The Unifying Gospel - Romans - Week 4

The Obedience of Faith: Embracing Our Apostolic Calling

Bible Passage: Romans 1:5–7

Summary: In Romans 1:5-7, Paul emphasizes the importance of faith-driven obedience as the foundation of the apostolic mission, highlighting the grace and peace imparted by Christ to empower believers in their calling.

Application: This passage encourages Christians to live out their faith actively and obediently in their daily lives, reminding them that obedience is both a response to God’s grace and a crucial aspect of their identity in Christ. It reassures them that they are not alone in their struggles, as His grace provides the strength they need.

Teaching: The sermon teaches that true faith manifests itself in obedience to God’s commandments and that such obedience is rooted in the grace given to us through Christ. It illustrates how the apostles were called not only to believe but to act in response to that belief, serving others and spreading the Gospel.

How this passage could point to Christ: The passage points to Christ as the source of grace and peace, fulfilling the Old Testament promises of a messianic king who would establish a new covenant. This underscores the notion that all Scripture ultimately points to Jesus, culminating in His redemptive work, which empowers believers for service.

Big Idea: Our call to obedience is an expression of our faith and reliance on Christ, who gives us grace and peace to fulfill our God-given purpose.

Recommended Study: I recommend using your Logos library to explore the historical context of Romans and examine the cultural implications of apostleship in the early church. Additionally, you could do a word study on 'obedience' and 'faith' in this passage, analyzing their nuances and how they connect to both Old and New Testament teachings. This could give you deeper insight into the text's implications for the church today.

Intro

Welcome

Today, we’re going to talk about how not only to believe, but to act in response to our belief.

Theres times where we struggle. Theres times where we have doubts. But when we understand that God knew that we would and has a plan for us, it helps us respond to God the same way.

Romans 1:1–7 NASB 2020

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles in behalf of His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

How do we live out our faith?

Its obedience to God. Thats how we express our faith. We rely on Christ and He gives us grace and peace to fulfill our God-given purpose.

1. Receiving Grace and Responding

Romans 1:5 NASB 2020

through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles in behalf of His name,

Remember that Paul holds the office of an apostle.

An apostle is a messenger from God.

This is significant because of how before he was an apostle for Christ, he was against Christ.

In order to go from being against Christ to being a messenger for Christ, there needed to be a receiving of grace. Forgiveness for what he did.

He’s saying that through Jesus Christ, he has been given a message and that not just him, but all who are reading this have this grace and apostleship to give the same message.

That doesn’t mean we’re all apostles, but we’re apostolic in the sense that we carry a message from God.

Thats the beauty of the Gospel. Its a message for us, but also we’re meant to share it.

We have to think about what this would mean for Paul and the people reading it.

In Paul’s apostleship, he had been establishing new churches in highly populated areas. (Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, and Ephesus)

Now, in his letter to the Roman’s, he’s writing to Jews and Gentles who have already established house churches and are following Christ’s teachings in Rome.

They are not called Christians because that doesn’t exist yet. Pauls purpose isn’t to inform them of Jesus (because they already knew), but to unify them around Jesus.

They were experiencing a divide in culture and background. Some being Jew, others being Gentile and not conforming to the Jewish traditions and laws.

Paul needed to be sensitive to their cultures and address the divide by unifying them under the Gospel.

Romans is essentially the Gospel, as told by Paul in order to unify.

We need this message of unity today.

We see Paul promote unity by talking about what things we can unify around… while at the same time, he calls out what we should be against.

The misconception in today’s day and age is that unity means that we need to just agree to disagree and move on.

Throughout Romans we’ll see Paul unify people in their faith despite their cultural differences, while unapologetically calling out non-negotiable sin that should separate us.

I can’t believe how much we can relate this to today.

Paul was eventually killed for his apostleship. His message of unity that was given to him by Jesus, he took to the end.

What does it look like today for us to have this apostolic grace and calling?

If we look at the word apostle, in secular Greek usage, an apostle functioned as a messenger or ambassador.

In other words, someone who was given the responsibility of delivering a message on behalf of someone who sent them.

Couldn’t we look the ambassadors and influencers in the spotlight as people - whether the message is good or bad - who are representing a brand or entity and trying to get you to give them your attention, money, information, and put some faith in them?

Think about it - we are meant to spread a message in a world where messages are being spread with the sole purpose to target and divide.

“My ideas are better than theirs because theirs are evil.”

“My products are better than theirs because theirs suck.”

Our social media algorithms are set up to keep you in a bubble and in that bubble, we create divides.

When we accept Jesus, we are now in His grace. This is what unifies us. Because without grace, we’d all be lost and doomed.

We’re given grace and its forgiveness that we need every day. But it doesn’t come without a purpose: “to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles in behalf of His name”

We receive this unifying grace for a purpose to be in obedience

Whats that obedience? - to share the message of the unifying Gospel.

2. United in Faithful Obedience

Romans 1:6 NASB 2020

among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ

This means that its not just for the leaders. Paul was not telling the Romans what he’s been up to. He’s not reporting to them because as their leader, they want to make sure he’s keeping busy.

He’s equipping them to go out and be messengers.

Church, the sharing of the Gospel isn’t just for me on Sundays. Its not that I write sermons to present to you so you might think I know what I’m doing…

At Bible Study, Dr. Deb said to me that she’s the most excited about this study because she’s reading Romans on her own. Over and over. So when she comes on Sunday and Wed nights, she has it already in her head and it comes alive more.

We belong to Jesus, meaning we all are under the same mission and we all have a shared purpose in advancing God’s kingdom.

We are all under grace, living out our faith in the world. We can unify in that. We can share the Gospel, standing for what its for and against.

3. Empowered by Grace and Peace

Romans 1:7 NASB 2020

to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

If I said hey “so and so” go into that dark room. You’re gonna need this.

How would you feel?

Paul is telling the Romans and he’s telling us now - “Hey… grace and peace to you.”

Because you’re going to fail. You need grace.

If I didn’t have grace, I would’ve failed not just at my job as a pastor, but my life as a Christian.

I’m so glad that I’ve not been sent out with purpose but no grace.

We need grace because we can’t handle the weight of sin. We can’t handle the world. We can’t handle everything that comes at us in life.

Because its going to be heavy. Its going to feel bad. You need peace.

We are equipped to endure struggles so we can fulfill our apostolic calling.

Rely on Christ’s peace in your challenges.

Rely on Christ’s grace in your failures.

We can experience grace and peace and still send out the message.

When we’re in a season where we’re in need of grace and peace, are we asking God for it or are we trying to create it?

You might be ignoring your need for grace and trying to create peace yourself.

Maybe you stop going to church, you stop reading your Bible, you stop praying. You fall into a deep, dark place.

We’re not alone in this struggle. We’re continuously supported by Christ. And as the body of Christ, the church, we’re continually supported by each other.

Closing

We receive more of God’s power when we walk through struggles embracing grace and peace.

How do we live out our faith?

Its obedience to God. Thats how we express our faith. We rely on Christ and He gives us grace and peace to fulfill our God-given purpose.

Stop searching for grace and peace or trying to create it on your own. Simply stand in obedience to Gods word. Stand for what God stands for and against what He’s against.

The grace and peace are given to those who are finding it in their faith, which is walked out in obedience.