Sermon Tone Analysis

Romans 1:11-15.

"Harvest"

Safe Haven Community Church.

Sunday May 15th, 2022.

Romans 1:11-15.

11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you- 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.

13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.

14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.

15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

(ESV)

Among all the tragic factors regarding the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, is the ever-escalating costs.

There is the individual loss of life and the impact of the loss on families.

There is an economic destabilization to the region and a geopolitical risk of other nations drawn into the conflict.

With the extreme threat of global thermonuclear war, there is also a regional destabilization on energy shipments.

Even for something as vital as food production there is a real risk of having a global impact on supplies of everything from fertilizer to wheat production.

As this would be the time of crop cultivation, the much-needed harvest at the end of the growing season is at risk.

In any harvest there is the exchange of mutual benefit from supplier, grower, distributor to consumer.

In the Kingdom of God, there is a spiritual harvest in the sowing the seeds of the gospel of God.

The Apostle Paul desired to visit the Christians in Rome that he may may impart "some spiritual gift" to them for the strengthening of their faith.

Faith grows through the use of the means of grace, and it is these means that Paul intends to share with them.

But at this point in Romans 1 there's an intriguing break in Paul's sentence.

After telling them that he longs to see them so that he might strengthen them, he adjusts his line of thought to head off a misunderstanding that might arise in the minds of his readers, namely that the upcoming visit will be a one-way street with Paul dispensing all the good things.

Actually, Paul envisions the visit as a two-way street.

He will be strengthened too.

He's coming so that the Roman Christians and he himself "may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith."

Their faith will strengthen him!

Paul's laudatory sentences in verses 8 to 10 weren't just a formality.

He really does treasure the faith of his fellow believers.

But there's a lesson here too.

We all might learn to treasure more fully the fellowship of the believers the Lord lets us associate with.

(Panning, A. J. (1999).

Romans (pp.

17-18).

Northwestern Pub.

House.)

Living in a culture of immediate gratification is dangerous for a believer.

Without even realizing it, we become shaped by secular expectations and outlooks.

Instead of a fellow worker in the kingdom for mutual benefit, if we are not careful, we become consumers asking an unfortunate primary question of what's the immediate benefit to me for doing or not doing something.

But just like a physical harvest, that requires planning, planting, fertilizing, cultivation, weeding and nurturing before a harvest can be reaped.

In the Kingdom of God, one might sew, another nurture but yet another reap the harvest.

But regardless of our induvial part in the process, in order to have a harvest of righteousness, God has put us in His spiritual field as workers in the harvest for all our benefit.

In Romans 1:11-15 concluding a section of faithful service, the Apostle Paul specifies five qualities of a faithful believer that are necessary to reap a spiritual harvest.

A Faithful believer must have: 1) A Loving Spirit (Romans 1:11), 2) A Humble Spirit (Romans 1:12), 3) A Fruitful Spirit (Romans 1:13), 4) An Obedient Spirit (Romans 1:14), and finally 5) An Eager Spirit.

(Romans 1:15)

In order to reap a spiritual Harvest from service, a faithful believer must have:

1) A Loving Spirit (Romans 1:11)

Romans 1:11.

11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you (ESV)

The Apostle Paul wanted to visit the Roman believers in order to serve them lovingly in God's name.

He did not want to go as a tourist to see the famous Appian Way or the Forum or the Coliseum or the chariot races.

He wanted to go to Rome to give of himself, not to entertain or indulge himself.

Paul was burdened for the physical welfare of the Roman believers, but his overriding concern was for their spiritual well-being, and therefore his principal purpose for longing to see them was that he might impart to them some spiritual gift.

The gift Paul wanted to impart was spiritual not only in the sense of being in the spiritual realm but in the sense that it had its source in the Holy Spirit.

Because he was writing to believers, Paul was not speaking about the free gift of salvation through Christ about which he speaks in Romans 5:15-16.

Nor could he have been speaking about the gifts he discusses in chapter 12, because those gifts are bestowed directly by the Spirit Himself, not through a human instrument.

He must therefore have been using the term spiritual gift in its broadest sense, referring to any kind of divinely-empowered spiritual benefit he could bring to the Roman Christians by preaching, teaching, exhorting, comforting, praying, guiding, and disciplining.

Whatever particular blessings the apostle had in mind, they were not of the superficial, self-centered sort that many crave today.

He was not interested in tickling their ears or satisfying their religious curiosity.

What gift Paul may want to share with the Romans cannot be specified until he sees what their needs may be.

Whatever it is, its purpose will be to "strengthen" their faith.

(Moo, D. J. (1996).

The Epistle to the Romans (p.

60).

Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.)

Please turn to Ephesians 4

People often unfortunately look to God to give them exactly what they want, when and how they want it.

In one sense, we implicitly think we are God and the Lord bet:er do what we wish or else.

But God provides for us for a much different purpose.

As Paul explains here in Romans 4:11, he wanted to impart the spiritual blessings in order for the Roman believers to be strengthened/established.

As he explained to the Ephesians in Ephesians 4, the reason why God has given Pastor's to bodies of believers:

Ephesians 4:11-16.

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

(ESV)

* People wrongly assume that if they are outwardly pleasant, it is showing love.

But when difficulties come, the shallow roots of mere pleasantry is uprooted, and their emotions take control of them.

The resulting lack of formed self-control results in their quarrelsome character erupting.

Especially for those in leadership, this formed self-control needs to be in place to encourage maturity in Christ through knowledge of Him, unity of faith and speaking the truth in love.

God expects all of us to grow up, work properly and build each other up in self sacrificial love.

It doesn't happen through passive politeness but self-control and self-sacrificial hard work for the cause of Christ.

Illustration: Blessings of America

It's easy to forget that of what we have received has been given us in order for the purpose of strengthening us.

Abraham Lincoln in a Proclamation of a Day of National Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, in 1863, said this: "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God.

We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us".

(A.

Lincoln, Proclamation of a Day of National Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, 1863 as recorded in Galaxie Software.

(2002).

10,000 Sermon Illustrations.

Biblical Studies Press.)

In order to reap a spiritual Harvest from service, a faithful believer must have:

2) A Humble Spirit (Romans 1:12)

Romans 1:12.

12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.

(ESV)

Lest his readers think that he had in mind a one-way blessing, Paul assures them that a visit would be to his benefit as well as theirs.

Although he was a highly-gifted and greatly-used apostle, having received revealed truth directly from God, Paul never thought that he was above being spiritually edified by other believers.

The truly thankful, concerned, willing, submissive, and loving spirit is also a humble spirit.

The person with such a spirit never has a feeling of spiritual superiority and never lords it over those such a person serves in Christ's name.

Commenting on this passage in Romans, John Calvin said of Paul, "Note how modestly he expresses what he feels by not refusing to seek strengthening from inexperienced beginners.

He means what he says, too, for there is none so void of gifts in the Church of Christ who cannot in some measure contribute to our spiritual progress.