Romans Sermon Series: Part-1

INTRODUCTION:

We will be covering a series on Romans, which will be over the next several Sundays.

I wanted to start here because Oaks Community Church’s Theology is rooted in all of scripture but Romans provides an excellent example and a good starting point it what we believe.

In this series we will be looking at the theological themes within Romans.

Of course, you might be saying to yourself you are not a Pastor or a theologian. However, RC Sproul’s quote comes to mind, which he said, “The issue for Christians is not whether we are going to be theologians but whether we are going to be good theologians or bad ones.”

What RC Sproul was getting at is we are all theologians, whether we want to be one or not.

As followers of Christ we should study the Bible, looking at the context and content, as well as digging deeper into scripture. You don’t have to know the Hebrew or Greek because they make software that does it for you. However, it is still good to look into the original language of the scripture.

This will be the approach we will be taking with this sermon series, please bear with me as I attempt to pronoun Hebrew and Greek words later on in the sermon.

Setting the Stage

Before diving into Romans we need to look at what is going on before getting into what scripture is telling us.

What I mean by this is we need to look at the author, the purpose of the writing, the background, and finally main themes

Paul was the author of Romans. Which Paul was 1 of the 12 apostle of Jesus Christ. He was well educated, and actually persecuted Christians before he became a follower of Christ.

These was a letter being written to the Church in Rome, hence the name.

The primary purpose for Paul writing to the Church in Rome was to teach them about the gospel of grace to believers that never got apostolic instruction or training to be followers of Christ.

The secondary purpose was to introduce himself to the church that he planned on visiting.

A Couple of Fun Facts About Romans:

What sets these letters apart from others that Paul wrote, is that he was not writing to the church in Rome to correct them. The Roman Church was doctrinally sound.

Romans is a considered a doctrine document. What this means in the simplest terms, Romans is more instructional and can be applied. There are less historical facts within Romans.

Finally, the main theme of Romans is God’s righteousness, which we will breakdown as we go along in the series.

Now that we have what I like to say is set the stage, we will get into the meat and potatoes of Romans…I know my midwest is showing.

Turn your Bibles to Romans 1:1-7. We will start with the introduction.

Romans 1:1–7 (NASB 2020)

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles in behalf of His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;

to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Pauls introduction, there is a ton to unpack. However, God had put on my heart to focus on how Paul introduces himself.

Paul calls himself a bond-servant. Which is an interesting term and you might wonder why this is important. However, being the theologians we are lets look at the original language of the text, which is Greek, Paul calling himself δούλος doulos, which translates into Slave.

Paul is calling himself a slave to Jesus Christ. In the Roman era, a bond-servant or slave was the property of a Roman citizen, holding no right to leave his place of service. This tells us that Paul was self-committing to permanent service to Jesus Christ.

What really stood out to me with this introduction, which I have read many times, was how Paul was humbling himself.

Paul is 1 of the 12 apostles, who bared witness to Jesus Christ resurrection, who is well educated. He would be considered a celebrate within the church community back then. Who probably had ever right to call himself something different out of all the titles he held, but chose to call himself a bond-servant to Christ.

As you can image this of course was not a popular title back in his era. Like I mentioned previously bond-servants where property. They also had no rights but to serve.

You are now probably asking yourself what does this have to do with me? Why does it matter that he is calling himself a bond-servant when he could have used other titles.

This brings up my first point, as followers of Christ we must be humble in our ways.

Lets see what scripture says about being humble. Turn your Bible to Ephesians 4:1-2

Ephesians 4:1–2 (NASB 2020)

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

In this versus we see God calling us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling, with all humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one another in love.

We see in Old Testament Proverbs 11:2

Proverbs 11:2 (NASB 2020)

When pride comes, then comes dishonor;

But with the humble there is wisdom.

God calls us to be humble.

Of course this is not an easy feat because the current culture makes it hard.

In today’s culture we are taught to pursue greatness, and be self-centered. It is a me, me culture. We are also defined by work, accolades, and titles.

In the era of social media we see the lack of humility. Feeds are full of self images and the life’s we want people to perceive for us.

Finally, there is lack of humility because it is also viewed as a negative thing.

You hear all the time if you are humble you will be left behind or if you don’t speak up and show your worth you won’t make it.

In Romans we have Paul who in today’s culture would have every right to use a different title or to boast about himself. But he choses to humble himself and us the title of a bond-servant. A lowly title in his time.

What does this look like for us? The application of this is to humble yourself and have a humble mindset in all the things you do.

