Discover the essence of Christian unity as we explore the Apostle Paul's heartfelt plea in Romans 15:7 for a love that surpasses all boundaries. Join us on a journey through the early church's challenges, where Jews and Gentiles alike were called to harmonize in faith, mirroring the diverse yet unified heaven we long for. This episode delves into the transformative power of such unity and the sacrificial living that's central to our beliefs, offering a profound reflection on welcoming one another as Christ has welcomed us – a gesture that has the strength to dissolve our earthly divisions.
As we navigate through the landscape of hope, we're reminded that this is not mere wishful thinking, but a confident expectation rooted in the promises of God. We'll revisit stories of unwavering faith like Daniel's and Stephen's martyrdom, illustrating the joy and peace that accompany trust in God's sovereignty. Wrapping up with a prayer for hope and blessings, we seek the Holy Spirit's guidance for strength in our daily lives. This conversation is a testament to the necessity of divine grace in knitting together the fabric of hope and unity within our communities and within ourselves.
Discover the essence of Christian unity as we explore the Apostle Paul's heartfelt plea in Romans 15:7 for a love that surpasses all boundaries. Join us on a journey through the early church's challenges, where Jews and Gentiles alike were called to harmonize in faith, mirroring the diverse yet unified heaven we long for. This episode delves into the transformative power of such unity and the sacrificial living that's central to our beliefs, offering a profound reflection on welcoming one another as Christ has welcomed us – a gesture that has the strength to dissolve our earthly divisions.
As we navigate through the landscape of hope, we're reminded that this is not mere wishful thinking, but a confident expectation rooted in the promises of God. We'll revisit stories of unwavering faith like Daniel's and Stephen's martyrdom, illustrating the joy and peace that accompany trust in God's sovereignty. Wrapping up with a prayer for hope and blessings, we seek the Holy Spirit's guidance for strength in our daily lives. This conversation is a testament to the necessity of divine grace in knitting together the fabric of hope and unity within our communities and within ourselves.
Speaker 1:
Alright. Romans, chapter 15, verse 7, is where we'll start once I get there. Romans 15, verse 7 ish. We are dangerously close to the end of Paul's letter to the people in Rome, and Paul is wrapping things up, and in these verses perhaps we see what Paul's heart has been all along In this journey through Romans. Perhaps this is sort of the final destination.
Speaker 1:
Now, the getting there has been great too, because Paul has spent a lot of time talking about doctrine right, how we're saved, why we're saved Chapters 1 through 11, just this dynamic of God's work of salvation. Then you remember chapter 12. Chapter 12, paul takes a little bit of a turn there into application, in light of God's mercies, in light of everything that God's done for us, and offer your bodies, your lives, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. This is reasonable worship, we could say. And so, as a response, paul says then live your life totally and completely for God. Now he's shown us what that means to live a life that's living sacrifice, and a lot of it comes down to our love for one another, the way we treat others around us, even through persecution, even through difficulties, the love, this unconditional agape God, kind of love that God wants to work in our hearts. It's got to be supernatural for sure. But here, perhaps, in verse 7, this is where Paul was headed all along. Let's read it Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us to the glory of God. 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. So Paul brings it back to this division here. He brings it back to this problem.
Speaker 1:
Really that was in the church, that he knew was in the church the separation between Jew and Gentiles. He says receive one another. This word receive is very picturesque. Look at it there. Receive one another, it means to take to oneself, to accept into your society, right To welcome, to bring in. The best way we could probably illustrate this word is to picture coming in there with friends, coming here to friends and just giving someone a big hug. You receive them to yourself, you bring them in close, and that's this idea. Paul had seen the positives of this and Paul had seen the negatives of this right. The positives he'd seen as he went through the ancient world telling people about Jesus. He saw people unified in the love of Christ. So sweet, think about it. People from all age groups, from all backgrounds, from different races and cultures, languages, right, and Paul saw them come together in Christ as family. Really he did, and that is one of the most beautiful things in this.
