In Seasons of Conflict: Hope in God
by Pastor Jim Lincoln on May 27, 2007
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing by the power of the Holy Spirit so that you may abound in hope."
When I first read this, I was surprised by how many times Paul mentions the word "hope" in this long sermon on Christian unity (Rom.14-15). I expected him to call us to love each other and he did. I expected him to tell us to lay our minor differences aside and he did that too. I expected him to say, "Don't please yourself, instead please your neighbor and he did. That makes sense. Why this emphasis on hope? What does hope have to do with living and worshipping together in the presence of deeply held cultural and ethnic differences? What does hope have to do with unity? Why are exhortations to unity not enough? Notice that he writes about hope.
"For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope," 15:4.
And again in v.13,
"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you may abound in hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit."
My goal this morning is to address this question. What does hope have to do with getting along with each other in the face of seemingly irreconcilable differences? Why do we need hope? Where does it come from? How do you get it?
First, why do we need hope?
Let me review the context. The paganism of 1 c. Rome created a self centered, self consumed, pleasure seeking, self gratification mind set in the city. As we have said before, this is all paganism could really hope to do. Pagan gods themselves were self pleasing, unloving, mean, jealous, immoral, and petty. Paganism produced no church or community of faith where people joined together to love each other. Paganism did not speak of things like self denial, thinking of others as more important than yourself or pleasing others before yourself. Christian and agape love, on the other hand, is about a love that makes the satisfaction, security, joy, and well being of another more important than your own. This was absolutely foreign to Roman paganism. The outcome of alienation and polarization was inevitable.
When the church in Rome began, through faith in Christ, Jews and Gentiles were coming together as one people. They worshiped the one true God together. Grace overcame what seemed impossible. Through the gospel the high walls that separated race and national pride came down. This new community of faith bore a witness to the power of the gospel that reconciles sinners to a holy God and amazingly, to each other. People with ancient and deep seated rivalries that would have otherwise remained irreconcilable, came together. This was unheard of in Rome. Jesus said this new found unity among historic enemies would be the credible evidence of His Holy Presence in the world (John 17:2-23). "Father," He prayed, "may they be one so that the world would know that You have sent Me." If the power of the gospel was so weak that it couldn't overcome the hostilities, pride, and antagonisms of our racial and national differences then its claim to reconcile us all to God would simply not ring true. "How can you say that God reconciles you into one people by His power and yet you can't get along?" That's a fair question.
Yet, this unifying power of the gospel that brought these irreconcilable peoples together into one loving, worshipping, serving community of faith was being threatened by differences that had little or nothing to do with the gospel. In 14:1, Paul calls them judgment calls. On the surface they seem like petty issues: eating meat, feast days, and drinking wine, however for Jews, who were now far away from the temple and home in Jerusalem, these beliefs and practices defined them as the people of God. And so they raised the question to the Gentile Christians, "How could you be the people of God and not honor the dietary laws that had been part of Israel's history for over a thousand years?" Why do you want to live like the pagans? The Gentile Christians were asking, Didn't Jesus say that it's not what goes into a person's mouth that makes him unclean but what comes out? And didn't Jesus declare all foods clean? We were unaware that we had to become Jews before we became legitimate members of the people of God." The seeds of discord had been sown.
So, instead, of honoring each other, loving each other, serving each other in the face of these differences, as one people of God, they stopped welcoming each other. And they separated along the fault line of race. And beloved, although it works... this isn't a good strategy for church growth. It puts the credibility of the gospel at risk.
A Summary of Paul's Exhortations (Chapters 14-15)
To inspire them to live in harmony as one people of God and to bear witness to the reconciling power of the gospel Paul grounds their unity in several things.
