A reading from Paul's letter to the Romans.
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle, set
apart for the Gospel of God, which he promised beforehand
through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son,
who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was
declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of
holiness by His resurrection from the dead.
Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and
apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake
of His name among all the nations, including you who are
called to belong to Christ Jesus.
To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be
Saints. Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of the Lord.
Please pray with me. We come to you now, Lord you our
King, ready to hear you speak to us.
We surrender ourselves to you in Christ's name, Amen.
You can have your seats. Imagine discovering that you
possess A ture for a very fatal disease.
Imagine being Alexander Flaming in the 1920s, realizing that you
have this penicillin that could stop all the affections that we
are causing problems to the people.
At first you might feel unqualified and you are
overwhelmed, but once you understand that you are holding
something that is so great, something will change and you
cannot be silent anymore because now you have an awareness that
can lead into a calling. And this calling does not begin
with you asking yourself a question of what can I do, but
rather another question about what do you hold at this time.
This is what exactly Paul does in Romans 1.
He begins by introducing himself, not with a glorious
resume of accomplishment and credentials and special
victories, but rather he names what has been given to him.
He defines his identity by what he possesses.
What he has received from Christ determines his purpose and
determines his calling. This is what he wants us to do.
He wants us to see ourselves in light of what we have received
from Christ. So what do we possess?
As people who believe in Christ, we possess a message of
immeasurable value, a message that is life changing than
penicillin. Paul calls this message the
gospel in verse one and three. This is a word that comes from
the ancient world that basically means an announcement of victory
after battle. It's a declaration that the
enemy has been one, has been defeated.
Paul understands this good news not just as human achievement,
but rather as Gordy's own initiative.
It's an announcement that God has acted in the world to help
us solve one of the greatest problems of the world, in fact,
the greatest of all, which the Bible calls sin.
And sin is not just not doing good things, but it is an
inability to live according to God is desires and purposes of
righteousness. Yet the gospel declares to us
that God has done for us something that we cannot do for
ourselves. He has stepped in to come and
help us. So that is the message of hope
that we hold. Paul understands this message in
two ways. It is both a promise but also a
revelation. So first of all, the gospel has
a promise. Paul reminds us that the gospel
does not begin at Bethlehem because according to verse 2,
this is what was promised beforehand through the prophets
in the Holy Scriptures. In other words, the Gospel has a
long history, long before the manager, the Angel, and the
stars. Think about those gifts under
the Christmas tree, in your houses, in your homes, even
before Christmas morning. Those gifts already belong to
someone. Someone already possesses those
gifts. They have already been promised
to someone, even though they have not yet been opened by that
person. This applies to the Gospel.
It was wrapped in the Old Testament Scriptures.
It was presented, though not yet unveiled.
The probe, the promise, was not yet fully revealed and
understood. For Israel, they waited for many
centuries. They were waiting for this
promise that the prophets had spoken about.
But God is never late. God is faithful.
Soon the promise was revealed. And event teaches us to wait in
such a manner, not with anxiety, but rather waiting for the
fulfillment of God, these promises.
This is what waiting would look like if we consider it as being
a mission that God is calling us to do.
Sometimes it involves us being present where there is suffering
and we don't expect even have quick answers.
God expects us to continue praying even when we don't
demand immediate answers. God expects us to continue
praying and trusting in Him. Sometimes we serve in places
where you don't see the outcomes of your efforts.
You don't see the outcomes of all the love that you are
pouring in. God calls us to continue
powering in our service even in such places where progress
remains hidden. Our waiting in Christ is not
just passive. I've spoken about it as being
missional. We continue bearing witness
about the promises of Christ that are sure and that will be
revealed. Therefore, the question that
Adevent brings to us is where is God calling us to trust in His
promises, even those promises that we have not yet seen the
outcomes? The Gospel secondary is not just
promised, but also it has been revealed through Christ.
