 Okay welcome everyone to study on the book of Romans. It's just so glad to be teaching the third year students. All of you have journeyed the last two years and now come to third year. I miss teaching you last year, right? I didn't teach you any subjects both for land spring semester. Our kingdom builders in the first semester and miss teaching you all in the spring semester, but it's good to be back teaching all of you. So welcome to study on the book of Romans and you know sorry that I just took a little time to get to all the setup because it is rushed in for my second year class. I had two hours there. We have to move to a different classroom. We have to set up everything again so it's a whole new aspect for us every time. We have to run from one classroom to another, but well it's exciting and it's a joy to be teaching all of you in the third year and this is your final year, right? But then you have one more semester to go. Anyways, okay welcome to our study on the book of Romans. I have shared the PDF content of the course material with you. It's on your the livestream page. I'll have to also manually admit students so that would take some time as well. Also warm welcome to all our e-learning students. Welcome to class and your course material is also posted in the content tab so you can go there and access the course content over there on the book of Romans, the lecture notes that is there. But for the online students it's made available on the screen page. The PDF content of the course material is there. I hope you also read my, had time to read my welcome note and the introduction to the course. It's like you to take a couple of minutes to just read that. I posted it on the screen page so you can read, not now, you can read later on after class, okay? Please read my welcome note and also introduction to this course. Now during my lectures I will be sharing a lot of additional content, okay? Sorry for this class I'll have to manually admit students so if I just pause in between let's be, you know, working with the student to admit them in. So during my lectures I will be sharing a lot of additional content with the fresh insights for each chapter but I've decided that I would not include this in the course content. The reason being that I would encourage active participation and attentiveness during the classes as I believe that this would really enhance a learning experience just by presenting some fresh insights during the lecture, you know, that go beyond the existing course content. I just hope to, you know, inspire all of you to attend classes regularly, actively listen and take down notes but if I put everything in the notes then, you know, sometimes we can just think, hey, I don't need to attend the lecture because all she says is just there in that, in the lecture so I can just read through it but, you know, you're coming to class would also be an active participation where you are listening, taking down notes and also will be benefited by attending these classes. So please note that for the assessments I will also be adding in the additional content which I'll be sharing during the lectures which is not there in the notes which means you will have to listen carefully, you know, follow through with the notes that is there at the PDF format and also make your own notes which can really help and this is, you know, a book in the Bible, it's a powerful book which we can learn so many doctrines and teachings and so it will just benefit if you take more notes and it'll help you in understanding the various doctrines, the various teachings and also about, give you fresh insights about the whole aspect of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, okay. For this course we would be having four graded assessments each 25% so there are 16 chapters in the book of Romans so each assessment will be on four chapters so there are four graded assessments and yeah once we finish chapter one to four then we'll fix a date for the first assessment and then we will do that likewise for the other chapters as well, okay. Any questions anyone has before we move ahead? Any questions? Okay, there are no questions then, you know, we'll begin with the book of Romans, it's one of the most important books in the New Testament. Now when I say that it is one of the most important books in the New Testament, just a minute please. Okay so when I say that this is one of the most important books in the New Testament I don't want to overstate things as though you know the book of Romans is the most important book in the New Testament yet we see that Paul's epistle to the Romans is regarded by many as the best expressions of Christian doctrine and Romans is considered as the most important book theologically or doctrinally. It deals with the doctrine of Christ now when we say the word when we talk about doctrines doctrines basically mean a belief or a set of beliefs held and taught by someone so in other terms doctrines are basically teachings and here in the book of Romans it deals specifically with the doctrine of Christ. It presents the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that is not presented in any other epistles and scholars consider Paul's letter to the believers at Rome as his most important work doctrinally. So Romans the book of Romans the epistle of Romans is one of the best expressions of the