Chapel of the Lake
The Gospel Is Foolishness
Welcome to Chapel of the Lake in Lake St. Louis, Missouri, the chapel family is a multi-generational community of believers who gather weekly to worship and explore God's Word as we grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Join us now as Pastor Keith Spa opens the scriptures. I encourage you to take your Bibles and to open to the book of Romans. We are finishing up today, finishing up summer. Labor Day is kind of the official end of summer, so it's the end of Hawaiian shirts. I wear Hawaiian shirts all summer and I hate to put them away, but it's kind of sad. It's also the end today of a short little series we've been doing here in Romans chapter 1 as we've been looking at ancient lies, lies that were around in the time of Paul and are still alive today, alive and well, unfortunately, these lies. I wonder this morning how many of you have, as believers, and I assume most of us here this morning are believers in Jesus Christ, how many of you have had an opportunity where you are talking with someone and you have opportunity to talk with them about Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit's giving you a little nudge, a little poke in the ribs, a little kick in the shins saying, "Talk to them about Jesus!" And so you know I should be talking to them about Jesus and yet you don't. Anybody ever been there? You're not going to raise your hand because I'd say most of us have been there. And I wonder why it is that we often wimp out and we chicken out and we stay silent about Jesus when we should be sharing the good news. I've read a number of statistics on this matter over the years and the numbers vary here and there, but basically every statistic I've seen, every survey I've seen about this issue tells us this fact. The majority, the vast majority of evangelical Christians, those who would go to churches like ours who believe things similar to us, the vast majority only rarely or occasionally share their faith with unbelievers. And many Christians, a very many professing evangelical Christians, have never shared the good news about Jesus with anybody ever. And so it's really with, for most of us it is with great wonder and great interest that we read the words that Paul says here before us, we're in Romans chapter 1 and in verse 16. And the apostle Paul will read there in verse 16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel." Paul says he's not ashamed of the gospel and we think, "Wow, I mean that's pretty cool. Paul was a really super guy. He's never ashamed of the gospel, but I am and we are. Why is that?" And I wonder why does Paul have to say he's not ashamed of the gospel? Well, possibly because he knows most of us are. He's trying to tell us he's not and we shouldn't be. But I would wonder this. I think he has to say it because we might assume that at times Paul would be ashamed of the gospel. And so I want to just speculate for a moment because our text doesn't tell us, but I want to speculate and ask the question why might Paul be ashamed of the gospel? If Paul were ashamed of the gospel, why would he be? One reason I can, and there's no right answers to this because it's speculation. It's not in Scripture. But one reason that the apostle Paul might be ashamed of the gospel is because sometimes the gospel can be embarrassing. What do I mean by that? Well, Paul is writing this letter to people in Rome. Rome is the capital of the Roman Empire, the capital of the world. Many people would have thought in that day. It is the center of power, the center of sophistication. It is the center of intellectualism, the center of the arts. It is the place where all the celebrities are. It's the place where all the wealthy are. It's the place where everybody wants to be. If you're anybody, if you don't live in Rome, you travel there and go there as often as you can. That's where all the cool kids are. And Paul, this preacher, this great missionary, the Christian faith, in that kind of a context in Rome, who wants to pay attention to a Jew. A Jew who's bringing a message about another Jew, a prophet of all places, Nazareth. Jesus was called a Nazarene, but that wasn't a compliment. Nazareth was the place that, well, as the text says, where's the gospel of Mark, where somebody asks, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" It's that kind of a place. Nazareth. So he's not only a Jew, he's from a hick place, a no-good place, a place that everybody looks down on. And if that's not enough, he was executed by the Romans in the most despised, the most humiliating, the most degrading way someone could die. Roman law said that a Roman citizen could not be crucified. It's too degrading, too humiliating. So your great Savior, your God, is this Jewish prophet from Nazareth who was crucified? That's absolute foolishness. Who would want to listen to Paul bringing a message like that? Paul wrote to the Corinthians and he said that, you know, to people outside the faith, this message we have about Jesus is foolishness. He said, "For the word of the cross is folly, foolishness to those who are perishing, to folks who are