An Intro to Romans
Download MP3If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Romans chapter 1. It's also there in your worship guide. We were supposed to begin Romans a year ago, and I realized that you can't teach through Romans unless I can establish eye contact with every person, and we couldn't do that. I also can't preach through Romans if my notes are blowing everywhere, or we're having to track down, you know, our, our pulpits and, drum shields falling on me, and everything that we've had while we've been at the deck. But we are finally in Romans, and I do think it's been the Lord's sovereignty as that he has obviously guided us to where we we went through the parables.
Jeffrey Heine:We went through Elijah and Elisha. We got to go through Philippians, and I see that those were very timely for for our church. But I look forward to going through Romans together. We're gonna read the first seven verses. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son, who has descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus Christ, our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You would pray with me.
Jeffrey Heine:Father, we ask in this moment you give us alert minds, attentive ears, and open hearts to receive what you would have for us through this great letter. Lord, I pray that your spirit would use these words to utterly transform us. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen. So 23 years ago, back in 1998, I was privileged enough to have, doctor John Piper come to Beeson Divinity School, and he taught one of my classes there. We were actually able to spend a good bit of time together. And, one of the things that we talked about was the book of Romans. He had just started at Bethlehem Baptist.
Jeffrey Heine:Just started preaching through Romans. And so I picked his brain a little bit about this great letter, because I was thinking about teaching it, for a college Sunday school class that I had just begun teaching. And doctor Piper, he told me that that was a terrible idea. I said, I'm thinking about teaching about on Romans. He goes, that's a terrible idea.
Jeffrey Heine:He said, I needed to wait at least 20 years before I preach from this book. He was 52 years old and he was just preaching it through for the first time. And he said, I needed to weather a few more things before I attempted to preach through this. In 2006, I got to meet up with Doctor. Piper again.
Jeffrey Heine:And so I asked him about Romans. I I reminded him about how he told me I needed to wait 20 years. That I couldn't teach through it. And I said, now that you have taught through Romans, would you still recommend this? And he goes, I haven't finished preaching through Romans.
Jeffrey Heine:He was 8 years in and he had not preached. He had preached 350 sermons on Romans and he was not done yet. And so he goes, yes. I still recommend that you wait. And so I have waited.
Jeffrey Heine:But honestly, I think the reason he told me to wait 20 years before I on it, is because he knew you can't preach Romans in 4 years to college students. And so I'd only be able to get through the introduction and then they graduate and be gone. I'm not gonna take that long. I'm not gonna take that long to go through Romans. For one my wife won't let me because I have a commentary on Romans literally in every room in my house right now.
Jeffrey Heine:And she doesn't want the house to be in such disarray for so long. So we will be working through it at a, a much faster clip. But I do want you to know that I have intentionally waited 20 years to preach through this book. Over 20 years. And I feel like now's the right time for me personally, and I feel like it's the right time for us as a church to go through it.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm not quite 50. I'm close though. And I have weathered things. I have experienced a whole lot. I'm a lot different person than I was when I finished seminary.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm a lot different person than when we started Redeemer 13 years ago. And as doctor Piper said when he introduced Romans, he said, I am not as moved now as I used to be by the tyranny of the urgent and the need to respond to every trendy view that blows across the cultural sea in America. And this is true. I've been able to see theological fads over the last 2 decades come and go. And I have found the truths of Romans during this time to hold.
Jeffrey Heine:They've been rock solid. They have been as unshakable as ever. And I think it's the right time for us now, not just for me, but for us as a church to go through this letter. Because in this cultural moment that we are in, the gospel needs clarity. I found that living in the Bible Belt or really the buckle of the Bible Belt, people have by and far been inoculated against the gospel.
Jeffrey Heine:And what I mean by this is that people in the South, we've grown up with just enough exposure to the gospel. We've heard the buzzwords around Christianity. That we've actually become immune to the gospel. And so people in our culture, they hear the word gospel, or they hear the word Christian, and they instantly think, well I know what that means. That's what my great, my racist grandpa used to believe.
Jeffrey Heine:Or, or yeah, that's, that's the religion that used to suppress women. Or the gospel, well that's something preachers preach in order to get rich, or that politicians use to get people to agree with them. Yeah. I know all about Christianity. And as a result of this minimal and misleading exposure, our culture has become resistant to the actual gospel.
