“Don’t
be ignorant”. I don’t want you to be ignorant! To me, that always
sounds kind of insulting – does it to you? But Paul didn’t mean
anything insulting, of course. That’s how the KJV puts v 13 of
this chapter: I don’t want you to be ignorant. Our modern versions
put it a little more gently: “I do not want you to be unaware,
brethren” – of what? Well, we begin this week where we did last
week. That Paul wants them to know the reason he wrote after
all is, “I have planned to come to you, and have been prevented
thus far”. I really wanted to get there!
What in the world
could be wrong with the most gifted preacher of the gospel and
the most useful missionary of the 1st century, wanting to get to
Rome – the capital of the empire, the most important city in the
world! – to help everyone there understand the gospel of Christ
better? Why wouldn’t God let him do that? What good reason could
there possibly be? Don’t you think it crossed Paul’s mind? Except
later you decide that, since you didn’t get there, I guess I’ll
just have to write a letter. And the letter becomes the most important
single book of the Bible ever written. Many have said that if a
man understands Romans, he is on a sure road to help him understand
every part of the Bible. There have been a number of times that
the course of world history was altered, merely because someone
studied this letter in detail and shared what he found.
But back to Paul:
he didn’t plan to write a letter. He planned to go in person! And
our plans are always pleasing to the Lord when they involve a desire
to make His glory known. But it goes to show that, even when our
heart intends to glorify Him, sometimes He does not allow our plans
to come to pass, not because the way we wish to glorify Him is
bad, but because He has another path and another route by which
He plans for us to glorify Him. Just like it was good that it was
in David’s heart to build the house of God, and God calls it good.
But it was not permitted. David had other work to do for the Lord.
- It was a good
plan in David’s heart, to build a temple for God – God calls it
good. But it was not permitted. That was for Solomon to do; David
had other work to do for the Lord.
- It was good for Stephen, the first-century preacher, to have a thriving
and challenging ministry in Jerusalem; but God had him martyred and
it emboldened the church.
- It was good for Job to serve God as a prosperous shepherd and businessman;
but God interfered and wanted to show that a man would still serve
Him, when He stripped the man of everything.
- It was good for Paul to get well; but God did not allow it. He wanted
Paul to serve with a painful, noticeable, hindering weakness.
- A lot of stuff was good that God calls us to, that doesn’t feel or
look good at the start.
Do you know what
else we learn from Paul’s unfulfilled plans to get to Rome? It
shows that even the Apostles were not impeccable or omniscient
men. They were sometimes thwarted in their purposes; although they
had authority in the early church, as foundational me; and although
their writings were inspired and guided by the Spirit of God, they
did not live life under Divine inspiration as they went here or
there and as they made plans. When they wrote about the truth and
taught doctrine, the Spirit of God guided them; but when they made
decisions and plans, they were like other men: not necessarily
infallible at all.
And so today,
we’ll talk about Paul’s zeal to spread the gospel. Last week we
saw and read of Paul’s zeal to do good for his brethren in the
Lord, by prayer. He found ways to be a blessing to them, and do
them good, even when he could not be there in person, with them:
he could always pray for them always. I emphatically laid on you
that you can do this too. You don’t have to be an Apostle to have
that ministry. It’s a habit any of us can make ours, by which we
serve and bless brethren and churches everywhere. And because God
does answer prayer, Paul was aware that sometimes, he could do
just as much (maybe more?) good in his absence as by his presence.
Still, it did
not abate his zeal to get there and do the things God had gifted
him to do, and become useful to believers at Rome in person. Today
we come to that: Paul’s undying, fervent, zealous yearning to get
to Rome.
So we talk about:
1) Paul’s Zeal
to Spread the Gospel – vv 13-15
And that brings us back to when he said “I do not want you to be unaware”
(a common phrase of Paul’s! He says it about 6x: Rom 11:25; 1 Cor 10:1,
12:1; 2 Cor 1:8; 1 Thes 4:13). He just means, there’s something he
really wants them to know: how badly he has wanted to come, had often
planned to come, but was unable to come. He loved them, and had for
a long time. He hadn’t wanted to come as a tourist, that’s for sure!
This was no social call. And not just so he could enlarge his ministry
and put on his resume that he’s traveled and spoken at numerous major
international destinations. He craved to do them good, to impart spiritual
blessing to them, is why he wanted to come.
