WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.300 We're in a series on Romans chapter 12, nearing the end of it, but we're in a mini series 00:00:09.300 --> 00:00:12.460 within our series on verses 9 to 21. 00:00:12.460 --> 00:00:16.760 And it's a mini series because from 9 to 21, it's all about love. 00:00:16.760 --> 00:00:19.140 So we're looking at love for four weeks. 00:00:19.140 --> 00:00:20.620 We started last week. 00:00:20.620 --> 00:00:25.940 And last week, we looked at what love is, so defining love. 00:00:25.940 --> 00:00:30.160 And now, this week, next two weeks, we're going to look at where you can love and how 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:31.160 you can love. 00:00:31.160 --> 00:00:33.760 So getting into more specifics that Paul gives us here. 00:00:33.760 --> 00:00:37.600 And this week, we're going to think about loving our city, loving the city. 00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:44.719 Now it's not a secret at all to anybody here that people in Edinburgh, in many places, 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:49.579 many cities across the Western world, look at Christianity in different ways. 00:00:49.579 --> 00:00:53.880 Some people are very antagonistic towards Christianity. 00:00:53.880 --> 00:00:58.840 They look at Christianity and they say it's a white-centered religion where the Bible 00:00:58.840 --> 00:01:04.000 condones slavery and all sorts of other things that we know are now wrong. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:05.960 And so they hate Christianity. 00:01:05.960 --> 00:01:11.040 And there's other people who are intrigued by it and look at it and say, actually, Christianity 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:16.200 gives us a great moral foundation, but we now know that the historical Jesus is different 00:01:16.200 --> 00:01:18.439 from the Jesus of the myth of the gospel. 00:01:18.439 --> 00:01:22.840 So there's people who really don't like it and people who like it but don't want to 00:01:22.840 --> 00:01:25.320 accept Jesus as what he said he is. 00:01:25.320 --> 00:01:29.719 And then there's people who are, and I think this is the most overwhelming category by 00:01:29.719 --> 00:01:32.359 far, completely indifferent. 00:01:32.359 --> 00:01:36.640 So they just don't care either way. 00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:40.920 They think Christianity is not something that's very relevant for the modern world. 00:01:40.920 --> 00:01:45.000 It helped create the beauty of Edinburgh, but it's not something that matters that much 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:47.680 to people's lives today. 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:54.640 There's a temptation as we live in the 21st century through the plight of the modern West 00:01:54.640 --> 00:02:00.080 for the church to do one or two things in the face of these types of reactions to Christianity. 00:02:00.080 --> 00:02:05.560 On the one hand, we, some of us are tempted by our personalities to go in the offensive 00:02:05.560 --> 00:02:07.800 to say, you know, I'm going to fight for the truth. 00:02:07.800 --> 00:02:08.800 I'm going to stand up. 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:12.200 I'm going to get people to see that this really is real. 00:02:12.200 --> 00:02:16.760 And so you go on Twitter and you're constantly posting proofs of the resurrection or something 00:02:16.759 --> 00:02:19.840 like that, you know, to really fight for the truth. 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:24.399 On the other hand, your personality might drive you to say it's time to batten down 00:02:24.399 --> 00:02:31.199 the hatches, hide, build the institutional church's walls up, and stay away and kind 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:34.039 of hold out until things get better. 00:02:34.039 --> 00:02:39.840 You know, just say we've lost the West and we need to protect ourselves. 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:46.719 And depending on everybody's personality, we probably tend in one of the other directions. 00:02:46.719 --> 00:02:52.280 In the book of Acts, you look across it and you have this fundamental question being asked. 00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:57.000 What do you do when the culture, when your city rejects you? 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:03.079 And then what do you do when your culture or your city accepts you as a Christian? 00:03:03.079 --> 00:03:10.479 And Paul in his actions in the book of Acts and his words in Romans 12 gives you the answer. 00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:16.400 So he says, if you're in an age where Christianity is largely being rejected or if you're in an 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:22.800 age or in a place where Christianity is largely being accepted, you still do the same thing. 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:24.759 And he says the answer is you love. 00:03:24.759 --> 00:03:27.719 You go forth and love, no matter what. 00:03:27.719 --> 00:03:32.240 No matter if you're being accepted or rejected, you go forth and love. 00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:37.560 It's not a fight mentality or a flee mentality, but a love mentality is the way that Paul 00:03:37.560 --> 00:03:40.879 cuts through that division, that temptation that we face. 00:03:40.879 --> 00:03:45.840 And so in the first century, Christianity had emerged into these Greco-Roman cities all 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:47.719 over the place. 00:03:47.719 --> 00:03:52.439 And they're really in some ways like ours today, like Edinburgh today, where overwhelmingly 00:03:52.439 --> 00:03:57.199 most people do not know about Christianity and have not encountered it in meaningful 00:03:57.199 --> 00:03:58.840 ways. 00:03:58.840 --> 00:04:03.920 And the Christians in the first century were finding their feet and we're sort of back 00:04:03.920 --> 00:04:06.759 to that again, finding our feet. 00:04:06.759 --> 00:04:10.680 And the Christians in the first century said, how do we relate to the government? 