OverlapStudy guideReading the Bible
What Jesus meant by gospel, kingdom, and church
By the end of this guide you will be able to hear the word "gospel" the way a Galilean fisherman heard it, as the announcement that a King has taken his throne, and see why that turns a ticket out of this world into a job inside it.
By Tim Barber·
Photo by Sukaina Ali on Unsplash
A study companion to the video
The TRUE Meaning of “Gospel” is MIND-BLOWING
Watch it first if you can, then read with your Bible open.
Start here
This is a companion to the video "The TRUE Meaning of 'God's Kingdom' is MIND-BLOWING." It is for the person who has trusted Jesus for years and still carries a low hum of emptiness underneath, the sense that the part of life that counts begins after the funeral and everything before it is a waiting room. It is also for the person who loves Jesus and cannot find a room where they fit, for whom "church" has become a building at the end of the road rather than a family. If either of those is you, I wrote this with you in mind.
Here is how to use it. Watch the video first if you can. Then open your Bible to Mark 1 and keep it open beside you. Read "The teaching" straight through, because it carries the whole argument by itself. Then work "The passages" slowly, with a pen, checking every quotation against your own Bible; several of them you can verify in under a minute. Save "Questions to sit with" for last, and answer them on paper rather than in your head.
One thing before we start. Being right about the definition of "gospel" does not save anyone. Faith in Christ does. I have friends all over the map on the kingdom, the millennium, and what "church" means, and they love the Lord and love people. So read this the way I wrote it: convinced where the text convinces you, and kind toward everyone who reads it differently. But beliefs have consequences, and this one has more than most.
The definition you carry for "gospel" decides what you think your life is for. If the gospel is a ticket, your life is the line at the gate. If the gospel is the announcement that the King has come, your life is the first square of ground he is taking back.
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Now to the passages themselves. Read each one slowly, in full, with your Bible open beside you.
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Get the whole study guide
Seven more sections: the teaching, key terms, the glossary, every passage in full, questions to sit with, where to go deeper, and a PDF you can print.
The next step is a conversation. Bring what you wrote to the community, or go back to the video.
