Missions Paul

Two days ago I took myself off to Costa with my Bible and notebook. I was in between meetings, I just had 1 hour but I was in need of God. Do you know what I mean? Those times when we just need His help. We need Him all the time but there are those moments when the ache in our hearts, the longing of our spirit for the Holy Spirit to refresh and renew us. I began reading verse 3, how Paul quoted the Messianic Psalm 69 to show that not even Jesus demanded the use of his rights, so we shouldn’t either. I then read this next verse:

“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” (Romans 15 v 4)

And I saw it again….the influence of the Bible. Why does Paul keep referring back to the Old Testament? (It was his Bible, the Spirit was using him and others to write the New Testament).

It is because even today the Spirit uses the Bible to cause us to endure and to be encouraged. It is the testimony of my life.

Remember how Jesus in the most excruciating unbelievable traumatic of times, hanging on the cross, quoted these words:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?

Why did Jesus say what he said? It is because as he went through hell the power of the Word of God held him. Just as he had done on many occasions where he would quote one verse from an Old Testament passage and the lesson wasn’t in what he quoted but the rest of the passage that he had been silent on. He endured because of the Scriptures.

What was Jesus saying? Maybe this:

“Though I feel abandoned and am going through hell, I still trust Him. And I know later in this Psalm that I am quoting, a Psalm that speaks of me, that vindication will come after the suffering.”

God’s written Word is at the centre of the cross.

Psalm 22, the Messianic Psalm, was in the mind of Christ. He was being held together by the Word.

Maybe someone today is going through their own personal hell or you know someone who is. Let the Bible speak at these times. Memorise, meditate and speak it out. Jesus needed the Word and so do we.

The Costa was a refreshing place for me as I saw once again that for my endurance and encouragement, I need the Bible.

We don’t have to think of what benefits us first; we don’t have to please ourselves without thought of others; we don’t have to live our lives the way we want to; we can choose to be different; we can choose to be like Jesus.

“We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbours for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” (Romans 15 v 1-4)

Jesus with all of his power, titles, position and rights gave them all up. What did he get in return? Insult after insult. Paul quotes Psalm 69 which was used in the gospels to describe the suffering that Jesus went through. We don’t know, but perhaps the ‘weak’ were throwing ‘insults’ at the strong?

The point is this that even though we might want to demand our rights to disputable matters, if Jesus could lay himself down, then we should follow his lead.

In concluding his teaching to who he describes as strong and weak Christians, Paul says to the strong that they should not impose what they believe and practice on those who don’t at that time have the same faith as them.

“So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.” (Romans 14 v 22-23)

Church is not a group of people who all agree on matters that are largely unimportant. Neither is it a community where a part are trying to convince the other part to be more like them. Paul is in the strong camp, he has understood the freedom of the Spirit and the work of Christ’s forgiveness.

We live in a world which preaches rights. Though these are certainly important. Within the Church the gospel is that anyone has the right to act and speak so long as they have one understanding eye on others who may not hold that position without condescension or judgment on either side. Let’s pray that this is the case in the church we are part of.

Whose members have stopped fault-finding and therefore have more energy to create a place where they build one another’s faith in an atmosphere of peace.

^“Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” (Romans 14 v 19)

It means those who want to control others, don’t and those who want complete freedom to do whatever they want, don’t.

Who will stop the selfishness and pride? Who will intervene so that ‘the strong’ believers with their freedom do not destroy ‘the weak’ who are not quite there yet? Who will bring true unity without one side bringing distress on the other because they are demanding change?

“Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. (Romans 14 v 16-18)

Even those who have found freedom that Christ has brought can turn their good into bad because of the way they conduct their lives.

Is their hope?

The Church needs to look like Christ. Our horizontal relationships need to align with our vertical connection. We need to be right with one another; we need to be peaceful with one another and the Church needs to be more joyful. Our hope is the Holy Spirit.

