What Does a Good Church Look Like? 6a
What Does a Good Church Look Like • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Please turn to Romans 6. I want to get back to question what does a good church look like. If you’re new, this has been an ongoing sermon series that we’ve been engaged in for a while, and we’re using Paul’s letter to the Romans to help answer the question.
Understand, a church is a reflection of the people. So as we ask what does a good church look like,we must also ask what does a good church member look like. Of course, that means engaging in healthy and honest evaluation. We want to create a culture of evaluation and improvement – not complaining and criticism. We want to evaluate us as a whole, but also need to evaluate ourselves, and that's the key.
Self-evaluation is essential to a healthy church.
Interesting how many people “evaluate” the church without evaluating themselves. Someone somewhere said something about removing the log from our eye first .... So as we go through this series, it requires self-evaluation.
The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Paul was writing about the Mosaic Law, which was given to Israel (ca. 1400 B.C.) who had been in slavery in Egypt for over 400 years. The Law was given to teach them how to live in community, how to worship God, how to love God, neighbor …. The Law was never intended to increase sin, but it does create an increasing awareness of sin.
What does it mean that sin and grace increased? If you have 100 pounds of sin, God gives 150 pounds of grace. God’s grace always abounds or goes above and beyond sin. So as sin increases, so does the amount of grace to cover sin.
With that understanding, Paul moves into a hypothetical argument.
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
The ideas of sinning more to gain more grace - that’s illogical. Look,
The purpose of grace is not to condone sinful living. Grace provides an opportunity (through Christ) to overcome sin and become the sanctified people God designed us to be.
Sanctified – holy – separated unto God. If you think you can sin because of grace … that’s wrongful thinking. No love in that ….
Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Baptism, whether literal or metaphorical in this verse is a means of identifying with Christ in all ways. Think of it like this - when we trust in Jesus for forgiveness of sins, we spiritually and figuratively step into His death and resurrection and into His life. Stepping into Jesus is more than having sins forgiven and going to Heaven or having all our problems fixed. Colossians 3 talks about taking off the old self and clothing ourselves with Jesus – stepping into His “clothes.”
Stepping into Christ is stepping into a new way of living.
This new way of living is a life that is ordered and structured by God where He defines sin and love – He establishes what is holy, good, right, just. It’s a new life of faith, trusting, and obedience. It’s a life with new vision, new purposes, ethics, new morals ….
Self-eval: Have I experienced new life in Christ?
I’m talking to the person who has accepted Jesus but not much has changed. Follow me: We can confess Jesus as Lord without experiencing new life. It is my belief (and experience) that we can give Jesus our sins (saved) and yet withhold from Him our hearts. Until we relinquish our hearts to Jesus, we will not experience new life.
“Newness of life supposes newness of heart, for out of the heart are the issues of life, and there is not way to make the stream sweet but by making the spring so.” ~ Matthew Henry (17th century).
Have you confessed Jesus Christ as Lord? If not, you should. If you have, have you given Jesus your heart? (You can get married on a piece of paper – or out of love. Same principle.)
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—
because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
[I think Paul is stating is that Christ made it possible for the old self to be crucified. Why?] so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin - because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
“I need forgiveness from my sins, but I also need deliverance from the power of sin.” ~ Watchman Nee (Chinese theologian)
So how does one experience this deliverance? You have to die. The old sinful self, the self-centered self, the “I’m king-self” must be crucified. We call this entire sanctification.
It’s when we consecrate, surrender, offer our complete lives to Christ and we step down from the throne of our lives and allow Jesus to truly be King and Master of all. Sanctification is saying goodbye to the old manager and hello to the new. “Take this job and shove it, I ain't working here no more.”
Self-eval: To whom or what am I surrendered? Who or what has the most power or influence over my life?
Jesus or …?
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
What does it mean to live to God? It’s a life that is oriented or centered on Jesus where He’s the primary focus and the driving force. Living to God means living for God.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.
We've talked about giving Jesus our hearts and putting Him on the throne. But what about offering ourselves to Him as instruments of righteousness? The word instrument here is a military word (hōplōn in Greek) and typically refers to a weapon or tool used by soldiers. It’s an instrument that can be used to attack, harm, tear down, kill. Or it can be used protect, to mend, to build, to save – all depending on who holds the instrument.
So we have a choice, don’t we? We can withhold ourselves from God and let the world go to Hell. Or we can put ourselves in the hands of God and say, “Use me to mend someone’s life, to heal, to protect, to build the church ….” Which instrument do you want to be?
You may say, “I want God to use me, but I don’t know what to do and I don’t know what I have to offer.” Read the verse! It says nothing about knowing what you’ll do. Says nothing about coming to God with a plan or a list ….
Being an instrument in the hands of God begins with humbly offering ourselves to Him and then letting Him work out the details.
What Can I Offer To God?
I can offer who I am.
· Talents
· Passions
· Personality
· Presence
I can offer what I do.
· Occupation / career
· Recreation
· Hobbies
· Skills
I can offer what I have.
· Possessions
· Resources
· Experiences
· Time
· My story (past, present, future)
Thoughts from Matthew Henry
“Though there are none that live without sin, yet, blessed be God, there are those that do not live in sin.”
“Though sin may remain as an outlaw, though it may oppress as a tyrant, yet let it not reign as a king. … let it not be uppermost in the soul, so that we should obey it. Though we may be sometimes overtaken and overcome by it, yet let us never be obedient to it ….”
“Make a new choice of the way. Choose new paths to walk in, new leaders to walk after, new companions to walk with.”