By the way, there's an opportunity for you to talk to somebody about children's ministry out in the lobby, and you can begin loving little children with the love of the Lord this fall. Most people have dreams of something, don't they? And I'm sure you do. A dream of a future attainment, a possession that you might want, a hope that is before you, because it's human to dream. It is human to have hopes, and it's vital for us.
We can tell a lot about people by the dreams that they have, because dreams are a way of measuring values in the life. You see, the key to our dreaming is what constitutes our dreams and our hopes. Are those dreams only temporal? Are those dreams focused on ourselves? Or do our dreams and hopes go beyond this lifetime and focus on others as well? The Apostle Paul was a man of ambitious dreams.
Despite an apparently frail physical body, his brilliant intellect, his bona fide faith in Jesus Christ, his fervent commitment drove him forward. Paul was always looking toward the horizon, confident that the Lord was in tomorrow's possibilities. Well, someone says, of course he did, because he was an apostle. Apostles are supposed to be that way.
But don't you think, truly in your heart, that that sense of expectation, that looking toward the horizon that we see in Paul, that that faith that reaches out and grasps a vision should characterize all of God's children, not just apostles? I do. The heartbeat of Paul's life might be summarized in this phrase, the advance of the gospel. If you were to take his pulse, it would beat this way, for the advance of the gospel. You see, Paul's dream embraced the world.
And seeing lost people in that world come to faith in Jesus Christ, his dream embraced the Jew and Gentile. It embraced the slaves. It embraced the free. His dream was that those who are lost in every culture, in every circumstance of life, might come to faith in the Lord. In writing the book of Romans, whom, by the way, Paul had never yet seen face to face when he wrote it, Paul exposes something of his heart for evangelism and missions.
I invite you to open your Bible to Romans 15 and verse 20. At the end of this marvelous book, Paul gives some personal remarks and exposes his heart. And he says in verse 20 of the 15th chapter of Romans, and thus he says, I aspired. You see, he had aspirations. He is a man in his early 60s. He is not ready to retire. He says, I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build upon another man's foundation.
You see, Paul's real dream was to preach the gospel in brand new areas where there had never yet been a witness for Christ. The cause of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ engaged the powers of this man. Paul was a man called by Christ to serve him. How did Paul view his calling? If you and I can grasp a little bit of that, it will affect how you and I view our calling as well to preach the gospel.
In the book of Romans, there are four language pictures to describe how Paul saw himself in his calling. I want us to look at those four language pictures this morning because as you and I see how Paul saw himself, it will help us to see how we ought to see ourselves in relation to our calling to preach the gospel. First of all, Paul saw missions as a commission to keep. Go back to the very first verse of Romans and notice how Paul begins the epistle.
It's not unusual in a certain respect because he introduces himself. He says, Paul, a bond servant of Jesus Christ called as an apostle set apart for the gospel. Notice how he labels himself here, a bond servant, a slave of Jesus Christ. That word would have gone over well in Rome because you see in Rome there were more slaves than there were free people. And undoubtedly the Roman church had many slaves who were part of it.
And so he begins by introducing himself as a slave of Jesus Christ and then he gives this title an apostle. The word apostle comes from a Greek verb apostelo. If you listen to that, you can hear the word apostle in it. We get our English word from this Greek verb, apostelo. It means to send forth on a certain mission. It means to commission someone to a particular kind of business. In verse 5, Paul goes on to talk about his commission.
He talks about Jesus Christ in verse 4, our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for his name's sake. And so we understand how Paul saw his commission. It was that he was to preach the gospel that especially Gentiles might come to faith in Jesus Christ. It was to bring them to obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul in Acts chapter 26 talks about his commission.
You may recall that he was on the road to Damascus where he intended to persecute Christians when the Lord appeared to him. And in the brilliance of that light, which caused a temporary blindness for Paul until he was healed, he heard a voice. And it was the voice of Jesus. And Jesus told him on that occasion that he was sending him to the Gentiles. The word send is this idea of commissioning. You see, an apostle is someone who is sent on a mission.
Paul saw missions as a commission which he had, a commission that he had to keep. Now, you and I are not apostles. Apostles left the scene in the foundation era of the church in the first century. We cannot meet the qualifications for apostles technically today. But there is a very legitimate sense in which all of us have been apostles. That is, we have been sent. As Jesus said to us through the apostle John, as the Father has sent me, even so I apostle you. I send you with a mission.
