The Obligation of the Gospel
Romans 1:8-17
Good morning. Please open your Bibles to Romans, chapter 1.
I’d like you to imagine two scenarios with me as we start off this morning. First scenario: someone gives you a blender. Let’s say it’s a wedding shower, you’re about to get married, you’ve put a blender on your registry, and, bam! Exactly what you asked for. And in fact, its even more than you asked for. It’s got features you never even dreamed you would need, and now you can’t imagine life without it. This is the mother of all blenders.
Question: What obligations do you have now? What do you think the giver of the gift expects from you? He or she probably would appreciate a thank you card. When you see them at church, you might tell them stories about how much you’ve used the blender. But as far as obligation, that’s about it, right?
Now, scenario number two: someone says to you, “Hey, are you going to so-and-so’s bridal shower? Well, I can’t make it, but I bought them this blender. Can you make sure you get it to them?
Now what obligations do you have? That’s right. You now have an obligation, both to the giver of the gift and the one to whom the gift is intended.
Can you imagine how aggravated the giver of the gift would be if they walked into your kitchen and saw the blender they had intended for someone else on your kitchen counter?
As we continue our study of the book of Romans, I want you to keep these two images in mind. Too many times, we think about the gospel only in terms of a gift given to us. We thank God for our salvation. We occasionally give testimonies in church about how much our relationship with Jesus means to us.
But that is often as far as it goes in terms of any sense of obligation we feel.
When Paul thought about the gospel, he didn’t just think about the gift he had been given. He thought much more about the gift he had been entrusted with, and he felt the obligation to get it to other people. That’s what we are going to look at this morning. Jeanette has already read the Scripture for the morning, so we will pray, and then begin.
[Prayer]
1. From Saul to Paul
Last week, I introduced you to Paul the way Paul introduced himself in verse 1—servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. But I’d like to talk a little more about who Paul is, because verses 8-13 are some of the most personal in all of Paul’s letters.
Paul was, first of all, a Jew from the city of Tarsus, which is on the southern coast of modern day Turkey. In Acts 21, after Paul is arrested in Jerusalem, he tells the Roman tribune that he
Paul replied, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city.
This is significant, because Tarsus was a Roman city. It was actually one of the most significant commercial cities in the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar gave it tax-exampt status, and gave the Jews who lived there freedom to practice their religion because of all the support they had given him during his war with the Turkish ruler Pompey the Great.
So the fact that Paul was from Tarsus gave him a unique opportunity to grow up as a Roman citizen without losing his Jewish identity.
Now, Paul’s birth name was Saul. In Philippians 3 he says that he’s of the tribe of Benjamin, so it’s likely that he was named after King Saul, who was also a Benjamite. His name means “asked for” or “prayed for.”
Some people think that Saul was given the name “Paul” when he was converted. But that’s not true. It wasn’t unusual for Jews who were Roman citizens to have both a Jewish and a Roman name. Paul was his Roman name. It made sense that any time Paul was ministering to Gentiles, he would introduce himself with his Roman name.
Paul studied with a famous Pharisee named Gamaliel. In Acts 22:3, he tells the Jews who had arrested him that he was
educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. 4 I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, 5 as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. (Acts 22:3-5)
Here’s what you need to know about Gamaliel: Gamaliel hated Christians! Some of his statements and prayers have survived, and here is one of his prayers against Christians. He prayed,
“Let there be no hope to them who apostasized from the true religion [which for him was Judaism]; and let these heretics, how ever so many there may be all perish in a moment.
So this is what Saul grew up with. This was his mentor. You know how we sometimes hear about a muslim who gets radicalized by the teaching in a particular mosque? I guess you could say Saul was a radicalized Jew. So he goes from town to town, hunting down and arresting Christians. But you know the story of what happened on the road to Damascus. In Acts 9, Jesus appears to this Jewish terrorist and basically enlists him to be his number one missionary. And almost immediately, this man who had been so zealous for Judaism, going town to town breathing out threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord (Acts 9:1), now goes from town to town with the same zeal and the same passion and the same commitment to tell people about Jesus.
