Nonconformists Series

Good morning. Since today is the first Sunday in June I thought it would be a good Sunday to begin a summer sermon series. A summer series simply entitled ‘Do Not Conform. Be Transformed.’ This series is based on the passages found in Romans 12:1 and 2. But before diving into the series I would like give you some background on the book of Romans so you have the context of the passage.

The book of Romans is actually, in many ways, considered a masterpiece of Paul. It was a masterpiece of Greek writing and of Greek rhetoric, but it is also considered a masterpiece of Christian doctrine. A large portion of what we believe as Christians can be found within the 16 chapters of the book of Romans especially the first 11 chapters. In fact, if we were to sit down and go slowly through the first 11 chapters of Romans, you would see the gospel of Jesus Christ pretty much laid out within a few key passages including Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”, Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life”, Romans 5:8 “God demonstrates his love for us that while we were sinners, Christ died for us” and Romans 10:9 “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” you have a pretty good outline of the Gospel. In fact many people refer to these four passages as the “Roman Road” as they provide a basic and easily understood path to sharing the gospel.

But when come to Romans chapter 12 is we begin to see a transition occurring. We begin to see a transition from what we are supposed to believe as Christians to how those beliefs are supposed to be acted out within the world. In Romans 12.1 Paul writes “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship.” Paul is basically saying that although the Jewish sacrificial system is gone, including the temple with all its sacrifices of bulls and lambs and doves and those types of things, you are not off the hook. Paul is letting his readers know that now you need to become that sacrifice. In other words, you need to put yourself on the altar. And instead of a dead sacrifice that used to be offered after the killing of an animal, God wants you alive. He wants your whole life to be one ongoing sacrifice.

And unlike the Jewish sacrificial system you are not becoming a living sacrifice to regain the approval by God, but rather as the first few words tell us you are doing it in view of what God has already done for you. “…in view of God’s mercy…” In other words, in view of the Gospel message spelled out in the first 11 chapters, the only appropriate response is to make your life a living sacrifice.

Then what Paul does is unpack what that a “living sacrifice” looks like in practical ways. In verse 2 he goes on to say “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” As I mentioned back in April, if we are not shaping the world, the world is likely trying to shape us; trying to conform us to its patterns. But instead as Christians, we are supposed to resist that and we are supposed to be conformed to God. We are supposed to be conformed to Christ. As this passage reminds us we are supposed to be transformed in our minds so that we can go out and actually begin to be agents of change in the world. But it is difficult to understand what it is we are not supposed to do or be conformed to unless we understand those patterns. We have to be in tune to what is going on in culture and specifically we need to understand what are the underlying messages that culture is sending to us and sending to the whole world but also as Christians. We need to be aware of that. We need to be discerners of culture.

As a side note when Paul speaks of not following the patterns of the world he is probably talking about the Roman world at that particular time; the Greco-Roman world. But if we had time, we could look back and see that Paul’s Greco-Roman world was not that much different than our world today. What type of patterns can we see in culture today?

First of all, we see a pattern of dishonesty. A pervasive pattern of dishonesty and deceit throughout culture. People going around trying to cheat systems, trying to rip other people off, and trying to steal from each other and that sort of thing. We can also see patterns of vulgarity. What I would call just vulgarity and just general rudeness out there. We would see patterns of anger and of course we would see patterns of violence. Those patterns are really at the surface level. Anyone who just pays any bit of attention to news stories wherever they get it, they are going to see those patterns in the world.