Scripture referenced 4 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Psalm 147:1 quoted at the opening as a call to praise God
1 Praise Yah, for it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant and fitting to praise him.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Keep this verse
Acts 22
read aloud to illustrate the two ways of obtaining Roman citizenship, with Paul invoking his birthright citizenship to avoid scourging
1 “Brothers and fathers, listen to the defense which I now make to you.”
2 When they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they were even more quiet. He said,
3 “I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict tradition of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as you all are today.
4 I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.
5 As also the high priest and all the council of the elders testify, from whom also I received letters to the brothers, and traveled to Damascus to bring them also who were there to Jerusalem in bonds to be punished.
6 As I made my journey, and came close to Damascus, about noon, suddenly a great light shone around me from the sky.
7 I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’
8 I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute.’
9 “Those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they didn’t understand the voice of him who spoke to me.
10 I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Arise, and go into Damascus. There you will be told about all things which are appointed for you to do.’
11 When I couldn’t see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus.
12 One Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well reported of by all the Jews who lived in Damascus,
13 came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ In that very hour I looked up at him.
14 He said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice from his mouth.
15 For you will be a witness for him to all men of what you have seen and heard.
16 Now why do you wait? Arise, be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’
17 “When I had returned to Jerusalem, and while I prayed in the temple, I fell into a trance,
18 and saw him saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not receive testimony concerning me from you.’
19 I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue those who believed in you.
20 When the blood of Stephen, your witness, was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting to his death, and guarding the cloaks of those who killed him.’
21 “He said to me, ‘Depart, for I will send you out far from here to the Gentiles.’”
22 They listened to him until he said that; then they lifted up their voice, and said, “Rid the earth of this fellow, for he isn’t fit to live!”
23 As they cried out, and threw off their cloaks, and threw dust into the air,
24 the commanding officer commanded him to be brought into the barracks, ordering him to be examined by scourging, that he might know for what crime they shouted against him like that.
25 When they had tied him up with thongs, Paul asked the centurion who stood by, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman, and not found guilty?”
26 When the centurion heard it, he went to the commanding officer and told him, “Watch what you are about to do, for this man is a Roman!”
27 The commanding officer came and asked him, “Tell me, are you a Roman?” He said, “Yes.”
28 The commanding officer answered, “I bought my citizenship for a great price.” Paul said, “But I was born a Roman.”
29 Immediately those who were about to examine him departed from him, and the commanding officer also was afraid when he realized that he was a Roman, because he had bound him.
30 But on the next day, desiring to know the truth about why he was accused by the Jews, he freed him from the bonds, and commanded the chief priests and all the council to come together, and brought Paul down and set him before them.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Romans 1:1-7
the main text of the sermon, examined as the prescript of the letter
1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Good News of God,
2 which he promised before through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,
3 concerning his Son, who was born of the offspring of David according to the flesh,
4 who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
5 through whom we received grace and apostleship, for obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name’s sake;
6 among whom you are also called to belong to Jesus Christ;
7 to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Romans 15:5
read as a closing benediction about being of one mind to glorify God
5 Now the God of perseverance and of encouragement grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to Christ Jesus,
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Nathan opened a detailed study of Romans 1:1-7, the letter's prescript, walking through the historical background that shapes how we read it and what Paul was actually doing in those opening lines. The sermon stayed close to the text, moving clause by clause through a passage that most readers skim past on the way to the body of the letter. By the end, his point was that the prescript is not throat-clearing. It is the whole book in miniature.
What was said
Before getting into the text, Pastor Nathan laid out a few background matters he had not covered the previous week. Paul wrote Romans from Corinth in the winter of 56-57 AD, near the end of his third missionary journey, and sent it with a woman named Phoebe, who would have traveled a normal shipping route through Corinth to Rome. The audience was a mixed church of Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, and that mix matters. Emperor Claudius had expelled Jewish Christian leaders from Rome around AD 49, and when they filtered back in after 54, they returned to find a Gentile majority running things. Paul is writing into that tension.
He then paused on what a normal first-century letter looked like. A typical prescript was brief: sender, recipient, greeting, done. A standard opening for this letter might have read something like, "Paul to the saints in Rome, greetings." What Paul actually wrote runs on for seven verses before the body of the letter begins, and all of that extra material is about one thing: the gospel of God.
Pastor Nathan argued that "the gospel of God" in verse 1 is best read as God's own good news, not merely good news about God, though grammatically it could be either. Paul is not offering his own message. He is a slave, a bond servant, carrying something that was promised through the prophets, delivered through God's Son, and verified by the resurrection. Every phrase in the prescript is tethered to that claim.
He spent time on the names and titles Paul assigns to Jesus in just these few verses: Christ Jesus, His Son, seed of David according to the flesh, Son of God appointed in power by the resurrection, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Pastor Nathan pointed to a Greek parallelism in the passage, one phrase describing Jesus as fully human, born from the seed of David according to the flesh, and a matching phrase describing him as fully divine, appointed Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness. Paul establishes who Jesus is before he writes a single sentence of argument.
