Finding Focus for the Future

Wrapping Up Romans

We are coming to the last couple weeks of my current teachings from the Book of Romans. Today, I am looking at how Paul planned for his next ministry moves. Next week, I will return to the first verses of Chapter 13, and share about being a good Christian Citizen according to what Paul instructs the church, a little more than a week ahead of this Novembers’ election date.

I am skipping most of Romans 16 this time, but it is well worth your own look to see how Paul celebrates both women and men as part of the ministry of Christ and the Holy Spirit’s success through them to establish and uphold the worshiping church as well as his missionary and church planting work.

As Paul looks forward to what is next, he is unwavering in his call from Christ to be the Apostle to the Gentiles, and so as he plans, Paul is . . .

Keeping the Ministry in Mind

There is nothing casual or fatalistic about Paul’s next journeys. He is carrying a significant offering to aid the Christians in Jerusalem who are suffering deep poverty because of a localized famine and being excluded from the support of the Jewish social structures.

But that is not what his ongoing mission is: to preach the Gospel in new places, and where those new places are planned to be.

Paul was not called to the role of Pastor: He was called to the role of Apostle, as a church planter among the Gentiles by the design of Christ for him. So he spells it out clearly to the Roman church:

Paul’s Ongoing Mission

Is not by design to camp out at an established church as the long-term pastor. He was fine with the opportunity to help churches out with deeper understanding about what it means to be a Christian, and better ways to think about the work and person of Jesus Christ. And although Paul’s writings in the New Testament are nearly half of that part of the Bible, he really wanted to go preach Christ to people who have never heard:

Romans 15:20 ESV

20 and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation,

Paul knew there are always people who need to hear about Jesus, wherever you go. And he knew that he was called to plant wherever the Holy Spirit had prepared the soil, not just water the seeds that someone else may have planted.

Of course, you also see in this part of Paul’s ambitious nature, driven by his past, to make himself a planter of churches since before he became Christian he was a destroyer of churches. Paul wanted to be known as a pioneer for the Gospel of Christ among the Gentiles, all the non-Jews, not as someone who stepped into the role of pastor to teach an established church. That’s what we read of Apollos’ work in Corinth: 1 Corinthians 3:6

1 Corinthians 3:6 ESV

6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

1 Corinthians 3:10 ESV

10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.

Paul’s Plans for the Future

That doesn’t mean that Paul had no plans. When you look at a map of his missionary journeys, you see that he was purposeful in his directions and in his travel efficiency. Mostly on foot or asea, he couldn’t afford the wasted days of backtracking, so he made circuits that made the best use of his time on foot. It is estimated that Paul may have walked more than 10,000 miles in his missionary life. That’s 4 times across the US on the 10 fwy, from Santa Monica to Jacksonville.

There weren’t so many cities about as there are now, and Paul was a city-kind of guy. So if the city was not substantial, he kept going. And at this point in his life,

One Mission Accomplished

Paul did not stay years and years in most places. He had a kind of “flying ministry” where he would go off to the next place as soon as he fulfilled what he needed to so to establish a group of Christians in each city. But Paul was not the only apostle and church planter at work. He didn’t plant the church at Antioch, nor at Rome, and perhaps not at Ephesus. Other Christians were carrying the Gospel of Christ, unheralded and unnamed, throughout the Empire.

So when Paul came into a new town and discovered there was already a church there, he went to the next town soon after. So it was time to put into motion his dream to visit Rome, the seat of the Empire, of which he was deemed a citizen by birth, a see what God was doing there.

Romans 15:23 ESV

23 But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you,

It could be that Paul had originally dreamed of planting the church in Rome himself; the Vatican believes that Peter was the one who got there to do that ahead of Paul, but that is difficult to establish according to the Scripture records we have in Acts and other places.

So Paul now how Rome on his schedule as he also has

A New Mission in Mind

to go to the western ends of the Earth, Roman Gaul, modern Spain:

Romans 15:24 ESV

24 I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while.

Having this new mission in mind, Paul is priming Rome to become a sponsor of that new mission to Spain. A few sentences later he says he is going to Spain, or Gaul as the Romans called it, by way of the church in Rome. Hoping for support to plant the Gospel in new lands, where they have not yet heard.

But first, he has another obligation: He needs to deliver a collection from the Greek churches, that is . . .

Aid For the Mother Church

Hand Carried by Paul

Romans 15:25 ESV

25 At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints.

Gifts from Greece

Romans 15:26 ESV

26 For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.

Good Reason to Give

Romans 15:27 ESV

27 For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.

Paul’s Next Mission

The Western Ends of the Earth

Romans 15:28 ESV

28 When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you.

Certain of Continuing in Christ

Romans 15:29 ESV

29 I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.

Paul’s Prayer Requests

Please Pray for What’s Coming

Romans 15:30 ESV

30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf,

Pray for Protection

Romans 15:31a (ESV)

31 that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea,

Pray the Gifts are Accepted

Romans 15:31b (ESV)

31 . . . and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints,

Pray for Paul’s Coming Visit

Romans 15:32 ESV

32 so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.

Live in God’s Peace

Romans 15:33 ESV

33 May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.