A PERSONAL LOOK AT THE LIFE OF PAUL
* To think about the Apostle Paul is to cause many possible thoughts to enter our minds. He has meant so much in so many ways to so many people. He has changed the very world we live by the very fact of his life and the obedience he gave to Christ.
* Beginning in 15:13 Paul begins to conclude this wonderful letter we call the Book of Romans. He shares what is in his heart, his hopes for the future and for a man who had accomplished so much he communicates a tremendous humility.
* What can explain the life of a man like Paul of Tarsus? I believe that a phrase in verse 15 of chapter 15 gives us our best clue: because of the grace that was given me from God. Grace can explain alot and sometimes it is the only explanation possible. GOD’S RICHES AT CHRIST’S EXPENSE. Unmerited, undeserved riches which in Paul’s
case is amazing. WHAT HAD GRACE DONE FOR PAUL?
GRACE HAD GIVEN HIM A HEART FOR THE CHURCH
A. A Heart That They Might Be GROUNDED In Christ. (13)
Now may the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (14) And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you
yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to admonish one another.
1. Paul’s prayer was that they would have: joy..peace...hope. Not just have a measure of these things but to be filled and abound in them.
a. Three things that the world around us is tragically searching for and can only be found in a relationship with Christ.
b. Paul has already stated that the church in Rome was known around the world for their faith.(1:8)
LEIGHTON FORD(Billy Graham’s bro in law) was traveling by airplane and found himself next to an empty seat. He was looking forward to the extra room when appeared the stewardess with an elderly woman, 96 yrs of age. ‘Mrs ____ will be sitting here next to your sir’. As the flight proceeded Leighton asked the woman, ‘In 96 yrs what is the most important discovery
you have made about life?’ The woman boldly stated that it was that she knew Jesus Christ. Deciding to play devil’s advocate Leighton said, ‘That is not so great, what is so special about Him’. Emotions arose, words flew, and arms flailed as this woman responded to his unbelievable statement. ‘Please maam, I was only kidding you, I too believe in Jesus, in fact I am an evangelist on my way to preach’. ‘In fact, I am the brother in law of Billy Graham’.‘Who?’ ‘Billy Graham, the evangelist’ ‘Don’t know him’ ‘He has been on television, you must have seen him’. ‘Must have been out that night’. Next time Leighton saw Billy he
described what happened and then said, ‘she didn’t even
know who you were’. Billy responded, ‘Isn’t is wonderful that there are millions who don’t know who we are but they know our Jesus’.
CHURCHES KNOWN FOR: Willow Creek/Saddleback/Calvary
Chapel/1st Baptist Dallas What is Immanuel known for?
2. Paul identifies three things to commend the church for.(imagine being commended by the Apostle Paul!)
a. FULL OF GOODNESS - so essential that a church be motivated by a sense of goodness. To be responsive to the needs of one another, to love one another, to reach into each other’s lives to minister to the hurts, the burdens, and the concerns.
1) Church people should be good people. I know that there are some good people out there that don’t go to any church but I have found that as a rule there are no better people than those you find in a church.
b. FILLED WITH ALL KNOWLEDGE - Meaning
complete in the truths of God. Paul was providing in writing what many of them had already come to know
c. ABLE TO ADMONISH ONE ANOTHER - Not just
knowing but desiring and capable of transfering those truths
to others.
1) Go to many seminars, hear many teachers, sit through years of study but can you pass it on? Do others know God better by knowing you?
2) Not a word to just Church leaders. A sign of a healthy church is when others teach, encourage, counsel, and inspire one other to go deeper in their walk with Christ.
3. Imagine a church filled with these kinds of people. No wonder the world knew of them.
B. A Heart that they may be GROWING in Christ (15) But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God, (16) to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
1. To say the least the Book of Romans is boldly written. In spite of the things worthy of being commended Paul wrote to remind them again of things they must not forget.
a. How much do you know that you need to be reminded of, that you should be doing, that you have let fall by the wayside. Rev 2 the church in Ephesus had forgotten it’s first love. Some of most powerfully impacting sermons I hear are just reminding me of what I already knew but had become slack about in my life. What do you need to be reminded about this morning? Get back into God’s Word! Get back on
your knees and pray? Start raising your family in a way pleasing to God? Stop using that kind of language? Give up that habit?