Speaker 1:
Christian life is just how God can bring us together as family. It's called fellowship. It means commonality, right, to have in common with someone. But we experience it. I think we experience it here, different walks of life and we come together and we're family in Christ. And it's so sweet, check it out. It's so sweet because I think it's a little taste. It's a taste of heaven. It really is. This fellowship that we can have here is a little taste of heaven. When we get to heaven, there'll be people from all over the world, different periods of time, and all of us will come together and Jesus will be the thing that we have in common. We'll love each other because we really are family. It's a little taste of heaven. It's family beyond blood, spirit, not flesh, and it's a miracle.
Speaker 1:
I think it's one of those miracles of God, right, because, check it out we naturally divide. That's kind of who we are as people. We've experienced it. We naturally divide over sometimes the silliest things, and Paul saw that too. He saw divisions in the early church. I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos. He says there in 1 Corinthians that the people were saying, and they were dividing over who their favorite teacher was. You know, dividing over Jew and Gentile. And perhaps painfully, paul would walk into churches sometimes and would see all the Jews on one side huddled in the corner talking about their stuff and all the Gentiles on the other side of the room, separate. And Paul would look at that and say that's just not the way it's supposed to be. Now, you know we've talked about it. There was a lot of deep cultural things in there, but the body of Christ was divided and Paul knew it was happening in Rome, because we have a tendency to that.
Speaker 1:
And so he writes this letter this is what salvation is. We were all sinners, we were all separated from God, and yet God has loved us so much, demonstrates his own love towards us and brings us together right. And then Paul leads us to this thing of all that knowledge has to lead to a change in our life. But I think he really comes down to it here and he says guys, receive one another, just as Christ received us, not because of who we are or what we do, but because of love. Christ has received us. And he brings it down to this one word. Now Paul lets us know there that this was God's plan all along.
Speaker 1:
Check out where he goes here, in verse 9, as it is written. So Paul is going to give him the cross references here as it's written. Notice, for this reason, I will confess you among the Gentiles and sing to your name. And again he says rejoice so, 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 shall rise to reign over the Gentiles. In him the Gentiles shall hope. So Paul points him back to the promises there, his Jewish friends for sure. He points him back to the promises In verse nine. He references Psalm 18, verse 49.
Speaker 1:
It's David, the Psalms. Verse 10, he's bringing up Deuteronomy 21, and verse 114 to three. In verse 11, it's Psalm 119. And in verse 12, it's Isaiah 11. So Paul uses the Psalms, the prophets and the law. Right, and that would have sort of been the whole span of the Old Testament.
Speaker 1:
Let's look at one of these verses, though. Come back and let's get those fingers active. Turn to Psalm 117, and we're gonna read the entire Psalm. No, it's two verses, okay, so Psalm 117. Why don't you turn there quickly? It's so little in a big book of Psalms, all right.
Speaker 1:
Psalm 117 says this praise the Lord, all you Gentiles lawed him, all you peoples, for his merciful kindness is great towards us and the truth of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord. So here David is speaking to the Gentiles, all the nations around, and he says Gentiles, all you lost pagan people, praise the Lord. Look at verse two, for his merciful kindness is great towards us. Us can be a very encouraging thing because us is kind of more collective than a lot of things. He's speaking to the Gentiles there and David says God has been merciful to us, all of us, not just the Jews, but you too, you pagan Gentiles. God has been merciful every single day towards us, and Paul here brings this up back in Romans, chapter 15, to remind the Jews this has always been the plan of God. Now check it out.
Speaker 1:
The fact that the Gentiles would be part of the church was a mystery in the Old Testament. We can look at these passages. And it's always been there. It's always been God's plan to bring the Gentiles close, to receive them. But it wasn't unknown and there was a huge division between Jew and Gentile. And Paul here says but look, guys, this is always what God had in mind, because God's been merciful to us, towards us. And so he brings this up as the endgame of what God wanted to do. Right, that God really wanted to bring us together and that's what church should be. Right, that's what being a Christian ought to be Dead Jesus brings us close to one another, that in Him we're actually family, just more intensive than even blood relationship. We have God as a Father, the center of all of us. And Paul encourages them that you guys receive one another, jew and Gentile receive one another. Bring the other person close, as in a hug, as in family. Now Paul says that and I really think this was kind of one of his biggest reasons for writing this book To bring this up, to bring us this point.
