Why Paul Wrote Romans
Romans 15.14-33
When If you're joining us for the first time this morning, welcome. We are almost at the end of the letter to the Romans, which we have been thinking about for over a year.
Here is our question this morning: what would be the sign that we had understood Romans? How would it show that we understood the message of this letter ? In other words, if its author, Paul, had a time machine and he came to visit us, what impact would he want to see on us?
That Romans had a great impact on history is undeniable . For those who are interested in these things
Last Tuesday was ... Reformation Day . 506 years since the German , Martin Luther, nailed his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral ; Martin Luther whose theology had an enormous impact ... and whose starting point was a verse from Romans
. 1000 years before Luther, an Algerian named Augustine was converted thanks to a verse from Romans before becoming one of the greatest Christian thinkers in history .
200 years after Luther , John Wesley , a great evangelist in England and America , was also converted thanks to Romans .
In our French-speaking world, the Swiss François Godet wrote that “ it is probable that any great spiritual renovation in the Church will always be linked … to a deeper understanding of this writing . ”
Maybe this is confirmed for us . We can think of specific encouragements that Romans gave us this year .
But what would be the sign that we had really understood his message?
Let us remember the major themes .
Realism about what is wrong with our world - the problem of sin and the wrath of God . Having this realism , is that the sign that we have understood Romans ?
Is it the fact of feeling reassured and grateful to Jesus ? He solved the problem of sin . _ _ We have nothing more to fear. We know that we are at peace with God, we are his adopted children, he loves us with a love from which nothing can separate us . We have every reason in the world to feel reassured and grateful to Jesus !
Is this the sign that we have understood?
Is this more obedience to God ? Obedience is the logical response to what Jesus did . _ Paul calls it our reasonable worship.
Is this the sign that we have understood Romans?
is it that we are becoming more welcoming - the theme of the last few weeks . Know how to welcome people with different opinions on aspects of Christian life .
Somehow we have to say yes and amen to all that ! If after a year in Romans, we are more realistic , more grateful, more obedient and more welcoming ... great ! Thank you Lord ! It was n't wasted time!
However ... if we leave it there , it seems to me that the apostle Paul would say ... that we have not yet completely understood ... where he was coming from .
As we will see this morning, the sign that we have understood in Rome is that we are burning with a passion for what Adalberto, Josh and Stéphanie have just spoken to us about - the mission - in the first place. s and far away!
I suggest to you that this is what Paul wrote Romans for . To strengthen us, so that we can commit side by side to the proclamation of the good news throughout the world . We will see that this is something that concerns us all, whether we are in Romania, Togo or Paris .
Small parentheses . Our conviction is that God speaks to us today in the Bible.
To understand what God wants to tell us, we must try to understand the situation in which different books of the Bible were written and what prompted the authors to take up their pen and write .
This is why we will spend a lot of time this morning trying to understand in what situation Paul wrote Romans.
He talks a lot about his travels. We can ask ourselves: what link with us today ? In fact, reflecting on your travels is the key to understanding what God wants to say to us .
So what impact is Romans supposed to have?
Before telling us what his purpose was in writing Romans , Paul tells us in this text what his purpose was not in writing it .
First point
Paul did not write to solve problems
Not mainly, anyway.
Verse 14 - follow with me
I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.
I said earlier that several great figures in history discovered the true Christian faith thanks to Romans . _ It 's super encouraging to read their testimonies .
Perhaps for some of us , Romans played a role in our conversion . This is the case for my wife for example. She read the first chapter which describes our rejection of God. She said to herself : That ’s me. It was an important step in his journey.
Romans offers us one of the most complete presentations of the Christian good news in the entire Bible and therefore as a starting point for discovering the Christian faith , it 's great.
Not to convert them
But it is striking to see that Paul did not write this letter to convert the Romans. They already were . _ _ _ Paul calls them “ my brothers and sisters ”
Sometimes we give the impression that the message of the gospel is the gateway to Christian life . Sin , forgiveness , faith in Jesus - all this is the starting point . Then we move on to something else.
Paul disagrees . He wrote this letter, which talks a lot about the ' fundamentals ' of the Christian faith ... to people who already believed .
Paul did not write to convert the Romans; nor did he write to correct them.
