We are continuing this morning with what is a newly launched series in the book of Romans and We are actually picking up this morning at verse 8 of chapter 1 We're going to work through to verse 15 if you were with us for last week's study You'll know that during our time there we looked at the first seven verses of this letter and the first really two parts I think of Paul's introduction in the first part Paul introduced himself as one who was a servant or slave of Christ As one he was called by God and set apart for the gospel In the second part Paul introduced his message And by giving us six things that characterized the gospel that he was preaching Namely that the fact that it was of God that is it was not Of or from anyone else the fact that it was announced and promised by the prophets and so was not new news Even if it was very good news It's part of what God's been doing all along the fact that it was attested by the scriptures Which Paul fully affirmed which he needed to affirm in that context the fact that it was centered on Jesus Christ in his humanity And his divinity the fact that it was a message That resulted in grace changed and graciously changing lives and bringing about the obedience of faith And finally the fact that its ultimate aim was the honor and glory of God And the passage before us this morning we will basically be finishing out that introduction Paul's introduction Looking at the third and final part in verses 8 to 15 and here Paul after introducing himself in his message takes a few moments on the front end To talk Briefly about the whole matter of his lack of connection with the church in Rome as well as his hopes to rectify that situation Now as for why this issue has found its way in the Paul's introduction of such a letter as this We cannot say with absolute certainty Nevertheless and having acknowledged that A number of scholars feel that there was an unanswered question in the minds of some people in Paul's day And it went something like this Why has Paul The self-confessed apostle to the Gentiles Why has this man thus far not made a single trip to Rome
Rome was easily the most prominent city In the world in that day Paul had certainly been going long enough to have made a journey there He'd started and completed two different missionary tours at this point in his life He'd planted a number of churches and he'd made more than one trip to a number of those churches since they're having been planted So why not even one trip to Rome After all Rome was the epicenter of Gentileness the city of cities was it not And was not Paul the apostle to the Gentiles By Christ's own commissioning Well again, we don't know for certain that does seem From what Paul writes that someone is Ask him this question or he's at least aware of this question to explain why he hadn't made it to Rome And he feels he seems to feel a need to respond to that at the front end of this letter And so he does and as he does He talks about why he hasn't made it And he gives some clear indicators that the problem was not a problem of desire It goes even one further to talk about how for him going to Rome was not just a hope Not just a good opportunity. It was an obligation In other words For Paul not going to Rome Was not an option in his mind That's where we're going to be looking at before we go any further. Let's pray
Father heaven, please hear us now As we again turn to you With hopeful expectation That you will now take these words That you wrote And that you preserved And clarify them for us Make their meaning apparent make their application obvious Bring yourself in to clearer focus through them Draw us to yourself by them And then honor yourself by the continued Outworking of these truths that do not and cannot And will not Turn to you without having accomplished everything you've ordained for them to accomplish We're privileged to be a part of that when we ask this in Christ's name Romans chapter one verses 8 to 15
First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you Because your faith is proclaimed in all the world For God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son That without Ceasing I mention you always in my prayers Asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you For I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you That is that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith both yours and mine I want you to know 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 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians both to the wise and to the foolish So I'm eager to preach the gospel to you also Who are in Rome there are in my view three main things as I've already indicated that Paul's trying to communicate To the Roman Christians here There's three things he wants them to know regarding his plans to visit them First of all he wants them to know that his failure to come and see them and thus far Thus far has not been it's not it's not been intentional. He's not coming. It's not been intentional He hasn't been avoiding them He hasn't forgotten about them. He hasn't assigned to them a lesser priority the problem Isn't that he's been lacking in any desire to visit We see that in his statement about his continually praying that he might at last At last succeed in coming to see them. We see that in his statement that he longed to see them That's a powerful word there longing. We see that in his statement that he