What is the Gospel and what is Gospel ministry?

 There are a lot of ‘gospels’ going around. There is the gospel of heaven now – how to get as many physical blessing as possible as quickly as possible. More subtly, there is the gospel of ‘commitment’ – give your life to Jesus, surrender control to him, ‘get born again’, and God will forgive you, transform you, steer you to heaven (and bless you on the way if you walk closely with him). In the gospel of ‘heaven now’, stuff is king. In the gospel of ‘commitment’, decision is king.

The gospel according to the apostle John is quite different. Let’s look at chapter 3 briefly. We all love John 3:16. But first comes the conversation with a religious man about the need to be born again. The order is important: new birth, then belief.  Naturally we all love darkness rather than light (Jn. 3:19). The Light of the World turns up and our natural reaction is to run from the light like bats and owls or to try to snuff it out as our enemy. In our natural state we do not understand what true blessing is. We reject it when it stares us in the face. In our natural state we will never make a ‘decision for Christ’. We must be born again – a radical once-for-all death of our old man and the birth of a new man, no longer from Kisumu or Nyeri but from heaven. This new birth doesn’t come from our decision and will (Jn. 1:22); but from God and his will, as free and unpredictable as the wind (Jn. 3:8).

Once we’re born again now we have eyes to see and ears to hear the gospel. It comes famously in John 3:16 but it’s even clearer a couple of verses earlier: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Jesus is taking us back hundreds of years to the time when the people of God have just been rescued out of Egypt and they’re wandering around in the Sinai desert and grumbling against God – throwing his grace back in his face.  God sends venomous snakes into their camp; they start biting people and people are dropping dead all over the place.  And the people come to Moses and say, "Please pray that God will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prays for the people and something very weird happens – God doesn’t take away the snakes, he said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live."

Now that is a weird story.  But Jesus is saying that is exactly why I’ve come – I’m going to be the snake on a pole who’s going to save you from the plague.  The sinless one will become sin for us so that we can be called righteous (2 Cor. 5:21). He will rescue us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). As he hangs on a tree he will become the problem – become us, sinful flesh, corrupt humanity, evil and curse. The bowl of God’s wrath will be poured out upon that sin and curse and corruption until the bowl is completely finished. And how do we receive that rescue, that salvation? Just as the Israelites in the desert did – simply by looking.

 Believing in the Son means recognizing the obvious fact that I’m cursed, infected, perishing, in a desperate helpless state like the snake-bitten Israelite, and looking at the Son hanging on the Cross, being my sin, being me, perishing instead of me – and as I look I live, now and eternally.

So if that is the gospel, what is gospel ministry? Surely it is simply to lift up Christ crucified so he can be looked upon; to paint word pictures of Christ crucified before people’s eyes so that they can see him and live (Gal. 3:1). John the Baptist is a brilliant model of this. He doesn’t point to himself, he points to the Light (Jn. 1:7-8). He doesn’t try to ‘be Jesus to people’ – again and again he says “I’m not the Christ, I’m not the Lamb of God, I can’t do anything for you, I can only get you wet, go to Jesus over there, he’s the one who will be the sacrifice for your sins.” John is like a new Moses, lifting up Jesus, pointing to him as the one way of escape from the plague.

When John’s disciples notice that Jesus’ ministry is drawing bigger crowds than their man they start getting worried (Jn. 3:26). But John could not be happier. Here is a minister who is glad when attendance at his church falls, overjoyed when people walk out on him... so long as they head off south west to Judea to find Jesus. Because that’s his job – to point people to Jesus (Jn. 1:28). And he absolutely loves it – “The friend of the bridegroom rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn. 3:29-30). John’s great privilege and joy is in being the best friend of the heavenly bridegroom. And now he is the MC at the greatest wedding in history and his supreme joy is for the Bridegroom to be front and centre and for John to fade into the background.  John’s joy is ‘complete’, goes off the scale, overflows when Jesus is the centre of attention, when everyone is running to Him, looking at Him, finding their joy and salvation in Him. That’s being a servant of the gospel.

Article by: Andy Harker, servant of the gospel at iServe Africa.