DATE: 2-22-26

As always it’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And there’s one thing I want you to know — and this is true if you’re worshiping with us for the first time — if you’re joining us at our North Main Campus or are with our friends in Bucyrus — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.

PASTORAL PRAYER

A few weeks ago, we reintroduced an ancient practice to our worship services — a time of pastoral prayer. Where — each week — we’re being more intentional about praying for people, circumstances, and situations going on in our congregation, community, country, and world. 

Today we’ll be praying for our friends in Bucyrus. This is their last Sunday with us — as their new pastor begins next week. We’ll pray for those who serve our community as emergency medical responders. We’ll pray for those who serve in the military. And we’ll pray for our Christian witness around the world as this is the first Sunday of Lent. 

Please join me in prayer.

Heavenly Father, what a gracious God you are. For every good and perfect gift comes from you — including the gift of fellowship with our friends in Bucyrus. And how thankful we are that they’ve found a pastor to lead them. May you bless them in the weeks and months ahead as they and their new pastor get to know each other. May you forge a sweet relationship between him and the elders. Spirit, may you unite the congregation together in a common purpose — and that purpose isn’t finished now that a pastor has been called — for the purpose you’ve called your church to — wherever she is found — is to go and make disciples of all nations. So may the arrival of their new pastor be the beginning of a new and fruitful season of making disciples of Jesus Christ. 

As we turn our attention to our local community, we lift up to you those who serve as emergency medical responders. Spirit of God, give them quick thinking, wisdom, and steady hands as they help those in need of their service. And we ask you to help them to not only live trying to save the lives of others — but may you help them to live life themselves. To live the abundant life that’s only possible through faith in Jesus Christ.

For our nation’s military — first — we thank you that they’re willing to serve us by protecting our freedom as a nation. As someone who’s served — the further I’m removed from my time in the military — the more I see how precious a thing it is to have others who are willing to give their life so that we can experience the freedoms we have in our country. Even the freedom to disagree with the decisions our military makes is a freedom they’ve secured on our behalf. May you protect them. May you give those in leadership wisdom from on high. And may all of us — no matter our political views — be grateful for those who protect the freedoms we have.

And — finally — as many Christians around the world participate in the season of Lent — the forty days between now and Easter symbolizing the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness before being tempted by Satan — may those who participate — and even those who don’t — recognize and respond to what Jesus accomplished on our behalf during those forty days. Jesus, thank you for denying yourself and overcoming the temptations you faced. The times that we’ve done the opposite are countless — and it’s only by your grace that we find forgiveness when we come to you in repentance and faith. 

May all of us — who believe in Christ — recognize what a gift it is to repent of our sins. What a gift it is to believe in Jesus Christ. What a good and perfect gift salvation is — and may we show the world what wonderful gifts these are — during Lent — and throughout the entire year.

And we pray all of this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

INTRODUCTION

We’re continuing our series in the book of James this weekend. Learning from the younger brother of Jesus who believed that his older brother was the Son of God. And James seems to have taken Jesus at his word — for much of what we read in James — appears to be mini-sermons — explaining, illustrating, and applying what Jesus had taught. So there’s much wisdom for us to gain from what we find in this book — including what James has for us today.

So — if you have your Bible — please turn with me to James chapter one — we’ll be looking at verses sixteen through eighteen together today. We’re in James chapter one — beginning in verse sixteen. There we read…

James 1:16–18 ESV

16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

This is going to be a very theological sermon. But the goal isn’t for this to just be a sermon for our minds — the goal is for this to be a sermon that penetrates our hearts. For what we’re going to discover today — about God and salvation — is meant to stir not only our minds — but is to excite our hearts as well. Let me explain what I mean.

If you were here with us last week — when we saw God’s purpose in the trials we experience in life — we uncovered a truth about where temptation comes from — and it was a sobering truth. For temptation — we saw — comes from within us — from what’s called our sin nature. In and of ourselves we’re not pure — we’re tainted by sin. It’s the condition we’re born in because of Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God in the Garden.

Yet we also saw how — one of the habits of our sinful hearts — is to find someone else to blame for the temptation we give into — for we stubbornly refuse to acknowledge that temptation comes from within us — so we look outside ourselves. And it’s quite common to throw blame right at God. But James told us that — not only is God not tempted by evil — he also doesn’t tempt us with evil. Meaning — the temptations we face don’t come from God.

We also learned that temptation — when given into — leads to sin. And sin always takes from us — ultimately taking away life — for sin — James tells us — leads to death. And — death — is the ultimate taking away from.

So — in arguing against the belief that God’s the one tempting us and — instead — arguing that temptation comes from within us — James now says…

James 1:16 ESV

16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

Don’t be deceived. That’s the only command in our verses. So — if you want to know what you’re to do today — this is it: Don’t be deceived. Don’t be misled from having a true and proper belief about where temptation comes from.

The Bible gives us many warnings about being deceived. For instance, why are we deceived? According to Jesus…

Matthew 22:29 NET

29 “You are deceived, because you don’t know the scriptures or the power of God.

While others will be deceived by…

Matthew 24:24 NLT

24 False messiahs and false prophets [who] will rise up and perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones.

Or — in a quite memorable way — Paul warns…

1 Corinthians 15:33 ESV

33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

And the consequences for being deceived are severe.

1 Corinthians 6:9–10 ESV

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And none of us are above being deceived. In fact — especially those of us who believe in Jesus should remember how…

Titus 3:3 NIV

3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

So…don’t be deceived! Don’t be fooled! Don’t blame God for tempting you to do evil when what’s to blame is the sin within you.

ON GOD

That’s the command James uses to transition us from last week’s text to our verses for today. And — now — he’ll show us how great God is. We’re in verse seventeen.

James 1:17 ESV

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

In this verse we find incredible truths about God. We find that he’s generous, unchanging, and is light.

First, God is abundantly generous to us. James tells us this in saying that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” 

Now — when I read this verse — the question that came to my mind was, “What’s the difference between a good gift and a perfect gift?” And I don’t know that I discovered any great difference other than what’s pretty obvious: a good gift is something with positive qualities whereas a perfect gift — is just that — perfect — complete — without any deficiency.

Good gifts are something we humans can give. As Jesus says…

Matthew 7:11 ESV

11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Obviously Jesus is helping us to question something we so often doubt — something James is reiterating to us: Is God good? Will he be good towards me? 

What Jesus and James are saying is that — because our Father in Heaven is good — he only gives good gifts to his children. To stress his point — Jesus mentions how we humans — as imperfect as we are — have managed to figure out how to give good gifts to our children. And then he says — how much more so does your perfect God know how to give good gifts to his children?

Now the perfect gift — that James refers to — is something we’ll come back to. But our first truth about God is that he is gracious.

Second, God is unchanging. About God — James says — “There’s no variation or shadow due to change.”

Variation is a word that means “mutation or a change of position” — and change means a “turning around or reversing course.” So what great news! God doesn’t change. As Scripture tells us…

Malachi 3:6 ESV

6 “For I the Lord do not change…

And…

Hebrews 13:8 ESV

8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

God doesn’t change — which means — when you read of God — in the Bible — you’re reading about who God is today — and who he’ll always be. God doesn’t waver in who he is — like we do. Who he is isn’t a response to anyone or anything else. 

• He’s not loving because we’re worthy of his love. He’s loving because he is love. 
• He’s kind because he’s kind. 
• He’s merciful because he’s merciful. 
• He’s just because he’s just. 
• He’s good because he’s good.

With God you get exactly who he says he is — every single time. That’s why we must take him at his word — which means you have to know his word. Let him tell you who he is — to do anything else — is the ultimate act of foolishness.

God is gracious. And God doesn’t change. And — third — he’s the Father of lights. As the apostle John also tells us…

1 John 1:5 ESV

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

God is light and in him is no darkness — which is why he’s the Father of lights. Light represents purity — holiness — being completely separate and untainted by evil. And God’s purifying light is so bright and powerful and holy that nothing can block — or interfere with — his light. Nothing stands between God’s light and where he wants it to shine — which is why his light never casts a shadow. For a shadow is what happens when something interrupts light — but nothing can stop God’s light from shining wherever he wants it to shine.

In his gospel — John begins his words about Jesus this way.

John 1:1–5 NLT

1 In the beginning the Word (that’s Jesus) already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He existed in the beginning with God. 3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. 4 The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

John goes on to say…

John 1:9–14 NLT

9 The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn — not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. 14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

The Father of lights sent his Son — who is the light of the world — to shine the message of salvation — so that a world clothed in darkness might have hope.

God is gracious. God doesn’t change. And God is light.

ON SALVATION

But there’s one more truth about God that we discover in the next verse — verse eighteen — which is also where we’ll discover the perfect gift that God gives to his children.

James 1:18 ESV

18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Here James focuses on the topic of salvation. But — before we get to salvation — let me explain what’s about to happen. A few weeks ago — I had some guys in my office — and I was showing them how I prepare my sermons — how I take a few verses — like our three verses for today — and end up with a sermon. 

Quite often — a lot of the work that I do in sermon preparation — is actually in my sermon — if you know what to listen for. But I’m going to make it even more clear for you all today as we talk about salvation. So imagine — if you will — that I’ve invited you into my office to show you how I prepare a sermon.

When I’m preparing a sermon — and this can apply to any time you read the Bible — but preparing a sermon is a time when I slow things way down. And while I’m reading the Bible passage — I’m constantly asking questions about the text. And when I tell you the questions I ask you’re going to think, “There’s no way it’s that simple.” I promise — it’s really as simple as what I’m about to tell you. Of course there’s an anointing by the Holy Spirit that makes what one person does — with this process — and spiritually multiplies it to be used for others through preaching — but any follower of Jesus can look at a text, ask the questions that I’m about to share with you, and better understand the Bible.

So here are the secret, mysterious, “got you on the edge of your seat” questions that I ask when I’m preparing a sermon. Are you ready? Got your pen and paper — or your notes app open? Here they are:

• Who?
• What?
• When?
• Where?
• Why?
• And how?

Anybody’s mind blown right now?

That’s right — who, what, when, where, why, and how — questions you learned to ask back in elementary school! Some of you can’t believe that what I’m saying is true — so let me show you.

Here’s our verse again — and then we’ll ask it some questions. About salvation — James writes…

James 1:18 ESV

18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

So let’s ask a question: Who? Who’s will is James referring to? Who’s will is it for people to be saved? James writes…

James 1:18 ESV

18 Of his own will…

Who does the word “his” refer to? God the Father. How do we know? Because the Father is the last “who” referred to in our verses.

So look at what James is telling us: God is the one doing the action in our salvation. This is one way to describe God’s sovereignty in our salvation. God’s sovereignty means that God’s in control of all things. And what James is telling us is that — the act of salvation — is an act done to us — it’s not something we do. And — to prove his point — James uses a phrase that’s meant to bring to mind an illustration.

James 1:18 ESV

18 Of his own will he brought us forth…

The phrase “brought us forth” is the same phrase he used in verse fifteen when he said…

James 1:15 ESV

15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

So what does “brings forth” mean — what is James describing? He’s describing what theologians have called regeneration — or the new birth — or being born again. This is the moment where the Spirit of God gives life to our spiritually dead and stone-like hearts — awakening us to the truth of who Jesus is — leading to our repentance and faith. And — remember — this is of God’s own will and he’s the one bringing us forth — this is an act of God.

Now — I did say that — regeneration does lead to repentance and faith. Repentance is our turning away from sin and rebellion against God — and faith is our turning to Jesus — trusting in him alone for our salvation. Repentance and faith are our choice — we make the decision to repent and believe — this is what is called conversion. But prior to our repentance and faith is a work of God — where he transforms the condition of our heart — so that we can repent and believe in Jesus.

Here’s what Jesus had to say on this topic when he spoke to a man named Nicodemus.

John 3:1–8 NLT

1 There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. 2 After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.” 3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” 4 “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” 5 Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

“You must be born again,” Jesus says. “And humans can’t do this — only the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.” For — just as sin “brings forth death” — God is the one who “brings forth spiritual life.”

Often — at this point — many people — including many Christians — have a strong reaction against the idea that God — according to his own will — is the one who brings forth new life in those who believe. This is why the illustration of giving birth is so helpful — because — in the illustration that Jesus gives — we’re the baby being born. 

The mom gives birth — the baby is born. No one says, “The baby gave birth to itself” — the mom gives birth. And James and Jesus both say that God is the one who gives spiritual birth to his people. We don’t spiritually birth ourselves — we can’t. But we do respond to the spiritual birth that God gives. And — just like a baby in the womb — there’s nothing that baby can do to stop itself from being born. It may fight. It may fuss. It may even turn itself around and force the doctors to do a C-section — but — it’s gonna be born. So too when it comes to God giving new life to his children.

OK. So God the Father is the “who” — and “what” he’s doing is giving us spiritual birth — but “how” — “how” does this new birth take place? Back to our verse again?

James 1:18 ESV

18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth…

God the Father gives us new life by the word of truth. And what’s the word of truth? The word of truth is the Word that is truth. As the apostle Peter says…

1 Peter 1:23 NLT

23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.

Notice how Peter uses the same born again language. And how being born again leads to a new and eternal life. And this new life is eternal because it comes from where? It comes from the eternal, living word of God. And what is the word of God?

That’s a bit of a trick question. For we learn in the Bible that the word of God is both Jesus — as we saw in the gospel of John — and Scripture. But — here — James is referring to the Bible — the written word of God. 

The Bible is God’s Word and it is both true and truth. And the message of salvation — what’s called the gospel — is found in this book. Yes — the gospel can be shared to a friend over lunch without a Bible present — but the message being shared comes from the Bible. And the message of the Bible is the means by which God brings forth new life and saves his people.

As you heard me say in a sermon a few weeks ago — God’s Word to us is his generosity on display — it’s one of his good gifts to us. And it’s a gift — not only to those who believe — but to those who’ve yet to believe.

Hebrews 4:12 NLT

12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

And what’s the result of the word of God being alive and powerful? One result is that…

2 Timothy 3:16–17 NLT

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

And one way that God’s word accomplishes this purpose is when pastors…

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV

15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

And pastors are to rightly handle the word of truth because they’re called to…

2 Timothy 4:2 NLT

2 Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.

And — through the preached Word — God calls people out of spiritual death and darkness — and into new life that’s found in his marvelous and saving light.

So God the Father uses the word of truth — the gospel — to give us new life. But why does God do this? Back to our verse one last time.

James 1:18 ESV

18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Why does God save us? So that we’d be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. So what does that mean?

If you’re thinking, “OK, Josh. We get it. You’re laying all of the who, what, where, when, why, and how on pretty thick right now” — I’d encourage you to take note of how often you hear them in future sermons — or go listen to some past sermons if you’re up for it. For — not only am I preaching a sermon — I’m modeling for you how to read the Bible so that you get the most out of it when you do. And the sermons you hear should make you a better interpreter of the Bible when you read it — which is why I’m taking time to show you how to understand God’s Word when you read it.

