Infectious Feet

We continue in our series called The Good Contagion. Now, I will tell you, when I was preparing this series and I was trying to figure out what I could compare this to, I did a Google search, and I said, are there any good contagions? And AI said, no, there are no good contagions. Avoid them all, which is kind of the point of why we're doing this.

It's a good contagion when you have the Holy Spirit within you, when you have the faith of Jesus Christ, and you share it with others. It's something that we need to remember that faith isn't just taught, that I can just talk you into accepting Jesus Christ, but it's caught. And it's not just that head knowledge, but it's also the heart knowledge.

And when those combine together, then we have something within us that can be contagious in a good way. This week, we're going to go to Romans, Romans chapter 10, and Paul is going to talk about something else that is contagious. If you please stand as you are able, and we are looking at Romans 10, beginning in verse 14, and we'll go through 21.

How, then, will they call upon Him in whom they have not heard? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

But I asked, have they not heard? Indeed, they have. For their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. But I asked, did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation.

With a foolish nation, I will make you angry. Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.

But of Israel, he says, all day long, I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. The word of God, inspired by God, for the people of God, thanks be to God. Amen.

You may be seated. Paul takes on something pretty big here. And as you can see, as you might remember, when Randall read from Isaiah 52, he picks up the bulk of this.

But he also looks at several other verses in the Old Testament to work through this. And he even moves from Isaiah 52 into the next chapter, Isaiah 53. Who's ever read Isaiah 53? That's where it talks about the suffering servant.

By his stripes, we are healed. If you've been here for a few years, you've heard me talk about it every year from Isaiah 53. Sue's nodding like, yes, I hear that every year.

In there, the connection is really cool. We're just going to look at part of Isaiah 52. But if you go back and read all of Isaiah 52 on into Isaiah 53, you'll see a little bit more about the context and how powerful and amazing it is to have such a clear prophecy of Jesus that Isaiah was leading up to and now Paul is referring to when he's writing the church in Rome.

He starts off by saying, how will they call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him who they have never heard? Now, when he says they will call upon him, if you look before that, it says Paul leads to the point where it says everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And if you back up a little more in chapter 10, it says 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. You will be saved.

So Paul is building all this to say, here's what's going to happen. How are they to call on him whom they have not believed? How are they to believe unless they have heard? And how are they to hear unless someone preaches? Now, don't get scared about the word preaching there. It doesn't mean you have to stand up in front of a crowd.

The word in Greek is the same as herald. It's someone who shares the good news or announces the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Greek of that says it's a herald.

It's not just someone who is a professional preacher. Heralds are everyone in Christ because that contagion is in us, and we cannot hold it within. We have to share it with other people.

Paul goes on to say, if you move from 14 to 15, and how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. Now, Isaiah presents it with this picture. He said, how beautiful are the feet on the mountains of those who present the good news and bring the people good news.

As in, if you're looking up and someone is coming over the mountainside, if they are bringing you the good news, their feet are beautiful. So it means when you go out and share the gospel, you need to wear sandals so people can see your feet. Was that a joke? This morning when I was getting ready and praying, 1 Timothy 4 came up, which fit so well.

I just, it's just a God thing that this came up this morning, not that I didn't have enough, but we got some time today, so. If you go to 2 Timothy 4, he taught, this is Paul writing to Timothy, and he says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Jesus Christ, who is the judge of the living and the dead, and by his appearing and kingdom, preach the word. Preach the word, be a herald of the word.

Be ready to in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching. In season and out of season.

Be prepared to share the word, even if it's uncomfortable. Be prepared to share the word, even if you're thinking ahead of time, this isn't the right time. But a lot of times, we may be not even thinking about it ahead of time, so we're not ready.

So Paul says, whatever the season is, it doesn't mean just share it in your Bible study or your Hope Builders group, it means share it wherever you are. Then he goes on to three, and it says, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but have itching ears that they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off in the midst. It's a good thing he's just talking about first century Middle East, right? Not talking about the United States today.

That's part of what makes sharing the gospel tough sometimes, is you know so many people don't wanna hear it. They don't wanna hear it because they don't think it's good news. So when you have something like this, and as Paul shares with Timothy, can we agree that infectious feet can be incredibly gross? I'm just being real here.

They can be gross. But no one wants to be around infectious feet. But Paul brings up a type of infectious feet that he calls beautiful.

How many of you ever seen a foot infection and said, oh, that's beautiful? I need to put that as my homepage on my social media site. I am so glad I went to the podiatrist today. In that, Paul is telling Timothy in 2 Timothy, and he's telling us that the feet, as long as feet are showing up, if you see someone walking to share the good news, they're beautiful.

