The Priestly Service of a Missionary

Introduction

What is the purpose of missionary work? Seriously, why doesn’t Jesus just appear to all the elect in a dream, or send an angel to evangelize to them so that the work may be complete and the Kingdom may be fully realized? We know that God’s ways are not ours, and yet what we find in Paul’s theology is a striking view of how Jesus intends to gather his flock to himself in preparation for his second coming. It is so essential to Paul’s view of life and his theology, that we could say without this understanding of Christ’s work in the world Paul would never have become a missionary.

Today, we will look into Paul’s view of missions, and in doing so my hope and prayer is that in it we will see the responsibility and promise we have which will spur us on to a greater heart for missions, a greater response to the missionary calling, greater success in missionary work, and a greater effort twinned with hope in the unique grace God has given each of us as part of our calling in Christ.

Paul’s Calling to the Gentiles

Last week, we saw how Paul viewed his ministry as a priestly service. This service was not a literal priesthood where a chosen man ceremonially sanctified would enter the temple of God to offer the blood of bulls or goats as a pleasing aroma to God. Instead, Paul was fulfilling the true purpose of the priestly office. The temple he served in was in heaven, where Jesus Christ serves as our great high priest. The sanctifying water was not water, but the very blood of Christ shed for his sins. The priestly robes were good works done in the power of the Holy Spirit. The offering was the salvation and maturity of the Gentiles, which also would be provided by the Holy Spirit.

This is why Paul wrote this letter to the Roman Church. Although he did not plant this church, and had not even met them before this point, he felt responsible for their spiritual development because of his calling. This is what Paul means in verses 15-16 by saying that the reminder he gave them was “because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”

Paul’s pride, as we saw last week, was not in his own ability to accomplish this great task. The sacrifice of the none Jewish nations of the world was not something he himself could accomplish. Instead, Paul saw himself as one united with Christ Jesus. As he says in Rom 15:18

Romans 15:18 NET

For I will not dare to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in order to bring about the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed,

Paul will boast, but his boasting was in his weakness and God’s strength. His thorn in the flesh, whatever weakness that may have been, was put there to show how weak he was, and so how strong Jesus was in using a weak and broken tool such as himself to accomplish his good work.

When I was in competitive swimming as a teenager, I saw my friends spend thousands of dollars on the best swimsuits so that they could have just a little bit of an edge when in the pool. Their victories, though mostly due to their own ability and discipline, were partially won because of the high-end gear they bought. How much more glory would a swimmer receive if they dove into the pool with a cheap, baggy swimsuit that would hold you back, and still win the gold medal? In this illustration, Paul sees himself, not as top-end gear, but as the cheap, baggy suit that gives absolutely no advantage so that the conversion of the gentiles would bring glory to Christ. Phil 3:7

Philippians 3:7 ESV

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

So does Paul abandon all glory for himself? Actually no. He does abandon any glory that may come from his own ability or effort, that all belong to Christ. Instead, Paul has a hope of a future glory that is tied to his view of Salvation. He writes in Col 2:9-10

Colossians 2:9–10 NIV 2011

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.

When we speak of justification, we usually speak of the effect or result of that process, namely being made righteous with Christ’s righteousness rather than our own. But how does this come to be? The answer is that by faith, we enter into covenant with him, a covenant we remembered this morning at the Lord’s Table. This covenant binds Jesus to us, and us to him. In John 15 Jesus tells us that He is the vine and we are the branches, and because he is a fruitful vine the branches all bear fruit. That is because it is impossible for a branch which is attached to a healthy vine to not be healthy as well. Although we in ourselves are weak sinners, just as a branch by itself is nothing more than a fruitless stick, by faith in the covenant established in the blood of Christ we gain unity with him. We become attached and take on his characteristics, his fruit, and his work. Paul speaks of this aspect of salvation in Eph 2:10

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

These good works, this fruit, is due to the vine to which we are attached. It is impossible for a Christian united in Christ by faith to be without fruit, just as it is impossible for a branch to bear the true fruits of faith alone.

