- 2 days ago
The study covers Romans 15:10–16, reading Paul’s chain of OT citations (Deuteronomy 32:43; Psalm 117:1; Isaiah 11:10) to show Gentiles are called to rejoice, praise Yahweh, and hope in the “root of Jesse,” with the blessing also warning of judgment for those who reject Yeshua.
Jay talks about how Psalm 117 refutes the idea that “world” means only a preselected group (as in Calvinism), and discusses Isaiah 11 as a future “greater exodus” gathering Israel from the nations with a mixed multitude. Romans 15:13 is explained as hope centered on resurrection, with the Holy Spirit empowering sanctification, endurance, and serving as a guarantee of future promises (2 Cor 1:22). Regarding Romans 15:14–16, Jay discusses the four priesthoods in the Bible and what Paul means by "priestly service" in v16. The group addresses mutual instruction, critiques church models that discourage participation, explains Paul’s bold reminders as resolving Jew–Gentile conflict, and presents Paul’s “priestly service” as forming Gentiles into acceptable living offerings within a kingdom-of-priests framework.
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Follow me on X: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
Follow me on Facebook: https://jaycarper.com/fbat
Follow me on Whole Bible Community: https://jaycarper.com/ttn
Jay talks about how Psalm 117 refutes the idea that “world” means only a preselected group (as in Calvinism), and discusses Isaiah 11 as a future “greater exodus” gathering Israel from the nations with a mixed multitude. Romans 15:13 is explained as hope centered on resurrection, with the Holy Spirit empowering sanctification, endurance, and serving as a guarantee of future promises (2 Cor 1:22). Regarding Romans 15:14–16, Jay discusses the four priesthoods in the Bible and what Paul means by "priestly service" in v16. The group addresses mutual instruction, critiques church models that discourage participation, explains Paul’s bold reminders as resolving Jew–Gentile conflict, and presents Paul’s “priestly service” as forming Gentiles into acceptable living offerings within a kingdom-of-priests framework.
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Follow me on X: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
Follow me on Facebook: https://jaycarper.com/fbat
Follow me on Whole Bible Community: https://jaycarper.com/ttn
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LearningTranscript
00:00:02Welcome back to Common Sense Bible Study and a journey through the book of Romans.
00:00:07We are at Romans chapter 15, verse 11.
00:00:10We'll start reading with verse 10, because 10, 11, and 12 all kind of go together.
00:00:16And again, it is said, rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.
00:00:19And again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.
00:00:24And again, Isaiah says, the root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles.
00:00:29In him will the Gentiles hope.
00:00:32May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,
00:00:36so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
00:00:39I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness,
00:00:44filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.
00:00:47But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder because of the grace given
00:00:52me by God.
00:00:53To be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God,
00:00:58so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
00:01:04So back to verse 10.
00:01:05We talked about this a little bit last week.
00:01:08And this is a quote from Deuteronomy 32, 43.
00:01:13Rejoice, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants and will render vengeance on
00:01:18his adversaries and will atone for his land and his people.
00:01:23But mixed blessing there for the nations because rejoice, O nations, with his people,
00:01:28because through his people, he is enabling the people from the nations to be forgiven and attain eternal life.
00:01:38If Yeshua had not come to save the Jews and they had not rejected him, none of the rest of
00:01:43us would have any hope.
00:01:45But the downside of that is that because we have been given this opportunity,
00:01:52if you reject the opportunity, you also get the downside, you get the condemnation.
00:01:58That's coming to all peoples.
00:01:59All people in the world have this opportunity to repent and to accept God's forgiveness.
00:02:06If you don't take it, then you're going to get his vengeance instead.
00:02:11And that will only be your own fault.
00:02:13And of course, it's our fault if we are not making sure that the world knows.
00:02:20And everybody has an opportunity at some point.
00:02:22And we talked about this way back in Romans chapter one, about how all people have the image of God
00:02:28in them.
00:02:29And so at some level, we all have an innate sense of right and wrong that we have, that there
00:02:34is a creator that we have not measured up to his standards.
00:02:38And that surely, if there's a creator who has standards, he has also created a way for us to be
00:02:43reconciled.
00:02:45So we all have that knowledge at some level.
00:02:47And at some point in our lives, we are presented with an opportunity to make a choice.
00:02:54Doesn't mean that we understand all of God's law or that we know his proper name or anything like that.
00:02:59Just that we can acknowledge his existence and that we have a need for a savior.
00:03:05But when somebody comes to you and says, hey, here's the savior's name and here's what he did and here's
00:03:10how it all works.
00:03:13It's this not only gives you another opportunity, but it gives you something to think about.
00:03:18It's planting seeds that can germinate and sprout.
00:03:22We could be quite literally saving somebody's eternal life by simply telling them about Yeshua's existence.
00:03:30This one time in your life, you had this stray thought and then you immediately dismissed it.
00:03:35I'm here to bring that back to the forefront of your mind and tell you that, yes, there is a
00:03:40creator and he has made a way for you to be reconciled.
00:03:44And here's the way.
00:03:46So rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people, because he sent that savior through the Jews, through the natural descendants of
00:03:55Jacob.
00:03:56And now the rest of us can take advantage of it.
00:03:59So that's what we had talked about last week.
00:04:02Okay, so in verse 11, and again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.
00:04:10This is Psalm 117.1.
00:04:13Anybody want to look that one up?
00:04:16I'm just about there.
00:04:18Go ahead and read both verses.
00:04:20Praise the Lord, all nations extol him, all people, all peoples, excuse me.
00:04:26For great is his steadfast love towards us, and the fulfillness of the Lord endures forever.
00:04:32Praise the Lord.
00:04:34Yeah, it's pretty simple.
00:04:37Praise Yahweh.
00:04:38All you nations.
00:04:40And his love and kindness is great towards everyone, towards all of us.
00:04:44And this is, there is a doctrine that says that when John 3.16 says that God so loved the
00:04:54world, that he gave his only begotten son,
00:04:57that the world there only refers to the people that God chose to be saved.
00:05:02That God has singled out a small group of people from the very beginning of creation, and he's determined to
00:05:09save those people and nobody else.
00:05:12And so when it says, God so loved the world, it doesn't mean everybody in the world, it means only
00:05:18those people.
00:05:19And he doesn't love those people, and he doesn't love all the rest of the people that are not chosen.
00:05:24This psalm puts the lie to that.
00:05:27It says, praise the Lord, all nations, laud him, all peoples, for his loving kindness is great toward us.
00:05:33Us being all nations, not just the people who were chosen out of those nations, but all peoples.
00:05:42Verse 12, and again Isaiah says, the root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles,
00:05:49in him will the Gentiles hope.
00:05:52And this is Isaiah 11.10.
00:05:56I'm going to read verse 10 through, to the end of the chapter, 10 through 16.
00:06:04Then in that day, the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for
00:06:09the peoples, and his resting place will be glorious.
00:06:12Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with his hand the
00:06:16remnant of his people who will remain.
00:06:19From Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamat, and from the islands of the sea.
00:06:25And he will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel,
00:06:29and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
00:06:34Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, and those who harass Judah will be cut off.
00:06:39Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, and Judah will not harass Ephraim.
00:06:42They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west.
00:06:46Together they will plunder the sons of the east.
00:06:48They will possess Edom and Moab, and the sons of Ammon will be subject to them.
00:06:52And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the sea of Egypt.