Jeffrey Heine:They've been inoculated. And by and large, I think Christians have a hard time understanding the gospel. Just exactly what we believe and why we believe these things. And what you cannot get any clearer on the gospel than Romans. I mean, in this great letter, Paul is going to take his time.
Jeffrey Heine:And he is going to systematically and clearly unpack what we believe. He's gonna answer the many questions that we have. Over the course of the next 16 chapters, Paul is gonna answer questions like this. And this is just a few. Who is God?
Jeffrey Heine:Can we find him? What is sin? Why do we desire the things we desire? Is there a hell? If so, why would a good God send people there?
Jeffrey Heine:On what basis would he do that? Who is Jesus? Why did Jesus have to die? Why is there so much evil in the world? Why do I think so many evil thoughts?
Jeffrey Heine:Will it always be this way? Why did God give us the law? Is there any way to actually please him? And if there is, why should we try? Why can't I stop sinning?
Jeffrey Heine:Why is having faith so important? What is or what does the holy spirit do and who is he? What is predestination? What happens to us when we die? What about Israel?
Jeffrey Heine:Are the Jewish people still God's chosen people? How am I supposed to relate to the government? How am I supposed to relate to other Christians? Any of those questions interest you? Those are just a few a few of the questions that we are gonna go over in Romans.
Jeffrey Heine:The the scope of Romans is vast. It's only matched by its depth. For 2000 years, God has used this book to light the fire in the hearts of the people who have greatly shaped Christian thought. God used this letter to change Saint Augustine. Saint Augustine's mother was a Christian, but Augustine wanted nothing to do with the Christian faith.
Jeffrey Heine:So he rebelled. He went off. He moved to Milan where he indulged in every pleasure. He actually became a sex addict, while also becoming a famous orator or or or or a rhetorician. He got a prestigious job in the Roman Empire.
Jeffrey Heine:He was highly respected. So he had fame. He had money. He had women, and he had a job that was meaningful, yet he was completely empty. And at the age of 31, he was leaning against a tree in Milan, and he heard a child's voice almost singing to him, take and read.
Jeffrey Heine:Take up and read. And he looked and he actually had the scroll of Romans with him. And he picked up Romans and he read Romans 13:13, which was the first verse his eyes, saw. And he read these words. Not in orgies and drunkenness.
Jeffrey Heine:Not in sexual immorality and sensuality. Not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh. And he immediately was struck, and he gave his life to the Lord. And no one shaped Christian thought more than Augustine for the next 1100 years.
Jeffrey Heine:And then comes Martin Luther. Martin Luther wasn't an Augustinian monk. He was also an Old Testament professor, yet he didn't know Jesus. As one of his mentors, Johann Staupitz, Staupitz was talking with Luther and finally was so frustrated with him at the time. He goes, don't you don't you love God?
Jeffrey Heine:And Martin Luther said, love him? No. I hate him. He's a professor of Old Testament. And he said, I hate God because he is just.
Jeffrey Heine:And he makes such demands on us that we can never fulfill. And so he felt completely hopeless. And then he was teaching through Romans, and he comes across Romans 117, which talks about how our righteousness comes by faith. And he was reborn. He said he felt as if heaven if heaven opened up to him.
Jeffrey Heine:And then he went on to lead the Protestant Reformation. John Wesley, who was the founder of the Methodist Church, a catalyst for the great revival that happened in the 18th century. Well, he was converted when he heard somebody reading the preface to Martin Luther's commentary on Romans. And he said he felt his heart grow strangely warmed. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress comes after he had studied the book of Romans.
Jeffrey Heine:Even Doctor. Piper, who had such an influence on me, he got his call into pastoral ministry by studying the book of Romans. Was actually a professor and he was doing his doctoral dissertation on Romans chapter 9. And he was just pouring himself into it. He's in the middle of his study and trying to explain predestination and all these things happening there, he said God just spoke to him clear as a bell and said, John, I will not be explained.
Jeffrey Heine:I will be proclaimed. And he left being a professor, and he became a preacher who proclaimed God's word. God has used this letter to transform the church for over 2 1000 years now. And can I tell you, if you give yourself to this book, you will not walk away unchanged? It is simply the greatest letter in the New Testament, the greatest letter we have as humans.
