The Communicators of the Gospel - Vineyard Columbus

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The Communicators of the Gospel Rich Nathan September 8, 2013 Romans: The Gospel of God Series Romans 1:7-15

Several years ago I was approached by a group of pastors from the Ohio Council of Churches which is the mainline Protestant ecumenical organization pulling together Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, United Church of Christ, and so on. This group came to visit me and asked if I would give the key-note address at this Ohio Council of Churches gathering. My first question to them was, “Why me? Vineyard is not part of the National Council of Churches. We swim in different waters. I’m an evangelical. Why in the world would you want me to speak to your pastors?” The director of the Ohio Council of Churches at the time said, “Well, you know we’ve noticed that Vineyard Columbus is growing and many of our churches are stagnant, or shrinking. So we thought that you might come and share with us some of the reasons why Vineyard Columbus is growing.” To which I responded, “I don’t have any particular secret wisdom regarding why the Vineyard is growing. I don’t have any particular church growth tips that would be helpful to share. The only thing I would talk to your pastors about is evangelism. Vineyard Columbus is committed to evangelism.” Her response was really memorable. She said to me, “It’s funny that you mention the ‘E-Word’. Just the other day several of us in our presbytery were talking about our discomfort with the ‘E-Word.’” I’ve thought a lot about that conversation over the years. I think that this pastor was expressing something that a lot of folks feel, not just in mainline Protestant churches feel, but in evangelical churches like Vineyard Columbus. There are many, many folks who are uncomfortable with the E-Word, evangelism. Now, there are lots of reasons why we are uncomfortable as Christians in sharing our faith. Some of our discomfort would fall broadly under the heading of fear. We fear looking like religious fanatics. We fear the other person associating us with people of a certain political stripe, people who are anti-Muslim, or anti-gay, or who are bigoted. We fear looking stupid in environments where faith in God, and more specifically, faith in Christ is not welcomed as part of the prevailing worldview. We fear that we might bumble and stumble over our words.

© 2013 Rich Nathan | www.vineyardcolumbus.org

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Much of our discomfort regarding the E-Word, evangelism, would fall under the heading of fear and, specifically, what the Bible calls “the fear of man.” We fear what other people will think about us, if we start talking about our faith. After I came to faith as an 18-year old, I remember communicating my own fear of sharing my faith with a woman, who was helping me to grow. Her name was Marlene. She quoted me a couple of verses that have stayed with me for the last 40 years. Matthew 10:32–33 (NIV) “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven. Sometimes our discomfort with the E-Word has nothing to do with fear, but it is the result of feeling inadequate, uneducated. I really don’t know how to handle the very difficult questions that this other person might pose to me. I am not a Bible scholar. I’m just an ordinary person. If you go back in history to the early days in the Christian church, you will discover that a main way that Christianity spread was not just through pastors, theologians, and brilliantly educated philosophers. It did spread that way, but a main way that the Christian faith spread in the first few centuries was through ordinary people. About 40 years ago Michael Green, from England, wrote a wonderful book titled: Evangelism in the Early Church by Michael Green Here is what Michael Green wrote about how the early Christians spread the Christian faith: This must often have been not formal preaching, but the informal chattering to friends and chance acquaintances, in homes and wine shops, on walks, and around market stalls. They were everywhere gossiping the gospel; they did it naturally, enthusiastically, and with the conviction of those not paid to say that sort of thing. Consequently, they were taken seriously, and the movement spread. Ordinary people who were not uncomfortable with the E-Word. Ordinary people gossiped the gospel. I love that phrase. And there was power in the sharing because they weren’t being paid to share their faith. It wasn’t their profession. Their evangelism came out of the overflow of their lives.

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Last week I began a study of the Book of Romans, a study that I’m calling The Gospel of God. I’m planning for it to be a 16-week series that will take us all the way to Christmas. Today I would like to talk about how the gospel spreads in a message that I’ve titled “The Communicators of the Gospel.” Let’s pray. Romans 1:7–15 (NIV) To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.