The evidence of the Holy Spirit is that members are not destroyed for the sake of food or whatever issue is also of non-importance.

The Church becomes a safe place to grow at the pace of the Spirit because the Spirit is present.

The Church becomes a non-judgmental place where members are not grieved because they are not free enough or meeting some standard.

This is the work of the Spirit. This is the hallmark of a Spirit-filled Church.

I had dinner with a friend and they told me how in their Church they have a retired minister who does not agree with him over a topical issue for the Church. I’m reflecting on that this morning. Ever been in a similar situation? In such situations we often are tempted to try and change their minds and to convince them of the reasons why our position is the correct one. This Pastor however spoke with the retired minister and said ‘because we have far more that we do agree on I am not going to permit this issue to divide us.’

“If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died …Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.” (Romans 14 v 15, 20)

Have you noticed that even though Paul calls them ‘weak in faith’ he is not asking them ‘to get their act together’, to ‘come into the first century’ and he doesn’t shame them for not holding to what the ‘strong’ believe. He is clear that he doesn’t agree with their position, he is in the ‘strong’ camp who understand the freedom that Christ has given them. He calls them ‘weak’ for he knows they must grow in these issues (e.g. Mosaic laws around food). But loving them is more important than the unity of the issue.

Why is it in striving for unity someone not only gets ‘distressed’ but sometimes even destroyed? It is because often we think unity is solely an agreed position. It is because the act of love is not higher than our own cause.

So take a look at your own Church. Look at your ‘weaker’ members. Can you imagine a Church where each one of us are not demanding the other to change? Can you imagine a Church where our lifestyles are in check lest we distress the other? If you can then you have a picture of real love. If you can then it is because you are recognising Jesus gave his life for each one. If you can then the work of God is thriving in this atmosphere of love.

“The Pastor is not reading from the proper original Bible.” That was the phone conversation last year as a purist member of the church demanded that I make sure the King James Version was brought back. I tried to explain that we don’t actually have the original Bible but I think I made it worse.

I have heard many things as a Pastor.

“Pastor tell the worship leader to put her shoes back on.”

“Pastor tell the worship leader to stop bringing a water bottle onto the stage.”

“Pastor the drums are too loud.”

“Pastor someone’s sat in my chair.”

I was just closing out a sermon series and I wanted to let my members study further the topic. So I called in at the Christian bookshop and got a pile of books on the subject on sale or return. The layout of the church meant that the rule was never to put anything of value in the entrance as opportunists would sneak in and take what was left there during the service. So that was not the place to display the books. Behind the stage where the pulpit stood there were 2 doors on either side which led to the toilets. I could have displayed them there but that would mean the books would only be seen if you went to the toilet. I did have regular toilet visitors but not enough to encourage the sale of the books! The only place to put them was in the ‘sanctuary’.

“Pastor, we are leaving the Church after all these years unless you remove the books from the sanctuary. You are selling in the sanctuary.”

I asked them if they would stay if I put the books in the entrance. They said yes. The entrance wasn’t the sanctuary. I asked them if they would stay if I put the books near the toilets. They said yes. The toilet area wasn’t the sanctuary (debatable I know!) I tried to explain my reasoning. Sadly those 2 members left my church because of holiness which had nothing to do with holiness. They hadn’t grasped the sanctuary domain is the whole world.

The verses we are reading in Paul’s letter to a divided Church in Rome are perhaps laughable to us. We don’t fall out over food do we? Perhaps not but the Church suffers for the sake of other stupid things.

“I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean … Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.” (Romans 14 v 14, 20)

Paul is saying that we must not simply act oblivious of someone else’s conscience. Causing someone to stumble is not causing them to be offended at what you are doing but it is getting them or tempting them to do what their conscience says for them they must not do. The Church that enables everyone to be at ease with their own journey of God, to go at their pace and in alignment with how the Holy Spirit is leading them is the Church that will not be destroyed.

