When we read from one of Paul's letters we usually focus on his doctrine. Today, we are going to look at his example. Paul is about to begin a new chapter in his life. 'Now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while.' Understand what is happening. Paul had a significant decision to make. A phase of his life came to a close. What is he to do next? For Paul, the primary goal was never in question. 'For me to live is Christ.' It's all about Jesus. Paul understood that the reason for his existence was to make Jesus look good. That was the primary goal of his life. But how was he to pursue that in his new situation? What we want to look at was how he answered that question. How did Paul decide what it was that Jesus wanted him to do at this point of his life? Paul's method of discerning what's next is not complicated. It can be summarized by two questions: Who am I? Where am I? The answer to these questions will lead to the answer of the larger question, What does Jesus want me to do now? So, let's take a look at Paul's method for discerning Jesus' will for his life and see what Spirit point out to us.
'Who am I?' Consider how Paul answers that in our text. First, he is a minister of the Gospel. 'But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles...' Paul is a minister. He has been called to minister the Gospel to the Gentiles, and through God's grace, he has been given the skills necessary for that task. Secondly, Paul has been called to preach the Gospel where it has not be preached before. That is, Paul is a church planter. '...and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation...' Paul understands who he is. In light of that it would make no sense for him to move to a place where there are lots of churches all filled with Jewish Christians. Jesus has molded him for something else. So, the first, question is, 'Who am I?' Paul's knowledge of himself provides a foundation to discern what's next in Jesus' plans for him.
Next question: 'Where am I?' This isn't a question about geography. It's asking a question about God's providence. Paul considers what God is doing as that unfolds around him and then he asks, 'Where am I in this larger picture of what God is doing now? What's going on in my world and where do I fit in?' 'For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience - by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God - so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ...' Paul has been planting churches from Jerusalem, along the eastern and northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea all the way to the province of Illyricum which is just short of Italy. In God's providence, he has fulfilled his calling in this part of the Roman Empire. There are no more places in this part of his world to plant new churches. That is an important element in Paul's understanding of his future.
Having, in effect, answered those two questions - who am I, where am I - Paul is able to come to a conclusion about what happens next for him. He needs to go west, beyond Illyricum. He needs to go to Italy and then on to Spain so that he can plant churches there among the Gentiles. Now, I don't want you to think that Paul just sat down, rationally sorted this out and, presto!, he knows Jesus' will for his life. His decision was made in the context of his walk with Jesus. For one thing, it was guided by the Word. He even points to a Bible verse that helped him. '...but as it is written, "Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand."' And if you know anything about Paul, you know that he was always praying. At the close of this section of his letter he asks the saints in Rome for their prayers. And remember, it was he who wrote, 'Pray without ceasing'. So, he pondered his future and answered those questions by praying and thinking about Scripture. It would be impossible to answer them in any other way. And he did answer those two questions - 'Who am I?', 'Where am I?' - and in this way he was able to answer the third, 'What does Jesus want me to do next?'
Let me add an interesting wrinkle here. 'At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints.' Paul probably wrote this letter from Corinth. Rome and then Spain beyond it, are west of Corinth. Yet, Paul is going east to Jerusalem. Why? The Jewish saints in Jerusalem are suffering because of a famine. The Gentile saints of Greece have collected some money to help them out. Paul, with some others, has been appointed to deliver the gift. Paul goes east when it is clear that his future is in the west. It's still his plan to go west to Spain, but this important mission to Jerusalem needs to be completed first. As I ponder this bit of information, one lesson came to mind. Following Jesus is never a cut and dried proposition. When we discern Jesus' plan for the next chapter in our lives, we should pursue it without being rigid. Flexibility is important. Remember, we follow a person and not a plan. Paul understood that and went east before he went west. Being able to discern whether something is an appropriate side trip or a satanic distraction is a skill that needs to be learned. And it is a skill that only the Spirit can teach. The inability to make that distinction will result in a slavery to a plan that ignores real needs or in foolishly following rabbit trails to the right or left and never making real progress. There is need for maturity here.
