4/26/26 - Romans 15:14-33: the Ministry of the Gospel - Steve Gee

Let me start with this.

In the beginning, God created man in his image to declare his glory to all of creation.

That's the purpose of man.

Created by God to declare God's glory to all of creation.

Humanity rebelled against that purpose and decided to live to declare their own beauty and worth.

God then gathered a people and revealed his holiness through the law.

But his people continually revealed that they fall short of God's image and holiness.

But God, then, in love, sent his son Jesus to fulfill the perfect image of God in the flesh.

Jesus took on our falling short called sin and was crucified on the cross.

After three days, he left the tomb in physical resurrection, making a way for anyone who believes in him to follow him in dying to sin and being made new.

Jesus then ascended back to the Father and in back to the Father in heaven and has been given ultimate authority over all things.

He's promised to return again, and when he does, he will consummate or complete his kingdom, overthrowing all evil unto an eternal death of separation, and restoring all creation, including all the physical bodies of those who believe in him.

And they and he will dwell together for eternity in perfect fellowship.

So if you've not read the Bible before, that was it.

Like there's the story.

Okay.

So the entire Bible is that one story.

The gospel is the good news that the loving God of creation sent his son to give us his righteousness and take our sinfulness upon himself.

He became our death so that we could become his life.

And this means that by grace, by the grace of faith, we are no longer subjected to eternal death and decay, but rather eternal life and fullness.

A fullness that is found in his presence forevermore.

And we often talk about this to understand.

The thing that we don't like about death is that it separates us.

The thing that is so hard about my dad passing away is that I feel separated from him.

Eternal death is eternal separation from the God who created us.

Eternal life, as Christ says quite literally in the book of John, eternal life is forever fellowship with God, forever presence, forever a knowing of the God of creation.

Paul believed this truth, and he saw that his life in this age and the life of all the people of God were meant to declare this truth to all of creation.

Again, the great and ancient commission from the Garden of Eden to fill the earth with his glory.

Paul is not simply concerned with, do you know the gospel?

He is also concerned with, will you by faith and grace live the gospel?

That is, in Christ.

Will you now apply and obey what he is doing in you?

We understand the word exhortation.

If you've not used that this week yet, let me remind you what exhortation means.

Exhortation is the encouragement to apply.

Right?

So you tell your kid, clean your room.

Right?

That is a command.

The exhortation is I need you to go in there and start picking stuff up.

I need you to apply what I told you to do.

Right?

Paul uses half of his, all most of his letters, really, to say, here's what I told you to do, here's what Christ, here's what we're called to do, here's what Christ did.

By grace, he's been saved through faith.

Now here's how we do that, here's how we apply that.

The exhortation of the gospel.

Or as Paul says, at the beginning of Romans, at the end of Romans, the obedience of our faith.

So with that, we get to this final section of Romans chapter 15, before he begins his goodbyes in chapter 16.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

So read with me.

It's a lengthy section.

Romans 15, 14 through 33.

I'm reading from the English Standard Version.

Romans 15, verses 14 through 33.

Romans 15:14–33

Read this with me.

Yeah, we'll start there.

But on some points I have written to you very boldly, by the way.

Actually, let's start at 14.

That's where we're supposed to start.

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.

But on some points I've 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.

In Christ Jesus, then I have reason to be proud of my work for God, 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, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and all the way around Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ.

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, but as it is written, those who have never been told before will see, and those who have never heard will understand.

Verse 22.

This is the reason why I've so often been hindered from coming to you.

But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I've longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey there by you.

Once I have enjoyed your company for a while.

At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints.

For Macedonia and Acacia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.

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

For if the Gentiles have come to share their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.

When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you.

I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.

Verse 30.

I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers and with your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judah, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.

Verse 33.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, as we look at this passage from Romans 15, I pray as as Brad prayed, that your spirit would open the eyes of our hearts, that we would not just understand these words, that we would that our hearts would be captured by these words, that we would know these things, that we would taste and see that you are good by the way you've revealed yourself in this passage.

