Romans part XIII
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
As we continue in Romans 12, this week, Paul is continuing this lesson on what it looks like to be a follower of Christ. We talked last week about how God has called us to be living sacrifices to God. That the truest worship we can offer to Jesus is to give Him our whole hearts. We talked about how this life of obedience begins with sacrifice and is continued through a daily obedience where we are not conformed to the ways of this world but are transformed by the renewing of our minds.
Today we will learn that the Christian walk is not one done in isolation. Here in our American context it is easy to view our faith as a personal journey. Its easy to be private about our struggles and what God is doing in our lives. It is also easy to come to the church as a consumer rather than a contributor. We pay tithes and the church does cool programs for us and our families. That isn’t the structure of the church. It isn’t a place to come and consume but is instead a body of people to encourage, serve, love, and to contribute to.
If we are in Christ than we have been made part of the body of Christ or the Church.
For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one.
Being a church member requires Humility
Paul tells us that part of being a body of believers means not thinking of ourselves more highly than we should. Being humble is an important part of being part of a church. The church isn’t designed to meet every comfort and personal preference we have. The church exists to glorify God and build His kingdom. When we make church about us we lose sight of why we have been made a part of this family in the first place. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have standards or hold our church accountable. We hold the church to high expectations, but when personal preference comes before the welfare of the church we need to take a step back and check our hearts.
In his inaugural address, John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country”. I think that attitude is the one Paul is calling us to in this passage. Ask not what the church can do for you - ask what you can do for the church. Don’t think so highly of yourselves that you are blind to the needs of the people around you. That can be a difficult thing to do. It means thinking of ourselves less. It means listening to other people’s hurts and needs. Having eyes like Jesus looking for ways God might be calling you to serve.
In Philippians 2 Paul says it this way.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.
How might God be using you to meet the needs of the people around you?
Part of Paul’s reasoning for teaching humility in the Roman church was because of how divided it was. You had Jewish believers and Gentile believers together in one body, but during the reign of the Emperor Claudius the Jews were kicked out of Rome. When Nero came into power and the Jews came back to Rome the church that was left behind looked much different from what it was before. Now there was this tension between the Gentile believers who had been leading the church and the Jewish believers that came back and were wanting things to go back to the status quo. You can imagine the tension that existed in the Roman church, but Paul is calling them to humility. To care for each other.
The church is a people of Equality and Discipleship
For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one.
Part of why humility should come naturally to us is because we are all equals. There is no hierarchy in the church. There aren’t regular Christians and super Christians, just Christians. We have seen this throughout all of the book of Romans. We are all dead in sin and in need of a savior. We all who have surrendered to Christ have recieved grace and forgiveness. We are all sealed with the same Holy Spirit. This should be an encouragement to us. God doesn’t love some believers more than others. He loves us all equally.
Simeon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
We have all obtained a faith of equal standing. Paul had the same Holy Spirit we do. He had the same grace and salvation that we have and God used him to do incredible things. God wants to use every one of us. We are equal in our faith but we are not all equal in our faithfulness. Everyone is on a different step in their walk with Christ. Some people are more mature while others are more immature. Some are strong believers while others are not. This is why discipleship is so important. A disciple is a student or learner. We need to be discipled meaning that we need those older men and women of faith to train us up in how we should live. We need mature followers of Jesus in our life to help us and encourage us. We also need to be disciple makers meaning that we are that more mature follower for someone else. We train other people up and help them grow in their faith.
One of the clearest examples of this we see in Scripture is with Paul and Timothy. Paul was the older more mature follower of Jesus and Timothy was like his son in the faith. Paul taught Timothy how to follow Jesus, he taught him how to minister to others.
Do you have someone like Paul in your life who teaches you and trains you up as a follower of Jesus?
Do you have someone like Timothy in your life who you are teaching and training up as a follower of Jesus?
A goal to strive towards as a follower of Christ is being a disciple who makes disciples. This is the call that Christ has put on our lives as follower of Jesus.
Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Being a part of the church means there is a responsibility for us to grow in wisdom and obedience so that we can help others grow. There is encouragement in that Jesus is with us in this responsibility. He is with us always. It has been encouraging for me to see all the ways I have grown in my relationship with God. I believe when God calls us to a task He also equips us and gives us the things we need to see it through. I feel like I have gotten better at leading worship, at teaching, being a mentor. These things didn’t happen over night. It took a lot of hard work and a lot of mistakes, and I am still growing, but I know that whatever God calls me to, big or small, I want to say yes. There have been a lot of people that God has used me to minister to because I was willing to say yes. We don’t always see the payoff of obedience til much later. But I see how God has been using me. When I would go to Chick-fil-a and read systematic theology textbooks for fun I see now how God was using that to help others. When I learned guitar because I thought it was cool and I wanted to play Metallica, I see now how God was using me. When I felt God call me to New Mexico, to leave my hometown behind to move back in with my parents, I see how God was working to bring me and Tiffany together, to bring me to ENMU where I met some of the most important people in my life, and how it brought me here to Clovis so I could be your Student Pastor.
I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
This verse has been an encouragement to me. I look at stories from Scripture about how God used these regular people. They made mistakes and failed several times, but God didn’t give up on them. By faith Christ has begun a work in all of us and He will finish what He started.
We are all united under one faith.
Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
It is a blessing that we can be unified in Christ. We come from all different backgrounds all different cultures but we can come together in this place and have everything in common. Here we have a unity that is only found in Christ. This is part of why we sing songs together. It isn’t just a time for us to praise God but it is also a time for us to come together as a congregation and declare what we believe to be true about God. We aren’t just singing to God but we are singing to each other.
speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music with your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.
Sometimes when I struggle to worship I look at other people and how they worship and it inspires me to sing. You don’t always realize the how your attitude can effect the people around you. The church needs people who think like Jesus and lead like Jesus. Unfortunately unity can be a hard thing to come by. It sometimes feels like everyone is divided over everything and it takes wisdom to navigate the chaos. But know this, unity doesn’t mean compromising on what is true, unity is standing firm in Christ and following after Him. As we fix our eyes on Christ and follow Him everything else falls in line.
A song of ascents. Of David. How delightfully good when brothers live together in harmony! It is like fine oil on the head, running down on the beard, running down Aaron’s beard onto his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon falling on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord has appointed the blessing— life forevermore.
We are called to live in humility living out this faith we share with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and while we are called to unity that doesn’t mean we are called to uniformity.
Being a church member means Unity Not Uniformity
Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts: If prophecy, use it according to the proportion of one’s faith; if service, use it in service; if teaching, in teaching; if exhorting, in exhortation; giving, with generosity; leading, with diligence; showing mercy, with cheerfulness.
Paul says that we are all unified under Christ but we all have different roles to play in the Body. We are one body but individually members of one another. And the individual tasks we have been called to we should do to the best of our ability.
The 95-96 Chicago Bulls were arguably the greatest NBA team that we have ever seen. They went 72-10 and beat the Seattle Supersonics 4-2 in the finals. It was statistically Michael Jordan’s best year. He came back out of retirement and averaged 30 points a game, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. He was MVP, Scoring Champ, an All-Star MVP, All NBA, NBA Champ, and Finals MVP. He had a busy year. But Jordan didn’t win those games by himself. He had help. He had other people that played specific roles on that team. One of these role players was Dennis Rodman who the Bulls got from the Detroit Pistons. Dennis Rodman only scored on average 5 points a game but his job wasn’t to score. Dennis’ job was to rebound and rebound he did. Rodman averaged 15 rebounds a game. He played his part and helped the team win.
The church is the same. We all have different callings, skills, and giftings and the church is at its best when everyone contributes the best they can.
For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink. Indeed, the body is not one part but many. If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted. And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that are weaker are indispensable. And those parts of the body that we consider less honorable, we clothe these with greater honor, and our unrespectable parts are treated with greater respect, which our respectable parts do not need. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other. So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
Where is God calling you to serve?
Paul uses this analogy of the body a couple times in his letters. It is one that immediately connects with us. Each body part does a specific task. For us in the church we all have different giftings and that's a good thing. We need each other. We can’t do this Christian walk alone. We need our brothers and sisters to help us when we fall. To walk along side us and to encourage us to attempt great things for God. We were never intended to be alone.
And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.
Talk about growing up and the struggle it can be to continue in a youth group and the need for older students to stick it out and help younger kids grow (this group is young and has never really had a large group of high school kids to look up to)
Encourage them to plug in and serve. Practice now, lay the ground work now, so that as you grow and go away you have a strong foundation
Ask questions. This is a safe place to learn and express your doubts or frustrations. God is big enough for your questions.
What is the next step God is calling you to take in your walk with Him?