School Of Evangelism Session # 2

Prayer for the Lord’s Blessing on the Lesson

All right, you may be seated. Let me ask the Lord to bless our time. Father, in Jesus' name, we do approach you this morning thankful that you do indeed rule the world with truth and grace. Lord Jesus, may you be glorified, magnified as we endeavor to learn today of your great commission work, that we would be taught and instructed in the ways of your good news, of your gospel that you've sent forth in the fullness of time.

Lord Jesus, may you be glorified and magnified in our time together, amen. All right, folks, if you were here last week and you had your book passed out, I'd like for you to turn to your homework page, as I am a stickler for homework, and I'd like for you to just have it open and I'm gonna walk around and congratulate some and discipline others.

I'm just kidding. No shame, no shame. I just wanna make sure that you're really pleased.

To see that the majority of you at least attempted. That's huge, that's a great start because I'll be honest, at school, I did not like doing homework, but when it comes to spiritual things, I'm much more inclined to do it because there's usually much more benefit to it.

The Testimony as the First Evangelistic Assignment

Now, why do you think that our first homework lesson was to share our testimony with another person? Why do you think that was our first homework lesson? That's right, that's right. You know, it's kind of a cliche verse that sometimes is often misused, but I think there's some power to it in understanding it this way.

In Revelation, it says that the saints overcome by the word of their testimony. Think about that for a second. We are overcomers through him who loved us. And what is it that we are to be witnesses of, but of this great salvation that Jesus Christ has purchased for you and I?

And you know, one of the things that we're gonna learn during this evangelism course is when we're talking to folks and we're doing apologetics and we're evangelizing, you know what's the one thing that no one can come against?

It's your testimony. You can't argue with one's testimony. You can't argue with a change and transform life. And so you might get in the weeds of someone on apologetic issues, on whether the Bible is true, whether Jesus was raised from the dead, all these issues, but we can testify of the truthfulness of it, why?

Because it's real, because Jesus has changed our lives. And that testimony is so important that we get to remember it, reflect on it, and share it with others, because brothers and sisters, that's gonna be part of our evangelism tactic at times.

It's gonna be to share what Christ has done in your life. And so I'm so pleased to see that many of you have done that and if you haven't, it's still not too late for you to do that homework. And I really encourage you to meet with someone and share your testimony with them so that you can get into the habit of doing it.

Sometimes as Christians, we only maybe share our testimony on occasion, like at a baptism service, or if we're in a group setting, men's group, women's group. But really, sharing our testimony should be something that we're doing regularly with people, even in the world, as you're trying to evangelize them and tell them of this good news about Jesus Christ.

Good News in a World of Chaos

And so if you are able and willing, please turn to, I think it's page seven, and that's chapter two, the good news. And I'm gonna read the first paragraph, and I wasn't probably very clear last week. I do prefer if you at least read ahead for the next paragraph, and also, if you're able, do the recap.

If not, it's fine, we can do it together as well. But just because I know that some of us didn't do the reading ahead of time, we're just gonna do the reading today as well, and we'll also do the discussion part.

And so I'll read the first paragraph. Have you watched the nightly news lately? Live in a world that is surrounded and in fact thrives on chaos and discord. It doesn't take much to become discouraged at the state of our world.

This world needs good news. Do you have any to share? In the New Testament, the word gospel means good news. Do you know?

A nation and a world that is struggling to find its identity, and looking into our, biblical leaders for salvation, we must ask ourselves, what message did Jesus bring to Israel that was such good news?

Amen, thank you. Is this working? Testing, one, two, three.

Testing, one, two, three. So in that paragraph, we find that, what kind of world did Jesus come into? What kind of world did he enter into? Was it a world that was peaceful? Was it a world that was united?

No. Jesus came into a world that was a mess. Just like we're entering into a world that's quite frankly, a big, huge mess. So if you look at what's happening in the world today, it can be discouraging, it can be scary.

And do you think the people of this world are looking for good news? I think they are. You know, whether they're looking for good news in the stock market, or looking for good news in regard to this Ukraine issue across the world, whether they're looking for good news as to the economy and things of that nature, people are looking for good news.

And one of the reasons why I think people are so cynical today is because there is so little good news. But folks, we have in our possession not only good news, but the best news. And what do you think that good news is?

I want you to, if someone can read the next paragraph nice and loud for me. Go for it, Fah.

