On Whose Authority?

Children’s Bible Page 1223

Introduction: More information/Who do you trust?

It’s amazing to consider that we live in a day and age where we have more information at our fingertips than at any other point in history.

I can get some kinds of information on my iPhone in seconds that some other generations would not be able to access in their entire lifetime.

Yet, while information has rapidly multiplied and its accessibility is unprecedented in our day, it is also true that the question and doubt of what information we can actually trust as true and reliable has rapidly increased as well.

I mean, morning news shows stay in business sharing about new studies that completely disagree with the information everyone just accepted yesterday.

A new study shows coffee is amazing for you. Yet, tomorrow’s study shows that coffee will kill you.

Some people love having Alexa play music and turn on their lights with saying a few short words,

While others claim the government is using our Alexa’s to steal our freedoms.

I have always thought taking naps was a key piece of my health,

Then Bobby Bryant texts me an article about how taking naps causes immature death.

And we are not even going to talk about the bias of different news media, and on and on it goes.

What information can you trust? On whose authority?

I ask those questions because as the followers of Jesus in Rome receive a letter written by Paul, and delivered by a woman named Phoebe, they must have been asking the question: Is this information trustworthy? On whose authority?

You see, the apostle Paul did not plant the church in Rome.

In fact, Paul had never even been to Rome when he wrote this letter.

The Bible does not record for us who started the church in Rome, which I hope you find very encouraging because

In the book of Acts chapter 2, we read that their were visitors from Rome in Jerusalem who heard Peter’s great sermon on the day of Pentecost.

We then read in Acts chapter 18 that Paul met two believers named Aquila and Priscilla who were followers of Jesus from Rome, but the Roman ruler had forced all Jews to leave Rome, so these Jewish Christians were refugees in Corinth when Paul met them.

This is all encouraging because it means that the church in Rome was started when some no name Roman visitors to Jerusalem received the gospel message of Jesus Christ and took it back to Rome and began sharing it.

Those who believed that gospel message were saved from their sin and into God’s family - the church in Rome apart from having some well known Christian figure to plant their church.

That should be encouraging to us because we can be tempted to think that you have to be a spiritual somebody with position and credentials in order to do something like share the gospel with others or be a part of planting a new church,

But, the presence of a Christian church in Rome reminds us that God’s kingdom work is done through ordinary, no-name members of God’s church.

Now, I want you to understand with me what kind of situation the church in Rome found themselves in.

We will soon read that the church is made up of both Jewish background believers in Jesus as well as Gentile background believers.

And, while they were all doing church together, the ruler of Rome kicked all the Jews out of Rome for a while,

So, of course, the Gentiles had to carry on church life without their Jewish brothers and sisters.

So, no doubt, the church began to have more of a Gentile flavor of context and culture,

The Gentile music, theological leanings, and worship styles were in full force when the Jewish believers were then allowed back into Rome and the Roman church.

Awkward! A blending of cultures in the church, seems rife for a little conflict and tension.

Then, you have a Christ following woman from Corinth delivering a letter for the apostle Paul.

No doubt, the Roman Christians know of Paul, but most have never met him.

No doubt, they have heard mixed reviews about Paul as we know from reading the New Testament that there were many in the church who sought to speak negatively of Paul and diminish His influence on the church.

And here, they have this letter that is instructing them in how to apply the gospel to their Jewish and Gentile tension.

Not only that, but He writes in the letter that he wants this tension to be solved so that the Roman church can end of being a base of Paul’s missionary operations in the future.

Well, no doubt, they are going to need to have unity with one another in the church, and unity around Paul’s mission and theology in order to support Him in his future mission and church planting endeavors.

So, why take this letter seriously? Why consider it authoritative?

Why would Christ Covenant Church spend the next year plus proclaiming, preaching, teaching, and learning from this letter of Paul to the Roman Christians?

Paul utilizes his greeting in verses 1-7 to answer those very questions:

Romans 1:1–7 (ESV)

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul first identifies himself as

1. A Slave Of Christ Jesus

When we commonly write letters today, we wait to sign our names at the end, but it was normal in that day to begin your letter with a greeting that included identifying yourself.

If we were to all take the time this morning to stand up and introduce ourselves, what would you say, how do you identify yourself to others?

For many of us, no doubt, we would mention the kind of work we do, or we may mention our being married or having children, yet Paul is instructive to all of us when he introduces himself:

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus.

The word Paul uses for servant is much more commonly translated slave.

There is a word he could have used to identify himself as a person who offers a service yet comes and goes as he pleases.

But instead, he uses a word that indicates that he belonged to Christ Jesus entirely and to whom his absolute obedience was expected.

A slave is one bought by a master and submits to their master as an absolute lord and sovereign over their lives.