So back to us being firstfruits of God’s creatures — what does James mean by that? It means that we’re God’s choice offering — meaning — God considers us the first of all of his creation. 

Paul uses the term this way in writing to Christians in Thessalonica.

2 Thessalonians 2:13 ESV

13 But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.

Notice — again — who’s doing the act of salvation here? God is. “God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved,” Paul says. The Bible’s quite consistent and clear when it comes to salvation. Yet I think firstfruits — in addition to meaning God’s choice offering — gets a bit clearer in its meaning — in another of Paul’s letters. In a section where he also writes about our salvation.

Ephesians 2:1–10 NLT

1 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil — the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. 4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. 8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Though we were once spiritually dead because of our sins — living just like the rest of the unbelieving world as children of the devil — following the desires of our sin nature — subject to God’s wrath and just judgment like everyone else — “but God,” Paul says. There’s God in action once again. “But God” — this God who is abundantly generous, who never changes, and who’s sovereign — “but God, who’s rich in mercy and love, gave us life” — and he raised us up from the dead by the power of Christ’s resurrection. And this is all by grace — it’s undeserved — it can’t be earned — it’s a total and completely free gift from God to his people.

And now we get to the firstfruits part: Why did God do all of this? So that he can show the rest of his creation how gracious and kind he is towards his people. So that he can show all of his creation what he’s done — through Christ — for his beloved children. That’s what it means for his people to be his firstfruits. This is what it means for you — if you believe in Jesus. 

It means that God is lavishing his grace and kindness and favor and mercy and power and love on you — so that the world may know how generous he is — and will always be — to his people — for he is the unchanging God. To be God’s firstfruits means that you’re his masterpiece — and it means he has a specific plan for you — a life to live — a mission to accomplish — so that the world may know of his great and never-ending love for his people.

CONCLUSION

Friends, do you see where James has taken us today? As one person has said, “Far from enticing [us] to evil, God is the source of every good gift, one of the greatest of which is the new birth.”

When you hear me say, “God loves you” — know that this is what I mean by those three words. May you rest in God’s generous, unchanging, and saving love towards you. May you soak it in. May you embrace his love. May you enjoy him and his love for you. May you respond to his love. May you have hope because of his love. And may you show the world what it means to be loved by the God who saves. For he’s the giver of every good and perfect gift — and he is lavishing gifts on you so that the world may know how generous he is to his children. Let’s pray.

PRAYER

Gracious and generous Father, we marvel at who you are. We’re in awe. We feel the holy weight of your love towards us right now — and it feels good.

Holy Spirit, may you take your word preached — and use it to give new life to some who are listening. And may you do so at this very moment. For that woman who came here today feeling hopeless — give her eternal hope. For that man who came here today feeling dead inside — may you raise him from the grave and give him new life. For that college student who’s been overwhelmed — may you draw them to the Prince of peace. Spirit, whoever they are — those who — according to God’s own will today is the day of salvation — may you give them life.

And — Jesus — this new life is only possible because you gave your life on the cross for our sins. The good and perfect gift of salvation is ours because you gave the good and perfect gift of your life on our behalf because of your eternal love for us. Thank you for loving us — and for proving your love for us on the cross. We pray all of this in your name. Amen.

BENEDICTION (Prayer teams available / If you’ve responded, please stop by the Resource Center)

Whoever you are — Christian or not — may you respond to God’s generous, unchanging, and saving love towards you. Amen.

God loves you. I love you. You are sent.

DATE: 10-19-25

As always it’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And there’s one thing I want you to know — and this is true if you’re worshiping with us for the first time — if you’re joining us at our North Main Campus or are with our friends in Bucyrus — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.

SERIES INTRO

We’re continuing our series in Romans this weekend and we’re in the practical application section of Paul’s letter where — after eleven chapters of rich theological truths — Paul’s now in the “so what” section of his letter. Meaning he’s showing us how all of the theology — that’s found in the first eleven chapters — is to play itself out in how we live. 

But — before we turn to our text for today — I want to let you know what to expect in the coming weeks. Starting next week — we’re going to take a break from Romans — just when we’re almost at the end — and we’re going to take three sermons to look at three important practices in the life of our church: church membership, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper — also called communion.

In a few weeks we’ll have a combined evening worship service here at our County Road 9 Campus. And during this evening service we’ll welcome new members into our faith family, celebrate baptisms, and take the Lord’s Supper together. So I thought it’d be good for us to spend some time looking at all that will be happening during that evening worship service ahead of time.

So next week we’ll look at church membership. The following week we’ll look at baptism. And then — during the evening worship service — we’ll look at the Lord’s Supper.

Then — after our short break — we’ll jump right back into Romans for the final two sermons we have left in the book.

But — today we’re in Romans — we’re not on break from it yet. And our final three sermons in Romans may end up being the most unique. For Paul — as he ends his letter — becomes quite personal in his final words. Let me show you what I mean.

Here’s what Paul writes in Romans chapter fifteen — beginning in verse fourteen.

Romans 15:14–33 ESV

14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, 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 accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; 20 and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, 21 but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.” 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 helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. 25 At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. 26 For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. 27 For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. 28 When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. 29 I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. 30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, 31 that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32 so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. 33 May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

As I said — this is a very personal section of the letter for Paul. And in this part of his letter we find two ideas: The call that God had on Paul’s life — and the call that God has on us — individually and as a church. Paul’s call and our call — that’s what we’re going to explore together today.

PAUL’S CALL

We’ll begin with Paul’s call — but know that there’s overlap even with the specific call God had for Paul and God’s call for us. But we’ll do our best to focus on Paul’s call — beginning in verse fifteen — where he writes…

Romans 15:15–25 ESV

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 accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; 20 and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, 21 but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.” 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 helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. 25 At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints.

And skipping to verse twenty-eight we read…

Romans 15:28–29 ESV

28 When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. 29 I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.

In these words, Paul helps us understand how he viewed his call. And he describes his call — and I rarely do this — but we’re going to go for it today — he describes his call as that of a priest, of power, of preaching, and of planting. For those of you who’ve been waiting for some preaching alliteration — today is the day the Lord has made for you. Paul’s calling was one of priest, power, preaching, and planting.

Part of God’s call on Paul’s life was to be a priest. We see this beginning in verse fifteen where Paul writes…

Romans 15:15–17 ESV

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.

And in verse twenty-eight we read…

Romans 15:28–29 ESV

28 When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. 29 I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.

Paul was called to be a priest. Where a prophet speaks on behalf of God to the people — a priest intercedes on behalf of the people to God. We’ll get to Paul’s prophetic role in preaching the gospel — in just a moment — but I want us to focus on his call which he describes as a priestly service. 

When I think of this priestly call on his life — I can’t help but think of his prayers for the Christians he writes to. Think of some of the words he wrote to others that are an expression of this priestly call on his life.

To the Christians in Thessalonica Paul wrote…

1 Thessalonians 1:2–3 ESV

2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

And…

2 Thessalonians 1:11–12 ESV

11 To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

To the Christians in Ephesus he wrote…

Ephesians 1:16–21 ESV

16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

To the Christians in Colossae he wrote…

Colossians 1:3–5 ESV

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

To Philemon he wrote…

Philemon 4–6 ESV

4 I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, 6 and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.

To Timothy…

2 Timothy 1:3–7 ESV

3 I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

I wonder how God might want you to enter into a similar kind of priestly service for others by praying for them in this way? In our most recent membership class, I was asked what’s the best way to encourage me as the pastor of Gateway. My answer was to pray for me. To pray for my family. And to let me know that you’re praying for me.

A recent addition to my list of life resolutions came from the sweet joy of realizing how many of you are praying for me. I worded my new resolution this way. Remember: God’s people are praying for you. I’m encouraged every time I read these words.

You may or may not be aware — but before every worship service a group of men pray with and for me. One of these men is Dave Vaas. I didn’t warn Dave that I’d be mentioning him — so Dave — warning — I’m about to pastorally brag on you. Knowing Dave — he’s probably already read this anyway. You’ll know what I mean in a second. 

As I said, Dave’s one of the men who meets with me to pray for me and my sermon before I preach. And — what I so appreciate about Dave’s prayers — is how he comes having read through my sermon manuscript. He — Randy Casper also does this — to pastorally brag on someone else — Dave and Randy will pray for a specific point in my sermon, or a section that stuck out to them — and they often pray that God will use that point or section to speak to you all. They’re fulfilling a priestly service for me and you. To Dave and Randy — and to all of the men who pray with and for me before I preach — thank you for fulfilling such an important priestly ministry that God has called you to.

Paul was called to be a priest.

Additionally, part of God’s call on Paul’s life was to be a vessel of God’s power. We see this beginning in verse eighteen where Paul writes…

Romans 15:18–19 ESV

18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ;

Paul was called to be a vessel of God’s power. Earlier this year we spent quite a few weeks looking at the spiritual gifts that Paul mentions in chapter twelve. In those sermons we saw how the Holy Spirit empowers every follower of Jesus with a spiritual gift that’s to be used to build up and strengthen the church. And here — in our verses — Paul tells us that living by the power of the Spirit was an important part of God’s call on his life.

A call — not only on Paul’s life — but on all who follow Jesus — is a call to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. Regardless if we’re preaching, evangelizing, greeting people when they enter our buildings, enjoying the giggles and screams of terror by our toddlers, or whatever you may do around here. We’re called to live by the power of the Holy Spirit and to recognize that what goes on around here isn’t natural — but is a supernatural work of God. For — when we’re served by each other — we’re being served by the Spirit of God who’s working through each of us.

Yet don’t miss that — when Paul points to what Christ accomplished through him — he says it came about by “word and deed…by the power of the Spirit of God.” This is why part of God’s call on Paul’s life was also that of being a preacher. We’re back in verse eighteen again…

Romans 15:18–20 ESV

18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; 20 and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation,

Paul was called to be a preacher of the gospel. And when we take these two calls on Paul’s life — calls of power and of preaching — we come to one of the characteristics we desire to see in every follower of Jesus here at Gateway. We call this being Word and Spirit Christians. Where our desire is to live under the authority of the Word of God and by the power of the Spirit of God so that we make our saving God look glorious to the world.

Obviously not all of us are called to preach the Bible — but all of us are called to proclaim the Good News. Every follower of Jesus should know the basics of the gospel — the Good News of what Christ accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection — so that — you can share it with others. 

Do you see this call on your life — to share the gospel? Are you fulfilling this call that God has on your life?

Finally, part of God’s call on Paul’s life was that of planting — or starting — new churches. We’re in verse twenty…

Romans 15:20–25 ESV

20 and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, 21 but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.” 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 helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. 25 At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints.

Paul was called to plant new churches. Paul had a passion for taking the gospel to people living in places where the gospel had not yet been heard. So he planted — or started new churches — which would be an outpost for the gospel in their community. This was part of God’s call on Paul’s life.

Obviously, not all Christians are called to be church planters. But we’re all called to go in some way. After all — Jesus’ final words before ascending into heaven were…

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

18 “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

And as Luke records in the book of Acts…

Acts 1:8 ESV

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Something I love about us as a church — is our commitment to taking the gospel to places where it’s currently not believed. We just had our Go celebration this past week and it was great to see so many of you come together to hear stories of how we’ve been going this past year. 

We call this our commitment to being Kingdom-minded around here — more on that in a moment. But I want to acknowledge that I know how hard it can be to imagine that there are still places on this planet where the gospel isn’t heard or believed. We live in a bit of a Christian bubble here in the US. Obviously, not everyone in our country is a Christian — but it’s hard to live in the US and not hear about Jesus — there are churches everywhere! But that’s not the case across the globe.

According to Joshua Project — an organization that tracks people groups that lack the gospel — there are a little over 7,000 people groups who are considered unreached — which means they have no access to the gospel. This represents over three billion people who have little or no access to the gospel — which we rightly believe is the only means of salvation.

And — like Paul — God has uniquely called us — Gateway Church — to go where the gospel is currently not known. In fact — this calling on us is so great — and our commitment to fulfill this calling is so known — that we’re viewed as a very missional church in our denomination. If you don’t know — missional basically means spreaders of the gospel — locally and globally. Like me, you may be thinking, “Really? Aren’t we the Bible church? Or the kid’s ministry church? Or the church with rocking worship music?” All I know is that the further removed you are from us — the more we’re seen as the church who takes seriously the call to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. And I hope that you — like me — are happy to claim this reputation.

OUR CALL

Having looked at Paul’s call, we’ll now look at our call a bit more. I know we’ve done so already — but there are few more aspects of our call found in our text. We’re back in verse fourteen.

Romans 15:14 ESV

14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.

Skipping to verse twenty-six we read…

Romans 15:26–27 ESV

26 For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. 27 For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.

And in verse thirty Paul writes…

Romans 15:30–33 ESV

30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, 31 that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32 so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. 33 May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

When it comes to our call — as a faith family — though this doesn’t encompass all that we’re called to — in these verses Paul reminds us of our call to be disciples who make disciples, our call to be generous, our call to be a family, and — again — our call to be Kingdom-minded. All — I hope — are familiar ideas for you — for these are four out of the five characteristics we hope to see in all who follow Jesus here at Gateway. The fifth being Word and Spirit Christians — which we looked at earlier.

First, we’re called to be disciples who make disciples. Paul writes this in verse fourteen…

Romans 15:14 ESV

14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.

Paul praises the Christians in Rome because he knows that they’re filled with goodness, with knowledge, and — thus — are able to instruct — or disciple — one another. The call to make disciples of all nations — which Jesus gave us — is a call locally as much as it is globally. And it’s a call on us corporately — as a church — as much as it is individually. For every disciple of Jesus is called to make disciples of Jesus.

How are you fulfilling this call on your life — and how are you helping us fulfill this call as a church?

• I’m so thankful for those who make disciples by serving as a Life Group leader. 
• And for those who serve in our Kidway ministry — helping us make disciples of the youngest in our church. 
• For those who make disciples among our youth. 
• Who lead equip classes. 
• Who meet one on one over coffee or a meal to help someone else grow in their faith — that’s being a disciple who makes disciples. 
• For parents who read God’s Word to their children, and teach them to pray — making disciples in your home.

If you’re not currently a disciple who’s making disciples — and you want to become one — stop by the Resource Center before you leave. They’ll take down your name and I’m sure we can find a way for you to step into this call God has on your life.

We’re also called to be generous. In verse twenty-six Paul writes…

Romans 15:26–27 ESV

26 For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. 27 For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.

