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Listen to sermons from Christ Covenant Church in Charlotte, NC and Pastor Kevin DeYoung.
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Dr. Kevin DeYoung | From the Pastor’s Heart
Sunday Morning, February 1, 2026
Given by Dr. Kevin DeYoung | Senior Pastor, Christ Covenant Church
From the Pastor’s Heart
Romans 1:8-15
Let's pray.
Oh love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong. It shall forevermore endure, the saints’ and angels’ song. We are grateful to gather because of your great love for us and to sing the song of the angels in praise to your holy name. We ask now, as we are debtors to mercy alone, that you might give to us, once again, what we stand in need of and what we do not deserve – your face, your favor, listening ears that we may hear. Give me the Holy Spirit and a strong unction, that your word might go forth with great power. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Our text this morning is Romans chapter 1, verses 8-15. For better or worse – I don't know if this is good news or bad news; don't tell me if it's bad news – but after two weeks of sermon prep in Romans, and since one week was iced away anyways, I have determined that the rest of the sermon calendar printed in the bookmark is going to be a general guide, rather than a fixed schedule. I have found, in these first two weeks of sermon prep, wishing that I had another week to dive in a little deeper on that verse or that phrase. Now, I do not think we are going anywhere close to Piper's 229 sermons or Boyce's 239 sermons or Lloyd Jones's 366 sermons, but maybe slowing down just a tad from what is printed in the schedule. I want to make sure that we get out of this text what is here. All that to say, I will do my best to study as hard and pray as hard as I can each week, and you'll do your best to listen each week, and the one that it's going to be hardest on is Nathan, because I'm just going to have to tell him from week to week how many verses or lines I think I'm going to make it through. We will do all verses 8-15 this morning, but moving ahead, we may find ourselves off the schedule just a bit. Follow along now as I read.
“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you; that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you, as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation, both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish, so I am eager to preach the gospel to you, also, who are in Rome.”
Remember as we begin in this world's most famous and important letter that this is in fact a letter. Now it's an unusual letter in its depth, in its length, and yet it's a letter written by Paul to Tertius, the scribe writing it down, Paul probably editing afterward, and then delivered, likely, by Phoebe to the church in Rome – from Paul to the Romans about the gospel. And we saw that last week in the greeting in the first seven verses. Letters in the ancient world usually started with a greeting, just like if you still have the opportunity to write a formal letter. Or even not, you often say, "Dear so and so," or at least a hello – there's a greeting, and that's what Paul does. And like everything in this letter, Paul does it higher, deeper, and longer than any normal letter in the ancient world. And so that was true in the opening greeting, and it's true in this second section, which we might call an affirmation or an appreciation. This was often common in letters in the ancient world. You say hello, a brief word of greeting, and then something of an explanation of your affection. And you might still do this in a letter. Dear mom, I hope that all is going well back home, and you and dad are in good health. Paul does the same thing, but he does it even longer. In fact, if you were to study all of his letters to churches in the New Testament, he always has some kind of thanksgiving or blessing, except one church. If this was a classroom, I'd ask for a show of hands, but you can think to yourself, do you know which church it was where he does not give any thanksgiving or opening blessing? It's the letter to the Galatians, because he moves from the greeting there immediately to say how astonished he is, how alarmed, that they were turning away from the gospel.
So, he writes that letter to the Galatians, and he's already sensing a five-alarm fire of absolutely epic proportions. Nothing like that here in Rome. In fact, just the opposite. He goes to great pains to tell the Romans how many good things he has heard about them. Remember, as well, that he has not visited this church. Chapter 16, he has many personal greetings to some of the people there, and from some of the people with him, so it's not that he's a stranger to everyone in the church, but he's not been to Rome. This is not one of the churches that he planted. He hasn't visited on one of his missionary journeys, and so, this is unusual among his letters. He has less relational capital with the Romans than with any other church he writes to, but that doesn't mean he doesn't care about them. In fact, he is overflowing with expressions of his heart and his care for the Roman Christians. I want you to see in these verses five expressions of his pastor's heart. Five expressions.
