Masculine Faith: The Gospel

In this episode of the Manhood Tribes Show, we explore the deeper meaning of the title 'King' for Jesus. 

Host Don Ross dives into the essence of the gospel, clarifying that it's not just about personal salvation or forgiveness of sins but about recognizing Jesus's kingship and the availability of His kingdom to everyone. 

We examine the epic, purposeful, and resilient nature of a masculine faith and discuss how men can live out their roles in Jesus's kingdom today. 

Tune in to rediscover the gospel and learn to live a life aligned with Christ's teachings.

00:00 Introduction: The Title of Jesus
01:01 The Manhood Quiz
01:34 Series Overview: The Way of the King
03:18 The Three Pillars of Masculine Faith
05:06 The Story of God and Humanity
06:40 Understanding the Gospel
13:15 The Gospel: Not About Me, About Jesus
15:54 The Gospel: Not About Salvation, About Kingship
19:58 The Gospel: Not About Forgiveness, About the Kingdom
23:54 The Gospel: Not About Heaven, About Now
26:20 Living in Jesus's Kingdom
31:04 Invitation to Join Jesus's Kingdom
33:28 Conclusion and Next Steps

Want to know how you measure up as a man? Take our free quiz, called How Manly Are You? and learn how you can get better at being a man. Download for free at manhoodtribes.com/manly.

Transcript

Don Ross: 0:00

Okay, man. If you were to give Jesus a title. What title would you give him? Maybe, you know, a lot about Jesus. Maybe you just know a little, but you probably have heard him talked about at least enough that you could say that you think he's a. Teacher. That he's Lord. Savior friend. God, like what title would you give? Jesus? Well, I think in the story of the scriptures, there is one title in particular that the whole story is really trying to drive us to. And that title is what we need to talk about today on the manhood tribe show. Let's jump in. Guys want to know how you measure up as a man? I've got a great resource for you. It's called how manly are you? And it's a free quiz that you can take to figure out how you stack up against what it means to be a man. And when you take the quiz, you'll also get some free resources to help you figure out how you can get better as a man in the areas where you would like to grow. So go to manhoodtribes.com/manly to download your free. How manly are you quiz today? That's manhoodtribes.com/manly. Men welcome to the manhood tribes show. My name is Don Ross. I'm your host. And it's good to be with you today because we are continuing in our series that I'm calling the way of the king. Now here on the manhood tribe show. When I create a series, what I'm trying to do is really address kind of a big problem in men's lives and see if we can come up with some. Not all out solutions, but at least directions towards how men can be able to address that problem in their lives. And with this series, what I'm really trying to talk about is the problem that a lot of guys in our culture are having right now, which is they are looking at faith and their lives and just going. I'm not sure this really works for me. Like when it comes to the whole church thing, like, I'm just not sure that I fit in there or I'm utterly bored. Anytime that I go or everything that gets talked about in those kind of Christian circles just feels like it doesn't have much to do with my actual life. I get you. I understand that, especially for men, that can be a real challenge. And so in this series, I'm trying to figure out how we, as men can develop what I would call a masculine faith. What does it look like as a man to relate to God? How do we do that in a way that's like manly. And is that even a thing? Is it even appropriate to apply the word manly to faith? I would say that I think it is. And I think in order to do that, we're going to have to think in a few big categories. I brought these categories up in the first episode and you're going to hear me touch on them in each episode of this series. But there's really three big categories that I think helped shape what a masculine faith really looks like. The first is that it needs to be epic. And that just means that our faith needs to be a story that's really big and needs to be bigger than our own individual lives. Or even then like are the current events of our existing world right now. It needs to be big. It needs to cover the entirety of human history and our human future as well. And there needs to be lots of room for all of us to have a part to play in that story. Okay. So that's the first thing. It needs to be epic, but the second thing is that it also needs to be purposeful. Especially for us as men, we need to have a part to play. We need to have a role in the story. We need to feel like we have something to contribute to what's going on to the world, around us and to the story that we're a part of. As men, we are wired for action. And so if we don't have something to contribute something to do faith, isn't really ever going to feel relevant to us. Okay. So we need an epic faith. We need a purposeful faith. And the third thing is that we need a resilient faith. And that just means that when our faith stands up against the hardest things that life can throw at us, all the tragedy, all the pain, all the shame, all the difficulty, our faith needs to be able to stand the test. It needs to be able to hold its own against all of those really big challenges that we, as men are going to face in the world and it needs to come out really good. On the other side, it needs to come out. Maybe