Now it may be that Paul is engaged a little hyperbole here when he says: Romans 1:8 (NIV) First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. But what we do see here is: Ordinary people communicate the gospel We need to see this – that the gospel mainly goes forward when the whole church, not just the pastor, but the whole church is engaged in communicating and living out the gospel message. I want you to see this in the book of Acts. Acts 8:3–5 (NIV) But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison. Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. The Book of Acts says that as the result of the early church being persecuted, they were scattered throughout the Holy Land and the author says in v. 4:

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Acts 8:4 (NIV) 4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. The word that is translated “preached” in v. 4 comes from a different Greek word than the word in v. 5 that is translated “proclaimed.” Many Bible scholars agree with Michael Green’s statement that I read in my introduction. What these ordinary people did when they were scattered throughout the Holy Land was that they gossiped the gospel. As these persecuted Jewish Christians were scattered, they were welcomed into people’s homes. We can imagine them sitting down for something to eat and drink, and telling through ordinary conversation the wonderful Good News that God has done something to take care of the separation that exists between God and human beings. That God has done everything necessary for us to enter a relationship of love with himself through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah, who is now Lord of all. They gossiped that message. “Hey, let me tell you something wonderful that happened to me. May I share with you how I’ve discovered a relationship with God that changed my life? Have you ever wanted to know how to connect with God? Here’s what I found that helped my family, or saved my marriage, or freed me from my addiction.” These people gossiped the message. Now, listen. It wasn’t easy for early Christians to go everywhere gossiping the gospel. These were folks who were persecuted, not only in the Holy Land, but later by the Romans. NT Wright, a New Testament scholar, said this: Christianity did not spread by magic. Christians summoned proud pagans to face torture and death out of loyalty to a Jewish villager, who had been executed by Rome. Christianity advocated a love which cut across racial boundaries. It sternly forbid sexual immorality, the exposure of children, and a great many other things that the pagan world took for granted. Choosing to become a Christian was not an easy or natural thing for the average person in the first few centuries of the Christian era. We think that it is hard for us to share? We’re embarrassed by the E-Word – evangelism. That we’re the first people in history that are afraid of what we might look like in the eyes of a person that we want to talk with about Christ? Friends, it’s always been hard to share the Christian faith. It was incredibly hard for the early Christians to gossip the gospel. It was hard. This was a message that contradicted the prevailing views of Judaism in the 1st century. It called Jewish people to believe not in a conquering Messiah, but in a crucified Messiah. The gospel message was a rebuke to the pagan world of Rome and its immorality and idolatry. You realize, don’t you, that there has never been a time in history where the true gospel has been popular.

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How is it that ordinary people were able to overcome their fears and gossip the gospel? Let’s look at v. 7: Romans 1:7 (NIV) To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. These ordinary people experienced: The difference God’s love makes Something happens when you have a present experience of being truly loved by God. The Apostle Paul talks about the importance of personally experiencing God’s love for you in Ephesians 3:17-19: Ephesians 3:17–19 (NIV) …And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. There is something that happens, friends, to us when God’s love for us is changed from an idea, a doctrine, into an experience. Paul prays that we would be rooted in, that we would know that we could grasp God’s love for us. When you personally feel loved by your Creator, there is something that happens. And the something that happens is that you stop caring so much about being accepted by everyone around you. You stop being afraid of everyone’s opinion because you know you are loved by God, the God who totally knows everything about you, and that he loves you. This other person doesn’t know everything about you. You are loved by God; the God who promises to be your friend through thick and thin, whatever you go through. The God who loves you will be there for you. This other person is not going to be there for you when you lose a loved one; they aren’t going to be there for you in the middle of the night when you are crying. This other person is not going to be there for you when you get old, when you are alone, when you are divorced, when you are tempted. Only God, who loves you, will be faithful to you. I tell you there is something that happens that is so liberating for us when we become rooted in, when we know, when we grasp for ourselves God’s love. We stop living out of the fear of others and we are free to communicate our faith. Last year in my journal I wrote this about my experience of God’s love. Father, you have given me a gift

