What a joy to be with you this morning.
Heritage Church. When Hudson mentioned being
here, we were very, very just looking forward to the
opportunity. But then when I started thinking
about the topic, this was just a special time.
We're going to be in Romans chapter 15 in just a moment.
We'll read verses 20 and 21, but it'll be a while before we get
there. We'll make our way there walking
through the chapter. But it was a very, very just fun
time for me to think about Romans chapter 15 because it
goes back guys here on the 2nd row when Kay and I were students
at Oklahoma Baptist University. And so when we were students at
OBU, I was in a group that, in that that asked us to pick a
life's verse. And so as I did that, I, I
picked 1. And it's a good verse.
It's in the Bible. There's nothing wrong with it.
As a matter of fact, I'm going to be preaching on it next
Sunday morning in Texas. So it's kind of like these two
things have come together. Because you can tell by the way
I said that I didn't stay with that life verse.
It wasn't much of A life verse because in my opinion, it wasn't
the Holy Spirit. He led me to it, but it was my
best intentions. So it was a little while after
that still students at Oklahoma Baptist University, a new
translation of the Bible had come out called the New
International Version. I know now it's the old in
anyway anyway it's been around for decades.
But anyway, back then it really was new.
OK, the name was appropriate for a while.
So anyway, the New International Version in Second Corinthians
chapter 5 verse 9, Paul says we make it our goal to be pleasing
to him, whether at home in the body or away from it.
And I thought, oh, if Paul made that his goal, why shouldn't I
make that my goal? And so I switched verses.
By the way, I've stayed with these, so it's good, OK?
But we make it our goal to be pleasing to him.
And that was the desire that I focused on then the Holy Spirit
guided me to to see that actually that word make it my
goal. Paul uses three times.
The 1st in order of his writings was First Thessalonians 4 where
he says make it your goal. It's a in a command form.
Make it your goal to work with your own hands and mind your own
business as I commanded you, as I instructed you.
And then the the next in order would have been my second
Corinthians passage. And then the last time Paul uses
that word is in Romans chapter 15.
So this verse has been on my radar because actually I have a
life verb now. I want to work with my own hands
and mind my business. I want to be pleasing to him,
and then I want to be the one who gets to share the gospel
where he's not known. Romans chapter 15.
So we're going back 40 years. For Kay and me, it was 40 years
ago this fall that we were named as Foreign Mission Board
missionaries, and then further back than that when, when I was
a student. So would you stand with me as we
read? We're going to start with our
text, which will be verses 15, I mean verses 19 through 21.
But we'll, we'll make our way there slowly.
Paul says by power of signs and wonders, I liked faith and all
the rest of the praise band. I liked how we were singing
about the wonders that Jesus provides.
Paul says I fulfill the ministry of the gospel of Christ.
We're going to come back to that word fulfilled.
It's a big deal for Paul. Thus I make it my ambition.
There's the word. Have it as your gold.
Make it your aim, make it your ambition to preach the gospel.
Not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on
someone else's foundation, but as it is written.
Those who have never been told of him.
We'll see. Those who have never heard will
understand. Let's bow together for prayer,
and then we'll look at the passage.
Father, we humble ourselves before you, Holy Spirit, who
guided Paul to write these words.
I'm asking that you would give ears to hear in this room what
the Spirit's saying through the Word.
We're asking, Father, that everyone who wants to hear from
God this morning would I ask it in Jesus name, Amen.
You may be seated. Well, if you want to turn one
book back to the left, let's get the setting for Romans.
It's right at the beginning of Acts chapter 20.
So in Acts chapter 20, the uproar ceased in Ephesus.
Remember, Paul stayed there a long time, but he still got run
out of town. Paul sent for the disciples,
encouraged him, said farewell, departed for Macedonia.
So we know from looking at 2nd Corinthians carefully that Paul
writes, writes Second Corinthians from Macedonia and,
and we don't know for sure, but but while he's in Macedonia, up
there at the top of Greece, he's actually close to Illyricum.
And so either he would say he's in the in the province next to
Illyricum or else he may have taken a little day trip.
Well be more than that, but he could have taken a few days and
traveled across the good Roman roads over into a lyricum which
will be in our text. And so we find here that he he
lightly in verse one has just written Second Corinthians.
