SERMON: GM15-049
SERIES: Renewal Through Romans: The Gospel Defined, Explained
& Applied
SETTING: North Kelso Baptist Church
SERVICE: Sunday AM (March 8, 2015)
SECTION: The
Prologue to Righteousness (Romans 1:1-17)
SUBTITLE: Paul
Desires to Visit Rome (Part 1)
SCRIPTURE: Romans1:8-13
SUBJECT: Paul desires to visit Rome
SUMMARY: You are a debtor.
SCHEME: that Christians maintain an intense desire to extend mutual blessings
to fellow believers by discharging their debt
_____________________________________________________________
Our theme is: Paul desires to visit Rome
This
is a good reminder for us all to examine the intensity of Paul’s desire to
experience mutual blessings towards the believers in the church at Rome in
order extend benefits to fellow believers.
Proposition: You
must share Paul’s desire to be an encouragement to other believers
Interrogatory Sentence: How do we see Paul’s
desire to be an encouragement to these fellow believers?
Transitional Sentence: In
verses 8-15, Paul suggests two clues for his intense desire to visit this
church.
·
Paul’s Aim in visiting Rome (8-13)
·
Paul’s Argument for visiting Rome (14-17)
Paul
Desires to Visit Rome
Romans 1:8-13
(Part 1)
2A The Desire to Visit Rome
Objective: That each
member of NKBC maintain an intense desire to extend mutual blessings to fellow
believers by discharging their debt towards them.
Translation:
First, indeed, I give thanks to my God through Jesus
Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken in all the world. For God is my
witness whom I serve by my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without
ceasing I always make mention of you in my prayers. Praying now, if somehow now
at some time I shall succeed in the will of God to come to you. For I greatly
desire to see you, that I might impart to you some spiritual gift, that you may
be established. That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the
mutual faith both of you and me. I will not have you ignorant brothers that
often I planned coming to you (and was forbidden until now) that I might have
some fruit among you as among the other Gentiles. (GDM)
INTRODUCTION
Hudson Taylor had definite convictions about how
God's work should be done. We can make our best plans and try to carry them out
in our own strength. Or we can make careful plans and ask God to bless them.
"Yet another way of
working is to begin with God; to ask His plans, and to offer ourselves to Him
to carry out His purposes."
Once Paul became aware of this church in Rome he
planned or purposed on visiting it. Not only did he plan on visiting it, he
often prayed that God would permit him and provided the opportunity to visit
the. We know from our text however that up until the time he wrote this letter
to them he had been hindered or not permitted to visit them. H had, as Hudson
Taylor stated, “Asked God for His plans, and offered himself to God to carry
out God’s plans.
When the Greeks wrote letters to one another, the
letters usually contained some form of thanksgiving and a petition or prayer to
their gods. In this second part of our introduction, Paul changes this practice
by including his thanksgiving and a prayer for his readers.
Our theme this morning is: Paul desires to visit Rome
This
is a good reminder for us all to examine the intensity of Paul’s desire to
experience mutual blessings towards the believers in the church at Rome in to
compel us to also extend benefits to fellow believers for their encouragement
and for yours.
Proposition: You
must share Paul’s desire to be an encouragement to other believers
Interrogatory Sentence: How do you share Paul’s
desires for fellow believers?
Transitional Sentence: In
verses 8-15, Paul suggests two clues for his intense desire to visit this
church. Those two clues are
·
Paul’s Aim in visiting Rome (8-13)
·
Paul’s Argument for visiting Rome (14-17)
The
first and a natural question that should come to us all right now, is why did
Paul write to this church? What was his reasons for writing this letter?
[In
order to answer that, let’s move to the first clue that Paul suggests and that
is…]
1B Paul’s Aim in Visiting Rome (8-13)
Paul seems to be perfectly clear in what his aim or
his reasons for visiting this
church. Remember he did not start or plant this church and neither has he ever visited this
church. So, it is natural for us to wonder just what his purpose or aim was. Well,
I think we can clearly see Paul’s aim in wanting to visit this church in three different ways.
[The first way that we see Paul’s
aim is by seeing…]
1C His Infatuation for the Romans (8)
“First,
I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is
spoken of throughout the whole world.”
Paul has been informed about
the existence of this church and these believers
located in the capital city of the Roman Empire. He has been at
some point and in some manner informed about their response to the gospel.