00:06:56And he will wave his hand over the river with his scorching wind, and it will strike it into seven
00:07:00streams,
00:07:00and make men walk over dryshod.
00:07:03And there will be a highway from Assyria, and the remnant of his people who will be left,
00:07:07just as there was for Israel in the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt.
00:07:12So this is a prophecy of what people call the greater exodus.
00:07:17The first exodus brought the Hebrews out of Egypt.
00:07:20This greater exodus at some future date will bring the Hebrew people from out of all the nations of the
00:07:26world.
00:07:28And Ezekiel 47 shows that in this process, they will be bringing a mixed multitude from all the nations with
00:07:36them.
00:07:36And that's all the people from the nations that answer this call to repent and believe in the God of
00:07:42Israel.
00:07:43So the Hebrews are called back to the land, bringing a mixed multitude with them, just like they did from
00:07:49Egypt.
00:07:50And when they do, when they do return to the land, God also takes this opportunity to destroy Israel's enemies.
00:07:59So once again, the passage that Paul chooses to talk about this blessing for the nations is a mixed blessing.
00:08:07It's a blessing for those who submit to the king of Israel and choose to become one of his people.
00:08:12But for those who refuse, who reject Yeshua as Messiah and reject his commandments, those people are going to suffer
00:08:21his wrath.
00:08:22Anybody have any thoughts to add?
00:08:25The only thought I have that it's a very sobering thought.
00:08:28It really affects me when I think of so many of my family members back in India who are still
00:08:37not following the Lord or not even interested in hearing because it's a saying.
00:08:47They say that the cross is an offense to people.
00:08:51It's really hard for me to sometimes think about the future and being anxious that so many of my family
00:09:03probably are not going to be in there.
00:09:05But I'm probably looking at it more from a very personal perspective.
00:09:08But I really think it's a super sobering thought for me.
00:09:12Yeah, it is.
00:09:13And you're not the only one, I think.
00:09:15Coming from a specific culture that does not have the Bible at the center of everything, it's probably a bigger
00:09:24deal for you than it is for most people.
00:09:26But we all have family who are not believers.
00:09:30And for most of us, they've had access to the scriptures their whole lives.
00:09:35They grew up in church.
00:09:36They knew they know who Jesus is.
00:09:39And still they've rejected him.
00:09:40And I don't know exactly what's going to happen to those people.
00:09:45When God passes judgment on the nations, whoever is living in that nation is likely to suffer right along with
00:09:55everybody else.
00:09:56You know how they say that the rain falls on the righteous and the wicked alike.
00:10:01If you are there in those nations, even if you are a believer, then you are likely to receive some
00:10:08of that judgment.
00:10:09This is talking about war and natural calamities like famine and things like that.
00:10:16It's hard for one person or one family to escape that unless the entire region escapes.
00:10:22You can think about the Exodus, the plagues, the 10 plagues in Egypt before the Exodus.
00:10:29It's how for some of those plagues, God sheltered the Hebrews in that little one area of Egypt.
00:10:37But they still suffered.
00:10:40They didn't suffer quite as much as the rest of Egypt, but they still suffered.
00:10:44But there were many Hebrews who didn't believe that stayed behind.
00:10:48And they ended up receiving God's wrath right along with the rest of Egypt because they refused to go out
00:10:54with the Hebrews.
00:10:56I'm sure that life in Egypt was not a pleasant thing after that Exodus.
00:11:01It would have left the entire country in chaos.
00:11:03Yeah, that's not very encouraging.
00:11:05I understand what you're thinking.
00:11:08And I wish that I had something a little more encouraging to say.
00:11:12It's the truth.
00:11:13And yeah, I struggle with that a lot.
00:11:18It is the truth.
00:11:20And God is just.
00:11:22So he knows exactly what needs to be done.
00:11:25So I trust him to be trustworthy enough to know what is best for every human being.
00:11:35Yeah, and that is true.
00:11:37Okay.
00:11:38Any other thoughts on verse 12?
00:11:40All right.
00:11:41Let's go on to verse 13.
00:11:43May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of
00:11:47the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.
00:11:50I mentioned last week that usually when Paul is using the word hope, he's talking about the hope of the
00:11:57resurrection.
00:11:58It comes up multiple times in his letters and in his discourses and acts.
00:12:04And ultimately, this is the hope that we have.
00:12:08We can have hope in this world for deliverance from calamity, protection, healing, all kinds of things.
00:12:16But whatever we receive in this world is temporary.
00:12:19The only things that last are the things that we are going to have in the next world.
00:12:24And some things that we do or receive in this world will go on into the next, but not material
00:12:31things.
00:12:32Material stuff is going to go away.
00:12:34Whatever healing, physical healing we receive in this world is going to be done when we're dead.
00:12:41And the resurrection is a complete healing where we have completely new bodies.
00:12:47So that's the ultimate hope.
00:12:49Hope in God's promises.
00:12:53Believing in God's promises can be a source of the joy and peace that Paul is talking about.
00:13:00If you know who God is, then you know his character, that he keeps his promises.
00:13:07And among those promises are the hope of resurrection, the deliverance of his people.
00:13:12And that doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to have nice lives or peace doesn't mean the lack of struggle
00:13:20necessarily.
00:13:22But it does mean that there is an ultimate good at the end of it all.
00:13:27The second part, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.
00:13:32I'm curious what you all think Paul means by the power of the Holy Spirit in this context.
00:13:37There are lots of things we can think of with the power of the Holy Spirit.
00:13:42We have prophecy and the gifts of the Spirit, healing and speaking in tongues and whatever all these things are.
00:13:50But what does it mean that by the power of the Spirit, you may abound in hope?
00:13:55You referenced hope being the resurrection.
00:13:58So I would interpret it that the power of the Holy Spirit is revelation on the truth of the resurrection
00:14:08and the impact and import that it has to you.
00:14:11And I would use the example Shuba just gave about her and her family.
00:14:18Through the Holy Spirit, she has an understanding that the resurrection pertains to her and her family if they embrace
00:14:27it.
00:14:28But that Holy Spirit has not been embraced by her family or will take Shuba out of it by anybody's
00:14:35family that does not for a non-believer.
00:14:39I'm thinking that's the angle that it's going to.
00:14:42Yeah, and I think that one of the things that the Holy Spirit does, and Paul mentions this more a
00:14:49little bit later in the chapter, is sanctification.
00:14:54That when we are forgiven in our spiritual balance book as wiped clean, we are given the Holy Spirit.
00:15:02And it is the wiping out of that balance sheet, the removal of the debt of sin that makes us
00:15:10acceptable to God.
00:15:11But the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which makes us into the tabernacle, the living temple of God.
00:15:19And this is in a couple of verses here, we'll talk about this, but there is the priesthood of all
00:15:25believers.
00:15:26We are intended to be a kingdom of priests, but a priest serves in a temple.
00:15:32And the temple is us that we are serving in.
00:15:36We are supposed to be the body of Messiah and a living temple.
00:15:42So, since a temple requires a priesthood, that's us.
00:15:46And just like the tabernacle in the wilderness, when God's presence came down on that tabernacle and filled it with
00:15:54his glory, the Holy Spirit coming into us is analogous to that.
00:16:00Now, it doesn't necessarily show to the world around us.
00:16:03They don't necessarily see us glowing, although sometimes that happens too.