When you feel prideful or boastful remind yourself to be humble and to go back to scripture. It will take time to shift your mindset to this and there will be a lot of trial and error along the way. Trust me, it will be a work in progress but knowing is half the battle.

I can only speak for myself....and my children at times. So I will use myself as an example, for my day job I work as a Recruiter.

It was about 2 years ago I worked for Candid as a Recruiter. We had open up a new role and I was not getting any qualified candidates for the job. The few I get did not make it to later round in the interviews.

So I did what most people would do and kept grinding away with finding more candidates. I got in my head that I was suppose to accomplish this all on my own. I had to prove to my employer I was the right person for the job.

The end result is I ended up stressed out and burned out because I wasn’t getting any where. The people that I was hiring for aka stakeholders where breathing down my neck and where very angry.

Eventually, my beautiful wife, Kelsey, had the great insight to humble myself and asking for help from the team. This in turn resulted in us finding more candidates and eventually filling the role. This was a great example of allowing pride to get in the way and as soon as I humbled myself God provided the end result.

As I mentioned before as Christ followers we should have a humble heart.

Let us continue with Romans 1:9-12

Romans 1:9–12 (NASB 2020)

For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers requesting if perhaps now, at last by the will of God, I will succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine.

We see Paul then move into sharing his primary purpose, which is to preach the Gospel, and impart some spiritual gifts. Paul then outlines his secondary purpose which is to eventually visit the church.

There are a couple things that I wanted to cover with this scripture. First lets talk about what Paul means by spiritual gifts. Then we will move into the discussion about the gospel.

For us to figure out what Paul’s meaning behind spiritual gifts, we have to go back to the original language, which you guessed it is Greek. The Greek is charisma pneimatikon which charisma means “graces” or “gifts of grace” also associated with the “spiritual gifts.” This also refers to :

Christ Himself

General Blessing from God

Specific spiritual gifts given to members of the body to minister to the whole.

Paul is more then likely making a reference to all three of these.

Now lets breakdown what Paul means by the gospel of His Son. Of course, when Paul refers to “His Son” he is meaning Jesus Christ which is God’s only Son.

It is the gospel of Jesus Christ that Paul is referring too.

Lets turn to Romans 3:21-25 in your Bibles, or follow along on the screen. This will give us some more insight into the gospel.

Romans 3:21–25 (NASB 2020)

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, but it is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in God’s merciful restraint He let the sins previously committed go unpunished;

What is being outlined in this scripture is as a believer having faith in Jesus Christ washes away your sins and your are forgiven in Gods eyes because of God’s righteousness. This has been done through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. This is why Paul states, “as a gift by His grace through redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed. publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.”

Then we see in Romans 4:24-25, feel free to turn there in your Bibles or follow along on the screen.

Romans 4:24–25 (NASB 2020)

but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, to us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered over because of our wrongdoings, and was raised because of our justification.

Paul is making another reference to the gospel within Romans.

We now see that Jesus our Lord is raised from the dead by God. We know it is a reference to God because Paul capitalizes the “H” in “Him” which is used to refer to God, and Jesus. We believe that Jesus is fully-man and fully-God. If Jesus was not fully-man and fully-God then His death would have been for nothing.

Then Paul goes on to outline that Jesus was “delivered over because of our wrongdoings,” In this context “delivered over” in the Greek means to hand over to authorities. This is also another reference to Jesus being the sacrifice needed for our sinful nature as humans. Paul then mentions “was raised” which in the Greek is a verb that means to “rise” or “get up.” It is the action of getting up with in this case is meaning Jesus was resurrected from the dead. The whole reason for Jesus resurrection was for our justification or salvation.

Then we see in Romans 5:8, feel free to turn your Bibles there, I will also have it on screen for your viewing pleasure.

Romans 5:8 (NASB 2020)

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8 is another reference to the gospel. We see Paul highlight that God demonstrates His love of mankind with having Christ died for us. Even as sinners, which are unworthy of being saved.

Let us refer to the Old Testament to gain more insight into the gospel. Feel free to turn your Bible to Isaiah 53:5, or follow along on the screen,

Isaiah 53:5 (NASB 2020)

But He was pierced for our offenses,

He was crushed for our wrongdoings;

The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him,

And by His wounds we are healed.

Isaiah is making a reference about Jesus. Looking at the scripture Isaiah states, He with a capital “H” remember anytime there is a capital “H” it is referring to God and Jesus.