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Unearned, undeserved, un-sought for With no strings, no conditions, no therefores. You have said – I give you my love Myself My Son My Being My Essence, What I am, who I am – I give to you Your love is like a rushing river Swift, full, refreshing Your love is an ocean – vast, deep I can plunge in without drowning. Your love never fails Though I fail and blow hot and cold You never quit, you never give up Always faithful, forever secure Your love is lavish, abundant, super-abundant Overwhelming, a fountain, a spring, A geyser – overflowing, overwhelming, Overcoming all my fears and doubts Yet in all the vastness of your love You pay attention to me One, single, solitary being Out of all the universe Me Like fireworks and celebration; Like romance on a dark night You, O God, shower me with your love How great is your love for me. Friends, have you ever felt like composing a psalm of your own to God about your experience of God’s love for you – not just for the world, but for you? You are rooted and grounded in God’s love. Have you ever prayed, “Lord, I want to experience your love for me” and kept on praying that until you felt the love of God? How did these ordinary people proclaim the gospel? They knew the difference God’s love makes. And they knew: The difference our lives make Romans 1:7 (NIV)

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To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. We Christians are called to be a people set apart, different from others who we know and how we act. You know, the church is supposed to be a showcase, a display window that invites people to see how wonderful God is. We’re to be the presence of God’s liberating freedom in an addicted world. The early church spread rapidly because it offered people something that they couldn’t find any place else – changed lives, changed relationships, freedom from the fear of dark forces, freedom from guilt, freedom from the fear of death, eternal life with God. Rodney Stark, who is a sociologist of religion, wrote a book several years ago titled: The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark In the book he talks about how the early church grew, especially among women. The church started really small, but it soon grew large as the direct result of following Christ, the church became attractive to women. In fact, the rate of conversion in women from paganism to Christianity became such a problem to the pagans, that the Emperor Julian passed a law forbidding Christians from visiting the homes of pagan women. Why did Christianity spread so rapidly especially among women in the early church? It was because Christians, first of all, stopped killing their little girls. The pagans in Rome practiced infanticide. Roman fathers would take their babies out and leave them on the city walls to be exposed to the elements or to wild animals. And they especially practiced gender-cide. They took their baby girls out to be killed. Not only did Christians totally reject that practice, but they would take the baby girls in. And not only that, Christians cared for widows. The church was a home for baby girls and the church became a home for older women. And women especially liked the church because the church rejected a double-standard regarding sexual immorality. See, in the Roman world wives were supposed to be virtuous and reserve themselves sexually only for their husbands, but men were free to have sex with slaves and prostitutes. The Christian church said that there was one standard for sexual morality – men needed to be as virtuous as women. Do you think that would have been attractive to married women? And the church opened up leadership roles to women. In a society that kept women down, the church elevated women and made them leaders in the early church. It is as Christians live lives that are attractive, that are different than the world around us – less addicted, always loving, more elevating to women and men – that the world says, “Hey, I want to check out this Jesus Christ that you guys are talking about.”

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But it is not just ordinary people that communicate the gospel, Preachers communicate the gospel Look with me at v. 9: Romans 1:9 (NIV) God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you The Apostle Paul understood himself to be a preacher. Romans 1:15 (NIV) 15 That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. Everywhere Paul went, he saw himself as a preacher. He told people in every city the Good News, that consistent with the Old Testament promises, God has done everything necessary now to take care of the alienation between God and us due to our sin through the life, death and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ, who has become Lord of all. And he called people to respond to this message by believing and submitting to the message. Now, what made Paul such an attractive communicator of the gospel? There are so many different kinds of, not all of them attractive. There are preachers – TV preachers, mega-church preachers, street preachers, itinerant preachers, preachers can be male or female, short or tall, fat or thin, old or young, educated or uneducated, black or white, Asian or Latino – they can be emotional in their preaching, or entirely cerebral. They can sweat profusely and use a sweat rag, or barely move. They can be sing-songy or monotonal. They can read a manuscript or speak off the cuff. They can be gifted and pull people out of their chairs, or they can be boring and put people to sleep in their chairs. Why was Paul such an attractive communicator of the gospel? Let me share with you some qualities that make preachers’ communication powerful. See, we preachers and leaders don’t just bring a message to others. We bring ourselves. It’s not enough for the message to be credible. Christian leaders must be credible! W hat makes a preacher’s communication credible? Preachers are thankful Romans 1:8 (NIV) First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.

