Romans 1:16: Thankfully, I am not ashamed of the Gospel.

Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries on Thanksgiving Sunday, 12 October 2024, by Major Michael Ramsay

Click here to view the original, presented to the Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 05 July 2009, by Captain Michael Ramsay: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/07/romans-116-i-am-not-ashamed-of-gospel.html 

Click here to read a 11 May 2014 version presented to Swift Current TSA that was based on 1 Corinthians: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2014/05/1-corinthians-117-25-romans-1-and.html 

Click here to read an abridged version presented to Warehouse 614 at River St in Toronto, 14 January 2017: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2018/01/romans-112-17-i-am-not-ashamed-of-gospel.html

Click here to read (and/or order) a copy of "Salvogesis' Guidebook to Romans Road" by Major Michael Ramsay: https://www.facebook.com/RomansGuideBook or http://www.sheepspeak.com/ebooks.htm 

We are continuing our look at Romans this week. Has anyone had a chance to read any of Romans? Don’t worry if you haven’t. You have lots of time (I think): we are still on Chapter 1.

 

Romans 1:16 states, in part: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.

 

Today is Thanksgiving Sunday. Tomorrow, on Thanksgiving Monday, we will have a community meal at the Bread of Life. I love the community celebrations across this country on special days.

 

I remember one community celebration, one Canada Day, when Rebecca was just 2 years old, we went to an event at Fort Rodd Hill in Victoria. They had a lot of things to see and do. We saw 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 while telling them about the environment. The 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 speaking their minds. They are not ashamed to say what they mean. Paul is referring to this in the passage we are looking at here, Romans 1:16: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…”

 

The word gospel is a translation of the Greek word euangelion, which literally means “good news” or “good message.” The word ‘evangelism’ comes from this word ‘euangelion’. In its most basic form, gospel is good news. And what is this good news? This good news is that we can be saved from death. Body and Soul, we  can be raised from the dead to eternal life and even more than that: the gospel is the totality of the Christian message. By the power of God we can begin a new life today! This is good news and we should definitely not be ashamed of this good news! But sometimes, sadly, some of us are.

 

Friends of mine have gone down to Florida this week with The Salvation Army to help with the Hurricane Milton relief. I had the opportunity back in September 2008 to be deployed to Galveston Island in Texas as part of The Salvation Army team after Hurricane Ike stuck: assisting survivors and emergency personnel with emotional and spiritual care. Thankfully, more than 1 million people were saved from that 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 chance of 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 offered salvation from the storm and suffered the consequences.

 

Homes were destroyed. Businesses were destroyed. The sewers, the water, and the phones were still not working when we arrived. 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 areas. So even families who did not lose their stoves and refrigerators in the hurricane and the subsequent flood – and most did – were unable to keep or cook any food. On top of this, most didn’t have food and they didn’t have water. Many refrigerators were destroyed and lying on the side of the road to be picked up later as junk.

 

Food and water are a big part of the temporal salvation the Lord provided through The Salvation Army then and there. Here and now, today at the Bread of Life Centre we serve around 700 meals a day to people in need. There, then, we had about 30 food trucks from which we helped to serve approximately 75 000 hot meals every day and gave people water and ice. Ice is very important. The temperature was around 90 degrees Fahrenheit. And the food: many people told me that without The Salvation Army they would not have eaten at all. They would not have survived. We thank the Lord for the service He provided to the community through many people. We prayed for them. We prayed with them. Our work there was very much His work through us. We were able to be a part of people’s salvation from the storm and its effects and more.

 

And that was not the end of our efforts. We were also able to celebrate with people as they committed their lives to the Lord so that they could experience His Salvation forever as well as for now. We were not ashamed of the gospel: we shared the good news and some people grabbed hold of it.

 

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. Are we bold for the gospel (Philippians 1)? As our friends or colleagues speak 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 Jesus Christ offers? If we feel that God is prompting us to “lead someone to Christ,” do we?

