This sermon was actually delivered on November 23, 2008 – the last Sunday before Advent began.  Now that I’ve resumed the series on Romans, I am putting this sermon up as well, which actually covers just the first verse of Romans 12.  It also includes a summary of what’s come before – a good way to get re-oriented to where Paul has been and where he’s going.

Introduction: A Change in Tone

Today’s text marks a changing point in our walk through Romans.  A very important couple of words at the very beginning of today’s passage signal that something different is coming.

“Therefore… in view of God’s mercy” – in light of all that has come before

“I appeal to you” – Here’s what we should do about what we’ve heard

Paul has done with his theologizing.  We’ve heard 11 chapters of all kinds of theology:

• How our sin has separated us from God
• That all of us are without excuse
• That in God’s eyes, we are all on level ground, no matter the type or number of our sins – all of us have sinned, and all of us have fallen short
• But God did something to make matters right – he sent his only son as a sacrifice in our place.
• Jesus’ work is powerful enough to save any who will rely on him for their salvation.
• So we have been set free from our old master, sin, and are now free to serve a new master
• Therefore, if God has done this for us, we should not be afraid of anything – for “if God is for us, who can be against us?”

Now Paul moves from his theological section to the practical matters.  Most scripture – most writing of any sort – is arranged in this way.

• Here are the facts.
• Here is the explanation of the facts.
• What should we do then, about the facts?

The Image: Sacrifice

12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship.

“Sacrifice” is a strong word to us – it invokes images of blood, violence and death.  It’s hard for us to understand, in our culture, what Paul is talking about.

The act of a sacrifice is to take something that is valuable to us, and to give it up for someone or something else.  A quick look in the definition yields the following basic facts about religious sacrifice in particular:

• WHO – the devotee of a particular god
• WHAT – Something valuable – crops, wine, valuable animals, etc.
• WHEN – A sacrifice occurred at a particular time – usually surrounded by ritual and prayer.
• WHERE – A sacrifice occurred in a particular place – on an altar, in an important spiritual place like a temple.

The basic idea of a sacrifice is to say, “This is what I’m willing to do for something or someone that’s important to me.”  When you sacrificed an animal, you said that the god you worship is of greater value to you than the animal you’re sacrificing.  When you took the best of your crops and burned them before God, you said that God was more important to you than the profit that could come from those crops, and that you trusted God to provide for your needs in place of those crops.

The more important the item offered, the greater the sacrifice and the greater the statement you made about the person or thing you were sacrificing to.

It became, over time, a way to satisfy an angry god, or to ask for something you needed – more rain for the crops, for instance.  It moved from saying “This is how much I value you,” to “This is what I’m willing to give you – what will you give me in return?”  Or sometimes it was used as a kind of spiritual “thank you” note – a way to tell a god “thanks” for something good that had happened.

That’s why eventually, people were willing to sacrifice the most important thing they had – their children.  What more valuable thing could you give to show your devotion to a god?  And what would a god NOT give to someone so devoted to him?

But God absolutely forbade this practice because it was against his nature to destroy human life, and because this kind of sacrifice was selfish – designed to get something in return.

And for the Jewish people, sacrifice had become their core act of worship.  They made the long trip to Jerusalem each year – but not to sit in a worship service and hear a Revival preacher.  They offered prayers while they were there, but their primary action, and the thing that all other acts of worship revolved around, was SACRIFICE.

But this was not the original intent of sacrifice, though.  The original idea was to declare how valuable God is to us by giving up something important.  And in using this important word, Paul is signaling a return to that original idea.

We don’t kill animals on an altar anymore.  But we still practice sacrifice today, though we may not view it that way.  When we tithe and give offerings – we’re not “paying” God, we’re saying that God is more important to us than money (at least, that’s the concept).  That’s a big statement to make – especially as Americans who value money so highly.

Living Sacrifice

So now that we’ve looked at the word “sacrifice,” what is Paul saying about it?

“…to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.  This is your spiritual act of worship”

A better translation for “your spiritual act of worship” would be “your reasonable act of service.”  It’s a term that implies the central and most basic act of worship.  Like the sacrifice to the Jewish people, this was to be the primary action of people who worship this God.

And what is this action?  It’s still sacrifice, but a different kind of sacrifice.

“Offer your bodies…” – are we to throw ourselves into the fire?  Commit suicide?  No, because he uses the word “living sacrifice.”  By “bodies,” Paul is speaking figuratively of our lives – our every moment of every day.

HOLY and PLEASING – this is to be “offer your lives as a LIVING, HOLY, and PLEASING sacrifice.”

Our most important sacrifice – our central act of worship – is not bringing our tithes.  For most of us, the amount we give is not enough to cause us undue anxiety.  Neither is our sacrifice the hour we spend here on Sunday mornings.  It’s no real sacrifice to be here on Sunday mornings… an hour is no big sacrifice for us most of the time.

No, our real sacrifice is the 167 hours we live the rest of the week. Living every waking moment of every day in a “holy and pleasing” way.  That is the ultimate cost for us.

Wow!  How in the world can we achieve this?

We want to believe that the way to follow God’s will – being a holy and pleasing sacrifice – is to know all the rules so we can follow them rightly in each situation.  But the problem is, you don’t always know all the rules, and you don’t always know how they apply to each situation.

So how do we do it?  Paul only gives us a hint:

2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.

We’ll have to wait until the next sermon to figure out together what this means!

©2012 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.

As some previous entries, this post is more notes and commentary than sermon – I referred to these notes as I preached, but the final format was much different.

This week, we’re going to cover a little more ground than we have been so far.  At this point, Paul gets into a discussion that certainly has theological value, but is aimed more for his audience in the Roman church.

He gets into a discussion about the place of the Jews in God’s plan.  And he talks about it for three chapters.  This was a difficult topic for the Christians of the early church – they KNEW that their religion had sprung from Judaism.  Jesus himself was a faithful Jew!  And because of this, they knew the history of the promise that God had made to the Jewish people almost as long as they had existed – that he would be their God and they would be his people.

And yet the Jews had rejected Jesus, and had been his primary adversaries during Jesus’ ministry.  So what was the relationship of the Jews in this new “Kingdom of God?”

Let me briefly sum up what I think Paul’s saying about the Jewish people and how it relates to us:

• 9:1-13 – God established a holy nation, but with Abraham he took that nation beyond just flesh and blood – so that all those who chose to believe God’s promises became part of God’s people – including you and me. This means that some of the descendants of Abraham can be excluded from the Kingdom, even though they are flesh-and-blood descendants of the promise.
• 9:14-33 – Knowing some of his hearers were Jewish, Paul reminds them that God is sovereign and can do things in any way he pleases – it’s not up to us to question his actions or motives. We cannot say that God is unfair, because we do not know what God is up to.
• 10:1-21 – Still, we should desire (as Paul does) that they can be saved. When God offered salvation through Jesus, he didn’t say it was only to people who weren’t Jews – even the Jews can believe in Jesus and be saved. So WE CAN NOT TREAT THEM ANY DIFFERENTLY.
• 11:1-10 – God has not rejected his people, so we should not reject them.
• 11:11-24 – Far from treating them with disdain, we should treat them with utmost respect because they are the “root” from which our faith springs!
• 11:25-36 – Then, almost as if to undo what he has said before, Paul says that in some mysterious way “all Israel will be saved” because of God’s plan! He ends with a exclamation of the great mystery of God – we do not (and CAN NOT) understand… and for that, we should give thanks.