even looking better than before we started down the road of those challenges. So epic. Purposeful resilient. A masculine faith definitely needs to include those things. We started out in the last episode by talking about the story of God and humanity, and really trying to understand just how big and how broad that story is, but also where we fit into it. And that we do have a really significant part to play that God designed us as human beings. To be able to rule and govern how life works here in this physical realm that we call earth, that we are meant to represent him in this space. And to rule as he would rule here on the earth. That's a really important part that we have been given. But if we look around, it's pretty easy to see that. We as men. Have messed it up more often, more often than we have succeeded. And you can tell that not just from your own life and all the mistakes that you have made, but you can just look around at the world and see like, Hey, we're not doing so hot. Most of the time. We're more violent and cruel to each other more often than we are kind and peaceful. And just the world is not a very safe place to live in for many, many people around the world. And none of that represents what it looks like to live in God's kingdom. So we need to talk about then what God's kingdom really is all about and how it is that we, as men are meant to bring it to the world. So in order to do that, I've said that we're going to cover six big things. The first one was the story, and today we need to cover something. That's going to help us understand a little bit more about God's kingdom. So today the thing that we need to cover is the gospel. Now. The word gospel, I know is a very churchy, very religious term. And if you've heard it at all, you've kind of just heard it used in terms of like, you know, the gospel truth, meaning like something that you're never supposed to disagree with, or you've heard some preacher thumping at you with the gospel, you know, and that you've got to believe it and you've got to accept it and you know, all those kinds of things. It just has a lot of this, like churchy religiousness around it without a lot of actual understanding. Handing in the church world, the term gospel is just kind of a term that gets thrown around and accepted, but. Most people, aren't really sure what it even means and what it has to do with our own individual lives. And so that's what I want to try to unpack today because the gospel is actually super important to us understanding everything else about what God is doing in our lives and what the way of the king really means. Now. I asked at the beginning of this episode, what is a title that you would give to Jesus? If you had to just give him one, what would you give him? And you may can gather from the language that I've already used in this episode that I think that the title that's most important to give to Jesus is king. King. Really the whole story of the scriptures is trying to tell us that Jesus is king of the universe. That through all of his life and through the story of what he lived, he has become king over all of the universe. And we are meant to be able to give our allegiance to him. So that we can experience life in his kingdom, but I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit, and we need to go back and understand a little bit about what this word gospel means so that we can get a better grasp of Jesus as king and Jesus and his kingdom. The word gospel really just means good news. It comes from a Greek word called you on Galyon. It's the same word that we get are English words, evangelize or evangelism from. And it really just means good news. But it means a particular kind of good news. See, this word came out of the time of the Roman empire. And it was the kind of word that was used. Whenever a messenger would come back from a battle and he would come running into the city and he would have good news to proclaim. He would proclaim the good news that because of this battle, your king is now this person who, you know, won the battle or, you know, maybe it was because of some kind of treaty that like your territory had now become part of this other kingdom over here. And look, here's the good news is that so-and-so. Is now your king. Well, you might can get from the way that I'm talking about it. This may have not always been good news, but the messenger, you know, was a servant of this new king. And so he's always trying to put a positive spin on it. But really what he's doing is proclaiming to the people of that town or that city. That you now have this person as your authority figure. Your lands, your property, your town, your city, and everything about your lives. Now comes under this person as your king. That's what a gospel message was all about. It was about proclaiming who was now king over you. Sometimes that was good news. If you got a good king, sometimes it was not so good, especially if you had had a good king already and now the new Victor or the new Lord was not such a good king. It meant that things were not going to go well in your life. And so even though the king was describing it as good news, You probably knew that it wasn't so much. So why is it then that we say. The good news about Jesus is actually really good. Well, that's what we need to understand. C N America. Uh, and for most of the Western world for the past, you know, several centuries, we have been talking about the gospel and some pretty specific terms. If you've heard a gospel presentation at some point in time in your life, you've probably heard it go something like this. Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice for your sins so that you can be forgiven. And if you will accept him, you'll be saved so that you can go to heaven when you die. That is what most Americans have heard preach to them as the gospel message. I want to say to you that none of those things is wrong. In fact, they're all good and really right. And wonderful. Now we're going to have some ways that we're going to finesse them and even correct them just a little bit as we go forward in the series. But what I do want to say to you pretty emphatically is that while those things are true, They are not the gospel, at least not in the sense that the gospel is talked about in the Bible. The gospel is the good news. It is the proclamation that Jesus has become king. It is the announcement that Jesus is now king over all the universe. Not only that it is also the announcement that his kingdom is available for anyone to enter. Okay. So let's unpack some of those things, because this is where we need to kind of get down into the nitty-gritty. Of helping us understand this idea of the gospel, because I know if you're like me and you've grown up in American culture, especially if you've grown up around the church. Some of the things that I'm saying, you may be scratching your head going. Uh, what is this guy talking about? Like, he's saying that the gospel isn't what I've heard. It said it is like, does that make him a heretic? Like, do we need to listen to this guy? I know you've got some questions and I get it. I want to try to unpack those things for you guys who are familiar with the gospel. But I also want to try to give this message to people who have not heard it, or maybe have heard it in a way that turned them off to begin with. And I want to say to them, it's maybe not what you thought it was. So let's try to discover what it really is. I want to give you four ideas that will help you understand what the Bible is really talking about when it talks about the gospel. And I'm going to do that by saying some ways that it isn't what we've heard it preached as, but it's actually something else. Okay. So let's, uh, to give you an example, let's just start with the first one. The first of those four ideas is that the gospel is not about me. It's about Jesus. The gospel is not about me. It's about Jesus. See the gospel that most of us has heard actually is about us. Now, Jesus is kind of the main figure in the story, but the gospel message that we've been preached is really all about my forgiveness of sins and me being saved so that I can go to heaven when I die. It's really all about what needs to happen to me so that I can secure a good future for myself. But that's not the point of what the gospel is all about. The gospel isn't about me. It's about Jesus. In the Bible, the writers of what are called the gospels, which is really the first four books of the new Testament and kind of just the story of the life of Jesus. They're called the gospels because they are telling of the good news and they are actually proclaiming this idea of God's kingdom coming to earth and of Jesus becoming king. Now, when we look at those stories, we see that Jesus very often talked about God's kingdom. He talked about the kingdom of God and how it was coming to earth. And the ways that the kingdom of God was like this, or was like that, he told all these parables to try to illustrate what the kingdom of God was like. And he invited people into this kingdom of God, way of living. That was really different than what most of them had experienced, trying to be. God's good people. The biblical writers even tried to draw our attention to Jesus becoming king. When we see the pictures of him being crucified before he's crucified, he is. Uh, robe is placed on him as well as a crown of thorns. And then when he is put up onto the cross, there is a sign above him that says Jesus of Nazareth. King of the Jews. So there's all kinds of imagery throughout the story, but especially in his crucifixion scene where we see that Jesus is inaugurated as king. It's just not an, any way that any of us would expect. The point of all, this is to say that Jesus is the centerpiece of the story. Not me. Not you. Not us. We are an important part of the story. And Jesus in a lot of ways is modeling for us. The part that we are supposed to play in the story. But there is no doubt that the announcement is about the fact that Jesus has become king and we are offered the opportunity to give him our allegiance. The second statement that we need to talk about is the idea that the gospel is not about salvation. It's about kingship. Okay. So again, for those of you who have grown up around the church, you have probably heard that the gospel is all about getting saved and that even what we are supposed to be doing as Christians is about helping other people get saved. But that really isn't the message of the new Testament. That's not what the scriptures are trying to teach us. The scriptures are trying to teach us that the gospel message isn't about salvation so much. It's about kingship. It's about understanding that Jesus has become king. It is a proclamation of who is now king. Up to this point, as I talked about in the previous episode. Humans had been under the slavery of rogue, spiritual powers, all of those spiritual beings who had rebelled against God back in the early days of the creation