Romans 15:7–13Scripture
This morning we have the wonderful privilege of turning to Romans chapter 15, and we'll be looking together at verses 7 through 13. Now, we are nearing the end of Romans. I am very excited for this last chapter and a half here, and I'm also excited to move on to Exodus. This morning, Romans 15:7–13. Read this
Point 1Welcome one another as Christ welcomed you
Together. "Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God." Notice here there's three parts to this. There are three parts: "Therefore welcome one another," that's the first part; "as Christ has welcomed you," that's the second part; "for the glory of God," that's the third part. Can't you just tell me one thing to do, you know what I mean? So sometimes it's hard enough just to do the one thing your mom tells you to do. Mom gives you an instruction, and she's got to be careful, whenever you have a younger child, a mother has to be careful to not give four steps, because by the time they get halfway through the first step they'll forget the remaining three, right? So here Paul doesn't care, and he gives us three: "Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised, the Jews, on behalf of the truth of God, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs." Isn't it good that we serve a God who fulfills his promises? So here we're learning that God had given a promise, and for us to see that he is truthful and that he delivers on his promises. He doesn't make a promise and break a promise, but he's truthful. What he says is true. He gave a promise to the patriarchs, to the Jews, and he fulfilled that, "and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, 'Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.'" And then it goes back and it gives an Old Testament text to give us an idea where this comes from. "And again it is said, 'Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.' And again, 'Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.' And again Isaiah says, 'The root of jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.' May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." These are words we're hungry for in our culture today, words like joy. Where do we find that? And peace, where can we obtain that? And hope, don't we all want that? And we go through and spend lots of money and lots of resources to try to figure out how to accumulate these things.
Here we learn, very briefly, that it is in belief in Christ, and anything outside of that leaves you wanting. If you're here today and you have not placed your faith in Jesus Christ, the hope and the peace and the joy that your heart longs for will never be satisfied. It will only be found, and it will only be fulfilled, and that which your heart longs for will only be satisfied in Christ Jesus by belief in him. That's encouraging for many of us today. Yet at the same time, for some of us today in this house, we experience the tension of that, because there are some here today who long for peace but do not yet believe, and Paul wants that for you. That was the cry of his heart just a chapter ago, that all would believe, and I want that for you as well,
Because there is no greater peace, and there is no greater joy, and there is no greater hope that can be found in a world that is broken like this world than in Christ.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 5:08
And the more crazy this world gets, the more we need these three things. That's kind of, I just did a really quick sermon there, a sermonette, and that's not what I'm talking about, however. Bonus. When you read the letters of the apostle Paul, you discover that
One of his
Pastor Shawn Gray · 5:42
Point 2Paul builds modest houses on mile-deep foundations
Trademarks is to build modest houses and then dig mile-deep foundations under them. Oh, that's why so, oh, that's why Romans is so rich and at times it's so difficult to grasp the reality of the truth that he's imparting to us, because he has laid and built modest houses on top of mile-deep foundations, and honestly the mile-deep foundational truths that we experience in every section we've gone through over these last two years, those things are lost on those who do not believe. They're lost, they're lost on them. I wanted to show you a picture of the Twin Towers of Malaysia. That's big. That's a big building. Matter of fact, it's 1, 483 feet tall. That right there, if you're on the top floor, you might feel the wind blow a little bit, the building might move some, it's tall. This building here, these two Twin Towers, there on each tower at the very base of it, dug down, is a foundation. It is the deepest foundation in the world, of 400 feet deep.
Now, that's pretty big. That is actually 3.7 times the depth. Okay, so the height is 3.7 times the depth. Let me say it again: the height of the building is 3.7 times higher than the depth. Now, in these texts we're reading, particularly the text we're reading today, what we have is the reverse. That's what we have the reverse. We have modest buildings, 25 feet high, and mile-deep foundations. And the reason why this is important is because many of us, we tend to hyperfocus on the 25 feet above the surface. That's the one our attention and gaze goes to first, and as we read Scripture, many of the time, much of the time, we don't do the hard work of getting below the surface of the text and finding the depth that is for us to find. We don't dwell on it, we don't consider it, we don't consider the weight of it, the structure of it, the sheer, because there's so many things in our life that cover it, we go to the path of least resistance, we want to just peer at what our eyes can easily see. So as we read Scripture, we go to the thing that we can make sense of quickly. We don't do the hard work of seeking out a matter and considering what this really is all about. Modest houses, mile-deep foundations, and many of us and many sermons are built on the modest houses. Very few sermons and very few Bible studies and very few conversations and very little contemplation is about the mile-deep foundations. Let me just give you an example of the reverse, because that's the Twin Towers. I don't have a picture for you, because there is no way to do this by scale. I actually spent three hours trying to figure out a way to show the scale of 25 feet versus a mile-deep foundation. And why did I pick 25 feet? Because most houses are around 25 feet high, that is, if you have a two-story house, that's why I picked that number. Now listen to this. I put this into an AI thing, I'm not smart enough to figure this out because I was trying to figure out a scale. I was like, maybe ChatGPT or some other genie thing would actually, some AI thing will tell me what it is. AI was wrong, I had to change some of the numbers because it got them mixed up, but I got it done. Listen to this: a mile is 5,280 feet. Matter of fact, we were watching a game the other day, who was who, what was the team, do you remember? It was the Denver Nuggets, and all of a sudden I noticed, like, on the floor they were projecting on the floor this 5,280, and then on their jerseys it had 5,280, and I got so annoyed about halfway through the game, at halftime I said, what is the 5,280 on there for?
