The Unchanging Truth

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Unchanging Truth, the verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Jerod Gilcher, lead pastor of Christ Community Bible Church in Arlington, Texas. Through the living and active Word of God, the Unchanging Truth exists to encourage your soul, transform your life, and help you trust and treasure Christ as redeemer, savior, and king. Now, opening the scriptures and proclaiming the truth that never changes, here is Dr. Jerod Gilcher.

Dr. Jerod Gilcher: I said it a few weeks ago, and I stand by what I said, but I really believe that the Apostle Paul was the greatest pastor, missionary, and let's add to the list, theologian in the history of the church. The Apostle Paul was the greatest pastor in the history of the church, or at the very least, he is held up as the preeminent example of what a pastor is to be and do. What the Apostle Paul was and did, you know, he preached the word, he fed the flock, he loved the saints, and he fought the wolves. He did that better than anyone in the history of the church.

There was in Paul this exemplary display of what it looks like to be a pastor. If you look at the Book of Acts and you look at the epistles, it's not hard to see. The proof is there. He preached the word with power, did he not? He planted churches in multiple countries, in different languages perhaps. He trained up dozens of pastors and missionaries. In the church, he faced the toughest issues. He loved the hardest people. He was patient with the immature. He was often slandered, misrepresented, and shunned, and that by the very churches that he planted. Yet he was patient. He was always firm, but he was patient and warm and pastoral. He never gave up on his people, and he never ceased to pray for them.

He said in 1 Thessalonians 2 that he instructed them, he exhorted them like a father. He loved them like a mother. He said, "We were well pleased, not only to impart to you the gospel of God but even our very souls, because you had become dear to us." He wept over the Corinthians, he worried for the Galatians, he trained the Ephesians, he counseled the Philippians, he suffered for the Thessalonians, and he lavished the church in Rome with 16 chapters of staggering theological treasure, did he not? I mean, this man just broke himself. He broke himself and he wearied his soul. He risked his life and he risked his health, and yet all of it was worth it. He said, "I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls."

What's the point? Where am I going with this? The point is that is proof that Paul was the greatest pastor in the history of the church. In our text this morning, the qualities of Paul as a pastor are on full display in what I call his exemplary passions. His exemplary passions, meaning that the passions of Paul serve as a model for us. They serve as a paradigm for us. The way he loved and served the church is the way we ought to love and serve the church. That's why they're exemplary. They're a model, an example of how we should love and care for our own church.

What I love about this is that his exemplary passions are still in the introduction. He hasn't even gotten to the meal yet. He's still setting out the glasses and the napkins and the plates and the silverware, and yet what incredible glasses and napkins and plates and silverware it is because what we see are Paul's exemplary passions, showing us not only what it means to be an incredible pastor but what it means to be an incredible parishioner. How he cared for the church is how the church should care for the church. It doesn't include anything you don't already know about. It's all stuff we already know, things like thanksgiving and serving and praying and longing and encouraging and proclaiming the word to one another. That right there is life in the church. That is how we should love and care for one another in the church, and Paul models that for us.

We all want to have a happy church, right? Let's face it. We want a thriving church. We want a joyful church. We want a church where we walk in and we just know there is life here. The love is contagious, the zeal is real, lives are getting changed, people are getting saved. There's just this clear and obvious sense that God is at work in our midst. We all want and crave a church like that, and we absolutely should. And yet, a church like that is cultivated. It's cultivated. Like gardens full of fruit, that kind of church is created through pain. The loving pain of dying to self. The grueling pain of serving other people instead of waiting for us to be served by them.

Do you understand? A church of life is created by death. Death to self, death to agendas, death to preferences, death to grievances. Then, without a parachute or a safety net to catch us, we just immerse ourselves into the life of the church. That's how happy, thriving churches are made. If we do the kinds of things that Paul displays, that exactly is the kind of church that we are destined to become.

So here's where we're going. This morning, I want you to see five passions, five exemplary passions of Paul that we must pursue for the joy and thriving of the church. I know that was long, but that's where we're going. Five exemplary passions of Paul that we must pursue for the joy and the thriving of the church. For the joy and thriving of the church, exemplary passion number one is this: I call pervasive thanksgiving. Paul had pervasive thanksgiving for the churches in his life. He was grateful for other Christians. In fact, get this: he spent time alone on his knees before God giving thanks for churches and the people in those churches. I mean, who does that? Who takes time out of their day to do that? Paul did that, and we would do well to do the same.

You remember by now why Paul wrote Romans, don't you? Why he wrote this 16-chapter theological masterpiece? You know why he did, why he gave this church that he never met one of the greatest gifts in the history of the church, namely this letter. The reason why he did is because what this letter is, among many things, is a tool of discipleship. It's meant to grip their souls with the riches of the gospel, to make them fluent in the gospel, familiar with the gospel, riveted by the gospel, and that they may be more effective in the proclamation of the gospel.

