Bible Study Romans Part 9-Prophets OF God

Welcome to the program Study in the Chapel.

God's Word is supreme in chapel ministries.

We consider it absolutely essential to a proper relationship with God.

We study it, we love it, we rely on it every minute of every day.

The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold, and we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture.

Our intention is to travel all the way through the Bible.

It will be a challenging journey, but one that will undoubtedly bring you to a decision.

Through this study, you will be faced with either believing or rejecting what God has said to us.

It is our intention to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision about God and his word.

We strongly encourage you to listen intently and diligently, because though at the moment you may not realize it, these things are truly a matter of life and death.

In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death.

Never treat what God has said lightly.

There is truly nothing more important to you.

Now join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

You know, you wonder sometimes why people bother going to church.

They don't seem to pay much attention to it, they don't seem to put any effort into it, they don't seem to realize that what we're talking about are eternal things, things that are above and beyond anything we could ever think of in this particular life.

We we spend so much time on things that are of no value and so little time on things that are of eternal value.

We must refocus our lives on the things that God has to say to us and the things that God wants from us.

We are saved because we are to bear fruit.

Jesus made that perfectly clear.

God makes that perfectly clear in his word, and that's why we spend so much time getting to know him so that we can understand what it is that we've been called to do.

We have been called to produce fruit for the kingdom, and that's why we're here.

We are currently in the book, the letter to the Romans, Paul's letter to the Romans.

We're still considering the first few verses of that very important book.

Let me switch my screen real quick.

We are still in the first few verses of that very first, that very important book, that very important letter, the first few statements means so much to the entire rest of the letter.

That's why we've taken so much time getting to know it.

Let me read it.

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.

Open parentheses.

I won't do that every time, but I'll do it now.

Open parentheses, which he had promised before by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.

Close parentheses.

If you're you were with us last time, you know what I mean by open and close parentheses.

If you don't know, go back and review the previous lesson.

Now, last week, speaking of last week, we just got started considering this very important statement regarding the fact that the gospel of God isn't a new thing.

According to this, God has all along been sharing this good news through his prophets in holy scriptures.

Now let's continue with some more examples.

How about we look at the prophet Isaiah?

He has lots of things to say about the Messiah and the Messiah's kingdom.

John, you keep talking about the Messiah.

What does that have to do with Christ?

Well, they're the same word.

The word Messiah is Hebrew and it means anointed or more accurately, consecrated.

It's used to describe God's sent one.

If you are of a Hebrew mindset, you would know that the word Messiah meant anointed.

It meant that it was the one, he was the one that God was going to send.

When something is consecrated or someone is consecrated, they are dedicated to a specific purpose, usually a sacred purpose, always a sacred purpose in the Bible.

The Messiah was the one whom God would send to redeem mankind and retrieve the rulership of the earth for the Father.

Well, the Greek counterpart to the Hebrew word Messiah is Christos, Christ.

Both words mean anointed.

Jesus Christ is Jesus the anointed.

When the Old Testament speaks of the Messiah, it is speaking of the Christ.

Paul's job, Paul's purpose everywhere he went was to show the Jews that Jesus is the Christ, is the Messiah.

And by the way, if I'd not if I've not said this before, this letter to the Romans is not the only place he's done so.

The New Testament tells us that Paul's typical pattern when he arrived in some place was to spread the gospel, was to spread the gospel first to the Jews.

He would first deliver this message to the synagogues.

Upon arriving wherever he was visiting, Paul would head right down to the local Jewish community and start telling them about Jesus.

He would preach Jesus to the Jews with boldness and precision.

In fact, let's listen in.

Now this is going to take a bit, but it's going to make my point about Paul's mission to the Jews, which he will continue in his letter to the Romans.

This will also illustrate what he meant when he said that the gospel of God was preached afore by his prophets in holy scriptures.

Listen to this.

They would ask visitors to stand up and see if they had any comments on what was read from their scriptures at the time.

Verse 16.

Then Paul stood up.

Paul accepted the invitation.

Then Paul stood up and beckoning with his hands said, Men of Israel and ye that fear God.

