Reading Romans Backwards

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. So, I recently picked up a book called Reading Romans Backwards. And it's by Scott McKnight. It's more or less a commentary on the book. And his insight is that the letter of Romans was not just dropped down out of the sky or written in a vacuum, but it was written to a specific people at a specific time in a specific way for specific reasons. And Paul had his own reasons for that. Though Paul hadn't gone to Rome, he knew a lot of people who were already in Rome. In the last chapter of Romans 16, you read it through, there's 35 different names that are mentioned. It's kind of like the Facebook of the New Testament. Everybody's mentioned there. Paul knows them. And many of them are already in Rome. Like they said, all roads lead to Rome. And a lot of people were there. It was kind of the center of the Roman Empire. And so, his intention was to write a letter to the Romans in order to then go to Rome after these five to eight house churches already were established there. And go to Rome and use it as his launching pad to go even farther west to places like Spain or Gaul or France or wherever to keep sharing the gospel. But that was not his main intent. And his main intent was not to write this theological treatise, this opus, although it is, by the way. It's probably the most theologically heavy book of the New Testament, most thorough. But his deal was to address the situation, Scott McKnight says, in Rome and in these five to eight house churches already going on. So, how does this gospel of justification where God wants to mend broken people, broken relationships, and a broken world, how does that impact Rome? And we're going to read the end of the book, Romans 16, right now, just a portion of it. To get where Paul, the destination where Paul starts in Romans 1. So, you might want to read this with me. Okay? It starts at verse 17. I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught. Avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all so that I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you. So does Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen. I, Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus greets you. Now, to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but now has been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal God to bring about the obedience of faith to the only wise God. Be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ. Amen. So did you all hear any clues at the beginning of this letter of what Paul was writing this letter to and for? Did you hear anything? What did you hear? Silence. Divisions. Did you hear that at the beginning? Divisions. Paul says there were power plays and divisions going on. You can read this in Romans 14, 15, and 16 specifically, but he warns against divisions. And Paul says they're actually contrary to the doctrine that he taught. That is, the teaching of the gospel itself, that there would be divisions within the Christian church. So the gospel comes at the end like it did at the beginning, actually. There's somebody at the door that might want to get in, so sorry. All right, we've got another person coming to worship. So this guy, Douglas Moo, I'm not sure if James Husney, he might put this in his Facebook feed. Douglas Moo was a biblical scholar from Wheaton, so I don't know if he was there when James, who graduated from there a couple of years ago, was there. But he wrote a ginormous, like it's this thick, commentary on Romans. And this is what he says. Prominent here again is the theme of the revelation of the gospel as a pinnacle of salvation history and as a message of universal applicability. What a science, I know. But this is the important one. Paul ends where he begins. So we're going to see, in this end, where Paul actually begins the letter and how it ties into the end. And from Romans 16, we're going to learn three different points in our sermon today. We're going to have these thoughts organized under a burning passion, a real-life example, and all-inclusive mission. And the first point is the burning passion. Burning passion. So here at the end of the letter, Paul makes a strong appeal and he says, ag...