Paul, Our Pattern Of A Real Christian
Romans 1:1 Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God
Attention: What would you say if you met a man who said he was a doctor and you scheduled an appointment with him to give you a checkup and you went to his office, but it wasn’t an office, it was a living room and he pulled out his stethoscope to check your heart but it wasn’t a stethoscope it was a cup, and he weighed you but it wasn’t a professional scale it was a little white square on you keep in your bathroom. And what would say if at the end of the checkup he said, “Looks good. That will be $60.”
I would say, “Man, get lost you aren’t a doctor.”
It takes something to be a doctor. You have to go to school. It helps if you have the right equipment. Saying you are a doctor doesn’t make you a doctor, right?
We know that, but do we know that just saying you are Christian doesn’t make you a Christian?
Need: In Cincinnati I have met a lot of people who have thought that. They think that just because they tell me they are a Christian, then that means that they are one.
Bridging Sentence: If saying you are a Christian doesn’t make you a Christian than what does?
Turn to Romans 1:1
Paul in Romans 1:1 explains to the Romans who he is as a Christian and as he is explaining who he is he tells us what it means to be a real Christian.
Textual Idea: Paul’s introduces himself as a slave of Christ who is called to special service.
Sermon Idea: A real Christian is a submissive slave called to special service.
Interrogative: What is meant by a submissive slave called to special service?
Sermon Division 1: A real Christian is a submissive slave.
Explanation: The word “servant” is used in the KJV Bible. The word “bond-servant” is used in the NIV Bible. Paul, however, wasn’t talking of a paid position when he said he was the “douloj” of Jesus Christ. That Greek word “douloj” means slave. Paul said that he was the slave of Jesus Christ.
Notice that I said ‘submissive slave’. The reason that I said ‘submissive slave’ is because Paul had a choice of whether or not he would be Christ’s slave. Christ did not force Paul to be his slave. Paul made a decision to be Christ’s slave. He was a slave of Christ because he wanted to be a slave of Christ.
Illustration: Now we think of being a slave as a horrible thing. And we think that it is horrible because it is horrible. It is horrible for a human being to be forced to give up the rights that God gave to him because other man wants to use him. That is despicable. Tomorrow we are going to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Do you know why we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. day? We do because Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who fought for the equal rights of every man. That is a wonderful thing to fight for because it is horrible for a human being to be forced to give up the rights that God gave him.
Argumentation: But just as one of the most horrible things is for a man to be forced to give up his rights, one of the most beautiful things is when a man or woman willingly give up their rights to another person because of their love for them.
Illustration: In the Old Testament it talks about these men who willingly gave up rights. God said to the Israelites, “You can have slaves, but there are the stipulations.” One the person becoming the slave must be in agreement. This would happen if people got into too much financial debt. They would go to someone and say, “If you pay off my debt I will be your slave.”
That was the first stipulation. The second stipulation was that a person couldn’t be kept as a slave for more than seven years. So, at the end of seven years the person was free. But this is where what we are talking about comes in. Sometimes the person that was the slave would say, “I don’t want to go free. My master is good to me. I love him. I want to be his slave for life.” In that case they would take the man out to the gatepost and use a nail to punch a hole in his ear. That meant that he was a slave for life. He gave up his rights for his life to the man to whom he was a slave. But he did it because he trusted this man, he loved this man, and he loved the life that came from serving this man.
We don’t see a lot of that today. Maybe the closest example we have in America is marriage where a man and a woman give themselves to each other and pledge to be faithful to the other no matter what happens. That is a wonderful picture.
It is horrible for a man to be forced to give up his rights but when a man willingly gives up his rights that is beautiful and touching.
Application: A real Christian is a submissive slave. Real Christians have given up their rights and they obey Christ. Does that shock you for me to say it? If not listen again and be shocked. I said real Christians obey Christ. To obey Christ means that I am not disobeying Christ. We know that sin is disobedience to Christ. Did you know that you cannot keep on sinning and keep on obeying Christ at the same time?
That means that if there is a sin in my life that I do not stop I am not a Christian. Real Christians stop sinning. In fact in Romans 6 Paul says:
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey-- whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Notice what these verses say. Look at verse 15. He asks the Christians, “Should we sin?” His answer is very strong. By no means! Or Not at all!
Look at verse 16. He says you are slaves to whom you obey. If you sin you will die, but if you are obedient you will be righteous.
Look at verse 17 Paul says, Thank God! You aren’t slaves to sin anymore, you are obeying what we taught you.
Skip down to verse 22. Paul says you are free from sin. In other words you have stopped sinning. You have become slaves to God.
Verse 23 is the clincher, though. We often quote this to the non-Christians, but do you realize Paul is talking to Christians here when he says the wages of sin is death. Do you realize he is telling them that if they continue to sin they will die?
A real Christian is a submissive slave.
Real Christians stop sinning.
Real Christians are submissive slaves, but a real Christian is more than that.
A real Christian is a submissive slave called to special service.
Sermon Division 2: A real Christian is called to special service
Explanation: Paul said I have been called to be an apostle. Does anyone know what an apostle is? I didn’t think you would. I didn’t really know myself. An apostle is a person who is carrying out a special mission or message for someone else. Paul was saying God has given to me a mission and a message that I must carry out. His mission is that last little phrase in verse 1.
In that little phrase he says I have been picked out to tell people of God’s good news. Gospel means good news. When Paul became a Christian he was given a purpose by God. God revealed to him that he had a mission that he must accomplish as a Christian. That is why I say that a real Christian is called to special service. Real Christians don’t just go to church. They don’t just go about doing their own little thing. People who are real Christians are doing real things for God.
Illustration: Many times I have heard pastors speak on 1 Corinthians 12 and they talk about the body of Christ. Has anyone heard a pastor speak on 1 Corinthians 12 about the body of Christ? I you have maybe it was something like this. Friends, In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul says that we are a body. And just as a body has many different parts so does the church. God has called one person to preach and another to teach and one to sing and one to clean the bathrooms. That sounds great, but it always raised a question in my mind.
It seemed like Paul was talking about gifts here and I could understand a gift to preach, and a gift to sing and a gift to teach, but did God really call and gift people to clean bathrooms? That just never clicked. I mean anyone can clean a bathroom. It seemed to me like there were some people that had no gifts and they were the ones that had to clean the bathroom.
Argumentation: Paul cleared up this confusion in my mind when he says in that final phrase of verse 1 “separated to the gospel of God’. He says my call was not to clean bathrooms, or to preach or to teach. He said I am called to the gospel of Christ. Each of us has a mission to ministry. We have a mission to deliver the God’s good news to other people. Every Christian is called to deliver the gospel to other people.
Application: We need people who will seriously take the mission that God has given to Christians to deliver his good news to other people. I realized that here at our Chapel, we need to provide more opportunities for you to do that. So, can I make a commitment to you and say with the help of God that is going to change? And I want everyone here who calls themselves a Christian make a commitment to be involved actively in the spreading of God’s good news to other people. It has to be that way or we can’t call ourselves Christians. A real Christian is called to special service for God.
Conclusion: Maybe today you have agreed with everything that was said or at least most of it. And in your heart you say to yourself, ‘I would like to be a real Christian, but I am too bad of a sinner. I just can’t get it all right in my life’.
That is not a valid excuse. There have been worse people than you who have become real Christians.
In fact in 1 Timothy 1:16 it says that God picked the worst sinner he could find, Paul, a man who hated Christ and killed Christians and he saved him to prove to us that no matter who you are or what you have done you can be a real Christian.
