A Holy Ambition
Download MP3For those of you that I don't know, my name is Matt Francisco and I have the great privilege of serving as the pastor of discipleship here. And one of my favorite documentaries of all time is a little film called The King of Kong. And it is completely ridiculous. It follows the epic battle between Steve Wiebe, who is a a former Boeing employee, who is totally down on his luck. As he goes up against Billy Mitchell, a real life Dwight Schrute and hot sauce salesman, as they battle over the Guinness book world record for the highest all time score in the 19 eighties arcade game, Donkey Kong.
Collin Hansen:My wife, if she was here, she would like for me to note that mention in a sermon does not constitute endorsement. Okay. So if you hate this or you find it objectionable, it's not my fault. I gave you my asterisk. Steve spends every night in his garage playing Donkey Kong.
Collin Hansen:And one day, his very astute 8 year old daughter comes in and she kind of asked, Hey dad, Why is the Guinness Book of World Records such a big deal? And he says, well, I guess a lot of people read that book. And without missing a beat, his daughter says, well, I guess some people sort of ruin their lives to get in there. Are you kidding me? I love this movie because we can see what Steve and Billy and everyone else fail to see.
Collin Hansen:That giving your life to an ambition like an eighties arcade game is a completely unworthy ambition. Right? But what about us? Mean, if I was having a conversation with you this morning and I asked, what is your greatest ambition? Beyond thinking this weird pastor asks weird questions, you might not know how to answer, but there is something.
Collin Hansen:There is something that drove you to get out of bed this morning that drives you to get out of bed every morning. There is the thing underneath all the other things that manages and directs the way that you spend your time, your dreams, your friendships, your other relationships, your money and your talents. And whether it is an ambition for love or for power or comfort or security or simply to be ambition less, you are driven by an ambition. The main question is this, what is that ambition? And the second follows, is that ambition worth giving your life to?
Collin Hansen:In Romans 1514 to 33, Paul's theological masterpiece is rapidly drawing to a close. He wants to spend some time encouraging his brothers and sisters in the faith. He wants to reiterate his deep longing to be with them, and he wants to share his personal ambition. Yes. To preach the gospel, but not simply to preach the gospel for that is or ought to be the ambition of every single believer.
Collin Hansen:But particularly as we see in verse 20, to preach the gospel not where Christ has already been named. Paul's ambition is to take the gospel to the unreached, but not only to the unreached. As we'll see as we work our way through this passage, as crucial as it is taking the gospel to the unreached, we see Paul's heart mirror God's own heart for the nations, for the poor, and for the unity of his church. Let's look again beginning in verse 16. Paul tells us that he was called to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God.
Collin Hansen:So that the offering of the gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the holy spirit. In Christ Jesus then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. 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.
Collin Hansen:But as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand. What is it that those who have never been told him will see and those who have never heard of him will understand? It is the gospel of grace. On the road to Damascus, Paul was confronted with the very one that he was persecuting. He understood who Jesus was.
Collin Hansen:And over the course of days weeks months years later, he came to understand more and more that God did not love him based on how well he could obey the law. God loved him because of what he had already accomplished in the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus. Right? And it was this gospel of grace that motivates and undergirds all of Paul's ambitions. Keep that in mind as we work our way through this passage.
Collin Hansen:Paul works so hard, he performs not in order to be loved by God, but out of the security of knowing that he is forever loved by God. And as we've been working our way from Romans 12 on, we have come to understand more and more how the gospel of God's grace transforms every aspect of our day to day lives. It was on that road to Damascus that the apostle Paul received his very particular calling, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles and the priestly service of the gospel of God. That he was to be one of the means by which God fulfilled his 100 of years old promise in Isaiah 52. That the nations would be grafted in to the very covenant people of God.
Collin Hansen:That those who were far off would be brought near. That those who God called not my beloved would be called His beloved as they came to understand the generosity of God. Now, way back in Romans 1, Paul wrote that he had planned many times to visit the Roman church, but thus far had been prevented. And now, we finally get to understand why. It was Paul's particular calling to fulfill the gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum.