Father God, that's our hope and our desire.

We can't do it alone.

We need you.

Thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ, who is the Amen to all the promises that you make.

So then, it's in his name we pray.

Amen.

Okay, today, let me give you a purpose statement, summary statement for these verses.

The gospel is meant to inform our daily lives, reorient our pride, and therefore shape our prayers.

The gospel is meant to inform our daily lives, reorient our pride, and therefore shape our prayers.

First, uh what's three points here?

Gospel implications, gospel pride, gospel prayer.

Gospel implications, gospel pride, and gospel prayer.

So then first, gospel implications, verses 14 and 15 is on your screen.

Should still be in your Bible.

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

But on some points I've written to you very boldly, by the way of reminder, because of the grace given to me by God.

Paul writes that he is satisfied about them.

Again, Paul has never met the Roman church, but he has close friends who give him reports.

And he writes here that he is satisfied, or you could say persuaded, if that's more helpful.

He is persuaded about them.

Persuaded about what?

That they are, look, you can see it in the passage, right?

Satisfied about you, my brothers, that, what is he satisfied about?

What is he persuaded?

What truth is he persuaded about uh of them or by them or uh about them?

That you yourselves, that they are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.

So that's what he's persuaded about.

And again, this is no small thing.

Before he ascended, if you remember, Jesus Christ gave the disciples the great commission.

That is, and remember the great commission, Matthew 28, that is to go and make disciples and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and then uh then teach others to observe, or better, obey the commandments.

Right?

Great commission?

Uh be disciples who then teach others to follow, observe the commandments of God.

So back to our passage.

Paul's assessment of the Church of Rome.

Paul says they are fulfilling this great commission of Christ.

They are obeying, they are full of goodness and knowledge, and they are then teaching others, they are discipling others to do the same.

Great.

Awesome.

And then Paul, I have a friend in this room who says, when you use the word but, everything before it doesn't mean it's true anymore.

But I don't think that's what Paul's doing here.

He says, but, I'm gonna say, but also.

But also, look what Paul writes in the next verse.

But on some points, I've written to you very boldly, by way of reminder, because of the grace given to me, uh, given me by God.

So, hey, you're doing great.

Full of goodness, full of knowledge, you're teaching others to do this.

This is what Christ called us to do.

We are a great commit, y'all are a great commissioned church.

This is this is great.

But also I have some other things that I want to remind you of.

So Paul tells them, while they're walking in obedience in many ways, he wrote this letter to remind them of some things.

Romans chapters 9 through 11 are the fullest, I'm sorry, 1 through 11.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

Romans chapters 1 through 11 are the fullest in-depth explanation and treatment of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the entire Bible.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

It's not concise, it is full, it is robust.

In each chapter, Paul unpacks and explicates the natural condition of man and the gracious response of God in Christ Jesus, and that we're able to take hold of that grace through faith in him.

So then after presenting that full, robust gospel in Romans chapters 1 through 11 and arguing for that full gospel, Paul means then to exhort, encourage them to apply, and to see how that gospel applies to their lives and current circumstances.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

So by going into the depths of who we were apart from Christ and then explaining what and why Christ uh why he died, Paul is laying the foundation for explaining the implications of God's power in our salvation.

Paul wants them to continue to grow in their understanding and see how the good news of Jesus fleshes out into every area of their life.

So then you can see this in our passage here, Romans 14 and 15.

Paul is saying, hey, listen, you've learned the gospel, you know the gospel, you're you're you're full of goodness, you're full of knowledge, you're actually teaching people the gospel.

This is great, this is great, this is great.

But now what he sees in Romans, especially chapters 12 through here, 15, what he's saying is, let me let me continue to flesh out, and you know what we've been talking about this in Romans chapter uh 14, uh 13 and 14.

He's trying to flesh out 14, especially.

He's fleshing out what that means for the unity of the church.

He's saying, hey, listen, have we thought about all the implications of the gospel?

You remember when Paul rebukes uh Peter in Galatians?

What is he saying?

What does he say?

