Romans part XX
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
My brothers and sisters, I myself am convinced about you that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. Nevertheless, I have written to remind you more boldly on some points because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the gospel of God. God’s purpose is that the Gentiles may be an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore I have reason to boast in Christ Jesus regarding what pertains to God. For I would not dare say anything except what Christ has accomplished through me by word and deed for the obedience of the Gentiles, by the power of miraculous signs and wonders, and by the power of God’s Spirit. As a result, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum.
Paul encourages his audience.
He knows they are doing a good job of living on mission. He knows they are capable of pastoring themselves. They are representing Christ well and are glorifying God in what they do, but he reminds them of all these things in this letter so that God would be glorified in the work and that they would be reminded and continue in what God has been calling them to do.
I think sometimes it can be easy to get to a place where we feel like “I know this topic, we don’t need to cover this again” but Paul reminds us that it is always good to come back to the basics.
There is an old basketball coach named John Wooden. He was a UCLA coach in the 60’s and 70’s and during that time won 10 NCAA championships in 12 years. The thing that he said led to his success was his consistency and dedication to the basics. Every year he would begin this process of building a championship caliber team by having them learn how to tie their shoes. Before they ever touched a basketball the team would learn how to tie their shoes. From there they would run the same drills building off of that foundation they had taken time to build and every year they would start over from the beginning. Here is a quote from one of the players. “By the time the games came along, they just became memorized exhibitions of brilliance.”
Paul is bringing this church back to the basics. What is faith, what is grace, how is a person saved, what does it look like to live as a saved person. Throughout this letter he begins at the start and lays a strong foundation for this church to build on. Paul is reminding the church of some things and is boldly calling them out on things because of the responsibility he has to them as someone called by God to minister to the Gentiles. Paul sees this church as his responsibility and he is committed to helping them grow in their faith.
He doesn’t do these things to make himself look good or to lord over this church. He isn’t acting in his own authority but is trying to be obedient to what God has called him to do. Everything Paul is doing is to boast in what God is accomplishing in the nations, amongst the Gentiles. God has used him to share the Gospel from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum and Paul’s hope is that God will continue to use him throughout Rome and even extending into Spain.
Paul takes time to celebrate how God is working. He takes time to encourage these other believers and look forward to how God will continue to use them.
Do you take time to celebrate what God has done and how He is working in your life?
Do you celebrate how God is working in our church and in our community?
My aim is to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named, so that I will not build on someone else’s foundation, but, as it is written, Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand. That is why I have been prevented many times from coming to you. But now I no longer have any work to do in these regions, and I have strongly desired for many years to come to you whenever I travel to Spain. For I hope to see you when I pass through and to be assisted by you for my journey there, once I have first enjoyed your company for a while. Right now I am traveling to Jerusalem to serve the saints, because Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Yes, they were pleased, and indeed are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual benefits, then they are obligated to minister to them in material needs. So when I have finished this and safely delivered the funds to them, I will visit you on the way to Spain. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.
Paul’s has a heart for the nations and for unreached people groups.
Paul’s sole focus is to take the Gospel to the nations. He has dedicated his whole life to this task and he planned on using this church in Rome to be a launch pad to take the Gospel all the way to Spain.
Paul’s dedication to sharing the Gospel is inspiring. He was fully committed to what God had called him to and carried out that calling until his death. Something that I think about as I read this is that Paul never made it to Spain.
He goes to Jerusalem and is arrested and forced to stand trial. He uses his Roman citizenship to eventually get himself to Rome to stand trial but is forced to live under house arrest and is eventually beheaded during Nero’s reign as Caesar. He never got to do what he had been planning but in his final days he got the be encouraged by this same church he wrote to.
What do we do when God’s plan is different from ours?
What do we do with unmet expectations?
God’s answer to Paul’s prayers and Paul’s plans was no.
Paul had several different plans for what his life would look like, but each step of his life God had a better plan for him. Something we can be encouraged by is that wherever following Jesus takes us we can trust in His plan for our lives.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight. Don’t be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones.
Paul never made it to Spain but God was still using him. Many times God’s plan for our life is different than what we expect. Even if our plan is to do things for God it doesn’t mean we have the whole picture laid out.
Do we trust God and His plan for our life or do we try to hold on to our own plan?
Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in prayers to God on my behalf. Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea, that my ministry to Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, and that, by God’s will, I may come to you with joy and be refreshed together with you. May the God of peace be with all of you. Amen.
What do we do when God’s answer to our prayers are no?