00:16:10But there is something enabling power, something that maybe starts the healing process of our consciences so that we can
00:16:21start to be, so that God's law can start to be written on our hearts.
00:16:26And we can become transformed into the image of his Son through the working of the Holy Spirit in us
00:16:32in concert with the written word and our own cooperation.
00:16:38So, it is this power of the Holy Spirit in us that destines us to that resurrection.
00:16:46When we first come to faith and we repent of our sins and submit ourselves to Yeshua, if we were
00:16:52to die that very moment, we would pass judgment.
00:16:56Our balance book is zeroed out.
00:16:58We are forgiven and our names are written in the book of life.
00:17:02But Yeshua also says that those who endure to the end will be saved.
00:17:07So, if we don't die that second, and the vast majority of us don't, we now have to face the
00:17:13rest of our lives constantly working, maintaining our faithfulness.
00:17:18That doesn't mean that we have to be afraid that God's going to take our salvation away anytime we screw
00:17:23up.
00:17:24I feel like I have to say that every time this topic comes up.
00:17:26I know you all know this, but I want to make sure anybody listening to this in the future who
00:17:31did not get previous context that you understand this.
00:17:34I am not saying that you have to earn your salvation or that any little sin or any screw up
00:17:41is going to condemn you to hell and you're going to lose your salvation for it.
00:17:45What I'm saying is that you have to maintain your faithfulness.
00:17:48And that means your allegiance to God, your intent to obey, even though we are weak and we fail constantly,
00:17:55he forgives us.
00:17:57We are not rebelling necessarily in our sins.
00:18:00We're just weak.
00:18:01And God knows that.
00:18:02And as long as you are not rejecting him and turning away, saying, I'm done with this.
00:18:07I don't want to keep God's commandments anymore.
00:18:09I don't want anything to do with it.
00:18:10I'm going to go be my own God now.
00:18:14Then we're headed in the right direction.
00:18:15And the Holy Spirit helps us to do that.
00:18:18That's what I think Yeshua means by he who endures till the end.
00:18:22Doesn't necessarily mean he who remains sinless until the end, but he who remains faithful to the end.
00:18:29Does that make sense?
00:18:31Go ahead, Shubha.
00:18:33So when you were, when you're talking about the scripture, there isn't there another scripture?
00:18:39I can't remember where it says that the Holy Spirit, he's put like a deposit or a guarantee, which is
00:18:48like a seal for what is to come.
00:18:51I don't remember exactly where it was.
00:18:53So Jay, would that be a similar thing where it says that the Holy Spirit is sanctifying us so that
00:18:59we have this hope of resurrection?
00:19:01But it's also that he is guaranteeing to us the promise that is going to take place because of Messiah.
00:19:13Is that the right comparison is my question.
00:19:19I don't know.
00:19:21Sorry, I was just looking at that verse while you were talking.
00:19:23So hopefully I understood what you're saying.
00:19:25I was saying, you know, 2 Corinthians 1.22.
00:19:30It is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who has also put a
00:19:36seal on us and given him, given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee or as an earnest,
00:19:42depending on which translation you're reading.
00:19:44Yes, the scripture I was thinking that what he's talking about there is that this is like a, an initial
00:19:52deposit on the eventual full fulfillment of the new covenant.
00:19:57The promises of the new covenant include the writing of God's law on our hearts.
00:20:04And part of what that is supposed to mean is that we know God so well that nobody needs us
00:20:09to teach.
00:20:10Nobody needs to teach us his commandments anymore.
00:20:13I don't know anybody who doesn't still need to study the word in order to know God's character better.
00:20:20So that promise hasn't been fulfilled yet.
00:20:22But the giving of the Holy Spirit is in earnest of that, a down payment, so to speak, saying, here's
00:20:31the Holy Spirit and he's going to help you begin that transformation to help you begin to become the images
00:20:37of God's son.
00:20:39So in that sense, it is, it's like saying that he gave the Holy Spirit so that you will know
00:20:45that this eventual fulfillment of the promise will happen.
00:20:50And in a sense, it is talking about this hope of the resurrection, because I don't think that in this
00:20:57lifetime, we are likely to reach the point where we know God's character so well that nobody ever needs to
00:21:03teach us again.
00:21:04And that might only happen with the resurrection.
00:21:06I could be wrong about that.
00:21:07That could be, that could happen in the millennial reign.
00:21:09I mean, we've got Yeshua right there on the world, his physical presence.
00:21:14So it's possible that at that point, we will know him so well that nobody needs to say to his
00:21:21brother, no God, because we will all know him.
00:21:25My, my suspicion is that's not going to happen until the resurrection, but it could happen during the millennium.
00:21:32So it's related, at the very least.
00:21:36Does that answer your question or am I not understanding?
00:21:38It does, it does.
00:21:41Okay, good.
00:21:42Any other thoughts on verse 13?
00:21:45Okay, all right.
00:21:46Let's go on to verses 14 and 15.
00:21:49I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourself are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and
00:21:55able to instruct one another.
00:21:57But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace of
00:22:01grace given me by God.
00:22:04All right, I am satisfied about you.
00:22:07He says what this is about.
00:22:08He's satisfied that you are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.
00:22:13And the literal reading of this seems to contradict what I just said about God's law being written on our
00:22:19hearts.
00:22:20Filled with all knowledge.
00:22:23This is one of those quirks of normal human language, and especially of Paul, where he frequently says all, when
00:22:31he doesn't really mean all.
00:22:33He means all kinds of.
00:22:35God has filled you with all kinds of knowledge so that you're able to instruct one another.
00:22:41And one of the reasons that Paul gives for people gathering together is to edify each other, to teach each
00:22:50other, to bring hymns and things to our gatherings so that we can help each other become more like Yeshua.
00:23:00And if you've been part of a Bible study where there's open discussion, obviously you all have, because this is
00:23:07one.
00:23:08You know that everybody who comes to a Bible study like this one has something to contribute.
00:23:13I don't, there's nobody in this room right now that doesn't have insight and instruction that, or some interpretation of
00:23:23scripture that we, the rest of us haven't thought of.
00:23:26We're all learning from each other all the time.
00:23:29And so God has filled us with all kinds of knowledge, but not all possible knowledge.
00:23:36I don't know everything.
00:23:38There's, I have spent 25 years studying the scriptures intently.
00:23:44And I've barely, I feel like I have barely even scratched the surface.
00:23:47There are so many people who know way more than I do.
00:23:50And everybody in this room right now knows more than I do about something in scripture.
00:23:56And so there's immense value in coming together like this, even more value in coming together in person so that
00:24:05we can encourage each other, help each other become more full of goodness, fill each other with knowledge, instruct one
00:24:13another.
00:24:13Like Paul says at the end, which that really tells you that Paul does not mean all possible knowledge, because
00:24:19how would we instruct each other if we all already had all possible knowledge?
00:24:24There's another verse in, it's not in one of Paul's letters.
00:24:29It's one of the other letters that says, you don't need anyone to come and teach you.
00:24:33That's another one of those things that if you just read it by itself, it sounds like, you know, you
00:24:37don't need any teachers because the spirit will tell you everything you possibly need to know.
00:24:42Now, and people actually do take it that way sometimes, but in context, it's clear that that's not really what
00:24:48it means.
00:24:50That you don't need someone to come and tell you this very thing that I'm telling you right now.
00:24:54You all already know it.