Now, how should you listen to this sermon? Well, you can listen to learn about these verses, and okay, that was Paul's heart. But we want more than just an exercise in understanding this letter. So, listen on two other levels. Not just an exposition of the text, but I want you to then think, how ought this to inform, if this is from Paul's heart, your own relationship with your pastor, your pastors, and this pastor, and our pastoral staff with you. So, there's one way to listen: how this speaks to you, to me. And then the second way I encourage you to listen is in any relationship you have with Christians, because though this is Paul as an apostle and really expressing his pastoral heart, and that might be the most immediate application, most of what Paul reveals about his heart are good lessons for you as you think about how do I relate to my children, a brother to a brother, sister to a sister, friend to friend, a teacher to a student, a mentor to a disciple. Most of what Paul has to say is transferable to Christian relationships broadly.
So, here's the first way Paul expresses his pastor's heart. You can see it right there in verse 8: thanksgiving. Notice there is immediately a vertical dimension. As Christians, we praise men by praising God. You don't have to be a Christian to be grateful for things that you see in other people. And it's not that that you can't ever say thank you, and you always have to say, “well I thank God for you,” but in your heart, there ought to be this awareness that what makes Christian gratitude unique is not only recognizing good things and appreciation in other people – everybody does that – but we look at it vertically, and we know that whatever good you may have through another human being, especially a Christian, it is from the grace of God. He says, “I thank my God.” He doesn't say, "I'm really impressed with you, Romans." He doesn't even say, "I'm thankful for you." He says, "I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you." Also, notice the pronoun: “I thank my God.” Just that little possessive pronoun. I wonder if you and I ever think of God in that way. My God. Now, there's a demeaning way, like “this is my dog, this is my cat” – something lower than you. That's of course not what Paul means. You can also mean it as someone much greater than you, if you said, "I thank my king. I thank my master." He's thinking of someone who is far greater than him, and yet he can say, "This is my God, and I serve him." There is a level of intimacy. You ought to ask yourself, are you only comfortable talking about church, talking about faith very broadly, even maybe talking about God? Do you know God at such a level of closeness and knowledge and affection that you would ever refer to him as my God? Paul does: “I thank my God.” And notice what he is thankful for. He's not thankful, at least he doesn't express, for all of the earthly things that – these are the Christians in Rome, and surely that is part of the significance we're coming to, that their faith is known in all the world – but Paul doesn't give thanks to God for any of the impressive things about them and the positions of influence or power that they might have. So many of us need better Christian eyes so that you are looking for the right things in other people, you are impressed by the right things, and you praise each other for the best things. So, Paul had these eyes to see what is it that is so especially impressive to me about the Romans, and in a word – it's right there – faith.
Remember back up in verse 5, Paul describes his mission on earth as an apostle to bring about the obedience of faith. It's one of those genitive expressions, translated from the Greek into the English with the word “of.” And so, it can mean the obedience that comes from faith or the obedience that is faith, or it may be intentionally vague and ambiguous in what Paul has in mind: both things. And so here, when he says “because of your faith,” he may mean the very tangible expressions of your faith as you bear fruit, but I think he means, even one step before that, simply that there is a church in Rome. All of us have probably read a Tim Keller sermon, or a book, or listened to something, and he's gone on to glory now. One of the significant things about Tim Keller's ministry, not just the books that he wrote, and he had a big church, but that it was in New York City. That gave a certain street cred. Just like you might have – it's not that a city is more important. Paul's going to come to the end of this and say, "Well, I'm preaching this gospel for all people, not just the elites." But there is something really significant, just like we might feel it if you said, "Let me tell you about this dynamic church right in the heart of London, right in the heart of DC or LA or Tokyo.” And so, he says right in Rome, your faith has become famous. “The whole world.” Now, he's using a common expression. He doesn't mean that every single person in the world at that time knew of their faith. Of course not. He doesn't even mean that every people group in the Roman world knew of it, because in chapter 15, he's going to say, "I need to go on to Spain to preach the gospel,” so nobody in Spain knew of them. But what he means, as a general expression, is that among the Christians, this news is traveling far and wide.