The long and short?  Paul says, “I know you’re asking about the Jews and what will happen to them.  I can only speak to what God has revealed to me.  But in the end, I don’t know any more than you do!”

Yet, as much as the logic of these chapters seems to contradict itself, there are some very familiar passages that we should make note of this morning.

Stepping Out of Theology

The passages we know so well from these chapters shows us a very different side of Paul.  Paul is authoritative and confident, to be sure.  He has studied, he is very intelligent, and he knows that people are counting on him to explain God’s word.

And yet, his emotions get the best of him here – see how he speaks of his people in these verses:

9:1-5 – I speak the truth in Christ-I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit- 2I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, 4the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised!^[a] Amen.

Here, Paul reveals his feelings about his Jewish people – he loves them so much, he would even offer himself that they might be saved!

But he goes on:

10:1-17 –  1Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

5Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: “The man who does these things will live by them.”^[a] 6But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’^[b]” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7″or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’^[c]” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,”^[d] that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”^[e] 12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile-the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”^[f]

14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”^[g]

16But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”^[h] 17Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

I’m not so sure that anti-Semitism is much of a problem here in Kenbridge – maybe I’m wrong.  But what’s more striking to me in these passages is Paul’s passion for these Jewish people.

• Among these are people that hated Jesus enough to crucify him.
• Many of these people rejected God outright for centuries
• Who promised to love him, and then stabbed him in the back time and time again. Then they came crawling back asking forgiveness!
• These are the people who saw what God could do with their own eyes – they watched him send plagues, part the sea, feed them in the wilderness, take them into the promised land to defeat enemies greater than themselves. God raised up a nation, rescued them time and time again. They watched Jesus do miracles of all kinds. And STILL they rejected him!

But Paul doesn’t reject them.  He LOVES them.  In fact, he loves them so much he’s willing to sacrifice himself for them in the most awful kind of way.  Paul’s not talking about death – when he says he wishes he could be “cut off,” he’s wishing he could be damned instead of them!

And Paul tells us why:  Because we are all the same.  If we expect God to reject the Jews because of their stubbornness, then we’ll have to expect God to reject US too.  Because we’ve done just the same thing.

• WE are the people just as responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion as the ones who drove the nails.
• WE have rejected God outright for al our lives.
• WE have promised to love him, and then stabbed him in the back time and time again, only to came crawling back asking forgiveness!
• WE are the ones who have watched God do all kinds of miraculous things in our lives, and still we don’t trust him to take care of our basic needs.

Do we have this kind of love for people?  Do we love our neighbors enough to give any price that they might be saved?  And all we’re really asked to do is to TELL them!

People of God, if we believe the hope we talked about last week, we have something to do about it.  We have to tell – everyone.  Not just the people we love… the people we tend to dislike as well.  That means people of other races, drug and alcohol addicts, prisoners, sex offenders… even people who don’t share our political or religious views!

©2012 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.

Intro: Looking Back

Up to this point, things have been pretty grim.  It’s almost a if Paul has been holding back – every now and then, he breaks into a quick doxology or hymn of praise.  But for the most part, Paul has spoken of forces that are beyond our control, and the news is not very hopeful.

• All human beings are without excuse.
• Ignorance is not our problem – we know the truth and we still turn away from it.
• Quantity and Quality of sin are no matter – any sin at all is detestable to God.
• Our only hope is to trust in God.
• In some way, God has made us responsible for our fellow human beings – to share the good news with them.
• We have been set free from the Law – but we are still drawn to it and still sin from time to time.

All these forces are acting on us – Satan, evil, sin, our sinful nature.

Most of the verbs Paul has used of God have been passive – that is, things that God may have had a part in, but Paul does not speak of God’s direct activity except at several important moments:

• 1:28ff – God gave them over…
• 2:11 – God shows no partiality
• 3:25 – God put forth Jesus as a substitution
• 5:8 – God shows his love for us in this…

GOD ACTS

It’s quietly significant, then, what Paul is up to here.  He’s held back for long enough.  His message so far has been to convince his readers that we are sinners who are hopelessly lost without the intervention of God.  And he does a good job.  If we were to end the book of Romans with Chapter 7, we would, like Paul, say “What a wretched creature I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

So here begins the real exposition of hope!

1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

Here Paul speaks of “orientation” more than action.  Keep in mind that by “flesh,” Paul is talking of our natural tendency to work against God.  The mind oriented toward the flesh – that is, away from God – heads toward death.  The mind oriented toward the Spirit – toward God – heads toward life and peace.

Again, we see Paul’s understanding that specific actions do not matter so much as our orientation – are our actions pointed toward God, or toward something else?

Here is how Paul sees that the Law has become impotent to judge us.  We have been freed from the Law of Sin, and we are now under the Law of the Spirit.  Before the Spirit entered our lives, everything we did was sinful.  Even our best efforts and being nice and good were tainted by sin.  Now, that we are oriented toward God and the Spirit, those same actions are pleasing to God.

9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

Another “if-then” statement:

Spirit lived in Jesus      -           Spirit raised Jesus from the dead

Spirit lives in you         -           Spirit raises you from the dead

12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation-but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Closing up this section, Paul wraps up his ideas – notice the themes he brings together in this paragraph:

• Our obligation is to God because of what he’s done for us
• Living by the Spirit allows us to “die” with Christ to our sinful selves
• We no longer have to be slaves to our old human nature.
• We are children of God, adopted as sons and daughters alongside Christ. MOREOVER, because we are adopted, we share in the inheritance that Christ has as a son of God!
• That is, IF WE SHARE IN HIS SUFFERINGS. We’ve heard this before, and it makes us uncomfortable. But don’t let this get you down in the midst of this hopeful passage!

Future Glory

18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Our sufferings can’t compare to the glory that will be revealed in us.  Not only can they not compare, they’re not even WORTH comparing.  Paul says it’s like the relationship between a piece of gold and a piece of rotten meat.  There’s no need measuring each one, no need for testing the purity of the meat or checking its color.  One has value, the other does not.  They’re not even WORTH comparing.

19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

This is a strange twist – even the creation has been subjected to the awful effects of sin.  And even creation will be redeemed.  Remember that there will be a “new heaven and a new earth?”  at the end of all things, earth will be remade perfectly – as it was intended to be – and that it will be “annexed” into heaven.  Pollution will be erased, death will be abolished.

22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

And as a part of that redemption of nature, so our bodies will one day be redeemed.

I used to think of heaven as a place where we all float around like ghosts, where our bodies are not substantial.

