10-30-11 Hope

Our study of Paul’s letter to the Romans

brings us this morning to the final 13 verses in the main body of the letter.

There are some personal concluding comments still to come,

but the highly organized and structured section of this remarkable letter

concludes with 15:13.

We ended our study last week

with the last verse in chapter 14,

and during the next few minutes

we’ll see how Paul pulls together this final section of his letter

in the first 13 verses of chapter 15.

As we have moved through the 14^th chapter

we have seen Paul offering us the tools we need

for the proper use of our freedom in Christ.

We’ve seen him share with us

the way in which all true growth in Christ

moves us from rules

into a growing relationship with Christ in which the rules are replaced

by a growing ability to know the mind and heart of our God.

We have also seen him tell us

that, with all of us,

there will be places in our lives

where our Lord will establish some personal protective fences

that guard us against falling back into destructive behavior patterns from our past.

And we have seen him offering us

the three guidelines

that enable us to live truly free within the family of God

without having that freedom damage our relationships with one another

or hinder either our own or our fellow Christian’s continued growth in righteousness.

1. Those who are stronger in faith

are to accept and support the weaker in faith.

2. We are responsible for one another

but we are accountable to God.

3. And then finally, the goal in each of our relationships with one another

is that we live in such a way

that we do not place an obstacle or a stumbling block in a fellow Christian’s way.

And now, in these final 13 verses,

Paul pulls together the heart of what he has been trying to share with us throughout the 14^th chapter,

and then he points us to two remarkable sources of strength and encouragement

for all who accept the calling offered to us by our Lord.

And he begins this section

with 5 fascinating words.

He begins in verse 15:1 by saying,

“Now we who are strong...”

Nearly everything we have in the New Testament written by Paul

is written to the entire Body of Christ,

from the baby Christian

to the most mature believer who has ever lived,

from those who are struggling with their faith or their conduct

to those who stand strong and secure in their Lord.

But right here,

in the first 3 verses of Romans 15,

Paul severely narrows his target audience.

He says in effect, “I have a closed communication for those of you who believe yourselves to be strong in the Lord.”

And I have to admit

that what Paul does here fascinates me.

You see, when he uses those 5 words,

“Now we who are strong...”,

he gets the attention of two distinctly different groups of people.

First of all

he gets the attention of those who truly are strong,

those who know they have grown into a level of maturity that brings with it

certain responsibilities and obligations within the family of God.

But he also gets the attention

of a second group of people -

those who believe themselves to be strong in the faith

but who are not really,

or who are not acting the way the strong should act.

During my first few years as a Christian

I spent some time in a branch of the Body of Christ

in which there was a clearly defined group of men who were widely recognized as the great ones in the faith.

Most of those in this elite group had at least some national reputation.

There names were well known to those of us in the group,

and their presence at a rally or a church service would pack the place.

They all seemed to possess both great insight

and great authority in the church.

And I think they would all have mentally placed themselves in that group of “...we who are strong...”.

But now, looking back on those men,

in the light of what Paul says to us in these first 3 verses of Romans 15,

I see it so differently than I did then.

A few of those men really were strong in the Lord,

but many of them were simply building their own little kingdoms,

using the people of God for their own ends,

with no understanding of the true measure of strength.

For, you see, when Paul talks to those who are strong

he shares with them

the true test of real maturity.

He says,

ROM 15:1 Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves.

ROM 15:2 Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification.

ROM 15:3 For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me."

He tells us that those who are truly strong in the faith

will use that strength

not to elevate themselves,

certainly not to gather a following,

but rather to bear the weaknesses

of those around them who lack strength,

to hold them up,

and support them,

and encourage them in their weakness.

And then Paul points us back

to the greatest example of what he’s talking about

that the world will ever have.

He points us back to Christ Himself.

Here is God Himself in human form

living in the heat,

and the smells,

and the confusion,

and the crowds that surrounded Him for most of His time on this earth.

Here is the One person who possesses all strength,

all authority,

all power.

