Ah – I am Eager to Proclaim the Good News 1: 8-15

I am Eager to Proclaim the Good News
1: 8-15

I am eager to proclaim the Good News DIG: Note all the “I” statements. What do these show about Paul? Why would such a highly educated Jewish rabbi write verse 14? How would he rewrite that if he were addressing your community? Provide interesting insights into Paul’s character and motives, as well as the kind of behavior that should mark all spiritual leaders. What admirable qualities are described here?

REFLECT: To what mission or task do you sense ADONAI is nudging you towards. How is that reflected in your prayers? Your actions? Can you wait on God’s will? Or do you find yourself charging ahead just because you think it’s a great idea? Or do you ask YHVH to shut the door if it is not of Him? Praying is merely aligning our will to His will. Are you using your spiritual gift(s)? What can you do to change that? How do you proclaim the gospel?

Paul’s words suggest nine marks of true spiritual service.

The key that unlocks the intent in this section is: God, whom I serve in my spirit. Paul had been raised and educated in Judaism. He had himself been a Pharisee and was well acquainted with the other Jewish religious sects, the Sadducees, the scribes, the priests and the elders. He knew that, with few exceptions, those leaders served YHVH in the flesh and were motivated by self-interest. Their worship and service were mechanical, routine, external, and superficial. Paul was also well acquainted with the Gentile world and knew that pagan religious worship and service were likewise external, superficial, and completely motivated by self-interest.

During the years before his salvation, Paul himself had worshiped and served Ha’Shem in an external, self-interested way (Philippians 3:4-7). But now that he belonged to Messiah and had the Ruach Ha’Kodesh dwelling in him, he worshiped and served Him in spirit and truth, with his whole being. Paul was then motivated by a genuine, inner desire to serve God for God’s sake, rather than his own, in God’s revealed way rather than his own, and in God’s power rather than his own. He was no longer motivated by self-interest or by peer pressure, and no longer focused on the Oral Law (see the commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Ei – The Oral Law) or even on self-effort to be Torah observant. He was not interested in trying to please anyone, not even himself, but only ADONAI (First Corinthians 4:1-5).¹⁴

 A thankful spirit: The first mark of true spiritual service, which Paul had in abundance, is thankfulness. He was grateful for what God had done for and through him, but he was equally grateful for what God had done in and through other believers. First, I thank my God through Yeshua the Messiah for all of you, because the report of your trust (Greek: pistis, meaning faith, trust, belief) is spreading throughout the whole known world (1:8). By trust, Paul was not referring to the initial trust in Messiah that brings salvation (justification), but to persevering trust that brings spiritual strength and growth (sanctification). Some churches are famous because of their pastor, their architecture, their stained-glass windows, or their size or wealth. But the church in Rome was famous for their trust in Messiah. So much so, that it disturbed the Roman emperors. As a result, persecution began. Paul mentions here that their trust was spoken of throughout the whole known world. What is your place of worship known for? Has anybody heard your personal testimony?¹⁵

A concerned spirit: The second mark of true spiritual service, and that Paul exemplified in his own life, is that of a concerned spirit. For God, whom I serve in my spirit by spreading the Good News about His Son. It is here that Paul presents the key phrase in this section: God, whom I serve in my spirit. The Greek word latreuo, meaning to serve, is always used in the B’rit Chadashah of religious service, and is therefore sometimes translated worship. Paul’s primary service to God was spreading the Good News about His Son, the ministry to which he had been called and to which he had dedicated his life.¹⁶

Dear Wise, Powerful and Loving Heavenly Father, Praise for the eternal home that Yeshua is preparing (John 14:1-3) for all who love and follow Him (Romans 10:9-10). Life gets so busy here on earth that we forget about the eternal destiny of friends and family who do not know you as their Savior. Right before You went back up to heaven, You told your followers: Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations, immersing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Ruach Ha’Kodesh, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you (Matthew 28:19-20a). All who love You, will obey You and so right now we lift them up in prayer.

Dear Holy, Loving Daddy, We love You! Please open the hearts to love you, of our friends and family. You have promised that whatever we ask in Your name, according to Your will, You will do it! Now this is the confidence we have before Him – that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have the requests we have asked from Him (John 5:14-15). Please bring into their lives things and people that cause them to seek for and to find You. May You continue to water Your seed planted in their lives so they have peace and joy and fellowship with others who join them in following You. Please let Your peace replace any fear that the media is pushing. May our friends and family be a tower of peace and strength, as they feel secure because of Your love for them, and Your holding their future in Your hands. May they dream of the wonderful eternal home in heaven that You have for them! In the holy name of Your Son Yeshua and His power of resurrection. And remember! I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). Amen

