All Roads Lead To Romans: 2 / I Am Not Ashamed

[Music] [Music] all right we continue our series through the book of Romans titled cleverly enough in my opinion all roads lead to what Romans part two in our presentation today is titled I am not ashamed I am not ashamed now we were together last week for our first installment in this series through the book of Romans let's just do a little bit of review here in Romans we find Paul at his literary best and the book of Romans is impeccably and incredibly and tightly argued it is his well rehearsed teachings and sermons that he has delivered in markets and in homes and in synagogues all over Asia Minor modern Turkey and Greece and we asked the question last week also by way of review why was the book of Romans written and it's it's difficult to say exactly why it was written but we do have some pretty good hunches from within the text itself and also from him some historical context that sort of orient us to the book of Romans I've put the ones here in yellow that I believe have the greatest explanatory power Paul tells us within the text of Romans itself that he is trying to raise support and awareness for a mission to Spain he talks about this in Chapter 15 it does sort of have this feel that Paul is wrapping up maybe that's not exactly the right work but in some sense he's traversing from his work in the eastern Mediterranean to the western Mediterranean he will be and we'll see a little bit of this today just a hint of it today but much more in the future but the Jewish Gentile question will come up several times and it will just rear its head very briefly here today and then finally Paul is almost certainly addressing as he did in his letter to the church in Galatia some what we might call counter missionaries those that are trying to thwart the efforts and overture of Paul and so to summarize what we learned last week we were in chapter 1 verses 1 to 15 so we were just in 15 verses last week today we're going to be in only two verses our whole presentation today will be in Romans chapter 1 verses 16 and 17 that's it right so a very small section you'll find out why that is but last week we took a look at the historical and geographical context some of which we've just reviewed a moment ago we noted Paul's greeting as a slave of the Messiah Jesus and we noted how Paul's orientation and his greeting as a slave would have placed him in a very low social standing in the Roman context and in the Roman world Paul's announcement within the very greeting itself very cleverly very purposefully announces the arrival of a new COO teos a new Lord that's a very important word that will come back to a little bit later as well he says that even though the Messiah a crucified Messiah was certainly an unexpected and an unwelcome Messiah but we can be sure Paul says that this guy was the Messiah because of the power of the resurrection people do not ordinarily customarily rise from the dead this guy rose from the dead and so we can be sure that he was what he claimed to be and then finally those last sort of verses there in about verse 8 down to 15 Paul says over and over and over he believers the point that he really strongly desires to come to Rome and so when we find ourselves here in Romans chapter 1 we encounter in verses 14 15 and 16 what some have called the three Iams of Romans Paul says I am under obligation we talked about the different ways you can be under obligation last week to discharge a package that has been entrusted to you is the way that Paul describes it here he says I am so eager to come to Rome and he's not just being platitudinous here or formal he really wants to go as far west as possible but he sees Rome not just as an end in itself but as a launching pad to go much further west in the Mediterranean all the way to Spain and then we find our third I am I am under obligation I am so eager I am say it with me if you would I am not ashamed one more time with a little more enthusiasm I am not ashamed so let's now read Romans chapter 1 verses 16 and 17 and let's try to just get a feel just a preliminary feel for the shape of these two verses that we're gonna spend all of our time in today and believe me when I tell you that we will be only getting a cursory look compared to what's available we could spend ten sermons alone on these two verses and I'm not exaggerating so today will be a bit of a cursory look but an important look that will orient us to what Paul is saying here in his thesis statement I'm in verse 16 for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes for the Jew first and also for the Greek for in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith just as it is written the just shall live by faith right here in these two verses Romans chapter 1 16 and 17 we find in sort of nucleic embryonic form everything that Paul is going to say in the whole of Romans in two verses okay so notice what I've sort of put that up there for you in these two verses is sort of the the thesis statement the package the shrunk down package of at least embryonic lis everything that Paul is going to say through the rest of the 16 chapters right so it's very dense very important important in this sense if we get romans 1 16 and 17 right if we can get started off on the right foot we stand a much better chance of orienting ourselves correctly to the text when we're down in chapters 6 7 8 9 and 10 if you're gonna take a journey that's supposed to be say due north or due east or whatever the most important step that you can take is that first step right because if you're off just even a little bit there and you follow that same trajectory you can be off by miles or kilometers down the track here so it's gonna be very important for us which is where we're gonna spend our whole time here today in just these two verses because even within just these two verses is the whole of what Paul is going to argue his basic point is contained embryonic lis there now Paul's thesis statement if you would have sort of just sort of noticed these four major points in it we'll spend all of our time here first of all the good news is God's power to save it is for everyone who believes it reveals God's righteousness and finally faithfulness or faith produces faith or faith faithfulness we'll come back to why I've purposely sort of positioned that last bullet point that way as faith or faithfulness let's talk a little bit about the structure very important to sort of orient ourselves to the way that Paul has written here so P at the top is just Paul's orientation to the thing that he's about to say so that's what I've put P there for you Paul says he announces