The stirring of the Gospel

Being a stirrer

Some people are natural stirrers, and other people are easily stirred. When these people are together, the stirrer gets ready for a few laughs, and, well, let’s just hope the one who is easily stirred can also see the funny side.

Of course, as a parent, I see it as my birth right to stir my children. I feel obligated when they say, “I’m hungry”, to answer: “Hi Hungry, my name is Dad”.

I usually always get the same response. It starts with a groan. Followed by an exasperated explanation that their name is not hungry but they feel hungry. To which I respond, well, you don’t look hungry/ Which is followed by more groans.

I’m not sure how it happens, but you somehow become a comedic genius when you become a father.

Now, normally when we think of someone as a stirrer, we’re thinking of the way we rile them up. But to stir someone up doesn’t have to be negative.

At a rally, a speaker will stand in front of the crowd and give a speech which will stir the crowd up to have an emotional response to whatever the cause is.

A coach will stand in front of his team before the game and try to stir them up so they are motivated to play.

The best way to stir someone up, whether in the positive way, or the negative, is to elicit their emotions. Tap into something they care about.

The lacklustre Christian

Now, for those of you who have been a Christian for as long as you can remember, I suspect there have been times when you’ve felt little stirring in your heart with regards to your Christian faith. You might even feel like that now.

It’s not necessarily that you’ve turned away from the faith, but rather that it has all just become a bit ho hum.

My faith journey

In my own faith journey, I grew up in a Christian family, and so I can’t remember a time when I didn’t believe. I made a commitment in my school years, and was even baptised while I was in High School, and that was a real commitment, yet when I started at University, while I still held to that commitment, there was no stirring in my heart.

I was just drifting along. I never rejected my Christian faith - but there wasn’t much too it.

Now, let me just pause my story here because this morning, I want to think about the stirring that should be in the heart of all believers.

You see, for everyone of you here or listening online, if you have made a commitment to Christ, then you share something in common with us all.

That is, we have all experienced the gospel.

Now I’m going to suggest that it is this gospel that we all share that should be the thing that stirs each of us to action.

So what I want to do today, is to explore the nature of this stirring and what it should stir us to do.

Romans

I’ll be doing that by exploring Paul’s opening to his letter to the church of Rome.

But before I do that, given that I’m about to start a new series in the book of Romans, it’s worth taking a step back and looking at the context of this letter.

Context

This letter actually has one aspect which makes it quite different to all of Paul’s other letters.

You see, all of the other letters we have of Paul’s are addressed to either people or places that Paul has ministered with or to. In this way, these other letters build on work that Paul has already done with them.

Romans, however, is written to a church and place that Paul has never been, although he had certainly had a desire to go.

Rome of course is the capital of the empire to which would have effectively felt like the known world to them. It was a very influential city, and as such, it naturally came on the list of Paul’s places to go.

Because of the significance of it, Paul was willing to break his normal stance of only going to places where the gospel hasn’t gone before.

Although that being said, from looking at Romans 15, it would seem that he sees Rome as a spring board to Spain.

Now, in Romen, despite Paul never having never been there, a church has already been established. Unfortunately however, we don’t have any details about who started it, but there would have been a lot of people coming and going from Rome all the time, so it could have been anyone.

Well, this letter then appears to be an attempt to establish himself in preparation for his arrival which he hopes to be soon.

Now, we’ve got a pretty good guess of when Paul wrote this letter. If you briefly flip to Romans 15, starting at verse 23, Paul describes his future plans, which includes that trip to Spain I mentioned a moment ago. It also mentions that he has been collecting an offering for the poor in Jerusalem, and that he wants to go there before heading to Rome.

So, we can piece together that he is likely on his third missionary trip. On that third trip, you might remember me recalling when I looked at it two weeks ago, that it tells us that he went through Achaia and Macedonia, even though most of the narrative focusses on what happens around Ephesus.

Well, it tells us that he spent three months in Corinth during this time, and it is often thought that this is likely to be the time and place in which this letter was written.

Romans 1

Well lets come back to chapter 1 and we have a closer look at the start of the letter to see what is going on in the mind of Paul.