But this is not the only place that Paul tells us that these bodies – the ones you and I have right now – will be made new.  Except they won’t be made like the old ones… this first birth, we’re dying from the moment we’re born.  At the second birth, our bodies will be completely alive – no more aches and pains, no more emphysema, no more Parkinsons or Alzheimer, no more cancer… And who knows?  Maybe our bodies will work in reverse – becoming MORE alive as eternity goes by, rather than less!?

DON’T WORRY

26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.   28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

In ALL THINGS God works for the good.  That’s not to say that everything that happens to us is God’s work.  But we can be assured that, even though we may not be able to see how, God is working for our good no matter what is happening.

Do we have faith that this is true?

29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

I can’t begin to explain the paradox between predestination and free will.  All I can say is that there’s scriptural evidence for both.  So to God, there must be no paradox at all.

But the fact is, in the predestination side of things, we understand that God already knows the outcome.  We WILL be conformed to Jesus likeness.  We WILL be called, we WILL be justified, we WILL be glorified.

31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-more than that, who was raised to life-is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Can you feel Paul’s energy here?  Up to this point, we’ve seen that sin and evil have been working in the world.  Death and destruction are the law, chaos is king.  We’ve seen hints that God is working, but we haven’t seen God take direct action.  In some ways that’s like what we face today – we can see hints, but we haven’t seen God step out of the clouds or prove himself beyond all shadow of doubt.

• But Paul says, “Don’t worry – it’s coming. God IS WORKING even now, and what he says will come to pass?
• Are you worried about what you will have – money, food, shelter, love? Are you worried about what kind of crown you’ll have in heaven. DON’T WORRY, says Paul. If God has already given his own son, do you think he won’t be willing to give us all good things we need?
• Are you worried about what you will pray? DON’T WORRY says Paul. God knows what you need and the Spirit is interpreting our groans. In the very act of turning to God, our hearts are heard!
• Are you worried about the things you’ve done wrong in the past, about the sin that you still struggle with? DON’T WORRY, says Paul. If you’ve broken the Law, you’re in the same boat as everyone else. And who will sit as judge? Only Jesus Christ, the best friend you and I have ever known – the one who has already declared that we are pure and righteous.

35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What shall separate us from the love of God?

Danger?

Hurricane?

Earthquake?

War?

The works of our past?

Our own sinfulness in the present?

Economic problems?

Our political preferences?

Our race?

Our skin color?

Lack of food?

Lack of shelter and clothing?

The work of those who seek to do us harm?

Persecution for our faith?

Cancer?

Heart problems?

Parkinson’s Disease?

Alzheimer’s?

Old age?

Arthritis?

Shall even our strongest enemy, DEATH itself?

NO.  Children of God, if God is for us, who can be against us?  We are more than conquerors through the work of Jesus Christ!

This hope is why we exist – it’s the reason there’s a Body of Christ at all.  And this hope is the reason we exist – to SPREAD the hope and to bring others into the Kingdom.

God has acted.  Now it’s our turn.

©2012 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.

©2012 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.

What was Pentecost?  You’ll get a different answer for nearly every person you ask.  But to me, it seems that Pentecost is one of the most underrated celebrations for Protestants – especially for Baptists.  Maybe we’re afraid we’ll become “charismatic” or Pentecostal if we look too closely at Pentecost?

No matter what your understanding of what happened that day, you can’t deny that it was something special.  God was doing a mighty work – a work on par with many of his other activities in the Bible, the culmination and re-launch of Jesus’ ministry on earth.

There are lots of arguments about whether the signs of Pentecost were only for those first-century Christians.  While we don’t see any tongues of fire today, and I haven’t heard any winds or heard anyone talking in other languages, I think that it’s possible to “translate” these signs and see if Pentecost is still happening today.  And it SHOULD be happening today.  The events of Pentecost were not just a culmination – they were a BEGINNING of something that will not end until Jesus comes back.

So let’s look closely for a few moments at these signs of Pentecost, and see whether they are present among us today.

• A Mighty rushing wind – The wind in the OT and NT = pneuma or ruach. The words mean “wind,” “spirit” and “breath” at the same time. When the wind or breath of God is heard, seen or given, it is a sign of new life. When we think of what separates the living and the dead, we probably think of a heartbeat. But in ancient though thought, breath was what separated the living from the dead.
  • At the beginning of Creation, the ruach of God moved over the face of the waters… and creation began to erupt (Genesis 1:2).
  • How did God give life to Adam? Breathed into his nostrils (Genesis 2:7).
  • God sent a wind to separate the Red Sea for the people of Israel to walk across (Exodus 14:21).
  • God sent a wind to bring food to the people in the wilderness (Numbers 11:31).
  • After the long drought prophesied by Elijah, the new rain was brought by a wind from heaven (1 Kings 18:45).
  • In Ezekiel’s vision of the Valley of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37), God’s wind/breath entered the dry bones and gave them life.
  • The “spirit of the LORD” rested upon individuals throughout the Old Testament to give them new life, power, and purpose.

• Tongues of fire – In the OT, a fire was a symbol of the presence of God.
  • Moses and the burning bush (Exodus 3).
  • Spontaneous fires that come to light certain sacrifices. Specifically see Abraham (Genesis 15), David (1 Chronicles 21:26), Solomon (2 Chronicles 7:1), Elijah (1 Kings 18),
  • Fire on Mount Sinai (1 Kings 19,
  • Elijah was taken up by chariots of fire (2 Kings 2).
  • The armies of God were said to be “chariots and horses of fire (2 Kings 6:17).
  • Column of fire that led the Hebrews (Exodus 13).
  • Because of the important symbol of fire, candles were kept constantly burning in the tabernacle and temple.

• Speaking other languages is a sign of God working inside his people to do his work.
  • This gift did not come until the Holy Spirit had come.
  • God gave them the ability to speak to each person there – with what they needed.
  • The followers didn’t stop to think about what these people might need – they simply started talking and the Spirit “translated.”
  • It wasn’t just a matter of speaking – Acts says that everyone in the street understood in their own languages. The Spirit was also at work in the ears of those who were listening.

• Proclamation – There is another sign of the Spirit at Pentecost that might be overlooked. The first three signs were gifts from God. The last sign was the response prompted in God’s people.
  • These followers, gathered in the room to pray, had been hiding and living in fear for several weeks.
  • Suddenly, they have the courage to rush out into the street and proclaim.
  • It’s almost as if they have been driven out – the news they have, the Spirit’s power, is so overwhelming that they can’t NOT tell.

So how will we know if the Spirit is present with us today, then, by translating these signs?  We have to see if the signs are present with us today.

• We don’t hear a mighty rushing wind.  But have we experienced new life?
• We may not see fires from heaven.  But do we have the presence of God with us?
• We may not break into other languages we’ve never learned.  But do we have the ability to speak the truth into other people’s lives?  You bet.  If we go, God will give us the words and actions.

That leaves one more sign.  Are we telling the good news?  Are we so full of God’s Spirit that we can’t NOT tell?

©2012 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.

How can a Christian respond faithfully in times like this?  The answer might surprise you!

