I. Introduction
People of God, in the world today there are many people
who have power.
·
People such as Presidents, Prime Ministers,
Kings, or Queens
·
Those who are in the military have a sense of
power. At the Los Angeles Angel’s baseball game on Friday evening; there were military
members who were shown on the big screen and people began standing and
clapping—showing their appreciation for them—it was definitely a powerful
moment.
·
Professional athletes also have a great amount
of power
·
Famous people who are on TV, who are in movies
or music stars all have power
However, not only do people
have power in our world, but there are also many things and items which have
power; things like:
·
Weapons due to the amount of damage they can do
are named as ‘powerful’
·
The words which we say can be extremely powerful
whether they are used in a good or bad manner
·
Often times, when people get done watching a
movie, as you walk out of the movie theatre some will say, “Wow! That was a
powerful movie!”
·
There are also powerful tools or heavy equipment
which we can use to get a project done; in fact, some even are named ‘power
tools’
·
There is power in advertisements—whether they
are on billboards, in the newspaper or on TV or heard through the radio—you
know; those catchy phrases which grab our attention and motivate us to purchase
something or go and do something
·
And in the Sports world, the word ‘power’ is
used in many places:
o In
Basketball, there is a special move that a player can do called the ‘power
moved’ and even a position is called ‘the power forward’
o In
Baseball, when a player can hit the ball really hard and really far—such as the
Detroit Tigers 3rd baseman, Miguel Cabrera—they are known as a
‘power hitter’
o In
Gymnastics, when a performer has great routine, the announcers usually call
this a ‘powerful performance’
I am sure many of you could name a few more things or
people in the world who are powerful; this is just a sampling of the things
which have power in our world.
But now,
let’s take a step back into time to the 1st century, when this
letter was written. Many things in the 1st century that held power
still hold power in the 21st century such as: government officials,
athletes, religious people, cities, etc. And one city that was considered to be
a ‘powerhouse’ was the city of Rome. Rome was the most influential and the city
which held the most power in its day.
Although
Paul had never visited Rome, he desired to do so, in order that he could preach
the Gospel there to strengthen the Roman Christians. Because he couldn’t visit
them, the next best and quickest thing to do, was to write a letter to them.
Therefore this letter that we have today is Paul preaching to the Romans
through written words rather than spoken words; therefore Paul’s letter to the
Roman Christians is the purest Gospel and the most basic comprehensive
statement of Christianity.
Many
Christians have memorized many verses from Romans and perhaps vs 16-17 which we
have read; are some of the most well known. These two verses are the theme for
the whole letter; the essence of Christianity and the heart of Biblical
religion.
These
verses tell us three things which will be our outline this morning:
·
First, the Gospel power of God is not something
to be ashamed of
·
Second, the Gospel power of God is a saving
power
·
And third, the Gospel power of God stretches
across and over any international boundary
II. The Gospel
Power of God is Not Something to Be Ashamed Of
Paul
begins vs 16 by emphatically saying, “I
am not ashamed of the Gospel…” And the word ‘ashamed’ here is an interesting
one. In the Greek the word ‘ashamed’ can also mean ‘to be embarrassed or having
fear of being ridiculed because of one’s beliefs or actions.’ This sense of
embarrassment or ashamedness happens to us usually when we are associated with
something unpopular or un-cool.
Therefore,
what Paul is telling us by using this word is that the Gospel is something that
isn’t popular. The Gospel wasn’t popular in the 1st century and in
the 21st century, not much as changed because the Gospel is still
not popular. But even though it was unpopular; Paul clearly wasn’t ashamed the
Gospel and would share this freely with anyone. But how could he do this? How
could he not be ashamed of something unpopular? Well, he definitely had his
reasons for not being ashamed of the Gospel and these reasons are the same for
us today—there are a total of 8.
The
first reason why we shouldn’t be ashamed of the Gospel is because the word
Gospel means ‘good news’. We have studied this before and will continue to
study it—the Gospel means ‘good news’. And because it is good news, we
shouldn’t be ashamed of it. Think about it a minute, are you ashamed to share
good news? Good news such as a job promotion at work, the birth of a child or
the surprise of an engagement. Do you usually share those with eagerness or are
you ashamed to share good news? Most times, we are eager to share good news
that we have.
However,
on the other hand, bad news is something that we can easily be ashamed of
sharing.
