We Are Witnesses!

Preached by Pastor Chad Rickenbaker on October 18, 2026 [watch online] | Romans 1:14–17

Gospel Conversations — “We Are Witnesses!”

I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” —Romans 1:14–17 (NKJV)

For the last several weeks, we have been talking about our 2030 Vision. One part of that vision is a goal of 10,000 gospel conversations over the next four or so years. That may sound like a really large number, and in a sense it is. But when you break it down by the weeks in a year and the number of active members in our church family, it is a worthy goal, and it is an achievable one.

Whenever I think about a goal like that, I want to look at people who do it well. Who do I know who is great at having gospel conversations? Foremost is Jesus. He is the ultimate example. But in the New Testament, second to Jesus, I would point to the apostle Paul.

So here is what I want us to think about: what was it about Paul that made him so effective? I believe it was his attitude. There were traits of Paul’s attitude that contributed to his effectiveness, and if we are going to reach 10,000 gospel conversations, we need the same attitude.

Paul wrote Romans to believers he had not yet visited. He wanted to come to Rome to have fruit among the Gentiles and to encourage the believers there in their growth (Romans 1:11–13). He also hoped to use Rome as a launching pad for taking the gospel on to Spain (Romans 15:24). As he opens this letter, two attitude traits rise to the surface.

We Witness with Eager Obedience

Paul writes, “I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise” (Romans 1:14). Other translations say, “I am under obligation.” Why would Paul say that?

Go back to Acts 9 and Paul’s Damascus Road conversion. He was on his way to arrest more Christians when the Lord stopped him in his tracks. In that same encounter, Jesus commissioned him as a witness to the Gentiles:

But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.” —Acts 9:15

Later, Paul explained how he understood that calling. He received it as a stewardship from God:

For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship. —1 Corinthians 9:16–17

When we talk about stewardship, we mean that God entrusts us with something, and we are accountable to Him for what we do with it. Paul knew and accepted this God-given responsibility to be a witness to the Greeks and to the barbarians, the non-Greek-speaking peoples. So let me be very clear about this attitude. It views having gospel conversations not as something optional, but as something commanded and expected of us by the Lord.

Some people say the Great Commission does not apply to us today, that Jesus gave it only to His apostles. But look closely at what Jesus said:

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. —Matthew 28:19–20

Do you see the connection? Jesus told the apostles to make disciples, and then to teach those disciples to observe everything He had commanded. Did Jesus command them to make disciples? He did. So that command is passed on to every disciple they made, and to us. That is where our purpose statement comes from: we exist to glorify God and make disciples. It is not optional.

And yet I am afraid that many in the church today have begun to treat it as optional. A Barna research study found that the percentage of Christians who view sharing the gospel as a personal duty dropped from 89 percent in 1993 to 64 percent by around 2018. And even when we say we believe it is a command, what do our actions bear out? It is easy to profess things we do not actually live out.

So let me ask: when God has commanded us to do something and we do not do it, what is that called? If we agree from God’s Word that He has commanded us to make disciples and share the gospel, and we are not doing it, then before God it is sin. I do not say that to guilt-trip anybody. I say it to remind us that we cannot pick and choose which commands we will obey. If we have not been doing it, we need to say, “Jesus, I have not been doing what You called me to do. Would You forgive me?” And He stands ready to forgive:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. —1 John 1:9

He gives us a new day, a new opportunity, a new beginning. But we confess, and then we submit ourselves freshly to His lordship. If I am not doing what He has commanded me to do, I am not submitting to His lordship in that moment.

Here is what I love about Paul: his attitude is balanced. He is not saying, “I’m under obligation, I’ve got to go tell these lost people, and I hate it.” Look at verse 15: “So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.” Paul had been hindered from coming, but as far as it depended on him, he was ready. More than ready, he was eager. That is the balance the Lord wants for us. Yes, we have to do it, because He commanded it. But Paul was not begrudging. He couldn’t wait.

Why should we be eager? First, it pleases the Lord. God’s people once brought Him all kinds of sacrifices while their hearts were not right, and through Samuel He told them what He really delights in:

Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. —1 Samuel 15:22

Sometimes we pick for ourselves the things we want to offer God, the things that are easy for us, while in other areas we are just not obedient. God delights in our obedience.

Second, it expresses love. We have the treasure of the gospel in us, and we ourselves are sinners saved by grace. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death (Romans 3:23; 6:23). Yet God in His grace and mercy sent His only Son to live the perfect, sinless life we could not live, to be lifted up on the cross, and to bear the shame, the guilt, and the judgment of God for our sin. Then He was buried and raised again on the third day, so that whoever believes in Him can have their sins forgiven and the hope of heaven. If that is true, and I believe it is, it is the greatest news in the universe. The most unloving thing we could do is have this news and keep it to ourselves while people die and go to hell. Whether we like it or not, the Bible teaches, and Jesus taught, that hell is real: eternal separation from God. The opposite is also true. It is an expression of love to share this news so that others might have what we have found in Jesus.

