Introduction:
A. The story is told of a disheveled, homeless woman who visited a church one day.
1. When the invitation was given at the end of the service, she went forward and expressed a desire to become a member of the church.
2. The preacher listened as she told him how she believed in Jesus and wanted to be baptized.
a. The preacher thought to himself, “Oh my, she is so unkempt, she even smells a little, and her fingernails are not clean. What would the members think of her?”
b. He told her that she needed to pray about it for a while before she was baptized.
3. The following week, she came to church and again came forward during the invitation.
a. She told the preacher that she had prayed about it and still wanted to be baptized.
b. Again the preacher told her to go and pray some more.
4. A few weeks later while out eating at the restaurant, the preacher saw the little old lady.
a. He did not want her to think that he was ignoring her, so he approached her and said, “You have not been back to church for a while. Is everything all right?”
b. “Oh, yes,” she said, “I talked with Jesus, and He told me not to worry about becoming a member of your church.”
c. “He did?” said the preacher a little shocked.
d. “Oh, yes,” she replied, “Jesus said that even He hasn’t been able to get into your church, and He’s been trying for years.”
B. Let’s start with a probing question: Do you think that Jesus is welcome here at Wetzel Road?
1. How welcoming and accepting of others are we as a church?
2. Now, I want to think that we are pretty welcoming and accepting, and I hope that we are.
3. But I know this: we cannot be the church God wants us to be and we cannot experience real Christian community without the ability to accept one another.
4. So, let’s spend some time with this command to accept each other, and come to understand what it means to do so, and then let’s examine ourselves to see if there is some room in our hearts and lives for some growth in this matter.
I. The Instruction – Accept One Another
A. Romans 15:7 says, “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” (NIV)
1. The Christian Standard Bible renders the verse: Therefore welcome one another, just as Christ also welcomed you, to the glory of God.
2. The Greek word that is translated “accept” in the NIV and “welcome” in the CSB is a word that means “to receive kindly or hospitably” and “to treat with kindness.
3. And so, it means “to receive wholeheartedly, to warmly welcome to yourself, to grant admission into your heart, to look beyond anything superficial and to be willing and open to build relationships.”
4. Acceptance also can mean welcoming someone who may be very different from you.
5. I don’t think God’s command to accept or welcome others means to just tolerate them, but means extending the holiest sense of grace to them.
6. It can be a real challenge for us to express a resilient and abiding meekness toward others especially when their very presence includes something that is distasteful or offensive, but this is what God is commanding us to do.
B. The key phrase for understanding and practicing this command is the phrase, “just as Christ accepted you.”
1. Jesus is our standard – we are supposed to accept others just as He accepted us.
2. And how did Christ accept us?
3. According to Romans 5:8 the Bible says, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
4. And don’t you love the way Jesus loved and served those who were untouchable or unlovable?
a. Think about the way He welcomed the lepers and tax collectors and sinners.
5. By His loving acceptance, He was able to make a distinction between who people are and what they have done or what they have allowed themselves to become.
6. Even in our offensive and sinful state, we are still the objects of His love.
C. The purpose for this command to accept each other is so that we can “bring praise to God.”
1. As we, more and more, become the church we ought to be, the world will notice and give glory to God.
2. My hope is that when unbelievers walk into our fellowship, they will sense that something is different here, and they will go home thinking, “I want what they have; I want to be a part of what is going on there.”
3. I hope that they will go home praising God, saying that God is in that place; God is among those folks.
4. Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (Jn. 13:34-35)
5. Jesus said, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (Jn. 17:23)
6. When people come to realize that God loves them, because we have loved them, then they will bring praise to God.
D. Being loved and accepted is something that every person needs.
1. From the youngest of ages, we have a deep desire for acceptance in our families, on the playground, and even as adults, we still need acceptance.
2. Dr. Larry Crabb, in his book Connecting, wrote that we experience God’s power to heal souls through our compassionate, authentic relationships with others.
3. Crabb wrote, “What every Christian can pour into another is the powerful passion of acceptance, a passion that flows out of the center of the gospel, a passion that fills the heart of God.”
E. God has created all of us with the need to be loved and accepted, and God’s intent is for the church to be the place where love and acceptance can be realized.
1. When love, acceptance and forgiveness prevail in the church, then it becomes what Jesus was and is.
2. It becomes a center of love and the force of God, designed for the healing of broken people.
3. People are so fragmented and torn and for so many people life isn’t working for them because they are living without Jesus and without God’s love and acceptance in their lives.
4. But the church is the place where they can find Jesus and through the fellowship of Jesus’ people, they can receive love and acceptance and be healed and transformed.
5. The church is not supposed to be a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners.
6. Brennan Manning in his book, The Ragamuffin Gospel, wrote, “Jesus comes not for the super-spiritual, but for the wobbly and the weak-kneed who know they don’t have it all together, and who are not too proud to accept the handout of amazing grace…Something is radically wrong when the local church rejects a person who is accepted by Jesus…Any church that will not accept that it consists of sinful men and women, and exists for them, implicitly rejects the gospel of grace.”
