Viva La Vida Christus: Living the Life of Christ (Part 10)
November 26, 2008 1:30 pm Chapter 15, Romans, Sermon-Texts
This is the tenth week of our fall sermon series, “Viva La Vida Christus: Living the Life of Christ” dealing with Romans 12-16. Part 10, this week, addresses the themes of God’s calling, the priesthood of believers, the nature and necessity of mission, and The Resolved Church’s strategy in San Diego. This sermon was originally preached November 23rd, 2008 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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November 23rd, 2008
Pastor Duane M. Smets
Series: Viva La Vida | Romans 12-16
Romans 15:14-33
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.