Ambition

By Ps Ng Zhiwen

In my preaching and teaching through Romans this year, this passage has stood out for me. It captures the spirit of our focus this year on getting sent. It goes like this:

For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; 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.”
(Romans 15:18-21)

3 things were impressed on me:

It’s all about Jesus. It’s so easy to make our life and our ministry to be all about our self. The more I serve and the more I gain a profile in the Church scene, the more I am tempted to think that it is about me. But the apostle Paul was so set on lifting up the name of Christ (3 times he acknowledges Christ here), and in acknowledging that any ‘accomplishment’ by him is really about what Christ has done through him, by the power of the Spirit of God.

It’s holistic Ministry. Look at how Paul fulfilled his ministry of preaching the gospel: 

By word and deed; By the power of signs and wonders; By the power of the Spirit of God.

This should not be surprising, because it is about obedience to God. Remember how our bodies are to be presented to God as a living sacrifice. He will use all of us. Since Christ is the one at work, He will display His power through our whole lives. Signs and wonders prove that it is Christ’s spirit (not us) at work – we obey as His ministers to perform them and point people to Him.

It’s anywhere and everywhere. It’s anywhere because in our obedience we give to God the right to locate us wherever He wants. And it’s everywhere because we have grasped God’s great big vision for people from all nations to be made right with God in Christ, so that they can belong to Him, and with one another, and together glorify God (15:6).

Paul knew his life purpose – to know Jesus and to make Him known.

He also knew his unique calling – to preach Christ in places where Christ has not been named. So wherever in the world Jesus was not known, wherever there is no church, Paul made it his ambition to go and to lay a foundation for Jesus – because it’s all about Him.

What a focus and what desire! I want to be just as passionate in pursuing the calling that God has placed on me.

And I hope you will also make Jesus and His call on your life to be your one ambition.

#getsent