It's a tool of discipleship, and after Paul's introduction in verses 1 through 7, you notice that Paul begins to reveal his heart to them. Notice number one at the top of the list: he was thankful for the church in Rome. Starting in verse 8: "First, among the many things that I have to say to you, O church in Rome, first, I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for all of you." Why? "Because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers."

There it is, passion at the top of the list: Paul was thankful for this church. Even the tense of the verb there, "give thanks," indicates that he regularly gave thanks. He regularly did this. He often thought of the church in Rome, and when he did, he every single time, always gave thanks for them. And yet notice, notice how theological this seemingly incidental comment really is. Notice very carefully what he says: "I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ." Do you see that? Even the thanksgiving is profoundly Trinitarian. I give thanks to God through Jesus Christ. Why? Because Paul was a theologian. That's why.

You see, Paul knew that all the fruit, all the faith, all the transformation of their lives was a work of God the Father in and through his Son. Everything that he saw and heard about and knew about happening in the church in Rome was the saving work of God the Father through the sovereign grace of Jesus Christ. Do you see? That is profound. He had never met these people. He had never seen their face, but he was filled with thanks at the work of God the Father through the Son. That, you understand, is the key to a thankful heart. That is the key to a joyful church, that we would have eyes to see. To put it this way, that we would know one another at a level of depth that we might be able to recognize what is of Christ in one another and give thanks to God for that.

Notice the reason Paul was thankful: "I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, why? Because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world." Paul rejoiced because the Romans had famous faith. That famous faith. Their faith was known and proclaimed across the entire Roman Empire, which is weird, isn't it? Because you can't see faith, can you? You can't see what someone believes inside their head. And yet we know, don't we, that faith is so much more than believing a few historical facts, isn't it? Faith is so much more than merely believing in something that you can't see. No, faith, when it is real, is trusting in a savior that changes people's lives, is it not?

In fact, we'll see in chapter six that he defines what faith is. It's astonishing. Faith is nothing less than a profound union with Christ, where our lives become so inseparably intertwined with his that he lives his own life in and through us, and that cannot help but have an effect. The point is, beloved, listen carefully: authentic faith bears fruit. It shows itself. It reveals itself in life change and transformation. So you'll understand, for their faith to be proclaimed, for their faith to be seen and recognized and known and declared, there had to be a renovation of their lives so real and notable and blatant and obviously supernatural that word of its quality literally reached to the ends of the empire.

That verse right there, I will confess, that is one of the verses that stirred in me to preach this letter to you. That maybe perhaps we could be a church of famous faith. Not for any sort of recognition for us, but that, little though we be and imperfect though we are, that we could be a church of radical faith and allegiance to Jesus Christ. May it be. May God use the letter to the Romans to make us like the church of the Romans.

The question is, is that the kind of faith that you possess? Is that the kind of faith that you possess? What I mean is, do you have a visible faith? Do you have an audible faith, a tangible faith, that imperfect though you are and struggle though you may, that your life at some level and increasingly so reveals a heart that is captive and thrilled by Jesus Christ? Do you see more and more hunger for the word? More and more hunger and thirst for righteousness? Do you see more and more hatred for your sin? More and more that you become less like you and more and more you become conformed to the image and likeness of Jesus Christ? Because that is the fruit of faith.

That's what Paul saw, that's what people saw in this church in Rome. For this, Paul was thankful. He could clearly see and recognize even from a distance the work of God the Father in and through his Son in the lives of these people. For this, Paul was thankful. Let me just ask you this: do you spend time—you probably do, I'm the only unspiritual one here—do you spend time giving thanks for other people in this church? Like, do you know people at a level of depth where you can recognize what is of Christ in them, and you spend time recounting to God the very work you see his Son doing in their lives? Do you do that?

I never did that. I never did that. It never dawned on me that that should be a thing that I do. I mean, I see God at work. I see Christ working in your lives, but to take time out of my day to personally recount that to Christ, it never dawned on me. And yet now, now I will. Now I will, and I want you to do that too. That you would take time out of your day every day to pause, even if it's for a few minutes, and to write down things—what is of Christ that you see in one another—and give thanks to God for that. That is key, or at least part of the key, to a healthy, thriving church.

Passion number two: there was priestly serving. Priestly serving. In other words, Paul served like a priest in the sacred gospel of Jesus Christ. Notice verse 9: "I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world." Notice: "For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I pray for you." Now, you could see there in verses 9 and 10, Paul was not only thankful for the Romans, he was prayerful for the Romans. Notice what he says: "God is my witness how often I pray for you." God would attest if he spoke out loud, he would verify how often I pray for you, a church that he had not yet met.

