God's Power Explodes Through the Gospel
Growing the Body of Christ Through the Gospel • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Attention (Why should they listen to you?) Just two days ago we, as a nation remembered the horrific events of 9/11. I remember exactly where I was when I received the word that one of the twin towers was struck by an airplane. I was driving back to my office at LBC from Baker Book House in Holland.
As soon as I got back to the office everyone was watching online and on TV the awful explosion of seeing these planes over and over corrine into the side of the respective tower. It was heart wrenching to say the least.
The explosive power of those planes was enough to transform two massive buildings to a gigantic pile of rubble. That day changed our country and the world forever.
I would submit to you this afternoon, that there is a greater force in this world than what we witnessed 19 years ago. And it is not a force for evil, but a force for good.
Today I want to talk with you about the explosive power of the gospel.
What is the Hearer’s problem? I must freely admit, I’m not sure the church truly understands the power at her disposal. We seem to think that we have only a sparkler when in fact we have the explosive power not just to take down a couple of buildings, but to change the landscape of the entire world.
What is the Biblical Solution? Church, do you know the power that you have at your fingertips?
What do the hearers need to know? You have access to the power of God.
Main Textual Idea: Of anyone, Paul knew all too well the power of the gospel. And because if it, he wore it like a suit of armor. Nothing and no one intimidated him because he had access to the Gospel!
Main Idea: Ignite the Gospel for Explosive and Consistent Change
Interrogative:
Transition: First, let’t take a look at the Explosive power of the gospel, then we will examine the Consistent Power of the gospel.
Body
The Explosive Power of the Gospel Brings the Dead to Life (vs. 16)
Lead in...What is the tension here? As impressed and thankful for this church as Paul was, he knew they needed some good teaching, clarification and, encouragement regarding the gospel. And he starts with his personal testimony.
16 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.
Explanation - After an introduction of thankfulness and indicating his desire to visit them to preach the gospel to them..
15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
Paul tell them that he is not “ashamed of the gospel...” These words have rung through church history from the day they were penned. It is a convicting phrase that speaks to the attitude of boldness of Paul.
“Just to be clear, I am not embarrassed by the good news that God has provided salvation through the sacrificial death, burial, and, resurrection of Jesus Christ for the payment of my sin debt.”
Let me ask you something. If I came up to you this morning and offered to pay off your mortgage or your student loan debt or your car loan or whatever, and you accepted my very generous offer, would you be embarrassed about receiving it? Maybe a little - but you’d get over it quick! And the bigger debt you have the less ashamed you probably would be!
Paul understood his debt all too well...
15 This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.
And because Paul understood the gospel so well, what he had been delivered from, he wasn’t ashamed at all! He was proud to be a card carrying follower of Christ.
14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Paul was not ashamed, embarrassed or chagrinned by the gospel. No way!
He was thrilled with the gospel! He was amazed by the gospel! He was stunned and astonished by the gospel. There was no shutting this guy up about the gospel because he understood how much he benefited from the gospel.
Christian, do you understand how much you have benefited from the Gospel of our Lord? What He did to save you? He willingly took on your punishment by bearing God’s holy and terrible wrath on the cross!
He did this because of His great love for you.
He rescued you. All you did was believe! You repented and believed and he fulfilled His promise to you and saved you.
You will NEVER experience Hell. This life is the most Hell you will ever know.
He gave you His Spirit to enable you to live the Christian life.
He gave you His People for a beautiful precursor to the heavenly community we will enjoy forever.
He gave you His Word to fill you with hope and purpose.
He gave and He gave and He gave and He continues to give.
Paul understood this well, and so there was no shame!
To the unsaved Jewish leadership that Paul used to be a part of, there was great shame in the cross, in the gospel...
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
But Paul had been saved from that mindset and now he was set on telling the world about the good news of Christ.
Why is he not ashamed? He tells us in the next part of the verse...
16 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.
The cross of Christ, the burial of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the GOSPEL of Christ is THE EXPLOSIVE POWER OF GOD FOR SALVATION!
