Morning everyone. I wonder if we can do a quick exercise as we start, for the parents here.
If you are blessed enough to have more than one child – so to the parents who are parents to 2 or more children, I want you to close your eyes, and, considering, your beautiful talented, loving offspring, please answer this question in your mind – not aloud, I want you to consider for a quick moment. The question is simply this:
Who is your favourite child? Come on, I know you have a favourite…
Wait. No, I’m joking, please stop right there – I’m not being serious
For those I didn’t stop in time - Well, shame on you for picking a favourite - don’t you love all your children equally? How easy was that to induce you into divisive favouritism!
Let me and my twin sister here tell you about favouritism. She might say that I was the favourite child growing up – I was the only son of course, the tallest, the sportiest
But I would counter and say, lets consider the data – she had the biggest room. She got the nice mountain bike on her 13th birthday and she got the car on her 21st while I got the hand me down – please pity us poor privileged children… if I’m honest our parents tried their level best and still do – to treat all their children – even our older sister who is clearly the favourite - with fairness – with equality. With no favouritism.
Any parent knows, favouritism is bad, and leads to disaster and ruin. You guys know that, right?
OK, lets get serious for a moment here. I’m not here to waste your time with folksy anecdotes about my family.
Romans 2. – listen to this – part of last weeks passage
8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.
Our passage for the morning is in Romans from 2:17, and is all about the Jewish Believers in Rome.
Why are we concerned with them? Why does Paul make such a focus of them? We are Christians isn’t this letter supposed to be written to a church?
Well, listen to the following three statements, and hopefully they don’t sit too uncomfortably in your understanding of the early Church.
No 1 Jesus – was a Jew. He was born to a Jewish Mother – his life is full of Jewish ritual, yes, he was circumcised. Culturally, ethnically Jewish.
No 2 Paul was also, Jew – he was a hotshot Jew! A member of the first team, a zealot of zealots, a Passionate learner under a famous Jewish teacher. And his Jewishness, his culture and his background didn’t just fall way when he started to learn about Christ? In fact you can actually see they drive a lot of his passion and connection with his fellow new believers.
And No3 The vast Majority of the Church in Rome, the recipients of this letter at that time, were, Jewish.
Jewish Converts. Over time, centuries including the expulsion of Jews from Rome, it would become more diverse, including more Greek and gentiles, and would slowly become ‘Roman’. Christian as opposed to Jewish – but even the distinction between Christian and Jewish people would follow later. At its heart – from its beginning – the Christian Faith has Jewish roots.
So, then, there is a challenge here, maybe one the perhaps has persisted through the centuries.
What value is Christ to a people already claiming to be the people of God?
They were first. They were Gods chosen people – They received the promises of Abraham, they had the lineage of Christ. It was their culture into whom this Saviour was born!
They were the people of God. Come next week – Romans 3 and hear how advantaged they were…
But still Paul is saying some very hard things. God does not play favourites.
Later in the book you will hear these verses
Romans 3:9 9 Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.
Romans 3:23 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
We are all alike. There are no favourites. We are all treated equally. Blessed equally, equally favoured, equally loved and valued…
But also – to flip over to the shall we say inverse we are all equally judged – equally found wanting – equally condemned and equally facing the wrath of the Most High Judge.
We are all - we’ve heard this phrase multiple times already and we’re only a few weeks into our theme - without EXCUSE. Jew, Gentile, Young Old, Male Female, Born on a remote untouched island, Born into a church going family full of Solid believers – all without EXCUSE.
So this section begins, and you have to love the masterful way its set up – Paul, not for the first time in the letter – turns directly to the readers – he is addressing them head on – now you guys, IF you call yourself a Jew – like he isn’t dead sure that most of them call themselves Jews – and he continues with the ifs,
Like that’s you right, you identify as Gods people, right, you guys,
And the next few sentences remind them of what that means – audaciously defines what it means to be truly Jewish – to a bunch of Jewish readers…
He’s setting a trap
So you guys, the good guys right the guys who, and here comes the list
You call yourself a Jew – so you take the name – you don’t deny it
You know and rely on the Law – it was given to you, its yours right
You boast in God
You know his will
The law tells you the superior thing to do - it is your divine instruction
If you are
A guide for the blind
A light for those in the dark
And instructor of the foolish
A teacher of little children
Wow, what an amazing list, what an identity, all the incredible things that you should be – by your own recognition…
How come….. and Paul's then lists some simple questions – why don’t you actually do these things?
