Bible Study Romans Part 21- Thank God For You

A single line in Romans can expose what we really believe about faith, prayer, and spiritual courage. We pick up in Romans 1:8 (KJV) where Paul thanks God through Jesus Christ for the believers in Rome because their faith is being spoken of far and wide, and we ask the obvious question: what makes a church’s faith “news” to everyone else?

From there, we dig into two ways to understand their reputation. Maybe the Roman church is unusually mature, with deep early-Christian roots and hard-earned experience. Or maybe the bigger headline is simply this: there’s a faithful congregation in the heart of the empire, surrounded by pagan worship and political power. Either way, the effect is the same, their faith encourages other Christians who feel isolated, pressured, or outnumbered, and it points us back to God’s purpose of spreading the Gospel through ordinary believers.

Romans 1:9-10 turns the spotlight onto Paul’s pastoral heart and his unceasing intercessory prayer. We talk about practical prayer habits, why it genuinely lifts people to hear “we’re praying for you,” and the sobering Biblical warnings about approaching God while clinging to sin. We also connect the Roman context, rising tension, a culture that rewards religious compromise, and the shadow of Nero, to Paul’s humble posture: he makes requests “by the will of God,” not demands.

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Transcript

Why God’s Word Matters

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Welcome to the program Study in the Chapel. God's Word is supreme at 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's truly nothing more important to you. Now join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

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We love God's word around here. We spend all of our time trying to understand what it is that God has to say to us. Not that it's all that complicated, but we want to know all of the details. We want to know how we can best serve him, and that's why we take our time looking at his word because that's why he gave it to us. He is communicating to us his plan of redemption. He gave us the Holy Spirit when we were saved so that we can, with that Holy Spirit, understand our role in the redemptive plan as best we can so that we can move forward and be soldiers for Christ. That's what we're doing here.

Setting Up Romans Chapter One

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We are in the letter to the Romans. We are still in the first chapter. We've been in the first chapter for a while. Why don't we jump right in this time? We're going to go to verse 8, reading from Romans chapter 1, verse 8. I read out of the King James. Please follow along in the Bible that you have in front of you. If you didn't bring a Bible with you, next time bring a Bible with you. But if you didn't bring a Bible with you, we do put the verses up on the screen. Here we go. Romans 1, 8, out of the King James. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. One of the things I love most about Paul is his pastoral heart. And here in this letter to the Romans, it's on full display. And he's not even their pastor. What an incredible thing for this incredible man to say. I thank God for you. And you know, I he's not thanking them because they encourage him or they donate to his cause or they buy his special three DVD teaching set on the significance of the Shroud of Taryn, sorry, not by love offering. Careful, John, your sarcasm is showing. Paul is thanking God through the mediator, Jesus Christ, for their faith. But why? What does he get out of their faith? Well, nothing for himself, of course, but their faith is lifting up the church. And for that, Paul is thankful. Listen to me. Faith is the most powerful weapon in the earthbound Christians' arsenal. And besides, without faith, it is impossible to please God. That's what he tells us elsewhere. Living the life of faith pleases the Father, which opens up the pathways of blessings that in turn enhance the mission of the church. But you may be thinking, why doesn't God just bless the church and leave it at that? Why does it take our faith to accomplish anything? Well, I don't know for sure, but I believe

Paul’s Gratitude And Pastoral Heart

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that God delights in making us partners in the spreading of the gospel. I mean, he created Adam to help spread his glory in the form of his image. It just seems that's the entire purpose of mankind, to show forth God's glory. Sounds pretty good to me. Now, there's a little subtlety to this statement that Paul makes that I'd like to discuss. Let's read it again. Now, by the way, we're at a point where we don't have to read seven verses just to get a complete thought. That first seven-verse sentence is in the past, at least as far as this Bible study is concerned. So we're on to the second sentence. And like the first, it's a doozy, Romans 1.8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all. He's making this personal. He's talking to them about his prayers to his God. This isn't some official church statement. This isn't an announcement from the leadership in Jerusalem. This is just Pastor Paul expressing what's on his heart. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Their faith, the faith of those beloved in Rome, is spoken of throughout the whole world. Of course, Paul is using a little hyperbole here. We don't mind that, do we? He doesn't mean that the first century natives on the island of Maui are talking about these Christians in Rome. The elders way up in the North Caucasus mountain village of Gamsutil weren't sitting around discussing that little church 2,600 miles away, were they? Of course not. Paul means the whole church world because, well, really, they're really the only ones that would find the faith of those Romans interesting enough to consider. Now I think that was obvious, but as usual, there is the ever-present picky critic who would argue that the scriptures make outrageous claims when in fact, like any piece of literature, there's a fair amount of poetic license in use in the New Testament. So why is their faith worthy of being talked about over by the water cooler in the break room or while waiting for the coffee to brew or in the carpool on a dreary Tuesday morning? What is so buzzworthy about them? Well, there are two schools of thought on this. I'm actually undecided as to which one I believe. First of all, there are those who think that the

