The Gospel works--which Paul wrote down as the theme of Romans.
We are starting through all 16 chapters of Romans in the classroom.
We are illustrating every chapter here in Ancient Corinth, where Paul sat to pen this greatest book of the New Testament!
Romans 1 promises the power of God unto salvation, but that power was proved in Corinth. Paul wrote Romans from Corinth, the place where the Gospel worked! God shows us that if you can see people saved and sanctified in Ancient Corinth--it will work anywhere.
Remember that you are each on a journey with me through the entire New Testament. We started by walking through the Holy Land, using 52 different places to study all four Gospels and learn about Jesus's life.
We are in the next part of that journey as we read Acts and see the context for Paul's Life and his 13 Epistles or Letters. Here's a reminder of this three-part journey, using the Lands of the Book as our classroom, the Bible as our textbook, and the Spirit of God as our teacher.
Part 1: The Gospels & Jesus Christ in the Land of the Book (4 Gospels)
Part :2 The Life & Letters of Paul (Acts -Philemon)
Part-3 The Final Epistles (Hebrews -Revelation)
Welcome to our study of the Book of Romans!
Transcript
I'm standing here right outside of ancient Corinth. You can see the temple of Apollo right behind me. Remember to track where we are on your map. But we're here in Greece to introduce, here at Corinth, the book of Romans. The sixteenth chapter of Romans has Corinth written all over it. First of all, verse one says, I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the church in Cenchrea. Cenchrea is the southern port of Corinth. The northern port is Lechaion right there. Also verse three, Priscilla and Aqui. You remember them from chapter 18 of the book of Acts. And then if you look at Romans 16:23, Gaius is the host of the whole church in Corinth, and a Erastus, in verse 23, is the treasure of the city of Corinth.
So chapter 16 of Romans has Corinth written all over it. Why? Because it was right here in this city, this ancient city of Corinth, Paul wrote the book of Romans. And as we study every chapter and every verse of Romans, the context, the background, the illustration of everything Paul's talking about is right here reflected in the 16th chapter. Corinth is where the Gospel worked. Yes, the church had lots of problems, but those are the problems of sanctification. They had been justified. They had been saved. Now, God was changing them.
The Temple of Apollo behind me reminds me of the power of the truth. The Gospel is the truth of Jesus Christ that changes lives. The book of Romans is the greatest expression of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the apostle Paul was right here as he was traveling along at the end, near the end of his missionary journeys. And he wrote the summary of Christian doctrine right here at Corinth in the book of the of Romans. And I hope that as we study it, you see with this backdrop, geography, and history, the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I want to read to you just one verse from Romans chapter one, as the apostle Paul says the summary of everything Paul was doing as he preached. He said, for I, verse 16 of chapter one, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. It is the power of God to salvation. That's what happened right here at Corinth. The power of God brought salvation to a whole group of people from this city and transformed their lives and spread the Gospel to the ends of the Earth.