back to index2015-07-12 Knowing Our Identity in Christ
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"The servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 00:00:08.080 |
which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his Son, 00:00:12.860 |
who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son 00:00:16.540 |
of God in power according to the spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead, 00:00:21.020 |
Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about 00:00:25.560 |
the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you, 00:00:30.320 |
who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to all those in Rome who are loved by God 00:00:36.640 |
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." 00:00:42.000 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this morning. 00:00:48.540 |
We thank you for our salvation, our family, our jobs, all that we have, Lord God, because 00:00:56.260 |
Help us, Lord, to have right mind and right heart that we may worship you, Father God, 00:01:03.360 |
We pray for your anointing, Lord God, that we would have ears to hear, hearts, Lord God, 00:01:08.040 |
to understand and will to apply all that you have for us. 00:01:13.400 |
I pray, Lord God, that the study of the book of Romans would really have the effect that 00:01:18.080 |
your Holy Spirit had intended, that you would renew us, revive us, cause us to commit and 00:01:24.400 |
love you, Father God, in spirit and in truth. 00:01:32.500 |
You know, this week I was able to have fellowship with my old roommates back in college when 00:01:38.900 |
I was part of a Little Spark ministry, and we kind of lived together for about three 00:01:44.320 |
And they're all, most of them are missionaries, so they're out of the country. 00:01:49.880 |
And so it was the first time in ten years that all of us were in one place. 00:01:54.620 |
So it's typically one would come in and the other one would not be there. 00:01:58.280 |
So we've had meetings throughout the years, like, you know, two of us or three of us. 00:02:01.960 |
It was the first time where all of us got together and was able to have fellowship. 00:02:08.960 |
But every one of those guys, with the exception of one, they were all ten, eleven years older 00:02:14.720 |
So I remember when I was back in college, they would talk about things that I had no 00:02:19.280 |
You know, they were ten years older, so they were talking about their parents retiring 00:02:24.520 |
And obviously my parents were not at that stage yet. 00:02:27.160 |
And so I always felt a little bit, you know, out of place. 00:02:31.880 |
And then it was a reminder, you know, yes, that this Monday when we got together and 00:02:36.040 |
we're talking, and I was, the topic of the conversation was Alzheimer. 00:02:41.560 |
You know, they were talking about how you should eat curry because, you know, that prevents 00:02:46.160 |
And I was thinking, you know, I'm not quite at that stage yet, but they're at the end 00:02:49.520 |
of, you know, later 50s and they're hitting their 60s. 00:02:52.720 |
And they're not there yet, but they're, the things that they were talking about, obviously, 00:03:00.820 |
But it was interesting as we were talking about that and how, you know, that issue is 00:03:05.120 |
very real because some of their parents already have, have dementia setting in. 00:03:09.500 |
And maybe some of your parents or grandparents have experienced that. 00:03:13.040 |
But the idea of losing your memory, somebody that you knew all your life and all of a sudden 00:03:17.640 |
they don't remember you or they don't even remember themselves and how heartbreaking 00:03:22.840 |
And, you know, our ability to be able to understand who we are and be able to recognize our surrounding 00:03:30.840 |
You know, our, basically our life is an accumulation of the things that we've experienced and that's 00:03:38.240 |
And then the way you relate to people who's around you. 00:03:41.320 |
So your identity is extremely important for our life. 00:03:46.980 |
As Christians, again, it's extremely important for us to recognize and understand who we 00:03:51.720 |
are in our identity because the moment we forget that, we begin to drift out into what 00:03:56.800 |
the rest of the world is, you know, because we're social beings. 00:04:00.280 |
So we have a tendency that whoever we're surrounded with, whatever social environments that we're 00:04:05.340 |
surrounded with, we have a tendency to just kind of adapt and adopt to that. 00:04:09.640 |
When we're maybe younger in college and we're surrounded by Christian friends 24/7, we may 00:04:15.320 |
just kind of go along with the flow and then our identity is solidified by the campus ministry 00:04:20.360 |
or the church or events or small groups that we belong to. 00:04:23.240 |
But once you graduate college and your identity is very difficult to find in the world. 00:04:30.000 |
In fact, our identity is completely contrary and opposite of what we see around us. 00:04:35.900 |
So the moment that we forget who we are, we naturally drift to become what the rest of 00:04:44.440 |
I say all of this is because the passage that we're looking at, Paul is introducing himself 00:04:51.560 |
