Stay Close To Jesus

 June 25 2023

Romans 8:28-39

         Well, our last day to worship together as Canton South Church of the Nazarene has arrived, sadly enough. This is of course, a difficult day and I wondered of I should even prepare a message. There might be some who would say, well what’s the point. The point is that God has something to say to us this morning if we are willing to listen to it. This has always been the starting point for every message I spoke from the pulpit. I always began each message asking God just what is it that he wanted to say to us who are your people, Canton South Church of the Nazarene, and this day is no different. As I come to the end of the eighth chapter of Romans, I hear God saying that there is something here that we need to understand as we prepare to get up and go from this place.

         Last week, we heard from the middle section of the eighth chapter of Romans and there Paul spoke a great deal about our life in and with the Holy Spirit. And Paul says about the Holy Spirit that through him the love of God is being poured out from heaven, so that we can say that the Holy Spirit is the living presence of the holy love of God. This holy love of God, this love which seeks the very best for someone no matter what the cost, this love which loves and keeps on loving, this love which comes completely without any expectations, but just loves us because there is just no other way for this love to be, this is the holy love of God whose living presence is the Holy Spirit.

         Through this Holy Spirit, Paul teaches us we cry, Abba, Father, the beginning of the prayer Jesus taught that we often call, ‘The Our Father”, or the Lord’s Prayer. This is a prayer which has at its core a cry for the will of our Heavenly Father to be done here on earth as it is done in heaven. As we enter into this time of prayer we do so as people who come in weakness. Our Heavenly Father searches our hearts. He is looking for those who are willing to bear his name out into the world. Our God wants our lives to witness to the fact that our God is a God of faithful, steadfast love. Our weakness is found in the answer to the question: Is this faithful, steadfast love what God will find in our hearts when he goes looking for it? Yet, there in that moment we find that the Spirit reaches into our heart and by his living presence brings into our lives the faithful, steadfast love of God. So, through the Spirit our Heavenly Father knows us as one who is willing and able to carry his love out into the world. This is what the Lord’s Prayer asks for, that our Heavenly Father, hallowed or holy be your name. Our Heavenly Father is known as being holy through those willing to carry this holy love out into the world, to be people who will seek the best for others regardless what the cost, to love without limits or expectations, to love no matter what. This is what Paul is writing about here, that when these people of this church at Rome rose up from this time of prayer that they would do so as those in whom the living presence of holy love was alive in them. Out they would go, people bearing the name of God, their Heavenly Father witnessed as being a God of relentless, boundless love. 

         Now, its important for us to make sure we understand that after a time of prayer we need to get up and go to work because this helps us figure out what Paul is really getting at in this twenty-eighth verse of the eighth chapter of Romans.  Often, this verse is translated as being, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose”. As this is interpreted, Paul’s words seem to contradict the truth that all Christians soon figure out which is that it is hard to see just how all things work themselves for good as there are many things that sure seem to be working for evil. So, it really seems that how this has been translated needed to be corrected. Someone much smarter than I am, by the name of Haley Goranson Jacob, took another look at this and it turns out that a much better way to translate this scripture is, “In all things God works for good with those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” Doesn’t this sound so much better and it fits with what Paul is writing about here. When we rise from prayer, we are to go as those who have been equipped by the Holy Spirit to join God as he works for good out in the world. This is the purpose his Word, the Word we know as Jesus calls us to do. Jesus calls us to follow him into the world to join our Father there in his work. Listen to how Jesus speaks of this as found in the fifth chapter of John,“My Father is working until now, and I am working with him.”  As Jesus lived here on earth he understood himself as working with his Heavenly Father to bring about the victory of good through the bearing of the holy love of God out into the world. And because we are in Christ, this is our calling as well. So repeat after me, “My Father is working until now, and I am working with him.” This is what Paul is saying must be our response to our time in prayer, a willingness on our part to get up and get to work. God is busy working for good, and he is calling all who love him to come and join him in the work of doing the good that overcomes this world’s evil. Those who are found to be working with their Heavenly Father in his workshop of a world, these are those who are considered as bearing the very same attributes as the Son of God, the one we know as Jesus. As God knew all along that the Son of God would enter creation as one of us to redeem us, so too in him, God knew we would be his redeemed to go into all of creation to live as those set free to love freely. As God had arranged before the foundation of the world that his Son would be the one who would experience the unthinkable, death itself, in order that through him creation might as last have life so too God has so arranged that in Christ we too might be those who defeat the power of death through the love of Christ so that life might come to the world. Isn’t this what it means to be conformed to the image of Christ? Of course! And just as in Christ God arranged that we would join him in bringing life to the world, so too as Christ was called to join his Father in his work, so too we hear that same call and get up and we too go to work with our Heavenly Father. As Jesus was justified through the resurrection so too we are justified through the resurrection power living in us. And as Jesus is glorified so too, in Christ we will experience his glory, this victory of holy love over the powers of death. 

