Word of Salvation – Vol. 27 No. 27 – April 1982

 

Overflowing With Hope, Joy And Peace

 

Sermon by Rev. Keith Vethaak on Romans 15:13

Scripture Reading: Romans 15: 1-13

 

Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,

When a glass or a cup gets bumped then whatever is inside of it spills out.

I guess that's pretty obvious isn't it?

Have you ever walked around in a crowded room carrying a cup of coffee or soup and had that cup bumped?

You know only too well that when that cup gets bumped that the contents spill out.

But you know it's exactly the same with you and me.

When we get bumped then whatever is inside of us spills out.

I think that if we are honest then many of us would have to admit that what we seem to be on the outside is not really what we are like on the inside.

Many of us tend to hide what we are really like inside, but there is one situation in which the real you cannot remain hidden – and that's when you get bumped and what is really inside spills out.

Now I want you just to think about this for a moment.

When were you last bumped?

When were you last annoyed, hurt, upset, made angry?  And what was it that spilled out?

Was it anger, bitterness, resentment, violence... or joy, love and peace?

Whatever spills out when we are bumped is what's inside of us, what fills us.

Jesus said: The mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart, and if your mouth speaks forth evil, if anger, resentment and bitterness come out of your mouth it is only because these things are there in your heart.

In Matthew 15 Jesus says: "Not what enters into the mouth defiles the man but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.  The things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man, for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders."

What comes out of your mouth – no matter what the circumstances or the provocation – is what is in your heart.

And these things come out most often when we are bumped, when we are annoyed, when we are hurt.

Let me just illustrate this by taking a couple of examples from the Bible.  (Now to just restate what I've been saying- When a person is filled with anger, hatred, violence, fear these are the things that will spill out when he is bumped, But when a person is filled with the Holy Spirit something else spills out love, joy, peace.)

Now look at Jesus –

When did Jesus get hurt the most?

When did he suffer the most?

Surely it was when he was being crucified,
reviled, rejected, spat upon
mocked and ridiculed

While he was being nailed to the cross by a mocking, jeering, bloodthirsty crowd...!

Now what spilled out of Jesus at the time?

What came out of his mouth as he was hanging there on the cross?

Resentment?  Anger?  Fury at being mocked – “How dare you mock the Son of God!?”

No!

In Luke 23 we read this: "And when they came to the place called the Skull there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.  But Jesus was saying, ‘Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing’."

What was spilling out of Jesus's mouth was what was in his heart – love, compassion, forgiveness.

Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit.

And when you are full of the Holy Spirit then no matter how hard you get knocked, love and joy and compassion are still going to flow forth.

The key to what spills out of a person is the Holy Spirit – not a person's nature or his character.

Sometimes we have our fits of rage and resentment and we try to hide behind our character.

"We say: but that's the way I am – it’s my character.

But that's not true.

Because in Christ we are new people – the old has passed away and the new has come.

Take for example the apostle Peter.

He was an impetuous, hot tempered fisherman.

When the Jews came to arrest Jesus, Simon Peter drew out his sword and hoed into them.

He was going to defend Jesus to the death.

When he got bumped there in the garden of Gethsemane, violence came out of him.

And then a little while later when Jesus had been led away and Peter was sitting in the courtyard, a servant girl said to Peter:
            "But surely you were with Jesus?"

Peter got bumped again and fear and cowardice came out –
and then cursing and swearing and anger and then finally grief.

That was the sort of person Peter was —
and when he got bumped the things that were in him spilled out.

But then look at this same Peter after the day of Pentecost – after he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

He got mocked and ridiculed, and later on he got arrested and thrown into prison and all the rest.

But do we see any fear, any cowardice, any anger or violence?

No...!

For Peter was now filled with the Holy Spirit and when he got bumped it was the Lord Jesus Christ in all his love, joy and power that spilled forth.

Now let me ask you.
Are you filled, and being continually filled with the Spirit of God?
What's been coming out of your mouth when you've been bumped?

God wants us all to be filled, to be overflowing with the Holy Spirit.

In the 15th Chapter of Romans Paul is dealing with a pretty serious problem that existed in the early Church.