And before he gets to the heart of the message and he's going into what we talked about last 00:04:55.720 |
week where he's going through systematically through the gospel, he introduces himself 00:05:01.520 |
because he's never been at this church and he's saying, "Before I speak, I want you to 00:05:07.240 |
So this morning, we're going to be unpacking three things that he says of his identity 00:05:12.960 |
and take some time to study and look into that. 00:05:19.560 |
So the first thing that we see is Paul's identity in relation to Christ. 00:05:27.680 |
Secondly, Paul's identity in relation to the world. 00:05:31.400 |
Again, it's Paul's identity in relation to the world. 00:05:34.400 |
Third, Paul's identity in relation to his work. 00:05:39.000 |
So one, Paul's identity in relation to Christ. 00:05:41.040 |
Two, Paul's identity in relation to the world. 00:05:43.280 |
Third, Paul's identity in relation to his work. 00:05:46.400 |
So the first thing that we want to look at is the most all-encompassing. 00:05:51.000 |
And this isn't unique to Paul, but he begins his letter by saying, "Paul, a servant of 00:05:58.680 |
In the Bible, the word "servant," there's two main words. 00:06:02.080 |
Now there are more than two words that are described, can be translated for "servant," 00:06:06.320 |
but there's two main words that are described or translated for "servant." 00:06:10.560 |
And the first word is the word "diakonos," where we get the word "deacon." 00:06:15.740 |
And that word basically means to serve, somebody who's serving the table, somebody who's serving 00:06:22.200 |
But the word that Paul chooses to use here is not the word "diakonos," but the word "doulos." 00:06:28.800 |
And I know our college students, we have a doulos, you know, and we use the word "servant." 00:06:32.560 |
But the word "doulos" has a different connotation than the word "diakonos," because "diakonos" 00:06:37.520 |
is, again, somebody who chooses to serve, but he's not bound by his service. 00:06:43.360 |
But the word "doulos" literally means someone who is bound in service. 00:06:51.720 |
Every time we use the term "doulos" or "servant," again, in more literal translations, they 00:06:59.880 |
And I think because the history of, you know, modern history in the last 100, 150 years, 00:07:05.400 |
the term "slavery" was such an evil institution, I think the modern translators deliberately 00:07:10.520 |
stayed away from that word, "slave," and they translated the word into "bond servant" or 00:07:20.000 |
But we also have to understand that at that particular time, the institution of slavery 00:07:24.360 |
was not exactly what you and I know of slavery from watching movies or reading history books. 00:07:30.800 |
In fact, at that particular time in Roman history, they figured that up to a third of 00:07:37.200 |
the Roman population would have been considered a bond servant, a slave. 00:07:46.460 |
Many of these bond servants became bond servants because Rome ended up conquering their nation. 00:07:51.900 |
And in order to, again, as a result of conquering their nation, a lot of their soldiers, maybe 00:07:57.520 |
possibly their families, became bond servants as a result of that. 00:08:02.140 |
But many of these bond servants were voluntary bond servants for economic reasons. 00:08:07.480 |
Just like, you know, I guess the most equivalent way for us to look at some of these people 00:08:13.880 |
is when you choose to go get a job and you get paid from 9 to 5, for 9 to 5 you are a 00:08:23.140 |
You are a bond servant of that company because they purchased you for that period. 00:08:27.780 |
You can't go there and be on Facebook for 10 hours a day. 00:08:31.640 |
You're being paid to do a certain job for a period. 00:08:34.440 |
Obviously you come home and during that time is your own time, but during a period that 00:08:45.800 |
Well that's the term that Paul uses here as a bond servant, that he voluntarily has become 00:08:55.460 |
Now the term that Paul uses here is not just encompassing of Paul. 00:08:59.040 |
In fact that word is described as Christians generally, that all of us, first and foremost, 00:09:05.160 |
are bond servants of Jesus Christ, that we belong to him. 00:09:10.720 |
Paul's first identity as a Christian is that he has been crucified with Christ. 00:09:18.800 |
Galatians 2.20 it says, "I have been crucified with Christ. 00:09:22.600 |
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." 00:09:34.480 |
That's why when we talk about baptism, the beginning of Christianity is to identify that 00:09:39.960 |
when Christ was crucified and was buried, that we were also crucified with him and buried 00:09:48.320 |
The moment that we forget our identity in Christ is where we begin to get into trouble. 00:09:54.140 |
Our natural instinct as human beings is wanting to live. 00:09:59.440 |
So if you see something dangerous, you stay away from it. 00:10:04.400 |
If I go over here and there's a dangerous cliff and there's no railing, you stay away 00:10:10.120 |
If you don't know how to swim, stay away from the body of water. 00:10:14.120 |
If you go to certain areas, there's wild animals and you may get mauled. 00:10:17.080 |
You don't go to that place or you protect yourself. 00:10:23.400 |
