Click here to view the entire service
The runway is in sight. The great apostle Paul is about to land this massive cargo plane hauling the greatest, richest, and most life-changing truths in the world from the book of Romans. But before he lands, he has a lot to say. He does this three times here at the end of Romans. He is about to land, but then lifts up again to share more great truth.
This morning we’re looking at Romans 15:1-13. Paul is focusing on the gospel’s impact on both Jews and Gentiles. It’s about the unity of the church in Christ, but much more. I’m using the word hope to guide our thoughts. You’ll see hope in verse 4 (hope given by the Scriptures), in verse 12 (our hope is in the root of Jesse, our Lord Jesus Christ), and twice in verse 13, (God is the God of hope). All true hope comes from God, and God wants you and me to abound in hope, to even superabound in hope.
In a world deceived by false hopes and false promises, living is full of anxiety, depression, and despair. In contrast, we see here that God’s living is full of eternal hope for every believer. I’m going to peg my thoughts in this message on four wonderful truths that you and I can apply to all our lives, all our relationships, all our trials and heartaches in this world. Paul gives us counsel to build a Christ-like life abounding in hope and overflowing with joy. Paul knows nothing about a dour, sour Christian life.
ABOUND IN HOPE BY FORGETING YOURSELF AND LEARNING TO SERVE OTHERS
Romans 15:1-3, Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. 2 Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. 3 For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “THE REPROACHES OF THOSE WHO REPROACHED YOU FELL ON ME.”
Pleasing self was not on Paul’s agenda. His was not a “me-first” consumer Christianity. Paul identifies with the strong and knows some believers are weaker and need the help and support of the strong. Maybe you’re a stronger Christian. God says you aren’t in the body of Christ just for your own good. You ought to think about others in the body, how you can please your fellow believer in the body. Galatians 6:2 says we are to bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. To bear means to help carry something someone else doesn’t have the strength to carry. Remember Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son? He was dropped as an infant and could not carry his own weight, so he had to be carried and cared for by someone else.
Notice in verse 2, Paul says “each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification.” There are three things here. First, “please your neighbor.” This does not mean you are a man pleaser. Paul’s point is you are not here just to please yourself. It isn’t all about you. You’re in the body to help others. Second, “for his good.” Our concern for others is really for their spiritual good. We’re not talking about giving people things they are responsible for themselves. Just doing stuff for people isn’t necessarily for their good. Parents can hurt their children by just pleasing them and indulging their desires. That doesn’t help. It doesn’t help an emerging butterfly to help them out of their cocoon. Paul says bear burdens for others’ good. Third, “for his edification, his building up.” For “others’ good” means to help them grow and serve the Lord themselves. Galatians 6:5 says each of us is to bear our own burdens. Are you living to please others for their good to help them grow in their spiritual lives? Listen to Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:33, “Just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so they may be saved.”
God did not save us just to please ourselves. You didn’t marry just to please yourself. Marriage is God’s way of teaching us to deny ourselves. Every mom knows about self-denial as she cares for her child. Every dad denies himself to help change diapers, put car seats in the car, and serve his wife when she isn’t feeling well. Every single person and teenager need to hear this. Teens, life isn’t all about you and how you can be pleased. How blessed are young people who realize God’s call on their lives is to forget themselves and esteem others as more important than themselves. That doesn’t mean we don’t do anything that is pleasing to us. We eat when we’re hungry and rest when we’re tired. Paul said, “not just please ourselves.”
In verse 3 Paul goes straight to Jesus as our model and motivation for denying self for the good of others. “Even Christ did not please Himself.” Jesus didn’t leave heaven to come down here on a vacation or be treated royally. He came from an absolutely glorious, beautiful heaven, from the very presence of God, out of “ivory palaces” and into this sin-cursed Genesis 3 world. From the very beginning of His public ministry, they tried to kill him by pushing Him off a cliff. For all three years of His public ministry, he constantly bore reproaches, accusations, even of being illegitimately born. He was mocked, slandered, insulted, reviled, all because He came to bear an evil world’s reproaches they naturally have toward God. He said clearly, “I did not come to be served but to serve and give My life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Then Paul quotes from Psalm 69:9 to establish authority for this great truth that Christ bore man’s hatred and reproaches while on this earth.
