A Boiling Church (4)

Romans 12:11 NIV

11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

INTRODUCTION

Most churches can be categorized using characters from Winnie the Pooh.

You have Tigger churches:

These are the churches, in my mind, you want to be.

These churches are on the ball, a little jumpy, but they’re very enthusiastic and motivated to do the work of the Lord.

You have Winnie the Pooh churches:

This church is relaxed, not much going on, they have great fellowship meals—the type of fellowship meals that make you go home, take your pants off like Pooh, and take a long nap.

They’re not really stressed though. They’re running off of good vibes and good honey.

Then you have Eyeore churches:

Everyone knows what I mean by Eyeore (mimick Eyeore)

This is the type of church that has no fire.

They’re very gloom and doom.

They just exist.

Unfortunately, I think the American church has gone through some of these phases.

I think early on we have all been a Tigger church—enthusiastic, mission focused, on fire for Jesus.

I think at some point many transitioned into the Winnie the Pooh phase—relaxed, running off of the work done earlier. They’re complacent.

Many continued that path into the Eyeore phase—they lost sight of the mission, worship became a “have to” instead of a “get to”, whatever fire that once existed now are just embers.

Paul speaks to the Roman church concerning this zeal.

Paul adds zeal to his list of characterisitics of what a living sacrifice ought to be.

So, as we continue this series, trying to continually offer every part of ourselves to the Lord, let’s consider what Paul says in this text.

I. Never be lacking in zeal… (Zeal Intensified)

“Zeal”

Paul was a person who understood zeal.

You think about how Paul started off—

Acts 22:3 “3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.”

Paul put his early life this way: Galatians 1:14 “14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.”

Paul was a person who took his faith seriously—he was committed.

He was trusted to hunt down defectors of Judaism and to execute them.

You think about how Paul ended his life.

He walked into synagogues and foreign temples willing to preach to anyone the good news about Jesus.

He was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, poisoned, and ultimately martyred for his faith.

Notice the way Paul says this.

Just as he didn’t command his readers to love in verse 9, he doesn’t command his readers to be zealous.

Instead, Paul modifies what the zeal ought to be.

This zeal wasn’t to be “lacking.”

Some translations say “slothful” or “lagging.”

Th word literally means lazy—Jesus used this word in Matthew 25:26 when the master said to his servant “You wicked, lazy servant!”

We get this picture of Eyeore: slow, lazy, like walking through molasses.

This is in contrast with the word “zeal.”

The word could be translated as “eagerness” or even “haste.”

We could say Paul is saying “don’t be slow while you’re speeding”—don’t have one foot on the gas and the other on the break.

Here are some things that I take from this:

Paul modifies our zeal—this tells me that enthusiasim, the way Paul is meaning it, isn’t something limited by personality.

Paul isn’t speaking to a gift that extroverts in the church have that introverts don’t.

This enthusiasim is the quality that all of us, whether introvert or extrovert, must apply to our God given gifts, our relationship with those in the world, spiritual family, and our Lord.

He’s calling his readers to be committed, to be all in—all gas & no breaks.

He actually kinda said this earlier in the section.

In v.6-8 Paul lists all these gifts that the Lord has given, and he tells his readers to be committed in those gifts.

If your gift is giving, give generously; leadership, lead diligengtly; mercy, do it cheerfully.

Whatever role you find yourself taking part in within the family of God, be committed. Actually desire to take part.

In v.9-10, when Paul is describing Biblical sincere love, he’s telling the Romans to be all in.

In your hate for evil, hate it the most you possibly can.

In your desire for good, desire it with your utmost being.

In your love for the family of God, outdo eachother.

Paul starts off saying to be committed, don’t slow this zeal down.

II. …but keep your spiritual fervor… (Zeal Defined)

After telling his readers how NOT to be zealous, Paul defines what it means to be zealous.

Look at this word “fervor.”

This word means to “boil” or “to bubble up.”

That’s a pretty vivid image.

This zeal that Paul is calling his readers to adopt is something that bubbles over like a pot of boiling water.

It is being on fire.

Automatically whenever I think of this image I think about what the prophet Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 20:9 “9 But if I say, “I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.”

This is the kind of attitude that Paul is calling us to take up—this spiritual boiling over.

The NIV says to keep “your spiritual fervor.” Other translations say “be aglow by the Spirit.”

There’s question about whether or not Paul is saying “stir your spirit to be on fire” or “allow the Holy Spirit to stir you to be on fire.”

