This series covers our study through the book of Romans. These sermons with careful and slow exegetical expository coverage move through each chapter and verse following the theme and thesis of the book that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. These sermons were primarily preached by Pastor Duane Smets from April 2005 to November 2008 at The Resolved Church, San Diego, CA in its first three years of existence. Audio from the first year is unavailable.

   Audio & Manuscripts Below

The Gospel Thesis
 Listen     Read    1:1-7 |  An Introduction To Romans
 Listen     Read    1:2-6 |  The Validity, Content & Effect of The Gospel
 Listen     Read    1:7-15 |  Romans Is For God
 Listen     Read    1:14-15 |  Romans Is For Us
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  The Gospel Is The Power Of God Unto Salvation
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  Thank God For Jews
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  Justification By Faith
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  Justification & Habbakuk
 Listen     Read    1:16-17 |  We Are Beggars. This Is True

The Problem Of Sin
 Listen     Read    1:18 |  The Wrath of God
 Listen     Read    1:18-21 |  What Is Plain About God
 Listen     Read    1:18-32 |  The Suppression of Truth and Consequences
 Listen     Read    2:1-11 |  Seek Glory (Part I)
 Listen     Read    2:5-11 |  Seek Glory (Part II)
 Listen     Read    2:11-16 |  The Impartial God
 Listen     Read    2:17-19 |  Circumcision of the Heart
 Listen     Read    3:1-18 |  Moribund No More
 Listen     Read    3:19-20 |  Put Your Hand Over Your Mouth
 Listen     Read    3:21 |  Righteousness From Without
 Listen     Read    3:21-23 |  No Distinction

The Promised Savior
 Listen     Read    3:24-25 |  Propitiation
 Listen     Read    3:25-26 |  Righteousness Demonstrated
 Listen     Read    3:27-30 |  One God & One Salvation
 Listen     Read    3:31 |  The Law Upheld
 Listen     Read    4:1-12 |  The Imputation of Righteouness
 Listen     Read    4:13-17 |  The Promise Secured
 Listen     Read    4:18-22 |  The Heritage of Hope (Part I)
 Listen     Read    4:18-22 |  The Heritage of Hope (Part II)
 Listen     Read    4:22-24 |  The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
 Listen     Read    4:25 |  Who Killed Jesus?
 Listen     Read    5:1 |  Peace With God
 Listen     Read    5:2 |  In The Throne Room
 Listen     Read    5:2 |  Rejoice In The Hope Of The Glory of God
 Listen     Read    5:3-5 |  Rejoicing and Suffering
 Listen     Read    5:6-8 |  Love and Some Verses
 Listen     Read    5:8-10 |  Salvation In Jesus Christ
 Listen     Read    5:11 |  Joy In God
 Listen     Read    5:12-14 |  We Are From Adam
 Listen     Read    5:15-17 |  Jesus Is Better Than Adam
 Listen     Read    5:18-19 |  The Guilt & The Gift
 Listen     Read    5:20-21 |  It’s All About Grace

New Life In Christ
 Listen     Read    6:1-4 |  Baptism: The Life of the Buried Dead
 Listen     Read    6:5-7 |  Sin & Union With Christ (Part I)
 Listen     Read    6:8-11 |  Sin & Union With Christ (Part II)
 Listen     Read    6:12-14 |  God Reigning In You
 Listen     Read    6:15-18 |  Master Jesus (Part I)
 Listen     Read    6:19-23 |  Master Jesus (Part II)

Bearing Fruit For God
 Listen     Read    7:4-6   |   Part I
 Listen     Read    7:4-6   |   Part II
 Listen     Read    7:4-6   |   Part III

Law & Gospel
 Listen     Read    7:7-12  |  Part 1
 Listen     Read    7:7-12  |  Part 2
 Listen     Read    7:7-12  |  Part 3
 Listen     Read    7:7-12  |  Part 4

Inner Confliction & The Gospel
 Listen     Read    7:13-25  |  Part 1
 Listen     Read    7:13-25  |  Part 2
 Listen     Read    7:13-25  |  Part 3

No Condemnation In Christ
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 1
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 2
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 3
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 4
  Listen    Read    8:1-4  |  Part 5

Walking According To The Spirit
  Listen    Read    8:5-9  |  Part 1
  Listen    Read    8:5-9  |  Part 2
  Listen    Read    8:5-9  |  Part 3
  Listen    Read    8:9-13  |  Part 4
  Listen    Read    8:9-13  |  Part 5

The Jesus Family
  Listen    Read    8:12-13  |  Jesus Family Does Not Lose the Battles Which Count
  Listen    Read    8:14-15  |  Jesus Family Welcomes Members and Leads Them
  Listen    Read    8:14  |  The Family of Old
  Listen    Read    8:15-16  |  Adopted Forever
  Listen    Read    8:15  |  The Great Father We Call Abba
  Listen    Read    8:17  |  The Future of the Family

Suffering And The Glory Of God
 Listen     Read    8:18-25  |  Natural Evil & Moral Evil
 Listen     Read    8:18-25  |  The Groaning of God’s Spirit
 Listen     Read    8:26-27  |  Prayer & Suffering
 Listen     Read    8:28  |  How God Works it For Good
 Listen     Read    8:29  |  The Image of Christ
 Listen     Read    8:28-30  |  Predestination
 Listen     Read    8:31-39  |  Evil & The Existence of God
 Listen     Read    8:31-39  |  Barriers for the Believer

The God(ness) of God
  Listen    Read    9:1-29  |  The God of Glory (Part I)
  Listen    Read    9:1-29  |  The God of Glory (Part II)
  Listen    Read    9:1-29  |  The God of Glory (Part III)
  Listen    Read    9:1-29  |  The God of Glory (Part IV)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part I)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part II)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part III)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part IV)
  Listen    Read    9:30-10:21  |  The God of Gospel (Part V)
  Listen    Read    11:1-36  |  The God of Future (Part I)
  Listen    Read    11:1-36  |  The God of Future (Part II)
  Listen    Read    11:1-36  |  The God of Future (Part III)
  Listen    Read    11:1-36  |  The God of Future (Part IV)

