Presented to Warehouse Mission
614 at Carlton St, 14 January 2018 by Captain Michael Ramsay
Based on the sermon presented to Swift Current Corps, 05 July 2006.
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2009/07/romans-116-i-am-not-ashamed-of-gospel.html
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2009/07/romans-116-i-am-not-ashamed-of-gospel.html
Romans 1:16. This is a very important Scripture; it records in
part:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that
brings salvation to everyone who believes…
Growing
up in Victoria, every Canada Day we used to have a big picnic and fireworks. I
remember one Canada Day in Victoria when one of my daughters was just 2 years
old. We went to the celebrations at Fort Rodd Hill. They had a lot of things to
see and do. We could see people dressed in historic costumes. There were
mascots dressed like animals walking around: great for kids, right? There was
even one person who was dressed as a tree giving balloons to children and
telling them about the environment. This tree came up to us to say ‘hi’ and as
he leaned over my daughter offering a balloon, he asked her, “Do you like
trees?” to which she replied as sweet as can be, “not trees that talk and
walk.”
Young children are great for innocently
speaking their minds. They are not ashamed to say what they mean. This is
actually some of what Paul is speaking about in Romans 1:16:“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it
is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…”
This
is important and the Apostle Paul’s
letter to the Romans is clearly an important work. World-renowned Biblical
scholar, N.T. Wright claims that “Romans is neither a systematic theology nor a
summary of Paul’s lifework, but it is by common consent his masterpiece.”
Romans 1:16 clearly states Paul’s idea of Salvation and as we are all called to
live out and share the gospel, it is important that we not be ashamed of the
gospel.
There is one thing we must know before we can share the gospel, however, and that is the meaning of the word gospel. Gospel is a rendering of the Greek word euangelion,
which means ‘good news’ or ‘good message’. In its most basic form, gospel means good news. And what is this good
news? This good news is that we can be saved from eternal death and damnation.
We can actually be bodily raised from the dead to eternal life and even
more than that. By the power of God we can start to experience a new life this
very day! This is good news and we should definitely not be ashamed of this
good news! But sometimes, sadly, some of us are.
What are some of other things that people are
commonly ashamed of? I know many people are not forthcoming about their weight
either because they have too much of it or, less prevalent in our culture, not
nearly enough. I know that I was caught off guard once when a reporter asked
for my wife’s and my ages – I gave him mine. As far as Susan’s age was
concerned, I told him he’d have to ask her himself.
Further to this, I was reminded the other day
of a story relating to Susan and my honeymoon. On our wedding night, we had
reservations at a bed and breakfast in a grand old building that looked just
like a castle from the brochure. It was in a really nice area of the city with a
number of other castle-like buildings. None of these castles seemed to want to
put their addresses where they could be easily seen; so after quite a while of
driving around we found one that looked like the brochure and I left the car
out front and went to the main entrance in my full wedding regalia. I knocked
on the door. I told them that we have reservations for the night. And the lady
who answers said, “not here you don’t” – it is at that time I realize she is
dressed in a nun’s habit…I had knocked on the door of the convent… an
interesting place to wind up on your honeymoon. She was kind enough to direct
us to the correct castle though. This mistake was more than a little bit
embarrassing: one that I was certainly a little ashamed to admit at first.
This
reminds me of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. These meetings provide a very safe
place for people to tell stories we may be ashamed to tell elsewhere. Sometimes
the format for discussion is very much like a Testimony Sunday. We mention what
we were like, what happened, and what we are like now. The reasons we wouldn’t
want to share the stories in too many other places are two-fold:
1)
We
wouldn’t want anyone to think that we are celebrating our sins and as a result
inadvertently tempt someone back into the life of alcoholism.
2)
We have
changed. In many cases we are ashamed of what we have done. We are ashamed of
how we were before we allowed God to deliver us from our addiction.
Again, this is gospel: Jesus died and rose
again so that we can be free from sin; we can be free from death. There are
some people who don’t realize this yet, who aren’t experiencing the power of
the gospel of salvation. They live as if they are not free. It reminds me of
September 2008.
September 2008 Hurricane Ike struck; I was deployed to Galveston
Island in Texas as part of a team assisting survivors and emergency personnel
with emotional and spiritual care. More than 1 million people were saved
from the hurricane and flood that followed as they obeyed the evacuation order
but some refused to evacuate. No one needed to die but some refused the offered
salvation. Sadly, around 100 people were found dead as a direct result of the
hurricane. Bodies were still being found while I was there. I spoke with people
whose family members had refused the provided salvation from the storm and
suffered the consequences.
