Romans

Scripture Texts: Romans 15:1-7

Introduction.

Paul is a true pastor.  He loves the church.  He loves the church in Rome even though he has never been there.  He cares about this congregation of saints God has called out of the world into this special and unique fellowship of believers.

There is no place on earth like the gathering of the church of Jesus Christ purchased by His precious blood, filled with His Holy Spirit and gathered around the holy Word of God.  This is unparallel.  This is holy ground and it is eternal.

And there is no gathering more under attack by a most powerful enemy.  Satan hates the church and never stops trying to disrupt and divide and destroy the precious body of Jesus Christ.

So Paul is urging the members of the church in Rome to resist all the ways Satan tries to destroy our fellowship and unity and harmony.  This is a challenge for any church, and especially any church as racially and ethnically diverse as Rome, filled with Gentile and Jewish converts, some who are young in the Lord, weaker, less spiritually mature.

Whenever you mix people together you get differences, and differences mean conflict, differences of opinion, of conviction.  What are we supposed to do when there is conflict?

Paul has been piling up argument after argument and reason after reason to love one another.

Because of all the mercies God has shown you.  Because God first loved you when you were an unlovable sinner.  Because God has already welcomed you and them, so you welcome them.  He appeals to the sacrifice Christ has already made for those you are at odds with.  He appeals to the judgment seat of God where we will be judged.  He points to the example of Jesus who was strong and bore with us who are weak.

Scripture Texts: Romans 14:13-23

Introduction.
The Apostle Paul is a pastor at heart. He is a shepherd who loves and cares for his sheep. So he is constantly teaching, instructing, admonishing, warning, and training in the way of the truth.
The Apostle Paul has not yet been to the church in Rome, but he already clearly loves them and is caring for them through this letter. It can be summed up in Romans 12:9, let your love be genuine, real, authentic, visible. Paul is writing out of love for the sake of peace and unity.
Chapter 14 is a lengthy call to love each other, and especially for the strong to love the weak.
We should pay attention to what Scripture pays attention to, especially when it devotes this much attention to it.
God sees what we need as a church so let’s pay attention. Let’s submit our hearts and minds and wills to what the Holy Spirit is saying to the church this morning.
The church in Rome was filled with new converts to the Christian faith, some were former Jews and some were former Gentiles.
The Jews were coming out of very strict dietary laws about what was clean and unclean. The ancient world was full of pagan idolatry and temple worship where lots of animal were sacrificed to idols. The pagan temples were the local butcher shop; it was where you went to buy your meat. But these converts were having conscience issues with eating meat that was used in demonic idol worship. They were having a hard time letting go of all the trappings of their old ways. The Gentiles didn’t care.
This was a big deal in the early years of the church. Paul wrote about these same things to the Colossians and Corinthians.

Scripture Texts: Romans 14:5-12

Introduction.

e continue under Paul’s instruction on how to show genuine love toward one another, how to outdo one another in showing honor and how to not think too highly of ourselves.

Romans 14 is about loving each other through our differences.  Every church is a house divided over opinions and preferences and principles, our likes and dislikes and favorites.

It is staggering what people can find on the internet to become champions of, forming opinions that become dogmas.  Vitamins, food allergies, what poisons you are consuming, what causes cancer, the benefits of aroma therapy or going green, or the dangers of plastic or fluoride in water or fossil fuels or conspiracy theories .  And let’s not even start on politics, local, state or national.

We all know how small things have become big things, and led to bitter feelings, broken relationships, split churches and have brought terrible disrepute on the name of Christ.

Paul has an interesting way of dealing with this problem.  He says the opposite of what I would say.  And in fact, I have said the opposite.

When dealing with non-essentials, with disputable issues and personal opinions, my tendency is to say chill out or as one of my sons likes to say chillax.  Lighten up, dude.  Don’t get wrapped around the axle.  A daughter-in-law is often saying to her kids, take a breath, breathe, relax.

But Paul doesn’t say that and what he does say seems like it could make the problem worse.

Instead of saying, “Lighten up, these things are minor and don’t merit strong convictions,” he says, “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.”  Instead of saying don’t be so intense, he says have firm convictions about minor matters.  How will this help?

