NOTE:
This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.
ENGAGE
Pastor Ray Stedman once asked a congregation why they had dismissed their pastor. “Well”, they said, “he kept telling us we were all going to hell.” Steadman asked, “What does the new pastor say?” The congregation replied, “He tells us we’re going to hell, too.” “So what’s the difference?” asked Stedman. “The difference is that when the previous pastor said it sounded like he was glad. When the new pastor says it, it sounds like it breaks his heart.”
TENSION
One of the great challenges of our faith – and not just for pastors - is to make sure that as we study the Bible, it impacts our heart and not just our head.
One of my most eye-opening assignments in seminary was when I was required to read and evaluate four articles taken from Christian Scholarly journals as part of my Old Testament class. I actually have one of those here with me this morning. The title of the article I reviewed was “Dream Forms in Genesis 2:4b-3:24: Asleep in the Garden” in which the author Dan E. Burns, claims that this section of Scripture is written in fairly tale form and that it is merely “myth” or “fiction”. That article truly was heart breaking for me because it demonstrated how easily someone who is so well educated could completely miss the heart of God’s Word.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that I don’t have a natural tendency to do the same thing at times, although hopefully not to nearly that degree. It’s not uncommon at all for me to get well into my sermon preparation only to realize that all I’ve done is to create an academic offering that is long on information but lacking in application. And my guess is that if I struggle with that, perhaps some of you do, too.
TRUTH
I think that this could especially become a problem in studying Paul’s letter to the churches in Rome and particularly with the last part of chapter 8 that we’ve been studying for the last several weeks. Paul is dealing with some weighty concepts here – things like predestination, foreknowledge, justification, calling, election, and glorification. These are all important ideas which are well worth the time we have devoted to trying to understand them. But the danger is that this could become merely an academic exercise that only impacts our head and not our heart.
But as chapter 9 opens, Paul is going to prevent us from letting that happen by revealing his heart to us.
There is a noticeable change in Paul’s tone and focus as we move from the end of chapter 8 to the beginning of chapter 9. Romans 9-11 forms a distinct section of Paul’s letter, that seems, on the surface to be out of place. In fact some commentators refer to it as a “parentheses” since the first verse of chapter 12 seems to be a more logical continuation of Paul’s letter than what is found in chapters 9-11.
I discovered this week that there are even some commentators and well-known pastors who completely skip this section of Romans and go right from the end of chapter 8 right to chapter 12. Others just go through these 3 chapters quickly and devote only a few messages to these chapters. While I’ll attempt not to get bogged down here, we are going to give this section of Paul’s letter the attention it deserves.
In the first 8 chapters of his letter, Paul has been explaining in great detail the gospel message of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus. Much of what he has written in that section has been specifically addressed to his fellow Jews to show them why their Jewish heritage was insufficient to make them right with God and why it is only through faith in Jesus that all – both Jews and Gentiles – can come to God.
And Paul ends that first section of his letter with the amazing claim that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. But before He can move on with what most people would consider the “practical application” portion of his letter, he first needs to address the question that is raised by what he has written so far, especially for his fellow Jews.
In spite of Paul’s impassioned ministry and teaching, the reality is that there were very few Jews in the early church. Most of them were not persuaded that Jesus was the Messiah. By the way that is still the case today. And in light of the promises that God made in the Old Testament to bless His chosen people and to bless all the peoples of the earth through them, this raises a huge question that Paul must address.
Here’s the question: “In light of the rejection of Jesus by the Jews, has God’s purpose to bless the Jews failed? And if His purpose for them has failed, how can we trust in all the promises we’ve seen for the last few weeks in Romans chapter 8? How can we trust that all things work together for our good or that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ?”
And that is a question that applies to both Jews and Gentiles. If God broke His promise to the Jews, then how could anyone trust any of His promises. And if they couldn’t trust His promises, then no one – Jews or Gentiles could be assured of the security of their salvation.
So Paul is going to go back to ancient Biblical history and use the Jewish Scriptures to prove that God’s purpose for the Jews has not failed at all. But before He does that, he wants his readers to understand his heart.
[Read Romans 9:1-5]
These opening verses of chapter 9 reveal why Paul was such an effective evangelist. But even more relevant for us, they show us what it takes for us to be effective witnesses for Jesus and His gospel.
Many Jews had claimed that Paul had abandoned his own people for the sake of the despised Gentiles. They had accused him of telling lies in his teaching.