In this new covenant, we become attached to Jesus in such a way that his life and our life become inseparable. All that Jesus accomplished, his saints accomplish. All that he suffered, we suffer. As he died, so we will die. As he was raised and glorified, so we will be raised to newness of life at his visible coming.

Just as the branch cannot boast of its fruitfulness, since the nutritious sap that produces fruit comes only from the healthy and perfect vine which is Christ, so Paul cannot boast. In fact, he boasts in how weak, broken, and useless a branch he is so that when a full harvest of fruit springs up from him, it speaks only of the power of the vine. In this Paul will boast and be proud.

But not only this, Paul has a hope that he will share in that glory. Our union with Christ means that in resurrection his saints will be crowned with Christ’s glory, each according to the fruit they bore, which depends only on their connection to the vine by faith. See this expressed with such wonder in Col 3:1-4

Colossians 3:1–4 ESV

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

But what does this have to do with Paul’s mission, and with the topic of global missionary work in general? Everything! Missionary work was impossible in the OT. Have you ever noticed that the number of non-Jews that come to know God in the OT is so small you could count them on your fingers? This is because Christ had not yet come, and Israel was under an old covenant that was unable to bring them into union with God in the way they needed to be in order to fulfill God’s purposes for the world. Now, believers are united with Christ and therefore become his body. When you pick a delicious apple off of a tree, you praise the health and fruitfulness of the tree, not the branch.

Likewise, what God has called the church to is as impossible as a branch bearing fruit without any connection to a healthy tree. But Paul’s great confidence and pride in his ministry is that he is connected to Christ by a covenant which is able to accomplish what the old could not because of sin. A covenant in which sin is taken away, guilt is removed, weakness is fortified with divine strength, and as the fruit is born the branches share in the glory of the fruitful vine because, as branches, they are part of that vine. Just as a husband may rejoice in the baby that was borne through his wife’s pregnancy and labour, we may rejoice in the fruit that is borne through the power of Christ working in us.

Fulfilling an OT Missiology

What is very interesting in this text is how Paul draws upon the OT for this ministry. Rom 15:21

Romans 15:21 ESV

but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”

This should surprise us because Paul is quoting Is 52:15

Isaiah 52:15 ESV

so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.

In context, Isaiah is speaking of the Messiah, here identified as the suffering servant. It may seem problematic for Paul to use an OT prophecy talking about the ministry of the Christ to refer to his own ministry. Jesus’ ministry was mostly limited to the Jews, with gentiles being the occasional exception. If Jesus never went on a mission trip to the Gentiles, to non-Jewish nations, how could this text possibly be fulfilled? For Paul, it is fulfilled in him. Because he is a branch connected to the vine, his work is actually the work of Christ. So when he goes out and brings this offering of the Gentiles to God as a missionary priest, it is actually Jesus who is making that offering through him. Paul has no faith in his own ability and a boatload of faith in Jesus’ ability, which is why he presses on and is not dismayed at his weakness, sickness, or imprisonment. In fact, when speaking of imprisonment, Paul says in Phil 1:12

Philippians 1:12 ESV

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel,

How? Because Paul believes that what happens to him is in God’s hands, and therefore it cannot fail. If that means being in prison, it must just be another unexpected way in which God will use his inability to do much for the cause of the gospel.

This is not the only time Paul uses OT passages referring to Christ to refer to his own ministry. He does the same thing in 2 Cor 6:2 where Paul uses a passage talking about God setting a day for the Messiah to accomplish the work of salvation to refer to his ministry to the Corinthian Church. How could he dare to do this? Because of his confidence that his ministry was not his ministry. He didn’t care about his own personal reputation, as Phil 1:15-18 proves to us. But his ministry was not his, which is why he was so blunt with the Corinthians. He was telling them that to reject his ministry was to reject Christ, since the gospel he preached was not his, but Christ, and the result was not due to his work but rather to the grace of God.