And starts to compare their actual behaviour – against the standard they set for themselves, the standard they claim?
Again a list
You teach others, do you practice what you teach?
You preach against stealing, but I know for a fact some of you steal?
Your words say don’t commit adultery – do you commit adultery?
You boast in the law, but you don’t actually honour the law fully?
So what has Paul done here – he’s highlighted the difference between what these people – and remember he’s included in these people… say and do. Between the identity they claim, and their actual lives. He calls out the hypocrisy in their actions.
The people who have received the law, they study the law, they know the law - but that’s not enough – they don’t FOLLOW the law. Simply knowing and teaching won’t justify them before God. And not only will it not justify them before God, but NOT following it, breaking the law -
You see in verse 23 and 24 why this is so important.
Not only are you not doing what you should be doing, as Gods Ambassadors, as Gods Chosen presentative… as His special nation – what is the effect of this – what happens as an output of this type of hypocritical, at best inconsistent, as worst offensive to God kind of uncontrolled lifestyle.
Verse 23 – you dishonour God. Within your own people, instead of bringing a high view of God, you bring a low view. Instead of his name being lifted up and praised – it is abused and disrespected. That’s what hypocrisy does inside a people – but you see in the very next verse, and this is important for us here at Medway to hear I believe
Verse 24 – as it is written Gods name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.
Now he brings in the Gentiles as well…. Because the knock on effects of this two faced behaviour is not only internal. The Gentiles see this. The observe your lack of faithful obedience to Gods law – and what do they think?
They then think, ugh, what value has that? That's not for me.
There was a very famous song by a very famous Christian band in the late 90s, the greatest decade of all time… that we used to love – would play to death at youth groups and camps -
And its started with a quote by a guy called Brendan Manning – maybe a few of us will remember the song when I read it out – the quote goes as follows
"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable
Powerful words. Man we loved that song – still do
Did you know that the writer of that quote would go on to struggle with alcoholism his whole life?
Did you know the band who released that song have recently had their legacy left in tatters because one of their front men has now admitted to a long term pattern of sexually grooming young fans, living a drug fueled double life.
And all the fans, including me are left going ugh, really, no man.
Because we looked up to those people – we were inspired and encouraged and spurred on by those carriers of the Name of God. It’s all just so sad, but its so real. Woe to those – woe to US – who will one day have give account of lifestyles that turn others… believers / – unbelievers even – away from the Living God.
Gods name is blasphemed among the Gentiles – BECAUSE OF YOU
Paul highlights the fact that even thought they might claim this beautiful heritage filled identity – they too stand condemned – in their sins.
Verse 25 now makes a case study and object lesson of one of the rituals of the Jewish faith that all the males would have undergone. Yes, we are talking about – Circumcision.
Maybe its not something you spend a lot of time thinking about, me neither, but it has deep roots in the Jewish faith. Calling back Abrahamic Covenants – a physical sign of the covenant between God and his people. A Symbol of Purity, of Obedience. A unique marker that would set them apart from other people, and would identify them as Gods special people.
But a ritual nonetheless… And exactly aligned with the whole argument Paul is presenting…
Just having an identifier placing you in a group of people – is not enough. If your actions align you with the identifier – the marker, then it is of value, it means something – then it is an accurate God Honouring thing. If not, it is worthless. It might as well be as if you are not circumcised – verse 25. The ritual would then be empty and meaningless.
And Paul goes even further.
You are worse off even than someone who – if this case follows the law, but is not circumcised. What you do is therefore more important than your custom, than your ritual than what you call yourself.
Verses 28 and 29, last two for the day, bring it all back to this idea of being a true believer – a true man of faith, in that culture, remember a true Jew.
He’s been talking about your name aligning with your action. He’s been talking about your ritual and your customs aligning with your action.
Now, finally, third crack at the presentation – he likens the matter to someone’s inward and outward behaviour.
The inward – your heart, your spirit, what you believe – aligning with your outward, your action, your physical tangible behaviour and presentation in the real world.