Christian doctrines compared to other books. The other epistles of Paul you know actually addresses certain elements of Christian life or the life of the church and we see that Paul is writing those epistles whether to the church at epistles the church at Colosse, the church at Corinth he's basically writing those epistles to address certain problems in the churches or he's writing those epistles you know to help the churches that are facing some issues or problems but this epistle that he's writing to the church at Rome is more doctrinal. It's more teaching oriented. It begins you know from the existence of God so Paul begins Romans talking about the existence of God and then he goes through a journey of sin and salvation. He talks about the gift of righteousness, the grace of God and then he talks about Christian living. And again forgive me for saying this but this is the best epistle when it comes to Christian doctrine or teaching. I'm not saying this because I'm teaching the book of Romans but it's actually one of the best epistles when it comes to Christian doctrines or teaching. Hence it is very important to study and understand this book and this is the only book or the only place in the New Testament where we have three chapters that explain to us the relationship between the church and Israel. Okay, I'll repeat that again. This is the only place in the New Testament or this epistle or this book is the only place in the New Testament where you know we have about three chapters that explain to us the relationship between the church and Israel. Of course the book of Hebrews has somewhat you know some little content of this in terms of the covenant but what is God doing you know with the church you find it in the book of Romans. Again it's a very it's very unique from this perspective because it's talking about connecting the church and Israel. Now we know that in the Old Testament it's entirely talking about this nation or the people of Israel and we also read various prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah, coming of Jesus Christ and we see that the New Testament starts off with Jesus and the church and then we wonder what happened to Israel because the whole of Old Testament talks about Israel. Everything is about this nation, Israel, all of the covenants, all of the prophets, all of the kings, all of the prophecies and you know when we come to New Testament yes we see the fulfillment of the prophecies as talking about Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. We see it happening in reality fulfilled in the New Testament but then it goes on to talk about the church and then we're wondering hey where did Israel disappear? What happened to the nation of Israel? Okay so you know and what is God doing with the church you find that in the book of Romans and also we see that you know this book also talks about the relationship between the church and the people of Israel or the nation of Israel. Now this book of Romans has many key doctrines and teachings which are established here in this book so some of the key doctrines or teachings are the existence of God, the issue of sin and salvation, the issue of sin and conscience, the issue of salvation, the issue of grace, the issue of righteousness and the issue of Christian living in various aspects basically talks about how you know Christians or believers can relate to sin, government and people around them or other people in their life so all these are the key teachings or the key doctrines of the church and it's covered here in the book of Romans. Okay so let's look at when Paul wrote this book and why he wrote it and what are some of the things that Paul was expecting to happen. Before we move on anyone has any questions? No? Can you hear me clearly? Online students? Okay thank you. Okay so we look at when Paul wrote this book why he wrote it and what are some of the things Paul was expecting to happen. Now all of what we read in the book of Romans happens during the first century and these the dates that are mentioned here in the introduction are kind of approximate dates because we have proofs, archaeological proofs and all of that to prove to us and also parallel you know scripture verses from the book of Acts which we can connect to and we can see and so all the dates that I mentioned here are kind of approximate dates. So we look at you know the background on Paul's episode to the Romans. Now during Paul's second missionary journey which happened during AD 49 to 52 we see that Paul stayed at Corinth for a good 18 months and we read this in Acts chapter 18 verse 11 and during that time he meets this couple Aquila and Priscilla and Aquila and Priscilla basically stay in Rome they have that a home church in Rome they're very active in doing ministry in Rome that also run a business like Paul they were also tent makers and during AD 49 we see that an issue was you know sorry and an addict was issued by the Roman Emperor Claudius in AD 49 and he ordered all the Jews to leave Rome so basically the you know Jews were persecuted the believers were persecuted in in Rome and the Jews specifically were asked to leave Rome and we read this in Acts chapter 18 verses 1 to 3 okay so Aquila and Priscilla had to move out of Rome so they traveled to Corinth and when they came to Corinth you know since they also had the same business like