Sermon

[Romans 1.1_15] 2026.06.21 The Roman Road: The eager servant proclaims God’s gospel

The Roman Road: The eager servant proclaims God’s gospel

Big Idea: King Jesus sends his servants, who pray for and long to see fellow saints, to announce God's gospel so the nations may obey him by faith.

1.     Paul, a servant of the gospel of God

2.     Jesus, the King of the gospel of God

3.     Beloved saints, fruits of the gospel of God

If you haven’t noticed yet, World Cup has started.

There were over 200 countries who competed for the qualifier stage, and forty-eight of them are now playing against each other in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

How’s Australia going in the World Cup?

Depends on who you ask.

I’m just glad that we’ve made it as far as we have.

It’s an interesting time to have the World Cup, isn’t it?

There’s a lot of things happening around the world right now.

We’ve been praying for things like the unrest in the Middle East, the war between Ukraine and Russia, the oil crisis, and yet, there are representatives from all around the world, both players and fans alike, all gathered for a game of football.

If you could say one thing to everyone there, what would it be?

This year, the organisers had one simple message, one simple motto, for World Cup 2026.

Do you know what it is?

Get ready for this.

It’s deep.

“WE ARE 26”.

That’s it.

The one thing that they wanted to tell the hundreds of thousands of people there, and the billions of people watching is this, “We are 26”.

It’s ok, I guess, but it’s not really what I call inspiring.

How about you?

If you could say one thing to the world, the whole world, what would it be?

How about God?

As the whole world gathers together, what’s God’s message to us?

Please open up your Bible to Romans chapter 1, beginning from verse one.

Today, we’ll begin our series on Romans.

We’re calling the series, the Romans Road.

We’ll be going through the first four chapters over the next eight weeks.

We’ll see three things in today’s passage:

1.   Paul, a servant of the gospel of God

2.   Jesus, the King of the gospel of God

3.   Beloved saints, fruits of the gospel of God

Before we begin, let’s pray.

“Father, by your Holy Spirit, help us to see your truth more clearly, that we may follow Jesus more nearly, and love you more dearly, day by day.

For Jesus’ sake, Amen.”

1.    Paul, a servant of the gospel of God

Paul begins the letter to the Romans with an introduction of himself.

Who was Paul?

In the Bible, Paul was originally introduced as Saul.

Saul hated the Christians.

He couldn’t stand them!

He thought that the Christians were teaching the wrong thing about God because they were giving so much attention to Jesus, even calling him the Son of God!

However, Jesus appeared to Saul as he was on his way to persecute more Christians.

Jesus appeared to him and told him that he was Jesus, the one whom Saul was persecuting.

Since that day, Saul’s life was turned upside down.

He decided to follow Jesus and call him Lord.

Over time he began calling himself Paul.

Look how he introduced himself in verse 1, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God”.

Paul saw himself as a servant of Christ Jesus.

Jesus was no longer the enemy, but Paul’s master.

The word servant can be translated slave.

It was a strong word.

Paul has surrendered himself to fully obey Jesus.

What does that look like?

Well, if Jesus says, “Jump!”, Saul would say, “How high?”

If Jesus had said it, then Saul would obey it.

That’s what being a slave of Jesus means.

You follow Jesus fully, whether you feel like it or not, whether you fully understand what was happening or not.

Notice that Paul’s focus wasn’t on him choosing to obey Jesus.

Rather, it was Jesus’ choice to call Paul.

Paul said that Jesus called him to be an apostle, someone who was sent to do Jesus’ work.

More than that, Paul was set apart for the gospel of God.

There were a lot of people that God could’ve chosen, and Paul could’ve given his life to many other things.

However, God specifically called Paul, God specifically had set Paul apart from everyone else, from everything else for one thing: the gospel of God.

Every Sunday we talk about the gospel here at St Paul’s Kogarah.