outside the faith." But to us, it's different. To us who are being saved, this is the power of God. So one reason Paul might have been ashamed of the gospel is because it's foolish. Many of you know that. When you talk to folks out there and you start talking about Jesus, people think, you've just lost it. You're an idiot. Others might say, besides the message being kind of foolish, look at the followers. Look at these Christian folks. Let's face it, many Christians can be embarrassing. Some of them are just weird. Some of them act weird, some of them dress weird, some of them talk weird. And sometimes we're kind of like, "You're not really with them." But you see, that's not a new thing. Some archaeologists digging around Rome uncovered some graffiti, you know, first-century memes that were scratched on walls. And here's one. This was a first-century critic, or actually second-century critic of Christianity. He wrote a lot, guy named Celsus. He said, "Christians show that they want and are able to convince only the foolish, the dishonorable, the stupid, the slaves, the women, and the children." Wow. When we look at your followers, when we look at those who follow your Jesus, man, it's just stupid people. It's fools. It's idiots. Wow. Well, that's one reason that we might say Paul might be embarrassed of the gospel. It's embarrassing. Another reason he might be ashamed of the gospel is because the gospel can seem at times irrelevant. You know, when you live in the capital, when you live in the center of the world where everything's happening, your little talk about your little religion is so irrelevant. I mean, come on. Rome is where everything's happening. This is where we're dealing with world politics, international politics. This is where we're dealing with important things like the economy. And Rome has lots of problems. I mean, what's really going to happen with Nero? You know, there's a lot of talk that Nero has lost his mind. And what about the problem we have here in Rome with violence and crime? How are we going to bring that down? And what about the economy? Speaking of the economy, what about the whole slave situation? Is there going to be another revolt? I think one's brewing. What do you think? And man, the whole Roman economy depends on and rides on slaves. See, those are the big issues. And in light of all those issues, we don't have time and interest in your silly little foolish religion. You can see me irrelevant. And you can see how these same things that were true in that day are true in our day. The gospel seems foolish to so many. The gospel seems irrelevant to so many. But another reason Paul might be ashamed of the gospel or being inclined to be ashamed is because the gospel can only be embarrassing and it can seem irrelevant. The gospel can also be costly. The gospel is offensive in what it says, some of what it says. Some of the things the gospel says are negative. We are sinners. Some of what the gospel says are narrow. "There is no other name under heaven by which you must be saved," the Scripture says. Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." Those things are offensive. And when we start talking to people about that, people can get upset and relationships can be broken. Families can even be fractured. If that's not enough, that rejection can foster animosity, can foster persecution. So it is for so many millions of our brothers and sisters around the world. Once they start talking about Jesus and start talking about the gospel, real persecution comes. The apostle Paul understood that better than probably any of us ever will. Because he preached the gospel, he was driven out of Antioch in Pisidia. He was chased out of Iconium. He was stoned and left for dead in Lystra. In Philippi, he was imprisoned. They smuggled him out of Thessalonica because of angry crowds. They smuggled him out of Berea for the same reason. In Athens, though some there, in Athens became believers, he was mocked and he was scorned by many of the academics and many of the philosophers when he spoke at the Eropagus. When he got to Corinth, the Jewish leaders there had him brought up on charges before the tribunal. And while he was exonerated there and let go, let me tell you, it's not fun being dragged to court. That's just scratching the surface. We don't have time to go through this whole litany of things that Paul endured. You can go read your own in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. He was beaten. He was scourged with 39 lashes multiple times. He was beaten with rods, shipwrecked and on and on. The gospel can be costly. Some of you know that. I dare say, again, none of us have experienced these things to such an extent, but some of you understand what it is to lose a relationship because you speak about Christ. Some of you have understood what it is to lose a job because you stand for Christ. Some of you know what it is to be mocked, to made fun of because you stand for Christ. So it makes perfect sense to us that Paul might be ashamed of the gospel and tempted sometimes to back down, to sit down, to be quiet, to just say, "Lord, I'm just going to sit