How lucky are you, right? Everyone loves when the preacher talks about money — not! When it comes to our desire — for us to be a generous people — generosity must include our finances. The old “time, talent, and treasure” mantra unintentionally shifted to the idea that we have a choice — “I’ll be generous with my time, or my talent, or my treasure” — when the Bible calls us to be generous with all of it.

And here — in our verses — the Christians living in one area of the world were pleased to be financially generous with Christians living in Jerusalem. Twice Paul tells us that it pleased the Christians to be financially generous. And he tells us that it pleased them because their financial generosity was birthed out of the spiritual blessings they’d been recipients of.

I wonder how the spiritual blessings you’ve received have made you into a more financially generous person? For it’s not just in these verses — but throughout the Bible — that you’ll see a connection between recognizing and appreciating the spiritual blessings you’ve been given and how financially generous you are.

We’re also called to be a family. We’re in verse thirty…

Romans 15:30–33 ESV

30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, 31 that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32 so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. 33 May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

These verses also show us our call to be Kingdom-minded. We see our call to be family in Paul’s description of this striving together — implying a unity among these Christians in their prayers for Paul. A family like unity birthed from Jesus being our Lord and the Holy Spirit filling us with love for one another.

And we’re called to be Kingdom-minded. We saw this earlier, but here Paul mentions Judea and Jerusalem — two of the areas Jesus mentioned in our call to be his witnesses.

CONCLUSION

Paul’s call and our call. God’s call on us as a church and his call on you as one of his followers. May we — like Paul — fulfill the calling to which we’ve been called — so that — we strive together in unity, and pray for one another, and find refreshment and joy by one another’s company — because — Jesus is our Lord and Savior — and because we’ve been filled with love for one another by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let’s pray.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, thank you for your call upon us — both as a church and as individuals. For those you call as individuals you call into your church. May we never try to separate your call upon our lives — individually — with your call upon your church.

Holy Spirit, you’re the One who awakens deaf ears, blind eyes, and dead hearts to the Good News of the gospel. You give new life and we believe. This is the very first call in any of our lives. May you make this call — right now — to many who hear my voice and yet don’t believe in Jesus. Call them. Awaken them. Give them life so that they believe.

And — Jesus — for those who respond — you call to a life of purpose. That of being a disciple who’s a Word and Spirit Christian. Who’s generous. Who makes disciples. Who’s Kingdom-minded. And who fulfills his or her call as part of your faith family. What a gift it is to be called by you. What a purpose. What a thrill.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — may you use each of us to fulfill your calling upon us as a church. And may the result be unity, and refreshment, and joy among us. And we pray all of this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

BENEDICTION (Prayer teams available)

May you respond to God’s call upon your life as we will fulfill his call for us as a church. Amen.

God loves you. I love you. You are sent.

DATE: 10-5-25

As always it’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And there’s one thing I want you to know — and this is true if you’re worshiping with us for the first time — if you’re joining us at our North Main Campus or are with our friends in Bucyrus — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.

SERIES INTRO

We’re continuing our series in Romans this weekend and we’re in the practical application section of Paul’s letter where — after eleven chapters of theological truths — we’re now in the “so what” section of Paul’s letter. Meaning he’s now addressing how all of the theology — that’s found in the first eleven chapters — is to play itself out in how we live. Or at least how it should influence the way we live.

And — today — we’re concluding our mini-series within our series in Romans — as Paul continues to address the same topic we’ve looked at the last two times we’ve been together. What topic is that? How to disagree.

When Paul started his discussion on how to disagree, he began with something quite controversial for the times in which we live. He says that part of the reason why we have disagreements with each other is because — and this is the controversial part — some of us are weak and some of us are strong. And — what he means by that — is that some of us are weak and strong when it comes to our understanding of the Christian faith and how it applies to life — which tells us that Paul is focusing on disagreements among Christians — though there are many ways to apply what he teaches to all of our relationships.

Last time — Paul instructed us on what we’re to do — and not do — when we disagree with one another. We were told to not despise or pass judgment on Christians with whom we disagree over a non-essential matter. This isn’t disagreement over an essential of the faith — doctrines like faith alone in Christ alone for salvation — this is about disagreements over non-essential matters. The examples Paul uses indicate that the Christians in Rome disagreed over what foods were acceptable to eat as followers of Jesus and whether or not there were special days for worship. Neither of these topics are essential to being a Christian.

And — as I’ve said again and again — non-essential doesn’t mean non-important. Many non-essential beliefs and practices are very important — they’re just not essential in determining whether someone’s a Christian or not. Non-essential also doesn’t mean that we believe in subjectivism — that what’s true for you is true for you, but for me this other thing is true. It just means that — in our fallibility and human limitations — we haven’t come to unity on what the Bible teaches on these matters and we believe that Christians on both sides are trying to be faithful to God and what they believe he’s said on the matter in the Bible.

So with that as a guide as to where we’ve been — if you have your Bible — please turn with me to Romans chapter fifteen. We’ll be in Romans chapter fifteen today — looking at verses one through seven. Where Paul — concluding his discussion on how to disagree — writes…

Romans 15:1–7 ESV

1 We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

In this — our final look at how to disagree — Paul reminds us of our ultimate goal in life. What goal? That God would be glorified in all areas of our life — including how we disagree with one another. We’ll look at this goal before turning our attention to an obligation we must fulfill in order for us to accomplish our goal. And — finally — we’ll see how we fulfill our obligation.

We’ll begin with our goal: the glory of God. Then we’ll look at an obligation we must fulfill in order for God to be glorified in our disagreements. And — finally — how we accomplish our obligation.

FOR THE GLORY OF GOD

So — first — our ultimate goal in life. The ultimate goal — when we disagree — should be the same for all areas of our life as followers of Jesus: That God would be glorified. That’s why Paul ends his section on how to disagree with the words — this is verse seven…

Romans 15:7 ESV

7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

Now — why did I say that the glory of God is our ultimate goal — not just in our disagreements — but in all areas of life? Because this is what we read in Scripture. For example…

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV

31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Including using the spiritual gifts that God’s given to each of us — which we looked at earlier this year — for Peter writes…

1 Peter 4:10–11 ESV

10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Glorifying God also includes what we do and don’t do with our bodies…

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 ESV

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

And why must we do this? For God is the One who created us…

Isaiah 43:6–7 ESV

6 I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, 7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I (God) created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

Which means all that we do is to be done for the glory of God so that others might turn to him. For as Jesus said…

Matthew 5:16 ESV

16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

And…

John 15:8 ESV

8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

And — when we live this way — we’ll join the psalmist and say…

Psalm 115:1 ESV

1 Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!

And join the saints in heaven who proclaim…

Revelation 4:11 ESV

11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

And join creation for…

Psalm 19:1 ESV

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Because we agree with Paul who said…

Romans 11:36 ESV

36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

All things — including our salvation — which is a gift from God. For…

Ephesians 1:11–12 ESV

11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

All things — including grace…

2 Corinthians 4:15 ESV

15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

All things — including our love for and unity with one another…

Philippians 1:9–11 ESV

9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Thus we say…

Psalm 86:12 ESV

12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.

Knowing that God’s glory will continue to expand across creation…

Habakkuk 2:14 ESV

14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Therefore we’re to…

1 Chronicles 16:28–29 ESV

28 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! 29 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;

So…

Isaiah 60:1–2 ESV

1 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. 2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.

And — at just the right time — the moment when darkness covered the earth — the Light of the world pierced the darkness…

Philippians 2:9–11 ESV

9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

For God has said…

Isaiah 42:8 ESV

8 I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.

Therefore when Jesus had fulfilled all that his Father required of him — and as the cross was just before him — he said…

John 17:4 ESV

4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

To glorify God in all of our life — that’s the ultimate goal for every Christian — including our goal in how we disagree with one another. This means that displaying God’s greatness and praising his name is the primary goal in our disagreement. Not winning an argument. Not proving our point. Not getting the other side to concede. For you can be on the right side of the debate and not have God being glorified as your goal — and that would mean you win an argument and yet fail to fulfill your God given purpose. 

For God being glorified in your life is why you — and I — and all people exist. This is why you exist — Christian or not. God being glorified is why you’re alive and breathing — Christian or not. And we’re either moving towards this goal — as followers of Jesus — the theological term is growing in our sanctification — so that God being glorified is more and more the goal of our life. For — if we’re not growing in our spiritual maturity — then we won’t disagree with one another in a way that glorifies our God.

AN OBLIGATION FOR THE GLORY OF GOD

So how do we grow in our spiritual maturity when it comes to our disagreeing with one another? Because — in order for us to accomplish our goal — that God would be glorified even in our disagreements — we must recognize the obligation that’s now before each of us who follow Jesus. For our goal — that God would be glorified in our disagreements — comes with an obligation. There’s something expected and required of us who follow Jesus. Paul tells us this in verse one.

Romans 15:1–2 ESV

1 We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

Here’s our obligation if God is going to be glorified in our disagreements: We who are strong are to bear with the failings of the weak — and none of us are to please ourselves, but we’re to please our neighbors — our fellow Christians — so we build them up in the faith.

Bearing with the failings of the weak — and pleasing them — doesn’t mean that we just capitulate and give them whatever they’re asking for. After all — our goal is to build them up. And often the very thing the weak think will please them is what’s keeping them from maturing in the faith. That’s what Paul means by “the failings of the weak.” These aren’t moral failings — or necessarily sinful behaviors — this is a lack of spiritual maturity on their part when it comes to non-essential beliefs and behaviors.

And I want to be clear about something: A person can be spiritually mature in many areas and weak in others. So it’s not that one person is always a weak Christian or always a strong Christian — for one can be strong in ninety percent of their Christian faith and yet incredibly weak in the other ten percent. And this is why disagreements among Christians are so tricky — for most of us think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. We think, “Well I read my Bible regularly. I attend worship every week. I’m actively involved in my Life Group. I serve. I give. I go on missions trips. I’ve memorized lots of God’s Word. I can defend my view of the end times and so on.” And all that is great and spiritual growth and to be commended. But all of that can be true — and yet — you’re still an immature spiritual leader in the home. Or unaware how the religion of your political party has sunk its nails in you. Or how social media has consumed your time and thoughts and views in many areas of life. 

Not to mention how many of us don’t read our Bible regularly, or attend worship weekly, or serve, or give, or go on missions trips and so on — and yet — view ourselves as spiritually refined and mature in our views on — well — on everything!

All that to say — though some of us may be new to the faith — and thus — generally speaking — weak in most areas — while others of us have been faithfully following Jesus and growing in the faith for years — and thus — generally speaking — strong in most areas — the majority of us fall somewhere in between. We’re strong in some areas — really strong in others — weak in some — and more weak than we realize in other areas.

But our aim — if you remember — is to glorify God — to please him first and foremost. And that means — especially if you happen to be the weak brother or sister in Christ in a particular situation — that we realize that — just because you don’t get what you want or what you think you should — that doesn’t mean that the strong are being unloving, unkind, or disobedient.

And — for those who happen to be the strong — in a particular situation — the strong are to be bearing — which means enduring — and kind towards your weaker spiritual siblings. Your goal should be to help them mature in the faith in this area. For Paul wants the weak to become strong — which should be the desire of all of us — we should desire for all who follow Jesus to grow stronger and stronger in the faith.

I wonder what your attitude is towards those whom you think are weak or spiritually immature on a particular non-essential issue? Sometimes everything about them is immature. Other times it’s just one area where you happen to disagree with them. Regardless, what’s your attitude towards the other person? Is your desire to help them grow and mature? Or do you just want to avoid another long conversation with them? Maybe you just want to prove to them how wrong they are? Or to get them to agree with you? I wonder if your answers to these questions reveal that — maybe — just maybe — you’re not as strong as you think you are?

HOW WE FULFILL OUR OBLIGATION

At this point — we now know our goal — that God would be glorified — and that we have an obligation we must fulfill in order to accomplish our goal — we’re to bear with the failings of the weak, not please ourselves, but seek to please our fellow Christians instead. And that sounds good and all — but how do we actually fulfill our obligation? Do we just grin and bear it? Tighten our belts and trudge on through the disagreements among us? Give up and go our separate ways?

Paul explains how we do all of this beginning in verse three.

Romans 15:3–6 ESV

3 For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul gives us three reminders that we must keep before us in order to fulfill our obligation when we disagree — so that God is glorified in our disagreements. Three reminders — think of them as instructions that you most likely already know — that Paul gives us so that we become the kind of people who glorify God in our disagreements.

First, we must look to Christ. In verse three Paul writes…

Romans 15:3 ESV

3 For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”

To fulfill our obligation we must look to Jesus and remember that Christ did not please himself. But notice that Paul doesn’t say, “For Christ did not please himself, instead, he did what we wanted.” That’s not what Paul writes. Paul goes from Christ not pleasing himself to something Christ did that is unexpected and challenging to those who follow him: he gave his life on the cross. And it’s his sacrifice which ultimately pleases his people — for his sacrifice is the reason we have found true life.

You see, Jesus didn’t try to appease the unappeasable. He knew us — he knew our hearts — he knew that we’d never be pleased for there’s always one more demand, suggestion, “helpful piece of feedback” we’d have given him. Yet he denied himself for our sake anyway — he gave up his freedom so we might be set free from our enslavement to Satan, sin, death, and hell.

And — when we look to Christ — we see the One who welcomed us into his family, into a relationship with him — not because we deserved it or even because he looked around at humanity and thought we were the best options available. No — he did so because he chose — in love — to take our sins — our reproaches — that were offenses against him — and instead of giving us what we deserve — he experienced the judgment we deserved for our sins on the cross.

Thus what we’re to remember is this: Whatever we may have to give up for the sake of our brothers and sisters in Christ is — as they say — small potatoes. Not even worth comparing to what Jesus gave up for our sake. A great question to ask yourself is this: Am I seeking to please others as Jesus has first pleased me? Am I following Christ — and his example — of what it means to bear with the failings of the weak?

Remember — he is the One…

Philippians 2:6–11 ESV

6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

To be the kind of people who glorify God in our disagreements we must look to Christ.

Second, we must turn to the Bible. In verse four Paul writes…

Romans 15:4 ESV

4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

This book is what was written in former days. For sure — Paul would’ve been thinking of the Old Testament — but we’re blessed with the Old and New Testaments. And as Paul writes elsewhere…

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Thus all of God’s Word is written for our instruction — so that we may be complete and equipped for every good work. Including the good work of disagreeing with one another in a way that glorifies God.

Yet Paul tells us that we’re to turn to the Bible with a specific purpose in mind: We turn to it for both endurance and encouragement. Again in verse four we read…

Romans 15:4 ESV

4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Do you know what makes division so easy when you find yourself in a disagreement? It requires no enduring with the other person. Do you know why it’s so easy to allow divisiveness to spill over into words that do anything else but encourage the other person? Because we’re not submitting ourselves to God’s Word.

