ROMANS: Advanced Trauma Spiritual Life Support

ROMANS:

 Advanced Trauma Spiritual Life Support

WELCOME HOME TO THE COWBOY CHURCH OF YOUNG COUNTY, WHERE EVERYONE HAS A PLACE TO SERVE THE LORD.

TODAY’S VERSES

Romans 1:1-7; Isaiah 9:2,6–7, 7:14

(All verses today will be read out of the NASB95)

CHILDREN'S CHURCH

THIS WEEK – Daniel 6:15-27

NEXT WEEK – John 14:6

              KEY VERSE

              ROMANS 1:1

“Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, 

called as an apostle, set apart for the 

gospel of God, set apart for the 

Gospel of God…”

Last Week’s Attendance –

Last Week’s Givings –

OUTLINE

I. Our job as Christians is simple: spread the gospel of Jesus Christ just as Paul did. (Romans 1:1; Matthew 24:14, 28:19-20; Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8, Luke 24:47)

II. The truth is that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah (Savior) of humanity. (NT: Romans 1:2b-4, Matthew 16:28; 26:64; Luke 22:29-30; John 6:38-40, 62; 8:42; 10:30, 36-38; 18:36. OT: Psalms 2, 16, 22, 40, 110; Isaiah 7:14, 9:6, 11:1, 40:10-11, 50:6, 52:13–53:12, 61:1, 63:1–6; Jeremiah 23:5-6, 33:14–16; Ezekiel 34:23, 37:25; Daniel 9:24–27; Hosea 11:1; Micah 5:2; Zechariah 9:9, 11:13, 12:10, 13:7; Malachi 3:1, 4:2)

III. We, who believe in Jesus Christ, have received salvation through grace, and with that undeserved gift, we also have received a commission to follow the will of God in all things and to share the gospel whenever possible. (Romans 1:5-7; John 14:15; 1 John 5:3; Acts 5:9; 2 Corinthians 10:5)

Authentic Christianity involves the heart being completely filled with the truth that Jesus Christ is the Savior of humanity and must include the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Without these, what is the purpose of being a Christian? But as an authentic Christian, you have an overwhelming desire to share the Gospel.

Love Y’all Cary

NOTES TO SERMON INTRO:

Starting today, we are going to work our way through one of the most significant epistles in the Bible. 

Now the word epistle is just a fancy word for a letter. 

The apostle Paul’s insightful epistle to the Romans has been designated “the most profound work in existence” by the great litter-ah-tour litterateur Samuel Coleridge. 

In addition, Martin Luther called it the “purest gospel.” 

The teaching of Romans is not only crucial for Christian theology and doctrine, but the greatest revivals and reformations throughout the history of Christianity have resulted from an increased understanding and application of this epistle's teaching.  

What to expect as we go through Romans?

I want you to expect some uncomfortable moments; 

some moments of confusion; 

some moments of clarity through the Holy Spirit, 

and a clear message of where you, as a believer, need to change. 

We’re going to begin this multi-week journey through the epistle Romans to discover the wisdom – actually, it’s something of a much greater urgency than we normally think of wisdom having; 

it is more like Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS), for short. 

ATLS is the standardized, systematic approach used for the immediate, high-level care of patients with critical, life-threatening injuries. 

Sin is our SPIRITUALLY critical life-threatening injury, and the Gospel, also called the Good News of Jesus Christ, found in Romans, is our immediate high-level cure. 

So, today we are going to coin a new phrase, 

we’re going to call this Advanced Trauma Spiritual Life Support or ATSLS.

Which is simply the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In this sermon, I will lay the groundwork for the next several weeks. 

So, when you go home today, I would like you to read Romans 1 and 2. 

As we go through Romans, I will post the notes and outline for Sunday’s sermon on the church website, under the “Media” category, in the series 

“ROMANS: Advanced Trauma Spiritual Life Support.”

Now, I know what you are thinking, “Oh, this is going to be just another Bible study.” No, no, no, no, you would be wrong if you’re thinking that way. 

Instead, in the coming weeks, you will understand and see how people of that time had to radically change their ideas of how they had always believed. 

Some would even have to change from worshiping many ‘gods’ or no god at all, to worshiping a ‘GOD.’ 

You will also come to learn and understand theology and doctrine that are the bedrock of the Christian faith, and how all this applies to us today.

Paul’s letter to the Romans addresses the nuts and bolts of the groundbreaking, paradigm-shattering, radical way of worship that we refer to today as Christianity. 

