Romans: Theology for Everybody (12-16)Muestra

When I was in high school, a friend of mine’s dad had a lake house. My friend kept a small sailboat there and he had mastered the art of sailing. In one hand, he would hold the sail, and in the other, he would hold the rudder. I watched in amazement as he was able to captain both perfectly and simultaneously as we cut through the water having a fun day out on the lake.

Everything changed, however, when he prodded me to try to do the job myself. I tried. We are lucky we lived. I could not get the hang of coordinating the sail and the rudder simultaneously. When I got the sail right, I got the rudder wrong, and we got flung in circles. When I got the rudder right, I got the sail wrong, and we were poised to go in the right direction but dead in the water without any power. As he nears the end of his letter to the Romans, Paul is telling a church he did not establish and has not yet visited about his ministry.

In Romans 15:14-21, he told us about the power of the Holy Spirit, which is the sail of his ministry. In Romans 15:22-33, he tells us about his ministry plan, which is the rudder of his ministry. Paul’s example is model ministry, explaining his incredible success, and is one all churches and ministries should follow. For starters, the ministry plan throughout Paul’s life was urban-centered. A reading of the history book of early Christianity, Acts, reveals Christianity began as an urban movement led by Paul, whose itinerant church planting ministry was almost exclusively urban, as he moved from city to city and bypassed the rural areas. Historians like Rodney Stark and Wayne Meeks say that, by 300 AD, upwards of half of the people living in major Roman cities were Christian, while more than 90 percent of those living in the countryside were still pagan. Curiously, our word “pagan” likely came from the Greek word paganus which meant “someone who lives on the farm” as most of the Christians lived in cities and most pagans lived on farms. Indeed, God’s people should bring the gospel to any place that there are people as God loves all people. But, since there are more people in the city it also makes sense that bringing the gospel to cities would be a priority. One of the reasons Christians in our day are to love the city as they await the unveiling of Jesus’ city is because the city is the most strategic place for Christians and the gospel. If culture is like a river, then cities are upstream creating culture that then flows downstream to the masses. Because government, law, education, healthcare, information, media, arts, sports, entertainment, trade, travel, population and industry are concentrated most in a city, cities are the fountains from which culture flows. Therefore, the flight of Christians away from cities, to only then complain about the kind of culture that is flowing into the culture from the cities, is both foolish and hypocritical. The answer is for Christians to love the city, move to the city, pray for the city, and serve the city. Having established the gospel in Christian churches throughout the eastern provinces of the vast Roman Empire, his plan was to seek to do the same in the western province, starting in Spain. The purpose of his letter to the church in Rome was to invite them to support his ministry with prayer, leadership, and financing. If you have ever received a fundraising letter asking you to support someone on a mission trip, then you understand the big purpose of Paul’s letter to the Romans–yes, it is the most  incredible mission trip fundraising letter ever written!

Questions: 

1. Paul was writing the letter to the church in Rome to solicit their support in work, prayer, and funding. Where is God calling you to do the same? What exactly will this look like?

2. Paul knows that he will face incredible resistance and difficult odds to keep preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, so he asks the people to be praying for him. Who is preaching the gospel that you can be praying for and how can you encourage them this week?