He he is saying, uh, is that in line with the gospel?

The fact that you're not eating with the Gentiles, does that carry out, does that follow through on the implications of the gospel?

This is what Paul is doing to the Romans.

Hey, there's this unity among this church of Rome between the the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians, and he and he's trying to unpack, he's saying, listen, there's some of you who are trying to unwelcome each other, strong Christian, mature Christian, immature Christian, you're trying to unwelcome each other.

Do you think that is a that do you not think that the gospel has implications about that area of our lives?

Does that make sense?

So you're teaching it, you know it, you're full of goodness, but let me give you a reminder about all of the ways in which that actually fleshes out into our lives.

And this is important for us to hear in the Bible Belt.

I imagine that on some level we can all explain what the gospel is, what the good news of Jesus Christ is, what Christ has done in our place, and how we are not only forgiven but raised to walk a new life.

But the danger of the gospel being in the cultural error is that we can become numb to the implications of the gospel.

Uh Feb March?

The month of March is when my wife's car gets her uh registration.

You have to do the registration every year.

Y'all have done that?

Yeah, okay.

Well, so it's like, am I being tricked here?

Am I the only person doing this?

Uh so you know, like you have to, when you well, you guys have been there.

I don't need to explain car registration.

Maybe.

Hey son, in case you haven't learned, you're gonna have to register the car someday.

Okay, so I'm talking to him.

Uh you all can overhear me talking to my son.

Uh so every year, right?

You you you you you get the letter saying, hey, we want you to, you know, we want it, we have a very expensive sticker we think you should buy.

And uh, you know, even adults like stickers, kids are, you know, like uh we have to pay a lot of money for stickers.

Stickers are expensive.

Uh we don't put them on our forearm and then let them okay, you get it.

Uh and so you buy this sticker and the sticker, okay, the sticker that you buy, then you put the you have to put the piece of paper, the little paper that says how much you you owed, just these numbers.

Okay, I'm not gonna, I'm not cynical.

It's fine.

It's fine.

It all makes sense to me.

Uh, and then you you buy that or you you pay for that, and then you get this piece of paper with the sticker on it, you put the sticker on your license plate, and then you put the piece of paper in your glove compartment that says what?

I am legal to drive.

Right?

So the the registration makes you legal to drive.

So if you get pulled over, the law by the law, you are legal to drive.

The law says legal, justified to drive this car, right?

You get that?

Can I tell you though, that piece of paper, that process, that transaction of registering your car does not tell you where to drive.

It says you are legal to drive, does not tell you where to drive.

The problem of the gospel being in the air, we think it makes us legal before God.

We don't understand it, it tells us what to do with our lives.

And we there's we stop there.

We say, Oh yeah, I'm legal, I'm good.

I prayed a prayer, I'm good.

Got the thing in my, I got the thing in my Bible that says the dead I was baptized, the dead prayed a prayer, I'm legal.

So when when Christ returns, I can show him the sticker.

Right here I am, see it, look at me.

But listen, that's not the gospel.

Paul is saying that's not the gospel, just knowing these things and teaching these laws.

That's not the gospel.

The gospel tells you where to drive, how to live your life already.

It's not a transaction you make, it is a relationship that you've been redeemed and restored into.

Does that make sense?

The difference we become numb to that.

And in the Bible Belt, we say, I got this, I got the thing in my glove compartment.

We're okay.

Well, I'm okay.

I'm okay.

Paul wants to remind them, with bold language, as he said, that this calls us to more than that.

So, again, in a manner of speaking, Paul's saying he knows that they are teaching the truth, but he wants to remind them how that truth defines how they live their lives, or to use the language of the illustration again, where they drive their car.

Paul longs for the church to grow up and understand how the gospel informs their everyday and current circumstances.

The gospel is not a dead doctrine for your glove compartment.

In Christ, the gospel sets us right with the God of creation and thus, therefore, transforms our entire lives and that has meaning in every circumstance, in every green pasture and dark valley we walk through.

And that ought to be our continual consideration.

