All In!
Notes
Transcript
Palm Sunday - Did Jesus know who He was? YES Grand entrance
ends with the conclusion: God has allowed all mankind the choice of disobedience so His mercy can be shown. With the conclusion: when it comes to mercy, neither Jew nor Gentile has an advantage, it is a free gift for all who believe, unrelated to background or performance.
What we see as chapters 12-16 are the big wrap up in Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. The ‘therefore’ doesnt just refer back to the previous few verses, but to the entirety of the letter thus far.
Since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and
Because the wage of sin is death, and the gift of God being eternal life
And knowing there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus
And since if we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord
And because all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved
THEN
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
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.
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.
JB Phillips 1-2 With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.
The expectations that logically flow from this base of God’s redemptive work in Christ Jesus. It is a theological base. What we understand about how God was working in sending Jesus.
Theology in isolation promotes fruitless intellectualism. Ethics apart from a theological base is unable to achieve what it sets out to do.
And Paul is saying what we understand about God must determine how we live! He is leading the readers in Rome as a shepherd leads sheep. Not pushing. Not insisting. But leading the young ones gently. Leading the old ones slowly. And he says...
This is who you are, so this is what you do. He is NOT spurring them on to pull themselves by their bootstraps. To get it together. To do better. To do more. He is saying because of the inexhaustible mercy of God, this is who you are. So this is what you do. Since you have been raised with Christ, seek those things above he tells us in the letter to Colossians. Years I spent in vanity and pride, caring not my lord was crucified...Oh the love that drew salvations plan, oh the grace that brought it down to man… At Calvary Mercy there was great and grace was free...
So if there is anything you can take from the past few months in Romans, understand WHO YOU ARE!
You are not who you used to be. Remember, you used to be ‘something else’.
Bought, adopted, redeemed, justified. Glorified, even somehow. Buried, raised, seated with Christ. And again, since you are those things...
Present your bodies as a living sacrifice
The Jews understood guilt sacrifices. The doves, goats, rams, bulls.
17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
The gentiles understood sacrifices to pagan gods.
No longer holding to the values and attitudes of your previous life. Nor staying in the habits and hangups.
In view of His mercy, it is entirely fitting to offer ourselves completely to Him.
This is your spiritual worship- if I were a songbird, I would do what is proper for a songbird. But I am a rational creature, so I must praise God.
But the point of living sacrifice spiritual worship is next verse:
Conformed - Molded, pressed from the outside -
The warning is against this! Not to let the pressures of the world, our current culture, to decide what shape we take.
Transformed - rebuilt from the inside out -
When a caterpillar spins the chrysalis, it is the last thing he will ever do as a caterpillar. Inside the chrysalis, it begins to dissolve itself, using its own body for food as it transforms into a butterfly. This is not as simple as a pair of wings sprouting from it. A Bug’s Life Heimlich the Caterpillar
By the renewing of your mind - made new by the power of the Word
No longer controlled by the worries of the world, the desires of God become the paramount to us. The most important thing.
This brings the will of God into view to us. A renewed mind enables us to discern the will of God.
Living sacrifice
Spiritual worship
Not conformed but transformed
Know God’s will
Because of who you are
Do you know who you are?