There are two extreme kinds of professing Christians, the extremely positive and the extremely negative. Some are just kind of happy-clappy always smiling, always failing to reckon with the sufferings of this life and the massive biblical emphasis on the reality of suffering and pain. But far more common is the professing Christian who is given to a fatalistic, I’ll never change, nothing will ever happen kind of attitude. But the passage we’re going to look at this week gives me great hope because it reminds me that God is at work. His calling for us is to be faithful. God can at any moment change the status quo and bring greater glory to His Name. This is what we see in Acts 9:32-43 . . .

Acts 9:32  Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda.
It seems here that Peter is functioning as a traveling pastor to the people in the region where Philip had had his ministry in Acts chapter 8. While Philip and Paul seem to have been more like traveling evangelists, Peter seems to have functioned here in a role of pastor, building up the faith of those who already believed in Jesus. We need both. We need people whose primary calling is to take the gospel to the unreached and we need also those men who are called to be shepherd-leaders, pastors, who will build up the church. We need those pastor-elders who can come alongside people and strengthen them in the faith. Notice too how God powerfully uses people who are engaged in active ministry. If you are sitting on the shelf waiting for God to come pick you up, you probably should not expect much of God’s work in your life. If, on the other hand, you are seeking to faithfully serve Him every day, you should expect His work through you.
So Peter came to this town of Lydda, a town about 25 miles northwest of Jerusalem. The town of Lydda was a fairly important place, located on the trade route from Babylon to Egypt. It was about eleven miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea. You might wonder, how had the gospel come to Lydda? There are basically two answers. First, we learn from the beginning of Acts chapter 8 that many of the Christians who were living in Jerusalem when Stephen was killed fled to the surrounding regions when persecution broke out following Stephen’s death. We can assume that some of these persecuted Christians relocated to this region and began sharing Christ with those who lived there. In addition, we can see that Philip, after his encounter with the Ethiopian Eunuch, was moved by God to the region of Azotus and he went on preaching through all the towns of that region until he arrived at Caesarea. Lydda would have been one of the towns in which Philip ministered. The town in the next passage, Joppa, also would have been one reached through Philip’s ministry. Again, we see the hand of God in hardship. The persecution that sent Philip out of Jerusalem was used by God to spread the gospel all over the region around Jerusalem. Don’t sell short the sovereign hand of God. He may be moving in a way that confounds and frustrates you, but which in time will work for His greater glory and your eternal joy.
Peter was last mentioned preaching the gospel to the Samaritans in 8:25. Now he turned to this coastal area where Philip had already worked, in order to strengthen the believers there. And it is here that two great miracles will take place. And a great miracle is also taking place in Peter.  The first miracle is seen in verses 33-35.

33  There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed.
Aeneas is a Greek name which means “praise.” It is an ironic name for a man who had been bedridden for eight years. For you who cared for your loved ones for a year or two or ten or twenty, praise is probably not the first thing that comes to your mind. Yet Aeneas will soon have cause to give praise. Two questions confront us as we think about Aeneas. First, was he a Gentile and second, was he a Christian? The fact that he lived in Judea probably indicates that he had a Jewish background but his Greek name may mean that he influenced by Gentile culture, like many of the people who lived in that region. As to whether he is a believer, I am inclined to say that he is for two reasons. First, verse 32 tells us that Peter is going about strengthening the saints and it is in this context that he finds Aeneas. Therefore, it is likely that Peter found Aeneas among the believers. Second, verse 35 tells us that when Aeneas was healed, the whole region turned to the Lord, but Aeneas himself is not mentioned as having turned to the Lord. This means that either Aeneas was already a believer or that Aeneas was healed but did not trust in Jesus. I think it is most likely that Aeneas is a believer. It seems very likely that Luke would have noted his unbelief if indeed he had rejected Jesus after being healed.  So here is a believer, and he is suffering. We are not free from all suffering because we are believers. Many of us will suffer greatly. But God is also merciful. He will either be merciful to you in this life by giving you healing or the comfort of His presence to endure, or He will be merciful to you by rewarding you a hundredfold in heaven for your patient earthly suffering. Here God shows mercy to Aeneas. Look at verse 34 . . .

34  And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” And immediately he rose.
This is pure mercy. There is no request for healing on Aeneas’ part. Peter just speaks it to him in the authority of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ heals you. What mercy. Rise and make your bed. Chuck Swindoll jokes that this was a true miracle because when Peter told Aeneas to make his bed he was getting him to do something that parents through the years have been unable to get their teenagers to do. But really, the miracle is that Jesus works through Peter’s words to bring healing to a man who had been paralyzed for eight years. As Jesus healed the paralytic in Luke chapter 5, now Jesus is healing Aeneas through Peter. Peter is doing things like we saw in the ministries of the great Old Testament prophets Elijah and Elisha. So Luke relates these stories to show how Peter is part of that prophetic line which culminated in Jesus, and Jesus is now continuing his work through Peter and the other apostles. And this healing is not only for Aeneas, as we see in verse 35.

35  And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.
In Acts, as in the gospels, miracles are God’s acts of mercy to the needy, but that is never all they are. Much more significantly, miracles support and spread the message of the salvation in Christ. You see, far more miraculous than the healing of a paralyzed man or the raising of a woman from the dead is the work of God in the human soul, a soul set against God, a soul in rebellion, a soul bound for hell. The great miracles of the Bible point to the greatest miracle, that God saves to the uttermost his enemies, through the death of His Son, and His Son brings human beings from every tribe, tongue, language and nation to glory. The only way to see life from a right perspective is to plumb the depths of the gospel. It is good news. It is the greatest news. And the miracles of the Bible and the New Testament in particular are consistently designed to point to the truthfulness and effectiveness of the gospel message. Again, notice what happens when Aeneas is healed. The gospel goes out. People turn to the Lord.
Luke says all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw Aeneas. Lydda was a town but Sharon was a name for the coastal plain that stretched 50 miles from Lydda to Mt. Carmel. Surely Luke can’t mean every single person in that region saw Aeneas. I think it is clear that what Luke means is that the news of Aeneas was widespread. In other words, Luke is using language like we often use. “I had to wait at the DMV all day.” “Really? You were there from 6 am to 6 pm? No, you know what I mean!” The same thing was going on here. All means the message was widespread. Luke often uses this kind of language.
So in the first miracle, God gave a guy who had absolutely nothing to offer a new life by sheer mercy. Aeneas is a really good picture of salvation. “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.”

The second miracle is a picture of salvation as well, but from a different angle. Look at verse 36 . . .
36  Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity.
The scene shifts from Lydda to Joppa. Joppa was about 10 miles northwest of Lydda, it was on the coast and served as the port city of Jerusalem. We are introduced here to Tabitha  or Dorcas. Wheras Aeneas was inactive, Dorcas was active. Aeneas was probably looked down upon by people, while Dorcas was greatly admired for her good works, particularly it seems, toward widows. So catch the contrast between the poor, crippled Aeneas and the active, serving, admired Dorcas. But notice verse 37, because it teaches us something very important.

37  In those days she became ill and died, and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room.
Dorcas became ill and died. Again, her faithfulness to God did not free her from suffering in this life. She still struggled with sickness, she still faced death. I just want to mention that to try to bring a measure of comfort to you who have struggled with sickness. God does not shield even his choice servants from hardship. I think of Billy Graham. All the crusades, all the preaching of the gospel, but in the end, weak, sick, in and out of the hospital, slowly heading toward home. So take heart that this is the path that many faithful believers will walk. You may not be sick because you have sinned. You are not sick because God does not love you. You are sick because all the effects of sin have not yet been removed from the world. But one day they will be. The healing of Dorcas is a picture of this future freedom from sin.
When Dorcas died, her body was washed, as was common, but then it was laid in an upper room, which was not common. Most Jewish custom said that the body was to be buried on the day of death, but some customs allowed up to three days. Nevertheless, the way they handled the body, as well as what they say in verse 37, makes me wonder if these believers in Joppa were hoping for a miracle. Maybe they had heard of the miracles Jesus had done some years earlier. Maybe they knew of the raising of Lazarus, which had happened just a few miles away in Bethany. Maybe they had heard of the raising of Jairus’ daughter or of the son of the widow at Nain. Maybe these Christians were thinking that maybe, just maybe, one of the inner circle of Jesus’ disciples, one of the 12 apostles, Peter, could do something. I think verse 38 supports this idea . . .

38  Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, “Please come to us without delay.”
Why did the believers in Joppa send for Peter so urgently? Because they were hoping for a miracle. Because they knew Peter had been given special power from God. Why the urgency for Peter to come to one who was already dead unless they believed that God could use Peter to do something to help in this situation?

