Ep. 1 Finally, Some Good News

Speaker: Jesse Turkington

Summary: The Gospel is a pinnacle point in the story of the Bible but why is it important?

Jesse’s Personal Notes:

Finally, Some Good News

Introduction

As a kid, I loved listening to stories. One of my most vivid memories is listening to a storyteller tell the tale of a purple gorilla. 

I was sitting under a beautiful night sky, next to a warm crackling fire and I was enthralled with a fantastical story.

In that moment, I found the magic of stories. I’m not sure how to explain it but I found that almost everyone seems to like a good story. 

Interestingly, one of the most common ways that God communicates with us is through stories. He has a book that’s full of them. The Bible is filled with illustrative stories, with historical stories and poetry. Even Jesus used stories in His teachings, He used parables. 

The Bible is a storyteller’s dream because in it are so many individual stories, but from it comes a grand narrative. The Bible tells the story of mankind, not just our history but of our future. It’s the complete package. We can look back or we can look forward, but most importantly, we can look inward.

Who are we and why is God so interested in telling us stories? 

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Hey, welcome to Pickled Parables. My name is Jesse and I love the Bible. Hopefully, through this podcast, you’ll gain a love for it too. 

This podcast is provided by Parable Ministries as a resource of teaching and instruction from the Bible.

Parable Ministries was founded for the purpose of teaching, counseling and encouraging. And we offer podcasts and some special devotionals that are uploaded to our website at parableministries.com. So, if that sounds interesting to you, please check it out. 

Pickled Parables is our teaching podcast where we offer biblical exegesis and instruction for the sake of spiritual growth.

And we are very excited to have an immediate introduction of the biblical basics. 

So, welcome to our introduction series, let’s take a look now at what might be the most famous part of the Bible’s story. 

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The Gōdspel

The Bible is an incredible book and what makes it most fascinating to me is this consistent thread of a storyline. From the first page to the last page, it tells a detailed story. And that’s amazing because of how it was written. It took centuries to write and it took around forty authors to write it. That’s typically not how stories are written. It’s pretty unique. There’s no other book that was written and put together like the Bible.

This story, that’s told in it, is weaved throughout the entire book. And if you’ve heard of this grand story before then it’s possible that you might have heard of a portion of it called the Gospel. It’s probably the most famous part of the story and rightfully so because it’s the pinnacle, it’s the high point of the of it all. 

But if you’re unfamiliar with this story then the word gospel might not give much of a hint as to what this story is actually about. 

It’s like a title for this part of the story, it’s supposed to tease or describe the upcoming content. But this title might not activate much in our modern English imaginations and that’s because it’s an old word. 

Gospel is an Old English word that hasn’t been used much outside of Christianity. So, there aren’t other words like it that we commonly use and can draw comparisons to.

Originally, it was an Anglo-Saxon word that was pronounced as “gōdspel.”

If you dissect it and look at the root meaning, the word gōdspel meant “good spell” and at the time spell meant something like a narrative or a story. Today we think of spells as a magical practice or maybe you could sit down for a spell, something like that, but that is something the word has changed into. 

Similarly, the word gōdspel began to change over time into what we say today; “gospel,” and it means “good story.” Though today, we often refer to it as Good News. 

So, the main description that we have for this Gospel story is that it’s supposed to be a Good Message. If this were a chapter heading for this section of the Bible, it would be called the Good News. 

Why Good News?

So, what is this good news? 

Well, it starts in a place called Bethlehem. 

Centuries ago, there was a region wide census, where the Roman government wanted to count and catalogue their population. 

So, everyone within the empire had to go to their home town and check in with the city officials. 

 But one of the families traveling to Bethlehem was carrying a little more of a burden then the others. Metaphorically and literally. 

The carpenter Joseph and his new wife Mary were expecting their firstborn. But the circumstances surrounding this pregnancy were very mysterious and for some, a little suspicious. You see, Joseph did not cause this pregnancy and Mary was pregnant before they were married. 

Because of their culture, rumors easily became headlines.

I imagine that there was a lot gossip about Joseph and his new bride. And poor Mary would have received the blunt of it. I’m certain this was a tough start for this new family.

When they arrived in Bethlehem, it was time for the baby to be born but they couldn’t find a place to give birth. Everyone had traveled to their hometowns and Bethlehem was already at full capacity. 

So they found the most private place they could, a shelter for animals, and they delivered a baby boy there.  

Then later that night a bunch of shepherds came running into town. They were out of breath and causing a commotion because they were looking for someone. And as soon as they found this newborn baby, they bowed down and worshiped. 

What’s going on with this kid? 

How is this good news? This just seems kind of weird.

The Bad News

In order to understand and appreciate the good news of this baby, we first need to be aware of the bad news. 

The bad news started in a garden. It was a beautiful place. A little slice of heaven on earth. 

It was meant to be the epicenter of God’s creation. Because in this place, God dwelt with people. And not only did He rule over them but He invited them to participate in His royal authority. 

He gave them charge of the garden. He let them name all of the animals. 

God was still sovereign over them, the people were still under God’s protection and safety, but they were joint rulers with Him and He gave them a place of honor. God gave mankind responsibility and choices. 

Now you might be thinking, “That doesn’t sound like bad news. That sounds pretty good.” 

Yes, everything about this is wonderful. That’s why what happens next is catastrophic. 

God’s adversary, a created being who rebelled against God, came to the garden and tricked the people. This Satan took advantage of God’s people and he led them into a rebellion of their own. They rebelled against God. 

What this meant is that now the people were guilty before God because they deserved a punishment. They had lost their honored position and were ashamed of themselves. And they had lost their birthright. They were no longer co-heirs with God who received His power and protection, but they were now subjected to fear. 

