08 | Romans | Romans 1:8–15 | I Long to See you

INTRODUCTION

Romans

The Gospel in Romans | the power of God for salvation

Our prayer for this series is that over the coming years the Lord would build for us a foundation for our faith in the power of God for salvation.

This morning we finish our time in Paul’s extended greeting to the church in Rome …

… as he expresses both thanksgiving to God and prayer that he might yet come to the church in person.

And what is his goal in coming to them?

That the Spirit would reap some harvest of faith among the church.

That the church would be strengthened and the Lord would be glorified in their mutual encouragement.

This is my prayer for us also this morning.

PRAY

3:00

FIRST, I THANK MY GOD

First, thanksgiving

This is profound.

It is the weekly application point of our time in the Word.

First, thanksgiving.

I would ask you …

How often is thanksgiving the theme of your prayer?

How often is thanksgiving the orientation of your heart?

If thanksgiving is not your theme …

… let me suggest to you that the fix is not that you “do” thanksgiving more.

Perhaps what is needed is not better words on your lips or in your prayer …

… but better eyes to see and remember what the Lord has done.

This is a Celebration Service.

The orientation of our service is thanksgiving.

It is where we are going.

But let us remember that more fully understood …

… this is a service of Celebration and Remembering.

That means that while our orientation, our goal is to give thanks to the Lord …

… to celebrate Christ and his gospel

… our labor is to remember

… to remember Christ and his gospel.

If the Spirit would grant us to see grace according to the Word of Christ …

… surely he will grant us also the faith to respond with worship.

Thanksgiving is the response of faith to grace received by faith.

Look at why Paul is giving thanks.

7:00

Read v8.

Thanksgiving is Paul’s response to the presence of faith among the church in Rome.

Why?

Because faith is evidence of grace!

Faith is not evidence that the believer is great.

It really isn’t a coherent statement to say, look how great that man’s faith is.

Faith is only as good as the object of one’s faith.

ILL: If you are sitting on a chair made out of toothpicks …

… I don’t care how much faith you have

… you’re gonna end up lying on the ground.

That’s not faith, that’s foolishness.

1 Corinthians 15:16–17 (ESV) For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

It is not our faith that is great.

It is the object of our faith.

Faith is not to the praise of the believer.

Faith is for our good, but it is to the praise of God’s glorious grace.

Paul and the church in Rome are together in faith.

They are together in their dependence upon the grace of God alone.

Question 55, Heidelberg Catechism: What do you understand by “the communion of saints”? First, that believers one and all, as members of Christ the Lord, have communion with him and share in all his treasures and gifts. Second, that each member should consider it a duty to use these gifts readily and joyfully for the service and enrichment of the other members.

9:00

Faith says that Jesus is good.

As we see throughout Romans …

… faith confesses that I am not good.

I am a sinner in need of grace.

But the Lord is good and righteous …

… and his mercy has made provision for the forgiveness of my sin.

The appropriate response to the presence of faith in the church is thanksgiving.

Ephesians 2:8–9 (ESV) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

The alternative to faith in the goodness of God …

… that in turn becomes thanksgiving for his grace.

… is pretending and performing:

Pretending is hiding our sinfulness behind a veneer of lies.

It is to present your self in such a way that says …

… I don’t need grace.

… I need you to see that I am all good.

With pretending there is no need for grace …

… and so there is no real thanksgiving.

Performing is a self-delusion that I myself am good.

It’s not that I hide with lies, but I am still trying to hide the sinfulness of my heart.

And I do so by putting on various legalistic standards of performance.

Often, standards that the community has quietly agreed upon by which we can display that we have no real need for grace.

Again, with pretending there is the sense that we don’t need grace and so there is no real thanksgiving.

11:00

APPLY

Faith clings to grace that says that the Lord alone is good.

And we are bound together in this faith as we together cling to Christ.

I want you to see what a robust view of grace does for Paul and the church in Rome.

It creates a profound community of thanksgiving.

Paul and this church are knit together in a deep love and appreciation …

… because they have both been rescued together.

all the world — There is a fellowship in and among a gospel-shaped church that is pervasively encouraging.

13:00

I MENTION YOU ALWAYS IN MY PRAYERS

Walk Through the Passage Outline

v9 - For God is my witness

Paul’s emphasis here is striking.

It is because of how emphatic Paul is about his desire (later, obligation) to visit that we conclude that this is a central purpose behind Paul’s writing of this letter.

