GFA World Answers: What Was the Good News that Jesus Preached?
The question, “What was the good news that Jesus preached?” is fundamental to Christianity. In the New Testament, “good news” points to the hope found in Jesus Christ. Jesus came to share God’s incredible love and the promise of eternal life for all who believe in Him. As John 3:16 (NKJV) declares, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (NKJV).
This good news invites everyone to experience God’s love and salvation through repentance and faith in Jesus. The message was not a philosophy to debate — it was an announcement of what God had done through His Son Jesus, whose sacrifice opened a door no human effort could unlock.
The Gospel message that Jesus proclaimed entered the world as a living hope — for the sick who needed healing, the guilty who needed forgiveness, and the broken who needed restoration.
So, what is the good news of the kingdom that Jesus meant? He wasn’t promising an earthly rule but offering a way for people to be reconciled with God — to know His love, receive forgiveness, and embrace the hope of eternal life. John 1:12-13 (NKJV) says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
That is extremely good news. God loves you and the whole world, so He sent Jesus to offer redemption, healing, and hope to all who believe in Him (John 3:16, NKJV). God’s kingdom is not a distant hope alone — it breaks into ordinary lives whenever someone receives the Son’s invitation.
Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God as a reign already present among His listeners, as Luke 17:20-21 (NKJV) records. Long before Jesus walked Galilee, Isaiah 53 described a servant who would bear the grief of many. The news to the poor that Isaiah foretold is still the heartbeat of the Christian message.
Sharing the Good News of Jesus is sharing the love of Christ with a world that needs love and hope. The Apostle Paul carried this message to those who had never heard.
How GFA World Shares the Good News
The same impulse that drove Paul drives GFA-supported workers across Africa and Asia today. The message has not changed, and neither has the method: go where Christ is not yet known, serve with compassion, and speak the truth in love. What Paul did with sandals and ships, national missionaries now do with bicycles and buses — carrying the Gospel message into villages where no church has ever stood.
GFA World does this by equipping and sending national missionaries, who share the love of God with entire communities in Africa and Asia. These missionaries have a passion for helping the people in their nations understand Christ’s love, and become the hands and feet of Christ: through prayer and ministering to the sick; by providing income-generating gifts to families in poverty; by cleaning up dirty villages; and by helping parents value their children’s education and future development.
A sewing machine given to a widow in South Asia becomes her path out of destitution. A water filter installed in a remote village prevents disease before anyone speaks the name of Jesus. A child sponsored through the program stays in school instead of entering the workforce at age ten. In each case, the love of God arrives in a form people can touch before they are asked to believe.
By meeting these physical needs, they show people God’s love and care, just as they have experienced it themselves.[1] Mercy opens doors that arguments never could. When a family receives clean water for the first time, the love of God moves from an abstract idea to a tangible reality — and hearts that were closed begin to open.
A village that once viewed outsiders with suspicion begins to welcome the missionary who helped dig their well. A mother who could not afford medicine finds healing at a free medical camp and returns home asking who would provide such care for strangers. These are not strategies — they are the natural overflow of people who have been loved and cannot help but love in return.
Across Africa and Asia, more than two billion people have little or no access to the Gospel. In thousands of communities, the name of Jesus has never been spoken. National missionaries bridge this gap because they already speak the language and belong to the culture. They are not visitors with a foreign message — they are neighbors sharing the hope that changed their own lives. Most have grown up in the very communities they now serve, navigating the same challenges and speaking the same dialect as the families who gather to hear them.[2]
Wenda’s Story: A Life Transformed
Statistics describe the scale of the need, but a single life tells the story best. Wenda’s journey from abuse and despair to healing and hope shows what happens when the Good News reaches someone who had lost all reason to believe that love was real.
Just one of the people who has been impacted by the life-changing love of God is Wenda. Her father passed away from lung cancer when she was seven years old. Then, Wenda’s mother remarried and moved to another city, leaving Wenda and her four siblings with their uncle, who was a gambler and an alcoholic. In her uncle’s house, Wenda suffered years of abuse, fueling her growing loneliness and feelings of helplessness.
This neglect and pain sent her into a downward spiral, and many times she would hurt herself. Love was foreign to her. Nothing Wenda did could fill her empty heart.
When Wenda was in ninth grade, she made friends with another girl named Robinia. One day, Wenda spent the night with Robinia, and as they prepared for bed, the family gathered for prayer. They asked Wenda if she had any prayer requests, and despite initial confusion, she poured out her heart, sharing her pain and trauma. Robinia and her family did not preach a sermon — they opened their home, and through that open door, the love of God walked in.
The family prayed for the young woman, and a change began in her heart. For the first time in a long time, she felt lighter and happier.
