Bryan Chapell Sermon | "Hope's Power"

[Music] as we prepare for today let me tell you we have a tall order covering Romans 14 and 15 two whole chapters in The Book of Romans absolutely crucial for thinking of the mission of the church worldwide and our church as well as we're preparing I'm going to ask that you look in your Bibles at Romans 15 and put your finger on verse 4 Romans 15 and verse 4 and we'll use that as home base as we cover this large portion of scripture as you're looking at Romans 15:4 let me prepare you for what is

there by telling you of an experience that I had with a number of you very recently as we were in Northern Israel walking up a slight Hill and observing right in front of us an ancient mud brick Archway archaeologists have only recently uncovered that Archway it stands at the pinch point in the only Mountain Pass between Mesopotamia and Northern Israel it is over 4,000 years old which gave us the sense of chill as we were walking up to the archway because what it meant was we were right on the path that Abraham journeyed as he

went from IR the caldes into Northern Israel responding to the promise of God to make him a blessing to the Nations we were following Abraham's Journey we were actually in the steps and then part of the journey and not there only a few days after that we would stand gazing upon ancient Jericho where Joshua had seen the hand of God operate in such a way that the walls came tumbling down and he learned unmistakably God provides for those who cannot provide for themselves we were not only witnessing where he was we were walking up to

the place being inspired to continue the Journey of making the message known that God provides for those who cannot provide for themselves a few days after that we were walking in the valley of elah between the two hills where the armies of Israel and the armies of the Philistines would oppose each other and a little little Shepherd boy named David would meet a giant named Goliath right in the middle of the valley where we were walking and Goliath would say to David am I a dog that you come against me with a sling and David

said you come with sword Javelin and spear I come in the name of the Lord and we were reminded as God gave strength to a little Shepherd boy that the strong take care of the weak even a mighty God preparing for a king who would betray him greatly with sin of adultery and murder and raising bad children as God was saying to him and to us this is the journey that you understand I provide for people who cannot provide for themselves the strong take care of the weak you may be faithless I will abide faithful

and we felt it again as we walked the streets of Jerusalem on one particular day going down a street into a dark tunnel that would take us into a little room where a 12-year-old boy 2,000 years ago would have argued with the scribes in the temple saying that Christ was to come and he was that Christ and we would later walk down the hill that he went down as he looked over Jerusalem and those those who would put palm branches in front of him would praise His name but he would say oh Jerusalem Jerusalem how

I long to gather you into my arms like a hen gathers her chicks under under her wings but you would not and we were in The Garden of Gethsemane where he sweat blood for you and me in prayer and walked the road that the mobs would have taken him as he went up to the high priest's house where he would be struck and mocked and turned over to pilate and then we walked from that place of the Antonia Fortress to the place where he would have been crucified the steps of the journey saying over and

over again the almighty God will provide his grace to his people and this is written for your instruction so that you might be enduring in the trial encouraged for the task and given hope for whatever God calls you to do it is that background that prepares you for verse four of Romans chapter 15 do you see the words Paul writes whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope when you see the places you have this sense of of history

there was a plan being unfolded across thousands of years for our instruction and you have this sense of Mercy the God's people failed and often betrayed him and often walked away he kept walking toward them until he would actually come in the presence of his son and not only that great sense of God's enduring Mercy but you have a sense of of the reality of what happened this is not random it's not myth it's it's not circumstantial God was working a plan Through the Ages and when I know that I'm so encouraged to recognize I'm

not suddenly here as an oops as an afterthought God was working a plan to collect a people from All Nations like me and like you and for that reason in the days that we feel I've walked away from God surely he will walk away from me we recognize that what he was saying in every page from first to last whatever was written in the former days was written for us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope it becomes necessary to to continue our mission to continue in faith to

know what God was accomplishing through all of what was written a four time the Apostle says simply whatever was written was written for our instruction but instruction in what it's very clear what the Apostle is addressing if you just go to verse one of chapter 15 we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves simple message the strong take care of the weak sounds so simple until you recognize the issues that Paul is dealing with why do we need that instruction if you go to

