Saturday, February 24, 2007

Ultimate Intervention: Romans 3-4: Feb 25, 2007

The Ultimate Intervention Romans 3-4 February 25, 2007
Key text: Romans 3 and 4

Leif Enger has written a beautiful novel called Peace Like a River.

In the story Davy Land at 16 year old from the Midwest is accused of murder and has runaway on foot and then on horse back goes into hiding. His dad, his 11 year old younger brother Reuben, and his 9 year old sister Swede begin a country-wide search for him…

Peace Like a River is a moving story about Davy’s exile and how his family seeks to reunite with him…

Though Davy is a tough, rugged, independent teenager, he feels the anguish of being separated from his family.

Whenever we experience separation from people’s whose lives we were meant inter-weave with, we experience some kind of loss…

When a married couple fights and one of then up sleeping on the couch… that disconnected creates a whole in both hearts…

When a teenager makes it clear that she wants to have absolutely nothing to do with her parents, whether she knows it or not, she, of course, and her parents experience loss…

When we are disconnected from the one for whom we made, our maker, whether we aware are of it or not we suffer great loss, whether we know or not we are incomplete...

The Danish philosopher and theologian, Kierkegaard in his book Sickness Unto Death says that a person is "in despair" if they do not align themselves with God--and that they lose themselves--if they do not align themselves with God

In Romans 1 Paul argues that the human race has turned away from the God for whom they were made and therefore are losing themselves. Like a fish out of water, like a cactus out of the dessert, like a polar bear out of the cold, as we human live out of the environment for which we were made begin to experience breakdown in our spirit, in our relationships, breakdown in the societies we inhabit…

In Romans 2… Paul says to his fellow Jews if you when think I’m talk about human beings being separated from God that I am only talking about the gentiles think again… because we Jews also sin, just like the Gentiles, so we like the Gentiles are separated from God.

Our great need as a human race is to place God at the center of our solar system, in the words of Kierkegaard we need to connect the finite with the infinite… but we cannot do that on our own…
We’re in a “Catch 22” situation… in order to center or lives on God, we need first need God in our lives to that, but because we are separated from God we can’t make that move on our own!
When you’re looking for your first job in a particular you field you may also experience a Catch-22 where one cannot get a job in your field without work experience but you cannot gain experience without a job…
Paul in the first 3 chapters of Romans is explaining that we are in a kind of Catch 22. We are in despair we are separated from God, but in order to reunite with we need God… but because we’re separated we don’t have God and therefore can’t bridge the gap on our own…

We’re in a Catch-22… on the most important issue in our lives…

When you’re in a Catch-22 in a job search situation—where in order to get a job you need experience, but in order to get experience you need a job… what you need is an intervention… You need someone with power, who will say, you don’t have experience, but I’ll take a risk and I’ll hire you even though you don’t have experience…

In the most important Catch 22 of a person’s life--our separation God--we need a intervention… and Paul in Romans 3 describes this intervention and this morning we’re going to focus on Romans 3 and part of Romans 4.

If you have your Bibles please turn to Romans 3 vs. 3

To give you the context Paul in Romans 3:

Paul in the first chapters has described how both, Gentiles and Jews have turned from God and Paul in light our humanity’s sinfulness has God been unfaithful? Has God said to humanity? You made your mess, you live in it forever… screw you! Has God said that! Let’s look at verse 3…
3 What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God's faithfulness? 4 Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar…
Paul says in spite of our unfaithfulness God has been faithful to deal with problem of sin, that spiritual toxin that separates from the God for whom we were made…

Paul in Romans 3:9 explains that whether we are Jew or Gentile we are trapped under the power of sin… this toxin the separates us from God…

Then Paul in Romans 3:10 quotes a Psalm, probably not our favorite verse in Bible, As it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one (Psalm 14:3). Paul is not saying that human beings are completely incapable of doing right things, but he is saying that no one consistently keeps the law of God… and that our sins separate from God.

In Romans 3:20 no one will be able to bridge the gap between them and God by trying to observe the law. The Bible no one can fully observe both the letter and spirit of the law without God…

In Romans 3:23, in a famous verse Paul says: …for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Please look, if you will, to Romans, Chapter 3, verse 21-26

Here’s Paul presents the heart of the greatest news ever, the Gospel:

In the opinion of Australian Bible scholar, Leon Morris, these are the most important verses of all the Scripture:
Paul writes: 21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in [h] (of if as the footnote indicates, the “faithfulness of”) Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, [i] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
In verse 22, in the text that we read “this righteous is given through faith to all who believe.” Stay with me as I step through a bit of Greek grammar: vs. 22 as the footnote in the TNIV translation notes can be translated from the Greek “through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, this righteousness is given to all who believe”(in stead of faith in Jesus Christ). From the Greek, a common, more literal way to translate this word which is in genitive case from the Greek is “the faithfulness” of Jesus Christ. Young Literal translation renders the verse this way, as do a growing number of highly respected New Testament scholars like N.T. Wright and Richard Hays.

The greatest news ever is that through the faithful work of Jesus Christ on the cross, absorbing our sins and shame in his body, we are redeemed, we bought back for God.

In verse 24, we are told that through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

As Paul’s Jewish hearers heard the word “redemption,” they would likely have thought back to the exodus. As you may recall, if you have read the book of Exodus, the Hebrew people had been slaves under Pharaoh, but God freed his people from that place of slavery. God had warned the Pharaoh that if he did not let Gods’ people go, that God would bring judgment against Pharaoh and the people of Egypt. And because Pharaoh stubbornly refused to surrender to God, God exacted a number of judgments upon him and his people.

In a particularly harsh judgment, God had said that an angel would strike down the first-born sons in the land in Egypt. God told the Hebrew people that the way they could avert this judgment was by painting their door frames with the blood of a sacrificial lamb. And all those who painted their door frames with the blood of a lamb were passed over in the judgment… and the Hebrew were protected and then set free… The Hebrew people would have been conscious that literally through the blood of a lamb they had been redeemed from slavery…

Paul’s Gentile listeners would have heard the word “redeemed” and they would likely have been thinking of the language of the market place. A slave in Paul’s day could be bought on the market and redeemed and set free.

Regent College Professor Gordon Fee tells the story about Abraham Lincoln. As a young man Lincoln crossing the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky. He stopped to watch the slave auction where a 16-year-old girl of mixed race was being auctioned off as a slave. She looked completely Caucasian, but apparently she had 1/64th Negro blood, and because her blood was considered tainted, she was a slave up for sale.

The auctioneer was asking how much and the price wasn’t going high enough, so he went over, grabbed her clothing by the back of her neck, and stripped her naked to the waist. With a sneer the auctioneer asked, “How much will you bid?”

The bidding shot up to $1000, which in 1852 represented a huge amount of money—1100, 1200.1300.By now there were only 2 people bidding, a wealthy plantation owner and a Methodist preacher. At $1400 the wealthy plantation owner bowed out. The Methodist preacher had won his prize, and when he came down to collect the girl, the auctioneer sneered, “You got her mighty cheap, mister, whatcha gonna do with her now?”

Without breaking stride, the Methodist minister went over to her and said, “I am going to set her free.”

And when we were enslaved under the power of sin, when we were spiritually naked and degraded and alienated from our true father, Jesus Christ offers to redeem us back at nothing less than the price of his life.

In a free market economy, we deem on the value of an object by what we are willing to pay. If for example said, I’m going to put a price tag on my watch for $25,000. It doesn’t necessarily mean its worth. It would only be worth it if people were willing to pay that. No one is willing to pay that (as far I know)…

The market sets the value on something. You list your house at $750,000, but then there is abiding war on the sale of your home and that bidding takes the price up to $1,000,000 and that is considered the value of the home. What people are wiling to pay determines the value.

If you ever wonder how much you are worth to the one person whose opinion matters in the universe, then remember God he offered to redeem you, to buy you back at cost of life of his son. You, in effect, are worth the life of his son. You, in effect, are worth that which is most precious to God, because he emptied heaven of his greatest treasure to buy you back…

In verse 25, we read that God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of blood to be received by faith. The word that is translated “sacrifice of atonement” has a slightly different nuance than the word “redemption.” Redemption was really a market place term, whereas the phrase “sacrifice of atonement” (the Greek word hilasterion) comes from the religious world of the Greeks. The more literal way to translate the Greek word hilasterions) is “propitiation” And the word “propitiation” literally means to absorb the wrath of the gods.

Some scholars are turned off by the word “propitiation” because it suggest God has this capricious, “off the handle” anger that needs to be appeased like the ancient Greek gods.

But, we must remember that when Paul uses words like “redemption,” “atonement” or “propitiation” is using the words metaphorically and he is injecting new meaning into them.

We know from the Hebrew Scriptures, in particular, that God gets angry at sin because God is the God of perfect holiness and justice. We also know in reading the Hebrew Scriptures and particularly the of Leviticus (which some of us have been reading if we’re using the ONE YEAR BIBLE) the that God instructs his people to make various offerings for sins.

As is evident the religions of the world, people around the world have believed that some kind of sacrifice is necessary for sin. This is not just a Christian idea, but one you find in almost all cultures in almost all places through out history.

If you’re offended by the idea that God would avert have his wrath through the sacrifice of another, then consider the fact that in the biblical drama it is God himself who steps forward and becomes a human being in Jesus Christ and offers himself as a sacrifice for sins. Paul says in 2 Cor 5:19 that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.

This is a deep mystery and one that we will never fully comprehend. When God acts to to absorb his wrath for our sins, he volunteers himself, he becomes a person in Jesus Christ, and dies on a Roman cross, absorbing in himself our sin and our shame so that we can be set free…so that we can be forgiven….so that we can be restored to God and made his children.

Scholars like Joel Green et al. have pointed out that the ancient world of the Bible is in many ways more culturally similar to Asia than to individualistic North America.

Let now me now turn to the culture of my origin, the Japanese culture, to illustrate the nature of Christ’s atoning work.

We North Americans tend to be very individualistic, and when we North Americans think of sins and crimes, we tend to thinking of people breaking certain laws and therefore being guilty of violating a law or principle.

In the Japanese and other Asian cultures the focus is more on shame than guilt.

In these cultures the emphasis is not so much on whether a person has broken some kind abstract law or principle, but whether a person has failed to meet his or her expectations and the expectations of their society… This is why there is so much emphasis on “saving face” in Asian cultures.

In a guilt based culture, if a person breaks a law or principle, they are blamed and held responsible. In a shame-based culture, if a person commits some kind of shameful act, they are excluded in some way from the society.

To use a somewhat extreme example, when a person in Japan commits a serious crime, they are imprisoned as a shameful act of exclusion from society…

In Japan or in an Asian country, if a person commits fails to meet their own expectations or the expectations of society… they bring shame upon not just upon themselves and their family or group.

I discovered this when as teenager I was caught shoplifting and later discovered by my parents’ response that what I had done had not just shamed me, but shamed them and our family…

When a person does not live up to their own expectations or the expectations of their society they exclude themselves and their family.

How can this shamed be atoned for?

In Japan, suicide can be considered a kind of act of atonement. In North America we see suicide to be a sad act of escapism. But in the Japanese culture as is hinted at in the movies The Last Samurai and Letters from Iwo Jima committing suicide can be seen an act of honour…

If I commit some kind of horribly shameful act as a Japanese person and bring shame on my family, then if I commit suicide it is considered some kind of atonement for my sin so that my family will not be ashamed and excluded…

By my allowing myself to be excluded in the ultimate way, I can work to ensure my family is not excluded.

If a son or a daughter commits a shameful act in Japan, the father may commit suicide. By the father committing suicide, in a sense he is absorbing the sin of his son or daughter by allowing himself to be excluded permanently from society so that the rest of his family does not need to be excluded from society…

Japanese newspapers carried a story about a Japanese man involved in a crime in Holland. His father responded to the shameful situation by committing suicide so his family would be excluded from society.

Whether we are Asian or we have experienced shame vis-à-vis God, ourselves and one another…

If you look deep inside you, you know that you haven’t met your own expectations.

You and I haven’t embodied our own ideals

There’s a part of you that yearns for perfection… and you know you haven’t reached it…

We have experienced shame because of something we’ve done or not done… or because we’re not who we long to be… (some of that shame is illegitimate, some legitimate).


Jesus Christ hung on that Roman cross and he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He experienced the ultimate act of exclusion from God and by his being excluded, he was opening the way for us to be included, for us to be embraced by the one person in the universe who matters.

And when we are received by him, we are healed of our shame.

You see the gospel involves more than our sins being forgiven. It also involves reconciliation with our true Father, the one whom for whom we made to know. Paul uses the word “reconciliation” to describe the Gospel in Romans. In the book of Ephesians he talks about “those of us who have been far away have now been brought close to God, reconciled through the blood of Jesus Christ.”

