Embodying the Gospel

embodying the gospel

Jason Procopio

If you’ve been in this church for a while now, you know that every year we take a break from whatever book we’re going through, just before heading into the Psalms over the summer, to do a short series specifically geared to address questions or areas of growth or joy that we have been going through as a church over the previous year. We have done that every year except for last year, when we were confined, and in which it just felt important to dig in deep to one area of God’s Word which would feed us for that particular time, and so we did Daniel.

So today we’re beginning our annual topical series, but the subject of the series (and the way we’re going to go about it) will be a bit unusual. For the next three weeks, we’re going to be doing a deep dive into the vision of the church—not the church as in “the universal church”, but the vision of our church. Long before we launched, we came up with a three-point vision for what we wanted this church to be and where we wanted to go. 

I’ll be honest, the idea of coming up with a “church vision” seemed a bit arbitrary to me when I first heard the term, because aren’t all churches supposed to be doing the same thing?

The answer of course is yes; but unfortunately, a massive number of churches don’t ever articulate what they should be doing, so they never get around to actually doing what they should be doing. So it’s important to articulate God’s vision for what all churches, all over the world, should be doing, and to do it in a way that applies to each church’s specific context.

So we formulated this church vision before we ever launched as a church, and we have stuck to it ever since, because we believe it’s right.

Let me just read our church’s vision to you (it has three points). Eglise Connexion exists to:

1. Embody the gospel for the residents of Paris;

2. Train disciples who make disciples;

3. Send out equipped Christians to serve the church of Jesus Christ.

That’s the vision of our church. And for the next three weeks, that’s what we’ll be seeing—we’re going to spend a week on each point. We’re doing this for several reasons. Firstly, we have a lot of new people in the church, so a lot of you may not know, not just what church life looks like for us, but why it looks that way. Secondly, our church vision has recently birthed a significant project for the coming year (2021-2022) and beyond, which we’ll be seeing next week. Thirdly, even for those of you who have been with us for a long time, these are things which can be easily forgotten if we don’t have regular reminders. And we’ve never done such a deep dive on these points before, not even in the members’ class.

So all that being said, let’s get going. Today we’re looking at the first point of our vision, which is that Eglise Connexion exists to embody the gospel for the residents of our city.

Now before we get into what this looks like, we have to take a big step back and discuss what exactly we’re talking about when we use these words. 

Embodying the Gospel 

The key words of this first point are “embody” and “gospel”. And we need to take them both one at a time.

First off, what do we mean when we use the word “gospel”? 

Usually we don’t mean the four gospels we find at the beginning of the New Testament (the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, etc.)—those are summary tellings of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Usually when we use the word “gospel,” we’re talking about the central message of the Bible.

We find probably the best summary of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15.1-8, 11. 

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me… 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. 

So here we see several different elements, all of which are completely fundamental to the gospel.

First of all, the gospel is good news. We see this in v. 1, in the word “gospel” itself—the word gospel literally means, “good news.” But why is it good? That comes next.

Secondly, the gospel is what saves us. V. 1-2: Paul preached the gospel…by which you are being saved. Saved from what? That comes next.

Thirdly: the gospel is the good news that Christ died for our sins. Every human being on this planet naturally lives in rebellion against their Creator God; that’s what we mean when we talk about sin. We want nothing to do with the God in whom we literally have life, and breath, and everything (Acts 17.25). The idea of God is okay for some of us; we like the idea of spirituality. But as soon as you start saying that God says specific things about himself in the Bible, things that are true, and that this truth is objective and defined by him, people sour on it pretty quickly. 

So we are all rebels against God, and this rebellion against God separates us from him. As a result, we deserve his just wrath—eternal separation from him, and torment apart from him.

But Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became a man, lived the perfect life we should have lived, took our sin and rebellion upon himself, and was punished by God, in our place, so that we might be reconciled to God. He died for our sins. He did what we should have done, and got what we deserve. Our sin is what we have been saved from, and we no longer have the eternal and infinite debt of this sin hanging over us.

Fourthly, we see that this gospel was the plan of God all along—v. 3, Christ died in accordance with the Scriptures; he was buried and raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, which were written hundreds of years before Christ ever camme. This was God’s plan from the beginning.

