Intro to Romans - part 2
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Mic
Prayer
We didn’t get very far into Romans last week. We only got to the first 6 words… and I don’t know that we are going to get that much farther this week because this first paragraph of Romans is packed with information.
You may go ahead and open your Bibles to Romans chapter 1 that is [pg 1125 in your pew Bibles] [ pg 119 in the skinny bibles at the back of the room.]
and I will catch up to you in a few minutes.
Now, all you have to do friends is turn on the news and you will find out very quickly that the world is filled with bad news. and it seems like the news is getting worse and worse.
What is happening on a national and world-wide level is just a reflection of what is happening on an individual level within our own hearts.
This was brought to me recently when I was sitting in a meeting and the speaker was talking about those of us who live here in Appalachia. People have made us promises in the past… and then did not keep those promises. So we can be skeptical. We may welcome you into our family and treat you like family… until you hurt us and then we will have nothing to do with you.
I thought - does that sound like Christ? Is that what Christ would do? Is that even Christian?
Are we not glad that God is willing to forgive us and accept us even though we have done him wrong? Now I am going to ask you to keep that thought on hold and I am going to come back to it.
As I said, what is happening on a national and worldwide scale with respect to sin is simply a magnification of what is happening on an individual level. And just as our personal problems, our personal animosities and fears increase, so do their counterparts in society at large.
Human beings are in the clutches of a terrifying power that grips us at the very core of our being. Left unchecked, it will push us to self-destruction in one form or another. and that power is sin, which is always bad news.
Sin is and has always been bad news and it can be described by its effects.…
or the way it manifests itself. and the first way is selfishness.
By nature man is self-centered and wants his own way. He will push his selfishness as far as circumstances and society will allow.
When self-will is unbridled, man consumes everything and everyone around him in an insatiable quest to please himself. When friends, fellow workers, or a spouse cease to provide what is wanted, they are discarded like an old pair of shoes.
Work is tolerated as a means to get what I want. It is all about me ...me... me.…
As has been noted all too often, there is constant danger of loving things and using people rather than loving people and using things.
The second side of sin is that it produces guilt.
No matter how convincingly one tries to justify selfishness, its inevitable abuse of things and other people cannot escape generating guilt. This is because God has planted the knowledge of right and wrong within us.
Like physical pain, guilt is a God-given warning that something is wrong and needs correcting. When guilt is ignored or suppressed, it continues to grow and intensify, and with it come anxiety, fear, and sleeplessness.
Many people try to overcome those afflictions by masking them with possessions, money, alcohol, drugs, sex, travel, and psychoanalysis. They try to assuage their guilt by blaming society, parents, a deprived childhood, environment, restrictive moral codes, and even God Himself. Does it work? No!
and that brings us to the 3rd and 4th and 5th effects and that is meaninglessness and hopelessness, I could add depression.
and the ultimate effect of sin which is death.
and that brings us back to our text… Romans chapter 1 and where we left off last week.
Slide
1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ. A … slave by choice … a slave of not just any one but of the promised Messiah. The chosen one of God to whom all the Jews have been looking since the time of Adam… the one who would be our savior and deliverer.
To this Jesus. Paul became a slave by choice … to our promised Messiah and savior Jesus ......
and now.… His master has sent Him out as an apostle set apart for the gospel of God!
He was called as an apostle. An apostle or ἀποστολος refers to someone sent out as a special delegate… as an envoy.
Our President may send someone out to represent the United States as His representative or ambassador to a certain country or representative to a peace negotiation. and when he sends them out he will sent them with a specific message to convey. In this case.. God has called Paul and given him a special message to convey and that message is the Good News from God!
Remember, How I told you to hold that thought a little bit ago about what would Jesus do if we hurt him? Would He write us off? The good news from God is that he did not write us off… but even while we were enemies, he was willing to die for us so that we could become joint heirs with Him in heaven!
as it says in
Slide
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Is that not Good News? Is that not great news?
However, I am not going to deceive you… this good news does come with some strings. Much like Trumps message to Iran. Give up your nuclear weapons… put down your weapons… open the Straight of Hormuz. Join us and live at peace… but if you don’t then there will be a price to pay.
In a way, you could say the choice was surrender or watch your country be destroyed and many of you will die and so far the powers that be in Iran have chosen not to surrender and they are paying the price to this day. Their country is being destroyed one piece at a time.
We are going to find that we face a similar choice. Paul began by describing himself as a slave of Jesus Christ.. a slave by choice.
Last week we started to look at why would anyone choose to become a slave… but then when we saw that Jesus is God… or as it says in Col 1.15-17.
3 Slides
15 And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.
16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created by Him and for Him.
17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
He is our creator.
He is the one who provides for our every need.
and not only this that He loves us with an everlasting love. He loves us so much that He is not only willing to forgive us for our sins, but He paid the price for our sins… a price so steep that we could never pay it, and He did so in order to forgive us for our sins.
When we come to truly realized what kind of a predicament we are in, just like Paul… and how gracious and loving and kind Jesus is we will willing make the same choice. but this is only the beginning of the letter and Paul is not asking us to make that choice yet.
Paul continues in verse 2
2 Slides
1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
2 which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures,
Paul has just said that He has been “set apart” in order to bring the gospel of God… the good news of the gospel which God promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures.
This message is nothing new. God has been promising it for a long time. and now the time has come.
Jesus referred to these same prophets when he spoke to the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
15 Slides (ending vs 27)
13 And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem.
14 And they were conversing with each other about all these things which had taken place.
15 And it came about that while they were conversing and discussing, Jesus Himself approached, and began traveling with them.
16 But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.
17 And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they stood still, looking sad.
18 And one of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?”
19 And He said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people,
20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him up to the sentence of death, and crucified Him.
