Good morning again and welcome, good to be back preaching again, good to be starting this morning in a new series on the Book of Romans and I would encourage you as we start this series to consider at least making that part of your regular Bible reading to kind of saturate yourself in it and together we'll figure out what this very important book is saying. Let me pray for our time together, let's pray. How do we thank you for all of your word to us, all of your words? We thank you that you are a speaking God that you have not left us to our own devices to figure out what you think, what you're doing, why you're doing it, at least some of it. We thank you Father, that you've revealed yourself to us in a way that we can grasp and a way that we can see, a way that we can actually memorize and carry around with us through your word, what a blessing that is. So Father, help us now as we look to you to hear you speaking to us through this book of the Bible over the next number of weeks and months. Help us to see you better through this, help us to love you more, we want to follow you more gratefully, more fully because of the image of you that we see so clearly portrayed here. We pray Father for your kindness in this, open our eyes and ears, we pray these things in Christ name for His sake. Amen. What do Augustine and Martin Luther and John Wesley have in common? It would be any number of legitimate ways to respond to that, but one way for certain would be to say that for each of them the book of Romans was powerfully used by God at a crucial point in their personal lives. Indeed it could be argued that for each of these men it was not just a crucial point, it was in fact a turning point, the turning point, a point beyond which their lives headed in an entirely new direction, a revolutionary new direction. To be sure similar stories could no doubt be told about how God has used every other part of the Bible during formative life changing periods of people's lives and all of that is true. However the collective evidence of the church over the centuries is still that while God has used and continues to use all of Holy Scripture to review Himself and establish and edify His church there is something special about this particular book. Go to any theological library in the world, scan through the sheer volume of what has been written on Romans itself or read through the countless millions of sermons or lectures or theological papers that have been written and delivered over the centuries, scan the pages of every popular book ever written by Christian authors and just see if you can keep track of the number of references that are made directly and indirectly to the teachings of this book, except any of that and you would soon give up the task as impossible. Anyway you look at it, there is a clear consensus of opinion as to the uniqueness and value of this book that continues to be deeply influential upon the thinking and practices of God's people through the ages. So it is that we are beginning a new series of studies on Paul's letter to the Romans. Our goal today will be pretty limited in scope as I hope to concentrate my efforts on giving you just enough background information as well as enough of an overview to prepare both you and me to begin reading and understanding this important letter together and equally I hope to say enough to draw you forward to entice you into the journey yourself. Now while I do want to entice you into this journey, I also want to tell you that speaking personally, I find the book of Romans to be extremely intimidating for lots of reasons I won't go into but one of the results of that intimidation factor for me as I've already shared with you I think has been that in my 28 years of preaching or teaching the Bible, I have yet to preach a single sermon from the book of Romans. So knowing that is the case, you should not be surprised to hear me say that it is still with a great amount of trepidation that I am taking this step finally with you this morning. To be sure every part of Scripture because it is the very word of God calls for caution and humility in approaching it and in that sense there is nothing unique about Romans at least in terms of what it is and the respect that we ought to give to it. Nevertheless, all that is true and while teaching any part of the Bible does call for great carefulness, there is still something unique about Romans and especially with regard to the particular contribution that it makes to the overall canon of Scripture and that calls for a very great carefulness. The reasons for that I think are highlighted well in the comments of one writer who spoke about Romans this way, Romans does not offer much that is new, you might be surprised to hear that. Romans does not offer much that is new, that is not where its uniqueness lies. In the earlier writings Paul has given expression to many of the themes he develops in this epistle, but the uniqueness of Romans is to be found in the fact that there is a sustained depth in Romans which is unmatched and a concentration of the great central doctrines of the Christian faith. Let me say that again, the thing that makes this book stand out and which therefore calls for a special kind of carefulness and humility I think is not so much that we are getting lots of new information, we haven't run across in the Bible before, it is because we have never gone down so deep or stayed down so long nor have we come across such a great collection of all of the most fundamental Christian truths all in the same place, all in the same letter. That among other things is what sets Romans apart. Now before we continue thinking further about the letter itself, let's