Paul writes this letter to the church in Rome precisely because he has been unable to visit them.

This letter would stand in as the “spiritual gift” (v11) until he is able to come to them in the flesh.

Is it not perhaps possible that one of the reasons that the Lord prevented Paul’s visit to Rome …

… is so that we also would benefit from Paul’s “spiritual gift” in this most magnificent letter.

I thank God for his providence that the spiritual gift of strength and mutual encouragement came not only to Rome …

… but even, down through the centuries

… even to our ears and to our hearts today.

16:00

v9 - I mention you always in my prayers

He has already said that thanksgiving to God is his first concern.

And now, he mentions the specific request of his prayer …

… that he would at last succeed in coming to you.

Paul’s prayer for the church in Rome is not a generic prayer.

It is a specific prayer that he would finally come to them in person to share in gospel ministry together.

v11 - For I long to see you

Paul tells us specifically what he longs for:

That he would impart some spiritual gift.

That is, the Spirit would work through the presence and ministry of Paul so that the church in Rome would be strengthened.

He says it again, that they would be mutually encouraged by the faith that is work in them both.

Paul has already given thanks for faith …

… but his hope is to see faith strengthened and increased.

v13 - I do not want you to be unaware

Unaware of what?

That he has made great effort to come to them, but thus far has been prevented.

Again, Paul presses the point of his intention to come to them.

His desire is that there would be fruitful ministry, that is …

… the nourishment of faith by the proclamation of grace.

APPLY

Recap:

v9 - An emphatic oath of his sincerity

v10 - Paul makes known his prayer to finally succeed in his intended visit

v11 - The goal of his visit is spiritual ministry, encouragement and fruitful proclamation.

Now, let us consider how some of these things may encourage us today.

20:00

UNCEASING PRAYER

Paul has never been to Rome.

He has never seen this church.

And yet he has this personal attachment …

… which is a shared faith

… and a desire to be mutually encouraged in faith’s increase.

APPLY

I would ask, do you have this desire for our global mission partners?

Every week we pray for our Global Mission Partners by name.

It may seem redundant, but as we name these names do you give thanks for their faith?

Does your mutual faith in Christ knit you together into a fabric of thanksgiving?

Do you consider if you ought to visit them?

Do you desire that they are strengthened and that you would be mutually encouraged in the faith together?

Are you eager that the gospel would be preached in their city, on their campus, and in their home?

cpcoast.com/globalmission

I commission you today:

First, to thanksgiving.

And also, that a harvest of faith would spring up among our partners in the gospel.

And even more locally …

… let me suggest that you visit the church in Cape Canaveral.

These are our nearby brothers and sisters in Christ.

And it is imminently possible that we might strengthen our brothers and sisters there …

… that the Spirit would work a mutual encouragement as we visit one another.

23:00

PAUL’S PRAYERFUL DESIRE

Paul’s longing is a gospel-centered longing

Paul's longing is not for mere relationships.

He isn’t hard up for some friends.

He wants a gospel/christ-centered relationship.

He knows they are together in Christ.

He knows that what they share is a faith in a singular hope.

They share grace.

24:00

v13 — prevented

The circumstance of Paul’s prayer are so instructive for us.

They teach us how to pray in light of the will of God.

Paul wants something that God has not provided.

Paul has reason to believe that God's will is for something he has not willed.

Listen to that sentence again … (reread)

Here we see God’s revealed will and God’s providence

God has revealed to Paul that he ought to preach the gospel to the Gentiles.

This mission is not complete apart from his visit to Rome.

And so, Paul presses toward Rome, but is prevented.

God’s providence has prevented Paul’s success in what God has clearly revealed as his will for Paul’s ministry.

Therefore, he asks and waits.

Paul persists in three things:

1) He persists in prayer in alignment with what he knows of God’s will …

… asking that God would provide a way.

2) He presses on in his intention to come to Rome …

… even as he is prevented in his success.

3) He eagerly waits upon the Lord …

… trusting that what God has revealed as his will and God’s provision of a way

… will soon align so that he and the church in Rome would experience the blessing of God

… through the ministry of the gospel.

29:00

APPLY

This is church planting.

We know God's will is to see the church established and multiplied.

Therefore, we wait upon the Lord.

