46. Romans 15

[Music] so we are in romans this morning as you know so if you want to find your way to romans chapter 15. i'd like to take credit i was saying last week for coming out even uh this is we have we have two more chapters and two more weeks uh which suggests i actually had some uh planning in mind which really is not the case it just was a purely uh providential accident that it happens turned out just right so uh anyway we're going to be wrapping up our studies of the book of romans next week as you know uh this last chapter is really an interesting one it's quite unlike the rest of the book because you probably are familiar with you just glance through it it's really just a bunch of greetings that paul gives to a variety of people that he is acquainted with or otherwise knows of in that roman church and it gives us a wonderful little kind of personal uh angle on life in the church in the first century as paul celebrates some of these remarkable individuals who have been so encouraging to him and he to them and so even though it's not a chapter i think it's probably one of the least frequently taught chapters in all the bible uh nevertheless for the sake of uh completeness we will be looking at that next week and we'll probably have a little time even next week to trace what happened paul of course is writing romans as you know from the city of corinth in the year 57 the winter three months in corinth going into 58 and from there he goes back to jerusalem and trace will trace his uh activities probably have a chance to do that as well uh next week and set things up for our studies in the fall uh in which we'll be taking up what are called the prison letters letters that paul wrote from rome in prison uh there's four of them uh ephesians colossians philippians and philemon and so we'll be looking at those in the prison let the prison epistles as well hopefully have all that done by about christmas time so that's uh that's our plan uh this morning then we're coming to chapter 15. if you need uh the page number you probably know it already but uh 163 uh the new testament uh paul of course last week as you know was addressing what probably has been in the back of his mind uh all through romans uh certainly he's had a very sweeping broad theological concern but uh one of the things of a more practical character that he wanted to get to in this discussion was this tension between jew and greek jew and roman jew and gentile and the roman church and and we finally get to that last week we looked at it chapter 14 when paul was saying essentially two things uh on the one hand he was saying that we should just welcome each other in spite of the differences of opinion that we may have on certain issues again uh of course you know that these are issues that don't rise to a level of being you know a mountain to die on something some things are not negotiable uh paul is not including that in the scope of his concern here these aren't issues of the deity of christ or salvation through christ alone or some of the big items of you know the moral structure that uh is incumbent upon a christian to observe things that we might find in the ten commandments none of that is up for grabs so this is not within the scope of paul's interest but it's more minor issues that nevertheless can become kind of heated and so in that roman church questions of whether you should eat certain food you know some people had a little bit of a concern about eating food that had gone through some sort of pagan ritual before it made it to the meat market and there was a little bit of hesitancy on their part to partake of that food others were concerned about whether they should observe some of the holidays that have been characteristic of classical hebrew religion and so on and others thought there's no reason to do that it's a lot more kind of uh more latitude you might say in the practice of the christian uh religion and so uh you know those differences are going to happen differences happen all through the history of the church as you know uh we have that proven to us uh there's been not just a few but hundreds of different points i suppose in church history where christians in good conscience have had differences i'm not trying to dive into some of those in in detail here but just simply say uh the principle by which we should approach them is simply as paul says welcome each other there can be heartfelt acceptance and loving approval even of those with whom you may have minor differences over certain issues we can still we can have conversations without letting those devolve into quibbling debating uh dissension disputing squabbling quarreling and that's what paul is wanting just to avoid and so that's what he says uh in chapter 14 and really chapter 15 the first paragraph properly belongs to chapter 14. uh virtually every commentator says the chapter division should have been placed down at verse six uh and so i'm giving you this little reconstruction of last week's discussion because it helps us kind of pick up where we left off now in uh chapter 15 verse one where really the same conversation is continuing so let's uh let's have a word of prayer and we'll pick up there at verse 1 chapter 15. a father we are so grateful that you give us out of the bounty of your blessing and mercy the opportunity to continue our investigation of these matters of practical christian instruction we thank you that the scriptures not only give us lofty truths that challenge the mind but also very practical pedestrian guidance for those matters that just involve our day-to-day