Romans Lesson 42: Sacrificing Me :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: November 12, 2020 by RR7

Chapter 15:1-6

“1 We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. 3 For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, ‘The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.’ 4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. 5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.“

I pray that you are enjoying this series in the book of Romans. It just so happens that it is now a part of my daily devotional reading as I am working my way through the NT again this year. Before I get into the lesson, let me encourage you to be diligent and disciplined about reading the Bible. To be able to recognize the lies around us, we must know the truth; the Bible is eternal and relevant truth. Over the course of this year, I have set about to read through the NT four times, and I am on my fourth trip now with the intent to finish before the end of December, and then to be reading the Proverbs through once each next year; I hope one is never too old to learn some wisdom. No matter if you can do a verse, or a few verses, or a chapter or a book, just read the Bible diligently.

When we looked at Romans 12:1-2, we heard about ‘presenting our bodies as living sacrifices’ to God. Over the course of the last few chapters, we have been learning just how to do that, how to live sacrificially. Over the course of the last few weeks, we have looked at chapter 14, and it calls us to take note of the people around us – the people in our neighborhoods and churches. Take note of their needs and idiosyncrasies, and be careful not to place ourselves as stumbling blocks in their lives. We should not be the reason that a person stays lost, nor that a weak or younger sibling in the Lord abandons the faith. We should be bringing the lost to Jesus and the saved into an even more intimate relationship with Him.

In the 6 verses we will consider today, Paul is going to give us a call to live sacrificially. Now let me be clear; we are not to compromise on the clearly stated doctrine of scripture. We are not to let people get away with open sin, and we are to hold leaders, pastors and elders, especially to a much higher standard. But in general, we are not to live for ourselves, but for the progress and growth of others in the Kingdom of the Lord.

Be patient with each other, verses 1-2

Love is patient (1 Cor. 13:4). They go hand in hand. When one loves someone, the natural fruit of that is patience. So, what the Lord is calling us to do here is to love our brothers and sisters in the Lord and to be kind in everything. The goal of the local church family is to edify or to build each other up, to make each other stronger in the Lord. This is one of the reasons against a ‘universal’ church that we can look at in the scriptures. Each church is a local body unto the Lord, and in that body, we find the persons that God wants to edify us and, in turn, for us to edify, to build up in Him.

Here Paul asks us to put up with the scruples of the weak. We have to learn this; Paul did. Often, we have this idea that Paul just came from salvation as a mature Christian; he did not. Just like you and I, he had to learn to present his body as a sacrifice to the Lord. When Paul began his ministry, he was carried along and vouched for by a man named Barnabas. This brother carried Paul and stood up for him when the Jews questioned his motives. On one journey, they took a young man named Mark. He got scared at one of their missionary stops in a city called Pamphylia and left to go home. Later, as they begin the next leg of their journey, Barnabas, the one who vouched for Paul, wanted to take Mark, but Paul refused, and there was a division among them (see Acts 15:38 and on).

Eventually, Barnabas took Mark with him and built him up, and Paul began the new journey with Silas. Later in his life, Paul comes to realize the man that Mark had become and asks for him to come to him in 2 Timothy 4:11. You see, Barnabas did for Mark what he had done for Paul. He put up with the fears and natural timidness of this young man, just like he has put up with Paul’s ways and helped this young man to become profitable in the ministry. Paul, as much as he had matured, had not come to that point yet. He did not see the potential in Mark, just his failures. Paul had not learned patience. But here he is, by the power of the Holy Spirit, asking us to be sacrificially patient with our weaker brothers and sisters. We do what we can to build each other up and to make us better as we live sacrificially for the Kingdom.

Be patient like Jesus was patient, verses 3-4

Jesus did not come to earth to die for His salvation, but for ours. And, to do so, He had to patiently experience things that were foreign to Him as God. He had to be submissive to his parents (Luke 2:51). He had to experience hunger, thirst, fatigue, using the restroom, crying, sweat, pain, being called a devil, betrayal, and ultimately death. He did this not for Himself, but for us. He did this so we could be redeemed and brought into the family of God. Jesus endured all manner of attacks and accusations; He put up with being arrested and betrayed, He put up with the beatings, the spital to the face, the cross and the nails for us, all to redeem us to His family forever. Certainly, we can endure a little to build each other up; certainly, we can sacrifice a few of our personal preferences for the benefit of another; certainly, we can cast aside a temporal enjoyment for the blessings of eternal joys.

Too many of us, myself included, are not doing this. Rather, we use our liberty as a hammer, always looking for a nail to hit. As a pastor who tries to diligently search the scriptures — and trust me, I know men who are much better at the teaching than I — there are things that I see in the scriptures that maybe a novice believer is not ready to see yet. We maybe can see things in this life that are there clearly to us but not to a young believer. Be careful what you discuss among the immature in the Lord; they can get overwhelmed, even with the truth. Follow the Gospels, and you will see that there were things that Jesus wanted to teach His disciples, but they were not ready yet to receive it; so, it was after the resurrection or when an event happened that they could understand what He taught them.

