Would he just say, no, I've got your bottle and you've got mine, so I'm pretty sure they say the same thing It could be the tricky part Good morning again. Welcome today. We're continuing in our kind of newly launched series on Paul's letter to the Romans in Our initial message last week. We looked at some of the background to this letter and At the end of that study our working hypothesis was that Paul wrote this letter in the main as a kind of missionary letter of introduction in hopes of winning the confidence and the support of the church in Rome and The motivation behind this would seem to have been Paul's desire to continue to push the gospel work further and further westward and order that To do that and and in order to do that He really needed to move his base of operations from Antioch in the east to Rome further west So that with the support of the Roman church He might get it keep taking the gospel further and further away even as far as Spain That in a nutshell is what we looked at last week and so with that in mind we turned this morning to an examination of the first seven verses of chapter one These verses contain 132 words and Yet surprisingly our one sentence in the Greek Which the ESV translation tries to preserve with lots of commas So it's a long introduction indeed longer than any of Paul's other beginnings in his other letters That being said and despite the fact that it is an introduction I hope we'll see this morning how there's still a great deal to be found here It's not a mere formality that we can just kind of skip through to get to the really important parts of the letter This all by itself is a very important part of this letter And it sets a tone right from the outset that tells us what we can expect pretty much all the way through this series Now in this introduction Paul is doing two basic things Firstly, he's introducing himself and then secondly he's introducing his gospel That is his message and that's really the main things we'll be focusing on this morning before we continue with any of that Let's pray together Father in heaven, please guide us now in this And through this reading of your word take us to good places show us good and helpful things and by helpful I mean the great variety of ways that you do that which you're not always pleasant, but which are always right So show us good and helpful things as you define those terms and so bring about Good effects and consequences within us and through us Mostly Father show us yourself show us your missionary heart and in that showing draw our sedentary hearts forward In your kindness, please keep leading us to repentance Have your way with us and we ask this in Jesus name I'm in Romans 1 1 Paul a servant of Christ Jesus Called to be an apostle Set apart For the gospel of God the first thing Paul does here is introduce himself Now I don't know if you have noticed this before but Paul's practice and the general practice back then was the opposite What you and I typically do at the beginning of a letter? If you noticed that before I mean we when you and I write a letter or send an email or text or whatever We often will start by addressing the person we're writing to Their name comes first and Then we have the body of the letter and then the last thing we do is kind of attach our name to it Paul doesn't do that Paul doesn't start with dear Romans dear Corinthians Dirt Timothy dear anybody he starts with himself and The guy sending the letter and he then indicates the intended recipients and after all that he develops the body of the letter It's a different order, but he always does that and I don't think that approach was unique unique to Paul It was a sort of common and letter writing back then he didn't invent it But I think it never the less served him well, especially in this letter Where he was working hard to make a good strong Convincing impression upon the Roman church and all of that so that he might enlist them as partners with him in the gospel And so he introduces himself first and in doing so he says three things immediately very quickly But which when you don't just go rushing right past them Communicate some important things about Paul Firstly Paul says that he is a servant. He's a do-loss of Christ and that in itself as one writer points out is Prerevealing when you think about it Paul is trying to introduce himself and his mission trying to get the Romans on board and And you might think that in that kind of situation he would open up a little stronger than he has you might think that he would Talk a little bit more about the things that he's done maybe even possibly To his horn a little bit just to say look. I'm trying to work hard here for the gospel Perhaps talking about some of the things he mentions in Philippians 3 for example about he's being from the tribe of Benjamin or Hebrew Hebrews or a zealous scrupulous pursuer of right living Stuff like that, but he doesn't do that in fact. He starts out in the opposite direction He calls himself a servant a slave of Jesus Christ But the point there being not the abjectness of his position or his condition But simply the completeness the totality of his devotion as one commentator puts it Paul is saying that he's sold out He's saying that he's completely owned by Jesus That's one thing he says he also says he's called to be an apostle and by and by means of that phrase He's communicating that he who he is now what he's doing is not a self-chosen thing It's not a function of a five-year or 20-year or 40-year life plan He isn't called himself to be an apostle somebody else is called him and the implication that appears in the next phrase is that he's been called by the same one that said him part four The gospel that is for the good news and that would be of course God himself. It is God's good news That Paul is announcing and bringing to the world and Paul is simply God's megaphone. He's