understanding of what christian conduct should look like and as we look at this chapter now and get further instruction along those lines we pray that your holy spirit would be among us this morning to open minds and as few as we are in number this morning we pray that uh nevertheless those who are not with us would uh share in some sense in our fellowship and that your blessing would rest on them as they're traveling and away from us for whatever reasons we just give you thanks now in the name of christ amen and of course some of us are watching that silly video down the way on the da vinci code you know so but uh that's all right that's okay uh verse 1 chapter 15 paul says we who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves so continuing really in the same uh kind of tenor as we were saying last week we who are strong uh paul includes himself of course among the strong i suppose we all might like to include ourselves among the strong in faith uh but at this point what he means by that is the more robust in faith those who have less scruple about certain uh practices where other people may have been more concerned but what he's saying is that we who are strong should put up with these that may be the perceived failings of those those who seem to be more limited more structured even possibly more legalistic in the way that they view the life of practical christian living we should put up with that the word means to forbear to patiently allow it to not become overly concerned about it and of course the bottom uh principle under this is that we should not please ourselves but really the heart and soul of our life among uh the people of god and fellowship uh is that we are here to please each other this is not rocket science this is part of the whole new testament message jesus himself said those who would be great among you let them become the servant of all uh that in a sense in the church we're working toward downward mobility we want to be those who are uh trying to build up others and not just gratify our own ego by the various ways we may participate he continues each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor that's what makes coming to church a joyful thing uh as you know when we come to church and all we're thinking is what i'm getting from it uh then we're going to be disappointed inevitably disappointed uh there is a mind that says i'm going to come to church for what i can give uh and every one of us can come with that it may be in some official capacity it may be in some very unofficial and casual sort of way but we can all come with a mind that says how is god going to open the door this day for me to give and it may be something as uh just as simple as a passing conversation with someone over coffee or it may be something very dramatic it could be all points in between but it's that difference in our mind that makes coming to church look different in our experience and paul is very concerned about christians who would come and all they're thinking about is being pleased you know that that sunday school lesson please me i'm going to give that gore today i don't know probably a c plus at best you know well you know but probably what i deserve but the point is if you come with that mentality then you're setting yourself up for disappointment aren't you we all know this i know i'm preaching very much to the choir this morning but i think that's you know the the kind of the sense of what paul's driving at uh he he likens this to uh uh to christ himself verse three christ didn't come to please himself but as it's written quoting from the psalms the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me so paul is saying you know this is really the very uh sort of design of christian mentality that we get from christ himself the incarnation was not primarily so christ could be pleased but so that the insults that in a sense now this is an interesting verse he quotes here but the insults that would have fallen on us fell on christ that's the way most commentators take it that in a sense we were the ones who should have been the recipients as it were of god's wrath god's insult in that sense but that fell to christ now there's it's an interesting verse that paul quotes because it it's uh rather complex in the way that it's being applied but that seems to be what paul has in mind that jesus didn't come to be pleased but he permitted himself to be insulted in ways that he didn't deserve but he did it precisely so he could as it will wash our feet he could be the servant of us uh in that sort of way and now even more interestingly paul throws in what amounts to a kind of new testament axiom uh verse 4 for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction so that by steadfastness and encouragement the scriptures we might find hope uh commentators i have read several and they all kind of puzzle why paul threw this in at this point there's many places paul could have said this he's quoted repeatedly from the old testament as you know in the book of romans he's made his case especially to a jewish audience by repeatedly citing them to old testament texts and presupposed in all of that has been that the old testament is there for our good but now at the very end of the book you know he finally says this which is sort of a underlying principle that uh has guided him throughout the things that were written in the old testament were written for our benefit i suppose that probably strikes us as obvious but unfortunately to many christians it isn't uh as obvious as it should be uh and we live it's been