Romans: From Persecutor to Apostle — The Power of the Cross

Hey, we're going to be in the book of Romans for the next 12 weeks.

And that might sound a little bit like a long series, but I promise there's

so much in the book of Romans that is just so important to us.

Theologically, doctrinally, there's just so much in the book of Romans that's important to us.

But for context, Martin Lloyd-Jones, famous old-time pastor,

he preached for 12 years in the book of Romans, and he retired in chapter 14.

He didn't even get to finish it, all right?

He didn't even get to finish the whole series. So for the next just 12 weeks,

not 12 years, We're going to be looking at the book of Romans.

And since there is just so much in here, I have something that I need to ask of you.

We're going to be looking at Romans every week from like a 10,000 foot view,

looking at the overarching themes. We're going to zoom in a few subjects here

and there, but there's no way of

going through every single verse just in detail every week for 12 weeks.

We just wouldn't have time. So here's my ask of you. Bring your Bible every

week. If you've got your Bible, let me see it. Show it loud and proud.

If your hand's not up without a Bible, you're dead to me. Okay.

Hey, I got two asks for this series. Bring your Bible every week and then read

the book of Romans on your, like be going through. Don't let Sunday morning

be the first time that you're hearing the verses that we're getting into.

And with that in mind, I've got some reading guides. I've got some guys going

to pass them out to everybody.

Should look something like this. All right, so there's a little notebook.

All right, so Jason and Jamie are going to pass those out. It looks like this.

Basically, it's just a daily reading guide. And so if you follow this guide.

You will have read the book of Romans, whatever part we're going to be covering,

you will have already read it before you come to service.

There is so much in here. I want to make sure that we are getting into the Word

before we get into Sundays.

And I know some of you guys, and some of you guys saw that little bookmark,

and you were like, that's too small for me to read, right?

You know who you are. There are full-size copies out in the lobby,

a little bigger font, all right, for the senior saints who need that,

all right? So those are my two asks.

Be reading through that reading guide and hang on to that.

Have already consumed those passages before we even get into the sermon each

and every week. There is power in the Word of God.

There is. And here's the deal. You have to get into the Word on your own.

Don't let Sundays be the first and last time you get into the Word for the week.

Get into the Word each and every day. Can I get an amen? That's what we're about. It's not about me.

It's not about a message. It's not about a platform. It's about the Word of

God. We have to be consuming God's Word each and every day.

Right now, let's get our hearts ready for what God has for us this morning.

Would you guys put your arms out with your palms up? Close your eyes.

Just posture of surrender. Take a deep breath.

And remember, God is just as near as the air you're breathing. Just pray.

God, today, would you guide us closer to you? Help our minds put away the frustrations

of the past week, to put away the distractions of the coming week.

Now, we want to fully focus on you. We come empty with nothing to offer but surrender.

Fill us up as only you can. Holy Spirit, move in here today with power.

We believe that in advance. And we ask all these things in Jesus' name and all God's people said.

Amen. Have you guys ever watched a movie that had like a crazy twist ending

that you just were not expecting at the end?

You've seen a movie and you're like, what? I did not see that.

Kels and I watched the movie Prestige again the other night.

It's just a movie about two competing magicians. Long story short,

it's like over a decade old. Is it spoilers if I say it? He had a twin, right? You had no idea.

But it's got a crazy ending, something you did not see coming.

And I hadn't seen that movie in forever. But when we watched it the other night,

it just kind of came on. I had the benefit of knowing the twist before it happened.

And so I got to appreciate things in the movie that I got to see because I knew

what was going to happen.

I saw the movie before, so I know that big twist. So there's things that happen.

Kelsey's like, what is going on? I don't remember. I'm like,

you don't remember? Don't you remember? He has a twist. It's like all this stuff's going on.

The story is there's so much happening and you can watch it again and appreciate

it so much more when you know how it's going to end.

When you already know the ending of the story, you can appreciate all the things

that are happening in the middle of it.

As we jump into the book of Romans, I don't want us to miss out on something

simply because we don't understand kind of the general context.

Who wrote the book of Romans? Who is he writing to? When is he writing it to him?

And so I want to make sure that we come into it and we have a good understanding.

We don't want to miss something at the beginning. I want to start off this series

with just a little bit of a scene setter for us.

I want to talk about the author of Romans, talk about the people he's writing

to and what is happening at that time, because usually all of those things matter.

Romans is the most theologically rich book of the Bible when it comes to the doctrine of salvation.

There's just so much in there. So as we look at who is writing it,

who he is writing it to, it all starts to make even more sense and it makes

sense why he's writing in such much detail about God's good news.

The good news is that Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.

