This series covers our study through the book of Romans. These sermons with careful and slow exegetical expository coverage move through each chapter and verse following the theme and thesis of the book that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. These sermons were primarily preached by Pastor Duane Smets from April 2005 to November 2008 at The Resolved Church, San Diego, CA in its first three years of existence. Audio from the first year is unavailable.

   Audio & Manuscripts Below

The Gospel Thesis
 Listen     Read    1:1-7 |  An Introduction To Romans
 Listen     Read    1:2-6 |  The Validity, Content & Effect of The Gospel
 Listen     Read    1:7-15 |  Romans Is For God
 Listen     Read    1:14-15 |  Romans Is For Us
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  The Gospel Is The Power Of God Unto Salvation
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  Thank God For Jews
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  Justification By Faith
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  Justification & Habbakuk
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  We Are Beggars. This Is True

The Problem Of Sin
 Listen     Read    1:18 |  The Wrath of God
 Listen     Read    1:18-21 |  What Is Plain About God
 Listen     Read    1:18-32 |  The Suppression of Truth and Consequences
 Listen     Read    2:1-11 |  Seek Glory (Part I)
 Listen     Read    2:5-11 |  Seek Glory (Part II)
 Listen     Read    2:11-16 |  The Impartial God
 Listen     Read    2:17-19 |  Circumcision of the Heart
 Listen     Read    3:1-18 |  Moribund No More
 Listen     Read    3:19-20 |  Put Your Hand Over Your Mouth
 Listen     Read    3:21 |  Righteousness From Without
 Listen     Read    3:21-23 |  No Distinction

The Promised Savior
 Listen     Read    3:24-25 |  Propitiation
 Listen     Read    3:25-26 |  Righteousness Demonstrated
 Listen     Read    3:27-30 |  One God & One Salvation
 Listen     Read    3:31 |  The Law Upheld
 Listen     Read    4:1-12 |  The Imputation of Righteouness
 Listen     Read    4:13-17 |  The Promise Secured
 Listen     Read    4:18-22 |  The Heritage of Hope (Part I)
 Listen     Read    4:18-22 |  The Heritage of Hope (Part II)
 Listen     Read    4:22-24 |  The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
 Listen     Read    4:25 |  Who Killed Jesus?
 Listen     Read    5:1 |  Peace With God
 Listen     Read    5:2 |  In The Throne Room
 Listen     Read    5:2 |  Rejoice In The Hope Of The Glory of God
 Listen     Read    5:3-5 |  Rejoicing and Suffering
 Listen     Read    5:6-8 |  Love and Some Verses
 Listen     Read    5:8-10 |  Salvation In Jesus Christ
 Listen     Read    5:11 |  Joy In God
 Listen     Read    5:12-14 |  We Are From Adam
 Listen     Read    5:15-17 |  Jesus Is Better Than Adam
 Listen     Read    5:18-19 |  The Guilt & The Gift
 Listen     Read    5:20-21 |  It’s All About Grace

New Life In Christ
 Listen     Read    6:1-4 |  Baptism: The Life of the Buried Dead
 Listen     Read    6:5-7 |  Sin & Union With Christ (Part I)
 Listen     Read    6:8-11 |  Sin & Union With Christ (Part II)
 Listen     Read    6:12-14 |  God Reigning In You
 Listen     Read    6:15-18 |  Master Jesus (Part I)
 Listen     Read    6:19-23 |  Master Jesus (Part II)

Bearing Fruit For God
 Listen     Read    7:4-6   |   Part I
 Listen     Read    7:4-6   |   Part II
 Listen     Read    7:4-6   |   Part III

Law & Gospel
 Listen     Read    7:7-12  |  Part 1
 Listen     Read    7:7-12  |  Part 2
 Listen     Read    7:7-12  |  Part 3
 Listen     Read    7:7-12  |  Part 4

Inner Confliction & The Gospel
 Listen     Read    7:13-25  |  Part 1
 Listen     Read    7:13-25  |  Part 2
 Listen     Read    7:13-25  |  Part 3

No Condemnation In Christ
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 1
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 2
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 3
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 4
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 5

Walking According To The Spirit
  Listen    Read    8:5-9  |  Part 1
  Listen    Read    8:5-9  |  Part 2
  Listen    Read    8:5-9  |  Part 3
  Listen    Read    8:9-13  |  Part 4
  Listen    Read    8:9-13  |  Part 5

The Jesus Family
  Listen    Read    8:12-13  |  Jesus Family Does Not Lose the Battles Which Count
  Listen    Read    8:14-15  |  Jesus Family Welcomes Members and Leads Them
  Listen    Read    8:14  |  The Family of Old
  Listen    Read    8:15-16  |  Adopted Forever
  Listen    Read    8:15  |  The Great Father We Call Abba
  Listen    Read    8:17  |  The Future of the Family

Suffering And The Glory Of God
 Listen     Read    8:18-25  |  Natural Evil & Moral Evil
 Listen     Read    8:18-25  |  The Groaning of God’s Spirit
 Listen     Read    8:26-27  |  Prayer & Suffering
 Listen     Read    8:28  |  How God Works it For Good
 Listen     Read    8:29  |  The Image of Christ
 Listen     Read    8:28-30  |  Predestination
 Listen     Read    8:31-39  |  Evil & The Existence of God
 Listen     Read    8:31-39  |  Barriers for the Believer

The God(ness) of God
  Listen    Read    9:1-29  |  The God of Glory (Part I)
  Listen    Read    9:1-29  |  The God of Glory (Part II)
  Listen    Read    9:1-29  |  The God of Glory (Part III)
  Listen    Read    9:1-29  |  The God of Glory (Part IV)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part I)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part II)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part III)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part IV)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part V)
  Listen    Read    11:1-36  |  The God of Future (Part I)
  Listen    Read    11:1-36  |  The God of Future (Part II)
  Listen    Read    11:1-36  |  The God of Future (Part III)
  Listen    Read    11:1-36  |  The God of Future (Part IV)