Paul’s normal practice was to go to the synagogue first whenever he came into a town. And that’s what he did on his first missionary journey to Pisidian Antioch. But something happens in this city which is going to define Paul’s ministry for the rest of his life. Acts 13:45 says that the Jews of the city were filled with jealousy when they saw the crowds clamoring to hear Paul and Barnabas, and so they started disrupting the crowd, contradicting everything he said and just generally heckling him. And so Paul takes a career defining turn—literally. He says to the Jews in the synagogue,
“It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.
This part isn’t up on the screen, but verse 48 says that
48 when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
Now, that’s a lot of information, but I think it gives you a glimpse into what might have motivated Paul. Remember, we are talking about the obligation of the gospel. Paul was a man who was radically saved. He had been forgiven of so much, and now He wanted to pass that grace on to someone else. So Paul wasn’t going to let the gift stop with him.
And I think this is maybe why he was so affectionate toward the Romans, and why he wanted to go there so badly. Look at verse 8:
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.
You’ll notice when Paul says, “First, I thank my God for all of you” that there’s not a second item on the list. You think there will be—Paul’s such a brilliant writer and debater, but there’s not. It’s like he gets so caught up in his love for the Romans that he forgets to add anything else to the list!
And look at what he is so thankful for: the faith of the Christians in Rome is being proclaimed in all the world. Now, does this mean that people around the world are talking about the faith the Christians in Rome have, or does it mean that the Christians in Rome are proclaiming their faith to people around the world?
I think it’s both. You can’t share about your faith without sharing your faith. I think the Christians in Rome were gaining a reputation for having great faith, not because they went to church. Not because they weren’t watching R-rated movies, or because they had a Christian bumper sticker on the back of their chariot.
None of those things are going to make people talk about the faith you have in Jesus.
Here’s the truth:
Our faith will be proclaimed through the whole world
When we proclaim our faith to the whole world.
What I see in this verse is that the believers in Rome understood the obligation of the gospel. They wanted to share the love of Jesus with everyone in the world.
And so Paul wanted to see them. Let’s look at what he says about why he wanted to go to Rome. He writes in verse 9-10 that without ceasing he mentions the Roman believers always in his prayers, hoping that somehow by God’s will he might at last succeed in coming to them.
Now, this might be a new insight for you—it definitely was for me—but at the time Paul wrote this, he had not been to Rome.
I guess I just assumed that Paul started the church in Rome. After all, Paul started a lot of churches. He started churches in Corinth, in Galatia, in Philippi, Ephesus. Depending on which commentaries you read, Paul was responsible for the start of anywhere from fourteen to twenty different churches.
But Rome wasn’t one of them. No one knows for sure who planted the church in Rome. Since Acts 2:10 mentions that there were “visitors from Rome” who were present in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, some believe that those visitors went back after being baptized on the day of Pentecost. But we really don’t know. The first time we see Paul meeting any believers from Rome is in Acts 18:2. Paul was in Corinth at the time, and he met Aquila and his wife Priscilla, who were Jewish believers that fled Rome when the Emperor Claudius forced all Jews out of the city.
They must have had some great stories about the work the Lord was doing in Rome, because most scholars believe this was when Paul wrote the letter to the Romans. One chapter later, in Acts 19:21, Paul told his traveling companions that once they passed through Macedonia, Achaia, and Jerusalem, he wanted to see Rome.
You can flip over to Romans 15:24-26 and see how well it matches up with Acts 19:21.
So Paul goes to Jerusalem, gets arrested there because the Jews think he’s brought a Gentile into the Temple with him (this is in Acts 21-22). Then, while he was in prison in Jerusalem, Jesus appears to him in prison and says, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.” That’s Acts 23:11.
