Conversations: The Purpose of the Gospel
Jesus did not die to save us just so that we could get a ticket out of hell and a spot in heaven someday. Do your people know why God saved them in Christ?
In this episode, Caesar continues with a series of essential conversations you’ll need to have with those you want to lead toward a lifestyle of discipleship and mission. Hear how a conversation might sound between a couple of friends discussing the purpose of the gospel. You will love this!
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- The often “missing” part of our gospel understanding.
- The sad self-focus in much of the Church today.
- How discipleship fulfills God’s eternal purpose.
- How a conversation about the purpose of the gospel might sound.
From this episode:
“Many of us have grown up being taught and believing a very small version of the Gospel. In fact, in my experience growing up in the church, the “gospel” was almost completely about sin management, behavioral modification and focused on the afterlife. When there was Good News spoken about HOW God saves us, through the work of Christ on the Cross, there was almost never anything mentioned as to WHY we are saved. Or the PURPOSE of the Gospel.”
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Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
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Transcript
Many of us have grown up being taught and believing a very small version of the gospel.
Caesar:In fact, in my own experience, growing up in the church, the gospel quote unquote was almost completely about sin management.
Caesar:It was all about sin.
Caesar:And then that led to behavioral modification.
Caesar:And really the whole thing was focused on the afterlife
Caesar:pretty much kind of waiting around for Jesus to get back or to get to heaven or something.
Caesar:When there was good news spoken about how God saved us through the work of Christ on the cross, there was almost never anything mentioned as to why we are saved or the purpose of the gospel.
Caesar:It seemed that Jesus had died just so that I, or we could get a ticket out of hell and a spot in heaven someday.
Caesar:But that's not what the Bible teaches in.
Caesar:That is not the purpose of the gospel.
Caesar:Unfortunately, this is pretty prevalent today and you know what?
Caesar:It's not a problem.
Caesar:That's new.
Caesar:It's not something that's just cropped up in our lifetime alone.
Announcer:Welcome to the Everyday Disciple podcast where you'll learn how to live with greater intentionality.
Announcer:Faith that naturally fits into every area of life.
Announcer:In other words, discipleship as a lifestyle, this is the stuff your parents, pastors, and seminary professors probably forgot to tell you.
Announcer:And now here's your host Caesar.
Announcer:Kalinowski.
Caesar:Hey, welcome back.
Caesar:Glad you're here with me today.
Caesar:This is going to be a great edition of the podcast.
Caesar:I know you're gonna.
Caesar:I feel like we have jumped into the deep end of the pool straight away after vacation and entering into the new year.
Caesar:How about you?
Caesar:I feel like we just hit the ground running though.
Caesar:I was rested.
Caesar:I feel great.
Caesar:I'm sensing that I need to be again, more focused on working from rest.
Caesar:And even though we've been trying to do that increasingly year to year, uh, I don't know, I'm feeling like I need a hobby.
Caesar:Do you have.
Caesar:I used to have lots of hobbies and over my lifetime, everything that I enjoyed doing as a hobby seems to have either become a business that we've run and sold.
Caesar:You know, you've heard us talk about being serial entrepreneurs, Tina and I, or it's become a minute.
Caesar:And we've loved it, but I think I need a new hobby for the new year.
Caesar:Hm.
Caesar:Any suggestions send them on in really?
Caesar:I would love it.
Caesar:I've thought about getting back into just playing guitar, which had been my career, uh, as a musician and record producer and all that for years.
Caesar:But, uh, I haven't done that yet.
Caesar:I don't really play very often or any of those kinds of things.
Caesar:And I used to paint years ago, I've kind of got an art background.
Caesar:I don't know anything, any suggestions you have?
Caesar:I also got a kayak, which I love to do sea kayaking, where we live is great.
Caesar:I got a kayak for my birthday last year.
Caesar:Only used it once, whether it wasn't great and with travel and COVID restrictions and all it didn't happen much.
Caesar:I really want to get into that.
Caesar:There's nothing stopping me from that.
Caesar:Any other suggestions I would love to have them.
Caesar:Hey, have you left us a review over on apple podcasts or iTunes yet, if you listen on that device on your phone and you have an apple device, uh, most people do.
Caesar:It's like we see the statistics and most people are listening on apple devices.
Caesar:Have you left us a review over there?
Caesar:And.
Caesar:I would really appreciate it.
Caesar:If you do that, it helps with the algorithms and it's a way of paying it forward and saying, Hey, thanks Caesar.
Caesar:We love the show and we'd love to help encourage others to dig it as well.
Caesar:So if you listen on that device, would you do that?
Caesar:Would you just take a few minutes, scroll down and figure out how to do that?