Fifthly, this gospel is the good news of something which actually happened. It’s not just a story, it’s not a myth; it is historical reality. After Jesus’s resurrection he appeared to Cephas (that’s Peter), then to the other apostles, then to five hundred brothers at the same time, most of whom were still alive when Paul wrote this letter; and then, finally, to Paul himself. There were eyewitnesses to his resurrection; historical accounts of what happened, given by the people who were there.

Sixthly (v. 11), this gospel was preached and believed. This is the good news that was proclaimed to us, and this was the good news that awakened our faith and caused us to believe that it’s all true.

That is the gospel—the good news of the life, death and resurrection Jesus Christ, applied to us.

Now—what is the goal of the gospel? 

Paul doesn’t go into detail here, but we see it very clearly in Psalm 16.9-11. This is David, speaking to the Lord, rejoicing in the end goal of God’s salvation for him. 

9  Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; 

my flesh also dwells secure. 

10  For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, 

or let your holy one see corruption. 

11  You make known to me the path of life; 

in your presence there is fullness of joy; 

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. 

The end goal of the gospel is right there: eternal life with God, freed from sin and danger and corruption. And because it is eternal life with God, that means fullness of joy, and pleasure in his presence, FOREVER.

This is a big deal. This is the greatest news any of us could possibly receive or hear. And a lot of us understand the importance of sharing the good news, of speaking it, of proclaiming it. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5.17-21 that we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.

So why don’t we just say that? Why isn’t the first point of our vision to proclaim the gospel for the residents of Paris? 

Because, quite simply, why should they listen to us? If we’re speaking to someone we don’t know, we have no credibility. And if we do know them, but they see in us something which doesn’t fit with the good news we preach, then again, we have no credibility. Why should anyone listen to us? 

This is why it isn’t enough to merely share the good news. We should do that, and God, in his grace, absolutely uses that. But that is not the goal or the mission of the local church. That’s the goal of preaching; it is not the goal of the local church. The local church exists not just to share the good news, but to show the good news. That is what we mean when we talk about embodying the gospel.

Let me give you an example: I grew up in the United States, so the American culture I grew up with is a part of who I am (for better or for worse). And at least in some ways, I embody that culture to you. We can see it in our Thanksgiving services that we do each year (which we started when the only Americans we had were myself and the Langs); it comes out in my affection for Star Wars, in my love of bad coffee and McDonald’s. But most especially, it comes out in my disposition. Still to this day, I just don’t react to things the way a normal French person would. You can observe me, and see what at least some Americans are like.

This is what Jesus Christ did too, but completely. Christ was a part of one culture (the culture of the kingdom of heaven); he was sent by God to another culture (the sinful culture of earth), to embody his culture in ours. That’s why he was constantly repeating that since he was here, the kingdom of heaven was here too.

Our culture, now, is the culture of the gospel, and we are called to embody that culture for those who don’t know it. That is, we are called to make the gospel of Jesus Christ visible to people outside the church by the way we live our lives together as the church. 

Of course, the New Testament doesn’t say this in those words, but it’s all over. Here’s just one example—Matthew 5.14-16:  

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. 

So Jesus is pretty clear: we are the light of the world, shining our light out into the world, in view of others, so that they might see it, and understand where it came from, and be drawn to it themselves.

But if we want to “let our light shine before others,” we have to know what that light looks like. 

So this leaves us with two final questions: what does the gospel change in us? and how do we show it?

What does the gospel change in us?

We see this change beautifully described in Colossians chapter 3. The first thing the gospel gives us is our hope in eternity. Colossians 3, starting in v. 1:  

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 

So you can see here, if we have received the gospel, not only have we received everything we need to live for Christ today, but everything we need to live with Christ, forever. Our eyes are no longer set merely on what is directly in front of us, on where we are right now; our eyes are set on where we will be. Our life—our eternal life—is perfectly protected; Christ is keeping it safe, making sure that when we arrive at the end of this life on earth, we will be poised to take up our lives with him in glory.

The second thing the gospel gives us is good boundaries. V. 5:  

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. 

We live in France; we have a built-in inclination to reject authority. (Really, everyone has this tendency; but you guys do it better than most.) When someone gives us a set of rules, our first instinct is often to find the ways we can get around them. 

So we take that reflex—which is in all of us naturally, ever since the fall—and we apply it to God as well. Either we try to find loopholes in his commandments, or we full-on reject those commandments. We’ll say, “I understand what the Bible says about drunkenness, but this is my time, with my friends; I’m just trying to blow off steam.” Or, “I understand what the Bible says about putting away bitterness and wrath and anger… but come on, they were asking for it.” We find the most convincing excuses why, in this situation, what I’m doing is actually okay, when the Bible clearly says that it isn’t. And we do this every day, multiple times a day, in a myriad of different situations.

