Romans Pt. 1 - Introduction 9/22/24

Good morning, everyone. Morning, welcome to the countryside Vineyard for those of you that don't know me. My name is Joe. Figure on one of the pastures here. This morning, we are starting the book of Romans, so I'm going to do a little introduction, but before I begin, I just want to say, let's speak the name of Jesus over sickness, because there's been a lot of that going around in, in our church and, and in our community. So, so Jesus, we just, we just claim your name above all sickness above, all pain, just like, we just sang above the addiction and the anxiety and all that. But Lord, right now, our community is being Attacked with sickness so we just speak your name against all of this Holy Spirit. We just invite you here this morning. We just say come in power and healing Lord Heal Us in Jesus. Holy and precious name. Amen. All right, so Romans The Book of Romans, it's the first book in the New Testament after acts. So you got the gospels and then acts and then Roman.

This book is special this this it's it's a big book. We're going to spend some time in it about a year so

Yeah, but this morning I'm going to talk kind of about. It's going to be more of an introduction to Romans. I'm not really going to get into the the book itself were going to talk about who what why where when all those questions and then we're going to talk about the content of the book of Romans a little bit just about how it's structured in those kind of things. But first

This book has been attributed to many of the Great Christian writers and thinkers and those kind of things. And I'm just going to give you two examples. I don't know if you've heard of this guy named Augustine st. Augustine or St. Augustine. Some people calling. So Augustine lived in the 4th and 5th Century ad. So this is about 400 300 years. After Christ is when he lived, and he was writing and, A lot of our Western doctor in a lot of the things that we believe that we think come from Augustine, spin originally. Okay. He, he, he really, there's a wealth of stuff that he wrote, but he says that he was at the time. He was a professor in the University teaching literature. Basically ancient literature to him, which is very interest, agent, literature to us. But anyway, he was teaching literature and he was struggling with morality. He was, he was struggling bad. He was He was a womanizer and a drinker and all these things and he couldn't figure out how to get his life right in the way that he thought it should be right. One day, he was sitting in a garden and he was contemplating all this stuff. This is before he was even introduced to God. Okay, he didn't even this is this is all new to him. He's sitting in this garden and he hears these kids saying, take up and read take up and read, they were like repeating this chance and he picks up a scroll that was sitting next to him and he starts reading and he's reading out of Romans 13 and that is he said it an instant warming just came over his heart. And from that day forward, He he became a Christian right there and then, so that's, that's him. Martin Luther Martin Luther was a pastor or priest. I guess you would say, Martin Luther was a priest and he was, he was so distraught cuz he, he knew how sinful he was. He knew how sinful we were, and he was just struggling with that. He was what he hated himself. He was like, this is so terrible, right? And loser picks up Romans and he decides to do a commentary on Romans. He started to write about, Romans and study Romans, and he said, after his study of Romans are through his study of Romans, he actually became converted for the first time. So he claims he wasn't even a Christian before he started Romans, okay? It changed his life that much. So this is an important book and then there's many, many more stories of people who, who owe everything to the Book of Romans who owe their salvation to reading the book of Romans. So it's an important thing.

Okay, so we're going to we're going to talk about, like I said the who what where when and why of Romans in the first thing, we we often start with his authorship and I'll just say right off the bat. There's no question at all of the Paul wrote Romans. Okay, it lines up with all of the books that we know the Power Road. First, first and second Thessalonians 1st and 2nd Corinthians Galatians and really Romans. If you want to get down to, it is really a culmination of all those five books, those those five books, he wrote 1st, when we went through Thessalonians, you probably remember that. That's the first book that we believe was written in the New Testament is Thessalonians.

