Rome! What a city it was in the days of Paul! Rome was the center of the known world, the heart of government. Rome was more than a place. Rome was THE place in those days. We don’t even know how to understand the perception that the people of the first century held about Rome of those days.
Rome was loved, feared, hated, revered... every country in the world was influenced by her.
The book of Revelation describes her as a harlot sitting on the back of a great monster. She is decorated and drunk from the blood of the saints. Revelation 17 - 18 are important for understanding the power and influence of Rome.
Rome represented all the material power and wealth of the world.
Yet in Rome, this megatropolis of the world, a quiet revolution was taking place. Not one based on worldly power and wealth. Not one based on material strength or social status or glamorous attraction. There was really nothing showy or externally outstanding about it. But this quiet revolution would eventually leave Rome in the dust. This quiet revolution would never fall.
Never be destroyed. Never fail. This quiet revolution was based not on changes in power or economics or any material thing.
It was simply this: a call. A quiet revolution based on a call. Not from human sources but divine. Not a call to do great things, at least not primarily, but a call from God; a call to be one of his, a call to open your heart to God.
While Rome represented the wealth and power of the world, the church of Jesus described in Revelation as a new city, coming down from heaven, represents all us who are called not to the power and wealth of the world but to God.
Do you know what scares me today? We live in the Rome of this world. There is not another place on earth like America. We have it as good as it gets. Power, wealth, prestige, military might, recreational toys, entertainment, plush homes,
supermarkets that throw away produce when it looks a little tired. We live in the Rome of the world!!! We are a spoiled, picky, arrogant, self-centered, sin filled, nation that is running headlong into destruction. Listen to Romans 1:28-32.
Rooting God out of everything that touches government, we are as a nation, closing the door on the light and entering the darkness of what people do when the voice of God is not here.
What happens when people don’t hear the call of God? In a few weeks we will be looking at what Romans says about this.
But today, let’s start where Paul starts. Paul says basically, I answered the call. And I accepted the job of calling others.
3 times in these first 7 verses Paul mentions the words call and called. Once in reference to himself, once in reference to his mission, and once in reference to the Christians of Rome.
At one point in my life I worked as a Real Estate dealer at the Norwood Realty office in Concord, NH. I’ll never forget my first experience of working the desk and taking calls. Those phones are crazy! There must be 25 buttons besides the numbers, and every one of them needs to be pushed for something!
My first time was a little rough. If someone had even suggested quitting that morning I would have followed their wisdom.
Calls are not always easy. There are so many of them coming in at the same time. We can only handle one at a time.
That is true of your life. God has dialed your number, but so have a hundred others. Satan loves to jam your lines with his messengers. They all seem so important!!
Brothers and sisters, there is really only one call to you that offers eternal life. Paul said, I am answering that call, everything else will just have to stay on hold or hang it up.
God has called and God is calling. We must answer the call. Open your heart to God.
Paul tells us about the call in three sections here.
Called to service, called to obedience, and called to belong
Notice the call of Paul in verses 1-4: Two things are here.
1. To be an apostle, 2. He was set apart for the service of the gospel
An apostle was a messenger. I can identify with that. But this other part is tougher.
To be set apart. The word Paul uses here is a strong one. It can be translated excluded or even excommunicated. Some other places where it is used are: Gal. 2:12, 2 Cor 6:17, Luke 6:22, Matt. 25:32, 13:49. What it expresses is this. If you answer this call, you don’t belong here any more.
If I answer the call, I don’t belong here because I now belong to Him. What Paul says is this: I was called to be a messenger who does not belong here anymore. And I answered the call.
Jesus said, "Who ever loves his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will keep it for eternal life. Jn 12:25-26
What do you and I value most? Life here and now or life in eternity with God? Life here and now is calling loud and hard. “Get all you can get; go for the gusto; just do it!!!”
But listen carefully to what is being said. If you answer this world’s call, if you answer the call of living it up for life here and now, who are you serving? Who? Come on, be honest with it. Who are you being called to serve by the call of get it all here and now?
Are you with me? Hello? Who are you called to serve by the call of get it all?
Y-O-U!
But listen to Paul’s first line in this letter.
Paul, a servant of ..... Christ Jesus.
Why? Because Paul answered the call of Jesus, not the call of life here and now. Otherwise it would have read: Paul, a self employed preacher about Jesus, who passes the plate regularly and needs your support for all my expensive programming, so for your tax deductible gift of 25, 50, 100 or more, I’ll send you my latest book, Christianity made easy. Send your gift today to:
Saul of Tarsus enterprises, P.O. Box 666, Antioch, Palestine.
And if you act quickly I’ll also include a copy of my latest letter: How to build a rich, comfortable church.
Paul wasn’t serving himself, he answered the call and gave up all for a quest to know Christ.
God didn’t call you to serve yourself, but to deny yourself and listen to him. Our charge from heaven is plain: Open your heart to God. Answer his call.
Answering his call will cost you everything you have here. But your reward will be that He will give you everything that you can’t have here. Answer the call!
There are a lot of other voices clamoring for us to answer, messengers that distract us from the calling of our Lord.
There are hundreds of seductive sounds that ring in our ears and resonate in our minds and seek to convince us that we can answer both the call of God and the
call of the world as well.
No. You can’t. If we answer the call of Jesus we are set apart, we are separated, and we are excluded from every other call of life here and now.
Jesus said it this way, "No one can serve two masters...
How many of you remember Madonna? In one of her hit songs she sang, “I am a material girl, living in a material world,” how true!
The call of Jesus is not material, it is spiritual. Not temporal but eternal. Not for living it up here and now, but for giving it up here and now in order to receive the happily ever after.
Answer the call!
God doesn’t call us to focus on the material but the spiritual.
2 Cor 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,
18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Col 3:1 If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Heb 12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Answer the call.
God’s call to us is a call of service to Jesus as the one and
only of our life. It is a call of obedience of faith in Jesus as the Lord and master of our life. It is a call to belong to Jesus so that our very bodies are members of his body. It is a call that, if answered, separates you from everything in this world that is passing away and sets you apart for eternal glory in Christ Jesus.
Can you hear the call of God?
Are you answering the call?
People who have answered the call of Christ can share with one another on a spiritual plane that those answering the call of the world can not even understand. And yet we can become entangled again in this world and overcome by it unless we hold fast the confession of our faith. 1 Cor 15:1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,
2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
The clear warning of Scripture is that we have responsibility to the call and must hold fast! We have entered a spiritual battle with the dark forces of evil in this world and we must put on the armor of God to withstand! Eph. 6: 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.
11 Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
As the battle rages we see its results. We witness the destruction to home and family. We hear the sad sounds of the lost groping for anything to satisfy their flesh and finding only emptiness. Just look at our heroes today. Where are the men and women of character and strength? I’ll tell you where they are. They are in Christ! They are in his church! They are those who are saying no to the call of the world and yes to the call of Christ!
God’s plan is full of fulfillment for those who answer the call! Not just here and now, but forever. There is no life worth living like the life in Christ that lives by and walks worthy of the call. We will see much more on this in future studies.
Let us continue to open our hearts to God. Let us determine over and over, day after day to answer the call of Christ, to serve him and not ourselves. To live for eternity as we walk in the here and now. To remember who we are and whose we are. To obey the call, by giving him all.
