The World Is Our Parish

Series on Romans

XIX Spiritual Vision

Text: 15: 14-33

Introduction

I believe it was John Wesley, founder of Methodism, who, when he was ejected from the pulpits of the established church in England, declared, the world is my parish. However, every pastor, evangelist, and missionary would echo that sentiment. Paul was what we now affectionately call a pioneer missionary. Like C.T. Studd in the heart of Africa, Adoniram Judson in Burma, Hudson Taylor in China and William Carey in India, it was always Paul’s ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known. The world was his parish as he preached Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet despite the opposition and the hardship he persisted in following the vision. Paul’s letter to the Christians at Rome is a remarkable theological treatise, but there is an underlying fascination with God’s sovereign plan to save people from every nation and race, and tongue. It begins with the teaching in chapters 1-3 that all mankind is lost in sin. It continues with the clear teaching that salvation comes to all through Christ alone and not through the law which belonged to the Jews and not the Gentiles. Then we learn that all who trust in Christ are securely saved and become more than conquerors. This is for the whole world, as many as God has chosen. After this we see the fulfillment of God’s dealing with one people, the Jews, in the church which is made up of all peoples. And finally the Apostle teaches the importance of ministering to one another and supporting one another across national boundaries and in spite of ancient prejudices. One world-wide plan, from Genesis to Revelation. fulfilled in Christ. This is God’s plan and therefore it is for us to say that the world is our parish. Paul was chosen, confirmed and called for this mission, and so are we.

I Chosen

Paul writes in verses 14-16, I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. He writes boldly because he was chosen as the Apostle to the Gentiles. The Jews had priests that made offerings to God. Paul has explained the need to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, and now using that same analogy he says that not only the Jews but also the Gentiles become a priestly offering to God through the preaching of the Gospel. When the Gentiles believe and receive the Holy Spirit they are sanctified or set apart as an holy offering to the Lord. That Paul was chosen for this unique role is made clear in Acts 9:10-16. After Paul’s conversion, Ananias of Antioch is chosen to heal Paul’s blindness. He like many others is very fearful because of the harm that Paul has done to the church and the saints in Jerusalem. But God speaks to Ananias and we read, In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord,” he answered. The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.” “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.” But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. And he did suffer, mostly at the hands of his own people the Jews, precisely because he was chosen to take the message to the whole world instead of just to the Jews.

II Confirmed

Not only was Paul chosen to be a missionary to all people, but that mission was confirmed as he writes in verses 17-22, Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written: “Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.” This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you. The authenticity of the apostolic ministry was demonstrated in signs and wonders as recorded in the book of Acts, especially chapters 13-18. The purpose of miracles was always to authenticate the preaching of God’s message, but Paul says here that Gentiles were converted by what he said as well as what he did, so it was the content of the preaching accompanied by signs that accomplished God’s purpose. In this Paul gloried. Even their enemies had to admit that Paul and his companions “were turning the world upside down” as we are told in Acts 17:6. The apostle’s own inspired phraseology here describes it better: “Christ was leading the Gentiles to God.” In the first century Gentiles coming to worship the God of Israel was indeed a world-shaking phenomenon. It was also world-shaking because Paul’s ministry was so extensive in the then known world. The expression “from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum” has little meaning to us unless we have a map or sketch of the indicated region in front of us. Beginning at Jerusalem in the southeast where Paul was commissioned all the way to Illyricum is a territory encompassing modern Palestine, Turkey, Syria, Greece, Albania, the former Jugoslavla now known as Serbia and Montenegro, and Fyrom, once known as Macedonia, and now in this text he is promising to visit Italy and after that Spain. Christ is indeed turning the world upside down through the ministry of the apostle Paul as he, like the crew of Star Trek, boldly goes where no man has gone before.

III Called

Paul has just told the Christians in Rome that his delay in visiting them is actually the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy in Isaiah 52 concerning the conversion of the Gentiles but now as he goes on to say, that part of his work is done and now he must travel to the far reaches of the Roman empire including Spain. On the way he will visit them in Rome. Thus we read in verses 23-33, 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 see you, I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while. Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints there. For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. 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. So after I have completed this task and have made sure that they have received this fruit, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ. I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there, so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed. The God of peace be with you all. Amen. Since there is “no more place” for Paul to work in these regions, his last task will be to deliver the offerings of the Gentile Macedonian Christians to the poor Jewish brethren in Jerusalem. These people understand the grace of the Lord, Jesus, that Jewish Messiah, in including them in His covenant blessings. Now Paul is not saying there is no more work to be done in the areas he has visited, but rather that there are no new places for him to preach as a pioneer missionary. So as he branches out to new un-chartered territory he asks for their prayers for safety and success. Much has been written about the question of whether Paul actually visited and evangelized in Spain. There does seem to be a period of time from the spring of 63 A.D. until sometime in the year 67 A. D. that such a trip would have been possible. Where did Paul go after his two-year imprisonment in Rome in Acts 28? That must have terminated in the spring of 63 A. D. His death in Rome was not until sometime around 67 A.D. There are those that believe that he was in Spain. The reputable historian Manuel Diaz y Diaz says “The evangelizing presence of Saint Paul in Hispania (Spain) seems to be beyond all reasonable doubt; the testimony, both contemporary and later, is conserved almost in its entirety in authors and texts unrelated to the Peninsula, and are therefore free of a biased interpretation, giving sufficient proof.” This testimony includes early documents, such as the letter written by Clement of Rome to the church in Corinth in 69 A.D. indicating that Paul did in fact reach Spain. Cyril of Jerusalem and Chrysostom both reaffirm this in the fourth century A.D. As we review Paul’s testimony and extraordinary accomplishments as a pioneer missionary we must along with him recognize that our work is truly to take the gospel wherever Christ has not been preached be it in the city or the country, be it in our neighborhood or in a foreign land, because the world is our parish.