Pastor's Spotlight - Bryan Jameson Part 1

A study in the book of Romans, chapter 1.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Kwave's Pastor Spotlight featuring the Bible teaching of
our local Southern California pastors. This week we're pleased to
feature a longtime friend of Kwave, Pastor Brian Jamieson, lead
pastor of Orange County Christian Fellowship. They meet Sunday mornings
at 250 South Prospect Street in Orange. We'll have more
information on how you can reach them after today's study.

(00:24):
Pastor Brian's focus for this week will be on Romans
chapter one. So we invite you to open your Bible
there now. Romans is such a powerful explanation of the
good news of Jesus Christ that it's sometimes called the
gospel according to Paul. Here's Pastor Brian Jamieson to explain.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Now the book of Romans, I like to lovingly call
it the gospel according to Paul, but it is not
like the other Gospels where you have the synoptic gospels
where they go through the chronological, uh, presentation of the
life and ministry of Jesus, and it is also differing
from the gospel of John, which is a more spiritual
approach to looking at the gospel, proving that Jesus is

(01:06):
the Messiah, the Son of God.
But the book of Romans or the gospel according to Paul,
is a gospel presentation that is based richly in theology.
And this text is incredibly just concentrated with theology and
so uh we're going to break this thing down verse
by verse and uh concept by concept and it really

(01:29):
is an incredible, incredible book of God.
So here Paul begins in verse one, and he says, Paul,
a bond servant of Jesus Christ. I love this. I
love how Paul begins with um his position in the
relationship between man and God, in the position of the servant.

(01:49):
Paul willingly declares himself to be a slave of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Now in our modern sensibilities, uh, the idea of slavery
can be repugnant in our minds, but not to Paul.
To Paul, this was something that was just absolutely natural
because the Lord is his God, his master, his savior.

(02:12):
In modern day thinking, we often like to declare Jesus
as our savior. Yes, that is wonderful, but we also
like to embrace the idea of him being our friend.
But oftentimes we kind of neglect the idea that he
is also our Lord and our master.
But here, uh, this idea of bond servant, it's a

(02:32):
Greek word known as a doulos, and a doulos is
a person who willingly becomes a servant to a household.
Now there are many types of slaves in societies and
the the one that we think of most.
And in our modern day culture is the slaves where
you go and you, you know, conquest a nation and

(02:53):
you take people from their homes and then you strip
them of all human rights and uh then you sell
them as if they were cattle in slave markets.
But that's not what this is. That's not what Paul
is getting at here. When he says Paul, a bond
servant of Jesus Christ, uh, the idea is somebody who was, um,

(03:13):
basically ran up a debt that they couldn't pay.
And what they do is they then go and they
work for a master and they say, OK, uh, I
will work for you for a given amount of years,
usually about 6 years, and on the 7th they get released,
and they say, hey, I will work for you if
you will pay my debt. So then the master, if

(03:33):
he agrees.
To the arrangement will pay the debt and then the
servant now works in his household until his debt has
been paid off. Well, in some cases, a person might
realize that working under their new master is better than
the life that they ever had on their own. And
so that person can then choose again if the master

(03:56):
is willing.
To surrender themselves to that household and become a lifelong
servant in that house or a slave. That's what a
bond servant is. And so Paul declares himself right at
the very beginning, Paul, a willing slave of Jesus Christ.
Notice there is no um pride here. There is no arrogance.

(04:19):
He is not exalting himself. He comes.
At right from the very beginning, in a place of humility,
he says, I am a servant. I am a willing
slave of Jesus Christ.
A pure definition of a dulos is somebody whose will
is submitted to the will of another, and that is

(04:41):
the position that a believer in Jesus Christ takes. We
are not the master. Our culture does not dictate what
is right and what is wrong, what is moral, what
is ethical. Our thoughts, our plans.
Our culture does not dictate what is right and what
is wrong. Instead, we yield to our master. We yield

(05:05):
to the morality that he has put forth, to the
ethical standards that he has set for us. We make
ourselves willing servants of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, If you
wish to follow me, if you wish to be my disciples,
he says, you must deny yourself. Take up your cross.
And follow me. That is where the, the gospel always begins,

(05:26):
whether it be in the life and ministry of Jesus
as showed to us in the synoptic Gospels or whether
it be in the Gospel of John or here in
the book of Romans. We always begin with a place
of humility where we recognize that we are not sufficient
to pay our own debts, that we need the resources,

(05:47):
we need the help of the Lord.
And in that place, we enter into a covenant. We
enter into a relationship where we surrender ourselves to him
that he might redeem us. Paul, a bond servant of
Jesus Christ. But it's not just Paul.

