Christ through You

Romans 15:14-33


Christ through You

There are many things that we do in our life time and many times we do things for ourselves but the things accomplished through Christ will remain. Paul is encouraging and admonishing the Roman believers to do what they already know to do in uplifting each other. In the same way that Paul writes to solidify the truth of Christ in them He exhorts them to pay it forward to the body of Christ. They are called to take what has been taught and put some shoe leather to it or walk it out.

Paul had a heart for the gentile people and in all reality he had a heart for anyone he came in contact with. His heart was that of a Pastor teacher. He saw his role as a gift that was graciously given to him by God. Because of the call he had he felt personal conviction to help those gentiles serving the Lord and that their service would be an acceptable offering to the Lord.

“Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.” (Philippians 2:17)

There’s something interesting about Paul referring to the preaching of the Gospel as being FULLY preached. He makes reference to the mighty signs and wonders done by the Holy Spirit which he deemed as the Gospel being FULLY preached. This is seen in conjunction with the things that were accomplished through him by Christ. Maybe there are times that he was sharing the Gospel under his own power and didn’t seem as effective as when he knew the Spirit was operating through him with the Gospel preaching. The lesson for us to try and be continually aware of the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We see in Paul’s life the Spirit was moving him in a mighty way to the point that he was being an influence in most of the known world at the time.

There is one characteristic that I love about Paul and that is his pioneering mindset. As the Christians were dispersing out he wanted to continue to pioneer into other areas of the world that were untouched with the Gospel. Paul was a man that was extremely active in the body of Christ but he also had a vision for missions. He purposed in his heart to make both the vision of the church and the vision of missions an active pursuit. We as a church must reach in and reach out. We see that in Jesus’ life and in Paul’s life and our life should be no different.

“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20)

“And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every person.”” (Mark 16:15)

As Paul looked forward into the future missionary trips he wanted to make Rome a base camp on the west as he traveled to Spain. Until that vision happened Paul was busy about his current work bringing offerings to the church in Jerusalem from the church in Corinth. Many churches were blessed because of the work in Jerusalem and wanted to show some love in return when they were in need. Paul knew that his journey to Jerusalem and beyond needed to be covered in prayer. The opposition was always around and people in Jerusalem had a sour taste in their mouth because of Paul’s challenging words. We need to make a concerted effort to pray for our church leaders. They are on the front lines battling for us and our needs. What they do for us is extremely self sacrificing and honorable to the Lord. They are human and so our prayers give them supernatural power to endure.