The Person, The Call, The Message
(You can watch this message on YouTube: https://youtu.be/VoxEJSzy9Bc )
Paul, a
bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as
an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand
through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born
of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who
was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead,
according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we
have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s
sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus
Christ.
For
today’s message, I want to draw attention to three important points in the
first verse. First, notice how he starts this letter to the Christians: With
his name: “Paul.”
We
need to stop here and remind ourselves who this author was. Today we would call
him a religious terrorist. This is not a point to gloss over. Here is his own
testimony as he spoke before King Agrippa and the governor Festus: (Acts 26:9-11) “So
then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of
Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I
lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief
priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against
them. And as I
punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme;
and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign
cities.
Why
is it important that we know Paul’s history?
Because God has shown us through this man – as He has shown us
throughout Biblical history again and again – no one is beyond the reach of
God’s mercy. No one. Not you. Not me. No
one.
Therefore,
for us to say about someone – or about ourselves! – “There is no sense in
praying for him, or inviting him to Bible study, or to talk with him or her
about Jesus – for us to say and believe that is to deny God’s power.
Here
is what Paul said of himself in this regard (1 Timothy 1:15-16) It is
a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so
that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience
as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.
I hope you caught that last part of this section. Paul, the former
violent blasphemer and persecutor of every Christian he could find, he
says: Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in
me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an
example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.
That is precisely why Paul could write to Timothy these words (2
Timothy 1:3) I thank God, whom I serve
with a clear conscience . . . .
A clear conscience? Why could Paul have a clear conscience,
considering all he had done to Christians? Because he knew God’s mercy took all
of his sins and placed them under the blood of Jesus. He was absolutely
CONFIDENT that his slate of sin was wiped clean. Not a stain remained.
Do you have a clear conscience? Listen, please. This is important. Do not
let your past sins define who you are today. And do not let others define you
by your past sins. What is past is past. It was all covered by the blood of
Jesus when you confessed them to the Savior. You became a completely NEW person
in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:15). All your
past sins God has cast into the sea of His utter forgetfulness, never to resurface
in His mind again, throughout eternity.
Are you as certain that your sins are
forgiven as the former terrorist Paul was certain that his sins were all washed
away in the blood of Jesus? You can have that clear conscience if you repent of
your sins and then TRUST God to be true to His promises.
That is very
important. You cannot grow in intimacy with God unless you accept that basic
truth that God has forgiven it all. And you cannot assure others of God’s forgiveness
if YOU yourself are not certain of His promise.
And speaking
of telling others their sins can be fully forgiven and washed away, I love what
Fanny Crosby wrote about this message of God’s forgiveness and His charge to us
of evangelism:
Rescue the perishing,
care for the dying,
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;
Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.
Rescue the perishing,
care for the dying,
Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.
Though they are
slighting Him, still He is waiting,
Waiting the penitent child to receive;
Plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently;
He will forgive if they only believe.
Time
is too short for all of us to miss this urgent call of God who said, “Go ye
into all the world and preach the gospel.” The sands of our hourglass are
relentlessly falling to the bottom. And one day the last grain of sand will be
gone.
For
those who have died without Christ, do you realize where they are at this
moment? Not where they ‘might be’ – but
where they ARE if they died without Christ Jesus.
If
God saved Paul, don’t ever think God is not able to save anyone.
Let’s
now look at what else Paul tells us in that first verse.
Point number 2: Paul calls himself a
bond-servant of Christ Jesus; A slave. Paul’s readers knew exactly what a
bond-servant was. Much of their population were slaves. Paul understood he was
no longer his own. He had been bought with a precious price.
What does
it mean to be a slave of Jesus Christ?
Well, in only a few words, here is what Jesus says it means: Luke 6:46 “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord,
Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”
If our heart is soft toward God, we know what it means to live a
holy lifestyle: Here is only one portion of Scripture that speaks to that
point: Galatians 5:19-21(NLT) When you follow the desires of
your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity,
lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy,
outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness,
wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have
before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of
God. . . .
Is this easy to do, to be a slave of Jesus Christ? Of course not.
Our flesh recoils at the idea of fully and unquestionably submitting ourselves
to someone else – even to God. But such submission is God’s absolute and
unwavering requirement for spiritual growth and learning to walk by faith with
the Master.
Certainly, such
submission is a matter choice. Will we submit to God’s will in whatever is the
situation – or will we not?
You may remember what
Joshua said to the people after they’d crossed into the Promised Land – a land
full of flagrant immorality and idolatry – a culture of death not too
dissimilar to our culture in America today. Here is what Joshua said to the
people then – and what God says to us here today: (Joshua 24:14-15) “Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and
truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in
Egypt, and serve the Lord. If it is disagreeable in your
sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today
whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were
beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but
as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
While praying through my prayer list
recently, l was reminded of a hymn by Isaac Watts. Here are a few verses:
"See from His head, His hands,
His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?"
"Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my
all."
Why do we follow Jesus? Why are we willingly slaves of Jesus? Do we follow because
of what He does for us, or is it because of who He is?
Such is the question you and I must answer again and again; Sometimes nearly
every day of our lives. Why do we call ourselves slaves of Jesus?
And now for our third point, Paul writes that
he was called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God:
Paul tells us it was God
who called him to preach the good news of salvation. Calling Paul was God’s idea. And that raises an
important principle related to our hearing, reading, and reflecting on God’s
word.
You may remember this
vignette in Matthew 21:23-27 When [Jesus] entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders
of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, “By what authority
are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?” Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also
tell you by what authority I do these things. The
baptism of John was from what source,
from heaven or from men?” And they began reasoning among themselves,
saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not
believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the people; for they all
regard John as a prophet.” And answering Jesus, they
said, “We do not know.” He also said to them, “Neither
will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
And so, it can also be
asked – and must be answered – by what authority did the apostle Paul write
this letter to the church at Rome? By what authority did he write any of his
epistles? And by logical extension, by what authority did any of the writers of
Scripture write what they did?
If we believe they wrote
by and under God’s authority, then we are fully responsible to live lifestyles
in obedience to His commandments. But if we believe they did NOT write by and
under God’ authority, then we are wasting our time even bothering with the
Scriptures. We have no infallible and eternal word of truth to guide us along
life’s paths.
Let me now conclude my
message today:
We have looked at the
first words Paul used to start his letter to the Christians at Rome. “Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.” And in
those few words the Holy Spirit declares to us at least three points of
reference which undergird the rest of the 16 chapters of this book:
1. Never think anyone is outside of God’s reach of mercy – including
yourself. If God’s mercy extended to the former terrorist Paul, then God’s
mercy will extend to anyone anywhere on this planet. Do not let anyone define
you by the sins you have placed under the blood of Christ. And don’t you define
others by their forgiven sins.
2. If we choose to
follow Christ, then we must become slaves of Christ – meaning we will go and to
do as He commands. But if we choose to not be a slave of Jesus Christ,
then we do not belong to Him. That’s a very simple and ominous equation.
3. God called Paul to
give a message of hope, exhortation, challenge, and warning to a world in need
of hearing from God. Indeed, God called not only Paul, but Peter, James,
Isaiah, Amos – God called ALL the writers of Scripture to give an infallible,
inerrant, and eternal message of hope, exhortation, challenge, and warning to
all humanity. That means He will also hold everyone responsible to what is
written in His word.
We will continue now for
several weeks to unpack God’s message for each of us through St. Paul’s letter
to the church at Rome.
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