Viva La Vida Christus: Living The Life Of Christ
  Listen    Read    12:1-2  |  All of Life is Worship
  Listen    Read    12:3-8  |  Humility, our Gifts, and Real Life
  Listen    Read    12:9-21  |  The Life of Genuine Love
  Listen    Read    13:1-7  |  Life Under Temporal Law
  Listen    Read    13:8-10  |  Life Under Eternal Law
  Listen    Read    13:11-14  |  Living in Light of the Day
  Listen    Read    14:1-2  |  The Principle of Preference (Part I)
  Listen    Read    14:13-15:3  |  The Principle of Preference (Part II)
  Listen    Read    15:4-13  |  The Principle of Preference (Part III)
  Listen    Read    15:14-33  |  Fulfilling the Mission
  Listen    Read    16:1-27  |  Entrusted to God

  Listen         

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November 23rd, 2008
Pastor Duane M. Smets

Series: Viva La Vida | Romans 12-16
Romans 15:14-33
Fulfilling the Mission

Introduction

Good morning everyone. It is good to see you and worship our God together with you today. Well, we are winding down our fall series here and getting ready for Christmas soon. This is the second to last sermon from our study of the book of Romans that we began in April of 2005.

As you’ll see this week and next week we are reminded by the final words of our text of the purpose this book of the Bible was written, that it was a letter written to a specific group of people for the sake of the Gospel. In seeing and realizing that, it has the immediately relevant effect of reminding us, who we are and why we are here, what we are trying to do for the sake of the gospel here in this city. So let’s read our text and pray over it.

Lord God thank you for this day you have given us life and breath. As we devote ourselves to the public reading and teaching of Scripture would you be glorified and us richly blessed. As we read and learn about the work you accomplished so long ago, would you reinvigorate and reinforce our sense of identity and purpose as a church working together for the sake of the gospel. For the fame of our Lord Jesus Christ I pray, Amen.

Fulfilling the Ministry of the Gospel of Christ (v14-19)

My first point for this morning is, “Fulfilling the Ministry of the Gospel of Christ (vs.14-19).” From verse 14-19, Paul, the human author of this book Romans, recounts why he wrote this letter in the first place. In verse 14 he says he is satisfied about the church in Rome and knows that they are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and able to instruct one another.

When Paul wrote this he had never been to the great city of Rome. He did not start the church there. It was started by someone else, we don’t know their name but it was most likely someone who was visiting Jerusalem on Jewish Festival of Pentecost the year when the Apostles, under the direction of the Holy Spirit and instruction of Jesus started the church. But Paul had never been there. At the beginning of the book in verse 13 of chapter 1, he says he had often intended to come…but he never made it and here in verse 23 he says he has wanted to go there for many years…but never made it.

However, though Paul had never been to Rome a great church had been started there. At the beginning of the letter, when he first starts it out, he says that people have heard about their faith “in all the world (1:8).” It was a solid church, filled with goodness, knowledge, and instruction.

So why does Paul write to them if they are so good already? Two key phrases answer that question. One, in verse 16 of our passage today Paul says he has written boldly to them because he is, “a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God.” And two, at the end of verse 19, he says that his goal is to fulfill, “the ministry of the gospel of Christ.”

Now, of course there are probably some very practical reasons why Paul wrote, which he states here. He is writing as an authoritative apostle, to say yeah, the Roman church is a real Christian church and is approved and legit, and since neither he or any of the other apostles started it. Also, it is likely that this is one of the reasons this is the longest letter Paul wrote, because he never spend time before this, there in person instructing them. Those are the sort of practical nuts and bolts reasons.

What I am more interested in today are the theological reasons he wrote, “to fulfill the ministry of the gospel of Christ” and to act “in the priestly service of the gospel of God.” I’m interested in those reasons because those principles of ministry stand true for us everyone of us today who are Christians. Each one of us has been entrusted with the ministry of the gospel of Christ wherein we are a priesthood of believers who offers souls to God through our work.

Jesus has called everyone one of his followers to be ministers and missionaries. In 2 Corinthians 3:6 we are told that we are all ministers of the new covenant and at the end of Jesus time here on earth, after his death and resurrection he tells us we are to go make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19). What we are reading about in our verses for study today is how one man fulfilled that calling.

So let me talk a minute about calling and then I’ll explain the priestly service thing. How many of you have thought of your life in terms of a “calling.” How many of you think of yourself as a called to be a “minister”? I’m guess not very few. We tend to think that is something only for the Pastor right?

Calling is something essential to our lives. Our parents pick out a name for us and from before we can remember they are calling us by that name. It is the name we are known by from our friends and family. It is what is put on our driver’s license and other important documents. Our identity gets wrapped up with our name.

The essential turn in a person’s life when they become a Christian is when they sense and become persuaded that God is calling them to himself and has made a way for that to be possible through Jesus. We realize that up to that point we have been living life solely for ourselves, really only caring about our own interested and living for our name’s sake rather than God’s. And so he changes our hearts to turn and begin to start caring for his name, his fame and glory rather than our own.

I’ll give you an example. How is it that a person determines their profession these days? Today most everyone essentially goofs off while you’re in high school…then you goof off a little more in college…(that’s what makes college great, is you get to goof off without your parents bugging you about it). By the end of college and after changing your major ten times, you decide that maybe you ought to starting thinking about what you want to do with your life. Right?

You start thinking about what YOU want to do with YOUR life. Becoming a Christian changes all that, or at least it’s supposed to. Like Adam, who God calls in the garden of Eden and give him a task to do…Jesus says he calls his sheep by name and then they come and he leads them out (Jn 10:3).

This is what happened with Paul. His name didn’t even used to be Paul, it was Saul. He had a certain plan for his life…to become a great successful Pharisee and Jesus stopped him dead in his tracks, called him to himself, changed his name and then gave him a ministry to fulfill.

So let me ask you the question today…have you ever really stopped to ask God what it is he wants you to do with your life? Or if what you are doing with your life is what he wants? Or have you just sort of fallen into it, it’s what you’ve always been doing, or it was the thing you went after and achieved?