We suffer, we experience breakdown and despair in our lives and in our society because we are alienated our true father… the one true source of life in the universe…

But, because of the willingness of God in Jesus Christ to be separated from his family and to experience ultimate exclusion on the cross, we can experience the cleansing of our sins, we can come home and walk the living room of our Father’s house and be embraced and be received.

The way to our Father’s living room is not through the law, not through some religious rite like circumcision as Paul points out using Abraham as example in Romans 4, but by trusting in the faithfulness of God, the faithfulness of God who on the cross was in Christ reconciling us to Himself.

Pray…

(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca)

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Romans: God's Righteous Judgment: Feb 18, 2007

February 18, 2007 Faith and Works the Gospel in Synch

Introduction: drama by Craig Erickson… (on belief)

What does it mean to “believe”?

Paul in his thesis statement on the book of Romans in chapter 1:16 says, 16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes…

What does it mean to believe in a way that leads us to salvation—i.e. to believe in a way that leads to our sins being taken away and our restored to God?

According to a poll taken by TIME magazine 80% of Canadians claim to “believe” or “somewhat believe” in God… what kind of belief that restores a person to God?

As we turn to Romans chapter 2 today we’re going to be looking at the kind of belief that restores a person to God… and prepares us to stand before God on the coming final day of judgment…

But, before we look at the nature of the judgment day lets us review the context:

We’ve just begun a series on the book of Romans: a book that unpacks: the greatest news ever--the Gospel: the message that we can be restored our maker.

Last Sunday we walked through the latter part of Romans Chapter 1. In that later part of Romans 1 the apostle Paul sketches out the chief spiritual dynamic in the history of the world. He shows how human beings turned from the living God. So like a fish out of water, human beings are living outside the environment for which they were made and are therefore experiencing all kinds of breakdown. As a result of living lives disconnected from the one true source of life, human beings experience not only alienation from God but from themselves, each other and the earth. And this shows up in all kinds of different ways: pride, fear, envy, lust, inordinate anger, hatred, abuse of people, abuse of the earth.

As Paul finishes Romans chapter 1, he is aware that there will be many Jewish people
who will hear these words of his read, and many of them will likely quietly assume that when Paul is describing humankind as “turning away from God” he is describing the history of the Gentiles… the history of the pagans.

Many of Paul’s fellow Jews would have assumed that because they were the physical descendants of Abraham and their people had received the law of God through Moses, that no matter what they did they would be exempt from God’s judgment.

And so, in Romans Chapter 2, verse 1, Paul turns his attention to his fellow Jews and says in vs. 1

1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

Paul says to his fellow Jews, “Don’t look down at the Gentiles… at the pagans…for their history of turning away from God… because at whatever point you look down on the Gentiles and the pagans you are guilty of doing the same

And then in verses 21-23, Paul asks his fellow Jews:

21 you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?

Paul, of course, is not suggesting here that every single Jewish person engages in stealing, adultery and gratuitously breaks God’s law. But Paul is stating that some of the Jews engage in these violations. Because come of the Jews engage in these violations, and if that is the case, the Jewish people as a whole (this was much more group oriented culture than our North American culture), cannot look down on the Gentiles as a whole.

Paul would also say to people who have been raised in a Christian culture or some of kind “polite” middle or upper class society, don’t look down on other people who haven’t had your religious, cultural, or social upbringing because whatever “they”--those cultural barbarians do to break God’s code so do you or so do “your people.”

If you personally don’t break a particular law of God, Paul says don’t look on those who do, because at some other point you break God’s law.

We human beings have a remarkable capacity to justify our sins, but to look down at other people’s sins especially if there are different from our sins.

People with conservative values can look down on say the sexual mores of more liberal types, whereas people with liberal values can look down at conservatives who don’t seem to care enough for justice poor and environment.

We can look down on people who commit sins different from our own, and as Paul points out we can even look down on people who commit the same sins we do.
People can very upset when some above them on the social ladder treats them condescendingly while they themselves act in a condescending way to those who are below them. David Hocking a Christian pastor in Southern California says I don’t want to join the church because they hypocrites there, come one more hypocrite won’t upset the balance. Paul candidly points we are all prone to hypocrisy at some level, so none of us has the right to arrogantly look down another person or set of people, Paul now turns his attention to how God will judge us.

Notice vs. 6
6 God will repay everyone according to what they have done." [a] 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.
It is very clear that on the final day of judgment that he refers to in vs. 16 that when God judges everyone’s secrets through Jesus Christ that God will be completely just and impartial in that judgment.

Now, Paul in Romans, Chapter 2, sounds as if our judgment before God will take place on the basis of what we actually do.

Verse 6 says God will repay everyone according to what they have done… those who do good, will receive eternal life …those who are self-seeking and evil will experience wrath and anger on that day of judgment.

If, however, you have read the book of Romans and other parts of scripture, you will
know that Paul very clearly argues that people will be justified by God, not primarily by
their works, but by their faith or trust in the living God.

In Romans 1: 16, in Paul’s thesis statement, he says: I am not ashamed of the gospel
because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.

Paul says in his thesis statement that salvation or forgiveness of sins comes to those who believe.

In Romans 3:26, we read that the righteous are justified by faith in Jesus Christ.

In Romans 5, Paul says that we have peace with God through our faith on Jesus Christ.

And in Galatians and other passages, Paul makes it very clear that we are justified by our faith in Jesus Christ.

So why does Paul seem to contradict himself in Romans 2:6 and says God will repay everyone according to what they have done--to those who do good, he will give eternal life, to those who do evil he will exact anger and judgment? And why does James seem to contradict the Bible’s general teaching that a person is justified in God sight by faith, when he says in James 2:24 that people are justified by what they do and not by faith alone?

There seem to be claims in the New Testament that we justified before God by faith and there also seem to be some contradicting statements that say we are justified by works.

Is there really a contradiction here or simply an apparent contradiction?

There is no real contradiction. Because the Bible clearly teaches that if we really believe in God, if we really trust God, that belief will be evidenced in what we do.

The Bible teaches we are justified in God’s sight on the basis of our trusting in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ (his work on the cross, absorbing our sins in his body) but if that faith is real faith, then that faith will be demonstrated in what we do.

This does not mean that when we come to believe and trust in God we will made perfect, but as we grow in our faith and trust in God that faith and that trust will be apparent in the way that we actually live our lives.

I pointed out in our first message in this Romans series, I pointed out that when Paul says: I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone believes, the word “believe” is in the present, continuous tense in the Greek and so we could translate the verse the Gospel is the power of salvation for all who continue to believe and trust in God.

Believing in God is not intended to be a “one time decision” we made when we were students or during a crisis… believing in God is an ongoing affair and if continue to believe and trust we will obey God.

Trusting God and obeying God are not two different ways to relate to God, rather faith
and obedience to God are organically connected. When truly believe and trust God we will also obey God.

My seminary professor, Scott Hafemann, in his book, The God of Promise and the Life of
Faith, points out that every commandment of God is really a promise in disguise.

For example, God commands us to rest one day out of seven in a given week. God says, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall work, but the seventh is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

Implicit in the command to take a Sabbath once a week is the promise is that while we are resting and worshipping God will provide for our needs.

If we really believe that God will provide for our needs while we rest, we will obey the Sabbath commandment. The Sabbath commandment is not simply given to us so that
we can experience physical, emotional and spiritual recovery. That is part of the reason
God gave us the Sabbath commandment, but another deeper reason he gave us the
Sabbath command is so that we would learn to trust the living God.

Eugene Peterson in his book on the Psalms called Answering God points out that the
Hebrew conception of the day begins in the evening and therefore from the Hebrew perspective we begin our day in rest, and when we wake up we discover that God has been at work in the world: creating shoots on crocuses, tulips, and puppies.

Part of what the Sabbath commandment does for us is that it gives us the opportunity to say to God, “I trust you to take care of the universe and my life, as I take a day of rest and
focused worship on you.”

In the 10th commandment God says do not covet. The promise implicit in this commandment is that God will meet the deepest longings of our heart.
When we believe that the deepest yearnings of our heart will be met in the living God, we will become people who can obey the commandment “do not covet.”

Over the past year or so, I’ve become acquainted with a young woman named Catherine who has felt called to live a life of holy pilgrimage. She’s me permission to tell her story. Catherine was involved in a car accident where she sustained a back injury, she didn’t sue, but ended getting a financial settlement… and with the money she decided visit some of the holy places of North America and Europe… out of that pilgrimage God calling to a life of holy pilgrimage.

Last month over lunch, I asked her if part of that call to holy pilgrimage included a call to celibacy. And she said I’ve wanted to be single so my heart could be more exclusively focused on Jesus Christ. I decided I would not have children of my own because I’d like every child to be my child potentially (not in the legal sense, of course) but in a sense that if I don’t my own children I can care of for children of world, especially the poor children like Mother Teresa was able to do because she didn’t have any children of her own.

This young woman comes from well to do family, she’s well educated, fun, attractive, her decision to follow Christ has meant that she “giving up” a number of things that most people consider essential to happiness. But she’s a young woman of deep joy who doesn’t covet other people things, because she knows God will meet the deepest longings of her heart.

(As a PS, she now considering the possibility that marriage may be God’s will for her as man as devoted to Christ as she is has proposed to her).

This young woman that I have just described has a friend named Shane Clairborne. Some of you would know Shane, or know of him—he wrote a book called The Irresistible Rvolution. Shane intrigues me. Shane is a young man in his early thirties. He is radically committed to God and to justice for the poor. He feels a call to lead a celibate life and to own as little as possible.

Catherine met female met Shane, got to know him, when they were together at Princeton Seminary and she said Shane was wearing these old jeans that were fastened together with safety pins and had these long dredlocks that were died blue and he just seemed kind of out there, especially for a wealthy place like Princeton. She thought, I’ll reach out to him because he seemed so “out there…” on the margins. So she’s “hi” and he says hi back and she soon come to realize what a warm, winsome beautiful human being—she becomes good with him friends with.

They ended up going to India together with some others and to serve along side Mother Teresa.

My friend Catherine describes Shane as a modern day St. Francis of Assisi, about the greatest compliment, in my view, that you could give a person.

Shane has chosen a life of celibacy and to giving away almost at that he possesses, yet he is a person of luminous joy.

Shane is from an upper middle class family, was educated at expensive private schools, though he has almost nothing now by world standards, he does not covet people who achieve the North American success dream, he does not covet them, because he believes, he really believes that implicit the commandment that shalt not covet is the promise that God will meet the deepest longings of our heart… And he’s a person of luminous joy.

When we become people who believe that each of the commandments of God contain a promise from God, we will not view the commands of God as a kind of intrusion that will wreck our lives but as window of opportunity to trust the promises of God… As we trust that God will supply all of our needs as we will honor Sabbath, as we God trust to meet all of our needs, we will obey the commandment to give. As trust God to meet the deepest longings of our heart we obey the commandment not to covet. As we trust that we find our lives through by losing them Christ, we will our lay them for God.

And so Paul is not contradicting himself when he says that on one hand we are justified
by believing and the other hand says we are justified by what we do, because as James points out if we really believe the gospel, if we really trust in God, and continue to trust in God, and all of promises implicit in the commandments we will obey God.

We are justified by faith, but true faith is always demonstrated in what we do.

Remember the gospel is not just a one-time praying a prayer to Jesus. It is about a life of trust in living God.

In Romans 2:16, we read that on the coming day of judgment that we will be judged as
God judges everyone’s secrets. And on that Day of Judgment the secrets of our heart will
be revealed, and we will be justified on the basis of what we do. And if you say, “But ,
ah, I don’t get it, doesn’t Paul say we will be justified by what we believed?”
What we really believed in the deepest part of our heart will one day be revealed by what
we did.

A Christian pastor sits with a couple whose marriage has been severely tested by the husband’s having sex with another woman. The husband says my wife should get over it because the other woman meant nothing to me and I love my wife my more than any other person in all the world. Then pastor gently, yet clearly says. That may be true, but in the moment you slept with other woman, in that moment, you were saying by what you did that you loved yourself more than your wife.

What we really believe, what’s in our heart will be revealed in what we do.

That does not mean that we will lives of perfection. It does mean as we grow in our trust in God, we will become people who increasingly obey.

In the latter part of Romans 2 in verses 28 and 29 we read:
28 A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29 No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person's praise is not from other people, but from God.
Paul says a person is not a Jew…and here he is using the word Jew as a kind of metaphor to mean ‘the children of God, the true spiritual descendants of Abraham.’…a person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly. No, a person is a Jew who is a Jew who is one inwardly and real circumcision is circumcision of the heart by the Spirit (illus father in Washington State).