the 14th chapter and the second verse you'll see what Paul is dealing with if God is going to be faithful to his promise to Father Abraham to bless the ations through him that means ultimately in the house of God made possible by the Messiah there will be people of different ethnicities and languages and Nations and customs and practices and boundaries and acceptable behavior and they're all going to be getting together in the same place and they are not going to like each other and they are not going to like the way they deal with different

issues and the Apostle Paul is saying if this mission of God is is going to go forward if there's a journey of Grace that's going to continue through you then you're going to have to learn to deal with these differences and you need to know the strong take care of the weak like what 142 one person believes he may eat anything while the weak person eats only vegetables now Paul is not concerned about certain people becoming vegan what he's concerned about is as people are coming into the church they come with different perspectives of what

they can eat particularly when meat sold in the marketplace has previously been offered to Idols the Apostle Paul himself thinks so what it's just an idol of wood and stone it doesn't have any power so what if food has been offered to an idol you know Jesus Christ has made you right with God by his work not by your work not by that idle go ahead and eat but other people are saying no that would compromise us to eat what has been offered to Idols Paul's opinion is clear even in the way that he States

the case in verse two of chapter 14 one person believes he may eat anything while the weak person eats only vegetables I mean Paul is clearly saying the person who will not eat out of this compunction of concern for Idol honoring is the weak person curiously that weak person thinks he's standing strong and not giving into the compromises of culture we recognize the difficulty and Paul recognizes the difficulty and so he writes in verse 14 I know and am persuaded that in the Lord Jesus that nothing is in clean of itself what's his own conviction

Idol's nothing just eat it's just meat God provided it for your nourishment go ahead and yet the end of verse 14 in chapter 14 says but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it is unclean when the Apostle Paul says nothing's unclean of itself it it's it's it's just material things it's it's just something that God blessed in creating the animals for your goodness but he says I know some of you won't see it that way he's actually reflecting the words of Jesus in Matthew 15 where Christ says it's not what goes into the mouth

but what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person and you would think that would just settle the issue Jesus and the Apostle Paul say it's just [Music] meat it's clean in itself you know you've been Sanctified by the work of Christ don't worry about other people's opinions you would think that would settle the case but Paul doesn't end there because he began by saying the strong take care of the weak and don't just please themselves and so he adds the conclusion of the matter in chapter 14: 20 and 21 saying do not for

the sake of food destroy the work of God everything is indeed clean but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble uhoh everything was going fine until he mentioned wine I mean as long as we can kind of put 2,000 years of distance between us and the issue oh there were people who were struggling with whether or not to eat meat offered to Idols they were people out of pagan cultures and Jewish

cultures and they're struggling what silly people that they couldn't figure it out that they struggled about that sort of thing and then then we get to the issue of wine and suddenly everything that they were struggling with we know we struggle with as well as the Apostle says to the people then and to us the strong take care of the weak even though everything is clean in itself don't we struggle with that everyone we know in our church what the struggle is there are some in our church who clearly are embarrassed by the Association of

the American evangelical church with the temperance movement of the early 20th century as industrialization made so many people work in sweat shop settings that created despair as rural settings were at that time so isolated without the Technologies of communication that people in hopelessness and darkness turn to alcohol in such a way it was destroying our culture and the temperance movement joined with the church movement to in essence say prohibition is the only standard for believers and now we a century later look back and we recognize that was an overstatement of the Bible's position on alcohol

and yet because we are embarrassed by that overstatement there are other people in the church who has who are are just as concerned that in an era where alcohol addiction is at record levels where we are struggling with issues of drunken driving and death to to it and sexual assault and binge drinking such as has not been experienced before in our culture the church is virtually silent and the reason that we are silent is that we are so embracing our liberties that we are forgetting the strong take care of the weak nothing is evil in

