The New World

The Gospel in Thirty Words

But the purpose of the series, The Gospel in Thirty Words, is just to explain the gospel in the clearest and cleanest way that I could. So if someone were to ask you, what is this good news that y’all keep talking about? How might you respond to that? And of course, as you’ve probably seen in the series, there’s a lot of different ways to answer that, because the gospel is simple, but there’s also a lot of different implications on how it affects us in a spiritual sense, but also how the gospel affects us in a real physical sense as well. And so I’m hoping at the end of the series to help you understand what the gospel is, but also to help you know how to share the gospel in a clear way.

And the structure of the series is we have tried to distill the gospel, which just means good news. That’s what the word gospel means. So you can have a gospel about anything. You can have the gospel of teletubbies, which is like the good news of telly like gospel just means good news. And so when we say the gospel, that’s just shorthand for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And what that means is it’s the good news of Jesus Christ. And we’ve worked to distill it down into the gospel in one word, in three words, and in 30 words.

The Gospel in One Word is Jesus

And so the gospel, just by way of review, the gospel in one word is this, Jesus. And so if someone says, What’s the gospel? And you say, Oh, that’s easy, Jesus. You would be doing better than 90% of people with their half-cocked way of understanding and describing the gospel. The good news is Jesus. That’s what it is.

You know, I love theology. Theology is one of my great passions in life. My degree is in biblical theology. I love theology. I love talking about theology. Some people are like me. They love theology. Other people, when they hear that word, they just think, what in the world? I’ve got no interest in none of that. Can you just tell me what I need to know for my life? I don’t need to be arguing about theological concepts.

Well, the word theology is just it’s an ology, so it’s just the study of something. And so it’s just the study of theos. It’s the study of God. That’s what theology is. It’s trying to understand God. And you have to understand that when it comes to theology, theology is like a jigsaw puzzle. So I do not like jigsaw puzzles. My wife does. I don’t have the patience for them, but she does them at night. So she’ll do like these thousand piece jigsaw puzzles. And you know, all the whole point is trying to get the jigsaw puzzle to reflect what’s on the box.

Jesus is the Picture on the Box

And so, for you know, like, and she’s she’s told me that if you want to get it right, the way to do puzzles, you all know what you gotta do first, right? The edges. Yeah, that’s how to do it. I yeah, she, yeah, she does not appreciate any other suggestions from the buttons like what theology is like, that you have a picture of God in your mind. Do you know that? You do. It’s not perfect, hopefully, it’s pretty good. What God is like, how he reacts to us, what he does, what he has done, what he is doing, that’s all just theology.

And your theology, if you don’t know this, has been formed from lots of different places. Hopefully, the primary way is through this book. The Bible. In fact, if you even understand in a general sense that there is there was this guy named Jesus, and he died on this thing called the cross, and he did that in some way for you. If you believe that at all, it’s because of this. Like you would not, you would not know the name Jesus if it wasn’t for this.

But I don’t know if you know this, that this is not the only place you get your theology from. You have all kinds you have theology, little pieces in your head from this book, but also from this pulpit. Right? Also from your parents. You were a lot of you were raised to believe in God. Your parents told you things about God. Some of them were true, some of them weren’t. Some of them are right, some of them are wrong. Your friends have lots of ideas about God, just like the book of Job. They can your friends are capable of giving you wrong ideas about God.

But it’s all your life experiences and your trauma and your influences and your reading and your reckoning and your life experience. That all goes into what you would what we would call your theology. But I just want you to know that when it comes to the jigsaw puzzle of theology, the picture on the box is Jesus. That’s what all of those pieces are hopefully trying to assemble. And so if you have worked real hard with your jigsaw puzzle in theology, and you’ve come up with a picture that doesn’t look like Jesus in any way, you’ve made some positioning mistakes when it comes to your theology.

The gospel in one word is Jesus. And everything about Jesus, listen to me, everything about Jesus is good news. Everything that Jesus taught is good news. Everything that Jesus comes to bring is good news. Everything that Jesus teaches us about the gospel in three words, and that’s this. Jesus is Lord.

