Paul's Boldness
Romans 15:15-16 · Mike Doyle · Jul 13, 2025
Romans (2022-25), No. 131
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926194086636

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So today we're gonna talk about, actually I just wanted to point out the reason I told Jim to start in 14, not because I don't like 13, but if you look on most, almost all your Bibles or your electronic devices, 14 starts a paragraph. And probably even more importantly, 14, for most people, is the beginning of the conclusion of Romans. Sounds kind of oxymoron, beginning of the conclusion. And actually, what's amazing, this section starting in verse 14 through the end of the book, through chapter 16, has some really pretty cool stuff.

And one of the cool things I get to talk about today is that Christ being a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. Doesn't sound like a very impressive title. I mean, okay, I kind of know that, Roger. He's the apostle to the Gentiles, so this is telling me that he's also a minister to the Gentiles.

But we're going to see that it's really pretty interesting how God has chosen Paul as an instrument to the Gentile nations. If you think about it, Think about Christ. If you read your Gospels, right? And Christ says, I come only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Right?

He came to the Jew. He didn't come to the Gentiles. Remember the woman who met him and said, Lord, I just want some crumbs from your table. And he said, well, no, I can't even give you that. And he came to the Jewish nation. But then when the Jewish nation rejected him, then he went to the Gentiles. That was God's plan from the beginning, that he knew that was going to happen. So here's Paul, and he's ministering to the Gentiles who once were thought of as dogs and awful people.

And that's us today, right? Most people non-Jewish people, and we have some Jewish people too, but the Gentiles are much in view in this passage. Okay, so let's just do a quick outline here. So there's an outline of 14 through the end of the book. It starts off with Paul's persuaded. We're going to look at Review chapter, Review verse 14, 15-14.

Cool verse, Mike got to cover it last week. I couldn't help but do it again. I've got to use my little bubble charts. I know if you've been here before, if you don't like bubbles, I'm sorry. Anyway, his persuasion. We're going to talk about his ministry. And his ministry we're going to talk about, we just mentioned that. He's a minister to present the good news to the Gentiles about Christ dying on the cross and being buried and rose on the third day.

And then as you get into, farther into chapter 15, you're going to see that Paul has a desire I know his desire is about, he actually never, even though he wrote this incredible book to the Roman church, he never visited in person the Roman church. He keeps saying he'd like to visit, and he says that in these verses here.

And then he has a request, he has a prayer request. He asks them to pray with him. Paul says, pray with me for my ministry. And then we get down, we're getting down toward the end, he has a benediction. Actually, by my count, he has three benedictions. Romans he has the verse that Jim talked about 1513 that's sort of a benediction he has 1533 and probably the best one of all is the one at the very end 1625 through 27 it's a really incredible you know benedictions aren't boring if you take the time to look at them and study them out and then lastly another incredible thing he goes through 24 verses of saying greet so-and-so greet Phoebe greet so-and-so all these people in the church in Rome And many times they're family groups, maybe home churches possibly.

But lots of men and women, he says, greet this person. And over and over again, you think, that doesn't sound like it's very productive. But it shows that he was preaching to real people. They had real names. They were not just imaginary people. They were real people with flesh and blood who had come to know Christ as their Savior.

So that's kind of the rest of the book. So we're just going to look at 14, and then 15 and 16 today. Okay, so here's the start. So this is the and, if you're a student of Paul's writing, he loves to connect things. He loves to connect one verse with another verse. He uses ands, buts, wherefores, therefores. He always wants to connect. So this is a big continuation.

He's going to continue, have a lot more to say about the church in Rome, the believers in Rome. He starts off, my brothers in Rome, implied, I myself, Paul, have been persuaded. even concerning you." So the question is, what is he persuaded about? And the rest of the verse is going to tell us that.

But it's important to kind of realize, and we had a little lesson in that from Andrew this morning, that's a verb. Have been persuaded is a verb. What's that verb about? In the original language, it helps to kind of understand what the verb is. So in this case, it happens to be, for you people where Andrew gave us a little lesson, it happens to be in the perfect tense. And you say, well, I don't know what that even means, Roger.

Who cares? But what it means, so in a simplified way, Paul has come to a settled conclusion about the believers in Rome. He was satisfied that he understood them and he prayed for them and he He highlighted them. He said, look at the church in Rome. Look what they're doing. They're proclaiming Christ. Look at the things they're doing. And then secondly, the passive voice tells us that he was convinced. He was convinced about the evidence told him he had a settled view of what they were doing for the Lord Jesus. So let's continue on.