Viva La Vida Christus: Living The Life Of Christ
  Listen    Read    12:1-2  |  All of Life is Worship
  Listen    Read    12:3-8  |  Humility, our Gifts, and Real Life
  Listen    Read    12:9-21  |  The Life of Genuine Love
  Listen    Read    13:1-7  |  Life Under Temporal Law
  Listen    Read    13:8-10  |  Life Under Eternal Law
  Listen    Read    13:11-14  |  Living in Light of the Day
  Listen    Read    14:1-2  |  The Principle of Preference (Part I)
  Listen    Read    14:13-15:3  |  The Principle of Preference (Part II)
  Listen    Read    15:4-13  |  The Principle of Preference (Part III)
  Listen    Read    15:14-33  |  Fulfilling the Mission
  Listen    Read    16:1-27  |  Entrusted to God

  Listen         

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November 9th, 2008
Pastor Duane M. Smets

Series: Viva La Vida | Romans 12-16
“The Principle of Preference” (Part 2)
Romans 14:12-15:3

Introduction

Good morning everyone. How’s everybody doing? You all glad all the election craze is finally over. I sure am. Now we can all get on with our lives…at least for few years until everyone gets all hyped up at the next go around. Personally I just can’t wait until Jesus returns, set-up his throne here on earth and then we can just be done with the whole thing.

Well, we need to get to the Bible eh? So let’s do it. We’re winding down, coming to the end of our fall sermon series, Viva La Vida Christus, which means that we are coming to the end our study through the book of Romans. We have only three weeks left.

Right now, today we’re in the middle of chapter 14 and we’re essentially talking about how you get along with other people who are in the church. If you thought that becoming a Christian and being part of a church meant that you were hooking up with the good guys and in the church everything is all nice and pretty all the time…I’m sorry to disappoint you but that just isn’t the case. In fact it’s the opposite.

The church is a group of messed up people. Everyone is messed up in the world, the only difference with the church is were supposed to know were messed up and we’re looking to Jesus as our hope and our redemption…the gospel has gripped us and is changing us.

Maybe you haven’t had that experience and you’re experience of church has been all nice and good…that probably means you’ve never really got involved with the people who are the church. It probably means you’ve only attended Sunday services and failed to really get connected to the community of the church like you’re supposed to. The word church means people, the relationships of a group of people who are together trusting in Jesus. Church is people and it means living the life of Christ together. And that gets messy at times but it’s what we need. We need each other and each other’s messes.

Rick McKinely, a pastor up in Portland, calls church the beautiful mess, which is the title of his latest book. And I think church is messy not only because we are all sinners and have a lot of junk Jesus has got to deal with us about but because in the church you get people from all different backgrounds, races, cultures, ages, life experiences, which makes for a wide variety of opinions on various things…and when you put all those people together, you’re going to naturally have some problems.

The Bible recognizes this and that’s why there are places in it like Romans 14 to help us learn how to deal with that. I’ll give us a brief breakdown of what we covered last week in it and then we’ll read the text we’re working with today and see what God has to teach us through it.

So, chapter 14:1-15:13 really all go together as one section addressing the same thing. It’s a long chunk, but in it there is this one overriding principle that gets restated 7 times in this with roughly 23 supporting reasons addressing the necessity and nature of the principle. The principle is one of preference, giving away personal preference for the sake of another.

Now, 14:1-15:13 is a really long section. I felt exhausted just trying to read the whole thing at the beginning of my sermon last week. It is a packed section. I don’t know how the early church did it when they would sit and read the whole book of Romans together in one sitting. That’s crazy. So we basically only talked about the first 12 verses because in our day and culture we all have ADD and that’s about all we could handle. Today, we’ll take on another 14 verses and still sort of cut things off short and deal with the final piece in this section addressing preference next week.

Last week was mainly a set-up week. Here’s what we learned.

1. The original church in Rome had two main groups of people who came from two distinct religious backgrounds before they came to believe in the gospel and became Christians. One group’s religion hadn’t allowed them to eat certain kinds of meat, they only worshipped on certain days, and thought they were better than others for it. The other group loved meat and wine and didn’t see anything more important about one day versus another.

2. Both groups were Christian and loved and worshipped Jesus, they “lived for the Lord” and gave honor and thanks to him. They had unity in that, their belief, confidence, love and trust in Jesus.

3. The disagreements the two groups were having were matters of “opinion (vs.1).” So they were inconsequential in regards to whether one group was really Christian or not. So we learned that there are a number of things we may disagree about as Christians, that we can disagree with about and still be in the same family.

There are secondary things, opinions, matters of indifference, or what’s called adiaphora…that we can have different opinions about and it’s okay. I listed off a bunch of them last week: not just whether your vegan or not, or whether you drink alcohol or not (which are sort of mentioned here) but also things like: voting, tattoos, smoking or chewing tobacco, cussing, “R” rated movies or TV, driving SUV’s, listening to non-Christian or good music, baby baptism, speaking in tongues, or your view on end times just to name a few things. There is freedom in these things because it is possible for a Christian to be on one side or the other in these areas while having a totally free conscience before Jesus and thank and honor him in it. That’s the main question.

4. One group is called weak and one group is called strong. Which was not an insult but a humble recognition that there are different levels of maturity among Christians, some are further along in the depth of their understanding and the way they are able live out their faith, and that is okay. Some are going to be weak and some are going to be strong and the weak and the strong need each other.

5. Lastly, we learned that since both groups are Christian we are not to judge one another in the since of calling into question and sentence one another to hell because of these practices. Both are Christian and the judgment is belongs to Jesus alone, thus it is a very serious accusation to call into question someone’s faith in regards to one of these issues, that is not our place.

