The word Gospel occurs multiple times throughout the New Testament. It’s first appearance is in Matthew chapter 4 and it’s last is in Revelation chapter 14 and most of the books in between use this phrase. Paul uses it more than all the other writers combined as it is found in all his writings except for Titus.
The Greek word is “Euangelion” and has historically been defined as “Good News”. While this definition is accurate it does not go quite far enough in helping is understand how the ancient Greco-Roman world used and defined this word.
In the classical use and definition of the noun euangelion, we see the idea of the message being good news, as we use it today. However, they took it a step further by recognizing the messenger. It carried with it a “reward for bringing a good message” and found much usage in the Roman military. When a military campaign was successful, the leaders would dispatch a messenger to go to Rome with the “triumphant message from the battlefield”. Upon arrival in Rome the messenger would deliver the “good news” and then be rewarded with anything his heart desired. Needless to say, this was a very desirable duty amount the soldiers.
Imagine how our world would change if we celebrated the messengers in this fashion today. If we celebrated the triumphant message from the battlefield as we rejoiced that another battle has been won! Unfortunately, we have stopped celebrating and started tolerating the message and the messenger.
Paul makes a very interesting statement in Romans 2:16 about the good news. He uses the Greek phrase, “kata to euangelion mou” which means “according to my good news”. Paul personalized the message with the use of the pronoun mou, (my). He declared that it was “his good news” not just some generic message about a random truth. He owned the message and declared that what he has been preaching will come to pass because his was a message of triumph from the battlefield.
Remember my friends, we are not losing the war or any of the individual battles. No matter what happens in the natural realm, the spiritual war was won when Christ went to the cross and released the curse of sin from all humanity. Jesus won every battle, past, present and future and always gives his offspring the victory!
2 Corinthians 2:14 “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in Christ’s triumphal procession and through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of him in every place. For to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” CSB
The Gospel is supposed to be GOOD NEWS so why have we become so fixated on the negative world around us? The lost know what is wrong! People don’t need to be reminded that life is a struggle when they are spiritually dead. They don’t need to have the darkness described to them because they live in it every day. Preach the light, don’t curse the darkness!
Light travels as a wave. Unlike sound, it does not require matter to carry its energy and help it move. This means that light can travel in a vacuum when no other life exists. Light is composed of particles called photons. These particles are alive and moving. Darkness, on the other hand, is not made up of particles but is simply the absence of light or illumination. When the light is gone, the natural result is darkness. Don’t preach to the darkness with a negative message of what is wrong. We are all aware of what is wrong. Tell those who are struggling in darkness, unable to move forward, that there is light and life in Jesus. Make it YOUR good news and preach it with a new-found enthusiasm.
For my good news I have gladly borrowed my brother Paul’s message to the Colossian Gathering and have made this my primary message of triumph from the battlefield:
Colossians 2:13-15 “This “realm of death” describes our former state, for we were held in sin’s grasp. But now, we’ve been resurrected out of that “realm of death” never to return, for we are forever alive and forgiven of all our sins! He canceled out every legal violation we had on our record and the old arrest warrant that stood to indict us. He erased it all—our sins, our stained soul—he deleted it all and they cannot be retrieved! Everything we once were in Adam has been placed onto his cross and nailed permanently there as a public display of cancellation. Then Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their prisoner; they were his! TPT
From this battlefield I tell you we have won the victory! And I celebrate every messenger who brings the message of triumph that Jesus is alive and has won our victory for us. If he is for us, who would dare be against is?
Will Sharples
R.A.G.E. Ministries, INC
www.rageministries.org