And while the accusations may be a bit different in our culture today, it is still true that people are skeptical of Christians and their motives. That is especially true of young people. In a 2007 study done by the Barna Group, non-Christians aged 16-29 years old were asked, “What is your current perception of Christianity?” Here is how they answered:
• 91% said anti-homosexual
• 87% said judgmental
• 85% said hypocritical
• 78% said old-fashioned
• 75% said too involved in politics
• 72% said out of touch with reality
• 70% said insensitive to others
Fortunately for us, here in the beginning verse of this section, Paul reveals an important truth that is the key to overcoming those perceptions so that we can be more effective in bringing the kingdom of God near to others. The wording I’m going to us here is not original, but since I can’t come up with anything better, I’m going to use it anyway:
APPLICATION
HOW TO SHOW OTHERS I CARE
1. Don’t make it about me
While technology and social media can be an effective way to keep in touch with others, one of the biggest drawbacks is that those vehicles tend to make us even more narcissistic than we already are. It’s so easy to fall prey to the temptation to make it look like we have our lives altogether even when they are falling apart or to get our sense of identity based on how many followers we have or how many people like our posts.
It’s also really easy to use social media to perpetuate the idea that I’m always right. I can choose to only listen to the other voices that agree with me and block those who don’t. But social media isn’t the only place we do that. I think that often Christians have a tendency to isolate ourselves from the outside world. So it’s no wonder that in the survey I mentioned a moment ago that so many young people said that Christians are out of touch with reality.
Obviously I am not saying here that we should become just like the rest of the world. But what I am saying is that we need to listen to those who may think differently than we do and have honest, civil conversations where we’re open to the idea that perhaps we’re not always right.
While I have blocked some people on Facebook, even ones who I might agree with, because they are constantly treating others with disdain, name calling, or using inappropriate language, I’ve made a conscious decision not to block someone just because I might disagree with them. I am even friends with some people who claim to be atheists because I think its important to listen to them and to let them know that I really do care for them as a person.
It would have been really easy for Paul to make this all about him. After all, a lot of the people who had once been his closest friends and allies now despised him and some were looking for ways to have him imprisoned or even killed. So no one could have really blamed Paul had he responded something like this: “Fine then, if you don’t want to put your faith in Jesus, that’s up to you. But don’t blame me when you realize that being Jewish isn’t enough. I did my part. I told you about the need for faith in Jesus. But you just wouldn’t listen.”
But Paul doesn’t ever treat those who opposed Him as His enemies or focus on himself. Instead he engages in the second way to show others how much we care…
2. Treat others with compassion, not condemnation
This week someone in our church pointed me to a video on Faithlife TV titled “Dear Church – I’m Gay”. The movie consists of interviews of four different people who identified as homosexuals. While they are still at different points in their journey with Jesus, all four eventually either returned to Jesus and the church or turned to Jesus for the first time. And the common factor in that process was that they all had one or more Christians in their lives who treated them with compassion rather than condemnation.
Notice how Paul refers to those who have been opposing him. He doesn’t call them “Jesus haters” or “Christ crucifiers”. He calls them “my brothers, my kinsmen”. And rather than condemning them, he reveals that his heart is breaking over their refusal to put their faith in Jesus. In typical Hebraic fashion, Paul uses two parallel thoughts in verse 2 to convey his heartbreak:
I have great sorrow
and unceasing anguish
Throughout the Bible, that is how those who really have a heart for God respond to the sin and unbelief of others:
When the Psalmist saw people disregarding the law of God, he responded like this:
My eyes shed streams of tears,
because people do not keep your law.
(Psalm 119:136 ESV)
Jeremiah was known as the “weeping prophet” because of words like this:
Oh that my head were waters,
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night
for the slain of the daughter of my people!
(Jeremiah 9:1ESV)
Jesus was frequently moved deeply when He saw people in distress:
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
(Matthew 9:36 ESV)
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it,
(Luke 19:41ESV)
And this wasn’t the first time Paul had such deep compassion for others. In Acts 20, we read how he had served the people of Ephesus with tears.
Again, I am not suggesting that we ignore or excuse sin. But as I’ve said often before, we can’t expect non-Christians to act like Christians. But the fact that 87% of young people consider Christians to be judgmental is probably a pretty good indication that we do that far too often.
When we treat others with condemnation rather than compassion, we are likely to push them away from the one person who can actually change their hearts and eventually change their behavior – Jesus.
3. Practice both truth and love
One of the women in the movie I talked about earlier shared about how she eventually came to understand the Biblical standard for men, women and marriage and then she made this remarkable statement:
“If you love me you will call me into truth.”
Though she had some people in her life that treated her with great compassion, their love for her required that at the appropriate time they communicated Biblical truth to her. But that had to be done in a loving way.
I really like how Warren Wiersbe summarized the need for both truth and love:
Truth without love is brutality and love without truth is hypocrisy.
Here in Romans 9, we see Paul practice both truth and love. He begins this chapter by reminding his readers that he is speaking the truth in Christ and he reinforces that idea with two other claims: he is not lying and his conscience, as it is guided by the Holy Spirit, bears witness that all that he has written so far in his letter is 100% truth.
