Our passage today is Romans chapter 1. Verses 8 through 15 Romans chapter 1. Verses 8 to 15. With God's help, if you would direct your attention to the reading of his Holy Word. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you. Because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I've often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you, as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome." Thus far, the reading of God's Word. Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we come to both proclaim and listen to the testimony of your word. God, we come to submit our lives to the truth about Jesus Christ. Our desire this day, Lord, is that the gospel would go forth, not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. Lord, we want our faith to rest not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And so we are conscious of our need for your help in our hearts. God, we come praying that you would condescend in your power as we open up your word and make yourself known. And we ask that you would do for us what we can't do, that you would open up our eyes, that you would sanctify our lives, that you would renew our thoughts, that you would revive our hearts, God, that you would bring souls into the kingdom of God. And we ask this all for your own namesake. It's in the name of Jesus Christ that we pray. Amen. You never have to question where The Apostle Paul's heart is when you read his letters. This is one of the really encouraging and instructive things you always find in his epistles, that his love for God and his love for the people of God is just self-evident. It's evident in the themes that he stresses, in the language that he employs as he's writing, the way that he labors to give all that he has for the sake of the call. I don't know about you, but I'd suspect sometimes you have met people in your life and you just don't know who they really are. You feel like you can never really make your way in because they don't put themselves out there. Well, that's not at all the case with the Apostle Paul. He's out there. He puts himself out on the page and he's unabashed in the best kind of way. Today we're looking at the end of Paul's salutation to the Romans, where the heart of a shepherd comes so clearly through. Paul is not the Roman's pastor in the way that we typically use the word. He's an apostle, but it is in this capacity as a steward of the gospel and a minister to the saints in Rome that we see, before he ever gets into the formal teaching part of his epistle, him teaching us just by way of example as his love for Christ and for the people of Christ just pours forth on the page. And it's through this lens of a shepherd's heart that I want to think with you today about what a faithful shepherd looks like, first of all. What should we look for in faithful pastors and elders? How can you pray for the elders of your church, for future pastors and elders, and then as well as we consider Paul's good desires for the church, what should we be striving for as the people of God? Much of what we're looking at today is Paul's prayer for the church. And I trust that this is part of what he had in mind when he wrote to the churches and so often mentioned the content of his prayers for him. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father. And then he spells out what he prays for. Why does Paul go beyond simply telling the churches, hey listen, I want you to know I'm praying for you. Well, that's helpful, but he goes beyond that and he actually gives them the content of his prayer. Why does he do that? Well, to encourage their hearts, to instruct them, I think also to say, why don't you come along in this with me? Won't you make this prayer your prayer as well, your ambition in the Christian life? Now, before we get to what Paul prays for, I want to call your attention just briefly to how he prays. He begins by saying, first, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you. We're going to take up Paul's thankfulness, his heart of gratitude, in just a moment. But first notice the personal, relational terms he speaks to God in. I thank my God. He does not say, I thank God. He says, I thank my God personal possessive pronoun Paul praise. But as he prays, he prays not to some distant deity, but to a personal God. It's the glory of the New Covenant wrought in the personal work of Jesus Christ. The father promised I will be their God and they will be my people. So beloved, the God to whom we pray is incalculably high. He is majestic beyond all words, but he is nevertheless my God, our God. Two words which which bring together God's transcendence and his eminence, his glory, his God. but also his nearness. He's my God. He's one that we can call on and he draws near to us even as we draw near to him. Can you take those words to your lips when you lift up your voice and you pray and you say, oh God, my God. There are many who pray in this world, but they pray to a distant deity. They pray to a God. Some God out there and they have no confidence that their prayers get beyond the ceiling because they don't know God to be their God. In a personal saving kind of way. So how does that happen? How does God come to be your God? Well, you can see that and what Paul says in the same breath where he says he thanks his God through Jesus Christ. How is it that sinners are able to go to the Father in the first place at all? Well, it's through the one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. Even in his thanksgiving, even in his worship and praise, the Apostle Paul is conscious of Christ's mediatorial office, that he cannot go to the Father but by him. Hebrews 13 verse 15 through him through the risen Christ, let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips that acknowledges his name. Again, even heathen, unbelieving