That you yourselves, still the Roman church, Roman believers, Amy and this is a one of these linking verbs if you're in English it's called a linking verb it's connecting the subject with something about the subject you are full of goodness So he's gonna make some incredible statements about the believers in the Roman church.

So one thing occurred to me, can we make those statements about our church, Holly Hills, whatever church you attend? Can we say our church is full of goodness? Is that something we can say about our church? But it doesn't stop there. He says, having been filled with all knowledge. Can we say that about Holly Hills? Can we say, he, Paul is saying about this church in Rome. And the third thing, being able also to admonish one another. So three things he was telling about the church in Rome. They were full of goodness, having been filled with all knowledge, being able to admonish one another.

And you look at that and you say, wow, is this just a special case? Or is the scripture, maybe the scripture give me a key to why Paul can say this. And he says it in his verb tense there, it's at the state of being, verb, a me, are, you are, this is what you are, you continually exist in full of goodness. And you think, how in the world I'm full of goodness?

Well, if you were listening in our class this morning, I keep going back to that, I know Galatians 2.20, you know that we can be full of goodness.

Okay, so let's carry on here. So let's not jump down into a little more detail here. So there are three things we're going to talk about. So full of goodness is the idea of being filled with goodness. And it comes, the core word is agathos, which is good. It's a disposition to do good. So I listen to Merriman, I try to go back. Merriman taught here about 40 years ago, something like that, it's been a long time. But he had some tremendous things to say, and so this is one of the things he said.

Kind of a rhetorical question, kind of a trick question. Where do these believers get this disposition of goodness? Were they just particularly, were they goody goodies? They always listened, always obeyed, never, you know, where'd they get that from? Well, let's think about that for a second. So I'm gonna make a statement. You as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ are continually full of goodness. How can I say that? Am I just, am I wishing that?

No. Galatians 2.20, this morning, I am crucified with Christ. Never, I'm crucified with, I'm gonna lose it here. I can't even remember the verse, right? Terrible. Okay, I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the key to that, the key to the Christian life is it's not your life, who lives a Christian life? According to the scripture, Christ lives the Christian life. He lives it in you by the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's just not to be something that's kind of a mystical thing, that's to be a reality. So there's kind of two parts of that. He makes a statement about the fact they're full of goodness.

So you might say that's what we call, that's their position, that's who they are, that's what describes every single believer from the smartest to most intelligent believer, from the It doesn't matter who you are, you are full of goodness because you have the very life of Christ. But there's a part two to that, right?

But what about your Christian walk? What about your walk day by day? When you leave church, when you go home, when you're in the office, when you're wherever, at school, whatever, are you full of goodness then? How is it possible for a Christian to live that walk?

Well, there's another good verse to remember. But the fruit of the Spirit, remember it's singular, it's not fruits. You're not getting a display of fruit. It's a singular fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

So that is In essence, that's Christ's life, and that life can only be lived as we walk with Him, as we walk in faith with Him. We have faith in the fact that we have His life, and we walk in light of His life. You walk in control of the Holy Spirit. It says, but I say to you, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.

So the Christian walk is to be our walking in response to what we already have. The Christian has all that he needs. We have the complete package. We have all those nine things. We don't have a little bit of love today or a little bit of joy today. We have all of that right now. But do you walk? Do you depend upon God to live His life through you? So that's full of goodness. Two aspects I see talking about your position and talking about your Christian walk.

Okay, number two, having been filled with all knowledge. So if you notice my little chart, that kind of was a modifier to that verb, amy. that's going to tell us more about that. So here we go. Having been filled. So in this case, this is another perfect tense. So you could say you've been filled in the past and continue to be filled up into the present.

So once again, since we have Christ's life, we have Christ's knowledge in a sense. We, we know that because we have Christ has all knowledge. So we have that positionally. The question comes down to positionally. And it's passive voice, you received it, and you received it the moment you became a believer in the Lord Jesus. So we have all knowledge. We have that. And gnosis is the idea.

So how do we make that practical? It makes it practical when we read God's word. This factual knowledge of scripture becomes real as we read it and believe it. Do we believe that we were crucified with Christ, or actually co-crucified with Christ? Do we believe that? And what does that mean to us? As we believe the facts of Scripture, then we can act upon those. Okay, let's go on here. So Merriman says, you can say, we're filled with all knowledge by means of a positive interaction to the truth of Scripture.

You know, you can read Scripture and you can say, boy, that sounds awful lofty, but I don't think, I don't think that's talking about me, that's somebody else, that's a special Christian, that's not me. We're to believe what God has said about us and act accordingly.