We were honoured and privileged
to see many people saved from their suffering from the storm but that was not
the end of it. We were also able to celebrate with people as they committed
their lives to the Lord so that they can experience His Salvation forever. We
weren’t ashamed of the gospel, we shared the good news and some people grabbed
hold of it and chose to live forever.
So I ask
us who are here today, in our own daily lives, do we point people to that
eternal Salvation or are we ashamed of the gospel? Jesus tells us that if we
deny Him before others, He will deny us before God (Matthew 10:33). That sounds
fair. How are we at not being ashamed of the gospel? Are we bold for the gospel
(Philippians 1)? As our friends or colleagues are speaking about life, do we
tell them what we have heard from God and what we have read in the Bible? When
someone shares their struggles with us, do we share with them the strength to
persevere that is offered through Jesus Christ? If we feel that God is
prompting us to ‘lead someone to Christ’, do we do it? I have one friend who
didn’t. The next day he heard that the fellow with whom he was ashamed to share
the gospel had died. No more chances.
There
is even more: Salvation is also like this: imagine a friend is living
on the street – some here have been there. Our friend is very poor and
suffering from various illnesses, struggles and the most painful of lives
thinking he is alone. Now, imagine that you know his father. Imagine you know
that his father wants your friend to come home and live with him because his
father is very well off and in his father’s house there are many rooms (John
14:2). Imagine you also know his father’s first born son. Imagine that the
older son, knowing his homeless brother is sick and dying, told you to invite
his brother home and imagine you don’t and your friend dies alone and sick.
Imagine you don’t share this information because you are afraid. Imagine you
don’t share this information because you are ashamed. Imagine if every time you
see your friend it becomes more and more difficult to share the good news of
his father who loves him because you are too embarrassed to admit you hadn’t
told him sooner. Imagine if he suffers and dies and you don’t remind him on
every possible occasion that there is another way: he can turn to his father
and live out his days in the comfort of his father’s love. If that happens,
what kind of friend are you? What kind of a friend am I?
This
is reality: when Christ returns it will be like a thief in the night (Matthew
24:42-44). The time and the hour is unknown (Matthew 25:1-13) but we know it is
coming and He is coming to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42, 2 Timothy
4:1, 1 Peter 4:5); some will go off to eternal happiness and some to hear
weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8:12, 13:42, 13:50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30;
Luke 13:28). To know this is good news,
believe it or not. It is like when the hurricane struck Galveston Island. Even
though 100 people chose to stay behind and perished; even though we met with,
spoke with, and prayed with people whose family members chose to reject
salvation from the hurricane; everyone knew it was coming, everyone could have
been saved and thousands were.
Can
you imagine if the news reporters were so ashamed of the fact the hurricane was
coming that they didn’t share the information? Can you imagine if the
meteorologists were so ashamed of the fact that they did not know the exact
time and hour the hurricane was going to strike that they didn’t tell anybody?
Can you imagine if your neighbour knew the hurricane was coming and she
evacuated but she never told you because she was ashamed that she couldn’t
explain exactly why, where, how, and when the hurricane was coming? Can you
imagine the horror as you look up to see your life being swept away – and no
one ever told you how to be saved because they were ashamed?
An
eschatological hurricane is coming and it is a lot more dangerous than
Hurricane any temporal hurricane. There are people in our world today who are
sleeping in their beds, working, or watching their TVs right now who have no
idea that the end is coming. There are people like the homeless man of our
earlier analogy who are living their life away from the shelter of their
Heavenly Father’s house when He wants nothing more than to have them safely at
His side. There are people out there who are lost and just waiting for us to
point them to salvation; so today let us do that.
Today
let us be the rescue workers pointing people to safety. None of us know when
our lives are going to end. We may be taken tomorrow. None of us know when the
Lord is returning. But, like the weathermen and women watching the storm, we do
know that the things of this world are going to pass away (Matthew 24:35, Mark
13:31, Luke 21:33, Revelation 21:1) and it is our job to share with everyone
the good news of the way to Salvation so that they do not need to perish. It is
our responsibility to share the gospel, for the gospel is the power of God for
all to be saved both now and forever. To this end then, I encourage us to look
for opportunities to share this good news so that we may all turn to God and
experience the full power of His Salvation.
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