Because you see God calls everyone. Not just pastors…he calls some to be doctors and nurses, some people to be lawyers, some to be mechanics, some to be I.T. experts, some to be stay at home moms, some to be graphic designers…what matters is that we are getting our calling from him and that we begin to see our jobs not just as a job but as a ministry. A ministry, a means, not just of making money or using our skills…but a tool or a avenue through which we can spread the good news of who Jesus is and what he has done both by how we live and work and by what we say.

That is supposed to the be the overarching picture of your life. It is a ministry you receive as a calling from Jesus. Then there will be this common thread in every one of our ministries…They will be a priestly service.

In verse 16 Paul says he is a minister of Christ Jesus in the priestly service of the Gospel so that people may be offered to God. Let me explain that for you. 1 Peter 2:5 says that every Christian becomes a priest who offer sacrifices. This is the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers.

What is a priest? Priests in Bible times made sacrifices of animals or grains on a alter to God. The idea was that God is holy and perfect, totally moral and right and true, and we are not. We are sinful as humans, we do thing that are wrong because we have a sinful, imperfect, bad heart that makes us fight for our own glory and attention and salvation rather than God’s. That’s not good. There is a penalty or a punishment needed. So in sacrifice, an animal or a grain, depending on what you can afford gets burned up in our place as a substitution.

That is the idea. But with Jesus, he is fully God and fully man…so his life is divine and eternal, worth an infinite number of sacrifices. So when Jesus gives up his perfect life without sin and sacrifices it on the cross, it is the last one, there is then no longer any need for physical sacrifices because he accomplished it all.

Because he did, now not only a select, special approved people can be near and close to God…the priests, now everyone can, everyone can be priests. And what becomes our priestly duty if there are no longer physical sacrifices to make? People. People are what we offer up to God. We work hard, wrestling with how we might help people see and hear and know the gospel so that they might be brought near to God and know his wonder, glory and love.

Let me show you in the text just so you don’t think I’m making it up. Verse 16, “…a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles (any cultural background other than Jews, not that they don’t need Jesus either) in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles (that’s people) may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

This is mission. God has called everyone of us to be missionaries. That is what this priestly service is. How do we do that? The answer is in verse 18-19, it get “accomplished through” “…word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.” Word, deed, signs and wonders…all by the power of the Holy Spirit working among us.

This is what we are striving for and praying for as a church. We had our church plant family member meeting last Sunday night and we talked about whether mission for us was more of a dream or if was an actual reality that is happening among us. One of you made what I thought was a very insightful, Holy Spirit discerning comment. You said, “I think mission is becoming more of our heart, it isn’t a reality yet but it is close and not that far off.”

I think that is very true and accurate and I am so glad to hear it. We can talk about mission until we are blue in the face and we can try and try and try but if it doesn’t first become part of our heart then it will always fail. This is what we are doing.

I think after 3.5 years we have realized that mission in San Diego is very difficult. It is going to take a miracle to reach the people of San Diego. Maybe not signs and wonders like we read about in the ministry of Paul, as he states in 2 Corinthians 12:2, those were one the validating marks of an apostle. Not that miracles can’t happen today, the Creator of the universe can make whatever he wants happen if need be, but whatever will happen will be a miracle…because people coming to see themselves as a needy sinner and embracing Jesus is always the biggest miracle, the change of a heart and it only happens through the work of the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is what the early church recognized. Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses… (Acts 1:8).” And then this is what we essentially read about in Acts. Story after story after story of the Holy Spirit empowering Jesus’ people, Jesus church, to reach people with the gospel through their words and deeds.

That is what we are striving for and praying for and wrestling for. In the community group I’m a part of we are wrestling with how to best be missionaries with our friends and our neighbors and what we can do in terms of deeds as group to show our love for the city.

We are missionaries. We have a calling to be ministry missionaries of the gospel that we must fulfill. The time is over where we only think of missions as being abroad, because the person who lives across the street is just as different from us as the person who lives half way across the world.

Strategic Cities and the City of San Diego (v20-29)

This has got to be our ambition. Which brings us to our second main point for today, ” Strategic Cities and the City of San Diego (v20-29).” Let’s re-read these verses.

Paul starts out this sort of survey of his past journeys and future plans by calling it his “ambition.” This tells us that our ambition is mission. This word ambition is to be zealous and earnestly seek after. Like the person training for the Olympics, who daily works out their body and strives and strives to make it there and then compete with top level performance. Ambition takes hard work and dedication. Mission is not easy.

What we read in these verse is about Paul’s particular calling. The way that he applied his call to be a priest, offering people to God. Paul went on three traveling missionary journeys. In the one he is talking about here, he went from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum. That’s from southern Palestine, up through Syria, across Turkey, down through Greece, and then up in to Albania.

Now is he saying that since he completed that or fulfilled the gospel ministry there that everyone who was going to become a Christian in those regions had already and that church were planted in every one of those towns? A few verses later in verse 23 he says, “I no longer have any room for work in these regions.” Is he saying there is no one else in those areas who may have been destined to become Christians and no more churches to be planted there?

No. As history proved several more people in those regions became Christians and there were other churches planted. What Paul is talking about here is his own personal calling and strategy. I’ll quote John Stott here, “(Paul’s) strategy was to evangelize the populous and influential cities, and plant churches there, and then leave to other the radiation of the gospel into the surrounding villages.”

That is what is significant for us and one of the main reasons we believe God has called us to plant a church here in the city of San Diego. We believe San Diego is a strategic city for the sake of the gospel in our day and in our region and nation.

In 2006 the North American Missions board determined San Diego to be a strategic city for the sake of the gospel. The United States used to be for many years the central hub and strength of Christianity who would send out missionaries abroad to other countries. Now many of those places have become strong gospel saturated Christian bulwark’s and they are looking at us here in the US and seeing our love for consumerism, our love for material items, status, success, money, American nationalism, and our love for Jesus and his church and it’s mission declining. So they are sending money and missionaries to us.

We have that happening with our very church right now. Josh and Megean Carstensen who are a part of our church, left us this last May to go be missionaries in South Korea at a Christian school over there. They got all their finances covered by the ministry there and are actually now sending us money to help out The Resolved Church plant to survive and expand here in San Diego.