A MAN HAD A STRING around his finger. He put it there to remind him of something. The fact that it is so easy to forget things is built into our nature. I think it is one of the greatest evidences of our fallen
nature that we have such a hard time remembering what we want to remember, yet we so easily remember things we want to forget.
b. We need to be reminded over and over of the great themes of the gospel. Reason we gather each Sunday is to be called back to living life according to God’s truth. Sucked into the attitudes of the world around us. We forget that the devil is a crafty foe and that we live life in the midst of a spiritual battlefield. We struggle with discouragement, doubt,
anger, hopelessness, defeat and we need to be reminded
again of the great truths of knowing Christ.
2. Three things about Paul’s ministry that made him desire to see them grow:
a. Provided Grace: because of the grace that was given me from God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus. Paul understood that God had called him and equipted him for this purpose in life. Nothing else he did in life mattered as this did.
b. Priestly Ministry: ministering as a priest the gospel of God,. Paul saw he work as a priestly calling. A priest is someone who speaks to God on behalf of man and man on behalf of God. As we minister the gospel we have the dual responsibility of telling others about God and His Son as well
as telling God about them, praying and petitioning God for their souls.
SHARED IN NEWSLETTER that a Tennessee pastor who spoke at the state evangelism conference said that six weeks before their ‘revival’ they gathered 60 names of lost people. They prayed for them by name for those weeks and 45 out of the 60 came to faith in Christ during the revival. Many said that they had never really thought about spiritual things until over a month before the revival came.
1) A priest needs to awaken in others a sense of worship, a sense of the greatness of God. Our words, our lives and our prayers should cause that to happen to those around us.
2) Paul proclaimed the gospel. Good News is rarely whispered.
If your pro team wins the championship I doubt you will whisper it to your friends. Go to a football game and when they score a touchdown whisper, ‘we scored’, Basket sunk to win game in last seconds, ‘We just won’(whisper).
MAY 1976: Oklahoma State Track meet. Parents sat some rows back throughout meet until my race came. My dad pushed way to front right over wall by finish line, loudly stating with stopwatch in hand, ‘move over people, my boy in running in this one’.
c. Presented Offering: that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
1) Paul knew that the people in this life that he had been given to minister to that they respresented his offering to God. That Sunday School class, those children, that group of dirty faces in Awana, that neighbor, the person down the pew from you, that is your offering to God. A priest was never to bring to God anything less that the best.
GIVEN HIM HUMILITY IN HIS CALL
A. Humility seen in his PRAISE (17) Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God. (18) For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has
accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed,
1. Paul did not boast in his own accomplishments
although they were many. Phil 3 is his list of reason why he could put confidence in the flesh: nation of Israel, tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews, Pharisee, zealous, blameless unto the Law(kept feasts, offerings & sacrifices) but I count it all as loss for the sake of Christ.
COL 1:18 ‘That in all things He might have the preeminence’
a. Make our lists to boster our self-image: this job, this degree, this accomplishment, some possession - nothing compares to knowing Jesus. If all we talked about was what Jesus did through us then I am afraid some of us would have very little to say.
b. How much time do you spend talking about things pertaining to God?
2. Paul had discovered a life-changing secret: MAN WAS DESIGNED, NOT TO DO SOMETHING TO MAKE GOD
HAPPY, BUT TO LET GOD WORK THOUGH HIM. what Christ has accomplished through me.
WHY WAS KING DAVID punished for numbering Israel? Taking a census of his army to determine their strength. David, who as a young man, stepped out against all odds to face a giant showed absolute dependence upon God. Now, as an older man, he was
demonstrating a departure from the principle of God being his resource. Nothing contibutes more to the weakness of the church than an assumption that large numbers mean spiritual strength. When you meet a man or woman who is willing to simply trust God to work through them then there is no limit to what God can do.
a. Where man is at work you see religious activity: but where Christ is at work you see changed lives. resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed,
MUCH OF MY LIFE I was a product of man’s efforts(preachers, Sunday School teachers) but a day came when I met Jesus and His work began. Change became obvious. POWER became evident! A true work of God in a life will lead to obedience.
b. Some of you have had your family drag you along to church time after time and revival after revival praying and hoping that this time it will change you. Nothing will change you until to truly meet the person of Jesus Christ.
B. Humility seen in his POWER (19) in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.
1. Paul’s ministry was accompanied by powerful signs & wonders. They demonstrated his apostolic ministry and authenticated his writings as the foundation of what we rest our faith upon today. BUT power didn’t end with Paul.
2. God still moves in miraculous ways and nothing in Scripture indicates that the Church of Jesus Christ is ever to be lacking in power. The kind of power that changes lives. it is available today for those who are willing to pay the price. The price of power is surrender & self-denial.