How does the gospel of Jesus Christ shape how I respond in this situation?

I imagine when you're driving to the store, you're not considering your registration.

But when you're driving to the store, you ought to remember when somebody cuts you off the gospel of Jesus Christ.

How does the gospel that secures me and gives me a new identity apply in this moment?

And we know from other passages in Romans and the Bible that the root question is how do I trust and thus glorify God in this situation?

How do I declare his goodness, his patience, his forgiveness, his charity, his faithfulness, his kindness, his compassion, his love in this moment?

What does it look like to deny myself in this circumstance for the sake of the beauty and worth of Jesus Christ being made known to all of creation?

How do I respond to the highly polarized political climate that we live in?

How do I live in a time in which the fabric of society is being ripped apart by the keystrokes of avatars?

Does the gospel inform how I treat people online?

How do I walk and work with integrity when it seems the only rule of the age is to live for what makes you feel good?

How do I love people well in the truth?

And on and on, the gospel informs all of these things.

Endless, therefore, implications reverberate out from the finished work of Christ.

Paul hopes for the church to see the depths of their salvation and then work it out in fear and trembling, in awe, in reverence, in acknowledging him in all things.

And before we move on to point two, in all of this, there's a warning.

Again, the problem that Christ rebuked in the Gospels with the religious was hypocrisy.

That's how Paul started his letter to in Romans chapter 2.

Romans 2 · chapter mention

Recently I read and then shared an article with our elders about the scariest word for a Christian.

The scariest word for a Christian.

And that word is bifurcation.

It's scary because it's tricky to say.

The meaning of it is scary.

That is a division of what we recite and declare versus how we live.

And for us, that split probably did not start with an intentional desire to say one thing and live another.

Rather, over a length of time, through a series of small compromises, we become two different people.

We have the person we want people and God to see and how we teach other people, and then the person who walks in sin and darkness.

And we become more and more tolerant of the widening gap between what we can recite and what we live.

And soon we are whitewashed tombs with death inside.

Paul is writing boldly to remind them, to call them back to a life of integrity, to live out the doctrine they believe, to see the implications of the gospel and not just be able to teach them, to repent and turn by the grace of God to the new life we've been set free for.

The gospel has implications.

Secondly, gospel pride.

Romans 15, 17 through 20.

So if we remember that Paul is writing to a group of Gentile and Jewish Christians, we understand that the Jewish religious leaders have become quite proud, quite proud about the whitewash tune that they were.

Their pride was in their appearance and surface level law-abiding.

Again, I don't know, I can't get into the heart of one of the religious leaders of the first century, but I assume it did not start with a very intentional bifurcation or uh uh duplicity.

They didn't say, you know what, I'm gonna love God from with my mouth, but I am going to be a whitewashed tomb of greed and power uh in my heart.

I'm sure it, I assume it didn't start that way, but a series of compromises.

Their boast was built on the foundation of their legalistic adherence to the law, their boast was in themselves, and so their righteousness before God was in themselves, and all of their good works were then meant to point to their own goodness.

But Paul says, not I.

If there were a okay, I looked some of this up.

I don't want you to think I'm smart.

Why not?

That's a weird thing to not want people to think.

Uh uh, okay.

If there were a$150,000 piano, and they exist, I looked it up.

If there were a, and there there's some, there are more.

Slate was like, yes, there are.

If there were a$150,000 concert piano in my house, it would be a beautiful TV track.

I mean, the pizza I could eat on that thing would be awesome.

Versus, if there were a$150,000 Concert piano in Slater Murphy's house, it would be beautiful music.

Does that make sense?

So then, what do we see there?

The beautiful instrument is nice, but it necessitates a beautiful musician.

Does that make sense?

Otherwise, it's a pizza track.

Nothing wrong with pizza.

The piano is an instrument that can only come alive and make beautiful music in the hands of a musician.

Paul saw himself as an instrument.

Romans 6, 13, we already saw this earlier.