Christ-like Christian living does not live to please self and personal pleasures, but lives to love, serve, and invest in others. Forget yourself, serve others, and glorify God.
ABOUND IN HOPE BY FEEDING YOUR HEART ON GOD’S HOPE-NURTURING WORD
Romans 15:4-7, For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5 Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.
One of the popular mega-church pastors a few years ago declared that we should unhitch ourselves from the Old Testament. Paul says just the opposite. The entire Old Testament was written to teach us about God and His great plan of redemption through His Son. Everything back there in Genesis and Job and Jeremiah is to instruct us. Second Timothy 3:16 says all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, just what Paul says here. Are you reading your Old Testament? Our church reading plan is in Jeremiah – now he was a man enduring hardness as a good soldier of Christ. Paul says your Old Testament instructs you to persevere, to hang in there through tough times. Jeremiah did! David persevered when Saul chased him all over everywhere trying to kill him. God never deserted him; He always came through. The Scriptures instruct us to be courageous, to face tough times and stiff trials with courage. And where does perseverance and encouragement take us? To hope. You see Job going through tough times, and you see the end of the story. God never deserts His people; He always comes through. Feed on God’s Word and make them the joy and delight of your heart.
Jeremiah 15:16, “Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.”
Your Bible gives you hope as you see God Almighty marching right through your Old Testament creating the universe out of nothing in six literal days. He told Abram and Sarah they would have a son in their old age and sure enough, here came Isaac. Isaac had two sons and God said the older would serve the younger. Sure enough, Esau served Jacob. God gave Joseph dreams that his brothers and father would bow down to him. Did it happen? Sure enough, they came to Egypt and bowed before Joseph. God took Israel through the Red Sea, fed them for 40 years in the wilderness, smashed the walls of Jericho, defeated enemies many times bigger than Israel, sent them into captivity, and in 70 years brought them back, just as He promised. Then 400 years later, right on schedule, sent Christ to earth to save His people from their sins.
This is the value of your Old Testament. Not only is it inspired, inerrant, infallible, and authoritative, but it is sufficient. You have in your Bible all you need to teach and guide you into a life that pleases God. Let’s read it more heartily, prayerfully, meditatively. This book has one author and one hope. We are all one people in Christ and join David in Psalm 119, “Oh how I love Your Word.” Psalm 130:5, “I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, and in His word do I hope.” Psalm 31:24, “Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the Lord.”
Now amazingly, in verse 5 Paul replaces Scripture with God and basically says the same thing. We learn about perseverance and encouragement in the Scriptures, and God gives us perseverance and encouragement. No, don’t unhitch your Christian life from the Old Testament. God is at work through His living and powerful Word, strengthening and motivating you to persevere. Hang in there – don’t turn back. God fills us with courage every step of the way. And He does it through the Scriptures (v.4) and through Christ (v.5). Your Bible is an amazing book. Don’t let it gather dust on the shelf. Open it and feed on it so your life will be filled with hope – verse 4.
What is the result? Verse 6 is a purpose statement – in order that God’s people, all of us who love Christ above all, would all be in one accord. And that’s not a Honda. That’s all of God’s people, Jews and Gentiles, with one heart and voice bringing glory to our God and Father. Then Paul goes back to how we relate to one another – accept or warmly welcome one another. There are so many diverse kinds of believers, Jews, Gentiles, every ethnicity. And Jesus warmly receives every repenting prodigal son into the family of God, for the glory of God, that God may be exalted in every place. Aren’t you glad you are a Christian? I mean a real one.
