August 18, 2024|On Mission|Romans 12:1-13
John-Daniel Cutler
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Our church started a process through the SBTC last September called Regenesis. After much prayer, I put together a team of 6 people made up of diverse members, some who had been here for a year up to those who have been members here for 40 years. Together, over 8 or 9 months, we met in monthly cohorts with three teams from other local churches as well as meeting as a team in between those monthly group meetings.
The whole Regenesis process is designed for a church to evaluate herself and is ongoing even now. We asked questions and worked through processes and tools designed to lead us to answer ‘what are the things that we need to do to be a more healthy and vibrant outpost of ambassadors of Christ where we are’ and ‘what things do we need to stop doing’, or ‘what things are keeping us from being as healthy as we can be?’
One of the main driving questions is, if the mission of the church, according to the great commission, is to make disciples, how are we going to fulfill the mission of the church?
What is God calling us to?
I want to share some of the answers we came to this morning, not because God, as your pastor, has given me some grand vision for our church but because we have gone to scripture and asked, God, what is your will for us? We have examined our church body and asked what is God doing among us, who He is bringing together in this particular place at this particular time, and why?
The statement that we have arrived at is neither overly clever, or perfect, or infallible, and yet I believe it is God honoring, Biblical, and formational.
It answers three simple questions, questions that this morning I wish to walk us through.
Who are we? What are we to be doing? How are we to do it?
We looked at numerous sections of scripture in our process, but this morning for simplicity and clarity, I want us to just look at one section of scripture together as we answer these questions.
Open your Bibles to Romans chapter 12, at verse 1.
Romans 12 introduces a turning point in Paul’s longest epistle, written to the believers in Rome, people that at the time of its writing, he hoped to visit soon. For 11 chapters Paul has been emphasizing theological and doctrinal truths, remembering of course that originally there were no chapter or verse numbers, but nevertheless, there is a clear distinction between Paul’s culmination in the doxology of what we call chapter 11 and his opening words in what we know as chapter 12.
First, he uses the word therefore which signifies a transition from one subject to its application.
Second, he switches from truths about God to a personal appeal to his readers.
From here on in this letter, Paul is going to address the lives of his readers.
We are going to look at the first thirteen verses together this morning.
The first question we are going to look at is…
Who are we?- We are a covenant family
Let’s read the first four verses of Romans 12 together now.
Romans 12:1-4 (ESV) 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,
One of the first things I want you to understand is that Paul’s appeal is not primarily to the individual Christian, but to the entirety of the body.
To capture Paul’s language, it is the idea, ‘Therefore, I urge all of you brethren’
Why is this important? Because from the very beginning, if we get this wrong, everything else about what scripture commands the people of God to be falls apart.
The epistles of the New Testament, with the exception of Paul’s pastoral letters to Timothy and Titus, are written to churches, not to individuals. One of the great evils of our time is that, as Christians, we have bought into the lie that Christianity is about me and my Bible alone.
Listen, especially in the American church, our churches have become convenient places for loosely connected, ruggedly individualistic, culturally Christian people to gather in to have their felt needs met.
This is not what the New Testament records or describes concerning the church and I will spend every ounce of the strength God gives me in this life calling the church to abandon this nonsense and get back to what Scripture demands.
Paul’s command is that the totality of the church, all the believers in Rome would collectively live sacrificial lives that are acceptable to God, which is your (plural) spiritual worship.
...in the American church, our churches have become convenient places for loosely connected, ruggedly individualistic, culturally Christian people to gather in to have their felt needs met.
This is why we chose the word family. We are not merely a loosely connected group of people who happen to like meeting together on Sunday mornings, we have been adopted into the family of God and what connects us is more than convenience and more than preference, we are connected because we have been brought into the family of God.
We as a people are to present ourselves as a living sacrifice.
Have you ever wondered what that meant? Back when we started VBS, I preached from the first two verses of Romans 12. I will remind you that, from Paul’s letter we defined the essence of being a living sacrifice as being someone who considers themselves dead to sin and alive to God. You have died to your old self and your life is now in God and for God.
Now, the question becomes, how do we present ourselves as living sacrifices?
The word present means to place near or beside something, like putting something in the hands of another. In the Old Testament, worshippers would present their sacrifices to the priests who would offer them on their behalf. Who are we to present ourselves to? Who is our High Priest? According to the Bible it is Jesus Christ.
How do we present ourselves to him? Have you ever wondered?
