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Romans chapter 1-4 recap
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
There comes a time when you will see what those around you don't. Welcome to the Commons cast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.
Speaker 1:Welcome today. My name is Jeremy. It's great to be here in this ongoing post Easter celebration that we call Eastertide. In the church tradition, for fifty days, we remind ourselves of resurrection. And we are finally, maybe just a little bit, starting to see some spring poke up around the city.
Speaker 1:My backyard right now is a soupy mess of melting snow, and yet I trust that life is slowly returning to the city around us. And so as the spring returns, we continue to remind ourselves of the resurrection that is all around us all the time. Now at the same time last week, we had our annual chance to dive into our vision Sunday. And this is just a chance for us to reset our imagination of commons, to remind ourselves of our particular place in the larger body of churches, here in the city and country, but then also to set the stage for the coming season as we start to prepare together for the fall. And so last week, we talked about a couple things.
Speaker 1:First, that we are committed to getting smaller. People continue to join us on the journey, and people continue to encounter Jesus in new ways through commons, and all of that is incredibly exciting for us. But it also means that we have to work even harder to make the small personal connections where faith really comes alive in us. And so sermons are great. I mean, I love my job, and I love the chance that I get to read and research and write for you every week.
Speaker 1:But we all know that dinner tables and local hospitality and unscripted conversations, this is where faith really takes hold in us. And so you can head to commons.life anytime. That is a special internal website that we have built just for the community. And there you'll find next steps for dinner parties, for home groups, for volunteering, and all the ways that you can dive deeper into those types of relationships that we're all going to need to rely on at some point in our story. And let me say this here quickly.
Speaker 1:Volunteering really is one of the best ways to get connected and to meet new people. But every time we talk about vision at Commons, we know that all of that depends on all of you who volunteer your time and your energy and your resources to make this community happen. Without you, vision is nothing because none of it exists. And so we don't take that for granted, and we really do want to say thank you to each of you. Now at the same time, we have also just launched our second parish in Inglewood earlier this year.
Speaker 1:And so if you live on that side of the city, and you are game to be part of something that is new, and in that exciting formative stage, then we would love to have you check that out as well. Scott is our pastoral lead there. The team is doing really amazing work, and we are incredibly excited about what's happening in that neighborhood as well. And yet, as we continue to invite more people into this conversation, Inglewood really is only the first of many experiments for us. Because we are committed to finding more ways to invite new people into this exploration of the Jesus story.
Speaker 1:Now all of that then led into the body of last week's message. And that's where we looked at the life of Nicodemus. And this really is one of my favorite stories because I often hear this term born again thrown around as if it doesn't need any context and it absolutely does. In fact, one of the things that I think is really important to the writer of the Gospel of John is that we imagine born again in the context of the entire life of Nicodemus. The whole point of Jesus encounter with this man, the whole point of this born again metaphor is that Jesus is inviting Nicodemus to start over again.
Speaker 1:And that is an extended process of rediscovery. So when you are born, you are nothing but a ball of possibility. And there's nothing you can't explore, nothing you can't become. But then slowly over time, what happens is you make choices, and you head down certain paths, and things get closed off, and ideas become untenable for you. And you shape your world in a certain way.
Speaker 1:And that is true of no one more than Nicodemus. Someone who enjoys a sense of respect and authority and privilege in his community. Sometimes, the more comfortable we become, the less possible change seems for us. And yet Jesus says, start again. And if we leave the fact that Nicodemus is confused by this, and he walks away from this, then we miss the point of this.
Speaker 1:Because this challenge to start over isn't a moment. It's a journey that begins to take hold in Nicodemus. And so if we follow him throughout that gospel, what we find is him watching and waiting and listening and learning and finally coming to discover Jesus one small step at a time. And the thing is, the culmination of that journey is only possible because Nicodemus was willing to start all over again that night in John three with Jesus. And you and I, we are continually born again.
Speaker 1:Every time we encounter truth in a new way for the first time. And that is beautiful. Now, today we turn our attention back to Romans. This is one of those heavy books that is packed full of heavy theology. We have committed ourselves as a community to working our way through this book no matter how long it takes.
