As is probably true for many of you, the book of Romans has long been one of my favorites. Yet in nearly 25 years of ministry, I have never undertaken the task of preaching through what is certainly the greatest exposition of what it means to live as a follower of Jesus in the entire Bible. I think due to both the length and the depth of the book, I have been a bit intimidated by the thought of trying to tackle it in my preaching. And besides, what can I possibly add to the exposition of this great text that has been done by great theologians like Augustine, Martin Luther and John Calvin or contemporary pastors like John Piper and John MacArthur?
Even up to about a month ago, as I was planning and praying about my next sermon series, Romans was not even on the radar. In fact, about two months ago I planned out a whole series that would cover the next 12 weeks or so. And then, sensing that was not where God wanted me to go I planned out a second series that would cover that same time frame. But it soon became apparent that God had something else in mind and I’m convinced that the Holy Spirit is now leading me to preach on the Book of Romans. And that decision has certainly been confirmed by the fact that a number of you have commented that you are looking forward to this series. That kind of enthusiasm for an upcoming sermon series is something I’ve never really experienced before.
I think that the reason so many of us are excited about taking a journey through Romans is that the story that unfolds in its pages is not only the story of Paul’s life, but it is the story of our lives as well. Paul writes as one who has personally experienced the transformation from a life of religious devotion which was characterized by sin and death to a life that is shaped by the gospel and which abounds in grace and results in true life.
So I’m praying that this sermon series is going to impact your life in one of two ways:
• If you have never personally experienced that transformation, then my prayer for you is that the Holy Spirit will use this study to lead you to make a decision to place your faith in Jesus Christ alone as the way to personally experience that same kind of transformation in your life.
• For the majority of you who have already made that commitment and for those of you who will do that during this series, I pray first of all that the book of Romans will reinforce your confidence in Jesus as the only way to that kind of life. But I also pray that Paul’s words will be your guide as you shape your day to day life so that it can be lived out in a way that is consistent with the gospel that Paul proclaims.
So before we get into the text itself, let’s pause for a moment to pray and ask God to accomplish those things through the preaching of His Word.
[Prayer]
Before we begin our study, let me give you an idea of how I plan to approach this series, keeping in mind that this is all subject to how God may lead me to change this as we go forward.
As I’ve done some research on how other pastors have handled this book, I’ve found that they range all the way from a series of only 10-15 sermons that covers the book in a very broad way over just a few months to Pastor John Piper who preached 225 sermons over an 8-1/2 year period. My fellow friend and pastor here in town, Steve van Kley, has chosen somewhat of a middle ground – he has been in Romans for nearly 2 years now and has made it to chapter 12.
Although, Lord-willing and you don’t decide to get rid of me before then, I feel like I have another 8-1/2 years of pastoring left in me, I don’t feel like God wants me to spend that entire time focused almost completely on just one book of the Bible, so preaching over 200 sermons on Romans doesn’t seem like the appropriate approach for me personally or for us as a body.
But certainly at the other end of the spectrum, trying to cover a chapter or more at a time can’t possibly allow us to begin to mine the riches of Romans.
So here is my plan. I’m going to break the book down into “chunks” – probably about two chapters at a time. And we’ll take about 10-12 weeks to cover each of those sections of Romans. But rather than just preaching all the way through Romans from beginning to end, which would mean around 100 messages over 2-1/2 to 3 years, my plan right now is to spread that teaching out over several years by including a series that is 10-12 weeks long on Romans in the fall of each year until we complete the book.
There are a few reasons, I believe God is leading me to take that approach:
• I am convinced that the overall plan that I developed several years ago to include preaching from the Old Testament, the New Testament and some topical teaching each year is Biblically sound because it allows us to be exposed to the entire Bible. It was Paul himself who talked about the importance of preaching the “whole counsel of God” in Acts 20:27.
