Not Ashamed Of The Gospel

Romans 1: 16

"I am not ashamed of the gospel," Paul shouted.
Paul was not ashamed of the gospel, but many of us seem to be.

At school? At work? At leisure?
When the discussion turns to religion or the latest clergy scandal, and then,
someone brings a remark about the church's hypocrisy.
Many will not admit in such a situation that they're Christians.

Why is there so little boldness about our Christian faith?
While there may be many reasons for feelings of timidity, one reason is the Bible itself.
Today, many people view of the Bible as simply a collection of myths and fairy tales.
Many would admit that the Bible is a nice book to read, but hardly acceptable
to the pragmatic and scientific mind.

Many don't believe the Bible.
There was the story of a boy who was asked by his mother what he had learned
in Sunday school that day.
The boy describes the story of the Israelites exodus from Egypt, but when he came
to the dramatic portion about the crossing of the Red Sea, here is how he told the story:
"Moses took out his walkie-talkie and called in the Israeli Air Force to bomb the Egyptians,
while the others built a pontoon bridge to crossover the Red Sea."

The boy's mother asked, "Is that how they told you the story?"

He dropped his head and muttered, "Well, no, Mom, but if I told you the story the way they told it
to me, you'd never believe it!"

That's our problem isn't it?
Whenever we read the Bible, we are suddenly thrust into a world which seems foreign to us.
A world where seas part and where millions of people traveled across on dry ground,
where brushes burn, but are not consumed; where manna drops out of the sky to feed
thousands and thousands of hungry people; where someone walks on water, and the blind
are given their sight; where the lame are made to walk, and where the dead are brought back to life.
How do you explain that kind of world to a world accustomed to analyzing itself under a microscope?

The answer -- you can't explain it!
The stories of our faith live on from generation to generation, not because of skilled practitioners
of religious truth who perfect better ways of explaining the stories, but because the stories themselves
have a life of their own.
They need no explanation.
They need simply to be told.

The Bible speaks for itself. There is power in the Word!
So, let us say with Paul, "I am not ashamed of the gospel."
There are some reasons why we need never be ashamed of the Christian faith.

We need never to be ashamed of our Christian faith because of God's promises.

We can be proud of the Christian faith because it does not disappoint.
We are a suspicious people.
And, we have good reason to be because we are bombarded on every front by promises
which usually turn out to be disappointments.

Think about the television commercials we hear repeatedly.
We are told that if we want to remove facial wrinkles then we must use their product.
Dollars and dollars later we still have the wrinkles.

We have been promised so much, and have received so little in return that most of us feel like
Spike, Who Wrote Snoopy a letter in one of the "Peanuts" episodes.
"Dear Snoopy, I have just purchased a magic cape from a door-to-door salesman who promises me
that, if I wear the cape, I will be instantly transported to a land of paradise.
So, by the time you get this letter, I'll be in paradise."

Several frames of the cartoon passes, and in the final scene, Spike is standing right smack
in the middle of the desert surrounded by cactus plants.
In the caption below, Spike is complaining, "Somehow, I think I've been had."

Spike's problem is our problem.
We've been "had" too many times.
We are understandably suspicious.
The unfortunate thing is that it affects the way many look at the Christian faith.

However, the Christian faith does not disappoint.
God produces what He promises.
What does God promise?

He promises us that when we become Christians we are put into a right relationship with Him.
I love the gospel songs that says people need the Lord.
They do.
All of us are born into a world of sin, and sin infects us from the very beginning.
We make ourselves to be the center of the universe.
When we make ourselves the center of the universe, we are lost to God who is the Creator
of the universe.

Romans 3:23 says: "All have sinned and have come short of the glory of God."
That is what it means to be lost.
Sin separates us from God.
God comes to us in our lostness, and pursues us until we find Him.

Not everyone will find God.
Some will be like the man who woke up in the middle of the night hungry.
Opening the refrigerator door, he stood there feeling hungry, but not knowing for what he hungered.
But those who find the Lord will discover their deepest hungers satisfied.

God also promises us that He will put us in a right relationship with others

The Christian Church is an amazing institution.
Critics of the church will point out its imperfections, and there are many.
But isn't it amazing that, with all our imperfections, no one would want to live in this world
without the church.

God has come in Christ to show us how to love and respect one another,
and how to live free of a spirit of revenge toward those who have wronged us.

Several years ago I read the story which really illustrates the spirit of revenge.
A man was driving down Hollywood Boulevard looking at the famous sights,
and driving by the homes of movie stars.
Passing by one attractive home, he saw a new Mercedes parked out front
with a sign on it which read, "For Sale, $100.00."

He stopped and when to the front door, and asked the lady who answered,
"Is that sign right? Are you are you selling the Mercedes for only $100.00."

The woman answered, "That's right!"

Without hesitating, he proceeded to purchase the car.
When the transaction was complete he asked, "How is it that you would sell
this new Mercedes for $100.00."