Missions in a particular sense, as we use that term today as cross-cultural. When we think of missionaries, we think of people who go to a different culture there to preach the gospel. But we need to back up a moment and realize that biblically, really missions is the work of all of us. Not a few people that we commission as missionaries, for we are all missionaries. And all that we do to communicate the gospel is what missions is about. Missions isn't about geography.
Missions is about being the people of God where we are and serving him to advance the gospel. That's why we in our mission statement say that we are a community of believers whose purpose is to worship, to prepare ourselves through biblical instruction, service, and fellowship, in order to evangelize the world. We believe that we are a mission center and created a graphic some time ago to depict this. It expresses the fact that we come into the mission center represented by that circle.
And here we are taught, we are equipped, here we worship the Lord, here we do some evangelism, but the evangelism really is on the outside of that circle. We come into the mission center that we might go out through relationship evangelism, through cultural keys and reaching people at their felt need level, by establishing branch churches that we might be missionaries. The apostle Paul saw missions as a commission to keep.
You see missions is a matter of what we're about more than where we're going. We have chosen to portray ourselves as a mission center, as a church, hoping that all of us will catch this vision that we are missionaries just as much as Paul, and that we have a commission in this place to advance the gospel. And it's a commission that we too are to keep. Secondly, I noticed that the apostle Paul used in this same chapter, Romans chapter 1, another picture of missions to describe how he saw it.
This is in chapter 1 verse 14, where he says, I am under obligation, for as the King James puts it, I am debtor, both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. Thus for my part I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome, for I am not ashamed of the gospel. That is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
The second picture that Paul uses to describe how he saw himself in relation to missions is he saw himself as one with a debt to pay. He says, I am under obligation. The word literally means what one owes to somebody else, a debt, an obligation. Paul felt obligated in debt to all people, to the Greeks. The word here in the context means those who were Hellenized.
If you have studied history, you know that the Greeks were a very powerful force in the world before Christ, that the Greek Empire conquered the whole known world at that time under Alexander the Great. Greek language and Greek philosophy and Greek culture was forced upon people throughout the known world because of the conquest of Alexander. The world became Hellenized, as it is called.
And so the apostle says that he is under debt to those who are Hellenistic in their view of life in the world, those who have been greatly influenced by the Greek culture. But not only those who are refined and cultured. He says he is in debt likewise to those who are barbarians. Literally the word means non-Greek speaking. That is those who are uncivilized, those who haven't been touched by the major influence of Hellenism in the world at that time.
So he's saying I am under debt both to those who are touched by contemporary culture and those who have never been touched by it, who are still pagans, who are barbarians. How do we bring that up to our day? I'm not sure it's a positive thing to say, but I think that this is a legitimate analogy that we are in debt to those who have been touched by Western culture because that is the dominant one in the world in our day.
As well as to those who have never heard of the Rolling Stones, God bless them. We are in debt to all people, the civilized and the uncivilized, the cultured and refined and those who have never been touched by Western culture. We are in debt to them. And then he says he's in debt as well to the wise. It means those who are trained and educated in classic philosophy, especially Greek philosophy.
He's saying here I'm indebted to those who are the PhDs, those who are the advanced people in education, those who are the thinkers. But he says as well I am in debt to the foolish, that is those who have never been to school. Those who have never been to education, those who are ignorant in that sense, that they haven't had formal training. He says I am in debt to all people to pay. Now why did Paul feel that he owed a debt? Where did this sense of obligation come from? It was this, I believe.
Paul knew that as a self-righteous, highly educated Jewish rabbi who was a sinner, as he discovered, he had found what it meant to have real forgiveness with God and to have the assurance of eternal life. He was a man who had a lot going for him, a lot of bragging rights in Paul. But all of those things became like dung to him, he says in Philippians, because of what he found in Jesus.
I believe that what Paul is saying here is that he now as a human being has an obligation to go to other human beings, whatever their class, whoever they are in their ethnic background, whatever their privileges, whatever their lack of them. He was under obligation to take the gospel of forgiveness and eternal life to them all. Do you see yourself in that kind of debt? We feel conscientious about debt, most of us, don't we?
Unfortunately there are some people who don't think about it too much, but most of us do feel conscientious about debt. I got a bill this last week from a store where we had purchased some things a couple of months ago in Cincinnati when we were there. And it said that I still owed $123. And furthermore it said I didn't pay anything last month. I was embarrassed because I want to pay my bills on time.