I hope that we are the sort of people through whom good news travels more quickly than bad news. It's a lot easier to pass on the bad: “Did you hear about–? Did you hear what she did? Did you hear – I'm just – it's a prayer request. I just want you to know. Please pray about this.” It's easier for bad news to travel. I hope we would be people – “Did you hear about that church plant? Did you hear about that profession of faith? Did you hear about that marriage restored?” The whole world knows about their faith, their belief. You can just hear, throughout Paul's missionary journeys, he probably can't stop talking about it himself. Whether he's in Macedonia or Philippi or Thyatira, wherever he goes, “Did you hear? The word is getting around. There's a strong church right there in the heart of the empire, in the eternal city itself.” The largest, most impressive city in the world in the first century – Rome – there's a church. The whole world was hearing about their faith, and Paul tells them, “I am so thankful.”
Now, I wish that our whole church was here this morning, but trust that the rest of them are watching this online to hear this from your pastor. I was, in studying this, convicted that I don't tell you enough how thankful I am to be your pastor, how thankful I am for your faith at Christ Covenant. You have a good reputation, by God's grace, among other Christians, among other places. When I'm with – I was leading a meeting with PCA leaders a week ago – or travel around, people have good things to say, by God's grace, to his glory, about Christ Covenant. And it is not hard for me to boast about this church and the many good things that God does through you, and through you toward me and the other pastors. I give thanks for you. When Harry Reeder was alive, he would always say, “Those are good people at Christ Covenant.” Now, a lot of – most of them are new, but some of them are still here when Harry was here. I certainly heard that, when I came here, from Mike Ross: “This is a good group of people.” And then the time that I had the privilege to overlap with Bernie – I always liked to remind Bernie Lawrence, “Bernie, you were at this church before I was born. Just reminding you, Bernie.” We say these are good people here, and it's true. I give thanks to God that you want to do the right thing. I give thanks to God for the way that you give, for the way that you love each other, the way you are eager to follow your leaders, to trust them, the hunger you have for the Bible. What a wonderful thing it is for a pastor to hear so many people say, "I can't wait for this series in Romans,” and even in the other ones, during Ezra or the lesser-known books, you say, “I'm really learning a lot here." What an encouragement for your pastor. I love the way you sing, your worship, your commitment to missions. So, I give thanks to God for the saints at Christ Covenant.
You should also think, and here's the application for all of life: do you have any hard relationships? Now, don't raise your hand, and don't look right now. Just look straight ahead. No elbow. Do you have any hard relationships? When is the last time you said to that person what you were thankful for in their life? Now, if you do it around the dinner table today, maybe a little obvious that this was the hard person in your life, so you just sprinkle it in some other time. Or maybe dads, you can lead this around the table, okay? So, we're not going to make this – we're going to go around, and we're all going to say, "How are we thankful for one another?" And if that feels awkward – you may say, "Pastor, you don't understand this relationship with my mom, or with my husband, or with my granddaughter, it's so awkward and tense, and if I just came in with “I want you to know how thankful,” it would backfire. Well, here's what you can do: do you give thanks in your prayers? And in fact, maybe if that relationship is hard, and you're saying honestly “I could make – I'll try to do it, pastor, as an act of obedience, but I don't feel a lot of gratitude" – try it in your prayers and the privacy of your own prayer life. Because here's what can happen: when you get your prayers right, your heart can follow. We often think, I'm just going to pray what's an expression of my heart. Well, sometimes you pray what is the right thing, and you give thanks for whatever small evidences of grace you can see in the life of that difficult person, and see if your heart doesn't follow as you learn to focus there on the gratitude rather than the grumbling and the groaning. Paul expresses his pastor's heart with thanksgiving.
