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Joy+Debt = A Two-Thousand-Mile Detour to Jerusalem
The following message is by Pastor John Piper. More information from Desiring God is available at www.desiringgod.org. The Scripture verses for tonight's sermon are found in Romans beginning in verse 20-28. That's page 9.50 in the pew Bible, Romans chapter 15 verse 20-28. 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, but as it is written, those who have never been told of Him will see, and those who have never heard will understand. This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you, but 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 thereby you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. Let's pray together. Lord we love Christ, and we love salvation, and we love the cross, and we love your shed blood, and we love your risen power, and we love your presence by the Holy Spirit, and we love your book, and we love your apostles, and we love each other. You have so graced us with manifold things to love. Would you draw near now and give your word force? Across three campuses, I pray. Humbling power, converting power, sanctifying power, humbling power, rescuing power, healing power, reconciling power, emboldening and mobilizing power. Would you do for this moment in the service what you have done at other moments, and would you grant that these five loaves and two fish called preaching would be multiplied 5,000 times by the miracle of your word? I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Two weeks ago, we saw two amazing things in these verses in Romans 15. One of them was that Paul said in verse 19, "From Jerusalem," this is at the end of the verse, "from Jerusalem, and all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ." That's from southern Palestine up through Syria, across Turkey, up into northern Greece, down to Athens, up the western coast to what is today Albania, and he said, "I have fulfilled the gospel in that region," and then to underline the astonishing nature of that statement, he said in verse 23, "I no longer have any room for work in these regions." To which we responded, "Really? You don't have any room for work from southern Palestine to Albania? How much elbow room do you need?" And we realized that what he is saying is, "My calling is the calling of a frontier pioneer missionary. I preach the gospel and plant churches where there are no churches, and where the name of Christ is not known, and I'm finished." There's plenty of evangelism left to do. And so I write a letter to Timothy in Ephesus and say, "Do the work of an evangelist." But my job is not evangelism at the local level, it's church planting at the mission level. And so I'm on my way to Spain. That was the first amazing thing that we saw his statement that, "I'm finished in these regions as huge as they are." The second amazing thing we saw was that the function of a holy ambition keeps you from doing things you really want to do that are good to do. Because that feels amazing to me that a holy ambition, when God gives you something really passionate that you're devoted to, it keeps you from doing many things that are good and that you want to do. And the example of course was that in verse 23 at the end of the verse he said, "I have longed for many years to come to you." And then he says in verse 22, "This is the reason. That I have not come." I've been so often hindered in coming to you, namely, "I've been fulfilling my holy ambition. I've been preaching the gospel where he has not been known from Jerusalem to Illyricum. And now I'm finished. I've wanted for years to come and I haven't come. I haven't done what I wanted to do because I had this holy ambition." That was the second amazing thing that when you have a holy ambition it gives an amazing focus and unity and power to your life by preventing you from doing many good things that you might otherwise do, that you really want to do, and don't do because of your riveted unified focus on your holy ambition. That was the second amazing thing. Now today a third amazing thing, namely, that even though he has finished the work that has kept him from going to Rome, namely preaching the gospel from Jerusalem up to Albania, even though he's finished, he's not going to Rome. He's not going. He's going to Jerusalem, a thousand miles in the wrong direction. So what's up? You're a frontier missionary. You want to preach the gospel where Christ has not been named and you're going to the hotbed of the church, Wheaton, Illinois, or something like that. What's the deal? Do you want to go, you don't really want to go, you don't really want to go. Now if we give him the benefit of the doubt, which of course you should do, he's an inspired apostle, don't question him. If you give Paul the benefit of the doubt, he really wants to go. He said so in verse 23, "I have longed for many years to come to you." Now finally, I'm finished doing what kept me from coming. I really want to come. And you take him at his word that he's finished doing the gospel preaching that kept him from going, well what conclusion can you draw? You draw this conclusion. This trip to Jerusalem is unbelievably important. What else can you draw? I mean he's not your home type guy. He does not like going to Jerusalem. He likes going to Spain. His gut says Spain. His passion, his holy ambition says Spain. Jerusalem, something's going on here, something's going on here. I want to get inside this man at this point and say why are you doing this? Let Barnabas go, he's better at this than you are anyway. You just make a mess of relationships, Barnabas he fixes things everywhere he