F. And so, in summary: we are instructed to accept one another just as Christ accepted us in order to bring praise to God.
1. So now let’s talk about the application – how do we go about doing that.
II. The Application – Accept One Another
A. Let’s begin the application by asking the questions: who are the “one another” whom we are to be accepting and what is it that makes it difficult for us to accept one another?
1. I would like to suggest that the “who” we are to accept includes both non-Christians and Christians, and the “what makes it difficult” to accept one another includes selfishness and pride, prejudice, legalism, and judgmentalism.
B. Dr. Fred Craddock, the former homiletics professor from Emory University, used to tell about an experience he had in Winnipeg, Canada.
1. He had gone there to speak at a church, but a snow storm came in on Saturday night.
a. On Sunday morning he awoke to a couple of feet of snow.
2. His host called him at the hotel and told him that the service had been canceled for the day.
a. Fred asked his host, “So what should I do?”
b The host said that a block and a half from the hotel there was a diner he could walk to in order to get something to eat.
3. Craddock says that when he arrived at the diner, the place was packed, but the people moved over and made room for him and he ordered a bowl of soup.
4. A few minutes later the door opened and in came a rather unkempt woman.
a. Some people also made room for her and she sat down.
5. The man with a greasy apron came to her and asked, “What do you want?”
a. She said, “I’ll just take a glass of water.”
b. The employee with the greasy apron brought the water and then asked in a gruff voice, “Now what do you want?”
c. She replied, “The water is all I want.”
d. He said, “Look lady there are paying customers in here; either you are going to order something or else get out.”
e. She said, “Can’t I just stay in out of the cold for a few minutes?”
f. He said, “No, you have to order something, or leave.”
6. Slowly she scooted out of her seat and started to leave.
a. But when she did, the person on her right and left also got up to leave.
b. Then the people on each side of them got up to leave.
c. And pretty soon everyone started to leave.
7. The man with the greasy apron quickly assessed the situation and said, “All right, lady, come on back. You can stay.”
a. So everyone came back and took their seats.
b. The man with the greasy apron even brought the lady a free bowl of soup.
8. Craddock asked the man beside him, “Who is that lady?”
a. The man said, “I don’t know, but if she’s not welcome, then I’m not welcome.”
9. As Craddock ate his bowl of soup along with the group in that diner, he suddenly was reminded of the way he feels when he eats the simple communion meal at the Lord’s table – the Lord welcomes everyone to His table.
C. Shouldn’t we share the sentiments of that man – “If she’s not welcome, then I’m not welcome”?
1. Everyone should matter to us and everyone should be welcome to come among us at church.
2. I’m reminded of that day when Jesus told the Samaritan woman about the good news. (Jn. 4)
a. And his disciples were surprised that he would talk with someone like her.
b. Wasn’t she a woman? Yup. (They thought that a man shouldn’t be conversing with a woman in public)
c. Wasn’t she a Samarian? Yup. (Jews didn’t usually associate with Samaritans)
d. Wasn’t she a sinner? Yup – (5 divorces and one live-in boyfriend)
e. They wondered, “What are you doing, Jesus?”
f. What was Jesus doing? He was reaching out with acceptance to draw that woman to God.
g. Jesus said the fields are white for harvest – people who need God are everywhere - all we need to do is open our eyes and reach out to them.
3. On another occasion when Jesus was criticized by the Pharisees for spending time with sinners, he said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” (Mt. 9:12)
4. Ultimately, accepting people doesn’t mean that we accept and support them in their sin, but that we reach out to them with love right where they are, and then encourage them to change.
5. For the woman caught in adultery in John 8, we see that Jesus protected her and did not condemn her, but He did encourage her, saying, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (Jn. 8:11)
6. And think about the church at Corinth, in Paul’s first letter to them, he reminded them that when God called them not many of them were smart or powerful or of noble birth, but God calls the foolish and the weak, and the insignificant and the despised of the world to join His family (1 Cor. 1:26-29).
7. And later in the same letter, Paul reminded them that they had been lost in sin and debauchery before they knew the Lord, but that they had been washed and justified and sanctified (1 Cor. 6:9-11).
D. So we must do our best to accept people without prejudice or being judgmental.
1. It doesn’t matter who they are, where they are from, or what they have done.
2. It shouldn’t matter to us whether a person is rich or poor, or is educated or uneducated.
3. It shouldn’t matter what is the color of their skin, or the country or culture they come from.
4. Nothing about their appearance should matter to us – tall or short, thick or thin, good looking or other looking, handicapped or not, tattoo covered, pierced, you name it.
5. It shouldn’t matter to us if someone has been in trouble with the law, or has been in prison, or is struggling with addiction, everyone should be welcome.
6. That’s the way Jesus was and that’s how He wants us to be.
E. But what about those who think differently than we think?
1. Let’s look at the context that the command to accept one another is found in.
2. Why did Paul write the letter to the Romans? Because the church at Rome was experiencing a lot of division.
3. People were judging each other and some were not accepting each other because of their different ideas and convictions.
4. We don’t have time to look at the whole argument and all the issues involved, but Paul’s treatment of it begins back in chapter 14.
