Preached Sunday, January 9, 2011
from
Romans 15:14
Theme: The resources God has given the church family are sufficient for the edification of each individual believer in it.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
This morning, I’d like to introduce you to a wonderful spiritual growth resource. It’s not something ‘new’. In fact, it’s been around for quite a long time. And it’s not something faddish—like so many other spiritual growth resources can be.
Some today are becoming increasingly critical of this important resource. Some are saying that it’s no longer effective for growth in the Christian life. In fact, some of the contemporary ‘experts’ have described it as burdensome, ineffective and unnecessary. A few have abandoned it altogether. And yet, in spite of its critics, it remains a time-tested resource that—whenever given its proper priority—shows itself to be marvelously effective in meeting the spiritual needs of every individual member of the church family, and in bringing about their growth in a healthy, fruitful walk with Jesus Christ.
My hope is that we, together, will grow more and more to appreciate and avail ourselves to this wonderful resource. And what’s more, I’m very pleased to announce that we won’t have to pay a single penny for it! A gracious Benefactor has already purchased it, well-supplied it, and made it abundantly available.
This great resource that has been made available to us is us—that is, the the very congregated church of believers that Jesus Christ Himself has purchased with His own blood and formed together into a body! There is, in the plan of God the Father, no greater resource on earth for the protection, nurture and growth of His individual sons and daughters than a healthy, biblically instructed, Spirit-empowered church family!
The effectiveness of this wonderful spiritual growth resource was described powerfully by the apostle Paul in Romans 15:14.
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Even though the first-century church at Rome was one that he hadn’t helped to establish personally, and even though he himself hadn’t even had a chance to meet the believers there by the time he wrote his letter, Paul still had a great heart of love for them. He told them, at the very beginning of his letter, that he prayed for them without ceasing; and that he longed to come to them someday and personally minister to them for their establishment in the faith.1
And since he hoped to come to them soon, he felt led to write to them in his letter about the nature of the gospel that he preached, and of its implications for daily Christian living. His letter to the Romans is, without question, the greatest theological treatise on the gospel of Jesus Christ that has ever been penned. And it wasn’t all simply ‘theoretical’. There’s a very large section of his letter in which Paul described how these individual Christians—whom he had never met—should put the truths of the gospel to work in their daily lives. He felt that it was appropriate to write to them so boldly. After all, God had commissioned him to 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” (Romans 15:15).
But Paul didn’t want them to think that he was being ‘dictatorial’ toward them with respect to their faith. He wasn’t saying that he himself needed to be there ‘in person’ for them to be the strong and healthy Christians God wanted them to be. He was very courteous toward them, and respectful of the spiritual maturity that already characterized them; since, as he told them at the beginning of his letter, “your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world” (Romans 1:8).
And so; in Romans 15:14—in the context of a long, carefully written exhortation about the Christian life—we find him expressing his confidence in the church family as the sufficient resource for the growth of every individual believer. He told them,
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 (Romans 15:14).
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As a pastor, these words excite me greatly! I already believed that our church is a wonderful blessing from God. But this verse helps me to appreciate why it’s so wonderful! It helps me to see what a great spiritual resource it is that God has provided to us in each other! It helps me to see that the resources that God has given this church family are sufficient for the edification of every individual believer in it And as we look a little closer at this verse, I hope that you will grow to see it that way too.
Let’s begin by looking at . . .
1. PAUL’S CONFIDENCE IN THE CHURCH FAMILY.
He begins by saying, “Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren . . .” And what an encouraging word of commendation that must have been from the apostle Paul—that he was “confident” concerning them!
Paul didn’t have such strong confidence in every church family. The church in Galatia, for example, had abandoned the important doctrine of ‘justification by faith’, and the people in it where trying to make themselves righteous before God on the basis of religious works. He wrote a very harsh letter to them and told them, “I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you” (Galatians 4:20)2. Or take the church in Corinth as another example. It had conformed to the pagan culture around it, and was characterized by immorality and internal fighting. Paul also wrote a harsh letter to them and said, “For I fear lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I wish, and that I shall be found by you such as you do not wish . . .” (2 Corinthians 12:20). But this wasn’t the case with the believers in the Roman church. He was very confident concerning them.
