In the sermon titled 'A Local Life,' Scott Brown explores Romans 12 to emphasize the importance of genuine fellowship and the relational culture within a church community. He stresses the need for believers to present their bodies as living sacrifices and to be transformed by renewing their minds. The sermon highlights the challenges posed by modern, remote lifestyles that hinder personal, local church relationships. Brown underscores that the resurrection of Jesus is central to Christian life, providing the foundation for the supernatural fellowship and ethical commands described in Romans 12. He urges believers to cultivate a culture of humility, love, and genuine relationships, reflecting the church's commitment to face-to-face interactions and community life grounded in biblical teachings.

Please open your Bibles of Romans chapter 12 and we'll be reading the entire chapter this morning. Chapter this morning. This is the inerrant all-sufficient sweeter than honey word of God. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function. So we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith.

Or ministry, let us use it in our ministry. He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another in brotherly love, in honor, giving preference to one another.

Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the Saints, given to hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who we Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble.

Do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath.

For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good the grass withers the flower fades but the word of our God stands forever let's pray Lord we pray that you would teach us your ways this morning, that you would open up our eyes to see wonderful things from your law, that you would bring us into line with these wonderful ways of being alive together in your church.

I pray you'd give these marvelous gifts to this church in great measure. Amen. Please be seated. Just as a way of reminder and review, this chapter begins a new section in the book of Romans and it's actually founded on the first 11 chapters which speak of man's predicament, his lostness, and his only hope in Jesus Christ and particularly that justification is a man's only hope and so we've walked through these 11 chapters that focus on on justification And now you can see an outline that you have in front of you that walks you through some of the basic points I want to make. I really want to make three main points this morning, particularly about the culture of a church, which is described here.

And then secondly, the doctrinal roots, the foundations of this culture. And then finally, just the consideration of how we're living. So first of all, this passage speaks of the culture of a true church. And it explains the relational fabric, what it looks like when people love one another. Yet, you know, we know that we ourselves and we know others who do not always demonstrate love the way that God has defined it.

And there are so many things here. Think about the very powerful secrets that are here for repairing broken relationships. Not only just to have relationships, but how to loop back and actually repair something that has been broken. So they're very very powerful things that are here. I'm gonna end up saying that that Romans 12 is really an anthem to the resurrection of Jesus Christ Because all of these things flow from it.

And that's why the apostle, he issues such an urgent plea. He says, I beseech you therefore brethren, it's a very serious matter. This matter of the fellowship of the Saints how the people of God exists together is is an incredibly important matter Not only for those of you who are adults, but but children who grow up in an environment what kind of environment are they going to grow up in? And this passage helps us understand what that is. Well you know what it is?

It's actually a supernatural fellowship that really begins at the power of the resurrection and then it advances when a believer takes action on those things that are commanded, because all believers are in process learning how to please the Lord. And So the focus here really is how do you create this culture? How do you create this superior culture of Jesus Christ? Because what is here, you might call it the DNA of a true church. It explains the spirit of a church, the feel of a church, the heartbeat.

Everything has an aroma about it. You can go into someone's home, and There's an aroma in that home. You've walked into places where you can just feel the tension. It's as thick as anything. But there's an aroma and a feel and a spirit that God desires for His church, and it's listed here.

And by the way, it's local. By the way, it's personal. It's life integrated. And it's a little bit like the people in the church are like the plants in a garden. They're all planted in the same soil.

And they're growing in the same direction by the word of God, by the nourishment that's in Scripture. And They keep their eyes lifted toward the sun that gives them life. And there are so many images about what a church is like. In Ephesians chapter 4, it says that we are like fabric. We are like joined and knit together.

This is the fellowship of the saints. The church is a little bit like a patchwork. You've maybe known people who make quilts. And some quilts seem to be harmonious, and some quilts are very weird. The patchwork is very weird.

It might be that the church is a little bit like that. But I think what I want to try to drive home this morning from this passage is that modern life, the way it's structured, is a challenge to this. It's a challenge to the personal, local, relational life that God has given to his church. And there are different ways that you could illustrate this. You've been to a restaurant lately.

You've seen a family of four or five, and they're all staring into their phones. They're all living remotely. They're not living where actually their life is. They're living in another world. Somebody told me the other day about, they went into a local restaurant here that we go to all the time and there was a couple sitting in the booth and both of them had phones propped up and each one of them was watching their own personal movie in the restaurant.