this city out. I'm not going to go there." We could say, "You know what? We get it, Paul. Give him a pass." But it's interesting. Paul says, "I'm not ashamed if we go back to our text and look at the verses before that. Go back to verse 13. This is what he writes. He says, "I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented. In order that I may reap some harvest among you, as well as among the rest of the Gentiles, I am under obligation both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish." So I'm eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. Not only is Paul unashamed, he says here, he's eager to get to Rome so he can share the gospel. Why? What moves this man so? The next verses, verse 16, where he started, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith." I'm going to try very quickly to show us six reasons here that Paul gives in those two verses to explain to us why he is unashamed and reasons why you and I should likewise be like Paul and be unashamed of the gospel. First reason, simply this, the word gospel, first word, gospel. The word gospel literally translated into English is simply good news. Interesting. When you and I have good news, if we're doing our little weekly run through Walmart and we see a great sale, man, they are giving away this thing for 10 cents a piece. We call up our kids, we call up our parents, we say to our friends, got to run over to Walmart and pick up a few couple dozen of this or that because it's really cheap. Whenever we hear good things, we like to share it. Why is it with the good news of Jesus Christ, we get silent. Back when I was a teenager back in the late '60s and the '70s, and Jesus' music was coming out then back in the days, some of us remember the Jesus revolution back then. I remember a song that was sung back then when you know a pretty story, you don't let it go and said, you tell it to your children when you tuck them into bed. When you know a wonderful secret, you go and tell it to your friends because a lifetime filled with Jesus is a life that never ends. Sing that sweet, sweet song of salvation and let your laughter fill the air. Sing the sweet, sweet song of salvation and tell the people everywhere. That's what it should be. It should be such incredibly great news that we can't keep quiet and yet we do. But that's reason number one, Paul isn't quiet because this is good news. Second word that I need to call our attention to is he says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, the good news, for it is the power of God." Power. Not just any power, it's the power of God. Friends, what's more powerful than God's power? Apparently you don't know, okay? So let's just think about it for just a minute. What is more powerful than the power of God? Not quite as enthusiastic as the first service. Apparently you guys are not as sharp. We're getting close to dinner time. You're getting weak. I get it. All right. Yeah. Nothing. And Paul says the gospel is the power of God to people of Paul's day. A crucified Savior was foolish and ridiculous just as it is to many today. And here's where I was going to show that little thing, the archeologist digging around Rome found this little bit of graffiti. And you can't really see it very good there, scratched into some rock. Here's a little pencil rubbing of it. Maybe you can see that better. And I know you don't speak Greek, actually neither do I. But I'll tell you what it says. It says, "Alexa Menos worships his God." And that's what scribble there in Greek. And what it's a picture of, remember this is graffiti, it's not great art. It's a picture of a slave who is standing in worship before a cross and crucified on the cross as a jackass. And you see, it's making fun of Christians, a crucified Savior, only idiots and fools. Things haven't changed. It was the same in Paul's day. But you see what to people is idiocy, lunacy, foolishness. Paul said, we read earlier, it is the power of God back to 1 Corinthians where he is speaking here in this. He says, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, folly to the Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God for the foolishness of God is wiser than men. And the weakness of God is stronger than men. It's foolishness to them, but it is a power. It is a power of God. It's the power of God that is able to save anyone, even the least likely. And may I say most often, God saves the least likely. The ones that we say, they would never become a Christian. People like Paul. Paul, who was a persecutor and murderer of Christians, how he hated believers in Christ, followers of Christ, and then he became its greatest missionary. Jesus would often get in trouble because he chose the unlikely. He loved the sinners so much so that people called him the friend of sinners, and that wasn't a compliment. That was a pejorative, a put down friend of sinners. He hangs out with those people. Matthew, a despised, hated, sellout tax collector. And Jesus reaches out to him and Matthew leaves it all and follows Jesus. Jesus brings him into the 12, makes him one of his 12 disciples. Mary Magdalene, immoral woman