Advent 4 | Fr. Samuel Mbabaali - Romans 1:1-7

A reading from Paul's letter to the Romans.

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle, set

apart for the Gospel of God, which he promised beforehand

through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son,

who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was

declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of

holiness by His resurrection from the dead.

Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and

apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake

of His name among all the nations, including you who are

called to belong to Christ Jesus.

To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be

Saints. Grace to you and peace from God

our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of the Lord.

Please pray with me. We come to you now, Lord you our

King, ready to hear you speak to us.

We surrender ourselves to you in Christ's name, Amen.

You can have your seats. Imagine discovering that you

possess A ture for a very fatal disease.

Imagine being Alexander Flaming in the 1920s, realizing that you

have this penicillin that could stop all the affections that we

are causing problems to the people.

At first you might feel unqualified and you are

overwhelmed, but once you understand that you are holding

something that is so great, something will change and you

cannot be silent anymore because now you have an awareness that

can lead into a calling. And this calling does not begin

with you asking yourself a question of what can I do, but

rather another question about what do you hold at this time.

This is what exactly Paul does in Romans 1.

He begins by introducing himself, not with a glorious

resume of accomplishment and credentials and special

victories, but rather he names what has been given to him.

He defines his identity by what he possesses.

What he has received from Christ determines his purpose and

determines his calling. This is what he wants us to do.

He wants us to see ourselves in light of what we have received

from Christ. So what do we possess?

As people who believe in Christ, we possess a message of

immeasurable value, a message that is life changing than

penicillin. Paul calls this message the

gospel in verse one and three. This is a word that comes from

the ancient world that basically means an announcement of victory

after battle. It's a declaration that the

enemy has been one, has been defeated.

Paul understands this good news not just as human achievement,

but rather as Gordy's own initiative.

It's an announcement that God has acted in the world to help

us solve one of the greatest problems of the world, in fact,

the greatest of all, which the Bible calls sin.

And sin is not just not doing good things, but it is an

inability to live according to God is desires and purposes of

righteousness. Yet the gospel declares to us

that God has done for us something that we cannot do for

ourselves. He has stepped in to come and

help us. So that is the message of hope

that we hold. Paul understands this message in

two ways. It is both a promise but also a

revelation. So first of all, the gospel has

a promise. Paul reminds us that the gospel

does not begin at Bethlehem because according to verse 2,

this is what was promised beforehand through the prophets

in the Holy Scriptures. In other words, the Gospel has a

long history, long before the manager, the Angel, and the

stars. Think about those gifts under

the Christmas tree, in your houses, in your homes, even

before Christmas morning. Those gifts already belong to

someone. Someone already possesses those

gifts. They have already been promised

to someone, even though they have not yet been opened by that

person. This applies to the Gospel.

It was wrapped in the Old Testament Scriptures.

It was presented, though not yet unveiled.

The probe, the promise, was not yet fully revealed and

understood. For Israel, they waited for many

centuries. They were waiting for this

promise that the prophets had spoken about.

But God is never late. God is faithful.

Soon the promise was revealed. And event teaches us to wait in

such a manner, not with anxiety, but rather waiting for the

fulfillment of God, these promises.

This is what waiting would look like if we consider it as being

a mission that God is calling us to do.

Sometimes it involves us being present where there is suffering

and we don't expect even have quick answers.

God expects us to continue praying even when we don't

demand immediate answers. God expects us to continue

praying and trusting in Him. Sometimes we serve in places

where you don't see the outcomes of your efforts.

You don't see the outcomes of all the love that you are

pouring in. God calls us to continue

powering in our service even in such places where progress

remains hidden. Our waiting in Christ is not

just passive. I've spoken about it as being

missional. We continue bearing witness

about the promises of Christ that are sure and that will be

revealed. Therefore, the question that

Adevent brings to us is where is God calling us to trust in His

promises, even those promises that we have not yet seen the

outcomes? The Gospel secondary is not just

promised, but also it has been revealed through Christ.