noted many times and at a point in history when there tends to be a great neglect of the old testament this is called neo martianism m-a-r-c-i-o-n martian was an ancient uh heretic second century who repudiated the old testament and ever since then any time you have the church more or less despising or neglecting the old testament it's called martianism uh has nothing to do with the planet mars or little green men but it does have to do with a kind of tendency to neglect the old testament and the new testament doesn't allow that as new testament christians we should be old testament students you see uh the old testament is rich with instructive material that helps us not only understand the new testament but understand the very character of a life of faith uh before god so what paul says here while it doesn't necessarily have to be said at this moment uh certainly applies here but applies in many ways throughout the entire book of romans from start to finish paul's made heavy use as you know of the old testament and now finally verse 5 finishing up this paragraph may the god of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another in accordance with christ jesus so that together you may with one voice glorify the god and father of our lord jesus christ this is a benediction it's the first of three benedictions in chapter 15 and there are a couple more in chapter 16. you know after you write a book like romans you need to have multiple benedictions you know uh pastor kevin preached a just wonderful sermon this morning and gave us a wonderful benediction but if you've been the apostle paul he would have done a few more now walking down the aisle you see just just for good measure and that's what paul does so this is the first of uh three in this chapter the purpose of this benediction is really to just put a little uh sort of a ribbon on the discussion of chapter 14. and so you'll see the force of the benediction is found in that word that we should live in harmony live in harmony that's what paul wants not you know if he'd said and this would be kind of an odd metaphor to live in melody would be we'd all just kind of agree we all sing the same tune we all sort of walk in lock step there's no you know difference of opinion at any point along the way uh paul doesn't expect that and that's really not characteristic of the church at her best there are always going to be a variety of perspectives a variety of opinions on a variety of issues and that's okay because that is what gives rise to the harmony of the life of the community of faith not dissonance necessarily not harmony that uh disintegrates to the point of just raw noise uh you know that the christian love is going to turn difference into something harmonious and it seems that that's what paul is hoping for in the roman church as these jewish and gentile believers have differences of opinion on things that are certainly important but paul would simply say not that important not so important that they justify a split in the church or you know really angry quarrels or uh that kind of dissent which obviously would not be harmony at all so that's the first benediction now from here uh beginning in verse seven paul kind of broadens uh and in a sense explains what's been driving him in this whole conversation uh if you've been here the last few weeks you know that beginning in chapter 12 we were saying that paul's focus has been life in the church to this roman uh congregation how do we get along with each other in the church and so everything he said presenting our bodies a living sacrifice the use of gifts the kind of collage description of love that we find in chapter nine even the notion of giving place to wrath and not avenging ourselves all of that has in a sense been designed to in some way or other describe life in the fellowship of the saints but he's never mentioned the jew and gentile problem per se in this section certainly he did earlier throughout romans it's been there and it's popped up repeatedly but now that he came to the practical conversation uh he sort of left that under wraps kind of closing in on it as it were sneaking up on it but now that he's given what he really wanted to say in chapter 14 it's like he pulls the wraps off and says okay now let me just uh you know let the cat out of the bag here as far as what i really want you to understand of my concern uh there among you romans and this really comes then in chapter 15 verse 7. welcome one another therefore just as christ has welcomed you for the glory of god sounds just like the first part of chapter 14. if you just look up the page there welcome those who are weak in faith welcome it's a very strong word in greek probably stronger than in english to welcome means to really uh kind of have a a heartfelt sense of embracing this person bringing them in without any kind of a reserve you might say or hesitancy welcome them uh therefore cry as christ has welcomed you and then verse eight for i tell you that christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of god in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs paul wants to say everything that the jewish community among you is claiming about christ is true he is indeed the jewish messiah he is the one who is the realization of the promises to the patriarchs abraham isaac and jacob he is the descendant of david he's the king of israel he's born of a jewish mother he grew up in the jewish law he kept every detail of it he went through bar mitzvah he identified with his nation in every conceivable way and did so perfectly the very fact