20240602 Romans 1:8-13 - Paul: Transformed by the Gospel
The Book of Romans • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 5 viewsNotes
Transcript
Handout
Call to Worship - Psalm 149
1 Praise Yah! Sing to Yahweh a new song, His praise in the assembly of the holy ones. 2 Let Israel be glad in his Maker; Let the sons of Zion rejoice in their King. 3 Let them praise His name with dancing; With tambourine and lyre let them sing praises to Him. 4 For Yahweh takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.
5 Let the holy ones exult in glory; Let them sing for joy on their beds. 6 Let the exaltations of God be in their throats, And a two-edged sword in their hand, 7 To execute vengeance on the nations And punishments on the peoples,
8 To bind their kings with chains And their honored men with fetters of iron, 9 To execute on them the judgment written; This is the majesty of all His holy ones. Praise Yah!
Scripture Reading - Romans 1:8-13
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. 9 For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how without ceasing I make mention of you, 10 always in my prayers earnestly asking, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.
11 For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be strengthened; 12 that is, to be mutually encouraged, while among you, by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may have some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.
Introduction:
School reunions and truthful facebook pages have one thing in common: You see real people with real struggles. There are the people who you thought had it all together when they finished high school or finished college. There are the people who seemed headed in the wrong direction. Years later you meet them and you wonder, what happened?!!!!
And I think the apostle Paul realized that this applied to his life.
14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being far more zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
We might be tempted to call Paul the greatest Christian to ever live, the greatest missionary, the greatest evangelist, the greatest writer of Scripture
If Paul went to your high school he’d letter in every sport, win every academic achievement, be the king of the prom and the valedictorian of the graduation.
There is only one Christ, one perfect Savior
Jesus the perfect Son of God, fully God, fully man
When we approach the Bible we see other men, great men, heroic men - but we must understand that with the exception of Christ, and Christ alone, they are like us. Spiritually dead before salvation, and struggling with a sinful nature after salvation
This becomes relevant when we look at the apostle Paul
And so we have to be careful. I don’t like to jump ahead but when Paul writes about his earthly accomplishments he always reminds us that they are nothing - Christ is everything
When Paul talks about his inner life - he reminds us that he is constantly battling to not do the things he shouldn’t and struggling to do the things he should
In other words, Paul the man, Paul the Christian, Paul the leader and evangelist, and healer, and teacher and writer if Scripture is always reminding us that he does all things, every thing, no thing apart from Christ, because he can only do all things through Christ who strengthened him.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
And so, In Romans 1:8-13 we see Paul, who calls himself the slave of Christ in verse 1 present himself as Paul the servant.
And in this passage we see the profile of a transformed sinner who becomes Paul the transformed servant
And so, if asked what Romans 1:8-13 teaches, here’s hat I’d like you to see:
The gospel of God saved Paul, and it can save you
Salvation transformed Paul, and it should be transforming YOU
The transformed Paul became a servant, and this is how You should view your role in the Church
(1) God’s gospel
The gospel of God - God’s gospel
1 Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, having been set apart for the gospel of God,
(2) God’s transformation
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
3 And not only this, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;
5 and hope does not put to shame, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
(3) God’s servant
Through the saving and transforming gospel Paul became:
3.1 Thankful
This is Paul the murderer, the persecutor, the hater of God
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.
I thank
my God
3.2 Prayerful and Submissive
9 For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how without ceasing I make mention of you, 10 always in my prayers earnestly asking, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.
without ceasing I make mention
always in my prayers
by the will of God
3.3 Impactful
11 For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be strengthened;
To make disciples, teaching them everything Christ commanded
It’s not enough to be save souls, our desire to grow and help others grow
3.4 Encouraging
12 that is, to be mutually encouraged, while among you, by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
Some coaches coach through criticism, others through encouragement
Some bosses call you into the office to tell you what you’re doing wrong, others to encourage
There is a need to correct but also to instruct and to praise
3.5 A heart for the saints and the sinners
13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may have some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.
Paul the slave of God and the servant of the church Many people live their Christian life out of balance -
Martin Luther illustrated the necessary balance this way. He talked about the drunk man on the horse, who was always falling off the horse to one side or the other. That is the way, Luther explained, we tend to be in our Christian life. We fall out of balance to one side or the other.
Do you have a heart for the lost?
Do you have a heart for
The gospel of God saved Paul, has it saved YOU?
The salvation of Christ, Paul the new creation
Salvation transformed Paul, has it transformed YOU?
The work of the Holy Spirit in producing Christ likeness
The transformed Paul became a servant, have YOU become a servant?
The will of the Father, every member a willing servant
1 Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel which I proclaimed as good news to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,
We learn from this that Paul was not content to merely proclaim the gospel with little regard for the outcome.
We must have a love for thge lost and a love for Scripture. To grow the church and to grow spiritually
Steve Lawson, in his study of Romans:
As we have considered the transformed life of Paul, let me ask you this question: Which one of these aspects of Paul’s character most challenges you? Which one of these made you think, “I need more of this in my life?”
That would be a very important self-diagnosis for you to make. Whatever is most needed in each one of our lives, it would be important for us to ask for the Lord’s help to develop us in this area.
Positively speaking, where do you see God at work in your life right now? Where do you see progress in your spiritual growth? Where do you see the hand of God at work in your life?
Now the God of hope, fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may overflow in hope. Amen.
23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was being betrayed took bread, 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes.