Selfless Body Life

Introduction

Reader: Eli Norman

Romans 15:1–13 (ESV)

Thank you Eli for sharing our reading for today. As the Apostle Paul said to his young son in the faith:

12 Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity. 1 Tim 4:12 (NLT)

I am proud of you son. And he is not alone, there are many other young people who have signed up for reading in the coming weeks and what a great place to be as a Church, to have our young people step up and be an example to us in this way.

Tension

So we are in a series right now where we are hitting the high points of the many letters of the New Testament and we are finishing up this morning with the book of Romans. This is nothing close to an exhaustive study of the book and so I hope to circle back to Romans to cover it in more detail soon.

Romans, as the name implys, is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Church in Rome, a Church that had a congregation that included people with strong Jewish roots and people with various Gentile backgrounds. And what we find later in chapter 15 is that Paul is very pleased with the reports that he has heard from their congregation, he is also very interested in helping them to take the next steps.

Romans 15:14–16a (ESV)

14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. 15 But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God...

So overall there are good things happening at the Church in Rome, there is a solid foundation there, but there is still work to be done. Now that the Church has a strong foundation it is time to build on it.

In many ways, I see our Church lining up with that description. There are some great things that are happening here. There is a good foundation of people who know and love God and His Word and are contributing to sharpen others even as they are being grown and sharpened in the faith.

And God has blessed us with many new faces and new families and in that more people are taking new steps to know God, to embrace the Gospel on a deeper level and to grow in their faith.

But now is not the time to just coast it out. Now is not the time to sit back and rest on our laurels. We too need to be reminded of the grace of the God and further motivated to minister to others sin the name of Jesus Christ and His Gospel.

Because everything good that we are experiencing now is just a small taste of the Kingdom of God. A kingdom that is now and it is not yet. It is now, in that Jesus’ arrival has initiated it, His death burial and resurrection has purchased it and the presence of the Holy Spirit is our guaranteed of it, but we won’t see the fullness of it until Jesus returns. Until that glorious day, Jesus has given His Church the responsibility to point the world to it.

And we do that not just in the words that we say, but in our lifestyle that we live. The Church is to be a community where the rule and reign of our King Jesus has such a bearing on our lives that people see it and say…that is a radically different way of being. That just doesn’t seem natural…it’s not, it’s the a taste of the Kingdom of God.

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah gave us this picture to describe it: Video: The Future Kingdom (Isaiah 11:6-9)

That is a pretty radical picture of what it looks like for creatures to…as Paul says here…to live in harmony with one another. And did you catch that last summary statement.

Isaiah 11:9 “They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

The “waters cover the sea”? The waters are the sea. Without the water you don’t have the sea, you just a huge empty hole!

That is how the pervasive the “knowledge of God” will be in it’s fullness…when the earth is “full” of it...…but until then God has called those of us who know God, those of us who have responded in faith to the message of the Gospel and tasted to goodness of the rule and reign of Jesus to demonstrate a kind of radical harmony that will show the rest of the world that we belong to the King of Kings. That we are a part of His Kingdom now, even as we wait for it’s arrival in fullness.

So keep your Bibles open to Romans chapter 15, page 949 and we will look at how Paul instructs the Church in how to minister in this kind of way.

But first, I will pray for us.

Truth

So the first thing we see in this passage is that...

In the Kingdom of God, we minister selflessly (Romans 15:1-3)

Romans 15:1–2 (ESV)

1 We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

So Paul lays out two descriptions of people. The “strong” and the “weak”. I can’t help to draw our thinking back to Isaiah 11 where we have a great picture of these different descriptions.

On one side we have “Lions and Tigers and Bears…oh my” and on the other side we have... dinner. “Steaks and burgers and fries…oh my”. And I don’t see this as a call for some form of Biblical vegetarianism, although I am sure you could find someone who might purpose such things, but considering how Paul de-emphasized the significance of food in chapter 14 I don’t think we can go there. Instead, I think Paul is emphasizing another aspect of our fallen condition that is well represented in Isaiah 11.

These relationships in nature demonstrate how all of creation has been knocked off course because of sin. That it is not just the relationship with men and God that has been effected by the presence of Sin, but all of God’s creation has been negatively effected. We looked at that in greater detail last week when studying Romans 8 where we read how all of creation waits with eager longing…to be set free from it’s bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom that will come when Jesus returns to set all creation free.

And the reason that Isaiah 11 is so impactful to us is because we don’t see these relationships as natural. When we turn on the “nature channel” we don’t expect to see animals behaving this way. If we ever did we would be amazed and think in our minds, “Well that isn’t natural”.