Just as you see a coin that has two sides, if one side of the
coin is removed, it is no longer a valid calling, a valid coin,
valid currency. In the same way, Paul shows us
Christ as having two sides. These two sides enable us to
understand the kind of effort he brings towards the gospel.
They enable us to understand that indeed Jesus is the cure of
this illness known as sin that is affecting the world.
On the first side, Jesus is fully human.
Paul says this in verse three. He tells us concerning his Son
who has descended from David according to the flesh.
Jesus does not appear out of nowhere.
He comes from a family. He has a family and ancestry.
He's rooted in the family of David, who was Israel shepherd
and king. Ultimately, body's promises to
David. We are like this in the book of
second Samuel. Your house and your Kingdom
shall be made sure forever before me.
Your throne shall be established forever.
So when Paul tells us that Jesus was descended from David, he's
simply telling us that the crown that was promised to David feeds
Jesus. Exactly.
He's claiming that Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah.
Jesus is the fulfillment of the covenant that God had with King
David. Jesus wore this crown.
David is crown naturally through birth.
The one in the Manger is also a king.
However, if Jesus is only a human being, he cannot save us
from sin. Also, He cannot demand our
ultimate allegiance because he's a mere human being like us.
Therefore, Jesus has another second sight.
He is fully God. Paul tells us in verse four that
this Jesus was declared to be the Son of God in power
according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection
from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The child in the manga is the Lord in waiting before Easter.
Jesus's glory is real but is still veiled.
And at resurrection God turns on the lights and we are able to
see his floor full glory. The resurrection is God's
verdict that indeed this is my Son and this is my King.
And this declaration of divine authority validates the gospel
because it is as well a pronouncement that through
Jesus, sin and death have been totally defeated.
He has authority to defeat sin. And certain Paul does not tell
us about Jesus's divine and human nature simply for us to
admire him. He wants us to understand this
because it has implications for the gospel.
He wants us to understand the kind of gospel that has been
revealed, but also the kind of life that now is possible
through the gospel because Jesus is fully human.
The gospel is not abstract. It is not distant and
inaccessible. Jesus stepped into our history
so that He can meet us by grace exactly where we are.
And Adeven tells us this truth, that God did not wait for us to
rise up to Him in heaven, but he came down and stepped into us on
earth. Therefore, just as Jesus stepped
into our ordinary and complicated world, now He gives
us the same grace to invite His presence where we are.
What can this look like? It can't be as simple as saying
a prayer at the beginning of a meeting or even reading
scripture on a dinner table, maybe lighting an Advent candle
with your children. That is a gesture of inviting
God is presence and making sure he's felt that he's real and
relieving and surrounding us. These may be small practices,
but we are holy ones. They are saying that come, Lord
Jesus, be here in our presence. But also if Jesus is fully God,
then the gospel is not just near, it is also powerful.
His resurrection makes obedience possible.
The gospel is not merely to instruct us, but the gospel also
has power to transform us. Receiving the gospel is
receiving the power of Christ to transform us, even in ways that
are beyond our understanding. For instance, sometimes we can
feel that we are unable to change ourselves.
Obedience is impossible. Things like forgiveness, things
like conquering seed might seem as if they're impossible.
But we have the power of Christ through the gospel to change all
those things that seem as if they are impossible.
Paul also tells us that the gospel is a really identity that
claims him. Once we receive God's promises,
the gospel begins to name us. The good news moves from
something that we hear and it becomes something that
identifies us. Something that identifies us.
It is something that gives us a new name.
In the 1st place. The Gospel identifies us as
servants of Christ. In verse one, Paul calls himself
a servant of Jesus Christ. This phrase tells us something
about Paul. His life was no longer self
owned. He his identity was no longer
rooted in autonomy but in belonging to Christ.
In the ancient world, a servant interested in a master's
household was not just powerless, he has purpose in
that household. And the beginning of that
person, no, didn't don't come from his status of being a
servant. It came from the kind of house
where he was ministering. Paul tells us that he is
ministering in a House of a great master, a House of a king.
