Greetings to the Church at Rome Romans 1:8-17

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Barbara Harrell
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1 Greetings to the Church at Rome Romans 1:8-17 2/25/18 INTRO Last week in v.1-7 we saw Paul introduce himself and his message o We saw Paul get himself out of the way rather smoothly and highlight Christ rather prolifically In v.8-15 Paul will now greet his audience o Letter etiquette means introducing yourself and greeting the recipient of the letter o These were actual people receiving this letter o Its important for us to know who they are and what level of relationship they had with Paul EXPOSITION v.8, First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. o Paul begins his greeting to this church on a very positive note o There is much to be excited about in the church at Rome Their faith is being proclaimed all over the known world This is a church with a healthy reputation! This is a church known for Christ-likeness This is a church setting a pace of faithfulness for other churches to follow o **When I hear about churches like this I either weep or almost weep every time for joy Too often we only hear horror stories of churches and their wretched reputations At times it seems like we are surrounded by churches like Sardis and Thyatira In Revelation Jesus says of the church in Sardis that it has a reputation of being alive but it is dead Or Thyatira that has believers in it who tolerate repugnant sexual immorality within it by the posing unbelievers But then you sit down and talk with Greg Greenlaw, like I did a couple of weeks ago And you hear about the church thriving in the Nokui village in PNG That though they lack are aesthetic accoutrements and the trappings of modern church services they have the Bible, biblical elders, pure worship, exuberant singing, and a passion for the holiness God revealed int he gospel This church s faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world, at least here in Texas** o Some churches are known for their programs Some are known for their beautiful buildings Some are know for their pastor But this church was known for its faith We want to be a church like this o Who do we thank when we hear of healthy churches? We don t thank them, we thank God! God did all that! Stuart Sanders 1

2 2/25/18 Jesus said in Matthew 16:18b, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. We are like Elijah in 1 Kings 19, when he assumes in his depression that he is the only one left who has not bowed the knee to the idol Baal then God says he has kept 7,000 men in Israel who haven t bowed the knee to Baal Then we worship God for His work in building His people all over His planet o Paul thanks God because God is the one who granted them faith He did this often: 1 Corinthians 1, Philippians 1, Colossians 1, 1 Thessalonians 1, 2 Thessalonians 1, 2 Timothy 1, Philemon For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake. - Philippians 1:29 When someone gives my child a present I don t thank my child for having the present, I thank the one who gave it to them o And through what avenue does Paul pray to God? The avenue of Christ He alone is our mediator, 1 John 2:1 Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full. - John 16:24 That s why Christians have opened or closed prayers by invoking the name of Jesus since the founding of the church He conduit through which we are allowed to approach the throne of grace v.9-10a, For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers " o Paul know expresses further affection for this church in Rome by telling them about his prayer life for them o How often is Paul praying for them? Without ceasing...always Who can vouch for this outlandish claim? God is the witness. o If you are ever going to embellish your spiritual maturity and the extent of your spiritual disciplines you better not call God to the witness stand to testify on your behalf Because He is going to tell the truth... God, who never lies - Titus 1:2 o If, however, you are attempting to confirm your Christian affection for others calling God in to testify is an excellent way to affirm to them their value to you o Paul cares deeply for this church and that fact is borne out in his prayer for them We often view prayer as a throw-away spiritual discipline I know it is the one I struggle with the most But when I m given over to it, God blesses it and transforms my mind even further o **This is what you should expect from your leadership in a church Because this is what Paul models for them When we gather as elders, its not our own little small group where we take care of our own personal prayer requests We are there praying for you Every Monday morning in our weekly staff meeting, we pray through the church directory Stuart Sanders 2

3 2/25/18 If you ever have any prayer requests please send them to us, because we want to be praying for you** v.10b-11a,...asking that somehow by God s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you... o Paul prays for them constantly, and one of the things he prays for is that he would be able to come to see them A shepherd longs to be around his sheep A shepherd that doesn t want to be around his sheep isn t a shepherd he is what Jesus calls a "hired hand" in John 10 If Paul were content to remain at a distance and merely write letters to this church he would not be functioning like a pastor/missionary/shepherd he would be functioning like a scholar Scholars are content to come up with ideas and concepts and attempt to influence from a distance with little thought given as to how their writings actually play out in the life of a church but biblical leaders, shepherds, long to be with their people You can t keep a shepherd away from his flock, because if you could he would definitively cease to be a shepherd v.11b, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you " o Why does Paul want to be with them so badly? To strengthen them His heart is to see them grow strong in their faith A shepherd/pastor/elder/missionary who is not engaged in the strengthening of the faith of others is NOT a shepherd o Paul s desire to strengthen this church is not prideful in any way For we proclaim not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus sake. - 2 Corinthians 4:5 It is an honest discharging of the duty God has given him o Because what he has in order to strengthen them with is not of himself but was a gift from God We need to acknowledge spiritual gifts for what they are: GIFTS The one who possesses it didn t earn and isn t better than anyone else for having it But he or she can certainly bless others in the body of Christ by using it **Like me in high school when I turned 16 My parents did me a great service and allowed me access to our super sweet 1998 dirt-brown Astro van I can t thank them enough for that! But since I had enough room to transport an aircraft carrier, I ended giving rides to everyone in the school every day And I did it gladly I liked hanging out and had nothing better to do When they would thank me for the ride I d say, You re welcome. But what I should ve said was, Not my van, not my gas, not my insurance thank my Dad. I m using what he gave me. ** o And on this topic of spiritual gifts we need to press in on what Paul means right here Paul can t give them any spiritual gifts Stuart Sanders 3

