❖ Video (Whole Worship Service)
❖ Audio (Message)
More Difficult and More Important Than Going to the Ends of the Earth
Romans 15:22-23 (Reference: Acts 20:22-23, 21:13, 1 Corinthians 16:1-4, 2 Corinthians 8-9)
Mari Ikeda
Today I’d like to read through the whole passage for today first, which is Romans 15:22-33. I’ll divide it into three parts according to subject and read them Japanese and English alternately.
22 This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you. 23 But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to visit you, 24 I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to see you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.
25 Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the Lord’s people there. 26 For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the Lord’s people in Jerusalem. 27 They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings. 28 So after I have completed this task and have made sure that they have received this contribution, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way. 29 I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ.
30 I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. 31 Pray that I may be kept safe from the unbelievers in Judea and that the contribution I take to Jerusalem may be favorably received by the Lord’s people there, 32 so that I may come to you with joy, by God’s will, and in your company be refreshed. 33 The God of peace be with you all. Amen.
A. Paul’s risky journey
At a glance, the content of this passage is just Paul’s plan for his missionary trip which has nothing to do with us. He wanted to go to Spain, which was considered as the ends of the earth in his time, and it was his plan to stop by Rome on the way. However, he says he is now on his way to Jerusalem first. His purpose was to deliver the funds collected in various places for the church of Jerusalem.
But we can assume from v.31 that Paul was anxious about going to Jerusalem himself. We can see how anxious he was even more clearly in the Book of Acts. I’d like to read two passages.
And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. (Acts20:22-23)
Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. (Acts21:13)
Here we can see that Paul made his mind to go to Jerusalem, even though he knew it would risk his life. In other words, for Paul at that time, to go to Jerusalem was more important than fulfilling his mission to reach to the ends of the earth, and actually so important that he even risked his life. When we search for his reason, we can understand that his action with determination was the action that embodied the gospel of Jesus, and that he teaches us something important for us. Therefore, now I’d like to briefly sort out the background for his determination to risk his life by going to Jerusalem.
B. Fundraising for the church in Jerusalem
1. By the people of Macedonia and Achaia (= gentile Christians)
From v.26, we can see that people of Macedonia and Achaia raised funds among them to support the poor in Jerusalem. Macedonia was the region where the towns of Philippi and Thessalonica were. Achaia was where the town of Corinth was. Please read as your reference 1 Corinthians 16 and 2 Corinthians 8-9, for more information about their actions of fundraising. What is important for us is that these churches were mainly built by Paul’s mission, and many of their members were gentiles.
2. For the church in Jerusalem (= the spiritual pillar of Jewish Christians)
Meanwhile, “the Lord’s people in Jerusalem” meant people of the church of Jerusalem, whose members were predominantly Jews. The church of Jerusalem was also the lead church for all churches in those days as it was the first church to bring the gospel to the world, and was the spiritual pillar for Jewish Christians especially.
3. To resolve their conflict
Now then, why did Paul consider so important even to risk his life to deliver the collection from the gentile churches that he had nurtured to the church of Jerusalem? It was to solve the problem of conflict arising between Jewish Christians and gentile Christians, which has been the topic of this letter to the Romans as a whole. On the one hand, for gentile churches to support financially the church of Jerusalem would signify gentiles showing their respect for Jews. On the other hand, for Jerusalem church to accept the support from gentile churches would represent Jews accepting gentiles as their equal partners. To sum up, the collection for the church of Jerusalem was an important stepping stone in order to build up a mutual respect and an equal relationship between gentile churches and Jewish churches.
However, this problem of conflict between Jewish believers and gentile believers was not just some emotional conflict between different peoples, but a matter of the essence of Jesus’ gospel itself. That’s why Paul made his first priority to go to Jerusalem even at the risk of his life.
We have seen throughout the Book of Romans Paul’s resolution to prevent the essence of the gospel from being modified. He thought it would be worth even of his life to do so.
C. The gospel
1. The fulfillment of God’s promises in the Old Testament
First of all, it is a given fact that Jesus’ gospel, or His good news, is the fulfillment of God’s promise in the Old Testament. Jesus did not come all of a sudden out of God’s whim. Rather, He was God, who had led the people of the Old Testament and came to fulfill His promise to them. By His being, He revealed that God had never forgot the people of the past, and that had an interest in people’s life and were willingly working Himself to lead people to a right path in the past and in the present alike.
