Romans 1:16-17 "Becoming Eager Evangelists"

1:09What is this letter if not an extended teaching on the gospel and its power to save all people, both Jews and Gentiles? What is this letter if not an extended teaching on salvation by grace through faith alone? What is this letter? If not a call for the righteous to live by faith. So, whether or not Paul intended these two verses to serve as his thesis statement for the whole letter, they certainly represent a faithful summary of nearly everything that he's going to write after this.

1:48And that means it's very important that we understand these two verses, which means we have to understand the context. Anytime you're reading your Bible and you see the word for or therefore, it's almost certainly referring to what came previously in the text. So I want to direct your attention back to verse 13. Look at what Paul said immediately before these verses. I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.

2:26I am under obligation, both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. You see, we talked about last week the fact that Paul viewed evangelism as both an obligation and a privilege. He saw evangelism as an obligation because God had saved him, entrusted him with the good news, and called him to be his ambassador. That's true for Every Christian here today, evangelism is an obligation, but it's also a privilege.

3:08It's a privilege as Paul saw it and as we should see it, because there is nothing better than sharing good news. And the good news of Jesus Christ is the best news the world has ever heard or will ever hear. Paul was an eager evangelist. And so I wonder about us this morning. Could you say that you are an eager evangelist? Or would you classify yourself more as a reluctant evangelist? Or maybe even if you're honest, a non-evangelist?

3:49I think most of us would probably say that at best we are reluctant evangelists. But I also believe that every Christian here today wants to be an eager evangelist, just like Paul. But friends, if that's the case, if we want to be eager evangelists, we've got to confront the elephant in the room. And the elephant in the room is our shame. If we're ashamed of the gospel, we are not going to be eager to share it.

4:24So I want to lead us today to ask and answer three questions. First, Why are we tempted to feel ashamed of the gospel? Second, should we feel ashamed of the gospel? And third, how can we overcome our shame in sharing the gospel? Because we want to be eager evangelists, and eager evangelists are unashamed of the gospel. So let's tackle that first question. Why are we tempted to feel ashamed of the gospel? Take a look at verse 16.

5:03Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel. The question is, what does he mean when he says ashamed? Have you ever tried to define the word shame? I mean, think about that for a minute. How would you define shame? It is notoriously hard to define. If you look at how shame is presented in the Bible, we might call it a state of humiliation, feeling embarrassed or foolish or both. And here, Paul says that he is not ashamed of the gospel. That is, he's not embarrassed by it. He's not humiliated by it.

5:43And what is the gospel? Well, the Greek word gospel is euangelion. It's where we get the words evangelist and evangelism from. And that word, euangelion, means gospel or good news. And so the gospel. Is the good news that sinners will be counted righteous through faith in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. And so, what Paul is telling us here is that he's not ashamed of the good news. He's not embarrassed by it. He doesn't feel foolish about it, whether believing it or preaching it.

6:18But, friends, based on his own writing, I think there's good reason to believe that Paul was at least tempted to feel ashamed of the gospel. Look at what he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. He says, And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. Paul admits that when he came to the ancient city of Corinth, he felt weak and fearful, so much so that he was shaking. He was trembling. Why did he feel that way?

6:54Why did his body have that kind of physical response to what he was feeling? Well, the city of Corinth was large and prosperous. It was filled with wealthy people, powerful people, intelligent people, beautiful people. And Paul was commissioned by God to bring the gospel to Gentiles like the Corinthians. And so, what that means is that his assignment was to go into cities like Corinth and tell wealthy, powerful, beautiful, intelligent people that there is. One God, not a bunch of gods like they think, that they have offended this one God through their sin and they need to be saved.

7:38There is nothing that they can do to save themselves. The only way for them to be saved is to believe in the son of a Jewish carpenter who died 25 years ago but miraculously rose from the dead. That assignment might leave you feeling weak and fearful and trembling. That assignment might result in you feeling and acting ashamed of the gospel. So I think that we have good reason to believe that even if Paul never gave into the temptation to be ashamed of the gospel, he was certainly tempted to feel ashamed by it.

