Becoming a Branch Frees Us to Really Live (Romans Week 16) by Sarah Knepper

Romans 8:1-11 reminds us of the breathtaking freedom found in Jesus: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” This sermon explores how Jesus became the true vine, accomplishing what humanity never could on its own, and how staying connected to Him transforms the way we relate to God, experience peace, and impact the world around us. Rather than striving to be “enough,” we are invited to rest in Christ’s sufficiency and live through the power of the Spirit at work within us.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Will you pray with me? We're just gonna ask God's Spirit to speak through the word, and then we'll jump in. Spirit of God, we acknowledge that you are here with us already, and we just say that we welcome your voice. We want to hear from you today. Thank you for the gift of your word that you have preserved for us. We ask God that you would speak, that your truth would be made clear, Spirit, that you would communicate to each of our hearts as we need to hear from you. God, I ask that anything that is not from you would fall away and that your truth would remain. We thank you, God, for what you're gonna do this morning. We pray all of this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Okay, now we're gonna look at this passage in kind of three different sections, verses one through four, and then five through eight, and then nine through eleven. But before we do that, let me just mention a couple of things. One thing, if you've been around and you've been working your way through the book of Romans, that maybe that you have noticed, is that Paul is not short-winded. Uh, Paul has a lot to say. And often his arguments, uh, I read an example this week that I thought was just so helpful and clear. Often his arguments are like a plant that is growing. So if we think about that in regards to this verse, these verses, in verse one, he is giving us kind of the seed of the arguments. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And in that seed, if you don't know very much about plants, that's okay, join the club. I keep watering my plants and they keep dying, but um I'll just keep trying. The seed contains everything that is eventually going to grow out of it. So, like the stem that's gonna come out of it, it's it's in that seed. It's teeny tiny, it hasn't germinated yet. If you're a horticulturist, please just I'm trying, okay? So it hasn't germinated yet, but everything that's eventually gonna grow out of there, the stem and the leaves and the flowers, it is in its tiny little existence inside of that seed. And so what we see happening even here in these verses is when Paul says, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Everything that's going to come out after this is going to grow out of that one statement. That statement is like the summary of everything that's coming next. And so then we're going to see, like, so what does that mean? Because there is no condemnation, why is that true? And how is that going to impact the people around us? It absolutely should. But it all comes back to the seed of the argument. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So if you walk away remembering nothing else this morning, this is what you should remember. There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And if the question is why, well, Paul's going to tell us in a lot of different ways. And actually, in the Greek, we see that the word for because or for is used in verse 2 and verse 3 and verse 5 and verse 6. In essence, what he's saying is there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because of what he's going to tell us in verse 2. And that's true because of what he's going to tell us in verse 3. And that's true because of what's coming in verse 5, which is true because of what's coming in verse 6. Like I said, Paul is not short-winded. He just likes to build it up. So this is the structure of where we're headed. Now, in these first four verses, okay, so chapter 8, starting in verse 1, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives you life has set you free from the law of sin and death. What the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us who don't live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. These four verses, my friends, are the gospel. What Paul is reminding us of, what Paul is saying to us, is that Jesus came to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. Because we are people who live in the flesh. And by flesh we don't just mean physical, okay? We don't want to fall into this sort of Gnostic or dichotomy sort of way of thinking where we think that the physical is only bad, and the spiritual part of me is the good part. What he means when he says flesh is the part that has been corrupted, the part that has been corrupted by sin. And because we live in these bodies, this world that has been corrupted by sin, it is not possible for us to please God. But we are not without hope. Because Jesus came, because Jesus lived, and because Jesus died and resurrected. As I read these first four verses, it immediately brings to mind a passage from the book of Isaiah. One thing that's really important to me as I read scripture and as we talk about scripture together is to be constantly reminded that the story of Scripture is one story from beginning to end. And so we're always looking for ways that the story ties together. We're going to go back to Isaiah chapter 5. Okay, so we'll