October 8 - Romans 1:1-17 - "Good News for Sinners"

MPC 8th October 2017.

Phil Campbell

If I were a business kind of person, I'm not sure I'd have the guts to go on Shark Tank.

Have you seen it on Channel 10? It's kind of compelling. These budding entrepreneurs with their start up business ideas; getting to make their pitch. For an investment from Steve or Janine or one of the other billionaire investors.

You've got three minutes to make your pitch. And you'd better make it count.

Three minutes to explain your big idea. To make your point. To put your business case. Deliver your spiel.

A few weeks back for Kim Macrae it didn't go so well. Pitching a fitness learning program for kids that he valued at $2.5 million dollars. That involved dancing to Wiggles music with orange sticks.

The sharks are looking bemused. They ask him a bunch of questions, and he stumbles over the answers.

And then Janine Allis glides in for the kill. "Kim, what problem are you trying to solve?" And Kim Macrae is lost for words. His sales spiel. Is in a death spiral.

That word spiel isn't one we use very much these days. It's an old English word that means story.

When our bibles were first being translated into English, there was a word they translated as good spiel. The good story. Which in its contracted form comes out as gospel.

A word that you'll find a total of 91 times. In the English New Testament.

In the original Greek it was the word eu-angelion. Which literally meant good message. Good story. Same idea.

GOSPELS

Now you'll probably know if you've opened the New Testament at all, the four biographies of Jesus at the start are called the gospels. Which are the long versions. Of the good story about Jesus.

But you get this weird thing happening as you go past the four gospels; and you get the guys who knew Jesus best; the apostles. Going out and announcing. This good announcement. Telling anyone who'd listen, this good story. The gospel. In a much shorter form.

And the gospel in a sense takes on a life of its own.

It spreads. And grows...

The apostle Paul says to the Colossians, I thank God for the way you heard the true message of the gospel. And he says,

In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world-just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace.

This good news story. With a life of its own. Bearing fruit. Growing. Spreading. Through the world.

As people hear it. And understand God's grace. His radical generosity. And how good it is.

The book of Acts is all about these good messengers; the apostles; spreading out around the first century world to share and announce; their good story. Their gospel.

And see lives change. As people hear it and believe it.

Now that might seem alien to your 21st century experience.

But the fact is, if you're a Christian here today, what's happened at some point is that you've heard. And to some extent understood. And accepted. Exactly this same gospel message. That's been passed down through the generations; that's been faithfully preserved and faithfully told; all the way to you.

And it's borne fruit in your life as well.

Acts chapter 8. Peter and John. On tour around Samaria. With the words of Jesus ringing in their ears, go and preach the gospel to all the world. They're doing it. First of all around Samaria. And then Acts 8 verse 25,

After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.

Philip. He's at Azotus,

Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea...

preaching the gospel as well. All the way to Caesarea. They're all doing it.

Paul and Barnabas. Still in the book of Acts. All the way up to Turkey. To places like Iconium and Lystra and Derbe.

... where they continued to preach the gospel.

And in verse 21...

They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch...

The gospel is the pitch you make if you want to make disciples. The gospel is the good news of a new kingdom and a new king. Jesus.

And you follow the story in the New Testament and the first Christians are so enthused about it that they live it and they breathe it. And they give for it and they suffer for it and they speak it every chance they get.

Because it's such a good story. It's good news that changes everything. But the question is, what exactly... is it? What's the pitch? What's the spiel?

Given that Donald Trump runs the world from his Twitter account, as we were preparing the Growth Group Guides, Jeremy and Pete and Dan and I took on the challenge of boiling down the essence of this good story to the size of a tweet. Which if you're not up with technology is 140 characters. Although there's talk that they're upping that to 280 characters because people these days are so wordy.

If you had to do it, how would you boil down the gospel to a single sentence? That you could tweet?

Because it's a problem isn't it, if ever you get to actually give someone the pitch for Christianity; if you ever actually get to give the good spiel... it's a problem if you have to figure it out on the spot every time. Have you had it happen? Lost for words?

Here's what we came up with. The good news in a tweet.

The one who died for sin is King.

Hashtag good story. I don't even understand hashtags. I'm stranded back in the Facebook generation.

Simple message. Eight words. 44 characters including hashtag. 96 characters to spare.

It's short. But there's more to it than meets the eye.

Like, how can you say, "The one who died for sin is King." Is he dead? Or is he king? Take your pick.

Which is why the resurrection of Jesus, if you look at the preaching of the Apostles through the book of Acts... is absolutely central to their message. The one who died for sin. Is now alive. As lord and king.

We'll be watching how it unpacks through some key passages in Paul's letters over the next few weeks. The difference that this good story makes. Or should make. In our lives and attitudes.

