Book of Romans
11-16-2011 Vol. 6 Part 3
Psalms 51:1-10 NKJV To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David When Nathan the Prophet Went to Him, After He Had Gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. (What a great confession to God our Father from David. I know it isn’t the grand flowery words we say when talking to God, it is the sincerity of our heart that makes our confessions heard, but I wish the words would flow from my heart like they did from David.) Father we praise you, we give you all the glory. Father God, some of us, maybe most of us can’t talk and pray to you like David, but we know you hear our words as if they are coming out of David’s mouth. Look deep within our hearts and if they aren’t sincere, I pray that you touch our hearts and remove the obstacles that are hindering a closer relationship with you Jesus. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth we pray! Amen!
Romans 1:8-15
Romans 1:8-15 NKJV First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. 9 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, 10 making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established— 12 that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. 13 Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. 14 I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. 15 So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.
Before I get started, I want to give you a few details about Paul. Years after writing Romans Paul wrote Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon while he was in prison in Rome. Paul had a great passion for the Gospel and the churches that he started. He would get word from a messenger about situations that were going on at some of the previous towns he visited and was compelled to write letters and send back to the church to get the people back on the right track. Paul was a definite servant of Jesus with the zeal of a prophet, mind of a teacher, determination of an apostle, and the heart of a shepherd that cared for his brothers and sisters.
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world: Does this verse give you a clue that Paul had a personal relationship with God. He is stating that he, “is thanking his God.” Stop and think how you pray, do you address God as your God, or do you start praying or thanking Him without making it personal. Why is Paul saying, “through Jesus Christ?” It is because through Jesus that we can call God our Father. It is through Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross at Calvary that we can call God our Father or my God. When we come to Jesus and admit we are sinners, confess our sins to Jesus and ask Him to forgive us, vow to turn from sin, and ask Jesus to come into our hearts to live and rule within us, then we are adopted into God’s holy family. That is what Paul is referring to when he says, “through Jesus Christ.”
There must have been some great things going on in Rome for Paul to mention that their faith was spoken of throughout the whole world. They must have been walking and demonstrating their faith daily. What a great compliment this was to be recognized by the world for their faith. How many churches today are recognized by their faith and daily walk with God. Do you know of any churches in your community that is recognized for faith. Thinking about this for a minute I can remember churches recognized for their quick Sunday service; go to such and such church you are in and out in half an hour and you have your religious duty done for the week. Some churches may be known by a yearly activity like a Biblical play, or some known for an un-liked minister, or churches with discord among the congregation, but I can’t really say that I know of any, known for their faith. That’s got to be real disheartening to Jesus. What good is it if we know what the Bible teaches, but don’t practice it? Is Jesus looking down on us saying, what a bunch of hypocrites?
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: Paul is declaring here that God is his witness since he is serving Him with his spirit which is united in Jesus. Scripture tells us we are united in Jesus, Jesus is in us and in God, and God is in Jesus. This all happens when we have that spiritual birth. John 14:17-20 NKJV the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. 19 "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. 20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. Reading all the letters that Paul wrote you know that Paul was a Prayer Warrior. Here he is stating that he constantly prays to God, his God for the believers in Rome. Paul doesn’t even know them, but he is praying for them constantly. Just to make sure the recipients know how sincere he is about them Paul states that he prays, “without ceasing” and “always”. Part of being a servant is praying for our fellow believers just like Jesus did. We pray that they can continue to stand firm in their faith and not give in to their fleshly desires, things of the world, and Satan’s temptations. We pray that their roots go deep into Jesus so that when something comes along in their life they will be able to discern truth from false teachings. John 17:9 NKJV "I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. John 17:20 NKJV "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you: Paul is making a request to go to Rome from God. He is coming boldly before God and asking to go to Rome. There is nothing wrong in being bold and asking God for things and if God thinks we can handle the request we will be granted it, because we all know, “Father knows best.” Hebrews 4:16 NKJV Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Paul is asking, but is in total submission to God’s will. This verse also tells me that Paul is patient and will only go to Rome when God dictates that he does, even though Paul has a plan that he would like to execute. Paul is thinking of going to Spain and stopping at Rome for a while on his way to Spain. Paul reveals this to us in chapter 15. Romans 15:24 NKJV 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.