story and who Yahweh had turned over the nations to their authority. Humankind had been living under the slavery of those rogue spiritual beings. Even worshiping many of them as gods and as deities and following their rules and their designs for human life. But God through Jesus now is saying you don't have to do that anymore. God's kingdom is now available and Jesus has become king. So the question then is if Jesus is proclaiming himself as king over everything. Am. Am I going to follow him? Am I going to take him seriously in that? Am I actually going to believe that he is king over everything? And am I going to like, choose to recognize that as true? That is the point of the gospel. That is the decision that the gospel should drive us to is being able to say. Is Jesus really king. And if so, what am I going to do about it? There's a letter in the Bible called Romans. That's written to the people of Rome during biblical times. And Paul, the writer of that book says that if we will confess with our mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts, that God raised him from the dead, then we will be saved. This is the kind of response to the gospel message that Paul thinks is appropriate. He's saying that we should confess with our mouth, that Jesus is Lord. Now. In Paul's day, he was saying something very specific and very threatening by saying that Jesus is Lord. Because in Roman culture, what you were required to say was that Caesar was Lord. And so Paul is offering a very specific alternative to that saying that. Not only is Jesus king over all the universe, but he's king over you in a way that Caesar actually isn't Caesar is not emperor of the whole world. He is not Lord over your life. He doesn't demand ultimate authority over you. Jesus does. And Jesus is the kind of king who deserves it, but are we going to confess that out loud in such a way that everyone else around us would know that that's what we think. And that's the way that we intend to live. That's the question that Paul is really driving at. If what Jesus is saying is true, what are you willing to do about it? If I give my allegiance to Jesus as king, then it has a lot more to do with how I'm living my life than just about going to heaven. When I die. It's going to impact and affect everything about the way that I live, because Jesus is my king and a king demands allegiance. He demands that everything about the way that I live would reflect his kingdom. And that's what he is really calling us to. So that's what leads us to the third statement. Okay. So the first two statements, let's just go back and review them. The first one is that the gospel is not about me. It's about Jesus. The second one is that the gospel is not about salvation. It's about kingship. The third statement is that the gospel is not about the forgiveness of sins. It's about the availability of Jesus's kingdom. Okay, let me say that one more time. The gospel is not about forgiveness of sins. It's about the availability of Jesus's kingdom. Now to be sure Jesus does offer us the forgiveness of sins. And he accomplishes that for us through his death on the cross and the shedding of his blood, which takes away the sins of the world. That is certainly offered to us, but it is offered to us as a part of becoming part of Jesus's kingdom. It is the offer that we are invited into and it comes with so many good and wonderful things. And forgiveness of sins is one of those things, but it isn't really the point. The point is that Jesus has kingdom is available and it is available to everyone. C go back to the story that we talked about in the last episode. Up to this point, being a part of God's people, God's family God's kingdom was actually only available to one nation. At that point, it was available to the nation of Israel whom God had chosen. He had created his own nation after handing all the other nations over to rogue spiritual powers. You always said, this is going to be my people and I'm going to be their God. And so his kingdom was only available to Israel. But through Jesus, through his death. Through his resurrection, that kingdom now becomes available to anyone. And this is what God had intended all along. He wanted the kingdom of Israel to be a light, to all the nations. He wanted them to be able to show to the world what it looked like to be part of Yahweh's family and how to live according to the good way that Yahweh had intended for humanity all along. But they failed time and time and time again. And so Yahweh took a different route. He sent Jesus as his son to show to the world what it looked like to live the kind of life that we were always meant to live. But it took a perfect sinless human to be able to live that way. And so then Jesus died a sinless death to be able to forgive us of our sins, but to offer to us access to his kingdom, to be able to say now anyone not just the people of Israel, but anyone who's a part of any nation can come out of slavery to darkness and to rogue spiritual beings. And become a part of Jesus's kingdom simply by giving our allegiance to him. All we have to do is confess that he is Lord and that those other powers or other rules of life that we have been following those things are not Lord over us. And in fact, Jesus is, and in doing that, we become part of his kingdom and we receive forgiveness of sins and we receive eternal life and we receive grace and mercy and all the other incredible benefits that come with Jesus kingdom. But the point of that. Is that his