Stand Strong in the Word
Stand Strong in the Word is a weekly bible study that teaches through the Bible verse by verse in chronological order. For more information, visit www.standstrongministries.org.
Stand Strong in the Word
#305 “When the Gospel Won’t Let You Sit Still” (Romans 1:8-10)
Have you ever experienced such strong emotions that sitting still became impossible? Something so important, so urgent, that you had to act? That’s the kind of passion Paul had for the gospel. In Romans 1:8–10, we’ll see what drove his relentless passion, gratitude, and calling to share the gospel.
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Have you ever experienced such strong emotions that sitting still became impossible? Something so important, so urgent that you had to act? That's the kind of passion Paul had for the gospel In Romans, chapter 1, 8-15,. We'll see what drove his relentless passion, his gratitude and his calling to share the gospel. Grab your Bible and let's stand strong in the word together. Well, hey there, my friends, welcome to Stand Strong in the Word podcast. Blessed to be with you guys, as always, as we are now in a phase of Romans where Paul begins to really share his heart, his desire to be with the Romans.
Speaker 1:And something that I always like to bring to the podcast when we're studying the Word of God and as we've been really for the last several years, highlighting and looking contextually at different books of the Bible that the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write, is to see his pastoral heart. And this is no doubt one of those areas when I'm talking with people in the ministry and we kind of look through the text about what ministry looks like and how we as leaders, spiritual leaders, spiritual servants of Christ, who are representing him, as we are his hands and his feet and as we are fulfilling the obligation to build up the church to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, that there needs to be this heart's desire to be with people, not just passion. You hear a lot of times people say I have a passion to preach the word of god. I love to teach people and oftentimes and again I'm speaking from experience and I hate to admit it but it's true there's many times in the ministry where you get caught up in the whole routine of things or the popularity or the aura that it brings in terms of how people pat you on the back and all. That's the best message ever and oftentimes you're thinking am I doing it for that? And I think we have to be reflective of that. But the heart of it I can honestly say, even as I look back on my recent travels, speaking God's word to people is I just love recent travels.
Speaker 1:Speaking God's word to people is I just love being there with the people. And what an honor and a privilege to be able to share God's word in front of people, to help them where they're at. And this is where we see Paul really express to the Romans his heart's desire to be with them, but more importantly, because he wants the gospel to be known throughout their communities, throughout the heart of the capital of the Roman Empire, to see the gospel spread, to see lives come to know Jesus Christ, to be completely and totally transformed, to be no longer under the dominion of darkness but to be now children of Jesus Christ. And so, my friends, as we dive into this next portion, I encourage you to just pray and ask the Lord to give you what we see here in this text a heart's desire to just preach the gospel which is why I titled it when the gospel won't let you sit still and many of you guys are listening right now, you can relate those times when the Holy spirit moves on you, conviction says you need to act, go share the gospel with that person, and you just can't stand still.
Speaker 1:Or you're sitting in church and they announce a ministry opportunity to go on the mission field and you know there might be initial pushback or just push it aside or think, oh, that's so great, I'll pray for the team. But then it starts nagging at your conscience, like the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. Say no, no, you're going to be a part of that team. Speaking to you, say no, no, you're going to be a part of that team. I want you to go share the gospel, or that coworker who's been struggling, or that Muslim friend at school, and the Lord wants you to tell them about your personal relationship with Jesus Christ, to share with them the truth of God's word and to give them an opportunity to accept Christ as their savior. My friends, when it comes to preaching and teaching and living out the gospel, that's what we're all about, and so, if you've missed any previous podcasts, I encourage you guys to check those things out. As always, please leave us a review, share this with your friends so we can get more Christians just like you standing strong in God's word. That's our whole goal in mission and prayer is that God's people will know his word verse by verse, and we just love, on this podcast, to be able to do it in chronological order. So if you're new, you can always go back to our initial ones, way back when I had a little tiny mic that was a USB that I pop right in there with little cheesy Apple headphones and just had a heart's desire to start teaching God's word through a podcast form, like we've been doing, and so now it's just an incredible time. I always look forward to this time with you guys each and every week, and I pray that this will be such an encouragement to you.
