Jesus Christ Our Lord - Romans 1:1-7

0:48Today we get the spectacular privilege of beginning to study the book of Romans. For many of you, it was through verses from this letter in the book of Romans that you were saved. For many of you, this is the first place that you learned about the wrath of God because it's so clear in this book. For many of you, this is the very first place that you learned about salvation through grace, through faith. For many of you, this is where you learned about the righteousness that comes from God. That we can't produce, but that he gives to us. This is an amazing letter.

1:37It's a profound letter, and it's our privilege to be able to gather together and study it together. What a joy and what a privilege. Last Sunday night, we finished the book of Colossians. Anytime I had been able to preach over the past couple years, we'd been studying through the letter to the Colossians, and we finished it last Sunday night. He gives this list of all of these men and women that he commends in the ministry for their faithfulness. And he shares his love with them and his greetings with them and says that they are hardworking and serving the Lord. Well, today we're going to travel back in time a little bit. The letter to the Colossians was written while Paul was in Rome. He was in prison, but he was in Rome. The letter to the Romans was written before he's ever even been to Rome. So we travel back a little bit, and the setting is probably what we read this morning: that Paul has been ministering in Asia and had this amazingly effective ministry, that the word of the Lord is going out. Jesus' name is being exalted and extolled. Miracles are being done through his hands. God is doing these amazing miracles through Paul. And it says that the word of the Lord goes out to all of Asia. But do you remember in our reading this morning what Paul said at the end? Yes, this ministry. In Asia has been wonderful, but I must get to Rome. I want to go to Rome.

3:08So he's still never been to Rome. He knows about the church in Rome. He really wants to go there, but he hasn't met them yet. And so this letter is, in a big part, an introduction of Paul to the Romans. He's introducing himself. So look at Romans 1, 1. Follow along as I read. Romans 1, 1. 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 is 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, 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. Pray with me one more time. Father, as we approach this passage, we see Paul's introduction of himself to the Romans.

4:28I pray, Lord, that you would help us study it. I pray that you would help us mine it for the truth that's inside of it. I pray, Lord, that you would give us ears and hearts that are desperate to hear from your word, that want to learn, that want to know everything we can about you and about your son and about your ministry through Paul and what that means for us. We thank you, Lord, for this letter. We thank you for a chance to study it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

5:11We don't know exactly how the church in Rome began. We don't have the story of the evangelists who went there and started the first church in Rome. We do hear that there were actually some visitors from Rome at Pentecost. Do you guys remember? When the Holy Spirit comes down and is doing these amazing works through the apostles, it says that there were visitors from Rome there. So maybe they stuck around a little bit and learned from the disciples and then went back to Rome. We don't know. Maybe Aquila and Priscilla, if you remember, when Paul met them in Corinth, do you remember where they had just come from? They had just come from Rome. There was an edict that all the Jews had to leave Rome. And so Aquila and Priscilla go to Corinth, and there they meet Paul. And maybe there's a chance they were already Christians. And Paul lives with them as fellow tent makers. We don't know. But what we do know is that their faith, the church in Rome, their faith has been proclaimed in all the world. That's what Paul says in verse 8. So they've been around a while.

6:26They are mature. They've been around long enough to be considered as established and well-known in the faith. And Paul will even say in chapters 15 and 16 that Paul considers the Roman church to be mature in their obedience, to be mature in their knowledge, and even able to instruct one another. And so we don't know a lot about their beginnings, but we do know that they are a healthy church. And even though no apostle has gone over to them yet, they are a healthy, thriving church that is able to instruct each other in their knowledge of the scriptures.

7:08And we can imagine a little bit, I invite you to imagine with me what life would have been like for them. Rome, of course, you know, is a gigantic city. It was the center of an empire. And so, number one, we can't picture that this ancient group of people who's getting this letter are living in these mud huts. Out in the countryside or something like that. The historical record shows that they probably mostly lived in apartments, that they would have these multi-level buildings that on the bottom, just like in cities today, on the bottom are stores and shops and things like that. And then in the upper levels are places where people lived. So they probably live in these little houses with their families. There's probably people everywhere. They're probably always around people. They're always around their family. Even when they go to work, even if they just had to cross the street, this is a huge city and they're in a populated area. And so they're passing people all the time. It's a crowded place.

