His Perfect Love

Announcer: Well, we are just getting our feet wet here in the study of Romans. So if you're joining us for the first time, your timing is great. And welcome to the program. Today on His Perfect Love, Pastor Matt VanderVen will tell us a little about the author, the purpose of the letter, and where we're going in the weeks ahead.

First, we'll pay a visit to Acts, which describes the Christian movement in Rome. Here is Pastor Matt with a message first delivered at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.

Matt VanderVen: In Acts chapter 2:10 it tells us very clearly that there were those that had gathered on the day of Pentecost. Jews that had come for the feast. And as it said they had made their way back to Jerusalem and they were there in Jerusalem. What happens? All of a sudden they hear this breakout, this wind that had come.

We know it was because the Apostles and the disciples were gathered in the upper room. And they had come out and the Holy Spirit had come upon them. *Epi* in the Greek. The baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's what that speaking of. And all of a sudden Peter comes out and the people begin to gather in this area.

Remember normally you have somewhere around a couple hundred thousand people living in Jerusalem at any one time. Up to the feast days you had a million people swelling in because people were coming from Rome. Verse 10 actually lists from Rome. That people would come like that to come to this feast day.

So they're all coming in. They're pressing in. And what do they see? They begin to see men talking in other languages. They naturally initially say, "You're all drunk." Remember that? You're all drunk with wine. And Peter stands up and goes, "No, no, no, brothers." And he begins to give them or explain the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And as he starts explaining this gospel of Jesus Christ it says they're cut to the heart. What does that mean? It means they're getting it. It means that their heart is being softened and they're receiving the gospel. And as they begin to receive the gospel what happens? They have this moment and if you're a believer in Christ here this morning you know that moment where you go, "Oh man. What am I going to do? That's not me and that needs to be me."

You receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior but you have the question, how do I do that? We just had someone come in the church earlier this week and they accepted Jesus Christ this week. A young lady came in and we had a great conversation and we began to pour over the scripture and she'd heard the gospel but not necessarily scripturally presented before.

And she came to Christ and I was just praising God as she had to carry on her day, she had to go pick up the kids and things like that. But it was the gospel that was presented. It was the gospel and the power unto salvation as the Bible says. So here they are, they're hearing this and they respond, "What do we do?"

You remember that response, friends? "What do I do? I agree. Yes. Amen. So be it. What do I do now?" And then your friend that loved you told you to hop on one foot, turn around and tap your stomach and rub your head? No? My friend was a clown. Okay. No, he told you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Believe on Him. Very simple. God made it so simple that way.

So what happened? In Acts chapter 2:10 we see that there were Jewish men from Rome. They got saved. What did they do? Did they say, "Well we're going to now live here"? No, they had wives, they had families, they had children. So what are they going to do after the feast is over? They're going to go back. They're going to go back home.

And what are they taking home with them that they didn't have when they left? Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. When you have Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, what can't happen? What can't you do? Oh my, you can't keep it to yourself. You can't keep quiet. Jesus said it can't be hidden even on a hill. You can't hide it anywhere.

We teach our kids, hide it under a bushel? No. No way, man. Can't be done. Well, so they make their way back to their home synagogues in Rome. And that's what begins the Christian movement in Rome. At least that's what many believe and that's what I happen to believe.

Further if you look in Acts chapter 18:2, go ahead and turn there. We learn that Aquila and Priscilla, you remember them? Where did they come and meet Paul the first time? Corinth. Why did they come and meet Paul in Corinth? Because they were booted out, man. They were booted out of Rome.

What happened? Do you remember? Right around AD 49, one of the leaders, Claudius at that time, said get out. And so all the Jewish Christians or Jews had to leave that time. Because remember under the Roman Empire at that point they didn't understand the difference between you're a Christian, you're a Jew, you're a Jewish Christian.

It was you're Jewish and oh by the way you're a Jewish Christian? You're all going. They didn't know how to break that out. They weren't theologically looking at it going, "Do you know Christ? Well you can stay. You don't?" No. You're Jewish, you're going to the synagogue, you have to leave.

So we see that they left and where did they come? They just coincidentally came to Corinth as Paul's there a year and a half. And they begin to talk to Paul and as a matter of fact Paul meets them and they say, "Hey man, why don't you stay with us?" And Paul's like, "I dig it. I'm in." So he turns around he moves in with Aquila and Priscilla.

If you want to know what it looks like to be a dynamite ministry team husband and wife, it's Aquila and Priscilla. That's a good study just studying them. But anyway he turns around they come and he starts living there. And what did they share in common? They were all tentmakers.

