A Healthy Church: One that Evangelizes
Romans 10:14-15
INTRODUCTION
We have been looking at a series of messages that deal with a healthy church. This is the fifth and final message in this series. There are of course other marks of a healthy church, but I believe we have covered the essentials of what makes a healthy church.
We have seen that a healthy church is one that prays.
We have seen that a healthy church is one that worships.
We have seen that a healthy church is one that gives of itself in service and love.
We have seen that a healthy church is one that studies.
Today we will look at the last mark of a healthy church. A healthy church is one that evangelizes. What is evangelism? Evangelism simply is the sharing of one’s faith and a communication of the message about Jesus. A healthy church is one that communicates the Gospel well. Let’s look at a passage in the book of Romans that tells us this.
READ ROMANS 10:14-15
These few verses tell us volumes about sharing our faith and does it with a series of thought provoking questions and then an exclamation at the end. These four questions are what I would like to investigate today.
I. THE FIRST AND SECOND OF FOUR QUESTIONS REVEAL THE IMPORTANCE OF THE GOSPEL
These four questions in the heart of Romans 10 are a progression of thought that show us just how important the Gospel message is. The Apostle Paul has just finished telling the Roman Christians that Jesus and all that was promised through Him is available to all people. Anyone can trust in God (verse 11). Anyone can call on the name of the Lord and be saved (verse 13). This leads Paul to his first in the series of questions.
In his first question, Paul asks, “How then, can they call on the one that have not believed in?” The Gospel message that we read about in the Bible is not something made up by man. When I look at this question, I see Paul asking the Roman Christians about the source of the message. Is the message of Jesus something that is worthy to be believed or not? What is the source? If the Gospel message was cooked up by some Galilean fishermen, we would know it and it would not be worth believing. If the Gospel message was thought up by some philosopher somewhere we would know it and it would not be worth believing. If the Gospel message had not been proven true in countless lives through the millennia, we would know and it would not be worth believing. I want you to know that the Gospel message comes from God Himself. The originator of the Gospel message is the Almighty, the Creator God, and the Alpha and the Omega. It was God who sent His Son to die for us so that our sins might be paid for. The sacrifice of Jesus was God’s idea. The sacrifice of Jesus was a promise and it was fulfilled. It is from the God of the Universe that this message of Jesus comes to us. And so when we call of Him, we can believe.
In his second question, Paul asks, “And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard.” Paul is now telling us that the message of Jesus is communicated in one way. What is that way? The way that the message about Jesus has spread since the beginning is person to person.
Matthew 28:19 says, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations...”.
Mark 16:15 says, “Jesus said to them, ’Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation’.”
Acts 1:8 says, “...you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 8:5 tells us that, “Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there.”
Each of us as Christians is given the charge to share our faith. That is what evangelism is. Evangelism is the personal communication of the message of Jesus. People come to faith in Christ because someone shared the Gospel with them. People come to church because someone invited them. Our first two questions tell us that the message of the Gospel is a supremely important one and it is communicated person to person.
SEGMENTED ILLUSTRATION part 1... Max Anders, Jesus, Knowing Our Savior, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publ., 1995), pp. 98-100.
If you were born after 1950, you might not know the story of Ben Hur. This classic book written by a Civil War general, Lew Wallace, in 1899, was turned into a movie starring Charleton Heston, which won the Academy Award for best movie in 1959. It is a towering story of love, of suffering, of the struggle of good against evil, and finally of triumph. Judah Ben Hur, the story’s hero, grows up with his boyhood friend, Marsalla. They are ancient, Mideastern Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Judah is, of course, a Jew, and Marsalla, a Gentile. Judah is the heir of a very great and wealthy house in Jerusalem. Marsalla is a promising military man who trained in Rome as a soldier, then returned to Jerusalem as the leader of the Roman occupation forces.
During a parade, a tile falls from the roof of Judah Ben Hur’s house and strikes the new Roman rule. Judah is falsely arrested and sent to row as a slave in a Roman military ship. Marsalla knew it was an accident and could have prevented Judah’s arrest, but because of his lust for power, didn’t. In addition, Judah’s mother and sister are imprisoned in Jerusalem.
Judah hates Marsalla, and while in the belly of the military ship, providing the power for naval warfare, he vows that he will live, return to Jerusalem and free his mother and sister. Slaves in such ships rarely lived for more than a year. Judah had been rowing for three years when, in the heat of a naval battle, his ship was sunk. He saved the commander of the ship, and as a reward, was given his freedom and adopted by the commander, who was the top naval officer in the Roman navy, a very powerful and wealthy man.
II. THE THIRD AND FOURTH OF FOUR QUESTIONS REVEAL THE PLAN OF GOD
In his third question, Paul asks, “And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” Paul tells us that the message of the Gospel is a supremely important one and it is communicated person to person and that it is you and I that do the communicating. A message needs a messenger. Verse 15 concludes with the exclamation of ’how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news.’ The message is important, but so is the messenger. It is the plan of God that each believer take the message of Jesus to those who do not know. It is part of God’s plan that the message of Jesus be communicated one person at a time. The message needs a messenger.