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If there is one thing that characterized Paul’s life in his letters it was that he was a very thankful person. You see it everywhere in Paul’s letters. Let me give you just a few verses: 1 Corinthians 1:4 (NIV) I thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 5:20 (NIV) …always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:3 (NIV) I thank my God every time I remember you. Colossians 1:3 (NIV) We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, And notice that he was thankful for all of the people in the church: Romans 1:8 (NIV) First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. All. Paul was thankful for all, not just the nice ones, the helpful ones, the encouraging ones, the ones who are easy to pastor. He was thankful for all of them – the difficult ones, the stubborn, the critical ones, the lazy and broken and super-needy ones, the ones with messed up theologies and messed up lives – he was thankful for all of these. And we preachers and leaders need to constantly cultivate in our hearts thankfulness for all – for everyone. Years ago before we built the auditorium at our main campus, we met at our main campus in what is now our multipurpose room where our kids gather. The church was growing rapidly in those days. We were in a room that sat about 800 people and we were doing five services. I used to preach two Saturday night services and three Sunday morning services. Our last service on Sunday began at noon. I was standing in the back of the auditorium one day, it was about 12:25 p.m. and we were wrapping up worship. I noticed some folks walking in. They did this every week. They would skip the worship and walk in to catch the message and then leave before the end of the message. As I watched these folks walk in at 12:25 I began judging them thinking: My goodness, we’re meeting at noon. You can’t get up to make a noon service? As I was judging these folks in my heart, the Holy Spirit interrupted by thoughts and I felt God say to me, “Rich, would you prefer that these people weren’t here?” The implication being, “I can arrange that.”

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Immediately, I had this dose of conviction about my feelings. I felt so ashamed. I said to the Lord, “NO! I’m so sorry. I want these folks to be here whatever time they show up. I want them to be here. Please keep them here, Lord.” And I felt the Lord say, “Well, then, stop judging them.” You know, if we want to be attractive communicators of the gospel, we need to stop judging people whoever they are, whatever they look like, whatever they do. We need to be thankful for folks. You can either judge people, or you can be thankful for them. But you can’t do both at the same time. And you know, the churches that the Apostle Paul wrote to, these churches had lots of problems. Paul was never hesitant to point out folks’ problems. But over and over throughout his letters, he continually said, “I am thankful for all of you. Whatever your issues, I’m thankful.” That made him an attractive communicator. But then second, Paul was a credible communicator of the gospel because he was a servant. Romans 1:9 (NIV) God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you Preachers are servants Paul says, “I see myself as a servant in the deepest part of my being, the place in me that determines my identity, how I think about myself at the most fundamental level. I see myself as a servant of God.” That was Paul’s identity. Look at Romans 1:9, Romans 1:1 (NIV) Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— Colossians 1:23b–25 (NIV) …if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— It is important to for us to understand what it means to see yourself as a servant. If you have a Bible, I want you to turn with me to Mark 10:35-37:

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Mark 10:35–37 (NIV) Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” What are James and John asking for? Well, it is not certain if they are asking for the best seats at the Messianic banquet, that when the Kingdom of God comes there is going to be a great banquet. We are told that those of us who are followers of Jesus will be invited to eat with him at his banqueting table. In ancient times, the seat to the right and left of the host were the chief seats of honor. It could be that they were saying, “We want to be in the most honored positions when you throw the great Messianic banquet.” It could be that they were asking to sit on the thrones on either side of King Jesus when he is enthroned as the Judge of the world. What we see in James and John is selfish ambition. Now, ambition is not in and of itself a bad thing. There is such a thing as godly ambition. And the great issue of discernment in our own heart is to figure out if my ambition is godly ambition, or if it is selfish ambition. Godly ambition is good; people without ambition will always remain in neutral and never accomplish anything for the kingdom of God. People who have no ambition are people who sit around like bumps on a log, completely unmotivated to share their faith or get involved in serving others. There is an ambition that is right. Paul writes in 1 Tim. 3.1 these words: 1 Timothy 3:1 (NIV) Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. But there is a very negative thing that Paul calls selfish ambition in Phil. 2.3: Philippians 2:3 (NIV) Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, What is selfish ambition? Selfish ambition focuses upon titles and roles. Godly ambition focuses upon serving and caring. All of us at one time or another have been disappointed because we wanted to be chosen for a certain role, we wanted a certain position, or given a certain title, and we