itself but it can be used in such a way that it damages people and the Church of Jesus Christ is always obligated to say I've got to take care not just of my preferences but of someone else's needs and hurts and weaknesses so as Not to cause others to stumble and that becomes downright personal and inconvenient and controversial just a couple of months ago some of you were with me in Cuba as we were ministering to pastors and some of the wonderful volunteers From Grace Church were doing kitchen work and setting up chairs and just

to identify themselves as volunteers everyone who went with us kind of had an oversized t-shirt identifying themselves as From Grace Presbyterian church so that people would know what they were doing and because it was one siiz fits-all for some of the smaller women the church were just church were just awkward to to work in and so what some of our women did was they tied a knot in the side of some of their shirts until one of the Cuban pastors came to them and said you are causing our women to stumble you flues no he

didn't say that he did say you're causing our women to stumble because in Cuban culture tying the knot into one's t-shirt is meant to become formfitting and alluring and so what did our women do now was it evil for them to have tied knots in their t-shirts of course not but they remembered verse 20 of chapter 14 do not for the sake of food or knots destroy the work of God the strong take care of the weak I'm not just concerned about pleasing myself I'm concerned about the good of others as the gospel is intended

to move forward I think about impact and impression and the concerns of others now that does not mean that we give into every wh in this very same chapter where the Apostle is saying the strong take care of the weak we need to be careful not to cause others to stumble he says in exactly the same chapter chapter 14 and verse 16 these words but do do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil he's going to say it's stronger in 1 Corinthians 9 where he will say this why should my

Liberty be determined by someone else's conscience if God has given me liberty if everything is clean in itself then I have to be concerned of what causes other people to stumble but one of the ways people stumble is by legalism and so if I just give into it every time if I'm not examining the consequences then I may actually be doing damage to the gospel causing people to stumble in the opposite direction and so here Paul is actually encouraging people to resist what is against Liberty even if somebody else thinks that you should not have

resisted why because he said even if you are not going along with their legalism it's not because you just want to please yourself it's because you're actually concerned for their spiritual good what ultimately will build up the church that's Paul's whole point remember in chapter 15 and verse two after he just said the strong take care of the weak he says in verse two of chapter 15 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up there are hard issues to weigh out I mean even the Apostle Paul struggled some of

you may remember in Acts 16 the Apostle Paul was struggling to get the gospel to be heard by certain Jewish converts and their friends and so Timothy who was a Greek was with Paul in Iconium and lisra and people stopped listening to Paul's gospel why because Timothy had not been circumcised and so at that point Paul said for the sake of the Gospel we're going to have Timothy circumcised then you get to Galatians 3 and the Apostle Paul is exactly on the opposite side of the fence where he says you foolish Galatians what are you

doing insisting that people be circumcised in order to honor Jesus Christ get off of it stop talking about this this is not the issue for the gospel now you think well no how inconsistent in one place he says we should be circum in another place he says don't it's not inconsistent at all what's he saying what will serve the gospel what is not about my good but the good of the progress of the gospel and the culture how can I let people know and so to the Jew I become as a Jew to the Greek

as a Greek to the weak I become as one weak to one strong as one strong I become all things to all men that I might by all means what save some my goal is not legalism it's not license my goal is the gospel and my example is Jesus Christ verse three of chapter 15 for Christ did not please himself as it is written the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me Jesus accepted pain personal non good for the good of the Gospel to spread that became the goal that became the thing that

he would put higher above all other priorities what will help the gospel to be heard and that priority has to help us in situation after situation after situation if the strong take care of the weak because if the church is healthy want you to hear me say that if the church is healthy and it's reaching Beyond its present boundaries we will always have these issues we will have people coming from different backgrounds different family structures different languages different Customs if the church is reaching out it will have to deal with these issues over and over

and over again and it will never stop but the principles are always the same the strong take care of the weak we're not just pleasing ourselves we are doing what is necessary for the gospel to progress and as a consequence the issues will keep coming for the people of church who are mature enough to know we're going to have to navigate this in terms of the priorities of the the gospel now just for fun because I was doing this sermon I thought about listing the various controversies on Christian Liberty that have been around in my

