Jew-Gentile Unity: Eternal Glory for God (Romans Sermon 110)

I. The Seemingly Insurmountable Problem: Genuine Unity

Turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 15. We’re looking, for two weeks at verses 7-13. And as we do, we come in a very timely fashion to a text of scripture that addresses an issue that has pressed itself into the world consciousness forcefully over the last handful of weeks although it never really fully leaves, and that is the crisis in the Middle East. You know that several weeks ago, some Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and that sparked a great military conflict going on right now between Israel and Hezbollah. And recent events in the Middle East have caused the alarm of people all around the world and a renewal of the desperate search for a political and diplomatic solution to lasting peace in the Middle East. And there’s a long heritage to that search, isn’t there? Now obviously, there may be some that would have the question: How can Israel, for example, negotiate with Hezbollah whose stated purpose is their extinction as a nation? Now how are you going to sit down at the table with somebody like that? And you could turn the whole thing around and ask, how can Hezbollah, seeing the world in their own way, looking for an Islamic state to rise up there, how can they negotiate with Israel, who wants to continue to be a Jewish state, how can they get together diplomatically? But there have been efforts made toward lasting peace in the Middle East.

In 1978, I remember when President Carter got Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin together for the Camp David Accords, and they said it was a new milestone in heading toward peace in the Middle East. Of course, Sadat was assassinated by his own countrymen three years later, because they felt he’d sold out to the Jews. And then there was, in 1993, the Oslo Accords during President Clinton’s administration, in which Yasser Arafat of the PLO and Yitzhak Rabin got together from Israel and they had the Oslo Accords and it was brokered by Clinton and signed September 13th, 1993. And the world thought so much of the Oslo Accords that in 1994, the three principals in that, Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, and Yitzhak Rabin, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Of course, the very next year, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a fundamentalist Jewish man who felt he’d sold out to the PLO. And Arafat, for his part, didn’t continue in the accords, he didn’t keep his end of the bargain. And frankly, many observing, looking on the outside, said he’s just never really changed from the statement he made to The Washington Post in 1970, “The goal of our struggle is the end of Israel and there can be no compromise.” Okay, well, how are you going to negotiate with that?

And our State Department has been developing what they call a “road map to peace” in the Middle East. Here (Romans 15) is the road map to peace in the Middle East. Amen? It’s in here. Someday, there will be lasting and permanent peace in the Middle East between Jews and Gentiles. Amen and hallelujah! And we ought to pray for it, because it’s most certainly going to come. But it’s not going to come the way the United States State Department thinks it’s going to come. It’s not going to come through a negotiated or even a military solution. It’s going to come by the power of God working through the Gospel in the end. That’s how it’s going to come. True lasting peace between Jews and Gentiles in the Middle East and around the world seems as impossible now as it ever did. There’s still what the scripture calls that “dividing wall of hostility” between Jews and Gentiles. And so one generation of peace negotiators after another can try to solve the Gordian knot, unravel the Gordian knot, of Middle East peace, some may make headway for a little while and if the headway was significant enough, they may even win the Nobel Peace Prize.

But we know what we already sang earlier today is true, in that beautiful hymn, May Jesus Christ be Praised. This is what one of the verses says:

Ye nations of mankind,

in this, your concord find

May Jesus Christ be praised!

Let all the earth around

Ring joyous with the sound

May Jesus Christ be praised!

That’s where we’re going to find the unity because that’s what God is working around the world. That’s the peace He intends. And I believe only the advance of the Gospel can genuinely and permanently reconcile Jews and Gentiles together, as each of them repent and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. And frankly, as I read the scriptures, only the second coming of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His reign around the world will produce lasting peace in the Middle East.

Now Romans 14 and 15 deals with a significant problem in a local church 20 centuries ago. A local church of Rome had some divisions cropping up between Jews and Gentiles. It was a mixed church, there were some Jews, some Gentiles there, all of them believing and trusting in Christ but there were some issues, some difficulties, what Romans 14 calls “debatable issues.” And I think it’s centered on the role the Law of Moses was going to have in the everyday lives of Christians, and there was a struggle. Now as we come to the question of Jew-Gentile conflict in a 1st-century church, the church of Rome, you may ask, “What does this have to do with my problems and my troubles today? How is this relevant?” You may even think, “How is the Middle East struggle relevant to my life?” Many Americans, I think, are interested in what’s going on there. But I say to you that Jew-Gentile conflict in the church in Rome in the 1st century is a paradigm of all human conflict for all time.

And the root causes there are going to be the same in our day as they were back in their day. The fact of the matter is, at root, all sinners apart from Christ, all sinners have no peace with God. And because they have no peace with God, they have no peace with themselves. And because they have no peace within themselves, they have no peace with other people. And that’s where the root of all conflict comes from on this earth. Isaiah 57:20-21 says, “The wicked are like the tossing sea which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. ‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.'” And out of that comes the Middle East crisis, out of that comes, in my opinion, every human conflict, because we have the habits of selfishness and bad relating, and they even carry over into the Christian life as well, sadly. The Jew-Gentile conflict in the 1st-century church is hardly different at all from modern Baptist churches having conflicts over politics or power struggles or the color of the carpet in the new Worship Center.

These struggles find their root in human sin and selfishness, all of them do. Neither, frankly, is it different from strife in homes between husbands and wives, between parents and children, between siblings; or in neighborhoods, from one neighbor to the next; or in office places, from one co-worker to the next co-worker. It’s the same. The roots are the same all over. Deep division and conflict between sinners is a basic effect of sin. And only the reconciliation of the Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ can genuinely, truly solve the problem.

Now the church at Rome, the seeds of its destruction were already planted within its own heart by the many, many years that each of those individual Jews and Gentiles spent in sin and in selfishness before they ever came to Christ. The seeds of their destruction were already sowed. Now we have seen throughout the Book of Romans the struggle that Paul is having to deal both with Jews and Gentiles who would be reading his letter. I mean, right from the beginning in Romans 1, you have Paul describing Gentile sin, pagan sin, apart from the knowledge of the Law of Moses, into idolatry and wickedness, he describes it very clearly in Romans 1. But then he turns and addresses, in Romans 2, the self-righteous Jewish person who thinks he can earn his salvation through his law-keeping, and he deals with that in chapter 2. Then in chapter 3, he sums up the entire human race in terms of our sinfulness: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Early in Romans 3, he said there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all of us are sold into sin. That is common between us, we share that. Jews and Gentiles share it together, and it’s also the root of the very problem that we have.