goes. Let Barnabas go. Silas, Titus, a team, they can handle the money, why are you going? It's a thousand miles, I mean today a thousand miles, what's that, two hours on the plane, big deal. For them, a boat, shipwreck, enmity, everywhere you turn, it's a big deal to go a thousand miles out of your way, a two thousand mile round trip out of your way. So that's my goal. What is it about this trip that is so important that it would take a frontier missionary turns out two years out of his life at least and two thousand miles and all kinds of risks. People were saying everywhere he went, you're going to be persecuted, you're going to be persecuted. Prophets were telling, don't go there. And was driving this man, the wrong direction. What was it? Something is rivaling frontier missions in the heart of a frontier missionary. So let's read the key verses and get them in front of us and then get the facts before us. Let's start at verse 25 again and read verse 25 to 28. At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem, bringing aid, literally serving the saints. Now, the saints in Jerusalem are the Christian Jews who live in Jerusalem, Paul's usual name for Christians is saints. Verse 26. For Macedonia, that's the northern part of Greece where Philippi, Dessalonica are, and achaia, that's the southern part of Greece where Corinth and Athens are, have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles, now notice the contrast he's drawing between Jerusalem, Jewish Christians, Gentile Christians out here in the diaspora, if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, then they, these Gentiles, ought also to be of service to them down there in Jerusalem in material blessings. Therefore, verse 28, when therefore I have made this 2,000 mile detour, when therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, literally sealed to them this fruit, I will leave for Spain by way of you. So now let's get to faction in front of us. Number one, Paul intends to go to Rome and on to Spain. That's real clear, verse 28, I will leave for Spain by way of you. His purpose hasn't changed. I'm going to Spain, and you're my stop off point, verse 24, 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. So he's got two reasons for going to Rome, one, he just wants to enjoy some Christians that he hasn't met and he wants them to get behind his mission and become a sending church for him. The missionary support letter, did you know Romans was a missionary support letter? It's fundraising letter. I want you to send me, I want you to get behind this. I'm going to need your help in Spain. You're going to be my new Antioch. I've had an Antioch to do the Jerusalem to Illyricum thing, and now I'm going to do the Spain and maybe the Britain thing, will you be my new Antioch? That's the issue here. So he takes 16 chapters of theology to say, "Is that what you believe? Then get behind me." That's a great missionary support letter. So take note missionaries. I like to read theology and missionary support letters. What are you standing for? I want to know that. What are you preaching? Number two. Fact number two. Fact number one, he's still going to Spain. Fact number two, there are poor Christians in Jerusalem, mainly Jewish. Acts 11, 28 in the Bible predicts that there was going to be a famine, and Josephus outside the Bible tells us it happened between 44 and 48 AD. I don't know if that's what caused this dire distress of the saints in Jerusalem. But in Judea, there was a famine. Josephus tells stories about people sending people to Egypt to get food and bring it back. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? So whatever the case, there are saints in Jerusalem who are destitute. Number three. Macedonia and Philippi, Macedonia and Achaia, Philippi and Corinth, they have taken up money. Christians in those churches have taken up money, and Paul's been collecting it. Imagine saddlebags full of real money, they have checks, real gold and silver. Paul's carrying this money in his band of men, and he's been collecting it. In fact, he wrote the entirety of 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 to mobilize the Corinthian church, the Achaian church, to give to this collection. So that's a third fact. They have given money, he says so, here in verse 26. Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints of Jerusalem. Fourth fact, last fact we'll look at. Paul himself is delivering this offering, no substitutes. Paul's doing it. Verse 28. "When therefore I have completed this and have delivered it to them, what has been collected, I will leave for Spain." Now those are the facts, and the question is why the detour Paul, why do you have to take? Why is it so important? Why do you write about? And I have four answers that I see in the Bible. And they all have lessons for us. The lessons for our church are huge. You might wonder, you preaching this sermon at the South Campus, yep, the sermon. This is the kickoff sermon, the South Campus, because these four things are what we want to be. These four reasons for this trip are what we want to be as a church, and there are other reasons for why I'm doing it as well. Number one, I'll tell you what the four are, and then we'll take them one at a time. What's at stake here is number one, the reputation of the gospel. Number two, Christian commitment to the poor. Number three, the unity of the church across ethnic lines, especially Jew and Gentile. And number four, the love-producing experience of holy joy, alias Christian hedonism. So here we go. Number one, the reputation of the gospel. Now this was my first thought. I didn't get this from this text at