That brings us to verse 13 and as I said last week, this next part will really teach us how to walk through these issues in a practical way. How we make decisions and work with each other when we disagree. So let’s read it and pray.

Holy Spirit of God thank you for breathing out these words of the Bible through your servant Paul. Help us today to grasp them, to see where and how to apply it in our individual lives and relationships with one another. Lord, use your word today to teach us how to build up your community, your church rather than tear it down. And most of all would you use this text and this time to draw us closer to Jesus and see how his life and death radically changes how we approach and view everything. We need Jesus desperately. Be at work in us in these moments. Amen.

Judging, Stumbling, Building Up and Destroying One Another

So my first point for this morning is, “Judging, Stumbling, Building Up and Destroying One Another.” These are two pairs of warning and admonishments which get repeated a few times in this passage.

First judgment and stumbling. Verse 13, “Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.” And verse 20-21, “Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.”

Now we already learned last week that the judging being talked about here is the final judgment, when at the end of our lives or when Jesus returns, whichever happens first, each and every one of us will stand before him and his throne and have to give an account for our lives. This judgment is the heaven and hell judgment. It’s not saying that we don’t ever challenge one another.

You might be tempted to think the Bible here is teaching relativism. The postmodern idea that there is no real absolute truth, and what is right or wrong is just relative to the person. Look at verse 14, “I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus (here Paul offer his personal opinion) that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it is unclean.”

What do you think? It sort of sounds like it right? But notice something with me. Notice that word “think.” That is a loaded word. He just said in this sentence that what one thinks is a matter of persuasion, he’s been persuaded. Earlier in the passage, we learned last week, that if we do have differences of opinion or persuasion, we still ought to study the positions out and take a position. Look at verse 5, “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” So what we think isn’t just offering our resident bias without actually really trying to pursue and land on the correct position.

If a person comes to a place as Paul does here and says I am persuaded this way, it is because number one they have given thought to it. They studied and considered both sides of the issue. And then two, they’ve put it before the Lord and have their position with a clean conscience. That’s what the last reference to judging is about here. Your personal internal judgment of yourself. It’s verse 22, “The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.”

Okay, so I took us through that line of reasoning for two reasons. One, because we live in such pluralistic times, it is important for us to know that the Bible clearly does not teach relativism even in secondary matters where we are allowed to have differences of opinion within the church.

The second reason is this, I think there is a lot of misunderstanding about judging. Often people, when confronted about some issue in their life, usually some area of sin, will throw up a sort of defense move and say, “Don’t judge me!” And often for support they will sort of misquote, pull Jesus words out of context from Matthew 7:1, where Jesus says, “Judge not lest you be judged.”

They often leave out how Jesus concludes his teaching on judging where he says to first recognize and deal with yourself and your own sin, so that you can see clearly to help your brother or sister (Mt 7:5). What Jesus was getting at in Matthew 7 I believe is the same thing Paul is getting at here in Romans 14…and that is consigning people to hell, coming to them from the top down as though we are better, and instead of coming to them out of a spirit of love and care and concern.

I get that from our text because of what it says about stumbling. Look at the second part of verse 13 again, “decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.” The word for stumbling block here could also be a road block.

In the ancient province of Rome, the land this letter was originally written to, one of the chief things which made Rome so great was its roads. There was a saying called the “Pax Romana,” the “peace of Rome.” It often referred to the safety of the roads. They made roads and guarded them and insured safe passageway for people to travel on them. Sometimes there would be road blocks. Either because of a physical barrier or obstacle that ended up wrecking the road, which would need to be fixed. You’ve probably encountered something like that at one point or another when driving. Or sometimes a road block could be a human one, like a check point, where the soldiers would stop travelers and question them and based upon their answers decide whether or not to let them pass.

I used to take a lot of surf trips in Mexico and we would frequently encounter this. Maybe you’ve traveled down in Mexico and you come to these checkpoints where there are soldiers all dressed up in their uniform holding machine guns and they ask you a bunch of questions in Spanish that you don’t understand. The conversation usually deteriorates into them point at different things in your car and you don’t get to pass until you give them your watch or something.

I think that sort of captures the idea here with a stumbling block or hindrance. The idea is that we would act as some sort of officer toward one another, with a list of checkmarks that a person must first pass before we will let them into fellowship and friendship with us. That doesn’t help someone, who is already a Christian and is trying live for Jesus. It just make it harder on them and confuses the gospel, turning it into a list of checkmarks and do’s and don’ts where we work for the approval of men rather than relishing the God’s acceptance of us on the basis of Jesus.

This text is saying, don’t make it hard for each other. Don’t put up road blocks and barriers in the way. Do you see that? Decide not to put a block or hindrance “in the way.” We’ve talked many times about the Christian life being a journey we are traveling on. Often it is a long and arduous journey and we are to travel together not fighting and racing to see who can get to the end first.

That brings us to the second main pair here, building up and destroying. With these words we switch from the analogy of the Christian life being a journey to the analogy of the Christian life being a building. Here’s where it’s at…

The second part of verse 15, “…do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.”

Verse 19, “Let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual up building.”

Verse 20, “Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God”

And verse 2 of chapter 15, “let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.”

So there are two options, building up or destroying, which is essentially tearing down…tearing down or building up. We are to build one another up and not tear one another down. This addresses a key issue within Jesus’ church, within Christian community and that is our tendency to want to make everything into a competition. We have this bent to want to always compare ourselves to each other in terms of who is smarter, who is prettier, who is more holy, who is more right.

This tells us we are looking at things entirely wrong. When we look at things that way we are looking at our achievements and our giftings, we are indulging in self-centered pride. Instead we are to see ourselves in a much humbler fashion. We are to see ourselves as people who need a lot of work. The foundation has been laid in Jesus, but there is a lot of building left to be done. There are walls to be put up, a roof that needs to be put over our heads, there’s electrical wires to run, drywall to be hung, there’s a lot of painting to be done and fixtures to be installed. We are a building and we are to help each other in this work of, “mutual up building.”