So here's a case where Paul was highlighting the believers in Rome. He said, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, speaking about the church in Rome, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. So their faith These aspects are being proclaimed. People saw that they were walking with the Lord Jesus. And then Wyss translates it. And Wyss tries to bring out the original language, having been filled completely, full of every knowledge, with the result that you are in an abiding state of fullness. You're complete in Him.

And then the third one, this is the one that Mike highlighted last week, and I like this one a lot, because admonishing. It sounds kind of harsh, but I think it's actually meant to be something that every believer does as a normal part of his life in a loving way. It comes from the word for power, actually for dynamite is the core word, dunamis power, we have the power. This is the present tense, so we continue to be able to admonish one another, and it's for your benefit. Admonish is to put in the mind, to warn, to exhort.

So in a sense, when we talk to a brother or sister, we're putting in their minds, hopefully the things of Christ, right? We're putting in their mind, a brother or sister, what about this? And what about what Christ said here? What about what Paul said about Christ? We're putting into their minds the things of Christ.

And then I love this verse, it's kind of connected, it uses the same word admonish. We proclaim Him, Christ, admonishing every man, teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. Boy, I want to say it's another Paul epistle, but isn't that the desire? We want every man and woman to be complete, fully, fully mature, able to interact in the body. Just it's a beautiful verse.

And the Amplified has complete to admonish and counsel and instruct one another. and i might use the example when he was teaching last week about the fact that we we have multiple bible studies And starting one Bible study on Tuesday, he had some brother talking about this, and then we got to Tuesday night at the Eccles, and somebody else there, and we got to Wednesday, and he taught, and somebody else. So through that three Bible study process, he was admonished about a fact that really edified him. And that's what it's all about. We interact with one another as brothers and sisters, and we're built up. So admonishing isn't a bad thing, it's a good thing.

All right, so there are the three things. So let's carry on. So today's verses. And you know, at first reading of this, you think, this sounds not like a really exciting section of the scripture. But actually, it's pretty cool. There's some really interesting things. So Paul's going to start out.

But I have written to you very boldly, on some point so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given to me from God, to be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God." Listen to that, ministering as a priest the gospel of God. We're going to see some cool pictures here. He looks at that, and the Old Testament picture in your mind, you see the Old Testament priest there, and he's bringing into the Holy of Holy, he's bringing sacrifices, and they're burning them, and smoke's going up, and he's presenting to God these things. Well, Paul's going to say, you know what? when I give out the good news, the gospel, that's just like the priest was back there in the Old Testament. That's the same picture.

It kind of is mined by. I'm telling someone about the Lord Jesus, about his death, burial, and resurrection. God pictures that as a sacrifice so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit." Verse 16 is a real sleeper in my mind. You look at it and you read it again and again, it's really saying that as we're presenting the gospel, we're like a priest. Paul's a priest presenting this gospel to the Gentiles.

Then he offers the Gentiles back to God. Just amazing. Okay, let's carry on here. So here's my bubble picture. So in contrast to 14, he praised the Roman church, he said, you guys are full of goodness and all knowledge and able to admonish. Now he's going to say, he said, but I have written in this letter very boldly or unreservedly to you in Rome on some points or issues. So I saw this and I said, You know, Paul wrote some pretty incredible things in Romans, just about the most incredible things of all the Scripture. And I mean, there are just so many, but one of the key ones, I think we mentioned this morning a little bit, is this verse in Romans 6, 1 and 2. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we who are dead to sin live any longer in it? You know, that's just one of many, many verses. I'm going to quote a few more, but there are many, many verses that are just boldly stated by Paul that are so significant.

And he's kind of apologizing. He says, you know, you guys are doing the right thing. You're taking Scripture for what it says. But I have told you some really tough things, and he's kind of in a way trying to be gentle with them. That's kind of the flavor I get. So as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given to me from God. So he's going to talk about this grace. It was on the account of the grace.

And you'll notice here it has what we call a definite article. It has the in front of it. So when you see the something in scripture, the love, The grace the whatever that tells you that it's particularizing. That's a particular kind of grace and we're gonna see that shortly here So here's our bubble chart. So let's get down the details here. So so in contrast his praises and And we would say, he says, I have written, and this is kind of a knit, but in Scripture many times you're going to see, I have written, but it really means he's talking about the book of Romans.