But the paradox of Christianity is that Christ says, "In order to live, you must first die." 00:10:30.360 |
And that's why he says, "If you want to come after me, you must first pick up your cross 00:10:38.160 |
How much of our frustration as Christians is directly linked to the idea that we are 00:10:50.560 |
How much of the worldly thinking that's penetrated into our way of life, living, our principles, 00:10:57.240 |
that is in direct contradiction to who we are in Christ, that is causing this anxiousness, 00:11:06.680 |
Paul says again in Galatians 6, 14, "Far be it from me to boast except in the cross 00:11:11.800 |
of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world." 00:11:19.400 |
Not only has Paul been crucified, he said, "The world itself has been crucified. 00:11:26.200 |
There is nothing in the world that I desire to pursue because I don't find life in that." 00:11:33.560 |
Again, Colossians 3, 3-4, "For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in 00:11:39.000 |
When Christ, who is your life, appears, when you also will appear with Him in glory." 00:11:44.360 |
He's not simply saying if you want to be a Christian, you want to be a follower of Jesus 00:11:47.480 |
Christ, you must forsake all that makes you happy. 00:11:52.120 |
All the pleasures and all the things that everybody else pursues. 00:11:54.960 |
And if you're a Christian, you have to be a monk. 00:12:00.880 |
And you just have to live one frustrated life. 00:12:06.800 |
What Paul says in Colossians 3, 3-4 is an echo of what Christ said repeatedly over and 00:12:19.040 |
And he who loses his life for my sake, he shall find it." 00:12:33.560 |
The first day that you become a Christian, we identify with His death. 00:12:41.240 |
In fact, I would say of all the verses that I've meditated and repeated in my mind over 00:12:46.560 |
and over again, Galatians 2-20 is the one that I have to repeat to myself over and over 00:12:59.080 |
I don't know how many times I have to kind of take a step back because somebody has offended 00:13:17.360 |
And then I have to take a step back and think to myself, "Peter, are you really crucified? 00:13:29.320 |
You know, we get into conflicts and get frustrated, especially in the beginning parts of the marriage. 00:13:35.080 |
I don't know how many times I have to recite that to myself. 00:13:37.280 |
It's like, "Well, you know, Esther doesn't deserve this. 00:13:42.640 |
And I have to take a step back and say, "Peter, are you really crucified?" 00:13:48.400 |
How much of our frustration, even with our children, because they do things that are 00:13:57.200 |
So much of what rises up is our own life, is our own desire. 00:14:01.800 |
And if you look at scripture, it is this desire to be somebody, to be significant, to have 00:14:13.160 |
Seeking life in this world is what's killing us. 00:14:19.300 |
And if it gets bad enough, this is what causes war. 00:14:24.360 |
Every single one of us, when the scripture says, "All have sinned and fall short of the 00:14:27.120 |
glory of God," because we've fallen short of God's glory, we are seeking our own glory. 00:14:33.540 |
And it is our pursuit of our own glory that is killing us, that is dividing us, that is 00:14:40.200 |
That's why Jesus says, "No, first, you must die with me. 00:14:45.560 |
Come die with me first, if you really want to live. 00:14:55.480 |
Come die with me, that you may truly live in a new resurrected life." 00:15:01.440 |
And that's why the scripture tells us first and foremost that until a life is fully surrendered 00:15:08.760 |
to God as a bond servant of Jesus Christ, you cannot live. 00:15:13.280 |
No amount of church attendance, no amount of Bible reading, no amount of Bible memory 00:15:26.800 |
Because life in Christ cannot be had if you skip the cross. 00:15:32.320 |
Remember Apostle Paul, when he met Jesus, you know, he thought he was doing the right 00:15:37.240 |
thing and he was pursuing it through the law, through the religious system. 00:15:42.680 |
In fact, the way he described himself, he was a Jew among Jews, Pharisee among Pharisees. 00:15:54.000 |
And he was going out to Damascus with a whole army behind him and Jesus knocks him off the 00:15:58.960 |
And the way Paul described this encounter in Acts chapter 26, 14, he says, "Jesus spoke 00:16:04.520 |
to him and said, 'Paul, Paul, why are you kicking against the goad?'" 00:16:09.280 |
Now, in our generation, kicking against the goad doesn't have a lot of meaning behind 00:16:16.240 |
I don't know, maybe some of you guys use goads. 00:16:19.320 |
Maybe if you grew up in the farm, even if you grew up in the farm, I don't think you 00:16:23.320 |
Basically, a goad was a stick with a sharp end and it was used to poke at the animal 00:16:29.960 |
So whether he's going left or right, maybe the cow is starting to veer right and he's 00:16:33.400 |
going to fall off a cliff and the, you know, the farmer will poke him through that. 00:16:38.880 |
The goad was the instrument that was used to direct the path of the horse or the cow. 00:16:45.480 |
So when Jesus described Apostle Paul's life, he says, "You are kicking against the goad," 00:16:52.000 |
meaning I'm trying to direct you to the right path and you're resisting me. 00:16:57.000 |
And by resisting, basically you're kicking the goad. 00:16:59.040 |
