‘A minister of Christ Jesus’

[Romans 15:14-22]

Today, as we celebrated the first Sunday after the 30th anniversary service of Victory Presbyterian Church, I threw this question in front of the Lord.  What is the message that God is giving to our victory community?  Two things came to mind when I asked this question: (1) As I shared with you last week, it is to ‘be thankful’.  During the 30th anniversary revival meeting, God repeated the same message through the two guest speakers.  The message is that we are blessed as those who have already received the spiritual blessings of heaven in Jesus Christ.  And as blessed people, the responsibility we should do is to give thanks to God.  (2) The message that God gives to our Victory community is our church's vision, 'Raise leaders!'  We must devote ourselves to raising leaders with a Christ-centered vision.  The moment the Lord made this vision more and more certain in my heart was the graduation service held on the afternoon of June 27th last month and the scholarship service held last Sunday afternoon.  While holding those two services, I prayed especially for the young adults and youths of our Victory community whom I love.  In particular, while fellowshipping with senior pastors from Westminster Theological Seminary last Tuesday, I heard from one pastor that the lifespan of an immigrant church is 50 years.  As the church celebrated its 30th anniversary, we were reminded once again that what we need to do is to prepare for the next generation.  Then, how are we to raise leaders with a Christ-centered vision?  To do so, we must study the leaders with a Christ-centered vision in the Bible.  One of those leaders is apostle Paul.

Who is Paul, a leader with a Christ-centered vision?  To answer this question, we must look again at Romans 1:1, which we have already meditated on.  There, Paul writes a letter to the Roman saints and introduces himself in three ways: (1) “a servant of Jesus Christ”, (2) “an apostle”, (3) “set apart for the gospel of God”.  What is interesting is that Paul comes to the concluding part of Romans, Romans 15:14-33, and restates who he is.  In particular, in verse 16, Paul introduces himself to the Roman saints as “a minister of Christ Jesus.”  Focusing on this introduction of Paul, I want to think about who the minister of Christ Jesus really is.  I hope and pray that we will not only be raised up as ministers of Christ Jesus, but also devote ourselves to raising up our next generation brothers and sisters as ministers of Christ Jesus with a Christ-centered vision.

First, the ministers of Christ Jesus are those who, by the grace of God, remind us of the truth of God.

Look at Romans 15:15 – “I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me.”  As Paul writes to the saints in Rome, he comes to the conclusion (15:14-33) and says that he wrote boldly and roughly to remind them of the truths they already knew.  Although Paul was already convinced that the Roman saints were full of goodness and full of all knowledge, able to exhort one another (v. 14), the reason why he boldly wrote to them to remind them of the truth of God is that they could easily neglect or forget the truth they already knew (MacArthur).  Apostle Peter also tells the recipients of his letters why he writes two letters, 1 Peter and 2 Peter: “Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.  I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles” (2 Pet. 3:1-2).  The reason why Peter writes two letters to his letter recipients is to make them think (remember).  What were je trying to remember?  In a word, it is the word of God's truth.  This is what you and I, the ministers of Christ Jesus, must do.  That is, as we become brothers and sisters in Christ, accepting and loving each other, we must become people like Paul who remind us of the truths of God.  In order for us to be reminded of the truths of God, we must speak the truths of God boldly like Paul did.  Like the Roman church saints, we must become people who encourage one another in the knowledge of God's truth and in the full of goodness (v. 14).  How should we exhort it?  We must boldly exhort with the truths of God.  How is this possible?  This is possible only with the grace God has given us (v. 15).  In other words, the ministers of Christ Jesus know that they have become ministers of Christ Jesus by the grace of God, and by the grace of God, they exhort their brothers and sisters in the Lord.  He exhorts his brethren with the truth of God so that they may learn and abide in convictions (2 Tim. 3:14).  To do so, the ministers of Christ Jesus must be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus (2:1).

I am reminded of 1 Corinthians 15:10 – “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”  We must not use God's grace in vain.  We must not make God's grace cheap.  To do so, we must work harder and harder with the power of God's grace.  We know that we ourselves have become ministers of Christ Jesus by the grace of God, and by the grace of God we speak the truths of God boldly to our brothers and sisters.  As we exhort each other with God's truth, we must be people who remind us of God's truth.  Therefore, we must all be full of the knowledge of the truth of God.  Also, in the midst of such fullness of knowledge, we must be full of goodness, a beautiful Christian virtue.  In a word, we must be people who remind us of Jesus.