 

There is even more than this: Salvation is about the future and the future begins in the present. The Salvation Army here: we run the soup kitchen and the Shelter at the Bread of Life Centre. Salvation is this: imagine you have a friend living on the street. He 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, knowing his homeless brother is sick and dying, he told you to invite his brother home. Imagine you don’t share this information because you are ashamed. Imagine that 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 have not told him sooner. Imagine he suffers and dies and you didn’t tell him at every opportunity that he could turn to his father and live out the rest of his days in peace and comfort.

 

If that happens, what kind of friend are you? What kind of a friend am I?

 

Please understand me. I am not saying that as you come to know your Heavenly Father you will never suffer loss, tragedy, sadness, or the consequences of your own or someone else’s actions. I am not saying that God offers you a magic potion that makes all the challenges of life disappear. He doesn’t. What He offers you is the opportunity to shelter with Him in the midst of life’s challenges. He will provide for you in your time of need. He offers to be with you in the midst of the reality of life. He offers you the opportunity to be a part of His love forever, to be a part of His future kingdom too where there will be no more tears, no more suffering. This is really something for us to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Sunday here.

 

This is reality: when Christ returns His coming will be like a thief in the night (Matthew 24:42−44). The time and the hour are 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). And we have the opportunity to flee the storm forever and go off to eternal peace instead (Matthew 8:12, 13:42, 13:50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30; Luke 13:28). To know this is good news. As 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 had known the storm was coming; everyone could have been saved. And thousands were. That is the good news. We can all be saved.

 

Can you imagine news reporters being so ashamed of the fact the hurricane was coming that they didn’t share the information? Can you imagine meteorologists being so ashamed of the fact that they did not know the exact time and hour the hurricane was going to strike that they told nobody? Can you if imagine 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 it was coming? Can you imagine the horror as you look up to see your life being swept away – and no one had ever told you how to be saved because they were ashamed?

 

An eschatological hurricane is coming. Indeed, it has already started. People in this world today are sleeping in their beds, working, playing on their phones, watching a game, doing something else right now and have no idea that the end is coming. People are like the homeless man of our earlier analogy and living their lives away from their Heavenly Father when He wants nothing more than to have them safely at His side. People are out there needing and even wanting us to point them to salvation. So, let’s do that!

 

Today let us be the rescue workers pointing people to safety. None of us knows when our lives are going to end. We may be taken tomorrow. None of us knows when the Lord is returning and bringing with Him the end to our world. But, like the meteorologists watching the storm, we 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 we can see that the eschatological rain has started -  so it is our job to share with everyone the good news of the way to Salvation so that others need not perish – and we can take shelter with the Lord from the storms of our very lives today. And it is our responsibility to share this gospel, for the gospel is the power of God for all to be saved both now and forever.

 

On this Thanksgiving Sunday, let us thank God for this, His most precious gift: the gift of His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have ever lasting life and let us look for opportunities to share that good news with others we meet.

 

Let us pray.

Romans 1:20: The Reconciliation of Creation (and more!)

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries 05 October 2024 and the Nipawin Corps, 07 June 2009, by Major Michael Ramsay

  

This is the 2024 BC Version. To view the 2009 Saskatchewan edition, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/06/appeal-of-creation-genesis-1-romans-1.html

   

We just completed a few months of looking at the book of Mark. Did everyone have an opportunity to read it on their own? Susan thought that Romans would be a good next book to look at and as I have written a book on Romans for The Salvation Army I was inclined to agree. (You can read the book here: http://www.sheepspeak.com/ebooks.htm )

 

So this week I get to welcome you to our first stop on this journey through Romans. This is an exciting stop as we can see both Romans 1 and Genesis 1 from this vantage point. Romans 1:20:

 

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.

