https://soundcloud.com/antioch-church-325593234/be-a-person-of
Be a person of ________.
Romans 12:11-21 (Pastor Heo)
11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Book of Romans: The Righteousness of God
- Part One: The Revelation of the Righteousness of God
- Part Two: The Practice of the Righteousness of God in our lives – through Jesus Christ
- Part One: What God has done and is doing for us in Christ – believe in your heart, confess with you mouth. (Chp 1-11)
- Part Two: Reveal what you believe in your actions – hands, feet, mouths, etc. Without obedience, nothing happens, with obedience, great things happen.
Whenever we read / receive the Word of God, we must be diligent and faithful. But the FINAL PURPOSE of the Word of God is to “put it into practice.” Without obedience, nothing happens.
We know the story of the first miracle of Jesus in John 2. The wine was gone, so the men filled the jars full of water – then drew some out. How? With their hands and feet. So, they were the first eyewitnesses of the first miracle of Christ. BUT, if they had not obeyed, nothing would have happened.
Thus, the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount – the Beatitudes – conclusion is: “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock… But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand…” (Matt 7)
Today’s text is very short, simple, clear, strong, powerful.
ALL the sentences are Imperatives. “Do this… be this…”
Out of these 21 sentences, we can see 24 imperatives (commanding sentences).
Let me read these. Your response must be “Yes, I will obey / No, I will not obey” Show your reaction publicly before God.
- 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but
- keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
- 12 Be joyful in hope,
- be patient in affliction,
- be faithful in prayer.
- 13 Share with God’s people who are in need.
- Practice hospitality.
- 14 Bless those who persecute you;
- bless and do not curse.
- 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice;
- mourn with those who mourn.
- 16 Live in harmony with one another.
- Do not be proud, but
- be willing to associate with people of low position.
- Do not be conceited.
- 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil.
- Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
- 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
- 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but
- leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
- 20 On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
- if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
- 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but
- overcome evil with good.
What a great list for the New Year~~
If Christ is our Savior, no question, he is also our example for what kind of person to be and what to do. “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy-laden and I’ll give you rest… Learn from me…”
1 Peter 2:21 “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps.”
We saw 24 imperatives, but let me summarize these into 4 imperatives. We should be like this because Christ is like this. Who is your example? Christ. In our motivation, personality, activity, etc.
4 Imperatives for the New Year
#1 Be a Person of PASSION
v. 11
“11 Never be lacking in zeal [passion], but keep your spiritual fervor [enthusiasm], serving the Lord.”
Christ was a man of PASSION (The Passion of the Christ)
“My Father is working up to now, so I also am working. We must work as long as it is day because night is coming soon when nobody can work.” As long as it is day in your lives, you should work.
In his earthly ministry, he had a passion to:
- Preach
- Teach
- Heal the sick
- Raise the dead
- Cast away evil spirits
- Seek and save the lost
- Fulfill / finish the will of God
- Save you and me
- To give eternal life to each of us individually (even if you were the only person on earth, he would have died to save you alone)
His passion to save us saved us. His passion to give us life, gave us life.
- What kind of passion (for Christ) do you have?
- Is your heart burning with a holy passion and enthusiasm to glorify his name?
- If we belong to Christ, we must be people of PASSION.
God bless us in 2018 to be people of PASSION!
#2 Be a person of PRAYER
v. 12
“12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
Christ is original God, yes, but in his earthly ministry, he was a “man of prayer”. In Luke there are 11 occasions that it is mentioned “he prayed”.
- Sometimes he prayed ALL NIGHT (the founder of all-night prayer)
- Sometimes he prayed EARLY in the morning (the founder of dawn prayer)
- He prayed before BIG events or situations (before beginning his ministry; before choosing his disciples; before crucifixion – he prayed so earnestly his sweat was drops of blood)
Hebrews 5:7 summarizes his whole ministry and life of 33 years “During his whole life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save him from death. Because of his obedience, he was received.”
How about you? Are you a person of prayer?
I cannot explain ALL the benefits of prayer:
- It makes us humble, but bold.
- Not to pray makes us fearful, but cowardly.
- To pray, makes us more and more like Christ our example.
- Not to pray makes us nearer and nearer to demons.
- To pray helps us understand the will of God.
- To pray makes God work FOR us.
- Not to pray makes Satan work AGAINST us.
- To pray can make the impossible possible.
- Not to pray makes the possible impossible.
Do you pray, regularly, believingly, faithfully?
- To pray means: “I believe in you, I need you, I depend on you, you are my King, Savior, Lord.”
- Not to pray means: “I don’t believe in you, I don’t need you, I don’t like to spend time with you, I want nothing to do with you.”
- Prayer is intimate communication and relationship with God.
- Prayer is “breath” in the life of the believer. Are you breathing now?
- Not to pray is to STOP BREATHING.
God bless us in 2018 to be people of PRAYER.
#3 Be a person of PEACE
(reconciliation – between God and ourselves, God and others, ourselves and others)
v. 13-18
“13 Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 _If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone._”
Christ is/was a person / King / Prince of Peace.
Isaiah prophesied he would be called:
- “Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father, Almighty God, Prince of Peace.”
- “Glory to God, peace on earth to men on whom his favor rests.”
- “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give as this world gives. Let not your hearts be troubled.”
(Real / heavenly peace cannot be found in this world – only in Jesus Christ.)
Do you want peace of mind, peace with neighbors, coworkers, family members? Real peace can only be found in Christ.
- Romans: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have PEACE with God.”
- “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God.” (by outsiders)
Everybody in this world needs salvation, but not everybody wants salvation because of their spiritual blindness. But everybody needs and wants PEACE. True peace is found only in Christ.
“Peacemaker” means “preacher of the message of the gospel.” The definite way to be a peacemaker is to be an evangelist in this world between God and men – to be reconciled to God.
God bless us in 2018 to be people of PEACE.
#4 Be a person of PARDON
(forgiveness)
v. 19-21
“19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Do you have someone in your mind / heart to forgive? Someone who needs forgiveness? I do not know – only God knows.
Yes, it can be difficult to forgive – even Christ forgave the people who KILLED him. “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
- 1 Peter 2:21 “To this you were called… that Christ gave you an example to follow. ” 22-23 “He committed no sin, no deceit was found in his mouth. He did not repay evil for evil, but trusted himself to the one who judges justly.”
- “If you forgive, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if not, he also will not.”
- 1 John 1:9? “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to cleanse us of our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
Do you repay evil for evil? Evil for good? Good for good? Anyone in the world can do this. But as Christians, we are called to live at a HIGHER LEVEL: repay good for evil.
- Do not be unforgiving.
- Hating is hurting yourself more than the one you don’t forgive.
- Unforgiveness is a prison of your own making – you put yourself in mental / spiritual prison when you don’t forgive.
Conclusion:
This looks like Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount:
“Bless those who persecute you… If you love those who love you, what good is that to you? If you only greet your brothers, what good is that to you? Even pagans do that. Be perfect therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”
This is a HUGE challenge. We CANNOT be perfect. He knows this very well. He knows who we are and what we are like. We cannot be perfect though he encourages us to. But, we can allow Christ (in us) to live his life in us / through us in this world.
Let’s pray together.