Isaiah goes on to state how Jesus was “pierced for our offenses,” and “crushed for our wrongdoings.”

Looking at the original language of the Old Testament scripture, which this time is not Greek but it is n Hebrew, “pierced” or “Hll” means to slain or to be killed. “Crushed” or “dk’”is to be compress with violence in Hebrew. These are references to Jesus being killed.

Then we see a refer to “offenses” and “wrongdoings” Looking at the Hebrew “offenses” translates in evildoing or a violation of the law or duty or moral principle. “Wrongdoings” in Hebrew translates to sin.

Ultimately the meaning behind these two statements is that Jesus was killed for our sins.

Isaiah goes on to outline how Jesus had a punishment placed on Him for “our well-being”, meaning Jesus had to die for our sins. Then we see “By His wounds we are healed.” Meaning with Jesus death we are forgiven of our sins.

Isaiah was outlining the gospel that would come 700 years later.

I know we covered a lot of ground and scripture. I wanted to recap what the gospel is and why it is important to us as Christians.

The gospel is God sending His only Son Christ Jesus, who was fully man and fully God, to die for our sins on the cross. Jesus was resurrected, defeating death. He then ascended to Heaven awaiting His second coming.

So what does this mean for the believer?

Jesus paid the ultimate price for our salvation, He laid His life down for us. As believers we are saved from our sinful nature, and forgiven for our sins. This of course doesn’t mean we will be perfect. It means we are forgiven for all our sins. The ones we have already committed and the ones that will happen.

When we die, we are given a place in Heaven and gain access to enteral life.

This of course is a simplified view of the gospel because we will dive deeper into this concepts as we continue our series in Romans.

There are two main points with application of the gospel I want to highlight:

The first one is as believers we need to practice gratefulness. This can be hard with what we have been taught in the modern day culture.

The current culture loves drama and focusing on the negative. Which creates comparison, which is the thief of joy.

The current culture is all about equality, which isn’t a bad thing. However, the concept of equality has spread to sports where everyone gets an award for showing up or giving their best. This breeds a sense of entitlement, and when things are not equal it is unfair.

It is also hard to be grateful when things are not going great. When you don’t have a job or you are attempting to pick either feeding your children or pay rent. All these factors make it hard for someone to be grateful.

It is always easy to be grateful when things are going good.

As Christians we need to practice gratefulness, especially during the hard times.

In 2 Corinthians 9:11, it states

2 Corinthians 9:11 (NASB 2020)

you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God.

In Psalm 106:1

Psalm 106:1 (NASB 2020)

Praise the Lord!

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;

For His mercy is everlasting.

Finally Hebrews 12:28-29 states,

Hebrews 12:28–29 (NASB 2020)

Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let’s show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.

The reason we should be so grateful is because we are undeserving of God’s mercy and grace. However, He loves us so much that He sent His only son to die for our sins. The gospel grants us eternal life. God has given us more then we deserve already. Anything else we are given is an extra. This is why we should be so grateful.

The second point I wanted to bring up and highlight about the gospel is we are commanded to share the gospel, aka the Good News with others and make disciples.

We see this in Matt. 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 (NASB 2020)

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This is known as the Great Commission. Jesus commanded us to spread the gospel and make disciples out of all.

We should look for opportunities to share our faith with others, as well as connect with the community around us. I realize we are meeting virtually but we all can still go out in our communities and connect with others.

Since we are nearing the end of service, I wanted to recap the main points from today.

The first point is as Christians we should humble ourselves in all the things we do.

We should be grateful in all the things we do because we have been given more then we deserve.

We should be open to sharing our faith and talking about the gospel with others. Working towards create disciples.

CALL TO ACTION:

This week I want you all to look for ways you can be more humble, whether that is humbling yourself and asking for help or working towards not being boastful about your skills or what you have.

I want you all to look for ways to be grateful for what we have. This looks like praying regularly and thanking God. Even during those hards times. This could also be just being grateful for the people around you and letting them know you are grateful to have them in your life. I want you all to work towards having more of a grateful mindset.

Finally I want you all to look for ways to share your faith and spread the gospel. Jesus called all of us to make disciples, so lets go out to the community and connect with people.

Don’t worry I don’t expect you all to do all of these things but God might have put on your heart to practice what I shared today with you all.

PARTING WORDS:

Thank you again for joining us virtually, next week we will be moving further into Romans looking at the sinful nature of mankind.

I hope you all turn in next Sunday at 9:30amCDT. Thank you all again for coming out and spending time with us hear at Oaks Community Church.