Our Lord tells us a story in Matthew 25 that will no doubt be familiar to you. He says ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Jesus says in no uncertain terms, that the way we treat his people is received by him as though we did it to him. If we take what Jesus teaches us in Matthew and combine it with what we learn from Paul in his appeal, we begin to understand what it means to present ourselves as living sacrifices. How we live together with believers matters, how we relate to one another matters, how we serve one another matters. We are connected in ways that have eternal impact.
One of the words that undergird the statement we are a covenant family is the word commitment.
We define being a covenant family as being committed to living as the family of God in the local body of believers to which we belong.
Some of you may wonder why we chose the word covenant. It is not a word we used very often.
What is a covenant? A formal promise or agreement between people to do or not do certain things. In the case of covenant membership it is recognizing the calling on our lives to love Christ by loving his body in the ways outlined in scripture for us. It is a promise to live committed to Christ by living committed to the local expression of his body.
If we are going to be a Biblically faithful New Testament church anything less falls short of our calling. We are a covenant family.
What does this require of us? First and foremost, humility.
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,
To further drive the point home that Paul’s appeal to be living sacrifices is directed at the body and not just individual Christians, we see he immediately addresses our attitude towards one another. Do not be arrogant concerning yourself, but think rightly. You are just one piece of a greater body.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, this gathering is not about you. Your opinion, your preference is not the standard of what we do or don’t do. Furthermore, my opinion or preference is not the standard of what we do or don’t do.
Being a living sacrifice is surrendering our will to the Lord’s will and surrendering our lives to be used by Him; how He desires, in the way he desires, right where he put you. While using the same analogy of a body and its many members, the Apostle Paul says this, 1 Corinthians 12:18 (ESV) 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
God puts the body together in his wisdom and for his purposes. Our responsibility is to be used by him where he puts us. This is why the practice of repeated church hopping is dishonoring to God and ultimately damaging to the body. Find a place, settle down and get to serving, and unless you have a Biblical, God-honoring reason to leave, commit to that local body as the place you are going to display your love and devotion to Christ by loving and serving that body.
Will it be easy? No. Which is why Paul tells us that it is going to require us to humble ourselves, to think rightly about ourselves and the gifts God has given us, and to think rightly about how we are a part of a larger body. It’s easy to leave a church body in search of one that fits your personal wants and desires, it’s easier to leave a church body than to seek reconciliation with someone you aren’t getting along with. Ask yourself, does that really fit with being a living sacrifice?
Do you think the analogy Paul uses of a body made up of many members, all indispensable and all necessary, is reflected well when we take the easy way of leaving rather than the hard work of living together as a covenant family? Of course not.
And listen, are we there yet? No. But are we moving that way? Yes.
I see every week people who are loving and serving those around them in sacrificial and God-honoring ways, treating one another like family.
I also believe that the more we understand our identity as a covenant family, the more we will grow in expressions like this. Then it will be evident, not just to me, but to every person who steps into this place.
Which brings us to our next question.
What are we to be doing?- We are a covenant family, pursuing Christ…
Let us pick up in verse 5 of Romans.
Romans 12:5-8 (ESV) 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.
God has placed us in his body and He has given us gifts according to the measure of his grace.
For what purpose? That we would use them. Paul gives a sampling of the gifts of God and not an exhaustive list here. His purpose is not to set before them all the gifts, but to give them enough so that they could begin to see how they should use them.
If God has given you gifts according to his grace, use them in and for the body. They are not given to you to puff you up or to make you proud, or even to bring you recognition, they are for the good of the body, so use them, practically, cheerfully, faithfully.
You may ask, would it not be better to say, we are a covenant family, serving one another? Why use ‘pursuing Christ’?
Because I believe we will never use our giftings to their fullest if we are not growing in Christ.
We all carry the baggage of our old sinful nature, and the worst thing that can happen to a church is to have a group of people trying to serve in their own power and for their own selfish reasons or ambitions.
We have to ensure that we are serving in ways that honor God and for Christ-centered reasons, or we risk puffing ourselves in pride and undermining the very gifts God has given us.
So, rather than focus on the outcome, we wanted to focus on the action that produces the outcome. You want to serve more faithfully?
You want to ensure that you are serving in humility and for the good of the body, instead of yourself? You want to have joy and cheerfulness in serving?
What do you need to do? Pursue Christ.
We define pursuing Christ as seeking Biblical truth to facilitate Biblical living, in order to have our whole life conformed to Christ.
A biblical life produces Biblical service.
Practically and collectively then, as a corporate body, we must put the word of God at the center of everything we do.
We read scripture, we sing scripture, we preach scripture, we study scripture, and we obey scripture in the way we gather and what we do when we gather.
Why? So that we as a church will be conformed to the image of the Lord who is revealed to us in scripture. Listen to what Paul says he is praying for the church that meets in Colossae.