quite in contrast with the sort of Roman hierarchy of values and virtues which we'll come back to in just a moment he puts himself purposefully on the defensive he states this purposefully in the negative I am not ashamed which contains within it the sort of embryonic idea that there must be some cause for potential shame and therefore you're saying you're rallying against the general expectation that you in fact should be ashamed and so Paul announces matter-of-factly I am not ashamed now what follows after that is really two parts Paul basically says two things and I've underlined both of them for you they're the A's in the on the screen that you see here the first thing he says the reason I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it is God's power to save can somebody say Amen and then the second one here jump down to the beat the also the a there because in the gospel God's righteousness is revealed so these are the two main things Paul is saying I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's God's power to save and in the gospel God's righteousness God's faithfulness is revealed so what are the B and the C's here well you'll notice that in both instances here the B functions as as they both rotate or orbit around this idea of faith right a statement about the the relationship of faith to the previous statement is then made so for example in the case of the first sentence or the first bit for it is God's power it is the power of God to salvation he says for everyone who believes and I've purposely put I don't do with a lot of this but I've purposely here put the Greek word into Stew oh that will become important for us a little bit today but a lot going forward so I just want you to hang on to that idea of pistou Oh so for everyone who believes jump down to the B of the second half there the second part for in it the righteousness of God is revealed that's a from faithfulness for faithfulness notice even we being a Greek scholar you see the similarity they're pissed us same root word and kind of similar in English as well faith and belief same kind of ideas I'm showing you here that in the Greek the words have the same root the same idea and so Paul makes his general statement and then he in both cases talks about how faith modifies the very thing that he's mentioned and then C is a further modification in the case of the first statement he says it's for the Jew first and also for the Greek and in the case of the second he quotes a vaca chapter 2 verse 4 the right said the righteous shall live by most translations say faith my faithfulness and the same word they're pissed as' same word and so we'll come back to the significance of that let's start off with Paul's announcement we'll get into the actual we talked a little bit about the structure we'll get into Paul's actual the content of Paul's thesis statement in a moment but let's spend at least 10 or 15 minutes talking about the the announcement that Paul is not ashamed and how that would have sounded to the ears of the churches the scattered house churches that Paul is writing to in Rome why take that posture why begin this masterpiece of of your all of your letters and there's no question that that this is Paul's most thoughtful it's Paul's most considered it's Paul's most systematic letter and so he begins this letter to the church in Rome a church that he has not yet visited and he announces quite matter-of-factly and quite contrary to the prevailing culture I am not ashamed and Bible students and scholars have looked at that and have said why and why start there why with the announcement of the shamelessness that you're experiencing with regards to the gospel if I say I am NOT something I'm taking the negative I'm purposely putting myself slightly on the defensive slightly on the backfoot the Assumption here if you could sort of listen in to the other side of the phone conversation is that there should be cause for shame and so Paul resists that he pushes against that and says I am not ashamed and there are at least three horizons that Paul is addressing here right that Paul is addressing in the context of speaking of his lack of shame with regards to the gospel there's sort of three things happening here and they are incredible we're gonna spend some time on this first of all this statement is an outright attack on the Roman value system second of all he is almost certainly addressing the honor shame tension that exists in the church in Rome and all over the Mediterranean world between those that are circumcised and those that are not and the social cultural spiritual expectations and affiliations of circumcision and then finally the echoes of Old Testament shame at the prospering of God's enemies and/or the rebellious nough Severna people let's start with this idea of how I am not ashamed is purposefully and provocatively an effrontery to the Roman value system and Paul seemingly on the back foot is actually launching onto the front foot we noted this quotation the last time we were together from Signet on Stead's commentary on the book of Romans he says shame is the one thing all Romans wish to avoid right in roman context in roman culture shame was to be avoided at all costs conversely says tons-- dad honor ranks highest on the roman scale of values the pursuit of honor and of things deemed to promote honor were sought without embarrassment and so Paul is not speaking here into Australia in 2019 he was speaking into Rome and probably about 80 57 and the significance of that will become even clearer Tom's dad continues the Apostle confronts the Roman value system head-on by the announcement I am not ashamed speaking intelligently and purposefully into his culture and into his context Jesus had anticipated that within the prevailing greco-roman culture there would be sufficient cause for shame if you actually believed that a crucified you was in some sense significant or the messiah jesus knew and Paul here mindful no doubt of of Jesus teaching about the temptation to shame or the inclination to shame says I however am not ashamed tongs dad continues reading Paul's thesis statement that's what we've just read romans 1 16 and 17 with awareness of the anti-imperial message writing into a Roman context and addressing the Roman culture and the Roman situation with Caesar he says if we listen through through those ears if we'll see through those eyes reading Paul's thesis state thesis statement with an awareness of the anti-imperial message makes these seemingly innocuous that word means harmless phrases in the statement ring with prosecutorial significance what do you mean by that dr. ton said he says well