00:04:10.680 --> 00:04:11.680 How do we relate to the city? 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:13.560 How do we relate to the people? 00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:17.120 And Paul kept saying, look, no matter what, the answer is always going to be fundamentally 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:19.720 a posture of love, a posture of love. 00:04:19.720 --> 00:04:21.079 So let's think about that today. 00:04:21.079 --> 00:04:25.040 You love, we're called to love wherever we are, whatever place we're called to love 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:26.040 the city. 00:04:26.040 --> 00:04:27.680 Two things to learn. 00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:31.120 First, the fact that love is our calling. 00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:35.240 And then secondly, two ways Paul's going to teach us to do that here. 00:04:35.240 --> 00:04:41.079 So first, the fact that love really is our calling when we go out from this place today. 00:04:41.079 --> 00:04:42.199 So the fact of love. 00:04:42.199 --> 00:04:48.680 Now we read from verse nine to 21, this long list of imperatives, commands, ethics of the 00:04:48.680 --> 00:04:52.199 Christian life, all grounded in the concept of love. 00:04:52.199 --> 00:04:58.360 And you might look back through that and say, I don't see a single word about the city. 00:04:58.360 --> 00:05:00.399 You say that the theme here is love the city. 00:05:00.399 --> 00:05:03.519 That's not what Paul says anywhere in these verses. 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:08.120 That sounds like a very contemporary preacher, just trying to make it about the city in some 00:05:08.120 --> 00:05:09.199 way. 00:05:09.199 --> 00:05:10.360 Sort of. 00:05:10.360 --> 00:05:12.639 But it really is there. 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:18.360 Actually the commentators, the New Testament scholars, talk about how there's this pattern 00:05:18.360 --> 00:05:21.360 through this list of commands from nine to 21. 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:26.960 It's a pattern without hard boundaries, a lot of overlap, but it's really there. 00:05:26.960 --> 00:05:28.080 Let me show it to you. 00:05:28.080 --> 00:05:31.400 Verse nine, he says, let your love be genuine. 00:05:31.400 --> 00:05:33.199 We looked at that last week. 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:38.879 And then if you jump to verse 10, he says, now love one another with brotherly affection. 00:05:38.879 --> 00:05:42.319 There's a unity in those two commands, but there's also a division. 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:47.360 And the unity is that he's talking about love, but the commentators will say in the first 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:49.079 command, let your love be genuine. 00:05:49.079 --> 00:05:55.719 He's saying agape, gift-giving love, that's the word he uses, to everybody. 00:05:55.719 --> 00:06:01.920 Let your love be genuine to everybody, including non-Christians, anybody that you might encounter, 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:04.719 no matter what they believe in, what they think, what their political persuasion might 00:06:04.719 --> 00:06:05.719 be. 00:06:05.720 --> 00:06:09.480 Then he turns and says, and love with brotherly affection. 00:06:09.480 --> 00:06:12.680 And in that second command, verse 10, he has shifted his audience. 00:06:12.680 --> 00:06:17.280 Now he's talking about the love that you give to the Christians, to the church. 00:06:17.280 --> 00:06:18.600 And he changes the word. 00:06:18.600 --> 00:06:22.680 It goes from agape to philostorgae in Greek. 00:06:22.680 --> 00:06:27.960 And that second word, philoh, like Philadelphia brother, the city of brotherly love, the phil 00:06:27.960 --> 00:06:32.480 at the beginning, means brotherly, but storgae is a type of love. 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:38.200 So he says, in other words, love everybody, love the city with gift-giving, God-like love, 00:06:38.200 --> 00:06:39.920 no matter what. 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:44.439 And when it comes to the people in the church, love them like family. 00:06:44.439 --> 00:06:48.759 Storgae is the Greek word for loving people like you love your children, loving people 00:06:48.759 --> 00:06:51.280 like you love your spouse, loving people like you love your parents. 00:06:51.280 --> 00:06:54.319 He says, when you're inside the church, you love like it's family. 00:06:54.319 --> 00:06:57.360 Outside the church, you gift-give, you go forth in agape. 00:06:57.360 --> 00:07:02.000 So he's talking about loving the city, everybody, and loving that it takes place inside the 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:03.000 church. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:04.920 We'll do inside the church next week. 00:07:04.920 --> 00:07:09.000 But you can see that there is this pattern, and it goes throughout the entire rest of 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:14.079 the passage, where some of the commands are very clearly talking about your life in the 00:07:14.079 --> 00:07:15.079 city. 00:07:15.079 --> 00:07:18.959 Some are talking about your life, your ethic in the church. 00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:24.160 And the big picture, you can basically get the message here, which is Paul is saying, 00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:29.759 go into the world and love people like God loved you so that strangers become part of 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:31.399 the family of God. 00:07:31.399 --> 00:07:36.079 So that you can shift people from just general agape love into family-like love. 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:38.399 That's actually the movement that we're looking for. 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:40.639 And let me just show you that division a couple more times. 