Reading: Romans 10:8-15
8 But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9 if you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11 As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.’ 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ 14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!
Teaching:
So a question as I begin: what is it that motivates you in life each day? What gets you up in the morning? What is it that takes up your time in thinking things through? What is it that consumes our thoughts?
Well, the reason why I am called to this church family, is my hope that we all place our love of God at the centre of EVERYTHING that we do. Everything. But then secondly iI hope your hope and prayer is to see a spiritual revival in our community and in our families. To see God by his Spirit break into our neighbourhoods and for people to know the love of God in their lives. So, does that really matter to you and me? And let’s make it very personal. Do we really care if our husbands, our wives, our sons, daughters, our friends, our work colleagues, the people who serve us in shops, does it matter to us that they would share in the joy, in the resurrection hope that hopefully we have today? Does all this take up any of our thinking time?
That’s why I believe 2025 becomes a focus for us, a year to see God’s name spoken into homes and families across our community. I believe that these times, our culture are ripe for a work of God’s Holy Spirit. So how does this happen? Well from our reading in Romans 10 today I want us to think about 4 words which is centred in verses 14 & 15, Paul says “14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone proclaiming to them? 15 And how can anyone proclaim unless they are sent: Believe, Hear, Proclaim, Send.
So let’s look at Believing
Paul is saying, how can anyone call upon the name of the Lord, unless they believe. Belief has got to be critical in our faith. You can’t just come along to church each week, you can’t say that you are a Christian, if you don’t believe that the son of God, Jesus Christ, died and rose again for your sins on the cross. You can’t say the words of the Creed if they mean nothing. So, is it a desire on your heart to see those people around you, come to believe in the one who saved them? Are you remotely concerned today about the lost that are placed around you each and every day? Does it really matter to us? One way of evaluating how important this is to us, is by considering our prayer life. What we pray the most for is the thing that matters the most to us. So how often do we pray for the salvation of people we know? Very often we will pray for our families, for our children, for our health, for people we know who are going through hard times, and none of those are wrong. But should that be the most important thing to pray for? When Jesus set out the model for prayer, I think he helped us greatly in understanding the priorities. He said when you pray, pray to your Father in Heaven, ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name’ – so loving and honouring God more than anything else. But then listen to where he goes next. “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done”. He’s talking about the kingdom of heaven coming; that God’s kingly rule would come on all people. That’s the salvation of people and becoming part of the family of God. So, the salvation of others has to be the priority. Folks the reality is that when we leave this world, we cannot bring any possessions with us. But the one thing that can come are other people. And wouldn’t it be amazing if we helped lead people to the Lord knowing that when we enter into his Kingdom, that others will be with us. And we do this out of love. You see if we don’t share our faith with others, then that has to be the most selfish and unloving thing that anyone could ever do. It’s like a child who has been given a wonderful present and he chooses to enjoy it on his own, he never shares his enjoyment with anyone. So how unloving would it be for a Christian if they know that the alternative to heaven is hell, then how unloving it would be for them not to share their faith with others. If we truly believe, then we will be compelled by love to prioritise. Maybe we are so blinded by our own priorities in life, that we have got things completely out of order. If we think we are all-right jack and it’s someone else’s job to tell others about Jesus, then we have got it completely wrong. Folks in the Northern Ireland Census in 2021, 48% (that approximately 900,000) of the population that they were either of no religion or non-practising Christians. Now frankly I’ve no idea what it means to be Christian but not practice as one, but I know that this means that out there is a massive mission field, and our motivation for this must be love.
So the second word today from our reading, is the word Hear. “And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?”
You see people can’t believe if they haven’t heard the Gospel, so that they can then call on the Lord. As Paul in a later verse says, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ”. So, the unbelieving person must be exposed to the Gospel otherwise they won’t be saved. They have got to hear the word of Christ. You know you can invite people along to events in the church, and that includes our programmes, but none of this will bring about salvation if we don’t speak the word of Christ. I know that seems controversial, but it’s clear from our scripture – people must hear the word of Christ. They have to hear. If this was not the case, then Jesus would not have said to his disciples, “go into all the world and make disciples of all nations”. If people didn’t need to hear, then Paul would never have went on his mission trips. Paul knew that there were many who needed to hear the Gospel, and he knew that if they never heard they would never believe.
When the Gospel is faithfully spoken, a person’s mind is illuminated as the Holy Spirit works in them. And the scales that have been covering their eyes are removed. And when they take that step of faith, they become Gospel believing and become Children of God. So hearing is important.