Speaking in Jesus’s time, this new, one-to-one relationship with God, no matter who you are or were, was available to anyone, and that was RADICAL compared to what they had always believed.  

However, what began as a 12-man discipleship under Jesus became the belief system of Christianity, spreading across the Roman Empire and ultimately to the rest of the world in the decades following Jesus’s resurrection. 

As it spread, it presented the gospel as God’s love expressed through Jesus Christ, a human being, offering salvation from an inescapable physical and spiritual death to all who would believe in Jesus as the Messiah.  

When we see the struggles of this new way of worship for both the Jew and the Gentile, I promise you that at some point, you are going to say to yourself, 

“Wow, I don’t know if I could have accepted this change of beliefs if I had lived at that time.” 

As for me, I don’t understand why change is so hard for humanity. 

I personally think it is a false sense of safety and security, believing that WE are in control of our lives, possessions, our family, our friends, and even our faith, thus we do not want to change what we see as constants.

Change began at the beginning of creation – the dark unformed mass turns into a world, day turns to night, and night turns to day; water, plants, animals, and people are created. 

The seasons change; everything changes, EXCEPT FOR GOD. 

Humanity tends to do things the way we have always done them because that makes us feel in control, and with control, we believe there is safety and security.

For most of us, we are comfortable within that false sense of safety and security. 

For example, people once believed that streets were for pedestrians and horse-drawn buggies and carts only. 

Then the invention of the gasoline-powered car made people uncomfortable because it changed the way they had always traveled.

It changed what they had always known as normal, safe, and secure. 

The first gasoline car, the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, was created in 1885 by Karl Benz, with the first public, street-legal, and documented operating appearances occurring in 1886.

When the Benz Motorwagen first appeared, the primary bias against them was that they were dangerous, disruptive, and selfish machines, 

viewed as a “menace to life and limb” in cities. 

Early motorists were seen as elitist “sociopathic” killers, 

as cars brought chaotic speeds of up to 10 miles per hour to streets formerly used freely by pedestrians and children. 

Oh, if they could only see us now, those people would be stupefied at the speeds, the danger, and sheer volume of automobiles that exist today. 

I think the 1st Christians, if they could see what became of their belief in Jesus Christ as the Messiah because of their strength and faith, they too would be stupefied, shocked, and probably speechless.

As a side note for fun, while researching the gasoline automobile, I found something interesting. 

The first automobiles used for public transportation were an all-electric automobile in 1888, and the first hybrid vehicle was built by Ferdinand Porsche in 1900.

Now back to Romans. 

The undisputed author of Romans is Paul, also known as Saul. 

Paul was born in Tarsus, which was considered the center of Greek education and civilization in the Roman Empire. 

Paul was born to Jewish parents and given the Hebrew name Saul, though Paul was his Roman name because he was also a Roman citizen. 

As a highly educated and high-ranking Pharisee, Paul saw Jesus and his disciples as a threat to the Jewish beliefs and consequently began to persecute, arrest, and even execute them. 

However, Paul had an UNMISTAKABLE JESUS MOMENT on the road to Damascus that changed the trajectory of his life forever.

Paul wrote the epistle of Romans around 57 AD to a mixed congregation of Jewish and Gentile converts in Rome.  

The letter tackles a fundamental tension: while Christianity was grounded in Old Testament revelation, both the Jews and Gentiles perceived it as a radical withdrawal from the established faith. 

The epistle’s central puh-lim-uhk polemic, or attack on pre-Christ views, is that SALVATION COMES THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, 

thereby unifying Jews and Gentiles in Christ and, 

at the same time, instructing readers on how to restore their relationship with God.  

The truth is that Christianity was not a radical withdrawal from their faith.

But instead, it is Christ who fulfills God’s covenant promises extending back to Abraham and represents God’s righteousness—the means by which sinners become righteous and saved. 

The epistle is divided into two major movements: 

The 1st seven chapters establish the gospel’s foundational truths

  justification by faith, 

  union with Christ, 

  and salvation through Christ alone rather than works.

While chapters 8 through 16 explore

  how faith in Christ produces actual transformation in believers’ lives. 

The overarching theme centers on 

  God’s wrath against sin 

  and righteousness through faith as the basis for justification, making the entire world accountable before God and dependent on salvation through Jesus Christ.  

Paul emphasizes that authentic Christianity involves the heart, 

saturated in the gospel and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, 

which produces genuine changes in one’s thinking and behavior.  

Ultimately, Romans serves as the foundation of Christian theology and doctrine, which continues to shape our understanding of these matters even today.