Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Milford

Sermon – “Beautiful Feet”
ROMANS 10:4-15 [NLTse]

4 …Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which [God’s Law] was given. As a result, all who believe in Him are made right with God.

5 For Moses writes that [God’s Law’s] way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands. 6 But faith’s way of getting right with God says, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will go up to Heaven?’ (to bring Christ down to earth). 7 And don’t say, ‘Who will go down to the place of the dead?’ (to bring Christ back to life again).” 8 In fact, it says, “The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart.”

And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: 9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by be-lieving in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. 11 As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in Him will never be disgraced.” 12 Jew

and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, Who gives generously to all who call on Him. 13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

14 But how can they call on Him to save them un-less they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them? 15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

SERMON – “Beautiful Feet”

The good news of Jesus Christ has become bad news in much of the public eye. The message has been distorted, twisted into something very different from all the Lord Jesus came and preached and died and rose from the dead and went back up into Heaven to convey to us.

Some of the better-known versions of how Christ’s message has been twisted is that Christ has come and died to pay price for human sin and so now Christian-people can sin all they want – it’s okay! – because Christ has paid the price for sin! (But that’s not the message.)

Another twisted version is that Christ came and lived and then died and rose and ascended to show people what a sinless life looked like so that we can now follow after Him and do likewise. Folks who think this is the message believe a person has to get their act together, straighten up, and stop sinning in order to be welcome and able to go to church, and to Heaven. (But that’s not the message, either.)

Of course, the true message is that Jesus Christ – God the Son – came and died to pay the death-penalty all human beings deserve for our sin, and so everyone who believes in His saving-death is forgiv-en their sins for all time. And Jesus came and died so that human beings would no longer be under the power of sin so that we can stop sinning, or at least,

sin less and less and less, until Jesus returns and makes us brand new.

There’s more to it, of course, but that’s the heart of the good news. However, most people don’t know that. They just know one of the twisted ver-sions. So, Abba is sending us out to be His messen-gers to tell those around us the truth.

Revelation 12:11 says that we, Christians, over-come the devil “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.” And the apostle Peter writes in his first letter, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (1 Peter 3:15) So, we gain power, authority, and confidence in our faith and against the spiritual realms as we trust in the sin-sacrifice of Jesus and as we share what God’s done in our lives with those around us. At the very same time, since Christ has called us to be holy – dif-ferent – then there tends to be a difference between our actions, attitudes, and priorities and those of the people we work with and go to school with and

whom we shop with… And when people around us notice the difference and ask us, “Why are you dif-ferent?” we need to be ready to tell them that we are different on account of Jesus!

Probably the most effective tool we have for sharing our faith with others is our testimony: The story of how Jesus Christ has brought us into a close relationship with Himself and how He’s enriched our lives because of it. The Apostle John wrote, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard” (1 John 1:3). And that is exactly what our testimonies are, right: Simply proclaiming to others what we have personally seen and heard about Jesus Christ.

Now, the purpose of preparing our testimony ahead of time is to help us be ready: To help us put into words some of the important and interesting details of our coming to Christ and of our lie with Him, details we might forget to share if were we simply talking off the cuff.

Of course, our story serves mainly as a “door opener.” Many people aren’t going to be convinced

that they need Jesus just by hearing what He’s done and doing with our lives. But listening to our stories can often open up a conversation that might allow us to share the gospel more fully later.

The apostle Paul shares his testimony three differ-ent times across the Book of Acts. If you read Acts 26 out loud it takes about three to five minutes to say, the perfect length of time for a testimony that will get peoples’ attention without having their minds wander because our story goes on and on.

In vv. 1-5 Paul describes the ways he thought and the things he did before he became a believer. In vv. 6-11 Paul explained how he became a believer. And in vv. 12-21 Paul explained how becoming a believer changed his life. What a great pattern for a Christian testimony!

So, with preparing our own testimony in mind, we might want to start with what our lives revolved around, where we looked for security and happiness before we became Christians, and what happened when those crutches began to let us down? Then, it

might be good to move onto telling of when we heard the gospel for the first time, or when we ex-perienced genuine Christianity for the first time: What was that like for us, what was our initial reac-tion? And then, how did our attitudes about it begin to change? What was the hardest parts about Jesus’ good news for us to accept? And then, why did we finally accept Christ? Lastly and perhaps most im-portantly, of course, we likely want to end with how giving our lives to Christ changed us: Not just our behaviors, but our character, our attitudes, and our perspectives on life, as well.

We’ll want our testimonies to be personal, not preachy: So let’s use “I” and “me”. And let’s write it down the way you would speak it, since when we do share it we’re going to be sharing it informally and casually with another person, the same way we’d be informally and casually sharing anything else.

When we talk about how our lives looked before we were Christians, let’s not dwell too much on past

sin or “how bad we used to be”. That can distract people and even come across kind of arrogant. We need to simply make it clear that we knew we need-ed something more.

When we share how we came to Christ, let’s make the specific steps clear, such as, “I bowed my head and asked God to forgive me my sins and take control of my life,” or “I went forward and when the pastor prayed for God to forgive me my sins and become the lord of my life, I agreed with his prayer and gave Jesus my life,” etc… Anyone hearing or overhearing this part of our testimony should know how we became a Christian and how they can be-come a Christian, too!

Of course, when we start talking about how Christ has changed our lives, we need to make sure that God’s the One Who looks good, not us. Our testimony isn’t so people can say, “Wow! Look at Ben!” No, it’s so people can say, “Wow! Look at Je-sus!” Let’s include how the Holy Spirit has changed and is changing our attitudes about some of the

things we’d earlier said that we struggled with be-fore we were Christians. But let’s be specific. Let’s not just say, “I have such peace now.” What does that mean? Yeah, let’s let people know that in the same kind of situation that used to make us respond in anxious, frantic ways, that now we respond in confident, hopeful ways. (Or whatever is the truth about us since Christ.) We want to make clear that we still have struggles, but we also want to make clear that we now have a sure and certain hope, and a path ahead of us and a Helper on that path – Jesus Christ – to get us and keep us there.

Someone said that, “Today’s test is tomorrow’s testimony.” And someone else said, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” Let’s make our feet beautiful.