The Gospel or Gimmicks? (Romans 1:16)
What is a church's target demographic? See how Romans 1:16 makes a gospel church preaching, confident, and welcoming, and answers in one word: sinners.
Introduction
Last time we were together, in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, we allowed these powerful words to heal our broken hearts: I am not ashamed of the gospel (v. 16). Since, I drove tped off Caiden at college. Then this week, another important Christian voice for our time died suddenly: Voddie Baucham. It’s been an emotional three weeks, beloved. I need to hear these words again: 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 (v. 16).
Brothers and sisters, what I want to say to you today is this is all I have! I really wish we had our own building, with softer seating, with a dedicated parking lot, with better classroom space for our kids, with a kitchen and dining hall for our community. But this is what I have! The gospel that is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (v. 16). I really wish we had more talented musicians and singers to give George, Kim, and Lauren a respite; a dynamic youth ministry for all our kids; the hippest young adults group; and more money than we can spend to saturate our neighborhoods with ads. But this is what I have! The gospel; the power of God; salvation to everyone who believes (v. 16). That’s all I have! I can’t satisfy all your wishes and wants, my friends. But what I do have is the gospel. Is this enough for you and me? What I do have is a mere message that miraculously is the power of God. Is this enough for you and me? What I do have to offer you is salvation and I can’t even charge you! It’s for everyone who believes (v. 16). This is all I have!
We’re living through unprecedented times in our nation’s history. I don’t have all the answers, I don’t have a fool-proof action plan, I can’t change the world for the better with a wave of my hand. But what I do know is that the answer is the gospel. Amen? What I do know is that the need of the hour is gospel-preaching churches! Amen? I don’t need to tell you the sad state of Christianity in our cities, region here in coastal North County, state of California, and nation. I don’t need to tell you that on any given Sunday, you can walk into big, successful churches and hardly hear God’s voice in his Word but hear plenty of self-help words from AI-generated services meant to be unoffensive, uncontroversial, and always uplifting. A recent study revealed that in California, with all our megachurches, has only 23% of its citizens attending church regularly. I don’t know how to fix our nation’s problems, but I do know how to fix the problems of one person at a time in this church: being a gospel church in an age of gimmicks. I am not ashamed of the gospel. Are you with me? Why am I not ashamed? The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (v. 16). This is a gospel for your souls! This is a gospel for our time! This is a gospel for a world that doesn’t want it but actually needs it! Amen?
Theme
All I want to proclaim today is that God calls us to be a gospel church in an age of gimmicks.
A Gospel Church is a Preaching Church
God calls us to be a gospel church in an age of gimmicks. A gospel church is a preaching church. Go back to the opening of the letter. Paul was “set apart for the gospel” (1:1); this gospel was promised by the prophets in the Old Testament (1:2). What’s the gospel? Jesus Christ. Verses 3–4 define what the gospel is: Jesus and his work for us before and after his resurrection from the dead. Paul was “set apart for the gospel” (1:1) to do what? As verses 5–6 say, his goal was to “bring about the obedience of faith…among all the nations.” How? Look at verses 11–15. Paul longed to go to Rome to “impart…some spiritual gift” (1:11), which he explains in verse 15 as preaching the gospel to them! So, when he says I am not ashamed of the gospel, he’s referring to the gospel of Jesus Christ he longed to preach.
“That sounds great, but ancient Rome was an audible culture; ours is visual. Preaching is so 2010s (as the kids say). If we’re going to reach our neighbors, we need to use visible means.” Do you know that I can subscribe to services that promise to take all the best movies, put together relevant clips for churches, and send me sermon outlines based on them? Here’s the problem: nowhere does God promise to save through visible media; nowhere does God promise to save apart from hearing the Word of God preached! Look at what Paul says later in 10:13–17:
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
God planned for thousands of years to save sinners culminating two thousand years ago by sending Jesus Christ to the world. Here’s the question: how does all that God has done in Christ so long ago, so far away, come to us? The answer is simple: preaching the living and active Word of God! One English theologian (Elnathan Parr) said it like this: “Without the preaching of the gospel, there is no salvation. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, not written in leaves [meaning, in creation], but preached.”
Application: This is a huge responsibility on me, isn’t it? Absolutely. It also applies to you. There’s the authorized, official, and public preaching that I do and it’s to equip you to lead you out into the world to be witnesses of Jesus Christ in word and deed. All of you are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9).
A Gospel Church is a Confident Church
God calls us to be a gospel church in an age of gimmicks. This means a gospel church is a confident church. The time is now to stand up in sight of the world and say, I am not ashamed of the gospel! When they ask why, say because it is the power of God for salvation. Preaching is how God displays his power—his dunamis.
But this doesn’t sound right to us who’ve grown up in church. All throughout Scripture, God’s power is displayed in such things as creation, the Flood, the parting of the Red Sea, the destruction of whole armies of the ungodly, the miracles of Jesus and the apostles, and Jesus’ triumphant resurrection. That’s power. Words can’t do that. Thus, churches resort to gimmicks. Hollywood techniques, Madison Avenue marketing, bringing the world into the church just to draw a crowd and calling it Christianity! Do you believe the gospel preached is the power of God? Do you trust in God’s power or man’ls?
…the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Cor. 1:18–25)
In our wisdom and desire to see wonderful works of God, we turn to everything but preaching or in addition to preaching like music. Nowhere in all of Scripture does God promise to work through music to save as he does through preaching. Nowhere! Martin Luther said of gospel preaching: “the Gospel is the power of the Spirit, or the riches, weapons, adornments, and every good thing of the Spirit, from whom it has all its power, and this from God.”[i] Are you confident your church is doing it right? Look around, see our small church dwarfed by others. Are you confident in God’s power to save sinners through preaching?
A Gospel Church is a Welcoming Church
God calls us to be a gospel church in an age of gimmicks. We’re not ashamed of gospel proclamation because it’s the way God demonstrates his power to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.[ii] This means that a gospel church is a welcoming church. When I began planning OURC, I was asked by someone, “What’s your target demographic?” White, black, or something in between? Retirees, empty-nesters, young families, or college-aged and singles? Stable suburbia or low income? How would you answer that? I know my answer: Sinners!
God calls us to welcome any and all sinners into God’s presence to hear the gospel. The gospel doesn’t discriminate. It’s for everyone who believes whether to the Jew first, since God’s plan of salvation comes to the world through the Jews or whether to the Greek, meaning, everyone else. Application: To prepare your heart to welcome the world, welcome one another. Let’s grow in our love for one another. How can you show more love to one another so that we’re actually a church family that the world wants to join?
Conclusion: Do You Want Gimmicks or the Gospel?
This is all I have, beloved: 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 (v. 16). Is that enough? Do you want gimmicks or do you want the gospel? It’s one or the other. You can’t serve two masters. God calls us to be a gospel church in an age of gimmicks. Will you answer the call?
[i] Luther, 150.
[ii] On the gospel being offered to all, see Calvin, 27.