But in reality, it is an act of grace. Their repentance means to turn away from something. And in the biblical sense, it is to turn away from the sinful course of life. A call to repentance is not an act of judgment.

Rather, it is a mechanism to avoid them. This is the key.

So this is really quite good news, the message of repentance. Now, when you think of that word repent, you probably, along with most cynical folks in this world, think of a street preacher with a big sign that says, God hates you, or God's gonna send you to hell.

And that preacher is yelling, repent, repent! And that's kind of the stereotypical view that folks have of a preacher. And specifically, of the call to repentance. But is the call to repentance a act of judgment, as most of the people in the world would consider it to be?

Is it an act of judgment? You know, we call something repentance, essentially folks feel like, you're judging me. Like, why are you calling, who are you? Are you the judge? Are you God? You know, there's a good phrase that's used a lot, especially in rap videos, only God can judge me.

Thinking that, well, you can't judge me, and only God can judge me, instead of that, really the reality of that statement should send shivers down their spines, but they use it as a license to continue in a sinful course without repentance.

And the reality of the situation, dear brothers and sisters, is that repentance is not a call to judgment, but it is a call to avoid judgment. So if someone were standing in front of the highway, and there was a car coming at 90 miles an hour, and you told that person to get out of the way, are you doing them a favor, or are you doing something on the opposite end?

Are you making them avoid calamity, or are you adding to their calamity? Quite frankly, we all know that if someone is in harm's way, and we warn them, we are doing them a great act of service. And the same is true of our gospel, which calls men everywhere to repentance, okay?

What does the word repentance mean? It means a what? Turn away. It means like a 180. I heard someone describe it once, it's like doing a 360 degree turn. And I said, no, that gets you right back where you started.

More like a 180, where you are changing direction, your posture of your life is no longer disposition towards a life of sin and self, but now towards the cross and the gospel. And so what a good news we have at our disposal, friends, to call people to repentance.

Now, one of the things that we're gonna learn over this course is how can we do that gracefully? Because again, we know that that word repentance comes with some baggage. We know that it has likely been misused by many street preachers who probably intend well, but are really harming the cause to some degree, especially of those who I wouldn't even consider them to be Christians.

You've probably heard of the Westboro Baptist Church. You guys ever heard of them? They used to be, they were on the news a lot back in like the late 2000s. And they were a church that were known for protesting soldiers' funerals, saying that God hates homosexuals, things of that nature, which are really just disgusting, unbiblical, ungraceful acts of, I wouldn't even call that evangelism.

But that's unfortunately, even though that church is only about 30 people, unfortunately, they ruined it for the whole lot of us because now people tend to think of Christian evangelism of someone protesting.

And is evangelism a protest? No, it's not a protest. Yeah, it's a small church. Yeah, yeah, like ours. But we can, if a church of 30 folks can do really bad, a church of 30 people can do really good. Amen?

The Kingdom of God, the Messiah, and the Gospel Message

Yeah, amen. So who'd like to read, Mario, would you like to read the next paragraph for me? There's a little bit more there. There's a lot of sentence. Just get the, maybe it was put together a little different.

You got it? Yeah. Today, the kingdoms of man are in disarray, but God's perfect kingdom reigns in the heavens and offers mankind true and eternal solutions. You know, one thing that, have you ever had a Jehovah witness knock on your door?

Right, raise your hand if you had a witness knock on your door before. That's right, okay. You know, one of the things that they do very interestingly is that they have a magazine that they call the Watchtower or Awake magazine.

Now, typically, the Awake magazine is a magazine that is dealing more so with like a current event issue, like natural disasters or economic issues. And so what they do is that they're trained to use the topic of that particular day.

So whether there's a calamity, maybe there was a hurricane that just hit, and there's a magazine that talks about it, they'll bring up current event issues and say, you know, how do you feel about what's happening in the world today?

And of course, based upon the discussion at hand, the answer is likely gonna be, well, it's terrible. It's terrible. And they have, it's a neat little trick they do. They help the person focus on the bad news that's at hand, and then they bring in their good news, which is their message about the kingdom of God and a perfect paradise that is to come.

It's a very good lesson for us to learn in that to some degree as Christians, we need to remind folks of the bad news in this world. Why do you think we need to do that? Why do we kind of need to remind folks a little bit of the bad news of the world?

Okay, absolutely. Anyone else? That's right. The gospel certainly is the solution. That's right, that's right, absolutely. You know, we need to help folks understand why the good news is good news. Because sometimes, even though the news on the TV, on CNN is bad, but their life may not be totally affected.