Paul they were tent makers Paul went over to meet them and you know they worked with Paul Aquila and Priscilla work with Paul and making tents and also ministering to the church or the believers at Corinth okay and all through Aquila and Priscilla heard a lot about the believers of the house churches at Rome from this couple okay and when Jews were permitted to go back to Rome in AD 54 we see Aquila and Priscilla we see Aquila and Priscilla going back to Rome and you know continuing the work there continuing the church that they had started there and their ministry there but we see that Paul got gets excited about hearing about the church at Rome it's not a place that Paul had gone before he's never been to Rome he's never established churches there he's never ministered there but we will read and see how it has always been his desire and how he longs to go and meet the believers at Rome okay now later during his third missionary journey during Paul's third missionary journey in AD 53 to 58 you know Paul spends most of his time about three years in Ephesus we read this in Acts 19 it has a powerful work in Ephesus where he is also you know not just teaching the synagogue but he moves on to the to the hall of tightness and then he's teaching there he's imparting becomes like a Bible school and many believers are trained they're building the word and we see that many of them go around the city of Ephesus and the seven churches that we read in Revelation which is around the city of Ephesus where actually started by these believers who were trained in this hall of tightness or tightness that Paul was teaching and ministering during those three years at Ephesus and then we see that Paul goes on to Macedonia read this in Acts chapter 20 verse 1 and then he goes on to Greece we read this in Acts chapter 20 verses 1 to 3 which would basically include cities like Athens and Corinth and when Paul was in Corinth he wrote to the believers at Rome and this is about 80 AD 57 now why do we say that Paul wrote this episode to the Romans to the church at Rome why did he write it from Corinth we have a few indicators that indicate to us that it's most likely that he wrote from Corinth it's most likely that he wrote this episode of Romans from Corinth we read this in this chapter it's in the same book itself in Romans chapter 16 verse 23 where Paul says you know guys my host and the host of the whole church greets you it asks is the treasure of the city greets you and what is a brother so we see that Paul mentions that he's staying in the house of Gays or guys who's very likely the same guys who's mentioned in first Corinthians chapter 1 verse 14 and we also see that Paul is mentioning about Erastus now Erastus was a city treasurer or the head of the public work department and he lived in Corinth and we read this also in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 was 20 where Paul is writing to Timothy he says Erastus stayed in Corinth and I left Trofimus sick in Miletus so he's telling Timothy hey you know Erastus stayed on in Corinth so you know and since he mentions about Erastus it's most and he stayed in Gaius's house is most likely that he writes this letter to the church at Rome from Corinth okay and another confirmation that we have of Erastus existence or that he lived in Corinth was a title that was found in the city of Corinth archaeologists you know when they were excavating this part of this land at Corinth during the 1st century they uncovered a stone with Erastus name as an huddle in and it's a Roman pavement that was found east of the theater at Corinth and the inscription you know was found out by archaeologists in the late 1920s and it reads that Erastus for his apple ship paved at his own expense now the term idle means you know it refers to somebody who is a public official in ancient Rome who was responsible for the maintenance of public buildings or regulation of markets and organization of games and festivals so we see that you know the stone was uncovered it was found by a call archaeologists in the late 1920s and the stone with Erastus name as an huddle in a Roman pavement where he spent his own money in just you know paving the road at his own expense so we see that you know Paul most likely would have written this letter from Corinth during his third mystery journey now towards the end of this letter you know Paul shares that you know he desires to go to Jerusalem to you know give the saints or the believers their offerings that he has collected from various churches to help them in their difficulties in their struggles and he shares his intent to travel to Spain from Jerusalem and when he travels from Spain from Jerusalem he shares his desire to stop at Rome on his way to Spain and that we read in Romans chapter 15 verses 22 to 23 okay I like one of you please read Romans chapter 15 verses 22 to 23 please anyone could read that Romans chapter 15 verses 22 to 23 can someone unmute your mice and read please 15 was 22 to 23 can you all hear online students can you hear no no we couldn't hear you Rosalind would you like to read well I read yes please thank you for this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you but now no longer having a place in these parts and having a great desire these many years to come to you whenever I journey to Spain I shall come to you for I hope to see you