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April 5/6, 2014
Jason Meyer | Romans 15:18-21
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, 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; 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, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”—Romans 15:18–21
Introduction
This is the tenth and last sermon in our series on Bethlehem DNA. I have seen the Lord do some amazing things through this series. I am profoundly thankful. The next two weeks we have Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. Then we go back to our series on 2 Corinthians, and I will be the happiest pastor on the planet.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This last sermon will take up the priority of global outreach. If I could pick any topic to preach on, I would preach on the delights of the gospel—the delights of Jesus’s death and resurrection for us! If I could choose a second topic, I would preach on global outreach. This subject is that close to my heart.
Bethlehem has a great global outreach tradition. Perhaps that strength presents us with a danger. What will kill a successful global outreach tradition? Both liberalism and traditionalism. Think of them as two ditches again. The ditch on the left, liberal theology is a danger for global outreach because if we get the gospel wrong, we will spread a false gospel that saves no one. The ditch on the right is dangerous too. Why is traditionalism a danger in a successful global outreach program? Pride in the past may cause us to trust in our tradition. Success can get you stuck—stuck up in pride and then stuck in tradition.
Here is the sinister trick: Successful churches get stuck because they trust in what worked instead of trusting in the One who worked. They become prayerless. They cease to have childlike dependence and they fail to keep in step with the Spirit.
I once heard Ed Stetzer say that many Southern Baptist churches are calibrated to reach the 1950s. I saw that in my time as a Southern Baptist in the South. Some of the churches were stuck in tradition because of the success of the glory days when their sanctuaries and Sunday school classes were full. So they kept doing things that way because that was what worked. They began trusting a strategy rather than the Savior. We could get stuck in the 1980s or the 1990s or some other place in the past.
What shall we say to these things, beloved? I start with a pastoral word. I know change is hard. Clarifying our priorities has led us to some proposed changes, like putting our pastors where our priorities are. It is a necessary step, but it is a difficult step because it involves redeploying and that means changing. We do not do it lightly. We only propose these things because of a greater pain: It pains us to see the way that we have been slow to address things that need to be addressed. We do not love change and we do not trust in change. We love Jesus and trust in him to guide us.
Now it may sound like I am setting you up for something. Is there some big change coming for global outreach? The change of direction I am calling for is a downward direction. I want to dig deeper than ever. If we are going to build higher and wider, we need to dig deeper. Look at what they are doing with the building of the new Metrodome. They started by digging deep. We want to do the same now. Let’s go right to the biblical bedrock upon which we build everything.
I want to go back before the great tradition of global outreach to the passionate conviction that gave rise to the great tradition. We could spend time answering many questions: Whom shall we send? How shall we send them? Where shall we send them? But one question helps answer all of these questions: Why shall we send?
Why do we send? Here is the main point of the sermon in two words: pioneer passion. Global outreach is defined and driven by a pioneer passion. You know the word “pioneer” right? Normally it is defined as “a person who is among the first to explore or settle a new country or area.” Paul was a different kind of pioneer. He was a pioneer church planter. He wanted to go to places that had no churches and no worship of Christ and establish a church and the worship of Christ there for the first time. This pioneer passion will emerge as part of three points in Romans 15:18–21. We will consider 1) The Pioneer Past (15:18–19), 2) The Pioneer Priority (15:20), and 3) The Pioneer Promise (15:21).
The Pioneer Work Christ Did Through Paul
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, 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’s pioneer passion can be seen in his pioneer past. Notice three things about Paul’s pioneer past: who, what, and how. First, Paul looks at who did the work. He says emphatically: Christ did it. Paul could have been a prideful spin doctor and made it seem like he did the work, but he didn’t. He said look at what Christ did “through me.” It is the accomplishment of Christ. He gets the credit.
In the same way, we are not stuck up about global outreach at Bethlehem. We are stewards of a great global outreach tradition, but we are not the makers or the masters of it.
From 1980–2013 Bethlehem sent 265 global partner units (singles, couples, families) for a duration of at least two years or more.