So he says, I have written, it sounds like that some other book in the past was actually not. It's, we would say, I'm writing. If you wrote to a friend, they were letters, right? You say, I'm writing to you now, Courtney. Blah, blah, blah, blah. I wouldn't say, I have written to you, Courtney. Courtney would say, where was the other email, Roger? No, it's this email, Courtney. So Paul's saying, he's talking about, I've written to you right now in this letter. That's what he's telling us. Very boldly, to you in Rome. And it's bold as I did to be bold, to deal boldly.

On some points, and here's another example I like, this one I like, it says, we don't know how to pray as we should. So wait a minute, Roger, I don't know how to pray. I was taught that as a little child how to pray. Mom and Dad taught me that as a child. You're telling me I don't know how to pray? But there's actually more information here. But isn't that a bold statement? You don't know how to pray.

But in context it says, in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness, For we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And just a little aside, I'll give you a little, I don't want to get too deep.

When I taught this some years ago, or actually it was back maybe a year and a half ago, you know, it's not so much we don't know the mechanics of how to pray, We don't really know the right topic because we might have a topic, well, my toe hurts or I have a headache. So Lord, take away my headache. I'm being a little silly here, but we don't know the particular topic. that we should be praying about, but what's amazing is the Spirit of God, if we're His child, the Spirit of God does know that topic. And so in a way, it's talking about the topic, the focus of where you should be praying.

Okay, that's a little bit of an aside. Let's carry on here. Okay. But I have written to you very boldly on some points, so as I've done so to remind you again He wants to put in your mind. The idea of reminding is that you transfer what you understand into somebody else. You try to get them to think like you think. And you find that's probably one of the hardest things in life to do. It's like Ryan trying to convince me to drink coffee. He's tried. He's tried his 38 years. Anyway, you've tried a long time, but I've held out. I drink decaf, but I don't drink regular. So Ryan has tried for 38 years to put that in my mind, and I've resisted. So anyway, you see how hard it is.

Only the Spirit of God can do that. So it says, to remind you again, because of, on account of, Now this is really cool, the grace of God that was given to me. So he's not talking about, you know, your first thought is, well Paul, okay, you've written so much about God's grace, you're talking about, your first thought is, you know, he's talking here about general, he's not talking about general grace. You know, general grace is this, for by grace you have been saved through faith, not of yourself, it's a gift of God. That's God's marvelous grace to every single person who puts their faith and trust in God. But that's not what he's talking about here. He's particularizing. This is a specific grace he's talking about.

Okay, and we're going to see that in verse 16. So hold that thought. We're going to see what's the specific grace that was given to Paul uniquely. And if you read the verse, you already know the answer. But anyway, not general grace, specific grace. Okay, here we go. Bubble chart again.

This specific grace was given for me, Paul, to be, another one of these linking verbs, to be a servant. To be a servant, a public servant, a minister, Christ Jesus to the Gentiles so this is a specific race Paul was given this specific race to be a servant or a minister of God of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles and here's this beautiful picture this picture is administering in sacred service just for FYI I'm using what's called the inner linear translation here And I think Andrew mentioned, it's just word for word from the original.

And it helps out when you're trying to build this chart. You can connect things better because you can see the verbs and all the modifiers better. So it reads a little bit different than the New American Standard or others. So it says, administering in sacred service the good news of God. This beautiful picture, Paul says, this good news I'm giving to the Gentiles, that's a sacrifice. and he goes on, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be another linking verb It's the idea of coming into a new state of being. They come in to be acceptable. The Gentiles, when they accept Christ as their Savior, are now acceptable to God, having been sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Just a beautiful verse. So we're gonna go down one level with this guy here, too. Okay, so there it is. Hopefully that's helpful. Not too many. Okay, and it says, having been permanently set apart. Okay, so here we go. For me, Paul, Again, another linking verb, the Satan was something that continuously exists. So Paul continuously existed as a servant or minister. That was just who he was. That's what God is saying about Paul. And this is this word, I'm trying to give it a pronunciation. Everybody says, Roger, don't pronounce it. Don't say it if you can't pronounce it. Okay, I'm going to give it a shot here. Oh boy. Anyway, I won't pronounce it.

Anyway, it's a public servant. Actually, at home I have on my computer, I have this little thing, it pronounces it for you. What I need to have in my ear, every time those guys have little things in their ear, they're talking to them. Anyway, a public minister. In the New Testament, it's a servant generally of God, Zodiaty says. And it's used a couple times. It's used kind of two different ways.

