Romans 15:17-16:16

So Romans chapter 15, and we'll read from verse 17 to 16, verse 16.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 15 at verse 17.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

Therefore, I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God.

I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me

in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done,

by the power of signs and miracles through the power of the Spirit.

So from Jerusalem all the way round to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known

so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation.

Rather, as it is written, those who were not told about him

will see and those who have not heard will understand.

This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you.

But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions,

and since I have been longing for many years to see you,

I plan to do so when I go to Spain.

I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there

after I have enjoyed your company for a while.

Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints there.

For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.

They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them.

For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings,

they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.

So after I have completed this task and have made sure that they have received this fruit,

I will go to Spain and visit you on the way.

I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ.

I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit

to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.

Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea

and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there,

so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed.

The God of peace be with you all.

Amen.

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church in King Chira.

I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints

and to give her any help she may need from you,

for she has been a great help to many people, including me.

Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus.

They risked their lives for me.

Not only I, but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.

Greet also the church that meets at their house.

Greet my friend Eponetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.

Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you.

Greet Andronicus and Junius, my relatives who have been in prison with me.

They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.

Greet Ampliatus, whom I love in the Lord.

Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ.

Greet my dear friend Stachys, greet Apelles, tested and approved in Christ.

Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.

Greet Herodian, my relative.

Greet those in the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord.

Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, those women who work hard in the Lord.

Greet my dear friend Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord.

Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me too.

Greet Asencritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers with them.

Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympus, and all the saints with them.

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

All the churches of Christ send greetings.

Amen.

I do hope you've had a good time this afternoon, a blessed time, to just rest and be refreshed.

And I pray that it will be a good time for us again around God's Word this evening.

Can I just invite you to open up where James has read from in the book of Romans from chapter 15.

We're going to be looking the second half of verse 19.

And so the bit that says, so from Jerusalem, to that section in chapter 16.

So we're going to pick up this evening at the point where Paul had left us earlier on in verse 19.

And it seems like he was giving inspiration to the wonderful Disney and Pixar character Buzz Lightyear.

He gets to a section and it's like, to infinity and beyond, church.

That is where we are going.

Into the future we are going to the ends of the earth.

Because the grace that has been revealed through our Lord Jesus, the beauty of this gospel, is not something which is to be contained.

Flowing out from that grace, we saw that God was fulfilling his promises.

But he was also creating new communities of people.

Outposts, signposts for the kingdom of God.

Friends, the grace of God in Jesus Christ creates transnational, supernatural communities which are growing all over the world.

That is what is taking place.

That is what Paul saw in his ministry.

That is why he's so excited and wants to encourage the church in Rome.

These are transnational, supernatural communities which are spreading because this gospel is untamable.

Because the God of the gospel is untamable.

So we're going to just gather our thoughts under three headings.

The first of which is the ministry of God's people, part two.

So if you were here for part one, exciting times.

If you were not here for part one, well you get part two and you just get the last of the three Ps that sum up that section.

Firstly, there had been priestly ministry that the apostle was involved in.

There was powerful ministry because of the gospel.

But also ministry in the gospel is often pioneering.

The ministry of the gospel is something which is pioneering.

Now not all of us get excited with geography.

Some of us might have loved it at school.

Some of us may even have went to the university here and studied geography.

But for some of us, the thought of looking at a map fills us with fear because we've got no idea which country we're even in ourselves.

Or it potentially throws up to us this concept of boredom like, I don't need to know.

I'm here.

The countries and the nations are there.

Well, we're not going to find out whether the phobia of geography or the boredom that comes with geography is your bent this evening.

What is important to understand is what Paul is saying in this section about the places that he has been.

Okay?

The places that he has been are very, very important.

Now let's clear something up.

In that section, Paul has seemed to have said, well, the gospel has been fully proclaimed.

There's no need for me to be here anymore.

That's what it seems to say in that second half of verse 19.

From Jerusalem all the way around to Lyricrum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

It seems to be, well, you know, everyone's a Christian now, aren't they?

Fully proclaimed the gospel.

Well, no, that's not what he means when he says that.

What he is saying is that there are churches in these areas.

There are outposts of the kingdom of God which have been established here.

There are people who have come to trust in Jesus Christ.

And these churches are seeking to evangelize those who live around about them.