I read reports of early sending vision and venture back to the early days. Some of you remember “90 by 90” and “2000 by 2000” campaigns. Those were a joy to read. Brad Nelson sent me some short-term mission statistics that he has kept since 2008:
Christ did all of that and more (some of which we will not see until heaven). So let’s get the balance right: Christ did all of that through us (we are thankful), but Christ did it through us (Christ gets the credit). Neither the one who plants or waters is anything. The Lord who causes the growth is everything (1 Corinthians 3:7). There is a difference between being thankful and being prideful, and Paul strikes just the right balance. He is thankful that Christ did it through him, but he was not so prideful as to forget that Christ did it through him.
Second, Paul looks at what Christ did through him: He brought the Gentiles to obedience. This concept of the obedience of the nations or Gentiles is so important that Paul makes it the bookends of Romans:
Third, Paul looks at how Christ did this work through him. Paul looks at his past missionary labors and claims that it only represents what Christ has accomplished through him. Christ did this work “by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God” (v. 19). The Spirit of God has done this work, not the peashooter power of the flesh—all the more reason why Paul cannot take credit.
Now Paul makes a staggering statement that leaves us scratching our heads a bit. The result of all that Christ did was that from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum the gospel of Christ has been fulfilled or fully proclaimed: “So that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ” (v. 19).
But how can that be? Surely not everyone in those regions has received the gospel? Not everyone has become a believer, right? What does he mean by the “fulfillment” of the gospel of Christ? Paul’s next point tells us how to read what guided him in the past and why he feels like he has fulfilled the gospel of Christ in those regions.
A Pioneer Passion to Build a Foundation
… 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’s pioneer passion has created a pioneer priority. First, notice that the words “and thus” show that Paul is explaining what he just said about fulfilling the gospel of Christ in the regions from Jerusalem to Illyricum. He had a pioneer priority to proclaim the gospel only where Christ was not named in order to avoid building on someone else’s foundation. This is the needed clue to interpret the phrase “fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ.” I love the succinct way Tom Schreiner explains this pioneer priority.
A claim to have fully preached the gospel of Christ is understandable in this sense, for Paul’s point is that he has finished planting churches where Christ has not been named in the area extending from Jerusalem to Illyricum. This hardly means that every village or town had heard the gospel. Paul’s strategy was apparently to plant churches in key cities, and from there coworkers would fan out and evangelize smaller towns (cf. Epaphras in Colossians). He believed that his foundation work was completed in this region, and thus he planned to further the work in areas where Gentile churches were not yet established. (Schreiner, Romans)
Second, it is also clear that “named” means not just “known,” but “named in worship.” Up-reach is the goal of Outreach! Paul’s ambition was not to get the name of Christ written in the dictionary, but to have the name of Christ written on the hearts of the nations. Worship should start in the heart and explode out of the mouth. The name of Christ is not just to be read, but to be sung and celebrated. We speak of his name as the most treasured thing in the universe. A Christian cannot even imagine a sweeter sounding name than the name of Jesus. People have come to see Jesus and savor his name in a way that feels life-changing and earth-shattering and identity-defining.
But we can go deeper still. Let’s go to the biblical bedrock of it all: God’s pioneer promise.
The Unreached Will Be Reached
Paul’s pioneer passion is based upon God’s pioneer promise: “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.” They will because God will. Paul has a pioneer passion because God does. He made this promise because it expresses his purpose and pleasure to make much of his Son and to unite heaven and earth under one name. It will happen through God’s pioneer passion, purpose, and power.
The Savior will be known and named and seen and understood. Paul here quotes from Isaiah 53, which is one of Isaiah’s servant songs about the suffering servant. This is the text the Ethiopian Eunuch was reading as we saw last week. The context makes clear that Paul is not the servant. Paul speaks “of him,” which is a reference to Christ. The context further clinches his argument because Christ will “sprinkle many nations.”
So shall he sprinkle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
for that which has not been told them they see,
and that which they have not heard they understand.—Isaiah 53:15
This text fits Paul’s passion for the Gentiles because it speaks of the “nations.” It fits his pioneer priority because the stress is on the seeing and understanding of those who have not been told and have never heard. This text also stresses the content of Paul’s gospel because he proclaims the sacrificial death of Christ (Isaiah 52–53). It also fits with the worship of Christ because it starts by saying the servant will be exalted (52:13).
Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.
Application
I am praying for a renewed pioneer passion and a renewed trust in God’s pioneer promise. We want global outreach to be a passionate priority in heart and not just a priority on paper.
Please feel the urgency with me to go deep here. There are 11,000 distinct people groups in the world, and 6,000 of them are still classified as unreached by the gospel. Unreached means that less than 2% of the people are evangelical Christians—people who have not named the name of Christ as Sovereign Lord and Supreme Treasure. When you see a lost person, your heart should break and you should want them to know Jesus like you know Jesus and to have in Jesus what you have in Jesus. But global outreach takes that same stirring and then takes it up another notch. Seeing a lost person who needs the gospel is stirring and heart-breaking, but seeing a lost people is even more stirring and heart-breaking. A pioneer passion burns when we know that there are 6,000 people groups representing two billion people with no access to the name of Jesus. These two billion people have no chance to hear about Jesus because there is virtually no Christian witness. There are no churches for these peoples. How will they hear? Who will bring them the name of Christ?
In the light of such a need, our priorities are pointed. We prioritize the unreached and the unengaged. Our commission from the Lord Jesus is to “make disciples of all the nations.” Do you see it? The aim of the commission is not the salvation of a lot of people, but the salvation of all the peoples.
Some of you have already been sent out or you are preparing to be sent out because the Lord has already lit the fire of this pioneer passion. If you are aflame with this pioneer passion, you will spread a flame abroad so that Jesus will be named where he is not named, prized where he is not prized, worshiped where he is not worshiped. I know that sometimes our global partners listen to these sermons. I send you personal greetings from your church family. Some of you feel chewed up and spit out by the sheer strain of working among spiritually-hardened people. I am praying that God would reignite a pioneer passion that will cause you to persevere in your pioneer priority.
The Bible is filled with the promises that God will do it. “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). He will. Feel the sovereign pleasure in his sovereign purpose. As the song says, “Christ will have the prize for which he died, an inheritance of nations.”
Our pioneer passion for the peoples determines the people we send and how we send them.
In short, we send people who have a pioneer passion. Their great burden is for the unreached and unengaged. We have many different sending strategies. Some of you will go to plant churches. Others will have to be tentmakers like Paul. You will need some other job just to get into closed countries that will not let people in with a church planting visa. Some will leave your jobs here, but some will take your jobs from here to there. We have a new generation of goers that will leave Minneapolis, but you will not leave your jobs behind. You will bring them with you. You can bring your education, your skills, your training and utilize them in a different place. The only difference will be you will do your job where there is no Christian witness! You may remember that I told some of you who are in junior high, senior high, or college that if you catch a pioneer passion, you may need to consider what job will open the most doors for you where there are the fewest gospel doors open. The strategies will vary, but our pioneer passion will define and drive all of our strategies.
Our sharing in Paul’s pioneer priority and pioneer passion does not say anything against prizing other types of outreach callings.
In holding high his own calling, he does not look down on other callings. Paul could not be clearer on this score:
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.—1 Corinthians 3:5–9
Paul presents these different callings as part of a unified work of God. God calls some to plant and some to water. Those that do the work are nothing and they have no power to cause anything. God is decisive. He does the calling and he does the causing—he causes the growth.
We need both Paul-type missionaries and Apollos-type missionaries. Paul-type missionaries are pioneer church planters. They go into an area like Corinth and plant a church. Paul moves on and Apollos comes there to water what Paul had planted. Bethlehem supports some of this work because it is important once we reach the unreached to keep them reached. Theological education is a key thing that we do in this area. Chuck Steddom, Tom Steller, Darren Carlson, and I are going to Myanmar to do theological education among the Kachin. All the work that Ola & Minnie Hanson did in church planting to reach the Kachin we want to continue to water!
