The Apostle Paul's Enthusiasm for the Gospel: A Lesson on Faith and Excitement

In this impactful lesson, Todd Martin poses a crucial question: what is your level of enthusiasm for Jesus and the gospel? Drawing inspiration from the Apostle Paul, Todd delves into the first chapter of Romans to uncover the reasons behind Paul's unwavering excitement and dedication to spreading the gospel. Through powerful verses and personal reflections, Todd explores the significance of the gospel's fulfillment of scripture, Jesus' role as our Lord and King, and the life-changing promise of resurrection. This lesson challenges viewers to reignite their passion for sharing and preaching the gospel, just as Paul did.

00:00 Introduction: The Question of Excitement
00:18 Paul's Enthusiasm for the Gospel
02:48 Paul's Desire to Preach in Rome
04:31 Personal Reflection on Preaching
06:45 The Fulfillment of Scripture
10:32 Jesus as Our Lord and King
13:04 The Reality of Serving a Master
15:44 Personal Testimony: The Illusion of Freedom
25:17 The Power of the Resurrection
31:58 Conclusion: Are You Ready?

Transcript

Kind of a simple lesson for you this evening. I just really just want to ask a question for tonight. What is your excitement level? What, is your your level of enthusiasm for, you know, for this, for, for Jesus and for the gospel? I believe the Apostle Paul is a great example of the type of enthusiasm and the type of excitement that we ought to have for the gospel.

And our lesson this evening is going to be, it's gonna be really here in these first few verses of Romans chapter one, where we really, I think, see some reasons for. Paul's enthusiasm for the gospel, the type of enthusiasm that we ought to have. But I want us to start our lesson a few verses down. I want us to start with this powerful statement that he makes here in the middle of the first chapter of Romans in chapter one and verse 16, when he says, therefore, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for because it is the power of God, the salvation for everyone who believes.

It's you first, and also for the grief for in it. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. I'm not ashamed. Gospel of Christ, Paul says, because it is the power in it, is the power of God unto salvation. That's a pretty, pretty powerful statement, but.

But it's not just a, it's just not a statement of, of merely intellectual proof of truth. You know, that the gospel is powerful because it, it saves our souls and those sorts of things. It's not merely just this statement of intellectual truth, but this, in the way that I think Paul uses it here, it, it's a declaration of Paul's personal confidence in the gospel, his confidence in the power of God.

It was an expression, I believe, of Paul's conviction, a conviction that became really the very essence of Paul's life. You know, Paul, I. Paul had an excitement and an enthusiasm for, for what he was doing, for being able to preach the gospel. He talks about it in several places. You know, he, thanks God for putting in, putting him into the ministry.

This was. Paul was excited about this. He was excited about preaching the gospel and it consumed every thought and every action of his. It was a passion that was really the driving force of his life, and we see evidence of that all throughout the scriptures. And right here in Romans in this first chapter, we see just how important it was to him.

He opens up this letter. If you notice there in verse one of chapter one, he says, Paul, a bond servant of Jesus Christ called to a to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God. This idea that Paul saw himself as being. Being removed from all other purposes in life and put or placed into this purpose, this purpose of preaching the gospel.

And, and that's really what this, this whole first chapter is really, or not the whole first chapter, but the whole first part of the first chapter is really about, it's really about just how much, how much Paul wanted to come to Rome. And he, he wanted to preach the gospel to them. And we see that verse nine, he says for God is my witness.

Who I serve in my spirit in the gospel. You know, I'm serving God through this and in this gospel, verse 10, he says, I'm making a request. If by some means, now I at last or now at last, I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. He wants to come to them. He wants to preach to him. He says, for I long to see you, then I may impart to you some spiritual gifts so that you may be established.

He says, down in verse 13, he says, I don't want you to be. Unaware brethren that I often plan to do this. I plan to come to you, but I was hindered until now that I might have some fruit among you. Also just says among the other gentiles, verse 15, he says, so as much as in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome.

