Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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“So then…” Nothing like coming into the middle of a conversation. “So then…” That’s an awkward place to begin a reading. “So then…”means that what is about to be said is based on what has just been said. So then, before we talk about the “so then…” we need to go back and pick up on what Paul has just said, so then we can understand the point that he wants to make.

Let’s open our bible and turn to Romans, 8 beginning at verse 1. Page 944 in your pew bible. While you’re going there, let me very briefly summarize where we left off last Sunday as we came to the end of chapter 7, because, as you’ll see, Paul begins chapter 8 with a “therefore…” which is like a “so then…” It means that what he is about to say is based on what has already been said.

Paul ended chapter seven by describing the reality of the life of faith. He describes the life of faith as one of inner conflict, frustration and disappointment with ourselves because we have the desire to please God and keep His Word, but not the ability to carry it out. In famous words, Paul says, “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” And the conclusion he comes to is not that God is bad or His Law is wrong or that its all God’s fault, but, “What a wretched man I am.” (more…)

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After they finished their Passover meal in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, Jesus led 11 of His 12 disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane. Knowing all that was to take place and knowing that the time had fully come for His passion and suffering for the sins of the world to begin, He them to keep watch while He prayed. They fell asleep. Certainly, it was not that they ignored His request or that they didn't want to keep watch. They just couldn't keep their eyes open. (Maybe some of you have had the experience. Just let it not be during the sermon.) Jesus came from where He had been praying to where He had stationed His apostles and found them sleeping. And He said to them, "The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak." (Matthew 26:41). (more…)

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This is week #6 in our 15-week summer tour through Paul's letter to the Romans. When you take a tour as long as this one, sometimes it's necessary to be reminded of why we're on this tour in the first place and what this tour is supposed to show us.

Very quickly, Paul is writing to a congregation of Christians in Rome. He's never actually met them, but he has heard a great deal about them, probably from two of their former members, Aquilla and Priscilla, whom Paul met when he was in Corinth. Paul wants to go to Rome someday, and with the help and support of the Christians in Rome, he wants to go to Spain and set up a base of operation there to do the kind of church planting work in Western Europe that he has done out of Antioch in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

So, Paul doesn't intend to spend a lot of time in Rome before moving on. A lot of the teaching and instruction in the gospel that he would normally do when he comes into a city, he is trying to do in advance, by this letter. That's why Romans is the most comprehensive presentation of Christian doctrine of any of Paul's epistles. (more…)