We prize both Paul-type and Apollos-type missionaries, but we prioritize the Paul-type missionaries. Brad Nelson, our short-term ministry pastor, once told me that we are in a position to do things that other churches simply cannot do because of our history. Other churches are just catching a passion to reach beyond their borders. We have been doing it for years. Other churches are doing short-term ministry in the hope of developing long-term missionaries. We have many long-term partners and a theology of suffering and the glory of Christ that can help those global partners persevere in their pioneer passion. We want the foundation to be stronger so we can build higher and wider.
In our wartime giving, we must not outrun our supply lines. Don’t think that only global partners have caught a passion for pioneer church planting. We need senders who are just as passionate as our goers. Here we come back to all that I have been saying about wartime living existing for wartime giving. We are in a war worth winning. We have a pioneer passion that values the spread of the gospel to the unreached. We simply cannot allow our spreading to outrun our giving. The mission of spreading can’t happen without supply lines. We hinder the mission when our spreading outruns our supply lines. As Douglas Wilson said, we don’t want to make the mistake that Napoleon made in which we find ourselves in Russia in the winter having outrun our supply lines. The rest of the story did not have a happy ending for Napoleon’s army.
We are sending people out. They are leaving extended family, their church family, and almost everything that is familiar. We have a greater burden to care for them because we are sending them out to dangerous places. But even more importantly than them, we are sending them for the sake of the name. Scripture doesn’t say, “send them out in a manner worthy of them.” It says, “send them out in a manner worthy of God.” There is a question of worth that we must weigh in the way we send our people.
Budget Figures
We don’t want our hands holding on to lesser things as we over-indulge in comfort. If our hands are holding on to over-indulgence we will drop the baton as the mission of the greatest cause is handed to us. We should live differently than the over-indulgence around us because we see something that they don’t see.
Conclusion
I have been so thankful for my seminary preaching class. Every Monday I get to hear three sermons from my students. I have almost a papa-like pride in them to see them handle the word so reverently and accurately. This last Monday, one of my students, Daniel Souza, gave a great illustration for us to consider in this season of March Madness. He told the class how he was watching the Kentucky vs. Michigan game. He caught the end of the game where Kentucky won a nail-biter. He said one Kentucky fan was celebrating to such an extent that it actually made Daniel laugh. Daniel did not share in the celebration because he did not share that fan’s passion for Kentucky. He said, “I realized that guy was seeing something that I did not see.” Then another student, Ryan Shelton, said that “True worship is right seeing.”
We see something that is true that others are not seeing. We want them to see it. We long for them to savor it. We cry: “Let the peoples praise you; let all the peoples praise you!” We want them to see and savor the surpassing worth of Christ together with us by the Spirit! We want all of our outreach to be an explosive overflow of joy in our Triune God. Let’s get as close as we can to Christ. As I quoted Henry Martyn last week, “The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The closer we get to him the more intensely missionary we will become.” A pioneer passion will be fueled by an overflow of joy that comes from being close to Christ. We want others to know him as we know him.
This pioneer passion is the height of love for the nations. We can’t really do eternal good for people unless we aim for them to have the greatest thing in the universe: Full and forever joy in the presence of our glorious God!
One day all of these priorities will be fulfilled. There will be no more In-reach or Outreach. Small groups? We will not gather in small groups and try to care for each other in our neediness and sin—we will be changed to be like him because we will see him as he is. Adult education? There will be no more need to educate each other about the Lord. We will see face to face. Biblical counseling? We will not need to speak the word to one another in our suffering and sin, because the former things will be no more. Ethnic harmony? There will be no ethnic injustice! Mercy and justice? There will be no need to show mercy to anyone in pain and suffering. There will be none! There will be no injustice anywhere to address. Biblical manhood and womanhood? There will be no distortions of biblical teaching anywhere. God-centered enjoyment and wartime living? We will not have to avoid the ugly ditches of under-indulgence and over-indulgence. The next generation? Local outreach? Global outreach? We will not need to evangelize our children or our neighbors or the nations. The work will be done. And then one thing will remain. Up-reach. We will worship. We started this series with the worship of Revelation 4–5.
And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”—Revelation 5:9–10
It seems fitting to end this series in terms of where we are going at the end of Revelation.
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.— Revelation 21:21–22:5
Closing Song: “We Will Dance”