As Paul mentions several times in the opening of his letter (1:10-11, 15), and reiterates near the end (15:14, 22), he was writing to the church at Rome somewhat as an outsider and stranger, humanly speaking. Perhaps because most of them did not know him personally, and from a distance, Paul could not directly prove his love, he appealed to God, who heard his ceaseless prayers on their behalf, as a witness of it, saying, “As Messiah is my witness, I regularly remember you in my prayers” (1:9-10a). The depth and passion of his prayers demonstrated the depth and passion of his concern. ADONAI wants you to serve Him passionately, not dutifully. People rarely excel at tasks they don’t enjoy doing or feel passionate about. God wants you to use your natural abilities and interests to serve Him and others. Listening to the still small voice (First Kings 19:11-13) can point to the ministry the Ruach Ha’Kodesh intends for you to have.¹⁷

A willing and submissive spirit: And I always pray that somehow, now or in the future, I might, by God’s will, succeed in coming to visit you (1:10b). Paul not only prayed for the spiritual well-being of the church at Rome, but was eager to be used by God as an instrument to help answer that prayer according to His divine will. That was always Paul’s desire, to be directed by God’s will. When the prophet Agabus dramatically predicted the danger that awaited Paul in Jerusalem, the apostle’s friends begged him not to go. But he responded, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? The prophecy from Agabus was divine, while the urging of his friends was merely human. For I am ready not only to be bound but to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Yeshua!” Since he would not be persuaded, we fell silent, saying only, “May the Lord’s will be done” (21:12-14).

The popular practice of demanding things from ADONAI and expecting Him to meet those demands is a perverted and heretical attempt to play God. Paul was praying for a successful journey to come to Rome. When we read about his journey in the book of Acts, it doesn’t look like it was successful. He was a prisoner, he got into a terrific storm at sea, the ship was lost, he was bitten by a snake when he made it to land, and he showed up to Rome as a prisoner. Nevertheless, it was a successful journey.¹⁸

A loving spirit: For I long to see you, so that I might share with you some spiritual gift that can make you stronger (1:11). According to Ephesians one of the primary gifts of an emissary was to lay the foundation of the church: You have been built on the foundation of the emissaries and the prophets, with the cornerstone being Yeshua the Messiah Himself (Ephesians 2:20). Since this church had not been founded by an emissary, he wanted to share the gift of an emissary so that they might be made stronger. Evidently, there was something lacking in the church at Rome, and by his coming and exercising the spiritual gift of an emissary, they might receive the fullness of the blessing of Messiah (15:29). He keeps on implying that as strong and as great as their faith was, that there was something lacking that he could fulfill. A need that only he could meet. He ends his letter by saying: Now to God, who can strengthen you, according to my Good News in harmony with the revelation of the mystery which is the proclamation of Yeshua the Messiah, kept hidden in silence for ages and ages, but manifested now through the prophetic writings, in keeping with the command of God the Eternal, and communicated to all the Gentiles to promote in them trust-grounded obedience – to the only wise God, through Yeshua the Messiah, be the glory forever and ever! Amen (16:25-27).

When you combine 15:29 and 16:25-27 we can get a hint at what Paul wanted to do at Rome, and how he could establish them. There were two things that were revealed to Paul that were not revealed to the other emissaries. That’s what he means when he says my Good News (see As – Paul’s Gospel). One was this new unity of Jews and Gentiles into one Body (Ephesians 2:14). So, this was one thing that Paul could teach more fully than the other emissaries, which would have been critical, given the makeup of the church in Rome. The second thing that was very unique to Paul was his positional truth that we are in Messiah (Ephesians 1). It has variations: in Yeshua, in Yeshua Messiah, in Messiah Yeshua, in Him, in Whom. Paul is the only emissary that uses these terms, and he uses them in a very technical sense. What he is saying is that being in Yeshua Messiah we have a new position. That ADONAI is not seeing us as we really are, but as we are in Yeshua Messiah. We are in a new standing with YHVH altogether. As a result, a great amount of authority comes with their new position.¹⁹ They would need this assurance as they faced the lions in the coliseum.

A humble spirit: Or, to put it another way, so that by my being with you, we might, through the faith we share, encourage one another (1:12). This teaching would be mutually beneficial. Paul guards against the concept that he was, in any way, superior to them just because he was an emissary. Paul, himself, would be encouraged by seeing them grow in the faith. And Paul would learn things from them concerning their faith. If Paul were to gain a sympathetic ear for his gospel from the believers in Rome, and enlist their support for his possible mission in Spain (15:24), he needed to exercise tact in asserting his authority.²⁰ All of us are more consistent in our faith when others walk with us and encourage us. The Bible commands mutual accountability, mutual encouragement, mutual serving, and mutual honoring. Over fifty times we are commanded to do different tasks for one another (see Af – The List of “one another” Commands).²¹