Speaker 1:
But then notice he leaves it. He's given him the foundation, he's brought him to the application, he's given him a straightforward command here, and then he leaves it. Now check it out. I think this is important because Paul planted a seed in their hearts. Now think about this. Paul, in putting that truth out, received one another. He planted the seed in their hearts, but he knew it would be up to God to bring the fruit. I think this is a good idea.
Speaker 1:
To think about in our life is how many times we just think about the things that God's going to do in our lives. As and here we go, me and God, we're pushing this thing up the hill. Whatever this idea, this ministry, this thing I want to see happen, I'm going to do it right Now. The reality is that we really can't do anything apart from God. God uses us, but we really can't accomplish anything good apart from God.
Speaker 1:
But so many times, check it out, so many times we have to give the truth and then let God do the growing. It's just like what Paul understood there in 1 Corinthians, there was this division between people who followed Paul and people who followed this guy named Apollos, and they were divided. But check out this truth here in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 5, you can always turn 1 Corinthians 3, verse 5, he says who then is Paul and who is Apollos? But ministers through whom you believed as the Lord gave to each one. Now check it out. This is verse 6,.
Speaker 1:
I planted Apollos water, but God gave the increase, and that really is kind of important. If God's going to work, he's going to have to make it happen. So many times again we pray about it, we do a little work, we pass off some verses to people we care about, and that's good, right, we should do that. But then there's a point where you just have to let it go and say God, you're going to have to make it happen, you're going to have to do something. Yeah, we get our hands all muddy with it, right? We get in there, we start working that again and it just gets ugly. Usually it's hard for us to just say God, now you make it grow, you have to take your word and make it grow.
Speaker 1:
And I think Paul just leaves it here. He says moving on, and in verse 13, what does he do? He prays a blessing. That's really a great idea too, right? Just pray that God would bless his word and would bless the people that we care about. Notice verse 13,. It's so beautiful, it's one of a few blessings. Here. At the end of the book it sounds like he's closing, but he's not yet. But notice verse 13,. He says now, leaving all that behind. 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. So let's just soak in this last verse here, in verse 13 for today, soaking in the God of hope, the God of hope. What a great way to look at who God is. He's the God of hope.
Speaker 1:
Now, first off, we need to think about what hope is, because we have kind of a wrong idea of hope In our minds. You know, hope is more of a wishful thinking kind of thing. I sure hope the weather is going to be nice later on today. Wishful thinking in some cases. Right, it may be, but we hope in spite of everything, I hope. I sure hope I win the lottery. Well, why are you playing the lottery? It's kind of a waste of money. But anyways, all of that we said we hope Something that we just didn't. You know, the chances are really nothing, right, I just sure hope that it works out. That's not who God is. God is not the God that we just hope.
Speaker 1:
Wishful thinking in hope in the Christian sense, is a confidence of coming good, ultimate coming good. It's a confidence, it's a knowing, not just a wishful thinking kind of thing. It's hope that the kingdom of God is coming. We've been reading through on Wednesday nights, the book of Daniel, and Daniel presents us in many different ways. Man's kingdoms will come and go, but eventually God's kingdom will be here and it will be forever. And we look at that and we go. Well, I look at the world and I sure hope God's kingdom. But here's the reality One day God will actually rule and reign. No more of these political wranglings and all this junk, but God's going to be the one who rules and reigns. That's reality and we look forward to that.
Speaker 1:
As we can get discouraged with the way things are in life, we look forward to that truth that God, your kingdom, will come. There's a hope that we have of heaven heaven, the final destination, and the God of hope is there. So we look at life, as difficult it is, and we know that our final destination if we're his and he's ours, our final destination is going to be heaven, no matter how bad it gets. My future is a slam dunk. Now, this hope just trusting this God of hope should taint our present too. I might not see the end of every difficulty in my life, but Romans 8, 28,. We understand this hope. God causes all things to work together for good. To them, that love God called according to his purpose. There's this hope, god. I don't see how it's going to work out, but, god, you're going to work it out for the very best in the end. Now, of course, we have to trust him for what that means. But that's hope. Paul calls God here the God of hope. New Living Translation is good on this too. He says God the source of hope. And that's it. Now. Notice. He says may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace.