had often Intended to come and see them right me the clear picture painted here is oven apostle Who far from forgetting about them or putting them at the bottom of his to-do list has repeatedly made plans to come and see them Only to have those plans interrupted or thwarted in some way every single time Resulting in his returning to God in prayer asking that he might again be granted An opportunity to see them So there's no lack of desire in Paul's part There's just a lack of opportunity That's the first thing I want you to see The second thing I want you to see and we'll take a bit longer to unpack this one But the second thing I want you to see after looking at why Paul hasn't yet come to see the Roman Christians is to see Paul's words here highlight a number of reasons why He clearly strongly wanted to come and see them and would have wanted to come and see them Several things can be highlighted in this regard For one thing Paul was extremely thankful to God for the faith of the Roman Christians Know as we says he says first. I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you Because your faith is proclaimed in all the world Now this is not the main thing here But please as Lig Duncan suggests please do not mess the implications of what Paul is saying here What is Paul thankful for? He is thankful for the faith of the Roman Christians that has now been proclaimed in all the world Here's a question who does Paul say he's thankful to for this faith He's thankful to God So think about that for a moment In other words, he's not thankful to the Romans for their faith He's thankful to God which tells you what it tells you this that Paul understood that even the faith that saves God's people Is ultimately a gift from God Paul understood that the Romans have contributed nothing to their salvation Paul understands that Jesus by his death didn't just build a structure that almost bridges this gap between God and man and All that's required is this sort of freewill exercise of a person self-generated faith to close that gap
If Paul did understand these things in that way then he would never say what he said he wouldn't have thanked God for the Romans faith He would have thanked the Romans for their own faith But he doesn't do that he expressly doesn't do that Again, it's not the main thing here, but it's something not to miss And so Paul is thankful to God for the faith of the Romans He's thankful that because of God's initiative they are and have been acting out their faith in clear and obvious ways So obvious in fact that people are noticing Stories are being told the word is on the street on many streets on streets miles and miles away from the city of Rome apparently People are talking God's people are talking about God's people in Rome Put another way God's people in Rome have gotten a reputation I don't know about you, but when I was growing up I heard a lot of things about getting a reputation
My mother would tell me She'd say you listen to me don't you go out and do this or don't go do that because why if you do you get a reputation And she used to talk about the importance of not getting a reputation a lot And so it's kind of beaten into my brain as I was growing up to getting a reputation. It's always a bad idea It's something to be avoided at all costs getting a reputation But in the situation that picked it here Getting a reputation actually is a good thing Paul is glad that the Roman Christians have a reputation He's happy that their faith is known Why because faith by very nature is invisible It's not something you can see not some sort of discrete quantity that exists on its own You can't take a spiritual x-ray of somebody and then hold up the film to the lighting you can point to the sort of dark mass And you say all that thing right there that's faith that stuff right there Faith only becomes evident when it's exercised and it only becomes obvious when a certain decision gets made say Or an action is taken or sometimes it's evidence when an action is avoided or sometimes when something is said And sometimes When you decide to hold your tongue You can't see faith You can't detect it until it's exercised And that's another reason why Paul is thankful because their faith has become concrete visible noticeable undeniable It's evident And so because Paul is so thankful to God of the Romans For this evident faith it's only natural and right that he would want to see them To be with the more he hears about their reputation their good reputation The more he wanted to go and be a monster to see for himself to confirm with his eyes All these reports that he's been getting Through his ears these things he's only heard about up till now That's one reason I think Paul would have wanted to come and see the Romans he was so thankful for them Another reason Paul wanted to come and see them. I'm convinced it's because he's been praying unceasingly For them For God is my witness who my serve with my spirit and the gospel of his son that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers Asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you