And when Paul says this, he is saying is (and we see this more clearly if we link what here says to other parts of the book of Romans, particularly Chapters 9-11) that when a person truly believes the gospel, truly trusts in Jesus Christ, they are reconciled to God through his spirit. And as a result of being reconciled to God who is Spirit, they receive God’s Spirit, and, therefore, a new heart.

Paul is arguing that in the book of Romans the covenant that God made with Abraham and his descendants to forgive their sins and make them new people there would bear the Spirit of God, what is sometimes referred to as “the new covenant,” is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

In Ezekiel, Chapter 36: 24…, we read these words concerning the new covenant:

24 " 'For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws..

What the prophet Ezekiel is saying and what Paul is affirming is this; that when we put
our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we are restored to the God who is Spirit and we receive
a new Spirit; we become people who experience the promises of the new covenant, the Spirit and as God’s Spirit works in us, we will become people who by nature follow God’s decrees, God’s ways.

Some years ago I was speaking at a high school camp just outside of Ottawa. Most of the 50 or so kids were not Christians. I remember one evening where I was anticipating speaking. The evening got off to a late start as it hard to pull the kids together, they sat around a camp fire with all smoke wafting off blowing into faces of the kids, there mosquitoes buzzing around and then a rap group got up and performed…and then I got up and started speaking… I wasn’t connecting with these kids very well… I could they were distracted by the smoke and mosquitoes and hoping that I’d end ASAP…

At the end my talk, I had the teens bow their and if you’d like to give your life to Christ tonight to give your to Christ… raise your hand… only two kids, raised their hand… one of them was star athlete of the high school: football, basketball and baseball MVP… He was handsome and bad boy….

The next morning… he and some of his friends decided to take a canoe out onto the lake and they were not wearing life jackets… and they decided to tip the canoe in the middle of the lake…and race back… and this star athlete, ended up going under water and never surfacing—he ended up drowning in the lake

That morning in the tent some of popular, bad-boy jock friend were saying let’s do ________ when we leave this and they described something bad that boys like to do… and this star athlete…said, Last I gave my to life God, I can’t do that any more…

This high school athlete new nothing of Ezekiel 36 and the new covenant, but the morning after he had given his life to God, he showing evidence of hearted wanted to follow God’s ways. When we really trust in Jesus we receive God’s Spirit making us want to follow God’s ways.

It may be that some of you here are made a little anxious about this teaching of Paul and
James that we are justified both by faith and by deeds. To reiterate, Paul and James are
Not saying we are justified on the basis of our deeds. Paul us saying that we are justified on the basis of our faith in Jesus Christ, but that true faith will always be demonstrated by deeds.

Some of you may saying to yourself, I’m not sure that that’s good news for me. I am not very disciplined…

I want to bring to your attention what the apostle Paul says in Philippians, Chapter 2…

continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Paul says in Phil. 2 work out your salvation with fear and trembling with more reverence and care than your preparing to go med school, your beginning a new job, than your starting a new relationship…as important as those things are because your salvation is more important than anything in the whole world… But know that as you work out, rest in the knowledge that it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose…

Rest in the knowledge that God’s Spirit will help you…

The gospel, according to the apostle Paul, is not that we are saved we are saved on the basis of faith and trust in the living God, but that faith if true ongoing faith will always be demonstrated by works. If we really believe are restored to God and receive the Spirit our faith will be demonstrated in what we do.

Prayer:

Paul says here in the Bible, one day you will stand before on the day of judgment… the way we can ready ourselves by turning to and trusting in Jesus Christ.

Romans 2:4 we are told that God’s kindness that leads us to turn to him, to begin to trust him…

Two weeks the ago paper carried a story about a newborn girl had left by your mother on
someone’s doorstep in Saskatoon. It was so cold that this little baby could have frozen to death in just a few minutes, but was rescued by the family living in that house.

Police service spokeswoman, Alyson Edwards came forward and said on television, “We want the mother to step forward, we you, that we are not going to throw handcuffs on your and throw you in jail. We want to help you… As a result of that kind police woman’s the call, the young fear mother came forward…

When we realize how kind God is… we can turn to God and offer him our trust, our lives… perhaps some of you want to do that now…

(The seron can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Romans: Wrath of God: Feb. 11, 2007

No God, but God._____________ February 11, 2007

At one point in the movie Rocky Balboa (the most recent one and in all likelihood the final Rocky movie), Rocky Balboa has a grown son who seems to have lost his nerve and fire for life and one evening Rocky the boxer who’s making a come back in 50s jogs down the sidewalk and catches up with him and says

The world a is very rough, mean place… and no matter how tough you think you are, it’ll always bring you to your knees and keep you there, permanently … if you let it. Nobody ain’t never gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you’re hit ... it’s about how hard you can get hit… and keep moving forward…

The apostle Paul was hit hard for preaching the Gospel… As we noticed last week, he was hit hard by the Jews who thought the message of God becoming a human being in Christ and being crucified as a sacrifice for our sins was outrageous. They regarded anyone crucified on a Roman cross not just as a criminal, but as one cursed by God. Paul was hit hard by the Greeks… The Greeks loved deep, abstract philosophy and the message of the cross was too simple… Paul was literally hit, beaten imprisoned and eventually put to the death by the Roman authorities for preaching Jesus Christ is Lord… in a society where everyone regarded Cesar as Lord… (it would be like your going to Cuba at the height of Fidel Castro’s power and proclaiming someone else is president of Cuba—you’re going be in trouble).

Paul gets hit for preaching the Gospel, but he keeps getting up and keeps moving forward and preaching the Gospel… why is he able to do this?

Part of the reason is that he has a deep, fire in the belly conviction that Gospel offers the greatest news ever…

In Romans 1:16-17 Paul says…
16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed…
Romans 1:17 tells us that the Gospel displays the righteousness of God, i.e. the right action God has taken to set right what has gone wrong with the world and our lives. What is the root problem of the world and our lives? It’s sin, the spiritual toxin that separates us from God, ourselves, one another and the earth itself…

The Gospel shows us how we can be restored to God and out of being restored to God, how we can be restored to ourselves, each other, and the earth…

In the later part of Romans 1 and following Paul is going to explain that this restoration is absolutely necessary in light of the fact that sin has wreaked havoc in the world.

If you have your Bibles please turn to Romans 1.

(If per chance you were not here last Sunday. You might consider picking a copy of the cd from last week called The Gospel: The Good Spell at take counter after the service as that was the lead off message where I set some of the context. Unlike say a book like Proverbs which we studying in the fall, Romans is a sequential argument so I would encourage if you’re going to miss a Sunday in this series to get the cd or go our website www.tenth.ca or the I-tunes website (hold up I pod) and down load the sermon to your MP3 player.)

Let me begin for by recapping Paul’s thesis statement in Romans 1:16-17… Paul says
16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
Now turn to vs. 18 as Paul explains why this Gospel restores us to God is necessary.
God's Wrath Against Sinful Humanity
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of human beings who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal human beings and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Paul says, 16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes
Paul says I not ashamed of the Gospel because in the Gospel God acts in reconciling sinners to himself…

Why is this restoration with God necessary?

It is necessary because sin alienates from God…. When the text speaks of God’s wrath is being poured out on people he’s describing people becoming alienated from the one source of life in the universe…
The text tells us18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of human beings who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
The wrath of God is being poured out against people and the world because people possess the truth about God from creation, but they suppress that truth.

Scientists, even atheists like the well know Richard Dawkins, author of the God Delusion, acknowledges that the chances of our world coming together with the conditions that would sustain life is less likely from a perspective of mathematically probability then a storm blowing through a junkyard and creating a 747.
There’s about nature, the wonder of the intricacy of the human body….
I’ve very impressed by reading how Toyota designed the Prius the world’s first mass produced and widely use first hybrid car… When car launched it achieved twice of the fuel efficiency of other cares in its class… emitting half CO2s. Now 2007 Pruis gets an estimated amazing combined city/highway mileage of 55 miles per gallon (a liter is .2642 of a gallon).
According to Dr. John Medina at the University of Washington says if a car were this efficient with gasoline as average human body, it would get 900 miles to the gallon. .
There are signs all around us the point to a creator…

But as Paul says that though people possess the truth of God they suppress the truth of God their sin (Romans 1:18)...

Some people say a la Freud that people believe in God because they so want to believe in some kind of higher being, they believe because they so want to know they are not alone in the universe—so people project the idea that there is kind of higher power in the universe because they so want to believe that.

But as Oxford scholar C.S. Lewis points out, many people like himself have had an even stronger desire not to want to believe in God….

There a lot of people who don’t want to be held to account by some greater being…

And so they choose to suppress the truth about God…

Sin at it’s at very root according to Romans 1:21 is a failure to know and honor God.

According to Romans 1:23 instead of glorifying and worshipping the living God, people will worship idols…

Kierkegaard in Sickness unto Death defines sin as putting our identity in something other than God…

We tend to think of sin I think as something that is sort obviously wrong: like drug dealing or sexual abuse of children or insider trading… Something like Robert Pickton, or Karla Homolka have engaged in… But sin is putting our primary identity in something other than God… I spent 3 weeks in January taking graduate courses in the San Francisco Bay area… as I’ve spent time there, I’ve connected with people who by world standards are “good people” but their central identity isn’t God, but career/financial success, having beautiful houses, and 2n or 3rd homes in Vail… When I lived in Boston, I connected people who central identity was their education: Boston is surrounded by great schools like Harvard-Radcliffe, MIT , Wellesley. As we know a lot of people in a place like Vancouver… literally live for the weekend, the outdoors and work is a simply a means to spend time outdoors…that can become a person’s central identity…

Whatever becomes our central life focus and identity is our “functional God”… whether success, money, education, recreation, some other person, ourselves… this what the Bible describes as the root of sin…

To use Biblical language… the root sin of the human race is idolatry is making, something other than the living God our “god.”

In vs. 25 Paul… says people have exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…

When we stop worshipping the living God, it’s not that we stop “worshipping”… Because we were made to worship something, we simply change the focus of our worship to some God-substitute: education, career, money, power, sex, nature itself, some person, ourselves…

Paul in this passage speaks of the wrath of God being poured on the human race as they turn their center from the living to God to “stand in” gods, idols.

When Paul speaks of the wrath of God being poured out on people because they’ve turned away from God, he’s not so much talking about zap judgment people will experience because of particular “sins” but rather he’s talking about the fact if people choose live a apart from God, God will let them and they will find themselves… inordinate focused themselves our other people or things… so they experience pride and arrogance (inordinate focus on ourself) or envy or lust (inordinate focus on others), or covetousness or greed…. (in ordinate focus on others).

The judgment of God is not so much zap judgment for particular sins of pride, or jealously, lust, or greed…. these sins are in themselves signs that they are living under the judgment of God… These signs of the “breakdown” people experience when they are living disconnected from the one source of life…

If the planets of our solar system had a will like we human beings and one said, we tired of rotating on consistently around sun (power point image of the solar system) and they started to chart of their own trajectories… without reference to sun… we’d have chaos in our solar system, we’d have absolute chaos on our planet, like nothing we’ve ever seen.

When as a culture, and Paul is talking primarily about the human family as whole, the history of the world as a whole, rather than individuals per se in Romans , when live without God as the center of our “solar system” we experience chaos, confusion, and breakdown of the created order…

If a society fails to know and honor God… the result of that sin is confusion in our personal identity, our sexual identity, confusion in our relationships, and confusion in their relationship to the earth…

Paul describes the confusion and breakdown … by various sins like arrogance, envy, slander, greed…

The sins Paul lists are examples of the personal confusion, confusion in our relationships with each other, and the earth we experience when God is not the center of our solar system…

When God is not at the center of our solar system as society, we confusion in our identity… one of the ways we experience confusion in our identity is in our sexuality.

Last year I was a party where people where people were drinking a lot of some people were become quite drunk… and as some of this were drunk started talking about some of their sexual experiences…

One young man talked how about someone at work “dares” him for a certain amount of money to walk to an attractive woman in their workplace and make a sexual pass at her. The woman was newly married.

So the man says, “I do and she responds… he describes his secret sexual experiences with newlywed woman.

Another woman at the party stared about how we she had had a sexual experience with a family member… because she curious as to what it would be like.

We live in a culture of sexual confusion… sex is not a game like football or hockey, where trying to “score” as much as possible. Sex is not intended by God to be something shared by family members.

Sexual confusion at various levels is rampant in our culture.

