Presented to Swift Current Corps, 11 May 2014 and 05 July 2009. By
Captain Michael Ramsay.
Click here
to read the 2009 Version: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2009/07/romans-116-i-am-not-ashamed-of-gospel.html
Two very interesting things happened last
week – well a number of very interesting things happened last week but two
combined to make me think – one good, one maybe not so good. 1) I had my
birthday – thank you to everyone for the well wishes and the cake. This is
good. 2) It snowed. That is not so good. Growing up in Victoria, if it ever
snowed anywhere near my birthday, I’m sure they would call in the Navy from
Equimalt thinking that this was the end of the world or some foreign plot or
something like that. May in Victoria is the time when students spend their
spare time spread out on the lawn - not looking for a toque or a pair of mitts.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love it here in Saskatchewan where we get all four
seasons instead of just Spring and Fall but there comes a time when Winter just
needs to be over.
.
I really did enjoy a couple of the good
days that we have had recently here as the seasons are changing. At times when
the air smells a certain way after the rain, I am reminded of growing up on the
Island. I
remember one Canada Day in Victoria when Rebecca was very little. We went to
some Canada Day celebrations at Fort Rodd Hill (which is an historic fort). It
was fun: they had a lot of things we could see and do from days gone past. We
could see people dressed up in historical costumes. They even had various
mascots dressed up like animals walking around: great for kids, right? There
was even one person who was dressed as a tree giving balloons to the children
and telling them about the environment and this tree came to say ‘hi’ to us and
leaned over to offer Rebecca (who was 2 at the time) a balloon and asked her,
“Do you like trees?” and she answered – as sweet as can be – “not trees that
talk and walk.”
.
Young kids are great for innocently speaking their
minds. They may not have great fancy words of wisdom but they do have the power
of wisdom that can really make us stop and think. We all know the expression,
‘out of the mouths of babes...’ This is actually some of what Paul is speaking
about in the passage we are looking at in 1 Corinthians 1:17: “…[Christ
sent me] to preach the Gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of
Christ be emptied of its power.” And 1 Corinthians 2:3-5:" I came to you
in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not
with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,
so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power."
.
We are talking about being willing to preach the
Gospel today and – just like a child – with boldness, confidence, and power but
first can anyone tell me what the Gospel is?[1]
(This is important) The word Gospel literally translated means ‘good news’ – it
is a rendering of the Greek word euangelion, which means ‘good news’ or
‘good message’ (cf. Isaiah 40:9, 52:7) - so the Gospel is good news. And what is this
good news? The good news is that we can be saved from eternal death and
damnation.[2]
We can actually be bodily raised from the dead to eternal life and even
more than that: it is the totality of the Christian message[3]
and through the power of God we can start to experience that new life this very
day! Today we can begin living a life transformed with Christ. And this is good
news and we should definitely not be afraid to proclaim this boldly with the
confidence and power of Christ! But sometimes some of us, sometimes, are
afraid.
.
What are some of other things about which people are
commonly not so bold… what are some things that some of us are hesitant to
speak about? I know that many people are not forthcoming about their weight
either because they have too much of it or 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 was concerned, I told him he’d have to asked Susan
himself.
.
Similar to this, it is Susan and my anniversary soon
and I was reminded the other day of a story relating to our honeymoon. On our
Wedding night, we had reservations at a bed and breakfast (Abigail’s’ in
Victoria, BC) that was a grand old building and looked just like a castle from
the brochure. It was in a really neat area of the city too with a number of
castle-like buildings but none of these castles seemed to want to put their
addresses where they could be easily seen; so after quite a little bit of
driving around we find the one that looks like the brochure and I leave the car
out front and go up the main entrance in my kilt, in my full wedding regalia. I
knock on the door. I tell them that we have reservations for the night. And the
lady who answered says, “not here you don’t” – it is at that time I realise that
she is dressed in a Nun’s Habit…I had knocked on the door of the Nunnery…an
interesting place to wind up on your honeymoon. Whoops. She was kind enough to
direct us to the correct castle though…this event was more than a little bit of
an embarrassing mistake: one that at times certainly curtailed any boldness of
spirit in me.
.
I have also attended more than a few Alcoholics
Anonymous meetings in my time. I can tell you that their meetings provide a
very safe place for people to tell stories that we would certainly be otherwise
ashamed to tell. The format for discussion there 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
twofold. 1) We wouldn’t want anyone to think that we are celebrating our sins
and as a result tempt anyone else into the life of a drunkard (Deuteronomy
21:18-21; Proverbs 23:21, 26:9; 1 Corinthians 5:11, 6:10). And 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.
