Father, we ask that you would make us good soil.
Help us, Father, to ask good and honest questions of your word.
Pour out your Holy Spirit upon us, Father,
so that we no longer deceive ourselves,
that we are aware of the things we say and the things we do and the things we believe.
Continue to pour out your Holy Spirit upon us, Father,
so that as you make us more honest about ourselves,
that we might more honestly come to your word.
And then continue to pour out your Holy Spirit upon us, Father,
so that as we more honestly come to your word,
that your word would come deeply and powerfully and fully into us,
so that in our day-to-day lives,
we will bear much fruit that brings not us glory, but you glory.
And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.
Amen.
Please be seated.
So, here's the problem.
If you think about it for a second,
there's passages in the Bible that when we read them or when they're said out loud,
we go, whoa!
And then there's other things in the Bible that when,
and I'm not talking about the genealogies, you know,
that, you know, and such and such begat such and such,
begat such and such,
and, you know, our eyes are just nodding,
and our, you know, our eyes are closing, and our head nods.
I'm just talking about it's really, you know, amazing that there'll be certain passages that are read,
and we basically just dismiss them.
That's, maybe I'm being too, well, you know, that's what we do,
but we're not aware that we do it.
And I don't mean to offend you,
but certain passages make our, raise our eyes, we open our eyes,
they might make our blood boil, we might feel very threatened by them.
Others, if we're honest, it just sounds like religion.
It just sounds like the sort of thing that spiritual people say.
So, for instance, the text that we're going to look at in a moment,
the opening of that text, which Laurier read,
that text goes against a huge,
the opening few words basically disagrees with probably 90% of the professors at the University of Ottawa.
But we don't go, whoa, that text is just completely and utterly rejecting behaviorism,
it's rejecting Machiavelli,
it's rejecting much of the advice in the business school,
it's rejecting Nietzsche, the patron saint of post-modernism,
it's rejecting all of these people.
We don't think that, do we?
Because it's just religion, just the way religious people talk.
So, let's look at it, because, you know, if we have that type of problem,
that we don't hear the Bible,
for the offense that it is,
then we're not really hearing the Bible.
So, let's look at the Bible text, it's Romans chapter 15.
Be a great help if you open the Bible yourselves and look as well,
that you join with me in looking at the text.
And we'll just, we'll read these first two verses,
I'm going to be looking at all 13 of the first verses in Romans 15,
we'll look at the rest in coming weeks.
But just look how it begins.
And listen to it again, and say to yourself,
okay, Father, I want you to help me right now,
not just to read the Bible the way Canadians read the Bible.
Because, you see, the problem with the way that we Canadians read the Bible
or hear religion and spirituality,
is that religion and spirituality is something private.
It's something personal.
It's basically analogous to sharing with people
your favorite flavor of ice cream.
And that's why we can listen to people say
all sorts of actually completely crazy and kooky things.
And it would be considered rude
if we were to attack a person,
not attack, just challenge them
for the crazy and kooky things they say of their religion.
Because if it gives them peace,
if it gives them some comfort, then that's fine.
It's just religion, just spirituality.
So, listen to this text.
First, we who are strong have an obligation
to bear with the failings of the weak
and not to please ourselves.
Let each of us please his neighbor for his good
to build him up.
Or in older translations,
which is actually more accurate,
to edify him or her.
Now just pause for a second.
You think, okay, George,
okay, what's the problem with that?
Well, Marx would say that's rubbish and bunk.
All Marxist theory would say that that's bunk.
Nietzsche would say that this is slave mentality.
This is one of the many reasons
why we should discount the Bible.
It's how slaves think.
It's how servants think.
It's not how the new man and the new woman thinks.
Ayn Rand would say this completely and utterly foolish.
Like even such popular things as the secret
or most management techniques,
they basically say that
how are we going to get more strong
and how are we going to use my strengths
to get what I want?
How am I going to organize the universe
to get what I want?
And even for many of us,
if we read Stephen Covey's
Seven Habits of Highly Successful
Effective People,
seek to understand before you're understood,
the fact of the matter is
is that we don't want to seek to understand
before we're understood.
So that we can really understand,
but so we can get what we want.
Because it's a way to manipulate people
and not give a gift to another,
the other person that we're understanding,
but ultimately give a gift to ourselves.
Because if we do that very well
in a management or an organizational context,
we get what we want.
We stay strong and the weak stays weak.
And we don't please them.
We get them to please us
thinking that they're pleasing themselves.