 

This reminds me of a time when my wife Susan and I served as Officers in Nipawin, Saskatchewan. After a day of dealing with another vandalized window at the ministry centre, packing boxes for move day, and writing sermons, we decided to take a short walk in God’s creation. We were depressed, stressed and then… It was amazing. As we walked, our spirits immediately lifted. We strolled around the trees in some of the small forests there. This very beautiful part of the country reminds me in many ways of where I grew up. The trees are not nearly as big nor the forest as thick, but t is quite beautiful.

 

When I was a young adult my friend Dan and I went hiking almost every weekend. I lived in Victoria. He would pick me up after I finished work on Friday nights and we would drive up island as far as we could go, finding new areas to explore. It was a lot of fun. One often experiences the power of God in these times.

 

Stepping out into the wilderness can be like peeling an orange. Much of our life, it seems, has become a peel hiding the beautiful fruit of the Lord’s creation. Our cities and towns have added ever so many layers over God’s creation.

 

We have our warm houses and our heated cars – Susan’s car even has heated seats that Heather likes to turn on! – our paved streets, telephone lines and other wires obscuring the view or more and more being buried beneath the ground; and on the prairies there are ATVs, snowmobiles, and some fancy farm machinery that make life easier but also changes the simpler ways we would otherwise work and play. In our society today we also have the imaginary worlds of television, video games, social media, the Internet, and other entertainment avenues adding a further peel of distance from the realities of God’s creation.

 

Social barriers obscure God’s creation as well. Our education systems let us think that we have solved most of the world’s mysteries all on our own. Our political system leads us to believe that we have absolute control over our own destiny and that we should actually do as we see fit in our own eyes (cf. the sin of Judges, 21:25). We seem to believe western democracy’s line that the majority is right the majority of the time. As we move further and further away from God’s creation physically, spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, and practically, we are enticed more and more to believe the old serpent’s lie that as humankind evolves our “eyes will be opened, and we will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). Stepping out into God’s creation removes the peels from society and allows us to taste the fruit of the Lord (Psalm 34:8). If we don’t do this from time to time, we can fall into the trap described in Romans 1: 18−23 of ignoring and suppressing the obvious truth of God:

 

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 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 men are without excuse.

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. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

 

Acclaimed to be wise, Sigmund Freud – the father of modern psychology– actually believed that society had progressed beyond God. He hoped that civilization would quickly progress even further and move beyond its “illusion” of religion the same way one should outgrow a “childhood neurosis.” Freud had faith that eventually humankind would indeed do this. He thought that “nothing can withstand reason and experience and the contradiction that religion offers to both is all too palpable” [1].

 

Moving beyond the ‘illusion’ of God and religion, for Freud, “would be an important advance along the road which leads to being reconciled to the burden of civilization” (P. 41). Freud was not alone in denying the existence of God. Our society seems to want to progress beyond God’s creation -- as if that were possible.

 

Karl Marx says of religion, “Man . . . looked for a superman in the fantastic reality of heaven and found nothing but the reflection of himself.” [2] He says religion is the “opium of the people” and “the abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness” (P. 42).

 

Marx, Freud, and many others who have had a profound influence on the world even into the 21st century seem to have chosen to reject God. Even though, as Romans 1:20 states, “… 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…”

 

God loves us so much that He made it obvious through this life and all He created that He is God; all we have to do is peel back the artificial barriers we create in life, taste the fruit of Jesus Christ and see that He is good. As important as the peels are and as beneficial as many of our modern manmade developments are, it is just as important to take the time to actually see and taste God’s creation and know how good He is (Psalm 34:8).

 

We read the creation account in Genesis 1, which reminds me of a love letter of sorts akin to the Song of Solomon. Look at how poetically the creation story is related to us in Genesis 1.

·       First, on Day 1, our Heavenly Father creates light and day and night and then,

·       on Day 4, three days later, after creating this environment, He lovingly creates the sun and the moon and the stars to be placed within that light (Gen 1:13-19).

·       Next, on Day 2, our loving creator makes the water and the sky and, three days later,

·       on Day 5, He makes sea creatures to be placed in this sea. Next, He makes birds to soar into the skies God made for them (1:4−8, 20−23).