It was only the Jews, who could understand this well, because they were only people who knew God of the Old Testament. It was only the Jewish Christians who could tell the world that God had not changed from the beginning of the world, that God’s grace had not changed, and that God surely protected His promise. That was why Paul wanted gentile believers to keep a good fellowship with Jewish believers so that they could understand properly how Jesus and God of the Old Testament were same. That is also important for us to remember.
2. God’s choice is God’s mercy
However, what is more important here is that God, who had chosen Jews as His people, chose gentiles as well as us for the very same reason why He had chosen Jews. It is said that God chose Jews not because they were greater than other peoples, but rather because they were weaker and smaller. Moreover, what we learn from the Old Testament is not how honorable Jewish people were, but instead God’s mercy which never forsook them, no matter how many times they turned away from Him. God’s choice is His mercy and grace which He pours out unilaterally, while there is no reason for it on human beings’ side. That was why Paul wanted Jews just to be thankful to this mercy of God’s and accept that the same mercy was just being poured out on gentiles. This is also important for us to remember. The same grace of God that is poured out to us is being poured out on all people.
God is the one who forgives and chooses sinners, and never forsakes but just loves those who even betrays or rejects Him. That is God’s mercy which has never changed ever since the time of the Old Testament, and was revealed more clearly for us through the death of Jesus. We were chosen not because we did or had something great. Instead, we were saved just by God’s mercy on us.
3. Salvation, not by works, but by faith alone
In addition, therefore, the core of Jesus’ gospel is that we are saved by faith in God’s mercy alone, because we can never save ourselves by our own strength. This is not merely a gentle calling nice to hear, saying, “You don’t have to make your efforts, but just rely on God!” But rather, it is a calling for us to humbly accept that we are so sinful that none of us can compensate one’s sin by oneself.
This is a very difficult thing. Because we so often think unconsciously we have to make our own efforts in order to gain God’s favor and avoid His anger. Moreover, we force to each other to do so, and end up judging one another who is doing better and who is not in matters of faith and life. By doing so, we develop a false belief, “I’m right, and they are wrong,” just as Jews and gentiles had their prejudice against each other and came in conflict. However, the truth is that we all have nothing we can do by ourselves in order to gain God’s love and be chosen. It is wrong in the first place to assume that we can obtain His love by making our efforts. But we often add conditions to God’s love on our own, only to cause pain to ourselves and to others.
The gospel of Jesus is the love of God, who had chosen us even before we chose Him, and His mercy, which had forgiven our sin before we knew it ourselves. To rely on the mercy is not an option we can take, but the only way we have. But this is the only and true salvation which can liberate us from a vicious cycle of our pointless conflict with each other in our sin.
4. To assure one another: “You are loved as you are”
The gospel of Jesus transforms us from the one who desires for love to the one who desires to love others. Although we will remain imperfect and poor in love all our lives, we have the fact that God has already chosen us. We no longer rely on our own strength, because God’s power is already working in us so that we can assure one another, “you are loved as you are.”
It is difficult to remember this all the time. Perhaps it is easier to reach the other side of the world to do something good there. All is up to our daily small steps, whether we rely on God’s mercy and help in our each step.
(Prayer) Dear God, the Creator of this world, give us faith to believe that Your love for us has never changed from the moment You created us. Help us understand the weight of Your life You sacrificed for us on the cross, so that we may not focus on what we can do or what we have or don’t have. We have so little love and so easily fall into sin to go our selfish way, but you have never forsaken us and kept on pouring your mercy on us. Make us able to accept that our own strength is no reliable, and let us have no fear in seeking your help. Dear our Lord Jesus, we pray this in Your name, Amen.
Summary
Paul wanted to fulfill his mission to spread the gospel of Jesus to the ends of the earth, but hearing that there were conflicts regarding the gospel among his old acquaintances, he returned home. People in the past and present often lose sight of the most important part of the gospel of Jesus: that God unilaterally pours out his mercy, chooses and loves sinners. Our tendency to judge one another in matters of faith and life, is in itself a sign that we have forgotten God’s mercy and are relying on our own strength. It is very difficult not to lose sight of God’s great mercy.
For Discussion
1. What is God’s promise in the Old Testament?
2. What does it mean for God’s choice to be an act of mercy? (See Romans 9-11)