Through The Bible - Romans 1:1-7 - Part 1

Brett Meador: We like to esteem ourselves higher, and that's kind of the way of the world, but not the way of the Bible. There's no end to what God can do through someone who doesn't think too highly of themselves. I think this is Paul.
Guest (Male): Pastor Brad Matthers says it's a humble servant heart that God delights to use.
Brett Meador: The more big we think of ourselves, the more I think the Lord will say, man, I don't know if I can use that. James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Guest (Male): Paul's introductory statement in Romans chapter 1 packs a powerful theological punch in only those few verses with themes of humility, servant hood, the identity of Jesus, and in general what the gospel is all about. Pastor Brad Matthers says we find ourselves deep in doctrine in today's word right from the beginning of a verse by verse study of the book of Romans.
Brett Meador: The book of Romans chapter 1 Uh it's a powerful, powerful book. Romans takes the practices uh that we saw in the early church of the book of Acts, and then it starts to move into uh more of the parameters and the definitions of what Christianity is all about and what we are to believe. You know, Romans is going to talk about everything from communion to baptism to all the doctrinal declarations of redemption and salvation, justification. We can go on. It's going to be really key to know the doctrines of the Bible. Paul is going to have us zero in on what is the gospel of Jesus Christ? What does the church believe? And what should we do? Romans is the complete you know handbook to the Christian faith. Um some call it the Fort Knox of Bible doctrine, the book of Romans, which I think is kind of huge. Consider the testimony of some of these men throughout history regarding the book of Romans. Martin Luther, he said it is the chief part of the New Testament and the perfect gospel, the absolute epitome of the gospel. Uh Luther's successor Philip Melanchthon called Romans the compendium of Christian doctrine. John Calvin said the book of Romans, when anyone understands this epistle, he has a passage open to him to the understanding of the whole scripture. And I I don't disagree with that. It was Samuel Coleridge, English poet and literary critic, that said Paul's letter to the Romans is the most profound work in existence. Frederick Godet, 19th century Swiss theologian, called the book of Romans the cathedral of Christian faith. That's pretty cool. What about G. Campbell Morgan? I love old G. Campbell Morgan. He said Romans was the most pessimistic page of literature upon which your eyes have arrested. But at the same time, the most optimistic poem to which your ears will ever listen to. What is he saying there? Well, it's what I was trying He said it better than I did. Remember the black backdrop? The first, you know, half of Romans is brutal and heavy, and it'll make you just kind of go That's the part where he says the most pessimistic page of literature upon which your eyes will see. He's right. But he says at the same time it's the most optimistic poem which your ears will ever I love that. So as we start Romans, we kind of uh need to approach it with a heart and a mind ready to learn. It It I'm not going to say it's easy. It will be rewarding, but it's not a light bit of reading to say the least. So let's go through some of the basics. The author was Paul, of course, the apostle. He had written this around 56 AD is where they generally believe he wrote this. And by the way, when did Paul have the time to write the book to the Romans? Well, if you recall in our recent study of Acts, it was during his third missionary journey. Remember we were uh it's actually Acts chapter 20 verses 2 and 3 is where Paul was at Corinth during his third missionary journey, and he was there for several months around 56 AD in Corinth. You know, it was right around that time when Paul wrote Romans. The Bible doesn't tell us all the details, but as history tells us and extra biblical literature, it seems that Paul made a case before Caesar Nero was released, did a little more touring, and then ended up back in Rome and eventually was beheaded around AD 64 to 68 somewhere in there. So why was Paul set to go to Rome? Well, you remember it's cuz the Lord told him, you're going to go to Rome. He told him that on several occasions. You see the hand of the Lord because Paul makes it to Rome, but Rome was the epicenter of everything in the world at that time. Conquering much of the known world, the Romans, man, all of that Mediterranean rim uh North Africa and the Middle East, you know, the gateway to the Middle East, Israel and and uh you know Lebanon today and Turkey and then up into Europe and Macedonia as they called it back in those days. The gospel would just spread like wildfire. It would only take a few centuries where around 300 AD that would become the religion of Rome as Christianity, even though it was spent 10 huge waves of persecution. Nothing like persecution to grow the church of Jesus Christ. You know, it's an amazing thing how the more that Roman emperors tried to pound Christianity, the more it flourished. And you know, it may not have flourished as quickly numerically over those three centuries as much as I would say intensity because the people that were Christians willing to be martyred for their faith that set a huge precedent. The whole world noted, who are these guys and these women that are willing to lay down their life unafraid and be killed in the most horrendous ways and still believe and not let go. Like there's something so gripping about that. That's part of the thing. I think the Romans trying to crush Christianity was the very reason it flourished. Persecution always seems to do that with Christianity. So that's why Paul is going to you know go to Rome. But after being there, you know, he's got such a heart for the Romans. He had a love for the people of Rome. And so he would write this loving letter of doctrine. So Paul's going to start out this letter sort of introducing himself, and it's really going to be Romans chapter 1 here in verses 1 through 7. Paul is going to present his credentials uh to the Romans. And let's take a look at that. Romans 1 through 7. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God which he hath promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name among whom are ye also called, the called of Jesus Christ. To all that be in Rome, beloved of God called to be saints grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this introduction is really kind of profound. And I'd like to break this down because this is a great intro to sort of in in a way to all the epistles of Paul because Paul does a lot of this in some of the future epistles. but Paul packs a ton of stuff in here. We already have doctrine oozing out of every word that Paul is saying here. And the very first word, Paul. Remember his name was Saul. And all of a sudden in the book of Acts, we see his name changed from Saul to Paul. Why is that? Why was you know he called Saul first? Well, that was his given name, but there was a name change. And by the way, there this is sort of a common thing that God does in the Bible, whether you're talking about you know Abram who was changed to Abraham or Sarai who was Sarah. Peter gets a different name. There's a lot of this going on. And I love that in the Bible because it's often speaks of the newness of life. Even Jacob whose name meant deceiver or heel snatcher, tricky one, he gets his name the father of the nation Israel gets his name changed to Israel. That's why we call Israel Israel today because Jacob was Mr. Sneaky Liar. That was his name, but God changed it. Remember when he wrestled with God at Peniel all night and refused to stop until the Lord you know touched him and smote his thigh out of socket and all that. But the big thing that happened there is he said your name is no longer Jacob, it's going to be called Israel, which means governed by God. And that was a big change. So we see name changes. By the way, I think when we get to heaven, the Lord's going to give us a new name. Book of Revelation talks about that. I don't mind losing my name. There's enough associated with Brett that I'd like to lose. I've got a lifelong you know list of things that Brett kind of speaks of bad things. I'm looking forward to my new name. Paul's going to be one of those guys. The name change is not something you want to miss. What's the difference in Saul and Paul? Well, if you remember Saul comes from the Hebrew origin. Paul comes from a Latin origin, which is interesting. Saul echoes back throughout Israeli history to King Saul who was you know uh head taller and better looking than everybody else in in Israel at the time. And and so Saul was sort of a a distinguished name. And so it was a common name throughout Israel. Even to this day, you'll meet Jews who are still to this day named Saul because that's one of the popular names of Hebrew origin. And it means desired asked for. If you look it up in a Hebrew dictionary, the the definition desired, asked for, and requested one. Like Mr. Popular is kind of the idea. That's Saul. And that was Saul. And remember Saul of the book of Acts was popular. He was a Pharisee. He was given power and prestige and and yet he was a bad guy killing Christians and imprisoning them. But somewhere in the book of Acts, we kind of saw a little bit of change and people stopped calling him Saul, and he went with the more of the Latin or Roman name. Interesting, he would use Latin or Roman cuz the Lord would minister to the Romans through him. So what's his Roman name? Well, it's Paul. And what does Paul mean? Anybody know? Small, little, little. That's what it means, small or little. I love that because that's really what we're supposed to be. Paul is more appropriate because we as Christians are not supposed to be big. That's what the world wants you to do, is be a big person, big shot, walking around in control, larger than life. We Americans walk with sort of that big you know head up kind of thing. Some people call it an ugly American. Like if you travel around the world, other nations see, oh, that's American. And we don't even see it. We don't even see what what what are you talking about? Uh it's the way we carry ourselves. We think of you know we like to esteem ourselves higher, and that's kind of the way of the world, but not the way of the Bible. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. Let the Lord do that, to be humble. Oh, how we need uh oh Lord, help us as a church. We just need to remind ourselves we're small and little and we really don't have anything. The only good thing we have is that the Lord saved us from the fires of hell, and we've been forgiven by the grace of God. And because of that, we're his children. And if there's one thing you know we can be proud of is that we know him. We know the Lord. Let you know Jeremiah talks about let let the wise man glory in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man glory in his strength. You know, let not the rich man glory in his riches. But if you're going to glory in this, the Lord says glory that you know me. So this is I think this is Paul, and it's called small and little. And history tells us the Bible hints at this by the way, but history tells us that he was short, bald, had a hook nose, weepy eyes, a squeaky voice. He was even bow legged, history writes. This is a funny one for some of you might laugh at this one. He had a unibrow. That's actually written in ancient history that Paul walked around with you know sort of a eyebrows that met at the center. That's in you know extra biblical first century writers who wrote about Paul's appearances. But there is hints of that. Like for example in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 