Now, I know maybe that analogy is tough for some of you to grasp because you’ve never touched a hammer in your entire life. Some of you guys have no clue how to work a screwdriver or a saw and you scare me. That’s okay, just stick to the computer keys. You can work on the architectural plans or something. Just do some push-up every once in awhile to make sure your still a real man. We’ll help out with the rest.

We’re building a building. That’s the idea here, that we are building a building together as a church and each member has a part and something to contribute and each person is important. When we take these secondary issues and turn them into primary issues and start comparing ourselves to one another and putting unnecessary restrictions on one another, that doesn’t help. In fact it hurts, it tears down. It makes things more difficult and frustrating and not enjoyable and it can even damage someone’s progress in the faith.

Did you catch that? That you can destroy or tear down the work of God, the one for whom Christ died? You might say how does that happen? It happens when you take a person’s eyes off of Christ by causing them to focus more on how they think or behave regarding a secondary issue instead of them being motivated by a love for Jesus and for their Christian brothers or sisters. There is a danger of trying to turn the gospel into a religion, when it is not, the gospel is about those for whom Christ died.

Conviction, Community, and The Kingdom of God

Okay, let’s move on to our second main point for today. Conviction, Community and the Kingdom of God. This is the nitty gritty. How we walk through something like this, when we disagree with one another. When two different people or groups think one thing with a clear conscience before Jesus and another person or group thinks another with a clear conscience before Jesus.

First, conviction. That is where it begins. The issue is having a clear conscience before Jesus. Verse 23, “Whoever doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”

You see it begins with each of us as individuals. We have to start at our motives. You see it is very easy for us to justify what we want to do just because it what we want to do without having any regard first for what God thinks about it. There is no area of life that has nothing to do with God. Whether it is sex, or what we eat and drink, or what clothes we wear, what job we work at, how we work at our job, what relationship we have, how we relate, where we live….everything has to do with Jesus. There is no part of our lives we have any right to cut off away from God and say he doesn’t care or it doesn’t have anything to do with him.

If we are not making our decisions on how we live and behave out of our faith in Christ, then no matter what it is, it is sin and displeasing to God. If it does not proceed from faith it is sin. So it would be very easy to take the freedoms or liberty we have in Christ and just say oh, it does matter. But that’s not the case. Everything matters. This is another reason why there must be room for differences. Because what is right or okay for a person may depend on who they are or where they are at in their life.

For example, I spent 3-4 four years of my life, pretty consistently either high or drunk…when I began walking with Jesus I quit drinking entirely for 5 years. I didn’t have a sip of alcohol until my honeymoon. That was a season in my life where it would have been wrong, a sin for me to drink because God wanted to teach me some things for awhile to get me to a place where I could drink alcohol again and it not be a sin for me.

You see based on each of our backgrounds or experiences God is working in each of us in different ways and there are different seasons of our faith. We have to stay sensitive before the Lord and always be willing to give anything up if we believe that is what he is asking. Our motives for everything must proceed from our faith.

Then, we are not only to first consider our personal convictions but then our community’s concerns. Christianity teaches something radical and that is that we are all part of the kingdom of God, living life together under Jesus’ rule. That means we are not living for building our own personal kingdoms. That is the way most people live and make decisions solely about how things effect only themselves or their immediate family. The gospel changes that and calls us to make decisions in light of how it effects our church family as well.

Last year Mikey and I were at an Acts 29 conference up in Seattle and we were talking with the musicians from one of worship music bands and they were taking the issue of Christian community and mission so serious they had begun a project called, “homiesville.” Where they and their wife and kids were making decisions to all buy houses in the same neighborhood so that they could better love each other and better work together in loving their neighbors with the gospel.

Can you imagine that? Thinking that the people of my church have something to do with what house I buy? That my Christian brothers and sisters should have a say in where I decide to live? That is huge. But that is the kind of radical Christian community living that the gospel draws Jesus’ church into. It always has throughout history.

Well let’s take it down to an individual personal level…what you do when there’s disagreement. So far we’ve got we need to approach it looking to by not making a Christian or not Christian issue, not approaching it with road block checklist, looking to build a person up, and first considering our own person motives and convictions. If all that is in place and there is still disagreement, here’s what you do:

Verse 15, “If your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love.”

Verse 17-18, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.”

Verse 21, “It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.”

Here it is…you give way. You give up your personal preference, conviction, opinion for the sake of the other person. You just give in. You know in your heart you are right and are free before the Lord, your conscience is clean…you’ve studied it, your motives are right, but you just give way…because you care more about the other person and their faith and than you do getting your way. That’s it.

Notice, love is the motive. If a brother or sister just can’t come to grips with where you are at in something…they are grieved, it’s just too hard. You give way. How can you do that? Because you love them and it doesn’t really matter because when it comes down to it, the Kingdom of God, the good life, life the way it should be under Jesus rule and reign…isn’t about what is right or wrong on these issues, it is about the righteousness, peace and joy we have together through the Holy Spirit who has been poured out into our hearts. That is stronger. Our bond together as forgiven children of God goes way beyond our petty disagreements.

So let me give you some examples just to drive it home. I mentioned alcohol earlier, I think that is probably the issue that comes up the most in our church. It was tough for Christian back then and it is tough for Christians now. Say someone thinks you shouldn’t drink alcohol as a Christian.

Okay, I would disagree with them because Jesus drank and there is nothing inherently wrong with alcohol. Being drunk is wrong and is displeasing to God but not enjoying alcohol if you don’t get drunk. But say someone just can’t get over that. Fine, I’m not going to force them to drink with me and I’m not going to drink in front of them if that is just going to make them feel uncomfortable and at odds with me when in reality we have way more in common because of our mutual love and trust in Jesus.