A study from just a few years ago from the US Census Bureau showed over 4,000 churches die and shut down every year and that there are about 1,000 church plants that are started each year. The North Americans Mission Board did a study from 2000-2005 and said that of those 1,000 churches started each year, only 20% of them survive. 80% die within the first five years.

The number of people becoming Christians is declining and the number of people not being reached with the gospel is rising steadily by the day. Churches are the primary vehicle that Jesus said his gospel was to be spread through, which has proven true throughout the ages. And as we have seen in today’s passage having a strategy is important.

So we believe San Diego is a strategic city as well. Here’s some of the reasons why.

San Diego is the 8th largest city in the U.S, over 1.3 million people living here within the city limits and 2.9 million living in the greater San Diego area. We’re a melting pot racially…50% white, 25% Hispanic, and 10% African American, and 15% Asian and other races. San Diego is a very beautiful and diverse city. We have some of the world’s nicest beaches, zoos, parks, and museums.

We have a huge navy, marine, and coast guard military presence. We’ve got the Chargers and the Padres. Four big colleges: UCSD, SDSU, USD, PLNU. Over 900 hundred bars and over 200 strip clubs. 50% of us are married with kids making over $50,000 a year and the other 50% live in Hillcrest because nobody can have kids there. J I love Hillcrest a ton. I work there and they have all the best restuarants.

So we’re a rich city that likes to watch sports, drink, fight, surf, go to school and then get freaky at the clubs at night and have promiscuous sex later. Good times. And we’re not only the 8th biggest city but we’re the 8th fastest growing city, so I guess that looks like fun to everyone and they all want in on the action. Probably at least half of your moved here huh? Welcome to the party. We’re glad you’re here. Really.

San Diego is a city that needs Jesus. About only 6% of San Diego are Bible believing Christians. That means there are a lot people left out there who don’t know Jesus. It’s not like all the potential Christians have not been gobbled up in this town. There is vast need for the gospel in our city, there are a ton of people who are not being reached.

San Diego is a melting pot of religions. There are several Jewish synagogues, Islamic worship centers, a bunch of Catholic and protestant churches, a major Bahá’í center, a Taoist sanctuary, a brilliantly white Mormon temple, we’ve got Hare Krishna temples, Buddhist temples, and we’ve even got a new age self-realization temple up in Encinitas. Those are just the official religions, without even considering all the fringe spiritualists around from Tarot Card readers to Psychics to crystal channelers…who get together for readings, séances and special book readings.

Considering this strong religious presence combined with the very outdoorsy nature of most the people who live in San Diego makes it a very spiritually minded and spiritually conscious city. It is no wonder that the most popular idea around about religion here is that each one is sort of touching one part of an elephant…some have a got a leg, some a trunk, some a tail…we all got a piece of the elephant its just that most of us don’t know we’re holding on to an elephant.

People are lost. San Diego is a very spiritual city. Our beautiful sunsets and our exotic animals and our picturesque bays intoxicate us so that from the creation we feel the handiwork of the creator and we think that us just feeling spiritual makes us fine. But we are lost, worshipping, we don’t know what and miserably stumbling along the entire way.

Plans, Prayer, Money and the Will of God (v30-33)

Okay, so far we’ve talked about our own individual callings to fulfill the ministry of the gospel, and we’ve talked about San Diego being a strategic city for us. What we begin to realize is that we can neither accomplish that goal or were intended to by ourselves. Jesus means for us to do it together. So our last point for today is, “Plans, Prayer, Money and the Will of God (v30-33).” Let’s re-read ‘em just to get it fresh in our mind.

So Paul’s plan at the time he was writing this was ultimately to go to Spain and stop by in Rome and see them ton his way but first he believes he is to go to Jerusalem, to bring them spiritual and financial aid. Paul is most likely writing from Corinth which means going to Jerusalem from there is essentially about a 2,000 mile detour. Which simply tells us that sometimes God will call us to do extremely uncomfortable, inconvenient and stretching things for the sake of the gospel.

So Paul has a plan. It involves money, a gift acceptable to saints for the poor and for the work of the ministry…and then he concludes with a committing this all to the will of God…”so that by God’s will I may come to you.”

Let me tell you what happened after he wrote this. When he wrote this he had not yet gone to Rome. But the book of Acts was written after the letter to the Romans and from chapter 21 to the end of the book it tells the story of how Paul eventually got to Rome.

Acts 21 Arrested in Jerusalem fiasco
> Paul infamous for ministering to Gentiles
> snowballed into Jews rumoring Paul said to for Jews to forsake Moses and Jewish customs
> Paul goes out of his way to show reverence for Jewish law and customs by purification ceremony and shaving his head
> doesn’t work and is seen in the Temple, Jews seize him, big commotion, handed over to Roman soldiers
> Paul asks to stop and to speak and he preaches the gospel
> Next day brought before Jewish council and preaches the resurrection
> that night has a dream with God telling him that he is to go to Rome
> Plot to kill him
> Roman ruler, the tribune in Jerusalem, hears of plot and whisks him away in the night to Caesarea under Roman governor Felix
> Felix and his wife like Paul’s teaching so they keep him in prison for two years
> new governor comes, Porcius Festus, Paul appeals to Caesar (frustrated for 2 year delay)
> Jewish king Agrippa comes to hear him, almost becomes a Christian, would have set him free, but Paul appealed to Caesar
> sent to Rome by boat by gets shipwrecked on Island of Malta
> ministers to them, even healing the father of the chief of the Island, so they send him off on their boat to Rome
> in Rome allowed to stay by himself under house arrest for two years, wrote the pastoral epistles
> whether died in Rome or was able to go on to Spain we don’t know

Now I told you that whole story, not only because it is a great story but it teaches us something about the will of God. Often times the way we think God is going to do something in our individual lives and in the life of his church does not happen the way we think it is going to. But God is at work.

