Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning, Gateway Chapel!

Scripture

Prayer

Our text this morning in Romans 12:14-21.

As Tab read, there are amazing verses in this text which call us to such a high standard of living as Christians: Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them.

Repay no one evil for evil.

Has anyone seen this flag?

For those who can’t quite read it or for our massive listening audience, up on the screen we have a blag flag that reads, “American Christian: Don’t Tread on Me.”

And there are two automatic rifles, two guns, situated above a little cross.

What feelings are arising in you right now?

Maybe you agree with the premise of this flag, maybe you find yourself like me having some different feelings when you see this flag.

If you don’t mind, to illustrate the difficulty of Romans 12:14-21, I’d like to just be honest about my own internal dialogue as I look at this flag.

Two thoughts as I look at this flag.

One, is this flag goes completely against what our text will talk about today.

The shear size of the guns in proportion to the tiny cross is a really telling ratio.

When I look at this flag, I think about how alien Romans 12:14-21 is because in our day and age, flags like this exist and show the vitriol that is present not only in our society, but inside people who would call themselves Christians.

Okay, second thought.

While I disagree entirely with this flag, in my heart, I am waging war, lobbing grenades, and firing my verbal guns at the creator and waver of this flag.

The first time I saw this flag, I found my blood pressure rising.

The negative thoughts I had in my head about someone who would wave this flag in their yard.

In that moment, is Chris Lumsden much different than those who wave this flag?

My beloved Gateway Chapel, we have arrived at the highest calling of being a Christian: loving your enemies.

Blessing your enemies.

Never repaying evil for evil, but rather serving those who hate you.

Not overcoming evil with evil, but overcoming evil with good.

Is there anything more Christlike than the willingness to lay down your life for your enemy, and is there anything more difficult?

And is there anything that we as Christians have failed more at, and as we are hours away from an election, is there anything more spot on to talk about than loving our enemies?

Pray

We ready?

Alright.

If you’re wondering if I lined this up on purpose to preach this text days before an election, I’m actually not that smart.

I wish I was.

It just worked out this way.

If you’ve been here on Sundays the last four weeks we’re in a sermon series called, “Because of Jesus.”

Dave Waller did a great job starting out the series talking about Because of Jesus…be filled with the Spirit, and from there we jumped into Romans chapter 12.

Why are are in Romans 12? Romans 12 in some ways typifies the entire New Testament.

Well, we are near the end of 2022 (which is crazy), we skipped fall and we’re right into winter, and 2022 has been our Year of Biblical Exploration, where we’ve explored the story of the Bible seeing it as a unified story that points to Jesus.

And as we close the year we’re talking about the New Testament, and you could summarize the New Testament with the phrase, “Because of Jesus.”

Here’s an oversimplification of the story of the Bible.

The Old Testament points forward to Jesus, giving us glimpses of him and showing our need for a Savior.

The New Testament tells the story of Jesus fulfilling those promises for a Savior, culminating in the cross and Jesus’ resurrection.

Then we read letters like Romans that tell us, “Because of Jesus…here’s what God has done.

And here’s now how we live.”

Romans 12 is a famous “Because of Jesus” passage.

For 11 chapters, the apostle Paul has been writing to the Roman church about the amazing acts of grace that God worked to save us from sin through Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and sending of the Holy Spirit.

Many of you have bits of Romans memorized, famous passages like Romans 3, 5, and 8.

And Paul comes to this amazing climax in Romans 11 where he sings this doxology:

And this rolls right into Romans 12:1...

Therefore…Because of Jesus…here now is the moral vision for followers of Jesus.

Be like Jesus.

Serve like Jesus.

Love like Jesus…and this morning…love your enemies.

Three points this morning.

The first:

Because of Jesus…hateful speech is never justified.

Can we stop and recognize how alien these verses sound to our cultural moment?

Bless those who persecute you.

Some of us have kids in the public school system who have Ukrainian classmates.

They should bless Putin?

Rejoice with those who rejoice.

Weep with those who weep.

Can you imagine a Democrat being happy for a Republican who won an election?

Live in harmony with one another.

Saying that in Washington DC is like telling my dog Norman to stop licking himself.

It’s just never going to happen.

Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.

Never be wise in your own sight.

It’s not that I’m wise in my own eyes, it’s just that I know I’m right!

I had breakfast the other morning at Dixies, and I was trying to be a good listener with my friend, but over his shoulder I kept seeing campaign ad after campaign ad from both parties, making their opponent look like the spawn of Satan.

When we curse, and mock, and belittle, and gossip about, and slander those with whom we disagree, we need to do a heart check and ask which side we are really on.

I think we need to be careful that just because someone claims they are a Christian, if they speak curses against others, that’s not from Jesus.

James says as much...

Jesus said the same thing...

Tiffany Smiley and Patty Murray are made in the image of God.

We are called not to curse them, but to bless them and pray for them.

Maybe you’re thinking...”Chris, I hear you.

At the same time, you don’t know what evil this person has done.

You don’t know how wrong they are.

I am clearly in the right.”

This is kind of what was going through my mind as I looked at the flag at the beginning.

And I want to acknowledge that politics aside, some of us have been seriously hurt by others.

In ways that won’t be fully healed in this life.

People do horrible things.

People say horrible things.

And even so, being in the right and being the one hurt still does not justify hateful speech against those who are in the wrong.

Paul is talking to a Roman church being persecuted for simply being Christian.

Christians are being murdered.

And he says, bless the Romans.

Not only that, submit to the government.

Pay taxes to this government.

And if that’s not enough, is there any worse crime than murdering the son of God? Paul, a former Pharisee, a committed Jew, knows his own brothers and sisters willingly chose to murder Jesus, and yet this is how he speaks of them in Romans 9.

Paul would literally be tossed into hell so that those who not only murdered Jesus, but have been trying to kill him, could experience the love of God.

But Chris, what about prayers like Psalm 137.

That’s in the Bible!

Or

Two thoughts on these verses:

1, there is real evil in this world that God hates.

And in the end, God will have vengeance, as our text says.

And as Christians we are to abhor evil, as we read earlier in Romans 12, but as we know from the Biblical story, as humans we have a really hard time deciding on what is evil and what is good.

The Bible is very clear that the good guys aren’t always good guys, and the bad guys are not always bad guys.