THE THINGS THAT DIVIDE US Rom 14:1-12
The favorite indoor sport of most Christians is sizing up each other, identifying the differences, and slicing up the body of Christ.
1) In case you have not looked around lately we are very different. We look different, we act different, we talk different, we have different jobs, we come from different backgrounds.
2) When we walk in the flesh then those differences divide but when we walk in the Spirit those differences can make us more effective in reaching the world.
a) In Paul’s wildest dream wouldn’t have imagined the many denominations we have today
3) Imagine the differences in the New Testament: how much difference can you be than the differences between the Jew and the Gentile. Diet – Feast Days – Circumcision - Sabbath
Think about the things that divide us: You can’t be a real Christian and _______ not speak in tongues, go to Church on Sunday, be baptized in any church but ours, go to movies, go to dances(functions) play cards, work on Sunday, have musical instruments in church, mixed swimming,…..what about raising hands, what about escatology, calvinism verses arminianism, baptism verses sprinkling, If the KJV was good enough for Paul then it is good enough for me. Radio wrong because satan is prince of the power of the air.
Dion Dimucci: 60’s pop star who sings Christian music. Saw on Catholic channel explaining why a Catholic. Round of non-catholic churchs and kept finding out we are different because so came back to catholic because ‘one guy is in charge’,
Paul is dealing with a problem which has been around a long time and still exist today in the church: Legalism
Pharisees: Beat people us with thousands of extra-biblical rules and regulations which put huge burdens on people’s lives. Tack in shoe, mirror, spit making mud,
1) Passage runs throughout chapter 14 and ends in 15:14
It is an extended passage begun in chapter 12 about loving one another and how to do it. 13:8 Owe no man anything but to love one another. To love someone who is different from you is a real test of love. Is the grace of God so miraculously strong that the body of Christ can stay together even though so many differences exist? ‘Grey areas abound’
Ps 133:1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.
RECEIVE OTHERS IN SPITE OF WHERE THEY ARE SPIRITUALLY (1) Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgement on his opinions(disputable matters). PBPGIFWMY
Cindy’s Sunday School class: Come in to get drilled. What if came in and said ‘Explain Eschatology, name 3 Apocalyptic events, what is the english meaning of the Greek: kononia, pisteo, storge. You don’t know? Out of here, never come back. They are different because they are weaker in faith
1. Accept means to receive or welcome. Don’t reject, ignore or treat in a second-class way. Don’t feel like you have to straighten them out. Many love to debate and argue and can dishearten a person who is young in the faith in no time at all. Don’t dwell on disputable matters that divide.
Notice how adults talk with children: stoop to their heigth, speak at their level, don’t come down on them for their way of expressing themselves.
Grumpy Father: Angry at mess daughter had made with wrapping paper. Later she came and brought him a box with a gift for him. He opened and box was empty. He yelled at her, ‘Don’t you know you are not supposed to give someone an empty box as a gift?’ It isn’t empty daddy, it is full, I blew it full of kisses before I wrapped it’.
2. We are all at different points on the road in our journey of faith. You haven’t always believed like you do now. You have learned, you have grown. Acceptance allows room for growth to occur.
21 year old baby believer: Bible study: What is faith? Faith is like ‘faith of our fathers, what people believed before us’. Invited to college gathering of Christian’s, people milling around, TV right there, lost people love TV and new believers were just lost a short time ago. Me and a few other children in Christ got on the floor in front of the TV and watched baby Christian TV: Dallas, not the football team but the TV show. Still hooked on it, in time God would change my heart.
a. Criticism not to be aimed at where we are on the road but one whether we are moving or not. Am I growing or backsliding? Am I open to God’s Word or close minded?
b. There are definite things that Scripture addresses that are not debatable(Essential of our faith and issues of sin) Being drunk is always wrong, adultery, homosexuality, fornication are always wrong: Both OT and NT have spoken and we are called to rebuke, exhort, reprove and even if necessary discipline one another. 99% of battles in churches aren’t in those areas.
Is smoking a sin? Don’t smoke drink or chew or go with girls who do!
Smoking shortens a person life substantially. All the money you spend on cigarettes you save because you don’t have to pay rent or buy food as long as other people. Not mentioned in Bible. Sin because it hurts the body: Kill ourselves quicker with food: butterholic, salt, fried foods(meddlin now) DAD at 63: white bread, processed meats, fried foods, no exercise but gave up smoking in his 30’s
HOW TO BE 50 WHEN YOU ARE 65(no extra charge) Studies have shown these 10 things to have prolonged life-New Years Resolutions
(1) No tobacco (2) No Alchohol (3) Avoid obesity (4) Eat a proper diet (5) Be physically active (6) Be mentally active (7) Be a religious person (8) Be married (9) Maintain healthy family ties (10) Avoid sin(average homosexual death is in 30’s)
3. Problem in Roman church:
(2) One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. (3) The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him.
a. There was a definite concern that those with Jewish backgrounds had about eating meat. Eating was a big part of the fellowship and if meat was on the menu. Look out.