Second, he expresses his pastor's heart in prayer. We see that in verses 9 and 10. Notice he begins with an oath formula: “God is my witness.” So, when Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, says, "Let your yes be yes, your no be no, and do not swear by anything," he's not giving an absolute prohibition. There are several times in the Old Testament, and again in the New Testament, where we see this kind of oath. Rather, what Jesus is arguing against in the Sermon on the Mount is a flippancy, is a taking of the Lord's name in vain, or the practice among some of the Jews was that unless they heaped up oaths then their word wasn't really their bond. Jesus says no, no, no, whatever you say, whether you got an oath or not, it ought to be your word. But there are these times in the Scripture, and here's one of them: Paul says, and it's important, “for God is my witness.” Why does he say that? Because he's talking about his prayers. Now, they may be able to see a number of things in his life, but especially since he's not there with them in person, he is telling them part of his affection for them is that he is praying for them all the time. And they might just quickly think, "Yeah, right. Yeah, he prays for us. Maybe he did that once.” And Paul says very solemnly, “as God is my witness.” I call God to witness against me if this is not true. I know you can't see it, but I am telling you the truth, and God himself can see it, that I pray for you constantly. God is my witness. Verse 9, “whom I serve with my spirit” – that is, with every fiber of my being, “for the sake of the gospel.” You can't see the heart of prayer, but you can pray. Isn't it far too easy? And I have fallen afoul of this before in my life – we all have. It's far too easy to casually tell people, "I'm praying for you." Please do not say that if you're not really praying for someone. Better to say, “I'll offer up a prayer right now. Thank you for that. I will pray for it.” We can easily say, "You're in my prayers. I'm praying for you," when really what it amounts to is a glancing thought every great once in a while. Well, that's not what Paul is doing. He is thinking about the Romans all the time.
You remember that meme from a couple of years ago? How often do you think about the Roman Empire? And that was the funny thing that wives were amazed to learn that their husbands were thinking about the Roman Empire – like, yeah, five or six times a week – what?! You're thinking about –? Well yeah, there's a lot to think about! And it was a funny illustration of some of the differences in the sexes. Well Paul is thinking about the Roman Empire even more than that, because he is thinking in particular about these Christians in Rome. We read, “in my spirit the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers.” Now don't over-interpret that “without ceasing,” just like we ought not over-interpret “in all the world.” This is simply a figure of speech. Some people want to take this exactly literally, that without ceasing, as if Paul is breathing in, breathing out, every single waking moment, or even maybe when he's in slumber, he's constantly in a spirit of prayerfulness. Well, he may have a spirit of awareness of God and his presence, but surely what he means is something like us saying, "I am praying for you 24/7. You are in my prayers night and day." It's a way for Paul to say with constancy, frequency, reliability, earnestly, daily, I'm interceding for you. It's likely that Paul – in his daily time of prayer, or maybe he had certain set times in morning and evening when he would pray, he prays for many things – that maybe he tacks on at the end of his prayers, “and Lord, help me to see the Romans,” because that's what he's going to say he's praying for, in particular – that he might find a way to them. Whenever it's there, he adds on – just, “and Lord, one more time, would you help me see the Romans?”
I wonder if you or I have anyone or anything on our prayer lists quite like this. Now, it's true. We have finite time, finite memory and resources. You can't pray for every person and every need without ceasing. But maybe you commit for a month or two weeks to pray for a particular need of a friend in your life. Or maybe you have a prayer – many of us would likely pray for our spouse or for our kids every day, maybe for our parents, maybe for our church, for your pastors, for some missionaries, for some friends. Do you have even a few people and a few prayers that you could say, like Paul, “without ceasing”? Meaning, this one is in my head, and in my heart, almost without fail. Paul hasn't met them, remember? But this is perhaps the greatest expression that we can ever give of our love for someone else. Do you really believe – this isn't a pious platitude – do you really believe there is nothing more helpful you can do for someone you love than to pray for them? It often feels like, well all I can do is pray. All you get to do is pray. And surely there are some of those relationships – often painful ones – you don't know what else to do. And you've reached the end of your human ingenuity and conversations to have, but brothers and sisters, that's not the end of what you can do for them, because you can pray. There may be no greater measure of your love for someone than how often you bring them before God in your prayers. That says how much you love someone. Paul is praying for them without ceasing.
