Sermons on Romans 15:12

… from the root of Jesse, rising up and receiving praise from among all the nations, Jews and Gentiles alike. Romans 15.12. The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles. In him will the Gentiles, will all the nations hope. And the picture is Paul saying, this has been the purpose of God all along. Everything God has done in the world. All throughout the Old Testament now and the New Testament, God's purpose has always been, will always be to form a people from among all peoples for the praise of his name. This is why Jesus came. This is why Jesus died, to fulfill that purpose, to make that people from among all peoples a reality. So step back then and get the picture. What's God doing in the world right now in 2014? Here's what he's doing. He's doing what he's been doing from the beginning of history, He's doing what he was doing when he sent Christ 2,000 years ago. He's forming a people from among all peoples for the praise of his name. …

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You may be seated. Wow. In opening up this study and looking at this study regarding the perfect gospel, we put that couched in the sentence being finished that the perfect gospel is actually God communicating to us. Of course, the gospel itself, the evangel, is that which is to be taken out. It is to be put forth through the world. Those of us who are Christ followers, one of the great passions that God puts within us, and it's also very terrifying, I want to say that, it's not easy to share the gospel with the lost world. We've got the perfect gospel, but we hesitate and we're terrified because we're in the flesh and we don't know what they're going to respond to us. where you get a little scared, but the Spirit of God prompts us. And I hope you've shared the gospel with people. I don't care how long you've ever done it. I think you always will experience a little sense of hesitation that you got to break through that cautiousness because it's not of the flesh. It's of the Spirit of God. And we kind of hesitate. Like you're in the store, for example, and you see somebody. And for some reason, you have this prompting, I should tell them about Jesus. …

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You've just heard the very Word of God. Please be seated. Let's pray. Again, our Father, we look to You for assistance in helping us to understand Your Word, helping us to receive that Word, and to receive it gladly, not grudgingly, that our lives may be brought more and more into conformity with the image of Jesus, whom we serve. For we ask it in His name. Amen. As I mentioned earlier, Paul's treatment of this question of how we regard the weaker brother in things that are audiophorous, that is, of things that don't have any intrinsic or inherent ethical bearing, but which some people may or may not have scruples about was a matter so serious to the apostle that he dealt with it at great length here in Romans and also in his correspondence to the Corinthian church. Also it was part of the substance of his writing to the Galatians, and it was also very much at the center of the debate in the first century church of how the Jewish converts were to receive and deal with the Gentiles as the gospel was expanded to them, and they were given full membership in the New Covenant community. So this was a matter of great urgency to the apostle, And as we've seen already in chapter 14, that Paul reiterates the same point again and again, that you may find tiresome, but that he stresses so that we will indeed get the point that he is communicating. And so, let's again look at verse 19 that I went over briefly last week. …

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