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Life offers us many opportunities to feel sheepish or bashful. But gang, our Christian faith should never be the cause of timidity or self-consciousness. In Mark chapter 8, Jesus teaches his followers that whatever happens to them, they should not be ashamed of the Messiah.
Never should we feel embarrassed, never should we allow ourselves to be intimidated, never should we feel out of place because of Jesus Christ. Our cause is too important, our King is too great, our witness is too important to be locked up and put away because we feel self-conscious or reticent.
Now, more than ever, in an age where so many have no shame, we must be steady and settled about our faith. We exist in a time when gratuitous sex and vulgar language appears before the eyes of our children on the television screen. We live in a world where racism and hate peppers our online discussions. Nobody’s blushing about that anymore. And yet we, as the people of God, worry about offending people?
No, church, the time has come for us to break out of our privacy and our timidity. The time has come for the unashamed to make their declaration. For the people of the Messiah to stand with him, boldly and eagerly.
In the course of history, there has been one document that has repeatedly spurred on that kind of quickening in the church. It’s actually a letter, penned some 2000 years ago. It’s a letter that begins like this:
1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life[a] was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power[b] by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from[c] faith for his name’s sake. 6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ…14 I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. 15 That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,[e] just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”[f]
These are verses 1-7, and 14-17 of a letter that has come to us as the Book of Romans. It was composed around 56 AD in the Corinthian living room of a man named Gaius. The author was a Christian convert named Paul, the scribe was a man named Tertius, and the total impact of this letter has still to be measured.
It was these verses from Romans that prompted Martin Luther to begin his work of reformation 500 years ago this fall, bringing changes that, among others, raised the idea that all believers share in a priesthood, put the scriptures in the hands of all believers, and undergirded the enlightenment.
Luther said that after reading Romans 1, “I grasped the truth that the righteousness of God is that righteousness whereby, through grace and sheer mercy, he justifies us by faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.”
And it’s not just Luther. An archipelago of brilliant Christian minds from St. Augustine to John Wesley and John Bunyan has approached upon the beaming light of Romans and have come away transformed. Newly illuminated. As another pastor once put it – reading Romans repeatedly results in revival.
My hope is that in studying these words this morning, we, too, will be revived. We will be less discouraged, less intimidated, less inert, less drowsy, less embarrassed, less afraid. We are not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God!
I want for the church, those who believe in Jesus, those who love and serve him, to start to think a little more like the Apostle Paul. No, wait, strike that. We need to think a lot more like the Apostle Paul. We need a Romans 1 revolution. Bearing our crosses, sharpening our minds, loving our neighbors, this is our manifesto.
Unashamedly, we declare together that This is Way Bigger Than Me. What’s happening here is not about my brilliance or capability. It’s all about our Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Did you hear how Paul opens the letter? He begins writing to the Romans in the form that many ancient letters took, by putting his own name at the top line. But then, look how he describes himself. He says “Paul, a slave to Christ Jesus.” A doulos – some translations will say “servant”; it really just as easily means “slave”.
This isn’t how we do it, is it? Have you ever been to a conference or a lecture where a prominent speaker is being introduced? How does that go down? Well, it almost always goes down first by saying that the person there today needs no introduction. But then they introduce them anyway, and they say, “Our speaker today is the Reverend Doctor Rutherford Baines Hemingway. Dr. Hemingway earned his 3 doctorates from the University of Oxford and the University of Johannesburg. He has published twenty-four books, some three hundred articles, he is an emeritus fellow at the Free University of Edinburgh, and he speaks intergalactically on many topics. He lives at home with his wife Trudy and the have 36 cats. That’s how introductions generally happen.
But not with Paul. He did not know the readers personally. They had never met. This was the first thing that they were going to hear from him. And it’s this: I’m a slave. Not “I studied under Gamaliel, I’ve planted 7 churches, written dozens of letters to others, and personally witnessed to several government officials.” He doesn’t even say “I’m a citizen of Rome myself.” He says, I’m a slave to Jesus, set apart for the gospel. This isn’t about me. I don’t live for myself. I am under the ownership, I’m under the command, of Jesus. I’m shackled for him – some days metaphorically, other days, quite literally.
Paul is Jesus’ slave. What does it really mean for you that you are a Christian? For many of us, it’s that we go to church. And the right church for us, actually. The church that starts at the right time of the morning. That’s what it means to be a Christian. Well, actually, the church that starts at the right time, has my kind of music, and has comfortable places to sit. That’s what it means to be a Christian. Well, I guess also you would have to add that the bulletin is easy to read, there is wifi available, the sermon isn’t too long, most folks agree with my politics, and they don’t talk too much about tithing. Get that right, I’ll be in church, and therefore, be a committed Christian.