Caesar:Leave a little short review and some stars and all that.
Caesar:I would really appreciate it.
Caesar:And there are so many ways though, to listen to the podcast.
Caesar:Now, as podcasts continue to grow and grow, and the Everyday Disciple Podcast is on every platform.
Caesar:And I think podcasts are available on a real easy way to look for that.
Caesar:If you think I, you know, I've been listening on your website or I have been on apple, but I'm kind of tired of it, or I don't know.
Caesar:You can always go to Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash listen.
Caesar:It'll take you to a page with a whole bunch of links in different ways.
Caesar:Maybe you find a new player and you could subscribe there or star it or whatever they allow you to do.
Caesar:They're all a little bit different.
Caesar:And just want to say this up top today.
Caesar:If you're interested in working with us and being in coaching, I would love it.
Caesar:I don't know if you've ever thought about having a coach and someone who could help you plan out your discipleship, training and steps, and maybe you weren't even discipled really in an all of life way where the gospel speaks into and touches all of life.
Caesar:I would love to have you join us in a coaching cohort.
Caesar:Tina and I coach as couples and we coach couples.
Caesar:It's really powerful when you get on the same page.
Caesar:It's one of the things that the couples we coach say all the time is the, one of the biggest benefits of being in coaching with you is not just the movement and building out community life and all that.
Caesar:As a couple we're on the same page.
Caesar:So if you're interested at all, you can go to Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash coaching.
Caesar:Learn a whole lot more about it.
Caesar:There's a little form there you can fill out.
Caesar:We can hop on a short zoom call personally.
Caesar:You and I, and I can explain more answer any questions you have, and maybe we can get started and get you into some coaching here this year.
Caesar:I would love it.
Caesar:And I think you will.
Caesar:All right now onto today's topic.
Caesar:And I'm continuing in our conversation series, a series of 10 conversations that you'll want and need to be having with people who you're leading out on mission and into a lifestyle of discipleship.
Caesar:Go back and listen to the first two conversations.
Caesar:If you miss them.
Caesar:They're really cool.
Caesar:We've gotten great feedback on it.
Caesar:Now many of us have grown up being taught and believing a very small version of the gospel.
Caesar:In fact, in my own experience, growing up in the church, the gospel quote unquote was almost completely about sin management.
Caesar:It was all about sin.
Caesar:And then that led to behavioral modification.
Caesar:And really the whole thing was focused on the after life.
Caesar:Pretty much and kind of waiting around for Jesus to get back or to get to heaven or something.
Caesar:When there was good news spoken about how God saved us through the work of Christ on the cross, there was almost never anything mentioned as to why we are saved or the purpose of the gospel.
Caesar:It seemed that Jesus had died just so that I, or we could get a ticket out of hell and a spot in heaven someday.
Caesar:But that's not what the Bible teaches.
Caesar:And that is not the purpose of the gospel.
Caesar:Unfortunately, this is pretty prevalent today and you know what?
Caesar:It's not a problem.
Caesar:That's new.
Caesar:It's not something that's just cropped up in our lifetime alone.
Caesar:Remember God's chosen people.
Caesar:Israel had forgotten their true identity.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:That's what happened and why God had chosen them as his family and his.
Caesar:They were to be God's representatives of what he is truly like.
Caesar:In other words, his glory in the world, his living agents of mercy justice and restoration, but they began to pay him occasional lip service and singing a little bit and temple attendance while living primarily only for themselves.
Caesar:So God allowed Israel to be conquered and taken away into exile and slavery and Babylon and.
Caesar:Bad even in this time of trial and discipline, God intended for Israel to live as a blessing to their enemies.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:See, so this isn't new in some of the same ways, much of the church today has often focused more on themselves, their programs and capital campaigns than on their cities and their neighbors.
Caesar:The poor, the broken, the lost, everyone all need to hear and experience the gospel lived out in their midst and it has the church we are now to live not only as the voice of God or singing about him or worshiping him, but we're to be his hands and feet of reconciliation and restoration as well.
Caesar:You see in the full big gospel, we see the purpose of why God has saved us.
Caesar:The good news is that God sent his son Jesus to redeem the whole world from the effects of sin and create a new humanity.
Caesar:And eventually this is what the Bible teaches the whole world.
Caesar:We renewed and restored to the way God originally created it.
Caesar:Rebellion death, decay, and justice and suffering will all be removed.
Caesar:And when everything is restored, God will be seen by all.
Caesar:For who he truly is.
Caesar:He will be glorified.
Caesar:The gospel is not just about my individual happiness or God's plan for my life.
Caesar:And it's about God's plan for the whole world today.
Caesar:As we continue in this conversation series, you'll hear how a conversation might sound between a couple of friends about the purpose of the.
