Accept One Another as Christ has Accepted You!
Romans 15: 4-13
4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.
5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed 9 and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written:
“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;
I will sing the praises of your name.”
10 Again, it says, “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”
11 And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles;
let all the peoples extol him.”
12 And again, Isaiah says, “The Root of Jesse will spring up,
one who will arise to rule over the nations;
in him the Gentiles will hope.”
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Talk about acceptance and rejection. Jesus was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Human religions, political systems and economic systems reject Christ. God called Abraham and made a people for Himself. Jesus seeks to unite Jew and Gentile under the banner of Jesus. So, it is a tragic failure for followers of Jesus who are in Christ to reject followers of Christ who are in Christ when Jesus died to unite us! So, how can we avoid this?
- Unity of Mankind in Christ
- Disunity a result of sin and judgement
Adam and Eve and then Cain kills Abel. There are two genealogies in Genesis 4 and 5.
Lamech: How does he live?
Seth: The longer list in chapter 5
Abraham: The Father of the faith. God is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. The context is Hebrew slaves. But the Jews are called out to be a peculiar people, they are of all people God’s special treasure! They do not often live up to their calling. But it is there nonetheless. And there are genealogies in Genesis and the rest of the Old Testament.
Jesus: And the final two genealogies are found in Matthew and Luke and they connect us to Christ. And at that point, all who are in Christ are one. And there is a different way to define who we are.
- The Tower of Babel Experience
In Genesis 8-9 we should see the emergence of Noah and his family from the Ark as a re-creation. There are many parallels between the stories in those chapters and Genesis 2 and 3.
New directives concerning food: Eat meat now. But DO NOT eat the blood!
New directives concerning how we treat each other: Respect the image of God in people. (Reaction to Cain and Lamech)
The stories end with a curse because of the inability to keep God’s commandments.
Well, there is a listing of nations in chapter 10 and then the Babel story in 11. The time frame is not short I would say, instead we are getting to chapter 12 to see why it is that God chose Abraham. In Genesis 11 the people at Babel want:
Genesis 11:
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
The people have new technology: They can make bricks and bind them with mortar so their building projects can be bigger and more ornate. Beauty and function are improved!
- They seek identity. Pride, but in themselves! They want to be known for what they do. Just like Lamech in chapter 4
- They seek to avoid being scattered. (Conquered and carried off?) In any event, this is related to protection.
God’s call to Abraham: This is the making of a new nation! Genesis 12:
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
- God will make Abraham great. Not the new tech or the personal ability. This is identity!
- God will make Abraham a blessing. This is related to purpose.
- God will bless those who bless Abe and curse those who curse him. This relates to protection.
The very thing that the folks at Babel sought to establish on their own, God provides Abraham with no explanation! God knows that we need and desire these things and they are provided in Christ!!!!
- Pentecost as a reversal of Babel
Acts 2: 17 “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
Ephesians 2: 11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace,
18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
- Accept Others as Christ Accepted You
7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
- What makes us different?
Language, culture, sex, family, gifting, personality, life experiences. These differences are real! And these are the types of things that people find their identity in!
How do we respond to our differences? Communicate, appreciate, and celebrate God’s design in making people different and stronger as a result. What does rejection look like? What does it mean?
Rejection: a person or thing dismissed as failing to meet standards or satisfy tastes.
Acceptance: the action or process of being received as adequate or suitable, typically to be admitted into a group.
- Being in Christ is our fundamental identity
What comes first, acceptance by Christ or conforming to the image of Christ?
Does Jesus reject us when we struggle?
Does God only love and receive children who act perfectly?
Being a child of God, being in Christ is a matter of identity. And being in Christ is our foundational identity in life. It takes precedence over any other identity and calls that identity into submission to Christ.
There is a lot of talk in our culture these days as to how we identify. Being in Christ is bigger than being male, female, American, Southern. It’s bigger than being gay, straight, Trans etc. Being in Christ is bigger than your family identity.
However your sub group identity sees the world, they are called into submission to Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth and the Life!
- Christ accepts you in love and service to God
8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth
John 3:16
Revelation 5: 9-10
9 And they sang a new song, saying:
“You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals,
because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God
persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth.”
I John 4: 9-11
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
III. Three Step Process of Acceptance of Others
- We need encouragement, endurance and hope
Encouragement will get us to move.
Endurance will cause us to not give up when things get hard.
Hope will feed our souls as we wait to see the results that God has promised. Because it does not seem that we are united in Christ! And others may reject us!
- We find this in the Bible
v.4
4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.
Example of verses 9-12
2 Samuel 22:50; Psalm 18:49 v.9
Deut. 32:43 v.10
Psalm 117:1 v.11
Isaiah 11:10 v.12
- God gives this to us!
v.5
5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had,
Where is the hope? It is down in verse 13!!!!!
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
If you are full of you and peace, trusting in God and obediently accepting others as Christ accepted us, then you can overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
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