Angrily, she said, "Last week, my husband ran off with his secretary.
He called me from Hawaii to tell me that he had run out of money.
He asked me to sell his car and send him the cash.
So, that's what I am doing."

Now, that's revenge!

But we, as Christians, must not respond to mistreatment with revenge,
God will settle the scores and right the wrongs.

God promises to empower us to release our feelings of resentment,
and positively seek reconciliation with those who have wronged us.
He promises to give us victory over our personal sins.
Most of us are aware of skeletons in our closet.
Perhaps, it's a bad habit, a loose tongue, a temper that we lose,
a debilitating lust, or an insatiable greed.

Christ has come to help us with our "sin" problem, and to enable us to deal
with our personal sins.

A lady named Margaret Slattery worked for years in the slum sections of Chicago.
One day she met Freddy who was paralyzed from his waist down.
An operation would make it possible for Freddy to walk again,
but the cost of the operation made the surgery impossible.

Margaret Slattery made the boy's situation known to the nation,
and raised the money needed for the surgery.
The surgery was successful, and after weeks of recovery, the day came when Freddy
was to try to take his first steps.

Freddy's parents said, "Margaret, if our son able to walk, we want him to take his first steps
toward you."
With great effort, Freddy slowly stood up, and managed to take a few awkward steps
toward Margaret.
In time, Freddy was able to walk and run as other children.

Years later; as Margaret Slattery was speaking to a group, she said,
"I wish I could tell you that Freddy is now standing on those two legs and helping others
as a surgeon or a minister. But I cannot!
Freddy is in a federal prison for committing a horrible crime against another human being."

She ended her speech with the provocative statement, "I have long since learned
that medical science can help a boy to walk, but only God can help him walk
in the right direction."

Promises, promises, promises.
They are everywhere.
But the God we serve keeps His promises.
Through Christ we can know God's forgivingness for our sins,
and we can learn to be forgiving, and we can experience victory over sin.

Another reason we never need to be ashamed of our Christian faith is that
it fulfills our most basic human needs.

Someone has said that all humans have three basic needs -- to be noticed, nurtured, and needed.
Some years ago a popular movie star was quoted as saying, " All my life, I have wanted
the world to know who I am, and to love me, and to be affected by me."

We all do.
Our Christian faith needs all these needs.
The cross of Christ makes an important statement concerning what we mean to God.
He notices us! He loves us! He wants to meet our every need.

Remember the nursery rhyme:
"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king's horses,
And all the king's men,
Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again."

But God can!
The Christian message is that God can put any of us back together again.
That is why brokenhearted people who are burden with their sin can come to Jesus freely
and openly with great joy because Jesus understands their needs and can put their lives together again.

We can always have confidence in our Christian faith because it provides us
with a hope that will not die.

We live with the hope of a better world.
Emil Brunner, once said that the what oxygen is to the lungs, hope is to human life.
Without hope, we die.
With hope, we live.

The voices of doom are everywhere.
Surprisingly, they are even heard among those of us who should, of all people,
be the most hopeful.
It is, as if some have become convinced that the human condition is so depraved
that the only thread of hope is for Christ to come.
I do believe that Christ is coming again, but we must remember that
God is still in charge of this world.

Standing on the Mount of Olives, the disciples asked,
"Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"
That's a question many people are asking today.
"Lord, when will you, come and deliver us from this mess?"
We need to have the same question asked of us that the angel asked the disciples,
"Why do you stand gazing up into heaven?" (Verse 11)
That's another way of saying, "God is not finished with the world yet.
Don't give up. Get busy doing what Christ has commanded."

Because of our faith in God we have a hope in a better world beyond this.
Today, we placed too much emphasis on material and financial security.
We make every effort to feel secure and self-sufficient.
Insurance policies, stocks, bonds, IRA's, and all our personal planning is designed
to protect us from the accidental and the inevitable.

Yet, there is a curious paradox.
With all of our planning and scheming ours is the most neurotic generation on record.
Part of our neuroses and anxiety stems from the fact that we have lost a sense of hope
in the world beyond.
We can be proud of our Christian faith because its central message is that in the death,
burial, and resurrection of our Lord, death no longer has the final say in our lives.

A pastor tells of visiting a man in an oncology ward in a local hospital.
The man was in the latter stages of cancer and was told he had only a few days to live.
The pastor and the man talked about dying and what that meant.
In the midst of the conversation the pastor asked, "Do you think about needing God
when death comes?"

The man answered, "That's all I have been thinking."
The pastor asked, "Do you feel you're ready?"
The man answered, "No!"

Pastor asked if he could tell him how to be ready, and he nodded, "yes"
as he looked down at the sheets.
The pastor shared the good news of Jesus with him, and the man trusted Christ as his
personal Saviour and Lord.
After that, the man looked in the face of the pastor and said, "I am ready!"

"I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ" for it produces what it promises,
and it meets all my needs today and it prepares me for living beyond this world.

Sermon by Dr. Harold L. White
Email Dr. White at hleewhite@AOL.com