For Paul, it’s this. Jesus is in charge. Whatever he wants, I’ll do. Wherever he sends, I’ll go. However long he desires, I’ll serve. This is about him, not me, and I’m wholly given over to what he desires.
In fact, there is a neat little word study we can tuck right in there in the first verse. Paul says that he is set apart for the gospel of God. That word “set apart” is the Greek word aphorizo, from which we get the word “horizon.” What is a horizon? It’s where the earth ends and the sky begins. Paul says that it’s like that with him. There was a Pharisee, a legalist, a persecutor earlier in his life. But now, that ended and a new person has been born. Not a ruler, but a slave. Not a judge, but a witness. And it’s because of the gospel.
And then, Paul does something that I don’t think enough preachers do today – he describes what the gospel is. Do you know what the gospel is? Do you understand the good tidings, the breaking news for the world? If you don’t – Paul tells you – right there in verses 2-5. But let me summarize it to say that the gospel has two facets – and please write this down, because understanding it will save you a lot of money on Excedrin and Advil when you encounter debates between very liberal Christians and very conservative Christians. The gospel is both the good news about Jesus and the good news of Jesus. It is all the above…the gospel is good news about his atoning sacrifice and the good news contained in Jesus’ his ethical teachings. It’s about his resurrection glory and his compassion for the leper. His care for the poor and his concern for purity. Verse 4 – he was raised from the dead, Verse 5 – there is a commission to go and invite obedience. The gospel is incomplete unless it includes both what Jesus preached and what Jesus accomplished.
And here’s the second aspect of “it’s bigger than me” – Paul says that what happened in and through Jesus was in the works for centuries. He says that it was spoken of beforehand through the prophets. People like Micah and Isaiah and Daniel…they were standing on tiptoes in anticipation of Jesus’ coming. And Paul says that Jesus was also a descendant of the high king David. His origins were of old, from ancient times. Far and wide, from the very dawn of our people, real, lasting salvation has been the hope. And now it’s been achieved, it’s become manifest in Jesus Christ. Paul is not ashamed because the gospel isn’t about his qualifications. It’s not a fad or short-burst trending hashtag. It’s an epic. He’s just a witness, just a small piece in this global testament.
Church, this has to be our perspective also, this has to be our declaration. We are not in it for ourselves. We didn’t come up with this. It’s not personal. Don’t be ashamed of the gospel because you are dissatisfied with some aspect of yourself. We aren’t supposed to be impressive. We aren’t expected to be perfect. We don’t have to have it all together. We’re just the slaves. The grandeur of the gospel is that it wraps together all of us who are cracked jars of third-class clay into a movement of joy and transformation.
God is up to something incredible – a panorama of redemptive work, a timeline with arrows on both ends, a spectrum of different kinds of people – men and women, black and white and brown, those who live comfortably and those economically insecure, Gentiles and non-Gentiles, those with Down’s syndrome, Alzheimers, cancer, and AIDS. No, this is way, way bigger than me, amen?
The second declaration of the unashamed is that the status quo is over. This vast and precious work of God means that things cannot be the same for any of us anymore. Our lives cannot go on the same, and we can’t allow the gospel’s grandeur to be neutered down to some small incremental change or just a new sense of optimism or something like that. The gospel radically reconfigures everything. It uproots and plants, it creates and eliminates, it melts away and forges something new. Is that the gospel living in you this morning?
Dr. Tony Evans describes Christians in many cases as “Sunday Submarines”. On Sunday morning, we surface to read the Bible, sing a few hymns, bow in prayer, go to a class. But then, at noon, we sink back into hiding for the next six days.
And maybe this is what makes us so hesitant to really share our faith the way that we should, to really own our witness identity. We don’t want to ask too much of people, be too outside the mainstream. The idea that salvation comes through another, that there is no hope in ourselves, that we are busted and rusted in our own efforts – well, it just doesn’t play well in our society today. We need to declare something a little more accessible. Something more familiar.
But the truth is that more of the same isn’t going to work. God did not provide a run-of-the-mill solution. We need something totally different. We need something foreign and new because what we have in of ourselves won’t work. Not suddenly, not even eventually. The church unashamedly declares that God has come to remake his world and his people. It can’t be subtle or gentle. It’s an earthquake, it’s a thunderstorm, it’s a supernova. Don’t ask us, world, to be just like you – we’ve been changed by something stunning and bright. We’ve crossed over into a new creation. The old has gone for good.
And because of this, number three, the unashamed together declare that we dream big dreams. Maybe this is what is lacking in our witness today. It’s not that we as believers have unreasonable expectations for our capacity to renew the world in the gospel. It’s the opposite – we’ve set the bar way too low. We’re not dreaming dreams in the size that God wants us to.
