Evangelism in the blood

Romans 1:8-17

Yesterday I left our home at 6:30 AM for our church bus trip to Ain Leuh and Annie left at 7 AM to pick up her parents in Ceuta. When she returned at 6 PM, she discovered that our house had been broken into. Both our computers, my camera and lenses were taken and the church money box was broken into.

In December I preached a sermon about living in light of the imminent celebration. I talked about how when we rise up in the air to meet Jesus, all the things of this world will slip through our fingers. If we can’t take it with us then, I said in that sermon, then why hold on to it now?

Every once in a while a preacher gets to practice what he preaches and this is one of those times.

Along with my computer they took this morning’s sermon so I have to rely on what I can remember [and I am now later typing up what I remembered.]

Twenty-five years ago, I was at Park Street Church in Boston, MA and was asked to preach from the Mayflower Pulpit. This was a small metal structure attached to the second story (first story for Europeans) of the church facing one of Boston’s busy street corners. It stands about twelve feet above the street.

I had never preached before and was only supposed to speak for five minutes, and I was as nervous as I could be. I stepped out the door onto the pulpit and as I prepared to speak, my notes blew away in the wind and I stood there watching my words drift in the breeze. I don’t remember what I said, but I think it was especially incoherent.

This morning is a high-tech version of that experience, but fortunately I have had a bit of practice in preaching so I hope we get through it better than I did twenty-five years ago.

We’re in the beginning of a series of sermons in Romans, focusing today on Romans 1:8-17.

In this passage we get a glimpse of Paul’s heart, his passion.

People are passionate about many things and spend their lives pursuing the oddest things. Photographing mirrors, making paper airplanes. I would guess most of have made a paper airplane before, but Ken Blackburn held the Guinness Book of Word Records for longest airplane flight from 1983 to 1996 with his title regained in 1998.

Jigsaw puzzles, making models of world landmarks from wooden match sticks. One person created the Air Sickness Bags Museum. It’s amazing what people will give their lives to.

When you read the book of Acts and read Paul’s letters, it’s not difficult to discern what Paul’s passion was.

Evangelism, taking the Gospel he had received and sharing it with Gentiles wherever and whenever he had a chance, this was his passion. Look at the evidence in just these few verses in his letter to the Romans 1:9-11.
God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times
I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you

Paul’s letters are full of such emotional longing to visit, hear news, to revisit churches or to start churches. But it is not only in his writings that we can tell his passion was for the growth of the church. Look at the evidence in his life.

Picture Paul 10 kilometers outside of a city he was going to visit. What could he expect as he entered this city? What had been his experience thus far? He would enter the city, visit the synagogue, be asked to speak by the rabbi during their service, would proclaim his gospel, would find some who supported him and some who resisted his message. He would be forced out of the synagogue by the opposition that formed. He would begin preaching and teaching in the street or in a house someone invited him to. Sooner or later and most times, sooner, the opposition would organize itself and Paul would be forced out of town, often times with beatings.

In the US when I was growing up, there was a TV show called the Lone Ranger. The Lone Ranger was a good guy who fought the bad guys and he wore a mask. He was assisted by an Indian named Tonto and most weeks, the Lone Ranger would ask Tonto to go into town and get information about the bad guys and most weeks, Tonto would get beat up. He would limp back to the Lone Ranger and give him the information and then they would take care of the bad guys.

Bill Cosby, an American comedian, had a dialogue where the Lone ranger told Tonto to go into town and get information and Tonto refused. “Why is it always me going into town? I’m tired of getting beat up. Why don’t you go into town this week and let me relax by the campfire?”

Why did Tonto go into town, week after week, knowing that if history was any precedent, he would get beat up again? Tonto went into town because it was written in the script. In real life, he might well have had Bill Cosby’s dialogue with the Lone Ranger.

But why did Paul go into town after town, city after city, when if history was any precedent, he knew he would get beaten by the opposition that would rise in reaction to the gospel he would preach?

Reading about Paul one gets the sense that Paul woke up in the morning thinking about the church, he lived and breathed the church during the day, he went to sleep thinking about the church and he probably even started churches in his dreams at night.

Paul had evangelism in his blood.

Even now in this letter to the Romans, he writes with eagerness and anticipation about a visit to their city when he knew there was already opposition to his gospel in that city which would only increase when he came to visit. Why was Paul so eager to go to Rome when he knew the opposition and potential beating he would experience?

In vs 14-17 we see two reasons why Paul was willing to face opposition and physical beatings for the sake of the gospel he preached.

I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome.

I am obligated. What does that mean? To be obligated carries with it a sense of a legal or moral obligation. But in what way was Paul obligated? Was it in his job description that he had to do this?

The word translated as obligated is actually indebted. So the way the text should read is I am indebted both to Greeks and non-Greeks. Really? In what way was Paul indebted to them?

If I am indebted to someone, it means that that person has done something for me and now I owe him. So if I give Josh 100 dirhams, Josh is indebted to me.

What had the Gentiles ever done for Paul that he was now in their debt?

But there is another way to become indebted. If I give Josh 100 dirhams to give to Franklin. Then Josh is indebted to Franklin. He owes him the 100 dirhams I gave to him. It is in this sense that Paul is indebted.

