Jesus who has stretched out His hands all day long (Romans 10:16-21)

Jesus who has stretched out His hands all day long

 

 

[Romans 10:16-21]

 

 

We have already received the word of God under the title of “The word of faith we are proclaiming,” centered on Romans 10:1-15.  What you and I must preach is the word of the truth that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ.  We must never preach the untruth that salvation is obtained through human efforts and deeds.  It is not the word of faith, and it is not the true gospel.  We must spread the word of faith to our unborn believers and to dying souls.  We must boldly preach, ‘If you believe in Jesus, you will be saved!’  In particular, like Paul, we must preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to them while praying with earnest desire for the salvation of the souls of family members, relatives, and friends who are dying without knowing Jesus.  The feet of those who preach the gospel of Jesus Christ are beautiful (v. 15, quoting Isa. 52:7).

 

In meditating on today's text Romans 10:16-21, especially in verse 21, Paul quotes Isaiah 65:2 and writes a letter to the saints in Rome like this: “But as for Israel He says, ‘All day long I have stretched out my hands to disobedient and obstinate people.’”  I would like to receive the grace that God gives to us while meditating on three things under the heading of “Jesus who has stretched out His hands all day long” centering on Romans 10:16-21.

 

First of all, what does it mean to say that Jesus is stretching His hands all day long?

 

This word means that Jesus is inviting people with His arms wide open. Jesus is inviting people “all day long.”  Jesus is inviting people to turn and repent and sit in the arms of God's love.  In Luke 14:15-16, Jesus speaks in a parable about the qualifications of those who can participate in the heavenly banquet (Park).  First, Jesus is talking about those who do not come even after being invited to the heavenly banquet (vv. 17-21).  These are the ones who cannot participate in the heavenly banquet.  These people refer to the Jews at that time who were invited first.  All of them did not respond to the invitation because of the works of the flesh.  By what fleshly work did they not respond to the invitation?  Some did not respond to the invitation because some have just bought a field and must go see it (v. 18), some have just bought five yokes of oxen (v. 19), and still another just got married (v. 20).  When the servant reported to his master, the master of the house became angry and ordered the servant: “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame” (v. 21).  As commanded, the servant went out into the streets and alleys and brought the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame, but when the servant informed the owner of the house (v. 22) that there was still room available (v. 22), the master commanded the servant: “Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full” (v. 23).  This is the Lord's command to you and me: ‘Go out and make people come in, so that My house will be full.’  Our Jesus is the Lord who stretches His hands and invites us all day long.  Like Jesus, we must stretch our hands and invite people throughout the day.  The doors of our hearts must be open, and the doors of our homes and churches must be wide open and we must invite people.  Indeed, how should we invite people?

 

From John 1:45, we can find several principles in Philip's invitation to Nathaniel: (1) Philip found Daniel [(v. 45) “Philip found Nathanael …”], (2) Philip introduces Jesus of Nazareth, whom he met, to Nathanael [(v. 45) “… and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph”], (3) When Nathaniel heard Philip's words and responded, “Nazareth!  Can anything good come from there?”  Philip said to him, “Come and see” (v. 46).  Personally, in order for us to invite people to fill the house of the Lord, there are three more things I would like to add to Philip's invitation principle in addition to the word “Come and see.”

 

(1)    It is “Come, follow me” (Mt. 4:19).

 

Of course, this is what Jesus said when He called His disciples.  But when we invite people, we must say, “Come and see,” and then we must show them the example of Jesus so they can follow Jesus through us.

 

(2)    It is “Come and have breakfast” (Jn. 21:12).

 

This is the word Jesus spoke to Peter and the other disciples on land at the Sea of Tiberias after He rose from the dead.  The lesson we learn from this is that we must show the people we invite to church the love that Jesus showed for Peter in the midst of table fellowship.

 

(3)    It is ‘Come and be with me.’

 

Come to Jesus and be with Jesus.  Just as the branches of the vine abide in the vine, so we must invite people to join Jesus.  In doing so, we will experience the words of Jesus to us, ‘Come and share your master’s happiness!’ (Mt. 25:21).

 

How do you feel about inviting people to your church?  Are you reluctant to invite some unchurched people to your church?  Aren't you sorry for inviting them to come to your little church?  Do you see that there is something in your church that you can confidently invite people to?  Starting from John 6:66, when many of the disciples withdrew because of Jesus' teaching was hard teaching (v. 60) and did not walk with Jesus again, Jesus asked the twelve disciples, “Do you want to leave too, do you?” (v. 67).  Then comes the scene where Simon Peter answers Jesus like this: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.  We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” (vv. 68-69).  As I was meditating today's message, I remembered Peter's answer.  And the lesson the Lord teaches me is that as our church becomes a church that has the words of the Lord's eternal life, we should be boldly invite people over to our church by saying, 'Our church has the words of the Lord's eternal life.  So, “Come and see.”  I hope and pray that our church would be able to invite by saying ‘Come see our church and stay with us.  In our church, there are the words of Jesus and there are those who enjoy the joy of obeying the words. There are people who love Jesus and there are people who are becoming like Jesus.’

 

Second, to whom is Jesus stretching His hands all day long?

 

                We can think of it in 2 ways:

 

(1)    Jesus keeps his hands stretching all day long to those who disbelieve.

