Sermon Tone Analysis

ROMANS

INTRODUCTION

Sunday January 9, 2022

Romans 1:1-5 (NLT)

This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News. 2 God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures. 3 The Good News is about his Son.

In his earthly life he was born into King David's family line, 4 and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit.

He is Jesus Christ our Lord.

5 Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.

Romans 1:1-5 (NLT)

Intro.

A. Today we are beginning a journey.

A journey that I believe will be inspiring, encouraging, instructing, challenging and yes at some point convicting.

Today we begin a journey in the book of Romans.

A journey that I can only honestly tell you that it begins today, but I can't say when it will end.

I will leave the end date in God's hands as He leads me in my time of preparations in the coming months.

B. Today I will endeavor to give you a brief introduction to this book.

I want to take about the Person who wrote the book.

I will be taking about the Place to whom the book was written and finally the Purpose of this book as least as best I can understand.

1.

Some say that Paul's letter to the Roman church was a theological treaty.

Now there can be absolutely no doubt that Romans is full of wonderful and powerful theological teaching, but I am not certain that I ascribe this to being exclusively a theological letter.

In my humble opinion the letter of Romans is simply a letter written to Christ followers in Rome.

Now again this does not diminish the theological teaching we find in it; I just believe that every letter Paul wrote to the various churches was full of theology because after all what is theology?

Theology is the study of God and at least for those who are endeavoring to follow Christ, why do we study about God?

We do so in order that we might live in such a way that we honor Him and point others to Him.

For us this is fulling the purpose of Worship.

I think we will clearly see as we make our way through this letter that this is exactly what Paul is endeavoring to do.

He is teaching the believers at Rome to, as he said to the Philippian church, "Walk worthy of the calling they had received."

It is my belief that the issues discussed in the book of Romans are at the very core of what it means for us to be true followers of Jesus.

2. The book of Romans is a letter that has deeply impacted the church across the centuries.

You may know that it was after a reading of Romans that Martin Luther began what we call the Reformation.

The message that any person could freely come to God themselves without the help of a priest and find forgiveness of their sins and new life in Christ.

Listen to this question Job asked.

"Yes, I know all this is true in principle.

But how can a person be declared innocent in God's sight?"

Job 9:2 (NLT) The answer to that question is fully answered in Paul's letter to Rome.

Trans.

OK let's look at those three points I told you I wanted to share in this message.

The person, The Place and The Purpose.

Let's begin with the person.

I. THE PERSON

As we talk about the person who wrote Romans, I realize that some of what I will share will be things you already know, but I feel it is important to remind ourselves of them because they play a role in what and why Paul says the things he does in this letter.

A. Most of you know how Paul became a follower of Jesus.

As a young man Paul had been brought up to become a Pharisee.

This you will recall was the religious order that had Jesus arrested and eventually crucified on the cross.

To the chagrin of these Pharisees though the crucifixion of Jesus led to an explosion of Christ followers after Pentecost.

It is then that Paul enters the picture as a zealot who becomes a key figure in the persecution of the church.

Of course, one day on his way to Damascus to arrest more of these Christians, Jesus appears to him on this road and his life is forever changed.

As I shared with you last Sunday Paul goes from a murderer of Christians to a Christian missionary.

It is pretty difficult to argue the transformation that took place in his life.

To try and keep myself from going too long with this message, let me point out three things I think are important to know about Paul.

1.

First of all Paul was a mam of Brilliant Intellect.

As I just mentioned he was brought up to be a part of one of the highest religious orders of his day.

As he himself tell us, he was instructed by a man named Rabban Gamaliel I.

This man was considered to be the most distinguished Rabbi in Jerusalem before it fell in 70 AD.

This would probably be the equivalent to being educated in Harvard or Oxford.

What we see in Romans is that Paul did not discover a new doctrine, but in fact he was able to connect the Old Testament and all he had learned to show us that the doctrine of justification by faith was nothing new but has been with us since the beginning.

Look at these three examples.

"And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith."

Genesis 15:6 (NLT), "Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! 2 Yes, what joy for those whose record the LORD has cleared of guilt," Psalms 32:1-2 (NLT), "Look at the proud!

They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked.

But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God." Habakkuk 2:4 (NLT) Paul understood that this marvelous and gracious solution to man's sin and guilt problem was made possible through Christ's death on the cross, just as the prophet Isaiah foretold in Isaiah 53.

We also see the brilliance of Paul in his Mission Strategy.

Let me just quickly outline that strategy.

a. Work in the great urban centers, so that from there the message may spread to the surrounding towns and villages.

b.

Make use of the synagogue, in order to reach not only Jews but also Gentile proselytes.

c.

Show that new-dispensation events are the fulfilment of old-dispensation prophecies.

d.

Adapt the gospel message to the culture and the needs of the hearers.

e. Do follow-up work by means of return visits, letters, and special envoys.

f.

Promote unity between rich and poor, Gentile and Jew, by asking the more prosperous churches to help the poorer ones.

So first we see that Paul was a brilliant intellect.

The second thing we see about Paul is that he had an Iron Will.

2. Paul had an Iron Will.

Paul was a man of invincible determination.

We see this in his writing.

Let's look at a few.

"When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ.

Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some.

23 I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings." 1 Corinthians 9:22-23 (NLT) "Are they servants of Christ?

I know I sound like a madman, but I have served him far more!

I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again.

24 Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes.

25 Three times I was beaten with rods.

Once I was stoned.

Three times I was shipwrecked.

Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. 26 I have traveled on many long journeys.

I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers.

I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles.

I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas.

And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not.

27 I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights.

I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food.

I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.

28 Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches." 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 (NLT) I think I can safely say that if most of us had encountered the problems and persecution that Paul did, we would have bailed out.

We would have said, "I didn't sign up for this."

I must admit that this makes me feel ashamed and embarrassed because the very morning I was writing this sermon I spent just about all my time in prayer, whining and complaining to God.

I even told him what Moses told God when he got frustrated.