Here's the third way he expresses his pastor's heart, and this gets to the content of his prayer: not only thanking God for them, but specifically, number three, he longs to be with them. He mentions this desire three times in three different ways. Verse 10: “I ask God in my prayers that I may succeed at last in coming to you.” Verse 11, he says, “I long to see you.” Verse 13: “I have often intended to come to you.” To you! Now, Rome is probably top three on my list of cities I haven't been to that I want to go to. Some of you have been there, and I would love to go to Rome – hope I will someday – and see the beautiful architecture and the history and find some gluten-free pasta and pizza and enjoy the sights. Some of you have been there. And it was even more in its grandeur here in Paul's day – the most impressive city in the world. And it's not that it would have been wrong if Paul wanted to eat the food in Rome or see the architecture in Rome or revel in the history or be in the seat of power. Those would not have been, necessarily, bad desires. But notice what Paul wants most of all: he wants to see people. People. Is that how your heart – whether you're an introvert or an extrovert – is that your heart? Even as you think about travel – places you can go, things you can see, things you can do – he says, “You know what I'm so excited about is to see some of the Christians there.” Maybe even if you have opportunity to travel there – go worship there with other believers. Paul says, “Here's what I long to” – not that I can go and walk the streets and say, "What an amazing trip I had to Rome." He wants to see the church. He wants to be there in person. Now, it's true Paul did not have phones. He didn't have texting. He didn't have FaceTime. But he is using the means of communication for his era. He's writing a letter. And no doubt he was grateful that he could write them a letter and communicate with them that way, just like we're grateful when we can talk to a loved one on the phone, or what a gift it is that you can do FaceTime and see grandkids and children who are far away. But you know in your heart that that's not all you want. A text thread can be helpful. FaceTime is nice. Email, WhatsApp – useful. I use them all the time. But when you really love someone, you want to be with them in person, in the same room, face to face. As you have those opportunities, don't miss them with the people in your life.
And on this Sunday, as most of our congregation, understandably, is at home because of a record 11 inches of snow – even more in the outlying areas – we're grateful for this technology that allows us to worship here and for people to sing and pray and hear a sermon when they're providentially hindered from being here. But I hope – I hope that these few occasions where we really are difficult for most of us to come here in person, I hope they don't make anyone start to feel like “this is the way church ought to be,” because it's not the way church ought to be. This is pretty nice. I could get used to this. Cinnamon rolls and salvation. This is a nice way to spend my Sunday morning. I don't have to get dressed. I can sit here and watch this, sip a cup of coffee. No shame if you're drinking coffee right now at home. But I hope that these two weather weeks give you a renewed sense of longing. Oh, may there be sunny skies and 50° next Sunday! Because if you love God's people, you'll want to be with God's people. Podcasts, online sermon, livestream: they are not sufficient. They are not anywhere near a replacement. When there's bad weather, we're grateful for it. If you're homebound, it's a gift. If your kids are sick, if you're ill, if you're in the hospital, we know we have workers on the mission field – all of that, we're grateful for what technology can do. And yet, surely Paul's heart is the right heart. I can write you a letter, but oh, how I'm praying to be with you in person. I've said before, and it bears repeating again: I hope you know that when I have opportunities to speak at a conference or guest preach at a church, this is always, always the place that brings me the most joy. This is the best place to preach, here with my church family, the saints at Christ Covenant.
I want you to notice before we move on from this third point: look at that little phrase in verse 10, “always in my prayers asking that somehow by God's will…” By God's will. See, Paul explains he had tried before – “I have often intended to come to you, but thus far I have been prevented.” The last third of the book of Acts is about Paul's desire to get to Rome, and there it's even manipulated in a different way, because he wants to get there that he can present his case before Caesar. So, some things happened between the writing of this letter and then the rest of Acts and getting to Rome, but we see time and time again where Paul has plans. They don't always happen the way that he wanted them to happen. This phrase, probably familiar to most of you – James says the same thing – that when we make plans, we ought to say “if God wills.” We understand you don't have to literally say it at the end of every sentence. Maybe you've seen in some people's letters, or particular older letters or calendars, you sometimes will see the initial initials D.V., deo volente, which means “God willing.” It's just a small way of saying “here's our plan, D.V.” – if God wills. Whether you say that often or not, surely it ought to be in your head and in your heart. This is not just a silly bit of Christianese. This is not a weak way to pray. This is the Christian way to look at all of life. We have plans. We have hopes. We have dreams. We have things we want for ourselves. You have, perhaps, things you wanted for your children, decisions you wanted them to make. And you may look and see those plans don't seem to be happening. And they may even be good things you wanted for yourself, and you were hoping for your career, your plans for your children, good plans, good desires, and they may not be the good plans that God has for us. I hope you take some encouragement: Paul did not get all of his prayers answered. And we know that from 2 Corinthians, the thorn in the flesh – he prayed three times, and it didn't get removed. But even here, he had been praying without ceasing. Daily prayers. Let me get to Rome. Let me get to Rome. At this point in his life, God had not seen fit to give him a “yes” to that response. And yet, he submits himself to the Lord's will and makes all of his plans with that D.V., God willing, in his heart. And if Paul does that – if Paul did not get all of his plans, all of his prayers – and what better plan? He wants to go to Rome to preach the gospel. For God's reasons, it hadn't happened. And so, in your life and mine, it's a measure of our Christian humility to submit ourselves to God's will. And it may be much bigger things than your travel plans. It's your kids and their faith or their lack of faith or the difficult relationship in your life. And you say, "God, I don't understand this good thing. I don't understand why you would take this person's life in the prime of his life. Why would you only give him 40 years or 50, or why would you take this young man at 26?” And you say, "God, your will is best and perfect and right."