(06:07):
This statement can be for any and every one of us.
It needs to be for any and every one of us.
It could just as easily begin, Brian, a bond servant
of Jesus Christ, to understand my place in the relationship
between God and man, between savior and saved, between Redeemer

(06:29):
and the redeemed.
Then the apostle Paul continues on. Not only is he
a bond servant, a willing slave of the Lord Jesus Christ,
he then continues on and he uses another phrase called
to be an apostle. Now this is something that is
very fascinating and um this idea of calling. I had

(06:50):
a gentleman once, uh, he heard my testimony of how
I became a pastor, and he said, oh, it's so
great that
You know, you kind of did these things and your
actions led you to be a pastor instead of this
whole idea of being called, and I said, no, no, no,
I was called. The Lord did call me, and then
it was through the circumstances that he set before me
that I entered into the ministry. But the idea is

(07:13):
that each and every one of us are called by
the Lord to our place in the kingdom of heaven.
This position is often dictated through the spiritual gifts which
are given to us. Uh, the apostle Paul deals with
those richly in the book of First Corinthians, but, uh,
here I'll just kind of give you a basic idea

(07:34):
which he covers in detail in First Corinthians. The idea
is that the spiritual gifts, they are given so that
each and every single one of us might not
Glory in ourselves. The gifts aren't given so that we might,
you know, feel good about ourselves, but the gifts are
given that we might minister to the church, that we
might be able to minister in the name of the

(07:57):
Lord Jesus Christ. So in all truth, the spiritual gifts,
which kind of dictate the Lord's position for us within
his church, they are given that we might minister to
each other.
Again, they're not for us. The gifting that I have
been given is not for me, but for you, and

(08:17):
the gifting that you have been given of the Lord
is not for you, but it's for the believers that
are around you and for the people that you have
influence over. And the apostle Paul, he says he was
called to be an apostle.
Now he didn't choose this. He didn't uh get the
right schooling and that allowed him to become an apostle. Unfortunately,

(08:39):
in modern day churches, oftentimes we rely on seminaries to
weed out who is to be a pastor and who
is not to be a pastor.
But that's not the way it actually um is within
the church. Uh, you can go through seminary, you can
get an education, you can have a master's or even
a doctorate in theology or biblical studies or ancient manuscripts

(09:02):
or what have you, but that doesn't mean that you
are called to be a pastor. You see, that calling
for Paul, it was apostle. For me, I am a pastor,
but the spiritual gift of pastor is just that.
It's a spiritual gift. I can't demand it. I can't
take it. I can't earn it. It's not something that

(09:24):
I could go to school and gain. Getting a diploma
does not give me the spiritual gift of pastor any
more than, um, you know, going and, you know, serving
in children's ministry gives me, uh, the ability to become
a youth pastor. These things just aren't so.
Oftentimes, uh, I've had young men come and sit down

(09:46):
with me at lunch and they're like, hey, I want
to be a pastor. How do I become a pastor?
And I have to very gently and lovingly tell them,
it's like, I can't make you a pastor. And oftentimes
their eyes widen and they think, what? Why not?
Well, it's because I can recognize you as a pastor.

(10:07):
But I cannot make you a pastor.
A pastor is someone who has been chosen by God.
They have been called by God to that service, to
that ministry within his church to his people. And so
it's not something that we are to strive for. It's
something that we enter into by the calling of the Lord.

(10:27):
And then he and Paul continues on, and he uses
another important word, separated to the gospel of God, which
he promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures,
and this idea of separation.
It's sanctification is another way of saying it. It's being holy.
What does that mean? Right? Being separated to the gospel

(10:48):
of God means that we have been set apart or
set aside for one intended use.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
You're listening to Kwave's Pastor Spotlight featuring Pastor Brian Jamieson,
senior pastor of Orange County Christian Fellowship in Orange. Visit
their website at OCCF.cc. And now, let's continue with today's
study in Romans chapter one.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
Now, I have a kind of a story. It's a
little bit of an interesting story, but in my house,
we had this bowl. It was the bowl and it
was the bowl that my mom would always bring to
us if we were feeling sick. And that bowl was,
it's a Tupperware bowl called a that's a bowl. It's
one of those really big ones. And it was kind

(11:35):
of this weird green color and um whenever we got sick,
that bowl would be brought out and set before.
Yes. Now, that bowl, it had one intended purpose. It
was separated to that one intended purpose. OK, now, if
my mom had come to the dinner table and she
brought the salad in that bowl, I guarantee you not