kingdom is now available and accessible to everyone through his death, resurrection and Ascension. That is the message of the gospel. It's not primarily about forgiveness of sins. It's about the availability of Jesus's kingdom. So, what does Jesus's kingdom look like? Well, he spent his whole life teaching and modeling for us what that kingdom looked like. And that really kind of brings us to the fourth point. So again, let's review. The gospel is not about me. It's about Jesus. The gospel is not about salvation. It's about kingship. The gospel is not about forgiveness of sins. It's about the availability of Jesus's kingdom. And now, lastly, our fourth statement. The gospel is not about going to heaven when you die. It's about entering Jesus's kingdom now. Now, this is a big one. This is probably one that if, again, if you've grown up in and around the church, this has been the essence and the point of what our faith has really been about, about going to heaven when we die about getting saved so that we can go to heaven when we die. Right. That's kind of been the point. But the gospel in the scriptures, isn't about that. That's not the point of the gospel. The point of the gospel is not about going to heaven when we die, but about being able to enter into Jesus's kingdom now. That's the message that Jesus was trying to convey. And when the gospel is announced, that is the point is that we can do something about it now, and it affects our lives. Now that is really the goal and the idea of what the gospel is about. Now for those who do give their allegiance to Jesus, are we going to go to heaven when we die? We're going to talk about that in one of a following episodes. The short answer is yes, but that's not the whole story and we've kind of made it the whole story. So we need some correcting in that regard, but we're going to talk about that later on. The point though, is that if we give our allegiance to Jesus now, It affects us now. It causes us to live differently. It should cause us to live the way that Jesus lived, because we are giving our allegiance to him. We are saying that he is Lord. We are confessing that as if that should have all the difference in the world about how we live. If Jesus is really king, then I need to serve. As my king would have me to serve, I need to live as he would ask me to live. I need to do as he commands me to do. I need to obey, and now that's a word that we don't always like, but that word is all over the scriptures. Jesus calls us to obey. He's asking us to obey his commands. And he's not just looking for subjects. He's asking us to obey. Because he created us to have the kind of life that is meant to be beautiful and blessed. And in obeying, we live that kind of life with him. But we don't get to experience that if we continue to live life, as we think it's best designed and to pursue the things that we just think are our best ideas or are going to bring us the most pleasure. Jesus isn't after that kind of life, he wants us to bring his kingdom here into the world. And to do that, we need to live the way that he lived. We do that by living as a different type of community of people and inviting others into it. So it's not just about how I live individually, but it's about connecting with other people who are living and following Jesus as well and inviting other people who aren't yet a part of Jesus's kingdom into that kind of community. We live like Jesus lived by preaching. And talking about the fact that Jesus is king, helping other people understand what it means that Jesus is king and how we can be a part of his kingdom and why that's better than following any other rival rulers that there are around us. And those things can be spiritual powers, but they also can be just forces in the world like money or sex or fame or whatever else that undeniably have spiritual forces behind them. But in our world, Today might just look like the things that everybody else is doing. We follow Jesus's rule by demonstrating his power over spiritual forces. Now this may be a new one for you. This might be a new category. But if you look at Jesus's life, this is something that he did over and over again. He came and demonstrated to the world that Yahweh was not just one of other spiritual beings. He was not just one among many, but he was the one of one. One of a kind, he was the holy of Holies. That's what that means. He is set apart from all other beings. Yahweh is the creator of all spiritual beings. And because of that, he has authority over all of them. And Jesus came and demonstrated that authority. He cast out demons. He spoke to evil spirits and commanded them. He did things that no one else had ever done before, but that's because he was operating in the power of God, who is the creator of all those spiritual beings. And so we need to be able to do the same. In the ways that spiritual powers are active in our world, that run contrary to Jesus's kingdom. We are meant to step into those places and confront them. Now men, this is an especially important role for us as warriors and Kings. We are called to take a stand for Jesus, his kingdom in the world. And that is going to put us in opposition to the spiritual powers of other kingdoms. We are meant to fight against them. We are meant to exercise Jesus's authority over them. We'll talk more about what that looks like and some following seasons and series and episodes, but for now, I want you to know that that's part of what it means to be a man who walks in the way of