He said, Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who've been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

This is what Paul's boast is here in Romans chapter 15, 17 through 20.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

As Paul said at the beginning of this section, Romans 12, 1, we are to present ourselves, our lives to God, living sacrifices, those who are living to die to themselves, that we would surrender our lives to his work in us and through us.

And so Paul writes that in Christ he has reason to boast for his work in God.

In Christ.

He is proud of what God has accomplished through him to reach the Gentiles for Christ.

Paul is proud that he has been able to be used by God.

That's okay.

I want to boast.

My boast is in you.

I want to tell everybody about what you've done through me.

This is never about what he did, it is about what Christ did.

He is proud of the song that the musician has played through him.

And just to be clear, Paul is not, nor has he ever said that he was a$150,000 concert piano.

He's never said, God is lucky to have me to be able to use as an instrument.

In fact, Paul said just the opposite.

He said, I am the foremost of sinners, that he was a murderous and yet.

So it's more like a concert pianist coming to a place and playing one of those like little Fisher Price, broken, rotten pianos and making beautiful music.

And that piano says, I'm so proud of what the musician has done through me.

How he has used me.

I want to boast and I want to tell everybody about the musician.

Do you hear the song that he was able to play through me?

Y'all know me.

I approved of Stephen's martyr.

Look what he's done through me.

It's not about me, it's about him.

And in all of that, Paul wants the Roman church to look at his life.

They knew him, they knew where he came from, they know what he did to the early first century church.

They want him to, they want them to look at his life and praise God, to be emboldened, to be provoked, to join him and surrender themselves to the work of the chief musician for his glory.

Paul's ambition, and we see it there, uh, there in verse 20, and thus I make it my ambition.

All right, so summary statement, and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, right?

That's how God is using him.

Again, Paul is an instrument of God for that ambition to preach the gospel.

He sees this as part of his uh, he sees this part and place in this God-conducted orchestra as a preacher of the good news of Jesus Christ.

Right?

Paul says, this is this is the this is the this is the the the thing that I do in the orchestra.

The symphony of Christ.

My my my thing is I preach the gospel.

I preach, really, I preach.

As I thought about this ambition, and I thought about my own life.

I thought about what, like, what if somebody said, hey, you're gonna spend a year building um you know sand castles.

Every day you're gonna wake up, you're gonna build sand castles.

Every day.

And some of you are like, that sounds fun.

Uh you're gonna spend a year just building sandcastles.

You know what happens, sand gets washed away.

Or versus if they said, hey, you're gonna be you're gonna spend a year building an orphanage for children.

It's going to house children for you know decades to do such good things.

I imagine most of us say, like, I want to do the thing that lasts.

Like, I don't want to wake up each day and build a sandcastle.

I want to do the thing that lasts.

At 48, I think a lot about that and about how I have spent and how I am spending and how I will spend my time.

Does what I'm doing matter?

If I only have one life on this earth, how am I stewarding that time?

What are my ambitions?

Will they count?

Will they matter?

What if I achieve all of the ambitions that I have?

What if I find success in the ambition that I have?

To what end?

To what end?

And I, you know, I was thinking about this midlife crisis or whatever.

What a grace of God that we would all at some point in our life step back and say, does this count?

Like, what am I doing?

Does this even matter?

That we would think about that.

Think about the implications.

Am I aimed at temporary kingdoms and comforts?

The gospel is not just about what will happen to us in eternity.

The gospel redeems us and is restoring us to an already eternal ambition.

An already ambition that we're meant to have, that Paul had.

We've been made new unto an unimaginable, meaningful life in the already.

We are a people of full, we are a people full of thanksgiving for the opportunity to do this work that will not be burned up, this work that will transcend a tomb and reverberate for all of eternity.

No tide of any ocean will be able to wash it away.

Paul longs for the church to understand that there are different roles in the church, Romans 12, but all of these roles are aimed at the proclamation of God's goodness and revealed as revealed in Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4, 7, but we have this treasure, the gospel, Christ, in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not us.

We are jars of clay with the overflowing treasure of Christ.

Remember what we are repenting from, living for our own glory, a glory that is returning to sand, living a life in which our ultimate ambition is our own image.

