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It has been quiet some time wince we dealt with the book of Romans. We took a break, for me to sick one week - and multiple weeks of other things. We celebrated holy week and the Resurrection of Jesus. As we get back to it - we are refocusing our attention on our own discipleship journey.
Paul wrote to the church in Rome probably the most complete description of the gospel that he possibly could.
To catch us up - in the book of Romans so far:
We start with - we are not ashamed of the Gospel because it is powerful to save.
We understand that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
God has made available justification by faith through Jesus.
Justification is the act of God whereby the sinner is given faith to believe, receives forgiveness of all sin, and is assigned the righteousness of Christ.
By Grace you have been saved.
Romans 5 tells us we have peace with God.
Romans 6 we died to sin. We have have life in Christ
We are no longer under the law, we don’t keep rules as a means of Righteousness - we have Jesus.
We are under grace.
There is therefore now NO condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
We walk no longer by the flesh but by the spirit. Again - at peace with God.
God has adopted us as children.
We are foreknown, predestined, called, justified, and there is a plan for us to be GLORIFIED.
We can say amen to that.
He gave us the Holy spirit who intercedes for us.
All things work together for the good of those who love god and are called according to his purpose.
Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
We are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus.
He has an incredible plan for us.
And sometimes...
When we are going through the garbage that is presented to us as world ending - life threatening, only way to exist garbage.... We need to remember ALL of that.
Studying the book of Romans, internalizing it, memorizing it, is good for us.
This book is credited with the salvation of a great number of saints - including Martin Luther - because of its explanation of the gospel. As a church we want to be a people who share the gospel - because we know what it has accomplished for us. To share the gospel well we have to understand it well. I believe the book of Romans will help us to do that.
I believe also that the Book of Romans helps us to understand that the gospel is not simply the doorway into the kingdom of God but it is the framework, the aesthetic, the format, the guidelines, the foundation for who we are in the Kingdom of God. It is the establishment of our reality - the recreation of relationship with the creator.
We left off towards the end of chapter 12, in the middle of passage full of instruction, the last instructions I preached on were the kingdom building principles of sharing in the needs of the saints and showing hospitality.
Starting in the next verse, the focus seems to change from the internal church care that we had in verses 10-14 to an external focus. How do we interact with the world around us.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.
16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud; instead, associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation.
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Give careful thought to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes.
18 If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
19 Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.
20 But If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head.
21 Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.
This morning I just want to work through these verses one at a time - attempting to see the larger picture of “this is how we are supposed to be” but also the nuances that are found in them - because it matters.
When we started this chapter, I likened this to driving by the church… you can speed by at 50 miles an hour, as many do - or you can slow down, get out and walk, enjoy the beautiful corner of creation we have here.
The thing that we have to know first - is that because these are instructions, we have to put effort into it.
When we come to these things, when we have instructions in scripture - those instructions should first cause us to THINK.
We should ask ourselves - and more importantly to ask the Lord - these questions:
How am I doing at that right now?
What is in the way of me doing better? What might the Lord be calling me to clean up, cut out of my life that keeps me from doing what He has called me to here?
What can I do to develop that better in myself?
And we have to understand - we don’t do any of that on our own. Even if you think you are good at this stuff, you say “I’m an empathetic person” or I really don’t struggle with pride… the instruction is here for you. And we need the help of the Holy Spirit to do better.
Let’s get into it.. Thinking about those questions.
Bless those who persecute you.
Blessing means to speak into - to call down by prayer - a persons life, good things.
At the end of every service, if I can remember to do it, I speak a blessing from the book of Numbers over this church. May the lord bless you and keep you. May he make his face to shine upon you and be gracious with you.
Those words were written for me - but I say them from my own heart. I ask that God - the creator of the universe would pour out GOOD things for YOU. That the God who spoke and the heavens and the earth were formed would see you, and would care for you, would be gracious to you, would provide for you. And when I ask for those things, I believe that God will pour them out. I believe that God hears our prayers - and that my prayer works within his will and he does wonderful things for you.
It is the biggest thing I can do for you. And I do it because I love you. Because you are precious to me, special to me.
It is easy for me to bless you. To speak good things over you. To want good for you. Because I cherish you.
And yet, as the apostle paul tells us to bless - he says to bless those who persecute.
Bless those who come after you.
Bless those who chase you down.
Bless those who talk about you.
Bless those who take up arms against you.
Bless those who lie about you.
Bless those who know the truth about you and told someone you didn’t want to tell.
Bless those who make you look bad to others.
Bless those who make you feel bad to yourself
Bless those who cause you pain.