Speaker 1:And so, as I asked in the opening, have you ever experienced a time when you're just so stirred up or you just were so moved? You know emotionally, in every aspect of your being, your body, soul at its core, to do something and you just didn't want to sit around there's a sense of urgency to act. You know, especially when you see somebody who's in danger, or you see somebody who needs help, or you see a child who's lost, you just immediately respond, that nurturing that care, that protective spirit that we have, that God has given each and every one of us. Well, I do pray, as Christians, that we would have that urgency when it comes to speaking God's word to people. So this is where we pick things up now. This is where Paul's gonna be expressing his longing to be in Rome one day. He has yet to be there and we know that he desires to be there and he'll eventually get there, but not through the circumstances that he was hoping. It would be through different circumstances where he'd be arrested and dragged there as he appeals to Caesar.
Speaker 1:So we see here now in verse eight says first I thank my God, through Jesus Christ, for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. Now, what he now in verse 8, it says First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ, for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. Now, what he does in verse 7, and this is very typical in the opening is he says 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 Lord Jesus Christ. So he refers to him as holy saints. We talked about this last time. This is a picture of israel being set apart.
Speaker 1:So now is the gospel spreading to the gentiles. We know for the, to the jew first, because jesus was a jew and he's speaking to his own people and his disciples were jewish. And it says that you'll name him jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. This was the long-awaited messiah. So it's not favoritism among the Jews. We'll see that later as we study the book of Romans. It's just saying that Jesus, who is a Jew, was speaking directly to his people and it would be through his people. Going back to the covenant of old God would use Israel to proclaim his name to all the nations, and so, as they've been set apart for that to be holy as he is holy Leviticus 11, 44 through 45, we now see the gospel spreading to the Gentiles, and many of them have come to know Christ as a Lord and Savior. They are saints, and peace and grace is given to them through God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, remember, grace is charis. They go together.
Speaker 1:These are the twins of theology, and this is more or less echoing that Aaronic blessing that we see in Numbers 6, 24 through 26, where it says the Lord bless you and keep you right, and that's what Paul's essentially giving them.
Speaker 1:And then what he does, which I love, is then he says first, he says before I get into a lot of these doctrinal things, I want to thank god through jesus christ, because, remember the second person in trinity, as we talked about the god man a few podcasts ago jesus, that is god, came into the flesh, took on a second nature, because the first Adam, sinned in the transmission of his sin, has separated us from the life of God, and so he's saying it's through Jesus Christ that I, as an apostle and sanctified and redeemed can do this, and one of the things he wants to give thanks in Christ Jesus for them is because it says your faith is proclaimed in all the world. So now, no doubt because you're in the Capitol, that the world is looking at the Capitol. So, just like if you have your individual state in America or you live around the world in a very prominent area, well-known city, you know there's going to be a lot of eyeballs, and so here you know there's going to be a lot of eyeballs, and so here you know Paul's conveying that. But it also seems that Paul's prolonging his introduction because you can sense this burden that he has speaking directly to their hearts, and that's what I always love about Paul is he's prolonging his introduction to the Romans because there's this burden.