Even on our slides, you see the words, See the Gospel, Hear the Gospel, Believe the Gospel and tell the Gospel.

What is the Gospel?

Someone, (it could’ve been Augustine), once said, ‘Scripture is like a vast river where it is "shallow enough for a child not to drown, yet deep enough for an elephant to swim in”’.

That’s what the gospel is like.

It can be summed up in a simple Christian song, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so”.

And yet, it’s the most profound, most mind-baffling message that humans have ever encountered.

In the Letter to the Romans, Paul will stretch our minds and challenge our thoughts as he explains the gospel of God to us.

And so, if you want to understand what the gospel is, keep listening, not just for this week, but for over the next eight weeks, and over the next few years as we continue on this series called the Roman Road.

As well as the sermons, we will explain Romans in more detail in our Growth Groups.

So make sure you join these Growth Groups if you want to find out more.

What is the gospel?

It’s firstly the gospel of God.

This is God’s gospel, not Paul’s, not any man or woman’s but God’s.

This is God’s message, God’s gospel.

Today, the word gospel is associated with the Church, and it’s a religious message about Jesus Christ, and that’s right.

But the way the word ‘gospel’ was used in the first century was much more political.

It was the announcement of a victory in a battle or the coming of a new king.

In today’s world, it would be similar to the announcement of an election win (yea, this government won the election) or the announcement of the winner of the World Cup (…and the winner is Australia! Imagine the celebration if it ever happens!).

As good as it is to win an election or to win the World Cup, the Bible says there’s a gospel, a news that’s so good, that we should be even more excited about.

It’s the gospel of God.

God has spent a long time preparing for this gospel.

He has promised this gospel through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.

You can see hints of this gospel of God from the first pages of the Bible, through promises made in speeches, promises made in songs, promises made even through the laws, that one day, there will be good news from God.

One day, there will be a new king, a regime change, a decisive victory.

One day, according to the gospel of God, the Kingdom of God, would finally come.

That day came with the arrival of Jesus, the King of God’s kingdom.

2.    Jesus, the King of the gospel of God

Look with me at verse 3, “concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh.”

The gospel of God is about his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

There are many things the Bible says about the gospel, but at the very heart, at the very centre of the gospel of God is the Person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

The Son of God – as Christians, we use this term often to refer to Jesus.

We often use this term to talk about Jesus during Christmas time, when we celebrate that God has sent His Son into the world.

But what does the Bible mean when it says that Jesus is the Son of God?

Around the time the New Testament was written, the term Son of God was a very powerful political title used to describe the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar.

He was described as Divi filius, the ‘Son of God’.

That title was adopted by later Roman emperors as well.

The ancient Chinese had a similar title for the emperor, 真命天子, zhēn mìng tiān zǐ literally meaning the true son of heaven.

When the Bible used this term to describe Jesus, it was deliberately using a term which challenges the rulers of the day.

According to the Christians, Jesus is the true Divi filius, the true 真命天子, the true Son of God.

Jesus is the true King who rules over all.

Jesus was a descendant of David, the King of Ancient Israel.

God had promised King David that, “Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever,  and your throne will be established forever.’” (2 Samuel 7:16).

Jesus, as heir to the throne of David, was the recipient of God’s promise of an eternal throne, an eternal kingdom.

And it’s through Jesus that God has established the throne that lasts forever.

Look with me at verse 4, “and was appointed to be the powerful Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead.”

When Jesus rose from the dead after he died on the cross, he was declared to be the powerful Son of God.

The resurrection was a vindication by God himself that what Jesus had said about himself was true, that He was indeed the Son of the Living God.

Jesus didn’t become the Son of God when God raised him from the dead.

Jesus has always been God’s Son; there was never a time when Jesus wasn’t God’s Son.

But when God raised him from the dead, God declared Jesus to be the true Son of God, the true King of His Kingdom, according to the Spirit of holiness.

Let’s pause to think about that for a moment.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

He sits on the throne of the Kingdom of God.