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 may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.
Verses 11 – 15 Paul is telling the Romans why he wants to come, why he hasn’t been able to come, and that he is coming for all believers not just the Jews. He starts out saying he wants to, “impart some spiritual gifts.” What are these spiritual gifts? Are they gifts of the Holy Spirit, gifts of the Gospel, or what? It could be the infilling of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues or some of the other spiritual gifts that are listed in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. But what Paul is actually talking about is the Gospel, because he is referring to them and himself being edified by their mutual faith in Jesus Christ. Paul wants to make sure they are rooted deeply in their faith by him preaching the Gospel to them. By fellowshipping with them, Paul will be reassured that they are in the right Gospel and their faith is in Jesus and what He did on the Cross. If Paul can be assured they are abiding by the true Gospel he will be encouraged knowing they all share a mutual faith. Paul had a passion for new believers and wanted to make sure a false shepherd didn’t come by and lead them astray before they were solid in their faith. That’s what happened in Galatia, the new believers were being led astray by a false prophet. Galatians 1:6-7 NKJV I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
Paul’s next sentence he is back explaining why he hasn’t made it to Rome yet. He has a great desire to get to Rome, but it seemed there was always something hindering his journey to Rome. Why was Paul so anxious to get to Rome? It was because God told him that he would go there and preach the word. Acts 23:11 NKJV But the following night the Lord stood by him and said, "Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome." Paul kept getting delayed due to various reasons. God had some unfinished business in Asia Minor and Greece for Paul to do Romans 15:19-23; Satan had detained him, 1 Thessalonians 2:18 NKJV Therefore we wanted to come to you—even I, Paul, time and again—but Satan hindered us; he was being led by the Holy Spirit to other regions, Acts 16:6-7 NKJV Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. 7 After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. Acts 16:9-10 NKJV And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." 10 Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. So as you can see Paul was a very obedient servant/bondservant to Jesus.
Paul does get to Rome, but not the way he anticipated. He was delivered to Rome as a prisoner in chains. The chains didn’t bother Paul at all, because he preached the Gospel to the Roman officials and guards. It didn’t matter who you were, Paul preached the Gospel to all, Jew, Gentile, wise, unwise, barbarians, etc. If you were within ear shot of Paul’s voice, you would be preached to. He actually looked at the chains as being a blessing because he wrote a letter to the Philippians stating that his chains furthered the Gospel. He considered himself as being chained to Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:12-14 NKJV But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, 13 so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; 14 and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
The last thing Paul states is that he wants to have some fruit among them. There is controversy on what Paul was actually meaning, but to me it is the fruit of preaching the Gospel and saving souls and nothing else. It is plain as night and day when you read the following verse. Jesus told the Apostles to go and bear fruit and that is what Paul is referring to. John 15:16 NKJV You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
Paul’s leadership is summed up this way: He loved the Christians in Rome; He prayed for them even though he hadn’t met them; He had a plan to get to Rome, but submitted it to God; He was persistent, even though his plans often changed; He was patient, obedient, and trusting in God’s purpose; and He was passionate about peoples spiritual needs.
If we had just a fraction of Paul’s commitment to Jesus, this world would be a much better place to live.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,
for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth,
Unless you are Born Again, you cannot enter into Heaven, the Kingdom of God."
Bill
Last Week’s Trivia: Why did Paul call himself the least of the Apostles?
Answer: Paul called himself the least because he persecuted Jesus saints. 1 Corinthians 15:9 NLT For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I'm not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God's church.
This week’s Trivia: Is it possible that stones and rocks can talk??????
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