Speaker 1:Now he's thankful because they've been justified, they have peace through the access of God. In fact, if you go to Romans, chapter five, we see later. We'll be studying this later and I can't wait because it's such a powerful passage that I oftentimes will quote and refer to in many of my conversations. He says this in verse 1, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord, jesus Christ. Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that our sufferings produce endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. So here, many of these Romans have the Holy Spirit's been given to them. They are saints, they're holy ones, they've been justified by faith, they have peace with God, they have access to God. Now, this is the other thing I love about it, because when you see through Jesus' teachings and Paul's teachings in Ephesians, they have access to God and their faith is being proclaimed because in their prayerful life in Jesus' name John 15, 16, they're giving thanks Ephesians 5, 20. That's something that Paul's echoing, he's also revealing in the name of Jesus Christ, revealing in the name of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:So a lot of times, you guys, when we give thanks, in these circumstances, we say you know, especially like if you're going to acknowledge something that, let's say, you're, the ministerial team at church has done, or a brother in Christ or sister in Christ have done. You say you know, I just want to thank the Lord, jesus Christ for being able to see how he has used you, so the glory goes to him. But at the same time we want to extend gratitude and be uplifting, to encourage people. A lot of times, in the shallowness, in these pleasantries that we oftentimes do, is we acknowledge the individual and sometimes it's a bit too strong and we can placate to that. And we need to be careful because there are many times where I felt very uncomfortable, not because I don't like the person or didn't like what they said. It's just sometimes when they just fixate so much on like that was beautiful, it was powerful, it was amazing. You know, you're so gifted, and it's like blah, blah, blah and it's like and then the other cheesy thing is when people say to God be the glory, to God be the glory, like they're so holy and righteous.
Speaker 1:So what Paul does here, he says thank, I, thank Jesus, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you guys, because of what he's doing in and through you. So I think, a great way, my friends, I hope this helps clear up some things for you. It certainly has in my life and I need to do it more often. When I'm going to give a compliment, give a compliment, I say hey, let's just say, rob, I want to thank the Lord, jesus Christ, because when I see how you give, I see how God is using you and I thank the Lord for that and I appreciate you and how you're obedient to the Lord. You know that's the approach that Paul's coming here, and because we are to give thanks to the Lord and to give thanks for God blessing us with the people that he has given us, because everything is done in the name of Jesus Christ, which goes back to why, when we say amen in Jesus name, amen, so be it. It's based on John 14, john 15, 16. In his name, it's about his will being done. That goes back to the modeled prayer in Matthew 6, 9 through 13. And I love this because he specifies the reason because your faith is proclaimed.
Speaker 1:Now, if you think about the faith of the church of Rome, it and this is in historical nature it became strong when Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome, and he did this because this was an attempt for him to squash the name of Christos. That's with C-H-R-E-S-T-U-S. That's how we transmit it. And so it was his attempt to just remove these Christian Jews from the heart of the city so that it would just go to the wayside. But did that happen? Of course not. It never did.
Speaker 1:The gospel and the word of God. We're told throughout the book of Acts and extra biblical sources out there that the gospel spread. And we know that the gospel since the time of Christ, when he gave the great commission, within 30 years, the known world, that is, within even the perimeters of the Roman empire, as far as it stretched into Africa and India, the gospel was being spread. And Paul often started his letters by recognizing the faith of the people. And before I read you guys three different passages where Paul does this outside of Romans, chapter one, here I want you to consider the faith of the individuals that you're around. What type of faith do they have?
Speaker 1:Because notice what he says in Ephesians 1, 15 through 16,. He says for this reason, because I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. So how often in our own lives are we giving thanks to the Lord for the faith of, let's say, your parents, the faith of your grandparents, the faith of your siblings, the faith of, let's say, your parents, the faith of your grandparents, the faith of your siblings, the faith of your colleague or your best friend, remembering you in my prayer, so remembering that. And so just recently, even this past week, and this is something that, again, I learned by just looking at things like Ephesians 1, 15 through 16, wasn't like I took a course, but I just see how Paul does this and I'm thinking what would that look like in modern day? Well, like texting, why don't I just, when friends of mine come to mind, I oftentimes let them know that I actually did that for a friend, or to a friend yesterday, as I'm recording this, and they're out of the country and he and his family have have left because they're going through. They were going through some trials and it was just a way for them to take a break and to enjoy god's creation and it's been really good for them as a family. Well, that made sense with the, the, the burden that I had for this brother who I've not seen in quite some time, and I just wanted to text him and said, hey, you came to mind, you were heavy on my heart and I started to pray for you. And this is what I was praying for you and it just meant so much to him. And you know what it meant a lot to me, because it reminded me that the Lord is moving and everybody, everybody in your life, my friends, including yourself, needs encouragement, and this is a way that Paul would go about to uplift people.