I think there are good arguments for either way of translating it, but I think both are true—this boiling takes place when our spirit works in conjunction with the Holy Spirit.

But what happens, when we allow our zeal—our fire—to die out?

We read about a church like this in Revelation 3:14-21.

The church at Laodicea had become lukewarm, or, lacking in zeal.

This was a church that had gotten fat and happy off of their earthly possessions and had become complacent in their faith.

I preached for a congregation just like this for a while while I was in preaching school.

They weren’t necessarily a wealthy church, but they had lost their spiritual fervor.

There was no desire to engage the community and evangelize.

There was no desire to really engage with scripture on a meaninful level.

The church was basically atrophying—wasting away into nothing.

And that is the condition of churches who don’t allow their zeal to be stoked—like a fire in a hearth.

It wastes aways and fades into nothing.

Jesus had a message to the church at Laodicea and churches like it: Revelation 3:19 “19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be [zealous] and repent.”

Why does he command them to be zealous?

Because, aside from the blood of Jesus, zeal is the lifeforce of the church.

Paul wrote to the morally bankrupt church at Corinth, rebuking them and exhorting them to repent.

This produced an about face in the church, so much so that when he writes to them again about this collection that he was taking up, he says that their new found zeal was stirring up other churches (2 Cor. 9:2).

When the church is boiling over to do the work of the Lord, when we’re fulfilling those God given roles and gifts with enthusiasim, it keeps the church going.

When speaking of the assembly, the Hebrews writer says in Hebrews 10:24–25 “24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Part of why we are here today is to stoke eachother’s fire—to encourage one another to be zealous—to desire to do the work of the Lord.

When each of us are committed to stoking eachothers fire, to allow this church to be a pot where we all can boil, the church is at her best.

III. …serving the Lord. (The Object of Zeal)

You may look at this section and think “well this was a little anticlimatic for Paul to end this section here.”

I think Paul does this for a reason:

First, I think Paul is setting the guide posts for our enthusiaism.

We talked a lot about what happens when a church loses its zeal, but can a church have too much zeal?

I don’t think it’s necessarily having too much zeal, but many Christians, under the guise of being zealous for the Lord, have excused outright unbiblical practices.

Have you heard of “seeker sensitive churches”?

These are churches that basically tailor their services to non-Christians and to those looking for a church home—think mega-church.

The worship is tailored to what’s popular and the sermons are enticing but not too edgy to scare people.

And many think they’re really being great christians because they’re drawing in these large crowds…but at what cost? A watered down gospel? Total disregard for the commands of the Lord?

Here’s a pressing issue that some within churches of Christ are facing—many of these churchess, in order to be appealing to those within the LGBTQAI+ community, have pretty much rolled over on what scripture clearly teaches while saying “we’re just trying to get them in the door.”

They have over emphasized the fact that Jesus ate with sinners and underemphasized that he calls them to repentance.

Though they may have good intentions, their zeal becomes misguided.

Paul understood good and well that misguided zeal can lead to sin.

Philippians 3:6 “6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.”

In fact, Paul summarized it this way: Romans 10:2 “2 For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.”

Any zeal that is cultivated within us must lead to, and be directed by, our service to the Lord.

Second, the Lord is the perfect object of our zeal!

There’s no greater motivator than the Lord our God.

He has given us every reason to be on fire.

He has revealed Himself to us through His word and His creation—there is no question about whether or not He is there.

His love and mercy shines upon us with every blood bought breath we take.

And in the climax of it all, He single handedly defeated sin and death—extending that hand of love and mercy towards us, begging us to come to Him to enjoy His kingdom.

We have every reason to shout these truths from the roof tops, to tell everyone that the most powerful ruler in the universe (no election needed) came to this earth to die for you. We have every reason to knock every door in our community to share the peace that we have, to speak truth to power when anyone seeks to throw stones at our King, to be the one who stands out if it means to stand up for Him…there is NO REASON to stay silent.

If you can’t be zealous for Jesus, what can you really be zealous about?

CONCLUSION

Where is your zeal today?

Do you feel like Tigger? Do you feel like Eyeore?

No matter where you find yourselves today, know that you don’t have to continue there.

Allow yourself today to feed off of your brothers and sisters here—let them spur you on, let them encourage you.

Allow the Holy Spirit to strengthen you and the fan the flame of excitment and commitment to the work of the Lord.