on my journey and to be helped on my way there by you if first I may enjoy your company for a while I'll continue ma'am yes please tilt verse 33 okay but now I'm going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints for it pleased those from Macedonia and Akhaya to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem it pleased them indeed and they are their debtors for if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things their duty is also to minister to them in material things therefore when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit I shall go by I shall go by way of you to Spain but I know that when I come to you I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ now I beg you brethren through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints that I may come to you with joy by the will of God and may be refreshed together with you now the God of peace be with you all amen amen thank you Rosalind good to hear your voice again okay so here we see Paul's heart here in verse 23 he says you know having a great desire these many years to come to you so we see Paul's just pouring out his heart that his heart's desire is you know to meet the believers at Rome you know there's such a powerful church there's you know believers there he's never met them before and his heart's desire is just to you know to go and meet them and was 29 he says you know he desires to come to them in the full blessings of the gospel of Christ so he says but I know that when I come to you was 29 I shall come in the fullness of the blessings of the gospel of Christ so we see here you know Paul's heart that he wants to go to the believers and he also wants to gift them or bring to them something spiritually he feels that he can give to them spiritually he can you know impart them as spiritually and that is his motivation of going there you know some of us who are you know traveling evangelist or some of us who like to go for mission trips or you know to go to different places and minister you know what is that that motivates us to go and minister in a city you know is it just thinking that hey I've never been to the city before it's a good opportunity to go and minister and also you know a good time to you know see the city you know sightseeing also recreational maybe you have some old friends or family someone there relative that you've never had the opportunity and you think yeah I can go for this mission trip or I can go to minister there and also it can be a sightseeing trip or a recreational thing you know what is your motivation you see that you know Paul's motivation is you know to go to Rome I'm not saying that it's wrong to go and you know minister at the same time you know take a look at the place enjoy the beauty of the place I'm not saying it's wrong but what is our overarching motivation here we see that it's Paul's desire or his motivation to give into their lives to impart to them spiritually to give them something in the spirit it is his desire to impart to them the full blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ and he's wanting to strengthen them spiritually and that is you know what should motivate us or that is what should motivate people from going from place to place to minister that we want to impart spiritually to their lives that we have something that we want to give into them and we want to impart to them the full blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ and also we see that Paul shares what he is planning to do there was a famine in Jerusalem so Paul is encouraging the believers in the churches that he had started in the region of Achaia Corinth and Macedonia to contribute to the saints at Jerusalem and he intends to take this offering to give it to the believers there and then he wants to go on to Spain on an honest way he wants to stop at Rome and meet his meet the people there at home okay now who started the church at Rome any thoughts on that who started the church at Rome yes maybe Aquila and Priscilla okay who started the church at Rome any thoughts even I go with Aquila and Priscilla okay Rosalind says Aquila and Priscilla yes I'm just thinking I've not read it anywhere but I think there is also a possibility that after there was some there was some persecution in Jerusalem after the stoning of Stephen so there is a I might think that one is might also be a hypothesis inside there and also there is the 120 people is this 300 people who were preached to during the Pentecostal day so I also think there is something there if I'm not mistaken and again I would also go for the third one but that's that would be my hypothesis I haven't read it anywhere thank you Pastor thank you Robega good to hear your voice after a long time yes you're you know your thoughts your hypothesis is right Subashi says Peter maybe okay thank you Super Shish yes Enoch oh good morning Ma Aquila and Priscilla I didn't know I was my wife so two of them started my industry okay thank you good to hear you Enoch success okay oh actually what Robega said is right you know what we know is that on the day of Pentecost you know many Jews from Rome from Asia from Europe from all parts of the world would come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover feast okay and they would stay back in Jerusalem for some of them they would stay back for a longer period of time