1. He tells them to welcome each other; open your homes and hearts and friendship networks to each other. Don't let secondary issues of the gospel keep you from loving, welcoming, and worshipping together. He didn't give them the option of starting a carnivorous church and a vegan church. Why not? Because that requires no sacrificing, no compromising, and no denial of self. To worship with only those who share all your commonalities (especially race) bears no witness to the gospel that reconciles enemies! However, to do this they would have to learn to stop judging each other or looking down on each other (14:1-4).
2. Unity happens as they accept that people can honor God and worship God who hold different opinions about many things that aren't essential to the faith and still be full fledged and noble People of God (14:6-9).
3. Unity happens as they care about their brother's conscience before they exercise their liberties. Unity happens as we anticipate our own day of accountability. And begin to see the log in our own eye instead of the speck in your brother's eye (14:10-18).
4. Unity happens as we follow Christ's example who did not please himself, instead sacrificed Himself and made it possible for both Jew and Gentile to be one people of God under the one banner of His amazing grace and mercy. This is the gospel. Jesus gave up pleasing Himself (15:1-12) and secured our peace with God and each other by not pleasing Himself. It's the most counter intuitive thing you will ever do. But it's the stuff that Christian unity is made of. Paul adds in 15:7ff that this unifying work of Christ (gospel) was the hope of every part of the Jewish Scriptures: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings of the Old Testament. Every major piece of Israel's Scriptures recorded this gospel, that the root of Jesse and the son of David would come and reconcile that which is irreconcilable: Jew and Gentile under the banner of His mercy and grace first to God and then to each other.
Exhortations: Not Enough:
Now, as clear and as all this is, Paul knew that was not enough. Moral resolution is a good thing. The moral resolve to live better and be more loving is good and necessary. However, it's never sufficient. To dig down deep and say we will try harder to get along better is a good thing and a noble thing, however it won't be sufficient and Paul knows it.
Summer Camp for Students:
I once read about a summer camp in upstate New York dedicated to bringing about the reconciliation between young high school seniors. But, these are not ordinary high school seniors. They're young Palestinians and Jews. Each summer when they arrive, the suspicion and even hostility is palpable. However, by the end of the summer through a curriculum of listening to each other, working together, and playing together, amazing things happen. By summer's end they are laughing together, talking to each other, and even showing signs of sincere affection, making promises to go home and become agents of peace. At first, the organizers of the camp were certain they were witnessing a breakthrough in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. However, when they did a follow up study of what happens to these students five years beyond the camp experience they were surprised. The study showed that when they returned home, for a while they were able to keep up their resolutions to become agents of peace, however, to the last one, they defaulted to their fundamental differences. Feelings of distrust, national and ethnic superiority, and even hatred returned.
Beloved, something deeper is necessary. And it's necessary for all of us. The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is the same conflict (on steroids) we all have in getting along. Moral resolutions are good but will never be enough. What's needed is something God alone can make happen. And that is a radical change of our heart through the gospel. To be an agent of God's peace you must be changed at the radix of your heart. We underestimate the selfishness, sinfulness, and pride of our own hearts. Christianity is not another version of the human potential or self help movement. It's about the power of God to redirect our hearts by His mercy and grace. It's about God making us new creations with new capacities to love even our enemies. That's why Paul doesn't leave them with mere resolutions.
This is why we need a Biblical hope. Because, peace like this is not in our ability to achieve. It takes more than new resolutions. Those are good and necessary things, but a deeper work is needed.
Paul Prays
So, how does Paul end his message on unity in v. 13? He prays! He leaves them with a prayer. He leaves them with an appeal to God for mercy and grace. He leaves them with the only source of hope there is for the magnitude of the problem: God! Beloved, good politics is good; go for it and get engaged in it. Education is good; get all you can and never stop learning. Capitalism is a good thing; use it for God's glory. Democracy is good and we should be about advancing all of these. But, there is no political, educational, economic or scientific solution to the problem of sin and pride in a human heart that causes one people to think they are inherently better and more deserving than another. This will take a work of grace. So, Paul prays. Nothing else can bring it about.