39  So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them.
Peter is a model of servant hood, walking 10 miles on foot to Joppa to meet a need, a need most of us would have said that there was no need to hurry for. The woman was dead. But maybe Peter remembered when Jesus had walked with him, how those from Jairus’ house came up to them with the news that Jairus’ daughter had died. And maybe he remembered how Jesus said, “Do not fear, only believe.” When Peter got to Joppa, maybe the very scene reminded him of the earlier event from the ministry of Jesus. The widows were there weeping, showing the garments Dorcas had made for them. What love she had for these widows and now what grief they feel, as their advocate has died.

40  But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up.
There is a strong parallel here to Jesus’ raising of Jairus’ daughter in Luke 8. Peter had witnessed, along with James, John and the girl’s parents, the raising of Jairus’ daughter. Jesus took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha, cumi” or “little girl, arise.” But Peter does not do this, instead he sends everyone out. I think the reason he did this is so that no one would think it was Peter who raised this woman from the dead. Peter wanted God to get all the glory from this miracle. And notice, Peter kneels and prays. He knows that healing is in God’s hands. Peter does not have power in himself to bring healing. Instead, he calls on God to bring this woman back to life. Then Peter says, “Tabitha, cumi.” Just one letter different than what Jesus said. And she came to life.

41  And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive.
The Greek verb here for raised her up is the same word used throughout the NT for Jesus’ resurrection. Dorcas would one day die again, but still, her resurrection by the power of God was a reminder to all believers that there was a resurrection coming. The sin that brings disease and death will not have the final word. And this is one of our greatest hopes as Christians. Death will not have the final word. There is a new heaven and a new earth coming. There are new bodies coming to all who trust Jesus.
When verse 41 tells us that Peter “presented” her to them we are reminded of how Elijah “gave” back her son to the widow of Zarephath. We are reminded of how Jesus “gave” her son back to the widow of Nain. In these two instances the restoration of an only son to a destitute widow was a gift, and Peter’s presentation of Dorcas alive was also a gift to the widows of Joppa.

42  And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.
As with the healing of Aeneas, so with the raising of Dorcas, the news spread quickly and many believed. The miracle validated the gospel message. The miracle led to people turning to the Lord. Again, miracles in the Bible are expressions of God’s love but they are rarely isolated incidents but are intended to teach deeper truths. If Jesus can raise a dead woman, maybe He is who He says He is and I need to trust Him to be forgiven and one day raised myself to eternal life.
So I love the picture we see in these two miracles. In the first, a paralyzed man with nothing to offer is made whole by the power of Jesus. In the second, a wonderful woman noted for her love is raised from death by  the power of Jesus. God will save us, and God will raise us. God is at work in people who have nothing to give. God is at work in people who are admirable and virtuous. But there is someone else God is at work in these miracles and we get a hint of it in verse 43.

43  And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner.
At first glance, it seems strange to believe that this verse is very important at all. It just tells us that Peter stayed in Joppa with this guy Simon the tanner. But it begins to be a little more significant when we realize that tanning was an unclean occupation for a Jew. Because it involved contact with dead animals, tanning of animal hides was viewed as an unclean occupation. Yet Peter stays with this man Simon. Do you see what is happening? The gospel is beginning to break down barriers for Peter. It is true that Peter had not been a Pharisee like Paul was, yet still he was firmly committed to Judaism. But in following Jesus and now in ministering in the name of Jesus, these barriers from his former life begin to fade away.
I take all of this passage, from the healing of Aeneas to the raising of Dorcas to staying with Simon, as a part of the preparation for the momentous events that would happen in chapter 10. God is showing Peter that if he can heal the lame and raise the dead then he can surely save the Gentiles. So these miracles were not only for the benefit of Aeneas and Dorcas, they were not only for the spread of the gospel, they were also for the benefit of Peter, to prepare him for what was to come. And this is the way it is in ministry. As you give of yourself in ministry, you find that God blesses you in wonderful ways. And as you serve Him faithfully, you often find that He gives you greater and greater opportunities to serve. And you can know from this passage that you never again have to let pessimism have the upper hand. Just be available and faithful in the life and ministry God gives you and trust that God can turn things for good at any moment, even right now, in this moment.

Tonight we come to what most people acknowledge is Paul’s first unveiling of the theme of the book of Romans . . . The powerful gospel that saves Jew and Gentile. This is such a rich section, I hope you will be as blessed tonight as I was in studying it.

Romans 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel,
The most important words in the Bible are often the little words, words like “for” or “so” or “that.” These words are important because they give us the flow of thought of the author. In these two verses, the word “for” is used to link Paul’s thoughts. So understanding the “fors” will greatly help us understand the passage. To get at the meaning of the first “for,” we have to go back to the previous verses. We have already seen that in these first verses of Romans Paul is talking about his ministry to the church in Rome and in his desire to minister to them. In particular, he says in verse 15 that he is eager to preach the gospel to the church in Rome. The “For” in chapter 1, verse 16 is connected to verse 15. The “For” is answering the question, why is Paul eager to preach the gospel in Rome? The reason is that he is not ashamed of the gospel. He takes pride in the gospel.
Now we need to explore for a minute why Paul brings up this issue of being ashamed. Scottish theologian James Stewart, not the actor, said of this passage: “There’s no sense in declaring that you’re not ashamed of something unless you’ve been tempted to feel ashamed of it.” So why is Paul bringing up the issue of being ashamed of the gospel?
Some have suggested that since Rome was the leading metropolitan center of the world, a person might be intimidated bringing to that sophisticated city the story of a Jewish carpenter who rose from the dead and claimed to be the Son of God.
It is also possible that Paul was remembering the words of Jesus in places like Mark 8:38, For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.  Paul was human. He acknowledged in 1 Corinthians 2:3 that he arrived to minister to the church in Corinth with weakness and fear and with much trembling. Yet Paul overcame this challenge to speak to the church in Corinth without shame and so is affirming his allegiance to Christ.
We also must remember what Paul would go on to say in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, for it may be another reason that he brought up the issue of shame. What Paul brought up in 1 Corinthians was the fact that the gospel was rejected by many. This could lead to shame on the part of the preacher or the believer when the message was not received. Paul said in 1 Corinthians that the gospel was a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. The gospel was a stumbling block to the Jews because they did not believe in a suffering Messiah. The gospel was foolishness to the Greeks because they did not believe in the resurrection of the body. So Paul may be addressing the issue of being ashamed of the gospel because he knows how commonly people of all types, Jew and Gentile, reject the gospel. Paul may be thinking about the church living among the citizens of Rome. The Christians in Rome from a Jewish background were probably rejected by their families as heretics. Those from a Gentile background were probably rejected by their so-called sophisticated neighbors as foolish. So Paul is putting everything on the table and saying, “I am not ashamed” and you should not be either.
There may be other reasons why Paul brought up the issue of being ashamed as well. In Romans 3:8, Paul says that some people were charging him with preaching that we should do evil, that God’s grace may abound. So Paul may be defending himself against accusations that he should be ‘ashamed’ of what he preaches. But Paul is not ashamed of the gospel. This is a consistent theme in his life. He speaks to anyone and everyone about Jesus. He speaks to simple people and the intellectual and to the rabbi and to the ruler and to Jew and Gentile. So Paul was not ashamed to come to the most powerful city in the world and proclaim our gospel.
So Paul was eager to preach the gospel in Rome because he was not ashamed of the gospel. He felt an obligation to preach to Jew and Gentile, wise and foolish. And he felt that obligation even though many of those to whom he would preach would reject his message. Several applications come out of this for us. First, Paul was eager because he was not ashamed. The flip side to that is that if you are not eager to share the gospel, it is probably because you are ashamed. The rest of this passage is going to tell us all the reasons we should not be ashamed, but we need to bear this in mind first, that if we are not a witness, we are probably ashamed. Once we understand that we have the problem of shame, we can look at this passage to see how to address the problem.
The second thing this phrase teaches me, along with the other Scriptures we have looked at, is that most people do not want the good news you have. Yet still Paul was not ashamed. Why? Because Paul was not focused on his own person being rejected since he already had a higher, greater, more important acceptance by God through the gospel he proclaimed. So for Paul, the great debt from which God had forgiven him made him under obligation to all, Jew and Gentile, wise and foolish. This obligation will move him to write in 1 Corinthians 9:16, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” So ultimately our calling is to proclaim the gospel without shame and leave the results to God.
Knowing that we will be rejected would cause most of us to feel shame in almost any other area, but it is not to be so with the gospel. The rest of this passage tells us why we should not be ashamed. So let’s begin to answer the question of why we should be unashamed by looking at the next phrase . . .

