Child of the King
Notes
Transcript
Good morning Valley Church Clinton!
Thanks so much for being here, today we’ll be in Romans chapter 8, which is our summer preaching series,
Today we’ll be in verses 12-17, so if you have your Bibles, get them open to that section,
We really want to encourage you to get into the Scriptures yourselves, and to follow along with us, because we want you to know….
That none of this is our opinion, I’m not up here doing a Ted Talk, no one would ever hire hire me to be a motivational speaker,
No, everything that comes from this pulpit will be rooted in the Word of God,
Let’s pray before we get started….
Okay, so I don’t know if you all are about this or not…
But I know a lot of people that really enjoy following the royal family over in the U.K.
Now, I don’t personally follow the family too much,
Mostly because I don’t have to according to a little document signed by Thomas Jefferson 250 years ago….
But, sometimes it does draw me in, like with the recent family drama with Charles and Harry, I think those are their names.
And I did a little bit of digging just to see how all that works.
The succession, the inheritance, how much money is involved, all that.
And as it turns out, there are two things in the royal family that get passed down - the crown estate, and the personal wealth of the kingdom.
Now, it’s one thing to be crowned King, which the firstborn is entitled to, even the women in the family now,
But the crown estate also gets passed down, which is the massive amount of land, and commercial property, castles I assume,
All the things owned by the monarchy.
Apparently, this is worth tens of billions of pounds.
Not only that, but they also inherit the personal wealth of the family member who passed on, just like any other will or trust.
And before 1993, the U.K. could tax this inheritance at 40%, which is just wild to me,
But the kings started selling off historic royal assets just to pay the taxes, so they decided to stop taxing this inheritance.
But imagine, being a kid in the royal house, watching your family rule over an entire country as the King and Queen, knowing that one day, that would be your destiny.
That one day, you’ll be able to have this massive, sprawling empire with all the castles, the armies, butlers, the people cheering you on with joy,
It’s like the Lion King, I just can’t wait to be king!
Imagine growing up with no worries, no anxiety, no needing to choose your career path or job, just riding the wave until one day, you get the keys to the kingdom.
I think, more often than not, we forget this is our present reality in Jesus Christ.
We forget that we have an inheritance coming. That we have a kingdom waiting for us. That we are called to be co-rulers.
Whatever we can imagine, our expectations will be blown away when we come to the full realization of God’s Kingdom.
And this is what Paul gets into as we explore Romans 8:12-17,
So, let’s just start picking this apart, verse by verse, because I want to go through it to see what Paul writes, then I want to take us through why it’s just so important that we apply it to our everyday lives.
So, starting in verses 12 and 13, this is what Paul writes:
12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, 13 because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
And I really like how verse 12 is put in the NLT version of the Bible, because it makes it easier to understand in our context:
12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.
So, essentially what Paul is starting off with here is a conclusion of what we’ve been breaking down for the last few weeks:
He wants to drive home the point that:
We Are Not Under the Power of Sin
We Are Not Under the Power of Sin
Paul is saying: look, you traded in the law of sin for the law of the Spirit.
You belong to the Spirit, you’re in the Spirit, you are now on God’s side, and your salvation is complete because of the Spirit, not by anything you can do on your own.
And now he reminds his readers: you have no obligation to sin.
Some translations say you are not in debt - no longer do you owe sin and death anything, it has been paid.
The sinful desires, you can ignore them. You don’t have to sin anymore because you are under a new nature.
You don’t owe sin when it beckons - you don’t have to answer the call of the flesh, urges, temptations,
Not to say you’ll never give into temptation,
But that you don’t have to. You have the power inside you to break free of that.
Remember our prayer from last week: Come, Holy Spirit.
And Paul is pretty transparent and direct here in verse 13..
He writes: because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
So, there’s death, or there’s life. There really isn’t a middle ground - either you have the Spirit which is life, or you live by your own power, which is death.
There’s no secular humanism that can save you, just God.
We are led by the Spirit, indwelled by the Spirit, we are mini temples of God walking around, attempting to live our the great commission by brining heaven to earth,
And by expanding His Kingdom.
Okay. Great. Why does this matter?
Look at verse 14:
14 For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons.
So, all that we’ve read so far in Romans 8 is leading up to this amazing point:
We Are God’s Children
We Are God’s Children
Now, when we say God’s son, immediately we think of Jesus.
After all, the Scriptures indeed affirm that Jesus was God’s only son,
And this is super significant and a huge theological theme that we need to abide by.
But, what does it mean that we are God’s children?
Well, you know me, we’re gonna take a stroll back to the Old Testament….
Because we need to really understand what it means to be sons of God.
And remember, Paul is writing to a mixed bag, a mixed church of both post-exiled Jews and Gentiles - both God’s chosen people and God’s grafted-in people.