consider for just a moment the actual church to whom and for whom this letter was written. The simple truth is we know very little about the Roman church. Outside of what we can glean from the book of Romans itself, we do not get much assistance from other sources in the Bible including the book of Acts which is proven to be so helpful in looking at other New Testament churches like Corinth or Ephesus. In contrast what we find about those churches, we have no similar such reports about this apostle or that apostle going off to Roman founding a Christian community. Roman church just kind of appears in some ways out of nowhere. In other words by the time Paul sits down to write a letter to this church they've already been in existence for some time and it's also quite clear that Paul has not had anything to do with them thus far. So again the Roman church is just sort of there in the pages of scripture. We have no certainty who the first believers or who the first Christian workers were in Rome. Nevertheless saying we have no certainty is not to say that we have no idea. The common opinion seems to be that the Roman church is a result of the events of Acts 2 which may or may not be familiar with you to all of you. Let me read a little bit of it. When the day of Pentecost arrived they were all together in one place and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews devout men from every nation under heaven and at this sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered because of each one was hearing them speak in his own language and they were amazed and astonished saying are not all these who are speaking Galileans and how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language. Parthians and Meeds and Elimites and residents of Mesopotamia and Gidea and Cappadocia and Pontus and Asia, Fridgia and Pemphilia Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome both Jews and proselytes. Parthians and Arabians we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. Visitors from Rome were there on the day of Pentecost were part of this unique extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit and so it would seem at least possible if not highly probable that the founders of the Christian church and Rome were connected to all of this and that at least is a theory that we're going to be working with here. Perhaps that is not information that seems hugely significant at first glance but it does if it's correct help us to understand at least part of the reason why Paul may have wanted to go to Rome because you see Paul's practice had always been to not go where others had gone to not try and reap where another had so and as Paul says himself in this letter Romans 15-20 he says, and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel not where Christ has already been named, less I build on someone else's foundation. So Paul's practice has been to not go where others had gone and yet he wanted to go to Rome where a Christian church that he had not planted clearly already existed and had existed for a long time so why does he do it? Well I think there's a bigger reason for his going to Rome that will come to soon enough. A smaller reason I think he was certainly willing to go to Rome or at least was not hindered from going despite the fact that there was already an established church is precisely because it appears to have been a church that was not founded by an apostle but rather by the common consent and practice as we've seen of those who had been in Rome during Pentecost and then carried their newfound faith back to the city. So Paul's desire to go there may have been in part to give them guidance to make sure that things were as they should be to try and encourage them and put some sort of apostolic seal of approval on this work that it started up pretty spontaneously. That's one thing to keep in mind about the Roman church. The other thing to point out about the Roman church is its likely composition by which I mean its membership. What was that membership like? Was it a church for example that was almost entirely made up of people who had formerly been Jews and converted to Christianity? Or by contrast was it a church that was largely or entirely composed of non-Jewish Gentile converts that is to Christianity or was it a mix? And the question actually is an important one. As we'll see repeatedly throughout the series how you understand what Paul is saying at any given point can be greatly affected by who it is you think he's saying it to. And so without going into a great deal of discussion let me just say on the front end that it seems to me that the Roman church did have a mixture of Jewish and Gentile Christians and that in all likelihood the Gentile Christians were in the majority. Three pieces of evidence can be considered in thinking about that. Firstly, there's evidence we've already seen from Acts 2 where we're told that in the crowd of people that were present during Pentecost were visitors from Rome both Jews and Prasalites. So given that statement it seems at least possible that the earliest core of believers in Rome were largely if not exclusively Jewish or Jewish Prasalites that is people who were not born Jewish but he converted later. The next piece of evidence comes to the writings of an ancient historian named Setonius who wrote during this period and he said one of his works this. The emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome because they constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Crestus. Most scholars feel like this name Crestus is a Latinization of Crestus and so is reflecting Setonius' observation of infighting between the Jews there in Rome that is