·       On Day 3, our Heavenly Father gathers together the waters to create dry land.

·       On Day 6, He creates plants and animals to be placed on this land that He made for them. God then creates man and woman in His own image (Genesis 1:9−13, 26−7), blesses them and graciously assigns them the job of filling the earth and taking care of it (Gen 1:28−31). The Lord loves His creation: it is good, and He loves us too.

 

It is obvious that God loves us but – too bad – the story of creation and of Adam and Eve doesn’t end here. As we know, Adam (the first man) disobeyed God and he − instead of taking responsibility for his actions ̶ blamed the woman, Eve, and even God.

 

When confronted with his sin Adam said to God, Genesis 3:12, “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.” And lest we think the woman was any better than Adam, she responded, in Genesis 3:13, that “the serpent deceived me, and I ate”. This was The Fall. With humankind’s sin, we separated ourselves from God’s creation and from God.

 

Now God, of course, had a remedy for this. He really does desire that all the people of the earth be blessed as He blessed Adam and Eve. Genesis 12:1−3 promises that all the nations of the earth will be blessed through Abraham. And God is faithful to that promise. God sends His only begotten son to die and rise again on the third day, so that we might live and so that we might be reconciled to God and His creation.

 

So the, as we go about our lives, let us take a moment away from our busyness; let us walk outside, and as we walk let us take in the abundant beauty that demonstrates God’s love for us. Let us peel back all that blocks the view of our hearts; let us notice each other, our family, our friends, our animals, our gardens, our plants, and all His creation. Let us notice the sun today and the stars tonight. Let us notice all of this around us; then let us bow our heads and lift our voices in praise of our God because He loved us so much that He sent Jesus Christ, His only begotten son, so that all barriers to salvation would be removed. Now we can be fully reconciled to Him.

 

Monday was Orange Shirt Day, Truth and Reconciliation Day. Many of us from TSA walked along with the crowds to Tseshaht First Nation where we were invited to join in a meal and entertainment as a step towards reconciliation with our brothers and sisters here. As we stroll down the road of Romans through Bible Study a little further in the next few weeks and months, we will consider the eternal reconciliation up ahead at Romans 3:23 and elsewhere. For today. I encourage us all to step outside into the Lord’s glorious creation and thank Him so much for that reconciliation with Him, each other, and all of creation that He offers to us all through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

 

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com 

Mark 6:30-44 (Matthew 14:13-21, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-15): The Miraculous Feeding Continues.

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 22 September 2024 by Major Michael Ramsay. Based on the Message preached on 02 May 2021 by Captain Michael Ramsay.

  

This is the 2024 Version, to read the much shorter 2021 version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2021/04/matthew-1413-21-mark-630-44-luke-910-17.html

 

Today is a weekend to pray for the end of human trafficking. I have spoken about that a lot recently. The Lord blessed us at The Salvation Army to be used by Him to help out those Vietnamese workers who were living in deplorable conditions – right here in our community. I wasn’t actually going to speak about that today and I wont actually speak much about it. I do hope that we as a society can put an end to closed visas in our country soon or at least some day.

 

This week I actually had to sign an affidavit about all of that. The interpreter who helped with the situation in Port Alberni, the San Group is now suing. She is just a window washer. She has no money. They are suing her. I have spoken to lawyers (plural) this past week. It does seem intimidating. I had previously been warned about San Group. In the next week or so their legal team is going to cross examine me and others. One professional commented to me that this is not what people usually do in these circumstances – sue interpreters; it seems heavy handed in the least. It is intimidating. But I am not going to speak any more about that today. I have already used that as an illustration in two sermons here and one at Summer Rain in August.

 

September, without dealing with all this, has been a busy enough month. Many of you here have been working hard away. Many of you here have blessed us and others, as you have been blessed by serving our Lord and the community.