If you can fake sincerity,
you've got it made.
You can fake that you care about the other person.
If you fake that it really matters to you
what they think and say,
you've got it made.
It's all about faking.
But when we hear this text,
we just sort of say to ourselves,
oh yeah,
you know,
we are strong,
have an obligation to bear the whalings of the weak.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Let's get to something a little bit more interesting.
But not realizing that this particular text
actually really strikes us
at the heart
and is basically viewed as nonsense
by the world.
And in fact,
if we're honest,
we actually sort of are,
if we actually start to really say,
one moment,
like,
okay,
like,
the Bible's serious about this?
Like,
it actually means this?
Like,
it means this in the same way
it means you shall not take innocent human life?
Or,
like,
it really means it?
And then we're going to get a bit frightened.
Because in fact,
the critiques of Nietzsche
and Marx
and all,
that it will lead to us being doormats,
becomes very,
very,
it becomes a threat to us.
And,
and,
and what's more,
it's not just something that describes
what goes on purely inside of the church,
just amongst Christians.
In fact,
you know,
this often happens.
I,
I often,
I get to a passage of the Bible.
Like,
if you go to,
one of the things that's so wonderful
about listening to megachurch passages,
pastors,
getting their blog,
you know,
listening to their sermons,
one of the things that's so wonderful about them
is that they can basically spend
20,
30,
35 hours a week
just working on their sermon.
Because they have other people
do all the other stuff in the church.
So,
you know,
in many of them,
they'll,
they'll read like three or four or five commentaries
and almost map out most of the book
before they actually work on a specific sermon.
I don't have that luxury.
I sort of just
deep,
dig with,
deal with each text as it comes.
So,
you know,
one of the things you can do for me
is just pray that I can open the Bible well.
And anyway,
one of the things is,
last week,
I,
I talked about the strong and the weak
and I,
I,
if I could go back in time,
I,
I would,
I would reuse,
I changed my language for last week.
Because I think chapter 14
was primarily talking about
what's life amongst,
for Christians.
And 15
is a bit how you live
both with Christians,
but more importantly,
how you live with the world.
And so last week,
really the whole contract,
you know,
those of you who weren't here,
you're just going to make any sense.
But really,
I should have said that
the difference was between,
you know,
a gospel mindset
and a legalistic mindset.
That's really what chapter 14
was going on.
And this week,
they use a different word
for weak here
in chapter 15
than they use in chapter 14.
And they bring this idea of strength.
And this now does sort of mean
what we understand generally by strength.
That in terms of some people
have just better looking,
they're stronger,
they have more economic resources,
their IQs are higher,
their EQs are better.
They've had better families,
better genetics,
better opportunities,
live in a better society,
have a whole pile of things.
And there's also weak people.
And how do strong people
deal with weak people?
And the key to the change
is that it uses the word neighbor.
And some of us remember
that famous parable by Jesus
when the Pharisee says,
but who is my neighbor?
And Jesus teaches us
that basically the neighbor
is every person we meet.
And that's what it says.
Look at it again.
We who are strong
have an obligation
to bear with the failings
of the weak
and not to please ourselves.
Let each of us
please his neighbor
for his good.
And actually,
it should probably be translated
for his the good,
which doesn't make good English,
but that's what the good
is mentioned
in the original language
to edify him.
So just before we get any further,
we're going to come back
to this text a little bit later
because it's of its significance.
The text here isn't telling people
who are strong
to become weak.
And it's not telling those of us
who have strengths
that we just become doormats.
It's actually telling us
something very profound
and powerful.
Because the normal way
that we always want to behave
is to please ourselves
and to make sure
that we're always cared for
and take care of ourselves,
that our needs are met.
And the stronger you are,
the easier it is
to make sure that that happens.
And the stronger you are,
the richer you are,
the easier it is
to completely and utterly
ignore those who are weak,
to try to step around them,
to try to step away from them,
to try to step on them,
to crush them,
because dang it,
they're irritating sometimes,
aren't they?
And that's the normal thing.
And so what's this text telling us?
It's telling us that
if we, in some of our areas,
are the strong,
we don't live to please ourselves.
That what's going on
with the people around us,
the people that are weak,
the people who are at a big reception,
you know,
in the government or in business,
that the no accounts,
the nobodies,
the ones who are off by the side,
not talking to anybody,
that we're not to go into the room
just looking to see
if we can spend some quality time
with the people who are above us
so we can kiss a little bit of butt
and get better known
and maybe get a promotion
and get ahead,
but we're actually to look at the weak,
look for them,
and that we're seeked to walk towards them,
not away from them.