first. I said, now, if Paul himself is doing this, he must feel something really big as a stake, like the gospel is at stake, in this trip. But is that just my idea or is that in the Bible? And I know that he wrote two chapters about this trip and why he's doing this trip and why he's involved in it in 2 Corinthians. This is all shorthand in Romans, and the big picture is given in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. So let me take you to one verse in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, which underlines that the gospel is at stake in this trip. And I'll try to show you why. This is 2 Corinthians 9, 13. It goes like this, Paul's coming to the end of his motivational two chapters for the gifts to Jerusalem, and he says, "By their approval of this service," people are going to see this service of all the Christians out there in the boondocks sending money to the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. By their approval, they're going to prove of this, they're going to love this. By their approval of this service, they, the poor saints in Jerusalem, will glorify God because of your, the Gentiles, submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ. That's a complex sentence, you've got to slow down and see what he's saying. They're going to see this gift, they're going to glorify God because of your Gentile submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ. So how do you make sense out of that? What that means is what's at stake in this trip is the power of the gospel to turn Gentiles into non-lovers of money and lovers of Jews. That's what's at stake here. The power of the gospel is at stake here to turn the world into one people who don't live for money anymore. You are submitting to my plea because of your confession of the gospel. The gospel changes what you treasure. We don't have a thing called "treasure in Christ together" for nothing. When the gospel grips you and it saves you, it liberates you. And the old bondage is like money. And so my concluding rhetorical question to you after the first point here that the gospel is at stake in this trip is are you using your money to show how valuable the gospel is? You wonder, have you ever wondered why do we take up an offering in the middle of a worship service? That's not an accident. This is not tradition. For me, I'd be happy to put a box at the back if I thought that would do it better. An offering in the middle of the service gives you a chance Sunday after Sunday with a check or a dime in your hand to say, "I love the gospel more than a new CD. I love the gospel more than eating out. I love the gospel more than new carpet. I love the gospel more than new car. I love the spread of the gospel." That's what this means. Jesus, that's worship. That's worship. And that's what they were doing everywhere he went. I love the gospel that came from the Jews to us. And I want to go back to them and say, "I love the gospel. Thank God for the gospel." It's at stake. And Paul wanted more than anything to highlight the value of the gospel. Number two, the second reason why this trip is so important is Christian commitment to the poor. He's taken an offering for the poor, he says, and takes it himself. He doesn't send Barnabas or Silas with it, and it cost him a lot. They beat him, they threw him in jail, they kept him in jail for two years, and as he sat there, I'm sure he wondered, "Hmm, I could be in Spain." And I brought the money myself. I don't think he regretted it. Do you remember what Peter said to Paul? Now Peter, James and John are the pillars of the Jerusalem church. That's what they're called in Galatians 2. Pillars of the Jerusalem church. And Paul went down and had a big powwow. And he had this powwow because if his gospel and their gospel aren't not the same gospel, there's no gospel. The Gentile mission is over, the church is over if the apostles can't get their act together. So this is a huge meeting, and they got their act together. Peter blessed Paul and the last thing he said to him, 2-10, Galatians 2-10, don't forget the poor. Let me read the whole thing. They gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. So it's okay that Paul, you're the apostle to the Gentiles, we're the apostles to the Jews. It's okay to divide up the labor like that. Really they asked us to remember the poor, and then Paul adds, "The very same I was eager to do." Nobody had to twist Paul's own to love the poor, he said. You want me to do that, Peter? I'm not sure I want to do it, but since you want me to do it, I'll do it. That's not what he said. He said, "You want me to do it?" Good, I'm already eager to do it. This is not arm-twisting to get me to go to the poor in Jerusalem. When he comes to the end of Galatians in chapter 6 verse 10, he writes this, "So then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of faith." You hear the both end there? Don't be forced into artificial either-or's by people who say, "Do Christians care about their own or they care about unbelievers?" Don't be forced into that kind of dilemma. Paul would never let him be trapped like that, let himself be trapped like that. He said, "Do good to all people." And then he said, "Especially." It's like a dad, a dad ought to care about the kids in the neighborhood, and especially his own kids. It's not either-or. Don't be forced into an either-or thing when it comes to ministry in that way. So my concluding rhetorical exhortation question to Bethlehem is, "How are we doing?" In our hearts first, and then in our work and our strategies for the poorest of the poor, and the local, poorer, how are we doing? Number three. The unity of the