romans 3 .23. For everyone

who has sinned, we all fall short of God's glorious

standard. After you read this, then you briefly

explain that there is no person that is perfect.

We all fall short of God's standard. We all need

someone to help us. The next is Romans 6 .23.

It reads, For the wages of sin is death, but

the free gift of God is eternal life through

Christ Jesus our Lord. We presented the problem

in the first verse and now we're presenting the

solution. The third verse is Romans 10 .9. It

reads, if you openly declare that Jesus is Lord

and believe in your heart that God raised him

from the dead, you will be saved. So first verse,

problem. Second verse, solution. Third verse,

how we are able to access that solution. And

then finally, Romans 5 .1 reads, Therefore, since

we have been made right in God's sight by faith,

we have peace with God because of what Jesus

Christ our Lord has done for us. It ties everything

together, gives the person hope, and then helps

us set a foundation for growing the person's

faith and engaging them in discipleship. Sometimes

it's helpful to explain the gospel using analogies

and illustrations. You might have an audience

that needs help with abstract concepts like children.

Maybe they get stuck on certain points or they

just can't picture one of the things that you're

explaining. There are more analogies and illustrations

for the gospel than I could possibly include

here. You know, one was the trash can analogy

that I used earlier. Another one that I love

to use for the kids is I take them outside to

the set of concrete stairs. You can also do this

inside on a regular set of stairs, but the concrete

stairs are the ones I have access to here. But

basically the way it works is you have the kids

gather at the bottom of the stairs and then you

stand next to the stairs and you explain to them,

I'm giving you a task. Your task is to go from

the bottom stair to the top stair. However, you

cannot touch the ground, the railings, the grass

with any part of your body, not your hands, not

your feet. Not your head, not your butt, whatever.

And the stairs are way too high for somebody

to jump. So you present all this to them, and

then you ask them, how do you get to the top

stair? Now, hopefully what happens is what happens

here a lot. The kids start debating with each

other about different ideas. Could we get on

each other's shoulders? Could we pick up a kid

and throw him up the stairs? And eventually,

somebody will turn to me and ask me, are we allowed

to ask for help? And I say, well, yes. What would

you like? And they'll say, would you pick us

up and take us to the top stair? And that's the

solution that we're looking for. We're looking

for them to understand that getting to the top

step by themselves is impossible. But God is

there waiting for us to ask. And honestly, God

isn't just there waiting for us to ask. He's

standing there at the bottom of the steps with

a giant sign that says, hey, ask me to carry

you up to the top. I really want to do it. All

you have to do is say yes. And if you think that

kindergartners can't have a complete and accurate

understanding of the gospel, then you've never

tried explaining it to them in a way like this.

One of the most powerful, but also one of the

most concise ways of sharing the gospel is using

John 3 .16. I call it the short and sweet verse.

You know, if you're short on time or you're dealing

with somebody who's having a crisis, you tell

them John 3 .16. And when I said John 3 .16,

you probably already said to yourself the first

couple words. I bet you did. You probably thought

to yourself, for God so loved the world. That

is a powerful verse that really speaks to people,

whether they're having a busy, hectic, you know,

stressful day, or whether they're going through

some sort of personal crisis or a health crisis

or whatever it could be. It kind of stops people

in their tracks. It expresses God's love to them,

and it gives you a chance to express your concern

for that person. You say, hey, I'm here. I'm

listening to whatever you're going through. I'm

here to help. But I also want you to know that

God loves you. And when things are calmer, I'd

really like to talk to you about that. And this

sort of personal touch is important for other

evangelism methods too. One of those is sharing

your testimony. You know, maybe you're a new

Christian. Maybe you haven't spent a lot of time

reading your Bible. But the one thing that you

do know is your story. You can tell people what

your life was like before Jesus, what your life

is like now. You can explain to people what he

changed in you, what he saved you from. And that

can be incredibly powerful. You don't have to

have the entire Bible memorized or have scripture

verses and numbers memorized and a bunch of different

translations. You don't have to be an expert

in apologetics or know the entirety of Christian

history. You just start by sharing your testimony

and then invite the person to come to church

with you. Invite them to meet your pastor. Invite

them to do a Bible study with you. Your testimony,

your honesty and vulnerability, they create a

connection that God can use to reach even the

most hard heart. And then finally, speaking of

hard hearts, there's the tool of servant evangelism.