I mean, only a few people in this area might be directly affected by the events in the Ukraine, for instance, right? Unless they have Ukrainian family or friends or assets over there, they're not really probably, it's not affecting them directly, though.

To some degree, it may, of course, it's bad because it's in the back of their minds, but it's not affecting them. And we need to come to the root of humanity's problem, which is what? Sin. Sin is the problem.

You know what caused Putin to invade Ukraine? Sin. You know what's the problem at the root of your discontent in your marriage? Sin. You know what's at the root of some of the issues or most of the issues of your life?

Sin. That's why the gospel of Jesus Christ is so important, that we bring people to the true and eternal solutions that are offered within Christ's gospel. I'll read the next bit here. How then should we go about sharing this good news?

Should we go about town yelling on street corners for people to repent? Not necessarily. Methodology and context matters. Jesus knew his audience. He knew his context and was therefore a capable conduit of his message.

We too must know our context and develop a methodology that is effective in reaching them. More on that in a bit. But before we go around sharing the message, we must first know the message well enough to share it.

For instance, if you have a sales job, you must first familiarize yourself with the product you're selling. You invest time, money, and energy into learning your product because the better you know your product, the better you will be at selling it.

Similarly, as Christians, we ought to desire to know our gospel in order to be more effective in sharing it and seeing it bear fruit in our community. Has anyone here ever had a sales job? Now, I had a sales job and the first thing that the recruiter, because sales jobs are tough.

You don't really get paid well unless you're selling the product. It's usually by some form of commission. And if you wanna be successful, the first thing they say is know your product. Know your product.

And if you don't know your product, when you knock on someone's door, if you make a cold call, you have absolutely no chance in selling that product. Why? Because when you get a cold call, maybe from an insurance company trying to sell you some sham car insurance, like I get that phone call twice a day, how does that phone call make you feel?

Annoyed, right? It's like, well, I don't need this. I don't want this. Who, I didn't call you. You called me. You're cold calling me. I don't know what you're selling. I'm not sure if this is a scam or not, right?

And typically, the same is true for most sales jobs. No one called you. No one invited you to my home. So what are you doing here? The only antidote to that is really knowing your purpose as to why you're making that call or why you're knocking on that door and why this product could be beneficial to this person.

And so knowing your product, our product is not anything that we sell, but it is in fact the greatest possession that we have, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And knowing our gospel is going to help us tremendously and sharing it because you cannot share something you do not know.

You cannot share something that you do not yourself possess. And so learn the gospel. Be good, a good salesman, a good representative of the kingdom of heaven. One other tactic that you'll learn during this course, that's something that you'll learn over a sales job as well, is how to answer objections such as no, thank you, okay?

When you're in a sales job, you get that a lot. When you're out evangelizing, you'll also hear this a lot. No, thank you, I'm not interested, okay? Now, how should you as a representative of God's kingdom handle an objection like that?

How do you handle a no or I'm not interested? You could ask why, that's true. That's a great way of doing it. Anyone else? How can you answer that objection of no or I'm not interested? Yeah, shake the dust off your shoe.

That's a good biblical response. I think they'd be confused. That's great. You see, you're bringing your testimony into it. That's fantastic. You know, one thing that you need to be resolved of in your mind when you're sharing the gospel is that a no is not truly a no, okay?

You know, a salesperson is taught not to take no as an answer. And as a gospel proclaimer, I'm telling you the same thing. You do not take no as an answer. You know what their no really means? Not right now, okay?

It's not a no forever. It's just a no for right now. And I say, well, I appreciate you telling me that and I just want you to know that we'd love to get in touch with you maybe in a couple weeks or months from now and maybe your situation will change, right, and you try to get them to commit to a future thing.

And you know, most times they will. You know why? Because they're trying to get you off the phone or they're trying to get you off their front porch, right? And if they can delay it, then they will. And who knows what their situation will be like six months from now?

We don't know what seeds or what work the Lord will do in their lives. And so there is no such thing as a no in Christian evangelism. Every no is an opportunity to come back later. It's a not now, okay?

Unless they're very adamant about it, then you respect them because of course that's, we don't wanna be uncourteous to our neighbors. But we also wanna leave room for the fact that God is gonna work in that space.

And so between the time that you evangelize someone they're not interested, if you try to get a commitment to maybe come back later, then you allow there to be space and room for the Holy Spirit to be working in their lives.

