Let me pray. Father in heaven, we are delighted to come before you, and we're delighted to be able to open up this book together. We're so thankful, God, that you have given us your word. We who know you receive it as precious manna from heaven. It is life to our souls. bread to our minds. And God, we're just grateful to have this opportunity. I do pray for wisdom and discernment, both in the things that I say, but also in the things that I don't say, that you would guard my lips and help me to speak that which is profitable. but we pray, Lord, that your word would instruct us, and even tonight, as we mostly spend time not getting into your word, but talking about all the things that will set guardrails for us as we make our way through this study, I pray, God, that these things will be helpful and enriching and edifying to us. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, is this too loud? It feels really echoey to me. There's less bodies? All right. All right, fair enough. So, the Book of Romans. Let me just give you a caveat and say, the Book of Romans is is an intimidating book to me. As a pastor, especially as we're nearing the end of a study and I'm thinking about what I'm gonna preach through next, I've thought about why eventually I'd like to preach through the book of Romans, but it's always been something I've thought, I'll do that later when I'm older and hopefully wiser and more established. It's always felt a little bit daunting to me, and I think it's because it's so dense, and because it's so important. When I say that, I think every book is important, right? And every book is packed with theology, but I think everyone would agree, not like Romans. Romans is a rich and deep dive into the study of the gospel. So what I wanna do tonight, I was tempted to just read audibly through the Book of Romans one time. Takes about an hour, and I thought, man, that'd be a great way to start our study. Let's just read it as the Romans would have received it and someone would have stood up in their congregation and read it out loud for the congregation to hear for the first time. None of these people had met Paul, as we'll look at here in a moment, but that would be fascinating. And I do encourage you to read through the book of Romans in one sitting. If you can do that every week, just one time, pick one time during the week when you can just read through the book of Romans, but at least do it once. Do it once, read through the whole book. Try to get a feel for the flow of the book, for the content of the book. Don't try and get hung up on every word and every argument. Just read it through in one sitting. Super helpful for helping us understand it. But I have here, introduction. Why study the Book of Romans? Well, you'll have there in your notes 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17. All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Romans falls into the category of all scripture. So literally, we could go through the book of Judges, we could go through the book of Esther, we could go through the book of Philemon, Revelation, you pick. If it's in the Bible, we could go through it and we would all be profited. We'd all be benefited by a study of any book of the Bible. So because it's a book of the Bible, because it is scripture, it's breathed out by God, and it is profitable for us. I know you guys know that, but that's just on the surface. Why not study the book of Romans? Secondly, it is the life work of a seasoned, battle-tested apostle. Paul received this gospel by direct revelation from Jesus Christ, and had spent roughly 20 years preaching it. in all kinds of circumstances. Romans is a comprehensive doctrinal masterpiece, and it comes on the heels of a battle-tested, long life of ministry. You know, when a guy gets into ministry, when Paul first got called by the Lord Jesus Christ, obviously he was already a Pharisee, he already understood and knew the, well, at least knew the scriptures. He didn't necessarily understand them until the Lord made sense of those scriptures to him. But he was already well-taught and well-versed, and he could probably draw from memory large portions of the Old Testament. But after 20 plus years of preaching to both Jews and Gentiles in the synagogues as well as the open marketplaces, Paul had been tested through praises. Sometimes he would come into a town and God would enable him to do a miracle. and the people would receive him and receive his message, and in one instance, they called him and Barnabas gods from heaven, and Paul had to be like, no, whoa, calm down. You guys got the wrong idea. We are just men here with a message. We're nothing more than you. But in other cases, probably more often than not, Paul was tested through severe trials and difficulties. And as a man who was tested, Paul did not in any way shrink back from preaching the gospel. Now think about this, you go into a town, you're commissioned by Christ to go in and preach the gospel, you preach the gospel, the vast majority of people reject it, and not only just like, hey, no thanks, I'm gonna do something else today, but they reject it with stones and sticks and clubs and arresting and beatings and all kinds of other things, and they run him out of town, and he thinks, okay, what's the next town on the map? I'm just gonna go to the next town and I'm gonna do the same thing. That's because Paul believed this message. A lot of men start off well. They start off doing what God has commissioned them to do. They start off moving in the right direction until they get tested. In fact, even Jesus tells parables about people who receive the gospel message, sometimes even with joy and excitement, And they start off well, but as soon as testing comes, as soon as difficulties come, as soon as dry seasons come, they fall away. They don't make it to a place where they actually produce fruit. And what I would surmise is this, that the book of Romans, after 20 plus years of Paul preaching routinely, town