But first things first. If it's going to be any good as a pitch, if it's going to cut through in the Shark Tank; if this gospel really is the good news it claims to be... we've got to answer the question that brought Kim Macrae undone.

WHAT PROBLEM?

And that's the question what problem are you trying to solve.

Which brings us to Paul's letter to the Romans. Which I'm hoping most of you have looked at in the growth group guides.

Paul's letter. To the centre of the Roman empire.

Which opens, if you can just get a sense of it on the screen, with a lot of talk about this gospel. You can see it highlighted in red. Six times in the first seventeen verses.

Which he calls in verse 1, the gospel of God. The gospel promised beforehand through the prophets. And he then starts expanding. The way this Jesus of Nazareth, born into the line of Israel's kings... has been appointed Lord of everyone by his resurrection from the dead.

Verse 9; if you're still wondering what this good story is all about, it's the gospel of God's son.

It is all. About Jesus. Will you keep that in mind. Keep that as a touchstone. Because if we today; if the church today; if we as Christians today... are still meant to be about the gospel; there's your checkpoint. Are we talking about Jesus? Or not? Because it's interesting how fast a gospel can change to be about something else. Like prosperity. Or political liberation.

Paul's commitment. Is to serve god. By spreading around this good message. About Jesus.

Eager, he says in verse 15. To come and preach the gospel in Rome. Because it's a message for everyone. Greeks and non Greeks, Jews and non-Jews.

And not ashamed of the gospel, he says in verse 16, because it's the message that brings salvation to everyone who believes it. First the Jew. Then to us gentiles as well.

And it's the solution to a problem.

Because in the gospel, says Paul in verse 17, the righteousness of God is revealed. A weird kind of righteousness. Because it comes, he says, not by doing stuff. But by faith. From first to last. From start to finish. From top to bottom. Just as is it's written, he says, just like we saw last week; in Habakkuk 2 verse 4. Righteous. By faith.

The problem being, if you do the logic; that by nature from top to bottom, left to ourselves; doing it our way; we're not righteous at all. But caught up in the problem of sin.

THE "SIN" WORD

The answer to the Shark Tank question, "What problem are you trying to solve", is that Jesus came to deal with the all pervasive problem of sin.

Which is what Paul goes on to talk about in the next three chapters.

Now straight away we've got all sorts of problems with that, haven't we? And these days more so than ever before.

It's gone from a time when people just politely giggled at our quaint little Christian idea that there's a sin problem. To the point where it's socially and culturally unacceptable to even believe in sin. To even privately believe that there's any kind of absolute right or wrong. That there's any possibility of offending an objectively moral and pure higher authority than ourselves. Makes you a bigot.

Although as Greg Sheridan pointed out in The Australian this week, it's a category we kind of need when you're faced with the cold blooded killing of 58 people at a Las Vegas concert.

And he laments. He says, what produces this evil in men's hearts? He says people are grappling for a political explanation. Or a religious explanation. He says "commentators try to take the evil out even of terrorism, and attribute it to social marginalisation."

Greg Sheridan says, "Our modern ideology of follow your dream, be yourself, get in touch with your own feelings... makes me want to ask this question: what if your dream makes you fantasise about killing innocent strangers? If your only standard for what is good is how something makes you feel... you'll be led to many strange and sometimes terrible expedients... "

Good point! If the golden rule for living life is just please yourself... what if it pleases me to hurt other people?

Greg Sheridan makes a good argument for the existence of sin in the abstract. It's doing what pleases yourself. With no reference. To anything beyond you.

Paul goes a step further. With the argument that there's a sin problem at the heart of everyone.

Not that I'm a mass murderer. But that's just a lucky co-incidence for you that that's not my thing!

But the bottom line's the same. Just live to please yourself. Just chase what makes you feel good. Paul says, all of us. We swap out the truth about god for a lie. And worship created things instead of our creator. And there's no excuse. Since the creation God's power and nature have been clearly seen from the creation. We don't glorify him, we don't say thank you. We just chase whatever turns us on.

We're taking a quick ride through the first section of Romans. Romans 1 verse 25.

25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen.

All of us. That's what we've done.

The old days; worshipping bits of carved stone and wood; anything shiny. These days. Much the same. Bowing down to created things, shiny things, fast things, sexy things; instead of bowing to the One who made us. Saying I like to think of God this way, and then making up whatever god is most convenient. And then doing what we like.

And that, says Paul, is all of us.

Look, the problem with talking about sin is that it gives people the idea that Christians just think they're better than everyone else; and that if you're a Christian then you're self righteous and arrogant. Or if you're a Christian you're a hypocrite because you think you're better than other people and then it turns out you're not.

Which. Totally. Misses Paul's point.

Because the gospel message is never that we are somehow any better than anyone else. In fact the key to the first three chapters of Romans is to say sin is a problem for every kind of person. For all of us. Including you. Including me.