And He allows us, His creation,

to attack Him,

to abuse Him,

to literally crucify Him,

obviously not because He was weak,

but rather because His love for us

caused Him to do whatever He had to do

in order to be able to use His strength

for us -

for our redemption,

and our healing,

and our freedom.

Paul’s point is obvious -

true Christian strength can be recognized

because where it exists

it is not used to build kingdoms or gather a following for our own pleasure or profit.

It is used to stand with,

and hold up,

and encourage those who are weak,

or in pain,

or in need of help.

Which means, of course,

that the real thing is very seldom visible

to any but those who are being helped.

Then, after sharing with us the nature of true Christian strength,

in verse 4 Paul goes on to reveal to us

the source of hope in the Christian’s life.

And if I you tune into what I say for just 5 minutes this morning

I do hope it will be these next five minutes.

The verse itself says,

“ROM 15:4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Now, before we talk about those two sources of hope

I want to say a few words about hope itself.

The word “hope” is used in Scripture

in a very different way

than it is used in normal conversation.

In normal conversation we’ll say things like,

“I sure hope I do OK on that test.”

“I hope she feels about me

the same way I feel about her.”

or maybe,

“I hope I get picked for the team.”

or “I hope our trip goes OK”.

or “I hope I win the lottery.”

In other words,

we use the word “hope”

to describe something that we really want to happen,

but that we’re not at all sure will ever take place.

That is not the way the word is used in Scripture.

The best definition I could give you for hope as it is used in Scripture

is that Biblical hope is a future certainty.

It is something that will take place,

without question,

without doubt.

It is as certain as God Himself.

There is a beautiful word picture of Biblical hope given to us in Hebrews 6:19-20.

In context

the author of Hebrews is talking about

the absolute certainty

that God will keep every promise He has ever made to us.

In verse 17 of the 6^th chapter of Hebrews

we are described as “the heirs of the promise”

and the author talks about God’s absolute commitment to bless all those who take refuge in Him.

And then, in verses 19-20 he says,

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever ...

OK, he begins the word picture

by describing true Biblical hope

as “an anchor of the soul”.

That in itself is thrilling.

That word soul in this context

means simply the human personality.

It includes our intellect,

our emotions,

our will,

our whole psychological makeup.

He’s talking about all of those things

that combine to make us a total, unique creation of God.

And he is telling us that there is something

that can serve as an anchor for the human personality.

And just so we don’t loose sight of what he’s really talking about here,

let’s drop it into our own cultural setting.

With all of our wealth,

all of our affluence,

all of our military might,

all of our remarkable political stability in this country,

still we are a nation of people

whose stress levels are consistently at the extreme.

Even though we now live in a post-Bin Laden world,

with the mastermind of the greatest terrorist attack against the US dead,

still the possibility of further such attacks

remains an ever present reality, sitting just at the back of most Americans minds.

And even though we have now, at least at some level weathered the massive financial melt-down

that took place both in our nation and in our world a few years ago,

still, having gone through such a time once,

we now live our lives always aware that such a thing could happen again.

And not only do most people have no true anchor for their souls,

but most of them

spend most of their time feeling as though they are being battered by life from every side.

And when Hebrews talks about the promises of our God

providing us with an “anchor for our soul”,

he wants to create for us

a mental picture of what we already possess.

But the picture does not stop there.

He goes on to describe our hope,

our soul anchor,

as being “both sure and steadfast”.

I remember when I was a kid

going down with my family

to the waterfront in Seattle

and seeing the freighters tied up to the piers.

And I remember seeing the massive anchors hanging from the bows of those ships,

suspended from chains

made from links that were as thick as my wrist.

It’s that kind of anchor he’s talking about.

And we know it is

because of the way he completes this word picture.

He tells us that this hope-anchor given to us by our God

is “one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever...”

And here’s what he’s talking about.

When a huge ship would approach a port in the Roman world

it would often be impossible for it to maneuver within the port itself.

So it would stop just at the entrance to the port,

drop it’s sails,

and wait until the forerunner came to its assistance.

The forerunner was a much smaller ship

that would come along side the larger vessel

and allow the larger ship to drop its anchor onto the deck of the forerunner.