F. The church at Rome was divided over special diets and special days.
1. Paul addressed the groups as the “strong” and the “weak,” but better labels might have been the “weak” and the “weaker.”
2. The “weak” were those whose consciences would not allow them to eat the meat sold in the marketplace because much of that meat had been offered in idol worship before it was sent to Bob the butcher.
3. The ones who Paul called “strong” believed that they could eat any meat, even meat that had been sacrificed to idols, because idols were not real, and the meat was just meat.
4. The “weak” ones also believed that they had to continue to keep the Jewish special days in order to please God, but the “strong” ones did not believe they had to keep the special days.
5. It seemed that the only thing the two groups agreed on was that they disagreed with and despised each other.
G. Paul’s prescription for the problem included the following:
1. First, of all, stop the judging.
a. “Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” (Rom. 14:1-4)
b. In other words, leave the judging business to God.
2. Second, Paul’s prescription was to give room for differences of opinion on disputable matters.
a. If God has not given a clear command and instruction on the matter, then let’s give each other the right to come to our own conclusions, to make our own personal choices.
b. “One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.” (Rom. 14:5-6)
c. There are three categories specified in Scripture: Things that are right, things that are wrong, and principles that must be applied according to freedom and preference.
d. A disputable matter is an honest difference of opinion between Christians on how best to apply a biblical principle.
e. We know that we have to agree on that which Scripture makes clear, but we must not make our personal decisions based on principles a matter of fellowship.
f. Here are some kinds of things that fall into disputable matters: entertainment choices, parenting choices, education choices (public, private, home schooling), political choices, and alcohol choices, just to name a few.
g. A great slogan that was embraced by the Restoration Movement is: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”
3. Third, Paul’s prescription was to do what is best for everyone.
a. Rom. 14:13, “Therefore, let us no longer judge one another. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister.”
b. Rom. 14:19-21, “So then, let us pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another. Do not tear down God’s work because of food. Everything is clean, but it is wrong to make someone fall by what he eats. It is a good thing not to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble.”
c. Rom. 15:1-2, “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.”
d. If we really love each other, and honor each other, and are willing to submit to each other, then accepting each other’s limitations and opinions and deciding to limit some of our freedom for the sake of others, will not be that difficult.
e. The last thing that we should want to cause is the stumbling of our brothers and sisters - and that certainly involves more than just making them uncomfortable, or feel bad.
f. Paul meant that we don’t want to cause a Christian to do something that they cannot do with a clear conscience and therefore cause them to sin against the Lord.
g. Ultimately, all of us should be seeking to build up our neighbors, rather than seeking to please ourselves.
Conclusion:
A. I want to end with a true story told by Tony Compolo about a Jewish young man who suffered under the Nazis in WWII.
1. The young man was living in a small Polish village when he and all the other Jews of the vicinity were rounded up by Nazi SS troops and sentenced to death.
a. He joined his neighbors in digging a shallow ditch for their graves, and then faced the firing squad with his parents, arm in arm.
b. Then they were sprayed with machine-gun fire and their bodies fell into the ditch, and then the Nazis covered them with a thin layer of dirt.
2. Amazingly, none of the bullets hit the young man.
a. He was splattered with the blood of his parents and when they fell into the ditch, he pretended to be dead.
b. The grave was so shallow that the thin covering of dirt did not prevent air from getting through to him so that he could breathe.
3. Several hours later, when darkness fell, the boy clawed his way out of the grave.
a. With blood and dirt caked to his face and body, he made his way to the nearest house and begged for help.
b. Recognizing him as one of the Jews marked for death, he was turned away at house after house, because the people were afraid of getting into trouble with the Nazis.
4. Then something inside seemed to guide him to say something that would be very strange for a Jewish person to say.
a. When the next family answered the door, the Jewish young man said, “Don’t you recognize me? I am the Jesus you say you love!”
5. After a poignant pause, the woman who stood in the doorway swept him into her arms and brought him into the house.
a. From that day on, the members of that family cared for him as though he was one of their own. (Anthony Campolo, Who Switched the Price Tags?)
B. One of the keys to being able to do “one anothering,” including accepting one another, is learning to relate to each person as if they are Jesus.
1. What would happen if we tried to treat each person the way we would treat Jesus himself?
2. You know that difficult person in the neighborhood, at school, or in the workplace, or in your family?...Treat them like you would treat Jesus.
3. You know that person who is so different from you in terms of wealth, education, race, nationality, or politics?...Treat them like you would treat Jesus.
3. Jesus made it clear that how we treat others is how we treat Him.
4. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me… whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” (Mt. 25:40, 45)
5. I pray that God will enable us to truly accept one another as Christ has accepted us to the glory of God!
Resources:
Building Up One Another, by Gene A. Getz, Victor Books, 1981
Accept One Another, Sermon by Brian Bill, SermonCentral.com
Our Family Values: Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness, Sermon by Chris Jordan, SermonCentral.com
Accepting the Different (Part 1), Sermon by Eyriche Cortez, SermonCentral.com
Accept One Another, Sermon by David Owens