First of all, Paul’s opening words, “First…,”
normally implies a series of words,
thoughts, statements, etc. Paul never develops a list, there is no second of all, or a
third or a next and so on.
Did Paul forget to
maintain a sequence of thoughts, or did he get interrupted, or was
he trying to highlight something that was important?
Quite frankly, we
will never know, at least not in this life. Regardless, Paul wants to drive his reader’s
attention to something that he considers
to be of great importance.
This expression of Paul of thanks to God for His mercy to them was intended to touch their feelings and to prepare them for the truths that he was about to share with them. This shows his deep interest in their welfare.
Paul gives thanks
to God for his readers. He thanks his God.
By the way, it is interesting to note that Paul expressed thankfulness for those to whom he is writing except one. That exception was his letter to the Galatians.
·
Galatians had defected from the gospel to worldly thinking
·
Galatians were worshipping and serving in their flesh
Paul was keenly
aware of his personal relation with God. But notice something very unique, this is
the only place where Paul thanks God for
something or someone “through Jesus Christ.”
Paul is apparently
recognizing that it is Jesus Christ who has created or opened up this type of
access to God. IOW, it is because of Jesus Christ
that Paul has access to God in order to be able to give thanks for the
Roman believers.
Never forget that
Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. We are to approach God and ask
God the Father what we need and even
for what we want, but we approach God by or come through a mediator at all
times.
·
We depend upon Jesus Christ to present our cause or case to God the
Father
·
We thank God through Jesus Christ for access, answers
·
Jesus Christ has made the way to God accessible
Second,
Paul’s aim in writing is also consistent with his apostolic commission.
Paul writes, “…I thank my God through Jesus Christ, for
you all…”
If you were to review verses
1 and 15 you see the universality of the gospel.
Paul doesn’t leave anyone out here in Rome, he includes all of the Christians in Rome.
Paul is very clear
in reason by the way for giving thanks to God for them, he writes – “…your
faith is spoken throughout the whole world.”
I think it would be fair to
say that there may be a little hyperbole going on here by
Paul. Paul many times employs hyperbole, or a bit of exaggeration to make certain points or
to emphasize important truths.
How did the news of
their faith travel so far and wide?
·
Many people came to Rome for business or pleasure and received the
gospel and took it back to their home
·
In AD 49 the Emperor, Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome because he thought
they were followers of someone named Chrestus, or Christ. The Jewish Christians
witness of Jesus stirred up the city and Claudius felt threatened. So they were
forced to leave Rome. Many traveled back to homelands, distant places carrying
the gospel.
Now, even so, I am
not sure nor am I ready to state emphatically that every person living in the
known world, or in every country or city has heard of the Roman Christians or their
faith.
But his point is
clear, the faith of these believers is known by a good number of believers in various
places of the known world.
·
It is not wrong or improper to compliment or commend other believers
·
It is good to remind them at times of their influence on various
believers or churches, including you or your church
·
It is not wrong to celebrate God’s mercies and blessings on various
Christians and Churches
We
are reminded of what Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “giving thanks always for all
things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Eph
5:20, NKJV)
And
so in summary of this point just think, here in Rome, the Imperial City, the
capital of paganism and decadence, there are a number of people who bowed their
knee to the Lord Jesus Christ and have been made citizens of the Kingdom of
God. Paul has been moved by this fact causing him to pray for these believers
and to be grateful for them.
Our theme this morning is: Paul desires to visit Rome
This
is a good reminder for us all to examine the intensity of Paul’s desire to
experience mutual blessings towards the believers in the church at Rome in to
compel us to also extend benefits to fellow believers for their encouragement
and for yours.
Proposition: You
must share Paul’s desire to be an encouragement to other believers
[Now, let’s turn from Paul’s
Infatuation for the Romans to…]
2C His Intercession for the Romans (9-10)
“For
God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son that
without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers…”
Sidlow Baxter once said, "...Men may
spurn our appeals, reject our message,
oppose our arguments, despise our persons -- but they are helpless against
our prayers." (Sidlow
Baxter)
The word “For” introduces
information about Paul’s prayers for these believers.
Paul has a pattern of follow up his expressions of thankfulness
with specific details about his consistency and his concern for his
readers.
