LOVED BEYOND MEASURE | Romans 8:31–39 | Pastor John Anderson | 5.31.26

Nothing can separate us from God’s love. 

Transcript

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Hello, this is Pastor Ryan Girl and Pastor John Anderson. Welcome to the Resurrection Church Podcast. Each week we bring you Sunday's message from Resurrection Church right here in Racine, Wisconsin. So whether you're listening on a walk, driving to work, holding some laundry, or avoiding folding laundry, we hope this encourages your faith, challenges your perspective, and reminds you that resurrection isn't just something that happens, it's something God is still doing. Enjoy this week's message. Good morning, everybody. How are we doing today? Good. My name's John. I'm one of the pastors here at Resurrection, and uh, we're so happy you joined us this morning. We are wrapping up a sermon series that we have been in uh since uh Easter. Uh and so as we as we walk out of the season of Easter, we head into the summer, we have a new sermon series Pastor Ryan's gonna share with you. We're excited. Um, and you don't have to be excited, just pretend like you are when we're around. We uh we we we take this very seriously, and so uh the things that we have been lifting up, we think are very appropriate for our congregation, but also for the church as a whole. I was with our small group last night and uh love our small groups, by the way. Hopefully some of yours have started already. And we were in Acts, where Paul reminds us right away that the early church, the first church community, they didn't have a Bible, they didn't have a hymnal, they didn't have a building like this. They gathered in homes and they committed themselves to these four things: to teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer, which is what we're doing today here at Resurrection. But we're called, we're encouraged to do it every day so that that practice would invite other people in. Because there is a love that surpasses all understanding that Paul talks about in Romans that we are called to share with the world in the way that we encounter it. I've talked about my parents a lot from the pulpit. Both of them have passed away. Specifically, my mother, who has been a, who was and still is, the echoes of her life continue, such a pillar of faith in my life. Someone who not only modeled Jesus, but taught me about Jesus, taught me in song, taught me in prayer, taught me in the scriptures, taught me in the way she lived. And I've used her as a reference point, as something to look to, that it is possible. But what I don't what I don't talk about a lot is that in those few years that mom was dying, I had a real crisis of faith. Pastor Ryan would receive some of those phone calls, others in my circle. I remember sitting in hospital rooms, and many of us, I think, have had this experience, and maybe many of us just had this experience where machines are making sounds, the person you love is breathing shallowly. It's just you, and you find yourself asking God why. Or maybe you're asking, God, are you even there? Do you even care? Am I alone in this? I wonder if any of you have ever felt that way. When faith becomes real, no longer rhetoric, no longer some abstract idea, but real. Like what do you cling to? Romans begins, Roman, Romans 1. This is this is this huge book that changed Luther, Martin Luther's life, and was a big catalyst for the Reformation. For the righteous shall live by faith. It's easy to have faith when things are easy. But my goodness, it's hard sometimes. Perhaps because a big lie you've been told is that the opposite of faith is doubt, which is not true. The opposite of faith is certainty. We need our God, we need our God, and there are things that we don't know the answer to, endings that we don't know. But we have a God who says, In this I am with you always. So today we're gonna jump into Romans 8. Because Romans 8 reveals to us a breathtaking hope. That the love of God in Christ Jesus tells us, promises us that no matter what we face in life, we do not face it alone. And you are going to be challenged as you leave here today to name out loud whether you believe that is true. So let's pray. God, as we as we end this series, I hope, God, that you've done all the work. Holy Spirit, I hope that you've moved in a special way at this service earlier today, at the eight o'clock service, over the past month and a half here. God, I pray that there has been something unlocked in some of us, something renewed, a reminder that we are yours and that who we are and whose we are matters, not only for us, but for the world. Help us to learn from the Apostle Paul. As always, I pray the meditations of my heart and the words that pass through my lips are yours, O God. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen. Romans 8 opens with, There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. I actually think that we should have stood up and given a round of applause after the reading today, because it is some of the most important scripture to our faith. It shaped theology, shaped theology in the Reformation. I'm gonna repeat some of these words of the Apostle Paul. And if something doesn't stir inside of you, church, I encourage you to read this again and again and again. It starts by saying there is now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. And then it ends. The last verse is, and nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God. I don't know what you're struggling with today or what you carried in here or what you even believe about God, but that should bring you all sorts of hope. That should shine light into whatever dark season you're walking through. That's the whole chapter of Romans 8. No condemnation, no separation. And Paul knows very well that he's writing to an exhausted people. They're frightened, they're hurting. If you know anything about Romans, it was probably written later in Paul's ministry. It's most likely where Paul died as he went there to argue with the emperor. One emperor in Rome, Claudius, had expelled all the Jewish people already after a Christian church had been established. So what happens is Paul finds out these Jewish people are allowed back into Rome and they're Jewish Christians upset with the Gentile Christians. This happens a lot for Paul. And so Paul writes Romans to help them with some of these disagreements. But then he gets to chapter eight, and there is a dramatic shift. It's as if all of these arguments, he says that they're important, but they're not that important. Here's what's important. There's a story in Genesis. Um, Genesis is the first book of our scriptures. And in Genesis, we meet a man named Jacob. Does anybody familiar with Jacob? Show hands, you don't have to, yeah. If the person next to you didn't raise their hand, look at him and go, No, I'm just kidding, don't do that. Uh there's this guy named Jacob, and Jacob is the son of Isaac. Isaac is the son of a man named Abraham. And if we know the story, Abraham and Sarah, uh, they are the considered the matriarch and patriarchs of the Israelite people with whom God has established generations. They had their first child, Isaac, together when they were very old. And then Isaac had twins, something I know a little bit about. And Isaac's twins' names were Jacob and Esau. Jacob, when he came out of the womb, was named Trickster. Later in his life, his father was ill, and Jacob went to his father's bedside and he stole his brother's inheritance. His brother was older. And so Jacob pretends to be his brother, his father can't see, and he gives him the blessing and the inheritance, which was a very big deal at this time in history and in this culture. He essentially steals what was his brother's. His brother, uh perhaps rightfully so, is upset, is angry, and Jacob flees. And then for almost 15 years, Jacob is away from home, fleeing his brother. His father has died. He marries, he has children. And then one day he finds out his brother is near. And so he decides to go out to him. He sends emissaries out. Go tell my brother that Jacob is here. I've come to apologize. I've brought him lots of gifts. Please, please tell him I'm sorry. The emissary comes back and he says, We met your brother Esau. He is traveling with 400 mighty men, and they are on their way here. And scripture says that Jacob was afraid. And then in Genesis 32, there's this story that maybe some of you are familiar with. Jacob has sent everybody away. He's waiting for that fateful morning meeting. And it says that Jacob wrestled with someone. Most commentators think it was God. And so he wrestles with God in his in his story about his hip being put out of place and he walks with a little bit of a limp. But near the end of this wrestling, he begs God to bless him. And so God blesses him and he renames him Israel, the one who wrestles with God. And I think there's a lot to learn in that. I think some of us are afraid to wrestle with God. And what I mean by that is I think some of us are afraid to be entirely honest with God in our prayers. As if God doesn't know your heart. Some of us try to put together these flowery phrases to impress God or those around us, but the reality is there's nothing inside of us that's joyful. Or perhaps you have a hard time believing that anyone's even listening. So he wrestles with God and he's named the one who wrestles with God, but the one who is also beloved. And so he leads to this blessing. Here's the best part of the story: just like the prodigal father who ran to his prodigal son, when Esau sees his brother, Jacob is in fear. He's fallen down on the ground, scripture says, waiting for whatever his brother is going to unleash upon him. And his brother runs to him and he grabs him in an embrace, as Pastor Ryan would say, an embrace of grace. And he hugs him, and all is forgiven. I think there's something to learn from Esau and Jacob. There's something to be reminded of in Romans that God's love is forever. God's mercy and grace oftentimes meet us in unexpected places. And the great truth of that, at least for me, is A, I've experienced it, but B, I am supposed to also be the one who carries that grace and that mercy and that forgiveness into a broken world. In Romans 8, God calls us co-workers in this ministry. Again, that's another piece of scripture that should both humble you, give you chills, and excite you. If you believe in the God of the universe, the God of all creation, and you believe that he somehow thinks you're worthy of being his very presence in this world, my goodness. Praise God, hallelujah. So back in Romans, Paul says, If God is for us, who can be against us? That's a very comforting passage, isn't it? If God is for us, who can be against us? But Paul does not say that nobody will oppose you. Perhaps a confusion in the church. I prayed. God, how did this thing happen? God, I tithed so much this week. How did this happen? God, I stayed awake for Pastor Ryan's