And then Corinthians in Galatians. So, and and really Romans is a is a is a condensed. It's, it's bigger than all those books but it's, it's a, it's a, it's a systematic. This is what salvation is, okay? But we know for sure that Paul wrote Romans that's not, that's not question by Scholars. So when did Paul write this letter? The next thing is the date. When did Paul write this letter? So in the book of Acts and from the internal evidence of in Romans itself, we can say that Paul wrote Romans right before he made his final journey to Jerusalem, okay? In in the book of Acts it says, I think it's chapter 20, says that that Paul planned on spending. He said I'm going to Corinth to sit there, right at 4 or 3 months in and get through the winter and then I'm going to head to Jerusalem, okay? So that's that's what happened. So he wrote this book in Corinth when he was there for those three months, right before he went to Jerusalem and if you don't know in Jerusalem, is where he was finally arrested and then he appealed to Caesar and went to Rome. Okay? So this is before all that happened. He's riding to the Roman Christians.

So that brings up the audience, okay? He's writing to those in Rome. Okay, he says it in verse 7 and verse 15 of chapter one.

There are multiple churches in Rome at the time that Paul is writing this. Okay? Because the church at that time, wasn't a big place where you would go and gather together, right? It was all held in houses. So there's many different house churches in Rome. So this letter would have been would have been distributed among the churches. It would have been passed from church to church to church.

In Rome, Rome is an interesting City at the time. So if you, if you think about this, if you go back to the book of Acts chapter 2 Pentecost, right, when Pentecost happened, it was mid-thirties ad right now. We, we believe that Paul wrote this about 57 A D K, 57 a diesel. We're looking at about twenty-five or so years after, after Pentecost and Rome never had. So, Paul had never been to Rome. Access to our knowledge while, actually, it's actually provable through the book of Acts that Peter had never been to Rome yet. So, to our knowledge. There has never been any Apostolic leadership in Rome, it wasn't planted by Paul. It wasn't planted by. Peter wasn't planted by anybody that we know of, okay? What most believe happened is that at the day of Pentecost, if you read Acts chapter 2,

Yeah, Acts chapter 2 verse 10. Luke says that there were visitors from Rome both Jews and and converted Jews are sorry. Non-jews it were converted to Judaism, okay? So Gentiles there's Jews and Gentiles from Rome at the day of Pentecost so they hear Peters message. They hear Peters gospel. What he shares with them at Pentecost and they go back to Rome and start the church there, okay? So that's that's kind of how the gospel got to Rome. That's how the message of Jesus got to Rome.

And we know this about the audience as well. Paul says, in in 1:8 first, I thank God through Christ Jesus for you all because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. So we can we can assume that even though this church is not an Apostolic Church in K, it is a strong Church. They have a strong faith in Jesus, it's being proclaimed throughout all the world. Hey, did you hear about what's going on in Rome? You know, that, that kind of thing is happening all over the place. So Paul says, hey, you guys are doing great. Your face is proclaimed in all the world.

So, what was the makeup of the church in Rome? We know that in the Book of Romans that the church is a, is a mix between Jewish Christians and non-jewish Christian Gentiles, okay, it's a mix between the two. However, at the time when Paul wrote this, okay, it's more likely that it was mostly Gentile. Okay. Paul talks to both Jews and Gentiles directly. He says he says you Gentiles. He says us Jews, you know? So he he he he's talking to both groups but we know from external evidence that there were hardly any Jews in Rome in 57 ad because Claudius Caesar had expelled all the all the Jewish people from the city because of uprisings that were happening. 11 author.

He is he was the private secretary to Hadrian the emperor Hadrian in 4980. Claudius had expelled from Rome Jews who are making constant disturbances at the instigation of chrestus. Okay. Chrestus is a likely. It's a it's a it's a miss It's a mistranslation. This guy didn't know who Christ was didn't know who Christos was. So he said chrestus, okay, but what it, what it, what it boils down to is this, the Jews in Rome were fighting over whether Jesus was the Messiah or whether he was not. So there was, there was Jewish Christians and there was a full-blown juice, right? And they were constantly fighting over this. So, Claudia's finally said, get out y'all just believe he didn't want any of the Jews in Romans more, so he kicked them out. So that's what happened. And that was in 49 a.d. Nero took over in 54, a.d., Okay? And the Jews started to trickle back in after that. So it was likely, not very many Jews, in Rome at the time when Paul wrote this in 57 a.d.,