Desperate Times and Desperate Measures
A Christian’s Response to Economic Uncertainty

1 Kings 17:1-16, Mark 12:41-44
(also Matthew 6:19-34)

Intro: Letting Go

I had chances growing up to see all kinds of things.  We went on vacations once a year to places as far north as DC, and as far west as the Grand Canyon.  Strangely, though, I have only vague memories of some of these places.  I remember, for instance, the powerful feeling I had standing at the edge of the South Rim, but I don’t really remember any specific vistas, nor do I remember much of the long trip out west.

Strangely enough, one clear memory I have of growing up is going to the circus.  I remember cotton candy, silly toys that cost a lot and broke before I got home.  I remember animals and clowns – I even remember where we sat one time we went.

And one of my favorite things to watch was the trapeze artists.  What amazing skill they had, to fly through the air from bar to bar, flipping and twirling and ending up in just the right place at the right time.  I wasn’t the most adventurous child, but I could sure dream.  And I often imagined myself as a trapeze artist, flying gracefully through the air to the cheers of thousands.

That dream was shattered sometime in my teenage years, when I visited a particular ropes course on a youth trip.  A popular activity during the 80’s and 90’s, ropes courses were usually located at camps or in wooded areas.  Ropes or wires were strung between trees, and strategically linked together to make obstacle courses in the sky.  You might have to “walk” a shaky rope bridge with little help, negotiate a rope ladder, or slide down a zip line.  The courses were designed to build teamwork (you often had to work together to overcome an obstacle), and to give young people an esteem boost as they overcame their fears and achieved something difficult.

I had always been pretty good with heights, so I loved ropes courses.  It became something of a competition within a group – who could go through the fastest?  I thought I was fearless, until I encountered the largest ropes course I’ve ever been on.  It had multiple levels in the trees, and took even the fastest person 20 minutes or so to finish.  It had all the classic elements put together, plus a few I’d never seen.  And in one of those new challenges I met my match.

It was something like a Tarzan swing – two ropes hanging down, and you swung from one to grasp the other in order to move to the next challenge.  I came to the obstacle with confidence, thinking I would simply swing, grab the other rope, and get myself steady as I held onto both ropes before I went on.  But there was a problem – the ropes were too far apart for me to hold them both.  In order to make it, I’d have to let go of one completely, and jump to the next – just like a trapeze artist.

I made my initial swing, and as I realized I would have to let go, I froze.  I held on tight to the rope as it swung back and forth and eventually came almost to a halt.  I just couldn’t imagine that moment in the air when there was nothing to hold onto.  Sure, I was harnessed and someone on the ground held the rope that would keep me from falling.  But then I discovered the extents of my fearlessness – I had to face the new challenge of letting go of one thing completely so that I could grasp the other.

We’re going to talk about “desperate times and desperate measures” this morning, and I was facing that in a very real way!

Tough Choices

Today’s stories are about two widows who had to make similar choices.  They could choose either to hold onto their material things, or to trust in God… but they couldn’t do both.

1 Kings 17:1-16 (NET Bible)

(1) Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As certainly as the LORD God of Israel lives (whom I serve), there will be no dew or rain in the years ahead unless I give the command.”

(2)  The LORD told him:  (3)  “Leave here and travel eastward. Hide out in the Kerith Valley near the Jordan.  (4)  Drink from the stream; I have already told the ravens to bring you food there.”

(5)  So he did as the LORD told him; he went and lived in the Kerith Valley near the Jordan.  (6)  The ravens would bring him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he would drink from the stream.

(7)  After a while, the stream dried up because there had been no rain in the land.  (8)  The LORD told him,  (9)  “Get up, go to Zarephath in Sidonian territory, and live there. I have already told a widow who lives there to provide for you.”  (10)  So he got up and went to Zarephath. When he went through the city gate, there was a widow gathering wood. He called out to her, “Please give me a cup of water, so I can take a drink.”  (11)  As she went to get it, he called out to her, “Please bring me a piece of bread.”

(12)  She said, “As certainly as the LORD your God lives, I have no food, except for a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. Right now I am gathering a couple of sticks for a fire. Then I’m going home to make one final meal for my son and myself. After we have eaten that, we will die of starvation.”

(13)  Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go and do as you planned. But first make a small cake for me and bring it to me; then make something for yourself and your son.  (14)  For this is what the LORD God of Israel says, ‘The jar of flour will not be empty and the jug of oil will not run out until the day the LORD makes it rain on the surface of the ground.’ ”

(15)  She went and did as Elijah told her; there was always enough food for Elijah and for her and her family.  (16)  The jar of flour was never empty and the jug of oil never ran out, just as the LORD had promised through Elijah.

Mark 12:41-44 (NET Bible)

Then he sat down opposite the offering box, and watched the crowd putting coins into it. Many rich people were throwing in large amounts.  (42)  And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, worth less than a penny.  (43)  He called his disciples and said to them, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the offering box than all the others.  (44)  For they all gave out of their wealth. But she, out of her poverty, put in what she had to live on, everything she had.”

You and I face hard times.  The economy is in awful shape, and getting worse every day it seems.  Gas prices are going up and down like a roller coaster.  The financial future is uncertain, for our world, our nation, and our own families.

But we don’t face anything like these two women did.  They both lived in hard times – even desperate times.  What would you do in their places?  What kinds of desperate measures might we take?

The widow in Zarephath faced hard times along with everyone else in the land: in the ancient world, a drought could be a devastating thing, and they had no resources to get water from hundreds of miles away.  Crops and livestock died, leaving few resources for food – especially for widows, who had no husband to take care of their material needs.  You’re down to your last little bit of stuff to make bread, and all you can imagine is that this will be your last meal before you starve.

So what do you do, when a man comes to you and asks for food?  Do you grasp tightly, and say, “Sorry, this is my last meal and I’m going to make the most of it”?  Is that the kind of desperate measure that’s called for?

The other widow that Jesus observed faced her own personal crisis.  Who knows what desperate circumstances had taken her down to her last two pennies?  Perhaps her husband and her sons had all died, and she had scrimped and saved until a few meager pennies were all that was left of the small family fortune.

So what do you do when the time comes to give your offering?  “Sorry, God, but you can see how tough times are right now.  I’ll give you something later when I’m able.”  After all, she would wait in the long line of people putting money in the temple offering box, and many of the wealthier ones would stand and make a show out of putting their large piles of money in.  Everyone could hear as the coins left a waterfall of “clinks” as they fell in the box.  How embarrassing might it be to come behind someone like that, and to hear the measly sound of your two coins: “clink… clink.”

We can learn a lot from these widows who faced similar times as we do.  They both had choices to make – desperate times mean desperate measures.  But when we think of desperate measures, we probably don’t think of the response that these two women made!   And their desperate measures said a lot about the God they worshiped and trusted.

Changing the Rules

Have you ever played games with a preschooler?  I’m finding more chances to do that lately, as Abigail is getting into games these days.  She’s got a few card games, computer games, and even board games like Candy Land and Hi-ho-Cheerio.  And I’ve noticed, as most of you, that preschoolers don’t always have the respect for rules that most of us adults do.  The point of a game is to win, after all.  So if the rules get in the way of that, then let’s just do something about it!  And as a daddy, I just laugh and go along with it – squelching that part of me that screams, “You can’t change the rules in the middle of the game!”

