“Did You Get the Message?” Romans 10:5-17

When I preached last month on Romans, chapter eight, verses one to eleven, Corinne came up to me after the service and said something to the effect, “Well, Bob you always seem to keep us anchored in the basics.” I considered that a compliment. And as I thought about it I realized that keeping a congregation anchored in the basics is pretty much what my calling has been during almost fifty years of preaching God’s Word. It hasn’t really mattered whether I was preaching to my dear friends and faithful parishioners in Emsworth, inmates in the Allegheny County Jail, lepers in India, congregations in Malawi, or wherever the Lord has called me to proclaim the Word. I’m a no frills, meat and potatoes kind of preacher, and that’s what you’re going to get again this morning.

However, on this particular occasion you really can’t blame me. You’re going to have to put the blame on Karl, because as we work our way through the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Romans, he picked my text for me. Chapters nine, ten and eleven are among the most perplexing passages in the Epistle, as Paul struggles to explain why his fellow Jews have not embraced Jesus as their Messiah and Savior, and how their rejection of the Anointed One, the Christ, fits in with the promises God has made to the people of Israel down through the ages. Fortunately for me, my twelve verses in chapter ten turn out to be the most straight forward and basic in the lot. They are an explication of the Gospel and how we are saved. What could be more basic than that?

From beginning to end, in the Letter to the Romans, the Apostle is making the point that we are not saved by or because of the good works we do; we are saved simply by virtue of our faith in Jesus and what He has accomplished for us through His perfect life, His atoning death, and His victorious resurrection. In the opening verses of chapter ten, Paul has argued that his sisters and brothers in Israel have failed to receive the salvation God is offering them in Jesus the Messiah, precisely because they are striving to set themselves right with their Maker through their own efforts to keep the Law. They have failed to see that the only way to a right relationship with God, and the righteousness that requires, is the way God has provided through faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Paul has already made the case that all our efforts to earn a right relationship with God by having a righteousness of our own, one which is gained by keeping God’s Law, is doomed to failure. That approach will never work. Not because keeping the Law of God will not make us righteous, but because in our innate sinfulness we are not capable of keeping that Law perfectly, which is what the Law requires. The problem, says Paul, is not with the Law of God, which is good. The problem is with us because our sinful natures have made us weak and unable to obey the commandments perfectly. Everything we do, even the very best things we do, are contaminated by that self-centeredness which lies at the heart of what it means to be a sinner.

The God-given approach to true righteousness, writes Paul, is one which refuses to ask the question, “What can I do to make myself righteous in the Lord’s eyes?” It is a righteousness that is based on faith. So it does not ask the question, “Who will ascend into heaven? or who will descend to the depths? That approach is predicated on the notion that you and I have to do something in order for God’s Anointed One, the Christ, the Messiah, to do whatever it takes to save us and set us right with our Maker. Paul wants to make it very clear that there is no place in God’s plan for our salvation for us to claim any responsibility for it. We not only don’t have to do anything, the fact is that we can’t do anything to save ourselves. It was while we were sinners that Christ died for us.

Salvation, being set right with God, being adopted into the family of God and given a new nature as child of the Almighty, rests on what Paul describes as the word of faith or later as the word of Christ. That message is all about Jesus, who is the Word made flesh. It’s about the fact that He has come down from His home in heaven, that He has left the glory that was His as God the Son, to live among us and to offer up His perfect life as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. It’s all about the fact that He has been raised from the dead, the Victor over sin and its wretched consequences, and is alive forever as the King of kings and Lord of lords. The message on which our salvation rests is all about Jesus and what He has accomplished for us, the forgiveness and eternal life we could never achieve for ourselves

Paul tells us that we are saved when that word of faith is on our lips and in our hearts. And it is important and essential for us to understand what he means by that. He begins by explaining that when we confess with our

lips that Jesus is Lord we are saved. Central to that statement is the realization that when the Apostle uses the term ‘confess’ he is not simply talking about saying that something is true. It is not simply an affirmation of faith. The word conveys far more than that. It involves acknowledging not only the truth and reality of what is confessed, it marks a surrender to that truth. To confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, when we rightly understand the import of that word, ‘confess,’ is to commit ourselves, as much as we are able to Him who claims to be Lord of our lives.