All right. So what's the purpose of of Romans? Why did Paul write Romans? There's two primary reasons that Paul wrote. Romans. The first was to introduce himself and solicit, help for his trip to Spain. Okay, this is clearly in the text of Romans chapter 15 verses 23 through 24, Paul says. But now, since I am no longer, or since I have since I no longer have any room for work in these regions and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey there by you. Once I have enjoyed your company for a while. So Paul says, hey he says I'm planning. He goes all of the work that I can do is done in the east in the eastern half of the Roman Empire. He's like we've been everywhere everywhere that we can go is gone through. Okay, we've planted churches. He's been Interest for 2025 years, you know, he says, we've done as much as we can do here. Now, I want to move west. I want to go past ROM and I want to go to Spain, okay?

Any, he's asking for help, right? From the church in Rome, he says, hey I'm I'm headed to Jerusalem. I'm going to drop off the money that we've collected for the Jerusalem, people that are starving, and, and, and suffering, and having a hard time, he says, then I'm going to go to Rome, and then I'm going to go to Spain. Okay? That, that was his plan. Okay? Now, but he knows whether he actually made it to Spain or not. He was for sure, executed in Rome. But there's some, there's a gap in time there. We don't know if he actually went to Spain, and then came back and was executed her or not. But the point is this, he was he was asking for help that, that was his. That's one of his purposes. Hey, I'm Paul. I've never met you before but I'm coming and I'm going to Spain and I want you to help me if you can. The second thing in the most important thing about Romans is that it was to promote Jewish. And Gentile, Unity. Okay? This is the main theme of the book and like I said, the single most important purpose, he's heard about the struggles in Rome. Okay, he knows that Jewish Christians and the Jews are fighting and that Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians are fighting and he knows. All this is going on. Remember Rome, is it is a city of that has like Hundreds of thousands of people Romans a huge place, right? One of the biggest cities in the world of that time. So there's a lot of people and there's a lot of things going on there.

So he wants to bring Jews and Gentiles under the lordship of Jesus. He wants to bring them into Unity, right? So that's that's why he's writing this and he accomplishes this by interweaving to seems, okay? The first of those themes is the justification of guilty Sinners by God's grace alone in Christ alone, through faith alone, okay alone, right. We talked about that a lot in Galatians, okay? And we're going to come back to that obviously.

And it, it, it, it doesn't matter. The status, it doesn't matter. Your status slave, free, Greek, Jew, how you were, born? How you were raised. None of, that matter. We all all. All all have the ability to come to Christ.

And the second is to redefine the people of God. The true Israel no longer is it according to descent or culture, but it's according to our faith in Jesus. Okay.

And he elucidates, he makes clear in in Romans that were all children of Abraham, regardless of our ethnic origin, our descent, all of those kind of things or are even our religious practice. None of that matters. Only Jesus matters.

Chapter 3 verses 22 through 24. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there is no distinction, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace. As a gift through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Yeah, absolutely. In chapter 10, verses 11 through 13, everyone who believes in him, will not be put to shame for. There is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all bestowing his riches, his riches on all, who call on him for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So the single most important theme of Romans is the equality between people, Unity, right?

So, what about the content of Romans? How is it? How is it kind of built? So apart from the opening greeting, and the ending greeting, it's really for parts UK Romans can be broke down into four parts in the first is the case against humanity, okay. And in this he's saying what he's saying you have all sinned. Romans 3:23 all have sinned and fallen short of the glory got and it takes him two chapters to say, you have all sinned. Okay, then. And that's the point of it, though. He's saying, hey, everybody is in the same boat. Everybody is in the same. Predicament, everybody needs salvation. None of you are. None of you are exempt. Everybody needs it. Whether you're depraved Pagan Society, whether you're critical moralizers, either Jews or Gentiles or well instructed, self-confident use, you all need Jesus.