And so Paul is dealing with the issue of Jew and Gentile in the Roman church. In Romans 11, his concern is that Gentiles who are flooding into the church and the Gospel is so richly successful among the Gentiles may become arrogant toward the fallen Jewish nation, those branches that have been stripped off of that olive tree, and he’s concerned that the Gentiles not be arrogant toward the Jews. But then in 14, his concern, Romans 14, his concern reverses and he’s zeroing in on Jewish legalese within the church, who he calls “weak in the faith,” that they not judge others who are not following their rules and regulations. And he wants genuine Jew-Gentile unity, he’s dealing with that. But he also, in Romans 14, deals with Gentiles, I think, who are strong in the faith, who understand the new covenant, that they not flaunt their freedoms all over the place and thus create a rift in the body of Christ. He’s looking for unity. And here we see the culmination finally of this whole issue, Romans 14, Romans 15, of Jew-Gentile struggling within the church as we come to verse 7. And there he commands us, “Accept one another,” Jew-Gentile unity.

Now I say to you that genuine unity, not fake unity, not artificial or counterfeit unity, but genuine unity that only Christ can produce, is essential to the gospel mission in the world. We must have it. We must have this genuine unity. The power of the gospel to reconcile sinners at the human level must be made obvious to people who haven’t believed the gospel yet. We’ve got to put it on display. It’s essential to the advance of the gospel. As the gospel makes its powerful advance in the world, it must show itself powerful to reconcile people who ordinarily couldn’t get along. And I don’t just mean Jew and Gentile, but even deep racial or tribal divisions. We need to see it put on display that the gospel can do that. A divided bickering, fighting, selfish church cannot advance the Kingdom of God. And God wants to use the church, united, filled with the Spirit, to advance His name and his kingdom. And so, he’s put us on display.

Does that bother you that God has put you on display? Don’t you remember in the Sermon on the Mount, He said, “No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bowl; instead he puts it up on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.” “You are the light of the world,” He says. And so He wants to put the church, not this one local church, but yes, this local church, He wants to put us on display. And one of the things He wants to display is the genuine, heartfelt love and unity from one to another. It needs to be put on display. Tertullian in 197 in the midst of the advance of the Gospel through the Roman Empire, he said this: “It is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us.” They say, “Behold how they love one another. And they are angry with us, too, because we call each other ‘brother.'” They’re jealous of the love that the early church was showing to one another, but some of them said, “I want some of that. I want to know how to love, and I’d love to be part of it.” That was so attractive in the 1st-century, 2nd-century church.

Now there’re two key statements that Christ made that show how important it is that local churches have an open, obvious unity, I would say even a supernatural unity, that can only be described by the Gospel, the power of the Gospel. Two statements. One is John 13:35 in which Jesus said, “By this will all men know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” This is the proof to the world the you are My disciples: If you have a genuine, open love for one another. That’s one statement. Even more powerfully, in the high priestly prayer in John 17, this is so beautiful, Jesus prays for his own ministry, prays for His immediate apostles who are right there, and then He extends His prayer to pray for all of those who are gonna hear the Gospel through their message. And this is what He prays, it’s in John 17:20-23. He says, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You…May they be brought to complete unity, to let the world know that You sent Me.”

Now let me tell you something. It frustrates me when I hear commentators say, “See? Jesus made that prayer and he’s not getting what he wanted. We have got to do something to help Jesus’ prayer out.” Oh, don’t you ever believe that about Jesus’ prayer life. Does Jesus get everything He asked for in prayer? I tell you, He does. And we will someday be as one as the Father and the Son are one, isn’t that beautiful? That’s where our concord, our peace, our unity, is going to come from. When the Gospel is done with us, we are going to be perfectly one with people from all over the world. And how sweet is that going to be? But that’s not the only thing Jesus prays; He says, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me.” So the bringing, the process, of unification has to be done in front of an openly watching world so that we can be put on display and they can believe that Jesus is the Son of God. That’s the way that the prayer works in John 17.

And how sweet is it going to be when a multitude greater than anyone could count stands around the throne from every tribe and language and people and nation? How sweet will it be that there’ll be no division by haves and have-nots? No economic division. There’ll be no racial or tribal division. There’ll be no gender divisions, or age-graded divisions, or anything. There will be a perfect unity so much that we cannot even barely comprehend it or describe it. That is where we’re heading. That is the future. And that is Heaven. But the process of unification must happen here on earth. I want it to happen here in this church. I’d like to see it. I’d like God to use our home fellowships to produce it. I like stuff to go on in the halls and in the pews and through the preaching and the ministry to make it happen so that we can put on display the love that only Christ can give, to put it openly and obviously on display.

II. Ten Remedies from Paul

Now that’s all just the table-setting, the introduction. You think, “This is going to be a really long sermon if that’s just the introduction.” Actually, it’s going to be two really long sermons. Okay? We’re going to be looking over this week and next week at 10 remedies the apostle Paul gives in these wonderful verses to Jew-Gentile division. And as I said, I don’t want you just thinking Jew-Gentile, but I also want you to think just about divisions and a lack of unity and harmony at every level. He’s going to give us 10 remedies. We’re going to look at six this morning, and God willing, four next week.