00:24:56There's a lot of things that I don't need to tell you.
00:24:58I don't need to tell anybody in this room that Yeshua is the Messiah.
00:25:02You all already know it.
00:25:04But there are things that we do need to teach each other.
00:25:08And this is one of the primary reasons that we are to gather together to edify and build each other
00:25:13up.
00:25:14To teach each other.
00:25:16So I would, we have, Paula and I were actually talking to someone earlier today, and there's something that's come
00:25:22up in conversation numerous times over the last few months is that there is a place for teachers.
00:25:29Teaching is one of those gifts that God has given certain people.
00:25:34And so Paul talks about how some are appointed by God to be teachers and some to be prophets and
00:25:41some to be evangelists.
00:25:42These are special gifts that God gives certain people.
00:25:44But everybody in the kingdom of God, everybody in the body of Messiah is able to teach the rest of
00:25:51the body something.
00:25:53And the church model that most of Christianity is following today trains people not to do that.
00:26:00It trains people to sit in a pew and be taught not to teach.
00:26:07And most people are even actively discouraged from presuming to teach.
00:26:12Like the Catholic Church says that the Catholic Church is the only body on earth who is qualified to interpret
00:26:20the scriptures.
00:26:21So you, if you are not a priest, or in some cases a vicar, I don't know exactly what the
00:26:27rules are there.
00:26:28But if you are not ordained by the Catholic Church to teach, then you are forbidden to teach.
00:26:36But that's not what the scriptures say.
00:26:38It plainly says we're to instruct one another.
00:26:41And so any model of gathering that discourages people from being able to speak, not randomly, not everybody speaking out
00:26:50of turn,
00:26:50but everybody should have an opportunity to speak up at times and to help each other understand.
00:26:57And any model that discourages that is not ultimately what God plans for his people.
00:27:06Does all that make sense?
00:27:07And am I just running off into the weeds again?
00:27:10All right.
00:27:11So you yourselves are full of goodness.
00:27:14And this isn't like chocolate chip cookies.
00:27:17Can I have full of those?
00:27:20Yes.
00:27:20Some of us are full of those too.
00:27:22What kind of goodness do you think he's talking about here?
00:27:25And there are different kinds of goodness.
00:27:28I'm talking about the Holy Spirit.
00:27:30Okay.
00:27:31Paula says he's talking about things from the Holy Spirit.
00:27:35Yes.
00:27:35Through the Spirit.
00:27:37Revelation.
00:27:37Revelation.
00:27:38Yeah.
00:27:39I wonder what word he's using there.
00:27:41Moo.
00:27:42That's the word.
00:27:44Oh, no.
00:27:46That's silly.
00:27:47I had my cursor hovering over the wrong word.
00:27:50That just shows you how little Greek I know.
00:27:53I'm not even going to pronounce this word.
00:27:55It's a long Greek word.
00:27:57But it means uprightness of heart and life.
00:28:01Kindness.
00:28:02And that is the heart of the gifts of the Spirit.
00:28:05And faith, love, and hope.
00:28:07But the greatest of these is love.
00:28:09Yeah.
00:28:10It's what he's been talking about for the last few chapters.
00:28:13And if you remember, we're in that part of the Romans chiasm where he's talking about living at peace with
00:28:19God and man.
00:28:21And the purpose of the gifts of the Spirit are to help us live at peace with God and man,
00:28:27especially with one another.
00:28:30So full of goodness means the ability to be in community with each other without excess conflict.
00:28:40A little bit of conflict is a good thing because that's part of iron sharpening iron.
00:28:45But the conflict that creates division is not.
00:28:48So if we are full of goodness, then we are full of those qualities that allow us to be in
00:28:54communion despite our differences.
00:28:58Any other thoughts about these three qualities that Paul is giving here?
00:29:02Goodness, knowledge, and the ability to instruct?
00:29:04I got a version that might clarify why it might be confusing to some based on how it's written and
00:29:15some of these other translations.
00:29:17Okay.
00:29:18It says, and I have been getting persuaded.
00:29:21So somebody's been persuading him, right?
00:29:24By my brothers, even so he is presently getting persuaded.
00:29:29My brothers, even me, myself, about you, that also you yourselves are full of goodness and having been getting filled
00:29:37with all knowledge and being able also.
00:29:40So it sounds like he's talking about the group that's presently yielding to the Spirit in their lives and walking
00:29:51out the faithfulness or the walk of Yeshua being,
00:29:58being, how you say, expressing gifts of the Spirit.
00:30:01So it's like, it's kind of, it's kind of, hey, man, I hear you're doing a really good job and
00:30:05learning this stuff.
00:30:07And you even helped Frank the other week change an injector pump.
00:30:10I hear you're doing, it's like a salutation and then credit given to the Spirit.
00:30:16Yeah.
00:30:17Like you're doing all this stuff, but this is the power of those things.
00:30:21Yeah, and it's a process that he's been convinced that this process is started and headed in the right direction.
00:30:29Yeah, I think the King James Version even uses the word persuaded instead of satisfied.
00:30:34I don't know why the ESV chose satisfied there, because that seems like the least likely translation.
00:30:42Confident, I think, would be even better.
00:30:44But Thayer's Dictionary says that persuaded is the primary meaning of that word.
00:30:51So, like, I myself am convinced concerning you.
00:30:55That would be good.
00:30:57My translation says convinced.
00:31:00Which translation is that?
00:31:04Holman's.
00:31:05Okay.
00:31:06I don't think that's really good, because that's a conclusion.
00:31:09Because right now he says, I have been getting persuasive.
00:31:12Like, somebody is putting presently influencing.
00:31:16He hasn't personally confirmed himself.
00:31:20You know what I mean?
00:31:21Yeah, could be.
00:31:22It's better than satisfied, at least.
00:31:26Okay.
00:31:27All right.
00:31:28Verse 15.
00:31:29But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder because of the grace given
00:31:34me by God.
00:31:35And so, even though Paul is convinced or is being convinced that they're headed in the right direction, clearly there's
00:31:43an issue.
00:31:44And a lot of teachers like to say that Romans is the only one of Paul's letters that wasn't written
00:31:49to address a specific problem.
00:31:51And I think that is clearly wrong.
00:31:54Wow.
00:31:54Yeah, Romans was written specific to address a problem of an assembly and conflict between two groups of people, Jews
00:32:04and Gentiles, who are not getting along.
00:32:08Because they have, we have to look to history a little bit to come up with reasons why.
00:32:15But my preferred theory, which works with the historical record, is that the Jews had been exiled and the Gentiles
00:32:25were left there to develop on their own.
00:32:27And now the Jews are coming back and now there's conflict because the Jews are coming back with their traditional
00:32:32understandings.
00:32:33And the Gentiles are struggling with things that they wouldn't have struggled with if they had the guidance of their
00:32:40Jewish brothers.
00:32:42But also they're coming to truths that the Jews never would have arrived at if they had been there the
00:32:48whole time.
00:32:49It's one of those things that we see all the time where people come to the scriptures without formal training.
00:32:55And they're able, frequently able to see things in the scriptures that somebody who's been to seminary never would have
00:33:00thought of.
00:33:01Because they just have fresh eyes that are, it's easier for God sometimes to speak to somebody who isn't already
00:33:10convinced of something that God, something that isn't true.
