EVANGELISM

A FREE COURSE COMPLIMENTS OF DALLAS THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

SESSION FOUR

Defining Our Terms: gospel

This week we’ll discuss what the gospel is and what it is not.

LESSON POINTS

  • The gospel is the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ to accomplish His mission.

  • When we share the gospel with someone, we must be sure to communicate the human predicament, God’s provision, and our response.

  • God created us to experience a whole and flourishing relationship with Him, the rest of humanity, His creation, and ourselves.

  • God provided for our human need with Jesus; He is the Substitute who took our sin for us and the Victor who conquered sin and death.

  • We personally receive what Christ has done for us through faith.

WORSHIP MOMENT

It’s tragic when people reduce the gospel to a minimum standard that will get someone into heaven. The gospel is full and beautiful. It’s the story of God’s work in history to remove the curse of sin from the world and redeem humanity that we may live with Him forever the way we were meant to live before sin ruined everything. Praise God for His redemption!

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  • Do you know of a religion or religious practice that could be described as Moralistic or Therapeutic Deism?

  • Who do you know that would best understand a diachronical presentation of the gospel—where you tell them about Creation, the Fall, and God’s plans for redemption and re-creation? Who do you know that would best understand a synchronical presentation of the gospel— where you tell them about their condition as a sinner and the way God has made it possible for them to stand forgiven before Him?

  • How did this week’s lesson add to your understanding of the gospel?

FURTHER STUDY

  • Isaiah 53; Romans 5; 1 Corinthians 15