church across ethnic lines appears to Paul to be huge, especially Jew and Gentile. Here we are at verse 27, and it's a very provocative and strange verse. It's the one that caused me most difficulty in thinking and preparing. So let's read it. "They," that is, "the Gentile believers in Macedonia and the Caia, they were pleased to do it," that is, "to take up a collection for the poor saints in Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them." That is, to the poor Jewish Christian saints in Jerusalem, they owe it to them, and then he gives the reason for why they owe it to them, for if the Gentiles have come to share in their Jewish spiritual blessings, then those Gentiles ought to also be of service to them, those Jewish Christians, in material blessings. Now, what's so provocative about that to me is Paul could have motivated this giving much more simply than that. He could have said, "Love people, love the poor of any kind," and he entangles himself in this Jew-Gentile issue again, this is Romans 11, all over again. This is Romans 11, all over again. You can't get away from Romans 11, do you remember Romans 11? And Paul is cutting the nerve of Jewish pride and Gentile pride, Jewish boasting and Gentile boasting by showing how God did this complex, redemptive history in order to cut pride out from under everybody's feet. And the way he did it was to say, "Do Gentiles dare boast over the Jewish branches that are broken off?" Because you are Johnny come lately branches, you're a wild olive tree, and you were grafted by pure grace into this olive tree, you were grafted by pure grace into this olive tree. You know what that olive tree is? That's the covenant with Abraham and Israel. The promise is made to Israel, there. So if you have any spiritual blessings at all you Gentiles, you know where you got them? From Jews, what did Jesus say in John 4? Salvation is from the Jews. So don't boast, and Jews in Jerusalem don't boast either, because guess what? You pride in your inheritance that you are the children of Abraham and that you're the beneficiaries of the promises, guess what? The Messiah is giving them away freely to anybody who wants them of every color and ethnicity. So don't you boast over the Gentiles like you got the inheritance, because your Messiah is going before you among all the nations and gathering them into Judaism. You're a Christian, you're a Jew, that's what Paul would say, and if you're a Jew you're an heir of Abraham and inherit the world. So it appears that he's saying, I want to make sure in this trip that both Jew and Gentile discover and realize how interwoven their lives are, how interwoven they are in the one blessing of God, the one covenant of God. There are not two peoples of God, Jewish people, Christian people. There aren't two ways to heaven, Jewish covenant, Christian covenant. That two covenant theology is damnable. There's one in Paul in order to make it crystal clear as the apostle to the Gentiles is going a thousand miles away from Spain to Jews. I have not forgotten my own, I have not forgotten where I've come from, I have not forgotten where my gospel originated, I have not forgotten that this people is one people Jew and Gentile or where no people, that's big, isn't it? I'm tempted to say that the Gentile mission depends on this. There's nothing to preach in Spain that this isn't true. There's nothing to preach in Spain if Messiah is not Jewish and lover of Gentile, pulling us into one body in Christ. This is nothing to preach. That's big, isn't it? The third question I ask Bethlehem is how big is it for us? A lot of Jews in the Twin Cities. Do we care? We've got any Jewish friends. You think they're going to heaven without Jesus? It won't. It matters that we love Jewish people. And I think by implication, all different ethnic groups, Messiah laid down his life, it says in Revelation 5, 9, to ransom people for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Paul wants to get to Spain to demonstrate the gospel and he wants to get to Jerusalem to demonstrate the gospel. He wants to do it in his own flesh, no delegates. So, how are we doing? I beseech you Bethlehem, beware of ethnic pride, white pride, Jewish pride, black pride, Hispanic pride, whatever kind of you pride there is, beware of it and prejudice, which is the flip side of pride. Last reason why he seems to be bent on going there, namely the love-producing experience of holy joy. Paul has a lesson to teach in this trip, in his own body that is happening in this collection. Let me show it to you. Say what it is. The reason I'm putting the word holy in front of the word joy when I say love-producing joy, I'm saying love-producing holy joy, is because in verse 27, there's a, there's a movement of thought that is provoking to me at first, and then restful to me at second. Let me read it to you, see if you see what I'm talking about. Verse 26 and 27, "For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased," now mark that phrase because he repeats it, it's not a throwaway word, "have been pleased," to make some contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem, verse 27, here it is again, they were pleased to do it. It's arising from their pleasure, joy, and then he adds, and indeed they owe it to them. And they, oh, that messes it up, doesn't it, mess up my Christian Edenism here. Which is it? Duty or delight? Which is it? Oh, or liberty. And Paul doesn't seem to have a bit of problem, putting those back to back. So I shouldn't have any problem putting them back to back. I get to get myself adjusted to the Bible, that's the way the Bible works, gets us adjusted to it. No problem saying they