It is likely why Paul puts the title of Christ before the personal name Jesus, in order to emphasize Jesus’ position and place as saving master and lord of his life.

We read in

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (ESV)

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

You see, we can be tempted to believe that Jesus came to save us from our sins so that we can be free to be an autonomous self sovereign.

I mean, isn’t that what grace is is saving you from sin so that you can be accepted as a completely free being?

But the answer is emphatically no! And it is no because our very nature as humans means we are creatures, not the Creator.

We are not self sovereign!

We cannot manage and control the beating of our own hearts, much less or lives and destinies.

We are completely dependent something outside of ourselves to have our very lives sustained.

And because we are completely dependent creatures, we are owned by whatever it is that shapes our lives and determines our destinies.

And apart from knowing Jesus, we are slaves of our sin.

Our sinfulness against our creator God shapes our lives and determines our eternal destiny.

Yet, for all who have been saved by Christ Jesus have rejected the lordship of sin in their lives and submitted to the lordship of their savior, master, creator, and lord, Christ Jesus.

This is why a gospel of salvation bought by Jesus Christ and offered as a free gift to sinners leads us to be slaves of Christ Jesus upon receiving his free gift.

All who are truly saved are bought by their master and called to submit to Him as their absolute sovereign.

Of course, the question becomes, how can this message of the gospel be good news if it makes me a slave?

Well, the only determining factor for whether it is the worst experience in the universe to be a slave or whether it is the most freeing and abundant life possible has everything to do with who the owner is.

Who is the master?

If the master loves you no matter what, will ultimately turn all things for your good, and determines an eternity of unending pleasure and joy, being owned by that master is the greatest experience one could ever have.

Do you consider yourself a slave of Christ Jesus?

Do you consider him your absolute Lord and Master?

Or are you duped into thinking you can have salvation and personal autonomy?

We are all slave to something, because we are dependent creatures.

Paul introducing himself as a slave of Christ Jesus is his first step in answering the question of if he is trustworthy and if what He writes is on good authority.

Of course it is, for His master and Lord is Christ Jesus.

Secondly, Paul identifies himself as

2.Called of God

In verse 1, he writes that he has been, “called to be an apostle.”

And if God called Paul to be an apostle that establishes everything for his trustworthiness and authority because God gave the apostles the authoritative commission to speak on his behalf.

Think about it: Every word of the New Testament was written by an apostle or had an undebatable closeness and influence from an apostle in the case of Mark, Luke, and Jude.

There are some people who would argue that they only trust the words of Jesus, not words written by apostles like Paul.

But, listen, that doesn’t work because Jesus did not physically write down any of the words in the Bible.

They were all written down by prophets in the Old Testament and apostles (or super closely related to apostles) in the New Testament.

That’s why Paul could write

Ephesians 2:19–20 (ESV)

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,

The household of God, the church, all saved by God, are built on the foundation of truth, and that truth has come to us through the apostles and prophets writing the words of the Bible.

In the first chapter of Acts, we read that when God led the apostles to choose an apostle to replace Judas, who had betrayed Jesus, there were three criterion the new apostle had to meet:

They had to have followed Jesus throughout the entirety of his earthly ministry.

They had to have physically witnessed the resurrected Jesus.

They had to be directly chosen by God.

So, Paul, identifying himself as an apostle was identifying himself with an extremely exclusive group that only 14 or 15 men ever fit into, and they were given the exclusive authority to speak on behalf of God as a foundation for the New Testament.

That means, biblically speaking, there are no apostles today nor have there been outside of these 14 or 15 men who witnessed the resurrected Jesus and were directly called by him to be an apostle.

And while Paul was the only apostle to not have witnessed Jesus’ earthly ministry, the book of Acts records his direct call by God three times, and Paul even explains the late nature of his call of God to be an apostle in the book of 1 Corinthians.

Paul then offers one more phrase of clarification regarding his identity in verse 1, He has been set apart for the gospel of God.

I’ve already addresses the set apart nature of an exclusive group of apostles, but notice his being set apart for the gospel of God.

The original words Paul uses do not mean that he is set apart for a gospel that is about God.

Instead, he is saying he has been set apart for God’s gospel.

This is God’s gospel, God’s message, God’s good news, it is not simply about God, it finds its origin, its foundation, its life, and its power, and its authority in God alone, and God has set Paul apart as a mouthpiece for God’s gospel.

The trustworthiness and authority is becoming clear.

Paul goes on to identify this God who is the origin of the gospel stating it is

3. Based On The Word Of God

Verse 2 states, “which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures”

You see, Paul is not writing to proclaim a story that began in his generation when Jesus was born to Mary.

No, Paul is writing to proclaim the story that originates in the Creator God who ordained and determined this story before He created the world.