entire sermon. How did this happen? Paul knew about this. Paul was beaten. Paul was rejected, imprisoned, mocked. He means opposition does not get the final word. And that's what I think too many of us are hanging on is that last word that was thrown over us, forgetting the ultimate word that was placed upon us. Fear doesn't get the last word. Rome, for Paul, even though Rome will be the cause of his physical death, does not get the last word. Death doesn't get the last word. Shame doesn't get the last word. And maybe the hardest thing for many of us to believe, many Christians, if you profess Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you surrender to Christ, if you are trying to follow Christ like Pastor Ryan and I are faithfully, though it's hard. If that is true, I think sometimes it's easier for us to believe that God exists, but harder for us to believe that God is actually for us. That God accepts all of us, that God forgives us. I think some of you, if if we're honest, believe that God just simply tolerates you. Or that God is disappointed in you. Or that God's just waiting for you to fail. But Paul points to Jesus, and Paul says emphatically, no. The cross is not God deciding to love you. Listen to this. The cross is not God deciding to love you. The cross is God revealing that his love for you has always existed. And it at times might seem reckless. We're gonna sing reckless love in a moment. And when Corey Asbury wrote that song, he's the author of these lyrics, he was blasted by some in the Christian community. You can't call God's love reckless. And he patiently and faithfully responded, I don't know how else to describe it. I wouldn't wash the person that caused my death. I wouldn't wash their feet. I wouldn't break bread and offer a blessing to the one who would betray and deny me. That's a reckless kind of love. But I know that there are voices in your head that lie to you a lot. There are voices in this world that are loud, so many loud voices. Telling you things that are not true, voices that are louder than God's too often. That every day we learn acts. I just remind you again that we are to be about the work of teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer. Oh, that we would pray more. Paul invites us then in the scripture to imagine a courtroom. So we're all in a courtroom right now, we're all on trial. Okay. Man, it'd be fun to me and Pastor Ryan were like an attorney team. I don't, no one would ever win a case, but it would be entertaining, I bet. Yeah, that's right. So we're in a courtroom, and Paul, he's describing the scene. And he and Paul says, Who will bring any charges against God's elect? In other words, Paul's saying, Who gets to define you now? And many of us were so worried about how we're defined. We're trying so hard to prove ourselves, to prove that we matter, that we belong. We're trying. And I tell you what, there are times where I can muscle things out on my own. But always, always will I reach a point of exhaustion, oftentimes failure, frustration. I think that I'm not spiritual enough because I've been trying to be spiritual on my own, that I'm not worthy enough because I forget that the only one worthy of anything is our God who has claimed me as worthy. So then Paul goes on and he says, No, the verdict has already been spoken. You are beloved, you are accepted, and you are held and you are forgiven. And there is a freedom if you believe this is true, church. I promise you, if you've never actually believed that this is true, there is a freedom in believing that this is true. Because you don't have to keep prosecuting yourself every day. You don't have to create some false version of yourself just to appease the world for a few moments before you have to retreat inward and go, thank God they didn't see all this stuff. Paul calls us something else. The theologian Peter Rollins says about this text that the accusations in your life, those hurts, those words that were placed on you, those labels that weren't true, they might still echo a little bit in your story. But he says they no longer speak truth, and in fact they never did. And I wonder if someone here needs to hear that. A few verses before today's reading, Paul says, All things work together for good, for God, for those who love him. And this is a verse that is often misrepresented in the church. And there's been some good work on this verse and this chapter, especially by a number of theologians, uh, primarily N.T. Wright, who I couldn't recommend more to all of you. And he says, oftentimes people read this verse, all things work together for good, for God, for those who love him. So sometimes you might hear that message and go, okay, all suffering's good. That abuse was good. That tragedy was good. Pastor Ryan tells stories from his chaplaincy in uh Chicago, South Chicago. He was part of a clinical pastoral education as part of our seminary experience. And he would talk about some of the things that he heard that were uh shocking and abhorrent. Hearing a pastor from a different tradition tell a young couple who had just lost a child, God knew you weren't ready to be parents. And we read verses like this and we think that was God's plan. But that's not what Paul's saying. And I'm not just saying this as my translation, I'm saying it because of what we read before it and what we read after it. What Paul is saying is that God is at work in all things. So God is with you, bringing what though? Paul goes on, in all