And vv 13-15
contain 3 key words, which tell us a lot about what was in Paul’s
heart about this:
Fruit, Obligation, and Eagerness.
Fruit: he wanted
to come “in order that I might obtain some fruit among you…”
Obligation: “I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians…”
Eager: “I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.”
Ask yourself
questions like, what am I doing in this church? Why do I come here?
What am I doing for the Lord’s work? How do I serve the kingdom
of God? How does professing to be a Christian change my affect
on the world around me?
--Do I want fruit
from people, or am I just socializing? (do you even know what it
means to “want fruit”
from people? You will 15 minutes from now)
--Do we feel a sense of obligation to men? Are we convinced that we
live under obligation? The same
obligation Paul was convinced of.
-- Are we eager? – at least, to do for other Christians what God has
gifted us to do for them.
Let’s talk about
each of those:
A) Fruit – v
13c
Machines can produce work. But only life can produce fruit. Paul sums
up his reasons for wanting to come to Rome in these few words: “that
I might obtain some fruit among you.” His word “obtain” speaks of “to
have and to hold”. Paul wants to see fruit from their lives that he
can hold onto. Paul thinks a great deal like his Savior. He has learned
to think about reaching sinners in the same ways as Christ his Savior,
for the same goals Christ came for: to see fruit grow for God.
Words change
meaning over the centuries. Today, to be referred to as a “fruit”
has a whole ‘nother meaning, doesn’t it? Two of my sons live in
that land of fruits and nuts – California. But Jesus meant this:
Matt 3:8: “Therefore bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance”
Matt 13:23: “And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this
is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears
fruit, and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”
And there is
probably no more complete passage on this subject than Matt 7:16-23:
“You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn
bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? Even so, every good tree
bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A
good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good
fruit. Every tree that does
not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then,
you will know them by their
fruits.” (and then He really explains, v 21): “Not everyone who says
to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does
the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to
Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and
in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
And then I will declare to them, ‘I never
knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”
So: what part
of “fruit” do you not understand now? That didn’t leave a lot of
room for questions or unique interpretations, does it? Fruit is
being genuine, having real faith in Christ, a faith that shows
itself in my life producing righteousness. Obedience. More than
talk. Your life produces what’s desirable and good and useful,
not a bunch of dead wood that looks like a tree but is obviously
dead to anyone who takes a close look!
Another verse
which ought not be skipped is when Jesus said to His disciples,
Jn 15:16:
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you
should go and bear fruit,
and that your fruit should remain…”
Paul knows that
Jesus chose His people so they would bear fruit. So his own work
and the reason he teaches the Word was a constant quest for spiritual
fruit. Guess why I pastor GBC? You get one guess. I could just
sell books. I have no children at home now. We have only one child
in college, and bless God, one of them finally picked a “State”
college. His grandmother left him a lot of money to help pay for
it. Our house is paid off. Why do I pastor GBC? To see fruit.
You will notice,
as you read the Bible, that the Bible itself pictures itself as
“seed” – the Word of God is called “seed”. And human lives are
viewed as the soil – are you getting it? And what happens when
the two meet is described as a harvest – the fruit – the crops
– the whole reason you sow seed. To have something to show for
your work, that’s useful and desirable. Jesus once said, as He
viewed a multitude, Matt 9:36-38:
“Seeing the multitudes, He felt compassion for them, because they were
distressed and downcast,
like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The
harvest is plentiful, but the
workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send
out workers into His
harvest.”
There were multitudes in Rome, too! Paul looked at them the same way:
he wanted to bring in that harvest! In Col 2:10 Paul calls it “bearing
fruit in every good work”, so fruit involves a life of good works.
He calls the changes in our lives the “fruit of the Spirit”, Gal 5:22-23,
because ultimately, when the Word of God changes us, it’s not a book
that has changed us, it’s the Holy Spirit Who has changed us by teaching
us and making it sink in, down deeply into our ears, as Jesus said,
really meaning, past the ears to the heart.
We saw last week
that when our lips praise God, that is fruit for God: Heb 13:15.
We could say that, any time, in any area of our lives, that we
turn from sin, that change in us is “fruit” for God, for Rom 6:22
says that when we’re freed from sin and become servants of God,
the result is fruit which is sanctification.