8:24But you know, perhaps we can better relate to Peter. Peter feels more accessible, doesn't he? Than Paul. Peter gave in to the temptation to be ashamed. He promised Jesus that he would never fall away, even if all the other disciples did, and then he denied Jesus three times. And look what Luke records after that third and final denial. Luke says, And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, Before the rooster crows today, You will deny me three times.

9:02And Peter went out and wept bitterly. Peter is ashamed of Jesus. Ashamed to admit that he knows him, much less that he believes in him and follows him as a disciple. And I think that feels a little bit more relatable, doesn't it? I think for most of us who are Christians in the room today, we feel like we can relate a lot more to Peter than Paul, that we are much more likely to be ashamed of the gospel than unashamed of the gospel. And so let's dig into that.

9:39Why are we tempted to feel ashamed of the gospel? Well, first, because we don't want to seem foolish. Look what Paul wrote to the Corinthians in chapter 1. He says, For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. The perishing are those who are dying in their unbelief. And Paul says that to those people, to those dying in their unbelief, the word of the cross, the gospel is folly. It's foolishness. The men of the New Testament claim that Jesus is the Son of God who lived a sinless life, was killed, and rose from the dead. That message is regarded as complete and utter foolishness by the world, and the world has always thought that.

10:30You know, so many modern people think that ancient people were dimwits who just believed all kinds of dumb stuff because they didn't know any better. But, friends, reading the Gospels will show you otherwise. When God the Father spoke audibly from heaven, spoke to Jesus in front of a huge crowd of people, the crowd said it thundered. Nobody said, Hey, y'all, God's speaking to us again. Nobody said that. They all dismissed it using a natural explanation, just like everyone does today.

11:17The world has always thought the gospel was foolish. The world has always thought that belief in miracles was foolish. And that's especially true in one of the most highly educated communities in our country. So we're tempted to feel ashamed of the gospel because we don't want to seem foolish. Second, we don't want to seem weak. Here's a couple of quotes for you. Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura said, Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers.

11:56The late physicist Stephen Hawking said, Religion is a fair. Story for people afraid of the dark. Just want to leave those up there for a moment. That's the narrative that we are told in our world today. Strong people do not need religion. Weak people need religion because they cannot cope with the harsh reality of life in this world. So, what weak people like us have to do is we have to invent fairy stories about a God who made us and loves us and will rescue us from the things that scare us, especially eternity and death. And then we find other weak-minded people and we gather together to reinforce our beliefs in the fairy stories.

12:43That's the narrative, anyway. Christianity is for weak people who need to make up stories and band together because we're scared. And so we're tempted to feel ashamed of the gospel because we don't want to seem weak. Third, we don't want to seem judgmental. The most famous and probably most misunderstood verse in the whole Bible is Matthew 7:1. Judge not, that you be not judged. And most people think that when Jesus said that, he was teaching that passing judgment on another person in any circumstances is always sinful.

13:27But that's not what he's saying at all. He's warning us against hypocrisy, which we can see from simply reading the next verse. Look at the verse in context. Jesus says, judge not that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. So what Jesus is saying is we've got to apply the same standard to ourselves that we apply it to everyone else. He goes on to say, we can't worry about the speck that's in our brother's eye when the whole time we've got a log sticking out of our own. But he doesn't say, don't take the speck out of your brother's eye. Let them live the rest of their life with a speck in their eye. No, he says, first, remove the log from your own eye, then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's.