And that problem concerned the relationship between two groups of people in the Church – the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians.

Now these two groups of Christians had different backgrounds, different customs, totally different ways of doing things
and I guess that they were bumping each other and rubbing each other up the wrong way all the time.

The people were entirely different in nature and character together in one Church.

And in the book of Romans Paul is again and again pleading with these two groups to accept one another.

And then in the midst of it all, in Romans 15:13 he gives them all a most beautiful and wonderful blessing.

The blessing that comes when people are filled with the Spirit so that when they bump each other it's the Holy Spirit who spills out.

Now let's just read that blessing: Romans 15:13.

Now I believe that the Lord wants all of us to have this blessing too.

After all here in this congregation we have people with different backgrounds, different approaches, different ways of doing things –
and these differences can lead to clashes and tensions and problems,
and sometimes we try to solve these problems by trying to force everyone to be like everyone else.

But that's not the answer and will never be the answer.

The only answer is what we have here in vs 13
            and that is that we be so overflowing with the Holy Spirit
            that when we bump each other, hope, joy and peace spill out.

Now let's just focus on these three things that Paul mentions.

He twines together hope, joy and peace.

What is hope?

Surely hope is optimism.

Hope is the unwavering assurance that the Lord is in control, that he is sovereign, and that all things will work together for good.

Hope is optimism, confidence in the Lord.

And when you are filled with hope then how can you become worried, fearful or angry?

You know, sometimes we do get worried, we do get fearful – sometimes we express fear regarding Church matters -
            we wonder where the Church is heading
            and the words we speak from our mouths are sometimes angry and fearful -
            but surely, if we are filled with hope, if we know that the Lord God is in control
            if we are sure that all things work together for good for those who love God...
            is there any room for us to express with our mouths anger, fear or pessimism?

And it's the same with our personal lives.

If we are filled with hope, with divine optimism, then no matter how hard or how often we get bumped
            that hope is just going to spill forth from us all the more.

Now the blessing that the Lord wants to give us this Sunday
            is that we be filled with a Spirit of optimism -
            that we might be filled with the Spirit of the God of hope,
            that hope and optimism might overflow from us
            so that when we get bumped
              what comes out of our mouths
                        is unwavering trust in God and in Jesus.

And then along with hope, optimism, trust in God, come the other two things that Paul mentions – joy and peace – they all belong together.

This is the blessing that the Lord wants to give you, this Pentecost Sunday
            so that when you get bumped
            it's hope that spills out of you not fear, distrust or panic
            it's joy, happiness, not misery, gloom or heaviness
            and it's peace, not anxiety or worry.

But now you might say:
            But I am worried, I am anxious and I am angry.
            How can I be happy, just look at the state of things!
            This text may be a beautiful blessing but in my situation it's impossible.

And in a way that's right.
            In your own strength and power it is impossible.
            All the willpower and all the positive thinking in the world
                        won't give you hope, joy and peace.

The only way to receive these things is the way Peter received them
            by being filled with the Holy Spirit of God.

And that's exactly what God wants for each one of us.

When you put your trust in Jesus,
            the Jesus who died on the cross to pay for all your sins,
            then you received the right to be filled with the Spirit of God.
Jesus, by his blood shed on the cross
            earned for you
            the right to become a child of God.

Jesus earned the right for you to be filled with the Spirit of God.

Jesus wants to give you the gift of hope, joy and peace.

You don't have to work for it.

You only have to receive it.

Let's be honest now.
How many of us are so filled with the Spirit of God
            that when we get bumped hope, joy and peace spill from us?

But that's what God wants for each one of us.

That's what he wants to give to you.

The right to be completely filled with the Spirit of God is yours because Jesus earned it for you.

Why not today, this Lord's Day, ask God to fill you to the overflowing with His Holy Spirit?

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, just strip away all pretence from us now.
We know that when we get hurt, when we get bumped
wrong words and emotions flow from us,
that even now in some of our hearts there is still resentment and anger.
We confess before you that what we say reflects what is in our hearts...!

So we pray Lord Jesus that you would fill us to the overflowing with the Holy Spirit,
that we might be filled with hope, joy and peace.

Amen.