Rom1:1-15 Q9-10 "Open and Closed Doors"

ESV Romans 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

9. People often speak of "open and closed doors" for ministry. Was this how Paul functioned? (Was he passively waiting for God to open a door?)

ESV Acts 16:27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here."

10. Does Paul always go through open doors?



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Rom1:1-15 Q6-8: "Thankfulness"

ESV Romans 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

6. What we are thankful for and what brings us joy (or despair) says a lot about us. Do you take joy in the faith of others?



7. How can we (in good conscience) tell people who are suffering or miserable that they should be thankful?




8. Grumbling and complaining are a sin against God suggesting we deserve better, He has not provided sufficiently for us, ... How will expressing thanks to God regularly affect our tendency to grumble and complain?

Rom1:1-15 Q4-5 "Called to be Saints"

ESV Romans 1:1-7--Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, 7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

According to verse 7 the Romans (and we fellow gentiles by extension) are “loved by God and called to be saints”. It implies we are specifically called by God in His love to be His own. If we begin to think of ourselves this way:

4. How will that affect how you spend your time and where you focus your energy and effort?


5. How will that affect what you choose to do with your body? (Was your body created for sexual immorality or eventual resurrection and exaltation?)

Rom1:1-15 Q1-3 "Professor's Advice"

J. Ligon Duncan’s Testimony in his sermon on this topic:

We live in a day and age where people are uncomfortable with authority and with truth. Many of you who are students, and many of you who are not have heard even recently someone say to you, as I once had a Russian history professor say to me, something that goes like this. We were studying the Soviet Revolution, and he said to us, "The Bolsheviks are a lot like Christians. They think they’ve found truth with a capital T." And then he stopped to give us some pastoral advice about this. He said, "If you ever run into anybody who believes in truth with a capital T, you run in the opposite direction as fast as you can." You see the world is very uncomfortable with absolute truth claims because the world is afraid that that’s going to restrict its freedom to do as it pleases. [Duncan]

1. In what ways do you agree with the professor? Or what may be his reasoning for making a statement like this? Is there a measure of wisdom in it?



2. Should we accept Scripture as authoritative? Why? How do we reconcile this with the wisdom of the professor?



3. Where’d the prof go wrong? What’s the difference between Christians and communists?


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