Then comes the reason Paul says he received grace and apostleship: to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, for his name's sake. Pastor Nathan pressed on that phrase. It is not for a scorecard, not to count converts, but because Jesus deserves it. And when Paul says "among whom you also are the called," he is extending that apostleship outward. Anyone who has received the grace of God, Pastor Nathan said, has received the call to carry that message.
The salutation, grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, is where the prescript lands. Pastor Nathan noted that Paul does not take credit for either. He is the scribe, the slave. The grace and the peace come from God through Christ, and Paul is simply the one delivering them. He called this a straight gospel message compressed into a greeting.
He closed by drawing out what he saw as the shape of Paul's example. Paul understood his role, was obedient to it, and knew the message was not his. He always began with grace and peace rather than with argument. Pastor Nathan suggested the same order makes sense for anyone carrying the same message, and that studying Romans as a whole has a history of catalyzing exactly that kind of movement when people take it seriously.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Paul describes himself as a slave of Christ Jesus despite being a highly educated Roman citizen with every reason to claim status. What does it mean to you personally to think of your relationship with Jesus in those terms?
- Pastor Mark pointed out that Paul had been teaching and refining the gospel message for years before writing Romans, and that the letter reads like his core teaching rather than a personal note. How does knowing that context change the way you approach reading Romans?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 7,797 words
0:01
Good morning. Why is it quiet in here?
0:05
It will fill up. It will fill up. But in the meantime, what do you say we stand up? I got a a verse I wanna share. Psalm one forty seven one, how good to sing praise to our God.
0:19
Would you agree? Amen. How delightful and fitting. It is fitting to do this. It is fitting to sing to our God, to give him praise.
0:27
Why? Because he deserves it. We're here to give him honor. We're here to give him glory. We're here to give him praise.
0:33
We're here to meet with him.
0:42
Alright. All creatures of our God and king.
3:07
Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Welcome. Glad that you're here. You know, I've been telling y'all for a while that I'm to trying get away from doing the announcements, trying to get away from doing the announcements and so, we're we put everything in the bulletin.
3:19
They're always in the bulletin but we're going back for old time's sake and just doing the ridiculous session this morning. Connect hour happens. After this hour, so the 10:00 hour, you can connect around coffees and donut and fellowship hall. That's connecting the two services. 10:00 to eleven is connect hour.
3:36
Monday nights, we have Awana in this room. That's why we have this big old circle in the middle. That's a game circle for Awana. Kids matter to God that happens on Mondays at 06:00. Same time as Monday nights at first B where Carl, raise your hand, Carl.
3:51
Carl's the pastor of the little church plant on training wheels that meets here. Meal music and a message every Monday night and that's fun fun and fantastic. That's where I go to church and it's Philippians two or three.
4:04
Philippians three.
4:05
Philippians three this week. Fantastic. Men's fraternity meets at 06:00AM. That's in the morning. On Wednesdays, every morning, I do not go to that meeting but I bless you if you do.
4:16
I do sometimes show up for the seven: 3zero am prayer meeting. That's every Wednesday morning and that's a faithful group that meets year round no matter whether men's fraternity or women's groups are meeting on Wednesdays. That prayer group is always meeting. Seven: 3zero am every Wednesday. This time around, the ladies Bible study on Wednesdays at 11:45 is children of the day.
4:37
It's a Beth Moore study covering first and second Thessalonians and that had had gotten off to a pretty good start last week. More introductory than anything else. So, if you want to be a part of that, ladies, come on. Allen Galbreath has a minute to win it. This is Allen Galbreath right here.
4:56
Here you go.
4:57
Hey, we're we're... We got the same sweaters on. We're gonna have to coordinate a little more on this. I'm here to remind you, those of you that may have come and those of you that maybe didn't come that 06:30 Wednesday evening will be the second session of Genesis Phobia. Brad Cummings got us off to a great start last week.
5:21
Well, I've got the message this week, message if you wanna call it that. And the topics are going to be radioactive decay, radiometric dating, radiocarbon. And why is this topic important? Well, there's supposedly a very sophisticated radioactive decay method of dating rocks. That is telling how old they are.
5:46
And that's where you get where most of the ideas of millions and billions of years come from. So if you want to hear more about this, this let's say is an alleged method. And we're going to explore and see perhaps where the assumptions may not hold up. See you Wednesday evening at 06:30.
6:05
Thank you. Thank you very much. Is that a meal? That's a that's just right. Perfect.
6:10
So, thank you, Allen. Preset Bible study. So, that's Wednesday night, 06:30. Preset Bible study every week at Thursdays at 09:00 sharp and bring you sharp colored pencils, ladies. That's something that Jane Cranenberg runs and it's interpreting scripture with scripture.
6:26
Really good. Middle schoolers, Solid Rock, 06:30 on Thursdays. Is there a word from the back?
6:32
This Thursday, we are going ice skating at Town Square. So, bring your ice skates. If you don't have ice skates, we can wrench you some.