things, God is bringing redemption, God is bringing healing, God is bringing restoration, and God is bringing new creation. When people say it was God's plan, I sometimes I get a little bit prickly because I think we forget God had a plan for creation. And it was beautiful and it was harmonious. And if you know the story, we walked in the garden with God. God wanted to be with us. All God said we couldn't do is be God ourselves. But we rejected God. And we tried to rule ourselves and rule each other, and it has been failure after failure. And then in Christ and on the cross, we are reminded of something bigger, something better, something that lasts. Paul says, What is good? What is good is being conformed to the image of Christ. And if you've never read the stories of Christ, our Savior who modeled mercy and forgiveness, our savior who modeled self-sacrifice, our savior who did not meet pain and frustration with vengeance, but with humility. The goal, Paul says, is not comfort. It was never comfort. The goal is love, mercy, and Christ-likeness. That's the goal. The kind of humanity revealed in Jesus. And then Paul says, this is the part that just blows my mind. Paul says, and I want to do this work with you. I want you to be my coworkers in this church. I don't know what you're going to do when you leave today. Uh, Pastor Ryan will invite you over. I'll give you his address. You're welcome. You're welcome to come and visit with him. But I don't know where you're going today or what you're doing. But, church, are you gonna leave here believing this is true? Because if you do, then every single person you encounter should experience that through their interaction with you. Maybe through words, maybe through an unexpected smile, unexpected grace. Roman 8 is deeply communal. It is all about the community practicing these promises. Paul then and today is telling us that creation is groaning, humanity is groaning. Can we agree on that? It's just, it's groaning across the world. And we have a spirit, the spirit of God who wants to move and do powerful things. The same spirit of God who, when we say, I don't need your help, says, Okay. God invites ordinary people to become co-workers in this healing world, and that's incredible. And so, church, I wonder what we'll do with that. We're gonna do back to the basics this summer. We're gonna talk about some things that it might seem elementary to some of you, or perhaps we're brand new. We're gonna talk about the tenets that Christ calls us into, the virtues and values of being a disciple of Jesus. Paul is reminding us right now that suffering's not gonna disappear. But love will always survive it. I'm gonna invite the band up here. We're gonna sing a song in a minute. Paul ends this with one of the most powerful pieces of scripture. For I'm sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Hallelujah. Amen. Is how we should respond every time we hear that. It's as if Paul is trying to think of anything that could possibly separate us from God's love, and he can't. So why do we try to do it? In church, just as much as God loves us, God loves that person that you have a hard time loving. And that reminder is so important. I I remember when I was um in Brazil, I was doing some mission work many, many, many, many years ago. So long ago, 22, 23 years ago. You ever realize how old you are and it hurts?

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Yeah, every day.

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Pastor Ryan and I are in a small group with some new members of our congregation, and uh one of them was a former youth of Pastor Ryan's, because he's older than me. And and now she has kids. And while we were reflecting on that with joy, we were also going, but when I was in, I was in Brazil, I was in uh the last part of our trip, we were in Rio de Janeiro, and we had spent most of it in Sao Paulo working at USP University and then Ilabella. But now the last few days, and we were in Copacabana Beach, and I remember sitting in the water on the shoreline, and and and the waves just kept coming in and just lapping at my feet, and they didn't stop, and they were steady, and they were steady. And they were staying. And I think about God's love. And I believe God's love is like that. It's never going to stop. It's going to wash over us every day. It's constant. You can count on it. And sometimes we walk away from it, though. We forget that it's there. We forget that it's a promise laid over us. And when we do that, our lives will get more complicated, and our ability to share that truth with the world becomes almost impossible. So, church, will you leave here today knowing that there is no condemnation and that nothing can separate you from God's love? Amen. Amen, church. We're going to sing here in a minute, but let's pray first. God, you are so good. And uh I'm just I'm so thankful for the people that have gathered here today, that have taken seriously the call to gather, but also I know we'll take seriously the work put in front of them as they leave here today. God, help us to be a church outside of the building, a people of your love. God, remind us in those moments when life is overwhelming and when when faith seems hard. That nothing separates us from your love and that you don't abandon us in hardship and strife. You sit with us in it. And hear us now as we sing to you, oh God. Receive our praise, receive our worship. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.