And this whole area here,
what talks about
bearing up with their weaknesses,
it's another way of expressing
walking a mile in their shoes.
That not only is it telling us
that we're to,
rather than just please ourselves,
actually notice the weak
and be concerned for them,
but that in a sense,
we're to use our strength
to try to see the world
as they see it.
Now, it's not saying here
that the way the weak view the world
is always right.
It's not saying that.
They're sinful, fallen human beings
just like the strong.
But it's calling us,
the bearing of their weaknesses
is to,
let's just for a second,
George,
I know it might be hard,
you know,
but just look at the world
from the perspective
of a handicapped person,
you know,
physically or mentally handicapped
or a person who's just very poor
or a person who's had
unbelievably terrible things
happen in their lives.
Just for a moment,
before you judge,
before you ignore them,
before you step on them,
notice them.
And,
George,
they're walking around
bent over
with these burdens.
get under their burdens
as well.
How does the world look?
And then,
as you think about them,
what will actually
be for their good
that you have the power
to do?
Not what they want.
I mean,
street people,
to be honest,
if you give them money
in the city of Ottawa,
they want it
because they'd like
to get alcohol
or drugs.
To give them money
is actually not their good.
But to see them
and say,
I'm going to give money
to the Salvation Army
to help them,
that actually might be
their good.
Or it might be
that you actually buy them
something nutritious
to eat.
I'm not going to get
into all the details,
but you see what I mean?
That's the difference.
And not only that,
but to edify them,
which means to bring them
closer to God.
That's to be your heart.
And to do this
really for them,
not the way
I described earlier
where you can learn
a certain set of techniques.
One of those techniques
is that if you appear
to listen to a person,
if you learn how to make
the proper eye contact,
if you learn how to put
your hand on their shoulder
the right way,
or give them the right
type of handshake
and the right type of nod,
as if you're really
listening to them
and you're really concerned
and you really care for them,
but you're doing that
just as a matter
so you can make
your own pitch
to get them on your side,
when you do that,
you're giving a gift
to yourself.
You're using your strength
for yourself.
You're not using your strength
for the person who's weak.
That's the great challenge
of the text.
It's the great challenge
of the text.
Now, the question could be,
like I can just imagine,
the question would be,
okay, well, George,
that all sounds very,
very nice in principle,
but why, or should I
bother to do that?
I mean, George,
I have a lot of stress
in my life.
You know, frankly,
I deserve the good things
I've gotten.
In fact, isn't it
with the advertising things?
You know, you deserve this.
You deserve that car.
You deserve that holiday.
You deserve this.
You deserve that type
of experience.
Like, George,
why should I bother?
And here's part of the problem
that we as Christians have.
Maybe it's one of the reasons
why we feel a little bit
uncomfortable speaking
about these things
or even making a case
for such things
in the business school
or in the philosophy
or social sciences academy
because at the end of the day,
the primary reason
that they give in this text
to do this,
well, what is the text?
Let's look at it.
Verses three and four.
Why?
And notice how
in the English Standard Version
it uses the word for.
In other words,
like why?
It's answering the why question.
Like, why on earth do this?
Even if you've explained
what it means,
like why on earth bother?
Well, why?
For Christ did not please himself,
but as it is written,
the reproaches of those
who reproached you
fell on me.
For whatever was written
in former days
was written for our instruction,
that through endurance
and through the encouragement
of the scriptures,
we might have hope.
So the problem is,
to Nietzsche,
well, that's not what Jesus did
and that's not what
the Bible teaches.
Oh!
That's probably what people would do.
Oh!
If they're not going,
oh!
Like, that's the way
to end the conversation
at a cocktail party.
That's the way
to hear the whole class squirm
in, you know,
philosophy 101.
And, you know,
and of course,
you might have to be more,
you know,
as innocent as a dove
and as clever as a serpent
in terms of how you argue
these things in classes.
But, I mean,
the thing that will
immediately come back is,
well, gosh,
good grief,
George,
don't tell me
you're actually going to claim
that this is just because
of what the Bible teaches
and,
George,
George.
Don't you know that?
The Bible,
like, you look at the Bible
more closely, George,
and don't,
when you look at the Bible
more closely,
like, you know,
you look at it, George,
it's filled with contradictions,
it's filled with all sorts
of confusing stuff,
people can hardly understand it,
doesn't give you
any encouragement,
like most people
when they read the Bible,
let's be honest, George,
most people,
even Christians,
when they read the Bible,
they don't get encouragement,
hope,
they're bored with it.
