The Jesus Family (part II) - “Jesus Family Welcomes Members and Leads Them”
September 16, 2007 1:38 pm Chapter 8, Romans, Sermon-TextsThe second of a sermon series called “The Jesus Family.” The sermon title is “Jesus Family Welcomes Members and Leads Them” and addresses the theme of receiving the Spirit of Jesus and being led by him. The sermon is an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:14. This sermon was originally preached September 16th of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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:: The Resolved Church :: September 16th, 2007 :: Pastor Duane M. Smets
The Jesus Family Series
Part II - “Jesus Family Welcomes New Members and Leads Them”
Romans 8:12-17
12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Introduction
I. Who are the Members? “as many as”
II. What do the Members Receive? “led by the Spirit”
Conclusion
Introduction
Read Text and pray. Lord God you are our great and heavenly Father. Among your creatures you gather together a special spiritual family where there is love, grace and support. You welcome new members through your Son Jesus, and you lead and provide for your members by your Spirit. Do that for us today. Receive us, give us your son Jesus. May He shine with brilliant brightness into our hearts. Lead us today. Help make your Word clear and may it strengthen and invigorate us as a family of believers today. Amen.
Good morning The Resolved Church. If you are just joining us we started a new series called, “The Jesus Family Series” last week. Nearly ever verse of this passage we are studying makes some reference or connection to God’s family, the one you get into through Jesus. You get adopted in, God becomes your Father, you become a son or a daughter, Jesus becomes your brother, and you receive his Spirit to lead you and help you.
Family is important. Everything is connected to family. Everyone here has a family, whether it has been a good one or a bad one, whether you are close with your family or whether your are distant. Family is not always easy. I’m not too much a statistics guy but last year the U.S. Census Bereau said that 33% of children lived in split homes, where the parents were either divorced, serparated, or just never got together. That means every 1 in 3 children to day come from divided families. And that is not to mention all the families who are together, but the mom or dad is a drug, alcohol, or porn additct, or beats their kids or cheats on their spouse or is just a workaholic who neglects their kids and pays a nanny to raise them.
And I’m not a big psychology dude either, no offense to you psych majors…but I do think it is true that it is probably impossible not think of who God is as Father, or what it means to be in Jesus family, without thinking about your own family and what kind of family you grew up in. Life is about family. You can’t not have a family. Family is important. And the Bible agrees. The Bible’s perspective is that every family is intended to reflect the spiritual reality that God is the ultimate Father that all earthly fathers are to emulate. And Jesus is the ultimate child whose example all of us as children are to follow. Having and being in God’s family meets the longing of our hearts and mends any family wounds from our earthly families.
In our passage last week we dealt mainly with verses 12-13 whose words tell us that one way you know you are in the family is by loving and cherishing the things Jesus’ family does and hating the things Jesus’ family hates. And in order to do that you must consider life on eath war. Because sin is a reality and death will surely succomb those who do not fight. This week I want to mainly deal with part of verse 14 and part of verse 15. I want to try and answer the question of who is in the family? Or how you get in? Verse 14, says all, who are led. So who are the “all”? I want to try and answer the question of what is that members receive? Verse 15 says, there is a receiving of a Spirit? What is that? How does that happen and what is the result?
I. Who are the Members? “as many as”
It may seem like a given that if there is a God and he actually created humans then we are all his children or at least all people who say they believe in Jesus, surely they are members of God’s family. That may seem obvious. But one of the ways you handle the Bible right, so you don’t just take something it says and then go running away with it and make it say whatever you want it to say, is to ask questions. Especially because sometimes it seems very clear that the authors are trying to answer some specific question that could potentially be in his reader’s heads. I think that is something like what we have here. Who are the members of Jesus’ family?
Verse 14 says, “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” And verse 15 says, “you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption.” So there is this receiving of God’s Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus. And who does the receiving? “All” or more literally from the Greek text behind the English translation, “as many as” are led. And how do you know you are led? That was last week’s sermon…you know you are led because there is a fight in you, you actually care about sin and right and wrong and you feel bad when you hurt people and mess up and you know you are a sinner and need a savior…and you make it your life resolve to fight sin by embracing Jesus.