put it on the screen if you want to flip there in your Bibles, if you want to navigate there in your phone that turns into a Bible. Isaiah chapter 5. I'm going to read a few verses to you here right from the beginning of this chapter. Isaiah chapter 5. These were truthfully like the first verses that came to mind as I really started to study this passage. Isaiah chapter 5, starting in verse 1. I will sing for the one I love, a song about his vineyard. My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and he cleared it of stones. He planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it. He cut out a wine press as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. Now, you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I'm going to do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge and it will be destroyed. I will break down its wall and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briars and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it. The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. He looked for justice but saw bloodshed, for righteousness, but heard cries of distress. In this chapter, we see this picture being given to us of God's people. God says, I'm going to build a vineyard. You, my people. You're my vineyard. And I want you to produce good fruit. If you're aware of the story that has started all the way back in the beginning of Genesis, you know that this has always been what God has asked his people to do. I am protecting you, saving you, calling you out so that you can show the rest of the world what it means to know and follow me. I am blessing you so that you can be a blessing for others. But what we find in Isaiah chapter 5 is that God's people have not been doing a very good job of this. I asked you to produce good fruit, and when I look at you, all I see is bad fruit over and over and over again. Again, if you know the story of the Old Testament, it shouldn't be a surprise to you. God's people fail over and over and over and over. And so God says, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna destroy this vineyard. I'm done. I'm done. You can't do the thing that I've asked you to do. Now, if this is where the story ended, we would be without hope in the world. But turn with me to John chapter 15. I love the book of John. I think it's my favorite of the gospels. I don't know if you're supposed to have favorites, but I do. I think he's the best writer. And when I meet the other gospel writers, I'm gonna tell him that. I think John's the best. John chapter 15. This is Jesus speaking. I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Certainly you've heard these verses before. That Jesus is the vine and we are the branches that are connected to him. But when we consider these verses in the context, in the in the shadow of Isaiah chapter 5, where we've been reminded that God had said to his people, You be a vineyard, you produce fruit. Here, I'm giving you the law so that you know what it looks like to produce good fruit in the world. And God's people over and over and over and over again can't do it. And it seems like this has been a project that has failed. And then Jesus shows up and he says, Listen, I'll be the vine. You, my vineyard, all you've done is produce bad fruit. I will be the vine. And if you stay connected to me, you will produce good fruit. Jesus shows up and he says, I am going to do for you what you never could have done for yourselves. I am going to complete for you what you never could have completed on your own. These are the words. This is the message of Romans chapter 8, verses 1 through 4. The reason that there is no condemnation for us is because we are in the vine. We are in Christ Jesus. Jesus has done for you what you could not do for yourself. The title of our message today is that being a branch frees us to really live. And maybe that sounds so silly, but I just can't get this picture out of my mind. How many of us are trying to be the vine? You are trying to be enough on your own. You are not enough. If you have that sticker on your water bottle or on your computer, I'm so sorry, but you should take it off, okay? Because you're not enough. You were never designed to be enough. The gospel is you are not enough but Jesus. That's the gospel. And so this is what we see in the first four verses of Romans chapter 8. You are not enough. You were never supposed to be enough. This is reinforced by what we see all the way through the Old Testament, specifically in Isaiah chapter 5. We can't do it. But Jesus came. Jesus is the vine. And he promises me, he promises you that when we stay connected to the vine, we will bear fruit. And so your first point here is that being a branch sets me free in the way that I can relate to God. Now, all of a sudden, I am not trying to bear fruit to be good enough, to be enough, so that God will love me and be pleased with me. That's not the point. God already loves you. God is already pleased with fruit. God has already said there is no condemnation because you're in Jesus. So now you're set free to bear fruit, not to earn his favor, but because he's placed his favor on you. For some of us, it seems like just you're just switching the words around, Sarah. But it's life-changing. When we recognize being a branch sets me free. Jesus is. So when we understand who we are and what Jesus has done, I am now free to be related to God in a different kind of way. And then Paul continues his argument. He moves on into verses, oh I'm still in John, sorry. We'll go back to Romans 8, into verses 5 through 8. I'll reread those for you. Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires. But those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. So to use this branch analogy again, to continue to think of ourselves as a branch that is connected to the vine. I made a joke about plants, but I'm not kidding. I have a lot of plants in my house, and I'm always just like, please God, keep them alive. I have no idea what I'm doing. Okay. And sometimes they're thriving and sometimes they're not. I have a like a very viny plant that has been living for like 10 years, and this week three of the giant vines just fell off. I don't know. Like, I don't know. I don't know what happened, I don't know. But I should have seen it coming because the leaves that were on those vines had started to wither. They were not looking so good. And I just thought, maybe if I get it closer to the sun, it'll help. I don't know. I should have seen it coming. When we as branches are connected to the wrong thing, when we make our focus the wrong thing, Paul is beginning to say, the question here is, what is the outcome going to be for you? And specifically, let's zero in on what he says about the mind. Those who live according to the flesh have their mind set on what the flesh desires. Those who live according to the spirit have their mindset on what the spirit desires. Focusing on the flesh leads to death. Focusing on the spirit leads to life and peace. Now, again, let me be clear. If you are in Christ Jesus, the argument starts at the top. There's no condemnation for you. But so many of us forget that we're in Christ Jesus. And so what happens is you let your mind start to drift and start to get focused on the things of the flesh, the things of the world. And I don't have to convince you that those things lead to feeling like death. You feel overwhelmed. You feel without hope. I cannot tell you how many conversations I have been in with my believing friends who have said to me, I just feel like there is not hope for the world. That is not a mind that is set on Christ. Because the mind that is set on Christ and the Spirit, these verses tell us lead to life and peace. Now, this isn't a sort of like stick your head in the sand, oh, whatever, bad things that are happening. I just that doesn't affect me. I'm not bothered by it. There is pain and brokenness in the world. There's pain and brokenness in our own lives. But when my mind is set on the law of the spirit and the freedom that I have because of Jesus, I have a new perspective on these things. I want to read some verses to you from the book of Philippians. Philippians chapter 4. These are verses certainly you have heard before. Philippians chapter 4, starting in verse 6. Don't be anxious about anything. But in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Now, if I asked you to take just like a very brief survey of your last week, and the kind of things that your mind has gotten stuck on. You know what I mean when I say that. Like the kind of things that are just like it's like running on repeat in your mind. I used the phrase broken record with my high school seniors a few weeks ago, and I said, Do you know what that means? And they said, Yeah, like when you're running a race and you break a record, I was like, Oh boy. So we actually like look up a picture of a record player who was okay. But some of you maybe understand what a broken record is. If not, come see me afterwards. I'll help you. I promise I won't judge a little bit, maybe I might. Okay, so when we're a bro, when your mind is a broken record, it's gotten stuck on something.

unknown 19:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

And you just can't get it out of your head. It's keeping you up at night. You're waking up. The first thing that comes to your mind in the morning is this thing. For how many of us are those things that our minds are stuck on are things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy. Again, I don't mean stick your head in the sand and ignore the pain. But the pain and brokenness, it's not going anywhere. And we have the opportunity, the freedom, because of who we are connected to, because you are connected to the vine, the vine who gives life and peace. You have the opportunity to experience a renewal of your mind. That's coming in Romans chapter 12. I don't want to steal all the thunder, but we get to renew our minds by focusing on these kind of things. And when you feel unable to do that, Philippians chapter 4, verse 6 starts us off with what we should do. In everything, by prayer and petition, bring your requests to God. Your mind is stuck in that broken record in a way that is just not helpful. Invite the Spirit of God into it. I can't stop thinking about this thing that is so overwhelming. I can't stop thinking about the fact that my friends at work, their lives are so broken, their relationships are broken. The way that they think about their families is so broken. The way that they think about peace and justice in the world is so broken. And when I get stuck thinking about those things, instead of getting stuck on the broken record wheel, there is therefore now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. And because I'm connected to Christ Jesus, I have the opportunity to experience peace. Jesus, will you bring me peace? I don't know how to find it in the midst of this world that feels chaotic, but I know that you promise it. So I'm asking you to help me. I'm