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Gospel. G-O-S-P-E-L. It's an old word that has been in use for a long time. In the Greek, it simply means "good news." Before Jesus came along, it referred to good news from afar, usually given from a king to his subjects. Let's say that a king had decided to lower taxes or had given birth to a son who would be heir to the throne. He could either announce his gospel from his palace chambers or could send messengers -- heralds, as they were called -- to proclaim his gospel. If the king had good news, then all would be glad to hear it. And so the word gospel referred to good news that affected the whole kingdom; that was applicable for everybody; that all needed to be informed of.

When Jesus came along, He adopted the common Greek word of the day and applied it to His spiritual kingdom. That fateful day that Jesus walked into Nazareth to proclaim His desire to do great things there and for the first time stood up in His hometown and preached, He read the scripture in Isaiah:

He is quoting Isaiah 61 which simply says "to preach good tidings to the poor." But here that word is used: "to preach the gospel." And so we begin to find scriptures like:

A few chapters later, Jesus was still doing the same thing:

A year or so goes by and John the Baptist is arrested and in a moment of human doubt, he sends messengers to Jesus to ask if He is truly the One and Jesus responds:

The "good news" there is the "gospel!" And having answered this query of John, we find Jesus getting back to the crux of His ministry:

What was the gospel of this time that Jesus preached before His death, burial, and resurrection? What was the "good news" being proclaimed from this Heavenly King? It was the good news that Jesus was the Christ, the long awaited Messiah. The One who was the fulfillment of all of the expectations of the Old Testament prophecies was here! This baby born in a manger 30 years ago had perfectly fulfilled the scripture of being born in Bethlehem Ephrata. This son given would be as the prophet Isaiah said, the everlasting Father and the mighty God and the Prince of Peace. {Here I go preaching a Christmas message in the dead middle of summer, again!} But it is hard to only preach of Christ's coming once a year because truly it was good news! And not only that, it was good news from a far country! Our smaller text said:

You come in from a hot, hot day where you have been exerting yourself and you fill a glass with crushed ice and you know that feeling when your tremendous thirst is quenched by that icy liquid flowing down your throat! There's nothing like when you are truly thirsty, but yet that need has been fulfilled. So is good news from a far country, the Bible says. It fulfills the longings and makes one glad and sigh with satisfaction and pleasure!

That's why I have to preach about Jesus' coming in July or August or whatever hot month this is! Because this son born to Mary was truly the Mighty God and the Everlasting Father. It was news from a far, far country far beyond this world and beyond this realm. This baby had made a trip to earth from the throne of glory! And He had now grown up in this world but when He stepped into Nazareth and began to talk about "good news" it wasn't news from the land across the sea or a neighboring country, but it was good news from a far and distant country! That "far country" that Abraham looked for but never found in this life and had to die to obtain! And so it is worth talking about -- this good news of Christ's coming -- even today! Because it traveled a great distance to get here!

And it was obvious that Christ's tidings were from another realm because His good news was that a greater than Solomon had come to earth! Now the blinded eyes could be opened and the deaf ears unstopped. Now the lame could walk and the possessed and oppressed could be freed! Now the poor could leap for joy and the down and out be delivered of their depression and negativity! Truly, it was good news, because the "hope of Israel" -- the One that they had awaited had come! For years they had said, "when the Messiah comes, He will make it right." In the face of adversity and trial and hardship and uncertainty, they would sigh, "one day He will come." For four hundred years before the dawn of the New Testament they had gone through a dry spell. Four hundred years of no prophetic visions. Four hundred years without a direct word from God or miraculous occurrence. Four hundred years of dead church and dead religion! And all that they had to cling to was this hope, the hope of the One who was to come! This Messiah would make things all right!

And so when Jesus began to proclaim His identity, it truly was good news! Because the waiting was over! The One that they were waiting upon had arrived! Their "one day" had become "this day." It was good news form a far country and like cold water to refresh a thirsty soul, Jesus' ministry blazed upon the scene with good news for all in every possible predicament of life! The Messiah had come!

The early church of Acts had a word that they used often in greetings to people. It was "maranatha" which you may have heard of before. People take it to mean today "He is coming" but "Maranatha" literally means "He has come." The Jews of their day would go around and greet people by saying, "Maran" which was a messianic phrase implying, "He is coming." And so the early Apostolic church would respond to their Maran with Maranatha! -- "He has already come, why do you still expect Him!?" How sad that the Orthodox Jews still have this good news of Jesus' coming hidden from them. As Paul said, "their eyes are blinded" and so the good news has been proclaimed and yet they still seek for the fulfillment of what has already come!

