From Jerusalem to Illyricum (Romans 15:14–33) — A Sermon by R.C. Sproul

0:01 We're continuing now with our study of Paul's letter to the church at Rome. And contrary to what the bulletin says, we're now in chapter 15. And I will be reading beginning at verse 14. I'll read through verse 21, but if God is willing, I'll get beyond that. But let's stand for the reading of the Word of God. Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points as reminding you because of the grace given to me by God, that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God, for I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me in word and deed to make the Gentiles obedient in mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and around about till Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

1:48 And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man's foundation. But as it is written, to whom he was not announced they shall see, and those who have not heard shall understand. This is the Word of God in all of the fullness of His truth. Let's be seated. Let us pray. Again, our Father, as we continue our study of this grand book of the New Testament, we pray that we may hear these words and do them. We pray that we may understand the teaching of the Apostle and love what we understand to be true. For we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

2:50 Amen. You can tell in this portion of the Epistle of Romans by the very tone of it that the Apostle is beginning to wind this letter down. You can anticipate how he is gradually now drawing it to a close, the weighty theological matters that he expounded through the first eleven chapters, then transition to practical application in chapters 12, 13, and 14. And now Paul begins to speak in these final pages of his personal relationship to those who are receiving the epistle. And because the epistle is winding down and we're moving into that area where Paul speaks personally of individuals, we tend to skip over these things lightly as if they had no great weight of divine revelation. I'm looking down from this pulpit into the face of Paul McCann, who gave me a tape a year or so ago of a classic sermon that was preached in the pulpit of First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh by the late great Clarence McCartney entitled, Come Before Winter, where this magnificent sermon was preached on a simple phrase that Paul used in his final request to Timothy in the second and last epistle that he wrote to his beloved disciple.

4:39 And the treasures that were found by McCartney in that seemingly desultory statement remind me, at least to this day, not to take lightly any of these things that Paul seems to simply be mentioning in passing. But let's look now then, beginning at verse 14, where he said, Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you, and so on. What we find here in verse 14 may be seen as a thinly veiled apology. We saw that in verse 13, Paul said, now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is almost a brief recapitulation of the fruit of the Spirit that Paul set forth to the Galatians, namely that the Christian life is one that is to be manifested by a fullness of joy, a completeness of peace, and a dimension of hope that is worked within our soul by the power of the Holy Ghost. And just continuing on that, Paul says, now I'm confident concerning you that you also are full of goodness, and that you're filled with all knowledge, knowledge to the extent that you're able now to admonish one another. What Paul is saying to the congregation who is receiving this magnum opus, this theological treatise, which is the weightiest epistle that come from the pen of the apostle,

6:45 as he's basically saying to them, I know you already know these things. I know that you could already passed a theological exam on the doctrine of justification by faith alone. I know that you're all Calvinists. I know that I don't have to prove, you know, the errors of Arminian and Pelagianism with you. You understand the doctrine of election. You understand the providence of God and all of these things that I have set forth to you. Nevertheless, Nevertheless, knowing that you understand these things, I have written more boldly to you on some points as reminding you." This is just a reminder. Paul, from the beginning of his ministry to the very end, was acutely conscious of the burden that Christ had put upon him to be an apostle of the gospel of God. He knew that it was his duty to communicate to those people that were delivered to his care by the Father the full counsel of God. And I mention that because that burden is not a burden that was felt simply by the apostle Paul, but it is a burden that has been felt by any earnest minister of the gospel ever since. You know, the pulpit is not a place for somebody to just orate or opine on his personal preferences or insights. This pulpit is a place where the Word of God is to be proclaimed.

8:38 And the burden of everyone who stands in it is to make sure that the whole counsel of God is given to the people of God, not just the favorite topics or subjects of the preacher. And so, Paul says, I'm emphasizing boldly some of these points to remind you. And why am I doing that? Because of the grace given to me by God, not just because of the commission given to me by Christ, as the apostle is saying. But Paul understood that his very engagement in ministry was a matter of grace. Paul did not earn his role as the apostle to the Gentiles. called him on the road to Damascus in the midst of his hatred and venom that he was spewing out against the church of Jesus Christ. What Paul earned was the title that he gave himself later, that he was the chief of sinners. And so the only way he could become an apostle, The only way he could become a spokesperson for Christ was by grace and not by merit.

10:04 And that's not only true for the apostle Paul, it's true for anybody who ever dares to open this book and presume to preach from it or teach from it to anyone. that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles,

10:33 ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Here Paul comes full circle. from the very first chapter of this epistle when he introduced himself as Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart to proclaim, if you recall, the gospel of God. Do you remember that? That phrase, the gospel of God, which Paul uses and the structure in which he uses it what he is saying is that I'm not preaching good news about God. That's what the term the gospel of God does not mean, if you remember. It means that it is God's possession, that Paul is an apostle who is called to proclaim not his own message, not his own gospel, but the gospel that is the possession of God and that comes from God. And now he uses that very same language here towards the close of the epistle, that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God.

