02) A Saint's Heart
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Paul opened his letter to the church, the saints in Rome with a greeting of who he was, a servant of Jesus, an apostle set apart for the Gospel.
He then spoke of this gospel, which was a fulfillment of promise, centered on the single figure of Jesus who was appointed, or made known as the powerful son of God because of the resurrection of the dead.
It was through this man, Jesus, that the saints, the believers have recieved grace and apostleship. Both of which were given for the purpose of bringing about obedience of faith among the Gentiles.
He gives this message and writes this letter to those that are in Rome and loved by God.
He then turns to the side to reveal a little about himself and his own motives and actions. He shares his heart and passions with the recipients of the letter. To Paul this is not a business letter, or a dissertation of fact, an argumentative essay. This is a letter from a man who cares for those he writes too. For those he likely has never met.
So he starts the body of the letter in verse 8.
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because the news of your faith is being reported in all the world. 9 God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in telling the good news about his Son—that I constantly mention you, 10 always asking in my prayers that if it is somehow in God’s will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I want very much to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, 12 that is, to be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 Now I don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I often planned to come to you (but was prevented until now) in order that I might have a fruitful ministry among you, just as I have had among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am obligated both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
Paul starts this personal section of his letter with thanksgiving to God.
I Thank My God
I Thank My God
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because the news of your faith is being reported in all the world. 9 God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in telling the good news about his Son—that I constantly mention you, 10 always asking in my prayers that if it is somehow in God’s will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.
We are taught in scripture that what comes out of a person’s mouth is an overflow of the heart.
45 A good person produces good out of the good stored up in his heart. An evil person produces evil out of the evil stored up in his heart, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.
From the overflow of his heart Paul is filled with thanksgiving as he thanks his God for what he is doing.
This is a man who has seen the Father because he has seen the son. He knows God, as the spirit dwells in his soul. He has been transformed by the work and will of God in his life.
God, the infinite being, no beginning or end, the all mighty and all powerful sovereign of the universe. He who can speak worlds into existence. who knows the beginning to the end, sees all, hears all, and nothing is hidden from him. The all just one, who is righteous in his punishment of a sinner and loving in his salvation of the faithful.
A God who has has seen and heard the prayers of more saints that can be counted. This God who is so great in glory that to just look upon him would cause death. This is the God that Paul very personally says “my God.” I thank my God. He is personal to me.
Jesus said that he would be their God.
17 “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus told her, “since I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
The God that made himself known in the flesh, the God that would even give evidence to those that would doubt him. After he instructed Thomas to put his hand in the wounds on his side and hands, Thomas would exclaim.
28 Thomas responded to him, “My Lord and my God!”
A God that not only creates and saves but also provides.
19 And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
A God that gave of himself to bring his people to himself.
14 He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession, eager to do good works.
3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God. He made us, and we are his— his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Because he was chosen
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
This reality leads Paul to speak much of what he is thankful for. Like the heart of the Psalmist his heart is filled with thanksgiving and praise for the faithful love of God.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. 5 For the Lord is good, and his faithful love endures forever; his faithfulness, through all generations.
When a person comes to the understanding of what was accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus. To see the great lengths he has gone through to save a people for himself. The persecution and hate that he endured for a sinner like me. That they see the desperate state that needs God and the free gift that is given to reconcile men back to God. The appropriate response is gratitude.
When we don’t recognize how far he went, and how little we gave, we come to be humbled and thankful. Paul by his own words, a blasphemer, persecutor, a violent man. He was saved by God and sent on a mission to take the message of God to the gentiles.
He is confident in his God. So he can boldly approach the throne of his God.
16 Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.
Their Faith
Their Faith
He says I thank my God for you. His heart is filled with the gratitude of what God has done in his life and what he is doing in the life of other saints. Here he states that he thanks God through Jesus for all of the saints in Rome. He has heard through different people that there is this group of believers that God is doing a work in. A work that is bringing glory to God.
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because the news of your faith is being reported in all the world.
