One person at a time

Romans 9:1-5; 10:1-4

Do you have longings or yearnings for which you would give anything to see realised?

I remember being in the isolation ward of a hospital where a small child with an excruciating wasting disease was close death and his mother said, ‘you know, I’d gladly trade my life for his…if it only that would make the pain stop.’

That is St. Paul’s sentiment and feeling exactly, I believe.

He is willing to trade his life – his eternity…for the sake of his family – the people of Israel – Romans 9:3. 

And I think it is more than hyperbole.

He says, ‘my grief is so great, the pain in my heart so constant’. Romans 9:2.

Yes, Paul loves his countrymen and women – even those who despise him for his faith in Jesus – the one whom he identifies as Messiah in chapter 10:4.

Jesus is, says the Apostle, Israel’s long-awaited deliverer and Lord (9:5; 10:4)

Now before we go any further, we need to grasp that this kind of longing for people to be saved – is normal. 

This is Matthew 9: 35ff from The Message:

^35-38 Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. “What a huge harvest!” he said to his disciples. “How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!”

Jesus’ heart broke – and it literally means he was moved with compassion deep within his being – and his response was (and is) to urge his friends to pray that God would send more labourers into the harvest field (Matthew 9:38). That’s us, by the way!

Yes. It is normal to long for people to be saved because that is God’s desire.  

St Peter puts it like this: (II Peter 3:9):

⁹ The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Writing to his protégé Timothy, Paul explained God’s longing thus, (I Timothy 2:3-4)

God our Saviour, ⁴ wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Or as Jesus himself once said (in what has been termed his personal mission statement): 

The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Luke 19:10.

It is as if God is saying, like that mother with her dying son, ‘you know, I’d gladly trade my life for theirs…if it only that would make the pain stop’. 

So, he does. 

God in the person of the Son gives his life for ours – to address the pain of sin and suffering.

God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16.

And can you now see why Paul’s heart breaks? 

The ‘people of promise’, the people of Israel, have enjoyed great privilege: they’ve known the power and the presence of God;

They’ve been guided by his commands;

They’ve been privy to his moral law – his very heart really, and now it seems, they’ve closed their minds and turned their backs on his full and final revelation – the fulfillment of the law – the Lord Jesus; God in Christ. Romans 9:4; 10:3.

It seems their zeal is misguided – instead of trusting in Jesus’ righteousness bestowed on them as a gift, by faith, they are striving (with an agenda that is not God’s agenda) to be right with God, and in so doing, they are falling tragically short. Romans 10:4.

That is why Paul’s heart breaks.

And so, should ours. 

For not only is our community well represented by what might be broadly termed, ‘the people of Israel’, it also comprises every other people group who have subscribed to agenda’s – intentionally or unintentionally, that trust in ‘self’, or other disciplines and ‘isms’, that will always and forever fall short of imputed righteousness through faith in Christ alone (Romans 4:24).

What to do?

Well, bless you, beloved you are – as our vision enjoins, “Light for the City and Refreshment for the Soul”.

So many of you are praying for and lovingly serving your ‘not-yet-believing’ friends and family. 

Did you know that during the COVID-lock down hundreds and hundreds of handwritten cards were sent by SHAP parishioners to people across our community with words of encouragement, verses from God’s word, and offers of prayer and service. Remarkable, don’t you think?

We have run cyber- Christian basics classes and bible studies, community lunches, Little Sheep outreach playtime on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sunday. 

Others of you have been witnessing to Jesus’ love through the Bread of Life programme and in your support for missions locally and abroad.

You’ve given to Anglicare appeals for food and relief aid, you’ve sponsored teams for the Roughtober sleepout and you’ve supported the Banksia women project and activities for various refugee centres.

And through the vintage sale, tens and tens of thousands of dollars has been channelled into indigenous ministry in the NT.

I was speaking to a member of our church here just this past week; he was telling me how he’s been praying for and caring for the needs of a local family from Israel and in so doing he’s also speaking of his trust in Jesus as Messiah.

And so, like our Lord Jesus and his faithful servant, St. Paul – may we all have a renewed sense of urgency and a heightened sense of love for our neighbours; that we might be moved with compassion – deep within our souls, for the teeming masses about us, who – despite the very thin veneer of affluence  and self-confidence, are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

And we will do it, one person at a time. 

So, as a closing action point, I’ll ask you to picture in your mind’s eye a friend or a colleague – perhaps a neighbour from the various people groups I’ve referenced this morning, and we’ll pray for that person.

Your task is to simply insert that name of that precious friend or loved in the space when I pause, and we will ask the Lord to draw that person to himself.

Lord, thank you that you love [    ].

 Please draw [    ] to yourself.

 Please help me to be hospitable and kind to [    ] and give me courage to gently and appropriately speak of my trust in you to [    ]. 

Thank you for hearing this prayer for [    ] . 

Amen.