6:38
Ice skates and elbow pads.
6:40
We're going to meet here first and then we'll grab some food and then we'll head over there.
6:43
So. Alright. Sounds good. Risk guards too. High school breakfast this Friday morning at 07:30.
6:50
So, if you want to get together around all those things up there, pancakes, bagels, Cheerios, Renzy, Mike D, Bailey, Jesus. Then, come on to the Friday morning high school breakfast at 07:30. We've got a men's snowmobile retreat coming up February 19 through the twenty first. There is tons of snow in Island Park, Idaho and that's where we're going. Old Faithful Christian Ranch.
7:12
So, if you're waiting for a good snow year to go, this is it. If you want information, you can call Kyle Knutson or you can see that go over there. Would you stand up just a second? That's Kyle Knutson. He knows all the information.
7:26
There are sign up sheets in the back and inside of every bulletin there is a registration form. First B Talent Show. Oh my goodness. This one's fun for the whole family. A lot of times we have men's this, women's that, children so and so, left handed people's this and that.
7:44
You know, fun for the whole family. This is one that should be a riot. So, Saturday, February 13 at 6PM. If you would like to help putting it together like getting everything ready, tearing down after it's over, then, see Renzi. This is one of his many talents.
8:02
Jackalope Rustling. If you are a mom or a singer or a tap dancer or a plate spinner or a dram... Dramatic artist, this is the place for you to shine. Okay? If you would like to perform in this show, see Renzi.
8:18
Renzi, not Carl. Renzi. Okay? First B Talent Show, February 16, 6PM. See Renzi.
8:29
Everybody, who do we see? Ray? See Renzi. Alright. You can get in touch with him at First B Jackson dot org.
8:37
I feel ridiculous up here. Right now, media. Does anybody know what this is? Right now, media is kinda like the Christian Netflix. It's great.
8:44
If you come to church here, you can access this for free. It doesn't cost like Netflix but let us know. We'll sign your Email up. You can sign on anytime and watch Bible studies or movies or cartoons or whatever and it's really good and speaking of Christian movies, this one is happening Saturday, January 30. So, that's next Saturday night at 6PM at River Crossing.
9:05
I know next to nothing about it but it's about the people who kind of got a cowboy church started somewhere out here in the West. I trust that it's going to be good. Alright? I think that's it. Check your bulletin for everything else.
9:18
Now, would you stand up and give somebody a high five, a hug, or a handshake, or a holy kiss if you're willing. Bye.
10:17
Standing on of my savior. Standing standing on the promises of God. Standing on the God, my savior. Standing standing on the promises of God. Promises Standing on the promises of God.
11:31
Standing standing standing on the promises of God my savior. Standing. Standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises I cannot fall. Listening every moment to the spirit's call, resting in my savior as my own hand.
12:05
Standing on the promises of God. I'm loved by you.
16:52
God, we wanna pause just for a moment to thank you for for your love. There's nothing that we can do to change that. And so can we rest in that and meditate on it, meditate on you, this good and and and perfect father. And, even though we don't always understand your ways, we do know that you're working out a plan. You're refining us and you're shaping us and you're molding us, and you're preparing us for heaven.
17:20
And, Lord, we don't often think about, glory and the things of the things of eternity, but I do pray that you would set our our minds and our hearts on it because we have just a short amount of time here. Just a short amount and then all of eternity and, boy, how great it is to get to know you right now. And, God, I thank you for your word. Your words bring life. And as we sing this, I pray that the the words of this song, we would just rest on and we would meditate on.
17:53
And in the process, just spend time with you, our good and perfect father. Amen.
18:20
We'll sing, let me hear your words. Let me hear your words above all in this room. For your words bring life, for your words bring life, and your voice gonna
20:05
words give us life. Let's sing it out
20:07
in the chorus.
21:53
Amen. You can be seated and ask the frontline team to come forward here as we participate in the worship through giving and let's pray. God, I I just got the the temporary and the eternal on my brain and the things that we are living for. And I pray, God, that you would give us that desire, that deep deep down in our gut kind of desire to think about the things not just now but eternally. Think about the things that will last.
22:23
There's so much of the things that we do during the day, during the week, or whatever that they're they're just for the here, the for the now, and they're very temporary and yet we get so fixed on them and I pray God that you would shift our attention and our focus to the things that are eternal, the things that will last and as we open up your word as we get into it, that we'd say, these are the things that will last forever. These are the things that matter most. I thank you God for every gift that you give. I pray that we would see finances and everything that we get as a gift from you not to to hold with a with a closed hand but rather an open hand to you. For you are good.
23:06
And you can use these things. God you can use these resources to reach people. And I pray that you would do that. And you'd bless the gift and the giver in Christ's name. Amen.
27:29
Be still my soul. That's a great song. Alright. Children are dismissed for Peak Children's Church downstairs. I love that.
27:41
They squirm their ways out. I'm looking up words to that last song, sorry. It struck me right at the very end because we're right here on the front side of Romans. Be still my soul. The Lord is on thy side.