let me explain it it is says Paul in God's gospel and not in the preposterous claims of the Roman Imperial cult that life and dignity and healing are found words that recur like a mantra in the Imperial propaganda we talked a little bit about this last week are taken over by Paul Paul just co-op's those words he grabs those words he employs those words and as if they have can have no other referent than Jesus he takes word like power which was a very important word in the Roman propagandists of the day Dunamis and salvation so Titor savior satya salvation now drawn to a different scale untarnished by deception and the predatory ways of the imperial system what Paul is doing is innovative and it's revolutionary he's taking the very language that was employed many of the same words those phrases those key ideas and he's lifting them and reapplying them to Jesus Paul was writing and probably about 80 57 this is almost 100 years into it historians call the Pax Romana the PAC's Romana is the Roman peace or the Peace of Rome it's a very important space in history and particularly in in the Roman history between the accession of Caesar Augustus and 8027 about 200 years in the future with the death of Marcus Aurelius and AD 180 and this this period of about 200 years was a period of significant hegemony and stability and of peace and it was called the Puck's Romana or in some cases pox Augusta the Peace of Rome or the peace of Augustus the problem is is that the ostensible peace and stability and hegemony that Rome had acquired that they had that they had constructed with roughly one-third of the Earth's population inside of the Roman Empire at that time between seventy and a hundred million people and so it was like hey now the world is at peace we are at peace everything is fine and you can just almost hear if if you know anything about sort of Roman history I know my son's been doing a lot of studying in that recently for his HSC subjects but you can just sort of hear how the propagandists would chime in and say the the Lord correos has brought good news un deleon of a lasting peace the savior so tear has come and he has brought righteousness but as Jay Nelson grayble notes in his apocalypse an allegiance book the problem with Caesars piece is that it depended on what's that word every one violence it was an authentic piece it was a piece that was sustained by the sword and by steel and by power and so when Paul writes into the situation to say I am not ashamed he's he's not riding into a vacuum he's riding into a very specific cultural and historical and social context taunts Dada continues the Roman religion and value system are in Paul's message I love this exposed and undone by a figure and I've put this here in brackets so you can be sure who he's talking about by a figure Jesus the Messiah that does not play the what what's that word there does not play the doesn't play the power card and I'm going to ask you that we're going to come back to this quotation a little bit later hang on to that idea basically what Tom said saying here is that according to Paul the whole edifice of the Pax Romana and the Roman Empire is is like a thread that you have in your garment you start to pull it and you just keep pulling it in the whole garment just disappears away right that there is no actual piece there there is no actual stability there it cannot be established by arms by force and by military might if there is going to be a lasting in genuine peace it will have to come from another source from another way of doing reality and thinking about power and lordship and so when Paul announces I am not ashamed of the gospel he is speaking directly in to the Roman value system in context but number two he is also speaking into this sort of honor shame tension that existed over the question of circumcision we're going to just sort of fast forward to the end of Paul's first letter Galatians to get a feel for how circumcision worked in its social implications and Paul writes in Romans chapter 6 verses 12 to 14 Paul says to the church in Galatia it is those that want to make a good showing in the flesh Paul continues but far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ can somebody say Amen by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world you see what Paul is doing here is he's sitting in purposeful tension the sort of business-as-usual mindset of circumcision that's how we get access to the family of God to the table of God and to the presence of God and the cross is how we get access to the family table and presence of God Paul again in Galatians chapter 5 and I brethren if I still preach circumcision as some are suggesting I do why do I suffer persecution then the offense and I've put the word here in brackets for you the Greek word here is skandalon from which you can easily pick up the english derivative there scandal the scandal of the cross well why is the cross so scandalous well I've put here so you won't miss it because of the shame associated with the cross no first century rabbi imagined that a crucified and humiliated Jew could in any sense be a messiah could in any sense be the deliverer could in any sense be the Lord promised anointed and so Paul says look if I preach circumcision like some are suggesting that I do is when he's riding to the church in Galatia he says then the offense or the scandal of the cross would have ceased Paul is speaking up on the idea here that there was a way to gain social standing in his time and in his culture and in his context and in the Church of Rome if you remember back to what we talked about last week Claudius and ad 49 had expelled all the Jews from Rome they were let back in five or six years later by Nero and this began to cause no doubt turbulence and tension between Jewish ways of doing life and non-jewish ways of doing life Jewish ways of doing Church and non-jewish ways of doing Church Jewish ways of reading scripture and non-jewish ways of reading Scripture and so circumcision could become a point of pride it could become a point of standing it could become a point of a symbol that gives access and so Paul writes into that context of shame on you because you haven't and shame on you if you have not yet and so Tom said rights the honor shame polarity of the dispute over circumcision he says is undeniable if you understand anything of what was happening in Paul's writings not just to Rome but to Galatians to the Galatians and in other places you know that circumcision was a was an important issue because it in so many ways encapsulated it was a it contained a sort of portfolio of meaning about what it meant to be Jewish on the one