         I believe that what Paul is doing here is pleading for this church to get busy joining their Heavenly Father in doing good instead of using their time to give power to works of the flesh which caused them to judge and condemn one another. I mean, what is their excuse for being up to no good instead of being busy doing good? Paul seems to ask, “Is it that you are afraid of the powers of death and darkness? Why would you give into such fears? Don’t you know, our God is with us?! I mean, honestly, who can really be against us when God is with us? Paul seems to ask this church at Rome, “Is the reason that you are not out their working is that you are afraid of not having enough to get the job done? How can you think this when you know that God did not spare his own Son but gave him up all for us? And if he has given us this greatest gift how can we ever believe that he won’t give us all that we need to bring good into this world? Paul goes on to say, “If you are busy working with God to bring good into this world who can really bring any charge against you? We can defend our actions by stating that we work with God so it is God who will justify all that we do. “Who is going to condemn us then?”, Paul asks, recalling here at the end of the eighth chapter what he began with which was that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation for those who are working with God to bring good into this world because they are those the crucified and risen Christ Jesus has got their back, he is always working with them. As we bear his holy love out into the world what we discover is this love is always with us, and there is nothing that can ever separate us from this love. This is an amazing promise Paul holds forth for us. I think he wants us to know, without a doubt, that there are no limits to where the love of God might be found. So, there is no room for any belief that there might be someone who is beyond the reach of the power found in the love of Christ.There is no tribulation, no distress, no persecution, no famine, no nakedness, no danger, no sword, nothing so fearful that the love of God can not overcome that fear and defeat it. As Paul writes, “No, in  all of these terrifying situations we are super conquerors, we can experience victory, but only through Jesus Christ who loves us. And what a love that Jesus has for us! This is a love that death nor life, nor angels and rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, not height nor depth, absolutely nothing in all of creation that can keep Christ Jesus our Lord from reaching us with the love of God. What a beautiful comfort.Yet this is also a challenge for us because now we know that if we have a source of love which can be ours in any situation and that there is nothing in this world which can stop this love from reaching us then we have no excuse for refusing to love someone. So, it seems as if Paul turns to this church at Rome and he asks, “If the love of Christ is ever present with us then can we really justify our judging and condemning of one another? Absolutely not! No, the love of Christ poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit empowers us to join our Heavenly Father in his work of bringing his good to life all over the world. This working with God to bring good into this world, this work of bearing in ourselves the the holy love which is ours in the Holy Spirit, this work has an impact on my hope that we might all remain close to Jesus when we leave this place. Here at the end of the eighth chapter of Romans, Paul is very clear just how it is that we can stay close to Jesus. The answer is that as those who love God we must be willing to go out and work with God wherever we go. We must go in the power of the Holy Spirit and take this love of Christ, and love on people with the holy love of God, the love that desires the best for someone no matter what the cost, the love that loves and keeps on loving, the love which has no expectations or strings attached, a love which loves only because we have first been loved just like that. This is how we can all stay close to Jesus. So may God find us at work with him, and may we find Christ always close to us. Amen!