Why Their Faith Became Famous

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faith of these Romans was so exceptional that it became world church world famous, that it was the quality of their faith that made the church world stand up and notice. Now, I think there could be something to this one. I mean, Paul doesn't say this to any other church in any other letter. That could mean that these Romans were the ones setting the example for the rest of the world to follow. And you know, that would make a lot of sense. It's just possible that this was a very unique, uniquely gifted church. After all, as you remember, it's rumored that they had an exceptional pedigree. There is some evidence that the church at Rome was established, was founded by one or some of the original 3,000 who on the day of Pentecost converted following Peter's sermon in Jerusalem. As you know, those who were in attendance were described in Acts 2.4 as, quote, devout men out of every nation under heaven. Albert Barnes states that these were, quote, men who were cautious about offending God, who were careful to observe his commandments, it is hence a general expression to denote pious or religious men, unquote. If the supposition that the founders of the church at Rome were in that crowd on Pentecost, then these were people who already had a solid foundation and proper respect for God's ways and word. And it would then follow that this church is more than 20 years old, making it one of the most experienced in the whole world. Therefore, given all of those circumstances, it would be rather expected that these men would have a stellar reputation and that they would certainly be a well-respected congregation. So that's one possibility. Paul is thanking God that their faith, which is legendary and useful for the just now emerging worldwide church, is making a difference. Christians everywhere were looking perhaps to that congregation at Rome as a model to emulate, and

A Seasoned Church With Deep Roots

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their deep experience has proven a great asset as new flocks are formed. It would seem that would be worthy of talking about to those Romans, letting them know that their faith was important to Paul and the rest of the church world.

Hope From A Church In Rome

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Now, the other possibility as to why the faith of those Romans was so well known is maybe a little more obscure, but I have to say, probably no less possible. Let me read it again. I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. I live in the northeastern region of the United States. And let me flat out say that being a fundamentalist Christian here is a very lonely experience. But once in a while I do stumble on a group or a people or a church or even just an individual who genuinely loves God and loves his word and loves his son. And when that does happen, it's an immense blessing, an exceedingly pleasant breath of fresh air because it's very unusual. Those experiences are few and far between. The vast majority of the population of these big cities up here will have nothing to do with living a faith-filled Christian life. They'll not hear of it. The people around me, by and large, have a completely different view of what's important. And listen, this is a city of the 21st century in a nation with deep Christian roots. Can you imagine what it would have been like to have a Christian church during the infancy of Christianity and in the middle of the very center of a world that was nearly all pagan? The churches on the fringes of the empire probably didn't feel nearly as isolated as those that were smack dab in the heart of it all. Some Christian locations around the region must have marveled that those at Rome had any success in spreading the gospel. It must have seemed shocking to those frontier churches to hear that there were Christian brothers and sisters in the very heart of the emperor worshiping capital city. Hey, did you hear there was a congregation in Rome? What? No, in Rome? That's amazing. When did that happen? Like 20 years ago. You're kidding. How encouraging. Maybe we can make it after all. If if they can have a faithful congregation, then so can we. It must have been big news to those that heard it for the first time. The horrific persecutions of Christians in Rome were less than a decade away. So there were probably rumors circulating at the time of rising tensions. Anxiety over the future of Christianity must have been growing. But maybe this news, the news of the congregation in Rome, maybe that alleviated some of those fears. There were probably people thinking, you know, if there's a Christian presence in the Imperial City, there among all those big shots, the decision makers in the Capitol, maybe, maybe they can have some influence with those who currently hold animosity toward us. Maybe they can help protect us. All of that would have been worthy of increasing hope and faith. That's why Paul said, First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Obviously, this was an important place. How they were reacting in Rome was important to the rest of the Christian world.