God’s Word — at all times — but especially when we disagree with a fellow Christian over a non-essential matter — will give us the endurance and encouragement that both parties need so that unity — not division — is the result — which leads to us living with hope. 

Again in verse four Paul writes…

Romans 15:4 ESV

4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

And hope is what we all need in this divisive age in which we live. Culture says, “Oh, you disagree with me — we’re through — it’s hopeless.” Yet God says to his people, “Endure with one another. Encourage one another. Stay unified with one another. Continue to love one another. In this way you will have hope — hope that abounds and overflows.” Whose voice will we listen to? Whose voice will you listen to? Culture’s voice or God’s?

Finally, we must remember to pray. Did you notice how — after all of chapter fourteen — and four verses of chapter fifteen — in this lengthy instruction on how to disagree — Paul suddenly starts to pray? Look at what happens in verse five.

Romans 15:5–6 ESV

5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul goes from instruction straight into prayer. No “let’s all bow our heads and close our eyes” — none of that. He just goes straight into prayer. 

And what does Paul pray for? He prays for everything he just instructed us to do in order to fulfill our obligation so that God is glorified in our disagreements. For our God is the “God of endurance and encouragement” who grants us the endurance and encouragement we discover when we turn to the Bible as our final authority. And doing so gives us hope. This is the very endurance and encouragement we need in order to live in harmony with one another. And all of this follows the example of our Savior — Jesus — who we’re to turn to. So Paul ends his discussion on how to disagree by praying — and he prays that God would be glorified in our lives.

CONCLUSION

Christ. The Word. And prayer. 

Jesus. The Bible. And bringing one another — and our disagreements — to God in prayer. 

This is our goal. This is how we disagree in a way that brings glory to our God. This is how we can disagree over non-essential matters — and not have to go our separate ways. But only if we’re all committed to following Christ, submitting to God’s Word, and to prayer.

Our unity is in our hands. No one of us can maintain our unity — we must all work to maintain it together. But it only takes one of us to create division. Which will you choose to be? A promoter of unity or of division?

That’s the question before each of us. And my prayer — and even more — my hope for all of us — is that we will fight for our unity — especially in our disagreements. Let’s pray.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, when we think of all that you’ve done to unite us with you — and with each other — all we can do is stand in amazement — and ask for forgiveness. For often we work against you and the unity you desire for us to display to the world.

Holy Spirit, this is why we’re so desperate for your power in our lives. For the only way that we’ll submit to the Word of God in all areas of our lives — including in how we disagree — is by being empowered by you who lives in all who believe in Jesus. For Scripture calls you the Spirit of unity — unite our hearts together we pray.

And — Jesus — our unity with your Father — and each other — is only possible because of the loving sacrifice you offered when you gave your life on the cross. You came to earth to fulfill what we failed to do — which ultimately led to your death in our place. May we look to you. May we look to your love for us. May we look to the love you displayed — with your arms stretched open wide on the cross — for each other — and maintain the unity you died for.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — it’s hard not to see the division in our world — and the division is exhausting. May those who don’t yet believe in you — hear of the unity you offer — and see it in our faith family — so that they respond by believing in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. And we pray all of this in his name. Amen.

COMMUNION (JOSH MOVES TO TABLE)

As we turn our attention to the table — the Lord’s Table — in the words of Paul that we’ve looked at today…

Romans 15:5–7 ESV

5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant us to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together we may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 May we welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us, for the glory of God.

Therefore…

Leader: Lift up your hearts.

Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord.

Leader: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

Congregation: It is right for us to give thanks and praise.

Leader: With joy we praise you, gracious God, for you have created heaven and earth, made us in your image, and kept covenant with us — even when we fell into sin.

Congregation: We give you thanks for Jesus Christ, our Lord, who by his life, death, and resurrection opened to us the way of everlasting life. Therefore we join our voices with all the saints and angels and the whole creation to proclaim the glory of your name.

We give thanks to God the Father that our Savior, Jesus Christ, before he suffered, gave us this memorial of his sacrifice, until he comes again. At his last supper, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this in remembrance of me.” For whenever we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. – 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Leader: Therefore we proclaim our faith as signed and sealed in this sacrament.

Congregation: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

INSTRUCTIONS

At this time, I’d like to invite forward those who are going to be serving us. And — while they make their way forward — know that as the bread and cup are passed down your rows, you’re to take the bread on your own — but save the cup — which we’ll drink together. Also — there’s a gluten free option in the trays with the bread. 

If you’re not taking communion today — first — know that no one is judging you. And — second — we’d appreciate it if you could help those who are taking communion by passing the trays to the next person in your row. If you have any questions about communion — or what it means to follow Jesus — please stop by the resource center before you leave today.

Eat the bread on your own — but save the cup — which we’ll drink together.

COMMUNION PASSED OUT (Worship song)

The blood of Christ, shed for you.

CLOSING WORSHIP SONG

BENEDICTION (Prayer teams available)

I think it’ll be good for us to hear Paul’s prayer one last time:

Romans 15:5–7 ESV

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. Amen.

God loves you. I love you. You are sent.

DATE: 3-23-25

As always it’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And — if this happens to be your first time worshiping with us — if you’re joining us at our North Main Campus or are with our friends in Bucyrus — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.

INTRODUCTION

We’re continuing our mini-series in Romans this weekend — taking a look at the spiritual gifts that Paul mentions in his letter. And we’re taking time to explore spiritual gifts so we all understand what these gifts are and how they’re beneficial to our faith family. Now the purpose of the spiritual gifts is something I have and will continue to remind us of: Spiritual gifts are abilities given to individual believers by the Holy Spirit in order to equip God’s people for ministry, both for the edification of the church and for God’s salvific (or saving) mission to the world. – Lexham Survey of Theology

Here’s what Paul says about the gifts — in Romans chapter twelve — beginning in verse four.

Romans 12:4–8 ESV

4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

We took two weeks to explore the gift of prophecy and — last week — we looked at the gift of service. Which means that — today — we’ll look at the spiritual gift of teaching, which Paul mentions in verse seven when he writes…

Romans 12:7 ESV

7b the one who teaches, in his teaching;

WHAT IS THE GIFT OF TEACHING?

So let’s begin by answering the question, “What is the gift of teaching?” Here’s the definition that I shared with you a few weeks ago.

Teaching

The gift of teaching is the divine strength or ability to study and learn from the Scriptures primarily to bring understanding and depth to other Christians.

When we looked at the gift of prophecy I mentioned how some Christians say that prophecy and teaching are essentially the same gift — and I explained why I think this is a misinformed view of the two gifts. For prophecy is a spontaneous word brought to mind — whereas teaching includes studying the Bible so that it can be explained to others.

And — similar to other gifts we’ve looked at — teaching is something that — one — all Christians are to do — two — is associated with a leadership position — or office — in the church — and three — is a spiritual gift given to some in the church who will see greater results in their teaching.

Let’s look at how teaching is something that all Christians are to do. In some of his final words, Jesus said…

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

If you’re newer to Gateway, this is where our mission statement comes from as a church. Gateway Church exists “to glorify God by making disciples of Jesus Christ.” And this is why — to help you grow as a disciple of Jesus — we want you to worship, connect, serve, and go — because Jesus told us to “go and make disciples of all nations.” But notice what he said is part of the disciple-making process: We’re to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — and we’re to teach — there’s our word — teach them to observe all that Jesus commanded.

This is called the Great Commission and — in many ways — this is the life purpose of every single follower of Jesus — not just collectively as the church — but individually as well. Which means we all have a responsibility to teach others what it means to follow Jesus. For example, Paul writes…

Titus 2:3–5 NLT

3 Similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. They must not slander others or be heavy drinkers. Instead, they should teach others what is good. 4 These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, 5 to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God.

Older women are to teach younger women what is good — how to love their husbands and children, how to live wisely and in purity, and so on. I’m so thankful for women like Sherry Shultis and Annette Peverly who take verses like these seriously and lead Bible studies for women in our church. 

But this teaching — that all Christians are to do — is also to take place in our homes — as husbands and wives teach each other to be more faithful followers of Jesus — or as we raise our children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord — a command given to all Christian parents. This can happen in informal moments — like meeting up for coffee with a friend to talk about life with Jesus over the past week. Or in more formal settings — like a scheduled Bible study at work. Regardless if we have the spiritual gift of teaching — we’re all commanded to teach others God’s Word.

Now — let’s look at the office — or leadership position — that’s associated with the gift.

A passage we’ve looked at frequently during this mini-series on spiritual gifts — is found in Ephesians where Paul writes…

Ephesians 4:11–12 NLT

11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.

Biblical scholars debate whether or not four or five offices are being described here. The debate being whether or not pastors and teachers are two separate offices or one — that of pastor/teacher. The disagreement has to do with the original language — which we don’t need to get into right now because — regardless — there is an office associated with the teaching.

In another of his letters, Paul writes this about the office of overseer — also known as an elder or pastor.

1 Timothy 3:1–7 ESV

1 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

About this list of elder qualifications — Bible scholar D.A. Carson has said that the list is, “Remarkable for being unremarkable.” Meaning the qualifying characteristics for elders are characteristics that should be present in the life of every Christian. In fact — the only characteristic that really sticks out is “able to teach” — though I’d be willing to concede “not being a recent convert” as well — for we don’t want leaders in the church to be new to the faith.

Last week I shared a bunch of ways individuals with the gift of serving are using their spiritual gift for God’s glory and all of our good. This week — I thought I’d share with you how your elders — in recognizing the requirement to be teachers of God’s Word as the elders of this church — do just what we should expect elders to do: to teach.

Two of your elders — Matt Heft and Justin Stiles — regularly teach in Kidway. Think about that: those who hold the highest office of spiritual leadership in our faith family make it a priority to teach some of the youngest people among us. And — not just on Sunday mornings — these two have been Bible teachers during VBS week as well.

You’ll find Kevin Snyder in the Attic teaching students God’s Word — the Attic is where our Middle Schoolers meet. Something that was an encouragement to me happened this past December when a group of elders — Ed Grable, Jim Tomlinson, Matt Buttermore, and Kevin — joined me in traveling two hours to where our Middle and High Schoolers were meeting for their annual youth retreat. Part of the retreat includes breakout sessions — where the students see how God’s Word relates to a variety of different topics. Half of your elders led some of these breakout sessions. The teens of Gateway were being taught God’s Word by the elders of our church.

Scott Sharpe and Terry Joliff taught our baptism class earlier this year. And — finally — unsurprisingly — some of the elders preach God’s Word to you on Sundays when I’m not preaching.

I hope hearing this brings encouragement to you — that your elders take seriously their responsibility to be teachers of God’s Word.

Now — as you’ve heard me say many times — having the spiritual gift of teaching doesn’t mean that one is automatically qualified for the leadership office associated with the gift. Yet — without the gift — someone isn’t qualified to be a pastor or elder in the church. For we see — in Scripture — that to be an elder or pastor — one must be able to teach God’s Word — and do so in a way that equips and builds up others who are part of the local church.

Paul makes this even more clear in his second letter to Timothy, where writes…

2 Timothy 2:2 NLT

2 You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.

Paul tells Timothy that he not only has the responsibility to obey what Paul has taught — and not only must he teach what Paul has taught — Timothy is to teach others who will teach what Paul has taught. 

He tells Titus something similar when he writes…

Titus 1:5–11 NLT

5 I left you on the island of Crete so you could complete our work there and appoint elders in each town as I instructed you. 6 An elder must live a blameless life. He must be faithful to his wife, and his children must be believers who don’t have a reputation for being wild or rebellious. 7 A church leader is a manager of God’s household, so he must live a blameless life. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered; he must not be a heavy drinker, violent, or dishonest with money. 8 Rather, he must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must love what is good. He must live wisely and be just. He must live a devout and disciplined life. 9 He must have a strong belief in the trustworthy message he was taught; then he will be able to encourage others with wholesome teaching and show those who oppose it where they are wrong. 10 For there are many rebellious people who engage in useless talk and deceive others. This is especially true of those who insist on circumcision for salvation. 11 They must be silenced, because they are turning whole families away from the truth by their false teaching. And they do it only for money.

Paul tells both Timothy and Titus that they’re responsible for raising up the next generation of elders who will be teachers in the church. They’re to be trustworthy, blameless, faithful, not arrogant or quick-tempered, hospitable and so on. And — specific to the gift we’re looking at — elders must have a strong belief in what he’s been taught and are to encourage others with wholesome teaching as they show others — who oppose wholesome teaching and sound doctrine — where they’re wrong.

One final comment about this gift: This is a gift that one can grow in. Meaning — even though this is a spiritual gift — progress can be made in how good of a teacher you are. And I think this idea — of being able to grow in a spiritual gift — isn’t something that only applies to the gift of teaching — but is a principle that can be applied to all of the spiritual gifts. You’ve heard me say this before, but the sermons I preach today are way better than the first sermons I preached. Not because I didn’t have the spiritual gift of teaching back then — but because I’ve become a better teacher having preached for nearly twenty years.

Now — I’m thankful that we can bring in guest preachers who have years of preaching under their belts and thousands of sermons in their rearview mirrors — but — if we want to be a church that raises up the next generation of pastors — we must be willing to hear someone’s first sermon. And their second. And third. I tell folks you don’t really know if you’re called to preach until you’ve preached fifty sermons. Why fifty? Because by then either the study and preparation it takes to preach will be something you love or will be a burdensome chore. And those for which it’s a chore are not those who’ve been gifted and called.

So — thank you in advance — for being a church that’s so Kingdom-minded — that you’re willing to sit through some sermons of the next generation of pastors that aren’t as good as John Piper or Matt Chandler or pick your favorite preacher — and even more so — thank you for encouraging those who are — in a very public way — wanting to grow in their gift so that the church of tomorrow will be blessed with pastors and teachers who are able to pass on the truths of our Christian faith to the generation that comes after them.

A FEW WARNINGS

Now — to wrap up this look at the spiritual gift of teaching — I want us to look at a warning in the Bible to those who teach and a few warnings to those who are taught. Some warnings for all of us — teachers or not. 

First, a warning to those who teach. This is from Jesus’ younger brother, James. 

James 3:1–12 NLT

1 Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way. 3 We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. 4 And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. 5 In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. 6 And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself. 7 People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, 8 but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. 9 Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. 10 And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! 11 Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? 12 Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring.

Those who teach will be judged more strictly — there’s the warning. James goes on to demonstrate how the tongue — meaning our words — are unmatched in all of creation in a very bad way. James says that freshwater springs produce freshwater — just like they’re supposed to. Fig trees produce figs — grape vines produce grapes. And then there’s our tongues — our mouths — our words — which God created to speak words of praise to him. Yet from our mouths come both praise of God and cursing of people made in his image. And — like a small spark that sets a forest ablaze — our words can set our world on fire. And — according to James — this metaphorical fire is straight from hell.

