Romans - Week 2
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Weather
Jeff Leech
Pray for our nation. Pray against division.
We stand for people encountering Jesus and against racism and murder.
In todays climate, we have a job to point people to Jesus where they’re at.
As a church, we don’t take political stances. Sometimes the politicians try to claim issues as political, but we don’t fall into a political category.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, we are a religiously conservative church - meaning, we stand for the Biblical truths that scripture teaches us and we stand against progressive Christianity and the lies and evils that it brings.
If you consider yourself republican or democrat for whatever reason, you can be a Christian conservative. It doesn’t line up with a political party.
Theres a local progressive church that says “we want to be known for what we stand for and not against.”
Well, if you stand for something, then you’re also standing against something.
I know what we stand for, but I’m also here to tell you we stand against murder and racism.
I refuse to be the talking head for any political party, though if you need to know where I stand there, we can talk politics over coffee… but not from the pulpit.
I will also respect and pray for the office of the president of the united states. Both past and present who have held the office. I will also respect and pray for every human life because Jesus died for them.
Whatever your political party is, don’t just toe the line. But bring Jesus into every situation and glorify Him in it.
Recap
Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
You might ask, why are we spending so much time on these verses?
Because there is significance in the introduction.
Today’s greetings and info:
Does anyone write letters anymore?
Does anyone not know how to write a letter?
In the greeting, he’s establishing a lot and its to people he hasn’t met.
If you’ve ever gotten a text before from a number thats not in your contacts its goes something like this:
“hey. are you still bringing the chips and salsa to the super bowl party? Billy and Sharon really are hungry for them.”
You might reply something like this - “who dis?”
You’re not getting a text saying something like “this is Johnny, a servant of Christ, and apostle, whos mission in life is to preach the gospel…”
Here’s Paul, writing to the Roman church and telling us who he is, and now reminding us what was promised by God’s prophets in the scriptures
Paul, the author or Romans.
We established who Paul was, his past, and how he was still called by God to bring the Gospel to the known world.
Similarly to Paul, no matter what our past, we have a calling to share the Gospel.
God doesn’t disqualify us.
But He doesn’t qualify us by our strength - He allows us to no longer do it in our strength, but His.
Paul wasn’t able to spread the Gospel because of his knowledge or because he mastered his skills as a communicator - but because of how Jesus transformed him.
In today’s day and age, how hard do we try to be effective, influential, and seen
All it took was an encounter with Jesus and obedience to Him in that encounter.
After that, Paul was transformed. His name wasn’t changed from Saul to Paul as you might’ve learned.
Despite being someone a short while ago who was actively against Christians, Paul was known as someone who spreads the Gospel. He had influence, he was effective, and he was seen.
Not according to his own strength, but Gods.
No matter your past choices and decisions, an encounter with Jesus can change everything about you. If you submit in obedience to Jesus’ voice, you will see transformation… and so will the people around you.
The people around Paul were amazed by his transformation… knowing about his past, even though he walked through repentance, he needed to make sure that people knew that it wasn’t his authority, but Christ’s.
Verse one gives us this qualification for preaching the gospel of God.
Teaching
Teaching
which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures,
Here are the important notes today:
His promises
His prophets
the holy Scriptures
The Roman’s would’ve read this and known that he was talking about the prophesies in the Old Testament scriptures that would mean that the Son of God was coming to rescue them.
Why? Because the Roman church was made up of mostly Jews, while having a lot of non-Jewish people or Gentiles as well.
Throughout Jesus’ time on earth, He fulfilled those prophesies.
I looked online at the bets made of who will win the super bowel… its overwhelmingly in favor of one team… its probably gonna happen.
The prophesies were not predictions but were given by God’s prophets. You might predict who will win the Super Bowl, then you could be wrong. But when God would give a prophecy, it would come to pass.
The Jews were waiting for their Messiah based on the scriptures that they had from prophets who were no longer living.
We don’t have time to go through all of these prophesies, but I will read one for you.
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel.
Immanuel means God with us. Its a title for Jesus.
These promises were given by the prophets that would mean that God will be with us, in the flesh.
Today, we don’t have Jesus walking around like He did before, but when we’re saved, Jesus lives in us.
Church, this promise means that God is still with us. Jesus lives in us by His Holy Spirit.
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
Romans is going to reveal the Holy Spirit to us in this book like no other book in the Bible.
By this we know that we remain in Him and He in us, because He has given to us of His Spirit.
If you want to know more about how God’s promise that Paul is writing to the Roman church is just as much for us as it is for them, then don’t miss whats next.
Holy Scriptures
Holy Scriptures
Paul isn’t just writing a casual letter right? He’s a leader of the church and He’s teaching the Gospel in a world where they didn’t have the New Testament Bible right? They had the Old Testament.
So what he’s doing is leading them to Jesus.
You can find Jesus all through the OT.
The prophets foretold His coming.
God would tell His prophets about the Savior or the Messiah that was to come.
The Jews still are waiting for the Messiah because they believe that Jesus was not Him.
Pauls letter is giving information and teachings that are now our holy Scripture today.
But at the time, he was writing to people who only had the OT - they were Jews and Gentiles.
Wouldn’t you agree that today, even with the scripture, we need direction finding Jesus?
How many people - maybe even us today - live in darkness and with a desire and a hope for light?
You have celebrities and athletes talking about Jesus, you even can watch clips of sermons on your devices, but who is leading you to Jesus?
Until you get into your word and have an encounter with Jesus, how can you know Him?
They didn’t know where to find Jesus in the text unless someone showed them.
Its really important to talk about this because in Rome, there were Jews (who believed in Jesus) meaning they practiced Judism, (which comes from the OT scriptures) and the Gentiles were non-Jewish. They didn’t call these people “Christians.”
You have to understand that there was never an intention of creating a new religion. Only an intention of pointing people to Jesus.
So there was never a part of the church that was set up to just come and listen to preaching every week and come back next week.
It is about Jesus - His body and blood - and His word that we are diving into now. We have created religion. We have created divide.
In todays day and age, you have Christians and Jews. But here, it was Jews and Gentiles. It was just who was Jewish and who wasn’t.
But when Jesus and the Gospel were being spread, Jews and Gentiles were following it. They were accepting Jesus.
Paul stressed that the Gospel was not a new religion, but a prophetic fulfillment of the promises given in God’s holy scriptures from the beginning! Its not the start of something new, but a continuation!
Graphic showing where Romans connects to the other books of the Bible
Church God started with creation - made us in His image, gave us free will, walked with us and talked with us.
We sinned. We turned our backs. We were against God. He was never against us.
Our story is the same. Before Jesus, we sinned, we turned our backs, we were against God - because we were living for ourselves.
No matter your story or past, God is going to bring it around for good. He’s had a plan from the begining to do so. Its all right here in His word.
He will grant you the same promises of restoration and redemption that He gave to those who read this in Rome.
Closing
Closing
Some may feel as though God has abandoned them because of their past.
Look at Paul - last week we talked about all the evil things he did. But God didn’t abandon him, He called him.
Today, whatever your past, God is calling you. Jesus wants to encounter you.
Paul was on the road to destroy Christians when he encountered Christ.
You can be on a road of destruction today and encounter Him.
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