Paul’s Unceasing Prayer For Them

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Verse 9, for God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. Listen, Paul loved that city. And not only that, he must have seen it as pivotal in the spreading of the gospel. And let me tell you, Paul demonstrates to us over and over that prayer is the key to success in that effort. God loves for us to call on him, and he especially loves when we call on him for his sake. Our little Bible study group here is made up of literally my favorite people on earth. Not all of my favorites are here, but most of them are. Anyhow, one of the reasons I love these people is their enthusiasm for prayer. We begin our Wednesday night meetings with prayer. Actually, we open every meeting together with prayer, but on Wednesday nights, we reserve it for what the fancy church people call intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer is when you pray for others. We generate a list of people we know who need prayer and a little bit about why they need it. Now, everyone needs prayer, of course, but the ones on this list have very specific and sometimes very drastic and immediate needs. Each week before we get started, we spend a few minutes gathering names. We update the list, we challenge people to remember anyone else that needs to be added, and then we pray for all those in as personal a way as we can. Of course, we pray about other things, but this list of people and their needs is a major component of our prayer time. In the church, they call that intercessory prayer. We are interceding with God on behalf of others. Well, sometimes, and this is the point, sometimes people don't know we've been praying for them. And when one of our group comes across one of those whose name is on that list, they'll just kind of let that person know, you know, we're we're praying for you. And you know, that really touches people. You see, there's just something very uplifting about someone going to God for you. Most people are so thankful that we're doing so. And sometimes that person even gets a little emotional. You know, deep down, most of us who are honest with ourselves admit there's a God out there without whom we'd be nothing. Sure, most of the time the modern sophisticated types play this off as just silly sentimental stuff. But when they're really in need, poor health, financial pressure, loved ones hurting, we all turn to a power higher than ourselves. Now, let me just quickly

Intercessory Prayer And Its Comfort

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remind you: just because you're in need of prayer doesn't mean that God's going to listen to you or B, you're saved. Make no mistake. The power of prayer is for the saved only. Now, I know you don't like to hear that, but you have to be careful because it's scriptural. Psalm 66, 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. 1 Peter 3, 12. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And listen, that's why it's so important for the saved to pray for the unsaved. Otherwise, what hope do they have? Nevertheless, it's always encouraging to hear that someone is praying for you. And Paul knows that more than anyone. So he often says something in his letters, very much like he is saying here to these Romans. Back to verse 9. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. And you have to love the way he says this. He's really going out of his way to comfort these people at Rome. Listen to me, the very structure of this sentence should be studied in every seminary course on effective pastoring. You know, one of the hallmarks of theologians is the coldness of their approach to the things of God. When you read the work of some of these guys, even commentaries on some of the most joyful sections of scripture, it comes off as dead, robotic, and sanitary. And I guess that's what you would expect from brainiac

Who God Hears When We Pray

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eggheads in just about every discipline. They seem to be so brilliant, so intelligent that any sign of emotion feels out of place. In fact, a lot of those who fall into this category sort of play that whole thing up. They avoid humanizing their analysis because, well, it's so beneath them. Well, this genius couldn't, this genius Paul is what I'm talking about. This genius Paul couldn't be more different. But sometimes those he's writing to don't know that. Listen, Paul was a famous scriptural egghead. He was famously a Pharisee, and the last thing he wanted his congregations to think was that he was just a Some emotionally flat bookworm. And this is for practical reasons. He isn't teaching religion. He's preaching good news. And he wants to make sure that those that are reading this good news know it's good news to him too. He's excited about this and he's excited for them. He says this stuff all the time as God is my witness. Now that isn't an oath. The subject matter is prayer, and he's letting those Christians in Rome know that God is plugged in. When Paul is saying prayers about them, God is witnessing that. That's encouraging. Paul, God knows Paul's heart for these people, and Paul wants them to know that. For God is my witness. God is aware of the truth of this. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit. God, the one I worship, the one I give homage to, the one I go to in prayer, the one I praise with all my heart. That's how you and I would say it these days, whom I serve with my spirit or in my spirit is like you and I saying, the one

Warm Pastoring Versus Cold Theology

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I serve with all my heart, down deep in my being, the one who receives all of my pleadings. Paul is saying, I'm in his service, preaching the good news of his son. This is a very emotional statement. Don't you love it? For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing, he says that a lot too, without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers. I am constantly bringing you up to God. You're a permanent item on my prayer list. Listen to me. Can you imagine how comforted these Romans must have been? The great apostle Paul himself is mentioning us to God. God's intervention in our lives is being sought by none other than Paul. How this must have hit their hearts.