Also, Paul was excited about preaching the gospel. Reagan texted me or Monday or Tuesday or whatever that was, earlier this week and asked me if I wanted to, wanted to preach for him this evening, fill in for him. He wasn't know, didn't know if he was going back or not. And, and I I don't remember exactly how his text was phrased, but it was something to the effect of he thought I might want to, or you know, have the chance to, or something like that.

And, and as I read that text, I thought, I thought, you know. Is that really the way that I, I think about it. I don't know that I really think about it that way. That I want to do this, I want to preach. I think I usually see it as you know, well, if there's a need then you know, I'll do it. And you know, there's something good about that, there's something wrong about that.

But, but it did get me thinking, you know, where is my excitement for. Preaching the gospel, sharing the gospel. What was it about the gospel that got, that got Paul so fired up, so determined to go and do this, and what is, what is it about the gospel that should have us fired up in that same way and excited to share and to preach the gospel?

And I believe we see here in this very first chapter, some pretty good reasons why we should be excited, why we should be filled with that same level of zeal. Paul's gonna point out here in just these first four verses here, I believe, are some very important truths, some exciting truths about the gospel that make it this powerful and remarkable thing that, that Paul's excited to go and preach about.

And that's what I wanna share with you this evening. So we're gonna start by reading those verses. So read with me there. Romans chapter one, beginning of verse one. Paul y, bond servant of Jesus Christ. Called to be an apostle separated to the gospel of God, which talking about that gospel he promised before through his prophets in the holy Scripture concerning his son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was born of the seed of David, according to the flesh, and declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.

I think the first exciting truth that we see about the gospel here is that the gospel, first of all, he points out it is, it's the fulfillment of scripture first through there, which he promised through his prophets in the holy. Scripture. You know, one of the, one of the most important facts concerning Jesus and concerning the gospel is its consistency with the Old Testament scriptures.

Its consistency with the law and with the prophet. Jesus told us that in Matthew chapter five, in verse 17, when he said, you know, don't think that I came to destroy all that. I didn't come to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. And, you know, for Paul in particular, you know, that was, that was the accusation that was made to Paul or made about Paul especially as him being this apostle that went and preached to the Gentiles.

That was what they accused him of. They accused him of preaching against the scriptures. Now, in Acts chapter 21, verse 21, we read that that was that accusation. Toward Paul in Jerusalem that he says that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses. That's what they were saying about Paul.

That was, and that's not only what they said about Paul, that's what they said about Jesus. That's what they said about Peter. They said that they were preaching against the law for teaching people to forsake Moses, but the gospel wasn't the forsaking of the law. The gospel is the promise of the law.

Holding your place there in the book of Romans in the first chapter. Turn with me, if you will, over to the book of Galatians and the third chapter, Galatians chapter three. He says there that the law was the law was really just a tutor or a school master to bring us to this, to bring us to the gospel, to bring us to Christ.

He says in Galatians chapter 23 and verse 24, he says, therefore, the law, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Little earlier in that same chapter, in Galatians chapter three in verse eight, he says, the scripture four, seeing, looking ahead, that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel.

This same gospel that Paul's preaching and Peter preached, he preached that gospel. To who? To Abraham. He says, saying that in you, all the nations shall be blessed. The gospel, it's not some new idea. The gospel was. Was promised, it was predicted, it was expected, and now it is finally been revealed. And, and that's why Paul is so excited here in the book of Romans to, to preach that gospel.

And, you know, maybe, maybe that's not as exciting to us. Probably a little more exciting for Paul being a Jew, you know, and, and. He grew up with that. He grew up being told about this Messiah that was gonna come and, and they told how he was gonna come and when he was gonna come and what he was gonna do when he got here.

You know, for Paul and, and Peter, all these, these Jews who, who got to see Jesus and, and look back and see how Jesus fulfilled all of these promises, and that's a powerful thing. It should still be a powerful thing for us as well, that this is what God has been promising his people for thousands of years.