·
Like when a doctor has to bring bad news because
of bad test results to a family; he doesn’t rush to the room that they are in;
rather there is some hesitancy as he walks down the hall and slowly opens the
door.
·
Or like when a police officer knocks on your
door in the middle of the night explaining that a loved one was in a serious
car accident. There is hesitancy in how he drives to your house and slowly
walks up your sidewalk to your front door. This is because bad news is something
that we are ashamed of; but the Gospel isn’t bad news—it is good news!
And this good news is about what God has done for us in
Jesus Christ.
A second
reason why we shouldn’t be ashamed of the Gospel is because the Gospel is about
salvation. It isn’t about any salvation though; it is about the saving of
ourselves.
A third
reason why we shouldn’t be ashamed of the Gospel is because the Gospel is God’s
way of salvation; not man’s way. How could we be proud of salvation if it found
its starting point in sinful men and women? Salvation that is from God, is the
salvation which we needed. And this is what we have in Christianity;
·
Christianity is God’s reaching out to save
perishing men and women; it is not sinners reaching out to seize God [Let me
say that again]
A fourth reason why we
shouldn’t be ashamed of the Gospel is because it is the power of God. The
Gospel is not evidence of man’s power and it does not include man’s power; the
Gospel is itself power.
A fifth reason why we shouldn’t be ashamed of the Gospel is
because the Gospel is for everyone. Once again, in this passage and in Luke 2
that we studied 2 weeks ago, we see clearly that the Gospel is for everyone.
A sixth reason why we shouldn’t be ashamed of the Gospel is
because the Gospel has been revealed to us. The Gospel would still be wonderful
if it wasn’t revealed to us, but then we would not know of it. We would have
the same dreary outlook on life just as an unsaved person does. But praise be
to God for revealing this way of salvation for us!
A seventh reason why we shouldn’t be ashamed of this Gospel is
because the Gospel concerns a righteousness from God. By ourselves, we cannot
be righteous or gain righteousness. Therefore we needed a righteousness from
God’s own nature in order to be saved. And this is what we have from Jesus
Christ—His righteousness was imputed or given to us. He provided the
righteousness that we needed.
The eighth and final reason why we shouldn’t be ashamed of the
Gospel is because the Gospel is received by us only through faith. Faith is the
channel by which we receive this glorious gift from God.
So in light of these 8 reasons,
we can clearly know that there is no reason for us to be ashamed of the Gospel
no matter how unpopular or uncool it is. For the Gospel is the power of God
providing the salvation of all who believe and receive by faith that the
righteousness from Christ is enough to cover their sin.
III. The Gospel
Power of God is a Saving Power
The Gospel is clearly something
that we shouldn’t be ashamed of, and secondly, the Gospel power of God is a
saving power. The Gospel is powerful enough to accomplish God’s purpose which
is to save us from sin’s pollution.
·
But Paul isn’t saying that the Gospel is about
God’s power as if the Gospel were simply pointing us to a power beyond our own
self
·
And Paul isn’t saying that the Gospel is the source
of power that we can get from God when we want at our own convenience to save
ourselves
·
And the Paul isn’t saying that the Gospel is a channel
through which this power operates through
·
No, Paul is saying that the Gospel itself
is that power; in other words, the Gospel has power and this power is
the power of God
·
The Gospel is the way by which God accomplishes
salvation in those who are being saved
John Calvin emphasizes this point in his commentary on
this passage. He says that the Gospel which Paul is referring to in Romans
1:16-17 is not only referring to the work done by God through Jesus Christ’s
life, death and resurrection. Rather, I would agree with Calvin in what he says
that Paul is emphasizing the saving power of God through the actual preaching
and reading of the Scripture. So what Calvin means is that through the
preaching and reading of the Gospel, the power of God is powerful enough to save
men and women.
In 1 Corinthians 1 Paul also
emphasizes this point of how foolish it is to preach the Gospel it is only
considered from a human perspective. And I’ve heard many times throughout my
ministry that people in the church would rather have a sermon that lasted no
longer than 20 minutes. They defend their point by saying, “I can’t sit that
long in one spot” or “I just get bored and can’t concentrate for that long” or
“You know, I don’t have time for this; I’ve got to be home preparing lunch and
then I’ve got to get ready for next week!” And some even say, “I just can’t
remember what he preaches anyways.”
