Right with God - Romans 1:8-17

We're going to open God's word together. And as we do that, would you pray with me? God, as we come now to your word, we ask that you'd speak to us. Lord, plant something in our hearts, in our minds, deep in our spirits, that we might be transformed into the likeness of your son. Father, we pray that we would hear from you this morning as we open your word.

We thank you that you speak, that through your Holy Spirit, you reveal yourself to us. And so we ask that we would come with listening ears and ready to hear what you would say to us in your precious son's name. Amen. I wonder if you've ever had some big news to share. You know, that kind of news that you're just like, dying to tell someone.

Perhaps if you work in an office, you might have experienced that, where, you know, something shared in a meeting and you head straight out to your work bestie, whoever that is, you're racing to their office. You're like, I just have to tell you this news. I just have to tell you what's happening. Maybe it's some personal news that you just can't wait for your loved one to finish work or, you know, be available so you can talk to them. We've all had that kind of news, the news where you're desperate to share it.

And when we come to the book of Romans, we're reading news that some years before, Paul, who writes this letter to the church at Rome, had discovered he'd been on a dusty road leading to Damascus. And suddenly Jesus had stepped in and spoken to him. And in that moment, it had changed his entire life. He'd gone from destroyer of the church to a builder of the church. He'd passed up a life of wealth and comfort as a significant Jewish leader to take up a life of persecution.

He did all this because he'd heard some news that he simply couldn't keep to himself, that we're made right with God through Jesus. And so for some 20 years, Paul had been telling that news everywhere he went. And as he comes to write this letter that we know as Romans, this letter to the church at Rome, he's nearing the end of his third missionary journey, and he sits down to write to them. And he writes to them the good news that he dedicated his life to, the good news of the gospel. And so today we're going to continue in chapter one.

Last week we looked at the first seven verses. Today our focus will be on chapter one, verses eight to 17. And you can turn there if you have Your Bible with you. Because here Paul shows the fruit that the Gospel has produced in his life. It's an incredible model for the transformative power of.

Of the gospel. As we work through the passage today, my big question for you, the thing that I want you to kind of keep coming back to is asking yourself, is this fruit evident in my life, too? Is this fruit evident in my life? And so we see four things, four work of parts of the work of the Gospel. In transforming his life.

In verses 8 and 9, he demonstrates that he has an encouraging heart. 10 to 12, a love for the church. 13 to 15, a vision for the lost. And 16 to 17, a fearless faith. And so let's turn and look at verse eight and it says this.

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 along over the world. Those first seven verses that we looked at last week were, in effect, an introduction to the letter. And now Here in verse 8, Paul turns his attention toward the Roman believers. And I want us to notice the very first thing he does as he turns his attention to them, as he starts speaking to them directly, what does he do? He encourages them of all the things that he could have said of the theological instruction that's going to come later in the letter.

The first thing he does is he speaks to them in a way that will lift their hearts. We saw last week that Rome was not an easy place to be a Christian. It was the centre of power in the ancient world. It was a centre of culture, the centre of influence. It was full of temptations, of pagan religion, of money, of devastatingly cruel entertain.

The pull of society and the pressure to conform on the believers in Rome would have been really significant. And it's into that environment that Paul writes and says something that must have immediately encouraged them. He says that as people have traveled out from Rome, across the empire, into the surrounding regions, across the continent, into North Africa, that news has traveled with them. And Paul says that as the people travel, they're speaking about something remarkable. They say, he says people everywhere are talking about your faith.

Can you imagine that? Can you imagine sitting in a home somewhere in the city of Rome, probably in a densely crowded, very impoverished area where crime is rife outside the windows, and you're there and this letter is opened and all of a sudden you hear this news from the Apostle Paul that your faith is being spoken about across the world. I can almost imagine them, like, sitting up in their chairs. That boost that comes from it because they've heard that the Apostle Paul has even heard that they are being faithful in the way that they're trusting Jesus. What an incredible boost that must have been to their spirits in the middle of all the sacrifices that they're making in the way that they're living out their faith in the face of opposition and in the face of pressure, in the face of a culture that demands that they live in a different way.

Their faithfulness has been seen.