What's that mean? They worked with leather. They were leather makers. They worked with leather that way. And so they began to work but as they're staying with Paul, don't you think that at dinner sometimes? "So tell me what Rome was like." "Oh man," Aquila starts saying, "you don't know. Man we were there. We were at Pentecost."

"You were at Pentecost?" "Yeah, yeah, we were at Pentecost, we came back home. And man, we were on fire for Jesus. And then there were even Gentiles. Gentiles were getting saved. People were coming getting saved in Rome left and right." "Really? Do the Gentiles understand that we didn't keep the law on them there? Did we? Because these Judaizers have been following me all around when I go to Corinth, Ephesus, all these other churches. Man they just keep following me around and saying oh you got to be circumcised or you need the law or you need this."

He's like, "Oh no, that didn't happen in Rome. That didn't happen in Rome." We don't read about that. That didn't happen in Rome. He says, "You know what though? There's a lot of biblical literacy, man. Not that we can relate today anymore, right? But there's a lot of biblical literacy."

"What do you mean?" He says, "Yeah because you got some Jewish Christians which understood the law and understood Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the entire account as it would have come through the Davidic Covenant and everything that included that and the promise of one that was Messiah that was written about throughout all the scripture. But then you have these Gentiles. They've never experienced any of that."

And Paul goes, "Man, I know about that." He says, "When I was traveling I went to this one place one time and I began to go in there and they were Gentiles and I started talking to them about the law and oh, it did not end well. I didn't at least I didn't think a couple came to Christ. But everybody else walked away."

He said, "For me, now I only preach Christ and Christ crucified." We read that in what book? The book of Corinthians. We're getting our fingerprints, God's given us the hints where this is all coming from. He's in Corinth at this time when he meets Aquila and Priscilla. All right, so it's coming clear.

So they sit there and they're talking and he says, "Man, you know they're all scattered now but as soon as Claudius goes back man we're going to go back to Rome." He says, "Pray for the saints in Rome." Paul's like, "All right." And when Paul says he's going to pray for you, Paul's going to pray for you.

So you don't think that was on his heart? You don't think that was happening? That's why context matters. It's a letter. What was on his heart at that time? So all of a sudden this is going on and we read that this large population of Gentile Christian converts, everybody they had to leave.

And it's interesting, I can relate to this. This is how many Calvary Chapels begin. The Calvary Chapel movement began by house churches. Well, originally it was Pastor Chuck Smith, Costa Mesa. But then after that what happened is I mean we have 1600. The Lord has led 1600 different churches all around the world Calvary Chapels and they start with Bible studies.

Some of you are part of that. I'm from Rochester, New York. I didn't know anybody in Harrisburg. I didn't know nobody in PA. Lord put it on my heart to come down here. I come down here. Now because I didn't know anybody it's not like I could say, "Hey man can I use your house?" Although it did cross my mind a couple times I won't lie.

I was like, "Hey man I just need a place where I can open the word of God and I know God will do the rest." Well there was this place called Prosser Hall in Camp Hill. It was right next to the police station. Normally this was a no-no for me, but praise God I got saved and now I'm like all right I'll go into a police station fine man.

So we're right next to it and I go in there and I open the doors. And all of a sudden, we didn't like advertise it somewhere. I mean it was on Hope 88, but we start just teaching the word. And next thing you know, I turn around, three years later this December 13th and man, Lord just like in your word when the word is faithfully taught, you're the one that adds to the church.

It's not through programs, it's not through entertainment, it's not through any of that. It's simply teaching the word just like you did Jesus, line by line and verse by verse when you came and you went into the synagogues. Because people are hungry for truth. Well Paul understood that and he's writing to a group in Rome that were biblically literate. Just keep thinking through that for a moment.

All right, well, so we see that part of his intention to write his letter is to make sure that he knows that they're earnestly prayed for and cared for and we'll kind of read a little bit more about that. But what we see here more than anything I think is that Paul, who is he called to? The Gentiles, right?

He was called to the Gentiles on the road to Damascus, Jesus Christ met him there. And his intention here is to spiritually adopt this flock in Rome. That's what he's going to do. He's going to care for them. And like I said that's exactly what's happened in Calvary Chapels. People start a Bible study, man, and next thing you know, *ecclesia*.

You got a church, right? What is the church? It's not a building, it's a group and a body of believers. So it's interesting it'll be almost three to four years before he makes it there after writing this letter. Well you don't think that was on his heart as he spiritually adopted these children, this flock that was in Rome that way?

You ever have your children go away for a week or something at camp? How do you long to be with them? You ever adopt children? I know we have a family in the church that's going through that. They can't wait to be with them again. They drop them off and they're like, "Hey man, when are we getting together again with the kids?" It's awesome. That's Paul's heart. That's Paul's heart here as an undershepherd.

