The Power of Faith

Our theme for “2020” is “Seeing Spiritually.”

What a year it has been!

But what is God doing?

I thought it would be good for us to spend some time in Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Romans is considered to be Paul’s most complete explanation of the gospel.

The Apostle Paul is writing to the church in the most powerful city in the world whom he had hoped to visit and still intends to do so.

In the middle of the first century, the Emperor Claudius has all of the Jews expelled from Rome.

This would presumably have included Christians, many of whom were Jews.

For those Christians who were not Jewish, the big question was, “Do you have to become a Jew first?”

The Jerusalem council had already ruled on that question, but practically speaking, Gentiles were at a disadvantage, not being very religious by Jewish standards.

It seems that by the time Paul was writing, some Jews were starting to find their way back to Rome and this was causing a division among believers.

Does a church of both Jews and Gentiles go back to worshipping the way they had done when they were mostly Jews?

In order to answer these questions, Paul started with the most basic question: What does it mean to believe?

Over the next few weeks we are going to look at Romans chapters 1-8.

We are going to find out what words like “faith”, “grace” and “righteousness”, really mean, and what they have to do with us.

Then later this fall we are going to look at the second half of the book (ch 9-16) and we will ask the next question: What does it mean to belong?

Today’s message is called “The Power of Faith.”

Faith is a popular word these days, but for the most part, I don’t think it means what we think it means.

We talk about faith be the opposite of works, as if once you have faith, you don’t need to do anything - but is that really true?

We have the faith movement and faith healings; people trying to get more faith as if trying harder to be spiritually powerful is going to work.

Many Christians think of faith as a belief system, as if having the right doctrine (statement of faith) makes you right with God. But is faith merely intellectual?

"What does it mean to believe?"

Faith is a dynamic living relationship with the God of the Universe that surpasses anything that we can think, know or do in our own strength.

Last week Ken Eberly said, “The goal of our faith is the salvation of our soul so that we have the capacity to walk as He (Jesus) walked.”

The power that is in Jesus.

Romans 1:1–6 ESV

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

Who is Jesus to you?

Paul begins his letter with a long introduction, not of himself, but of Jesus.

Paul will later spend three and a half years in a Roman prison.

However, at this point, he has not yet been to Rome, although the final chapter of the letter will contain greetings to 26 people with whom he has already become acquainted.

It is normal in formal letter writing or in speeches to begin by introducing yourself to your audience.

Unless they know who you are, why should they care about what you have to say?

Paul simply introduces himself as a servant of Jesus, sent by Jesus (apostle) and then he spends several sentences talking about Jesus.

The first thing you need to know about Paul, about faith or about anything related to the Kingdom of God, is that it’s all about Jesus!

Jesus is at the center of everything … He’s central to faith and believing … He’s central to life and existence.

The universe doesn’t revolve around me or around you, it all revolves around Him!

The question that we should all be asking is “Who is Jesus Christ?”

How you answer that question determines whether or not you are a “believer.”

A “believer’ is someone who believes something specific. There is an object of belief. If they did not believe, then they would be a “non-believer.”

In the context of Christian belief, what we all believe has to do with Jesus Christ.

What is it about Jesus that we believe or don’t believe?

Is it that He’s real? That He exists? That he is God?

A lot of evangelism centers around this question,

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jesus is God’s son, but not co-equal or co-eternal. He shows us the way to God, but they do not worship Jesus as God.

The Mormon’s state that Jesus is “literally” the Son of God, which would seem to be a good thing until you know what that means. It means that the father is really a man who attained to become God and that Jesus is literally his son through Mary. Jesus in this sense is like our older brother who is step ahead of us when it comes to being God. I know… it’s confusing.

The Muslims even believe in Jesus, that he was a prophet. The Qua-ran even says that Jesus will judge the world, but Mohammed gets all the attention. You may be surprised to hear that Muslims are often very willing to learn more about Jesus and that many have come to a saving faith by examining Jesus’ claims about Himself.

A more precise question is “Who is Jesus to you?”

Why should you care?

What do you believe about Jesus? And why do you believe it?

The question calls for a personal response.

Is Jesus Lord of your life?

Paul says that Jesus Christ is our Lord.

The first creed of the church was that “Jesus is Lord.”

We don’t use the term “Lord” in normal conversation, so we may be at a disadvantage to know what that means.

To say that Jesus is Lord means He is your master, your boss, your superior the one to whom you owe ultimate allegiance.

For Christians in the first century, especially Romans, this would be like comparing Jesus to Caesar, the ultimate ruler of the greatest power in the world.

In the first century Caesar controlled the greatest army in the world, the greatest city in the world and the greatest system of government in the world and through those things, he controlled everything else.

You could say that Caesar was a dictator, but that’s not quite right.

Rome had a representative form of government for those who were citizens of Rome.

Power was shared among many leaders who had the common goal of preserving and expanding that power.

Allegiance to Caesar as a citizen of Rome meant that the more powerful he became, the more powerful and privileged you became.

Declaring “Jesus is Lord” stood in contrast to this.

Jesus voluntarily suffered and died on a criminal cross.

His resurrection from the dead was the ultimate victory.

But He did not go out and use it to crush people into submission like Rome would do.

Jesus calls His people to a voluntary submission unlike any human authority would ever do.

Jesus’ authority surpasses that of Caesar because His Kingdom is beyond the kingdoms of this world.

Have you surrendered your life to Jesus? That is the beginning of faith.

Romans 1:16–17 ESV

16 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. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

How has knowing Jesus changed your life?

The gospel is a word that is most often used to describe the Christian message, that Jesus Christ lived, died and was resurrected to change the course of human history.

Paul is coming to them as a representative of Jesus to tell them about Jesus.

