4/13/25 - Romans Part 7: Unity in the Church & Mission - Pastor Josh Stelly

Sermon Notes

1.  Unity  amid  Diversity  (Romans 14)

Romans 14:1 NIV- Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 

Romans 14:2 NIV- One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 

Romans 14:3–4 NIV- The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. 

Weak Perspective:

 “When you consider all the divisions that have fractured the church into literally thousands of branches, it’s hard to believe that we all claim to follow the same Jesus who prayed before He died that we would all be one as He and the Father are one.” ― Francis Chan, Until Unity 

Romans 14:20–23 NIV- Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.  
So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

2. Christlike  Service (Romans 15)

Romans 15:1–7 NIV- We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written:  
“The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” 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.  
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 

"If my heart is right with God, every human being is my neighbor." - Oswald Chambers (Lecturer and Missionary) 

3. The  Community  of Gospel Unity (Romans 16) 

Romans 16:1–2 NIV- I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me. 

Romans 16:17–18 NIV- I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. 

Romans 16:19 NIV- Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. 

Romans 16:25–27 NIV- Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith—to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen. 

Final thoughts: 

The community of faith is Christ to the world.  

The church is called to continue Christ’s presence in the world: 

1.  Spreading the Good News
2.  Doing the Good News
3. Being the Good News