Message Notes Romans 1:1-15 Romans Part 1: The Messenger & The Message Brad Julihn Sept. 11, 2011 I. Introduction: A. Historical Background: We really don t know how the church at Rome came into existence. It is likely that Jewish believers immigrated to Rome and began the church there. The letter of Romans addresses the tendency toward self-righteousness by Jewish believers stuck in trying to keep the Law. So the Jewish believers must have made up a significant portion of the church. About the only historical hint of what was happening is in Acts 18:2. Priscilla and Aquila were Jews who had recently come to Corinth after a decree from Emperor Claudius expelled Jews from Rome. A Roman historian named Suetonius wrote about this event 70 years later and said that the decree was given because of public disturbances by the Jews at the instigation of Chrestus. Chrestus was a fairly common name at the time. It is unclear whether this is a misspelled reference to Christ and the conflict which frequently developed among the Jews at the preaching of Jesus as the Christ, or to another individual leading some cause. B. Time of Writing: Paul began his Third Missionary Journey as recorded in Acts, about the spring of 53 AD. He travelled by land from Antioch in Syria, across modern Turkey to the city of Ephesus. He spent almost 3 years there preaching and teaching. A riot occurred in the city over the collapse of the silver-idol making industry because of the massive turning to Christ by people in that region. So Paul left Ephesus in 56 AD and went back to Greece spending 3 months in Corinth. Before his arrival, he had written to the Corinthians about preparing an offering for the church in Jerusalem (2 Cor. 8-9). At the end of Romans he mentions his plans to take the offering he had received from the Greek churches to Jerusalem. So this letter was most likely written from Corinth just before Paul left for Jerusalem at the end of his 3 rd Missionary Journey. He was subsequently imprisoned in Jerusalem and after several trials before kings and governors, he appealed to Caesar. Thus his transportation to Roman was arranged and financed by the government of Rome itself. He arrived there in the spring of 61 AD as recorded in Acts 28. C. Purpose: From the long list of greetings to the people in the church at the end of the letter, it is clear that Paul knew many people in the church and was familiar with issues in the church. But he had not yet visited there. So there is a more general feel to this book than some of the other letters written to churches he had started. The book is written to a church of both Jews and non-jews. Paul talks about reaping a harvest there, just as he has done among the other Gentiles (1:13). But there are also extended sections addressing issues specific to Jewish believers. 3 chapters deal with the failure of Israel 1 P a g e
to recognize Jesus as Messiah and encourages the humble attitude Gentile believers should have toward Jews. So his purpose was to address the tension between Jewish and Gentile believers in the church. Yet in doing so, He ends up presenting the clearest understanding of what salvation really means for all of us. It is an understanding that continues to be missed by many who claim to follow Christ. II. The Messenger: A. Paul Paul begins by introducing himself. Giving your name, whether in a letter or the foyer is always a good practice and one we should never take for granted. I think knowing people s name is a first step in connecting with others. We all struggle with remembering names, so when in doubt, introduce yourself! B. A Servant 1. His Identity: Paul then gives his credentials. He describes himself as a servant or slave of Jesus Christ. Perhaps the reason Paul wanted us to know first of all that he was a servant of Jesus Christ is because his importance was not based on who he was, but on whose he was! We tend to base our importance, our sense of identity on our position, or our popularity, or our achievements. But positions can change. Just ask anybody who has lost their job. Popularity and approval is fleeting. And success and achievements fade and diminish. Yea, that was great but what have you done for me lately? Paul identified himself as a servant of Jesus Christ because being a servant of the King of Kings was truly the most important thing about his life. Whenever pride starts creeping into my life, I either start feeling like I really did good, or like I didn t do that good enough. Both are a sign of pride. Both are a sign that I am trying to find my worth in what I do, rather than whose I am. I am taking my identity from things that can be taken away from me by people, or age, or accident. I need to keep coming back to a truth in my life, a solid foundation, an identity that can never be taken away; I am a beloved child of the king and I am a servant of Jesus Christ. 2. Not If, But Who? Now we may like the term servant because it sounds sort of spiritual and humble in our context. But that s because we don t have servants or slaves in our society. I wonder how dignified and spiritual it would have sounded to someone living in Alabama 50 years ago? Yet his servant-hood is the first thing Paul wants people to know about His life. He has sworn allegiance to a master. He is bound by chains of love to obey someone else in life. What about us? Is our life so submitted in love to Jesus that He is calling the shots? If we are honest, I suspect the answer is sometimes yes, and sometimes no. I Corinthians 6 says; Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore, honor God with your body. 2 P a g e