The 10 remedies are:

• Understand God’s Ultimate Purpose: His Own Glory
• Understand God’s Second Purpose: Our Delight in His Glory
• Obey God’s Command: Accept Each Other
• Follow Christ’s Pattern of Acceptance
• Understand Christ’s Servanthood to the Jews
• Understand Christ’s Commitment to God’s Truth
• Believe God’s Promises to the Patriarchs
• Glorify God for His Mercy to Both Jews and Gentiles
• Understand the Prophecies of Jew-Gentile Unity
• Hope in Our Glorious Future Together

Now the overall point here is this: That God, in His infinite wisdom, in His eternal counsels before the foundation of the world, chose people from every tribe and language and people and nation to be rescued from this wicked and evil age by the power of the Gospel, that He will protect us in our journey through this evil age and bring us someday, Jew and Gentile, together into a perfect unity, focused on His throne and His glory forever and ever. And since that’s going to happen ultimately, then in every local church, there should be an essential unity put on display to make that happen. That’s how it works. We’re going from the local church of Rome and their problems and their bickering and their difficulties out to the ends of the earth through missions, in these verses, out to eternity in worship. That’s the motion. What an incredible set of verses these are. And so therefore, what I get out of this is that it matters a lot whether our church or any local church gets along well. It matters whether we love each other and whether there’s an essential palpable unity and love in the church or not. It matters a lot. And that’s the movement of these verses.

Alright, let’s talk about the first remedy. The first remedy to Jew-Gentile division is that we should understand God’s ultimate purpose in all things, namely, His own glory. This is the beginning of the true road map to peace in the Middle East. This is where it starts. Let’s understand God’s commitment to His own glory. Now I say to you that man-centered thinking is at the root of all human division. It all starts there. You know something? We… Well, I make too much of myself. Oh, come on. We make too much of ourselves. We think too highly of ourselves. We are our own favorite topic. And our needs and interests are our own favorite sub-topics.

We are fascinated with what we are interested in, and we are the center of everything. And may I say to you that until the human heart is captivated by something greater and more attractive than ourselves, we will continue doing the same thing. We will continue bickering and being divided. Racism and selfish national pride is a form of self-worship. So what we’re seeing in the Middle East is a bunch of people ultimately really just worshipping themselves, is what’s going on, on both sides, I would say. And all self-worship is a form of idolatry, isn’t it? Haven’t we exchanged God and now we are at the center and we’re worshipping ourselves? But I say to you, as we’ve said many times before, God’s glory is the only true right center of the universe.

Now what do we mean by “the glory of God”? We talk about that phrase frequently. What does it mean? Well, I mean, it is the radiant, brilliant, attractive, fascinating display of God’s nature, of His attributes. It’s the shining radiance of all that God is. That’s the glory of God. It involves light from God and truth from God about His own nature. The center of it is God’s own person, His nature, what He is like. Now I want to bring you back to the night that Jesus was born. Now I’m not saying this happened, but let’s imagine the shepherds were sitting around the campfire, bickering. Now it doesn’t say in scripture, don’t come back and say, “Pastor, there’s no record that the shepherds were bickering the night that Jesus was born,” but let’s just imagine. It’s not so extreme that we couldn’t think that they were bickering about whose sheep were best or about which watering hole who would use which one, and that one’s muddy but this one’s clear, and I get to use it first. And they might have even struggle, they fought over it, who knows?

But there they are the middle of the night, when suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared and the glory of the Lord shone all around them, and they were, in the King James Version, “sore afraid.” And the angel brings good news of glad tidings that will be for all the people: “Today in the city of David, a savior has been born for you. He is Christ the Lord. And this will be assigned to you, you will find a baby wrapped up in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” Then suddenly, with the angel, there was the heavenly host and they were saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace to men on whom His favor rests,” and they’re just celebrating, and then they go back into heaven, and the angel’s gone.

“Okay, now what were we arguing about? Alright. I think my sheep are better… ” They’re not even thinking about that! They are thinking, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that the angel has told us about, that the Lord has told us about.” The bickering has been driven out by a greater glory. And when we at last have a perfect vision of God’s glory, I tell you, all bickering will end. It will have been expelled by something better, something more glorious, than self-interest.

Now how does Paul put the glory of God at the center of it? Look at verse 7, reading this time from the ESV, I think it’s got a little bit better translation, in verse 7, it says, “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.” Paul puts God at the center by giving the reason why Christ welcomed us. We, the wretched, rebellious sinners, deserving of wrath and hell, we, shaking our fists at God, whose throats are open graves and whose tongues practice deceit, ruin and misery marks our way in the way of peace, we do not know, Romans 3. We are the ones that Christ has welcomed. And He did it for the glory of God, to put God on display.

Now you might say, “How does Christ welcoming wretched sinners like us put God on display?” Well, it does. Look at verse 8. “For I tell you that Christ has become a servant to the circumcised, [the Jews] to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs.” In other words, a central reason that Christ came and did His work is to prove how truthful God is, to prove that God always tells the truth, that when He makes a promise, He keeps it. And so God is glorified by Christ coming to earth because it vindicates the promises that God had made. It shows Him to be a truthful God, more about that later.

But I tell you this: We tend to think of human salvation in a human-centered way. It’s because God loves us so much, because God couldn’t live without us, because God needed us. We are the reason, and all of that. Well, let me tell you, God’s reasons were first and foremost God-centered, because He says in Isaiah 48:11, “For My own sake, for My own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield My glory to another.” That’s God’s motive. First and foremost, for Himself. And so, Christ came to prove that God told Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David the truth when He promised a Messiah who would come later. And so God’s truthfulness is glorified by this salvation. He’s putting God on display. We see it again in verse 8 and 9, and He puts God’s glory on display when He speaks of why the Gentiles were saved. “For I tell you, Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs, so that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy.”

And so you see Christ’s ministry not only elevates the truthfulness of God, but also the mercy of God. We are all of us saved by mercy. God has been merciful to us in Christ, and we celebrate the mercy of God. So I say to you that basically, human strife and conflict end when the glory of God takes its proper place in our hearts and estimations and we start thinking about the truthfulness or the mercy or the power or the knowledge or the wisdom of God, and we are just done with strife and conflict. That is remedy number one. And I’ll tell you, it’ll work through all eternity. There’ll be no strife and conflict in Heaven.

