The Road to Rome (Romans 15:14-22)
Billy Milton - August 7, 2005
Over the past few months we have worked our way systematically through Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. I think it’s been a most worthwhile journey even if it’s been quite tough going at times. We saw in chapters 1 through 11, Paul expounding the basic building blocks of the Christian faith in a masterful way that ensured that no-one could be left in any doubt as to where they stand before God. In themselves – lost & hopeless, but in God – forgiven and full of hope.
Then in chapters 12 right through to 15:13 he outlines how a person who has come to know God should live and he shows us how to apply what he has been teaching to our everyday lives. As always, Paul is very practical. The exposition and the exhortations are now over and Paul is beginning to wind down as his letter draws to a close. But before he reaches the end of the letter he’s concerned that perhaps he’s been a bit hard on his readers, maybe even offended them, and so, as he closes, he reassures them that this is not a personal attack and that he is actually very encouraged by them.
I, too, have been aware that perhaps some of you feel a bit overwhelmed by what we’ve been preaching over the past few months. After all there has been a lot about our sinfulness and our hopeless condition before God. However, I know from many of your comments that you have also been uplifted by the tremendous moments of encouragement and grace that have shone through as well?
Some folk would argue that what Paul writes in v14 is a bit exaggerated [READ IT], after all if they are that good then why did he need to write what he’s just written in the rest of Romans? But, even if there is a touch of hyperbole in evidence, I do believe that he meant what he said. In some ways it reminds me of the dreaded annual review that some of you have to endure every year in your work! The boss calls you in and reviews your performance; compares it against some agreed goals; tells you how good you’ve done in certain areas; urges you to just try a bit harder in certain other areas and then gives you 3% increase – just exactly like everyone else gets! You know the type of thing. Except in Paul’s case the “could do better part” has already been explained and now its time for the well done bit.
Can I ask you a personal question? If you were the recipient of this letter and Paul said to you, “I am convinced that you are full of goodness, complete in knowledge, and competent to instruct other people,” would he be accurate in his assessment? If not, why not? What makes some people capable of reaching high levels of goodness and knowledge and able to lead other believers to higher levels of Christ-likeness, whilst you seem to flounder along week after week with good intentions but little progress? What makes the vital difference?
Paul gives the answer in v15 – “..because of the grace God gave me…” What Paul is actually saying here, and I want you to really grasp this, through the grace given by the Holy Spirit, ordinary people become extraordinarily equipped. I’m thinking of say a Gideon in Judges 7. He didn’t have a very high opinion of himself and his own abilities – in fact quite the opposite. But what he was prepared to do was to trust God, even when it didn’t really make a lot of sense to him personally. His weakness became God’s strength. I’m thinking of a young David when faced with the giant Goliath. His trust in God was so great that all he took with him was a sling and 5 pebbles. It was more than enough! I’m thinking of a young Joshua when faced with the mighty walls of Jericho. They seemed unconquerable and yet a week later they literally walked over the fallen walls into the city. God was way ahead of him. And I could go on and on. The common thread that runs through all these men of God and countless other men and women like them is that they trusted implicitly in God and his strength – as did Paul, and then stepped out in faith.
Many people today, some in this church, are under-utilising the gifts God has given them because they have yet to understand the way the Spirit fills them with goodness, knowledge and the competence to instruct one another. As a result they tend towards a rather fearful apathy.
Let me ask you, did you get involved in the recent ReachOut project? Many people did and they were astonished as they surrendered their weakness to God’s power and saw some amazing results. I’ve invited another young man of God, Adrian Abramiam, to speak to us this morning to give us some feedback as to how God moved through the ReachOut week and how God used those who made themselves available.
HAND OVER TO ADRAIN
When Paul wrote to his young colleague Timothy he said in 1 Tim 4:12, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, in purity.” Adrian and his team have lived out that Scripture over the past 6 months and I want to publicly salute them this morning. [CLAP] But again I want to ask you, whatever age you are – are you setting that example? It’s a fact that if you want to help people improve you need to provide a model to copy. In sport, whenever the UK has an Olympic champion or a world champion in whatever discipline, that sport has an upsurge in popularity as young people aspire to be like their heroes. Paul wrote to Timothy, “You followed my teaching, conduct, love, faith and purity.” (2 Tim. 3:10) Ask the Lord to help you get around people of godly character so you can learn from their example. Allow the Lord to use you as an example to those who need to learn how to model godliness through your fine example. Do not hide your light under a bushel.
Stop looking at yourself, your circumstances, or even your cultural heroes, for your examples. Too many Britons are following cultural icons who are desperately flawed people with very little substance to them. The success they have is temporary and their apparent happiness is very often nothing but a public face when in private they are deeply unhappy. The secular humanists insist that we can live a moral, upright and respectable life without any supernatural empowerment, but they are dead wrong. Remember what Paul wrote in Rom 3:10-18? [READ IT] The Spirit of God transforms us and enables us to live godly lives and opens our minds to his revelation in a way that no human theory or philosophy can.
Paul, by the power of signs and miracles and through the power of the Spirit spread the gospel throughout the Eastern Mediterranean in only 10 years He planted umpteen churches and left a legacy that endures to this day. Yet he never took any credit himself - he simply spoke the gospel that had changed his life and watched God bring the blessing. Don’t you want a piece of that action? Don’t you want to step out from mundaneness into the excitement of preaching the gospel in some way? Wouldn’t it be marvellous if you could say that through your obedience, “Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.”
As Charles Spurgeon said, “If God has called you to be a preacher, don’t stoop to be a king.”