10, for his letters they said are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech is contemptible. What are they saying there? They're saying, well, his letters are amazing, but man, when you see them in real life, it's like what a disappointment. I get that sometimes, you know, like when people are listening to our radio program and they you know hear my voice. Like I'll be talking to somebody out in a restaurant or something and somebody say, I know that voice. Uh you're on the radio. You're nothing like what I pictured you looking like. I said, yeah, I have a good radio face. I've been told that before. But uh anyway, Paul you know they said your letters were impressive, but man, when I see in real life, I love that that Paul's name even was little or small. There's no end to what God can do through someone who doesn't think too highly of themselves. As soon as you're trying to get the glory or the credit or build yourself up, I think that's the end. I I've noticed the Lord doesn't want to use people that think more highly of themselves. And if they do, it seems like that comes to an end and usually an ugly end. Have you guys noticed that? It's like if you just watch for years, the Lord is patient. I I'll give him that. He's so patient with people. But as time goes on, the more big we think of ourselves, the more I think the Lord will say, man, I I don't know if I can use that. Remember Gideon, that whole Old Testament story is about how God can save with few. And it was just a little ragtag army with Gideon, 300 guys with their little shattered pots and stuff. Like what a weak position, what a weak bunch of people. Remember even Gideon, the Lord says, oh thou mighty man of valor. He's like me as he's hiding in a pit from the Midianites and stuff. It's like the Lord can use that. But as soon as you start thinking more highly of ourselves, man, that's the beginning of the end. James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. By the way, the greatest man that ever walked the earth, born among women, Jesus said, John chapter 3 verse 30 was who? John the Baptist. And John the Baptist said, he must increase, but I must decrease. Oh. The greatest man of that ever was born said that. And if the one guy can say, I am the greatest, not Muhammad Ali John the Baptist was the greatest according to Jesus. And uh and yet he was humble. So you know the world says puff yourself up. The Bible says prefer others over yourself and humble yourself. Very important. Well so the first thing we sort of look at is Paul and his credentials. Just starting with his name I think is worth kind of camping out on just a little bit. And then that humility along with his name is kind of the next thing here. The second part of this is he says Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. Now the the word servant, it sounds so holy. Oh, he's a servant. In modern days, we as Christians, oh I'm just a servant of the Lord. It's become sort of like a a thing you want to be. It's something we go, oh that's so holy and so wonderful. But I think we've Christianized that word a little too much. And do you know what I mean by Christianized? We have ways of saying things today as Christians, and they've taken on kind of new meanings. You know, it's weird the the language we have as Christians. You know, he's just got a servant's heart, servant's heart. Um why why not a kindness kidney or or a prayerful pancreas? Like like why are we talking about servant's heart, servant's heart? We want to say like the Christianese, if you want to say no to someone, you say, oh I'll pray about that. That means no. I'm telling about Christianese, but but often you know by doing that we sort of change the meaning. And this this word servant, we've got to get back to the real meaning. And and the the meaning if you know the word servant, the Greek word is important. And you maybe maybe you've heard this, but the word is doulos in the Greek, which means a slave a bond man, a man of servile condition. That's the Greek word and that's the official definition. So it really should in our culture be translated probably like Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ. But that would not be fully accurate either because there's actually several words in the Greek language for the word slave. And we've got to discern what kind of slave Paul is. And we'll get to that. He's a doulos. That's important, but we'll get to that more. John 15:15 Listen what Jesus said. Of course, these are red letters. Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends. For all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you. Jesus calls us friends. Now you might say, well, why does Paul then call himself a slave if Jesus said, hey, I don't call you any longer slaves, I call you friends? So shouldn't it read more like Paul, a friend of Jesus Christ? Well, that's where this doulos has a unique characteristic. And what it is is it's a slave by choice. Someone who had been freed had the opportunity to go free, but chose to serve his or her master out of love for the master, out of friendship with the master. See, it's because Jesus calls us friends that Paul would say, I by choice I choose to be a servant of Jesus Christ, a slave. So first century common practice, doulos was all over, especially in Rome. By the way, it was estimated the slave total in Rome during this time was about somewhere around close to 20% of Rome's population. Rome was higher population of slaves than what we would call greater Italy today. But uh Rome probably had around they guess around 330,000 slaves in Rome during the time of Paul. And what's interesting, the doulos which even in the Roman this isn't it the the doulos idea came from the Old Testament. I'll just tell you that just right now. I'll I'll show that in a second. But it was practiced even in the Roman Empire, which is kind of interesting. And it's estimated that somewhere around 10% of the slave population chose to continue being slaves which is kind of interesting. And And there were some if you read in history, there's an estimation that there were somewhere around 3 million doulos or slaves by choice. 