for it is the power of God for salvation
There’s another “for” and it is again pointing to cause. Why am I eager to preach the gospel in Rome? Because I am not ashamed of the gospel. Why am I not ashamed of the gospel? Because it is the power of God for salvation.
The gospel is the power of God. You may hear some preacher’s say that this word for power is the word dunamis, from which we get dynamite. But that is a misleading way to think, because there was no dynamite in the first century and so dynamite was not on Paul’s mind when he penned this Greek word. Paul instead is just speaking of the gospel as the power of God for salvation.
“Power” is a dynamic thing, the English word dynamic is closer to the idea of the Greek word than the word dynamite. When the gospel is proclaimed, God works through it to bring salvation. This is what Paul will say later in Romans, “Faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” So again, as we have said throughout this study, we are not talking about lifeless theology. We are not studying the gospel simply to fill our minds but to experience more fully the presence and power of God. Theology should lead to doxology and to mission. When the gospel is preached rightly and believed, that is what happens. To really hear the gospel is to experience the presence of God. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:22-24  For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23  but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24  but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. D.L. Moody said that the gospel is like a lion. All the preacher has to do is to open the door of the cage and get out of the way!
But it is important to note that the gospel is not just raw power or some great display of power. It is directed power. It is the power of God unto salvation. The gospel is going somewhere, it has purpose and direction, it is leading to salvation. This salvation includes forgiveness of sin but Paul will explain in Romans that salvation is much more than forgiveness alone. We were justified by faith, we are being sanctified and we will be glorified. Salvation covers all of life from the moment we believe through eternity. So it is right to say we were saved, it is right to say we are being saved and it is right to say that we will be saved.  And I think the nature of salvation in its fullness is one of the reasons Paul is not ashamed of it. Any religion can make converts but what Paul is saying is that the gospel makes such a powerful impact on the truly saved that you don’t have to be ashamed of it.
How did Jesus triumph over the shame of the cross? Look at Hebrews 12:1-3.  1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, 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, 2  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
Did you see it? Jesus triumphed over the shame of the cross by looking to the joy that was set before Him. What was that joy? Bringing many sons and daughters to glory, being exalted as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, seated at the right hand of God. So Jesus looked at the fullness of what His salvation would bring and willingly endured the cross. So for us, we can stand unashamed of the gospel because of what it does in us and what it will do for us.  We avoid feeling shame by remembering that the gospel will triumph. We remind ourselves that the gospel can do what no other religion can do because no other religion has a Savior who can reconcile sinners to God by His death, no other faith has a Savior who can give sinners hope by offering them grace and not works, no other religion can bring sinners safely into salvation for all eternity. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can do that, therefore it is the power of God unto salvation, therefore we should not be ashamed of this gospel. But there is a condition to experiencing this powerful gospel and it is found in the next phrase.

to everyone who believes,
What we see first in this phrase is that this gospel is to everyone. This gospel will reach all kinds of people. So there is nothing today that disqualifies you from experiencing this powerful gospel. Family background doesn’t matter, race doesn’t matter, education doesn’t matter, job or lack thereof doesn’t matter, how other people feel about you doesn’t matter, past immorality doesn’t matter, if you’ve sinned through gambling or drinking or drugs or spousal abuse or theft or homosexuality or lying or anything you can be forgiven. There will be all these kinds of people in heaven. So the gospel is to everyone, young and old, rich and poor, notable and anonymous. But not everyone is saved. We all know lost people and most of us probably know people who died in a lost state. And the Bible is clear that while a multitude will be saved others will be judged. So the word everyone must be balanced by the words “who believes.” This is the condition of salvation. It is by faith. Unbelief is the only thing that can disqualify you from salvation. So, as we have said before, the tent of God’s kingdom is huge, but the doorway into the tent is narrow, faith in Christ. And to everyone who believes the gospel is the power of God for salvation. So it would be senseless to think of salvation as something that could be real without being powerful in my life, it would contradict the plain meaning of Romans 1:16. The gospel is the power of God. So if I claim to believe the gospel but it makes absolutely no difference in my life, I must conclude that I haven’t really believed. We can’t disconnect the power of God in the gospel from our so-called decision for Christ. In other words, the Bible does not allow us to say, “I trusted Jesus in 1983 and I haven’t given it a second thought. It makes no difference in my life. I made my peace with God and that’s that.” That, my friends, is the portrait of a false convert.  And most churches have scores of those kinds of people on their church rolls. So I want to say that the person who claims to be a Christian but hasn’t been to church in 20 years is almost certainly not backslidden, they’re lost.
The way Romans 1:16 is written supports this thought. The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, not believed. Present tense, not past tense. So believing is an ongoing action. You see this same thing in 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 where Paul says, “I preached to you [the gospel], which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are being saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.” As we said a few weeks ago in the sermon on Simon in Acts chapter 8, the Bible is clear that there is a kind of faith that is in vain, it is empty, it is the acknowledgment of a truth without the allegiance of heart and life. James calls it dead faith in the second chapter of his letter. And this kind of belief can not save. Only living faith, faith that goes on believing, can save. True believers will persevere in faith. For the true believer, over time Jesus will become increasingly precious. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be seasons of dryness or relative fruitlessness. It doesn’t mean trials will never through you off course. It does mean that in the end you will find that God has been faithful to you all the way and that He will bring you into His presence forever in the end.
John Piper says, “So I conclude that the reason Paul is not ashamed of the gospel is that it is the only truth in all the world that will not let you down when you give your life to it in faith. It will bring you all the way through temptation and persecution and death and judgment into eternal safety and ever-increasing joy in the presence of a holy and glorious God. All the other “gospels” in the world that win so many converts will fail you in the end. Only one saves from the final wrath of God and leads to fullness of joy in his presence and pleasures at his right hand forever. Therefore, there is no need to be ashamed of it, no matter what others say or do. And O how eager we should be to speak this gospel to believer and unbeliever alike.”

Now let’s look at the last part of verse 16 . . .
to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Now it is interesting that right after Paul’s words about how the gospel was to everyone who believes, right after his words about there being no distinctions, Paul immediately raises a distinction, “to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Paul gives a certain priority to the Jews. How can these two truths be reconciled in such a way that neither is compromised?
I think it is best to consider first what Paul does not mean when he says to the Jew first and also to the Greek. First, on a very fundamental level, we need to remember that the word Greek here does not refer to people from Greece but is another way of expressing the idea of the Gentiles, or non-Jews. So Paul is making a comparison here between the Jews and all non-Jews, saying that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew and also to the Gentile.
I think there may be something also to consider in that Paul did not say to the Jews and also to the Greeks but to the Jew and also to the Greek. It is singular, not plural. I think Paul wants to indicate through this that salvation happens one person at a time. God will not save all Jews or all Greeks but only those who believe. The gospel goes out to all but it is believed or rejected one person at a time.
I think the best way to go from here is probably to look at what Paul does not mean by giving priority to the Jews. First, the Jews do not have priority because of any righteousness in them. This is where Paul is going to go in Romans 3:9-10, “What then? Are we [Jews] better than they [Gentiles]? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, ‘THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE.’” And when we get to my favorite passage in Romans, 3:21-25, we find these words right in the middle, “For there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” So Paul is not talking about individual righteousness when he says, “to the Jew first.” The Jews are given priority because they are more righteous.
Second, the Jews do not have priority in how they are saved. God justifies Jew and Gentile alike by the same means: faith in Christ.
Finally, the Jews do not have priority by getting to enjoy more of God’s blessings in Christ. Paul makes it clear in Ephesians that the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile has been torn down so that all the spiritual blessings we have in Christ belong to Jew and Gentile. As Ephesians 3 says, “the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
So these are at least three of the ways that the Jews do not have priority in salvation. But there are also several ways in which the Jew does have priority, yet none of these ways violates the truth that the gospel comes to all kinds of people without distinction. These are issues Paul is going to discuss later in Romans in great depth, but he’s previewing it for us here in this little phrase, just kind of priming the pump for what he will discuss later. The issue of Jew and Gentile is one of the major themes of Romans, so we’re going to be re-visiting this issue often through the weeks.
So let’s just briefly touch on ways that the Jews do have priority in the gospel. I am using here several of the points John Piper raised in his excellent sermon series on Romans. First, The Jews have priority over the Gentiles because they were God’s chosen people. God freely chose the Jews to be His special people who would announce the coming of the Savior and through whose physical line would come the Savior. Now I want to be clear that God did not choose the Jews because of anything in them. It was His free choice. This is exactly what Deuteronomy 7:7-8 says, “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers.”
Second, the Jews have a priority over Gentiles because they received God’s special revelation, the Old Testament. Paul will bring this out more clearly in chapter 3, when he says that the Jews had an advantage because they “were entrusted with the oracles of God.” So all the great promises of the salvation that was coming in Christ was first entrusted to the Jews in the Old Testament Scriptures. In this way this powerful gospel comes to the Jew first.
Third, the Jews have priority because Jesus came as a Jew to the Jews. Paul told us in Romans 1:3 that Jesus was from the line of David according to the flesh, in other words, He was a Jew. And in Jesus’ ministry, He clearly focused most of His attention on the Jews. They had priority in his ministry. In this way the gospel came to the Jew first.
Finally, and interestingly, the Jews have priority over the Gentiles in both final judgment and final blessing. In Romans 2:9-10, Paul says, amazingly, “There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” In other words, the priority that the Jews have, if it is rejected and squandered will result in a priority in judgment. And if they are grateful for their priority and trust in the mercy of their Messiah, then they will go first into the final blessing of God. There are definite dangers in having this priority. “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required” (Luke 12:48).
As Piper says, “The whole point is that God is the One who has mercy. Ethnicity is not decisive here. There is no merit with him. We are all sinners. So the real emphasis falls back on that wonderful word “everyone” that we started with: “The Gospel is the power of God to everyone who believes.” So, whether Jew or Gentile, believe! And receive the power of God to save you from your sins and guilt and death and judgment and hell, and bring you home to ever-increasing joy in his presence forever and ever.”