8:13People everywhere. And from what we know about the Christian community in Rome, it wasn't the wealthiest community. They weren't all the rich people. And so they probably couldn't afford to buy a building like this one or like the one that we're about to build in the back. Instead, where would they have met? They would have met in people's homes. We even have record of them meeting in public places, like the public baths or the parks and things like that. That's where these congregations would have gathered together. And in Romans 16, when Paul is giving his final greetings, this is the picture we get. Listen to this. This is Romans 16:5. He's talking about Aquila and Priscilla, and he says, Greet also the church. Church in their house. And then later in verse 14, he will say, Greet Asyncretus, Phlegeon, Hermes, Patribus, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. Verse 15, greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus, and his sister in Olympus, and all the saints who are with them.

9:20And so those are a bunch of names we don't recognize, but you get this picture: that there's a church in Aquila and Priscilla's house. There's these other groups with the brothers that are with them, the brothers and the saints that are with them across this city. So they probably knew each other. They probably loved each other. They're supposed to greet one another. They're supposed to pass around Paul's letter to the Romans so that all these different places can hear. And back to our text, look at verse 7, Romans 1:7. We see that Paul considers them to be fellow Christians. Romans 1, verse 7, 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. So he's not addressing this to just one single local church in Rome. He's saying, all of those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be as saints.

10:14Pass this letter around. They are loved by God. They are called to be holy. That's what that means. They're called to be God's holy ones. And now they are receiving this special letter from the Apostle Paul. We know from the rest of the letter that Paul is writing for several reasons. And listen to these reasons. We know the main reason, perhaps, is that he really wants to go there. We heard that in the book of Acts, right? I must get to Rome. Well, he says the same thing in this letter more than once. He wants to go there. He knows that his commission from the Lord is to be the apostle to the Gentiles. And Rome is full of Gentiles. And so he wants to go. He wants to get there. That's his territory. That's his place. He wants to go there and preach the gospel. And he wants to get there as soon as he can. We hear in verse 12 that he wants to be encouraged by them. He wants to, when he gets there, be encouraged by the different churches in Rome. But he also wants to encourage them. He wants to bear fruit among them and preach the gospel among them. So one purpose of this letter is to let them know he's coming. He can't wait to get there. He loves them. He wants to serve them. And he's headed there right away. He just has to go to Jerusalem first. You remember, he has to deliver that gift from the Gentiles to the Jews in Jerusalem first, and then he's headed to Rome. He wants to get there as soon as he can. So this letter is written to say, I'm coming. The second reason is that he wants them to pray.

11:53This is in Romans 15, verse 30. I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of God. The Spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. So he wants to go there, and so he's saying, Pray for me. I'm going to Jerusalem, but there are unbelievers there, and they are hostile towards me. So pray for me that I can get to your city, because I want to be refreshed by your company. I want to see you. He also writes this letter so that when he gets there, they will help him on his way to Spain. He says in Romans 15:24, 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. And so he wants their help. So you can see that in all of this, Paul is wanting to introduce himself to them. He's headed that way. He wants them to know who he is. He wants to introduce who he is, what his gospel is that he's going to preach there. He wants to introduce and make sure that they're on the same page about Jesus Christ. And so in the book of Romans, we get the unique treat of seeing Paul's gospel that he preached laid out for us systematically.

13:27If you've ever thought about this, most of The letters that Paul has written are written to places that either he has gone before and already preached there, maybe for years, or that one of his disciples has gone on his behalf. And so we don't always get to hear what they preach there at the beginning. Like we read in Acts this morning, it just says he reasoned with them there for two years in the hall of Tyrannus. And if you're like me, you see statements like that, and you say, oh man, I wish we could have what he was reasoning with them about. You know, he's with them for months, he's with them for years, teaching in their synagogues.

14:11But in Romans, we get to see that foundation. He hasn't been there yet. And so if you've ever read Acts and said, man, I wish I could hear what he's saying in those first days, then perhaps that's what we're reading in the book of Romans. This is the place he hasn't been yet. This is a place his disciples haven't been. And so we can hear this gospel that he lays out. Paul's gospel. God's gospel, he calls it.