after town after town, in all kinds of difficult circumstances, it brings to us a deeper and richer and fuller understanding of Paul's gospel. So, it's dense, it's comprehensive, it's filled with doctrine and theology, but it is worth the study. Thirdly, why study the Book of Romans? Well, church history has proven that the teaching of Romans has played an integral role in leading figures over the last 2,000 years. I've just listed two here, but there are more, and I encourage you to even do a Google search, try to find out more church history folks, guys or women from church history who were deeply impacted by the Book of Romans. Not only specific individuals, but large-scale movements, like the Reformation, as we'll see, perhaps the greatest revival in church history outside of the first century. But first here I've listed Augustine, or Augustin, depending on how you say his name. I'll say it both ways so no one gets offended. Augustine was raised by his mother, who was supposedly a godly saint, a God-fearing woman, a Christian woman, Monica, and she feared the Lord, and she desperately wanted Augustine to walk in God's ways, and she pleaded with him to receive the Lord, and she even taught him the scriptures at times, but ultimately, he was a boy who grew up in a Roman world where sin was rampant and opportunities to sin abounded. And Augustine, in his young years, became enamored with sexual fornication. And he entered into a relationship which was really captivating to him. He wasn't married, but he ended up living with this concubine for a number of years, and he talks about it even in his confessions. In fact, he's one of the church figures from, or fathers from church history that we know the most about. In fact, one person I read said, of all the ancient figures in the world, we know more about Augustine than any other ancient figure because of the things he wrote, his own confessions and things like that. But all that to say this, Augustine was a pagan, entrenched in sexual morality and living for the pleasures of his carnal appetites. He was just a worldly guy. But he was given an education and then he was pursuing an education, pursuing from that a career. It became known through his education that he was very good at oration, it's public speech, which in that day made you famous if you could speak publicly, if you could string together sentences in a compelling way. probably a lot like actors of our day, people that can speak and wow people with their words. But Augustine was pursuing a career in that and he became even a government official and was making advancements and realized that if he's really gonna advance to the next level, he needs to get married. And in order for him to get married, he had to get rid of his concubine. And so his mother arranged a marriage that would help with his political career. Everything was political back then. Probably still is in a lot of ways. But she arranged this marriage with this young girl who was from a well-to-do family. But in order for the marriage to go through, in order for the marriage to be ratified, they had to agree to get rid of this concubine. And he did. They sent her away to Africa. And it's actually a really sad story. They lived together for over a decade, and then finally she had to just get put away. Basically, you know, she was a slave, unfortunately. Anyway, all that to say this. It led Augustine to grieve deeply for the loss of this woman, but also he knew he couldn't get rid of these lustful thoughts and ambitions. His carnal appetites continually left him empty and restless, and he began to wrestle with God and the Christian teaching of his mother, Monica. In fact, someone had, one of his friends had come and visited him and had recently become a Christian, and they were talking about things, and at one point, he even started listening to a famous preacher in town because he wanted to learn and grow in the gift of oration, of speaking, and so he would go and listen to this preacher, but he also kind of liked it. But he didn't, it's one of those things. And so he was drawn to it, he was kind of surrounded by it, but at the same time he was torn up on the inside by this sexual sin that he loved deeply. Until one moment, after speaking with this friend, and the friend had given him a copy of the book of Romans, and he had it, and he had been reading it occasionally, and it was sitting on a table nearby, but he was out in a garden, and he was weeping and crying and deeply grieved over his sin, and yet not wanting to give up his sin. At one point, he reportedly wrote, Lord, save me from this lust, but not yet. That's the kind of struggle that he was in. He knew that he didn't want it, but he also really wanted it. In an agony of soul, he was alone in a garden when he heard a child's voice saying, telelogo, or logotep, what is it, telelogo, logo? Anyway, pick up and read, is what this child's voice was saying from somewhere. And he listened, and it said it again, he listened, it said it again, he couldn't make sense of what game the children were playing, it didn't make sense to him, it wasn't like something he'd heard before. And then finally he thought to himself, not knowing what else to do, he quickly reached for a copy of one of the Apostle Paul's letters, which happened to be the book of Romans, which was what his friend had just given him. And he began to read the first words his eyes fell upon, which read, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual morality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. What a coincidence, right? or providential, God clearly orchestrated all of these events and even the struggle to bring Augustine to a place of complete surrender. He said, at once I gave my life to Christ, he cried out in surrender, and his heart was made new in that moment. That's a direct quote from Romans 13, 13 and 14. Chapter 13, verses 13 and 14. Literally, he just opened it, and boom, he read. And God got a hold of his