So he heard about all God was doing in Rome, and then decided he wanted to go there. And then Jesus confirmed that the desire to go to Rome was coming from Jesus, and not just from Paul’s own heart.
Now, if you are going through Experiencing God with us, this should sound really familiar to you. Because what’s one of the basic lessons of Experiencing God? Look for where God is working, and join Him there! And that’s what Paul did.
Now, in a minute we’ll discover how Paul actually got to Rome, and if you don’t know the story, it will blow you away. But I’d like you to pay attention to what he tells the Romans about why he wants to go to Rome:
11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.
Paul says, I want to be able to share my spiritual gifts with you. I establish and strengthen churches. That’s what I do. And you guys have been crushing it on your own for a couple of years now, and I am so proud of you. But you’ve done it without the leadership of an Apostle. You really need someone that is going to come alongside you and make sure you are grounded in the gospel.
And Paul knew that if the gospel could be firmly established in a place like Rome, the cultural, philosophical, political, governmental, military capital of the world, then Christianity would spread like wildfire. The strategic planner in Paul was just absolutely foaming at the mouth at the idea of a doctrinally strong, culturally influential, ethnically diverse church (made up of Jews and Gentiles), being established in the capital of the world. So he can’t wait to get there.
But notice that Paul says in verse 12 that he is counting on them encouraging Paul as much as he encourages them. Verse 12 says, “that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.”
I want to say a word here about the reality of doing church in the Covid era. And I know you may be getting tired of me talking about this, so just love me anyway—
We started live-streaming worship services almost two years ago, when the pandemic forced us to stop having live events. And for about six months, that was all we could do. It was miserable. Then we were able to begin in person worship services again in September of 2020. February of 2021, we started Sunday school again. And we’ve had this gradual process of building back up. We ended 2021 with an average attendance in worship of 164.
Which isn’t bad, but we ended 2019 with an average attendance of 340.
And I hear people every week say, “Oh, we’re still watching on YouTube. We’re still getting fed. We’re still connecting.”
And I want to be as gentle and pastoral as I can with those for whom watching at home is the only option. I get it. The virus is still raging, many of you are immune compromised, and trust me, I am tired of doing Covid funerals. We’ve had way too many in the past year.
But for the rest of you, those who are saying you are nervous about going to church but who I see at Chappy’s, or Wal-Mart, or anywhere else in the community, let me just point out to you that encouragement is also a two way street. Paul wants to go to Rome not just so he can strengthen them, but so they can strengthen him.
You get encouragement from the online service? Great!! Who are you encouraging?
You’re getting fed by the YouTube channel? Awesome!! Who are you feeding?
Beloved, don’t let the livestream turn you into a consumer of church. It’s not just that you need to be with other believers so you can be strengthened and encouraged. We need you to strengthen and encourage others.
Paul had wanted to go to Rome. He wanted to encourage the believers there, and he wanted to be encouraged by the believers there. But verse 13 says he had been prevented thus far. What was keeping him from getting to Rome?
Well, to answer that, I want you to flip back over to Romans 15, because you get another amazing insight into the character of Paul in that chapter.
In chapter 15, (which, Lord willing, we will get to sometime before the end of 2022!) Paul is talking about his role as the apostle to the Gentiles. And look at what he says in verses 19-20:
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,
Paul’s ambition was to preach the gospel where Christ had not been named. But in a weird way, the very thing that made him so eager to go to Rome—the encouragement he would get from other believers—was the thing that kept him from going. As long as there was work to do among people that did not know Jesus, he felt like that was his first priority. So in verse 22, he says,
22 This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. 23 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,
Nobody would ever accuse Paul of being a slacker! In his commentary on Romans, Tony Merida writes,
“We know from the rest of Scripture that Paul has been tending to church problems from Antioch, Galatia, Corinth, and Thessalonica. He had also had a few stints in prison, a few beatings, and, oh yeah, he’s been writing part of the Bible! That’s a full life.