When Paul speaks uses the examples of homosexual relationship in Romans 1, he’s not saying that people of homosexual orientation are especially wicked or particularly worthy of condemnation…. or these kind of sexual actions are worse than other sins.

What he is saying that when as a culture we remove God from the center of our solar system, we will experience sexual confusion and this is one example…

I know sound highly offensive and insensitive if you go back to Genesis at the beginning of creation, you will God’s ideal was male/female sexual union… as male/female more fully reflect the image of God… not true in sexual relationships in all kind of contexts… if you look at staff Christmas card (hold up) you’ll see that the male female ratio is about even—we believe that having male and females better reflects the image of God than having all male or all female staff…

I can’t do justice to this big topic in what is sub-point over large message, but I really would glad to talk to any one you who would want to follow up this in a personal conversation.

When people live with God at the center of the universe… we experience confusion in our relationship with ourselves each other…

For many people in culture that “god” is the God of themselves.

The actor Hugh recently said, “I adore myself.” At least he’s honest about it…

In Dostoevsky’s powerful novel Crime and Punishment the young student Raskalvinok adores himself… and he puts at the center of his universe… he’s very intellectually bright student, but doesn’t have enough money… for school so he ends up killing an old lady who owns a pawn shop and has money…because he believes far more worthy than she is of her money than she is… and as result of putting himself at the center of his solar system he kills his neighbor and ends all kind of personal anguish and alienation…

If you place yourself at center of your solar system, you may it’s not necessary to always to tell the truth… you don’t feel account to some higher being or moral order because you’re the center of the solar system…

As we discussed in our series in Proverbs, when you lie you set up a wall between the person you’ve lied to and reality… It also sets a wall between you and the person. When you lie to someone you erect a wall that distancing yourself from someone and you manage your communication with person from a place of emotional distance…

When we place ourselves or something other than God at the center of our solar system, we experience alienation from ourselves…
Just over a week ago, the world's leading climate scientists in Paris in their most powerful language ever used on the issue, said global warming is "very likely (which means 90% certain) man-made…
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change --a group of hundreds of scientists and representatives of 113 governments said in reported is considered conservative and peer reviewed. "The observed widespread warming of the atmosphere and ocean, together with ice-mass loss, support the conclusion that it is extremely unlikely that global climate change of the past 50 years can be explained without external forcing, and very likely that is not due to known natural causes alone."
The panel quickly agreed: attributing global warming to man-made burning of fossil fuels and connecting it to a recent increase in stronger hurricanes.
Scientists have pointed that the increase is storms, hurricanes, flooding are connected to global warming.
With the release of more carbon emissions on our earth, it thickens the earth’s atmosphere, trapping more sun’s heat on the earth, raising the temperature of the oceans creating conditions that cause storms and hurricanes…
A lot of what insurance companies have dub natural disaster or even “acts of God” are really it seems the result of we human abusing the earth.
In the novel the Life of Pi, Pi the main grow up with a father who’s zoo keeper in India. At their zoo, there one special exhibit behind a curtain with a sign behind the curtain is the most dangerous animal in the world: People would life the curtain and there would a mirror.
When God is not at the center of our solar system… we are alienated not just from God, but ourselves, each other and the earth.

British minister John Stott God’s judgment is not so much about his intervening, but his not intervening… about God letting us go our own way. My seminary professor Scot Hafeman, says the real terror is not falling into the hands of a Holy God, but out of them…

Paul is not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God that restores us to the only source of real life in the universe God… and out of being restored to God and out of that to ourselves, and the earth itself…

Paul ahs been talking about the human race, but as I come the home stretch let me make this more personal…

Is God your real God?

Could be that something or someone other than God has taken your hearts central place of trust?

How might you know?

You might ask yourself, is there something that makes me really worried?

Could it be that that thing is too important to me? Something I have to have?

If you worry about something, it’s a sign you care, but if you have debilitating anxiety and you’d have Panic Anxiety Order or some bio-chemical imbalance, could be that you have an idol?

Is there something I am really angry about?

Something I have to have? Something I have to have?

Not to not get you want can be very frustrated, if you mind become furious…

Could it be that there is something that is too important for me?

If you are despondent or hating yourself…


ask “Is there something too important to me?”

Something I have to have?

If so could it be that there is something that is too important for me.

If you Christian are you saying ok Jesus it’s good to have you, but I also need this other thing to make me happy? If you keep from me I might turn on you? If so that thing is your real God and God is simply a means to get your real God...

It’s as we believe the Gospel and make God our real God, not just our God in name that we restored to God, ourselves and each other earth…

Like a sun flower we would made to point to the sun, we made to be helio centric.

In Sistine chapel… one of the most famous image is the creation panel…


Here is Adam and his empty hand is not reaching for the sword as if power were what makes him a man, or for gold as if money makes him a man but he become a man when God touches him.

When God touches him, he become complete and when God touches woman she become complete…

Pray…

Ezekiel 36

24 " 'For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Beneditiction:

Psalm 135 says of idols:
16 They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see.
17 They have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths.
18 Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.

The Psalmist tells us that if we worship idols: we become like them, mute, bind, deaf lifeless… but if we worship like our maker we will become like God…. So become people who worship the living God become your true selves…

(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Good Spell Romans 1:16-17 February 4, 2007

The Gospel: The Good Spell Romans 1:16-17 February 4, 2007

(Big Idea: Through faith in the faithfulness of God we are forgiven and freed to share our faith.)

As a youth this young man was addicted to his sexual passions.

But he had a devout mother who faithfully prayed for him.

He became a teacher of literature and communications. He wanted to learn how to become an effective public speaker so he would to listen to an eloquent preacher and was thus exposed to the Gospel.

One summer when he was 32 years old, he walked out into his garden, seeking some solitude…

He was in despair over his sexual addiction.

He sat under a fig tree and wept.

He then heard a child’s voice say “take and read”, “take and read”, “take and read.”

He stood, returned to his house and grabbed a copy of the Scriptures and opened it randomly and read the words of Paul, “Put off sexual immorality and put on Jesus Christ and make no provision for the lust of the flesh” (Romans 13:14). Like a light, these words entered Augustine’s heart.

Augustine, originally from Africa, went on to become one of the greatest theologians in the history of the Christian church.

A young monk with a sensitive conscience struggled deeply over his sense of guilt before God finds freedom in the book of Romans. He says that Romans led him into paradise. His name, Martin Luther—the great reformer of the church.

My friend Alison was going a very time painful time in her life. Her family was in a time of great turmoil… She didn’t know God, but went on a Christian young people’s retreat. One day everyone was supposed to have some “quiet time” in nature with God. Alison, took time to walk in the woods, she had a Bible in her hand and she and looked down upon these words... suffering leads to perseverance and perseverance to character, character to hope… hope doe not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured our in our hearts by the Spirit… she read the words of Paul from Romans 5 and she felt at moment God entered her life…

Fear years Chuck Smith was pastoring a tiny, fledgling church in Southern California… going through the Romans was a turning point for the life of his church… and out of his church came what is known as the Calvary Chapel church movement…
The book of Romans is without question of the one of the most influential works that has ever been written…

Over the course of next few months, we’re going to be exploring what this book has to say, and if you’re part of this community, I’d encourage you to prayerfully read and re read the book of Romans. It’s a challenging read, but very rewarding…

John Calvin says that if you understand Romans, you will understand of all of Scripture. The Bible tells us about what has gone wrong with the world because of sin and it talks about how God choose a person named Abraham and promised through him, through his family he will bring blessing to the world by dealing with it’s sin… and the book of Romans shows us show this promise is fulfilled through the Messiah Jesus Christ…

Pray…

Before we go the text, let me give you a little background.

The book of Romans was written by the apostle Paul likely in Corinth in about the year 57 AD.

Paul, who had formerly been a great persecutor of the church, is intending to go Spain as part of a missionary itinerary… (Romans 15:24, 28).

(show map and use pointer)

Paul needs a mission base and Rome which is of course situated between Jerusalem and Spain will serve as an ideal location.

In order to build credibility for the community that will serve as his mission support base, Paul needs to clarify exactly what he believes so he writes Romans.

New Testament scholar NT Wright makes the observation that Paul’s ambition to go to Spain caused him to write Romans… But as far as we know Paul never makes it to Spain…

C.S. Lewis had an ambition to become a poet, which he never really did, but that ambition helped him to write other works by God’s providence…

Sometimes we have an ambition to do so something that is not fulfilled in our life, but the desire to do can cause to do something else which enables to fulfill God’s plan for us.

God’s uses Paul ambition to go Spain to write this extraordinary that reveals God’s plan for us.

So, if you have your Bibles please turn to Romans 1:1

Romans 1
1 Paul, a servant (literally a slave) of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power (Paul here establishing Jesus’ credentials as the Messiah) by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and apostleship (means sent out) to call all the Gentiles to faith and obedience for his name's sake. 6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul's Longing to Visit Rome
In verses 8-13 Paul speaks of his longing to visit Rome.
16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last (literally from faith to faith), just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
In Romans 1:16-17, Paul talks about how he is not ashamed of the Gospel. It is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

Today and in the weeks to come we are going to unpack what this Gospel, “euangalion” or literally “good news” is…

The Gospel is good news about a righteous or right act that God has done for us.

Notice vs. 17
17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last (literally from faith to faith), just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
Paul says in vs. 17 “In the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, a right act God has done for us…

The righteousness of God (which is the best translation is not from God) here refers to what God has done to put right what has gone wrong in the world through “sin,” a spiritual toxin that alienates us from our maker, ourselves, each other… and creation…

God has taken action through Christ for us to clear the spiritual toxins… that separate from God so that we can be restored to God… and out of our being restored to God we can be restored to ourselves, each other, and creation.

When we put our faith in the faithfulness of God in restoring us to himself through the death of Christ on the cross, we are put right relationship with God…

When Paul talks about putting our faith in the faithfulness work of God, the word in the Greek is in the present continuous tense, which means we are to continue to put our faith in the faithfulness of God,

We to live as vs. 17 reads in the original Greek from faith to faith, then Paul quoting Habakkuk in the Old Testament live by faith…

In vs. 17 the word in the Greek the word faith appears 3 times.

Sometime people say I believed in the Gospel when 7 years ago or I prayed to receive Christ as university student, Paul would say we are continue to put our faith in the faithfulness of God, we are to live from faith to faith, we are to live by faith.

Paul and writers of Scripture, tell us again and again to persevere in our faith in God…

This means that whether we’ve been a Christian for 2 days or 20 years, that every day we embrace the Gospel… and remind that our faith and hope is in God’s faithfulness not in our money, not in our education, not in our appearance, not in a human being, but in God…

Paul says I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God that bring salvation, that rescues from sin, that restores to God everyone who believes, everyone who by faith….

Paul is not ashamed of this message because it is the greatest news ever--we can be restored to God, ourselves, others!

Gospel literally means good news.

In the old English, the word has meant the God spell and Good spell…

Gospel is the, God spell, the good spell that makes us right with God and each other….

C.S. Lewis called the Gospel, the “good virus…”

In this passage Paul talks about the fact that he is not ashamed of the Gospel…

It is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile…

The Gospel not only restores us to God… and ourselves, but to others as well…

Paul says the Gospel is the power of salvation for all who continue to believe first for the Jew and then for the Gentile…

Part of what may be driving Paul to say “first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” may be the fact that the Gospel came first came to Jews and second to Gentiles, historically speaking.

It may also be written out of the motivation for the Gentiles to re-accept the Jews who had been expelled from Rome by Emperor Claudius in last 40s AD and who are now returning to Rome now that Emperor Claudius is dead.

Paul may be concerned now that Gentiles are in the drivers’ seat in so far as church leadership is concerned. They may not accept the Jewish followers of Christ who are coming back… that they may retreat the Jewish followers as second class citizens.

Paul is also aware that once the Jews return they may engage in debates with Gentiles over what part of Moses still apply…

Paul desires that the Jews and the Gentiles be united as community because their oneness will demonstrate the power of Gospel to restore to each other..

Paul says I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of salvation for all who believe…. First for the Jew and then for the Gentile…

Paul was not ashamed for the Gospel because it the “power” of the dunamis of God, the same word from which we get the word dynamite. … Dynamite, of course, was not invented until 1867, and when people who invented what we now call dynamite wanted to they used this Greek work dunamis…

The Gospel has the power to change our lives…

Paul I am not ashamed of the Gospel… why does he state this negatively? Why doesn’t he say, I am proud of the Gospel?

He states it negatively because he knows Jewish people, as he points out 1 Cor 1, will tend to scorn the idea of the Messiah, the anointed savior as crucified on a cross because the Jewish viewed those who were crucified were criminals, cursed by God…

He knows that Greeks will try to shame Paul in his proclamation of the Gospel, as he points also in 1 Corinthians 1, because he knows the Greeks loved sophisticated philosophy. The Greeks were proud of the writings of their Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle.