(11:58):
one of us would have eaten it. We all would
have been like, no, no, no, no. But uh,
The reason for that is because it had a very
specific use, right? And we, as bond servants of the
Lord Jesus Christ, as those who are called to service
in the church, we have been sanctified. We have been

(12:21):
set apart for one intended purpose, and that is the
gospel of God.
That is the gospel of Jesus Christ. First, we have
to live it. We have to live our lives in
a manner that honors and glorifies uh the, the gospel
of Jesus Christ. But beyond that, it's not just about

(12:42):
lifestyle evangelism, as many people like to purport. They say, oh,
you know what, I, I live like a Christian and
that's how I declare it.
Well, that's great. That is a beginning. That is where
we begin. We, if we have a true and living faith, right,
there should be actions associated with that faith. If we

(13:03):
believe that there is a heaven, then it should be
the most important thing in our life that we spend
the rest of our lives running towards, right? If we
believe that, then our lifestyle should absolutely reflect that belief.
But that's only the beginning, because there are many people
out there who follow the uh Church of Latter-day Saints,

(13:26):
or as we call them, the Mormons, right? The Mormons,
they have a lifestyle in many fashions, in many ways
by many people's witnesses are, well, kinder, more.
more welcoming than a lot of Christians. And so if
you only as a servant of Jesus Christ as the

(13:47):
called and separated to the gospel, if you only ever
declare the gospel by your lifestyle, by being a kind person,
a forgiving person, which are good things, don't get me wrong.
Those are important, but they're not enough. We are separated
to the gospel of God both in body and action,

(14:08):
but also in word and and very much so indeed.
We have to live the gospel and we also have
to speak the gospel.
We are sanctified for one intended purpose as bond servants
of Jesus Christ, as called to whatever the position that
you are in the Lord and in the church, right?

(14:30):
You are separated to use your giftings to bring the
gospel of Jesus Christ to a Christ rejecting world.
So Paul said that he was separated to the gospel
of God, which he promised, which he, which is God,
promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures. Now,
this is something that's also very important to understand. The gospel.

(14:54):
isn't new. We call it the New Testament, but the
gospel has its roots deep in the Old Testament, right?
It was spoken by God from the beginning, right? From
the very beginning, if you go back to the book
of Genesis, there in the garden after Adam and Eve
had fallen,

(15:14):
The Lord said of the seed of the woman that
the seed of the woman, which is the first messianic prophecy,
it's the first um.
Position it's the first moment where the Lord declares that
the Christ is going to come, right? And he says
of the seed of the woman that he would crush
the head of the serpent while bruising his heel. And

(15:36):
so that is the first promise, the first look at
the cross. It's, it's very fuzzy. We only get a
very
Um, slim description of what the cross is, but you
get the main idea. The seed of the woman, not
the seed of the man. The seed of the woman,
would produce a offspring that would then bring about the

(15:56):
destruction of the enemy of humanity, the devil himself.
So we have a beginning there, but that's not it. There's, uh,
like I said, the roots grow deep into the Old Testament. Uh,
we also have the genealogy of Noah also found in
the Book of Genesis, and you might think the genealogy
of Noah, really? I am serious. The first time I

(16:17):
heard this, uh, I was shocked by it and I
didn't completely believe it until I actually
took the names of the genealogy of Noah there in
the Book of Genesis and I lined all the names up,
and then next to them, I, I got myself a
um a Hebrew dictionary and I translated the names and

(16:38):
sure enough, even as Chuck Mistler had said, and um
it basically goes like this.
When you place all their names starting at Adam and
ending at Noah in order and you translate them, it's
a rough translation, mind you, but it basically goes like
this man, appointed, mortal, sorrow. The blessed God shall come down, teaching.

(17:04):
His death shall bring the despairing, comfort, or rest.
Wow.
God is so good. God is so good. Even there
at the heart of the Pentatu, we have a full
description of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Isaiah 96, as

(17:24):
you guys well know, for unto us a child is
born unto us, a son is given, and the government
will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be
called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of peace.
Isaiah continues on in chapter 53, Speaking of that Messiah,
the Son of God.

(17:45):
He says, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He
was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace
was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.
It doesn't end there.
In Psalm 22, King David said, uh, they pierced my
hands and my feet. Now Jesus from the cross actually

(18:08):
quotes this psalm, My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? drawing our attention to this Psalm, Psalm 22.
And well, he did, because Psalm 22 is a first
person narrative of somebody being crucified and specifically Jesus being crucified.