Now, as we look at chapters really 1 through 3 and we look in our book of Romans here, this is the longest introduction as well as my introduction. I mean I rival Paul. This is the longest introduction and this is part of what we do when we start a new book like this. I give Paul a run for his money there.

But what is Paul going to be doing here in chapters 1 through 3? He's going to quickly unite the whole world under sin. That's what he's going to do in chapters 1 through 3 here. He's going to describe the human condition. That all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You're well-taught, praise the Lord. The Holy Spirit speaks.

This letter speaks to my heart. You see I'm very aware that I've never arrived nor would I without Christ. Well we need to talk about authorship and we need to get moving on here. Romans claims in the introduction 1:1 to be written by the Apostle Paul. Nobody really seriously challenges this claim.

Paul used a scribe, a writer at that time, an amanuensis, I guess is how you'd say it. In chapter 16:22 and we see this guy's name is Tertius. If you want to look at Romans chapter 16:22. This brings up an interesting challenge. Well, was this Tertius's idea or is this Paul's? Where are we at?

Well I'm glad you asked about that too. We call that textual criticism. So as we study the text and we look at it, how do we know what Paul wrote was not just a wide interpretation compared to a word-by-word interpretation that could be given? Again I'm glad you asked.

Because when you look at Galatians and 1 Corinthians and you engage in textual criticism, you will find the same vocabulary and vernacular used in all of Paul's writings. Paul writes a certain way. Paul has a voice. He has a voice. He uses certain vernacular and words and we find those same things in Romans as we do Corinthians, as we do Galatians as an example.

My pastor used to have a hat that said John Deere. It was green, looked like a John Deere, the superior company that makes tractors, I'm just saying I love John Deere. All right, anyway, so that's not a plug for them that way but love John Deere, man. So he's got the hat on but instead of it being how do you spell John Deere?

Anybody know? D-E-E-R, right? He's got D-E-A-R. How many people look at that cap and they see D-E-A-R and what do they say? That's a John Deere cap. Because what did they do? They made an association to the color, the green, the yellow, the writing. It's even written in the same sort of branding.

That's textual criticism. You have to be a critic. You have to come at it and go, "No, that's not John Deere. That's John. He's my dear," as a woman would say it an example or something like that. But it's a good example what we do in textual criticism. When Paul wrote the book of Romans he had been a Christian missionary or preacher at this point for some 20 years.

Just think of the experiences. Now let's talk about the dating. We read in chapter 15 of Romans, turn to 15, look at verses 22 through 29. This is very important. There's three destinations that Paul gives us that are part of his travel plans. What are they? Jerusalem, Rome, and Spain.

Paul is planning to go directly to Jerusalem as it states there in verses 30 through 33 and he speaks of that. He's planning to bring the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem an offering from the Gentile Christian church that he was led to plant in verses 25 through 27. So now we're starting remember we just read the book of Acts?

We should start to know what missionary journey Paul was on at this point because he wanted to go to Jerusalem, he wanted to give the gifts from the churches that he had planted. Now we're starting to get some guidelines or boundaries for dating. Next it says in verses 24 and 28 that he's going to make a quick visit to Rome because ultimately where's he going?

Spain. Why's he going to Spain? Because Paul already told us he desires not to step on another man's work or foundation and the Bible had not been yet preached in Spain. So he's got Spain on his heart and God's sending him there. So he says in chapter 15:19 that the gospel's been preached from Jerusalem all the way around where?

Look in your Bibles, verse 19, Illyricum, which is a province of Rome. In Acts chapter 18:11 we read that Paul spent on his second missionary journey a year and a half in Corinth and that he was moving his way or he was going to continue to Jerusalem for the feast day. Remember he really wanted to get there?

Then he makes his way through Ephesus but doesn't really stop there. Eventually to Caesarea, then back to Antioch and remember all the brethren come out and greet them and that really concludes his second missionary journey. But he hadn't yet brought gifts. It's not till his third missionary journey that he starts to do what?

Collect gifts from the Gentile Christians to bring back to the church in Rome to bless them. That doesn't happen till third missionary journey. So we know it can't be the first or second missionary journey. It's got to be the third missionary journey. When did Paul go to Corinth on the third missionary journey or when would he have been there?

Again I'm glad you asked. So after spending the short time, he begins his third missionary journey but first he goes to Ephesus. How long does he stay in Ephesus? Do you remember? We were in Acts. He stays there three years. Three long years by the way, the longest he's spent with any one church.

So after he spends three years in Ephesus, then he goes where? Well then he's got it on his heart to go to Jerusalem to bring these gifts to the churches that were planted there. Pastor, where do you get that? Acts chapter 19:21, chapter 20:16. And as we study the book of Acts, that's why we started with the book of Acts before we went to Romans.