CHRISTIAN WORLD, especially on TV, has no lack of peopleclaiming God’s power. The profess miracles that are rarely if ever proven but demonstrate an obvious lack in power in the area of changed lives. They strive for the carnal things of this world more
than any other visible group: money, possessions & popularity and unknowingly their lives are the loudest arguments against their claims of possessing God’s power.
PAUL NEVER GOT RICH using the Gospel. Acts 14 Paul &
Barnabas, because of God’s miracle of healing a crippled man in Lystra, the crowd called them gods and tried to worship the two. Paul stopped such a pagan response and shared the true message of Jesus.
3. Paul said he fully preached the gospel of God. All the way to modern Yugoslavia. Distance of about 1400 miles. An amazing task considering the slowness of travel and the dangers involved. Interesting to me that the NEWS in Good News is a combination of four directions: North - East - West& South. Paul had faithful gone in all directions to proclaim the NEWS of Jesus Christ.
C. Humility seen in his PURPOSE (20) And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man’s foundation; (21) but as it is written, ‘They who had no news of Him shall see, and they who have
not heard shall understand’.
1. Paul’s driving ambition was to preach where the
message had never been heard. Paul might agree with this statement, ‘Why should someone hear the gospel a hundreth time when someone else hasn’t heard it even once?’
EVERYWHERE PAUL WENT he found people in the grip of Roman authority: iron hand ruling, widespread despair, empty and longing for something, degrading habits destroying homes, supersticious fears. No church existed. Paul came and preached Jesus: light sprang up in darkness, lives were changed, excitement appeared, people discovered why they were made and what life was meant to be about. They who had no news of Him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand.
2. God had a plan for Paul’s life and Paul knew that plan. He was able to hear the voice of God and had a heart to obey it. The combination of those two things will lead to a life that changes all the lives around it.
200 YRS AGO in this country there were two types of people; Settlers & Pioneers. Settlers liked to live around where things were established and let others run things for them. They had no desire to reach out beyond their own little world. Pioneers were always looking to get into new areas, imagining what the horizons might hold, willing to trust their lives to a great adventure. Paul was a Pioneer cut out ofthe mold of Lewis & Clark. Some of you have settled into very predictable religious motions but if God awakens within you a pioneer spirit will to trust Him as you never have before then the impact your life can have will be beyond imagination.
* I don’t think Paul knew he was changing the world for the rest of history. He just knew that God had a plan for his life, his eyes were on God and that Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit was working in His life. The rest became history.
GIVEN HIM HOPE FOR THE COMING YEARS
* Paul moves into a description of his past ministry and his plans for the future. He had fallen in love with serving God and desired to accomplish more and more for the gospel.
Paul’s Damascus road salvation experience was
substantiated by the evidence of his life. Has your life proven your confession as an child? teenager? adult?
* If I have been truly converted then I believe it will be made evident by it’s effect in three areas of a person’s life.
1. THE AREA OF PERSONAL CONDUCT 15:22-25
a. Our conduct concerning PERSONAL INTERRUPTIONS
(22) For this reason I have often been prevented from coming to you; (23 But now, with no further place for me in these regions,
1) What Paul had on his heart God had yet to put on His calendar. Paul was often prevented from coming. 15:23 ‘for many years longing to come’. Closed doors do not always indicate God’s rejection of a direction. Answers to prayer are yes - no - WAIT.
2) Paul amazing statement: no further place for me in these regions. His ministry efforts had been so effective that there were no places he had touched.
a) Paul would go to large population areas, start a church, bring it along until leaders could be established, and then move to the next place. Years past by and God’s work covered the entire area.
b. Our conduct concerning PERSONAL INTERESTS (23)
and since I have had for many years a longing to come to you (24 ) whenever I go to Spain - for I hope to see you in passing, and to be helped on my way there by you, when I have first enjoyed your company for a while - (25) but now I am going to Jerusalem serving
the saints.
1) Paul’s interests reflected the heart of God. longing to come to you.......go to Spain.....see you in passing....enjoyed your company....going to Jerusalem...serving the saints. God spoke to his heart and Paul latched onto God’s will with a passion to carry it out. Paul had so many fires burning in his heart.
a) JERUSALEM to ROME to SPAIN. Trip of 800
miles followed by a trip of 1500 miles followed by a trip of 700 miles making a minimum of 3000 miles.
b) Paul had no real destination but only refueling stations: see you in passing.....on my way there. God is not done with you until God is done with you. How will your know when that happens: when you are 6 feet down you’re done.