And Brook goes, well, duh, it's Denver, it's the Mile High City. And so now 5,280 has been in my head, and so I thought, that's kind of why I'm thinking about mile-deep foundations, in the Mile High City, and we're watching the Denver Nuggets. And so a mile is 5,280 feet. I've learned that because Brook is smarter than me. It's equivalent to a mile, while 25 feet is just a fraction of that. To visualize this scale difference, imagine with me for a moment a football field. A football field is 300 feet long, so 25 feet would be roughly one-twelfth of a football field. On the other hand, 5,280 feet is approximately 17.6 times the length of that same football field, or another way of saying it would be 17.6 football fields lined up back to back. Now imagine 25 feet of 17.6 football fields lined up back to back and trying to run the ball for that. That's essentially what the apostle Paul is doing here.
He has laid for us a foundation that is much deeper than "get along with each other."
Pastor Shawn Gray · 12:30
Have you seen it? Have you contemplated the foundation? Have you considered the depth of what surrounds this little shanty on the top of the foundation, which is "get along with one another"? Do you know it? And I'm asking the question rhetorically for you today for you to consider: do you know it? Do you know the mile-deep foundation, or have you only walked away in 14 and 15 so far with "get along with each other"?
Because if you miss the foundation, that which is built above means nothing.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 13:25
To create a mile-deep foundation you would need to stack 25, you would need to stack 211 houses that are 25 feet tall to equal that deep of a foundation. Have you missed that for the 25 that's above ground in this text? Now, this is what Paul does: he builds modest houses and then digs mile-deep foundations under them. Let me give you an example. The apostle Paul talks about marriage. Marriage is a modest house, how you treat each other. He's talking about in Ephesians how a wife should submit to her husband and a husband should love his wife like Christ loved the church. Sound familiar? Does that sound familiar to this text that we just read? Let me remind you in case you already forgot: "Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you." So the apostle Paul in Ephesians 5 is trying to entreat us to treat one another kindly, to be hospitable, to be loving. Paul builds that house in Ephesians 5, then he puts on a drill bit and he drills a mile deep to put a foundation under that command to treat each other kindly. And here it is, in my summary of what he does in Ephesians, it goes something like this. Here is the mile-deep foundation: the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, infinitely eternal God, having a bride by predestination before the foundation of the world, destined to be pure and holy and blameless, he came into the world as the God-man, was crucified, dead, buried, came to life, and has purified the church for himself, beyond all the mysteries of Genesis 2:24, he has made himself one flesh with her, one body, so that they might enjoy each other forever and ever. So this afternoon, guys, treat your wife well. Did you hear the foundation? Did you hear what causes the command to become a reality? Did you hear why the command is given, or did you simply just hear the command and be like, I must do that? Right at the beginning of Romans 15:7, we see Paul build a modest house: welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you. That's a modest house, that's the 25 feet above ground, or in other words, live in Christian harmony. He's been building this small modest house since chapter 14, and then he puts a drill bit in place and drills a mile down to put a foundation under it. Romans 15:7–13 is a mile-deep foundation, which is the global glorification of the merciful God. That's a summary, that's the important part.
You could tear the house down on top and put multiple houses down on top if you have a foundation that goes a mile deep.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 17:29
That's insignificant. What is life-standing, what is life-supporting, what is enduring is the foundation, regardless of what happens on top. It's the glorification, it's the global, not just the glorification of the Gentiles, eventually the Jews. He has a plan, it's that the globe and the earth will glorify his name. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess his glory. Everyone will give glory to his name.