And now,
if you had done something
that you're all like me,
you want to sit
in that little chair,
pull yourself up
in a ball,
you get all red,
you don't know
what to say.
And I don't know
if I'm going to entirely
help you know
what to say,
but I want to,
here's one of the things
I pray for myself
every week
as I'm working
on the sermon.
One of the things
I pray for myself
is that I will actually
hear and understand
the questions
that people have
about the Bible text,
that I try to think
about some of the people
that I talk about
on the street
and in other places,
the objections
and the criticisms
that would have
about the Bible.
And I try to,
I pray that the Lord
would help me
to hear the questions
that people have,
the objections
that people have,
and then the very next
thing I pray
is that I would be
unashamed of the Bible,
that I would be
unashamed of the gospel,
that I would be
unashamed of the
whole counsel of God,
and that the Lord
would help me
to listen to the Bible
deeply.
Now, the Bible here
is making a huge claim.
Just think about it
for a second.
Look at this again,
verse 3 and 4.
Verse 3,
for Christ did not
please himself,
but as it is written.
So, Paul is making
a claim about
what Jesus did,
and now he's going
to quote the Bible.
The reproaches of those
who reproached you
fell on me.
And that's from Psalm 69.
And what he's doing,
Paul is saying
that that psalm,
that really,
when we read that psalm,
we're listening
to Jesus speak.
And that psalm
was written
maybe a thousand years
before Jesus,
but when we listen
to that psalm,
we're listening
to Jesus speak.
And then he's making
a very, very,
very big claim
for whatever was written
in former days,
a thousand years earlier,
and in our case now
three thousand years ago,
and in our case
in the book of Romans
two thousand years ago,
that that was written
for our instruction.
That when David
or whoever wrote
that psalm,
it not only ministered
to his generation,
but the people,
the next generation,
it was ministering
to them
and every generation,
including us,
in postmodern Ottawa,
that it was written
for our instruction
that through endurance
and through the encouragement
of the scriptures,
not just this text,
but all of the scriptures
that make up the Bible,
we might have hope.
This is a huge claim.
Andrew,
if you could put up
the first point,
only the God
who speaks
could create a book
that speaks instruction
and hope
to every people group
and every generation.
That's what the claim is
that's being made
here in the text.
Only God,
only a God who speaks,
only the God who speaks,
who is not silent,
a little bit of a nod
to Francis Schaeffer,
only he could create
a book
that speaks
instruction and hope
to every people group
and every generation.
See,
what the text is here,
and this is the consistent
message of the Bible,
it's the consistent message
of Jesus,
is that ultimately
God was responsible
for the creation
of the Bible.
He used many different
human authors,
he used many different
literary genres,
but ultimately
God was the one
who created the book
and God was the one
who caused it
to be recognized
as coming from him
and God is the one
who has preserved it.
Remember,
when Paul was writing this,
which has now also
become part of what
we understand
as the Bible,
the Christian faith
was an unbelievably
tiny minority
that was to suffer
horrendous persecutions
by the state,
and yet the Bible
has been preserved.
And what this text
is telling us
is that the Bible
is sufficient
to give us hope.
This is a great,
this is a great challenge
to us
because you see,
many Christians
don't believe
that the Bible
is sufficient
to give us hope.
We actually think
that if we get together
it would be better
to listen to,
I don't know,
like a famous speaker
or a couple of YouTube videos
or something like that
because, you know,
at the end of the day,
I don't know if the Bible
can actually give us hope
and encouragement
and endurance
because, you know what,
my words are better
or the words
of this particular poet
or singer,
they're actually better
at creating endurance
and hope,
but the Bible is saying
that it's the one
that's sufficient
to do that.
And this text
is telling us
that we can understand
the Bible,
that ordinary people
can understand the Bible.
They might have to be
in community,
we might have to learn
from each other,
we might have to listen
to those who've gone before us,
but that ordinary people
can understand the Bible.
And it's telling us
that everything in the Bible,
that God created
all of it to be written for us,
and that it all speaks
about Jesus.
That's a huge claim,
and that claim
can only be true
if God is the ultimate
author of it
in terms of having it created.
Now, just to note
before I go on
with some other objections
to it,
because there's a huge
objection in the modern
and post-modern mind
to the text,
and the objection is,
but George,
why is it that the Bible
is boring?
Why is it that the Bible
are you allowed
to say that in the church?