And I love how he expressed that confidence. First, he expressed it as someone who had great authority and responsibility. He was, after all, the man that God had appointed to be “a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles”. He was, as he said at the beginning of this letter to the Galatians, “an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the father who raised Him from the dead) . . .” (Galatians 1:1). He possessed great spiritual authority; and from the standpoint of that position of spiritual authority over them, he could say to them, “Now I myself am confident concerning you . . .” In fact, in the original language of his letter, he expressed his feelings in an emphatic way: “Confident I—myself—am concerning you all . . .” What an encouragement this must have been to them! When he—no less than the great apostle Paul himself—wrote to them about living the Christian life, he had great confidence concerning them!
But note also that when he wrote to them, he didn’t expressed this confidence toward them as someone who was ‘better’ than them, or who exercised an attitude of ‘superiority’ over them—even though, as the great apostle Paul, he certainly could have! Instead, he expressed his confidence toward them as one with them. He told them, “. . . I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren . . .” Their spiritual condition was a very personal matter to Paul. At the beginning of his letter, he told them that he was looking forward to being with them; “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established—that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me” (Romans 1:11-12). Paul felt such a union with them that, if they weren’t strong in their relationship with the Lord, he would have experienced loss.
So, Paul’s encouraging words are not flattery! When he says that he is “confident” with respect to the congregation of believers in Rome, we have every reason to believe he truly was!
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Now; I believe that Paul’s example of “confidence” in the Roman believers highlights something that I like to call “church-esteem”. It’s a very precious thing to be able to feel good about one’s own church family—to have a sincere sense of healthy esteem for it. It helps make it so that it’s someplace you truly want to be. It makes you excited to tell others about your church family, and eager to invite them to visit. May we here this morning be like Paul; and be energized by a sense of happy, healthy, confident “church-esteem”!
But it’s important that our sense of esteem be based on the same thing as Paul’s. The reason Paul was confident in the body of believers in Rome was not because of what they were in and of themselves. His confidence didn’t have its ultimate basis in them as individuals. Rather, his confidence had its basis in the Lord’s work through the spiritual resources that the Lord Himself had imparted to them. Paul’s confidence was in the sufficiency of the Holy Spirit to supply the congregation of individual believers with all they needed, and to use those those individual believers—through what He supplied to them—to minister to one another.
I think a wonderful passage to help us understand this is Ephesians 4:11-16. Paul wrote these words about the Lord Jesus’ provision to—and work through—the local church;
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12a) . . .
Note carefully that it’s not the apostles, and prophets, and evangelists, and pastors and teachers who are—themselves—to do the work of the ministry. They are given by God to support those who do the work. Rather, its the “saints”—the believers within the congregation—who are to do the work of the ministry. And what is the ministry that has been given to every individual believer? It’s “the work of ministry . . .”
for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love (Ephesians 4:12b-16).
Can you see now what I mean? The greatest spiritual resource on earth that God has given us as individual believers is ‘us’ as a church body! Paul was greatly confident in this; and we should be too! Praise God, dear brothers and sisters, that He has given us . . . us!
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Now; let’s look further at this verse and see . . .
2. WHAT IT WAS THAT MADE PAUL CONFIDENT.
Why could the apostle Paul be so confident in the congregation of Roman Christians that he could trust that they would grow in Christ—even if he himself wasn’t there personally to make sure it happen? There are three things he had confident in; and the first is the church family’s goodness He told them, “Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness . . .”
Now; if you’re like me, your first thought is, “Wait a minute, Paul. I’ve been in a few different churches in in the course of my Christian life. I’ve known lots of ‘church-going’ folks. And there aren’t very many of them that I could say are ‘full of goodness’. There are a few that I might be able to say were pretty close to being ‘full of goodness’; but most of them are quite a mix. Some have a few positive points in this area; and some others have a few positive points in that area; and all of them have a few of negative points all around. Almost all had ‘some’ goodness. But I don’t know very many of them that I could say were ‘full’ of goodness.”
But it’s important to remember that Paul isn’t talking about individual Christians. He’s talking about the whole congregation of a church body. One individual believer in the body has strengths in this area, but has weakness in another. Another individual believer in the same congregation has strengths that make up for that other believer’s weakness; but also has weaknesses that are made up by still another believer’s strengths.
When we focus on those differences as if we were just a group of ‘individuals’—instead of seeing us as an “us”—those differences can almost drive us crazy! But when we remember that the Holy Spirit has so wisely put the church body together that what one member lacks is compensated for by what another member supplies, and when we all humble ourselves and let ourselves be ministered to by one another—lo and behold!—we discover that the church is literally ‘full of goodness’!
Paul had great confidence in how this cooperation with one another in the body revealed the “goodness” with which the Holy Spirit has filled His church. He wrote to the Roman believers about this a little earlier in his letter; and told them;
For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness (Romans 12:3-8).