28:05
Bear patiently the cross of grief. Leave to thy God to order and provide. In every change, he faithful will remain. Be still my soul, thy best, thy heavenly friend, through thorny ways leads to a joyful end. I just thought, man, it's not when you sing a lot but you hear a lot.
28:25
Be still my soul. That's great. Alright. So, Romans, finally, here we are. Last week, I did kind of an introductory sermon on Romans.
28:35
Actually, it ended up being mostly an introductory talk on Paul. Just Paul because the first word in Romans is Paul and so we went into who he was, where he's from, and all that sort of stuff. It was a real slack Sunday because of the weekend. It helped, you know, holiday weekend. I've got a few more introductory matters I want to discuss with you and then we'll dig right in.
28:53
Starting in verse one. So, I'm overlapping with last week just a little bit but I want you to kind of get this. Introductory matters. It makes a difference. The author is the apostle Paul.
29:04
He mentions later on that Tertius is his amanuensis, which is like a scribe. He's a secretary, someone to write down. It's a little more than just the guy he dictated to. A lot of times, they would have stylistic elements or control. So, Tertius may have had more to do with this than than you might imagine in our day and age but the apostle Paul definitely wrote it.
29:26
It's definitely the gospel as Jesus revealed it to him. The apostle Paul's author, the date is winter of fifty six, fifty seven AD. It sounds mighty specific to us looking back over two thousand years but it was nineteen hundred years before this beauty rolled off the assembly line. Winter fifty six, fifty seven AD, near the end of the third missionary journey, we have dates. We know when this happened exactly.
29:51
It it has a real place in history, significance. We know it. Next, it's from Corinth and while Paul, you know, we've been in second Corinthians for a long Paul, while he did finally make it down to Corinth, he wrote this letter and he sent it with a lady named Phoebe and Phoebe carried it to Rome. Actually, if you look at the map there, Corinth being right here on this little isthmus. Quickest way to get from Asia, what they called it, to Rome was to go through Corinth anyway, it was a normal shipping route, it was a normal route to get from one to another, but from Corinth to Rome with Phoebe.
30:27
The audience. These people dispute from time to time who it was and how it was and exactly how things laid out. I think it's fairly obvious from the context. If you read it. Now, last week, the whole sermon was designed to get you to read Romans.
30:40
How many of y'all read Romans? I I have had a bunch of you come up to me and say, I read all 15 pages and I had to resist stopping and doing my concordant search and everything else. I just read it straight through. Doesn't it help to have context? When you read it straight through, it'll help because I'll pick the thing apart here but if you're looking at it and you're gaining context the whole time, we'll get the details hopefully here but if you'll read it, it's about 15 pages long and it it's good.
31:07
It's really good. It will not disappoint. So, the audience was the church at Rome. God's body, Christ's body at Rome which was a mixed group, Jewish Christian and Gentile Christian and there's a big difference between Jewish Christian and Gentile Christian at that time in history. There still kind of is.
31:26
Have any of y'all been around messianic Jewish communities that are Christians but they have a very Jewish flavor? Yes, I have two. We have a couple of em in church here with us. I want to see a little bit about the historical background. I mentioned it in passing yesterday but I looked up the dates and tried to find the history so I could be sure this week.
31:47
In 8049, most people agree. Emperor Claudius expelled Jewish Christian leaders from Rome. Now, those were primarily Christian Jewish leaders because the gospel was growing so fast in Rome and these were the guys that were in charge. They were the instigators under Crestus. We have one of our historians tells us.
32:06
So, emperor Claudia says, there are too much trouble, get the hints, y'all get out of here. Not going to have this kind of trouble. So, he thought he could quash it by getting rid of the leaders and he sent the Jewish Christian leaders away from Rome. Now, we know that. Paul tells us that in Corinthians, he met Aquila and Priscilla.
32:23
They were two of those leaders who had been kicked out of Rome and we've seen a couple other examples of it in history and in the Bible. So, after 8054, leaders filtered back in because Claudius was no longer in power and so, they find a Gentile Christian majority at their church. Have you ever gone on an extended vacation? Maybe moved away to college and when you came back, oh my goodness, the preacher's different and the carpet's different, the drapes are different, everything's different and it's not the way we grew up, my brother says. It ain't the way it ought to be.
32:53
They shouldn't let that boy take up offering. He's too young. That's my brother, okay? He done, he wants it the way it was when we were little. Paul is writing in about 5650, well, fifty six, fifty seven AD near near the end of this journey and if you looked up in history, all of this.
33:09
So, Acts 18 tells us this but Suetonius tells us, Cassius Dio, Paulus, Orosius, five in the fifth century tells us too and Josephus tells us about it. That's what happened and so, I think that once you know that and you're reading it and you're seeing stronger brother, weaker brother, there are some cultural differences but we need to get along. It looks like mixed church, okay? So, a couple of quick clarifications. I might skip through some of these.
