Sunday, December 12, 2019 - Romans 15:14-32 - Freedom Community Church - Pastor Rob Lloyd

Sunday, December 12, 2019 - Romans 15:14-32 - Freedom Community Church - Pastor Rob Lloyd, Battle Ground, Washington, US

Sunday Service Time: 10 AM
Sunday Service Location: 1919 SW 25th Ave, Battle Ground, WA 98604
Phone: (360) 975-9356
Email: info@freedomcommunity.church
Prayer Request: wepray@freedomcommunity.church
Mailing Address: 1400 NE 136th Ave. Ste 201, Vancouver, WA 98684

Sermon Notes:

Romans 15:14-32

Today, as we close out the application part of the letter of Romans, Paul is going to wrap this up with three themes: 1) he is going to show a pattern of living moment by moment for the Lord, 2) he is going to show that when we serve God, its ok to have our godly desires but in the end we need to trust His desires over ours, and finally 3) he is going to invite the believers in Rome to join him in serving Jesus, which will provide them an opportunity to bearing eternal fruit and set some of the foundations for raising missions support.
• Now there are some other pieces he will also address, but these are prominent, and even though this was written to the church in Rome almost 2,000 years ago, the Lord is transferring these same invitations and understandings to every generation of believers, so do make personal application

14 Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.

I hope all of us are on the same page, as we hear Paul declare this to these followers of Jesus, that the only way for anyone to be full of goodness, and filled with all knowledge is if the Holy Spirit (who is the third person of the trinity- meaning He is God) is dwelling and operating in us/them.
• Even Jesus, when addressed as “good teacher” replied “Why do you call me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” (Mark 10:18). And in this incident Jesus was attempting to get them to see that He was God. The point being that only God is good.
• So as Paul says this to them, he is recognizing their salvation and therefore the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in them, as was in him, and is in us!
• And it was to make this point; they had the ability to admonish (which is to warn or exhort) one another, meaning if they followed the leading of the Holy Spirit (and not their opinions or preferences), then they would come to the same conclusion in all matters where encouragement or correction was needed.
o And I for one believe you can tell when the Holy Spirit is working in those types of actions because there is far more encouraging than correcting.

15 Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God, 16 that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
So why did Paul give them all this doctrine and instruction in this letter then? Because the Lord called him to be the apostle to the gentiles, and even though he did not plant this church, this included many of them.
• We see in Acts 10 that Peter and others (Acts 8) also had powerful encounters in leading gentiles to Jesus, but of the Apostles, only Paul was given this as his mission focus.
• And in that calling we see it wasn’t simply to evangelize the gentile but also to instruct the gentile in the faith so they could grow towards maturity.
• And I will tell you, this is what many missionary agencies are investing in, because they have witnessed that evangelization without instruction can lead to difficulties that could have been averted by a clear understanding of the word.

And as you know, when we see the word “that” in a text, we can read it as “in order that”, meaning now he is telling us one of the prime reasons he is engaged in instructing them. Which is in order that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
• In this letter Paul has instructed them to live by faith alone, in Christ alone, through grace alone. And that once they/we came into that reality, they/we are to have the Spirit rule over the flesh and not the flesh over the Spirit, because he wants them/us to be victorious in Jesus.
• And when we come to this understanding, then we are not trying to earn Gods favor, but rather responding to it.
• And here is the key; when we live in this truth, and therefore respond to Him in love, and not because of law, then our very lives become an offering that is acceptable and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
o This is what Paul wanted for them and is truly what every one of us should want for each other. We will come back to this a little later.

17 Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God. 18 For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient— 19 in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

Now Paul brings it all back into perspective because he knows some at this point might think he is the one who has done this work by his own will. And he quickly dispels that thinking and rightly focuses on the only things of real value being the things Jesus and the Holy Spirit have done through him. And he shows this by pointing out only things God can do, such as mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.
• But also note he does get to glory in what Christ has done through him. And I hope we have all had this experience many times (even in this last week), because it is awesome to know and see the Lord had used your willingness to accomplish His will.
o The truth is the results here on earth might not turn out the way we would like them to, but to know we did what Jesus called us to, still brings His peace.
• Paul had a lot of first-hand experience of trying to do things for God by his own strength and leading, which after he became a believer would be things he would identify as being things he was now ashamed of (Rom. 6:21).
• And as believers in Jesus there’s a lot of that activity (self-drive and self-empowered activity) that still goes on. But what a joy it is when we simply great each day, encounter and opportunity by first reporting before Jesus as ready to do His will (Rom. 6:13) and then let Him work through us. Those are the moments we can then boast about Jesus in (that’s what to glory in Christ Jesus is referring to).

And what we also see here is that his service to the Lord was not just an occasional venture here and there, but rather a pattern of devotion to completing the work the Lord had for him to do among the gentiles. And that pattern is seen in the approximate 1,400 mile semicircle of the area he took the gospel and instruction of the Lord to. And more than one time!
• And there is one more important pattern to catch here and its that in serving the Lord by ministering to the gentiles, it was not in word only, nor in his pattern of living only. It was both in in word and deed.
• And folks, the saying “talk is cheap” really is true. We need to live out what we’re talking about because although others might not listen, they can’t help but watch. We are all people watchers by nature.
• And along with our good works, we need to tell them of the One who has inspired us to serve them in love, because our good deeds can’t save anyone. The deeds are temporary, but they need the eternal.
o So, we want to ask ourselves, what are people hearing and seeing as they spend time with us? Does it vary from day to day or is it our pattern of devotion in serving the Lord?