But if you notice
carefully you will see that Paul’s prayer for these believes has a very personal
focus – and that focus is his desire to minister
to them personally.
Paul is very
sincere about this and wants the Romans to know just how sincere he really is, so he
opens with the assertion that God is his witness.
A second thing to
note in verse 9, is before Paul tells his readers what he is attesting to with God as
his witness he somewhat interrupts himself
with a reference to his service to God.
The word
Paul uses for “service” is an interesting word. It is used
of “worship” or “offering to gods, or to God.” This God whom Paul is using as
a witness is the God whom he worships and
offers himself and his service to.
His
service seems to be the preaching of the gospel. The sharing of the good news of Jesus
Christ.
Then Paul comes
back to, “…that without ceasing I make mention of you
always in my prayers…”
Here he returns to “God is
my witness.” Paul assures these Roman believers
that he wanted to travel to them and visit them and more importantly, he
wanted to minister to them.
You might miss this
but according to Douglas Moo, Paul’s vocabulary implies that he was a bit uncertain
whether he was going to be able to get
to them and that he was somewhat impatient about the delays he had
experienced.
However, even
though he has been prevented from traveling to them and ministering to them he has
not stopped praying for them and praying
that he can visit them.
The verb that Paul
uses for succeed means “to lead along a good road.” He is
praying that the road or way may be opened.
So,
Paul is infatuated with this church and these believers and is very thankful to
God for them and their testimony. And he intercedes or prays for them regularly
and for the hope of actually visiting them personally.
Our theme this morning is: Paul desires to visit Rome
This
is a good reminder for us all to examine the intensity of Paul’s desire to
experience mutual blessings towards the believers in the church at Rome in to
compel us to also extend benefits to fellow believers for their encouragement
and for yours.
Proposition: You
must share Paul’s desire to be an encouragement to other believers
[Now, let’s turn from Paul’s
Intercession for the Romans to…]
3C His Interest in the Romans (11-13)
Paul told the members of the Philippian church to
not focus only on their
own needs and interests, but they were to focus on the needs of other
believers.
We have to ask
ourselves, why did Paul write to this church? What are his reasons for having such
a keen or deep interest in this church?
We see Paul’s
interest in this church in verses 11-13.
“For
I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you
may be established, that is that I might be encouraged together with you by the mutual
faith of both you and me. Now I do not
want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was
hindered unto now) that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the
other gentiles.”
He had some very
good reasons for writing to a church he did not start,
had never visited, and knew almost no one
Paul is going to
explain why he wants to come to Rome. He gives a statement and then he develops
that reason with three (3) purpose statements:
·
To share some spiritual gift
·
To have a harvest
·
To preach the gospel
Your bible rightly
translated the Greek text as “spiritual gift” and that might be a reference to simply
“a gift.” However, Paul does not use this
combination of words anywhere else in his writings. What does it mean?
There are some
thoughts on what Paul meant here:
·
Some think it might mean Paul has some ministerial gift of his special
ministry for them
·
Some think it refers to spiritual blessings that he hopes will result
from his ministry in Rome
·
Some think it is an insight or an ability given by Paul that Paul hopes
to share with the Romans.
Nobody is really
sure what Paul meant, but we do know this:
Whatever spiritual
gift Paul wanted to share with them the purpose was to strengthen their faith.
Why would he want
to strengthen their faith?
Keep in mind that conversion
is not the end for a believer. It is the beginning. You may
have a sound, biblical, and effective conversion but you need to be taught and
grounded for the rest of your life.
Paul says my
interest in you is that you are established or grounded or developed,
or matured.
Why? Because just
like today, false teachers were everywhere. Judaizers
were everywhere. They were leading people astray.
They needed to be
taught just like any other believer, and just like believers
today!
Remember, how many
of these same believers later down the road were thrown to the
lions, had their houses burned, and were treated to the most cruel tortures
imaginable.
Most never
recanted. Why? Because they had been established by the truths and principles in this
extraordinary letter. They came to know very
deeply what they believed.
Verse 12 seems to
see Paul expanding even more on his desire to be of some benefit to them:
“…that
is that I might be encouraged together with you by the mutual
faith of both you and me.”