Jeffrey Heine:So you guys ready to start? I mean is that good enough pump up? I kind of feel like we need to do something here. Alright? Alright.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's look at verse 1. Y'all look there. Your worship guide there. Verse 1, Paul. Alright, let's stop right there.
Jeffrey Heine:And I know you're thinking, oh my gosh it is going to take years. It is gonna take years for us to get through this. I can't tell you how long it's gonna take us to get through this. I I do want us It's probably gonna be 3 or 4 sermons per chapter, because I don't want to submiss the forest for the trees. Even though some of the trees there are magnificent.
Jeffrey Heine:Absolutely magnificent. And you really could spend easily a decade in this. But I I do want us to move through, so we so we always keep the larger picture of Romans in front of us. It took Piper 8 years. It took Martyn Lloyd Jones 14 years to preach through this.
Jeffrey Heine:But we won't take that long. And so back to that first word, Paul. You cannot understand this letter unless you understand the man who actually wrote it, Because this letter is gonna flow from his own story. How did a former pharisee, a former persecutor of the church, come to write the greatest letter in the New Testament? A letter and there's not a letter in existence that has had more impact than the one he pinned.
Jeffrey Heine:And this question has got to be asked because if Paul was in this room, not one of us would have thought that's the man who's going to pin such a great letter. That people will be studying it 2000 years from now. We would have never pegged him. And we've already looked a lot at Paul's life as we went through his letter to the Philippians, so I don't want to rehash all of that. But Paul was a highly educated, extremely jealous or zealous Jew who absolutely hated Christians.
Jeffrey Heine:He hated them so much that he went around arresting them, killing them. When the very first Christian, was killed, Stephen, our first martyr, his clothes were laid at Paul's feet. Meaning, Paul was overseeing the execution of Stephen. And so what happened to him? Well, Paul was so zealous of in his persecution of Christians, he decided he would go all the way out to Damascus, which was over a week's journey away in order to hunt some down.
Jeffrey Heine:It which shows his determination. I mean, that was not a normal zeal. He hated these Christians. And he would go to any lengths to find them and hunt them down. But while he was on that journey, on that road to Damascus, he met the resurrected Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus stopped him in his tracks. Paul fell like a dead man and it's at that point he realized that the one who had been crucified, the one he thought was a dead blasphemer, was very much alive. And Paul had been fighting against him all these years. I mean, can you imagine how you would feel? I mean, Paul had just killed Stephen.
Jeffrey Heine:Stephen looked up in the sky and he said, I see the Lord Jesus. And now Paul sees the same Lord Jesus. The same Lord Jesus that Stephen was crying out to when Paul was executing him. How would you feel in that moment? Your knees buckle.
Jeffrey Heine:You fall down to the ground like a dead man. And that's what happened to Paul. When you realize that the man you thought was dead is alive and now he holds all power over you. Paul talks about this experience in Acts 25. He says that a light from heaven shone.
Jeffrey Heine:It was brighter than the noonday sun. And he fell to the ground and he heard Jesus say to him, Saul Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads. My kids recently asked what a goad is. You hear it in a good Johnny John Cash song, Johnny Cash.
Jeffrey Heine:It's hard to kick against the goads, and and it is. A goad is a is a long pole with a nail in it that that people would use to drive cattle. And if you had a stubborn ox that wouldn't move, you poke the back of its heel. And there is no way that ox would not move. If it tried to kick back, it would just injure itself more.
Jeffrey Heine:So Jesus, he is telling Paul, you've been fighting me and fighting me and fighting me, but no more. You will not fight against me anymore. You can't kick against me. It's time for you to move forward. I'm calling you into my service.
Jeffrey Heine:It's time to get to work. And Paul never forgot that encounter with Jesus. He would retell the story over and over and over again. He talks about it in Galatians, in first Corinthians, in first Timothy. At least three times he goes through his whole testimony in Acts.
Jeffrey Heine:It just drips through the pages of Romans. You can't understand Romans apart from his conversion. Apart from the time when he met Jesus because Paul never got over it. And this leads Paul to now introduce himself the way that he does. This is Paul, and he calls himself a servant of Christ Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:First and foremost, that's how Paul viewed himself. He saw himself as a servant or you could say a slave or a bond servant of King Jesus. Jesus the Messiah. Jesus the anointed one. And it's a shocking introduction.