But when we do this, we’re showing that we’ve completely misunderstood what God’s commandments are for. We act as if they’re there to keep us from doing the things that will make us happy, when in fact they’re there because our Creator knows how he made us, and he gives us commandments to free us to be as happy as we can possibly be in him.

Carmen Imes gives this illustration:

“Imagine that your community is planning to build a new playground with easy public access, right beside a busy intersection. Wouldn’t it be odd if someone argued that children would have more fun on this playground if there weren’t any fences to cramp their style? No, putting a fence between the cars-in-motion and kids-in-motion just makes sense. It ensures that children can play freely without fear of harm.”

The boundaries God puts on our lives are good for us; they keep us from getting run over by the consequences of our sin. 

In addition, the boundaries God puts on our lives show people what God himself is like. When we put away sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk, lying (and all the rest), we are acting the way God himself acts. We are doing what he does. We are learning to walk as Christ walked, and we are showing that to the world. We are letting our light shine before men, that they may see our good works and glorify God (and in case it wasn’t clear, the “good works” Jesus spoke of are obedience to God’s commands).

So the gospel gives us hope in eternity; good boundaries; and thirdly, the gospel gives us reordered desires and impulses. V. 12:  

12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. 

When we truly understand how good God has been to us, how compassionate he has been to us, how gracious and kind and patient he has been toward us, it will birth in us a natural desire to behave the same way toward one another.

If we know what we deserve, and what we got instead, then when our brother or sister offends us, our first instinct won’t be to lash out in anger, to give them what they deserve; our first instinct will be to give them what we got. We will want to listen to them, to find out what drove them to this. We will want to be patient with them, knowing we’re all in progress. We will want to forgive them, even if they don’t deserve it or ask for it, because we know that God forgave us, though we didn’t deserve it, and before we asked for it. We will love them, because God loved us first.

If we know what we deserve, and what we got instead, we will be thankful for what God has given us. We will be joyful. We will be so overflowing with joy and thankfulness that we will want to sing (we won’t spontaneously break out in song like in a Hollywood musical…but we’ll understand the impulse). And above all, we will want to do everything in order to make it clear that God’s grace toward us is more precious than anything else in the world.

You see, the gospel changes everything about us. It changes our perspective (where we are going for the rest of our lives); it changes our behavior (what boundaries we submit to in order to be as happy in God as we possibly can); and it changes our hearts (what feelings we have toward God and toward others).

Now let me just pause here and acknowledge the obvious: none of us do this well. I’m thinking specifically of one specific person with whom I’ve had a conflictual relationship, who might listen to this and say, “Well isn’t this the pot calling the kettle black!” I don’t do this well. None of us do this well. Because none of us fully understands the gospel. That’s a lifelong work that God does in us—over time, as we grow in our understanding of the gospel, we grow in our ability to do what Paul tells us to do here. None of us are there yet. But that’s where we’re going. That’s the new trajectory of our lives. And God will bring us home, and one day, living like this will be the norm, for the next billion years and beyond. Even with those brothers and sisters with whom we’ve had conflict.

So we have seen what we have received; we have seen what that changes in us. The final question is then:

How do we make that change visible?

How do we live out the gift of the gospel and the change of the gospel, in such a way that people can catch the “aroma” of the gospel just by watching us, like when you catch the smell of good food when you walk past a restaurant?

We’ve already seen what it looks like to do this individually—we saw it in Colossians 3. (And we’ll look at this a lot more next week, when we talk about training disciples who make disciples.)

How do we do this collectively?

There are dozens of examples I could give (including Colossians 3 again), but my favorite is found in Acts 2. If you remember, after Jesus’s ascension and the Holy Spirit’s descending on the apostles in the upper room, the church exploded. Thousands of people were saved that day. The end of Acts 2 gives us a little picture of what the life of the church looked like after this explosive event. 

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. 

Now here’s what is incredibly surprising about this passage. The things these first Christians are doing are highly insular. They are living together, worshiping together, eating together. Nothing is mentioned here of any kind of evangelistic activity—they’re not going out into the streets to give questionnaires, they’re not organizing crusades, they’re not throwing concerts to bring crowds and hopefully speak to attendees after the show. Now of course, the gospel was being proclaimed—v. 42, they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. So the gospel was certainly being proclaimed, and it must…but for the most part, they were doing all this stuff together.