You know,
maybe I've surprised
some of you
because maybe
you've always read
every part of the Bible
and never found
a single bit boring.
Maybe I'm the only one.
Anyone who says that,
we're going to have
confession later,
not private confession,
but public confession,
because nobody here
would believe you.
And then the other thing
is that we hear
that God created the book,
but then we have
problems with it
because we expect
the book to be perfect.
Now, I'm not saying
that the Bible
is imperfect,
but what I'm saying
is that the Bible
doesn't measure up
to human standards
because God created it.
And human standards
change by culture.
Just think about it
for a second.
I don't know how many
of you can read
some 19th century novels,
but if you try to read
a book by Charles Dickens,
like it seems as if
Charles Dickens' books
are all like this fat.
They go on and on
and on and on
and on with descriptions.
And in the 19th century,
somebody who loves
a book that's this fat,
they'd look at the Bible
and say,
it's too short.
We like tweets.
We love Twitter.
We look at the Bible
and say,
it's so long.
Gosh, it's long.
You expect me to,
whoa.
And then we look at it
and okay,
and I'm like this as well.
You know what I love
in the paper?
I love in the paper
where there's
a complicated thing
and I can look
in the paper
for a diagram
with numbers
and arrows
that shows how
it begins here
at this time
and then Mr. Smith
and Mrs. Jones
walk from here
to there
and then they did this
and there's an arrow.
I love that.
But people read
the Gospels
and it doesn't do
like that.
Like you read
the Gospels
and it's,
you know one of the
problems with the Gospels?
That there's
four or five
or six different ways,
like just if you
take Jesus from,
you know,
him entering
into Jerusalem
and it's not
that the Bible
contradicts itself,
but there's
five or six
or seven
different ways
to draw a diagram
like that
that puts it
all together
and that drives
us mad.
Why couldn't
God do it?
The standards
that fit
with math
geek
types
like me.
And you know
what was a huge
offense for most
of the ages
that knew Greek?
the Bible
is written
in crappy
Greek.
It's written
in the type
of Greek
that,
you know those
people who
when they all
went to high
school and they
just all did
the applied
or lower
things and
then work in
service,
you know how
they speak?
That's how the
Bible's written.
It's not written
for posh,
it's not written
in the way that
really,
really highly
educated people
who went to
Oxford and
Cambridge speak.
Greek.
It was written
in lower
working class
slave Greek
and for many
centuries it
bugged the
heck out of
well-educated
people.
And if you read
it, it's all
filled with
broken sentences.
There's a part
of the psalm
where it's obvious
that he's doing
an anagram where
every verse
begins with the
right Hebrew
letter and
then all of a
sudden it just
doesn't work
because I guess
the writer
couldn't figure
out how to
make it work.
And it's in
the Bible and
that bugs us.
The Bible's not
making a claim
that it's perfect
by our cultural
standards.
It's making a
claim that the
God who speaks
has caused
his word to
be written
and that it
has the power
to give
encouragement,
endurance,
and hope to
every people
group in
every generation.
And here's
another thing.
You can put
up the next
point and I'm
not smart enough
to figure this
out myself.
It's an
adaptation from
a guy who
wrote over
500 years
ago.
God is the
source of
endurance and
hope.
He gives
both by his
Holy Spirit.
That's what
Romans 15 is
going to teach.
But he uses
his word as
his instrument.
Brothers and
sisters,
friends in
Christ,
we've got to
trust that if
we open the
Bible and pray
and read it
that God
does something.
And we've
got to trust
that we can
listen to the
accusations and
reproaches and
criticisms and
honest questions of
the world.
And we cry out to
God and say to
God, I don't have
the vaguest idea in
the world how to
answer this, but I
trust your word.
Help me to be
unashamed of the
gospel and to
listen to your
word and let your
word do its work
in my life.
One of the
reasons, I won't
go into it right
now, but one of
the reasons, because
somebody just this
week was asking me
why on earth you
should trust the
Bible and like very
simply it's like it's
there's a range of
reasons for it.
But the bottom line
reason for it is that
Jesus believed this.
And Jesus said that
he was going to die
and rise from the
dead and then he did
die and rise from the
dead and Jesus
vindicates the
teaching, the
resurrection of
Jesus.
Paul who wrote
this, he knows
that why?
Because he was an
eyewitness to the
fact that Jesus had
truly died, that the
grave was empty and
that he had risen from
the dead.
He was an eyewitness.
This is what Jesus
teaches.