Jeffrey Heine:Because it's not how you would typically introduce yourself in such an important letter. Usually you put forward your credentials. So you would expect Paul to do what we saw in Philippians, put forth his resume at this point. Put forth all the reasons why they should listen to him. You would expect him to say something like I, doctor Paul.
Jeffrey Heine:You know from the prestigious institute back in Jerusalem there. And then he would list his education. He would list all of his accomplishments. He would list all the reasons why these Romans should listen to him. But Paul doesn't do any of that.
Jeffrey Heine:He begins by saying Paul, a slave of my king Jesus. Paul, a slave. Paul doesn't begin by telling who he is. He begins by telling whose he is. Because that's all that matters.
Jeffrey Heine:It doesn't matter who you are. All that matters is whose you are and Paul is saying, I belong to Jesus. That's all that matters. This letter is not about me. This letter is about who I belong to.
Jeffrey Heine:My king, my king Jesus. So so what is what is a bondservant? A bondservant is someone who has been bought and who lives to serve their master, lives to please their master. In 1st Corinthians both 6 and 7, Paul says that we are bond servants of Jesus. He says that we have been bought with a price.
Jeffrey Heine:Therefore, we should glorify God with our body. We've been bought. As Christians, you have been bought. You belong to another. You belong to Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:You were bought by his blood. Theologians throughout the ages have always reminded Christians that you are doubly owned by God. Because when he created you, he owned you. And then you rebelled and then he bought you back. You were doubly owned by him.
Jeffrey Heine:This is what Paul means when he calls himself a bond servant or a slave of Jesus. He is owned by another. And it means that the reason he lives, the reason he exists is to please his master. In Galatians 1 10, he says, am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Am I trying to please man?
Jeffrey Heine:If I were trying to please man, I would not be a servant of God. In other words, Paul couldn't give a rip what other people thought about him. He lived to please his master. He didn't care what Caesar thought about him. What the religious leaders thought about him.
Jeffrey Heine:What his culture was saying about him. He couldn't care less. He only cared what Jesus, his king, thought about him, because he was owned by him and he lived to please him. I can't tell you what goes for Paul goes for this church. We at Redeemer Community Church do not put our finger up into the air to see which way the cultural winds are blowing so we could get on board.
Jeffrey Heine:We don't care what some talking head on TV says that we need to believe or what the latest podcast or what the latest politician is saying. We could not give a rip about those things. Whatever is, you know, our The Internet is trending on the Internet or whatever social media is telling us to stand for. We exist to please 1 person. Jesus our King.
Jeffrey Heine:Can I get an amen? Amen. Is there an elder here who'll give me an amen? Amen. It's why we exist.
Jeffrey Heine:When the church tries to become like its culture, it loses its ability to speak into the culture. It ceases to become any agent of change within its culture. And God has called us out of that. He has called us to himself And so we listen to him. We exist to please him.
Jeffrey Heine:So remember, church, whose voice we listen to. Alright. Back to the text here. Gosh. Alright.
Jeffrey Heine:We are gonna spend 10 years. I I want us to at least look at 2 more terms that Paul uses to describe himself. And once again, both of these terms speak to who he whose he is and not who he is. The next term he uses is called. Paul was called to be an apostle.
Jeffrey Heine:Now apostle is one who has seen the resurrected Lord, physically seen the resurrected Lord and has been called by him into ministry. And an apostle speaks the very words of God to us. That was their mission. Which is why we are now still listening to Paul. And we care what he thinks more than anyone else thinks.
Jeffrey Heine:At one of our New to Redeemer dinners, one time, we have a Q and A time. And someone asked a question about theology. And I quoted Paul. And the person responded, so are you saying that you agree with Paul in this? I'm just assuming the person's not here.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, I I I hope they are. But I said, absolutely. Absolutely we agree with Paul. Because whatever cultural moment you were caught up in is gonna come and go. But but Paul is speaking to us the very words of God.
Jeffrey Heine:He was an apostle. So yes, we agree with Paul in this. And Paul talks about his calling as an apostle in 1st Corinthians 15. He says, he lists all the people that Jesus appeared to when he says, Jesus appeared to James, then to all the apostles, last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
Jeffrey Heine:But by the grace of God, I am what I am. He says, and God's grace towards me was not in vain. I love that. Paul, it was not in vain. God gave us the gift of Paul.