Look at Paul's words at the start of chapter 2.

2:1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

The problem is, it's all of us. And the bigger problem is, God is righteously angry at what we've done. And the way we ignore him and worship the world. And he's righteously angry. With the way we treat one another; and what we chase after. And how we live.

PROBLEM IS SIN

So what problem does the gospel address?

That problem. The sin problem. The justice of God problem.

Which you find as you turn over a page or two in Romans and come to Romans chapter 5 verse 6.

Because the whole essence of the gospel... is that this Jesus... is the one who's done something remarkable in his death. Not for good people. Not for people who deserved it. But for people with a sin problem.

Because you see from time to time you hear about great acts of heroism. People like the man who covered his wife in the hail of bullets in Las Vegas. Gave his life for hers. Because of his love for her.

But Jesus. Gave his life for his enemies. And that's how God demonstrates his love for us. The perfect sacrifice. Perfectly provided.

Read the words. Romans 5:6-7:

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Remember our one sentence summary? "The one who died for sin is King."

Put it the other way round. The king is the one who died for sin.

Died for the ungodly. Died for the powerless. While we were still sinners, Christ... died for us.

FROM GUILT TO GRACE

Bringing us... from guilt. To Grace.

It's funny isn't it, for a world that doesn't believe in sin any more, there's still a whole lot of guilt going on. And it's impossible to resolve it.

There was an article in the Guardian online the other day. The title was, Why do we feel so guilty all the time.

Deborah Baum opens this way. She says, "I feel guilt about everything." She says,

Already today I've felt guilty about having said the wrong thing to a friend. Then I felt guilty about avoiding that friend because of the wrong thing I'd said. Plus, I haven't called my mother yet today: guilty. And I really should have organised something special for my husband's birthday: guilty. I gave the wrong kind of food to my child: guilty. I've been cutting corners at work lately: guilty. I skipped breakfast: guilty. I snacked instead: double guilty. I'm taking up all this space in a world with not enough space in it: guilty, guilty, guilty.

She's had it all. "Filial guilt, fraternal guilt, spousal guilt, maternal guilt, peer guilt, work guilt, middle-class guilt, white guilt, historical guilt: I'm guilty of them all."

And her first attempt at a solution, in the article, is to turn to self help books. And motivational speakers. Which don't help at all.

But the gospel does. Not just subjectively. But objectively as well. The guilt before God... it's taken away. By somebody else. And in its place grace. Generosity.

That's what's so good about it.

Which means that in spite of what you might have heard as a kid, the way to right with god; isn't... by trying your hardest to be good.

THE GOOD PLACE

There's a new show on Netflix. Most times it's pretty funny.

It's called the good place. And it's a quirky kind of comedy about where you go when you die. If you've been very very good.

It's all based on rankings. And look, the thing is, this is how most people think it works with God in real life. That if you're good enough, you go to the good place. And if you're not you miss out. Except of course, just about everyone gets a pass mark and scrapes in.

But look, in The Good Place you've got Tahani. Who all her life has done her best to be good and was outshone by her little sister. Always. Always. Trying her best. And being overlooked.

And now she finds herself in the good place. And she sneaks a look at the points ratings. And finds that of all the people in the good place... she's ranked second last.

And so she's desperately, there in the good place... trying to raise her score. When she's confronted by Michael the architect.

Here's a little clip.

My whole life I tried. But it's never seemed to be enough.

Ah. And you thought you could increase your ranking.

Tahani. The point evaluations stop the moment you die. But also, out of literally billions, you were one of the most remarkable people on earth. You have nothing left to prove. To anyone.

Now friends, here's some good news for you. Because of Jesus... none of that's true. Except the very last bit. Because of Jesus... you've got nothing left to prove. To anyone.

You don't have to be good enough to get in. Just a sinner. Looking for grace.

It's not when you die you stop racking up points. Because at just the right time. When you were powerless. Christ died for the ungodly. That's you.

Not because you were good enough. Not because you'd racked up enough points.

But because you weren't good enough. And you could never rack up enough points.

It's like me trying to get into the Qantas frequent flyer lounge. I figured out the other day, I'm never going to get enough frequent flyer points.

But that's not the system.

Romans 5 verse 8. That's the system. You're in free of charge.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Sin is the problem that the good news is solving. And it's great news, isn't it?

Friend, can I say to you this morning if you haven't been clear about that, if you haven't heard that before, if you haven't responded to that and you don't quite know how, make it a priority to grab me after church to talk about it. And we'll pray together. And you'll go home today a whole new person.

That's our gospel. Good news worth sharing. Why don't you spread it round?

Table of Contents

GOSPELS

WHAT PROBLEM?

THE "SIN" WORD

PROBLEM IS SIN

FROM GUILT TO GRACE

THE GOOD PLACE