Sunday Morning Service

Romans 15:1-13 (Click scripture reference for audio access)

"And Now For The How!"  •  8.5.12  •  Sunday Morning Service, Calvary Christian Fellowship

Intro.

- What we have before us is a continuation of Paul's thoughts beginning in chapter 14. We noted three statements that were to be the foundation of Christian fellowship.

- The church is made up of stronger and weaker believers, the weaker believers being people who believed that they needed ritual or rule to be pleasing to God.

- Chapter 14 provides us with three principle statements, regarding Christian fellowship.

I. Receive One Another (v.1-6)

II. Reject Judging One Another (v.7-12)

III. Resolve Not To Stumble One Another (v.13-23)

- If that is the "what" of Christian fellowship, then this section provides the "how" of Christian fellowship! How are we to receive, reject judging and resolve not to stumble one another?

- In order to live chapter 14, we must:

I. Remember Christ's Example (v.1-3)

II. Recognize Your Resource (v.4-7)

III. Rejoice In His Plan (v.8-13)

Text

I. Remember Christ's Example (v.1-3)

• Romans 15:1,2 : "We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves.  Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification." : The strong believer needs to take responsibility for the weaker believer. The stong need to bear with the scruples of the weak.

- It is no coincidence that Paul chooses the word "bear." It's used metaphorically of carrying a burden, the same word which was used of Christ "bearing" the cross.

- We need to carry the burden of their scruples, literally their "infirmities" on account of their weak mindedness regarding things of the Lord.

- This is not a matter of simple toleration. "I will bear with them." Instead, the sense is standing alongside this person and helping them carry their burden until they are no longer burdened!

- That is more important than living to please or accomodate ourselves. We must guard against living a life that simply worries about how we are doing!

- We are to be ones who desire to choose the life options that will bring about a good result in our neighbor's life. Christian living is focused first on God, second, on others, and finally, ourselves.

- Christianity is not about giving you another life that is better than everyone else's. It's about having a life that betters everyone else's life in Christ!

- In order to be in a position to build them up, we need to bear them up and not beat them up!

- This refers to non-essential, secondary issues, not related to clear commandments.

- A person who thinks that having sex outside of a heterosexual marriage is ok, will be biblically and lovingly corrected and therefore, built up in Christ!

- A person who thinks that God is more pleased with them because they do not watch tv, go to movies or chew tobacco, will be befriended and lovingly carried toward a burden free life!

• Romans 15:3 : "For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, 'The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.'" : The word "For" is indicative of purpose. We are to live this way, for or because even Christ did not please Himself!

- How incongruous a decision is it to set our lives on a course that does not reflect Christ's virtue in any tangible way? None who identify themselves as Christians have a right to!

- Of all the people that have ever lived, only one man deserved to please Himself. Jesus deserves all of the pleasure of the universe but He suffered every indignity, died on our behalf.

- In Psalm 69:7-9, David is writing, recognizing that he was bearing the reproach of people on the account of the Lord. The insults meant for another fell upon David, who did not merit them.

- What David experienced in time was just a small portion and mirrored reflection of what Jesus experienced in full!

- Jesus Christ bore the insults and indignity that He did not deserve in the slightest so that you and I would have life with God. He is our Lord and our primary example of how we must live.

II. Recognize Your Resource (v.4-7)

• Romans 15:4 : "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." : The Bible is our first and best resource.

- This is a very telling statement on several levels. First, we learn that there is a purpose in the Old Testament scriptures that endures. We are to learn from them!

- The Old Testament, according to the reading plans that I have read through, comprises over 70% of the Bible. It is God's Word in the Old Testament that receives His endorsement!

- That being said, we understand that while all of it is important, it is not all equally important. Some portions do not require our deepest reflection.

- This brings me to a second point: It is written for our learning, but not written to be binding!

- Paul's point in writing this this way is to teach them the Christian use of the Old Testament. We are to learn from examples and gain wisdom from principles, but not seek to replicate Israel's life.

- Third, He allowed the scripture to stand that we might learn the patience and comfort it affords. It is the scripture that gives us the greatest detail of the believer's patience or endurance. - What saint of God didn't wait for the Lord to make His promise good?

- Alternatively, what saint was not comforted by the Lord during times of great duress?

- Ultimately, the scriptures are written that we might have a settled and confident hope! It's the scriptures that remind us that no situation is ever hopeless!

- We can wait for our Deliverer and know that because He came for them, He'll come for us!

• Romans 15:5,6 : "Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." : Paul knows that what he is writing is supernaturally attained. This is why he stops and prays!

- We cannot hear that we need to be like Jesus and then just drum up a more Christ-like attitude! We need the assistance and mercy of God in granting us that grace.

- Jesus is the example, the template that we have the privilege of considering in our living and God the Father is the God of patience and comfort, who makes our living possible!

- He is the God of patience. He is not deterred from His purpose toward us. He is resolute and unswerving in the face of any complication. How could we have patience apart from Him?

- He is the God of comfort or encouragement. He is the God that comes alongside you and I. He is not remote, as it was believed that the Greek gods were. He is active in His assistance to you.

- Paul says, "May this God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another." May He help you to cherish the same ideals together!

- May He help us to look at each other and wish the very best of God for one another! May He do this for according to Christ Jesus.

- All of God's blessings towards us come through our association with Jesus! God blesses us through Him. Paul, in this case, prays that our mind and mouth would bring glory to God!

- The word "one mind" is the same word that we studied in Acts which there was translated "one accord." There are many voices and tones, but there is one harmonious piece of music!

- The song is in our heads and sung out of our mouth. Notice that. Many voices, many notes, but the church has one mouth! We have one declaration! 

- With the heart and mind, we extol Christ, but our mouth must bring glory, weight, to the God and Father or our Lord Jesus Christ!

- As I understand the word "glory," the Greeks might have employed this when referring to the established weight of value in the marketplace.

- When we live in a like-minded way toward one another, we are adding to the value of the Lord in the eyes of the average consumer!

- Christ, God is valuable beyond our means to comprehend, but it's the perception of His value that rises in the eyes of the watching world when we live this way!

• Romans 15:7 : "Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God." : Therefore, since you have the scriptures and the power of God receive one another like He did!

- There is no greater way to honor Christ than to act toward each other in the same way that He acted toward us! He treated you as friends, demonstrating love toward you before you knew Him!

- He received you when you were totally wrong about your doctrine, when you acted like a fool or when you gave Him a black eye with your behavior!

- Let us receive one another if only for the glory of God! When we do, it's a proclamation to the World that God's genuine presence dwells among a people!

- There is not another test that says more, than a group of wildly different individuals finding a place where they are received together and safe to grow in the grace of their Lord Jesus!

- Consider this for a moment: Every cult group that you see out there, removes every aspect of individuality from their members.

- When their groups come into a neighborhood, you know exactly what they represent because they are all dressed alike! That is exactly the opposite of what God desires.

- He desires that the church be a place that is known for receiving it's members as they are until God changes them!

- Consider what it means to have a uniform body of people. If we bought into that, we would be saying, in effect, that Jesus loved in a way that we reject!

- When we seek to live in uniformity, we passively reject the standard of love that Jesus came to establish in His death! Let it never be so for us!

III. Rejoice In His Plan (v.8-13)

• Romans 15:8,9 : "Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written: 'For this reason I will confess to You among the Gentiles, and sing to Your name.'" :

- Look around and celebrate that Jesus came served the people of God, the Israelites, and now, we stand together, united in one person!

- What an indictment against those who did not receive their weaker brethren. Jesus came to serve those that they had trouble receiving!

- "The circumcision" was a form of slang in the early church for those who were religious Jews.

- Jesus came to serve them to make the promises of God made to Israel, true! Every promise that God has ever made to Israel has either been fulfilled or will be fulfilled.

- When Jesus served the Jews fully, He also provided the Gentiles with a reason to glorify Him for the mercy that God had shown them!

- Paul's point is that Jesus came to serve both groups! The Jews, with their religious pre-disposition and the Gentiles who had no religious idea!

- Paul draws from scripture here beginning with David's final song, recorded in 2 Samuel 22:50 and Psalm 18:49 which contain the same words.

- The occasion of the writing was when David had been "delivered from the hands of his enemies and the hand of Saul."

- David, foreshadowing the sentiments of Jesus, thanks God for what He has done for him, and that God had given a witness of His goodness to the Gentiles who would sing His name!

- In David's time, His righteous rule over that region gave people who were from other nations the occasion to praise God for raising David up to the throne instead of Saul.

- In the times after Christ, the same thing was true! The Gentiles were singing to the God of the Jews, full citizens of the Kingdom of God because of the name of Jesus!

• Romans 15:10-12 : "And again he says: 'Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!' And again: 'Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples!' And again, Isaiah says: 'There shall be a root of Jesse; And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in Him the Gentiles shall hope.'" : Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 32:43, Psalm117:1 and Isaiah 11:10 respectively.

- Think of this as the spiritual equivalent to the final fireworks display on the 4th of July! Paul is recalling to mind these wonderful verses of scripture that speak to the inclusion of the Gentiles!

- God is calling them to rejoice, notice, WITH His people! They were to join in the chorus! They were to praise the Lord and magnify Him!

- The nations, the Gentiles, you and I, are to make a big deal about Jesus! Make noise regarding who He is in Your life! Speak often of Him!

- The root of Jesse, "David's Son, yet David's Lord," would rule over Gentiles and Jews!

- David, Moses, and Isaiah all agree in their writings, that God had a plan to extend His life to the Gentile nations, which was now being fully realized as the church worshipped together!

- What a unifying factor, namely that the writers of scripture foresaw this and declared it as God's intention for the people of God! What they saw in shadow, we rejoice in as reality!

• Romans 15:13 : "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." : Earlier in this section he put God's name alongside the concepts of endurance and peace.

- Here, he calls Him the God of hope, the expectation of God's final promise fulfilled. Until that time of fulfillment, let us be filled with God's joy and peace in believing!

˚  "Literally overflow you with joy and peace that comes in believing that you may super abound in hope through the agency of the power of the Spirit of God. In other words, that's another way of saying may you get all there is to get and may you know all the joy and all the peace and all the hope that can possible be given to you through believing in Christ by the power of the Spirit of God."   John Macarthur

- What a marvelous way to end this section and truly, Paul's entire doctrinal these.

- Consider how this has played out. In the earliest portion of Paul's letter, Jews and Gentiles were both separated from God and each other, condemned because of sin.

- Paul ends this letter telling us that the Jews and Gentiles are unified in Christ and are experiencing the very purpose of God in the foundation of the church!

Conclusion

- Remember how Christ lived. Our lives are to be a reflection of His, therefore, receive one another as He did.

- Remember that you have resource for that! You have God's Word which leads you to examples of God's people, which should lead you to pray, "Lord, make me like that!"

- Remember that this is what we are to rejoice in: Jesus is our King! He is our Lord! We are living what the Prophets only wished they could see more clearly! Rejoice!