Gospel
A line in Fleming Rutledge's book, Not Ashamed of the Gospel pushed me over the edge. It gave me just enough encouragement to preach a series from the book of Romans. Yesterday was the first sermon. Romans is not hard to study, you just take it one sentence at a time, even if they are long and complicated sentences.
But preaching Romans is another matter. When you preach from the Gospels, your outline is built into the text, you don't need to memorize it or make unusual memory devices to communicate the stories of Jesus. The story of sowing seeds has a built in outline using different soil types. You just follow the outline that Jesus provided and you can preach a sermon, presto.
Not so with Paul. He does the preacher no favors in this area. Yes, he has an order to his texts, a method to his madness you might say, but it's grander, not so compact, larger than a section of text. Take chapter one of Romans for instance. The word Gospel, or preaching the good news is used there five times. That's a clue to his structure right there. It's topical, not as much textual. Paul wants the reader to know this word gospel. Unlike John, who doesn't use the word, Paul practically sings it as he writes it. It is Special Music to his ears.
It's something he is ready to die for, longs to preach and is not ashamed of. Others might be ashamed of the Gospel, but not Paul. In fact, Paul's shame decreases as he enters into the Gospel. Remember his earlier passion? It was to kill Christians because they did not have the truth. Now after those terrible times of persecution on his part, you would think he has a lot to be ashamed about. Rutledge says this, "The first thing that a recovering human being does on the way to becoming a new human being is to stop worrying about being ashamed", p21.
One of the most profound results of the Gospel is its ability to strip or better yet dissolve our shame away and clothe us with His beauty. It really does a makeover on us.
Paul was restored by the Gospel, the Good News was indeed Good. As Isaiah said, "With His stripes we are healed." The Gospel heals, heart, hands, and minds. It does not bring shame, it destroys it. It does make us face our shame. But once faced, it replaces shame with confidence, Christ in you.
Paul's heart beat with a Gospel beat, music that changed him. Far from being ashamed of it, he sang it as melody. It is preachable like little else. Preach the Good News.
But preaching Romans is another matter. When you preach from the Gospels, your outline is built into the text, you don't need to memorize it or make unusual memory devices to communicate the stories of Jesus. The story of sowing seeds has a built in outline using different soil types. You just follow the outline that Jesus provided and you can preach a sermon, presto.
Not so with Paul. He does the preacher no favors in this area. Yes, he has an order to his texts, a method to his madness you might say, but it's grander, not so compact, larger than a section of text. Take chapter one of Romans for instance. The word Gospel, or preaching the good news is used there five times. That's a clue to his structure right there. It's topical, not as much textual. Paul wants the reader to know this word gospel. Unlike John, who doesn't use the word, Paul practically sings it as he writes it. It is Special Music to his ears.
It's something he is ready to die for, longs to preach and is not ashamed of. Others might be ashamed of the Gospel, but not Paul. In fact, Paul's shame decreases as he enters into the Gospel. Remember his earlier passion? It was to kill Christians because they did not have the truth. Now after those terrible times of persecution on his part, you would think he has a lot to be ashamed about. Rutledge says this, "The first thing that a recovering human being does on the way to becoming a new human being is to stop worrying about being ashamed", p21.
One of the most profound results of the Gospel is its ability to strip or better yet dissolve our shame away and clothe us with His beauty. It really does a makeover on us.
Paul was restored by the Gospel, the Good News was indeed Good. As Isaiah said, "With His stripes we are healed." The Gospel heals, heart, hands, and minds. It does not bring shame, it destroys it. It does make us face our shame. But once faced, it replaces shame with confidence, Christ in you.
Paul's heart beat with a Gospel beat, music that changed him. Far from being ashamed of it, he sang it as melody. It is preachable like little else. Preach the Good News.
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