 

Yesterday was our big annual Thanksgiving food drive, sponsored by Foodbanks BC and spear-headed by Bruce and Dorothy Patterson and their church. You may know Bruce and Dorothy. They have come to our Christmas Eve service for a number of years and in the previous year or two have actually joined our rank of volunteers at the Army. Thank you to everyone who helped. We raised about 5000 pounds of food so far and an undisclosed amount of money. This will help a lot of people this time of year.

 

The weekend before that was the Toy Run. The Salvation Army in Alberni Valley has been involved in that since before we came to town. When we arrived, the Army had already taken over serving coffee and doughnuts at Little Qualicum Falls a couple of years prior .The Salvation Army then took over the Bread of Life Soup Kitchen and for two or three years provided a chilli and hotdog lunch on behalf of the Soup Kitchen at the Glenwood Centre at the end of their ride after providing a breakfast of coffee and doughnuts on behalf of the Army at the start of the ride. That was a lot of work with all the volunteers we needed and a very long day starting at 6am or so and ending when we picked up the toys in the evening or in the afternoon. I was blessed to be able to pray for the riders and this year our team of expert workers just concentrated on serving lunch instead of both doughnuts and lunch – you all did a great job! And many toys were raised for children and others in our community.

 

You all have been busy. The week prior to that we were at the Fall Fair and we were in the Fall Fair parade. This was a great opportunity to share with the community our testimony of how the Lord has used TSA in our community to serve our neighbours in Jesus’ name. Most of that service seems to be around food too! We are blessed to be the community soup kitchen and the community food bank and feed a lot of people. More than 14 000 just at the Bread of Life in August alone – multiply that by 12! That is not including all the families we feed through the foodbank and all the kids we feed through the breakfast and lunch programs when school is out. The Lord feeds a lot us people through us. And like I said, just yesterday we raised 5000 lbs of food for those in need in our community.

 

Today, in Mark’s Gospel, we read about the feeding of the 5000 by Jesus and his disciples. This is a very significant story. The writers of all four of the Gospels included it in their biography of Jesus’ and their record of his ministry. It is actually the only miracle that all four of the Gospel-writers mention. The authors John and Matthew were both present when this event occurred, and Luke’s version of this incident is recorded after some significant research. John Mark, whose account we read today, was certainly part of the inner circle of Jesus’ followers (remember from those of us who are part of the Tuesday night Bible Study: he was Barnabus’ companion on early missionary journey’s and Barnabus and Paul had a big fight about him); so Mark undoubtedly heard about this incident quite a bit - as he himself actually may or may not have been present for this as well.

 

John and Matthew were both there when this happened. John has a little bit different of a memory of this event than Matthew but no more of a difference of a recollection than Susan and I have over some of the events of our life and ministry.

 

This story struck me anew this week as I was looking for something in Mark to preach about. I was surprised to learn this week that I haven’t preached more often on this passage; it seems like a natural one for The Salvation Army to speak about – though I did reference it in a piece I wrote that was included in the 2008 book One Thing and the 2011 book One for All both by Commissioner James Knaggs and Major Stephen Court about a miracle God did while we were helping out with Emergency Disaster Services relief work in Texas years ago.

 

I am going to read an excerpt from my account in One Thing[i]:

Our canteens were instructed to make sure that they gave away all of their food before they came in for the night. They did not want food returned when people were going without. One canteen had some food left. It was getting late so they were seeking out someone to give their last Cambro (container) of food to. They prayed. One person then saw a line of about 12-18 tired and hungry looking construction workers so they headed over to offer them their food. They were really appreciative.

 

As they were feeding these men, a number of school busses filled with people pulled up. It is my understanding that they served over 800 meals at that location – no one went away hungry. Feeling blessed by what the Lord had done they started to clean up. (Now there was a non-believer, a Red Cross worker on their canteen with them today). Someone picked up the Cambro from which they fed the 800 meals and read from the side of it, ‘serves 90 meals’. The Lord fed more than eight times that number and no one went hungry. The Red Cross worker who was helping them on the truck that day began to cry. He said that he had never believed in God – until now. 

