The Gospel: Paul’s Message to the Romans (Romans 1:1-13)
Intro: This morning I want to begin our study in the book of Romans. As I was praying about what to begin preaching about, God placed this book on my heart. I found it purposeful for us to start from the beginning. This will be a fairly in depth study as Paul takes us on a journey through the righteousness of God and the unrighteousness of all people. Then he will show us the righteousness of God that is placed upon us through Jesus, which we now call, Justification. He will then teach us how to live a holy life, which we call, Sanctification. Just as Paul takes us through many processes, we will go through them as well as we begin to see how we are to live out this holiness. As I have said we will begin in chapter 1 and see what God has for us today. Lets’ get started.
Background: Paul is writing to the church in Rome (hence the name of the book) which was predominately consisted of Gentiles, although their were Jewish members as well, for he makes references to the them.
*When we look at the beginning of this book, it is unlike many of Paul’s other epistles for he makes a long introduction to expound upon his credentials.
*When we write letters, we typically assume that the recipient of that letter will know us, so we do not make the effort to go through a long introduction of ourselves. We usually get right to the point.
*Except…Have you ever read a letter from a man…short, not a whole lot going on in it and then read a woman’s letter? Men get straight to the point, while women, well they eventually get there:)
*This is quite the opposite for Paul. He is writing to this church in Rome that he did not found nor has he been there.
*Up to this point, Paul has not been able to visit the church, but desperately desired to.
*Because Paul had never been to this church, it was important for him to establish his credentials to them.
*It is easy for us to see Paul and who he was. We have already heard and learned quite a bit about him, but we must put ourselves in the biblical context and see that they were unaware of him and he knew this.
Scripture: Romans 1:1-13 Scripture has already been read so we will go ahead and jump right in. Are ya’ll ready?
I. Verse 1: Paul makes 3 very important statements: I am a servant, I am an apostle, and I am set apart
A. He is a servant of God
1. He starts by telling them that he is a servant. This word in Greek is the same as the word for slave.
*This idea of servant or slave depicted the idea of great humility. In essence, Paul was expressing his sense of personal insignificance and expressing him being purchased by God.
*It also carries over to us as we are called to be servants of Christ, just as Paul.
B. He is an Apostle
1. Along with being a servant, he also says that he is an apostle. This was a term that was used by Jesus to label his 12 disciples whom He called to follow Him.
*Ya’ll remember the 12 disciples?
*Gal.1:1 Paul claims to have been added to this number…Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through men, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead…”
*The idea of Paul being an apostle placed great authority upon him. It has the sense of official business or duty given by Christ.
C. He is set apart
1. Because he was called to be an apostle, he was set apart.
*Being set apart brings rise to the idea mentioned in Jeremiah 1:5
Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you (set apart); I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
*Friends, has God set us apart?
*We may not consider ourselves “apostles by name”, but we have been called and set apart. We have a mission.
Mathew 18:18-20 “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
*What we must see in the very beginning of this book is that Paul is setting the grounds for the Gospel of Christ, not his own message. The message he is about to preach is not his own, but God’s.
II. Verses 2-6
A. These verses begin to tell us about this message
1. This message was not unique to Paul…it had been prophesied in the Old Testament. It came from God through the Scriptures.
*Paul is saying to the Romans, “I am simply letting you know that the prophecy has been fulfilled.”
*It was “concerning the Son of God.”
*Why is Paul mentioning the Son? He is saying that we have to get it right with Jesus. If we miss the fact that the Gospel came through Jesus, then nothing else that he says will matter. We cannot formulate Christianity without Christ, it will simply fail.
2. Paul moves on to describe Jesus
*He writes, “according to the flesh” and “according to the Spirit of holiness.” This can be understood as an attempt to describe the humanity and deity of Jesus.
*Have you ever tried to think about how Christ is fully man yet fully God at the same time? Whenever I do, my brain starts to hurt and then I realize that I may not understand it now, but one day, God will make it all clear to me and to us.
*As I think about it now, it is so relevant to where we are in this time of year.
