God's Mission
Road To Rome • Sermon • Submitted
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· 2 viewsAfter being rejected by the Jewish leaders in Rome, he pronounces, by the implementation of a quote from Isaiah, his intentions to take the Gospel to the Gentiles.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
A desire to be a part of something larger than yourself.
From Up With People to the Peace Corp to the Military to Civic Organizations to gangs to political campaigns… people want to be a part of something bigger than themselves.
And the bigger the reach, the more alluring.
When we consider what we as the church are a part of, the spread of the Gospel, there is nothing that spans the continents, the ages, the people groups, and even transcends the physical and spiritual worlds, more than the Gospel.
Sometimes we make an assumption that the Gospel started with Jesus…or that God only concerned Himself with the Jews until Jesus came and Paul took the Gospel to the Gentiles (non-Jews). However…not what the Bible shows us.
Paul provides understanding into the nature and the spread of the Gospel for the church today.
Religious Does Not Equal Saved.
Religious Does Not Equal Saved.
vv. 25-26
This disagreement because of what Paul had been telling them about Jesus. Which led to his quoting Isaiah 6.
And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “ ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
What kind of people are “this people”?
Immoral? Liars and cheats? Murderers? Were they abusive? No.
These were the Jews of Isaiah’s day and the Jews of Paul’s day.
These were moral, upstanding people. You’d want them as neighbors, teachers, coaches for your kid’s soccer team.
These are people that if you could work your way into Heaven, they would!
Yet, they missed the point in Isaiah’s day and in Paul’s day.
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They were religious, but they were not saved.
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There is a difference.
Hear but not understand. See but not perceive or know by experience.
They can answer all the questions, but it’s never progressed beyond simple knowledge.
It’s the same today. Lots of people who can tell you things about Jesus or the Bible.
They’ve heard and they’ve seen. But it has never progressed beyond simple knowledge.
They’ve had just a little of the Gospel but that is it.
Almost daily there is news on the race for a vaccine for Covid.
A vaccine is when they take a bit of a dead virus and inject it into your body so that your body can know how to fight it off and be ready if it encounters the living specimen. Flu, Pneumonia, Shingles… It is an inoculation to build up an immunity.
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A dead faith inoculates people against Jesus.
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I think people have had a dead version of Christianity introduced into their lives. They see people who claim to have saving faith, but don’t, and that builds up their resistance to it. Creates push back… “I know people who are Christians.”
In reality, they don’t.
And this is on the church. We must preach and proclaim a living faith, we must hold ourselves accountable to live the living faith of Christ, we must exhibit in our lives and in our families and in our church. We must be different from the world and from those who are living in a dead faith.
There Is No Partial Salvation.
There Is No Partial Salvation.
v. 27
This chiasm. Pattern that lays it out and then does it in reverse. A-B-C-C-B-A.
Heart - Ears - Eyes - Eyes - Ears - Heart.
This is a poetic device that is common all through both the Old and New Testaments.
When it includes parts of a greater, it is indicating the whole.
The total person has rejected God.
There is not partial salvation. There is not almost saved.
There’s not part of hell for people who were more moral or better than others.
I was told onetime that they thought they’d end up at the top of hell, where it was just smokey.
And it broke my heart to hear that response.
There is not kind of saved or kind of lost.
There is no way to choose that after you die.
If you are sitting there thinking there may be another way, or that you’re probably okay…
This is for you. You must be born again. There is no other way.
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
Ultimately, leading to the final line of this Isaiah quote:
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“…and turn, and I would heal them.”
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Repentance. Admitting your sin. Turning away from it. Asking for forgiveness.
Receiving what Jesus accomplished for you on the cross.
And following what He has called us as a church to do.
Which includes =
God Has Always Had A Global Mission.
God Has Always Had A Global Mission.
Some people read this as a turning point to when the Gospel opens up to the Gentiles.
However, we notice the tense. It isn’t “will be sent.” It “has been sent.”
“…will be sent...”
“…has been sent...”
God’s global mission didn’t serve as a replacement because of the rejection of the Jews.
God’s interest has always been global.
The creation tells the story of the origins of worship.
The language used to describe is the language of temple.
The creation of people is the calling to the priesthood.
For those who are in a covenant with God, that saving relationship, are called to help others to know Him.
All of creation is the Lord’s! That includes us!
We were created to glorify Him!
And we see how throughout history, there has been those who have been saved.
God has always had a remnant of faithful worshipers.
We are a part of that ancient tradition of worshipers.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We can trace backwards in Scripture to Paul’s work.
And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
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.”
This has always been God’s plan. From the very beginning.
And now you are part of God’s plan. Let’s keep it moving forward.