20 And so I (Paul) have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation, 21 but as it is written: “To whom He (Jesus) was not announced, they (the gentiles) shall see; And those who have not heard shall understand.”(Is. 52:15)

Paul had an aim and it was at the target God pointed him towards. Now to be fair, when God first pointed him to the gentiles as his mission field, Paul didn’t immediately get on board, and continued pursuing the Jews. Yet it didn’t take him to long to realize that wasn’t producing anything. But when he let Gods calling be his target, its as though he couldn’t miss. Imagine that! 😊
• And the truth is Gods target was a lot bigger than Paul considered aiming at. Yet it had been a declared plan of God to bring salvation to the gentiles from the beginning, and he was called to be the conduit God accomplished this work through.
• And like Paul, often we want to settle for what we know and is in our comfort zone, yet God often has in mind what we have never known would be so fulfilling. After all, who knows us better than God?
• I think many of us today you could tell you story after story where this has been the case.

Now before we move on, I just want to clarify that he is not saying it’s wrong to build on another mans work, for in truth we are all building on what Jesus has done. In 1 Cor. 3:6 he even says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase”. This is the very picture of building on another person’s work.
• But as an Apostle of Jesus (being there were just 12 of them), this mission was given to him by the Lord, and it was a call to pioneer this work to the Gentiles.
• And today there are opportunities to pioneer new works and to build on work that others have started before us. And as long as it’s the Lord who is setting your target, then you’re in the right place.
• But make no mistake, here Paul is also preparing them with understanding of his mission, before he invites them to join him in this work.
I have read some compelling mission support letters, but you can’t beat this one 😊. And this goes to show recruiting support for the work the Lord has pointed you towards is biblical. And in many cases the ability to raise support is another affirmation you’re being called by the Lord into this work, or the brake the Lord is using to tell you to hold back for now. But either way Paul sets a biblical precedent for doing so here.

22 For this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you. 23 But now no longer having a place in these parts [meaning he had completed what the Lord called him to do there], and having a great desire these many years to come to you, 24 whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while.

Paul started laying out his desires here, which included a new missionary work to Spain. But first he hoped to visit the believers in Rome, taking time to encourage and impart some spiritual gifts to them (Rom. 1:11).
• But what we are going to find is Paul’s plans won’t turn out in the way he was thinking, for when he went to Jerusalem, he was arrested and then sent to Rome in chains to Caesars palace, not to the church as a beloved brother in the Lord.
• But what we do find is Paul will be able to have the church visit him, and in the way which God had orchestrated things, this would also bring the gospel into Caesars house and to him personally (Acts 23:11)
• And in regard to Paul getting to Spain, many feel pretty certain he did since Clement of Rome, Chrysostom and Jerome all claim he did.

And we are seeing another pattern develop here, pertaining to our faith walk with Jesus, and that’s that His plans are to be trusted and desired more than ours.
• Paul realized his past plans to come to them were hindered by the Lord. And as we just mentioned, his future plans turned out differently.
• But Paul never shows signs of being disgruntled about that. Instead, he seems to simply go wherever the Lord points his feet, without missing a step. And there’s no way to do that unless we surrender to the desires of the Lord, over our own.
• To be sure, I don’t think anyone other than Jesus has done that 100% of the time, but I don’t want to diminish the possibility for any of us to choose to do so. For after all, Paul was just a man like we are and although not scoring a 100%, this was his pattern or default. And the reason this is being presented to us is because its also a possibility and the desired outcome of Jesus for us. (1 John 2:6, 1 Cor. 11:1)

And he also lists in these verses one way they can partner with him in this work in Spain and that’s through providing material needs. But there’s far more than him asking for money here. He really wants them to have a part in this ministry. We’ll come back to that in just a minute.

25 But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. 26 For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. 27 It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things. 28 Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain. 29 But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.

Now he changes direction here a little to explain that before he can plan on coming to them, there is one more task he needs to do, and that’s to go to Jerusalem to bring the gift the gentile churches had put together for the impoverished Jewish believers there.
• And I think its more than coincidental that this also had to do with meeting material needs because the word often talks to us as followers of Jesus, about bearing fruit that remains (John 15:16). Meaning being invested and engaged in the work that is eternal and has eternal reward!
• And some hear the stories of missionaries traveling all over the world and feel as though their part of donating to the work is not nearly as valuable as the work of those who go. And I’m delighted to tell you that’s just not so. Here he identifies that very thing as bearing eternal fruit!
• And Paul, like any good pastor, has a strong desire to not only have those he ministers to come to salvation and even mature, he wants to see them engaging in the work of the Lord in order to bear their own eternal reward.

But he also makes another statement that we as gentiles should pay attention to, which is that we own a debt to the Jewish people. Now some don’t see it that way, but it is that way. The covenants and the promises were delivered to and through them. And we are the one who have been grafted in. (Rom. 11:16-18)
• Its one of the reasons we pray for the peace of Jerusalem each week, because I don’t ever want us to forget God's covenant with Israel, which points to His faithfulness. (Ch. 9-11)
• And while some are turning against Israel, be certain of this, we can never go wrong in supporting them.

30 Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, 31 that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32 that I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may be refreshed together with you. 33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

As Paul closes, he lists the other way they can partner with him in this work, and that’s through prayer.
• Specifically, he is asking for prayer coverage for deliverance from the unbelieving Jews who, in two different prophecies, he was warned would try to take him in chains to have him killed. (Acts 21)
• And this wasn’t just throwing a prayer out here and there, this is a call to cover him in fervent prayer, which was also for the success of his work in blessing those in need in Jerusalem.
• Is there anyone or anything we pray about that fervently? If we do, know that also bears eternal fruit.

And he closes with this simple prayer; “Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen” and the truth is, if we take hold of what has been given to us in the remarkable letter, and make it our own, we will know the God of peace and the peace of God!