We turn in our Bibles tonight to the book of Romans as we are continuing to work through this book. And again, everything that we confess in the Heidelberg is taken out of the book of Romans. Guilt, grace, and gratitude. And so they had it open and they looked at it and what a beautiful way to see that correlation and to understand what we believe and why we believe it. So tonight we're going to continue really the introduction of Romans verses 8 through 15. 8 through 15. I'm going to back up to verse 7 actually and we will read at verse 7. May we give our attention tonight to the Word of the Lord. Romans 1 beginning at verse 7. To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, It's grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I don't want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation, both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the Gospel to you also who are in Rome. May the Lord bless the hearing of His Word. Charles Bridges once said that the Christian ministry is the most difficult work to ever be involved with. He said it's linked to a daily cross and in it must be anticipated severe and overwhelming trial. I don't really like to hear that. Not something I like to think about a whole lot, but it is the reality. And if that is what happens in ministry, when you have this severe and overwhelming trial, which is really the context here for Paul when he's writing this, how do you keep your heart in it? How do you keep your head in it? How do you move forward? The discouragements are so real. And what do you do when the trials hit? I do know that the one thing that happens in times of hardship is that you lose perspective. You lose perspective as to the bigger picture, everything that's going on, and you get really focused on the things that are just in front of you. And in terms of the Christian ministry, at least as I have seen and what I've learned so far, is that you forget what the purpose of Christian ministry is. You forget its purpose. You lose sight of its purpose. And I really love Romans 1. Romans 1 is immensely helpful in this regard because it shows us the beauty of Christian ministry. It shows us the beauty of it in the heart, in the heat of conflict. In other words, it pulls back the veil right at the beginning, before we get into all the heavy doctrines of the Christian faith, before we get into the comprehensive statement of the Gospel. It pulls back the veil for us and it shows who really is in charge. It shows us who is working behind the scenes even when we don't see it. Even when it seems that everything else is falling apart and the whole world is in utter chaos and as dark as possible we have a bright light the apostles saw in the midst of this kind of conflict. And that's what Romans 1 is all about. I see in Paul tonight a pastor's heart. A lot of questions as to what a pastor's heart is. It's been rightly said that a pastor's heart is not measured by how well he pets the sheep. What is a pastor's heart? How do we know a pastor's heart? When I look at this, here is someone who in the middle of ministry, in the midst of struggle, could look beyond the circumstances to what the Lord was doing and give Himself for it. you'll remember last week the Apostle said that I am a slave of Christ, a bondservant. I have become a slave. My identity is completely in Him. And what we have now is a very personal section showing what that slavery to Christ in the right kind of way looks like in the ministry. What a pastor really looks like in the ministry. Here is a true servant of Christ functioning as a slave and look at his heart. Look at what's shown to you. He had been completely gripped by the grace of Christ. He had been pulled out, struck down, blinded, told he can't kick against sharp spikes. The grace of God had so overwhelmed him. Here he is. I'm a bondservant. I will give myself on the sacrifice and service of your faith. Meet a pastor. Meet a pastor. And now put this in combination with here's a brand new congregation formed by the Gospel. You've got an amazing combination of things going on here. You've got something extremely rare here. You see a pastor functioning in his office as he should, and you see a congregation, you notice what it said about this congregation, whose faith is being talked about all over the world. And what an amazing ministry we meet at the beginning of Romans. And this is what's before us tonight. Paul is expressing his desire to serve these saints in Rome. And what he wants is really three things. You'll notice what the text says. He wants to establish them in the faith. He wants them to be strengthened in the faith, mutually encouraged in that, and that there would be abundant fruit in a great harvest of souls through this ministry. Beautiful. He saw the hand of the Lord working in Rome. I think to myself tonight, what a beautiful thing to study that we might remember as the Escondido United Reformed Church what we are blessed with and to not forget what we're a part of and what the presence of this congregation and the ministry of the Word and the Gospel, what it really is demonstrating and what it's really saying about the Lord. Okay? It's really important tonight. I would love nothing more than to have this very description of this pastor and this congregation and the things that he describes here happen in the Escondido URC. That's my prayer. That's my goal. Let's look at this tonight. Look at verse 8. In verse 8 we read, I first thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because your faith is proclaimed throughout