14:45As for our text today, you can see the big structure already. Look at verse 1. You can see that he starts out by introducing himself. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, a slave of Christ Jesus, is what he says. So, the first thing he teaches us about himself is that he wants to be wholeheartedly dedicated to serving the Lord. That's what he's given his life to. He is Christ Jesus' slave. He is called to be an apostle. So, he has been called by the Lord himself to be Jesus Christ's official delegate, like the twelve disciples. He has been set apart with this commission to be an apostle, to share the words of Christ from the Lord, since the Lord is no longer on the earth. He's a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, and specifically set apart for the gospel of God. Paul is set apart for the gospel of God. This is his mission. This is his duty. This is what he does. He preaches the gospel in these Gentile places. Set apart for the gospel of God. You can also see in verse 2 that he introduces the gospel. So he's just introduced himself, and now he's going to introduce the gospel in verse 2, which he promised beforehand, that's the gospel of God, which God promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. So, this gospel, number one, is God's gospel. He's the one who designed it. He's the one who enacted it and gave it to us, this good news. But also, he says that God promised it beforehand. So, when we read the Old Testament, that's what He says, he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. So the prophets that we read in the Old Testament are his prophets. They are God's prophets, and God is using them to tell beforehand what the gospel is, to share this good news in the Holy Scriptures, in the Old Testament that we have even today.

16:54That's why Paul is going to use so many Old Testament quotations in the book of Romans. We'll see over and over and over that he is quoting the Old Testament all over the place. And that's because this gospel was promised beforehand through the prophets. But what's interesting is that even though this letter is about Paul introducing himself, introducing his gospel and laying it out in full, right now, he doesn't jump into that yet. He doesn't actually tell us what the gospel is yet. He tells us it was promised beforehand. And then he tells us, you can look at verse 3, this gospel is concerning his son. So he tells us that it was promised beforehand, and he tells us who it was about, his son. But he doesn't quite jump into what it is yet. And that's what this letter is going to be. But for today, where Paul is going to spend most of his time in verses 3 through 6 is the son. He said, the gospel is about. His son, and then he pauses and says, let's get on the same page about who the son is.

18:07The Romans have been Christians, or there have been Christians in Rome for a long time. They're healthy and they're thriving. But Paul is writing a letter to them as someone who's unfamiliar and as an apostle. And so he says, I'm going to make sure we're on the same page about who I am, that you're accepting my apostolic authority. But we also need to be on the same page about what the gospel is about. And he's going to talk about that a lot. But right off the bat, he's saying, I want to be on the same page about who Jesus Christ is. Who is Jesus Christ our Lord? That's what he calls him at the end of verse 4. Jesus Christ our Lord. Who is Jesus Christ our Lord? And today I want us to see three answers to that question.

18:53Three answers. He is the Son of David. He is the Son of God. And he is the one we serve. Who is Jesus Christ our Lord? He is the Son of David, the Son of God, and the one we serve. Look at verse 3. The verse that we see is that he is the son of David. Concerning his son who was descended from David according to the flesh. Who was descended from David according to the flesh? Jesus was the Messiah, descended from the David according to the flesh. Over and over in this little passage, just verses 1 through 7, Paul keeps calling Jesus the Christ. Look at verse 1. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus.

19:46Verse 4, at the end, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Verse 6, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. At the very end of verse 7, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He never says the name Jesus without also mentioning that he is the Christ in this passage. He is the Messiah. He is the king who would come and reign over God's people. He is the promised one in the Old Testament. And in verse 3, we see part of the reason why this is true. He was descended from David according to the flesh. He was descended from David. He is the future king. And so we know that when Christ came into the world, he was already fully divine. We know that from all over the New Testament, that he was in the form of God, that nothing was created that wasn't created through him.

20:50But that he emptied himself and took on the form of a man. And he did take the form of a man. He was born of a woman. He grew in a woman. Woman's womb. And though he was supernaturally put there by the Holy Spirit, he was very naturally birthed into this world and grew as a man according to the flesh. And in his family line, the line that he came from, it was the line of David, just like God foretold. God had promised that this deliverer would come, that this seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. But as the population of mankind continued to expand, God picked a person that it would come through, this deliverer. And the person was Abraham. And then as his family began to expand, God narrowed it down again that it was Jacob, Israel. It was the family of Israel. And as Israel began to expand and become this mighty nation, God narrowed it down again and said, it's going to be through Judah that the scepter will come. And as Judah began to expand and expand and grow, God narrowed it down again and said, it's going to be from the line of David, this promised one who is going to come.