God's microphone He's the sent messenger Which is all that a possible means is set apart for that particular task And so in just a few words Paul communicates who he is He shows the totality of his commitment and in particular shows that His personal identity is completely wrapped up in and Defined by and a product of God's gospel mission by which he's been saved and Into which he has been drafted in the paper this week There was an article about an LSU basketball player to whom our new coach Johnny Jones has given permission To explore the possibility of his going to play another school and In Jones's comments about it, which I thought were fair He his closing remark was that if this player After looking around decided that LSU was the place to stay and to play basketball then that's fine But he qualified that by saying essentially if he stays he's got to be all in He's got to be all about LSU all about the program all about The plan all about the mission That's what Paul is communicating here. He's saying he's essentially saying you want to know who I am you want to know about me Let me tell you I'm the guy that is all about What God is doing here through the gospel? That's the thing flowing through my veins. It's what gets me out of bed in the morning It's what keeps me awake at night. It's the thing. I'm gonna be about until I cease to draw breath. I am all in That's what Paul is communicating here And to be sure Paul didn't Paul's being all-in didn't mean he always had all the answers I didn't mean that he never struggled to know what being all-in was supposed to look like in every situation or circumstance His letters reveal the various ways he wrestled with the implications of that for his entire life at times He openly confessed he didn't know what he should do in a given situation whether he should go or remain Which way he should turn how he should respond in a certain circumstance and even so all of his wrestling's Right indeed the very reason that they were wrestling's the very reason they felt like a struggle was precisely because he was all in That part was never in doubt that part have been decided. It had been settled It was just the outworking of it. It would challenge him for the entirety of his ministry I recently had the opportunity to attend a conference in Louisville, Kentucky and always say that word wrong in Jason and Amy I was wanting to teach me so but they I'm trying I still fail, but I'm trying to get right But I was in a large city starting by the little letter L in Kentucky and And this conference there were a number of very fine sermons delivered Including one by John Piper at the close of the conference And one of the things I appreciate a bunch on Piper is one of the many things is his passion If you've ever heard him preach or better yet if you've seen him preach Then you know he's all in right When I've never seen or heard him speak when he just wasn't going for it That's who he is Which is why it was helpful in an odd sort of way They hear him talk at this conference about the struggling side of all that In fact the opening line of his talk was I cannot believe that after 60 years I am still a Christian And then he went on to talk about lots of things One of those being the way that repeatedly he would find himself in his study over the years Staring down the barrel of another Sunday on his knees Distraught over the fact that he had no idea what he was supposed to say to his people Distraught and weeping he talked about many many times. He has cried out to God and just said Lord What is it I'm supposed to be doing? I don't know how to lead these people. I do not know what we're supposed to go from here And I've told you this story already. I know but it's like I said it did me a world of good to hear that Fall from John Piper slips Because he's a guy that I would say very much all about the mission and He's steadily remained all about it for years and Yet he openly admits to lots of struggle with putting shoe leather to that commitment He openly talks about the uncertainties involved in pursuing that thing and working that thing out And he is I think in that way a lot like Paul He was all about the mission So that's the first thing Paul's self-introduction the second thing I want you to see is not only Paul's introduction of himself But also the introduction of his message and it's just an opening thing He's gonna you know in the next 11 chapters He's gonna blow this thing up this full expansion of what his message is very full And so I'm not gonna go into a huge amount of detail here But I do want to point out some of the main features of what he says here some of the characteristics the nature of the message and again What's he trying to do? He's trying to convince I think he's trying to convince the Roman church I'm a good guy to support. I really want your support. I need your support You know, I know you don't know me. I'm Paul. I'm you know never been there But these are the things I believe and this is what I want you know by God's grace and mercy I want to see done bringing the gospel west and so I think he's trying to say It's it's a safe. It's the right message. It's a good message. It's a safe one Please get behind me. I really think this way is trying to do so Romans 1 1 to 7 Let me just read that again My first one again and keep going That's just tiny Paul a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God Which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures Concerning his son who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness By his resurrection from the dead Jesus Christ our Lord through whom we have received grace and Apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations including you who were called to belong to Jesus Christ To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Specifically there are six things that I want to quickly draw your