Even seeing people
converted in the first place, is fruit:
1 Cor 16:15: Paul says the household of Stephanas were the first-fruits
of a certain city, Achaia.
James 1:18 says that God gave us new birth so that we would be like
first-fruits to Him
The verdict is
in: it’s all too clear. Fruit is new converts and fruit is the
holiness in the lives in people who are converted. It’s the changes
in people who have turned to God and then they keep on changing,
keep growing, keep increasing in fruit.
Do you have these
aspirations for the people around you? Do you crave the idea of
new converts? Do you long to see righteousness thrive in the lives
of the believers around you? Do you aspire to disciple others,
so that you can see sinners turn into fruit? Sinners, who the Bible
compares to dead wood; and that’s when it’s being nice. It compares
the deeds sinners do to “dung” (and that’s the good ones). We want
to stop being stuff like that and become fruit. Something desirable,
tasty, useful, beautiful.
You know, it
reminds me that we must not become content just that more people
are coming to church. And it would be easy for us to get content
with that, when it’s happening. But it’s not enough. We must work
at helping each other, who come, grow to maturity. Is that your
aspiration? More people coming to this church means that there
is more people we are responsible for, to turn those lives from
rubbish into fruit. When Paul says he wants to preach the gospel,
this is why.
If you have attended
here more than just a few times, and if you know that this is where
the Lord has planted you, then you are planted here, I say for
the sake of illustration, to “cross-pollinate” – so that the result
of the seed hitting the soil of your heart, might make it spring
over the weeds to other lives, and make grow, too. So that the
seed in you falls into my life and makes for fruit in me as well
as in you. But now to a 2nd word:
B) Obligation
– v 14a
“I am under obligation…”
Paul considers himself obliged to take this gospel message to all men.
When he says “I am under obligation”, he uses the word for a “debtor”.
The same word Jesus used in teaching us to pray, Matt 6:12: “forgive
us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Forgive us what
we owe to you, O Lord, as we ought to forgive people who owe something
to us.
After Paul says
he’s a debtor, he’s in debt to mankind, he owes it to men, he names
two categories of men, two categories which, for him, were a way
to cover “Everybody!” He speaks of “Greeks and barbarians.” To
his world, that covered all men. Now, to “Greeks” was not limited
to people born in Greece. He means Gentiles who were of Greek descent,
and those who spoke Greek, and those who had pretty much become
part of Greek culture. That was a way of speaking of just about
anybody in the Roman empire.
The other word,
“barbarian”, is a term which comes across as misleading today.
The modern sound of calling somebody a “barbarian” would be like
to call them a “savage”, some sort of headhunter, or a guy running
around with no clothes on and a spear. But for them, the term “barbarian”
emerged from a rather humorous cultural reality: Greek-speakers
called everyone who didn’t speak Greek, barbarians, because it
was said that all their languages just sounded like “brr-brr” (what
we’d call “babbling”) and so calling them barbarians came to be.
It just meant people who spoke anything other than Greek. It was
a racial slur for the rest of the world.
Paul lived in
not-so politically-correct times. To call things what they were
was not deemed insulting; it was just calling things what they
were! We speak Greek, the rest speak “brr-brr” as far as we’re
concerned. We don’t know what they’re saying. And by the way, I’m
not saying that Paul, a Christian leader, shared the racial prejudices
or racial animosities common among others in his culture, or that
he was mocking anyone who didn’t speak Greek. He was just entirely
comfortable using the terminology of the common public, because
it’s what people said. They weren’t so squeamish about it.
We have words
and names which today are considered insulting or crude (so I won’t
even state them here) but which once were not considered insulting
or crude at all. Some of the older children’s books I sell use
names for people-groups that were not considered an insult at the
time at all – it’s just what you called them – which you would
not dare so today. It makes for some entertaining conversations
at the book conventions I go to, as people peruse our titles and
read and sometimes I see their eyes go up and they say “Oh my!”
Want to see something
funny, by the way? After v 14: that, to Greeks, all non-Greeks
were barbarians – look at v 16: here, he names two people-groups
again: “Jews and Greeks”. To the Jews, all Gentiles were “Greeks!”
We’ll get to that later.