22:13So what do these things mean for us? That he was born of the flesh? That he was born of the line of David? Well, the young adults know this really well because we spent the entire semester on this. That he was born in the flesh. And if you're a nun. Christian, I want you to hear that the fact that your Savior has come in the flesh means that he was able to die for our sins. The fact that Jesus, who was in the form of God, became a man for our sake, made it so that he could die in his flesh on the tree for our sins.

22:58And so you, if you are still living in rebellion against the Lord, which you are if you're an unbeliever, you can leave that rebellion. And you can repent of your sin. And you can come to him because he's died for us in his flesh. And you can be completely forgiven. So ask him for forgiveness and come and end your rebellion and bow the knee before him. If you are a believer and you are already saved, then what this means for you is that you have a Savior who can sympathize with your weaknesses. You remember those wonderful passages in Hebrews that say that since he was born in the flesh and he lived a life like ours, he has gone through what we've gone through. He can sympathize with our weakness. He can help us in time of temptation. He can bear our burdens and he wants to. So if you're a believer, rest in the Lord. Come to him and flee to him in time of temptation, knowing that. He knows your weaknesses. He's been born in the flesh. And also, a believer, let's never stop marveling that he did come through the line of David, that everything is exactly like God said it would be.

24:18Let's be amazed at that, that God has kept all of his promises, that he told us beforehand exactly what family he would come from, and then what line of that family he would come from, and all of those promises have been fulfilled in Jesus. So, Paul is writing to Rome, and he wants to get there soon. He wants to come to them, but he wants to make sure that they're on the same page about who he is and about what the gospel is, but also about who Jesus Christ is. Who is Jesus Christ? He's the Son of God. He's the Son of David. And second, he is the Son of God. He is the Son of God. Look at verse 4.

25:06Jesus was declared to be the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ, our Lord, was declared to be the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead. This had already been mentioned at the beginning of verse 3 that Jesus was God's Son, but now it's explained for us more fully. This word for declared can either mean to appoint for the very first time, or it can mean to just designate something that's already true. And we know from the rest of Scripture that the first option can't be true of Jesus, right? It's not that when he was raised from the dead, he for the first time became God's Son. No, that's not true. Instead, the resurrection proved that he was the Son of God. It exclaimed and declared that he was the Son of God. He was declared to be the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead. So when he rose from the dead, it proved this. The Holy Spirit, it says, was involved in this powerful miracle. We hear of that also in Romans 8. It's implied there that the Holy Spirit was involved in the resurrection. But the Holy Spirit also testifies that he is the Son of God through its power, through his power, that the Holy Spirit in power testifies that Christ is the Son of God.

26:54So when we look at the resurrection, we can know that it's more than. Just, I say just, this is an amazing thing, right? But it is more than just his grand defeat of death, right? That is true, and it's thrilling for us because we know that he can defeat our death. But it's also more than that, it also proves that he's the Son of God. It declares to everyone that he is the Son of God. People may have doubted before, but they don't doubt anymore after they see his resurrected body. For the original audience, this name Son of God would have implied this relationship that we've seen as Pastor Tom has preached through the Gospel of John. We've seen this relationship between the Son and the Father. So it would have implied that strong relationship that the Son of God has with the Father. But it also would have brought up so much more. You remember in the life of Jesus when he was on the earth, whenever it was brought up that he was the Son of God, the Jews were ready to stone him for blasphemy.

28:07This is a claim to divinity. If it wasn't true of Jesus that he was the Son of God, then he would have been blaspheming. But it is true of Jesus. He is the divine Son. And though it would have been hard for many who were standing there looking at this man who looked like a man, Right? As they're standing there face to face with him, it may have been hard to accept that he was the son of God, but not after the resurrection.

28:42And that's the point of this verse. The resurrection obviously and powerfully displays that, yes, this man was the Son of God. And so we can know that since he certainly rose from the dead, that he was certainly God's Son. And we can trust everything that he says, and we can find salvation in him. He is the son of David. He is the son of God. And finally, he is the one that we serve, the one we serve. Look at verse 5.

