Missions Paul

“God’s glory is on tour in the skies, God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.”  Psalm 19:1

Give me the evidence that there is a God and I will believe! Ever heard that?

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (Romans 1 v 18-20)

The Earth is spinning 1,000 miles per hour and travels 584 million miles a year. No wonder we all feel tired!

A water molecule has three atoms: two hydrogen (H) atoms and one oxygen (O) atom. The number of water molecules in just 10 regular-sized drops of water is equal to all the stars in the known universe. Incredible!

Hummingbirds are the lightest birds in the sky. There are approximately 240 species and range between 2 and 8 inches long. They can hover, fly backward, even fly upside down. They can dive out of the sky at sixty-one miles per hour which is the equivalent to diving at 385 body-lengths per second! The human eye cannot see its wings flap they are too fast at 60 times a second

Who created all this?

That’s the point Paul is making.

Why does all this exist? For what purpose? That’s the question that needs asking.

The creation of the world will not bring salvation but it constantly speaks to people to search for the true God. Something which billions do every day. They wake seeking the Creator, the One who ordered this world. All that He has made shouts of who He is every single moment of every day and night! The gospel is of course that He can be found, in Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us.

Having opened his letter with good news here comes the bad:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1 v 18)

This morning I think of a lady I pastored for many years and buried her in her old age who never came into the assurance of God’s love. She constantly lived under the shadow of God being angry with her. I’ve seen first-hand across the world anxious people trying to appease their angry gods, living under the shadow of wrath, fulfilling duties that have no meaning except to off-set bad karma.

But this isn’t the God of the Bible whose perfect love never changes towards us. God acts because of His unchanging love. His act is Christ Jesus who did what we could never do or deserve and that is to save ourselves from this wrath. The good news is that He has reversed the bad news. However for those who try and hide the truth of this gospel all they have left is God’s wrath which for Paul is here now but will be fulfilled at the end of time. Is God an angry God? Yes, if you don’t see the other side of the coin which is He is a God of love.

Ever thought that? Of course we all have.

The reason we have is because it is true. We never will be good enough. This is the premise for what Paul says next in showing how powerful the gospel is for the changing of lives:

“For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1 v 17)

Paul doesn’t explain what he means. Maybe he is assuming his readers know. He quotes Habakkuk 2:4 without citing his reference, they presumably know this Scripture.

God is righteous (Psalm 145:17) and He is a righteous covenant-keeper who is faithful to His people (Isaiah 42:6) but there is more! God does righteousness. God has made us right in His eyes. How? By faith.

The gospel is this: God removes the barrier of sin between us and Him and we are declared innocent by Him and for Him (we are justified). How? It is by the impact of the historical event of the cross and resurrection of Jesus in our lives. That impact is by faith remembering how Paul has told us to hold both obedience and faith side by side, distinct, but not separate, two sides of the same coin (1:5), that is the righteousness by faith.

It is everything, from first to last. He takes us into the story of Habakkuk ahead of writing of the coming wrath of God where God announces to the old prophet that judgment is coming through the invasion of the Babylonians. God says ‘don’t panic’ the righteous will survive by keeping faith with Him.

I’m not good enough to be a Christian! Yes that’s true.

It could never have been left to us to be good enough. God did more than enough.

We now live and will continue to live by faith in what God has done for us all. Amen.

Coming off the back of saying he was so eager to get to Rome to preach the gospel Paul now says this:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. (Romans 1 v 16)

We will see in this letter how Paul defends his position of the grace-gospel and he starts that here in this long introduction by saying ‘I am more certain than ever’ and ‘I will not shy away from this truth’. Why? Because of his own testimony and that of others.

I have a friend who is now a minister and I have on file her testimony: “On 25th March 1990 my boyfriend invited me to church where he had been ‘saved’ the previous week. At the time I enjoyed a successful career travelling the world with a party lifestyle of cocaine, amphetamines, ecstasy, on a weekly basis. I heard the gospel for the first time and responded by asking Jesus into my life. I experienced an instant, radical life change, including immediately stopping drugs, alcohol and smoking! Four weeks later, we were baptised together and got married a further two weeks after that. In July of that year I said goodbye to my travel career and worked alongside the Pastor as the administrator/ finance officer and Kids church Leader.”

The powerful gospel! There are millions of stories like this. The gospel is not only good news but it is powerful, life-changing good news.

