WWUTT 1153 Prevented from Getting to Rome? (Romans 1:8-10)

The Affectionate Introduction to Romans and the Gift of the Letter

Have you pondered just how affectionate this introduction is to the book of Romans, and how much Paul wanted to come to them? But had he not been prevented, we wouldn't have the book of Romans when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to the sound teaching of the Word of God. Find videos and more at our website, www .wwutt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky. This week, we began a study of the book of Romans. Monday, we did some introduction. Yesterday, we looked at verses 1 through 7. Today, our reading will be in verses 8 through 17. The Apostle Paul writes, First, I thank my God, through Jesus Christ, for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.

For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.

I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation, to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed, from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Now, those last two verses we're going to look at with a little more detail and emphasis on Monday next week, but I still wanted to include them in the reading today because of the context that they keep, especially with what we had just read in verse 15.

So you read in verse 15, I'm eager to preach the gospel to you also, for I am not ashamed of the gospel. You see how those two statements flow, one right to the next. We tend to single out verse 16 as a verse on its own, but it's kind of a bridging passage.

Romans 1, 16 and 17 bridge this introduction that Paul has given to this letter with the argumentation that he's going to make next in verse 18. So all of this flows together. If you have the English Standard Version, then you probably have a section break there at verses 16 and 17, and the heading says the righteous shall live by faith.

Then you read verses 16 and 17, and then right before verse 18, God's wrath on unrighteousness. There's no breaks there. Sometimes the ESV editors can be a little irritating with the way that they have broken up those passages like that.

There's nothing like that there. This is a beautiful flow of thought. I think it's fair to section out the introduction as verses 1 through 7, but then when you start in verse 8, you're reading through to the end of chapter 1, and all of that is a continuous thought.

Yes, Paul is giving mostly greeting and personal address in verses 8 through 15, but in no way is this separated then from where he goes into verses 18 to the end of the chapter. So coming back to verse 8 here again, Paul says first.

So he's got a lot that he's going to get to, and that really kind of jumps right into things in verse 18. But first of all, he wants to give a personal greeting to these Roman Christians, and this really demonstrates his heart here, his affection for this group of people that he's not met.

Only two of Paul's letters were written to a group of people that he had never met before. This is one of them, his letter to the Romans. Do you know what the other one is? What other letter did Paul write to a church he had never been to before?

Colossians. Colossians would be the other one. So in this introduction here, he's showing his love for them, that they as Christians, as a church there in a city that's really hostile toward the Christian faith, was even hostile to the Jews at the time that Paul had written this.

The Jews had just come back into Rome after being banished. It turned out that Claudius, who was emperor before Nero, had exiled the wrong group of people out of Rome. When people were becoming proselytized and converted to Christianity, Claudius thought that the Jews were doing that, and this went against their religio lacita agreement, kind of an unofficial agreement that the Jews could have their way of religion so long as they didn't proselytize anybody.

Well then you've got people, Gentiles, being converted to this Christian faith in which they're following this Jewish carpenter. So Claudius is going, hey, the Jews are violating our agreement. So in anger, he banished the Jews from Rome.

Well, he exiled the wrong group of people because it was the Christians who were proselytizing, not the Jews. So then when the Jews came back, especially those Jewish Christians, they came back to the church there in Rome and found out, boy, it's full of Gentiles.

There's a lot more Gentiles here now than there were when we left. So yeah, the majority of the church were Gentiles, and there were some disagreements there between Jews and Gentiles. And Paul addresses some of that in this particular letter and some of the reasons why he discusses these things in Jew and Gentile dynamics.

It's because of the disagreements that existed between these two factions within the church. But those factions weren't to exist. It's not Jew and Greek. It is a Christ who is all and in all. And so that's why here at the beginning, Paul even says in verse 14, I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians.

So to you who are in Rome, and even to those who do not speak the Greek language, I'm under obligation to preach the gospel to all. And this being one of the reasons why Paul had not yet come to them.

Had nothing to do with the fact that they're Greek speakers, had nothing to do with being in such a pagan city. He had not yet come to them because of the mission that Christ had him on preaching the gospel to everybody.

It just had not taken him by way of the Holy Spirit, leading him to Rome yet. He had just not arrived there yet. So he wants to address them with this very affectionate greeting, showing his love for all of them, not just the Jew side, but Jews and Greeks together.

They are one body of believers, Christians together. So that's the way he addresses them, though there are going to be some specifics he will confront related to Jew and Gentile. And to be clear, he says there is no distinction.

That's Romans 3, 22, for there is no distinction. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and all come to salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. There is no other way that we come to salvation except by faith in Christ.

God shows no favoritism to Jews. He shows no favoritism to Gentiles either. Since the Jews were the ones who rejected the oracles of God, doesn't mean that God's favor falls upon the Gentiles to replace the Jews.

