Romans 1:1-6; What is the Gospel?

Introduction

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Have you ever tried to explain a common word that you use all the time but were at a loss when you tried to communicate that to another person. For just a moment, what is the meaning of meaning? How about another word we use all the time in our Christian circles. We have organizations like the Gospel Coalition. We have conferences like Together for the Gospel (T4G). We talk about it, we gather around it, we believe it. But, what is the gospel?

Need

We need to be able to confidently confess, articulate, explain, and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Referent

Romans 1:1-6

Organization

God’s Glory (vs. 1-4)

Our Good (vs. 5-6)

Application

Sermon in a sentence:

The gospel is the good news of God’s glory and our good!

Rationale

*Explain the reason for this sermon and the subsequent 3 weeks*

New Membership Class

The Gospel

The Church

Church Expectations

Why Colgate (Doctrine/Culture)

Reaffirmation of our membership of Colgate Baptist Church as a new season in our church’s life.

God’s Glory (vs. 1-4)

Paul’s introduction to this letter is longer than most. His introduction is a full 6 verses.

He usually will describe himself as an “apostle” (1&2 Cor , Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, 1&2 Timothy) in his introductions. He also calls himself a “prisoner” in Philemon.

Here and Titus are the only two books that Paul uses both “slave and an apostle”.

In this long introduction, he is also Trinitarian. (vs. 1- Christ Jesus and God. vs. 4 Spirit of holiness)

The gospel is often confused. It is some vague news of God’s love for our, his plan for your life, Jesus’ friendship, etc…

Paul is also ready to explain that the gospel is not his! (vs. 1) The gospel is the good news of the Triune God.

God the Father - (vs. 1) promised salvation (beforehand through the holy Scriptures)

I want to be careful. The Trinity works in perfect harmony and unity. There is no fighting in the Trinity. I highly recommend you watch The Room for Nuance podcast’s interview of Kyle Claunch on the Trinity.

With that in mind, we are going to speak of the different operations of the members of the Trinity. Here, God the Father has spoken through men (his prophets) in Holy Scripture! A few years ago, Andy Stanley said we need to unhitch the OT from our faith. That is the exact opposite of what the NT teaches us. Paul says that the gospel was always revealed in the OT. Jesus himself taught the disciples on the way to Emmaus about himself by going to Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.

God the Son - purchased our salvation (vs. 3)

Jesus, in the flesh, fulfilled all the demands of the law.

Active and passive obedience. In the flesh, submitting his human will to the will of the Father.

He must die to be restructured! The gospel is not good news without the death and resurrection of Jesus! The gospel must focus on the person and work of Jesus.

God the Spirit - perfecting us (vs.

Paul says that his grace and apostleship came from Jesus Christ which was applied by the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:11 “11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

Our Good (vs. 5-6)

(v. 5) The Spirit applies the person and work of Jesus to our lives so that we can have the “obedience of faith” and “obedience to faith”

1.) Faith requires obedience. There was a severe drought in this country. Two farmers prayed for rain. Only one of them went out to his fields and tilled the ground and prepared to sow his seeds. How had real faith?

2.) The obedience to the faith (the gospel). Paul is primarily saying that his apostleship was to bring about the faith of Gentiles! People would be obedient to God by believing in the gospel!

Saints, we often think about America as the nation thats always been a Christian nation. We were founded on a framework in light of Christianity. But our nation was something amazing. I am not saying that the colonizers were perfect people. I recognize there were serious atrocities done against the native Americans that lived here. All of those things were horrible. Our Presbyterian brothers preached that manifest destiny was biblical. God wanted to give them from sea to sea, the entire continent. I can recognize serious flaws. At the same time, I can be thankful that this land was not forever cut off from the gospel. My mother’s family has Aztec blood. The Aztecs would pillage and enslave neighboring tribes to use as human sacrifices to appease a false god. It is by God’s grace, that you and I can sit in a church in a territory and land that had not heard of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

We belong to God

v. 6 - we are “called to belong to Jesus Christ”. We are called the property of Jesus. Just as Paul is “called” to be an apostle and slave of Christ, so are we. V. 7 Pauls says the Romans are called saints - literally holy ones.

Romans 6:16–18 ESV

16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Your title is no longer your sin. Your title is one of Jesus Christ’s holy ones.

Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?

A. That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

Conclusion

Saints, it was a few years ago that I was in a small group of seasoned believers. I asked each one of them to write down on an index card what they thought was the gospel. I asked them to keep it as basic as possible while covering the necessary components of the gospel. No fancy theological terms. No difficult concepts. A very brief gospel presentation that you could share with someone on the street.

I played a song that was about 3 or 4 minutes long to give everyone sometime to write out the gospel. This was a very small group. There were some in that group that wrote nothing. It broke my heart! I was not angry. I was sad. After teaching, another saint came up to me. She was telling me that the people that didn’t write down the gospel knew what the gospel was. They were just shy. I said and that is part of the problem. Some people don’t know the gospel. Others, know the gospel but can’t even share it with a small group of believers. I didn’t ask them to stand up in the group and share. I asked them to write it down anonymously. Saints, we need a revival in our midsts.

We need the grace of God the Father and the help of the Son by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to aid us. We need to not only know the gospel, now we need to be obedient to the demand of the gospel!

Application

Turn from your sin, belief in Jesus Christ for salvation. The gospel is yours!

Pray, plan, and prepare to share the gospel with those around you!

God

Man

Christ

Respond

GOD created the world and man for his glory. MAN rebelled against God. Each one of us have knowingly and unknowingly rebelled and sinned against God. CHRIST came to fulfill all the requirements and debts that humans could not pay to the infinity perfect and holy God. God now requires all humans to RESPOND in faith in Jesus Christ.