When I was in college one of the students there was a guy who seemed to be a person of character, but he wore this t-shirt that always bugged me and I’ve never really known why until now. I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s in those days when wearing Christian t-shirts was considered cool. The first one I remember was Jesus under the weight of the cross and it said, “God’s Gym, His pain, your gain.” There were many, many others much more corny than that. But the one this guy had said, “The righteousness He requires is the righteousness His righteousness requires Him to require.” Now you may say, “Pastor, you didn’t like that shirt because it was so confusing. And I guess that’s partly right. But I’ve really seen from this study of verse 17 the real reason I didn’t like that t-shirt.

Romans 1:17  For in it the righteousness of God
Now how does this “for” connect to the rest of the passage? Is Paul telling us another reason why he is not ashamed of the gospel, or is he giving a reason for why the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes? Is it, “I am not ashamed of the gospel because the righteousness of God is revealed in it” or is it “the gospel of God is the power of salvation to everyone who believes because the righteousness of God is revealed in it?” I think it is clear since he has just finished talking about the gospel as the power of God, that this “for” connects not to shame but to the gospel. The gospel is the power of God because it reveals God’s righteousness. So you can’t separate the gospel from the person of God. The gospel is the expression of the person of God. And when we think about the expression of the person of God, what we should think about is righteousness. This is why the gospel has power, because it is the expression of the all-powerful God who is righteous.
In the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed. Now there has been much ink spilled in the pursuit of the meaning of the word “righteousness.” The gospel reveals a righteousness of God that is distinct from human righteousness. But what exactly is this “righteousness”? There are basically three views. Some believe it simply refers to an attribute of God. It stands parallel to “power of God” in verse 16 and the “wrath of God” in verse 18 so in verse 17 the righteousness of God is revealed. As the power of God is revealed in the gospel, so the righteousness of God is also revealed. Righteousness here then refers to God’s infinite purity and holiness. When Paul explains the gospel in the great passage he writes in 3:21-26, he will say that one of the reasons the gospel was given was so that God might demonstrate His righteousness. So one view is that the righteousness in verse 17 is pointing simply to the person of God. It is God’s righteousness that is revealed in the gospel. As to how it is revealed, we’ll save most of that until we get to chapter 3:21-26.
A second view is that the righteousness of God is God’s activity whereby He declares to be righteous those who turn to him in faith. People who hold this view argue that the parallel expressions in 16 and 18, power and wrath are not descriptions of attributes of God but of activities of God.
A third view is that the righteousness of God refers to humans’ righteous status that results from God’s saving activity. The main support for this view is that the emphasis on faith at the end of the verse would point to this righteousness being something that is given to believers rather than just being a raw demonstration of God’s person or activity.
My answer to differences of interpretation is not always to bring the interpretations together, but in this case it is. I do not believe that the three views of the meaning of “the righteousness of God” in Romans 1:17 are exclusive of one another. Righteousness is undoubtedly an attribute of God and one of the big goals of the book of Romans is to point us toward glorifying God in all things. At the same time, God is clearly active in declaring all who trust Him as righteous. And God’s activity and His carrying out of His plan is clearly also an emphasis in Romans, so that Paul really spends three whole chapters, chapters 9-11 explaining one aspect of God’s plan. The clear implication of Romans is that God is actively at work. Even the present tense verbs here point to that activity. And all those who are justified by faith have received the righteousness of God. This too is a huge emphasis in Romans. So I think in this case a bringing together of the three views is the most accurate way to look at the text: Our infinitely righteous God is actively giving His righteousness to all who trust Him. I think that is the idea behind this phrase “the righteousness of God.”
Now we need to look at another important piece of this verse . . .

is revealed from faith for faith,
We see here that the righteousness of God is a revealed righteousness. It is not something that we naturally see and love and trust in. The righteousness of God must be revealed to us. How is it revealed to us? Through the gospel. Now this might seem odd to you because what would we naturally say that the gospel reveals? (God’s love). And indeed it does, for Jesus says in John 3:16 that “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” So the gospel does reveal God’s love. But the very important point Paul will make in Romans is that the gospel even more reveals God’s righteousness and this is really at the heart of its power. That’s all I can say about that right now without giving the rest of the book away but just keep this in mind. As Paul goes through Romans talking about the Gospel, the chief attribute of God he is concerned with is God’s righteousness.
Now, how does this righteousness which is revealed in the gospel come to us? By faith. So the righteousness we receive by faith is an external or alien righteousness. It’s not about something we do. It’s not about something we achieve. It is about something we believe. Faith is not a work. We do not receive the righteousness of God because of any good in us. Again, as Augustus Toplady wrote in the old hymn, “Nothing in my hands I bring; simply to thy cross I cling.” This runs against the tide of everything that is in us. For us it is always about earning and effort and we think goodness is something we can achieve by our own white-knuckled effort. Matt Chandler says, “Bottom line, you have not earned right standing with God by your effort or your cleaning up of your life. We have been made pure standing blameless in front of God not because of any kind of religious or moral pursuit but because Christ died.”
So what is the place of works? Paul’s going to tell us more about that in the book of Romans but the short answer is this . . . Works are the not the root of salvation, works are the fruit of salvation. This is something we will talk about in great detail later, so hold that thought.
Salvation is by faith. And the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, or from faith to faith or in faith from first to last. The Greek phrase has been taken in many ways. Many important figures in church history have had different interpretations of this phrase. Augustine believed that Paul was referring to the faith of the preacher and the faith of the hearer. Many of the Early Church Fathers believed that faith to faith meant from faith in the law to faith in the gospel. John Calvin thought the phrase pointed to the growth of faith in the believer, so that salvation comes through faith and faith grows as one continues to walk with God. Karl Barth thought that the first faith meant the faithfulness of God while the second pointed to the faith of the individual. Others believe it is a statement against Judaism, in that it is saying salvation is by faith and it has faith, not works, as its goal.
There is a passage in Paul’s writings that has a similar construction,
2 Corinthians 2:15, 16, — 15  For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16  to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? Now it seems to me here that these phrases death to death and life to life mean death which leads to death and life which leads to life. In other words, our witness is like death to some and they will end in eternal death if they continue in unbelief and to some our message is life and that life will lead to eternal life. So I am convinced that the same thing is going on here in verse 17 . . . When the revelation of the  righteousness of God is believed, it leads to more faith. “Oh God our help in ages past our hope for years to come, our shelter in the stormy blast and our eternal home. Under the shadow of Thy throne Thy saints have dwelt secure; sufficient is Thine arm alone and our defense is sure.”  Faith unto faith.