Bless those who work to take joy from you.
Bless those who abandon you.
That.
Is.
Hard.
It requires a change of heart towards that person.
Marion.
People who have left the church at the funeral.
And God cares very deeply about the condition of your heart.
God cares about how you feel about others, including your enemy. The Lord Jesus said in his sermon on the mount:
Matthew 5:43–48 (CSB)
43 “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
46 For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?
47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same?
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
43 “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Paul echos that when he said to bless those who persecute you.
God cares about your heart, and he cares about your enemies too.
In the old testament, God spoke to a man named Jonah - and said go to Ninevah.
Jonah didn’t want to go to Ninevah - because they were awful people. He didn’t want good for them - he didn’t want grace for them - because in his eyes, they didn’t deserve it.
Jonah learned the hard way what David wrote in the Psalms…
3 Our God is in heaven and does whatever he pleases.
In his heart - he wanted God to pour out righteous wrath on them. And yet, God’s plan was for them to repent.
So God dealt with the heart of Jonah.
It’s a really interesting story - God gave Jonah relief and took it away - and challenged him directly about the condition of his heart.
Bless those who persecute you.
Bless and do not curse.
Because God cares about you - and he cares about your enemies.
That is hard to do on our own. So we take it to the Lord.
Ask yourselves those questions...
We ask for help - for our hearts to be softened.
The next instruction we see here - and this will be as far as we get today - is to rejoice with those who rejoice - to weep with those who weep.
Another heart check.
Another call for our hearts to be softened.
Weeping with those who weep, is usually pretty easy.
As we see people in pain, people who are worse off than we are, we feel bad for them.
Someone who has lost a loved one, or their job.
Partially because we can put ourselves in their position.
My dad passed away several years ago - my uncle a couple of years later - I have a soft spot in my heart for people losing influential people in their lives.
I’ve been fired. I can be sympathetic to someone who lost their job - that makes me a pretty poor human resource person, because I have had to go home to my wife and tell her I don’t know how we are going to make it - because I did something stupid and they said they wouldn’t write checks with my name on them any more.
I still think about all of the people that I have had to fire over the last half decade - its not a fun time. I think about their families, their children - all of the people who depend on them going to work, and I weep with those who weep…
Because I can feel their pain.
And also because, in some ways, they need us to.
People who have been hurt need to know that they are not alone..
So we are sympathetic. We can help them to know they are cared for - and that helps them to heal.
And - we are called to rejoice with those who rejoice. And sometimes that is really easy. When someone is close to us - in our family - in our church - when good things happen to people we love
Rejoicing with those who rejoice is also sometimes significantly harder.
They don’t need us. They can celebrate all on their own.
In fact, because we are in a constant state of comparison, we might even lament good things in someone else’s life.
While they are rejoicing, we are whining.
And if you are wondering how spiritual your pastor is - I have been challenged recently by this too!
Im not saying any of this to say hey - feel sorry for me - or even that I want to talk about this later, because I probably don’t. Im working on it.
I have been blessed with daughters.
Incredible daughters.
Ella got the lead part in the play - she performed better than anyone else at her piano recital. I am blessed beyond reason by those kids.
They consistently score perfectly on tests - they are smart as a whip. I had to correct Elizabeth for something last week that she was able to do because she is smart.
My girls are making up harmonies to the songs we sing for worship. Elizabeth will be a better preacher than I am.
I have for my whole life wanted to raise a son. I want desperately to teach a son the things a father never taught me - it is a desire in my heart. I want a son.
I have no sons. And our home is full of people. Love. laughter. Good things. I have no sons.
I got a call a few weeks ago - my aunt Casey, only a couple years older than me - is pregnant. Its a boy.
We see announcments on facebook… boys. more boys.
I find it very difficult to rejoice for those who have what I might never have.
We play this game in our heads.. why do they have and I don’t?
Why does God give them a promotion and not me.
How can I rejoice for them to have something that I cry out to God for myself for.
What I have learned - from the Lord - over the last few weeks and ongoing is that I have to separate the two.
Because I am called to rejoice with them. Not like a politician - just getting excited about what everyone else is excited about - but to truly rejoice.
Truly rejoice.
I have to separate my pain in myself from the joy I am called to have for them.
And, I need the comfort of the holy spirit in my stuff.
So we go to the Lord. And He provides.
And my heart is softened. So that I can rejoice.
And I can weep.
And I think about their stuff and I celebrate it.
And I think about their pain and I weep with them.
And that is the word of the Lord for you this morning. Bless those who persecute you.
Bless and do not curse.
Weep wit