We laugh when children do it.  But I think that you and I change the rules of faith sometimes when it comes to money and material things, as well.

We usually tend to hold on more tightly to God in times of trouble – when we’re sick, for example, or when someone we love is sick or in danger.  We reach out in faith because we realize we don’t have any control over our situation.  That’s normal.  As the old saying goes, “there are no atheists in foxholes.”

But for some reason, things are often reversed when it comes to money and material things.  We may hold on tightly to God in times when our well-being is threatened.  But we are a people of the material – and when our material goods are threatened, we tend to hold on tightly to the things we have.

“I’ll just wait on the tithe this month,” we say, “Let’s just see how things look at the end of the month.”

Or, “I know those folks need help, but I just don’t know if the money will be there.”

And it’s not just about the money or lack thereof – it’s the uncertainty.  We don’t like the unknown, the uncertain.  We like to know what’s ahead, to be sure our retirement funds and checking accounts will always have a nice pad.  If that certainty is not there, it will affect the way we choose to use that money – including the ways we use our resources to help others

Like the trapeze artist, we’re getting ready to swing out in mid-air.  On one side is our material things, and on the other is the God we claim faith in – the God who has told us to store up treasures in heaven, not on earth.  We can’t hold onto both at the same time.   As Jesus said in our earlier passage, “you can’t serve both God and money.”

It’s easy to trust God and to give and help freely when things are good.  But what about in the difficult times?  Times like this are the true test of our faith – a chance to see just how much we really trust God to take care of us.

Desperate Times

When we think of the phrase “desperate times call for desperate measures,” we might turn our eyes to the current financial crisis.  Times are tough – it’s time to get desperate and start looking out for Number One.  The budget’s getting tight?  Let’s cut back our benevolences and tithe.  We can always boost them again later when things are good.

Even if we don’t consciously think this, it’s something we’re tempted to think.  We don’t want to let go of that rope, because secretly we trust God with a lot of things – but not our money.

But the two widows in today’s passages teach us a powerful lesson.  Desperate times DO call for desperate measures.  But not in the way we think of it.  Desperate times mean we should be even MORE desperate to give and to help.  In desperate times, we shouldn’t give LESS, we should give MORE.

This is a hard concept for us to face, but in light of these two stories we’ve heard, and in light of Jesus’ words from the passage we read earlier, I don’t think we have any other choice but to see it this way.

This truth is practical, both materially and spiritually:

First, on the material plane.  We might want to dump ourselves in the category with the widows in our stories, in really “desperate times” financially.  But I don’t think any of us in this room can do that.  Let’s face it – probably all of us in this room are on the upper scale of things in this area.  We might not be close to Bill Gates or Warren Buffett in our income, but if we put things on a local scale, most of us in this room would probably be in the top 10-15% of income in our county and in Southside.

And if things are bad for us, how bad are they for those who are in REALLY desperate times?  When you have to face the choice between buying gas to get to work and buying food for your family?  Most of us don’t have to make that choice yet.

And even if we do have to make those choices, we’re never exempted from giving.  God never says, “Only give your tithe when you can afford to.”  He doesn’t say, “Only help others when you’re comfortable doing it.”  He simply tells us to give, and to help.

In times like this, it makes practical sense for us as the people of God to give MORE, not LESS.

And spiritually, it’s practical as well.  It helps us keep the rules consistent – we’re not switching rules mid-game.  We’re declaring that we have as much faith in God with our material things as we do with the rest of our lives.  And when we do that, we step to a whole new level of faith and our walk with God.

And just like Jesus said, we aren’t going to go hungry.  God will provide for us – more that we might imagine, in fact.  Tanya and I have found in our giving lives that God blesses us more the more we give.  There’s no formula to work out exactly how, and God’s not bound to it like a law – though he has promised that it’s more blessed to give than to receive.  And I think that all of you could provide examples as well.

Making it Work

So how do we work this out?  It’s not going to be the same for each of us.  All of us are in different places, financially and spiritually.  So each of us will have to think of what it means for us.

And to do that, we have to remember it’s not only a matter of material things – it’s a spiritual statement.  What do you and I need to do to fully let go of one rope and grasp on to the other?  We don’t have to give away every penny we have… we just have to be willing to if God asks.

In this way, there is a response for ALL OF US to make – every single one of us.

Our response might be financial and material.  Maybe we need to give more – and if we’re at all tempted to give less in these uncertain times, it’s a sign that we need to give MORE.  We’re in desperate times, so we need to take desperate measures.

I’m not asking you all to give more to the church – though if you want to, that’s fine with me!  But we do need to give even more in these uncertain times to people who can make things happen.  Pick up more food at the store for the food pantry, pick up things for Madeline’s House.

And if we’re already giving a lot, maybe we need to think of other ways to take desperate measures.  Maybe now would be a good time for you to volunteer at the shelter or the food pantry.  Maybe it’s time to check in on your neighbors – no matter what their color or what language they speak – and see if there’s anything you can do for them.

If there’s any time when we can make a radical statement about the God we believe in, it’s NOW.  Let’s be willing to let go of our things, and hold tightly instead to the God who has saved us, the God who has always provided for our needs, the who will bring us home to an unimaginable treasure someday.

These are desperate times.  Let’s take desperate measures, and show the world just how big our God really is.

©2012 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.

Romans Chapter 7
“The Battle”

Introduction

First off, two disclaimers:

• This chapter is controversial in Christian scholarship, for reasons we’ll see. I realize you aren’t aware of all the problems with the chapter – but I’ll try to help you as I go along. And if you decide you disagree with my conclusion, that’s OK. I’d love to talk with you about it. But know that my sermon today will be based on my understanding of the passage – and it’s the “minority opinion.”
• This chapter, controversial as it is, really has to be taken as a whole to be understood. And it REALLY has to be taken with chapter 8 as well. But we don’t have time for all that this morning, so I’ll try to tie things together and we’ll have to wait for another week.

Previously (ch. 6) Paul has asserted that we are now free to choose whom we will serve – sin or God.  But that doesn’t end the story, unfortunately.  It’s not that one master has been destroyed and there is no longer a choice as to whom we serve.  Just because we are no longer enslaved to sin doesn’t mean that we are unable to sin.  It simply means that we have the choice now.

Old Law vs. “New way of the Spirit”

An Illustration From Marriage

(1) Do you not know, brothers-for I am speaking to men who know the law-that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? (2) For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. (3) So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.

Paul now gives another example to illustrate his point.  He’s not giving any kind of teaching about marriage… in fact, this passage really has nothing to do with marriage.  He’s simply referring to Jewish law to make a point.  And his point is this: death brings about a change in the circumstances of the law. Under Jewish law, if a woman is with another man while her husband is still alive, she is committing adultery.  While her husband is alive, she is bound to that contract and “law,” and the consequences for breaking it were severe.

