Able To Instruct - Able To Proclaim

I invite you to turn with me to Romans 15.

We will look at verses 14-21 today.

I want to begin by asking each one of you a question this morning.

And I don’t want you to answer out loud.

Just consider it silently to yourself.

Here is the question: how is your ministry going?

Now, you may find that an odd question for me as your pastor to be asking you.

Most of us are more accustomed to think that this is the kind of question you, the church member, would be asking me, the pastor.

How is your ministry going?

Yet, in light of the truth of the gospel and the instructions of the New Testament, the question, “How is your ministry going?” is just as fit, if not more so, for the pastor to ask church members than for church members to ask the pastor.

The book of Ephesians tells us that God gave pastors, who are shepherds and teachers, to the church in order to equip the saints for the work of ministry.

It is each one of you in the body of Christ who has been filled with the Holy Spirit of God since the moment He convicted your heart of sin and convinced your heart to trust Christ and His finished work for salvation.

It is each one of you in the body of Christ who has been gifted by the Spirit of God to serve His church and its mission in the world through word and deed.

So, how is your ministry going?

If you were to say to me: well, Pastor Jason, I don’t have a ministry.

Let me challenge you that if you have been born again by faith in the gospel, and if you live in the world that God created with other people that God created, you have a ministry.

So, how is your ministry going?

We have been walking through the book of Romans for quite some time now as a church, and I told you that Romans 15:13, which is the last verse that we looked at, was not just the end of a section of the book, but it is Paul’s prayer and goal for all who would read this letter.

Romans 15:13 ESV

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

This letter which has gloriously expounded upon the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the power of God for salvation to all who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek,

This letter which has gloriously expounded upon what Christ has done to save us in the gospel and how we are to respond by the power of the Spirit of God within us,

All of it has the goal and purpose from the God of all hope to fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

The body of Paul’s Holy Spirit inspired letter is now complete, yet the book of Romans goes on for another chapter and a half.

Because remember, Paul’s letter is not a theological textbook.

It is a personal letter to the church in Rome in order to encourage, instruct, and exhort them in their walk with Christ.

And by the Spirit of God, it continues to do this for all the church of God throughout the centuries to this very day as we engage with it this morning.

So, may we pray that God’s Spirit does the work only he can do in our hearts and for our ministries as we walk through this passage together as Paul begins to end the letter.

Romans 15:14–21 ESV

14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. 15 But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17 In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. 18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; 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, 21 but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”

1. We Are Equipped To Counsel One Another

Verse 14 again: I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.

It is important for us to note that Paul was not used of God to start the church in Rome like he did many of the other churches he ended up writing letters back to.

The Bible actually doesn’t tell us who God used to start the church in Rome.

All we know is that Acts tells us that their were Jews from Rome present in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost when the Spirit of God caused Peter to preach the gospel and many were saved.

So, it was most likely a group of unnamed Jewish background people who heard the gospel and were saved in Jerusalem that day and took the gospel back to Rome and started the church.

So, it may have been tempting for these believers in the Roman church to have a bit of a little man complex.

Here we are, this church that wasn’t even started and formed by an apostle.

Here we are struggling with our identity as Jews and Gentiles together.

Here we are struggling to figure out how to do life together without judging or despising one another,

Surely we are not as equipped to do gospel ministry to the glory of God as the church in Antioch, or in Ephesus, or in Philippi.

Have you ever thought that way about your church?

Are you tempted to think that way about your life?

Oh, we don’t have much of a ministry, we are just a small church.

We don’t have a grand beginning story.

We’ve struggled just to get things up and running and learn how to relate with one another.

What about in your own life? Oh, I don’t have a ministry.

I don’t know the Bible well enough.

I’m no prayer warrior.

I still sin all the time.

Paul begins to end this letter to the Romans and in extension to us by writing: I myself am satisfied about you.

The word he uses for satisfied can mean convinced, contented, and persuaded.

I, Paul, the apostle am satisfied, convinced, contented, and persuaded that you yourselves, and yes you, are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.