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didn’t get it. If you hang around a church long enough, you may desire to have a certain role, or to gain a certain title, but you may be denied that role or title or recognition. You may want to be a women’s group leader, to sing here on the stage as part of our worship team, to be hired for a certain position on staff, but that role may be denied you. Let me take as an illustration becoming a children’s ministry pastor. Let’s say you really want to be a children’s ministry pastor and someone else is occupying that role. How you respond to not getting that role tests your heart regarding whether you are motivated by selfish ambition or by godly ambition. Godly ambition will say, “Well, I didn’t get that title, but goodness gracious, there are thousands of avenues open for me to care for and serve children. And if it is God who is burdening my heart, if I’m truly motivated by a desire to serve kids, then I really don’t care about my title. What I care about is helping kids find Christ. So I’m going to pray and ask the Lord to open up doors for me to lead children, to care for children, to bless children, and evangelize children.” “I will make myself available to teach in Vineyard’s children’s ministry. I will volunteer for our Community Center’s after school program called the Zone.” You will be amazed at how many opportunities you have to serve the needs of children, if you don’t care about titles and roles. There is a couple in our church who don’t have any children of their own, but who for years reached out to dozens of children in their neighborhood. They don’t have a title here; they don’t have an official role. But they’ve simply opened up their hearts and their home to the call of God and God blessed them with neighborhood children. Listen to me now. If your ambition can be blocked by any other human being, if another human being can close the door on your ambition, if a “no” from a person can stop your activity, then you are still dealing with selfish ambition. No human being can prevent you from fulfilling godly ambition. Because no human being controls God’s agenda. So what if you don’t get to be on our worship team? Or you don’t get a paid position on a church staff? Lead worship in a small group. Help lead worship in children’s ministry. Get some folks together and worship God in your home. Are you saying you can’t worship God and lead some other people to worship God unless you have a title and a role? And if you don’t get to be a pastor, are you saying that you still can’t evangelize? Being a servant makes communicators attractive. And then the third thing that made Paul’s communication so attractive, so credible is that we see that: Preachers are pray-ers Romans 1:9–10 (NIV)

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God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. Simon Ponsonby, in his wonderful commentary on the Book of Romans, points out that the Apostle Paul in Romans 16 lists so many people who he wanted his greetings extended to – dozens of folks. Greet this person; greet that person. Paul had never visited the church in Rome. He just had reports about it. How did he know all of these people? Simon Ponsonby says perhaps it was because Paul regularly prayed for these individuals by name. I don’t think that idea is that far-fetched. One of the Christian leaders who has shaped my understanding of Christian faith as much as anyone other than John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard Movement, is the great 20th century English preacher, who died a couple of years ago, named John Stott. I just read the second of the 2-volume biography of John Stott over the summer. Stott got up very early in the morning, 5:00 a.m., to do his devotions. He showered, listened to the BBC World News, had a cup of coffee, spent an hour in Bible-reading and then he would pray. And one of the things that John Stott always did was he had a prayer journal that contained a list of people he was praying for. One day the General Secretary of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students was visiting John Stott. He was praying with him and noticed John praying through various prayer requests which had been listed in the IFES Praise and Prayer Bulletin. The General Secretary of IEFS said Stott prayed them through by memory. He knew these people’s names better than the head of the organization knew them. If there is one thing that will make any Christian leader effective, is that the leader regularly prays for people he or she is ministering to. Before we can talk to people about God, we need to talk to God about people. Let me say a word to small group leaders here. If you are a small group leader, or a children’s ministry leader, let me encourage you to do this one thing. Write a list of all the people in your group, or in your class, and pray to the Lord for those folks. Let people know that you are praying for them. You are going to see a transformation in people’s lives, in kids’ lives. My own experience in keeping a prayer journal is that I rarely see an immediate answer to my prayers. But if I continue to pray over the course of 3-6 months, time after time after time, I am able to write down in the margin of my journal, “Prayer answered on this date.” Preachers are pray-ers. Preachers are imparters