Remember Peter and his ‘conversion’ regarding unclean food.

Acts 11:8 – “Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.”

Peter was so careful.
He didn’t take into his body anything that was impure or unclean.
He didn’t drink or eat the wrong things that Jews would never take in.
He had a feeling of purity and cleanliness. He felt good about himself.
But then God broke into his life and he saw that he must not call anything unclean that has come from the divine presence.

For the sake of the protection from worldliness (which most church arguments are all about) do not destroy what God is doing.

Maybe the Pastor could refer to the KJV to help those who love it.

Maybe the worship leader could put some flat shoes on instead of her stilettoes that are uncomfortable.

Maybe we can ask the worship leader to drink from the water bottle in more appropriate times of the worship, perhaps after the song is over rather than guzzling during the song.

Maybe we can buy earmuffs for those who think the drums are too loud (something I actually did!)

Maybe we can guide the person to see that the growth of the church means we might have to let our seats go.

To my purists who left the church. I apologised to them. I said over all these years when I chose songs like, ‘This is holy ground, we’re standing on holy ground’ I recognise now that I failed you as a Pastor. You actually believed that the space where we hold our services was holy ground but the entrance, the toilet area, anywhere outside this space was not the sanctuary. I created a sacred/secular divide in you that now your conscience cannot shift from. I didn’t teach you that though I love the song about holy ground I wasn’t singing only about this space but wherever we are. Please forgive me. The books are staying where they are but I bless you as you leave.

We are going to get this wrong time and again but the battle is not with each other over the purity of the Church but it is over not letting the Church be destroyed for the sake of food, or other important/non-important things.

I have learnt and am learning to be wary of 2 statements:

“It was a privilege for me to lead those people to Christ tonight, thank you for the invite.” The statement isn’t about Christ or the converts or those who were the inviters, but it most definitely is about ME.

“You too can become like me!” But why would I want to leave ME and become YOU?

Paul has been focusing on the weak who condemn the strong and now he moves to balance it by saying to the strong to stop looking down on others.

The ‘disputable matters’ are meat and drinking wine which have been in contact with the idol-polluted world. For us we have a long list of ‘disputable matters’ in the Christian Church. I have used 2 verses at the start and end of the section as they are linked:

“Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister …. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.” (Romans 14 v 13, 21)

The easy bit is this: Stop being the expert on all things and in doing so judge those who have not achieved or are free to do what you have done supposedly. The humble brag is not pretty.

The expert who judges others stands in the place of God, the final authority on all things and speaks as if God was speaking. Stop it.

Don’t send people to hell; don’t write people off; don’t dismiss a person as worthless.

Then the not so easy: Stop living your life with no concern on how others will be impacted by watching you.

Not that you want to please everyone and you don’t want to offend them, otherwise what would there be left to do? But it is to allow other people to have a different conscience to you and to protect that so that you do not tempt them away to become like you. “Go on take this cream-filled cake, one won’t do your diet any harm.” But it does and you have put an obstacle of temptation in their way.

It isn’t enough to say ‘I love people’. Love is not being an expert who judges by condescending or humble brags and love is not convincing someone to do what their conscience says is wrong for them.

“I’m leaving the Church!” Every Pastor has heard these words. It comes with the territory. One Sunday morning after the service a ‘brother in the Lord’ pulled me to one side and said, ‘Enough is enough, I asked you to speak to that woman and today she blasphemed the Lord’s table once again, so me and my family, we’re off.’ On this occasion I was so happy and relieved! My Christian brother had recently joined the Church and was determined to cleanse us from all impurities that were on his list. The woman he spoke about was a recent convert from a terrible background. She came forward to the Communion table that morning wearing once a t-shirt with a slogan that was obviously on my brother in the Lord’s list! I wasn’t bothered what she was wearing I was just grateful that she was there! I had suggested he closed his eyes and focused on the Lord but I guess when you are cleaning up the Church you have to keep them open.