And so that's a good little tidbit of information that I want you to remember and recall as we go out and try to do this kingdom work. Who'd like to read the next paragraph? Starts with vow of repentance.

Go ahead, Pastor.

Christ’s Death, Burial, Resurrection, and Salvation

Life, death, and burial, and resurrection is a means to the rule of the gospel. God desires all to repent and discern from death, and he wants to see the world move and transform by his kingdom. 1 Timothy 2, 4, Isaiah 11, 19.

The way that God begins to accomplish this work is through his promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus. Jesus is God in the flesh, and he earned to live a holy and blameless life. The Bible says that Jesus was without punishment, that is, without sin or personal faults, verse three of 119.

He was perfect in every way, and observed and upheld the law of Moses. And because of his perfect obedience, Jesus was the only person to ever live and to satisfy God's divine wrath and justice and be made a nice, perfect ransom, see Luke 5, verse 10.

Our Lord then suffered, bled, and died upon the cross before him for the sins of the world, making possible reconciliation and peace with God the Father, see Luke 5, verse 10. But our Lord did not remain in the grave, held back by death's power, but he rose from the dead on the third day, conquering death by his resurrection power that is now working in us today.

This is the doctrine of our salvation. Can someone go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15? And we'd like to read verses one through five. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses one through five. Probably one of the, among one of the most important verses you can remember, especially as we attempt this evangelism work, and the reason why this text is so crucial will be laid out as Paul introduces it. In the first verse.

So who would like to read 1 Corinthians 15, verses one through five?

Mario? As he was buried at his grave on the third day according to the scripture, and as he appeared to see this, then he did well. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time. Most of whom were still alive, though some had fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to Davis, then to all the apostles. Last of all, after one untimely mourn, he appeared all glory, for I am the least of the apostles. Unworthy to be called an apostle, I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace towards me was not acceptable. On the contrary, I worked hard at it. That's good there. Though it was not hot, but the grace of God had it.

Amen, right there we can stop, thank you. And so the first importance is what? What is the first importance? That Paul received, it's right there in the text. It's the gospel of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection.

This is the gospel that saves. There is no other gospel, no other good news that can be said, that can be heard, that could be received that saves other than that which Paul received and that which Paul preached.

The gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I want you to know. That's what I want to be ingrained in your mind as we bring this gospel good news to the nations is that it's all about Jesus.

It's all about his work. It's all about his sacrificial death, all about his righteousness and his glorious resurrection from the dead. This is what we need to do in order to preach the gospel is to know this good news of Christ's resurrection.

There's no better news. There's nothing that can be shared that's better than this. And so what are some other aspects of the gospel that we should remember according to what we just read from this paragraph?

What are some things that we want to emphasize? That's right, amen. What other things should be emphasized in regard to the gospel that we preach that can be found in this paragraph? When we're talking about the gospel, we're not just talking about a theological concept, are we?

It goes far beyond that. There's a practicality to it, which is this is the good news of Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection. It's what he did for you. Now, how does a person receive that? How does a person receive that?

Say again? Mythology, okay. But how does someone receive this good news so that it turns into salvation? By faith, okay. But how do we explain that? How do you explain faith to the average person? Trust, conviction of the things unseen?

Yeah, yeah. You know, if you ask the average person what faith is, they'll probably tell you something to disagree. Faith is believing in something you have no evidence for. You ever heard faith described that way?

Yeah. Did you know that that's not what faith is? Of course, we know that, but there's a word for that, and it's called blind faith. Blind faith means not having any evidence or assurance of the things that you're hoping for.

But that's not what we find in scripture, is it, in Hebrews 11, verse one, of what true faith is. True faith isn't just a blanket hope that it works out, but it's a conviction. It's an assurance of the things hoped for and of the things unseen.

Also, what we need to emphasize is that repentance and the kingdom of God are the ultimate goal of which Christ's ministry, through his death, birth, and resurrection, is accomplishing. He wants you to repent of your sins so that you can become a kingdom citizen, because one day, God's kingdom will stand above all the kingdoms of the world, and there will be no other kingdom but his kingdom.

We see that promise in Daniel, chapter two, verse 44, that his kingdom will put an end to all other kingdoms. And so really, when we talk to folks about the issues of mankind, the issues surrounding the day, a lot of it can become very political very quickly.