And I want us to notice this because it not only tells us the work of the Gospel in the lives of the believers in Rome, it also tells us the work of the Gospel in Paul's life. You see, Paul had been following Jesus for years. And as a result of his decision to follow Jesus, he'd faced beatings, he'd been arrested, he'd been thrown in prison. He'd had to escape towns with mobs of people who wanted to kill him. And that was just because he had committed his heart to following Jesus.

Things had been really, really hard. He'd faced opposition from people opposed to the gospel, and maybe you could excuse that. You could say that they don't know. But he'd also seen the best and the worst in Christian community. He'd been undermined, he'd been ridiculed.

He'd had to confront people who were distorting what he was saying. He was confronting people who'd been twisting the gospel. And yet the persecution from the outside of the church and the challenges from within, it hadn't turned him into a cynic. Isn't that remarkable? Like, you think of what Paul had to deal with.

I think most of us, if we dealt with, like, 1% of what he had to deal with, we would say, nah, I'm done with the church. I'm done with people in the church. I'm done with it. And yet that hadn't made him as someone who could only see the faults in other believers. Instead, it produced in him a heart that could see the grace of God at work in the lives of others.

And he gives thanks for it. I think it can be easy for us to miss that. I think it can be easy for us to become cynics. It can be easy for us to notice what's missing before we notice what God is doing. I think it can be easy for us to carry the scars of criticism or opposition or disappointment in such a way that they shape everything that we see.

We can do that in church life, but we can also do that in our homes, in our marriage. We can do it in our workplaces, we can do it with our kids, our friendships. But Paul doesn't become a cynic. Instead, he hears of the faith of the Roman believers and the first thing in his heart is to speak words of encouragement, to say to them, I am so grateful to God for you. And that gratefulness is expressed by him in verse 9.

Turn there with me. He says, God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the good news about his son. Paul says, I'm praying for you now. I wonder how many times you've used that phrase in Christian life.

I'll pray for you, I'm praying for you. It can be very, very easy to say and sometimes it's more difficult to actually do. If you're like me, it's very easy to say to someone, oh, I'll pray for you. And then you get into your week and you forget about it. But Paul doesn't just say, I'm praying for you as a throwaway line.

He says something more to make it clear that this is not just a nice sentiment, it's something he's putting into practice. He says, day and night, my prayers for you are regular and they're ongoing. You know, I wonder how often we pray for others like that. Paul was thousands of kilometres away, but his heart was there with the believers in Rome because he was constantly lifting them up to God. He was praying for them that they might have strength to follow Jesus.

And it's no surprise that he starts this letter with words of encouragement, because what I've found is that if you're praying for someone, it's impossible not to feel encouragement towards them, not to want to encourage them. I always suggest that if you're struggling with something, pray. If you're struggling with someone, pray for them, because God will fill you with a tenderness that comes from him. I want to encourage you church to put this into practice this week. This is a really clear thing.

If you forget everything else, this is something that you can take with you into your week. One of the things that I've tried to do is become a lot more intentional about this. So when I'm catching up with someone, often that happens in cafes. I love a coffee, so if ever you want to catch up, just let me know. We'll meet in the cafe and have a coffee.

But I've tried to become a lot more intentional that when someone says to me, when we're catching up for a coffee, oh, I'm really struggling with this or this is going on. Rather than saying, I'll pray for you, I say, can I pray for you now? Now that might feel a bit weird. Like, all of a sudden you're sitting there having coffee, people are looking around and you and the other person are sitting there with your heads bowed and your eyes closed and you're speaking to each other. Like, people around you are gonna wonder what is going on.

And you know what? The first time I did it, I thought, this is really weird. It feels weird. I'm sure other people think it's weird, but no one said anything. And then the second time I did it, no one said anything.

And the third time I did it. And so now I'm going the opposite way. Like, I'm actually wanting people to say, what are you doing? Because what an incredible opportunity it is to share the gospel with them, to say, hey, we're lifting each other up to God because we know a God who cares about us. And so I'd encourage you this week.

Don't just say, I'll pray for you. Stop and pray for the person wherever you are, whatever's happening, you can throw up a 30 second prayer to God and lift him up to them. So the Gospel has produced in Paul a heart that encourages people. The second thing is there in verse 10, we see it's produced in him a love for the church. Says this, one of the things I always pray is for the opportunity, God willing, to come for I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord.