Caesar:I like this because it's natural and easy and it wouldn't be a weird conversation to have.
Caesar:And I know this may seem a little canned cause it's, you know, I've written it and I'm sharing it with you, but I've had conversations just like this so many times, and this is a very important topic.
Caesar:If we want to see people engage in mission and discipleship as a lifestyle, changing their priorities and feeling that this is all a privilege and not a burden.
Caesar:Hey, if you're going to stand there and make fun of me, you might as well lend a hand, hold this trim to the doorway while I nail it up.
Caesar:Would you bill?
Caesar:No problem.
Caesar:It looks like you're just about finished with the remodel on this kitchen of yours.
Caesar:It sure did need a restoration.
Caesar:I remember when your grandfather put those old cabinets up, Steve, you must have a real sense of accomplishment.
Caesar:Getting this all restored back to the way it was originally made.
Caesar:It looks just like it did all those years ago.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:You know, bill the whole time I've been doing this restoration project, I just can't help.
Caesar:But thinking about the end of the story, which story, the story of God, the overarching story found in the Bible.
Caesar:It starts off with this planet and the first humans created perfect, beautiful.
Caesar:Everything was the way God intended it to be.
Caesar:Then for thousands of years, we see human sin and self rule jacking everything.
Caesar:It's still that way today for the most part.
Caesar:But when Jesus died as a substitute for our sins, he began this amazing restoration of all things.
Caesar:And when I read the end of the Bible, somewhere in the book of revelation, it says that God will restore all things back to the way he originally created them.
Caesar:That blows my mind, Steve, seriously.
Caesar:And here's what really blows me away.
Caesar:That restoration has already begun with.
Caesar:And God is using us to continue that restoration in the lives of others today, right now.
Caesar:But that's not about fixing kitchens or even doing massive park cleanups or public restoration projects or is it.
Caesar:Well, those types of acts of service and restoration we get to do is both a blessing to others and a picture of the restoration that God is doing.
Caesar:But ultimately families, neighborhoods, businesses, cities, or nations are restored as Jesus saves and restores the people within them.
Caesar:So as Jesus' disciples, it's our mission to make more disciples who make more disciples and in, so doing people in things are restored.
Caesar:But here's the real point.
Caesar:The world is increasingly being filled with Jesus.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:Disciples of Jesus, making more disciples.
Caesar:The world is increasingly filled with him.
Caesar:Bill added a neighborhood doesn't get restored because all the houses in it got a new coat of paint and repaired fences it's changed and becomes a beautiful picture of who God is.
Caesar:As the lives of those who live there are transformed more and more into Jesus.
Caesar:Exactly.
Caesar:Bro, disciples of Jesus make more disciples of Jesus and little by little, this world is changed restored.
Caesar:It is both the beginning of God, restoring all people, places and things, and a reminder that Jesus is coming back to this earth one day to complete the remodeling job.
Caesar:I can't wait, Steve.
Caesar:I hope it's soon.
Caesar:Well, hopefully before I have to redo this kitchen again, then this whole discipleship thing living as disciples and discipling others to faith is a big deal then for sure if we believe the gospel, the good news about Jesus as our true hope.
Caesar:And we believe that the reason we've been saved is to now be his body on this planet.
Caesar:Then we have to take this pretty seriously.
Caesar:And it sounds like it's the point.
Caesar:The reason we're saved in the first.
Caesar:To live in such a way that the world would be filled more and more with Jesus, who is the exact image of our God and our father.
Caesar:And then to help more and more people come to faith and live a life doing the same.
Caesar:Yep.
Caesar:I think so.
Caesar:And I have a long way to go with all this.
Caesar:So much of my life is filled with everything, but making disciples yikes.
Caesar:Steve don't freak out.
Caesar:It's a process.
Caesar:It's happening little by little.
Caesar:I can see it in you.
Caesar:Thanks bill.
Caesar:I hope so.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Back to the restoration at hand, pass me that nail gun.
Caesar:Pretty simple.
Caesar:Pretty cool, huh.
Caesar:And you can, and will need to be having conversations like this.
Caesar:If you're going to help people move toward discipleship as a lifestyle.
Caesar:Now I'm not sure how the church that's us, how we've gotten so far from our original mission and focus.
Caesar:But Jesus helped clarify how we accomplish this.
Caesar:Why the purpose of the gospel, the restoration of all things by giving us his mission, which is our mission.
Caesar:Now go and make disciples from Matthew 28.
Caesar:We've all seen it.
Caesar:A million times.
Caesar:And are you now seeing that as the arts and industry and politics and cities and neighborhoods and families, all areas of culture are increasingly filled with Jesus disciples, bringing about his gospel restoration.