Now it goes the other way too. Say someone has had a problem with abusing alcohol in the past and they are in a season of being sober in order to work on some issues in their heart on why they got so entrapped with alcohol before. Well duh, you need to help that person and not drink in front of them or with them…if you do you’re just making it hard for them to abstain when they feel that is what God wants them to do for awhile.

You see our liberty as Christian enables us to be free to drink or not to drink. I don’t have to have alcohol to have a good time and I’m not going to force the issue with those who have a problem with it. For example, I was at a wedding last night and there was an open bar and most the people at my table were having a beer or a glass of wine. But my brother in-law was at the table and he has a hard time with it. So I didn’t hassle him about it and try and get him to drink and have this big argument about it. We both love each other. We’re both Christians, we’re both ministers and we’ve learned that our relationship means far more to us then whether we agree about alcohol or Calvinism or a whole other host of things we disagree on. So I had my beer and he had his juice and we had we just left it alone out of love and had a great time together.

So let me ask you a personal question. Take some issue you have, whether it be alcohol, meat eating, voting, baptism, any of the secondary issues…could you give up your position out of love for another. Say you want to get a tattoo and you know it would really hurt someone who you love. There’s nothing wrong with tattoos, Jesus has one on his leg that says, “King of kings and Lord of Lords.” But this person is weak in faith and is quoting Leviticus and is going to be really hurt by it. Could you give up your desire for the tattoo because you care more about the person you love?

Or how about the other way around? You may honestly think people shouldn’t get tattoos but someone else has a free conscience before the Lord about it. Could you just give up your opinion out of your love for that person and let them be free to do as they wish rather than putting an obstacle in your relationship?

What about other things? Say you don’t eat meat. But you are having dinner at person’s house who prides themselves in their ability to cook meat, it’s their specialty. Could you give up your personal preference out of love because you know the other person would feel bad if you refused their food? Or how about on the other side. You are having people over for dinner who you know are vegan. Could you just give up your love of meat out of love and cook up some tasty tofu instead because you love those people you’re having over?

You see it goes both ways. It’s like in marriage…you seek to out serve one another. And if both parties are always seeking to please each other then you’re going to avoid a lot of problems because both people are always trying to figure out how they can give way and give preference to the other person. That is how it is supposed to be.

The Burdens and Pleasures of The Christian

Okay, our last point for this morning, “The Burdens and Pleasures of The Christian.” These last few verses for today sort of summarize everything we’ve said and tie it all together with Jesus. Let’s read ‘em, Romans 15:1-3, “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”

There is so much joy in becoming a Christian and becoming part of Jesus’ family in his church, along with it comes a burden because you inherit this whole group of new brothers and sisters to care about. This bearing with the failings of the weak has to do with being patient with one another. It is recognizing that some people may not be up to the standard of maturity you wish they were, but rather than getting frustrated and mad and upset and bailing out on them…you are patient and you just sort of absorb their faults and failures.

There is nothing like the gospel of Jesus Christ that enables you to do this. Everything else in the world is opposite of this. All religions. All self-help programs. They either teach you to ignore the reality of the hurt and the offense or to trust in some sort of payback or recompense. In the gospel the reality of an offense does not get diminished because Jesus absorb all of our offense for us on the cross. Our reproach fell on him…because of that we are enabled to take on a lot of reproach.

How does that work? When someone frustrates us, disagrees, hurts us…we can go to the cross of Jesus and recognize how much we have fought against God and frustrated him and hurt him and know how he absorbed that into himself, having God’s wrath poured out on his body in order that we might be accepted and redeemed and forgiven. That changes things…it changes everything. That is why the gospel is so unique. That’s why the gospel is not a religion. It is because the whole thing is about an exchange that happened on a cross which makes a way for us, a way out of ourselves and a way where we can truly love and serve and please one another.

Look at the first part of that phrase in verse 3, “For Christ did not please himself.” This means he did not avoid the suffering and the pain of the cross. Hebrews 12:2 says, “…for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.”

So it is not that there is no happiness or joy in the Christian life. It is not that we are all to be stoics and that anything is wrong if we get any pleasure from anything. It is what becomes the source of our joy and pleasure. For Jesus sought not to look to fulfill his own personal preservation but he gave his preference away. The result was much joy. It was the joy of Jesus to die for us.

And that same joy works its’ way in us. You will find that when you give up your personal preference for another, though it is painful, you will actually end up experiencing more joy and peace and happiness in your life.

Martin Luther wrote a little book called, “Concerning Christian Liberty.” I encourage you all to read it, it’s only about 30 pages or so. But it is all about the liberty we have Christians, which is what we’ve been talking about today. In it he makes this masterful statement,

“A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.”

When we truly encounter Jesus, we become freed from all our vain pursuits and realize that only he matters. And it changes us. It enables us to truly turn away from ourselves and become servants to those around us, especially those in our Christian community.

Conclusion

Let me conlcude today this way.

Without the gospel, we will constantly be comparing ourselves among ourselves, considering some among us better than others. With the gospel, we will constantly see ourselves as in need of and recipients of the grace of Jesus.

Without the gospel we will either intentionally or unintentionally make it harder for other people to see and draw close to Jesus because of the sense of constrictions we put upon them. With the gospel, all barriers are removed so that Jesus is put on perfect display for all of us who need him so much.

Without the gospel we will fall into some form of religion thinking life is all about doing everything just right. With the gospel we will bask in the joy of knowing that despite us being so wrong Jesus has given us his spirit and we have his righteousness, peace, and joy together.

Without the gospel we as individuals will feel conflicted, with a troubled conscience before our God. With the gospel our guilt gets lifted and our life gets driven by a confident personal faith in Jesus known only between us and God.

Without the gospel, we will focus too much on ourselves and our own personal needs, wants, and desires. With the gospel we are enabled to turn our emphasis to care more about the social needs of the broader community, first in the church and then those in our city.