all the world. That is an amazing statement. Paul is considering them, and I'm going to get a little background here, and then he gets intensely personal, so it will be a shift. But Paul is considering them, and you know what he's thinking? He's thinking, I am overwhelmed that the Lord has raised up a church in Rome. I want you to know first, he says. Right out of the gates as he gets into this letter to the Romans. I want you to know first that I am dropping in thanksgiving. I am thanking the Lord. I am going to the Lord for the fact that He raised you up. Who were these Roman Christians? He says in verse 7 that they were beloved by God and called to be saints. Most likely this was a Gentile church. And Rome, you know, was the great capital of the the empire and here you know look at the amazing thing god had done overwhelming things in rome in the in the capital and here we see in the world's most notorious and wicked city here the lord put a church think about what the apostle paul is thinking about that in fact you'll remember paul would later write um uh would later write the philippians from prison in Rome and there in many of Caesar's household. Think what was going on. In Caesar's very household, Christians were there. People were becoming believers in Caesar's house. I don't know if you think about how radical that is. What does Paul say? Paul is just thrilled. Paul is overwhelmed. I am thanking God. Your faith is being spoken of throughout the whole world. Do you know how great a work this is? Do you know what the Lord has done? God has done something unimaginable. In the heart of the pagan empire of godless Rome, a beastly kingdom of this world using Revelation's language, in the heart of it, in the thick of it, the Lord was shaking everything up by putting a church there. Now, I don't know how you feel about that. Maybe it's easy to read right over this. But if I could take you back for a minute to the first century, you know how hostile things were to the Gospel? All the cities of Asia Minor were pledging their allegiance to Rome. Pledging their allegiance to Rome. To give you an example of what went on in Pergamos, there was, that sat there, a massive temple called the Dio Romana. And what made that temple so unique is that it was the only temple known at the time to have personified Rome as a goddess. I mean, it was really a sight. It was an amazing thing that went up. There was a whole temple set up for people to come and worship Rome. In about A.D. 25, all the cities of the region were vying for the right to build a temple for the great emperor and the emperors of Rome. Tacitus, a historian, wrote in his annals that Augustus Tiberius, Emperor 14 to 37 A.D., had each allowed a single temple to be erected in their honor during their lifetime. Such a temple would not only contain a statue of the ruling emperor that would be venerated in godlike fashion, but the temples were dedicated to the Roman people. Listen, it was expected of the day. Now think of our context for a minute. It was expected of the day that you worshipped Caesar as God. It was expected. Julius Caesar had a statue built with the inscription in Latin, Deo Invicto, to the unconquered God. The people would walk into these temples and they would sprinkle incense on the fire and they would burn before the emperor's bust. Roman worship was everywhere. there was so much pride in that superpower. You think things are bad now in our country? Concerned about it, aren't we? This would be like putting up a Smithsonian of all the accomplishments of the United States, bowing before the symbol of the country, eagle, and of course Rome had the same, requiring that full and undivided allegiance be given to a bust of President Obama. That's your situation. This is first century. You think the Christians did that? Christians said no way. Some did. Some defected. But those who were the Lord's did not. Their allegiance was to Christ. And they viewed this as idolatry. They did not worship Caesar as Lord. And the consequences, you study the seven churches of Revelation, the consequences of this were awful. The situation had become so bad that the only way you could share in the city's wealth and prosperity was to be involved in the cult worship of Rome. Economic prosperity and social acceptance was determined upon your acceptance of the Roman cult. The cities of Asia Minor became so much in turmoil over this that they began to ban the Christians from trade and they began to take their properties. So there you are. There you are. There's your brothers and sisters years ago sitting, going through the same sort of things in a much worse situation. So if this isn't bad enough, in A.D. 49, Emperor Claudius had expelled all the Jews from Rome. thinking they were followers of a man named Crestus. Whether that was a variant of Christ, there's debate about that. But what had happened is all these Jews who had come to Christ were now in conflict with the Jews who denied Christ. It caused riots in the city and they were expelled. And the reason I rehearse all of this tonight is to say that there was a powerful testimony of Jesus Christ prevailing in this kind of environment and in the heart of the Roman Empire. And even the pagans are talking about it. So in the midst of all of this darkness, Paul is overwhelmed. And now do you feel it when he's writing this? Do you see the context in which he comes and he says this to them? I am thanking God for you. Wow! You were set up in Rome. God raised you up in the middle of Rome. I think he would have loved to have quoted Psalm 2 at