11:53 Now also notice in here the use of the word minister. In the New Testament, those who are appointed in the churches to preach and to teach are usually called elders or servants or pastors or shepherds, and on rare occasions they are called ministers. That's the common term that we use today, but it was not the most frequent term used to describe the role of pastors in the early Christian community. Notice the word that is striking in its absence from the description of those who ministered to the people of God, the word that is absent almost completely in the New Testament, and yet is the regular term that is applied to those who stood between the people and God, who interceded for the people and who offered the sacrifices of worship in the Old Testament.

13:06 And I'm speaking of the word priest. We don't hear anything about a priesthood in the New Testament save for that reference of Peter to that royal priesthood to which Israel was called. But the basic office of the pastor in the church is not called the office of the priest, because the function of the priest in the Old Testament had reached its fulfillment, its conclusion, in the offering of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, which sacrifice was offered once and for all, so that the whole system that was called the sacerdotal system of the Old Testament was done away with. Now, there are churches in the world today who still practice what we call sacerdotalism, where salvation is mediated through the sacraments and therefore through the priesthood, so that the church is the one who brings us into salvation.

14:26 That was one of the central issues in the sixteenth century Reformation, where we saw the priesthood of Christ being fulfilled on the cross, and so that we are not priests. And Paul does not consider himself a priest, but rather he calls himself a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God. However, in the very next sentence, though he does not call himself a priest, for a moment here he borrows the language of the priesthood and uses it in something of a metaphorical way. Again, the primary function of the priest in the Old Testament was to offer up sacrifices to God in behalf of the people. And you remember in chapter 12, after Paul finished the depth and riches of the doctrines that he had expounded through the first 11 chapters, remember what he says, Therefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech you by the mercies of God to present yourselves as a living sacrifice unto God, which is your reasonable service.

15:56 So we don't offer up bulls and goats anymore, But we are called upon to make a sacrifice, an offering, an oblation of our very lives to Christ. That's the response of the gospel, that in that sense every one of you is a priest in insofar as you offer up yourself to God. But that offering is a sacrifice of praise. It is not a sacrifice given for atoning of sins. It is a sacrifice of worship which we are called to do when we gather together as the Lord's people. But Paul here uses this concept of the offering in a somewhat unusual way.

16:56 When he speaks about ministering the gospel of God, he is speaking about it specifically to his role as the apostle to the Gentiles, and he's ministering Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, the gospel of God, for what reason, for what purpose? And here it is, that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Now there are two ways we could understand this sentence, and they both can't be right. One way in which the sentence has been understood is that Paul is asking that the sacrifices and the praises and the worship that the Gentiles bring to God may be made acceptable to God as they are consecrated by the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the Gentiles.

17:57 That's how I don't think the text should be interpreted. I think Paul is talking about his offering of the Gentiles to Christ. His ministry was that he was set apart to go to the Gentiles, and he has done that. And when he has proclaimed the gospel of God to the Gentiles, the Holy Spirit has associated and attached himself to the proclamation of that Word and worked as the power in the gospel, bringing these Gentiles to conversion. And now Paul says, this is my sacrifice to you, the fruit of my ministry, these converts from among the Gentiles. Not as if I had the power Thank you.

18:50 to convert them. Paul knew where the power was. He knew it came through the Holy Ghost. But nevertheless, as a minister, he offers whatever fruit God has been blessed to give his ministry to the Lord. And in that sense, Paul exercises the office of the priest. Therefore, I have reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things that pertain to God. You remember what he says elsewhere, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. And when Paul says, I have reason to glory, what he is saying here is that all of that glory that I've experienced, all of the reason I have to boast is rooted and grounded in Christ Jesus.

19:51 He's understanding that it is not of Himself. As He wrote elsewhere to the Philippians, I didn't come to you with eloquence. I didn't come to you with all of the skills of public orators, but I came to you in the power and in the demonstration of the Holy Ghost. So he says, for I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me in word and deed to make the Gentiles obedient. Now is he saying I can boast in some things that I've been able to accomplish, but I didn't make it in these other areas, and so I can't boast of them? No, what he's talking about here, he says, is that I can't speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me in word and deed to make the Gentiles obedient. In other words, the only thing I had to talk about is what Christ has done. The only thing I can make mention here is nothing that I have brought of my own, but it is strictly that which has been wrought by the power of Christ. Now, Paul's not just being humble here.

21:18 He's being truthful. He's being accurate. He's being theologically sound. You know, when we preach, Burke, we work hard with the text. We want to make the sermon as accurate as we possibly can. We also want to make it as interesting as we possibly can. We want to persuade. We want to admonish. We want to exhort. No minister wants to stand in the pulpit and go through the process of preaching a sermon and then walk away from saying, well, I wonder if anything happens. But I hope that we all know that nothing will happen because of our skill. It can't happen.