I think sometimes our prayer lives can look a lot like a shopping list. God forgive me of my sins, help me do good on my math test, amen. Prayer is more than just asking God for things. Prayer is an amazing gift from God. It helps us grow in our faith. Its an opportunity for us to talk with God to grow in our relationship with Him. It is a time to recognize Him as holy and worship Him. It is a time to seek wisdom and direction. A time to trust in God for provision. A time to seek forgiveness. A time to seek deliverance from temptation.
In his book Prevailing Prayer, D.L. Moody says that powerful prayer consists of Adoration, Confession, Restitution, Thanksgiving, Forgiveness, Unity, Faith, Petition, and Submission. If prayer is only about getting what we want, in times when God says no to our prayers, we will find ourselves shell-shocked and broken in our faith because our hope was in what God would give us and not in God Himself. Paul’s hope was in God and when God said no to his prayers it doesn’t mean he wasn’t disappointed or upset, but he continued to be faithful and trust God in His plan.
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church in Cenchreae. So you should welcome her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints and assist her in whatever matter she may require your help. For indeed she has been a benefactor of many—and of me also. Give my greetings to Prisca and Aquila, my coworkers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life. Not only do I thank them, but so do all the Gentile churches. Greet also the church that meets in their home. Greet my dear friend Epaenetus, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia. Greet Mary, who has worked very hard for you. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews and fellow prisoners. They are noteworthy in the eyes of the apostles, and they were also in Christ before me. Greet Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our coworker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys. Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus. Greet Herodion, my fellow Jew. Greet those who belong to the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord. Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who have worked hard in the Lord. Greet my dear friend Persis, who has worked very hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother—and mine. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers and sisters who are with them. Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send you greetings.
The work of the Gospel requires Many Hands
Paul wasn’t alone in the mission. There were many people that played a role in his success. The best part is that we don’t really know much about any of them. There is a beauty in obscurity. The church needs Christians that aren’t in it for their own glory but just want to be obedient to God. We see men and women both included in this list. God was using all people in this early church and while historically we only see men as apostles and as church leaders, that doesn’t mean that women didn’t play an influential role in the early church. Paul thanks and celebrates several women in this passage. Phoebe, Priscilla, Mary, Junia, Tryphena and Tryphosa, Persis, Rufus’ mother, the sisters with Hermas, Julia, and Nereus’ sister. All these people were active in the Roman church and contributors to all God was doing in Rome.
Paul shows us something in this list of people included. We all have something to contribute in God’s Kingdom.
How is God calling you to use your gifts in His Kingdom?
Why is it important to serve for God’s glory and not our own?
Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles contrary to the teaching that you learned. Avoid them, because such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites. They deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting with smooth talk and flattering words.
When we serve God for our own glory it is easy to fall to flattery. Paul warns against division and deceitful people that wish to cause the church harm. As a church we need to be on guard against harmful teachings and attitudes that come up against the church. Paul offers them some encouragement regarding these things.
The report of your obedience has reached everyone. Therefore I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise about what is good, and yet innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
If Paul were to write us a letter today would he commend us on our obedience?
Paul encourages the church to continue in the good they are doing, to grow in wisdom and remain in their innocence. He tells them to continue to serve their community, a broken city drenched in darkness, but as you serve them be careful not to fall into the same sins you’re trying to help them get free of.
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
God was using this Roman church to push back the darkness around them and Paul was confident they would be successful because God was on their side. They were living in a time when Rome was increasingly hostile to the church and physically it was the church that would be crushed by Nero and by the Romans. There would be a violent persecution of the church that would heavily effect this Roman church. The church’s victory over the darkness surrounding them wasn’t popularity in their city or leading a Caesar to Christ. God was crushing satan through them by their faithful commitment to follow Jesus even in persecution. There will be a day when God crushes satan once and for all. When Jesus comes back in victory to make all things new. But the encouragement we have from this is that even when it feels like darkness is winning Christ cannot be overcome, and His people can overcome because of what Christ has done for us.
Timothy, my coworker, and Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my fellow countrymen, greet you. I, Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus greet you.
More names of people aiding Paul. Timothy being the one name we really recognize out of this group. We see a couple of the others had joined Paul throughout the book of Acts. Lucius in Acts 13:1, Jason in Acts 17:5, Sosipater and Gaius in Acts 20:4, and Erastus in Acts 19:22.
Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation about Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for long ages but now revealed and made known through the prophetic Scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God to advance the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles—to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ—to him be the glory forever! Amen.
Paul closes this amazing book with a word of glory to God. How does Paul describe God in this epilogue?
He is able to strengthen you (according to the Gospel)
He is the reveler of the mystery of the Gospel long kept silent done through His prophetic Scriptures
He is the sovereign and eternal God of the ages
He is God of the nations, acting to advance obedience of faith among the Gentiles
He is the only wise God
He is recipient of all glory forever
How does having a high view of God influence all we have studied in Romans?