this point. He who is in the heaven shall laugh. In the midst of this kind of hostility, in the midst of this kind of hatred, in the midst of this kind of persecution, there sits a body of believers trusting in the Savior. Faith reported throughout the whole world. And what does Paul say? I'm praying. I'm not going to stop praying. This is big. Now why is this so important? Paul saw in the middle of that weakness power. Real power. Paul saw in the heart of persecution, in the most pagan place, the center of the Roman cult, there was God. And He's intensely moved that the Lord is saving. Sometimes as Christians, we are so caught up in fear today, aren't we? We are so gripped by fear and we are so caught up. We turn on the news this past week and you think, what in the world is coming? I mean, look at the hostility. Look at the violence. Look at just the lawlessness. That religion is right out of the pit of hell to do what they do. It's a murderous religion, Islam. It has nothing to do with Christ. Blowing up people. Embassies and killing people. And then it just goes on. Nothing seems to be certain. And we have so many concerns about our next election and we are gripped about this. We are gripped in fear as Christians, aren't we? What's coming? Everything we've known about, we say the greatness of our country is falling down. And what do we do? What is our response as Christians? Retreat. And you see, I can't help but think of this. And Paul is advancing not with political agendas, is he? what is Paul advancing with? What is Paul stepping up to the plate with? Imagine Paul flipping on the news. Flips on the news. Guess who's coming into office next week? Nero. And on the news, there are all the Jews dragging off Christians and beheading them and putting them up on light posts to burn them. And in this book, he's going to write about submission to authority in Romans chapter 13. He's going to say, Submit. Be honorable. There's no authority. No absolute authority that's not appointed by God. We stand back from that in astonishment that he could say that, right? Looking at some of the world's leaders. And above it all, there in the queue is Nero, and then he looks at all the chaos, and what is Paul's perspective? What do we do? What do we do? What do we do? I'm thinking a little bit about John on the island of Patmos because this was the whole context to the book of Revelation. John says he saw a vision and there was all the sea and it was turbulent, but then it became glassy. He saw the glassy sea. It was totally calm in heaven. And what did John say he saw in heaven? He says, I looked up in heaven and I saw a throne set there. perfect peace. No war. No conflict. And there He was seated. One Son of Man in all of His glory taking the imagery of Ezekiel. And what does Paul realize in the midst of all of this conflict, in the midst of all of this persecution, is that the God of all grace, the God of all power, The God of all might in the heart of the most wicked empire there stood above it all and raised up a church. I'm feeling the weight of this now. Are you seeing what's in front of us? In the middle of that, there was a church. And you know, today in the midst of the chaos that we are experiencing, maybe we as Christians need to demonstrate a little different kind of agenda. Maybe our agenda should be that we realize we have no enduring city here, but that God has kept us here because the elect have not come in yet. And that God has kept us on this earth and that God has the Escondido URC right here, right now because He's got people in this community He wants to go get. And that's why this chaos hasn't ended yet. God is still on the throne. God is still building. And I believe what the Lord wants us to look at is not just at the church in general this way. We should in general look at it this way. But I believe what an application for us in the Escondido United Reformed Church of what He has made us a part of here and what we're doing here, is our faith being spoken of throughout the world? In other words, do we understand what we're a part of, what we're doing, and how this is affecting the community we're in? It's a crucial question. It's a fair question. It's a textual question. They're probing, I know. And I have to ask as a pastor something of myself, don't I? And that's why I talked about a pastor's heart. I have to ask as a pastor, when I look at you, do I thank the Lord with a kind of fervency and zeal when I look at you and think that the Lord in these troubling times and chaotic times has preserved a church and made living members of His body here overwhelmed that God is continuing this work? My point is, I want you to notice what's happening here between how the church views itself and how Paul views the ministry. There's two things going on here. I believe this whole section is given to revitalize in us an understanding as a part of who we are and what we're doing. God strengthened these believers in the midst of awful times, perilous times, to be this kind of light. And I pray for us that no matter the circumstances, we would be talked about as having the kind of faith that loves the Lord and that continues steadfast in the Word, holding fast to the message of the Gospel no matter how bad this world gets. So you see the beautiful relationship. And this is where I'm going to go here for a second. The relationship between the pastor and the relationship between the congregation, Their faith is a glowing testimony. The pastor is a glowing testimony of excitement. I'm praying. The pastor says, I see your