Speaker 1:In Colossians 1, 4 he says since we heard of your faith so notice, heard of your faith in Ephesians 1, colossians 1,. Heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints. Same thing he said In Ephesians 1.15, in Colossians 1.4, 1 Thessalonians 1.3, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love. So it's interesting that what Paul does is when he talks about your faith in these passages, he then immediately mentions love. And that's an indication that their faith was genuine. Because what are the two greatest commandments? Loving the Lord, your God, with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and loving your neighbor as yourself.
Speaker 1:And so when he says here in 1 Thessalonians 1, 3, your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord, jesus Christ. So that's going back to what I was saying earlier is when you say to somebody you've been so faithful, you're so reliable, you're giving thanks to the Lord and you acknowledge their steadfastness of hope. I mean, if we were to pull all of us together and talk about the trials in our own lives, or even if you just talk about it at the level of just being discouraged sometimes when you're giving of yourself at church or trying to advance the gospel and trying to witness to this individual, this loved one, it doesn't seem to go anywhere. But the Bible says work of faith, labor of love and steadfastness of hope in who? In Jesus, because, if you think about it, he loves that loved one way more. Jesus died for them. We didn't die for them, we want to see them get saved. But notice what the Bible tells us God desires that all of us repent. That's what he desires, that's his preferred will. He doesn't want to see anyone perish. The Bible tells us. That's why he's long suffering. And we have to be that same way. And so when he says that their faith has been proclaimed in all the world, remember God had called Paul to preach the gospel to the Jews and to the Gentiles, and so when he's writing to the Romans here, he's seeing this opportunity that the gospel has been spreading. And could you imagine if it just explodes in the capital and how rapidly that will spread the gospel because of the capability that that city had being the hub, having the wealth, having the roads, having the transition to convey this to so many outlets. And that's exciting.
Speaker 1:You know, even right now in our ministry we're asking for big things and I know this is a little preemptive, but I know several of you who've, through the years, have contacted the ministry and have donated. We are looking to build a stand strong studio and it's so funny because that's the name of ministry, stands for ministries and a precious brother in Christ who I've been getting to know this. Last year that was his wording I didn't even think of that Stan Strong Studio. But we're looking to raise, you know, several tens of thousands of dollars so that way we can be able to produce more content, biblical worldview content, and build a crew to support that. And it's gonna be a huge undertaking.
Speaker 1:But we worship and believe in a big God and we want the message of God's word to go to all of the world and obviously, in the time we're living, compared to what Paul was dealing with, it's amazing how fast we can get the gospel out there. And so right now I'm sharing, and somebody is listening, or several of you, and you want to give man. We just we're so thankful. Okay, I just can't wait. We haven't really put a timetable. This is still initial, it's new, but that's something that we're really praying about. So join us in praying for that.
Speaker 1:But back to here. In verse nine it says for God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit, in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing, I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. I love this because the first thing that now Paul does here is he expresses his desire, his plans, to visit Romans. And you know what's so sad is and I've done this and I just I now have found myself you know about to say it, and I stop myself where, when you see somebody and you haven't been around them, what we typically say is like, hey, let's get together sometime. You never do. You know, paul says is expressing his plans. Remember, we just came out of 2 Corinthians and in that book.
Speaker 1:One of the reasons they were upset in bringing accusation against Paul was because he didn't arrive when he said he would. But we know it's not because he didn't want to. And so any one of us listening, no matter what culture you come from, when you invite somebody, especially you invite an individual several times and they keep finding a reason or giving you an excuse as to why they can't you get the impression some of us may take longer than others this person doesn't really want to hang out with me, and not only does that hurt, but it also then conveys to you okay, you know, I wanted to be friends with this people, I want to get to know these people, but they don't want to get to know me. So I got to move on. Paul wasn't doing this, he wasn't. He wasn't just being shallow, he was expressing his desire to be with him.