We do a lot of this around here. You see, we

do our flower giveaways. We do our backpack giveaway

where we give away school supplies. We do angel

tree where we help kids with incarcerated parents.

We do our Easter community events where we do

Easter egg hunts and we give people books. The

point is, when people look at the news, it's

easy to get a hard heart about church. When was

the last time you saw on the news all the good

things the church was doing? Probably not often,

but you've probably heard about all sorts of

different church scandals, you know, sexual scandals,

abuse scandals, money laundering, theft, all

sorts of horrible things. And so that is the

idea that many people in America have and probably

many people around the world have when they think

of church. And so servant evangelism is an attempt

to say to people, hey, we want to invite you

here. We want to show you God's love. We want

to help take care of you in whatever way you

need. No strings attached. You know, we don't

invite them here and then make them sign a contract

or recite a prayer or read a Bible verse before

they get their stuff. No, we invite them here.

We take care of them. We tell them that God loves

them. And if 5 ,000 people come to this church

and one person decides to start a relationship

with Jesus because of that, then it was worth

it. I want to wrap up tonight with something

that leads into next month's topic. What the

gospel does not include. We want to make sure

we're not bringing any personal or denominational

baggage into our gospel presentation. You know,

some things the gospel doesn't include are a

liturgy or worship style. God gives us a lot

of flexibility in how we carry out church. You

might like the high church style of a Catholic

mass or Lutheran service. Maybe you like your

pastor in a football jersey. Maybe everyone,

including the children, should wear a suit and

tie. You could have classical music, contemporary

Christian, hard rock. Absolutely none of these

things change the gospel message, and so we shouldn't

tie it to any of those preferences. We also don't

want to tie the gospel to a certain Bible translation.

With all due respect to the people who say the

King James Version is the only legitimate Bible

translation, the truth is that any legitimate

Bible translation should be acceptable. This

doesn't mean we accept heretical translations

like the Watchtower or the Passion Translation,

but we shouldn't put an undue burden on someone,

especially a new or potential Christian. If you

don't like the language of the NLT, but somebody

finds the NLT to be the easiest version for them

to read and understand, let's let them get the

gospel in a way that they can understand. Similarly,

we don't want to tie the gospel to our interpretations

of debatable scripture. You know, think about

the events and the timing surrounding Jesus'

second coming. There are at least 14, if not

way more, different interpretations of those

events and the timings. There are more than a

dozen ways that genuine Christians can interpret

the book of Genesis, but the core points of the

gospel are not debatable, so let's not muddy

them with secondary or even tertiary doctrines.

And then finally, here's the preview of next

month's talk on apologetics. It would be wonderful

if people listened and believed every time we

shared the gospel, but that's not reality. People

have questions, objections, and preconceived

notions about Christianity that get in the way.

And apologetics is a set of tools that covers

everything from why we believe that truth exists

to reasons why God exists and why we can trust

the Bible. It would be wrong to say that the

information we get from and transmit through

apologetics is part of the gospel, but it is

an incredibly important tool in sharing the gospel

with others. And so to wrap things up tonight,

I just want to toss today's resource back up

on the screen. The book was Systematic Theology

by Wayne Grudem. I highly recommend it. It's

one of my favorite books. And if you're looking

for a great 1 ,500 -page easy read that you can

sit down in an afternoon and go through very

quickly, I highly recommend it. As always, if

you've got any feedback or ideas, I would love

to do a question and answer type session in the

future. Please send all of that to john at hcb

.church. I also really want to hear from you

if you have feedback or questions or concerns

about any of the information that's been provided.

My goal is to make sure that all of this is accurate

and accountability from all of you helps me make

sure that it is. And finally, if you ever want

to get... The slides, you can get them at htv

.churchteaching, and we'll always upload the

audio to some of the different podcasting sites.

Thank you for listening tonight. Have a great

day, and God bless.