40 Years of ministry in the church now this can be painful or can be fun depending on how you want to listen to it okay I mean just kind of think these are the issues that have come and will keep coming alcohol especially in different Generations and different nations you know uh this next week Kathy and I will celebrate our 40th anniversary in Germany we're going to go to her Legacy church the church from which her ancestors came in the late 19th century and came preaching and teaching in this country and we'll go to the

family Farmstead let me tell you something the people in Germany have a very different view of alcohol than we do it's just not an issue you know what the issue will be makeup because in that part of the world women who put on makeup are identified as Street Walkers and in the Evangelical Church of Germany women do not wear makeup it is viewed as causing people to stumble now if you have makeup I want you to feel very guilty right no I don't I want you to recognize the church has to wrestle with the issues

of its time and its place what are the issues with which we've recog which which with which we have wrestled obviously music right especially when it's in the church is it too Rocky or is it too gloomy movies too coarse or not realistic enough the issues of hair length location on the face or on the lip and style is a man bun allowed or a mom bun required which is the church some of you came from ties required are they spiritual or unspiritual slacks jackets jeans even when I came here there were people pushing one

way or another and I took the tie off from this morning service yes I did skirts or pants if you're really spiritual and if it's a skirt how long how short how tighter how loose caps in church big a decade ago when virtually every young person wore a cap every place they went not so big these days but still sometimes troubling us Flags in church particularly in a church that some people believe is only to honor God and not the institutions of men sports logos in church talk about honoring the institutions of men is it

pot luck or Pot Providence or just get away from it it's a carrying meal do we have Christmas trees which by the way the Druids used in their worship do we have Easter lies which pagans used in their spring fertility rights can our library include the works of CS Lewis after all he wrote about the lion the Witch and the Wardrobe should the preacher wear a robe or not should the choir wear a robe or not scripture translations which one because you know whichever one we choose the others have to be evil what what what

is the name of the big room in which We Gather to worship is is it the sanctuary or is it the worship center or is it the big room where we gather to worship any of the 3DS gets us in trouble drama dance or drums yeah some people are going oo you know I have a friend who was uh a missionary in Africa for a while and he talks about going to a conference where the night before this big outdoor conference was to occur surprise Reigns had come and had destroyed the piano on which the

worship music was to be played and the consequence was they still played the worship music but on Turtle Drums of that culture and afterwards the Elders of the village came and apologized to him he said what what's wrong he said well in our culture Turtle drums are used for devil worship he saidoh he said 'y you should see how the pianos are used in our culture we get troubled if we get on anything but what is promoting the gospel and yet we still have to be aware of the culture and how people will interpret the

different things that we are facing as as we are dealing with the issues that trouble us you you have to recognize they will keep changing I I was raised by a a Baptist father who was on a circuit three churches in three different states and those were very very conservative for the culture churches and that meant men and women in some of those churches did not sit together and even where they were sitting together the the entrances to the church were still always two doors where um the more conservative churches would require the men and

women to go in separate doors but the liberal churches didn't care anymore one of the reasons I remember that is while we were in Israel on the Temple Mount which you may remember is controlled by Muslims um men and women are not supposed to touch and I watched as some of our people wanting to get photographs just couples got close to each other some of them had been married 30 40 and 50 years and got yelled at like they were at a junior high sock hop for touch each other you know and you think well

it's funny but it's it's sad at the same time that that people are letting something that as innocent as it might be deprive them of their joy in the Lord the ability the gospel to move forward but I want to remind you this will always be the case everything that was written in former times was written for us the Apostle Paul did not write Roman rans 14:5 just thinking well this will never occur again no one else is going to be concerned about this he knew that these issues would keep on coming particularly in healthy