Collin Hansen:And for the last 10 years and over the course of 3 missionary journeys, Paul had lived out his great ambition. To share the gospel of God's grace and to see new churches planted where Christ had not yet been named among the un unreached. That is what Paul says in verse 22, the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. And praise God that Paul gave himself to this work. Right?
Collin Hansen:Because as Joel reminded us last week, by the power of the holy spirit and the work of Paul and countless others over the last 2000 years. This gospel has gone forth all over the world. So that Christianity has become the most culturally and ethnically diverse movement in all of human history. But make no mistake, there is still great work to be done. Even as the gospel has been carried all over the globe, According to the Joshua project, roughly 42% of the world's people groups representing 3,300,000,000 people remain unreached.
Collin Hansen:Meaning that they have less than 2% evangelical Christians among them. Meaning, there are still many places on earth where Christ has not been named. Where if somebody has a question about who Jesus is or what he has done, they may not even personally know a christian that they could talk to. I don't think I need to tell you, brothers and sisters, that this should not be and this should break our hearts. That Jesus has told us that he has sheep that are not of this fold and he gave us his great commission that we might be sent out as his ambassadors to the ends of the earth to proclaim the good news and to aid in the rescue of our brothers and sisters.
Collin Hansen:Just to put a finer point on it, if your earthly brother or sister had been bought and sold into slavery, At what point would you stop giving money to bring them back? At what point would you stop writing letters or laboring or going? At what point would you stop praying to see them rescued? And how much more ought we to pray and give and go for the sake of our heavenly family who at this very moment still remain in bondage to sin and death. The question of the apostle Paul in Romans 10 still ought to ring true for us.
Collin Hansen:How will they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how will they hear unless someone preaches? And how will they preach unless they are sent? And listen. I am not saying that each and every one of you are called to be missionaries.
Collin Hansen:That you should take the next plane someplace overseas. But some of you should. Some of you should. And all of us are called to start by sharing the gospel with our neighbors, with our family members, that this good news might spread to the ends of the earth. And God might call you to glorify him by being a banker, a photographer, a lawyer, a stay at home parent, a CPA, a nurse, a teacher, or a missionary.
Collin Hansen:But each of us, no matter our day jobs, are called to participate in the great commission going forth to those places where Christ has not been named. By praying, by sending, by supporting those who go, by giving, by going. Just to be explicitly clear, those are not mutually exclusive categories. The question for you is this, what role is it that God has called you to play? And how do you discern that?
Collin Hansen:One helpful way, we have a few people on staff who it's literally their job to help you discern that. So if the Lord is pricking your heart right now, Patrick and Elizabeth, they would love to talk to you among others. They would love to help you figure out what role the Lord is calling you to, play. So let us pray for the nations. Let us seek wise counsel and let us serve together for the good of those who have not heard.
Collin Hansen:And while our task for the nations yet remains, Paul writes in verse 23 these very strange words. I no longer have any work in these regions because the gospel well, let me back up just a second. I no longer have any room for work in these regions. What could Paul possibly mean by that? Paul means that his particular calling to share the gospel where Christ has not been named and to plant churches, that he had proclaimed the gospel widely enough and churches had been planted firmly enough that by the power of this holy spirit, Paul could assume that the name of Christ would be heard throughout the surrounding regions.
Collin Hansen:And now, since Paul writes that he has longed for many years to come to Rome, it seems that the path is finally clear for him to meet these brothers and sisters. But he tells us only in passing as I go to Spain to be helped on my journey there by you once I have enjoyed your company for a while. About a year or 2 after I got out of college, I received a phone call from a fraternity brother of mine who had been kicked out of school after our freshman year, which was like half my fraternity. So, I hadn't spoken to my friend for a while and I was really excited to spend some time with him. He said, I'm coming through Birmingham this next week.
Collin Hansen:I'd love to sit down with you. I'm like, great. That sounds awesome. So we meet where all good meetings happen at Applebee's. And I noticed that my buddy comes in and he's got this folder and then I realized what has happened.
Collin Hansen:Right? He's coming to sell me insurance. Right? He doesn't wanna hang out. And as someone who has spent, who spent 10 years raising financial support, I learned early that it's important people, to tell people early on, as soon as you can, why you're calling, what kind of work you're doing, what it would look like, for them to partner with you.