What is he saying? He is saying, you church, are full of goodness which is a moral quality that desires the good and the welfare of one another.

And you are filled with all knowledge.

That is a massive statement.

It is so massive of a statement that some Bible scholars accuse Paul of flattery and buttering the church of Rome up,

Filled with all knowledge? Really Paul? You’ve had to use up six chapters of this letter to try to convince Jews and Gentiles that they can worship together as one church,

Now you are saying they have all knowledge?

You know who Paul sounds like here?

He sounds like our Lord Jesus when he said:

John 14:26 ESV

26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

And in:

Colossians 2:1–3 ESV

1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

You see, being full of goodness and all knowledge does not mean that you never sin again or that you never judge or despise someone again, and it does not mean that we are all biblical and theological geniuses,

What it does mean is that you have been born again by the Holy Spirit of God through faith in Jesus Christ and you now find yourself in union with Christ who is the source of all goodness, knowledge, and wisdom.

It’s like when we talk to our teens about going to college.

We tell them it’s not about being a know it all and knowing everything there is to know.

Instead, it is about having the skills to find what you need to know.

Being filled with goodness and all knowledge doesn’t mean you are morally perfect and have all the answers, but it does mean you are intimately related with the one in whom are hidden all the treasures of goodness, wisdom, and knowledge.

And because we know Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of God’s word, we are able to instruct one another.

The word instruct means more than just teach facts, instead it means to admonish, exhort, and counsel one another.

You see, God by his grace grants certain individuals in the church the task of publicly preaching and teaching God’s word to his church, but then there is a more personal ministry of God’s word that we are all commanded to do.

Encourage one another, exhort one another, admonish one another, counsel one another.

Think about it: anytime we are talking with another believer about a struggle in their life, their workplace, their family, their church, their emotions, their children, anytime we are talking about those things, we are saying something and we are pointing them somewhere.

The question is: are we speaking the truth of God’s word and applying the gospel to their situation?

Peter wrote:

2 Peter 1:3–4 ESV

3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

If God’s divine power has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through knowing God and rehearsing His great promises to us,

Then we are equipped to counsel and encourage one another when it comes to struggles in applying the gospel to relationships, emotional problems, workplace issues, and other matters of life.

So, how is your ministry going?

I myself am satisfied about you that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.

2. We Are Equipped For Obedience As An Acceptable Offering To God

Verse 15: But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Paul now says that though I am confident you all can counsel one another and have all knowledge through Christ, I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder.

This is a very common way for the New Testament to letters to read, which challenges us that in the Christian walk, everything seems fresh and new at first as you read the Bible for the first time, and hear passages preached and taught that you have never heard before.

But, once you have been a Christian for a little longer, the reading of the Bible, and sitting under teaching and preaching will fall more under the category of the way of reminder.

Don’t get me wrong, the Holy Spirit will continue to help you make new connections and learn how to apply the word in deeper ways, but the truth is the truth and will not change.

In a world that always values the new and the novel, it can be tempting to want to hear or read something new.

But let me challenge us, we would not want a God who was prone to change.

One of the great truths of God is that he has made himself knowable to us and that is the same yesterday today and forever so all the promises He made to us way back then He is just as committed to being faithful to today, because God never changes.

Paul says he wrote boldly on some points by way of reminder because of the grace given him by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles.

The New Testament always sees God’s grace not only in His saving of our souls, but also in his calling and purposes once we are saved in order to live the rest of our lives for His glory.

Paul’s calling and purpose was to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles.

No wonder he would be the one to write the church in Rome who had to figure out how to live faithfully as a church of both Jews and Gentiles.

Paul describes his ministry as being in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Remember back in Romans 12, after Paul had spent eleven chapters laying out in detail the glory of the gospel, Paul writes how we are to respond to this great gospel of the mercies of God.

We are to respond by presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is our worship to Him.

So, Paul presented himself a living sacrifice in worship to God by proclaiming the gospel to the Gentiles.

Now, Paul is saying the Gentiles by His ministry are now able to offer themselves as a pleasing offering to God as they have now been sanctified and set apart by the Spirit of God since they believed the gospel.