1) We pray that at last we may succeed

2) We press on in our intention to plant the gospel in Brevard County

3) We wait upon the Lord that he would bring upon a fruitful harvest.

I would ask you …

… are you actively involved in this glorious ministry?

Are you engaged in prayer for the church?

Are you pressing on, laboring for the strengthening of the church and our mutual encouragement?

Do you long that the gospel would be preached in our County with a great, fruitful harvest?

31:00

MUTUAL ENCOURAGEMENT

Look again at what Paul envisions for his visit to Rome.

Read v11.

Paul longs to impart some spiritual gift.

Let me suggest that Paul has already told us the nature of this spiritual gift.

Romans 1:5-6 … we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you

He longs to see the Spirit of God bringing faith which produces obedience, that is, a transformed life.

This is what he means by mutual encouragement (v12).

When they see one another they will see faith producing transformation.

And they will be encouraged all the more to press on.

33:00

APPLY

When traveling, I find myself strengthened by the church.

About 6 years ago, Sandy and I visited a church in Knoxville, TN.

After the service we met some of the members there and one of the elders.

We ended up going to their house in the evening and enjoying a meal there.

We filled up their living room together and told stories of our faith …

… and received great blessing there.

5 years ago, on our way to South Africa to visit the Menton family …

… we spent two extra days on our layover in Dubai.

We visited Redeemer church in the center of Dubai.

We worshiped together with believers whose faith is literally proclaimed in all the world …

… as the men and women gathered their are literally from nearly every nation under the sun.

I often continue to be encouraged by the lunch we shared with Dave Furman and another of the elders there.

Sandy and I have countless stories of great encouragement and spiritual blessing as we have entered into the fellowship of the saints in many places.

We, too, here at CPCoast get to enjoy this spiritual gift and mutual encouragement together.

I find this especially among those who visit us while on vacation here in Florida year after year.

We have friends from New Mexico and Iowa and Georgia and New York and Minnesota and many other places.

We receive a great gift when the Spirit that is at work in them …

… visits our fellowship.

I have often seen Sandy moved to tears by the mutual encouragement that we have shared in together.

36:00

THE OBLIGATION OF PROCLAMATION

Read v14.

We saw last week that Paul has been commissioned by the risen Christ …

… to preach the gospel among the Gentiles.

What does Paul mean by obligation?

Christopher Ash — Teaching Romans Why is Paul ‘under obligation’? The metaphor of a monetary debt doesn’t capture the urgency. It is like a city being conquered by a new king, who entrusts to the herald the proclamation of his victory and the offer of his pardon. The herald therefore owes it to all the citizens to tell them urgently. If he does not, they will incur the anger of the new king by not bowing the knee to him and accepting his pardon. This urgency makes Paul ‘eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome’ (v. 15).

Paul is the bearer of good news.

He possesses this news.

And the nature of the news of grace itself demands and obligates the bearer to make it known.

The news is not merely interesting information …

… it is urgent announcement of the means of rescue.

The urgency produces the obligation.

v14 speaks of Greeks and barbarians, wise and foolish.

The world is filled with those who would seek to save themselves …

… by their education or their common sense.

But the news of the GOSPEL is that rescue does not come from inside ourselves …

… but has broken in from the Father in the person and work of the Son.

When Paul preaches the gospel in Rome he is making announcement that all are sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God.

We have no hope of saving ourselves.

We cannot lean on our own wisdom or wealth, our own righteousness or prosperity in this world.

The good news of the death of God the Son, Jesus Christ …

… on the cross in the place of sinners

… is the grace of God to forgive all who place their faith in him.

More than that, the Lord Jesus Christ is alive, and is raised to reign over all things …

… that all who believe would have life in him

… and that he would reign over all things to the glory of his great name.

This is the gospel that Paul is both obligated and eager to preach in Rome.

40:00

APPLY

It’s interesting that Paul wants to preach the gospel to a church that is already renowned for their faith.

This is evidence that the gospel is what is needed for all of the church.

42:00

APPLY

We are first of all a people of thanksgiving.

We belong together as a people of faith.

Not a people who pretend or perform our way into some elite club.

But a people who know that what unites us is that we are together recipients of grace.

Our longing is that we would be encouraged together …

… receiving spiritual strengthening and mutual encouragement.

Even as we long to participate in the preaching of the gospel that will reap a great harvest in our county and around the world.

We have urgent news.

Are we eager to make it known?

45:00