Church where the gospel is reaching beyond the people who are now sitting here where people who are coming in don't look like us don't sound like us don't teach like us don't have the same priorities that's actually the sign of Health that we're moving beyond the boundaries of who we think we s we are and and for those of you who are who are graduates let me just say to you these issues will not get easier they are just going to get more intense if you think about where we are as a world we are

experiencing the largest migration of peoples in the history of the world due to war oppression and economic pressures and at the same time because of technology and transportation and communication advances cultures are mixing and changing and going into one another more than they ever were before for these issues are only going to intensify as our culture secularized and polarizes and diversifies and our graduates are not going to be prepared for the Church of the future if they do not have some principles in mind like the strong take care of the weak so what does that

mean I mean just simple principles here stand firm says the Apostle Paul let everyone be firmly convinced in their own mind of what is right and what you think is right you stick by it at the same time love others the strong take care of the weak you're not committing yourself just to what you think is for your good your convictions have to be for what you think will be for others good so even as you stand strong and love others you are obligated to think about what will build up the church can be hard

exceedingly hard I mentioned to you my father pastor of little one room churches in the rural areas of Tennessee and Kentucky one time when I was ministering in St Louis not in my church I'd been invited to another church but my father was visiting that weekend and so I just thought well it' be great to have my father I grew up listening to him he can listen to me not thinking because the church in which I was ministering that Sunday was a 20s something Church full of hundreds of young people and the music how do

I say this to you I mean we were rocking out that Sunday my father's church not just one room churches they didn't believe that instrumental music was appropriate in the church and so from little conservative baptistic non-instrumental churches I'm taking my father into this rocking out 20-some Church you know some point in the worship session I I kind of looked over to my father and he just looked lost I mean not angry just lost like I I can't relate I can't identify I don't know what's going on here and and I preached and I I

felt so bad why why didn't I think about my father in this situation but but as the service was over and I went and stood by my father there was actually one of his friends from decades previous when he when we as a family had lived in St Louis that that one of those friends came came all the way across the sanctuary to speak to my father and he knew him well and he said he said Wayman I hate the music too but look at the young people and what he was saying was I rejoice

in what is not for my good but is for the good of the gospel and it wasn't just a one-way Street I'm just was thinking about the young people what was happening he went all the way across the sanctuary to deal with my father in his seventh decade to say I want you to understand I want to help you and I want to I want to provide for you and help you understand why we're doing what as much as I'm concerned for the young people I'm concerned for you too and it was that that concern

that was that two-way street that concern for every person that was saying what will build up the church for the sake of the gospel and it's it's that m ality that's going to enable us to endure when we face all the issues that are going to be coming to a church that says our goal is unlimited grace to the Nations and the community and it will inevitably Challenge and change us and we're going to struggle praise God if we weren't struggling we'd be dying God is going to call us to make decisions that say I

understand the gospel is going to have to be different than the style that I may be ACC him too but its heart will not change and I have to be committed to that why do I know that that is the goal because again Romans 15:4 what does the Apostle say all scripture is for our instruction that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope these scriptures are given so that we would endure that's that's God's goal even as he endured for us what after all is Christ's goal the Apostle is clear

about that he says remember verse 5 May the god of endurance and encouragement Grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus Christ's goal was that Jew and Gentile Jewish faith Gentile Pagan faith that they'd be together living in harmony that's in accord with the goals of Christ Jesus the Messiah deliverer his goal was how do we know that was his goal because we just see what the Apostle Paul says verse 8 I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised that is the Jews to show God's

truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the Patriarchs what was God's goal I will make Abraham a father of many nations that was the goal and and what would happen if that reaching out really happened verse six together you may with one One Voice glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ it was always the plan that's what Paul is going to keep saying over and over again verse 9 therefore I will praise you among the Nations Paul grabs a little piece of 2 Samuel 22 David's song as David who had

sinned so badly said I have failed but God is faithful he will bring in the Nations as he promised he would verse 10 rejoice so Gentiles with his people that's Deuteronomy 32 Moses song after Moses had arrogated himself to take the status of God had failed so miserably he still sings I may have failed God will not he will bring in the Nations as he promised to Our Father Abraham verse 11 praise the Lord all you Gentiles that's Psalm 117 the great halale as the people of God who are now returning from Exile where they