the king. You are meant to exercise your authority over spiritual beings, because Jesus has given you his authority to do so. We do all of that. We, we walk in the way of Jesus. We do all of the things that he did. By modeling the same kind of sacrificial love that he modeled for us. We give up our lives for the sake of others. Now for some of us that might mean actual death. That might mean a sacrifice. That involves loss of life. But for most of us, that's going to just mean I'm sacrificing myself in a whole lot of other ways. I'm giving of my time in some ways that are uncomfortable, I'm lowering my status in some ways that kind of feel humiliating. I'm giving of my money that becomes painful in some ways to live. But I know that this is. This generosity is going to help others be able to live well. I'm doing all of those things because that's what Jesus modeled for us. And that is the way of his kingdom. We sacrifice for the sake of others so that they might be able to live well, trusting that all of our needs and resources will be met in Jesus. He has an unlimited abundance of resources in his kingdom. And he will, he will give them to us as we give them to others. And eventually we will see God's kingdom come from heaven here to earth. And that's the point of the message of scripture is that heaven is coming to us. We don't just go to it. When we die, heaven comes to earth and we will get to see that with resurrected bodies and live on the earth and dwell with God for all of eternity. But in the meantime, we are meant to live and to model Jesus's kingdom, as he showed us how to be able to do it. All of that will happen eventually. And for now, the point is that we accept Jesus as king and we live according to his kingdom. Now I want to challenge you. Some of you are listening to this and you're going. Man I've been following Jesus and I've been going to church my whole life and the stuff that you're talking about doesn't sound very much at all. Like what I have learned. I can understand this is maybe a little bit different. What I want to challenge you to do. If that's the question that you have is to just pull out your Bible. Read through one of the gospels read through the gospel of Matthew or the gospel of Luke. And just look and see are the things that I talked about in this episode, in that gospel, does it help you to understand those scriptures may be a little better than you've understood them before is the way that Jesus talks about his kingdom, the way that I'm talking about it now. And if, so, maybe there's some things here that are worth you listening to, and kind of, re-examining what you've understood as the gospel. But for those of you who have not been exposed to this before, or who have maybe heard some other version of the gospel and just haven't been interested in responding to that or have thought, you know, what, I'll deal with that later in life. But for now I'm going to live the way that I want to live. I want to actually challenge you to consider this gospel a new, I want to challenge you to consider that Jesus is king over all the world. And his kingdom is available to you. And if you will choose to live in it and to make Jesus your king, that that will bring to you the best possible life that you could experience. May not look like what you think it might, but it will be the best life that you can experience because it will be the life that God has intended for all of us to live and to model his kingdom and to bring his rule here to the earth. So, what do you need to do to be able to make Jesus your king? Well, it's just, like I talked about before. You confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord. And you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. If you can do both of those things, then you will be saved. You will be a part of Jesus's kingdom and all of the benefits that come with it. But you will need to confess it with your mouth. And that means it needs to be done publicly. Uh, other people will need to hear it and it will need to start to affect to affect the way that you live. So if you're not connected to a community of other people who are following Jesus, you need to start to find that that in most places it's called a church. You need to find a church locally. That believes and understands these ideas about the gospel and who you can jump on board with. Okay. That's what I want to challenge you with today. If that's you and you're ready to do that, then let me just pray a simple prayer for you now so that you can make that decision. It doesn't take any kind of magic to it, but I'll give you some words that you can follow along with. Jesus. I confess that you are king of the universe. And I want to make you my king. I believe that God raised you from the dead. And I give you my allegiance. I bring all of my life under your authority. I want all the benefits of your kingdom. And I want to live according to the way that you live. Jesus. Amen. That's it. That's all that it takes. You would now be a part of Jesus's kingdom and you're entitled to all the goodness and all the blessings that come with it. This is really crucial because this invites you into the story and gives you a role to play. We're going to continue to talk more about what that role looks like and how you live that out in your relationship with God and your relationship with others and in all the things that are apart of your life. I can't wait to talk to you more about that in our next episode. I'll see you then.