Colossians 1:9-10 (ESV) 9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him:
Paul says he is praying that they would be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
Where do we find the knowledge of his will? In His word. How do we understand his word, by the power of His Spirit.
So what do we need to live lives fully pleasing to Christ? We need His Word and His Power.
So together, as a covenant family, we pursue Christ. How?
Through the word and prayer. A former pastor of mine used the analogy of a plane. If you imagine the body of the plane, the fuselage as the Christian life, the wings that carry us along are the Word and Prayer. These are the things that carry us forward in the power of Christ.
To apply this to our passage in Romans, if God has gifted you as a teacher, what allows you to walk faithfully in that calling and serve the body? Prayer and the Word.
Without the word you are just sharing opinions and without prayer you are working in your own power. Right?
If God has gifted you with the gift of service, what allows you to walk faithfully in that calling and serve the body? Prayer and the Word.
Without the word you may serve in ways that are unbiblical and without prayer, you may serve in the wrong area or in your own power. Right?
What's the outcome of trying to use our gifts apart from the word and prayer?
About the same as trying to fly a plane without proper wings. You may make it a little ways but eventually you are going down and you're taking everyone around you with you. Leaving devastation in your path.
The same can be said of the one who exhorts, contributes, leads, or does acts of mercy.
Everyone of us, collectively and individually, must be seeking to understand and implement Biblical truths through personal and corporate Bible study as well as seeking to develop a dependence on the power of God to fulfill the purposes of God, through personal and corporate prayer.
Let me ask you this. If you are struggling in serving where you have been gifted and called, if you are not able to practically, cheerfully, and faithfully serve the body.
Are you regularly gathering with the saints?
Not just on Sundays, but on Wednesdays.
For almost two years now, we have been gathering together on Wednesday evening to share a meal, sing together, pray for one another, and to study the Bible together. The fruit from that time together has been one of the most wonderful blessings that I have seen here.
People who have been following Christ for longer than I have been alive, have come to me and said, Pastor I’ve never been able to really study the Bible before and now I have so much joy when I read my Bible. Friends, do you understand, that is not because of me, that is because they are experiencing what it means to pursue Christ through his word and prayer.
Now, if you have a legitimate reason to not be here, work, family responsibilities, etc…, I understand. But if you can and you are choosing not to, you are missing out on an extraordinary opportunity to not just get to know the body around you better, but to pursue Christ through his word and prayer.
Have you gotten plugged into one of our Sunday School classes? Are you regularly engaging with the Word with the body around you in meaningful ways?
Our men meet every wednesday morning for fellowship and a devotion. Many of our ladies meet on Tuesdays to study. If you can’t make one of these, grab a couple of people in the church and start studying together.
Friends, these are the ways we corporately pursue Christ. Prayer and the word, prayer and the word. Listen, when you make those times a regular rhythm in your life, you will find that individually you are much more likely to engage in those activities when you are not with the body.
Moreover, when you are in the word together and praying together with one another, serving in Christ-like love becomes not only clearer but easier because you know God’s Word, you know one another and then you are able to meet their needs in real, tangible, Biblical, Christ-honoring, body-building ways. This brings us to our last question.
How are we to do it?- We are a covenant family, pursuing Christ, in community.
Webster’s Dictionary defines community as:
a unified body of individuals: such as
a: the people with common interests living in a particular area
b: a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society
This is what we mean by ‘in community’.
We are committed not just to living as family, we are not just pursuing Christ together through his word and prayer, but we are intentionally and sacrificially caring for a community of believers.
We are engaged in life together, supporting one another, caring for one another, encouraging one another.
Christianity is not a solo sport. The Summer Olympics just wrapped up.
My family, in particular, watched a lot of the different sports. We have the streaming service Peacock, and let me tell you, there are more sports in the Olympics than any of us thought there were.
My favorite sport is Olympic weight lifting. It’s powerful to witness when an individual comes on to the platform and beats a personal best record, or sets the olympic record. You know all the work that went into that. And although they have coaches and training partners, in that particular sport, it is all on them, win or lose.
Christianity is not like that. One person, alone, striving to walk with Christ.My girl’s favorite sport is Gymnastics. I think they watched everything team America participated in, but still at the end of the day, each one individually has to go out and compete as individual athletes.
Christianity is not like that. A team of people, working individually, striving to walk with Christ.
Do you want to know the sport, if you can call it that, that struck me as the most reflective of Christianity. Artistic Swimming. Don’t laugh, it’s a real thing. Has anyone seen this?
It’s eight women working together as one to accomplish some pretty amazing things. Each one has a job to do, in relation to the rest of the team. If one fails, the whole team fails. This is closer to what it means to walk with Christ.