Remedy number two: Understand God’s secondary purpose. His secondary purpose is our eternal united delight in His glory. That’s His secondary purpose. God’s ultimate purposes were God-centered, but God’s secondary purposes were human-centered. He loves us. And I say to you, the measure of love is what the loving one is willing to give to the one he or she loves. How much is God willing to give us? He’s willing to give us the greatest thing He could ever give: He’s willing to give us Himself. He is willing that He Himself would be our possession throughout all eternity, that He Himself would be our reward throughout all eternity. He is willing to give us that grand and glorious gift of Himself. But I say to you also, He’s willing to give us lesser gifts. For example, He’s willing to give us each other. Oh, I don’t mean “each other” kind of the way we were apart from Christ. I don’t even mean “each other” the way we are now, struggling with our sanctification. I mean He means to give us each other perfected and glorious in Heaven. He means to give you a gift of brothers and sisters from every tribe and language and people and nation, to share the experience with up in Heaven. No, you’re not going to have your own private cubicle to watch God’s glory every night, okay? You’re going to be with other believers.

“As for the saints who are in the land,” Psalm 16, “they are the glorious ones in whom is all My delight.” And so God means to give us this lesser gift of one another, perfected by the Gospel. And look how happy these verses are. I’m just so happy this morning, I get to preach these happy verses. And you are lesser happy, you get to listen to them. Okay? See, I’m more happy cause I know when this thing’s going to end, I get to control that, okay? But still we have a glorious search of human happiness in these verses. Look how happy these verses are. Verse 9, “‘Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles. I will sing hymns to your name.’ Again, it says, ‘Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people,’ and again, ‘Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and sing praises to Him, all you peoples.’ And again, Isaiah says, ‘The root of Jesse will spring up. One will arise to rule over the nations and the Gentiles will hope in Him.'” And then to top it all off, in verse 13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Oh, these are happy words. These are rejoicing, celebrating words. They’re meant to make us eternally happy, and so the second remedy to strife and conflict is to understand God’s intention to give us each other eternally in Heaven to worship God.

Remedy number three: It’s just simple obedience. Now I’m taking these in the order they’re given in the text, but obey God’s command to accept one another wholeheartedly. Now if you go back to Romans 14:1, when this whole topic began, the issue of debatable issues, the matter of the debatable issues and all that, it begins in Romans 14:1 with this command: “Welcome him whose faith is weak without passing judgment on disputable matters.” Now we have the closing bookend. There’s the opening statement; here, we have the bookend that ends this whole discussion. 15:7, “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.” Simply put, God commands us to welcome and accept each other. He just commands it through the apostle Paul. It’s simply a matter of obedience. That’s all. And Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will obey what I command.” He’s just simply commanding obedience here.

Now the word “welcome” here was beautifully described in a sermon a few weeks ago by Scott Markley, the best sermon I’ve ever heard on Philemon. And how sweet was the idea of Philemon, the master, receiving and welcoming back Onesimus, who had wronged him, defrauded him, and welcoming him back, and we hope that’s what he did upon receiving Paul’s letter, but welcoming back with a warm embrace. Or again, we could consider what Scott did in that sermon, the prodigal son returning to his father and searching his father’s face to find out, “Are you going to take me in? Can I be one of your hired servants?” He doesn’t need to search his father’s face; look at his father, he’s running, his arms are extended, there’s tears coming down his eyes. He’s welcoming his son back. “Welcome one another.” This is a simple command here.

Remedy number four: Follow Christ’s pattern of acceptance. Look at verse 7, “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.” Now I say to you that Paul answers two key questions on the issue of this welcoming that we’re supposed to do for each other. The questions are why and how. First of all, why should we accept one another? Well, let me tell you, Christ is the motive for our acceptance of anybody, any Christian, that God brings here into this place. Christ is the motive. How can we refuse to accept someone if Christ has not refused to accept us, and if Christ has accepted him or her? How can we refuse them? We were filthy, rebellious sinners stinking with the pigs in our sin, and Christ embraces us in our saving faith. Christ embraced us in our rebellion. He cured us of it, He cleaned us up. He set us on a rock that will not move, and He will someday open Heaven for us. Why should we embrace sinners in Christ, other sinners? Simply put, because of how graciously Christ welcomed you. That’s the why.

Now how should we do it? Well, again, look at Jesus. Look at Him. How lovingly did Christ accept you, how beautifully did He accept sinners in the New Testament, what is the pattern that Christ has set for welcoming of other sinners? John 6:37, He says, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me, I will never drive them away.” I’ll welcome them all. And so Christ welcomed Zacchaeus, that pilfering tax collector who everyone hated. He welcomed the Roman centurion, who was part of a hated race in the Promised Land, a conquering race, but he had a need and Christ welcomed him. He welcomed Mary Magdalene, who was a prostitute, who had seven demons inside her. He welcomed her and drove the demons out and healed her. He welcomed the little children who had runny noses and who didn’t understand the great things of God and the big plans for the kingdom and so the disciples wanted to keep them out, and He said, “Let the little children come to me.” “They want to crawl on me a while, is that alright?” And so He welcomed the little children.

He welcomed a leper. If you can imagine what a leper would have looked like back in those days, with running sores all over his face and disfigured with corruption all over his body and people go running and screaming from the leper, and he comes stumbling toward Jesus and says, “If You are willing, you can make me clean,” and Jesus reaches out His hand and says, “I am willing, be clean.” He welcomed a woman of poor reputation in that neighborhood who bathed His feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. He welcomed even Saul of Tarsus, who began that morning breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples and really, against Christ himself. What a rebellious, self-righteous Pharisee, who thinks he’s serving God by killing Christians, and Jesus welcomed him and took him in through simple, saving faith.

He welcomes anyone the Father brings to him, he won’t turn anyone away. He welcomes them all, he welcomed you. And if you lost a sense of how amazing that is, then get back into the Word and find out what you were apart from Christ. He welcomed you richly through faith in Christ. For He said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will most certainly give you rest,” that’s the kind of welcome that he expects us to give to each other, because that’s the kind of welcome he gave to you.