Caesar:The earth is being filled with God's glory.
Caesar:Are you seeing that this is the point of the restoration of all things that God would be glorified.
Caesar:I'm reminded of Psalm 72, 19, where it says praise be to his glorious name forever.
Caesar:May the whole earth be filled with his glory.
Caesar:Boy, all the prophets say that over and over to in different ways.
Caesar:Paul called it, the mystery revealed that God was going to fill the earth with his glory through us, through humans that are now being restored, being filled with his own Spirit.
Caesar:Discipleship's the only mission that Jesus gave his church.
Caesar:And it's how the gospel goes out and multiplies and accomplishes this restoration of all things.
Caesar:We'll talk about that a lot more in our next episode right now, I want you to consider this our lives as disciples who make disciples should not be a burden.
Caesar:Life in Christ, living out of our recreated identity, being part of the purpose of the gospel as God restores, all people and things should fill us with peace and joy and a real great sense of contentment.
Caesar:I mean, what a privilege, what a privilege that we get to be a part of this, this is so much bigger than just sitting in rows on Sunday and waiting for heaven.
Caesar:If you're feeling that your Christian life, ministry, or life and community has a heavy load.
Caesar:Then it's not, Jesus' yoke that you're carrying rest in his completed work.
Caesar:It is Jesus who will make disciples of us all his spirit.
Caesar:We're only called a walk along with him in obedience take a look at this message version of Matthew 1128 to 30, and just let it wash over you.
Caesar:If you're feeling a little burnt out right now, this is Jesus talking.
Caesar:He says, are you tired?
Caesar:Worn out, burned out on religion.
Caesar:Come to me.
Caesar:Get away with me and you'll recover your life.
Caesar:I'll show you how to take a real rest.
Caesar:Walk with me and work with me.
Caesar:Watch how I do it.
Caesar:Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
Caesar:I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightlywow.
Caesar:That's beautiful.
Caesar:Maybe you needed to hear that today.
Caesar:I think I did.
Caesar:I think I did a little bit, like I said earlier, I feel like I just hit the ground running this year and I probably need to read that a few more times.
Caesar:Matthew 11 there.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Well, as always, I want to leave you with the big three takeaways from today's topic.
Caesar:Nothing else you don't want to miss these and you can get a printable PDF of this week's big three as a free download by going to Everyday Disciple dot com.
Caesar:Forward slash big three, pretty easy.
Caesar:All right, here are the big three for this week.
Caesar:First, take a walk through your neighborhood and identify people and things you see that remind you of the story of God and the way God originally created things.
Caesar:Then take note of anything you see that is not in line with God's original plans for people in this world.
Caesar:These are all things that God wants to restore and recreate since the purpose of the gospel is ultimately to restore all things, filling the world with God's glory.
Caesar:How might God want to use you to accomplish that or your family or your Missional Community or your church?
Caesar:Number two, to try and muster up this work of restoration as we make disciples is ultimately not our job.
Caesar:It's the work of the holy.
Caesar:Perhaps the habits of sin and self-focused patterns, many of which are completely supported by our culture.
Caesar:And sometimes even by our churches may be pulling you back to live for your own glory, ease and comfort.
Caesar:God has saved us and God transformed us.
Caesar:God now empowers us for his mission of restoration.
Caesar:Trust God, the pressure's off and the adventure awaits.
Caesar:Uh, number three, the gospel is not just about your individual happiness or God's plan for your life.
Caesar:It's about God's plan for the whole world.
Caesar:Ultimately, discipleship is how the gospel goes out and multiplies and accomplishes the restoration of all things is your church in all of its various ministries, primarily focused on making disciples of Jesus in everyday.
Caesar:Life is discipleship, your personal priority.
Caesar:It's what you were created and saved for.
Caesar:There you go.
Caesar:That's the big three and don't forget it.
Caesar:If you want some help in this growing in the gospel in a bigger gospel and setting up a discipleship framework in helping to train others in all of this, this is what we do in our coaching cohorts.
Caesar:I would love to tell you more about it.
Caesar:Go over to Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash coaching and check it out.
Caesar:Well, that's it for today.
Caesar:Join me next time, we're going to continue on in our conversation series.
Caesar:As we listened to a conversation about the mission of the church.
Caesar:And though you probably already know that our mission is to make disciples.
Caesar:You may be surprised to see just how little of our church programs and budgeting actually support that mission, but we'll hear a cool conversation that will help you clarify this and explain it to others in a simple and effective way I think you'll love it.
Caesar:I'll see you soon.
Announcer:Thanks for joining us today for more information on this show and to get loads of free discipleship resources, visit Everyday Disciple dot com.