When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours. Paul says that one of the things he prays is that he prays that he would be able to go and visit them. We saw last week that unlike a lot of the churches that Paul writes to, this church here in Rome is a church that he didn't plant, he didn't start it. He doesn't know most of the people there. He probably knows a few people from his travels, but most of the people there he's never met.

So when Paul says, I long to come and see you, I'm praying that I'll be able to come and see you. This is not a sentimental Paul longing for a reunion with close friends. It's a Paul who sees the believers in Rome that he hasn't even met as brothers and sisters in Christ. It's a Paul who has a deep love for the body of Christ, he longs to be with them, he says, because his faith is strengthened in community. He says it there in verse 12.

When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours. You see, Paul expects something to happen when he gets together with other believers. Faith strengthens faith. Encouragement flows both ways. And doesn't that give us a wonderful picture of what the church is supposed to be like, of how God created it to be?

You see, Paul doesn't view the church as encouragement one way. He doesn't view it as the pastor encourages everyone and then they take that and they feel good about it. Instead, he sees it as a place where each person brings encouragement and faith to one another. I think it's very easy for us to think of church as just something that we could get something out of. Like, what does the church have for me, for my family, instead of thinking, hey, what encouragement will they bring to my life?

But what encouragement can I be to them? I want to give you a practical example of it this week because my faith has been stretched and grown and encouraged by people in this church. As I spend time with you, as we get together on Sundays, as we connect in connect groups and in ministry settings, my faith has been stretched. You know, I'm going to share a few names, and if they get embarrassed, that's okay. We'll say it's encouragement.

For those of you who know John, John has an incredible confidence that God answers prayer. If you have not spent time with him, you need to, because he just 100% all the time says, God is going to answer this prayer. And I tell you what, that has challenged and stretched my faith. I'm sure you've met Kathy at the door. What incredible gentle hospitality she shares.

Isn't that incredible? You feel warm, you feel welcomed, you feel encouraged. After speaking with Kathy, I've been challenged by Jo's unashamed sharing of the gospel. If you've had conversations with her every single week, pretty much she'll be saying, oh, I spoke to this person at work, or I chatted with this person about what Jesus is doing or what Jesus has done. And you know what?

That's a challenge to me. You know, I spend a lot of my time with Christians. I go looking for non Christians to hang out with. But Joe, if you need to be challenged in sharing the gospel, you speak with Joe. I had a list of other people.

I actually had to cut them out because when I worked through my sermon this week, but I'm gonna make it My point, to encourage you to say that's the work of the body of Christ, that's the church at work, is that we bring encouragement to one another. You know, I could go on. I could list dozens of people. Dozens of people. The sermon would end up really long and, you know, after a while you'll be like, okay, cool, we got the point.

But I could list dozens of people because that is what the church is. It's a place where our faith is encouraged by one another. Third, we see that Paul has a vision for the lost. The Gospel has produced this in his life. Let's look at verse 13.

It says, I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to visit you, but I was prevented until now. I want to work among you and see spiritual fruit, just as I have seen among other Gentiles. For I have a great sense of obligation to people in both the civilized world and the rest of the world, to the educated and the uneducated alike. So I'm eager to come to you in Rome, too, to preach the good news. This one shouldn't surprise us, because as much as he was a mentor, a pastor, a church planter, Paul, above everything, was a missionary on that road to Damascus.

He'd been confronted by Jesus and his whole life purpose had been transformed. And you can see that sense of calling as it flows out from him through these verses. He says, I have an obligation to everyone everywhere. The news that he's heard about Jesus was something that he just had to share. He says, I'm obligated to the civilized world.

That's what they called the people who lived within the Roman Empire, he says, the uncivilized everybody outside of it. I'm obligated to those who are educated and to those who aren't. You see, Paul knew that no group was outside the reach of the gospel, and so no group was outside of his concern. And that's important for us to notice because it shows how the Gospel has reshaped his life. Before he met Jesus, his world was so much smaller.

