Sermon Tone Analysis

Secular:

Biblical:

Personal:

Bridge:

Body:

Paul had many reasons for writing the Church at Rome.

1)      Peter didn't start the Church at Rome,

2)      Paul didn't start it.

[In the book of Acts, chapter two, verses 1-11 it gives us a clue.

3)      It seems that devout Jewish worshippers and proselytes from Rome were in Jerusalem on that fateful day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit miraculously came on the disciples of Jesus 50 days after his resurrection (Acts 2:1-11).

These just converted Jewish Christians from Rome probably went back to Rome and started the Church of God at Rome.]

4)      Paul was writing the Romans from the city of Corinth.

Why did he send the letter?

For one thing, Paul sent the letter because he had a whole lot of friends in Rome, a whole lot of Christian buddies that were there.

He wanted to say "Hi!" to all of them, and he really wanted to visit this Church.

He said so, many friends were there.

If you go to Romans 16 and you look at about verse 3 and you read on to verse 16 Paul names nearly 30 people by name that he knows.

Another reason that he wrote was because there were problems that the Church at Rome was encountering.

They had people going from door-to-door teaching different doctrines, different gospels, some were saying that the only way God was going to accept you is if you do this and you do that and you can't eat this and you can't eat fat and you got to worship God on this day.

[This whole letter is addressed to two groups of people in the Church of God at Rome.

The Jewish Christians had grown up in strict Orthodox Jewish homes.

They were so Orthodox that they thought it necessary to be in Jerusalem for the Holy Day seasons, and thus were in Jerusalem that fateful Passover~/Pentecost season when Jesus Christ died, was resurrected and then the Holy Spirit came on the disciples 50 days later on the Holy Day of Pentecost.

The other group was made up of Gentile Christians.

The Jewish Christians, as a result of their religious background and upbringing were practicing what amounted to a form of old covenant Christianity.

It was a Christianity tied to the works of the law, the old covenant law of Moses.

But the counsel of Jerusalem that took place in Acts 15 stated that the old covenant had passed away and the new covenant was in full force for Christians--making the old covenant obsolete--and at best optional as to whether a Christian had to observe the 7th day Sabbath, Holy Days, dietary laws, etc. Hebrews 8:8-15 states the intent of the new covenant.

The Gentiles knew this, but the old covenant practicing Jewish Christians were confusing the poor Gentiles in this matter of which covenant to fellow.

These Jewish Christians were a bit confused themselves.]

They were confused, 'What do we do?'

They were asking, so he's writing to set them straight.

Also they were wondering about Israel, the nation of Israel, is God finished with the Jews?

Is it curtains for Israel?

What's going to happen, Lord?' They were wondering 'What was the gospel?'.

Paul wrote to them to declare the gospel that he had preached throughout the world.

Paul hadn't been able to get there in person yet, and so, thank God he wrote this letter.

\\ \\ The book of Romans is a masterpiece in that it is the most complete explanation of what the gospel is that we have in the whole Bible.

Thank God that he wasn't able to go to Rome yet and had to write this letter.

It has been a blessing to millions of people.

The book of Romans is a revolutionary book.

Beware--you may become a part of the "Romans Revolution."

This book will change your life.

You may have been a Christian 50 years, 5 years, 5 minutes--the book of Romans will change your life.

Quite possibly it is the most important document that ever has been written.

For almost the past 2,000 years God has used this book to change the lives of millions and millions of people.

\\ \\ Some of the brightest leaders of the Church [speaking of the collective Church, the body of Christ] have traced their new birth to this book--to the book of Romans message.

The list of those touched by Romans reads like sort of a spiritual 'Who's who.' Think of Augustine who lived about 383, 386 was when he was saved.

He was one of the greatest leaders and theologians that the church has ever had.

He traces his conversion to a few verses right back in Romans 13.

It was in September of 386 that Augustine sank into a great dispare.

His godly mother, Monica, had been praying for him for decades--praying that he would come to Christ.

His Dad wasn't a Christian, his Mom was.

Augustine was going the way of the world, he was running from God fast as his feet would take him.

He got into a real immoral lifestyle.

Started living with a gal--Oops, they had a baby.

He got into all sorts of philosophies.

He got involved in some of the cults of his day.

He drank himself into oblivion at times.

His life was a mess.

And one day sitting in his friend's garden, in September he sat there and just began to cry and cry.

He'd come to the end.

He looked at his life, he saw what he was, and thought 'How on earth could anyone accept me?'

But while he was sitting there in his friend's garden crying, he heard a little child sing a song, a little Latin song.

He sang "Take up and read, take up and read, take up and read."

And he thought, 'Where's that coming from?'

And he looked around, and Augustine looked there right next to him in the garden was an open scroll of Romans.

In his own words, he said, "I seized it and opened it!

And in silence I read the first passage in which my eyes fell."

And this is what he read, "not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealously.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regards to its' lusts."

He goes on to say, "I had no wish to read on and no need to do so.

For in an instant I came to the end of the sentence and it was as if the light of faith flooded into my heart, and all the darkness of doubt was dispelled."

The moment his eyes fell upon Romans 13, he looked at those verses, and the Spirit caused him to be born again, and Augustine was saved--just by reading a couple verses in Romans.

\\ \\ And another person who was transformed by the book was Martin Luther.

Luther had struggled for years to have peace with God, and he knew that God was Holy, and he was not.

He tried all sorts of religious practices, denying himself, hurting himself--studying, praying.

He went into the monastery to try to find God, and he could not find God.

He knew he wasn't good enough and so he tried every form of good works possible.

As a last resort he decided he would go to the Holy City, Rome!

And there, there are so many hundreds of shrines.

There perhaps by visiting the shrines he could avoid many thousands of years in Purgatory.

And so he went, seeking indulgences.

And when he got to Rome, boy was he shocked!

Rome was far from being the Holy City.

In fact the people said, 'If ever there was a Hell Hole open to earth, Rome was built over it.'

Luther, though, was shocked by the way the priests and nuns were living, practicing all sorts of perverted lifestyles.

He went ahead and visited all the shrines and tried to grab all the indulgences he could.

Finally, the last great pilgrimage was when he came to the Lateran Church, which is famous for its' sacred stairway.

And in this great church, supposedly, supernaturally, from Jerusalem, the very staircase that Jesus stood on when Pilate condemned him to die, was transported to Rome.

So now all the pilgrims would come to Rome [and say] "These were the very steps that Jesus stood upon when he was condemned!"

And so they would get on their knees, (they still do it today) and they would climb those steps, one step at a time on their knees.

And so Luther got on his knees, and he began at the bottom, there, and he would kiss the step and then he would pray the rosary.

Then he would move to the nest step, he would kiss it, and then he would say his rosary, going up the steps this way.

He was interrupted as he was praying.

This is his own account.

He said, "I heard a very small voice, saying, 'Martin, Oh Martin, the just shall live by faith.' 'Who said that?'"

That was the verse he had read in the book of Romans that had bugged him for years!

He could not understand, how to be right with God.

He knew God was Holy, and it said, 'The just shall live by faith.'

But he said, 'How do I get unholy me and a Holy God together?'

He didn't understand, and so he went to the next step, and he began to pray the rosary.