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:43.159 You can see it in verses 12 and 13. 00:07:43.159 --> 00:07:46.399 Rejoice and hope, be patient and tribulation. 00:07:46.399 --> 00:07:49.479 You're going to be out in the world, out in the city, facing all sorts of hard things 00:07:49.479 --> 00:07:50.479 in life. 00:07:50.479 --> 00:07:54.399 That's a command for the type of love you've got to have underneath when you face anything, 00:07:54.399 --> 00:07:55.679 being rejected. 00:07:55.679 --> 00:07:59.759 You can see it again, verse 14, bless those who persecute you. 00:07:59.759 --> 00:08:02.279 He's talking about life in the city. 00:08:02.279 --> 00:08:08.199 Verse 19 and 20, verse 19, beloved, never avenge yourselves. 00:08:08.199 --> 00:08:12.039 He's talking about a relationship to people that are not Christians there. 00:08:12.039 --> 00:08:16.639 But then you can go through and see verse 13, contribute to the needs of the saints, 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:17.639 show hospitality. 00:08:17.639 --> 00:08:19.839 He's talking about life inside the church there. 00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:22.240 So he's doing this split. 00:08:22.240 --> 00:08:23.759 There's no hard boundary. 00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:25.399 All the ethics overlap. 00:08:25.399 --> 00:08:28.240 We want to show hospitality in and outside the church. 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:31.759 But he's talking about loving how to love the city and how to love the church back and 00:08:31.759 --> 00:08:34.720 forth here throughout verses 9 to 21. 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:38.200 Now, the lesson's simple. 00:08:38.200 --> 00:08:43.440 In the early church, again, Christians were asking, what do I do in relation to the city 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:44.440 around me? 00:08:44.440 --> 00:08:45.440 How do I live? 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:47.600 Do we go form our own cities? 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:50.680 Do we hide in enclaves? 00:08:50.680 --> 00:08:54.759 These were the questions that early Christians were really having to answer. 00:08:54.759 --> 00:09:02.679 And the apostles looked backwards to the Old Testament and remembered what God said to 00:09:02.679 --> 00:09:07.159 the people of Israel when they were in the midst of Babylon in the book of Jeremiah. 00:09:07.159 --> 00:09:14.080 He said, your number one goal while you're living in Babylon is seek her peace and prosperity. 00:09:14.080 --> 00:09:16.319 He says, you actually have been sent to this place. 00:09:16.319 --> 00:09:21.120 Not, we'll come back to this simply to build a great church, but to build a great city, 00:09:21.120 --> 00:09:25.039 to be a part of the greatness of the city, to seek her peace and prosperity, to be sent 00:09:25.039 --> 00:09:26.039 out. 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:28.080 And the way that you do that is through love. 00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:31.120 You see that in the book of Acts, they went straight, you know, where did they go? 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:33.399 They went straight to Marcell in Athens. 00:09:33.399 --> 00:09:38.440 They went right to the heart of the city and they stayed over and over again implanted and 00:09:38.440 --> 00:09:42.879 said, we are here to seek the peace and prosperity of the city in love. 00:09:42.879 --> 00:09:49.159 In Acts 11, Barnabas went to the most important city in the Eastern Empire, Antioch. 00:09:49.159 --> 00:09:54.360 And he stayed there and he lived in it and he poured his life out in it. 00:09:54.360 --> 00:10:00.439 People were coming to Christ left and right and he did not plant a mega church. 00:10:00.439 --> 00:10:05.439 And instead in his mission of love, he realized my mission is not to build a great church, 00:10:05.439 --> 00:10:10.079 but to be a great church for the city that I live in. 00:10:10.079 --> 00:10:13.439 And that was the heartbeat to go out and love, love, love, right? 00:10:13.439 --> 00:10:19.120 To be for the place that you exist in, not just to build a great institution. 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:24.919 You see what Paul, let me, we'll move on, but you see what Paul doesn't do here? 00:10:24.919 --> 00:10:30.720 Paul in this list of commands gives not a word about ministry forms, right? 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:31.840 So what's a ministry form? 00:10:31.840 --> 00:10:36.919 A ministry form is the concrete way you actually enact ministry. 00:10:36.919 --> 00:10:42.240 You worship, you sing, you preach, you teach, all these things you pray, or you say, we're 00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:44.720 going to go start a homeless shelter. 00:10:44.720 --> 00:10:48.960 And when you think about things like that, you say, well, maybe we should, maybe we shouldn't. 00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:51.080 Where are we? 00:10:51.080 --> 00:10:52.360 Does this really fit? 00:10:52.360 --> 00:10:55.639 Are there other ministries doing this better than we're ever going to do it? 00:10:55.639 --> 00:11:00.840 Where you say, we're going to fight human trafficking, very important ministry, but are we the right 00:11:00.840 --> 00:11:04.600 people to do that and how, or can we get involved in other people doing it? 00:11:04.600 --> 00:11:09.639 Or you say, you know, I personally am going to go push against unethical forms of business 00:11:09.639 --> 00:11:12.040 practices within my workplace. 00:11:12.040 --> 00:11:15.680 These are all ministries that can all take shape in different ways. 00:11:15.679 --> 00:11:20.319 And you've got to ask, why am I doing this, for what reason, does it make sense? 00:11:20.319 --> 00:11:24.159 Is it the right application of love in whatever context I'm in? 00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:27.239 You see, these are ministry forms. 