Pressure To Compromise Under Empire

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Now, listen, we have to try to imagine what it was like for that little congregation in that big church. The dark clouds of persecution were rolling in. In fact, many of the members remember what it was like when the previous Emperor Claudius had all the Jews kicked out of the city. Probably some of the Jews in that congregation who converted experienced that. They were no strangers to religious hatred, and now the Christians are beginning to stir up those same sentiments all over the empire, and everyone knows that's not good. The safe thing to be in those days was cooperative and compromising, especially when it came to religion. And let's face it, in ancient Rome, everything had something to do with religion. Listen, the Roman Empire was successful in large part because they fostered among their subjects an attitude of tolerance and acceptance. There was no such thing as religious right or wrong, no black and white, just shades of religious gray. No system, no belief system was allowed to claim supremacy, except, of course, the cult of the emperor eventually. Well, none of this acceptance, tolerance of other religion and belief systems, none of that was a trait of the Christian religion, nor is it today. We are not to say, well, you know, what you believe is okay. It may be completely different than what we believe, but you know, we we accept it. That's Christianity, it isn't about that. At that time, the Christians would never tolerate any worship except the worship of Christ and his Father and His Father's Holy Spirit. There was and is no room for compromise, and that in those days was starting to generate grumblings among the aristocrats and religious leadership of Roman society. And because of that, danger was just around the corner. At the time this letter first started circulating, a young, soon-to-be maniacal ruler named Nero was just taking the throne. Though the torture, murder, and vile treatment of Christians was still some years away, surely the fear was probably just beginning to emerge. But Paul's prayers must have been a reminder that although the emperor is a big man here on earth, he's no match for our father. And by the way, it wasn't just a crazy king that was threatening those Christians, strife within the church, threats from outside the church. Listen, it's never been easy to be a Christian. The devil is always in this world and he's always trying to defeat us. And listen, we could all use prayer. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. I love what Albert Barnes says here. Quote, if the same intensity of prayer, all Christians and Christian ministers would remember the churches, what a different aspect would the Christian church soon assume. We should be praying for each other more often. Honey, add that to the list.

Asking God Humbly To Visit

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Verse 10 making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. This congregation was important to the man. He wanted to come and see them. He made it a special subject of request to God. And you know, I can't help but be charmed by this statement. It's an indication of the heart of this man. It's a glimpse into what motivates this great apostle and what governs his every thought, making request, asking God if it be possible. Please don't make the mistake of demanding things from God. I once heard a prominent pastor who happened to be dying from cancer say that God must heal him, that God had to answer his prayer for healing, that God was under obligation to respond to his call for a miracle. I was absolutely shocked. The man was trying to beat God over the head with his own word and his own promises. As if you can back God into a corner and force him to do anything. That is as foolish an idea as I have ever heard. And by the way, not too long after that, that man was dead. And that's not Paul's, that's not the Apostle Paul's style, nor anyone else's style in the Bible. Everyone who approaches God must do so with fear and trembling. No, we don't see God as some abusive father, but we go to him knowing who he is and at the same time knowing who we are. Here, Paul is making a request of God. And listen, this isn't something for Paul. Paul is making a request for something, the outcome of which is the glory of the one to whom he's praying, the spreading of the gospel. But that's merely incidental. It doesn't matter if whatever we're asking for is only something for God's sake. Paul knows that no matter what we have to ask for, we had better realize who we're talking to. So Paul is requesting the opportunity to go to Rome to preach in person to this very important congregation. Well, we're just getting started on verse 10. We're not done here yet, but why don't we pick it up right there next time? See you then.

Where To Learn More And Give

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