Last week we focused on our need, every Christian’s need to fight. You may be a passivist politically but you cannot be a passivist spiritually. If you don’t fight you lose because whether you like or not there is a war for your soul. But this week, I want us to notice first of all that fighting is not what get’s you into the family. Just struggling and trying to be a better person does not save you or end up actually making you better. So what does? Verse 15 answers by saying that it has something to do with this receiving of the Spirit. That is the beginning. You receive the Spirit and then you are led and because you are led you fight. But receiving is the beginning. So who receives and how do they do that?
To answer the question of who receives the Spirit I want to go to book called “The Gospel According to John” and then hopefully that will help us answer the question of how. John was one Jesus closest followers from the beginning and after Jesus died and rose and comssioned his followers to start His church, one of the ways John helped to do that was by writing a book about what he had seen and heard from Jesus. In the very first chapter, speaking about Jesus, he writes this, “(He was) the true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (Jn 1:9-12).”
So John says, all, or as many as, did receive Jesus become children of God. And Romans 8 agrees that becoming a child of God belongs to all, or as many as, receive Jesus’ Spirit. So I think what we have here is two different passages of Scripture that clearly say the same thing.
Now at this point, we haven’t really got much new information to our question of who receives and how. We’ve got a little more to the story in how it happens. A person comes in contact with a Jesus, or a teaching about him, and based on that they either believe he is who he claimed to be the son of God and the one who can save our souls or he is liar or some quasi off-base spritual lunatic. But those who do believe, they become children of God. [As a side-note, I don’t think the word “right” in the verse means it is something God owes us, like it is our right! No, I think it means privilege (but we don’t have time for that right now…fill out a doubt card and put it in the doubt box if you want to know more about it).]
So John says that someone encounters Jesus and his teaching and based on that at some point believes and in that believing there is a receiving. How does that happen? The receiving? There are some weird ideas out there and then there are a lot of faint attempts to grasp at what it is.
Probably one of the wierdest I have ever seen was when I was a youth pastor, almost 10 years ago now, I took my youth group kids up to a summer camp. There was a preacher there and he was talking about Jesus and encourage kids to receive Jesus and his spirit. And then he invited all kids who wanted to receive Jesus to stand up and walk forward to the front and so there were a bunch of kids sort of gathered around the stage, kind of like at a concert. I was sitting in my seat and wondering what was going to happen next, to be honest a little wierded out…but I started to really freak out when I saw these people wheeling these carts toward the front and on these carts were these pitchers full of water. I sort of just put my head down in my lap and started praying, “oh no God!” The preacher then took these pitchers of water and started throwing the water on the kids and telling them that once the water hit them they would receive Jesus. So I thought I would try that today, anybody want to get doused? J That was weird and I don’t think that is what the either the text in Romans or the one in John means.
I think what it means is something deep in the heart which happens when one realizes their deep spiritual need and come to believe that Jesus can actually meet that need. And one of the reasons I wanted to go to the book of “The Gospel of John” is because there are a couple passages in it which I think further describe how this receiving happens. The first verse, is John 6:35-44, “35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” 41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
Now there is a lot there I know, but we essentially have the same story. There is Jesus, he is saying that he is more than just a man, and that people need to believe in him. In verse 40 Jesus says those who get God as their father “looks on the Son and believes in him.” How do you look on the Son? I think that is the question the dudes who don’t get it are asking. We know this Jesus guy, I’m looking at him right now. What do you mean look? How do you look? How do you receive? I think look and receive here are the same thing. Jesus answer to how that happens comes in verse 44, the Father draws you. Hmmm…the Father draws. How Jesus?
Four chapters later in John’s gospel Jesus tells us. John 10:8,12, “when (the Holy Spirit) comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment…(and) he will guide you into all the truth.”
Jesus answer is that the way we receive is by being drawn by God, who draws by convicting us of sin and then guiding us to truth (repeat). Conviction has to deal with conscience. When you feel and know that things are not right, that you are not right and that you cannot make yourself right. And that is a humbling experience. To be broken down, shown that you don’t have it all together, and then to be built back up by God’s truth. Our souls must be taught that everything is about God. Everything begins with God’s initiative. He sends his son Jesus into the world. He draws us unto himself. He convicts us by his Spirit. And his Spirit guides us to truth. Everything from the beginning and all the way through is because of God’s doing.