But as we have already seen, that truth is accompanied by his love and compassion for his fellow Jews.
4. Be willing to sacrifice for the sake of the gospel
In verse 3, Paul makes a remarkable claim:
For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers…
Before we consider that statement further, we need to first be clear that this is an emotional statement and not a theological one. Paul is in no way saying that it is possible for him to do something that would bring salvation to his fellow Jews. He has already made it clear and will continue to do so in the rest of the letter that salvation comes through faith in Jesus alone.
In Greek, the phrase “accursed and cut off” is just one word – anathema – which you may recognize because it has been transliterated directly into English where it describes someone who is banned or cursed by some religious authority. The Greek word described a person or thing that is accursed and consigned to damnation or destruction. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, that same word is used to describe something that is devoted to destruction.
So here is what Paul is essentially saying: “If it were possible, I would give up my own salvation and be eternally separated from God in order for all of my Jewish brothers and sisters to be saved.” In other words, Paul was willing to sacrifice that which was most valuable to him so that others could experience a personal relationship with God through faith in Christ.
As we’ll see when we get to verse 15, Paul is thinking here of Moses’ experience at Mt. Sinai. After receiving the Ten Commandments, Moses came down the mountain to find the people worshiping a golden calf. The next day Moses returned to the mountain and pleaded on behalf of his people:
So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.”
(Exodus 32:31–32 ESV)
This sounds a lot like Paul’s plea here in Romans 9, doesn’t it? In the same way that Moses was willing to sacrifice his life for the sake of his fellow Jews, Paul was willing to sacrifice his eternal life for the sake of his fellow Jews. In neither case was that actually possible, but both Moses and Paul expressed the kind of sacrifice they were willing to make on behalf of their brothers and sisters.
So let me ask you this. What would you be willing to sacrifice so that a family member, or friend, or co-worker, or neighbor, or even a complete stranger could hear the gospel? Your time? Your position? Your pride? Your money?
5. Don’t assume
It is really easy for us to make assumptions about people’s relationship with Jesus based on external factors that we can see. For instance, it would be easy to assume that just because you’re here in church today or because you grew up in a Christian family or even because you’ve been baptized or take part in the Lord’s Supper that you’re a disciple of Jesus. But the danger in making those kinds of assumptions is that they might keep me from sharing the gospel with someone that needs to hear it.
That is why I try to share the gospel in different ways each week and ask people to respond to it in different ways. I don’t ever want to assume that someone is a genuine believer just because they are here consistently.
In verses 4 and 5 Paul lists eight advantages that the people of Israel have when it comes to having a relationship with God, including the fact that the Messiah, Jesus, is from their lineage. But he also makes it clear here that those advantages alone don’t make them right with God or earn them eternal life. As we’ll see next week, Paul is going to go on and explain to them why their lineage alone and the benefits that come with that, are not adequate. Only faith in Jesus can provide the salvation they are seeking.
So if we really care about others, we’ll make sure that we don’t cheat them out of hearing the gospel because we make assumptions about their salvation based on external appearances.
INSPIRATION
Do you really care about those that God has brought into your life that don’t know Jesus? For you young people, do you really care about your fellow students? Do you care about your brothers and sisters? And for you adults, do you really care about your family members, your friends, the people you work with, your neighbors?
ACTION
If not, then you need to get on your knees and ask God to give you a deep compassion for the lost. You need to ask God to help you love those people with the same kind of sacrificial love that Paul had for his fellow Jews.
And if you do genuinely care for those people, then my question to you is how are you going to let them know that you care? How are you going to make it more about them than about you? How are you going to treat them with compassion rather than condemnation? How are you going to exercise both truth and love in your relationship with them? And what sacrifices are you willing to make for the sake of the gospel in their lives? How are you going to make sure that you don’t make wrong assumptions?
As you consider those questions this morning, would you write down the name of just one person you know who doesn’t know Jesus, hopefully someone you’ve been praying for. And then would you also write down one concrete step you can take this week to let that person know you care?
Because…
No one cares how much I know
until they know how much I care
Discussion Questions for Bible Roundtable
1. Paul claims that his conscience bears witness that he is telling the truth. Why do we need to be careful about relying on our conscience? (See 1 Corinthians 8:7-12, Titus 1:15) What makes it possible for Paul to rely on his conscience?
2. What were some of the advantages the Jews had over the Gentiles? (See verses 4-5). Why were those advantages not enough to guarantee their salvation? What advantages do some people have in our culture today that don’t guarantee their salvation?
3. What are some areas where Christians are most likely to treat non-Christians with condemnation rather than compassion? How do we avoid doing that?
4. What are some practical ways for us to make sure we balance truth with love?
