Sermon: "Overcoming Evil with Love" on Romans 12:9–10

well last week we launched our series entitled overcoming evil from Romans in Chapter 12 and we turned to Romans in Chapter 12 again today we listen to the words that God spoke first in the light of what was happening in the Roman Empire in the first century God's people in Rome had endured the Caligula catastrophe and they were just beginning the Nero nightmare when the book of Romans that we have opened in front of us was written but we also heard the words that God spoke against not only that background but against the background of Romans chapter 1 through 11 that tell us what it means to be in Jesus Christ and so as we're focusing in on these verses from Romans in Chapter 12 remember that we're looking at them against the grim background of what was happening in Rome in the first century and at the same time against the glorious background of all that it means to be in Jesus Christ which is what is unfolded in Romans chapter 1 through 11 and against these twin backgrounds here is what God says in Romans 12 and verse 21 that we looked at last week do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good and we saw that this is marvelous good news here is God speaking to people in extraordinarily dark days people who are in Jesus Christ and he says now the evil that you have suffered does not need to define you and anyone who has suffered a great evil knows how easy it is for that evil to overcome you for it to become the biggest single thing in your life for it to dominate you for it to define you and God says now don't let that happen to you know you are in Jesus Christ and when you're in Jesus Christ you're not to be overcome by the evil that surrounds you you're not we overcome by the evil that has been done to you you are in Christ and so something else something better is possible for you here's what it is do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good so we ended last time thinking about all the evil that was huddled against our Lord Jesus Christ the injustice the abuse the violence and how evil did not overcome him but how he rather overcame evil with good and we ended by saying if you are in Jesus Christ if Jesus Christ is for you if he is with you and if he is in you then just as evil did not overcome him it will not overcome you either now as we press forward in this series I want us to pick up along the way how the story of the church gives remarkable testimony to how what God says to all of us here worked out in practice because in the years that followed the writing of the book of Romans the gospel did shine like a light in the darkness and it is a plain fact of history that the darkness did not overcome it and so here we are more than 2,000 years later and the Roman Empire is long since dead and gone artefacts you can view in museums but the Church of Jesus Christ is alive and well the light did shine in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it now over these next weeks we're going to look at all that leads up to overcoming evil with good in other words everything from Romans chapter 12 and verse 9 through to verse 21 where we have this wonderful statement that we looked at last week everything that leads to overcoming evil with good which is what we so desperately need to see happening in these days in which we live so today again I hope you have your Bible open we're going to be looking at verses 9 and 10 but before I read these to you I want you to imagine for a moment with me that you are chosen to serve on a focus group of first century Christians actually I'm very sure that they had focus groups in the first century but just cut me a little bit of slack on that one so here you are in this first century focus group and the facilitator comes in and says to you along with the dozen others or whatever that are in the room now the challenge that we're facing here in this first century is that we must overcome this growing tide of evil that obviously is all around us these are desperate days they're very very dark and let's face it there isn't one of us in this room who would have chosen to have needle as the Emperor but this is the reality that we're facing and obviously the task that we have now is we got to find how as the church we can overcome evil with good now all of you in the focus group you all have a pad of paper you all have a pencil and so here's what I want you to do I want you to write down the top five strategies that you think we as Christians should pursue in order to overcome evil in these very very dark days now it's serious question and you might like to talk about this in the life groups this week what would you write down on your little pad of paper what would you put down as the top five strategies that Christians need to pursue in increasingly dark days in order to overcome evil with good well I actually asked a few people this week because I didn't want it just to be a theoretical exercise and I I thought now what would I put down the first thing I would put down on the list as we all have to pray and I found when I asked people that that was the most common answer people said oh I think I do pray down at the top of the list I would put on my list we need to raise godly leaders in every sphere of life in the schools in business and the arts and in politics we need to teach our children the difference between right and wrong give them a thorough view of the Bible we need a new surge in regards to evangelism and in regards to church planting now all of these of course are good and necessary things all of them should be on the list what I want you to notice and it was really very striking to me when I saw this for the first time reflecting on Romans chapter 12 none of them are what God says first here where do you begin if you are to overcome evil with good what's the first thing verse 9 let love be genuine abhor what is evil hold fast what is good love one another with brotherly affection outdo one another in showing honor now I don't know about you but Christians loving one another would not have been at the top of my list of five strategies if I had been asked in that way to come up with what we should do in order to overcome evil with good and so this is very striking to me that when God lays out the steps that lead to overcoming evil with good which is what we have in Romans chapter 12 and verses 9 through 21 the first thing that God says is let love be genuine that's where you got to begin if you want to overcome evil with good God says to his people here's the first thing here is priority number 1 here is what we must do when evil is all around us and more than that here is what we can do because we are