In the coming weeks we will talk about the security of our spiritual family, that we become permanent sons and daughter apopted forever into his family and we experience the reality of that. But even here we notice that the receiving is something that God ensures. He ensures the offer of his Son and he ensures the follow through by his Spirit. So if you have ever wondered about whether someone who is a Christian can become not a Christian later…without even talking about a host of other Scriptures, we can say assuredly from these texts, that once you are in Jesus’ family, you are in. Once you receive God’s Spirit it is for good. You cannot be ousted from God’s family. He doesn’t change his mind and do all that work just to abandon us. Jesus family is stable and secure and you can count on it. Your real family may fail you at times but Jesus family comes with a God who says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
So I think the answer to the question to how you receive God’s Spirit is you recognize that you don’t have what it takes and that you on your own, by yourself are a failure, and you respond to God’s drawing. This is the life of the believer. This is how you fight. By becoming more and more dependent upon God and the help of his Spirit. And the more that happens the more you know you are His and He is yours. Which brings us the question of what we receive when we receive Jesus’ Spirit?
II. What do the Members Receive? “led by the Spirit”
So we get into God’s family by humbling ourselves and embracing Jesus. What is the benefit? Why would anyone want that? What is it that members receive? Let’s go back to Romans. Romans 8:14 says, “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” and verse 15 says that the sons received Jesus’ Spirit. So if we follow that backwards (we’ll look forwards next week and talk about fear), receiving Jesus’ Spirit results in being led, the answer is leadership.
In life we are repeatedly faced with big decisions. Where should I live? Where should I go to school? Who should I marry? What church should I be a part of? What job should I work at? What should my major be? Should we have kids? How many? How long am I going to work? What do I do when I’ve been working my whole life and don’t want to work? At every stage of life there are different questions and decsions that naturally arise. Not to mention the decisions that take you by surprise and you have to act fast. And it is interesting to me that it is often when we faced with those kinds of things or decisions that then we turn to God. Then he matters and is a big deal. I call it being a crisis Christian. That when crisis hits then you are all about praying and trying to figure out what God wants. But there is an inherent question in there of how you figure stuff out. If you do turn to God how does he lead you?
I think we all have a natural desire to be lead. If you haven’t figured it out yet, if you are going to actually live and walk and try and do something with your life you are going to have to do it alone. Or else you will be a follower your entire life and never do anything or become anything meaningful. When it comes down to it in life, you are always alone. Whether you are married or not, have a close family or not, when it comes down to it you are alone. And in that aloneness when you realize that it comes down to you, you will find yourself groping and longing for leadership…groping and longing for answers…groping and longing for God.
And it is funny to me how that works itself out sometimes. One time I was in Ogden, Utah speaking at a camp. And Amy and I were staying at the Pastor’s house. And we got up for breakfast one of the mornings and found out that her husband had just been in a car accident late the night before and was in the hospital that morning. She had been there most of the night to see him but had come back and made breakfast for us. There was bacon and eggs and fruit and all kinds of stuff. And before we ate she prayed for the meal and after she was done we started eating. I was taking a bite of fruit, I think it was a piece of pineapple, and just as I was biting it off my fork, this woman screamed out, “he didn’t see him!” I almost fell off my chair and was said, “What? What do you mean? What are you talking about?” She said, “He didn’t see him! God just told me, the guy who hit my husband didn’t see him!” It was the craziest thing. Does this woman think she has God’s cell phone number or she hearing voices in her head or what? We have a name for that, its called schizophrenia. J
I bring that story up because I think that is what we are sometimes longing for when we pray and ask God for leadership. We are wanting to hear voices or something and what we actually end up with often is us taking what we want to do and sort of sanctifying it because we prayed about it and think that God is in it and that is what he wants. It’s like you know what you want to do…but you know you shouldn’t really do it…so you pray about it and like a letter you put your prayer stamp on it and then think it is okay. But you really know it isn’t.
I don’t think that is how God’s Spirit leads. Next week we will talk more about how God’s Spirit leads and how it is not out of fear but out of love in being part of a close knit family. And we’ll look at the Old Testament story of how God’s Spirit led back then and still does now. But how I want to conclude the general question today is about how God’s Spirit leads us is by looking at the tangible provision God’s Spirit has given us.
If you look back at Romans 8 in our passage and continue working backwards…verse 15 says we receive Jesus’ Spirit, verse 14 says those who receive are led, and versees 12-13 says those who are led fight. So then, my last question for today is does the Bible have anything to say about how the Spirit helps us fight? If we are not supposed to listen for voices in our head then how does God’s lead his family members by his Spirit? Does the Bible have anything to say about that?