life. So at a time when the church was coming of age, in the mid to late 300s, and they were gaining influence in the world. The church was. Constantine, the emperor, had become a Christian, supposedly, and so Christianity had become a state religion. It had become the popular religion of the empire, so it was no longer illegal. It was no longer taboo. In fact, it was actually promoted, and you could get advancements through Christianity. So I would say it was a difficult time in one way, because the church was gaining influence with the world, but I think losing her first love at the same time. Church history will play that out. But at that time, God used the teaching of Romans to save Augustine, and Augustine went on to become the most prominent church figure probably ever. I mean, especially in Western society, Western civilization, most people look back on Augustine as the most influential theologian of the last 2,000 years, besides the biblical writers, obviously. So it's kind of a big deal. And how did God save him? Well, just simply reading the book of Romans. Secondly, Martin Luther. This will probably be more familiar to you, but you've heard of Martin Luther. Martin Luther, the reformer, born in 1483 and died in 1546. He lived at a much different time in church history, a time when the church had been in power for millennia and the church had really become the political power of the day and they wielded lots of power and had become very unholy and unrighteous. In fact, the church, I think, had just gotten bound up in all kinds of legalism and things that were ungodly and not, a lot like Judaism of Jesus's day, honestly. So, God used Romans to save Martin Luther. Martin Luther was a monk. He was a seminary professor who lived every day condemned by his own guilt before God. He didn't start out as a monk. His dad was sending him to school to train as a lawyer, and he did that, and he went through school, and then he was traveling somewhere, but he was tormented always with this sense of guilt. He had a very sensitive conscience and very aware of his own unrighteousness before God. And so one time he was traveling and he was caught in a thunderstorm, a lightning storm, and lightning struck very nearby and he ran to find shelter under a tree, which in hindsight I don't think is a good place to find shelter in a lightning storm. But anyway, he cries out to Saint Anne. St. Anne was the, I guess the saint over miners, and his dad was a miner, so they prayed to the saints, and so he cries out to this St. Anne and says, if you save me, I'll become a monk. And his life is spared, and so he joins the monastery, becomes a monk, to his father's chagrin. He wasn't pleased with that. But during his, Time as a monk, he advanced beyond many of the monks of his day, I guess. He's very sensitive to legalistic tendencies, and so he was always trying to out-monk the other monks. We were told that he would like, you know, prey on his knees on the hard ground. He would sleep on the ground with no covers. He would do all kinds of things to try and prove how righteous he was because he was constantly in duress by the fact that he wasn't righteous enough before God. His high view of the holiness of God left him feeling entirely incapable of pleasing such a God. His incessant self-examination eventually drove him to hate God because Luther thought him to be a tyrant who demanded righteousness from those whom he knew were incapable of producing such righteousness. This is Luther in his own words. I'll read that in a second. But Luther's wrestling was an illustration of how the Catholic Church had lost its way. His salvation was the linchpin that brought about the Protestant Reformation. So this is Luther's salvation account in his own words. I tried to rewrite it and I thought, what am I doing? He told it better. So I'm just gonna read it to you. This comes from the preface of his complete edition of the Latin works, which you don't need to read. He says this, though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe that he was placated by my satisfaction. I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners, and secretly, if not blasphemously, certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God. Thus I raged with a fierce and troubled conscience. Nevertheless, I beat importunately upon Paul at that place, which was Romans 117. By now he was a professor, he was a doctrinal student, a theology teacher, I should say, and he was teaching doctrinal students at a seminary. So he's teaching through the book of Romans, and so in his own study to try and be able to teach the students, he's wrestling with the book of Romans, and he's frustrated constantly with this phrase, the righteousness of God. And so he says he's persistently beating against that place, Romans 117, most ardently desiring to know what Saint Paul wanted. At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, for in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning. The righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely passive righteousness, with which the merciful God justifies us by faith as it is written. The righteous shall live by faith. Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates and I extolled my sweetest words with a love as great as the hatred with which I had before hated the words righteousness of God. Thus that place in Paul was for me the very gate to paradise. as the monk had become a doctor, become a teacher of theology, and yet was unsaved, still wrestling with how do I become righteous before a holy God. It was through reading the book of Romans and meditating on these words and trying to understand how do I teach these things to these students. that he finally came to the place where he realized, oh, it's not my righteousness, it's his righteousness given to me. And boom, the lights turned on brightly in Luther's heart and he was born again. This is good stuff, isn't it? Obviously, you know about Luther. You know that Luther went on to spark the Protestant Reformation, the nailing of the 95 Thesis on the Wittenberg Castle door, all these things. He wasn't alone. It's not like he was the only man in that time period who was wrestling with these things. There were men before him. There were certainly men after him that were wrestling with these concepts and theologies and doctrines. But God uniquely used Martin Luther's life, both his struggle beforehand, and then finally, the writings and ministry of Martin Luther afterwards, to kick the doors wide open and to assault the papacy, really, with truth. And it was a good thing. We are Protestants today because the gospel was recovered through this time period. So, good things. A couple hundred years later, I didn't write this one down, but, oh, I should have wrote it down. Methodist, the guy that, John, yeah, there you go. John what? Wesley. I kept thinking John Newton. I'm like, it's not John Newton. He wrote Amazing Grace. John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism, was, again, a righteous, use that carefully, righteous man. He was an ordained Anglican minister, he was trying desperately to lead other people to Christ, and he himself was unconverted. And he was reading Luther's preface, so his introductory notes to his study of the book of Romans. So Wesley is a teacher of others, he's trying to instruct other people about how to be saved, and he still is not saved himself. And he's reading Luther's preface, just the beginning part of his commentary on Romans, and he gets saved. So my point in saying all this is why I studied the book of Romans. Well, God has uniquely used this book over the last 2,000 years to spark revivals. And I don't think it's a coincidence because the whole book, as we'll look at, is about the gospel. It's clarifying and making known and setting in place what is the gospel, what is the good news from heaven. Paul was a herald, an apostle. He was declaring what heaven had told him to declare. That's what his whole life was about. And now he takes the opportunity to sit down, thankfully, and to write out a letter containing his doctrine, his theology, his gospel. So I'd say it's worth studying. Amen? All right. Not that you're gonna disagree, but. All right, let's do some background to the book of Romans. Wow, did we start at six? Oh, good. I was like, how did that happen? All right, good. Background to the book of Romans, the authorship. Paul, let's move on. I know that sounds silly, but in a lot of cases, people, scholars I should say, really, really smart people, almost too smart for their own good, get into all kinds of controversy and dialogue and debate over who wrote these biblical books. I know that in the ancient world, there were people that mimicked other writers. They said, hey, I'm this guy, and I'm writing this book, but I'm not really, and I'm just using his name so I can gain an audience. But these books that are in the Bible, I believe, if they say Paul wrote it, and we believe it's in the Bible, and it's inspired by God, then God would not inspire a lie. So as far as it depends on me, I don't need to go into a long drawn out study of who wrote the book of Romans when I can open to the first page and it says, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. That's Paul. Any disagreement? I'd love to fight with you. No, I'm just kidding. Now I know there are, especially the book of Romans, there's really not much controversy concerning the book of Romans. Pretty much all scholars agree Paul wrote the book of Romans. But in some cases, some of these New Testament books, scholars go round and round and round on who wrote certain books. And I just kind of choose not to get into those controversies. All right, so Paul wrote it, but turn to Romans chapter 16. Romans chapter 16, or you can jot this down, look it up later. Verse 22, Paul wrote it, kind of. Verse 22 says, I, Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. Chapter 16, we'll get there eventually. All these greetings, all these, you know, say hi to this person, I greet so and so, but then finally, in verse 22, it says, I, Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. Tertius is not another name for Paul. Tertius is a different name. So what's going on here? Well, it was very common, in fact, it was almost, yeah, just normal that someone like Paul would hire a secretary, a scribe. In that person's job, they were a full-time writer. That was their job. They were experts at it. Most people didn't go around writing things, because parchment was too expensive, and it just wasn't an easy thing to do. It wasn't easy to get a hold of those types of instruments. And so, scribe would have been a professional writer, and so Paul would be sitting there or standing there dictating a letter, and Tertius would write it down as Paul was dictating it. So I imagine, I don't know, I don't even know if it's possible to know, I imagine this took longer than several hours. Maybe this took, you know, several days for Paul and Tertius to work through this letter to where Paul was ready to send it off to Rome. But Tertius is the one who literally wrote it. And again, some scholars will try to say things like, well, see, it's not inspired because Tertius wrote it and he wasn't an apostle. I'm like, yeah, he was working with the apostle, it's fine. All right, how about a date? When was it written? You'll notice on the first page it doesn't say what date it was written, but we do have some clues. It's impossible to know for certain. However, there are several clues in Acts and Romans which can help us narrow it down to between 55 and 58 AD, okay? between 55 and 58 AD. Let's go through a couple of these. During Paul's three month stay at Corinth at the end of his third missionary journey, turn over to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20 verses three to six. Um... Let me start in verse one. After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia. And when