4 2/25/18 No human being can give another human being a spiritual gift the Holy Spirit does that upon regeneration Paul is saying he is going to utilize his spiritual gift in the church The ESV says this gift will strengthen the church at Rome NASB says establish Its the Greek word στηριζω = sterizo, to fix firmly in a place o What kind of spiritual gift would fix firmly in one place an entire local church? Do miraculous gifts establish a people? According to the live of Jesus the answer is No In John 6 Jesus feeds the 5,000 and the crowds demand more bread, the ability to multiply it themselves, when that doesn t happen and Jesus preaches to them the gospel, they abandon Him After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. - John 6:66 o Paul lays out to the Philippian church what would establish them in 4:9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Adherence to what they heard Paul preach and teach, that would fix them firmly in one place o You can get miraculously healed and still go to hell Just ask 9 of the 10 lepers that Jesus healed in Luke 17 o But if you hear the truth of the gospel preached and taught and are radically converted by it and then striving to conduct your life according to it That will establish you And when you have a bunch of people like that you have a church, an established church v.12, That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other s faith, both yours and mine. o How humble is this apostle? This man was personally instructed by Jesus for 3 years in Arabia according to Galatians 1 And yet he says he is looking forward to being encouraged by people who met Jesus months earlier for the first time o This is the church The church is not the haves" and the "have-nots spiritually Every single Christians has the same Holy Spirit dwelling in them nobody has more or less than anyone else So, if the Spirit of the Living God is dwelling richly within you, how could I NOT be encouraged by you when we gather?! **In every Sunday service, Bible study, life group, etc. we should all be throughthe-roof excited when another grasps some biblical truth for the first time regardless of how long we ve know it.** The Spirit maturing any believer in any stage of spiritual growth should encourage us In all Christian relationships, blessings should run both ways o That s WHY we gather! In speaking about the church the writer of Hebrews says in 10:24-25 Stuart Sanders 4

5 2/25/18 And let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. The church gathers to worship God and encourage one another Warning flags go up for me when someone says they love Jesus but don t like the church How can you love the husband but hate His bride? If you get mad when someone rudely criticizes your spouse why do you think Jesus would somehow be less loyal to His spouse than you? How do you not need encouragement from other brothers and sisters? Is it because you yourself are not in the family and thus feel no need to join the family gathering? Your soul might be at stake here! o We gather because we must, we gather because this Christian life as an ambassador in hostile territory is discouraging and we need to support one another v.13, I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but have thus far been prevented) o Here Paul mentions again his desire to visit this church Why doesn t he just go? If he wants to see them so badly why not just go see them? He s not in prison right now, so what s the hold up? o We come across a nuance of the Christian life here in this verse of which it would be wise of us to stop and take note Too often Christians assume that if what I want to do is somehow spiritual then I am free to do it If it is something the Bible would call good I can just haul off and do it and assume God s unspoken endorsement Paul does not do that here He undertakes the Christian life with great fear and trembling Remember what he refers to himself as, a slave of Jesus Christ Slaves don t make independent decisions o He wants to come but something has been preventing him What was it? We need not wonder because Romans 15:20-24 tells us He had been commissioned by God to go elsewhere, where Jesus had not yet been named God had plans for him elsewhere They were plans that were harder, more strenuous and probably less encouraging Nevertheless, it was God s plan for his ministry to be prevented from going to Rome o Do you take your good life options to God? Or do you consider somethings to be below His pay grade? Not that God will skywrite out for you every step you are to take But we must be humbly holding our plans like James said in 4:15, Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. o What we as the church must never be guilty of is seeking the advancement of God s kingdom according to our will Stuart Sanders 5

