1.
Please
pray with me. May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight O Lord, our rock and
our redeemer. Amen. The new life into which we’ve been baptized
into Christ is a life that’s sensitive to the consciences of our neighbor
without passing judgment on him. In
Paul’s day the big problem with meat from the marketplace was that it had all
been offered in sacrifice to false gods.
Some honestly believed that to eat that meat was to participate in idol
worship in some way. Others knew that idols are nothing and that anything could
be received as a gift from God. Some
early Christians held tight to the Jewish holy days and observed them in honor
of the Lord Jesus; others were convinced that was just a shadow of the reality
that had come in Christ and firmly believed that every day was now holy in the
Lord. The message today is entitled, “There’s a Welcome Here,” and it’s taken
from Romans 14:1-12, dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
The Apostle doesn’t tell the Romans “these ones are right and these ones are
wrong.” Instead, he takes a new
approach: in the Lord both can be received and welcomed, and without passing
judgment on each other. When the Lord
Jesus comes between two people, He joins them together in a brand new way of
relating. Paul says in Romans 14, “None of us lives to himself, and none of us
dies to himself. If we live, we live to
the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord.
So whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s!”
3.
Since we are the Lord’s then, we have no business
judging one another. We’re His Servants,
and every last one of us, standing before the judgment seat of God, will have
to plead for mercy. None of us has the
right to stand in the Judge’s seat against our neighbor. That’s part of the old way of living we get
to leave behind in our baptisms.
4.
Here’s an illustration of passing judgment on one’s
neighbor without knowing fully about them. Christian theologian Donald Grey Barnhouse
once told of being at a luncheon with a group of pastors where someone spoke
critically about the clergy in another denomination. These pastors weren’t
seeming to accomplish anything, but cut down the ministers in the denomination
that wasn’t their own. Barnhouse entered the conversation by telling about one
of those ministers whom he had known personally. The man had gone through
seminary and had been ordained as a pastor. But he seldom preached, never went
to prayer meetings, and often failed to attend church for weeks at a time. Worse
than that, he spent all his time in his library and indulged in habits that
others felt were un-Christian. He lived this way for more than 20 years. The
ministers concluded that a man like that was no credit to the ministry and
maybe wasn’t even a Christian. But,
later in the luncheon Barnhouse turned the conversation to the subject of Bible
study helps and asked what the others thought was the best Bible concordance. They
said that the best was Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, which contains Hebrew
and Greek word lists and comparative helps. Barnhouse then pointed out that the
minister he had described earlier, of whom they had all disapproved, was James
Strong, the author of this invaluable volume.
5.
Pastor
Barnhouse’s point is obvious. God has given his servants diverse talents, and
he uses them in ways that please him. How we feel about them is irrelevant,
since they answer to God rather than to us. Our part is to accept these others
as fellow believers and support them and pray for their work. That’s why in the church of Christ we as
Christians are ready to welcome people into our midst as fellow brothers and
sisters in Christ.
6.
Notice how Paul speaks about STRONG and WEAK
Christians in this chapter. By a STRONG Christian Paul means those
Christians who are mature on things that may be disputable according to
Scripture as to whether or not certain actions are considered a sin. The weak are those who don’t have a mature or
accurate grasp on these issues. The
striking thing is that Paul doesn’t take sides with the strong or the
weak. Instead he modeled exactly what
we’re called to do as Christians.
Without looking down on one another, Paul tells us to value one another
as the body of Christ.
7.
I
can think of several behavioral issues that years ago caused Christians to look
down on other Christians and judge them and their conduct unfavorably, these
have been and still are matters of dispute for Christians as to whether
something is a sin or not. This includes
drinking, smoking, dancing, and going to movies. Many unbelievers might have
gotten the impression that being a Christian essentially meant giving up these
so-called worldly vices, rather than trusting Jesus Christ as one’s Savior and
Lord. That Christianity is all about
morality and speaks very little of the need for the grace and mercy of God in
our Lord Jesus through His cross and empty tomb.
8.
We all can make our own list of disputable matters.
First, we can start with Paul’s two cases, eating meat vs. vegetarianism
and strict vs. lax observance of holy days.
Add to your list everything you can think of that are like these two. Then look at how disputes over such matters
affect relationships. Some people start judging others based on their own
list. Others ridicule. For instance, in our society if you don’t
have the right set of clothes and fashion, you’re considered to be “sinful” or
an outcast, or if you listen to a certain kind of music that isn’t considered
to be “cool” by a certain group of people.
But, before we start judging others based on the lists that we make we
must remember that since God has welcomed them into His Church, we’re called to
welcome them too.
9.
Let’s
stop dumping on one another, and let’s allow God to deal with each of his
servants how, when, and as kindly as he will. And while we are at it, let’s be
thankful that he has dealt as kindly as he has with us. If he had not, we would
all be in deep trouble.
10.
The test of everything for St. Paul then is “am I walking in love?” It’s not very loving if I know a brother or
sister has scruples over eating meat offered to idols for me to make a display
of my freedom by eating in their presence.
Such behavior simply misses the boat.
The Kingdom isn’t about eating and drinking—but it’s about righteousness
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. By the
Spirit’s power I’m set free to forego my freedom for the sake of love: that’s
being truly free. Paul is clear that
scruples about unclean foods are unfounded; it if the person doubts and etas
anyway, he is actually sinning against His own conscience. “For
whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”
11.
So
the heart of the issue in Romans 14 is
accepting one another as Christians, regardless of the disputable convictions
we may make. The Greek word that’s
translated as “accept” is one of the most powerful relational terms in the New
Testament. It means to “actively
welcome.” It’s a glad smile, a hug, a
hand on a shoulder welcoming a newcomer into a circle of close friends. Psychologists tell us how important
acceptance is. If a child fails to feel
acceptance from his parents, he’s likely to grow up ridden with doubt and a
sense of unworthiness. If an adult fails
to feel acceptance from others, she’ll be always uncertain, isolated, fearful
and alone.
12.
Paul is reminding us here in Romans 14 that the
church is the family of Jesus Christ. Here
every child of God is to experience welcome.
After all, every one of us is deserving of God’s wrath and punishment
because of our sins that we’ve done against Him. Yet, God in His great love for us has sent
Jesus to this earth to die in our place through His death on the cross. Because of Christ’s obedience to His heavenly
Father all of us are accepted in God’s sight.
Just as God has accepted us in Christ, so too in our personal
relationships acceptance is one of the most important gifts we can give to
another person.
13.
The final matter that we should consider when we may
have matters of dispute with another Christian is to consider Jesus’ Lordship
over us. When approaching conflict we
should realize that both people who are arguing are accountable to Jesus for
their actions. We should also realize
that our Christian brothers and sisters aren’t finally responsible to us, but
to the Lord. If Jesus is Lord, then
judging is His job and we’re free from the burden of determining what’s right
and wrong for others. In other words, we
as Christians are called not to play God.
We’re called to love our Christian brothers or sisters and to serve them
in all that we do. May God enable us to
live in harmony with one another and settle disputes under the Lordship of
Christ. Amen.
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