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Sunday, 1 June 2008 - Romans, chapter 1: 1 - 17.

It would be difficult to overestimate the influence of Romans on Christianity. Of all the books of the Bible, none has left it's mark on the theology and language of the Christian Faith like this letter."  That's how one writer, anyway, begins his commentary on Paul's letter to the Romans.  And today, as we at church here begin a series of Sunday morning studies in this letter - I do hope that our desire will be that it will also leave an indelible mark in each of our lives.

You'll find Paul's letter to the Romans starts on page 1128 in the church Bibles.  As you're finding it (and today we'll be looking at 1:1-17) you might be sitting there thinking that attaching such importance to the influence of this one letter in the Bible is merely hype and exaggeration.  So let me give you just a few examples of its pivotal affect on the history of Christianity long after it was written.

We'll start in the fourth century AD with a young professor of rhetoric living in Milan – and living a life that he was later to confess as being driven by lust and pride.  Sensing a divine imperative - he opens the Bible at will - and then reads part of Romans chapter 13.  It changed his life - and the life of Western Christianity.  His name was Augustine.

More than a thousand years later and a monk cum professor in, coincidently, an Augustinian order, was sent to lecture on Romans at a new German university at a time when the church had lost it's way.  I don't know what his students learnt - but there - Martin Luther re-discovered the truth that salvation was by grace alone - and out of this truth the Reformation was born - and Europe - and the world - was set alight afresh by the gospel.

Fast forward couple of hundred years - and on 24 May 1738 an Englishman - a professional churchman of the established church - reluctantly attended a meeting of Moravian Christians in Aldgate Street, London.  He later said that "his heart was strangely warmed" as he listen to preface to Luther's commentary on Romans being read.  His eyes were also opened to the fact that ‘salvation is by faith alone'.  And his life changed dramatically from that day on.  His name?  John Wesley.  And the rest - as they say - is history.

I want to say that as I was preparing this - I was quite surprised to find myself getting all emotional.  As a general rule - that's not me.  But here is a traceable chain reaction of the grace of God brought about through this letter - touching and changing lives in a measurable way, century after century, as it dawned on individuals that God's salvation is free at the point of need.  It is not our own doings that puts us right with God.  It’s all from His grace and His mercy alone.  Or as another man put it as God rescued him from the dregs of his life - "Amazing grace - that found a wretch like me!"

So, a little bit of background to the book as this is the first talk in the series.

Some NT books have had their authorship questioned over the years.  Not so the Letter to the Romans.  It's been accepted as the genuine work of Paul the Apostle by scholars - who generally agree that it was sent from Corinth.  There's also a consensus that it was likely to have been written in the three month period Paul spent in Greece mentioned in Acts 20:3.  Dating it is less clear - ideas ranging from AD55 - AD59.   But why he wrote this letter as it's written specifically to Rome - is a bit of a mystery.  Which is why thesis have proliferated on the subject.   But we're not going there.

Paul was writing to an existing church at the hub of the Roman Empire that he had neither founded, or visited.   And since Peter couldn't have been to Rome before AD50 at the earliest - it's unlikely he founded it either.   But Acts 2:10 & 11 tells us that at Pentecost in Jerusalem after the first Easter there where "visitors from Rome – both Jews and converts to Judaism" listening to Peter's first sermon.  These would have taken news of ‘the Way' - as Christianity was first called - back to their synagogues – and back to a quite substantial Jewish community that lived in Rome.  And since ‘all roads led to Rome' - others - traders and travellers over the two decades or so since then - would have added to the exposure of that city to the gospel.

However, twice in recent history the Jews had been expelled from Rome.  The last time was in AD49 - and the edict banishing them would have been in effect until the death of Emperor Claudius five years later.  In fact we have a reference to this expulsion in Acts 18 - which telling us that Aquila and Priscilla turn up in Corinth to help Paul because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome.  But it's other historical sources that tell us why the Jews were expelled.  They say it was on account of riots and unrest caused by ‘Chrestus' which is generally accepted as a corruption of the Latin that gives us Christ.  Jews who did believe in Jesus - and Jews who didn't - were locked in angry fracas - and they all got expelled from Rome.