00:33:14So we've got this issue that Paul is writing to correct, and it's definitely one of conflict where one group
00:33:20of people is looking down on another or both groups are looking down on the other one because of what
00:33:24they perceive as errors or weakness.
00:33:28And he thinks they're headed in the right direction, but if they allow this point of conflict to get out
00:33:35of hand, then it's just going to get worse.
00:33:37So he's trying to correct it before it goes completely awry and they end up with a split and the
00:33:42Jews going one way and the Gentiles going another way.
00:33:46And this is so vitally important.
00:33:50And it is so on point for Torah keeping and Messianic or Hebrew roots, whatever you want to call it,
00:33:58for those groups of people not to be looking down on each other for differences of opinion on peripheral matters.
00:34:06There are the core of things that we need to be united on, but there's lots of stuff out on
00:34:11the periphery that there's room for people to have different opinions and practices.
00:34:17And history shows us that all efforts to unite the people at Rome was temporary.
00:34:24It didn't last.
00:34:26And even by the end of the first century, just within a couple of decades, probably like five decades of
00:34:31when Paul wrote this, there was already a huge divide within the body of Messiah in Gentiles who were saying
00:34:40they were rejecting everything that seemed to be Jewish and Jews who are rejecting everything to seem to be associated
00:34:48with that Yeshua guy.
00:34:50And that split just kept getting wider until you ended up with rabbinic Judaism on one side and Catholicism on
00:34:58the other side.
00:34:59And that is not what God wanted for anybody.
00:35:03So our job is to correct that and to go back to Paul's lesson here and return to the ideals
00:35:11of the priesthood of all believers being a kingdom of priests and working together as different organs in the same
00:35:20body, trying to make sure that we're not creating autoimmune conditions in the body of Messiah.
00:35:26And we have definitely have an uphill battle.
00:35:29Anybody else have any thoughts about what conflicts may have been present that Paul was trying to fix?
00:35:34And maybe even conflicts that you've seen yourself, that things where people are dividing over inconsequential things.
00:35:44Not that all the things we divide over are inconsequential, but relatively inconsequential.
00:35:50Just as an example, if one group of people said the Sabbath begins at the beginning of the sun going
00:35:57down and another group of people says the Sabbath begins after the sun is completely down below the horizon, this
00:36:05is a trivial thing.
00:36:06It only really matters in your own home.
00:36:08And it's within minutes of each other.
00:36:10So why would people argue and divide over something like that?
00:36:15And honestly, I don't know of anybody who divides over that particular question.
00:36:20That's why I chose that one in particular.
00:36:23But I am curious to know if in your personal journeys, are there things that you have encountered that issues
00:36:31that people have divided over that just in retrospect, it was something that could have been worked out or we
00:36:39could have coexisted in the same congregation.
00:36:42As disciples of Yeshua and let each other believe what we wanted about this particular topic.
00:36:50Birthdays?
00:36:51Yeah, if anybody's not sure what he means by that.
00:36:54There's only one birthday talked about in scripture, and it was Herod's birthday, and it was a really bad thing.
00:37:00And so some people believe that you shouldn't celebrate birthdays.
00:37:04If you believe you shouldn't celebrate birthdays, then don't celebrate birthdays.
00:37:08And if your neighbor believes that it's okay to celebrate a birthday, there's no specific commandment against it.
00:37:15So let him celebrate his birthday.
00:37:17It doesn't hurt you.
00:37:20And you're not celebrating your birthday.
00:37:23It doesn't hurt him.
00:37:24So why would you divide over something like that?
00:37:27But people do.
00:37:29It's a strange thing.
00:37:31That kind of wicks over, I think, into a lot of secular holidays that people just come from wherever and
00:37:38they come in there and they're like, I want to do Valentine's Day or this day or that day, which
00:37:42if you've eggheaded yourself into the research, you tend to stay away from stuff like that.
00:37:48But a lot of people coming in, they don't necessarily look at it that forensically.
00:37:55And I have seen a lot of icky conversations about that where you can just go, I got an idea.
00:38:01I would just let the person be maturing up in the spirit for a while, and maybe they'll be convicted
00:38:06one day.
00:38:07That may or may not be a thing you want to participate in.
00:38:10And then they would just turn from it to something else instead of just being sucked into the vacuum of
00:38:15negativity and criticism.
00:38:18Yeah, that's true.
00:38:19And this week, because Thanksgiving is coming up, I've been seeing those arguments on Facebook.
00:38:25And I just, I don't get it.
00:38:28There are some holidays that I can look at and say, even though the historical record is very cloudy, and
00:38:35to be honest, I can't think of a single holiday that people celebrate.
00:38:39It's a big holiday, at least in America, that is, that I can prove from historical records is absolutely pagan,
00:38:47and you should never do that.
00:38:50The circumstantial evidence is pretty strong for some of them, but there's no absolute primary source evidence.
00:38:55But I can't find anything like that, circumstantial or otherwise, about Thanksgiving.
00:39:02Why would we not set a day apart to give thanks to God for delivering us through a few years
00:39:08of bad things?
00:39:08And I've heard people's reasoning on it, and there may be ties to some of the symbolism of Thanksgiving, like
00:39:16the horn of plenty, and some Indian customs that might have been adopted by the early European settlers.
00:39:23I'm not really sure, but those things are pretty, those connections are pretty tenuous.
00:39:30And if it bothers you, don't celebrate Thanksgiving.
00:39:34Take the day off and go do something else with your family.
00:39:37That's my advice.
00:39:39And if it doesn't bother you, give thanks to God and spend some time with your family.
00:39:45Either way, it ends up to be the same thing.
00:39:47Would you like to hear about how I do Thanksgiving and how I've been, I say, not introducing, but basically
00:39:57tearing the web of connections from the Christmas holiday and while still trying to let my children know I'm not
00:40:05a crazy old Jewish ogre?
00:40:09Because, of course, I come from, we don't call it Thanksgiving.
00:40:15We call it thanksgifting.
00:40:18And so Rachel goes, Rachel spends about, I don't know, three months of the year.
00:40:25I don't know, she's a real, she's a planner.
00:40:27I'm, I'm the guy that just, I don't know, so how much money do I got?
00:40:30I can spend it all that day and everybody's happy.
00:40:33But, so she fills up these 27-gallon totes.
00:40:37They're handy themselves because they stack and nest and a lot.
00:40:40Anyway, she fills that up with stuff for the kids because she wants to, she's, how am I going to
00:40:45give presents to my million grandkids and all this other stuff?
00:40:48And I go, let's call it thanksgifting.
00:40:50And then I can make a point of how this is not celebrating the birthday of the, whatever.
00:40:56And so, so that's, I mean, I do a little, a very abbreviated little Bible study and we do, we
00:41:04give thanks to God.
00:41:05And then at the end, we, she usually hands out these things for thanksgifting.
00:41:12So how's that for a church cracker?
00:41:17Or some of the other eyeballs like Thanksgiving.
00:41:21Thanks what?
00:41:22Thanksgiving.
00:41:23Like when Hanukkah is too close to Thanksgiving or over.
00:41:26Oh, Thanksgiving, that's funny.
00:41:27Yeah.
00:41:29Yeah.
00:41:30So then neither one of them are in the Torah.
00:41:32Yeah.
00:41:33Everybody's safe.
00:41:34All right.
00:41:36Unless anybody has anything.
00:41:37Oh, actually in this one, because of the grace given me by God, we talked about that in the early
00:41:43part of the book, because Paul was talking about that God had given him by God's grace.