that he could ask the question to his contemporaries which of you convicts me of sin what a what a question i can guarantee you something my friends i will never ever stand up in sunday school and ask you which of you can convict me of sin i would never do that because every hand in the room would go up you see uh and you know they all have different sins you can point how can a guy with a straight face look at some of the most particular meticulous moralists that the world has ever seen and say to them now which of you guys can convict me of sin what a question you know that jesus can raise to those religious elite and not one of them can raise one point you see where they can show a fault in his life that's how super scrupulous jesus was to be a jew he was a jews jew and when the jewish people rejoiced and boasted in christ the jewish messiah paul is in no way disparaging the claims they are making and that of course was part of the problem when they would claim so much for a jewish messiah they want to say don't you think you gentiles ought to at least make some minimal standard of jewish acceptability before you come waltzing into this community of jewish faith true jewish faith and uh you know you can understand why they would feel that way so paul wants to tip his hat and acknowledge that these jewish christians were right on the mark they certainly recognize something true about christ uh but then he goes ahead and adds to see the rest of the story here uh verse 9 he says and in addition to being a servant of the circumcised uh he's also uh it continues and in order that the gentiles might glorify god for his mercy see that verse carries all kinds of freight uh he was the jewish messiah to be sure but he was the jewish jewish messiah precisely because he was also the cosmic he was the messiah for the world and so through this jewish messiah all the doors opened north east south and west will all gather together and eat at the table except for abraham you see that's the appeal that's given at the time of the celebration of the sacrament because that's the new testament understanding that now the whole world can come so even though he was certainly the jewish messiah and perfectly so that by itself simply meant he became the messiah for all of us and we gentiles are grafted in then to a great huge rich tradition that goes clear back to those same patriarchs and paul wants to say that reminding his jewish kinsmen in that roman church of something that hopefully is going to give them a little bit more uh willingness to affectionately embrace their gentile brothers and sisters with whom they've been having a little bit of kind of cross purposes here apparently at least and so to buttress that argument paul quotes now several old testament texts there are literally you know many many more dozens paul could have quoted here he just chooses almost at random a few to make his point uh so we see it uh then uh in the same verse verse nine as it is written therefore i will confess you among the gentiles and sing praises to your name taken from psalms the early i think of psalm 18 uh the voice of messiah himself speaking at this point saying i will confess you to the gentiles paul's point is you see even the old testament stands for the proposition that the gospel would ultimately be for the gentiles this shouldn't come as a big shock to these jewish believers if they know their old testament they have to face the music that christ would not simply be their private possession but that he would be one who's a appeal would extend to the entire world again he says this is from uh deuteronomy this is moses now rejoice o gentiles with his people see uh even moses the great jewish law giver recognized that the benefits would extend to the gentiles again the next one verse 11. this by the way is from psalm 117 it is the shortest psalm you're reading more than half that psalm right here and the entire psalm 117 is in celebration of that idea that the work of messiah would extend to the gentiles beyond just the parameters of the jewish world and the psalms says praise the lord all you gentiles and let all the peoples praise him you see all the peoples peoples of the world is the uh notion there and again quoting from isaiah chapter 11 the root of jesse shall come and the one who rises to rule the gentiles and in him the gentiles shall have hope he's kind of banging these jewish people over the head a little bit i mean to be honest with you you know he's giving them their due but at the same time reminding them and knowing certain words that if they really take seriously their own jewish tradition they have to grant that uh they've been a little bit provincial in their understanding of the sweep and scope of the gospel and that even their own sacred literature points uh unavoidably to this great truth that the messiah would be a messiah for the world and it was just a little bit short-sighted of them to be imposing therefore jewish strictures remember the jerusalem council had only been only taken place eight years earlier it was at that point that the church had officially decided that people did not need to be circumcised to become christians now we take that for granted but we've got 2 000 years to chew on that if you were here in the first service you know that we talked about chewing on things so we had 2 000 years to chew on the idea that you don't have to be circumcised to become a christian you know but at the time paul's writing the book of romans it was only an eight-year-old decision and many of these jewish people weren't so sure you