So there’s a practical reason Paul had not yet made it to Rome. He had a lot going on!
But there is a spiritual reason as well. You see, God was orchestrating the details to get Paul to Rome in a way that Paul could not have foreseen. It would bring God maximum glory, and it would also extend the resources of the church. Let me explain.
We’ve already looked briefly at Acts 23. But let me invite you to turn there: This was when Paul was arrested in Jerusalem because they thought he had brought a Gentile into the temple. While Paul was cooling his heels in jail, Jesus appeared to him and told him he was going to Rome.
So if your Bible is like mine, the very next section heading says “A plot to kill Paul.” There were some Jews who took an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. Well, guess what?
They starved! The plot could not succeed, because God had already told Paul he was going to go to Rome!
The Roman official who first arrested Paul got wind of the conspiracy, and he got Paul out of Jerusalem and up to Ceaserea, with an armed guard of two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen. (Acts 23:23).
Don’t tell me God doesn’t take care of those He calls!
Paul gets to Ceaserea, where he appears before Governor Felix. He gives his testimony to Felix, but then Felix leaves Paul in prison in Ceaserea for over two years. And so maybe you’re thinking, ok, that’s it for Paul’s plan to go to Rome.
Not so fast. Turn to Acts chapter 25, Felix gets succeeded by Governor Festus, and one of the first things Festus does when he takes office is go to Jerusalem. And he finds out that, even after two years, the chief priests are still desperate to kill Paul. Maybe it’s some of the same guys who took the oath not to eat anything, and so now they’re just “hangry.”
So Festus summons Paul. He doesn’t really want to turn him over to the Jews, but he’s not sure there’s a way out of it. But Paul, being the brilliant man that he is, knows that there is a legal loophole available to any Roman citizen. He can appeal to Ceasar himself. And that’s what he does! He appeals to Caesar, Festus has the loophole he needs to avoid turning him over to the Jews, and to make a long story short, Paul is finally able to go to Rome.
On an all expenses paid cruise.
Aboard a prison ship.
So instead of having to take up a special offering, instead of raising money for a fourth missionary journey, Paul escapes from the people who are trying to kill him, gets to Rome, and Rome pays for it!
Don’t you just love how God works. Listen, if God tells you He is going to do something, have faith that He will do it!
Hear this incredible promise from Isaiah 46:
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
11 calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have purposed, and I will do it.
So let me close with this. We began by talking about the obligation of the gospel. We talked about how, if you are given a gift to pass on to someone else, you are in debt, both to the person who is giving the gift (that’s God) and the person who is receiving the gift (that’s all the nations).
Paul says in verse 14-16:
14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Paul understood better than anyone all God had done to prepare Paul to be the apostle to the Gentiles. He understood what he had been saved from, and he understood what he had been saved for.
As he reflected on his own life, he must have said, “How could you explain any of this, other than through the power of the gospel. God let me be born in Tarsus, where I was free to observe all the tenets of Judaism while still being a free Roman citizen. He gave me years of on the job training in equipping and enabling churches. He orchestrated the circumstances so that I could get to Rome and, not just preach the gospel in the synagogue, but give my testimony to three different heads of state!”
How do you account for that in any other way except the power of the Gospel?
And when the sovereign God of the universe has done so much in order to get the gospel to all people—Jew and Gentile, Greek and barbarian, Roman Ceasar and Roman slave, how can I not feel the obligation to share it with everyone I meet?
God has orchestrated the events in your life in the same way. You weren’t born in a country with the freedom to worship just so you could keep it to yourself. You weren’t born at a time in history when, because of technology people have more access to the gospel than ever before just so you could scroll through your Bible app once a week on Sunday morning.
God has given a gift. But he doesn’t want the gift to stop with you. He wants you to pass it on to someone else.
We have an obligation to the gospel. Let’s pray.
[INVITATION]