as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
This is the first time in Romans that Paul directly cites the Old Testament. In support of his declaration that righteousness comes by faith, Paul turned to words of the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk. In Galatians 3:11, Paul used the same quotation to prove that no one is justified by keeping the law.
In Romans, Paul uses the phrase from Habakkuk. In order to understand Romans, we’re going to have to understand Habakkuk. What God said to Habakkuk brought him great comfort. He was frustrated with God because of the wickedness of Israel and God’s seeming unwillingness to act. Habakkuk spent some time at the beginning of his book complaining against God about this. God surprised Habakkuk in response by telling him that He was going to judge Israel through a nation far more wicked than Israel. This set Habakkuk off again, and he complained against Israel.  It is almost as if Habakkuk was embarrassed at the way God was doing things. But God’s answer to Habakkuk was this: “I am about to reveal something to you, Habakkuk, that I want you to record so that a herald may go and proclaim it. It is a revelation of my righteousness, and will put to rest your fears of inaction and injustice. In the meantime—until my righteousness is revealed—you who are righteous are to trust me, to live by faith. There is nothing you can do to ‘fix’ the situation. You will have to live by faith, not by sight, until what I have written is accomplished. My plan will come to pass, but you will have to wait for it. Meanwhile, live by faith.”
Now, if we apply this to Romans, we see Paul writing to a community of Christians in the most powerful city in the world. It was a church that was under all kinds of persecution. In a few years from the time Romans was written, Paul would lose his own life there, put to death by the Emperor Nero. Could it be that the believers in Rome may have felt just like Habakkuk? Could it be that they had questioned God’s work and wondered what He was doing? Could they have even been embarrassed at the way God was working or not working? Maybe the church in Rome was like Habakkuk, desperate for change but not knowing what to do.
So Paul reaches back into his Jewish background and his Old Testament knowledge to the book of Habakkuk. And what Paul is telling his readers is two-fold: the gospel will triumph and as you wait for it to do so, live by faith. So Paul is not ashamed of his circumstances, even though he had been a prisoner for the Lord. Even though he had been cursed and put down and beaten because of the gospel. He was not ashamed of God, even though the world in which he lived was set against God. Why was he not overcome with shame or guilt or sorrow over the circumstances in which he lived? Because of the gospel. Because it is the power of God. Because it is the revelation of God’s righteousness. And God’s righteousness through the gospel will ultimately triumph over the power of sin. And as we wait for that day, we who have received the righteousness of God by faith now continue in faith.
This is the same message we need to hear, in a culture which seems to be going down the tubes. We are now called a “post-Christian” nation. Some of us wonder if there is anybody we can vote for, we wonder if there is any way to stem the tide of filth on tv and the internet. We may feel hopeless and we may feel ashamed that sometimes so little good seems to come in a nation where so many claim to be followers of Jesus. But the power is not in the church the power is in the gospel. The righteousness of God will one day be revealed in its fullness, but right now it is revealed in the gospel. Our call is to daily live by faith in this truth.
I am reminded of Isaiah 55:11: “So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
John Piper says, “What saves is persevering faith. If that’s true, now it
makes clear sense why verse 17 explains how God saves believers by saying that in the gospel God reveals a righteousness for us that is first perceived and embraced by faith, and then has the effect of awakening all the necessary future faith that we need in order to be saved. The gospel saves believers because the gospel keeps believers believing. 1Peter 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4  to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5  who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
In Romans 8:13 Paul says, “If you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” But the problem is, we all know that in our war with sin we do not win often enough to have peace in our consciences. So if our life hangs on perfect winning in the war with sin, we are going to despair and not persevere to the end. We will simply give up, because there is no use trying.
What then will keep us going and fighting so that we will live? Romans 1:16,17 answers: the gospel is the power of God to save believers because in the gospel we can see revealed every day that our standing with God is not based on our own righteousness but on God’s, freely given to us by faith. And when we see that over and over in the gospel, day after day, as long as we live, our faith is renewed and sustained, and we press on in the fight. Our confidence that God will help us in life and save us from the wrath to come is based on our ever-renewed assurance that our acceptance with him is based on the gift of his own righteousness, not ours.
So every time the Bible demands you to do something do not think, “I must do this to take away my guilt or to get forgiveness or to get a right standing with God.” Rather think, “I will do this because my guilt is already removed, I am already forgiven, I already have the gift of God’s righteousness, and so I know that God is for me and will help me. So I will trust him and obey him and display by my radical, risk-taking obedience the glory of God’s grace. And I will draw nearer and nearer to him in the fellowship of his sufferings and the joy of his companionship.”
God demands righteousness and we don’t have it. That’s the bad news. And the worst news is that because of this lack of righteousness and because of the rebellion that is in our hearts instead, we are under the condemnation of God and will suffer his wrath forever. That is bad news. And there is no way out of that. Whether I realize that is the path I am on or not. The Hollywood star who seems to have the world by the tail and the drunk on the street corner are both in the same boat. The powerful politician and the sanitation worker stand under the same judgment. This is bad news for humanity. The most selfish, indulgent person you can imagine is under the same judgment as the most dutiful, diligent, high achiever. This truth is what makes th good news so good. God demands righteousness we don’t have, so He gives it to us by sending His Son to bear the penalty for our unrighteousness on the cross. The gospel gives to us what God demands from us. And this is the problem I had with my school friend’s t-shirt. “The righteousness He requires is the righteousness His righteousness requires Him to require.” And I would add, “And this righteousness He supplies. To save you, to change you, to use you in His service, to keep you to the end, and to raise you forevermore in the fullness of joy that is His presence, forever free from sin and its effects. The righteousness He requires is the righteousness He supplies. Praise His Name.

Last time we made it through verses 1-4 in Romans chapter 1. We hoped to finish verses 1-7 but we ran out of time. So this evening we are going to tackle these last three verses in Paul’s introduction to the church in Rome.

Let’s begin with verse 5 . . .
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,
Jesus is the One through whom Paul and his co-workers have received grace and apostleship. I think verse 5 is specifically about Paul and his co-workers, because he contrasts his work in verse 5 with those to whom he is writing in verse 6. But there is an application here which I think is very powerful. I agree with the assessment of some who say that grace points to the power Paul received for his ministry and apostleship refers to the task to which he was called. In Romans, Paul several times refers to grace as that which God gives His people to enable them to serve Him. For example, in 12:6 Paul says, “We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.” And in 12:3 he says, “Through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you . . .” And in 15:15-16 Paul says, “Grace was given me from God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles.” So the grace Paul refers to in verse 5 is not the grace which brings salvation but the grace which empowers for service, in this case, the service of an apostle. In our case we may say many things. John Piper shares a few of them, “You might put, “Through Christ I have received grace and the teaching role.” Or: grace and singing. Or: grace and studentship. Or: grace and singleness. Or: grace and widowhood. Or: grace and motherhood. And what you should mean is: God has freely given me forgiveness and the power to do a calling, and fulfill a role which I accept by faith.”
This whole idea is best summed up in 1 Corinthians 15:10, when Paul says: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” You can’t do it apart from God’s gracious power. Jesus said, “apart from me you can do nothing.” No one can be the spouse they need to be apart from God’s power. No one can be the friend, or teacher, or father or worker that they are called to be apart from God’s power.
So Paul had received grace and apostleship for what purpose? “To bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all the nations.” Wow. What a phrase. Again, there are three parts, so let’s take them piece by piece.
First, we the phrase “the obedience of faith.” This is an odd phrase. God doesn’t just want to bring about faith and he doesn’t just want to bring about obedience He wants to bring about the obedience of faith. Commentator Douglas Moo says, “Paul saw his task as calling men and women to submission to the lordship of Christ, a submission that began with conversion but which was to continue in a deepening, lifelong commitment. This obedience to Christ as Lord is always closely related to faith, both as an initial, decisive step of faith and as a continuing “faith” relationship with Christ. In light of this, we understand the words “obedience” and “faith” to be mutually interpreting: obedience always involves faith and faith always involves obedience. They should not be equated, compartmentalized, or made into separate stages of Christian experience. Paul called men and women to a faith that was always inseparable from obedience– for the Savior in whom we believe is nothing less than our Lord — and to an obedience that could never be divorced from faith — for we can obey Jesus as Lord only when we have given ourselves to Him in faith. Viewed in this light, the phrase captures the full dimension of Paul’s apostolic task, a task that was not confined to initial evangelization but that included also the building up and firm establishment of churches.”

Second, verse 5 tells us that the gospel is God-centered. This may be the most radical part of the book of Romans. Most of us think the good news is about us but the book of Romans is very clear that the gospel is about God. It is about His glory. It is about Him being able to show justice and mercy to fallen humanity. Its no wonder when Paul finishes the argument of chapters 9-11 that he breaks out in praise of God’s glory.    Romans 11:33  Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34  “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35  “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36  For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
This is so foreign to us because we have come up in church cultures that teach us God loves you, Jesus died for you, God has a wonderful plan for your life and on and on it goes being about us. But it is not about us.
John Piper always explains the whys of things better than I could, so I want to quote him here . . . “The ultimate goal of all God’s dealings is that his name (or the name of Christ, who is his image) would be known and admired and cherished and praised above all other realities. Romans 9:17 puts it like this: “For the scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.’” God’s aim in history and in all that happens is that his name be known and worshipped. Verse 5 says that the aim of Paul’s apostleship is “for the sake of the name” – that the name of Jesus (which stands for his character) might be known and loved and treasured and exalted and glorified.
Now this is why God makes all our salvation and all our ministry and all our obedience dependent on his grace and makes all our salvation and ministry and obedience the fruit of faith in grace – because the giver gets the glory. If our ministry and all our obedience is by grace through faith, then God gets the glory and we get the help. If Paul relied on himself to serve as an apostle, and if the effect of his ministry was to bring about the obedience of works, not the obedience of faith among the gentiles, then the name of Christ would not be praised, Paul would be.
The giver of the power, the enabler of the obedience, gets the glory. Here’s the way 1 Peter 4:11 puts it: “Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” You see how clearly Peter makes the connection: God gets the glory for our service if God gives the grace for our service, and if we serve by faith in that grace, in the strength of that grace and not our own.”
The final truth we see in verse 5 is that this is the universal gospel. I always like to say, the tent of God’s kingdom is big. There will be repentant sinners of all stripes there. People from every racial group. Men and women. The tent is big. Revelation tells us of the great multitude without number from every tribe, tongue, language and nation. The tent is big, but the door into the tent is narrow. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jew and Gentile alike must come through this door. This is what drives Paul, to direct people from all nations to that narrow entry into the very big kingdom of God because all who are left on the outside will perish for eternity.
The big application that comes away from this is very important. For Paul, theology serves mission. The reason he is going into all these incredible arguments and using reason and persuasively explaining the gospel message is so that his mission would prosper among all peoples. I am continually impressed when I think of Paul that this man who was the greatest mind of the early church was also one of its most active servants. We tend to not have much of that in our day. We tend to be great minds that do nothing with what they’ve learned or great servants who are running here and there in all kinds of activity and have no idea what they’re doing or why.
I appreciate Paul’s approach. I want it to be mine. I want my mind to be infused with the things of God and then for those things to overflow in service to others. That’s how it should be. We need to guard our hearts to make sure we’re not walking off that good path of theology leading to mission leading to doxology.