people will offer prayer up to God in times of desperation or in times of relief. Why? Because they know God exists. We're going to see that in this chapter in chapter two. The world knows that God exists. And so, heathen, unbelieving people will offer up a plea for rescue. When they're in trouble or a quick thank you when things have gone their way. But Jesus said, no one comes to the father except through me. We cannot come to God on our own without a mediator, without a representative, without an advocate. And we have that in the risen Christ, the lamb for sinners slain. So much is this the case that the Bible is constantly holding out to the redeemed, the hope that we have, the blessing and the encouragement and the ought to about prayer that we have because of Jesus Christ, the assurance we have to enter the holy places. by the blood of Christ, constantly beckoning us to draw near with a true heart in full assurance of our faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. And so to the unbeliever, Jesus is ever saying, no one can come to the Father except through me. But to the believer, we're constantly being told, reminded of the finished work of Christ. Come, come with true heart, full assurance of faith. Remember, it's been wrought through Christ. Everything has been taken care of. We have a great high priest. over the house of God. We have access to the Father through him. Thus, the one who trusts in the finished work of the Lord Jesus can say with Paul, I thank my God through Christ Jesus. Now, why does Paul Give thanks. What does a shepherd rejoice in and give thanks for? Well, Paul looks at the church and he says, I'm thankful because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. This is what has the Apostle Paul blessing God. He rejoices to see the saints of God living a life of faith. A shepherd rejoices in the visible witness of a church's faith. I want to consider the teaching of this text under seven major headings with you today. And this is the first. A shepherd rejoices in the visible witness of the church's faith. What should a faithful minister of the Lord Jesus Christ get amped up about? not big crowds, not impressive buildings, not even lots of decisions for Christ, but the report of the faith of Christ's people spreading throughout the land. Now this is an interesting thing to consider, that the Romans' faith is proclaimed in all the world. Because what is faith? but the heart trusting and resting in Christ. as he is offered in the gospel. It's the gift of God wrought in the inner man, whereby one comes to believe in the Lord Jesus, that he's the way, he's the truth, he's the life. The word of the gospel to sinners is true. Christ's finished work is sufficient. It's all that I need for all of my sins to be atoned for, for me to be reconciled to the Father, for the wrath of God to be satisfied. It's all that I need. And so in what sense can this inner work be proclaimed throughout the world? How can my faith in Christ be observed by another and then related to others in turn? Well, bound up In all of this is the idea that a genuine heart of inward faith begets outward visible transformation. A person who trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ is a person who has had everything that they treasure turned upside down. Their old life has died. has died with Christ. No longer are they sitting on the throne building their own kingdom. They live for the kingdom of God. They possess the hope of glory, the hope of everlasting life with Christ. And so they don't live for this world. anymore. Instead, this whole new set of values has taken them over and begun to produce external, outward, visible demonstrations of their love for God, of their love for one another, of their love for the souls of men, of their obedience to the Word of God. Good works, sacrificial giving, and on and on and on. This is the fruit of faith. Every tree is known by its fruit, whether good or evil. This is the fruit of faith, and it's something for which to thank God because he's the author of faith. He's the finisher of faith, and so this is a good challenge for us, brethren. It's a good challenge for us as we think about the faith that we profess. Is there a vibrant, visible witness that accompanies and authenticates and testifies to the faith that we say we have, that we profess to possess? A shepherd rejoices in this and the visible witness of the church's faith. Secondly, a shepherd services first and foremost unto God. Paul says in verse nine, for God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son. The phrase that I want to key in on here is in the spirit or with my spirit. Paul's service as a minister of the gospel is rendered with his spirit, which means it runs deeper than the outward form. It means that Paul did not preach from envy and rivalry or jealousy or selfish ambition as some did to the people in Philippi. His service to the church was unto God, before it was anything else. It was unto the Lord. But here, Paul is getting at one of the great traps of public ministry, that it can be conducted in such a way so that there is a disparity between what can be externally observed and what is going on within the heart. You do realize, don't you, that you can pastor a church, that you can preach a sermon, you can try to live the Christian life without serving God with your spirit. You can come to church on Sundays, you can lift up your voice in song, you can give offerings, you can pray prayers, you can honor the Lord with your lips while your heart is far from Him. And this is true. The same can be true in public ministry as well. You can have men who look like they're exemplars of devotion to God on the outside by the way that they preach and the kind of prayers that they pray and the kind of time that they give to the church. But if that