Opening

As the letters of this time typically start, Paul introduces himself to the recipients, and so starts with his name.

He then gives his title, and on this occasion, he doesn’t start with the title which is going to big note himself. Rather, he starts by describing himself as a servant of Christ.

Actually, the word that is translated as servant here, that is, doulos, can also be translated as bondslave. In other words, Paul is really choosing quite a strong word to describe that commitment he has with Christ. A bondslave was not just a casual helper who chipped in where he could. For the bondslave, it was everything.

But not only a bondslave, but also an apostle. The word apostle can have a general meaning denoting someone who has been sent with a message, but on this occasion, Paul is putting himself equal with the twelve that Jesus set aside as his apostles.

The stirring

Now, right from the start of this letter we see the stirring that has happened in Paul’s life.

You see, something has happened for Paul. It’s not just that he got some job and is about to head out on a work trip.

It is a stirring that started when Jesus first appeared to him on the road to Damascus.

As you read these opening words, you can hear the passion.

And the passion is centered around the word: gospel.

You see, he first mentions this word is relation to his apostleship. But it’s like he just can’t help himself. After just one mention, he spills out why it is so amazing.

You see, he tells us how it was promised long ago.

But it’s no longer just some abstract idea. It centers on someone who actually lived. Someone who actually can trace his lineage to King David. But not only was he a living breathing person like you and me. He was the Son of God who was completely divine.

But the best part is that through this one person, we find grace. And this is something that we so desperately need. He doesn’t go into detail in these opening few verses, but as we’ll see in the next few weeks as we dive further into this book, Paul we shortly give us a definitive account of how each of us so desperately need grace.

And it’s grace that comes from faith. It’s that simple.

And it’s available to everyone.

It’s almost like he’s falling over his words trying to get it all out, and he hasn’t even really started the letter, he’s still just on the part where he is introducing himself.

But you see, this is what happens when you open your eyes to what the gospel is. When you start to see the connections of how it changes everything. Where going to flesh out all of this over the next few months as we explore the rest of the book in more detail, but I just want you to see here how much it has stirred Paul to his core.

He has seen how truly amazing this message is, and he can’t help but be moved by it.

To all in Rome

By verse 7, it’s like he’s got that first stirring out of his system, and now he actually addresses his audience.

Now I love the way he describes the church there in Rome. He addresses it to “all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people”.

He then offers grace and peace - such a simple opening statement, that could almost be dismissed as a cliche except that it is so full of deep truths.

But I’m actually going to skip over this and go to verse 8 when he starts to address this church in a more specific way.

And again, we see Paul’s heart being stirred. This time because of the reports of what he’s heard about this church.

You see, their reputation has spread throughout the world.

Now, you might imagine Paul could be jealous at this point. After all, he takes pride in being someone who plants churches, and this church was not planted by him.

But while Paul might take pride, he well knows that what is happening is so much bigger than him.

In fact, you could say that this is partly what is stirring inside him. The fact that something far bigger than any one person, or even a group of people could achieve.

I’ll go even as far to say that the extent of the movement of the church is none other than supernatural. There is no other way to explain it.

You see, you’ve got to remember that there were many factors going against the spread of the gospel. New believers were persecuted. The message sounded like foolishness to the wisdom of the day. And yet it spreads against all odds.

When you realise the change this makes, it really stirs your heart.

Action from a stirred heart

Now, having a stirred heart is one thing. Sometimes you’ll get a stirred heart watching a TV documentary, or perhaps reading some soppy story of Facebook. It’s easy to be stirred and do nothing about it.

And this is where I want to get into the important part of this message. You see, just like Paul, you should be all stirred up from meditating on the gospel.

But that stirring of the heart must result in action.

Let’s look at some of the ways the stirring manifests itself with Paul.

Building others up

The first thing is that we see is that Paul is stirred to continue to build on what the Spirit has started.

In verse 11, he states his desire to impart some spiritual gift to make them strong.

In verse 12, he sees the opportunity to mutually encourage each other’s faith.

If God is moving in an area, Paul wants to be a part of it.

This is the amazing thing about the gospel. It is not controlled by us. Our job should really be to just see where it is moving and jump on board.