Speaker 1:This is actually the third year in Romans, and we will not finish it off this year. In two years so far, we have covered four chapters of this book, but look out because this year, we are gonna cover chapters five, six, seven, and eight all in the next five weeks. But first, let's pray. God, we pause as we begin this morning to welcome your spirit once again into our conversation. That you might take words written thousands of years ago.
Speaker 1:Words that have been scrutinized and debated, dissected for millennia, and you might make them come alive for us in this moment. Might we come to see our brother Paul with fresh eyes and with compassionate hearts. Might we perhaps see ourselves in the spaces we have not noticed ourselves before. And in all this, might we encounter you through Paul's words. In his imagination, might we sense your spirit.
Speaker 1:In his words, might we to understand your grace. For we trust that you are present in all things. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray. Amen. Okay.
Speaker 1:We're gonna take today to recap the last two years in Romans, and we're gonna refresh our memory of chapters one through four. And then as I said, this year we're gonna move a little quicker through four chapters over the rest of this series. But let's start today with Paul. Because Paul gets a bad rap sometimes. Right?
Speaker 1:This week, I came home and my four year old son, Eaton, was there and I walked in and I asked, how was your day, buddy? And he responded, not awful. And I said, okay. That's good. We'll take it.
Speaker 1:That's good enough. Alright? He's got this thing lately where he will say not awful the way that normal people will say not bad. And I guess he figures that if not bad means pretty good, then not awful should mean really great. Right?
Speaker 1:I don't know how things work in his head, but it's a lot of fun to be around him regardless. However, I do get this sense that sometimes that's how people feel about Paul and Romans. It's not awful. And the truth is, I can relate to that. I mean, it took me a while to fall in love with Paul.
Speaker 1:There's actually this great book by Daniel Kirk called Jesus Have I Loved. But Paul and Paul can be a little aggressive sounding at times. He can come across as a little arrogant at times, and for some reason I feel a little natural affinity for him when he does. But the truth is Paul, like any of us, is a human being. And sometimes I think we forget to have grace for those who wrote the scriptures for us.
Speaker 1:Remember, we can't expect In fact, we don't need Paul to be perfect for us. What we need is for Paul to point to Jesus for us. And the more that I get to know Paul, the more I sense his utter devotion to this Jesus who has completely reinvented his imagination of the world. Romans is a text that kind of drops us into the middle of Paul's life. But understanding what Paul writes really comes when we get to understand him as a character with a backstory that fill in and give context to what he says.
Speaker 1:And it's actually the book of Acts that gives us his story. And we're gonna come back to Acts this summer, but quickly here, if you are not familiar with Paul's story, you can read it in Acts chapter nine. And basically, Paul is this guy who was introduced and goes by his Jewish name, Saul. And he was part of a religious tradition known as the Pharisees. Now, we talked about them last week.
Speaker 1:But even though we don't want to stereotype all of the Pharisees as bad guys, because they weren't, Paul has taken it upon himself to persecute any Jews who have fallen under the spell of this charlatan named Jesus. And Saul, as he's known them, thinks that these people are nuts. Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, but he was executed by Rome. And so in Saul's mind, clearly anyone who follows a dead messiah is someone whose religious sensibilities are out of whack. And Saul seems to take the faith as a personal insult.
Speaker 1:And he begins to aggressively persecute these yearly followers of the way. All of the passion that he later directs in devotion to Jesus, he points at these Christians. In fact, in the book of Acts, one of the leaders in the early Jesus community, a man named Stephen is stoned to death. And so he is murdered for his convictions about Jesus. And Saul is there watching and sanctioning that violence.
Speaker 1:This really is the worst of the same religious zealotry that we see around us in the world today. And so in Acts chapter nine, when Saul is heading to Damascus on his way to root out more Christians, potentially murder them as well, we read about this incredible encounter he has with the risen Christ. And this is a pretty shocking moment really. If you can imagine this, Saul's career has been about the absurdity of people who worship a dead messiah. And now, all of a sudden, that same murdered man is alive and in front of him and speaking to him.