But that's passion number three. I want you to notice very carefully what Paul does, because everything is worthy of contemplation. Notice how Paul interrupts himself and shows how he feels about the ministry he's given: "For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son." Do you see that? I serve my God in my spirit in the gospel of his Son. The reason why I call that priestly serving is because the word Paul uses there for service is rare and exceptional. It's a rare and exceptional word. You see, there are lots of other words that Paul could have used to describe his service. He could have used *douleuo* and *diakoneo* and *hupereteo*, but the word he uses here is interesting. This is not the word you use when you are flippant and casual. This is a different kind of service. You see, you can serve as a volunteer for the sheriff's department or you can serve as the lead of the SWAT team, and those are different kinds of service, aren't they?

Because the word Paul uses for service there, get this, is the word for the Levitical priests and the service they performed at the temple of Yahweh. It's that word. That's a technical term. That's a specialized word that only one group of people out of the entire planet could be a priest, and only then one man once a year enter into the Holy of Holies, right? That's the word Paul uses. It's incredible. Not because he was a priest, but because what he did was just as sacred as a priest, wasn't it? I mean, think about it: to preach a message, the power of which can save a soul from destruction. A message, the power of which is to reconcile God and man together. Not even the priest did that. And hence why Paul viewed what he did as absolutely sacred.

Notice carefully his language here, how he qualifies: "I serve, notice, in my spirit in the gospel of his Son." What do you mean, Paul, "in my spirit"? Meaning, this meant everything to him. This meant everything to him. Just going through the motions is the opposite of doing it with your soul, and that's exactly what Paul means. This wasn't a job for him. This wasn't just an occupation for him. He wasn't working for the weekend. He wasn't just working for a paycheck. Rather, what he did was the passion of his life, and the passion of his life was the gospel of the Son. And not just preaching, but all things gospel-related, you understand. Paul was a man driven and riveted by one thing. Everything in his life bowed in allegiance to the ministry of the gospel and the ministry and the preaching of the Word of God.

Again, when you hear and see the word "gospel," remember what you are not supposed to do. Don't think a few minimal truths that you put on a gospel tract that you hand out in street evangelism. That's not what this is. Of course it includes that, but it's not only that. No, you understand, the gospel is all that God has done in his Son to save ruined sinners from eternal woe and despair. The gospel is all the untold, innumerable, infinite riches of redemption bought with the blood of Jesus Christ. And that's why Paul says "the gospel," it's the gospel of his Son. You understand, the gospel is and the gospel is about Jesus Christ. He is, in other words, the good news that makes the gospel good news.

This was the sacred focus and passion of Paul's life. I really believe without question that this should also be the same for us. That this, that we should share Paul's passion, that this too should be central and a focus for us, that the gospel of the Son should be the passion of our lives. No, it's true, we are not apostles, are we? But we are priests. We are priests. 1 Peter 2:9 says that we are priests. We are a holy, royal priesthood in service to the King. Which means everything we do as a church is sacred. Everything we do as a church is holy. Making coffee is a drink offering. Setting chairs is like the altar. The songs are offerings. Our prayers are like incense. Larry turns on the lights, it's like lighting the lantern. You get my point. My point is, everything we do is holy. Everything we do is sacred. Everything we do matters in the church.

I would just ask you, how would you love to serve as a priest in the gospel of the Son? How would you love to serve? I mean, I know many of you already do serve, but how would you love to serve? How would you love to be used by God to advance the global cause of Christ in the world? How would you love to be used in that way? Because I'll just have you know that the elders and the deacons, we are partnering together right now and we are thinking of ways for you to serve and use your gifts. That time is coming; we're going to lay out some things before you. Pray for us in that because we very much want to transform the church from a sitting church to a serving church. Don't take that the wrong way, many of you do serve. I'm just saying there are many things we do not yet do as a church, and yet I know that there are opportunities for you. How would you love to serve? Let's talk about this. The time is coming. we want you to serve like priests in the gospel of the Son.

Passion number three: number three is perpetual praying. In other words, and you know this, Paul was a man of constant, unceasing, incessant prayer for the people in his life. You know, you look at every single letter that he wrote—all 13 of them—it says something about prayer. And in every single letter, the language is the same, isn't it? Always, unceasing, incessant, constant, remembering, making mention of you to God. Which means, listen carefully, here is a man who understood the awesome place of prayer in the plan of God, right? That prayer doesn't change God's plan. Prayer does not change what God has decreed. Rather, God unfolds the plan he decreed through the prayers of his people, right?

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us for the Unchanging Truth, the verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Jerod Gilcher and Christ Community Bible Church in Arlington, Texas. At Christ Community Bible Church, we exist to prize, portray, and proclaim the supremacy of Christ as we trust in his word and wait for his return. We hope today's teaching has encouraged your soul and helped you trust and treasure Christ as your redeemer, savior, and king. If you're in the DFW area and looking for a church home, join us for worship Sunday mornings at 10:30. To learn more about the mission of the church, meet the pastoral staff, or plan a visit, go to ccbiblechurch.com. You'll find ministry services and additional teachings there as well. Just click on the resources tab to get started. That's ccbiblechurch.com. Join us again next time as we open the scriptures together and proclaim the truth that never changes. This has been the Unchanging Truth.