The Power of the Gospel

A while back I took a class on Romans. How the class was done was we sat around a table, opened up our Bibles, and just got into the Word. By far this has been my favorite class in 5 years of college.

Recently, I've been going through the book of Romans on my own, a chapter at a time. There is some great stuff in there. I think over the next few weeks I'll be going through Romans on this. Hopefully it'll get me to start posting more. That'd be cool.

Go ahead and read Romans 1 for me. As always, take your time. Take notes. Write questions. Underline, highlight, mark up. Actually get into the text. Don't just read it, have a conversation with it. Take 10 minutes, take an hour. Just actually get into the text.

Now I may do a chapter at a time, or maybe a passage at a time, but as I said there is a lot here. So let's dive in.

Chapter 1 as a whole has one theme in it: The Gentiles are sinners. Great start in a letter to a church.

Verses 1-7 are Paul greeting the church as a whole though, Jews and Gentiles alike. In verse 1 he calls himself a servant, which he does in many of his letters. I love seeing this because Paul, the author, is one of the greatest missionaries this world has ever seen. Through him the Church has exploded to exponential proportions and he had endured so much suffering for the Church. He was top dog, widely respected, great at his job, and hand picked by God. Yet he called himself a servant, a lowly being in the grand scheme of things. This is something we should always remember, that we are no more than mere servants of Christ. Verses 2-6 we see the essentials, the aspects of the Gospel.

• Promised beforehand by God through prophets and other scriptures
• Concerning his Son (Jesus)
• Who came from the line of David
• And was declared the Son of God in
• Power
• According the the scriptures
• His resurrection
• Through whom we have received grace
• To bring obedience of faith for his name to all people

What all of that means is that Jesus was promised from the beginning. He was declared the Son of God by the power he had, the scriptures, and his resurrection. By him we have received grace, so that we can take this message to all the people so that they may be obedient by faith. This last bit is a big theological bit, and we'll see it more later in Chapter 8.

This letter then, is to all those in Rome who are a part of the church, loved by God, and called to be saints. Paul passes to them grace and peace which can only come from God.

Paul, a man of great compassion, longs to be with this church. We see later that it kind of just sprung up out of no where, with no apostle directly tied to its founding (according to some scholars whom I agree with). Paul is thankful for this church because they are known throughout the world for their faith.

Think about this: What if today your church was known throughout the world? Not because of your size, or the building, or the preacher, but because of the faith of the congregation. In order for that to be a reality you would have to do something to show your faith (James 2.14-26). Think about how great it would be if you loved on those around you so much that the world, the entire world, would know about this guy named Jesus because of your boldness in the faith.

Paul hears of their faith and longs to visit them to encourage them, strengthen them, and pass on gifts so that they may continue in the work of Christ. But so far Paul has been unable to visit because of his other obligations. I wrote just above that Paul is a man of great compassion. It is seen in these verses here. He longs, doesn't just want, but longs, to come visit the church in Rome. But he is under obligation to minister to Greeks, barbarians, the wise and the foolish. He sets aside his own desires for the spreading of the Gospel. This proves just how much of a servant Paul is, and I believe fully we need to imitate him in this. Always partner with Christ to further his Gospel, putting aside our won selfish desires and needs for those around us.

Why should we do this? Because there is power in the Gospel. Verse 16 tells us that Paul is not ashamed of the Gospel despite the fact that it makes him look crazy. The Gospel that we believe in is the message that God, the only God, put on skin and bone, came down to earth, lived as a servant to all, was even killed on a cross, then rose again three days later only to ascend into heaven 40 days after that. Doesn't that sound crazy? Yet Paul is unashamed of this message, and puts aside his own wants because of it.

Why? Because there is power in the Gospel. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone! And in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith and for faith because the righteous shall live by faith.

The phrase "from faith for faith" is a bit hard to understand. But hopefully God shows me what it actually means so we can understand this a little bit better. As always, I suggest you read what the text actually says. That's what I do and it tends to help understand it. By faith we receive grace (Eph. 2.8). This grace gives us the righteousness of God (Rom. 4.4). So from faith we receive God's righteousness for greater faith in us and so that others may see the righteousness that God has imparted on us for their own faith (John 3.21).

Righteousness itself is a tricky term. It's one of those words those in the Church throws around and everyone nods like they know what it means, but in reality they have no clue. Tomorrow I will get into what righteousness is, and then finish out Romans 1. This will actually be really good because the rest of Romans 1 is the exact opposite of righteousness (for the most part).

So as you go throughout your day, reflect on the power of the Gospel, of God's love for us. Count others higher than yourself. All others. Not just some, but all. And imitate Paul as he imitates Christ, and be a servant.

The church

Be clear with the title. That is church with the small c. Local church, churches that we go to on a regular basis. This may include the Church as well, but that's not what I want to focus on right now.

Today and the past couple of day's I've seen a lot of shared posts about "Bad Christian"s blog. From what I have gathered (I haven't had a chance to read the blog yet because I've been busy today), they speak out against the church.