Speaker 1:And notice, he says I serve with my spirit. This is an interesting way of expressing. He says for God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit. What is going on here? Well, we got to connect the dots. Go back, for example, so I can kind of set contextually what he's doing here.
Speaker 1:When you go back to verse seven, and I told you that he used the word holy. That's pointing to like the Israelites being set apart, you that he used the word holy, that's pointing to like the Israelites being set apart, being holy as God is holy. And then he says grace to you and peace from God, our father and Lord, jesus Christ, and that's like the Aaronic blessing that he's conveying. And then, in verse eight, you see him extending this form of gratitude through Jesus Christ, christ being our high priest. When he says this I serve with my spirit. The Greek word for serve is latreo, it means a priestly service. So this is connected also to verse 10, where it says always in my prayers, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you Always in my prayers. This praying without ceasing is just like a high priest that would stand in the gap and intercede on behalf of Israel.
Speaker 1:That's what Paul is conveying. This is where you know he is praying and interceding for the romans. So the language, though, also implies that paul gives himself completely to the gospel. So it's not just those moments where we have a sense of urgency to share the gospel, we just live it. It's our life. We are completely given to the service of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Isn't that amazing, my friends, when you stop and think about that? And he says in the gospel of his son so what has he done for us? Why do you believe in Jesus? And when you love him, it's because he first loved us. And you get to this point, my friends, and I pray that you're that, you, that you know my heart and that you can relate as well that you say oh Lord, I just love serving you. It's the greatest honor because you first served us. Remember, he didn't come to be served, but to serve. So this is an interesting way that he captures salvation that's found only in Jesus Christ. And again, he's conveying. Not only, hey, I'm excited to be with you guys, but what is he doing? He's one pointing out gratitude of their faith that's expanding, but he's also praying and interceding.
Speaker 1:Paul was steadfast in his intercession for the Romans and he remained in fellowship with God as he prayed for the needs of the church. This is something Paul told us to do in 1 Thessalonians 5, 17, to pray continually. So when you see here in verse 11, he says for I long to see that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. This is the second area where Paul is going to be expressing a desire to help as he spreads the gospel into the church. And I'll tell you what this is what we're going to do. I wasn't actually anticipating this, but I're going to do. I wasn't actually anticipating this, but I'm going to pause for today's podcast and I think we're going to pick things up in the next podcast next week because what I'm sensing as I look at this, because oftentimes, as evangelists, you go in there and you share the gospel, but there's not a lot of discipleship. And what we've done, especially in America, in the form of evangelism, with forms of methodology, we have these experts or these specialists that represent different things. Now we know there's different callings, but we need to overlap them. And so Paul, as he has this urgency to share the gospel, but he says here in verse 11, 11, to impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. So there's a form of discipleship that comes with his ministry. And so oftentimes I don't like when people, just you know, will highlight Paul's ministry evangelistically and say, well, he started churches, but he wasn't there Well, but he was still pastoral and he was still a discipler and he still found ways to encourage people. So in the next episode, I want to share with you and go deeper into what number one the spiritual gift Paul's talking about, and, as we share the gospel, how we also need to impart at times uh, this a spiritual gift like pointing out sometimes being sensitive and allowing God to speak at times. A spiritual gift like pointing out sometimes being sensitive and allowing God to speak through us not just give us an opportunity to share the gospel, but, if someone comes to Christ or if somebody's walked away and they rededicate their life to the Lord, to really focus in on how God wants to use that person, instead of just giving them like, hey, god's got a plan for your life. He wants to use you and that's it. There've been a lot of times in my life where God speaks to me directly to show me what to convey to this person, or to ask questions and get to know them a bit better, and then it starts making sense about. Like you know, I think God is really calling you. Oh, I feel that too, and it's just confirmation, so we will talk about that next week, you guys. So until then, I appreciate you guys, I love you. If you have any questions, you can go to our website, standsrongministriesorg. Submit them there with a contact button. We have tons of resources made available to help you guys continue to stand strong in your faith with wise thinking and bold living. So thank you guys for listening today. Until next time, keep standing strong in the word of God.