• There is some good research that reveals that people can better apply what they are learning when a sermon series is limited to no more than 10-12 weeks. That seems to be born out in our education system where classes are generally limited to a quarter or a semester. And since our goal with all of our teaching is not just information, but rather transformation, breaking Romans down into some manageable chunks seems prudent.
• Personally, because of the way God wired me, I feel like I’m a more effective teacher when I can keep things fresh in my own study.
• Finally, shorter sermon series make it much easier to do both long-term and intermediate term planning of our church calendar.
At the same time, however, I also believe that God can use all of you to guide my preaching schedule as well. So as we progress through the book of Romans, please feel free to give me your feedback as to how this approach is working for you and I’ll certainly consider making some adjustments if there is a consensus among the body.
I want to ask you to do one more thing that I believe will be really helpful to all of us. As we go through this series undoubtedly some questions are going to arise which I either won’t cover in my messages or where my teaching might not be as clear as it needs to be. So, as you have questions, will you write them down and get them to me? One of the things I’m planning to do at the end of each section is to take one Sunday to review that section and to answer any questions you might have. The two best ways to ask those questions would be to write them down on the Connection Card on the flap of your bulletin or to email me. I can pretty much assure you that if I don’t have them in writing in some form, I will certainly forget them.
We’ll begin our study this morning with just one verse – the very first verse in the book – and we’ll use that verse to do two things:
• First, we’ll use it to look at some of the historical context that will be critical to a proper understanding of the book.
• Second, we’ll show that in just these few words, we find God’s purpose for each one of us in the study of this book.
Let’s read this verse out loud together:
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
(Romans 1:1 ESV)
What we call the “book” of Romans was actually, just like all the other “books” written by Paul, a letter. But you’ll notice that the form of a letter in Paul’s day is actually quite different than the form we use today. That is especially the case now that most of our letters are probably sent in text or email formats. But in Paul’s day, the letter always began by identifying the author. So the first thing we see here is that Paul is the author of this letter, a fact that is really unquestioned even among some biblical scholars who question Paul’s authorship of some of his other letters.
Although many of you are familiar with Paul’s background, since it so crucial to a proper understanding of his letter, let’s take a few minutes to briefly summarize his life up to this point.
Paul, who was originally named Saul after the first king of Israel, was born about the same time as Jesus in the city of Tarsus, an important city in Asia Minor, or modern Turkey. He spent much of his early life in Jerusalem, studying under the well-known Jewish Rabbi Gamaliel. Like his father before Him, Saul was a member of the Pharisees. We also know that Saul was a Roman citizen, although exactly how he obtained that citizenship is not clear.
After the death and crucifixion of Jesus, Saul zealously persecuted Christians and was present at the stoning of Stephen. But as he was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians there, Saul had a miraculous encounter with Jesus. After his conversion He immediately began to proclaim the resurrected Jesus. After narrowly escaping Damascus with his life, Paul travelled to Arabia where he spent 3 years receiving doctrine through the direct revelation from Jesus.
After rejoining the other disciples after that three year period, he is referred to as Paul, which was probably his Latin name. From that point forward, he becomes primarily responsible for the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire, making 3 missionary journeys throughout the Mediterranean world.
It was likely that his letter to the church at Rome was written near the end of his third missionary journey as Paul prepared to return to Jerusalem with the offering he had collected to support the poverty stricken believers in Jerusalem. The letter was likely written from Corinth and although we can’t be certain about its exact dating, it was probably written sometime between 57 and 59 AD.
Unlike the other churches to whom Paul writes, Paul had not been instrumental in establishing the church in Rome, nor had he ever visited the churches which were established there. From the number of people that Paul addresses at the end of his letter it appears that rather than just one large church in Rome, it is more likely that there were a number of house churches in the city. No one really knows for sure how the church got its start in Rome, but the most likely explanation is that some of the people present on the Day of Pentecost became believers that day and then returned to their home in Rome where they shared their faith in Jesus with others. From what we know historically and from Paul’s letter, it is clear that these house churches in Rome contained both Jews and Gentiles.