Jewish dietary laws: had restrictions on the kinds of meat they could eat(no pork/on platforms in Israel today/raised on other side of Galilee). Even beef and lamb had to be kosher(slain a certain way) What went into the body was sacred(not us: we eat anything that tastes good – Joe’s ant flavored chips)
PROBLEM: butcher shops located next to pagan temples. Sacrifices only used have of animal and rest was sold. Fresh meat daily. A person with Jewish background eat meat offered to an idol?
b. Others in church said ‘Idols are nothing’. Who was wrong and who was right?
Gal 2:11-13 Peter eating with Gentiles but when other Jews arrived he stopped. Paul rebukes him.
4. Are you weak in faith? Two things are true if you are:
a. Caught up in legalism: Christianity is a list of rules and regulations and not a relationship.
b. Caught up in works: Gain God’s favor by doing or not doing certain things. Can do more for God than He has already done for you.
RECOGNIZE OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHERS (4) Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
1. WHO IS MY MASTER? It is not your job or my job to keep people staightened out. We have no responsibility nor do we have the authority. He is God’s servant.
a. Not backsliders living sinful lives but those in the church at different levels of maturity.
b. Sometimes a matter of faith to leave things in God’s hands: the Lord is able to make him stand
Phillips: God is well able to transform men into servants who are satisfactory
ADONIRAM JUDSON: sailed to Burma as America’s first foreign missionary. He was went by the Congregationalist Church in America but on the ship he studied the issue of baptism and came to the conviction that immersion was Scriptural. Lost support.
c. God is working in that person’s life and He is reading their heart and sees things about them that we cannot see. If their heart is right He will change them. When we attempt to usurp God’s place it brings division.
Two of Englands greatest preachers: Charles Spurgeon and Joseph Parker were great friends until a disagreement got into the newspapers. Spurgeon accused Parker of being unspiritual because he went to the theaters. Spurgeon loved to smoke cigars.
2. WHAT IS MY MOTIVE(issue of Sabbath) (5) One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. (6) He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God.
a. Regardless of where we now are in our attempts to figure out the greyer areas of Scripture it is essential that each of us are aggresively seeking to know the will of God. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.
ERIC LIDDELL: I disagree with him although I have tremendous awe and respect for his life commitment. He refused to run on Sunday during the Olympics in the 1920’s. He was raised to honor the Sabbath and to him Sunday was the sabbath.
1) I feel each day is alike, each is meant as a day of worship and honor to God.
Dear ministry friend: disagree sharply on one particular issue. That salvation can be lost. He was raised to believe that way and I don’t see that position as a possibility. We agree on most all else but above that he is without a doubt my brother in Christ. Jesus will settle it all one day and he will come around then.
3. WHAT IS MY MINISTRY? To serve Jesus by loving others. (7) For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; (8) for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. (9) For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
a. We are one body together, Jesus is alive and is active in the lives of His people. To know that by faith is to trust His work in their lives to be sufficient. He may use me in their lives but it is His work in process.
b. People are God’s property: whether we live or die we are the Lord’s DROVE TAR OUT OF – Take that one
1) Am I treating people as if they belong to the Lord.
REMEMBER THAT WE AND OTHERS WILL ONE DAY STAND BEFORE GOD (10 But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. (11) For it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.’ (12) So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.
1. The day will come when we will stand before the Judgment seat(bema). Acually we won’t stand long but we will bow and give an account of our lives.
(Not God – Jesus – Joseph Smith)
BEMA: Greek for place where judges stood at athletic games. They disqualified those who broke the rules and when a winner was declared they gave him the rewards. Judgment or rewards before the throne of God for all of us.
a. What will it be for you on that day
JOHN 21:15-25 Peter restored after denying Jesus three times. Jesus says to Peter, ‘Follow Me’. Peter began to follow Jesus but he heard someone walking behind them. He turned and seeing John he asked Jesus, ‘Lord, what shall this man do?’ Jesus replied, ‘What is that to you Peter, Follow thou Me!’
b. Are you following Jesus, are you setting an example with your life? Or are you more concerned with others. Are you ready to give an account?