I have that with my little 8-year-old. She seems so mature at times; then she will ask me a question, and I explain it too high above her level, and she will say, dad, I still don’t get it. Well, Christianity is like this. Some of the people have been saved and in church for a year or 2 years, maybe 10 years for some, and they are still young. They are still learning and growing in the Lord. Treat them like delicate plants: water, protect from bacteria, and take the time.

Ahhhhhh, the swear word of the busy modern life — time. You want me to make time for this brother or sister to edify them? Yes. Make time. Have them in your home, go get a coffee, maybe a few minutes of face time on FB or Skype, and you will be astonished at what that will do. Learn to teach them accountability without being judgmental; encourage them to read the Bible; then read some more; then reread what they read, and read it again. Allow them to be real and for you to be real. Don’t hide your barnacles; talk about the scars and the hurts. Listen!

In too many churches today, we feed people the idea that the local church is all unicorns and rainbows. Rather, it is an ICU ward, and we need to prepare these new Christians to be the doctors and nurses in the ward when we are gone home to the Lord. One day they will be the ones making time and bandaging wounds; they will be the ones covering the hurts and carrying the weak. But we have to do it; first, we have to set an example, and we have to sacrifice ourselves for the Kingdom.

Be patient, keep our eyes on the goal, verses 5-6

We live in an instant world, and this has affected our ability to be patient. However, remember 1 Cor. 13:4, love is patient. One of the ways to be patient is to keep our eyes on the prize. In this case, the Apostle Paul lays out the goal that each local church may be of one mind in glorifying God. Godly unity trumps everything. When the Lord’s churches are unified in their goal to glorify God and then to draw people to Him, then the work of the NT church is being done.

We need to help the ones we are being patient with to learn patience and to invest in others. Maybe it is that I am getting older and see things a bit more. Maybe I am dead wrong. But when Jesus tells the disciples to stop storing up earthly treasures and store up heavenly treasures, I think we, and for a long time I, missed the point. Look at Matthew 6: 19-21; the treasure is people. All the things that we hold dear here on earth, the gold, silver and jewels, are just building materials in Heaven. It is the people that are the eternal treasure, the treasure that Jesus gave His life for. He calls us to sacrifice for the Kingdom, just like He did — not for things, BUT for people.

When we begin to see the people as treasure, then we will have no problem being patient, kind, finding the time, making the time, taking the phone call or answering the same question for the umpteenth time. Once we come to this point, verse 15 will play out in us; God will grant us the power to be like-minded, like Him, to others. We will be patient like He is to us; we will be forgiving like He is to us; we will be kind like He is to us; we will be able to handle hurts as He does from us; we will take runaways as He does for us; we will be able to love unconditionally as He does us. We will be more like Jesus, and our whole perspective on life will change. We will build up our brothers and sisters in the Lord, and we will glorify God together, but we first have to sacrifice ourselves for the Kingdom.

Matthew 6: 19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

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Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

Romans Lesson 41: Love Tempers Freedoms :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: November 4, 2020 by RR7

Chapter 14:14-23

“14 I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 15 Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. 16 Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil; 17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.

“19 Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. 21 It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. 22 Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. 23 But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.”

This is an extension of last week’s lesson, really. We talked about taking responsibility for those around us and not being a stumbling block to them. We focused on the idea of not being indifferent to the needs of others; it is often much easier to ignore the need and not have to get our hands dirty helping others. Thankfully, Jesus did not do that to us; He got His hands dirty to save us.

Today we will look at personal liberty. This is a big issue in the Lord’s churches as many simply live for themselves and not in the service of others. One of the hardest things to learn to do – and believe me, it is a lifelong journey – is to learn to deny yourself. We are not talking about doctrinal compromise, so let us get that out of the way very early on in our discussion today. Let us take a Biblical example and explore this.

In Acts 15 we find a discussion arises about circumcision. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, is seeing souls saved, but certain men from the church in Judea come to visit him (Acts 15:1-2), and say that one cannot be saved unless you are circumcised. They are adding the law to grace, mixing works and grace for salvation. This same thing is happening in churches all over the world still. Many still want to follow the law for salvation, making Jesus’ death insufficient for salvation. In the passage here in Acts, Paul and Barnabas argue that circumcision is not necessary for salvation. This division leads to a meeting in Jerusalem with apostles and other leaders.