 

Last week, I meditated on the word of God under the heading “Leave it alone for one more year,” centered on Luke 13:8.  As I meditated on this word, I thought about the fig tree that did not bear fruit, and I thought about what kind of fruit we should bear.  What are the fruits that you and I must bear?  I thought of those fruits in two ways: externally, the fruit of evangelism, and internally, the fruit of character changing to resemble Jesus.  However, I realized through the context that the fruit spoken of in Luke 13 is the fruit of repentance.  What sins do you and I really need to repent of?  When we hear that we must repent of our sins, the first thing we think of is presumptuous sins.  What are presumptuous sins?  Presumptuous sins refer to a person who refuses such advice and willfully commits the same sin repeatedly, even though he has been told what a sin is through the gospel of Christ (Internet).  So the psalmist prayed: “Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule over me; Then I will be blameless, And I shall be acquitted of great transgression” (Ps. 19:13).  But the sins we need to repent of are what Jesus said in John 16:9 – “concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me.”  The Scripture tells us that the sin we must repent of is the sin of not believing in Jesus.  Look at Romans 10:16 – “But not all the Israelites accepted the good news.  For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our message?’”  Paul preached “the word of faith” to his brothers, the Israelites, because he earnestly desired them to believe in Jesus and received salvation (10:8), but they did not accept the gospel of Jesus Christ (v. 16).  So, he quoted Isaiah 53:1 in Romans 10:16 and says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”  The reason he quoted Isaiah's words was because he was pointing out that Jews did not believe in the true Messiah, the dead and resurrected Jesus Christ, in the days of the prophet Isaiah and when Paul was preaching the gospel.  The reason he quoted Isaiah's words was because he was pointing out that Jews did not believe in the true Messiah, the dead and resurrected Jesus Christ, in the days of the prophet Isaiah and when Paul was preaching the gospel.  This does not apply only to the time of the prophet Isaiah or the time of Paul.  Most Jews living in the 21st century still do not believe in Jesus as the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament.  Why did the Jews not believe in Jesus and still do not?  Is it because they have not heard this gospel of Jesus Christ?  Look at Romans 10:18 – “But I ask: Did they not hear?  Of course they did: ‘Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.’”  Clearly, Paul is saying that Jews do not believe in Jesus because they have not heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Even now, the sound of the gospel continues to spread throughout the land.  Those who were sent in obedience to the command of the Lord to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth are spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Therefore, we can no longer say that we do not believe in Jesus because we have not heard the gospel.  The problem isn't that we haven't heard the gospel, it's a problem of the heart.  The problem is the hard heart that refuses to believe in Jesus.  So, Paul, quoting Deuteronomy 32:21 in Romans 10:19, said to the saints in Rome that since the Israelites knew God but followed other gods, God showed great grace to other nations and caused Israel to feel jealous.  Jesus is stretching out His hands all day long to the Israelites who are so hard-hearted and refuse to believe in Jesus.  In other words, while Jesus was nailed to the cross and died, He stretched out His arms and wants us to sit in His bosom, who reject and refuse to believe in Jesus.

 

(2)    Those to whom Jesus stretches out His hands all day long are disobedient.

 

Look at Romans 10:16a, 21: “But not all the Israelites accepted the good news.  …  But concerning Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”  Here in verse 16, the word “not all the Israelites accepted the good news” is a Greek word meaning “ὑπακούω”, which is a combination of two words: “under” + hear.”  This compound word has the meaning of ‘obey, accept’, and the most interesting meaning among them is ‘answer (the door)’(Newman).  When I think about this meaning, I remembered the words of Revelation 3:20 – “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”  Jesus stands at the door and knocks on our hearts.  Jesus is letting us hear His voice, the gospel.  The question is whether you and I are willing to humbly listen to the voice of the gospel of Jesus.  The Jews did not humbly listen to the voice of Jesus, the gospel of Jesus Christ, heard through Paul.  In other words, Jesus was knocking the hearts of the Jews with the gospel through Paul, but the Jews did not open the door to their hearts, but rather hardened their hearts.  That is why Paul referred to the Jews who did not believe even after hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ as “a disobedient and obstinate” (Rom.10:21).  Why did these Jews not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ but rather rebel?  The reason is because they didn’t know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own (v. 3).  The Israelites tried to earn salvation by doing their best to keep the law, so they did not submit to the gospel of Jesus Christ (v. 3).  Even to the disobedient and obstinate Jews, Jesus stretched out His hands all day long.

 

In conclusion, Jesus invites the unbelieving and disobedient with stretched hands all day long.  For those who hear the gospel of Jesus but do not believe in Jesus and do not obey Him, Jesus is stretching out His hands all day long to embrace us with the open arms of the cross.  What should we do with this invitation from Jesus?

 

Third and last, how should we respond to Jesus who stretches His hands all day long?

 

We must respond to Jesus' invitation.  We must humbly accept the invitation of Jesus with a heart that repents of the sins of unbelief and disobedience of not believing in Jesus.  We must go to God with a heart of repentance, stretching our hands to Him because no other help we know (v.1 of the hymn “Father, I Stretch My Hands to Thee”).  And we must bear fruits worthy of repentance.  In other words, we must submit to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  No longer should we live in disobedience to the word of the Lord.  We must humbly live a life of obedience to the word of the Lord.  At this time today, Jesus is inviting us with the open arms of the cross.  What will you do when Jesus invites you?  I hope and pray that you will respond to Jesus' invitation with faith.  To do that, you must listen to the words of Jesus Christ.  Look at Romans 10:17 – “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”  Faith comes from hearing.  Faith comes from hearing the words of Jesus Christ.  Therefore, we must listen to the words of Jesus Christ being heard today.  I hope and pray that God will open wide the doors of our hearts and allow us to believe in the word of Jesus Christ that is being preached today.  Therefore, I hope and pray that we will be embraced in the arms of Jesus who invites you with His stretched hands.