for a period of 60 days because the feast of the unleavened bread the feast of the Passover you know the celebration of these the 60 days you know begin with the feast of the unleavened bread and the Passover and these two festivals are closely connected and take place during the same time period we know that the Passover commemorates when the Israelites were delivered from slavery in Egypt and the feast of the unleavened bread involves the removal of the leaving or it you know it's the signifies the removal of or involves the removal of each from their homes for a week as a symbol of purity and leaving behind you know basically you know leaving behind the sinful ways of just you know whole significance of leaving behind the sinful ways of Egypt so these festivals occur in the early spring usually around March and April and after the feast of the unleavened bread and the Passover was the feast of the first fruits which is celebrated so it's basically a Thanksgiving festival for the first fruits of the barley harvest and during this festival you know the first sheet of the barley harvest is presented as an offering to the Lord acknowledging his provision and his blessing on the agricultural harvest and it was a symbol of hope and a promise of bountiful harvest to come okay and after this after 50 days after the feast of the first fruits came the feast of the weeks also known as Pentecost so the name Pentecost is derived from the Greek term Pentecostos which means 50th so this festival basically marks the conclusion of the grain harvest and is the beginning of the feast of the first fruits and on this occasion you know offerings of food and animals is presented to the Lord you know in a more lavish way basically expressing their gratitude for the abundance of harvest that he is going to provide okay so all of these festivals happen during the same time the 60-day period so there's many Jews come from all over the world specifically from Rome and you know from Asia Asia Minor and Europe to Jerusalem to celebrate this okay now while we don't have information of who really founded the church at Rome but we have some background information that there were visitors from Rome both Jews and proselytes now who are the proselytes Gentiles who were converts to Judaism we read this in Acts chapter 2 verses 8 to 10 so can one of you please read Acts chapter 2 verses 8 to 10 please Acts chapter 2 verses 8 to 10 this is on the day of Pentecost yeah go ahead yes yeah here we see here we see in Acts chapter 2 verses 8 to 11 you know this is you know mentioning about what happened what just happened at the upper room when the disciples were baptized in the Holy Spirit and all of these people are mentioned who come from different places and they hear the disciples or hear the 120 were there in the upper room talking in the languages that they had from the places they had come from it's talking about visitors from Rome both Jews and proselytes so I said proselytes are Gentiles who embraced Judaism so they were all present at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and some of these visitors from Rome would have become believers in Jesus Christ just like Vega said but they heard Peter preach the sermon they were cutting their hearts and 3,000 of them accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior and so we it's most likely that you know these people who had come from Rome you know who heard Peter preached and who became part of the church now became believers they would have stayed back for some more time they're just you know receiving teachings of the apostles being established in the teachings of the apostles and you know and when they go back to Rome they came from you know they would have established a spirit filled churches or also like he said you know the persecution of Stephen when the church would have been Rosalind said I think you know no not Rosalind I think Lupega said that anyways you know they were persecuted and they spread out they would have gone to Rome so we can infer that these people who were there during the time of Pentecost and stayed back and you know they received teachings of the apostles they've established the teachings of the apostles they would have gone back to Rome and would have started spirit filled churches there established churches there and you know that's how they would have spoken about Jesus they would have spoken about the gospel of Jesus Christ and you know they would have you know began churches there at Rome okay so we can say that the church at Rome was a spirit filled church because these believers who went back from Jerusalem had received the teachings of the apostles they would have been baptized in water they would have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and you know they were also established in the teachings of the apostles and they go back and they begin the church the church is at Rome okay now the believers at Rome were a mixed group basically consisting of both Jews and Gentile believers now when Claudius brings about issues this edict in AD 49 that all the Jews have to leave Rome you know they would have left at churches like Aquila and Priscilla and moved on to various cities so the church at Rome would have just been comprising of Gentile believers so during the next five years till AD 54 the church at Rome was led by leaders who