14:24Unfortunately, most people believe that speaking against sin at all, even if you're seeking to repent of sin yourself, is automatically judgmental. And so we're tempted to feel ashamed of the gospel because we don't want to seem judgmental. So we don't want to seem foolish, weak, or judgmental. The next question is, should we feel ashamed of the gospel? Let's look at verse 16 again. Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the. Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

15:13Paul explains why he's not ashamed of the gospel and why we don't have to be ashamed of the gospel either. First, look what he says: the gospel is the power of God for salvation. It is the power of God. It's not a power of God. It's the power of God for salvation. Every self-help book that you read and every other religion is essentially the exact same message. You have the power to save yourself. Make these changes, adopt these practices, do these things, and you will be saved from your problems, your guilt, your shame, even from eternal punishment. That is what every self-help book and every other religion is telling you. But friends, with this solution, it all depends on you. It depends on you doing all of these things, whatever they are, perfectly every single day to have the hope of saving yourself. That is an unbearable weight.

16:27But the gospel is different. Because the gospel of Jesus Christ is not advice. It's not a message about what we have to do to save ourselves with our own power. It's not another chance to try harder to do better. It's a message of what God has done to save us from his own judgment. The judgment that we earned through our own sin. It is powerful because God is behind it. His perfect, limitless power that achieves everything that he sets out to achieve. God does not hope to save sinners. God does save sinners through the power of the gospel because he accomplishes everything that he sets out to do.

17:20Second, look at the text again. We don't have to be ashamed of the gospel because the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone. Everyone. To the Jew first and also to the Greek, to the wise and the foolish, as he said in the previous section. God's salvation came through Abraham and his descendants to the rest of the world. First to the Jew, then to the Greek. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone.

17:54Friends, Christianity is accused of being an exclusive religion. But Christianity is the most inclusive religion in the world. You don't have to be a certain ethnicity. You don't have to go through a bunch of rites of passage. You simply have to believe, to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Christianity only excludes those who reject the gospel because it is the power of God to salvation for everyone. And everyone is invited.

18:32Third, look at the text. We don't have to be ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. You think about citizenship for a moment, how you become a citizen of a country. In some countries, you have to be born there. Others, you have to live there a certain amount of time. Some you can marry somebody who is a citizen of that country. In some countries, you can bribe your way to citizenship.

19:03But if you want to become a citizen of God's kingdom, if you want to be a citizen of heaven, there is only one way, and that is Jesus. There is one door, Jesus. As they say, the ground is a level at the foot of the cross. You might be rich or poor, powerful or weak, this ethnicity or that one, and it Does not matter. There are not multiple paths to citizenship. There are not multiple paths to salvation. Every person is saved exactly the same way by grace through faith in Jesus. Period.

19:47The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. So we don't have to be ashamed of it. In verse 17, Paul explains why belief, why faith is the way that we receive the power of God for salvation. Look at verse 17. Paul says, for in it, for in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith, for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Friends, the only way that we can know God is Him revealing Himself to us.

20:37We can make up all the gods we want. We can say, I think God is like this. I think God is like that. I think there are many gods. I think there are a few gods. We can say whatever we want, but for us to know God, He has to reveal Himself to us. And the scripture represents God's revelation of Himself to us, His revelation of Himself, His revelation of His salvation. To us, so that we don't have to think what God is like. We can know what he is like because he's told us. And what he has told us is that he is perfectly righteous. All of his ways are perfect and righteous.

21:17And what also becomes clear in the scriptures is something that we know already from our daily experience: that we are not righteous. Psalm 14, which Paul will quote in a couple of chapters in Romans 3, says there is no one righteous, not even one. There is not one righteous person on the face of the earth. Every one of us has sinned against God. We have fallen short of his perfect standard of righteousness in our thoughts, our words, and our actions.

21:51And because God is righteous, he cannot just let that slide. No just and righteous judge will allow lawbreakers to go unpunished. If he did, he wouldn't be just. He wouldn't be righteous. So God has to punish the unrighteous. But the unrighteous is us. People God created in his own image and likeness. The good news, though, is that God loves us. Not because we're lovable, but because he is love. He loves us. And so he sent his only begotten Son to take on flesh, to add humanity to his divinity. He came to live a life of perfect righteousness, doing all of the righteous things righteously that we were supposed to do, but failed to do. He took our place and died where we should have died and rose again so that the results of his work is that we could become righteous. Look what 2 Corinthians says.