My friends, my family…we need the gospel. As we approach the table let the richness of Christ, who gave everything up for us. All his personal preference in order that our reproach, the worst of who we are, be dealt with on the cross so that we might have the peace and pleasure of God. Stand before Christ Jesus who died for you in order to save you and create a community of people who get radically changed by his grace.

Let’s pray.

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November 2nd, 2008
Pastor Duane M. Smets

Series: Viva La Vida | Romans 12-16
“Meat, the Weak, and our Living Lord”
Romans 14:1-12

Introduction

Good morning…Let’s read our text and pray.

Lord God, it is our confession that we, together, as your people have much to learn. We like to fancy ourselves in thinking that we get things and have got them down…but the truth is we have a long way to go in becoming like Jesus, becoming the type of people we want to be and becoming the people you have designed us to be and are at work transforming us into being. Thank you for inspiring the Bible. A rich source and foundation for our faith which tells of who you are and the great things you have done. And thank you that in your book you get down and dirty and have your men address super practical issues so that we will know how our faith and love for you is supposed to work out in how we live our lives together. May your word sanctify us as we grow in grace through it. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

This is a section of Romans, and really through the rest of the book, we get reminded that this isn’t a book…it was originally a letter written from Paul to the original church in Rome. Other parts of the book are meticulous and carefully ordered and put together…here there is a lot more fluidity and weaving in and out because some real life issues are being addressed. Increasingly, we will see the letter-ness of Romans as we approach the end of the book.

What the letter-ness does for us who let the Bible dictate to us what we are going to talk about on Sundays is make this a really long section for us to deal with…because you can’t just cut a person off in mid-sentence or mid letter-ness right? That’d be rude. So the plan is just to have a really long service today. I’m going to preach like Paul probably did and go for about 3-4 hours. You guys cool with that? J

Can you imagine it? Sunday used to be an all day thing because the pastor would preach for a long time and then after would answer questions and everyone would sit around and talk about it for a long time. How we do that today is through community groups. We just finished talking through and discussing Romans 12 a couple weeks ago at the community group I’m a part of.

I wrestled a lot in prayer and study this week to try and figure out how to best help us all to work through this section together. It’s a tough, complex passage.

There are 10 direct commands. There is one overriding principle, which is restated 7 times in this with roughly 23 supporting reasons addressing the necessity and nature of the principle. There’s no clean textual way to break it up, all the experts do something different. This section is obviously addressing some specific issues there were some problems or concerns about going on in the church at Rome in the first century, so it’s highly dependent upon the history and culture of the time it was written.

There is a exchange back and forth between individual and personal faith and ethics and communal faith and ethics. There are two major, deep, rich, profound theological statements about who Jesus and what he has done for us. There is a great statement about how we are supposed to use and interpret the Bible.

And on top of it all the text ingeniously moves from talking about our personal relationships toward each other in the church to how that same principle applies toward our mission of showing and sharing the gospel with other people who don’t yet know and love Jesus.

So here’s how we’re really going to tackle this. I’m going to divide the text at an awkward place and spend three weeks on it. So I’m just going to deal with verses 1-12 of chapter 14 today.

Here’s the main questions I want to try and answer for us this week:
- What the heck is up with all the meat talk? Does God hate vegans? (preferences)
- Who’s weak and who’s strong? Why the differences? Can’t we all just get along? (judging)
- The statements/sentiments: “Don’t judge me!” and “You’re all heathens!” (despising)

I don’t have a good subtitle for today…the best I could do was this: “The Principle of Preference in Worship and Love Together”

Meat Eating and Holy Days

So let’s get into it. I think we have to talk about the meat deal first. It is the primary thing which appear to give Paul the reason for writing this section, there were obviously some differences of opinion and strife going on over this issue in the early church. I don’t think we can grasp what he is saying unless we get a handle on that.

Also, veganism and vegetarianism today is becoming increasingly popular today in our culture, especially in urban cities like ours in San Diego. Roughly 1 percent of the nation is vegan, meaning they don’t eat or use animal products. There is all kinds of stuff out there on this…the Vegan Society, Vegan Outreach, Vegan Action, Vegan Health are all non-profits aimed at enjoying and spreading the joy of eating animal free food. People are or become vegans today for various reasons…some for health concerns, some for animal concerns, and some because of spiritual concerns, or a combination of the three.

Now, I know there are several of you in our church who are vegan or vegetarian (and yes, I know there’s a difference between the two). Is this talking about you? Well, maybe, maybe not. You’ll have to decide for yourself. As we’ll see, I think it depends on your motivations and your love for God and his people and not whether it is right or okay to be vegan or not.

Here is what the first century vegetarianism thing was all about. It was not about animal concerns or health concerns…it was purely a spiritual religious issue. The two main groups Romans was first written two were Jews and Gentiles.

In the book of Leviticus, the Bible speaks very specifically about what his people could eat and not eat before Jesus came. Certain animals or parts of animals were not “kosher.” Kosher means “fit”, meaning what is fit for consumption. So for example, pigs were not to be eaten by Jews because only animals with cloven hooves that were cud chewing could be eaten (Lev. 11:3-4).

Ancient Jews were very concerned about the law, as we have learned, the Torah, the law, was essentially the whole hope for salvation…doing everything just right in order to earn favor with God. They took that seriously. So much so Jewish rabbis compiled two whole other books called the Talmud and Mishnah with additional rules in order to “build a fence around the law” so that you wouldn’t even come close to breaking it. So many Jews, rather than try to figure out what meat was kosher and what wasn’t just went the whole way and became vegetarians.

Now here’s the other deal. In Jesus, he becomes the last sacrifice on the cross, brings us into a new covenant of salvation where we are not so dependent upon doing everything just right, but become wholly dependent upon him having done everything just right for us in our place and dying for all the things we’ve done that are not right and are in fact down right evil. In Jesus the law gets fulfilled and he tells his people specifically that there are no longer “clean” or “unclean”, that is kosher foods (Mark 7:19).