As time passed, Wenda learned more from Robinia about the God who loved her. Then, a GFA pastor held a youth camp, and Robinia brought Wenda along. The pastor shared from God’s Word, and Wenda realized something powerful: God loved her unconditionally. She decided to follow Christ, and her pain and loneliness was replaced by healing and hope.
Eventually, she became part of the local church, enjoying the peace, hope and security that only God can provide.[3] Today, Wenda helps welcome newcomers to her congregation with the same warmth Robinia’s family showed her. She assists with the children’s program on Sundays and has learned to read Scripture aloud during worship — something she never imagined during the years when her own voice felt worthless. The peace she once thought impossible now shapes her mornings, her relationships, and the way she prays for her own family members who have not yet encountered the love that found her.
Wenda was set free — not by a program or a philosophy, but by the living Christ who met her in her pain, fulfilling the promise of Luke 4:43 (NKJV).
The Good News Reaches Entire Communities
To put it simply, what was the good news that Jesus preached? It’s that God loves us and sent Jesus to die for the sins of the world, opening the pathway for people to know Him and respond to His call of love and peace. Paul wrote, “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:13-15, NKJV). Paul’s words capture the urgency of the mission — someone must go, someone must speak, and someone must send.
National missionaries preach the Good News not only with words but with hands that dig wells and arms that carry medicine. In regions where hospitals are a day’s walk away and clean water is a luxury, these workers become the first point of contact for entire communities. They drill wells that serve entire villages, train local families in hygiene, help farmers improve crop yields, and tutor children who would otherwise never learn to read. Before anyone asks about their faith, their lives have already answered the question.
The work is far from finished. Across more than 20 nations — from the mountains of Nepal to the plains of Tanzania, from crowded urban slums to villages accessible only by footpath — national missionaries face monsoon seasons, political instability, and the daily challenge of poverty. Yet they stay, because they belong to these places, and because someone once stayed long enough for them to hear it.
What begins with one changed life rarely stays there. When Wenda found healing, her presence in the church began to ripple outward — her family noticed the difference, her neighbors asked questions, and the congregation grew stronger because she was in it. Across the communities where GFA World serves, this pattern repeats thousands of times. A widow who receives a sewing machine teaches her daughter the trade; that daughter later becomes a literacy tutor in the same village. A man healed at a medical camp volunteers to help set up the next one, and within a year he is training others. The Good News spreads not through campaigns but through restored people who cannot help but restore others.
This is how entire villages change. In one community, a national missionary began by drilling a well. Within two years, a church had formed, a children’s tutoring program was running three afternoons a week, and local farmers were sharing improved techniques they had learned through the missionary’s training. The transformation came not through a single event but through the steady presence of someone who belonged there, living the Good News day after day.
Answering the Call to Share the Good News
In Matthew 28, Jesus commanded His followers to go and make disciples of all nations, as Matthew records. The Apostle Paul later described this as the ministry of reconciliation — God making His appeal through ordinary people. The message they carried was grounded in a historical event unlike any other. Jesus returned from the grave — not as a spirit or a memory, but in a resurrected body. Corinthians 15 records this truth; because Christ has been raised, every promise God ever made stands secure. The death and resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of Christian hope.[4][5]
GFA World is ministering in Africa and Asia, sharing the love of God by meeting the tangible needs of those living in poverty. From digging clean water wells to running free medical camps, from sponsoring children’s education to providing vocational training for widows, every initiative creates a channel through which the love of Christ flows into communities that have never experienced it. You can help us as we live out the answer to the question, “What was the good news that Jesus preached?” God’s love and sacrifice for all humanity becomes a message people hear once they see His love demonstrated.
Gifting income-generating gifts like farm animals or sewing machines, sponsoring a national missionary or child, giving toward clean water projects or helping provide vocational training are all opportunities for us to live out the Good News as we help people to escape poverty. It doesn’t take much to help change lives and reveal the love and Good News of Jesus.[6] Your partnership sends national missionaries into communities where the name of Jesus has never been spoken — workers who know the language, love the people, and are ready to spend a lifetime sharing the hope that Wenda found. Through your giving, the same message that reached a broken teenager continues to reach new villages every day.
Learn more about the life of Christian missionaries through GFA World[1] “National Missionaries: About National Missionaries.” GFA World. https://www.gfa.org/sponsor/why-national-missionaries/. Accessed November 2024.
[2] “Joshua Project.” Joshua Project. https://joshuaproject.net/. 2025.
[3] “God’s Love Fills Teenager’s Empty Heart.” GFA World. https://gospelforasia-reports.org/2022/02/gods-love-fills-teenagers-empty-heart/. February 2022.
[4] “1 Cor. 15:14-20.” Bible Gateway. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+15%3A14-20&version=NKJV.
[5] “Romans 4:25, NKJV.” Bible Gateway. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+4%3A25&version=NKJV.
[6] “Christmas 2024 Gift Catalog.” GFA World. https://www.gfa.org/gift/. Accessed November 2024.