Series Title: The Line in the Sand
Message Title: The Chalk Line
Scripture: Romans 1:16
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
Why is it that Christians who are so eager to tell non-Christians “Merry Christmas” are generally unenthusiastic about sharing their faith with others? Let’s begin with a self-imposed character flaw that many good Christian people have that is probably at the root of the problem, and that flaw is cowardice.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines cowardice as a lack of courage to face danger.
First, let me just say that many times people mistakenly confuse the word cowardice with meekness.
Jesus did say…
Matthew 5:5
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
And, Jesus said…
Matthew 5:39
But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Jesus is not advocating a spineless doctrine. He’s advocating a meek, humble and patient attitude in dealing with others.
There are numerous cases in scripture where Jesus stood up for His beliefs. As an example, He drove out the vendors and money changers from the temple area (Matt. 21:12; John 2:15). He didn’t sit by the side and wait for a committee to be formed that would address the problem of sheep and cattle in the temple courtyards. He formed a committee of one and took care of the problem. Jesus was meek and had a passion for the Lord, but He was not a coward.
Paul did say…
1 Corinthians 13
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
And, Paul said…
1 Corinthians 5:13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”
There are numerous cases in scripture where Paul adamantly stood up for His beliefs. Like you, Paul knew what was right and what was wrong through discernment. He knew through the Holy Spirit which causes he was to stand behind. He knew through the Holy Spirit when he needed to take a firm position and not run away, but he also knew when he needed to sit meekly and patiently on the sidelines and let other Christians take the reigns. Paul knew the difference between meekness and cowardice.
We see lot’s of examples of fear, cowardice, and bravery in the Bible. When you read 1st and 2nd Peter you see a resolute strength expressed in words that is tempered with meekness.
Peter said meekly…
2 Peter 1:4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
And, Peter said with power…
2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
Yet, this is the same Peter who ashamedly (not meekly) hid in the shadows and followed Jesus’ arrest from a distance (Matthew 26:69-75; Mark 14:66-72; Luke 22:54-62; John 18:25-27). He later came into the courtyard of the house where Jesus was being held, and, when asked, strongly denied that he knew the Savior. Instead, he went over and joined the Roman soldiers warming themselves at a fire. Let this be a lesson to us, we need to take care where and with whose fire we warm ourselves!
Peter was noticed and identified as being from the company and association of Jesus Christ, yet he became ashamed…he became a coward.
When we lay this under scrutiny, when we lay this under the microscope, we see that there is in the heart of sinful man a carnal tendency to be ashamed of that which is good and true, of that which is pure and beautiful. Quite the contrary to espousing the good and true there is a tendency to mock and make fun of that which is decent and right.
In this modern day and age, men and women, both young and old, who have reserved themselves until after they are married, or who are content with remaining unmarried and pure, are made fun of by the world. They’re ridiculed in the media, especially on TV and in the movies. They’re seen as prudish, old-fashioned, ugly and even stupid, rather than as a person that is firmly holding themselves to a higher moral standard. The ridicule, contempt, and disrespect expressed to these thoughtful people is so intense that many are made to feel ashamed of their high moral standards. Again, we succumb to their name-calling and false accusations and follow the ways of the world. We become ashamed of that which is good and true, of that which is pure and beautiful. Rather than calling upon the strength and power of the Lord, we allow our ashamedness to reach a saturation level, and we give in to the immoral pressures and practices of the world. We rationalize our behavior by telling ourselves that it is easier to live in a world where we are accepted outwardly, while experiencing the small pain of the Lord’s conviction.
There was one in the Bible that experienced intense shame, and his name is Peter. The Lord Jesus looked on Peter after his denial and the Spirit of God brought true repentance into the heart of the disciple, and Peter went out and wept bitterly. He was ashamed of his shame. He was ashamed of not standing up for Christ. Yet, we can’t continue to criticize him, because from the moment he got up off the ground from crying, on it was all for Jesus. Peter realized the wisdom of the Psalms…
Psalms 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Now Peter was able to stand with Paul and declare aloud…
Romans 1:16
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
There are many good Christian people in the world, yet there is a streak of varying cowardice running through all of them when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us leave the circle of our fears and declare, through the help and power of the Spirit of God, Romans 1:16.