And we do it because being where God is, is exciting!

So encourage each other in their work for the Lord. Pray for each other. Help where we can.

The stirring of our heart caused by the gospel should spur us on to a desire to build each other up.

Spread the Gospel

But from verse 14, I want to suggest that this stirring results not just in building each other up, but also a desire to see the gospel spread.

A debtor

But let me just pause a moment on verse 14, because Paul introduces an interesting image for us.

He starts with the words, “I am a debtor both to Greeks and non-Greeks”.

Now this image of a debtor is interesting.

You see, there are two main ways in which you can find yourself in debt to someone.

Firstly, let’s imagine you lend me $1000. I would then find myself in your debt. There would be an obligation for me to find a way to pay it back.

But there is actually another way in which I could be in debt to you. Let’s say a wealthy man comes to me and hands me a $1000, but tells me that I’m to hand it on to you.

Now you would say that I’m in your debt. I owe you that $1000, but it’s quite different to the first one. I’m not just returning something you’ve given me, I’m passing on a very generous gift.

In verse 14, Paul is talking about the second of these types of debts.

You see, Paul has received the most generous gift. The gift of new life. And he’s in the debt of all people because he knows that it belongs to them. He wants to do all he can to pass on that gift that he has already received. For Paul, keeping it to himself is just something he would be able to comprehend.

As he says in verse 15, that’s why he is so eager to preach the gospel.

Not ashamed

But in verse 16, Paul hits on the thing that generally puts a dampener on the stirring that occurs in our hearts - the embarrassment that comes from something that seems like such foolishness to others.

I dare say many of you have had similar experiences to me in that you talk to someone about Jesus only for them to ridicule the whole idea. After all, what has some story of a man in a land far away, in a time long ago, dying the death of a common criminal got to do with me now.

Sure we might have some good answers to give, but you know what? At times it can almost feel silly.

But this is where the stirring in Paul has been enough to say, you know what, I know they might think it sounds like foolishness, but this message is too powerful… it’s too life changing.... it’s too important for us to feel shame.

Because this gospel has the power of God, to bring salvation to everyone who believes.

And we need to recognise that when we’re talking salvation, we’re not just talking some theoretical change. We’re talking about a real change, that effects our mood, our outlook, our purpose, our well being. It involves comfort, assurance, completeness. And it gives us an undying hope in a world where things are so hopeless.

Salvation takes us from the claws of our own destruction, and makes us new.

And all of this is available, just by believing in Jesus.

It might seem like foolishness to some, but I’m going to follow Paul and say that I am not ashamed of it because it is too powerful to keep hidden.

In this gospel we find righteousness - not our own. We don’t suddenly become perfect. We will keep sinning, but the righteousness of God can become counted as our own. This is what we get from the gospel.

And it all comes from faith.

When the gospel is stirred in our hearts, we should both be motivated to build others up and to share that gospel with those around us.

My story

I started telling my story earlier. I mentioned that as I entered my university year, my Christian faith was somewhat drifting.

But something did happen. Actually it started with a someone.

I met Fiona, and she had the bright idea that we should read the bible together.

The bible had never really featured in my life. Sure I’d been to plenty of Bible Studies, even did Sunday School exams, but it seemed very detached from my life.

But as I started reading it with Fiona, something happened.

A stirring began in my heart.

It was like all the pieces started to fit together. I started to see what difference the gospel made.

I’m not saying that I suddenly had everything together. I certainly didn’t. And I still don’t.

But the stirring made changes in the way I spoke to others and how I viewed ministry.

Conclusion

As we move into the book of Romans, we’re going to see one of the most powerful descriptions of the gospel.

This book has changed the lives of some notable people in church history - with perhaps one of the more well known being Martin Luther who happened to read a section of Romans which changed his entire outlook on life, and consequently made a monumental change in the direction of the church.

My hope is that as we go through this book, that you will have your heart stirred by the amazing story of the gospel.

This gospel is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.

The gospel reveals the righteousness of God that through faith, you can know for yourself.

And as our hearts are stirred, may you be motivated to build others up and to share the good news with all around us.

Let me pray...