CHAPTER 3 GOD’S GOOD NEWS!

Prologue
The purpose of the Holy Scriptures
God’s Great Wisdom
The history of God’s Good News
The purpose of God’s Good News
The Messenger of Jesus Christ
Preaching the Word of God
Preaching God’s Good News
Telling God’s Good News
Teaching God’s Truth
Teaching the Truth
Peter’s Message
Resurrection

Prologue
ACTS 12:24
“God’s Good News!”
(Paul)
COLOSSIANS 1:6
(adapted)
“God’s Good News is going out all over the world and is changing lives everywhere.”
(Paul)
2 CORINTHIANS 2:14
“… To spread the Gospel like a sweet perfume.”
(Paul)
2 TIMOTHY 1:1
“Jesus Christ’s missionary, sent out by God to tell men and women everywhere about the eternal life he has promised them through faith in Jesus Christ.”
(Paul)
2 CORINTHIANS 2:17
(adapted)
“Preachers of the Gospel – men of integrity, sent by God, speaking with Christ’s power, with God’s eye upon them.”
(Jesus to Paul)
ACTS 26:16-18
“…I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and my witness. You are to tell the world about this experience and about many other occasions when I shall appear to you. And I will protect you from both your own people and the Gentiles. Yes, I am going to send you to the Gentiles to open their eyes to their true condition so that they may repent and live in the light of God instead of Satan’s darkness, so that they may receive forgiveness for their sins and God’s inheritance along with all people everywhere whose sins are cleansed away, who are set apart by faith in me.”
(Paul)
ACTS 20:24
“…The work of telling others (other people) the Good News about God’s mighty kindness and love.”
(Paul)
1 CORINTHIANS 9:22
“Whatever a person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ and let Christ save him.”
ACTS 28:23
(Paul) told them about the kingdom of God and taught them about Jesus from the Scriptures – from the five books of Moses and the books of prophecy.
(Paul)
ACTS 26:22b-23
“I teach nothing except what the prophets and Moses said – that the Messiah would suffer, and be the first to rise from the dead, to bring light to Jews and Gentiles alike.”
(Paul)
ACTS 26:20
“(I preached to Jews and Gentiles) that all must forsake their sins and turn to God – and prove their repentance by doing good deeds.”
ACTS 17:2-3
As was Paul’s custom, he went there (to the Jewish synagogue) to preach and … he opened the Scriptures to the people, explaining the prophecies about the sufferings of the Messiah and his coming back to life, and proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

The purpose of the Holy Scriptures
(Paul)
2 TIMOTHY 3:15-17
The Holy Scriptures; and it is these that make you wise to accept God’s salvation by trusting in Christ Jesus. Every Scripture was given to us by inspiration from God and is invaluable to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives; it straightens us out and helps us to do what is right. It is God’s way of making us well-prepared at every point, fully equipped to do good to everyone.

God’s Great Wisdom
(Paul)
1 CORINTHIANS 2:6-16
Yet when I am among mature Christians I do speak with words of great wisdom, but not the kind that comes from here on earth, and not the kind that appeals to the great men of this world, who are doomed to fall. Our words are wise because they are from God, telling of God’s wise plan to bring us into the glories of heaven. This plan was hidden in former times, though it was made for our benefit before the world began. But the great men of the world have not understood it; if they had, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory.
That is what is meant by the Scriptures which say that no mere man has ever seen, heard or even imagined what wonderful things God has ready for those who love the Lord. But we know about these things because God has sent his Spirit to tell us, and his Spirit searches out and shows us all of God’s deepest secrets. No one can really know what anyone else is thinking, or what he is really like, except that person himself. And no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world’s spirit) to tell us about the wonderful free gifts of grace and blessing that God has given us. In telling you about these gifts we have even used the very words given us by the Holy Spirit, not words that we as men might choose. So we use the Holy Spirit’s words to explain the Holy Spirit’s facts. The man who hasn’t the Spirit can’t understand and can’t accept these thoughts from God, which the Holy Spirit teaches us. They sound foolish to him, because only those who have the Holy Spirit within them can understand what the Holy Spirit means. Others just can’t take it in. But the spiritual man has insight into everything, and that bothers and baffles the man of the world, who can’t understand him at all. How could he? For certainly he has never been one to know the Lord’s thoughts, or to discuss them with him, or to move the hands of God by prayer. But, strange as it seems, we Christians actually do have within us something of the very thoughts and mind of Christ.

The history of God’s Good News
(Paul)
ROMANS 1:1-5
Dear Friends in Rome, This letter is from Paul, Jesus Christ’s slave, chosen to be a missionary, and sent out to preach God’s Good News. This Good News was promised long ago by God’s prophets in the Old Testament. It is the Good News about his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who came as a human baby, was born into King David’s royal family line and by being raised from the dead was proved to be the mighty Son of God, with the holy nature of God himself.
And now, through Christ, all the kindness of God has been poured out upon us undeserving sinners; and now he is sending us out around the world to tell all people everywhere the great things God has done for them, so that they, too, will believe and obey him.

