CW-A Epistle - Second Sunday in Advent - KBKuschel
Romans 15:4-13
4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. {5} May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, {6} so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. {7} Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. {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 {9} so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy, as it is written: "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.
What do you want for Christmas?
What is the best gift?
IA1 “All I want for Christmas is.” You fill in the rest of the sentence. The gift giving tradition at Christmas time started with the desire to reflect in a small way God’s gift to us - His Son Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of that gift giving tradition we have come to expect gifts at Christmas time. “All I want for Christmas is” reflects that expectation. Are we going to get what we hope we will get at Christmas? Our hopes will be fulfilled or they will be unfulfilled when we open our presents at Christmas time.
2 All Paul wants for you for Christmas is hope. At the end of the first paragraph Paul indicates that he wants us to have hope when he writes {4}that we might have hope.” He doesn’t say your hopes will be fulfilled at Christmas time. He says he wants you to receive hope as a present from the Lord. What is this hope that Paul wants God to give us? It is the confidence that we have on this earth against overwhelming appearances to the contrary that God is in charge and everything will turn out all right for us. Christian hope is the same attitude the little leaguer expressed when asked if he was discouraged in the top of the first inning since his team was behind seventeen to nothing. “Why should I be?” he asked. “We haven’t been up to bat yet.”
B1 What is our confidence leaning on? The words and promises of God. God says that all my sins have been washed away in the blood of Jesus. My confidence says I know that I am not going to be punished for my sins because of what Jesus did. God says that I am covered with the righteousness of Jesus. My confidence says I know that I am acceptable to God and part of His family. God says that Jesus rose from the dead so that I can live forever. My confidence says I know that I am going to wake up from the dead and spend eternity with the Lord.
2 What is our confidence leaning on? The words and promises of God. God says that He is going to be with us always. My confidence says that I can go into the unknown called tomorrow because of the Lord’s presence in my life. God says that He is going to see to it that I have what I need. My confidence says that I can take on responsibilities because of the Lord’s provision. God says that He is going to bring about benefit for my soul no matter what. My confidence says that the difficulty with which I am struggling is not worth bottoming out over.
C1 Where do we get this confidence that God is in charge and everything will turn out all right for us in spite of overwhelming appearances to the contrary? Paul writes: {4}“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Paul says hope comes into our lives because the Scriptures give endurance and encouragement. We look at the Old Testament, which is what Paul meant when he used the term “Scriptures”, and we read about people who kept abandoning God. But we also read about the drastic measures God took to bring them back to Him. This teaches us that God is intensely interested in turning people back to Him. It gives us the confidence that He will treat us in the same way when necessary. We look at the Old Testament. We read about God offering these same people His forgiveness by repeatedly sending His prophets . This teaches us to know that God is intensely interested in forgiving people after they have wandered away from Him It gives us the confidence that He will treat us in the same way when necessary. The Scriptures, Paul writes, give us hope.
2 All Paul wants for us for Christmas is hope. If hope is engendered in us through the Word, then all Paul really wants for Christmas for us is a desire in us to regularly use God’s Word so that we have that hope worked in us. Such confidence is a wonderful Christmas gift from the Lord Himself.
IIA1 In the second paragraph all Paul wants for you is unity. {5} “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, {6}so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. {7}Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” What is this spirit of unity among yourselves? Literally Paul wants all of us “to think the same thing among one another.”
2 The next phrase helps some more. “As you follow Christ” literally is “in accord with Christ Jesus.” What Paul wants is unity based on what lines up with what Jesus is about and what Jesus has to say. All the unity in the world won’t do any good unless it is in accord with what Jesus says. The old saying is true: “If fifty million people believe a wrong thing, it is still wrong.” Only when believers are united in accord with what Jesus says, in the Scriptures, can there be true unity.
B1 What result is Paul looking for from this unity which He wants God to give us? {6}so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Unity of heart is good, but it is not very practical. It is internal. But unity in mouth is practical. Paul encourages unity in thoughts, attitudes and beliefs, but then also in our outward statements. He wants us to be united in the way we publicly profess the belief in our hearts. And remember he wants that unity to be in accord with Christ Jesus. Unity of mouth with each other does us no good if it costs us unity in accord with Christ Jesus.
2 What result does Paul want to happen from the unity of mouth which publicly professes the belief in our hearts? “{6}so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We glorify God when we worship Him, pray to Him, or do anything that shows our love and appreciation to God. Paul is asking the Lord to give us unity of heart and tongue when we worship, pray, or in any other way carry on our Lord’s work for the glory of God.
