Hope from the God of Hope :: Romans 15:4–13

{Introduction]

Our Word of the Day jumped out at me in our reading from Romans. It’s really hard to miss it. It appears four times in our passage ... most notably in the first verse, and then in the last two ... a Gospel sandwich. Listen again to Romans 15:4-13, and see if it jumps out at you, too. 

Paul writes: Whatever was written previously was written [for the purpose of] our instruction so that through perseverance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures, we would have hope. May the God of perseverance and encouragement give to you the same reason among one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, so that united with one mouth, you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, receive one another to yourselves just as Christ himself has received you into the glory of God. For I tell you, Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God [in order to confirm] the promises given to the fathers.

Now the Gentiles, on behalf of mercy, may glorify God, just as it is written: Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles, and in your name, I will sing. 

And again it is said, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. 

And again, Praise the Lord, all the Gentiles, and let all the peoples commend him. 

And again Isaiah says, He will be the root of Jesse, even the one arising to rule the Gentiles; upon him the Gentiles will hope. 

Now may the God of Hope fill you [with] all joy and peace in the faith for the purpose that in the power of the Holy Spirit you abound in hope.

Did you hear it? ... The Word of the Day is hope.

THE GOD OF HOPE GIVES US HOPE THAT ABOUNDS INTO ETERNAL LIFE

This is our theme.

[Prayer]

Almighty and everlasting God, your son has assured us with the forgiveness of sins and deliverance from eternal death. Strengthen our faith given by the Holy Spirit that we may hold fast to the hope that on the Last Day we will be raised in glory to eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

I. Let’s start with answering a simple question: What is hope?

The dictionary will tell you that hope is the feeling or expectation that something good will happen. In other words, hope is not certain. As Christmas approaches many people hope to receive certain presents, but you might get a gaudy sweater. Chiefs fans will hope that Kansas City clinches its ninth consecutive division title tonight against the AFC’s fifth best team, but we are reminded of that game against the Raiders. And Charlie Brown hopes this will be the year Lucy doesn’t yank the football away so she can watch him go smack on his back. But she will. 

Christians can succumb to this false hope, which is worldly. False hope is a simple belief that “everything is going to be OK.” False hope is reflected when a couple shacks up together thinking of it as a trial marriage. False hope is believing you can do the impossible on your own. 

The hope of the God of Hope is so much better. God’s hope is more than mere optimism. God’s hope is grounded in God’s promises ... because all of his promises find their yes in Christ (2 Cor 1:20). They are certain. The hope of the God of Hope flows out of his Word which does something. The impossible is possible. The hope of the God of hope gives us peace. As Paul said earlier in Romans, we have peace before God by means of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we also have obtained access in faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we boast in our trouble, knowing that trouble produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint because the life of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rm 5:1-5). 

To illustrate that as we near the end of Romans, Paul tells us today this is why the scriptures were written. The scriptures encourage us. They give us sure hope. They show us how Christ has become a servant ... to confirm the promises [God gave] (v 8). 

So how can we gain such hope?

II. Return to the God of Hope in God’s Word. 

There are two theological principles I learned when I was in seminary that have been confirmed over and over and over in my life. The first is that every error ever taught in the church has come about by glossing over the plain meaning of God’s Word. The second is that every error taught in the church comes through an attack on the Gospel.

Let’s be clear: The Scriptures are without error. The Scriptures are infallible. The Scriptures are ... as Paul tells Timothy ... God-breathed and profitable toward teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness (2 Tm 3:16). The Holy Spirit works through the Scriptures to give faith, which gives us assurance of the things hoped for (Hb 11:1). That faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the Word of God (Rm 10:17). That faith embraces the Gospel ... the Good News that on account of the life, death, rest, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus ... eternal life is yours. As Hebrews says, when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath. ... Now we can hold fast to hope (Hb 6:17-18). 

 And that is what Paul is saying, too. The purpose of the Scriptures reveals God’s promises and plan of salvation so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we would have hope (v 4). The Holy Spirit did not inspire the Scriptures to be written as mere do’s and don’ts ... as some kind of (B)asic (I)nstruction (B)efore (L)eaving (E)arth. The Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures to be written to give us faith that leads to hope and hope that leads us to eternal life on account of the love of God in Christ. Hope comes from the Gospel. 

So don’t make the mistake of the Pharisees and Sadducees, who either added to the Scriptures or ignored large parts of them, leaving them without hope. As Jesus told the Pharisees, their problem was they added to God’s Word, piling law upon law, obscuring the Gospel (Mt 23). 

The error of the Sadducees, on the other hand, was they purposefully ignored the Word (Mk 12:24). They did what they wanted when they wanted how they wanted. They in turn ignored a plain reading of scripture that clearly gives us the hope of the resurrection. For example, read Genesis 3 and 4, which tell us that after Adam and Eve had been destined to die, the Man (Adam) believed in the resurrection because he called his wife’s name Life (or Eve, which is a transliterated Greek word) because she was the mother of all living. ... And then Adam (the Man) knew Life, his wife. She conceived and bore Cain, saying I have acquired a man with YHWH (Gn 3:20, 4:1). This is the realized hope of the resurrection. In the same way, when we ignore the Word of Hope, we also will miss how Abraham had the hope of the resurrection in Genesis 22, when he told his servants to wait for him and Isaac to return after the sacrifice (Gn 22:5). Abraham knew the God of Hope would provide life after death on the mountain of God (Hb 11:19). 

You can also find the hope of the resurrection in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. In Exodus, the people of God were led out of the slavery of death through baptism into a resurrected life in the Promised Land. The people of God gained the hope of the resurrection through the feasts outlined in Leviticus 23. Then they were given the hope of the resurrection in Numbers 21 when they learned to look up to the cross after being bitten by sin (Num 21:8). And finally, even in the Second Reading of the Law, Deuteronomy, the Lord reminds us that though he kills, he makes alive (Dt 32:39) ... all of which leads us back to what Paul tells us in Romans 15. For as much as what was written previously was written [for the purpose of] our instruction, so that through perseverance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures, we would have hope (Rm 15:1-4).

III. So receive the hope of the God of Hope that abounds into eternal life.

Then let every one of us repent and continue to believe, as Jesus says in Luke 24, that this is why the Christ should suffer on the third day, rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations (Lk 24:46-47). For I tell you, Christ has become a servant ... [in order to confirm] the promises given to the fathers (v 8). 

These promises of the God of Hope are confirmed through his means of grace. As our catechism teaches us, the means of grace are not simply information presented for our consideration. They are God’s Word abounding in what it says, actually giving and delivering to us what it promises: forgiveness, life, and salvation. This gives us hope. Don’t forget what Scripture says: Baptism now saves you (1 Pt 3:21). Because we have been baptized into Christ we were baptized into his death. Then we were buried with him so that just as Christ was raised out of the dead ... we too might walk in the newness of life (Rom 6:3-4). That’s the Gospel. Don’t forget, as Paul says, the cup of blessing we drink and the bread we break are a communion in the body and blood of Christ (1 Cor 10:16). That’s the Gospel. Here, hope is strengthened. 

So again it is said, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. ... Praise the Lord, all the Gentiles ... Upon him [we] will hope. Now may the God of Hope fill you [with] all joy and peace in the faith for the purpose that in the power of the Holy Spirit you abound in hope ... in Jesus’ name. Amen.