If there would by chance be someone here today that this good news -- this Gospel of the kingdom -- is hidden yet still, let me proclaim to you good news from a far country! Jesus was a good man and a prophet and a good teacher, but He was much, much more than that! He is the image of the invisible God! God manifest or revealed in flesh. He was the One that the prophets of old prophesied. He is the promised descendant of David, the seed of Abraham, the lion that would arise to rule out of Judah. He is the Ancient of Days spoken of by the prophet Daniel -- the one who has always been and who will always be! He is the Rock in the wilderness bringing rest and living water to a people in need. He is the Bread from heaven which nourishes the hungry! He is the One born in Bethlehem, the Star illuminating and guiding us through the darkest night! To the shepherds, He is the Chief Shepherd and the bright and morning star signaling the soon coming of daybreak! Eve, He is the seed of woman that would crush the head of the serpent! Samson, He is the mighty man that through His death would destroy the enemy! Noah, He is the seventh sacrificial animal taken aboard the Ark! Jacob, He is the ladder reaching all the way from glory and descending to earth and He is the "Shiloh" that you prophesied about in your old age -- the One for whom all things are laid up in wait for! King Nebuchadnezzar, He is the fourth in the fiery furnace! This is the One the prophets proclaimed to come and One that the angels heralded! Good News indeed! It's all in Jesus: every ounce of prophecy of the last four thousand years had been fulfilled! You do not have to await for another, but I have good news for you today from afar: Maranatha! He has come!

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And so He came with the good news that He had come! But He didn't stop there. A life of ministry and power and demonstration came to a close with a death on the cross, and a burial in a tomb, and a resurrection from the grave! And so we find shift in scriptural meaning of the word "gospel" in the Bible at this point in history. Paul would later write the Corinth church and remind them of the "gospel" that was preached to them:

And so we find a shift in meaning of this "gospel" preached by the Early Apostolic church. The good news not only merely proclaimed His coming, but also the final result of that coming: the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ! We find Jesus using it in the new way after His resurrection before His ascension:

We find Peter proclaiming the gospel on the Day of Pentecost. He preached the "good news" that Jesus had not only come but had died, was buried, and then rose again on the third day! Later we would find Peter and John returning from the Samaritan revival:

And as the years go by, we find the newly converted Apostle Paul preaching the same thing:

What was this gospel -- this good news -- of the kingdom of heaven that was preached unto the Gentiles? Paul defines it clearly in the verses of 1 Corinthians 15 that we just read: they were proclaiming the good news that Jesus Christ had come and that He had died and was buried and rose again!

Some might say, "why is it good news that He died and was buried?" "Why not just proclaim the good news of His resurrection?" Let me pause here and say that it was good news first of all that He died. Because we are told that sin demanded a sin sacrifice and so the law had been given to teach us that. Thousands and thousands of animals slaughtered throughout the Old Testament all to teach us the principle very vividly that sin in the sight of God demands a death of an innocent one, if those who have committed the sin are to go free. And yet we are told in the book of Hebrews:

And we are also told:

And so for the Old Testament law to end and for the judgment of sin and death to be removed from you and I, there had to be a perfect sin sacrifice in the image of those who were the guilty, and we find that Jesus Christ came in a human body to be the sacrifice for us! And because He was the God of the Old Testament manifest in flesh, His death also ended the will and testament of the Law that was against us and ushered in a new testament and will called Grace and Mercy! None of that could have happened without death and so the death of the Lamb of God -- no matter how morbid it sounds at first -- is indeed good news!

His burial is good news, also, because it testifies that He was truly dead. The burial clothes were of such that if He had somehow survived the cross -- which we know from the testimony of the soldiers and His enemies that He didn't -- yet He would have been dead shortly in the tomb. His burial testifies to the fact that He died and thus we can rejoice in the fact that He truly shed His blood and paid the price for sin and ushered in a new covenant! His burial is good news!

His burial is also good news because it points to the good news of His resurrection! If He was truly dead and yet is now alive, it means that He conquered death, hell, and the grave and that the One who promises eternal life and a resurrection to those who follow after Him truly has the power to perform it! If He was truly dead and yet raised Himself up to be alive forevermore, then surely He can do such a thing in others' lives! If He could raise the dead before raising Himself, then surely after His getting out of the grave, He can still do such a thing!