attention to with regard to this message the character of nature of this message As Paul introduced it in the verses just read firstly. He says it's of God It's a gospel of God the message that he's going about for claiming is not his message Ultimately, although he believes it deeply neither is it someone else's message Paul's message is of God. It's God's good news and the fact that it's God's message means all kinds of things It means that Paul has no right to change it It means he's not the originator. He's not the co-author. He's not the editor. He's not a collaborator. He's none of those things It's not his to change. It's not his to try and improve He has one job and that is to pass on this message as he received it to get it right to make sure that he is saying what the sender of the message was intending to not leave anything out and to pass it on. It's a gospel of God Now, I mean a lot more could be said on just that one aspect but in Lord willing will unearth more of that in the coming weeks and months But for now let it suffice to say that Paul's message ultimately isn't his message Right? It's God's and that fact alone carries a boatload of responsibility Secondly, Paul says that his message is one that was anticipated by the prophets And by this Paul is certainly saying more than just the fact that the gospel is the fulfillment of a number of prophetic predictions Although it certainly is that He's saying at least that But I think he's saying a lot more With this language I take it that he primarily means that while the gospel is good news. It isn't new news You've no doubt heard the saying or maybe you've heard the saying the new is in the old concealed old is in the new reveal Which is maybe not the most precise language in the world But it's a useful rhyme and refers to the way that the teachings of the New Testament can be found within the Old Testament and vice versa To be sure sometimes the relationship between the Old Testament teaching in the New Testament Teaching of the same thing is like the relationship between an object and its shadow Sometimes the New Testament truth is a fuller more clear and obvious form of something that's in more seed-like form in the Old Testament But it's all there Said another way the New Testament is simply the final outworking of a plan and a message that God has intended From day one and from which he has never departed. He has never deviated a single inch And again much more could be said, but that is at least part of what Paul means when he says that his message was Intisicated by the prophets a third thing he said about Paul's Third thing to be said about Paul's message is that it's one that is attested in the scriptures Which is to say it's a matter of record and this comment goes hand in hand with the previous one since the very prophets through whom God spoke to his Covenant people are also the ones through whom he reduced these things to writing and preserved them in the form of the scriptures Now again, we'll talk about this more another point, but it should probably be said here That one of the possible motivations for Paul's inclusion of that idea in this opening summary of his message And as one commentators pointed out is the likelihood that Paul had gained a certain reputation for himself Thanks to the efforts of the false teachers which we've seen in the past and that reputation most likely was that he was anti-Old Testament with some people He was anti-Jewish even and all because he refused to obscure the message of God's grace with any hint Of works righteousness and so Paul was misunderstood by many people falsely accused and one of those accusations seems to have been that he was anti-Old Testament And by some at least and so I think Part of that colors his description here a fourth thing to be said about Paul's message is that it was one that was centered on the person Of Jesus Christ That was a message concerning God's son to use the language of the passage and there are two clauses that follow this Concerning the sign in which give us a clue what Paul had mine one of those phrases or clauses is who was descended from David According to the flesh and the other is he was declared to be the son of God in power According to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead Jesus Christ our Lord And without getting bogged down into a great discussion on those phrases Which would be easy to do what I think Paul is doing is this with these phrases He's showing that his message Uh is concerning us on that it's about Jesus Christ and specifically It's about Jesus as The one who was both human and divine. It's about Jesus who was a real life historical descendant of David But it was also the very son of God a fact that was proven and demonstrated powerfully through his resurrection Which declared and announced like a neon sign That Jesus was a descendant of David, but so much more than that No, don't get to hung up on the word in there declared Paul by using that word declared the son of God Paul isn't saying that Jesus wasn't the son of God before his resurrection Paul wasn't saying that it wasn't until after the resurrection that Jesus got the title son of God He was and he always has been and always will be the son of God nobody in debt better in Paul But what Paul is saying is that it was the resurrection That trumpeted his identity in power and that phrase his key there in power Uh, it trumpeted that in power in a way that nothing else had done before The fifth thing to see about Paul's message is that it was one that Left to mark so to speak in his life And was continuing to do so at least three things are seen in in the what Paul says here He says he talks about grace there was the evidence the mark of grace in Paul's life By which I take Paul to mean the experience of God's grace that is the fact and the experience of forgiveness of being Of both being