Christians Who Are Ashamed

I have a word that I want to share with you from the Epistle, or the letter, to the Romans, chapter 1, verses 16 and 17. Romans 1:16 and 17.

You will remember that a few weeks ago we were reading in Romans chapter 8. As my sermons sometimes begin, it started merely as a meditation on a passage, then kept expanding, and we ended up studying the entire eighth chapter, which took us about four sermons, and there we were able to see how wonderful the word of the Lord is.

Those sermons were more doctrinal in nature, as is the entire letter to the Romans, and afterward I began thinking how good it would be if, from time to time over the coming Sundays, we could continue meditating on different passages from the Epistle to the Romans. And that is what I will be doing whenever I have the opportunity: going through selected passages from the Letter to the Romans in order to continue our spiritual education. Many of you are taking the discipleship classes. In fact, raise your hand—how many of you are going from here to your discipleship class afterward? Let’s see. Okay, we have a nice group, as well as others who will come to the twelve o’clock service.

You are continuing precisely with your theological education, so to speak—your spiritual education—and we encourage you to continue with this. And this morning I want to join that process, as it were, and develop with you some principles drawn from this precious letter, which is one of the crowning works of all Christian theology, one of the deepest, most complex, and most comprehensive writings among all the writings of the Apostle Paul that we have available to us.

Chapter 1 of the Letter to the Romans, verses 16 and 17. Listen to what the word of the Lord says. It says: “...for I am not ashamed of the Gospel”—these are the words of the Apostle Paul—“for I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes...”

“...I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, because in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written: ‘But the righteous shall live by faith.’” Glory to the Lord. Amen.

This is actually one of the most foundational passages in all of Scripture. The message of the Gospel is condensed here. In his introduction to the letter, in the preceding verses, the Apostle Paul has just spoken about his desire to go to Rome.

Remember that this letter is like a treatise that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians who were in the city of Rome. At that time, it was like saying New York or Paris, or even Boston to a certain extent.

Rome was the key city of the entire Western world. Rome was itself the seat of power because it was a city-state; it was the seat of Roman power, the governmental center of Roman might. It was the greatest power, perhaps comparable only to the power the United States has had in our time. Rome was an extremely powerful nation, and it ruled vast, vast stretches of land and many other governments and nations that Rome had conquered. And there in Rome, in that flourishing city, a group of Christians had developed. At that time, the Gospel was spreading throughout the earth and moving like a germ through different nations and countries.

The Apostle Paul had not yet visited Rome at that time, but he did know that there was a very important group of believers there, and in the Apostle Paul’s heart there was a deep desire to go and visit the city of Rome, because he knew that Rome was tremendously strategic. If Rome received the Gospel and the Gospel became an influential force in the city of Rome, it was inevitable that the Gospel would then spread throughout all the other cities and all the other peoples it governed.

And in fact, that was what happened in the fourth century: the Roman emperor Constantine finally converted to Jesus Christ, about 300 years after Paul wrote this letter, and because he was the emperor, he used his influence to bring the entire nation to the feet of the Gospel. Of course, it was initially something superficial, but it was a very important moment because an existing resistance was broken, and there was a symbolic conversion of the greatest political and military power of the time, and that had a very great influence on the further spread of the Gospel.

And Paul, knowing the importance of Rome, wrote this letter to those Christians, and his desire was to indoctrinate them and instruct them in the basic principles of the Gospel, because these people did not know them. He was preaching on completely virgin ground. That idea of Jesus as the Son of God, as having come into the world to take upon Himself our sins and our guilt so that through that the rest of humanity might then be saved and reconciled to God, and that this was for all human beings, rich and poor—these concepts were totally foreign to that culture. They did not understand; they were starting from zero.

Today, a person knows many of these things because either they come from a Catholic or generally religious background, and there are in our minds and in the culture a number of principles that have been repeated and that people already more or less take for granted; and when someone enters fully into the Gospel, there is a wealth of prior information there that can be used. These people did not have that. They needed to be given the milk of the Gospel; they needed to be given the most basic foundations of the Gospel.

And the Apostle Paul, who was a teacher and a pastor as well as an evangelist, wrote this letter to instruct the Christians who were in the city of Rome. So, if you look at the preceding verses, in verse 15, which is the verse before the one we have just read, he says in his introduction to the letter:

“...so, as far as I am concerned, I am ready”—that is, “I am prepared”—“to preach the Gospel also to you who are in Rome.”