The purpose of God’s Good News
(Paul)
ROMANS 1:16-32
For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is God’s powerful method of bringing all who believe it to heaven. This message was preached first to the Jews alone, but now everyone is invited to come to God in this same way. This Good News tells us that God makes us ready for heaven – makes us right in God’s sight – when we put our faith and trust in Christ to save us. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scripture puts it, “The man who finds life will find it through trusting God.”
But God shows his anger from heaven against all evil sinful men (who break God’s Laws) who push away the truth from them. For the truth about God is known to them instinctively (naturally); God has put this knowledge in their hearts. Since earliest times men have seen the earth and sky and all God made, and have known of his existence and great eternal power. So they will have no excuse [when they stand before God at Judgment Day].
Yes, they knew about him all right, but they wouldn’t admit it or worship him or even thank him for all his daily care. And after a while they began to think up silly ideas of what God was like and what he wanted them to do. The result was that their foolish minds became dark and confused. Claiming themselves to be wise without God, they became utter fools instead. And then, instead of worshipping the glorious, ever-living God, they took wood and stone and made idols for themselves, carving them to look like mere birds and animals and snakes and puny (small and weak) men.
So God let them go ahead into every sort of sexual perversion (abnormal or unacceptable sexual behavior), and do whatever they wanted to – yes, vile and sinful things with each other’s bodies. Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. So they prayed to the things God made, but wouldn’t obey the blessed (holy) God who made these things.
That is why God let go of them and let them do all these evil things, so that even their women turned against God’s natural plan for them and indulged in sexual sin with each other. And the men, instead of having a normal sexual relationship with women, burned with lust for each other, men doing shameful things with other men and, as a result receiving within their own souls the penalty they so richly deserved.
So it was that when they gave God up and would not even acknowledge him, God gave them up to doing everything their evil minds could think of. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness and sin, of greed and hate, envy, murder, fighting, lying bitterness and gossip. They were backbiters (evil-minded, malicious talkers about absent people), haters of God, insolent (rude), proud, braggarts (boastful people), always thinking of new ways of sinning and continually being disobedient to their parents. They deliberately misunderstood, broke their promises, and were heartless – without pity. They were fully aware of God’s death penalty for these crimes, yet they went right ahead and did them anyway, and encouraged others to do them, too.
(Paul)
1 CORINTHIANS 15:3-9
I passed on to you right from the first what had been told to me, that Christ died for our sins just as the Scriptures said he would, and that he was buried, and that three days afterwards he arose from the grave just as the prophets foretold. He was seen by Peter and later by the rest of “the Twelve.” After that he was seen by more than five hundred Christian brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died by now. Then James saw him, and later all the apostles did. Last of all I saw him too, long after the others, as though I had been born almost too late for this. For I am the least worthy of all the apostles, and I shouldn’t even be called an apostle at all after the way I treated the church of God.

The Messenger of Jesus Christ
(Paul)
TITUS 1:1-3
From Paul: the slave of God and the messenger of Jesus Christ.
I have been sent to bring faith to those God has chosen and to teach them to know God’s truth – the kind of truth that changes lives – so that they can have eternal life, which God promised them before the world began – and he cannot lie. And now in his own good time he has revealed this Good News and permits me to tell it to everyone. By command of God our Savior I have been trusted to do this work for him.

Preaching the Word of God
(Paul)
2 TIMOTHY 4:1-5
And so I solemnly urge you before God and before Christ Jesus – who will some day judge the living and the dead when he appears to set up his kingdom – to preach the Word of God urgently at all times, whenever you get the chance, in season and out, when it is convenient and when it is not. Correct and rebuke your people when they need it, encourage them to do right, and all the time be feeding them patiently with God’s Word.
For there is going to come a time when people won’t listen to the truth, but will go around looking for teachers who will tell them just what they want to hear. They won’t listen to what the Bible says but will blithely (cheerfully or thoughtlessly indifferent and unconcerned) follow their own misguided ideas.
You must stay awake and watch out for all these dangers. And don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Bring others to Christ. Leave nothing undone that you ought to do.

Preaching God’s Good News
(Paul)
ROMANS 10:14-21
But how shall they ask him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them unless someone sends him?
That is what the Scriptures are talking about when they say, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of peace with God and bring glad tidings (glad news) of good things.” In other words, how welcome are those who come preaching God’s Good News!

But not everyone who hears the Good News has welcomed it, for Isaiah the prophet said, “Lord, who has believed me when I told them?” Yet faith comes by listening to this Good News – the Good News about Christ.
But what about the Jews? Have they heard God’s Word? Yes, for it has gone wherever they are; the Good News has been told to the ends of the earth. And did they understand [that God would give his salvation to others if they refused to take it]? Yes, for even back in the time of Moses, God had said that he would make his people jealous and try to wake them up by giving his salvation to the foolish heathen nations. And later on Isaiah said boldly that God would be found by people who weren’t even looking for him. In the meantime, he keeps on reaching out his hands to the Jews, but they keep arguing and refusing to come.