The gospel literally means “good news.”

In this case it is the good new of Jesus having come, what He taught and how His death and resurrection changed everything about life as we know it.

So knowing Jesus changes everything!

Whenever the gospel is preached change should follow.

If change doesn’t happen then something is missing.

If you want to see if you have faith look for change. Faith will always produce change.

Paul says that the gospel reveals a righteousness from God.

In other words, in Jesus is a revelation of how God intends to make things right.

The gospel is not only the revelation of what that looks like, but it is the power to make it so.

Power for salvation means power to make things right.

How does this happen? By faith producing change which produces more faith.

The power of sin.

Romans 1:18–25 ESV

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Sin denies the truth.

We’re going to talk more about faith, but first we have to talk about sin.

A lot of sermons at this point would focus your attention on the wrath of God. But I would like to focus on the reason for it.

The whole world is engaged in one giant conspiracy to suppress the truth about God!

Furthermore, those who focus on the wrath of God are feeding into that conspiracy!

Much of organized religion is anti-gospel, if it’s about control it’s not good news.

What if God’s anger is, as some describe it, a jealous love.

Think of something that you have made that you take great pride in. (Your house, your car or your children) How would you feel if they wanted nothing to do with you?

Look around you! What does creation tell you about God?

God is intelligent.

God is creative, even humorous at times.

God is beautiful and thoughtful giving exquisite attention to detail.

God loves you and is worthy of your love.

Sin dishonors God.

Deep down inside, even atheists can’t deny that God may exist.

Most are declared agnostics which means that they deny that God exists in a way that we can know for sure.

Those who may concede that God may exist are rather denying that God’s existence necessitates a response.

Paul makes this argument, that people can know God but refuse to respond to what they know.

It is the sinful human nature. The independence that was asserted in the garden has infected every human life.

We want a god who serves us, not a God who is wholly beyond our ability to predict or even comprehend.

When the light of knowledge is too difficult to see, we turn to darkness for comfort.

When will we admit that our dulled thinking and our darkened perceptions are a source of comfort that keeps us from the truth.

What conclusions would we come to if we were really honest with ourselves?

What would happen if instead of blaming our problems on other people, if we looked to change our own hearts and minds first?

Sin is not just about failure or making mistakes, sin is about choosing to hide from the truth for the sake of our own insecurity.

Believing on the other hand is not just about having knowledge of the truth, its about opening yourself up to a process of peeling away the layers of denial and deception.

Sin distorts reality.

Once you have believed a lie, that lie becomes truth to you.

You are going to continue to come to conclusions that are based on the lie that you consider to be true.

In carpentry, the first rule is that everything must be measured from a fixed point. If you take a measurement that is slightly off and then measure from that point you are compounding your error.

This is what happens with people’s belief systems. Faulty assumptions lead to faulty conclusions.

If you try to correct thinking that is based on layers of lies, most people would rather blame the messenger than admit to false assumptions.

Paul says that at a certain point God gives them over to their own way of thinking.

Note: this does not mean that God is giving up on people. It means that they have reached a point where help is no longer helpful.

Sometimes people need to learn the hard way.

They need to find out for themselves and come to their own conclusion that something isn’t working.

If you have succeeded in doing things your own way for a time, you may be in for a rude awakening.

The power to change.

Romans 2:1–4 ESV

1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

Repentance is a gift.

By now, you should realize that you, me, all of us have offended a Holy God who wants only the best for us.

Paul is going to say it over and over again over the next few chapters, approaching the subject from different angles.

It is important that each of us realize this, not to make us feel bad, but so that we can repent.

Repentance is not a bad thing, it’s a really good thing!

Repentance is a gift - it is an expression of God’s grace, favor, and goodness.

If I know what I have done wrong I can turn from it.

As long as we persist in denial or avoidance, there is no turning, no repentance.

Change begins with me.

We can all think of someone who needs to hear this message, but that’s not the point. What are you going to do with it?

In a high school Physics class I saw an object lesson of this principle. The demonstration was supersaturated crystals. A solution was made by dissolving a large amount of a substance in water. It was enough to form a solid crystal but the change had not happened because the reaction had no place to begin. One single grain of crystal was dropped into the solution and immediately the entire glass hardened. Change just needs a place to start.

Paul’s point is that we are quick to judge others when we should rather judge ourselves.

In Elijah house they teach that they have found it to be a principle that we are often guilty of the same things for which we judge other people.

Let God’s kindness motivate you.

Religion is famous for using guilt as a motivator.

Guilt is a powerful motivator, but it leaves you feeling defeated and resentful.

Consider, on the other hand God’s kindness and patience.

Let yourself be undone by His goodness and patience toward you.

When I was a child, I was a handful! My mother would send me over to my Grammy and Grandpop Meyers. Grammy and Grandpop didn’t yell at me. They would get sad when I misbehaved. That impacted me more than other forms of discipline because I saw their heart for me.

God loves you very much!

But God is also holy and will not tolerate sin.

We live in a time of God’s patience. God is waiting, not wanting any to perish.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV

9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

The power of faith is the power to be transformed by Jesus Christ, it is the power to turn from sin and toward God.

Ultimately, faith is the power to come out of the fog of darkness and denial and to know God as He really is, a loving God whose kindness leaves you undone.

Questions for Reflection:

Who is Jesus Christ? Who is Jesus in relation to you? How has knowing Jesus changed you? Have you discovered the power that you have in Jesus’ name?

Have you discovered that you have a sinful nature? Are there any areas of your life where you are hiding or in denial? Do you regularly come to God in repentance?

If we are praying for revival and for the world to be changed, where does that change begin? Are you also seeking personal transformation and personal revival?