Grab your pitchforks and torches people, it's time to riot against these heretics.

How DARE they speak against our church. We are absolutely perfect! Our church does nothing wrong! Now maybe some of those other churches out there, they need to listen to what some people have to negatively say about churches, but not us.

That mentality right there my friends is wrong. We live in a broken world, we screw things up every day, and that includes how we do church and live our lives as a church. Ever church has its problems, and all are different.

I read another blog today from a person from my generation about why people from our generation are leaving the churches. His point was mainly that when we were younger and in youth group, we had a say, we could make decisions and it seemed like people cared about us. But once we get to "grown up church" we're back on the bottom rung, we get no respect I tell you, no respect. We no longer have a voice, we no longer are respected or heard. It's the older generations who look down on us as if we're stupid that run the show.

THIS IS WRONG

What's funny is when the generations above me were my age, they had the exact same struggles that millennial's have today. It's like they completely forgot what it was like to be our age. I know dementia and Alzheimer's doesn't start in the 40's people. And even if it does that would be an incredibly rare case. 

But the leadership of the churches need to remember 1 Timothy 4.12: Don't let anyone look down on you because you're young. Instead set an example. 

"But that only applies to you people Mike, to get them to behave properly. Those heathens."

That is not why Paul wrote that. He wrote that to Timothy, a man he brought up in the faith, and told him that the leadership around him is horrible, and he needs to show them what's up. People my age and younger--DO THIS. People older than me--Listen to these guys. They know what they need, they know what they want. They want Jesus, they want meat, and they want to be heard and respected. They are as much a part of the church as you are, just because we are young does not mean that we can be ignored or tossed aside. Times have changed since our parents and grandparents were are age, so they need to understand what that means for us. The way we think even is at it's very core different, and you think we should just come to church, sit on our butts and listen to a message that always ends in an alter call? (Not that I have problems with alter calls, but we should not always be worried about quantity.)

I have a dream of a generation of millennials who were brought up in the church, graduate high school and college, and jump actively into leadership roles in their churches because of their passion for what the church is doing. What I don't want to see though is people who graduate and jump into leadership roles just because a spot needs filled, which I have seen happen.

The church today is broken and run by broken people, and that's okay. But what is not okay is the lack of change in all the churches that I see, and I see a lot. 

Younger people- Don't let anyone look down on you because you're young. Show them you are capable of actually being responsible. (And in order to do that you have to be responsible.)

Older people- Quit being the "back in my day," buttoned down, idea killing, heathen calling, stereotypical old person which all of us younger guys think you are. Instead remember what it was like to be our age, put yourself in our shoes. Did you want to be listened to? Then listen to us. We may surprise you.

I want to end this post today with this: I love you all. I don't know who's going to read this, I don't care. I think we're all broken and need some healing, and we all need to come to terms with the other generations, acknowledging that they may have something worth saying. So please, love, listen to, and respect each other. You'll get a lot further in your ministries. 

The Past as a Tool

It's been well over a month since I last posted. There is reasoning behind this, and I hope to get back on track now.

The reason I haven't posted in a while is because some people got upset over some things that I have posted, and I had to wrestle with the idea of "Is it okay to talk about my past to total strangers?"

Yes.

Acts 5.29: But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than man."
Galatians 1.10: For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? if I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
1 Thessalonians 2.4: but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.
1 Corinthians 15.10: By the grace of God I am what I am and his grace towards me has not been without effect

There's a lot more verse I could use to make my point, but these will suffice.

The reason I point out these verses is because there are a lot of times where what I preach will probably be offensive to people. The things I talk about people will tell me I should keep to myself. I speak about my past a lot, and I have a rough one. Not that my family was poor, or that I lived in a car for months on end. but there have just been situations, some I was unwillingly put in, and many that I created myself, that many believe I should not talk about. Ever. But why is that? To guard the reputation of a church or minister? Or make sure people don't know that a "man of God" has been to the other side and wasn't always a perfect lil church boy?

I'm in the camp that we all have choices to make, and I've made plenty of choices in my life, most of them bad. But God can take any bad thing and turn it around for his purpose (Rom. 8.28). And because he uses all things for his purpose it is by his grace that I am who I am, that I am redeemed, that I have been liberated from the bondage of slavery to sin, and that I am now alive in Christ, having been brought back from death that is sin.

So if I speak on my past, it is because God has pulled me out of that pit of filth and it has become a part of my witness. And I am called to witness. The difference (for me) between witness and evangelism is that evangelism is presenting the gospel, while witness is presenting the effects of the gospel in my life. And we all are called to witness.

So if I offend you with something I say, good. The gospel is offensive. Christ is offensive. The truth is offensive.

My past no longer effects me. There are still things that I wrestle with, as do we all, but the old me is dead. No longer do I live in my past nor am I tied to it, but it is a part of me and has made me into who I am today. And all of that is by the grace of God, for his glory.

Find what God can use in you and your past for his glory. And don't be scared to be transparent.