Third, it increases our joy. It is exciting to participate with the Lord in the greatest, most powerful activity in the world. He does not need us. He is all-powerful. But for reasons known mostly to Him, He lets fragile little clay pots like you and me join Him as He calls men and women, boys and girls, to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. That is better than any other worldly endeavor we could ever be part of.

We Witness Unashamedly

Paul continues: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

If anyone might have been ashamed of the gospel, it would be Paul. He had been imprisoned because of the gospel. He had been chased out of town because of the gospel. He had been stoned and left for dead because of the gospel. None of it deterred him in the least. How other people felt about him because of the gospel did not affect his attitude about sharing the gospel. His commitment to sharing the gospel was stronger than any commitment he had to his own personal comfort.

If we are going to have 10,000 gospel conversations, we will need that same attitude: I am more committed to obeying Jesus than I am to my own comfort. It does not matter what people say, what they think, or how they respond. I am unashamed of the gospel.

And here is what is so helpful for us. Paul’s confidence was not in his eloquence or his education. It was in the power of the gospel itself. Listen to how he puts it to the Corinthians:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. —1 Corinthians 1:18–25

Don’t be ashamed of the gospel just because this world seems so wise, so educated, and so sophisticated that the gospel looks like foolishness. Don’t be deterred by that. Paul keeps going:

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.” —1 Corinthians 1:26–31

If you feel like a little old nobody who does not have all the answers, isn’t it encouraging that God says, “That’s great, because those are the very people I am calling and using”?

Then Paul says something surprising:

And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. —1 Corinthians 2:1–5

Wait a minute. I started this message by calling Paul the second-greatest example of a witness in the New Testament, and here he says, “I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.” Even the apostle Paul did not have it all together. He did not come with a plan to be persuasive. He resolved to know one thing: Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why? Because his attitude rested on the power of the gospel.

How can we have 10,000 gospel conversations? Because God chooses to work through little old you and little old me. He is not dependent on how smart you are. You do not need fancy arguments or an answer to every question someone might ask. You need the one thing Paul had: Jesus Christ and Him crucified. At the end of the day, I do not want to win anybody by my words anyway. I want what Paul wanted, that people would come to Jesus and glorify Him because of His power.

Back in Romans, Paul says the gospel is “the power of God to salvation.” That means when people believe and trust in Jesus, they are rescued. They are delivered from the punishment of sin, out of the kingdom of death and darkness and into the kingdom of light and life.

And it is “for everyone who believes.” To believe means to trust, to rely on, to place your faith in Jesus as the eternal Son of God who died as our substitute on the cross. That word is also continuous. I believed when I was nine years old; that is when I was saved. And I am believing today. The faith the Bible talks about, the faith that saves, is a continuing faith.

Then verse 17: “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.” You cannot be good enough. You cannot keep enough commandments to be made righteous. The only righteousness God accepts, the only one that qualifies you for heaven, is the one you receive from Him as a free gift through faith in Jesus. It is a marvelous divine transaction. God says, “If you will believe and trust in My one and only Son for your salvation, I will take away your sin, because I put it on Him when He died. And in place of your sin, I will give you His righteousness.” We do not deserve that. That is why it is called grace.

So, What Kind of Witnesses Will We Be?

Our attitude toward the gospel will determine everything about whether we reach our goal. So what steps can we take to align our attitude with Paul’s? I can think of three.

An attitude of obedience. “Jesus, You are Lord, and I will obey what You have commanded.” I am submitting and surrendering to His lordship.

An attitude of eagerness. “Lord, I’m ready. Open my eyes to the people You put in my path: in the restaurant, at the grocery store, at work, across the street with my neighbor.”

An attitude of confidence. Not self-confidence, but gospel confidence. When I share the gospel, those in whom the Spirit of God is at work will respond. It will not be because I am smart or witty or an excellent presenter. It will be because of the power of God contained in the message itself.

Maybe for you, the first step is confession: “Lord, I haven’t been faithful in this.” Maybe it is asking God to make you eager instead of dreading it. Either way, take the pressure off yourself. The effectiveness of your witness does not depend on being persuasive, or eloquent, or having a type-A personality. It depends on the gospel.

Remember, Paul came to Corinth “in fear and in much trembling,” and he was still one of the greatest evangelists of the New Testament, because he did not let his fear stop him. There will be moments when God gives you an opportunity and you will be nervous. The difference is whether, by faith and in submission to the lordship of Jesus, you push through the apprehension and have the conversation.

This week, look for opportunities to move normal, everyday conversations toward the gospel. And when you have one, record it. On our church website, click the menu lines in the top right corner to find the gospel conversations counter, and log it, so that together we can celebrate God’s work as we press toward 10,000.

Scripture references in this message: Romans 1:14–17; Romans 1:11–13; Romans 15:24; Acts 9:15; 1 Corinthians 9:16–17; Matthew 28:19–20; 1 John 1:9; 1 Samuel 15:22; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23; 1 Corinthians 1:18–31; 1 Corinthians 2:1–5. (NKJV)

Want to go deeper? Gather your small group, family, or a friend to talk through this message together, and join us on Sunday mornings at Berea First Baptist Church.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.