29:19Through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations. So, first, Paul is talking about the apostles. He says that it is through Jesus that the apostles have received grace, number one, and it's through him that they have received their apostleship. So, Jesus is everything to the apostle Paul. If it wasn't for Jesus Christ, then Paul would not have found salvation. By grace. And if it was not for the Lord, then Paul would not be an apostle. He wouldn't have his mission. He wouldn't have been sent as a delegate to the Gentiles. It's Jesus Christ who stopped Paul, Saul, on the road to Damascus and changed who he was and saved him and made him an apostle. And now this is Paul's identity, that he is a slave of Christ Jesus, as we saw in verse 1, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.

30:38It's interesting, that word set apart. That word is the same word that the word Pharisee came from. To be a Pharisee was to be one that was a set apart one. That's what they called themselves. And so Paul, before his conversion, was a Pharisee, and he used to probably take pride in the fact that he was a set-apart one, that he's different and special. But now he has actually been set apart. He has been given this special ministry by the Lord, and everything is different.

31:15Another side note is that this is now the second time that Paul has mentioned his apostleship. He's writing to this group of people. And now, already twice, he has mentioned that he is an apostle, that he has been called. By the Lord. And so, what effect would this have on the Romans? We would say, listen up, right? You better listen to this. This is the apostle. This is the delegate of our Lord. And as he's writing this letter in this apostolic office to them, they better be all ears. This comes with the authority of the Lord. And the importance is the same for us today, right? That this is not just another letter. This is the word of the Lord to us, and we should hear it and obey it. But let's keep moving. Paul is obeying his commission. Verse 5, 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. So Paul's working for this cause, the name of Christ. He says, for the sake of the name.

32:23Paul wants the Messiah's name to be exalted in all the nations. And this is going to be done by bringing about the obedience of faith. When was the last time you heard that phrase? It's kind of a unique phrase, right? The obedience of faith. I think that most of us would be quick to say when we heard that I was saved not by works, not by the obedience of works, but I was saved by faith. And so why is he saying the obedience of faith? How does that fit together?

33:01That's true, that we were saved by faith alone. But accompanying faith, there is this obedience of faith. That first, number one, we obey the command to have faith, right? But then also, that this true faith compels further obedience. And so, though it might take us off guard to read the phrase the obedience of faith, we can see that they do go hand in hand. In the moment that Paul says this, he automatically expands this idea of service in obedience. He expands it from just the apostles to all of us, to all the nations, that we are all called to have the obedience of faith. It's not just the apostles who have their commission from the Lord, who obey him and serve him, but for all of us, he is the one we serve for the sake of his name. And in verse 6, Paul brings it personally back to the Romans. He says, Including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. Including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. So Paul's mission is to the Gentiles. He's bringing about the obedience of faith in all the nations. And part of the nations is Rome. He says, including you. You are this group among the Gentiles. And the Christians there are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

34:30The language there could either mean that they are called by Jesus Christ, or it could just be, and this is how most of the English translations take it, it could just be that they are called Jesus Christ's, as in they are Jesus's. They belong to Jesus, they are his possession. We belong to him, and it's through him that we've received grace. And so, just like Jesus is everything to Paul, and he has changed everything about who he is, Jesus should be everything to us.

35:10He's the Davidic king, he's the divine son, as we read, but he's also ours. He's our Lord, he's our Savior, and we are his. We are called to belong to him, to the glory of his name. Well, I want you to picture with me, if you can, that you were one of these Christians in Rome. And maybe you live in one of those apartments that we talked about earlier above some shop, and you live with your family, and you get up in the morning, and you're going to walk across the street to get some breakfast, and then you're going to walk down the street to go to work, but all of a sudden, your friend. Comes and he's running up to you and he says, Hey, we got a letter, we got a letter.

36:08You would say, Who got a letter? Who are you talking about? All of us, the Christians. Okay, from who? Who wrote this letter? Paul. Paul Olympus? No, Paul the Apostle, Paul of Tarsus. It's to the whole church. I think you would be pretty excited, right, as a Christian in this town. You don't even have the New Testament yet. You might have one or two of the Gospels. You might have a letter, an early letter, but you don't have the full New Testament yet. And yet, now this apostle is writing a letter to you and your fellow Christians in Rome.