Speaker 1:And acts tells us that Paul is riding to the city with some companions. He sees a bright light and he hears Jesus speak and Jesus says, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And this moment changes everything for Saul. He changes his name to Paul. He travels and becomes the primary evangelist for Jesus.
Speaker 1:He goes up and down the empire planting churches all over the place. And he is eventually executed for his faith the same way that he participated in the execution of Stephen. But there's a couple things here that are really interesting, even in this conversion story, that for me are integral in coming to understand the Paul who writes the book of Romans as we dive back in. So first, I love that in pivotal moments throughout the gospels, Jesus speaks our names. He does this for Mary Magdalene in the garden after his resurrection.
Speaker 1:In her grief, she's not sure who this person is that she's speaking to, and so Jesus says, Mary. He does this for Peter after his resurrection. Jesus tells him to feed his sheep, and Peter says, sure. And Jesus says, feed my sheep. And Peter says, okay.
Speaker 1:And then a third time, Jesus says, Simon, son of John, which is the name that Peter grew up with. Feed my sheep. And this seems to shake Peter enough for Jesus to have this tender healing moment with his friend. Well, now on the road to Damascus, Jesus stands in the way and says, Saul. And there is something about hearing our name.
Speaker 1:Isn't there? Psychologically, we know that our brains are actually wired to hear our names. Now we've tested this and we know that we can hear our name in a room through all kinds of noise and distraction. Our brain will just pick it up. But there is something about realizing that when Jesus speaks to us, it is not generic or impersonal or common or unbiased.
Speaker 1:It is specific and personal and uniquely tailored for our particular story. And of course, the invitation of God is as expansive as the human race, but the point of Jesus is that the welcome of God comes much nearer than we sometimes imagine. And for Saul to hear his name as the first words from the lips of the risen Christ, this is formative for him. Because Paul sees himself with a very unique role within the story of God. And large or small, celebrated or not, for us to come to understand the unique space that we occupy in God's imagination, regardless of whether anyone else sees it or not.
Speaker 1:That is one of the most powerful experiences we can have as human beings. And to know that our contribution to the world is needed for God's dream to come true. That is to hear our name spoken by the divine. But second, I notice here that Jesus says, Saul, why do you persecute me? And the Greek term that's translated persecute here is the word dioces.
Speaker 1:And persecute is fine. In fact, that is exactly what it means here in the context. But I am intrigued by the fact that diocese can be either persecute or pursue. And in fact, later in Romans 14, which we will get to in five or six years, Paul will write, let us therefore pursue what leads to peace. And there he uses this same word dioces.
Speaker 1:And I wonder if somewhere along the journey to writing Romans, Paul hasn't become keenly aware of that fine line that separates what we pursue from what we persecute. At maturity is about far more than simply pointing our passion in the right direction. It is often about realizing that passion will get the best of us if we let it. And look, I mentioned this already, but I love my job. I really do.
Speaker 1:And if you were to ask me what I would probably want to do with my day off, it would likely be this. But that's not healthy. Because if I wanna pursue my passion for the long term, then I need to make sure that my passions don't end up persecuting me. And somewhere underneath Paul's story, I get this sense that Paul wants to give everything to Jesus, but that he is wise enough to remember where his own instincts took him in the past. And for him, that means now continually pursuing peace with the same passion that he once used violence.
Speaker 1:Now for me, that might mean putting as much energy into play as I do work. For you, it may be noticing where your discontent with the world turns into frustration or apathy. But what it means for all of us is reflecting on where the best of us sometimes gets the best of us. Because we all have areas where our instincts will lead us where we do not want to go. And for Paul, realizing where his passion for God had turned into something evil led to this constant process of reorienting, recalibrating, asking himself questions, and making sure he was pointed where he really did want to go.