Why do we need hope in the presence of conflict?
We need it because we need a resource that is bigger, abler, wiser, and more righteous than we are to bring about what we can't. Cut off from Christ, we can do nothing.
We need this hope because, beloved, there are times when progress toward unity and peace is so slow that it tempts us to throw in the towel and quit. Why would Paul pray to God that they would be filled with hope if they were already so thrilled and encouraged? They were just like us, and they got discouraged when they saw relationships deteriorate and fracture. Like us, they knew when marriages don't work, parents and children can't find peace, when co-workers can't reconcile, when in-laws and outlaws can't get along, when there is a failure of love between church members, Paul knows that these things can just suck the hope and joy right out of you. That's why he prays and turns them to God. Without God, peace and reconciliation is impossible...Without God, it's discouraging and debilitating. Without hope from God, we can easily become jaded and cynical. But beloved -with Him - all things are possible. And that's why we need hope.
What is this hope and where does it come from?
First, we use the word hope differently than the Scriptures. When we use the word hope, we normally use it as a wish for something that we're uncertain about. In our language, the word hope communicates uncertainty. Those who have money tied up in the stock market hope that it will be a good investment but they are not at all certain it will. We say that we hope the Blazers will make a wise draft choice but we're not all that certain they will. If my memory serves me, didn't Portland once turn down the option to draft Michael Jordon in favor of Sam Bowie?
When we use the word hope, we are talking about a wish for something that is uncertain. However, in the Scriptures the word hope means just the opposite. In the Scriptures hope refers to something that is absolutely and irrevocably certain. Hope, in the Scriptures, is something rock solid, something immovable, imperishable, unalterable, and immutable. Hope, in the Bible, is about certainty.
What we need in the face of conflict, when things are not the way they are supposed to be, and when Christian people are squabbling and withdrawing from each other, is to know and hold on to that which is certain.
And what is certain and unshakable? Paul says that God and His faithfulness to His word are certain, his mercy to sinners is certain, his sovereignty over all things is certain. His power to reconcile the irreconcilable is certain. So, Paul prays, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing."
The Lord is the source of certainty and hope. His gospel is certain. In it God the Father promised God the Son that he would give the nations to Him for an inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as His possession. This is certain. He promised Jesus that through Him all the nations of the earth would be blessed and together, with one voice, Jew and Gentile would praise Him. This is certain. He promised that through this gospel the walls of ethnic, racial, and religious hostilities would someday be broken down and peace will roll down like a river. Jesus is heir to these certain promises and He will not be denied. God the Father has made them and His will not be frustrated. The Holy Spirit is committed to bringing these promises to pass and He will not fail. So, beloved don't let the seasons of trial and testing rob you of this certainty. The journey is a long one, the task is a hard one, but the outcome is not uncertain.
Black Christians in the Civil Rights Movement
David Chappell has written extensively on the civil rights movement in the south. He addresses this question, "Why wasn't the white progressive liberal able to bring about civil rights legislation?" Why didn't their hope in the goodness of man, the progress of education and common sense, bring about civil rights legislation? Why did it take a Christian black community of faith, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, to bring about change? His answer is that it was Black Christians who had a rock solid hope. Not in the goodness of man, not in the progress of education and politics, but a hope in God and that God could do what men, even well intentioned men, could not do. Martin Luther King Jr. had his faults. However, this one thing he had. He had a Biblical hope that someday God would melt the racial barriers that keep the races at enmity. And it wasn't his hope in the basic goodness of man, education, or politics that gave him endurance and encouragement. It was the certainty of God's word that did. There was little or no reason in his circumstances that gave him hope and endurance.
I think it was the night before he was assassinated that he said something like this, "Brothers I may not get to the promised land with you but I've been to the mountain top and from there I've seen the promised land."