He had a great desire to go to Rome and preach the Gospel to them there and share the doctrine of Christianity with them. And he was very eager to do so. He says, “I am ready; I am prepared to go and preach the Gospel also to you who are in Rome.” And from there comes the expression, “because I am not ashamed.” In other words, why am I willing, why am I so eager to go to Rome? To this city that is so resistant, so carnal, so sensual, so powerful, and so reluctant to accept the principles of the Gospel? Why am I? He says, “Because I am not ashamed of the Gospel.”

You know what? The Apostle Paul was proud, in the most positive sense of the word, to be a bearer of the Gospel, to be a believer in the Gospel.

Brother, are you proud to be a Christian, in the positive sense of the word? I do not mean walking around with your nose in the air: “I am a Christian, better than everyone else.” That is not what this is about. No, the Christian’s pride comes from knowing, wow, that he has entered into something beyond compare, that there is no greater privilege a man or woman can have than to be a follower of Christ Jesus.

Our pride does not come from ourselves, but from the Gospel that has adopted us. That is what we are proud of. Do you understand? There is a difference, and in fact we are going to see that the Apostle Paul makes sure of one thing: that no one thinks he deserves to be saved, that no one thinks he has earned entrance into the Kingdom of God through his good works or his own righteousness. He says everyone is under condemnation; everyone is completely disqualified from being a child of God.

He says it this way as well: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” But the believer’s pride comes from knowing, wow, God has adopted me. In His mercy, God has said to me, “Come and enter My family.”

Imagine a miserable, poor child, reduced entirely to begging in the street, and one day a large luxury car pulls up, a Mercedes-Benz or one of those big cars. The child is an orphan who is eating from the garbage in the street, and a great and powerful gentleman gets out of that car and says to him, “Would you like to be part of my family, eat at my table, dress as though you were my son, be adopted, and bear my last name?” When that child found himself in that man’s house, with servants everywhere, eating at the table, and people looking at him as the son of that great gentleman, wouldn’t he feel proud? Of course he would. He would feel very blessed.

And that is what the Apostle Paul is conveying here. He says, “I want to preach the Gospel; I am ready to go to you. What is more, I am ready to go anywhere because I am not ashamed of the Gospel; on the contrary, I am proud.”

Brothers and sisters, do you know what? This generation needs people who are glad and happy to be believers. The world wants us to be timid about the Gospel.

You know that nowadays, in many places, people do not want the name of Jesus Christ to be mentioned. When I sometimes go to meetings of social-service agencies and into the secular world, if you say that you are a Christian or that you are a child of God, immediately there is silence. It is as though...they suck in their breath, and there is a tense silence. And people do not want that.

There are many people who do not want anything to do with faith or Christianity. Talk to them about anything else, but do not talk to them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ; do not mention Jesus. It is incredible how the name of Jesus has power in this society to close people’s doors and create tension in the air. I have seen this time and time again, brothers and sisters. Why? Because there is a spiritual bondage over this culture. There are demonic powers that govern this culture, and the name of Jesus is a name that causes displeasure. Scripture says it is a cause of offense to the sensibilities of those who do not know God. And so it is not the people themselves; it is the spirit within them, which is a harmful and demonic spirit.

Understand what I mean. I am not saying they are demon-possessed in the sense that they are foaming at the mouth or anything like that. No, but the Bible says that when a person is not in Christ, he is under the power of the ruler of the air. That is in Ephesians—look it up in Ephesians chapter 2 if you wish, and you will see it. And I want to clarify what I am saying so that you understand. I am not referring to anyone in particular, but generally speaking, every person who is not in Christ Jesus is under the power of the prince of the air.

Look at what Ephesians chapter 2, verse 2 says—even verse 1. It says that “...Christ gave us life when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, in which we walked in times past”—look here at what it says—“following the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also once lived.”

The person who does not have Christ in his heart is condemned to be a slave of the demonic kingdom: the rules, the principles, the purposes, and the influences of the kingdom of darkness. Every human being is under that power if he does not have Christ in his heart. The only one capable of setting a man or woman free from Satan’s influence, whether it is a general influence or a specific and personal influence, is Christ Jesus, the Gospel of God.

