PRAY Our scripture reading last week ended on a note of great hope. Paul reached back into the Old Testament to quote the prophet Joel who promised: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). Today I want to return to that verse in order to examine the verses that follow, for in them Paul lays out some of the practical implications of that great promise. Please open your Bible to the tenth chapter of Romans. I will begin reading with the eleventh verse. Paul has just stated the prerequisite for salvation. Remember verse nine? That was the focus of my sermon last week: “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (10:9). Now let’s pick up Paul’s train of thought with verse eleven. (Read Romans 10: 11-17) Paul says salvation is available to everyone. God is “generous to all who call on him” (v. 12). All we have to do is ask. All we have to do is call on God – “call on the name of the Lord.” But Paul recognizes that certain conditions must be met before people are in a position to ask for help – before people are able to “call on the name of the Lord.” So Paul addresses these conditions through a series of rhetorical questions. First: “How are they to call on one in whom they have not believed?” Before there can be a “call,” there must be faith! The decision to call on God, the choice to ask God for help, must be rooted in faith. For starters you must believe that God exists. However, mere belief in the existence of God is not enough. Before anyone can be motivated to call on the Lord, they need to believe God has the power to help them and, more importantly, the willingness, the desire to help them. Paul understood, in his world of diverse religious opinions and competing sets of values, that a basic understanding of the nature and purpose of God was essential to any decision to trust in God for salvation. The world of today is not all that different from the world of Paul. The names for the objects of our worship may have changed, but their impact on human behavior still has a familiar ring to it. People of Paul’s day were attracted to the gods that would permit them to do pretty much as they pleased. Folks today aren’t all that different. We are still drawn to belief systems that support our life choices and encourage us to do as we please. We, too, live in a world of diverse religious opinions and competing values. How can we expect people to call on a God in whom they do not believe? Paul continues his argument. “And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?” Now in order to deal honestly with the text I must point out that Paul’s purpose in writing this was not to recruit preachers and missionaries. This set of questions from Paul falls in the midst of his discussion about the failure of many Jews to accept Jesus as the Messiah. In the previous passage Paul argued that the way to God is not by works but by faith. Paul said, in essence, “It’s not about legalistic adherence to the law.” You cannot earn your salvation by pleasing God. “It’s about trusting God and accepting the gift of salvation made possible through faith – faith in Jesus Christ.” As a skilled debater, as an adept orator, Paul anticipated the obvious question: “But what if some Jews have never heard the message?” So, in the last half of chapter ten, Paul quotes several passages from the Hebrew Scriptures to demonstrate that God has been trying for centuries, through a whole string of prophets, and finally through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, to get the message across. But how do you convey the truth to a people who do not want to hear the truth? In this passage Paul is saying God has already sent people, namely Paul and the other apostles, to preach the good news. The issue for Paul in chapter ten is that the people of Israel, Paul’s Jewish brothers and sisters, have already heard the good news but they have failed to believe it. However, this passage still has serious implications for us. For although Paul’s purpose in writing this was not to encourage the church to send out messengers of the gospel, he is none-the-less clearly assuming it needs to be done. People can only believe in Jesus when they hear about him, and they can only hear about him when someone is willing to share the story. And this is not a calling limited to a select few. All of us should be willing and able to tell someone else about Jesus. Certainly, we need to raise up preachers and missionaries to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. I am thrilled that we have several young people from our congregation who are currently involved in some form of Christian ministry or who are in the process of preparing for a life in ministry. We need to encourage and support these young people as they pursue their calling. We also need to be identifying other people, people of all different ages, who have the gifts and graces to lead the church into the future. I am one of those persons who was reluctant to answer God’s call until later in life. And I am not alone. More and more people are entering ministry as a second career. We need to pray that people will be open to God’s call in their lives. And we need to encourage those in whom we see evidence of God’s grace for ministry. However, the need for sharing the Gospel extends far beyond the pulpit. Right now God is calling some of you. God is urging some of you to share the word of Christ through teaching. We have children, youth, and adults in this congregation who need to hear the message of faith. We have children, youth, and adults in this congregation who don’t know the Old Testament from the New. They may have heard of Jesus, but they have never experienced salvation. They really want to learn, but they need someone to guide them. “And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?” Is God asking you to say “Yes, I’ll be a teacher?” One of the excuses I hear most frequently is I don’t know my Bible well enough to teach. The best way to learn what the Bible teaches is to teach it. You’ll learn everything you need to know by spending time in prayer and in preparation. You don’t have to know all the answers. You just need to be willing to engage the students and help the students engage the Bible. The most important qualification for teaching is to love God and want to serve God and to love your students and want to help them learn. And you will never be alone. You will have plenty of help close at hand. Ann, Brian, Brenda, and I are available to help you. More importantly the Holy Spirit promises to walk with you step by step. I know God is calling some of you to teach. God may be calling some of you to help in other ways. However, God is calling you, I hope you will say, “Yes.” I’m praying about that and I trust that all of you are praying right along with me. Let me say one other thing. Whether you volunteer or not, whether you want to admit it or not, each one of us is a teacher. Someone is watching you. Someone who knows you are a Christian is looking to you to learn what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. “How are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?” It may be your children or grandchildren. It may be the man next door or the lady down the street. It may be someone at work or someone where you shop. There are people all around us who need to hear the message of Jesus Christ. And each of us has a responsibility to share a word of love and of hope. I love to experience worship in the African American tradition. Our brothers and sisters with that particular ethnic heritage aren’t hindered by all the inhibitions that limit so many of us white folk. When an African American preacher wants to hear a word of affirmation, he often asks, “Can I get a witness?” That’s what Jesus is asking from us, not only today, but everyday: “Can I get a witness?” “How are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?” Can I get a witness? AMEN! |