he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece. There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. Sopater, the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him, and the Thessalonians, Aristarchus, and Secondus." So it goes on from there, but he stayed for three months in Corinth. and during the last part of his third missionary journey. There's some other details that kind of work this all together, but I would surmise it's during that three-month period where there's maybe a lull in ministry and Paul is kind of planning out the next phase of his life. He knows he's got a gift that he's been collecting from churches in Asia Minor that he's gonna personally take back to Jerusalem. We'll read about that in a second. So he's intending on taking a gift to Jerusalem to help the saints there because they've been suffering. And after that, he's planning to go to Spain. And on his way to Spain, he wants to stop off in Rome and visit the church at Rome, which he has never personally met or been to. So during that three month window, I think, is probably when he wrote this letter. Secondly, he planned to take a gift to Jerusalem, which I just mentioned, after which he hoped to somehow visit Rome on his way to Spain. So look at chapter 15 of Romans. Or again, if you don't wanna look, you can just jot it down and look at it later. But just so you know, I'm not making this stuff up. Verse 22. Paul, near the end of Romans, says, this is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints. Okay, so wherever he is, he's planning on going to Jerusalem, but afterwards, he's gonna go to Spain, and he wants to stop off at Rome. He's most likely riding in Asia Minor, or in Greece in this case, where Corinth is. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. So we'll stop reading there, but that's two details. Here's another one. He planned to take a gift to Jerusalem after which, oh, I just read that one. Here's another one. Emperor Claudius, who was the emperor of the Roman Empire. He had expelled the Jews from Rome in roughly 49 AD because of a controversy. This is according to one of his Roman historians. So not a Christian, just a historian that works for the government in Rome, and his job is to write down the annals of history, the annals of things that are happening in the government. And this Roman historian writes this, that because of a controversy having to do with Crestus, Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome. most likely, here's what I'm gonna say, most likely, many scholars believe this, that this Roman historian, they heard about some controversy dealing with Crestus, and they're probably talking about Christ. Christos is the Greek word. So it'd be an easy misspelling, you know, if you don't know who Christ is, if you've never even heard that name, and now someone's saying, oh, there's a controversy among the Jews about Crestus, Or Christos. And so what's Claudius do as a result? He says, all the Jews have to leave. All the Jews, probably all the prominent ones, anyone who's embroiled in this controversy, I'm done with it, all of you just go. And he has the authority to do that. You know, you issue a decree if you're the emperor, and if you're caught in the city, you get executed. So guess what? People left. The Jews left in large numbers. In fact, turn over to Acts 18, or again, if you wanna just take my word for it and look it up later, So this is both supported through Roman historians and through the account of the history of Acts. Chapter 18, verse one. After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. Hmm. And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for they were tent makers by trade, and he reasoned in the synagogues every Sabbath and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. That's just Paul's normal trend of ministry. Starting in the synagogues, persuading any God-fearing people that he can, using the scriptures because the synagogue had the scriptures, and once they rejected him, then he said, fine, your guilt is on your own head, I'm going to the Gentiles. but the point here is this detail gives us that Claudius did in fact expel Jews from Rome, and two of those were Aquila and Priscilla, this prominent Jewish believing couple. They had been believers longer than Paul, and maybe they were there in Acts chapter two when Peter preached the first sermon at Pentecost. Maybe they were some of those God-fearing Jews and proselytes that had come from all over the known world for the Feast of Pentecost. But at any rate, they were saved, and they lived in Rome, and they were part of the church in Rome, and then when they got kicked out, they came to Corinth. All right? Again, there's that connection between potentially Corinth, where Paul maybe wrote this letter years later, And Rome, Priscilla and Aquila must have had some sort of acquaintance or some sort of connection with Corinth where they came when they were expelled. And they became close friends and ministry partners. So eventually, Claudius died in 54 AD, and the new emperor didn't care about the old emperor's edict, and so the Jews were allowed to come back to Rome. So for roughly five years, all the prominent Jews in Rome disappeared. This is important as we get to some of the other details about the audience and the occasion because I do think this has some importance about why Paul is writing the book of Romans and who he's writing to. So just like anywhere else, the church was made up of Jews and Gentiles, obviously believing Jews and believing Gentiles. But if you have a season of five years where this church, where all the Jews, all the Jewish believers are gone, then you have probably the Gentiles starting to take over leadership roles. Most likely they weren't in those leadership roles prior because the Jews were the ones that knew the scriptures. They were the ones that were more mature in the things of God. And, um, And then after Claudius expires, after he dies, and the Jews are