Finally tonight, and this will be brief, let’s look at Paul’s greeting to the church in Rome.
6  including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
In verse 6, Paul is basically saying that the Romans are included in the nations to which Paul is called to take the Gospel. In addition, he says that these Roman Christians are called to belong to Jesus Christ. So just as Paul had been called as an apostle, they were called to belong to Jesus Christ.
The striking thing that verse 6 shows me is that the gospel is for Christians. These people are already believers, yet Paul says his ministry of bringing the gospel of God extends to them as well. Most people think the gospel is something we believe to get to heaven and then we stop thinking about it, but that is contrary to the message of Romans and the rest of the New Testament. The Gospel is so much bigger than we normally think of it, revealing the very heart of God.

7  To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul finally, after 6 verses, gets around to addressing his recipients. Those who are in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. Loved and called. Believers. Those who had trusted in Jesus. So Paul is going to spend 16 chapters talking to believers about the gospel. Once again, the gospel is always our subject. This must mean that theology is very important for Christian living. Christian maturity is not broad knowledge of many things, it is deep knowledge of a few things, with the right application of those things in life.
Paul’s greeting: Grace and Peace. Grace points to the goodness of God in saving us peace points to the fact that we have been made right with God through Jesus Christ.
From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ once again shows us how Paul views Jesus as divine.

We’ve covered a lot of ground in just seven verses, but I want to close with a couple of sentences from the great commentator Leon Morris. I think this is where we need to end. He is exactly right when he says, “God is the most important word in this epistle. Romans is a book about God. No topic is treated with anything like the frequency of God. Everything Paul touches in this letter he relates to God. In our concern to understand what the apostle is saying about righteousness, justification and the like we ought not to overlook his tremendous concentration on God. There is nothing like it elsewhere.”

Paul is first mentioned in Acts 7:59 giving approval to Stephen’s death. In Acts 8 he is seen persecuting the church, going from house to house and dragging off Christians to prison. Paul was doing all of this, he thought, in service to God. Paul says in Acts 26:4 that he lived as a Pharisee and did all he could to oppose Jesus. Paul thought he was on God’s side. Jesus was a threat to Paul’s whole worldview. Paul was searching for God’s best but only in a very small way and in a very small world.

But God changed Paul’s life through his miraculous experience on the Damascus road. Paul was blinded and went for 3 days without food or drink and it was at this time that he began to die to self (Galatians 2:20; Philippians 1:21; 2 Corinthians 5:17).

Paul’s life was forever changed. He went on to give his testimony three times in Acts and numerous times in his letters. He called himself the chief of sinners, which was an appropriate title in light of his past persecution of Christians.

Paul would go on to focus in ministry on winning the lost, discipling them, and building churches. Paul majored in the gospel (Romans 1:15-16) but he was not simply an evangelist who was out to get people saved, he desired to make disciples, to plant churches, to have a ministry which would multiply through the lives of those whom he had reached with the gospel.

Points of Application for Our Lives:

• We must actively seek to share the gospel.
• We must not hesitate to share the gospel.
• We must remember that we are not responsible for how people respond to the gospel.
• We must love and pray for those who mistreat us because of the Gospel, following the example of the Lord Jesus and of Stephen.

In the end, the transformed Paul would die with no regrets, knowing he had fought the good fight, finished the course and kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:6-8). May it be so for us.

Jude
How to Be a Faithful Church

20  But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit;  21  keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.  22  And have mercy on those who doubt;  23  save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.  24  Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,  25  to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

The letter to Jude is a warning to the church to remain faithful in the midst of apostasy.  Many had turned away from the truth and embraced false teaching.  Just as in our day, in the early days of the New Testament there were many false teachers.  So most of the book is a warning about these teachers.  But the end of the book gives three instructions to us about how to remain faithful to God.  If we hold to these teachings, we will be a faithful church.

If you want to be a member of a faithful church you must . . .
I.    Guard Your Own HEART    (vv. 20-21).
20  But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit;  21  keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

If each of us would guard our own heart, first and foremost, we would have the foundation of faithfulness we need to then bear  each others burdens.  We are a body of believers, but we are made up of individual parts.  Ephesians 4:15  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,  16  from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. This passage in Ephesians shows us that everything is grounded in Christ.  He is the head of the body, and he holds it all together.  But we also find here that the body is only at its best when every part is working properly.  We all know the reality of that truth in our own physical bodies.  If you have a pulled muscle in your lower back, it effects your ability and comfort in every way.  I remember as a child I used to often get sores inside my mouth.  Fever blisters is what the doctor called them.  I remember how bad they hurt and how even though it was such a small part of the body, it affected everything.  I don’t think this means that we must all be perfect people in order to function as a holy church.  The context of Jude is false teaching and cold-heartedness toward God.  Our goal then is not perfect actions but a life of love for God.  The best way to guard your heart from the schemes of the devil is to give him no room in your heart.  The best way to avoid sin is not to think about not sinning, it is to get on with living in righteousness by the power of Christ.   If we focus on what we should not do, we are sure to do it.  What God calls us to instead is to focus on doing what we know is right.  Build yourselves up in your most holy faith.  There is a race and a rest in the Christian life.  It is both.  It is not just a rest.  We are going to see at the end of the passage today that there is grace available to us for the doing of what God calls us to but there is also something for us to do, namely to lay hold of the things God has given us for life and godliness.  I believe the Bible is opposed to any view of faith that says faith is passive, a kind of mystical submission that causes me to stand still.  There is a place for being still and knowing God.  But there is also an active aspect to guarding our hearts.  This passage tells us three ways to guard our hearts.  We are to build ourselves up in faith.  There are several practical ways to do this.  Live in the Bible.  Start by turning of the TV for 10 minutes a night and substituting it with the Bible.  The go to 15 minutes, then to 20, then to 30.  It will not be as entertaining at first as that episode of your favorite show, but in time it will become a delight to your soul.  You may say, I am too old to change,  I am too set in my ways.  Well, I say if your old you’re the best candidate for change, because statistically speaking you are in line to meet the Lord soon.  Now’s the time to get ready.  We also guard our hearts through prayer.  Prayer in the Holy Spirit.  I think that means praying with an eye toward what pleases God and what will build up His kingdom.  There is a wonderful peace that comes from submitting our spirits to God.  We also build ourselves up in faith by keeping ourselves in the love of God.  We need to keep the cross central in our lives.  We need to think often of the great love God has shown to us in shedding His blood for our forgiveness.  We need to keep ourselves in the love of God by realizing that God is not out to get us but is profoundly on our side.  So we are called to avoid apostasy by guarding our hearts.

The second way to be a faithful church is to . . .
II.    Be Your Brother’s KEEPER    (vv. 22-23).
22  And have mercy on those who doubt;  23  save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

We are sustained by the mercy of Christ and so Jude calls us to extend mercy to others.  I am always concerned for the salvation of people whose character and demeanor is unmerciful.  I am not the judge and our differences in personality and background can make for huge differences in our actions, but it always raises a red flag with me if I see someone in the church who demonstrates little mercy toward others.  The reason this raises a red flag for me is simple . . . If they can not show mercy to others, how could they have understood God’s mercy toward them?  The overriding way we act as our brother’s keeper in the body of Christ is to mercifully move our fellow believers toward fullness in Christ.  The most loving thing we can do for our fellow believers is to spur them on toward love and good deeds.  We need to encourage each other in several ways.  This passage tells us three ways.  One way we can encourage each other is to be gentle with people who doubt.  This ought to be a place where questions about God are not discounted or dismissed.  If our faith is not one which can withstand penetrating questions we have to wonder whether it is a faith worth having.  If we can not answer tough questions adequately, we are little better than those who claim spiritual power from crystals or claim to have been visited by UFO’s.  Now there are some tough questions we can’t answer and that’s OK.  We have to live with some sense of mystery, but it is not an either-or proposition.  Life is not all mystery and it is not all certainty.  To live by faith means to unwaveringly trust God about those things which are clearly revealed and humbly depend on God for wisdom in those things which are not as clear to our finite and sin-scarred minds.  So when people have doubts, let’s allow them to express them and then let’s work together toward biblical solutions.  If we push people into believing a certain way about something, then there is always doubt about the reality of a person’s faith.