Now I'm not tell you that just an interesting piece of history.  You see - the predominantly Jewish church in Rome pre-AD49 suddenly becomes predominantly Gentile overnight. And five years later - when Jewish Christians could return to the city - they find ‘their church' has undergone a significant culture change to which they now needed to readjust.  And if non-Jewish Christians had felt ‘second class' before AD49 because they were not born of God's ancient race - Jewish Christians could now face an identity problem as they returned to Rome to rejoin a predominately Gentile church.   Please hold that in your mind in the coming weeks as Paul speaks in his letter about Jews and Gentiles and salvation.  This letter wasn't written in a vacuum.  Paul might never have been to Rome - but he did know people there.   After all - he greets 26 of them personal in chapter16!

I said a moment ago there's been a lot of debate as to why Paul wrote this letter to Rome.  Well he tells us three things that partly answer that in the letter.  First of all - it was to introduce himself to a church he'd never visited - but hoped to go to in the near future.  Secondly, he probably wrote to begin to seek support from Roman Christians for a proposed mission in Spain - his intended destination after he'd left them.  And thirdly - to ask for their prayers as he made his way to Jerusalem to deliver famine relief to the church there from the churches in Asia Minor and Greece.  But of course - the debate's actually about why he wrote it as such a profoundly theological theses?!  Someone's called this letter, "Paul's deepest convictions in search of the widest publicity".  That might not be too wide of the mark.

Just one other thing as we look forward to the series.  The letter has three main sections.  The first eight chapters cover the whys and wherefores of God's salvation. Then there's a middle bit dealing with the place of the Jews in God's plan of salvation. After which Paul then goes on to talk more about living the Christian life God's way. So (remembering that it's a privilege for us to look at this letter this morning in both freedom and in our own language) let's now read Romans 1:1-17.

Have you ever been on a course - or maybe been in a holiday group on the first evening - where you find yourself with a crowd of mostly strangers?  Sometimes the person in charge will asks each person to, "tell us a little about yourself".  What you then say has to be appropriate to the event, of course.  So if it's a work related gathering you're unlikely to reply, "my favourite colour is blue, and I like playing draughts"!

We can imagine Paul at the start of his letter seeing himself facing the same question from his unseen recipients.  So how should he introduce himself - and what should he say about himself?  Which is why at verse one he calls himself... well - not what we've got in our NIV translation.  He actual says - I'm a "slave of Christ Jesus".  People don't willingly - certainly not proudly - call themselves slaves today.  But that has to do with the imagery from the Slave Trade and the slave system in the Americas a few hundred years ago.   A guy called Leon Morris in his commentary on Romans says: "As the Christians used it, the term conveys the idea of complete and utter devotion, not the abjectness which was the normal condition of the slave.  Paul is affirming that he belongs to Christ without reservation."  He's just saying that he is totally given over to the Messiah Jesus.

And he was "called to be an apostle".  I've seen ‘apostle' defined as ‘special messenger' - but also as being "a delegate; someone sent on behalf of someone else".   In my younger days I attended a few union meetings to see what they were about - and just before the Annual Conference of my Union we voted on motions to be discussed – and ‘mandated' our delegates to vote in a certain way.  What they then did - they did the way we wanted them to - and did it on our behalf.  They were our representatives.  So Paul immediately goes on to state for whom and to what he is ‘mandated' to represent – the gospel (the ‘good news') from God about His Son.  And of course he was called to this task by God - a point he makes very clear on several occasions elsewhere.

A couple of things crossed my mind in relation to being an apostle.  First - it was (or even is) a role - not a status.  Being an apostle was Paul's job, not his title.  Something for us to remember - as God gives us gifts and roles. The other was that we often hear people talk about "the twelve apostles" as if they were an excusive club.  Obviously not, if Paul was an apostle.

And something else crossed my mind too, in relation to being "a slave of Christ Jesus" (whatever the specific role is).  Have we ever been guilty of saying to ourselves – ‘I'll serve God - but I'll do it my way - only expending the amount of time, money or energy I want to on it?'  Perhaps we would never say that to ourselves - but have our actions sometimes spoken louder than our words?  Are we as faithful and committed to the things God (note God) calls us to do, as Paul was?   Consider this a life check tick box.