Speaker 1:Now finally, one more thing that I notice here before we actually turn our attention back to Romans. Is that Paul, when he has this encounter, and he experiences this bright light, and he hears this voice from Jesus, we read in the next verse that the men traveling with Saul stood there speechless. They heard the sound, but they did not see anything. And this I think is really important for understanding Paul. Because sometimes even the most life changing encounters with the divine that we have may not be readily apparent to those who are around us.
Speaker 1:And look, I wanna be really careful here because I've seen far too many people who think they have heard from God, and they refuse to listen to the people who care deeply for them, and they have trusted themselves right off a cliff. Anytime you experience something divine, it is the community that surrounds you that gives shape and meaning and definition to that encounter. So hear me. Take seriously the voice and the perspective and the criticism of those who have shown that they care for you deeply. But there comes a time when you will see what those around you don't.
Speaker 1:And often, stepping into the next stage of your story will require you to trust that moment. And learning to hear the divine voice, learning to trust that leading, Learning to risk yourself to what you sense. This is about a lifetime of discernment. And so I'm not gonna pretend it's easy. I don't have four steps that you can follow to do this well.
Speaker 1:But the conviction that this moment was real, and that no one could take it away from him. That was absolutely formative for Paul. And so learning to trust your center. Perhaps first, come and understand whether you're more of a head person, or a heart person, or a gut person, and learning to trust the divine voice in that. But then also learning how to access the other parts of your being to balance and give context to what you hear.
Speaker 1:This is an important part of each of our stories, and it was central to Paul's. Now all of these ideas, Paul's uniquely personal encounter with Jesus, his constant desire to evaluate and recalibrate his direction, his absolute conviction that God was speaking in and through him to the world. It's these ideas that help to give some context to what we read as we dive into Paul and we brush up against his sometimes uncomfortable devotion to Jesus. And so with time we have left today, I wanna pick up two ideas from our first two years in Romans, and that will set us up to dive into chapter five next week. So, chapter one verse 18.
Speaker 1:Paul writes, for I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes. First to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. A righteousness that is faithful from first to last. Just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith.
Speaker 1:Therefore, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Now, this is where we get to see two of those extremes in Paul brought together. I mean, he starts with this lovingly lavish reminder of God's goodness and faithfulness. Now remember, one of Paul's big ideas is that it is only the faithfulness of God. A God who will do anything to remain true to God's promises that we are healed and welcomed and restored in God's kingdom.
Speaker 1:But then he jumps right to wrath. And wrath is one of those words that we just don't use very often in a modern context in conversations. I don't anyway. I don't know about you. But anger really is just as good here.
Speaker 1:So he says the anger of God is being revealed against the godlessness and wickedness of humanity. And I think sometimes, because wrath is so shocking a word, we immediately get our backs up. And we want to say, okay, why is God so angry and vengeful? That's not how I want to picture God. I don't really see that in Jesus.
Speaker 1:On the other hand, sometimes you get people who are really excited about this because they want an angry, violent, vindictive God who is hell bent on taking their frustrations out on the world. But, if we want to hear Paul well, because this idea of divine wrath really is important to him, we have to take him at his word. And this is really important if we're going to get Romans. For Paul, God is never angry at you and I. In fact, the only reason that God is involved in the world is because of God's faithfulness.
Speaker 1:It's the faithfulness of God to the story of the world that leads us to Jesus. So God is not angry at sinners. God is faithful to sinners. But that means that God is angry at all that injures us. When you give in to the selfishness that isolates you from the care and love that you were built for.
Speaker 1:When you give in to violence that violates your being and rips you away from the creative energies you were meant to unleash in the world. When you take what was meant for good, and then you abuse it, and you overuse it, and you indulge, and you damage yourself with that gift. God is heartbroken for you because God loves you. But, God is angry at the presence of pain and hurt and evil in God's world. You see the wrath of God is revealed against all that injures God's creation.
Speaker 1:And that is the same faithfulness of God that redeems and heals and restores all that is broken. And, yeah, we can pull frustration and anger to ourselves by filling ourselves with all that hurts us. We can actually become the very thing that tears us apart. But God's anger is never for the victims of sin. It's only ever for the brokenness that hurts us.