And instead of being diplomats for a political party or cause, whether it's the Republican Party or the Democratic Party or any party in between, we are ambassadors of a completely different system, of a completely different party.

And it's not the elephant or the donkey, but it's the lamb, amen? It's the lamb. That's who we represent. And that's the true system that will change mankind. You know, people in this world, they want healthcare, they wanna be taken care of, they want a big brother to look after them.

Well, we have a big brother. His name is Jesus. And this Jesus, though he doesn't give you health insurance, he gives you eternal life. And that's a secure blessing that we receive from him. I'm gonna read the next paragraph.

There is no better news than the good news of Jesus's life, death, and resurrection, for it opens a door for repentance and the manifestation of the kingdom of heaven right here on the earth. In a nutshell, the good news is that Jesus saves.

Don't you want the unbelieving world to come to know this Jesus who saves? How can you begin to share this good news? You know, when I say that the gospel of the resurrection of Jesus opens the door for repentance and the manifestation of the kingdom of heaven right here on earth, I mean that.

You know, one of the things that I'm so pleased with of this church is that every Sunday after service, we get to eat together. Not only is that pleasing because I'm usually really hungry after service, but it's also very pleasing to me because it's a picture of heaven.

It really is. Even some of us were here yesterday after the service or the ministry, and we were fellowshipping and eating together as well and playing games on the field here, and that's a picture of heaven.

Really, Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church is a little piece of heaven right here in the heart of Silicon Valley. That's how we need to view this church. That's how we need to view the work that we're doing here.

This is a piece of heaven, a piece of God's kingdom right here in this world. How sweet is that? Don't you want others to come to receive that sweet piece of heaven as well? Don't you want others to also receive that joy, that sweet fellowship, that sweet word that comes from the Bible?

And so this is so good. So how can we begin to share this good news? Here's the answer. Next paragraph, start small. Start small. Jesus spent his earthly ministry in small towns and villages, investing time and teaching into his 12 disciples.

Take your time to learn the basics of the Bible and begin to identify your mission field. What is a mission field? I want you to turn to Matthew 13, 38. Can someone read that for me, please? Matthew 13, 38.

Interesting. So the field, think of the fields. Jesus uses this imagery often of the fields. Now, Jesus said the field represents what? The world. The world is the field. The world is your mission field.

And what's the seed? The seed is, say it again. What does it say in the text? It's the word of God. It's the word of God. And we're sowers. We're farmers. I'm not sure, you know, in Wisconsin, I knew a lot of farmers and I got to work on a, live on a farm, actually.

I lived on a farm for two years in Wisconsin. And you'd think I'd know a thing or two about farming, but I still don't know much about farming. I know how to eat what comes out of the ground and that's about it.

But one of the things that we're called to as Christians, as missionaries, as ambassadors of God's kingdom, is we're called to be sowers and the world is our mission field. And to bring that down even more locally, your world is your mission field.

So think about what that means. What is your world? Well, your world is your place of employment, your place of school, your place where you have friends and you have life happening, whether it's at home, whether it's at whatever context God has placed you in, that's your mission field.

Now, I know that might sound frustrating, like you're, say a whole mom, like, man, my mission field is my home. The answer is yes, and you've got little ones and that's your mission field. If you are at school, then that school is your mission field.

If you have a job, that job is your mission field. Wherever it is that God has placed you, that is your mission field. And so we identify the mission field that way. Jesus says that the world is the mission field.

Next on in this paragraph, therefore, your mission field means your world. That is your immediate context. That is determined by where you live, where you work, go to school and play. One's first mission field is the home, whether you are in a believing household or not, your first mission is to share Jesus and make him known in your home.

That means sharing the love and knowledge of Christ to everyone who lives and visits our home. God is calling us all to love and minister to those of our own household. That is why the Bible teaches parents to teach the way of God to our children from an early age because they are our first mission field.

And that's something that I'm very pleased about in this life of this church as well. So that is an emphasis of our church. And isn't that, we have a family worship as a requirement, I think, right, of membership here.

And so that is a, and I think that's a wise thing because really, our first mission field is our home and our children should be the disciples that we are trying to produce for God's kingdom. And so that's a huge emphasis because we're raising up the next generation right in our homes.

After that comes your neighbors. To those who live around you, do they know that you are a Christian? Do they see Christ-like qualities or do they see worldly qualities from you in your house? Some may become discouraged at the thought of having gospel conversations with our neighbors because it is possible that they've seen defects in your walk and character.