Paul will go on in chapter 6 to teach us that we are all slaves of something. We end up being controlled by whatever we give our life to. So the real question is not if we will be slaves, but who or what will we choose to serve? Even when we refer to Jesus as The Lord, it tends to be more a ceremonial reference to His title, rather than a genuine submission to his legitimate reign over our lives. Yet if Jesus is not sovereign over your life, the reality is you will end of being a slave of something else. Everyone likes to think of themselves as free and independent. I m my own person! I can do whatever I want. All the brightly colored images of happy people call out to us from magazines and televisions and web pages. Happiness and freedom can be found here! Yet strangely, no one seems that free. We are slaves to money or the desire for more of it it owns us. We are slaves to mortgages and materialism, slaves to popularity and to success, slaves to self and to our pleasures. Some of us are slaves to bitterness, to alcohol, to pornography, to fear, or to guilt. When the chains look golden, its hard to recognize how enslaved you actually are. I need to constantly remind myself of this truth. Satan and the value system of the world which he dominates, promise you freedom in order to make you a slave. Jesus calls you to be his slave, so He can set you free. To a skeptical audience Jesus called out If the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8:36) How free are you really in your life? Perhaps this is a day to yield your life to the King as His servant once more. C. Called to be an Apostle This slave had a job. He had been called as an Apostle. Apostle just means one sent with a message. Paul was a messenger! And the message he was set apart to pass on was something he called The Gospel. Now there is one of those Christian words we use that has become part of our inside language. No one but church people have any real idea what is meant by the gospel. Well, it just means good news. Paul had a great message to share with people. III. The Message: A. An Eagerly Awaited Message: vs. 2 Now Paul says this good news was promised a long time ago by prophets and it was written down in the Holy Scriptures. Prophets received messages from God about something good that would come and wrote it down in the Old Testament portion of the Bible. So in a sense this good news is also old news because it was promised long ago. People had been waiting for it to come for a long time. And not just waiting, they were eagerly waiting. They were fed up with their current circumstances and anxiously waiting for the better thing that had been promised. But what is there for us to be excited about today in this Good News? Most of us here are no longer waiting to hear about salvation through Jesus Christ. Think for a second about the whole idea of news. Why do we call something The News? Why do they call a TV show a News-cast and a paper describing current events as a News-paper? They call it news because it is supposed to present new information. We watch the news or 3 P a g e
read it because we are interested and curious to find out about something we didn t know. So if we have already heard the Good News, why go back over it again? What is left for us to be excited about? Isn t the good news now just old news? What are we looking for here? What is left to anticipate? I m not trying to rebuke you for not being excited enough about Jesus. I m asking a genuine question. I think all of us find ourselves bored at times with church or with the Bible. I am frequently content to pursue what this world says will make me happy and neglect my relationship with the Father. It often is more interesting to me. But if we are bored, it is the result of our blindness and distractedness. We think we have read the entire newspaper when we haven t even finished the first page. We think going to church, singing some songs, listening to a sermon, and saying our prayers is pretty much what this Christian thing is all about. We foolishly believe we have experienced about all there is to experience of God. And God laughs and weeps over such blindness. The last thing that the Creator of heaven and earth is, is boring. He is infinitely creatively, as the awesome variety of vegetation and insects daily testifies. If we are bored with God it is because we are blind to who we are really dealing with, and have placed Him in a small box in the corner of our lives. We are bored with prayer because we doubt His willingness to act and are impatient that the drive-thru prayer line in heaven is taking too long! If we read the Bible at all it is frequently a Verse for the Day nibble, rather than faith-filled encounter that is asking the Spirit of God to take you deeper with Him and to place His finger on the things in your life that are obstacles to His transforming work. Is the good news still good news? You bet it is! There is still more for you to discover AND experience of God, and His love and His power. Much of Romans is about understanding the depths of how good the Good News really is. How much God loves you and is for you. How much He has truly set you free if you will just believe it. I invite you to join me in praying for God to remove the veils from our eyes as we look into His word together. B. The Focus of the Message The Son vs. 3-4 Now the focus of this good message is the Son. Whose son? The Old Testament had hinted about a very special son. God made a covenant with King David that is found in 2 Samuel 7. God told David that he would not be the one who would build the temple of God in Jerusalem. But God made David a surprising promise. He said; When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. 2 Samuel 7:12-13 In this amazing passage, God speak of 1) a son of David, 2) who will also be a son of God, 3) who will build a house for God s name, and 4) his kingdom will be established forever. Was God talking about King Solomon who was David s son, who built the temple in Jerusalem and had an intimacy with God like a father and son? Or was He speaking of Jesus who was a descendant of 4 P a g e
