The truth of the gospel is a message that affects your life personally. It will permeate everything you do. It affects your present and your future in ways that cannot leave your behavior unaltered.

Steven Spielberg is a master of fantasy movies. He has brought to life some of the most unbelievable stories magically in a way that people almost believe them to be true. ET is a story about a little alien who gets left behind on earth. It is obviously just science fiction, and yet by the end of the movie you find yourself wiping tears away when the little guy gets to go home.

Jurassic Park is another unbelievable tale about a dinosaur reserve, which makes you jump from fright it seems so real.

But of all his movies my favorite is Catch Me If You Can, a movie about a young man who gets away with pretending to be a teacher, a pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer. It’s a riveting tale, but the most amazing part of the whole movie is found in these words: ‘based on a true story.’

Here Spielberg did not have to create a fiction that was believable – he had to take the true, unbelievable facts and present them as believable. There is so much of Frank Abagnale’s life that is incredible, that Spielberg opted to omit some of the facts, or the story would seem too far-fetched!

A true story has tremendous power.

We have been looking at treasures of the Christian life (grace, peace, thankfulness, faith, hope, love and heaven), today we are going to look at the final and greatest treasure, the crown jewel in our trove: the gospel.

Colossians 1:1–6 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,

3 Implications of the Gospel

1. The Gospel is Truth

Colossians 1:5b Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel

In Evangelicalism today the word ‘gospel’ is treated like a brand name. Every music shop has a gospel section, people hand out gospel tracts, conferences and coalitions employ it in their names or append it to their taglines.

But what is the gospel?

Paul describes the gospel simply as: “the word of truth.” A word or message of truth—a true story.

The word gospel is a translation of the Greek word used in the New Testament, evangelion, meaning ‘good news’ of salvation.

What are the essential parts of the gospel? What are the ingredients without which the message is powerless?

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