Romans 5:3,4: Hope and an Angel on the Downtown Eastside.

Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on April 20, 2008
Swift Current Corps on August 09, 2009
Corps 614 Regent Park on May 15, 2016

Alberni Valley on February 16, 2025
By Captain Michael Ramsay

This is the original, to view the 2025 version click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2025/02/romans-534-hope-and-angel-on-downtown.html 

As many of you here know when our children were just little (not that they’re so big now), we sold our home and our businesses and moved into North America’s poorest postal code - Vancouver’s downtown eastside - as full-time urban missionaries with The Salvation Army.

We have shared with many of you the excitement from our time there as we saw people who were turned from their addictive, destructive ways of life; transformed into new creations by the power of the Holy Spirit. It was exciting to open up our home and our lives to the miracles that indeed the Lord is still performing today and were, oh, so evident in that environment. We met people who have been cured of cancer, cured of AIDS, and completely cured of diabetes. We have seen and experienced the power of God (cf. Romans 1:4, 1:16, 11:23, 15:13, 15:19-20) first hand.

Our time there, as you can well imagine, wasn’t always rosy though. I remember one day – one morning, I was mugged. I knew better but I wasn’t paying attention. It was early in the morning and I was right on Main and Hastings – the most infamous intersection in this most infamous neighbourhood and I was on the pay phone with Susan who was out of town at the time.

Someone came running up behind me, grabbed my briefcase and tore down Main Street. In the briefcase was my laptop and all the information for the summer school programme I was running for the kids in the area; so, like anyone mugged in the depths of skid row, I’m sure, I…well, I chased the mugger.

I followed him down Main Street through Chinatown across busy streets and around the myriad of mazes that are Vancouver’s back alleys. Scaring rats, jumping over sleeping street folk, I pursued my assailant. When I was within reach of him… I fell right in front of a bus and though I escaped from in front of the bus with my life, the mugger escaped with my briefcase, my laptop, and the programme files for the kids.

It was when I was walking back, completely distraught and despondent from this incident, that I experienced the miracle that happened: I encountered an angel, a messenger of God, in the back alleys of Vancouver’s storied downtown eastside. I can still remember vividly; he looked like a ‘dumpster diver;’ he prayed with me and he offered me these words of encouragement from Romans 5:3,4 “...but let us also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Inside I sighed. I knew he was right. God gave me these words to encourage me.

When the Apostle Paul recorded these words circa 55 AD in his letter to the Romans, he himself had already seen much suffering - he has already spent so much time under arrest, so much time in prison and even now he will be ultimately killed for his faith and tradition suggests that he was even beheaded by the Romans themselves.[1]

In the first few verses of what we now know as Chapter 5 of Paul’s letter to the Romans, Paul was not only warning the Romans about the persecution and suffering that was coming for him but he was also warning them about the suffering that was coming for them and ultimately the suffering that may be coming for us as we do the Lord’s bidding as well.

Now you’ll notice from our text today, that not only are we to endure our suffering but Paul says, depending on your translation, we are to rejoice and even boast in our suffering (cf. Phil 2:17; 1 Pet 4:6, 4:13). 1 Thessalonians 5:18 states that we are even to give thanks in all circumstances (cf. Phil 4:11) and Paul in Philippians 4:4 says, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.’

So this is important: we aren’t supposed to lick our wounds when we suffer for doing the Lord’s work but we are to rejoice. Now we should think about what exactly God and Paul are saying here in the Bible for a moment because it does go against a lot of popular culture and indeed seems to oppose the so-called ‘prosperity gospel’ that is ever so prevalent in our affluent North American culture.

This prosperity heresy - the idea that wealth, health and prosperity come to those whom God loves but trials, tribulations and suffering on this earth come to those whom God hates - this prosperity heresy was apparently alive and well in Paul’s day as well but just like it was a lie then, it is not true now.[2]

Paul says that we should rejoice in our suffering because - if indeed our suffering is for the gospel of which Paul is not ashamed (1:16) -our suffering will produce perseverance (endurance) and you know what perseverance (endurance) is good for right? It gives us the ability to get through more suffering and difficult times and you know why God gives us that ability to get through more suffering and difficult times, because we’ve got more difficult times to get through still. So as we rejoice in our perseverance through these times we can rejoice because we will be ready for – the even more difficult times that are still to come but there is even more than that.[3]

Paul says that through this perseverance we will also develop character. And what is character? Character is what you get when you survive suffering (joyfully?)