On the road to Damascus, Paul met Jesus who gave him a gift and a charge. Jesus gave Paul the charge of taking the gospel to the Gentiles and so from that point on, Paul was indebted to the Gentiles. He had been given something by Jesus that belonged to the Gentiles and so he went out into the Gentile world, giving what had been entrusted to his care.

There is a second reason in these verses why Paul took the gospel out into the Gentile world despite the opposition he faced.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jews, then for the Gentiles.

Why does Paul say he is not ashamed? One commentator pointed out that one does not say he is ashamed unless he had been at one point tempted to be ashamed. When do you think Paul might have been tempted to be ashamed of the gospel?

Paul was human, like you and me. Don’t you think that there were moments in Paul’s life when he thought about how it might have been? He could have been a respected rabbi and teacher with flocks of students swarming to his door to hear him speak. His days would have been full of intellectual stimulation as he explored with his students the Torah, the Law. He would have had a comfortable home with wife and family. By the time he wrote this letter to the Romans, he would have had grandchildren and could have experienced the blessing of Psalm 128 may you live to see your children’s children.

When Paul was approaching a new city and facing the prospect of new opposition that would arise and cause his body to suffer more abuse, don’t you think there was a part of him that wished there was another way for him to live?

He entered Lystra with eagerness and left being dragged by men who stoned him and left him for dead. Paul was human, like you and me, and I’m convinced there were moments he wished he could have lived an easier life, a more comfortable life.

And yet Paul declares in this letter, despite the temptations to the contrary, I am not ashamed of the gospel. Why? Because it is the power of God for the salvation of  everyone who believes.

How did Paul know this? Paul knew about the power of God because on the road to Damascus, the power of God met a head-strong, determined, zealous Jew. Paul knew he was right. He had no doubts. He had analyzed the situation with his mind and he was determined to press forward on his mission to exterminate this threat to Torah. Paul was a charging rhinoceros, a steaming locomotive and he would not be deterred.

And yet this charging rhinoceros on the road to Damascus did a 180° turn. Paul met the risen Jesus and the power of God turned him around. If God could do this with Paul, then God could do this with anyone. Paul had experienced the power of God for the salvation of himself and he had seen the power of God for the salvation of those around him.

In Corinth he had seen Crispus and Sosthenes turn to follow Jesus. In Thessalonica he had seen Aristarchus. In city after city he had seen the power of God transform lives.

Paul was willing to suffer for the gospel, he was willing to pour out his lifeblood for the gospel, because nothing else was as important.

He was indebted to the Gentiles. He had received from Jesus what he was obligated to pass on to the Gentiles and he knew it worked. He had experienced in his own life the transforming power of God and he had seen that power at work in those around him.

Evangelism was in his blood. Evangelism was his passion.

What is your passion? If it isn’t to help grow the church, why not? What is more important to you than growing the church of Jesus?

If working with Jesus to grow the church is not the passion of your life, perhaps it is because you have not received from him a gift you are obligated to give to others.

Maybe you have not seen the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes in your own life?

If this is the case, then there is nothing more important than that you seek God with all your heart because one day you will discover that nothing else was as important. Whatever is more important to you now, I tell you that one day you will discover that you traded the most important for what really did not matter all that much. Seek God with all your heart and surrender to him as Paul did on the road to Damascus. Expe4rience the power of God to transform your life.

Are you willing to pour out your life-blood for the gospel?

I lost some things and some money yesterday and it hurts. I went to bed at midnight and woke up at four in the morning thinking about it. I imagine I will continue thinking about it for a while. But it is OK to be distracted from time to time. Paul asked himself, I imagine, “Do I really want to go into this new city?” It is OK to have these thoughts.

But don’t allow these thoughts to keep you from going forward. Should I give up on Morocco because some of my things were taken? Should I say enough is enough and go back home? That’s ridiculous!

I have thought about this even before the robbery and want to tell you that even if all my possessions are taken, I will not give up on what God has called me to here in Morocco. I am willing to pour out my life-blood for the gospel in this country. I don’t say this easily or without reflection. I don’t say this knowing that I will be strong in the face of persecution. But I say this because I am not ashamed of the gospel and am determined to make my stand for Jesus.

I don’t say this because I am masochistic. I do not enjoy pain, just ask my wife how I react to a headache or the flu. I don’t say this because I don’t enjoy life. I love this world and the pleasure God created in it. I love a good meal, a beautiful view, a soothing back massage. I don’t say this because I don’t want to see my children’s children. I have a very deep longing to be with my daughters and their husbands and to see my grandchildren playing around us.

But I have received a gift I must share. I am indebted to the world to share what I have received. I have seen the power of God to save in my life and in the lives of others and I know, despite the distractions, that nothing else really matters as much.

This is the challenge to you this morning. What is your passion? What is in your blood? Are you willing to give your life for what really matters, ultimately and eternally.

When I was an exchange student in Germany in 1970, I asked a German girl to marry me but I was drunk at the time. As I tell my daughters, Annie is the first woman I proposed to while sober. Proposing marriage while drunk is not the best way to make such an important decision.

And I would say that making the commitment to live for Jesus and to be willing to pour out your life blood for the gospel is not a decision to be made spontaneously in the exhilaration of worship. This is a decision to be made while sober.

Take some time this week to consider and reflect. Are you willing to pour out your life for the gospel? Are you indebted? Have you seen the power of God to save? Then commit wholeheartedly to the work of God to grow his church.