It's all about Jesus

Intro

As Martin Luther says, “Romans is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word, by heart, but occupy himself with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul. It can never be read or pondered too much, and the more it is dealt with the more precious it becomes, and the better it tastes.”

And W.H. Griffith Thomas says, “A Christian life nourished on the Epistle of Romans will never lack; clear perception, strong conviction, and defined usefulness”.

Show Romans overview

Brief Intro: Paul, 57 AD, to Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome (Aquilla & Priscilla), 7114 words, missionary support letter

They had only heard of Paul, so he, in the opening verses here, makes it clear what he’s about

Highlights Jesus

Verse 2 - Promised by prophets and entire OT

Verse 3 - Descendent of David, according to flesh ( - born of a woman, born under the law)

Fully human

Verse 4 - But also, fully God ( - you are my Son, today I have begotten you)

That’s proven to us via his resurrection from the dead

Paul’s not just saying Jesus is God....it’s not a human declaration

And because of that resurrection, Paul and others have been extended GRACE

Verse 5 - through whom

Paul’s goal in life:

Verse 5 - bring people to faith in Jesus

Verse 5 - among all peoples/nations

Verse 5 - in order that Jesus Christ will be glorified

4 Reasons for trip to Rome

Reason 4 - Paul in a nutshell

The heart of Romans (16-17)

The Big Idea: If you find yourselves ever ashamed of the gospel, then you need to increase your love for Jesus.

You need to see Jesus as Paul sees Jesus in the first 5 verses!

If you don’t find Christ attractive, necessary, beautiful, glorious, all-sufficient....if you don’t gaze upon Him each day, if you don’t see Him as Savior, if you don’t read about Him, and the list goes on and on and on.....then you won’t find His message worth your time and you will be ashamed of it.

You may say, I love Jesus, I do. And I’d say to you, as I’ve said to myself this week: Do you really?

How much time did you spend with him this week?

Who did you tell about him

Like when your dating that someone special....you’ll talk about it

How much do you know about him?

Me and Savannah…I only knew she liked pudding…but then I learned and learned and learned. Why? Because I truly loved her.

Art Azurdia: Your faith instinctively strengthens in direct proportion to the expansion of the object of your faith You expand your understanding of the object of your faith and faith itself will obediently follow The object of your faith---if indeed you are a Christian---is Jesus Christ and all of his promises Is your faith weak? It is owing to the fact you don't know the object of your faith well enough But when Jesus Christ becomes progressively bigger, or better yet, your understanding of who he is progressively conforms to reality, your faith will become increasingly stronger But how does that happen? By immersing yourself in the faith-arousing Word of God. Read of Jesus Christ The same powerful Word that long ago brought the universe to life is the same Word that can bring you to life and furnish you with a faith that is truly and authentically Christian

Paul had a big view of Jesus, didn’t he?

Hi, I’m Paul, let me introduce myself to you. The name is Paul, let me tell you about Jesus

Closing Illustration

Snowmobiling in the Sierra Nevadas

But notice, the only thing Paul says that refers to himself is that he is a servant.

And W.H. Griffith Thomas says, “A Christian life nourished on the Epistle of Romans will never lack; clear perception, strong conviction, and defined usefulness”.

Strong words about a book written just under 2000 years ago, a book inside a book that many people say is outdated.

But I along with Thomas and Luther am under no delusions when I say that if you guys will give this book the attention it deserves over the next several months, it has the power to transform your lives.

Romans has 7,114 words written by the apostle Paul somewhere around 57 A.D. while he was on his third missionary journey, to the believers in Rome....and as you remember from our study in Acts, Rome was a place Paul desperately wanted to go.

The believers in Rome consisted of Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, and both will be addressed throughout the book…but all of the book is valuable to all believers

So let’s get going....you ready? I’m ready…Romans is after all my favorite book

:1-8

As with any letter you yourselves would write, you would always start with an introduction, and so does Paul

He starts with the word, “Paul”

This may seem odd to us, what a weird way to start a letter by writing your first name…but it’s no different than us writing a letter to someone and wanting to introduce ourselves

We would say, “My name is Derek and I am.....”

But I want you to notice what Paul does after he introduces himself....let’s read it (verses 1-7)

Longest sentence ever, right? On the next paper you right, go ahead and write a 152 word sentence and see if it doesn’t come back with red letter writing saying “Run on sentence”

But notice, the only thing Paul says that refers to himself is that he is a servant.

Some of your translations may say bond-servant. It pretty much means slave, being the opposite of free

But don’t think of this negatively…he’s not being forced into this..but this word carries connotations of someone who is totally devoted, not prideful, full of humility, and full of obedience

What Paul is saying is, yeah I wrote the letter, but that’s all you need to know about me. I’m a totally devoted, totally humble, willing slave and servant of Jesus Christ

The rest is Paul pointing to Jesus, this is Paul showing what he believes about the doctrine of Christology, if you will.

He’s called to be an apostle - and we know in order to be an apostle you had to have seen the resurrected Jesus and been given authority from Jesus Himself. Apostleship comes from Jesus

And Paul had checked both of those boxes

Saw Jesus on the road to Damascus

And was given his command and authority right after that

All of that is in

Side note…there are no apostles today…so if you ever come across someone who refers to themselves as an apostle…chances are they don’t quite understand Scripture…so go ahead and don’t listen to them

Paul even says this, “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Paul writes that he was set apart for the gospel of God

Again…, “ But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

See, Paul has pointed out he was called and set apart

For what purpose?

For the gospel of God

Which is why as we walked through the book of Acts we saw Paul always talking about what? The Gospel!

This was his mission given to him by Jesus Christ himself.

Paul was totally dedicated to the gospel

What would our lives look like if we could say the same? Answer: completely different

And this gospel of God was promised, look at verse 2, was promised by God throughout the OT by prophets

And then verse 3 & 4 - Prophets who predicted the coming Messiah, a descendent of David, born as a human, but also at the same time fully God, which was made known to mankind when without any hindrance when Jesus, fully human and fully God, rose from the dead!!!!

Paul’s saying…this Gospel was completed through Jesus Christ

It’s all about Jesus Christ!

And he continues in verse 5 that him and the other apostles, again, reminding them that it was through Jesus they received:

First grace

Then apostleship

Always grace then obedience

And they received their mission from Jesus so that they could bring about obedience of faith

Again....obedience from faith

for the sake of His name would be declared among all nations

His name would be declared among all nations

And in verse 6 he reminds the believers that they too were called to faith in Jesus, just like Paul was

And while they may not have authority as apostles, verse 7 tells us they are saints, who are loved by God, called, and declared righteous

That’s GRACE

And that’s the pattern of saving faith that we will get to here momentarily

Loved by God

Called by God

Saved by God

GRACE

And there you have the introduction to Paul’s letter

But don’t just gloss over that..Paul has made something extremely clear to us right off the bat

This entire letter is all about the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Paul says in , “but we preach Christ crucified”

So yeah, Paul’s laid the groundwork now let’s see where it takes us