Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

​ ESVWe 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.

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.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you 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.

Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

We all set goals.

Whether we’ve thought them out in great detail, or they’re just kind of hanging out there loosely, we’ve all got them.

Before I became a pastor I worked as a systems engineer with Motorola for 11 years.

And after becoming a pastor, I worked another four years part-time.

Towards the end of my engineering career at Motorola, the new buzz word became having S.M.A.R.T. goals.

Everybody had to meet with their manager and set smart goals.

That is, goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.

You had to be going somewhere with your work plan, and had to know how you were going to get there.

Well, what we find when we turn our attention to our text this morning is that God has a goal too.

He’s got a plan and he’s going somewhere with it.

He’s communicating it here to us through the apostle Paul.

Paul has been leading up to this goal throughout the book of Romans.

He took 11 chapters to lay out the good news of Jesus Christ in great detail.

He said that this good news, this gospel was the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, Jew and Greek.

He said that our ability to stand in a good position in the presence of God, our justification, is not based on what we do with our lives.

It is based on faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, and it’s not based on our good works.

He has explained that this is because everyone is in the same boat.

It doesn’t matter what your ethnic or religious background is, everyone has sinned, everyone has thought wrong thoughts and done wrong things.

We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

No one does good, Paul said, not even one person.

Therefore, Jesus Christ is, and has to be, the hope of glory.

When you consider all of these things, Paul says at the beginning of ch. 12, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

conscience was free.

Countless people have come to rejoice in the fact that God is just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus ().

But can I tell you something?

Our justification isn’t the goal.

Paul didn’t stop writing the letter ch. 1, 3, 4 or 8 because he was going somewhere.

​ ESVAnd we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

What we find in this letter that the goal he’s taking them toward is worship.

What we see in our text is that God’s goal for us is worship.

God’s goal for everyone in here is worship.

That worship described is not what we usually think of when we hear the word worship.

But it is, I think, the worship that’s necessary as we continue to live in this world; the worship that’s necessary as we deal with issues of race and justice, ethnicity, class, and culture; a worship that allows us to reject the polarizing press of political parties and move towards one another, not past one another.

We’re going to explore this worship in our text under three w’s, Weakness, Writings, and Worship.

The Weakness

The apostle is talking about worship here in ch.

15 as a way of life.

The first aspect of this worship that I want to hone in on is the weakness.

He says in vv.

1-2, “But we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves.

Let each of us please his neighbor for good, to build up.”

Had we been reading ch.

14 we would’ve found out that the weak he’s talking about here are those who are weak in faith.

Their weakness is demonstrated by the fact that they eat only vegetables.

They regard one day in the Jewish year better than another.

They don’t drink wine.

The strong, on the other hand, understand their freedom in Jesus Christ.

They understand that Jesus has declared all foods clean.

Nothing is off limits.

I can drink wine as long as I’m not making myself drunk.

I’m no longer bound to recognize and celebrate the special days of the Jewish year.

And Paul counts himself among the strong.

He says, “we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of the weak.”

Notice that I didn’t say to “bear with” the failings of the weak.

The word “with” has to actually be supplied in our English translations.

It’s Ok to do so, but if you think of “bearing with” somebody the way we usually think about a phrase like that, you’re missing the gravity of Paul’s point.

To bear the weaknesses, the failings, of those who are not strong doesn’t simply mean to tolerate somebody - or to tolerate a group of people.

He’s not talking about tolerance.

He’s talking about this community of faith that is created by Jesus Christ.

Not everybody is going to be in the same place when it comes to their faith.

Those who are stronger in the faith are obligated, not just to tolerate their brothers and sisters who are weaker, they are obligated to carry those who are weak.

They’re not simply to endure through the irritating things those who are weaker say and do.

The strong are strong, not to please themselves, but to help sustain and support those who are weak, in order to build one another up.

He already set them up for this implication of their lives as Christians back in ch. 5,

When he was explaining the gospel Paul said Jesus Christ is the Strongest who gave his life for the weak ones, us.

Christ has already done the bearing of the weak, and he didn’t bear with our weakness, he carried our weakness in his body on the cross.

You see, what Paul is talking about is the cruciform aspect of the Christian community.

He’s not making this stuff up off the top of his head.

He knows that Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him take up his cross daily and follow me.”

And he knows that there are practical applications and implications of the cruciform life that Jesus calls us to.

Let’s be honest.

When you hear a passage like this, as you sit there and consider its implications for you, as you’re thinking, “how does this apply to me and my own life,” I can almost guarantee that you’re thinking of yourself in the position of the strong, not in the position of the weak.

You’re not likely thinking, “I’m the one who’s weak in the faith and need other people to bear my weaknesses.”

Most of us don’t do that.

When you go to the movies to see one of these super hero movies, you go to see Spider Man, or the X-Men or Black Panther, or Infinity War, you imagine yourself in the role of the super hero.

You imagine yourself being the strong.

Children, when Halloween comes around, and you start bothering your parents to buy you a costume, you don’t say to them, “I want to dress up this year as that person in the movie that Black Panther saved.”

We don’t fantasize about being weak.

You can’t even find that costume in the store.

If you said that, your parents would actually be happy.

Because that would mean that they don’t have to spend any money to buy you a costume.

They can just let you go trick or treating in your regular clothes.

“Trick or treat!

Who are you?

I’m dressed as the person who the super hero saves.”

Can I offer you this help this morning?

Would you consider the reality that no one is in the camp of the strong all the time?

Paul’s particular emphasis on what he’s addressing with these Christians in Rome had to do with eating and drinking and holy days.

But there are all kinds of other areas in trying to follow Jesus where we may be strong or weak.

You can be in either camp depending on the issue.

So let me say this as it relates to how we respond to this pressing issue of race and justice and political polarization.