Jesus is Lord

And what what what do I mean when we say Jesus is Lord? You know, we probably I’m sure we sung it, you you say it, you hear it. What it means is this is that Jesus has the final and ultimate say in what you think and what you do. Not not specifically, but specifically Jesus has the ultimate say in your opinion on everything. And that’s good, and you might be thinking, like, okay, how is having a boss good news? You know what I mean? Like, like, well, the reason is this is he’s the only one remotely qualified for the job. Right?

The fact that you have a loving and kind and infinitely wise mentor and teacher and father who is wanting to sit you down and teach you about himself and teach you about how you’re supposed to live your life, is profoundly good news. Because I don’t know if you know this, outside of him, you don’t know what’s best. Look at humanity outside of God. You know what I mean? Turn on the news right now. That’s humanity outside of God. Right? That we have no ideas on how to do this well, but thankfully, we have a mentor, a tutor to teach us. And so Jesus being Lord is good news. And it’s good news for the world, but it’s good news for you personally.

And then we talked about the gospel in 30 words, and this is a lot of words. This is this is more words, and I’m gonna read it to you. This is the gospel in 30 words. And no, you don’t have to memorize all of this. Jesus is God with us, come to show us God’s love, save us from sin, set up God’s kingdom, and shut down religion so we can share in God’s life. And that’s been the overall, that’s like a theologically dense thing to say, and it might feel confusing. But this is the this has been the thrust of the entire series.

So can you put it up just for another minute? You can see that uh Jesus is God with us. We talked about that, the incarnation, how Jesus, how God come, Jesus comes to reveal the Father. We talked about how he shows us God’s love. We talked about sin, what sin is, and in what way does Jesus save us from it. And so what I’m gonna do on this third and final week is we’re gonna talk about those last three phrases. Set up God’s kingdom, shut down religion so we can share in God’s life. Are you ready for it? Okay, uh, here we go.

Jesus Brought a Kingdom and It’s Already Here

The title, if you’re taking notes this morning is this The New World. The New World. Heavenly Father, we’re so grateful for you. We’re grateful for your wisdom and your leadership. We ask that you would help us and teach us and help us to live from the realities that you would lead us in. And sin your sons, let me pray. Everybody said amen.

I’ve got three things I want you to write down briefly if you’re taking notes. The first one is this Jesus brought a kingdom and it’s already here. Jesus brought a kingdom and it’s already here. So so the gospel is the good news of God’s kingdom that has come. Not not just is coming and has come. That’s how Jesus loved to teach it. Look at this.

Mark chapter 1, verse 14 and 15. After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God. Oh, the good news, what’s he proclaiming? Look, the time has come, he said, the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.

So when Jesus says, here’s the good news, one of the things that he says is that the kingdom of God has come near. And it’s an interesting word, right? Of course, kingdom, because when we talk about a kingdom, you have lots of different ideas. And especially if we use like some of the math, you might say, the kingdom of heaven. What do you think about that? If someone says, the kingdom of God, what does that mean to you?

And I think we can make a mistake when trying to understand God’s kingdom. We can either go too religious or too political. Here’s what I mean. On one hand, you can you can treat the kingdom of heaven as just too spiritual. The kingdom of heaven is where you go when you die. Right? So because we believe that we go when we die, the those who have put their faith in Jesus go to a place called heaven where we live eternally. That’s absolutely true.

And so a lot of people, when they think, oh, the kingdom of heaven, it’s just talking about that other place up there, and it’s good there because Jesus is in charge. So that when we die, it’s bad here, but it’s good because we go up there. And that’s true, um, but that’s not primarily what Jesus is talking about when he’s talking about the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. To be clear, all of that’s true. But just understand that he’s also capable of just talking about heaven, not the kingdom of God.

And so there’s something, so the kingdom of God includes heaven, but the the kingdom of God, when Jesus talks about it, is God’s will and God’s way coming to earth in our lives now. That’s what it is. Right. So the kingdom of heaven is not something that you become a part of when you die. The kingdom of heaven is something you’re birthed into the moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ. That’s why Jesus would teach us to pray.

Matthew chapter 6, verse 10. Your kingdom comes. So this is Jesus talking to the Father. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Right? So he’s talking about the kingdom of God, not just in heaven, but coming to earth. So just understand that your kingdom come, God, your kingdom come. That’s not just an end of the world prayer. That’s a right now prayer. The prayer is this, God, whatever’s true in heaven, let that be true here. What you want, how how you want us to orient ourselves as mankind, our prayer is that that would start to happen, not just in heaven, but right now. God’s kingdom coming.