Remember in the Corinthians he started talking about the
regions beyond, that the Holy Spirit was gripping his heart.
He had been faithful from Jerusalem around to Illyricum,
but for some time now he's been talking about regions beyond.
It's gripped, it's gripped missionaries hearts for
centuries. The regions beyond verse verse 2
and of Acts chapter 20. We're getting to our setting
there. He spent three months.
He came to Greece at the end of verse one.
I'm sorry, verse 2 when he had gone through these regions and
given them much encouragement, he came to Greece.
Ah, that's where he is when he writes Romans.
So probably the writing of Romans is right here at Acts
chapter 20, verse two and three. There he spent three months when
a plot was made against him by the Jews.
As he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return
through Macedonia. So we have the setting for the
book of Romans. Now let's narrow in a little bit
more. Remember the book of Romans, he
start, he, he starts off talking about how salvation by works
doesn't work. And, and so, so we have
everyone's under sin and, and that that the purpose of the law
was not to give righteousness, but it was to show people they
needed a sacrifice all through the Old Testament.
They needed someone who would pay the price for their sins.
The price was death and a substitute could pay it.
So remember he's picking up on that Old Testament theme of
justification by faith. So he talks about salvation.
Then he talks about what does this mean if salvation is coming
through Jesus Christ, what does that mean for Israel?
And he talks about that. And then he talks some about
about how we live in chapter 15. We're near the end in, in Moose
commentary, he, he comments on how this is where some people
start checking out. And I just think, no, no, don't
do that. This is getting to the the
really applicable part in so many ways for for throughout
church history, many who have felt Paul's same focus on the
nations. So we we get to chapter 15 now.
Now I mentioned the nations because the chapter 15 mentions
the nations more than any other chapter in the Bible.
Romans uses the word ethnos ethne 23 times.
Acts has used it 44 times. So he's not in first place, but
it's the second most. Romans uses the word we, we, we
translate it Gentiles, we translate it nations.
We, we translated a number of different ways, but it's just
ETHN. So kind of like ethnicities or
something like that might be one way to think about it.
So so this chapter talks about the nation's more than any other
chapter in the New Testament. And so actually the the ESV does
a good job of catching that notice above verse 8 that the
heading that they put in there for that paragraph is Christ,
the hope of and they put in of Jews, which is barely mentioned
at the beginning of the paragraph, but it's Christ, the
hope of Jews and Gentiles, Gentiles, that's their our word,
the the word for the nations. And then dropping down to verse
14, Paul, the minister to the Gentiles.
So he's, he switched his focus. Now he's going to get personal
and say, I'm going to a new place and I want you to help me.
But he's introducing the theme of the nations as part of why
Christ ministered. And, and so that's where we are
in the book of Romans. Now let's, let's, let's do one
more thing to get the setting. Let's go back to Romans chapter
1. You see the nations is not
something new in Romans. I said that this book uses its
second most of all the New Testament, but but it's from the
very beginning. Gary Smith and his commentary
comments on in Acts chapter 15. He's returning to his original
theme for the whole book. Listen to Romans chapter one,
verse 5, through whom we have received grace and apostleship
to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name
among all the nations. That's our word.
And so from the beginning in the introduction, Paul has said, I'm
writing to you and I'm going to be Christ has the the the seed
of David, the the one who's the Son of God.
Christ has made me a part of a ministry that's focused on
getting the gospel to the nations.
And so we have this central idea, a focus on the nations.
That shouldn't have surprised us, should it?
A focus on the nations. Let's maybe I'm turning too
much, but if you want to go back about 3 or 4 pages from Romans
one, let's look at Acts chapter 26 and and catch Paul's
description of the day he was saved.
I love it how in Acts 9 we have Paul's conversion, but then in
22 we have him telling his testimony to a group of Jews in
Jerusalem. But then in chapter 26 we have
him repeating his testimony when he's not talking to Jews.
So look at Acts chapter 26. Let's start, say in verse 16,
rise, stand on your feet. I've appeared to you for this
purpose to appoint you as a servant and witness to the
things which you've seen and those in which I will appear to
you, delivering you from your people and for the from the
Gentiles to whom I am sending you.
