Peter Barnes | Romans 1:8-10
SERMON NOTES
PRAYER AND EVANGELISM
Romans 1:8-10
– Paul only arrived in Rome about three years after writing Romans (Acts 28:16)
1. Paul’s gratitude to God for the faith of the Romans.
– 1:8. There is a ‘first’ but no ‘second’. Paul’s literary style lacks at times.
– Paul thanks God; he does not flatter the people, e.g. Eph.1:16; Phil.1:3; Col.1:3.
2. Constant prayer goes with faithful preaching.
– 1:9; Paul puts himself on oath, which is unusual.
– note the gospel of God (1:1) is also the gospel of His Son (1:9)
– see Col.1:3-4, 9-10 for his prayers for another church which he had yet to visit.
3. Answers to prayer may not be immediate.
– 1:10; see also 1:13; 15:20-23, 32; Paul did not know for sure until Acts 23:11
– Deut.29:29; 1 Cor.16:7; James 4:13-16; we can lawfully pray for something which God rejects (e.g. 2 Cor.12:7-10); David Livingstone thought he was called to evangelise in China but ended out in Africa.