Romans 15:14-24 – The Mission of Paul

Topic: The Mission of Paul

Reading: Romans 15:14-24

14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brethren, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. 15 But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17 In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. 18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has wrought through me to win obedience from the Gentiles, by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that from Jerusalem and as far round as Illyr’icum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ, 20 thus making it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on another man’s foundation, 21 but as it is written, “They shall see who have never been told of him, and they shall understand who have never heard of him.” 22 This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. 23 But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, 24 I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be sped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a little.

Introduction and Overview

Paul was charged with a mission by God. The mission of Paul was to preach the gospel to the unsaved in the far reaches of the known world during his time. He was chosen to establish the church among the Gentile nations and he became the apostle to the Gentiles, just as Peter was the apostle to the Jews.

We gain some interesting insights into the mission of Paul in these words today. And we see how he was pleased in the outcomes of his work in the service of the Lord. His pride in the work was not about what he did himself, but that those to whom he brought the word were growing and learning in the Lord and that they were being taught the truth through the Holy Spirit. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3

5 What then is Apol’los? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apol’los watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. (1 Corinthians 3:5-7)

Paul shows in these words that his blessing and pride was in the fact the God was giving the growth in the people and the church through the work of himself and Apollos. In all things, Paul glorified God in his mission and gave thanks to God for the blessing He gave to those to whom the word came.

Key points from reading:

1. God was at work in the churches that Paul established and Paul was thankful for the growth and maturity those churches in the word of the Lord.
2. Paul continued to magnify his work for God to reach people all over the known world, and his words still resonate down to today.
3. Paul was gladdened by being together with the believers in the different churches and he was much encouraged by their fellowship, friendship, love, and worship of the Lord.

Discussion:

1. Scripture: Romans 15:14
   • In this first verse we see that Paul is pleased with the church in Rome because they are learning and growing. They are increasing in knowledge, faith and the love of God as they grow in the words of Jesus.
   • It is worth noting also that there can be no doubt that the Lord was working in the church. He has certainly manifested the gifts of ministry in the church as is evidenced by Paul’s words. When he said they are, “…filled with all knowledge, able to instruct one another,” this can only be through the operation of the gifts of ministry. Those gifts are mentioned in Ephesians 4 where it says Jesus would give gifts to men. The gifts of ministry were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and some would be teachers.
   • All of these ministry gifts are necessary for the building up of the church so that they can learn and grow. And give the words of Paul to the Romans it is evident that these gifts were working. Note also that Paul was not the pastor of the church as some churches today have pastors. The pastoral work and the teaching work were being done within the church itself.
2. Scripture: Romans 15:15-16
   • As mentioned, Paul was not the pastor of the church, but he did exercise some oversight of the church. The Romans needed guidance from time to time to address different concerns, and it is in those matters Paul wrote and corrected them. We see this same approach of correction and encouragement in all of his letters to the churches and individuals.
   • Paul was an apostle specifically chosen by God to go to the Gentile nations. His ministry was quite different to the ministry of the original twelve disciples, and especially Peter and John. They were ministering to the children of Israel and especially the Jews. In their ministries, those to whom they spoke already had knowledge of the one true God since they worshipped God for the most part under Judaism.
   • But Paul moved among the Gentiles who were often idol worshippers. They worshipped false gods and gave glory to some who were not gods. We see this in a number of his letters where he speaks of the idolatry of the peoples. In Ephesus the locals worshipped Artemis, and in Athens we saw Paul use the idol to an unknown god as a mechanism to open up people to Jesus Christ and teach them about what should be known.
   • So, Paul’s ministry was much different to the other apostles. He was having to start his work with people who knew nothing about the one true God. He had to break through barriers and teach the first principles of Christianity. And it would have been a struggle because we saw in a number of his letters that the people would regress to their former ways or would begin to follow parts of Judaism, which did not help in Christianity. The letter to the Galatians is a prime example where people were turning to follow the law through the false teachings of some, and Paul showed clearly in Galatians 5 that if you follow the law, even though the law is good, you are cut off from the grace of God and separated from Christ.
3. Scripture: Romans 15:17-22
   • Paul shows his pride in the work the Lord had given him to achieve. He is thankful that God has worked through him to win the obedience of the Gentiles and that he is seeing them grow in the word.
   • We too today can be thankful for the work Paul did. Because he had to start from the very first principles of Christianity to preach and teach the Gentile churches, he also wrote down these instructions. The letter to the Romans is one of the greatest of the scriptures because it lays out in a clear and concise way, the plan of Christianity. It defines the journey we all walk as Christians to come from the ways of sin in this world, and to reach maturity in the love of God and the image of Jesus Christ. For anyone looking to work out the path, a solid reading and understanding of the book of Romans is the best place to start.
   • And this work for them and also for us is enhanced by the way Paul tackled the apostolic work for which he was chosen by God. He says in these words that it was his work to reach new peoples. He was not a preacher to those who already knew or had heard the gospel, but he was sent to open up the word to those who had never heard of Jesus.
   • Because of this he encountered many peoples and churches who would struggle as they left the paths of idolatry and paganism. As they came to Christ they needed instruction and direction in the ways of the Lord. But because Paul could not be in all places at the same time, we have his letters, collected together in the New Testament, so that we too can learn the depths of the New Covenant still today.
4. Scripture: Romans 15:23-24
   • Paul was a traveller. In these last few words we see he was looking forward to travelling to other parts of the known world to continue his work and to spread the gospel even further. He was looking to move forward into Spain to preach the word. Whether he ever got there or not is not mentioned in the scripture, but it is quite likely he did.
   • It was because he travelled that he had to keep his letter writing going to instruct and guide as news came to him from trusted friends and members of the churches. He did not pastor or work with any one particular church. He was the apostle who set up and established churches, spreading the word throughout the world. And he did not do this alone as there were a retinue of others who went with him or followed after to emphasise the fullness of the truth. Consider the scripture in 1 Corinthians 3 above where we see him refer to Apollos who “watered” the churches after Paul had planted the seeds. Apollos was a powerful teacher of the word. Likewise, Timothy was an evangelist who worked with Paul and the churches to grow them. Titus also followed Paul and worked with him, and in the letter to Titus we see he was charged with ensuring certain churches were set up correctly.
   • The ministry was shared and everyone had roles to play and work to do. That is how the church ought to operate. Today many churches have pastors, priests or ministers upon whom the vast bulk of the work falls. But it is too much. The work needs to be shared among the people so that no one is overwhelmed. The way many churches run today, pastors and preacher become burnt out because their congregations expect too much. And the pastors are taught in their Bible schools to do everything. This is not the way churches are to be set up. The ministry belongs to all in the church and they all need to do their part.
   • It is because the churches operated in a correct manner after Paul established them that he was able to continue his journey to other places and spread the gospel. And it was to our benefit that he did because had he stayed in just one place, all of the letters would not have been written that still advise and instruct Christians today.

Prayer Points

1. Pray and thank God that he saw fit to have his servants do the work they did so that these letters that became the New Testament would be written for our instruction.
2. Pray also and ask God to teach you so that the insights, knowledge, and wisdom contained in these God-inspired words can be yours too.