Abounding Hope: Romans 15:8-13 (Sermon)
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WELCOME
It is good to be with you this morning. As we sang, darkness veils His lovely face, there is a way that clouds and storms can hinder our spiritual vision. But Jesus is a king, and he is alive regardless of our circumstances.
HOOK
Sometimes we forget and worship and God’s Word reminds us what is true. Instead, it seems scary. Have you had a fear run through your mind like rain beating on your roof? What triggers your nightmares? What threatens your peace of mind? Perhaps it is marriage, parents, siblings, kids, or grandkids? Maybe it is your health, home, work, or finances. Do you have big worries about the world? Every year, Chapman University surveys Americans about their greatest fears. Can you guess what they are? Here are several of the top:
Corrupt government officials
People I love becoming seriously ill
Economic or financial collapse
Cyberterrorism
U.S. becoming involved in another world war
(https://www.popsci.com/health/biggest-fears-2025/)
Are any of those yours? How do we combat our fears? How do we stop them from paralyzing us? I want us to go to our only source of hope and help, God. We learn about God in this inspired book, the Bible. It is not like any other. It has no contradictions or competition. It is perfect and supernaturally inspired by God. If we listen closely, it will point us to where peace, joy, and abounding hope lie.
TEXT
With that, I am going to have F. & C. G. read for us. Would you please stand with me in honor of God’s Word, if you are able?
For I tell you 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,
“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles,
and sing to your name.”
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.
(Romans 15:8–13, ESV)
PRAYER
Thank you. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we need you. I need you. Help us to understand and apply your Word. In Jesus’s name we pray, amen. You may be seated.
CONTEXT
Paul was writing to a mixed crowd of Jewish and non-Jewish believers in Rome. He reminded them of the basic Christian message and its implications. His goal was to call the church to “Live together in the power of the gospel because it saves everyone who believes.” The gospel, or in other words, God’s saving mercy through Jesus’s death and resurrection. Understanding what that means inspires a life of worship and love. We are to worship God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and we are to love people, in and outside of the church. In the second part of Chapter 15, Paul concludes his message.
POINT / STRUCTURE
The passage F. & C. read for us breaks down into three parts:
8 Christ served his people, demonstrating God’s truthfulness
9–12 Bringing the nations into fellowship with him
13 Blessing us with abundant hope
The point Paul was making in these few verses was that God made a way for everyone to hope in him through Christ. Hundreds of years before, with increasing specificity, God predicted that a messiah would come to save his people and bless the world. God did it. Paul’s readers, looking back over God’s work in their lives and in the lives of their people, could find encouragement and endurance in the difficult times, seeing that God is true to his Word. He is on the throne. He is the king. And he is winning.
Christ’s welcome
If you have a Bible, look at verse 8. What does it say?
“I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs” (Romans 15:8, ESV).
Verse eight makes what claim about God? What is he like? He is truthful. Another word for that is faithful. He keeps his word. He keeps his promises. How does that help our hearts? Let’s circle back to grab the context of Verse 8.
LOOK AT VERSE 7
Jump to verse 7:
“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 to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs” (Romans 15:7–8, ESV).
God wants us to be a welcoming church. In what way? In the Jesus way. How? How did he welcome us? Go back to verse 8.
“I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs” (Romans 15:8, ESV).
Jesus welcomed us by serving. How?
PHILIPPIANS
Paul’s letter to the Philippians tells us.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5–8, ESV)
Jesus gave up his heavenly home to become one of us, die for us, and rise. He conquered sin and death for us. He did this just as Isaiah had predicted 700 years earlier.
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4–6, ESV)
Jesus suffered grief, shame, and death to take upon himself sin. Matthew 1 tells us that he came to save Israel from its sins, just as Isaiah predicted. Verse 8 echoes this, referring to a people called the “circumcised,” which is a synonym for Israel.
Circumcised
This fits with what Paul wrote earlier in chapters 2 and 4. This practice set the Jewish people apart from the world. Jesus was a servant to these people. He was the answer to God’s promises to the patriarchs. Who? Who were they? Abraham, his son Isaac, and his son Jacob.
PROMISES
What promises did God give them? We read about them in Genesis. God promised Abraham,
I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12:2–3, ESV)
God promised Isaac,
I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.
(Genesis 26:3b–4, ESV)
God promised Jacob,
I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. (Genesis 28:13b–15, ESV)
So, if we were to boil these promises down to four, what would they be? God promised:
Nation
Land
A blessing to the nations
God’s presence
Abraham never lived to see all these promises fulfilled. But over time, they were. Israel could look back and see that they had land, a nation, a name, and God’s presence in the temple. But for the Jewish person, they had yet to understand that God had offered his presence to all through the Holy Spirit, and that the blessing came to all through Jesus. The Jewish Christian got it. God was answering their prayers right in front of their eyes. The nations were finding the blessing of Abraham, through the messianic child of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Jesus. God is faithful. Unlike the gods of those whom people worship in the surrounding nations, God never crossed his fingers or double-crossed his people.
Paul’s Gentile, non-Jewish audience was less familiar with his promises, and the idea that Jews and Gentiles were going to be united must have been harder to process. So, in verses 9 through 12, Paul laid out the proof.
8 Christ served his people, demonstrating God’s truthfulness
9–12 Bringing the nations into fellowship with him
13 Blessing us with abundant hope
Look at verse 9:
“And in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy” (Romans 15:9, ESV).
The Greek word for gentile is “ethne,” meaning nation. Through Jesus, the world will receive mercy, just like the Jewish believers. And those who accept it will glorify, or in other words, praise God for his kindness! God wants all people to praise him. The non-Jewish people who once worshipped the sun and moon, and idols made from stones and wood, will turn to trust in Jesus’s forgiveness of sins and praise God the Father.