You know what? It's not necessary that we conclude from what Paul writes here that he's saying that he prays You know all day every day every minute of every day I don't think that's what he's saying. That's not his point But there's no question that what he is saying is that he's praised for them a lot Frequently They're on his heart and mind a great deal when that happens. He turns that into a prayer and Paul is completely sincere in this He's so sincere that he actually employs an oath here. He calls God as his witness The the God that he serves wholeheartedly with the spirit and the thing that God is called as a witness to Is the fact that Paul does pray frequently insteadly for the Roman Christians including the specific prayer that he might be Eventually able to go and see them and the reason he calls God as witness on that Is simply because nobody else is in a position to know whether Paul is telling the truth on that or not right I mean nobody else can read Paul's mind Nobody can look into his heart and see whether he's making things up or whether he's grossly exaggerating these reports of his prayers for them Nobody knows the truth about any of that except God So Paul calls God as his witness
So Paul really does pray a lot For them and when he does amongst other things When he remembers the Romans and prayers from likely and lots of subjects, but he always has this one thing That he might go and see them now why he prays for that Uh, and what he wants to do when he's with him. We'll say something about in a minute, but The point now is that that is what he was praying and he was doing it a lot doing it a lot But just this fact right the fact of Paul's persistent prayers for the Roman Christians is I believe Another factor in Paul's strong desire to go and see them and he can courage them in the minister to them Right one of the main catalysts for his wanting to go and see them is the fact that he was regularly Taking these people before the Lord in prayer and that regular consistent persistent Practice did something to Paul he did something to him
Because let me tell you if you don't already know it. I hope you do But here's the thing You love who you pray for you love who you pray for prayer draws the heart in It softens the heart It enhances the effect of affections Just part of how it works is the mechanism of prayer Show me a person who done love their neighbor not show you a person who isn't praying for their neighbor Show me a person who has little or no compassion for the loss And I'll show you a person who is not praying for the lost Show me a person who's hanging on to a grudge a hatred of bitterness toward their enemies And I'll show you a person who is not praying for their enemies
Okay, I thought about this when I wrote that It's kind of silly Remember Billy Joel's song only the good day young I'm not recommending the ethic of that song by the way It's a nice tune But uh, I remember the line where he's talking about this girl Virginia's mother and he says she never cared for me Did she ever say a prayer for me?
Of course, he said that in complete self-righteousness, but The idea of praying for people you don't like Was there It's there when Jesus talks about praying for those who persecute us praying for our enemies Why because it affects you It it changes you as a person
Show me a person who doesn't love the church and I'll show you a person who doesn't pray for the church Because there's no way that you could pray persistently Faithfully for the people of God by name By circumstance without falling in love with the people of God with the very people that you are praying for
That's what Paul was doing for the Roman Christians He was praying for them a lot And I'm convinced that it's part of the thing that drew him toward him as why he loved him even though he'd never been there amongst them And so that affection that was born of his prayers Was also then a factor I believe in his desire to go and be with him a fellowship with him Build and enhance that relationship So one reason Paul wanted to see the Roman Christians was because he was thankful to God for them Another reason is because he'd been praying and he continued to pray persistently for them And that prayer among other things drew him toward them With genuine affection Still another reason Paul wanted to see the Roman Christians was because as this passage says He desired to impart to them Some spiritual gift that would strengthen them Now as for what the spiritual gift was what he's talking about we don't know for sure But what does seem fairly certain is that whatever he means he doesn't mean there Spiritual gift in the sense of you know one of the gifts that we see in other places in the Bible They're given by the Holy Spirit It seems clearly he's not talking about that So if not that What does Paul mean and I think the most likely Answer to that is to say that I think he's being intentionally vague here Because precisely because he hasn't yet visited the church And because he hasn't arrived there yet and because he hasn't yet been able to assess how things are on the ground in Rome Then he he really doesn't know What's precisely this gift is going to look like what it's going to turn out to be when he's amongst them He only knows it once he's there in the midst of it all it's going to happen He knows he wants to give them some gift some blessing will flow out of his ministry to them and be suited to their circumstances He knows that this has been his practice in all the other churches to which he's been sent And he knows that whatever the gift or blessing its intent will be to strengthen them and build them up and encourage them It happens everywhere else he's gone. There's no reason to think it would not happen in Rome But