And so today we're going to set the stage for the rest of the series because

I don't want there to be any surprises or twists.

I want to do our work on the front. And so let's jump right into it.

If you've got your Bible, we can open up to Romans 1.

We're going to start in verse 1. Help me out with that verse in yellow.

This letter is from the author of the book of Romans is Paul,

a slave of Jesus Christ, chosen,

by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his good news long ago through

his prophets and the holy scriptures.

All right. So Paul is the author of Romans.

He says that he is chosen to be an apostle. We're going to double click on that in just a moment.

And he is sent to preach the good news. Let's keep going. Verse three,

the good news is about his son.

In his earthly life, he was born to King David's family line.

He was shown to be the son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power

of the Holy Spirit. He is Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to

tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them so that they will believe

and obey him, bringing glory to his name.

Paul gives us a little sampling as he's starting right here of what the good news is.

And he words this in a way that it speaks to both Jews he's talking about Jesus

being born into David's family line he's talking about God giving authority

to tell Gentiles because of what God has done and that might seem like just a quick comment

but Paul is really doing something masterful right here and we're going to continue

to unpack this God's just

weaving this web in a crazy way and he ends all that by saying,

we do all this to bring glory to,

God's name it is not about Paul It is not about the Jewish people.

It is not about the Gentiles. It is all about God and his glory.

So hop back in to verse six. I'm going to read a couple of verses here. Six, seven, and eight.

And you are included among the Gentiles who have been called to belong to Jesus Christ.

Help me out with that word, y'all. I'm writing to all of you in,

I am writing to all of you in Rome who are loved by God and called to be His own holy people.

May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

Let me say first that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because

your faith in Him is being talked about all over the world.

So Paul is the author. He is writing to believers in Rome, and he thanks God

for the witness of these believers because their faith is being talked about all over the world.

Just an aside, Paul is writing to these believers because they need some direction

and clarity. Like he's going to give some clarity and direction on what they

should believe, how they should believe it.

But that doesn't stop them from sharing their faith. I think that's really important.

He says their faith is being talked about all over the world,

even though they don't have it all together, even though they've got some division

amongst them, they are still sharing their faith to people around.

They're not perfect, but it appears they're faithfully sharing the good news with others.

That's so encouraging to me that we don't have to have it all together to share

our faith. We just need to be faithful in sharing it, that it will be shared

and God's word will be proclaimed and lives will be changed.

So a little bit about Paul, our author. I think this is really important.

Paul was formerly named Saul.

He was a Jew. He was a Pharisee. Those were the religious elite in that day.

You can find Saul's full conversion story in Acts 9. It's a fantastic story.

I think just to look at a few of them in Acts 9 verse 1, it says this,

Acts 9:1

meanwhile, Saul, it's author of Romans, I'm going to change his name to Paul

later, was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord's followers.

The guy who wrote several books in the Bible was uttering threats with every breath.

Eager to kill the Lord's followers.

So he went to the high priest. It goes on a little bit more there to say what

he was going to do. Saul was an enemy of God.

He is literally persecuting and killing people who follow Jesus.

He's on a mission to go to Damascus a little bit further along.

And on his journey there, Jesus shines a light and it knocks Saul to the ground.

And he says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

He goes blind on this road and he continues to the path he's going to.

He's led by his companions.

And as he is approaching the city, God speaks to Ananias, who's a follower of

Jesus in Damascus, where he's going.

And he tells Ananias, hey, you're going to go to this specific street and you're

going to find this guy named Saul.

It's kind of like, what's going to happen? And look at how Ananias responds

to God. God speaking directly to him.

Look at how he responds. But Lord, I've heard many people talk about the terrible

things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem.

And he is authorized by the leading priest to arrest everyone who calls upon your name.

God speaks directly to him. And he's like, but God, you don't understand who this guy is.

You don't understand how bad he is. His reputation precedes him.

He speaks directly to Ananias and Ananias is like, God, I don't think you realize who you're talking to.

He is attacking the people who follow you. Look at verse 15.

This is what happens when you argue with God It doesn't go your way But the

Lord said Go for Saul is my For Saul is my.

Thanks, Billy. Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles,

to kings, as well as the people of Israel.

Saul is God's chosen instrument to take the good news to the Gentiles.

That would be the non-Jewish people, the kings, and then as well as Israel, the Jewish.

This is what God is telling Ananias and Acts, and we see that come to fruition in the book of Romans.

He's saying he's going to tell it, proclaim the good news to the Gentiles, to kings and to the Jews.

He's going to share God's news with everybody. He's telling Ananias that in

Acts. And when we see that really coming to fruition in the book of Romans,

Saul's conversion there happens when he's a young man, like his mid-20s to 30s.