And so we come to that resurrection! It is definitely good news, because it means that Jesus is still alive today and able to do everything that He has promised! The scriptures proclaim -- again in Hebrews -- that because of the resurrection, we can know that:

And so the resurrection testifies that He is alive and if alive He is still the same today as He has always been! And that is good news indeed! It is good news because that means that Jesus Christ is still a healer! He is still the mender of broken home and marriages and fractured friendships! He is still the prince of peace and the friend that sticketh closer than a brother. He is still the miracle worker and the winds and the waves of life still obey Him! He is still in control and Lord of Lord and King of Kings! He is alive forevermore and still the same and that is indeed "good news!"

And let me throw this in here for free: Over the last thousand years, the Catholic church has created a "saint" for every purpose and every walk of life. But if you know who Jesus Christ really is and have a revelation of His greatness, you don't need a saint because He is everything that you need! He is:

To the Architect: The Chief Cornerstone (1 Peter 2:6)

To the Banker: The Unsearchable Riches (Ephesians 3:8)

To the Carpenter: The Nail and the Door (Isaiah 22:23; John 10:9)

To the Doctor: The Great Physician (Matthew 8:17)

To the Educator: The Superb Teacher (John 3:2)

To the Florist: The Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley (Song of Solomon 2:1)

To the Genealogist: The Name above every Name (Philippians 2:9)

To the Horticulturist: The True Vine (John 15:1)

To the Jeweler: The Precious Stone (1 Peter 2:6)

To the King: King of Kings (Revelation 19:16)

To the Lawyer: Counselor, Advocate, Law-Giver, and the Faithful and True Witness (Isaiah 9:6; 1 John 2:1-2; Revelation 3:14)

To the Outcast: The Friend of Sinners (Luke 15:1-2)

To the Philosopher: The Wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24)

To the Sailor: The Master of Ocean and Sea (Mark 4:41)

To the Soldier: The Captain (Hebrews 2:10; Psalm 24:8)

To the Traveler: The Guide (Psalm 48:14)

To the Widow: The Husband (Isaiah 54:5; Jeremiah 49:11)

To the Zoologist: The Lion of Judah (Revelation 5:5)

Everything you need is still found in Him because everything that He has always been, He still is because He is alive forevermore! His resurrection truly is a gospel: It might have happened across the ocean in Palestine, but that just means that it is good news from afar! Jesus Christ is alive and the same yesterday, today, and forever!

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And so now we know what the good news of the gospel is, and with that understanding we come to our other text in 1 Corinthians. Paul wrote:

"If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost." How sad to have such great and glorious and good news and yet it be hidden. To be covered as with a veil to be unable to be clearly seen. The Gospel spoken of here is the good news that Jesus has come and died, was buried, and rose again on the third day. And yet it must be -- or Paul would not have written it -- that such good news is hidden from many today. Let me point out how that such good news is often hidden today, even in America, even in the South in the Bible belt, even in a country where "In God we trust is stamped on our coins." There are at least five ways the good news is sometimes hidden to people alive today:

The Gospel is hidden because many churches no longer preach it.

As radical and as ridiculous as it sounds, there are churches that no longer preach about the cross. There are churches that have "Christian" on their sign and their website and yet have removed all mention of "blood" and "sacrifice" from the pulpits and the song service. More subtly, there are many pulpits that teach you how to succeed in your career and how to win friends and influence people in society and never approach the subject of atonement and the fact that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin! Jesus Christ is not only the Savior of the world, but the ONLY savior of the world. Believing in no other can save you!

And there are some churches where the cross is preached but not with the fervor and intensity that it deserves because the people are bored with the message. They have heard it before and are like the Athenians who were only moved by "something we have never heard before." God forbid that the message of the cross would ever get old! God forbid that we would ever think a service wasted when the sermon was reminding us of who Jesus Christ is and how He paid the price of our sin on Calvary, was buried, and then got up! God forbid that we would forget and by our casualness demote and even hide the gospel. When the cross of Calvary is mentioned and the death, burial, and resurrection or identity of Christ is preached, guests should be able to tell from our response the importance of what is being heralded! We must never treat it any other way, than as fitting good news!

There are those who take offense at the preaching of a Savior and the good news that they can have forgiveness of sins. Because they do not see nor want to see the seriousness of their sins. After all, "most everybody is living this way." To admit that they need a Savior and forgiveness would be to admit that they have wronged a holy God and that they need to change. The Gospel is hidden from such people because they no longer want to hear about how that God abhors sin and that sin -- if not covered by the blood and sacrifice of Calvary -- will lead to eternal death and punishment from a holy God who will not bargain with such things. Why do you think people flock to the churches where the "s" word -- sin -- is no longer mentioned? Because they can remain as they are and feel justified, but let me remind you that you do need a Savior and that all of us have fallen short of the glory of God and need His powerful forgiveness and blood to cover our transgressions. Just because we live in a world that would rather come out of the closet than clean it doesn't make it right! To those who would admit and acknowledge their need for mercy, the Gospel of Christ is indeed good news!

