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00:01 One of the highlights of this past year for our family was the good news that we heard that our oldest daughter was going
00:08 to have a baby after 10 years of marriage about a year ago. Right now, she found out she was
00:15 going to have a baby. And her response was just like you said, elated, just
00:20 extremely happy, wanting to tell everybody. And of course once she told
00:26 the soontobe grandparents we also were elated wanting to tell everybody.
00:32 Then in December the baby came once again elation was there joy
00:38 but not only the response of joy and gladly receiving the baby but also there
00:44 came responsibilities with the new baby. As all of you know that have had new babies, there's sometimes nights where
00:50 there's not a lot of sleep, a lot of extra attention. Your lifestyle changes,
00:57 not to mention the money outlay that is involved. So this good news of having a baby
01:02 brought a response of joy and thankfulness and glad acceptance. It also brought responsibility.
01:09 Now, I know it might be hard for you to believe that I'm old enough to be married to a grandmother, but that's
01:16 true. who I am. And she's very proud of the fact that she's a grandmother. As a matter of fact, if you want to see
01:22 pictures of the baby, I'm sure that after the service, she could pull out her phone. She forgot her phone. Oh,
01:28 well, some some other time. Some other time. You must have You must have sabotaged my
01:36 PowerPoint presentation. She slipped she slipped pictures into my PowerPoint.
01:42 Well, if we're going to talk about the good news, we also want to show the good news.
01:48 When good news happens, it makes a difference in your life. Well, I hate to
01:53 go on, but I guess I better. Good news brings a response. It also
02:01 brings responsibility. And this morning, while we've seen this one example of good news and how that
02:07 will affect us, we want to talk about something that's even better news.
02:12 Grandparents, if you can imagine, yes, there is better news. Even though having a grandchild is great news or something
02:19 even better news, and that's the good news of the gospel.
02:24 And that's exactly what the word gospel means. It means good news. And when we
02:29 hear the gospel, the question then will come, how do we respond?
02:35 What are the responsibilities that come with receiving this good news of the gospel? Just a brief des definition of
02:44 gospel is the gospel is good news. That's what it means in the original language. But again, not any good news.
02:52 It's specifically good news about what God has done. And even more specifically, it's what
02:59 God has done through Jesus Christ, especially through his crucifixion and
03:05 resurrection. As Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty of our sins, was raised in victory over death, in
03:14 victory over sin, death and hell, and then after the crucifixion and
03:19 resurrection, ascended to heaven, seated at the right hand of God, showing that he has been exalted. He is Lord and he
03:27 is reigning. That's good news. And the good news continues because the
03:34 good news is also God's promise of forgiveness of sin, reconciliation with
03:40 him, and eternal life to all who repent and believe.
03:46 So that's just a brief statement of the good news and then also a response to
03:52 the good news that brings even more good news as we receive reconciliation with God.
03:58 One of my favorite scripture passages that would very briefly summarize the
04:04 high points of the gospel would be in 1 Corinthians chap 15:es 3 and 4. Paul is
04:10 relating what he has received. That is of first importance. And he says it's
04:16 this that Christ died for our sins. This was done in accordance with the
04:22 scripture. He was buried. He was raised on the third day in accordance with the
04:29 scripture. And he appeared to Peter, to the 12, to 500, to James, to all the
04:35 apostles. or just to summarize it briefly, he appeared to many witnesses.
04:40 So in this brief verse, we see really the high points of what the gospel
04:45 message is. Now there's an easy way to remember the main points of the gospel
04:53 message. Think of the word core and each of those letters will be uh will stand
04:60 for something. It's an acronym. Now pay attention because I'm going to test you on this in just a minute.
05:06 The C, think of Christ being crucified. He died on the cross to pay for our
05:14 sins. And then of course the R is also easy to remember the resurrection. He
05:20 was raised on the third day. So the C and the R are easy to remember. Christ was crucified on the cross. He was
05:27 raised. The resurrection. Well, what about the O? the O he was this was all
05:34 ordained by God or in other words this was God's plan
05:40 God's plan from the very beginning was that Jesus would come to the earth die
05:45 on the cross for our sins be raised from the dead and all who believe on him
05:51 would then have their sins forgiven we would be adopted as his sons we would be
05:57 for the praise of his glory as we appear before him holy and blame nameless.