We need to understand what having firm convictions means.  In means first I am fully convinced it is not sinful, immoral, unethical, contrary to God’s Word and will.  Second, it means that I am able to honor Christ with gratitude and glorify God in my conviction.  Third, that my conscience is clean and clear on this matter, that this is the best thing for me.  Fourth, I understand this is not an essential matter, it is not something over which I will judge or look down on others over.  And fifth, my highest priority is love.  I don’t want to break fellowship with family and friends and church members over this.  Be fully convinced in your own mind in this way.

Last week we heard Paul say those who have greater maturity and faith are to accommodate themselves and make allowances for those less experienced or weaker in the faith or more tender in conscience.  Even if they are wrong.

The strength, faith and maturity God gives us are gifts that ought not to be used to oppress or abuse or hurt others.  Rather we are under a greater obligation to love and help our neighbor.

This week we hear more of how Paul would have us deal with disputable things.  He does it by giving us much bigger things to focus on.  Instead of majoring on the minors, he wants us to major on the majors.

Last week’s major was we don’t pass judgment because God has already welcomed them and if God has, then who are we to not welcome them as well.  They are our brothers and sisters.

This week Paul brings up a new minor issue and gives us some new major things to remember.

Let each one be fully convinced in their own minds, honoring Jesus as Lord and God as Judge.

Scripture Texts: Romans 14:1-4

Introduction.

Paul has been exhorting us since the beginning of chapter 12 to not be conformed to this world, but to be transformed and changed by the renewing of our minds.  He is calling Christians to look and act and speak in ways different from the world.

Jesus says the way the world will know we are Christians is by our love.

John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Paul emphasized this by saying

Romans 12:9-10 Let love be genuine. … 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

We are called as Christians to show the world what genuine love looks like.

This is the continuing theme of chapter 14.  How we are different from the world will be most evident when they see us loving through our differences and disagreements, how we treat one another when we have differences of opinions.

The first thing to notice here is the reality of differences in the body of Christ.  The essence of the Christian church is diversity, the church is made up of all kinds of people.  Young and old, male and female, rich and poor, slave and free, different races and ethnic groups, differences in backgrounds and preferences.

How is God glorified in the church?

When diverse, divergent, incompatible people welcome one another in Jesus Christ and love each other, this is a church shaped by grace.  This is a church pleasing to God.  This is sincere brotherly love, this is living in harmony, this is paying the debt of love, this is a church that has put on Christ.

Our diversity is essential to show the breadth and depth of God’s saving grace, and the power of His unconditional love.  Unity in the midst of great diversity is a sign of Christian love.  Unity doesn’t mean uniformity.  We can and should be diverse and unified in our diversity.

What are we not talking about?

We are not talking about diversity on the fundamental truths in Scripture.  There are some things that we can’t agree to disagree about.

The Bible is the inerrant Word of the living God.  God is both one and three.  Jesus is both fully God and fully human.  We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  Jesus is the only way of salvation.

We are not talking about immorality and sin.  The Ten Commandments are not in dispute.  It is wrong to dishonor those in authority, to lie, steal, commit adultery, to love things more than God.

Chapter 14 is not about those things.  Every issue on which the Bible does speak, it speaks infallibly.  But the Bible does not speak on every issue.  Chapter 14 is about secondary matters, matters that are neither commanded nor forbidden by Scripture.  These issues are not to become issues that divide the body of Jesus Christ.

The question is not what positions or opinions we should hold on various issues, but how do we exercise our freedom to hold differences of opinion.

Scripture Texts: Matthew 1:1; 2:1-2; 4:17; 9:27; 16:16; 28:18-20

Introduction.

Those who count noses in the world estimate there are about 2.3 billion professing Christians in the world.  Of course, we recognize there is a big difference between professing Christians and practicing Christians.  But for our purposes this evening we will go with 2.3 billion professing Christians.

Where did all these Christians come from?  Where did this religion come from?  Christianity burst on the scene around 30 AD seemingly out of nowhere, certainly in a no where place, a little subjugated backwater country of Palestine, under the domination of the great Roman empire.

