The Response to Mercy: Living in Community
Notes
Transcript
Eph. 2:4-7
English Standard Version Chapter 12
Gifts of Grace
3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Marks of the True Christian
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Question: What do you think about the mercy of God? How highly do you esteem the mercy of God
Multiply 2025—Saturday morning
“I suspect that we have not yet thought highly enough of Jesus. We have not esteemed Him enough.”—Merlin Miller
Last Sunday we talked about our response to God’s mercy
That salvation is not “simply” being justified, made right with God, and then we go on our merry way
But salvation requires an active response from us
Not that we are saving ourselves, but we play an active part in what God is doing
It requires a response from us
And if that response isn’t present in our lives, then I have to wonder, have we really received the grace and mercy of God
Last Sunday we looked at the fact that our response to God’s mercy requires
A sacrifice
A transformation
A renewal
This Sunday, we are going to see that responding to the mercy of God means that we invest in the community of Believers
And this makes sense
Because God’s mercy in our lives means that He drew us into fellowship with Him
It was for the sake of relationship with His creation that Jesus came to this earth
But so many times it is the tendency of humans to isolate from each other
Even christians and churches can isolate from each other
Sometimes for reasons that are valid,
sometimes for reasons that make you raise your eyebrows a bit
But a response to God’s mercy, i believe, should cause us to pursue community and relationships with one another
By the grace given to me
What do you think about the grace of God?
How highly do you esteem the grace of God
Grace—God at work. the divine work done in the life of Paul
that is, through the work that God has done in my own heart
The question is, have you experienced His Grace? If so, what do you think about it? How highly do you esteem His grace
The reason that Paul is so urgent with his plea to the Romans is that he has experienced the grace of God in his own heart, the power of God working in his heart, and he has something to pass along to them
You may wonder sometimes, is God working in my heart? How do I know that God is at work? What are some indications?
Well, here is one here. An indication that you are experiencing the grace of God is that you desire to pass that grace along to others
It is something that you can’t keep to yourself.
Sometimes people try to portray their faith as being a private matter
Pres. Trump was asked about his favorite verse.
“Oh, that’s a private thing. I don’t go around talking about that”
Sorry, but I don’t buy that!
I don’t buy the excuse that “my faith is a private matter”
No it’s not. That’s just an excuse for maybe some more serious issues going on
And the reason that I say this is because I’ve used this excuse in the past, and maybe still do to some extent.
but that’s when I don’t feel like doing the “hard work” of ministry...actually being involved with people
This isn’t the way it was meant to work! God’s grace, His work, in your heart, in my heart was meant to be something that is shared
and that benefits the community
And this is what we are going to see in the rest of this chapter
Because the response to God’s mercy that we see in Romans 12 does indeed start with our personal response, of us sacrificing ourselves
But then it must spill over into benefiting the community
So Paul is about to talk about how we benefit the community, but first of all he give us a caution
My attitude toward myself
“I say this to everyone among you”
Don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”
This is an interesting expression
“The measure of faith that God has assigned”
The Greek word is Merizo
it literally means to be divided or aportioned out
it’s the same word that Jesus uses when He says that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand
it’s the same word that is used when someone came to Jesus and said, “Hey Teacher! Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me!”
It’s the same word that is used in Hebrews 7 when it talks about how Abram, after defeating the group of kings who had taken his nephew Lot, he was returning and was met by Melchizedek, the King of Salem.
And it says that Abram divided out a tenth of everything that he had taken
And it seems that what Paul is saying is that God literally has divided out faith and given us a share of it.
some for you some for you
Did you ever think of faith like that?
This actually connects with 1Cor. 12:9 where Paul lists faith as a spiritual gift that God has given us
and maybe some of us have more and some of us have less
Now, does that mean that whatever faith God has given us, we are stuck with that faith?