Writing into the powerful Roman Empire Paul speaks of power. Rome boasted of its power. But it couldn’t save from the coming wrath of God. Being saved by the gospel is both now and future. We often think of it of life-change now and that is truly important but for Paul we will see how being saved from God’s wrath at death and the final judgment is what he had in mind throughout. Despite all the power that is being displayed across the borders of our world no one can save themselves from the day of facing God, except God Himself, through the gospel of Jesus Christ!

And what do people have to do? It is to believe! To believe the God-story which saw the Jewish people preparing the way for the Messiah and who were the first ones to receive (and reject) Him when He came. Everyone who believes, everyone and anyone, Jews and also non-Jews.

It’s not rocket science. Pastors can feel under pressure to produce some amazing strategic plan for their church. ‘This where we are going to be in 5 years!’ Many don’t make the long haul because they realise they can no longer pull rabbits out of hats and make their church better than the one round the corner, they fail the expectations of many, being a Messiah is impossible.

Yet these next 2 verses of Paul are a reminder of what every church should simply focus on.

^“I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. (Romans 1 v 14-15)

The culture of the Roman Empire had its origins in Greece. It is reasonable to think that Paul is referring to the educated and cultured people of Rome, ‘the Greeks’ and those not so, they being the ‘non-Greeks’. Without doubt he is referring to being bound to the gospel. He is obligated to preach the gospel to all Gentiles no matter who they are. He is also longing to preach the gospel to the people he is writing to who are Christians already.

So here it is. Not everyone is called to be a Pastor of a church. Not everyone is called to be a full-time Evangelist and Church Planter travelling the world as an Apostle. But all of us are called to the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.

Here is the big strategy for every church. I think more Pastors would stay in their positions if their focus was simply this. I also think the Churches would grow organically if we all had this as the basis of our life.

1. Wherever and whoever we are with speak the gospel. Share good news stories of Jesus. Be an attractive person. Create an atmosphere of the presence of God by talking of Jesus and what He has done for you.
2. Do the same to those who are Christians. Encourage growth. Disciple people to follow Jesus even more. Preach the good news.

That’s it. That’s our calling as the Church. Evangelism and Discipleship for every member wherever we are, daily, in our ordinariness of life. To be good news people.

No doubt this wouldn’t satisfy everyone. The miserable may still try and put pressure on you to be something you were never meant to be. Shake them off. Do the important stuff. Be bound to the good. That’s your calling.

Life often isn’t perfect is it? Circumstances don’t turn out the way you originally hoped they would. Today maybe you enter your day and though you are living where you thought you would be it isn’t exactly how you imagined or desired it to be. The picture postcard didn’t work out.

“I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.” (Romans 1 v 10-13)

Paul wrote this letter around AD 57 from Corinth and 3 years before he actually got to Rome. We can see his desire to be there from the opening of this letter. He seemed so desperate to be with them. What he didn’t know at the time was when he finally got to Rome things were not what he had thought they would be. He didn’t know that he would be under house arrest having limited freedom albeit chained to a guard.

I don’t think Paul imagined that being in Rome and imparting to the church what God had given him would be as a prisoner. But that is what happened.

However, he did get there and God did use Him in the imparting of ‘some spiritual gift to make you strong’ and he was ‘mutually encouraged’ and he did ‘have a harvest’. The work of God happened but the setting was far from perfect.

As Christ followers we have a desire to work for Him and to be used for His glory. However there are times when that comes in the packaging of difficult circumstances. Will we accept them? Will you accept the difficulties in order to continue to be used in the gospel work? To do so is to see the gospel of Jesus Christ as the primary focus of your life.

A simple examination of our prayers reveal that we seem to gain by a lot of our requests to God. We pray for our churches that we attend; we pray for our families and friends; we pray for our neighbours that we live close to; so many things that actually if God answers then we will in some way benefit. Then there are other times we will pray complete give-away prayers. In a few moments I will click onto a zoom call where intercessors will pray for missions around the world that the majority will have no contact with nor will they ever visit. Praying for zero-gain.

Last Saturday the small church building was filled to capacity as Christians from several churches came to support their friends who were being inducted as the new Pastor. I asked them to remember to pray for them. Can you imagine the impact if they did? If say 40 Christians constantly prayed for this new Pastor and family?

“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.” (Romans 1 v 8-10)

To a people he has never met and to churches he has never planted, the Apostle Paul says he has been constantly praying for them at all times!