So — those of us who teach — are going to be judged by God more strictly. We’ll be held accountable for every word that comes out of our mouth. A warning to those who preach and to Kidway Life Group leaders. A warning for our elders and those who teach our youth. A warning to all who teach in the church.

Jesus said something similar when he said…

Matthew 12:35–37 ESV

35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

The words we speak — for good or for evil — reveal the condition of our heart — what it loves most. And — to be clear — Jesus is speaking about all of us. Yes, teachers will be judged more strictly — but all of us will be judged because we’re all called to teach others in a general sense. Thus, the goal for every Christian should be an increased love for God in their heart so that what pours out of their mouths is God-honoring words — because this is why our mouths were created.

What kinds of words come out of your mouth? Words that honor God or words that you’ll be judged for? Words that make you a hypocrite or words that demonstrate that Jesus is your joy and greatest delight? Back in January — when Matt Heft — one of our elders — preached — he had a sponge up on stage and used it to illustrate that whatever we soak in will eventually get squeezed out of us. In response to the point Matt made, I added this to my list of life resolutions.

Pursue Christ in such a way that when life squeezes me (either by God’s hand or the world’s), godliness is what comes out of me.

Many things may come out of me when life squeezes me — including physical and emotional responses — but what definitely comes out are words. 

When life squeezes you — frustrates you — when everything seems to be against you — what words do you speak? No excuses, Jesus says. Either they honor him or they’re words from hell.

Now — some warnings to us who are taught — for we’re all taught by others. The apostle Peter writes this.

2 Peter 2:1–3 ESV

1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

Just as false prophets rose up among the people in the Old Testament — Peters says that in our day false teachers will rise up among us. First, I find it interesting that Peter doesn’t compare false prophets with false prophets. Instead it’s false prophets then — with false teachers now. Though false prophets can and do exist today — the greater danger for God’s people are false teachers. Those who secretly bring in heresies that destroy those who believe them — false teachings that lead people away from Christ. These false teachers will exploit others even as they teach them exactly what they want to hear. Yet God is not blind or sitting idly by — their destruction is coming.

About these false teachers — a few verses later — Peter writes…

2 Peter 2:9–10 NLT

9 So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment. 10 He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority. These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings without so much as trembling.

False teachers have some common identifiers that — if we’re watchful — we’ll notice and not be duped by their false teaching. They’ll be twisted in their sexual desire — meaning they’ll go against God’s clear teaching on sexuality in his Word. They’ll despise authority. They’ll be proud and arrogant and so on. 

Now — to be sure — just because someone is proud doesn’t mean they’re a false teacher — they may just need to repent — but false teachers refuse to repent when called out for their sin. They’ll justify, make excuses, not admit to having made a mistake, and will scoff and despise those in authority. Thus those who are taught by others must be watchful and careful as to who we let teach us.

Peter continues his warning about false teachers with…

2 Peter 2:17–22 NLT

17 These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness. 18 They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting. With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception. 19 They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you. 20 And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. 21 It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. 22 They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.” And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.”

One of the most dangerous things about false teachers is how deceptive they are. Even when they’ve clearly been revealed to be nothing more than speakers of hot air and false teaching — they’ll still lure people into believing their lies and deception. They’ll promise freedom — they’ll point to true Christianity and call it slavery — or lifeless — or say that only they have the secrets to spiritual power or insights into the Bible that no one else has discovered — and will enslave all who believe their teaching. Peter even warns that some who believe the gospel will be led astray by such teachers. So be watchful — know God’s Word — don’t get complacent — for false teachers write books, are on YouTube, and have many followers on social media.

And — finally — about these false teachers Peter writes…

2 Peter 3:15–18 NLT

15 And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him—16 speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction. 17 You already know these things, dear friends. So be on guard; then you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing. 18 Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.

What a hopeful reminder — God is patient with us. He’s giving us — and others — time to be saved, to repent, to be corrected, and so on. But the warning is that false teachers will use God’s Word to spread their false teaching. Though there are false teachers who don’t claim to be followers of Jesus — the greater danger are the false teachers who twist God’s Word to say things it doesn’t. Peter says false teachers did it with Paul’s writings in his day — and false teachers continue to do so in our day.

This is why we must be discerning and so know God’s Word that we can spot when it’s being twisted by false teachers. “Well how will I know if someone’s a false teacher or someone who simply made a mistake in what they taught?” Repentance. Even the best of us with the spiritual gift of teaching are not perfect. Thus, when we teach something not true or inaccurate — we will repent. We’ll respond to those who disagree with us with humility — just as — with humility — we should approach those when we think they’ve made a mistake in their teaching.

But false teachers will not repent — for they do no wrong — at least that’s what they think. That’s why repentance is key in recognizing if someone simply made a mistake or is intentionally trying to lead others on a path of destruction.

CONCLUSION

I want to leave you with a final word Paul wrote to Timothy. Timothy was a young man pastoring the church in Ephesus. He was mentored by Paul — he’s one of the faithful men Paul had handed off the truths of our faith to. This is what he told Timothy.

2 Timothy 3:14–4:5 NLT

14 But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. 15 You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. 1 I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead when he comes to set up his Kingdom: 2 Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching. 3 For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will reject the truth and chase after myths. 5 But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you.

Gateway, may we always remain faithful to the things we’ve been taught. And though our ears may itch from time to time — may we so long for sound and wholesome teaching that we recognize false teaching when we hear it. And may we remain committed to teaching others the Good News — the gospel of Jesus Christ — as we carry out the ministry and mission that God’s given us. Let’s pray.

PRAYER

Gracious Father, thank you for those you’ve called to be teachers of your people. For through them — and the Spirit’s work in them — we better understand who you are, who we are, what Jesus has accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection, and the hope we have because of our faith in him.

Spirit, Thank you for those you’ve already called, equipped, and empowered with the gift of teaching. We ask you to empower more among us who are spiritually gifted to teach our children. To teach our teens. To teach our men. To teach our women. To teach our teachers. 

And — Jesus — our desire is to obey the mission that you gave to your church. To go and make disciples of all nations — baptizing and teaching them. This is our purpose. This is why we exist. Not just as a church — but as individual followers of you. Help us to confidently step into this calling to which you’ve called us. And we pray all of this in your name. Amen.

DATE: 3-2-25

As always it’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And — if this happens to be your first time worshiping with us — or if you’re joining us at our North Main Campus or are with our friends in Bucyrus — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.

INTRODUCTION

We’re continuing our series in Romans this weekend but — honestly — this is sort of a series within our Romans series. For Paul has recently mentioned spiritual gifts in his letter — and we’re taking time to explore the spiritual gifts so we all understand how these gifts are to be used in our faith family. I realize that you may not be a Christian — and my hope for you is that you’ll see a glimpse of the matchless power that’s found in the one true God as we explore spiritual gifts today.

Now — the purpose of the spiritual gifts is something I have — and will continue to remind you of: Spiritual gifts are abilities given to individual believers by the Holy Spirit in order to equip God’s people for ministry, both for the edification of the church and for God’s salvific mission to the world. – Lexham Survey of Theology

I’m not going to say anything else about the purpose of the gifts today — you can go listen to my sermon from two weeks ago for more on that — because our goal now is to work our way through the spiritual gifts Paul mentions.

To remind us of what Paul says about the gifts — in Romans chapter twelve — beginning in verse four — we read…

Romans 12:4–8 ESV

4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

In our last sermon in Romans — I showed you a list of spiritual gifts with a short definition for each. I also mentioned how there’s not a definitive list of the spiritual gifts. There are a few places in the Bible where we find lists of spiritual gifts — like here in Romans 12 — but in other places we read things like…

Exodus 28:3 ESV

3 You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him for my priesthood.

And…

Exodus 31:2–5 ESV

2 “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, 4 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, 5 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft.

Are these examples of spiritual gifts in the Old Testament? Are skill, ability, intelligence, knowledge, and craftsmanship spiritual gifts? Maybe? Some Christians include all of these as gifts of the Spirit — while others only include what are found in the New Testament.

From my perspective — we don’t need to be overly dogmatic about it — as I don’t think Paul’s goal was to list out all of the possible ways the Holy Spirit empowers and equips God’s people. Remember Paul was writing to help specific churches grow and mature in their faith. Often Paul was responding to a particular situation that a church was facing — so it shouldn’t surprise us that he’d mention some spiritual gifts to one church, and other gifts to a different church, and not even mention the gifts to another church. What he wrote about was dependent on the needs of the church he was writing to.

And yet we shouldn’t be surprised that he brings up spiritual gifts to the Christians in Rome. I say this because of something Paul writes early on in his letter. Way back in the first chapter Paul writes…

Romans 1:11–12 ESV

11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you — 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

Near the start of his letter Paul says he longs to be with these Christians so he might impart to them a spiritual gift. And then he goes on to give two reasons why he wants to do this. One — so they’ll be strengthened. And — two — so that both he and they will be encouraged. And — as we’ve previously seen — strengthening and encouraging others are two reasons the Spirit equips and empowers his people with spiritual gifts.

Now — imparting a spiritual gift may sound strange to you — “Doesn’t the Holy Spirit choose who gets what spiritual gifts?” Yes the Holy Spirit does. However, we also see in the Bible that the Holy Spirit will use others to be the means by which he gives a Christian a spiritual gift.

For example — to Timothy — Paul writes…

1 Timothy 4:14 NLT

14 Do not neglect the spiritual gift you received through the prophecy spoken over you when the elders of the church laid their hands on you.

And in another letter to Timothy Paul writes…

2 Timothy 1:6 NLT

6 This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.

Paul warns Timothy — who’s pastoring the church in Ephesus at this time — to not neglect the spiritual gift he has. And Paul reminds Timothy that this gift was given to him by a prophetic word as the elders laid their hands on him. In a second letter, Paul reminds Timothy again of this moment — when hands were laid on him as he was given a spiritual gift. About this moment in Timothy’s life — one of my study Bible notes says that the laying on of hands is, “A gesture used to symbolize the impartation of power. Paul recognizes that God empowers and equips believers for ministry…and uses (the laying on of hands)…to do so.” (Lexham Study Bible)

Now — to be clear — there’s nothing magical about having elders lay hands on you and pray for you to be empowered with a particular spiritual gift. The Spirit of God can — and has — given his gifts to individual Christians without the laying on of hands. Yet I wonder what blessings we might experience if more of us would humble ourselves — and put into practice the act of having the elders pray for us to receive particular gifts through the laying on of their hands?

So here’s something we’re going to do each week while we look at the gifts of the Spirit. At the end of our worship services — at both of our Gateway campuses — elders will be available to lay hands on those who desire to receive the specific gift preached on that day. This isn’t a “general come up for prayer” — we’ve got prayer teams available to pray for you in that way — instead — this will be an opportunity for us to model what we see in Timothy’s life. So at the end of the worship service — come forward if you desire the specific gift that was preached on. 

And it’s OK if there’s no desire on your part for a specific gift. And it’s OK if you already know what your spiritual gifts are and have no need for us to pray for you. But — I also want it to be OK — for those who do desire a particular spiritual gift — to come forward and be prayed for by the elders. In fact — I don’t just want it to be OK — my hope is that this would become normal for us. You know — it being normal for us to do what we see in the Bible.

PROPHECY AND ITS PURPOSE

So let’s start looking at specific gifts. And we’ll start where Paul starts — with the gift of prophecy. In verse six Paul writes…

Romans 12:6 ESV

6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;

The definition of prophecy that I shared last week is…

The gift of prophecy is the divine strength or ability to communicate God’s truth and heart in a way that calls people to a right relationship with God.

That’s a pretty user-friendly definition of prophecy. Others have defined the spiritual gift of prophecy as…

The human report of a divine revelation. – Sam Storms

And as…

Telling something that God has spontaneously brought to mind. – Wayne Grudem

So — the first thing to notice in these definitions — is that the New Testament spiritual gift of prophecy is not the same as the gift of preaching or teaching. How do we know this? Because the gifts of prophecy and teaching are always mentioned as distinct gifts from one another — and preaching — spoiler alert — is never officially called a spiritual gift in any of the lists we find in the Bible.

Here are some examples where we see the gifts of prophecy and teaching being mentioned as distinct from one another. We’ll start with some verses that you’re becoming very familiar with.

Romans 12:6–7 ESV

6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching;

It would be odd for Paul to say, “According to the grace given to us by God, some of us have been given the gift of prophecy — which means teaching — while others of us have been given the gift of teaching — which also means teaching.” Who writes like that? No one!

Additionally, in First Corinthians he writes…

1 Corinthians 12:28–29 ESV

28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?

And later he writes…

1 Corinthians 14:6 ESV

6 Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?

If Paul meant for us to view the gifts of prophecy and teaching as the same thing — why would he go out of his way to make a distinction between the gifts?

So how are the gifts of prophecy and teaching different? Let’s start with the definition of teaching that I shared with you previously.

The gift of teaching is the divine strength or ability to study and learn from the Scriptures primarily to bring understanding and depth to other Christians.

Teaching is a gift of the Spirit where an individual — having studied the Bible — explains God’s Word to others so they understand it better. So teaching is text-based — meaning it’s an explanation of Scripture — whereas prophecy is a word or thought or vision that’s spontaneously brought to an individual’s mind by the Spirit.

Now — at this point — some of us may be concerned about the integrity of the Bible. If the Holy Spirit gives prophetic revelation today — wouldn’t these revelations need to be added to the Bible? This is an often used argument against the gift of prophecy being for today. Now — it’s a great question with an easy answer. Do prophetic revelations today need to be added to the Bible? The answer is no! Why? Because we know that not everything prophesied in biblical times was written down as part of Scripture. Here’s an example from the book of Acts.

Acts 21:8–9 ESV

8 On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. 9 He had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied.

Luke — the author of the book of Acts — tells us that one of the early church leaders — Philip — had four daughters. And his daughters prophesied — they were equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit with the gift of prophecy. Do you know what these women prophesied? You don’t — not from Scripture — because their prophecies are not recorded in the Bible. And there are many other examples in the Bible of people empowered by the Holy Spirit as prophets — and yet their words were not included in the Bible. And — if that was true for both prophets in the Old and New Testaments — why wouldn’t we expect the Holy Spirit to empower and equip Christians today with the gift of prophecy without this causing concern about the authority, sufficiency, and finality of God’s Word?

But — even more helpful — or challenging — depending on your view of the gift of prophecy — Paul writes these words to the Christians in Corinth.

1 Corinthians 14:1–5 ESV

1 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 2 For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. 3 On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. 4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. 5 Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

And — a bit later — Paul writes…

1 Corinthians 14:24–25 ESV

24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.

