SEND THE LIGHT

Background Passage: ROMANS 15:14-33

Lesson Passage:ROMANS 15:14-20,22-25,28-32

BIBLICAL TRUTH: CHRISTIANS ARE TO PARTICIPATE IN AND SUPPORT ACTIVITIES THAT RESULT IN OTHER'S HEARING THE GOSPEL.

KEY BIBLE VERSE: ROMANS 15:23-24

My missions professor stopped to speak to me at lunch. “The International Mission Board needs a couple to serve this summer at our Baptist seminary in Lusaka, Zambia. They are looking for a teacher for some classes and someone to work in the library. Pray about it. You and Trish came to mind when I heard about their need,” he said. That brief conversation launched a series of events that changed our lives and our hearts for the world.

Within a month, my wife and I were on a flight that would take us to the heart of Africa, giving us the opportunity to meet some of the most precious Christians anywhere. I taught classes I didn't feel qualified to teach. Trish worked in the library, a job she had never done before. Yet we both realized that our love for the Zambian people and our willingness to give ourselves to them had much more impact than any class or cataloging of books. We spent many hours talking with individual students about how to return to their villages to plant churches, joining witness teams in downtown Lusaka, and encouraging believers in village churches on Sundays.

By the end of the summer, we knew that God had sent us to Zambia not to teach the Zambian believers, but for the Zambian believers to teach us. Our lives have not been the same since.

As a follower of Christ, you have a mission in the world—some special way you are shaped to join God in taking the gospel to every person in the world. You may have the opportunity to participate personally in a missions trip as Trish and I did. Thankfully, the number of short-term missions opportunities is growing as churches see the benefit of members participating in missions directly. If you are unable to go yourself, perhaps you can participate actively in supporting someone who can go—through prayer, e-mails of encouragement, and financial gifts. All Christians are called to join God in sending the light of Christ throughout the world.

BACKGROUND PASSAGE OVERVIEW

Paul viewed his ministry to the Gentiles as a priestly role. As priests served the Lord in the temple by preparing sacrifices for the worship of God, Paul saw himself as serving the Lord in his field of ministry by leading Gentiles to Christ and helping them grow spiritually. These Gentile believers became Paul's sacrifice of worship before God.

The mission that burned in Paul's heart was to preach the gospel where people had not yet heard about Jesus Christ. Paul's sights were set on Spain—his next gospel frontier. Since Rome was on the way, Paul planned to stop there to visit.

Before heading toward Spain, Paul had to complete a task first. Offerings had been collected from Gentile churches to help Jewish Christians experiencing economic persecution. These funds needed to be taken to Jerusalem. Paul asked the Romans to pray that the kindness of the Gentile churches would be received with grace rather than suspicion and that he would be safe from those who might want to harm him.

STUDY QUESTIONS 1.How did Paul describe his role in reaching the Gentiles? (15:16)
2.What was Paul's missions strategy? (15:20)
3.What kept Paul from traveling directly to Rome and then to Spain? (15:25)
4.Though Paul's visit to Jerusalem delayed his mission, why was it important for him to go to Jerusalem first? (15:29,32)
5.What did Paul ask the Roman Christians to do to help him? (15:30-31)

CARRY OUT MISSIONS ACTIVITIES (ROM. 15:14-19)

Romans 15 14 And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.
15 Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God,
16 That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.
17 I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God.
18 For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed,
19 Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

VERSE 14~ Paul commended the Roman believers for their goodness (the Christian love that motivated them toward selfless service for others), their knowledge (the quality and breadth of Christian instruction they had received), and their ability to instruct one another (instruct literally means “to put into someone's understanding”). To instruct means more than simply “to teach”; the word also means “to counsel” or “to warn” or “to admonish.”.

VERSES 15-16 ~ To remind you shows that Paul's Letter contained teaching that was not new to the Roman church. Yet Paul sought to refresh their memory on the foundational teachings of the Christian faith as part of his calling to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles.

The word minister is used to describe the priest of the Jewish temple who prepared the sacrifices and the temple as an act of worship. Thus, Paul viewed his preaching of the good news to the Gentiles as a priestly ministry not unlike the priest preparing offerings to God. Paul's offering was not the blood of animals, but rather believing Gentiles sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

VERSE 17 ~ The sacrificial offerings Paul brought to God were worthy of boasting, which Paul did. Yet Paul's boasting was not prideful; nor was it motivated by false humility. It was a sincere acknowledgment that his effectiveness in ministry clearly revealed the work of Christ within and through him. Regarding what pertains to God is a technical phrase referring to the functions of worship in a Jewish temple service.

VERSES 18-19 ~ Christ used Paul as an instrument to lead Gentiles to receive and obey the gospel. How? First, Christ used Paul's words when he preached, taught, and witnessed. Second, Christ used Paul's deeds. Every act of kindness, sacrifice, and service became ways in which Christ moved the hearts of the Gentiles. Third, Christ used the miraculous signs and wonders surrounding Paul's ministry as striking and memorable evidences of God's power, whether Paul was healing the crippled (Acts 14:8-10), casting out a demon (Acts 16:16-18), or restoring life to the dead (Acts 20:9-12).