David, and is building a temple from living stones, and is also the Son of God whose Kingdom will never end? The answer is:... YES! Solomon was a foreshadowing fulfillment of the ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. We call this promise today the Davidic Covenant and it becomes the central focus of the Old Testament from that point on. And it is to the ultimate fulfillment of this promise that Paul is alluding. He was a physical descendant of David through both Mary and Joseph. And he his relationship to God the Father was demonstrated by His resurrection from the dead. The good news is that the long awaited son of David/Son of God has come to build a house for God and establish the throne of His kingdom forever. C. The Privilege of Messenger-ship : vs. 5 Paul says that his apostleship or messenger-ship, was through Jesus and for His name s sake. This was not a task he received from man. It was a divine call. If you know the story in the book of Acts you know that he was on his way to imprison or kill the followers of Jesus in Damascus, when he was blinded by a vision of Jesus on the road. The restoration of his sight by another Jesus follower was accompanied by a declaration that Paul would be God s chosen instrument to carry His name to the Gentiles. (Acts 9:15) Paul says here that he received both grace and apostleship. He didn t deserve God s forgiveness and he didn t deserve this job. This call to be God s messenger wasn t a burden, it was a privilege God and undeservedly given to him. But is just like God to do the unexpected. In writing Timothy he says; I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. 13 Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. 1 Timothy 1:12-16 The very things we would think disqualify us from being God s servants are often the very things He uses to touch the lives of others! And I wonder what privileged opportunity God has called you to do by His strength? I wonder in what way God wants to pour His grace on your life along with the faith and love that are in Jesus Christ? D. The Purpose of the Message: vs.5 The purpose he says of his messengership is to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. This faith in Christ is more than an intellectual assent of the facts. A faith that saves is always a transforming faith. It always produces acts of obedience. The purpose of this message is a transformed life! 5 P a g e
Unfortunately to many of us, this statement gets heard as a call to pull up our boot straps and be good! Be more committed! Be more spiritual! Be more... The church has frequently preached the very legalism and try harder mentality that Paul is arguing against here in Romans. If you are trying to live for Jesus; please stop! You will never experience the fullness of life in Christ by your self-effort. The obedience that comes from faith is just that; an obedience that come from trusting in the One who now lives in you to save you from yourself. IV. Conclusion: I want to conclude today by reading my paraphrase of Romans 1:1-15 (vs. 1-6) Hi, my name is Paul and I am a bought and paid for slave of Jesus the Messiah. I belong to Him, but He didn t make me a menial servant. He appointed me to be anchorman on His news network. But it s not the news that I am telling people about. It is the good news. In fact, it is great news. In one sense, it is also old news because these events were spoken about by God s messengers long ago. They spoke about the mystery of the Messiah who would be a human descendant of David, but strangely also a Son of God. And that is exactly what you see with Jesus. His human parents were descendants of David, but his relationship to God the Father was demonstrated when God raised Him from the dead through the power of the Holy Spirit. Through this same Jesus and for the honor of His name, we have been given the gracious privilege of calling everyone to the transformed life that faith in Jesus produces. (vs. 7-15) So I am writing to you people in Rome who are also loved by God and called to be saints. That just means you are people who have been washed clean by the sacrifice of Jesus and are being changed by His indwelling Holy Spirit. I bring you a greeting, wishing you the grace and the peace that come from our heavenly Father and Jesus His Son. You know, I can t stop thanking God for all of you because everyone is talking about your trusting walk with Jesus. God knows how constantly I keep praying for you. And one of my prayers is that somehow, at last, I will get to come and see you. I really want to see you so that we can be an encouragement to each other s faith. I have often made plans to come visit you and tell people there about this incredible Saviour. But the plans have never worked out. You see, I have an obligation to all people. It doesn t matter whether you are part of the in-crowd or the out-crowd, the ethnic majority or the ethnic minority, the smart cool people or the people everyone thinks are fools. So you see, my duty to share the good news even includes you people in Rome! 6 P a g e