KNOWLEDGE
How do we know this was part of God’s promise? Well, Paul backed up his statements with four citations from the Jewish people’s sacred writings.
As it is written,
“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles,
and sing to your name.”
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.” (Romans 15:10–12, ESV)
Paul cited Moses, King David, and the prophet Isaiah, a Levite priest, a prophet, and a king. You have the Law, the Writings, and the Prophets, represented- three genres and three offices echoing, establishing, and elaborating by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration that the nations would turn to the God who created them, the God of the Jewish people, to follow. How? How can they get there? How can anyone truly get to God? It is through the Messiah, the Christ, through Jesus. The Jewish people knew God’s promises and were seeing them answered in real time. The non-Jewish person was hearing Paul elaborate on centuries-old predictions, beginning with proximity to God’s children and culminating in becoming one of God’s subjects, joining their voices in worship. This is a picture of the multi-cultural community, a glimpse of what God is doing today, and a picture of a heavenly worship service. Heaven will have representatives from every language group, every tribal group, and every nation.
EPHESIANS
This radical unification is remarkable. Jonas, our intern, saw this connection between Ephesians 2 and our passage and shared it at our staff meeting. Look at Ephesians 2.
Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.… For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. (Ephesians 2:12–19, ESV)
God brought battling factions together as friends, an unlikely amalgamation, a confluence of diverse cultures. Paul had been making a case for flexibility on debatable dietary and worship matters.
FAMILY PICTURE
The church can look like an odd family picture. Like the ones where you ask, “Where did that hand come from?” “Why is my hair doing that?” Or, “What are you doing with your eyes?” A family of faith can be a bit odd. On my trip this week, we gave our kids disposable cameras for fun. It will be neat to see the world through their eyes. We had to teach them how to use their twenty-seven shots. I am so glad we have digital cameras now. I always had red eyes in my shots. Now, we can touch up our photos with professional quality instantly. In our faith community, if you take a picture and zoom into our lives and our browsing history, our thoughts, our words, we use are not perfect.
We sin. And we disagree. But we are united as sinners turned saints because of our Savior’s sacrifice. We are united in worship to him. He has made peace between us and God the Father. And he makes peace between each other. We can have joy now and hope for a brighter eternity. If he can save us, he can change us. And he is changing us who trust in him. We are not the same as we first professed our faith in him. The theological term we can use for this is spiritual formation, or, in the Bible, “sanctification”. God is forming us more and more into the image of his Son, Jesus Christ. We are going to be so much sanctified that in heaven we will be perfected and glorified. We will have no more sin. There is hope for us as a community now and forever.
HOPE
Notice how much hope is in this passage. This stems from the previous passage in verse 4.
“For 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” (Romans 15:4, ESV)
Hope is the opposite of fear. God’s Word helps us fight our fears. It gives us hope. Sure, non-Christians hope.
They might fear corrupt government officials but hope for an election outcome.
They might fear loved ones becoming seriously ill but hope for medical breakthroughs.
They might fear economic collapse but hope for a turnaround.
They might fear cyberterrorism but hope for counterterroristic efforts.
They might fear the U.S. becoming involved in another war but hope for peace.
At the same time, these hopes might not pan out.
The government might become more corrupt.
Loved ones may die sooner rather than later.
The economy might suffer a historic collapse.
Information could get hacked.
We might get ourselves into a land war.
Where is our hope rooted when catastrophe strikes?
Is it in our ability to control people and circumstances?
Is it in the strength of our savings?
Is it our job?
Is it in our health?
No, it is where? What does God’s Word say? Our hope is in God. He knows all things. He controls all things. He is good. He has allowed sin to impact our world for a season negatively. He intervenes and orchestrates his purposes, and he loves his people. And in turn, we can love and praise him back. We can trust in him. He has kept his Word and will keep it. He won’t grow weary or forget. He is true through and through. He is the God of hope.
ROMANS 8:28
Romans 8:28,
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28, ESV).
We who love God can hope in all circumstances because of God. He is faithful. He is true. He will do what he says he will do. The Bible tells us that one day Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. Justice will come, true justice, right justice. And with it will come grace and mercy for all who truly believe in Jesus’s death on their behalf. And through his grace and mercy comes a resurrected reality with no sickness, no sadness, no pain, and no sin forever. What an amazing reality. The Gentiles and the Jews will worship their king, just like we have been this morning.
BLESSINGS
This brings us to the last part of our verses:
8 Christ served his people, demonstrating God’s truthfulness
9–12 Bringing the nations into fellowship with him
13 Blessing us with abundant hope
PRAYER
Paul concluded,
“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”
(Romans 15:13, ESV).
God is at work. He fills us by the power of the Spirit, as we trust in him. Do you want his joy and peace? Then bank on him and receive the Spirit’s joy and peace and power:
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22–23, ESV)
Be filled with the Spirit. As you do, abound in hope.
PAUL’S PRAYER
Paul broke out into prayer so frequently in his letter. Do you recall last week’s prayer?
“May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:5–6, ESV).
In the coming weeks, we will read another:
“May the God of peace be with you all. Amen” (Romans 15:33, ESV)
We have a God of hope, endurance, encouragement, and peace. He is a God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God’s Spirit is here to fill us and help us abound in hope. If you have never believed in Jesus as your Savior for your sins, you can today. Purpose in your heart to turn from your sin and seek to follow him and his Word today. And receive the Spirit’s joy, peace, power, and hope.
APPLICATION
As we wrap up. Here are some questions for us all to consider:
What worries, concerns, and fears do you have that sap your joy, peace, and hope?
Where is your hope rooted?
How can God’s promises and activity strengthen your confidence in him?
How can you grow in your hope in God?
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