And so we function with a surface-level understanding of sin in which we believe we are repenting of some rule.

Okay, let me step back for a second and talk about that.

Remember the original sin.

Remember the Tower of Bow, we talked about it this morning in Sunday school.

You remember the original sin is us saying, no, no, I want to live for myself.

I want to live for my own kingdom, I want to live for my own image.

And then so when we come into, we we come and meet the gospel, we think and we think about sin.

Our understanding of sin is some surface level that we're repenting of some rule that we've broken.

And though, and because we we see that, we we think that way, we even see some sins as victimless.

Oh, you know, that sin is against somebody, but this sin is victimless.

This is just about me.

That is, this sin is against no one and are really quite arbitrary.

And so we see God's law as arbitrary.

But at the core, what we are repenting of in the gospel is a rebellion against God.

We, as those made in his image, as those meant to reflect him, are confessing and turning from that which veins or empties his beauty.

When we sin, we are choosing a man-centered ambition and pride.

Okay, I know maybe I've not put that together correctly or right.

Let me give me one more shot.

Our sin is living with an ambition to declare the beauty of ourselves.

That was from the garden.

That was in Babel, right?

Our sin, that is today.

Our sin is when we live for our own ambition.

That is, declare Tower of Babel, declare our own name and worth.

That's our sin.

At the core, every sin is to declare our own sovereignty.

We are gods.

That's sin.

Paul is saying, trying to tell the church, saying his ambition is that we live for a different ambition.

It is a gospel ambition.

It is an eternal ambition.

It is to declare the beauty of God.

So then our lives, our actions, how we react in traffic, how we react online, how we respond to all things, that is uh then uh we we are given an opportunity to declare the beauty of God in Christ Jesus.

Does that make sense?

So this is sin declaring our ambition of ourselves to be restored and renewed, to be renewed and restored, is to live with that gospel ambition to declare the beauty of Christ.

And so for all who are in Christ, our shared ambition and boast is in Christ Jesus.

He is the image we are being transformed into by one degree at a time.

Paul was a preacher of Christ, and while we all have different vocations and circumstances, we have a singular destination and boast.

This is what Paul wants them to see.

Before we move on to the third, this is what Paul wants them to see.

We all, he was a preacher.

We all have a role.

Salesmen, we're realtors, we're, oh, we're, you know, we I'm looking at everybody, I'm like, oh man, there's just y'all have a lot of different jobs.

There are a lot of counselors in here, I know that.

Uh that didn't scare me, I'm fine.

Uh and so y'all are taking notes, right?

Not not diagnosing them, right?

Uh and so uh like uh so we all have these different vocations, but we all have a singular ambition.

It's the gospel.

How do I, in my thing, the thing that I do, whether it be a grandparent, whether it be you know working at home, whatever, what how do I, what, how do I do this thing, singular destination, the gospel that is in a car registration, but defines where I go?

How do I live in this, how do I live in light, the implications, the thing that Paul has boldly talked about in the last three chapters, how do I live in a way that glorifies God?

Because I don't want to live in a way that glorifies man, that is return to dust.

Does that make sense?

Okay.

We have to know all that to understand how we end here today.

The prayer that Paul is gonna ask for.

If your ambition is yourself, selfish ambition, your prayer is gonna be shaped by that ambition.

Does that make sense?

The thing you want is the thing you're gonna pray for.

I need comfort, I need this, I need this, I need this, I need this, I need this.

That's gonna define your prayers.

I'm not saying it's wrong to pray for health and that you would be able to pay your bill.

I'm not saying it's wrong for that, but the the ultimate gut-wrenching, striving, wrestling with God will be shaped by where your ambition is.

So Paul is going to then show an implication of where his ambition is for the gospel by what he asks for prayer for.

Look at it.

Last point.

Gospel prayer.

Okay, verse 30 through 32.

I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from unbelievers in Judah, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.

Paul then asks the Christians by the name of Jesus and the love of the Spirit to strive with him in their prayers and to God on his behalf.