So often we are ashamed of any position that would demand a show of boldness. So often we are ashamed of any position that would require the biblical bravado of a daring Daniel. Instead, we are bound by such words as opinion, estimation, judgment, society, other’s thoughts and views. We are constrained by the influence of culture, fashion, etiquette, methods, protocols and correctness and conventions. TAKE CARE! For all of these will seriously hamstring any attempt to declare Romans 1:16. We should and must …throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us (Hebrews 12:1).
Maybe you’re saying in your heart that it’s more difficult for you than it is for the normal Christian. Maybe you’re thinking that because Jesus was God it was easier for Him to undergo any shame or persecution. First of all, He was limited in His human body. He still felt human emotions. He cried, He laughed, He thirsted, He hungered, and He felt love and compassion. So why would shame be any different? Why couldn’t He experience shame?
In the first century, there was no greater shame a person could experience or have inflicted upon them than being hung on a cross.
That is why the writer of Hebrews says…
Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (emphasis mine).
Jesus had the opportunity to experience shame, but He chose instead to rely on the power of the Father and endure the cross, scorning its shame.
In addressing the heart of a young pastor, and its tendency to succumb to the pressures of older church members, Paul said…
2 Timothy 1:8 So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God,
There is always going to be an occasion and opportunity to give in to ashamedness. It’s up to you to decide how you’re going to handle it. Do you let the power of God rule? Or, do you let the fear that can run rampant in a sinful nature win out?
The Bible expresses in numerous places the need for breaking free from our fears. It conveys the need for us to step outside the bounds and constraints of our fears and draw on His strength in circumstances. It states the need for us to cross that boundary of fears and go for God!
In addressing fear, Dr. (Donald Grey) Barnhouse said, “I’ve been told, that if you trace on the floor a white chalk circle and put a goose inside it, no inducement in the world can prevail upon that goose to cross the appalling line. He’ll starve inside the circle, starve to death within sight of food, but he’ll not move.”
The goose is so scared of the circle drawn around it that it will eventually give up all that it knows to be true and simply die. Many Christians have a similar line drawn around them with regard to the gospel of Jesus Christ. As long as they are within the secure confines of church or safe in their own homes they gladly and joyfully step outside the chalk line. They are comfortable in expressing Biblical matters; they are content in spouting their Christianese. However, anywhere else they won’t step beyond the line. When they are in the world, or their own workplaces they would rather starve to death, spiritually speaking, then step across the line and share the gospel.
You have the power to bring the good news to the world, if you want it. You have immeasurable wealth in Christ, if you want it.
There is a fountain that is flowing deep and wide! And, those who have come to the gospel of God in Christ have been saved by the blood of His sacrifice. And, with the same measure that we surrender to that same gospel, the Holy Spirit will bring into our own hearts a measure of power that goes forth with us into the world that crucified the Savior.
Take care that you go forth with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The so-called ‘champions of the faith’ in our world today address a social gospel. They lecture against war and economic injustices. They speak out against prejudice, racism, oppression and persecution. The correction of which would be a by-product of Christian faith. The world cannot be saved by focusing on the symptoms. The problems of the world will not go away by focusing on them, they will be addressed only by setting forth the power which alone can bring them into being and practice, and that is the power of which Paul expresses:
Romans 1:16
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
The Greek language has eight different words, all translated by the one English word “power.”
There is the word, kratos, from which we get aristocrat, autocrat, democrat, and plutocrat. This word means the power to rule, the dominion of one over another, as in the case when the Bible speaks of Satan as possessing the power of death.
There is another word, exousia, which means the power of authority, a permit, as when we read that “as many as received him, them gave he the power [authority, permission], to become the sons of God.”
But here in Romans 1:16 , we have word that is filled with strength. It is dunamis, the word that the scientists have adopted in our terms dynamo, dynamite, and dynamic.