Collin Hansen:And then you leave the decision between them and the lord. That is the kind way, right, To invite someone to lunch. Jeff and I had a disagreement this week about whether this plays an important part in this in this letter. So I just want the record to show that, but I was too amused by what I was saying to leave this part out. I love the fact that Paul has spent about 15 chapters expounding the gospel of grace, and it's almost like, I did use the word almost.
Collin Hansen:Everybody got that? It's almost like he says, hey, guys. So the reason I'm calling is I'm trying to get to Spain and I heard you guys might be able to help me out. So just think about this letter anytime you get a support letter or you write one. But this is something This is this is incredibly remarkable.
Collin Hansen:We're moving on. This is incredibly remarkable and something that I had not noticed until I started studying, for this sermon. That even though Paul says that it is his ambition to proclaim Christ where he is not known, particularly in Spain, and that his work in Jerusalem to Illyricum, it's done. He is not on his way to Rome, which begs the question, why? What is it that could possibly be so important to this pioneer missionary's heart that it would prevent him from going to fellowship with his brothers and sisters in Rome and to get to Spain where people are dying without having heard the gospel.
Collin Hansen:Paul is about to take a 2 1000 mile detour at great cost and risk to himself. Let's pick back up in verse 25. At present, however, I'm going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them.
Collin Hansen:For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. When, therefore, I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. So Paul is taking this incredibly costly risky detour, so that he can personally deliver the money that he has collected from the gentile believers in Macedonia, to help care for the poor believers in Jerusalem. And in 2nd Corinthians 8, we learn a little bit more about this collection.
Collin Hansen:There, Paul writes that while these Macedonian believers were undergoing, quote, a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means as I can testify, and beyond their means of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. Can you imagine? May we, even in times of extreme affliction and poverty, overflow in a wealth of generosity, which Paul tells us the gentile believers in Macedonia were eager to do, that they were begging even in their poverty to be able to take part in the relief of the saints in Jerusalem. But then he adds in verse 27, indeed they owe it to them.
Collin Hansen:Hold on to that. We're gonna come back around to it. What does that mean? Is giving to the poor an act of generosity or is it one of obligation? Yes.
Collin Hansen:It turns out that even extreme poverty, right, isn't a reason not to give. In other words, one of the clearest signs that we have actually understood the scandalous generosity of God towards us in Christ is that we respond in scandalous generosity to the poor in a way that does not make sense to the world, but that only makes sense to those who understand how much they have truly been given. Or to put it in a more negative way, if we only give to the poor out of obligation or we only give that which we feel like we can afford to lose, it is because at that moment, we are presently failing to understand how radically generous God has been to us in Jesus. Because the more that we understand the gospel, the more freed we are from finding our hope and our security and money. We are freed from the love of money and we are freed up to give as freely and sacrificially to others as God himself has given freely and sacrificially to us.
Collin Hansen:And if that doesn't convict you this morning, then I don't think you're listening. Hear these words from Fleming Rutledge. She writes, I know that I am self willed and materialistic and neglectful of others. I know that I need a savior to turn me from my own concerns to those of his needy people. For he in his infinite plenitude has turned to me in my moral poverty.
Collin Hansen:He loves me in spite of myself. He loves the poor especially because they have no one to notice them. But what is even more remarkable, he loves the rich too. He loves us too much to leave us the way we are, selfish, turned inward, focused on our own wishes all the time. He is at work in the church, at work, loosening our grip on our own possessions, softening our hard hearts, helping us and guiding us like a loving father to show us the generosity, the joy of forgiveness, the joy of helping, the joy of empathy, the joy of forgetting oneself, the joy of giving to others.
Collin Hansen:And then the most joyful thing of all, the joy of reaching out our hands like a child at Christmas and receiving from the depth of the Lord's bounty the unsearchable riches of Christ. Amen. One of the things that we ought to take from this passage is that we, as a church, no church, ought to be able to choose between our missions budget and our benevolence budget. So I think if you were able to ask the apostle Paul what is more important, taking the gospel to the nations or caring for the poor, he would've looked at you like I would look at some of you if you asked me which one is my favorite kid or what's more important, breathing in or breathing out. You cannot have one without the other.