And they are also seeking to establish new communities, new supernatural communities empowered by the Holy Spirit to conform to the image of Christ as they receive the word of God.

In shorthand, he's saying there's churches in these areas.

There are people who know something of Christ.

And these churches are getting on with that ministry.

It's a good job well done.

But that's not enough for Paul.

Paul effectively says, no, no, no, we need to keep going now.

We can't just stop where we are.

We need to keep going.

We need to keep pushing forward.

We need to keep taking this message of the gospel of Christ because Christ must be heard.

So that God is glorified by everything and everyone that he has made.

The gospel doesn't just stop when we've got a couple of good things to show for it.

The gospel pushes forward.

And that is what Paul is super excited about in this letter to the Romans.

He wants them to see that this gospel of grace for the world cannot just stop at Rome.

It cannot just stop in Corinth.

It cannot stop in Jerusalem.

It has to go to the ends of the earth.

So why is he speaking about Jerusalem and Illyricum?

It's actually very bold and audacious when you begin to understand the geography that he's talking about.

He is effectively saying that the four prefectures of the Roman Empire, the four divisions that the Roman Empire was put into,

he says there's churches in the furthest east where Jerusalem is representative.

In Illyricum, I have spent ministry and there are churches which are based there.

You're in the province of Italia in Rome that covers the north of Africa and the whole of Italy.

We're going to the last frontier.

We're going to the last prefecture because this is where Christ needs to be seen.

This is where Christ has not been made known yet.

And we're going there.

I'm going there because the gospel has not been heard.

The spirit of pioneering new works of the gospel is something which should characterize the ministry of God's people locally and globally.

We should not be content because there are some nice things for us to point to and say, isn't that amazing?

We should rejoice in that and we should be encouraged by that.

But that encouragement should fuel us to taking that gospel to the next places where Christ has not been honored, where Christ has not been proclaimed.

We want to see the unreached come to hear about Christ because we know that this is what thrills God's heart.

Those who are not told about him will see.

And those who have not heard will understand.

When believers are convinced that the earth is the Lord's and that there is only one mediator between people and God,

they will passionately pursue preaching Christ in pioneering ways and situations so that those who do not know will hear

and that those who have never come in contact with the gospel before will have that opportunity to hear about God and to see something of his glory.

A couple of years ago, I was in China and I was able to go to a region where Tibetan Buddhism is the predominant religion.

And that is the thing which shapes the culture.

I'm going to read to you something of a biography from someone who had been involved in ministry in this place.

A man called Frank Lerner.

And he says this,

My call, for I can use no other word, was heard while on a visit to the Kumbom Lama Sury.

I'd taken tracts and gospels with me, but I had a very limited knowledge of the Tibetan language then,

and the attempt to impart the great message to the Lama's understanding seemed very feeble.

One afternoon, feeling burdened with a sense of their need, I walked up a hill at the back of the Lama Sury.

Sitting on the grassy slopes, I gazed at the mountains which separate China from Tibet.

Their peaks were sparkling in the afternoon sun, and as my eyes rested on the purity of their whiteness,

the question, but what is beyond, thrust itself upon me.

I thought of the millions of lips uttering meaningless prayers, millions of bodies daily bowed in frustrations,

millions of people awaiting the blessing of men who call themselves incarnate Buddhas,

and so little was being done to bring the light to them.

And suddenly it seemed as if a voice was speaking.

I want you to do something for these people.

I went up the back of that same hill and looked out across that same monastery,

and still to this day, there is no active, flourishing witness to the gospel among these people,

nearly a hundred years later.

Who is willing to go so that the earth will resound to the praise of God's glory?

Who is willing to sacrifice all of these comforts that we have in our everyday life

so that these many, many millions of Tibetans will have an opportunity to respond to Jesus Christ?

Do you know what we did when we sat looking out across that monastery?

We sung that wonderful song,

And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood?

Who will go?

So what are the ways that we can be pioneers in this great city of Edinburgh?

This is something for us.

I'm not going to give you the answers, because I'll be honest, I don't have the answers.

The takeaway for this is really a case of what are we thinking through?

What are the things we can do in terms of pioneering ministry in this great city of Edinburgh?

Which communities don't have a gospel church?

Which ethnic minorities or religious groups that exist in this great city

have little to no concept of the gospel

and have little to no access to disciples of Jesus Christ?