forgiven and knowing that you are forgiven A second evidence with simple fact of as being an apostle, right? I mean Jesus literally struck him down on the road to Damascus drafted him irresistibly into the service of the gospel And a third piece of evidence is found in the phrase obedience of faith Paul said he received grace in the apostleship Purpose clause to bring about the obedience of faith Right this refers I think to at least two things Uh for one thing it's referring to the obedience that is faith Right in other words when a person sees their sin And they see their need for God's mercy And then they trust in what God has done to make him or her right with God when that sort of thing Happens the response of faith is in effect the first act of obedience It's not an obedience by which you say but it's an obedience through which you're saved as Ephesians two puts it Four by grace you have been saved through faith Right Faith is the right and expected response to God's unmerited favor and kindness as can only be seen When the Holy Spirit works to give us eyes and ears to hear and see and embrace the truth The other thing that this refers to is simply the fact that belief in real faith has consequences You know we are saved by faith alone, but that faith Is accompanied by a life that evidences the reality of which you now profess The gospel doesn't just affect the way that we think It affects the way we live The way that you are Jesus didn't die just so that you could clarify your thinking on a number of issues He died to make you holy and to set you apart Let me say that in a better way He died that God might be glorified through the life of Christ made manifest within you The sixth thing to see about Paul's message is its goal or purpose Paul said he received grace in a possible ship to bring about the obedience of faith Why for the sake of his name among all the nations And short the goal of his gospel message ultimately is the glory of God Among the nations There are a lot of nations out there and and the goal is is God's glory in every single one of them So Paul introduces his message and he tells us these six different things. It's of God It was announced by the prophets and it's not new news It's attested in the scriptures It's not an anti-old testament thing, but actually flows right out of it It's centered on Jesus Christ both human and divine both the senate of David and the one through whom the new age of the spirit has been ushered in Through the resurrection. It's a life changing message that will not and cannot leave you alone And finally, it's a message whose goal is nothing less than God being glorified and praised on every square inch of this planet On the lips of every person who has ever lived or ever will live
And one last thing I want you to do with you here this morning in this opening section Is to see that Paul after introducing himself after introducing his message He finishes his introduction by briefly addressing his recipients And I think and so doing encourages them and challenges them by saying By saying through some really short saying some things that are really short, but I think extremely impactful He talks about his calling, but now he wants to talk about their calling specifically verses five to seven there were He says through whom we have received grace and the apostles should to ring about the beans of faith for the sacred his name among all the nations including You who are called to belong to Jesus Christ To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ Paul addresses the Romans as the recipients of this mission into which he's been called and uses three phrases to Describe the situation and standing of the Roman Christians with respect to God He says they're called to belong to Jesus. He says they are loved by God and he says that they are called to be saints Let's think about that second phrase first Paul says that these Roman believers are loved by God And it's a wonderful description What it's a telling description I mean what an identity who who are you And if an answer to the question who are you your answer is I'm loved That's who I am. I'm loved by God
If you have known the privilege of being loved and being loved well And I hope everybody in this room can say that and know that or at least have known that at some point Then you'll know what that kind of thing does and can do to and for a person You'll know the affirmation the worth the security the peace comfort the assurance In the knowledge that you are deeply deeply loved And that you know that there's someone for whom you are never invisible There's someone who has your back. There's someone To whom you matter a great deal and that is God's stance toward his people You are loved by God The more than that it's and it's he stands for the Roman Christians But it's it's his stance toward his people in every age including his people in this room And it's out of that truth of God's prior and abiding and unshakable love for his people which Paul and he's gonna go really Crazy about that in chapter 8 of Romans, but that truth God's prior unshakable love Is woven into very fabric of his calling upon his people and it's seen. I think in these other two phrases that are found here It's what's behind this fascinating expression called to belong to Jesus Christ You don't usually use that kind of language talking about being called to belong To something It's a fascinating phrase and what a beautiful way to think about and talk about the calling that God has for his people. I mean What is God's primary call to his children is the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. It's a call To belong to him It's a call to be possessed by him To be cared for to be embraced To be family There's sort of get into this eternal hug that you never get out of It's not a call to belong to ourselves or another person or a mere institution It's