Yes. In Ephesians chapter 6, the Bible uses this analogy of life on earth being a war and considers the Christian in terms of armor of solider. There is belt arounds ones waist, which is God’s truth, there is a breastplate, which is God’s righteousness, there are steel toed shoes, which are God’s peace, there is a shield, which is faith, there is a helmet, which is salvation, and lastly, there is a sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, the Bible. In is interesting that every single piece of armor which is mentioned is defensive, except one, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
So I think the answer to the question of how God leads us, is by the Bible getting a hold of us. God leads in much more practical ways then voices in our head. He leads through imparted wisdom. Written instruction that will enable us to make smart decisions, that will enable us to fight well, that will enable us to be strong and know the love with surpasses all love, wisdom that will enable us to build good families. There is an old saying, which says, “This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.”
The Bible is God’s gift to us. That is the means God uses to tell us about his family. That is how we first hear about Jesus and come into the family. That is how His Spirit guides us into truth and tells us how to live. That is how he leads us and teaches us so that we make wise decisions and have solid lives and families. By giving us a book to lead us and instruct us.
Conclusion
Okay, let’s conclude this sermon. As I was studying and working on today’s message and I came to this point I could not help but feel like a good majority of everything I have said so far is just sort of out there. The main two questions I have tried to deal with is who is in God’s family and what good is it, why do you even want to be in it?
I believe the desire to be in Jesus’ family is not just a desire for those who, in your life, family has been hard. I don’t think Paul here is teaching us that the gospel of Jesus’ family is that if your family sucks then you can have Jesus’ family, though that is true and it is true that no family is perfect but is made beautiful and close and loving by having Christ be the center of it. But I believe the desire to be in Jesus’ family goes much deeper. Family is blood. You can’t change it. It is who you are. It is woven within the fabric of our beings and our place in this world and I believe God designed it that way so that we would know and long for him.
The theology here, if you will, is that life is about family…family is so important and all families are inseperably connected to God. God is the fabric of family. Families are intended to be centers of love and care and protection and support. And that is who God is…God is the great Father who provides and protects and pours out grace and love toward us through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Everything is connected to family. So my plea today…if you are disconnected, if you are separated from the life of God and his loving and tender care, my plea is behold God’s Son, Jesus. Look on him. Receive him. Turn to him in faith and trust and be welcomed into his family. He came into this world to seek and to save those who are lost. He seeks you out today and bids you to come. Whatever things may have happened, whether they happened to you or whether they are things you have done…there is nothing that would keep Jesus from wanting you. There is no blot too dark, no stain too red, no blemish too ugly. Jesus welcomes all. As many as will receive him, he grants the blessing of becoming beloved children of God. Don’t walk in this world, don’t go through this life alone, walk with Jesus. There is a unlimited supply of love and grace and forgiveness to be had from Jesus.
My plea for those who do belong to Jesus’ family is to cherish it. Don’t neglect your family. Don’t miss the dinners. Come and eat and be filled. Come and dine and let us share life together. Let us each week come and be satisfied at his table. Let us learn and grow and be led. Let us not be too proud and too rebellious where we have to do it all on our own. Instead of being independent let us become dependent upon God and the bountiful blessings he provides for his own. May we be lead and taught by his Spirit who so wisely instructs and equips us with His written Word. Let us learn and know and live by this book.
For parents, teach your children the Bible. Teach them to love. Teach them the stories in it. Tell them about Jesus and how God loves them and that is why you love them. Dad’s learn how to be a good dad from how God leads and instructs you. Mom’s learn how to be a good mom from how God nurtures and cares for you. Kid’s love wisdom. In order to become who God made you to be, it takes learning and being taught a lot of things, so be patient and let your parents lead you so that you can know how to make good decisions on your own and not just do whatever you feel like.
As a church, let us be a family that welcomes new people into our community. If you are new here today, we are glad you are here and hope we might be a church you can call home.
Let’s pray. God bless our time of communion with you now as we come to your table to pray and give thanks and to focus on Jesus and his great provision for us on the cross, so that we might truly become your children. Bless the offering of our hearts in this act. Bless the money we give as a token of our worship. Bless your people. Amen.