testimony. It's all over the world. God is my testimony. God is my witness. I'm praying for you. And what comes next? Paul mentions three things, three reasons he wants to come to them. You'll notice in verse 10 and in verse 11 and in verse 13, he says over and over, I want to be there. I want to be there. I want to be a part of that. I'm asking, verse 10, that I may succeed in coming to you. I long to see you. Verse 13, I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented. There is something about this that gets overlooked. What's he saying? You understand the perspective of Christian ministry. In Revelation 3, the Lord said something to one of the churches that gets at the heart of this tonight. In Revelation 3, the Lord said, Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. Now this open door theology is all over the New Testament. It's interesting, in 1 Corinthians, Paul describes his work in Ephesus and you know what he said? He says, a great and effective door opened up for me. He says, I'm staying here until Pentecost because I realize the Lord has opened wide the door to the message. Wow! He did something in this city. The door was a door of opportunity. The Lord was opening it wide for reaping. You know the Lord's doing that? You know the Lord's opening doors and cities for reaping? The Lord was constantly opening up doors and He was shutting them at times where He wanted people to be saved and where He wanted His servants to go. And sometimes He shut the door. Remember, Paul wanted to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit put up the hand and says, you're not going to Bithynia. Now, why does Paul say, I want to come to Rome? The capital of the empire. Paul's looking at Rome and saying, And God opened up a door right there. And I can't help but seeing here, number one, that the congregation has to think about the way that the Lord opens up the door and what He's doing and be very observant of His ways among us. But look at the pastor's heart. I had to wrestle with this. Paul's getting personal. Let me get a little personal. When I received the call from you to come here and pastor, I struggled with the process. At once in up north, I had people question to me the legitimacy of the process. You know, all sorts of questions were being thrown at me like, well, how can you just up and leave a church? And why can one church just come along and take another church's pastor? Many of you will know in the Christian Reformed Church that you got used to seeing this happen every five years. And in the URCs, this hasn't happened as much because we're a smaller federation and pastors have stayed for a while. But all the once I was faced with answering something I didn't know how to understand and I didn't even know what I was going to do at that point and so I had to think very carefully about why would I go or why would I want to go? So it was going through my mind. how do I know that the Lord is calling me here? And how do I know that I'm supposed to go here and do this? And I had a few sleepless nights over this. And so here I am. And many of you say, well, why did you take the call to Escondido? And the short answer is, the Lord placed a burden on me to come. But the long answer is something I learned from this. Just for a second, we'll close with this. I want you to look at 2 Corinthians 2. It's really important that you see the nature of Christian ministry this way. And it was this passage that opened up my mind to why I should come to Escondido. Look at 2 Corinthians 2, verse 12. Two books over. 2 Corinthians 2, verse 12. Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's Gospel and a door was opened to me by the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit because I didn't find Titus, my brother, there. But taking my leave of them, I departed to Macedonia. I don't know if you caught that. Paul just said, Christ opened up a door wide in Troas. But I'm leaving. And you say, what are you doing? The door's wide open to the Gospel. And in God's providence, the Lord did not let him rest. And he had departed right away to Macedonia. And we know why he went to Macedonia. In the night, a vision was given to him of a man that was pleading with him, come to Macedonia. Help. I didn't see the president of your council, Jim Jansman, a vision, okay? But what I learned through this was this. That what we do as pastors, what we're called to do is a burden the Lord puts upon us and we're called to help. We're called to be servants. Not to build our kingdoms here on this earth. And here is exactly what Paul is saying. Going through that process was good for me. And I believe there's healthy things that happen when pastors do move on. And I came to the conclusion there's no answer to this. The Lord does whatever He pleases. The Lord sends whoever He chooses. There's no patent answer on when and where and why. But, when He works in the heart of His servant, here's what you see the decision of why you go. Paul looks at Rome and Paul says, wow, the Lord has opened a door. I want to be there. And here's now where we get to the whole goal of Christian ministry tonight. Did you notice it? I want to come. I want to be there. For what reason? Verse 11. That I may impart some spiritual gift to you. What does that mean? He simply means I want to come. Since the Lord has called me to be an apostle, I want to come and I want to strengthen you. I want to be with you to strengthen you. that as that happens, notice what he says next. We may be, sorry, my microphone is giving me grief, that we may be mutually encouraged