That's right.

All right, the second the second section is so if that was a versus 1:18 through 3:20, okay? The second section is 3:21 through 8:39. The whole the whole chapter 8 section has a lots of Parts but it is but the title of it would be the extent of God's grace toward all humans. Okay. This is the section. What is it? Five chapters long six chapters lawn that where he goes through and systematically says, look this is what God has done through Jesus and he speaks to every culture. Every people, everything right throughout these five chapters. The extent of God's grace toward all humans, what Jesus did and what it means for you, because The third part of this is the plan of God versus chapters 9 through 11. This section answers question, like questions that we we might have right like why is Israel, why is real? What why did God do that? Why did he set apart this nation and go through all this stuff prior to Jesus, right. And Paul is going to answer all of that in chapters 9 through 11, Why did it take so long? What's the, what's what's all this messiness of Salvation history? Why do we have to go through all of that? Why did it? You know, all those questions will be answered in in chapters 9 through 11. And then finally chapters 12 through 15 chapters 12 through 15 up to verse 14, about half of half of 15, is that closing? Greetings.

And this is the response of the believer. Okay, what, how do we respond to God's grace? Paul starts off that session with one of the most famous quotes around here in view of God's mercy. He says, in view, of God's mercy in view of all that I've written. So far up to now, in view of all this, this is how we respond, okay. How we live our lives. Under Christ rule together, different people, different backgrounds, how we come together under Christ and live, and work together, and how we spread the gospel.

So those are the four parts. The case against humanity, God's grace and what that all means, the plan of God and the response of the believer. Again, Romans is often cited as the most important book in the Bible. It's not the most important book of the Bible but it's often portrayed as the most important book of the Bible because it it tells you what happened what what the gospels did or what the gospels said, what does that mean? Right. That's what Romans does, as well? As a lot of other of the Epistles, of course, but This is an important book.

So this is what I encourage you to do. Is we go through Romans? First of all, this week Romans takes about an hour to read out loud. If you read it out loud at a normal pace, so it's going to take you about an hour. So break this up throughout this next week, right? Monday through Saturday break this up, six days. So you're going to do about three chapters a day, okay, we through Romans before we start digging into this book, And then as we go along, I want you to keep reading. Romans wait, we've done this a lot. We encourage you to read ahead, write read what we're going to study and this is for those of you that take notes. Okay, go through read Romans and jot down, any questions. You have to get to a verse just write the verse down the, the, the reference to the verse and write your question next to it as we come to those, then you can get those questions out as we're studying to Romans. Hey, that answered my question. You see what I'm saying? And if it still didn't, then come see, one of us, whoever is teaching that we can say, hey, I've got this question. This is my point engaged with Romans. Don't just sit and listen to Romans. Don't just go home and read Romans engage with Romans understand this book. And anything, we do up here, this doesn't single out Romans, but engage with what we're doing. It doesn't make a difference if we just sit and listen, right? We have to engage with it.

Yeah, in Jesus name. All right. So let's pray. So father

We thank you for this book called Romans, we. Thank you for inspiring the Apostle Paul to write down these things.

Lord, as we move through this book, this is all this is a transforming book. This is a book that has transformed many lives.

Lord, I just ask that you would work through your Holy Spirit to teach us the things in this book. That we need to hear. And Lord help us to engage with this book. Help us to engage with you. Through this book.

Again, Lord, we speak against sickness. We already did that at the beginning. The Lord I just speak against sickness. All of these things that have been going on. Lord, we just pray for healing right now, in the name of Jesus and protection from sickness.

Gordon protection for for those of us doing what we do throughout the week.

We thank you for all these things.

We thank you for your blessings.

In Jesus, holy name. Amen. All right. Yep and And that's it, come back next week for the first message in Romans. All right.