All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. And it's through the gospel that we come to forgiveness of sins and a right relationship with God. So Paul addresses the Romans here all together as one body and says, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.

As the gospel is spreading, as it is going throughout the Roman Empire, churches are sprouting up everywhere. This really is a wonderful time for the church. Yes, persecution is heavy and it's going to get worse.

But the church is increasing and growing exponentially by the move of the Holy Spirit. And where those churches come about, wherever a church comes up, there are Christians that know that there are Christians in Rome.

So if we can, if those Christians in Rome can handle the persecution that's going on there with even Claudius exiling people and Nero's rising up next and he hates the Christians, if they can endure that persecution, Christians being put to death because they won't hail Caesar as Lord, then we can handle the persecution here.

So the the Roman Christians in particular were held in high regard among the churches because of the faith that they held fast to in the face of persecution. Your faith is being proclaimed in all the world, for God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

Period. That's two verses. I want to I want to focus on that a little bit more intently because it's real easy to just kind of read that and keep right on going and miss how affectionate Paul was really being here.

I mean, I mean, the sincerity of just this, of saying how earnestly he prays for these Christians and this being an encouragement to them again, group of people he's never met before. No apostle has been to this church in Rome yet, capital city of the world.

And they've not yet had an apostle come to them. Paul wants to be that apostle. In fact, the Lord has told him that he's going to be that apostle. This is what was said of him even to Ananias when the Lord Jesus said that he's going to be my witness throughout the world to Jews and even to Gentiles.

And he's going to stand before kings and I'm going to show him how much he must suffer for my name. Previously, when we were looking at the introduction yesterday in Romans chapter one, the apostle Paul said that it's through Jesus Christ we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.

We're persecuted for the sake of his name. We receive faith for the sake of his name. And you've heard me say this many times. It most often falls into my prayers when I will pray toward the end of a Bible lesson or a devotional that we do together.

You'll hear me say, lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. And some of you know right where I get that from. It's in Psalm 23, verse three. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

We also read in 1 John 2, 12, I am writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. It is all to the glory of God and to the praise of his great name. And so Paul even says here that the grace of God that we've been given is to the praise of his great name.

He says that also to the Ephesians in Ephesians chapter one. And apostleship has been given to us for the sake of his name to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name. So just as John said, your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.

It's all to the praise of God. And so Paul says here in his affectionate witness to these Roman Christians, he says in verse nine, for God is my witness. This is almost like, I mean, laying your hand on the Bible and swearing on the Bible.

I'm telling the truth. That's not quite what he's doing here. I would say it's even it's an even greater emphasis of his earnest, honest approach to these Christians. But but nevertheless, OK, so you kind of get the picture.

God is my witness. He knows my heart as I am saying this in the presence of God as one of his apostles. I'm not just saying this by means of flattery. This is this is my heart's yearning for you. God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, I give all of myself to God for the service of being an apostle, of sharing the gospel with the world and all that comes with that persecutions and rejoicings, I give all of myself to that work with all of my spirit in the gospel of his son.

So this is more than committing his body to the flames. This is with his whole heart. Paul says to the Corinthians, when he writes to the Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11, he mentions all the persecutions that he goes through for the sake of the gospel.

But he also says this. This is 2nd Corinthians 11, verse 28. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. What does that mean? Not only does Paul put himself in harm's way for the sake of the gospel, facing persecution for preaching Christ, but even after he's done that, after he's shared the gospel, Christians are made, a church is planted and he moves on.

He still has an anxiety in his heart for the place he just left, that those Christians would remain steadfast. He knows the kind of persecution that they're about to be under. And so even in his spirit, he prays earnestly before the Lord, God, keep them in your love.

Paul gives himself to this, he devotes himself to this work more than just being there to win converts, but even after he's gone, yearning for them in the spirit that they would continue in the gospel, that they would love, that they would know that there are solid gospel men among them who are going to rise up and become shepherds, fending off wolves and false teachers and preaching sound doctrine to the flock of God in the service of God.

This is what Paul's desire is for these Christians. God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing, I mention you. Now, Paul also says to the Thessalonians, first Thessalonians, chapter five, he says to pray without ceasing.

That doesn't mean that every word that therefore comes from our mouths would be in prayer. So we're just walking around praying all the time. And there are people who take it that literally. There are men who have devoted themselves to praying at the wailing wall in Jerusalem.

And that's what that's all they do. They pray all day long from the moment they get up to when they go to bed. They pray. Now, this is totally legalism. It's not at all in keeping with the understanding of pray without ceasing.

If they're not Christians, if they're not praying in the name of Christ, if they're praying according to Jewish orthodoxy, that is against the idea that Jesus is the Christ. Well, then they're not praying to God at all.