hand circumcision is billed as a caused for boasting we've just read those texts taun sad continues on the other hand the cross is a signifier of scandal and shame circumcision mutes the shame factor of the cross by representing a competing point of reference what he means by that is how is it that we get access to God is it by cooperation with Torah is it by strictness to Torah or is it by Christ and his crucifixion and ascension these two are in competition and it creates this question this driving question is Jesus enough or is it Jesus plus Phil the blank now you and I sitting here from the comfy padded chairs that we have in 2019 we might feel like this is a fairly easily theologically answered question but Paul was riding into a situation where the tension between how Jewish does a Gentile believer have to become in order to be a believer in the Jewish Messiah that tension was ever-present and the shame associated with perhaps a Jew who was easily and freely and gladly mingling with those who were uncircumcised something that would have been unfair decades before there's all of this sort of shaming going on we talk a lot about shaming today they don't shame me and we talk about body shaming and image shaming well in in Paul's day and age there was the shaming associated with who it was okay to eat with under what circumstances what it was okay to eat who it was okay to spend time with and Paul was writing to a church that is Jew and Gentile together we see this in the thesis statement to the Jew first and also to the Greek and so he is addressing the question of how is it that we get access to the very presence and the very family and the salvation afforded by God is it Jesus period or is it Jesus plus in this case circumcision well Paul just says this as plainly as can be at the end of Galatians he says for in Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but a new creation it's even stronger in the New Living Translation it doesn't matter whether we have been circumcised or not what counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation then that we sit here and we very easily and I love the Amen there Mel it's easy for us to say Amen in 2019 without all of the cultural social linguistic geographical baggage that went along with that question but there's no doubt that when Paul was announcing quite matter-of-factly I am not ashamed he was not only riding in to the Roman value system of the day he was riding in to the Jewish system that would ascribe various levels of shame depending on where you came in relationship to Torah and then we have to spend a little time on this idea that shame was a significant motif in the Old Testament let me just give you several passages to this effect Psalm 44 verse 9 but you have cast us off says the psalmist and put us to what's the word shame and you do not go out with our armies the psalmist continues staying in Psalm 44 jumping ahead to verse 13 you have made us a reproach that means an embarrassment to our neighbors us the scorn and derision of those around us embarrassment you have made us a byword embarrassment among the nation's the people shake their head at us embarrassment shame humiliation I live in disgrace all day long my face is covered with shame at the taunts of those who make fun of me who bully me who reproach and revile me because of the enemy who is bent on revenge all of this has come upon us though we had not forgotten you that we had not been false to your covenant the psalmist here cries out and what can only be described as absolute frustration saying yeah god we're doing our best down here we're not being false to your covenant we are your people and you are our God and our enemies mock us because they have triumphed over us in the ancient world when one nation or one tribe but one clan overcame another nation or tribe or clan they attributed that success to their god or gods if you know anything about the history of Israel it's basically an uninterrupted succession of subjugation to pagan powers whether Egypt or Assyria or Babylon or Greece or now Rome and so so the psalmist cries out he's like God this is shameful and we've been faithful now Daniels take on this is quite a bit different Daniel would not have agreed with the psalmist's passionate enthusiastic affirmation we have remembered your covenant notice how Daniel pain said in his incredible prayer that he prays in Daniel chapter 9 Lord the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of love with those that love him and keep his Commandments we have sinned and done wrong we have been wicked and have rebelled we have turned away from your commands and your laws a very different diagnosis if I do say so we have not listened to your servants the prophets who spoke in your name to our Kings our Prince's and our ancestors and to all the people of the land Lord you are righteous but this day we are covered with say it with me shame the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem in all of Israel those that are near and those that are a long ways off in all the countries where you have scattered them because of our unfaithfulness to you we and our kings and our princes and our ancestors again he says are covered with shame Yahweh because we have sinned against you the Lord our God is merciful and forgiving forgiving even though we have rebelled against him we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws that he gave through his servants the prophets all of Israel has transgressed your law and turned away refusing to obey you so what you have in the Old Testament is this recurrent idea here in the Psalms and in the prophets that God's people have failed and God's enemies have triumphed and therefore the people are covered with shame because their God Yahweh looks to be an impotent or absent God where is God if you are in fact that you and by the way we should say this if you are in fact the chosen people of God we should say this that that the Jews were radical and innovative monotheists right in the ancient world lots of people believed in lots of different gods but the Jews said no there's only one God one true God one Creator God and you get us almost hear the the mocking and the scorn of their onlooking neighbors saying okay well buh-buh-buh-buh-buh but let me get this right so there's only one God and you're his chosen favorite covenant people and this happened to you that's clever tell me another one tell me another joke right because if if polytheism was true if lots of God's existed and Israel's God just happened to be a wimp or to be woofs or to be you know impotent or otherwise absent you could say well my God's