Just as you see a coin that has two sides, if one side of the

coin is removed, it is no longer a valid calling, a valid coin,

valid currency. In the same way, Paul shows us

Christ as having two sides. These two sides enable us to

understand the kind of effort he brings towards the gospel.

They enable us to understand that indeed Jesus is the cure of

this illness known as sin that is affecting the world.

On the first side, Jesus is fully human.

Paul says this in verse three. He tells us concerning his Son

who has descended from David according to the flesh.

Jesus does not appear out of nowhere.

He comes from a family. He has a family and ancestry.

He's rooted in the family of David, who was Israel shepherd

and king. Ultimately, body's promises to

David. We are like this in the book of

second Samuel. Your house and your Kingdom

shall be made sure forever before me.

Your throne shall be established forever.

So when Paul tells us that Jesus was descended from David, he's

simply telling us that the crown that was promised to David feeds

Jesus. Exactly.

He's claiming that Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the covenant that God had with King

David. Jesus wore this crown.

David is crown naturally through birth.

The one in the Manger is also a king.

However, if Jesus is only a human being, he cannot save us

from sin. Also, He cannot demand our

ultimate allegiance because he's a mere human being like us.

Therefore, Jesus has another second sight.

He is fully God. Paul tells us in verse four that

this Jesus was declared to be the Son of God in power

according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection

from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The child in the manga is the Lord in waiting before Easter.

Jesus's glory is real but is still veiled.

And at resurrection God turns on the lights and we are able to

see his floor full glory. The resurrection is God's

verdict that indeed this is my Son and this is my King.

And this declaration of divine authority validates the gospel

because it is as well a pronouncement that through

Jesus, sin and death have been totally defeated.

He has authority to defeat sin. And certain Paul does not tell

us about Jesus's divine and human nature simply for us to

admire him. He wants us to understand this

because it has implications for the gospel.

He wants us to understand the kind of gospel that has been

revealed, but also the kind of life that now is possible

through the gospel because Jesus is fully human.

The gospel is not abstract. It is not distant and

inaccessible. Jesus stepped into our history

so that He can meet us by grace exactly where we are.

And Adeven tells us this truth, that God did not wait for us to

rise up to Him in heaven, but he came down and stepped into us on

earth. Therefore, just as Jesus stepped

into our ordinary and complicated world, now He gives

us the same grace to invite His presence where we are.

What can this look like? It can't be as simple as saying

a prayer at the beginning of a meeting or even reading

scripture on a dinner table, maybe lighting an Advent candle

with your children. That is a gesture of inviting

God is presence and making sure he's felt that he's real and

relieving and surrounding us. These may be small practices,

but we are holy ones. They are saying that come, Lord

Jesus, be here in our presence. But also if Jesus is fully God,

then the gospel is not just near, it is also powerful.

His resurrection makes obedience possible.

The gospel is not merely to instruct us, but the gospel also

has power to transform us. Receiving the gospel is

receiving the power of Christ to transform us, even in ways that

are beyond our understanding. For instance, sometimes we can

feel that we are unable to change ourselves.

Obedience is impossible. Things like forgiveness, things

like conquering seed might seem as if they're impossible.

But we have the power of Christ through the gospel to change all

those things that seem as if they are impossible.

Paul also tells us that the gospel is a really identity that

claims him. Once we receive God's promises,

the gospel begins to name us. The good news moves from

something that we hear and it becomes something that

identifies us. Something that identifies us.

It is something that gives us a new name.

In the 1st place. The Gospel identifies us as

servants of Christ. In verse one, Paul calls himself

a servant of Jesus Christ. This phrase tells us something

about Paul. His life was no longer self

owned. He his identity was no longer

rooted in autonomy but in belonging to Christ.

In the ancient world, a servant interested in a master's

household was not just powerless, he has purpose in

that household. And the beginning of that

person, no, didn't don't come from his status of being a

servant. It came from the kind of house

where he was ministering. Paul tells us that he is

ministering in a House of a great master, a House of a king.