Illyricum was a Roman province in the northwest part of Greece and on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Paul fulfilled his mission from Jerusalem all the way to the border of Illyricum. God calls every believer to join Him in His mission of reaching the lost. As God gave Paul a mission in the world, God gives you a mission in the world. As God worked through Paul as he fulfilled his mission, He will also work through you.

USE BROAD STRATEGY ( ROM. 15:20,22-24A)

20 Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation:
22 For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you.
23 But now having no more place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come unto you;
24 Whensoever I take my journey into Spain

VERSE 20 ~ The word aim speaks of Paul's God-focused ambition to fulfill his mission in terms of life focus and project implementation. Paul was not one just to talk about his call to serve God. He did not stop with dreams and plans. Rather, Paul focused His life day by day on the mission God had given to him. What was that mission? Paul's mission was to carry the good news of Jesus Christ to people groups who had never heard the gospel (where Christ has not been named). He defined his mission in terms of a broad strategy.

VERSES 22-24a ~ In the past, Paul's mission had kept him from traveling to Rome because there were provinces not yet evangelized. Now that the gospel was introduced to these regions, Paul was free to look beyond them toward Spain. Rome would be a refreshing stop on the way.

Notice that Paul's mission not only defined where he should focus his time and resources, but also where he should not. Though Paul had wanted to visit the Roman believers before, his mission prevented him from doing so. Focusing your life means having the discernment to know when to say no as well as when to say yes. Visiting Rome would not have been a bad thing for Paul to do earlier; however, it would not have been consistent with his mission.

ASSIST MISSIONARIES ( ROM. 15:24b-25)

24b I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat filled with your company.
25 But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints.

VERSES 24b-25 ~ Paul's visit to the Romans on the way to Spain would present him with an opportunity to share in the blessings of Christian fellowship. For a traveling missionary like Paul, such opportunities strengthened and refreshed him. Perhaps Paul saw an opportunity for the Roman believers to participate in his mission by sending him forth to Spain with their prayers, blessings, and financial support. The Ho9lman CSB omits “I will come to you” (KJV) because it follows a different Greek manuscript than does the KJV.

Before Paul went to Rome, however, he had to deliver a contribution given by the Gentile churches in Macedonia and Achaia. These Gentile believers, by giving financial gifts to the Jewish believers experiencing economic persecution in Jerusalem, entered into fellowship; with those in need. That is, the Gentile believers made the financial needs of the Jewish believers their own.

WORK WITHIN GOD'S WILL (ROM 15:28-29,32)

28 When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain.
29 And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.
32 That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed.

VERSES 28-29 ~ Though Paul wished to leave for Spain immediately, his responsibility to deliver the funds collected for the poor in Jerusalem delayed him. Paul's mission did not override his God-given responsibilities, even though they did not relate directly to his mission of preaching.

The principle for you today is that fulfilling your mission in a certain way may not be possible because of responsibilities you need to fulfill first. Your mission may be to teach English as a second language in a foreign country as a means of sharing Christ. However, if you have financial debt, your mission would not override your responsibility to those debts. Funds is literally “fruit,” emphasizing not just the money but the transformed hearts who gave it. Giving was an outward evidence of spiritual growth. A transformed heart is always a giving heart because the spirit of Christ is one of giving.

The KJV reads “the blessing of the gospel of Christ,” the Holman CSB the blessing of Christ; the variation in the translations is due to the use of different Greek manuscripts.

VERSE 32 ~ By God's will Paul sought to remain within the channel of God's will, whatever the cost. Some decisions were up to Paul, such as delivering the offering to Jerusalem before leaving for Spain. Other decisions were out of his hands, such as what the unbelievers would do with him once he arrived in Jerusalem. For the part that was up to him, Paul sought wisdom from God to make the right decision. For the part that was up to God, he exercised faith in the sovereignty of God.

PRAY FOR MISSIONARIES (ROM 15:30-31)

30 Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me;
31 That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints;

VERSES 30-31 ~ Implore could be translated “I beg of you.” Agonize is a sports term referring to the way a team of athletes works together to win. Paul asked the Roman believers to join him as prayer partners, fellow believers of the Lord Jesus Christ filled with the love produced by the Holy Spirit.

Paul knew what could happen to him in Jerusalem (Acts 20:22-23). He was in danger from unbelievers and from some Christian Jews who were suspicious of Paul and his gifts from Gentile churches. Paul had already declared his desire to preach the gospel in Rome (1:13). Their prayers for him would be investments in his ministry in Jerusalem and Rome.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

Jesus gave His followers a broad strategy for sending His light into a world of spiritual darkness. He told them to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). How does this broad strategy relate to you?

Your “Jerusalem” is your hometown. How can you help your church reach your community with the good news?

Your “Judea” is the larger metropolitan region or county where you live. What mission efforts can you join in to reach the larger region for Christ?

Your “Samaria” includes those living in your region who are not like you—ethnically or culturally. As the Jews despised the Samaritans, perhaps your Samaria includes those groups who are most despised—prisoners, addicts, those sick with AIDS, the homeless, or the hungry.

The “ends of the earth” is anyplace the gospel needs to be proclaimed. Millions of people in the world still have not heard about God's gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.

All believers have a mission, a way they can join God in reaching their Jerusalem, their Judea, their Samaria, and the rest of the world. How are you designed and shaped to join the harvest? What is your part?.