He knows that both Jews and Greeks will try to shame him, but he is not ashamed because it the power of God to rescue all who trust and continue to trust in Jesus Christ… first the Jew and then Greek (which is literally reading of Romans 1:16).

At times Paul was shamed for his communication of the Gospel… he was jeered, beaten, imprisoned, faced death, but he was not ashamed of the Gospel… because it had power to rescue those who trust in Jesus Christ…

None here are facing, the same kind of shaming for being a follower of Jesus Christ that Paul faced, but we can be ashamed of the Gospel even if the only repercussion is someone rolling their eyes….

Some times we are ashamed of the Gospel, we’re afraid that if we speak of Christ, people may label as being part of Christian “right” or supports George Bush foreign policy. In context of personal conversation, some one recently asked me if Bush’s Iraq policy is representative of Christians in general… In this conversation, I said in my personal view (I wasn’t speaking on behalf of 10th Ave church, i.e. this is a context of personal conversation), here is Bush’s policy foreign policy seems to differ with the teaching of Jesus.

In the fall, the C.B.C. carried a story about how difficult it is for most to share their faith at work place…

Naomi Wolf, the influential feminist writer, who’s been on a spiritual journey, says today we can talk about just about anything—even subjects were considered “taboo” topics in other previous generations like sex and politics are now ok to talk, but discussing faith is still so difficult for us, because deep inside us there is still a part of us that is 13 years old...

So how do we become people like Paul who are not ashamed of the Gospel?

I really believe that it comes from a core conviction that Paul has that the greatest gift a person can receive is not a great education, a great job, a great partner, a great family is… the gift of restored to God and out ourselves and to each other…. It’s the Gospel…

When the Jewish Rabbi’s were translating the Hebrew Bible in Greek (called the Septuagint) and were trying to figure out what words us to use to translate the wonderful Hebrew word “shalom” which means, peace, total wellness, wholeness into Greek, they thought we can use the word eriene which means in Greek means peace, teleous which means fulfillment of purpose, and we can use the word sotere which means salvation. The Gospel is greatest gift because it brings us Shalom, wholeness with God… and out of that personal wholeness with our selves, others, and the earth.

I remember as an undergraduate student, I was traveling in Europe with a fellow student named John. John was tanned, student who came from Florida and was a professional tennis player, who was just making enough on tour in Europe to travel Europe….

I have two memories I have that stand out teaching on the train how to fit a forehand on hand… I also remember he would get conversations with these European people about God. John was a Christian and I remembering him saying do you believe that a life with God is the best life possible? People would immediately say “yes…” and John would say… would you like to give your life over to God? People would say no…

Arguably this young American friend… was too outspoken about his faith… but one thing I really admire about John was his deep conviction…that very best life a person could have was life with God… if we really believe this then we too will become ambassadors of the Gospel…

One of the people I know who’s really living this out is Jennifer Seo… Jennifer is a member of this community, I’ve seen her reach out to people. She’s brought people who seeking to our home Bible study, services here, and last week she introduced me to someone whom she has been reaching out to and I’ve asked her to come and share:

I have known my friend and co-worker Laura about a year and we have spent a lot of time together doing variety of activities.

When I first found out she didn't have God in her life, my heart went out to her in prayer.
I wanted her to come to know God because I myself have experienced God's goodness and I wanted her to experience it as well.

Sharing the Gospel was something that was always on my mind, but it was something I had to rely on God for.

I knew that there is no “one rule”in bringing someone to Christ. I knew I had no power to change anyone's heart. Only God can do that.

That led me to me pray.

I have prayed for her faithfully since I met her and beginning of January this year, four of my friends joined me in praying for Laura everyday.

I also wanted to be a good listener. Before sharing the Gospel with her, I wanted to really listen and understand where she was at.
I wanted to be a blessing to her.

However, as our friendship grew, what I realized was that she was a blessing to me more than I was a blessing to her.

So many times I was deeply moved by her kindness, generosity and patience.

That humbled me and gave me the heart to continue to pray for her.

I didn't know when or if she was going to accept Christ in her heart. I wanted to see it happen, but ultimately, it wasn't up to me. But what I told myself constantly was that I was never going to give up praying for her.

As we spent more time together, we were able to talk about deeper things in life as well.

She was open to talk about God. I shared with her what Christ has done for me and how He changed my life.
I told her God is a living God who wants to have a relationship with her.
I gave her the book 'Purpose Driven Life' and the Bible.
God opened her heart and gave her the desire to read His Word and also to pray.

Laura began to experience God in a very personal and powerful way. And she invited Christ in her heart two weeks ago.

I am thankful for all the things God has been doing in Laura's life.


At our home Bible study this past week that my wife leads, she asked all if we’re ever ashamed to share the Gospel (we’re also going through Romans in our small group)…

When it was my turn to share…

I said, When I was younger and new Christian, I seemed free to share with almost everyone…

In high school I volunteered to drive my younger brother’s friends who had been hanging out at our house back to their home after, my brother (years later) told, when we were riding I was silently praying you would not start talking about Jesus to my friends…

In early days as a Christian, I felt free to very free to share my faith and I think I sometimes overwhelmed people with the Gospel…

And now as adult, maybe driven by vain desire to appear sophisticated sometimes, I wonder if underwhelming with the Gospel… As an adult… I am more inclined to hesitate…
I said, I remember being at this dinner party at a hotel here in the city… there about 10-12 of us, mostly “accomplished, secular types.” And the host asked us to share for a few minutes something we were passionate about… I thought I could share about sailing, I’m passionate about that… it’s safe… I could a golden retriever than I run with and passionate about… people would like the story… then the though through my mind, why not share about you’re most passionate about? Jesus Christ… so after hesitating inside, I out of my experience, drawing a little on what other had said, about the difference Jesus Christ has in my life…

I want to become a person who when the Holy Spirit leads will not hesitate and share my faith in Jesus…

If you’re like me as I was when I was a new Christian and you’re overwhelming people as an ambassador of Jesus Christ… perhaps ask God to help tone down, so you can be an effective witness for Christ…and if your tendency underwhelm people with the Gospel as an ambassador… perhaps you would pray that Holy Spirit…would enable free and joyful ambassador for Christ…

I recently reading part of the classic book the Cloud of Unknowing.

In that book… the monk of 14 century tells the reader that when you pray, tell yourself you’ll die at the end of your prayer…

It’s sound morose, but it has a way of focusing our life…

As I prayed and said, I will be dead by the end of the prayer... I found heart saying, I want to be faithful in my quest to know God, faithful in my relationship with wif, (in most wholistic sense), I want to be faithful my call in the Gospel…

Paul was single.

Paul passionately wanted to be faithful to God and to Gospel.

He said, “ I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for salvation or all who believe first for the Jew… then Gentile…”

Paul in first 1 Cor 11 tells say… the Lord Jesus… on the night he was betrayed… took bread… (communion).

The Gospel: The Good Spell Romans 1:16-17 February 4, 2007

(Big Idea: Through faith in the faithfulness of God we are forgiven and freed to share our faith.)

As a youth this young man was addicted to his sexual passions.

But he had a devout mother who faithfully prayed for him.

He became a teacher of literature and communications. He wanted to learn how to become an effective public speaker so he would to listen to an eloquent preacher and was thus exposed to the Gospel.

One summer when he was 32 years old, he walked out into his garden, seeking some solitude…

He was in despair over his sexual addiction.

He sat under a fig tree and wept.

He then heard a child’s voice say “take and read”, “take and read”, “take and read.”

He stood, returned to his house and grabbed a copy of the Scriptures and opened it randomly and read the words of Paul, “Put off sexual immorality and put on Jesus Christ and make no provision for the lust of the flesh” (Romans 13:14). Like a light, these words entered Augustine’s heart.

Augustine, originally from Africa, went on to become one of the greatest theologians in the history of the Christian church.

A young monk with a sensitive conscience struggled deeply over his sense of guilt before God finds freedom in the book of Romans. He says that Romans led him into paradise. His name, Martin Luther—the great reformer of the church.

My friend Alison was going a very time painful time in her life. Her family was in a time of great turmoil… She didn’t know God, but went on a Christian young people’s retreat. One day everyone was supposed to have some “quiet time” in nature with God. Alison, took time to walk in the woods, she had a Bible in her hand and she and looked down upon these words... suffering leads to perseverance and perseverance to character, character to hope… hope doe not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured our in our hearts by the Spirit… she read the words of Paul from Romans 5 and she felt at moment God entered her life…

Fear years Chuck Smith was pastoring a tiny, fledgling church in Southern California… going through the Romans was a turning point for the life of his church… and out of his church came what is known as the Calvary Chapel church movement…
The book of Romans is without question of the one of the most influential works that has ever been written…

Over the course of next few months, we’re going to be exploring what this book has to say, and if you’re part of this community, I’d encourage you to prayerfully read and re read the book of Romans. It’s a challenging read, but very rewarding…

John Calvin says that if you understand Romans, you will understand of all of Scripture. The Bible tells us about what has gone wrong with the world because of sin and it talks about how God choose a person named Abraham and promised through him, through his family he will bring blessing to the world by dealing with it’s sin… and the book of Romans shows us show this promise is fulfilled through the Messiah Jesus Christ…

Pray…

Before we go the text, let me give you a little background.

The book of Romans was written by the apostle Paul likely in Corinth in about the year 57 AD.

Paul, who had formerly been a great persecutor of the church, is intending to go Spain as part of a missionary itinerary… (Romans 15:24, 28).

(show map and use pointer)

Paul needs a mission base and Rome which is of course situated between Jerusalem and Spain will serve as an ideal location.

In order to build credibility for the community that will serve as his mission support base, Paul needs to clarify exactly what he believes so he writes Romans.

New Testament scholar NT Wright makes the observation that Paul’s ambition to go to Spain caused him to write Romans… But as far as we know Paul never makes it to Spain…

C.S. Lewis had an ambition to become a poet, which he never really did, but that ambition helped him to write other works by God’s providence…

Sometimes we have an ambition to do so something that is not fulfilled in our life, but the desire to do can cause to do something else which enables to fulfill God’s plan for us.

God’s uses Paul ambition to go Spain to write this extraordinary that reveals God’s plan for us.

So, if you have your Bibles please turn to Romans 1:1

Romans 1
1 Paul, a servant (literally a slave) of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power (Paul here establishing Jesus’ credentials as the Messiah) by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and apostleship (means sent out) to call all the Gentiles to faith and obedience for his name's sake. 6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul's Longing to Visit Rome
In verses 8-13 Paul speaks of his longing to visit Rome.
16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last (literally from faith to faith), just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
In Romans 1:16-17, Paul talks about how he is not ashamed of the Gospel. It is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

Today and in the weeks to come we are going to unpack what this Gospel, “euangalion” or literally “good news” is…

The Gospel is good news about a righteous or right act that God has done for us.

Notice vs. 17
17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last (literally from faith to faith), just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
Paul says in vs. 17 “In the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, a right act God has done for us…

The righteousness of God (which is the best translation is not from God) here refers to what God has done to put right what has gone wrong in the world through “sin,” a spiritual toxin that alienates us from our maker, ourselves, each other… and creation…

God has taken action through Christ for us to clear the spiritual toxins… that separate from God so that we can be restored to God… and out of our being restored to God we can be restored to ourselves, each other, and creation.

When we put our faith in the faithfulness of God in restoring us to himself through the death of Christ on the cross, we are put right relationship with God…

When Paul talks about putting our faith in the faithfulness work of God, the word in the Greek is in the present continuous tense, which means we are to continue to put our faith in the faithfulness of God,

We to live as vs. 17 reads in the original Greek from faith to faith, then Paul quoting Habakkuk in the Old Testament live by faith…

In vs. 17 the word in the Greek the word faith appears 3 times.

Sometime people say I believed in the Gospel when 7 years ago or I prayed to receive Christ as university student, Paul would say we are continue to put our faith in the faithfulness of God, we are to live from faith to faith, we are to live by faith.

Paul and writers of Scripture, tell us again and again to persevere in our faith in God…

This means that whether we’ve been a Christian for 2 days or 20 years, that every day we embrace the Gospel… and remind that our faith and hope is in God’s faithfulness not in our money, not in our education, not in our appearance, not in a human being, but in God…

Paul says I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God that bring salvation, that rescues from sin, that restores to God everyone who believes, everyone who by faith….

Paul is not ashamed of this message because it is the greatest news ever--we can be restored to God, ourselves, others!