Not to correct them
Some have imagined that the Church of Rome was a problematic church . Maybe they still had a lot of misconceptions and that 's why Paul wrote such a long letter . Others thought that it was a divided church , with factions, Jewish and non-Jewish in particular, and that Paul was writing to them so that they would put their differences aside .
This passage suggests the opposite.
Paul says that he is “ personally convinced that [the Romans were ] full of good disposition, filled with all knowledge, and able to warn one another. “
This church was fine! They were solid, filled with all knowledge. If ever there were small disagreements between them, they knew how to warn each other. They were fine and Paul did not write to correct them.
I 've already heard people say, ' Yes , but maybe verse 14 is just a bit of an English saying . Paul flatters them to make things easier by reproaching them .
Paul was n't like that . Paul weighed his words. When he says they were fine and did n't need to be corrected , he means it .
In saying that , if we discovered from Romans that we needed to correct certain ideas about God or put aside certain differences - so much the better ! Just because the Romans didn't need to be corrected does n't mean I don't need to be ! I think of several slaps that I have received even in recent weeks thanks to Romans .
Still, Paul 's ultimate goal in Romans was not to answer problems .
What was his ultimate goal?
Paul did not write to solve problems ...
2. Paul wrote to recruit partners
The purpose of Romans , its ultimate goal, is that we mobilize as partners in the mission - that is to say , the proclamation of the good news of Jesus to the extremities of the earth.
Verse 14 again
14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. 15 But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
When people ask me what I do for a living and I say that I'm a pastor, one of the questions I'm asked most often is: therefore, you don't have the right to get married. Yes, if I am a pastor, not a priest ! For the Roman Catholic Church, a priest is truly in a different category from other Christians .
This is not the case for a pastor. Protestants say that, on the one hand , our only priest is Jesus ; on the other hand, since we all serve God, all Christians are priests .
It may therefore surprise us that Paul describes himself as ... a priest !
Paul the priest
Look again at verse 16 . He carries out the “ priestly service ” of preaching the Gospel . He seeks to present to God a pleasing offering . He desires that this offering become holy through the action of the Holy Spirit. He 's a kind of priest !
In the Old Testament, a priest offered sacrificial animals in the temple. Have you noticed what Paul is offering? People ! In particular, people of non -Jewish origin.
The goal of his ministry is to present as an offering to God ... people ... from all the nations of the earth.
I don't know what you think about that! If you are like me, you may find the image disturbing . I do n't want to be compared to a slaughtered ox or goat dripping with blood .
Please change your image Paul! But in fact this idea should not surprise us because we have already encountered it . In Romans 12, Paul encouraged us , through the mercies of God, to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. That is to say , to dedicate our whole life to the service of God.
That ’s what it ’s like to be a Christian . Grasp what Jesus' sacrifice accomplished for us, and offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, a pleasing offering , in response .
This is true worship. This is our reasonable, logical worship - offering our body to God, since Jesus offered his body for us. The idea of being an offering is not new . The question is why does Paul bring it up again? Did he think the Romans weren't yet enough of an offering ? Did they need a little encouragement to be better sacrifices?
I do not think so.
When Paul says that he wrote to them “ as if to awaken their memories because of the grace which God gave him to be a servant of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles , ” he is not Don't think about the non-Jews in Rome who already believed in . He thinks of those further than Rome who did not yet believe.
Paul was writing to the Christians in Rome , because they were looking beyond Rome to the vast territories populated by people not yet saved
To put it another way, Paul was not just a priest . He was also a pioneer.
Paul the Pioneer
Verse 17
17 In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. 18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; 20 and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, 21 but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”
I don't know if there are among us ski enthusiasts crazy enough to enjoy going off-piste. Personally I don't have the level. The only time I tried , I got stuck in a tree. Some people love it . Get off the beaten track to discover virgin terrain , where no one has yet skied .
It was a bit like Paul 's approach . Not with regard to skiing - to my knowledge, he has never done it - but with regard to his ministry . Christ had made him a pioneer who announced the gospel in virgin territory, where Christ had not yet been proclaimed . He says his ministry consisted of “ bringing non-Jews to obedience , that is to say , to lead people of all nations, through the gospel , to bow the knee before King Jesus , or to use the image from a moment ago, to offer oneself to God as a pleasant offering .