allowed to come back, maybe there's some difficulties with how is the church gonna come back together? How are these Jewish people gonna come back in when these Gentiles are like, no, we're in charge now, we got it. We don't need you to teach us the scriptures, we know the scriptures. Anyway, so we'll talk about that more later. So who's the audience? The church in Rome, which is made up of believers, made up of both believing Jews and believing Gentiles, perhaps the church in Rome started with those who were converted on the day of Pentecost. No one actually knows, there's no record of an apostle going to Rome to preach there. All the churches in Asia Minor were started with Paul and Barnabas going around and preaching the gospel, and people are hearing the gospel for the first time. They're hearing about Christ for the first time, and churches are being established. And then from there, those churches begin to grow and expand, and they multiply. But the gospel typically comes to new places by apostles. That's the pattern of the book of Acts. No one has record of apostles going early on to the city of Rome, but Acts chapter 2, there are all kinds of proselytes, meaning Greek Jews, basically, Greek people that are God-fearing and want to live according to the God of the Jews. So these God-fearing people come to Jerusalem during the Feast of Pentecost, and they're there, and they're there when the Spirit comes on the apostles, and they begin to speak in all kinds of tongues, and they begin to declare the glories of God in their own languages. And so all these people from every different region are hearing the praises of God spoken in their native tongue, and it draws a crowd. People are like, what is this? And some people poke fun, they're like, ah, they're just drunk. And Peter's like, we're not drunk. And he stands up in an elevated position and he preaches the first Christian sermon. And it's a great one. Acts chapter two, we don't have time to delve in, but read it on your own. And there, 3,000 people are converted. 3,000 people at the preaching of one sermon are converted and 3,000 are baptized and 3,000 are added to the church. Many of them stay in Jerusalem. Maybe forsaking their families and their homelands, they're like, no, we gotta stay here. But probably over time, some of them started to go back. You know what we got? We got lives in Rome, we have families, we have houses, we have people that are expecting us to come home, or we wanna take the gospel back. And so these new converts probably start making their way back to Rome, and wouldn't you know it, the gospel begins to spread. And so before you know it, there's a church in Rome. And by the time Paul is writing this letter, there is a well-established church in Rome. And by church, I mean church. There's not like denominations. There are lots of different locations where this church gathers and meets individually, but this is probably what's happening. It would have been primarily a Jewish congregation initially, upon Claudius' expulsion of the Jews. But, like I said, after five years, the church is still growing, and it's primarily Gentiles that are in the church because the Jews are gone. Who are the Gentiles converting? Well, the Jews are gone. They're converting more Gentiles. And so now, all these positions of leadership and positions of prominence are filled by Gentiles. And the church is moving on, the church is functioning, it's established, it's healthy. And then you have Jews, five years later, start trickling back into Rome, and they're like, hey, I'd like my eldership back, or my deacon role, or whatever, and they're like, yeah, I don't know. Now, some of this is speculative, I don't know exactly what's going on, but there does seem to be some Jew-Gentile tension in the Book of Romans. Even when Paul talks about the theme verse or his thesis statement, he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. First for the Jew and then for the Gentile. He's gonna talk an awful lot about Israel in chapters nine, 10, and 11, and in that, he's also going to rebuke the Gentiles and say, don't you get puffed up thinking you're really great because you've been grafted in because God can remove you as well. So there's something going on in the church at Rome. I don't know if it's the primary reason why Paul is writing, but it's at least part of the reason that he wants to address. But then, let's just not skip over the obvious one. What's the primary occasion for the writing of this letter? Well, the Holy Spirit put it on Paul's heart to write the letter. Duh, right? Sometimes we over-speculate about what was going on and sometimes you have to do a little detective work to try and figure out what's going on here and why is Paul saying this? But at the end of the day, the Holy Spirit prompted Paul to write this letter Maybe Paul realized that his life was at risk. I mean, that'd be pretty obvious. Everywhere he goes, his life is threatened. Maybe he realizes, hey, I'm taking a gift back to Jerusalem. That is the hotbed of animosity. If there's anywhere in the world where they want me dead, it's in Jerusalem, where he was a Pharisee of Pharisees, and now he's an apostle to the Gentiles. So maybe in thinking that he realizes, you know what? I might not be coming out of Jerusalem, so I'm going to write this down so that the people after I'm gone will know what I believe will know the gospel of Paul. Anyway, there's all that. Any questions on that stuff before we jump on into the end here and finish? Yes, ma'am. didn't think that Jewish people are coming to Christ. Well, so her question is, so at some point, Jewish people kind of were not in mass, at least, coming to Christ, and so was it during this time that that happened? I think that was probably regional, based on where the gospel had come. So if the gospel comes into a new region, and Paul begins preaching in a synagogue, initially it's met with, this is interesting, we'll listen to you. And then a few