I wonder if we could have a quick show of hands around the room today, who here has family or friends who don’t yet know Jesus?

I’m not going to ask you to keep your hand up, but I wonder, how many of you count within that number, people who think that they are ok with God, because of some connection to a historical faith – you know, maybe they’ve been baptised as a baby, or they used to go to church and Sunday school, or perhaps they are the literal C and E’s – Christmas and Easter Christians who honour the big services with their attendance, but don’t have a living and active faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Or perhaps you count within that number, people who think they don’t need to know Jesus, because they’re relatively good people, and they try to do the right thing, and love people and that’s got to count for something doesn’t it?  Or people who say, well Christianity is ok for you, you go your way, I’ll go my way, and we’ll meet up at the end.  I’m sure we all know and love people who are in this boat.

I can hold my hand up to each of these sorts of statements, these are for me the people that my heart aches to see come to know Jesus.  These are the people that populate my prayers, that by his Spirit, God would convict them of their sin and draw them to himself.  That they might encounter the Lord Jesus, repent of their sin, be reconciled to God, and be saved and share the hope that I have.  I hope that within your family and friends, you have people that stir this sort of ache in your heart.

Because you know – I think that’s what we see from the Apostle Paul in our reading this morning. We hear the people that he is yearning would encounter Christ Jesus, and why he puts before us all, the absolute imperative of Gospel ministry and mission.  ‘Brothers and sisters’, he writes, ‘my hearts prayer for them’, that is – his own people, Israel, ‘my heart’s prayer for them is for their salvation’.  They have a zeal for God, and they try to do the right things, but they are so busy trying to earn their own righteousness, a righteousness that is found through their action – law keeping – following the rules, that they have missed the righteousness that God has offered.  Paul looks at his people and says: they think they’ve got it figured out, they think they’re on the right path, they think that they’re going to be ok, because they are born into Israel, and they try to do the right things, but they’re missing something… and it’s the most important thing!

Righteousness is not found in the actions I perform to purify myself and establish myself and prove myself.  Righteousness is only found in that which is given to me in Jesus, by his death on the cross, the sinless, blameless, spotless sacrifice for my sin and your sin.  Righteousness that is, accessed by faith, and by faith alone in this saving work.

I remember as a young adult, going to Uni to begin to study teaching – I’d taken a gap year, and really hadn’t missed studying even a little bit.  On my first day, I was nervous, and had no idea what was going on – I could barely find my way around the Uni, and I knew absolutely no-one, not a single person on the campus.   My class list was Education 101, Literacy 101, Numeracy 101, Behaviour Management, you guessed it – 101.  Despite my nerves, I soon realised, that I had no need to be worried.  No one knew what they were doing or what they were in for.  In fact, that was the first thing that the Uni was going to do to prepare us: that’s what a 101-level course was – the ‘let us tell you what you’re going to need to know’.  This is pretty much where Paul takes us next, as in verses 5-13.  What they (the Jews) think, is that righteousness is going to be found in their action, by fulfilling the law, because this is what Moses wrote, but if Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone who believes, verse 4, then what does righteousness then look like?  Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved. This is not about mindlessly repeating some magic formula, or patter that will somehow open the secret scrolls, but a statement of fact: Jesus is Lord, which springs from a firm belief in the death and resurrection of Christ.  We know this because Jesus in our Gospel reading tells us that some who say to him on that day: Lord, Lord, didn’t we do this, and didn’t we do that, in your name – will be told, ‘I never knew you’.

Elsewhere, Paul writes. ‘no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.’  So, we know he’s not talking about simply being able to physically utter the words.  This idea to proclaim with your mouth and believe with your heart is about a faith that takes hold of the whole person: that changes who we are inside, and what we say (and therefore consequently live) on the outside. Our salvation doesn’t rest on what we do: it rests on faith in Christ, and because of our salvation and what it means.  We act differently.  I’m not saved because I tithe or go to church or give to mission or even serve as a missionary!  I do those things, because my faith has substance: it means something to me that Jesus is Lord, and it changes who I am and what I do as a result.  Christianity 101 – our salvation: doesn’t rest on what your or I do: it rests wholly and solely on Christ, and his saving work, that we profess with our mouths and believe with our hearts.  And rather than you go your way, I’ll go mine, or my good deeds count for something right, or yep, I got baptised, my name is on the book in the vestry, so that must mean it’s in the book of life too.   It is faith IN and the proclamation OF the Lordship of Jesus Christ, that is, the means by which we access salvation, and this is true for everybody, in every circumstance, in every culture, from every background.  As Paul lays out in a complete thought formed by verses 11, 12 and 13: ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame’. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek (there is only one God, and therefore only one way), and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  Salvation is found in one way for all people, it’s the same God, it’s the same Lord of all, and there is a single path of access to God.  Those who trust in him will never be put to shame.  Those who call on his name will be saved.

Which of course leads us to verses 14 and 15 – and the imperative of Gospel Ministry and Mission.   How then, can they call on him they have not believed in?  And how can they believe without hearing about him?  And how can they hear without a preacher?  And how can they preach unless they are sent?  As it is written: ‘how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news?’  Paul in reversed argument, lays out the evangelistic imperative: and the essence of the argument is clearly visible, if we consider the 6 verbs from back to front: Christ (the one who is called upon) – sends… those who are sent – preach, those who are preached to – hear, those who hear – believe, those who believe – call, those who call – are saved. There is of course a danger here that we hear: preach and think “PHEW”, I’m not a preacher! But that would be to try and avoid something that IS meant to be for all of us, because preach here means more like, act as a herald – proclaim the message that you have been given.  The imperative that Paul is driving at is, that, Christ calls and sends people to tell other people about him.  People are the vehicle, the means by how the message goes out to the world around us.  It is through people, that God reaches out to those family and friends, that our heart yearns to see respond to Jesus.  Unless people go and do this, how will our family and friends hear?  If they don’t hear, how can they believe and be saved?

Friends, we – every single one of us – are an integral part of the plan of God in reaching the world.  Each of us are both ‘the sent’ and partners in ‘the sending’.  We are sent into our own communities, our own families, our own workplaces, our own spheres of influence as heralds of the good news of Jesus Christ.  Each of us CAN BE and ARE TO BE, beautiful feet bringing the good news to those around us.  This is the heart of being a disciple: go and make disciples.  You can’t do that unless you are proclaiming Jesus is Lord, and living it out, because truly acknowledging Jesus is Lord, WILL change us, and will spark an urgency within us to share this great gospel with those around us.  That those who hear, might believe, and themselves call upon the name of the Lord, and so be saved.  To the places that we are not sent to, then we can also be active partners with Christ, in his work by encouraging those involved, by supporting them in prayer, by serving alongside them as God leads us, and by equipping and sustaining ministry with our finances.

I thought I might finish this morning with a short video, that shows how BCA has been doing this for over 100 years, and how, God willing, and with your prayer, encouragement, and financial support, we may continue to do so.

https://www.bushchurchaid.com.au/content/bca-videos/gjvosw

Rev’d Josh Skeat, Regional Officer for Tas, Bush Church Aid Society