06:02 So the O this was ordained by God. This was God's plan. All was in accordance
06:08 with the scriptures. And then the E, there were eyewitnesses.
06:14 There's evidence. This is not some Hindu mythology where there are no witnesses
06:19 because it never happened. Over 500 people saw the resurrected Christ. And
06:25 the accounts of the resurrection were written just very shortly after the death of Christ. and his resurrection,
06:32 not hundreds and hundreds of years later where myths would have had time to evolve. So there is strong evidence on
06:40 this. Now look carefully. I'm going to test you on this. The C stands for crucifixion. The O it's ordained by God.
06:48 R the resurrection. E the eyewitnesses. Okay, you ready? What does the C stand
06:55 for? Y'all are doing great. The O,
07:01 this was ordained by God. It was God's plan. The R,
07:07 Christ was raised, the resurrection. And then the E. Ah, too fast. You got
07:13 it, though. Eyewitnesses, evidence. That's the gospel message. That is the
07:19 good news. So, when you hear the good news, how do you respond? We're going to
07:24 look at our text in just a minute. But before we look at our text that shows the response, let's first of all look at
07:29 the words of Jesus about whom the good news relates and who is the one who
07:36 gives us the salvation because of the good news. Jesus came preaching or
07:41 proclaiming the gospel of God. And he said the time is fulfilled. The kingdom
07:47 of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.
07:53 Repent and believe the good news. That's the response that Jesus says we
07:59 are to make of the good news. Yes, the gospel is good news. But
08:06 sometimes we forget about how good it is. Especially if you've been in church for
08:12 a long time and you've heard this since you were a child. It's okay. Yeah, it's Easter again. It'll be the same Easter
08:17 story. And we forget how wonderful the good news is.
08:23 Many years ago, when I was in my early 20s, I'm a grandfather now, so you know that's many years ago.
08:30 I was working for two years in West Africa teaching at a school there. And
08:36 during the school vacations, I like to go back into the bush into the jungles and just kind of explore. And the jung
08:43 the way a lot of the villages are set up in the hills where I was living. You
08:48 walk down a path. There is no road. The only way to get there is by foot. You walk by path. You come to a small little
08:56 clearing where there's a village, several huts. The path goes right through the village. Then it just keeps
09:01 on going out of the village into the next village maybe 10, 15 minutes down
09:07 the road. And you have one village after another after another connected by a footpath. The road going through the
09:13 village. Well, this is a story that didn't happen to me, but it happened to a colleague of mine. He said he was out
09:20 walking through these villages one time and he came to one of the villages. He
09:25 met the chief and he sat down with the chief by the side of the road which was
09:31 the middle of the village and started explaining to him the gospel message. And as he was talking, the chief
09:38 exclaimed, "That's good news." And my colleague continued. As he
09:44 continued explaining, he stopped again and said, "That's good news." And pretty soon as they were explaining,
09:50 since the road, the path goes right through the middle of the village, somebody going to another village came
09:56 through. And as he was walking by, the chief said, "Hey, stop. Stop. You need to hear. This man has brought us good
10:02 news." And my colleague had to start all over again and start telling the good news. And before he could finish,
10:08 somebody else came by and the chief stopped him and said, "Hey, you've got to stop. Listen, this man has brought us
10:13 good news." Sometimes we forget how good the good news is.
10:20 Well, Paul in the book of Romans helps us to realize how good the good news is
10:25 because before he gets to the text that we're going to look at in depth a little bit later, he shows us how bad the bad
10:33 news is. And to realize how good news is, we need to be reminded that there's
10:39 bad news. Paul has already told us, "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven
10:46 against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.
10:51 Almighty creator, omnipotent God, his wrath is going to be
10:59 released." That's bad news against all unrighteousness. And in case
11:05 you might be thinking, "Well, I'm not so bad." Paul points out, yes, you are all
11:12 have sinned. We all fall short of the glory of God. And he also points out the
11:19 wages of sin is death. That's not only physical death,
11:26 it's also spiritual death. And it's eternal death in hell.