between the Jews who rejected Christ as Messiah and Jews that embraced him as a Messiah. The result of this infighting would seem to have been this wholesale expulsion of all the Jews without distinction from Rome at least for a time by the emperor who was apparently just fed up with their fighting and basically says the whole lot of you get out of here. And so they go. The likely date of this expulsion seems to match up well with the Bible evidence. The third piece of evidence comes from Acts 181-2 which reads after this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth and he found a Jew named Aquila and native of Pontus recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. The passage in Acts simply put what seemed to confirm the report in Setonius writings. So what are these pieces of information tell us or are they possibly tell us? One writer discusses it this way. As with similar expulsions of specific groups from Rome, this one did not stay in force for long. Jews like Aquila and Priscilla were able to return to Rome within a short period of time, certainly soon after Claudius's death in 8054. Never last since the Roman authorities would not have distinguished between Jews and Jewish Christians. This expulsion, however temporary, must have had a significant impact on the development of the church at Rome, specifically the Gentile element in the churches undoubtedly present before the expulsion would have come into greater prominence when all the Jewish Christians were moved out for a time. And so again, while there may have been an initial largely Jewish Christian group in Rome, the ongoing fighting over the person of Christ resulted in the whole lot of them being thrown out for a time, leaving behind only the Gentile Christians. This group would have grown and spread in the absence of the Jewish Christians, and so the flavor of the Roman church would have shifted in a Gentile direction. Eventually the expelled Jewish Christians would return. They'd be in the minority and would have come back into a context where the Jewish and Hebrew origins of Christianity were perhaps not as clear as they might have been otherwise had the expulsions not happen. The Roman Christians might have wondered what was the connection between the Old Testament origins and Jewish traditions and the Lord Jesus. And if that indeed or something like it was how things developed in the Roman church, it might go a long way toward explaining some of the content of this letter, specifically chapters 9 to 11, which deal with the Jew and Gentile question at great length. Well, having thought about the Roman church behind this letter for a moment with the time remaining, let's turn our attention back to the letter of Romans itself and try to answer just two questions fairly quickly. What is it and why was it written? The first question might seem obvious. What's the letter to the Romans, which one might reasonably respond? It's a letter,
but is it really? And even if it is, what sort of letter is it? There's all kinds of letters. On the one hand, it's similar in some ways to pause other letters. It has the sort of opening comments we tend to see in Paul's other writings. And likewise, it closes with some salutations and instructions, which also can be found in some of his letters. On the other hand, it's not like any other letter to Paul wrote. The sustained argument that takes up the bulk of the letter, essentially the first 11 chapters of the book, is not repeated in any of Paul's other letters, not like that. The contrast, for example, between Romans and First Corinthians is huge in this area. Whereas in First Corinthians, you find all sorts of references and connections with things that are going on in the Corinthian church, including Paul's response to direct questions, they've asked. The letter of Romans seems to proceed from its own internal logic, as one writer puts it, regardless of the church body to whom the letter is addressed. Indeed, the tightness of the logical argument that has developed has led some people to conclude that Romans, while called a letter, is really a kind of theological treatise of some sort, written to the church in general. Now, certainly there is a tight argument being made here, but to describe Romans as a mere theological treatise is inadequate for reasons that I won't go into here, but which will become clear with time, I hope. So, Romans seems to be a letter, but it also seems to be a very different sort of letter to any that Paul has written before. So, how should we think about it? When ordered to answer that question, let's think about Paul's situation at this point in his missionary career. Up till now, Paul's base of operations for his church planning work has been in Antioch, in the east, north of, but not terribly far from Jerusalem, and he kind of worked westward from there for a while, and he's gone to places like Ephesus and Thessalonica and Corinth, etc. And all of that work has gone well, and on the whole, good things are happening, the gospel spreading, but Paul was not content to just stay where he was. He wanted to continue to push westward going all the way to Spain if he could. But this created a problem and a challenge for Paul, if he's going to push further and further westward, he's going to have to for sheer logistical reasons, move his base of operations further west than Antioch, and this, according to some scholars, was seen to have been what Paul had in mind for the city of Rome, and the church that was established there. He was hoping to move his base of operations from Antioch to Rome and from there, and with the support of the Roman church, continue the gospel expansion westward. But this created its own challenges for Paul, because he didn't plant the church in Rome, so he's not well known by them. Indeed, this fact by itself has caused some Bible critics to ask how it, how it is that Paul, who had nothing to do with the Roman church, could write a letter that in Chapter 16 includes at least 20 or more personal references to various individuals there. And that's a fair question. However, when you look at what is said in Chapter 16, and when you consider the facts already given about the temporary expulsion of Jewish Christians from Rome, including Priscilla and Aquila, whom Paul already knew, that it seems quite probable that the people mentioned in Chapter 16 would be those that Paul would have met in various contexts outside of Rome over the years, and he would now return to the city of Rome and were part of that growing church community. One a lot is a handful of people we would have met in other places. Nevertheless, in spite of his knowing a handful of people there, for the majority of the Roman Christians, Paul remained somewhat unknown. But perhaps he was not entirely unknown. As one writer says, Paul's battle against the Judaizers, that is, we've come across these people before, the people who tended to come in after Paul, wherever he ministered, and who wanted to add to and change Paul's gospel in some way, from grace alone to grace, plus something. Paul's battles in that area had gained for him a reputation because of his trying to make a point and teach. He gained a reputation among some people as being anti-law, as being anti-Jewish. And rumors of Paul's stance on these matters had probably reached Rome as Romans 38 seems to suggest at least some rumors had reached their ears. And so just to summarize, Paul needed to move his base of operations from Antioch to someplace in the West, like Rome. But apart from some people he'd met outside of Rome and who'd now returned there, he was not well known in that church. In fact, may have had something of a skeptical reputation at least amongst some of the believers. So what does Paul do? How does he deal with that? According to some scholars, here's what he does. He writes the letter to the Romans. A letter that essentially was a missionary letter, a letter of introduction, a letter that was seeking the approval and support of the church community in Rome in hopes of being able to solicit them as partners with him in the ongoing Westward expansion of the Gospel. Without going into all the discussions about whether Romans was a circular letter, or as we see why it's not just a theological treatise or whether a shortened form of it circulated for some time, which appears likely, it seems to me that this sort of understanding of Romans, that it is a missionary letter of introduction, helps to best explain its content and its structure, including some of the peculiarities of a letter that calls it to stand out from Paul's other writings. For example, this view helps explain why the bulk of the letter is spent on this systematic, profound explanation of the guts of Paul's understanding of Christian doctrine. As one writer explains it, Paul clearly regarded it as important that the Roman church support him in his Spanish mission, Romans 1524. If they were to support him, it was not unreasonable that they should know what he preached. Accordingly, he sets forth a clear but profound statement of the essential message of Christianity as he proclaimed it, this would have shown the Romans where he stands. It's not unlike what happens in our own Presbytery when a man comes and he wants to is called to minister in one of our PCA churches. Before he's approved and allowed to take up a pulpit, he presents his credentials. He's examined on his life and theological views. We just check him out. And in a similar fashion, Paul's dense theological presentation in Romans is his offering of his credentials, is Paul sharing his views so people will know where he stands and they'll have confidence in supporting him in this ongoing gospel expansion. And so that's one reason why it's just inadequate to think of this as just some kind of theological treatise because it's got a purpose behind it. He's not just writing theology for the sake of theology, he's writing it for the sake of the gospel to establish the mission, to further the mission so that he can get on with the job.
Now, of course, there's more to it than just that. Paul seems to be very aware, not only the fact that there was a mixture of people in the Roman congregation, but also probably through some of the people he mentioned in chapter 16, he seems to have some awareness of what some of the struggles were between Jewish and Gentile Christians in that city. And so his discussions in chapters 9-11 and 14-1-15-13 in particular seem to have those things in view. But even this, it seems to me, is brought into the service of his overall missionary gospel motive. Right? Paul knows that the effectiveness of the Christian witness in Rome as well as the ability of the Roman church to support him. Both of those things were going to be greatly influenced by how well these two main factions of believers, Jewish and Gentile, understood and loved, and were willing to serve and defer to one another. The more could be said on that front, but the overall point remains, seeing Romans as a missionary letter of introduction. In my view, does the best job of pulling all the various elements of this letter into a common purpose. Finally, then, it was just a few minutes left. I want to close our introduction by simply reading to you a sample of some of the more well-known passages in this letter that are in front of us that we're going to open up over