And that’s true globally, but it’s also true personally. Your kingdom comes. So that’s a prayer for you and your home. Your kingdom come. Right? That’s true in your marriage. Your kingdom come. With when it comes to your children, when it comes to your church, your kingdom come. Right? That we would that we would aim as a church to be an expression of God’s kingdom imperfectly here.

And that’s that’s a prayer that you can pray for your city. The city of Albuquerque needs help. I don’t know if y’all notice. Drive around. It’s flipping terrifying around here these days. I I just like it’s wild. And so what’s the prayer? The prayer is not get me out of here, be me up, Jesus. No, the the prayer, the prayer is your kingdom come. May your will and your way take place in our lives, in our church, in our city, and in our world.

And so it’s not so when we’re talking about God’s kingdom coming, we are talking about a religious thing, but you can make it only religious and you lose the meaning. On the other hand, you can also make it too political. Here’s what I mean. So certainly in Jesus’ day in particular, when he was talking about his kingdom, what they thought is this, oh, Jesus is gonna come and he’s gonna overthrow Rome. If you don’t know, these people were um occupied, they were it, they were with uh under Roman oppression, so these were persecuted people.

And so they were thinking when Jesus is coming, what he’s gonna do, it’s gonna overthrow the corrupt government and crush his enemies and put his people back on the top. And that’s what people assumed Jesus was talking about when he was talking about the kingdom. Talking he they assumed he was talking about power, victory, you know what I mean, like military strength. The king would come and crush Rome with military force. But Jesus comes up and he’s he is king, but he’s not that kind of king.

And and one of the primary reasons that they reject him is because he’s the king that they’re not expecting. He he comes in humility. You want to talk about a you want to talk about a um uh character trait that politicians are not allowed to have? Humility. Show me the humble people, right? So Jesus comes though in humility. He comes in kindness, he comes preaching forgiveness, he comes preaching reconciliation. And that’s not the kind of king that people were expecting, but it’s exactly the kind of king that the world needed and still needs.

Right? Because, and you might be thinking, yeah, you know, all this like forgiveness and reconciliation and stuff. You know, sometimes I’m not so sure about these people. Well, well, remember that the point of the story is that we are the rebels. Right? So it’s not like, okay, I get Jesus, I guess we should let people in. No, the people that are being let in is you. Come on. And you may be thinking, like, who would ever rebel against God? Um, you. And me. Right? That’s that’s the whole point of the story is that Jesus comes and preaches forgiveness to you. He comes and preaches reconciliation, not to those people, to you.

But that’s the whole story. Look at this,

Isaiah chapter 53, verse 6. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way.

Every single one of us. Every single person in the room watching online, everyone you will ever encounter has gone astray and pursued their own way. So we’re the people who wanted to live life on our own terms. We wanted to be our own king. Needless to say, that does not work out particularly well for us. But the good news of the kingdom is that Jesus comes to save the rebels. And that’s good news. Not not to for not to crush the rebels, to forgive them.

And so the kind of kingdom then that Jesus brings isn’t a kingdom built off of fear. It’s not built on power over. I’m going to force people into the kingdom. We made that mistake hundreds of years ago. We would force people into the kingdom, so we thought by the sword, but that’s not the way of Jesus. The way of Jesus is an invitation. And the kingdom is not where the enemy dies, his kingdom is where the hostility dies. And that’s different. Right? And again, if you have a problem with it, remember the person on the other side is you. Right? It’s not where the people we hate die, it’s where the hatred dies.

And I think I think some people have an idea that’s like too small when it comes to the kingdom and the gospel. If the gospel is like just about you having a personal savior only, it’s only about going to heaven, it’s too small. And that’s true, and it’s the best news ever, but it’s not the entirety of the gospel. The gospel isn’t just I get to go somewhere later. The good news is also Jesus comes to bring his kingdom to earth.