So from the time that Paul, blinded by the light, was told
to stand on his feet, from that moment he was told, here's your
assignment, Paul, I'm sending you to the nations.
Well, actually, Genesis 11 could have told us the focus was
bigger than Shawnee Pottawattamie County.
Kay's from Oklahoma City. I'm from Claremore.
No, he's not the creator of the United States.
He's not the creator of the West.
In the beginning he created the heavens and the earth or in or
in Genesis chapter 12, when he when he begins to call the first
of the patriarchs, Abraham, and he tells Abraham, he gives a
promise to Abraham alluded in our text.
The promise given to Abraham was that through your seed who's
going to be blessed? All the families of the earth
and the the word nations is used when that passage is quoted in
Galatians chapter 3. So when Paul quotes the call of
Abraham, he uses this focus on the nations because from Genesis
one, our God is not a small God. He's the creator of heaven and
earth. From Genesis chapter 12, His
desire is to bless his children so that the ends of the earth
might be blessed. What an amazing Psalm to choose
for this morning's worship time. Psalm 67 I'm going to bless my
people so that there's a purpose there.
And the purpose for his people being blessed is so that the
ends of the earth can know of the salvation that he provides.
So we we shouldn't be surprised that there's a focus on the ends
of the earth. Matthew chapter 28.
What's the crescendo of the first Gospel in our New
Testament? The the crescendo Abraham was
mentioned in chapter 1 and David was mentioned in chapter 2 and
in chapter 1. And then as Matthew comes to the
conclusion, he says all the nations reflecting Abraham and
he talks about the authority reflecting David and he gives
the Great Commission that actually textually, there's no
reason we can't say it's not for every single Christian.
Amen. And every single Christian is
told make disciples. Perhaps command, go.
Perhaps as you're going, the text can go either way, but
here's the command of the Commission.
Make disciples where? Of all nations, among all the
nations, what's turn with me to Luke chapter 24, if you will?
We're looking at how we should not be surprised that Romans
chapter 15 is highlighting the nations.
Genesis started with it. The psalmist is clear about it,
but there's a there's a crescendo that the Matthew's
gospel is pointing to one thing and that is the crescendo.
The focal point of the gospel is make disciples of all nations.
In Luke chapter 24 we find how Luke brings his gospel to a
crescendo and that is with the risen Lord among the disciples
on resurrection night. And then we have this crazy
amazing thing that takes place. Look at Luke chapter 24, verse
46. Then he said to them, These are
the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, and
everything written about me in the law of Moses and the
prophets, the Psalms must be fulfilled.
Listen to verse 45. Then He, who is he?
The risen Lord, then He open their minds to understand the
scriptures. Ding Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding.
This is the time to wake up. The risen Lord is about to help
them understand the Bible. OK, this is sweet.
OK, anybody here want to have God, Jesus Christ to give you a
short insight to understand your Bible?
Whoa now, catch what he says He said to them.
Thus it is written, and we're told He's about to help them
understand the Scriptures. The Christ should suffer and on
the third day rise from the dead.
Repentance and forgiveness of sin should be proclaimed in His
name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
The risen Lord says. Here are the two parts.
Here are the 2 main points of the Bible.
The Old Testament Messiah is going to come and pay for sins.
If you don't think that's worthy of being the first major point
of scripture, stop and think where you would be for eternity
without your Savior. Now this is a big deal.
Messiah is going to come because man is in sin and has no hope of
salvation. And God is going to send the
second person of the Trinity, God the Son, who's going to take
on human flesh so that he can be the one who is the sacrifice,
the substitute. But catch the second part of
what Jesus said the scriptures are about.
The scriptures are about Messiah is going to come and that
mission is supposed to follow. That is that repentance for his
name in his name would be proclaimed to all the nations.
And so we find the focal point of Jesus explanation of all of
scripture includes the nations. John has a different focal
point, of course. Mark, we're not real sure what
the ending first was, but but if Mark 1615 is correct, it ends
with a command to preach to every creature, which then
clarifies there's no confusion if if it's close to anything
human, preach to it. Preach to every creature.