And the Old Testament Scriptures are the writings of the prophets carried along by the Spirit of God to tell us that story through the promises of the Lord and Savior to come in Jesus.

Why is Paul’s writing trustworthy and authoritative? Because it is in line with the story God has always been writing through the Old Testament Scriptures.

For as soon as mankind fell into slavery to sin and death in the third chapter of the Bible, we also read

Genesis 3:15 (ESV)

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel.”

It is what theologians call the “protoeuangelion” or “first gospel” because even at the earliest stage of mankind’s fall into sin, God promised an offspring of woman who would come and crush Satan’s head and rule over mankind.

And it was that Satan crusher who was born of the virgin as was promised by the prophets in the Holy Scriptures.

And the goal of the Old Testament Scriptures was a promise

4. Concerning The Son Of God

Verses 3-4, “concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,”

You want to know something awesome?

Faithful Bible scholars tell us that it is almost certain that Paul is referencing early church credal material here in verses 3 and 4.

Think about it, when the church began at Pentecost, 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection, and 10 days after his ascension into heaven,

That church who immediately devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching had no New Testament.

It hadn’t been written yet.

So, what they did was they wrote down these little creeds to memorize and teach others the truths about Jesus that the apostles were teaching them.

They were possibly even lyrics to the first church songs, because they are written with a balanced formula to aid in memory.

So, as Paul is establishing his trustworthiness and the basis of his authority with the Roman Christians who had not personally met him, Paul inserts two lines of a creed concerning Jesus, the Son of God, that the Christians in Rome would have already been familiar with.

It’s like if I was trying to gain credibility with another pastor, I may quote the Bible.

Or if I’m trying to gain credibility with an inventor, I may quote Albert Einstein.

Or if I’m trying to gain credibility with a certain daughter of mine, I quote Taylor Swift (the earlier more innocent version of course).

The Roman believers eyes must have gotten a bit wider and ears perked up a bit when Paul identified Jesus Christ, the son of God, fully man and fully God, by quoting an early Christian creed that they knew well.

For God’s gospel is concerning His Son.

The content of God’s gospel is God’s Son.

Jesus Christ, descended from David according to the flesh.

The gospels of Matthew and Luke go to great lengths to establish Jesus Christ as the physical descendant of King David in order to establish him as the one promised in

2 Samuel 7:16–17 (ESV)

16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ” 17 In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

So there is trustworthiness based on an agreed upon understanding of Jesus’ physical heritage.

We go a step further by considering

1 John 4:2–3 (ESV)

2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

So, is Paul a trustworthy source?

Him confessing that Jesus Christ was a man and came to earth in the flesh takes us a long way to say “yes,”

Then, the second half of the creed declares that Jesus is not only fully man, but He is also the divine Son of God.

And Paul is saying that you don’t have to take His word for it,

The Holy Spirit of God has already announced to the world that Jesus is the divine Son of God by raising him up from the dead!

And maybe for someone here today, that’s the main trouble.

Maybe you are impressed with how cohesive, consistent, and compelling the gospel of Jesus Christ is when it comes to the Scriptures,

But asking you to believe that He truly died and then truly rose from the dead seems a step too far.

Maybe you can’t take Paul’s writing as trustworthy and authoritative for your life because people do not resurrect from the dead.

And if you know any of my story, you know at the darkest hours of doubting my faith, it was the truths surrounding the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that the Holy Spirit of God used to lead my heart to say with the disciples, “Lord, where else could I go? For you have the words of eternal life.”

So, if you are here and the Christian confession of a resurrected Jesus is what is keeping you from faith, I want to challenge you with this:

If Jesus did rise from the dead, then He is Lord and everything he and his apostles said about him are true, and your eternal destiny depends on you coming to believe on Him and submit to Him as Lord.

So, that means it would be eternally worth it for you to look into it for yourself.

Look into how unbelievers seek to explain the resurrection of Jesus.

Look into how believers who used to be skeptics have come to be convinced of the resurrection of Jesus.

And ask yourself, how did this message of Jesus risen from the dead make it out of the first generation and all the way to 2024 where this guy is preaching about it and the people sitting around me believe it and have staked their life and eternity on it?

If you are open to having that conversation, I’d love to meet up and talk about it.

While Jesus’ coming in the flesh shows us his identification with humanity, understanding the weakness and suffering of the body, knowing the full weight of temptation yet without sin, dying on a cross in shame and weakness,

The resurrection shows Jesus Christ, the Son of God, raised in power to His rightful place at the right hand of God to rule and reign for eternity over those who are saved by him and to judge to hell and eternal punishment those who reject Him.

And notice, Paul is not saying that Jesus became the Son of God at his resurrection.