The truth is that what this new convert was wearing at the Communion Table had absolutely nothing to do with him. It was none of his business. It was however, the business of the Lord and I was yet to see any thunder strikes!

Paul is hitting hard in this section of his letter. There is a problem in the Church in Rome. They are trying to dictate to one another over disputable matters. One side are condemning and the other side are looking down with contempt.

“For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone.If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister^[a]? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’” So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.” (Romans 14 v 7-12)

If we all simply focused on our own discipleship, aiming to follow Jesus closer, listening to what the Holy Spirit is saying about our own conduct, making changes because we want to glorify God and not please man, the Church would be a safer place. It is one thing living your life within accountable structures and we all need them to grow but they do not have the final say over our lives, God does. Paul quotes from Isaiah 45 which is set in the context of God being in charge, He is Sovereign and it is to Him alone we will give an account.

A lot of people leave Churches because they are offended at what others are wearing or other ‘disputable matters’ like ‘steak and broccoli’. They need to understand that in order to get their own lives ready to kneel before Him in the final accountable end-of-life moment, they don’t have the time or the energy to be campaigning against someone else. They should indeed mind their own business.

A friend once told me how he and his wife were celebrating their anniversary in a hotel they had booked for one night. They were enjoying their meal in the restaurant which involved a very nice wine. They were not big drinkers by any stretch of the imagination but nevertheless they were secret drinkers for the vast majority of their friends were teetotal and viewed alcohol as demon-drink. The couple were enjoying their evening when all of a sudden my friend spotted 2 couples that they knew come into the same hotel restaurant. They only had a split second to decide what to do so my friend said to his wife to do what he did and follow him. He gulped down all the wine and hid the bottle out of sight. They then very quietly tip-toed and walked down the side of the bar and out of the restaurant back to their room. No one saw them. However, because he stood up so quickly and was rushing, the wine seemed to have had a bit of an effect and instead of walking past the bar he had to rest his arm on it to stop the dizziness and slid the whole length creating quite a comical scene! The picture he had created was far worse than the scene if his friends had seen him have a glass of wine in his hands. However, for him, it was worth the risk rather than face the wrath of the judging panel.

We seem to be coming to the part in this letter to the Church in Rome which gives the reason why Paul writes it. There is division within. There are those who look down on others, he calls them the strong in faith believers. Then there are those who condemn the strong in faith believers, he calls them the weak in faith. What exactly is going on is not clear. But isn’t that the same when ‘disputable matters’ (v1) boil over into the public domain today? I’ve been in church all my life and in some form of church leadership for 35 years. When I look back on the ‘disputable matters’ over the years and the intolerance that has surfaced it looks really petty and pathetic today.

We have a glimpse from Paul but we still have to guess much of what the division is about. The strong eat anything and every day is a sacred day; the weak eat only vegetables and a certain day is more sacred. It seems nonsense to us in 2022. Okay let’s read the verses:

“One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.” (Romans 14 v 2-6)

Are you caught up in a ‘disputable matter’ today? In future years will people look back and think it petty?

“Who are we to judge someone else’s servant?” That person which we either look down upon or condemn belongs to the Lord and it is the Lord who will judge them.

The person that we are intolerant with may truly believe that their practice, behaviour and belief is in alignment with the Lord’s will for their life. Isn’t that the same with us? So isn’t the main point that God is glorified? What is good for them may not be good for me but so long as God is worshipped, glorified, honoured, isn’t that the most important point?

Of course, like any parent who steps into their children’s argument and ends up being the villain, often those who try to unite the church end up being the worse enemy.

One thing I do believe is that when we breathe our last here on earth and enter our eternity, the disputes that occupied our lives with such passion will not matter one jot. The fights we had because we have to be right will fall to the earth as we realise we wasted a lot of time on the petty and pathetic. “Who are you to judge …?”