Paul is writing to them on equal footing. He doesn’t say: hey Jews, these chapters and verses of Romans are for you, and hey Gentiles, these are for you…
Although some parts of Romans can apply more to one group than the other, Romans is written to the entire church.
And before we really dig into sonship, I need us to realize something:
God and His community are essentially described in two different ways: family, and kingdom.
Family and Kingdom - both of which were extremely accessible ideas to all people in first century Rome, and Palestine, pretty much everywhere.
These we’re very familiar concepts.
And for Paul to write what he did in verse 14 would have been shocking to both Jews and Gentiles listening to this letter being read aloud.
Take a look at Exodus:
22 And you will say to Pharaoh: This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son.
So, when Moses confronts Pharoah to let his people go, the Hebrews, Moses is to appeal to Pharoah that Israel is indeed God’s firstborn.
Why is this important?
Well just like the royal family, the idea of the firstborn is so crucial, not only to the family, but to the culture and to the socioeconomic climate of the day.
I mean, it’s really hard for us to understand, because in our day, first born literally means that, it’s the first one born, but all the kids in the family in the western world essentially have the same value.
But, not in this day. In Pharaoh’s day, multiple cultures considered the first born son so essential to the dynasty of the family and potentially the kingdom.
This role carried so much weight. Not only did they generally get the double inheritance, a later Jewish law that would be very apparent, but they also were expected to take on the responsibility of the family.
They were meant to be the patriarch, the new incoming responsibly holder of the entire extended family,
It wasn’t just symbolic, it was the literal continuation of the empire.
So, when God tells Moses to tell Pharoah that Israel is His firstborn son,
This is a statement.
This is a “you better not mess with Israel, my son, you better let them go, or else”.
And this makes all the sense in the world when you skip down to the tenth plague, do you remember what it is?
Pharoah doesn’t let the Israelites go after 9 plagues, plenty of time to make the right decision,
29 Now at midnight the Lord struck every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and every firstborn of the livestock. 30 During the night Pharaoh got up, he along with all his officials and all the Egyptians, and there was a loud wailing throughout Egypt because there wasn’t a house without someone dead.
After 400 years of watching his firstborn son, Israel, enslaved, God intervenes.
And the entire land wails, because they’ve all lost their future, their heirs.
God often gives warning, after warning, after warning, but eventually enough is enough, and God always makes good on His promises.
But this idea of being God’s children, it was very common in Israel, especially after this point.
Because there’s still this covenant that God made with Abraham, this covenant that the Israelites would be numerous, and abundant,
Father Abraham, the father of nations, who will have as many offspring as the stars, as many offspring as the pieces of sand on the beach.
This is what it says:
10 Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And in the place where they were told: You are not my people, they will be called: Sons of the living God.
This was always the future of the Jews - Sons of the Living God.
And this idea is what Paul is getting at back in our passage today:
14 For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!”
So, not only does God claim us as children, as sons, we also have this connection with our Father that is insanely unique to our specific religion of Christianity.
Because our relationship is intensely personal.
Our Relationship with God is Personal
Our Relationship with God is Personal
So, you see Paul saying that we didn’t receive a spirit of fear, or slavery, but a spirit of adoption.
See, there is no other diety in creation or recorded history that has this relationship with humanity.
All the mythology, all the stories, whether real or made up,
They depict the gods, or the spirits, of whatever, as constantly upset with humanity.
I mean, just read the stories.
They’re annoyed, upset, they want to use us, abuse humanity, cohabitate with humanity, they get jealous,
But not our God, not Yahweh.
See, our relationship with God is what Paul says crys out “Abba, Father”.
And this is where the story progresses in Judaism.
Because before Jesus, the Jews were scared of Yahweh, of God.
I mean, last week, remember we talked about God issuing the 10 commandments,
And the people were terrified, they said, “no, send Moses, were gonna die if we approach God!”
This is the same way I’m sure Pharoah felt after losing his firstborn son.
This is the same way the Jews felt in slavery to Egypt, they were scared of their overlords.
Paul is saying - no more. God has never been one to Lord over us, at least in the traditional sense that we use that word,
Ruling by fear and oppression.
The point of fearing God isn’t to come into the fold, afraid of what he’ll do to us,
No, it’s with a spirit that cries out Abba, Father.
That’s our community.
Like I said, our community in the Lord is described as a kingdom, and as a family,
And this is as a family.
Abba, an Aramaic term that just means father, is literally the language that Jesus would have spoken most regularly.
Abba, it has a family connotation, we could actually translate it today as a similar term to a very intimate connection with a father, like Dad, or Daddy, or Papa, or Dada,
Something like that.
And this, I’m sure, was very uncomfortable for the Jews.
In fact, Jesus introduced this concept, when the disciples asked Him how to pray, this is how he started:
9 “Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy.
There you go, right off the bat, Jesus demonstrates this unique relationship with God that no one thought was possible - God the Father listening to His children, ears open, ready to hear their needs.