Before we make connections to our own lives let me include another interesting tidbit. It is not at all clear that Paul ever made it to Spain. You may remember that when he arrived in Jerusalem he was arrested. He did make it to Rome - but as a prisoner of the state. What happened after that is not clear. Some think that Paul was released and did make it to Spain. But there is no record of that. Others think that Paul was never released from his imprisonment in Rome but rather was executed there. In any event, things didn't work out as he anticipated when he wrote in his letter. This is a helpful reminder to us. Paul had to make a decision about his future. He made that decision wisely, in a Godly manner. And yet, because of the mystery of God's ways, the next chapter of his life didn't turn out as he expected. The answer to the question, 'Where am I?', changed once he got to Jerusalem. And that dramatically affected the answer to the third question, 'What does Jesus want me to do now?' 'Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.' It's good to be reminded that we are not in charge. Even when we do everything right, make Godly decisions and work to faithfully follow through on them, Jesus might change things rather abruptly. So, we still work to make wise plans and to pursue them faithfully, but we are always to be ready to submit to the surprises that come our way from Jesus' throne. And we do that because we know that He loves us, and that He knows what He is doing with our lives.
Now we're ready to make some connections. We've seen a bit into Paul's life. It speaks to us on two levels. First, it speaks to us as a church. Looking at our text and then looking at our church, I come to this conclusion: we don't have a clear plan for the future. On the level of being a church, we don't have clear answers to those questions, 'Who are we?', 'Where are we?' Since we haven't dealt with those first two questions we aren't able to answer the third, 'What does Jesus want us to do next?' We don't have a clear understanding of how we, as a church, are to make Jesus look good in our part of the world, using abilities that He has given to us. We don't have a plan. Now, let me be clear. This isn't your fault. I'm not blaming any of you for this. But we do need to recognize the facts. Maybe this is one way to begin to answer the 'Where' question. My point is that we do have some work to do. We need to become more aware of those two questions and to work to answer them so that as a church we can answer that third question. The elders and I will be working on this. But I think that you can appreciate that this is not an easy thing to do. So, we'll need your prayers. I suspect that we'll be discussing this topic and things related to at our next informal congregational meeting.
I said that this speaks to us on two levels. This also affects us as individuals and families. Paul had a plan for the next part of his life. How are you doing at that? Having some idea of where you're going, of the intermediate goals that Jesus calls you to, is so helpful. For one thing, it makes other decisions easier. As you go through the process of making decisions about your kids, the job, where you live, money issues, whatever, it helps to be able to ask, 'Will choosing this option fit with what I already know Jesus wants me to be doing?' Also, having a sense of where you're going helps when achieving that goal gets hard. It's good to have an answer to the question, 'And exactly why am I putting up with this hardship?' And having a sense of calling from Jesus makes it possible to say with Paul, 'I have fulfilled the ministry Jesus gave to me.' Imagine being able to say that. When the last child leaves the nest: 'I have fulfilled the ministry Jesus gave me to train these children.' If you are called to some other part of the country: 'I have fulfilled the ministry Jesus gave me among my friends and neighbors in Erie.' And on your deathbed you can say: 'I have fulfilled the ministry that Jesus gave me for this life.' How can anyone say such things without a clear sense of what Jesus calls him to be doing? Being able to answer those two questions, 'Who am I?' and 'Where am I?' and then answering that third one, 'What does Jesus want me to do next?', can be so very helpful in making your way through this fallen world as a faithful disciple of Jesus.
I know that most of you have been working on this. Maybe you've used different terms or different ways of framing this, but you've been dealing with the same basic idea. All I want to do is help you to see the issues a bit more clearly and then urge you to do is to keep at it. Continue to ask the questions and to look for answers. Be who you are and not someone else. Pursue what Jesus has called you to do and not what someone else is doing. Understand where you fit in God's world. And remember that the answers to those questions are not fixed so that you answer just them once. You change. Your situation changes. As a result, the answers to the questions change. And this doesn't mean that you have to have a detailed plan that takes ten pages of small-font print to state. Just be able to answer the questions.
All of this is especially important for you who are younger adults, high school age and a bit older. You are making important decisions. How do these questions figure in with your current decision-making? How are you pursuing the primary goal in all of this, the goal of making Jesus look good? What is it that Jesus wants you to be doing? Skill is necessary to answer these questions well. Get help from your parents. Think about the questions and their answers. Who am I? Where am I? What does Jesus want me to do?
None of us needs to try to carve out a weekend alone at some monastery to answer these questions. These are things that we consider in the context of daily life. These are things that we consider in the context of our walk with Jesus. And since this is a part of His saving you, He will do the heavy lifting. So, just relax, discuss these questions with Him and then listen to what He has to say.
It is my desire that we all become a bit more aware of what we do and why we do it. It is my desire that as individuals, as families and as a church, we have a good answer to the question, 'What does Jesus want me to do?' A good answer will lead us to fulfill our ministry of making Jesus look good.
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