Discipleship in the Book of Romans and Galatians

The point of our series in looking at Discipleship in the New Testament is life change. That is what we are shooting for. That is the destination. That is the metric as to whether or not we are accomplishing our purpose. Are we allowing the word of God and things within it by the Spirit of God to change our hearts?

Discipleship

(Slide) When we say, “Yes” to Jesus… what we are saying is we want to be His disciple...

You are my master and I am your apprentice (authority)

My priorities will be reordered according to your priorities (mission)

My loves will be reordered according to your loves (posture)

Discipleship is continuing to be transformed as children of God who have allegiance to Jesus, His teachings, and who hold onto faith until He comes again.

I think you will find that as we journey through this series, Discipleship in the New Testament, it will be invaluable to be reading the books of the Bible each week.

Can I mention… unless we are reading our Bibles, our growth, maturity, our ability to understand God and His plan is greatly diminished. Constantly reading, studying, memorizing, taking in the Word of God is how God has chosen to reveal Himself. We can not know Him deeply and intimately apart from His revealed Word.

Helpful hint: Look at the book, take the chapters, and divide by 5 or 6 and commit to read that many each day if not the whole thing

As the weeks go on and we get past Acts and Corinthians, the chapters get less and less.

Join us at ReST each week as we will be discussing that Sundays book (9am downstairs) and glean from one another what you are finding and seeing.

(Goal):

If you have your Bibles, or on your devices, would you turn to Romans 1:16-17 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.”

And Galatians, Galatians 2:20-21 “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.”

Me

What a time we live in. There are quite a few things that divide us. I imagine there has always been something in every age that has sought to put us at odds with one another.

My seminary professor: Gerry Breshears talks about four levels of disagreement (Don’t read it all)

Decide for- belief and behavior where there is no law; here acceptance is a virtue and legalism is a danger

Debate for- This is the discussion within the church where we wrestle with issues all the while maintaining regular fellowship, joining in worship and service. Debated issues include the leadership roles, the extent of involvement the church should have in compassionate ministries in the community, the age of the earth, or which musical and preaching styles are best in a worship service. It seems to me that we must keep “debate fors” from escalating into “divide fors.”

Divide for-Everyone who affirms the essentials in word and life is a fellow member of Christ’s body, one whom we call brother or sister in Christ. However, other important issues are so foundational to our life with God that we will divide fellowship over them. Arminians will divide from Reformed over the extent of God’s sovereignty and election. Both may divide from Pentecostals over the nature and timing of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Is baptism the sign and seal of membership in the covenant community appropriate for infant children of believers or is it a sign of personal confession of Jesus as Lord appropriate only for believers? Should the mission of the church include promoting justice in society as a major ministry focus along with winning the lost and worshiping God? It seems to me that such divisions may be legitimate so long as the overall unity of the body is affirmed and the dividing points are truly central issues.

Die for- They include the inspiration and authority of Scripture, the Trinity, and the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity as the God-man, Jesus, including his virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary atonement, bodily resurrection and personal return. Also included is justification and regeneration by grace alone through faith alone which is lived out in gospel centered good works (Eph. 2:8-10; Tit. 2:11-13;3:3-8), the Spirit’s personal indwelling believers constituting the one body of Christ, and the final judgment leading to hell and heaven. Some truths are worth dying for.

The caveaut with this is John 17… Jesus calls/prays for us to be unified. That unity is a hallmark of the church. Not uniformity but unity.

Good example:

I was having lunch with a friend who is a pastor at another church. We were talking about church planting and I asked him if he’d like to partner… he felt that our stance on how someone comes to Jesus was too different to partner. But we have fellowship, we are friends, he feels that we can not on a church level partner. I can be offended or I can respect his convictions and we still have friendship and unity in Christ.

Current divisions that can affect the church-

Politics (which team you’re on)

Sexuality and Gender Identity

Religion/Faith Systems

Poverty- poor/homeless

Immigration and the foreigner

War

Right to life (sovereign nations, ethnic/religious people groups, poor, elderly, unborn)

We

What about you? Have you experienced this? Are there things that have been able to

Decide for

Debate for

Divide for

Die for--- well probably not because you are all here. But maybe you know someone who has for the gospel put their life on the line, not counting their lives more precious than the witness and love that the gospel provokes.

God has something to say about this for those that follow Him.

God

In the churches in Rome and Galatia there were divisions within the church that the apostle Paul wrote letters to them. Both of these letters are DEEPLY theological. They are DEEPLY pastoral too. Sometimes I think the pastoral piece gets lost in the desire to pull out and debate the theological truth in them. For our purposes of discipleship and this morning we’re looking at the pastoral pieces of these letters.

Both the churches shared a commonality that was dividing the church that needed to be challenged/rebuked.

Background:

Paul had visited and planted the church in Galatia. He’d been there, knows them, and loves them. Addressing this specific issue.

Paul had never visited Rome, but he had heard about the church and knew some of the difficulties they had going on. If I could set the stage for the letter to the Romans. In It was written around 58AD. Paul was in Corinth at the time. In 49AD, Emperor Claudius was so frustrated and angry with the Jews that he expelled them from Rome. In 54AD, Emperor Claudius died and he decree lapsed and so the Jews were welcomed back in.