know they were they thought maybe we should go back and take another look at that and so paul here just wants to make sure they see that even their old testament scriptures at least impliedly uh extend to a much broader scope and and certainly to try to impose a sort of artificial judaism on folks as a prerequisite to becoming people of faith uh simply missed the point of the new testament gospel verse 13 another benedict says benediction number two now may the god of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you may abound and hope by the power of the holy spirit now i believe what's going on here it's a little bit subtle but i think it's what's in paul's mind uh when he accents the idea of joy and peace in believing is simply to uh sort of subtly remind them of a theme that's gone all through the book of romans that people become truly the seed of abraham by faith it is not by any other method not by circumcision not by bar mitzvah not by dietary regulations and kosher not by celebration of it is by faith that a person is seed of abraham if you are here this morning you may be as gentile as they come but if you have faith in christ from the new testament point of view you are a true jew you see paul says in romans chapter 2 he is not a jew who is simply one outwardly but the true jew is one in the heart circumcised in the heart and again in chapter four and again in chapters nine through eleven if you've been to the class you know paul has been hammering that and uh so it i think that's why he mentions it here joy and peace through faith that's what unites us jew and gentile and in every other criterion black and white rich and poor you know whatever all of those are colossally irrelevant when it comes to the fact that we all stand in christ as brothers and sisters uh in him and so uh you know this is this is really part of the great genius of the new testament that uh these artificial barriers that tend to keep us apart just to fade away all right so that's benediction number two now we have one more that'll come at the end of the chapter but paul becomes uh now it begins to be a little more homey this is a great chapter because first of all it's not weighty theology there's plenty of that enrollments you know we've waded through some pretty deep stuff here uh if you've been in the class you know that but now paul sort of comes up for air and we get a little bit of uh flavor of paul himself and this interaction with these folks and so uh it's very readable it's very accessible material but the next thing that paul wants to do is just kind of in a sense a little bit of a disclaimer here i would say uh to the romans partly to explain why he has been so exercised about this jew gentile issue why has that been so much a part of paul's particular message and then this next statement i think paul gives us a good insight into that uh starting verse 14 he says i myself paul feel confident about you you roman christians my brothers and sisters that you yourselves are full of goodness filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another you almost get the feeling that paul is saying okay now look guys i know this letter has been pretty weighty stuff and you might think that the reason i wrote it was because i thought you roman christians were just a bunch of sort of backwater uh christian uh you know sort of beginners who didn't really get the point and i've needed to sort of instruct you in this way uh because i thought less of you than i really do i know that you folks are full of goodness that you're perfectly capable of instructing each other you have a wonderful church with a great reputation around the world and i'm fully aware of that that's essentially what paul is saying but verse 15 nevertheless on some points i have written to you rather boldly you say that again by way of reminder because of the grace given to me by god and paul means paul he understands that he had a distinct role this whole tension between jew and gentile in a sense there was nobody in the first century who was more of a lightning rod for that issue than paul paul was the one who was the very cross hairs the very center of that whole uh you know controversy he was one of the most controversial characters in the first century in both the jewish and the gentile i'm sorry that in the jewish and gentile church and in the in the jewish world paul was the one who drew so much fire and it all started back in the year 44 in the famine visit he mentions this in galatians chapter 2 when he gone to jerusalem and met with the leaders of the church peter james and john paul says they were the pillars but when he met with them he sold them on the idea that he was number one a true convert which in itself was debated in some people's minds number two was not only a convert but a true apostle because he'd been commissioned by christ on the damascus road and number three he was not only a convert and an apostle but he was an apostle uniquely commissioned to go to the gentiles and preach this jewish messiah now that was a somewhat difficult pill to swallow on the part of these jewish leaders peter james and john we know how much trouble peter had when he was told to go and preach to cornelius how hesitant he was uh and the other shared something of that kind of hesitancy about going to the gentiles but they finally recognize paul tells us in galatians that god had indeed called paul to this gentile ministry and nobody was quite like him you see paul was one of a kind you have 12 apostles and then one more a 13th apostle as it were and his whole task