Sermon Note

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Righteousness From Above: The Gospel and the Spirit By Pastor Jay Henderson May 20, 2018 Romans 1:1-6 Good Morning Asbury! And Happy Birthday! That’s right, did you know that it’s your birthday today? Yes, because today is what we refer to as the celebration of “Pentecost” which marked the beginning, the “birth,” of the church. We’ve got a helpful write up in your bulletin you should check out on it. But in case you never heard it before, the short version for the story on Pentecost is that 50 days after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the disciples were all together in Jerusalem. Mind you they’re all still a little scared and confused about everything that’s been going on and what they should be doing. But then all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit came to them. The scripture says a violent wind blew in and tongues of fire rested upon them. And all these people from different regions were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began speaking in their foreign languages. But even though they were all speaking these different languages, they could all understand one another. Now, the cool thing about this, the miracle of Pentecost, is not that they were speaking in all these different languages. No, the miracle is that they could understand one another. But, in order to understand why that’s significant, you’ve actually got to go back quite a bit further – all the way back to the beginning of the Bible in the book of Genesis – to the story of the Tower of Babel. You see, in that story, in the early days of creation, people began to think that they were pretty hot stuff. “We can do anything we want,” they said. “We’ll just put our heads together and we can cut God out of everything. We can even build a tower all the way to heaven.” And God did not like what he was seeing. Yes, the people were united, but in a bad way. They wanted to make a name for themselves, but they wanted their fame to come from their accomplishments - not their faithfulness to God. God’s plan was for his followers to go out into the world and take care of creation, so that all the nations would know who God is. Their name was supposed to be great because of what they did through God - not because they huddled in one spot and built an empire. So, God intervened by confusing their language and scattering them over the face of the whole earth. That is, until Pentecost. Pentecost is a reversal of the Tower of Babel. Because now, God wants his church to be united in mission around the testimony of the Gospel - the Good News of Jesus Christ and his victory over death. We’re going to partake of Holy Communion in a little while, and when we do, we say these words: “Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.” Because of Christ’s offering for us, all people everywhere can receive the “Righteousness from Above.” Jews and Gentiles alike. The Kingdom of God is opened up to people of all ages, nations, and races. And through the power of the Holy Spirit - the church, the fellowship of disciples and followers of Jesus Christ - through the power of the Holy Spirit, we’re able to unite around this common message: the Good News of salvation that comes through Jesus Christ.



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All of that leads us to our passage for today. If you will, please turn in your Bibles to Romans 1:1-6 (1746). Now today, we’re actually starting up a new sermon series called “Righteousness from Above.” In this series, we’re going to explore the first part of this letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome. So to understand this letter, we’ve got to remember that when Paul wrote these words, he was writing to a particular group at a particular place at a particular time. He was writing to a community that was in a very delicate situation. You see a few years prior, there was this Roman Emperor named Claudius. And Claudius wasn’t super popular. He was a pretty horrible person. So he did what a lot of tyrants have done throughout history, and he blamed the Jews for a few uprisings in the city. And at that time, Christianity was so new and was so predominantly Jewish that he lumped all Jews together – regardless of whether they were following Jesus Christ or not. So he kicked all of the Jews out of Rome, including the Jewish Christians. When he died, these Jews and Jewish Christians were just returning to Rome. But in the meantime, while the Jewish Christians were exiled, the Gentile Christians had free reign over the church without their Jewish brethren. And, mind you, this was in the earliest days of Christianity, so everybody is still figuring out this New Covenant stuff. And since Christianity came out of Judaism, folks are still trying to figure out how Jewish you needed to be in order to properly follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And when the Jewish Christians were reintegrated into the church that the Gentiles had been running, there was a big collision with some different perspectives on things. And that’s who Paul is writing to. Now, this letter to the Romans is widely considered to be Paul’s finest work. But throughout history, people have picked this letter apart in so many different ways and applied so many different interpretations. In fact, it is quite likely you have heard many of the passages used to defend or refute a whole host of different theological positions – Calvinism, Arminianism, and everything in-between. I don’t want to get too far down into the weeds on those arguments, because what I want you to see is the big picture of what Paul does here. He knows he has two different groups in one church. And he’s trying to help them understand exactly who Jesus is, what he has done, and what it means for us. And for him, the overarching motif for understanding the message of Jesus Christ is Righteousness. Now from Paul’s perspective, when he speaks of righteousness – he means a very particular thing. He’s actually using the legal language of a Jewish court. And in a Jewish court, you had the two opposing parties, and then you had the judge. And whomever the Judge decided to be correct in the matter was declared “Righteous.” In our own language – perhaps it would be better to say “vindicated.” And he’s saying to the Jews – look, this Jesus Christ is the vindication we’ve been looking forward to all these centuries. We’ve been following the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all this time – and he’s the ultimate proof that it was not in vain. Our passage today says that the gospel, which means “good news,” the good news of Jesus Christ that Paul is sharing, is the same good news that God promised through the prophets and through the scriptures. And it is through the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, that is the same Holy Spirit that worked through the stories of scripture throughout time, and is the same Holy Spirit that commissioned the church on the day of

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Pentecost - that is now working through the church, as Paul puts it, “to call people from among all the Gentiles” to faithful obedience to Jesus Christ. In fact, what Paul is doing is working out and advancing the very work that started on the day of Pentecost. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the church is able to be united, Jew and Gentile alike, in mission around the testimony of the Gospel - the Good News of Jesus Christ and his victory over death. It’s absolutely incredible, when you think about it. God has orchestrated, and the Holy Spirit has been at work since the beginning of time, to bring this message of salvation through Jesus Christ. For example, we just finished this sermon series on the book of Ruth. Did you realize that story is a clear presentation of the Gospel long before we actually met Jesus? Naomi represents the Hebrew people – looking for vindication and redemption. Ruth represents the Gentiles, who are grafted into the family and the story of redemption. And Boaz represents Jesus Christ, who is the one that grafts the Gentiles into the family and vindicates and redeems the Hebrews. The church is often called the “bride of Christ.” Boaz marries Ruth and saves the whole family. Ta-da! It was in there whole time. The Holy Spirit was at work in the lives of these people and in these stories all along. Yes, yes. That’s all well and good, Pastor Jay, but how does that affect me on an individual level? How’s the Holy Spirit at work in my life? Well, let’s take a look at the man who wrote the letter we’re studying today, Paul himself. This guy, before he had an encounter with the risen Jesus Christ, was actively persecuting the followers of Jesus. He stood by and smiled with approval as he watched the brains being bashed out of Stephen with a rock. I dare say there’s not a single person in this room who would be able to do that. And yet now here Paul is – giving his entire life in the pursuit of helping the church accomplish its mission of boldly declaring the good news of Jesus Christ to all nations. The transforming work of the Holy Spirit is able to work through any person’s life, no matter what you’ve done or where you’ve come from or what your current situation is, to make you a new creation in Jesus Christ. One who is emboldened, empowered, and equipped to advance the Gospel and do everything he calls us to. What do you have to be afraid of? Church, the Lord has commissioned us with the power of the Holy Spirit. And as the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, YOU ALSO ARE AMONG THOSE HE HAS CALLED TO BELONG TO JESUS CHRIST. Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the nations to the obedience that comes from faith. To this church I say – receive the power of the Holy Spirit. Live into it, and go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything He has commanded you. Amen.

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