And it's here, it's here for us. We have it. And that should get us excited about the gospel. I think we also see, if you're looking back there, Romans chapter one of the first four verses. We see another truth there that got Paul excited that we should get us excited as well, and that is the fact that the gospel is about Jesus and not.

Jesus in so much as just this person that Jesus, but specifically that this gospel is about Jesus, who is our Lord and our king. He says in verse three, concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was born of the seed of David, according to the flesh, Jesus Christ, our Lord, according to the seed of David.

We're not gonna get into all of that, but we know what Paul is speaking about here. He is speaking about Jesus's position as our king, Jesus as this eternal king that had been promised to descend from the, from the seed of David. And this is part of what Paul is so enthusiastic about. He's excited about the fact that our king is finally here.

Peter, same thing in his sermon in Acts chapter two. That was the point that he made as he wrapped that sermon up as well. Remember he says, therefore, let all the house of Israel know it surely that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucify both Lord and Christ. This this is the point that God has established Jesus as our Lord.

He is our master. He's our king.

That he is the one that's gonna rule over us. He's gonna tell us what to do. He's gonna tell us where to go. We are gonna serve him. And that was something that Paul got excited about. He was excited about the Lord coming and telling him what to do, telling him where to go. He was excited about serving the Lord.

And I just think for a lot of people, you know, that's something that's that's something that doesn't sound very exciting, does it? I mean, you don't get excited about somebody who's gonna come and take away your independence, take away your liberty. No, we wanna be, we wanna be free, right? We wanna be free to make our own choices, to pave our own road in life, and to have somebody else to determine all of that for us and tell us what to do and what not to do.

That doesn't seem exciting at all. But yet Paul's excited about that. And then by extension, we ought to be. Excited about that. I think we understand it a little better if we turn a little bit later in the book of Romans book, Romans in the sixth chapter where Ro, where Paul there in Romans chapter six, makes the, it makes a very important point about that a point that, that we all really know to be true on a point that's kind of hard to recognize as true that we are actually not as independent.

As we think that we are and that we never really make our own choices as we might like to believe. He makes this statement in Romans chapter six and verse 12, and he's particularly talking about sin. How that when we, when we choose the sin, we're, we're not really choosing for ourselves. That's what we wanna think that we're doing.

He says, that's not what we're doing. What we're actually doing is letting sin, or letting our desires, our lust, choose for us. He says there in Romans chapter six and verse 12, he says, therefore, do not let thin rain in your mortal body that you should obey it in your or in its lust. Usually when we choose to sin, you know, we don't, we don't think of ourselves as obeying anyone, do we?

I mean, in fact, sin is the opposite of obedience, isn't it? Sin is disobedience. That's how we like to think about sin. Sin is when i, I disobey and authority, but Paul points out here that, that that's not the case. No, sin is just, it's just obedience. It's obedience of love. You appear to be, you appear to be rejecting authority, but what you're really doing is you're just submitting yourself to a different authority.

He goes on to say there in verse 16 of Romans chapter six, he says, or do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey? You are that one slave whom you obey whether of sin leading to death. Or of obedience leading to righteousness. The truth is we're not as free. We're not as independent as we'd like to think.

We are servants of someone or something. We all serve a master. And the question really is that that Paul's really painting here in verse six is which master do you want to serve? But it's not a question of whether or not you're gonna serve a master or not. We all serve someone. I'll tell you a little, a little story I think kind of illustrates this point pretty well.

You know, I myself, I considered myself for a long time. I considered I was a self-proclaimed atheist. I was actually probably a little bit more of an agnostic I'm getting off that I wanted to be an atheist, was the idea. You know, I, I was raised in the church, raised in a strict upbringing, but, you know, I was kind of a wild kid.

And I had this friend of mine, this friend that he was a really super smart guy. In fact, he was like a, he was like a genius level type guy. But the really kind of cool thing about him is that even though he was a genius. Literally, I think on paper he was, that was his IQ or whatever. He was a genius.