And so that’s why I can I can confidently say, I’ll tell you this all the time. I think Jesus is the Savior of the world. And it’s like, yeah, you’re supposed to think that you’re a pastor. I know, but I but I but I actually do, I want to say for the record, I actually believe it. I think that Jesus specifically, and his kingdom specifically coming to the earth is the last and only hope that humanity has. I I I believe that’s that you might think I’m being negative, I don’t mean to be. I believe without Jesus, humanity is truly doomed. That it’s not going anywhere good. Right?

And so it’s not just about making converts, it’s about the will and the way of Jesus coming to influence and save how we orient ourselves as humanity. That’s true for it, it’s true globally, it’s true personally. So fear doesn’t get the last word. Because he’s king. Bitterness doesn’t get the last word, like the toxic generational cycles that have lived on in your family for generation after generation doesn’t get the last word. Because your heart can live under the reign of Jesus now. Your family, this is my prayer. Your family can live under the reign of Jesus now. Where we act like he’s king because he is king. The question is do you recognize the kingdom isn’t just for later, the kingdom is now.

So that’s number one. Jesus brought a kingdom and it’s already here. Number two, if you’re taking notes, write this down. Jesus didn’t start a new religion, he replaced religion.

Jesus Didn’t Start a New Religion, He Replaced Religion

And you know, you never want to fight over words. I understand that if you talk to your grandma and she says, I’m very religious, what she means is she has faith. We don’t argue over words. But but uh I did a whole series called called Losing My Religion last year. You can you can go watch it. But I want you to just understand this simple point. Jesus did not come to start a new religion. Like he didn’t, Jesus was very non-religious. He went way out of his way to break religious rules. Watch the series again. He didn’t break God’s rules, but he broke rules that we added generation after generation after generation of just adding a little bit.

And that doesn’t mean that that like church tradition is bad, Christian tradition is bad. Doesn’t mean that church is bad, doesn’t mean prayer is bad, doesn’t mean scripture’s bad, doesn’t mean obedience is bad. It it doesn’t mean any of that. But what it does mean is that trying to get to God by following the rules is over. That’s right. This is not how you do it. And like the old system had its place for sure. You know what I mean? It was it was like a teacher. Scripture describes it as like a teacher. I I like to think of Old Testament law as like braces on your legs. They’re helpful because they can help you kind of hobble along if you need to. They can maybe even get you where you need to go, but but it’s not freedom, right? And it’s not the paradigm of today.

Jesus comes and he completely switches the paradigm where it’s not about following the rules to get to God. Pastor David, are you saying we shouldn’t follow? No, I’m not saying that. I’m not. But but just understand that the motivation to follow the rules is not to achieve relationship with God. Because that will never work. Religion says if you do enough, maybe you can have something that looks like relationship with God. But Jesus says relationship with God is a free gift. And you want you don’t even have to clean up your life before you get it. I had an old friend that said you don’t have to take a bath before you get in the bath. You know what I mean?

That it’s like the the finished place resting in relationship with the Father is the position through which you can achieve gradual sanctification. That’s a lot of big words. I just mean when when you’re in relationship with God, that’s the place where you can go to actually get better. Because of Jesus, there’s nothing left for you to achieve. And everything that we do in the Christian life is just a response to what Jesus had already done. Right? Religion says do, Jesus says done.

And so, and so you might think, ah, that’s just a mental trait. No, it’s it’s it’s a totally different paradigm. Everything about it is different. And honestly, this might surprise you. There’s a lot of people who don’t like that. Because they want a checklist. You know what I mean? They want a formula. They want to know like where the line is. How far can I get? How close can I get to the line without crossing the line? You know what I mean? Because they just want this like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Why? Because a system can feel easier than a relationship.

Like let’s say we had a brought a husband up here. We’re like, how’s your marriage? And he said, Oh, my marriage is great. I give my wife a card every week. It’s like, okay, that’s cool. Right? But but a card doesn’t equal a good marriage. Right? Maybe there’s real love and the card is an expression of that real love. Right? But you can’t, but you can’t go to a marriage like that and say, Of course my marriage is good. I give her flowers once a month. Doesn’t mean you have a good marriage. Right? If the flowers are from an expression of love, then they’re a great thing. If they try to be a replacement to real relationship, uh it doesn’t work.

