God Wants Us to Strive Together for Our Savior
The Book of Romans
Romans 15:17-33
Sermon by Rick Crandall
(Prepared January 17, 2022)
BACKGROUND:
*Please open your Bibles to Romans 15. In these last two chapters of Paul's letter, he opened his heart to talk about his future plans and pour out his affection for the Christians in Rome. Paul wanted them to strive together with him to keep spreading the good news about Jesus Christ. Now God wants us to do the same. Please think about this as we read Romans 15:17-33.
MESSAGE:
*A few years ago, our daughter Becky had minor surgery to remove a cyst from her hand. Thank the Lord, everything went well, and Becky had very little pain. But she basically lost the use of her hand for a few days, and that was a huge adjustment. I had to tie her shoes for the first time since 1982!
*At the same time one of our church members was trying to recover from a torn Achilles tendon. She was going through a thousand times more pain and trouble. Have you ever thought about your Achilles tendon? Probably not, but it's at the back of your lower leg. It's the thickest tendon in your body. If it tears, you certainly will not be able to walk on that leg, and you will have some of the worst possible pain. (1)
*It's important for the parts of our bodies to work together. But it is infinitely more important for the spiritual Body of Christ. That's what God's Church is, and Paul explained this to us in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. Please listen to it from the New Living Translation:
12. The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up only one body. So it is with the body of Christ.
13. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into Christ's body by one Spirit, and we have all received the same Spirit.
14. Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part.
15. If the foot says, "I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand," that does not make it any less a part of the body.
16. And if the ear says, "I am not part of the body because I am only an ear and not an eye," would that make it any less a part of the body?
17. Suppose the whole body were an eye-then how would you hear? Or if your whole body were just one big ear, how could you smell anything?
18. But God made our bodies with many parts, and he has put each part just where he wants it.
19. What a strange thing a body would be if it had only one part!
20. Yes, there are many parts, but only one body.
21. The eye can never say to the hand, "I don't need you." The head can't say to the feet, "I don't need you."
22. In fact, some of the parts that seem weakest and least important are really the most necessary.
23. And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect from the eyes of others those parts that should not be seen,
24. while other parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together in such a way that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity.
25. This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other equally.
26. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.
27. Now all of you together are Christ's body, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it.
*All Christians are part of the Body of Christ, and God wants us to work together. He wants us to strive together for our Savior. "Strive." -- It's not a word we use very often, but "strive" is a good word. It means to devote great effort to accomplish something, reach a goal, or overcome opposition.
*And Paul used this word in vs. 30. Here Paul made an urgent plea to the Christians in Rome, and said, "Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you STRIVE TOGETHER with me in your prayers to God for me."
*"Strive together" is just one word in the original language. It has the idea of struggling, fighting, passionately working for something. This original word is where we get our word "agony." It was the same word used for competing in gymnastic games.
*And the root word shows up in places like 2 Timothy 4:7 where Paul said, "I have FOUGHT the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." It's also in Luke 13:24, where Jesus said, "STRIVE to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able." (2)
*God wants us to strive together for our Savior. How can we do it?
1. FIRST: WE NEED GODLY DESIRES.
*We need the same kind of godly desires to serve the Lord that Paul had. In vs. 17-21, he spoke about how he had already preached the gospel from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum. That was the Roman province just across the Adriatic Sea from Italy. Paul had already traveled thousands of miles for the gospel of Jesus Christ. But he wasn't finished yet!
*Paul had a strong desire to go farther and do more for Jesus, so in vs. 22-24 he said, "For this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you. But now no longer having a place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come to you, whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you."
*Paul had a strong desire to see the Christians in Rome, and he had felt this way for many years. It was one of the first things Paul stressed in the opening verses of his letter. In Romans 1:7-15, Paul wrote:
7. To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
9. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers,
10. making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you.
11. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established
12. that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.
13. Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles.
14. I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise.
15. So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.
*Paul had not been able to go to Rome yet. But he never gave up on his godly desire. Paul always had hope that somehow, God would make a way. And we know that God did make a way for Paul to get to Rome, even though he wound up going as a prisoner of the Roman Empire.
*Think about your greatest desires to serve our Savior? We all need to be more like Paul! We all need the same kind of godly desires.
2. BUT WE ALSO NEED GODLY DREAMS.
*We need dreams like Paul had in vs. 24. There he wanted to take the good news about Jesus Christ all the way to Spain. It was a big dream. We could call it a God-sized dream, and that's the kind of dream we need as Christians.
*Maybe it's something we’ve never done before, or someplace we’ve never been before. And it's not necessarily a new physical location, but a dream to take our work in God’s kingdom to a whole new level.
