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.
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