May God help us, as individual believers, to humble ourselves toward one another; and serve one another’s needs with the provision our Lord Himself has given us!
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Another thing that the apostle Paul had confidence in was the church family’s knowledge He said, “Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are . . . filled with all knowledge . . .”
It was interesting to me to discover that the word “full” in the clause “full of goodness” is a different word in the original language3 than the word “filled” in the clause “filled with all knowledge”4. Forgive me if I get a little ‘grammatical’ for a moment; but in the first clause, the word is an adjective that seems to speak of the possession of “goodness” in potential—but not necessarily realized in actual experience. But in the second clause, the verb is what’s called a ‘perfect participle’; and it speaks of the full and complete possession of “all knowledge” in actual experience—as if to say that the church body already is, as a present possession, filled with all the knowledge it will need to do the work of edifying each one of its members. The New International Version shows this difference when it translates this verse, “you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge . . .”
I believe that the “knowledge” that Paul is speaking of here is the instruction and direction we receive from the Scriptures. In the Scriptures, we have a complete supply of all the knowledge we will ever need to build one another up in Christ. When he wrote to Timothy, Paul told him,
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:15-17).
He urged the Colossian believers,
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord (Colossians 3:16).
When it comes to living the life that God wants us to live, the fallible wisdom of man can add nothing to the sufficient supply of knowledge we already have in God’s word. Paul had great confidence in the sufficiency of Scripture to be the only rule for faith and practice that the church will ever need. May we grow to have this confidence as well.
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So; Paul had confidence in the church family’s mutual provision of goodness, and in its completed supply of knowledge. Finally, Paul said that he had confidence in the church family’s ability He said that he was confident concerning them, that they were “able also to admonish one another.”
The word that Paul uses for “admonish” is one that means “the earnest attempt by words spoken (or written) to correct what is wrong in another, to encourage him to do what is right and to refrain from what is evil”.5 And in the original language of Paul’s letter, this is put in the form of the verb that suggests an ongoing, habitual practice. Paul, in other words, is confident that the individual members of the church family—filled with goodness, complete with all knowledge—are able to carry on the practice of admonishing or instructing each other in a faithful and fruitful walk with Jesus Christ. They were able to warn one another of what God says to avoid, and teach one another how God wants them to live.
Sometimes we’re afraid that we’re not competent to serve one another in this way. We think to ourselves, “I’m not a trained counselor. I didn’t go to seminary. I’m not a professional. What if I end up hurting someone?” But if we feel led by the Holy Spirit to minister a word of exhortation, or warning, or instruction, or admonition to another brother or sister in need, we shouldn’t hesitate. Even the apostle Paul had confidence in the ability of every-day Christians to do this for one another. Just remember: (1) if you are under the control of the Holy Spirit when you speak, (2) if what you have to say is from God’s own word, (3) if you can speak from a life of moral integrity, and (4) if you truly love the person to whom you are speaking, then you have no need to fear. You cannot hurt them on those terms. You can only do them good!
This was the policy Paul and his own co-laborers had in ministering to those who were entrusted to his care. He wrote to the Colossian believers about Jesus; and said,
Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily (Colossians 1:28-29).
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Dear brothers and sisters; there is no other resource on earth—given by God—that is as effective for our nurture and growth than the local church—us in ministry to one another! And no other earthly resource has the endorsement from the apostle Paul that this one has!
So; let’s avail ourselves to it fully! Let’s learn to humble ourselves toward one another. Let’s each open ourselves up to one another’s God-given provision of service. Let’s build relationships with one another. Let’s spend quality time with one another. Let’s pray regularly for one another—and with one another. Let’s learn from God’s word together. Let’s personally feed on it daily. Let’s learn to know God’s word so well that we’ll know what God wants us to do in the trials and challenges of daily life. Let’s learn what God wants us to avoid. Let’s learn how God wants us to behave. And finally, let’s be bold enough in our love for one another that we tell one another what God says.
That’s how growth happens in the body of Christ! And I’m confident that we can do it; because Paul was confident we could do it! We can be confident concerning ourselves in Christ that—together—we “are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.”
See Romans 1:8-15
Paul does, however, tell the Galatian church later, “I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind . . .” (5:10).
Nominative plural masculine adjective of mestos; “full, filled with, replete”.
Nominative plural masculine perfect passive participle of plāroō; “to fill”.
C.E.B. Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans (Edinburgh: T.&T. Clark Limited, 1979), vol. 2, p. 753n.