weeks in, and depending on what he's saying, then it becomes, they become more and more resistant. And so, I don't know if there's a wholesale rejection of the gospel by the Jews at this point, but it is definitely happening gradually during this time. Does that make sense? So, any other questions? Good question. Okay. Yeah, that's what history tells us, later though. Yeah, so he asks if Peter was crucified in Rome, and the answer is, according to church history, yes, he was crucified in Rome, but not until the 60s, when Paul was also killed in Rome under Nero. So the Catholic church will teach that Peter went to Rome and established the church at Rome. Why do you think they teach that? because he's the first pope. So he's got to be in Rome where the papacy is established, and he's got to be there as the first pope to establish the church at Rome. There's no history that really coordinates with that. There's a couple statements by a couple really old, old guys during that time, but it doesn't necessarily line up with other parts of history. So it could just be wishful thinking. All right, any other questions before we move on? All right, let's jump in here to this next section. What is the message and the structure of the book of Romans? What is Romans all about? In short, the gospel. The book of Romans is about the gospel. You can say that in a few different ways. The book of Romans is about the righteousness of God. The book of Romans is about the plan of salvation. The book of Romans is God's redemptive history come to pass in fullness of time. I hope that guy is all right. Romans 1, 16 to 17. This is Paul's thesis statement. as strongly as I can, exhort you to memorize these verses. I'll call it homework, but I'm not gonna check your homework. It's just between you and Jesus, but these verses are so good. Romans 1, 16, and 17. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, For it, the gospel, is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, that is the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. This is the verse that Martin Luther was mulling over and beating himself up against and could not figure out, what do you want from me, God? I'm trying as hard as I can to be righteous. I'm doing everything I know how to do. I'm doing all the things my Roman Catholic church is telling me to do, and I still feel inadequately unrighteous in your presence. And that frustration turned to anger as he started to feel angry towards God. Why God, why are you demanding this righteousness of me when you know I'm incapable of producing it? And then finally he realized, from faith for faith, the righteous shall live by faith. And ding, the Holy Spirit turned the lights on. Martin Luther's darkened soul and darkened mind was incapable of understanding the gospel until finally God said, understand. And by one tiny act of the Holy Spirit turning the light switch on in Martin Luther's heart and mind and soul, he realized, oh, oh God makes me righteous. It's not what I do to try and please God, it's what God did for me through Christ on the cross and now he has accomplished righteousness and now by faith he passes it to me. Oh, that's so much better, right? I hope that you've had an awakening in your soul. I hope that you are not continually beating yourself up against the laws and demands of heaven and saying, God, I'm trying as hard as I can to be righteous before you. I just can't be good enough. He would say, I know. I've known this whole time. In fact, I've been trying to tell you, you can't be good enough. That's why I sent my own son. He did it for you. That's the message of the book of Romans. You could tell the gospel 500 different ways. You can say it in so many different ways, but there are certain tenets, there are certain truths, certain doctrines that are drawn out of the Old Testament, out of the things that God has already told us in the history of the world, and these things come to, they flower in the New Testament. And we look now in the book of Romans as this bouquet of gospel truths, and I think God would want us to breathe in deeply and say, hmm, this is refreshing. This is beautiful. The gospel is the best news. It is good news, euangelion, the good news. And we should always be enamored by it. If the Bible is boring to you, if the gospel is boring to you, take my word for it, you don't really know it. It is the most invigorating, life-giving thing God has given us. I laid out there for you three outlines that I found helpful just in my own study of the Book of Romans. Now, keep in mind, Paul didn't send us a rough draft with his outline attached to it, so we don't know fully how Paul wrote this out. I mean, obviously, there's structure. Obviously, Paul is arguing and making arguments and advancing arguments and conclusions. coming to, you know, conclusions about things. And so there is definitely structure in what Paul's saying. It's not just a stream of consciousness. It wasn't like Paul just sat down with a pen or told his guy what to write and he just like, um, okay, write this next. No, Paul is using his mind. He's using the things that God has revealed to him. He's using arguments from the Old Testament. I didn't verify this, but I read that Romans has more Old Testament quotations than any other New Testament epistle. 