is to take the gospel to the gentile world and so paul sees himself in that very strategic indeed unique role and he says that's why i've written to you this letter to the romans because in some ways no one else is going to say this i have to say it it is my peculiar task and i wanted to lay it out you know from one end to the other give you the full and complete as it were suma the theology of paul about the gospel for the gentiles but why he really with an eye toward persuading the jewish skeptics uh and so that's why i've written to you so boldly uh pardon me if i've been a little bit too heavy-handed here paul is saying but nevertheless at some point or other i had to write in what better church to write it to than that great church in rome you see with all of the influence that it would uh eventually uh certainly wield so paul says um notice what he says it's uh i'm in verse 15. i've written to you boldly by way of reminder because of the grace given me by god to be a minister of christ jesus to the gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of god so that the offering of the gentiles might be acceptable sanctified by the holy spirit paul actually sees himself in a kind of priestly role here he never i don't believe i've done a little bit of checking and i don't think there's any other time in paul's writings that he denominates himself as a priest except this text he certainly calls himself a minister of the gospel and the trustee of the mystery of god etc uh various kinds of metaphors he'll use is the only time he calls himself a priest he's not a levitical priest obviously he's of the tribe of benjamin not levi he's certainly not trying to encroach upon the sense of which christ is the great high priest for all of us christians but paul nevertheless sees himself in a kind of quasi-priestly capacity uh and it's not that he has in mind and the way it works is simply this he goes to the gentiles with the gospel of jesus the jewish messiah to announce to them that he is also the messiah for the whole world and he goes calling them to repent and many of them do and then the question is how do they worship the jewish people head for millennia worshipped by way of sacrifice bringing sacrifices and in a sense what paul is saying to the gentile converts is you must now come to worship with sacrifice but in your case the sacrifice is as paul said in chapter 12 the sacrifice of your own bodies i beseech you therefore brothers by the mercies of god that you present your bodies a living sacrifice and of course a sacrifice requires a priest and paul in a sense is picturing himself as the one who is in a sense facilitating and indeed mediating that that offering that the gentiles bring of their own bodies as a as a sacrifice in worship uh and that seems to be at this point his explanation for the way in which he's uh given this message to them so he's uh he's seen himself as this uh unique person with a unique role uh here in the first century and yet possibly in the history of the church uh you know the whole story of the history of the church has been uh obviously profoundly a change by virtue of that ministry of paul verse 17 in christ jesus then i have reason to boast of my work for god i paul have this unique role to play and part of why i've written this letter to you romans is just because nobody else could do it i'm the guy and that is in a sense my boast paul doesn't mean boasting here like being a braggart as you know he'll use this word frequently and what he means simply is that that was his distinct responsibility and privilege and no one else in a sense in the entire world of the christian church at that time had what paul had that that responsibility he says i will not venture to speak of anything except what christ has accomplished through me to win obedience from the gentiles by word indeed uh and so on i'm not gonna boast about what peter's done i'm not gonna brag about what john the apostles done those are great guys i'll let them boast for themselves paul says what i'm gonna do is sort of put in neon lights what god has called me to accomplish in the task of being a minister of the gospel and uh so and you can see how paul's been opening here a little bit we saw something of this of course in corinthians if you were here in those studies paul did something like this where he was really quite uh candid in acknowledging the unique role that god had called him to play and here again we see something of that same uh confidence uh in paul's um thought coming through word indeed verse 19 by power of signs and wonders by the power of the spirit of god so that from jerusalem as far around as a lyrical i have fully proclaimed the good news of christ paul of course brought with him the apostolic credentials which happened to look like miracles that's what they were you see when paul went to various places if people doubted the truth of his words uh he would frequently be responsible for the uh performance of actual miracles among them he mentions that to the galatians we see evidence of that in acts and elsewhere that's the principle purpose of miracle in the new testament to validate the minister to validate the message the word of god comes to us the scriptures come to us based on god's own imprimatur given by way of miracle jesus himself appealed to that test when he said if you can't believe me for my words believe me for my works my works validate my words and prove that no one could be uh you know that i have to be a messenger from god just because god is giving his sanction to it by way of miracle that was