Not Ashamed

By Ron v. Leerdam

Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,
I happened to watch the movie, ‘What we did on holidays.’
The Scottish comedian, Billy Connolly, was a grandfather whose 3 grandchildren aged 9,7 &5 ended up giving him a ‘Viking funeral’ when he died on the beach, without any of the adults being informed – a very funny movie.
The sad thing to hear in the movie was, “When we die, that is the end, so make the most of your life while you live, because that is all we have.”

“Do you believe there is life after death?”
Christians have the assurance from God that even though we die, will we live forever. We have been saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.
God has given us the fantastic news that Christ has come into this world to save sinners, giving them hope, a future and eternal life.
Christ has told us to tell all we meet how God has saved us.
Have we a burning desire in our hearts to see others saved from the power of sin – the law that brings death?
Do we love our neighbour so much that we wouldn’t let anything stop us trying to share the good news? It is true that some do not want to hear the gospel, but we pray to the Lord, asking Him to give us the opportunity to share the Gospel with others. “In your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 1 Peter 3:15-16
The apostle Paul met the risen Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus.
He was called to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.
He knew people would laugh and ridicule Him.
He was told that he would suffer much persecution.
I am reminded of the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Most of the 12 Apostles were martyrs for their faith and millions have followed in their footsteps. Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, I am not ashamed of the Gospel. If he was not ashamed, the Christians in Rome shouldn’t be ashamed either!
The church then as it is now, was surrounded by pagans who think the Gospel is rubbish. Who ever preached the gospel was often greeted by a hostile response and risked their lives. Through out history people have persecuted the prophets of God.
There was opposition on every side.
The Jews hated Christians because they believed Christ’s disciples blasphemed the one true God. Stephen was stoned to death for preaching the Gospel.
The Romans were suspicious of Christians as being rebels, disloyal to the Roman empire. In a few years the Romans literally threw the Christians to the lions for their faith. The Greeks, the intellectuals of the age simply thought Christians were absolute fools.

But Paul quite plainly states: ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel.’
We don’t face losing our lives in Australia; though that could change. Yet it’s difficult to compare our situation with Paul’s. Many do despise the gospel or at least look on it as a fairy tale.
Think of our societies view of Christmas.
Santa Claus has taken the place of Christ.
Easter: The cross has been removed and replaced with Easter eggs, Easter bunny and hot cross buns. – mind you I do like eating them.
There are times when we might be afraid/ashamed to tell others about God’s great love for sinners and the only way to eternal life.
Perhaps it is because we don’t know what to say.
Perhaps, scared people will take us the wrong way.
Or our culture says that faith is personal so we don’t talk about our experience with or of God.

If you don’t feel able to share the Gospel, talk to your session about equipping you.
I feel that one of the main reasons we don’t share our faith is; we fail to understand and see the power of God in the gospel. We fail to step out and tell others the way they can be saved because we are afraid of being called or thought – a fool. We shouldn’t! The people of the early church were not afraid. We read in Acts 8 that God used a great persecution to spread the gospel throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. Even though God’s people were running for their lives because of persecution for their faith, they could not stop telling the people they met along the way about what God had done for them.

They were so excited and happy they could not but share what God in Christ had done for them. What would they have told the people they met?

What is the content of the Gospel Paul preached? John gives us perhaps the most well known summary. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” John. 3:16

God in His great love comes to rescue sinners. God showed his love in that while we were yet his enemies he gave his son as a sacrifice for our sins. God the 2nd person of the trinity was made man. Jesus was like us in every respect, except for sin. He suffered the agony of hell in our place, dying on the cross at Calvary. He bore the punishment which we deserve. Paul was never ashamed to preach this good news! He gives us the reason why he is not ashamed. ‘For it is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe.’

The gospel is God’s power to save all who believe. The gospel is so powerfully used by God that people are delivered out of bondage to Satan, and set free from the power of sin so that they might live for God. No wonder Paul was eager to preach this gospel. The gospel is God’s message and God uses his people to communicate His message to others. God gives his message His power. When the Gospel is faithfully presented to those chosen by God, the Holy Spirit through the Word opens the heart and eyes of the sinner so that they see themselves for what they really are: wretched, miserable, a slave to sin, worthy of God’s just punishment – death, eternal separation from the source of life and love – the one true living God.

The gospel tells the sinner of the only way to escape paying the wages of sin which is death.

Repent of your sin and confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved from the terrible wrath of God.

Not all who hear the gospel are saved. Our text clearly says- ‘ only those who believe will be saved. Salvation is not universal. It is limited to those who respond to the gospel with faith. Perhaps you are wondering why Paul says, ‘the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes – first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. The reason Paul says first the Jew is because the promise of the gospel was entrusted to them. God chose Abraham and made a covenant with him. “All people on earth will be blessed through you.” Jesus spent most of his ministry on earth preaching the Gospel to the descendants of Abraham. Jesus commissioned his disciples to preach the gospel first to the Jews then to the whole world. All people stand in need of forgiveness, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The Apostle Paul was specifically set aside by God to preach the gospel to Non Jews – Gentiles. How wonderful is God’s grace to mankind.

No wonder Paul was not ashamed but was eager to preach the gospel for it is the power of God to save all who believe.
It’s God’s message.
God’s message transforms guilty sinners into forgiven saints.
It changed Paul, it changed me.
Every christian is evidence of the power (literally – dynamite) of God’s good news – the gospel. We can testify to God’s grace. Our salvation is purely by the grace of God alone. Even faith is a gift of God. We can’t boast in ourselves only of God’s mercy. God justifies sinners by faith alone. Saul of Tarsus – the Pharisee who thought he could earn his way into heaven met with Jesus on the road to Damascus.
He was made right with God by faith alone.
He considered all his good works as rubbish.
God revealed this truth to Martin Luther the impeccable monk who used all the means the Roman Catholic Church provided to try and make himself right with God.
But God in his grace kept on troubling Luther. All the hours he spent on his knees confessing every sin he could think of did not give him peace with God.
Flogging himself, denying himself every worldly pleasure did not give him peace with God. Instead of feeling love for God Luther hated the demands God placed on him. Thank God Luther went to the Scriptures and God made it clear to him through these very verses Paul wrote, that the righteousness of God spoken of here
does not refer to the fact that God is righteous and will punish every sin that is not confessed, but it refers to the righteousness God gives as a gift to everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ.

This truth changed Luther.
Now he had peace with God.
Now he understood the love and mercy of God.
This truth is one of the wonderful facts the Reformation rediscovered.
The Heidelberg Catechism Q A 60 states this truth of the gospel so clearly.
How are you right with God?
“Only by true faith in Jesus Christ.
Even though my conscience accuses me of having
grievously sinned against all God’s commandments
and of never having kept any of them, and even
though I am still inclined toward all evil,
Nevertheless, without my deserving it at all, out of
sheer grace, God grants and credits to me, the
perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of
Christ, as if I had never sinned, nor been a sinner,
as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was
obedient for me. All I need to do is accept this gift
of God with a believing heart.”

We are right with God is by faith alone. As our text says- ‘It is a righteousness that is by faith from first to last. All who have been justified by faith will be glorified and live with God in the glorious new heaven and new earth. In the meantime God is graciously giving the world time – time to hear and believe and so be saved.

The church of Jesus Christ has the glorious privilege of proclaiming the gospel – God’s power to save all who believe.
As the Father sent Jesus, so He sends His disciples to share the Gospel that Jesus is the Way, the Truth & the life, no one comes to Father God but through Him.

Amen.