But once her husband dies, the commitment to the old contract dies with him.  The death signaled that the woman was free from one law and is now free to choose.

(4) So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. (5) For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. (6) But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

In a similar way, when we decided to place our trust in God and Jesus, we “died” to the old law that once bound us.  Jesus was like the husband who died – except Jesus did it WILLINGLY.  He died willingly so that we could be free from one law to be bound to another.  Since Jesus died, we can be free from the old way of living, and we can follow “the new way of the Spirit” and not the old written Law.

Struggling With Sin

(7) What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” (8) But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. (9) Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. (10) I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.

(11) For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. (12) So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. (13) Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

Using rhetorical argument again, Paul recognizes that we could use this reasoning to think that the Law is a BAD THING – after all, if we are bound to it, it produces death.  And this is a common misconception.  We’re used to thinking: “Old Law is bad, new life is good.”

But he asserts that this is far from true – rather, the Law has always been a pure and holy thing, but like a bright light it shone on sin and revealed sin for what it really was.  As Paul points out in Galatians, the Law was kind of like a “teacher” that helped move us toward God and toward Jesus.  If not for the Law, we would not have known what was right and wrong to God – nor would we have known of our need for God.

The Battle Begins

Now here’s the part that’s controversial.

(14) We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. (15) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. (16) And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. (17) As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. (18) I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. (19) For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. (20) Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

(21) So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. (22) For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; (23) but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. (24) What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (25) Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

The controversial part is this:  How is Paul speaking here?  There are a few ways to look at it, and they can be boiled down to two:

• He’s speaking as himself and other Jews, but before he placed his faith in Christ. This is the “majority view.” Paul is showing his predicament BEFORE he became a follower of Jesus.
• He’s speaking of himself at the current time – an in-between time, AFTER Christ has set him free from the old law, but BEFORE his own death has abolished the old law all together.

I hesitate to go against modern scholarship here.  These men and women are much wiser and much more educated than I am.  But my own life experiences have forced me to see things in a different way.

My assertion:

• Much of Christian scholarship seems to operate under the assumption that sin will no longer be a problem for us – as if it is erased from our current experience.
• Far from it, I believe that we now have the power not to sin, and that the real battle between flesh and Spirit has now begun.
• So what Paul describes here is not the viewpoint of an unregenerate sinner or Jew, but rather his own experience of the battle between flesh and Spirit that rages within us until the day we truly die and shed the sinful nature.

Think about it.  Many of us had no inkling of what was right or wrong before we had a desire to look into God’s Word and to follow it.  But the battle wasn’t won then – many people think this and even act according to it.

But to say the battle was won when the Spirit enters our life is like saying D-Day was won before the soldiers ever set foot on the beaches of Normandy.  The battle didn’t begin until those soldiers set foot in France and fired the first shots.

It’s the same in our lives.  The battle had not even begun until that point when the Spirit came into our lives and began the process of rooting out our sinful habits.

Sin is Still a Powerful Foe

So Paul finds the crux of the matter – sin is still a powerful force to reckon with.  Once God’s light has shone in us, we have the desire to do good and to follow his commands.  We want to do the right thing.  But, UNTIL WE FINALLY DIE, there will still be a battle between our old way and our new way.

Once we accepted Christ, we were given the power to reject sin.  But it didn’t mean that we automatically stopped sinning all together.  In fact, now we see even more clearly why our sinful actions are painful to God!

So still the battle is there – we want to do what is good, and yet our old habits and our tendencies to sin sometimes overcome our desire to follow God.  And the closer we get to God, the greater becomes our desire to please him and serve him.

What Can We Do?

If we had to leave things here, we would indeed have to say with Paul that we are “wretched creatures.”  Because of our new life in Christ, we have a new desire to love and serve him.  But we also have a clearer and deeper picture of our own sinfulness.

This would be a wretched life indeed if the story were to end here!  We have once been under one law, that bound us to specific actions that even now we are not able to keep perfectly.  If we are still bound to that old Law as Christians, then we are no better off.  In fact, we might be WORSE off, because of all people we can see our sin even more clearly.

Thankfully, the story doesn’t end here.  And thankfully I’m not going to leave everything for next week.  Let us read this word with thankfulness:

Life Through the Spirit

(1) Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, (2) because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. (3) For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, (4) in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

©2012 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.

Even though I’ve had to take a couple of breaks from the series on Romans, it’s still going – and going strong, it seems.  Our church folks are saying they have consistently enjoyed these sermons more than others I have done.

So this post continues into Romans chapter 6.  As some of the prior entries in this series, this post is more “commentary” than sermon – these were the notes I took in preparation for the actual sermon.

Intro: “Easier to Ask Forgiveness…”

(1) What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  (2)  By no means!

Paul is picking up where he left off before – “where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (5:20).  Using a typical rhetorical device, Paul anticipates the questions and objections of his hearers/readers.  “So if grace is ALWAYS going to be greater than sin, then we can keep on sinning, right?  It will always be forgiven later, after all!”

Before we write this off as something we would never do, think about it.  Have you ever thought like this before?  I have.

And it’s not uncommon for us, as human beings, to think like this.  While we are here on this side of heaven, our nature will always be to work contrary to God.  And sinful ways are tempting – that’s why we want to go back to them.  It’s fun!  That’s just the way we are!

Paul’s answer, of course, is a resounding NO.  In fact, in Greek this phrase, me genoito, is something like “God forbid!” or “heck no!”

To emphasize his point, Paul uses two main images that help us understand what has happened to us when we choose to follow Christ.

Death and Life: Identifying with Christ

(2) How can we who died to sin still live in it? (3)  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  (4)  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  (5)  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  (6)  We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  (7)  For one who has died has been set free from sin.

Two weeks ago we talked about how we must identify with Christ in our sufferings if we are to identify with him in his glory.  Here Paul says that we must also identify with Jesus in his death – not a physical death this time, but a spiritual one.  When we join with Christ, we “die” to our old selves – and just as one who dies physically is freed from slavery to sin, so are we freed from slavery to sin.  And then we are “raised to walk in newness of life.”

Again, this is not an “either-or,” but rather a “both-and.”  We must accept the death to sin if we want to accept the resurrection.

(8) Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  (9)  We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  (10)  For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.  (11)  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Paul continues to follow his train of thought – this time comparing our spiritual journey with the physical journey of Jesus.

Jesus dies                                   =>       We die to sin

Jesus is raised                             =>       We are raised to new life

Jesus no longer subject to death    =>       We are no longer subject to sin

Jesus lives forever in new life         =>       We live forever free from sin

One of my favorite books to read with the girls has been Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. There are all kinds of lessons we can learn from the story of the butterfly, and there’s an important lesson for us in regards to this passage, as well.  Before he was transformed, the caterpillar had no choice but to crawl.  He didn’t have wings… he only had legs.  But once he became a butterfly, he didn’t LOSE his legs – he could still crawl if he wanted to.  But now he had a CHOICE – and the easier choice was to fly!