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Romans 1:11–12 (NIV) I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. In the Bible from the Book of Genesis through the New Testament God’s people imparted spiritual blessing to one another through the laying on of hands. The practice of the laying on of hands was considered by the early church to be part of Christianity 101. It was very basic, something every young Christian knew how to do. Hebrews 6:1–2 (NIV) Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. You see the Old Testament patriarch, Jacob, laying hands on his children and grandchildren. And Jesus laying hands on children and imparting spiritual blessings to them. The church throughout history has especially practiced the laying on of hands during times of baptism and the ordination of folks to pastoral ministry. Now, the Christian church today is really divided over this whole practice of impartation and the laying on of hands. The charismatic church, particularly, is being flooded with a really aberrant doctrine of impartation in which people travel all over the world to have the right person pray for them and lay hands on them. They have to attend the right conferences, in the right cities, and go to the right churches in order to be visited by God. There are even DVDs marketed this way - listen, if you watch this DVD you will: “Experience the anointing of God Generous as you step into the healing revival tent of Jack Coe and A.A. Allen. Receive a touch from the Holy Spirit through Katherine Kuhlman’s ministry. There is an impartation for you as you absorb one solid hour of footage from these faith greats!” One man said that he went around the world laying on the graves of charismatic greats. And while he lies on the graves, he claims to receive an anointing, an impartation from their ministries. And then on the other side of the spectrum there are conservative evangelicals who say that there is nothing to impartation whatsoever. You never need to have anyone lay hands on you. Anything that God wants to give you will come from God to you directly without you ever receiving from another human being. I believe that the early church was on to something when they practiced the laying on of hands. I believe that the Apostle Paul absolutely intended to impart spiritual gifts to the churches in Rome through the laying on of hands. Here is my understanding of

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impartation. I don’t believe that the impartation of the Spirit and spiritual gifts is magic, something an individual can do at their own will and choosing. I believe that the gifts of the Spirit are only subject to the Holy Spirit. The wind blows where he wills. But often, understanding the leading of the Spirit, God will use us clay vessels to impart a gift to someone else. I have felt the leading of the Spirit as I have prayed for people to receive a greater gift of preaching. And people have come back to me and said, “Something happened in my ministry. There is more power; I have more confidence; there seems to be a greater effect now when I speak. I’m saying the same things, but the impact is greater.” Preachers are imparters. And finally, Preachers are indebted Romans 1:14–15 (NIV) I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. The Apostle Paul in v. 14 says: I am obligated; I am indebted both to Greeks and nonGreeks. John Stott, who I mentioned before, and who had a great prayer ministry, wrote this about vv. 14-15: There are two possible ways of getting into debt. The first is to borrow money from someone; the second is to be given money for someone by a third party. For example, if I were to borrow a thousand dollars from you, I would be in your debt until I paid it back. Equally, if a friend of yours was to hand me a thousand dollars to give to you, I would be in your debt until I handed it over. In the former case I would have gotten myself into debt by borrowing; in the latter it is your friend who has put me in your debt by entrusting me with a thousand dollars for you. It is in the second sense that Paul is in debt. He has not borrowed anything from the Romans which he must repay. But Jesus Christ has entrusted him with the gospel for them. Paul has been entrusted with the gospel. Brothers and sisters, like Paul, we have been entrusted with the gospel, this wonderful message that will change people’s lives forever. A message that if it is believed, will reconnect a person with the God who created them, who loves them, and who gave his Son to die for their sins. We owe a debt to every human being. We have been given the gospel message for the world.

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The Communicators of the Gospel Rich Nathan September 8, 2013 Romans: The Gospel of God Series Romans 1:7-15

I.

Ordinary people communicate the gospel A. The difference God’s love makes B. The difference our love makes

II.

Preachers communicate the gospel A. Preachers are thankful B. Preachers are servants C. Preachers are pray-ers D. Preachers are imparters E. Preachers are indebted

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