Gospel literally means good news.

In the old English, the word has meant the God spell and Good spell…

Gospel is the, God spell, the good spell that makes us right with God and each other….

C.S. Lewis called the Gospel, the “good virus…”

In this passage Paul talks about the fact that he is not ashamed of the Gospel…

It is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile…

The Gospel not only restores us to God… and ourselves, but to others as well…

Paul says the Gospel is the power of salvation for all who continue to believe first for the Jew and then for the Gentile…

Part of what may be driving Paul to say “first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” may be the fact that the Gospel came first came to Jews and second to Gentiles, historically speaking.

It may also be written out of the motivation for the Gentiles to re-accept the Jews who had been expelled from Rome by Emperor Claudius in last 40s AD and who are now returning to Rome now that Emperor Claudius is dead.

Paul may be concerned now that Gentiles are in the drivers’ seat in so far as church leadership is concerned. They may not accept the Jewish followers of Christ who are coming back… that they may retreat the Jewish followers as second class citizens.

Paul is also aware that once the Jews return they may engage in debates with Gentiles over what part of Moses still apply…

Paul desires that the Jews and the Gentiles be united as community because their oneness will demonstrate the power of Gospel to restore to each other..

Paul says I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of salvation for all who believe…. First for the Jew and then for the Gentile…

Paul was not ashamed for the Gospel because it the “power” of the dunamis of God, the same word from which we get the word dynamite. … Dynamite, of course, was not invented until 1867, and when people who invented what we now call dynamite wanted to they used this Greek work dunamis…

The Gospel has the power to change our lives…

Paul I am not ashamed of the Gospel… why does he state this negatively? Why doesn’t he say, I am proud of the Gospel?

He states it negatively because he knows Jewish people, as he points out 1 Cor 1, will tend to scorn the idea of the Messiah, the anointed savior as crucified on a cross because the Jewish viewed those who were crucified were criminals, cursed by God…

He knows that Greeks will try to shame Paul in his proclamation of the Gospel, as he points also in 1 Corinthians 1, because he knows the Greeks loved sophisticated philosophy. The Greeks were proud of the writings of their Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle.

He knows that both Jews and Greeks will try to shame him, but he is not ashamed because it the power of God to rescue all who trust and continue to trust in Jesus Christ… first the Jew and then Greek (which is literally reading of Romans 1:16).

At times Paul was shamed for his communication of the Gospel… he was jeered, beaten, imprisoned, faced death, but he was not ashamed of the Gospel… because it had power to rescue those who trust in Jesus Christ…

None here are facing, the same kind of shaming for being a follower of Jesus Christ that Paul faced, but we can be ashamed of the Gospel even if the only repercussion is someone rolling their eyes….

Some times we are ashamed of the Gospel, we’re afraid that if we speak of Christ, people may label as being part of Christian “right” or supports George Bush foreign policy. In context of personal conversation, some one recently asked me if Bush’s Iraq policy is representative of Christians in general… In this conversation, I said in my personal view (I wasn’t speaking on behalf of 10th Ave church, i.e. this is a context of personal conversation), here is Bush’s policy foreign policy seems to differ with the teaching of Jesus.

In the fall, the C.B.C. carried a story about how difficult it is for most to share their faith at work place…

Naomi Wolf, the influential feminist writer, who’s been on a spiritual journey, says today we can talk about just about anything—even subjects were considered “taboo” topics in other previous generations like sex and politics are now ok to talk, but discussing faith is still so difficult for us, because deep inside us there is still a part of us that is 13 years old...

So how do we become people like Paul who are not ashamed of the Gospel?

I really believe that it comes from a core conviction that Paul has that the greatest gift a person can receive is not a great education, a great job, a great partner, a great family is… the gift of restored to God and out ourselves and to each other…. It’s the Gospel…

When the Jewish Rabbi’s were translating the Hebrew Bible in Greek (called the Septuagint) and were trying to figure out what words us to use to translate the wonderful Hebrew word “shalom” which means, peace, total wellness, wholeness into Greek, they thought we can use the word eriene which means in Greek means peace, teleous which means fulfillment of purpose, and we can use the word sotere which means salvation. The Gospel is greatest gift because it brings us Shalom, wholeness with God… and out of that personal wholeness with our selves, others, and the earth.

I remember as an undergraduate student, I was traveling in Europe with a fellow student named John. John was tanned, student who came from Florida and was a professional tennis player, who was just making enough on tour in Europe to travel Europe….

I have two memories I have that stand out teaching on the train how to fit a forehand on hand… I also remember he would get conversations with these European people about God. John was a Christian and I remembering him saying do you believe that a life with God is the best life possible? People would immediately say “yes…” and John would say… would you like to give your life over to God? People would say no…

Arguably this young American friend… was too outspoken about his faith… but one thing I really admire about John was his deep conviction…that very best life a person could have was life with God… if we really believe this then we too will become ambassadors of the Gospel…

One of the people I know who’s really living this out is Jennifer Seo… Jennifer is a member of this community, I’ve seen her reach out to people. She’s brought people who seeking to our home Bible study, services here, and last week she introduced me to someone whom she has been reaching out to and I’ve asked her to come and share:

I have known my friend and co-worker Laura about a year and we have spent a lot of time together doing variety of activities.

When I first found out she didn't have God in her life, my heart went out to her in prayer.
I wanted her to come to know God because I myself have experienced God's goodness and I wanted her to experience it as well.

Sharing the Gospel was something that was always on my mind, but it was something I had to rely on God for.

I knew that there is no “one rule”in bringing someone to Christ. I knew I had no power to change anyone's heart. Only God can do that.

That led me to me pray.

I have prayed for her faithfully since I met her and beginning of January this year, four of my friends joined me in praying for Laura everyday.

I also wanted to be a good listener. Before sharing the Gospel with her, I wanted to really listen and understand where she was at.
I wanted to be a blessing to her.

However, as our friendship grew, what I realized was that she was a blessing to me more than I was a blessing to her.

So many times I was deeply moved by her kindness, generosity and patience.

That humbled me and gave me the heart to continue to pray for her.

I didn't know when or if she was going to accept Christ in her heart. I wanted to see it happen, but ultimately, it wasn't up to me. But what I told myself constantly was that I was never going to give up praying for her.

As we spent more time together, we were able to talk about deeper things in life as well.

She was open to talk about God. I shared with her what Christ has done for me and how He changed my life.
I told her God is a living God who wants to have a relationship with her.
I gave her the book 'Purpose Driven Life' and the Bible.
God opened her heart and gave her the desire to read His Word and also to pray.

Laura began to experience God in a very personal and powerful way. And she invited Christ in her heart two weeks ago.

I am thankful for all the things God has been doing in Laura's life.


At our home Bible study this past week that my wife leads, she asked all if we’re ever ashamed to share the Gospel (we’re also going through Romans in our small group)…

When it was my turn to share…

I said, When I was younger and new Christian, I seemed free to share with almost everyone…

In high school I volunteered to drive my younger brother’s friends who had been hanging out at our house back to their home after, my brother (years later) told, when we were riding I was silently praying you would not start talking about Jesus to my friends…

In early days as a Christian, I felt free to very free to share my faith and I think I sometimes overwhelmed people with the Gospel…

And now as adult, maybe driven by vain desire to appear sophisticated sometimes, I wonder if underwhelming with the Gospel… As an adult… I am more inclined to hesitate…
I said, I remember being at this dinner party at a hotel here in the city… there about 10-12 of us, mostly “accomplished, secular types.” And the host asked us to share for a few minutes something we were passionate about… I thought I could share about sailing, I’m passionate about that… it’s safe… I could a golden retriever than I run with and passionate about… people would like the story… then the though through my mind, why not share about you’re most passionate about? Jesus Christ… so after hesitating inside, I out of my experience, drawing a little on what other had said, about the difference Jesus Christ has in my life…

I want to become a person who when the Holy Spirit leads will not hesitate and share my faith in Jesus…

If you’re like me as I was when I was a new Christian and you’re overwhelming people as an ambassador of Jesus Christ… perhaps ask God to help tone down, so you can be an effective witness for Christ…and if your tendency underwhelm people with the Gospel as an ambassador… perhaps you would pray that Holy Spirit…would enable free and joyful ambassador for Christ…

I recently reading part of the classic book the Cloud of Unknowing.

In that book… the monk of 14 century tells the reader that when you pray, tell yourself you’ll die at the end of your prayer…

It’s sound morose, but it has a way of focusing our life…

As I prayed and said, I will be dead by the end of the prayer... I found heart saying, I want to be faithful in my quest to know God, faithful in my relationship with wif, (in most wholistic sense), I want to be faithful my call in the Gospel…

Paul was single.

Paul passionately wanted to be faithful to God and to Gospel.

He said, “ I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for salvation or all who believe first for the Jew… then Gentile…”

Paul in first 1 Cor 11 tells say… the Lord Jesus… on the night he was betrayed… took bread… (communion).




The Gospel: The Good Spell Romans 1:16-17 February 4, 2007

(Big Idea: Through faith in the faithfulness of God we are forgiven and freed to share our faith.)

As a youth this young man was addicted to his sexual passions.

But he had a devout mother who faithfully prayed for him.

He became a teacher of literature and communications. He wanted to learn how to become an effective public speaker so he would to listen to an eloquent preacher and was thus exposed to the Gospel.

One summer when he was 32 years old, he walked out into his garden, seeking some solitude…

He was in despair over his sexual addiction.

He sat under a fig tree and wept.

He then heard a child’s voice say “take and read”, “take and read”, “take and read.”

He stood, returned to his house and grabbed a copy of the Scriptures and opened it randomly and read the words of Paul, “Put off sexual immorality and put on Jesus Christ and make no provision for the lust of the flesh” (Romans 13:14). Like a light, these words entered Augustine’s heart.

Augustine, originally from Africa, went on to become one of the greatest theologians in the history of the Christian church.

A young monk with a sensitive conscience struggled deeply over his sense of guilt before God finds freedom in the book of Romans. He says that Romans led him into paradise. His name, Martin Luther—the great reformer of the church.

My friend Alison was going a very time painful time in her life. Her family was in a time of great turmoil… She didn’t know God, but went on a Christian young people’s retreat. One day everyone was supposed to have some “quiet time” in nature with God. Alison, took time to walk in the woods, she had a Bible in her hand and she and looked down upon these words... suffering leads to perseverance and perseverance to character, character to hope… hope doe not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured our in our hearts by the Spirit… she read the words of Paul from Romans 5 and she felt at moment God entered her life…

Fear years Chuck Smith was pastoring a tiny, fledgling church in Southern California… going through the Romans was a turning point for the life of his church… and out of his church came what is known as the Calvary Chapel church movement…
The book of Romans is without question of the one of the most influential works that has ever been written…

Over the course of next few months, we’re going to be exploring what this book has to say, and if you’re part of this community, I’d encourage you to prayerfully read and re read the book of Romans. It’s a challenging read, but very rewarding…

John Calvin says that if you understand Romans, you will understand of all of Scripture. The Bible tells us about what has gone wrong with the world because of sin and it talks about how God choose a person named Abraham and promised through him, through his family he will bring blessing to the world by dealing with it’s sin… and the book of Romans shows us show this promise is fulfilled through the Messiah Jesus Christ…

Pray…

Before we go the text, let me give you a little background.

The book of Romans was written by the apostle Paul likely in Corinth in about the year 57 AD.

Paul, who had formerly been a great persecutor of the church, is intending to go Spain as part of a missionary itinerary… (Romans 15:24, 28).

(show map and use pointer)

Paul needs a mission base and Rome which is of course situated between Jerusalem and Spain will serve as an ideal location.

In order to build credibility for the community that will serve as his mission support base, Paul needs to clarify exactly what he believes so he writes Romans.

New Testament scholar NT Wright makes the observation that Paul’s ambition to go to Spain caused him to write Romans… But as far as we know Paul never makes it to Spain…

C.S. Lewis had an ambition to become a poet, which he never really did, but that ambition helped him to write other works by God’s providence…

Sometimes we have an ambition to do so something that is not fulfilled in our life, but the desire to do can cause to do something else which enables to fulfill God’s plan for us.

God’s uses Paul ambition to go Spain to write this extraordinary that reveals God’s plan for us.

So, if you have your Bibles please turn to Romans 1:1

Romans 1
1 Paul, a servant (literally a slave) of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power (Paul here establishing Jesus’ credentials as the Messiah) by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and apostleship (means sent out) to call all the Gentiles to faith and obedience for his name's sake. 6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul's Longing to Visit Rome
In verses 8-13 Paul speaks of his longing to visit Rome.
16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last (literally from faith to faith), just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
In Romans 1:16-17, Paul talks about how he is not ashamed of the Gospel. It is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

Today and in the weeks to come we are going to unpack what this Gospel, “euangalion” or literally “good news” is…

The Gospel is good news about a righteous or right act that God has done for us.