They're praying to a God of their own making, not God, as he has revealed himself through his son. And so praying without ceasing is not some legalistic thing we do. Just as long as we're always praying, it's always coming out of our mouths.

All that we do is prayer. Therefore, we're obeying this command to pray without ceasing. That's not what Paul is doing. Even as he's writing this letter to them, does it look like he's in like a formal prayer posture here as he is writing to this church in Rome to pray without ceasing simply means that our mind is so devoted unto God that everything that we say and do is as if we're praying to the Lord.

Think of God being present in your every conversation, because if you are a Christian, then your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit whom you have from God. Paul talking to the Corinthians, First Corinthians, chapter six, therefore, honor God with your body.

So everything that comes from us should be displaying the fact that we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit of God, the way that we speak, the way that we interact, the way that we think, what we devote our minds to staying away from worldly things, focusing on heavenly things.

For Jesus himself said in Matthew, chapter six, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all the other things that you need in this world will be added to you as well. So in focusing ourselves entirely upon God, it is as if everything that we say and do is is in a mindfulness of prayer, because all that we say and do is being done in honor of God.

Prayer itself is worship, and you are supposed to commit your whole body unto the Lord as an act of worship, Romans twelve one. So in understanding this and in living in this way, you are of the mindfulness of the mindset of praying without ceasing.

Now, as Paul says this here to the Romans, that in my spirit, in the gospel of his son without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers means that he has the same affection for this group of Christians in Rome.

As he has for any other Christians that he personally knows, any other churches that he has personally planted, he has just as much affection for this body of believers in a city that he's never met before.

He's never never been there and preached to those Christians before. But he has the same love for them as he has for any of these other churches in any of these other cities that he's been to and planted.

That's what he's meaning by that. This is, again, to show to demonstrate the kind of affection that he has for them. This is not going to be some canned letter that he is writing to them. He is writing specific things dealing in this church so that they may know and hear the love of God that has been poured out for them in the gospel.

This is not heartless doctrine that Paul is going to write or spill ink over in the course of this letter. It's a lot of heady stuff. It's a lot of deep stuff. And the Romans themselves were going to go on studying it even after the initial reading of this letter before the church, just like we study Romans today, two thousand years later.

So they were doing this even in the church after Paul wrote it to them. They would continue to pour over this letter and understand concepts like justification by faith, which is the heart of the gospel defense that Paul gives in this writing.

And so he's showing his love and his affection for them so that they would know everything that I'm going to say to you here. This is all to the glory of God for his namesake. But it is in my affection for you that I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

The reason why Paul had not yet been there in Rome was not for lack of trying. He'd if it was up to him, he had been there. He'd have been there years ago, had arrived there in Rome to teach the gospel there in the capital city of the world.

But what had prevented him from getting there? It wasn't Satan. It's not like Satan was keeping Paul from getting to Rome. The Holy Spirit was. Do you remember back to Acts chapter 16? We have two verses here back to back, verses six and seven.

It says they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mycenae, they attempted to go into Bithynia.

But the spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So there were times in which the missionaries wanted to go somewhere with the gospel, but the spirit wouldn't allow them to. That's not where I want you to go right now.

I have this group of people that I want you to go to first. So Paul had to, in obedience to Christ, go where Jesus wanted him to go. But knowing by the promise of the spirit, a day would come when he would eventually get to Rome.

It had to be in God's good timing. And God had his reasons why he was not allowing Paul to get there to Rome yet, but was certainly going to keep and fulfill his promises by getting an apostle to them.

And all the more to the praise of God's grace that somebody had arrived to them to teach them further about these great mysteries that are bound up in Jesus Christ. Folks, I'll tell you that because Paul was prevented from getting to Rome until later years, we have this letter.

Had he been able to get to Rome earlier, we would not have the book of Romans. Paul wrote this in his absence to teach them until he could get to them. And what a treasure this is to every believer, the great and rich doctrines that are poured out for us that we may understand those mysteries revealed in Christ about how we are saved by faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ, our savior.

I listened to a an interview with Michael Kruger, who wrote the book Canon Revisited. I often recommend that book. You should definitely check it out. But anyway, he was visiting with Jason K. Allen at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary yesterday, and they live streamed the interview.

So I was watching it online. One of the questions that President Allen asked of Michael Kruger, he said, what is your favorite book of the Bible? And he said, Michael Kruger said, without even having to think about it, Romans.

That is my desert island book. I could sit and ponder over the deep mysteries of the book of Romans for the rest of my life. And indeed, the church has been doing so for 2000 years. And we've yet to even breach the wonderful blessings of God that have been poured out to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We will behold them and we will rejoice in them on this side of heaven. And then we will see them even all the more clearly and for eternity when we join him in glory to the praise of his glorious grace.

Amen. Father, thank you for the blessing of love that you have shown to us in Jesus Christ, our savior. Make that our greatest joy today. In Jesus name.

Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.