But even, even at that, he graduated like somewhere way near the end of our class, he was like one of these guys, he just never did any of the work. He, you know, he'd just go in and take a test and make a hundred one of those type of guys. So, you know, me and him, we made pretty good friends. 'cause we had a lot in common.

You know, we had a lot of potential. But, you know, we didn't wanna, we didn't actually wanna use that potential. But being the smart guy that he was, you know, he was, he was into all that evolution and science stuff. And I remember we used to get in arguments all the time, arguments about creation and evolution and all those sorts of things.

But, you know, one day, one day I decided I wanted my friend to be right. I didn't want to feel guilty anymore for all the things that I did after all. He's a pretty, pretty smart guy, a genius, right? I mean, I'm, I'm not, I'm kind of dumb, so, you know, who am I? So I decided I don't want to, I don't wanna believe he's right.

I don't want to believe in God anymore. I'll never forget that day. I will never, I, I can tell you where I was at. I'll never forget that day. 'cause it was a liberating experience. It, it was like, as soon as I made that decision, it all just fell off. All the burden, all the burden of not being good enough, not being able to, it just all fell off and it was like I was free.

I could do whatever I wanted. Nothing was gonna hold me back. There was no more just restrictions. And I did that. I lived that way for a long time, several years. I lived with no restrictions, no restraints, no limits. It was, it was free. It was fun. Ask anybody that knew me. I was a fun guy. I was free. Those religious chains that down me for so long.

Fast forward about eight or nine years later after that, and there's another day that I will never forget. Burned another one, burned in my memory, sitting in my bathtub door closed, door locked because I was physically sick. I don't get into all the details. Basically, it's, I guess it's like a, like an overdose.

Too many drugs, right? I've taken way too many drugs. I kind of give you a little background of what, you know, not to get into all of it, but what really happened, you know, when we take drugs and lots of things, all sim works its way, really the good feelings that we get, they, they come from our brain, they come from chemicals that are in our brain.

So what happens a lot of times with somebody that's using drugs is that they use so many, that there's no more of those chemicals in their brain. Brain to give 'em all that good feeling, right? And so they don't realize that. And so they just keep doing more drugs, trying to. Trying to get that feeling back and it just keeps making 'em feel worse.

And so they do more and, and you kind of get, in this point, I guess that's how people usually end up really overdosing and dying. And I was somewhere along that, that progression. I'm sick. I, I'm sick as a dog. I'll never forget that feeling. I'm just sitting there in that bathtub. I guess it's shower, sitting in the shower.

The water's just running down, just running down over my face and my back. And it, it's hard to explain it. It was like mine. My skin. My skin just felt, felt dirty. It felt sick. I don't know. I've heard people talk about, you know, their skin feeling like it crawling. Maybe it's something, something like that.

But I, it's not like I didn't know what was going on. I knew, I knew it was my fault. I knew why I was there, and I was just so disgusted with myself. So physically sick, and I remember that water, something about that water coming down over me and I just wanted to, I wanted to grab my skin and I wanted to rip it off of it.

So I was so tired of being in my own skin at the same time. Kinda weird how it was all working out at the same time. There was some other stuff going on, and I remember my little flip phone, little flip phone was sitting over there on the, on the counter, and then she's stead, steadily buzzing.

I kinda lost a lot of people's money and a deal that had gone wrong. I lost money too, but the other people didn't care about that. My phone was over there steadily ringing with voicemail after voicemail, after voicemail of people who were threatening to kill me. One of those guys in particular, claiming that he was outside my house, and I'm pretty sure he was telling the truth and he was waiting on me.

He was waiting on me. He was gonna kill me as soon as I got out. So I couldn't really leave my house. But, but you know, there I was. There I was. This is from eight years, nine years later when I made this, this very freeing declaration that I believe there is no God and I free myself from all there. I was a prisoner in my own home, a prison in a prison that I created to stick, to do anything about it.