The fifth remedy is understand Christ’s servanthood to the Jews first. Now Christ’s ministry to the Jews first is a remedy to Jew-Gentile bickering because God elevated the Jews in that way, that Christ came first to the Jews and ministered to them. He came as a servant to the Jews though He rightly was their king. He could have reclined on silk pillows and had them come wash His feet, not that they would have needed any washing. But instead, the whole thing was reversed and He washed their filthy, nasty feet and He served them. He took up their infirmities and he carried their sorrows, says Isaiah, of the suffering servant. And that’s what Jesus was: He was a servant to the Jews, and He came especially to serve them by dying on the cross for their sins. And so in Mark 10:45, he said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

You know the pattern was set to the Jew first and then to the Gentile. When Jesus ministered in Tyre and Sidon, which is a Gentile area, and He’s there to minister to the Jews that were living in Tyre and Sidon, and the Canaanite woman comes crying out after Him, “Lord, son of David, have mercy on me, my daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession.” He just doesn’t answer a word. And His disciples say, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” And Jesus says this: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” Now you know that she came and got what she wanted because she talked to Jesus about food falling from the children’s table. But Jesus came as a servant to the Jews first. Now don’t misunderstand, the apostle Paul has proven in our text, and we’ll look at this more next week, that God always intended to save the Gentiles. That wasn’t an add-on, but His ministry was to the Jews first. And it gives us a pattern of how we should treat each other, not as kings, but of servants.

And the final remedy we’re going to look at today, remedy number six, is understand God’s commitment to… Or understand Christ’s commitment to God’s truth. Verse 8, “I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs.” Now we’ve already touched on this. One of the reasons Christ came was to prove how truthful God is, that He never lies. He only speaks the truth, and He keeps His promises. I say to you, this is the foundation of all human relationships. It’s certainly the foundation of a marriage relationship, with a husband and wife get up, and in front of God and witnesses, promise to be things for each other for the rest of their lives and God upholds that promise. But it’s also true of all human relationships. We make promises to each other, we speak to each other, and we have to speak the truth. Lies and deception unravel relationships, and they unravel churches. And Christ has come on behalf of God’s truth to give us a pattern of how we must be one with each other and speak the truth to each other in love and uphold our promises to one another.

III. Review and Application: Unity and Joyful Worship of God’s Glory

And so we see six remedies to Jew-Gentile division, and I say also to all division, first, the overarching purpose of God is His own glory and a full meditation on that, an understanding of the glory of God, expels little bickerings and divisions. Secondly, we’ve seen God’s second purpose, is to make us happy forever and ever, worshipping Him in Heaven. And so therefore we ought to do it with each other here on earth, don’t you think? Thirdly, a simple command He’s given us, in verse 7, accept or welcome one another. Fourthly, that we should follow Christ’s pattern of acceptance. As He has accepted us, we also ought to accept one another. Fifth, we should understand Christ’s servanthood to His own people, to the Jews, and sixth, his commitment to God’s truth.

Now how do we apply this to our own lives? Well, first, I say that every local church, true church, must attend to its own unity just like this church at Rome had to. We’ve got to be sure that we are as one as the Father and the Son are one, in journey toward that unity. It has to be a goal. Wherever there’s division, wherever there needs to be reconciliation, you have to do what it takes to get it done. And why? Because if there’s true, genuine unity among the local churches around the world, there’s a movement from the local church in this passage to the ends of the earth in missions, to eternity forever around the throne of God. That’s the motion of this passage. So therefore, if you know of any difficulties within this body of Christ, it’s our responsibility to reconcile. If you’re involved, it’s your double responsibility: Go and make it right until it’s made right. Same is true in your marriage and your parenting and your friendships, co-workers. Follow these remedies, Put the glory of God at the center, and turn away from your own petty needs.

And I say to you also, you ought to meditate on Heaven more than you do. It just will make you happy. I had the most wonderful time going over this sermon this morning, been happy ever since. I’m thinking, someday, I’m going to be in Heaven with brothers and sisters from around the world, from every tribe and language and people and nation. I’m looking forward to worshipping with some of them today. I would love to see this church, we are a downtown Durham church, I’d love to see this church physically and visibly display as much unity, supernatural unity, as possible, across racial lines, across international lines, across gender lines, and families, and home fellowships. I would love to see it. I’d like God to put this church and many others, all of them, on display for that kind of unity, and see the Gospel go out from us. So, our home fellowship, this not an ad, I mean, other home fellowship leaders don’t get the chance to advertise their home fellowship, I’m not doing that, but I’m looking forward to studying Randy Alcorn’s book on Heaven, because I just think the more you study on it, the more you saturate your minds on where we’re heading, the more powerfully happy and joyful you are in this world, and the more you do for His glory.

My final statement is to any who may be here today who have never trusted in Christ, you know, this kind of unity, this kind of peace, freedom from conflict, is not available to you until you come to faith in Christ. You have to repent and believe in Christ, you have to let Christ, in effect, get down and wash your dirty feet and your head and your hands and every part of you as well with the blood he shed on the cross. By simple faith in Christ, you can be fit for eternity and for perfect unity with brothers and sisters from around the world who have made the same decision to trust in him. Close with me in prayer.

I.   The Seemingly Insurmountable Problem: Genuine Unity

A.  Modern Chapters of an Ancient Struggle

1.  Recent events: Hezbollah and Israel

The recent kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah in Lebanon have triggered the escalation of open warfare between Israeli and Hezbollah forces that has captured world attention

The core of the Hezbollah organization in Lebanon comes from ‘Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ sent to Lebanon in 1982, at the time of Israel’s invasion of Southern Lebanaon designed to oust the PLO. They went to assist in the establishment of a revolutionary Islamic movement whose members would participate in the ‘Jihad’, Holy War, against Israel from bases in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. Hezbollah dreamt of transforming Lebanon’s multi- religion state into an Iranian-style Islamic state. Its ideology, as expressed in declarations by its leadership, maintained that Israel had no legitimacy as a state, and that it must be fought until Jerusalem, meaning all of Israel, is liberated.

Over its two decades, Hezbollah has evolved into a movement with thousands of trained guerrillas, members of the Lebanese parliament and a dynamic welfare program benefiting thousands of Lebanese people. They enjoy considerable support in Lebanon both because their rage against Israel is popular and because their social programs are effective in meeting ground level needs. Since Israel is no longer present in Lebanon, Hezbollah now talks about the elimination of Israel itself calling all of Israel “occupied territory” that has to be “liberated” for Islam.