Isn’t that amazing?
This was the model of prayer.
There wasn’t a certain ceremony Jesus did, not a routine you went through to connect with God, no symbolic ritual,
Jesus stopped, and he said: Our Father.
Later, right before Jesus was arrested, he was in anguish, he knew his friends were about to betray him and abandon him,
He knew we was about to be found “guilty” for no real reason,
Hung on a cursed tree, spit on, mocked, and die.
And this is Jesus’s prayer:
36 And he said, “Abba, Father! All things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.”
I don’t know about you dad’s, but I haven’t yet experienced anything sweeter than my little girls Lydia, the moment I get home from work, come running from wherever she is in the house yelling
Daddy, daddy…..
It’s something I wouldn’t trade for 100 billion dollars, or any mansion, or anything change in lifestyle,
That is the best part of my life right now.
And you know what? When my kids get hurt, it’s the same thing:
Daddy.
Daddy, come here. Dad, I need help. Dad, I’m hungry.
Daddy, play with me, look what I did, look what I colored for you….
There’s a unique balance in respect, and trust, and fear, and reliance, and love.
This is picture that Jesus is giving us.
We do not have a spirit of fear, but instead, our Spirit cries out, Abba, father.
What an amazing God we have, and what a unique relationship, an intimate relationship, we have with our good God.
And this unique relationship drives the next part of what Paul writes:
16 The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, 17 and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
So, we are God’s children, but not just estranged children, we have a God that we can say Abba Father to…
And not only that, but now we are
Coheirs with Christ
Coheirs with Christ
And why is this important?
It’s because we get to share the spoils of the kingdom with the firstborn son, Jesus.
This is amazing.
9 For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— 11 and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
Why are these so important?
Well, Jesus is over everything. He has inherited the Kingdom, and eventually, every knee will bow to Him as Lord,
And, he is the firstborn over all of creation.
AND NOW
Paul is saying we are not only getting the benefits of salvation from Christ,
Not only are we being saved from death,
We aren’t just being given the bare minimum,
What does it say?
We are coheirs. With Christ.
That means all of the promises, the inheritances, the kingdom, the castles, the wealth,
All of it belongs to us.
And this firstborn over al creation, Jesus, is the reason for this.
But, listen,
This isn’t a health, wealth and prosperity gospel church. It isn’t, and while I’m here, it never will be,
Because this doesn’t mean that we will inherit riches now, what it means is we inherit Jesus’s Kingdom.
We inherit what Jesus inherits.
And you know what that includes? Suffering here on earth.
We cant just ignore this part of our passage this morning:
17 and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
There is an element of suffering before being glorified.
Perhaps the most clarifying verse I’ve ever Scripture on this is in 1 Peter:
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5 You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials 7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Jesus’s Kingdom is not one of dictatorship, of power over the weak and impoverished, about gaining for our glory, about conquering, about acquiring wealth, or animals, or women,
Jesus’s kingdom is the opposite of us, and our flesh, and our desires.
It means suffering for those who hate us, it means turning the other cheek
It means allowing people to steam roll over us,
It looks like the love that Jesus showed on the cross.
So, what does this mean for us?
I think it means a few things that greatly impact our lives:
The first is that we have identitiy
Our Identity
Our Identity
Our identity is children of the king. Our identitiy is sons of god, children of God.
One time, I was getting dinner with a good friend who spend most of his life in India,
And we were talking about adopting our son Jordan,
And he was really confused as to why we would tell Jordan that he was adopted.
Because apparently, in India, adoption is a regular practice, but the child is rarely told, their identity is not any different than the biological children,
So much so, that the adopted child will never know.
This is oiur identitiy in God. He has adopted us, we are his children, and no one can take that away.
It changes how we perceive everything, how we behave, how we love, and what we value.
This is our core identity.
Second, along with identity, it defines:
Our Relationship
Our Relationship
Our Relationship with God is so unique, and this allows us to approach him in literally any situation.
We have the permission to approach the throne.
12 In him we have boldness and confident access through faith in him.
We can say Abba, Father.
We can be hurt, angry, sad, happy, joyful, whatever our state is,
We have a God we can approach.
And unfortunately, we rarely do.
God wants to be your father, in every situation,
He wants us to say Abba, Father not our of fear or compulsion, but out of love and affection,
It should be our default state.
Third and last, this defines:
Our Future
Our Future
Our future inheritance is never in jeopardy.
It is guarded by God power, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven,
Our inheritance as coheirs of Christ is there for us.
That means we can go through this world with that Living Hope the world desires,
We have a hope and a joy that can’t be touched by the powers of darkness,
Because it is being guarded by God Himself.
That means we can face present suffering, we can face hardship, we can even face death,
Because what is that to God?
He’s already defeated all those things.
And now, we wait, and in the meantime, we work to expand the kingdom.
We work as children of God.
And we tell everyone about how good our God is.