So when Paul calls himself a servant, he's not diminishing
himself. Rather, he's saying that I am
someone who matters. I serve in a King's house.
He's not saying that he has been coerced into obedience in that
house. Rather, it is an expression of
his love and willingness and devotion into that house.
He's glad to be identified as a servant of Christ.
But also, Paul does not only want to identify himself alone
in that capacity. Paul wants us to all come into
that service. Sometimes we can have those
rules. And you feel I should be only
the person in that role. Paul extends this identity to us
as well because in verse five and six he opens the door wide
and says through whom we have received grace and apostleship
to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name
among all nations. And this is the point including
you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
This is the the invitation of the gospel to belong to Christ,
to serve in his house, and to find our deepest dignity through
that service. It is not something that
belittles that belittles us when we are servants of Christ.
It is something that gives us glory and set us full status.
So the question is who is ruling my life?
Because if Jesus is not Lord over my life, something else
will be Lord over my life. Many people can say I don't
subscribe to anything like like religion.
I don't subscribe to that. I am not under authority by
being ruled by anything. But if you cannot be there
without anything ruling you, if you reject Christ, you are
submitting yourself to another thing.
And usually that thing that you are submitting yourself to might
not have the right, the right capacity to rule over you.
But Jesus rules us because he belongs there.
He's a king that has been endorsed.
Many other things that we can submit ourselves, they don't
have the capacity that has been endorsed by God to rule over us.
Therefore, when we surrender to Christ, our obedience is not
restrained, rather it is rescue and our allegiance is total
freedom. We are not at a loss.
We surrender to Christ and then we are at rest, not at anxiety.
Then secondly, the gospel also identifies us as people who are
set apart for Christ's purposes. When you look at ordinary things
like these clothes and these candles, the ordinary items, but
because they have been set apart for use in this context in
church, now they belong to some kind of status.
They are still the ordinary things, but now they have a set
apart purpose. They are set apart.
This is how Paul identifies himself in verse 1.
He describes himself as one that has been set apart for the
gospel. He's not speaking about a status
or an achievement, but rather he has been consecrated.
God has claimed him for his purposes.
And this description and this identity is rather striking for
Paul because in the past Paul used to be a Pharisee and a
Pharisee. This was basically people who
were separated ones. There were people who understood
holiness in the forms of withdrawal from other people.
Then we are separated from the world.
They no longer wanted to live like people of the world in
their own pride. But now, unlike that, Paul has
been set apart in humanity for the gospel, and this identity is
not for Paul alone. In verse 7, Paul extends this to
all believers because he says we are loved by God and called to
be Saints. We are called to be holy ones.
This is not just a badge of superiority, but it's a gift
that we are called to steward. We are called to be in the world
that is passing away, but to continue being people who are
saying sunset apart. We are not called to run away
from the world and live in exclusion.
We are called to continue living in the world, but serving the
purposes of God. What does this look like?
To live in the world and to serve the purposes of the world?
It might show itself in some of these small and powerful ways.
For instance, someone who is working in an environment where
there is dishonesty as a norm, being set set apart means
serving with the integrity even in that context.
In that environment, it might be practicing hospitality in a
neighborhood that is fragmented and divided, but for you choose
to be hospitable in such a neighborhood, it might be
continuing to hold on to the values of faithfulness and
patience and respect in a culture where those values are
no longer held in regard and are compromised.
So being set apart is not running away from the world and
hiding, but it means living differently in the world, being
transformed by the gospel, and then giving our time and our
world and our relationships our our entire lives for the
purposes of Christ. So in that event, we remember
that Our Calling as believers does not begin by doing, but by
what we have received. And we don't wait with empty
hands. We wait when we hold the gospel
of God, the good news that the world still needs, and when we
truly understand that which we have received, then our identity
is clarified. Just as Paul has stated, we are
servants belonging to Christ who came to serve, but also we are
set apart by God because we have been claimed for the gospel.
So, Lord, come now and enable our service in the name of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.