service isn't born out of devotion, inward devotion to the Lord, delight in the Lord, service unto God. It is vanity. It is nothing but emptiness. And Paul was very careful to guard himself against this sort of thing. His was a sincere service born out of love, love for God, love for the people that he was called to serve. Now, If his service is rendered unto God first, it's very natural that his mind should drift immediately to the subject of prayer. Before he thinks about what he does among the saints in Rome or what he would like to do, His public ministry, he deals with his private ministry, his prayer life for them. And he says, without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers. You take just a brief survey of the epistles of the Apostle Paul, and you see immediately he was a man of constant prayer. unceasing prayer, and that's number three, shepherds are men of constant prayer. In what would have been a life filled with pressures and burdens and anxieties and cares and responsibilities that few of our lives could ever begin to rival, The Apostle Paul never looked at prayer as something that you could cram in at the edges of life as this sort of optional extra if he got time for it. He never looked at prayer in that kind of way. It was an indispensable, non-negotiable essential for ministry. He prayed. He prayed for people by name. He prayed for churches in particular. He prayed for the sanctification of the saints of God. He prayed for the propagation of the gospel. Here, he communicates this strong desire he has to come and see at last the saints in Rome. Paul's never had the chance to visit the church there. Toward the end of this letter, he explains the reason for that, what has hampered him thus far over in chapter 15, verse 20. He has this to say, 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 there by you once I have enjoyed your company for a while. You see what Paul says here. He's been hindered from seeing them because his calling wasn't to go build where a foundation had already been laid, where churches had already been established. There's nothing wrong with that. Churches need pastors to labor among them, building them up in the faith, but that wasn't Paul's calling. Paul's calling was to frontline vanguard evangelistic work to labor where the gospel had never been preached. And he sees an opportunity toward that end out in Spain that just might take him through Rome on his way and allow him the opportunity to connect and fellowship with the saints who are there. Now, just notice the way that he emphasizes as he thinks about this strong desire on his part, his submission to the Lord in all of this. Without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers asking that somehow by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. Paul's an apostle, but he did not have an apostolic word on this particular matter. Christ did not give him a direct command to go to Rome, but Paul has the desire. And so what does he do? Well, he takes that desire to the Lord. He makes it a matter of prayer. He subjects his desire to the will of God. And you notice how he prays. He does not believe that if he prays hard enough, if he prays with enough conviction that he'll be able to somehow twist God's arm or change God's will and at the same time neither does he believe that just because this hasn't happened thus far that it must be outside of God's will and just drop the matter. He takes his desire to the Lord and like the Persistent widow, he prays and he prays and he prays, trusting that God will make things clear along the way. And there is a good lesson for us here on things not revealed in the word of God. You take it to the Lord in prayer. You go to the Lord. Now, what do we learn from this particular prayer of Paul's? Not just that he loves and serves the God of his salvation, but that he loves the church. This is our fourth observation. Shepherds love the church. Paul holds them in his heart. His heart is knit together with these people he's never met, like David and Jonathan's heart. were knit together. And you see what that tells us about him. Paul's no hireling. He has not so professionalized the ministry that he can think about his responsibility toward the flock of God as something that he can discharge during public worship, on the Lord's Day, or even as a kind of regular nine to five job. No, he carries them around with him, in his soul, continually. He cannot get away from them in his prayer life. He has longings for them. He wants to visit them and enjoy what only face-to-face fellowship can afford. So his heart is warm. It's inclined toward them. Shepherds love their people. That's, again, something you cannot miss in Paul's letters. No matter who he is writing to, Paul is no dispassionate academician. Even when he has very difficult things that he has to write about, there is always this gracious, sincere affection that comes through in his letters. Even when he has to correct, it's always manifestly clear that he has as his end the church's highest good in the Lord Jesus. A faithful shepherd loves the flock that he cares for. In Philippians 1 verse 8, Paul says, for God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. You see what he's saying there, it's really Christ's love with which he loves the people to whom he is called. It's the love of Christ that transforms our hearts and that shapes our yearnings for one another. What other love could enable us to endure, to love people who are difficult to love? What other love is able to train our hearts how to love the kind of people God has delighted to assemble here, to guard our hearts from throwing in the towel when things become difficult? Brothers and sisters, pray for your pastors. Pray that God would work and maintain this kind of heart in your leaders. Ministry is a hard