11:33 That's really bad news. And before we get to our text today,
11:39 Paul has also then contrasted that with the good news. He has pointed out that
11:44 God has showed his love toward us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
11:51 He's pointed out that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
11:58 And that when we are in Christ, there is now no more condemnation.
12:04 Because Paul has already clearly presented the heart of the gospel message
12:10 that Christ was delivered up or he died for our sins, for our trespasses, and he
12:16 was raised for our justification. a little shorter version than what we saw a moment ago when we talked about
12:22 the core of the gospel, but we still see these crucial elements of the crucifixion and the resurrection as
12:29 Christ paid the penalty for our sins and was raised from the dead.
12:35 So, in the first several chapters of Romans, we've seen the bad news, we've seen the good news, and now in our text
12:42 for today, we're going to look at the response to this good news, as well as
12:48 the responsibilities we have when we accept this good news. First of all, the
12:53 response. We find that in Romans chapter 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth that
13:00 Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you
13:06 will be saved. The end of the verse is once again
13:12 emphasizing the gospel message. Now Paul earlier has stated the gospel message
13:18 more in more length. here is just briefly summarized with the high point
13:23 of being raised from the dead. But the belief in God raising Jesus from
13:30 the dead of course also includes believing in the crucifixion as he died
13:35 for our sins, being raised from the dead. It would include being raised in the ascension to heaven and being
13:42 exalted at the right hand of God as Lord. So at the end of the verse, Paul's emphasizing the gospel message. And
13:49 earlier in the verse then he's emphasizing our response. Notice he says
13:54 that faith or belief is crucial.
13:59 We believe the gospel message that Christ was crucified. This was
14:05 ordained by God. He was raised from the dead. There were eyewitnesses.
14:10 But when we talk about belief and faith, sometimes people don't understand what
14:16 the Bible's talking about. Because sometimes we tend to equate faith with
14:21 mental ascent. Okay, I believe that's true. I believe that fact's true. I believe that fact's true.
14:28 And then that's all there is. But there's more to faith than just knowing facts.
14:34 Many years ago, I had a friend who lived in Germany. He was pastor of an English language church in Germany. and he
14:42 wanted his mother who lived in the US to come visit him in Europe. Problem is
14:48 between America and Europe there's a big ocean and his mother did not like to
14:54 fly. As a matter of fact, his mother refused to fly. So he tried to reason
14:60 with her. Then he said, "Mother, don't you believe that when the engineers designed that airplane, they had been
15:07 well trained and they knew what they were doing?" Oh yes, I believe that.
15:12 Mother, don't you believe that when the people built the plane that they followed the specifications?
15:18 Oh yes, I believe that. Mother, don't you believe that the pilot has been well trained and he can safely bring that
15:25 plane from the US to Europe? Oh yes, I believe that. But you're still not going
15:30 to get me on that plane. Believe facts but don't let it affect
15:38 your life. That's not faith.
15:43 You see, our text doesn't say just believe with our head. Our text says believe in your heart
15:50 because faith or believing affects our entire life. It will change our heart.
15:58 Believing with the heart produces a change in heart. produces a change in
16:03 our life. Faith and repentance go together. We
16:08 really cannot separate the two. We already saw that in the words of Jesus when we saw Jesus call at the
16:15 beginning of his ministry that people should repent and believe the gospel.
16:21 And not only did Jesus preach that, that's exactly what Paul preached. Shortly after Paul wrote the book of
16:27 Romans, he was meeting with the Ephesian elders and he was summarizing his
16:33 ministry. And this is what he said. I testified both to Jews and to Greeks of
16:40 repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, "This
16:46 is the message I preach to everybody." Doesn't matter if they have a Jewish background, a gentile background,
16:52 doesn't matter their ethnic group, their religious background, whatever. The message I preach is that people should
16:59 repent. Now, repentance is also one of those words that's sometimes misunderstood.
17:05 Some people think, well, if I stop doing this and stop doing this, then I'll be okay.
17:11 I can remember hearing, especially when we traveled in India, it seemed like the cardinal sin there was drinking.