I want to bring up one truth about the messenger, us, that is worth mentioning. Paul tells us that the source of the message is worthy because it comes from God. We know the message itself is good and pure and true. The messenger needs to be all of those things as well. We need our lives to match the Gospel. There is a reason overweight people do not sell exercise videos. There is a reason why bald men can’t sell hair products. There is a reason why people who use their smoke alarm as a timer when they cook do not have cooking shows. The message and the messenger should match if the message is to be believed. 1 Peter 2:11-12 tells us, “Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” Our life needs to match our mouths or the people we love and care about willnot believe the message.
In his fourth question, Paul asks, “And how can they preach unless they are sent?” Paul shows us that the communication of the Gospel is an action. You have to act. I need you to listen very closely to me. If you have tuned out already, I need you to change the channel and come back to me. I realize that there is a place for living your Christian life as an example to those around you. That is a wonderful thing to do. But that is not evangelism. Hear me on this! Listen to Paul on this! The sharing of one’s faith is an action. It is a conversation. It is the communicating from one person to another. You have to speak and communicate with those you are close with so that they know the Gospel. Your life may show them that you are different, but it does not communicate the Gospel to them. You have to do that. The plan of God is that each of us communicate with words the message of Jesus Christ.
SEGMENTED ILLUSTRATION part 2... Max Anders, Jesus, Knowing Our Savior, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publ., 1995), pp. 98-100.
Judah ben-Hur returns to Jerusalem with all the wealth and power of his new identity, and confronts the astonished Marsalla, who assumed he had been dead for years. Ben Hur demanded that Marsalla find and release from prison his mother and sister. Marsalla finds them in prison, but they have leprosy, so he whisks them away to the leper colony outside Jerusalem to live out a pitiful existence. Ben Hur is told that they are dead. His hate for Marsalla grows, and in a chariot race in which Marsalla and Judah Ben Hur are the primary figures, Marsalla is killed. With his dying breath, Marsalla, out of spite, tells Judah the truth about his mother and sister.
Judah’s hate now no longer has an object to focus on. He generalizes his hatred and becomes a bitter shell of his former self. Finally, in desperation he goes to the leper colony to get his mother and sister to take them to Jesus, this great preacher who has been performing miracles. When they get to Jerusalem where they think they will find Him, they discover that He has just been crucified. Now, all hope is gone, and despair settles over them. However, in the hours and earthquakes rocked the city, Judah’s mother and sister are healed of the leprosy, and Judah’s heart, along with his mother’s and sister’s, is turned to Jesus. Their faith, their health and their lives are restored.
III. THESE FOUR QUESTIONS NEED TO BE ANSWERED IN OUR OWN LIVES
The Apostle Paul was a man that put these questions to practice in his own life. He believed and taught that the message about Jesus Christ was a divine one and came from God. Paul knew that it was up to each believer to communicate the message about Jesus and he went from town to town, from synagogue to synagogue, and from person to person doing his very best so that all might hear. Paul lived the talk and so when he came and told someone about Christ, they could see the evidence in his own life. He could tell them of his experience with Jesus. The entire book of Acts and the majority of the New Testament are proof that Paul did all of these things in spreading the Gospel.
But what about you?
In his first question, Paul asks, “How then, can they call on the one that have not believed in?”
Do you have your faith straight and know the message of Jesus?
Do you know what and why you believe?
Do you know what our church teaches and are you able to identify anti-Christian ideas when you hear
them?
In his second question, Paul asks, “And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard.”
Do you have people in your life that do not believe in Jesus?
Do you have people in your life that have turned their back on God?
When was the last time you talked with them?
In his third question, Paul asks, “And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”
Does your life match the message?
Are you someone else during the week and a saint on Sunday?
Would someone believe you were a Christian if they just met you?
In his fourth question, Paul asks, “And how can they preach unless they are sent?”
When was the last time you really shared your faith with someone?
Do you know what to say?
SEGMENTED ILLUSTRATION part 3... Max Anders, Jesus, Knowing Our Savior, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publ., 1995), pp. 98-100.
It is a towering story, deeply moving, and an exquisite portrayal of the power, grace and love of Jesus. Why did I tell you about Ben Hur? Because of this interesting twist. As Paul Harvey would say, this is “the rest of the story.” When Lew Wallace set out to study the life of Christ, he was not a Christian. In fact, writing a story such as Ben Hur was the farthest thing from his mind. Wallace was antagonistic toward Christianity, and determined he would study the life of Christ so thoroughly, and then write so convincingly, that he would be able to kill the story of Christ. He wanted to prove that Jesus, if He had lived, was not God, but merely a man, that He never rose from the dead, and that Christianity was a hoax.
So he studied. This great and enormous subject drew him further and further into his research until the evidence overwhelmed him. He dropped to his knees and cried out to Jesus to be his Savior and Lord. Then, instead of writing a book to prove to the world that Jesus was not God, he wrote Ben Hur, to try to prove to the world that Jesus was God.
CONCLUSION