.
The Gospel: Jesus died and rose again so that we can
be free from sin. And we can be free from death. There are some people who
don’t realise this yet. They aren’t yet experiencing the power of the gospel of
Salvation. They live as if they are not free. It reminds me of an Emergency
Disaster Story. A few of us just got back from Saskatoon last night, where I
was a course on CISM: ESC in Disasters. I shared this experience with my class
.
In 2008, After Hurricane Ike struck, I was asked to
head down to Galveston Island in Texas as part of a team from Canada to help
out with Emotional and Spiritual care.[4]
More than 1 million people were saved from the hurricane and flood that
followed as they obeyed the evacuation order but some refused to evacuated. No
one needed to die but some refused the offered salvation and around 100 people
were found dead as a direct result of Hurricane Ike. Bodies were still being
found while I was down there. I spoke with people whose family members had
refused the provided salvation from the storm and suffered the natural and
logical consequences.
Homes were destroyed. Businesses were destroyed. The sewers, the water, and the phones were still not working when we were down there. People were housed in shelters both on and away from Galveston Island. Many still had no place to go. Power was still out in some of the parts while we were posted there. The power outage means that even for families that did not lose their stoves and refrigerators in the hurricane and the subsequent flood - and most did: there were many refrigerators destroyed and lying on the side of the road for pick up – they were unable to keep or cook any food. They didn’t have food and they didn’t have water.
Food and water: this is a big part of the salvation that the Lord provided through The Salvation Army mission down there. We had around 30 food trucks (called canteens) from which we help to serve around 75 000 hot meals every day and give the people water and ice. Ice is very important. It was around 90 F during our time there. And the food: many people told me that without The Salvation Army they wouldn’t have eaten at all. They wouldn’t have survived. We thank the Lord for the service He provided to this community through many people. We prayed for them. We continued to pray that the Lord would continue to save the people down there. Our work there was very much His saving work through us.[5] This I think is also very much a part of the totality of salvation – the real salvation for both the here and now as well as forever in Jesus’ impending, proleptic Kingdom.[6]
Homes were destroyed. Businesses were destroyed. The sewers, the water, and the phones were still not working when we were down there. People were housed in shelters both on and away from Galveston Island. Many still had no place to go. Power was still out in some of the parts while we were posted there. The power outage means that even for families that did not lose their stoves and refrigerators in the hurricane and the subsequent flood - and most did: there were many refrigerators destroyed and lying on the side of the road for pick up – they were unable to keep or cook any food. They didn’t have food and they didn’t have water.
Food and water: this is a big part of the salvation that the Lord provided through The Salvation Army mission down there. We had around 30 food trucks (called canteens) from which we help to serve around 75 000 hot meals every day and give the people water and ice. Ice is very important. It was around 90 F during our time there. And the food: many people told me that without The Salvation Army they wouldn’t have eaten at all. They wouldn’t have survived. We thank the Lord for the service He provided to this community through many people. We prayed for them. We continued to pray that the Lord would continue to save the people down there. Our work there was very much His saving work through us.[5] This I think is also very much a part of the totality of salvation – the real salvation for both the here and now as well as forever in Jesus’ impending, proleptic Kingdom.[6]
.
We were honoured and privileged to see
many people saved not only from their suffering here and now but we were
honoured and privileged to celebrate with people as they gave their lives to
the Lord so that they could experience that salvation forever. We didn’t shrink
from sharing the gospel: we shared the good news and some people grabbed hold
of it and chose everlasting life.[7]
.
In our own daily lives here - in our regular Monday to Friday and
Saturday and Sunday lives - do we point people to that same salvation that is
offered to all or do we deny the power of the Gospel? Jesus tells us that if we
deny Him before men, he will deny us before God (Matt 10:33). That sounds fair.
.
How do we do at proclaiming the gospel?
How do we do at presenting the gospel even if it is in weakness with fear and
trembling, as 1 Corinthians 2:3, says? Do we overcome our fears as the Apostle
Paul extols us? As our friends or colleagues are speaking about life, do we
tell them what we have heard from God or 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 of
mine who didn’t. The next day he heard that fellow he was ashamed to share the
gospel with died. No more chances.
.