Collin Hansen:Taking the gospel to the nations and caring for the poor are central to the implications of how the gospel changes our lives. And to the degree that if either one is lost in this mission, Paul could rightly fear that all of his work had been in vain. But Jesus tells us explicitly that the poor, we will always have with us. Right? And I just told you that Paul spent 10 years over the course of 3 missionary journeys taking the gospel to the nations.
Collin Hansen:So it's not like every need was a cause for Paul to stop, to go and care for the poor. Why is this so important? Why personally take this gift instead of just sending it by an emissary? All throughout Romans, Paul has proclaimed god's desire for Israelite and gentile believers to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together, they might with one voice, glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is at risk in Paul's delivering this particular gift to Jerusalem.
Collin Hansen:Why is it so important that he personally goes? Because if the Christians in Jerusalem reject this particular offering from the gentile believers in Macedonia, a devastating rift could open up between the Jewish ethnically Jewish church and the gentile believers, a split that might never be repaired. However, if the Christians in Jerusalem accept this gift, it would serve as a sign to the entire world that they believed in the same gospel of grace that Paul had given his life to preaching. And Paul is so desperate for this particular gift to be rightly received and rightly understood that he is willing to go 2,000 miles out of his way knowing exactly what might happen on the way or even when he gets there. In acts chapter 20, Paul tells some of his dear friends, and now I am going to Jerusalem constrained by the spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there except that the holy spirit testifies to me that in every city, imprisonment and affliction await me.
Collin Hansen:But I do not count my life of any value nor as precious to myself. If only I may finish my course in the ministry that I have received from the lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of god. If this gift is received rightly, it would further demonstrate to the world the kind of harmony that can only come by the gospel. Not as, Joel reminded us last week, not uniformity, but harmony, singing different complementary notes to the same song as the gospel brings together a religious insider and outsider, rich and poor, and people from every tribe, tongue, language, and nation. I've become increasingly convinced over the last several months that just as Paul strives in the book of Romans and first Corinthians, to make sure that we understand that none of us can live the Christian life alone, but that we were created and redeemed to be members of a body.
Collin Hansen:That Christian maturity isn't becoming more and more self sufficient, but it's living in deeper dependence upon God and his word and prayer and one another. That I think the apostle Paul means for us to understand the very same thing about local churches, that none of us are meant to carry out all of God's kingdom work on our own, but that we need one another. Almost like the great commission is bigger than any one church. Right? I mean, what if it was God's work at grace?
Collin Hansen:God's work of grace in making this church in Jerusalem, understand stand its complete dependence upon the financial resources of the Macedonian church in order that they might be unified? What if it was God's grace at work helping the Macedonian church understand their indebtedness to the church in Jerusalem, to their history and rich theology? What if they fully recognized that they were on the same team because they served the same God. And I have to ask you for a minute. What do you think would happen in our city if we at Redeemer, other gospel centered churches, if we understood ourselves in the same way, if we strove together to build God's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, if we earnestly sought the Lord to give us clarity on what our gifts and what our weaknesses are.
Collin Hansen:And then we asked other churches to do the same. Just imagine. What if we leveraged our financial resources to support the faithful gospel work of others in this city? Where we increasingly became a place where we celebrated commissioning out the very best of us. Faithful, godly leaders like those that we sent out last week, the Hansons and the Biermans, people that we are sure we cannot afford to lose, to serve and to strengthen other churches.
Collin Hansen:What do you think that would say about the name of Jesus? What sort of sign do you think that would be to the world about how much we care about our own territory versus how much we care about the name of Jesus being made great? What if for some of you there are a few more elders and pastors in this service than there were in the last one, so I know I could get in trouble. What if some of you I see you. What if the question that you've been wrestling with, when are they finally gonna address the fact that we don't have space in here?
Collin Hansen:What if that was the Holy Spirit's work beginning to stir a greater vision in you, calling you to figure out how God might use your gifts and your story to go and strengthen another church. We don't want you to leave. We're family. Right? We love you guys, but some of you should.