Well this is sort of the challenge that we have in life But God actually, God calls people to be with their own people and their church, their work, their marriage, their fellowship of the saints. The Christian life is not a remote life, it's a local life. And frankly, there's really no greater culture than the culture of Jesus Christ. The church is under the influence of the very best commands that could be given to human beings and so the church reflects and manifests these relational principles that are here in Romans 12. And so I wanted us to see the entire chapter this morning, having read it.

And I wanted us to think about this face-to-face local life, intensely personal life in the local church. And you can see this in so many ways through this passage. And in time to come, we're going to walk through every phrase in this passage because it's so important. But in the Greek text, there are at least 30 commands for church life. In other words, God wants to sort of bring his people together and focus on one thing when they're together, categorized by these various phrases that are here.

And some of them are positive and some of them are negative commands or exhortations. And of course, we've already walked through the first two verses that really present the heart of it all. It begins by presenting your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. And it means that we jump off the world and we begin to do our life together the way that God has designed it. We're not conformed to this world, but we're being renewed in the mind because it all begins in the way that we think about our own life and about one another.

But then in verse 3, after this introduction and the first two verses, he actually begins with something that has to be cleared out at the beginning. And he says, do not think more highly of yourself than you ought. Now when we come back together the next time we're in Romans, we'll try to deal with that in some depth in verses three through eight. But most of the problems in a church, they come because somebody's thinking more highly of himself than he ought. It's very interesting, you know, if you've been in a church for a while, you know that's kind of how it works.

And so We're exhorted to consider how we think about ourselves Whether we're thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought but then but then in in In verse 9 He talks about let love be genuine without hypocrisy, to be real with one another. In verse 9, abhor what is evil and then cling to what is good. And this really forms bedrock of a church. If you have people who are clinging to what is good, I mean, a good tree produces good fruit. A bad tree produces bad fruit.

So who we are individually is what we're actually going to be corporate like it really matters who I am and it matters who you are. And then he says I love one another with brotherly affection in verse 10. And then he tells us that there's a way that we do that, not lagging behind in diligence because we're generally, we tend to be lazy people. And so he's stimulating us and say, don't be so lazy. Redeemed people can be lazy, it's possible.

And then he says, fervent in spirit, In verse 11, serving the Lord. Now look at verse 12. This is really, really important. Be patient in, rejoice in hope. To have hope for your brothers and your sisters.

And then patient and tribulation. When you as an individual or in the church, there's sometimes troubles. Churches can go through times of trouble. There's never been a church that didn't have times of trouble. And so he says be patient in tribulation and then be steadfast in prayer.

A lot of times all we do is we worry we don't pray. And then he says contribute to the needs of the saints because sometimes somebody's going to go through a hard time and they need help. And then seek to show hospitality in verse 13. And maybe one of the hardest things to do, he says in verse 14, bless those who persecute you. You know, in Bible study on last Tuesday, we were talking about, is he talking about unbelievers persecuting you or is he talking about believers persecuting you?

Well we'll get to that in time but I think it happens both ways. Believers can persecute you and unbelievers can persecute you as well. And then he says rejoice with those who rejoice. In other words, the people in the church, they calibrate toward one another. Like We care about how one another is doing.

And so we try to see how we are doing. You know, back in COVID, I preached this sermon about how dumb it is to wear a mask in a church because then you can't see how your brother's doing. Because in the church, we're supposed to see how we're doing. Are they smiling? Are they dead?

Has their countenance fallen? Hey, that matters to us, right? I mean, we care. We care if someone is despondent. Hey, every time we get together to pray for this church as elders, we always pray that God would lift the despondent out of their despondency, that God would come and help them in their discouragement, that God would help them to see what's going on with greater clarity, that God would give them joy, that they would walk out of this room happy again.

And so we weep with those who weep and we rejoice with those who rejoice. Like we're rejoicing when something really good happens. We're not jealous. We're not mad at them because they got something really great that happened to them. They got engaged, you know, they got a big bonus or something like that.

We rejoice with those who rejoice. And then he says in verse 16, live in harmony with one another. And then to loop back to verse three, in verse 16 says, do not be haughty, associate with the lowly, do not be wise in your own opinion. He goes back to this problem of pride and thinking more highly of yourself which is the root of so many troubles in a church and the way that people think about one another. They think poorly about one another.

And then he says, repay no one evil for evil. Because why did he say that? Because it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen at a church. You should expect it.

