Book of Romans, Sermon Starters—Week 8

Lectionary Readings for the Seventh Sunday After Pentecost, Year A

• Genesis 28:10-19a
• Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24 (UMH 854) or Isaiah 44:6-8
• Romans 8:12-25
• Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Scripture Notes for Romans 8:12-25

Overview:

The primary foci of this week's passage are adoption and inheritance. God adopts the Christian into the family of God. The Spirit of God bears witness to the believer's human spirit that the adoption has occurred. The adopted Christian has a new life and is a joint heir with Christ. This inheritance includes both suffering and glory.

Summary:

• Following the misdeeds of the flesh leads to death, so put to death the desire to follow the ways of the flesh.
• Following the Spirit of God is the litmus test that indicates those who are children of God.
• Christians have been adopted by God into God's family.
• God's Spirit is that vital witness that confirms that we belong to God's family.
• Christians are joint heirs of Christ who share both in Christ's suffering and glorification.
• The suffering that Christians endure in the present pales in comparison to the future glory promised by God.
• Creation is personified:
  • Creation waits eagerly for the children of God to be revealed so that creation may also obtain their glorious freedom.
  • Creation has been groaning just as we groan, waiting for adoption and redemption of our bodies by God.
• Christians live in constant hope of complete adoption and redemption.

Background:

Adoption — Barclay notes that Paul's metaphorical use is based on his understanding of Roman adoption. In Roman culture, fathers held absolute control over the families, including decisions over life and death. In order for Roman adoption to occur, the biological father had to relinquish his absolute power to the adoptive father. Roman adoption was an involved process that included emancipation from one's natural father. This emancipation signified that the biological father's absolute power was broken. Afterward, a magistrate pleaded a legal case to transfer the adoptee to the adoptive father.

Roman adoption produced the following results:

• Adopted persons lost all rights to their family of origin.
• An adopted son became heir to his adopted father's estate.
• Legally, the old life of the adopted person was obliterated, all debts cancelled. The adoptee was considered to be a new person.
• Legally, the adoptee was the child of the adoptive father with the same rights as the biological children.

These results are key to understanding Paul's metaphorical use of adoption. Paul connects Roman adoption to God's adoption:

• God is our adoptive parent.
• Our old life is obliterated, and all spiritual debts are cancelled in God's sight.
• Christians, God's adopted children, begin a new life in Jesus Christ and become heirs of God.
• Christians inherit what Christ inherited — suffering and a new life and glory.

This is Paul's picture of a Christian entering the family of God. It is an act of God's grace, not of human merit.

Key Preaching/Teaching Points

The Christian is affected by three time realities:

The past: Jesus' redemptive act on the cross makes salvation possible.

The present: Christians live inside a body that must overcome the ways of the flesh. The Spirit of God helps Christians overcome the flesh. God's Spirit also bears witness that Christians are part of the family of God. The human spirit groans along with creation, longing for complete redemption for humanity and creation. The present Christian life is charged with eager anticipation of this ultimate redemption.

The future: God will redeem the children of God. Their bodies, which are now subject to corruption and decay, will be changed, fashioned after Jesus' own resurrection body. Creation will be restored to its glorious original form. Christians live in eager anticipation of this coming glory.

The body, though subject to death, will be redeemed. The misdeeds of the flesh must be overcome.

The body in which we live is subject to weakness, sickness, sin, and death. Paul warns against continuing to live according to the flesh, which leads to death. Paul further warns Christians not to go back into enslavement to the ways of the flesh. Christians are indebted not to the flesh and its misdeeds. Christians are indebted to God.

Key Terms:
Does your audience know the following terms found or concepts alluded to in Romans 8:12-25?

Flesh and body — For Paul, the two are not synonymous.

Flesh — Paul regularly treats flesh as something entirely negative.

Body — Body encompasses two time frames, present and future. In the present, the body lives in tension between possible sin and commanded holiness. In the future, the body will be redeemed and resurrected.

Abba — This was an Aramaic intimate, familial term for father. Paul promotes the use of Abba to help Christians embrace God's promises from the Exodus and promises to the patriarchs as their own. The use of Abba further helped people embrace a personal realization of their intimate personal relationship with God, i.e., a sharing of the "sonship" of Jesus. The Spirit of God comes alongside the human spirit to bear witness of this personal relationship with Abba.