17:18 I know some of you have different views on that but nevertheless in India sometimes when people were talking about
17:24 repentance is you need to stop drinking well that might help their health it
17:30 would definitely help them to drive safer if they had cars which most of them didn't
17:35 but that's not repentance repentance begins on the inside the word for
17:42 repentance really means a change of our thinking like Arnold was talking about a
17:47 couple of weeks ago, a renewal, a changing of our thinking, a changing of our mind. But it goes more than just the
17:53 mind. It goes to the heart. A change of our heart with a genuine sorrow for our
17:60 sin and a deep desire to be right with God, to glorify him, to live for him.
18:08 It will bring about a change of our heart which brings change in our values, our priorities, our goals, our dreams
18:15 and desires. And because there's a change on the inside of our thinking and
18:20 of our heart, that brings about a change in direction of our life. And the inner
18:26 changes will now bring changes in our lifestyle. And now where there are some things we might need to quit doing or
18:33 some things we need to begin doing, we'll be doing it because there's been a change on the inside and we're wanting
18:39 to go in a new direction. So Paul preached repentance and he preached
18:44 faith in our Lord's Jesus Christ. The two go together.
18:51 It makes sense. If you're going to turn to God in faith, that means you need to turn away from
18:57 something in order to turn to something or someone.
19:02 Paul in talking about his call to the ministry, well really his salvation experience and his call came right at
19:09 the same time. He was talking to a king that he was on trial before and he was given his
19:15 testimony. He said that Jesus had appeared to him and Jesus told him, "I'm going to send you to the Gentiles to
19:23 open their eyes so that they might turn from darkness to light and turn from the
19:30 power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sin and a place
19:36 among those who are sanctified by faith in me." turning from turning to in faith. And
19:46 then Paul proceeded to say that he had been obedient to what Christ had asked him to do. He said in verse 20, I
19:53 declare to those in Damascus, to those in Jerusalem, to those throughout Judea, and also to the Gentiles, in other
19:60 words, to everybody, I proclaimed that they should repent and
20:05 turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with repentance.
20:12 So, you turn in repentance to God in faith.
20:18 That's what believing with the heart is all about.
20:24 Not only do we know the facts, but we also experience a change of heart as we
20:29 repent. And believing from our heart includes that we entrust our lives to
20:35 God, asking him to take control of our lives and lead us. We trust God with our
20:42 lives. Faith includes acknowledging that Jesus is Lord.
20:52 And when it says confess with Jesus as Lord, that's not just
20:57 empty words. Lord is not just like a title like sir or mister or brother.
21:05 It goes deeper than that. Not just, well, you're the Lord of the universe someplace out there, but a
21:12 confession and acknowledgment that Jesus is the rightful Lord, master of my life.
21:20 Like Thomas said after the resurrection, my Lord,
21:26 my God. A personal acknowledgment that Jesus is
21:31 now reigning as Lord of your life. and not only in church when we're among fellow believers, but a profession that
21:39 Jesus is Lord will be visible and evident in our life as we go about daily
21:45 life. Remember Paul was writing this to the Romans.
21:50 When Paul wrote, there was not yet severe Christian persecution in Rome.
21:56 But God, who inspired Paul to write this, knew that in just a very short time after this letter was written,
22:03 there would be strong persecution in Rome, inspired Paul to write, "Confess Jesus
22:10 as Lord." And when the persecution broke out a few years later in Rome, that statement
22:17 alone could cost you not only your livelihood,
22:23 it could cost you your life. Because you see the Roman Caesar wanted you to say Caesar is Lord. That's all
22:31 you'd have had to say and your life would be spared. But the
22:37 Christians cannot do that. Jesus is Lord. Even if it costs your livelihood, even
22:45 if it costs your life, acknowledge Jesus as your personal Lord and Master.
22:52 Not empty words. Remember the words of Jesus,
22:58 Matthew chapter 7, the sermon on the mount. He said, "Not everybody who says
23:03 to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the
23:09 will of my father." So we confess the reality that we have a
23:17 personal relationship with Jesus as the Lord of our life. We allow him to take
23:22 control of our life. That's included in saving faith. That's the response that
23:29 God wants us to make to the good news of who Jesus is. We recognize that he is
23:34 Lord and ask him to be our Lord. Few years ago, we were traveling
23:40 throughout India and in one area we were in there were there was a pretty strong
23:48 movement to faith in Christ. Many people with a Hindu background were coming to faith and we were working with a group
23:55 of maybe 40 45 pastors, evangelists, church planters who had seen really
23:60 tremendous growth. I was talking to one of the leaders in this movement and this
24:06 person told me, "We're trying to be very careful because
24:11 you see many people have prayed for healing and God has healed them." So all
24:19 of these people that are seeing the power of God and they're seeing that Jesus is the healer, they want to accept
24:26 Jesus as their healer, but they want to keep their other idols.
