- So far in this sermon series:
1. There are disputable matters.
2. We should accept the brother or sister we disagree with on disputable matters.
NOT OUR JOB: It is not our job to judge our brothers over disputable matters.
- Romans 14:1b.
- We are focusing this morning on the judgmental attitude we often have when it comes to these disputable matters.
- [Don’t step on the next point. Just set up the objection here.]
- We find it so easy to judge each other, it’s hard for us to comprehend that doing that is not in our job description.
- Unfortunately, church people are often known for being judgmental. It’s so common that it’s a stereotype. Not just to those outside the church, but also in our disagreements within the church as well. We bicker and fight.
- This tendency is so strongly within us, though, that we have many objections to this idea that we are not to judge our brothers. The remainder of the sermon is going to look at what this passage has to say about some of our objections to this assertion.
BUT, BUT, BUT, BUT:
1. BUT WHAT IF HE GETS AWAY WITH IT? Don’t worry because God will judge.
- Romans 14:10, 12.
- We worry about the person we disagree with getting away with it. What if he goes on preaching that idea that I disagree with? What if he continues to think he’s right? We don’t want him to “get away with it” – we feel that we need to step in and be the voice of truth and reason that helps him to realize the error of his ways.
- Of course, that’s mostly a fantasy because when we get into these disagreements with people it rarely results in a change of mind. Generally we create a lot more smoke than fire.
- There are two things we need to remember:
a. It’s not your job to judge.
- v. 10a.
- Paul asks why we are doing this. It’s not our job to do this.
- We want it to be our job, but it’s not.
- We want it to be our job because we enjoy doing it. We like being judgmental. It makes us feel righteous and like we’re saving the world for Jesus. Of course, He already saved the world.
- It’s a hard thing to accept that judging isn’t our job.
- Let’s take an obvious example. I am the pastor of the church. I’ve been elected to that position and everything. Because of that, I’ve been charged with standing before this congregation 48 weeks a year and preaching the Word. Imagine if I’m standing here with my Bible, preaching the sermon, when someone gets us from the back of the church, walks up the aisle, takes it from my hand, and starts preaching. Then the next week he does it again. And the following week. We would obviously sit him down and, among other things, say, “That isn’t your job. We’ve hired Jim as our pastor and because of that we want him standing up in front of us Sunday after Sunday sharing the sermon.”
- We are doing something similar when we decide to judge our brother or sister in Christ. It’s not your job.
b. But God will judge someday.
- vv. 10b, 12.
- Now, lest you panic because you think the person you disagree with is going to “get away with it,” we need to know that God will judge someday.
- God is paying attention and He sees where we fall short. He will straighten us out someday.
- So relax: things will get lined out someday so you don’t have to do it.
- It reminds me of Matthew 13:24-30 and the parable of the wheat and tares.
- In it a field is sown with good seed but then an enemy comes and sows weeds there. The servants want to go pull out the weeds but the master warns them that they might accidentally uproot some of the wheat in the process. So he tells them to let the wheat and the tares grow together until harvest time and then they’ll be separated.
- That’s a tough lesson for us: to wait on God’s timing and God’s judgment.
- It’s worth remembering, though, if God is ok with waiting then we should be as well.
- Finally, another thing to consider on this point is that knowing there is a judgment of God coming someday shouldn’t just cause us to say, “Good – maybe he’ll get what’s coming to him!” More importantly, it should cause us to focus on our own heart and mind and realize that we need to be working on our own obedience to be ready for judgment. Of course, we aren’t saved by our obedience – we’re saved by grace. But our judgment for rewards (and not salvation) will include our obedience to Christ. That gives us plenty to work on without worrying about the other guy.
2. BUT WOULDN'T IT BE BETTER IF HE WERE MORE LIKE ME? The hope is for all of us to be more like Jesus.
- Romans 14:11.
- A presumption in most of this thought on disputable matters is that we’d all be better off if everyone was more like me. I know better and so they should think the way I think.
- A problem with that is that our hope is not for everyone to be more like me, but for everyone to be more like Jesus!
- Verse 11 points us strongly in that direction. Every knee doesn’t bow to me and my opinions. Every knee bows to Christ. Every tongue doesn’t praise me and my wisdom. Every tongue confesses Christ.
- Tied in closely to this is an acute awareness that you and I are all so far short of Christ. He is God. He is Wisdom. He is the Word. He is the Prince of Peace. We are not.
- Where this should lead us as we look at each other is not to think things like “I am so much better/smarter/more insightful/wiser” than them, but rather we are both so far short of Christ. We are all merely followers of His.
- If we stay focused on that, it will solve a pretty decent amount of our desire to elevate ourselves above our brothers and sisters in Christ.
- Finally, seeing this quote makes me think of Philippians 2, where it speaks eloquently of Christ emptying Himself to come to earth and take on flesh. [Maybe turn there?]
- Knowing that was His approach should inform us – He came humbly, not arrogantly. He came in the form of a servant. As a follower of His, I need to emulate those characteristics.
3. BUT DOES THAT MEAN GOD IS FOCUSED ON NITPICKIGN THEIR FAULTS? The larger goal God is focused on is making each of us stand.
- Romans 14:4.
- Let’s start with the reminder at the beginning of v. 4. That brother or sister in Christ is not your servant. They are God’s servant.
- The second thing there is that it doesn’t matter when we find them guilty or innocent, right or wrong on these disputable matters. Why? Because “to his own master he stands or falls.” That means God is the judge.
- If I find them right but God finds them wrong, they are wrong. If I find them wrong and God finds them right, they are right. At the end of the day, my views of them mean nothing.
- I could be praised by everyone in this church as the greatest pastor this congregation has ever had, but if I stand before God someday and He says, “You did a bad job,” then I failed.
- That leads us to the third thing and it’s a profound truth: God will make him stand.
- This is an important thing to consider especially in the arena of church fighting. We can easily make it about nitpicking and minutiae and ever smaller distinctions. And that endless parsing can pass in certain quarters for spiritual maturity.
- It can blind us to the larger point of this journey: becoming like Christ.
- It’s easy in these arguments to start to think about how knowledgeable and insightful we are. We are the defenders of the Kingdom. In fact, none of us can stand without Christ upholding us! We are all desperately needy of what Jesus does for us.
- This points us to the bigger point: what Jesus is doing in us. The point of this journey is not “hey, look, I was right on this debate!” No, the point is “hey, look, I have become like Jesus!”
4. BUT THEN WHAT AM I TO DO? We should work to not trip up our brother or sister in Christ.
- Romans 14:13.
- [Don’t step too much on the next sermon on encouraging our brothers and sisters.]
- We are going to talk in much greater depth next week about what it looks like to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ, but for now let’s just dwell on what v. 13 tells us.
- On these issues we do tend to focus our efforts on arguing about disputable matters. We want to nitpick and convince them that what we believe is better.
- Verse 13 points us in a radically different direction. We are instructed not to put a stumbling block in our brother or sister in Christ’s way.
- Rather than focusing on proving myself right, instead I should think more about their righteousness.
- This is a major shift. Rather than wanting them to be more like me, instead I want them to be more like Jesus, just like we talked about. This makes me focus more on the big picture rather than the petty arguments. This also shifts me from thinking of that person as my adversary to being their advocate.