Mark's ending John is going to focus on my Lord and my God is
going to be the the climactic statement at the end of his
gospel. So he's going somewhere
different. So he sneaks in the quote John
316. I'm kind of slow.
I hope you guys caught this. Maybe by the time you're in
college, I was maybe 8 or 9, maybe 10 years.
No, no, it was less than that seven or eight years after
college before I caught this. Who does God love?
God loves the world. It finally occurred to me if if
I don't love the world, I don't love like God does, if I love
anything less than the world, I've not yet been conformed into
his image in that area of my life.
If I have his heart, then I'll love the world like he does.
So so the first thing we've done in Romans chapter 15 is we've
seen this focus on the nation's shouldn't surprise us, but now
let's drop down. Well, actually we will stay
earlier. Let's walk through verse 8.
So what is God's plan for the nation's?
So this focus on the nation's, what's God's plan for the
nation's? Well, actually Romans 15 gives
us this amazing outline. Look at look at verse.
Look at verse 9 where he quotes from second Samuel 22.
Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to
your name. Then he quotes from Deuteronomy
32 and he says, rejoice, O Gentiles.
Remember all these are nations, ethne rejoice, O Gentiles with
his people. By the way, I love the
progression that's in these verses.
So in in in verse nine, the first quote, who is praising
God? Not the nations.
In verse 9, who is praising God? The servant of God who's gone to
the nations. So the servant of God is in the
middle of the nations and he's praising God in the middle of
the nations. And now in verse 10, the nations
are starting to join in. Notice who does the praising
rejoice? Oh, Gentiles with his people.
Now the Gentiles are joining in. Now look at verse 11 where he
quotes from Psalm 117. Praise the Lord, all you
Gentiles. Where's the servant in verse?
In verse 11, not even mentioned. Now the Gentiles are praising
God. As a matter of fact, it's pantha
ethne. It's it's all the nations.
The exact same quote from Matthew.
And actually it's a command here in the Greek.
In other words, in other words, whether or not Psalms 117 was a
command, the book of Romans has it as a command.
And the command is praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, all the
nations, let all the peoples praise him.
And then verse 12 quotes from Isaiah 11.
The root of Jesse will come even who rises to rule the Gentiles.
In him will all the Gentiles hope.
Oh, do you see what happens when one of God's servants goes to
the nations and lives out the Christ's life, praising Him in
their presence, and the first fruits begin to come in and they
start to praise with the servant, and then they are
praising Him. Guess who?
Those who know the king and the king is ruling over them, guess
what they have? They have hope.
Remember Ephesians chapter 2? Where, where, where, where?
He says you used to be far off. You you, you weren't part of
God's people and you didn't have the promises.
And then he says you were without hope and without God.
Do you remember what it's like to be without hope?
Do you remember where you knew? Deep inside, my family means
well and my friends mean well. But I'm alone in this world
because you were. And you thought.
I don't know exactly what's going to happen after death, but
I don't think it's going to be good because it wasn't.
And do you remember someone explained the cross and that
Jesus paid for your sins, and that not only does salvation
mean that you have eternal life in heaven, but it means that you
have life with God now and love and joy and peace?
Or what God wants to fill up your life and spill out as the
fruit of the Spirit. You see, the hope that we have
in Christ is hope for today, and it's hope for yet forever.
But people who don't know about Jesus do not have hope.
So Paul has described what he desires.
God's plan for the nations is that they would hear about Him
and that they would come to know Him and that they could have
hope. I don't know about you, but
somehow it just seems really wrong to me that people would
hear about Jesus for the first time when they hear Him say
depart from me. Do you know that there are
approximately 2 billion people on planet earth right now who do
not know someone who knows Jesus?
Not only have they not heard the gospel, but if they ask all of
their close friends, not one of them knows Jesus.
It's interesting to me that it was 18 O 4 when the world first
got to 1 billion people. It was 1927 when the world got
to to it's second billion people.
Now we're over 8 billion people. But 2 billion of them don't know
the plan of salvation. They probably have barely heard
about Jesus and it was as a false teaching about a prophet.
They don't know someone who could tell them how to be saved.
And now we get to a concluding part.
We're finally down to Romans 15 verse 20 and 21.