3 million who said we want to stay slaves. Who in the world would do that? How many guys have seen the uh movie Ben Hur? The the old one with Charlton Heston. But it's a great movie. It's probably my favorite movie of all time. I'm just going to say that. And it's really well done. It even holds up in modern visual effects and all that if you ask me. But the thing that's really kind of interesting is there's a time where a guy becomes a slave, and it's a horrible thing. Like he just wants to die. It's the worst kind of slavery you could ever imagine. It's It's a little bit like the slavery of the deep South of the United States and our our horrible history of slavery. It's kind of like that. But eventually that guy is moved around and he gets to be a slave in Rome with a guy one of the high up powers that be of Rome. And they almost formed sort of a father son kind of relationship, the master and the slave. And you can almost kind of see if a person who was a slave but was treated with kindness and love. Now you say, Paul, slavery's bad all the time. Well, in those days often times you had a choice. You could either be killed and buried in a mass grave or you could be a slave and stay alive. But if a master was really kind and generous to a slave, there would come a time where they would say, you're free to go. You're free. But the slave would say, I don't want to be I I want to just remain a slave. And And this is what the Bible defines as a doulos slave by choice. So when Paul is using this was a common practice. When Paul says, Paul, a servant, doulos, because my master Jesus who no longer calls me a slave, he calls me his friend, but I love him because he loves me. And because of that, I'm going to be a slave by choice. And man, may that be true of all of us. You could be free to go and do the old things before you're a Christian, go back to the old watering holes, the bars and the pubs or whatever you were in, the old groups of people if you want to. But a lot of you realize, wow, I just want to hang out with Jesus. Jesus is my master, he's my Lord and Savior, and I choose to serve him. So so far with Paul's credentials here, we're seeing just even in the first few words, Paul's just nailing down who he is in his relationship with Christ. So so far humble, his name means little, servant, he's a slave of Jesus Christ. But then it says called to be an apostle.
Guest (Male): Pastor Brad Matthers, drawing from Paul's introductory remarks of the book of Romans, important understanding that it's a willing servant hood that God seeks in the heart of those he calls to be an apostle. And there's much more in this verse by verse study in today's word to share next time. Also Pastor Brad is standing by to join me with a special request before we conclude today's word. So I invite you to stay right there. But first, let me tell you a little bit more about Brad Matthers. He's the senior pastor of Atheist Creek Church just outside of Portland, Oregon. Brad's been the pastor of Atheist Creek for 30 years where he goes verse by verse in his study of the Bible. If you missed any portion of our study, you'll find all of Pastor Brad's messages online at today'swordradio.com. That's today'swordradio.com. All right, Pastor Brad is with me now. One of the things we really enjoy hearing is stories of changed lives because of these daily studies in God's word. And Brad if someone would like to share their story of how God has impacted their life, how can they do that? Yeah, I'm really glad you asked that, Kurt, because those stories are a giant encouragement to our whole team. You know, we put these messages out day after day, but much of the time we don't get to see you know what God's doing on the other side of the radio. So when we hear from people, it really is a blessing. You know, when someone gives us a note about a particular teaching that brought them back to church or gave new hope in a current time of despair or or strengthening their marriage, it's amazing to hear those stories. And they really do encourage us. And they remind us also that you know the word of God never returns empty. It's like when Isaiah the prophet said that the word never returns unto me void. I think that that that's one of the things that keeps us going is when we hear how the word is changing lives. So we'd love to hear from you. You can email us at info@today'swordradio.com. And you can also connect with us on our website for more information. So you know your story doesn't have to be dramatic. Uh sometimes the simple story where a teaching just gave you a little encouragement, that's all we need. It's just to hear uh how you're doing. And so remember the man that was delivered there in Mark chapter 5, Jesus did a work and then told the man, he said, go home to your friends, tell them the great things the Lord has done for thee. I think there is a power in telling others what the Lord is doing in your life. So please send us a message and we'd love to hear your story, rejoice with you, thank the Lord for the work he's doing in your life.
Guest (Male): Yes, we would indeed love to hear from you. And if you'd like to share your story of how these daily messages have had an impact on your life just email us. That email address again is info@today'swordradio.com. Again, tell us your story at info@today'swordradio.com or you can go to our website, which is today's word radio.com. Well, that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brad continues the apostle Paul's letter to the Romans, answering the question if Christians today are apostles themselves. Today's word with Pastor Brad Matthers is an outreach of Atheist Creek Church in Westland, Oregon.