And so Paul says,
you know what?
God has vindicated
Jesus and his
message.
Now, some of us,
the bigger problem
that many people in
our generation have
to do with this idea
that these are words
that God has written
is that they worry
that it becomes
permission for
unspeakable evil.
Like what was the
claim of many people
who worked in Nazi
Germany during the
Nazi era?
They were just
following orders.
What happens if God
gives you an order?
And aren't there,
in fact, all sorts of
psychopaths out there
who believes that God
has spoken to them so
they can go and behead
people and rape and
kill and murder?
Isn't that what's
behind a whole pile of
holy wars?
I mean, isn't that,
I mean, one of the
problems, this isn't,
no, okay, I won't go
there, sorry.
I mean, that's one of
the, aren't, isn't
that what often happens?
Isn't there profound
religious justification
for unspeakable evils?
And isn't the Bible
filled with unspeakable
evils?
And George, if you
actually hold something
like this, isn't this
going to lead you into
doing unspeakable evil
and then just say you're
just obeying orders?
Don't take it up with me,
take it up with the big
guy.
He told me to go and
to pillage and to rape
and to murder and to
steal and to kill.
And George, don't you
say to me that that
never happens with
religion or spirituality.
And you can't.
Although it's
interesting that the
way this whole text
begins and what the
text is grounding,
is the opposite of
that, isn't it?
How does the text
begin?
What's he trying to
ground?
We who are strong
have an obligation to
bear with the failings
of the weak and not to
please ourselves.
Let us please his
neighbor for his, the
good, to edify him or
her.
So I'm going to get
back to this.
But part of the way to
answer the question is
just to continue to
listen.
What follows from this
Bible teaching?
Like what, is the
Bible here actually
telling us to go and
rape and murder?
Well, look how it
begins.
The very next thing it
does is it tells us to
pray.
Now here's the thing
for this, and we're
going to put it up at
the end of the sermon.
I'll put it up on the
screen.
But look what verses
five and six are.
Verses five and six
are a prayer.
God wrote a prayer for
you and me.
Maybe we should pray
it.
I know.
I want to be the
master of the obvious.
The reason we have to
all be masters of the
obvious is that we
ignore the obvious.
Like this is really
cool.
Verses five and six,
God wrote us a prayer.
Listen how we, what
does he want us to
pray?
In light of all of
this, verse five and
six, here's the prayer.
May the God of
endurance and
encouragement grant,
that means he's going
to give it to us,
have mercy on his
father and grant this,
to live in such
harmony with one
another in accord
with Christ Jesus,
that together you
may with one voice
glorify the God and
father of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
So the thing, the
first thing is, is
not that the text is
giving us permission,
but if we take it to
do unspeakable evil,
but it's calling you
and me to pray a
particular prayer.
And it's very, very
interesting what it's
calling us to pray for.
Look at it again.
May the God of
endurance and
encouragement, and
don't we want that?
Don't we want to be
able to endure in
good things?
Don't we want to be
encouraged?
Like, the Bible here
is saying, call out to
God.
Get on your knees.
Fall on your face in
prayer.
Stand, if that's how
you like to pray, with
eyes open or closed and
your arms stretched out
to heaven like a
three-year-old child
wanting to be picked
up by his mommy,
because he loves his
mommy and he wants to
be held by his mommy.
Call out to God, our
Father.
And ask him to
grant us such
harmony with one
another in accord
with Christ Jesus.
This is so important
for us to hear.
So what is advice
about how to get
along with people?
If you go to a
party, what do they
tell you?
Don't bring up
religion.
Right?
In Canada, you want
to get along?
Don't bring up
religion.
And here's the great
problem that's always
been a problem in the
church.
It's the consistent
problem of the
church.
Churches can have
harmony around
idols.
Churches can have
harmony around the
idol of being of the
same social class.
We're all working
class here.
We don't have
anything to do with
those toffee-nosed
people who went to
Oxford and Cambridge.
We're all upper
class.
We don't have
anything to do with
it.
We're all white.
We don't have
anything to do with
the blacks.
We're all black.
We don't have
anything to do with
the whites.
We're all Asians.
It is possible for
churches to have
harmony around the
same views on
politics, the same
views on economics,
of being in the
same social class,
ethnic class, all
these things.
And it doesn't say
pray that you can
have harmony around
your idols.
It says pray that
you can have harmony
in accordance with
Christ Jesus.
Flee idols.
Flee these things
that cause so much
war and violence
and hatred in the
world.
To protect your
class.