Their faith. Not their saving faith but their deep growing, steadfast trust in God. A trust that was causing a ripple in the world around them.
I don’t know about girls, but I bet every man here has spent countless hours throwing rocks into lakes and ponds. I remember as kids spending hours, trying to throw the biggest rock, or the most rocks, skipping rocks, trying to hit the same place twice, throwing out a stick and trying to hit or sink the stick.
But not only that as a dad I have told by boys countless times to stop throwing rocks while I am fishing. It never fails when you just start to find the fish, feel the bit, bloop. Or you stand out there in the peaceful evening and there is a big splash and you look over thinking you will see a giant fish jumping and nope it is just my boys.
Each rock that enters the water creates a ripple. It causes something. If the rock is big enough the ripples will extend out over a long distance. They will wash up on the shore when there is no more water. The saints in Rome were causing ripples. Their faith was being reported all over the world. What does the mean? How big of an impact is that?
It is believed that Paul wrote this letter from Corinth. If you look at a map Rome and Corinth are just over 700 miles apart separated by the Sea. What kind of testimony is it that a man 700 miles away, without an Instagram account, news clip, Facebook, or any other modern day means of communication, has heard of the faith of those in Rome. I can understand that a single man seeking this information could find it but all the world. There is something about their faith that is making ripples in the world. and those ripples are going out and the world has heard about it.
Like when Paul preached the Gospel in Ephesus, there was such an impact that it affected the local silver smiths as people were no longer buying idols of false Gods.
Think of it this way, here is a map of major cities that are in a 700 mile radius of Spokane. Think about the impact the ripples a church would have to make in Sacramento California for us to know about it. God was doing a work in the saints in Rome in a way that their faith, their trust in the Lord had reached the ears of Paul.
Their faith was being proclaimed in the world. He would say something similar about the church in Thessalonica.
8 For the word of the Lord rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place that your faith in God has gone out. Therefore, we don’t need to say anything,
Here it was described as the word ringing out from them like the sound wave of a giant gong or bell. And to the Church in Philippi he would exhort them in this way.
14 Do everything without grumbling and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, 16 by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing.
The saints in these cities were not hunkered down in secret hideaways. The world they lived in was in the middle of a crooked and perverted generation. To be lights in the darkness, to have the word ring out from them, to have their faith proclaimed over hundreds of miles away these men and women were living in a bold and faithful way. They had set their hope and trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the one true God. And the word of this God was what they held fast to, what shown out from them was the trust in these words, trust in the one who the word speaks of and about. The work that brings life.
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
The word that works, it cuts, it sanctifies, it cleanses, when it is believed in and when a person’s trust is set upon it and it alone. This is what the saints in Rome were doing and living. And this testimony was on Paul’s mind and in his prayers.
As God is My Witness
As God is My Witness
9 God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in telling the good news about his Son—that I constantly mention you, 10 always asking in my prayers that if it is somehow in God’s will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.
God is my witness. This saying was not uncommon for Paul to use as the highest defense of what he would claim.
8 For God is my witness, how deeply I miss all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
5 For we never used flattering speech, as you know, or had greedy motives—God is our witness—
23 I call on God as a witness, on my life, that it was to spare you that I did not come to Corinth.
In 9th century England, many oaths and ceremonies were conducted in the church. And the tradition of swearing on the bible started with a person putting their hand on one of the gospels. We have all heard quotes like "I swear by Almighty God that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
The idea of having God as a witness. The one who cannot lie. The one who commands “though shall not lie” in the ten commandments. Is there a better witness? No. Paul is communicating to the Romans that I present my next statement with so much boldness that God is a witness to this truth.
This God that he serves by telling others about Jesus. He has no reservations about what God has called him to do or shame or guilt of shirking those tasks.
He can confidently say that he mentions them in his prayers. Petitioning God that someday he might be able to come to them.