00:41:49He had been made an apostle.
00:41:51But the grace that's given by God, if we remember that grace is an unobligated favor shown to somebody, but
00:42:01God doesn't owe it to you.
00:42:03Whether you earned it or not is beside the point, but he doesn't owe it to you.
00:42:08Paul had giftings.
00:42:11Paul was a gifted teacher.
00:42:12He was very smart, had tons of knowledge about scripture.
00:42:16So it was logical for God to choose a man like this for this purpose, but he didn't have to.
00:42:22Paul was a sinner.
00:42:23He was a murderer.
00:42:23He was a persecutor of Yeshua.
00:42:26But it was, God decided to rescue this guy and turn him around and give him this mission.
00:42:35And this is the grace of God.
00:42:38And we have all been given things like that.
00:42:41And maybe not as dramatic and spectacular as Paul's apostleship, but God has given all of us grace by forgiving
00:42:52things that he didn't have to forgive, except that he promised he would.
00:42:55And he holds himself to his promises.
00:42:57And that is also part of the grace of God.
00:43:00Let's move on to verse 16.
00:43:02One of the awkwardnesses about the chapter and verse divisions is that sentences frequently get chopped up by the translators
00:43:10or by whoever created these verse divisions.
00:43:12And I looked up the guy's name recently, but I can't remember it now.
00:43:16So the grace that God gave Paul to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly
00:43:21service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy
00:43:27Spirit.
00:43:28But before we get into this too much, I want to focus on the priestly service bit.
00:43:34Paul was not a priest.
00:43:35He was not a priest of the order of Levi or the order of Aaron.
00:43:39He was not a priest in the order of Melchizedek, but he was a priest of a different kind.
00:43:45Because as I mentioned earlier, God intended all of his people to be a kingdom of priests.
00:43:50And this is in Exodus 19 and Revelation 1.
00:43:55And in Exodus 19, trying to look for the specific reference here, Exodus 19, 22, God says that he has
00:44:04called Israel to be, he's going to be a kingdom of priests.
00:44:08And then in Revelation 1, John says that he has made us to be a kingdom of priests.
00:44:14So by Revelation 1, this is an accomplished fact.
00:44:18So Paul is a priest of a sort, just not one of the well-defined orders of priesthood that we
00:44:25have in Scripture.
00:44:25Actually, there's really only one well-defined order of priesthood, and that's the order of Aaron.
00:44:30But there are at least four different priesthoods described in Scripture, and Aaron is only one of them.
00:44:37So in Exodus 19, actually it was in verse 22, in verse 6 is where God says that Israel is
00:44:44to be a kingdom of priests.
00:44:45In verse 22, he mentions a different kind of priest.
00:44:49And he says, all of your priests will sanctify themselves so that my wrath doesn't break out against them.
00:44:56And, but this was before Levi had been set apart as the priestly tribe, and Aaron set apart from in
00:45:03them as the priests themselves.
00:45:05So whatever priest God is talking about in Exodus 19, these are, this isn't the whole people, because it's a
00:45:12small set of the people, and it's not Levi or Aaron.
00:45:15So he's talking about some other kind of priests, and I think the only reasonable priesthood to look at are
00:45:21what you might call the priesthood of the firstborn.
00:45:25And you can see a hint of this in Judges 17, where there's a guy named Micah, who's from the
00:45:30tribe of Ephraim.
00:45:32He's got a bunch of silver that, there was a conflict with his mother, not going to get into that,
00:45:37but he's got a bunch of silver, makes an idol, but then he wants a real priest.
00:45:42So there's a traveling Levi who comes through, and he says, hey, you're a Levi, you should come be my
00:45:46family priest.
00:45:47He was confusing two different lines of priesthoods.
00:45:51Every family had their own priest, and usually that was going to be the patriarch or the firstborn son.
00:45:57For example, in Jacob's house, Jacob sacrificed animals, he built an altar, made sacrifices, he was acting as the priest
00:46:05of his house.
00:46:07And Abraham did the same thing.
00:46:09So within every generation, there would be a family priest.
00:46:12Like I said, usually the family patriarch or the firstborn son or somebody specifically chosen within the family.
00:46:18But occasionally they would hire somebody else to come into the family and be this priest if they didn't have
00:46:24anybody qualified.
00:46:25And this person's job would be to perform whatever rituals they thought they were supposed to do.
00:46:31Build an altar, sacrifice animals, maintain all of whatever sacred objects they used in their sacrifice.
00:46:40This is not a well-defined priesthood in scripture.
00:46:42It's only something that's hinted at.
00:46:45So we have the priesthood of all believers, we have the priesthood of the firstborn, and we have the priesthood
00:46:51of Aaron.
00:46:52The fourth one is the priesthood of Melchizedek.
00:46:55And Hebrews calls this, and Psalm calls it the order of Melchizedek.
00:47:00And sometimes we think that this, almost always, we think this means that there was an official order of priests,
00:47:07just like, just like with Aaron, where God made a covenant with Aaron and said,
00:47:12you are going to be my priest, you and your sons.
00:47:15And this was the order of Aaron, like an official structure.
00:47:18But that's not really what order means in this context.
00:47:21It means type or pattern.
00:47:24So Melchizedek was a type of priest, and it's a priest king.
00:47:29Someone who is both a priest of a god and a king.
00:47:33And in the ancient world, most kings were also priests of a sort.
00:47:37Not always.
00:47:38I know in Babylon and Assyria, there was usually a division between the priesthood and the kingship.
00:47:45Not always, but usually.
00:47:47And the same thing in Egypt, where the king was considered a god of sorts.
00:47:52But the priesthood served him.
00:47:54He wasn't a priest.
00:47:56He was a god.
00:47:57In some cases, like Melchizedek, you would have the two come together, be a priest king.
00:48:03And so when David talks about how this one to come will be a priest after the order of Melchizedek,
00:48:11or after the pattern of Melchizedek, that means that he's going to be a priest king.
00:48:17And that's not a possibility under the order of Aaron.
00:48:22There was a time where Levites had taken the kingship, and they weren't really supposed to do that.
00:48:27They were not legitimate kings, because it was supposed to be David on the throne,
00:48:31and David's descendants from the tribe of Judah.
00:48:34So that's the fourth type of priesthood.
00:48:37Anyways, I want to get into all that, just to talk about what the role of a priest is,
00:48:42and what Paul means by priestly service.
00:48:46A priest is somebody who does the ritual and mediates the relationship between the people and their god.
00:48:55So if you're going to go to the tabernacle, not go in, of course, because only a priest can do
00:48:59that.
00:49:00But if you're going to go to the tabernacle to worship god, you go through the priest.
00:49:05The priest is there to take your offering, help you through the slaughter.
00:49:09Usually, the person bringing the offering would be the one to kill the animal.
00:49:13But the priest takes the blood, and then uses the blood for atonement by sprinkling it on the altar,
00:49:19or maybe the person, or something like that.
00:49:22And this enables the person to be in God's presence.
00:49:26But there are other things that a priest does.
00:49:29That's the primary thing that a priest with an altar and a physical presence of a god,
00:49:36that's the primary thing he would do.
00:49:38But there are lots of other things that are priestly in nature.
00:49:42So teaching the god's laws to the people, that is a priestly duty.
