The Ministry of Paul Romans 15:14-21

Several years ago I read where some mountain hunters had played a trick on another hunter in their COON CLUB. They lowered the sight on his rifle.

After they did this their friend was missing everything at which he was shooting. He shot at a raccoon in a tree. Of course his bullet went under the coon. One of the hunters climbed the tree and shook the tree. The coon fell out of the tree on one of the "JOKERS" head.

The friend that had his GUN SIGHT ALTERED took aim at the COON on top of his friend’s head...

As the coon was resting on his head, the JOKER started WHISPERING AS LOUD AS HE COULD: AIM HIGH! PLEASE, AIM HIGH! SOMETIMES IN LIFE WE MUST AIM HIGHER.

I. Paul’s Aim vv. 14-16

When we pick up the passage, Paul is concluding his look at the ministry to the Gentiles and he will close with an overview of that ministry

He begins with a discussion of his aim in ministry:

He is satisfied with what he knows of the Roman believers:

Their lives are marked by goodness

Their lives are marked by knowledge of the truth

Their lives are marked by the ability to teach the truth to others

However, there are some bold points that Paul has made to them, as a reminder

This boldness comes from a calling that was given by God as a minister to the Gentiles

As God’s representative to them, he has a responsibility to insure that they come to maturity in the faith

Specifically, he wants the Gentiles to offer themselves as fully acceptable sacrifices, sanctified by the Holy Spirit

I want us to pay attention to this:

Paul does not view the Gentiles as second-rate citizens in the Kingdom

Instead, he accepts them as co-heirs in the Kingdom

Paul’s aim has never just been that the Gentiles be fully included in the Kingdom, but that they also be fully acclaimed as acceptable before God

I believe that there is a measure of guilt in the church in our era on this matter; we’ve made converts, without a sense that they were fully our brothers and sisters

We must flee from the notion of there being an “other” type of Christian

Do we have the heart of Paul on this?

In 2013, the world, in tears, watched the viral video of Davion Only, an orphaned teenager, who stood at the front of a church and pleaded for someone—anyone—to adopt him. Dressed in his best suit, he stood at the podium saying that he wasn’t picky. They could be “black or white, old or young, mom or dad.” He just wanted someone to love him “until I die.”

He said he was growing impatient, but he wouldn’t lose hope. “I know God hasn’t given up on me, so I’m not giving up either.”

In response to his plea, his foster agency received thousands of inquiries from people interested in giving Davion a home. He even went to live with a prospective adoptive family, only to be returned to foster care over conflict with his adoptive siblings. Over the next year, he lived in a succession of four more temporary placements.

II. Paul’s Accomplishments vv. 17-19

Next, we hear Paul recount his accomplishments in the ministry

He is proud of his work; this is not a bad thing

It is not a boastful or arrogant thing; he recognizes that it is all a grace of God

However, it is a beautiful thing to lay down your life in service to a greater goal

When I recognize that Christ is able to work through me, I will be proud of His work; this is not arrogance, but worship!

Paul details the quality and scale of his work:

It has brought the Gentiles to obedience, that full acclaim before God described above

It has come in a variety of ways

By words and deeds

By signs and wonders

By the power of the Spirit of God

It has covered a broad area

He’s been from Jerusalem to Illyricum, through Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Greece

In all of those places, the gospel has been proclaimed and a church has been established

It is good to celebrate what God has done, if:

It spurs future faithfulness

It brings encouragement

It causes worship

However, this only happens when our reflection is God-centered and others-centered, but not self-centered

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

-Percy Bysshe Shelley

III. Paul’s Ambition vv. 20-21

Finally, Paul shares his ultimate ambition

That ambition is simple: to preach the Gospel

What is less simple is his particular ambition

Paul wants to preach the Gospel where it has not been preached before

Paul does not want to build on the foundation of another; this is not a form of snobbery, but an assessment of need

Paul is compelled to those places farthest from the Good News, and he wants to make sure that all people know Christ

We are all called to share in Paul’s ambition:

Some of us will major on the local

Some of us will major on the least

Some of us will major on the influential

Some of us will major on those farthest away

However, all of us are called to preach the Gospel!

Christopher Winans, in his book, Malcolm Forbes: The Man Who Had Everything, tells of a motorcycle tour that Forbes took through Egypt in 1984 with his Capitalist Tool motorcycle team. After viewing the staggering burial tomb of King Tut, Forbes seemed to be in a reflective mood. As they were returning to the hotel in a shuttle bus, Forbes turned to one of his associates and asked with all sincerity: “Do you think I’ll be remembered after I die?”

Forbes is remembered. He is remembered as the man who coined the phrase, “He who dies with the most toys wins.” That was the wisdom of Malcolm Forbes. In fact, that was his ambition. That’s why he collected scores of motorcycles. That’s why he would pay over a million dollars for a Faberge egg. That’s why he owned castles, hot air balloons and countless other toys that he can no longer access.

The Lord Jesus Christ gave us words of superior wisdom when he said, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). It is a fatally deficient wisdom that declares “He who dies with the most toys wins.”