nicodemus's assessment you recall no one could do these things unless god be with him that was even the sanhedrin which was generally hostile recognized that and paul had the same kind of uh of claim to make here that's he says verse 20 i make it my ambition oh by the way i wanted to mention this uh jerusalem and i lyricum i don't know if you've memorized your ancient near eastern map i hope you all have it in your mind now if i were a high-tech sunday school teacher i'd have it up there on the screen i'm sorry but uh you'll just have to picture it but jerusalem is the easternmost point you go east from jerusalem you wind up in mesopotamia and india and so on paul's ministry always tilted west and so he starts in jerusalem then to antioch then across what we would call turkey into what's asia minor that's where ephesus was across over into europe and of course europe was there was macedon and greece but the westernmost province that paul touched was the western province in macedon which was called a lyricum and it was a little small province right on the coast that was just across the adriatic sea from from italy and so paul is sort of giving the uh east to west parameters of his ministry he started in jerusalem and that he's made it as far west than as a lyrican uh we don't see that in the book of acts but certainly the map would tell would bear out what paul is claiming here all right verse 20. thus i make it my ambition to proclaim the good news not where christ has already been named so that i do not build on someone else's foundation paul loved to go where the gospel was brand new uh he liked to picture himself as a guy that sowed seed you know he says that to corinthians i sowed the seed apollos watered god gave the increase paul was a great seed sower a sower went out to sow jesus gives that parable i think paul thought he was especially the sower you know who went and he would sow seed and uh that was the whole story of his life he loved to go where the gospel was brand new and be the first one to take the wraps off and present it and so that's uh what he's saying how appropriate it would be that he would have that disposition given the fact that he had a call to preach to the gentiles uh that was certainly to be expected then uh as it is written he says those who have never been told of him shall see and those who have never heard of him shall understand all right now paul becomes very homey uh and this will we can go quite rapidly through this because now paul is simply talking in terms of his own plans and purposes and so uh this will really wrap up the narrative and then as we say chapter 16 is uh just a series of greetings that he gives so uh he continues to verse 22. this is the reason that i have so often been hindered from coming to you namely i've been tied up in the ministry of sowing the seed here and there throughout the roman world uh to you know to this extent but now with no further place for me in these regions i desire as i have for many years to come to you when i go to spain all right uh the the force of the greek here is there's nothing left here for me to do which i thought is an extraordinary statement for paul to make you know paul are you telling me there's nothing left for you to do in all of the allegations he hadn't begun to visit all the cities that were there uh we know that in a lifetime he couldn't have visited all the cities and yet he says just the sweeping thing there's nothing left here for me to do uh he doesn't mean he's being driven out but but his strategy was this paul wanted to plant the seed in the major metropolitan centers of the world and he did all of the major cities of the greek world that they're the roman greco-roman world at that time he visited and he planted the seed he knew he couldn't be the pastor to all those churches he had enough confidence that god would provide the increase that he knew if he could just get a church started plant the church as it were and move on that others would pick up the task and paul could say that he had visited every major city and saw in every one of them some kind of christian fellowship established and now he was ready to move on and the move on he wanted to do was move on to spain now if you know your map you know it's greece and then italy and then the iberian peninsula which is spain uh he didn't want to start a church in rome rome had a church but he didn't want to stop on the way and have them give him a little encouragement probably financial among other things so that he could continue his quest uh going to spain by the way interesting question did he ever make it to spain early church history says yes modern liberal scholars say no i'm going to go with early church historians between you and me i think he probably did make it to spain i think what basically happened was he was in rome for two years and then released and after that release was able to go to spain he was of course a prisoner in rome spent maybe a year or two there and then came back and probably had a brief fourth missionary journey uh and it was then that he wrote the pastoral epistles titus and first and second timothy uh that chronology will try to construct next year but uh just to let you know that's that's the way i'll approach it uh so paul continues uh verse 24. for i do hope to see you on my journey and to be sent on by you once i've enjoyed your company for a little while wants to stop there and visit with them and of course have a ministry and then move on verse 25 at present however i'm going to jerusalem in a ministry to the saints for the macedonia