So we began to do some research and we found out that in fact we had sent a check last month, it must have gotten lost in the mails. It was sent to them but it wasn't posted. I was embarrassed though that I was a month behind in that debt. Most of us feel conscientious about what we owe. We don't want people to think badly of us. We want to be honorable people. You see the same way that we feel about our financial debts is how Paul felt about the gospel.
He said I am under obligation, I am in debt to the world. I owe them something because I have found in Jesus Christ what I lacked before. I have the forgiveness of sins. I have eternal life. I am righteous with God. And I owe the world the knowledge of how to find that same thing. Does missions grab you that way as a debt? A debt to pay? Let's go back to chapter 15 where we find yet a third word picture of the apostle in describing how he saw himself in his calling.
Romans chapter 15 again, and let me pick it up in verse 15 where he says, but I have written very boldly to you on some points, so as to remind you again because of the grace that was given me from God. He's talking there about his calling which he saw as a gift of grace. And he describes what that calling is, verse 16.
To be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God that my offering of the Gentiles might become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. We see here that Paul saw missions as a sacrifice to offer God. Notice the priestly language that is in this verse. He says the grace that was given to me, I look at it this way, that I made now a minister of Christ. The word minister here means a public servant, but especially one who has a religious obligation.
So he sees himself here as one who is a priestly servant of Jesus Christ whose responsibility he says is to minister as a priest the gospel. Ministering as a priest here is one word in the Greek language. It's where we get our word for liturgy or liturgical. And it means to perform the duties of a priest. And so again Paul is using that same idea. He says I see myself as a priest of Jesus Christ who as a priest offers an offering to God. Notice the word offering.
And notice what his offering is, the Gentiles. Now stop and think about that for a moment because the offerings that Jewish priests offer to God had to be very particularly clean and sanctified. Gentiles were not considered in any sense to be clean by the Jews. When they would say the word they would spit. Gentiles non-Jews were considered dogs, unclean, filthy, pagans. And yet the apostle as a priest of Jesus Christ says I am offering to God the Gentiles.
And then notice the last of the priestly words. He says sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Word sanctified means cleansed and set apart for divine use. You see all the priestly language. So the apostle sees missions here as a sacrifice to offer to God. Priests serve God. And that is the direction here of this image of missions.
In our work as missionaries whether it be across the street at the neighbor's house or it be through someone in another culture, our work as missions is serving God as priests. Our witness to God is offering to God a sacrifice. Because that's what priests do. And those who respond to our witness we offer to God an act of praise. Our neighbor comes to Christ. We rejoice with him. But in our hearts we say oh God I present Joe to you as an offering sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Do you see missions that way? Do you see yourself as a priest serving God with liturgical duties of offering to God the gospel and our witness and those who respond to it? It's how Paul saw it. Then in chapter 11 we come to the fourth and the final of the word pictures of how Paul saw himself as a missionary. You need to stay with me on this one. But I think you'll grasp it. Paul saw missions as a purpose to complete. Verse 25 of Romans 11.
I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, the one he's just described. Lest you be wise in your own estimation that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. In chapters 9, 10, and 11 of Romans the apostle says that God has sovereignly determined the course of history.
Did you know that history is about politics and wars and world powers and rulers and commerce and advance and industry and technology and all of those things only in a peripheral way? But yet if you get a history book and read it, you will find that history is recorded in human terms around all of those things. The things that happened in the 20th century. We've been remembering through this summer the great victories of World War II and how democracy was preserved for the world.
And the history of 1945 has been defined in terms of wars and attacks and ultimately peace treaties. Surrenders of political nations to the victors. But did you know all of that is just peripheral to what history is really all about? They play a role but all of those things are only marginal to what God's purpose is. You see God's purpose of history is to glorify himself by redeeming a people for his name the fallen race of Adam. That my friend is the central core of history.
Human history begins in the book of Genesis with God creating mankind and then man's fall into sin. Losing fellowship with God. Inheriting death as a punishment. And then Genesis 315 where God promises a redeemer. And then you trace it down to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and his family. And the story of the Old Testament is about that family and how God preserved through that family of Israel a line of the promised Messiah who would come to save.
And then the gospels of the New Testament tell us about that one Jesus Christ. Jesus the Messiah. God come in the flesh. And the book of Acts tells us about that gospel message then beginning to spread to the world. That I submit to you is the core of human history. When you and I talk about advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ we are talking about advancing the center of human history from a divine perspective. I realize that CNN is covering what's happening in Bosnia or in Bogota.