stronger than your God but his real maintained this ridiculous notion no no there is only one true God the Creator who made a covenant with our ancestor and we are in some significant sense his covenant people and anybody would have just said yeah have you taken a look at your history have you taken a look at your present situation in what meaningful sense could your God be powerful so far so good so you can just feel the tension here and when the Old Testament prophets and the psalmist would cry out they would say god this is embarrassing everybody's laughing at us and everybody's laughing at you we're covered in shame shame occurs when God's enemies are triumphing and when God's own people are rebellious Psalm 71 verses 1 & 2 in you O Lord I have taken refuge let me never be put to shame in your righteousness that word is very important for our thesis today in your righteousness rescue me and deliver me turn your ear to me and save me salvation righteousness shame these are all Old Testament ideas and so when Paul writes and says matter-of-factly even provocatively I am not ashamed he is speaking into at least three horizons he's speaking into the shame honor reality of the hierarchy of the Roman value system he's speaking into the shame and and who's in and who's out and who's really a member of the family of God is that the circumcised or is that anybody and everybody and what does the cross have to do with this and then he's speaking into that Old Testament context of a strong sense that God's enemies have prevailed his people are rebellious and we are covered with shame and now hopefully you can get a little bit of a feel a little bit of a little bit of juice in the in the tank so to speak when you hear Paul announcing you're not just making some platitudinous statement you know into some vacuum that's otherwise meaningless he says I am not ashamed he goes as it were on the offensive by confronting the expectation that would have existed in his day so that's the first part here I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ we transition now into the sort of meat of what Paul describes it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes to Stu Oh for the Jew first and also for the Greek for in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faithfulness for faithfulness pista see the righteous shall live by my faithfulness piste Asst notice the fours here four four four four if you have done much reading at all in Paul and particularly in Romans he loves these words for therefore not only that what then what shall we say Paul is very clearly not riding out of emotional ecstasy and experience that's not to say that there isn't some value in emotional religion I of course there is but Paul here is thinking he's reasoning he wants you to come with him on a scriptural journey point by point step by step come with me don't lose me four four four four therefore not only that pay attention Paul's saying I'm gonna give you an argument that I have thought long and hard about in fact notice how NT right describes this in his new book of biography Paula biography he says haha Paul had been around the tracks he knew what he believed how the great scriptural narratives of Abraham and Exodus and David in exile and Messiah he knew how it worked he had expounded it a thousand times and discussed its implications and out workings in every conceivable variation and against every possible objection in synagogues all over the Mediterranean so now as he settles down to plan and then to dictate his great letter to Rome he was not says right to put it mildly thinking things through for the first time now romans itself was new but every idea it expounded had been tried tested and worked out in finest detail he had fought prayed and taught this material again and again and if you've done much reading in the writings of paul romans has a character inequality that even to the non theologian is immediately detectable there are no wasted phrases no wasted words there's an incredible precision and economy of words paul is saying come come come come with me on a journey for therefore not only that are you with me are you tracking with me let me tell you your own story he says to the jews and to the gentiles he says i got a story to tell you to that's the story we're gonna be walking through it's gonna be great so what about this idea that the gospel is the power of God to salvation the gospel is God's power says Paul I want you to say that with me if you would the gospel is God's power one more time the gospel is God's power in what sense Paul Paul would say this well I know it's God's power because I've seen it work I've seen it work in the lives of Jews I've seen it work in the lives of Gentiles I've seen it work in the lives of the rich I've seen it work in the lives of the poor the gospel the good news fixes people and will ultimately fix the world he's like this thing is powerful tongs dad writes the Roman religion and value system are in Paul's message exposed and undone by a figure Jesus the Messiah that does not play the power card we already noted this quotation and I said we'd come back to it very interesting that onset says he doesn't play the power card but the first thing that Paul says about the gospel is that it is God's power to save I am reminded at every opportunity when I consider how God has completely reframed power of the interaction between Jesus and Pilate in pilots judgment chamber where Jesus was taking more or less the quiet approach he wasn't responding he wasn't arguing it wasn't you know pleading for his life and Pilate looking upon this poor rabbit this poor young Jewish man who's clearly been whipped he takes a little pity on him and so he tries to orient him to the serious misses of the situation in which he finds himself he says hey young man young man I don't maybe you're not picking up on what's happening here don't you know who I am and then Pilate pulls out the big guns I have the power to crucify you to which Jesus responds when when Pilate laid claim to power even though he had largely opted for a for a for a strategy of silence when Pilate says I am in possession of all the power in this room I can crucify you if I want Jesus responds to that and says you would have no power at all if my dad and I hadn't made a decision about this event long before you were a twinkle in your grandfather's eye Jesus does play the power card but by his incarnation becoming a helpless little infant baby in a manger by his incarnation and not just his incarnation but of course ultimately his crucifixion God has completely reframed what true power is what is power and what does it