Starting In On Romans

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greenbaggins

greenbaggins

Puritan Board Doctor
Please pray for me, family at PB. It is fairly ridiculous for a 32-year-old pastor to start preaching on Romans. The only justification (if you'll pardon the pun!) I can think of for doing this is that I'm not sure I'll have the energy when I'm older to read that much every week for just one sermon per week. I need all the help I can get. So please pray for me. I will be posting them (Lord-willing) every week, as I am able. My first sermon is on my blog and at Sermon Audio now. *Note* there is usually a delay at Sermon Audio on Mondays after media are uploaded. It might be a while before the audio is actually available.
 
I'll pray for you! I'm not scheduled to preach on Romans until 2016, when I will be 46.
 
Lane, you have my prayers.

So, let me get this straight. Fred is going to avoid preaching Romans until he's within sight of 50. Lane is throwing caution to the winds and preaching it in his early 30's. Is there something to be learned from this contrast?
 
Herald said:
Lane, you have my prayers.

So, let me get this straight. Fred is going to avoid preaching Romans until he's within sight of 50. Lane is throwing caution to the winds and preaching it in his early 30's. Is there something to be learned from this contrast?
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That Fred is way smarter than I am. :lol:
 
Just read the first installment. If it is indicative of the whole, you're off to good start! I will pray for you, as well.
 
Loved the post on your blog. I think I'm going to preach through Romans as soon as I finish preaching through Revelation. That should be around 2025, when I'm 80.
 
I finished preaching through Romans a year and a half ago. It was the most self-edifying thing I ever did. I don't know if the congregation was blessed but I sure was!
 
:pray2: Our church is going through Romans right now and have been marching through (with a handful of breaks) for the last two and a half years. We start chapter 4 this coming Sunday! :lol: My pastor's instruction through it has been extremely edifying.
 
greenbaggins said:
Please pray for me, family at PB. It is fairly ridiculous for a 32-year-old pastor to start preaching on Romans.
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This strikes me as one of the wisest and most insightful things any preacher could say about Romans. At 32, I would not have been mature enough to realize it. I bet you do just fine!
 
I am praying for you Pastor Lane and as my PB brother I am sure you will do a fine job!
 
Lane,
I realize there is trepidation there, however, I would like to point out that even a young pastor (and I was about 36 when I first preached through a significant portion of the book)--even a young pastor owes it to his congregation to give them a serious grounding in gospel. To say that we as pastors must attain such maturity as can only be found in a minister with 10years under his belt really is saying something poor about our rearing; but possibly worse, about our training.

Romans is Paul's gospel presentation, distilled and organized for a literary production (and a personal introduction to an unfamiliar church). A man should want to preach his whole ministry following the footsteps of Paul.

All the best.
 
Glad to hear you're starting out on this journey, Lane! Martyn Lloyd-Jones waited til he was 55 to start his 13 year trip through Romans... so you've got a big head start!
 
BTW, not to add to your stress level, but I highly recommend John Brown of Wamphrey's Commentary. (It is available for free at Google Books.
 
We are a chunk of the way through Romans here at Bethel: perhaps these will be some help to you: Bethel Presbyterian, Leesburg, VA - Sermons

I appreciated the careful grounding in the historical context of the Jews settling back into the church at Rome. Too often Romans is preached as Paul's theological magnum opus.
 
greenbaggins said:
Please pray for me, family at PB. It is fairly ridiculous for a 32-year-old pastor to start preaching on Romans. The only justification (if you'll pardon the pun!) I can think of for doing this is that I'm not sure I'll have the energy when I'm older to read that much every week for just one sermon per week. I need all the help I can get. So please pray for me. I will be posting them (Lord-willing) every week, as I am able. My first sermon is on my blog and at Sermon Audio now. *Note* there is usually a delay at Sermon Audio on Mondays after media are uploaded. It might be a while before the audio is actually available.
Click to expand...

Dear Lane,

I listened to your whole sermon, and found it very edifying and encouraging. I am assuming that you intended to give something of an introductory overview (in this sermon) of the Book of Romans rather than specific exegetical considerations. At any rate, I would recommend it to others here.

I confess that this is somewhat prejudicial personally, but the historical references at the beginning reminded me of my own method that I've done often in introducing a sermon.

It is ridiculous for a 32 year old minister to attempt this (as it is for a minister of any age), but the command to do it must supersede all felt sense of inadequacy. God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above, and beyond, the insufficiency of His ministers. I am reminded once again of Calvin's words...

John Calvin (1509-1564): Those who think the authority of the Word is dragged down by the baseness of the men called to teach it disclose their own ungratefulness. For, among the many excellent gifts with which God has adorned the human race, it is a singular privilege that he deigns to consecrate to himself the mouths and tongues of men in order that his voice may resound in them. Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. 2, ed. John T. McNeill and trans. Ford Lewis Battles, (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, reprinted 1977), Book IV.i.5, p. 1018.
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Thanks.
 
Romans? Man it is easy.

First, you read Krister Stendahl's "The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West" and "Paul Among Jews and Gentiles. Then you will 'realize" that the West has "tinctured" its reading of Paul through the myopic (not to mention masochistic) eyes of Augustine and Luther. Justification is really a relatively minor component of Paul's thought, don't you know.