24:32 And the part about Jesus being the savior where you repent of your sin and confess your sin to him, they're not
24:39 always interested. Or the part that Jesus is Lord and you need to bow before
24:45 him and acknowledge him as the Lord of your life. Well, no, they may not be interested. They want Jesus to be their
24:51 healer. And of course, we might smile and say, "That's impossible. You can't divide
24:58 Jesus up and chop him up and just take the part you like and reject the part you don't like."
25:04 But that's exactly what some evangelicals try to do. They say, "Well, you can accept Jesus as
25:10 your savior. Say this prayer and then you can go to heaven." And then later maybe for those that are
25:17 a little bit more sincere, for those who want part B, well then we'll talk about repentance. Then we'll talk about
25:23 lordship. Jesus didn't approach it that way. Paul did not approach it that way. Peter did
25:30 not approach it that way. You don't pick and choose what you like about Jesus and reject the rest.
25:39 Faith in Jesus includes bowing our knee before him.
25:44 In Philippians it says, "Every knee will bow. Every
25:50 tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And you will not enter heaven if you
25:56 have never bowed the knee before Jesus acknowledging him as Lord of your life."
26:03 You see, in saving faith, a person hears the gospel message.
26:09 He's convinced that it's true and then he totally yields his life to
26:14 God in faith in response to the gospel.
26:20 That's the response that God wants us to make. And then there's more good news.
26:27 We don't make this response in our own strength. God is the one who makes it
26:32 possible for us to respond. God provides the way of salvation through Jesus. And
26:38 not only that, he makes it possible for us to respond in faith because we cannot
26:45 do it on our own. The power of God is evidenced through his word and also through his holy spirit. The very last
26:52 verse that we heard read in the scripture reading today, verse 17 says, "Faith comes from hearing. Hearing comes
27:00 through the word of Christ. God's word, the scripture, the gospel
27:07 message of Jesus crucifixion and resurrection, the message of God's grace, his love, his mercy
27:14 that brings faith when we hear it. And it's not just the word about Christ.
27:20 It's Christ himself speaking to us through his word. Christ will speak to
27:25 the hearts of people that enables a faith response.
27:32 The Holy Spirit is active. The Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth, when he comes, he will guide you into truth.
27:39 He's the one that convinces people of the truth of the gospel. Yes, it's important that we share the gospel so
27:46 people can hear, so they can respond in faith. It's important that we say it with conviction and try to give the best
27:54 reasons possible to persuade people, but ultimately it's the spirit of God that
27:60 convicts them of the truth of the message. And we see in John 16, it's the
28:05 spirit of God who convicts people of sin. We share the scripture in the power of
28:12 the Holy Spirit. then God is the one that makes this response of repentance
28:19 and faith possible. So we've seen the response to God that
28:26 we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus. We believe with our heart. Then
28:32 our passage continues for with the heart one believes and is justified and with
28:37 the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says, "Everyone who
28:43 believes in him will not be put to shame." And then Paul goes ahead to say
28:49 something that I'm sure was quite controversial. He said, "There is no difference
28:56 between Jew and Greek." I can imagine when the audience first heard that they said, "What? Wait a
29:03 minute. What do you mean there's no difference?" Of course there's difference. Just look. You can see the
29:09 difference. They like many of us kind of divide the world up into us and them. The Jewish
29:17 people, we are God's chosen people. Everybody else heathen.
29:23 The Gentiles were just as bad. Greeks, we're civilized. We're
29:28 sophisticated. We're better than everybody else. Everybody else is a barbarian.
29:35 In the Roman church, there were both Jews and Greeks. people from totally different backgrounds, not only
29:42 ethnically, but also religiously. No difference. Paul is saying it'd be
29:48 like if Paul came to my country and said, "There's no difference in a Democrat and a Republican." Whoa, that
29:55 would be fighting words. I won't get into Malaysian politics. And my country might say there's no
30:02 difference in blacks and whites. Again, among some people, that would cause a lot of anger.