All that aside,
Paul is telling them that he knows that he’s supposed to take the
gospel to all men: those who speak all the languages, and he adds,
“both to the wise and to the foolish”, v 14b. The educated and
the uneducated. And people of every language, culture and background.
The gospel is the great equalizer. It won’t matter a bit, 100 years
from now, where you had a degree from, and how many languages you
spoke. All that will matter is, how long you have been in heaven
or hell. Because every human being is equally lost without the
gospel, and every human being is on equal ground as saved by faith
in the gospel or not saved at all. And so Paul considered himself
a debtor to them all, to make it known to them.
It resembles
his words in 1 Cor 9, where Paul says:
“For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all,
that I might win the more.
And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews…” – “to those
who are without law, as
without law…so that I might win those who are without law.” – “I have
become all things to all
men, that I may by all means save some.”
Get the idea?
I have become a servant to other men for the sake of the gospel.
All other men! Do some people behave as fools? We’re obliged to
take a message of God’s mercy to fools. If we have to talk in plain
enough terms that they will understand, to get it across to them,
then let’s do it. Do some people think highly of themselves and
their own wisdom? We’re obliged to take a message of God’s mercy
to men who are so proud of their wisdom, they don’t think they
need it. Both are equally in the dark!
The wise people
are darkened by what they know every bit as much as the foolish
and ignorant are darkened by their ignorance! Have you ever thought
about how, some men don’t see because they are blind, but another
man who sees perfectly well, may never see what he most needs to
see, because he pays it no attention. He fixes all his attention
on his lusts and his desires, and his fixation blinds him from
ever looking at the best sights of all. We are obliged to try to
get the gospel across to all.
But you will
each find that, some of you are more attracted to one class of
these than another. But you are obligated to both. You see, a man
determined to be faithful sees no difference in obligations: the
obligations he finds easy to do are no more important than the
obligations he finds difficult to do. They are all obligations:
to God.
What a freshness
would come to our motivation for evangelism, if we saw ourselves
as “great debtors” to our neighbors, our community, our city! When
God made us His witnesses, He put us in His service and put us
in the world’s debt. The word Paul uses is also in Rom 8:12: “So
then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live
according to the flesh.” – the same way we owe it to God, to not
serve our own fleshly desires, but Him; so we owe it to men, by
God’s decision, to get the gospel to them. We do not owe it to
men because of any right they have over us; but by the calling
which God has placed upon us. He has placed us in their debt. Paul
said that when it comes to giving you the message about Jesus our
Lord, we are your bond-servants, 2 Cor 4:5.
C) Eagerness
– v 15
“Thus, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who
are in Rome.”
For a guy who has already traveled all over Syria, Asia, Greece, southeastern
Europe, seeing many sinners saved, many Christians strengthened, even
after all that labor, he had no wish to slow down and kick back. He
wants more of the same. To Paul, the reward of completing one duty
was to have more strength to do another! That’s why even after he got
to Rome, guess what? He wanted to go to Spain! When he says he wants
“to preach the gospel”, Paul never meant that he just wanted to go
to their church and tell them what they already knew – just preach
evangelistic messages each Sunday to a church full of Christians. He
wanted to expand their horizons about the gospel and show them, filling
it out, what a rich gold mine it is! Just like he does in this letter.
It is a great
thing when your duty or obligation is also something you’re eager
to do. For Paul, his obligation to get the gospel to men was a
job he loved doing. Duty makes us do things. Eagerness makes us
do them well, and beautifully, and with relish. Paul said in Acts
20:24 that he did not count his own life an important thing to
him, so long as he could finish the job of telling everyone about
the grace of God! He put aside his dreams, his personal ambitions
– this became his dream and personal ambition! Let me give you
the best conceivable proof of that.
He finally got
to Rome. And you know what? In very different circumstances than
he expected or than any man would have liked. He went there as
a prisoner of the state; in chains; he was even shipwrecked a few
times en route! He was kept in confinement after his arrival. And
he was still a happy man. Why so? Because the gospel kept spreading,
even when pursuing this goal hindered his own personal liberty.
Him being in prison did not hinder the gospel from spreading. In
fact, he says in Phil 1 that his circumstances had increased opportunity
for the gospel!
We have such
misconceptions about what it takes to get the gospel out to people!