Speaker 1:
Joy is also one of those things that we kind of have a rough idea about. Joy we look at as happiness and excitement, everything's going my way, kind of thing. Joy. Joy is not necessarily happiness, although it's included some happy things in our life. But joy is based on that same hope that we've been talking about. Check it out.
Speaker 1:
Joy is trusting God's faithfulness, who he is and what he says. It's not a name it and claim it kind of thing. But there is this just trust God. I know you're going to work this out. Even though I'm going through it, I can have joy. Notice he says joy and peace. He could throw a couple of things together. Joy and peace would be great to have in your life. Peace is related to joy there. It's an assurance. Now, check it out. Peace in our life is an assurance. Just resting in who God is and what he said, resting in God's faithfulness. God's been faithful in the past, he's faithful in the present and we know he can't be anything else in the future. God is going to be faithful, but check it out.
Speaker 1:
We see these things demonstrated, I think, even in the lives of the martyrs. Remember when Stephen was really going through it? They surrounded him and they gnashed their teeth at him. That's ugly thought. Right, those people gnashed their teeth at him, said a lot of ugly things to him. No doubt they charged Adam with rocks and in Acts it says that they saw Stephen's face and he looked like an angel. Now, I have no idea why they thought, yeah, that's what an angel looks like, but I think it was this peace that passes, understanding, like Paul talks about. It was just this radical, crazy kind of assurance. God, I'm not liking this, but you're going to be faithful.
Speaker 1:
Now Stephen actually saw into heaven. He cries out and says and I see Jesus standing by the right hand of the Father, and they just got so mad at him. But there was this peace in this just confidence. God, you're going to work this out for best. I'm sure you didn't love it, but there was peace and there was joy as his eyes were on this God of hope, right.
Speaker 1:
So Paul here says may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and, believing that, you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit, abound in hope. There. The idea is super abound, super abound in hope, just overflowing in hope in your life, man, we need that. Life is very discouraging, no matter where you're at right now in life. Life can be very tiring, discouraging, and Paul here praises blessing over them. May you just super abound in hope. Now check it out, though. That's not just throwing good feelings. You know we say stuff like that, you know so we don't get in trouble on Facebook, right. Throw in some good thoughts your way, whatever that means, you know right. But we do say that. But notice, he says by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:
So here Paul once again asks God, god, give him just a supernatural overflowing hope, just like the love that we're expected to show people, just a supernatural overflowing love for people around us. We absolutely need God for this. We're desperate. We try to work hope up in our own hearts and kind of just talk ourselves into it. It's only going to go so far, right, but we absolutely need a miracle in our hearts to hold on to hope, to experience joy. That doesn't make sense. To experience peace. Like Paul says, that passes understanding Doesn't make sense. We absolutely need God for that.
Speaker 1:
And here Paul throws a blessing their way. You could say Not a bad way to be, to just wish, not wish, just pray God's blessing on people in your life. Man, do that maybe this week. Pick your list of people that are in your life and God just bless them. Lead it to a place where they can experience your blessing. If it's repentance, man, lead them to repentance, god, whatever it is. If it's just strength for somebody who's suffering, god, give them that hope. Just lead them by your spirit to the God of hope that you'd experience all joy, fill you with all joy and peace and believing and just trusting God.
Speaker 1:
And so Paul here is continuing on Little bit of encouragement, a little bit of blessing, and in God, what else can we really say? It's not good thoughts that we need, and it's not just a hopeful feeling, but God, we absolutely need you, and apart from you there's no hope in our life. God, we've realized that at the beginning of all this, that we were so lost, we were so just strangers from you, and yet you brought us in because of Jesus. God, I know that apart from you, there is no hope. God, I know that even apart from you, there's no real joy, there's definitely no peace.
Speaker 1:
God, we need our hearts turned towards you, so we pray that you would do that. We pray for those that we love and are concerned about in our lives, even now, that you would do the same. God, whatever it takes, lead them to you. God, you're so good and you're so kind to us, so faithful God. We remember your compassion that when we were lost, you took time and went after us. God, in all these things in our life you've been so good. I pray that as we face another week, we need your strength. Pray that you would fill us with your spirit. We pray that we would just be totally given over to you and all that you have. God, use these things in our life and pray in Jesus name Amen.