But for Paul, the gospel was all about taking on long odds and big challenges. He wanted to do ministry in Rome. There’s not a perfect analogy for this, but it’s not so dissimilar to saying I want to preach in Aleppo, perhaps, or Hollywood, for other reasons, or on the campus of MIT. Rome was the church’s moonshot. It was the center and seat of extraordinary human power. It is ruled at this time by a friendly chap named Caesar Nero. Christians in the first century are executed and humiliated. There will be rumors spread that they are cannibals. Going to Rome will not mean preaching to the choir. This is a sermon before a firing squad.
But Paul is eager to go there. You know, when I was writing this, I couldn’t help but think of a couple of photographs that popped up in my twitter feed over the last couple of weeks. Really two instances of the same situation. The first one here was taken by police in Laguna Vista Texas. The police there had put out a bulletin that an enormous rattlesnake was making its way around town but what was really the story was where they found the snake. They discovered it right here. (Check out this picture.) Here is the snake all coiled up, that rattle probably making all kinds of terrifying sounds, and right in front of him sits a puddy cat. Just like, as relaxed as can be, do you see that? This kitty is like “Rattlesnake? Come on…wake me up when there’s a laser pointer.”
Paul says he can go to Rome and you and I can go to difficult places, and we can take on enormous odds, and we can dream big dreams, too. But in this case, it’s not because we are macho or because we have the brains of prairie dogs. It’s because we know that Christians need not fear anything because we have a God greater than everything. Paul says in verse 16 that the gospel courses incredible power through the church of Jesus Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation. The Romes of the world can be saved. The Neros of the world can be redeemed. The Colosseum can become a church.
The church can dream big dreams because God has given her power. In Ephesians 1, Paul says this: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know … his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
Our power is resurrection power, ascension power, enthronement power. The Greek word for power here and in Romans 1 is dynamos, from which we get the word dynamite. And Paul prays here in Ephesians that the church might realize they have that power in them through the gospel. Dynamite power. I wanted to show you what this looks like…so check out this video clip of dynamite zoomed close up. It’s about 20 seconds long, check this out…(Video Clip shows dynamite that doesn’t explode)
Amazing, huh? Something wrong there? Dynamite isn’t dynamic unless that energy is released! The angels in heaven must watch the church and think…what are they doing? They have dynamic power, but they don’t do anything with it! The fuse never gets lit. The Ephesians prayer is so important – we have to know the power within us. Because Paul sensed it, he didn’t do what most people do…most people, when they sense that they have mastered something, set up shop, host a few seminars, and let the most earnest come and learn from him. No, Paul has to go. And go all the way to Rome.
Then, lastly, church, we declare together, without shame, that we are the People of the Messiah. That’s really just a synonym for Christian. We together are the Messiah’s people.
We declare without shame that no President, Senator, Judge, or King overrules him.
We declare that if we love someone ultimately, that we give him more than one hour per week.
We declare without shame that our faith falls apart without him. that You can take Muhammad out and still have Islam. You can take Buddha out and still have Buddhism, but you cannot take Jesus out of our faith. He is the Vine, we are the branches. We are the sheep, he is the Shepherd. We are the hungry, he is the Bread. We are the travelers, he is the Bright and Morning Star.
We declare that stand for him, we live for him. And we only have hope in him. He’s our Alpha and Omega, he’s our Origin and our Destination. This Messiah gives us strength for today and confidence for eternity.
Why? It’s because of this oceans-deep, east-to-west-wide word, “righteousness.” As we’ve said here many times, that’s a word that often gets boiled down to mean “good behavior.” But in the Bible, righteousness always describes the status of a relationship. And Paul is clear that the gospel is about being in relationship with God through faith in Jesus.
It is not about our efforts or own morality. Are you as glad for that as I am? Because there are days when I just don’t feel holy at all. Most days, I’m just Tim. Some good days, if things are really going well, I actually feel like a “Pastor Tim.” But then, there are other days, when things don’t go well. When I’m not in a good mood. When I get frustrated. That’s when another side of me comes out. Tim…Jung Un.
But what Romans teaches us, and our declaration must be, that at our worst, we cannot drift away from God. At our lowest, we are loved completely. And it’s all because of Jesus and the righteousness that God has given to us through his work on the cross. The debt is paid. Can you imagine if every time you felt guilty for the speeding ticket you got a few years ago, you went down to the courthouse and tried to pay the fine? Each day, you’d show up in shame, and take our your checkbook. But the judge would tell you…stop doing this – your debt is paid. You cannot pay any more. Your status is secure.
No matter how down on yourself you get, no matter how much you might wonder if God has accepted you – or if he is still accepting you – remember, it’s over and done because of the Messiah. Have no shame, we are the people of the Messiah.