Without a doubt, Paul’s letter to the churches in Rome is his most comprehensive treatise on the gospel and it contains a detailed explanation of every single aspect of that gospel. There are a couple of likely reasons that Paul writes such a comprehensive letter to the churches in Rome:
• Paul had long desired to visit the churches in Rome but had been prevented from doing so. But he hoped to visit them soon on his way to minister in Spain. So the letter served as his introduction to the people in those churches who didn’t personally know him.
• Because the churches in Rome had never received direct instruction from any of the apostles, Paul wanted to provide the churches with a comprehensive teaching on the gospel.
In the salutation, Paul introduces himself with these words:
…a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God…
I would suggest to you that these words not only tell us about Paul, but they also serve to set out God’s purpose for each of us as we study the book of Romans together. And we can summarize that purpose like this:
In order to live a gospel-shaped life
I must become a
sent, separated servant
Let’s see if we can’t understand this idea better, by taking a more detailed look at each element of Paul’s description of who he is in Christ:
…a servant of Christ Jesus
Many of you may know that the Greek word rendered “servant” here and elsewhere in the New Testament is the word “doulos”, which is the Greek word for a bondservant. Although in in the Roman Empire of Paul’s day, a bondservant was normally someone who was compelled to be in a position of servitude, Paul’s use of the word would have been greatly influenced by the Hebrew concept of a bondservant, which is described like this in the Old Testament:
But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.
(Exodus 21:5-6 ESV)
In Hebrew thought, a bondservant was one who had voluntarily submitted his entire life to the authority of his master. In the Old Testament, Abraham, Moses, David, and many of the prophets were all called servants of God. And what they all had in common is that they had voluntarily submitted themselves to God as their master.
It is quite revealing that out of all the ways that Paul could have chosen to introduce himself to the Roman Christians he chose to first describe himself as one who had voluntarily submitted his life to his master, Jesus. So Paul makes it clear right from the start that he is not undertaking to write this letter for his own purposes – he is doing it as a servant of Jesus.
In his letter to the church in Galatia, Paul gives us some further insight into what he means when he calls himself a servant of Jesus:
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
(Galatians 1:10 ESV)
This is really instructive for us. If we truly want to be servants of Jesus, then it means that we have to quit trying to live our lives in order to obtain the favor and approval of other people. If we are to be servants of Jesus, then the only one we will worry about pleasing is our master, Jesus.
So far we’ve covered the last aspect of living a gospel-shaped life:
In order to live a gospel-shaped life
I must become a
sent, separated servant
Let’s now spend some time looking at what kind of servant we are to become…
…called to be an apostle
We need to spend some time this morning discussing the whole concept of “apostleship”. In some circles, the early apostles have been almost deified and made out to be some kind of “super saints”. But if we take the time to understand the meaning of the word apostle, then we quickly see that this is not the case at all.
Our English word “apostle” is a transliteration of the underlying Greek word. A transliteration is different from a translation in that it merely takes a word from one language and converts it to the alphabet of another language which produces a new word rather than translating the word using other words that already exist in that language.
Greek “apostolos” =
“apo” (“from”) + “stello” (“I send”) =
“one who is sent away from”
So if we were to translate the Greek “apostolos” into English, we would translate it “one who is sent forth” or, as it is used elsewhere in the Greek language as a “messenger”, “envoy”, or “delegate”. The idea is that an apostolos is one who is commissioned by another to represent that person in some way.
But since all of our English Bibles transliterate that word rather than translate, it has created some confusion about exactly what the term means.
In the New Testament, the word “apostle” is used in two different ways:
• In many cases, it is used as a general reference to anyone who is sent forth as a representative or messenger of another. In that sense apostleship is a “role” or “responsibility”. Here are two examples of how the word is used that way:
Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger [apostolos] greater than the one who sent him.