Here are some comics that give us Bill Waterson’s perspective:[4]




Character is what you get when you survive suffering (joyfully?)

…in my home growing up the phrase ‘It will build character’ was the answer to the question. “Why should I do that? It’s not fair? Why do I have to …rake the leaves, mow the lawn, clean my room, take grade six band? ...It will build character. Well more or less this is what Paul is saying.

Paul, however, really does say that we should enjoy our character building experiences. (They are a means to the strength of the Lord.) In Philippians 1 Paul says that whatever happens, everything will be okay indeed as living is Christ and even to die is gain because there is the resurrection ahead. We have nothing to lose right? To die is gain and to live, to live is Christ! (Phil 1:21).[5]

Now Paul had a lot that was building his character between all his time in jail and the Roman Christians had great opportunity to develop character as they faced the lions in the Coliseum[6] and my mugging on the downtown eastside wasn’t our first experience with loss nor was it our last but it was directly related to our work for the Lord and this period was extremely significant in our lives and its results echo to this day in our souls.

When I was mugged and my laptop containing all the information for The Salvation Army’s tutoring ministry was stolen it was only the beginning. My foot was also injured, my hands were inexplicably painfully swollen, my eye was injured (so painfully that I couldn’t even get up for days) and it was later re-injured too- I required surgery; Sarah-Grace, who had recently turned 2, suffered seizures in front of our eyes, our car stopped working, a person in our home was struggling with heroin addiction, the police visited our home and encouraged a roommate of ours to leave, my in-laws’ computer and camera were stolen on subsequent nights spent in our home and this last event unleashed a revealing chain of attacks straight from the Enemy and his servants. We were serving the Lord, openly and abundantly and we were suffering as we did so and there was more to come (cf. Mark 3:20-35).[7]

And knowing all this was still to come, after my mugging the Lord sent His messenger - the angel in the form of a downtown eastside resident - to encourage me to endurance, to perseverance. He told me specifically from Romans 5:3,4, to “...rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

So what is Paul saying about suffering here? He is saying we have to rejoice in it but is he talking about any kind of unpleasant event? Any suffering? Not necessarily. The Greek word here (thlipseis) refers to, more literally, ‘pressure’ that is applied to Christians from the world, from God’s opponents (cf. John 15:18, 16:20).[8] John Stott writes that Thlipseis is “almost a technical term for the suffering which God’s people must expect in [these] last days.”[9] This suffering is something that we can expect as we do the will of God in the last days before the end.[10] When we serve the Lord, there is opposition both spiritual and practical and though the war is won, the battle rages fierce.

As we fight in this battle that is our life, there are people, powers and principalities who oppose us. As we fight in this battle, it develops our perseverance, it develops our character, we become like battle-hardened veterans experienced in engaging the foe.[11] We are no longer green. Our character is being built. We know that we can endure. We know that we may live up to what has already been obtained (cf. Phil 3). We can be bold for the gospel (cf. Phil 1). We know we can be counted on to persevere through even more of whatever opposition, whatever pressure the enemy throws our way. We know we can, like Paul says here, we can have hope - because God will never leave us nor forsake us.

Jesus Christ himself suffered and he rose again on the third day. Jesus Christ himself endured and he is the reason for our hope? What is this hope? This hope through Jesus Christ is indeed in the power of the gospel which is the power to transform us all (1:16), our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ who will never leave us nor forsake us and our hope through the cross and the empty tomb, our hope is in the resurrection of the dead.

Paul knows, as we know, that when our bodies fade away it is not the end. Indeed we will be in paradise with our Lord. Indeed there is the hope of the ultimate resurrection of the dead. We will rise again.

And as the Lord has conquered Sin and Death, He will indeed continue to conquer our own sins that lure us to death and we can have confidence, we can have faith, we can have hope in the resurrection.
But even more than that - now I know that there are some serious struggles that each face us each here today. The other day there were some serious losses in Nipawin here as a father and son perished and a family lost their home in the explosion and resulting fire. There is uncertainty in our daily lives. (The explosion from the leak could have happened in any of the downtown businesses.) There are questions and we don’t necessarily realise what the Lord is doing but no matter how bleak things seem we can still have that hope.