God gave Jesus more authority than the Prime Minister of Australia.

In God’s eyes, you’re more answerable to Jesus than to the Prime Minister of Australia, even as you try to be a good citizen of Australia.

In God’s eyes, Jesus has more authority than your boss at work, more authority than whoever is in charge of your home right now.

As much as you want to please your boss at work or at home, the right thing to do is to please Jesus first and foremost.

And lastly, God has given Jesus more authority than you over your life.

According to God, who raised Jesus from the dead, you do not have as much authority over your life as Jesus does.

Jesus’ authority over our lives is greater than our authority over even our own lives.

We can reject Jesus’ authority over our lives, we can claim that we have more authority than Jesus in our lives but that doesn’t mean it’s true; it just means that we think we’re bigger than Jesus, which is both arrogant and absurd.

It’s arrogant to even entertain the thought of thinking we can even be compared with Jesus, let alone be bigger than him.

It’s absurd to think we’re bigger than Jesus because that would mean we’ve ignored everything God has said and done to show that Jesus is His Son.

In contrast to those who reject Jesus’ kingship, there are those who are chosen and called to receive Jesus’ kingship.

Look with me at verses five, “Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the Gentiles” Apostles like Paul didn’t just randomly decide to become apostles one day.

God has chosen to give grace and apostleship to them.

What are apostles like Paul called by God to do?

To bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the Gentiles.

That’s what the apostles are called to do.

They are to tell people about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, so that the Gentiles, the people of all nations, will have an obedience that comes from faith.

That’s the goal that God has for proclaiming the gospel to the nations – it’s the obedience of faith.

God wants to see nations come to Jesus and to obey Jesus His Son as they put their trust in Him.

One of the saddest things I’ve seen in the lives of many people who come to Church is that there are people who say that they trust Jesus but they don’t obey him.

They’re happy to sing about Jesus, and to say truths about Jesus.

They may even teach about Jesus, but they don’t obey him.

To obey Jesus is to follow his commands, even when it’s hard, even when we don’t feel like obeying.

But that’s what obedience is, isn’t it?

It’s obeying the orders of a superior, especially when you don’t feel like doing it.

And yet, there are people who think that obedience is optional.

They think that they can have faith without obedience.

But that’s a different gospel to the one that God has in mind.

God’s gospel is for people to recognise that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that when nations hear about him, they will have the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name, for the sake of the name of Jesus!

That doesn’t mean that in order to have faith, we must first obey.

Rather, it’s because we have faith that we will obey.

Obedience is the fruit of genuine faith.

Obedience is the fruit of someone who truly has put their trust in Jesus.

You obey Jesus because you trust in Jesus.

And you trust in Jesus not because you’re better, or smarter, or more spiritual than everyone else.

You trust Jesus because you have been called by God to follow Jesus.

Look with me at verse 6, “6 including you who are also called by Jesus Christ.”

Have you been called by Jesus Christ?

If you have, then you would show the obedience of faith in Jesus, the Son of God.

3.    Beloved saints, fruits of the gospel of God

Listen to how God describes the Roman Christians who have been called by Jesus Christ, “To all who are in Rome, loved by God, called as saints.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

If you have been called by Jesus Christ, if you have received the gospel of God about Jesus Christ, then you are a beloved saint of God.

God’s called you to be a saint, someone God’s set apart for himself.

Now notice that the word saint is not singular, but plural.

In the New Testament, the word ‘saint’ is always used in the sense of a community.

It’s the community of saints.

That’s what the Church is – it’s the community of saints.

For those who have been called by Jesus, we are the saints of St Paul’s Kogarah.

We’re saints not because we’re ethically superior to everyone else.

We’re saints because God has called us, God has shown his love towards us, and we’ve put our trust in Jesus.

Even though the Apostle Paul had only heard about the saints in Rome but hadn’t met them in person, he thanked God for them.

