sermons | study
These are sermons preached during our Sunday worship services. (Recordings were not always successful, so there are gaps in the postings.)
John Calvin says of the key admonition of this passage that no Christian can claim to have perfectly obeyed it, but at the same time no one can claim to be a follower of Christ who does not daily strive to be obedient to it. "Bless your persecutors" echoes Jesus' teaching of the kingdom and describes his life.
From the very personal exhortation to present our bodies as sacrifices in service to God, Paul has moved to a call to use the unique graces that God has given to us for the blessing of his body, the Church. It is not surprising that from encouraging us to use the graces that God has given us for the blessing of the Church we are brought to consider the characteristic of love, since love should be the motivation for ministry to others with the gifts we have received by grace.
This passage is of tremendous importance to a proper understanding of the Church, and has applications for the life of every single believer.
In this text, Paul opens this section of practical application by directing our attention to our thinking, which is the best place for us to begin. In order to live faithfully as disciples of Christ, we first need to think rightly, especially in reference to our relationship with God and with fellow believers.
Paul's superb statement of exhortation to us as followers of Jesus Christ comes to a climax by directing our attention to the goal of our calling–God's will.
Having exhorted us to lives of sacrifice that are our grateful response to the mercies of God, Paul will now begin to describe for us what such lives look like. We might have expected him to begin with specific behaviors, but instead, he will begin with our minds.
At this important transition point in his epistle to the Roman church, Paul provides us with invaluable teaching relating to a matter of importance to every one of us as disciples of Christ: What is it that motivates us to follow him? How do we persevere when the going gets tough? From where do we derive the strength to the sacrifice to which God calls us?
The quotation from C. H. Spurgeon is from his sermon "Laus Deo," which is number 572 in the sermons pages of spurgeongems.org, a web site maintained by Emmett O'Donnell, a godly older man with whom I have corresponded. Mr. O'Donnell has updated older English terms and capitalized pronouns referring to God, but otherwise the sermons are as Spurgeon published them. I never fail to find out if Spurgeon has preached on a sermon text that I am studying. His sermons are a dependable source of devotional encouragement.
An image of tree grafting serves as the central piece for this passage that brings to a dramatic conclusion Paul's focus on the place of the Jews in God's plan for the extension of the gospel. The Jews are not to be considered in isolation from Gentiles, however. In fact, we learn that there is an intimate connection between Gentile and Jew in the Kingdom of God.
Paul is continuing to address the questions raised by Israel's rejection of the gospel. He has shown that this rejection is not total, for God has preserved for himself a remnant who have believed. In these verses, Paul shows that this rejection is not final, either, for God will provoke Israel to jealousy of the Gentiles as a means to draw them into gospel faith that will bless not only them, but Gentile believers as well.
My son Abel preached while Susan and I were away for this Lord's Day. He chose his text to coordinate with our study of Romans chapters 9-11, which deal specifically with issues related to Jews and Gentiles within the Church.
Paul continues to use references and allusions to the Hebrew Scriptures in his explanation of the widespread rejection of the gospel by the Jews of his day. As has been the case throughout this explanation, what he writes concerning the Jews has relevance to us even today.
Paul continues to make extensive use of Scriptural quotations, with six citations of the Old Testament in these eight verses. The powerful imagery of these passages serves to reinforce his teaching as he continues to explain the significance of the large scale rejection of the gospel by the Jews. This also gives occasion for thinking about God's way of communicating the good news, not only to Jews, but to all peoples.
Paul draws from Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, and Joel in the space of these eight verses, which reflects the unity of the Scriptures' teaching concerning salvation. Verses nine and ten are one of the most beautiful and concise statements of the promise of salvation in the gospel.
I record my sermons using my laptop set inside the pulpit, but I cannot monitor the recording while I am preaching, and if, as was the case this Sunday, the recording malfunctions, I do not know until after the worship service. As an experiment in offering an alternative in these cases, I'm offering a link to the notes for this sermon below. A caveat I should add is that I rarely refer to my notes while preaching, so I am essentially preaching extemporaneously. My notes represent a distillation of what I have learned about the text, so perhaps they may be of some use. Let me know what you think!
Hello, World!
It is remarkable how frequently Paul references the Scriptures in Romans 9, which of course greatly strengthens his exposition of the gospel against the objections that he is answering. Since this is the case, it is helpful to take the time to discover the background and context of the passages from Hosea and Isaiah that he quotes here.
Paul continues to use the literary device of the diatribe, which furthers an argument through the use of questions and answers that deal with possible objections. The question that Paul poses in verse 19 naturally follows the point he has just made in the previous verses. His response will deal with the implied attitude behind the question as well as the content of the question itself.
As I have been studying this section of Romans, I have been surprised at how often Paul refers to and quotes from the Scriptures–what we know today as the Old Testament. Our understanding of the New Testament will be greatly helped when we go back to study the Old Testament passages referenced in the New Testament. Frequently, this will take us back to the powerful narratives of the Old Testament that will flesh out the teachings of the New Testament, much as Jesus' parables were narratives that help us to understand his teaching.
In this passage, Paul draws upon significant Old Testament narratives for the doctrine of God's calling, or election. Genesis 21 is the source for the quote concerning Isaac, the account of God's word to Rebecca is from Genesis 25, and Malachi 1 provides the declaration concerning Jacob and Esau.
Paul gives us a glimpse of his heart in this passage, even as he emphasizes important truths that introduce a new section of the epistle. Paul's own people, the Israelite, are the focus of both his thoughts and his feelings in this highly emotional passage.