in Jesus Christ and God says do this and you will overcome evil with good let love be genuine another way to say that of course would be love must be sincere authentic is the word that we often use these days there must be no pretense about the way in which you love no play-acting about it nothing false nothing fake let your love God says to his people be the real deal now here obviously is something immensely attractive we are all drawn to love and everybody wants to be authentic and perhaps these two words for the millennial generation love and authenticity would be a banner more than any other two words that we could put down on a piece of paper authentic love that's what God speaks about here genuine love and he says this is where we have to begin if we are to overcome evil with good now the plain implication of the words let love be genuine is that we may discover in the course of our lives something that looks and sounds like love but turns out not to be the real thing and so this statement obviously raises the question for us what does genuine love actually look like and our culture has a very clear answer to that question what does genuine love look like our culture says acceptance and affirmation that's our cultural cultures primary definition prevailing definition of love what is genuine love the culture says well it is acceptance and it is affirmation in other words if you really love me well you must accept me as I am and you must affirm me as I am and don't attempt to change me in any way because our culture says if you attempt to change me you're not really accepting me if you do that then it shows that you do not really love me and this definition of love is so widely accepted and embraced in our time that when we hear the definition that it is acceptance and it is affirmation the natural reaction of course is to say well of course I mean what else could love possibly be a friends if it was the case that all of us were little Paragons of virtue then a love that accepts and affirms would be entirely appropriate but surely the the state of the world today makes it very obvious to any thinking person that we had an awful long way from that the earth is not populated in 2016 by little Paragons of virtue who are quietly fulfilling all that God intends us to be the reality of our position that is surely evidenced by a clear thinking view of the world is that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God that's how God States it so when Jesus Christ came into the world how he described our position he described it in many ways he said now look here's the reality of our position we're like sheep that are lost we're like people who are sick and need a physician we're like captives to sin needing to be set free and we are under a dreadful sentence of condemnation now just think this through with me for a moment because when you see it I think it will be really helpful to you if our Lord Jesus Christ had embraced our culture's definition of love then he would have come into the world and he would have said now the truth about you is that your loss and I accept that and I've come to affirm it the reality of your condition is that you're dreadfully sick and since that's what you are far be it for me to change it the explanation of your own experience in life is that you have been taken captive well now I want you to know that but it's certainly not for me to interfere and you are under condemnation and I simply want to affirm you in it now you see your mouth but thank God that Jesus Christ did not embrace our culture's definition of love Jesus did not say I've come to affirm the lost he said I've come to save the lost he did not come to affirm our sickness he came to heal us from it he did not come to affirm our captivity he came to set us free he did not thank God come to affirm our condemnation he came to take it away so he said Jesus Christ came into the world because there's something desperately wrong with us and he came into the world in order to put it right that's what the love of God does so do you see then that the biblical understanding of love is very very different from our culture's understanding of love what does genuine love look like that's what we're being called to in Romans chapter 12 and verse 9 well the culture says its acceptance and affirmation but the Bible says it is acceptance and transformation that is what Jesus Christ came into the world to bring so here this wonderful love of God that is held out to all of us every day in Jesus Christ it is a love that accepts and it is a love that transforms here is a love in which the lost are found here is a love in which the seeker may dwell here is a love in which the captives are set free here is a love in which the condemnation the condemned are fully pardoned Jesus Christ invites us to come to him and here's the marvelous thing about Jesus Christ he does accept us as we are and here's the other marvelous thing about Jesus Christ he never never never leaves us as we are that's a love of God in Jesus Christ now let me just make three observations against that background about genuine love that accepts and that really makes a difference that accepts and transforms here's the first observation I'm just looking at this as it's before us in these verses genuine love discriminates between good and evil notice what it says verse 9 pour what is evil and hold fast to what is good that word abhor abhor means that it literally have a horror of something if you love what is good you will have a horror of that which would destroy it if you love truth you'll have a horror of lies if you love peace you'll have a horror with regards to war to abhor evil is part of what it means to love good now notice something very significant here that God says abhor what is evil it's what not who Peter Kreeft who is a Catholic writer I found very very helpful on many issues he makes this point and I summarized what he says that abortionists homosexual activists pornographers school boards the media are not the enemy he says they are the victims of the enemy to always remember this the Bible says that about our fight we wrestle not against flesh and blood here's what our fight is our struggle is with the rulers authorities cosmic powers over the present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places now you see wouldn't it have been easy for the Christians living in the 1st century to say well obviously Nero is the problem I mean if we could just get rid of Nero that would solve everything but you see the New Testament makes it very clear behind Nero there were dark powers and the Apostle Paul says it is the dark powers that we are really engaged with that's where the real battle is and it is for that reason that we Christian believers must put on the full armor of God so we will sing today the the the song or Church arise and it has this marvelous line our call to war is to love the captive soul but to rage against the captor that is the devil we are not called brothers and sisters to rage against the captive soul we're not raging against other people not Christians your call is to love the captive soul to love the captive soul that's our call and where's our rage to be directed it's to be directed to the Evil One himself to rage against the captor that's our call to war and it is really important to understand it it is very very difficult friends to win people to Jesus Christ after we have branded them the enemy and our calling is to reach to every person and to seek to win them to Jesus Christ that's our call genuine love it discriminates between good and evil second genuine love begins at home notice what he says here love one another verse ten with brotherly affection so Paul has been talking about what genuine love looks like now he's moving to the who and he says love one another now surely the significance of this is that it is very easy to talk about love in general terms it's very easy to talk about all loving everybody loving the world and so forth and so on there are seven billion people in the world and any of us is going to meet in the course of an entire lifetime only a tiny fraction of one percent of them here's where the issue really comes into practice with regards to love the real challenge is not to love people in general the real challenge is to love the people that God actually places in your life and brings across your path that means the people in your home the people in your church the people in your workplace the people in your street the people God brings across your path in life your calling our calling is to love these people these people the ones in your contact list really really well will you love this man married woman for a lifetime this woman married man for a lifetime will you love these believers in this church now of course Christ calls us to love all people even our enemies and of course that's the hardest thing of all for any of us to do so where do you begin if you're going to develop a capacity of love to the point where you can even love your enemies well the place that you begin if you're going to develop your own capacity to love is you begin right here within the family of God which is why it says love one another start practicing what it is to love with the people who stand beside you in Grace and one day will stand beside you in glory let the church be like a laboratory in which we are learning to love one another and then let it spill out from there into the world as its genuine among the people of God let it be reflected into the world in which we live no that has not always happened in the church but I've been very moved just to read in recent months a little more of how it happened in the time of the early church and particularly among these Christians in Rome to whom this letter was written and tracing the story down through subsequent years let me give you a couple of snapshots as to what this actually looked like some years later after the time of Needle Rome was struck by a series of horrific epidemics there's a sociologist by the name of Rodney stark who's made a study of these epidemics he says that at the height of the first of them there were five thousand people a day dying in the city of Rome alone in many cities a third of the entire population was wiped out just through epidemic and in some cities two-thirds of the entire population white time you think of your street and two houses in every three empty because people have been killed with disease absolutely devastating there are quotes a description of the heroic nursing efforts of early Christians from a letter of Dionysius who was a bishop and this is around the year - this is around the Year 260 nikkor most of our Christian brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty never thinking of themselves and thinking only of one another heedless of danger they took charge of the sick attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ and with them departing this life serenely happy for they were infected by others with the disease drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains many in nursing and curing others transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead he continues the heathen behaved in exactly the opposite way at the first onset of the disease they pushed sufferers away and fled from their dearest throwing them out into the roads before they were dead and treated unburied corpses as dirt hoping thereby to avert the spread of the contagion and the contagion of the fatal disease and you see people began to see a contrast they began to see that there's a difference between darkness and light between a love that's ready to make sacrifices and a self-interest that becomes utterly brutal that's what happened when days get darker God says to his people now here is what you must do you must overcome the evil with good and here's how you do it you begin with love but it must be genuine and very simply that is what in large measure the early Christians did another great evil that plagued the Roman Empire in those early days was the horribly low value that was placed on human life start describes the grim early attempts at abortion which of course took not only the life of the child but very very very often the life of the mother as well and for that reason abortion was relatively rare what was more common was infanticide in other words a child was brought to birth and then simply placed in the street and left that way there was no danger to the mother's life and so it became a widely prank day it was called the exposure of infant's it was actually commended by Plato and by Aristotle as state policy the exposure of infant's again I quote from Starke it was common to expose an unwanted infant out of doors where it could in principle be taken up by someone who wished to rear it but where it typically fell victim to the elements and to animals and to birds not only was the exposure of infant's a very common practice it was justified by law and advocated by the philosophers now I'm going to quote to you a letter written by a man by the name of Hilarion to his wife Alice who was carrying her child what it shows is the extraordinary contrast between the genuine affection that this man has for his wife and the great hopes that he has that a son will be born and the callous contempt that he has at the thought that it might also possibly be a daughter who