2. THE AREA OF PRACTICAL CONCERNS 15:26-29
a. Concern that our LIVES LIVE THE GOSPEL (26) For
Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. (27) Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have
shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things. (28) Therefore, when I have finished this, and have put my seal on this fruit of theirs, I will go on by way of you to Spain.
1) Paul helped others live obedient lives. He had led the Gentile churches in taking up a collection for the poor in Jerusalem.
a) The Jews had persecuted believers in Jerusalem since the very beginning of the church. Acts describes how believers sold property to help each other.
b) Paul said there were two reason why they were doing this.
(1) Desire to do so: pleased to do so
(2) Debt to do so: indebted to minister to them
The spiritual riches the Gentiles possessed came to them because of the Jews: The Word of God, the Messiah, the ministries of Jewish men like Paul, Barnabas & Silas.
SPECIAL OFFERINGS to pay our church debt but every time we take an offering we pay a debt. You should desire to give but you should also realize that we owe a debt when we give. You are a debtor to those who lived before you as Christians, to those whom God used to preserve this Book, to the Apostles who are the foundation of our faith, to Jesus Christ Who gave His life for you and me. Do we pay that debt by never sharing our faith, yawing through a church service,
tipping God when the offering is passed. Paul was concerned and we should be concerned that our LIVES LIVE OUT THE GOSPEL.
2) Paul wanted his own life to be an example: when I have finished...put my seal on this....I will go on. Important to realize that OUR PRIORITIES ARE WHO WE ARE!
SPURGEON was once invited by a wealthy man to come down and preach in a country church in order to help them raise funds to pay a debt. The man told Spurgeon he was free to use his country house, his town house, or his seaside home. Spurgeon wrote back and
declined coming and said, ‘Sell one of your homes and pay the debt yourself’.
2) Paul wanted his own life to be an example: when I have finished...put my seal on this....I will go on. Important to realize that OUR PRIORITIES ARE WHO WE ARE!
b. Concern that our LIPS PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL (29) I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.
1) Paul desired to come to them that God might use him to proclaim to them the fulness of the blessing of Christ. Fill in any areas where they needed to grow. Never allow us to settle into just being farther along than someone else but always working on the weak areas of our faith until we can
use the word fulness to describe our walk with God.
3. THE AREA OF PRAYERFUL COMMUNION 15:30-33
a. Prayer effect the WORK OF THE CHURCH (30) Now I
urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, (31) that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea, and
that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints;
1) Paul gives us an insight into what makes ministry successful. Strive together in God’s work. They couldn’t go to Jerusalem with him physically but the power of their prayers could make his work effective.
a) Literally refers to an athlete giving his best. Not half-hearted efforts but diligent, consistent, continual prayer. Paul said we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against... Prayer is the most demanding effort of the Christian life but the most effective work we can do.
FOOTBALL in the last decade has made the discovery that a position once taken for granted is one of the most important in the team. Salaries have risen and they are drafted in higher rounds. Offensive linemen. To watch a highlight is to see a QB throw, a receiver catch,a back score and rarely you focus on the lineman. But w/o his workthe highlight won’t happen. W/o prayer blessing won’t happen in our midst. Prayer puts the desires in our heart for the work of God and the power in our lives to accomplish it.
b. Prayer enhances the WILL OF GOD (32) so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company. (33) Now the God of peace be with you all. AMEN
1) Paul did not hesitate to put himself on as many prayer lists as possible. He knew he was stepping out for God in difficult situations. Prayer would put joy in the journey and rest in the fellowship.
a) Many Christians are totally oblivious to the fact that prayer makes the devil’s work ineffective. When we see strife and discord, envy or disunity, struggle with worldly issues we need to drop to our knees and plead for God to destroy the work of the enemy and to pluck from our hearts the thoughts and attitudes planted there. A God Who created our hearts can soften them.
b) If I were Paul: pray for my eyes, pray for my health. Paul prayed that his ministry might change lives and that God might allow him more opportunies for the gospel.
THREE YRS LATER: The Book of Acts will close. Between then and this writing Paul will have experienced an attack from Jews, two trials, time in prison, shipwreck, poisonous snake, and arriving in Rome in chains. There he would be met by a delegation of Christians in a place called Three Taverns and there they would share their joy and
refreshment together.
OLD HYMN SAY: It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.
* Today we have taken a personal look at a powerful life but reasons God used Paul are simple principles involved in living an effective Christian life. Can I do it? Can my life or your life be so used of God? Paul thought so. He said in 1 Cor 4:16, ‘Be imitators of me’. Live by God’s grace. Grace will give you:
A heart for the Church
Humility in your call
Hope for the coming years.