The more the animal kicks against the goad, the more he hurts himself because he's kicking 00:17:06.040 |
And this object was there for the purpose of directing and guiding. 00:17:09.960 |
When an individual goes against the will of God, he says, "We're kicking against the goad." 00:17:16.760 |
So when Paul says, "I am first and foremost a bond servant who belongs to him," we all 00:17:25.060 |
And that's the problem that you and I a lot of times get into because we talk about how 00:17:30.200 |
But you don't, a lot of times we don't understand. 00:17:32.320 |
We are free in Christ that we may be bound in Christ. 00:17:37.560 |
That's why the scripture says that we have been set free from the bondage of sin, that 00:17:45.480 |
In order to be bound to righteousness, we have to be set free from unrighteousness. 00:17:51.520 |
But we get into this problem where we say, "We've been set free from sin so that I can 00:17:55.960 |
But this "whatever I want" ends up binding us to the very things that he set us free 00:18:03.360 |
So therefore, our first and most important identity in Christ is that every single one 00:18:19.600 |
How much of our frustration comes from trying to figure out, "What do I want? 00:18:31.000 |
How much of the frustration and anxiousness is directly linked to our seeking our own 00:18:41.400 |
That's why the first calling for every Christian is to die in Christ. 00:18:55.640 |
Anything that I'm going to say from this point on, it is not my words. 00:19:00.760 |
Secondly, not only an identity to Christ, but His identity to the world. 00:19:09.720 |
He says, "I am a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle." 00:19:16.520 |
We're all bound in Christ, but we're all called differently. 00:19:21.480 |
Paul uses that term "apostle" in almost every letter he writes. 00:19:27.080 |
The term "apostle" basically means, in the general sense, a messenger, somebody who's 00:19:32.120 |
But Paul uses it more specifically than that. 00:19:35.120 |
In Ephesians chapter 2, 19-20, he says, "The household of God," meaning the church, "was 00:19:40.400 |
built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, as Christ Jesus Himself being 00:19:46.880 |
Meaning, that office of apostleship was specific to a certain group of people, like the prophets, 00:19:55.680 |
that everything else that you and I know of was built on top of that. 00:20:01.240 |
He was using it in a specific sense, that He was a man who was specifically called for 00:20:06.920 |
Now, obviously, he starts out by saying, "I'm a bound servant of Jesus Christ, called as 00:20:14.480 |
You may look at that and say, "Well, Paul is humbling himself and elevating himself 00:20:21.720 |
And the reason why he does that in his letters is because the people who are receiving this 00:20:26.200 |
letter need to understand that everything that he says comes with, "Thus saith the Lord." 00:20:32.480 |
Now, you may be sitting there evaluating, it's like, "Oh, let's see if this guy has 00:20:38.120 |
Whatever good or bad thing that comes out of my mouth, if it has any authority, it is 00:20:43.440 |
because it is basically a reflection of what is being taught in the Scripture. 00:20:53.400 |
And you may have different experiences in life. 00:20:58.740 |
Maybe some people's, other people's opinions are better than other people's opinions. 00:21:03.060 |
But in the end, there is no absolute authority. 00:21:08.020 |
So in one sense, Paul is saying that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ because he's speaking 00:21:15.380 |
Now, you may automatically think, "Well, there's honor and glory that comes along with 00:21:21.820 |
And again, the church has gone into so many problems because people are pursuing glory 00:21:29.440 |
But that is the farthest from the case with Apostle Paul. 00:21:35.340 |
Paul, not only was an apostle, but he says it repeatedly in the New Testament that he 00:21:41.140 |
was an apostle specifically for the Gentiles. 00:21:55.500 |
If he's a man who was perfect to the law, the law, basically, one of the greatest things 00:22:01.120 |
about keeping the law pure, or keeping the law perfectly, is that you could not be tainted. 00:22:10.080 |
So by his desire, and the Pharisees' desire to stay pure, they wouldn't touch anything 00:22:20.880 |
In fact, they took it even further than that. 00:22:23.400 |
Some of these Jews would not even enter a town where it was predominantly Gentile. 00:22:28.600 |
They would deliberately go around the city and spend an extra day traveling just so that 00:22:33.720 |
Now that was not in the Scripture, but that's how far these Pharisees went. 00:22:39.300 |
If there was ever a job description saying, "Hey, we need an apostle to the Gentiles," 00:22:44.480 |
Apostle Paul would have been the last person to sign up for it. 00:22:50.200 |
Possibly maybe the best person to be an apostle to the Gentiles may have been a Gentile. 00:22:56.080 |
In fact, if you remember, Paul says that he loves his fellow countrymen so much that later 00:23:02.560 |
on in Romans chapter 9, he actually says, "If it was up to me, I would be accursed myself 00:23:11.240 |
So we may think, who would have been, according to our logic, who would have been the best 00:23:20.960 |