He lived a life completely centered on his own people, on the Jews. He lived completely governed by his traditions, his own culture, his religious practice. But the Gospel had taken hold of him and his vision got so much bigger. Now he sees people everywhere as people who need to hear the good news of Jesus. We can become so comfortable in our own circles, but when the Gospel takes hold of our hearts, it lifts our eyes to see outward.

We should begin to see the people around us differently. That family that Lives next door, the work colleague, the parent you're standing next to at the soccer field on a Saturday morning, the person you're chatting with in the dog park. Paul would say to us that these people are people that God loves and they're people who need to hear the good news. And this vision for the lost is what had sustained him through so many different seasons, through so many struggles and so many trials. Paul had never wavered.

He had a desperation to see people come to know Jesus. And then lastly, number four, we see it had produced in him a fearless faith. Verses 16 to 17 say, For I am not ashamed of this good news about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes the Jew first and also the Gentile. The good news tells us how God makes us right in his sight.

This is accomplished from start to finish by faith, as the Scriptures say. It is through faith that a righteous person has life. This is probably the best known part of chapter one. And it's no surprise, it shouldn't shock us that Paul writes these words to the church at Rome. He says, I am not ashamed.

I'm not ashamed of the good news about Christ. The good news that God took on human flesh, that he came to us as a baby, that he lived a perfect life we could never live. He died the death we deserved for our sins, and then he rose again in victory so that we might put our trust and our hope in him and be forgiven and brought back into relationship with God. And this was important for the church at Rome because the good news about Jesus was so different from the things that their society told them were worthy of worship. Their society praised wealth and power and comfort, not humility and suffering.

Their idols were gods of marble and gold that were physically strong, that were beautiful, that were victorious over their earthly rivals. And yet the Saviour the Christians worshiped came to serve and to suffer. Roman society said that death on a cross was reserved for the worst of criminals, and yet their Saviour had died on a cross. So Paul says, I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus and everything that that means in my life. And the inference there for us is that neither should you be, you should not be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.

Then we have there in verse 17, one of the 60 Old Testament references that we mentioned last week. This time Paul quotes from Habakkuk 2, 4. It is through faith that a righteous person has life. You see, Paul writes to encourage them, hold tight to the Gospel. It would have been so easy, so tempting, for the Believers in Rome to soften the message of the gospel, to make it more attractive, to make it more palatable to the culture around them.

But Paul refuses to do that. He says the message alone is God's power, about how you can be made right with God. There is no other way. And he can say this boldly because he's seen the transformation in so many lives. He's seen in his own life.

And it's a news that he just has to share. And so it's produced in him a faith that is brave, that is courageous. So this morning I want to bring us back to that question that we started with.

What is the gospel producing in your life?

Is it producing a heart that wants to encourage others, that builds people up, that celebrates the grace of God at one work in them? Is it producing an encouraging heart? Is it producing in you a love for the church? Do you see your involvement in the body of Christ about building up the faith of others as they build up yours?

Has the gospel given you a vision for the lost? Do you see people as Paul sees them, as people who need to hear the good news of Jesus? And has it produced in you a fearless faith, a confidence that the gospel really is the power to save? Has it given you a boldness to proclaim it even when the world would try and make you conform it into the things that they value? Has the gospel produced in you the ability to say, I am not ashamed of the good news of Jesus Christ?

Let's pray as we ask that God would help us with those things.

Oh God, we thank youk for Paul. We thank youk for his testimony here to the church at Rome. Lord, we thank youk for the challenge that it brings right into our own lives. Lord, I pray that this week we might consider these things, that you might help us, Lord, that we might not just hear your Word, but we would be doers of your Word. That we would hear it and put it into practice, that it would shape and transform us.

Lord, we pray for those hard things in our lives where it doesn't line up at the moment. Help us to be encouraged by others, help us to conform those things. Not try and conform you and your Word Word into the culture of this world, but to transform our lives and conform our lives to be aligned with you and your Word. And so we pray this, Lord, make us a church of people who bring encouragement and faith to one another, that we might build up one another's faith. God, that we might spur one another on, Father, that we might develop and grow deep relationships, Lord God, that enable us to function as you've called us to function.

So, Lord, we pray this. We pray for each one that you would plant this in our hearts, Lord, that we wouldn't go now forget about it. But it might be worked out through us. This week we pray in Jesus name, amen.