Trusting in the Gospel of Jesus
Trusting in the Gospel of Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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We went through Acts. What happened in Acts?
The church was united, they shared all their belongings and had all things in common. Then last week we heard about Stephen how he preached against those who were responsible for Jesus death.
They stoned him to death and he became the first Christian Martyr after Jesus resurrection.
Now we have 2 groups. Jews who have had a specific tradition, laws and customs and gentiles who had very different laws and customs and they are called and expected to worship together.
How do you think that would at the start?
This is one of the main purposes why Paul wrote the book of Romans. To bring the Jews and the gentiles together and unite them under the truth of the resurrection.
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. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Q: What do we see?
Q: We use the word Gospel a lot. What is the Gospel?
The word gospel is derived from the Anglo-Saxon term, meaning “good story,” a rendering of the Latin evangelium and the Greek euangelion, meaning “good news” or “good telling.”
The Gospel is truly a story and at the same time it is also an event.
It is the historical event of the god man Jesus Christ who was prophesied hundreds of years before his birth, of his life, death and physical resurrection.
It is the story of redemption that God planned before anything even existed.
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
And the story of how God will advance His kingdom and will reign on earth where sin, death and suffering will no longer exist.
Everything is great, but now we make a drastic turn. The Jews relied on them being obedient to the OT laws in order to win God favor and salvation.
Paul understood this because he once believed that same thing as a Jew. Now he will turn that upside down.
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. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Q: Who is this verse referring to and what does that mean?
This verse is an all encompassing message about the human race and how we have all sinned. This verse is about you and I.
They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Again these are the evils that are present in out own lives. We are the unrighteous, evil doers who are filled with envy, murder, strife, deceit etc.
Not only do we do these things but we know in depths of our soul that everyone who is evil like this deserves death and we continue and also approve of others to do the same.
This was written to the Gentiles. What about the Jews? Lets see
What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
The chosen people are no better off. This is an excellent way for Paul to show that the two groups in the church are in the same boat. There is no difference among them, they are all lost. You and I are also right there with them.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Q: What do we see?
Q: What is the law?
Consider it the 10 commandments, there is more but just to make the point.
The law brought judgement and condemnation.
How can something that brings death and condmenation be good?
Like God His commandments are perfect, there is nothing wrong with the commandments. They only reveal the evil and wickedness in our own hearts.
Just like a flashlight in a dark place which can reveal a crime. The light itself isnt evil, it merely reveals what is already there in the darkness.
The glory and perfection of Jesus has been given to us and it does not require us to perfectly follow the law. Salvation now is by faith and it is a gift to us.
The Jews hearing this would be asking themselves what about everything that happened historically. What about God’s promises and covenant with Abraham?
I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
The Jews would be right to wonder about this. How can the gentiles be included when they arent direct descendants of Abraham?
In the first part of Chapter 4 Paul answers this
What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.
What does this say?
Abraham was seen a righteous because of his faith not because of works.
If you work and get salvation that way then God owes you salvation, but no one is owed salvation and God is not in-debited to anyone for the perceived good that they have done.
He goes on to further clarify.
For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.
Overall you and I are descendants of Abraham. What makes us descendants of Abraham is the faith that we share in God.
That makes You and I, the non jews, part of the fufilled promise that God made.
Think of it like a giant collage, with hundreds, thousands of peoples pictures and your is there as well in God’s plan.
So what does this mean regarding how we are saved?
4. That means that God reconciles and declares sinners righteous through Jesus
4. That means that God reconciles and declares sinners righteous through Jesus
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The people that Paul said we all are, the ones who murder, who are ruthless, heartless, envious, full of strife and malice so we devise evil, God has chosen to suffer and die for those exact people. For you and I as former enemies of God.
This can only happen through the faithful life of Christ and his payment for our sin on the cross.
Q: Do you believe you downplay the seriousness of the sins that you personally commit? Why would you think that those sins actually be less offensive to God?
Looking back at the overall picture of Romans.
Through confession and faith, both Jews and Gentiles shared a common loyalty to Jesus.
The thing they have in common, a Savior who died for all, that transcends any of their differences in life. Those become on important at this point.
Q: What are some worldly distinctions between people that believers must overcome for the sake of the gospel?
race
heritage
socioeconomic classes
education
politics
gender
Paul wanted all believers, in view of God’s mercy, to be living sacrifices and to allow their minds to be transformed. Then they could build on this shared relationship with Jesus and be empowered to live in community as the unified body of Christ
What is the take away?
What is the take away?
As I mentioned the reason Paul wrote to the Romans is to unite groups that had fundemental different experiences and upbringings. This would be practially impossible with merely human wisdom.
If you remember last week we had 40+ people getting baptized and then more came forward as Pastor John called them. I detected a sense of deep unity among the community of believers and it seemed like a glimpse of what this verse.
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
If we want to heal our lands, if we want to heal our people, if we want to heal the hurts in our own hearts and fogive to look past the surface and see the person that is created in God’s image, there is only 1 answer. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the only this that can and will ultimately untie the world.