00:49:46That doesn't mean other people can't do it, but it is a priestly function.
00:49:50Caring for all of the ritual paraphernalia.
00:49:55The priests themselves, they were involved in the actual rituals going on in the tabernacle and at the altar.
00:50:04But the different clans of Levites were also responsible for taking care of some of these holy things,
00:50:13especially transporting them.
00:50:15The stuff that goes in the tabernacle, they weren't supposed to mess with that.
00:50:18I think they were wrapped up by the priests and then carried by Levites.
00:50:23So all of these things are also priestly in nature.
00:50:27So Paul is performing a priestly service in bringing God's law to the nations,
00:50:34by introducing them to the God of Israel,
00:50:38and then by preparing them to become an offering to that God.
00:50:43So when he says, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable,
00:50:48he's saying, he's going back to that idea of being a living sacrifice.
00:50:54That he is training the nations to become a living sacrifice to God.
00:51:00Someone who is wholly dedicated, just like a burnt offering is wholly dedicated to the God.
00:51:06Now we are supposed to be wholly dedicated to our God.
00:51:09Everything we are, our identity, our mission is supposed to be dedicated to him.
00:51:15And our faithfulness to him should then inform everything we do in this world.
00:51:21Whether we go to the office, go to the voting booth, we go to the market,
00:51:25whatever we're doing, we are doing it as representatives of him in a priestly manner.
00:51:32And so that role should infuse everything in our lives.
00:51:36There is no division between your public and religious life in God's kingdom.
00:51:42Because if you think of religion as a relationship with your God, I don't mean just ritual.
00:51:48Everything we do, everything we are, should be informed by that priestly duty.
00:51:54Paul's priestly service to God was to take the gospel out to the nations
00:51:58and to create living sacrifices out of the nations.
00:52:03Our priestly service is to continue that work, to become living sacrifices,
00:52:08and then to help other people to become it.
00:52:10And we may have missions like Paul.
00:52:12Some of us are called to be evangelists or teachers or preachers or prophets, whatever.
00:52:18Whatever calling God has set us to is in the service of a priest king.
00:52:23And therefore, that service is priestly in nature.
00:52:27Samuel came from the tribe of Levi, right?
00:52:31I think so, or I'd have to look that up.
00:52:35I don't remember.
00:52:36But he was a priest, right?
00:52:40But he was dedicated to the temple when he was very young.
00:52:44He was the son of Hannah and Elkanah.
00:52:48He was of the Kohathites.
00:52:51Kohathites.
00:52:51It didn't start from Aaron.
00:52:56It's because, remember when he told Saul, they were supposed to wait on him.
00:53:03And Saul went and offered the sacrifices because he couldn't wait on Samuel.
00:53:10Samuel didn't come at the time when he was expecting him to come.
00:53:13And he went ahead and offered sacrifices unto Yahweh.
00:53:18And then when Samuel came, Samuel was very furious with him.
00:53:24Because he was supposed to wait on Samuel.
00:53:28He was the king then.
00:53:30Samuel was the prophet.
00:53:31But then Samuel was the one who was supposed to officiate in offering up these sacrifices unto Yahweh, right?
00:53:39So Samuel did officiate as a priest, right?
00:53:43Yeah, he did act in the role of a priest.
00:53:45I'm actually looking at his genealogy.
00:53:47So sorry, I'm a little distracted.
00:53:49Just checking to make sure.
00:53:51Because I don't think that he was a...
00:53:53I was just looking at his genealogy.
00:53:55Kohath was a son of Levi.
00:53:58Kohath and then Amitadab.
00:54:00Then Korah, Asir, and Elkanah.
00:54:02And then Samuel.
00:54:04But yeah, Saul was supposed to wait for Samuel before he did any sacrifices.
00:54:09Saul was not a priest king.
00:54:12Even though he thought he was.
00:54:15Yeah, and that's one of the problems is that even though we are to be a kingdom of priests and
00:54:20we are operating in a priestly role,
00:54:23that doesn't necessarily mean that we are priests authorized to make sacrifices at an altar or a temple.
00:54:30We make sacrifices of our lives and we offer worship in the form of praise and obedience.
00:54:37But we don't go and kill animals and put their blood on an altar.
00:54:40Because God has specified a specific priesthood that's authorized to do that.
00:54:45And that's not us.
00:54:46Only the sons of Aaron are authorized to do that.
00:54:49And some of those have been relegated to secondary duties.
00:54:56And I think that today it's only the sons of Sadok who are authorized to offer those sacrifices.
00:55:02And I don't know who those guys are.
00:55:04And I'm not going to trust anybody who says they do know.
00:55:07I think I'm going to wait for Yeshua to figure that one out.
00:55:10So I would not trust anybody who claims to be a descendant of Sadok and says, okay, we're going to
00:55:20build an altar and start doing animal sacrifices.
00:55:22I'd stay away from that person.
00:55:25All right.
00:55:25The rest of this verse.
00:55:27And I skipped over the first clause here to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles.
00:55:33Because the word minister, at least in American English, that has an implication of clergy.
00:55:40Even though Paul does specify a priestly service, so he is acting in that role.
00:55:45That's not really what the word meant in Greek.
00:55:48It's more like the English or Canadian parliamentary sense where this is a minister of a ruler.
00:55:55If, or of any government body, any government functionary is a minister in this sense, a servant of the governor.
00:56:03And so Paul was a servant of the king of Israel.
00:56:08And therefore he was a minister of evangelism.
00:56:13Like we might say minister of defense or minister of agriculture or something like that.
00:56:18Except his particular area of responsibility was, was taking the gospels of the Gentiles.
00:56:26So it does amount to a sort of clerical role.
00:56:29Clergy in the sense of being a minister of the gospel.
00:56:33In this case, it's six and one half a dozen at the other.
00:56:36I just wanted to point out, that's not really what the word means in Greek.
00:56:39I think the King James even says minister of Christ Jesus in the ministry of the gospel.
00:56:44Samuel, which is one of those times when they're using the same English word to translate different Greek words.
00:56:52So that can be a little confusing at times.
00:56:55Thank you, Shubha, for looking that up.
00:56:56That's kind of what I was thinking, but wasn't entirely sure.
00:57:01And that's a confusing thing because Samuel wasn't the only non-priest to offer sacrifices.
00:57:09So Shubha put in the comments that Samuel was a Levite of the line of Kohath, but he was not
00:57:15from the line of Aaron.
00:57:16So he is not authorized to offer sacrifices.
00:57:21And that gets confusing, and I don't know how to explain that entirely.
00:57:26The case with Elijah in his contest with Baal, Elijah didn't offer sacrifices the way that a priest normally does.
00:57:36As far as we know, he did not collect the blood and do anything with that.
00:57:41He killed the animals and put them on the altar, and he didn't even light it.
00:57:45He had people dump water on it, and then God lit it.
00:57:48So I have a way to explain Elijah making sacrifices, but I don't have a way to explain Samuel.
00:57:54And I'm sure that there is a tradition or something that I'm just not aware of that would explain that.
00:57:58That's something I'll have to research.
00:58:01But thank you for looking that up, Shubha.
00:58:03Now, some of those genealogies, they reuse names, and they can get confusing.
00:58:08All right.
00:58:08In verse 16, one other thing I want to address here.
00:58:12We talked about this already, but that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
00:58:21And we talked about the idea that we are priests in the—we are a kingdom of priests.