We even see this carrying out of the Messiah’s work through Jewish believers to the who world prophesied about in Is 66:18-23

Isaiah 66:18–23 NIV 2011

‘And I, because of what they have planned and done, am about to come and gather the people of all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory. ‘I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations—to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations. And they will bring all your people, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord—on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,’ says the Lord. ‘They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the Lord in ceremonially clean vessels. And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,’ says the Lord. ‘As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,’ declares the Lord, ‘so will your name and descendants endure. From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,’ says the Lord.

So in this way, Paul could confidently reach the OT prophecies about Christ and know that they applied to him, as a branch firmly connected by faith in the covenant established in Jesus blood to a fruitful vine.

Missions: The Advancement of Biblical Eschatology

What does this say about Christian mission? It tells us that Jesus work is our work, and therefore it is assured to be successful if we remain in him by faith.

Think about this: your job while you remain on this planet is to be the tool with which Jesus tills the ground of this world so that it may bear much fruit. You are not a great tool for the job, certainly there are better tools out there that could do your job better than you, but God has chosen you to accomplish it because of your weakness. 1 Cor 1:25

1 Corinthians 1:25 ESV

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

1 Corinthians 1:27 ESV

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;

The work we have been given is nothing less than the eschatological mission which the Father gave to Jesus himself. Jesus now allows you to share in that ministry. Sure, it could have been accomplished faster if he used better tools, since we tend to get in the way of things due to our lack of faith. Christ may have already returned if he did things differently. But he chooses to play the long game so that we may share in a unity in which his work is our work, his strength is our strength just as he took on our weakness in becoming a human being. His glory and victory will be ours as well.

In filling up this mission, we are bringing about the eschaton, the end of all things and the beginning of a glorious future. Every missionary sent out into the fields of this world is another step closer to Jesus’ return to gather his sheep. The fact that he hasn’t yet returned proves that the job is not yet done. The mission of Christ is not yet completed, and it is our responsibility to devote ourselves to such a faith that we may be open to being used, weak as we are, to accomplish those purposes.

Conclusion: Missions Carrying On the Ministry of Christ

Our view of missions must be motivated by union with Christ. If it is not, we will be seeking a victory in human ability rather than through the power of God. Today is a far cry from the days of the Baptist Missionary Society headed up by William Carey. Perhaps the reason the reformed baptist world seems to be allergic to missions is because we have forgotten this aspect of our salvation, union with Christ, and in so doing have lost the sense urgency and responsibility we used to have for global missions. Carey was motivated by a conviction that he would be used to bring about the coming of Christ. What happened to this conviction? When did we lose this? What is stopping us from embracing the faith that Christ will work mightily in our missionary efforts, in our sacrifice and labour in weakness? Let our prayer be that reformed baptists would again embrace such a faith so that we may be used by Christ to be fruitful and accomplish this great work.

Examine your own life and feed off of this glorious concept. You are a branch connected to the vine. Though you are hopeless in yourself, Christ’s strength works through your weakness. Will you not step out in faith knowing that Jesus will provide the sacrifice you are called to offer in God’s heavenly temple? What is your calling? You gifting? If you are not called to be a missionary, what is the grace given to you? Have you sought it out and found it? Have you discovered the grace given to you to serve Christ, his mission, and his Church? Is it service? Prayer? Hospitality? Teaching? Encouragement? Discipleship of young believers? Evangelism? Whatever it is, if you are in Christ you are called to be a fruitful vine. Any vine that does not bear fruit cannot blame the vine for fruitlessness, because in reality they are not connected themselves. Do you have the faith to step out, weak and sinful as you are, and serve God with the confidence that your efforts will bear fruit and bring glory to Christ? Although Jesus’ physical body is in heaven, his presence through the Holy Spirit continues in us. Let us embrace the task we have and the adventure that awaits us, and give all we have in service to a calling that is promised to bear much fruit if we continue in it by faith in the Son of God, who will fulfill the Father’s purposes and finish the work he set out to accomplish in his Church.