Here is what I think that means for us as The Resolved Church. Our study of Romans has been a long study. We break it up into series to help us with that. But it is a long study. After 3.5 years, we are small, but I think I could say the same thing about us all as Paul did in the first verse we read this morning. We are full of goodness, full of knowledge and able to instruct one another.

It has not happened the way we thought it was going to. In my self-involved ego trip, thinking I was Jesus, and the best preacher ever to come to this planet…thought we would be a couple thousand people after the first two months. It hasn’t happened that way. We’ve had to learn some hard lessons…we’ve had to learn how to love each other…and are learning how to love our city. But here’s the thing. We actually do have a strong core of people now who see themselves as called, see themselves as the church, who are beginning to get a heart for mission.

That is awesome and it is the work of the Spirit among us. We have a big vision for San Diego and some big plans that we are praying about…that we’ll talk more about in the new year after the holidays.

But just to give you a glimpse… We talked at our church family meeting about how we are considering hiring someone else on staff besides me. I am concerned that with us doing things the way we do with me doing what I do right now that we will limit ourselves to only being able to grow so much. We need help. People need pastoring, counseling and discipling.

Our community groups have been flourishing and in many ways are starting to become the more central life of our church and the front door of our mission. We want to see more groups added. People need community to be able to be part of a place where they can talk and share and feel a sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves. We want to be smart about how we are planting this church.

Those are just a couple of things. That takes a lot of careful planning. That takes a lot of money. And most of all it takes a lot of prayer. I invite you to think hard with me, to give your finances sacrificially even in a economic time like this when it hurts. And most of all I urge you to pray and pray and pray. Pray each day and get together with people and pray. I’d love to see one of you start up a regular pray team for the people and the ministry of this church. Prayer aligns our hearts with God and opens us up to be empowered by his Holy Spirit.

Conclusion

Well, let me wrap things up for us and conclude this way.

On the individual level. What is your life about? Is it about you and what you want or is it about God and what he wants and has called you to be and do? Maybe you’ve never thought about it like that. I urge you to spend some serious time seeking out God and allowing him to be at the forefront of everything you are and do. If you’re not a Christian, let me tell you that this is the best move you could ever make, allow Jesus to be the captain of your soul. He died for you so that you would not have to live in the pressure and agony of trying to be your own savior and Lord.

On the Christian level. How is your priesthood? How well are you being the mediating connector between people who don’t yet believe in Jesus and sharing the gospel with them through your word and deeds? Do you see that as an integral part of your identity? Do you see yourself as a missionary in this city with a ministry to fulfill?

On the Church level. Do you love the city of San Diego? And I don’t just mean the pretty beaches and architecture…do you love the people? How is your heart for mission? Do you really believe there is a need? How much time have you been thinking about strategy and what you can do with your time and treasure to help progress the mission of the gospel here?

As we go to the table today let me conclude with the last words of our text…”May the God of peace be with you all.” If you’re human and you live in the same world as I do, then life is often like this…up and down. The beautiful thing about the gospel is we have something concrete, something permanent in Jesus. A God who died on the cross once and for all for us. The last sacrifice so that we might have peace with God. No matter what your need is today, the answer is in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s go to him in love and thanks and pray and worship.

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November 16th, 2008
Pastor Duane M. Smets

Series: Viva La Vida | Romans 12-16
“The Principle of Preference” (Part 3)
Romans 15:4-13

Introduction

Personal greetings. Two weeks then advent.

Summary of last two weeks:
- Within Christian community there are areas of adiaphora/opinions due to different backgrounds and different beliefs.
- How we deal with disagreement matters because of character and care for the community. We are not to judge or destroy but seek to build up and love.
- We are to have a clean conscience and conviction but give way in order to please the other person.
- Concluded with the supreme example of Christ giving way his personal preference for us and bearing our reproach on the cross.

Let’s read our text and pray for our time together in study this morning.

Gospel-centered Exegesis

A Christotelic Approach

Today we begin with a digression of sorts. We are still talking about the principle of preference, of how to live and love one another in Christian community. But we are going to first start out by talking about how Scripture, the Bible, helps us do that.

Verse 4 begins by explaining what was just said in the previous verse. Here is what happened in the previous verse, it quoted Psalm 69:9. Romans 15:3 “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me” is a quote of Ps 69:9 written by David.

In verse 3 of Romans 15, Ps 69:9 is applied by Paul to Jesus and the cross. An explanation of this hermeneutic is in verse 4…Jesus gives the hope. The way we approach the Bible is with a principle of historical grammatical interpretation but that approach is incomplete until it lands in the gospel.

Jesus explains this in Matthew 5:17 when he says all the Bible gets fulfilled in him. And then Jesus showed an example of this in Luke 24:13-35 when he took two men and walked them through the Bible showing them how everything pointed to him. What he taught them was learning the arc of Scripture, which begins at a point in time, finds its fulfillment in Jesus, and then is brought to life in us.

Paul has been doing throughout our chapter. In our community group this week we went through this section to see how this was done. 1. (14:10-11) Not judging because Jesus is judge. 2. (14:15-17) Not grieving because of the Kingdom to come. 3. (15:3) Not self-pleasing because Jesus suffered for us on the cross. Each reason for us giving preference to one another gets connected to some core part of the gospel, who Jesus is and what he has done.

This is what it means to be gospel-centered, to begin to see all of life in how it relates or connects to the gospel. Everything, even the simple things like eating and drinking have to do with the gospel.

I did it this week in my Pastoral journal entry for us with the latest cover article from Rolling Stone about the band AC/DC titled: “The Gospel of Rock and Roll.” Now the word gospel is used in the article merely to say that AC/DC’s new album, “Black Ice” is good and that AC/DC has been cranking out good music for 35 years now.

So I asked the question, “What is the gospel of rock? Maybe it’s that one can find redemption through creating music, listening and enjoying music, or maybe that music is inherently good. Is that the gospel? Of course not. Music might soothe us or excite us at times but it cannot do anything to save our soul, to deal with our guilt and offense toward God.