That was a term that they would use.

Those that fear God was a term that they would use when meaning Gentile proselytes.

Men and men of Israel and strangers of the land.

Hang on, let me go back one second.

Men of Israel and ye that fear God, give audience.

The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, with an high arm brought them out of it.

Verse 18.

And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness.

And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he divided their land to them by lot.

Paul is drawing them in.

He's using their scripture to make his point.

All that he's referenced up to this point is biblical history.

Now we'll see him repeat this pattern throughout the letter to the Romans.

Why?

Because Paul is preaching the gospel of God promised afore by his prophets in holy scriptures in holy writings.

This is Paul's strategy.

So he backs that up by referencing Holy Scripture.

And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of 450 years until Samuel the prophet.

Paul is referencing more scriptural events.

Verse 21.

And afterward they desired a king, and God gave unto them Saul the man of Sis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.

And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.

Listen to this, this is important.

He's making his point right here.

Of this man's seed hath God, according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus.

Paul is making a very important point to these Jews.

They loved their man David.

They knew about the promise that God had made to the seed of David.

And Paul is saying to those Jews, right here, that seed of David has arrived, and his name was Jesus, and he is your Savior.

Paul is making a direct connection between a promise of the Old Testament and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 24.

When John had, now he's continuing on, when John had first preached before his coming, the hit before his coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

And of course, Paul is mentioning a very important contemporary.

John the Baptist was well known and well loved to those people in that Antioch of Poseidia.

They knew about John the Baptist.

No doubt they had considered him as a true prophet, which of course he was.

He was a prophet of their day.

Paul is doing a little name-dropping in order to make his very important point.

Verse 25.

Now that's an endorsement.

Paul knew how to get his message across to appeal to the Hebrew mindset.

He was calling on the heroes of the Hebrew religion.

Verse 26 men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, again, those are the Gentile proselytes.

To you is the word of this salvation sent.

For they that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.

He's saying that the condemnation of the Messiah was also foreseen in Scripture.

And the rulers and those in Jerusalem, the people in charge in Jerusalem, Paul is saying they fulfilled the scriptures about the condemnation of Jesus.

All of this happened right before your very eyes.

Paul is not just pontificating, saying he's a great man and he's your savior.

Verse 28.

And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, Paul again appealing to Scripture.

Paul is saying all of this happened according to Scripture.

Promised of four is what we're talking about.

This is what Paul is talking about, promised of four.

He's referring to Scripture.

Verse 29.

And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulchre.

But God raised him from the dead, and he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.

And we declare unto you glad tidings how that, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, sound familiar, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he raised up Jesus again.

It is also written, there he goes again, in the second psalm, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee, verse 34.

And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, again, he's referring to what God has said.

Verse 35, wherefore he saith also in another psalm, thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to seek corruption.

For David, so this is what people thought is that maybe he was that scripture was speaking specifically of David.

Paul clears that up immediately.

Verse 36, for David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on a sleep.

He died, and was laid unto his fathers and saw corruption.

But he whom God raised again saw no corruption.

God raised Jesus from the dead, he saw no corruption.

His body did not return to dust.

Verse 38.

Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Beware, therefore, lest come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets.

This is amazing.

In just a few verses, Paul is going back and forth between Scripture and real life, Scripture and real life, prophecy and the fulfillment of prophecy.

This must have had the effect of blowing their minds.

Verse 41.

Behold, this is Paul is saying, this is what's happening before you.

Be careful lest this be spoken of you.

That's what he just said.

Behold, ye despisers and wonder and perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.

Verse 42.

And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.

They hey, can you come back, please?

He's got him now.

They're already thinking about next week.

They may as well be shouting, Encore.

That's what they're saying, Encore, come back.

Tell us more about this next week.

Verse 43.

Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

This is a little bit of a confusing statement.

Those that approached Paul and Barnabas, they're not the ones that said, continue in the grace of God.

Paul and Barnabas told those that were approaching to continue in the grace of God.

Verse 44.

And the next Sabbath day came also the whole city together to hear the word of God.

But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.

Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you.

But seeing ye put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, please don't let this happen to you.

Please don't let God say this to you, that you have judged yourselves unworthy of everlasting life.

Please don't let that happen, because God has something to say to you and he wants you to put it, put stock into it.

Makes sense.

I'll do 46 again.

Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you.

But seeing ye put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

Listen to me.

To the Jews at that time, it was a grave insult for someone to suggest that the Gentiles were more favored in any respect than the Jews.

It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you, but seeing ye put from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles that thou shouldst be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

What Paul is preaching is salvation.

Verse 48.

And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.

But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women and the chief men of the city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their coasts.

Remarkable, remarkable.

Even faced with all of that scriptural evidence, even faced with their own scriptures, many of the Jews rejected the teaching of the gospel.

That sounds familiar too.

Verse 51.

But they shook off the dust of their feet against them and came unto Iconium, and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost.

An amazing experience.

He had a similar one in Thessalonica.

Now bear with me.

This one is brief.

Chapter 17, verse 1.

The point I'm trying to make to you is that this is Paul's pattern.

Paul, when he went from place to place, would preach first in the synagogues.

He would bring God's word to the synagogue.

He would bring the news of the Messiah, the gospel, the good news, he would bring that to the synagogues first, because that's what Jesus said to do.

Acts 17, 1.

Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews.

And Paul, as his manner was, this is what he did.

Went in unto them and reasoned three Sabbath days, reasoned with them out of the scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ, is the Messiah.

John, what does any of this have to do with me?

I'm not Jewish.

This should explain to you why we study the entire Bible.

If we want to know the whole Jesus, if we want to know the whole why of Jesus, we need to turn as much and as often to the old as we do the New Testament.

And if your church, if your Bible teacher neglects the Old Testament, he's doing you a disservice.

Or she's doing you a disservice.

Paul is saying we must condemn.

Convince each other out of the Old Testament as well as the New.

That's what he's trying to tell these Jews at the Roman church.

In fact, he's trying to tell everyone at the Roman church go back to your scriptures and you'll find Jesus.

Jewish people go to your scriptures and you'll find Jesus there.

Gentiles, you go with them so that you can see why you must live a life with Jesus at the center and how you must spread this good news right along with Paul.

Let's move on.

We're not done with verse 2 yet.

Listen to me.

You may think this is tedious, but this is a significant statement.

This point about being promised before by the prophets of God is a very important statement.

It is one that had to serve as to carry the message of the gospel throughout the world.

People had to see that this is something that had been going on since the beginning of humankind.

This and this is a wave that Paul is going to ride throughout this entire letter.

If we, listen to me, if we fail to grasp the gravity of what he's saying here, then we will not fully understand what's said elsewhere.

Listen to me.

The gospel is the foundation, is the entire purpose of Scripture.

We must realize that the whole history of mankind from the garden has been arranged by God for this very purpose.

Not convinced that Paul knows what he's talking about?

All right, let me read something else to you.

Luke 24.

Hey, we're sure bouncing around a lot today.

Because the gospel is found everywhere in the Bible.

That's my point.

If I told you the gospel is everywhere in the Bible and then just stayed in Romans, then I'm only saying things and not proving things.

And listen, Paul's the one forcing me to do this.

He's the one that's making this claim.

Anyhow, check this out.

Luke 24, starting at verse 44.

And he, Jesus, said unto them, them being the gospel, or them being the apostles and the disciples, that he appeared to after he rose from the tomb.

And he said unto them, These are the words which I speak unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me.

The word all means all.

In Greek, the word pos is the word that gets translated into the word all.

There is no doubt as to the meaning of the word all, and Jesus said all of it concerned him.

Jesus was not just going to declare something without declare something without backing it up.

I suppose he could have if he wanted to, but that's not his style, nor should it be ours.

And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you.

He said this then, he's saying it now, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me.

Then he opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.

Verse 46, and he said unto them, that it is written, and thus it thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations, where beginning at Jerusalem.

That's why this is Jesus' words.

Luke 24, Jesus is saying that this news, this good news about himself is to begin at Jerusalem.