time, which I hope will wet your appetite for the many, many good things God has for us in the weeks and months ahead. See how many of these you recognize. Romans 1, 16 to 17, why I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation, to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, what in the world does that mean, and also to the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Romans 1, 18 to 20, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, but God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made so they are without excuse. But now the righteousness of God, Romans 3, has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. There is so much in there, it is unbelievable. For what does the Scripture say, Romans 4, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due and to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Romans 5, therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5 again, but God shows us love for us in that while we are still sinners Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood much more so we will be saved by him from the wrath of God. Romans 7, for I do not understand my own actions, anybody here not able to identify this. For I do not do what I want but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want I agree with the law that it's good so now it's no longer I do it but sin that dwells within me for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh for I have the desire to do what is right but not the ability to carry it out for I do not do the good I want but the evil I do not want is what I keep doing. Now if I do what I do not want is no longer I do it but sin that dwells with in me so I find it to be a law that when I want to do right evil lies close at hand for I delight in the law of God in my inner being but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that the laws of my members. A wretched man that I am who will deliver me who will deliver me from this body of death, this body of death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ. Romans 8 and 1 there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For all who are led by the spirit of God or sons of God for whom for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you've received the spirit of adoption and sons by whom we cry, Abba Father, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. If I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing, this is all chapter 8, not comparing with the glory that has to be revealed to us for the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God, for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. But we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now and not only the creation but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption of sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved, a hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he sees. What then shall we say to these things, still chapter 8, we are going to take years to get through chapter 8, I am just saying. What then shall we say to these things, if God is for us who can be against us, I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height, death nor anything else in all creation to be able to separate from love of God and Christ Jesus or Lord. No encouragement there. Romans 9, you will say to me then, why does he still find fault? Who can resist his will? But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Well what is molded say to its molder? Why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump, one vessel for honorable use, another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy which he has prepared beforehand for glory, even as us who he's called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles. You read a passage like that. You either run for your life or you balance worship, that's your two choices. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, how then will they call him in whom they've not believed, how they'd believe in him, of whom they've never heard, how they'd hear, doubt somebody preach it, and how they'd preach unless they're sent. As it's written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. Romans 12, I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind by testing. You may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. As for the one who is weak and faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything while the weak person eats only vegetables, let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, let not the one who abstains, past judgment, and the one who eats. For God has welcomed. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? We who are strong last one have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as is is written the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another and accord with Christ Jesus that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.
All of that in this book. I am excited about it. I am terrified and I think it's going to make a mess of us in in all the right ways. I really do. Let's pray. Father we're just on the threshold of it. We've read some of your words in this book. You left out more than we've read. You've spoken to us consistently in the past and we expect that you will do great things and bring wonderful things from your word. So prepare us now Father for that. I thank you for loving enough us enough to talk to us. So please do that and please give us years to hear and a heartless willing to accept the things that you say. We pray these things in Jesus name before His sake. Those who are taking up the morning offering will come forward. We'll take that up at this time.