Paul was a priest ... pioneer ... that Jesus had sent so that people everywhere would become living sacrifices to the glory of God.
Already , that 's something to wonder about . If what we learn from Romans is that we must offer our body as a living sacrifice to God, that's good!
But for Paul, it still doesn't go far enough! It was n't just his little person that Paul wanted to offer to God ... it was the whole world! He didn't say to himself : I have my faith, I have my worship of God, but it 's private , it only concerns me, and I'm not going to bother others with it .
Paul understood that Jesus deserves the world. At the time of writing , he had traveled through Cyprus , several regions of Turkey, Macedonia , Greece , the Balkans, and he never apologized for believing that Jesus died . the obedience and adoration of the inhabitants of all these countries .
On the contrary. He saw his duty to bring them to obedience . Ah, someone will say , isn’t that a bit imperialist ? A little intolerant ? By what right could he say that all these people, who already had their beliefs , had to believe in Jesus ?
But Paul was not an imperialist . He had simply understood that if Jesus created the world and all those who inhabit it , and that he died for the world and all those who inhabit it , then the world and all those who inhabit it are for him.
We can sometimes feel uncomfortable talking about Jesus with people who believe something else . Your Muslim colleague . Your atheist neighbor . The animist Togolese that Josh and Stéphanie will meet.
What right do we have to tell them to believe in Jesus ?
The reality is that your colleagues , your neighbors and all the inhabitants of the earth were created by Jesus and for Jesus , it is not normal that they do not worship Jesus . Jesus deserves the world . Paul had this role of pioneer, because he understood this.
Have we understood this?
But for this pioneering ministry …
Paul was looking for partners for the next phase
Verse 22
This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain…
Paul had just spent 10 years preaching the gospel and planting churches from Jerusalem to Illyria - what we today call the Balkans, countries like Croatia , Bosnia.
At the time of writing Romans, his pioneering work was finally finished in the east , and he was preparing for what followed in the west .
This is what actually explains his trip to Jerusalem which he mentions in verse 25.
Paul's ultimate destination is Spain . We kind of want to say to him: Paul, if you are in Greece ( where he wrote Romans ) and you want to go to Spain, Jerusalem ... it 's not really on the way ! Another meaning Paul, another meaning! But Paul goes to Jerusalem , to bring to the poor money collected from the churches he had established , precisely to close the first phase of his mission . As if he were saying: look! Peter, James, John , you who are in Jerusalem , where it all began , look at what the gospel has produced !
These non-Jews, who were dirty pagans , became living sacrifices who love you and wanted to help you ... and all that ... thanks to the proclamation of the gospel !
It 's a bit like someone who starts producing wine , who toils all year round , who spends all their time there. His family doesn't really know what it will be like but at the end of the year he brings them a bottle, they taste it ... and it 's delicious .
If this is the fruit of your work, you must continue.
This is why Paul makes this trip to Jerusalem . To say ' look what the gospel has produced! The first phase of my mission is mission accomplished! Let's prepare for the next phase - Spain . '
Because preparing for this next phase ... that 's why Paul wrote Romans.
Verse 23 again
But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while.
Paul wrote Romans so that the Church of Rome would commit itself to his side to help him bring the gospel to virgin territory.
Help him financially . _
Help him logistically.
Help him by praying.
Help him by accompanying him in the field.
The goal of Romans is to mobilize for the mission. The sign that we have understood this is that we too are mobilizing . Let us consider ourselves partners fighting side by side in the great mission of the gospel .
Joe , are you saying that Romans, with all its richness and depth, amounts to a fundraising letter ?
When we depend on donations to fund a Christian ministry , we write letters to potential donors talking about our ministry and asking for money .
We often feel a little embarrassed to ask for money , so we talk about everything we do and why it 's important - we post nice photos - and then at the end we slip in a little word to say ' by the way, could you support us? '
Am I saying that Romans is it ? A letter requesting support?
No.
Romans is Paul's masterful defense of the mission of the gospel to the nations . He begins by evoking a duty towards all, civilized or not, wise or ignorant, which comes from the fact that the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of all those who believe.
