ROMANS - INTRODUCTION
Pastor Carolyn Sissom \ September 9th, 2009 (6702 views)
ROMANS - Introduction
Preached by: Carolyn SissomSunday, September 13, 2009 THE GRAND THEME OF ROMANS: JESUS CHRIST: 1:16: “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” “Power here is the dunamis power of God, inherent power; the ability to reproduce itself, like a dynamo” (Dake’s) It is God’s Power to:
- Produce the new birth (1 Pet. 1:23)
- Give salvation (1:16; Eph. 1:13)
- Impart grace (Acts 20:24)
- establish in the faith (Rom. 16:25)
- Generate faith (Rom. 10:17)
- Set free (Jn. 8: 31-36)
- Nourish spiritual life ( 1 Pet. 2:2)
- Cleanse the church (Eph. 5:26)
- Search the life (Heb. 4:12)
- Make partakers of Christ (Eph. 3:6)
- Impart immortality (2 Tim. 1:10)
- Bring peace (Rom. 10:15)
- Give Protection ( Eph. 6:17)
- Give fullness of blessings (Rom. 15:29)
Why is the Lord calling us to a study of Romans? I am excited to find out. Perhaps it is because of the dangerous pressures of the day we live in. If one can master the first eight chapters of Romans, it will equip you to meet all of the dangers of our present day. Is there another call from the Mountain to “come up hither?”
On the mountain top of Chapter Eight, one can see in to the Third Heaven. From that vista, as overcomers, we can see heavenly things with eyes like eagles. These overcomers hear the trumpet sound, “Come up hither”. Once you have ascended into the hill of the Lord, “come hither!” (Rev. 21:9).
God made this call in the 70’s and a prophetic people arose. We left where we were. Our churches didn’t understand. Our families thought we were going too far. We didn’t know there were more of us who heard the call until we met them on the mountain. We were looking for invisible things, (2 Cor. 4:17-18), the eternal things of the Spirit. There is a faith-walk in the Spirit for the overcomer, for: “There is a path which no fowl knows, and which the vulture’s eye has not seen: The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.” (Job. 18: 7-8)Many Christians ignorant of what redemption really means, are easily moved by the teachings of the false cults. The responsibility of the ministers of the Gospel never changes. We are to use the Word of God to war against the spirit of the age. When the Lord calls, we are to make a people ready. There is surely another call for those who will make the journey. Paul had already made the journey, the Book of Romans calls the Roman church to “come up higher.”The Lord desires a corporate body of overcomers. A harvest is coming in. To those of you who are skeptics of modern prophets, in Romans there are 29 verses of fulfilled prophecies and 16 verses of unfulfilled prophecies. However, I don’t think anyone would accuse Paul of being a false prophet. INTRODUCTION Romans was written by Paul from Corinth about 58-60 A.D. and sent to Rome which was 1000 miles away. It wasn’t easy to mail a letter in Paul’s day. To get a letter to a person, you had to hire a messenger or trust it to someone who happened to be going that way. How would Paul get it to Rome? The Lord provided him with a mail-woman. Her name was Phoebe. She was a wealthy lady who belonged to the church at Cenchrea which was nine miles from where Paul was writing. God chose a woman to bear one of the world’s most valuable documents to the capitol of the empire. Today this document is considered to be, “The most profound piece of writing in existence.” Martin Luther called Paul’s letter to the Romans the “chief book of the New Testament” and the one with the purest gospel. There would be no way to put a price on its value today. Surely Phoebe had no way of knowing the value of that scroll she carried under her robe. All she knew was that the leather bundle was to be delivered to the saints in Rome. She got it there safely. Because she did, we have in existence the clearest and fullest statement on the doctrine of sin and salvation available today. When the Holy Spirit was directing the New Testament to be put together, He had this letter placed first in order of Paul’s writings, even though it was the sixth in his series of letters. He is dictating this to Tertius. The writing of it would be a slow and painstaking task. C. S. Lovett describes it as writing on the back of a flattened out Venetian blind. When finished this document contained the finest thinking the great mind of the apostle could produce. It was the most brilliant thing he had every done. We know it was written under the unction of the Holy Ghost. Who started the church at Rome? We don’t know. Most scholars are convinced it was begun by Jews who traveled from Rome to attend that great feast of Pentecost at Jerusalem. Many of them were saved that day the Holy Spirit descended to indwell the believers. They returned to Rome, but they continued to worship in the synagogues. They made no attempt to start a Christian church. Why not? They were all Jews and proselytes. By proselytes, we mean those Gentiles who had forsaken their heathen gods and embraced Judaism. Those Jews and proselytes were born again, no question about that. But they saw nothing wrong with worshipping the Lord alongside the orthodox Jews. They continued to observe all the ancient customs and rites of Judaism. To them Jesus was the Savior of the Jews. They had not yet seen Him as the Savior of the world. At the time this letter was written, the majority of the Christians as Romeseem to have been Gentiles, though the Jews also constituted a sizable minority. (Rom. 15: 7, 8). The Gentiles gradually took over the ascendancy when Emperor Claudius expelled all Jews from Rome. For a long time, Paul had his eye on Rome. Since it was the center of the Gentile world, it was the natural center for world-wide Christianity. If the Great Commission was to be fulfilled on a world-wide basis, then the capitol of the world would have to be taken for Jesus. The apostles saw this as the proper fulfillment of his commission. Consistent with that plan, he began sending key people to Rome for the purpose of preparing the way for his arrival. Paul is writing 28 years after Pentecost. The church at Rome was divided into various congregations about the city. It was a loose knit community of believers. There was no headquarters of any kind. It was not organized