calling. It's a blessed calling, but it's a hard calling because we're always speaking to sinful, fallen men, men prone to wander, prone to leave the God they love. That is what we are called to, and if pastors are faithful to that calling, we're going to find many opportunities to reprove and rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching. But there are times, there are opportunities and occasions where no matter how patient you are and how tender you are, your teaching and admonishment is scoffed at and rejected. Ministry deals with people. And people are sinners. That's just the reality of things. I trust you see this as application not just for those in public ministry, but for all of us. Sometimes sinful men don't understand decisions that are made. Sometimes our hearts are in a place where we don't desire to obey and submit to leaders who God has called to keep watch over souls. Well, Brothers and sisters, there's a temptation that comes along with that, not just for the saints of God, but for pastors, which is that they can begin to look at their responsibility toward the flock with one of groaning and not delight. They can grow disillusioned and jaded and become guarded and distant from the saints. They can become calloused and unfeeling. And though they may not abandon the ministry, their hearts may be cold toward the people that they are called to minister toward. We cannot let ourselves venture off in this way. Again, this applies to all of us. It applies to all of Christ's flock. This whole spirit of love for God in the souls of men has application to all the saints because we are all called to the work of ministry in one respect or another. The heart of the Christian message is one of redeeming love. And how can we convey that to one another if we don't love the ones that we are called to reach? It applies to all of us. It particularly applies to under shepherds. I love what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2 verses seven to eight. He says we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. He says we could have marshaled our authority as people who were commissioned by the Lord, and it would have been illegitimate for him to do so. But that is not the tact that he took. Instead, he says, but we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. Well, our maturity in the Lord Jesus Christ can be observed in large part, not so much by the amount of theological information that we have amassed or the number of Bible verses that we are able to quote, but by our love and our patience and our willingness to forbear with difficult, stubborn, slow growing saints with whom we have so much in common ourselves. Continuing on. In verse 11, Paul explains in further detail why he so strongly desires to come to them. If you look there with me, he says, for I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. Number five, a shepherd wants to see you strengthened in the faith. Paul has in view the continual spiritual growth and grace of the church. And so while he in the beginning rejoices in their faith, he rejoices that their faith is proclaimed throughout all the world, he doesn't look at them as a finished product. greater maturity, greater strength of faith, greater holiness, greater zeal, greater compassion for the lost, greater prayerfulness. Growth in grace is what he aims for. He wants to see them strengthened. Now this gives you a picture of what we should be aiming for in our fellowship as we come together. True Christian spiritual fellowship, I'm fond of saying, doesn't happen just because two Christians happen to be in the same room at the same time. Fellowship has a spiritual purpose in view. Jude verse 20, but you beloved, building yourselves up in the most holy faith. That's what we're aiming for, strengthening one another in the Lord and in the most holy faith. And so when we assemble, be encouraged in this. Let's be encouraged to be thinking, how can I build one another up? How can I strengthen, encourage, and stir up to love and good works my brothers and sisters in Christ? Exhort one another daily. As long as it's called today. That none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And that that brings us to our 6th observation. That a faithful shepherd is humble. And he is growing himself. Even as he seeks to minister and strengthen and impart grace, he himself is growing. As soon as Paul mentions this idea of imparting some spiritual gift to strengthen the church, he hastens to add in this note of personal humility, that is that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. both yours and mine. So lest you think that he comes from some higher plane ready to impart From above, he says, listen, I am looking forward to being among you because I know that when we are together, I'm going to be strengthened as well. My own heart is going to be encouraged in the faith as I hear what God is doing among you. My faith is going to be edified when I hear your testimony and what Christ has wrought. I can't wait to be among you. Great leaders are like this. Great leaders are humble leaders. They need to be wise. They need to be mature. They have to be men of virtue and character, but they also must be humble. Remember how Paul tells young Timothy, let let let everyone see your progress. Let the church see you growing. Listen to what Calvin says here. Note how modestly Paul expresses what he feels by not refusing to seek strengthening from inexperienced believers. He means what he says too. For there is none so void of gifts in the church of Christ who cannot in some measure contribute to our spiritual progress. Again, you see how instrumental Christian fellowship is to the life of the believer. If we were to distill the principle here that is implied in Paul's thinking, we might say something like this. listening