Take the wider angle then.

Who is being raised up in this church

to pioneer ministry in other parts of Scotland,

in other parts of Edinburgh,

in other parts of the world?

Because that is one of the markers of a church

which is healthy and which is growing,

is that there is this desire to see people raised up within it

to proclaim Christ

locally, nationally, globally.

Identify them.

Love them.

Allow them like me to make all the mistakes in the world

and just love them through that.

Train them up.

Show them the way that they should go

and send them off as a blessing

to bless and to announce Christ

wherever it is he takes them.

So that is the second section

that comes in with the ministry of God's people

is this idea of a pioneering ministry.

But there is also a root that comes with our zeal.

We were through in Edinburgh recently

to see In the Night Garden live.

I don't know how many people know about In the Night Garden,

about Iggle Piggle

and the Ninky Nonk and the Pinky Ponk.

But it is great fun

and that's the season of life that I find myself in now.

And Sophia wanted a helium balloon of the Pinky Ponk.

And, you know, the balloon cost eight pounds

so I was making sure this balloon

was nailed down to the pram.

It was not flying off across the Edinburgh skyline.

It needed to be rooted so that it didn't meander off,

so that it didn't just go floating away off

into the sunset.

And Paul, even though he was passionate to get to Spain,

to that last prefecture of the empire

that didn't have a church,

is someone who had a rooted zeal.

He was passionate,

but it didn't mean that he just went and did his own thing.

His zeal was not at the expense of real relationships

with other believers.

You see that so plainly.

I plan, verse 24,

I plan to do so when I go to Spain.

I hope to visit you while passing through

having a relationship with the church in Rome

and to have you assist me on my journey.

After a while, I'll enjoy your company.

Now, however, I'm on my way to Jerusalem

in the service of the saints there.

He has not sacrificed real relationships

as a result of his passion and his zeal.

No, Paul was tethered to the church,

longing to see his fellow believers in Jerusalem

encouraged through the financial gifts

of other churches which had been established

through his ministry.

You see, gospel ministry is zeal with a root.

Yes, in Christ, absolutely.

We are not denying that or taking away from it,

but it is also rooted in the people of God.

It is rooted in Christ's people as well.

Do you grow cold towards the church?

The number of times I have conversations with people,

either believers or non-believers,

and it is the church which comes

under the greatest amount of criticism.

The church is what gets in the way of mission,

is what I hear far too often,

and that is wrong.

Because God has a church for his mission.

We do not replace the church

with our own exciting, passionate ideas for zeal.

Yes, there can be challenges,

but please don't let them lead you to become cold,

cynical, and self-determining in your heart

that God has given me this thing to do,

and I'm going to do the thing.

The church was bought with the blood of Christ,

and it is the church which will be presented to Christ

as his bride perfected on the last day.

The church is his inheritance,

the inheritance of nations.

Being a pioneer in ministry

doesn't mean being a lone ranger.

Having a great idea to see something new happen

in Edinburgh or the ends of the earth

doesn't mean that you just go ahead and do it.

Being a pioneer in ministry

is coming to the church leaders and to your elders

and saying, guys,

have we thought about this?

This is profoundly counter-cultural

in the Western world where our identity is asserted.

We tell people who we are.

We tell people what we will do.

Where we determine who we are,

what we'll do,

that is the way that our identity

is constructed in the Western world.

And what Paul is saying is profoundly

counter-cultural for our day and age.

And yet,

this is a wonderful window

through which people can marvel

at the gospel of God's grace in Christ,

does it not?

You have this great zeal,

this great passion,

but you are willing to come in humility

and submission to people

and work this together

and not just blaze your own trail,

do your own thing,

and actually kind of take the glory for yourself

instead of coming together

as the people of God

and saying,

all glory be to Christ,

our King,

all glory be to Christ.

are we willing to be

an accountable and encouraging people?

Not cynical,

not critical of the bride of Christ.

Always remember that phrase

when you start with the axe on the church.

To come as an encouraging people,

but to come as an accountable people.

Longing to see the church encouraged,

longing to see people grow

in their faith relationship

with the Lord Jesus

as they are held accountable.

Having a rooted zeal,

a real relationship with God

and a real relationship with his people

means that we will desire

to pray

and to see the gospel move forward.

