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David Pawson - Romans Pt1 大卫鲍森 - 罗马书(一)(英文发音, 中文字幕)

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Thoughtful Thoughts 3.5.24 by John Dunning. 

Introduction… 

Just as the Book of Revelation has value for Christians by Jesus telling us where we are going, Christian history has value in telling us where we come from. Christian history tells us how we got to where we are today. In the same way, by looking at the situation into which Paul wrote Romans, we will have the context, along with a sense of the historical reality of the Book of Romans, and an assurance of its Divine inspiration which qualifies it as a Scriptural book. From what happened to the spread of the gospel from Rome, we will look at now.

Summary of dates for Paul before and after his trips to Rome…

To carry on where we left off last time… This initial summary provides an overview of events, helping us to look at the influence on Rome that Paul had, which was like the ripples on a pond created by a stone being dropped in, spreading out in all directions. The Book of Romans was written before Paul was taken to Rome.

-Emporer Claudius had evicted all Jews from Rome somewhere between 41-53 AD, which included Messianic Jews.

-After Claudius committed suicide about 53 AD.

-Nero took over a year later and ruled from 54 AD to 68 AD. Jews were free to return to Rome, including Messianic Jews.

-Paul wrote the book of Romans around about 57 AD.

-Paul was taken under guard to Rome for the first visit in 61 AD until 63 AD, and was found not guilty at his first trial and released after being under house arrest for about two years. 

-Paul then completed yet another mission.

-Paul was taken under guard the second time in 66 AD and beheaded 67 AD, while Nero was still on the throne. 

Paul’s 1st visit to Rome…

We previously looked at how the Book of Acts is still relevant to Christians today. The Book of Acts ends with Paul being taken to Rome. Dr Luke suddenly stops writing Paul’s story at chapter 28. 

On Paul’s first visit to Rome, Nero had been on the throne for roughly 3 years. Then Paul was under house arrest for about two years between AD 61-63. As he was under house arrest, he was relatively comfortable, compared to his other arrests. That helps us date the book of Acts to being about AD 61, thanks to Acts 28 telling us that they had just arrived in Rome. Paul’s house arrest meant he had the freedom to build up the church in Rome whilst being protected by the Roman legal system! (The Jewish leaders  trying to get rid of Paul, had shot themselves in the foot!)  

It is thanks to Dr Luke that primarily that Paul was released in AD 63 after two years of home detention (2 Tim.4:16-17). Due to writing the book of Luke and Acts, Luke had provided a legal “brief”, telling the story to Theophilushis, (who was Paul’s defence attorney preparing for the trial). (The title “Most Excellent” was the formal way of addressing Barristers.) 

This 1st visit by Paul to Rome is often called Paul’s fourth missionary journey as he chose to go there by “appealing to Caesar,” so that he would be taken to Rome. 

Paul had already achieved more in his first three mission trips than most people achieve in several lifetimes, and yet after his release, he went on yet another mission trip, which is believed to have been to Spain, as Romans 15:22-29 tells us it was in Paul's heart to do. 

Paul’s 2nd visit to Rome…

The second time Paul was imprisoned in Rome was between AD 66-67. How did that happen? 

Well, under Nero, it became a capital offence to only be prepared to say “Jesus is Lord”. (Remember the injunction that it was only by the Holy Spirit that disciples could say “Jesus is Lord”. Why? Because it was a death sentence for disciples who did. In those days, you were required to say “Caesar is Lord”, on pain of death.) 

Nero caught up with Paul in his big round-up of Christians. He executed them as fast as he could get his hands on them, but as  Paul was a Roman citizen, he had the right to a fair trial before Caesar’s court. As the Roman Empire controlled such a huge swathe of land mass, there was no escape for anyone being hunted, once on Rome's "Most Wanted" list. Paul was caught in the net of that big round-up. He was arrested so suddenly that he couldn’t grab his cloak and parchments before being taken back to Rome the second time, (2 Timothy 4). 

As a result of being unable to grab his coat and parchments, he wrote to Timothy asking him to bring them to him. So the next question is:- Where was Timothy when Paul asked him to bring his overcoat and parchments? The answer is, Timothy was in Ephesus, so that was where Paul must have been. Paul also asked Timothy to bring Mark. That meant that Mark’s master, Peter, had already been martyred. As Mark was in Ephesus, it is logical to say that Peter must have been there too.

Eventually, Paul was beheaded sometime between AD 67-68. The delay between arrest and execution would have been because as a citizen, Paul had a legal right to a trial before the Emperor for a second time.

After Paul's execution, Nero committed suicide in June AD 68. However, that didn't stop the persecution, as Diocletian had a reputation for cruelty too… 

Communication…

a). The New Covenant was spreading far and wide, and the known world was receiving the gospel via Roman soldiers! There was a lot of truth in the saying, "All roads lead to Rome", and that helped speed up the spreading of the gospel. 

b). At that time, Latin was the common language because of the Romans and their empire, and we can still see the effects of that even today, especially in the vocabulary of many academic subjects. 

c). Also, the New Testament was written in the other common language of the day, which was Greek, because before the Roman empire, Greece had once had the largest empire in the world. That resulted in the Greek language spreading far and wide.

All of this meant that the Gospel spread like wildfire.

d). The Apostle we call “Doubting Thomas” ended up “founding” a church in southern India, and a denomination is named after to remember him, which helps show how busy the Apostles were until they were martyred. Today it is the safest state in India, with more freedoms than elsewhere in India.

e). Even traditional Chinese writing had symbols in it showing parts of the Genesis story. (For more, see “www.Who Are The Chinese.com) That indicates missionaries went all over the world, way back in time. (Mao replaced “Traditional Chinese” with “Modern Chinese” after he took over.) 

Conclusion

The result of Paul’s evangelism and discipleship in Rome resulted in it becoming a hub from where Christians were being sent out far and wide, all over the Roman Empire - including Britain. 

Crosses have been found in the original Roman barracks, so light started shining into dark places soon after the resurrection of Jesus. So although the Roman government was cruel to anyone who opposed it, the gospel was being spread by individual soldiers at the grassroots level all over the empire in the first centuries AD. So Roman soldiers introduced Christianity to pagans in Britain in the first century.  God hadn’t wasted any time getting the good news out. Once the Jewish leaders rejected the gospel, Paul said he now turned to the Gentiles. The Gospel story is so amazing that you couldn’t make it up. If you are a disciple of Jesus, you have become part of the greatest story ever told…

This is John Dunning signing off from “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week.

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