and achaean christians have been pleased to share their resources with the poor among the saints of jerusalem if you've been in the class especially when we were studying corinthians first the second corinthians you know that paul made several references to this gift that he was gathering for the poor saints in jerusalem these people are poor saints not because they're lazy but because they've been frozen out of the synagogue and hence frozen out of commerce in jerusalem many christians had left jerusalem to go other where other places because uh yeah it was obviously very difficult to to make a living when you're kind of pushed out of the commercial uh stream there but some were hanging in there but they had been reduced to deep poverty and so these gentile christians are gathering a contribution for them and paul himself is the one who's uh sort of overseeing that process and we've seen evidence of that in corinthians especially verse 27 they that is these uh macedonian accounting christians were pleased to do this and indeed they owe it to them for if the gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings they are also to be of service to them in material things the gentiles have been the great spiritual beneficiaries of the courage of those christians jewish christians in jerusalem and so they had at least a moral debt now to pay back material uh you know sort of uh debt payment uh because of the spiritual benefit that they receive this wasn't a financial debt obviously but paul is simply saying in the greater scheme of things it certainly would make sense that they would uh make this material offering so when i've completed this paul says and have delivered to them what has been collected i will set out by way of you to spain and i know that when i come to you i will come in the fullness of the blessing of christ that was paul's plan he was going to leave corinth go to jerusalem discharge this responsibility leave them this contribution and then from there probably the next year was his plan to head for rome and from there to spain it didn't quite work out that way as you know uh he was arrested in jerusalem things took a little bit of a left turn but nevertheless uh he did eventually make it to rome and possibly did make it to spain uh verse 30 i appeal to you brothers and sisters by our lord jesus christ and by the love of the spirit to join me in earnest prayer to god on my behalf pray for me paul believes in prayer paul knows that god works through prayer uh we should pray for each other paul was soliciting their prayers and he had two prayer requests uh that he gives us in verse 31 one that i may be rescued from the unbelievers in judea paul was hated in judea he was hated in jerusalem by some there were some who wanted him dead uh we see plenty of evidence of that in acts and paul knew that he knew that he was taking his life in his hands to go to jerusalem and so the one thing he asked him to pray for is that he'll be delivered from these hostile hands that want to do him in uh when he gets there uh that prayer by the way was partially answered just as he was being about to be you know torn limb from limb in the temple in a riot that broke out uh the romans swept in rescued him but then they kept him prisoner for two years so it was at least partially uh answered probably not quite the way paul had hoped uh and secondly his prayer is that my ministry to the jerusalem saints may be acceptable to them paul's other concern was that as odd as it may sound he might bring this financial contribution to the christians uh the jewish christians in jerusalem and they wouldn't accept it uh and he was concerned about that they wouldn't accept it because it was gentile money you see uh and they might have some antipathy to even accepting anything even from these gentile christians who were trying to be generous uh these jewish christians being a little bit bigoted at this point toward gentiles uh might still find that unacceptable and paul was worried about that we know from the book of acts that did not happen that they actually welcomed paul warmly and were very grateful for his generous contribution that had been collected from these churches but paul was worried about at this point he didn't know for sure how that would play out uh and then finally uh verse 32 so that uh by god's will uh i may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company and now the third of these benedictions the god of peace be with you all amen and of course romans could have ended right there but it doesn't we have one more chapter kind of a post script and we'll take a look at that next week well thank you faithful for you actually we grew a little bit we have a few more that we started with so so i appreciate you being here let's close in prayer and we'll uh be dismissed father we are so grateful that you have abundantly blessed us with the instruction that comes through your word we thank you for the clarity it brings for the practical uh way in which it gives us guidance we pray that we would be those men and women of faith who would hear uh the lessons that we need to and implement them in a manner that truly does create harmony uh in our fellowship of faith we know that can only take place through your spirit who's provided to us through christ himself so we offer these prayers in his name amen [Music] you

Channel: Bruce Gore

Views: 453

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Romans, Romans 15, Bruce Gore

Id: jDeoZ8A5_ok

Length: 49min 42sec (2982 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 20 2020