ABOUND IN HOPE BY FOCUSING YOUR WORSHIP ON GLORIFYING AND PRAISING GOD
Romans 15:8-12, For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, 9 and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, “THEREFORE I WILL GIVE PRAISE TO YOU AMONG THE GENTILES, AND I WILL SING TO YOUR NAME.” 10 Again he says, “REJOICE, O GENTILES, WITH HIS PEOPLE.” 11 And again, “PRAISE THE LORD ALL YOU GENTILES, AND LET ALL THE PEOPLES PRAISE HIM.” 12 Again Isaiah says, “THERE SHALL COME THE ROOT OF JESSE, AND HE WHO ARISES TO RULE OVER THE GENTILES, IN HIM SHALL THE GENTILES HOPE.”
Did you catch the two things Christ came to do? He came on behalf of God’s truth to confirm God’s promises to the Jews (vs. 8). That’s your Old Testament. And then He came to bring God’s mercy to Gentiles – that’s us (vs. 9)! God looked down on us miserable, godless Gentiles scattered throughout the world, lost and without hope, and came to show us mercy, to cleanse us, forgive our sins, and make us the Father’s sons and daughters in Christ.
With these great thoughts in mind, Paul just explodes with a string of verses from the Old Testament. Here is a taste of heaven, when every believer from every nation and tribe will join his voice with every other believer to sing praise to God and thus glorify God! What a sound that will be when billions will sing with glorified voices to glorify God and give Him maximum praise, all in deep and true unity. Think of the overwhelming, unifying power of the Hallelujah chorus sung by billions of people! “And He shall reign forever and ever!” Shortly after we were saved, we attended a Mennonite church service. There were about 300 people, and they sang acapella with everyone singing parts – soprano, alto, tenor, bass. The ladies’ soprano and alto! The men’s full tenor and bass! Wow! No fog and light show. No prancers jumping around the platform. Just pure voices joining together to sing praises to the great and glorious and merciful God.
Notice how verse twelve ends: “In Him shall the Gentiles hope!”
ABOUND IN HOPE BY FIXING ALL YOUR HOPE IN GOD
Romans 15:13, Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now folks, this is one magnificent verse. Fix your hope on these three wonderful realities.
First, God is the source of all your hope. Outside of Christ this is a hopeless world, bringing misery and loss and finally, eternal loss. No earthly philosophy ever supplied hope in death. There is no final hope apart from Christ. “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.”
Second, God fills us with the blessings of hope right now: rich, robust, glorious joy, and heart-satisfying peace that passes understanding. Be anxious for nothing, pray and give thanks about everything, and the peace of God will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. These soul riches of joy and peace come as we humbly believe His promises and cast our cares on Him.
Third, God purposes for us to richly overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Not just a measly little bit of hope, but abounding, filled to overflowing, strong hope. What a beautiful thing hope is for believers. You can have confident expectation and anticipation that God will indeed fulfill all His promises to you! That’s different than, “We hope the 49ers will win today” or “I hope she calls me back.” Earthly hopes can easily go sour, bringing heartache and disappointment. But with your faith firmly fixed in God, you will have that confident expectation that God is here and going with you. No matter what happens He has you in His everlasting arms. He will never leave you nor forsake you. The God of hope makes you abound and overflow with joyful, peaceful hope.
While my granddaughter and I were in San Francisco, we took a bus tour over the Golden Gate Bridge out to the Muir Woods with its giant sequoias. At one point the bus driver and I were the only ones waiting on the bus, so I talked to him about Christ. Sadly, he had his mind made up. “I’m beyond hope” he said repeatedly. He had it so wrong. No one is beyond hope while he’s still breathing God’s good air. God is a merciful God and ready to forgive. He is the God of hope. Heath Lambert in his book Finally Free writes that no believer is beyond hope in the battle with any kind of sin habit.
There is no sinner so enslaved that Jesus cannot set him or her free. There is no struggle for purity so intense that Jesus’ grace cannot win the battle. There is no consequence so steep that Jesus’ power cannot carry you through. Jesus’ grace to change you is stronger than your own desires to indulge your flesh. While there is no hope for you in pursuing your own lusts, there is all the hope in the universe when you look to God and His grace. Hope for lasting transformation begins when you cry out to God in repentance and plead with Him for His forgiveness and transforming grace. When you ask for these things in faith, He will never deny them to you.