I have gotten carried away in my introduction and have not time to do this justice. But imagine someone from a distant land discovering the cure for cancer and coming and living among the cancer wards of our hospitals and never opening their mouth and saying a word that they knew the cure. Magnify that crime by exponential amounts and such is the sin of Christians who know the power of the Gospel of Christ and yet do not open their mouth with a sin-diseased world! God forbid that we who have received mercy should hide it from those who need it!

In some churches, rituals are taught that emphasize the church's teachings and their own tenants and hidden and lost is the true meaning and importance of the gospel of Christ. Ask some people what living for God and His kingdom is all about and they will say it is about "christening and baptism at birth, and sponsors received for that event, and confirmation, and praying to saints and beseeching Mary and confessing to a priest and such." But all of those things hides the true message heralded by Jesus and His apostles. The Apostles never preached infant baptism; such things were invented by men hundreds of years later. The Apostles never taught confirmation, prayer to saints, confess your sins to a priest. Peter didn't get up on the Day of Pentecost and exalt Mary into a goddess or deity to be prayed for and to mediate between God and man. What Peter got up and preached was that Jesus Christ was the long awaited Messiah, and that He died, was buried, and rose again! He preached the Gospel of Christ, not the traditions of men not found in scripture! The good news of Christ is NOT that the church can save you or that a priest can forgive your sins, because the Church and priest can do nothing of the sort! The good news it that there is a man who can forgive your sins and that is the One who died and rose again! The good news is that there is ONE mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus! That is what Peter preached! He preached the Gospel of Christ and did not hide it amidst a bunch of things invented by historical figures who claimed to have the power to change God's Word!

Peter's message of the Gospel brings us to our final way that the gospel is hidden today:

You know what the Gospel is, it is the revelation that Jesus is the Messiah, the One who was promised to come and the good news that He died, was buried, and rose again. You must believe in Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus said:

Allah will not save you from your sins; Buddha and mysticism cannot save you from your sins; the philosophies of this world will not save you from your sins. Only Jesus paid the price and took your place in dying for those sins. Only Jesus can save you, you must believe that He is the promised Savior!

Furthermore, you must believe in the gospel:

You must believe that Jesus is who He said He was. You must believe that He truly died on the cross and was buried and was resurrected on the third day. It is not enough to hear the gospel, but you must believe the validity of this good news and believe in this good news. You must believe that not only is it historical fact, but that it has the power to save you as the scriptures claim!

And the vast majority of churches stop right there. But let me remind you of another commandment of scripture:

Do you believe in Jesus Christ? If "yes," then good!

Do you believe in His Gospel -- that He died, was buried, and rose again on the third day? If "yes," then good!

But have you obeyed His Gospel!? Have you acted upon it yourself? Because if you do not obey the gospel, you will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction. At least according to the verses that we just read.

When Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost, in Acts chapter 2, he preached a "gospel message" with the good news of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, but he did not just stop with commanding them to believe it. Rather when they had believed it and then asked what they should do, Peter told them how to obey the gospel:

Acts 2:38 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. ESV

The three things commanded there are no accident: we die to our old man and our sins through genuine repentance; asking God to forgive us and bring a change in our life so that we can live pleasing to Him. Colossians 2:12 says that we are "buried with Him in baptism." You must obey His death by going into a water grave with His name being placed over you! That old man that was dead to sin at repentance is buried and done away with! And then we receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit of God which is the power of resurrection in our life to make us a new creature! Those things are not outmoded and unnecessary, but rather are how we obey the Gospel! It is how the power of the good news of Jesus Christ is enacted personally in our lives!

If good news from a distant land is like cool water refreshing the parched tongue, then that is why Jesus said:

Heaven erupts in joy when someone begins to repent, because that means that the veil has been lifted and the gospel is no longer hidden because someone has not only believed it but has begun to obey it! And such news from afar reaches all the way to glory and causes celebration!

There are those who will not preach today what Peter preaches and through their omission, they have effectively hidden the good news of the Gospel of Christ from those who would gladly receive it! But today, in this service, the veil has been ripped off! Come and believe the gospel, but also come and fully obey it! If those to whom it is hidden are lost, then those to whom act on its revelation, must be saved! Come fully believe and obey the good news of Jesus Christ! And let the good news that you are obeying the good news of Christ cause heaven to rejoice!