by one another. That is so important tonight, beloved. Do you know how much pastoral, congregational conflict I've seen in the short time I've been in ministry? It's hard. It's hard to see. And in our federation and throughout our history, even in Reformed churches, we have this thing called Article 11. And you have a sad reality that goes on of pastoral dissolution because there's irreconcilable differences. And I think to myself, that is a tragedy. Do you ever think that there is a goal in our relationship with one another? Do you ever think that? Here it is. A major part of my ministry to you is to encourage and be here to strengthen you in your faith as believers. To help you. But guess what? So is yours to me. Notice he said mutually encourage. That's a really important point, isn't it? I know I could mess it up. I know that I could be too hard. I know that I could be abrasive. I know that I could be arrogant. I know that I could be proud. I know that I could be compromising. I know that I could be domineering and I would do great damage among you. But you could do the same. You could be all those things to me. We both need something. And you know what it is? It's mutual encouragement and strengthening. You know how beautiful a witness that will be? This is where I want to go with this and we'll close with this. You know how beautiful a witness that will be for a pastor to love his congregation and the congregation to love their pastor and to really aim for mutual encouragement and strengthening in the faith. Faith, do you know what that will do in this community? You have no idea what that will create. I have no idea what that will create. But I know it's the most beautiful thing because the Lord put it right here. Paul says there's an overall picture to this tonight. And I love what he says. I am under obligation to Greeks and to barbarians, to wise and to the foolish. What's he saying? It doesn't matter. I'm here to minister to all of you. I won't play favorites. I want to preach the Gospel. I'm eager to preach the Gospel to you in Rome. and as we're strengthened together as we're mutually encouraged together as we make known as I preach the riches of Christ's gospel to you as we are growing together in that something's going to happen you know what's going to happen? it's a defining verse of ministry because he's saying I want to reach you I want to come to you I want to strengthen you because when that happens there's going to be a great harvest of souls do you realize this ministry is that tonight it's like bringing in ripened crops right to the Lord too many ministries today you know the balance is hard too many ministries today reach the lost while losing the reached they give them nothing they give them nothing they don't feed them and then you have the problem that too many ministries are only for the reached and then you create a closed box that no one can ever come into. As we are mutually encouraged together in the Gospel, you know what happened? Look at what he says. This pastor prayed for them. He's overwhelmed that God raised them up. His joy for the Lord's work in opening a door created a longing in him to be there, that they would be strengthened, that they would be mutually encouraged. Why? That there would be a harvest of souls from all sorts of different backgrounds. Barbarians and wise and foolish. Show me a congregation and a ministry that understands this and that this kind of relationship is flourishing. I'm going to show you something happened there. I'm going to show you a door fly open there. And it's going to be really wide. You say, well, I want that. I want that too. What do I do? I'll tell you. Give yourselves to be a part of this ministry. Give your heart in it. Be a part of it. Don't be sideliners. Give yourselves to be a part of the mutual encouraging of one another and your pastor. Give yourselves in that kind of commitment to the Lord to hear His Gospel, to be attentive to His Word, to love to be here to hear it preach. Verse 14, as he says it, and when this kind of ministry happens, there will be a door opened that no one can shut. It's my prayer that the faith of the Escondido United Reformed Church would be talked about everywhere. So, let me ask you a question tonight. Do you see the open door in this community? In all of the hardship, in all of the turmoil, in all of the problems of our times, do you see the door the Lord's given us? You're here. He's preserved you. He's raised you up. Let's be excited about this as Paul is gleaming off the pages of this text. And may this place be a great harvest of souls as we give ourselves to love Jesus Christ and His Gospel. Amen? Let's pray together. Oh Lord our God, we are so grateful to be a part of Your Kingdom and Your Church. Give us priority. Help us to see clearly as we should May there be a mutual encouraging that occurs here. Not a mutual tearing down. May there be love in this place. May there be fellowship in the Gospel. May there be great strengthening of the faith. And may you open a door wide in this place to graft in barbarians and Gentiles and all different kinds of people that we all together would sing praises to our God and exalt the God of our salvation that You are still building, that You are still saving in the perilous times in which we live. We fix our eyes on You. For above us is a throne fixed in heaven and the Lord Jesus Christ seated in all of His power. And so may that power, as we will consider next week, be made known to the salvation of Your people. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.