22:12 at least nothing good. The only thing that really moves the people to change lives and to growth in the Spirit is the attendance of the Holy Ghost with that Word. Again, that's where the power is in the Word, not in programs, not in human skills or oratory. It is in the Word. And I can preach this Word till I'm blue in the face, and if God the Holy Spirit doesn't take it to you, nothing happens. But Paul is looking at the results of his ministry, and he understands that those results were wrought by God Himself, and what he's offering now up to God is a return of God to the gifts that God Himself has given.

23:10 And that's all we can ever do. What can we give to God that we haven't first received from His hand? I mean, many times when we have the offering on Sunday morning, we make that point, don't we? That in the offering, the offering is not a bribe. We're not asking God that if we give Him our money that He will make us rich, or He will do this or that, or He'll forgive us of our sins? The motivation is, hey, we're acknowledging you own it all, and everything that we possess. belongs to Him. He's asked for a small portion, one-tenth, one-tenth. I was saying just the other day, we're coming up on our tenth anniversary at St. Andrews.

24:17 You know how many times I've preached on tithing in those ten years? I know one. I keep saying to myself, self, how come you've only preached on that subject once in ten years? Are you afraid of it? You know it's not something that people are excited to hear? And I gave myself this excuse, well, no. The reason I've only preached it once is because it hasn't come up in the books that I've been giving expository sermons on. So that leaves me off the hook, and I think, yes, but the one time you did preach on it, you weren't in the middle of biblical exposition. And I thought, if the people don't respond to things like this, it may be because I haven't explained their responsibilities and what it is that God expects from them. And you see, at that point, I fail you as well as failing the Lord, because all that we have is to be ready to be given at a moment's notice, as an offering of praise to the Lord God.

25:48 And so Paul goes on, and he said, again, Christ has not accomplished anything to me to make the Gentiles a believer, that is not through me, but in mighty signs and wonders. And he calls attention to the mighty signs and wonders that He has performed in His missionary outreach. One of the questions I hate to hear more than any other question from people is, R.C., do we still believe in miracles today, or are you a cessationist? That is, do you believe that miracles ended with the death of the last apostles? And I said to my wife this week, I said, I hate it when anybody asks me that when I don't have at least an hour to give my answer to it, because it's hard enough for people to hear it unless you really take the time to explain it. There is no word for miracle in the New Testament.

26:56 There are three words that are used again and again, signs, wonders, and powers. Now, we extrapolate from those words a concept that we call miracle. And then there is the generic word for miracle that we use loosely in our culture, and then there is that narrow, narrow technical theological definition of miracle. If you ask me about the general use of miracle and do they occur to ask? Absolutely they do, all the time. You see signs in the pastor's office, expect the miracle. Well, when you can expect miracles, chances are what you get will not really be a tight technical kind of miracle.

27:49 A miracle in the narrow sense is that sign or power that signifies something. And the purpose of those signs in the apostolic age was to signify the breakthrough of a the kingdom of God, and most importantly, to signify the agents of revelation that God had set apart to proclaim these things, just as Moses was given the power to perform what we call miracles so that his credentials would authenticate that he was speaking for God. Do you remember? came to Jesus at night and he said what? We know that thou art a teacher sent from God, or you would not be able to do the things that you do. Now that was sound thinking.

28:50 Here's what Nicodemus understood. He understood that the devil is a liar, and the devil can perform lying signs, that is fraudulent signs, fake signs, counterfeit signs like the magicians of Egypt. But Satan, who has more power than we do, does not have the power of God. Satan cannot bring something out of nothing. Satan cannot bring life out of death. Only God can do that, and those whom He empowers to do it. And when those He empowers to do it are then authenticated as agents of revelation, here's the point. Try to get this. That if If a non-agent of revelation can do these things, then what value is it when the New Testament says that God authenticates His apostles by these works?

29:51 How are they authenticated if somebody else can do it? How are they authenticated if Satan can do it? It would be a false and counterfeit evidence of apostolic authority. But in any case, without going into the fullness of that discussion, do I think that God answers prayers? Do we have a category called special providence? Does God heal the sick? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. But I don't expect to have somebody go to the house of Lazarus who's been dead for four days and raise him from the dead. I don't expect to see anybody today bring something out of nothing, not until the Lord comes back, because there was a purpose in redemptive history for that special, tight category of miracle.

30:45 Anyway, before we get carried away with that. Paul makes reference to the mighty signs and wonders that accompanied his ministry by the power of the Spirit of God. Again, not by Paul's inherent power, but by the power of the Holy Ghost, so that from Jerusalem and the roundabout to Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. Now, this place that he calls that I've mispronounced twice already, I just can't say it. Can you say it, Burke? Give it a try. Huh? Illyricum. There you go. Well, I'll go with that. That's way up north in Asia Minor. Here's Jerusalem down here, Illyricum way up here. And what Paul is saying is that my ministry has gone the whole circuit from Jerusalem all the way north up there into Asia Minor, and in every place that I have gone.