I understand that our news media focuses on the President of the United States or Yeltsin or somebody else. But I want to tell you when the annals of human history are recorded by God. All of those things are nothing. All those people are nothing. What counts is what God is doing in the world. And when you and I are advancing the gospel be it in our children's ministry here or be it in a witness that we have in the inner city or through our missionaries overseas.
When we are advancing the gospel we are dealing with human history, the very core of it, from God's perspective. Now there was a question that arose in the first century among the Christian church people. And that was how did Israel, how did the Jew fit into what was taking place in the world? Up to this point we understand that Israel, the Jew, had been the center, the focus of what God was doing. And now where did Israel fit? That was a question. They had rejected their Messiah.
The gospel had gone to the Gentiles. And so Paul answers that question in these chapters of Romans. He says that in the first place you need to understand that God purposed to set aside Israel. Yes, it was their unbelief that brought their condemnation, but understand this, that that's not outside of what God determined would happen. It was not an accident.
And he says God did that so that he could create the church, this brand new entity of this age that is formed out of a remnant of Jew and Gentile. A remnant of Jews, a host of Gentiles. He illustrates it by an olive tree in this chapter. He says that the natural branches of the olive tree were broken off, talking about Israel being set aside. So that you Gentiles, you branches from the wild olive trees could be planted into this good olive tree in the promises of Abraham.
Believing Gentiles, he says, those should not become arrogant due to God's grace to them. God has not rejected the Jew, he says, because God is one day going to restore the Jew. In this verse he tells us that God's setting aside of Israel, its dullness, it is described, is only partial. And it's temporary. It's partial in that some Jews do believe. And it's temporary in that it's only for a time. He says there is a point when the fullness of the Gentiles will be reached.
And when that happens, God is going to deal with Israel again. He's going to redeem Israel. You and I are living in a period of time heading toward the fullness of the Gentiles. My point this morning is this, that missions is working toward the fulfillment of this dispensation. Missions is working toward the fullness of the Gentiles. We're working toward the fullness of the predominantly Gentile church.
And when that last person who has been elected by God to be a part of the church believes, when the fullness of the Gentiles comes, the church is going to be taken out and God is going to begin focusing on Israel once more. So that every person who is one to Jesus Christ is another step in the direction of God's purpose, which is Christ's eventual return to the earth and his reign upon the earth. And so the Apostle Paul, you see, saw missions as a purpose to complete.
He says we're in the center of what God is doing. We're in the center core of human history. And as we advance the gospel, as we preach the gospel here and beyond, we are completing the purpose of God for this age. That's pretty exciting to me. It ought to be stimulating to us to realize that what we're about is far more important than the decisions made in Congress when it resumes in the fall.
The advance of the gospel is far more important than whatever is going to happen at the United Nations as it convenes later this fall. Because the advance of the gospel is the purpose of God. And our work in that direction helps complete what God is doing. You see, when we see missions through the eyes and the heart of Paul, I think it takes on a grander significance than ever. And so I have to ask all of us the question, what place does the advance of the gospel have in our lives?
Where does this fit in in your dreams? When you plan how you're going to use your life, where does this advance of the gospel fit in? When you counsel your children or your grandchildren about what they ought to do and to be in life, where does this theme fit into it? You know the thing that scares me? The thing that really scares me is that this isn't the dream that consumes most Christians. The dream that consumes most Christians is not the dream of the advance of the gospel.
It's the American dream. That's the dream that drives us. And to the extent that that is true, how out of sync we are with Paul. So when we talk about the foundation of our lives and firming up the foundation, we have to talk about missions. Has it engaged the powers of Paul? Does it engage your powers of imagination and desire and energy and money and time and life? Where does the advance of the gospel fit in?
Because I'll tell you something, that is the single thing that is closest to the heart of God. Let's pray together. Lord, I think that a lot of my brothers and sisters would join me in confession this morning that our dreams in life don't really match what Paul's dreams were. And our eyes are upon things and achievements and possessions. And our eyes need to be upon people. Oh God, I pray in Jesus' name that you will dash our dreams that are just temporal.
That you will show us the emptiness of dreams that are focused on ourselves and help us today to dream ambitiously and big about advancing the gospel among the lost of the world, among people who need Jesus. May the firming up of the foundation of our lives and missions make a difference in how we look at life and use our money and counsel our children and grandchildren. May our heart beat, Father, with that which causes your heart to beat. May our pulse rate be yours for the lost.
In Jesus' name, amen.