The gospel writer says that God loved the world (John 3:16) and he sent Jesus to save it (3:17). God's vision is to restore the world to the state it was in before the fall. Jesus is his missionary. Exactly when or how Jesus realized what his purpose was is widely debated. Let's just say he knew what to do.
His early attempts at verbalizing his ideas were not well received, but he did find a few who would listen to him and little by little more and more people began to understand what he was talking about. In time, large crowds began to follow him. He did speak to a Samaritan woman at a well and a Roman centurion among others, but mostly to Jews like himself.
It is widely agreed that Paul was one of the first to write about Jesus' ministry. Paul is mostly known for bringing the gospel to people outside the Jewish community. As the new movement gained momentum, the gospel writers also began to stitch together a narrative that would not only elevate Jesus' ministry to levels well beyond what actually happened but also helped to unify the new movement.
The Jews had this idea that they were the chosen people of God and the only ones who would escape the fire of hell. Jesus' new and radical message was that the whole world can be saved and the Jews were chosen to show them what the Kingdom of God would look like. The only problem was that the Jews kept behaving so much like the rest of the world that they weren't much of an example to follow. As he became more successful at pointing that out, they felt threatened and had him killed.
If you turn on the news on any given day or paid any kind of attention in history class, I am sure war or other armed conflict will appear prominently in the headlines. That ought to surprise you given that one in three people on Earth claim to be Christians, a global movement founded by a guy who was all about peace. The prince of peace, they called him. Thousands of preachers have preached that message for thousands of years already. Everybody should know that by now. The reality is that the vast majority of Christians are either oblivious, in denial or even actively participating in the conflicts. The most disturbing part is when Christians turn on other Christians.
So preaching has not worked all that well, has it? Some modern day writers are suggesting that the only way to save the world is to adopt an attitude of being, to demonstrate with our own example what it means to be followers of Christ - to love one another. Let's go do that.
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