The Power of the Gospel
How it changes us and magnifies God.
Audio Here:
The Power of the Gospel
Reading of the Word:
Romans 1:16-20
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Prayer
Warm Up
Today is a very special day as we join with Protestant and Evangelical churches around the world celebrating 500 years ago a move of God that changed the Church of God and continues today. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther did something remarkably unrevolutionary: he posted a list of “theses,” on a church door. It notified the community of matters to be disputed in an academic debate. It was common practice and nothing rebellious about it.
But God utilized this one act to spark a reforming of His church that spread throughout all of Europe. To call her back to the purity and the authority of God’s word… and to preach the good news that we can be saved by grace alone through faith alone in the accomplished works of Jesus Christ alone based on the Word of God alone and that all is done to glory of God alone.
But our attention span with history is astonishingly short. I would dare to say that even the mention of the word “history” has cause many of you to already shut down, stare off, disengage and to endure the next 30 minutes the best you can by not falling asleep. The rest of you in the room have an interest or even passion for all things historical. You will undoubtedly keep my feet to the fire to make sure what I have to say is not only true but, because of your passion; to make sure I’m accurate.
But I stand before you as no expert in church history. I count 19 resources I have in my library having only fully finished 2 and having speed read the rest since summer. Not to mention the countless hours of messages I’ve listened to from conferences this year and great resources on the web about the reformation. I have a way to go.
But I know this-- I stand today as man who is changed because of this movement that started 500 years ago.
Had it not been for the move of God using His people like Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli and John Knox, you and I would only be listening in on a worship service that is spoken in Latin.
Had it not been for the move of God in Germany and Switzerland and Europe, you and I would be looking at the Lord’s table or the baptizmal as the center piece of this stage, instead of the preaching pulpit.
Had it not been God’s work through the labors of Erasmus, John Wycliffe and William Tyndale you and I would be lacking our own copy of the Scriptures in our own language.
Had it not been God’s working through the faithful preaching of the Puritans you and I would be laboring for our own righteousness to save us, instead of leaning on God’s grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone that they faithfully taught for over a century
I stand today as a man changed because the gospel message was recovered 500 years ago.
And I am not ashamed of that Gospel. And I am not ashamed of that move of God.
And neither should you.
Transition/Introduction
This verse in Romans has been coined as the Reformation Verse since this was the text God opened the eyes of Luther to help him realize that righteousness here is verse 17- It’s a righteousness that is outside of us. Actually it is the righteousness of Christ. Not our righteousness mustered up in good works and character. Rather that it’s a righteousness that credited to those who receive it by faith alone
And Luther said, “When I discovered that, I was born again of the Holy Ghost. And the doors of paradise swung open, and I walked through.”
That is the power of the Gospel!
One of my favorite of the 95 Thesis is Thesis 62: The true treasure of the church is the Holy Gospel of the glory and the grace of God.
Today I want us to consider together The Power of the Gospel that is the title of my message- and from this thought my prayer is that we will learn how to treasure the Lord himself in a greater and more sincere manner. That we would love him with all our heart soul mind and strength.
Looking at the verse there will be 2 questions I will be addressing: First
“What is the Gospel?”
And then 2nd “What does the power of the Gospel do?” That will take up the majority of the outline.
What is the Gospel?
When we say the word gospel ... we know it to means “good news” Yet within that word we have impregnated it with full and divine and spiritual meaning. We’ll get to that.
For now let’s just keep our terms simple and remember that gospel means “good news” its heralding announcement of good news.
If that’s at the very, very heart of the word gospel, if that’s what the message is, the essence of the Christian message is news … good, joyful news … then this is the difference between the gospel and every other philosophy or religion.
The gospel is not good advice about what you must do. It’s primarily good news about what’s already been done for you, something that’s already happened.
What is that good news? The nut shell version of the gospel is summed up by Peter:
Listen to Peter’s words: “Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
That is a full statement. That has a lot of inferences to tackle. We will address many of them as we move forward but I just wanted to get a simple definition in your head. Whether you are a believer here today or not a believer at all. This is the good news... this is the gospel.
Now the 2nd question
What does the power of the Gospel do? I’ve summarized it in an acronym to help follow these points and follow along.
The Power of the Gospel... (P.O.W.E.R.)
1. Graciously Provides
A. God’s response to our rebellion has always been grace
We see throughout biblical history God responds to our rebellion with Grace.
Hints of his grace start early in the OT. We first see God’s grace on display when God confronts Adam and Eve in the garden after the fall. Adam and his wife made themselves clothes out of leaves in an attempt to cover up their shame. When God approaches, he does not accept their coverings, yet he does not wipe them from the face of the earth either. Instead he slays animals and covers Adam and Eve with the skins of the animals so that their sinful nakedness might be covered. God deals with the immediate problem of their guilt in the manner of his own choosing. In other words, he provides the solution to the problem of Adam’s sin.
In the NT Jesus Christ is of course the supreme manifestation of God’s grace. If grace is God’s response to the tragedy of a fallen world, then Christ embodies that response.
If we were going to be brought back from the dead and into the favor of God and enjoy that communion we were originally designed for, then God must take the initiative.
And He did …The Scripture explains that when we see the Words “But God”
God’s grace brought means of having life—He did this by sending His Son Jesus Christ.
“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy…”
Titus 3:4-6
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8,9
You see we can’t boast because…
B. God’s grace alone is the decisive cause in our salvation
God, and God alone, is the decisive cause of us being saved and adopted into his family, cleared of our guilt and shame and empowered for our daily life of faith and obedience.
None of my human willingness or feelings or human influence or action has contributed to it at all. It’s God’s grace alone
Whatever role we play in our salvation it is never, at the bottom, decisive. Significant, yes. Meaningful, yes. Necessary, yes. But decisive, never. Only God is decisive. This is what it means for God to be God. Only he is mighty to save
The Power of the Gospel Graciously Provides.
No 2. The power of the Gospel…
