Romans 15:14-21
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Good morning everyone! I want to give you an update on the past couple of weeks, but while I’m doing that, if you’d like you can make your way in your bibles to . Of course, we’ll also have the bible passages on the screens as well.
First of all, I wanted to give you some news concerning the Biggers family. This past week while doing some different activities, Jeff began noticing some pain in his chest. Figuring he’d just overdone it swimming, he took it easy for a bit, but the pain was not in the typical place you’d feel pain from swimming or other activities. He and Areli went for a walk and the pain was persistent, and he was having trouble continuing walking, so they decided to go to the ER. It turns out, that Jeff is in great health, and while he did not have a heart attack, he had several arteries with blockages, including the left anterior descending artery. If you haven’t heart of that artery, it’s the left main artery and a blockage of that artery can be responsible for the window maker heart attack. The likelihood of surviving that heart attack is really low. We believe that God was watching over the Biggers and are thankful that they decided to go the the hospital, where Jeff underwent open-heart bypass surgery this past Friday. We’re happy to report that Jeff is recovering ahead of what all the statistics indicate, and last I heard he was watching his undefeated alma mater beat Iowa State yesterday.
Would you join me for a moment in thanking God for keeping Jeff safe and alive?
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In other news, many of you know that my family and I spend last weekend in Albuquerque, visiting our friends at the Vineyard Church of Albuquerque. Over the years, we’ve served one another in many ways, including ministry training, retreats, leading worship, and just holding each other up in prayer. Last weekend was a great time of getting to train and equip their worship leaders & teams, and get to lead with their team on Sunday. They have a beautiful church and it was wonderful to get to celebrate with them.
And, much to my delight, Lorien drove the entire way home, while I watched the Chiefs beat the Chargers.
Finally, I flew out with a friend to the Carolinas this past Wednesday to help a friend pack up his guitar shop and drive it back here to El Paso. We arrived to some great weather (other than if you’re not used to it, the humidity is quite intense!), and were able to get everything packed up by Thursday afternoon without any rain. As we drove out of town, the clouds and wind from Florence were beginning to roll in.
Hurricane Florence was downgraded from as high as a category 5 hurricane down to category 1 by the time it made landfall, which is a tremendous relief that we are all thankful for. However, still quite a powerful storm that is rather slow moving, it has dumped an enormous amount of rain in its path, causing massive flooding across the Carolinas, especially in coastal areas.
We’re very happy for our friends the Arreolas, who just two years ago had to deal with Hurricane Matthew. It turns out that this storm wasn’t nearly as damaging to their area, and power was able to be restored quickly. Unfortunately, we also have friends that just welcomed a little one on Friday, after fleeing inland to avoid the storm. They have a beautiful new baby girl, but their home in Wilmington just flooded this morning. And so, I’m sure you can imagine the joy mixed with grief they are experiencing.
Let’s pause for a moment and welcome the Lord.
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Let’s take a moment and lift up the Arreola family in South Carolina, the Appel family in North Carolina, as well as all those affected by Florence in prayer.
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And finally, we welcome you here, Lord. Come and speak to us today through your living Word. Amen.
14 I am fully convinced, my dear brothers and sisters, that you are full of goodness. You know these things so well you can teach each other all about them. 15 Even so, I have been bold enough to write about some of these points, knowing that all you need is this reminder. For by God’s grace, 16 I am a special messenger from Christ Jesus to you Gentiles. I bring you the Good News so that I might present you as an acceptable offering to God, made holy by the Holy Spirit. 17 So I have reason to be enthusiastic about all Christ Jesus has done through me in my service to God. 18 Yet I dare not boast about anything except what Christ has done through me, bringing the Gentiles to God by my message and by the way I worked among them. 19 They were convinced by the power of miraculous signs and wonders and by the power of God’s Spirit. In this way, I have fully presented the Good News of Christ from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum.
20 My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else. 21 I have been following the plan spoken of in the Scriptures, where it says,
“Those who have never been told about him will see,
and those who have never heard of him will understand.”
Here we are, after a journey of over 9 months (at least at UVV), finally arriving at the closing of Romans. We actually started Romans in January. What a ride, huh? And here, Paul is taking some time to be tactful. His intent in writing this letter to the Romans was not to beat them over the head, but to remind them of the truth that they already know.
The Roman church is largely made up of Gentiles, and if Paul has a particular mission that God has assigned for him to take up, it’s the brining of Gentiles into the Kingdom. Paul actually uses the word leitourgos to describe himself, which means minister, but with a priestly connotation. In other words what Paul is saying here, is that the offering he is presenting before the Lord, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, is the Gentiles. And rather than taking credit for the absolutely amazing job that Paul has done by giving his life to this mission, he points back to God - it’s all for God’s glory.
Paul has been a pioneer of preaching the gospel. If you think about the early North American pioneers, you can’t help but marvel at what they achieved - relatively recently. N.T. Wright talks about this experience when his family first moved to North America, being struck again and again and how they navigated uncharted rivers, climbed unnamed mountains, carved roads through dense forests, and traveled over diverse terrain for thousands of miles in wagon trains facing unforeseeable dangers, attempting to grow crops without knowing it the soil was right, enduring extreme temperatures, and relying on their wits and sheer brute strength to see them through. In this context, the very word ‘pioneer’ has a ring, and excitement, a sense of drama, and courageous accomplishment.
A big thing I want to note here is verse 19. What was it that convinced the Gentiles, from Jerusalem to Illyricum that the Good News was true? That’s right - signs & wonders of the Holy Spirit. One of the things that we’ve learned along the way is that it can often be difficult, if not impossible, to convince someone the gospel message is true. Many times, we find that the intellect can get in the way of faith, and it takes faith to believe the gospel message. However, we’ve also learned that the Holy Spirit trumps intellect every time. The intellect can’t make sense of signs & wonders, because of the very nature of faith.
We are a church that believes signs & wonders should accompany the ministry that we do. So we encourage the church (that’s us) to pray for the sick, give people words of knowledge, pray for supernatural provision for those is need, and live a lifestyle where we are constantly listening for what the Holy Spirit is saying in each encounter we have while living out our (extra)ordinary every day lives.
In other words, we don’t just seek power. We seek presence. We seek relationship.
As we close, here are some questions to ponder that we might gather from this passage:
Questions for reflection:
How is the Holy Spirit making you holy?
Are miraculous signs and wonders accompanying the work that you are participating in?
Where is the Father asking you to share the Good News?