33:35
Roman citizenship, I said last week over and over that Paul wanted to go to Rome but he had never been there but he was a Roman citizen. That is to me, I I don't think that that's a hard one but I said it enough times that it confused enough of you that you asked me. I'm gonna do this. In the first century, there were two ways that you could get Roman citizenship. It's kinda like getting an American passport today.
33:57
You can either be born here and you're an American, no matter what. If you're born on American soil, right, you're an American. Or you can pay a large sum of money and you go through the proper tramming phase. You go through the proper stuff and you can eventually become an American citizen. Can I get an amen from the front row?
34:13
Amen. So, alright. Paul was born in Tarsus which was a free city because he was born in Tarsus, he was a Roman citizen. Period. Even though that's not Rome, it was within the empire of Rome but many people went through a citizenship process and paid a large sum of money.
34:32
So, if you look at Acts 22, very quickly, Imma read it straight through and as they were crying out and throwing off their cloaks and tossing dust in there, this is the middle of a riot. The commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks. That's Paul. Stating that he should be examined by scourging. That's the way you examine people.
34:48
Scourge them. He should be tortured. Paul, so that he might find out what the reason was that they were shouting against him in that way but when they stretched him out on thongs, Paul said to the centurion, he didn't scream it, he said it. To the centurion who was standing by, is it lawful for you to scourge a man who's a Roman? And not condemned?
35:08
When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and told him, what are you, what, what are you about to do? For this is a Roman. The commander came and said to him, tell me, are you a Roman? And he said, yes. The commander answered, I acquired this citizenship with a large sum of money.
35:25
And Paul said, but I was born a citizen. Therefore, those who are about to examine him immediately let go of him and the commander also was afraid when he found out that he was a Roman because there there are stiff penalties for beating a Roman without him having been condemned and because he was the one that had put him in chains. So, his citizenship which he had acquired with a large sum of money was put into peril because he was beating another Roman citizen. So, that covers both right there. Now, last week, Romans one one, Paul, a bond servant of Christ, a slave of Christ.
35:59
Paul, smart as he is and having all the background that he does and being brilliant in the ways of the Greeks and in the ways of the Jews, calls himself a slave of Christ Jesus. Called as an apostle. That is someone who carries the message of Christ. Set apart for the gospel of God. Now, the closing thing that I said last week was the gospel of God and I said, this could be either subjective or objective and when I said, which is it?
36:27
In this service, I said, yes. It can be both grammatically. That's that's the option but the gospel of God is where I was going. Now, we're up to where we want to start for this week. Here we go.
36:41
Okay, prescripts of a letter. Nowadays, we normally say, dear so and so and then when we sign off, it says, love so and so, right? That's the way it is. It's prescript and it's post script. It's it is not the body of the letter.
36:54
That's the way we do things. In the first century, it might look something like this. Artemis, Cicerone, Advocatus, Salutum Dicket, whatever, s d. That is Artemis to Cicero, the lawyer, greetings. That's it.
37:15
So an illustrated one might look something like this, Bob, the builder, too dizzy, the cement mixer, greetings. Okay, that's a normal, very simple letter prescript, preschool prescript. I didn't know that till just now, I'm proud of myself. Letters at the time typically were very short. In fact, lots times paper was sold on a roll, if you were gonna do an extended treatise, you might buy a roll or part of a roll, but usually they bit off just a piece enough for front side letter, like a business letter nowadays, keep it short, keep it simple, Get to the point.
37:54
Letters at the time typically pretty short. We're in Romans. It's the longest book outside of the gospels in the Bible. It's written to a specific set of people by a specific person. Sorry.
38:07
Bob the builder, the busy the cementments or greetings. Can we fix it? Yes, we can. Farewell, Bob. That's the short letter.
38:15
So, a typical prescript for Romans should look something like this. Paul to the saints in Rome because there's not one specific person, greetings. That would be very normal and that would have been fine. He could've started the letter right there but what the prescript of Romans actually looks like, oh sorry, Paul the sender, saints recipient, salutation is greetings but the prescript of Romans actually looks like this. That's longer than most first century letters.
38:46
So, Paul, a bond servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. That's about the sender. When he says, our lord, that brings himself into it and we have received grace and apostleship that brings himself into it. So, I'll give him that. That's the sender information of this prescript.
39:06
The recipient information, maybe the you also but all of those who are beloved of God in Rome called saints, grace to you. So, that's the recipient information. But look at all the rest of that stuff. That's everything else. What is that all about?
39:25
I mean, literally, what is that all about? What's all the extra stuff? The extra stuff is all about that. The gospel of God. Now, last week, I said it grammatically.
39:34
It could be either the gospel of God could be God's good news or it could be the good news about God. Make sense? And it can be grammatically but once you read Romans, you know, it's God's gospel. Paul is carrying the message of God's gospel, God's good news. So, look at this, the gospel of God.
40:01
Subjective is God good God's good news. Objective is the good news about God. That's the one, not that one. Kinda like the Renzi and Carl slide, okay? Talk to Renzi about the talent show, not Carl.
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God's good news. So, God's good news which he promised. So, God's good news. He made the promise ahead of time. Through his prophets, okay?