Notice vs. 17
17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last (literally from faith to faith), just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
Paul says in vs. 17 “In the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, a right act God has done for us…

The righteousness of God (which is the best translation is not from God) here refers to what God has done to put right what has gone wrong in the world through “sin,” a spiritual toxin that alienates us from our maker, ourselves, each other… and creation…

God has taken action through Christ for us to clear the spiritual toxins… that separate from God so that we can be restored to God… and out of our being restored to God we can be restored to ourselves, each other, and creation.

When we put our faith in the faithfulness of God in restoring us to himself through the death of Christ on the cross, we are put right relationship with God…

When Paul talks about putting our faith in the faithfulness work of God, the word in the Greek is in the present continuous tense, which means we are to continue to put our faith in the faithfulness of God,

We to live as vs. 17 reads in the original Greek from faith to faith, then Paul quoting Habakkuk in the Old Testament live by faith…

In vs. 17 the word in the Greek the word faith appears 3 times.

Sometime people say I believed in the Gospel when 7 years ago or I prayed to receive Christ as university student, Paul would say we are continue to put our faith in the faithfulness of God, we are to live from faith to faith, we are to live by faith.

Paul and writers of Scripture, tell us again and again to persevere in our faith in God…

This means that whether we’ve been a Christian for 2 days or 20 years, that every day we embrace the Gospel… and remind that our faith and hope is in God’s faithfulness not in our money, not in our education, not in our appearance, not in a human being, but in God…

Paul says I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God that bring salvation, that rescues from sin, that restores to God everyone who believes, everyone who by faith….

Paul is not ashamed of this message because it is the greatest news ever--we can be restored to God, ourselves, others!

Gospel literally means good news.

In the old English, the word has meant the God spell and Good spell…

Gospel is the, God spell, the good spell that makes us right with God and each other….

C.S. Lewis called the Gospel, the “good virus…”

In this passage Paul talks about the fact that he is not ashamed of the Gospel…

It is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile…

The Gospel not only restores us to God… and ourselves, but to others as well…

Paul says the Gospel is the power of salvation for all who continue to believe first for the Jew and then for the Gentile…

Part of what may be driving Paul to say “first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” may be the fact that the Gospel came first came to Jews and second to Gentiles, historically speaking.

It may also be written out of the motivation for the Gentiles to re-accept the Jews who had been expelled from Rome by Emperor Claudius in last 40s AD and who are now returning to Rome now that Emperor Claudius is dead.

Paul may be concerned now that Gentiles are in the drivers’ seat in so far as church leadership is concerned. They may not accept the Jewish followers of Christ who are coming back… that they may retreat the Jewish followers as second class citizens.

Paul is also aware that once the Jews return they may engage in debates with Gentiles over what part of Moses still apply…

Paul desires that the Jews and the Gentiles be united as community because their oneness will demonstrate the power of Gospel to restore to each other..

Paul says I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of salvation for all who believe…. First for the Jew and then for the Gentile…

Paul was not ashamed for the Gospel because it the “power” of the dunamis of God, the same word from which we get the word dynamite. … Dynamite, of course, was not invented until 1867, and when people who invented what we now call dynamite wanted to they used this Greek work dunamis…

The Gospel has the power to change our lives…

Paul I am not ashamed of the Gospel… why does he state this negatively? Why doesn’t he say, I am proud of the Gospel?

He states it negatively because he knows Jewish people, as he points out 1 Cor 1, will tend to scorn the idea of the Messiah, the anointed savior as crucified on a cross because the Jewish viewed those who were crucified were criminals, cursed by God…

He knows that Greeks will try to shame Paul in his proclamation of the Gospel, as he points also in 1 Corinthians 1, because he knows the Greeks loved sophisticated philosophy. The Greeks were proud of the writings of their Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle.

He knows that both Jews and Greeks will try to shame him, but he is not ashamed because it the power of God to rescue all who trust and continue to trust in Jesus Christ… first the Jew and then Greek (which is literally reading of Romans 1:16).

At times Paul was shamed for his communication of the Gospel… he was jeered, beaten, imprisoned, faced death, but he was not ashamed of the Gospel… because it had power to rescue those who trust in Jesus Christ…

None here are facing, the same kind of shaming for being a follower of Jesus Christ that Paul faced, but we can be ashamed of the Gospel even if the only repercussion is someone rolling their eyes….

Some times we are ashamed of the Gospel, we’re afraid that if we speak of Christ, people may label as being part of Christian “right” or supports George Bush foreign policy. In context of personal conversation, some one recently asked me if Bush’s Iraq policy is representative of Christians in general… In this conversation, I said in my personal view (I wasn’t speaking on behalf of 10th Ave church, i.e. this is a context of personal conversation), here is Bush’s policy foreign policy seems to differ with the teaching of Jesus.

In the fall, the C.B.C. carried a story about how difficult it is for most to share their faith at work place…

Naomi Wolf, the influential feminist writer, who’s been on a spiritual journey, says today we can talk about just about anything—even subjects were considered “taboo” topics in other previous generations like sex and politics are now ok to talk, but discussing faith is still so difficult for us, because deep inside us there is still a part of us that is 13 years old...

So how do we become people like Paul who are not ashamed of the Gospel?

I really believe that it comes from a core conviction that Paul has that the greatest gift a person can receive is not a great education, a great job, a great partner, a great family is… the gift of restored to God and out ourselves and to each other…. It’s the Gospel…

When the Jewish Rabbi’s were translating the Hebrew Bible in Greek (called the Septuagint) and were trying to figure out what words us to use to translate the wonderful Hebrew word “shalom” which means, peace, total wellness, wholeness into Greek, they thought we can use the word eriene which means in Greek means peace, teleous which means fulfillment of purpose, and we can use the word sotere which means salvation. The Gospel is greatest gift because it brings us Shalom, wholeness with God… and out of that personal wholeness with our selves, others, and the earth.

I remember as an undergraduate student, I was traveling in Europe with a fellow student named John. John was tanned, student who came from Florida and was a professional tennis player, who was just making enough on tour in Europe to travel Europe….

I have two memories I have that stand out teaching on the train how to fit a forehand on hand… I also remember he would get conversations with these European people about God. John was a Christian and I remembering him saying do you believe that a life with God is the best life possible? People would immediately say “yes…” and John would say… would you like to give your life over to God? People would say no…

Arguably this young American friend… was too outspoken about his faith… but one thing I really admire about John was his deep conviction…that very best life a person could have was life with God… if we really believe this then we too will become ambassadors of the Gospel…

One of the people I know who’s really living this out is Jennifer Seo… Jennifer is a member of this community, I’ve seen her reach out to people. She’s brought people who seeking to our home Bible study, services here, and last week she introduced me to someone whom she has been reaching out to and I’ve asked her to come and share:

I have known my friend and co-worker Laura about a year and we have spent a lot of time together doing variety of activities.

When I first found out she didn't have God in her life, my heart went out to her in prayer.
I wanted her to come to know God because I myself have experienced God's goodness and I wanted her to experience it as well.

Sharing the Gospel was something that was always on my mind, but it was something I had to rely on God for.

I knew that there is no “one rule”in bringing someone to Christ. I knew I had no power to change anyone's heart. Only God can do that.

That led me to me pray.

I have prayed for her faithfully since I met her and beginning of January this year, four of my friends joined me in praying for Laura everyday.

I also wanted to be a good listener. Before sharing the Gospel with her, I wanted to really listen and understand where she was at.
I wanted to be a blessing to her.

However, as our friendship grew, what I realized was that she was a blessing to me more than I was a blessing to her.

So many times I was deeply moved by her kindness, generosity and patience.

That humbled me and gave me the heart to continue to pray for her.

I didn't know when or if she was going to accept Christ in her heart. I wanted to see it happen, but ultimately, it wasn't up to me. But what I told myself constantly was that I was never going to give up praying for her.

As we spent more time together, we were able to talk about deeper things in life as well.

She was open to talk about God. I shared with her what Christ has done for me and how He changed my life.
I told her God is a living God who wants to have a relationship with her.
I gave her the book 'Purpose Driven Life' and the Bible.
God opened her heart and gave her the desire to read His Word and also to pray.

Laura began to experience God in a very personal and powerful way. And she invited Christ in her heart two weeks ago.

I am thankful for all the things God has been doing in Laura's life.


At our home Bible study this past week that my wife leads, she asked all if we’re ever ashamed to share the Gospel (we’re also going through Romans in our small group)…

When it was my turn to share…

I said, When I was younger and new Christian, I seemed free to share with almost everyone…

In high school I volunteered to drive my younger brother’s friends who had been hanging out at our house back to their home after, my brother (years later) told, when we were riding I was silently praying you would not start talking about Jesus to my friends…

In early days as a Christian, I felt free to very free to share my faith and I think I sometimes overwhelmed people with the Gospel…

And now as adult, maybe driven by vain desire to appear sophisticated sometimes, I wonder if underwhelming with the Gospel… As an adult… I am more inclined to hesitate…
I said, I remember being at this dinner party at a hotel here in the city… there about 10-12 of us, mostly “accomplished, secular types.” And the host asked us to share for a few minutes something we were passionate about… I thought I could share about sailing, I’m passionate about that… it’s safe… I could a golden retriever than I run with and passionate about… people would like the story… then the though through my mind, why not share about you’re most passionate about? Jesus Christ… so after hesitating inside, I out of my experience, drawing a little on what other had said, about the difference Jesus Christ has in my life…

I want to become a person who when the Holy Spirit leads will not hesitate and share my faith in Jesus…

If you’re like me as I was when I was a new Christian and you’re overwhelming people as an ambassador of Jesus Christ… perhaps ask God to help tone down, so you can be an effective witness for Christ…and if your tendency underwhelm people with the Gospel as an ambassador… perhaps you would pray that Holy Spirit…would enable free and joyful ambassador for Christ…

I recently reading part of the classic book the Cloud of Unknowing.

In that book… the monk of 14 century tells the reader that when you pray, tell yourself you’ll die at the end of your prayer…

It’s sound morose, but it has a way of focusing our life…

As I prayed and said, I will be dead by the end of the prayer... I found heart saying, I want to be faithful in my quest to know God, faithful in my relationship with wif, (in most wholistic sense), I want to be faithful my call in the Gospel…

Paul was single.

Paul passionately wanted to be faithful to God and to Gospel.

He said, “ I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for salvation or all who believe first for the Jew… then Gentile…”

Paul in first 1 Cor 11 tells say… the Lord Jesus… on the night he was betrayed… took bread… (communion)

The Gospel: The Good Spell Romans 1:16-17 February 4, 2007

(Big Idea: Through faith in the faithfulness of God we are forgiven and freed to share our faith.)

As a youth this young man was addicted to his sexual passions.

But he had a devout mother who faithfully prayed for him.

He became a teacher of literature and communications. He wanted to learn how to become an effective public speaker so he would to listen to an eloquent preacher and was thus exposed to the Gospel.

One summer when he was 32 years old, he walked out into his garden, seeking some solitude…

He was in despair over his sexual addiction.

He sat under a fig tree and wept.

He then heard a child’s voice say “take and read”, “take and read”, “take and read.”

He stood, returned to his house and grabbed a copy of the Scriptures and opened it randomly and read the words of Paul, “Put off sexual immorality and put on Jesus Christ and make no provision for the lust of the flesh” (Romans 13:14). Like a light, these words entered Augustine’s heart.

Augustine, originally from Africa, went on to become one of the greatest theologians in the history of the Christian church.

A young monk with a sensitive conscience struggled deeply over his sense of guilt before God finds freedom in the book of Romans. He says that Romans led him into paradise. His name, Martin Luther—the great reformer of the church.

My friend Alison was going a very time painful time in her life. Her family was in a time of great turmoil… She didn’t know God, but went on a Christian young people’s retreat. One day everyone was supposed to have some “quiet time” in nature with God. Alison, took time to walk in the woods, she had a Bible in her hand and she and looked down upon these words... suffering leads to perseverance and perseverance to character, character to hope… hope doe not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured our in our hearts by the Spirit… she read the words of Paul from Romans 5 and she felt at moment God entered her life…

Fear years Chuck Smith was pastoring a tiny, fledgling church in Southern California… going through the Romans was a turning point for the life of his church… and out of his church came what is known as the Calvary Chapel church movement…
The book of Romans is without question of the one of the most influential works that has ever been written…

Over the course of next few months, we’re going to be exploring what this book has to say, and if you’re part of this community, I’d encourage you to prayerfully read and re read the book of Romans. It’s a challenging read, but very rewarding…

John Calvin says that if you understand Romans, you will understand of all of Scripture. The Bible tells us about what has gone wrong with the world because of sin and it talks about how God choose a person named Abraham and promised through him, through his family he will bring blessing to the world by dealing with it’s sin… and the book of Romans shows us show this promise is fulfilled through the Messiah Jesus Christ…

Pray…

Before we go the text, let me give you a little background.