And, brothers and sisters, that is why the world needs men and women who wear their Christianity on their sleeves, so to speak. Let everyone know: “I am a Christian; I am a child of God.” You are a walking poster; you are a living advertisement for the power of the Gospel, for the grace of Jesus Christ. And if you take your light and hide it under a chair, then you are forfeiting your calling; you are forfeiting your destiny. Because you have been called to proclaim the word of the Gospel. Say amen.

Every child of God is an evangelist. Every child of God should feel glad, happy, and grateful to have been set free from the power of the devil and brought into the marvelous light of Christ Jesus.

Brothers and sisters, it is very important that we understand this, because there are many Christians who think, “Well, proclaiming the Gospel is only for pastors, evangelists, and people who hold some official position or are paid to do it.” But do you know what? If you are a child of God, you are called to do the work of evangelism; you are called to share freely what you freely received.

I ask the Lord, “Father, help me to be proud to be a member of the Kingdom of God. Help me to be glad, happy, and grateful to be a Christian redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and wherever I may be, to be leaven, an influence for the Gospel.”

God calls us to be glad to be Christians, proud to be Christians. Again I say, proud of the Christ we have, proud of the Gospel we have received, proud of the faith that has been entrusted to us, proud of the redemptive work Christ has done in our lives.

That is why Paul says, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel.” And do you know what happens? When you have that satisfaction in being a Christian, then your mouth will continually proclaim it; at your workplace, you will talk about it.

Listen, you know, I am continually amazed at how many Christian people I discover in the city of Boston, and yet I say, “Where is the influence of those people?” What a thing, brothers and sisters.

Some time ago I went to the Immigration office with some brothers and sisters who had some paperwork they needed to take care of, and they needed someone to intervene there. And I went there, and by the grace of the Lord I discovered a sister there whom I have known for a long time, though I did not even know she worked there. She received me there and was a great blessing to these brothers and sisters. In fact, I believe it was a divine appointment, because that person received us with such courtesy, and it was truly a miracle from God, because it made all the difference for that family.

And she came, invited us, and honored Gregory and me by inviting us into her office, and there she introduced us to another young woman who is also a Christian and attends another American church. Wow! Undercover Christians everywhere.

Brothers and sisters, I find them everywhere. They are in politics, in corporations, in legal agencies and social-service agencies; they are teachers—they are everywhere. And I say, Father, when will Your people make their presence felt in those places? When will we stop being ashamed and intimidated because we are Christians? When will we say, “No, I am a Christian, and I wear that as a badge of honor,” and talk about our faith, and let the devil wag his tail all he wants? It does not matter, because that is what he wants.

The Word says that even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing; among them, it says, the god of this age has blinded their minds so that the light of the Gospel will not shine upon them.

The devil does not want people to hear about the true Gospel. The devil does not want people to hear about the good news, and he wants you to keep your mouth shut. He wants you to walk around with your Bible tucked into one of those dark paper bags, the way you would hide a pornographic book so that no one will know you are a Christian. He wants you to arrive at church with the smallest possible little Bible, tucked into this pocket, so that no one on the street will know you are a Christian. Why? Because the devil knows that if he manages to muzzle Christians and silence them, the liberating influence of the Gospel will not be felt in society.

And do you know what you have to do? Resist that in the name of the Lord. You have to walk around with your Gospel right out in the open for all to see. I am a Christian, and what God did for me, He can do for you too. I am a repentant sinner, washed by the blood of Christ, cleansed by Jesus’ redeeming work on the cross, and my passport is stamped for heaven. And you too can have the same privilege. That is what God wants, brothers and sisters. It is not that we should walk around thinking we are better than anyone else, but that we should tell them, “What happened to me can happen to you too.” “The One who adopted me can adopt you too, and He is willing and eager to do so.”

Brothers and sisters, that is what proclaiming the Gospel is all about. That is what being proud and glad to be a Christian is all about. The days when Christians are Christians in general, generic Christians, undercover Christians, must come to an end.

Every believer, every child of God, must be a man or woman who is militant about the Gospel, always keeping it out in front. And I know it is difficult; I know that it involves some risks. I know that at times we are going to fail the Lord, and sometimes we say, “No, I would rather not say that I am a Christian, because then no one expects anything from me.”

How many of you have heard that? Right? And we should look at it the opposite way: when we say, “I am a Christian,” that is a spur; it is an incentive for us to draw closer to the Lord. When we declare that we are children of God, that we are followers of Jesus Christ, that puts greater pressure on us to please the Lord more and to live in such a way that we can speak about our faith with authority.