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So, everything is as it's related to God. God's good news, he promised, he used his prophets, he used his son, that is the good news. Who was declared the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead? That's the big part of the gospel, right? According to the spirit of holiness, brings the Holy Spirit into the picture.
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Jesus Christ, our lord. No doubt about the divinity of Christ in this letter. He's starting in the prescript to tell you all about it. Through whom we have received grace and apostleship, for his name's sake, whose gospel is it? It's God's gospel.
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Of Jesus Christ. Now, Christ is a messianic term, the chosen one. There's no doubt about this and he repeats it over and over. From God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He equates him with God.
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There's no doubt about a what we would call nowadays a high Christology. You cannot argue that Romans is just about how to live a better life. No. It's about the gospel. The good news of Jesus Christ.
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Paul is pointing them towards it from the very beginning. I want to say right here, in the holy scriptures is the holy scriptures, the, meaning, it's limited. It's not every single holy book that anybody holds as holy but the holy scriptures are the ones that are the Torah and the prophets to Paul at that time and then, this letter becomes a part of that canon. Now, the holy scriptures, this is the only time Paul ever uses that phrase ever but he's saying, I'm going to base everything that I say on what it says and he does. Throughout Romans, he does.
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He's got lots and lots of references to the Old Testament and I would say that we know he had been spending much time four, five hours a day when he was in Ephesus, four, five hours a day when he was in Corinth and at different places, he's spending hours and hours and hours teaching. He has been now a Christian for twenty two years. He's been on mission for like ten, eleven years where he's actually rolling and tumbling and meeting new crowds of people and having to hone his message over and over. Marty and I talked about this before. I used to do safety meetings for thirty minutes safety meetings and I would do sometimes and I mean it, 13 of em in a day.
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13 in a day or thirty minute meetings. Some of em, it was one in English, one in Spanish, one in English, one in Spanish all day long and by the time I got through with that, I knew that message. You know what I'm saying? I knew exactly. Paul's letter to the Romans is not as personal as any of his other letters.
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It is his teaching. What it is that he teaches when he's teaching people about God's gospel. So, here we go. In the holy scriptures, Paul knows him and he's taught him for years and years and he knows what it's like because he sees it, work. That's the best thing for me to see that when you present people with the gospel, the gospel works.
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It's not about how I say it. It's about what it says. Okay. So, this is just a prescript. Who is this letter going to be about?
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All of that blue and the first part, all that yellow and the second part. This letter is about Jesus. It's going to be about Jesus from the beginning to the end. Although, it does talk about theology and practical living on earth and it doesn't mention Jesus in every verse all the time but the whole thing's about Jesus. From bookend to bookend, it's all about Christ.
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This is very obvious in the Greek depending on your American English translation or even Spanish translation. It might not be as obvious but the Greek for this next little section is cool. I think it's fun. So I'm gonna mention it to you. And I have the English right there.
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But if you look at this, two, ganamenu, two, Oristetan, or Oristentas, those are two participles, and down here, Kata Sarkar, according to the flesh or Kata Neuma, according to the spirit, it's the Kata Kata, the two two, and then this one in the middle is ek and in, which is out of and in or out and in. So, it looks something like this. That and that kind of translate over. Having come into being as and having been appointed as and so there's a parallelism there which I'll explain in a minute and then according to the flesh and according to the spirit, that's pretty obvious and Romans deals a lot with according to the flesh and according to the spirit. That's a that's a big component of the book part, the main body of this letter but this is just great.
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The out of and into, out of seed, and in power. Who's this letter going to be about? Jesus. Check this out. These are the names that are given just in this prescript, just in the prescript.
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I say there's a high Christology. Christ Jesus. When he says Christ, that means Messiah. For all of the Jewish listeners in Rome, Christ Jesus, Messiah. I'm calling him the Messiah.
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Don't be confused about it. He wasn't just pointing to somebody else. I mean it. He's the Messiah. Next, he says, his son but the his refers to God.
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God's gospel, his son. Next, seed of David according to the flesh. So, he's he's right in line. According to all the Jews, they knew the Messiah was going to come from the line of David. So, this is him.
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Next, also appointed son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, by the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, our lord. So, now, he's saying, Jesus Christ, our lord, bringing them together around what? The messy, the messiahship of Jesus and then, he ends it by saying, the definite article. The Lord, Jesus Christ.
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That's a very, very high Christological opening for a letter. Jesus. He deals with his humanity and his divinity in the opening prescript. Humanity, who was begotten. This is the same translation of the Greek I was saying a minute ago.
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The humanity part was who was begotten from the seed of David according to the flesh and if you look at that, parallelism, who was appointed the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness from the resurrection of the dead. He's saying, Jesus is fully human and knows what it's like to be you And Jesus is fully divine and he knows what it's like to be God. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life and Paul so eloquently lays that out there for us.