And yet, although no overtly evangelistic activity is mentioned here, their community life was lived in such a way that without having to organize anything, people came to know the Lord (v. 47). Although they are doing these things which are very insular, the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

You see, it is not enough to be content with organized, structured evangelism. We should do that; we should get together with the team, go out into the street to talk about Jesus, learn to share our faith—all of that is good and necessary. But I’d go so far as to say that that is not where most effective evangelism happens. 

Effective evangelism happens when Christians’ lives are transformed by the gospel (like we saw in Colossians 3), when Christians live their transformed lives together, and when they do it in such a way that their transformed lives together are visible to those outside.

We embody the gospel when our transformed lives are lived together in view of all.

This is why the life of the church can’t be lived online. Because online, no one actually sees it.  (We thank the Lord for preserving the life of the church during the confinements, but we also thank him that they’re more or less over now.) All they see is what we say about it, but again, why should they believe what we say if they can’t see for themselves the change the gospel makes?

We can’t live our life together online, and we can’t allow our life together to be limited to what we do in this building. We can’t wait for them to come to us; if they don’t know what they’re missing, they’re not going to know where to look to find it. If people are going to see our life together, we have to take it outside, to where they are. We have to take it out, into the city. 

So how do we do that? Well, think of it this way. We take the gospel-fueled life of the church out into the city in a multitude of ways—we do it through our evangelism efforts, through our social work with Serve the City, through the prayer meetings and the home group that meet in Châtelet during the week, and a million other things we haven’t thought of yet. These are good things, and we need to keep doing them. Please don’t hear me say that these things aren’t worthwhile.

But we have to recognize that on their own, they’re not enough. No ministry is enough. They’re enough to provide help to some people, sure—but they are not up to the task of fulfilling the mission of the church to embody the gospel to the world. The only thing that can do that is our fellowship with one another, transformed by the gospel, and lived out in view of the world.

Or to say it differently, we could do all the right ministries, and do them well, and still not be the right kind of people. 

Now this can seem daunting, but look

at the kinds of things the church is doing in Acts 2. They’re not doing anything revolutionary or innovative. Sure, they’re listening to the Word preached, and they’re praying (that’s what we do here together), but most of the things they’re doing are very ordinary. They’re eating. They’re having fellowship (a.k.a. talking). They’re enjoying one another. They’re sharing with one another as the need arises.

Aren’t these things we do all the time with our friends? Aren’t these things that come naturally to us, if we love the people we’re with? You see, the gospel takes these things we already do…and allows us to do them for the right reasons, and in the right way.

We live our lives together, and we invite unbelievers to observe. As we get together to eat, and as we enjoy each other, and as we help each other in practical, ordinary ways, the gospel will come up in conversation; we will be open about our needs with one another; we will offer and receive help from one another. We will love each other, because God loved us. And that love and help and patience and sharing is incredibly powerful to those who are watching it, and who know (because we’re talking about it) that the reason we’re acting this way is Christ.

Isn’t that exactly how Jesus himself told us it would work? John 13.35: 

By this ALL PEOPLE WILL KNOW that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

A few years ago (some of you will remember this), my brother Jeremy came and lived with us for about two months. He was going through a rough patch in his life, not living for Christ, and needed to get away from a dangerous environment back in the U.S. So he came, and while he was here, he came to church with us. And he got to know some of you pretty well. 

But there was one thing that just floored him while he was here; it is still the thing he talks about when he talks about his time with us. A group of guys in the church knew that our older brother Hervé (whom you’ll always see after the first service and during the second) needed some repairs done in his home. So they decided that one Saturday, they’d go and do repairs at Hervé’s house. Jeremy went along with them. And while he painted and sanded and did other things, he listened. He watched the others as they did these things together.

That simple act of generosity toward someone else, in which he was invited to participate, showed my brother the gospel in a way that the hundreds of sermons he heard growing up didn’t. It’s not better, but it is very different. That memory is one of the clearest pictures in his mind of what the gospel is.

Brothers and sisters, we have opportunities to let others see us live for Christ every single day. We just have to pray to see them, and jump on them when we do. We are called to live holy and joyful lives for Christ, individually and collectively. We have to pray for the courage to live like this, together.

We are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. So we must let our light shine before others, so that they may see our good works and give glory to our Father who is in heaven.