In the end there is a much deeper foundation than "treat each other nice," and all this passage is dug as an unshakable foundation under the modest house of Christian harmony.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:34
So the joy of our hearts this morning should be to sit back, evaluate, and ponder the foundation that holds up this modest house of Christian harmony. And it is a difficult task to help walk you through, I would try to do it this way. Number one, he starts with a modest ask. It's a modest house, that's a modest ask, and
In all likelihood the modest ask is not really so modest if you understand the foundation.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 19:29
"Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God." If the ask was just merely welcome one another, well, welcome, I can hate you and welcome you. I can not like you and welcome you. I can be backstabbing you with my words during coffee and at church, welcome you, I can welcome you into my house and murder you with my words later. That doesn't bring glory to God. So if it was simply just "welcome you," that seems like a doable and modest enough task to be accomplished, but it's not so modest. Maybe even if the ask was to welcome one another as Christ welcomed you, I might be able to pull that one off, but it isn't just that: welcome one another as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God. How are we to accomplish this? Do you see what he does here? Oh, the apostle Paul, you might think he's a punk, but he's a genius, actually, he's Holy Spirit empowered. What is he doing? What is he doing for us carnal, not-so-good-without-him, wretched souls? What is he doing here? He is trying to stir up in your hearts a tension that presses against your heart to such a degree that you begin to wonder if this kind of request is possible. And the more you know yourself and the more you're honest with yourself, the more you will realize this isn't such a possible request, and as modest as the apostle Paul likes to try to build it is not so modest of a request and it is not so modest of an ask.
This moves us from something that can be accomplished by human will and fortitude to something that must be gifted by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:09
This is something that only belief can accomplish in the hearts of men,
Belief not in self but belief in Christ.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:33
You know what belief in Jesus Christ does for you? It changes you, makes you a new creation, it gifts you with the Holy Spirit, that these types of requests won't just become things that you can decide to do but will be something that is your nature to do, because God has gifted it for you to do it. He throws out a modest ask to create tension in the hearts of those who don't have the Spirit and do not believe in Christ, because the only way this can be accomplished is not by human will or by tenacity or by human discipline or by a want-to do so, but this can only be accomplished, and we can only glorify God, if we are filled with all the nature of God, because only he is to be
Point 3Unexplainable behavior points to God's work
Worshiped. Number two, the unexplainable behavior. It's unexplainable, I can't get past this, it blows my mind. It blows my mind. Listen to this: "For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the Jews." The Jews and the Gentiles, they didn't like each other too much, and I'll be honest, the Jews didn't treat the Gentiles too kind, and I just don't have time to go into it, but you should take a little time and you should consider and you should read some stories about how the jews treated the Gentiles and how the Gentiles treated the Jews. You should just consider it. "For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised, the Jews, to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the Jews, the patriarchs, ultimately to the Jews and to the Gentiles too who are grafted in, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercies." Now, here's what I ask myself: why are the Gentiles glorifying God for his mercy when he's blessing and answering the promises to the Jews whom they hate? Let me put it in perspective for you this way. How many of you have ever known somebody who you have declared as your mortal enemy? Only two people, three people are brave enough to raise their hand. Let me rephrase it: how many of you have ever been mad at somebody, ever? There you go. Some of you are so Christian you have to rephrase it where you can get more people involved, right? You, I don't really get mad, I don't, I wouldn't ever wish anything bad on anyone. Liar. Now, some of you have friends that have successes and become blessed and you have a problem with that, and they're your friends. Some of you have a hard time celebrating when a family member gets blessed. But what do you do when somebody who has been horrible to you, talked bad about you, taken pot shots at you, done horrible things to your children, what happens when that person is blessed? That's the picture here. And then you have the Gentiles glorifying God. They're giving glory to God because their enemy is blessed and God is answering the promises to their enemy. Why? What is this? Where does this type of kindness and joy and peace and hope, where does that arise? Belief and trust in Christ, that what he said is true. What do
You believe? What do you trust? You believe in you? You trust in you? How has that worked for you lately?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:22
There is a belief and there is a trust that changes you. It changes your very nature. Changes everything about you. Who makes, listen,
There is a belief and a trust in God that makes you rejoice when enemies flourish.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:48
What is this? What is this? It's unexplainable behavior. There's something working below the surface of this type of individual. There has to be something deeper than the 25 feet above the surface here. There has to be something much deeper at work. What is it? Ladies and gentlemen, it is not you, it is not the Gentiles, it is not the Jews, it is not men, it is not man, it is not a woman, it is not you. It is something, there is something much deeper at work, and I propose to you it is only God who makes men respond like this. It's only God. Is it enough, if the totality of what you receive from God is it enough for you if the totality of what you receive from God is his mercy and grace? Is that enough? Let's forget the enemy thing, let's forget the blessing of the Jews and the glorification of the Gentiles, let's forget that. You know why the Gentiles are glorifying God? Because mercy is shown to the Jews. But for you, what if mercy is shown to you, is that enough for you? Okay, we think this when I ask that question, here's what you think: well,
Point 4Is God's mercy enough if everything is lost
You know
What, if nothing else is added to my life, mercy's enough. Well, good for you. What if everything is taken away from your life, is mercy enough?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:57
We think, in a culture of acquisition, in a nation of acquiring things, we think of, well, mercy is enough if I don't have anything added. But what if everything is taken away, is it enough? What if you are like Job and you've lost your wife and you've lost your children and you've lost everything and you've lost your health and everything has fallen down around you and you're destitute and you're lonely and you're empty and you're broken and you're sick? What of God's mercy then, is it enough? Many of you are sitting in situations now where you can count, and it takes more than 10 fingers to count what you've lost. Many of you are sitting in abundant loss now, in this very moment you have lost more than you could imagine, you see no daylight on the horizon, all you feel is lost.