The word strive means to wrestle with.

Picture Jacob wrestling with the Lord.

Right?

This is what Paul is asking.

Would you please go before the Lord and wrestle with him?

Not let him go for these things that he's about to ask for.

Paul invites them to two requests to devote to prayer.

First, that he, Paul, would be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea.

This is more than a prayer for safety.

He is not afraid of what will happen to him.

Rather, he's concerned about the success of the ministry that he has been called to.

He is asking that they would strive a wrestle with him in prayer, that he would be delivered from those who seek to silence him.

So, deliverance from those who did not believe the gospel.

First prayer request.

Aimed at that he would be delivered so that he could continue to do the work.

Remember, Paul prays in prayer.

Paul, when he's he's in prison, he doesn't pray as a, would you help, would you pray that I'd get out of prison?

That's not, it's never been his prayer.

Not saying it's wrong to pray that.

I'm just saying that the prayers he tells us to pray with him for are about success for the gospel.

And second, second prayer request, that his service or his ministry would be accepted by the believers in Jerusalem.

So, some clarification here.

Most probably what Paul had in mind by success or acceptance of the ministry by those in Jerusalem is the financial gift, and we read that earlier, the financial gift from the Gentile Christians that he was carrying to the needy Jerusalem Christians.

Why would this be a prayer request?

Why is he praying that the Jerusalem Christians would accept the gift from the Gentile Christians?

We've already seen it in the last three chapters.

Why?

Because for Jewish believers, accepting the charity of a Gentile Christian would mean affirming the ministry of the gospel.

The gospel is the power of God for salvation to all, both Jew and Gentile.

That is what Paul is wrestling with God over in his prayer closet.

So he's saying, please pray that the Jerusalem Christians would accept this gift from the Gentile Christians, because if they do, that means that they affirm that the gospel is for all people.

It is to say it's not just for the Jews.

No, it's for the Jews, it's for all people.

So it's saying, I pray that they receive this gift, because by receiving it, they are saying, Yes, those are Christians.

They are, have been grafted in.

He's not, Paul is not seeking an easy road.

He's not seeking, or sorry, he's not seeking an easy road.

He is seeking the success of Christ in his gospel.

His prayers are for the sake of that good news.

So that, see the end, so that by God's will he may come to them with joy and be refreshed in their company.

Once again, we're reminded of the role of missions in the life of our church.

Paul saw the church as a place of gospel partnership and refreshment, that every follower of Christ was oriented by and shaped by the good news of the Savior and King.

If you remember, you know, um in Acts, the end of Acts, we we read that Paul did like did go to Rome.

And do you know who protected?

So Paul's praying for deliverance from those, the Jewish people who don't believe.

Do you know who protected Paul?

Who God used to protect Paul from the unbelieving Jewish people?

You know who Paul used, or you know who God used to protect Paul?

Rome.

They imprisoned him.

He was protected.

I mean, that's the answer to Paul's request.

Prison.

Paul's saying, would you pray for the unbeliever, of unbelieving Jews, uh, that I would have success in them, I'd be delivered from them?

And you know what God does?

He puts Paul in prison.

You're safe.

Well, you know how it plays out if you've read the end of Acts.

It also is how Paul would get in front of some high-ranking Roman officials and share his testimony and gospel.

So then, church family, of all the things we're concerned with, of all the things that are shaping us, of all the things we're going after, of all the things we long and groan for, and again, I am convinced that most of the people in here, this is not a word of the Lord, this is just reality.

That everyone in here on some level has something they're battling with right now.

Struggling.

Thinking about, worried about.

May we, in all of those things, step back for a moment and remember what that that we are eternal.

We are not of this age.

The sufferings and the pleasures of this world will all be eclipsed by the glory that has and will be revealed on that day.

I was reading back through the screw tape letters by C.

S.

Lewis this week and was struck by some insights.

One, again, it's it's a fictional tale, right, if you've ever read it.

Uh, C.

S.

Lewis talks about these two uh demons talking to each other about how to distract Christians.