This is how gospel ministry works.

The gospel saves sinners and brings them into God’s family - the church.

God’s family - the church - present themselves to God as living sacrifices in order to worship God by proclaiming the gospel to others, that they might be saved and offer themselves as living sacrifices.

Verse 17: In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God.

Now, we know that it is sinful to be prideful and boastful as a follower of Jesus, so, many times instead, we think the right way to go is to belittle ourselves, and think what bad Christians we are, which keeps us from going all in on making disciples, and teaching and counseling God’s word to others.

But, this is not the example Paul gives us of fighting against pride and showing humility in the Christian life.

We are not to belittle ourselves and keep from ministering to others believing we don’t have anything to give.

Instead, we are to boast in Jesus and point all glory to Jesus and lift high Jesus in all things.

Notice, Paul was proud of his work in ministry because He knew it was by the power of Jesus Christ in Him.

Verse 18: For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience.

So, being humble in the Christian life is not about belittling oneself and hiding off in a corner.

Being humble in the Christian life is giving all glory to Christ for any and everything that He choses to do and accomplish through you.

Will you notice with me that Paul’s ministry of the gospel to the Gentiles led them to obedience?

An old reformed preacher named Martin Lloyd Jones is famous for saying:

When you preach that salvation is by God’s grace alone, critics will say: if you tell people that, they will do whatever they want.

But the truth is: if they are truly saved by grace, they will do whatever God wants.

Believing on the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation is never a one time occurrence that gets someone out of hell but never changes their life here on earth.

Believing on the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation is God removing your heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh so that you can live for God instead of yourself by obeying what He tells you to do with your life.

Listen, if you are here, and you believe you have been saved from the wrath of God on the coming judgment day, but you feel no desire to live your life as a pleasing sacrifice to God, you feel no desire to be a faithful member of God’s church, you feel no desire to be about God’s mission in the world, you feel no remorse for harboring bitterness and unforgiveness, you feel no desire to be more like Jesus in the way you relate with others, you feel no desire to encourage other believers in their walk with Jesus,

I want to warn you that you should have no confidence that you have been truly saved, for in salvation, we experience newness of life, union with Christ, and the presence of the Holy Spirit,

That does not mean we do not sin, we Christians are oftentimes shocked at how strong our willingness to sin still is and how often we do it,

while being saved does not lead to walking with Jesus perfectly by any stretch of the imagination, it does lead us to walking with Jesus genuinely.

So, if you have no desire for God and have not lived for his glory, repent and believe the gospel for salvation today.

Christ and his gospel accomplish obedience in believers as we offer our lives as pleasing sacrifices to God.

3. We Are Equipped To Proclaim The Gospel Both Near And Far

End of verse 18: by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God - so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ;

Paul’s ministry has been accomplished by the power of God by word and deed.

These are the primary tasks that God empowers in the Christian life in being a minister and a witness to others.

Speaking the word of God and demonstrating the truth of the word of God by doing the good deeds God word calls us to do.

Then notice, Paul’s ministry of word and deed was accompanied by sign and wonders done by the Holy Spirit of God.

The words “signs and wonders” are the same words used of Jesus’ miracles throughout his ministry.

The book of Acts tells us that Paul blinded a magician, healed a lame man, survived a stoning meant to kill him, cast a demon out of a slave girl, raised a man from the dead, among other things.

You see, in the time of the apostles’ ministry of word and deed to establish the first churches in these regions, God accompanied their ministries with signs and wonders.

And while God can do any miracle at any time to display His glory and to confirm the truth of God’s word, and he still does whenever he sovereignly chooses, followers of Jesus today are no longer given the specific gifts of signs and wonders as were given the first apostles to establish the first church as the New Testament was yet to be written.

Yet, we still go in the power and confidence of the Holy Spirit of God working through the word of God and the good deeds God has given us to do believing God will sovereignly do a work for His glory as we obey him.

Now, it is astounding to hear Paul say that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum that he has fulfilled the ministry of the gospel.

And down in verse 23 he adds that he has no more room to work in those regions.