00:11:27.239 --> 00:11:32.039 And ministry forms have to be tailored to exactly where you are, the city you're living 00:11:32.039 --> 00:11:34.839 in, the neighborhood you're living in. 00:11:34.839 --> 00:11:35.839 They're important. 00:11:35.839 --> 00:11:36.839 Absolutely. 00:11:36.839 --> 00:11:40.359 Paul does not say a word about ministry forms. 00:11:40.359 --> 00:11:41.359 Not at all. 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:48.440 He says instead, he says, this is not a how to do it guide, but a how to be guide, a how 00:11:48.440 --> 00:11:53.399 to go forth into the world in the person you need to be. 00:11:53.399 --> 00:11:58.399 In other words, we said last week that love is the gatekeeper of the gifts. 00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:01.279 Love is the gatekeeper of all ministry forms. 00:12:01.279 --> 00:12:05.279 He's saying the posture you need when you go into the world, how to be is deeply rooted 00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:10.879 in love when you enact anything, whether it's a homeless shelter or street preaching or 00:12:10.879 --> 00:12:13.439 bringing a meal to your neighbor. 00:12:13.439 --> 00:12:17.720 Love is more fundamental than any of the actions that might take place. 00:12:17.720 --> 00:12:20.519 He's giving us a how to be a posture guide here. 00:12:20.519 --> 00:12:22.279 All right, so let's think about that. 00:12:22.279 --> 00:12:23.720 Secondly, finally, only two points. 00:12:23.720 --> 00:12:26.360 We're almost done. 00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:33.000 The posture that love takes, he gives us two. 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:34.200 He gives us a lot more than two. 00:12:34.200 --> 00:12:35.679 We'll come back to more next week. 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:37.279 But let me just highlight two. 00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:40.080 They are humility and chaplaincy. 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:43.680 Okay, humility and chaplaincy. 00:12:43.680 --> 00:12:44.680 Look at each briefly. 00:12:44.680 --> 00:12:48.360 Verse 16, you can see him say it halfway down. 00:12:48.360 --> 00:12:52.920 He says, do not be haughty but associate with the lowly. 00:12:52.920 --> 00:12:57.080 He's saying when you go out into the city, do not be haughty, associate yourself with 00:12:57.080 --> 00:13:00.759 the lowly and never be wise in your own sight. 00:13:00.759 --> 00:13:05.560 So interesting, if you jump back up to verse three, if you have a Bible, you can see that 00:13:05.560 --> 00:13:10.040 he says, by the grace given to me, I say to all of you, do not think of yourself more 00:13:10.039 --> 00:13:12.079 highly than you ought to think. 00:13:12.079 --> 00:13:18.039 Now in verse three, he was talking about fighting your pride within the church body. 00:13:18.039 --> 00:13:21.879 So he's saying, you might have a really great ministry gift within the church. 00:13:21.879 --> 00:13:23.199 You ought not to think too much of yourself. 00:13:23.199 --> 00:13:28.480 You come down to verse 16 and it seems like he's talking about humility outside the body 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:29.679 when you go out into the world. 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:33.959 And he's saying, also, when you go to the world, don't think of yourself very highly 00:13:33.959 --> 00:13:35.879 either, associate with the lowly. 00:13:35.879 --> 00:13:38.679 Don't be haughty at all. 00:13:38.679 --> 00:13:45.839 But now he's talking here about humility and humility is the trait of a supernaturally 00:13:45.839 --> 00:13:48.359 changed heart. 00:13:48.359 --> 00:13:55.559 In other words, very important, love, love is not vague. 00:13:55.559 --> 00:13:56.559 Love is vague. 00:13:56.559 --> 00:13:58.359 The word love is incredibly vague. 00:13:58.359 --> 00:14:02.159 But when you come to the Bible, what you find out is that love is not vague. 00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:04.199 Love is not an emotion primarily. 00:14:04.199 --> 00:14:06.319 It's not a mere affection. 00:14:06.320 --> 00:14:12.640 When the Bible treats love, and we defined it last week, it says that love takes up very 00:14:12.640 --> 00:14:14.760 concrete forms. 00:14:14.760 --> 00:14:20.080 We said last week, love is selfless affection and concern for the ultimate good of another 00:14:20.080 --> 00:14:22.320 for God's sake. 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:25.960 And you see, when you take the first part of that definition, love is selfless concern 00:14:25.960 --> 00:14:28.240 for another's ultimate good. 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:35.760 You just say, that's just the definition of humility, selfless, self-sacrificial concern 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:36.759 for somebody else's good. 00:14:36.759 --> 00:14:38.439 That's just humility. 00:14:38.439 --> 00:14:42.639 And you see, when you come to 1 Corinthians 13, which is the parallel passage to this, 00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:43.639 what does Paul say? 00:14:43.639 --> 00:14:45.639 He says, you know, love is sort of vague. 00:14:45.639 --> 00:14:46.759 And so let me explain it to you. 00:14:46.759 --> 00:14:50.159 He says, love is patience. 00:14:50.159 --> 00:14:53.080 Love is kindness. 00:14:53.080 --> 00:14:55.840 Love is not boasting but being humble. 00:14:55.840 --> 00:15:01.840 You see, love is an affection, but love actually takes shape in the virtues. 00:15:01.840 --> 00:15:02.840 You say, what do you see love? 00:15:02.840 --> 00:15:03.840 You see it in humility. 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:04.840 What do you see love? 00:15:04.840 --> 00:15:05.840 You see it in being patient. 00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:06.840 What do you see love? 00:15:06.840 --> 00:15:08.000 You see it in kindness. 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:11.080 It takes concrete form when we are humble. 