Uh and he he he he he kind of fleshes this out early on.

He says, um that he knows that the our enemy, you know our enemy, not not their enemy, our enemy is not aimed at deep truths.

In other words, the enemy against God is is not aimed at deep truths.

The enemy does not want us to consider eternity and our calling.

Rather, the enemy's scheme is to keep our thoughts shallow and our ambitions ordinary.

The enemy wants us to think in the shallows, to not consider the implications of the gospel that it calls us to wear to drive.

It tells us to just recite.

May we be reminded of the implications of the gospel.

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

Salvation that opens tombs full of dust and dry bones and breathes life into the lungs of those who are bent on the darkness and death.

Do not let the carbon monoxide of the ordinary lull you to sleep.

Do not let the tyranny of the urgent and the affairs of the kingdom of man blind you to the unimaginable reality that hangs in the balance.

May we strive and wrestle with Paul for the sake of the gospel, for the safety of the beautiful hands and feet who take this power into dark places?

May we wrestle in prayer that this good news would land on good soil, including ours, that people would repent and turn, including us, that the praise of God may reverberate in every corner of this earth, that the song of Christ may be heard in every language and tongue.

We all have a part in this.

What would a church look like that was active and striving for one another for the sake of the gospel?

And this starts in our own mirror.

It starts when we put down in silence the conduit of our worries and vending machines of immediate gratification called our phones.

It starts when we resist the schemes of an enemy who would have us dwell in the shallows and worry about the shadows.

We cry out in our prayers, unwilling to let go, as we strive with the Lord in pleading that he would bless us for the sake of making him known.

That's our ultimate prayer for each of us.

I pray for you, I pray for all of you that you would think you would know the gospel, that you would have success in wherever you work and whatever you do, that you would be able to make the love of Christ known.

Let's conclude with this.

Paul knows that everything he's unpacked, that he has unpacked, a lot in the letter of the book of Romans, but he continually reminds them that this calling, this obedience of their faith is not a work in which they do alone.

So he ends with this blessing in verse 33.

May the God of peace be with you all.

Amen.

And what a blessing from Paul.

Could there be anything greater for us today than the God of peace?

That is, the God of our complete fullness, satisfaction, contentment, who would be with us, that he would be with you today, that you would know his presence on this Sunday, that you would enjoy him and find exhale in him, that your burdens would be made light at the feet of your Savior, that every anxiety and over concern that haunts your heart would be soothed.

And as I thought about this blessing, I was again reminded that God is not teasing us with his promises, he's not hidden them from us.

So then, where are these promises?

They are found in the Amen, the person of Christ, the yes and assurance of our satisfaction and rest.

And again, maybe that still feels ethereal and abstract.

How can we taste it?

How can we feel it?

How can we take hold of these things?

We heard it last week.

We take hold of all of these things through trust.

In John 14, the disciples' hearts were panicked by the thought of Christ leaving them.

And he told them, Do not be anxious, believe, or trust God, trust me.

So then, how do we today experience Paul's blessing in Romans 15, 33?

There's only one way we can experience the blessing that Paul lays out in 1533.

That is, we must trust God and trust his son.

So we respond to every anxious thought, every discouragement with God, I trust you.

You are all powerful, you are all-knowing, you are all present, and you are good.

I cannot be separated from you.

You are with me.

You are the God of Shalom.

Amen.

And we go to sleep.

Let's pray.

Father God, I pray that we would continually be reminded of the unimaginable work that you've called us out for.

Father God, I would pray that we would see the gospel is not something we make a transaction with you over, that it is not a piece of paper that we shove in a corner of our Bible, that we would see it is something that is meant to shape how we live our daily lives, not out of a begrudging obligation, but out of a joyful, rejoicing, singing, praising, living, doing song of worship.

That we would look for opportunities to follow your son and pick up our cross and deny ourselves daily, that we would then declare the worth of the good news of Jesus Christ that has made wretches into sons and daughters.

Father God, thank you for your Son Jesus Christ.

It's in his name we pray.

Amen.