And near the end of the chapter he writes…

1 Corinthians 14:39 ESV

39 So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy…

A couple of points about the gift of prophecy. First, Paul starts the chapter off with two commands — and the commands are — one — pursue love and — two — earnestly desire the spiritual gifts. And — to make his point —he adds “especially that you may prophesy.” And near the end of the chapter he repeats the command: “earnestly desire to prophesy.”

Now — I don’t think anyone’s going to argue against Paul’s first command — pursue love. And — given that he just finished the love chapter of the Bible — it’s understandable why pursuing love is on his mind. But his command to earnestly — or eagerly — that we’re to be dedicated to desiring the spiritual gifts — especially the gift of prophecy — and — then repeats his command at the end of the chapter — well — this command many Christians justify not obeying.

But notice how this is a positive command — we’re to earnestly desire the gift of prophecy. But we also find a negative command in regards to this gift. To the Christians in Thessalonica Paul writes…

1 Thessalonians 5:20–21 ESV

20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good.

Here we’re given three commands. We’re commanded to not despise prophecies, to test everything, and to hold fast to what is good. So — not only are we to earnestly desire the spiritual gifts — especially that you may prophesy — we’re also commanded to not despise prophecies. Commands in the New Testament that would seem to make it clear that this was an important and beneficial gift to New Testament Christians. And — if beneficial to them — why wouldn’t it be beneficial to us today?

Some answer this question with, “Because we have a complete Bible now. That’s why we don’t need the gift of prophecy today.” After all, Paul did write…

1 Corinthians 13:8–10 ESV

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

Now — I will concede — Paul makes it clear that there will be a point in history when prophecies and tongues and knowledge will cease: when the perfect comes. And some claim that the completed Bible is what Paul means by the word “perfect” — which wasn’t finished when he wrote these words. But if we continue reading, Paul writes…

1 Corinthians 13:12 NLT

12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then — when the perfect comes — we’ll see face to face. Now we know in part but then — when the perfect comes — we’ll know things fully — or completely — just as God knows us fully and completely. That’s what Paul says.

So…question. If the Bible is the “perfect” that Paul is referring to — who among us believes they can explain — with perfect clarity — in fact as clearly as God perfectly knows each of us — everything to us? Because that’s what Paul says will happen when the perfect comes. Any takers? It sure seems like we still see things partially, doesn’t it?

Now let me be clear: I believe that the Bible is inerrant and infallible. That it is God-breathed and without error. And — as given by the Spirit to the original authors — is indeed perfect — Old and New Testaments.

But what Paul describes as the result of the “perfect” coming — to me at least — seems to indicate that he must have been referring to a different “perfect” — something else other than the Bible — or — I should say — Someone else. For I believe that what Paul is referring to is the second coming of Christ — the Perfect Son of God — who even shares the title Word of God with the Bible. For when he returns — we won’t need the gifts of prophecy or knowledge or tongues — because we’ll be able to speak face to face with Jesus. We also won’t need the gifts of evangelism, healing, or teaching — because we’ll be in the presence of Jesus. In fact — none of the spiritual gifts will be needed when Jesus returns — for — as Paul says — when the perfect comes we’ll all see things with perfect clarity.

Alright — so back to the gift of prophecy. Many verses ago we read the purpose of prophecy. Paul writes…

1 Corinthians 14:3 ESV

3 On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.

So the New Testament gift of prophecy has a purpose. Like all other gifts it’s meant to strengthen the church — yet the particular way the gift of prophecy strengthens the church is by building up, encouraging, and providing comfort to God’s people. In the equip class I’ve been leading — we’ve looked at various spiritual gifts — including prophecy. And this verse on prophecy is usually a surprise to people in the class. Why? Because most people think of prophecy as something about knowing what’s going to happen in the future. And — to be clear — that is a part of the gift of prophecy. But — in the New Testament — foretelling — knowing the future — is less prominent than is forthtelling — speaking a strengthening, encouraging, comforting spontaneous word to other Christians to build them up in their faith.

CONCLUSION

Next week — we’ll look at this gift again. We’ll explore the differences between prophets in the Old and New Testaments. And we’ll spend time looking at how this gift can be beneficial for us today — even beneficial for those among us who aren’t Christians. But I want to end today’s sermon with a story. A personal story that happened a few months ago. A story I asked permission to share with you all as it involves someone who’s part of our faith family.

It was a normal Sunday afternoon and I was busy doing something “super holy”. I was checking to see who had won the Rogue Invitational — which is a CrossFit competition.

Anyway…I was doing this “super spiritual” activity when my wife came to the table and said, “Josh, I think you should come to the living room and pray with us.” The “us” was her and another woman who was over at our house. The visitor had been having a rough ten days with a depression like she’d never experienced before. She had no idea why she was experiencing it. My wife invited me over because she knows that — for reasons only the Spirit of God knows — at times I hear from him in situations like this. So I asked a few questions. “Did you do anything recently, change any behaviors or medications — questions like these…” to try and see if there was something that caused the start of her depression.

Nothing.

My wife and I asked a few other questions and discovered a few things to pray for. I led the time of prayer — modeling for her a prayer of repentance for something she’d done years ago. I prayed a blessing over her because of some experiences she’d witnessed as a kid. And then I didn’t know what to pray next.

So I paused.

Clark.

That’s what came to my mind.

A name.

Clark.

And — I kid you not — here’s what I thought.

“I recently watched the documentary on John Williams. John Williams wrote the score for the Superman movie. Clark Kent is Superman. So that must be why the name Clark popped into my head. Oh boy. Now things could get weird. Do I mention the name Clark to her or not?”

All of these thoughts went through my head in seconds. And now you’re going to be super impressed with the faith of your pastor.

I said, “Does the name Clark or the word clerk mean anything to you?” I threw in “clerk” because I was too nervous to only go with Clark. I didn’t want to look any more odd than where this was already headed.

She said, “Clerk doesn’t mean anything, but Clark. I haven’t thought of that name in years.”

At this point, I apologized to her, my wife, and to God. I knew that Clark was what I heard, but I was too much of a coward to just say it. So I threw in “clerk” as if it would strengthen the odds of me not looking like a fool. Oh ye of little faith…

It turns out that Clark had done some really bad things to her years ago. So we prayed. She let go of the power Clark had on her and — in her words — “Was able to take a deep breath for the first time in a long time.”

She didn’t know what God had in store for her that day. I didn’t either. I was busy doing other “super holy” stuff. Thankfully my wife was paying attention. And she knew that God — for reasons only he knows — speaks to me in this way at times for the good of others. To strengthen them. To encourage them. To comfort them. To help them take a deep breath for the first time in a long time. And I’m not the only one among us who — I believe — the Spirit has equipped and empowered with this gift for the benefit of our congregation. A benefit we will experience only if we — as a church — pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts — especially that we may prophesy. Let’s pray.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, today we’ve learned what it means for your ways to not be our ways. Why give us your written Word and then speak to us in other ways? It’s not what we would do — your ways are not our ways.

Holy Spirit, you’re the giver of these spiritual gifts. You choose how to equip and empower your people so that we’re strengthened and built up in the faith. And you’ve given us the Bible to help us understand what your spiritual gifts are and how they’re to be used for our benefit, to reach the world, and to make our Savior look glorious. We submit ourselves to you — empower and equip us with your gifts as you see fit.

And — Jesus — to you our Savior. You fulfilled everything the prophets of old foretold about you. Including what they foresaw about your sacrificial death on a cross. A sacrifice that is the reason why we have hope of new life — an empowered life — an equipped life — a Spirit-filled life to be lived for your glory.

Father, thank you for the gift of salvation made possible because of the life, death, and resurrection of your Son who — with you — has sent the Holy Spirit to live in, equip, and empower us as your people. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

DATE: 2-16-25

As always it’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And if this happens to be your first time with us — if you’re joining us at our North Main Campus or are with our friends in Bucyrus — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.

INTRODUCTION

We’re continuing our series in Romans this weekend — seeing how the rich doctrine that Paul teaches in the first eleven chapters — is meant to play itself out in how we live as followers of Jesus. And — last week — we saw how — because of what we believe about God, ourselves, salvation, and what God is doing in his creation — we’re to be a humble people united together to serve one another. And — that last part — serving one another — is a section of our passage that needs more of our time and attention — so much attention that this is will feel like a sermon series within a sermon series.

But — before we get to that — let’s turn to our verses for today. If you have your Bible — please turn with me to Romans chapter twelve. We’ll be in Romans chapter twelve — looking at verses four through eight. There Paul writes…

Romans 12:4–8 ESV

4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

Last week we looked at this metaphor — the human body — that Paul likes to use to demonstrate our interdependence and interconnectedness with each other. But our focus — in this mini-series — is going to be on the spiritual gifts he mentions. We’re going to take time to look at these spiritual gifts so we gain a better understanding of what the spiritual gifts are, why God gives them to us, how they’re to be used in the church, and for what purpose.

Now — maybe you’re a Christian or maybe you’re not — regardless — you may be thinking, “Why should spiritual gifts matter to me?” First — if you’re a Christian — here’s why this topic is important and relevant to you. Paul writes this to Christians living in the city of Corinth.

1 Corinthians 12:1 ESV

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.

The spiritual gifts were important enough to the apostle Paul that he took time to explain what they are and how they’re to be used to the Christians in Corinth. And — to start off his explanation of the gifts — he says, “I don’t want you to be ignorant about the gifts of the Spirit.” And — having been in pastoral ministry for nearly twenty years — I find that many Christians are uninformed about spiritual gifts. To include what spiritual gifts they have and don’t have, why the Spirit has given his people gifts, and so on. So we’re going to take time to make sure we’re all informed about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Now — if you’re an unbeliever — not a Christian — here’s why the spiritual gifts may be of interest to you. I find that most people are quite open to spiritual experiences. Few people in our country today are truly atheists — most believe in some sort of spiritual world. And — what I hope you’ll see in these sermons — is how the spiritual power of the Christian faith has no equal in the other religions, faiths, and spiritualities. Not so you’re attracted to the gifts — but so you’re drawn to the God who is the giver of — not only these spiritual gifts — but of every good gift in our lives — including the gift of salvation that’s offered to us in Jesus Christ.

But — before we start exploring the gifts of the Spirit — let’s first define what spiritual gifts are. If you were here in the fall — I shared this definition of spiritual gifts in my sermon on hearing from God.

Spiritual gifts are abilities given to individual believers by the Holy Spirit in order to equip God’s people for ministry, both for the edification of the church and for God’s salvific mission to the world. – Lexham Survey of Theology

FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

First — notice that spiritual gifts are abilities given to individual believers by the Holy Spirit. A truth of the Christian faith is that every person who believes in Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit. Meaning — the Spirit of God — the third person of the Trinity — indwells — or lives in — or takes up residence — in every man, woman, and child who believes in Jesus. And this is described in the Bible as being filled with the Holy Spirit.

For example — in the book of Acts we read…

Acts 2:1–4 ESV

1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Later we read…

Acts 4:8 ESV

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them…

And…

Acts 4:31 ESV

31 When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

And…

Acts 9:17 ESV

17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

And…

Acts 13:9–10 ESV

9 Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?

And…

Acts 13:52 ESV

52 The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Whether it be the original apostles — minus Judas — or just Peter — or some ordinary followers of Jesus — or the apostle Paul — we find that believers in Jesus Christ are filled with the Holy Spirit. Therefore — if you are a believer in Jesus — you are filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God — the One who hovered over the darkness before creation — the same Spirit of God who filled the prophets of the Old Testament to speak on behalf of God — the same Spirit who descended in the form of a dove to anoint and empower Jesus for ministry — is the same Holy Spirit who lives in you — if you believe in Jesus.

For — as Jesus told his disciples…

John 14:15–17 NLT

15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.

Later Jesus says…

John 16:7 NLT

7 But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.

And…

John 16:13–15 NLT

13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. 14 He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.’

And as Paul reminds us…

2 Timothy 1:6–7 ESV

6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

My hope and prayer is that — for all of us — like Bear Grylls blowing on a small ember causing it to ignite into a flame — that this series will cause the gifts that God’s Spirit has given to you to roar into a spiritual fire. For our God — your God, if you believe in Jesus — hasn’t filled you with a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and self-control. And there’s no such thing as a “non-filled with the Holy Spirit” Christian. If you believe in Jesus — God’s Spirit does live in you. There aren’t those who are slain in the Spirit and those who aren’t — slain in the Spirit isn’t a phrase in the Bible, by the way. There aren’t Christians who are baptized in the Holy Spirit and Christians who aren’t. 

And — though we may quench what the Spirit wants to do in our lives — be assured — in the New Testament we find examples where Christians are said to be filled with the Holy Spirit again. Not in the sense that the Spirit had left them — but in the sense of a renewing of the power of the Spirit in their lives. Something else I’m looking forward to as we explore God’s Word together — a renewal of the Spirit’s power in our lives as we submit ourselves to his Word.

THE PURPOSE OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS: BUILD UP THE CHURCH

But back to our definition of spiritual gifts: Spiritual gifts are abilities given to individual believers by the Holy Spirit in order to equip God’s people for ministry, both for the edification of the church and for God’s salvific mission to the world. – Lexham Survey of Theology

Notice the purpose of spiritual gifts. They’re given to equip God’s people for two specific aspects of ministry. One — for the edification — our building up — or spiritual maturing of the church. And two — for God’s salvific mission — or saving work — to the world.

So — first — spiritual gifts are meant to help God’s church mature. We looked at this passage last week — but it’s worth reading again. To the Ephesians Paul writes…

Ephesians 4:11–16 ESV

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

We’ll look at specific gifts — and roles in the church associated with certain gifts — in the weeks ahead — but for now notice what Paul tells us is the purpose of the gifts. Spiritual gifts are given to equip God’s people for ministry — including the ministry of building up the body of Christ — and the local church is what Paul is referring to. So get this — the Holy Spirit’s goal in giving these gifts is so that we’ll grow in our unity of the faith — meaning the doctrine we believe — because what we believe leads to how we behave. And these gifts are given specifically so that — together — we’ll grow in our unity about what we believe about Jesus.

Think of the important doctrines that focus on Jesus.

• The virgin birth.
• That he’s fully God and fully man.
• That he’s eternal — not a created being.
• That he lived a perfect, sinless life.
• His atoning sacrifice on the cross.
• His resurrection.
• His ascension.

Just to name a few of the important doctrines that the Holy Spirit has given to all — who are a part of Gateway Church and believe in Jesus — specific spiritual gifts to — so that we grow in our unity in what we believe about these doctrines. So that we’re not like a ship on choppy waters — tossed around by the winds of culture, and human cunning, and craftiness — which are meant to cause us to drift at sea — lose our way — and maybe even shipwreck our faith. Spiritual gifts are not given for division — they’re given to unify us.