It's very important. This lines up with the timeline perspective that we read in Romans chapter 15:25 through 27. They corroborate each other and of course they will because it's the word of God and it's perfect. You can't do this. You ever want to somebody says how do we know the Bible's real?

Bring them to Acts, bring them to Romans, do what I just did with you and say now how do you line that up? How do you line that up or go through all of 27 percent of the Bible which is prophecy and explain to me how you could possibly know thousands of years in advance what would happen? It's supernatural.

You know we did this thing with VBS this year, we had all the kids stand up and each one shared with their neighbor, "Jesus loves you." I said, "You want to learn how to be missionaries?" They said, "Yeah." I said, "Great. The first thing I want you to learn how to say is Jesus loves you." So they went and shared it.

They got all the way through the group but you'd get every like four or five and they'd go, "What'd he say?" or "What'd she say?" They couldn't do you realize that the word of God over 5,000 different copies like that, translations, everything that's gone on, 1 percent delta? Only a 1 percent difference and it's mostly what is it mostly?

It's mostly grammatical. Nothing else do we have as a published work that even comes close to that. It's supernatural. You can't make that up. You just can't. And so as we look at this in the dating we can trust the dating here. We can trust as these things line up from a perspective.

Specifically Luke, who is the inspired author of Acts, tells us that Paul spent three months in Greece, Acts chapter 20:3. Right after Ephesus, January through March. Now what's in Greece? Well, Ephesus, where he was already at. But what else is in Greece? Corinth.

Corinth, the only other church that he had really planted in that area like that. That's why it points us most likely to where he wrote that letter was in Corinth. So believing that Paul arrives in Rome just to back into this for you around 61 AD. He had a seven-month voyage, we just went through it, thousand miles on sea.

He arrives there, right? Spent two years in house arrest in Caesarea. You remember that? Waiting his appeal to Caesar. If you back that up from 61 AD when we know he arrives there because we know he meets before Caesar, we have extra-biblical writings on that when he meets with Caesar and Caesar actually does what?

He finds him innocent and releases him. It'll be three or four years before Paul makes his way back to Rome again because Nero, that's who we're talking about, Caesar Nero, ends up committing suicide as I mentioned at the end of the book of Acts.

But just before he commits suicide, he beheads Paul. He martyrs Paul. So as you back into the timeline, it best to date this around 58 AD.

Announcer: Pastor Matt VanderVen helping us arrive at a dating for this letter to the Romans and he'll be back right to touch on the purpose behind it as His Perfect Love continues. You can hear this study again at hisperfectlove.org. That's hisperfectlove.org.

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And thank you for your prayers and financial support. You can make a donation to this ministry and send us your prayer requests through the website, again at hisperfectlove.org. Are you looking for a Christian school that offers a quality education and a nurturing environment for your children?

If so, you might be interested in Calvary Chapel Christian Academy, a ministry of Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Calvary Chapel Christian Academy is a non-denominational Christian school that serves students from kindergarten to 12th grade.

The Academy's mission is to provide a Christ-centered education that equips students to love God, love others, and serve the world. The Academy offers a rigorous academic curriculum, a variety of extracurricular activities, and a caring and supportive staff.

The Academy is located at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA. For more information please visit our website at ccharrisburg.org/academy. That's ccharrisburg.org/academy. Okay, let's get back to our introduction to Romans now.

Matt VanderVen: Now let's move into purpose and Paul was not writing this letter like he wrote other letters. How did Paul write other letters and epistles to churches? They were very corrective. Do you notice that? To the church in Corinth where oh, by the way he spent quite a bit of time besides Ephesus, a year and a half.

"Hey guys, stop doing this, stop doing that." And where was Paul when he wrote the book of Romans? He was in Corinth. Remember what I started with in my introduction to my introduction? Do you remember that? When I said how our lens affects us and if you remember what was going on in Corinth at that time?

We'll talk a little bit about it where we even get the word to "corinthianize", not a good thing. It's important because it's giving us context of what was on Paul's heart as he was being inspired by the Holy Spirit. Because there's no coincidence that God had him in Corinth to write that letter. He could have had him anywhere.

But there was something he was seeing in Corinth that God was wanting mindful of for him or telling him to be mindful about that as he was writing to the church or the church plants in Rome. Because that's going to have everything to do with the letter compared to the letter to Corinthians or any of his other letters.

The Thessalonians, as an example, right? Galatians. This letter appears to be bought by natural reasons. Paul was going to stop over in Rome to make his way to Spain. Who is this letter taken over by? Romans chapter 16:1 tells it's Phoebe. Phoebe from Cenchrea, she's the one that brings this letter there. We'll finish up our intro to Romans tomorrow on His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt. See you then.