would be born and I quote know that I am in Alexandria this is hilarion writing to his wife and do not worry if they all come back and I am still here I ask and beg you to take good care of our baby son and as soon as I receive payment I shall send it up to you if you are delivered of the child before I come home if it is a boy keep it if it is a girl discard it you have sent me word don't forget me how can I forget you I beg you not to worry so it was not unusual for babies and especially little baby girls to be left out in the street and when that happened Christians took them in loved them as their own and raised them do not be overcome by evil overcome evil with good and here's where you begin love must be genuine genuine love discriminates between good and evil genuine love begins at home it's nurtured among the people of God and then it spills out into the world and here's the last thing genuine love lifts other people up out do one another in showing honor now here friends again is something of huge importance for us obviously today it relates to the way in which we speak of one another and it relates to the way in which we speak about one another speak to one another and speak off one another we live in a culture that largely through the influence of social media has taken a huge sweep in the direction of just putting other people down platforms for invective platforms for hatred platforms for anger we live in the world of the attack ad the attack website when God reaches out to his people in this darkness and says now let it be different among my redeemed people see Christ calls us to be a community of people who in our words and interactions lift one another up in the middle of a world where everyone else is tearing other people down and the New Testament is full of this do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths but only what is helpful for building others up according to their need then what you say may benefit those who listen I like to think of it this way that the church is called to and has the privilege of pursuing this calling we are called to bring a touch of Pentecost right into the middle of Babel that's what the church is supposed to do we're to bring a touch of Pentecost into the middle of Babel you say what does that mean think about what happened at Babel at Babel men wanted to make a name for themselves and so they built this huge Tower this is gonna be a symbol of our greatness this is gonna bring everyone together to see what we've been able to do this marvelous tower you remember that God came down and he confused their languages and when the languages were confused what happened while people scattered naturally they grouped with other people they could understand and thinking everyone else to be out of their mind they moved away north and south and east and west and carried within them all the seats of distrust and suspicion and all the seeds of future warfare during the history of the world what happened at Pentecost precisely the opposite the Pentecost it's not men who are lifted up it's Jesus Christ who's lifted up Peter is declaring that he is risen from the dead and that he is the sovereign Lord the Holy Spirit is poured out and and this judgment of the tongues is overcome and the ability is given to speak and to hear in all languages so the people who come from all these different places in the world who can't even understand each other by language people are divided by all the cultural fault lines are brought together at the foot of the cross of the Lord Jesus and their confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and the gospel reaches over all the cultural dividing lines that there are and brings people together let love be genuine abhor what is evil hold fast what is good love one another with a brotherly affection and outdo one another in showing honor you show more honor to someone else than they show to you more respect to someone else than they show to you that's what that means Christ calls us to something different in a world where people are being torn down our calling is to lift Jesus Christ up and where he is lifted up everyone who comes to him is lifted up does the church always do this well no too often it becomes about us too often it becomes about what we want and who we are and when that happens we're just a mirror of the world remember what Jesus said the words are going to come up on the screen and maybe you will read them with me here's what Jesus says to his disciples a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you you also are to love one another and by this people will know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another let's pray together in the world of growing anger and hatred God overcomes evil with good by planting communities of people who genuinely love each other and at the center of these communities is Jesus Christ I want you to think for a moment about the people that God has placed in your life you're married to your husband your wife I want you to think about those with whom you have good relationships in your family and those perhaps with whom there is strain God calls you to genuinely love these people want you to think about your workplace your colleagues ones you like and the ones that are more difficult God calls you to love these people you to think about neighbors and the circle of friends and where there are joys and also where there are tensions God calls you to love these people I want you to think about the church here in which you serve where God has planted you down with all of the joys of serving you together the Lord together and sometimes the frustrations we experience from other Christians with whom we rub shoulders God is calling you to love these people let that love be genuine oh poor what is evil hold fast what is good love one another with brotherly affection and outdo one another in showing honor and so overcome evil with good or by your grace and in your mercy help us to pursue and no more of these things we pray in Jesus name

Channel: Unlocking the Bible

Views: 4,249

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: unlocking the bible, what does the bible say, learn the bible, understanding the bible, pastor colin smith, overcoming evil, evil, love, sermon on love, sermon on evil, romans, sermon on romans, the orchard, how to overcome evil, overcome evil, sermon on romans 12, do not be overcome by evil, how to overcome evil thoughts, conquer evil with good, do not overcome evil with evil, do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good, Overcoming Evil with Love

Id: DrV7iEObk2U

Length: 39min 2sec (2342 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 27 2016