And from that time on, we really see Saul go by his Roman name, Paul.

So if you go back in the Old Testament, you'll see like Abram,

who God changes his name from Abram to Abraham, right? Did not much of a changed.

I just threw a little bit on the end.

But we see Saul, he switches from his Hebrew name, which is Saul,

to his Roman name or his Latin name, which is Paul.

I think this is, I don't know, I think there's something special.

Saul, the meaning would have meant, like Saul meaning asked for or desired.

Kind of like, you know, he's got it together. He's sought after.

It seems fitting for someone who's a Pharisee, who would have had high training,

would have been the religious elite.

But Paul, his Latin name or Roman name, it means small or little.

Saul, desired. Paul, little, small, maybe even insignificant.

That seems like a fitting name for someone whose life has been turned upside down by Jesus.

He thought he was big, but then he has this encounter with the living God,

and suddenly he doesn't feel so big anymore.

Paul, after this conversion, after he encounters Jesus, he starts preaching,

but his message has changed. Acts 9.20 says this.

He kind of heals up for a couple days. And then it says, immediately he began

preaching about Jesus in the synagogue, saying he is indeed the Son of God.

And everyone who hears Paul preaching this message, they're confused.

They're like, wasn't this guy just persecuting Jesus' followers?

Wasn't he just killing Jesus' followers? He has this wild conversion story.

Could not have done more of a complete 180 from the direction he was going in

his heart towards Jesus.

And here's what happens. Paul serves God for decades, travels,

he establishes and encourages churches all around that part of the world.

And when Paul is in his like mid fifties, early sixties, he writes this letter,

to the believers in Rome.

The letter is called the Romans. That's what we call it. He wrote many letters

to various churches, but the book of Romans is unique. It is by far the longest

and the most in-depth explanation of the good news of Jesus.

The person in me just starts to think maybe that's because he's gotten a little

older. Have you ever noticed the older people, their stories kind of go on a

little longer? I don't know. Maybe that's for me.

I think it has more to do with who he is writing to, who he's writing to in Rome.

He is writing to Rome. It's about five years after Claudius Caesar,

he deported the Jews from Rome.

You see this in Acts 18 verses 1 and 2. Then Paul left Athens,

Acts 18:1

went to Corinth, where he became acquainted with a Jew named Aquila,

born in Pontius, who had recently arrived from Italy with his wife, Priscilla.

They left Italy when Claudius Caesar deported all Jews from Rome.

So just imagine this for a moment in the context here. Jesus comes to earth.

He has his life, death, burial, and resurrection.

There are Gentile followers of Jesus in Rome.

They're not Jewish. They don't have that background. And then there are also

Jewish followers of Jesus in Rome. They're two people with totally different

backgrounds, but they are living in the same space.

And the Caesar of the time, he deports the Jews away from Rome.

When Paul is writing this letter to those believers in Rome,

it is shortly after the Jews came back to Rome. They've been gone for about

five years. So just picture this for a moment.

You've got these Gentile followers of Jesus. They've grown up,

they're Gentiles, no formal law or procedure for following God,

right? Like we just believe in Jesus. They have no structure, no rigid format.

Flip side, you've got these Jews who have been following the law of Moses for

centuries before Jesus.

And they had to do all these things procedurally to be made right with God.

They have these festivals and remembrances to honor God, to remember him.

Could not have two more completely different views on how to have a relationship with God.

And when the early church is getting started in Rome, you have both of these

people together and they're rubbing shoulders and they're working together through it all.

But when the Jews get deported by Caesar at the time, they're separate.

You have the Gentiles in Rome, you have these Jews outside of Rome.

And then after about five years, they all come back together.

They've been doing things this way for the past five years. They've been doing

things this way for the past five years. and they're coming together and there

is some conflict going on between these two groups.

And the conflict is they do not have clarity about how to follow Jesus.

Like they both want to follow Jesus, but neither one of them is really sure how.

Just imagine this for a moment, right? I'm gonna speak to the gentleman in here for just a second.

The Jews are telling the Gentiles, you have to be circumcised to follow Jesus.

That's a pretty high threshold, right? If you're an adult male who has not been

down that process, right?

They're saying this. And the Gentiles are like, ain't no way,

not me. Like, I'm not doing that, right?

They both have faith in Jesus, but they are viewing the how completely differently

because they're coming at it from two different views.

So Paul is writing to both groups to give clarity about Jesus and what salvation

is and what salvation isn't.

