presence of God
The presence of God radically changes your life and the lives of others. He gives power to both your words and your actions. He makes possible signs and miracles. This is what characterised the early church. This is what should characterise our churches today.
As Paul begins to bring his great letter to the Romans to a conclusion, he talks about his own personal calling: ‘This highly focused assignment God gave me, this priestly and gospel work of serving the spiritual needs of the non-Jewish outsiders so they can be presented as an acceptable offering to God, made whole and holy by God’s Holy Spirit’ (v.16, MSG).
Among other things, a priest is a person who goes to God on behalf of the people and goes to the people on behalf of God. In this sense, we are all now priests. You are in priestly service whenever you are taking a message from God to the world and when you go to God – interceding, praying for those outside of the church to come to know Christ. As they do so they become ‘an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit’ (v.16).
Paul’s ambition was to preach the gospel where Jesus was not known, so that he would not be building on anyone else’s foundation (vv.20–21). He did this by ‘leading the Gentiles to obey God’ (v.18). He ‘fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ’ (v.19).
His proclamation of the gospel was holistic. Like Jesus, his preaching with words was accompanied by a demonstration of the in-breaking of the kingdom of God. It involved three things:
Words The gospel is the most powerful message in the world. Paul proclaimed the gospel: ‘by what I have said…’ (v.18).
Works Fully proclaiming the gospel involves not only words but actions: ‘by what I have said and done’ (v.18). For example, Paul acted on behalf of the poor as we see here. He writes, ‘Take up a collection for the poor… to relieve their poverty’ (vv.26–27, MSG).
Wonders Paul’s proclamation of the gospel involved a demonstration of the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit: ‘by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit’ (v.19).
People are more affected by what they see than by what they hear. It has been said, ‘One in the eye is worth two in the ear.’ Paul gives only one in the ear (words) and two in the eye (works and wonders).
The coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost brought a great outpouring of the presence of God. God is present among his people now by the Holy Spirit. He is present in your heart. Supremely, he is present in his gathered community (for example, in Matthew 18:20).