And that’s how people treat their relationship with God. It’s just like, okay, I went to church, I read, I read my chapter, I said my prayer, I gave some money, I checked the box. Right? But but then Jesus comes and he says this this is a free gift, and everything you do is just an expression of that relationship. It’s called the new covenant. That now we’re not motivated out of fear, we’re not motivated out of having to having to do these things so that we could achieve some status with God. We do it from the place of grace.

And so God doesn’t just stand outside and like and like look at you and tell you what to do from a distance. He’s not like, Preston, I need you to blah blah blah blah. And he’s like standing back here. No, no. The the metaphor is this is that is that God comes close, sits us down, loves us, affirms us, and tells us like a gentle parent. It’s not behavioral management, it’s a totally different way of life. And again, to be clear, prayer matters. Reading scripture matters, obedience matters, church matters, but it’s not as a way to get life. Grace changes everything.

So God is it, He’s He’s just He’s simply offering, He’s offering something that you step into. And the great irony is this is that until you step in it, you can’t do it anyway. That that stepping into grace, grace is a position, grace is unmerited favor, but grace is also empowering to do what you can’t do on your own. Right? And so you might think I need to earn my way to God. The irony is that intimacy with God is all is the only place that you can get to where you can actually do the things that God has called us to do.

And so that’s why that’s why I would say like to like our Muslim friends, our Jewish friends, our Buddhist friends, our Hindu friends, like love you very much, but our systems are nothing alike. That’s not a diss. It’s just we have a different system. Because our system is not based on what we do, our system is based on what he has already done. Right. So it’s it’s not religion. Right? It’s not it a religion is a set of rules that you would follow to try to achieve oneness with God. But for us, we’re we are exclusive in this belief, in this reality, that oneness with God, relationship with God is a free gift, and everything that we do is just an expression of that reality.

Number one, Jesus brought a kingdom and it’s already here. Two, Jesus didn’t start a new religion, he repl replaced religion. And number three, this is how I’m closing the talk and how I’m closing the series. It’s this your life is hidden in God.

Your Life is Hidden in God

And I know I realize that that point is probably gonna really like hit, because it’s kind of like, what does that even mean? I hope I hope to show you here in just a couple minutes. Uh Colossians chapter 3, verse 1. Look at what Paul says.

Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your heart on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Listen to this. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

What in the world could that possibly mean? Your life you died, and now you’re hidden with Christ in God. That’s one of the wildest things the New Testament says about you is that is that if you’ve given your life to Christ, you died. Isn’t that weird? It’s like you died. If you gave your life to Christ, you died. And then it says this your life is hidden with Christ in God. And let me try to explain it to you.

So I I know a lot of you understand and believe, rightly so, that scripture teaches that Jesus lives on the inside of us. You ever heard of that? You’re familiar with that, right? Jesus come live in my heart, right? In Bible school, like Sunday school. That’s that’s a prayer. And that’s and that’s true biblically, is that is that Jesus comes when we put faith in him, that Jesus comes and lives on the inside of us. Chapter and verse, you got it.

Galatians chapter 2, verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

Okay, so are you clear on that? So Christ lives in you. But did you also know that Scripture also teaches that you live in Christ? Whoa. Right. But Scripture also teaches that we live in Christ. Chapter and verse.

First John chapter 4, verse 13. This is how we know that we live in Him, and He in us.

What? So we live in Him, and He lives in us. Here’s how you could uh see it. I’ve got a slide. This is this is the reality. Jesus in you, you in Jesus, and you and Jesus together in God. How in the world? Again, one more verse,

John chapter 14, verse 20. Jesus says this on that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

And so I know right now some of you analytical people like me, you’re like trying to like chart this, you know, with with like arrows and stuff. It’s just like, okay, you have the Father, and then you got Jesus, and then you got us. Like we’re in Jesus, and Jesus is in us, but somehow we’re together and we’re in the Father, but Jesus says the Father is in him, and he says that he’s in the Father. And like, my opinion, he make He just makes all the arrows a huge wild mess. Right? So it’s like, I don’t even know who’s supposed to be in who anymore, and in this moment, am I in Jesus? Is Jesus in me?

And I just think it’s what he’s doing is he’s just saying, we’re together. Like we’re united together, right? And just like I’m in the Father, you’re in the Father. And just like just like I’m in you, you’re that’s it’s not religion. It’s trying to communicate intimacy, right? That we’re intimately connected with him, not just as this separate entity where it’s just like, oh God, please don’t get it. No, that we’re intimately together, that he lives on the inside of us, and that we live on the inside of him.