00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:17.920 And humility across the Bible is by far and away the most important of a trait of a supernaturally 00:15:17.920 --> 00:15:19.879 changed heart. 00:15:19.879 --> 00:15:21.560 Paul uses just a couple of things here. 00:15:21.560 --> 00:15:28.200 Paul uses the word haughty, which is a word for high self-regard. 00:15:28.200 --> 00:15:33.240 It's a word that connotes either being, you know, thinking you're taller than you are. 00:15:33.240 --> 00:15:36.799 I don't have that problem. 00:15:36.799 --> 00:15:40.680 Or it can mean being overinflated like a balloon. 00:15:40.680 --> 00:15:41.879 That's the connotation. 00:15:41.879 --> 00:15:47.159 So he says, you know, some of us, we do, we all struggle with being overinflated. 00:15:47.159 --> 00:15:50.519 Our ego is being overinflated like a balloon. 00:15:50.519 --> 00:15:55.799 And it's got the sense of having your chest poked out, you know, you men walking around 00:15:55.799 --> 00:15:59.680 thinking you're big and fit with your chest poked out, that classic image of the 19th 00:15:59.680 --> 00:16:03.039 century ultimate macho man or something. 00:16:03.039 --> 00:16:06.839 These are the words that Paul actually uses to give you an image, kind of a cartoonish 00:16:06.839 --> 00:16:11.199 picture that you've been puffed up and made taller, something like that. 00:16:11.199 --> 00:16:14.679 And he says, actually, that is the natural condition of the human heart to think of your 00:16:14.679 --> 00:16:21.159 ego in that way, to actually be always thinking of yourself comparing, trying to see, am I 00:16:21.159 --> 00:16:22.360 better than people around me? 00:16:22.360 --> 00:16:24.439 It's just natural competitiveness. 00:16:24.439 --> 00:16:28.639 And then he says, don't think that you're wise in your own sight. 00:16:28.639 --> 00:16:35.080 And he says in your own sight, because pride has the tendency in a cartoonish way to constantly 00:16:35.080 --> 00:16:36.319 look at itself. 00:16:36.319 --> 00:16:39.159 You know, he says, don't ever think you're wise in your own sight. 00:16:39.159 --> 00:16:42.319 In other words, stop looking at yourself so much. 00:16:42.319 --> 00:16:46.720 And so you get this cartoonish image of, you know, of a man with his chest puffed out and 00:16:46.720 --> 00:16:50.879 standing on his tiptoes and walking down Princess Street looking at his reflection on all the 00:16:50.879 --> 00:16:52.720 windows. 00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:55.360 That's the cartoon image that he's giving here. 00:16:55.360 --> 00:16:59.720 And he's saying, well, that's abstract. 00:16:59.720 --> 00:17:00.720 It's cartoonish. 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:05.200 Let me make it more concrete when it comes to loving the city. 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:10.400 One of the ways we could show pride towards the city is that we look at Edinburgh. 00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:11.400 We look at the world. 00:17:11.400 --> 00:17:14.200 We look at the West in particular. 00:17:14.200 --> 00:17:17.720 And we say something like, you know, look what's going on out there. 00:17:17.720 --> 00:17:19.680 It's an absolute mess. 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:21.759 The moral decline. 00:17:21.759 --> 00:17:25.920 You know, I wish I would have lived in the golden age, in the better age. 00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:31.619 And you know, the state of the world these days, and we lament, we have a posture of 00:17:31.619 --> 00:17:38.599 sadness, anger towards the declineism, but actually what's really going on deep down 00:17:38.599 --> 00:17:41.119 in our hearts is spiritual pride. 00:17:41.119 --> 00:17:46.599 What's really going on is that we've forgotten the gospel because we've forgotten, we've 00:17:46.599 --> 00:17:54.599 forgotten that there is no one worse than me, that besides the grace of God, oh boy, 00:17:54.599 --> 00:17:55.599 what about me? 00:17:55.599 --> 00:17:57.079 What would I be like? 00:17:57.079 --> 00:17:58.559 You know, it's a spiritual pride. 00:17:58.559 --> 00:18:03.000 It's a puffed upness to be competing with the world and saying, we've got to batten 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:06.959 down the hatches because the good guys are in here and the bad guys are out there. 00:18:06.959 --> 00:18:09.399 And we have a tendency towards that, and that's actually spiritual pride. 00:18:09.399 --> 00:18:13.159 And there's a couple problems with it, not only pride, but one of the problems is it's 00:18:13.159 --> 00:18:16.119 just actually not always true. 00:18:16.119 --> 00:18:22.199 So decline narratives, just a brief aside, decline narratives are always very complicated. 00:18:22.199 --> 00:18:27.959 And for example, Christianity is growing, not declining. 00:18:27.959 --> 00:18:33.439 And in 2030, there will be more Christians in China than the United States of America. 00:18:33.439 --> 00:18:39.239 And in 2050, there will be 40% of all world Christians in sub-Saharan Africa. 00:18:39.239 --> 00:18:42.319 Christianity is diversifying, spreading like wildfire. 00:18:42.319 --> 00:18:46.720 Because you know that there are four times as many Christians on planet Earth today than 00:18:46.720 --> 00:18:48.480 there were in 1920. 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:54.240 From 1920 to 2020, Christian professions quadrupled. 00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:55.599 Christianity is not declining, it's growing. 00:18:55.599 --> 00:18:59.439 And so these decline narratives can be really complex. 00:18:59.439 --> 00:19:03.639 But at the same time, we know that maybe where we live, whether it's Edinburgh or somewhere 00:19:03.639 --> 00:19:09.759 in the West, we do see decline of Christian professions, household professions, changes 00:19:09.759 --> 00:19:12.319 in the sense of the moral order. 00:19:12.319 --> 00:19:17.799 And Paul is coming and saying, you know what, if it's going really well, go forth to your 00:19:17.799 --> 00:19:20.000 city in love. 