please notice this It's not just them that he hopes to encourage This isn't just about the Romans. It's about Paul too Paul's also assuming that he will be encouraged by them In other words Paul isn't thinking about that this is a one-way streak here He isn't assuming that just because he's the apostle That he's the only one in whom or through whom God is working or or can working or and will minister to other people Stupid that's absurd Paul isn't too proud to receive from the Roman believers He values what they bring to the equation. He wants their ministry He needs their ministry and that's huge I remember early in our time in Australia having a conversation with an Australian pastor Who was reflecting on some of his recent experiences with some American church planners that had come across to healthy Australians out A phrase that he uttered with only slightly disguised sarcasm And that conversation was a gift for me. I can tell you The timing of it could not have been better It was so helpful for me to hear this man Expressed disdain and rightly so For the attitude that he'd seen all too often from international visitors that came into the Australian scene to show people how to do ministry The right way the best way the American way
It distressed him to see so many people who had come with the assumption that they had a lot to teach They're not much to learn not much to gain And it ought to have distressed him Because it's wrong It's arrogant and it's not at all a reflection of the perspective that we see I think mirrored here and the apostle Paul Paul wants to go because among other things He knows that he's going to be receiving some good things from being amongst them And he's glad for that he's not too proud for that Well addition to hearing Paul talk about why he hasn't yet made the trip to Rome You know not because of a lack of desire but a lack of opportunity and then hearing him talk about why he wants And is eager to go and see him because he's thankful he's been pre informed And that's pulled his heart in he wants to give and receive a spiritual gift in addition to all of that The third and final thing I want us to focus on is how not only does Paul want to go and see the Romans There's a very real sense in which he must go and see the Romans
He has an obligation More than just an opportunity he feels An obligation now we seem to be increasingly allergic to words like obligation and duty in the church In recent years But can I gently say Please get over that Words like obligation and duty they are biblical words They are good words We ought to not be ashamed of saying them. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians both to the wise And to the foolish so I am eager To preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome Now what is this obligation Paul's talking about The idea is something along the lines of indebtedness It's sort of like sort of like
We're related to the idea of a repayment of a debt although with a very interesting twist When you think about the subject of debt or paying a debt or fulfilling an obligation that particular monetary fashion There's different ways you can think about that One writer illustrates it like this One kind of indebtedness or obligation occurs if for example I borrow a thousand dollars from you And once I borrow that money, I am now indebted to you for a thousand dollars. I owe you something I've incurred a debt and I'm now obligated to pay it to you But there's another kind of indebtedness Let's suppose someone gives me a thousand dollars and they give it to me Not learning it give it to me and they tell me that that thousand dollars is not for me. It's for you
In that scenario, I also have an obligation To you but one of a different sort I have an obligation not because of something I've borrowed not because I'm paying somebody back or trying to even the score That something that needs repaying but because I've been entrusted with this gift That's supposed to be passed on to you I'm obligated to pass that on to you This second sort of indebtedness the second kind of obligation is the one that is now resting on Paul Right, this is what he's feeling The gospel that this precious precious gift that's been given to him Been trusted to him and this is where the illustration is not exact breaks down a bit But it has been trusted to him so that he can benefit absolutely. He does benefit But it's not just that It hasn't been entrusted to him so that he can just treasure it personally And revel in it But also so that he can share it with others
With all kinds of others with Greeks and barbarians which is to say with cultured and uncultured with the wise and the foolish That is with those who will respond and those who may not The Paul understands and he feels this obligation that the gospel has placed upon him and he feels it deeply And he feels in a very real sense Paul feels indebted to every person Because of that he feels indebted to pass on what he's received by God's gracious hand But there's more Because Paul's sense of obligation does not stop there It's not just to out those outside the church that Paul feels a gospel obligation toward And guess what it's toward those inside the church that Paul feels a gospel obligation To the wise who have heard and have responded like the Roman Christians But who regardless of that fact are still in need of hearing and being taught the gospel all the days of their life