But not only that, you can’t hear unless someone is proclaiming or preaching. That’s our 3rd word. Verse 14, “And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” So very simply, Paul is saying that an unbeliever can’t hear unless someone is preaching. God has chosen people to deliver his message. He could have given others the responsibility, he could have charged the angels to do this, but no, he has charged you and me. Note that I’m not the only preacher here today. All of you are preachers today. You see the problem today is that you associate the preacher with the person at the front. But God has called you to be a preacher of the Gospel. To preach doesn’t mean the sermon, it means to declare, to proclaim, to herald the good news of Jesus. And you might say, well Jonny that’s clearly a job for someone else. And yes, God has given us all gifts, but he has told all of us to share the good news.
I’ve shared this before but let me tell you a little bit about that word Evangelist which is the Greek word Evangelion. It originates as a military word well before it became a religious word. An evangelist was someone who after a battle had been won, would go back home from the war and proclaim to the towns the good news of victory. This person would walk through the streets and tell people that the battle had been won.
So, Paul is saying, “how can anyone hear without someone going to tell them the good news?”. God has called you to deliver the message. The great commission is universal for everyone who calls themselves a Christian. So today folks, if you are a Christian, then the list of names that I’ve asked you to consider in this preparation for 2025 are the people that you can start sharing the Good news with. Tell them how it impacts your life. Tell them your story. And actually I’m being rather easy on us, because Mark’s Gospel of the commission that Jesus gave said this (Mark 16:15) “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” . I’m asking us to consider our list of people we know. Jesus’ direction was to go and meet with absolute strangers everywhere.
Proclaim it.
Now I know that some of you right now will be reminded of those modern day words “Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary use words”. In other words you can live a life that affirms Jesus in all you do and therefore you don’t need to preach at people. And I get it, because it’s very easy to stand in here and spout off words but not live it in your every day lives. We could say that for the various ministries that we have in the church that people see God working in us, through our actions. But you and your lifestyle is not the Gospel. The Gospel is the story of God’s redeeming love through Christ as written in scripture. So standing and serving people, or welcoming people into our churches, is a sign of God’s people loving others, but it’s not the Gospel. I’m not saying that how you live your life isn’t important, it is, but the Gospel is about someone who did something incredible for humanity. And his name is Jesus Christ. Your lifestyle either confirms or denies what you are speaking. And when you speak, be simple and clear. You don’t need to be a deep theologian. Be genuine and heart felt for people to share the truth.
So finally, the 4th word is Send. Verse 15 “And how can anyone preach (or proclaim that Good news) unless they are sent? “
As a Church we are not here to be comfortable. We are a church that equips people to go out and do God’s work. If you consider the past 2 years of preparing young people for mission through our SERVE programme which Tim & Leah Burns run, and then from that we give them many options over the summer to serve, either at home or abroad. Folks that’s not so that our young people have a jam-packed summer schedule. That’s to equip and prepare them for lifelong mission.
But then every week from this place, I send you folks out from here. You remember those words at the end of every service? “Go in peace to love and what? SERVE the Lord”. You are being sent. If I simply take Ballyclare, Ballynure and Doagh, then there are 13,500 people living there. And from our statistic earlier, we have at least 6,500 people who as of yet have believed in the Gospel. In this room right now, the potential is huge. God has planted you out into this community. So, if I take an average Sunday there is 160 of you gather between the 2 churches, and if you only connected with 10 people in the week who are not followers of the Lord Jesus then that’s that an incredible 1,600 people whose eternal future could be secured. If you and I are going to leverage the opportunities that God has set before us, then think this through. Take the responsibility that God has given us seriously.
So back to my opening question. What motivates you? What motivates us to be church? Jonny is it ok for me to say that I simply want to be a consumer Christian, to take all the benefits and the blessings with no responsibilities. I just want to be told that everything is ok. Folks, everything is not ok. In each of our families today we have people who may not share eternity with us. If our hearts are not burdened for this. If this isn’t what motivates us in our daily living, then we have got a problem. How bad do you want to see revival and spiritual transformation in your family, in your friends, in your workplace? How bad? Are we willing to give our time to this? There are no more beautiful thing folks than to share the Good news with others – irrespective of how they receive it. Paul reminds us of how good it is, referencing Isaiah 52. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!
May God bless you this coming week as you once again consider those lists that we each should have. And I pray that you go from here empowered by the Holy Spirit, that in every conversation, in every interaction, we might consider the incredible opportunity that God has given us to tell someone the Good News. It’s for sharing.