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:26.960 If it's going really badly, go forth into your city in love and do the exact same things 00:19:26.960 --> 00:19:29.640 no matter where you are. 00:19:29.640 --> 00:19:34.720 And he's saying ultimately that the posture of humility is just simply to say, I go forth 00:19:34.720 --> 00:19:37.559 in love because I know I was loved. 00:19:37.559 --> 00:19:39.160 I was first loved. 00:19:39.160 --> 00:19:44.320 In other words, he's saying, you know, a Christian in their right mind, a Christian in our right 00:19:44.320 --> 00:19:49.040 gospel-centered mind can never say the good guys are in here and the bad guys are out 00:19:49.040 --> 00:19:51.840 there. 00:19:51.840 --> 00:19:55.680 And instead, when we look at the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, we have to say, 00:19:55.680 --> 00:20:00.960 my sins, they are many and His mercy is more, you know, He came for me when I was totally 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:04.320 unlovable and He loved me to the end. 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:09.639 And so if you see the gospel, if you've experienced the gospel, it pokes a hole right in that 00:20:09.639 --> 00:20:14.359 balloon that's been inflated in the middle of the heart, especially in how we relate 00:20:14.359 --> 00:20:15.359 to the city. 00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:19.279 Jeremiah said, God said to Jeremiah, seek her peace and prosperity. 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:24.519 We are here to actually build a great city, not a great church, but to be a great church 00:20:24.519 --> 00:20:26.019 for the city. 00:20:26.019 --> 00:20:27.679 That's actually the Christian calling. 00:20:27.679 --> 00:20:31.159 All right, let me apply it in one way and we have to move to the last thing because 00:20:31.159 --> 00:20:33.839 we're running out of time. 00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:35.399 How do you know if you're growing like this? 00:20:35.399 --> 00:20:43.199 If you're growing in love, manifest in real humility, real humility before people that 00:20:43.199 --> 00:20:45.599 are not like you at all. 00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:51.879 One of the ways is that you look in your life for the freedom to serve. 00:20:51.879 --> 00:20:56.839 In other words, the freedom of self-forgetfulness, the freedom of self-forgetful service. 00:20:56.839 --> 00:20:57.839 Do you have it? 00:20:57.839 --> 00:21:02.879 Do you notice yourself more and more since you became a Christian, serving people and 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:06.960 loving people without thinking about it as much? 00:21:06.960 --> 00:21:07.960 So, C.S. 00:21:07.960 --> 00:21:09.560 Lewis talks about it like this. 00:21:09.560 --> 00:21:13.920 At the end of Miror Christianity, he says, don't imagine that if you meet a really 00:21:13.920 --> 00:21:20.400 humble person that they will be like what most people think of as humble nowadays. 00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:24.840 This man, if it's a man, will not be a person who is always telling you that, of course, 00:21:24.840 --> 00:21:27.040 I'm a nobody. 00:21:27.040 --> 00:21:32.860 Probably all you'll think about him is that he seemed cheerful, intelligent maybe. 00:21:32.859 --> 00:21:36.879 But really, he took a real interest in what you said to him. 00:21:36.879 --> 00:21:41.759 If you dislike him, it'll probably be because you feel a little envious of anyone that seems 00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:44.319 to enjoy life that easily. 00:21:44.319 --> 00:21:46.559 He will not be thinking about humility. 00:21:46.559 --> 00:21:50.319 He will not be thinking about himself at all. 00:21:50.319 --> 00:21:52.599 He'll be thinking about you. 00:21:52.599 --> 00:21:57.799 And so, you see, he says the mark of true humility is not that you have, that your balloon's 00:21:57.799 --> 00:21:59.359 been popped. 00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:03.399 You don't have an inflated ego, but you do have a really low self-esteem. 00:22:03.399 --> 00:22:04.599 You say, you know, I'm a nobody. 00:22:04.599 --> 00:22:08.359 He says, actually, the mark of humility is just self-forgetfulness. 00:22:08.359 --> 00:22:10.679 It's just to think of yourself less and less and less. 00:22:10.679 --> 00:22:13.959 It's just to forget about your own ego. 00:22:13.959 --> 00:22:18.439 And that means that you will have the freedom to just go and love on other people. 00:22:18.439 --> 00:22:24.000 All right, lastly and briefly, Paul gives us one more posture here. 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:29.079 And if we have the posture of humility, if we're thinking less of self, more of others, 00:22:29.079 --> 00:22:32.919 then that's going to lead very finally to chaplaincy, to being a chaplain. 00:22:32.919 --> 00:22:34.799 All right, what do I mean by that? 00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:36.399 A couple commands Paul gives. 00:22:36.399 --> 00:22:40.119 Verse 14, he says, bless those who persecute you. 00:22:40.119 --> 00:22:41.439 Bless them. 00:22:41.439 --> 00:22:43.199 Do not curse them. 00:22:43.199 --> 00:22:47.199 Verse 15, he says, rejoice with those who rejoice. 00:22:47.199 --> 00:22:48.480 Weep with those who weep. 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:51.839 So we can only look at those two as we close. 00:22:51.839 --> 00:22:57.919 Verse 14, the scholars say that when he says, bless those who persecute you, you can read 00:22:57.920 --> 00:23:03.960 into that, pray God's blessing on those who persecute you or curse you. 00:23:03.960 --> 00:23:11.960 So Paul says, if anybody tries to hurt you in this life, pray God's blessing for them. 00:23:11.960 --> 00:23:18.039 Go into the world, into the city, and no matter in what way somebody opposes you, mistreats 00:23:18.039 --> 00:23:22.240 you, doesn't like you, at minimum, you're called to actually pray for them. 00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:23.759 Pray God's blessing over them. 00:23:23.759 --> 00:23:27.360 And so, very simple application. 