HoHum:
A new preacher came to minister with an aging congregation. He told them that he was thinking about serving them prune juice in place of grape juice for communion. When they asked him why he said, “Well, if the Holy Spirit won’t move you, maybe the prune juice will.” As I thought about this sermon, if the gospel of Jesus Christ (how God’s Son left his home on high and came for sinful mankind to die) doesn’t move you to be thankful, I don’t know what will.
WBTU:
Been working our way through the book of Romans off and on over past several years. Coming to the end this holiday (Thanksgiving and Christmas) season with last 3 verses. Going through it bit by bit
This is what we call a doxology. Word doxology comes from two words in the Greek, one means glory and the other means word. So a doxology is a word that gives glory to God.
Usually doxologies in the NT occur at climactic and final moments of preaching or writing.
Paul just doesn’t say, “Give God the glory.” Instead, he inserts phrase after phrase about God, and about the gospel that he has been writing about for 16 chapters. At the end he comes back to giving God the glory. So put the beginning and the ending together: Now to him... to the only wise God be glory for ever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
This isn’t only place Paul used doxology. Romans 11:36” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen. And several other letters of Paul
Paul isn’t the only one who loved doxologies. “To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.” 1 Peter 4:11, NIV. “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father--to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.” Revelation 1:5, 6, NIV. “To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy-- to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and for evermore! Amen.” Jude 1:24, 25, NIV.
As we can see many doxologies are very dense with truth about God and the gospel. Paul just didn’t want to end this wonderful and deep letter with, “See ya later.”
Today we are focusing on this phrase from the English Standard Version and some others: “Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel”
Everything Paul says in vs. 25-26 is an unpacking of the gospel which strengthens Christians. This gospel which strengthens is “the proclamation (preaching) of Jesus Christ”. Jesus Christ is the gospel. This gospel is “according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past.” This mystery is that the Gentiles are full fledged citizens with the Jews by faith in Jesus. “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 3:6, NIV. This good news has been “now revealed and made known”, even though it was hidden in past ages, through the OT “prophetic writings”. Paul uses these writings to reveal the mystery to “all nations”. And all of this good news for the nations is by “the command of the eternal God” and aims at belief and obedience. As Paul said at the beginning of Romans in chapter 1 vs. 5: we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. However, I’m getting ahead of myself.
All of this is an unpacking of the gospel in vs. 25 which God uses to strengthen believers so that they will persevere in the obedience of faith and draw all attention to the glory of God.
So the focus today is on this amazing fact: At the end of this book, as Paul puts the words of his final doxology on his lips, what he chooses to attribute to God is that God is able to strengthen people with his gospel. When he ends by calling all attention to the glory of God, he does so in a way that makes that glory shine more brightly in God’s strengthening us, his people who believe the gospel.
“To God be the glory, great things He hath done, So loved He the world that He gave us His Son, Who yielded His life an atonement for sin, And opened the life-gate that all may go in”
Many kings in history and many dictators today intend to get glory. They want to be known as strong and rich and wise. And how have they done this? By keeping their citizens weak and poor and uneducated. An educated people is a threat to a dictator. A prosperous middle class is a threat to a dictator. A strong people is a threat to the strength of a dictator. So what do they do? They secure their own power by keeping their people weak. They get their glory by standing on the backs of broken people. Thankful that we live in USA but we got this way through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul draws attention to the glory of God. If any king ever had the right to display all his glory by stepping on the backs of rebellious people, it is God. But what does he do? He displays his glory by making his people strong through the gospel. God feels no threat from our strength. In fact, the stronger his subjects are through the gospel of Jesus Christ, the greater he appears. God does not secure his strength by keeping his people weak. He magnifies His glory by making his people strong.
What kind of strength does Paul mean that God is able to give? Can be many different kinds but the main one is from Romans 1:11-12: “I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong (same word as in 16:25)-- that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” Romans 1:11, 12, NIV. Paul wanted to give the gospel to them so that their faith would increase. Faith gives strength. Speaking of Abraham: “Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” Romans 4:20, 21, NIV.
Thesis: What groups have this strength available to them?
For instances:
Strength for women in the gospel
This is not a strength that the world knows or gives. Women, what do you think of when you think of being a strong woman? Getting this clear is important because there is a sense that women are the weaker partner (1 Peter 3:7). We see this in sports and other areas. When you dream about being a strong woman what should you dream? World gives 3 ways:
Being sexy, dressing sexy, acting sexy, because men are suckers, you can get power over them
Being assertive, forceful, aggressive, self confidant.
Be a political power player. Move up the ladder into positions of power
Are these the things Paul is talking about? No, Paul probably has in mind something like 1 Peter 3 where Peter tells the women to have the beauty (strength) of the inner self. And the kind of strength that Proverbs 31:25: “She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.”
In other words, women, young ladies, dream of being so confident in God, and who you are in God as the daughter of the king of the universe, and what he has done for you and promises to do for you in Jesus Christ, that you fear nothing but God and laugh at the times to come- no matter what they hold. Sexiness- that will go- and the man you get with it is not the kind of man you want. Assertiveness, you alienate the very people you want to be around. Halls of power, they are like grass: The wind passes over it and it is gone. But the strength that God gives through the gospel abides forever.
Strength for men in the gospel
What do we dream of when we dream of being strong? Like Samson who impressed people with his feats of strength or who beat people with the strength God provided. The best player in a sport. Be a person of influence and power in the workplace, like a CEO. Be educated and impress others with our wit and wisdom.
No, only fools want these passing things. Here is the kind of power God is able to give us through the gospel. It’s the power to lead our wives and families in devotions; the power to say a simple word of truth when others ridicule our lack of enlightenment; the power to stand our ground and say no to a sinful behavior when everyone else is calling us weak and sissy; the power to press on against all obstacles in a cause of justice and mercy and truth when we feel that we have little support and waning motivation. “I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” 1 John 2:14, NIV. “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.” 1 Corinthians 16:13, NIV.
Strength for all in the gospel
God is able to strengthen all- Jew and Gentiles, rich and poor, male and female- with an inner strength of soul through faith in Christ that makes us stronger in a wheelchair than 10,000 moral jellyfish drifting on 2 legs with the current of the modern culture.
The heart of the gospel is that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again, eternally triumphant over all his enemies, so that there is now no condemnation, but everlasting joy, for those who are in Christ Jesus. We never outgrow our need for the gospel. We don’t begin the Christian life with this and then leave it behind and get stronger with something else. God strengthens us with the gospel to the day we die. This is why communion is important.
We should get stronger as our days increase. Not talking about physical strength, but spiritual strength. “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” 2 Corinthians 4:16, 17, NIV.