Not some fisherman who's lived most of his life catching fish out far away from the 00:23:27.000 |
But here's a man who's been working all of his life to get ahead in temple worship, and 00:23:37.880 |
But God says, "I've reserved him as an apostle to the Gentiles." 00:23:42.760 |
In fact, we know that early on, Paul probably had issues with that. 00:23:47.520 |
Because all his life, he trained himself to hate the Gentiles. 00:23:54.360 |
So if you watch his ministry path, every city that he goes to, what's the first place that 00:24:03.120 |
Almost exclusively, every city that he goes to, even when he's in a Gentile town, he would 00:24:07.880 |
seek out a synagogue, and he would end up preaching the gospel there. 00:24:11.920 |
There's only two cities that we know where he wasn't able to go to the synagogue, which 00:24:15.720 |
was at the city of Lystra, where he picks up Timothy, and the city of Philippi. 00:24:20.520 |
And the reason why is because there wasn't a synagogue. 00:24:24.080 |
But in every other city, the first place he goes to is a synagogue where the Jews hung 00:24:28.800 |
And it wasn't until he got kicked out of the synagogue, he would end up going to the marketplace 00:24:34.040 |
and start preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. 00:24:37.880 |
So Apostle Paul, if we look at it, he was probably the worst person to pick. 00:24:43.680 |
And yet, God called him to be an apostle to the Gentiles. 00:24:47.480 |
That's just like God wanting to bring the gospel to the Jews, and then said, "Who's 00:24:52.640 |
the best person that I can raise up as a prophet to go take the gospel to the Jews?" 00:24:57.880 |
And then, instead of going to the Jews, instead of going to Israel, and looking at the most 00:25:03.200 |
religious, most studied, most accomplished person in Israel, go to the Palestine. 00:25:10.160 |
You know, they hate each other, and they can't stand each other, and live generations hoping 00:25:17.680 |
And they pick a leader among the Palestinians, and equips him, and then sends him over. 00:25:25.800 |
See, his apostleship, even though he introduces himself as an apostle, even the very title 00:25:33.640 |
"apostle to the Gentiles" reflects his due loss. 00:25:43.500 |
And the way he describes his choice is in 1 Timothy 1, 15-17. 00:25:47.720 |
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into 00:25:52.360 |
the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 00:25:58.400 |
I know a lot of Christians use this to talk about, like, "Yeah, I'm the worst Christian." 00:26:03.360 |
And sometimes I hear false humility when people use this, because I don't think you really 00:26:12.880 |
Because I know some people that are worse than me. 00:26:20.720 |
But I think most people who use that don't really believe that. 00:26:25.800 |
Here's an apostle who's giving his life to spread the gospel. 00:26:30.120 |
Could he possibly be the foremost sinner at the time? 00:26:39.320 |
But I think, when you consider who he was, he really was the foremost. 00:26:46.320 |
This is a guy who actually tried to kill Christians. 00:26:49.880 |
Who actually committed to stop the spread of the gospel. 00:26:54.400 |
He would have been the worst person to choose. 00:26:56.680 |
Why would you choose a man who actually committed murder to stop the spread of the gospel? 00:27:03.000 |
He hated Jesus so much that he was willing to die. 00:27:08.280 |
Why would God choose this foremost of sinners, the worst of sinners, in light of the gospel? 00:27:13.880 |
He says this, "But I receive mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus 00:27:21.700 |
Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who are to believe 00:27:28.800 |
He was the perfect person because He was the worst. 00:27:33.120 |
He was the perfect person to shine the gospel because every time He opened His mouth, it 00:27:42.480 |
If God can save that guy, if He can get that guy, a leader of the Palestinians, to come 00:27:47.480 |
over here and spread the gospel of love to these Jews. 00:27:51.080 |
If He can save that man from that darkness into this light, then we have hope. 00:27:59.840 |
How often do we refuse a calling of God because we don't feel like we fit that mold? 00:28:05.920 |
What God is looking for is articulate people. 00:28:15.040 |
But when we search the scriptures, God seeks completely the opposite. 00:28:19.960 |
When Moses said, "I don't have the gift of speaking," did Jesus say, did God say, "You 00:28:29.880 |
He rebuked him for being arrogant, for refusing Him. 00:28:34.200 |
"Do you think I called you because I need you? 00:28:37.640 |
I'm going to display my power, not your power. 00:28:43.280 |
And that's why Paul says, "It is when I am weak, He is strong." 00:28:49.960 |
How much of our life is frustrated because we are committed to be strong? 00:29:01.320 |
And yet everything about our identity tells us, "First be crucified. 00:29:08.200 |
Lose your life in Christ that we may be found." 00:29:13.640 |
Third and final identity is his identity to his work. 00:29:20.040 |
Paul was very clear in who he was to the world. 00:29:22.480 |
He was a messenger of God to be sent to these Gentiles. 00:29:27.400 |
He didn't, God didn't choose him because He loved the Gentiles. 00:29:39.760 |