400 years of silence, waiting in anticipation for God to fulfill His promises.  Israel’s pivotal role in the great divine plan of salvation seemingly over and forgotten.  And then in the fulness of time the silence is broken.

It all started with one person, a Jewish carpenter, the son of a carpenter, from a little town of Nazareth, about which it was condescendingly said, “can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

An itinerate preacher who began making radical claims that He was the Messiah, the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, the King of the Jews, and most radically of all, the Son of God.  This new religion burst into history from the claims of one man, easily the most influential person to ever live in human history.

And the news about this man is recorded in a strange new form of literature called Gospels.  Four Gospels revealing eye-witness accounts concerning the truth about Jesus.  Each with a unique perspective filled with fresh insights into who this Jesus is.  Each one painting a portrait from a slightly different angle, and together they give us the fulness of God’s personal revelation of His Son.  Jesus’s glory is too great to be limited to one perspective.

We start this evening with the Gospel according to Matthew.  He might be the most unlikely candidate, a bean-counting, tax-collecting, pencil-pushing bureaucrat.  A Jew by birth, but a traitor by occupation, working for the Roman government.

Scripture Texts: Romans 13:11-14

How many of you have been watching the Olympics in Milan, Italy?  How about curling?  Lots of records are being broken and lots of history is being made.  I wonder if there is anyone in Milan who knows about some other history made in Milan over 1600 years ago.

One day some children were playing a game inside a courtyard and they were saying over and over again in Latin, “Tolle, lege; tolle, lege”, take up and read, take up and read.  Unknown to them there was a man sitting on the other side of the wall in utter misery, deeply dissatisfied with his life.  For decades he had lived gratifying every sinful desire of his flesh.  Decades of sexual immorality, sensuality, drunkenness, wine, women and song.  And all of this even though he had been raised in a Christian home.  But he didn’t know God.  Here he was miserable, crying, trying to pray, and then he hears these children’s voices.  “Tolle, lege; tolle, lege”, take up and read, take up and read.

Next to him on a bench was a copy of the NT so he picked it up and opened it totally at random and started reading, “not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

In that moment his life was changed.  A life consumed by gratifying the flesh, transformed by the sword of the Spirit, the sword of the Word of God.  This verse drove him to Christ to seek mercy and relief from the dominion of sin and the fear of hell.  That was the history changing grace of God that found Augustine in that Milan garden.  From there he became a giant pilar in the Church of Jesus Christ.

Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.  Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of sinful nature.

But our flesh is always hungry and thirsty, always looking for and wanting more.  Our flesh is insatiable.  Just a little more, but never satisfied.  Our flesh is always asking us to find ways of getting what it wants.  More money, more lust, more trying to please others, more stroking the ego, more pleasure, more comfort.  More me, me, me.  More, more, more.

The mantra of the flesh is “some is good, more is better and too much is just right.”

So how do we stop this vicious cycle?  Let me offer three steps from our text.

Wake up.  Change your clothes.  Go for a good walk.

Scripture Texts: Romans 13:7-10

I just prayed asking the Holy Spirit of God to do something here more than we can humanly do.  If the Holy Spirit doesn’t attend to what we are doing now, it will be the form of godliness without any power.  Are you willing for God taking my words and applying them to your heart in a way that changes you?

This text challenges all of us out of complacency and into genuine love for each other.

Owe no one anything.

Since our text begins with this phrase, “owe no one anything,” and since everyone right away asks, “Does this mean we should neither a borrower nor a lender be?”  Is it wrong to have a mortgage or a car loan or borrow someone’s lawn mower?

When we come to questions like this, we should always ask what does the rest of Scripture teach?  Let Scripture interpret Scripture.  Like the verse right before this one.  “Pay to all what is owed them.”  That assumes debt.  So when verse 8 says, “Owe no one anything” it doesn’t mean you should never incur debts.  It means, when you do, pay them.

Scripture Texts: Luke 1:1-4; I John 1:1-3

Introduction.

Tonight we have one more introduction to the NT, more specifically to the four Gospel that begin the NT.  They deserve and merit their own introduction.  Our challenge is to push past our familiarity and complacency to encounter in a fresh way our Savior who became flesh and dwelt among us.