To go after the
other social class.
To protect your
economic interest.
To go after the
economic interest.
To treat people of
a different color or
a different education
or a different
ethnicity or a
different, the one
you eat in different
ways as if they're
other, as if they're
people that we
should be afraid of.
Harmony in
accordance with
Christ Jesus.
That together,
you may with one
voice.
In the Greek, you
know what it says?
With one mouth.
One mouth.
Glorify the God
and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, welcome
one another as Christ
has welcomed you
for the glory of
God.
Can you just put
that up on the
screen, Andrew?
Look at the
therefore.
Therefore.
You know, don't
please yourself.
Look to the weak.
Think of Jesus.
Think of the Bible,
the hope and the
encouragement and
endurance that comes
from it.
Think of that.
Pray this prayer.
Therefore, welcome
one another as Christ
has welcomed you for
the glory of God.
And then the next
thing which we're
going to look at
very briefly.
You know what the
implication of these
next few verses is?
Here's the implication
that you and I should
be willing to get on
our knees and pray for
the day that there are
so many people who
come to Church of the
Messiah and call Church
of the Messiah their
church home.
There are so many
people who come to
this church whose
first name is
Mohammed.
That we have to
think of nicknames for
them to tell them
apart.
Because this text is
going to answer why
is it that God wants
us to share the
gospel across class
lines, across
educational lines,
ethnicity lines?
Why is it that he
wants to share the
gospel across lines of
sexuality, of politics,
of nation?
He wants more people
to know how good he is
and praise him.
He wants from every
social group, every
people group, every
ethnic group, he wants
people from every group
to know his goodness
and his mercy and
to praise him.
Listen to this.
He's going to tell you
now how God has kept
his word and he's
going to quote from
every major section of
the Tanakh, what we
call the Old Testament.
For I tell you that
Christ became a servant
of the circumcised to
show God's truthfulness
in order to confirm the
promises given to the
patriarchs and in order
that the Gentiles might
glorify God for his
mercy as it is written.
Therefore, I will praise
you among the pagans
and sing to your name.
And again, it is said,
rejoice, O pagans, with
his people.
And again, praise the
Lord, all you pagans, and
let all the peoples
extol him.
And again, Isaiah says,
the root of Jesse will
come, even he who
arises to rule the
pagans, and in him will
the pagans hope.
And then there's another
prayer.
I'm going to put up on
the screen later.
God's giving us another
prayer to pray, brothers
and sisters.
May the God of hope,
this is what we can pray
for each other, for
ourselves and for this
church.
May the God of hope fill
you with all joy and
peace in believing so
that by the power of the
Holy Spirit, you may
abound in hope.
You know what?
We can't have too much
hope.
We eat hope.
We drink hope.
We breathe hope.
And most of us are on a
diet.
We need more hope.
We need high-calorie,
sorry vegetarians, red-meated,
high-fat hope.
We need to breathe it.
The Bible is asking us to
pray for this.
Now what about this claim?
I mean, you can see a little
bit of why we don't have to
be worried that if you
understand what the Bible is
and who Jesus is, you don't
have to worry that the Bible is
going to tell you to do
unspeakable evil.
But the main reason is a part
that I hardly talked about at
all.
It's verses three and four.
Look at it again with me,
please.
For Christ did not please
himself, but as it is
written, the reproaches of
those who reproached you fell on
me.
Everything is going to fall,
everything about this,
looking from the strong to
the weak, for the basis of
prayer to understand the
scriptures, why we can
trust them.
They're all in a sense hinged
on Jesus and who he is and
what he did.
Look again.
For Christ did not please
himself, but as it is
written, the reproaches of
those who reproached you
fell on me.
If you're a non-Christian,
you hear one of the things
that you might not know
about Christians is that we
reproach God all the time.
You know what does
reproach mean?
Completely lost my place
in my notes, folks.
But anyway, there you go.
Reproach means to accuse
of moral failure, to express
disapproval, to express
disappointment, to blame,
to discredit, to rebuke.
God, I'm so disappointed you
didn't get me that job.
You know, I find the Bible
boring.
God, I blame you.
I mean, we might not come
out and say that, although
maybe we will, you know.
And the fact of the matter
is, is that the whole world
has reproaches and
accusations against God.
Imagine for a moment that
the world was to gather, all
the people were to gather
before God, before he does
his judgment on each human
being.
And they were to express
out loud their reproaches
against God and all of the
ways that God has failed,
that God can't possibly
understand.