00:23:27.359 --> 00:23:31.759 When you go forth having experienced the love of Christ in the gospel, you love because 00:23:31.759 --> 00:23:38.719 he first loved you, that simply teaches us that we've got to be respectful, loving, 00:23:38.719 --> 00:23:44.039 and kind even with people who oppose us the most. 00:23:44.039 --> 00:23:46.159 No matter what it's about. 00:23:46.159 --> 00:23:50.879 In other words, Christians have got to take the lead in this world, in the modern West, 00:23:50.880 --> 00:23:57.400 and putting away any sense of demonizing the other, demonizing people for their views, 00:23:57.400 --> 00:23:59.800 for what they think, for what they say. 00:23:59.800 --> 00:24:05.040 Jesus Christ had every right to demonize me in you. 00:24:05.040 --> 00:24:06.840 And he came and became deep. 00:24:06.840 --> 00:24:09.320 He went to hell for me and for you. 00:24:09.320 --> 00:24:13.360 And so, we're sent out into this city to never demonize anybody, but to love them right through 00:24:13.360 --> 00:24:19.040 the midst of whatever it is that they're struggling with, going through doing. 00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:21.200 He says, bless those who persecute you. 00:24:21.200 --> 00:24:22.799 If they curse you, don't curse them back. 00:24:22.799 --> 00:24:24.960 Actually pray for God's blessing upon them. 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:32.519 I think this becomes really concrete in John 13, in the foot washing episode with Jesus. 00:24:32.519 --> 00:24:37.159 It says, John gives one of my favorite lines in the Bible, having loved his own, Jesus 00:24:37.159 --> 00:24:39.319 loved them to the end. 00:24:39.319 --> 00:24:44.839 And so, he knelt down and he washed their dirty stinky feet. 00:24:44.839 --> 00:24:51.559 And remember, he washed their feet in the first century household like a slave, and 00:24:51.559 --> 00:24:54.399 he told them, go in the world and do likewise. 00:24:54.399 --> 00:24:57.240 He told them, love me as I have just loved you. 00:24:57.240 --> 00:24:59.759 Remember whose feet he was washing? 00:24:59.759 --> 00:25:01.839 One of those men was Judas. 00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:06.599 He got down on his knees and he washed Judas' feet, and Judas went out that night and betrayed 00:25:06.599 --> 00:25:08.319 him. 00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:11.679 And one of those people was Peter, and one of those people were all the other disciples 00:25:11.679 --> 00:25:13.720 that ran away from him. 00:25:13.720 --> 00:25:19.120 Oh boy, they didn't like him, they didn't love him, they betrayed him, and he got down 00:25:19.120 --> 00:25:20.519 and he loved them to the end. 00:25:20.519 --> 00:25:25.440 He washed their feet and he says, now go and do likewise. 00:25:25.440 --> 00:25:30.440 Down in verse 20, I'll move on, but verse 20, if your enemy is hungry, if the person 00:25:30.440 --> 00:25:35.559 who hates you the most is hungry, he says, feed him. 00:25:35.559 --> 00:25:38.079 Meet his needs, meet that person's needs in your life. 00:25:38.079 --> 00:25:41.680 He takes it that far, no matter what. 00:25:41.680 --> 00:25:47.920 Now who is it that you're loving like this in your life? 00:25:47.920 --> 00:25:51.440 Who is it that you're praying for in your life like this? 00:25:51.440 --> 00:25:57.720 And one of the ways to maybe say, okay look, I don't know that this is present in my ministry 00:25:57.720 --> 00:26:02.759 in the city, simple love, caring for people's needs, loving them no matter what, no matter 00:26:02.759 --> 00:26:05.759 how much of a jerk they are. 00:26:05.759 --> 00:26:12.319 One of the ways to think about it is sometimes what you can do is just pick your neighborhood, 00:26:12.319 --> 00:26:17.319 your street, your block of flats, your workplace. 00:26:17.319 --> 00:26:20.879 Maybe it's through hobbies, sports that you play. 00:26:20.879 --> 00:26:25.400 You probably can't focus on all of them, you're very busy, but what you can do is say, you 00:26:25.400 --> 00:26:29.920 know what, we're going to actually make this group of flats the place where we love people 00:26:29.920 --> 00:26:30.920 the most. 00:26:30.920 --> 00:26:34.759 We're going to make these people that are part of this hobby we love, the people we 00:26:34.759 --> 00:26:37.519 focus on and love the most. 00:26:37.519 --> 00:26:38.720 You've got to actually do that. 00:26:38.720 --> 00:26:40.119 Have you done that? 00:26:40.119 --> 00:26:41.119 Think about doing that. 00:26:41.119 --> 00:26:43.200 That's one way to get started in this. 00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:49.680 Last thing, verse, not only verse 14, but verse 15, he says, rejoice with rejoicing, 00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:50.680 weep with the weeping. 00:26:50.680 --> 00:27:00.079 All right, remember humility is selfless interest in another person's ultimate good. 00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:04.160 Chaplaincy, this is the word we're using, chaplaincy, being a chaplain. 00:27:04.160 --> 00:27:08.120 You know, if you've got a posture of humility and you go out and you say, I love because 00:27:08.120 --> 00:27:14.560 he first loved me, he went to the cross for me, you'll naturally become a chaplain. 00:27:14.560 --> 00:27:15.560 What's a chaplain? 00:27:15.560 --> 00:27:20.880 A chaplain is a person that people come to in the midst of crisis. 00:27:20.880 --> 00:27:25.160 Every single human being, we talked about it last week, we have need love. 00:27:25.160 --> 00:27:26.920 We're needy creatures. 00:27:26.920 --> 00:27:32.080 We need to hear somebody say, we need to hear God say, I know you to the bottom and I love 00:27:32.079 --> 00:27:37.480 you to the sky and everybody in your people around you in your neighborhood, no matter 00:27:37.480 --> 00:27:44.879 how what they might think of you or you think they think of you, everybody needs a relationship 00:27:44.879 --> 00:27:50.480 in their life, a friend who loves them and knows them simultaneously. 