36:56I think you would be thrilled to read this. You can't wait to hear from the apostles. They've been ministering in Jerusalem all this time. Paul's been ministering in Asia all this time, but now he's written a letter to you, and you're a Christian in Rome. And so your friend says that right now they're reading this letter in Aquila and Priscilla's house, but in an hour they're going to read it in Philologus' house. And you should meet them there because that's where you meet for church. And so you're going to meet them there. You go and get your family. Everyone's excited. You sit down. They're going to read the letter out loud. You're thrilled. It says, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. You know, what would be going through your mind? Oh, wow. This is the apostle. We better listen. Rufus, you better listen up, right?

37:55Which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures. Yes, yes, yes. This is the gospel we believe. We believe that it was given beforehand. We're on the same page with the Apostle Paul. This is God's gospel that he foretold through the prophets. Concerning his son, who is 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, 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. Yes, this is the same Christ we worship.

38:42It's the same gospel that we know. It's the same Christ that we worship, the Son of David, the Son of God, the one that the apostles serve, the one that we serve. He keeps reading, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to all those in Rome who are loved by Christ. God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you imagine the encouragement that you would get when you heard that?

39:16You Christians, even though you're all the way over in Rome, you're not out of the sight of God. You are loved by God. You have been called to belong to Jesus Christ. You're His. You're called to be His holy ones. Grace to you and peace to you from God and Jesus. How encouraging and exciting. Can you imagine the excitement that they would feel? This is the gospel we believe in. This is the Christ we believe in. And the Apostle is writing this letter to us as people who are on the same page and it's coming with His apostolic authority.

40:01Wouldn't you hang on every single word that they read from that letter? Wouldn't you want to read it again and again and again? You know, oh, this letter only takes one hour to read. We've got all day. Read it again. Read it again. Read it again. Read it again. Already in such a small section, verses 1 through 7, we've learned so much. We see that Paul is the slave of Jesus Christ. We see that he's called to be an apostle, that he's set apart from God, set apart for the gospel of God. We learn about the gospel, that it is God's gospel, that he promised it beforehand, that it's about his son.

40:53We learn about God himself, that he is the giver of this gospel, that the prophets were his prophets, that he's the father of Christ, and that he is the father of the Christians in Rome and all Christians. We learn about Christians, that they are called to belong to Jesus, that they are loved by God, that they are called to be holy and set apart in their conduct. And we learn the most about Jesus Christ in verses 3 through 6. He is the Son of David. He is the Son of God. He is the one we serve.

41:33If Paul can pack all of those things into seven verses, then let's be desperate to study the rest of this letter together. Let's hang on his every word. I think you would if you were there. I think you would hang on every word. And for us today, I think that another application is clear, that we should marvel. At the Son. Yes, we should know all about who he is. We should know all of these Old Testament promises that came true in who he is. We should understand how he's the son of David, how he's the son of God, and how we should serve him in obedience.

42:17But also, he is everything to us, and we are his. And so we can marvel at this. We can marvel at what the Lord has shared with us. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you would make us eager and excited to learn everything that's in this letter. I pray that as Paul steps through doctrine, that we would be eager to learn it and fix our incorrect thoughts about you. I pray that as God as Paul shares practical things and commands that we would be eager to obey.

43:12And Father, I pray that as we learn things about the gospel, as we learn things about the Son of David, I pray that we would be quick to marvel, to let our jaws drop at the amazing. Promises that you made and fulfilled, and at the amazing person of Jesus Christ. I pray, Lord, that if there are unbelievers in this room, that they would even today bow the knee before this person that we've seen so briefly this morning, Jesus Christ, our Lord. I pray that they would come to him and end their rebellion and ask for forgiveness. But I pray for all of us that we would keep our eyes fixed upon him and have hearts that are full of worship and amazement at who he is.

44:12We thank you, Father, for this time. We thank you so much for the fellowship of the saints and the love that we have for one another. We do already miss the Babers. We pray that you'd bring them back safely to us. And, Lord, I pray that you'd bless our fellowship the rest of today and tonight as we seek to show each other encouragement and love. Thank you, Father, for this time, and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.