Collin Hansen:And how glorious that would make the name of Jesus. We would miss you and it may cost us here at Redeemer, but Jesus' name would be magnified and that is worth celebrating. So let's get to assessing. Let's get to planning and most importantly, let's get to praying. Verse 30.
Collin Hansen:I appeal to you brothers by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf That I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea. And that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints. The so that by God's will, I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
Collin Hansen:So Paul begs his Roman brothers and sisters for prayer. Why? Because he knows beyond any shadow of a doubt that everything depends upon it. The entire success of his ambition rises and falls on whether or not god sees fit to answer these particular prayers. My question for you this morning, prompted by our women's director, Krystal Brumet, is whose prayers are you depending on?
Collin Hansen:Do you believe in prayer like Paul does here? And who is depending upon your prayers? Paul asked him to pray that he may be delivered from the unbelievers and that the gift may be acceptable to the saints in Jerusalem. So the question that we might rightly ask at the end of this is, did God answer his prayers? Well, yes, kind of, or at least certainly not in the way that Paul would have desired or expected.
Collin Hansen:So Paul, praise the lord, he does make it safely to Jerusalem, and praise the lord again, his gift was well received. But while in Jerusalem, he was delivered from the unbelievers, but only by being arrested and then flogged and then tried and then shipwrecked and ultimately imprisoned. And, yes, he does get his desire and he makes it to Rome, but 3 years later, in chains. But in spite of these unexpected answers to his earnest prayers, Paul does not lose heart. He continues to faithfully preach wherever God has placed him.
Collin Hansen:And his chains become one of God's means of grace to us. Because what else was gonna slow down this ceaselessly traveling missionary to have enough time to pen the letters to the Ephesians, the Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. Letters that have served to encourage and strengthen the church for the last 2000 years. Perhaps, as n t Wright has written, God sometimes allows us to dream dreams. What he wants us to do, not necessarily so that we can fulfill all of them.
Collin Hansen:That might just make us proud and self satisfied, but so that we will take the first steps towards fulfilling them. Paul may not have got to Spain. That didn't matter. The gospel got there fairly soon anyway. What mattered then and has mattered enormously in the whole history of the church is that as part of his plan to go to Spain, Paul wrote Romans.
Collin Hansen:We should never underestimate what God will do through things, which we see as small steps to a larger end. We may be shocked, distressed, or angered at the way that God has seemed to answer or, in our minds, not answer our prayers for ourselves, our lives, and the world. And God may not answer our prayers in the way that we hope or expect, but hear me, church. It is never because he has ceased to hear. It is never because he has ceased to work.
Collin Hansen:And most importantly of all, it is never because He has ceased to pour out His immeasurable love upon us. That is what we are promised at the cross. The cross tells us that independent of our cooperation, in fact, in spite of all of our resistance, out of the great love with which he loved us, Jesus carried out the great ambition of his heart, that he set his face towards Jerusalem and he willingly endured the cross, That our God did not count his own life of any value or as precious to himself. If only he might finish the course of the ministry that he and the father and the spirit had planned from all eternity. That through his own shed blood, Jesus might ransom people for God from every tribe, tongue, language, and nation.
Collin Hansen:That the nations would be grafted in to the covenant people of God. That in the scandalous generosity of God, Jesus, though He was rich, became poor so that we, through his poverty, might become rich in him. He became poor so that we might have everything in him. And his body was broken, so that we might be 1 even as he, the father, and the spirit are 1. So what a great privilege it is for us as His ambassadors, us as His church, to go forth into our neighborhoods, our city, and the world, proclaiming the good news of this gospel of grace for truly there is no one like him and no God but him.
Collin Hansen:Amen? Let me pray. Father, we do pray that you would transform our church, transform our city, and transform our nation, transform the nations. God, bring your kingdom of peace and righteousness and goodness. May your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
Collin Hansen:We plead. Lord, we are weary, and we come to you for rest. And we're so thankful, Jesus, for who you are and what you've done and what that means. And we declare together that we have no hope but the shed blood of Jesus. But the shed blood of Jesus means that we have hope forevermore.
Collin Hansen:Praise be to your name. Amen.
