Romans 1, 1 through 7.

Paul, a Bond Servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures,

concerning his son who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the son of God with power by the

resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ, Lord, through whom we have received grace and

apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for

his name's sake. among all who are beloved of God in all the Gentiles,

for his name's sake,

to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as Saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Last week we began a series of messages on the book of Romans and we saw in verse one as you can see there in the very first

phrases that Paul the author is a servant of Christ Jesus.

And I argued that that meant, among other things,

he was bought by Christ. He was owned by Christ. He was owned by Christ and he was ruled by Christ. And as we saw in Galatians, one, he pleases Christ alone. He tries to please Christ and not people. I want to qualify something lest at the very outset here we skew the whole meaning of the book of Romans with a misunderstanding about the nature of apostolic servanthood or Christian servanthood.

One of the great advantages to preaching through the book of Romans

when you're 52 and you've been a Christian for 46 years is that you've read it before and you know what's at the end

which helps you understand the beginning.

The author has a great advantage over the reader in that the author knows where he's going when he writes the first sentence,

and so there's meaning in it that comes later

and we have to wait until we get later then back up reread the first verse

and learn a little more so we go in circles and he goes in a straight line.

And that's OK.

So I've read verse 18 of chapter 15. I'll read it to you.

Paul says, I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me,

resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by Word indeed. So here's my connection of that with verse one. Paul serves Christ Jesus in the power with which he is served by Christ Jesus.

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