A fruitful spirit: Brothers, I want you to know, although I have been prevented from visiting you until now, I have often planned to do so, in order that I might have some fruitful work (Philippians 1:22) among you, just as I have among the other Gentiles (11:13). Sometimes Paul was hindered because of the work of the Adversary (First Thessalonians 2:17-20), but in this case he was hindered because of the work of YHVH. There was so much ministry to do in Asia Minor and Greece that he could not immediately spare time for Rome. But Paul was ready to pay his debt; he was under orders from the Lord.²² The apostle wanted to be used to help the church at Rome grow through new converts and grow in sanctification, which includes growth in the service of Messiah. Some years later, when Paul wrote to the Philippian church from Rome, he was able to give greetings even from believers in Caesar’s own household (Philippians 4:22), believers he may have been instrumental in bringing to Messiah.²³

An obedient spirit: Paul was deeply conscious of his calling, of being set apart (1:1c) for the Good News of God. This is what motivated Paul, as he himself said: Woe is me if I don’t proclaim the Good News (First Corinthians 9:16b), because I owe a debt (Greek: opheiletes, meaning one held some obligation, bound by some duty) to both civilized Greeks and uncivilized people (Greek: barbarous, meaning one whose speech is rough, as if repeating the syllables barbar), to both the educated and the ignorant (1:14). Paul expressed his responsibility to the educated and the uneducated, the sophisticated and the simple, the privileged and the underprivileged. Like the Lord he served (First Peter 1:17), Paul was no respecter of persons.

The first person to whom Yeshua revealed Himself to as Messiah was an adulterous woman who had a number of husbands and was living with a man who was not her husband. Not only that, but she was a Samaritan, a member of a race greatly despised by the Jews. Yet, Yeshua drew her to Himself in loving compassion, and she was used to bring many of her fellow Samaritans to faith in the Messiah (John 4:7-42).²³ The Gospel is the great equalizer, because everyone is equally lost without it, and equally saved with it.

An eager spirit: Therefore, as far as I am concerned, I am eager to proclaim the Good News to you who live in Rome (1:15). The contrast implied is that between willing (which Paul was eager to do), and carrying out the will of YHVH (which depends on God). No doubt the false teachers (see the commentary on Galatians Ag – Who Were the Judaizers?) had already gotten to Rome and were seeking to poison the believers in Rome against Paul. Some would accuse him of not following the Oral Law (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ei – The Oral Law), others would say he was a traitor to the Jewish nation. Still others would twist his teaching about grace and try to prove that he taught loose living (3:8). No wonder Paul was eager to get to Rome. He wanted to share with them the Good News of Yeshua Messiah.²⁴

Why was Paul in debt to do this? Let us look at three passages: Furthermore, let me make clear to you, brothers, that the Good News as I proclaim it is not a human product; because neither did I receive it from someone else nor was I taught it – it came through a direct revelation from Yeshua the Messiah (Galatians 1:11-12).

It is a consequence of this that I, Sha’ul, am a prisoner of the Messiah Yeshua on behalf of the Gentiles. I assume that you have heard of the work God in his grace has given me to do for your benefit, and that it was by a revelation that this secret plan was made known to me. I have already written about it briefly, and if you read what I have written, you will grasp how I understand this secret plan concerning the Messiah. In past generations it was not made known to mankind, as the Spirit is now revealing it to his emissaries and prophets, that in union with the Messiah and through the Good News the Gentiles were to be joint heirs, a joint body and joint sharers with the Jews in what God has promised. I became a servant of this Good News by God’s gracious gift, which he gave me through the operation of his power (Ephesians 3:1-7).

But, because of the extraordinary greatness of the revelations, I refrain, so that no one will think more of me than what my words or deeds may warrant. Therefore, to keep me from becoming overly proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from the Adversary to pound away at me, so that I wouldn’t grow conceited. Three times I begged the Lord to take this thing away from me; but he told me, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is brought to perfection through weakness. Therefore, I am very happy to boast about my weakness, in order that the Messiah’s power will rest upon me. Yes, I am well pleased with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties endured on behalf of the Messiah; for it is when I am weak that I am strong (Second Corinthians 12:6b-10).

In these three cases, Paul keeps emphasizing the direct revelation that came from God, the uniqueness of the revelation, and the abundance of that revelation it was necessary for him to remain humble by giving him a weakness, a thorn in the flesh. When Paul and Barnabas were on their way back to Syrian Antioch in Acts 14:24-25. They traveled through the low swampy lands of Pamphylia where he contracted an oriental eye disease called ophthalmia (see the commentary on Galatians Bp – Until Messiah is Formed in You). So, with the abundance of revelation given to him, was indebted, or obligated, so to speak, to proclaim the Good News (1:15).²⁵ Life had but one value for Paul: to do God’s work.