No! I think that Scripture is clear that our faith can grow. God can help us have more faith
2Thess. 1:3, Paul thanks God because the faith of the Believers is growing and increasing
But where we are right now is that some of us may have great faith
you have lived a long time and have walked with Jesus for a long time, and you have seen Him do incredible things in your life
and you have a lot of faith. You may not feel like it, but some of the rest of us look at you and say, “Wow, I would like to have faith like yours!”
And some of the rest of us feel like we don’t have much faith. We are newer in our walk with Jesus
But wherever we are in our walk with Christ, however much faith we have,
We need to consider how we think about ourselves
Paul knew well our human tendency of having a wrong view of ourselves
Paul says, “Don’t think of yourselves too highly”
He could have just as easily added, “Also, don’t think of yourselves too lowly!”
Paul knew that this is our tendency. To either think of ourselves too highly, too get proud, to look down on others, to think that the church really can’t get along without us
which of course isn’t true
OR to think of ourselves too lowly. To think, I really have nothing to offer. I don’t want to volunteer to do anything because...well...I just can’t.
I really don’t have many abilities.
If I do volunteer and put myself out there, i will probably just make a mess of it and then I’ll look dumb
and that’s not true either!
it’s hard for us to have a balanced view of ourselves
That is why it takes the grace of God
To think of ourselves with sober judgement.
sober judgement is one Greek word
it literally means to be sensible and reasonable
Some people have interpreted this passage as “Don’t think more of yourself or less of yourself. Think of yourself less.”
And maybe there is something to that. I probably do need to think about myself less. But when I do think about myself, I want to have a Godly and biblical view of myself
That I’ve been created in the image of God, and that He is working in my life, He has given me certain gifts and abilities, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I want to use these abilities to serve Him
I don’t have to apologize for these gifts
it’s not about me being better than others
It’s not about me being worse than others
it’s about His power working in me and through me for His kingdom purposes.
So, let’s think about ourselves with realistic understanding
And here is the outworking of that
Understanding our giftings
I’m not going to spend a ton of time with these individual gifts
The definition of each gift is fairly self explanatory
However, there are two very important points about these gifts that he talks about
First, The grace and mercy that we have received from God is not something that can be kept to ourselves
The grace and mercy that we have received from God is not expressed in a “me first” way of life, or a “look out for ol’ number one” type of thinking
No, it’s quite the opposite!
The grace and mercy that we receive from God must be shared with others in the body of Christ and outside the Body of Christ
It’s about giving back what we have received
in Matthew 10, Jesus was sending His disciples out for ministry
And He told them essentially to pour themselves into ministry:
proclaim the Kingdom
heal the sick
raise the dead
cleanse lepers
cast our demons
and then He says: “You have received without paying; give without expecting anything in return”. Freely, you have received, freely give.
And that is how the Kingdom of God functions. We receive what we did not pay for in order that we can give without expecting payment from others
The grace and mercy of God points us toward the reality that we are part of a body.
And we live (or should live) for the benefit of the body
Because it is through The Body, or The Church, that God has chosen to display His glory, His wisdom, and His eternal purposes
Ephesians 3:10 “10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”
The spiritual gifts that we have been given individually are meant to build up the church
to make a statement to the rulers and authorities in the spiritual or heavenly realms
That as people of God, we are no longer in the kingdom of darkness, but we are now in the Kingdom of God, and
So, the first thing about our gifts is that they are not to be kept to ourselves, but they are to benefit the Body of Christ
Secondly, as Paul said before, our gifts are differently “According to the grace that has been given to us” (vs. 6)
Again, according to how God has chosen to work in our lives, this is how our gifts are given
And we all are gifted differently because this is how God has chosen to work in our lives
Paul includes a nice list here, but this is meant to just be a sample list, not an exhaustive list
prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, mercy
There are many other gifts that could be added to that list.