demonized. Jesus reaches out to her. She follows him. The first person to see Jesus after he rose from the dead, Mary Magdalene. All the way up till Jesus is hanging on the cross, the last person before Jesus died on the cross, that he rescued the other thief next to him, who was there by his own words, "I'm here because I deserve it." Who deserves crucifixion? You've got to be pretty bad. So I'm here getting what I deserve. He's not Jesus. Remember me when you come into your kingdom, says, "Today you and I are going to be there." Jesus is always saving the unlikely. Our dear sister, Ruth Ann Haskins, went home to be with Jesus this week. Ruth Ann is one who liked to reach out to the unlikelies. She loved working the tent at Bike Week up in New Hampshire where home was, hanging out with bikers, talking to him about Jesus, because Ruth Ann knew the power of the gospel to save and to transform the least likely. And if you knew Ruth Ann, and a lot of us did, she would save with a big smile, and I'm one of the least likely. The power of God, the gospel is the power of God. That should give courage to us. Not only does he save the least likely, but he works through the least able. You see, the gospel is the power of God. It's not the messenger. It's the message. And so, for all of us who are one of the excuses we use for not sharing the gospel is not good words. I don't know how to speak very well. I don't put my thoughts together very well. So we'll leave that for the pastors and the professionals. And no, the power is not the messenger. The power is in the message. And all of us have the same task, the same job. We are, therefore, Paul writes to the Corinthians Christ ambassadors, making his appeal to the world. We are, Jesus said, his witnesses, Acts chapter 1, verse 8. Our task is to make disciples, to make followers of Christ, Matthew 28, 19. It should give us courage that if we, in our weakness, will be faithful to speak the gospel, the good news to people, the power of God will do the work. He'll work through broken, flawed, untalented people like us. Isn't that good news? A third word that gets me why Paul is not ashamed of the gospel. For I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for the salvation. This word is important because what people need in this world is not a helping hand. You see, salvation is not a little boost up, a little nudge, a little push, a little help. That's not salvation. That's assistance. And people don't need assistance. People need salvation. Another word for salvation is rescue. Rescue and salvation are not where you just need, you know, a little help getting out of this hole, where you just need a little help from sinking. Salvation is where you need that, is where it's a life and death, critical situation, where there are two options and two options only. One is I die. The other is a Savior. Someone comes and rescues me and saves me. That's salvation. And the gospel is not a help. It is not an assistance. It's not just get you started so you can finish it or it's not just help you along the way. The gospel is that you need rescue. Romans 3, 23, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Every one of us are sinners. Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death. We are guilty before God because every one of us are sinners and we are condemned before God destined to hell. Because we're sinners, we cannot undo what we have done. There is a bill and the bill is due. The penalty is death. The penalty is hell. And there's no way we can cover the bill except hell. That's the situation we're in. Romans 5, verse 6, while we were still weak, it says, there's nothing we can do to save ourselves. We are weak. We are helpless. We are powerless. You know, one of the worst lies that many people believe. Even many folks who profess to be Christians, many people believe that they're pretty good and somehow they can be good enough to get to heaven. That's somehow that's going to save them. Four years ago, the Culture Research Center at Arizona Christian University did a survey. Among the things they found was that 41 percent of American evangelical professing evangelical believers. In other words, again, folks who say, yeah, I'm a believer in Jesus Christ. They belong to churches like ours. 41 percent of evangelical believers think that a person can qualify for heaven by doing good or being good is a lie from hell. It is not what the Scripture teaches. We are sinners. The wages of sin is death. But while we were weak, Romans 5, 6, while we were helpless, Christ died for us in our place. Oh, there we are. I forgot this verse. Again, we're helpless. You see, the best we can do, Isaiah writes in Isaiah 64. All of our righteousness, all of our righteous deeds, the best we can do is like trash. Can't save us. Well, what can save us while we were helpless? Christ died for us. He took our place. At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Those who didn't deserve it. Salvation. Everybody needs it. Why shouldn't we be ashamed of the gospel? It's good news. It is the power of God. It's the power of God for salvation. Another important word, this