Everyone has a story. Stories form us, they tell us who we are and how we fit in the world. God is no different. He has a story too. The difference though, between our stories and his, is that we don’t really know whether the stories that we believe about ourselves or our world are true until we actually begin to understand HIS STORY.

To become gospel fluent people, we must understand God's story and how we apply the truths of that story to the everyday normal stuff of life. 

 What Does It Mean to Be Gospel Fluent?

A person is gospel fluent when the gospel becomes their "mother tongue." They see the world through that filter, they hear the world through that filter, and they know how to speak the truths of the gospel—the truths of Jesus— to those around them.

On a practical level, “gospel fluency” is the ability to speak the gospel to the real brokenness and longing of people’s souls in a way that they can hear—a way that sounds like the good news of Jesus for them and their present situations.

In order to do that we must become gospel “fluent” people. Over the next five weeks we'll explore the grammar and syntax of the gospel and learn together how to immerse ourselves in the truths of Jesus.

Pastor Jon Marq Toombs of Christ Covenant Church leads us this week from 1 Peter 1:1-3. 

"Theology leads to doxology. When you feel the mystery of God’s heartbeat for you, when you feel his trinitarian grace pulsating in your life, you cannot help but declare the praises of him who brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light!"

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” — 1 Peter 1:1–3 ESV

Pastor Jon Marq Toombs of Christ Covenant Church leads us this week from 1 Peter 1:1-3. 

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” — 1 Peter 1:1–3 ESV

The Epistle to the Ephesians did not fall out of heaven and land in the leather bound libraries that we call Bibles. It was a letter written by Paul to a group of his friends. Friends who were trying to figure out what life looked like in the new creation reality of their new found humanity in Christ Jesus. And that letter has been preserved for us.  

It's easy to miss that. We often read and study Paul's letters as though they were something other than just that, letters. We spend months dissecting them and in so doing run the risk of missing the forest for sake of the trees. In this, the last teaching of our five month walk through Ephesians, Dr. Adrian Smith leads us to lean against that tendency and experience Paul's letter to the disciples in Ephesus as it was intended to be experienced. 

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.”

(Ephesians 6:10–20 ESV)

The good news of Paul's letter to the Ephesians is that all things are being brought together in Jesus, things in heaven and things on earth. And all those things are being brought together, back to their proper order. That includes relationships between parents and children, masters and servants, relationships that were prone to abuse and brokenness after the fall.

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.“Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise),“that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.”

(Ephesians 6:1–9 ESV)

The good news of Paul's letter to the Ephesians is that all things are being brought together in Jesus, things in heaven and things on earth. And all those things are being brought together, back to their proper order. That includes relationships between parents and children, masters and servants, relationships that were prone to abuse and brokenness after the fall.

Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.”

(Ephesians 6:1–9 ESV)

In Ephesians 5 Paul is teaching the church how taking off the old self and putting on the new affects marriage. He shows us that the problems that exist in our marriages today actually happen as a result of the first sin committed long ago by our first parents in the Garden. Paul instructs wives to submit to their husbands and husbands to love their wives, and in so doing, points the church back to the curses that entered the creation as a result of our fall. Women are cursed with a tendency not to submit to their husbands and men are cursed with the tendency not to love their wives. But in the new creation reality of Ephesians, which is a return to the life that existed in the Garden before the Fall, husbands and wives both submit to and love one another, looking to Jesus as their perfect example of loving submission. 

“...submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”

(Ephesians 5:21–33 ESV)

Pastor Jeremy Beggs teaches from the Gospel of Luke, Palm Sunday, 2018.