The second way we can build others up in faith is to warn them.  This is the idea of snatching them from the flames.  We may need to warn unbelievers that they are destined for separation from God unless they trust him.  To those who are walking in false doctrine we may need to stand against false doctrine and for the truth.  Warning people is not often fun, but it is necessary.   We not only need to stand against false belief, but we also need to stand against false behavior.  But again we are told to mix fear with mercy.  And we are told to hate sin.  Even the garment stained by sin.  We should build up fellow believers by living a lifestyle of purity and holiness.

The final way we can be a faithful church is to . . .
III.    Entrust All to the GRACE and POWER of God        (vv.24-25).
24  Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,  25  to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

The bottom line is that it is only the grace and power of God that can keep us from falling and present us blameless before God with great joy.  So as we work as hard as we can to know God, to make God known and to build up His church, we do all with the power of God that works so graciously within us. The Bible  points to this idea in several places . . .

Ephesians 2:8  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,  9  not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

We have been saved by grace apart from works in order that we may have power to live a life of good works, which was God’s plan all along.  Why should we care about good works?  Not as a way to be saved, but because good works in the power of Christ glorify God.  Because good works are good for others as we are an example and encouragement before them.  Because good works are good for us, as walking according to God’s design is better than walking away from God’s design.

Philippians 2:12  Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,  13  for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

This verse sums up the truth about what walking with God is really like . . .  We work out our salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in us to accomplish His will.  This verse brings to mind my favorite verse which captures the interplay between the power of God and my laying hold of the power of God by faith.

Colossians 1:29  For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

I work with the power that works within me.  I work.  But it is the grace and power of God that gives me strength to work.  No one can come to Christ apart from the grace and power of God and no one can remain in Christ and grow in Christ apart from the grace and power of God.  Grace is always first and foremost and my only work in a human sense is to lay hold of what God has given me.

In reality, Christianity is not a race or a rest, it is a restful race.  It is rooted in what Jesus said in Matthew 11, “Come to me and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me and you will find rest for your souls.” The yoke is an instrument of labor.  Life is work.  The Christian life is work.  But the Christian life lived properly is the work of a soul at rest.   The greatest athletes make what is strenuous look graceful.  Joe Dimaggio was a great outfielder but was said to almost never dive for a ball.  He was such a good athlete and such a student of the game that he was almost always in position to make the catch.  Have you ever noticed great pro golfers on TV?  It looks like they are taking a practice swing and they just belt it 300 yards.  So as we seek to be a faithful church, let us run the restful race, carefree in the care of God.

February 5, 2012

We live in the age of Wal-Mart. Buy up huge inventory, sell it cheap, get into as many places as you can, crush the competition and rise to the top. It works well in a capitalistic country like ours. Unfortunately, many people in our day are applying Wal-Mart principles to the church. We are seeing in our day all sorts of talk of church growth and this strategy and that strategy and much of what the church does in our day has more to do with imitating Wal-Mart than with following Jesus. It’s a hard trap to avoid. Great numbers call out to us. The outward appearance of the ministries we see on TV tempt us to think that because it is big, it must be right. But when we look at the 8th chapter of Acts, we see a very different reality. Yes God advances and builds His kingdom, but He does it in two deeply counter-cultural ways.

I.    God Advances His Kingdom Through PERSECUTION  (8:1-3).
1 And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
2  Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. 3  But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

The early Church Father Tertullian said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church,” and in Acts chapter 8, his words prove true. The blood of Stephen, whose death had been approved by Saul, had scarce dried up on the ground before the crowd which had put him to death turned upon the church in Jerusalem at large, to persecute them. Up until now in the book of Acts all the ministry has taken place in Jerusalem. The church was a mix of Greek-speaking and Hebrew-speaking Jews who had put their trust in Jesus as Messiah. But in Acts 1:8, Jesus had told His disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” The early church had certainly experienced the power of the Holy Spirit and they were witnessing in Jerusalem, but they had not yet ventured outside the city to make Jesus known.
So it is no accident that Luke tells us that the church in Jerusalem was scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. God used this persecution to move forward His plan for the Church.
I wonder if the greatest thing that holds us back as Christians is not the schemes of the devil or outright sin, but simply a desire for comfort?
Wilbur Reese wrote a poem many years ago that always convicts me when I hear it.

“I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don’t want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want the warmth of the womb not a new birth.
I want about a pound of the eternal in a paper sack.
I’d like to buy $3 worth of God, please.”

Jesus warned us in the parable of the four soils, that some fall away during persecution because they have no root. But in our country, I think our danger is to be like the third soil, of which Jesus said in Mark 4:19, “the cares of the world, and the delight in riches, and the desire for other things enter in and choke the word and it proves unfruitful.” Is it possible that you have come to church for decades and not grown an inch spiritually, not because all your pastors were dolts, or the other members were so bad, but because you’ve had an idolatrous heart set on comfort rather than conformity to the image of Christ?
In America, I think prosperity has been far more devastating to the church than persecution. When we face persecution, we tend to get up in arms, like something unusual is happening to us. But Jesus told us to expect persecution, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.” “Don’t be surprised when the world hates you.” But when we enjoy prosperity, what do we say? “Oh, the Lord is really blessing me!” And we don’t realize that for some of us, the very last thing our souls need is more money or a nicer car or a vacation home. The Lord Jesus tells us to be very wary of wealth. He tells us its hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom. But He tells us to rejoice when we are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. So we’ve got it exactly backwards.  God advances His kingdom through persecution and hardship and suffering and He doesn’t need your money to do it. The greatest works of God in the world this morning are probably not happening in the shiny multimillion dollar churches. Most of the great work of God in this world is probably taking place in simple places among simple people who are sold out in their devotion to God. Somewhere, a house church huddles together in China, and God is there. Somewhere in the desert of a Muslim land, a little pocket of Christians meet, and God meets with them. We’ve got it exactly wrong. We’ve got to stop seeing with worldly eyes and begin to see things from a God-centered view.
Living faithfully when we are being blessed makes very little difference to others. Our testimony does not shine when everything is going great. Anybody can be loving toward others when everything is going well for them. But when the diagnosis comes, when the loss happens, when I am dismissed for believing God, when I hold to biblical truth even when it hurts, when I don’t walk in step with the world because I walk with God, then my life begins to make a difference. When the church faces persecution it is then that God often really works. Have you ever tried to stamp out a fire? The harder you jump on it, the more you stir it up, the fire gets scattered and the fire spreads. That’s what happened when the church was persecuted in Acts and that’s what will happen with us when we face persecution.