Now, don’t miss the picture Paul is giving here.
The Gospel - picture it as the rocket that Iron man shot at the tank! It has an explosive effect on its target.
Why? Because is sent from the omnipotent/all-powerful God of the universe and it will do what God desires for it to do.
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
BOOM!!
God will accomplish His will in His way and in His time through the agency of the gospel.
By the way, the word “power” is δύναμις - of that which manifests God’s “power”
W. E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, and William White Jr., Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 1996), 478.
The english language developed the word “Dynamite” from δύναμις
Don’t miss the caveat however. God doesn’t save everyone according to the Apostle.
This powerful gospel message must be believed. God is powerful to save. To bring the dead to life through the life giving message of the gospel. However, the onus/responsibility is on the individual to believe. To exercise FAITH.
This salvation that Paul mentions is open to everyone! to the Jew first...
Then to the greek...
That is, everyone who believes.
Someone said some very helpful words regarding faith...
“...saving faith in Christ in not a general belief that He is the Savior. The demons believe that, but they are not saved. Rather, saving faith has three elements.
First, with the mind with must understand the content of the gospel: who Jesus is, what His death on the cross means, and that He was raised from the dead.
Second, we must have a heart response to the truth of the gospel, where we agree that it is true and our agreement causes our hearts to be sorrowful about our sin, but also to rejoice in the free offer of God’s grace.
Third, saving faith includes commitment to Christ, where we trust in Him and His death on the cross (and resurrection) as our only hope of eternal life and we follow Him as Lord. Saving faith is not a work that we do, but rather simply receiving all that God offers us in Christ. It is the hand that receives the free gift of God.” https://bible.org/print/book/export/html/22397
The point is this, when the gospel is unleashed, explosive things happen! We can’t control what might happen and that is not our job. What is our job is to launch the rocket and watch God do His all-powerful work!
And there is nothing more powerful than seeing God bring someone to life who was spiritually dead! That, my friends is one of the most powerful things you will ever see God do! When the scales fall from their eyes and they realize their great need for God’s salvation!
And the best most freeing part is, it’s God who does it, not you.
Illustration - Beau and Segrid...
Argumentation - Paul was not ashamed. He was not embarrassed or bashful in any way. He wanted nothing more than to preach, teach, and share the gospel. Why? Because when people believe it, they LIVE ETERNALLY!! They are BORN AGAIN! They have the PROMISE of a HOME in HEAVEN!
Application - Now, to you. There is something that you need to realize that will help you reach people with the gospel. The gospel is where the power is. The gospel is where God does His explosive work. Those things are not your responsibility.
What is your responsibility? Launch the rocket!
Communicate the gospel
Rest in God’s Power. It is God who saves. Be his mouthpiece!
Are you timid? Are you fearful? Are you worried? Are you embarrassed? Don’t be!
Transition/Review - Ignite the Gospel for Explosive Change
The Explosive Power of the Gospel Brings the Dead to Life
But there is something else that we must understand when it comes to the gospel. Did you know the gospel isn’t just for salvation? Nope! It has another purpose that is equally important and equally powerful...
2. The Consistent Power of the Gospel Causes those Alive to Thrive (vs. 17)
Lead in...What is the tension here? Jesus said that “I came to give life and to give it abundantly.”
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Explanation - Well, if the power of the gospel causes those alive (born again) to thrive, how does this happen?
Let’s start with the often repeated word, righteousness.
The verse says “the righteousness of God...”
The ESV Study Bible Chapter 1
It most likely means primarily “righteousness from God,” so that it denotes right standing before God (a legal reality) that is given to people by God.
Righteousness is a major theme in the book of Romans. It is mentioned over 30 times. God, through the gospel imputes the righteousness of Christ to the sinner at the point of salvation.
17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
So, because Adam sinned, we all died spiritually. It was imputed on us.
But, this is where Jesus, the 2nd Adam comes in - We can enjoy His imputed righteousness if by faith we trust Christ.
