That is why I have often been hindered from coming to you.Therefore also I was hindered these many times from coming to you,For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you.Wherefore also I was hindered these many times from coming to you:
4 sermons cite this verse
I'm grateful to be with all of you today and for the love of God the Scripture is teaching us in Romans chapter 15 verses 22 to 29. And if you would, I'll read the first verse if you'll pick it up and read it on verse 23rd. You guys will be reading the odd numbered verses. And are you guys ready? I know it's first service. I always like bragging about you guys to second and third, especially third service. third service is a hard they're a hard Ken Ham asked me the other week do you know you have like three different churches that attend here in one day that's true every church has its personality it's remarkable it's really remarkable but you guys are nice and loud third service I like to be able to say can third service read it louder than first service and they go I don't know we don't know if we but it's beautiful the Lord hears it nonetheless amen for this reason I also have been much hindered says the Apostle Paul from coming to you But now I'm no longer having a place in these parts and having a great desire these many years to come to you. …
… I trust that that's true. Today we're going to be looking at a message out of Romans chapter 15, verses 22 to 29, and that titled message is for the love of God. For the love of God and the apostle Paul now in his closing arguments and his closing comments to the church that is in Rome, he's writing from Corinth, Greece. I will read the first verse if you'll pick it up in the odd numbered verse. We'll read down to the end of verse 29. Paul says, for this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you. But now no longer having a place in these parts and having a great desire these many years to come to you. Whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey and to be helped on my way there by you. If first I may enjoy your company for a while. But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. …
So last week, I used some maps that talked about how Paul and Barnabas left Antioch to spread the gospel where it hadn't gone. So let's pick back up where we left off last week with these maps. So Antioch's over here on the far right, eastern part of this map. The pinkish-reddish arrows represent Paul and Barnabas going out from Antioch, going and taking the gospel to places where it not yet gone. In all these cities, they're sharing the gospel. People are coming to faith in Christ. They're gathering together in churches. The blue arrows represent them coming back to Antioch. So that was Paul's first journey into places where the gospel had not yet gone, sent out by the church at Antioch. That set the stage for the second journey he took. Antioch, again, over here on the right, he goes north, this time with Silas. They pick up Timothy along the way. They're going into places where he's already gone, and that's when God says, I want you to go to new places where the gospel is not yet gone. So they go up north to Philippi, Thessalonica, down to Corinth. We were reading 2 Corinthians last week, Athens, Ephesus, all these places where people are coming to faith in Jesus for the first time. Churches are starting for the first time. They go down to Jerusalem, and then they go back to Antioch. Again, that was kind of home base for Paul. That then sets the stage for his third journey. This time he leaves Antioch, and you'll notice he goes to all the …
… And then in verse 22 he says, it's because of this, that is because he keeps going to all these different places, that I have been much hindered from coming to you. But now no longer having a place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come to you, whenever I journey to Spain I shall come to you. After Paul ever got to Spain, we don't know. Scholars are divided on that point, but we have no, you know, absolute certain evidence that he ever reached the fulfillment of his desire to get to Spain. We do know that he got to Rome, but he didn't get to Rome because it was on the way to Spain. He went to Rome in chains after getting himself in trouble with the Jews and then with the as we've seen in the book of Acts. He said, "'Whatever, however, whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you, for I hope to see you on my journey and to be helped on my way there by you, if I first may enjoy your company for a while.'" Here's a church that Paul has heard about, whose fame has gone into the whole world, that he was not the founder of the church in Rome. But he's writing this letter to the church of Rome. He counts them, his brothers and sisters in the Lord, and he longs to see them in person. …