and learning from other Christians, those who are actively trusting in God in the midst of their trials and their troubles, their cares and their joys, their temptations and their victories, is one of the key ways that we are strengthened in the faith. It is as you see fellow believers look to Christ In their suffering. In their afflictions in their troubles and the way they've come to to conquer sin and find forgiveness in their sin through Christ that your faith is in turn fortified. to do the same. Spiritual fellowship is good for your soul. It is good for the strengthening of your faith. When Paul wrote to the Ephesians about this very same goal about attaining to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood. to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so that we may no longer be children and so on and so forth. What was the means by which he envisioned that coming to fulfillment? Speaking the truth in love one to another. Well, that's just another way of describing mutual encouragement, mutual upbuilding in the faith through Christian fellowship. So dear ones, I won't apologize for saying that if you neglect this area of the Christian life, you are far weaker in the faith than you would be otherwise, however strong you judge yourself to be. If you separate yourself from the life of the body, you will be far more susceptible to error, to every wind of doctrine, susceptible to foolish opinions, to falling into temptation, to spiritual discouragement, to spiritual pride, and so many other vulnerabilities than when you're devoted to the fellowship of the saints. A failure to be faithful, not just in Lord's Day worship, but to be actively engaged in the community of the saints is absolutely detrimental to your spiritual health. It deprives the body as well of the strengthening that you can afford to the local church. What do we confess in the Apostles' Creed? I believe in the communion of saints. This is one of those defining features of the Christian life. When a man becomes a Christian, he is brought into this great company of the people of God, and he delights in the fellowship of Christ's people. doubles down on this in verse 13. He says, I do not want you to be unaware brothers that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented. You see the eagerness. It just keeps bubbling up to the service. Without ceasing, I ask somehow by God's will I may succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you. I've often intended to come to you. Do you know something of that attitude of heart? I wonder if you share the Apostle Paul's love for the body of Christ. Does your view of Christian fellowship rise to this level such that you view it as absolutely indispensable to your own spiritual strength of faith? You think about the Psalms of Assent Psalm 120 to 134. I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. And then finally you see in the heart of Paul a love for the Gospel. Verse 13. He speaks of his desire to reap some harvest you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. He goes on, I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. When Paul says that he is under obligation, he is using the language of indebtedness there. What he is saying is that because of Christ's redemptive work, he is not his own. He belongs to another. In another place, he says, if I preach the gospel, that gives me no grounds for boasting. for necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. When he talks about reaping some harvest, he has in mind the evangelization of the lost. And you can see the way he makes the point here to say that the gospel is for all people. It's both for Greeks and barbarians. The wise and the foolish. It's for the educated and the uneducated. To all these, he is under obligation. It is his glad duty in the Lord to preach the gospel. John Stott makes a helpful observation here as he reflects on the apostle Paul's perspective. He says, this is the complete opposite of the attitude of many in the contemporary church. People nowadays tend to regard evangelism as an optional extra and consider if they engage in it, they're doing a favor for God. Paul spoke of it as a debt, an obligation. The modern mood is one of reluctance. Paul's was one of eagerness. He was a debtor, but he was no begrudging. debtor. He was eager to preach the gospel. He preaches the gospel to the lost and he wants to bring it to those who are in Rome as well and preach it to the church and establish their faith even further. So Paul loves the church And he loves unreached peoples. He loves the Saints and he loves the loss. You look at his heart and you see it's not Christian fellowship at the expense of evangelism. And it's not evangelism to the exclusion of the communion of Saints to being rooted and built up and established in the faith. It's both and. He holds on to both. Well, are we of? one mind with the Apostle Paul and with the Lord as God has revealed himself in his word for us today. May he write it on our hearts. Let's pray. Precious Father, we bow our hearts before you today and we are grateful for your word. We do pray that you would make us more like the Apostle Paul, one who was himself following hard after the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that you would give us shepherds after your heart, those who would feed your people and love them well. God, we pray that you would work in all of our hearts, that we would be eager to follow the great shepherd of the sheep. Thank you, oh God, for the gospel of your son. Thank you, Lord, that we indeed have a mediator through whom we can come an advocate who always lives to plead for us. God, we pray that his glory and his saving power would be preeminent in the fellowship of this local church. To the praise of your glorious grace, we ask in Christ's holy name, Amen.