6 2/25/18 Herein lies the blasphemous posture of arrogant men that they will expand God s kingdom without consulting God s word at all The logic goes: If the method is proven to inflate numbers then by all means employ it to the maximum How could God possibly not be happy with that?? It will be said of them what Paul said of the unbelieving Jews in Romans 10, they have a zeal for God but not in accordance with knowledge, and thus they stand condemned We take the posture of Paul, we serve God as He has willed for us to serve Him We don t presume upon God v.13, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. o Why does he want to get to them? This church that was largely comprised of Gentiles since he says as among the rest of the Gentiles? We already know from v.11 that he wants to strengthen them, and from v.12 that he wants the mutual encouragement But here in v.13 we see a different reason o He wants to preach the gospel and see souls converted He is not assuming that everyone showing up to their Sunday gathering is a truly converted Christian Church services are always a gathering of the lost and the saved o But this harvest is not just new converts, it is also growth for Christians Preaching the gospel is not merely aimed at the unbelievers The gospel speaks to and radically changes all of life The entire book of Romans is about the gospel But the entire book of Romans is not about the moment you got saved The righteous are not only saved by faith in Christ but they walk by faith as well "I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me. - Galatians 2:20 v.14, I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and the foolish. o Under obligation = οφειλετης, opheiletes, a debtor, one who is in debt in a monetary sense The ESV translates this as a two-word modifier But in Greek it is actually a noun o When it comes to the ministry of the gospel Paul views himself as a debtor to Christ and that debt is paid out by preaching to everyone He owes the preaching of the gospel to all For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! - 1 Corinthians 9:16 Woe means eternally cursed Paul MUST preach the gospel It is a burning down deep in his bones he can t not preach If I say, I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name, there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. - Jeremiah 20:9 Stuart Sanders 6

7 2/25/18 o Most of the time we view sharing the gospel as something special we did, above and beyond the normal call of duty Paul sees it as the opposite He owes it, the preaching of the gospel that is **Too often we view sharing the gospel like we are generously throwing around wads of cash to everyone out of great inconvenience to us but in reality it is dropping our mortgage check off at the bank before they send someone to foreclose on your house we owe it and must pay** Every sincere pastor and Christian worker knows there are times when ministry is its own reward, when study, preparation, teaching, and shepherding are exhilarating in themselves. There are other times, however, when the work does not seem very attractive, and yet you still study, prepare, teach, and shepherd because you are under obligation to God and to those you are serving. Christ is our Lord and we are His servants; and it is a poor servant who serves only when he feels like it. - John MacArthur o And to whom does he owe this? Every race and every socioeconomic position "Greeks and barbarians" = every race, skin tone and language "Wise and foolish" = every class, levels of education and wealth Every single human being bears the image of God They are all souls destined for destruction without the intervention of Jesus Christ and thus, worthy of Paul s efforts in preaching the gospel to them that they might be saved v.15, So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. o Isn t this the most peculiar debtor you ve ever heard of? He is in debt to everyone And he can t wait to pay up o He is eager, chomping at the bit to pay his debt of gospel preaching **Is that how you pay your debts? Do you come in from the mailbox waving your mortgage note full of joy and elation and then sprint over to your checkbook and write the cleanest, quickest check you can, and then run back out the front door to catch the mailman on his way out of the neighborhood???** That s how Paul is with his debt He is thrilled to pay it! And why is Paul thrilled to pay his gospel debt? v.16-17, because he is not ashamed of it o And he is not ashamed of it because it is the power to save those who believe o He can t wait to pay it because Christ s righteous was imputed to him upon faith and he longs to see that happen in the lives of others! CONCLUSION We want to be a church known for its faith o I ve quoted it many times, but John 13:34-35 is truth from the mouth of Christ Stuart Sanders 7

8 2/25/18 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. The reputation of our church should matter greatly to us because it matters greatly to Christ But we need to also note that Paul doesn t end the letter there with their praiseworthy faith o He goes on to say that they need to be established by the teaching and preaching of the word of God o He says they need to hear the gospel preached to them again o Then he proceeds to write 16 chapters of the purest Christian doctrine Have you ever said, I don t need all that doctrine and theology, I m just going to live and love like Jesus. o Friend, what is driving your living and loving like Jesus? o How do you know what Jesus said and did if you don t study your Bible? o How do you know what Jesus actions and words mean as a collective body of knowledge, one that you can apply to life, unless you care about doctrine and theology? Let s take a hint from the apostle Paul in this opening segment of Romans that our faith must be ringing round the globe o but that faith must be informed by roots sunk deep into gospel doctrines Stuart Sanders 8

The Expository Study of Romans

The Expository Study of Romans Paul s Personal Interest: Romans 1:8-15 8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my