00:58:27Every one of us is a priest in that order, and that's because every one of us is a temple
00:58:32for the Holy Spirit.
00:58:33The Holy Spirit is living in us if we are God's people.
00:58:36If we are penitent and submitted to Yeshua, we have been cleansed by his blood, and we have been made
00:58:45a sanctifying temple.
00:58:47Just like the tabernacle was sanctified by the blood of sacrifices, we are sanctified by the blood of the sacrifice
00:58:54of Yeshua,
00:58:55and by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, just like the Shekinah, glory of God, that indwelled the tabernacle in
00:59:01the wilderness.
00:59:04And the tabernacle is an amazing thing in that it is a pattern of us.
00:59:10It's a pattern of God.
00:59:11God, just like we bear the image of God, so the tabernacle bears the image of God.
00:59:16And so we can look at the tabernacle and learn things about how we are supposed to operate.
00:59:21And I think that applies to the family as well, that the family is an image of the tabernacle or
00:59:26the image of God.
00:59:28So God's image is just stamped on everything in his creation in some way.
00:59:32But humanity being the pinnacle of that creation is the most image-bearing of all the image-bearers.
00:59:40A silly way to put it, but hopefully you understand what I'm trying to say there.
00:59:45All right.
00:59:46So we are, as I was reading this passage in just the next few verses,
00:59:55I realized that there was something here that didn't fit into the chiastic structure that I had described of Romans
01:00:01before.
01:00:03And I had talked about how Romans begins with greetings and then goes into,
01:00:09sorry, let me expand something on my screen here so I can see it.
01:00:12Then goes into Paul giving praise to God and gratitude for his mission that God has given him
01:00:19and a desire to go and visit the Romans.
01:00:22And then he spent some time talking about this struggle of living at war with God and man,
01:00:28and then talking about the specific struggles in the congregation there in Rome.
01:00:33And then we get to this long section about living at peace with God and man.
01:00:38And another going back to the desire to visit in the Romans and to receive a gift from them
01:00:44and his gratitude and praise for the people who have helped him in his mission.
01:00:49And then finally greetings.
01:00:51But there's a piece in there between living at peace with God and man and his desire to visit Rome
01:00:56that did not fit that pattern.
01:00:58So I had to go back and look at the first part of Romans to see if there was a
01:01:02corresponding point there.
01:01:04And there was.
01:01:06So I'll put this on the screen.
01:01:25And that is right before he starts talking about how man is living at war with God.
01:01:37And his fellow man.
01:01:39So after we talk about living at peace with God and man in chapters 12 to 15,
01:01:45we have these three verses.
01:01:49Romans 15, 17 to 19, where he says,
01:01:53Therefore, in Christ Jesus, I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God.
01:01:58For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me,
01:02:03resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed,
01:02:06in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit,
01:02:09so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum,
01:02:12I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.
01:02:15So in chapter 1, verses 16 to 17, he's saying,
01:02:19I am unashamed of all the work that God has done through me
01:02:21and the power of God shown through this work.
01:02:24And then in chapter 15, 17 to 19, he's saying,
01:02:29I am boasting in the work that God has performed through me
01:02:32and the power of God manifested among the Gentiles through this work.
01:02:36So he's saying the same thing at either end.
01:02:39And so here's another level in this chiasm that I didn't see before.
01:02:45And I've updated the image on your screen to show that.
01:02:50So the next few verses are in verses 17 to 19.
01:02:54Pride in the work that God has done.
01:02:57Not in the work that Paul has done, but in the work that God has done.
01:03:00I think this is cool, not just because it validates that
01:03:04I've got the chiastic structure of Romans right,
01:03:06but it's kind of, what do you want to call it?
01:03:11An Easter egg?
01:03:14Kind of.
01:03:15What I'm thinking of is like a checksum.
01:03:18If you're familiar with computer terminology,
01:03:20it's a number that's calculated based on the contents of a file.
01:03:25You run it through an algorithm and it spits out this really long number.
01:03:29And if anybody changes that file in any way,
01:03:32then the number that it spits out will be different.
01:03:34So you can validate that a file has not been changed or altered
01:03:37by running a checksum on it.
01:03:40And that's what these chiasms are like.
01:03:43It's like, I can be fairly certain that this is the letter that Paul originally wrote.
01:03:49And it hasn't really been doctored much, if at all,
01:03:52because this chiasm is intact.
01:03:54And it is, this is one of the clearest, most,
01:03:58it's one of the easiest to see and map out chiasms that is of this length.
01:04:03There are lots of little ones that are easy,
01:04:04but this is a really big chiasm and it's just clear as day.
01:04:09So I think that's a huge validation that the book of Romans is legitimate
01:04:14and has not been doctored.
01:04:17We have essentially what Paul wrote.
01:04:20And for all I know, it's exactly word for word what he wrote,
01:04:23what we've got today.
01:04:24I would not be surprised by that at all.
01:04:27Can I ask a question?
01:04:29Sure.
01:04:30The concept of the Shekinah glory, I heard you mention it a while ago.
01:04:36The concept of the Shekinah glory,
01:04:39is it associated with the concept of the Holy Spirit?
01:04:44It's definitely a visible or tangible manifestation of the presence of God.
01:04:49So the Holy Spirit can be there without showing that Shekinah or Shekinah glory.
01:04:55But if God chooses to show it,
01:04:57then that would definitely be evidence of God's presence.
01:05:02But you don't have to see that for the Holy Spirit to be present.
01:05:06And I don't know what triggers that.
01:05:09We saw it in the tabernacle in the wilderness.
01:05:12We saw it in Acts 2 with the tongues of fire coming down on everyone's head.
01:05:18We saw it on Mount Sinai with the fiery presence of God up there on the mountain.
01:05:23It doesn't happen all the time when God is around, though,
01:05:26because sometimes God appears in the still small voice.
01:05:30Sometimes he appears as a guy walking on the road.
01:05:34What I wanted to find out,
01:05:36if the Shekinah glory is associated with the Holy Spirit,
01:05:43because we know about the Father.
01:05:48We know about the Son and we know about the Holy Spirit.
01:05:51God appears to us in various ways.
01:05:55It doesn't appear in any specific manner.
01:05:57So I was just asking whether it could be associated with the concept of the Holy Spirit.
01:06:07Yeah, just looking up, obviously in Acts 2 it is,
01:06:11because the Holy Spirit fell on these men
01:06:13and that manifested in tongues of fire on their heads and speaking in tongues.
01:06:18And I just wanted to look up where it's found in Scripture
01:06:22to see if it mentions the Spirit.
01:06:24Exodus 25.
01:06:27What about Sinai?
01:06:32Yeah, I think the cloud and the fire on top of the mountain,
01:06:36that is an example.
01:06:39I want to see if that word specifically is there, though.
01:06:43So Exodus 25.8 is one reference that I found for this.
01:06:48Yeah, it comes from the word for dwelling.
01:06:51So essentially it means the presence.
01:06:56So I'm not sure that it's specifically associated with the Holy Spirit,
01:07:01but just with God in general.
01:07:03Yeah.
01:07:06I'm sure that the Holy Spirit is there, too.
01:07:09Wherever God is, the Holy Spirit is.
01:07:11Yeah, but I don't know if I can say that the Holy Spirit
01:07:13is specifically associated with the Shekinah.
01:07:16I don't know.
01:07:19I don't know.
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