Summer in Rome | Romans 14:1-11

Join Pastor Nate Schaidt in Romans 14:1–11, and read as Paul calls believers to welcome one another with grace instead of judgment. While Christians may hold different convictions on matters of opinion, our unity is found in Christ alone. This message reminds us that we all belong to Him, and one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. As we study this passage together, we'll be challenged to pursue humility, extend grace to one another, and keep our focus on honoring Christ above our personal preferences.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi everyone, thanks for joining us today through our Downtown Community Church podcast. We are so glad that you're here as we continue our summer sermon series, Summer in Rome. Before we jump into today's message, I want to remind you of the mission here at Downtown Community Church. To love God, make disciples, and be great neighbors. One of the ways that we live this out is through our generosity. Whether it's giving financially or serving on a ministry team, every act of generosity helps make an eternal impact. If you're looking for a place to get connected, we would love to help. Visit our website at downtowncommunitychurch.com to learn more about serving, joining a group, or taking your next step. You can also stay up to date throughout the week by following us on Instagram at DCC Tally and on Facebook at Downtown Community Church. And this week, we ask that you would join us in praying for our youth students and leaders as they're away at camp. Pray that God will work powerfully in their hearts, deepen their faith, and draw them closer to Him. And as you continue to pray over this week, I do urge you to look at the DCC Youth account on Instagram for their specific prayer requests that they have made for camp. Now for today's message from Romans 14, 1 through 11, we'll discover what it looks like to welcome one another with grace instead of judgment. Paul reminds us that while believers may have different convictions on matters of opinion, we all belong to Christ. And one day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord. As we listen today, may we be challenged to pursue humility, extend grace, and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, rather than judging one another. Thanks again for listening, and let's dive into God's word together.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to pour over opinions. One person believes they may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains. Let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats. Our God is welcomed. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls, and he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. Each person esteems one day better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one shall be fully convinced of his hide. The one who observes the day observes in honor of the Lord. The one who eats eats in honor of the Lord. Since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord, gives thanks to the God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord. For this end Christ died and lived again, so that he may both be Lord of the living and the dead. Why do you pass judgment on your brother or you? Why do you despise your brother? For we all stand before the judgment seat of God, for it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. The reading of God's word, you may be seated, kids, you are dismissed.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

Good job.

SPEAKER_03 3:22

Ah, my daughter, everyone, Eden. Good thing she looks like your mama, right? Well, welcome everyone. My name is Nate Shade. I'm one of the pastors here on staff and um get the honor to bring the word today.

SPEAKER_04 3:46

Wow, wasn't expecting the emotional to start already. That singing was beautiful, right? Every knee will bow. Every tongue confess. Can you imagine the different languages? Singing to our Lord, declaring his majesty. And we get to join in on that.

SPEAKER_03 4:25

Before that happens, we get the honor of being here and having his word presented to us. Written and formed and then passed down for thousands of years. And here we are, almost two thousand years from the time of Christ, where he walked among us. And in this summer, we've gone through this series. And it's the summer in Rome. And as I've gotten the chance to kind of read through these scriptures, the section of scripture that I was given, I felt like it was half of something that Paul was trying to write. And so I sat down with Ben and we had a conversation. And what's going to end up happening is this is kind of a two-part series, this is a two-part sermon. I'll give the first half today, Ben will give the next half next Sunday. But I believe that the section that we just heard, that those last words that Eden wrote, is actually the most important point. That every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. And so this section has been really exciting for me just because I feel like there's this artistry to it. I believe it's like a poem. And what I want to do is kind of walk us through what that looks like. Because I think that there's this is there's a beauty that's found in the scriptures as you read it with a Bible in your hand that you kind of miss if you're scrolling through it on your phone or if you're reading it just like a basic letter. I think you would miss some things. And so if you would pray with me as we dive into this and let's uh see what God has in store for us. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has given us your words. We thank you for continually blessing us and offering us truth. And we pray, Holy Spirit, we welcome you here. That you would give us wisdom, knowledge, speak through me, allow these words to come alive on these pages, and may we walk more intimately, more closely with Jesus, we pray. Amen. Thank you. Alright. So I believe that Romans 14, 1 and Romans 15, 7, right? So if you're taking notes, I would encourage you to kind of write those things down because I believe that is an entire section of scripture that all plays together. And right in the middle of it is verses 14, kind of 10 through 13. And 14, 11 is that section that every knee will bow, every tongue confess, and that's been taken out of Isaiah as quoted, and it's put in there for a very specific reason. But if you were to ask me, I would tell you that I think it's a song. I think it's this poetic music that we've been given. And the best way I would kind of explain that is by going with the Beatles and the Foundations. Most songs are written kind of with this verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus type of thing. And you just you've kind of seen the songs, right? This is a song written by a third day. I never climbed the highest mountains, but I walked the hills of Cal. Again, these are, I'm just paraphrasing all these things. Um it gets into this chorus, just to be with you, I would do anything. Goes on to the next verse, talking about the story that leads up to it, but then back to the chorus, just to be with you, I would do anything. And I feel like that's kind of what's happening in this section of scripture, but with a twist. Now the Beatles came out with this song, She Loves You. She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah. She loves you? No, nobody. Wow. All right. We'll try to go with the foundations then, all right? How about this one? Build me up buttercup. Why don't you build me up buttercup, baby, just to let me know. Alright, here we go. We got a couple of you. Thank you. It's good to know I'm not by myself right now. All right. But in these two songs, not only are they like banger songs, but there's this element of like there's this chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus. Right? It switches up a little bit. Not all songs are written that way, but these are. And so it starts off with the chorus. And I believe that 14.1 and 15.7 are both saying the same thing. And they're talking about welcoming one another. But as you get to 1410, it changes a little bit. The chorus is different. In 1410, there's this element of why do you pass judgment? We will all stand before God. And then 14, 12, and 13, in reverse order, we all give accounts to God, or we would stand before Him. Let's not pass judgment. Why do you pass judgment? And it feels like it's going backwards, like in a reverse order. Some would call this ring composition. That's how I was taught it. And Emily, what do you, what were you taught? What's it called?