look like well we don't have to wonder the Apostle Paul says it just like this in first Corinthians chapter 1 verses 18 to 27 he calls out rhetorically he says where is the wise where is the debater of this age he says the message of the Cross appears to be foolishness but it is the power of God now I just want the paradox of that the irony of that and frankly the absurdity of that to rest on your mind here try to hear that through first century ears a Jewish man nailed to a Roman instrument of torture is the power of God it just it's absurd it's a scandal it's a ridiculous indefensible notion it's a it's a wet desert it's a dry ocean yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah the message of the cross looks like foolishness I know that Paul says to the Jew and the Greek alike but the message of the cross is the power of God he goes on to say in verse 27 God has chosen the weak things of this world to put to shame the things that are mighty Jesus looked so weak in pilots judgement Hall and Pilate looked so powerful in his judgment Hall and Jesus completely inverts and Paul says the gospel completely inverts where the locusts the location of power is power resides in what looks like weakness he says I'm not ashamed of the gospel of a crucified and seeming failure of a messiah it's God's power to can somebody say Amen for everyone who pistou Oh who believes who has faith we're gonna have a lot of opportunity over the course of our time in our series to talk about faith but I want to just say this at the outset to make it clear in case you missed it at some point God's power his saving power is accessed by faith it's not accessed by Torah it's not accessed by circumcision it's not even accessed by obedience alone it's accessed by faith I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ it is the power of God to save for everyone who pistou o who believes you can access the mighty power of God in your life by believing by receiving for everyone who believes for the Jew first and also for the Greek and we're gonna have opportunities in fact the next time we are together part three we will be talking about the purposeful phrase that Paul uses not once not twice but three times for the Jew first and also the Greek for the Jew first and also for the Greek for the Jew first and also for the Greek why that phrase and why here what we've already talked about and I'll just mention it again here the expulsion of the Jews from Rome they were gone for six years now they've been brought back in and the division and the schism and the disunity between a reintegration between Jewish and Gentile Christians in the Roman Church would have created misunderstandings about how did yous get there standing before God and how did Gentiles get there standing before God and is there one way to be a member of the family of God or are there multiple ways we will have time to explore that Paul then goes to his second statement here for in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed the promise keeping and I've purposefully used this word here the right making character of God is revealed in Jesus the Messiah when you see that word righteousness there don't just think that God is righteous and some like he glows in the dark sort of incandescent sense you know you know the Handel's Messiah cents I'm not denying that he does possess that kind of power but the language that Paul is driving at here is that God has the power to put things right he has the power to fix stuff God fixes people God fixes nations God is even going to fix Israel God is in the business of fixing things but the tools if I can use that language that God is going to use to fix the world is a most unexpected tool a crucified Messiah figure risen from the grave NT Wright writes this is what God had been up to all along I love that phrase it enables the Jews to see how the promises that they had cherished for generations had been fulfilled quite otherwise than they had expected okay let's be honest right if he didn't see it happening quite like this but it enables Gentiles to see that there was one true God the God of Israel the creator and that this God has purposed to set the world to rights at last he's right making he fix his broken stuff and he fix his broken nations and he fix his broken people and he fix his broken families God is going to set the world to rights at last and that this God has now I love this in principle already accomplished that purpose how has he done it in principle well because Jesus in his incarnation overcame sin and selfishness and rebellion and death itself so in principle embryonic lis the gospel has already succeeded in humanity because Jesus was a human being although is waiting for now is for us to receive and to believe to apply if I can use that language by the Spirit what has already been achieved historically by Jesus in the Incarnation he he's like it's already been achieved in principle and when we say love this when we say the cross enables us to see we should not merely think of propositions commanding intellectual assent I believe that Paul I believe that Paul I believe that Paul I am now convinced Paul was not looking only for a convincing of the mind and I'm not looking only for a convincing of the mind look at what he says Paul believed but the announcement of the good news of a crucified and risen Messiah wielded a power that could overcome unseen forces inside people and around them those forces that prevented them from responding in obedient belief and Allegiance see Paul was just crazy enough to believe that when the gospel was preached lives were transformed and people were changed and people were fixed this is why he can say I know that the expectation and the Roman culture would be and even to some degree in the Jewish culture and and in the prevailing sort of overarching narrative of the Old Testament would be that I should be ashamed but I'm not ashamed because the gospel fixes people it's fixed me it's fixed people all over the Mediterranean world I can't wait to come to Rome and share with you this incredible fixing power of fact I'm going to write you a whole lot about it God's power to set things right the right making power of God and I love that phrase where Wright says how now the Jewish interpreter could see the the figure like Paul could go back and read their own Old Testament and they could come and see whoa whoa we missed it God wasn't up to a political Messiah a military Messiah where Israel would finally and fully be exalted over all the pagan nations what God was doing all along was showing us that he himself would become the suffering servant that he himself