Speaker 1:And if we miss Paul's point here, then we will read Paul as if he has missed out on the goodness of God and that is absolutely not the case. Because Paul is overwhelmed with the goodness and the faithfulness and the gentleness of the divine, this graciousness that relentlessly pursues you and I. And because of that, Paul will then take chapters three and four to highlight the fact that the saving grace of God was always about God's goodness and never a product of any of our righteousness to begin with. He goes to great lengths to demonstrate from the Hebrew scriptures that following the rules and doing all the right things and participating in the right rituals is good, but it can never actually overcome the damage and brokenness that had been unleashed in the world. In other words, the Torah reminded people of sin and it kept them repentant, but it couldn't actually fix the world.
Speaker 1:Now, Paul will even go as far as to say that the Jews had a unique advantage because of Torah. They had an experience of God that was unique in history, but it wasn't complete. And the best that they could do was trust in the faithfulness of God to bring that story to its completion, which for Paul is Jesus. And so in chapter four, Paul actually takes all these ideas and he gives us a big object lesson. Takes us back to the story of Abraham.
Speaker 1:He basically says, okay, if we go back to Genesis and Abraham and the foundation of our Jewish faith, then we find that trust actually predates our patterns. So, Paul is this incredibly skillful debater. And he knows his Hebrew bible inside and out. And so what he does is he actually gives five arguments from the story of Abraham that point to the faithfulness of God as the central tenant of the old testament story. Obviously, you can go back and listen to the details from Romans year two part six.
Speaker 1:But Paul's argument hinges on this idea that in Genesis, Abraham trusts God and that trust is credited to Abraham as righteousness. And so because of that, Abraham is called the father of faith and he is called the father of many nations. And all of this is in Genesis 12 through 15 before Abraham is circumcised in Genesis 17. And for Paul, that means that following the rules, be it circumcision, be it sacrifice, be it tithing, be it caring for the poor, whatever, all of that can only ever be a response to the experience of God's faithfulness. None of it is a way to earn or gain or attract God's attention.
Speaker 1:Anything we do is only ever response to the goodness of God. And in fact, Paul will argue that if Abraham was a father of many nations, then that means that the most important way that Abraham is our father is not biological or ethnic at all. In fact, the most important way that Abraham is a father is as a spiritual father to all who trust God's faithfulness regardless of their religious practice. And you can see why that is a provocative position for a Jewish rabbi to take because, I mean, if I was circumcised, I would wanna know that that meant something. And so these are the big ideas that have set the stage for what we are about to dive into in Romans five through eight.
Speaker 1:First, Paul's personal story. His radical encounter with Jesus. It pushes him in this ongoing journey of recalibrating his passion. And his absolute conviction that God has called him to participate in something bigger than himself. And then these two formative ideas.
Speaker 1:One, that God is good. And that means God intends to heal all things by fixing everything that is broken and ultimately by destroying all that destroys God's creation. And two, that our participation in that story is not a function of our ability to follow the rules or even to know them particularly well. Our participation in kingdom is bound up in our conviction that God is good and faithful to see the world made new, and we want to be a part of it. So, as we dive back into Romans this year, May you see God's goodness that surrounds you always.
Speaker 1:May you come to detest all that tears you down, and may you encounter this personal Jesus that brings God's grace to you wherever you may stray. Let's pray. God, as we jump back into this text and this letter that has endured thousands of years, May we recognize that in the midst of all of these heavy thoughts and theology, you are speaking your goodness and grace, your patience and peace to us. Inviting us to participate alongside you in the healing of the world. God, might we encounter you in a personal way through these words.
Speaker 1:And might your spirit be present in us and through us. Reminding us that our words, our transactions, our encounters, the ways we challenge systemic injustice, and the ways that we build a world that more closely resembles your kingdom. This is how we walk alongside you in the restoration of all things. God, thank you that you would invite us to be a part of your dream. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray.
Speaker 1:Amen.