The Church
Romans 12:1-16
The Church
Romans 12:1-16
“We are often eager to see extraordinary events – growth in numbers or financial abundance or credibility in the larger community – that we fail to delight in the ordinary breath and heartbeat of the body. When people in the church encourage one another, teach one another, serve one another, and pray for one another in dozens of small and large ways, we ought to rejoice.” ~ Megan Hill
Main Idea: The church is a worshipping people, a serving body, and a welcoming family because of God’s mercies.
I. A Worshipping People (12:1-2)
Because of the mercies (plural) of God, we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, which is our ‘spiritual worship.’ In every age, season, and location, the church is a worshipping people. We have no greater incentive or power to worship than the mercies of God toward us in Jesus Christ.
This worship is not just inward or abstract; it is an offering of our entire being. This includes:
Head: ‘spiritual’ worship = rational or logical. We are invited to fill our minds with the pure, lovely, commendable, and excellent things of God (Phil. 4:8)
Heart: ‘All that is within us’ (Ps. 103:1) is summoned to worship God
Hands: we are to offer our very bodies as a “living sacrifice”
As we engage in worship, we are resisting being “conformed” (lit. molded) by the world, and are rather transformed into the image of Christ. This occurs both individually (2 Cor. 3:18) and corporately (Eph. 4:15-16) in the church.
II. A Serving Body (12:3-8)
The imagery of the “body” of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 12, Eph. 4:12-16) signifies:
Unity: Just as the members of our physical body must be unified and work together, so too must the members of the body of Christ. We operate from unity, not toward unity (Eph. 4:3).
Diversity: The members do not all have the same function; there is unity but not uniformity in the body of Christ. There are no unimportant parts and we are dependent upon one another for the health of the body.
This imagery primarily implies in the Scriptures a humble service (12:3) that builds up the body of Christ. Whatever gifts we have been given by the Spirit, we are to employ them in the body of Christ as servants and contributors, not spectators or consumers.
“This truth should give you confidence: your particular gifts have a valuable, God-appointed place. It should also humble you: your particular gifts are simply one part of the body, and you desperately need other people with their particular gifts… this truth should increase your love for the local church: the gifts in the body are exactly what God knows your congregation needs. Because of God’s sovereign choosing, no part is missing, and every part is valuable.” ~ Megan Hill
The various “lists” of spiritual gifts in the NT can be categorized broadly into Speaking Gifts, Leading Gifts, and Serving Gifts. Regardless of gifts or categories, the exhortation is “having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them” (12:6). We are called to joyfully & sacrificially invest our time, treasure, and talents as an act of worship out of love for God and love for one another.
III. A Welcoming Family (12:9-16)
The church is primarily described in the NT as the family of God or the “household of faith” (Gal. 6:10; 1 Tim. 3:15); the early church was subversive to the Greco-Roman world around because they related to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, united not by the blood of biology but the blood of the cross.
The church as a family ought to be marked by hospitality. Hospitality is not “entertaining” but instead a powerful picture of the invitation of the gospel itself. Romans 15:7: Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. As we love one another in this way, we are to welcome the outsider and the stranger in the very same way each of us have been welcomed into God’s family.
“Churches are not Victorian parlors where everything is always picked up and ready for guests. They are messy family rooms… Things are out of order, to be sure, but that is what happens to churches that are lived in. They are not show rooms. They are living rooms, and if the persons living in them are sinners, they are going to be clothes scattered about, handprints on the woodwork, and mud on the carpet. For as long as Jesus insists on calling sinners and not the righteous to repentance – and there is no indication as yet that he has changed his policy in this regard – churches are going to be an embarrassment to the fastidious and an affront to the upright.” ~ Eugene Peterson
Our experience & the world’s view of the church is often unremarkable, but God has willed that “through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers & authorities in the heavenly places” (Eph. 3:10). The church is God’s “Plan A” to make known the glories of Jesus Christ to the cosmos.
Rage & Refuge
Psalm 2
Rage & Refuge
Psalm 2
Main Idea: The gospel invites us to turn from our rage against God and take refuge in Him.
I. Our sin is great (v.1-3)
All nations and people are naturally bent away from God (v. 1)
Our own actions follow and we disobey and actively work against the Lord (v. 2)
We foolishly think this is good (v. 3)
James 1:13-15 tells us “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
“It is not just the political powers of this world which have no desire to be ruled by him. There is scarcely a commercial or intellectual or cultural interest anywhere on earth which would not resent his claims on it.” ~ Michael Wilcock
II. The Lord is greater (v. 4-6)
The Lord is infinitely more powerful than us (v. 4)
He has authority (v. 5)
He has ability (v. 6)
He is both YAHWEH which we see with all capitals in the translated word for LORD and Adonai which we see with only a capital L (Lord). These names point to his reality. He is the Creator or all powerful One and personal Master or King.
III. He has a plan (v. 7-9)
His plan was Jesus (v. 6-7)
His plan is at work (v. 8)
His plan is just (v. 9)
Hebrews 5:5 “So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”;”
Acts 13:33 “this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, “‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’”
Romans 1:4 “concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,”
Romans 9:21-24 “But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?”
IV. He is inviting us in (v. 10-12)
Through our actions (v. 10)
Through our understanding (v. 11)
Through our identity (v. 12)
Distinct Christian Identity
Distinct Christian Community
Distinct Christian Lifestyle
Phil 2:12-13 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
Phil 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
John 14:6, he says “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
“God's response to human pride and power is to install his "son” on Zion. This points beyond Israel's king to Jesus, God's true Son. One day he will put everything right; but he will do this by going first to Zion - to Jerusalem - to die for our sins. To "kiss his son"is to rest in and live for him. If we do this, we have assurance that no matter what happens to us, ultimately everything will be all right. If we don't live for him, we end up fighting God himself. So "there is no refuge from him only in him."” ~ Tim Keller
Our Sin is great. Our Lord is greater. He has a plan. And he is inviting us in.