were Gentile believers and then subsequently you know Jewish believers would have returned back like Aquila and Priscilla after AD 54 they would return back to Rome and in some cases you know they would have to serve under the Gentile believers but the church at Rome must have been made up of various several house churches because in those days you know Christians were persecuted they were not given land they had they did not have their own places where they could build churches and because of fear of persecution they would have met quietly in various homes so we see this happening at Rome and also at Ephesus several house churches and you know we also know that when Paul was writing he also mentions about the church that meets in Aquila and Priscilla's house we read this in Romans chapter 16 verses three to five so can somebody please read Romans chapter 16 verses three to five please anyone Romans 16 3 to 5 greet Priscilla and Aquila my fellow workers in Christ Jesus who risked their own next for my life to whom not only I give thanks but also all the churches of the Gentiles likewise greet the church that is in their house greet my beloved Iprenetus who is the first brood of Aquila to Christ thank you Zealotoli good to hear your voice so Paul's you know is is letter to the saints at Rome you know he says would would have been read across all of these house churches to build them up and encourage them so he's you know we know that there were several house churches that used to meet in various parts at Rome and also various other cities okay now we just look at a few key highlights as part of my introduction to this episode of the church at Rome a few key highlights about Romans you know Romans is you know an episode where the Gospel is mentioned in detail it the book of Romans explains to us very clearly what the Gospel is it defines the Gospel to us very clearly it just mentions that we are sinners Christ died for us he rose up again and whoever believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins so this is you know one episode which mentions very clearly the Gospel and very in a very detailed explanation in a detailed way the Gospel of Jesus Christ is explained to us the second highlight of the book of Romans is that our spiritual journey is described very clearly here and it starts off with the existence of God in Romans chapter 1 and then in chapter 1 and verses 2 it talks about sinful the privacy of man house man has moved away from the knowledge of God from the truth of God has believed the lies and lived the lies and how God has given them up to their own you know choice that they have made and the lies that they want to believe we read this in Romans chapter 1 and 2 then it talks about the consequence of sin very beautifully explained in Romans chapter 3 in and Christ a turning work on the cross which is mentioned written to us in Romans chapter 3 chapters 3 and 4 and then how we can be justified and receive a righteousness through grace by faith we read this in chapter 5 and how to overcome sin on the basis of the cross chapter 6 and 7 how to walk in righteousness by the Spirit the beautiful chapter in Romans chapter 8 powerful beautiful chapter Romans 8 and how we can live the Christian life in Romans chapter 12 to chapter 15 so hence in this episode of Romans Paul describes as spiritual journey so if someone has to read the book of Romans you know they can get saved they can learn how to overcome sin they can also learn the Christian life and so Paul takes us to a good journey you know of all of these things and it's a good journey that Paul can take someone through their entire life from you know from sin how they can get saved how can they overcome sin and how to live the Christian life another key highlight is that the book of Romans talks to us about the righteousness of God the righteousness of God is being revealed we know that God is righteous he's just he cannot be blamed for anything that he does because he's totally completely always righteous when we say righteous what do we mean by the word righteous what is the meaning of righteous when we say God is righteous what do we mean what do we mean when we say God is righteous he's just holy he's right basically means that he is right all the time in the justice that he brings about in the judgment that he brings about in his promises in his word in his dealings with us in every way we see that he is right so there's the major theme through the book of Romans is righteousness the word righteousness is used 36 times throughout this book and we see that God being righteous in Judging sin Romans chapter 1 and 2 we see God being righteous in forgiving sins on the basis of Christ atoning work Romans chapter 3 and 5 God imparting his righteousness the believers in Romans chapter 5 the believers walking in righteousness by the Spirit in verses 6 chapter 6 and 8 and the believer living a righteous life in chapters 12 to 15 so we don't find the treatment of righteousness in any other book in the Bible as we find it here in the book of Romans okay we'll stop here we'll continue more about the key highlights in the book of Romans in our next class on Friday so I'll meet you all on Friday I'd like you to just read the book of Romans and looking forward to meeting you all on Friday thank you all have a good day and a good week ahead God bless