And that is because the only world we know is the one “in bondage to corruption” in bondage to sin. So these things might seem natural to us, but they are not original to the nature of God’s creation, they have been corrupted.

And the principle here that is so applicable to our relationships is how in nature, as we know it, the so called “strong” feel empowered even obligated to use the so called “weak” to make themselves even stronger. Isn’t that what is happening? The Predator and the Prey relationship is one where the strong feed off of the weak in order to maintain their strength. It’s all part of the circle of life.

And we can see this principle in our human relationships too, can’t we.

Hey, don’t blame me if you can’t keep up…it’ the “survival of the fittest” baby.

“It’s a dog eat dog world. You either eat them before they will eat you.

You better get yours while the get’ns good.

...and a host of other sayings float around that are all based on our corrupted version of what is “natural”. These things lead us to believe that the obligation of the strong is to use the weak to become even stronger. You push them down and step on up.

This is a universal experience for man, but it is especially evident in power hungry structures like Rome during the Roman Empire…or here in the United States of America. We probably all have examples of how this can and has worked in our experience. Whether we felt the pressure to become the predator, or we felt used victimized as the prey.

And Paul’s point is that the Kingdom of God is radically different than what we think is “just natural”. We who are strong have an obligation to the weak, but it is not to use them to make ourselves stronger. Those of us who are “strong” are called to lay aside that which would please us, in order to please [our] neighbor for his good, to build him up.

So instead of the picture being one of “selfishness” where we push them down in order to raise ourselves up, we are obligated to “selflessness” where the picture is one of someone who uses their strength to bend down to help our neighbor up.

Why? What obligates us to this? Why should we do this? I mean it’s a “dog eat dog world” and all the rest so how does this make sense....because of who our King is. Because this is what our King has done for us:

Romans 15:3 (ESV)

3 For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”

As always the perfect picture of any Biblical principle, or anything of the Kingdom of God is found in Jesus Christ. When talking about the “strong” there was no one stronger than Jesus. There was no one more deserving of being elevated above everyone else than Him…yet He did the opposite

Philippians 2:8 (ESV)8 ...being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

And he was the one who said...

Mark 10:45 (ESV)

45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

As our King, Jesus sets the example of what living rightly in His Kingdom looks like. So he is our example of selflessness. He is our example of obedience. Our obedience is always imperfect but his was perfect. He is our example for what it looks like to truly love someone. Our love is always imperfect but we strive to love with His love.

2 Corinthians 5:14–15 (ESV)

14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

To be a part of the Kingdom of God is to be subject to the rule of reign of Jesus. If you are still living for yourself then you are not in the Kingdom of God. But if in Christ, you put to death your claim on the throne of your life and instead swear your allegiance to Jesus, living under his rule and reign then you won’t see this “selflessness” as so unnatural. And you will be able to bear with the failings of the weak, please your neighbor for his good and build him up.

So our first reminder this morning is that...

In the Kingdom of God, we minister Selflessly. as our King has demonstrated for us. Secondly

In The Kingdom of God, we minister Biblically (Romans 15:4-6)

Its important the understand that Paul is not saying that the strong should just give in to whatever the “weaker” person wants. The fact that Paul uses the description of “weak” means that they probably don’t yet know what is good for them. So our goal is their growth in what is good. Our goal is to build them up in what is good. Our goal is to use whatever strength we have to help the weak to become stronger in what is good…not to lead us both to settle into something weaker. Especially when we see that those “weaker” ideas or perspectives will serve to draw them away from the knowledge of God and so from the Kingdom of God.

And this makes things a bit tricky, because no matter how “strong” we may be in our faith, we are still battling our sinful nature to one degree or another. So how are any of us going to know how to please someone else in a good and helpful way when a part of us is still so bent on “pleasing ourselves”?

We go to God’s Word. We minister Biblically. Paul explains this for the Church starting in verse 4

Romans 15:4(ESV)

4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

What does Paul mean by “whatever was written in former days”? He is talking about the Old Testament. The Torah, the Law and the Prophets. The Holy book that every Jewish boy and girl learned about from a very young age…but not every Gentile boy and girl.

That was the book that contained the history of the Jewish people and they highly revered it, but other ethnic groups valued their own history. So without explanation, this could be a point of contention for Churches like the one in Rome.

What Paul is emphasizing here is that while it is true that “what was written in former days” was intended for it’s original audience, it was also written for “our instruction” today. These things were not preserved just for the blood descendants of those involved, but for all of us who know God through His Son Jesus Christ.