So because of these reasons,
many people want sermons that do not exceed 20 minutes; they want sermons that
are funny and/or entertaining; they want sermons that are short and too the
point. You see, these reasons given are all from a human perspective on
preaching. And because they have a human perspective of preaching, they
consider preaching to be foolish. And the apostle Paul, many pastors who I’ve
talked with and I as well would wholeheartedly agree that preaching is
foolishness when it is considered from a human perspective.
However, when we consider
preaching from the perspective of God and we realize the saving power that it
has; then it certainly isn’t foolish by any standard! When God’s saving power
is demonstrated through preaching; it clearly isn’t foolish. Think for a minute
about the book of Acts; specifically chapter 2—the Day of Pentecost. There are
many people gathered in the city of Jerusalem—the disciple Peter stands up and
preached a Gospel centered sermon and God worked by cutting the people to the
heart through the power of the Holy Spirit. There was saving power in that
sermon because 3,000 were saved that day. And later on in chapter 2, we find
that the “Lord added to their number
daily those who were being saved.” The Gospel power of God is a saving
power when it is preached because of God working and without God working; then
clearly preaching is foolish.
But God’s saving power is not
only found in the preaching of the Gospel. It is also found in the public and
personal reading of Scripture. Professor Michael Williams, who is the Old
Testament and Hebrew professor at Calvin Theological Seminary where I attend,
is a testament to the saving power of God in the reading of Scripture. He tells
the story of how when he was in the Navy, he was aboard a submarine under the
ocean somewhere. He was given a Bible before his deployment and he began with
Genesis and read all the way through to Revelation—from cover to cover. In his
personal reading time of God’s Word; the saving power of the Gospel penetrated
his heart and he was converted through the saving power of the Gospel being
read. He is not the only example of this though; there are many others who join
him who have either heard God’s Word read publicly or in their personal time
have been cut to the heart by the saving power of the Gospel.
This story and the knowledge of
the saving power of God should clearly drive us to God’s Word each day in
personal devotion time. And the knowledge of the saving power of God should
also have us desiring to be here in this place each Sunday morning and evening
to hear God’s Word proclaimed. And people of God, when we don’t do these
things; we are clearly underestimating the saving power of God found in the
Gospel. The Gospel has saving power—in the preaching and reading of it—may we
never underestimate this saving power.
IV. The Gospel
Power of God Is An International Power
As we noted in the beginning,
there are many people who have lots of power in the world today. In an article
in Forbes magazine, they listed the top 71 people who had the most power in the
world. Here is just a few of them:
·
President Obama was listed because he leads and
guides one of the most influential countries in the world—the United States of
America—therefore his power is limited to the land and people of America
·
Pope Bendict was listed because he is
responsible for 1.1 billion souls which is equivalent to one-sixth of the
worlds population; therefore his power is limited to those people who profess
to be Catholic
·
Bill Gates was listed because he is the 2nd
richest man in the world. He donates a great amount of money to the research of
infectious diseases and how they can be treated. Therefore, his power is
limited to what is in his bank account or wallet
·
Michael Duke is listed because he is the CEO of
a chain retail store named Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer
and is the biggest private employer. Therefore, his power is limited to
Wal-Mart stores and those who work there.
And this list of four people clearly shows that these
people have power, but you see; their power is limited. It is limited to a
certain group of people, it is limited to a certain portion of land or their
power is limited to a certain company or whatever else it might be and whoever
has the power over it; no matter what it is—their power is limited.
·
Can you imagine President Obama going to
Russian’s prime minister and start telling him orders on how to run his
country? This simply wouldn’t work because his power is limited to the USA.
·
Or what if Michael Duke would walk into a Target
store and start telling the cashiers to change prices; would they do it? No!
Because Michael Duke’s power is limited to Wal-Mart.
No matter who it is or what they have power over; the key
is that their power is limited.
But,
this limitedness is not the same with the Gospel Power of God. The Gospel power
of God is an international power. It is not limited to a certain company; it
isn’t limited to a certain region of land or body of water; and it certainly
isn’t limited to a group of people. The Gospel power of God stretches across
any international boundary and can penetrate any heart so that they may receive
the Gospel message of salvation. People of God, the Gospel power of God is not
limited by anything.
V. Conclusion
In conclusion, we have no reason
to be ashamed of the Gospel because the Gospel is the power of God for the
salvation of everyone who believes. And the Gospel power of God is a saving
power that can stretch across any boundary and reach any nation; it is able to
cross any border and enter into the hart of any person.
The
Gospel power of God is something that we shouldn’t be ashamed of for it is the
saving power of God for all who believe.
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