The Big Picture of the Gospel

Sermon notes

By Nick Bibile

Dan 7: 13 I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Many have a narrow view of the gospel, we see the gospel only through the lens of the New Testament. What is the big picture of the gospel?

A nation will be born

God is going to bless Abraham and make his name great

Through Abraham will come a blessing.

There will be a blessing and a curse

All the families of the earth – blessed.

Gen 3:15 I will put enmity between you (Satan ) and the woman,
and between your offspring (Carnal, fleshly, worldly people) and her offspring (Spiritual man) he (Jesus) shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.

Ge 12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

A nation born – 100 yrs old Isaac was born.

God appeared to Isaac

Ge 26:24 And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.

Isaac’s wife – Rebekah had two sons – Esau and Jacob, Esau – carnal, fleshly, worldly man, Jacob spiritual man (The two seeds)

God gives a new name to Jacob – Israel

Jacob had 12 sons – birth of the twelve tribes of Israel. Out of the twelve tribes we see a nation is born.

Under the bondage of Pharaoh in Egypt, God delivered them by his mighty hand. Appeared to them in Mt Sinai, gave them the law to obey, tabernacle to worship, theocratic government as God was the king.

People asked for a king – Saul, later Saul became disobedient. God told Samuel to and anoint David who lived in Bethlehem, later Saul was killed in the battle against the Philistines and David became the king. David made Jerusalem his Capital.

David’s desire to build a house to God. God said, he will build a house to David.

2 Sam 7:12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.

Mt 1:21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

His people? Gen 3:15 the spiritual seed, not the physical descendents of Abraham but his spiritual seed – elected believing people of Jews and Gentiles.

Lu 1:68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,

Lu 1:77 To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins.

Re 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Salvation from the wrath of God. (Rom 5:9; 1 Thes 1:10)

Natural man is enmity with God. (Rom 8:7)

Jesus comes as the mediator, (1 Tim 2:5) became the propitiation (1 John 2:2; 4:10) , appeased God’s wrath and reconciled his people back to God.

Savior’s Mission

Luke 4:16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Kingdom of Heaven consists not only the believing Jews but also Gentiles

Mt 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Jesus told Nicodemus, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)

The Jews of that day were expecting a Messiah who will deliver the Israelites from the foreign yoke of the Romans, they were looking for a national deliverer and not a spiritual savior from their guilt of sin. If Jesus told Nicodemus, “Unless a Gentile be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” Nicodemus would certainly agree with Jesus. But Jesus said, “Unless a man be born again, a man is a Jew and a Gentile a man of any nation.

Jews were looking for a literal kingdom, where the Messiah will come and punish and destroy the Gentile nations but Israel will enjoy the blessings of his reign, if the Gentiles will not submit to his reign they will be destroyed.

Joh 18:36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world.

Also Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world” Meaning not only the Jews but also the Gentiles who will believe in him.

Jesus told the disciples to preach the gospel beginning from Jerusalem to all nations, including the Gentile nations.

Ac 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Fulfillment of John 3:16

Acts 2:5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” Peter gives his famous sermon at Pentecost and they were cut to the heart of their sins against God and three thousand were saved.

But Peter too like Nicodemus still had problems that preaching to the Gentiles. However God decided to use Peter to win the Gentile Roman Cornelius who was a God fearing Gentile. Peter went to pray, then he saw a vision.

Acts 10:11 and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” 15 And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” 16 This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.

Again God had to repeat three times to Peter. Eventually Peter realized that the gospel must be preached to the Gentiles also, the Gentiles too can come into the Kingdom of God. Peter said to Cornelius, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.” (Acts 10:28)

Acts 10: 34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

Acts 10: 44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.

Acts 11: 1 Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, 3 “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

God told apostle Paul “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’” Acts 13:47

Ac 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

So my friend, no wonder why Nicodemus could not understand when Jesus said, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (Joh 3:16)

The world is any Jew or Gentile who believes in God.

Eph 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself.

A mystery is something that was hidden before and now revealed.

What is the mystery?

The mystery is that the believing Gentiles are brought into God’s Kingdom

Eph 3:1 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. 6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Eph 2:15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

Beloved, let me ask this question, how can the Jew and the Gentile, the two can become one? By abolishing the ceremonial law.  The enmity between the Jew and the Gentile was the middle wall of partition. That middle wall was broken by Christ on the cross, now the two are reconciled together and in Christ, there is peace.

Gal 3: 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”

Rev 5:9 And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation”

Rev 7: 9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Remember the seed of the gospel, Genesis 3:15. The promise of redemption and salvation.

Ge 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

The seed of the woman is Christ and his members, his members are the true church of God. Principal reference to Christ as he alone obtained victory by destroying the works of the devil, yet it is also for his body the church that we will have victory, against this church the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. There will be enmity between the world and the church.

John 3:16 we see “For God so loved the world”

Now in John 15:19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

The world will hate you, you mean the true Christians, there is an enmity hatred, the kingdoms of this world and the kingdom of God is always at enmity, remember how the devil tempted Jesus by showing the kingdoms of this world.

Luke 4:5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time

Jesus in his High priestly prayer did not pray for the world but prayed for them (true believers) that were given by the Father.

John 17:8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

We see in a nutshell, God promised a Savior in Genesis 3:15. Two seeds will come one from the woman, the Savior and his body, the true elect of God or the believers, then the other seed would be the offspring of the devil, people who will never believe in Christ, they would be of the world. There is going to be enmity all the way through until Christ’s second coming.

Jesus preached the kingdom of God in hand and preached the Kingdom of God, which consists of not only the believing Jews but also the believing Gentiles, the mystery of God is that the Gentiles too can be in the kingdom of God.

Application

We are called to preach the gospel to every creature, only God can open the hearts of the unbelievers as salvation is of God alone, only God knows who are his. Our duty is to witness and to preach the gospel and God will do the saving. Besides all this, remember that, every hour we live, we are getting nearer Heaven, and sinners are getting nearer hell. The time in which we can serve Christ by winning souls is constantly waxing shorter. Our days are very few, so let us use them all for God.

You may say, I cannot preach, but you can help the ministry in other things. You can pray and support for God’s ministry. You still can serve God even in small ways. There was a Puritan preacher once preached a sermon and there were only two words in the text, “And Bartholomew” The reason he took the text was, that, in the Gospel, Bartholomew’s name is never mentioned alone; he is always associated with one of the other apostles. He is never the principal actor, but always second. That’s my point, you may not be able to do it yourself but you can help someone else in the ministry. Jesus helped us to be a helper of others.

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