(John 13:16 ESV)
This verse is particularly relevant to us this morning because Jesus connects the idea of an apostle also being a servant, in much the same way Paul does in Romans 1:1. And here Jesus obviously uses that term in a very broad sense to refer to anyone who is sent out by Jesus as His messenger.
Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,
(Hebrews 3:1 ESV)
Jesus is called an apostle here because He was sent to earth as a representative of His Father.
• The word “apostle” is also used in the New Testament to describe an “office” in the early church. When used in that way it is limited to those who were specifically appointed by God to that office. That group is limited to only a select few. It includes the twelve Jesus named to be apostles during his earthly ministry:
And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:
(Luke 6:13 ESV)
After Judas betrayed Jesus that group was reduced to eleven, so we find in Acts 1 that the remaining eleven, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit selected Matthias to take his place.
And although there are those who would disagree with me, I am of the opinion that the Scriptures clearly show that Paul was also appointed to the office of apostle in his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. These words that God spoke to Ananias clearly give evidence of that:
But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he [Paul] is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.
(Acts 9:15 ESV)
Although the Lord doesn’t use the word “apostle” here, He certainly communicates that He has appointed Paul to be His “official” representative to Jews, Gentiles and government officials.
These few who were appointed to the office of apostle by Jesus obviously were given authority in the early church by Jesus. And they were frequently endowed by God with miraculous powers. But they were not “super saints”. They were not infallible. They were merely chosen by God and sent forth by Him to be His representatives.
Although I can’t be dogmatic about this, I am of the opinion that when Paul says that he is “called to be an apostle” both of these aspects of apostleship are included. On one hand, there is little doubt that Paul is establishing his authority to write this letter to the churches in Rome, so it was important that he held the office of apostle. But as we’re going to see next week in verse 5, Paul also writes that all believers have received the role of apostleship because they have all been sent out by Jesus as His messengers and envoys.
That is the aspect of apostleship that is relevant to all of us. If you have committed your life to Jesus, then you have been sent by Him into the world as His ambassador.
So far, we’ve determined that if we are to live a gospel centered life we are to be servants who are characterized as having been sent by Jesus as His representatives:
In order to live a gospel-shaped life
I must become a
sent, separated servant
Let’s close by focusing on the other aspect of servanthood that Paul uses to describe himself.
…set apart for the gospel of God…
It is very likely that Paul is engaging in a bit of a word play here. Paul had been a Pharisee for much of his life. The word “Pharisee” comes from an Aramaic term that literally means “to divide and separate”. So the Pharisees considered themselves to be separated from the world and therefore separated from the sin in the world.
But now rather than being separated unto the service of his own religious sect, he is set apart, or separated, unto the gospel of God. In other words, whatever bonds he might have had to anything that would have hindered the advancement of the gospel had now been removed from his life and he is captive only to that which would further the development of the gospel.
Paul gives us some deeper insight into this idea of being separated or set apart in his letter to the Galatians:
But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles…
(Galatians 1:15-16 ESV)
Paul, although he certainly didn’t understand it until after his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, had been set apart by God to preach the gospel to the Gentiles even before he was born.
And for what purpose was Paul set apart? For the “gospel of God”. The gospel of God is the theme that permeates the entire book. Paul begins his letter by proclaiming that he is set apart for that gospel and he brings his letter to a close in chapter 16 in his benediction that refers again to the gospel. And nine more times in between those two bookends Paul refers to the gospel – more than in any of his other letters.
The book of Romans is a book about how are lives are to be shaped by that gospel which is why I have titled this series “A Gospel Shaped Life”. It is more than just a book of theology, although it is the finest textbook on theology ever written. And the gospel which is the focus of this book – the good news of Jesus - is much more than just a bunch of facts to be believed. It is a life to be lived. And certainly Paul did just that.
So if we are going to follow his example and live a gospel shaped life, then we must become like him:
In order to live a gospel-shaped life
I must become a
sent, separated servant