Another situation which I created. How free was I? Huh? Sin self-seeking. It's anything but liberating. Our own lust deceive us into thinking that the thinking that we're free, but we are not. We are a slave to our sin, a slave to our own desires. And I know, I know my case is a little bit of an extreme, but you know, all sin is like that.

All sin has that effect. All sin works that same way. And you name the sin, gluttony, gossip, hatred. Man. Hatred. Hatred gets a lot of us, doesn't it? Feels good, feels right when you just kinda let yourself loose. Go ahead and hate that person and, and or that group of people or whatever, right? But eventually it turns into bitterness.

Turns into resentment. Sexual sins. Pornography. Thousands, millions, millions of men taken by that one starts out. That's a lot's, a good thing, right? Lots of excitement turns into something that, that, that just has you, you're a slave to it. You don't even like it anymore, but you still do it. You're slave to it.

Lying, cheating, all of these things. They start out as things that feel good, things that are enjoyable, things that seem like they're beneficial to our lives. And they are. They are be beneficial in the beginning, but eventually they stop giving. They quit being beneficial. They stop serving us, but yet we continue to serve them.

We continue to be enslaved to them because true freedom. True freedom is not found in serving and obeying our own lust and desires. It is only found in serving and obeying Jesus. But make no mistake, we're gonna serve somebody. Verse 17, Romans chapter six, he says, but God be thanked though you were slaves of sin, that you obeyed from the heart, that form of doctrine to which you were delivered, and having been set free from sin.

You became slaves of righteousness. He'll go on to say down in verse 19, he says, I speak in human turns because of the weakness of your flesh, for just as you presented your members as slaves to un cleanliness and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness. So now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.

For when you were slaves of sin. He says, you were free in regard to righteousness. You're free. You were free in some sense. But he says, but what fruit? What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed for? The end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness in the end, everlasting life.

Verse 23, he says, for the age of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We're either gonna serve a a king, we're gonna serve a master who gives, we're gonna serve, one who takes from us. And I think once people realize this, once you, once people realize that there is no such thing as freedom in the way that we think about freedom, that you're either serving a master that's leading you to death, or you can serve one that's leading you to life, and that Jesus is that master.

You could be like Paul and be like, I'm excited. I'm excited that my king is here and I get to serve him. And he protects me, not just from my enemies. He protects me even from myself. And it's a joy to serve now. It's a pleasure to serve and obey him back. Romans chapter one, the third truth I think we see about the gospel about Jesus.

That makes it so exciting, makes it something to be enthusiastic about, is that Jesus, Jesus is no ordinary king. We should Jesus. He points out is he's not just any king, he is the son of God. He said there in verse four and declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection or by the resurrection from the dead.

One. Timothy chapter three and verse 16, they're talking about Jesus. And he says, he says God was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the spirit, seen by angels proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world taken up in glory. God manifested in the flesh. John in John one says the word was God and that he became flesh and we beheld his glory.

Glory is of the only son from the father full of grace and truth. Colossians one in verse 15 says that Jesus is the image, image of the invisible God. That God himself came and he dwelt among us, that God came and He allowed us. He allowed us to look at him. He allowed us to touch him. That's exciting.

Truth about the gospel. He came and he walked among us and he touched us and he talked with us and he ate with us. He laughed with us, and he cried with us. He loved us and we loved him back. And I'll tell you, that doesn't excite you that God was willing to do that. He lived the same kind. You know, I, some of us think we live crummy lives.

You know, Jesus lived the same crummy life that you live. He, he, he shared in that with you. All of the struggles, all of that. He, he was willing to come and do that, and that's an awesome thing. That doesn't get you excited. I don't know what does. And that fact, if you notice there in verse four, gives us kind of another truth as well.

That fact Paul points out there, it was declared to us the fact that he was God, that he was God in the flesh. He declared that to us by something else that should make us excited about the gospel. By the resurrection from the dead. You know, as I was thinking about the importance, the gospel message to Paul, and particularly Paul's, what I was thinking about in this lesson, right?