There was a travel distance of about 1400 miles between Jerusalem and Illyricum, and that is just straight distance, Paul uses the word “around” like he is thinking about a broad circle of area between these two cities.

How could Paul possibly say that He had fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ and had no more room for work in the region?

He could not mean that everyone in that region had become saved.

Far far from it.

Instead, Paul’s mission as an apostle was to go, plant, and establish churches in the cities of a region so that those churches could then grow as a faithful gospel witness in that place.

So, once there were churches planted in all the cities of that region, Paul saw his apostolic missionary work of God’s word completed in that place.

Throughout the New Testament, you had apostolic missionaries who began a work of the gospel in new places, then they would help raise up pastor/elders to stay and shepherd that flock of God while the missionary moved on to establish another church somewhere else.

This strategy speaks to the fundamental role of the local church to stay in a place, abide in Christ in that place, worship and proclaim the gospel of Jesus in that place, so that all in that area would have opportunity to hear, repent, and believe the gospel for salvation.

Remember, we exist to exalt Christ, equip the saints, and evangelize the world by proclaiming the gospel here in Rocky Mount and supporting the work of the gospel around the world through proclaiming the gospel which leads to establishing local churches.

Verse 20: 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, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”

As an apostolic missionary, Paul’s calling and ambition was to preach the gospel where it had not gone yet.

His calling was not to build on the gospel that was already present in a place.

That was the pastor/elders job to stay in a place and equip the saints through the word of God to do the ongoing work of ministry in that place.

It was Paul’s job to go where Christ had never been named so as the prophet Isaiah said: Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.

God continues His gospel work through the proclamation of His word today.

Every person who has heard the message of the gospel and believed for salvation has not only been saved from their sin, but they have also been saved into God’s family - the church.

And it is in the context of the church that believers in Jesus exalt Christ, care for one another in love, unity, and the counsel of God’s word, and go out and share the gospel with the lost around them.

In the context of the church, God raises up pastor/elder/shepherds to stay, to abide in Christ in that place, preach and teach God’s word in order to equip God’s church for the work of ministry in their churches, their homes, their workplaces, and their city.

It is also in the context of the local church that God raises up evangelists, church planters, and missionaries to go out and make it their ambition to preach the gospel where Jesus had not been named in order to see a people saved and establish a church as a gospel witness in a place that presently has no gospel witness.

You see, when we were dead in our sins desiring to live for ourselves and our own glory, God sent His Son Jesus who was fully God and fully man.

And Jesus lived a sinless life of worship to God and love to others for the glory of God as we were all meant to.

Then Jesus died in our place for the punishment of all of our sins on the cross.

And three days later, Jesus rose from dead to defeat our sin, death, and hell in our place.

And all who hear this message of the gospel are called to repent of their life of sin and trust that what Jesus did he did to save you from the wrath to come and make you alive with God and adopt you into His family - the church.

And in the church, we do the work of proclaiming God’s word and praying God would raise up pastor/elder/shepherds to stay and continue the ministry of the word.

We also pray that God would raise up missionaries who would give their lives to go to the least reached places in the world to preach the gospel and establish churches where Jesus is not currently known.

And let me encourage you, we all have a role to play in this missionary work.

Every believer should pray for the work of missions among the nations.

Every believer should give to the work of missions among the nations.

And every believer should put on the table before God, would you have me go?

If we are going to be faithful to the mission God has given us in the coming days, God is going to raise up from our midst more pastor/elder/shepherds to continue this gospel work here in this place.

And he is going to also raise up many church planting missionaries to go from this place to take the gospel to places in this world that desperately need gospel witness.

How is your ministry going?

Would you lay yourself before Jesus this morning and let him affirm in you the ministry He has given you?

Will you humbly receive the truth that you are equipped to counsel one another and help apply the gospel to every aspect of life through the Spirit of God within you?

Will you humbly receive the truth that you are equipped to obedience to Christ understand your whole existence is to be a pleasing offering of worship to God?

Will you humble receive that you are equipped to share this gospel with others both near and far?

Let’s pray.

(Elder At Couch)