Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

“Well done, good and faithful servant.”

These are the words that all followers of Christ want to hear.

One day all people will stand before God.

And when that day comes we want to hear from Lord Jesus, “Well done good and faithful servant.”

Right church?

Does anyone want to hear, “Hey you really squandered that opportunity you had!”

We want to be those who are acceptable and approved by God.

Verse 18 of our text says...

Romans 14:18 “Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.”

Whoever “thus” serves Christ.

Thus means, “whoever serves Christ in this way.”

So we want to know this morning-what is the way of serving Christ that causes God to look at our lives and say “Well done.

You are a good servant.

You have been faithful with what I gave you.”

My goal this morning is for you and I to get the main point of this text deep in our hearts.

Here’s the main point: Acceptable & Approved Followers of Jesus Serve Christ, Not Self.

(X2)

And as we start...

We need to acknowledge this morning that our go to, our natural flesh always wants to serve self over others.

God knows this—it’s why His word—his living and active word tells us to serve others.

Because you and I are prone to serve ourselves.

The whole structure of our passage this morning points like an arrow to the truth that Acceptable and Approved Followers of Jesus Serve Christ, Not Self.

Our passage this morning is called a “chiasm”.

It’s called that because the structure of the passage resembles the left side of the Greek CHI, which looks like an X.

Both ends of the passage point to the main point.

And often you see arguments made—main point stated—and supporting arguments restated.

Here’s a picture of what it looks like structurally.

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So you and I this morning are focusing in on the middle of that “X”

We want to serve Christ.

If we want to serve Christ in His body we need to do three things.

I. Build Others Up (13-14), II.

Love Others More Than Yourself (15-16), III.

Hold High the Kingdom of God (17)

Amen, you ready?

I. Build Others Up (13-14)

Romans 14:13 “Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.”

The example that Paul is using here is a disagreement in the church between those who believed that the dietary restrictions in the law of Moses were still in effect and those who believed that all food is clean and acceptable to God.

And Paul lets us know what side he is on.

In verse 14 he says,

Romans 14:14 “I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.”

Which is the right opinion.

Peter sees the same thing in Acts 10.

He’s meditating on the roof and he sees a great sheet with all kinds of animals on it—clean and unclean according to the law of Moses—and God says to Peter in Acts 10:13 “And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.””

Peter says no Lord nothing unclean has ever touched my lips.

And God says, don’t call undlean what I say is clean.

And then Peter tried bacon and there wasn’t a problem anymore.

So eating all foods and enjoying the freedom of this is a gift from God and it is right.

So what do we do with our brothers and sisters who have a different opinion than we do?

Look you do your thing and I’ll do mine?

Look at the text again.

Romans 14:14 “I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.”

Ok, Paul is not saying that how we feel about the word of God makes it true or not true.

Objectively one side of a theological argument is correct.

So Paul is not saying, “Well they feel like certain foods are unclean so they really are unclean.

For them.

But not for me.”

God’s truth does not change based on the fickleness of our feelings.

Thank God.

So what is Paul saying?

These people that Paul is talking about don’t eat certain foods becasue they really believe that they are unclean.

And their belief is wrong.

It is what Dave’s passage two weeks ago called “weak faith”.

But for them they are convinced and so to break these food laws would violate their conscience.

This is what Paul is talking about earlier in chapter 14

Romans 14:5-7 “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike.

Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.

The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.”

Listen, I believe that the Sabbath is a command for God’s people still today.

I think you and your family should practice Sabbath and that God has given it to you as a gift.

I’m convinced of that from Scripture.

But I’m not about to start calling families who work on Sunday into church discipline meetings.

What do we do with our brothers and sisters who hold a different opinion about the practice of our faith?

We build them up!

Our text says we decide to never put a stumbling block in front of them.

We go out of our way to make sure we are not a hindrance to them.

So Paul isn’t going to say, “Come over for dinner—we’re having bacon wrapped shrimp!”

And you aren’t going to call me and say, “Hey I need you to come over and help me rake my yard.”

Instead we take the positive example of verse 19.

This is where we see that Chiastic structure coming into play.

Romans 14:19 “So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.”

We seek peace and we pursue the mutual upbuilding of our brother or sister in Christ.

We make a conscious decision that we are going to not be a stumbling block—a hindrance to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

And let me just make the point—making someone stumble doesn’t mean they just get annoyed that you disagree with them.

Being a stumbling block to someone, being a hindrance to them—means we are causing them falter in their following Christ.

Back to our examples.

So I could invite someone over that believes certain foods are unclean to eat and serve them those foods.

And guilt them into eating them and in doing so I am violating their consciounce.

And they will struggle with what they did as sin.

And in turn they will resent me.

There will be division.

Hurt feelings.

All because of instead of building them up as v.19 says I instead judged them for their belief and hindered them in their faith.

And this applies in so many ways.

Not just unclean foods or sacred days.

What are some other ways we could cause stumbling blocks in the lives of our brothers and sisters in the church?

How about politics?