What he meant to begin at the Jews.

48.

And ye are witnesses of these things.

Jesus in his resurrected body is standing before them, saying, Everything I said to you is now coming true.

I told you that Scripture spoke of me when I was with you.

Now I'm showing you that all of it is coming true in a miraculous way.

Jesus, who they witnessed being murdered, Jesus who they witnessed being buried, is now standing before them, telling them, see.

Can you imagine the goosebumps those guys had?

The stunned silence?

I mean, they knew he was special when he was with them in life.

They heard him say this sort of stuff when they traveled with him from town to town.

But now he's pulling it all together while in a glorified body.

He was standing there right in front of these guys, showing that he had become what he said he would become for all of us.

Okay, back to Romans.

For real this time.

We got to keep moving.

As I said, we're not done here yet.

Let's read these two-letter opening verses again.

Romans 1, 1 and 2.

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, promised afore by his prophets.

Now this is a subtly powerful statement, probably not lost on the Jews at that time, but probably lost on us non-Jews.

Not want to leave a matter unclear.

Paul makes sure that these Roman Christians and all of us Christians ever since see that this wasn't only some statements found in some holy book somewhere.

He says that the gospel of God was declared by his prophets.

Now let me make sure you understand what Paul is referring to in this statement.

As I said, it wasn't lost on the Jews.

They knew what he was speaking of.

We need a little explanation.

You see, when we hear this word prophet, we immediately think of someone who speaks of future events.

In fact, when we hear the word prophet and the word scripture together, we think of what we today call the prophetic books, the books written by the prophets, you know, Isaiah, Ezekiel, the minor prophets, etc.

And yes, Paul does include these books by prophets, by those prophets, but in verse 2 of Romans 1, Paul is not limiting the gospel proclamation to the so-designated prophetic text.

There's more to it than that.

This is more than that.

It's more than just the books of the prophets.

When Paul said that the gospel of God was, John, are we really on verse 2?

Why are we stuck here?

We're not going to rush through the treasure box Paul left us.

When Paul said the gospel of God was promised afore by God's prophets and holy scriptures, he was talking about any and all of the books of the Old Testament that in one way or another had a prophetic message about Jesus.

Does that confuse anyone?

Are you surprised that Jesus is found in books that are not labeled prophetic?

I'm sure no one associated with chapel ministries is surprised by that, but some people who are new to us may be like, well, I've never heard anything like that.

Well, it's true.

Jesus is found in the Psalms, Jesus is found in Leviticus, Jesus is found in Exodus.

In fact, I've argued that Jesus can be found in all of the books of the Bible.

But as always, I'm going to add this disclaimer that I may not be able to identify Jesus in all of the books of the Old Testament, but that does not invalidate the supposition.

He's in the whole Bible.

I'm just probably not able to say exactly how or where in every spot.

Now that may not make sense to many of you, but it's nonetheless true.

Jesus is found throughout Scripture.

But don't ask me, well, tell me about the book of Ruth.

Where is Jesus found in the book of Ruth?

I may not be able to say in every spot on every page where Jesus is in the book of Ruth or Esther.

But he's there.

Just because I can't point him out, point him out doesn't mean he's not there.

It just means I haven't learned enough yet.

We all have to learn, including Jesus, by the way.

It was made clear in Scripture that Jesus had to learn.

That surprises people too.

Back to my main point.

Paul never intended for his readers to assume that when he mentions that Jesus was promised afore by the prophets of God in Holy Scripture, that the interpretation of that statement was limited to the writings of the prophets.

The problem is with our unintentional misinterpretation of the word prophet.

Yes, it is the same original word used for those famous men in the Bible, but the scope of its use here is purposely more broad.

Again, this would not have been a problem for the original recipients of this letter, but it is a minor obstacle for us today.

In Paul's day, it was customary to refer to the books of the entire Old Testament in rather generic terms, such as the prophets.

I think we've spent enough time here, so I won't give you any examples, but ask that you trust me on this.

We have to move on because I have one more thing to talk about.

Now you must notice that Paul refers here to the prophets of God.