Evangelistic Preaching Tips

This week's passage can be preached creatively from several perspectives. Consider speaking as the personification of creation.

This may be a great opportunity to preach about the relationship dynamics present in blended families and families with adopted children. Can we fully embrace adopted people into our families? Can we fully become people adopted by God into the church?

Reading: Romans 8:12-25 (An Evangelistic Approach — To lead people to Christ)

More Than Adopted — Accepted. Preach using the Roman adoption process as a key illustration to promote an understanding of God's adoptive process. God has no stepchildren. Adoption by God means full acceptance and welcome into God's family. God's adopted family is comprised of intimate, personal relationships characterized by God's children's use of the term Abba.

Aim: Help people understand the depth of God's adoption and acceptance of those who embrace God as Abba.

Reading: Romans 8:12-25 (A Renewal Approach — To strengthen the faith of Christians)

From Groaning to Glory. Emphasize the conditions under which Christians live in the present. We groan because humanity and God's creation awaits ultimate restoration and renewal. But Christians are to participate in that renewal in the present. Address the need for personal spiritual growth and Christian stewardship for the environment (creation).

Aim: Focus Christians' attention on the need for personal triumph over the deeds of the flesh and social responsibility for the environment.

Reading: Romans 8:12-25 (A Reclamation Approach — To restore "de-churched" individuals to vital faith in Jesus Christ)

Up Close and Personal. Our relationship with God is supposed to be intimate and personal. What language do we use, how do we conduct ourselves, and what evidence do we reference when we are in an intimate and personal relationship? Do we dare to live actively in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? How would anyone know that our relationship with Jesus Christ is Up Close and Personal?

Aim: Raise questions that cause listeners to examine their level of intimacy with Jesus Christ.

Provide Opportunities for a Faith Response

1. More Than Adopted — Accepted. Invite the congregation to consider new ways to welcome people into the congregation and generate a sense of belonging. Consider urging people to learn the names of the people to their left and right in worship each Sunday. During worship, invite "pew partners" to pray with each other. Encourage members to introduce new people to others and carry on a conversation following worship.

2. From Groaning to Glory. Provide the congregation with tangible ways to preserve the environment or aid people who groan because of hunger and poverty. Start a short-term study on hunger, poverty, or environmental concerns and include a mission project.

3. Up Close and Personal. Consider providing attendees with a "care note" from the church indicating how much you appreciate those in attendance. Include a prayer and a promise to pray for them that week.

Provide Opportunities for Follow Up

1. Engage the leadership of the church in a reexamination of ways in which the congregation can become more effective in welcoming people into the life of the church culture.

2. Consider a short-term church mission project to aid the hungry and poverty-stricken. For example, conduct a potato drop, participate in a gleaning, or volunteer to donate and serve food at a homeless shelter.

3. Instruct your intercessory prayer group to pray for your inactives and shut-ins. Organize visitation teams to visit your inactive members and shut-ins.

Resources for Romans

• The Message of Romans: God's Good News for the World (The Bible Speaks Today) by John R. W. Stott
• Romans: Tyndale New Testament Commentaries by F. F. Bruce
• Romans: A Shorter Commentary [ABRIDGED] by C. E. B. Cranfield

Follow Up Resource Available in pdf
Small Groups & Accountability: The Wesleyan Way of Christian Formation, by Steven W. Manskar, Director of Accountable Discipleship, Discipleship Ministries

General Evangelism Resources

• Ancient Future Evangelism by Robert Webber
  Webber explains Pentecost as the traditional time to declare one's Christian vocation.
• The Faith-Sharing Congregation by Roger Swanson and Shirley Clement
• Faith-Sharing: Dynamic Christian Witnessing by Invitation by H. Eddie Fox and George Morris
• The Faith-Sharing initiative Participants' Manual (Spanish Version) — El compromiso de compartir nuestra fe: Manual del Participante (pdf)
• The Faith Sharing New Testament
• That the World May Know Jesus Christ! by Brazilian Methodist Bishop Paulo Lockmann
• Transforming Evangelism: The Wesleyan Way of Sharing Faith by Henry H. Knight III and Douglas Powe Jr.

Witness: Learning to Share Your Christian Faith