23:02For our sake, God made him, Jesus, to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Friends, here in Romans 1.17, Paul says that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel. That is, the good news shows us that God is righteous in not passing over our sins, but in sending his perfectly righteous Son to live and die and rise again in our place. Look here again, so that in him, in Jesus, we might become the righteousness of God.

23:46But how can we be in him? In Christ. Look at verse 17, Romans 1:17 again. For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith. For faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. From faith and for faith. Your translation may read: beginning and ending in faith, or by faith from first to last. And that's because, just as the prophet Habakkuk wrote hundreds of years earlier, this is what he's quoting here: the righteous shall live by faith.

24:28My friends, Paul was unashamed of the gospel, and you do not have to be ashamed of the gospel either, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. And in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. But you will be tempted to be ashamed of the gospel. Some of the time, maybe even all of the time. And so I want to leave you this morning with four encouragements. Four encouragements, because we do not have to be ashamed of the gospel. How can we overcome our shame of sharing the gospel? Number one, we should pray for boldness.

25:21Pray for boldness. In Acts chapter 4, Peter and John are arrested after healing a lame beggar and then preaching the gospel. To the crowd. The religious leaders threatened them and told them not to speak in the name of Jesus anymore. What would you do? Being arrested is scary and shameful. Sadly, I know from experience. It's not something that you want to repeat. Who could blame Peter and John if they decided to keep quiet and not talk about Jesus anymore, or at least for a little while?

26:00But that's not what they do. They go back to their friends in the church, they share everything the religious leaders said and how they threatened them, and then they pray. And I want you to look at the end of this prayer that they pray. They pray, and now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And how about this for an answered prayer? Look at this. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. Paul says, when he came to Corinth, he was there in weakness and fear and much trembling. He was shaking.

26:56But the believers pray to God for boldness and the place. In which they are meeting is shaken. They go out and proclaim the word of God with great boldness. Brothers and sisters, we will not become eager evangelists until we overcome our shame. But you will never overcome your shame on your own. And so we've got to pray to God for boldness. Second, how can we overcome our shame? We should ask for prayer. Ask for prayer. Near the end of his life and ministry, Paul was under house arrest in Rome. He continued preaching the gospel and writing letters to the churches. And I want you to look at what he wrote to the Ephesians. Take a look at the screen.

27:47He says, Keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. Paul asks for prayer from his friends in Ephesus. He asks two times that they would enable him, pray that God would enable him to share the gospel boldly as he ought to speak. Last week, We talked about what a privilege it is to pray to the Lord of the universe and what a privilege it is to pray on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Prayer is powerful because God is powerful.

28:46And knowing that others are praying for us is a huge encouragement. I am much more faithful in my evangelism when I know that other people are praying for me and that other people are going to ask about my evangelism. And so, if we want to overcome shame and become eager evangelists, we've got to ask for prayer. Third, we should remember that Jesus is always with us. Remember that Jesus is always with us. A lot of us know the Great Commission. One of the last things Jesus said before he ascended into heaven, he commanded us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that he commanded. A lot of us know that.

29:39But it seems like we often forget the end, his promise, after he gives us that command. Take a look at what Jesus said. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. I am with you always to the end of the age. We are so quick to forget, friends. We feel like evangelism is our sole responsibility. It's completely up to us. We've got to just summon up the courage and go do it, get it over with so that it's done. We forget that Jesus, the Lord, the Savior, our friend, the all-powerful one, is with us even to the end of the age.