But imagine if the Very Hungry Caterpillar became a butterfly… and then wanted to go back to being a caterpillar?  He kept his wings, but he decided never to use them again.  The “Very Hungry Caterpillar” turned into the “Very Unintelligent Butterfly.”  How ridiculous would that be?

Freedom and Slavery

(12) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.  (13)  Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.  (14)  For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

The next illustration might be more powerful still.  Paul speaks of our prior relationship to sin as one of master-slave.  “Slave” is a strong word today, and it accurately portrays Paul’s point.  Before, we were literally slaves to sin.  Like slaves, we had no choice whom to serve – we were sinful through and through.

But now we have been set free.  And we can freely choose which master we want to serve.  Will we continue to serve sin, even though it has no real claim on us?

Suppose we as Americans decided that even though we were free from British rule, we wanted to start paying taxes to Britain again and letting them tell us what to do.  Not only would it be ridiculous, it would be an insult to all the men and women who gave their lives so that we could live free!

So, now that we are free, we should present ourselves and our “members” – that is, our bodies, and our resources – to the one who has bought our freedom.  Our bodies, our lives, our talents and time have been redeemed.  We should no longer use them for sinful things, but for holy things… not just to our own designs, but “for righteousness.”

Choosing Our Master

(15) What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!  (16)  Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?  (17)  But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,  (18)  and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Paul’s tone here seems to indicate, “It doesn’t matter who you DECLARE as your master.  The one you serve is your REAL master.”

(19)  I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.  (20)  When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  (21)  But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.  (22)  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.  (23)  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Again, Paul chooses rich imagery – that of a person at a job.  The wages of doing the work of sin is death.  These are the wages we deserve – we’ve done the work, and we deserve the fruit of our labor.  We’ve served our master, and we’ve gotten our reward.

But notice that Paul doesn’t use the same terms describing what God has done.  He doesn’t say, “the wages of righteousness is eternal life.”  We didn’t work for this eternal life, and neither did we earn it.

Paul says, “the FREE GIFT of God is eternal life.”  Again, mercy and grace – we should have received the “wages of sin,” but we didn’t.  Instead, we got something we did NOT deserve – a free gift of eternal life.

©2012 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.

Romans 5:9-21
“The Great Disease”

Greater Than / Less Than

As we read the passage for this morning, we may notice that Paul is using a certain kind of logical argument here.  Do you remember, from early math, the “greater than” and “less than” signs?  Paul’s making an assumption from the start, and we can use these signs to describe grace and sin.

Paul’s logic:  GRACE > SIN – that is, “grace is greater than sin.”

Is this true?  We know it theologically – God’s love and grace will conquer in the end.  But sin and death are awfully powerful forces.  Last time anyone checked, there was still a 100% mortality rate for sin.  Can it really be true that grace is greater than death?  That forgiveness is greater than sin?

It’s true on a theological scale.  And we can prove it by looking at our own lives.

Pretend someone does something to hurt you (not hard to pretend, is it?).  The wrong done (we’ll call it a “sin” against you) always has consequences, it’s true.  It hurts, and very little if anything can be done to take the hurt away.

We have all kinds of possible reactions to this wrong against us.  We could retaliate and get revenge – that’s a popular response.  But that doesn’t make things right – in fact, it usually just leads to more revenge and more hurt.  We could simply choose to remove ourselves from that situation or relationship – this is also a popular, and much easier response.  But this doesn’t solve the problem either – it just allows the hurt to fester, eventually turning into bitterness and hate toward most everyone and everything.  Again, more hurt results.

Sin and wrong seem very powerful indeed, don’t they?  Nearly every response to a “sin” against us only serves to bring about more hurt and more wrong.

Every response except one:  Love.

Love the “Anti-Virus”

What if, in response to the wrong you’ve suffered, you decided to offer forgiveness to that person and restore the relationship?  It’s not easy, that’s for sure.  But notice what can happen as a result.  The bitterness and anger you feel are released.  The person who has wronged you may or may not want to be forgiven, but chances are they’ll be VERY surprised at your response.  The cycle of wrong and hurt is broken.

Grace and forgiveness are difficult – but they can AWAYS overcome the wrong.

Remember the old expression, “never bring a knife to a gun fight?”  No matter what we do in life, we want to have the most powerful weapons and resources.  If you’re a football team, you want to have the best plays and players.  If you’re an army, you want to have the best soldiers and weapons.  If you’re in business, you want to have the best product and the best plan.  It’s true of nearly every endeavor we undertake as human beings – it’s always wiser to use the best resources when we have a choice.

That’s why Jesus consistently tells us to sow love and grace, instead of wrong and hate.  That’s why he told us to love our enemies and turn the other cheek.  That’s why he didn’t speak in anger when he was falsely accused, or strike out at those who were trying to hurt him.  That’s why he always tells us to FORGIVE, FORGIVE, FORGIVE…

Because he knows that forgiveness is more powerful than wrong.  He wants us to use the most powerful resource available to us.

This is where Paul’s logic works its magic.  If sin is powerful enough to work its way into every human being and every human undertaking, if sin is powerful enough to lead to death… and if grace is more powerful, then how much more powerful must be the effects of grace?

If it’s true that sin and death entered and poisoned the world through one man (Adam), how much MORE true is it that GRACE and FORGIVENESS will enter the world through one man (Jesus)?

Spreading the “Anti-Virus”

As I prepared for the sermon this week, I did some research on viruses and infectious diseases.  I ended up finding out a lot more than I’d wanted to know.  I learned about how viruses can work to find weaknesses in our immune system, and there are some deadly viruses that can even turn our immune systems against us.  I learned how there are hosts – people or animals who are infected with the disease and can infect others – and vectors, people or animals who are not infected themselves, but can still carry the virus and infect others.

I read about outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics.  I learned how doctors and scientists must proceed in order to deal with these problems – identify, treat and prevent.  And it made me think of what Paul’s talking about here in Romans, and how the disease of sin has spread.

[Here, in the service, I had everyone get up and shake hands, with directions to remember all the people whose hands they shook.  Next, after everyone was seated, I asked everyone to check under their pews and look for a piece of paper I'd taped there.  One lady found the green paper, and I asked her to stand.  "Now imagine," I said, "that she has one of the worst new viruses ever discovered and she didn't know it.  And one of the ways you transfer it is by shaking hands.  Who here shook hands with Mrs. Thompson?"  I had these stand, and then those who shook their hands, and so on - so that eventually, nearly the entire congregation was standing.]

See how easily a virus can spread?  And all we have to do to contract the disease of sin, is to be born!

If I were to ask, “What kinds of things do we do in order to keep from getting a virus?”  I’m sure I’d get a lot of good ideas.  We can wash our hands, take plenty of medicines and vitamins to boost our immune system.  We can take vaccines and use measures to avoid specific illnesses.  In extreme cases, we might even avoid contact with other people.

But now imagine someone had a virus that attacked and killed the other virus, and did not harm the host.  If we had that virus in this room, and we knew that the world was dying out there, what would we do?  We’d act exactly the opposite from before – we’d go out and try to see as many people as we could, to give them the “anti-virus.”  We’d take steps that would insure we’d “infect” everyone we came into contact with.