Probably not wanting it to be taken literally Paul says their faith is known all over the world! Word has certainly got out that things are happening in Rome. A tough place to be with the culture being polytheistic for the monotheistic Christian and Jew they found it difficult and would be soon experiencing horrible persecution under Nero and then later Domitian at the end of that century.  Perhaps Paul is praying into this as Nero commences his reign. Maybe he is thanking God for the Jewish Christians having come to faith recently in Rome? Maybe he is praying for the tension between Christians and Jews which he will speak of later in his letter? One thing we do know is that as he prayed his desire to be there grew. A lesson for any Pastor: if you want to get people involved get them to pray into it first!

A couple of weeks ago I met with 40 Pastors for a 24 hour prayer gathering. I saw how they gathered around each other and prayed for blessing on one another’s lives and churches. They were give-away prayers. Prayers for no personal gain. I hope they are still praying for them today.

Can you pray for something or someone right now that has zero gain for you? Perhaps God is going to stir your heart as you do and maybe you will have a desire to visit that person/place or become involved further in that area that needs God. Praying for that old man who lives alone across your street may lead you to knock on his door to see if he is okay? Maybe praying for zero gain makes our world a better place? Let’s keep on doing it!

The enemy of your soul will do all he can to say you are not loved like you should be and there is no purpose for you being here.  Most probably the highlights of your life have been the moments when you recognised what God thought of you and remained focused on the person he created you to be.  

To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:7)

After his opening he now addresses the people he is writing to. It is of course the Christians in Rome. It could be that in using the Greek greeting (grace) and the Jewish greeting (peace) he is giving away his intent on speaking to them about how the Gentiles and the Jews sit in the plans and purposes of God.

What is clear even though he hasn’t planted these churches he knows enough to know that they are loved by God and called holy/saints (not to be). This is their identity and it is ours too in 2022.

Today is Valentine’s Day and that means different things to different people and it can also mean absolutely nothing to some. But there is not a single day of our lives that our identity is not described as being loved by God. One of my favourite worship songs has these words:

To woo us back from death and woe; A valentine to a faithless world
Every wayward heart You pursue us all; And in kindness call us home

This world is Yours; My God this world is Yours
All You made to be Yours; I know You love us all

Despite our faithlessness and waywardness He still loves us. It is actually a fixed position, loved: the other is who we are not what we must do. Our identity is that we are not of this world and that can mean many things depending on the culture you are living in, but we are different. We are called holy or saints. We understand why ‘to be’ is inserted but it isn’t there, rather, ‘called as saints’.

Loved and Different. Loved and Set Apart. Loved and Holy.

Now that should make us all feel special today!

Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes fromfaith for his name’s sake. (Romans 1 v 5)

“…the obedience of faith…” (NASB)

What comes first? Faith then obedience? If obedience is the outworking of faith then as we fail consistently in this area what does that actually say about our faith? Do we not have believe enough?

However, if faith is more important and obedience is hidden within it as a lesser component then what does that say about the necessity of the Lordship of Christ in our lives?

The task is to hold both obedience and faith side by side, distinct, but not separate, two sides of the same coin. For me, it is this thought that causes me to pause this Sunday morning as I continue to submit to the transformation of my life by the Spirit. It is powerfully thought-provoking and one that the Apostle will continue with throughout his letter.

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly lifewas a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes fromfaith for his name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. (Romans 1 v 1-6)

It seems Paul was always set apart for an important role.

Born in Tarsus, a contemporary of Jesus, a Jew and a Roman citizen, raised as a Pharisee and a student of the highly respected Rabbi Gamaliel.

As a Pharisee Paul followed the laws of Moses and man’s application of the laws in minutia detail.

Paul was passionate for the law of God and any departure from their interpretative code of that law meant he would unleash his anger. This was clearly seen in the way he persecuted the followers of Jesus, going from house to house imprisoning any he could find, he oversaw their ensuing deaths resulting from him forcing them to blaspheme.

But he was wrong. You can have a superiority and be wrong. His Damascus Road sorted that out for him. His distinctiveness changed. He had been a separatist (meaning of ‘Pharisee’) but now he was set apart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This separatist isn’t focused on denouncing the shameful deeds of others or burning witches at the stake as the Church still does figuratively. But it seeks for the Light of Christ to shine through our lives. To be different not with a new darkness. But to allow the glory of Christ, His love, His beautiful, selfless, sacrificial life to settle into the darkness of people’s lives. To treat people as human beings created in the image of God. To love so that God is seen and to live so that we are not seen. This is the gospel we are set apart for.