Now our pets are often a source of comfort to many of us. Our cats and dogs offer us comfort when we are in times of need. The family whose house was lost in the explosion, they had a dog. The dog didn’t escape. The house exploded and fell in on him. The fire raged and ravaged the site all day and in the night. In the morning at just before 7am when I was bringing the firefighters and SaskEnergy people their coffee, we heard it – barking. The dog was barking. You should have heard the firefighters cheer. You should have seen the excitement on their faces. They pulled the dog from the rubble and he wasn’t even hurt, not a bit. The Lord saved the dog. This provided hope for the fire fighters, hope for the SaskEnergy guys, hope for the Emergency Operations Centre staff, and comfort and hope for this family who had already suffered such loss. The Lord provides hope in our suffering.
We have received serious, vocal, practical and even litigious opposition from the Enemy through people very close to us not only when we were on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside but also when we were in Winnipeg’s North End and now that we are in Nipawin and Tisdale. We have had to consciously protect even our children from harm as the foe is relentless. The enemy continues to attack us through whatever Thlipseis (pressure) he can muster.

The Enemy does and will attack those of us here that serve the Lord. There is pressure but we must not give in to the temptation to surrender to the pressure. We must not surrender. Instead we must boast in our sufferings, experience our new found endurance and character so that we too will continue to experience the faith, the joy, the hope that is in Christ Jesus.

Let us all, as Romans 5 says, “...rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” And this hope will never disappoint us (v.5).

Let us pray.
---
[1] Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible - commentary on Acts 28:31. Cited on-line 14 April 2008: http://www.biblestudy.org/question/sauldie.html Cf. also http://misslink.org/chapel/askaminister/bible/paul.html
[2] Cf. The entire book of Job. See also Paul J. Achtemeier, Interpretation: Romans. John Knox Press, 1989. P 92. and John Phillips, Exploring Romans. Moody Press, 1969. P.90.
[3] Cf. RCH Lenski, St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. P 338.
[4] From http://enthronedarkness.blogspot.com/2005/06/building-character-yet.html
[5] Cf. Michael Ramsay. “Be Bold for the Gospel: a look at Philippians 1:1” in The Journal of Aggressive Christianity. Issue No. 54: April – May 2008. Available on-line: http://www.armybarmy.com/jac.html Cited 16 April 2008.
[6] Tactius: "Nero punished a race of men who were hated for their evil practices. These men were called Christians. He got a number of people to confess. On their evidence a number of Christians were convicted and put to death with dreadful cruelty. Some were covered with the skins of wild beasts and left to be eaten by dogs. Others were nailed to the cross. Many were burned alive and set on fire to serve as torches at night." Cited On-line. 16 April, 2008. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/rome_and_christianity.htm
[7] Cf. Michael Ramsay. “On the Job Experience.” Available on-line: www.sheepspeak.com/job.htm. Cf. also Michael Ramsay’s “The Family of God.” Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/02/mark-320-35-family-of-god.html
[8] RCH Lenski, p. 336.
[9] John Stott, Romans, IV Press 1994, p. 140.
[10] NT Wright, NIB X: Romans. Abingdon Press, 2002. P. 516: “The NRSV’s ‘endurance’ and the NIV’s ‘perseverance’ both bring out aspects of the same idea, which is not so much of a pressing ahead in adversity as simply staying put without dismay”
[11] RCH Lenski, p. 336.

Mark 4:35-41: We Stand in Awe of You

Presented to Tisdale Corps on March 30, 2008
and Nipawin Corps on April 6, 2008

Alberni Valley Ministries, 19 May 2024
By Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay

When we were in College back in Winnipeg, on Friday nights I used to help out with the street outreach at the Weetamah corps. We would walk around the streets at night to see who we could offer a warm meal, a hot chocolate or a place to stay down at the shelter (the Booth Centre) for the night. We then tell them about Jesus.

Now these nights usually go quite late -until 1 or 2 in the morning sometimes – and so at the end of a long week at the college, I am just exhausted and really quite look forward to my one day of sleeping in – Saturday morning.

Well this one Saturday about 6am or so – four or less hours after I crawl into bed – Rebecca (who was then only 4) and Sarah-Grace (who was 3 at the time) come bounding into our bedroom.

“Daddy, what’s a trout?” Rebecca, as a four year-old, asks me as she and her sister climb on my bed. “What’s a trout?”