Telling God’s Good News
(Paul)
COLOSSIANS 4:3-6
Don’t forget to pray for us too, that God will give us many chances to preach the Good News of Christ for which I am here in jail. Pray that I will be bold enough to tell it freely and fully, and make it plain, as, of course, I should.
Make the most of your chances to tell others the Good News. Be wise in all your contacts with them. Let your conversation be gracious as well as sensible, for then you will have the right answer for everyone.

Teaching God’s Truth
(Paul)
2 TIMOTHY 2:19-26
But God’s truth stands firm like a great rock, and nothing can shake it. It is a foundation stone with these words written on it: “The Lord knows those who are really his,” and “A person who calls himself a Christian should not be doing things that are wrong.”
In a wealthy home there are dishes made of gold and silver as well as some made from wood and clay. The expensive dishes are used for guests, and the cheap ones are used in the kitchen or to put rubbish in. If you stay from sin you will be like one of these dishes made of purest gold – the very best in the house – so that Christ himself can use you for his highest purposes.
Run from anything that gives you the evil thoughts that young men often have, but stay close to anything that makes you want to do right. Have faith and love and enjoy the companionship of those who love the Lord and have pure hearts.
Again I say, don’t get involved in foolish arguments which only upset people and make them angry. God’s people must not be quarrelsome; they must be gentle, patient teachers of those who are wrong. Be humble when you trying to teach those who are mixed up concerning the truth. For if you talk meekly and courteously to them they are more likely, with God’s help, to turn away from their wrong ideas and believe what is true. Then they will come to their senses and escape from Satan’s trap of slavery to sin which he uses to catch them whenever he likes, and then they can begin doing the will of God.

Teaching the Truth
James 5:19-20
Dear brothers, if anyone has slipped away from God and no longer trusts the Lord, and someone helps him understand the Truth again, that person who brings him back to God will have saved a wandering soul from death, bringing about the forgiveness of his many sins.

Peter’s Message
ACTS 3:12-26
(A lame man is healed at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple)
Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. “Men of Israel,” he said, “what is so surprising about this? And why look at us as though we by our own power and godliness had made this man walk? For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and of all our ancestors who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. I refer to the Jesus whom you rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate’s determination to release him. You didn’t want him freed – this holy, righteous one. Instead you demanded the release of a murderer. And you killed the Author of Life; but God brought him back to life again. And John and I are witnesses of this fact, for after you killed him we saw him alive!
“Jesus’ name has healed this man – and you know how lame he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name – faith given us from God – has caused this perfect healing.
“Dear brothers, I realize that what you did to Jesus was done in ignorance; and the same can be said of your leaders. But God was fulfilling the prophecies that the Messiah must suffer all these things. Now change your mind and attitude to God and turn to him so that he can cleanse away your sins and send you wonderful times of refreshment from the presence of the Lord and send Jesus your Messiah back to you again. For he must remain in heaven until the final recovery of all things from sin, as prophesied from ancient times. Moses, for instance, said long ago, ‘The Lord God will raise up a prophet among you, who will resemble me. Listen carefully to everything he tells you. Anyone who will not listen to him will be utterly destroyed.’
“Samuel and every prophet since have all spoken about what is going on today. You are the children of those prophets; and you are included in God’s promise to your ancestors to bless the entire world through the Jewish race – that is the promise God gave to Abraham. And as soon as God had brought his servant to life again, he sent him first of all to you men of Israel, to bless you by turning you back from your sins.”

Resurrection
ACTS 5:29-32
But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our ancestors brought Jesus back to life again after you had killed him by hanging him on a cross. Then with mighty power, God exalted (God raised) him to be a Prince and Savior, so that the people of Israel would have an opportunity for repentance (to turn right around to God, a reversal of the past), and for their sins (their thoughts, speech and actions against God’s Laws) to be forgiven. And we are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, who is given by God to all who obey him.”
ACTS 10:34-43
Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that the Jews are not God’s only favorites! In every nation he has those who worship him and do good deeds and are acceptable to him. I’m sure you have heard about the Good News for the people of Israel – that there is peace with God through Jesus, the Messiah, who is Lord of all creation. This message has spread all through Judea, beginning with John the Baptist in Galilee. And you no doubt know that Jesus of Nazareth was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and with power, and he went around doing good and healing all who were possessed by demons, for God was with him.
“And we apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout Israel and in Jerusalem, where he was murdered on a cross. But God brought him back to life again three days later and showed him to certain witnesses God had selected beforehand – not to the general public, but to us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he sent us to preach the Good News everywhere and to testify that Jesus is ordained (decided in advance) of God to be the judge of all – living and dead. And all the prophets have written about him, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins (their disobedience of God’s Laws) forgiven (excused) through his name.”
(Paul)
2 CORINTHIANS 4:3-4
If the Good News we preach is hidden from anyone, it is hidden from the one who is on the road to eternal death. Satan, who is the god of this evil world, has made him blind, unable to see the glorious light of the Gospel that is shining upon him, or to understand the amazing message we preach about the glory of Christ who is God.