Israel’s basic problem: how do you negotiate with a group who’s sole purpose is to eliminate you completely and replace you in your own land?

2.  Constant efforts at resolution, some award-winning… NONE ULTIMATELY EFFECTIVE

a.  Jimmy Carter’s efforts at Camp David with Anwar Sadat and Meachem Begin in 1978 led to the Camp David Accords… but this treaty also led to Sadat’s assassination in 1981

b.  Oslo Agreement of 1993: Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Yasser Arafat of the PLO, brokered by Bill Clinton, signed on September 13, 1993

1994 Nobel Peace Prize awarded jointly to: Yasser Arafat, Simon Peres, and Yitzhak Rabin

However, the very next year, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a radical Jewish law student who opposed Rabin’s efforts in the Mid-East Peace Process

AND Yasser Arafat did not carry out his side of the agreement because his settled commitment was stated way back in 1970, in a statement in the Washington Post:

“The goal of our struggle is the end of Israel, and there can be no compromise.”

c.  U.S., European, Russian, and United Nations efforts since then… endless efforts: “Roadmap to Peace in the Middle East” has prove unattainable

3.  True lasting peace between Jews and Gentiles seems as impossible now as it did centuries ago

4.  There is still a “dividing wall of hostility” between Jews and Gentiles… and only in Christ is it removed

5.  So one generation of peace negotiators after another can try to solve the Mid- East crisis; some may make headway for a while and perhaps will win Nobel Peace Prizes

6.  But a simple line in a hymn said it best: “May Jesus Christ Be Praised”

Ye nations of mankind In this your concord find

May Jesus Christ be praised! Let all the earth around

Ring joyous with the sound May Jesus Christ be praised!

Only the Advance of the Gospel can genuinely reconcile Jews and Gentiles

Only the Second Coming of Christ can bring about perfect peace on earth, goodwill toward men

B.  Jew-Gentile Conflict a Subset of Human Conflict

1.  You may ask, “How is Jew-Gentile conflict in the first century church in Rome relevant to my life?”

2.  Well, it is a paradigm of all human conflict and division

3.  At root: sinners have no peace with God, therefore, they have no peace within themselves

Isaiah 57:20-21 But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. 21 “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”

4.  The habits of selfishness and bad relating carry over into our Christian lives as well

5.  The Jew-Gentile conflict in the first century church is hardly different at all from modern Baptist churches splitting over power or politics or doctrine or the color of the carpet in the new sanctuary

6.  Neither is it different from strife in marriages or between parents and children or between siblings or among neighbors or co-workers

7.  Deep division and conflict between sinners is the basic effect of sin; and only the reconciliation of the gospel can produce genuine change

C.  The Church at Rome: Seeds of Its Destruction Already Planted

1.  Mixed church, Jew + Gentile

2.  How then shall we live? What about the Laws of Moses?

3.  The Jew-Gentile Issue always in the background in Romans

a.  Pagan, Gentile sinners described in Romans 1

b.  Jewish legalistic and arrogant sinners described in Romans 2

c.  “All have sinned” a uniting factor… but it is also the root of the problem

d.  Sometimes Paul addresses Jews, sometimes Gentiles

4.  In Romans 11, his great concern is that Gentiles would not become arrogant and boast over the fallen state of unbelieving Israel

5.  In Romans 14, his concern reverses and he is strong to argue against those weak in faith (Jews) who think the Laws of Moses must still have the same function in a life pleasing to God: we must still circumcise our children, still refrain from eating certain foods, still observe the Sabbath and festivals

6.  BUT in Romans 14 he also addresses those strong in faith (probably Gentiles), telling them not to flaunt their freedoms to the great damage of their Jewish brothers and sisters

7.  Romans 15: Accept one another… Jew-Gentile unity

D.  Unity of the Church Essential to Its Mission

1.  The power of the Gospel to reconcile sinners to God MUST BE MADE OBVIOUS in the world by its power to reconcile people

2.  As the Gospel makes its powerful advance in the world, it MUST show itself powerful to reconcile sinners to each other as well as to God

3.  A divided, bickering, fighting selfish church CANNOT advance the Kingdom of God

4.  As the world watches, it must be overwhelmed by the way we love each other

5.  Tertullian: Early church unity

Tertullian (c.197) said, “It is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. They say, ‘Behold how they love one another!’ …And they are angry with us, too, because we call each other brother.”

6.  Two key statements of Christ prove this forever

John 13:35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 17:20-21, 23 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. … 23 May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

The unity between Christians in heaven will be absolutely perfect… no racism, no rich-poor divisions, no “haves and have-nots”, no tribal exclusions… just a perfect unity patterned after the Trinity

Yes, that’s in heaven… but the process of UNIFICATION, of reconciliation must be OBVIOUS and VISIBLE in the present world era, so that unbelievers can OBSERVE IT happening and believe that Christ is God’s Son

E.  Ten Remedies to Jew-Gentile Division Listed

■      Understand God’s Ultimate Purpose: His Own Glory

■      Understand God’s Second Purpose: Our Delight in His Glory

■      Obey God’s Command: Accept Each Other

■      Follow Christ’s Pattern of Acceptance

■      Understand Christ’s Servanthood to the Jews

■      Understand Christ’s Commitment to God’s Truth

■      Believe God’s Promises to the Patriarchs

■      Glorify God for His Mercy to Both Jews and Gentiles

■      Understand the Prophecies of Jew-Gentile Unity

■      Hope in Our Glorious Future Together

II.   Ten Remedies from Paul

Overall point: Christ has come to accomplish an eternal plan from God. The center of that plan is the glory of God, and His loving desire for the sinful human race is to find our eternal happiness in a heavenly life of worship of His glory. The worshipers were chosen before the foundation of the world from every tribe, language, people and nation. God’s plan was to call out the Jews first, to reveal His worldwide saving intent through promises made to them and prophecies made by the prophets. Then, in the fullness of time, Christ came to the Jews only, to serve them in life (by miracles and teachings and example) and to serve them in death by His atoning crucifixion. Yet it was always with an eye to fulfilling God’s worldwide saving purposes for BOTH Jews and Gentiles that Christ came.