And they might say, God,
how on earth could you
possibly understand what it
means to be human?
You're God.
You're up there.
You don't have bodily needs.
You can just do whatever you
want.
You can just, you can just
shut this down.
You can just raise this up.
You know, we can't, we can't
do anything to you.
We can't fight you.
We can't try to bring you
to court.
You can just do whatever
you want.
How on earth can you
possibly know what it
means?
And then maybe the cry would
go out.
And what does God know?
How on earth does he know
anything?
I wish that we could make
God to know these things.
Let him be the victim of
religious fanaticism, which
leads to lying and killing.
And then they, after they've
lied and they killed, they
wash their hands in
innocence.
Let him be born illegitimate.
Let him be born to a
despised subgroup in an
insignificant people group.
Let him be part of a
people group conquered by
an imperial power.
Let him not be well
educated or prosperous or
good looking.
Let him have to work at
poorly paid manual labor.
Let him lose his father
early.
Let him have a
dysfunctional family where
they do not support him or
believe in him like many of
us are.
Those who are, those who
find the whole sexuality
teaching so frustrating.
Let God, let him know what
it means to never know
sexual love.
Let him be rejected by his
half brothers and half
sisters.
Let him be misunderstood by
all.
Let him be hounded by
religious leaders and the
educational elite.
Let him be hounded by the
powerful.
Let him be arrested by the
authorities on trumped up
charges.
Let him be denied legal
counsel.
Let him be abandoned by his
friends.
Let him be beaten and
tortured.
Let him be publicly
humiliated, publicly made
naked, subject to public
ridicule, abuse and scarred.
Let him die of failure.
And then all the people would
be silenced.
The reproaches of those who
reproached you fell on me.
Andrew, could you put up Romans
1, 16 to 17?
Could you read it out loud?
I can't.
I'll try to read it with you.
For I am not ashamed of the
gospel.
For it is the power of God for
salvation to everyone who
believes.
To the Jew first and also to the
Greek.
For in the gospel the
righteousness of God is
revealed from faith to faith.
As it is written, the
righteous shall live by faith.
God does what is right to make
us right with himself.
And while human beings step on
the week, over the week, around
the week, away from the week, God
stepped towards us, weakened in
reproach, reproach and sin.
And he stepped towards us to
stoop to save us.
The same act by which he bore
our reproaches was the act by
which he bore our rebellion.
And took the doom which
properly belonged to each of us.
And dying and taking our doom, he
offered to us his destiny and his
place with the Father.
This act of human beings having
Jesus bear our reproach was the
means by which when we put our
faith and trust in Jesus, he
welcomes us.
That is his power to us if we
receive it by faith.
I'm just going to ask you all to
stand.
Andrew, could you put up the next
one?
It's the first prayer.
I'm going to invite you just to
Andrew's looking for it.
It's originally point six.
This is just an invitation to pray
these prayers with me.
I want to just encourage you right
now, if you've never given your
life to Jesus, there's no better
time than not to ignore in a sense
these prayers and just say,
Jesus, be my Savior.
Be my Lord.
I give myself to you.
Use your own words.
Your heart will lead you.
God's not looking for perfect
words.
But just say to him that you want to
be his.
And he'll take you.
He welcomes you.
He'll welcome you as his.
He turns no one away.
No matter how many reproaches you've
had against him, how successful or
broken your life, he will not turn you
away.
He will take you as his.
And you'll be his forever.
As we as a congregation, can we pray
these two prayers that God has written
for us?
Let's pray this first one.
God of endurance and encouragement,
please make us disciples of Jesus
gripped by the gospel who meditate upon
your word written.
Please grant us a Jesus-centered harmony
with one another, which flows into a
common praise of the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
In Jesus' name, amen.
And the second prayer, God of hope,
please make us disciples of Jesus
gripped by the gospel who are filled
with joy and peace in knowing you.
Please help us to abound in hope by the
power of your Holy Spirit.
Father, pour out your Holy Spirit upon
us.
Pour out your Holy Spirit upon us.
Draw, bring your word deeply into our
lives.
Father, help us to have the courage to be
honest with our questions and help us,
Father, to hear the cries of our city and
the cries of our nation, the cries of our
friends and the cries of our family.
Father, help us to hear their cries and be
unashamed of the gospel, unashamed of the
whole counsel of God, unashamed of you, to
pray for them, to lift them before you in
prayer, to share the gospel, to seek their
good.
Father, please use us in such a way.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus and all
God's people said, amen.
Amen.
Thank you.