The book of Romans was written by the apostle Paul likely in Corinth in about the year 57 AD.

Paul, who had formerly been a great persecutor of the church, is intending to go Spain as part of a missionary itinerary… (Romans 15:24, 28).

(show map and use pointer)

Paul needs a mission base and Rome which is of course situated between Jerusalem and Spain will serve as an ideal location.

In order to build credibility for the community that will serve as his mission support base, Paul needs to clarify exactly what he believes so he writes Romans.

New Testament scholar NT Wright makes the observation that Paul’s ambition to go to Spain caused him to write Romans… But as far as we know Paul never makes it to Spain…

C.S. Lewis had an ambition to become a poet, which he never really did, but that ambition helped him to write other works by God’s providence…

Sometimes we have an ambition to do so something that is not fulfilled in our life, but the desire to do can cause to do something else which enables to fulfill God’s plan for us.

God’s uses Paul ambition to go Spain to write this extraordinary that reveals God’s plan for us.

So, if you have your Bibles please turn to Romans 1:1

Romans 1
1 Paul, a servant (literally a slave) of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power (Paul here establishing Jesus’ credentials as the Messiah) by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and apostleship (means sent out) to call all the Gentiles to faith and obedience for his name's sake. 6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul's Longing to Visit Rome
In verses 8-13 Paul speaks of his longing to visit Rome.
16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last (literally from faith to faith), just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
In Romans 1:16-17, Paul talks about how he is not ashamed of the Gospel. It is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

Today and in the weeks to come we are going to unpack what this Gospel, “euangalion” or literally “good news” is…

The Gospel is good news about a righteous or right act that God has done for us.

Notice vs. 17
17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last (literally from faith to faith), just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
Paul says in vs. 17 “In the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, a right act God has done for us…

The righteousness of God (which is the best translation is not from God) here refers to what God has done to put right what has gone wrong in the world through “sin,” a spiritual toxin that alienates us from our maker, ourselves, each other… and creation…

God has taken action through Christ for us to clear the spiritual toxins… that separate from God so that we can be restored to God… and out of our being restored to God we can be restored to ourselves, each other, and creation.

When we put our faith in the faithfulness of God in restoring us to himself through the death of Christ on the cross, we are put right relationship with God…

When Paul talks about putting our faith in the faithfulness work of God, the word in the Greek is in the present continuous tense, which means we are to continue to put our faith in the faithfulness of God,

We to live as vs. 17 reads in the original Greek from faith to faith, then Paul quoting Habakkuk in the Old Testament live by faith…

In vs. 17 the word in the Greek the word faith appears 3 times.

Sometime people say I believed in the Gospel when 7 years ago or I prayed to receive Christ as university student, Paul would say we are continue to put our faith in the faithfulness of God, we are to live from faith to faith, we are to live by faith.

Paul and writers of Scripture, tell us again and again to persevere in our faith in God…

This means that whether we’ve been a Christian for 2 days or 20 years, that every day we embrace the Gospel… and remind that our faith and hope is in God’s faithfulness not in our money, not in our education, not in our appearance, not in a human being, but in God…

Paul says I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God that bring salvation, that rescues from sin, that restores to God everyone who believes, everyone who by faith….

Paul is not ashamed of this message because it is the greatest news ever--we can be restored to God, ourselves, others!

Gospel literally means good news.

In the old English, the word has meant the God spell and Good spell…

Gospel is the, God spell, the good spell that makes us right with God and each other….

C.S. Lewis called the Gospel, the “good virus…”

In this passage Paul talks about the fact that he is not ashamed of the Gospel…

It is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile…

The Gospel not only restores us to God… and ourselves, but to others as well…

Paul says the Gospel is the power of salvation for all who continue to believe first for the Jew and then for the Gentile…

Part of what may be driving Paul to say “first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” may be the fact that the Gospel came first came to Jews and second to Gentiles, historically speaking.

It may also be written out of the motivation for the Gentiles to re-accept the Jews who had been expelled from Rome by Emperor Claudius in last 40s AD and who are now returning to Rome now that Emperor Claudius is dead.

Paul may be concerned now that Gentiles are in the drivers’ seat in so far as church leadership is concerned. They may not accept the Jewish followers of Christ who are coming back… that they may retreat the Jewish followers as second class citizens.

Paul is also aware that once the Jews return they may engage in debates with Gentiles over what part of Moses still apply…

Paul desires that the Jews and the Gentiles be united as community because their oneness will demonstrate the power of Gospel to restore to each other..

Paul says I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of salvation for all who believe…. First for the Jew and then for the Gentile…

Paul was not ashamed for the Gospel because it the “power” of the dunamis of God, the same word from which we get the word dynamite. … Dynamite, of course, was not invented until 1867, and when people who invented what we now call dynamite wanted to they used this Greek work dunamis…

The Gospel has the power to change our lives…

Paul I am not ashamed of the Gospel… why does he state this negatively? Why doesn’t he say, I am proud of the Gospel?

He states it negatively because he knows Jewish people, as he points out 1 Cor 1, will tend to scorn the idea of the Messiah, the anointed savior as crucified on a cross because the Jewish viewed those who were crucified were criminals, cursed by God…

He knows that Greeks will try to shame Paul in his proclamation of the Gospel, as he points also in 1 Corinthians 1, because he knows the Greeks loved sophisticated philosophy. The Greeks were proud of the writings of their Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle.

He knows that both Jews and Greeks will try to shame him, but he is not ashamed because it the power of God to rescue all who trust and continue to trust in Jesus Christ… first the Jew and then Greek (which is literally reading of Romans 1:16).

At times Paul was shamed for his communication of the Gospel… he was jeered, beaten, imprisoned, faced death, but he was not ashamed of the Gospel… because it had power to rescue those who trust in Jesus Christ…

None here are facing, the same kind of shaming for being a follower of Jesus Christ that Paul faced, but we can be ashamed of the Gospel even if the only repercussion is someone rolling their eyes….

Some times we are ashamed of the Gospel, we’re afraid that if we speak of Christ, people may label as being part of Christian “right” or supports George Bush foreign policy. In context of personal conversation, some one recently asked me if Bush’s Iraq policy is representative of Christians in general… In this conversation, I said in my personal view (I wasn’t speaking on behalf of 10th Ave church, i.e. this is a context of personal conversation), here is Bush’s policy foreign policy seems to differ with the teaching of Jesus.

In the fall, the C.B.C. carried a story about how difficult it is for most to share their faith at work place…

Naomi Wolf, the influential feminist writer, who’s been on a spiritual journey, says today we can talk about just about anything—even subjects were considered “taboo” topics in other previous generations like sex and politics are now ok to talk, but discussing faith is still so difficult for us, because deep inside us there is still a part of us that is 13 years old...

So how do we become people like Paul who are not ashamed of the Gospel?

I really believe that it comes from a core conviction that Paul has that the greatest gift a person can receive is not a great education, a great job, a great partner, a great family is… the gift of restored to God and out ourselves and to each other…. It’s the Gospel…

When the Jewish Rabbi’s were translating the Hebrew Bible in Greek (called the Septuagint) and were trying to figure out what words us to use to translate the wonderful Hebrew word “shalom” which means, peace, total wellness, wholeness into Greek, they thought we can use the word eriene which means in Greek means peace, teleous which means fulfillment of purpose, and we can use the word sotere which means salvation. The Gospel is greatest gift because it brings us Shalom, wholeness with God… and out of that personal wholeness with our selves, others, and the earth.

I remember as an undergraduate student, I was traveling in Europe with a fellow student named John. John was tanned, student who came from Florida and was a professional tennis player, who was just making enough on tour in Europe to travel Europe….

I have two memories I have that stand out teaching on the train how to fit a forehand on hand… I also remember he would get conversations with these European people about God. John was a Christian and I remembering him saying do you believe that a life with God is the best life possible? People would immediately say “yes…” and John would say… would you like to give your life over to God? People would say no…

Arguably this young American friend… was too outspoken about his faith… but one thing I really admire about John was his deep conviction…that very best life a person could have was life with God… if we really believe this then we too will become ambassadors of the Gospel…

One of the people I know who’s really living this out is Jennifer Seo… Jennifer is a member of this community, I’ve seen her reach out to people. She’s brought people who seeking to our home Bible study, services here, and last week she introduced me to someone whom she has been reaching out to and I’ve asked her to come and share:

I have known my friend and co-worker Laura about a year and we have spent a lot of time together doing variety of activities.

When I first found out she didn't have God in her life, my heart went out to her in prayer.
I wanted her to come to know God because I myself have experienced God's goodness and I wanted her to experience it as well.

Sharing the Gospel was something that was always on my mind, but it was something I had to rely on God for.

I knew that there is no “one rule”in bringing someone to Christ. I knew I had no power to change anyone's heart. Only God can do that.

That led me to me pray.

I have prayed for her faithfully since I met her and beginning of January this year, four of my friends joined me in praying for Laura everyday.

I also wanted to be a good listener. Before sharing the Gospel with her, I wanted to really listen and understand where she was at.
I wanted to be a blessing to her.

However, as our friendship grew, what I realized was that she was a blessing to me more than I was a blessing to her.

So many times I was deeply moved by her kindness, generosity and patience.

That humbled me and gave me the heart to continue to pray for her.

I didn't know when or if she was going to accept Christ in her heart. I wanted to see it happen, but ultimately, it wasn't up to me. But what I told myself constantly was that I was never going to give up praying for her.

As we spent more time together, we were able to talk about deeper things in life as well.

She was open to talk about God. I shared with her what Christ has done for me and how He changed my life.
I told her God is a living God who wants to have a relationship with her.
I gave her the book 'Purpose Driven Life' and the Bible.
God opened her heart and gave her the desire to read His Word and also to pray.

Laura began to experience God in a very personal and powerful way. And she invited Christ in her heart two weeks ago.

I am thankful for all the things God has been doing in Laura's life.


At our home Bible study this past week that my wife leads, she asked all if we’re ever ashamed to share the Gospel (we’re also going through Romans in our small group)…

When it was my turn to share…

I said, When I was younger and new Christian, I seemed free to share with almost everyone…

In high school I volunteered to drive my younger brother’s friends who had been hanging out at our house back to their home after, my brother (years later) told, when we were riding I was silently praying you would not start talking about Jesus to my friends…

In early days as a Christian, I felt free to very free to share my faith and I think I sometimes overwhelmed people with the Gospel…

And now as adult, maybe driven by vain desire to appear sophisticated sometimes, I wonder if underwhelming with the Gospel… As an adult… I am more inclined to hesitate…
I said, I remember being at this dinner party at a hotel here in the city… there about 10-12 of us, mostly “accomplished, secular types.” And the host asked us to share for a few minutes something we were passionate about… I thought I could share about sailing, I’m passionate about that… it’s safe… I could a golden retriever than I run with and passionate about… people would like the story… then the though through my mind, why not share about you’re most passionate about? Jesus Christ… so after hesitating inside, I out of my experience, drawing a little on what other had said, about the difference Jesus Christ has in my life…

I want to become a person who when the Holy Spirit leads will not hesitate and share my faith in Jesus…

If you’re like me as I was when I was a new Christian and you’re overwhelming people as an ambassador of Jesus Christ… perhaps ask God to help tone down, so you can be an effective witness for Christ…and if your tendency underwhelm people with the Gospel as an ambassador… perhaps you would pray that Holy Spirit…would enable free and joyful ambassador for Christ…

I recently reading part of the classic book the Cloud of Unknowing.

In that book… the monk of 14 century tells the reader that when you pray, tell yourself you’ll die at the end of your prayer…

It’s sound morose, but it has a way of focusing our life…

As I prayed and said, I will be dead by the end of the prayer... I found heart saying, I want to be faithful in my quest to know God, faithful in my relationship with wif, (in most wholistic sense), I want to be faithful my call in the Gospel…

Paul was single.

Paul passionately wanted to be faithful to God and to Gospel.

He said, “ I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for salvation or all who believe first for the Jew… then Gentile…”

Paul in first 1 Cor 11 tells say… the Lord Jesus… on the night he was betrayed… took bread… (communion).

(The sermon can be heard on line at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)