If all you have is that fake façade – the outer shell – the look of a believer, the appearance of a believer – if you’re able to pull off a good impression of one of Gods people. You are not a man of God. The inward must lead the outwards. Your metaphorical ‘circumcision’ – let’s use different but related words – your reason for ritual, your sign of devotion, your obedience, your set apartness must come from within.
Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God. I’ve been thinking about that for a while now. You we – most of here, sat at Neville's funeral and chuckled at tales of what a quirky guy he was, and how he sometimes rubbed people up the wrong way, wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea – so WHAT. Who cares. Praise from God is more important than praises from man.
How horrible to be a people pleaser – that’s me by the way, and absolute people pleaser – a compulsive need to be liked and appreciated and to have everyone sing along to my tune – quite literally, as my band mates here know.
I hate it when people disagree with me – I inadvertently offended Maurice here the other day – when I found out what I had done – I drove to his house immediately and camped outside like a heartbroken teenager for him to come outside so we could sort it out. Maurice, again, I’m sorry, I love you bro. There I go making this about me.
Let’s put it differently, we all love to be loved, but if we , when then time comes, have people speaking of us after we’ve gone – saying, yikes, I didn’t get on with him or her all the time, but you know what, they were true believers. They were authentic believers. The inward matched the outward. The contents matched the labels. The doing matched the saying.
We would all take that in a heartbeat, wouldn’t we?
To retrace our steps and sum up the passage -
The Jewish believers in Rome – the main subjects of the book of Romans and certainly the clear direct recipients of this passage – need to watch out - to be alert to the fact and understand, that they too – not just the external unbelieving gentiles – they too fall short, – they too, in their real actual action – stand guilty before a Holy God. Their label, their identity will not save them – their past, their culture will not save them – their ritual, the custom, the fact that they have been circumcised will not save them. Even their outward action and physical behaviour is meaningless, unless it comes from a place of internal transformation. That Salvation is by Faith, and not by heritage.
Jesus is for everyone – and should not be rejected by the traditional men of faith. Pauls points out – these guys, including himself, even though they have the law, they know they law, they don’t follow the law.
The outward does match the inwards.
Maybe to end off with this – I wonder perhaps if you are sitting here a bit confused. My goodness, these people at Church are constantly giving us mixed messages.
I was told God loves everyone, that all who are thirsty must come
Must come just as we are.
That the gift of Salvation is a Free Gift? For all, regardless of your past – it doesn’t matter what you done.
This is all 100% true, and rightfully celebrated. Rightfully sung about. What a lekker time we had singing this morning, to our Wonderful Merciful Saviour – who rescued us.
The following is also 100% true. The cost of truly following Jesus, is everything. Jesus puts it best
Matthew 16
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me
It matters what you do. – future – as we build our lives (what we do) upon Him.
Paul hammers the hypocrites – the people who claim to be people of faith, but lack the inner transformation required to live God honoring lives.
Here’s the hardest, truth, then, to accompany us as we walk out the door this morning – that in some sense, somehow, we are all like that. Aren’t we? Let’s be honest. What is our prayer this morning – that our outward acts of obedience and worship, our identity we enjoy, the God we meet about every Sunday, the faith we claim – are genuine – sincerely, authentically outworkings of our inner, transformed, reborn hearts. Inward and Outward – true aligned, what was that word - authentic believers. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.
Lets pray together…
Father that verse is brought to mind where Jesus talks about religious people and describes them as whitewashed tombs…Looking beautiful on the outside but full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean on the inside.
Lord help us in our unbelief – to be true men and women of faith. That our actions would follow our beliefs – that your grace to us in all we do would be reflected.
That the names we bear, that the identity we claim – in Christ Alone, would lead to faithfilled and faithful lives and honest, action.
The our rituals would not be meaningless and empty, they would instead carry great meaning and bring you great joy – even as we meet here in your name every week.
We know we were all without excuse – but in your great love and mercy you rescued us and brought us into your marvellous light. We could never have earned it, we could never have been born into it. We could never have acted our way into your family.
Thank you Father for your love to us, your grace to us, and your great desire than all would come to know you and place their faith in your Son. Jew, Gentile, Greek, South African, Plumstead resident – all. That we as bearers of your name would not walk out this door and deny you with our lifestyle. Amen.