And as I look at the gifts that Paul has mentioned, these are all things that each one of us can probably do to one degree or another
But others of us are gifted in these things
Some of you are prophetic. Some of you are really good at serving (seeing what needs to be done and doing it). Some are really good at teaching
And church just functions so much better when we are functioning in the gifts that God has given us according to His grace
And this is so helpful to remember and to keep in mind, when it comes to thinking about how we function as a church
For example, I’m really thankful for Norma who is helping me with some administrative things because administrative work is difficult for me
Does that mean that I can’t do administration? No. But it does mean that things seem to flow so much better when she is doing it because she has that gift
As I think about our committees, and offices, sometimes we tend to just cycle people through, and that’s not always for the best
Because not all of us are good at leading committees
Maybe there are times when we need to be stretched and challenged, but maybe there are other times to just remain in a position that you are good at and continue to serve there because God has gifted you that way and you find joy in serving in that position!
There is much more we could say (maybe in the future)
However, remember, the exercising of our gifts is for the Body of Christ and it is our response to the mercy of God
Our response to mercy is displayed in the marks of a true Believer
As we move into verse 9, Paul gives us this list which includes character qualities, and how we live in community
And it is a daunting list!
Here are the marks of a Believer who is living in response to God’s mercy
The marks are these
Genuine love
shunning, or strongly disliking evil
Loving one another with brotherly affection
outdoing one another in showing honor
can you imagine showing honor becoming a competition?
What kind of a community would we have if that is how our minds worked?
BTW, in order to honor you, I have to know you, don’t I. I have to know what you like and dislike, what speaks to your heart
being zealous
being fervent in spirit
serving the LORD
Rejoicing with great hope
Being patient during tribulation
being constant in prayer
Giving to the needs of the saints
being hospitable
Blessing those who persecute
Rejoicing with those who rejoice
weeping with those who weep
Living in harmony with each other
Not being haughty (stuck up and stand-offish)
associating with the lowly
Don’t be wise in your own sight
Don’t repay evil for evil
Do what is honorable in the sight of everyone
if at all possible, leave peaceably with everyone
Don’t seek to avenge yourself
Care for your enemies
give him food when he’s hungry
Give him something to drink when he’s thirsty
Don’t let yourself be overcome by evil
But YOU overcome evil with good
And again, probably more could be added to this list
But this list alone is enough to boggle the mind
Because when you sit and study this list and begin to absorb the implications of what Paul is suggesting here, you start to understand that being a Believer, and responding to the mercy of God requires a TOTAL and complete response from us
Our response to His mercy cannot be a half-hearted “If I feel like it” sort of thing, but it is a complete and total life change
The way of life that Paul describes here is completely opposite to the life that we, in our natural way of thinking, want to live
It’s completely opposite to the way that we tend to live when left to our own devices
When we take ourselves off the altar, our lives aren’t lived as a sacrifice to Jesus,
Our love is not genuine. It tends to have strings attached. We are easily offended.
We give into our impulses to love what is evil instead of abhor it.
The things that we watch
The things that our mind dwells on are not good and pure
and if we are honest with ourselves, we secretly (or maybe not so secretly) find ourselves loving what is evil
if our lives aren’t on the altar, and we aren’t living in response to Christ’s mercy, then we certainly aren’t going to OUTDO each other in showing honor
Our zeal wanes and becomes lazy and slothful
our fervency dies; Christianity is something that we “do” instead of us experiencing Christ.
We don’t rejoice, we are impatient when things go wrong
We become stingy with our time and money
We are too busy to show hospitality
And so on and so on and so on
When I climb off the altar, I live a completely different life than when I’m on the altar
Paul goes on in chapters 13-15 to expound more about living in response to God’s mercy
How do we respond to our earthly authorities
Being careful about how we walk...in the light, not in the dark
He talks more about our relationships
Not passing judgement on each other for the positions that we take on certain things
Being careful not to cause each other to stumble
Being patient with each other and building each other up.
But I’m going to draw this to a close
have you experienced the mercy of God?
If so, (and I believe all of us have), then what do you think about the mercy of God? How highly do you and I esteem the mercy of God?
And how does that esteem or regard shape our lives and the way that we serve the Body of Christ?
If so, then extend His mercy to His body, The Church