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So, so far, we've only gotten up through four verses. Paul, a bond servant, a slave, Dulos, a slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. Do you think Paul knows his job? Paul understands his role very well. He knows that everything he ever was before he met Jesus makes sense now and he's utilizing everything that God has gifted him with to be his slave.
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Called out, set apart for God's gospel. Not the one that I'm not just the one I'm preaching. This is God's gospel and I'm giving it to you as best I can undiluted. Which he promised beforehand and I'm going to prove it by his word in the holy scriptures concerning his son who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh who has declared the son of God with power. The declared or appointed, the word there is kind of kind of difficult and if you sit and try to dwell on this, was he declared the son of God by his resurrection from the dead?
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Or had he always been? Well, he had always been but if you want to get really toky about it, Jesus kind of covered that. When somebody questioned him about his identity as the son of God, he pointed back to David and said, how can he say, my son says to his son, come and sit upon my throne. Do you do you know what I'm talking about? Anyway, Psalm 64, I think.
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Anyway, he was declared the son of God with power by direction for resurrection from the dead. He was verified for all to see by the resurrection from the dead. It was a seal that God put on this guy, Jesus, Christ because he raised from the dead. According to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our lord. Now, the gospel of God and all of that is about the gospel of God.
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The ending down here that I've underlined Jesus Christ our lord, I ended right there because everything in this book, it's amazing how it's linked together. Every clause seems to be holding hands with the clause in front of it and it's like that chapter after chapter. Some of the sentences are ridiculous run ons. They go on and on and on. Fourteen, fifteen lines of text and they there hasn't been a period yet because there's so many different clauses.
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Well, look at this, who was declared the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ, our lord. Through whom? Do you see what I'm saying? It just keeps on going because Paul, he has he has figured this and figured this and figured this for so long that it's hard to leave anything out. You ever go to the Bar J at the very beginning of the summer?
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Shows this long. If any joke works, they keep it. You go about halfway through the summer, the show's this long. Then they get frustrated with each other and it gets to be this long again because it's every single night. Right?
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Paul has taught this and taught this and taught this. He said, I can't leave that out. I can't leave that out. I gotta put that in. That makes difference right there.
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This is just the prescript. Now, he'll cover all of this again in much more detail. Jesus Christ, our lord, through whom we have received grace. Praise God. Put a period right there for a minute.
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The only way to receive grace is through Jesus Christ salvation that he offers. Through his atoning sacrifice that he made, no one else could make it. He made it. He made it and he offers that grace of him having done something he did not have to do. He offers his perfect righteousness since he paid the debt for sin to everyone who accepts it.
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To all who would believe, to whosoever, okay? So, Jesus Christ our lord, through whom we have received grace, amen. And apostleship. Now, when he received the grace of God, it made everything make sense. He knew that he was a sinner.
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He knew that everybody was a sinner. He knew his Bible. All have fallen short, right? There is no one who seeks after God. A lot of different Psalms point to our separatedness from God, our sinful selves.
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Through whom we have received grace, through Jesus, we receive grace. And apostleship, it's immediate for him. Because I've received grace, I carry that message and I'm going to broadcast it to everyone. Everyone. Why?
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Wait a second. I made a I made a name visual. Here we go. Jesus Christ our lord through whom we have received what? Grace and apostleship.
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It only comes through him. Grace is unmerited favor. You've done nothing to deserve God's love. Yet, he loves you. He wants to give that to you.
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He's made a way. Grace is the unmerited favor of God available through Jesus Christ and then apostleship. That is being put in the position of being a messenger or an ambassador. So, that's what Paul says, we have received. Now, it could just mean Paul and his running buddies.
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He could be speaking in the royal we, I suppose but he could be Paul and Tertius and Luke and all the rest of his running buddies. I think he's actually extending it to this church at Rome. He's already said they were, you know, that we'll see in a minute there that they're saints. He knows that the beloved of God. He's extending that to anyone who has received the grace of God has received apostleship to tell others about it.
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So, why? Why is it that we've received grace and why is it we've received apostleship? This is what Paul says. To bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for his name's sake. For his name's sake.
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What's the chief end of man? Any Presbyterians in here? Love John. Enjoy God and glorify him forever, right? For his name's sake, his name represents everything that he is.
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Jesus's name represents everything Jesus is. The savior, the messiah, Christ Jesus, the Lord, the one who offers love and forgiveness. The love and forgiveness of God. He says that we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith. Just what Carl said a little while ago.
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Why? Because he deserves glory because he deserves our devotion. He observe, he deserves our obedience and so Paul says that I'm loving this and I'm going to spread this message to bring about the obedience that comes with faith. Now, in verse sixteen seventeen, he goes on and says, he's not ashamed of the gospel because it brings salvation to all who believe but next to that, he said, for the just shall live by faith. Living by faith.
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Paul says, I'm doing this to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles. Now, Gentiles means the nations. We can see it as Jewish and then everybody else. That's great but it's the nations. For his name's sake, Jesus asked, Jesus commanded, better put.
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Jesus commanded for us to go into all the nations, okay? Paul says, to bring about obedience of faith among all the nations. For his name's sake, because he deserves it. And then he says, among whom you are all the also all the called. So I said, when he said, we up there could be just Paul, could be his running buddies.