*We need God-sized dreams to do things we could never do without God's grace, guidance, and strength. And we can have these dreams because all good things are possible with God! There is no telling how far we can go with the kingdom dreams God gives to us.
*Charles Thomas (C. T.) Studd can be an inspiration for us. C. T. gave up a large fortune for Jesus in the late 1800s. He also spent 10 years in China, 6 years in India, and 21 years in the heart of Africa trying to reach people for Jesus Christ.
*Before serving the Lord, C. T. was a cricket star in England. His wealthy father became a Christian during a Moody evangelistic campaign. A visiting preacher at the Studd home then led C. T. and his 3 brothers to Christ while they were still students at Eton. It was 1878, and Charles was 18 at the time. The preacher asked C. T. if he believed God's promises. C. T.'s answer was not convincing, so the preacher urged him to trust in Jesus.
*Charles later wrote, "I got down on my knees and I did say 'thank you' to God. And right then and there, joy and peace came into my soul. I knew then what it was to be 'born again,' and the Bible which had been so dry to me before, became everything."
*After his brother George became seriously ill in 1884, C. T. was confronted by the question, "What is all the fame and flattery worth when a man comes to face eternity?" He had to admit that since his conversion six years earlier he had been in "an unhappy backslidden state." As a result of this experience he said, "I knew that cricket would not last, and honor would not last, and nothing in this world would last, but it was worthwhile living for the world to come."
*Of his missionary work he said, "Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell." C. T. also said, "God is not looking for nibblers of the possible, but for grabbers of the impossible." C. T. is also remembered for this powerful line in one of his poems:
"Only one life 'twill soon be past.
Only what's done for Christ will last." (3)
*We all need more of C. T.'s passion for the cause of Christ. We need godly desires and dreams, trusting in the sure hope of God's help. That's how we can strive together for our Savior.
3. BUT WE ALSO NEED GODLY GENEROSITY.
*We need the kind of generosity we see starting in vs. 24. Here Paul wrote, "Whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey, AND TO BE HELPED ON MY WAY THERE BY YOU, if first I may enjoy your company for a while."
*Paul was counting on the future generosity of the Roman Christians to help him get to Spain. And when it comes to mission work, it has almost always been so. Very few missionaries are able to finance their own service for the Lord.
*William Carey is known as the father of modern missions. When he was about to leave for India in 1793, the new Baptist missionary society in England met for a farewell service. The four leaders of that society promised William Carey that they would stand by him as long as they were in this world.
*Andrew Fuller was one of those men, and he later said the mission to India seemed like a few men who were going into a deep, unexplored mine. And it was as if Carey had said, "I will go down, if you will hold the rope." Those four men gave their word that they would never let go of that rope. (4)
*God surely wants some of us to go down into the "mine" of missions. And He wants the rest of us to be generous enough to hold the ropes for them. Almost all of us need more godly generosity. I know I do.
*It's also the kind of generosity we see in vs. 25-28. There Paul gave this report:
25. But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints.
26. For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem.
27. It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things.
28. Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain.
*God wants all of us to be like the Christians in Macedonia and Achaia. The Philippians, Thessalonians, and Bereans lived in Macedonia. And the Corinthians lived in Achaia. And yes, the Corinthians were slow to come through on their commitment to help. But this letter to the Romans shows us that they did come through.
*How did that happen? First, Paul made sure those Christians were aware of the need. They found out about the desperate situation in Jerusalem. It mostly resulted from the persecution of Christian Jews by the Jewish leaders. Because of their faith in Jesus, many of those Jewish believers had been "put out of the synagogue." Even before Jesus was crucified, John 9:22 tells us that "the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue." There were severe consequences for being put out of the synagogue. The Jewish Christians in Jerusalem were shunned by the other Jews. Many had been arrested. They were not allowed to work except enough to keep them alive, and their property was confiscated.
*Paul knew about their desperate needs, in part because he had been one of those cruel leaders. And now he wanted to do something about it, so he had urged the Gentile churches to help, and they generously gave their best to help meet this urgent need. (5)
*God wants us to have the same kind of generosity, and we will, if we keep in mind how generous God has been to us. This is why the churches in Macedonia and Achaia were glad to be generous givers. Verse 27 shows us that the Gentile Christians were happy to share their earthly riches with the poor Jewish Christians, because through their Jewish brothers, the Gentile believers had received the eternal riches of the gospel!
*Listen to Paul's praise for the generous Christians in Macedonia. This is from 2 Corinthians 8:1-5 in the New Living Translation:
1. Now I want to tell you, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done for the churches in Macedonia.
2. Though they have been going through much trouble and hard times, their wonderful joy and deep poverty have overflowed in rich generosity.