Why Paul thought it was so important, but, but not really just Paul, but all the, all the apostles, right? And really, really take the first century Christians as a whole. You know, they, they seem to me to be just. More emotionally attached, attached to the gospel. Like they seem as a whole to be more driven and convicted than, than I think we seem to be today, at least more than I seem to be today.

I don't know anybody ever kind of get that impression when you read through the book of acts, it's man, you know, they just seem to have something. I just, I wish I had, I don't know why, you know, why I don't have it. But, you know, give ourselves a little bit of credit, right? You and I we're 2000 years removed from the resurrection.

And for us to say that Jesus rose from the dead, you know, for us that's kind of like a, it's just a given, isn't it? It's it's just a historical fact. It is so far removed from our times. It's not, it's not like we don't believe it. It's just oh, it's just this fact. It's just this thing that happened.

It's kinda like knowing kinda like knowing about Pearl Harbor, right? That was a historical fact. That's something that happened. And, and not only is it a historical fact, it it has some emotional implications, right? It was a very, it was a sad thing that was, anybody not agree that was a terrible thing to happen to our people on our, our ground in the United States at Pearl Harbor, whatever date, I don't know my dates, but that was a, that was a terrible thing, wasn't it?

Sad, historical fact. But when's the last time that anybody here was really emotionally. Affected. I mean, when's the last time you cried about Pearl Harbor? I've never cried about Pearl Harbor. I agree. It's true that it happened. I agree that it's sad, but I've never emotionally right it, it's not, it's not that real to me.

There's no direct effect upon my life. But for those who were there, those who lived in that time period, oh, it had an impact, right? I mean, they were signing up for the military the next day We went to war. It had an effect. It had a, there was an emotional response and the same's true with Jesus. I mean, these, these, these aren't just historical facts.

These are historical facts with life changing implications. Jesus. Jesus was really dead. I don't care how long ago it was. Jesus was really dead and he really did come back to life again. That's awesome. That's exciting because that has real implications for you and I. It means that his resurrection was a demonstration.

It was a promise that God has made to you and I that, that when you and I die, we're not going to stay dead just like Jesus. We too will be raised from the dead. Second Corinthians four 14, he raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus. One Corinthians six 14, God raised up the Lord. And God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

That got Paul stirred up and that ought to get you. And I stirred up as well and I think that's why the gospel. Well, it's such good news. That's why you know the resurrection from the dead, this idea that you and I are gonna live forever, that death. Isn't dead. You dead, but you're not really dead. I mean, we're, we're searching for cures for all these diseases.

Cure for cancer, here's a cure for cancer. Die from it, and he'll just raise you back up from the dead later. It's no big deal. It it, I mean, it's like a medical breakthrough. Right? And that's, that's what got Paul excited that he is on this awareness campaign of telling you this good news that you don't have to be afraid of nothing.

You're never gonna die. I mean, you're gonna die, but you're not gonna, like they did so. Didn't really die just because it happened a long time ago. It's power and its motivation should not be lost upon us. In fact, that promise, that promise of our resurrection today really ought to be more real to us than it was in Paul's day.

He points that out to us a little later in the book of Romans. Romans chapter 13. Romans chapter 13 of verse 11, when he says, and do this, knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now. Granted, this was written 2000 years ago. He says, now our salvation is nearer than when we first believe how much nearer.

Today, 2000 years later, it's so much newer and that truth remains that if you will believe in Jesus, if you will put your faith in him, if you will be buried with him in baptism and rise up to walk and newness of life and serve him, he will raise you up as well. And that promise was proven 2000 years ago when he literally did it.

That time is nearer today than it was then. Are you ready? Are you ready for that day? Are you ready to be raised with him? The question this evening, if you're not, what are you gonna do about it? That's what we have this part of our service for. It's an opportunity, but you can get ready, you can get right with him.

If we can help you in that in any way, whether we need to. Pray for you, pray with you, appetize you, whatever it is that you need to get your life right with him. We stand ready to assist you. All you gotta do is come forward as we all stand and as we all sing.