The Most Offensive Thing About the Gospel, Romans 1:15-20

Paul emphatically states that he is not ashamed of the Gospel. This statement implies that there were/are people who are ashamed of the Gospel. If the Gospel is the power of God for salvation, then how can anyone be ashamed or offended by it? Simply put, they don’t believe it.
Make no mistake, we are living in a changing world—in a changing culture. But also, make no mistake, this world really hasn’t changed all that much. Let’s be careful not to pine for the good old days, because much of the good old days are nothing but urban legend. The days when America was the moral paragon and every President was a biblical Christian (as well as all the citizens) never really happened.
As Christians, it would seem nice if everyone around us was also a Christian. There would be no attacks on our faith because all would share our faith. We would have no concern about suffering for the Gospel because all would readily embrace the Gospel.
But that isn’t the world we live in and it’s definitely not the world that Jesus told us we would experience. Jesus promised His followers that one day all tears would be wiped away (Revelation 21:3-4 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”) but until then, we should expect no better treatment than our Master received (Matthew 10:24-25 A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.)
So, we find ourselves in a world that is offended at the Gospel, and at Christianity in general, and I’m standing here today to tell you that we need to understand why. We can’t be successful in the spiritual battle God tells us we are in if we don’t know the sides or the stakes or the objectives or the rules of engagement.
So, for the next few minutes we are going to answer 3 important questions: “Is the Gospel offensive?”; “Who could have a problem with the Gospel?” and finally, “How do Christians engage the culture?”