You've heard me say before and saying it. I'm only standing on the shoulders of others who've said it far better than me quoting from them and said it far more clearly than I have ever said But the simple reality is the gospel is the truth that Christians most need to understand and it is the same truth We struggle the most to believe and to continue to believe All the time the gospel is not just the beginnings of Christianity. It's the whole it's the whole package It's not just the bare minimum required information necessary to get into the kingdom of God It's the way that we actually make progress as believers When a person becomes a Christian, it's not as if we learn the gospel when we kind of move on to some deeper truth Where it is you never really get past the truth of the gospel There's a sense in which you never go beyond it. You never outgrow it You never graduate from gospel truth to some other kinds of truth You can only you can't really get past it you can go deeper into it You can't get past it and why because because there is no there is no deeper truth in scripture than the unfathomable mystery of the life and death and resurrection Of the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God
That's something to contemplate for all eternity
And you will spend the rest of your Christian life learning What it means and how to live according to it as if you actually do believe it and how to believe it in every circumstance including and especially The very hard ones So Paul's desire to come and preach the gospel in Rome was certainly an evangelistic desire and that he wanted to see lost people converted in Rome But it was also a sanctifying desire. It's very clear in his passage. He wants to preach the gospel to the Roman Christians People already knew it
It's because he was convinced that it's only through that only through a deeper grasp of that the any growth Any mood forward movement is gonna happen in the Christian life So let me attempt to wrap it up. This passage tells us at least three things Paul is saying That his failure to make it to Rome was not from a lack of desire only a lack of opportunity He's saying that on the contrary, there are a number of reasons for his wanting to go and be with them Because he is thankful to God for them because he has been praying unceasingly for them because he wants to give them a spiritual gift and he wants to He wants to encourage him in some particular way and he actually wants to receive and benefit from the encouragement He knows is waiting there for him in Rome
And thoroughly he's saying that even beyond all the reasons that he could give for wanting to go Is the simple fact that he feels he must go to them There is an indebtedness that he feels toward them There's something that he's been given Which he feels so strongly about that it is not his right to just hang on to it
For Paul to have received this message um and then put it in his pocket and hang on to it would You know, I know it's a simplistic illustration, but I Can't get past it. It's like someone handing you a notebook But the cure for cancer written in it and you take it and you put it on your shelf and there it stays You leave it there hoping that somebody asks you about it one day It's insane to think that way Be crazy to do something like that
So why do we do it? How can we think they're doing something like that I think cure for cancer on a shelf somewhere. How can we think that that would be crazy? And yet be okay With having no sense of obligation to pass on truths That for you have meant deliverance and forgiveness and mercy and grace and freedom and love and hope Not just in the life here and now, but life and eternity and fellowship with the living God and a million other things Paul would say how can we take words like that Truths like that these words of eternal life and just treat them like so much information Do we not believe a single word of it?
May the God of mercy the God of our mercies instill us with a proper and deep and abiding sense Of the preciousness of this gift That we have been given That is the gospel and of the intended destination of this gift which is not right here
May God build within us that same desire that same eagerness and yes same sense of obligation That tug that Paul's heart to bring this gospel into every relationship saved and lost That God is ordained as part of our journey Every single one Let's pray Father forgive us for yawning at the majesty of the gospel
Father give us That sort of gratitude that sense of
unbelievable mercy It just seems to have driven Paul sense of your kindness sense of the goodness of the good news Would you please grip us with that help us with our unbelief We talk ourselves out of believing that this is the best news. We could possibly give somebody
Please Please help us with this with our unbelief there father. Please in your mercy Make that a growing reality for us We thank you for your patience for this in this we thank you that you use us in our faulty and inconsistent ways you love us in spite of ourselves And Father we thank you for that we thank you for that Continued patience with us
But please finish work in us and make make this one of the evidences of that The increasing freedom with which we speak about you and show and tell your gospel We pray these things in Jesus name for his sake and
Those who are I got the morning off and we'll come forward. We'll collect that