Put On Christ
Flashback: Remembering the Work of the Cross • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 29:52
0 ratings
· 53 viewsFiles
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Last week of our series from Romans 12.
Looking at the life that God calls us to through the life of Christ and the work on the cross.
First week
be a living sacrifice
Second Week
Defined what true, genuine love is
Third week
God will be with us through the storms of life
Fourth week
We are to celebrate and mourn with one another
Fifth week
We overcome evil not with evil but with Godly goodness.
This week we are skipping ahead to Romans 13 and looking at what it means for us going forward to put on Christ
Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Besides this, since you know the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is nearly over, and the day is near; so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk with decency, as in the daytime: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and don’t make plans to gratify the desires of the flesh.
Context
Context
Important to remember that Romans 12:1-2 is a hinge and transition for the whole letter.
Everything following it is pointing back to and is a way to live out the idea of being a living sacrifice.
So here in Romans 13 Pail is returning to his point in Roman 12:1–2 of believers no longer being conformed to the world but rather being transformed into the life of Jesus
issues a clear call for believers to cast off the old life of the flesh and to clothe themselves with Jesus himself.
In Romans 12:1, Paul appealed to us “in view of God’s mercy”
that is, we are to live in the present by flashing back to the past in view of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection.
Paul now shifts perspectives by urging us to flash forward and to look at our present lives in light of the future and the coming of Jesus.
What time is it?
What time is it?
We must understand the present time
Romans 13:11a
Besides this, since you know the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
What is happening now? What is going on now?
We can not retreat into holy huddles in which we refuse to acknowledge what is going on in the world.
Nor can we act as if what is happening doesn’t affect us.
It’s easy to think that “those things” are happening “out there”
But it is here too.
We are to “wake up” to the present situation (v. 11b).
For many of us, it is hard to wake up.
Story about Mom waking me up in the morning
Feet tickle
But no matter how hard it is, no matter how hard the looking the mirror must be, we must wake up.
Paul calls believers to wake up because a new day is dawning upon us.
Therefore, it is time to rise and be alert. Douglas Moo comments that, “Only slackards would keep to their beds after the first glow of daylight. Early rising was especially necessary in the Near East, where the bulk of work needed to be done before the heat of midday. Paul wants no slackards among his readers. Christians are to be alert and eager to ‘present their bodies as a living sacrifice’” (Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996], 820).
Paul states that a new hour has come upon us “because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” (v. 11b).
Paul is not referring to our individual salvation in this passage but states that “our salvation” is near, meaning that the completion of the work of God is near.
Paul is not predicting when Jesus will return, but Paul wants us to live in the expectancy of Jesus’s return, and this expectancy should influence our lives.
We should live as if Christ is returning tomorrow.
A new Day Dawns
A new Day Dawns
If we are to wake up, it means that a new day is dawning!
We are to throw off “deeds of darkness” and “put on the armor of light” (v. 12).
Night is associated with darkness, and day with light.
As disciples of Jesus, we are to throw off the works of darkness and sin. Sin has no place in the life of a child of God.
However, Jesus does not just call us to throw off sin and then become neutral; he wants to put on the new life of the kingdom. Paul instructs us to “put on the armor of light,” which can also be translated as putting on the “weapons” of the light.
Weapons of the light are needed to defend against attacks and to also extend the light in this world.
Paul is calling us in view of Jesus’s coming to carry on the battle for God’s kingdom on this earth.
That is, we are to take up the spiritual weapons that God gives us to fight against Satan and the kingdom of darkness (Ephesians 6:10–20).
Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit—which is the word of God. Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints. Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. For this I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough to speak about it as I should.
Walking in the dark
Walking in the dark
As a new day dawns, we are called not to walk in the dark, but in the light.
What does walking in the dark look like?
In Romans 12:13 we get a picture of what walking in the dark looks like.
Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality.
There are three pairs.
Carousing and drunkeness
sexual impurity and promiscuity
quarreling and jealousy
I think that we are often OK, or traditionally have been OK, with calling out the first two pairs
But all too often we don’t call out the last pair
How do we walk as children in the light?
How do we walk as children in the light?
Walking in darkness can be easy, but walking in the light is something new and new things can be hard.
Verse 14 is showing us that there are two parts to walking in the light
ROmans 13:14
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and don’t make plans to gratify the desires of the flesh.
First, we are to clothe ourselves with Jesus .
14a
Second, we are not to gratify our flesh
(v. 14b)
In living as a believer, we must be careful that our lives do not simply become an attempt to manage our sin.
If all we do is concentrate on putting off sin, we will miss the abundant life Jesus offers to us.
Too often we ar known but what we are against and not what we are for, what we sepearte from and not what we are giving ourselves too.
Jesus says that he has come to give us abundant life
Not just a lot of life,
But a life that is overflowing with God’s goodness
The ways of the darkness carousing and drunkeness, sexual immorality and promiscuity, even quarreling and jealousy can seem great
but they are not what we were made for.
They simply feed our base desires
God didn’t make us to feed our base desires, but to glorify him
“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him”
“We have defined holiness through what we separate ourselves from rather than what we give ourselves to. I am convinced the great tragedy is not the sins that we commit, but the life that we fail to live” (Erwin McManus, Chasing Daylight: Seize the Power of Every Moment
In urging us to clothe ourselves with Jesus, Paul wants believers to embrace the life and teaching of Jesus in every area of their lives.
Because a new day has come, we are not to make provision for living according to our flesh.
It’s often a trap.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Once again, we see the role of our minds in living the Christian life. As we saw in week 1, our transformation is brought about by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1).
This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 4:22–24:
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Again, the more we seek to intentionally clothe ourselves with Jesus, the less we have to concentrate on our flesh, because we will already be living according to the Spirit of God (Galatians 5:16).
By living alert and in the expectancy of Jesus’ return, we are to clothe ourselves with Jesus (we are called higher) and to no longer gratify our flesh.