You see that in that section,

verse 30 to 33.

He's rooted in the local church,

but that rootedness,

that zealous rootedness

also leads us,

it drives us to want to pray

and to bring the challenges,

the joys,

the whatever it is

before God.

And it's only when we have

that real relationship with God

and we have that real relationship

with others

that we will ever get into the place

where we do not see this

praying for the church,

praying for the mission of God,

praying for his people as a burden.

It will become a delight

because we know that we are then

serving together side by side,

not one person being really important

and the rest of us kind of just being here.

No, we are the people of God

involved in the mission of God

to see his glory

extended to the ends of the earth,

which means that there's not somebody

who's superior or inferior in many ways.

Where these relationships with God

and his people are cold or non-existent,

then prayer at best

usually becomes ritualistic

and at worst it becomes non-existent.

Prayer overflows from a rooted passion

to see the kingdom of God grow

and for his people

to be effective ambassadors in his hands.

It's one of my great concerns,

I have to be honest,

spending time going to different churches

in Scotland from different traditions.

And this is something

that's probably aimed more at people

who are my sort of age and stage,

maybe about 10 or 15 years older

and younger than me.

What's gonna happen

when all of these people

who are over their 70s

are no longer here and there

with the Lord and glory?

The people who have prayed,

the people who commit these things to the Lord

and yet so often I have to confess,

I see in my generation

a real lack of wanting to bring these things

before the Lord in prayer.

Deeply rooted prayer.

You see, your church leaders need your prayers.

Your pastor needs your prayers.

Your mission partners need your prayers,

your fellow believers

sitting next to you right now.

They need your prayers.

Sometimes in the UK society,

we are so bad at actually just saying,

I really need you to pray for this

because we have to tick a box

of some sort of conformity

to kind of, you know,

not causing people a bit of offense

or not really getting in their way.

Guys, drop that.

We need each other to pray for each other

so that that amazing message of the gospel

goes throughout the whole world.

Being rooted in the church community locally

and globally will see us overflow into believing prayer.

Knowing that this God of peace,

knowing that the God of peace

will work in accordance to his perfect will

to fulfill his mission amongst all peoples.

Are you rooted?

Are you rooted?

Are you rooted in Christ?

Are you rooted in his church?

What do you pray for?

What are the things that you pray for?

And leading on from that,

who do you pray for?

Who do you spend time committed before God

and saying,

I am praying for X person in their challenges?

I urge you brothers by our Lord Jesus Christ

and by the love of the spirit

to join me in my struggle

by praying to God for me.

Who do you pray for?

And what do you pray for?

Now finally,

we see this,

we see a wonderful example

in chapter 16 of unity and diversity.

Paul effectively goes through a list

of lots of different people

and he actually highlights

just what he's been talking about

in these last few verses.

That the gospel brings unity

even though we are very different from each other.

It's a delightful picture

of what Paul has been reminding

the church in Rome about.

So many people,

so many from different places,

different working backgrounds,

different cultural heritages,

but perhaps one of the most wonderful

and countercultural things to note

is the important place

that Paul gives in thanking the women

in the church.

They are not a subclass human

as would have been the case

in that day.

They were equally valued,

equally loved by God in Christ.

Nine out of the 26 people mentioned

are women in this section

and they have served side by side,

yes,

in different ways

in seeing the gospel

cross boundaries

and cross barriers.

Now let me be clear,

I hold to the same

complementarian perspective

that we do as a church.

But something I'm always challenged

about reading this section is this,

how do I seek to encourage

sisters in Christ

to love and good works

as fellow partners in the gospel?

How does Martin seek to encourage

the many sisters

that he has spent time with?

and say,

do you know what?

Go on to love and good works.

I really want to encourage you

to see these things through

in your work,

with your family,

wherever it is

that God has placed you

in your life.

Can I just pray for you?

What are the ways

that I'm seeking

to encourage

the many gifted women

that I know

in ways

that they know

they are valued?

not just filling in

something

that I don't want

to do as a man.

One thing

that we can be sure of

from this section

is that Paul

is not the chauvinist

of popular culture.

He often gets characterized

as someone

who hated women

and he's demonized

in many sections

of thinking

that he just hated women.

He had nothing good

to say about them.

Oh, clearly,

people have never read

this section.

And it should be something

that is not found

in the church of Christ.

