The Jesus Family (part IV) - “Adopted Forever”
September 30, 2007 3:23 pm Chapter 8, Romans, Sermon-TextsThe fourth of a sermon series called “The Jesus Family.” The sermon title is “Adopted Forever” and addresses the theme of how God adopts us into the divine family through Jesus and gives us incredible intimacy and assurance that He is our Father. The sermon is an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:15-16. This sermon was originally preached September 30th of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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:: The Resolved Church :: September 30th, 2007 :: Pastor Duane M. Smets
The Jesus Family Series
Part IV - “Adopted Forever”
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. The Old Family of Fear
II. The New Family by Adoption
III. The Father of the Family
Conclusion
Introduction
Good morning The Resolved Church. It is a beautiful day here in San Diego. Of course there is probably only like one Sunday a year when it isn’t beautiful outside. That is why it is so difficult to start a church here. Surfing, the Beach, the Zoo, Sea World, one of 20 outdoor malls…there’s just a lot of stuff to do. But we’ve been starting a church here in San Diego, the 8th largest city in the U.S. So I’m glad you’re here. A recent article from a local magazine said that San Diego, the second largest city in California, is the fifth fastest growing city because “(It is a) cauldron of creativity where the most important ideas and the organizations of tomorrow are centered. (It) attract(s) the best and the brightest. There are great places to work and live.” If paying $500,000 dollars for a 2-bedroom condo, means it’s the best, then he is right! 
I love San Diego. I spent summers staying at my grandparents house from when I was a little kid. That’s where I learned to surf. Then I moved down here permanently to go to college and it was in those first couple of years when I really came to believe in the gospel, that I was a sinner and that Jesus died for my sin and became a Chrisitian. The next year I met my beautiful wife and fell madly in love with her. I wanted to marry her only after a year of dating but my friends convinced me that was crazy so I waited another two and half years. That was 1997 when we met and here we are 10 years later having our first baby and starting a church. San Diego is a city that greatly needs the gospel. Only about 6% of the people here claim to be Christians. And it is expected that our city will have another million people move here within the next 20 years. So we have some work to do and we need you.
Since the task is so great we are trying to lay a good foundation here at The Resolved Church by going through the book of Romans, the clearest and most precise presentation of the gospel in the entire Bible. Right now we are in chapter 8 and we are in a series called “The Jesus Family” series where we are studying Romans 8:12-17. This is now the fourth sermon in this text so let me quickly talke you through what we have talked about so far.
The first sermon was about fighting sin, “putting to death” the misdeeds of the body as verse 13 says. So we talked about how being a Christian is not easy and you must consider life on earth war. When you first come to believe Jesus, that is just the beginning, when the gospel first starts working in you and after that it continues. The gospel becomes your life-blood. And being in Jesus’ family becomes a great aid in warring against your sin because there are certain things Jesus’ family values and cares about and you don’t want to disappoint your family.
Then in our second sermon we talked mainly about the first part of verse 14, that the evidence of being in the family is not only that you put up a fight, but that you become teachable and willing to follow God’s leadership in your life. A core trait of our sin is that it is rebellious…we want to do what we want. But when we enter Jesus’ family he shows us we don’t know as much as we think we do and we need his help and guidance and so follow him. And in that sermon I took on this foolish practice that has arisen in some Christian circles that when you need to make a decision about something all you need to do is pray about it and whatever you feel or sense God’s Spirit is telling you is what he want you to do. That is not the main way God wants to direct our lives, instead he has given us a book, the Bible, and by knowing it we can make wise informed decisions. Prayer is to help us be obedient.
That was sermon number two. Then last week we went to the Old Testament to study a story that had become permanently branded in Jewish minds and identity about a time when God led his people with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Paul, our human author of Romans was a stellar Jew and surely would have had that story in mind when he wrote in Romans that as Chrisitans we are to be led by God’s Spirit. We learned from that story that God’s leadership of his family is one where he provides his presence (he doesn’t leave or abandon us), he protects his family, and he purifies them.