Back to our interconnectedness and interdependence. The Holy Spirit has gifted you — if you believe in Jesus — to build me — Pastor Josh — up. To help me grow in spiritual maturity. To keep me from being shipwrecked in my faith. Just like the Holy Spirit has gifted me to build you all up — to help you grow in spiritual maturity — to keep you from being shipwrecked in your faith. The people sitting next to you — the people who attend other worship services — and even the other campus than you — have been filled with the Holy Spirit and have been gifted in ways for your eternal good — and you’ve been filled with the Holy Spirit and have been gifted in ways for their eternal good too.

THE PURPOSE OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS: REACH THE LOST WORLD

But there’s a second purpose of the gifts that we’re not to forget: Spiritual gifts are abilities given to individual believers by the Holy Spirit in order to equip God’s people for ministry, both for the edification of the church and for God’s salvific mission to the world. – Lexham Survey of Theology

The Holy Spirit equips God’s people for the ministry of reaching the lost world with the gospel. We cannot accomplish the mission we’ve been given without being empowered by the Spirit of God. Around here we say that our goal is to make disciples who are Word and Spirit Christians and who are Kingdom-minded. 

As Jesus said…

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

18 “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

And in the book of Acts he says…

Acts 1:8 ESV

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The mission we’ve been given — of making disciples of all nations — is a mission that will only be accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit. And in this spiritually curious culture in which we live — and with many religions in our world displaying dark spiritual power — I wonder if we Christians — at least here in the US — have been seemingly so weak in our witness because we’ve been trying to accomplish our mission without the power of the Holy Spirit.

For as Paul warns us…

2 Timothy 3:1–5 NLT

1 You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!

What I find concerning — as a pastor — is how we Christians easily see the indicators of living in the last days — people being lovers of themselves and proud, disobedient and ungrateful, where nothing is sacred, and so on — and then completely ignore Paul’s warning about people acting religious while rejecting the power that could make them godly. And — I think we do this — because we don’t see the connection between the Spirit’s power and our godliness in Scripture.

Yet — Peter — after healing a man who’d never walked a day in his life — which caused quite a stir in the crowd who witnessed the healing — said…

Acts 3:12 NLT

12 “People of Israel,” he said, “what is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness?

Peter’s like, “Don’t look at me as if I’m the reason why this guy was healed — as if my power or godliness has something to do with it” — and then points the people to Jesus. Peter would go on to write these words.

2 Peter 1:3–8 NLT

3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. 5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. 8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter says that — because of God’s power — we have everything we need to live a godly life. Thus — in order to not be the people Paul warns about — people who act religious yet reject the power that could make us godly — we must not be ignorant of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. For the Spirit empowers the people of God with himself and gifts us with special abilities so that the lost world is reached with the gospel. In fact — and I find this to be quite amazing — the Holy Spirit empowering you and me with his spiritual gifts is the Spirit displaying himself in and through us. 

I’ll show you in Scripture and then I’ll explain what this means. Paul writes…

1 Corinthians 12:4–7 ESV

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

Paul says that each — many every person who believes in Jesus — is given the manifestation of the Spirit. The word manifestation means “disclosure or a clear display or evidence of.” Other Bible translations have “spiritual gifts” instead of “manifestations of the Spirit.” But — what I want us to consider is: What does it mean for these spiritual gifts to be evidence of — or a clear display of — the Holy Spirit who lives in us? It means that spiritual gifts aren’t the equivalent of the Spirit dropping off a gift on our doorstep like an Amazon delivery driver. Spiritual gifts are the Holy Spirit displaying himself through the people he lives in. 

• For example, through those whom the Holy Spirit displays himself through the spiritual gift of teaching — others are built up in their faith because they are being taught by the Spirit of God. 
• Through those the Spirit displays himself through the gift of service — others are built up in their faith because they are being served by the Spirit of God. 
• And the same is true for all of the spiritual gifts by which the Spirit displays himself through those who believe in Jesus.

How incredible is that? That you — yes you, if you believe in Jesus — are means by which the Holy Spirit — the third person of the Trinity — displays himself for the good of others. What a calling? What a responsibility? What a reason to live a life of godliness, and to pursue holiness, and to read God’s Word, and to pray — because all of these activities are used to refine us so we’re more faithful vessels through which the Holy Spirit can display himself to others.

• I wonder how you’ve either been hindering or helping the Spirit of God to use you as a vessel to display himself to others? 
• I wonder how this week might look differently than the previous week — now that you see the opportunity you have as a follower of Jesus — to be used by God’s Spirit to build up other Christians and to draw unbelievers to Jesus?
• I wonder what kind of purpose this would give to your life? 
• What sense of responsibility? 
• What refining would take place if you and I — if we who follow Jesus — stepped into this calling to which we’ve been called?

SPIRITUAL GIFTS

Now — at this point — many among us might still be thinking, “But, Josh, I still don’t have any idea what spiritual gift I have.” That’s what this series is about. In the coming weeks we’re going to look more closely at the spiritual gifts Paul mentions in Romans, we’ll look at examples of them being used, make observations about the gifts, talk about how the spiritual gifts are used at Gateway, and how to discover what spiritual gifts you have — so know that’s where we’re headed.

But I thought I’d leave you with a taste of what’s to come. If you Google “spiritual gifts” — I’m going to be honest — I have no idea what you’ll find. There are all kinds of books on the spiritual gifts — and different authors come up with different lists — there’s no consensus. And the list I’m about to share is by theologian Wayne Grudem.

But — before we get to the list — know that — generally speaking — spiritual gifts can be categorized into two groups.

Speaking Gifts

Serving Gifts

This comes from Peter’s words where he writes…

1 Peter 4:10–11 ESV

10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies — in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Regardless if a speaking gift or a serving gift — all spiritual gifts are important and necessary for us to grow up into our maturity in Christ — as a congregation — so we make our God look glorious to the world.

So here’s Grudem’s list of the spiritual gifts. These will be in alphabetical order and the definitions of the gifts I’ve copied from giftstest.com as I think they are easy to understand definitions. We won’t look at all of these in the coming weeks — just the gifts that Paul mentions in Romans — but I thought it’d be good to share a lengthier list with you.

Administration

The gift of administration is the divine strength or ability to organize multiple tasks and groups of people to accomplish these tasks.

Apostleship

The gift of apostleship is the divine strength or ability to pioneer new churches and ministries through planting, overseeing, and training.

Evangelism

The gift of evangelism is the divine strength or ability to help non-Christians take the necessary steps to becoming a born-again Christian.

Exhortation/Encouragement

The gift of exhortation is the divine strength or ability to strengthen, comfort or urge others to action through the written or spoken word and Biblical truth.

Healing

The gifts of healing is the divine strength or ability to act as an intermediary in faith, prayer, and by the laying-on of hands for the healing of physical, mental and spiritual sickness.

Helps

The gift of helps is the divine strength or ability to work in a supportive role for the accomplishment of tasks in Christian ministry with the ability to often see the need before others do.

Hospitality

The gift of hospitality is the divine strength or ability to create warm, welcoming environments for others in places such as your home, office, or church.

Intercession

The gift of intercession is the divine strength or ability to stand in the gap in prayer for someone, something, or someplace, believing for profound results.

Word of Knowledge

The gift of knowledge is the divine strength or ability to bring truth to a situation by supernatural revelation. This is often accompanied by a word from God.

Leadership

The gift of leadership is the divine strength or ability to influence people at their level while directing and focusing them on the big picture, vision, or idea.

Mercy

The gift of mercy is the divine strength or ability to feel empathy and to care for those who are hurting in any way.

Miracles

The gift of miracles is the divine strength or ability to alter the natural outcomes of life in a supernatural way through prayer, faith, and divine direction.

Pastor/Shepherd

The gift of pastor/shepherd is the divine strength or ability to care for the personal needs of others by nurturing and mending life issues.

Service

The gift of serving is the divine strength or ability to do small or great tasks in working for the overall good of the body of Christ.

Tongues (and Interpretation)

The gift of tongues is the divine strength or ability to pray in a heavenly language to encourage your spirit and to commune with God. The gift of tongues is often accompanied by interpretation and should be used appropriately.

Word of Wisdom

The gift of wisdom is the divine strength or ability to understand and to bring clarity to situations and circumstances often through applying the truths of Scripture in a practical way.

Two gifts that may surprise you are…

Singleness/Celibacy

Marriage

Four final comments. First — don’t put all of your eggs in the “I took an online spiritual gifts test so these must be the gifts I have” basket. Believe it or not, the people Paul wrote his letters to didn’t have online spiritual gifts tests to help them figure out their gifts. So don’t put all of your eggs in the spiritual gifts test basket, but don’t take all of your eggs out of the basket either. The tests can be helpful, but they’re not infallible.

Second — in case you’re wondering — “If I don’t have the gift of mercy, does that mean I don’t have to be merciful?” The answer is “Yes, you do have to be merciful.” Why? Because God has commanded all of his people to be merciful. And to evangelize. And to serve. Many of the gifts have commands associated with them that all Christians are to obey — yet — though we’re all to obey the commands — some of us who have the accompanying spiritual gift will see greater spiritual results than others who don’t have the gift.

Three, though the Holy Spirit gives every single Christian at least one spiritual gift — it’s quite common for an individual Christian to have multiple gifts — some of the gifts being stronger or more dominant or more regularly seen in his or her life than others. Yet no individual Christian has all of the spiritual gifts. Remember — we need each other.

Fourth, in Ephesians chapter four — Paul lists offices — apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. These offices — or roles in the church — obviously have accompanying spiritual gifts. However, having a spiritual gift doesn’t necessarily mean that someone is called to and/or qualified to hold the accompanying office. Easy example: Professional pastors — those who are paid by a church — are not the only Christians with the spiritual gift of shepherding/pastoring. Many Christians may have this gift — but far fewer are called to be pastors — in the professional sense.

CONCLUSION

Now — to close — I thought I’d share with you my top five spiritual gifts. The list I shared earlier was actually incomplete. I left out my top five spiritual gifts so I could share them with you now. And know that you too can have confidence in knowing your spiritual gifts like what I’m about to share. For the Spirit of God wants to display himself through you for the benefit of others through his gifts — he’s not trying to make it impossible for you to know your gifts. You just may need some informing — which is what this series is about.

Alright — Pastor Josh’s top five spiritual gifts. We’ll start with number five.

Discernment

The gift of discernment is the divine strength or ability to spiritually identify falsehood, to distinguish between right and wrong motives and the spiritual forces at work in situations.

Number four.

Prophecy

The gift of prophecy is the divine strength or ability to communicate God’s truth and heart in a way that calls people to a right relationship with God.

Number three.

Giving

The gift of giving is the divine strength or ability to produce wealth and to give by tithes and offerings for the purpose of advancing the Kingdom of God on earth.

Number two.

Faith

The gift of faith is the divine strength or ability to believe in God for unseen supernatural results in every arena of life.

Closely associated with the gift of faith is the gifts of healing — which is also a way that the Spirit chooses to display himself through me at times.

And my top spiritual gift is — any guesses?

Teaching

The gift of teaching is the divine strength or ability to study and learn from the Scriptures primarily to bring understanding and depth to other Christians.

This is how the Spirit of God has chosen to manifest himself in and through me for God’s glory, your good, and the reaching of the lost with the gospel. And every week the Spirit manifests himself — not only through me — but through many who are part of this faith family. And what I hope we’ll all see in the weeks ahead is that — just as the Spirit of God has chosen to manifest himself in and through me and many among us — he desires to do so in and through each of you — for God’s glory, our good, and for the reaching of the lost with the gospel. For — when we grasp this truth and live accordingly — we’ll be a church who experiences a new height in our Christlikeness and spiritual maturity — which is what we’re going to pray for right now. Let’s pray.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, what a wonder to behold. Not only do you love us. Not only did you send Jesus to live, die, and defeat death for us. But you have not left us as orphans. With Jesus you have sent the Holy Spirit to fill your people with the presence and power of our God.

Jesus, you gave us promises about the Spirit. That the Spirit will lead us, guide us, teach us, be with us, and unite us — along with many other promises. And — Jesus — we’re going to take you at your Word and believe what your Word says about the Holy Spirit and his gifts.

And to you — Holy Spirit — thank you for filling us with your presence and power. Thank you for leading, guiding, directing, and teaching us. Thank you for gifting all who believe in Jesus — in unique ways. With manifestations of your power and presence in ways that are to build us up as a church — and help us to grow spiritually — so that we make our God look glorious to the world.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — we’ve learned two purposes of the spiritual gifts today. To build up the church and to reach the lost world with the gospel. So work — Almighty and Saving God — in the hearts of all who hear my voice. Call out of spiritual darkness and death those who’ve been living in rebellion against you — and call them into your glorious light of eternal life. We ask you to do so because saving people makes you look glorious. And that’s what we desire — we want you to look glorious in our lives as individuals — and in our life as a church. And we pray all of this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

God uses his Word to prepare and equip his people to live righteously. To live lives of good works that please him. To live lives that align with how he created us. But we’re fools, at best, to think we can do this without knowledge of his Word. And previous knowledge is great, but a vibrant, empowered relationship with him comes from ongoing engagement with his Word.

‌SCRIPTURE: Romans 10:5-13 (ESV)

‌DATE: 12-1-24

It’s good to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And — if you’re worshiping with us for the first time — are joining us at our North Main Campus or are with our friends in Bucyrus — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.

SERIES INTRO

We’re continuing our series in the book of Romans this weekend. This is a journey where we’ve been having our view of who God is and who we are refined, shaped, and expanded by God’s Word to us in the Bible. This refining, shaping, and expanding of our view of God and ourselves can be both encouraging — for example when we catch glimpses of God’s sovereign mercy for his people — and challenging — like when we realize that God’s mercy is something we can’t earn nor is it deserved. 

And — if last week’s sermon was a deconstruction of what is believed by many when it comes to salvation — today is the day of reconstruction — of building a view of salvation according to God’s Word. And salvation — according to God’s Word — is beautiful — it’s majestic — it’s awe-inspiring and hope-giving. For the gospel — what’s often called the Good News — is a wonder to behold when we allow it to penetrate our hearts and minds.

INTRODUCTION

Now — let’s turn to our passage. And I’m hopeful that God will use our passage to magnify the beauty of his gospel to us today. We’ll be in Romans chapter ten — looking at verses five through thirteen. We’re in Romans chapter ten — beginning in verse five. There Paul writes…

Romans 10:5–13 (ESV)

⁵ For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. ⁶ But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷ “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). ⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); ⁹ because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. ¹¹ For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” ¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. ¹³ For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

So let’s start with the good news: Everyone who confesses that Jesus is Lord — and believes that God raised him from the dead — will be saved. Everyone. 