Therefore, now, Paul’s ministry is to accomplish the fullness of the Gentiles through the preaching of the gospel. God’s final plan WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED… as elect from every nation will gather around the throne of Christ and glorify God for His mercy to them. Since this has always been God’s plan and since that plan is actually being worked out in space and time before their very eyes, in the successful ministry of Paul to the Gentiles, it makes perfect sense for the Roman church, a mixed church of Jews and Gentiles, to accept one another and love one another and cherish one another… .since they will be spending eternity doing it

Key points:

■      All things are done to glorify God… that is the center of everything

■      The salvation plan was worked out before the foundation of the world

■      It included BOTH Jews AND Gentiles from the very beginning

■      Christ is the Pattern for Jew-Gentile Unity: He accepted sinners like us, we should accept each other

■      Jew-Gentile unity in worshiping God was prophesied to the patriarchs and the prophets

■      The ultimate end: Elect representatives from every nation will be perfectly united in worshiping God forever

■      So we should accept one another deeply, gladly now, as Christ has accepted us

A.  Remedy #1: Understand God’s Ultimate Purpose: His Own Glory

1.  Man-centered thinking is the root of all human division

a.  We make far too much of ourselves and our own happiness and selfish ends

b.  Not until the human heart is captivated by something more glorious and more compelling will it give up its petty agendas

c.  Racism and selfish national pride is a form of self-worship

d.  All self-worship is really IDOLATRY

e.  BUT God’s glory alone is the true center of the universe

2.  What do we mean by “the glory of God”?

a.  It means the radiant, brilliant display of God’s essential nature

b.  It involves light from God and truth about God together… the center of it is God’s own person, His nature, what He is like

Imagine: The shepherds sitting around the campfire arguing or bickering about whose sheep were the best or who would get to water the sheep first in the morning… their selfish natures drove the argument UNTIL the angel of the Lord appeared and the GLORY of the Lord shone all around

The greater selfless interest in glory drove out the lesser selfish interest in arguing

3.  How does Paul put the glory of God at the center here?

ESV Romans 15:7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

Not, as the NIV has:

Romans 15:7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

But simply for the display of God’s glory

a.  Paul puts God at the center by giving the reason WHY Christ welcomed us

b.  We, the wretched rebellious sinners… deserving of wrath and hell… we, shaking our fists at God, whose throats are open graves and whose tongues practice deceit… we whose feet are swift to shed blood, ruin and misery mark our ways and the way of peace we do not know… we who were God’s bitter enemies, CHRIST WELCOMED US…received us warmly!!

c.  Why? “For the glory of God”

d.  To put God on display, to exalt and display the glory of God

e.  God’s attributes are at the center of a display of His glory

4.  Paul puts God at the center by explaining WHY Christ came

ESV Romans 15:8 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

a.  In other words, a central reason Christ came was to DISPLAY God’s truthfulness

b.  To PROVE that God always tells the truth

c.  God made certain promises to the patriarchs… Christ came to fulfill them

d.  The goal in this verse was to show that God always tells the truth, to confirm it

e.  We always tend to think of human salvation in a human-centered way… it was because God loves US so much, God couldn’t live without US, God needed US, WE are the reason

f.  God’s reasons were first and foremost God-centered…

Isaiah 48:11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another.

g.  Christ came to prove that God told Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David the truth when He promised a Messiah who would come later

5.  Paul also puts God’s glory on display when he speaks of WHY the Gentiles were saved:

Romans 15:8-9 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs 9 so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy

a.  Christ came to display God’s truthfulness… His trustworthiness… a God who always speaks the truth, a God who can be trusted to keep His promises

b.  Christ saved Jews and Gentiles to display God’s mercy… we will both be up in heaven exulting forever and ever in the MERCY of God… His kindness to us in Christ

6.  Basically: Human strife and conflict will cease forever in heaven where God’s glory takes its rightful place as the center of our existence

B.  Remedy #2: Understand God’s Second Purpose: Our Eternal, United Delight in His Glory

1.  God’s ULTIMATE purposes were God-centered

2.  God’s SECONDARY purposes were human-centered… He LOVES us

3.  The greatest measure of love is what it will sacrifice, what it will GIVE to the one it loves

4.  God’s gifts are lavish

a.  The greatest gift God could give us is HIMSELF… that we might be overwhelmed eternally by His very presence

b.  The second greatest gift God could give us is EACH OTHER… especially once we have been perfected, cleansed of all sin, radiant in Christ’s righteousness, shining in Christ’s glory

c.  Therefore God is working out a beautiful salvation plan in which racists and bigots and self-worshipers will be saved from their racism and bigotry and self-worship to adore and glorify God

d.  AND as they do, they find delight in each other as a secondary blessing: people from every tribe and language and people and nation falling on their faces together… perfectly united in one thought: THE GLORY OF GOD

5.  So we see HAPPINESS all over these verses… happiness in what God has planned for all of us together:

“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to your name.” 10 Again, it says, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.” 11 And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and sing praises to him, all you peoples.” 12 And again, Isaiah says, “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; the Gentiles will hope in him.” 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Words like:

a.  “Rejoice O Gentiles with His people”

b.  That is a SHARED joy… a SHARED delight

c.  Why does God give us each other? Because He loves us!! We will become one of God’s wonderful gifts to His children when we are fully

6.  The focus is JOYFUL EXUBERANT WORSHIP

a.  “I will praise you”

b.  “I will sing hymns to your name”

c.  “Praise the Lord all you peoples”

d.  “The Gentiles will hope in him”

The focus is on God’s glory… but it is a UNITED expression of worship

e.  Look at the final, exuberant benediction

vs. 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So… the second remedy to Jew-Gentile division is to understand God’s wonderful purpose for His elect people: unity in eternal worship in God’s presence

C.  Remedy #3: Obey God’s Command: Accept Each Other Wholeheartedly

1.  Bookend commands:

Romans 14:1 [Welcome] him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.

ESV Romans 15:7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

2.  Simply put: God commands us to accept one another, to welcome one another

3.  It is a matter of simple obedience here

John 14:15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command.