So when Paul calls himself a servant, he's not diminishing

himself. Rather, he's saying that I am

someone who matters. I serve in a King's house.

He's not saying that he has been coerced into obedience in that

house. Rather, it is an expression of

his love and willingness and devotion into that house.

He's glad to be identified as a servant of Christ.

But also, Paul does not only want to identify himself alone

in that capacity. Paul wants us to all come into

that service. Sometimes we can have those

rules. And you feel I should be only

the person in that role. Paul extends this identity to us

as well because in verse five and six he opens the door wide

and says through whom we have received grace and apostleship

to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name

among all nations. And this is the point including

you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

This is the the invitation of the gospel to belong to Christ,

to serve in his house, and to find our deepest dignity through

that service. It is not something that

belittles that belittles us when we are servants of Christ.

It is something that gives us glory and set us full status.

So the question is who is ruling my life?

Because if Jesus is not Lord over my life, something else

will be Lord over my life. Many people can say I don't

subscribe to anything like like religion.

I don't subscribe to that. I am not under authority by

being ruled by anything. But if you cannot be there

without anything ruling you, if you reject Christ, you are

submitting yourself to another thing.

And usually that thing that you are submitting yourself to might

not have the right, the right capacity to rule over you.

But Jesus rules us because he belongs there.

He's a king that has been endorsed.

Many other things that we can submit ourselves, they don't

have the capacity that has been endorsed by God to rule over us.

Therefore, when we surrender to Christ, our obedience is not

restrained, rather it is rescue and our allegiance is total

freedom. We are not at a loss.

We surrender to Christ and then we are at rest, not at anxiety.

Then secondly, the gospel also identifies us as people who are

set apart for Christ's purposes. When you look at ordinary things

like these clothes and these candles, the ordinary items, but

because they have been set apart for use in this context in

church, now they belong to some kind of status.

They are still the ordinary things, but now they have a set

apart purpose. They are set apart.

This is how Paul identifies himself in verse 1.

He describes himself as one that has been set apart for the

gospel. He's not speaking about a status

or an achievement, but rather he has been consecrated.

God has claimed him for his purposes.

And this description and this identity is rather striking for

Paul because in the past Paul used to be a Pharisee and a

Pharisee. This was basically people who

were separated ones. There were people who understood

holiness in the forms of withdrawal from other people.

Then we are separated from the world.

They no longer wanted to live like people of the world in

their own pride. But now, unlike that, Paul has

been set apart in humanity for the gospel, and this identity is

not for Paul alone. In verse 7, Paul extends this to

all believers because he says we are loved by God and called to

be Saints. We are called to be holy ones.

This is not just a badge of superiority, but it's a gift

that we are called to steward. We are called to be in the world

that is passing away, but to continue being people who are

saying sunset apart. We are not called to run away

from the world and live in exclusion.

We are called to continue living in the world, but serving the

purposes of God. What does this look like?

To live in the world and to serve the purposes of the world?

It might show itself in some of these small and powerful ways.

For instance, someone who is working in an environment where

there is dishonesty as a norm, being set set apart means

serving with the integrity even in that context.

In that environment, it might be practicing hospitality in a

neighborhood that is fragmented and divided, but for you choose

to be hospitable in such a neighborhood, it might be

continuing to hold on to the values of faithfulness and

patience and respect in a culture where those values are

no longer held in regard and are compromised.

So being set apart is not running away from the world and

hiding, but it means living differently in the world, being

transformed by the gospel, and then giving our time and our

world and our relationships our our entire lives for the

purposes of Christ. So in that event, we remember

that Our Calling as believers does not begin by doing, but by

what we have received. And we don't wait with empty

hands. We wait when we hold the gospel

of God, the good news that the world still needs, and when we

truly understand that which we have received, then our identity

is clarified. Just as Paul has stated, we are

servants belonging to Christ who came to serve, but also we are

set apart by God because we have been claimed for the gospel.

So, Lord, come now and enable our service in the name of the

Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.