Then, as the larger ship let out line,

the forerunner would take the ship’s anchor all the way into port

and fasten it securely at the dock reserved for the larger ship.

Then, all the crew had to do

was to reel in their anchor chain

until it pulled them right into shore.

There was no guesswork.

There was no danger.

There was no possibility of loss or of error

because the anchor was already there.

And look what the author of Hebrews does with that illustration.

He says, This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever ...

He says that, even though we are still bobbing around here in this world,

and even though the gusts of wind still blast us at times,

and the waves still slap us around,

Christ Himself has already taken our anchor

and carried it beyond the veil,

beyond the barrier between this physical world and the unseen spirit world around us,

beyond the barrier between this life and eternity,

and He has taken our anchor

into the very presence of God Himself,

and He has hooked it onto the very throne of God.

That’s Biblical hope.

That’s the anchor for our soul,

an anchor that has nothing whatsoever to do with luck,

or chance,

or circumstances,

or fate.

It is an anchor that is as certain as God Himself

because it is based upon the words of God Himself.

Now, let’s drop back into Romans 8

and see the two things that have the ability to bring that kind of hope into our lives.

And Paul says,

ROM 15:4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Now, in context, of course,

we’ve seen that Paul is talking to us

about our using our strength

to support and encourage those around us who are weak.

But he knows that when we start doing that,

unless we have strong Biblical hope holding us up

we will get discouraged,

or frightened,

or overwhelmed very quickly.

When we begin to reach out to those around us,

when we try to help them where they are weak,

there are a whole bunch of lies that can easily invade our minds

unless we have that hope anchor keeping us secure.

They are lies like,

“The past always determines the future.

Who a person has been will determine who they will become.”

or “There are some people,

some situations,

some circumstances,

some weaknesses,

some addictions that are simply beyond the grace of God.”

I’ve heard lies like that

and when I do they make me angry.

Sometimes the sound like this:

“God gives each of us one chance to repent and recover from past sin addictions,

and if we don’t pull it off the first time

there’s no second chance.”

Lies!

All lies designed by Satan

to rob us of the power of the hope God has given us through Christ.

And Paul tells us in this passage

that the hope we need will become a growing reality to us through two sources.

One of them, of course, is the one we would expect -

the encouragement of the Scriptures.

He is talking about the words our God has spoken to us about who we are,

about our future with Him,

about the future of our world,

about the nature of His life within us,

and on and on.

JER 29:11 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

HAB 2:14 "For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea.

ROM 8:1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

JUD 1:24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy...

ISA 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners;

ISA 61:2 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,

ISA 61:3 To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.

And on and on and on.

All promises,

all truths as certain as God Himself.

But there is one other ingredient in this hope as well,

and this one may surprise you.

Paul says that our hope comes through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures...

And I’ll tell you what I believe he’s talking about.

He is talking about that process

in which we each build up for ourselves

our own personal history with God,

a history that has the ability

to make it easier for us to trust God in the future.

When he talks to us about perseverance,

he is telling us that every step forward we take

makes it a little easier to take the next step

because we can look back and see

that our God has brought us this far.

And I’m not just talking about an old age thing here.

I can remember at the end of the first year I spent in Trinidad

my fellow missionaries gave me a little going away party.

At the time I’d only been a Christian about 5 years.

And I remember asking one of the missionary couples

if they would sing for me that song that contains the words, “We’ve come this far by faith, trusting in His Word...”

I needed that truth then every bit as much

as I need it now, more than 40 years latter,

because even then I could look back just a little ways

and see my God’s love

and His faithfulness

and His redemptive work in me,

and draw hope,

draw the assurance of His continued work in me in the future.

Well, I’ll let you finish the rest of these 13 verses on your own,

and I’ll help you out with it

by saying that in verses 4-7 he gives us his final plea for unity in the body,

the kind of unity that can only come

from each of us using whatever strength we have to help those who are in need of support,

and then in verses 8-13

he illustrates the way in which we can draw hope from what God has said

by offering us a number of quotations from the Old Testament prophets.

And with that we’ll end for the morning.