This is the power of which Paul speaks with regard to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul wants the Roman believers to understand his heart for them, and the power available to them through the Gospel of Christ. Alexander Maclaren brings forth an excellent paragraph on the power of the Gospel of Christ.
"[Paul] wished to do in the centre of power what he had done in Athens, the home of wisdom; and with superb confidence, not in himself, but in his message, to try conclusions with the strongest thing in the world. He knew its power well, and was not appalled. The danger was an attraction to his chivalrous spirit. He believed in flying at the head when you are fighting with a serpent, and he knew that influence exerted in Rome would thrill through the Empire. If we would understand the magnificent audacity of these words of my text we must try to listen to them with the ears of a Roman. Here was a poor little insignificant Jew, like hundreds of his countrymen down in the Ghetto, one who had his head full of some fantastic nonsense about a young visionary whom the procurator of Syria had very wisely put an end to a while ago in order to quiet down the turbulent province; and he was going into Rome with the notion that his word would shake the throne of the Cæsars. What proud contempt would have curled their lips if they had been told that the travel-stained prisoner, trudging wearily up the Appian Way, had the mightiest thing in the world entrusted to his care! Romans did not believe much in ideas. Their notion of power was sharp swords and iron yokes on the necks of subject peoples. But the history of Christianity, whatever else it has been, has been the history of the supremacy and the revolutionary force of ideas. Thought is mightier than all visible forces. Thought dissolves and reconstructs. Empires and institutions melt before it like the carbon rods in an electric lamp; and the little hillock of Calvary is higher than the Palatine with its regal homes and the Capitoline with its temples: ‘I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation.’ "
Summary:
We began this message stating the question:
Why is it that Christians who are so eager to tell non-Christians “Merry Christmas” are generally unenthusiastic about sharing their faith with others? The reason why is because they don’t fully realize the power of the Gospel of Christ. The reason why is they don’t fully understand that it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. The power of God is waiting there for you.
We mentioned that many people choose to follow the way of ashamedness, rather than bringing the good news of Jesus to the world. Many people think that it is easier to be ashamed then to simply give themselves fully to God and His power. It’s not. It’s actually easier to let Him rule your life with power and foreknowledge, than to rely on a world of uncertainty and inevitable pain and misery. Choose for yourself what you want to do this Christmas season. Do you really want to bring to the world a barren Christmas message that is devoid of truth, purity and beauty?
In the following poem by Watson, which stanza would you choose, the first one or the second one?
The Song of a Heathen (Sojourning in Galilee, A. D. 32)
By Richard Watson Gilder
IF Jesus Christ is a man,—
And only a man,—I say
That of all mankind I cleave to him,
And to him will I cleave alway.
If Jesus Christ is a God,—
And the only God,—I swear
I will follow Him through heaven and hell,
The earth, the sea, and the air!
Not really a choice is there? There is only one message. There is only one gospel which is Christ was born to virgin, was crucified on the cross, was buried in the tomb, rose from the dead on the third day—that is the gospel of Jesus Christ which is the power of God unto salvation.
Think about these words as we sing:
O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing
Text: Charles Wesley
Music: Carl G. Glaser; arr. by Lowell Mason
O for a thousand tongues to sing
my great Redeemer’s praise,
the glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of his grace!
My gracious Master and my God,
assist me to proclaim,
to spread through all the earth abroad
the honors of thy name.
Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
that bids our sorrows cease;
’tis music in the sinner’s ears,
’tis life, and health, and peace.
He breaks the power of canceled sin,
he sets the prisoner free;
his blood can make the foulest clean;
his blood availed for me.
He speaks, and listening to his voice,
new life the dead receive;
the mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
the humble poor believe.
Hear him, ye deaf; his praise, ye dumb,
your loosened tongues employ;
ye blind, behold your savior come,
and leap, ye lame, for joy.
In Christ, your head, you then shall know,
shall feel your sins forgiven;
anticipate your heaven below,
and own that love is heaven.