would come and bear our sins and take the weight of the transgressions of the world upon himself they had to go back and read their own text they had to relearn their own hymns they had to relearn their own traditions and culture and heritage and so Paul of like man this is what God was up to all along this is not an innovation yes Jesus was unexpected by the rabbis but he was not unexpected by the Old Testament want to say that again Jesus was unexpected by the rabbis but not by the Old Testament this is what God had been up to all along and so Paul says the revealing of God's righteousness in God's good news or gospel that's the grand theme of the whole book of Romans that everything he's gonna say for the next 15 chapters in his commentary on the book of Romans Robert Jewett writes thus the triumph of divine righteousness through the gospel of Christ crucified on an obscene cross and resurrected is achieved by transforming the system whoo in which shame and honor are dispensed God's gonna turn the whole thing upside down he's gonna say what you thought was weak is actually strong and what you thought was strong is actually weak what you thought was shameful is actually honorable and what you thought was honorable is actually shameful look at what Paul says here for the message of the Cross we've already read this let's read it again through slightly new and informed eyes for the message of the Cross appears to be foolishness but it is the power of God God has chosen the weak things of this world to put to shame the things that are mighty Jesus bore shame when he was naked and he was bruised and he was beaten and he was hung on a Roman instrument of torture no one believed that he was Messiah at that point he born shame he bore the shame and stigma of crucifixion he bore the shame and stigma of failure he bore the shame and stigma of unrealized expectations and God inverts the whole paradigm and says where you thought you were seeing shame you were actually seeing honor and power this is why he will be given a name that is above every other name at which every knee will bow because what looked like shame is actually power and what looked like power is actually weakness and dishonor total inversion the thesis of Romans says Jewett therefore effectively turns the social value system of the Romans upside down and you could just insert the word of the world upside down they just turned everything upside down if God's power is shown in what appears to be absolute and unambiguous weakness then God is maybe powerful in a way that many of us had not thought of power before power looks different than we thought talk about powerful men and powerful corporations and powerful ideas but if God becomes the definer the etymological definer of what power is and if God in Paul through Paul says Christ crucified is the power of God we've got to go rethink what power looks like what Shane looks like turns the world upside down funnily enough I had to throw this in this is exactly the critique that was levied against Paul and his travelling companions in Acts chapter 17 when they came to Thessalonica place where I just was a few weeks ago then Paul as his custom was went into the synagogue in Thessalonica and for three Sabbath's he reasoned with them from the Scriptures he was explaining and demonstrating that the Christ the Messiah had to suffer and rise again from the dead because again that wasn't expected he said this Jesus that I'm preaching he really was Messiah he didn't look like the Messiah we thought we were going to get but trust me and he take him through the Psalms and David sonship of David he take him through with the prophets he said look yes some of them were persuaded by Paul's arguments and a great multitude of the devout Greeks non-jews and a few of the not a few of the leading women they joined Paul and Silas but this didn't make everybody happy some of the local Jews were not persuaded and they became envious and they took up the evil men from the mark took some of the evil men from the marketplace they wouldn't got some thugs in the marketplace and they gathered a mob together and they set the whole city in an uproar and they attacked the house of Jason this is where Paul was staying and they sought to bring these guys out to the people but when they couldn't find Paul they dragged Jason and some of the Brethren to the rulers of the city and they cried out I want you to notice what they say as you can just imagine this mob they're crying for blood 90% of them don't even know what they're crying about but they've come out for the party right and their notice the criticism these are the ones who have turned the world upside down and they've come here to how were they turning the world upside down the the the accusation continues they're staying at Jason's house and they're acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar saying that there is another King Jesus whoa this was an explosive message in an explosive context in an explosive times a riot didn't break out at which Paul could have easily lost his life if he would have been found over you know a Tupperware party or a game of footy now these guys are turning the whole value system of Rome upside down they are reorienting the world to what God's power looks like and so I say it this way the good news of God's crucified and risen Messiah is necess disconcerting and unapologetically disruptive they're not a person well I shouldn't say that there's not many people in the world because cultural Christians are exempted from this because you grow up thinking that these things are just sort of normal that everybody understands them and believes them but for those of us that came from the outside into the faith there is something fundamentally disconcerting about being told that you need a Savior go try and tell that to your secular friends go tell your secular friends that they need a Savior go tell your secular friends that they need the righteousness of a crucified Messiah it's disorienting for people to feel like they especially if they're flying high and the bank accounts full and the careers going well and the kids are healthy and it's like come on don't talk to me about that old-fashioned stuff we're in the modern scientific age the announcement that people need a Savior is necessarily disconcerting saved from what saved by who said what I mean saved it freaks people out it freaked people out the day's appalled and it freaks people out today it's disruptive the gospel is disruptive in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faithfulness for faithfulness we're gonna close on this human faithfulness is a response