to any extent. The congregations met in different homes. When we turn to the 16th chapter where Paul ends his greetings to his friends at Rome, 26 people are named. These could all be heads of congregations. If Paul had gone directly to Rome instead of going to Jerusalem, we might not have this great masterpiece. If the trip to Jerusalem had gone smoothly, he planned to arrive in Rome a few months after his letter got there. As it turned out, he didn’t get there until three years later. He arrived in chains. Through out this letter Paul declares that God is ready to receive all men who will come to him on the basis of faith alone. He doesn’t care about a person’s background, whether he is the strictest kind of Jew, who meticulously sought to conform to the Law, or a Gentile who has worked hard to obey his own conscience. \The salvation which Paul offers is OF GOD. Readers meet those two words 59 times in this book. It is God who provides this righteousness for man. All anyone can do is accept it by faith. The gospel knows no frontiers except the frontier of Faith. If a person will accept God’s righteousness by putting his complete trust in Jesus, then God, BY HIS POWER, (dunamis power) will make that sinner as righteous as Himself. The first eight chapters deal with sin and salvation. The next three deal with the Jews and the last five set forth the practical consequences of salvation. If we took out the three chapters on the Jews, and shoved the rest together, we’d have a book that used eight chapters to explain salvation to a man, with five more telling him what to do with it. Once the first eight chapters are mastered, then we will experience the rest of our lives living in the dunamis Power of God (The Glory of God). As we approach Chapter One, Paul bluntly talks about the lowest form of immorality, the Homosexual vice, women experience sex with women and men with men. Victory over that nature must be a priority of the church of Jesus Christ. Romans 1:1: Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.) This is not only the gospel theme of the Apostle, but of prophets: (1 Pet. 1:10) “Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you.” Servant: Paul here calls himself a servant, i.e. bond-slave of Christ. Jesus made him His personal ambassador to the Gentiles. And Saul (Paul’s name at the time), was so overwhelmed by the Lord’s great mercy, that he instantly gave up every claim to worldly greatness and became Christ’s slave. I know many in the ministry today who so protect their name and greatness and do not humble themselves as Paul did. They are very busy boasting and promoting themselves. The Lord humbled this proud Jew so that he changed his name from Saul (which means great) to Paul which means little. From that day on, all that mattered to Paul was pleasing his Master. Though Paul humbled himself before God and men, he was, at the same time, keenly aware of his great authority by reason of his divine appointment. He was made an apostle. There was no higher rank for a servant of Christ. He rose to this high rank suddenly. He was an enemy one minute and a general the next. The suddenness of his call corresponds to the sudden call of the gentiles in Christianity. That came fast too. It exploded on the world. This one man, the apostle to the Gentiles, was the exploder! Note how Paul emphasizes that he was “called” to the apostleship. Men did not appoint him, neither did he presume to this high office by himself. He was duly appointed. (1) He saw the risen Lord.(2) He was called by Jesus personally. 1: 3, 4: “Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead: The promise is a Person. Paul speaks of Jesus in two ways, first he refers to Him as “Seed of David.” This is Jesus’ human nature and His right to the throne of Israel. Jesus was born with two natures. One He always had because he is holy. As Jesus walked the earth, His divinity was veiled. Outwardly he appeared no different from anyone else. He got tired, hungry and thirsty. He was just a carpenter who had turned rabbi. The only hint of His divinity was His amazing words and ability to perform miracles. Yet to many this was not proof of divinity because magicians abounded in those days and performed “miracles” of their own. It was not until His resurrection that Jesus’ divine nature was fully manifested. That event declared Him to be God’s mighty Son. 1:5-7: “By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name. Among whom are you also the called of Jesus Christ? To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints; Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul makes it clear that the ministry to which he has been called is unlimited—it’s world-wide. He has no certain territory marked out for him. He has been commissioned to announce to all mankind that God is eager to pour out His grace on the nations. If Rome could be won for Christ, the rest of the world would be easy to win. In those days, as Rome went, so did the rest of the world. He uses seven verses to say “hello”. Between “Paul here”, at the beginning and “grace and peace to you,” at the close of his salutation, he inserts a number of key ideas meant to draw attention to his inspired teaching. (1) This gospel is based on the O.T.(2) The divine and human natures of Christ(3) That he is authorized to bring his message to the whole world. The population in Rome at this time has been estimated at between one and two million people. I think back at how when we first moved to Houston that it seemed all ministries wanted to come to Houston. They still do. Why? Houston is an international city famous for the space program, but connected with the world through oil. Ministries today want a Houston connection for their international ministry. I hope their motive is the same as Paul’s. Well, we didn’t get too far into Romans, but we will continue next week and get into the meat of chapter One. Tonight I will teach on imprecatory prayer using Psalms 35, 52, 58, 59, 109 and 137. This will complete our series on Spiritual Warfare at the Sunday evening services. Carolyn Sissom, PastorEastgate Ministries, Inc.www.eastgateministries.comScripture from K.J.V. Bibliography: Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible and C. S. Lovett’s Lights on Romans.