But think about this. If we are saying that the true gospel says Jesus can redeem me and make me right with my Creator, then through him, through The Gospel, I get freed and enabled to enjoy music to the fullest because I am connected to the chief musician of all.

The technical word for this practice is a christotelic hermeneutic, I’m just calling it seeing the gospel in everything, in Scripture and in life. That is our what we are trying to do and be…gospel-centered.

Scripture Grounds Us and Scripture Ministers to Us

Let us look closer at verse four and see how it says the Scriptures are intended to function for us as Christians (re-read them).

Next to 2 Timothy 3:16 this is probably one of the clearest statements on the nature and purpose of the Bible for us. Two main things emerge from this verse: 1. Scripture Grounds Us. 2 Scripture Ministers to Us

Look at the phrase, “was written for our instruction.” Without the Bible we are uneducated. We are essentially lost. We may know of God’s existence, because as Romans 1:20 says, his eternal power and divine nature has been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made…but God would only be a distant, transcendent far off God to us…we would know very little of his nature and his love and we would not know the depth of his holiness and justice and how offensive our sin is to him, we would know nothing of his plan of salvation and of his son Jesus.

So first Scripture grounds us. It gives us a coherent worldview or framework from which to understand life and the God who made life and redeems life in Jesus. In Scripture God reveals himself to us. We are not left to our foolish speculations. He tells us who he is, what is required of us, how we have failed, what he has done about it in Jesus, and how we are to respond. Scripture instructs us in the faith. I mean really, if we did not have a written record like the Bible how would any of us know about Jesus. The stories would not have lasted if it was just passed down verbally. It is extremely huge that God chose to reveal himself in words in a book. He gives us a lasting record.

The second this that Scripture ministers to us. It not only gives us our philosophy but it is a living and active means God has committed himself to working through. Hebrews 4:12 says the Bible is a “living and active” book, which has the ability to pierce us to deeply as if into our bones.

Look at our words in Romans…”through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

We are a people who need endurance. There are times in life when you will just feel like giving up. Where will you turn?

We are a people who need encouragement. There are times when we have no courage or strength left and we need courage to be poured into us. Nothing empowers us more than the comfort of the Holy Spirit who breathed out special words to us in the Bible.

There is a well known story of Sir Walter Scott.

Sir Walter Scott is a famous novelist and poet from Scotland in the 18th century. Most famous works include “Rob Roy” and “Ivanhoe.” Has written several books and poems now considered classics. Is considered the first English-language author to have a worldwide effect in his lifetime. The story of his death is quite interesting.

A few days before the death of Sir Walter Scott there was a lucid interval of that distressing malady which had for some time afflicted him. He had recently returned from a trip where he traveled to London, Italy, and Malta and then returned to his home in Abbotsford. He was greatly distraught having repeated aberrations of his mind, restless and uncomfortable. He asked for his son in law, John Lockhart to come to him. Mr. Lockhart came and Sir Walter Scott asked him to take him into his library and place him by the window, that he might look down upon the Tweed. Then he expressed a wish, asking that his son-in-law read to him. Mr. Lockhart replied, “From what book shall I read?” Mr. Scott replied, “How can you ask? There is but one book…bring me the good book.”

Mr. Lockhart then understood and he opened up the Bible to the fourteenth chapter of St. John’s Gospel and read to him the words of Jesus, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you…I am the way, the truth and the life (Jn 14:1-2,6).” Sir Walter Scott listened with devotion, and said when his son-in-law had done, “This is a great comfort, I have listened to you distinctly and I feel as if I were yet to be myself again.”

I have personally experienced the endurance and encouragement that comes through the Scriptures so many times. I can’t quite explain how it works but it does. Just this week I was reading in the morning from Isaiah 54 where God says, “For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the LORD, your Redeemer (Is. 54:7-8).”

The last words of that passage pierced my soul, that God addresses me as my Redeemer. His very name dictates his character and his relationship toward me. Have you ever been addressed like that? Maybe you need to hear some of the many names God tells us he has in Scripture.

He says, “I am Redeemer.” “I am Comforter.” “I am Father.”

We as Christians when we need encouragement we go to the Scriptures. We may be suffering through some trial or some disease or tragedy and we can go to God’s word and read things like 1 Peter 3:17. The Bible is self-authenticating as the Word of God because it ministers to our soul.

Sometimes you might not have the strength and like Sir Walter Scott, you might just need someone else to read to you and pray for you. I do that with other people often.

A Prayer for our Unity

God’s Nature
After talking about the greatness of the word of God, Paul just moves to prayer. Notice that, it is a prayer here. Some prayers are spontaneous and some are planned. This is a planned prayer…after stating what God’s Word does for us he then notes in his prayer that his is God’s very nature. God is one who gives endurance and who gives encouragement.

Our Harmony

Look at the next thing he prayers for in verse 5. After making all these great statement about the Bible, he then returns to the situation at hand, the principle of preference and prays for our harmony…read verse 5-6.

The unity of Jesus church is SO IMPORTANT. That is what this whole section is about truly living together as the church in com-unity as a family who truly cares and loves one another.

This goes against our nature. We usually are only attracted to those who are like us and then gossip about those who are unlike us. We tend to pride ourselves in our distinctives and minimize the things we have in common.

In Ephesians 4:3 Paul says, “Endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.” We have to fight for it at times, fight for unity.

Division and strife in Jesus church is something God hates.
- 1 Corinthians 2:25 says there are not “to be divisions in the body but members are to care for one another.”
- Titus 3:10 says, “A person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him.” Division can get you kicked out of a church!

Causing division and strife, over secondary, non-essential, opinion matters is a very serious matter. That means we are not to talk negatively about one another behind each other’s backs. That’s not love. We are not to stir up controversy and rebellion among us. Love is to drive our community. Not constantly questioning each other and everything we do.

Churches have split over things like the use of money, people speaking in tongues, some people liking or not liking a pastor, the songs that are sung, the music being too loud, too old, too rock and roll, whether wine or juice is served, how it is served…the list goes on and on.