By the same token, when that word of faith is in our hearts, we believe that God has raised Jesus from the dead. We dare not miss the fact that biblical faith is not simply a matter of affirming something in our minds. True faith is always a matter of the heart. It has to do with trusting, with resting all that we have and are on the truth we affirm with our minds. When we embrace the Good News that God has raised Jesus from the dead, that our Savior has conquered sin and death for us and set us right with a holy God, we are justified. When we are justified it is just as if we had never sinned. By His death and resurrection the Son of God has dealt with our sin and guilt for us. And trusting in His living presence we have peace with God. We are saved.

It is all a matter of calling on the name of the Lord and trusting in Him -- the Lord Jesus! Salvation is available to everyone, for as the Apostle notes the Prophet Isaiah has promised that no one who trusts in the Lord will ever be put to shame. He goes on to quote the Prophet Joel’s words that everyone who calls on His name will be saved. There is only one way to be set right with God. There is only one way for our sins to be forgiven and for us to become the adopted children of our heavenly Father, and that is through the word of faith which finds expression on our lips and in our hearts as we confess that Jesus is Lord, and that God has raised Him from the dead. There is only one way, but that way is open to all who see their need and who cry out to Him.

So, the title to my sermon is, “Did You Get the Message?” And my point is that the Good News of the Christian faith is for you and me. As the Protestant Reformers were wont to put it: We are saved by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We’re not working our way to heaven. Eternal life, now and forever, is a gift freely offered to us as we put our trust in the saving work of the Son of God. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord -- if you long to live your life for Him -- and if you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead -- if you’re trusting in His atoning work for you and in His living presence in your life -- you have been saved, you will be saved, and you are saved right now! Did you get the message? Have you claimed it as your own?

Because if you have, your work cut out for you. For the Apostle reminds us that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But then he asks, “How 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? And how can they preach unless they are sent?” The Greek word Paul uses for preach, is one which has as its basic meaning, announcing something and making it known. It was used of heralds who were sent out by royalty to broadcast an official pronouncement or decree. It eventually became a technical term to describe the work of Ministers of Word and Sacrament. But it was never intended to be that narrow.

For all of us who have been saved have also been sent. Our risen Lord says to us, as He did to His followers on the first Easter night, “As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you.” He repeats that command when He gives us the great commission: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Every believer is a missionary in the sense that our Lord and King sends us out every day to be His heralds, to announce the Good News about Him to those who need to hear it. For how will they believe in One of whom they have never heard, and how will they hear unless someone tells them? And Jesus intends for that someone to be you and me.

But how do we go about doing that? I can tell you right now, that you’d better not leave it to us preachers! We’re at a decided disadvantage when it comes to sharing the Gospel with those who have never heard it, or have not grasped its implications. That’s because we’re professionals -- we get paid to say all that religious stuff, so unbelievers, and not-yet-believers have a tendency to discount what we are attempting to share with them. Those

of you who don’t get paid to be heralds for Christ actually have the advantage when it comes to being witnesses for the Lord and sharing the Good News about the difference He makes in the lives of those who belong to Him. What you have to say is usually far more compelling, and more to the point, than what those of us who are professionals may say.

But back to my point: how do we go about the business of proclaiming the Good News? How do we help others hear about Jesus so that they may come to put their trust in Him? Jesus says that He is sending us in the same way His Father sent Him. Jesus came into the world and identified with us. To me that seems to say that He intends for us to get personally involved in the lives of those He has come to save. And part of what that means is that we have to “get out of the saltshaker” as Rebecca Pippert puts it. We need to move out of the confines of the Church and build meaningful relationships with people who never darken its doors. Like Jesus we need to reach out to people in their neediness -- whatever form that may take -- and be there with them to help them meet those needs in whatever ways we can.

Most important, we need to cultivate relationships built on respect and concern. The Apostle Peter writes, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…” He prefaces that counsel with the words, “In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.” Our relationships with unbelievers need to be genuine, they need to know that even with Christ as our Lord, we’re still only claiming to be forgiven, not perfect. And they need to know that we’re going to care about them whether they come to faith in Christ or not. The bottom line is that we are simply witnesses. Our task is to share the difference belonging to Jesus is making in our lives with the hope that others will come to discover the blessings which are ours in Christ.

So once again I ask the question, “Did you get the message?” If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. And assured of that fact, we need to acknowledge the rest of the message: that One who saves us also sends us. And with that in mind do not forget Paul’s closing words, taken from the Book of Isaiah “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.” I’m afraid most of us could use a good pedicure when it comes to bringing the Good News to those to whom our Lord sends us every day! But our confidence and hope is in the fact that He who washed His disciples feet long ago, has promised to be with us wherever He may send us. And relying on Him for the words and deeds we need, we just may end up with beautiful feet after all!