unknown 10:06

The middle is a point.

SPEAKER_03 10:08

The middle is a point, and it's a chiasm. The chiasm they took. So there's different teachings, there's different ways of this. I learned it as ring composition, but the middle is the point. And right in between all these things is every knee will bow and every tongue confess. And so, and then it leads back through, and Ben's going to get into this bottom section next week, but the first top, this first part, what we're going to discuss today is the verse. Because I think the, but we have to look at it through the idea of the chorus. Because the chorus is the main point. So, what I want you to understand is that as you read your Bible, please recognize that there are times, and again, this is why it's so beautiful to have something written in front of you. When you're holding the pages, sometimes you can see there's places where it shows that this is poetic. It comes out with this different idea, like it's not just a letter. The Holy Spirit wrote this. He inspired the people to write these things down, and God is very artistic. And so when you read Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, several of these books, you can get into the New Testament when you're looking at Luke and 1 Corinthians and here in Romans. You will see places where God has inspired this person to not just shift from the regular storytelling, but to make it poetic and beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

Just as He does with everything He creates.

SPEAKER_03 11:48

So, with all this out of the way, I want us to now look at the verse. But we're going to look at it now through the lens of every knee will bow and every tongue confess. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. First, I want to say that when we read that section of scripture, what you must understand is that there's a place where this is the weak person is the one who has put limits on the things that they are allowed to do. Oftentimes we'll get this twisted and we'll see the weak person is the one who can't hold back on things, but that's not really what he's saying. And I have had this debate and this conversation with several people in my past where they like to tell me that drinking alcohol is a sin. And they will point to this section of scripture, and this is why. When in fact, overconsumption of alcohol is a sin, as we're told in Ephesians 5.18. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. It seems in this section of Scripture that if he were talking about drinking alcohol, then the person who says that we shouldn't drink is the one who has the weak face. But I don't think that's what he's discussing. I don't think he's talking about alcohol in this section at all. I think we do it just we do a terrible job of taking care of the scriptures whenever we do that. Instead, if we were to look at it under the idea of every knee will bow and every tongue confess, what then are we being told? So, what does this mean for you? Well, it means that you will bow your knee to God and answer to him for the actions and the reasons that you give for the things you do. So we should not despise someone or pass judgment on someone for simply having an opinion. Realize that this conversation, this whole section of scripture, is about an opinion. Not sin. It's about an opinion. This is a conversation that we have to live with wondering how do I go through my Christian life? How do I walk in a way, now that I have this knowledge of who Jesus is, how do I do these things in honor of him? And what does that look like? And I'd like to give a kind of a very real conversation of what that looked like for me here at this church. Um and it involves communion. So when I was in New Smyrna Beach, um I was attending this church, and this man named Steve came to me and was like, hey, I would love you to hand out the communion elements. And I was honored. It was very humbling to stand in front of the congregation with the elements and be able to hand them out. And I didn't feel like I should have been up there, right? Uh but this guy believed in me and saw my walk and felt that I should be. And so as I'm handing out these elements, it was just amazing to be a part of that. But then eventually he showed me that afterwards, like how to take the elements back to where the kitchen area was. And as I went back there, I saw the the uh deaconesses were standing there, they were pouring the juice into these, in this pitcher, and then they were taking the bread and they put it in this single basket. And then they walked outside and they poured the wine, the juice, onto the ground, and they spread the bread onto the grass, and they said, returned to the earth. And it was the first time that they showed me how to handle these sacred elements. These things have been set apart, they are consecrated for a very specific reason. So you would imagine my surprise when I'm here one time, and as we finish communion and everybody's leaving, and the band's finished playing it out and everything, and I see some of my friends chowing down on communion like it's a snack. Right? And I'm like, what are you doing? I'm like, well, one of my friends like, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Let me show you what we should do with this. This is not a buffet. Okay, let's let's hang out. Hold on. And I showed them what we would do, and now we take the juice and we put it somewhere. We take the bread and we take it outside, out the back here, and we return it to the ground. Now, I had always heard and knew kind of from the Catholic Church that when the Catholic Church does communion, they believe that the elements actually become the blood and the bread of Christ. And so as I'm having a discussion with Delaney, and she comes from that background, she's like, you know, in the Catholic Church, everything is supposed to be consumed. Nothing should be wasted or disposed of. Huh. So, who's right? Ah, that's a good question. It's a wrong question, but it's a good question. Let me tell you a little bit about the beauty of the Holy Spirit. When he writes these things out, he puts the questions that we're supposed to ask right in the text. Romans 14, 4. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls, and he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. We so often ask the wrong questions. We seek answers, validation. We want to know that we're right. We think in right and wrong, black and white, all the while every knee will bow and every tongue will confess to our master, the Lord, our God. So if he is our master and he is able to make us to stand, we should be going to him in prayer over answers. But you have to be ready for what he tells you. Because we've said this, right? If he would just tell me what to do, I would do it. This is difficult. How do I? It's not true. We wouldn't do that. He's been very clear about sin. Here are Ten Commandments. Follow those. Good luck. Honor your mother and father. It's probably the one that I had the most struggle with. And if you're a teenager in the room, I bet you do too. Do not bear false witness. Don't lie. Do not covet or want what others have. How about don't have any idols before me? While you walk around with a phone that you can't get out of your pocket and you stare at the screen more than you stare at God's creation. If he would just tell me what to do, we wouldn't do it. We'd find excuses and reasons to pass it off. We say we want to be told what to do. If you want to be told what to do, try this.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

That he is God, that he is your master. And that you need. Start there.

SPEAKER_03 20:18

We continue on. Romans 14, 5 and 6. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day observes in honor of the Lord. The one who eats eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God. While the one who abstains abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. Like how that shift took place right there. Alright, pull it over. There's nothing more fun for me than to like have a good conversation about Christian holidays, pagan holidays, um, Jewish holidays, and all those things. Just understand if you want to have that debate with me, I love it and I come prepared. All right. So like, let's go. Let's have fun. But you also must understand this. I celebrate them all because I love chocolate and I like gifts. Right? Especially Reese eggs. Or like at Christmas time when it's the one-pound Reese cup. Oh man. I don't know why that only makes it one day in my house. That is totally my bad, but I do it. I ate that whole thing in one sitting. It's terrible. Anyway, um, but I love to have those conversations. I like to see, like, honestly, like, there's just this element of like, I don't think we celebrate God enough. If Jesus is who he says he is, maybe we should be celebrating a little bit more. Jeez. And when we sit there and look at these days, which ones do we celebrate? There's these Jewish holidays, there's some begging holidays, and we turn things into Christian holidays. Like, oh, which one should we? Ah, see how easy it is to go for a question and miss the text? Which one should I? Nah, wrong question. Let's look in the text, shall we? I bet it's there. For the one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. Gives thanks to God. So here's the questions. Do you honor Him? Do you give thanks to God when you do these things? Because if you do, that's wonderful. It's wonderful. You should. I love to have the debates because I just want people to think about these celebrations that they have and discuss them. But at the end of the day, nobody's going to bow their knee to me. And nobody has to confess to me a single thing. So we honor God. We continue on. Romans 14, 7 through 9. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Live your life to the Lord. He is your master, and he came and lived for you. Die to yourself, that he may be glorified. Have you ever walked away from a situation with another Christian and you felt judgmental at the end of it? You felt judgy? Right? Ah, I can't believe they. That very well could be God trying to tell you that you have a weakness of your faith. Enter into that. It may be a place in your life that you need to die to in order for God to get his glory. You don't have to argue with the weaker brother or sister, and you have no need to despise the one who has great faith. You just have to honor God and thank him. You can die to yourself because he died for you. And we are his. Not sin. Opinions. God, the poet, puts in place his artistry in so many different places in order to show us who he is and what he's like. And at this time I'm going to call to the stage of the band, and uh I'm gonna invite up the men that I've selected that are going to help us uh with these elements, and we're gonna have communion together. What I want you to see is how even in this table, the elements of the bread and the cup are used for us to celebrate our risen Savior. If you're here today and Jesus is not your Lord, you walked in, maybe you're iffy, maybe you don't believe any of those types of things. If this is, if if God is not your king, if Jesus is not your master, this table is not for you. And I would ask you to pass the elements as they come before you, just pass them on to the next person. But I also want to ask you to watch. Watch the people around you, watch how they honor their king and their master. Watch how they serve him and give him thanks. For those of you where Jesus is now your master, he's your Lord. If your faith is weak, or if your faith is strong, this table is for you. This is the place that we come and we give thanks.