That you and I have been called to be ambassadors. 00:29:42.760 |
Not because you're articulate, not because you have the most knowledge, because God wants 00:29:50.640 |
You know, this room is filled with people with awesome testimonies. 00:29:54.040 |
It is a tragedy in the church where you only hear one person, the person up in the pulpit. 00:30:00.360 |
We have to be in the habit of sharing our testimonies. 00:30:04.160 |
Not only in the church, but outside the church. 00:30:09.520 |
Because God didn't just call me to be an ambassador. 00:30:14.720 |
Every single one of you who have seen the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:30:19.240 |
You are ambassadors to the people who are around you. 00:30:23.720 |
Third and final is Paul's identity to his work. 00:30:31.800 |
Every Christian needs to be an expert of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:30:38.280 |
I know, you know, we have, this room represents a lot of different fields. 00:30:42.400 |
Whether you are going into, you know, electronics or computers or medical field or legal field. 00:30:52.360 |
Everybody begins the same way, but you would expect after 4 or 5 years of training, maybe 00:30:56.080 |
4 or 5 years of working, that you are an expert in that particular field. 00:31:00.480 |
So if I had some legal questions, I would go to a lawyer. 00:31:04.400 |
If I had some medical questions, I would go to a doctor. 00:31:06.600 |
If I had some computer questions, I would go to some of the Apple freaks. 00:31:11.120 |
I would go and ask you guys about what to do. 00:31:15.320 |
But everybody becomes an expert the longer you spend in that particular field, you become 00:31:20.160 |
more and more of an expert in that particular field. 00:31:24.880 |
As Christians, every single one of us ought to be a growing expert in the Gospel of Jesus 00:31:34.840 |
Because there is nothing that you know that is more important than the Gospel of Jesus 00:31:40.600 |
All your learning in legal, in legal documents, all your learning in the medical, all your 00:31:45.800 |
learning in business, in restaurants, all of these things pale in comparison to what 00:31:53.080 |
you and I proclaim is at the center of who we are, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:31:57.920 |
It is a tragedy that you and I live in a generation where we have a handful of experts that we 00:32:08.160 |
But a common Christian is not expected to know. 00:32:12.920 |
And we just kind of bring them to the pastor, bring them to some of the elders. 00:32:17.960 |
But this is something that you and I need to, Paul says that he has been set apart as 00:32:29.000 |
The word set apart literally means to be holy. 00:32:33.080 |
In the Old Testament, when something became holy, it was a common article, it was a bowl, 00:32:39.000 |
and you just picked it up and said you dedicate it to the temple, to be used at the temple. 00:32:45.520 |
Because now that particular bowl, even though it was nothing here, has become something 00:32:53.720 |
Paul uses the term as set apart, to be made holy for God's use. 00:33:08.840 |
"For you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, 00:33:14.680 |
that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His 00:33:20.880 |
See, if we embrace that, okay, I'm crucified with Christ, you're no longer I who live. 00:33:27.040 |
And then we forget our identity to the world. 00:33:31.600 |
Imagine if we had a commissioning service, and I shared this again when Pastor Alex and 00:33:35.360 |
his team was leaving out to, going out to China, I said, "You know, we have this great 00:33:38.560 |
commissioning service, we're blessing them, we're praying for them, you know, and financially 00:33:42.920 |
supporting them, we have commissioned them, and all of a sudden we go out to Dharminjamboree 00:33:50.480 |
You know, would you just give them a high five and say, 'Hey, how's that boba? 00:34:02.800 |
Like, that's what, maybe you won't say it, but I know you're going to be thinking it. 00:34:06.160 |
And then you're going to come home and say, "Didn't we commission that guy? 00:34:35.320 |
When he said, "Go make disciples of all the nations," that was not just for these people. 00:34:41.600 |
Now, we may not have been commissioned to China. 00:34:44.240 |
We may not have been commissioned to a particular place. 00:34:46.440 |
But we've all been commissioned as ambassadors. 00:34:50.960 |
So if you've been commissioned as a lawyer and you don't know the law, you can't be a 00:35:00.040 |
If you don't know the law, you can't practice the law. 00:35:05.840 |
If we're ambassadors for Christ and we don't understand and know the Gospel, you can't 00:35:15.080 |
Paul says, not only has he been set apart, he says, "This was promised beforehand through 00:35:22.760 |
This was not something new that Paul was bringing. 00:35:24.960 |
This message of the cross has been prepared from the beginning. 00:35:29.440 |
When he said, "The seed of the woman is going to come and crush the head of the serpent," 00:35:32.960 |
from the very beginning of the fall, he was waiting and preparing for his son to come. 00:35:37.600 |
So this Gospel message has been embedded to everything that we know in the Old Testament 00:35:42.200 |
so when we come, when Jesus comes, we would recognize who he is. 00:35:46.440 |