(aside: You know what it is like when you try to respond to someone but you really don’t want to wake up – that is what it is like)

“What’s a trout?”
“A fish, why do you ask”
“A fish?”
“Yes a fish”
“Oh”
“Like Nemo…”
“Short of, I think Nemo is a Clown fish”
“Oh.”
“Daddy,” asks Sarah-Grace, who has been standing there the whole time, “what’s a trout?”
“A fish”
“Like Nemo”
“No”
“Daddy”
“Yes, Sarah-Grace”
“What’s a trout?”
“A chipmunk. A Chipmunk!” I snap back with all the composure of one who has not had enough sleep.

The girls run out of the room laughing, none the worse for wear. I put my pillow over my head and just try to get back to sleep wondering just what that was all about and why I was woken up for a question that no one seemed to want the answer to anyway.

At this point, in comes Susan. Slowly and today with the calm demeanour of the caring mother and wife. I know I have spoken a little harshly to my daughters, so I listen intently as she lifts the pillow from my head and gently asks me, “Michael, What’s a trout?”

Looking back at the story of Jesus calming the storm recorded in Mark 4:35-41, I imagine that it must have been about the same feeling for Jesus as he was awakened from his sleep. The disciples are waking up Jesus with a simple request for him but they (unlike my daughters) are panicked. The storm had come up. They wake Jesus and ask –verse 38 – “Teacher, don't you care if we drown?”

How could they ask that? Really. Not only because they should know he does care but also because this is later in the same day as he has healed a man with leprosy (Matthew 8:1-3), taught about the Kingdom of Heaven and even told and explained many parables directly to his disciples.[1] He has just finished also, as Matthew 8 tells us, healing the Centurion’s servant, healing Peter’s mother-in-law and healing many others.

Here’s the thing. The disciples believe he can save them – or they would not have asked –verse 38 - "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" What they don’t know, however, is how or even if he wants to – as verse 41 makes clear in their astonishment in the fact that even the waves obey Him. The disciples don’t know how or even believe that Jesus will save them. They are panicked. Jesus notes, Verse 40, that the disciples don’t have faith[2]. They don’t have faith.

Today, do we have faith? Real faith? Not just a belief that Jesus can do things but a faith that Jesus will do what is best for us viz. a viz. His Kingdom. In our world today, we are faced with many storms as indeed other boats on that same see with the disciples that day faced that same storm: People nowadays face debt, families face deep personal divides and struggles, divorce, adultery, custody fights; we face all kinds of things.[3] Sometimes we face new experiences that aren’t unexpected. Sometimes we are totally surprised. We know that God can save us. Sometimes, isn’t it true though that we don’t have faith that He will save us? Sometimes we do seem to treat God as if he can’t; Jesus, as if he is sleeping and in need of a good waking up before he even bother to help us, if he can.

Sometimes do we feel like he doesn’t know that the storm we are in is really serious? Sometimes does it seem that He won’t care if we drown in our struggles? Sometimes, in our personal struggles, do we try to wake him with – like it says in verse 38, “don't you care if we drown?” Sometimes, do we in a panic, barge in on the Lord. -“God please do something quick. I’m going to be fired or my marriage is falling apart or my family hates me or I don’t have any money to pay the bills: Do something…if you care…if you can!

There was a time in my life when I was certainly tempted to try to wake the Lord in this way. I owned many businesses before I became an Officer in The Salvation Army. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun but in the early days, there were times that I really did not know if we would make it. Money was tight. Sometimes I didn’t know if we would be able to keep my promises to my staff and my customers. Sometimes I would send my salespeople out as more like bill collectors and if they didn’t come back with the funds we needed I would not speak kindly to them and then tell them to go home for the day. And then when I am alone, my fervent attempts to wake up God could begin… ‘Help, I’m drowning,” I would cry. Save me…if you care…if you can!

Now I should make it clear that neither I nor the text here is saying that we shouldn’t go to the Lord when we are in this trouble. It is saying that we should go to the Lord but that we should go to the Lord in faith believing that He actually can and will save us. Mark spends a lot of time talking about the interaction between God’s miracles and our faith. When we approach the Lord we must do so in faith. We must believe in and trust the Lord. In our requests and storms we must, like James 1:6-7 says, believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That [person] should not think he will receive anything from the Lord. We must go to the Lord with faith.[4]

Jesus did save the disciples from the storm, it says (Aside voice:) This is significant, as Williamson notes: "in the original text, Jesus speaks only two words at this point..."Be quiet! Be still. The simplicity and brevity of his command express the assurance of one who is in control."[5] Just as Jesus has always saved me from my crises (aside voice:) though not always the way that I think He will, He will always come through and always continue to save us.