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I think he's extending it. Everybody, this is why I think he's extending it to everybody. Because he says, among whom you also are the called of Jesus. You're called to apostleship to whom? The nations.
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Are you with me? For everyone of us who has believed in Jesus and experienced his grace, we are a carrier of that and we should be carrying that forth. Joyfully. Paul is doing it joyfully. You also, people, Ray, are the called of Jesus Christ.
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Praise God. We get to be in that group. Amen. To all who are beloved of God in Rome. Oh, now he's getting to the recipients.
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To all who are the beloved of God in Rome and that is a wide open thing. Now, it's not to just to those who know it right now. No. He's assuming that God loves lots and lots of people of of Rome and he's equipped lots and lots of messengers to carry the message and Paul is going to refine their message, give em a way of presenting things over the next 14 pages or so. To all who are beloved of God in Rome, called saints or called as saints.
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That's the recipients of this letter. And then he gets to the greetings part. Okay, this is the salutation. Grace and peace. From God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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So, it's not just from Paul. He has expanded and let you know, I, Paul, am the amanuensis. I am the scribe for God in this circumstance. I'm his slave. He has put it on my heart to write this to you.
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Grace to you and peace. What does God offer? He offers grace. All of us have sin. There's no way for us to pay for it.
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So, God offers love and forgiveness, grace through Jesus, and that brings peace. Peace that passes understanding and who's it from? Paul's not going to take credit for it. God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise God.
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This is a straight up gospel message. Jesus Christ, our lord, through whom we've received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles. For his name's sake, not for my scorecard, Paul or Ray or anybody. Not so I can count how many have come. No.
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For his name's sake, among whom you are also the called of Jesus Christ, to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called the saints, grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That's Romans. That's the whole book of Romans encapsulated in seven verses but it's got lots and lots of things and and I'm looking forward to sharing everyone of em. Now, we're going get some bad news before we get to the good news. The bad news is coming in two weeks.
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Next week is still good news. So, come on back. It's about God's good news. All of it is and his good news is about Jesus. Christ Jesus, the Messiah, the only one, anointed one, is the only one who could die for a payment for sin for somebody else because he had no sin of his own.
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He's offering that to whosoever would believe it. If you are here today and you are absolutely destitute, have tried everything. The only thing that works is Jesus. His atonement and putting that into words sometimes is confusing and brings it down. It sounds incredibly trite.
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You've been hearing it for years and not believing it. It works though. It does. Anybody here that can witness that? Amen.
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Me too. Alright. So, like I said, this is a bookend. It's gonna hold up the books. The rest of the bad news, the good news, the the actual reality of how this functions, the way that we should play it out among one another, all of the different concepts are held between these two bookends of the prescript and the closing benediction that I read to y'all as a benediction last week.
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We're that far along right now, okay? We're just right there. Paul mattered and still matters today because he understood his role. He played it well. He would probably say, not perfectly.
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I didn't play it perfectly but he understood his role and he was always doing everything he did. He says, multiple times for the gospel. Paul mattered because he understood his role. He wrote to others out of obedience to Christ. Now, he had the the theological acumen and the intelligence to be able to do that in ways that not all of us do but he wrote to others out of obedience to Christ.
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That's why God used him. And since it really is all about Jesus, he carried and transmitted God's good news. He knew it wasn't all about Paul. Even when he's defending himself for several chapters in Corinthians, he's defending himself because he knows where he has derived his authority and because he had received grace and apostleship, he always began with grace and peace. I think that's very helpful.
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To be winsome, you can't start off with your argument, people. With your, you're wrong because. I don't know. Maybe God's wired some of you that way. You're irritating if he did.
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So, okay. So, what's the prescription from the prescript of Rome? That was mean. I'm sorry. I apologize.
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What's the prescription from the prescript of Romans? I would say, seek to understand your role and if that is being combative in a polite, nice way but if it is to to seek to understand your role, seek to understand your role. Look for what it is that God would have you do as it concerns his gospel. Next is be obedient to Christ. Be obedient to Christ.
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Whatever it is that he shows you that you are to do. And since it really is all about Jesus, carry and transmit that good news. God's good news. And if you have received grace and therefore, apostleship. If you've received grace, I believe you received apostleship.
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You carry the message of God's good news with you. You may have to come up with some creative ways to share it in the place where you are and you may have to look for opportunities all the time but if you are a carrier of grace and peace, it's going to come out. Always begin with grace and peace. It might get to a place where it's more. Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?
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Okay? But start out with grace and peace. I think that's it. I saw the light. Praise God.
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Would y'all stand with us as we sing? And would you pray to that God would just use this study of Romans to do what it does when people really get serious about God and study his word. It catalyzes movements. It brings people together in his name. In Jesus name, amen.
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Amen. And we're going to the opposite end of Romans again in fifteen five. It says, now, may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus so that with one accord, you may with one voice, glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.
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Amen.
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