And then he says, do what is honorable in the sight of all men. Verse 17. And then he gives this sort of global principle, live peaceably with all if possible. That's verse 18. And then verse 19 he says, don't avenge yourselves, leave room for the wrath of God and Then if you have an enemy be a blessing to him if your enemies hungry feed him if He's thirsty give him a drink and so the the life of a Christian is kind of summarized in the church by do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

So These are the relational commands to a church. And this is what creates this beautiful church, what allows it to repair broken relationships and keep relationships clean and really godly. So, there's a doctrinal route to this. And as it turns out it has something to do with what the what the world is celebrating today and that is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And because this life is a result of the resurrection, in fact, I mean, Everything that we do on Sunday from the beginning to the end is based on that.

The only reason we meet on Sunday is because of the resurrection. That's why we meet. The very fact of our meeting is a celebration of the resurrection. The Jews celebrated the Sabbath on Saturday. At the resurrection, the church shifted the day to Sunday to celebrate the resurrected Savior.

And so the very fact that we meet is a celebration of the resurrection. We celebrate the resurrection when we walk in this door. And then we end our service by by proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes at the Lord's Supper. So from beginning to end, the life of the church is really defined by the resurrection. And so I wanna make this connection.

And I hope you are thankful for the resurrection of Jesus Christ because you were dead in your trespasses and sins I was reading an Ezekiel yesterday, the soul that sins will die. A soul is in mortal danger unless they repent and confess their sins and are justified. And justification was accomplished at the cross through the resurrection. So this is so critical. Now to talk about this doctrinal underpinning of this culture, let me say it like this.

The culture of a church is dependent on conversions in the church. This is not just something that human beings crank up. This is a supernatural fellowship. It's the life of Jesus Christ in a church that creates the life in a church. And so I want to give you some examples.

I'm going to give you several examples. First of all, open your Bibles to Romans 6 and find verse 4. Romans 6 verse 4. In this passage we learn that it's the resurrection that breaks the power of sin and makes us capable of loving one another. So verse 4, Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we also should walk in newness of life.

In other words the newness of life in the church, this kind of life in Romans 12, it has happened because we were buried with him and were raised from the dead. It's the resurrection that creates the newness of life and the way that Christians operate together in the church. Let's go to another passage, Ephesians chapter four. Find verse 22. It's a long section.

I'm going to cite a couple of places in it, but go to Ephesians 4 and find verse 22. And what the Apostle Paul is saying, he's connecting the resurrection reality with the way that Christians treat one another. It's all based on the new birth. Ephesians 422, that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man Which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness, the new man was created at the resurrection. And so if you go down to verse 31, he speaks of the implications of that.

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. And then after that he applies all these things. You speak the truth to one another, verse 25. You do not let anger grow in your heart that's verse 26 it affects your work you work honestly in verse 29 you use words to build up and in verse 32 you forgive one another as God in Christ has forgiven you.

It's the resurrection that's behind the transformation. It's why you start talking differently to one another. It's the presence of the new man which was created by being made alive in Jesus Christ, which is the result of the power of the resurrection by being raised with Jesus Christ. Let's go to another example. Turn to Colossians chapter 3.

Find verse 1. Now, the entire chapter is a demonstration of this because in the first verse he begins with being raised with Christ he begins with the resurrection of Christ through which the believer was resurrected with him. We were raised together with him. And so in Colossians 3.1, he says, if then you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Then the whole chapter speaks about the results of the power of the resurrection.

Because believers have been raised with Christ, what do they do? Verse 8, they put to death things like anger and malice and slander. In verse 12, they put on a heart of compassion and kindness and humility. In verse 13, they forgive as Christ forgave. Verse 14, they love because love is what binds it all together.

And they sing together. We covered this when I gave some sermons on the importance and the meaning of singing because one of the manifestations of the resurrection is that the people of God sing and they sing to one another and they sing to God and it's such a blessing. Singing is actually an outworking of the power of the resurrection. Let's go to 1st Corinthians 15. Again, we're demonstrating that the ethical commands in the Bible, and these particularly in Romans chapter 12, are really tied to the new birth, to conversion, to being raised up with Christ.

And they can't really be had in their fullness without a true conversion. And so, it should cause a church, a person to ask, Am I converted? Has God changed my heart? Have I been raised from the dead? Has the power of sin been broken in my life?

Has God changed my heart and I love the Lord my God with all my heart? And is God changing my life? And am I repairing the broken relationships in my life am I making progress you have so many people who claim the name of Christ but they never change and the reality is they never were actually resurrected unto new life because if you've been resurrected to new life these things will begin to roll in your life and but they'll roll all the way to the end of your life because you'll never get them completely perfect but this is the power of the gospel in a believer well first Corinthians 15 this is the classic passage on the resurrection and the Apostle spends the whole chapter defending the resurrection And then he ends with this in verse 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain. And then earlier in verse 16, he says, and if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.