So if it is this important, how important should it be to us that we not only understand 00:35:53.680 |
it to be saved, but we understand it enough to be able to explain to other people? 00:35:57.120 |
If you've been a Christian for three, four, five, six years, and somebody asks you a basic 00:36:02.720 |
Christian question about Christianity, and you have to constantly, "Talk to my pastor, 00:36:06.960 |
talk to my pastor," at some point, at some point we have to take a step back and say, 00:36:13.240 |
"Why am I not investing in the very thing that I consider to be the most important thing?" 00:36:19.760 |
Every Christian, at some point, needs to be an expert, not just good, not just proficient, 00:36:27.880 |
So this Gospel concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, 00:36:34.560 |
again, fulfillment of prophecy, all of this stated in the Old Testament, and he says it 00:36:40.400 |
was fulfilled because Jesus was born in the flesh, and that's why the book of Matthew 00:36:45.520 |
begins with this genealogy to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises that 00:36:51.640 |
God made, that the seed of the woman is going to come. 00:36:55.720 |
That proves who he is, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the 00:37:00.400 |
Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:37:05.880 |
Paul not only was able to defend himself, his whole point of the book of Romans is so 00:37:11.960 |
that you may be, you and I may be proficient in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:37:17.120 |
Not just good, not just memorize a few scriptures, but to be experts, because this is who we 00:37:23.960 |
Before we are a lawyer, before we are anything else, we are bond servants of Jesus Christ. 00:37:29.360 |
I remember, you know, right now it's just like Christian music, and there's a lot of 00:37:33.760 |
things going on, but I remember when I was younger, there was no Christian pop artists, 00:37:40.560 |
The quality of the music wasn't that great, so either, I mean, I thought Keith Green was 00:37:44.320 |
great because of the message, but people make fun of me every time they listen to Keith 00:37:50.000 |
He actually used to be a musician in the bar who got saved. 00:37:55.000 |
But it was his message that was powerful, but there was no crossing. 00:37:57.960 |
There was no Christians who were popular in the secular field. 00:38:01.520 |
And then a few years down the line, the Christian music started to get popular, and then they 00:38:05.560 |
started crossing over to the secular, and then they would come on secular talk shows. 00:38:09.640 |
And I'm not going to name who these people were. 00:38:13.120 |
But it was kind of a strange scene to see Christian artists on secular TV programs, 00:38:18.360 |
and they're talking about their band, and all of a sudden, I remember being so disappointed 00:38:22.880 |
because there was this particular band that I really liked listening to. 00:38:27.140 |
And they asked the question, you know, "Are these, you know, you're a Christian who's 00:38:34.600 |
singing praises to the Lord and all this stuff, but not all non-Christians are listening to 00:38:41.600 |
And the way the front man described himself was, "Well, you know, I'm a musician first. 00:38:47.000 |
I'm a musician who happens to be Christian, so it's really relevant to everybody." 00:38:53.360 |
And then he pointed to a particular song about worship toward God, and he said, "Well, is 00:38:58.320 |
this toward God or is this toward some lover?" 00:39:01.440 |
And he said, "I guess you can take it any way you want." 00:39:10.240 |
The way he described it, "I'm a musician first who happens to be Christian." 00:39:23.160 |
We are Christians who happens to be computer scientists. 00:39:38.280 |
Our first identity in him, right, as a bond servant, called to be an ambassador with a 00:39:51.480 |
Anytime we stray away from that, we stray away from the life that He promised, because 00:40:01.600 |
You know, I shared this before, but you know, the very first car that I bought, I, you know, 00:40:07.800 |
I share this, I'm going to share this again, because I think it's relevant. 00:40:11.520 |
1979, piece of junk Sri Lanka, I know you've heard that before, but when I brought that 00:40:23.440 |
At that time, the minimum wage was like $325 or something, $315, and I remember working 00:40:28.840 |
from 5 to 11, 1130, and then I would have to bike home afterwards, and I did this, you 00:40:34.120 |
know, 40 hours a week, and I saved up some money from that, and then I got fired. 00:40:43.680 |
And I got another job cleaning toilets, you know, but that was, it paid me five bucks 00:40:50.520 |
And then I saved up enough money, about $1,500, and I found this advertisement, and it was 00:40:57.520 |
I think I was living in Buena Park or Downey at the time, and then I found this myself, 00:41:02.240 |
and I had a friend of mine drive me down to the valley, and I think I was like 18 years 00:41:08.200 |
I was 18 years old, and I never got any help from my parents, and I drove down by myself, 00:41:12.760 |
and then I gave him cash, you know, because I thought that's what you're supposed to do, 00:41:16.800 |