It says his prophets in verse 2, but the subject is God.

His prophets, God's prophets.

Now, why is that so important?

Well, these are, listen to me, please, God, give me the power, give me the ability to share this with everyone listening.

These are men God personally chose to deliver his messages, his commandments, his truths to mankind.

These were men who received information directly from God concerning what he was going to do about the sin problem.

These weren't just like really smart guys who saw the winds of change or felt something was in the air.

They weren't even the type who are just really good at observing how certain things were all coming together.

This isn't your neighbor Nick who just knows that the Eagles are going all the way this year because he looked at every position and sees that they're a great team.

This isn't Jim Kramer telling you that he believes your amalgamated pork belly stock is going to split by year's end.

These men of God weren't just lucky or well-informed or even really all that perceptive.

They may have been those things, they probably were those things, but that isn't what made them prophets of God.

Make no mistake, these were the prophets God had chosen.

These are the men that God said he will share the gospel with.

What's your point?

Listen to me.

If you claim to believe in God, but doubt or even reject that the Bible is one great big prophecy of the coming of Jesus, then well, you ought to question why you believe anything in the Bible.

These are the prophets of God, which means if this is wrong, it's God's fault.

If this turns out to not be the case, then you should gather up your guts and call God a liar or a fool who can't get it right.

In other words, your rejection of the fact that the gospel has actually been promised a four just means you have no business calling yourself a Christian.

John, why are you so mean?

I'm not mean.

I'm trying to thin the herd if I'm being honest.

I'm trying to get people to take this seriously.

I'm trying to get people to face how they really think of the Bible.

There's no middle ground.

Either you believe it all or you should believe none of it.

Because it says things like this that the gospel was promised before by the prophets of God through the scriptures.

Jesus said it all spoke of him.

If you try to tear a page out of the Bible as being inapplicable for one reason or another, then you're tearing Jesus with it.

I want people to stop playing church.

This isn't a game.

This isn't some quaint set of rituals.

This isn't just something to make me feel better on Sunday mornings.

This isn't a load of questionable statements that you get to decide which is valid and which isn't.

You can't carve up the Bible into believable and unbelievable and then walk away still calling yourself a member of God's family.

These are God's prophets.

If you don't like the words of the song you hear on the radio, don't ask Kenichiro Yoshida, the CEO of Sony, to rewrite it.

All he did was provide the stereo in your car.

You can't call him a fascist because the song you heard contains offensive language.

Go to the source.

Blame the songwriter, not the transmitter of the song.

Though I've sprinkled in a bit of levity here, this is incredibly important to your understanding of the gospel.

The message of the Messiah, the Christ, has come directly from God, and you can't see it any other way.

This isn't someone's opinion.

This isn't even a message that's simply preached.

God used certain men to spread the good news in the Old Testament in preparation for the time of the arrival of the Redeemer.

This is why we study Scripture.

Listen, when I was a Catholic, the religious authority was not the Bible, it was the Pope.

And if the Pope decided that something that God's prophets said was incorrect or incomplete or inconvenient, he changed it under his own authority.

And millions upon millions of people accept that as valid.

The message that priests mustn't marry, for example, was not delivered afore by the prophets in Holy Scripture.

Quite the opposite.

And that seems to be okay with Catholics.

The communion elements turning into the actual body and actual blood of Jesus came from church tradition, not from the prophets of God and Holy Scripture.

The traditions of the church are the traditions of men, not God.

In fact, Jesus once said, the traditions of men make void, make ineffective the word of God.

So it's not just changing or bypassing or avoiding the Holy Scripture.

When we follow what men say and not what God says, when we adhere to what men say and ignore what God says, we annul the prophets of God and the things found in holy writings.

Now he's picking on the Catholics, but Paul has the very same message for the Jews.

In fact, when Jesus was speaking of the traditions of men, as I referenced just a second ago, he was talking to the religious Jews.

Paul here in verse 2 is carrying on that message.

You cannot ignore Jesus as your Messiah without making void the Word of God.

We'll pick it up right there next time.

See you then.

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