Next, you read something by E.P. Sanders like Paul and Palestinaian Judaism, and Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People. You will soon relize that everything you were taught in confessional church about Paul was pretty much wrong. Rabbinical judaism gave no concern for perfect obedience; mankind was not determined by nature to sin; the rabbis did not believe that divine grace had to overcome and overpower the will; obedience was really only a matter of covenant faithfulness; and that this kind of view of the law will inevitably render it suitable to one's capacity. When you turn to Paul, you will realize that Schweitzer was right all along about Paul (in fact, that Sanders is just Schweitzer on steriods). Learn a few popular phrases to pepper your sermons: "covenantal nomism," and "participatory" (or "transformative") righteousness.

Finally, read enough N.T. Wright so that you can feel comfortable calling him "Tom," speaking about "boundary markers," saying that "faith" and "faithfulness" are fully synonymous, and opining sagely that "Second Temple Judaism" explains everything (especially everything that Luther and Calvin did not understand about the New Testament era).

Once you realize the wisdom of the age that "justification" is all about ecclesiology, not soteriology, then you are home free. The book of Romans just wanted us to be nice to the ones who are different from us.

See, it sure does make sermon prep a LOT easier, don't you think? ;)

You will be in my prayers, Lane. But, I'm glad for your folks that you are doing Romans. In an era besotted with the NPP, we need people like you preaching the truth.
 
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Lane -

Have you preached Galatians?

I'm asking because the two books share similar themes and you may be able to develop from work you've already done.
 
greenbaggins said:
Please pray for me, family at PB. It is fairly ridiculous for a 32-year-old pastor to start preaching on Romans. The only justification (if you'll pardon the pun!) I can think of for doing this is that I'm not sure I'll have the energy when I'm older to read that much every week for just one sermon per week. I need all the help I can get. So please pray for me. I will be posting them (Lord-willing) every week, as I am able. My first sermon is on my blog and at Sermon Audio now. *Note* there is usually a delay at Sermon Audio on Mondays after media are uploaded. It might be a while before the audio is actually available.
Click to expand...

I think that you show a lot of wisdom in this post. I wish I would have done the same when I preached through Romans about 3 years ago (I was 37 at the time). I remember feeling overwhelmed at times. I pieced together used copies of the series by Loyd-Jones, which I found very helpful. The only drawback in using MLJ is that he went through the epistle so deliberately that I found I would have to read multiple sermons (and they're all pretty long) in order to glean his wisdom on any average size pericope. Still, I would definitely use him again. I used Cranfield occasionally as well for the technical stuff. I also found the NICNT commentary on Romans helpful.

Preaching through Romans is like training for a marathon or climbing Mount Everest (not that I'd know about either of them). You'll come out on the other side the better for it and never be the same. God Bless you my friend.
 
I read you opening sermon, Lane. You are off to a good start, and I will lift up prayers for your continued diligence in preaching the Word.

I began my pastorate preaching from Romans. When I look back on my notes I wished I had waited a few years and had started with Galatians first. As has been suggested above, there are common themes that one can draw upon from Galatians. Romans is the deep end of the theological pool and I suspect that some of the mist in my pulpit created plenty of fog in the pews some twenty plus years ago. Sigh.

I have a personal project of re-working my sermons on Romans from so many years ago. To date, I have only finished the first three chapters. You are welcome to them (send me a PM with your email address) to peruse as poor fodder for what I am confident is going to be a much better exhortation to your church.

AMR
 
Contra_Mundum said:
Lane,
I realize there is trepidation there, however, I would like to point out that even a young pastor (and I was about 36 when I first preached through a significant portion of the book)--even a young pastor owes it to his congregation to give them a serious grounding in gospel. To say that we as pastors must attain such maturity as can only be found in a minister with 10years under his belt really is saying something poor about our rearing; but possibly worse, about our training.

Romans is Paul's gospel presentation, distilled and organized for a literary production (and a personal introduction to an unfamiliar church). A man should want to preach his whole ministry following the footsteps of Paul.

All the best.
Click to expand...

Also, the "fear" of some (and even the pseudo-ecclesiatical advice of some!) NOT to preach on Romans until you have an x amount of years of ministry under your belt often sounds like a kind of creating a "canon within a canon", if you know what I mean. The "dumber books" of the Bible anyone can preach on, but not the really smart ones!

So, preach away Lane! No Timothy-Complex necessary!
 
KMK said:
BTW, not to add to your stress level, but I highly recommend John Brown of Wamphrey's Commentary. (It is available for free at Google Books.
Click to expand...

I am using this commentary, as well as most of the other major English-language commentaries (no time to slug through the many excellent German and Latin commentaries!).
 
SolaScriptura said:
Lane -

Have you preached Galatians?

I'm asking because the two books share similar themes and you may be able to develop from work you've already done.
Click to expand...

I've taught through Galatians, but not preached through it. I've done a fair-sized chunk of work on it, though not as much as I'd like.
 
I have the Max McLean CD reading Romans in my CRV and recently began reading Robert Haldane's Commentary on Romans and am now printing off the Roman's series by greenbaggins! I do hope to gain understanding! So far it is just such a wonder!
 
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