And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile and you're still in your sins. He says that if Christ was not raised, your faith is feudal. That means empty. There's really nothing to it. It's just an intellectual faith that you hold dear, but it hasn't transformed your relationships and your life.

You know, the early church fathers corroborated this connection between the ethical commands and the culture of a local church and the resurrection. Augustine in the fourth and fifth century, He taught that the resurrection begins a new order. He taught in his book, The City of God, he believed that the resurrection created a completely new orientation of life. Your life has a new center and you shift from the center being yourself to God and it shows up in everything, in justice, in mercy, in humility, in care for the poor, and life in the church. Here's what Augustine said.

He said, you are the body of Christ. In his resurrection, you have risen, live accordingly. So the ethical commands of the Bible are connected. I am tempted to take you to Ephesians chapter 4, but you have the same argument that he who ascended brought his people into this fellowship of love, where you have a church that's speaking the truth in love. The whole body is joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, I'm reading from the text, according to the effective working by which every part does its share and causes the growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

So in Ephesians chapter four, it's the power of the resurrection that mobilizes the people of the church to love one another and care for one another, to exercise their gifts toward one another. But also he contrasts this life with living in the world and he says I say you should no longer walk as the Gentiles walk in the futility or the emptiness of their mind so let's go deeper with this our churches confession the Baptist Confession of 1689, speaks of this very, very clearly in chapter 27 on the chapter on the communion of the saints. The authors of the confession make it very clear that this kind of life is that supernatural life. It says, I'm just gonna quote some phrases. They have fellowship in his graces, in his sufferings, in his death, in his resurrection, and glory.

And then it says, since they are united to one another in love, they have communion in each other's gifts and graces and are obligated to carry out these duties both public and private in an orderly way to promote their mutual good both in the inner and outer aspects of their lives. So this is a confession that just speaks of what it's like to be in communion with one another. And then It says this, saints by profession are obligated to maintain a holy fellowship and communion in worshipping God and in performing other spiritual services that promote their mutual edification. They are to aid each other in material things according to their various abilities and needs. They should especially exercise communion in the relationships they have in their families and churches.

So it speaks of this fellowship of love and even in our own confession. You know our church covenant does the same thing. It's out in a big poster out in the hallway and it really makes an argument of Romans 12 why we should be fiercely devoted to one another and to the discipleship in the local church. Here are a couple of phrases from our church covenant. We most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with one another as one body in Christ.

By the way, Romans 12, this idea of members and one body appears quite a bit we'll deal with that when we get to it our covenant says we will work and pray for the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace in Christian and walk in Christian love We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, nor neglect to pray for one another, nor to avoid the meetings of the church. We'll watch over one another in brotherly love. We'll remember one another in prayer. We'll aid one another in sickness and in distress. We will cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and courtesy in speech and avoid scriptural prohibitions, such as unrighteous anger, refrain from speaking evil of one another being slow to take offense being always ready for biblical reconciliation and mindful of the rules of our Savior to secure it without delay so far as it depends on us.

Okay. Life in a local church is local life and it is characterized by all these things. It's real life, it's real relationships, it's not remote, it's not live stream, it's not irregular gathering. And the modern believer has to choose whether they're going to have biblical church life which is real it's personal and might I add it's a little bit invasive because you actually end up knowing one another, which can be a problem. You know, church life can be a lot easier if you don't know anybody.

But if you know somebody, then you can learn how to love somebody. And that's why the church is like this. There's a tremendous danger to this generation That's living life outside of their body on the internet and I don't think we know what the cost is to human personality and the human spirit to constantly be living with people that you don't know and who don't know you. You know what is the value of listening to people who you don't really know? We all listen to people who we don't really know, but there's a saturation point, I think, that could be so damaging.

The word, the very word for church is ecclesia and it means assembly. If you're going to be part of it the Church of Jesus it means you have to assemble with people. It it refers to a personal real physical assembly where people are sitting next to each other. There's something valuable actually when people are hearing the same things and interacting with the same things. There's something very helpful to the human soul to be in a face-to-face relationship because in the church we connect the whole man to one another.

And that's why there are so many explicit commands to operate in a certain way with one another. That's like code for church life. There are over 50 one-anothers in the New Testament. Like John 13 34, love one another. Like Ephesians 432, be kind to one another like Colossians 313 bear with one another Galatians 513 serve one another Hebrews 313 exhort one another Romans 12 10 be devoted to one another in brotherly love.