I myself was in a situation when I was a college pastor several years ago and a new senior pastor was placed by the denomination and several people did not like him and wanted me to start a new church at that time. But I believed in the unity of Jesus church being more important with whether I liked or agreed with this new pastor, so I refused to be a cause for division in Jesus’ church.

Separating from one another in any way is always to be a last resort, only after we have tried everything we can do to get along and do things with one heart and one mind in one accord. So often it seems we are so quick to be defensive and fight and bail out on each other if things get a little tough. It is not supposed to be that way.

I’ll tell you this. Most church splits, and most of the denominations that have started out of church splits have been over secondary matters…because people who were a part of church families did not properly learn and apply Romans 14-15:13. Paul’s prayer for us, The Resolved Church is that we work hard for harmony.

The Glory Goal

Maybe we should as the question why. Why is harmony or unity so important? Verse 6 answers, “that together (we) may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The answer is so that God would get glory. Our goal is to show off how good and glorious God is.

If we are fighting and there is jealousy and power struggles and a lack of love and care and giving up preference for each other, that doesn’t make God look very good.

God is glorious and he is most glorified in us when we together work and sing and love his son Jesus together in unison. And the wonderful thing is that when caring most about what God thinks instead of us getting our way and being recognized…then we end up the most satisfied and enjoying being a part of Jesus church.

Missional Preferencing

The Jesus Example

After Paul’s prayer that we would glorify God together he makes an ingenious move, a shift. He’s been talking about the principle of preference within the Christian community. Now he’s going to take that and apply it missionally, to those who are not yet Christians.

It starts in verse 7 with the principle of hospitality, welcoming, receiving or accepting others. Verse 7, “Therefore welcome one another as Christ as welcomed you for the glory of God.” This is where in the gospel we recognize that we are far worse off than we previously knew or understood but that we are far more loved or accepted by God than we ever dreamed because Jesus died for us anyway and welcomed us into his family. That changes us. It makes us accepting of others because we have been accepted despite all our flaws and sins.

The Gentile Example

In order to help us see and understand this…Paul, our human author does what he has been doing all along and connects it again with the gospel, that gospel hermeneutic. In verse 8, Jesus missionaries gets brought up, how Jesus was a servant to the circumcised in order to show the truth of the promised gospel. So here, Jesus’ Jewishness is brought up. He was born a Jew and came to fulfill the prophecy given to the Jews of a messiah.

But Jesus was not for the Jews only. As verse 9 notes, the reason Jesus was born a Jew was not only to fulfill the promises of Scripture but so that God may extend mercy to the Gentiles, anyone who was not a Jew.

And that is exactly what we see in the life and ministry of Jesus. Jesus spend time traveling in Gentile countries. Jesus eats dinner with sinners and outcasts. Jesus says he loves all the peoples of the world and came to die for them (Jn 3:16).

What we learn from this is it does not matter who you are or where you are from or what you have done or gone through in life thus far. Whatever your religious background, whatever your cultural preferences, style, dress, food…there is nothing that would cause Jesus to turn his head aside from you and not extend mercy.

Some of you may have trouble with that. You may be caught in a works driven, guilt oriented relationship with God, where you think he only loves you if you perform correctly for him. That is not the gospel, that is religion. The gospel is that you are accepted and welcomed by Jesus solely through faith in his person and work on the cross.

Supporting Scriptures

If you’re unsure of that, Paul cites four Scriptures to help you. If the Scriptures gives instruction, endurance, encouragement, and hope…then here are four to do that for us…from each of the major divisions of the Old Testament Hebrew Bible, one the Law, two from the Psalms, and one from the Prophets.

1. From Psalm 18:49 “I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing praise to your name.” This verse tells us that Gentiles and Jews can and will worship the same God together.

2. From Deuteronomy 32:43 “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.” Again a verse speaking of the worship of people from two religious backgrounds, and enjoying it! Rejoicing together!

3. From Psalm 117:1 “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles and let all the peoples extol him.” Here a command for everyone to praise the Lord together.

4. From Isaiah 11:10 “The root of Jesse (that’s Jesus) will come, even he arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.” And lastly a verse saying that Jesus will come and sit on the throne as king and all peoples will enjoy his rule and put their hope in him.

Missional preference. What this concluding section is teaching us, is that if this principle of giving away our preference can get a hold of us…it effects everything. Not only our community among us as the church but in our ability to love and reach out to our city.

San Diego has one of the most diverse populations in the country living in one city. What keeps many of those people from being able to hear the gospel is them not experiencing Christians giving away their preference, their secondary distinctives, so that they can hear the gospel.

We must think of ourselves as missionaries in our city. Our neighbors are often as different as us as people from the other side of the world. We’ve got to get creative in learning how we can connect with them and invite them into our lives so that can see that though we are different there can be much love between us through the gospel of Jesus.

Let me give you an example. Mark Driscoll tells the story of what happened in gay bar.

Over lunch, he informed me that he had been a closet homosexual throughout college, had joined the military after graduation, and had recently been discharged for having sex with fellow soldiers. He was presently frequenting public bathrooms throughout the city and having anonymous sex with various men. He shared that he was wrestling through whether he believed that he was a sinner and whether he still believed in God. When I invited him to attend church with me, he declined, saying that it was unfair for me to expect him to come into my Christian subculture, since I was unwilling to go with him into his homosexual subculture.

And he was right. So, feeling convicted to be like Jesus, I told him I would be happy to go into his world if he would come into mine. Seeing an evil dervish grin emerge on his face, I knew I was in trouble. He invited me to a gay country and western bar he frequented. At the time, I did not drink and disliked no one more than limp-wristed gay men and cowboys. I could not conceive of a worse purgatory than the one awaiting me.

I went home to inform my lovely bride about the mess I had gotten myself into, discovering that she was both supportive and good humored. The following week, I went out with my skinny, feminine gay buddy, who was dressed up in tight jeans, goofy boots, and a big hat for a night of country line-dancing. Walking through the front door of the queer cowboy club, I was hit with the shrill sound of country and western music and the sight of a sea of skinny men sporting tight jeans, well-groomed mustaches, and boots, even though we were in the middle of downtown Seattle and at least an hour’s drive away from the nearest horse.