So this is an answer to any gentile Christian who may think or say “I am great with Jesus, but don’t try and push all your Jewish history stuff on me”. And we hear something similar in our world today. Where someone says that they are good with Jesus, his sacrificial love, generosity, healing and teachings…just leave those old stories out of it. But we dare not do such a thing...

2 Timothy 3:16–17 (ESV)

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Like the “good work” of building up our neighbors.

Those “old stories” were written for our instruction even today. They give us a vivid picture of the depravity of man and the faithfulness of God. The show us the depths of our lostness and the utter futility of a self-righteousness. They point us to our desperate need for a savior to rescue us and they give us the promises of God, that He will provide that savior for us all. And the people of God lived off of those promises for generations and generations until one day a man showed up saying:

Mark 1:15 (ESV) 15 .... “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

That is the beauty of those “old stories”. They show us how....through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

But not only that, when we engage in God’s Word we are not only engaging it what was written way back when, but we are engaging in how God is working in His people today. Because the very next verse says:

Romans 15:5-6(ESV)

. 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This “endurance and encouragement” is not something that we achieve by pulling ourselves together and getting it done on our own strength. NO! Paul is saying that God still works through His Word to draw people together in Christ Jesus.

Without the governance of the Word of God over our Church, we won’t be participating in the Kingdom of God here on earth Because this is how we discover what the rule and reign of Jesus looks like.

John Stott says it like this:

“…it is God himself who encourages us through the living voice of Scripture. For God continues to speak through what He has spoken.” -John Stott Romans: God’s Good News for the World p. 371

It is not just about history, about what did happen. It is about what is happening right now. That the “knowledge of God” is so increasing in His people that the Kingdom of God is on display...so that even our neighbors will be getting a taste of it.

These are such great reminders Church, and when we live in them rightly we will be set up for the next steps that God has for us as His Church. For when we minister selflessly and we minister Biblically we will find that...

In the Kingdom of God, we minister indiscriminately (Romans 15:7-13)

There is a fellowship that is found in the Kingdom of God that overcomes any other boundaries. It is unlike any other coming together in our world. It crosses ethnic, racial, geographic, language, economic, political and any other barrier that you can think of because it is not based on what we consider to be “natural”. There is a supernatural component that allows those who are at odds with each other in any other arena to come together under the rule and reign of Jesus Christ.

Romans 15:7 7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

I invite you just stop and consider that verse again. Is that what you do when you come in here? Is that what you are after. Is that what you were hoping to get the opportunity to do when you came in today. Some of us may yet to have received the welcome that Jesus offers, but if you are one who has…how are you doing welcoming others into this place like Jesus welcomes us?

Take a moment and consider it...how has Jesus Christ welcomed you? Because this is about more than just meeting someone with a smile, hug or hearty handshake.

He welcomed us by becoming a servant to us. All of us. While we were yet sinning against him, he came to us. And while he was here, he wasn’t about “pleasing himself”, but as the perfectly selfless servant he served us all for the glory of God!

8 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.

Jesus fulfilled the promises of the Old Testament that were given to the “circumcised” which means to the Jews, but that is not all, he also came to serve the Gentiles. Well how do we know that? The same way we know anything anything about the Kingdom of God...

As it is written, written? written where? Back to the Old Testament. After he points out how God has fulfilled his promises to the Jews from the Old Testament, Paul lists out several places in the Scriptures where Gentiles were given hope in the same promised one...

“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.” (2 Samuel and Psalm 18)

10 And again it is said, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.” (Duet 32)

11 And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.” (Psalm 117)

12 And again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.” (This is from Isaiah 11, the passage we began with)

Gospel Application

Our “natural” response to people is to treat them according to what they can do for us. But the Kingdom of God is not corrupted like our experience of what is “natural”.

The Apostle Paul traveled all around the known world meeting with people from all kinds of different backgrounds and viewpoints. Some thought he was curious, some thought he was crazy, some got saved and some got angry. But he knew his mission was to carry the good news of the Kingdom of God into all these regions and to plant Churches who would do the same.

So as a gathering of God’s people, as a Church, we are to be displaying this kind of seeming “unnatural” responses toward one another and toward our neighbors. We are to be living “in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together [we] may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Landing

We cannot accomplish this on our own. It is just not natural. It’s supernatural. So we need God to do it in an through us. So I end with verse 13, applying it to us directly:

Romans 15:13 (ESV)

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Let’s Pray.