3. For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford but far more. And they did it of their own free will.
4. They begged us again and again for the gracious privilege of sharing in the gift for the Christians in Jerusalem.
5. Best of all, they went beyond our highest hopes, for their first action was to dedicate themselves to the Lord and to us for whatever directions God might give them.
*Those Gentile Christians were so thankful for their salvation that they were more than willing to help the poor believers in Jerusalem. God wants us to have the same kind of generosity. That's how we can strive together for our Savior.
4. BUT WE ALSO NEED THE GOSPEL.
*Any good thing we ever tried to do would be completely in vain without the gospel of Jesus Christ. But thank God, we do have the gospel! We have the same good news about Jesus that Paul had in vs. 28-29.
*Here Paul wrote:
28. Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain.
29. But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.
*Paul had absolute faith "in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ." And so should we! Believing in the cross of Jesus Christ, believing that Jesus died for our sins and rose again from the dead, believing that He saved our souls, forgave our sins, and gave us eternal life when we put our faith in the Lord.
*This is the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. No wonder that in Romans 1:16-17 Paul wrote, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, 'The just shall live by faith.'''
*The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only hope for salvation! As Jesus said on the night before the cross, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me." (John 14:6) When it comes to striving together for our Savior, nothing matters more than the gospel of Jesus Christ!
5. BUT WE ALSO NEED FAITH IN THE POWER OF PRAYER.
*In vs. 30-33, Paul pleaded for special prayer help from the Christians in Rome. Here the Apostle wrote:
30. Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me,
31. that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints,
32. that I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may be refreshed together with you.
33. Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
*William Barclay explained that "Paul knew that the journey to Jerusalem was not without its dangers. He knew that he had enemies there, and that to go to Jerusalem was to take his life and liberty in his hands. . ." (6)
*Paul urgently needed prayer, but we need other people to pray for us too. Everybody needs prayer. And it may seem odd that we even have to pray for such obviously good things like we see in these verses. But Paul did have to pray for these good things. One reason why is because God answers prayer! But prayer is about more than our requests. It's about our relationship with God.
*God wants to meet our needs. But even more, He wants to meet with us. So, we must pray. And we will see amazing things when we do.
*Back in the 1880s, a Christian couple named George and Sarah Clarke bought a big saloon in Chicago, and they turned it into the Pacific Garden Mission. It was a ministry for the poor and homeless in Chicago.
*The Clarkes struggled to make ends meet, and somehow God always provided just what they needed. But one day, it looked as though the mission might have to close. The Clarkes had run out of money for the rent. They stayed awake all that night, praying for God to provide the money to keep the mission open.
*The next morning, George and Sarah were astonished to see that their front yard was covered in small, white mushrooms. And they weren't just any mushrooms. They were a fine delicacy. George picked hundreds of mushrooms that morning and sold them in the restaurant district.
*He earned enough money that morning to pay the rent on the mission building! But that the only time those mushrooms ever grew in the Clarke's yard. (7)
CONCLUSION:
*God will also do amazing things when we pray. But we must make the commitment to strive together for our Savior. Let's do it right now as we go back to God in prayer.
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles_tendon
(2) Sources:
-https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/strive
-https://www.dictionary.com/browse/strive
-STRONG'S HEBREW AND GREEK DICTIONARIES - from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance by James Strong, S.T.D., LL.D. - Published in 1890; public domain. - Downloaded to e-Sword by Rick Meyers - Copyright 2000-2019
-THAYER'S GREEK DEFINITIONS - Published in 1886, 1889; public domain. - Downloaded to e-Sword by Rick Meyers - Copyright 2000-2019
(3) Sources:
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Studd
-Missionary biographies - Charles Thomas (C.T.) Studd by Stephen Ross - Copyright 2018 Wholesome Words - https://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/biostudd.html
(4) "Holding the Ropes" - https://www.baptistworldmission.org/holding-the-ropes/
(5) JOHN GILL'S EXPOSITION OF THE BIBLE by Dr. John Gill, D. D. - 1697-1771 - Published in 1746-1766, 1816 - John 9:22 - Downloaded to e-Sword by Rick Meyers - Copyright 2000-2019
(6) BARCLAY'S DAILY BIBLE STUDY SERIES (NT) by William Barclay, Revised Edition - Copyright 1975 - First published by the Saint Andrew Press, Edinburgh, Scotland - The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - "Introduction to the Letter to the Romans - The Object of Paul's Writing" - https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/dsb/romans.html
(7) Carl F.H. Henry, The Pacific Garden Mission: A Doorway to Heaven - Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1942, P. 32. - Cited by Robert J. Morgan, The Red Sea Rules - Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001), pp. 83-84 - Source: Sermons.com email illustration 07/25/2004