Now here is the other thing. The reason for a lot of those crazy laws in the Old Testament had to do with other cultures in ancient Mesopotamia who worshipped many of those animals as gods. And God, the true God, really cared about his people knowing that and wanted everyone for all time to know that only he is the true God and his people are made distinct by his covenant with them…so he had them eat only certain meats in contrast to the meat eaten and sacrificed by those of other cultures.

This became a big deal in the New Testament after Jesus, God himself came and taught us that he fulfills everything and that the doors are now made open to all kinds of people through him. It became a big deal because what happened often is that the Gentiles would sacrifice their meat to gods in their temple and then afterward would sell it in the marketplace (1 Cor 10:25).

So for example, ancient Rome had temples erected to the gods Juventas, Diana, Mars, and Fauna. Jews who became Christians because they believed Jesus was the Messiah had a really hard time with this. Jews, who had never eaten meat their whole life would get together for dinner with their church family composed of Jews and Gentiles and the Gentiles would be eating meat bought in the market that had been sacrificed to a foreign god earlier.

That’s what’s going on here in our text. And it wasn’t just meat. Look at verse 5, “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike.” This no doubt had certain Jewish holy days in mind, as well as particularly the Sabbath, which was on Saturday. Jews now didn’t know what to do. They worshipped Jesus with the church on Sunday morning, because that’s when Jesus rose from the dead, but were they still supposed to worship on Saturday too as they had done their whole life?

Now maybe you get a little bit better feel of the situation going on behind this text? Yeah?

The Weak and the Strong

Now maybe we can actually talk about the issues involved here with being weak and strong, and with judging and despising. First off, does it strike you as weird that just calls one group of people “weak in faith” right off the bat? Doesn’t that strike you as being a little bit offensive.

If I’m like…yeah, so and so is a nice guy but he’s weak. He’s a nice Christian dude but he kind of sucks. That’s weird to me. I’m not sure if it would have come across like that to the original hearers or not.

Here’s why…weakness and strongness in the faith has to do with our confidence and maturity in what we believe. Think of body building. Some of you life weights and work out regularly. If you don’t, you’re probably weak and can’t bench a lot. If you are weak, you are probably not trained or very well, you don’t know the exercises and how to use the equipment, and you haven’t worked out your muscles very much. If you are strong, you’ve been trained, you know the equipment, and you’ve worked out your body a lot.

What this idea of the weak and the strong implies is that there are going to be differences among us in our level of maturity and faith. Some are going to be further along than others and that is okay. There is such pressure on us from all kinds of directions these days for us all to be equal in every area. Especially in Christianity, it is sad when competition enters in because of our pride and we think or feel like we have to have it all together and have all the answers or we are less than.

No, some are just newer than others, or less confident than others. We are not in a race against each other, having some competition to see who can win or be better than the other person. There are weak people and there are strong people and that is okay. And it is good for you to know where your at…because you who are weak need the strong and you who are strong need to help the weak. And on top of it all, all of us have areas of weakness and areas of strength.

In the Christian life you are supposed to have someone who is further along than you who is pouring into you and giving you wisdom and input and counsel. Then you are also supposed to have someone who is not as far along as you, who you are discipling and teaching and helping them grow in the faith. That is how God designed it to be. As Titus 2 says, the older are to teach the younger. If you don’t have those two things in your life, you need to correct that…get a Christian mentor and a Christian disciple.

Now look at a few things in the text with me. Who is this weak person? Most likely it is a Jew who has become a Christian, which is ironic because you would think they would be the strong ones since they had the Bible before the Gentiles…but in their case, their past religiousness made it very difficult for them causing them to have to relearn a lot of stuff making them weak.

But let’s get our ideas from the text…who’s the weak person.
#1 – They have faith. 14:1, “the one who is weak in faith.”
#2 – God has accepted them. 14:3 “God has welcomed them.”
#3 – They honor and thank God. 14:6 “The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the
Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God.”
$4 – They are in the church family. 14:10 “Why do you pass judgment on your brother (repeated
in vs.15).”

So the weak person IS A CHRISTIAN! Get that. This person is a Christian. So that means this, get it, this is important… There is room for areas of difference within the church family! We do not all have to think the same thing about everything at the same time. There are non-essential matters within Christianity. Areas that are open handed issues. What’s he call this particular issue? Verse 1, “opinions.” Other translations say, “disputable matters” and we are not to quarrel or argue about them.

You see there are some things worth quarrelling or arguing about, as long as it is done in love. Things which are outside being Christian. For example: If you believe there are other gods or other equally true religions, you are not a Christian. If you believe Jesus was not fully God and fully man, you are not a Christian. If you do not believe you are a sinner, you are not a Christian. If you believe that Jesus did not die on the cross and rise again for you sin, you are not a Christian. These are closed handed issues, not open for question or difference of opinion. The reformers called them adiaphora, matters of indifference.

Other things are open handed issues for Christians, non-negotioables. Like whether or not to eat meat or drink alcohol. Like whether or not you should be baptized as a baby or an adult (I want to do both). Like the sequence of events going to happen during the end of times when Jesus returns. Like whether or not to vote and who to vote for. Like whether or not you drive a hybrid, an SUV or ride a bike. Like whether or not you listen to “non-Christian” music. Like whether or not smoking tobacco is okay. Like whether or not cussing is okay or not. Like whether or not tattoos are okay. Like whether or not “R” rated movies or TV is okay. All these things are open.

You can have an opinion and you ought to really think hard and study and pray over these issues to where you have a stance. Like verse 5 says, “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” We should never do something just because somebody else told us. We all have a Bible and a brain and can think for ourselves. Remember from last week, Sola Scriptura. And as long as our position does not violate something Scripture clearly says and you can enjoy it with a clear conscience so that you can “honor and thank God” for it…then you are probably on pretty safe ground.