So here we are in our fourth sermon and today we are going to get deep into verses 15 & 16. But before we do let’s read the whole passage and then pray over it. Read text and pray.
Father God. You are the God of this book, the God of your Son Jesus, the God of the gospel. Help us as we study these words today. Through them would you draw us close to yourself. May we come to believe in the gospel. Save our souls. Open us the great wonder of who you are and what you have done for us by having Jesus die on the cross so that we could be adopted into your family. May these words become building blocks in our life as we come to know and realize who we are and what kind of family we are in with you. Amen.
I. The Old Family of Fear
I want to pick up the text this morning at the end of verse 14 where we read that those “who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” And the first thing I want to do is dispell a couple wrong impressions you could get from these words. I don’t want you to get tripped up over them and a lot of times we get tripped up over the Bible and almost always the problem isn’t that the Bible is teaching something hard or outlandish, but the problem is us, and our historical and spiritual distance from the text.
Our theme, is that if your heart has been humbled and changed by the gospel and you start to care about sin and are willing to be led instead of being your own leader, that’s a sign you are a son of God. Now it would be easy, especially in our day, when we are hyper sensitive to any distinguishing between gender roles, it would be easy to say…”see look, there goes Paul again, he’s so anti-women in his writings…all he cares about is sons.” What about the daughters?!!!
So let me just dispell that notion real quick. What Paul is saying here actually gives women a higher standing and role in context to Paul’s day and culture. You see, in the first century, when this was written, the adopton of daughters did not have the same legal right as an adoption of sons. Only sons could receive the whole rights and legal privieges of becoming part of a family. Paul is talking about adoption here and is using the cultural analogy. So by saying “all” who are led enter the place of “sons” in adoption, that means women actually move up in their status and value in the divine family, not down. This isn’t a text like the “Gospel of Thomas” that the Da Vinchi Code wants to include in the Bible, a text that says women must become men in order to for God to love them. The Bible doesn’t say that, it says women can receive the blessings that are given to adopted sons.
So don’t stumble over that. We shouldn’t translate it “sons and daughters” because the word daughter isn’t there and if we added it we would lose the cultural value and significance of these words. But daughters know that you here in these words are welcomed and honored and privileged in the divine family.
That’s the first false notion I want to dispell, the second has to do with the whole idea of being children of God, of being sons or daughters of God…and this will lead us into our first main point for today as we look at “The Old Family of Fear.” The second potential stumbling point for us today over these words is to think we are merely talking about a realization that we are all children of God, that God is universally the Father of all mankind because he created everything.
There is a great thrust not only in theological circles today, but also in various cultural ideas, that all we need is “realization.” That our problem is just that we don’t “realize” who we are. I disagree. From pop cultural psychology of self-betterment to the theology known as “The New Perspective” this idea of realization runs rampad. I think the problem is much deeper than just the need to realize some things. I think we have a heart problem and we need to be changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. My problem is not just that I’m dumb and don’t realize things. My problem is my heart, I don’t think and feel and love the way I should.
But let us just entertain this idea of the universal fatherhood of God for a moment. If we are saying these words teach us that we are God’s children and he is our father simply because he created us, then by that line of thinking every living thing is his child from Charles Manson to the birds and the trees and dogs people pretend are kids, and the spiders that will not leave my office…they are sons of God and cry Abba Father and are adpoted into the family. You see, that is not what is here. This passage of Scripture is telling us that there is an intimate relationship with God as Father to be had that comes through putting your faith in the person and work of Jesus and being adopted into the family. And that is whole different thing.