Even with all of his flaws he was fighting for a reality that he knew for certain would someday be realized. He knew a day was coming when racial barriers that polarize and alienate people would melt like wax before the Lord. It was that certainty of a future Biblical hope that gave him endurance and hope in the presence of seemingly impossible odds. And look what those African American Christians were able to accomplish with a Biblical hope.
I hear people say they don't want religion mixed with politics. What they often mean is that they don't want religion that doesn't reinforce their own biases and prejudices, in politics. I don't know anyone who would deny the goodness of the political influence of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. It was religious people, with a deep religious hope, that brought about the civil rights movement1. For certain, religion has been misrepresented and used for sinful purposes. But religion has also accounted for the best politics this world has ever known. It was the hope of black Christians that brought about racial change in the South.
God calls the Christians in Rome to pursue peace, harmony, mutual love, and acceptance in the face of racial and other irreconcilable differences. How easy it would have been for Paul to have simply said "Some of you start a meat eating church and some of you start a vegetarian church and stop irritating each other." But he didn't. The gospel of reconciliation was at stake. And it still is today. Where does hope come from? It comes from God.
Through the Scriptures:
But notice that hope doesn't come to us by osmosis. It comes to us through His word. Look at verse 15:4, "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." If you want the capacity to endure through rough relationships, and if you want to remain encouraged and comforted in the presence of conflict you need to fill your head and heart with Scriptures that are absolutely filled with more certainties than we can count.
When it's tough, remember the word: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."... "I will never leave you as orphans or forsake you."... "I will not lose any that the Father has given unto me."... "All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose."... "I will never stop doing good to those who love Me says the Lord"... "If God is for you who can stand against you?"... "Some day the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea."... "I have blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms." Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd and I will lead my sheep in and out of pasture. I am the good shepherd, My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow Me and I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand."
Beloved, if you don't fill you mind and heart with the Scriptures you will not be able to endure or be encouraged in the journey. It is just too hard. Our hope, our certainties in life, comes from God and His word.
Finally, how do you get it?
How do you lay hold of such a hope? He says, "May the God of all hope fill you with joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." We lay hold of it by believing. We lay hold of it by turning our hearts away from the voices of discouragement, accusation, judgment and criticism, and fault finding. These things can easily capture our minds. By the grace of God, we turn our hearts in faith believing God's word above all others. But again, your heart cannot turn to what your mind doesn't know. So, "What are you going to believe?" Whose voice is going to prevail? The voice of accusation, discouragement, hopelessness, helplessness, fear, worry, anxiety, judgment, criticism, pride, self serving, self pleasing or the voice of God that speaks words of forgiveness, reconciliation, humility, self sacrifice, and the certainties of His word and promises?
We want joy in our hearts and we want peace with each other. But these will not come to us without the fight of faith. Notice how they are linked together here. They don't come by divine fiat. Paul says our joy and peace comes through believing. So, what are you going to believe? Are you willing to wage the battle for joy and peace with your brother? And to remind us that even our faith is sustained by the power of God he says this hope comes by the power of the Holy Spirit.
What an encouragement this is. Jesus said "I will not leave you as orphans, I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper that he may be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive." Paul is reminding them and encouraging them to pursue what is seemingly impossible: to lay hold of the grace of God, in the pursuit of a unity, in a world so polarized and divided by race, nationalism, and every possible division. It was a daunting task. It's one that today's church has apparently given up on even trying. Now, we make our differences the basis of church growth rather than a challenge to overcome.
Nothing could be more difficult, in fact, it's impossible, but by the grace of God in Christ. Paul writes in 2Cor. 5:16,
"From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation."
May the Lord make it so with us!
FOOTNOTES
1Post Christian Europe had no civil rights movement. Although millions of immigrants were welcomed into Western Europe in the 20th.c -for the most part- they have not been integrated into places of power: government, education and business. As that population grows it is creating enormous ethnic conflicts on the fault line of race that will not ( without a Christian solution) have a peaceful ending.