What matters is whether you are having such a position out of an attempt to glorify or make much of yourself, or because you are honestly thinking and behaving so out of a life lived unto Jesus. Look at verse 7-9, “7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.”

You what matters in the end is not so much what we end up thinking about areas we may or may not deduce from Scripture, but if you are being honest with yourself before Jesus about it and then treating others with charity and love when you disagree.

Judging and Despising

How we treat each other is when this issue of judging and despising comes up. Have you ever heard anyone use one of the two phrases. One person says, “Don’t judge me!” or “They are so judgmental!” Ever heard that. Or on the other hand, maybe someone who says, “Oh, those people are such heathens, or so ignorant!” These are the two attitudes the Bible comes down on here

It is the attitudes involved. Verse 3 says, “Let not the one who abstains pass judgment.” Verse 10 asks, “Why do you pass judgment on your brother/sister?” And verse13 says, “Let us not pass judgment on one another any longer.”

Now this doesn’t mean that when you see a brother or sister in sin that you shouldn’t go talk to them about it. Matthew 18 is clear about that when Jesus says to go to one another when you see each other fall in sin and it is not addressed. Some of you need to learn that. You are not to go talk to other people in the church or outside of the church about something bad another person did or is doing unless you have first gone and talked to them first. When you do that, you are going to them in a spirit of love and asking them questions and trying to help them. That is good.

What is bad is the kind of judging where you are acting as though you sit in the place of Jesus on the throne and making a final conclusive irrefutable statement on a person and condemning them. Let me show you in the text.

Verse 10-12, “Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”

The Bible teaches that when we die, everyone, regardless of being a Christian or not, will receive an immortal body, and we will stand before Jesus seated on his throne to receive a judgment. Every knee will bow and confess and recognize that he is the true judge of all, the author of all, whom we owe our lives and our worship. He will ask us for an account of how we have lived our lives. And there is only one good answer.

I have failed. I have sinned against you my Lord. Have mercy on me. You came into this world to die for my judgment, that I might receive your life. Your blood Jesus is all I plea. I love you Jesus and live for you, you are my master. And Jesus says in Matthew 25:23, he will answer, “Well done, good and faithful servant…enter into the joy of your master (Matt 25:23).”

All other answers will be naught, and fail…I did this or that…or I tried but…, all those answers will be insufficient and Jesus says in Matthew 25:41 such will hear these words, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41).”

Now that is intense. Maybe you can see why it is so bad for us to make matters where there is freedom of difference and opinion into salvation, heaven and hell issues. That judgment belongs to Jesus alone, not us. When we make a big deal about things we shouldn’t we are treading on Jesus ground.

Now all the judging stuff is directed toward the weak person, whose tendency is toward legalism and thinking they are better than others because of certain non-essential practices. But there is also a warning and a word of rebuke for the strong. It is not to “despise” the weak person.

Let me highlight it for you, verse 3, “Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains.” Verse 10, “Why do you despise your brother.” What can happen is when a fellow church member is talking about their personal preferences and restrictions…it can start to make the person who doesn’t feel strongly about those things to feel resentment and bitterness toward the weaker brother who has a more tender conscience about some practices.

You see the one who is strong has dangers too. The one is strong and has a great freedom or liberty of conscience is not prone to legalism but the opposite extreme. They are prone to antinomianism, or lawlessness…just thinking that anything goes and not taking their life or their action very seriously spiritually. Despising breeds anger and frustration and discontent and ends up making you at odds with everyone. You begin to look down on others all the time rather than looking at others with compassion and reaching out to them.

Conclusion

Okay, next week we’ll talk more about how to actually walk through a situation with a person who you may be in disagreement with about a matter opinion, in house, within the Christian family. So let me just summarize what we have set up today.

Here’s what we’ve learned. The main issue here is not so much meat or not meat, this isn’t primarily a text about veganism…it is a text about how we deal with and look at matters where there can be differences among us. You can fill in the blank several other things besides meat, like alcohol, tobacco, music, cussing, baptism, end times…you pick.

What matters to God is two things: our motivation and our mutual care for each other. In our motivation before him…do we live our life for him, with a goal of trying to honor and thank him for everything…is Jesus Lord of everything in your life or are there things you would not be willing to give up if he asked you.

That is a good test for your heart in matters of indifference. Ask yourself, could I do without this or that or does it mean so much to me that I couldn’t give it up for God if he wanted me to. If you know deep down you couldn’t then something other than Jesus really is your god and your Lord that is ruling over your life.

On how we treat one another, our mutual care. Do you have judgmental, passing judgment attitude, where you are constantly sizing yourself up and comparing yourself to other people. if so, that’s not good. Do you look down on others or do you look across to them as brothers and sisters within the same Christian family? Do you resent or despise certain people or their beliefs or do you have a spirit of charity and welcoming toward them.

Here is the deal. If all of us are honest with ourselves…I’m sure we would all find areas where we are each weak and where we are each strong. What we need is Jesus. The center and most important words we’ve looked at today is at the end of verse 8, “we are the Lord’s.” If you are Christian you belong to Jesus.

If we look to the life of Jesus, our Lord…he was judged and despised for us in order that we might be freed from judging and despising others. Jesus allowed a human government to judge and sentence him to death so that we might be freed from the judgment of eternal death. In the carrying out of that sentence Jesus was mocked and spit on, despised and rejected, esteemed not but smitten by men in order that we might be freed from despise our sin brings before God. This is the gospel my friends…Jesus judged and despised for us in order that we might live a new life in a new way.

I want to encourage everyone today as we approach the table in this way. 1 Corinthians 11:26 says every time we do this, communion, “We proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” When he comes he will come as a great judge. Let’s examine our hearts today and go before Jesus our high and merciful judge and take to him our weaknesses and our strengths and allow him to work out his Lordship in us. Ask yourself where you are weak, where you are strong…and then ask Jesus to be Lord in that area…Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.

Let’s pray.