were punished for their idolatry are now learning how to praise God again and right in the midst of that praise they are saying God means to bring us to the pagans like the ones who just enslaved us he means for us to reach them too we may have failed but God is faithful verse 12 the root of Jesse will come to rule Gentiles and in him will the Gentiles hope that's Isaiah 11 as Isaiah the great prophet of the Messiah is saying what is the messiah's hope not just Gentiles but all nations being gathered in

with all of their differences that was the plan of the Messiah and so what Paul has done he's he's grabbed a piece of a portion of the law and a and a piece of the histories and and a and a piece of the wisdom literature and and a piece of Prophecy and he just kind of takes every portion of the scripture and he said it was all about the same thing we may fail but God is faithful he will bring the nations in that was his goal and that is his glory when we were when

we were in Israel we had that those last moments and we went to the Garden tomb one of those places in which it may very well be that Christ rose from the dead and it's it's just the way you picture it this beautiful garden this this cave likee tomb that still has the trough where the stone would have been rolled in front of the entrance and you you walk into this tomb and and when you come back out into the light you you hear the sound of birds in the garden and you hear the flowing

water from the fountains and then you begin to hear the singing of the groups from the different chapels and you begin to recognize they may be singing a song that you know but it's in a different language and the people are of a different color they of different clothing and suddenly you just get this sense of of this is the way it's supposed to be this is God Reaching Across all boundaries all human limitations and what he is doing is he's saying my risen son is the hope of all of these people and this is

to the glory of God remember every tribe and language and people and Nation they are singing praise to our God Worthy is the Lamb to receive glory and honor and wisdom and power because with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe every language every people every nation and with one voice they are singing In Harmony to God of the glory of what Christ has done and you know that brings glory to God and joy to his people it's what we are about when we talk about this this unlimited Grace for All Peoples

and generations this is not political correctness this is God's people saying I'm going to endure in the plan of God and I'm going to be encouraged by what he has done and I'm going to live for that Jesus and going to reach others for him that is my goal that is my hope that's what I'm being encouraged to do because after all what did Christ do for me verse eight I tell you Christ became a servant to the Jews to show God's faithfulness wait they rejected him and he serves them and not them alone verse

n this is in order that the Gentiles May glorify God for his Mercy they crucify him and he is merciful to them what is the great message why should you and I be encouraged because God is faithful to his promises and merciful to his people and when I know that I have wandered from him when I wonder if he's still here is he still working I remember everything that was written in the former times was written for us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope it motivates us it

it takes us forward I I can't help but think of that day when our church in St Louis had the the choir come from bellarus the bellarus national Christian choir and and as they came and oppressed people who had live for decades under deprivations and communist oppression nonetheless they sang of their hope with such Zeal The Joy just washed over us filled us with strength inspired us their very last song was the Hallelujah Chorus the kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ and as the first strains of

that Hallelujah Chorus began they didn't know it but Kathy's choir had been also working on the same piece so she just signaled to her people who were sitting in the congregation and they came to sing with one voice with the people of bellarus the Hallelujah Chorus the kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever amen and I looked at an elder who came out of our church and he joined the people his wife that week put in the hospital for a diabetes

condition and he didn't know if she would ever come out and he sang the words with hope the kingdom of this world is not the final thing the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ and he shall reign and I looked in older couple whose Down syndrome child was now older and harder to handle as they were getting weak and they looked out and Sayang to us this is not the end the kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ and

he shall reign and I looked at a set of parents whose teenage Child by Antics and anger had been imprisoned that week and they held each other and they wept with the hope of the Gospel the kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever amen hallelujah amen thank you for watching these resources are made available by those who want the ministry of the gospel and the goodness of God's grace to be known and heard by many others if you would also like

to help support this ministry then I invite you to go to Brian Chapel .c where there are means for you to support what we do as well as see many more resources that are available to students to pastors to people like you all over the world [Music]