Imputed righteousness is a concept in Christian theology proposing that the "righteousness of Christ ... is imputed to [believers] — that is, treated as if it were theirs through faith." It is on the basis of this "alien" (from the outside) righteousness that God accepts humans. https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=imputation&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
So, this is the point. At the point of salvation we receive the righteousness of Christ. This is called Justification (another word for righteousness)
Justification - The instantaneous declaration of one’s innocence based solely on the righteousness of Christ.
In other words, God says you are righteous because of Christ sacrificial, atoning death for you. He died in your place.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
But, this righteousness isn’t only for our justification (when we are born again), it is also for our sanctification (our christian life).
The same powerful Gospel that saves you is the same powerful Gospel that keeps you saved and grows you into Christlikeness.
This is what Paul is saying in verse 17...
“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith (the point of salvation) for faith (a life of being saved).”
I really like how the NLT translates phrase...
17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”
To drive the point home, Paul quotes the Old Testament prophet, Habakkuk.
“The righteous shall live by faith.”
So saving faith and sanctifying faith are rooted in and empowered by the gospel.
And it is faith in the gospel that helps you to continue to grow in Christlikeness.
We are made alive through saving faith and we are able to thrive through sanctifying faith.
Okay, so how does this work?
The Holy Spirit enables you - That’s God’s part!
Preach the gospel to yourself - What?
Quote from “Respectable Sins” by Jerry Bridges.
Since the gospel is only for sinners, I begin each day with the realization that despite my being a saint, I still sin every day in thought, word, deed, and motive. If I am aware of any subtle, or not so subtle, sins in my life, I acknowledge those to God. Even if my conscience is not indicting me for conscious sins, I still acknowledge to God that I have not even come close to loving Him with all my being or loving my neighbor as myself. I repent of those sins, and then I apply specific Scriptures that assure me of God’s forgiveness to those sins I have just confessed.
I then generalize the Scripture’s promises of God’s forgiveness to all my life and say to God words to the effect that my only hope of a right standing with Him that day is Jesus’ blood shed for my sins, and His righteous life lived on my behalf. This reliance on the twofold work of Christ for me is beautifully captured by Edward Mote in his hymn “The Solid Rock” with his words, “My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” Almost every day, I find myself going to those words in addition to reflecting on the promises of forgiveness in the Bible.
Illustration - There are some areas in Allendale that if the wind blows just right, the power goes out. I’m sure all of us have experience this. And you don’t truly appreciate the power until it is gone. We need a consistent source of power to make our life normal.
Argumentation - Guess what? We need a consistent power source for the normalcy of the Christian life. We who are saved are now considered righteous and, as Habakkuk and Paul say, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Yes our ability to live by faith comes from God. He gives us His Spirit to fill and empower us. However, we can grieve him. We can quench Him as we fail to pursue a life of faith. And so our part to protect us from this is preaching the gospel to ourselves.
When you are tempted to lie, gossip, commit adultery, fail to share the gospel, fail to love like you should. When you face these temptations, the gospel should remind you that your Savior died for these things and so you must die to them as well. We, as followers of Christ are considered righteous because God says so, but we are to pursue righteousness because of who we are.
We, throughout our Christian lives are to become more and more and more righteous so that what we are declared by God matches our life for God!
Application - What sin are you struggling with?
Transition/Review - Ignite the Gospel for Explosive and Consistent Change
The Explosive Power of the Gospel Brings the Dead to Life
The Consistent Power of the Gospel Causes those Alive to Thrive
Conclusion
On 9/11 our country was brought to her knees because of a few, powerful, well placed explosions.
But since that day, some 2000 years ago when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, there has been no more powerful force unleashed. A force so powerful it can bring to life that which is dead and cause that life to thrive in holiness.
This explosive force is the gospel. Believer, you have full access to it. Do you believe its power? Do you believe what it can do? Unleash it - stand back and watch the power of God go to work!