What this tells us is that not all God’s children are God’s children. Yes, God is the creator and we are the creatures. But not all people are God’s children. Some are as Jesus said, children of the devil! I know you’re not supposed to talk about the devil. But I’m not kidding. Jesus said that, he is gnarly. Listen to his words, John 8:42 & 44 “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here…You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.” That’s Jesus saying that, not me. He was pretty hell-fire and brimstone at times. I have no idea what that means, brimstone? I just know you are not supposed to talk about hell in church these days, it’s not kosher. But I’m a rebel.
The teaching of the Bible is that we all, all of us are born into sin. From our youth to our adulthood we are demanding and unsatisfied and worship and seek and serve other gods and our hearts are led astray by the false promises these false gods make. We pay these gods homage and time and energy to follow and try and get what they promise and they never come through. This is what Paul is bringing up here when he says Christians did not “receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.” He is talking about the old master, the old father, the old family, we lived and served in before becoming a Christian…it’s the same family and father and master we are continually tempted to fall back into and sometimes we do.
So let’s talk a little about this spirit of slavery and fear and the old family. First, slavery. Slavery is a loaded word, especially here in America which has such a blotted history of racial discrimination and slavery. Almost immediately the worst connotations can start coming into many people’s minds, and its especially hard to talk about because I am a white guy standing here talking about Jesus and all the imaginary paintings we see of Jesus are of this nice white dude with a beard. That slavery has even happened in history is sometimes a huge barrier for many regarding the Bible and God and Christianity itself.
So some stuff about slavery. Slavery was intense in the first century, especially for the Jew, who had experienced slavery in Egypt…it was imprinted into their racial consciousness much like the black community’s slavery here in America is inseperable to every black person’s idenity today. And so Paul goes after this word “slavery” to say something radical about Jesus and the gospel.
Slaves in the 1st century were big business. It is estimated that 35-40% of all of Rome was slaves. Sometimes being a slave wasn’t so bad. If people had a hard run at things they could sell themselves into slavery to avoid a ruinous debt, they could give up themselves for food and housing. If you did that it was a willing offering or presenting of yourself to a master. You would go to the master of your choosing and present yourself and offer to be their slave. Or sometimes this would happen when a master would free a slave making him a “freedman” who could own land and everything…about 5% of Rome was made up of freedmen. But some freedman would in turn give themselves back to their master because they had grown to love and respect them so much.
So that’s some stuff about slavery but Paul takes the negative side of slavery, the brutal kind, the one of whips and deprivation of meals and an overbearing load and recognizes it as being one that operates out of fear, a spirit of slavery and fear. He says this is what we are and how we live before Jesus. Everyone serves someone or something. You cannot help but worship or serve. You serve what you love and what or who you love becomes your master and you serve it as a slave. And when we do that we serve out of fear. Fear that if we do not appease the demands put before us, things will not go well for us and we will be miserable.
And this can happen for irreligious people and religious people alike when it comes to God. For irreligious people it goes like this. If God is a big bad God who is going to set up rules for what is right and wrong and punish me if I don’t follow them then forget God, I’m going to do what I want. And so you embark on a path of self-discovery and experimentation and trying to create your own religion. That is very popular to do these days. What we don’t realize is that we are still following someone and some teaching. A teaching that says God is wrong and you can decide eternal truths yourself and the person whose teaching you are listening to, though it may come from a friend or a movie or whatever…Jesus says that teaching is ultimately comes from the devil. This is moral independence and you end up becoming your own God because you have been motivated by a fear of unhappiness rather than a fearful love of God.
But it works with religious people too. Religious people, say okay there is a God and I’m going to serve him, so I’m going to do everything just right and God will reward me for it. So you’ve got these kids who have never done anything “bad.” They listen to all the crappy Christian music, go to church 20 times a week, and read the Bible from cover to cover every day. And then you call God to account. You become proud. You get mad easily. You think you deserve something for your efforts. You develop this us versus them mentality. You are a Christian and everyone else isn’t and too bad for them. This is moral conformity and you end up becoming your own God because you have been motivated by fear of punishment rather than a fearful love for God.