If you've ever wondered why so often NT letters start the way they do - it's based on the convention of the day.  We usual head up our letters with our address, the date, and then most often start "Dear..." whoever.  In Paul's day it was the practice to start with who you were, give a pray or a greeting, and then say who you're writing to.  But Paul often took his opening remarks a lot more seriously than his more conventional contemporaries - as he does here.  Because here we have almost a short creed crammed into his opening greeting!   (Somebody's even says it probably was one!)

Let me show you.  If you work your way through the first few verses you've find - "the gospel is.... From God.  Promised in Scripture.  About the Son of God.  Born as a Man into David's family line.  Show to also to be God - by God raising him from the dead by means of the Holy Spirit.  And if you thought God came in quite a few times in those statements - you'd be right.  In fact Morris says that "God is the most important word in this letter". 

In fact - let me read a fuller quote by him on the matter.  He says, "Romans is a book about God.  No topic is treated with anything like the frequency of God.  Everything Paul touches in this letter relates to God.  In our concern to understand what the apostle is saying about righteousness, justification and the like, we ought not to overlook his tremendous concentration on God".  And he's not just talking about a word count on the term God.  He's saying the whole ethos behind the letter is God centred.

Phil called today's talk (you might have seen it up on the screen) "setting the agenda". Well that's exactly what Paul's doing in these opening verses. After which - he goes on to say, he's writing to the saints in Rome.  And I do hope you realise he's not talk about stained glass window characters - but everyone who has accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour.

Both Islam and Christianity have hijacked the term ‘saint' from it's original meaning and turned it into an elevated status.  It never was.  If you want to use it as a label - then use it for everyone who is in God's eternal family.

After which - formalities completed - Paul goes straight into... affirming his readers, even though he's never met them.  And if you look at all his letter (Galatians being the exception, but for a reason) he almost always does this.  So - how often do you start letters or e-mails with words of affirmation for the person or people you're writing to?  I'm not talking about ‘buttering someone up'.  They, like us, would have spotted that a mile off.  Pure rhetoric would probably have turned them off the same way it would us.  But perhaps we could consider taking a leaf out of Paul's book and following his example. Because even to the Corinthians (who he has to go on and correct on several issue) he starts of by giving thanks for them.  Perhaps if we did the same - in both correspondence and conversation - we'd face less conflict and sustain better relationships.

He then goes on to labour the point about really, really wanting to come and see them - but so far not having been able to make it.  Have you ever listen to someone speaking and ‘read between the lines' a background to what they were saying?  I might be wrong - but it wouldn't surprise me if somebody from the Rome had complained (maybe more than one person) "Here we are, the church at the centre of the empire, and you never come to see us!"   However he does say in verse 13, he'd been "prevented from doing so until now".  But not by whom - and we aren't at liberty to guess.  In other places we're told both the Holy Spirit - and Satan - had prevented him going somewhere - but he doesn't spell out for them, or us, who it was here.

What he does say is - that when he gets to Rome - it won't be to see the sites or enjoy the lifestyle.  It will be to talk about Jesus.  To share his experience of the ‘good news', and also to be encouraged by the Roman church's experience of this same gospel.  And just thinking about that drives him forward into a short message of tremendous import - the bridge to which being a statement that the good news is for everyone, of every ethic background, and every and any level of intelligence.  As somebody said, "from the top to the bottom of society".  That's why it's ‘good news'.

And that's why - driven on by his personal experience of God's goodness and mercy to him - and convinced of it's reality and trustworthiness - he says - "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.  For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith."

One commentator said (referring to these two verse) they are ‘the text' from which Paul preaches the whole of Romans.  That's probably not wrong - which is why I re-read them.  They're certainly a summary of the motivation for the rest of his letter.    

For while this letter of Paul's to the church in Rome is a closely and intelligently argued exposition of the gospel and of the Christian faith - it's verses like these that tell you that the truth Paul expounds doesn't only come from his head - but is driven by his heart.  It's the essence of who he is.  It's his spiritual DNA.  Evangelism wasn't something he did – it was something he lived!  It burned in him as a driving passion - taking him to places for the Lord where no other motivation could survive.