So religion trains you to always think there’s a distance, right? That that there’s God over there, and you over here, and maybe if you do enough, you pray enough, you behave enough, like maybe you can lose you like get a little bit closer. But Jesus comes and says, No, you’re already in the father. You’re already in me. I’m already in you, and we’re together in the father. I’m in the father, you’re in me, and I’m in you.

I want to read it one more time.

Colossians chapter 3, verse 3. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

Right? So your life, it’s your life, not just your church life, not just your religious life, not just your life on your good days, your life is hidden with Christ in God. And you know what that means? Just just let me say that means that your truest self isn’t your failures. That means your truest self isn’t your mistakes. That means your truest self isn’t your fear. Your truest self is hidden in God. It’s hidden in God.

And because of that, listen, because of that, what’s true for Jesus becomes true for you. And that’s a critical thing you gotta realize. Right. So let’s say you um, let’s say you’re part of a workers’ union. Some of the young people are like, what’s that? Let’s say you’re maybe like a teacher or like a policeman or something like that, and you have and you’re part of a union. Well, you will have a union rep, but you’ll also have like a um a union negotiator. What is that? So this is a person who goes and negotiates your contract on your behalf, and like if they’re good and they get you a good contract, then everyone in the union benefits. But if they’re stupid and they get you a terrible contract, then everyone in the union suffers, right? It’s because they’re your representative, they they’re representing you as they’re litigating all of this stuff.

And so, so if they’re smart, you’re smart. If they’re dumb, you’re dumb. Because they’re your representative. And so, whatever, so whatever they’re able to achieve, you get automatically because you’re part of the union. Did you know that’s exactly how God describes you and Jesus the moment you believe? Right? That at that at that moment, Jesus becomes your representative, and what’s true of him becomes true for you. I’m not saying you become God. I’m not none of that. But I’m saying all the promises of God to Jesus become true for you. Right? That Jesus experienced abundant life, and that becomes true for you.

Chapter and verse. Here you go.

2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Isn’t that amazing? So how do we become the righteousness of God? Well, it’s not because you, right? It’s because you’re in Jesus. And then the things that are true of Jesus become true for you. Jesus doesn’t come to help you from a distance, he comes to join you to himself. And what’s true of him becomes true of you. Right? So his life becomes your life. And his resurrection marks the beginning of your new life. And so it’s not just about forgiveness, forgiveness is a part of it, but it’s participation, participation in kingdom life. Not because you have done it, but because you’re in Christ. And the things that Christ is able to is able to legislate for you becomes true for you. Because he’s your representative.

And so it’s by his stripes that we’re healed. Not your stripe, not not your per not your perfection, not your ability to perform. By his stripes, you’re look at what uh Peter says,

2 Peter chapter 1, verse 4. Through these, he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you look, listen to this, may participate in the divine nature.

Isn’t that interesting? You participate in the divine nature, participate, not just study from a distance, not admire from the outside, participate, share in, live from. He did that, but he didn’t just come to do that. He he came to bring you into communion with God. Right? I just I just think that someone in here, I don’t know who, I just think someone in here needs to hear that because you think that closeness with God is for people who are better than you. You know what I mean? And it’s like, well, maybe, maybe David’s close with God, but but but I’m not. Like, you think it’s for people who are cleaner than you.

And I think the world can give us like such a broken and religious view of God that we think God is never close. So maybe you can be forgiven, but you would never be brought in. You know, maybe maybe maybe you can attend, but you’d never you never belong. But faith in Jesus teaches us that we’re intimately connected with the Father. Every moment of every day. Christ in you and you in Christ. Not just someday, but right now.

Here’s my closing statement. Jesus didn’t come to offer a better version of the old world, he came to bring a new one. Jesus brought a kingdom and it’s already here. The kingdom isn’t just heaven, it’s the life and rule of Jesus coming to earth. Two, Jesus didn’t start a new religion, he replaced religion. He tore down the system of striving, earning, and deserving and opened real relationship with the Father. Three, your life is hidden in God. The gospel isn’t just about forgiveness, it’s participation in the life of God in the here and now.