word, righteousness. The reason that we can't save ourselves, the reason there's nothing we can do to rescue ourselves is because we ourselves have no righteousness. Verse 17, he speaks over here in the positive thing, for in it, in the gospel, why is the gospel a good news? For in it, the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. His point is this. The reason we can't save ourselves is because only someone with the right standing, only a perfect person can stand before God and not be condemned. And none of us qualify because all of us are sinners. That's why we need rescue. But you see, in the gospel, the rescue is revealed. In the early, in the early 1500s, there was a monk who was distraught. Every day, he was more depressed. He was more disturbed. He was more frustrated because year after year, he was doing everything he could think of. He expended himself. He exhausted himself, incessantly doing labors and doing vigils and doing prayers and doing readings and doing penances and doing studies, trying in some way to find some kind of peace before God. And all he did was every day become more convinced of what a sinner he was and how helpless he was. He became acutely aware of his inadequacy. And it was in this verse, Romans 1-17, that suddenly the light dawned and the Word of God opened up and he realized Martin Luther that day realized, oh, the righteousness of God is not something that we must attain to and try to earn and achieve so God will accept us. But it is something that God gives to us as a gift through what Jesus did. He'd been trying all this time to earn it and he realized he couldn't. But he knew he needed the righteousness of God to be able to stand before God. And the gospel says the righteousness of God is revealed. It is applied to us. It's given to us because Jesus took our sin and he took it upon himself on the cross. And our sin was taken away. And the righteousness of Jesus was put upon us so that when God looks at us, he doesn't see our sin, it's gone. And what he sees is the righteousness of Jesus. Oh, that's the good news of the gospel. Instead of sin, we've got righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus. And that's what God sees when he looks at us. That's why Paul is so excited about this message and can't be ashamed. What grace, what a gift. Paul wrote to the Corinthians. Paul wrote this for our sake. He, God, made him Jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that in him, in Jesus, we might become the righteousness of God. God took Jesus with no sin. He put our sin on him and he bore all the wrath of God, was poured out upon him. They're on the cross. He took an eternity's worth of hell for all of us and he bore that because he's infinite. He could do that because he's holy. He could do that so we don't have to. He gave us his righteousness. Well, the fifth word here that he wants us to see is this word believe because how does all that become us, become ours? How does the good news of the gospel become ours? How does the salvation become ours and the righteousness of God become ours? I'm not ashamed of the gospel because of the power, it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. The way that we gain this salvation is not by doing good works. It's not by working hard, expending ourselves like Martin Luther tried to do for years, trying to do enough and be enough and he realized it never gets there and he can't, we can't undo what we've done and we can't even pay for what we've done. It's a debt we cannot pay. The only way we get it, it's simply by believing in Jesus. What does it mean to believe in Jesus? It means with our minds we understand and believe the facts. Jesus, about who Jesus is, he's God who became man. He died on the cross bearing my sin in my place. He rose again from the dead. We understand the facts, we believe the facts, but it's more than just intellectually believing the facts. As James writes, he says even the devil believes the facts. It's both the intellectual believing the truth about Jesus and it's the heart, the heart that turns to Jesus from our sin and owns Jesus as who he is. He is God, he is Lord, he's my Lord, my God. That's belief. In verse 17 it uses the word faith. This is the righteousness from God is revealed. It is applied to us from faith to faith. I like the way the NIV translates it, which is from faith from first to last. Our salvation is by faith when we believe in Jesus Christ. Instantly our sin is forgiven. We are transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his dear son. We have eternal life by faith and then we live this life following Jesus by faith. It's all by faith from first to last through the power of God and the work of God in us. It's marvelous stuff. There's no room for pride, but there's so much room for just rejoicing in what God has done. It's not by my efforts because I can't do enough, but it's a gift. One last word. See, this is what rocks Paul's world. The gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. The righteousness from God is by faith from first to last. But the word I want to mention that he's mentioned here