Let me ask you something: is God your all-consuming passion? Is he enough?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:27
Is his mercy for you enough in the midst of your loss? Do you hope in nothing else but him? I propose to you that a man, a woman, a young boy, and a young girl, that for every single person whose belief is not in Christ, whose life has not been made new, who has not been empowered by the Holy Spirit and filled with the Spirit of God, that will not be their answer, because there is something much deeper that must be below the surface for an individual to live like this when we've lost everything, to glorify God in the midst of that. This is not done by your strength. Do you see it? "For I tell you that Christ became," listen to this, why did the Gentiles behave this way?
I'm just going to go ahead and give you the answer. "As it is written," let me read it again: "For I tell you the truth that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy, as it is written." Oh wait, what's below the surface? Shawn, I'm seeing behavior up here that doesn't look like even how I want to behave in my personal life, specifically with my enemies, up here in the 25 feet, this don't look normal. Why don't this look normal? If you peer down below, we see, because it was written by God, orchestrated by God, empowered by God, planned by God, chosen and predestined by God for this to happen,
Only God can do it. Only God can do it. You and your strength, you won't give glory to God when your enemy is blessed.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:00
Mercy won't be enough for you. But if it's written by God, it's ordained by God for you to do what you cannot do in your own strength, and he empowers you to do it. Do you see the
Point 5God fills believers with joy, peace, and hope
Foundation? The God who gives, three: "May the God of all hope fill you." Who? The God of all hope, may God fill you. Not discipline, may God fill you. Not good works, may God fill you. Not moralism, may God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. Not money, I'd like to test it, but not money. Not money, it don't do it. Not money.
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." Notice God gifts it and God empowers it, that you may abound in it. God fills believers with the joy, peace, and hope that satisfies, to the measure that we are positioned to give and love out of the overflow of all- consuming satisfaction in God.
You can't do the 25 feet above if you're not completely satisfied with the mile below.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 36:04
He is and should be our all- consuming satisfaction. Here's the takeaway, what do we take away from this text? Many fail to see the foundation buried below the surface. We only dwell on the modest house laid above. We walk away with this, live in Christian harmony, and we completely miss the mile-deep foundation of God has predestined and orchestrated the global glorification of the all-merciful God. Let us not miss God for us.
59:50
47:38
1:07:10
59:54
43:23
58:38
1:01:23
1:01:52
55:00
59:37
1:06:11
56:45
48:39
1:05:37
53:34
53:13
46:18
46:48
51:37
46:49
46:49
52:24
38:25
49:40
46:46
56:32
49:07
52:26
57:06
53:13
53:25
43:54
53:31
55:11
1:05:02
52:46
56:50
49:24
1:00:47
57:40
1:00:38
1:05:48
1:01:52
58:42
49:08
55:21
1:07:01
43:50
1:00:48
25:19
1:01:55
52:24
50:27
53:32
46:08
44:21
53:02
57:17
1:05:02
57:58
46:28
49:35
1:11:12
1:01:36
55:05
51:04
43:28
44:26
43:23
36:54
55:05
53:46
47:21
41:54
51:17
45:40
42:25
46:27
1:11:45
51:51
48:20
58:27
1:04:13
48:31
38:19
46:19
53:08
37:24Now playing
47:33
1:01:09
37:32
42:15
44:54
37:14