Notice that in both cases (moral freedom and moral conformity) I said, “a fearful love of God.” I say that because being afraid of God is not bad. We should be afraid of God, he is a big God, he doesn’t even allow the full array of his glory to shine because we couldn’t take it he is so massive in his greatness. And he is a judge. There is no such thing as right or wrong for anyone if there is not a good source who determines it and upholds it. God is judge and there is punishment…but there is a difference between being motived by a fearful respect and acknowledgement of God versus being motivated by a spirit of fear, which disconnects the heart from who God is and just resorts to action. That is why Paul says in one of his other books that God has not given us a “Spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind (2 Tim 1:7).”
This is the difference, this the transfer, where God changes for you from being a judge to being your father. John Calvin said it this way, “fear…will harass and torment souls with miserable disquietness as long as it exercises its dominion. There is no other remedy for quieting them except God forgives us our sin and deals kindly with us as a father with his children.” It is where we change and where our main relationship with God becomes no longer one with enmity and strife, where I have a problem with God, but it changes into one where he becomes our loving Father who we run to and depend on…we are not scared and contentious any longer but we love him.
II. The New Family of Adoption
How does this happen you ask? The answer is through Jesus we get adopted into God’s chosen family. So let’s get into it. I’ve been just holding back and holding back, anxiously awaiting this day and time when we could get into adoption and what it is to be a child of God and calling him Abba Father. These are rich and precious truths.
Verse 15 says we, receive “the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” And verse 16, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Judaism, God’s people as Israel, were sometimes collectively called the “sons of God (Ex. 4:22; Deut. 32:6).” But here, something huge happens…being God’s people (not meaning deity like Jesus), in God’s family, no longer is a right or a privilege you are born into by blood but only through adoption. Paul borrows this thing from Greco-Roman culture and says, “That is the gospel! Adoption! That who Jesus is and what he has done for us.”
So let me tell you about adoption and then we’ll unpack what that is for us in regards to God and how it so vividly describes the gospel. Adoption was a big deal. It was a legal institution where a person could adopt a child into their family and confer on that child all the legal rights and priveleges that would normally belong to child born into the family. This could happen at a young age or older one. Sometime men in their marriages could only seem to make girls and the man would want a son to carry on his name. Like today, there were orphans who had either been abaondoned or their father had been killed in the war, they would often be poor and have a lot of debt. And a family could come to them, in adopting them, pay off their debts and then grant them a full standing so that their full inheritance would be imparted to them. In every way they would become a son.
I was not adopted so I had no idea what that is like so I talked to a friend this week who was adopted when he was very young. He said his dad has been his dad his entire life. From the time he was little, the first time his dad picked him up, he looked at him in the eye and said, “you are my son.” And my friend said that is the clearest piciture of the gospel for him. That this man and woman came to where he was, abandoned by his natural family, there were several other kids, and this man came and picked him up, when he didn’t deserve it, no reason they should pick him and said, “you are my son.” He started choking up just telling me about it.
There was a very famous adoption in the first century. Julius Cesear was Emperor of Rome and he adopted. It was a big deal, he adopted a son named Octavian. And when Julius Cesear died, Octavian became the Emporer who we know as Casear Augustus. Paul saw that and thought of that and said, “That’s the gospel. God adopts us and through Jesus gives us the kingdom!”
Let me break that down for you. Jesus is God’s son. Truly God’s son. He is divine, fully God and fully man at the same time. He comes to earth and goes through everything we go through as human from birth on up, but he’s God. He is humanly adopted himself. His father is not Joseph, Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb. Joseph adopts him. Jesus lives a perfect life never sinning. Never following another father but the one true Father. He is not born a child of the devil and following the devils lies who poses as a father and makes promises he cannot keep. Jesus consistenly throughout his life as you listen to him pray and talk about God…he is always calling God his father.