Look with me at verse 8, “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because the news of your faith is being reported in all the world.”

Paul was excited to hear that there were saints even in Rome, the centre of the Roman Empire, thousands of kilometres away from Jerusalem, where the gospel first started spreading.

It would be like receiving news from our missionaries about Christian communities that they’ve started in far-away places.

While it may be true that the Roman Christians were very faithful to the Lord, Paul’s focus was not on their faithfulness but on the One they’ve put their trust in.

Paul thanked God for them because they believed in Jesus.

Jesus was the focus and object of their faith.

Look with me at verse 9, “God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in telling the good news about his Son—that I constantly mention you” He wanted them to know that God had witnessed how Paul constantly mentioned the Church at Rome in his prayers.

Paul was constantly praying for them.

How about us?

Like Paul, always pray thankful prayers for the Church, beginning with thanks for the obedience of faith in our Church as well as continuing to pray for the growth in the obedience of faith in our Church.

Not only did Paul thank God for the Church at Rome.

He also longed to see them.

Verse 10, ‘always asking in my prayers that if it is somehow in God’s will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.’

Paul was begging God in his prayer to see them, if it’s God’s will.

Can you hear that longing in Paul’s voice?

Can you imagine his prayer to God?

“Dear God, it’s me, Paul, again, asking for the same thing again.

Please, please open the way for me to visit the Church at Rome.

I beg you, please, let me go and see the church members at Rome!”

Paul longed to see the Church at Rome and begged God constantly to open up the way for him to go.

As much as Paul wanted to go to Rome to visit the Churches there, he knew that it wasn’t ultimately up to him.

He would only go, if it’s God’s will.

It’s not ultimately about Paul making plans, even ones that are godly and good for gospel’s sake.

Paul didn’t presume on God’s will.

He trusted and waited for God’s will.

Listen once again to how eager he was to visit the Church at Rome, in verse 11-12, “For I want very much to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, 12 that is, to be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.”

Paul wanted to give spiritual gifts to strengthen the Church at Rome and for him to also be mutually encouraged by the Church at Rome.

He was eager for a spiritual gift exchange.

He longed to go to the Church at Rome to give some spiritual gift.

This spiritual gift refers to how Paul understands and applies the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul had been talking about the gospel throughout this passage and it makes sense to see that he wants the church at Rome to have a better understanding of the gospel.

Paul wanted them to be strengthened as they grow in their understanding of the gospel.

Paul wasn’t going to Rome for sentimental reasons; he wasn’t eager to go to Rome to make him feel good.

He was eager to go to Rome because he wanted to give spiritual gifts that strengthen God’s people.

Paul also knew that it wasn’t a one-way traffic of giving.

He was looking forward to being mutually encouraged among the Roman Church.

Paul wasn’t presenting himself to be superior to the Romans.

Rather, he humbly looked forward to be encouraged by them.

That’s a great reason to be in the community of the saints, to come to Church, isn’t it?

We come to Church for an exchange of spiritual gifts.

We come to help others grow in their understanding and application of the gospel.

We want to help other people to understand what it means to obey Jesus.

And we want them to help us obey Jesus better as well.

It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been only coming a short time or you’ve been coming for longer than everybody else – we all come with a posture, a stance to be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, so that we can be better followers of Jesus.

Paul was eager to travel all the way to Rome to see the Romans, to impart spiritual gifts to them, to be mutually encouraged by them, to have a fruitful ministry among them.

Look with me at verse 13, “Now I don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I often planned to come to you (but was prevented until now) in order that I might have a fruitful ministry among you, just as I have had among the rest of the Gentiles.”

Paul longed to see a fruitful ministry of the gospel among the saints in Rome.

He wanted to see the gospel lived and breathed among the saints of Rome.

That’s what a fruitful ministry of the gospel looks like.

However, it would be costly for Paul to travel to Rome.