The first time, in this Romans 13, 6 passage, it talks about the rulers that govern us. It says, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to that very thing. And then it's used beautifully here about our Lord Jesus in Hebrews 1 and 2, 8, 1 and 2. We have such a high priest who has who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heavens, a minister in the sanctuary in the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched not man." So this word that's either translated minister or servant is a picture of someone, either Lord Jesus in this case in the heavenly scene or men who rule over us, is seen as that kind of ministering or that kind of servant.

Okay, let's carry on. They're servants of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. So Paul is serving Christ directly as he gives out the good news of the Gentiles. You know, and I think we can rightfully expand that as we share the gospel, the good news of other people. we can say, well, Paul, Paul was like us. He was an incredible person, but he was a man. He wasn't God. He was a man that trusted Christ as his Savior. So as we give out the gospel, we can see ourselves in the same picture, I believe.

And ministering in sacred service to perform, employ in the sacred office. It's actually a compound word. It's basically the compound word for temple and work. Temple worker. officiating priest. So it's the act or work of a priest. And actually, you know, you've got to be a little bit careful. There's no longer, we no longer have temples. The Jewish temple is gone. You know, We're no longer under the Jewish system, we're now under, you know, in the church age. So that there's not to be, I'm not to, next week we don't have a, I'm presenting up here on the stage and I'm pretending to be some kind of priest.

That's not what they're talking about. It's a picture, and pictures are good. for your mind to go back and picture what happened in the Old Testament scene, and that's what Zodiacity is kind of warning you about. Don't push it too far. It's a wonderful illustration, but don't make it into a ritual, is what he's saying.

Okay, of the good news, and what's the good news? Euangelion in the Greek gospel, that's the word for gospel, A couple of beautiful things to say about that, you know, it's a good tidings of salvation through Christ to be received by faith on the basis of his death on the cross and burial and resurrection and ascension.

And a couple of cool verses about that. Paul just, you know, he was a minister to the Gentiles, but he also was a minister of the gospel, right? He says, Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God." And a couple verses later he says, this is an incredible verse, "'For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.'" So the gospel is to be proclaimed, and Paul proclaimed it.

Okay, we kind of carry on, we're back to this offering idea. So that kind of introduces a purpose clause in the original. The offering of the Gentiles. So they come into the state of being acceptable to God once they trust in the Lord Jesus. They're now acceptable to Him. That's kind of caring.

The offering in which Paul conceives himself as presenting. Actually, this is from Wiest. He kind of coined this phrase, a Gentile church, which I thought was kind of interesting. Paul conceives himself as presenting to God the Gentile church. Kind of interesting picture there. and the priestly function and exercising of which the offering is made.

So the preaching of the gospel is actually, that's the sacrifice, those lives that believe in the Lord Jesus as a result of the gospel. So it's kind of winding down here. The very last part, having been sanctified by the Holy Spirit, set apart. So they're permanently set apart by the Holy Spirit. The Gentile church is now acceptable as they receive the good news, the gospel, having been set apart by the Holy Spirit.

And this may be a parallel verse if you were looking at the church in Corinth here. To the church of God at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified, in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call in His name, of the Lord Jesus, their Lord and ours."

So final thoughts here, kind of we're all back around this word for minister, and actually it's a different word The word for minister, many times, is this word diakonos, a servant, but this takes on a new view here, as we saw. This word is used of the secular life, or it's used of the Lord Jesus in the heavenly scene as a servant ministering the things of God. He speaks here of the ministry of preaching the gospel as a priestly ministry, equal in sacredness to the ministry of the priesthood in the Old Testament. And then lastly, back to the word ministering again, it just pictures that, and he talks about these Levitical rites, and I just wanted to read this one last little thing before we close here. And this, you know, there's a translation, and you guys probably know about this already, being good Bible students, you know, there's a translation, in fact, the first, I didn't realize, the first translation of the Old Testament scriptures from Hebrew was translated into the Septuagint. And so here's a verse that uses our word for minister here. It says, so this is back in Nehemiah.

For the sons of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of the grain, the new wine, and the oil to the chambers, their utensils of the sanctuary. The priests who are ministering, this is the same word, because this is the Greek word that the Jewish people used to translate this verse. ministering the gatekeepers and singers, thus they will not neglect the house of the Lord." So the picture is, just like we said, it's this scene from the Old Testament where they're bringing these sacrifices. Some were sheep and goats and grains and stuff, but now the sacredness is the lives that have been impacted, and the Gentiles have trusted Christ as their Savior. That's the sacrifice in view now. So let's close. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for today, Father. We thank you for the blessings we have. Thank you for your marvelous word. In Christ's name, amen.