We must start with the obvious, but interesting observation that Jesus never wrote anything that He left on earth.  There are no books by Jesus, just books about Jesus.

John concludes his own Gospel emphasizing the vastness of Jesus’ ministry beyond the written word.

Scripture Texts: Romans 13:1-7

 Prayer: Holy Father, direct all our hearts and minds to the truth of your Word and its application to our lives.  Cause seed sown in weakness to grow by your power, thirty, sixty even a hundredfold.  Come, Holy Spirit, hear and help, in Jesus name, Amen.

Introduction.

There are plenty of verses in the Bible we don’t like but there are few that we take issue with as much as this one.  Can we just go ahead and admit it, we don’t like what it says.  We don’t like submitting to authority, government, police, teachers, bosses, husbands, parents, pastors/elders, basically anyone would dare to correct us or tell us what to do.

Why?  We are Americans, we are independent, individualist.  It is how our country started, rebelling against England, and we haven’t stopped, it is in our DNA.

And that’s not the only reason.  We are sinners and that is how we got started.  Back in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve rebelled against God, and we have been sinning that way ever since.

Let me tell you what you want me to tell you about this text.  You want me to tell you all the ways you don’t have to obey this text.  You want me to tell you how this doesn’t apply to us 21^st century Americans.  You want me to list the “Yeah, buts…” and the “What abouts.”

Did you notice, Paul doesn’t give any?  It doesn’t mean there aren’t any.  But if we start with the exceptions, if we start with when we should resist or rebel against this passage, we will get it all wrong.  We are going to start with what it says and why it says it, to lay a clear foundation.

I am not naïve about what I will preach.  I won’t change your heart or your mind, only God can change our sinful, stubborn, rebellious hearts, but you should ask God to do that, to change you, correct you, to bring you into loving, humble submission to His will and ways.

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Scripture Texts: Psalm 105:1-11, 43-45

The bane of all schoolteachers are students who ask, “Do we have to know this for the test?” or worse yet, “What difference is knowing this going to make in my life?”

Those comments may apply more to the subjects of math and history than any other.  Feelings run pretty strong on these two subjects, either you are hot or cold.  What is the use of algebra?  Who cares when the war of 1812 was?

This morning I want to help teachers out by giving them a strong argument for the importance of being able to do math and history.  Without those two subjects I submit you can’t be a Christian.  Without those two subjects you can’t do thanksgiving, you can’t give thanks or be thankful.

Math and history are essential, especially spiritual math and spiritual history.

Scripture Texts: Romans 12:19-21

Beloved.  Beloved by God.  Do you know that’s what you are in Christ Jesus?  Beloved by God.  Do you grasp the life-transforming and life-giving power of so great a love in your life?

For most of the Sunday mornings we have been in the book of Romans I have greeted you with the greeting from Romans 1:7:

“To you who are beloved by God and called to be saints:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Beloved, because of the mercies and grace and peace of God you who were once an enemy of God, are genuinely and deeply loved by God,.  As one so beloved, you can love in the way God first loved you.

We have come to the end of Paul’s list of 25 imperatives, 25 exhortations, 25 marks of a true Christian, of one who is loved by God and loves God.

Scripture Texts: Romans 12:17-19

When you hear Paul’s exhortations to the Christians in the church in Rome what do you start wondering about?  Exhortations like:

Love one another.  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

Live in harmony with one another.  Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.

Repay no one evil for evil, … do what is honorable in the sight of all.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Do you start to question how healthy this church is?  Sounds like they have some problems, maybe some conflict issues.  Think about it for a minute.  The church is made up of Romans and Gentiles, Greeks and barbarians, foreigners, aliens.  There are slaves and freemen, men and women, young and old.  There are bound to be some interesting relational dynamics.  Would you want to belong to a church like that?

Let me burst your bubble, that is every church that has two or more people in it.  Every single church on earth has always had conflicts, arguments, disagreements, differences, misunderstandings.  We are sinners who sin against each other.  It is endless, there will be no end to it until Jesus comes.

Do you think I am exaggerating, let me prove it to you.

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