There is even more than this - of course -
because Salvation is about the future but it is also about the present. We were
missionaries in Vancouver’s infamous Downtown Eastside a few years ago;
Salvation is this: Can you imagine if you have a friend who is living on the
street? He is very poor and suffering from various illnesses and struggles
through the most painful of lives thinking that he is all alone. Now, imagine
that you know his father. Imagine that you know that his father wants your friend
to come home and live with him. Imagine that his father is very well off and in
his father’s house there are many, many rooms (John 14:2). Imagine that you
know his father’s first born – his only truly begotten. Imagine that he told
you to invite your friend home and imagine that you don’t and imagine that your
friend lives out his whole life alone and sick when he doesn’t need to. Imagine
that you don’t share this information because you are afraid? Imagine that you
don’t share this information because you were 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 were too embarrassed to admit that you
hadn’t told him yet? Imagine if he suffers and dies and you don’t remind him on
every possible occasion that there is another way: that he can turn to his
father and live. If that happens, what kind of friends are we?
.
This is what our life here is like. 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 do know that 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) and some will go off to eternal happiness and some to hearing 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. The people knew it was coming and as a result
thousands of others were saved.
.
Can you imagine if the news announcers
were so ashamed of the fact the hurricane was coming that they didn’t share the
information that it was coming? 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 that the hurricane was coming and she evacuated but she
never told you because she couldn’t explain exactly what, 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 afraid of embarrassment?
.
Well, an eschatological hurricane is
coming and it is a lot more dangerous than Hurricane Ike. There are people in
this city here today who are sleeping in their beds 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
like the rescue workers who go around 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 and bringing with him the end to our world as we
know it. But, like the weatherman watching the storm, we do know that the
things of this earth are going to pass away (Matt 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke
21:33, Revelation 21:1) and it is our job to share with everyone we meet 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, indeed, the Gospel is the power of God for all to be saved both now
and forever. To this end then, I encourage us all to look for opportunities to
share the good news of salvation in the upcoming weeks here so that we may all
turn to God and experience the full power of His Salvation.
.
Let us pray.
.
---
[1] James D.G.
Dunn, Romans 1-8 (WBC 38A: Word Books: Dallas, Texas, 1988), p. 47: “The gospel
is not merely the initial proclamation of Christ which wins converts, but is
the whole Christian message and claim in terms of the rest of the letter.”
[2] Cf. Don Garlington, “A ‘New
Perspective’ Reading of Central Texts in Romans 1-4,” Prepared for Evangelical
Theological Society: 15 August 2006. Cited 20 02 2007. Online: http://www.thepaulpage.com/Rom1-4.pdf.12. and James
D.G. Dunn, Romans 1-8 (WBC 38A: Word Books: Dallas, Texas, 1988), p.39.
[3] James D.G.
Dunn, Romans 1-8 (WBC 38A: Word Books: Dallas, Texas, 1988), p.45.
[4] Cf. Captain
Michael Ramsay,' 2 Corinthians 9:12-15: Thanks be to God for His indescribable
Gift! (Hurricane Ike relief)' Presented to each the Nipawin and Tisdale Corps
12 October 2008 and the Rotary Club of Nipawin, October 2008. Available on-line
at: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/10/2-corinthians-912-15-thanks-be-to-god.html
[5] James D.G.
Dunn, Romans 1-8 (WBC 38A: Word Books: Dallas, Texas, 1988), p. 47
[6] Cf. Joel B
Green. ‘The Gospel of Luke’. NICNT. Vol. 3. (Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co., 1997), p. 25.
[7] The term
translated ‘salvation’ has a range of meaning from ‘bodily health,
preservation, and safety (cf. e.g., Mark 5:23,28,34; 6:56; 10:52; Acts 27:34),
to – as is frequently the case in the Psalms and Isaiah - deliverance from
peril and restoration to wholeness. God’s righteousness here is linked with the provided salvation. (cf.
e.g., Pss 35:27-28; 72:1-4; 85:9-13; 96:13; 98:2-3, 9; Isa 9:7; 11:1-2; 45:8,
22-25; 51:5-6; 53:10b-11; 61:1-2, 11; Jer 23:5-6; Mal 4:2). Don Garlington, “A ‘New Perspective’ Reading
of Central Texts in Romans 1-4,” Prepared for Evangelical Theological Society:
15 August 2006. Cited 20 02 2007. Online: http://www.thepaulpage.com/Rom1-4.pdf.12 :“In other Psalm texts, it is surely striking
that the psalmist prays for the Lord to deliver him in his righteousness (Ps
31:1; 143:1, 11; 71:1-2, 15; cf. 79:9). In these instances, deliverance from
the enemy is the godly person’s salvation.”
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