Jeffrey Heine:He gave the church Paul in order to teach us about himself. Alright. The third term that Paul uses to introduce himself, the words set apart. He has been set apart for the gospel of God. Now we're gonna talk more about the gospel of God next week, but I do want us to look at this phrase set apart.
Jeffrey Heine:Paul, he he actually talks about how he was set apart in Galatians chapter 1 when he says this. But when he who had set me apart before I was born and called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach to the Gentiles. And then he goes on and on. But but did you catch that first part? He who had set me apart before I was born.
Jeffrey Heine:Paul's introducing a lot of the themes that he's gonna be talking about through the rest of his letter, but don't miss that. Paul says he was set apart before he was born, because this has massive implications for us. God set him apart before he was born, but then what happened after God set him apart? Did Paul look like he was set apart? No.
Jeffrey Heine:Paul's entire life he went astray. He went the complete opposite direction of going to God. He ran away from God. He opposed Christianity with every fiber of his being. He was God's enemy.
Jeffrey Heine:He's killing Christians for crying out loud. So he killed them before he ever became one. So what happened to God's setting him apart? What exactly does being set apart accomplish? Because it honestly looks like being set apart doesn't accomplish a single thing.
Jeffrey Heine:So you have to ask the question that, did God you know he's gonna set you apart Paul, but he sets him apart but then God lost control of Paul. Is that what happened? Did God say, Paul I'm sending you apart? I have a wonderful plan for your life. And then Paul strayed from it?
Jeffrey Heine:And then God's up there wringing his hands going, oh my gosh. What happened? And he spends the next 2 decades trying to bring Paul back. Is that what happened? Not at all.
Jeffrey Heine:God was there all along even in Paul's rebellion. Even his rebellion had a purpose, was going right according to God's plan. Paul talks about this in 1st Timothy 1 when he says, though formally I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent opponent. But I received mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and the love that are in Christ Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I receive mercy for this reason that in me as the foremost or the chief of sinners, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. In other words, God allowed Paul to rebel for you. That's why God allowed Paul to rebel. He allowed him to rebel for you.
Jeffrey Heine:He he allowed him to rebel even to the point where he became the chief of all sinners. That means even Sodom and Gomorrah didn't have anything compared to Paul. He was that far gone. But now when we look at Paul, we're supposed to cover our mouths and wonder just think if God can save him, God can save anybody. He can save me.
Jeffrey Heine:His grace can reach even the lowest of sinners. That's why God allowed Paul to do this. It was for us. It was to let us know the greatness of his gospel, the greatness of his power to save. And this is the theme of Romans.
Jeffrey Heine:No one is too far from God. That God's hand cannot reach down and pull them. It's the glorious theme of this letter. God's grace reaches even the lowliest of sinners. Paul has been bought.
Jeffrey Heine:Paul has been called. Paul has been set apart. All of these are passive terms. Someone else is doing the action in all of these terms here. And once again, Paul's reminding us this isn't a letter about me.
Jeffrey Heine:There's someone else doing all this to me. This is not the gospel of Paul. This is the gospel of God. And then notice how Paul ends his greetings here. He describes us in almost the same way he described himself.
Jeffrey Heine:In verse 6, he says that you all are called. That you belong to Christ. In verse 7, he says that you are loved. And then once again he says that you are called by God to be saints. In other words, whose you are and not who you are is all that matters.
Jeffrey Heine:And he says, you belong to Christ. You belong to Christ. It's one of the great themes of this letter. That theme of us belonging to Jesus runs throughout it because there is no greater hope in life and death than the fact that we belong wholly to Jesus. And, church, I look forward to unpacking this over the next 16 chapters with you.
Jeffrey Heine:Pray with me. Lord Jesus, you have bought us with your own blood. We belong to you, And you are a sweet master with lavish grace poured out over us. Lord, and I pray that over the weeks, the months ahead, Lord, that we would begin to understand more and more of your heart towards us and that we would joyfully, gladly give our lives to you. Thank you that your hold on us is far greater than our hold on you, And that your grace towards us will never be in vain.
Jeffrey Heine:And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus, our savior. Amen.