31:52 The power of the Holy Ghost has been there to authenticate my ministry with signs and powers and wonders, so that from Jerusalem and round about I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. And so I made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man's foundation. But as it is written, to whom he was not announced, they shall see, and those who have not heard shall understand." Now, there's nothing wrong with preaching on somebody else's foundation. Just today I read the history of the church that my family grew up in in Pittsburgh, and they went through all of the different ministers who had served in that parish, where one minister got one program going that blessed the church, and then when he moved along, the next man came and built on that foundation.

32:53 And that's what happens in the life of the church. Very very rare does the life of a church begin and end with one pastor. And so it's customary in the ministry to build on others' foundation. But Paul was not a pastor, he was an apostle, and he was a missionary. And he was sent to places where the gospel had not been preached, where no one else had laid a foundation, where he was the one who announced the gospel for the first time to these people. And he said, that was his aim, to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man's foundation. And then in verse 22 he says, it's because of this, that is because he keeps going to all these different places, that I have been much hindered from coming to you. But now no longer having a place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come to you, whenever I journey to Spain I shall come to you.

33:57 After Paul ever got to Spain, we don't know. Scholars are divided on that point, but we have no, you know, absolute certain evidence that he ever reached the fulfillment of his desire to get to Spain. We do know that he got to Rome, but he didn't get to Rome because it was on the way to Spain. He went to Rome in chains after getting himself in trouble with the Jews and then with the as we've seen in the book of Acts. He said, "'Whatever, however, whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you, for I hope to see you on my journey and to be helped on my way there by you, if I first may enjoy your company for a while.'" Here's a church that Paul has heard about, whose fame has gone into the whole world, that he was not the founder of the church in Rome. But he's writing this letter to the church of Rome. He counts them, his brothers and sisters in the Lord, and he longs to see them in person.

35:09 And so he tells them that, and he's now optimistic that he's going to be able to see them in the near future. But first he said, I'm going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints, for it pleased those from Macedonia and Acacia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. Wow! Paul has collected this offering from Gentile converts and has now been sent back to Jerusalem to give and distribute this offering to the Jewish believers who are living in the midst of hostility and in the midst of poverty back in Jerusalem. Isn't that something? That the believers among the Gentiles from Macedonia, from Greece, from up there in Asia Minor, made their contributions, gave their contributions to the apostle Paul and said, here, take this back to Jerusalem and give it to the saints there.

36:24 it pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things. Paul is saying here of the Gentile converts, we know who we are. Lord, we know that we have been supremely blessed because that which has come to us out of Israel, salvation is of the Jews. The Gentiles understood that they were the wild olive branch that had been grafted into the root of Israel. and they were the heirs of the spiritual promises of God that the apostle Paul has brought to them. And they say, we are debtors to our brothers and sisters of Israel who are suffering now in Jerusalem. And so they were pleased. They were pleased to give this contribution for the saints in Jerusalem. For if the Gentiles, as I say, had been partakers of the spiritual things, they saw it as a matter of duty to minister to the Jews in material things.

37:52 Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain. That is, after I go to Jerusalem, then I'm going to stop off at Rome on my way to Spain. But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ." Do you ever wonder if he changed his mind? Did he ever really feel that he was coming to Rome in the fullness of the blessing of Christ? If you know the Apostle Paul, you know the answer to that question. he could arrive in Rome in chains and still rejoice that he was there because of his privilege of being a minister of the gospel. Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, that I may come to you with joy by the will of God and may be refreshed together with you, and now may the God of peace be with you all. Amen."

39:18 Paul begs the Roman Christians to pray for him for this journey that he is about to undertake to Jerusalem. He knows there's a price on His head. He knows that there's a bullseye on His back. He knows that there are multitudes of unbelieving Jews that can't wait to get their hands on Him and, if possible, stone Him to death. And so He asked the saints in Rome, please pray for me. I'm going to Jerusalem to deliver this offering, to bring relief to the saints in Jerusalem, but I'm going to need a safe conduct to get in and out of that city. So, pray hard, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, that the Jewish Christians will accept my ministry to the Gentiles, and that I may come to you with joy by the will of God and be refreshed together with you.

40:28 And this section then closes with a brief benediction. This is not the final benediction. It's not the ultimate benediction. It's the penultimate benediction of the epistle to the Romans where he says, now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. front and center in the concern of the apostle, front and center for the concern of every Jew, was the experience of the peace of God. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. One Jew greets another, shalom, aleikum, aleikum, shalom. Peace be unto you, and unto you