So we've we've talked about the nations and we've talked about
God's plan for the nations. So here's I want us to conclude
thinking about what's my place in God's plan for the nations.
The nations have been his focus from the beginning.
He told us that that's what the Scriptures are about.
So the nations are His focal point.
His plan is for people to hear about His Son and Him and for
Him to receive glory among all peoples.
What's your plan? Where's what's our place here?
Paul comes to my favorite this verb make it your goal.
And he says I make it my ambition to preach the gospel.
Can I can I just say I think it's Scripture is a perfect
text, perfect treasure. It has it's worded exactly
right. Paul didn't say we.
Paul didn't say yuans. He didn't say y'all, he said I.
Now we know from the Great Commission that every, every
believer as they walk through life is supposed to be making
disciples of all nations in just a little bit in our passage
here, Paul's going to tell them I want to come through Rome on
my way to Spain. And when I come through, I'm
counting on you guys to support me financially as I go on to
Spain. Rough, rough, rough paraphrase.
So he's counting on the Romans to support him, much like the
Philippians did. Remember Paul says Paul wrote
the Philippians, and he says from the very beginning, you've
been supporting me financially. And he calls them partners.
So. So some people partner with the
gospel, getting to the ends of the earth by by giving
generously. When this church takes up
offerings for missions, you have something else you could spend
your money on. You have kids or grandkids or
you have think bills to pay at school.
But you give because you have God's heart for the nations and
by your giving you are sharing in the work.
Paul's later on, he's going to, at the end of this chapter, he's
going to say pray earnestly for me.
And that's how many of you are a part of what God's doing in your
day is You're praying earnestly. And when you receive prayer
requests, you're not just glancing over them, but you're
getting them out regularly and you're falling on your knees.
And when God wakes you up in the middle of the night, you're
praying for those. You're sharing in the work by
you're praying in chapter 16, Paul's going to mention Aquila
and Priscilla, and so some of you share in the ministry.
When your church has a mission trip, you go every once in a
while. You've gone several times
throughout your life to the nations, and that's sharing in
the gospel, getting to the ends of the earth.
But that's not what Paul said he could do.
It's not enough for Paul that he prays for somebody else to go.
It wasn't OK for Paul that he gives money for somebody else to
go. It wasn't OK for Paul to do an
occasional trip. Jim in as the choir was singing
Not a call. We heard a call in the night.
You see, there are those who, like Elbert and Kay, we were
minding our own business in Oklahoma when the Holy Spirit
made it clear it was us. We were the ones that were
supposed to go. And I know some of your stories
in this room where you heard. Maybe it was from some of the
songs like we sang this morning, but some people here like the
apostle Paul and they say I have to be the one who goes.
That's my place in the Kingdom. And Paul says I'm fulfilling
what he told me to do. So my question this morning, do
you know your place in God's plan for the nation's asking?
He wants to show if He's guided you and that's why you've been
giving sacrificially, would you be affirmed this morning?
And if he's gripped your heart and you've been praying
faithfully, would you be affirmed this morning that
you're not wasting your time, that you're a part of what God's
doing in our day? But maybe there are some others
in the room. And you would say for the first
time, maybe I'm feeling what Paul felt.
And my place is to be the one who goes the nations.
That's His focus in Scripture, His glory among the nations.
His plan for the nations includes someone getting there
and telling, because how can they hear unless someone
preaches? And He has a place for every one
of us to share his heart. Now, by the way, if you're here
without Christ, let me tell you your place.
Your place, it was that God brought you here this morning to
hear about a Savior who left heaven to pay for your sins.
And if God inside of you is drawing him, you to himself,
your place is to respond to the Spirit.
We're going to sing and then we're going to sing again about
build my life. Let's build our lives with His
heart, fulfilling what He tells us.
Our part is among the nations. Father, we bow before you right
now. We thank you for your word,
Father. Our desire, our request, our
prayer was that anyone who wanted to hear from God would.
Now we're asking that you would give us boldness to respond,
that as you have spoken, that we would affirm Your plans are best
for our lives, and we want to build our lives on your love, on
your word we pray in Christ's name, Amen.
Thanks for listening. To learn more about Heritage
Church or if you'd like to respond to this sermon, visit
our website at www.heritageshawnee.org.