For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation, for everyone who believes, for the Jews first and also for the Greek. Romans 1:16
What we believe as individuals and communities is significant. I think we deceive ourselves into believing that we have a certain belief system while in reality, our actions and our words completely contradict our “belief system.” For example; if we say we believe in free speech, yet we try to silence those who have different belief systems, not allowing true free speech. Think about it in a Christian standpoint, we say we believe in the power of prayer, and have no prayer life, do we really believe that prayer changes things? Proverbs 23:7 “For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he (in behavior.)” Jesus challenged the disciples on Matthew 16 “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man am?” The disciples compared Jesus to some of the greatest prophets, but Jesus did not let the conversation drop, He asked, “But who do you say that I am?” These were the men who walked with Jesus on a daily basis watching Him heal the sick, set the demonically oppressed free, raise the dead, and feed the multitude with a boy’s lunch and most of them had no answer. Peter answered, “You are the Christ, th Son of the living God.” Then Jesus called Peter blessed, because his belief system was on the right track. Jesus told him, “Blessed are you Simon Bar Jonah…And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Peter’s belief was so strong that it made him a new man with a new name. If Jesus was to come into our churches and ask us a question like He asked the disciples I wonder if our belief system would be correct and Jesus would call us blessed.
The book of Romans started with a greeting and expressing a desire to come and share the true gospel with them. Then he penned these words “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in the righteousness of God, is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”” Seems to be the emphasis is always I am not ashamed. It is so important that we are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, after all Jesus said in Matthew 10:32 “Every man who publicly acknowledges me I shall acknowledge in the presence of my Father in Heaven, but the men who disowns me before men, I shall disown before my Father in Heaven.” If we want Jesus to claim us as His own, we must be bold and proclaim Him as our Lord and Savior before men. I think many Christians do a really good job of proclaiming Jesus in the setting of the church. We sing and talk about the goodness of God, yet in our work setting we do not even mention Him. We tend to socialize with other Christians. I heard someone say several years ago if I were the devil and I wanted to make the church ineffective, I would convince them the only place and set of people that were safe is in the small box of a church set on the street corner. Then I would have government convince them that church and politics are not to be mixed. I would convince them the people in the other “box churches” were the enemy and keep conflict going between the different denominations. I would leave them alone as long as they staid in their individual boxes. While I understand our churches are more than boxes, it is a pretty good illustration. As the church we have been busy fighting over doctrine instead of uniting under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We allowed government to tell the church what they can and cannot do. Whoa, you say, the government will not tell our church what to do. Did your church shut down during COVID while the liquor stores were deemed essential and stayed open? Has you pastor bought into the lie that the church should not be involved in our government? Moses wrote the Torah to teach the Jews how to govern their new nations. God told the prophets who to anoint as king. God placed His people in key positions of government, Joseph, Esther, and Daniel are just a few. Jeremiah 29:7 “And seek the peace of the city, where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it, for in its’ peace you will have peace.” The ERV translations says “Also, do good things for the city I sent you to. Pray to the Lord for the city you are living in, because if there is peace in that city, you will have peace also.” Jesus even addressed building the government on the rock of the revelation of who Jesus is. Jesus told Peter “on this rock, I will build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.: Our modern Bible translations did not do justice for what Jesus told Peter, the word that was translated into church here is from the Greek word Ecclesia. Ecclesia literally stands for government body, for the advancement of freedom. I heard the story of a very faithful woman who never missed church and sat on the second row every Sunday for years, told her pastor, the church is the enemy of God. When he asked her what she meant, she said in the Bible, the prophets were always confronting and advising the kings in matters of the government and the modern church allows kings (those in government) to control the church. Then she said when is the last time you heard a pastor speak against the evils in our politics? Not only did Jesus tell Peter He would build His church on truth that Jesus is the Son of the Living God, and the gates of Hell could not prevail against it, but He also promised “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in haven and whatever you lose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” The church has been given the authority to bind and loose. We are called to be the slat and the light, making a distinction in our world. The powers of darkness are doing everything it can to shut the church up and make it ineffective. If it can shut the church down, it can take over the United States of America. If we lose our God given inalienable rights that are guaranteed in the Constitution, we will lose free speech, the right to assemble, to bear arms, and to chose the religion of our choosing. If these freedoms are not important enough to fight for, are the souls of those around us? Do not try and convince me that the church should have no influence on politics. One of the reasons we are in the mess we are in as a nation is because the church has been silent too long. It is estimated that only 56% of Christians bothered to vote in the last Presidential election. When are we going to start setting the standard for what is right and wrong? It is not about “politics” per say, but we have billions of people around the world that need to hear the gospel in order to bring in the billion- soul harvest.
Paul wrote the book of Romans, starting with a greeting and an express desire to be with them, then he honed in on not being the afraid of the gospel for it is the power of salvation. In verse 18 he wrote “For the wrath of God is revealed from haven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. He wanted people to escape the wrath of God. Are we concerned enough about those who are around us who are dying and will spend eternity in hell without God because they do not know the truth? Do we as the church truly believe that the gospel, we are called to carry have the power to save those who are lost without Jesus? If it is a true core belief, are we fulfilling the great commission of going into all the world and preaching the gospel? I heard someone compare someone who does not know Jesus to a house on fire. If we were to see our neighbors house on fire, wouldn’t we do everything to get them out of the fire to safety? Yet we stand by and watch our neighbor’s lives go up in smoke because we are afraid to share the good news of Jesus or we do not want to offend them with the truth. John 1:25 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” When we are sharing the good news of the gospel, we must be full of grace and truth. Boldly proclaiming truth in love. Confronting the sin, yet loving the sinner. How does one get the boldness to unashamedly preach the gospel of salvation?
In the last two weeks, we have witnessed something I never imagined would happen after the assignation of Charlie Kirk. Charlie was a man who exemplified not being ashamed of the gospel, instead going onto college campuses and sharing the truth of the gospel to the young adults. I have heard countless testimonies about people giving their life to Jesus because of the testimony of his life. Over 200,000 people registered to attend his funeral and 1,100,000 people watched the service on line. While most of us will never have that kind of platform, I wonder what would happen if all of us chose to live unashamed of the gospel. There are some things we can do to build the faith needed to be bold in this generation. We must have a fervent prayer life. Daniel did not hide his prayer time, but opened the windows wide so the enemy could see him praying towards Jerusalem. Prayer still changes things. Jesus told the disciples to wait in the upper room for the Holy Spirit before they started their earthly ministry. No only does the Holy Spirit need to be our teacher, guide, and comforter, we must be filled with the dunamis power that the Holy Spirit fills us with. We must trust God completely. The three Hebrew children when threatened with the fiery furnace said “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand O King. But if not, let it be known to you O King, that we do not serve your gods.” When we become bold and unashamed of the gospel we will see our world change for Jesus.
Cathy Nesmith