asking Asking you to help me. Some of you have maybe done things like you've decided to give up social media. Maybe you did that for lent, or you've done it for like a month or something. Some of you have decided, like, I'm not, I'm not gonna, this thing that just has really been a negative influence on me, I'm gonna let go of it for a season of time. And my guess would be if you have ever done something like that, you're amazed at how much better you feel. I've had high school seniors say that to me, you know, I gave up my um Instagram for a while and I just felt so great. I said, Cool, are you just gonna like be done with it? And they said, Oh no, I had to get back off. But why? We understand that feeling, it's like a detox happens when we let go of these things that are making it so easy to get focused on the things of death. You are invited to let your minds be focused on things of life and peace. When I'm really understanding what it means to be a branch, I'm free to experience peace. I'm free to experience joy and pleasure. And then lastly, in these last few verses, we'll read these last few and wrap up. Verse 9. You, however, are not in the realm of flesh, but you're in the realm of the spirit. If indeed the spirit lives in you, and if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, they don't belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his spirit who lives in you. It like really ends with a bang. Now, clearly, one of the things that he's talking about here, you guys, you didn't experience the bang because you had no reaction to it at all. Okay, so it's okay. I'll help you see it. I'll help you see it. You're gonna be excited. Clearly, one of the things that he's talking about here is our bodily resurrection. If the Spirit of God lives in you, that spirit brought Jesus' body back to life, and he's gonna do the same thing for us. Praise God. Okay? He's going to restore you, resurrect you. We are going to live in a renewed earth together. It is going to be wonderful. But also, what I see in here are these hints of the fact that the Spirit of God, who is so powerful that he can bring a human back to life, that spirit lives in you right now. So this isn't just like that, man, someday my body's death is gonna be renewed, and I'm not gonna feel like I'm officially old enough that when I wake up, I think, oh, I'm in more pain now than when I went to sleep. Like, how does that happen? Okay, like how do you how do you hurt more when you wake up than when you went to bed? It makes no sense. If you're 25, you have no idea, and I'm so sorry, it's downhill for you, okay? So some of us we read these verses and we go, thank God, a day is coming when I'm not gonna feel like that anymore. I'm with you. But these verses aren't just about someday, these verses are about right now. The Spirit of God, who has powerful enough to bring Jesus' body back to life, lives in you. I'm gonna read some verses to you from Ephesians chapter 3. These may be my favorite verses in the entire Bible. Ephesians chapter 3, verses 20 and 21. Now, to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to the power that is at work within us. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. God is able to do immeasurably more than all you can ask or imagine. Take a moment to think about that. I can ask and imagine some pretty big things. And I have gone to God with some pretty big things. And Paul is also writing this letter, and he says to the church in Ephesus, the biggest things that you can think of and imagine, God can do immeasurably more than that. Some translations say exceedingly and abundantly more. Your biggest dreams, God wants to blow them out of the water. And then he doesn't stop there. How does he do it? It is according to the power that is at work within you. This is the exciting part. This isn't just God sitting somewhere far away thinking, who do I want to? I'm gonna drop some goodness on people. How am I gonna do that today? The Spirit of God who brought Jesus back to life lives in you. And the power that brought Jesus back to life, God wants to use that power through you, not only to impact your own life, but to impact the world around you. This is why we are still here, my friends. We are in the world to continue to expand the kingdom of God. And that's not because you're enough. Again, this is where now we've cycled all the way back to the beginning. Now we go all the way back to verse 1, the seed that was given to us. If you read verse 11 and you think that feels overwhelming, a lot of power in me, and I'm supposed to be like doing stuff and changing the world, and I don't know, it sounds stressful. It's not your power. Because you're not enough, remember, you're not enough. You are connected to the vine. Jesus is enough. And because we are connected to Him, our relationship to God has changed. Our ability to focus on things that are full of peace and life instead of death has changed. And now the way that you interact with the world and the power that is available for you to share with others has changed. This is not coming from you. You are not the source. Jesus is the source. What great news Paul is giving us in this chapter. This is what I'm saying. When I read this, I thought, how did I just have the best? I'm sorry for everyone else who has to preach because this is the best right here. What's happening here is so exciting. We've gotten to the middle of the book, and Paul is saying, There is such good news. The issue for many of us is that we forget