So, in the name of the Lord, declare, “Yes, I am a child of God.” Be a positive influence wherever you go, wherever you are. Let people know; proclaim the Gospel. Do not put your light under a bushel basket, as the Bible says.

And I think I am going to leave it there because I know time has already grown short, and I do not want to take time away from our brothers and sisters who have to go to their class. But let me simply wrap this up, because we are going to continue with this passage later.

The Lord Jesus Christ said the following, brothers and sisters. He said that no one puts his light under a bushel basket—He meant under a bed or under a table.

I am going to ask the musicians to come up here, please. We ran short on time this morning, but that is all right. The praise was beautiful, and we worshiped the Lord, and the Word of God is communicated in many ways.

But the important thing is, brothers and sisters, that I want to single out just that thought. There is much more in that passage, but I hope that tonight we can leave with that call of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and minds: God wants you to feel proud and affirmed in being a child of God. Do not deny the society in which you move the privilege of coming to know Christ Jesus, because the Apostle Paul says that the Gospel is the power of God; it is the power of God.

My brother, my sister, do you know that when you proclaim the Gospel, what you are proclaiming to people is not concepts, not doctrine, not theory, not a philosophy, not words? The Apostle Paul once said that the Kingdom of God does not consist in words but in the power of God. What that means, brothers and sisters, is this: look, when you share the Gospel of salvation with someone, when you share the message of the Gospel, your words become energy; at that moment, your words have a power that nothing else coming out of your mouth possesses.

The Word of God is power. It says, then, that the Word of God is living and effective. When I am sharing the Gospel, I like to visualize my words as energy coming out of my mouth and entering the spirit of the person with whom I am sharing the Gospel, entering that person’s mind and setting it free. It is like water washing that person’s mind. It is like a spiritual key opening the inner workings of that person’s heart.

Do you know that many times you may share the Word with someone and that person may resist you? But despite that resistance, something is happening farther down, in the depths of that person’s spirit, which neither you nor that person realizes. Because the Word of the Lord is living; it is life that enters in, and it is like a scalpel that begins to work its way into the emotions, into the subconscious, into the hidden recesses of the soul. And although the person resists it mentally, that Word is, as the Bible says, convicting them; it is revolutionizing that person’s inner being. It is a duel to the death between the Word of God and the work of the devil in that person.

Perhaps the person is resisting mentally, but things are happening in their spirit. And you do not have—that is not your concern; that is a matter between the Word of God and that person’s spirit. If we understood this, we would not so often be so rational in wanting to embellish the Bible so much, dress up the Word, and remove things from the Gospel that might be offensive. If we understood that all we have to do is cast the seed—the Word of God is the seed—and that when the seed falls on the ground, it does its work no matter what, brothers and sisters.

So your calling is this: proclaim the Gospel; share the Gospel with humility, grace, love, patience, and wisdom, and then let the Gospel do its work. You have done what you had to do; now let God do His part.

The Gospel is the power of God—dunamis, dunamis—the word from which “dynamite” comes. The Gospel is powerful to set humanity free. The Gospel is powerful to break through the patterns of the intellect and the emotions and set people free so that they may hear the truth of God.

How could we be ashamed of something so sublime? I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God.

Say with me, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” Hallelujah!

Stand to your feet. Give the Lord a great round of applause this morning. Glory to God. Thank You, Lord. We adore You; we bless You.

Thank You, Lord. Thank You. Praise the Lord. Ask the Lord to place within us this morning a special anointing of faith and worship of God.

Glory to the Lord. Brothers and sisters, I want you to ask the Lord right now for a special touch of His Spirit so that He may make you an effective evangelist wherever you go. Tomorrow at your job, at school, as a teacher, as a businessman or businesswoman—wherever you go—may you be an agent of the Kingdom of God, someone who proclaims to friends and relatives, “Christ lives; Christ is real.” And lift up Christ so that others may see Him wherever you go.

Father, we bless Your children this morning and declare a special anointing over their lives, and we ask You to fill their hearts with anointing, joy, and a healthy pride in proclaiming the virtues of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. We send Your evangelistic anointing upon Your people, Father. Make us an effective church for the proclamation of the Gospel, and we will give You all the glory and all the honor.

Give the Lord a great round of applause.