Romans: Theology for Everybody (12-16)Sample

If you have ever jumped in a car needing to get somewhere on time and had a dead battery, then you know how frustrating it is to not have any power. What is true of moving forward in life is also true of moving forward in ministry.

Jesus knew that there can be no real ministry progress without divine power! In the opening chapter of Acts, Jesus reminded His first followers that the Holy Spirit descended on Him to empower His life and ministry, and that when He returned to His throne in the unseen heavenly realm, He would send the Holy Spirit down to do for Christians what the Spirit had done for Christ – empower life and ministry. The disciples were eager to begin telling the world about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but Acts 1:4-5 says, “he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, ‘you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’” Shortly thereafter, Jesus’ prophecy came true, and the Holy Spirit descended upon the first believers on the Jewish day of Pentecost and the Church has been operating in divine, Holy Spirit power ever since, which explains why Christianity is the largest and most diverse movement of any kind in world history! In speaking of ministry, Paul is clear in glorifying God by giving credit to the power of the Holy Spirit in three ways.

One, Paul says that the strength of the ministry in Rome was because of the Holy Spirit who brought “goodness” and “knowledge” (15:14). While many churches had been planted by the apostles, including many planted under Paul’s leadership to non-Jewish Gentiles, no one is exactly sure who planted the church in Rome. We are told that there were “visitors from Rome” (Acts 2:10) who were among those saved when Peter preached Jesus at the Pentecost holiday in Jerusalem and the Holy Spirit fell. The general consensus is that, most likely, some of the people who were from the city of Rome and present at the Pentecost holiday (Acts 2:1-41) in Jerusalem became Christians and brought the message of Jesus with them upon their return home. The entire ministry of the church in Rome was because of the Holy Spirit and there was no human leader to point to as the cause of so much gospel ministry.

Two, Paul says that the strength of his entire ministry was the grace of the Holy Spirit (15:14-19). Writing near the end of his life, he was the first theologian of the early church, and its most active church planting evangelist. In roughly a decade of ministry, he walked an average of nearly 20 miles a day in the face of every conceivable form of opposition from the elements - demons, mob riots, enemies, governments, beatings, imprisonments, and sickness along with shipwrecks and loneliness. How did Paul have the power to keep pressing forward in ministry? By the power of the Holy Spirit, and he attributes anything good from his efforts as the result of God’s power at work through him.

Three, Paul says that his future ministry plans would also require the power of the Holy Spirit to make possible (15:20-21). The Roman Empire was the largest and most diverse and powerful nation on the earth in its day. God used Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles to preach the gospel and plant churches throughout the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire and his goal was to extend into new regions where the Christian church had not yet taken root.

Questions: 

1. Paul says that, as the senior leader, God used him to lay a foundation that other people, with their various gifts, could then come and build on. Who did God use to lay the foundation of the church or ministry you are a part of, and what can you be doing in terms of giving, praying, and serving to build on that foundation?

2. Paul was sent to be the means by which God saved people. Who did God send to minister to you? How can you thank them this week?