Rom 15:14-16:27
The King of Syria was having trouble in his war with Israel. Every time he set up an ambush, Elisha, the prophet, would warn the king of Israel. So the King of Syria decided to send an army to capture Elisha to put an end to this nuisance. The army arrived at Dothan where Elisha lived and surrounded it during the night. The next morning Elisha’s servant looks out the gate of the city and sees this great army surrounding them. He calls Elisha and asks him what they should do. Elisha looks out and says "Don’t worry. There’s more on our side than on theirs." Now the servant knows that this is just a small town, with a few guards perhaps, but certainly not an army that can oppose the Syrians. So he isn’t convinced by what Elisha has said. Then Elisha prays that God would open the servant’s eyes.
God opens his eyes and suddenly he can see the mountain around them full of horses and chariots of fire come to protect Elisha. God then strikes the Syrians blind and Elisha leads them off to Samaria to the King. Elisha was the sort of guy you didn’t mess with, because God was with him working miracles through him, protecting him. With God on his side he was a one man army. But it isn’t always like that. Sometimes God works alone or through one individual, but more often he works through those who serve him.
So when Joshua led the people of Israel into the promised land, God worked at times miraculously, but mostly through the hard work and effort of the army of Israel. When the Temple had to be built, it was the workmen who laboured to raise the timbers and stones that got it done. It was the people who gave money and goods who provided the timber and stone and the internal decorations and fittings.
When Jesus came he chose 12 men to become his disciples, to work with him and to be sent out after he left to continue his work.
So we get this interesting picture in the Scriptures, of God the all powerful creator, who creates the world out of nothing, yet who chooses to use people in his service.
That’s the picture we find here in these last couple of chapters of Romans as Paul speaks about his mission to the Gentiles. Here we see both aspects of God at work. First working through an individual to do great works of power as the gospel is proclaimed but then we see how Paul’s mission is actually that of a missionary society.
A Ministry of an individual
First he reminds them that the reason he’s written in such detail and with such force is that God has given him the grace to have a particular ministry to the Gentiles. He’s confident about them, that they’re full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another, because he knows that God has been at work among them. So he feels he can boast about the work he’s done among them, not because he’s done anything worthy of praise, but because Christ has been working through him. Look at v18 & 19: "For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to win obedience from the Gentiles, by word and deed, 19by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and as far around as Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the good news of Christ."
The results he’s achieved have come about through the power of God, through the Holy Spirit working in him through both word and deeds to win obedience from the Gentiles to the gospel of God. And God’s power at work within him has been so great that the whole section of the world that he’s been working in has been touched by the gospel. He says the gospel of Christ has been proclaimed in an arc from Jerusalem to Illyricum.
I guess you’ve all heard the expression, ’the four corners of the earth’. Well, in Paul’s day that was a bit easier to define than it is today. In those days the earth was the Mediterranean and the lands around it. Mediterranean literally means middle earth. So the world could be divided into 4 quarters. Paul has literally seen the gospel spread across one of those quarters, in an arc from Jerusalem to Illyricum. His method was a simple but strategic one. He’d concentrate at each stage on a new area where the gospel hadn’t yet been proclaimed. He’d go to places that were geographically strategic; to major cities that were crossroads of trade, to Syrian Antioch, Pisidian Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Philippi. And as a result, the gospel had spread. And, as we’ll see in a moment, he appointed others to share his work of proclaiming the gospel and building up the church.
But now he finds that there are no more places in this quarter of the world to go, so he’s beginning to look further afield to the next part of the world. Now he’s looking towards Spain, as the centre for a new outreach to the north western quarter of the Empire. And the good thing about that is that, at last, he’ll be able to visit them in person. You may remember that in the first chapter he told them that he’d been longing to visit them for many years, but each time had been prevented from getting there. Well, now it looks like he might make it. Once he’s carried out one last duty. Little did he know that carrying out that duty would lead to him travelling to Rome at the Emperor’s expense. But that’s another story for another day.
In the meantime, his current plan entails a last visit to Jerusalem with a gift that he’s been entrusted with by the Churches of Macedonia and Achaia.
A Ministry Supported by Many
I want you to notice 2 things here. First, the ministry that Paul carries out isn’t just the preaching of the gospel in words. It isn’t just about people’s minds. It’s also a practical ministry of sharing. One of the burdens of his ministry was to care for the Jewish Christians who were still living in Jerusalem. These included those who first responded to the gospel by selling all that they had to give to the poor. They were the people who bore the brunt of Jewish persecution; who probably had their livelihoods taken away from them, either by being fired, or by townspeople refusing to deal with them. And on top of that they were in the middle of a famine, so food would have been more expensive than ever and the poor would have been the hardest hit.