And then Jesus dies a death he didn’t deserve, because he was innocent…death is for sin and wrongdoing, Jesus did none, but he willing offers himself up in our place. He offers to die the death we deserve for following the false father, the devil, and pays the penalty to God for us. Justice must be served and Jesus bears it in our place.
Then he resurrects, conquers death and comes back to life and then says believe in me. I am the son of God and if you believe in me you will be a son too and God will become your father. He has not been your father but through me you can be adopted into his family. The special intimate relationship I have with God can be yours. This is what the Bible teaches. Galatians 3:26 “in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” Through Jesus God truly becomes our Father.
This adoption for us plays out in two directions. It makes known God’s fatherly love toward us while maintaining his good justice and two, it stirs up childlike affections for God. It let’s us know God is father and it causes us to adore him and willingly follow and love him. The last point for today deals with this phrase, “Abba Father.” But before we go there let me say this final thing about the spirit of adoption versus the spirit of slavery and why God does things this way, by adoption.
You can get a lot of compliance with a gun or with a lot of money. If I put a gun to your head I could make you do a lot of things. Or if I paid you a large sum of money and put the cash in your hand I could get you to do a lot. But let me ask you this question, would it be heartfelt? No. It would merely be external compliance and God is not after external compliance but real, deep, adoring love from our hearts. God could force us to do what is right if he wanted but he does not use force, he uses the irresistable compelling grace that comes to us in knowing that he sent his son to die for us so that we might be adopted into his family. Do you know God like that today? Have you or are you embracing Jesus and living your life for him with God as your Father? If not, who or what are you living for?
III. The Father of the Family
The last point of my sermon today deals with this phrase “Abba Father” and how it’s cry is the witness of the Spirit that you are a child of God. So let’s talk about the Father of the Family. If you are fading on me…stay with me. I got a lot to say today so hold on. We are always wanting to get out. But you need this. We spend so many hours every week listening to other people’s words, whether it is TV, music, movies, friends…all kinds of stuff. Let’s listen and learn from the word of God. It is what feeds our souls. I’m afraid we just get too fat on unspiritual things and there is no room left and that is why we get bored so easily. Either that or I just really suck at preaching.
Let’s re-read the text. “…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!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”
Let’s begin at witness and work backward. There is a witness here. You would have to have two witnesses to establish something in a court. Witness here is like a signature. An example, each week two people count the money that you give and both people sign a document after they count it. That second signature is a witness. Same thing here. There is our spirit, each individual’s our human spirit and there is God’s Holy Spirit who testifies or witnesses to our Spirit. So in case you thought when I was saying the main way God direct our life is by getting to know the Bible, in case you thought that meant there is no such thing as experiencing God as a Christian, you are wrong. There is experience. And this is where it comes. The witness of the Spirit. There is an experience of knowing you are a child of God that isn’t an external rational consideration but a deeply felt one. The rational is the foundation. What we think, our doctrine, is the root…our experience and joy and love is the fruit.
Have you ever wondered, how do I know I am a Christian? This is the answer…God Spirit experientially makes it known to you. So what is that experience? How can you have assurance you are a Christian?
There are several ways but here in this text there is a specific way and it is wrapped up in these words, “we cry Abba Father.” Next week we will talk about who God is as Father, what his attributes are, the kind of God he is…but here there is a single trait the text is pointing out about God as father. I say single trait because of this word, “Abba.” That word Abba is not Greek. In the original writing we translate into English from it switches right there to Aramaic, “Abba” because they did not have a word like it in Greek. The closest thing we can come to in English is “Daddy.” It is an intimate term, the way a child who was very close with his or her Father would address them, Daddy.
Notice a couple things with me. Notice the word cry. How or when does a child cry? Think about it. A baby cries when they are either, hungry, the pooped their pants or because they want to be held. A child, one who can say “daddy” cries either when they get hurt or when they are overwhelmed with love.