30:24So he is with us as we pray for boldness. He is with us as we pray to him for boldness for each other. He is with us when we go and share our faith. So if we are mocked, if we are ostracized, if our friends don't want to talk to us anymore, if we don't get the promotion that we want, if we get fired from our jobs, if we go to prison or even to death, Jesus is right there with us. He will never leave us or forsake us. That knowledge helps us to overcome our shame and be eager evangelists.

31:01And then fourth and finally, we should fix our eyes on Jesus. We should fix our eyes on Jesus. Focus is so important. It is important in work and in school and in sports and in every area of life. Many times, focus is the difference between success and failure. And the author of Hebrews knows and understands that. Look at what he writes. Hebrews 12. He says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, that is, all of the believers that have gone before for centuries, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. Many translations say, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. Look at this phrase, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

32:16Friends, if we want to overcome shame and be eager evangelists, we've got to fix our eyes on Jesus. We cannot take our eyes off of him. You may be familiar with the story of Peter walking on the water towards Jesus. What happens to him? He takes his eyes off of Jesus, he looks at his surroundings, and he begins to sink. When we take our eyes off Jesus, we start sinking. But when we fix our eyes on Jesus, we are able to overcome our shame, our embarrassment, our humiliation, all of it. We have to fix our eyes on Jesus, the one who endured the cross, despising the shame, and finished the race that God gave him to run in order to save us.

33:01Focus matters. The Christian life is a long, hard race that is impossible to finish with a lack of focus. And so, if we want to overcome shame and become eager evangelists, we've got to fix our eyes on Jesus. If you're a Christian, I believe that you want to become an eager evangelist. If we have believed the good news ourselves, then of course we want to share it with others. But that also means that we have to overcome shame. We have to get to the place where we can say honestly, like the Apostle Paul, I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

33:50And so, if you're a Christian this morning, I want to encourage you to pray for boldness and to pray for others as well. Ask for prayer for boldness. I want to encourage you to remember Jesus and fix your eyes on him. If we do those things, I believe that God will help us to overcome our shame and become the eager evangelists that he wants us to be. And if you are not yet a Christian, I encourage you this morning to count the cost.

34:30To follow Jesus today, plenty of people in your life will think that you are foolish or weak or judgmental or all of the above. Following Jesus is not cool. But you have to decide whether you care most about what other people think of you or what God thinks of you. You have to decide whether you think it's more important to win the approval of man, which is here today and gone tomorrow, or the approval of God.

35:10In Mark chapter 8, Jesus taught that it does not profit to gain the whole world and yet forfeit your soul for eternity. But Jesus said, if anybody is ashamed of him, that is, if we value the world's approval more than his approval, if anybody is ashamed of him, then Jesus will be ashamed of us when he returns. My friends, the gospel is the power of God for salvation. There is no other way to be saved from the power and penalty of sin except through faith in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. So count the cost.

35:52Forfeiting your soul to gain the world's approval is a very bad deal. Don't be ashamed of Jesus. He was not ashamed of you. Take up the cross. Look to Jesus. Put your faith in him and follow him. And join us in being eager evangelists of the good news. Let's pray. Father, we confess this morning that we want to be eager to share the good news of Jesus. We really do believe that it is the best news that anybody could hear. We really do believe that Jesus is the hope of the world.

37:03But we also confess that we're afraid. We're afraid of looking foolish and weak and judgmental in front of others. And so we keep quiet. We pray this morning, God, for boldness. We pray that. You would empower us with your Holy Spirit to so desire your name and your glory to be known throughout our community and throughout the world. That we would so desire other people to come to know and follow Jesus that we would be willing to suffer for his name, whether the suffering is small or big.

37:56God, I pray that every Christian in this room would have the opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone in their life this week. And we pray that they would respond with repentance and faith. Forgive us for praying small prayers, nonspecific prayers. God, we pray for those who have not believed the good news. I pray that this morning it seems to them to be the good news that it is, and that they would embrace the person and work of Christ through faith today.

38:36Because you say the righteous will live by faith. Thank you for your word. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at New Life CD. Dot net