But while God advances His kingdom through persecution,
II.    God Builds His Kingdom Through PREACHING and POWERFUL Works    (8:4-8).
4  Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.  5  Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.
6  And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. 7  For unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8  So there was much joy in that city.
Now I love verse 4. Those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Who were those who were scattered? Not the apostles, they were back in Jerusalem. No, these were the everyday church members, the believers who had been in Jerusalem. When they were scattered, they went out preaching the word. Now this is exciting for a couple of reasons. First, they didn’t let persecution get them down. And you’ve got to remember, this persecution was not a little slap on the wrist. Livelihoods were being lost, homes were being left, in some cases families were probably being separated. So they were enduring all that, yet they weren’t turning bitter. So many people in our culture ignore God for twenty years and then when one little bad thing happens to them they shake their fist at God and scream “why?” But these people, they’re losing everything, and their response: to preach the Word.
The second thing that excites me is that this preaching was coming from everyday Christians and not from the apostles. It’s good to have elders in the church who labor in teaching and preaching. This is exactly what the New Testament teaches. But it is also good to have members of the church who are going out and making Jesus known. There is no special degree that is needed to go tell people about Jesus. No special wisdom. Just a love for God and a love for people and an understanding of what God has done for us in Christ. You can share the gospel with your child. You can share the gospel with your sick relative. You can share the gospel with that person who comes to your door. You can share the gospel with that neighbor or co-worker. You don’t need to call in a pastor to be the designated gospel sharer.     But the only way you’ll share the gospel the way the church in Acts did is if your heart is overflowing with love for God because of who He is and all He’s done for you. So far from taking up another program or coming up with another idea to get Christians to evangelize, we need to focus instead on cultivating a life with God that is so focused on His glory and goodness that we just live there. And out of the overflow of that life we share with others. We become like the apostles we saw earlier in the book of Acts, “We can’t help but testify to what we have seen and heard.” We can get so caught up in the busyness of our own lives or the activities of church life that we forget the fundamental things, like sharing the gospel and reading the Word and praying and walking with other believers through life, and leading our children to walk with God. We are intentionally a church without a truckload of ministries and activities because we believe your primary calling is to be a witness to your family, friends and to all those in your life. We support missions because we want to support the gospel going into the world, and we provide small groups through Sunday School and Men’s and Ladies’ groups to help us help each other to grow, but other than that, we want to keep our activities at church lean. There’s nothing wrong with class parties or picnics or other things, but we want to avoid the kind of church culture where you’re in the church building four or five nights a week. You need to preach and model the gospel for your family and you need to reach out to your friends. So let’s reach out. If you’re saved, you can do it. God will give you what you need. God builds His kingdom this way.
And let’s remember the example of Philip and reach out to all peoples. Philip went to the Samaritans, a people the Jews hated. But Philip, who had lived as a Jew before trusting in Jesus, now went to them with the Gospel. Why? Because the Gospel breaks down barriers. The gospel is the great lifter and the great leveler. There is no place for racism in the church of Jesus Christ. No one should look down on another because they are white or black or Hispanic or Asian.
There is no place for sexism in the church. While there are biblical distinctions in roles for men and women in the church and home, women haven’t received less of the gospel, they are on equal footing in every way with men and should enjoy the blessings of spiritual life fully. And men, church is not something for the women, as if the hunting club or the lodge is for you and the church is for them. That’s a lie.
There is no place for economic barriers in the church. Those with less should not be looked down on by those with more. Those with more should not be regarded with suspicion. What joy it brings to me to see how the gospel can free us from all of these prejudices.
Finally, though sometimes faithfulness to the gospel brings persecution to us, ultimately the gospel is good news that brings great joy. Did you notice verse 8? “So there was much joy in that city.” God was doing mighty works as the Word was preached. I have said on several occasions that I believe the outpouring of miracles in the book of Acts is something that mostly has to do with the original establishment of the church and the unfolding of God’s plan for human history, so that we should probably not expect a similar outpouring in our day. But with that being the case, I don’t want to be heard saying that the consistent preaching of the gospel does nothing. I believe real preaching of the gospel when heard carefully and applied, as the Samaritans did, does bring real results. That’s really important. You can’t put it all on the preacher. People have to have ears to hear. So if people you share with don’t want to hear, don’t be discouraged, keep going until you find listening ears. A gospel preached faithfully and heeded will result in the salvation of souls, the maturing of lives, the restoration of relationships and sometimes amazing answers to prayer.
As the angel said at the birth of Jesus, the gospel is “good news of great joy for all the people.”
So today, I pray that if you’ve been seeing upside down, looking at persecution as a curse and comfort as a goal, I pray you would change your perspective. If you’ve been seeing the gospel as an obligation for gaining eternal life and not as a gift that brings joy, I pray your heart would change. God builds and advances His kingdom through hardship of persecution and the faithful preaching of His Word and this is what it means to be on mission with God.

Now this article is not a review of this book. I believe Tim Challies does an excellent job reviewing the book (http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/heaven-is-for-real) so I won’t repeat his work here. And I know I am a little late to the game, since the book has been out for a couple of years, but my concern is pastoral and, having heard of some in church life who have recently read this book, I began to think more carefully about a response. I’m ok being irrelevant to the current hot topics of evangelism if I can address this topic in a way that will be helpful to even one person who may have read these kinds of books.

So what is the problem with Heaven is for Real? I believe that the book is harmful for two reasons which are closely related to each other. First, Heaven is for Real feeds our desire to uphold the sufficiency of personal experience over the sufficiency of Scripture. Now I am not saying that Colton’s experiences are false. I don’t know whether what he says happened truly took place (I have my doubts for many of the reasons cited in the Challies review). Nor do I know whether the experiences of Don Piper or Bill Wiese or others are true. But whether there experiences are true or not is not the real issue. The issue is the elevation of their experiences to the level of Scripture. When someone says to me, “That story taught me so much about heaven!” I get alarmed. We just can’t take the personal experiences of people in our day and let them supplement and even replace the Scriptures. God has given us in the Bible all the revelation of heaven he desired us to have. This revelation is absolutely trustworthy. I am concerned about a Christian culture that needs the visions of a four-year old to be excited about heaven. It tells me that either we haven’t been reading our Bibles enough or what we have been reading has not sufficiently penetrated our hearts to generate the excitement which should accompany reading about heaven in the Scriptures. We have the Word of God, inspired, authoritative, and sufficient. As the old hymn says, “How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. What more can He say, than to you He hath said? To you who, for refuge, to Jesus hath fled.” The Word of God shouts that heaven is for real. The rage over Heaven is for Real is really just an indicator of how we elevate personal experience over the authority and sufficiency of Scripture. And of course, this has consequences which are far worse than reading a book. When I elevate personal experience over Scripture, I am really free to do whatever I want, because my controlling authority is my own experience. This is one of the ways Christians end up doing outrageous things the Bible would never sanction.

The second ugly thing Heaven is for Real teaches us is that we have a craving for the dramatic and a disdain for the ordinary. There is a sense in which our craving for the dramatic is probably part of the image of God in us, in that we long for perfection and blessing and glory, but our fallen nature often twists and perverts this good desire. We are awash in a Christian culture which celebrates the flashy, the flamboyant, the celebrity and the apparently spectacular while ignoring the biblical truth that the Christian life is not characterized by these things. Many Christians read Heaven is for Real looking for affirmation. But what they are looking for is not affirmation that God is real or that the Bible is true, what they are looking for is affirmation that God is as spectacular as an iPad or the Super Bowl. Now of course, God is infinitely more spectacular than any of those things, but He doesn’t reveal His glory with trumpet blasts and flashy lights. There is a Day coming when He will go public like that (1 Thess. 4:13-18) but for now He declares His glory as Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer. His present glory is so broad and deep that sometimes we lose sight of it, but it finds its focus in the coming of the Son of God. In Jesus, we see God incarnate, His glory revealed. But in His ministry, what do we see? Humility, service, self-giving love, spiritual power through the preached word, works and miracles which point to the reality of the message. No book tours, no bluster, no competing with the world system for cultural influence. Just the way of suffering that leads to glory.

We don’t like to think this way about the Christian life. We don’t like the thought of taking up our cross daily and plodding along in simple faithfulness to our Suffering Servant and Risen King. How little pilgrim language do we hear in our sermons? We like to think of the Christian life as an unbroken string of miracles leading to greater and greater prosperity and an unending panorama of mountaintop experiences. If large numbers of professing Christians didn’t think of Christian living in this way, Benny Hinn would be out of a job by morning. But he won’t be, and Heaven is for Real will not be the last book to plug in to our insatiable desire for mountaintop moments which, in the ultimate religious perversion, we can use to justify our independence from God’s authority.

Here’s the link . . .

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2012/01/31/numbers-in-the-church-is-bigger-badder-or-better/

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2012/01/25/what-the-debates-say-about-america/

But as we work for justice for the unborn, we must not use the same weapon of violence that the unborn suffer at the hands of those who take their lives.  There is no place in our efforts for attacking abortion doctors or bombing abortion clinics or carrying on with other efforts that use physical threats or violence to attempt to shut down abortion access to others.  Nevertheless, let us not shy away from working to end this great national tragedy just because a few people have worked to end it in the wrong way.
We can pray, we can write to our political leaders, we can participate in marches, we can work at a Crisis Pregnancy Center, we can donate to the Center, we can personally counsel our loved ones and friends, we can speak up for life in the public square, we can adopt, showing that we care not only for life in the womb but for life outside the womb.  There are a multitude of things we can do to promote a culture where life is valued and abortion is opposed.  The question is, will we?  Will we be the generation that stands up and says, “Enough!”  Our cause is just, our work is good and God-honoring.  And the tide is turning.  A survey in 2009 showed that for the first time since the survey had been taken, a majority of Americans classify themselves as pro-life, 49%-45%.  Dozens of life-affirming pieces of legislation have been brought forth in states all over the country in recent years. There are encouraging signs all around, but more must be done and we must have the courage to stand against this assault to the fundamental right to human life.
I pray that the day will come when little girls and boys will again be protected in our country, from conception into childhood, so that they can grow up to enjoy the blessings of liberty.  I have a dream that one day we will live in an America where every child will have the right to life.