And I'm just going to be honest with you as you read through this on your own

as we go on Sundays there's going to be some parts of Romans that feel a little,

they feel pretty strong and that's okay we have to remember who it was written to when it was written,

don't want you to forget who God used to author this book,

he used Saul this desired sought

after person who now identifies as Paul little, small, insignificant,

the enemy of God the biggest persecutor of followers of Jesus at that time,

and then in an instant has this miraculous conversion.

Just a side note, every conversion is a miraculous conversion.

And as soon as he starts following Jesus, as soon as he encounters him,

Paul immediately goes and preaches that Jesus is indeed God.

Paul is being used by God to remind these two completely different groups that

God has unified them together in the good news of the gospel.

Paul is God's chosen instrument.

It's not an accident that God uses Paul. He's uniquely gifted,

uniquely positioned, uniquely grown up in a way where he can speak to both of

these people. He's chosen by God.

We are all instruments in the Redeemer's hands.

See, it's God's chosen instrument. We are all instruments in the Redeemer's hands.

But when you hear that, if you're a Jesus follower, you're like.

How could I be an instrument in Jesus' hands? Like, what could God do through me?

Remember, Paul means small, little. Maybe that resonates with you.

Maybe you feel small, insignificant, little.

That maybe it would be impossible for God to use you.

Look at Paul. He is literally an enemy of God. He does not want anything to do with him.

He is persecuting his people. He is literally like arresting them,

having them be put to death.

That's the man that God uses.

And don't miss this. It's not because Paul has it all together.

It's not because Paul had the right education. It's not because Paul knows all

the answers. It's because of the power of God.

And that same power, the power of God, is available to us through Jesus.

1 Corinthians 1.18. This is Paul writing to the church in Corinth.

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are headed for destruction.

But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.

Is the power of God at work in you.

Maybe you feel insignificant. Maybe you feel small. Maybe you feel like,

there's no way I could be an instrument in God's hand. It's not about you.

It's about the power that's in you.

So as we get started with the book of Romans, we see Paul sharing the good news.

And he is, by all accounts, not worthy of God's love. But because of the cross,

we see that God loves Paul.

And we see God use Paul in incredible ways, ways that seem impossible. And here's the truth.

What is true of him is true of you. God loves you. He showed that on the cross.

God will use you in powerful ways. And it's not because of anything you've brought

to the table. It's all because of the cross. It's all because of Him.

And today I want us to remember the cross. I just have a great reminder that it's not about us.

It never was. It's about God and His glory.

So today we're going to close with the Lord's Supper. We're going to remember,

that Jesus' body was broken.

That his blood was spilt.

Paul wrote a letter to the church in Corinth and we just read that passage there,

how the cross is foolishness to the world, but it is the power of God to those who believe.

Later on in that book, that letter to the church in Corinth,

gives us some instruction about how to do the Lord's Supper. How do we do this?

And the biggest piece of instruction that Paul gives, he says,

before you take the Lord's Supper, would you take a moment and examine yourself?

Not examine your spouse, not examine your neighbor. Would you take a moment and examine your life?

Does your life look like it should?

Does your life look like it should? Does your life as a Jesus follower reflect

the life God wants you to live?

Does it? Would you take a moment and examine your life?

I want to invite you to do that right now, to pray, talk to God,

repent where you need to, ask for forgiveness.

Just take a moment and examine your life. visit the life that God wants you to be living.

And then whenever you're ready, go to one of these tables. There's two on the

side, one in the back. Grab the elements and come back to your seat.

And when everybody's had their moment, grab the elements and come back.

We will take those together.

But right now, take a moment, examine your life, answer the question,

does my life look like it should,

pray refint confess whatever you need to do and then whenever you're ready go

to one of the tables and return to your seat with the elements,

just take a moment.

Listen.

It's got nothing to do with him having it together.

It's all because of what Jesus has done for him. And the same power that's in

him is the same power that's in us.

Don't take the cross lightly.

We have everything in Jesus and his finished work. Let's pray.

God, we thank you for the cross. We thank you that we don't have to have it

all together. We thank you that you've given everything to us.

God, that we bring nothing to the table but our sin.

And yet when we come to you, we leave with everything.

God, that the power of the cross is foolish to those who don't believe.

But God, for those who believe, it is the power of God.

I pray that we would be a group of believers who walk in your power.

God, walk in the power of the cross. that we would share our faith.

We would be people who share the good news that Jesus' death,

burial, and resurrection happened, that he loves us, that he is so good and gracious to us.

Help us not to take that for granted, to not take that lightly.

God, help us to honor you and have our lives look exactly like you'd want.

God, thank you for the forgiveness you offer. You don't offer us judgment because

when you look at us, you see Jesus.

There's nothing but grace and acceptance in your eyes.

We are so thankful for that.

Help us to live that out each and every day. Let's call these things in Jesus' name.