so I bought all this cash, and then I gave it to him, and I asked him, like, "Okay, now 00:41:22.720 |
So he was kind enough, he said, "Well, you've got to register the car." 00:41:26.440 |
So he said, "Okay, you know, I'm going to have to take this dummy to the DMV." 00:41:31.240 |
So he took me to DMV, and he went through the paperwork for me, and then we got it all, 00:41:35.880 |
you know, taken care of, and then I went and found insurance and got all the stuff in, 00:41:40.920 |
and then I was just, you know, I was so happy. 00:41:43.600 |
I was driving, and then I came home, and the first thing I did was I cleaned the car, I 00:41:48.200 |
It was a piece of junk, but I waxed it, and then I said, "Okay, I'm going to put tint 00:41:54.760 |
Somebody told me that if you put tint in the driving side that you're going to get a ticket, 00:41:58.560 |
so I tinted it, but I still wanted the tint, so I tinted it, and then I cut out the corner 00:42:03.440 |
like that so that I can see, so I would, technically, I'm not illegal, and I put cheap-skinned car 00:42:12.280 |
So it'd be smooth, and then, you know where the, what do you call it, the stick shift 00:42:18.680 |
I bought a new one, put a brand new one in there. 00:42:20.440 |
You know, every time my friends would come into the car, they're like afraid because 00:42:24.160 |
the car is like rattling, and I couldn't put it in first gear first because something was 00:42:29.080 |
broken, so I'd always have to take it into second gear and then put it into second gear, 00:42:34.080 |
Parking brake never worked, so if I don't leave it in first gear and I forget, the car 00:42:44.280 |
When I rode that car, I was so proud, and it's not because I was, you know, naive and 00:42:58.840 |
I caught, I registered it myself, I got insurance by myself, and I cleaned it up. 00:43:04.520 |
So to me, prior to that car, the most precious thing I owned up to that point was a $50 guitar. 00:43:13.760 |
So this was the next most important, most expensive thing that I had, and I took care 00:43:22.520 |
I used to stick my head out with the music bumping, and you know what I mean? 00:43:26.080 |
It may be pumping, you know, pumping along, but to me, it was precious because to me, 00:43:31.560 |
that represented, you know, a year of hard work, scrubbing toilets and, you know, getting 00:43:36.320 |
fired from, you know, Carl's Jr. and finding the car by myself. 00:43:47.880 |
Because the moment we forget who we are in Christ, we start to live like who we were 00:43:56.960 |
How precious are we if He purchased us by His own Son? 00:44:06.320 |
That was precious to me because that was everything I had into that car. 00:44:10.660 |
The Bible says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. 00:44:14.640 |
When He says the world, He's talking about you. 00:44:19.920 |
That first and foremost, our identity is someone who has been plucked from the condemnation 00:44:30.680 |
That we would become bond-servant of this One who gave everything for us. 00:44:35.660 |
And then He equipped us to be apostles, to the small letter apostle, to be messengers, 00:44:46.600 |
To go declare and to go declare His glory so that people may see who you are and say, 00:45:11.400 |
The moment that we stray from that even an inch, we are ruined. 00:45:19.280 |
That's why Paul begins this letter by not only identifying himself, by identifying himself, 00:45:35.480 |
Again, as we continue to study through the Book of Romans, that you would not be passive 00:45:40.880 |
listeners, that you would be active in equipping, that hopefully at the end of the study of 00:45:46.760 |
the Book of Romans, you can say, I know the Gospel. 00:45:56.440 |
Can you take a few minutes to join with me in prayer as I invite the praise team to come 00:46:02.960 |
If there's anybody in this room who've been invited and you don't have a personal relationship 00:46:06.280 |
with Jesus Christ, I ask you this morning to come before the Lord in just simple prayer. 00:46:15.800 |
I've always heard, and I have Christians around me, and I'm intrigued, but I've never personally 00:46:24.000 |
Would you take a few minutes to come before the Lord and pray? 00:46:32.440 |
There's no religious things that you need to say. 00:46:38.880 |
Just come before the Lord and say, Lord, if you're real, forgive me of my sins. 00:46:48.840 |
And I want this life that the Scripture promises. 00:46:52.960 |
And the Scripture says if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you 00:46:59.080 |
That no matter what sin that you've brought into this room, maybe some of you guys are 00:47:14.280 |
Come before Him and confess what He already sees. 00:47:19.720 |
And if you pray that prayer and you desire help and you have some questions, come and 00:47:26.460 |
But I invite you this morning to take some time to pray. 00:47:30.600 |
For the rest of you, please, please pray for the world. 00:47:42.600 |
Pray for the non-Christians that live around us. 00:47:46.200 |
That we would not just say with our mouths who we are. 00:47:52.240 |
I am a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an ambassador with the precious message 00:48:00.560 |
That that would be my confession this morning. 00:48:02.680 |
So let's take some time to pray before the Lord this morning as our praise team leads