Remember that no one on this side of eternity is perfect. We all have a past to contend with and baggage from it. Yet we should never be ashamed to give a witness even to those who may have seen you at your worst.

Paul said in Romans 1 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. The good news is that Jesus changes lives and use your changed life as an opportunity to witness to others about the gospel of our salvation.

Why may some find it difficult to share the gospel maybe with neighbors? Why may some find that difficult? Yeah, that's a good point.

That's a great point. Jesus, yeah, that's a great point.

You know, you don't wanna face rejection by those who are living right next to you and also who you will be in some way, shape or form in contact with, right? Usually people, if they live next to you, you have some form of, if not conversations, you have similar goals in that you want a clean apartment facility or a nice neighborhood, things of that nature.

And so you don't wanna ruin those relationship prospects by telling them that you're a Christian. But at the same time, we do wanna tell people that we're Christians. What are maybe some of the reasons why it may be difficult to share with our neighbors fear of failure?

You don't talk to your neighbors. So then the first thing to talk about being the gospel, that's kind of a, yeah, well, that could be tough. You know, we're called to love our neighbors, aren't we? We're called to love God and love our neighbors.

And it goes beyond just sharing the gospel for them. You know, one of the great things or great ways in which we can get to know our neighbors, especially when you move into an area, is just introduce yourself and say, hey, you know, we're a Christian family and we believe in the gospel.

And I just want you to know that this is where we go to church. But if you ever need anything, please don't hesitate to reach out. We wanna be good neighbors to you. We wanna get to know you and your families.

And so just put it out there that I'm a Christian and I'm here and I wanna serve you and I wanna bless you. I wanna get to know you. I wanna build relationships with you. Because part of sharing the gospel is that the gospel in itself is relational.

It's a relational message. That you have to get to know someone to have eternal life. That you have to be found in fellowship with Christ to reap eternal life. And it's a relational gospel and it begs us to be relational to others.

We are called to be ambassadors. We're called to be witnesses. We're called to be sowers in this field. Another reason why I found that sharing the gospel can be difficult with our neighbors is you know, neighbors if anyone are gonna be the first ones to hear a household argument, right?

They're the ones who are gonna be hearing screaming kids. And they're the ones who are gonna be wondering what in the world's happening in that house. So I'm a, you know, I've got four kids and we're Hispanics and we tend to be loud.

And if someone is the other side of the house, God forbid one of us stand up and go and talk to them. We're gonna yell from across the house to get their attention. And that's just kind of the way a Spanish household operates.

And so it might be difficult or intimidating to then say hello to your neighbor who has maybe heard your kids screaming bloody murder after taking away their tablet or something. So these are things that we have to contend with.

This is a real world. This is a, you know, we got real families. We have real life. To be Christian doesn't mean that we're perfect, right? We're imperfect. We're gonna make mistakes. We're gonna do things that we shouldn't do.

Yet at the end of it, there's a hope. And the hope that I wanna instill in you is that in our gospel proclamation, you should never be ashamed. Never be ashamed. Because there is no shame in a transformed life.

There is no shame in a sanctified life in which you are being progressively changed into the image of Christ. No one will be perfect on this side of eternity. And so don't try to use imperfection as a way out of your gospel proclamation.

Bake it into your gospel proclamation. Because really, a testimony can be baked into this great hymn that you and I all know. I was once lost, but now I'm found. I was once blind, but now I see. And that's the power of your testimony.

And that's why we should never be ashamed of Christ and his good news. Let's recap, friends. What does the word gospel mean? Good news. Anyone know what the Greek word is for gospel? Evangelion. And literally, it comes from the Greek word to herald, to declare.

And so you have in mind a conquering king or kingdom, and he will send forth an emissary or an ambassador, and he will go to the cities and declare Evangelion, the good news of victory. And friends, we have good news of victory through the cross of Jesus and his resurrection.

What good news did Jesus preach to Israel while on the earth? What good news did he preach? Can be summed up in two statements. Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Yes, repent for the kingdom is at hand.

Repentance and the kingdom of God were the message of Christ to Israel and to the world. And again, we find that scriptural reference on the top of our lesson from Matthew 4, 17. Now friends, what is the kingdom of God?

What is the kingdom of God? Think about a kingdom. What is a kingdom? Starts with the word G. You guys say? That's right. It's a place where a king rules. What would we call that today? Starts with the letter G.