Paul makes a point
that both the church and he will be encouraged
by his ministry among them. The verb seems to imply that they will be comforted or
encouraged. This mutual comfort or encouragement
will be accomplished by faith, Paul’s faith and the Roman believer’s faith.
Paul is saying that
they both share the same faith but this faith brings different perspectives and
gifts and benefits, but when it is shared between
believers it brings encouragement, comfort and edification to everyone.
So Paul wants to
visit this church and he wants that visit to encourage him and he wants his visit to
encourage them.
This is what makes
his statement in verse 13 so important and meaningful
to them. Paul says to these Roman believers:
“Now I
do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned
to come to you (but was hindered unto now) that I might have some fruit among you also,
just as among the other gentiles.”
Paul reaffirms his
interest in them and his desire to minister to them. He has longed to visit them and
he has even made plans to visit them, and
he has prayed that he would be able to visit them, but he hadn’t been successful
in getting there.
Paul had been very busy in the eastern Mediterranean area,
basically from
Jerusalem to Illyricum.
He wanted to have a
harvest amongst them. That doesn’t mean he wants to see these
Roman Christians become Christians again. He is referring to the product of his
apostolic labors. His harvest would be some
new believers from the city, but mainly his harvest is the fruit of further developing the
believers.
Well
it is clear that Paul wanted to come to Rome and minister to these believers
and in doing so he wanted them to be further developed in their faith. Paul
wanted to be encouraged by his service to them and he wanted them to be
encouraged by his ministry to them.
For
the record, this is not his only reason or reasons for wanting to visit this
church. Not that this reason wasn’t a good one or good enough. He had a few
very practical reasons for wanting to visit this church.
Let
me give you at least five (5) important reasons for writing to this church.
These reasons all relate to Paul’s aim his in writing to this church.
·
To share his missionary plans. Paul wants to enlist the cooperation
& assistance of this church for help in his missionary campaign into Spain
and the West.
“…whenever I journey to Spain, I
shall come to you. For I hope to see you on
my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you, if first I may enjoy
your company for a while.”
Paul was hoping for some financial and
material assistance for his missionary journey
to Spain. This was sort of what we might call deputation.
·
To centralize Rome as a
center for the gospel. Paul wanted to use the church as the basis for his universal gospel.
He wanted to bring about the peaceful union of the Jews and Gentiles in one
universal church. Verses 13-17 makes this very clear.
·
To engage the Romans as his
prayer support team.
“But I exhort you, brothers,
for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ and for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, that
I may be delivered from those disbelieving in Judea, and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted
by the saints; so that I may
come to you with joy by the
will of God, and may be refreshed with you. Now may the God of peace be with you all. Amen.” (Romans 15:30-32, MKJV)
·
To prevent similar problems
that overtook the churches in Galatia and in Corinth. He wants to safeguard the
Romans against the errors and practices that had caused so much trouble. This
is why he wanted to further establish them in their faith.
·
Theological Formulation – he wanted to establish a
clear and comprehensive presentation of the doctrine of salvation by faith for
all subsequent generations. This is the heart of the gospel, the litmus test.
There is no other type or kind of salvation. He makes this clear in verses 6-17
and throughout the rest of this letter.
Our theme this morning is: Paul desires to visit Rome
This
is a good reminder for us all to examine the intensity of Paul’s desire to
experience mutual blessings towards the believers in the church at Rome in to
compel us to also extend benefits to fellow believers for their encouragement
and for yours.
Proposition: You
must share Paul’s desire to be an encouragement to other believers
Well, we have looked at
Paul’s infatuation with these believers, Paul’s intercessory prayers for these
believers, and Paul’s interest in these believers. I hope this has given you
deeper insight into both Paul and the church in Rome.
Next
week we will look at Paul’s argument for visiting the Roman believers.
[But
for now, let’s wrap this up, shall we?]
CONCLUSION
Paul was deeply moved to
visit the Christians in Rome. He wanted to visit in order to be a blessing to
them by personally ministering to them. Who does God want you to be a blessing
to?
[Exhortation…]
And So, I
exhort you as genuine believers look beyond yourself and use your
gift to personally minister to fellow members of the kingdom of God.
Remember
the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 3:8…
“To me, who am less
than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ...” (Ephesians 3:8, NKJV)
Let’s
pray! J
Benediction Blessing:
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be
with you all. Amen. (Philippians 4:23, NKJV)
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