It doesn’t take a genius to see where this is going…

©2012 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.

Romans 5:1-8
“Rejoicing in Suffering?”

Last week we talked about the plotline of the story Paul is telling.  The exposition, the narrative hook, the rising action, the climax, and the falling action.  We also talked about how this is not just a novel or some story we’re reading – but that at the climax, each of our stories begin.  We hear the good news, we are confronted with the power and truth of the Gospel.  The rising action asks the question: How will we respond?  Paul assumes we will respond in true faith that changes our lives.

So Paul continues in chapter 5:

Rom 5:1-2 Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  (2)  through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God’s glory.

This sounds good so far, right?  But Paul never leaves well-enough alone.

Rom 5:3-8 Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,  (4)  and endurance, character, and character, hope.  (5)  And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

And why do we have hope?

(6) For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  (7)  (For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die.)  (8)  But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Woah, Paul.  Why’d you have to go there?  Rejoicing in “the hope of God’s glory” from verse 2, that’s good.  Why don’t we skip a few verses?  There’s no need to talk about suffering, is there?

But this is not the only place this is mentioned.  Paul talks like this at least 11 times in his writing; James mentions suffering with Christ;  In Revelation, in the letters to the churches, it seems as if those early Christians must suffer for Jesus’ name.

Even Jesus himself hints at it a couple of times:

Mat 5:11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things about you falsely on account of me.

And when Jesus talked about “taking up your cross,” people didn’t look at that as some symbol like we do.  The cross was a real, ugly and awful thing to them.  It would be like Jesus saying to us, “sit in the electric chair and follow me.”  There’s no mistaking what he meant.  For more on this idea, see 2 Cor. 4:11-12, Philippians 1:29-30, Phil 3:10-11; Colossians 1:24; 1 Peter 4:13-14.

What’s this about?  Why can’t we just stick with hope and not have to work through the whole theology of suffering?

First, it’s important to realize that Paul’s talking about REAL suffering.  He’s not talking about not being able to pray in school.  He’s not talking about being sad that the stores now use the word “holiday” instead of “Christmas.”  He’s not talking about seeing the Ten Commandments removed from a courthouse.

He’s talking about agony.  Betrayal.  Physical and mental suffering, like Jesus experienced.

And we don’t just ENDURE the suffering.  We aren’t just CONTENT with it… we REJOICE in the suffering.  How on earth could this be?  Why would anyone but a sadist want people to “rejoice” in their suffering and pain?

Other Reactions to Suffering

We don’t like to think this way – actually, we don’t like to think about suffering and pain much at all.  And it’s mostly because of who we are and where we live.  We’re so blessed to live in a place that’s relatively free of suffering and persecution.  It’s difficult for most of us to imagine actual “suffering” like Paul describes, because many of us have no idea what it’s really like.

Some Christians here in America have developed a different kind of theology that says we SHOULDN’T suffer.  It’s called “Prosperity Theology.”  They take passages from the scripture that talk about God’s blessings, and they translate that into everyday life.

“Are you suffering?  Are you poor or hungry?  It’s probably because you don’t have enough faith,” they would tell you.  God is placed as the middle-man in a greater system, whereby we receive blessings as long as we do things in just the right way.  We have to pray specific prayers, and we have to ask in faith.  We have to sacrifice in order for these blessings to come – especially if it means giving money to a certain person’s ministry.

To be fair, this is a caricature of these popular speakers and preachers.  Not all who teach the so-called “Prosperity Gospel” are this way.  But the root of their theology says that God doesn’t want you to be unhappy or to have to suffer.

To talk like this ignores all the teachings of the scripture about suffering.  And ironically, in the same way that it was necessary for Jesus to suffer and die in order for us to be saved, it seems that in some way we must also suffer and die in order to accept that salvation.

Another extreme is called “asceticism.”  If you read the book or saw the movie “The Da Vinci Code,” you probably remember the character of Silas – the albino assassin monk.  Whenever Silas committed a sin, he would whip himself, and would wear a collar with spikes that drove into his thigh.  One of the ideas behind practices like this is that if we are to “rejoice” in our sufferings, then we ought to spend our lives seeking out suffering.

The truth lies somewhere in between these two opposites.  I don’t think God ever promises us that life will be rosy if we act just the right way.  In fact, the amount of persecution and confusion we stir up seems to be the best judge of how well we’re living out the message of Jesus.  And if the Prosperity Gospel is true, there are a lot of wonderful Christian people out there who obviously have it all wrong – people who live in poor countries, or who have terrible diseases they cannot get rid of.

Neither do I think we’re called to inflict pain and suffering on ourselves.  We’ll get plenty of that if we truly act in Christ’s name.

Both of these extremes take God’s tools and put them in our hands.  We’re using these things as an end in themselves, when God sees them as a MEANS to an end.  When God gives material blessing in the scriptures, it’s usually for one of HIS OWN purposes.  When suffering occurs in the scriptures, it’s not just to make people feel bad.  God’s using it for something.

But WE are never called to use these things.  These are God’s tools, not ours.

Putting it Together

So how in the world can we make sense of this passage?  Psychologically, it actually makes sense, and Paul has given us the clues to understand it.

Rom 5:3-8 Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,  (4)  and endurance, character, and character, hope.  (5)  And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Paul shows us a progression:  Suffering   ->   Endurance   ->   Character   ->   HOPE

I learned a lot about my body when we were trained for our first marathon last year – a lot about what my body needed for different tasks.  For a marathon, my body didn’t need extra strength.  I also didn’t really need extra speed – It wouldn’t matter if I could win a 400-yard sprint.  I could have the strongest and fastest body in the world, but I wouldn’t have been able to run 26 miles.  What I needed was ENDURANCE.

And you don’t buy endurance in a sports drink.  You don’t get it by sitting at home and thinking about it.  In order to get the endurance, you have to practice those LONG runs.  You have to do longer sprints and get your body used to the hard work.  And while I’m not calling it suffering, it certainly was not pleasant at times…

This is what Paul’s talking about with endurance.  Life is not a sprint.  We don’t just sit back and run our little bit and then hang it up.  We’re in it for the long haul.  And in order to develop the endurance to deal with the difficulties of life, we have to EXPERIENCE those difficulties and learn how to deal with them.

And this endurance is what produces CHARACTER.  We are the sum of our life’s experiences, and true character is not something that’s taught or gained by reading a lot of good books.  Character is developed as we deal with life’s difficulties and learn to overcome them.

And finally, character is what produces HOPE.  And HOPE is one of the most important things we have.

Paul’s saying, “You want to have the mind of Christ?  You want to be transformed into the image of Christ, just as God wants you to be?”  You want to live with the hope of God burning so brightly inside you that others can see it?  You want to be able to weather the storms of life, to bend but not be broken?

You can’t skip the first step – suffering.  There are no shortcuts.

This is why we rejoice in our sufferings, Paul tells us:  Not because we enjoy the pain, but because of what that pain will eventually produce – endurance, character, and hope.

©2012 Notes From Jon. All Rights Reserved.