57, I believe, Old Testament quotations. So it's deeply entrenched in the roots of the Old Testament teaching, and it comes to flower in the New Testament. You can read through those outlines. John MacArthur's there, introduction, then Just look at the body there, points two through six. Condemnation, justification, sanctification, restoration, application. Or human need, divine provision, human transformation, divine vindication, human responsibility. The second one there, Thomas Shriners, this is really helpful, I think, the way he lays this out. The gospel as the revelation of God's righteousness. Secondly, God's righteousness in his wrath against sinners. The saving righteousness of God, point three. Point four, hope as a result of righteousness by faith. Point five, God's righteousness to Israel and the Gentiles. Point six, God's righteousness in everyday life. Point seven, the extension of God's righteousness through the Pauline mission, Pauline mission. And point eight, the final summary of the gospel of God's righteousness. What words are repeated? God's righteousness. Go back to Romans 1, 16 and 17. Not ashamed of the gospel, for in it, For it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, right? What am I trying to think of? For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed. This is the problem. Men and women try to work their way to God, they try to prove to God how righteous they are, and every time God says, it's not enough, it's not enough, it's not enough. I mean, Paul was a Pharisee among Pharisees. He was the guy in the first century, the first half of the first century, that was an up-and-coming, the top Pharisee. And even he says, I wasn't enough. So you can keep trying, or you can give up and let God save you. Douglas Moo, or Doug Moo, in his commentary lays it out like this, the letter opening, the heart of the gospel, justification by faith, the assurance provided by the gospel, the hope of salvation, the defense of the gospel, the problem of Israel, the transforming power of the gospel, Christian conduct, and then the letter closing. So you can use those if you want. I find them helpful. Keep in mind that these outlines are the product of men studying the book and trying to spin it like a Rubik's cube and try to figure out what is Paul saying in here and trying to trace out his argument and trying to feel out the flow of the text. Some outlines are better than others. Some outlines are really bad because it's basically just, here's my thoughts, smash, and they try to force a book into their own way of thinking. But outlines can be helpful. All right, any questions or comments or screams of outrage or anything like that? Donna, what are you laughing at? You're gonna keep your screams of outrage on the inside tonight? Okay, okay, good. All right. Here's the reflection and application. Who were the people that were instrumental in bringing the gospel to your life? I want you to picture them. I want you to rehearse their names in your mind. And then I want you to tell somebody in a moment. but also I want you to thank God for them. Paul wrote this down. I'm so thankful he did. Whatever it was that led him to write it down, I'm so thankful that the apostle didn't just go around preaching to everyone and then die. Because as would have happened, if you've ever played the game telephone, the last 2,000 years, church would have been all over the place. Because people would have been saying, oh yeah, I remember when Paul said this. Well, there's no way to prove that. So there have been all kinds of things, and even still, even with it written down, the church has veered off at times, but they've always come back. Why? Because God standardized it in a book. God inspired Paul, led Paul to write these things down so that the gospel would never be lost to heresy. And not only did God keep the purity of the gospel available to us through the written word, but he also, from generation to generation, moved in people's hearts first saving them, but then also firing them up with the gospel and leading them to tell other people. If that stopped happening in any generation, guess what? We wouldn't be here. In every generation, God moves in the hearts and lives of his people to share the gospel of his grace with other people, and guess what? More people hear it and get saved. Praise the Lord for that. So here's the second question. Could God use you to share the gospel with specific people in your life? What's the obvious answer? Ah, convicting, right? Why is it convicting? Sometimes we just don't do it. Sometimes it's because we're ashamed of the gospel. Sometimes it's because we're afraid of the response of those who we know don't want to hear the gospel. Sometimes it's just because we're just selfish and we're caught up in our own things. I mean, there's more reasons you can think of on your own. But here's the question again, could God use you to share the gospel with specific, not just people in your life, that's too generic. It's easy to walk away from and feel fine because you thought about it and now it's gone. But specific people with their names. Who are they? Tell someone when you're about to pray and then pray for them specifically that God would give you open doors to speak of the gospel. This study will be fruitless and profitless if we just fill our heads with doctrine and ideas and concepts and theological arguments and we don't let it transform us and move us to share the gospel with other people. That would be fruitless. In fact, it would be a condemnation on us. So let us be moved by the gospel to the point that we actually share the gospel. Fair enough. So if you don't come back next week, I'll assume it's because I've thoroughly offended you. No, I'm just playing. All right, let me pray and then just split off into some groups and pray for however long you want and then leave whenever you want. Father, we are thankful for this time to be in your word. We're thankful for... the people that you've assembled here, and the opportunity that I have to teach these glorious truths. I'm excited, Lord, to get into this book, and I'm excited for this book to get into me. Pray that you would help me to be more evangelistically minded. As I interact with neighbors, as I interact with family members, as I interact with grocery store checkers, I pray, Lord, that you would so move in our hearts and minds that you would spur on a revival beginning in our own hearts. just as you did with Augustine, just as you did with Luther, just as you did with Wesley, and millions of others, Lord, may you start in us a work of your good grace. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.