The Gospel in the Gospels Method 2.2.2023

        When we hear the word “Gospel” our first thoughts are of the four books in our New Testament that record the life and ministry of Jesus. This use of the term is not the earliest. In fact, the Synoptics themselves use the term to describe Jesus’ own message. 

    The first NT author to use Gospel as a proper noun for the specific identifiable message about Jesus was the Apostle Paul. The earliest NT writing is the book of 1 Thessalonians. For the first, but certainly not the last time, Paul used the word “Gospel” to denote the specific saving message of Jesus. The Gospel is the message of the Church, the message that defines us, the message we preach. 

    A few years later, in his correspondence with the Corinthian Church, he described the contents of this message with greater clarity.

    “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” (1 Corinthians 15:1–8 ESV)

    This Gospel, which was common to Paul and the congregations at Thessalonica and Corinth, seems to mirror the content of our Gospel books, though in abbreviated form. One of our jobs as preachers is to make sure that when we preach from the Gospels, we preach the gospel. And though it seems easy, there are thousands of little rabbit holes down which we can go, straying from a clear articulation of how the story of Jesus forms the Church and nourishes our own story of faith. 

    During February we are going to pursue the theme: The Gospel in the Gospels. In framing the discussions, we need to consider methodology, the message of Jesus, the miracles of Jesus, and the Messianic consequences of His stories for our preaching.  We preach Christ. To do so means we must be intimately familiar with the story of His life and the stories that He told. This week we will discuss method(s). This is a crucial factor in overcoming more than 2,000 years of gravitational, historical shaping of the message. 

Gospel before Gospels

    The Gospel was preached before our Gospels were written. Proclamation comes before preservation, the message was articulated and formed the earliest Church before the Evangelists produced the books we now read to understand the story of Jesus.  We want to keep this in mind when we study and preach from any scripture, particularly the Gospels. Jesus saves. The Bible tells the story. Good preaching brings a listener into the story of Jesus. The written word without the Incarnate Word is impotent to save. Confusing the written and incarnate Word of God can lead to Bibliolatry.

Stories and Structure

    Tell me the Story of Jesus…Write on my heart every word. Every week you and I study and prepare and immerse ourselves in the Biblical text. We go spelunking in search of messages of life-giving hope for our congregations. 

    There are times we are tempted to enter the pulpit with a detailed description of the process rather than telling the story we set out to discover. There are times when our congregations need to “see our work” and there are other times when they just need to see the answer. Preaching requires us to strike a balance between the visibility of the structure and the potency of the story. Much of this balance comes from understanding what work should remain hidden in the Study and what needs to be trotted out in public. There is no formula, and I can’t tell you. A good rule of thumb, the “cooler” it is to the preacher, the greater its appeal to the Bible Student within us, the greater the chance that it will interfere with everyone else’s appreciation and understanding of the story. 

Plot and Purpose

    One last consideration. Jesus had a purpose. The earliest preachers had a purpose in preaching Jesus. When The Evangelists selected the stories of Jesus which had been preached and preserved those stories in the Gospels, they too had a purpose. At each of these levels: the ministry of Jesus, the preaching of the Church, and the writing of the Gospels a really good clue to purpose is plot. That is to say, as clumsy as this sounds: The story tells the story. Allow me to share a favorite quote by Edward Tufte. I dredged this up from memory, but I think I've got it mostly right, (clears throat) “Correlation may not imply causality—but it’s a pretty good clue.” Many people in the pew think of the Bible as incomprehensible, mysterious, and alien. That is not due to its content but to how we proclaim it. We have separated too much of the plot from the purpose. We have created such a gap between correlated elements in the text with identifiable causes and effects that it’s a miracle anyone understands anything. The purpose of a book or passage is often prima facie found in the plot of the story—right there waiting for us to proclaim what is there. That’s the job. Not to discover something new or notorious but to find the plotted purpose which has been there all the time and to tell that story compellingly, authentically, and powerfully.

Dependable, Trustworthy Guides

    The Reformation project of providing the Bible in as many translated languages as possible has led to a greater opportunity for Biblical literacy. In some times and places, this promise has been realized. At others, it waxes and wanes with the spirit of the age. Yet the Church has always acknowledged that common sense often runs aground on the rockier shoals of difficult passages. Though the Gospels themselves tend to be straightforward, there are occasions when the Synoptics are slightly different and John far different still. For this reason, God has, through His Holy Spirit provided Pastor-teachers, preachers who instruct the flock, leading to a greater understanding of the Scripture. 

    We need preachers who are dependable, trustworthy guides. Teachers who show up every Sunday. Teachers who have burned their eyes with Study. Preachers who do not say more than they know or who demand more or less than the Scriptures authorize. Men and women who teach not for glory but to guide God’s people, functioning as eyes and intellect for the Body of Christ. 

    What I am trying to communicate, week by week, in these little essays is this. The Gospel is important enough, the work critical enough, and the Church valuable enough to merit our best work. People want to know that you have been in the Word. That you have gone to the mountain to bring down riches from the Master. Your flock needs to depend on you to provide fresh bread. They need to learn to trust your judgment because you work diligently to earn it. They need to know that you will do whatever it takes and use whatever method is useful to squeeze every blessing you can from the Gospel.