00:27:50.480 --> 00:27:55.439 And Paul says to the church, when you go into the city, you've got to be able to be a person 00:27:55.439 --> 00:28:00.879 that can rejoice with the rejoicing, weep with the weeping, be a chaplain, be a person that 00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:06.800 can celebrate with the celebrating and cry tears with those who are broken over something 00:28:06.800 --> 00:28:07.880 in their life. 00:28:07.880 --> 00:28:09.880 That's chaplaincy. 00:28:09.880 --> 00:28:14.840 And when you're living a public honest faith, never pushy with a radically humble posture 00:28:14.840 --> 00:28:20.720 in whatever community you've decided to pursue, chaplaincy naturally arises. 00:28:20.720 --> 00:28:24.960 And when chaplaincy arises and people come to you in crisis, that's when gospel conversation 00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:29.880 really starts to take shape and happen. 00:28:29.880 --> 00:28:31.160 People need to be known and loved. 00:28:31.160 --> 00:28:35.600 That's ultimately what Paul is saying and that's actually our calling in command. 00:28:35.600 --> 00:28:46.680 All right, the point of it all, the point, here it is, provocatively, Paul is saying 00:28:46.680 --> 00:28:57.200 to us that the point of loving the people of our city is not to create gospel conversation. 00:28:57.200 --> 00:28:58.200 You see that? 00:28:58.200 --> 00:29:02.120 You say, what, well, here it is. 00:29:02.120 --> 00:29:08.120 There's a way of having a posture as a Christian that says, you know, I know that Matthew 28, 00:29:08.120 --> 00:29:11.000 I'm meant to go out into the world and make disciples. 00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:15.440 And so I'll go out and I'll be nice and I'll bring a meal to my neighbor. 00:29:15.440 --> 00:29:20.080 But ultimately, my goal is evangelism. 00:29:20.080 --> 00:29:23.840 And Paul is actually saying, no, you've got it completely backwards. 00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:29.679 The goal of loving people is not to get to gospel conversations. 00:29:29.679 --> 00:29:34.319 You know, in that posture, you say, you know, I only love people until I can actually say 00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:36.240 what I need to say. 00:29:36.240 --> 00:29:39.240 And then I'll remember that that guy was a jerk to me and we're done. 00:29:39.240 --> 00:29:43.159 You know, that that might be an approach if you get this backwards. 00:29:43.159 --> 00:29:45.919 But in the Old Testament and the New Testament, you know what God does? 00:29:45.919 --> 00:29:51.319 He keeps saving Israel over and over again and he keeps saving the people of the nations 00:29:51.319 --> 00:29:55.599 over and over again and he comes in Jesus Christ and saves us. 00:29:55.599 --> 00:29:58.559 And in Deuteronomy 9, it all is clear. 00:29:58.559 --> 00:30:04.359 They say, he says, don't ever think that I've come to save you because you're great or for 00:30:04.359 --> 00:30:06.279 any other reason than this. 00:30:06.279 --> 00:30:10.399 I love you because I love you because I love you because I love you because I love you. 00:30:10.399 --> 00:30:11.399 And that's it. 00:30:11.399 --> 00:30:13.519 Love is the beginning and love is the end. 00:30:13.519 --> 00:30:17.159 And that means that you don't love people to tell them about the gospel. 00:30:17.160 --> 00:30:22.120 You tell them about the gospel because you love them all the way to the end. 00:30:22.120 --> 00:30:25.519 And Jesus Christ in John 13 says, I love you to the end. 00:30:25.519 --> 00:30:29.080 He didn't go to the cross and say, job done. 00:30:29.080 --> 00:30:31.160 Now I'm done with him. 00:30:31.160 --> 00:30:32.160 I did my duty. 00:30:32.160 --> 00:30:36.640 No, the cross was because he loved us at the beginning and is loving us today and will 00:30:36.640 --> 00:30:39.480 love us all the way to the end. 00:30:39.480 --> 00:30:42.440 Another way to say it is we don't need friendship evangelism. 00:30:42.440 --> 00:30:45.080 No, not at all. 00:30:45.079 --> 00:30:50.319 We need loving friendship, loving friendship between Christians and non-Christians, and 00:30:50.319 --> 00:30:54.039 loving friendship evangelizes. 00:30:54.039 --> 00:30:59.679 You see, the gospel will come up when you love people. 00:30:59.679 --> 00:31:04.839 And so what kind of a community do we need to be to help someone say in this city, perhaps 00:31:04.839 --> 00:31:09.199 God's love is real and better than the forms of love I've been chasing? 00:31:09.199 --> 00:31:14.759 What do we need to be, what kind of people, to help somebody see the love of Christ is 00:31:14.759 --> 00:31:16.640 better than life itself? 00:31:16.640 --> 00:31:21.319 And Paul says, you need humility above all. 00:31:21.319 --> 00:31:22.319 Let's ask for it. 00:31:22.319 --> 00:31:25.920 Lord, we ask for humility above all. 00:31:25.920 --> 00:31:31.799 So give us the posture of love that pops the balloon in our chest, but also doesn't send 00:31:31.799 --> 00:31:38.960 us down the road of low self-esteem, but just help us forget about ourselves and to go forth 00:31:38.960 --> 00:31:45.680 in the way that Christ forgot about himself when he loved us to the end, when he took 00:31:45.680 --> 00:31:46.680 up the cross for us. 00:31:46.680 --> 00:31:53.000 So help us to be lovers of our city in all the right ways and give us a posture of true 00:31:53.000 --> 00:31:54.640 humility and service. 00:31:54.640 --> 00:31:56.360 Forgive us, Lord, we are not these people. 00:31:56.360 --> 00:31:58.079 I'm not this person. 00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:04.440 So we preach and talk like this and read like this and say, I've never met this person. 00:32:04.440 --> 00:32:05.920 Shape us and make us. 00:32:05.920 --> 00:32:08.759 Help us to have little steps towards this. 00:32:08.759 --> 00:32:12.160 So help us to love people so much that we do want to share the gospel. 00:32:12.160 --> 00:32:13.400 And we pray this in Christ's name. 00:32:13.400 --> 00:32:39.400 Amen.