Here's the fourth way Paul expresses his pastor's heart: he has a desire for mutual encouragement. You see that in verses 11 and 12. He says in verse 11, "I want to impart to you some spiritual gift." This is an ambiguous phrase. It does not mean he wants to endow them with a spiritual gift. He's not a dispenser of “now I gift you with helps, or gift you with healing.” And I don't think Paul means “I want to go there and perform a miracle among you.” It's in a broader, more general sense. He says “I want to strengthen you.” He's almost certainly referring to his preaching and his teaching. He says later, “I mean to reap a harvest.” That is a harvest of growth and equipping and maturity and perhaps conversion among the rest of the Gentiles in Rome. I want to impart to you some spiritual gift. This ought to be the goal of every good pastor. My goal, ministering among you, teaching you, is to impart some spiritual gift that you may be formed, that you may be made mature, that you may be established. But notice what Paul says almost as soon as he says that, it's almost as if there's little check in his spirit that says, "Okay, hold on. That's not all I have to say.” So verse 12, almost clearing his throat, “I mean, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged.” Now part of this, remember, these are not his people. He doesn't want to build on someone else's foundation. So, there's a certain tact he has here in asserting his authority. He does not want to come across as if he is full of himself, telling the Romans, whom he has not met, "I can't wait to see you, because when Apostle Paul gets there, what a blessing. Blessing train is coming on through to Rome, and you are going to be so helped by my presence when I get there." That's not what Paul is saying, but he's a little nervous that they might hear it that way. And so, he quickly says, "Hold on a second. This encouragement that I mean to give you is an encouragement that goes both ways. I also stand to receive from you.” And you need to know this from your pastor. Your pastors need encouragement. And I don't mean encouragement that you need to tell us all “good job,” though nice if you think something is going well. But that's not really what Paul means here. He means that both sides – the Apostle Paul, the great, mighty Apostle Paul who writes a third of the New Testament, this great apostle to the Gentiles – he says to these believers in Rome, "When I get there, it's not just that you're going to be getting something from me. I'm going to be getting something from you. Both sides will be strengthened by one another's faith."
And so it ought to be in any pastor/church relationship. Yes, I stand here, and you listen, and hopefully God speaks and ministers grace to you, but you need to know that I see things in you that you do better than I do. I look up to many of you. I learn from you. I see examples of faith that exceed my own graces and prayer and perseverance and suffering and generosity. That's what I say, and that's what the spirit of Paul is here. This is not a one-way street. It also means, just thinking about your relationships in general, do you know that you need others to contribute to your spiritual growth? Parents, you have something to learn from your children. If Paul had something to learn from the Romans, if he had a way to be edified by the Romans, then surely there is no Christian too small in your life that from him or her, you cannot receive a blessing and encouragement. Paul says the way we do church life, the way we are Christians together, is not all downstream, and there's a teacher, and he teaches, and we receive. Or there's a parent, or there's a mentor, and it just flows downhill, and you give out the blessings, we receive the blessings. Paul says, "I don't want you to think that for a moment. I'm going to be encouraged, because I'm going to see your faith. I'm going to see the things that you do, the confidence you have in Christ, the way you're talking about Jesus, the way you're obeying in the midst of suffering and difficulty.” He expresses his pastor's heart in this desire to encourage one another.