to the revelation of God's faithfulness in the Messiah Jesus we merely reflect we merely respond and Paul then does something fascinating he quotes a little-known little red little understood little appreciated Old Testament book three chapters at the end of the Old Testament called Habakkuk and I reread Habakkuk again this morning I mean it takes every bit of 15 minutes I reread it this morning again just to remind myself of what's going on in this incredible book and why does Paul quote from here when he says as it is written the just shall live by faith now this is a larger much larger presentation that I've given in the past about why Paul quotes Ibaka Kai did it at light bears convocation last year you can go look that presentation up on youtube if you want but I want to say this this morning when I was reading through the book of Habakkuk and I don't know why this had never occurred to me before it's actually really easy to summarize the whole book of habakkuk in three words why whoa and wait right so it's so easy to preach first of all Habakkuk is crying out because Israel has already gone into a Syrian captivity and Judah is about ready to be taken away by the Babylonians and there's violence everywhere and there's injustice everywhere and the Prophet Habakkuk cries out and says why is God absent and unfaithful God's response is you ain't seen nothing yet whoa even more violence and injustice are coming the Babylonians are coming and then Habakkuk says well I don't understand any of this I don't understand God's absence I don't understand the prevailing of injustice and violence but I will wait because I believe that God will come through at last why whoa wait Anton said makes this incredible point about Habakkuk and we don't have time to go into the details the incredible details of Habakkuk who might just touch on it next next time I'm up again but maybe not he says by way of summary the problem for Habakkuk is the apparent absence of God's faithfulness the promise to Habakkuk is that something is going to happen that will put God's faithfulness on display I'll give you a hint of what that is it's Christ and him crucified so Paul says I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ it's God's power to save it's accessed by faith and it's available to everybody Jew and Greek alike in the gospel God's faithfulness and righteousness though at times it looks like he's absent and his people are rebellious God's righteousness is revealed it's revealed from God's faithfulness to our responding faith or faithfulness we'll talk more about that going forward he says just like the Old Testament says the righteous will live not by their faith now by the faithfulness of God himself who will come through in a pinch even when it looks like he's absent and gone powerful saving faithfulness belongs to God not to us can somebody say amen to that we respond to his faithfulness we then reflect his faithfulness to the world saving faith is generated from inside of human beings saving faith and by the way I'm purposefully you might be slightly confused and that's okay if you are I'm purposefully using the words faith and faithfulness interchangeably here because both of them are encapsulated in the Greek word pista s-- or pistou oh it's actually kind of purposefully ambiguous the just shall live by faith or the just shall live by faith fulness in the way that Luther understood this and I'll just spend a brief moment here on church history it was that the righteous were accounted righteous by their faith that's probably not what Paul is saying what Paul is saying is is that God will come through in the finish and his faithfulness will stand and if you believe it you too will stand it's not your faith that's on trial here it's God's faithfulness it's not your apparent absence that's being questioned here it's God's apparent absence and so we say again powerful saving faithfulness belongs to God not to us we respond to his faithfulness and then reflected out to the world can somebody say Amen that powerful saving faithfulness has been revealed in the unexpected reality inverting revelation of Jesus the Messiah you can begin to see how everything Paul is going to say in 16 chapters in Romans is contained embryonic lis in these two verses Paul says this the saving powerful faithfulness of God was seen in a place we didn't think it would come and it's totally turned the Roman world and the entire world upside down God has done something in Jesus that is completely reframed and refashioned what faithfulness looks like what power looks like what shame looks like he's turned the whole world upside down there is a new Lord a new correos on the throne the real throne not the temporal throne located in the central Mediterranean but the throne of the universe God has changed the game he's changed the equation I saw I saw a movie last week called the game-changers maybe some of you have seen it on the benefits of a plant-based diet I love that language the game-changers what Paul is saying is is that that in the gospel God made it was a game-changer it wasn't just about some privatized spirituality for people living in Australia in 2019 no no the gospel changed the game it changed the conversation it changed the landscape it changed everything and so Paul can say I can't wait to come to Rome right under the very nose of Caesar and proclaim there's a new COO teos with a greater power Dunamis to save and it is Jesus the crucified Messiah I know I know it sounds crazy it sounds absurd sounds ridiculous but trust me it works it fixes people it fixes nations it fixes families Paul says it's fixed to me I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ it is God's power to save people Father in Heaven we want to respond to your saving power father I believe like Paul believed that when the gospel is preached it's not just bringing about intellectual assent to the truthfulness of various propositions the gospel overcomes unseen forces and gets into the lives of people and reshapes them in their original image the image that you intended for them to have father you are rewriting the script you are changing the game you have turned the world upside down through what looked like weakness but in fact is great power father teach us in our context to be able to say with Paul and with enthusiasm that we too are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it is God's power to save this is our prayer in Jesus name let all of those that believe this say Amen [Music]

Channel: Kingscliff Church

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Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 06 2019