Second, the ministers of Christ Jesus are those who carry out the priestly duty of the gospel of God.

Look at Romans 15:16 – “to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”  Paul writes a letter to the saints in Rome, and here at the conclusion, he says that it is by the grace of God that he has become a minister of Christ Jesus.  In other words, he is saying that it was God's sheer grace that made him an apostle to the Gentiles.  And he also says that through this grace of God, God gave him the priesthood of the gospel of God.  Indeed, what is the priestly duty of the gospel of God that Paul is talking about here?  It refers to the sacred office of preaching the gospel of God.  In other words, Paul is telling the Roman saints that he is now fulfilling the sacred duty of preaching the gospel of God as a minister of Christ Jesus by God's grace.  That sacred duty is the ministry of reconciling God and man by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ (Park).  In other words, the purpose of Paul's priestly ministry of the gospel of God was to preach the gospel to the Gentiles so that they would be offered as a sacrifice worthy of God's acceptance.

What kind of offering is worthy of God's acceptance?  It is those who have received Jesus as their Savior through the gospel of Jesus Christ and have been born again and have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit.  Now, as an apostle to the Gentiles, Paul is telling the Roman church saints that it is his mission and duty to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, the priestly office of the gospel of God, to regenerate them, and to offer them up to God as a living sacrifice of the holy God.  That's why Paul said in Romans 12:1 – “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.”  Now this task has been given to you as well as to me.  Although we are not apostles to the Gentiles like Paul, we are sent by the Lord to all people in this world.  Therefore, we have the duty to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and present unbelievers as worthy to be accepted by God because of the work of regeneration and sanctification of the Holy Spirit.  We are responsible for fulfilling this duty faithfully.  I hope and pray that, like Paul, all of us faithfully fulfill the priestly duty of the gospel of God, so that “you whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown” (Phil. 4:1).

Third and last, the minsters of Christ Jesus are those who boast in the things pertaining to God in Christ Jesus.

Look at Romans 15:17-18: “Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God.  For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed.”  Writing to the Roman church saints, Paul boasts of the things pertaining to God in Christ Jesus after saying that he became a minister of Christ Jesus by God's grace and also received the priesthood of God's gospel by God's grace.  What is the things pertaining to God that Paul boasted about here?  It refers to God's revealed power and success in preaching the gospel.  In other words, Paul boasted in Christ Jesus that when he preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the truth of God, to the Roman saints, God displayed His supernatural power and the Holy Spirit led those who heard the gospel to repent and return to God.  In particular, he boasted of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ that appeared while fully preaching the gospel of Christ (v. 19) to Illyricum, which is about 1,000 miles in all directions from Jerusalem (MacArthur).  In a word, Paul boasted that the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of God, and the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ had been revealed to the Roman church saints.  He boasted to the Roman saints how, when he boldly proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ as an apostle to the Gentiles, the Holy Spirit showed his power and the Gentiles repented and returned to God.

Do you and I really have this kind of boasting?  Do we really have anything to boast about in the power of God revealed when we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to dying souls?  What should we do?  Like Paul, we must preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We must believe in the power of the gospel and preach it boldly.  While preaching, like Paul, we must strive to go to places where the gospel has not entered and preach the gospel (v. 20) (Park).  Our church should make preaching the gospel to unbelievers the main purpose (v. 21) (MacArthur).  We should boast in our Lord Jesus Christ.

At this point, after the 30th anniversary of Victory Presbyterian Church, we must think seriously while praying.  What should we pray for and think seriously about?  That is the vision of our church.  In other words, it is to build the leaders.  First, all of us must be raised up as leaders with a Christ-centered vision.  And all of our future generations must be raised up leaders with a Christ-centered vision.  In particular, in today's text Romans 15:14-21, we learned who the ministers of Christ Jesus are: (1) The ministers of Christ Jesus are those who, by the grace of God, remind us of the truth of God, (2) The ministers of Christ Jesus are those who carry out the priestly duty of the gospel of God, (3) The minsters of Christ Jesus are those who boast in the things pertaining to God in Christ Jesus.  I earnestly hope and pray that all of us will be blessed to be established as such ministers of Christ Jesus.