And then finally, he expresses his pastor's heart with his passion to preach the gospel. That's most obvious. He's already stated it as part of his identity in the greeting. And now he reinforces it there in verses 14 and 15. He said in verse 1, “called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel.” He said in verse 5, he's an apostle to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among the nations. That's his purpose. That's his life. And now he says once again, I want to come to you, and what I'm so eager to do is to preach the gospel. Now, he doesn't mean that these Romans need to be converted – not the ones he's writing to – they're Christians. But in the wider purview of Rome, there are many Gentiles he wants to preach to, hoping that some of them will be converted. And you notice Paul sees the gospel as not the ABCs, but the A to Z. I want to teach you these things about the Lord Jesus Christ that you might be strengthened. That is his heart. He says in verse 14, “I am under obligation.” You could translate it, “I am a debtor.” Why would Paul say that? Well, because think of who he was. The Lord saved him, as a persecutor of the church, in the most dramatic way. And not only that, but God saved him, God gave him gifts, and God gave him this calling. You, too, are a debtor to mercy – not to live out your life with some groveling debtor's ethic, but a debtor to mercy.
If God saved you, if God's given you spiritual gifts, and he has if you're a believer, and he's given you purpose in life – your calling is not to be an apostle. Most of you, your calling is not to be a preacher, but you are a debtor to your salvation, to your gifts that God gave, not for your sake, not for the sake of self-expression, but for the sake of building others up. Paul says, "I feel this obligation.” And when I think about my sense of calling as a pastor, and that language of calling in the New Testament is almost always about the call of salvation, but there's a right way to think about how God gives a desire to a man to preach. Maybe there's some young men here who are wondering if that might be God's call in your life. You ought to think and pray about that. Here's one of the ways it manifests itself in my heart: whenever there have been seasons of discouragement – and they've not been long, not deep, but they've been there – whenever there have been seasons of discouragement, or even a thought that may whisper in my head, “I wonder what another job feels like” – don't worry, I'm not feeling that today, haven't felt that for a while. But if ever there has been that thought, I come back to this awareness: Lord, I don't think I'm the best preacher by any means, but I do think you have called me to this task. And I think that I would be unfaithful to the Lord Jesus if I were to set aside this calling and bury these talents in the ground and not make good on the open door to preach the gospel that you have given to me. A debtor to mercy under obligation. That's what Paul feels. And in particular, he says he's an apostle to the Gentiles. It seems that the church at Rome is largely Gentile, not exclusively. And he gives two pairs – do you see there in verse 14? “I'm under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians.” He's thinking of the Gentiles. He divides the Gentile world, as they would have used the expression, Greeks and then the non-Greeks – barbarians. The word in Greek, barbaros. Any Barbs or Barbaras in our congregation – special name, means “barbarian.” And just to make this word even more special, that dative plural, barbaros, captures the names of my wife's parents, Barbara and Roy, together. You try to find your in-laws’ name in one Greek word. It's hard to do. Paul isn't using it as a slur. He's simply incorporating this sort of language. This is an onomatopoeia. You know that from your English class – words that sound like how you say them? And so, a barbarian was a word that was coined because to the Greeks it sounded like they were babbling. He says to the Greeks and to the non-Greeks, to the wise and to the foolish. You might translate it to the educated and to the uneducated. Paul is not trying to take sides. He's putting these two pairs together to say this gospel message is for everyone. If you're an Ivy Leaguer, you need the gospel. If you never got a chance to finish high school, you need the gospel. If the world considers you to be elite, sophisticated, important, a one percenter, you need the gospel. If the world will look upon you and say that you are in a working class or a blue collar or something else, you need the gospel. Paul says, "I am preaching this gospel for everyone."
Let it be a reminder as we spend these weeks and months, and perhaps years, in the book of Romans: God willing, no matter who you are, you are not so high and mighty that you don't need Paul's gospel. You are not so low in the world's estimation that this gospel isn't also for you. No matter who you are, no matter where you come from, what language you speak, how you grew up, how much money you make, this book is good news for you. The Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ in Paul's gospel, is for you if you would have the obedience of faith to repent of your sins, trust in Christ, and follow him. Let's pray.
Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word, this good and inspired word. We pray that you would work it deep into our hearts with thanksgiving. In Jesus’ name. Amen.