 

That is a real-life miracle that I will never forget. We have a similar miracle happening right here in the Alberni Valley on Vancouver Island today, right now. When the crowds in the disciples’ day were without food, Jesus said ‘you feed them!’ to which they replied, ‘we don’t have enough money to feed them!’ to which the response is still ‘no really, feed them!’ They do and God provides the food needed in the miraculous way He provided the needed food.[ii]

 

In the Alberni Valley here we have for a long time, long before we arrived, been used by the Lord to feed a lot of people in the Valley here. Throughout the pandemic we fed people hundreds of thousands of times – people who may not have eaten otherwise. At our height we were feeding more than 700 individuals a day and only God could have done that. Now we are providing breakfast, lunch and dinner at the Bread of Life soup kitchen seven days a week and other evening meals off the Salvation Army truck and at the Bread of Life and we are feeding even more than the 700 a day, which during covid-19 was a miraculous number! Now the miracle continues as we feed not only people shut-in in our community, families who need the food bank and people who eat at the soup kitchen; we also feed those who reside in our own shelter, the Friendship Centre Shelter on 8^th and the Tiny Homes and many more people in crises and more.

 

Feeding all the people the Lord fed through us during the pandemic: Think about this miracle. There is no way when Covid-19 hit that we could possibly have fed that amount of people and, honestly, the Bread of Life was broke. Jesus said to us “you feed them.” “We don’t have enough money.” The soup kitchen was close to turning out the lights forever when they approached the Army about serving the Lord and the community together before the pandemic and then the Lord produced miracle after miracle after miracle: we keep breaking bread to serve the crowds which seem to be without number and the Lord keeps producing more food with which to feed them. The Soup kitchen doors are open; and the agencies in this community: we are working together like we have never done before and we are continuing to feed people to a tune of more than 14 000 times a month which works out to more than 168 000 times a year at the soup kitchen alone, not including emergencies, the food truck and Christmas (!) and not including any of the families that the Lord uses us to feed from the food bank (!) and/or the schools – and we are still going strong. This is a miracle! And through this time more people have given their lives to the Lord here and we have faithfully put them to work. We continue to experience the miracle of the Loaves and the Fishes right here in the Valley each and every day. Praise be to God. May we continue to serve the food the He has multiplied and witness His Grace in our community.

 

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com 

Mark 8:34-38 (Luke 9:23- 9:27, Matthew 16:21-28): Savings Account

Presented to the Swift Current Corps 05 September 2010 and Alberni Valley Ministries, 08 September 2024 by Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay 

This is the 2024 Alberni Valley TSA  Version. To view the 2010 Swift Current version, click here:  https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/09/mark-834-91-luke-923-927-matthew-1621.html 

 

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me (and for the gospel) will save it Mark 8:35

  

I’ve got a test for us today: Famous Quotes. Let’s see who can name the speaker of each of the following quotes:[1] 

1) “Hi Ho Silver, Away…” 

2) “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto” 

3) “I am not a crook” 

4) “While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight; while children go hungry, as they do now I'll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight, I'll fight to the very end!” 

5) “Up, up, and away!” 

6) “I’m strong to the finish ‘cause I eat my spinach; I’m _________ the sailor man.” 

7) “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but for whoever loses his life for me (and for the gospel) will save it.” 

  

These are all famous quotes from people and in some ways the quotes have even served to summarize the impact the individual had on history. Nixon is famous for his speeches around the time of his resignation. Another little quiz for you: only three American presidents have ever been impeached, can you name them? (Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump; Nixon resigned he was never impeached)[2] 

  

William Booth’s ‘I’ll Fight’ quote still echoes down through the generations as The Salvation Army champions its Wesleyan version of the social gospel. As John Wesley said, ‘there is no holiness but social holiness’[3] And Jesus’ quote that we are looking at today – “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me (and for the gospel) will save it” – is a very important one. Did you realize that no other saying of Jesus’ is given as much emphasis in all of scripture ?[4] Each of the Jesus’ biographers, in their gospel accounts, record Jesus as uttering this quote at least once. Matthew and Luke each record it multiple times in different contexts where Jesus says the same thing: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me (and for the gospel) will save it.” This is thus a very important saying for us to understand. 