It does not depend nearly as much on our liberty and freedom of
movement and self-determination as we like to think. It does not
depend upon us having more comfort and health. It does not depend
upon us having more free time and working shorter hours. It depends
upon grabbing the opportunities that cross our path with people.
When you’re eager, you do it.
So what is this
gospel which made Paul so eager? He sums it up in vv 16-17, where
we really get into the meaty part of Romans. And in 5 minutes right
now, here’s a birds-eye view of it:
2) Paul’s Summary
of the Gospel – vv 16-17
Here are two of most significant sentences in the whole Bible. Two
sentences that tell everything about where this letter is going. Two
sentences packed with a lot, that I’ll tell you all about next week
– but for now, I’ll help you prepare for next week by giving you 3
of the main points those two sentences make. What is the gospel about?
- The Gospel is About how the Power of God Saves us
- The Gospel is About how it (power of God) Saves us by Providing us
the Righteousness of God
- The Gospel is About how the Righteousness of God is Revealed to all
Those who Believe
A) The Power
of God Saves Us
The gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes”,
v 16. Have you heard before that Paul’s word for power is dunamis –
we get our word “dynamite” from it, dynamo, dynamics, etc. One thing
you can say about dynamite: it has power to transform things! And this
“good news” has great life-changing power. The gospel is power in the
hand of God. Because you don’t have any power to save yourself. We’ll
talk more about that next week. And about this:
B) The Gospel
is About how it (power of God) Saves us by Providing us the Righteousness
of God
“For in it (in the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed” –
v 17
God the Father sent God the Son into the world, quite simply, because
human righteousness was way, way short of good enough. And so God literally
gave us His Own. When you could not pay for your sins, He paid for
them: that’s a gift of righteousness. When you could not live up to
His commandments, He came and lived up to His own commandments Himself,
and give that to you.
Please, I want
people to tell me this after church: if you just heard something
new, that you never heard before – if you didn’t know that this
is what the gospel was about, please tell me before you leave –
at the door, in the hall, pull me aside, whatever – please tell
me. Why do I want to know? See back to v 13: I want some fruit
among you. Didn’t I tell you that’s why I do this? And if the seed
is just starting to sprout in your life, I am eager to know and
consider myself under obligation to tell you as much about this
as I know and can. And we’ll talk more about that next week, too.
C) The Gospel
is About how the Righteousness of God is Revealed to all Those
who Believe
“it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes”, v
16. To those persons, it’s “revealed”, v 17. How does the power of
God reach you? Not by you doing anything dramatic – just trusting Him.
Who qualifies for the gift of the righteousness of God? Those who trust
Him. And we’ll talk more about that next week, too. We’re going to
give vv 16-17 the full coverage they deserve next week.
Now: did you
hear anything to be ashamed to talk about? I didn’t. But we react
immaturely at times rather than respond with good sense. So when
Paul says, v 16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel”, he knows
that we can all relate to what it is to act like we’re ashamed
of something, when we’re not. You once acted as if you were ashamed
to look like you loved your Mom, but when you mature, you realize
that was stupid succumbing to peer pressure from people who mean
nothing to you now.
And for you to
be joyful that the power of God saved you when you could do nothing
for yourself, gave you His own righteousness when you could not
produce righteousness yourself, and did this without requiring
a thing of you to have it, except just that you trust Him and believe
– you realize that’s nothing to be ashamed of at all.
His own people
told Paul he ought to be ashamed of believing such a thing, because
it was outrageous that a crucified man could be the Savior – but
He is. Paul tried to explain that that’s some of the wonder of
the gospel: that the Son of God, in His worst and most disgraced
moment, accomplishes for sinners what we could not for ourselves,
with our best works. So Paul proclaims it loudly. No shame here.
The citizens
of the Roman empire told Paul and the Christians who were his “fruit”
that they ought to be ashamed of believing such a thing, for a
lot of reasons. It opposed all the religions of the empire, said
they were all wrong and this one is right. They said that’s ridiculous.
Paul would say: look at all of them. They all teach you, in one
way or another, to be a better person and hope God will save you
when you are. Only the gospel of Christ is honest with you about
the true situation and tells you what you know in your conscience:
you’ll never be a good enough person for God to save you for that.
So He gives it to you.
Why should anyone
be ashamed of that? We should be ashamed of ourselves for believing
anything else.