All of these things have to do with a local presence, a personal presence in people's lives. It's regular, it's engaged, and it's devoted. That's life in a local church. And the Apostle Paul is teaching this church in Rome what they ought to be together. And of course, the Lord's teaching our church the same thing here today, 2, 000 years later.

Well, finally, I'd like to sort of work through this a little bit more. In the church you live an embodied life not a disembodied life and the reason I phrase it that way is that is that people today are living an embodied disembodied life like never before. They're living out there in the ether. We are not Gnostics. The Gnostics did not understand the importance of the body.

We live in a body and we glorify God in our bodies. That's why we present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. And when you present your body it has implications. And frankly, you know, most real spiritual work happens in the context of the body, how you engage the members of your body. When you pick up a book and read it, when you take time to pray, When you meet with someone and you speak with them, you know them personally.

You know, it's been striking me lately, you know, where I work, downtown Wake Forest, there's this coffee shop. And it's actually, it's so glorious to me to walk in there because all these people are interacting personally. And They're, who knows what they're talking about. They're talking about all kinds of things. But they are actually relationally connected.

You know, the coffee shops in this world and the places where people meet and they look at one another in the eye are actually very good for us. But in the church, we have it in a sort of in a, in an extended way. You know, in our church, we provide quite a bit of relational time. The fellowship meal really facilitates that. I would just encourage you to take advantage of the fellowship meal in this church.

We get to eat 52 meals together every year and not only that, the various feasts and things like that where food is brought in it's it's the church the church is actually supposed to be feasting because it's a breaking bread together is really really important in the Church of Jesus Christ. I was reading something that was written almost 40 years ago by John Stott. He wrote this right at the beginning of the microprocessor revolution. He says, you know, there are some very, there are going to be some very helpful improvements for the microprocessor. Then he said this, much less welcome will be the reduction of human contact as the new electronic network renders personal relationships ever less necessary.

He wrote that 40 years ago. In such a dehumanized society, the fellowship of the local church will become increasingly important, whose members meet one another and talk and listen to one another in person rather than on screen. In this human context of mutual love, the speaking and hearing of the Word of God is also likely to become more necessary for the preservation of our humanness. I think he was dead on about that. The local church preserves the humanness of God's people and actually creates a garden of growth for those people.

So I just wanted to register a concern about living the disembodied life. You know every period of history has its challenges. And the local church is a local life, and it's very, very personal. Now, let me just make a few brief statements here and then we'll end. You know consider where you're getting your fellowship in your spiritual food.

Is it too much in cyberspace and not in your space? Is it replacing local relationships? You know To what degree is it replacing your spouse, your kids? Or how about the Church of Jesus Christ itself? You know we live in a world right now where so many people like the pastors, their pastors are not the pastors in their local church.

They're the podcasters. That's a danger Because God didn't really, I don't think he really created our spiritual lives to be like that. We're with the people that we know and the ones who know us. Here's another thing, consider your time allocation. You know, we all know the traps that there are of scrolling on your phone and going from one stupid video of another or even a profound one to another.

You know, that can happen. But, you know, do you hear your daughter or your son say, Daddy, can we go out and play? And you're staring at your phone and you didn't even hear it. Take a fresh look at your habits. You know, if you're concerned about your kids growing up as screen addicts, How about you?

How about me? It's a lot easier to be concerned about your children being screen addicts than it is for you being one yourself. You know every good thing needs government, everything, And I just wanted to bring this up. Hey, here's one thing. In our church, when we're having our fellowship meal together, You don't see people getting lost in their phones.

Now you might find someone sharing something they wanted to share with somebody, which might be a real blessing. But You don't find, like, when I look around this room and we're having lunch, people are not glued to their phones. People don't have their iPads open. They're actually looking at each other. And that's what they really ought to do.

So there you have it. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. And recognize the value of the resurrected Christ who brought us into a fellowship, a real fellowship of love, an embodied fellowship where they're real people the way that God planned it. God is so good to give us his word. So as we move through Romans 12 we're gonna walk through it piece by piece.

The next time we meet we'll begin with really where you start and that is thinking more highly of yourself than you are. Let's pray. Father thank you for your word. We thank you for this wonderful chapter that teaches us how we might exist together in our life in the world. Lord, I thank you for this church.

I pray you would just so bless the fellowship that it would be according to your word, not according to our own ways, not according to our own habits and patterns, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Amen.