about this. The issue for many of us is that we forget. Because life is life. Because right now you're sitting in here, and for some of you, you're going, like, yes, this is what I needed to hear, and then you're gonna get in your car and you're gonna drive to see someone who is not so easy, and you're gonna forget about all of this. And all of a sudden your mind is focused on the things that are like broken record things towards death. Or on your drive home, you get behind someone who doesn't seem to know what the speed limit is. And isn't it amazing how that so quickly takes away like life and peace? Huh? I know this person. Or for some of you, and I thought Pastor Michael the way that he introduced Mother's Day to us, I thought was really beautiful. I'm 41 years old, I don't have children, I've never been married. And so for some of you, I can relate to the feeling that Mother's Day is hard. And even though you know what should be true in your minds, it's hard to live it. It's hard to feel it. You get on Instagram and you see all these like nice things that people are posting, and you think, why not me? Or for some of you, it's the news. You're gonna get in your car, you're gonna hear the news, and you're gonna think, uh, what how am I supposed to find life and peace? What sort of power has the Spirit given me that can impact any of this? And we so quickly, right now you're feeling very connected to the vine, but we walk out the doors and we so quickly begin to lose sight of what is true. So we're going to conclude here, we're gonna head into ministry time, and as I was thinking about like what might God want to do this morning? How may He want to connect to you individually? What may He want to do in your lives? One of the things that I want to invite you to receive prayer for is as you hear this, if you recognize this is something that you just struggle to keep in perspective, like you regularly are struggling to feel like, is there any hope? I look at the world, I look at my life, and I feel like there is no hope at all. If that's you, we want to pray for you today. Please let us pray for you. Let we want to pray that God's Spirit will remind you that you don't have to be enough here. There already is no condemnation for you, and all of these things that are true, He wants to work out in you. So if you find yourself feeling like, I feel like there is no hope, we want to pray for you today. And then, secondly, another group that came to mind, the number of times that I have said you are not enough, some of you don't like it. You don't. Because you've spent your life proving to yourself and proving to other people that you are enough. Thank you very much. I'm good enough, I'm strong enough, I'm smart enough, I'm wealthy enough, I'm whatever enough, I'm enough. And for some of you, that is getting in the way of allowing Jesus to do what he wants to do. Because you're constantly trying to be enough, and Jesus is saying, like, that's not your job here, friend. You're not the vine. You're not the vine. It's I'm the vine. If you just stay connected to me, some of us today need to be reminded that in order to follow Jesus, it takes humility. You are not enough. And you have to lay that down. You have to stop trying to be number one. You're not. You're not. And we live in a culture and live in a world that tells you that you should be. Tells you you need to be the best. You don't. You don't. You're not ever gonna be. You are not enough. It is a countercultural thing to say that. I say this to my coworkers and they're like, what? I'm like, I'm not, I know I'm not enough. They're like, this is confusing. I don't understand what's happening right now. It's countercultural. So I'm gonna pray for us. I'm gonna invite the ministry team to come forward. If either of those two things like really are resonating with you this morning, again, those things are you are you recognize you're a person who really wants to have it all together, you want to be enough, you want to be the best, and the idea that you would be humble enough to say, Jesus is enough for you, if that's something that's connecting with you, we want to pray for you. And then also, if you're someone who would say, I struggle to believe that there is any hope. Like I'm hearing these words, but I know it's all gonna leak out of me as soon as I walk out the door. We want to pray for you. There is already no condemnation for you, but you get to choose to live in that reality. I'll pray, a ministry team will come forward, and then we'll pray for you and we'll continue to worship. Spirit of God, we thank you. We thank you that you are living and active inside of us right now. We thank you, Spirit of God, that you're not asking us to be more than what it's possible for us to be. That you're simply asking us to depend on you. So I ask God right now, Spirit, you know us. You know our hearts, you know our minds, you know the situations that we came in with this morning. I ask, Spirit, that you would prompt, that you would move, that you would stir in us, that we would desire to orient ourselves to be more rightly connected to you. That we would desire to better position ourselves to allow you, God, to be the vine, to be the source, and for us to simply be the branches that are feeding on it. We love you, Jesus. We love you so much. We are so grateful for what you have done. We ask God that you would continue to do even today immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine. We pray all of this in the name of Jesus.