Through this tragedy, the Satan became known as the prince of this world. Because mankind, the people who were given the world, had lost their crown. They had turned away from their God and they were now in danger of Satan’s rule. 

In essence, the bad news is that mankind had fractured their perfect relationship with God. They were now in a place of guilt, shame and fear. 

But God made a promise to His adversary. He said,

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall crush you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” – Genesis 3:15 NASB

This was a promise of defeat. A person would rise from the seed of a woman and crush this adversary’s hold on humanity. 

This is a unique promise because women do not produce seed. They carry the seed. So this gives the impression that something out of the ordinary was going to happen. 

But a promise was given, a Conquering Savior would come. He would be bruised (He would suffer) but He would win a freedom for mankind. 

As time went on, God continued to explain more about this promise. Prophecy after prophecy was given about this expected Redeemer.

And in one prophecy, it was revealed to a prophet named Isaiah that this Savior would be known by many titles. 

He said,  For to us a child is born, (the seed of the women) …

… to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. – Isaiah 8:6 ESV

This is a fascinating revelation because these are titles of God. 

Everlasting Father. The Mighty God. The Wonderful Counselor. 

But then Isaiah called this Person the Prince … the Prince of Peace. 

If he was talking about God why wouldn’t he just call Him the King of Peace? God is the ultimate authority, why wouldn’t He be called king?

Because I believe that God was teasing His plan. You see, the Satan was known as the prince of this world but God was going to accomplish something so great that it would bring peace to this rebellion and establish a new ruler of the world.

The government would rest on His shoulder, on this Prince of Peace. He would take a position of rule. He would one day rule the world. And introduce the Kingdom of God.

So the question now is who is this Prince of Peace? Is he somehow related to God? 

That was the question people were left with. Until, that fateful night in Bethlehem.

 The Good News

After the baby’s birth, a phenomenon of the skies opened up and an angelic messenger came to a group of shepherds who were outside of the city taking care of their sheep.

And this angel told them,

“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy (This is the Gospel) that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David (in Bethlehem) a Savior, who is (the anointed One) the Lord. – Luke 2:10-11 ESV

This is why the shepherds reacted with such excitement! This baby was the Lord. Which was a reference to God.

Now interestingly, Mary had received a similar message before she became pregnant. An angel appeared to her and told her. 

Behold (Mary), you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. (the Son of God). And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. (the government will be on His shoulder)”

 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. – Luke 1:31-35 ESV

So, the Prince of Peace is the Son of God! Ok, “prince,” that makes sense. But it doesn’t sound like God had intercourse with Mary.

So, how did God have a son if he didn’t produce Him? 

The angel explained it as if some who already existed, a preexistent person, was going to be placed in Mary’s womb. This was to be done by the Holy Spirit and by the overshadowing of the Most High. That’s what the angel said.

So, who is this preexistent person? 

This divine baby was God wrapped in flesh. God is presented in the Bible as a deity of three Persons, the Holy Spirit, God the Son and God the Father. Each is equally God but He exists in three Persons.

What this means is that this divine baby was in a unique situation where He was fully God, yet willingly became fully man. So, He could position Himself into a place that no one else could. Jesus was fully God yet fully man.

So that means that Jesus could be a substitute for the punishment of mankind and cover our guilt. He could reach out to us and give us a place of honor thus replacing our shame. He could offer us intimate protection from both the prince of this world and the righteous wrath of God.

This baby could be mankind’s salvation. 

That’s the good news. But that’s not all of it.

Once this divine child grew into a man, he launched a public three-year ministry to prepare the world for the Kingdom of God.

He taught, He healed people and He warned that mankind’s rebellion would ultimately lead to their destruction. 

But in another act of rebellion, humanity took Jesus and killed Him. And not just to end His life, they wanted to kill Him in the most painful way that they could so they nailed Him to a wooden cross and let Him suffocate. 

According to the ancient practice of crucifixion, the victim’s arms would be placed above their head so that it would become difficult to breathe. So, in an effort to empty the lungs of carbon dioxide, the victim would push off of their nailed heels to try to control their diaphragm. 

But time after time of pushing off their heels would result in the skin being rubbed raw. 

Jesus’ heels were certainly bruised but this wasn’t a defeat because Jesus crushed the serpent’s head. 

Jesus faced a punishment for something He didn’t do. He was shamed even though He was honorable. And he hung in distress because he didn’t exercise His divine power. He let them kill Him because He was sacrificing Himself for them.

Jesus died because He stood in the gap between mankind’s deserved punishment and the love that God has for them. 

But because of Jesus’ nature, death could not hold Him. Three days later, He was resurrected. He came back to life. And He offers this new life to anyone who wants to live in His victory. Jesus took a punishment so that we don’t have to. Through Jesus, we can have a restored relationship with God. 

He can remove our guilt. He can remove our shame. He can remove our fear! We can live the way that we were meant to live.

Jesus left this world to prepare a place for us. But He gave us the Holy Spirit and promised He would return to formally claim the throne of rule. 

He would instate the universal Kingdom of God and He would be in the fullest sense, the Prince of Peace.

Conclusion

This is the Good News of the Bible. In the book of Romans chapter 10:9 it says,“… if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” – Romans 10:9 ESV 

We must live in the victory of Jesus because we are wallowing in our defeat. We need restoration. We need salvation. And we can find that through Jesus.

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I want to thank you listening today. I’m very excited to begin this journey with you. 

This ministry is a personal passion of mine and we at Parable Ministries want to share the stories and lessons of the Bible with any who will listen. 

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Thank you again for listening, and I hope you have a great day.