Not everyone gets to be the person flying through the air getting all the praise, some people are literally the platform that they use to jump off of. Right?
It’s that level of working together and sacrifice that should define community. If you haven’t seen it, go home and google Olympic Artistic Swimming.
We define someone ‘in community’ as someone who sacrifices comfort, time, and resources in order to serve others, for the good of others, in the context of intentional Christ-centered relationships.
How do we accomplish this? We must connect with one another by building and investing in intentional relationships, not that are mutually beneficial or convenient, but that are centered around Christ. And then we must care for one another by stewarding our resources, our time, talents, and treasures, towards serving one another sacrificially.
I think this is exactly what Paul is getting at in verses 9-13. Let’s read those together.
Romans 12:9-13 (ESV) 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.
We know we are to love one another, that’s crystal clear from scripture. But Paul tells us that we must strive for love to be genuine. A more literal translation of the Greek is (NASB) let love be without hypocrisy. The word hypocrisy in the Greek is the idea of playing a part. The root words of this Greek word are telling. It is two words meaning ‘with separation’.
Paul says, let there be no separation between who you are and who you present yourself to be, particularly here applied to the way we love one another.
The apostle Peter calls it earnest love from a pure heart in one of his letters.
Paul tells Timothy, his protege and spiritual son, that even in exercising his apostolic authority and its corresponding instructions, Paul issues those instructions from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.
Here in Romans, Paul goes on, giving a rapid succession of imperatives.
Love one another with brotherly affection. Cherish one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.
The idea is to be devoted to one another the way a mother or father is with their children, the way a husband is with his wife.
Outdo one another in showing honor. Literally, lead the way in honoring one another.
We are reminded of Paul’s words elsewhere. Philippians 2:3-4 (ESV) 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
What if you stopped looking at church as a way to meet your needs or to conform to your preferences, or your interests ,and started thinking about how you could be used to serve those around you?
This is living ‘in community’.
11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord
Diligent in not being slow to serve, but on fire for God, realizing that serving your brothers and sisters is serving 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.
Let’s pick up that last one. Seek to show hospitality- a literal translation is running to be hospitable.
What is hospitality? The best definition of hospitality that I have ever heard is ‘hospitality is making room for someone else in your life.’
Think about the most common expression of hospitality in the Bible, providing a meal for someone.
You invite someone over for dinner, when they get to the door and ring the doorbell or knock, what’s the first thing you do after opening the door, you step out of the way and say ‘come in’. As you make your way together to the dining room or kitchen, what is sitting there waiting for them. A place at your table, time with your family. Right?
Making room for someone else in your life.
What if we all ran to make room for one another in our lives? We would have a community where real hurts could be addressed with scripture, real needs could be met by brothers and sisters, real growth could happen because we were discipling one another in Christ. We are not designed nor or we called to pursue Christ in isolation. He gives us a body of believers to ‘do life’ with to use some modern church terminology.
As we come to a close, it’s hard to imagine that this is not what the Apostle Paul had in mind when he began these verses, I appeal to you brethren…
Paul’s concern was that the church in Rome was healthy, that is was a vibrant gospel centered community where much would be made of Jesus and the people would love one another in a way that would get the attention of the world so that they would lean in and say, what causes these men and women to love one another so well, and find that it was their love of Christ that compelled them.
I believe that God is calling us to be A covenant family, pursuing Christ, in community here at EBC, because I believe that is the way we will see the mission of making disciples become a reality.
These are the truths that lead me to believe that, we believe that…
Disciples are made in the context of committed relationships of mutual accountability and concern.
Disciples are made in the context of the pursuit of becoming more and more Christ-like in our lives.
Disciples are made in the context of intentional, Christ-centered, sacrificial relationships.
It is my prayer that God would continue leading us to become this more and more in the coming months, years, and decades as we seek to honor him and advance the gospel.
Here’s where I want to land the plane this morning.
As your pastor, this is what I believe God is calling us to, so what does that mean for our church? What is my hope by sharing this with you?
If you do not have any desire to be discipled or to make disciples as a follower of Christ, my first hope is that God would move in your heart and life to whole-heartedly join us in the great calling of the church, my second hope is that EBC will become an increasingly difficult place for you to be comfortable. Particularly in the area of church membership. If you are satisfied coming to church when it is convenient, satisfied being a consumer, satisfied staying loosely connected to the life and mission of the church, my prayer is that membership at EBC will become less and less attractive to you as we strive to enjoy and promote meaningful membership that reflects what Christ in His word calls us to.
A covenant family, pursuing Christ, in community.
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