After much discussion, the elders of the church there and the men present came to the understanding that circumcision was not necessary for salvation, and they issued a decree to that effect, if you read from Acts 15:24-29. In the very next chapter, Paul takes a young man named Timothy on a missionary journey with him; and before he leaves, he has him circumcised (Acts 16: 1-5). Why? Paul tells of the reason in Acts 16:3, because of all of the Jews that were in the area they were going to.

Here we have one of the clearest examples of doctrine versus personal freedoms. Timothy was saved; he was not being circumcised to be saved, he was circumcised so that he would be able to minister to the Jews in the area that he and Paul were going to. His personal freedoms did not trump what was necessary for the furtherance of the Gospel. One of the hardest things to learn to do as a Christian is that of denying one’s self for the sake of others. Some things are not sinful until we make them sinful by not considering others.

Love is the Reason

The one thing that should separate the Lord’s churches from all other entities on the earth is love for each other. In John 13:34-35, Jesus tells us that people will know we are his disciples if we have love one for another. Love requires sacrifice. When we take responsibility for younger and weaker Christians in our midst, then we must do so out of love. If not, we will become resentful when we have to give up a preference to serve a brother or sister. Here is an example: Maybe someone in your local church was recently saved and came out of an organization that mixed following the law with grace; he grew up not eating pork or shellfish, and you invite him to you home. Be mindful of him and maybe serve beef or chicken until you know he is mature enough to understand the freedoms we have in Jesus.

A lot of us would break out Acts 10 and tell the story of Peter on the rooftop and miss the point. Even Peter struggled with that change as did the church in Jerusalem; the incident we spoke of in Acts 15 happened a long time into the life of the local church in Jerusalem. They were still struggling with the Law and grace. Paul tells us that we should love our brother, to be mindful of his areas of offense, and consider him. Put our freedoms aside for the sake and service of others.

I will put one other thing in here that I have noticed of late. I see a lot of Christians drinking alcohol, even in public. I don’t want to get into a lesson on alcohol; as for me and all pastors, we are not allowed to drink alcohol according to 1 Timothy 3. But the stigma and the sad reality of the human cost that alcohol has inflicted on society should make a Christian weary of drinking. If you want to have a beer or a glass of wine at home, then enjoy your freedoms, but understand that there are alcoholics all around you, there are people struggling at home with alcohol, and it has wrecked a lot of lives.

Maybe our freedoms need to be tempered with love for each other. This can be extended to many other things like music, movies, clothing and the like. Simply put, we are not here to serve ourselves but to serve our family in the Lord and to do all it takes, yes, even to giving up our freedoms to help them grow and mature in Jesus.

What is God calling you to give up?

As we mature, God will ask us to do things. We see this principle in the life even of a child; when they are young, we teach them to eat without getting food everywhere on the table. As they mature, we teach them to put their plates in the sink, and as they mature more, we ask them to wash the dishes, and then to wash and put away. At each turn, we put more responsibility on them, and it costs them something: time. They can’t just run away to the TV or to the Xbox. To be obedient, they have to sacrifice something.

Paul ends the section here in Chapter 14 by calling us to live by faith. You can enjoy your freedoms before God, and He will give you great happiness. But as we mature, there are things, even good things that God may call you to give up. All too often we settle for good, and God is offering us great things. We settle for happiness, and God is offering us joy. We settle for earthly treasures, and God is calling us to invest in Heavenly treasures. But it is hard to give up what we can see for what we can’t see; thus, God calls us to live by faith.

I will offer an example. In our church camp, one of the rules is that there is not to be any contact between the sexes for the week. Now over the years, we have not really enforced that rule, and if a husband and wife want to hold hands at the worship service, no one would say anything. But some have stopped coming because of that – If I can’t kiss my wife goodnight, then I am not coming. This is immaturity. You give up the opportunity to set a good example of a Godly Christian marriage – especially if you are a young couple, and the world is telling our kids to wait and wait to get married – because of a kiss goodnight. You have traded eternal benefits for temporal ones; you are not going to be married in Heaven anyway, but your faithful sacrifice will live on forever.

We live in a world that puts me first – me, me, me and me. The world of the local church is the complete opposite; we live for God first and then others. Our jobs are to serve others into the kingdom and to keep serving once they have entered the kingdom.

What stumbling blocks have you and I used to hurt our fellow Heavenly citizens? What is God calling us to sacrificially give up for and in the service of others? Who is God calling us to take responsibility for?

Barnabas took responsibility for Paul; then later Paul took responsibility for Timothy and Titus and others. I would argue that Paul would not have been the man of God he became without the sacrifice of Barnabas, yet many speak as if Paul was a self-made missionary. He was not. You don’t need to be famous here, but be famous with God for living sacrificially. Live by faith that God knows what it cost to serve others; it cost Him his Son. Jesus laid down His life for us; and sadly, some of us – and I am looking at the man in the mirror – won’t lay down anything for Him or His people. We all need a serious come to Jesus moment.