So Paul had decided to take up a collection from among the Gentiles who had benefited spiritually from his preaching. That way those who had benefited spiritually could help others materially and in that way repay some of their debt of gratitude to God.
I wonder whether you’ve ever thought about the way you’ve benefited from the preaching of the gospel. I wonder how often we think about the price that some people have paid so we can be part of the people of God. I think those of us, particularly, who have been raised in the church tend to take for granted the fact that we heard the gospel as children or teenagers, or the fact that over the years we’ve been nurtured and fed and cared for by ministers and churches. I’ve talked to various people about this from time to time and its amazing how many people think that the Church is supported by the government or that Vicars are paid for by the Diocese. It never crosses their mind that the ministry we do is wholly supported by those of us who give our money, not to mention our time, to the work of God.
So this is a timely reminder to us, to be generous with our support for God’s work, as we begin a new financial year with new items in our budget that have to be paid for if we’re to do our ministry well.
The second thing to notice here is that as Paul prepares for his visit to Jerusalem it’s not without some misgivings. He knows that he’s walking into the lion’s den. He knows that all the opposition he’s been facing in Asia and Macedonia and Greece is nothing compared to the danger he faces in Jerusalem itself. And he fears that there might even be some opposition from within the church itself, from those who are still not quite sure about this mission to the Gentiles. So he asks them to support him, not just by giving, but by prayer. He says: "30I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in earnest prayer to God on my behalf, 31that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my ministry to Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company."
In the Christian Church there should be no such thing as a solo ministry. Every minister in the church relies on the earnest prayers of his or her brothers and sisters that they might be protected from opposition and that their ministry might be acceptable to those among whom they minister; that their words might bear fruit. When you pray for me, or for Mick, or for the Wardens or for our pastoral care team, or our Sunday School Teachers, whoever it is, you’re actually joining them in their ministry. In fact you’re an indispensable part of their ministry. So take seriously the need to pray regularly for those who minister among us, or on our behalf elsewhere.
A Ministry Shared with Many
Finally I want you to notice how Paul’s ministry is one that’s shared with many others. I think we sometimes think of Paul as the ultimate solo missionary. He’s the great Apostle, travelling off to the far ends of the earth, facing unknown dangers, writing countless letters to Churches he’s left behind. And we build up this picture which is actually highly inaccurate. We think of Paul the missionary, when in reality it was more a case of the Mission Society of St Paul. Just glance through ch 16 again. What do you notice about this final chapter of Romans? Does it strike you as interesting that there are so many people that Paul can list as he commends people to the Church at Rome? I think I counted 34. 34 people or groups that Paul identifies as being fellow workers with him, as being part of his team of spreading the gospel and building up the church. And that’s just the ones that the Romans are likely to come across.
And notice, too, that the people he mentions who are fellow workers in the gospel, even those who are fellow apostles, include a good number of women: Phoebe, who was probably the bearer of this letter, Prisca, who is always mentioned before her husband, Aquilla, Mary, Junia, who’s listed among the apostles, Tryphaena and Tryphosa, Persis, Rufus’ mother, Julia, Nereus’ sister, Olympas. Those people who accuse Paul of being anti-women in ministry have obviously not studied sections of his writings like this one. Rather, he affirms the importance of their ministry in the best way possible, but listing them with all the others who have shared his ministry in the gospel.
But that’s really just an aside. The important thing to take away from this list is just how much Paul’s ministry depended for its fruitfulness on the work of others. Without doubt, the success of his mission depended on the power of God and of the Holy Spirit, but equally it depended on willing co-workers. Equally it was a ministry that belonged to a host of people serving God together.
So what does that say to you? What should we take home from reading this? I hope it says to you that the ministry we do as a church is just as much a team ministry as was that of Paul. The work we do here as a Church depends not just on the power of God. It depends not just on my efforts to preach and teach, to care for people, or to think abut where we’re going as a church. It depends not just on those who are appointed to particular tasks. It equally depends on the degree to which each of you contributes to its success. Ours is a team ministry where every member of the team has a part to play, and where what we achieve will be greatly determined by how much each of us contributes, whether by giving of time, by praying or by financially supporting others who can work on our behalf.
So let’s pray that God will strengthen each one of us for the task of sharing the gospel so that many might come to know Jesus Christ and his grace and mercy through our ministry.
"25Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to [the] gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages 26but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith-- 27to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen."
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