30:08 in this country. No difference between melee, Chinese, Tom and the foreigners that are here. No
30:16 difference between the factory owners and the migrant workers. No difference between the head of the household and
30:22 the maid. No difference in a businessman and a refugee. Now, we might argue, oh
30:28 yes, there is. But God says otherwise. There is no
30:34 difference. The same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing
30:39 his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the
30:45 Lord will be saved. Now when Paul said there is no
30:50 difference, this is not the first time he has used this phrase in the book of Romans. There's one other time he has
30:58 used this phrase, the exact words, even in the Greek, the exact same phrase. There is no difference.
31:06 Does anybody know where that's found? Surely somebody knows. There is no
31:12 difference. Thought I heard it.
31:20 Romans 1 is very close. It's not the exact same words in the Greek, but it is very close. Romans chapter 3, the exact
31:27 same words. Many of you can quote the scripture Romans 3:23, right? You can quote it. For all have
31:34 sinned and come short of the glory of God. Or the end of Romans 22 says there is no
31:42 difference for all have sinned. That's what levels people before God.
31:47 You see we see differences. God sees we have all sinned. There is no difference.
31:54 All have sinned. But the good news is there is no difference that everybody
31:60 all who call on the name of the Lord in faith will be saved.
32:08 So this is indeed good news. There's no difference. Everybody is able to call on
32:13 the Lord and be saved. Doesn't matter your socioeconomic background. Doesn't matter what your religious background
32:20 is. Doesn't matter your ethnic or racial background. All who call on the Lord will be saved. So when we see that, we
32:28 might say, "Yeah, hallelujah. Amen. Let's go home."
32:33 But Paul doesn't stop there. After this wonderful good news, he goes on to ask
32:38 some rhetorical questions that can be quite troubling because even though it's true that
32:45 everybody who calls on the Lord will be saved, he asked the question, but how are they
32:52 going to call on somebody that they don't believe in? How are they going to believe in
32:58 somebody they've never heard of? And how are they going to hear
33:05 without somebody preaching or without somebody telling them?
33:11 Rhetorical questions. He doesn't give an answer because the answer is so obvious. What's the ob's answer? It's the same
33:17 answer to every question. They can't.
33:23 How are you going to call in faith on somebody you don't believe in? You can't. You're not going to do it. How
33:30 are you going to believe in somebody you've never even heard of? It's impossible. You can't.
33:37 How are you going to hear if nobody's told you?
33:43 You can't. It's impossible. So, we've had good news. Everybody that calls on the Lord can be saved. But the
33:50 reality is the vast majority of people will not be able to call on the name of the Lord because they've never heard.
33:58 because we have not told them. So now we begin to see not only our
34:06 response to the gospel, which is to believe with our heart and acknowledge Christ as Lord, but we're
34:13 also beginning to see our responsibility that comes with accepting the gospel
34:19 that of sharing the good news with other people.
34:24 Now, some might be a little bit confused at this last verse I read about this preaching part. Say, "Hey, that rules me
34:31 out. I'm not a preacher. I've never been ordained. I'm not an elder of the church. I can't preach."
34:38 You don't have to come up and hold a 45minute monologue. The word preaching here does not mean a
34:45 sermon from the pulpit, although it can include that. Most sermons that we hear are not
34:52 preaching in the meaning of this word preaching. This word preaching is
34:57 referring to heralding or announcing the good news, the gospel message.
35:03 That's something you can do in as short as two or three minutes. It's something you can do in longer time if you have
35:09 more time with somebody. but basically telling somebody what God has done for you,
35:16 explaining to somebody how they can come to faith in Jesus Christ. So it's not an
35:21 ordained person that stands up on the stage and talks a long time. It's an average ordinary person.
35:28 Every person who is a follower of Jesus can go and preach.
35:35 And then the text continues, "And how are they to preach unless they are sent?"