No, Jesus has always from eternity past been the Son of God, the second member of the trinity.

But, the resurrection displayed this truth to the world in a way that had never been previously displayed.

This is, in all his glory at the end of verse 4, Jesus Christ our Lord!

Bow the knee to Him as Lord and Savior now and receive his commendation, so that you will not finally bow your knee to him as your Lord, judge, and the one who will proclaim your ultimate condemnation.

Paul proclaims the same Lord Jesus Christ that the Roman believers have trusted in for salvation.

Paul continues on to God’s goal in the proclamation of the gospel:

5. For The Sake Of The Name Of God

Verse 5 reads, “through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,”

Paul is clear that it is through the Lord Jesus Christ that he has received grace and apostleship, yet he does not right in a way for us to take grace and apostleship as two different things.

Instead, he writes it in a way that makes clear that he is using the words grace and apostleship as one thing.

We would say through the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul has received a gracious apostleship or the grace of apostleship.

Paul talks about it this way in

Galatians 1:15–16 (ESV)

15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles

Paul seeing his calling to apostleship as a gift, again, is quite instructive to us who are tempted to believe that God’s grace simply allows me to go to Heaven when I die even if I live a completely autonomous life doing only what I want to do here on earth.

No instead, the same grace of God that saves us from our sins, also saves us into God’s family the church.

The grace of God saves us out of a worthless life of living for things that won’t last and into a gracious life of living to serve God, His church, and His kingdom advance.

In other words, living for things that eternally matter.

Of course, Paul saw his salvation from sin as a gift of God’s grace, but He also saw His calling as an apostle as a gift of God’s grace.

Do you see your job, your ministry, your service to God’s church, your responsibility as a parent, a spouse, a student, or a retiree as a gift of God’s grace in order to advance his kingdom and glory which are the only things that will eternally matter?

For Paul, the purpose of his gracious apostleship given Him by Jesus was to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all Gentiles.

So, Paul, as a spokesperson of God’s gospel call people to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, to place their faith in Jesus Christ died and risen,

So, the obedience of faith is obeying the call to put your faith and trust in Jesus.

This is why Paul will later write that Jews who refused to place their faith in Jesus are being disobedient to the call of the gospel of God.

But, as the gospel call goes out, and people obey that call by placing their faith in Jesus, His name is spread and glorified among the nations.

Which is the very end to which God aims is to bring glory to Himself in the salvation of sinners.

Just note the centrality of God’s glorious work in these first seven verses!

God did the glorious work of saving Paul out of slavery to sin in order to be a slave of Christ Jesus.

God did the gracious work of calling Paul to be an apostle.

God entrusts God’s glorious gospel which God promised beforehand through inspiring the writing of the Old Testament.

God the Father sent God the Son to be flesh and blood, then raised in power to be displayed gloriously as the Son of God.

We will later read that God does the work of drawing His own to the obedience of faith in Christ.

And God does all this to display His great glory among all nations!

No doubt, the true believers of the Roman church would be on board with that,

Yet, notice at the end of verse 6, Paul takes the initiative to add the Romans in on those who have been obedient to the faith when he writes:

including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

Well played Paul.

You displayed the grand purposes of God through Christ then you included these Roman believers in this midst of them.

Finally, Paul directly addresses who he is writing to in Rome:

6. To The Saints Of God

“To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints”

God loves all who have been obedient to the faith.

He does not just love those who find themselves on the top tier of being obedient to all his commands.

He does not just love those who have kept themselves away from big public sins.

He does not just love those who know the Bible really well, and have a great understanding of the church, and serve in at least two ministries.

God loves those who are obedient to the faith.

You know what it takes to be obedient to the faith?

It means you agree with God that you are a sinner.

It means you know you cannot save yourself or earn God’s love for you.

It means you place your faith in the fact that Jesus died in your place for your sins and rose to defeat your sin and to convince you that He is the Son of God.

And it means that you submit to Him as your Lord,

And no matter how imperfectly that will play out in practice,

In position, you will know from now through eternity that you are loved by God and that you have been called to be His saint.

Hold on now!

I just heard your heart respond the way mine has way too many times.

I heard your heart say, “Me? A saint? No way.”

Yet remember, a saint is one who has been set apart by their obedience of faith to the gospel of God.

A saint is a holy set apart one not because they have any kind of spiritual merit or impressiveness.

A saint is holy and set apart because they have been honest enough to confess that they are a sinner in need of a Savior and they have trusted Jesus Christ, the Lord, the Son of God, as their Savior.

Have you trusted Him? If not, you can do that right now.

So slaves of Jesus Christ, called of God, based on the Word of God, concerning the Son of God, for the sake of the name of God, leave here today with the confidence that you are a saint of God, and may you know the grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray.