Romans 15

Intro

We are just one week away from finishing Romans and I hope for you it has been a blessing, I know for me closing the door on Romans is bitter sweet, I am ready to be done but there are also a few things I am going to reserve the right to revisit because, WOW it is just a powerhouse of a book of the Bible

So let me just recap a bit…

We are in the part of the book of Romans where the author Paul is trying to bring together these two groups of people, the Jews and the gentiles

And what we have to remember about that word Gentiles is that it is an untranslated Greek word that simply means nations.

It can be confusing because this word “Gentiles” just shows up in the new testament. and we have to remember there is a switch from Hebrew to Greek on the original manuscripts of the bible…

So as we get into chapter 15 you will see some echos from chapter 14 but what I think is important here is that we also get into the heart of Paul

Romans 15:1–4 NIV

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

So the text started where we left off in Chapter 14…

Chapter 14 was all about this idea of, in essentials unity, in non essentials liberty and in all thing charity…

Paul was basically saying, don’t break fellowship over little things…Paul called them disputable matters

But here, the way he ends his argument is that look we shouldn't be trying to please ourselves but we should really work at building up the others…We talked about this last week…

And then he goes on with why we build each other up…

Why do we do this?

look at what he says in verse 3

Romans 15:3 NIV

For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”

Paul is reminding the church look, Jesus took on your insults

So don’t insult each other.

Jesus wasn’t trying to make himself great -or happy or satisfied…in every step of the life of the messiah it was about rescuing people from sin and death

On the cross Jesus absorbed the insults from the other people who were condemned, from the romans, he absorbed the insults of everyone…Jesus not only takes our sin but he takes the shameful insults that are hurled on on

Paul is saying look when you in the community of christ insult each other you are actually insulting Jesus! Because it is Jesus who really absorbs them all

Paul’s heart is to see one unified community who build each other up that is made up of Jews and Gentiles.

There is a much bigger story line that we will get into today on this point…

But this is his heart and you begin to see it in the please he has toward the end of his letter

Romans 15:4 NIV

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

Here is a side point that I want to make. I haven’t heard this as much lately but I feel like I have heard people for years say things like “I am a new testament christian”

And I wonder what on earth that means…Does that mean the old testament is irrelevant?

See for Paul what does he say?

Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us…So that we might have encouragement and hope…I mean genesis ok…Exodus ok..>Daniel..>Ok but Obadiah, Malachi, Zechariah? YES EVERYTHING in the old testament is leading up to Jesus

Everything here is meant to bring us endurance and hope

Its why we advocate saturating yourself in the word of God.

Memorize scripture, read it on a daily basis, think about it, pray scripture, sing scripture

It is the word of God that all works

Friends, there is nearly always a correlation for when people say, I just wish I heard the voice of God more in my life…to daily Bible reading…

People who are seeking the Lord daily in the text are encouraged and filled with hope and people who do not seek the lord daily are often discouraged and hopeless

So as a bridge to the next thought that Paul has here is a prayer he has for the Roman church

All of scripture is useful for teaching , encouragement and for building hope as we seek to live out God’s plan for us

Romans 15:5–6 (NIV) May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He prays and hopes for that church that they have the same attitude of mind toward each other that Jesus had

Now here is an important point that Paul already made through Romans 8…

Paul isn’t calling the church to get together and have a strategy session to say ok how can we acquire the mind of Jesus…What can we do even better

You have to remember. Paul’s whole argument is that Jesus purchased you, he brought you back over from death to life and now you are a new creature with the spirit of the living God in you!

Remember what Paul says in Romans 12:2

Romans 12:2 NIV

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

He is saying that when your life is given over to Jesus then you become made new. your mind renews because the spirit of God dwelling in you

I want to tell you about the renewing of the mind and in my experience how it works…

If you know me you know I am a pretty light person…I almost always default to making a joke out of something just to get a laugh…

That is just me…My family makes fun of me because I don’t cry…I am not really emotional and if there is ever a heavy moment I split it up with a joke….

Well I noticed that before I was a christian I used to make jokes at other people’s expense, just pretty naturally…I was really sarcastic with people.. And sarcasim can be funny but it also means tearing someone down

But after I accepted Jesus and I make the joke at someones expense it was like this dirty feeling I had like I was just so wrong and it was so unnatural

It was the spirit of God convicting me…

So now I still love cracking a little joke but I just try and make it at my expense…

rather than someone else's expense…

So Paul says in verse 5 have the same attitude as Christ Jesus…And again, this is not your effort but it is the Holy Spirit working in you

But why have one mind?

So you can give Glory to the Lord together.

For Paul in this letter you can kind of trace this word Glorify through Romans

In Romans 1:23

Romans 1:23 NIV

and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

The nature of sin is that we have exchanged what God has given us by making us in his image…His glory…And we have exchanged that for other things

Then you have Romans 3:23

Romans 3:23 NIV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

In our sin…We have fallen short of God’s glory…The word Glory here can also be read Favor

Romans 5:2 NIV

through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Through Jesus we get access again to God and now we can actually have that Glory back!

Romans 8:18 NIV

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

As new creatures we are now people who share in the glory of God…and God’s favor his honor will be revealed in this new community the church

So in Romans 15 we get this amazing picture that this new community who has been redeemed and how embodies the glory, the honor of the Lord can give praise back to Jesus in unity…

See because Paul has been reading his Old Testament he has this amazing story line in his head about the gentles and the Jews all coming togetehr in unity and under God to worship together.

You were meant to experience God’s glory and in community to give that Glory back to God.

I want you to see the rest of Paul’s argument here

Part of being redeemed by Jesus is learning to share in the glory of God and reflect that glory to the world.

Romans 15:7–13 NIV

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written: “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing the praises of your name.” Again, it says, “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.” And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles; let all the peoples extol him.” And again, Isaiah says, “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope.” May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

he is calling on the Jew and the Gentile to accept each other…So that the Jew and the gentile can give Glory to God together…and then what Paul does is mixes in 8 old testament passages to say look, the Bible has always said that though the messiah, the gentiles will be grafted into the worship community!

I just want to take a few minutes to show you through the old testament just how remarkable this is.

You have to remember that during Jesus ministry there is a strict seperation between Jews and gentiles

The Torah was seen as a dividing wall between the two groups…

There were obvious food laws and sabbath laws that these two groups were worlds apart on

But what I want to show you is that in Jesus

The dividing wall of hostility gets torn down!

I want you to see the origin of the gentiles in scriptrure so that you can see God’s heart

Because what we have to remember here is that Paul is concluding his letter with saying that Gentiles can share in the Glory of God.

This is an absolutely remarkable claim!

Gentiles can share in the glory

So first what you need to know is that whenever we read “Gentiles” in the New testament you are reading an untranslated Greek word…The word simply means Nations, it is the word Ethnos

Ethnic group

So when Jesus gave his disciples a mission this is the mission he gave them

The mission that Jesus gives to the church is to bring the nations back into relationship with Him.

Matthew 28:18–20 NIV

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

There is zero difference between the word Nations and Gentiles

So it is actually the command of Jesus for the Jews to reach the gentiles!

This is Radical in the day of Jesus…They were unclean…

So what I want you to see is just like Paul said that we can be encouraged and have hope from the Old Testament scriptures….this was always the plan of the Old Testamnt!

Where did the Gentiles come from?

I am going to go though some of this at lightning speed!

There is a story in the Bible called the tower of Babel. I have covered this many times because this is just a core biblical story

All the people of the earth come together and they said come, let us make a name for ourselves

They built a tower or what we would call today a ziggurat which in ancient Mesopotamia functioned as a stairway to the god’s

And the idea of Babel is let us remake the world in our power and in our image and we will climb up to the god’s and usurp them!

This is an outright rejection of the creator God

and just incase you are at a bible trivia night and you need to know, there is a counter vision to this called Jacob’s Ladder…where he sees angelic beings coming up and down as they please….

So Babel is all about human control and human power

So what happens?

Genesis 11:7–8 ESV

Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

So you read this and think, ok this is how all the people groups of the world were formed

And to be honest, I think you hit this point in the Bible and think…Well I guess this is how the nations are formed, there is nothing else to think about here…and we sort of put Babel out of our heads but the Biblical writers don’t do that

But there is another Old Testament passage that speaks about Babel and that is Deuteronomy 32

And by the way…Paul Quotes from Deut 32 in Romans 15…So this is on his mind!

Deuteronomy 32:8–9 (ESV) When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.

Deuteronomy 32:8–9 describes how Yahweh’s dispersal of the nations at Babel resulted in his disinheriting those nations as his people.

This is the Old Testament equivalent of Romans 1:18–25, if you remember back a passage wherein God “gave [humankind] over” to their rebellion.

God in effect decided that the people of the world’s nations were no longer going to be in relationship to him because they didn’t want it!

He would begin anew. He would enter into covenant relationship with a new people that did not yet exist: Israel.

In fact at the very end of the Babel story there is this genealogy and at the end of the genealogy are these two biblical characters that are called out of Babel and that is Abraham and Sarah

The whole world is scattered or “given over” to their sin and Abraham is called out of that mess to make a new nation.

So the effect of Babel is for God to start over with one guy…

Abram…And God’s favor or his glory will be on Abraham and though him all nations will be blessed and through Abram the promise is that all the all of these nations…The nations who were scattered because of Babel would somehow be blessed!

Genesis 22:18 ESV

and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

So Abraham’s offsprings are destined to bless the dispersed people of Babel!

Again…This is a precursor to the great commission

This is God’s heart

That these lost nations would come to know the favor and glory of the Lord.

But if you know the story of the rest of the Bible…You know that God’s people and the Nations are always at odds with each other

But then one of the offspring of Abraham comes on the scene…That is Jesus

When Jesus talks about the the rest of human history…Its funny for all the people who have been obsessed with end times and seeing Jesus come back I almost never hear these verses

Matthew 24:14 NIV

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Mark 13:10 NIV

And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.

Jesus was dead-set on having his story preached to all nations

Look at the rest Chapter 15 in Romans

Romans 15:14–22 NIV

I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another. Yet I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written: “Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.” This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you.

Paul is wrapping up his letter here and he is telling the church

I know what I am called to!

Paul knows his mission

3.6 billion or 42% of the world are considered unreached by the gospel! And we live in a unique time of global migrations and social media.

I wonder what Paul would do if he were living in 2025

For Paul what it looked like to take the great commission seriously was to start the greatest church plant movement the world had ever seen

What does it look like for you to take the great comission seriously

It can start with discipling your kids

It can start wirth loving your neighbor…

But see for Paul ONE MATTERS!

Paul knows that his mission to see the gentiles come to repentance is part of God’s plan from the beginning!

And Paul has even said I have been hindered in coming to you because I am on mission

I am on Jesus mission!

To the gentiles

Paul sees his calling as taking serious the great commission

Paul sees the church as part and parcel to completing the great commission

What is your calling?