35:42 Same answer to the same rhetorical questions. Or you might ask, "What does it mean to be sent?" For we might even
35:49 think, "Well, that counts me out because I'm not sent." Wrong. Again,
35:55 look what Jesus told his disciples. And if we accept Jesus, we're now one of his disciples. As the father has sent me, I
36:04 am sending you. So when we see
36:09 it's important for people to preach to share the news, it's important that they be sent. We see that Jesus has sent all
36:18 of his followers to share the good news. We see this also in Matthew's gospel
36:24 where he tells his followers, "Go make disciples of all nations." He's sending
36:29 them. He's sending us. So our responsibility once we have believed and
36:34 accepted the good news of the gospel is to share this good news with other people.
36:41 Now there will be some people that God sends to other places in the world. Like God sent Paul on several missionary
36:48 journeys to basically the entire known world at the time. But Jesus told his disciples first of
36:55 all begin in your hometown. And that's something we can all do. Not in
37:01 Jerusalem because Jerusalem is not our hometown. Jesus said forgiveness, repentance, repentance and forgiveness
37:07 of sin should be proclaimed in my name to all nations. But beginning right here where you are and that's where Jesus is
37:15 sending us today to the people around us here in our
37:21 hometown. Even though God had sent Paul to many places around the world, he still had a
37:29 strong burden for his own countrymen. And Paul's burden for his own countrymen
37:37 is a great example for each one of us today. Let's go back to the beginning of
37:42 chapter 10, and we'll see the burden that Paul had for his people.
37:48 My heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.
37:57 In those words, you can just feel the anguish, the sorrow of his soul that his
38:04 countrymen do not know God. Earlier Paul had even said in chapter
38:10 nine, "If it were possible, I would be willing to perish in hell if that would
38:18 bring salvation for all of my countrymen." Of course, that's not possible. But his heart's desire, he's
38:25 willing to do anything and everything so that his people could come to faith in
38:30 Christ. Do you too have such a desire?
38:36 Is your heart's desire like Paul's a deep burning desire for your countrymen
38:42 to be saved? If so, that will lead to action. You
38:48 see, one thing that Paul did was pray. He prayed to God that they would be
38:53 saved. And not just prayer in general. Oh, God, please save the people of Malaysia. Amen. But think of some
38:59 specific people that might be in your circle of acquaintances.
39:06 Who do you know that does not know God that you could pray for specifically?
39:11 Ask God to give you the names or show you the faces of people that you could possibly have influence on. And then
39:19 pray for them. Pray with this burning desire that they come to faith. Pray that God would work in their heart and
39:27 pray that God would give you an opportunity to share with them.
39:33 You might remember a few weeks ago when I was preaching, I gave you a challenge that I had heard in California about a
39:40 year ago from a pastor there. Try to share the gospel with somebody
39:46 outside your comfort zone in the next several weeks. Matter of fact, I think I
39:53 mentioned it as kind of a one plus one challenge. Ask God to show you one person that you know well that's in your
40:01 circle of acquaintances. Somebody that you have a good relationship with. Somebody you feel comfortable with but
40:07 that's lost. And then ask God to show you somebody else. Somebody who is
40:13 different from you. Somebody who you don't know quite as well that's a little bit out of your comfort zone to go and
40:20 build a relationship with them. Pray for these two people. Pray that God would give you opportunity
40:26 to say something of a spiritual nature to them. To start off with, maybe don't
40:32 try to do the entire gospel presentation. Don't try to present the entire message of the entire Bible, but
40:38 just get on to a spiritual topic and then that can build and it can
40:44 continue to build. But I challenge you once again, repeat what I did a few weeks ago before the
40:50 school vacation. That's 1 of June. Or if that's too early for you, at the latest
40:55 Bhari Raya, the middle of June, try to enter into a conversation about
41:01 spiritual things with at least two people. That will happen if we have that heart's
41:07 desire and if we're praying for the people. Well, Paul goes ahead and he says,"For I bear them witness that they
41:15 have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the
41:22 righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness."
41:29 Sounds familiar, doesn't it? His countrymen are not a whole lot different from the your countrymen here.
41:40 ignorant of the truth, but some of them really zealous for God,
41:46 trying to establish their own righteousness rather than God's. And so we see people going through religious
41:52 rituals and religious practices, trying to get right with God.
41:58 We see people offering sacrifices, even punishing their bodies, wanting to try
42:04 to somehow be right with the gods. or they do rituals to try to appease the
42:10 gods or the spirits, those in the spirit world. And you don't have to travel to the ends of the world to find this. Just
42:17 right here in the Clang Valley, you see all of this.