Women are equally loved

and known by God.

Fallen, broken people

just like men.

What am I doing

to encourage?

What is it that we

are doing to encourage

the sisters

in our congregation,

brothers?

Yes, there are things

which are not appropriate.

We know that.

The Bible is clear

about that.

But what are ways

that we are seeking

to encourage

our fellow sisters

in Christ?

What ways

do you seek

to enable your sisters

to be released

for good works?

Something that's really

challenged me recently

is stepping back

and saying,

no, do you know what,

Jennifer?

I'm going to stay in

so that you can go out

and do this.

What?

Sisters,

you are known

and loved by God.

He knows you.

He loves you.

He cares for you.

Press on with us

to love and good works

as we seek

to announce Christ together,

whether that's

in our offices,

whether that's

in the toddler room,

whether that's

in the lecture hall,

wherever it is

that you find yourself

to have been placed

by God,

lets each of us

seek to move forward,

enabled by God

in the Spirit,

into love

and good works.

And as we do this together,

living in such unity,

affirming our diversity,

saying,

yes,

there is differences here

because that is something

which as the church

we need to affirm.

There is difference.

difference.

But that difference

does not mean

disharmony and disunity.

As we move forward

in unity,

an onlooking world

cannot help but asking,

why do you guys

love each other so much

and why do you love

each other in this way?

We look out at our society

and it just seems

not to make sense.

But you guys

seem to get this

and you seek

to move forward together

and seek to love

each other.

Is that not the door

that we are waiting

to see opened up?

Somebody saying,

why is it that you do this?

I mean,

that's like gospel goals,

isn't it?

Why do you do this?

Well,

there's a guy called Jesus,

by the way,

and he changes everything.

Can I tell you

a little bit about him?

Can I tell you

a little bit about him?

The church is a

supernatural community

drawing together

a disparate group

to reflect,

to display,

and announce

the kingdom

which is to come.

This was the pattern

of the early church.

This was the way

that things worked.

This is why

they penetrated

and permeated

so many different aspects

of the Roman world

because when disease

broke out,

the believers

didn't flee the cities

where the disease was.

No,

some of them remained

and they sought to serve

and some of them died

as a result of remaining to serve.

When believers were persecuted,

they didn't respond

with warfare or revolution.

They prayed for those

who were nailing them down

and they were praying

for those who were signing

the arrest and death warrants

and they were praying

for the person

who was holding the sword

above their head.

And in the middle

of Rome's empire,

filled with all of the

ethnic tensions

that there were

at that time,

the church was the first place

in the world

where all of the

common social markers

which caused division

were brought down.

Because in Christ,

there is one new humanity.

In Christ,

there is one people of God

and in Christ alone,

the mission of God

will move forward

to the praise of His glory

and grace.

You see,

these are the sort of churches

that the Lord Jesus

desires to see.

Churches which are united

behind the gospel,

seeking to spur each other

on to love and to good works,

to proclaim and display

that gospel

to the ends

of the earth.

And that is what Paul

desires to see

in the church in Rome.

Because remember,

what is it that Paul

is saying to them?

I'm writing these things,

telling you about

the obedience that comes

by faith for the Gentiles.

And the reason I'm saying

these things is because

there is still a section

of the Gentiles

in the Roman world

which is yet to be reached.

Are you united

behind the gospel?

And in your unity

behind the gospel,

send me to Spain

so that when I come to you

and we have fellowship together

and I encourage you

with the gospel,

you see, you hear,

and you say,

Paul, we will send you

to the last place

on earth

where there has not been

someone to speak

about Jesus.

Paul is passionate

to get to Spain

because Paul is passionate

about the God of glory

who has come in Jesus Christ

to display grace upon grace.

The one who has loved him

and who has given himself

for him.

Friends,

we are supernatural communities.

Our communities

are transnational communities.

Our ministry

is to be marked

with a pioneering spirit

that we want to see

the gospel

dig down into

every aspect of life

because Christ

deserves the glory

and the honor

and the praise.

We want to make sure

that we are rooted

even in our zeal

so that we are not

just going off

and doing our own thing.

And we want to be people

who are united

in our diversity.

Christ delights

to see his people

diverse and disparate

as they are,

broken sinners

from all corners

of the earth

coming before him,

praising his name

because he has brought them

to unity with himself.