were pleased, they were pleased, and they better do this. This is duty, this is oh, this is debt, joy plus debt, produces 2,000 mile detour to Jerusalem. Now am I over reading the joy part? Maybe they were pleased to do it, you're making too much out of that. I mean, we talked that way, we don't mean like joy is the real origin of this, we just mean they were willing. No, no, no, no. The reason I know those are not throw away words is because I have thought so long and hard about 2 Corinthians 8, 1-4. Where you really get an explicit description of how the Macedonians gave. Let me read to you, and you can look at it if you want, 2 Corinthians 8, 3. Now this is Paul writing 1 Corinthians to the church where he's writing Rome, the Corinthian church, telling them how the Macedonians gave in the hopes they'll give with the same motivation, which in fact they did, he says now, in Rome, Romans. So what was the motivation? 2 Corinthians 8, 3, says this. In a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty. This is poor giving to poor. Their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. That's how the gospel changes people. The gospel turns people into the kind of people for whom giving is more pleasurable than keeping. That's what the gospel does. It makes giving joyful. I'm not making this up. In a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy overflowed in a wealth of generosity. So when I come to Romans 15, 26, and 27, and I watch Paul describe this, and he says they were pleased to do it, they were pleased to do it, I know he's not throwing away words. He means for us to learn this, my concluding point about who we are as Bethlehem. He means for them to learn this. Duty and delight are not at odds in the Christian life. There is real duty, and there is real delight, there is real debt, and there is real liberty. They're not at odds. Now how can they not be at odds? You feel them as odds many times, don't you? I ought to do this, and I really don't want to do it. This is not pleasurable, but it's right. That's the way we are many times. That's not ideal, is it? There's no great virtue in not wanting to do what's right. Sometimes we exalted as a virtue, like if I wanted to do it, it wouldn't be hard to do, it couldn't be right, what do you do in heaven? Way better to want to do what's right, and therefore delight in it. The reason it's not at odds is because when the gospel comes to you, and the Holy Spirit opens you to the beauty of Christ, His death for you, His resurrection, you're born again, you're born again, and you know one of the main features of the born-again heart? It starts loving to do what it ought to do. The gap between ought two and one two starts to close. In heaven it'll be closed completely, now it starts to close, and the more like Jesus we are, the smaller the gap gets. The want two and the ought two get smaller and smaller in their tension. That's what it means to be born again, to be on that pilgrimage, to be changed inside so that you get up in the morning and you don't just pray, "Help me to do what's right no matter what I feel." That's not a bad thing. Way better is to say, "Oh God, do whatever you have to do in this sinful heart so that I delight to do your will, oh my God, don't let it be so hard anymore." That's what Christian hedonism prays. Christian hedonism does not deny that there's such a thing as duty or debt. It just says, "Be way better if you want it to do your duty and therefore you must be born again and you must be sanctified." Let me close with these four summary statements. Number one, Bethlehem be vigilant for the reputation of the gospel. The gospel is at stake in the trip to Jerusalem and in your life, what people think of it. Number two, care for the poor Bethlehem. Back God for that kind of heart and then dream a dream for how you might relieve suffering here and farther. Number three, love the unity of the church in its ethnic diversity and rejoice that there's one people of God not to and care about the Jew-gentile division being healed. And finally, embrace the glorious truth that when you are born again, you start to want to do what you ought to do which is holy joy giving rise to patterns of love. Let's pray. The Father in Heaven, the agenda for us is big and broad and manifold in this message, in this text. And I simply pray that you take it and work these things into Bethlehem. Work them, downtown campus, north campus, south campus. Work them into us, oh God, make us like the apostle Paul who put his life on the line for these kinds of things. It is a sweet thing as we sang earlier to trust in you, and we do now, we trust in Jesus name, amen. Thank you for listening to this message by John Piper, pastor for preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Feel free to make copies of this message to give to others but please do not charge for those copies or alter the content in any way without permission. We invite you to visit Desiring God Online at www.desiringgod.org. There you'll find hundreds of sermons, articles, radio broadcasts and much more, all available to you at no charge. Our online store carries all of Pastor John's books, audio and video resources. You can also stay up to date on what's new at Desiring God. Again, our website is www.desiringgod.org or call us toll free at 1-888-346-4700. Our mailing address is Desiring God 2601 East Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55406. Desiring God exists to help you make God your treasure because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. [BLANK_AUDIO]
Why did Paul make another trip to Jerusalem when he expressly wanted to visit the saints in Rome?