He would take many days, even weeks, to travel by sea to Rome from where Paul would’ve been.

He would almost certainly face different dangers along the way.

But he would still go, because he longed to see the church in Rome thrive.

He also was determined to go because he owed it to them to go.

Look with me at verses 14-15, “I am obligated both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.”

Paul had an obligation to go to Rome.

He owed it to them, he was indebted to them.

Was it because they paid him to go?

Was it because they did something for him and he was doing something in return?

No! rather it was because Jesus had given his life to save Paul and Jesus has sent him to go to the people of all nations, including those in Rome.

Paul went to Rome despite the great cost, because God has paid the great cost of His Son to save Paul’s life.

God had saved Paul, now Paul has an obligation to go to the nations so that even more people would be saved.

That’s an obligation that all Christians have.

That’s what the ‘zero’ means in our 3,2,1,0.

We owe it to God and we owe it to people of all nations to go and tell the gospel of God about Jesus.

It’s an obligation to all people, not just the people we like.

Like Paul, we owe it to the Greeks and the Barbarians, that is those who belong to one end of the cultural spectrum as well as those who belong to the other.

In our days, it would mean our obligation to both the conservative and the progressive ends of the political spectrum, the learned and the unlearned ends of the education spectrum, the anglo and the non-anglo ends of the cultural spectrum and all other spectrums you can think of.

We have an obligation to bring the gospel to all of them.

Paul had this drive, this eagerness, this longing to see the Church at Rome in order to exchange spiritual blessings with them.

How about us?

We might not have the same desire for the Church at Rome, but do we have the same desire for the Church here, at Kogarah?

Do we long to see other Christians in order to give them spiritual gifts that strengthen them?

I’m so glad that we were able to start the Chinese Parallel service last year.

I thank God that the service has been growing steadily over the past nine months.

Next week, we’ll be relaunching our 9:15am service.

Over the past few weeks, our team has shared some excellent ideas on how to make our service an even better place for us to engage with one another as we engage with God through Jesus.

My prayer is that this is a place where we can have mutual encouragement, where we can help one another to follow Jesus even more.

It won’t be easy, but my prayer is that we will grow in our obedience of faith, willing to obey our Lord Jesus, especially when things are hard, not because we’re good, or capable, but because we trust him and we recognise that as the Son of God, he rightfully has authority and priority over my life.

My prayer is that as we put our trust in God, as we obey Jesus, that we would see a fruitful ministry here at St Paul’s Kogarah.

If God has a message for the whole world, what would it be?

God has already told us what his message to the world is:

That King Jesus is the Son of God and that now’s the time to turn to him and obey him.

It’s a message that God wants us to proclaim, not only as individuals, but together as a community of saints, a holy community that prays for and longs for one another’s growth in the Lord Jesus.

For, King Jesus sends his servants, who pray for and long to see fellow saints, to announce God's gospel so the nations may obey him by faith.

God has been sending his gospel about His Son to the world for thousands of years now. Will you turn to him and obey him by faith?

Here are three questions for us to think about over the coming week:

Three Questions

1.   Who is the gospel of God about and how does that affect our presentation of it?

2.   What’s wrong with a gospel that does not lead to obedience of faith?

3.   Who are we eager to see and share the gospel of God with?

For, King Jesus sends his servants, who pray for and long to see fellow saints, to announce God's gospel so the nations may obey him by faith.

Let’s pray, “Father, thank you for calling us to be yours through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord.

Please forgive us when we fail to trust Jesus when we choose not to obey Him.

Please help us to see the glory that you’ve given to Jesus when you raised him from the dead.

Please help us to long for Jesus.

Please help us to long for the saints here at St Paul’s Kogarah and saints in other places around the world.

Help us to have a drive to see them and to encourage them, for we owe it to them, since we owe to you our all.

Make us the holy community, the communion of saints that you’ve called us to be.

For Christ’s sake we pray, Amen.”