not a call to become the master of your own fate The captain of your ship to thine own self be true. It's a call away from all that It's a call to abandon A futile attempt to construct a universe or to write a narrative for your life that always has you at the center In the starring role and everybody else and everyone else everything else is bit players It's a call to remember that there is a creator That it isn't you That you belong body so hard in mind completely unreservantly to him It's a call to ground who we are the deepest roots of our identity in him That's your calling that's my calling Equally the fact that gods people are deeply loved by him is what is behind I think this other phrase too called to be saints Regarding this one commentator has made the following very helpful observation We sometimes speak of an individual man or woman as a saint or refer to saint Peter or saint Mary or the like This is not a New Testament usage says this writer of that word The word saint is never used of an individual believer It's always plural when used of believers and the plural's points to believers as a group as a community set apart for god And again the term does not communicate the idea of the outstanding ethical achievement which we usually understand by saintness While the importance of right living isn't sisted on and may even be implied by that term It main thrust is not there. It's rather in the notion of belonging to god Of being set apart for him So what's Paul saying? Well, here's what I think he's saying and communicating to these Roman believers by means of these phrases Paul wants the Roman believers to know and remember That they are always loved deeply loved by god Paul wants them to know that this god who has loved them has at least these sort of Too calling is on their life. The one calling is a call to belong to Christ Jesus. That's about identity The other call is a call to be the saints to be set apart for god and that's a calling that has to do with purpose being used by god and so It's as with anything else when you sometimes you're you set something apart Sometimes I go searching for a particular tool in the house or something like that I go through my tool kit and I can't find it and I finally do and I take it out and I set it apart I don't set it apart so that I could just kind of walk around it and admire it I said it apart for a reason there's a use I have in mind for that thing And it's going to be employed in some task in the same kind of way We're set apart a set apart people for god to be employed in his kingdom purposes So we're set apart in terms of belonging we're set apart in terms of purpose and function as well
And that's the sort of thing that comes to mind for me when I think about what Paul is saying here
God's people the Roman Christians are to be a people That are not only set apart in terms of belonging to god, but for god in his purposes greatly loved and intentionally employed by god for his glory
Years ago now Stephen Covey came out with his book seven habits of highly effective people and one of the seven habits was About beginning with the end in mind. I think that was the second habit. I think And and having this kind of blueprint for your life a sense of mission That was pulling you through the present And you know, I think okay, well, it's a good idea. I think actually it's a biblical idea Whether Covey and our Covey Harvey say it intended it that way or not But here was Covey's problem He assumed his readers didn't have a mission already And maybe that's true for some of his readers, but if you're a Christian It's not true Paul says it's not true. He says it explicitly right here the Christian never has to invent a mission statement Not out of the blue. We don't have to make one out of thin air the canvas is not blank for us The screen is not white with nothing written on it Why because we are deeply loved We are called to belong to Jesus. We're called to be saints to be this set apart community useful to god Now do we need to specify that absolutely do we need to customize that to fit the particular Set in collection of things that is us collection of gifts and experiences of gods used to make us absolutely But we never as gods people we never start with a blank page However that looks it's it's to be framed it and shaped by these callings that god has upon us already Wherever we go whatever we do however we think about our lives And however we plan them and live them out we always have to start here This much we know is true that we are deeply loved long to Christ's Call to that and call to be his set apart instruments for glory That truth has to be the umbrella umbrella Under which we work out everything who we are what what where we're going and what we're doing has to be worked out Underneath the umbrella of those truths that's our starting point So let that truth shape you let it shape who you are Let's shape how you see yourself How you plan what you choose where you go and why you go there Grace to you in peace from god our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray
Father heaven please help us now to
Take to heart the truths that are here these things that Paul Encourage the Roman Christians with which are also true for us And pray father that they would have the same sort of effect in our lives As Paul Hoped and intended they would have for the Roman Christians and he wrote these words We pray father that the end of this would be That we do know you better. It will love you more fully are more Desires of pursuing you And being more like your son and Father more convinced of the grace and provision you've made for us in the Lord Jesus And the fact that you were going to finish this thing that you have started So Father, we pray these things in Christ's name we pray say Those are taken up the morning offering will come forward. We'll collect that at this time