in this, it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Whether they're Jew or whether they're Greek, doesn't matter. This message is intended for all people and it's effective for anyone and everyone who will believe. Over in Romans chapter 10, and I really originally hoped when I laid out this series to spend some time in this passage and after I got to study in this week, there's no time to go there. I'm going to read these verses. Paul says, for everyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. How then are they to call on him of whom they have not, in whom they have not believed, and how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard, and how are they to hear without someone preaching, and how are they to preach unless they are sent, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news? Why can Paul not shut up? Why can Paul not be ashamed of the gospel? Because if I don't tell them who will, if we don't tell them who will, this is a great message, it's just an incredible message for anyone who will believe. But how can they believe if they don't hear? How can they hear if no one speaks? That's what drove Paul, and so the question is, what are we going to do? Just three things. I'm over time. I'm sorry. Let me wrap up with these three thoughts, practical things for us to do. First of all, we need to be looking for opportunities. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, I firmly believe that God puts before you in your path, He presents opportunities, people with whom you can talk about Jesus. Matter of fact, not just people with whom you can talk about Jesus, people who they're going down for the third time, and they need to hear. The world is full of people drowning in sin. The second thing is, we need to be prepared. Do you know how to share the gospel? I hope you do, you should. If you don't, I'll give you three things real fast. Number one, if you don't know how to share the gospel and need some help, here's a website you can go to, operated by one of my former seminary profs, have great resources there. The way that I still share the gospel, I learned from him. It was simple, and actually I've shared it with many of you before. That doesn't float your boat. You don't like to do it. They have lots of courses that you can take and train, video courses, you can pace yourself. That doesn't float your boat. I'm going to volunteer John Wagner sitting back there. You call John, John would love nothing better than to teach you how to share the gospel, right John? He'll mentor you. You say, "Well, I don't want that. I don't want to meet with John one-on-one, but I would like a class." I promise you this, come talk to me or come talk to one of the elders. If there's more than one of you, we'll start a class. If there's only one of you, then we'll get together and have coffee. One last thing. I find it intriguing that this man Paul, who is unashamed of the gospel for all these reasons we've just gone over, I find it interesting that at the end of the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 6, the Apostle Paul says to the Ephesians, he says, "Hey guys, pray for me." And what does he ask them to pray for? He says, "Pray that I might have boldness to proclaim the gospel as I ought." And I realized I just got a little insight into Paul, this man who is fearless and bold is also terrified like you and me. You know what? We need to be praying for one another. We need to pray for boldness. I've heard the definition of bravery is not the absence of fear, right? You heard that? Bravery is doing what needs to be done despite your fear. God's calling us to be brave. So is the Apostle Paul here. We've got to end. Father, thank you for this time. We've gone long, but this has been a powerful thing. This has been a powerful series hitting right where we live with very contemporary things. And this is where we are. We're in a world that has lost people that are going to hell without Jesus Christ. And yet, as Christians, most of us aren't doing much about that. Father, we just need to be reminded. And we need the example of Paul here who is saying, "Folks, I'm not ashamed. I think that's why he brings it up, guys. I don't want you to be either." And so he's telling us the importance of the gospel, why it matters, why this is good news, why we should want to share this. And it's the power of God. And if we will step up that you will work through us to do things that are superhuman, to do what could only be done by you, to change someone's heart, to take those who are dead in transgressions and give them life in Christ, only you can do that. But you give us the privilege of being a part of that. If we will get over our fear, get over our embarrassment, and so, Father, may you work that change in us individually and as a church. And I pray, Father, in the days, in the weeks, in the months, in the year ahead, that we will see you work through us to bring men and women and kids to faith in Jesus. For their sake and for your glory, let me ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. May God bless you as you grow in your walk with Him this week.