My friend took me to the bar and introduced me to a number of his gay buddies, who were drinking–of course–light beer. Feeling like I was wearing someone else’s underwear, I stood there and tried to be inconspicuous, praying that no one would recognize me. Then someone I had graduated from high school with approached me with a surprised look. She asked, “What are you doing here?” And I quickly blurted, “I’m married to a woman and here with a friend, but I’m not a gay guy, so please don’t tell anyone I’m a queer.” She laughed and we chatted for a few minutes until a song she obviously liked came on, and she then shuffled off to the dance floor with her girlfriend.

Then a guy introduced himself and hit on me. Stunned, I did not immediately respond but instead stared at the poor guy, trying to figure out why he looked so familiar, how he could mistake me for a gay guy, and if I was really good looking. It then hit me and I asked him, “Are you my mailman?” He replied, “Yes, I am a mailman.” Suddenly, I wanted to kill myself and never get mail again.
My buddy had abandoned me at the bar, and I frantically searched for him in hopes that if I was with him, no one else would hit on me. I found him drinking a fruity drink and flirting with an enormous man. I asked him how long we were staying, since the first five minutes in this hell were about all I could handle. But he said, “Mark, I have to go to a special room upstairs for about an hour, so you are welcome to come up with me or stay down here until I return.” I asked what they did in that room, hoping I would not throw up my dinner after hearing his answer. Here’s how he responded: “It’s not an orgy. It’s a meeting for the gay rodeo committee.”

Gay rodeo?

Those were simply the last two words I had ever anticipated hearing together. He explained that the queer cowboys were hoping to have a rodeo and that he was on the planning committee. Not wanting to sit at the bar for an hour getting hit on, I chose to go to the planning meeting with a few dozen other guys. We all sat in a circle like we were in a home Bible study. The meeting opened with introductions, everyone giving their names and vocations.

I had prided myself on aspiring to the pastorate but now found myself in an awkward position. My buddy leaned over and whispered in my ear, “What are you going to tell them you do for a living?” Unsure, I said, “I have no idea. Maybe I’ll tell them I am a teacher or a spiritual director.”

When it came to my turn, I tried to avoid the inevitable conflict and lied to them by saying I was a spiritual something-or-other, hoping the queer cowboys would smile, nod, and ignore me. But one of the cowboys asked what my religion was. So I came out of my closet and told him I was a Bible-thumping, old-school Christian preacher, causing some of the guys to laugh, thinking I was kidding. The rest of the meeting went well and was not all that different from the boring staff meetings we had at the megachurch, where people who hadn’t done much tried to appear as if they had. The guys were very nice, so afterward when we returned downstairs, I ended up buying some of them beers. However, I did not drink that evening because I wanted to respect the church’s authority over me, which forbade alcohol consumption.

One of the guys asked if I was actually a real pastor and began explaining how his lover and many of his friends had died of AIDS. Actually, he began discipling me, articulating with great pain the loneliness and death that filled his community and explaining why he feared death. He asked what happens when someone dies and wanted to know what would happen to him, in particular. He was attentive as I sought to relate the gospel to his life: sin causes death, but Jesus is God who became a man and died–when he was about the same age as this man–in order to rise from death, forgive sin, and give eternal life to those who repent of sin and trust in him. I explained that only Jesus can take us through our own deaths and comfort us after the deaths of others, because he alone has been through death and come back.

The man was not converted during our chat, but in many ways, I was.

As I left the bar, God convicted me about my proud addiction to morality and my attempt to look like a decent guy so that others would like me. I was so insecure that I feared not only that my Christian friends would see me walking out of a gay bar with queer cowboys but also that the queer cowboys would reject me for being a Bible thumper who, deep down, believed they were running headlong to hell in their cowboy boots. I cared more about how I appeared to people than about whether I shared the passion of Jesus for those who are lost.

That night, I learned that reformission requires that Christians and their churches move forward on their knees, continually confessing their addictions to morality and the appearance of godliness, which does not penetrate the heart and transform lives. In the end, I learned that God’s mission is not to create a team of moral and decent people but rather to create a movement of holy loving missionaries who are comfortable and truthful around lost sinners and who, in this way, look more like Jesus than most of his pastors do.

Conclusion

Paul concludes this whole section about giving away our personal preference with a final prayer in verse 13, ” May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. ”

The prayer recognizes that for any of us to truly change we need the power of the Holy Spirit to work in us. Our only hope is God giving us joy and peace in believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is not easy to be the church. I pray this sort of mini-series within our series has been helpful for us as a young small church plant to learn how to better be the church to one another and how to live in our city.

Here’s what we’ve learned today…

There is a way to see Jesus in everything. Do you look at Scripture merely as a guide for good moral living or do you look at the gospel as the key to the Scriptures. Do you look at your life merely as mundane occurrences or do you see how Jesus has to do with everything in your life? Where do you need to see the gospel of Jesus applied today?

We’ve learned that the Bible instructs us and ministers to us. Are you reading your Bible? Do you look to the Bible for truth, endurance, encouragement and hope? Allow God’s word to speak to you today. God gives us his word and says to you I am the God of endurance and encouragement. Find it in him this morning.

We learned we must work hard for unity. Are there things getting in the way of relationships with people that shouldn’t be? Are you holding grudges or stirring up controversy with anyone? Know how much Jesus loves you despite your idiosyncrasies and sins and allow that his acceptance of you to give you much acceptance for others so that you can just give way.

Lastly we learned that we are to be on mission. Giving away our preferences in many ways really becomes the tenor of our lives, constantly laying them down for the sake of others. When we get connected to Jesus who sacrificed everything for us it ends up making us extremely sacrificial for others. Who is God calling you to reach out to? To go out of your way to figure out a way to share the gospel with them? What are you doing to tear down the walls of separation or preference so that the gospel can get a hearing with them?

As we approach the table today I just want to conclude simply, with the prayer of Scripture here. Usually we all close our eyes and bow our head in prayer. Today, I want to do it eyes wide open and just quote verse 13 to us. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”