11 For I want very much to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, 12 that is, to be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
He wants to be with other believers. He wants to impart to them a spiritual gift to strengthen them. God uses his servants to strengthen each other in their faith to be mutually encouraged by our service and faith in the Lord. Those that remove themselves from the faith community of God not only find themselves weak and alone but they fail to strengthen and encourage others.
He wants to build them up and grow them like he has done others.
13 Now I don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I often planned to come to you (but was prevented until now) in order that I might have a fruitful ministry among you, just as I have had among the rest of the Gentiles.
It has been his desire to be there with them. Maybe there was a concern that Paul was focusing on other churches or people but Paul wants to set that straight, that he has longed to be with them and to minister among them. He shares with them one of the motivations for his desire to come.
14 I am obligated both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
Obligation. He has been put in this path and to move forward with it compelled to the Greeks and the foreigners. To the wise and the foolish. He is without favoritism and he is eager to preach the gospel to all.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Paul shares with the church that he is thankful for the believers in Rome. He demonstrates that Christians should be people of Thanksgiving. That leaders of the christian faith should be both in prayer for the people in their care. I can attest that sheep require a lot of care and many times they do not go the direction you guide. They may even bite back or fall away from the place they once were. There are people who are sick, those that are passing from this world. There are celebration of new life at a birth, rejoicing what a person is regenerated and saved in the Lord, at weddings and graduations.
A minister’s life can be taxing, filled with the roller coaster of joys and sorrows. But a minister, a pastor, must truly be thankful in his heart for the work.. or he will ...
This is the heart of all ministry or service. Husbands ministry to their wives and wives to their husbands, parents to their children. Do we find gratitude for what God has given us. If we do not we will wear out, get discouraged, and our lack of faith and trust in God will be revealed.
Those that are just cultural Christian. Those that claim to be follower of Jesus in name only are very rarely satisfied with what God has provided. So focused on their own wants and desires, consumed with self-centered requests and expectations, they find themselves full of bitterness, grumbling, and arguing. They do little for the glory of God and miss out on the blessings of what God has done.
What a time we live in today. A time where when those that profess to be saints, claim to have a personal God, but when you ask and inquire about the God they trust in, he looks very little like the God of Paul.
17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Instead of the God of the Scriptures. God is deconstructed, deformed, picked apart, and remade into the image of the imagination of men and women. Those that worship themselves instead of the one worthy of worship. “My God” doesn’t mean anything if my God is a figment of my own imagination conjured to make me feel better about myself and the sinful state that I am in.
Who is your God? How well do you know him? Are you seeking to know him deeper and deeper. Realizing that there is one true God and he is only found in his one true revelation of himself and those that find that truth, that will submit to that will will find the sweetest and lasting fruit of this life. Which enrichens and deepens our faith in him. A faith that when grown will send out ripples into the world around us.
Does our faith cause ripples, does the word of God ring out from us, are we a beacon of light in a sea of darkness? Have far does that ripple go? Sacramento? Seattle? How about Spokane? Our neighborhoods? What about our homes? Our spouses? Our Children?
Is your trust in Lord even proclaimed in your own home? Is your faith spoken of by your husband, wife, or children? Are you known as a person of the word? Does it ring out of any part of your life?
Have you buried your light under a basket? Afraid that you will be seen? That you will cause waves? Oh brother and sister, be bold. Throw large rocks. Make some waves? Let your faith and trust in the Lord be known. Live in the word. Let it ring out from your life. Fill your heart with the rich and sweet word of God.
Be a person who’s life brings Glory to the name of the one who died to purchase you as his own sheep.
Be a person who can call God as his witness before those in your life. That God would testify that you serve him and him alone.
Can we stand before the world around us, will we be known as the people of God. The people of faith. There are so many other things that churches and people want to be known for, the size of the church, the style of the church, the greatness of the building, the most engaging experience in preaching or signing. But the simple truth is are we content with the will of God that we are known, not by what we do, but by what he has done, through the words, of his mouth, and the work of his son.
Let us pray.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Blessing/Benediction
20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