And that is what this text is saying. It is saying that when life is hard and we hurt and we break down and God does not seem a distant and frightful judge to us that we are mad at because we hurt but is rather a Father, who we have been brought near to because of Jesus…then we cry out “Abba! Help!” I’ve had those moments. I was running about a few weeks ago. And feeling the weight of being a pastor, the weight of many of your lives, the weight of becoming a dad, and I broke down, while running, with tears running down my face, literally crying with a combination of emotion…a desire for help…an overwhelming sense of God’s love…a sensation of grace that I don’t deserve this kind of God…a special sense that God is my Father.
That is the witness of the Spirit! That is God letting us know that we are his and he is ours. How do you know you are a Chrisitan? Because Jesus gives you confidence to go to God, before his great and powerful throne and cry out…and on the basis of Jesus he accepts us and loves us and pours out his Spirit into our hearts. Abba Father!
Conclusion
Let’s conclude. There is all kinds of application in this text. This is a rich rich rich passage of Scripture. First, be fearful of God, revere him, his is glorious and ought to be honored but don’t have fear where you perform for him and think you are good enough and deserve and demand blessing! Or, if you are the other type of person, don’t have a fear where you are just afraid of what he will do to you if you don’t obey so you do whatever you want! Know God’s perfect love which drives out all fear and plants inside your heart a deep love, where you come to know him as father and you cry out in adoration and love and need. Know today that almighty God can be your daddy.
If you’ve come from a good home with a good daddy that’s probably because your daddy knew the heavenly daddy, Abba. Or you may have come from a good home, had wealth, a dad that provided but there was no closeness or satisfaction because he wasn’t a man marked by knowing God intimately as Father. If that is you, know today there is a sweet calm, a mystery that can be opened to you, where you gain an affection for God through faith in Jesus. That affection is like the audible voice of God though it makes no sound and it resonates in your soul. The knowledge of God.
Perhaps you came from the worst of homes. Know that adoption is real. That is what your heart longs for. To be loved and to be strengthened by being part of the true family of God. All of us have been lead astray. Jesus says we have been like sheep without a shepherd, wandering away on our own. We have folllowed the voice of a different father. We have been born into a spiritual family of sin and destruction. But Jesus came and he lived and he died and he gave his life so that we might be permanently adopted into his family.
Know Jesus family is for sure. God doesn’t adopt you in and then take you out. Once you are in the family you are in the family forever. Adoption is permanent. God becomes your father, Jesus your brother, and all these people become your extended relatives. And we care for each other.
We are a family church. The family of God. God’s chosen and dearly loved ones whom he cares for with an infinite care. Jesus is our adoption papers. We have no right and no privilege but we have Jesus. He is the gospel. He is our hope. He is our pathway and our life. So put your faith in Jesus church. Embrace him with all that you have. Let the truth, that you were bought with a price, the price of Jesus blood, let that sink into your soul. God paid for your happiness. The adoption papers have been signed. They were signed in blood two-thousand years ago. And the stamp of approval from God says, “not guilty, welcome home.”
Hear me today, you were made for more than the silly pleasures that this world has to offer. They fade, are weak and cannot give you what Christ can provide. Turn to Jesus today. Look to him with the eyes of faith. Take the bread and drink the wine and be fed. Feed on Jesus. We owe him everything and we could never pay him back, so we just feast and dine with him at his table and enjoy his grace.
Part of coming from a messed up famly and being adopted into Jesus’ family is that we have a lot of baggage, left in us that we have learned and carried over. The good thing is Jesus is a forgiving famly. His family is one where repentance happens often and when we repent and say we are sorry we are embraced.
Some of you need to repent of some things today. Know God loves you and gave you Jesus. We come to the table each week to celebrate Jesus and in our celebration we always come to him in need. In need of forgiveness, in need of help, in need of guidance…we come with our needs a thank him, our need to confess sin, our need to lay down our lives.
Let me pray for us.