C.1 Unity is a abstract concept. So Paul in the next paragraph gets practical. {7} “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. {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 {9}so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy,” Remember in almost all of these congregations to which Paul wrote letters there was a Jew/ Gentile problem. Different history. Different lifestyle. Different emphasis. Different view of life. Accept one another in order to bring praise to God. Let the internal unity that you have be obvious to the world so the world praises God. When the world saw a group of Christian Jews and Gentiles working together in unity, they would say, “Only God could have pulled this off.” That is praise of God.
2 What should be our motive for trying hard to express the unity in faith that we have with others with whom we have nothing else in common? “just as Christ accepted you” You want different. Sinners and Jesus are different. And yet He accepted us into His family, sins gone in His blood, covered with His holiness, but in essence still sinners. If Jesus could express unity with us even though we are so different, Paul says we can express unity with fellow believers who are different from us.
D1 Jesus is always the best example for everything. So Paul cites Jesus here as someone who did what was necessary to express unity with Jews and Gentiles. {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 {9}so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy.” Jesus kept all the Old Testament Laws in order to keep God’s promises. One of God’s promises was that the Gentiles would glorify God for his mercy to them. Because Jesus kept all the OT Laws which pointed to Him, he was the successful Savior of the world. Thus Gentiles would be led to glorify God.
2 Notice what Paul does next. He quotes the Scriptures. “as it is written: "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." Scripture says unity between Jews and Gentiles is possible. All Paul wants for us for Christmas is unity. According to the Scripture unity is possible. On the basis of the scripture unity is possible. With the help of the Scripture unity is possible. So, all Paul really wants for us for Christmas is a desire in us to regularly use God’s Word so that we have unity. Such unity is a wonderful Christmas gift from the Lord Himself.
IIIA1 All I want for Christmas is a little joy. I think many people would agree with that statement. Life gets to be pretty much of a burden sometimes. Maybe we just lost a friend, relative, or a family member to death. We need some joy. Maybe we just were told that we have some disease that will last for the rest of our lives. We need some joy. Maybe we were just told that the company for which we have worked for twenty years is going out of business. We need some joy. How am I going to get this joy? How am I going to get this joy at Christmas time? If I just get real involved with other people, if I just participate in all the happy gatherings, I might be able to forget how much of a burden life is for me right now.
2 All I want for Christmas is a little peace. I am sure that people in places like Ukraine and Taiwan would say that at this time of the year. But we who have been blessed with no war on our soil would say the same thing. Maybe marriage partners are letting their sinfulness drive their lives. We need a little peace. Maybe children and parents are in conflict. We need a little peace. Maybe the boss is constantly critical. We need a little peace. How am I going to get this peace? How am I going to get this peace at Christmas time? If we just declare a cease-fire maybe this will help for us as it does in war torn parts of our world.
B1 All Paul wants for us for Christmas is joy and peace. Notice how closely He connects joy and peace with hope. Since we determined earlier that the confidence we have is confidence about the words and promises of God, this peace and joy from God must also be related to the issues about which we have hope. Where do I really get joy in my life, if I don’t get it from going to all the holiday parties? I get joy by knowing that the Christian who died is with the Lord and I will be reunited one day in eternal blessedness. I get joy knowing that God can provide me with the strength that I need to continue to live a productive life even if I have a disease which isn’t going to go away. I get joy knowing that the Lord can use downturns in my life to keep me close to Him and to open up new avenues of experience for me.
2 I get peace in my life knowing that my sins are forgiven. I get peace in my life reminding the people with whom I am in conflict that their sins are forgiven because of Jesus. I get peace in my life knowing that the Lord is pleased when I insist on His will even if it results in earthly conflict. I get peace knowing that I am being faithful in my use of my time and talents even if the humans around me are judging differently. Most of the time cease-fires are not possible in interpersonal relationships. But when there is peace inside of me because of my relationship with God, then I can be in conflict and yet at peace.
C.1. Where do we get the strength to have and implement these attitudes and actions which bring peace and joy? Paul reminds us “by the power of the Holy Spirit.” God gives them to us. The third person of our Triune God is presented in the Scriptures as Someone who takes up residence in our hearts and lives with the intention of shaping our lives so that God can bring about things in our lives like peace and joy.
2 I want the Holy Spirit to give me these gifts. Is there anything I can do to help that process along? Yes. Use the tools which God the Holy Spirit uses to accomplish this. The tools are the Bible and the Lord’s Supper. All Paul wants for us for Christmas is joy and peace. Since the Holy Spirit works these in us through the Gospel in Word and Sacrament, all Paul really wants for us for Christmas is a desire in us to regularly use God’s Word so that we can have peace and joy. Peace and Joy are wonderful Christmas gifts from the Lord Himself.
Conc Lord, please use the Scripture to give us hope. Please use the Scripture to give us unity. Please use the Scripture to give us peace and joy.