Now there are some specific details about this believing and confessing that we’ll get into — but this is the good news of the gospel. Everyone — no matter your race, gender, nationality, or socio-economic bracket — regardless of your political affiliation, which college football team you root for, or if you mistakenly think pineapple goes on pizza — everyone who confesses that Jesus is Lord and believes that God raised him from the dead will be saved.

WHAT RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH DOES NOT SAY

Let’s return to Paul’s words and see how he explains this wonderful truth to us. We’re back in verse five.

Romans 10:5–7 (ESV)

⁵ For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. ⁶ But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷ “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

Here Paul continues the contrast that he brought up earlier in his letter: the difference between salvation by works and salvation by faith — or — as he calls it here: righteousness based on the law and righteousness based on faith. 

So — first — a couple of definitions. Let’s start with the word righteousness.

Righteousness — in its simplest definition — means to be right with God. We live in a culture where people — who believe in a divine power — assume that their relationship with that divine power by default is right — is good — that there’s nothing off in the relationship. And this idea so easily infiltrates our thinking as Christians — which is why we must be people of this book. For this book — the Bible — God’s Word to us — describes a very different reality. A reality where our relationship with God is not right — it is not good — this book shows us that something terribly wrong has happened to our relationship with God. Where — in fact — our relationship with him is described as a spiritual death.

Now — even those who assume our relationship with God is — by default — good — recognize that something is wrong with the world — even wrong with humanity. And we have all kinds of reasons as to why we think those people over there are ruining things for the rest of us. 

• If communist countries would just get with the times the world would be so much better. 
• If folks in the Middle East would just stop killing each other. 
• If the other political party just opened their eyes to the ridiculousness of their positions.

We tend to think, “If only those other people had some education — some understanding of our view of things — they’d come to realize how much better our view is…and the world would be a better place and we’d all live happily ever after” or something like that.

The problem is that folks who see things differently than you see you and your view as the problem — how dare they! But that’s the trouble, right? Which tells us if more education was all that was needed — surely the education of the tragedy of war — especially in a conflict going back for centuries in the Middle East — surely those folks have all the education in the tragedy of war they need if education was the solution to make things right.

The way Paul describes all of this is by calling it a righteousness based on the law — or a works-based salvation or righteousness — where we believe that obeying a set of rules will ultimately lead to our salvation. Paul’s obviously meaning eternal salvation — but even temporary salvation — like peace between warring nations — fails to last because even temporary relief cannot be sustained based on obeying a set of rules. For there always seems to be someone ready to break the rules, right? Another crazy person taking their politics too far or another terrorist group setting off another bomb. If rules — and educating everyone on the benefits of us all obeying the rules was all that was needed — surely we’d have figured that out by now.

But we haven’t because — as Paul says — works-based salvation requires that we live according to the commandments or rules that have been set by the One who created us. And we can’t even obey our own rules — much less the rules God has given us — because our problem isn’t a lack of education. 

Now I know some of you still aren’t convinced. So let me ask a question on a rather touchy subject: How many times have you started a diet and quit because you just couldn’t obey the rules of the diet? Too touchy? How about this one: Ever got a speeding ticket? Cops don’t pull you over for obeying the speed limit. And — even if you haven’t gotten a speeding ticket you know — and so does everyone else — the only reason you haven’t is because you haven’t been caught. Not because you never speed.

When it comes to dieting and speeding — a lack of education isn’t the problem, is it? And — if we can’t obey simple rules — rules that we know have an immediate benefit to them — like not getting pulled over by a cop — why would we think we have a chance to earn salvation by obeying God’s commands?

Paul even shows us the ridiculousness of righteousness based on works by essentially saying, “You think that what you do will save you? Well you might as well climb up to heaven and bring the Savior back down here to earth.” As challenging as climbing Mt Everest is — no one’s strapped on their climbing gear with the intent of making it to heaven — though many think they can do this spiritually. 

Or — to keep the ridiculousness going — Paul says — for those who think that what they do will make them right with God — go ahead and climb down to where the dead are and find Jesus down there and resurrect him yourself — then we’ll know you’re the person who’s rules everyone should listen to. Whichever destination you pick — the journey is one of futility. You’re not gonna climb your way to heaven and — Jesus isn’t dead — he’s alive — so you won’t find him by climbing down either. But this is what righteousness based on the law — or salvation by our works is — it’s futile. For it’s a path that never leads to the desired destination. Because being made right with God is not something accomplished by our works — instead — it’s accomplished by faith.

WHAT IT DOES SAY

‌Now — before we return to Paul’s words — let’s remind ourselves of what faith is. Recently — in response to an earlier sermon from our time in Romans — the following question was sent in. I’ve edited the comment as it was quite a bit longer than this:

If we’re all made in God’s image, we all have faith from the start, but then we make conscious decisions to not utilize the faith. If everyone receives faith, is it really considered a gift?

The question is based off of a verse I read during that sermon, which was…

Ephesians 2:8–9 (ESV)

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Now — the English language can be tricky. But — without this turning into a grammar lesson — let’s ask ourselves a question. When Paul says “this is not your own doing” — what is he referring to — what is the “this” we don’t do? “This” is faith — and specifically — saving faith — or faith that results in a person’s salvation.

So — we’re going to do something different. Let’s make our own Gateway translation of this verse together. Let’s replace the word “this” with “saving faith.” Now the verse says…

Ephesians 2:8–9 (Gateway version)

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And SAVING FAITH is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

We’re getting somewhere — in fact — we’re almost there. But one more question: What is the “it” in “it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast”? “It” also refers to “saving faith.” So now our Gateway version says…

Ephesians 2:8–9 (Gateway version)

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And SAVING FAITH is not your own doing; SAVING FAITH is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Why’d we do that? Because I hope we now all see — from Scripture — that saving faith is a gift from God. So — to answer the question that was sent in: “Is faith really a gift?” Yes! Faith — and specifically here — saving faith — is a gift from God. 

Though all people — Christian or not — are made in the image of God — being made in God’s image does not include having saving faith. For — if every person had saving faith — then all would be saved. Yet we know that not all people are saved. Thus saving faith is a gift from God — and saving faith is a gift given only to those who are the children of the promise — which is the point Paul’s been making throughout Romans.

Now — chapter fourteen of the Westminster Confession of Faith — a document that explains the theological tradition that Gateway is a part of — chapter fourteen of the Westminster explains the doctrine of saving faith. And twice — in the opening paragraph — saving faith is called a gift. It’s also called “A work of the Spirit of Christ in the hearts of the elect and is ordinarily accomplished by the ministry of the word.” (Westminster Confession of Faith 14.1)

A couple of observations. First, the word elect — for our purposes — means children of the promise. Children of the promise is the language that Paul’s been using — so let’s stick with it.

Second, the rest of the statement is easily found in Paul’s words in Romans. For example, “saving faith being a work of the Spirit of Christ in the hearts of the elect” is found in Paul’s words about the Spirit’s work in the lives of Christians such as…

Romans 2:28–29 (ESV)

²⁸ For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. ²⁹ But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

And…

Romans 5:1–5 (ESV)

¹ Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ² Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

And…

Romans 7:4–6 (ESV)

⁴ Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. ⁵ For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

And we don’t have time to read chapter eight in its entirety so these verses will have to do.

Romans 8:9–11 (ESV)

⁹ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

So saving faith “is a work of the Spirit of Christ in the hearts of the elect” and “is ordinarily accomplished by the ministry of the word” — which is found in the verses we’ll get to next week — where Paul writes…

Romans 10:14–17 (ESV)

¹⁴ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵ And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” ¹⁶ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” ¹⁷ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

If you’d like to learn more about saving faith — we recently recorded a podcast episode that covers this topic. You can go to our website — or to your favorite podcast app — and find episode 194 — to hear Laura and I discuss saving faith in more detail.

As an aside — here at Gateway — our goal is that all who follow Jesus — will be Word and Spirit Christians. Meaning that we’re Christians who live under the authority of the Word of God — meaning it’s our final authority on all matters — and who also live by the power of the Spirit of God. And we speak of this as the ongoing life of the follower — or disciple — of Jesus. But I want you to notice something. The Word and the Spirit are also the means by which God makes us into a Christian.

God uses his Word — ordinarily as it is preached — but there are many cases when — as someone was reading the Bible or saw it quoted in a book or pamphlet or some other place — but God used his Word as the means by which the Spirit gave a spiritually resurrected life to the individual — resulting in him or her having saving faith — or belief — in Jesus Christ for their salvation.

So the beginning of our life with Jesus is by the Word and Spirit. Thus we’re spiritually born as Word and Spirit Christians which is why we’re to continue as Word and Spirit Christians. Which — again — is why our vision — here at Gateway — is that we’d all be Word and Spirit Christians.

And — now that we understand what saving faith is — we can now turn to Paul’s next question. Which is found in verse eight.

Romans 10:8–10 (ESV)

⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); ⁹ because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

In opposition to works-based salvation — or law-based righteousness — the righteousness that is by faith confesses that Jesus is Lord and believes that he was raised from the dead. This is the foundation of salvation that is by faith and not by works. And — not only is this the foundation — this is what ongoing righteousness — that is — living by faith — looks like.

I bring this up because — for many followers of Jesus — it’s easy to lapse back into a works-based righteousness after beginning in a righteousness by faith. Where we think something like, “I know Jesus saved me, but now I must continue to save myself or keep my salvation” or something like that. And this is not a burden we’re meant to carry — yet it’s a burden that crushes many of God’s people.

Paul’s response to such thinking are words like…

Galatians 1:6–9 (NLT)

⁶ I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News ⁷ but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. ⁸ Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. ⁹ I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed.

What kind of so-called gospel was being preached to the Galatians that Paul is refuting? He makes it clear — later in his letter to them — which you’ll see is nearly identical to what he’s said in our verses in Romans.

Galatians 2:16 (ESV)

¹⁶ Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

And…

Galatians 3:1–3 (NLT)

¹ Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. ² Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. ³ How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?

The false gospel being preached to the Galatians — the lie that Paul is countering — was this: That salvation begins by faith alone but then is kept by what we do or don’t do — or as Paul says — by our own human effort.

So be free — friends — for…

Philippians 1:6 (ESV)

⁶ I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

And that even…

2 Timothy 2:13 (ESV)

¹³ If we are faithless, he (Jesus) remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself.

This is the promised righteousness that is by faith. A righteousness that’s a gift given to the children of the promise from their Heavenly Father. This is where freedom is found — and hope is discovered — and joy is feasted upon — and shame is lifted — and purpose is made clear. For when your righteousness is based on your faith in Christ — which God has given to you — then it is a righteousness that is secure for all eternity.

A GLORIOUS PROMISE

This is the promise — this is the high note that Paul ends this section of his letter on. He writes in verse eleven…

Romans 10:11–13 (ESV)

¹¹ For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” ¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. ¹³ For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Will you receive this promise from God? For it is a guarantee that everyone — including you — who calls on the name of Jesus — which is what saving faith is — will be saved. 

• Yes, this faith is a gift from God. 
• Yes it originates with him. 
• Yes, without God giving us this gift we wouldn’t experience the promise of salvation. 
• Nevertheless — it is our faith. 
• We do believe. 
• And all who believe in Jesus will not be put to shame. 
• For he is the same Lord of all: Jew and Gentile — male and female — black, white, brown, and all the other colors — English speaking, Spanish speaking, Creole speaking — he’s the Lord and Savior of all who call on his name.

To confess that Jesus is our Lord means we say that he is our authority — that he has our submission — that he has our allegiance. As one pastor has said, “To believe that Jesus is Lord is to take him as Master of one’s beliefs, ethics, relationships, and career.” Now — we tend to think of confessing Christ as Lord in an individualistic sense — especially here in the US — but know that there’s an equally important corporate aspect of confessing Christ as Lord. In fact — there are aspects of confessing Jesus as your Lord that can only happen with others.

• For example — gathering together to worship God with his people in a local church is a corporate confession that Jesus is your — and our — Lord. 
• We confess that he’s our Lord as we take Communion — what’s also called the Lord’s Supper — together. 
• We confess that Jesus is our Lord when we present our children to the church for baptism or dedication. 
• We confess that Jesus is our Lord when we see believer’s get baptized. 
• We confess that Jesus is our Lord as we gather together in homes to help each other grow in our faith.

When you read the New Testament you can’t help but notice the corporateness of their confessing that Jesus is Lord. They gathered together in large crowds — and in homes — to confess the name of the God who so loved them that he came to earth to make them right with him. Which shows us the vast difference between doing things for God — whether following a set of rules or doing certain religious activities — in order to gain his favor — and doing those very same things because you’ve already been given his favor. One is burdensome and death. One is freedom and life. One is a righteousness based on the law. One is righteousness based on faith. One is works-based salvation. The other is salvation by grace alone through faith alone.

My hope is that the Spirit of God is stirring in many of your hearts — even right now — to trust in God’s love for you as displayed in his Son. God is not abusive. He doesn’t demand that we work our way to him. He knows — in fact — that it’s impossible for us to ascend to Heaven on our own. Which is what we remember as Christmas nears — that Jesus came down to earth — he came down to us — because he knew that we couldn’t make our way up to him.

Do you see what love he has for you? What promises he’s made? What hope is yours if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead? For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Let’s pray together.

PRAYER

Father it’s so easy to say we believe that salvation is not based on what we do while we live as if it is. Like the Galatians — it’s easy to be foolish and to live as if the Spirit was powerful enough to start our salvation but — after that — we’re left on our own. Thank you for not leaving us on our own.

Spirit, forgive us for not trusting that your power — which began the good work in us — isn’t able to finish that good work in us. For you are not a spirit of fear, but are a Spirit of power. Thus we’re to live by your power as we live under the authority of the Word — obeying your commands — not to earn your favor and love — but we do so because you’ve already given us your favor and love.

And — Jesus — you’re the very definition of the favor and love that we’ve been given. For while we were still sinners — you died for us. While we were your enemies — you gave your life — in love — for us. When — on the cross — you declared, “It is finished” — the guarantee was made: that your plan of salvation — a plan to rescue every child of the promise — would happen. 

And — Jesus — today we choose to take you at your Word. And in response to your words, “It is finished” — we say, “It is finished indeed.” And neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in you — Christ Jesus — our Lord. In your name we pray. Amen.

BENEDICTION

May you go knowing that everyone who confesses the name of Jesus will be saved. Amen.

God loves you. I love you. You are sent.

Scripture both corrects us and prescribes to us. Both of these are aspects of teaching. Correction is the “what not to do” and prescriptions or commands are the “what to do” for followers of Jesus. How help and beneficial Scripture is to us. Not only does it give us the message of life, but it also gives us the message of how to live.

God’s Word teaches us truth and reveals to us why things are so wrong in this world and in our lives. And its answers are different than the answers given by society and culture, which change from generation to generation. Yet God’s Word remains steadfast.