If you meet someone with conviction and passion who has experienced something powerfully good and wants everyone to know about it - you know it.   Last Tuesday some of us met a man like that at Canine Partners down in Midhurst.  He sat in a wheelchair and told us his story.  He'd been in the Royal Navy during the first gulf war and something happened that destroyed a significant part of his life, and took away a lot of his past. Through a series of co-incidences, he ended up at a dog training centre where his wife was trying to become a ‘puppy mum' for the organisation.  A dog, uninvited, came and befriended him.  From that moment on he started to be able to communicate again – and came into a life changing experience.  I said to a few people afterwards; ‘There's an evangelist!'.  He was saying - this is real good - and I want everyone who needs what I found to have it as well.  Powerful stuff.

About a month ago I came across another man who exuded this same sort of passion - but about Jesus in today's world.  He'd been chaplain to Exeter football club for about twenty year - and quite happy where he was thank you very much - until God moved him. He was head-hunted by a town centre church committee.  They were in the process of creating a new post of Chaplain for their town's shopping precinct (plus their local business community).  He wasn't particularly enthusiastic about the idea.  God was – so he moved.   Then God started working through him (and the team he's built up) in some almost unimaginable ways.  Let me tell you a bit more.

He became a member at the local lap dancing club.  He's got his own security card – he just swipes it and goes in.  A chaplain in a lap dancing club?!  Well you've got to admit - it's thinking outside box!  But that's exactly what Paul was doing and saying in Romans Ch.1!  To Greeks, non-Greeks, Jews, Gentiles, wise, foolish - everyone!  Paul saw no barrier to the gospel - "because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes".  Lap dancers included.  Do you believe that?

So this chaplain's in the lap dancing club - and four of the girls come up to him and ask him if he'll run an Alpha course for them.  But they didn't want go to a church for it.  So in a side room - and I think about once a month - he finds himself running an Alpha course in a lap dancing club with the girls coming straight in from working.  In the end - eight girl and four security guys attended - and two of the girls had changed lives, and changed jobs.  By the way - this same guy is now talking with the local brothel keepers to put chaplains in the brothels!  He's also been out on night patrols with the police (complete with body armour) to meet street prostitutes.  But he's also got access to the ordinary shops and businesses in the area as well - and can sometimes be seen praying with shoppers in the precinct.

You may be wondering what awfully dark corner of England is this man's parish? Well his patch is the Harlequin centre in the middle of Watford, plus it's surrounding area.  Not so far from where we are.

And as I said earlier, he's not a one man band.  So volunteer ‘street angels' go out at night in the centre of Watford meeting people in Jesus name.  And even though these ‘street angels' (who are ordinary Christians for the surrounding areas) are overtly Christian - and recognised to be so - the High Sheriff of Hertfordshire recently gave them an award for what they are doing - sharing Jesus - admittedly sometimes as they're cleaning vomit off people.

I told you about this guy and the things he's involved with for two reasons.  First to expand our vision of church and the gospel - to show that Christians are not just a small enclave of the privately faithful hidden away in a corner of society without real and recognisable impact in Jesus name.  But also as a challenge - to me as much as anybody else - to ask ourselves (you, if you are one of Jesus disciples) what it means to share this gospel "the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes" in the now of our lives - to everyone who needs to hear that ‘Jesus saves'.

But just maybe this morning - you are not asking yourself "how can I share this good news about Jesus?" - but - "How can I find this good news for myself ?"  Problem over. You've found the answer.  Not in this church.  Not even in what I've said.  But in the person who died to save you from yourself.

There was a testimony going around a few years back by a guy called Fred Lemon. Funnily enough, I saw his book out on the bookshelf out back just last Sunday.  He'd been in and out of prison all his life - and was in his cell one night - all screwed up and full hate - when he woke up to find three men standing inside his locked cell.  One spoke to him, and indicating the man in the centre of the group simply said - "Meet Jesus". He did meet Jesus - and that experience changed his life.  (If you want to borrow the book, by the way, I'll leave it on the edge of the platform.)

What I'm saying to you this morning - what we followers of Jesus in this place say to you this morning - is - "Meet Jesus".  The Jesus Paul met as he travelled the road to Damascus filled with hate against Christians - the same Jesus Jack Lemon met (and please, don't ask me to explain the how of that) in his prison cell in the 20th Century.  The Jesus who always meets people personally and individually - and is waiting for you to invite Him into your life this morning.  But be warned.  He will meet you where you are - wherever that is - and whatever you've done.  But He won't let you stay there.  There are consequences to turning your life over to the King of the Universe.  But the first is forgiveness - and the peace of a restored relationship with God.

Granville Richards