A prime example of this sort of thing is the story of another person caught in a boat in a storm in the Bible – Jonah[6]. You remember the story of Jonah. Jonah has faith. Jonah knows what God wants him to do and Jonah knows that God will do what He says. The only problem is that Jonah doesn’t want Him to. You see, God told Jonah to preach to the people in Nivevah so that they will not be destroyed BUT Jonah wants them to be destroyed. Jonah doesn’t like the Ninivites: they are the paramount superpower of his day and they will eventually destroy his homeland. But in this, he has faith. When the storm comes up, He knows God will calm the storm. He has so much faith that he EVEN suggests that the crew, in this storm, throw him overboard and they do…and of course Jonah and everyone else survives. Jonah grumbled a lot precisely because he does have faith. He knew God would calm the storm. It is very likely that the author here, Mark, has this in mind when he is retelling the story of how Jesus calms the storm.[7]

The disciples, like Jonah, can and should have this same faith in God because, ultimately, somehow, whether we understand it or not, God’s will will be done. He can save us and He does want what’s best for us in His kingdom.

Here, the disciples do eventually realize that, praise the Lord. They are terrified (!) as verse 41 says. The Greek nuances of this word, ‘terrified’, actually refer to a “reverent awe.”[8] They are in awe of Him. They are in complete terrible awe of Jesus – and this is good.

Notice this: Jesus is right in the storm with the disciples. They are not alone. They know, from what that have seen already that He can save them and now as they see Him do it they are in a full “reverent awe.” They can have faith in Jesus as they face life’s storms. They don’t need to panic. They can be calm because Jesus has calmed the storm and because Jesus can calm any storm.

And Jesus can still calm any storm; so today we can still have faith as we face life’s storms. I know some of us here are going through some particularly serious family problems: Jesus is God. God is in control. And unlike when my kids wake me up with the same question over and over again, (slow down and emphasize:) God can always be patient and forgiving. WAVES MAGAZINE, one particularly stressful business I owned, always went to print. I never lost my house or office or anything except maybe my self-composure over it. My staff, in this business AND my other businesses always got their paycheques and more. The Lord provides even and especially where we cannot. We can have faith. And as with the disciples and just like with Jonah, where God saved him and the Ninivites, it is not always as we anticipate that He will but we can have faith.

We don’t need to panic: He has provided. He is providing. I have faith. I am in reverent awe (M.C.). We don’t need to panic; somehow, someway, our storms too will all be calmed. We can stand in awe and have faith in Jesus.

You know that you can have that peace, that reverent awe as well. When the waves of life’s storms are crashing over our bow, we don’t need to panic. When we approach the Lord, we can stand in awe of Him and have faith that he will save us.

I know that many of us in this room are going through some significant struggles with family and friends, marriage breakdowns and custody struggles. The storms at times seem overwhelming but Jesus can calm the storms. Any who are caught in the midst of the storms right now, I encourage you to come up to the mercy seat and pray in faith.

Amen.

---

[1]The parable of the Sower, the lamp under a bushel, and the parable of the growing seed (Mark 4:1-20, 21-25, 26-35) He explained all these in private to the twelve.
[2] (cf. 7:18; 8:17-18, 21, 32-33; 9:19 for other similar rebukes)
[3] CBC News. “1 in 5 Canadians don't plan to retire: StatsCan” n.p. [cited 05 06 06] On-line: http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/03/27/womenretirement060327.html employment opportunities change or diminish as indeed do people’s savings gambled away on the stock exchange
[4] Like is recorded in James 1:6-8: when [one] asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That [person] should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.”
[5] Lamar Williamson Jr., Mark. (Interpretation: Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1983), 101
[6] Jonah is a prophet in ancient Israel around 740 –750 BC during the time that Assyria is the area’s superpower. God tells Jonah to preach salvation to the people living in their capital city, Nineveh. Jonah does not want to do this. He knows that the Ninevites will repent and be saved. He doesn’t want him to – he doesn’t like the Ninivites, after all they are the paramount superpower of his day and committing all the violent acts that superpowers tend to commit in foreign lands - and shortly after their salvation, in 722, God will actually use them to destroy Israel, the northern kingdom. But Jonah has faith that the Ninevites will be saved - he never doubts - he just doesn’t want any part of it, so he boards a ship and runs away in the opposite direction.
[7] Robert A. Guelich, Mark 1-8:26. (WBC 34A: Dallas Texas: Word Books, 1989), 266
[8] Ibid.