*As we begin to celebrate Christmas, we see all the decorations and lights that let us know this time is here. Over 2000 thousand years ago, our Savior wrapped Himself in human flesh and made Himself one of us so that we may know Him. He then went on to give up His life so that we may forever be with Him. How incredible is that?
*Someone say, amen!
*I have a professor who calls Jesus the “Godman”, for He was human and God at the same time with no confusion whatsoever.
3. Paul goes on to tell us that it was Christ’s resurrection that gave proof to His deity.
*Paul is very concerned that they see that this message of Christ/the Gospel was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophesy.
*He wants to make sure that they make the connection between the Gospel message and the Old Testament prophesy.
*It was through Christ that he had received his authority to preach this message and he was preaching to everyone.
*It was not reserved for just the people around him, it was to “all.”
*Other than his humbling experience on the Damascus Road, Paul is known for his many missionary trips and bold proclamation of Christ to all people. He even mentions in I Corinthians 9:19-23 how he has become a “servant to all.”
*Just as Paul, we too are committed to this same type of ministry to all people. This forces us to set aside pride of race, social class, and age to understand that God’s message is for everyone without exception or distinction.
*Paul is talking about a total unreserved obedience of faith here that seeks to glorify the name of Jesus.
Let me sum up this first section in one phrase, “Paul’s message to the Roman church is, the Gospel of God promised through Scripture accomplished through Christ for all nations, which produces faith and honors the name of Christ.
III. Why is Paul so interested in the Romans?
A. He is thankful for them
1. Their faith is proclaimed in all the world
-This was a huge testament to their faith, for Nero was emperor of Rome at this time and he was not a fan of Christians. He even persecuted the church, but their faith was not shaken.
*Does this convict us? Their faith was heard all over the world while they were being persecuted. Sometimes when someone makes a statement against our faith now, we just back into a corner, so that we can maintain peace. How do we stand when we face the fire?
B. He prays for them
1. Verse 9-10 show us that Paul prays for them “always and without ceasing.” (Read
Verses)
**Paul was saying, “Look, I’m serious. I pray for you all the time. I would not lie to you, for it is God as my witness that I pray for you.”
*Friends, do we pray for people with that kind of intendment, or are we satisfied with saying we will pray for someone and then never do? I do not exclude myself in this. When someone comes to me with concerns or expresses their pain, my initial response is, “I will pray for you.” Truth is, sometimes I forget. Have you ever done that?
*Paul is telling us that he had a heart set on these people. They were on his heart and he made intercession for them all the time, “always.”
C. He longed to see them
1. Not only does he pray for them, but he wants to see them.
*How often do we long to see people? I can think of one time in particular. When I was deployed in Iraq in 2004, there were so many days that I just thought about being home. There was one thing that just kept coming to my mind…I longed to get back to Ashley who would eventually become my wife. This is a silly example, but how often do we long to see people we do not know? Paul did not know these people, he had only heard that their faith was renown. He really wanted to see them.
*Well let’s find out why!
D. He wanted to strengthen them and be strengthened by them
1. He wants to share his spiritual gifts with them and he wants them to share their gifts with him.
*Before we go any further, we have to look at how Paul does this.
*He did not just show up and say, “Let me show you how you are supposed to do it, for you must be exactly like me.” Actually, it was quite the opposite. He wanted mutual edification.
*I think sometimes we feel like we have a lock on spiritual gifts and nobody else has any. We sometimes feel like we have all the answers and cannot benefit from others. Paul is saying, “We need to work together and share what God has given us.”
*We learn from each other. I can learn from you, you can learn from me. (Use examples of some of those in the church.)
E. He wants to share in the evangelism
1. He wants to reap some of the harvest in Rome.
*They have all put in hard work and want to see it come to fruition.
*Farmers, you know what it means to reap a harvest. You have put all of this hard work in for months, preparing the ground, planting the crop, watering, taking care of it while it grows, and finally you get to the point where you are able to “reap what you have harvested.”
*Paul is talking about that here. There has been hard work put in on the part of Christians in Rome, and Paul wants to be part of the harvest.
-HARD WORK=a good harvest
*As we begin a new stage here at Woodland, we look ahead and know that the work is not going to always be easy. Oh, but the harvest will be great.