42:22 So all believers have the responsibility to share the good news of Jesus,
42:31 share the news of salvation through faith. Let's look again at verse 15. in I mean
42:38 end ended a while ago with a question how are they to preach unless they are sent.
42:43 Another way that we are sent or that we that this can apply to us is not only
42:48 that God sends us but we can involve be involved in helping to send others.
42:54 Jesus said to go to the ends of the earth one person cannot go to the end of the earth but we can help support others
43:00 that do. So our involvement in mission projects whether it's through prayer
43:06 whether it's through finances whether it's through encouraging other people
43:11 we can be involved in sending in that way also and that verse concludes
43:18 as it is written how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.
43:24 Now, this is a quote from Isaiah, but it still seems to me to be kind of a strange compliment. How beautiful are
43:32 the feet. I can remember back when I was in high school, also university, single at that
43:38 time, when guys got together, one of their favorite topics was girls.
43:45 Have you seen how good-looking that girl is? Beautiful hair, beautiful face. I'll
43:50 stop there. Never heard anybody say, "Whoa, look at
43:56 her feet." Kind of a strange compliment, isn't it?
44:03 Few years ago, we were traveling in another Asian country and we were in a very restricted part of the country. We
44:09 did have government permission to be there, but we were beginning a seminar
44:14 Easter Sunday evening. Well, Easter Sunday morning, there was a worship service and lay pastors, church
44:23 planters, evangelists from a wide area had tra traveled, some of them several hundred kilometers to get there.
44:31 Poor people all or almost all were bivocational pastors. And what they did for a living
44:38 was farm. And so many of them when they farm, they're out in these fields pushing a primitive plow behind an ox.
44:46 and usually go in barefoot. So when they come into the worship service, they kick off their sandals and you see these
44:53 dirty feet, calloused feet, sometimes blisters on the feet, sometimes even
44:60 soores on the feet. And that Sunday morning there was a footwashing service.
45:06 Now that's not part of my heritage for Easter Sunday morning, but anyway, that's what was happening there. And to
45:13 be honest, I didn't see any feet that I would consider to be beautiful that Sunday morning. None.
45:21 But later in the week, I was talking to a man who had been walking with those
45:27 ugly feet back to a tribal area and he'd been sharing the gospel in several
45:33 villages and many people had come to faith in Christ. As a matter of fact, so
45:39 many people had come to faith in Christ that some of the religious leaders had told him, "If you baptize anybody else,"
45:47 we're going to baptize you and you will not be coming up.
45:53 So here they are threatening his life. So I just asked him, "What are you going to do?"
45:59 He said, "I'm going to continue going to those people."
46:04 He knew that if those people had the chance to hear the gospel, some would
46:10 call on the Lord in faith. And he knew if they did not hear,
46:15 they would not be able to call on the Lord in faith. So despite threats to his
46:20 life, he continued going back to share with these people.
46:27 So this morning, we've talked about the gospel, the good news. We've seen that
46:32 our response is to believe with our heart acknowledging Christ as Lord.
46:39 We've seen our responsibility is to share the good news with others
46:44 because we are sent. Remember the one plus one challenge. One person in your circle of acquaintances, you know, one
46:51 person outside your comfort zone. Try to get into a spiritual conversation in the next few weeks because we are sent. And
46:59 then we also will help to send and support others that God is calling in ministries that go beyond the clang
47:06 valley. Let's pray together. Almighty God, as we come before you, we
47:13 give you thanks for the wonderful good news that you have made it possible for us to have forgiveness of sin,
47:20 reconciliation with you, eternal life. And father, we want to gratefully
47:26 receive this news, responding in repentance and faith. And Lord, I pray
47:31 if there's somebody here this morning who has not yet made that reception,
47:37 made that commitment of their life to you and acknowledge you as their Lord, pray that this morning they would come
47:42 to you in faith. And father, I pray that you would help all of us who are followers of you to
47:48 truly follow, including in the area of our responsibility of sharing the gospel
47:53 with others. Place people's names and faces on our minds. Open doors for us.
47:59 Give us courage as we enter into spiritual conversations with people. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