In the first half of the letter, he explains everything that this mission to the nations produces for the nations. To be justified , sanctified , assured of one's salvation, loved , glorified . In the second half , he explains how this mission to the nations helps Israel too . His point is to say that only the announcement of the gospel to the world can create a new humanity blessed by God and which obeys God .
He spends 15 chapters showing it , then he asks: did you understand that ? Get involved with me!
And friends, if during this year in Romans we have understood something of the goodness of the gospel , let us mobilize too. The sign that we have understood where Paul was coming from is that we adopt his mission as our mission.
Rome was the center of the world in the first century . All roads led to Rome. His church was perfectly placed to shine in Europe , Asia and Africa. We who are in the center of Paris are also well placed to shine in France and, thanks to the very international character of our assembly , well beyond .
The needs are enormous . Let 's start with our city.
You may be familiar with the statistics. It is estimated that for every person in France to have a realistic opportunity to hear the gospel , there would need to be one evangelical church for every 10,000 inhabitants.
In Paris, there is one for 25,000. We must support the establishment of new churches . There will be more to say on this in the coming months.
Other regions of France are even less well off . The Pays de la Loire. Overseas, Mayotte. Not to mention the needs elsewhere in the French-speaking world.
As in Paul's time, the unreached or barely reached regions are numerous. So am I saying that we should all drop our work tomorrow, take a one-way ticket to Timbuktu and go preach in the streets there ? Or do we all have to make the same choice as Adalberto, Miranda, Josh and Stephanie?
No, even though there are probably people in this room to whom God has given gifts to proclaim the gospel and access to certain cultures who should at least ask themselves the question of whether the mission abroad or in other regions of France is for them .
But for most of us , that 's not what we're going to do. For us what is needed is a change in mentality .
Do we have this desire not only to be living sacrifices, but also to see other people, near and far, also become living sacrifices to the glory of God?
We need a mentality that unites adoration and mobilization for evangelization and mission . John Piper says the highest purpose of the church is not mission, it is worship . If mission exists, it is because worship does not exist.
In the light of Romans, one would say that he is right.
Jesus deserves the world . If we adore Jesus , let us aim to lead others to adore him too . Near and far.
Perhaps you wouldn't introduce yourself as a Christian this morning and wonder what relevance any of this has to me? I would like to tell you that we are delighted that you are here .
The relevance is enormous . This mission exists because God came to seek out people who were far from him to offer them true life . If you want to know more about this true life , reading for yourself this book, Romans in the Bible, would be a good place to start .
For the rest of us, all this means that Connexion Church does not exist just for her. There is a danger for a church to become turned in on itself .
Having a missionary mentality implies being outward - looking , ambitious to see the gospel advance , including in virgin lands, and to support its progress through our words, our prayers and our doors. -currencies.
To the extent that we are already ' among the nations ' here in Paris , we all have a role to play so that the gospel is proclaimed wherever God has placed us . Our French, Malagasy, Cameroonian friends , and so on, are all part of what God calls “ the nations ”
And even if we will not all be pioneers who set off into unknown lands, we are all partners called to support those who are.
There is a story told about William Carey, who is sometimes called the father of modern missions. William Carey had shared his desire to proclaim the gospel in India with the newly founded Baptist Missionary Society .
He was told : “ There is a gold mine in India; but it seems as deep as the center of the earth; who will venture to explore it?”
Carey replied : “ I will go … but remember you have to hold the rope. ”
Wouldn't it be a beautiful thing if Connexion Church was both a William Carey church and also a church that held the rope for others .
It would be expensive . This would involve putting money behind projects of which we do not know how long they will bear fruit . It would involve saying goodbye to friends. For some, it would mean being the friends to whom we say goodbye.
But it is a cost that we will agree to pay if we are animated by this vision - Jesus deserves the world .
The apostle Paul, we don't know if he ended up going to Spain or not . What we know is that when he returned to Jerusalem he was arrested and that when he arrived in Rome a few years later , it was as as a prisoner.
Was he able to leave for Spain afterwards ? Some think yes, some think no, and it doesn't matter! Because someone did it . For what ? Because the message of Romans has been understood .
A missionary mentality was adopted , people mobilized , a partnership was forged and the gospel was proclaimed to unknown lands .
And U.S ? Did we understand?