21 “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.
22 “But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning,
23 and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that He was alive.
24 “And some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see.”
25 And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
26 “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”
27 And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
Have you ever wondered what prophets and prophecies Jesus spoke about?
I think Peter gives us a glimpse in his first sermon when he quotes from Joel:
6 Slides (ending vs 21)
16 but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel:
17 ‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams;
18 Even upon My bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit And they shall prophesy.
19 ‘And I will grant wonders in the sky above, And signs on the earth beneath, Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke.
20 ‘The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come.
21 ‘And it shall be, that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
That sure sounds like the Gospel of God to me. God will pour forth of His Spirit on all mankind. your sons and daughters… both men and women… and everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved! That is good news.
but he does not stop here. Peter goes on… He quotes from David:
10 Slides (ending vs 31)
22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know—
23 this Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.
24 “And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.
25 “For David says of Him, ‘I was always beholding the Lord in my presence; For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.
26 ‘Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue exulted; Moreover my flesh also will abide in hope;
27 Because Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades, Nor allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay.
28 ‘Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; Thou wilt make me full of gladness with Thy presence.’
29 “Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
30 “And so, because he was a prophet, and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants upon his throne,
31 he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay.
First he spoke of Joel, now he speaks of David. David spoke of how this promised Messiah… the promised savior and deliverer would be raised from the dead. God would not abandon His holy one to undergo decay.
In the book of Romans, Paul will go on in verse 17 to quote Habakkuk 2:4 with a key concept we spoke of last week:
Slide
17 ... “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”
He will go on in Romans 3:11 and following to teach us from Ps. 14.
3 Slides
1 … There is no one who does good.
2 The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God.
3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.
but God does not abandon us in our sins just as David (acting as a prophet of God) teaches us...
2 Slides
1 … How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered!
2 How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity...
That is Romans chapter 4.
And Paul does not leave us wondering about where this good news is centered. It is centered in Jesus Christ - His Lord and master.
4 Slides (ending vs 4)
1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as 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 born of a descendant of David according to the flesh,
4 who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,
This gospel is centered in Jesus His Son … the Son of God. This Jesus who was born a descendant of David according to the flesh… The genealogies of Jesus are listed out for us in the book of Matthew and the book of Luke.
Matthew contains the genealogy of David through Joseph by which the rights of kingship were passed down to Jesus.
The genealogy through Mary is found in the book of Luke chapter 3 and this traces the human blood line down to Mary and so yes Jesus is a direct descendant of David though Mary.
But he was declared the Son of God in a most powerful way by the resurrection from the dead though the power of the Holy Spirit.
In this passage we are taught that the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead.
but another passage says God raised Jesus from the dead? and still another Jesus Himself raised Jesus from the dead.
Was it God who raised Jesus from the dead according to Acts 2:32?
Slide
32 “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.
or Was it Jesus, who raised Himself from the dead according to jn 10?
2 Slides
17 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.
18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
and
Slide
19 Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Or was it the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead as here in Romans chapter 1 or
Slide
11 But 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 indwells you.
The truth of the matter is that this is part of the mystery of the Trinity. Whenever you see one of the member of the Trinity at work, you can bet that all three are at work. This was true in Creation. It was true in the resurrection. It was also true at the baptism of Jesus and we could go on and on.
I do not want to leave you with out touching on this one last thought and so I return to our passage.… where we started.
We started in verse 1 with Paul describing himself as a slave of Christ Jesus… or of the Messiah Jesus.
We end today with Jesus being raised from the dead with power by the resurrection from the dead, according the the Spirit of Holiness… Jesus Christ our Lord.
Jesus means- our saviour.… our Messiah.. the promised deliver who is also our Lord.
You may remember that last week we looked at the relationship between a Lord and a slave.
a slave is someone who is owned by someone. They are a possession of their Lord… they are his piece of property.
and the owner of a slave is referred to as their lord. To be a lord… you had to own someone.
so.… When we refer to Jesus as our Lord...
when Paul refers to Jesus as our Lord in verse 4 he is asserting that to us who believe in Jesus, we have surrendered our total life to Jesus. We are His property.
Now we have done that because we recognize the depth of our sins… which Paul will get into later.
We also recognized just who Jesus is… He is God in the flesh… He is our creator.. He is our savior....He is our deliverer. It is by Him and Him alone that we live and breath and exist. He is the one who forgives us of our sins. He is the one who paid the price for our sins.. and He is the one who gives us eternal life and makes us joint heirs with Him. We have so much to be thankful for.
I now have a question to ask you?
Is Jesus the Lord of your life?
Have you surrendered all of your life and will to God?
Is Jesus truly your Lord? or for you is He lord in name only?
If Jesus is not the Lord of your life, I invite you to give your life to him now.
the altar is open?
I have a 2nd question —- maybe… you have made Jesus your savior?
maybe your have even made him lord but didn’t realize just how big of a commitment that was.… why not re-state that commitment to Jesus now? Now that you have an understanding of just how big of a commitment that is.
and yes I even have a 3rd question:
We spoke earlier of how us people here in Western North Carolina will accept someone until they hurt us and then we will write them off. We then thought about how glad we are that Jesus did not write us off.
As I was talking about that… did the Lord bring someone into your mind to whom you need to be willing to forgive. I encourage you to forgive them now and to make amends with them. You will never be sorry.
as Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s model prayer.
Slide
12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
and
2 Slides
14 “For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 “But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.
The altar is open. Would you like to ask Jesus to forgive your sins and make Him the Lord of your life for the first time?
or would you like to make a recommitment to Jesus now that you know just what it means to make Jesus Lord of your life?
Or have you been hold a grudge against someone to whom you need to be willing to forgive, just as Christ forgave you?
Let’s pray