But not everybody thinks they're beautiful. But from the perspective of life, they're so beautiful. When we were at, when we went to the World War I Museum, how many of you ever been to the World War I Museum downtown or at Crown Center? At the World War I Museum, they remind us they had a whole display that showed something in World War I that reminded me of something they did that was new there called trench warfare.

And in trench warfare, you dug a trench, you stayed down low, and you could be there. That was your home for weeks on end. And so, you know, sometimes feet might start stinking when you leave your shoes on for that long.

And sometimes when the skin starts decaying, when it would rain and get wet and the skin starts decaying, bacteria would get into the feet, and they would get something called gangrene. That is a highly, highly, it can spread so easily when you get that gangrene, and it can move and get worse and worse and worse. When we were camping this summer, a few weeks ago when we were in Wisconsin, and they had a shower house at the campground, and I was up there, and I was showering, and I came out, and I saw Colin didn't, I specifically got Colin flip-flops so he could have them for shower shoes and not wear them in the public shower.

And I'm sitting there explaining to him, Colin, you forgot your shower shoes. If you go into a public shower, you can get, anybody know, athlete's foot. That might have been more likely in my high school locker room where I didn't wear flip-flops, and it might be, and I was like, you gotta do it.

If you don't do it, you can get athlete's foot. Athlete's foot comes off the feet, and it can be there on that wet ground, and it is highly, highly contagious. And there was another boy that was a little younger than Colin sitting there on the bench, and he goes, you're making me not wanna take a shower now.

I was like, okay, I'll just quit talking. But you see, a lot of times, the world looks at someone carrying the good news and sees a horrible contagion on their feet when they're walking in, but Paul flips that, and he says, how beautiful are the feet coming over the mountain of someone bringing the good news, because those feet are bringing life. Infectious feet that are infected by the gospel bring life.

Beautiful feet are those who bring the good news is what Isaiah 52, verse seven says. Are feet fungus infectious? Normally, yes. Do they make the feet ugly or beautiful? Yeah.

Do they make it so it's repugnant or fragrant? When's the last time you told someone, oh my gosh, your feet smell good today? But Paul says they are beautiful. Every one of us, remember on Holy Week when we washed feet up here? Paul says our feet are beautiful. Jesus said we wash feet to serve one another, because feet go through a lot in life, and we have feet that bring the good news.

It becomes a contagion that can set things in a different direction. Why is it good news when we bring the gospel of Jesus Christ? Well, I start thinking about one of the verses that everybody loves to hear. For God so loved, if you know this, just say it with me.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. And that's pretty cool. But in context, it goes on to say, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him, that he sent him not to condemn but to save.

Nobody goes up to somebody by the Holy Spirit and says, I condemn you in the name of Jesus Christ. But verse 18 says this. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in him is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God.

That's the part about the good news that's tough to hear and why people think of it as a horribly infectious and gross and bad disease in the world. Does that make sense? He says, Jesus came because everybody was condemned. That's the part we have to get over.

Everyone was condemned, but Jesus came so that we might be saved. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved. If we bring the good news, it doesn't always sound like good news because there has to be a reason why we need to repent and receive Jesus and we need to grow up in our faith and become more Christ-like in our lives.

But remember, Paul told Timothy that even though people might not want to hear it, keep preaching, keep sharing the gospel, keep bringing life to others. And he said, by the way, Timothy, you have beautiful teeth when you bring the good news to others. Paul goes on in here in Romans 10 to say, but they have not obeyed the gospel.

For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? Which is the first verse of Isaiah 53, meaning at the beginning of Isaiah 53, he says, Lord, who has heard our message? And then let me just, just so you get the feel for this a little bit. Isaiah 53, that's so key to the good news. And who has believed what he has heard and who has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of the ground.

For he had no form or majesty that we should look upon him and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And it says over and over, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, but he was pierced for our transgressions and he was crushed for our iniquities.

The good news is that God loved us so much that he sent his only son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. That is something that even if somebody doesn't wanna hear it, they need to hear. And our job, remember our job is not to say, okay, sit there, stay there, I'm gonna talk over and over and over and tell you, do what I wanna do.

But it's just to share it. Sometimes we call it planting a seed. And as long as we keep planting seeds, maybe someone else will come along and plant a seed.

Maybe there will be many beautiful feet that cross the paths of people. But remember, our job is just to share the truth, the contagious truth that we have in Jesus Christ. Okay, Paul goes on in verse 17, and he says this.

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing comes through the word of Christ. Which remember he said at the beginning, how will they call upon him who they not believed? How are they believed in him who they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? Paul says, when they hear you, they at least have a chance. When they hear the word of Christ come from your mouth, they have a chance.

And everybody needs to hear that because God wishes for no one to be condemned, is what Peter says. So he gives us time to share the good news. Now the context of this, if you go back to 10 and then read a little bit more in chapter nine of Romans, Paul is basically saying that Rome missed it.

Remember when Jesus repped over Jerusalem, and he said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you did not recognize the coming of your God. Because they didn't recognize it, they missed it. And Peter told them after Pentecost that they crucified the one who came to save them.

So Paul is saying all this because he is saying, when you back up right before this, it says there is no difference between you or Greek, for the Lord is the Lord of them all, stowing on riches on all who call upon him. So it doesn't matter who someone is or what their background is, it's Jesus that everyone needs. Romans 10, 19 goes on to say, but I ask, did not Israel not hear ye? For Moses says in Deuteronomy 32, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation, with a foolish nation I will make you angry.

Now, if you read the whole verse in Deuteronomy 32, God said, you made it me jealous by worshiping gods who are not my gods. So I'm gonna take and reveal myself to people who didn't even ask, who don't even know me. Which is Paul's way of looking at, even as far back as the prophets in the Old Testament, they were always already talking about how, as followers of God, we're supposed to be a light in the world, we're supposed to share the contagion with others that will bring life.

I mean, they've already got a contagion, this is a new one that will bring them life out of death through Jesus Christ. Verse 20 says, then Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.

And in verse 21 he says, but of Israel he says all day long, I have held out my hands to the disobedient and contrary people. Robert Mounts says that Paul claims there is no basis for a Jewish argument that they couldn't understand. So they're exempt.

We didn't understand, so we're exempt. Or we're just under the Davidic covenant, so we're exempt. By quoting Psalms and Deuteronomy and Isaiah, he says they're not exempt.

Why don't they understand, Mounts says, willful disobedience. I heard these words several times coming from the Bible study today. Hardening of the heart, willful disobedience, that they chose not to hear, not to understand, not to do it.

They insisted on a personal merit and works-based system. In our culture, in our world today, in our formation of who we are, the connection I see here is that we need to share the gospel with people who are going to other churches. Where those churches are spiritually dead.

Where they are dying, or they are spiritually dead. And they need a place where they can find the life that we have in Jesus Christ. The rumbling means that's important.

We almost made it all the way. Yeah. Yeah.

We need to share it with those other churches. But if you saw a calling card that Paul had all throughout the books of Acts, and then the other missionaries in the books of Acts, what they would do is they would say, we share the gospel first to the Jew, but also to the Greek. So we share the gospel first to those who need a church home that haven't been fed.

But we also share the gospel with those just simply need to know Jesus, whatever form it is in. That we are in that, a similar boat. That there are people, I mean, if you look at the average attendance, and they lower it every year, as in, it used to be if you go to church two or three times a month, you're a regular attender.

Then it was if it's half, and now it's like once a month, then you're a regular attender. But the numbers in our area, which are smaller than the average area in Kansas, are about 20, 20%, 25% even go to church. So it's not like we have to go to Africa to find a mission field.

We find it with family, with friends, with neighbors, with people who are just hurting and need a savior who can bring healing. We find it everywhere we go. What we are doing in our Hope Builders groups now, I hope everybody noticed I just stuck it in there.

But at the end, when we're talking about what have you done for Jesus since we last met, I asked, who are three people God is calling you to pray for that you need to hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ? And who are three people that God may be leading you to invite to church? You need to pray about those things. Pray. I have had opportunities where I talk to people and I don't know what to say.

Or I leave, you ever leave a situation and you go, oh, I could have brought Jesus up there. Or oh, I could have invited them. It could have been something.

And so if we are ready in season and out of season, we can share the love of God with people. And it doesn't come off as a condemnation because it's not up to us to condemn anybody. Because John 3 says, the world is already condemned.

If they hear the gospel from us, they got a shot at life. Do you love your neighbor? Do you love your family? Do you love the people in your life, even co-workers? Who are you gonna pray about on how God can help you share Jesus with them? That's a contagion we have. The world needs to know that you have beautiful feet.

The world needs to know that what we have to share with others is beautiful. It's life-giving. It's life-changing.

It sets the world upside down. And just like Paul quoted from the Old Testament, that there are gonna be people who don't accept it. There are gonna be people who don't wanna hear it.

Remember last week when we were talking, or was that two weeks ago, when we were talking about the scent, the spiritual scent you have when you're in the Holy Spirit, that to some it smells like death and to some it smells like life. But that spiritual scent smells like Jesus to God. We want everyone to have that connection, to love God, to know God, and to know that there is something better for this life.

Let's pray. Almighty God, we just thank you so much for the good news. We thank you that although we didn't deserve it, you sent your only son who suffered and died, who rose again so we could live.

Help us to remember that though people may see us coming and think the message we have is ugly, that you have equipped us with beautiful feet to share the good news, to give life to the world, that we don't always have to have the perfect words, we don't always have to answer every question, but we do need to be contagious for Jesus. Amen.