4.  The word “welcome” here was admirably described by Scott Markley several weeks ago in the book of Philemon… a warm engaging welcome

Philemon 1:17 So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me.

a.  It is as little as tone of voice, facial expressions of gladness that says “I love you; I’m glad you’re my brother, my sister in Christ”

b.  It’s like the Father of the Prodigal Son… running to the end of the path to greet his son, warmly embracing him, calling for a ring for his finger and shoes for his feet

5.  Paul is commanding obedience from the Jews and Gentiles in the church: GET OVER YOUR BIASES AND LOVE EACH OTHER

D.  Remedy #4: Follow Christ’s Pattern of Acceptance

ESV Romans 15:7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

1.  Paul answers two questions about Jewish and Gentile Christians acceptance of one another: “AS CHRIST HAS WELCOMED YOU”: WHY? And HOW?

2.  Why should we accept one another? Christ is the motive for our acceptance of one another

a.  How can we refuse to accept someone else if Christ has not refused to accept us?

b.  We were filthy rebellious sinners, stinking with the pigs in our sin

c.  Christ embraced us in our rebellion, cured us of it, cleaned us up and introduced us to His heavenly Father

d.  Why should we embrace other sinners in Christ? Simply put: because of how gracious Christ was to welcome you!!

3.  How should we accept one another? In the pattern of Christ! AS warmly and lovingly as Christ forgave and cleansed and loved and welcomed you!

John 6:37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.

·        Christ welcomed Zacchaeus, who was a thieving tax collector

·        Christ welcomed the Roman Centurion whose servant was paralyzed

·        Christ welcomed Mary Magdelene, a prostitute from whom he cast seven demons

·        Christ welcomed the little children who his own disciples had rebuked

·        Christ welcomed the leper who said “If you are willing, you can make me clean”

·        Christ welcomed Peter after he’d denied Christ three times

·        Christ welcomed the woman of poor reputation who bathed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair

·        Christ welcomed the woman who’d been bleeding for twelve years

·        Christ welcomed Saul of Tarsus, a self-righteous Pharisee who was breathing out murderous threats against Christ’s disciples

·        Christ welcomed anyone the Father brought to Him… He accepted them all gladly as love gifts from the Father

Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

4.  The pattern of Christ answers WHY and HOW we must welcome each other

E.  Remedy #5: Understand Christ’s Servanthood “to the Jews First”

1.  Christ’s ministry to the Jews first is a remedy to Jew-Gentile bickering

2.  Christ came as servant to the Jews, though He rightly was their King

3.  He didn’t carry Himself as a high and lofty potentate, though He could have; but rather He was a humble servant of all

4.  BUT in the pattern of God, He was sent to the Jews exclusively in His first coming

[Tyre & Sidon] Matthew 15:22-24 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.” 23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” 24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

5.  And what was the manner of Christ’s servanthood to the Jews?

a.  He took up their diseases and healed their iniquities; He bore their sins and carried their sorrows

b.  He humbly did what no one else could or would do

6.  And what was the extent of Christ’s servanthood to the Jews? The CROSS

Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death– even death on a cross!

That is how far, how infinitely far Christ served the Jewish people… all the way to the cross!

7.  Christ’s great love to the Jews should remove any Gentile tendency to look down on their Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ; it should cause us to revere the Jewish roots of our own faith

8.  It also gives us the pattern of how we treat each other: as servants not as Kings

F.  Remedy #6: Understand Christ’s Commitment to God’s Truth

Vs. 8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs

1.  Christ’s coming was to display the truthfulness of God, specifically in keeping his promises to the Patriarchs and His prophecies through the Prophets

2.  Vindication of the name of God, of the glory of God as a truth-telling God is uppermost in Christ’s list of motives

3.  As I said earlier, Christ puts a display of the glory of God even above human salvation

4.  Had Christ not come to serve the Jews by dying for them on the cross, then all of God’s promises in the Old Testament would have been for nothing

5.  God would have been a liar, a promise-breaker, completely unworthy of our trust

6.  Human beings lie so easily… we have very little regard for the truth

a.  We speak words and don’t mean them

b.  We make promises and don’t keep them

c.  This is destructive in all human relationships

7.  God’s unshakeable commitment to the truth is the sure and certain foundation of the church, and of our relationships with each other

8.  If God cannot be trusted, then why should we trust any other person

9.  BUT if God is truthful, then we have a hope for future truth-filled relationships with each other

10.  Christ’s powerful display of the truthfulness of God is a sure and certain foundation for Jew-Gentile unity in the church

III.   Review and Application: Unity and Joyful Worship of God’s Glory

A.  Review

1.  Problem: Jew-Gentile disunity

2.  Paul’s Ten Remedies to the Problem of Disunity in the Church

■      Understand God’s Ultimate Purpose: His Own Glory

■      Understand God’s Second Purpose: Our Delight in His Glory

■      Obey God’s Command: Accept Each Other

■      Follow Christ’s Pattern of Acceptance

■      Understand Christ’s Servanthood to the Jews

■      Understand Christ’s Commitment to God’s Truth

■      Believe God’s Promises to the Patriarchs

■      Glorify God for His Mercy to Both Jews and Gentiles

■      Understand the Prophecies of Jew-Gentile Unity

■      Hope in Our Glorious Future Together

B.  Apply to Your Own Life

1.  All problems of disunity are ultimately in view

2.  Issues of reconciliation within the church body continue to be paramount

3.  It is not only Jew-Gentile unity that Paul has in mind, but perfect unity between all believers as a clear proof to the watching world of the power of the gospel

4.  In your marriage and family life, there should be unity… or you must labor at issues until there is

C.  Apply to our own Church

1.  The church must be a place of open, warm acceptance of people

2.  This does not mean acceptance or tolerance of sin, of course

3.  But it does mean there must be a humble, glad acceptance of other sinners, even those different than yourselves

4.  Set your minds so totally on our future eternity of perfect worship and then pray for it to be mirrored here at FBC

5.  Earnestly desire people of other races and nationalities to feel totally and warmly accepted here

D.  Meditate Frequently on our Heavenly Future: Full Delight in Worship

E.  Live for the Future Glory of God in the Advance of the Church

F.  Obey the Happy Commands to Worship God