  

Today, we read the quote in the context of Mark 8:34-38, which is very much the same context as Luke 9:23- 9:27 and Matthew 16:21-28: 34: 

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." 

  

Jesus says “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it…”, What does it mean to SAVE your life? It means NOT to die; it means NOT to die a physical death.[5] And what does it mean to LOSE your life? It means to die. It is simple. It is not tricky – especially given the context of Jesus talking about us picking up our cross and following him: the cross – of course - being a brutal method of state execution, much like the electric chair or lethal injection in the States today only usually more painful.

  

I’ve got a couple of examples both negative and positive responses of people faced with exactly this situation that Jesus is talking about when he says “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me (and for the gospel) will save it.” When we were in Vancouver, there was a large Salvation Army conference at Canada Place. General Gowans was the keynote speaker – we all know General Gowans, he was the one who articulated the Salvation Army mission very succinctly as to ‘save souls, grow saints, and serve suffering humanity.’ One speaker at that same conference was Baroness Cox who shared a testimony about a young boy from her time serving in Indonesia. 

  

This young boy came to know the Lord. He told everyone he found about Jesus. He didn’t have a lot of success in his evangelism, if I remember correctly, not anyone came to the Lord at that time - but he was not ashamed of the gospel. One day some people come to his village who aren’t so happy about his faith. They are seeking Christians for execution. They come to his town and they offer to spare his life if he simply renounces his faith. He refuses. They chop off a limb. He is given another chance to deny Christ. He refuses. They chop off another limb. They give this young boy every opportunity to deny Christ and save his life: he refuses and he dies by being hacked to death in front of his whole village. He is asked to deny Christ and thus save his life but instead he loses his life for the Gospel and for Christ. This boy really did pick up his cross and follow our Lord to Calvary. 

  

As did the apostles around Jesus’ time: We know that Jesus’ apostles, like this boy, loved Jesus more than their own families and even their own lives . Jesus’ apostles did not die peaceful deaths – many were crucified or beheaded. Matthias was stoned; Thomas was stabbed; James the brother of Jesus was thrown from the top of the temple in Jerusalem: he survived, so his attackers beat him to death. John would be the exception to the rule of the martyred apostles, but it was not for a lack of conviction. His accusers tried to boil him alive in a pot but much like with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace for some reason God chose to decline John’s offer of martyrdom (Daniel 3:1-30). However no one can deny that they all lived up to the Christian standard: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me (and for the gospel) will save it” 

  

I can think of another story of some missionaries in Afghanistan way back now, even before the American invasion (2001). This one had a very different ending. The government sentenced some missionaries to death unless they recanted their faith. These missionaries, unlike the apostles, unlike the young Indonesian boy decided they would deny Christ and the Taliban government rewarded them by sparing their lives. In so doing the so-called missionaries reward for this is only in this life – the one they chose to save. Whereas others have offered up their lives for God, and others have received their martyrs’ crown, these people apparently chose to save their life for themselves rather than to die for Christ. 

  

Even though Jesus said to do otherwise: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me (and for the gospel) will save it.” 

  

I really hope that they who denied Christ when it was difficult and when it really mattered have since come to the Lord in fear and trembling and in legitimate repentance – legitimate repentance would mean, of course, that should they wind up in the same situation that they would choose a very different course of action. Just like Peter did. Remember that he denied Jesus 3 times before the cock crowed twice but later repented, led the early church, and eventually accepted his martyr’s crown (Mark 13-14).  