Amongst the Jews that were expelled were Jesus following Jews and non-following Jesus Jews. The Roman authorities didn’t care nor differentiate. So you have the Christian Jews coming back and then you the Christian Gentiles who were in Rome who never left.

As we can see with the apostles between Peter and Paul (and the book of Galatians 2) that Jewish followers of Jesus and Gentile/Greek followers of Jesus didn’t always see eye to eye and get along. Many Jewish believers thought it was still good to hold to dietary laws and sabbath laws… Gentile/Greek thought they had what they needed and didn’t need the Jewish believers for anything, they were very independent and had it all figured out (which they didn’t)… their religious life and personal life did not inform each other… Greek culture the religious service was separate than their daily life (not so for the Jew).

In both instances, the church in Rome and Galatia, had similar issues that Paul was hoping to disciple them through. In Galatia, those with power (Jewish believers) and in the majority were to welcome those who were not as mature (Gentiles) and welcome them on the basis of faith (their confession in Jesus as Lord) and in the power of the Spirit to create unity in love.

They were wanting to have the law along with grace. Grace is good but you need to be perfected by the law.

Galatians 1:6-8 “I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him!”

In Rome, the two groups again coming together (Gentile believers and Roman Jewish believers) were to come together, stepping off of their self-righteous pedestals, washing the feet of Jewish (weak) believers, and welcoming them to the table.

They were Gentile believers were disregarding the immaturity/weakness of the Jewish believers. Paul dealt with food observances, day observances (which day was holy and which was not)...

Romans 14:1-4 “Welcome anyone who is weak in faith, but don’t argue about disputed matters. One person believes he may eat anything, while one who is weak eats only vegetables. One who eats must not look down on one who does not eat, and one who does not eat must not judge one who does, because God has accepted him. Who are you to judge another’s household servant? Before his own Lord he stands or falls. And he will stand, because the Lord is able to make him stand.”

So the message to the Romans and the Galatians is this… what we find in the letter to the Romans...

Romans 14:13-18 “Therefore, let us no longer judge one another. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister... For if your brother or sister is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy, by what you eat, someone for whom Christ died. Therefore, do not let your good be slandered, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever serves Christ in this way is acceptable to God and receives human approval.”

Discipleship in Romans and Galatians is deeply rooted in love.

The commandment is love… the gospel begins at love.

We need to look at how love is defined by God, how He lives and acts in and on it, and not how we, other people, or churches (fumble or fail) in love.

When we understand love, we begin to understand what the follower of Jesus is called to.

Simply put, for Paul the Christian life- one animated by the Spirit expressing itself in love can be reduced to yet one more term- for in this term the entire embodiment of the Christian life would be manifested and become the virtuous practice that would reshape their approach to outsiders. That one term is found in Romans 14:1: “Welcome!” This one action embodies what it means to follow Jesus.

You

When we think about those things that divide us, how do they compare to the person we are separating from?

Often times I wonder if I don’t like someone and when we disagree, that issue allows me to be upset with them and then use that as an excuse to not deal with them.

What happens then is our problem is not the issue… it’s my heart. I don’t love that person. I don’t like that person.

But that realization is so helpful. When we realize that we are indifferent, or hate, or don’t see someone the way that Jesus does… we get the opportunity to pray for our own heart. We go to trusted people, we confess, we ask for God to work.

Even in the divide for and the die for… it’s our conviction, but our heart is to reflect Jesus in all of it. We can’t get away from love. We can’t get away from “Welcome!” It should be an identifier of us, of our church, and of our Christian community.

Jesus welcomed us. Our lives, our hearts, our minds were not perfect when he drew us unto him. Why do others need to be “like-minded” before they are welcomed.

Romans 5:6-8 “For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The follower of Jesus loves. The follower of Jesus welcomes. The follower of Jesus grows in conviction, knowledge of doctrine, theology, and who God is… they decide for, they debate for, they may even divide for, and honestly… God give us grace if we die for… but in all of it, the follower of Jesus seeks to love… continues to extend the “Welcome!”

Us

Paul would tell the church in Galatia...

In loving one another Gal 6:1-2 “Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted. Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

In the deciding, debating, or in the dividing… what would that look like to do it in such a way that a person felt loved and not just loved but welcomed.

Church I don’t say we have this down, but I’m humbled and so grateful that we have democrats, republicans, independents, government workers, entrepreneurs, active/retired military, preachers, pastors, teachers, city workers, garbage men, doctors, nurses, homemakers, house moms/dads, those with catholic, protestant, evangelical, pentecostal, mormon, and atheist, new age backgrounds… we have those who identify gay, straight, queer, and bi sexual orientations… and by and in large the spirit is one of love and welcome.

In nothing do we compromise the gospel… some have chosen to not walk with us in not affirming their choices that we believe are sin, but that does not mean love is not strived for, love is primary… this is the way of Jesus.

Figure out end…