 

I thankfully am not in a position to judge the missionaries or anyone’s salvation and really hope that they truly repented of this sin and grab hold of eternal life like the Apostle Peter but... if they didn’t and don’t… Can you imagine if you were told that if you denied your faith you would live but if you didn’t you would die so you deny your faith and they kill you anyway? Can you imagine if the last thing you ever do before you are faced with the reality of God’s eternal kingdom, is to deny your citizenship in that kingdom? Jesus says if we deny him here and now, he’ll accept our resignation and then he will deny us in his kingdom there and then. It is scary. 

  

What about us here today? I don’t imagine that many of us will ever be faced with a literal life and death decision for Christ – but I look at the news – so maybe. Some of the younger people might live to see such a time (cf. Mark 3:20-35; 13:9-13).[6] I don’t think that anyone a generation ago would have been able to predict the persecution Christians are suffering in Quebec and other places in Canada these days.[7] But assuming that we never face that same life and death choice, how do we apply this very important saying of Jesus to our own life? “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” 

  

Theologian Fred B. Craddock says, “A cross is not sought or pursued, but it was and still is true that following Jesus in service to God, which translates into meeting human needs, is on a path which there are crosses, prices to be paid, pain and hurt to be accepted. We are not speaking about a death wish here but obedience to the will of Christ.” [8] We are not called to be suicide bombers but we are called to serve Christ and not ourselves. We are called to give Jesus all of our time, all of our life, and if he asks for us to sacrifice our physical life – as he did of his apostles, the missionaries that we spoke of and that young Indonesian boy - then we must not withhold it from him. 

  

Leon Morris says, “The follower of Jesus must deny himself (not just his sins, himself; he cannot be self-centred). There is nothing self-indulgent about being a Christian. The disciples had probably seen a man take up his cross, and they knew what it meant. When a man from one of their villages took up a cross and went off with a little band of Roman soldiers, he was on a one-way journey. He would not be back. Taking up the cross meant the utmost in self-denial.”[9] 

  

How do we do with that today? How can we in our life consistently deny ourselves and instead follow Christ? A lot of it comes down to how we spend our time. There are people in our city here who are not yet on a path of salvation. Jesus wants us by serving others and to point them to the path of Salvation that he died to make, and the apostles died pointing out. Are we willing to give our lives in service for Christ? Do we spend our time serving and telling people about Jesus and salvation or do we spend our time in self-indulgence? In our life everyday, we have to make our decision to follow Christ. Do we put ourselves first or do we put God and others first? Do we spend our time serving God and others and reading the Bible and praying or do we spend our time just watching videos, reels, clips, social media, TV, etc.? Do we spend our time helping and our conversations telling people about Christ or are we gossiping about others instead? How we spend our time is a true indication of what we believe and who we believe. I ask each of us here today if someone looked at our how we spend our time could we convince them that we have given up our lives for Christ? Are we offering our time and our lives to Christ? If we are then great things will happen for the Kingdom, I promise. 

  

Remember the story about the young boy that I told you. The young boy from Indonesia who eagerly and painfully accepted his martyrs crown? Shortly after and because he died, the rest of his village chose to live. He died for Christ and the rest of his village saw that and decided to live for Christ. His death led to the salvation of all those people even through the generations, I believe, and this is why and how we know this story today. 

  

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” 

  

It is September. We are starting a new school year. A new church season If in this whole upcoming year, every one of us focuses on service and Salvation and is able to bring just one friend to or back to the Lord and/or just bring them here to worship with us on Sundays then there would be at least double the number people serving alongside us just one year from now and then double that number again one year later. Jesus asked us to give up our lives for him and to invite others to do the same. Today I would like to encourage all of us here to do just that: if there is anything in our lives that is more important to us than Christ… If there is some way that we selfishly holding onto our time and if we are putting anything in our life before the work of Christ, I would invite us in a moment and lay that before the Lord. Let us each ask our Lord to “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.” 

  

Let us pray