(18:29):
Jeremiah 31:31 is also another of these, and he says, behold,
the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will
make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah. The gospel is not new.
Right, it is the new covenant, yes, but it is
something that was a plan from the very beginning. So

(18:52):
we are bond servants of Jesus Christ. We are called
to be in service to the church by the spiritual
giftings which the Holy Spirit has given to us. We
are to be separated to the gospel of God, the
plan of salvation which he had planned from the foundations
of the earth before the foundations of the earth.

(19:14):
Which he promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures.
Continuing on in verse 3, Paul says concerning His Son
Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was born of the seat
of David according to the flesh and declared to be
the Son of God with power according to the Spirit
of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Quite a

(19:36):
mouthful there, but let me break this down, so.
Jesus Christ, our Lord, right, is declared to be the
Son of God. And this is something that we also
need to just understand is that Jesus is our Lord.
He's not just our friend, he's not just our comforter, right?

(19:58):
He's not
Just a, um, a savior, but he is in fact,
our Lord. He is the Messiah. He is the Son
of God, the second person in the Godhead or the Trinity,
and he was born of the seed of David, according
to the flesh. Now, I don't know about you guys,
but sometimes, uh, I, I can, especially when I'm reading

(20:22):
through the Bible and I get to one of those
genealogies and I can go like,
Here we go again. Got another one. Have you ever
wondered why the genealogy were placed there? Have you ever
wondered why in the most important text in all of
human history, where real state is really precious, why would

(20:42):
God spend so much time reviewing these genealogies? And for
a lot of us, we think, oh my gosh, whenever
I get to a genealogy, I just skip past it
because it's kind of dry, dry reading, kind of boring.
But those genealogies actually serve an incredible purpose in the
Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that's this Jesus, the Messiah

(21:04):
was said to be number one. He is, of course,
a child of Adam, but beyond that, he is also
a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then the scriptures
also declare that the Messiah was to be born of
the tribe of Judah, and then from the family of
Jesse or from the seat of David.
And so you have these genealogies scattered throughout the scriptures

(21:28):
for this purpose, connecting Jesus to the substance of who
the Messiah was to be.
The genealogy takes us right back to King David, and
it's fascinating because the Messiah is to sit upon the
throne of David, which means that he needs to be
of the kingly lion. Now that kingly lion is fascinating

(21:51):
because that is
Through one of David's sons, King Solomon, and the, the
kingly lion was actually cursed after one particularly wicked king, uh,
did so many horrible things that God finally said, uh,
none of your descendants will sit upon the throne any longer. So,
Jesus Christ was born of the seat of David, and, um,

(22:16):
that was according to the flesh that he might have
the right to sit upon the throne of David. However, again,
like I said, there's a problem because, uh, since the, uh,
the royal bloodline was cursed, how then can Jesus sit
upon the throne of David if he is of the
seed of David? Well, this is where it gets really,

(22:37):
really good, and I love this guys. Hold on.
Here, we have two different genealogies of Jesus, one found
in Matthew.
And one found in Luke. The first genealogy is the
genealogy of Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus Christ, and
this genealogy takes us right back to Solomon and then

(23:01):
eventually to David. OK, so there we see that Jesus
legally being adopted by Joseph has a legal right to
the throne of David.
That's powerful. That's important. But since he is not a
blood relative of Solomon and the kingly lion, the curse
has no effect on him. But then we also have

(23:24):
now the genealogy that's found in Luke. This is the
genealogy of Mary, and Mary is also a blood descendant
of King David, but not through Solomon. Instead, this is through,
I believe, uh, Nathaniel.
And so here we have just an incredible place where
Scripture shows us how incredible the Lord is, how he

(23:47):
dictates these things, and they just absolutely blow my mind.
So Jesus, the Son of God, who was born of
the seed of David according to the flesh, and he
is declared to be the Son of God with power,
according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from
the dead.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
This is Pastor Spotlight, and you've been listening to Brian Jamieson,
senior pastor of Orange County Christian Fellowship. We invite you
to join us right here at the same time tomorrow
for more of Pastor Brian's study in Romans chapter one.
Pastor Brian has a rich history of ministry in Orange County.
He was ordained in 2006 by Joey Barran, pastor of

(24:30):
Worship Generation. While serving at Worship Generation, Brian served in
many ministries all the way up to associate pastor. In 2010,
Brian was sent out to plant Orange County Christian Fellowship,
now in Orange. Pastor Brian says that OC Christian Fellowship
is a beautiful small local church.

(24:50):
Focusing on discipleship, fellowship, and the study of the whole
word of God. You're invited to come worship this Sunday.
Sunday worship at OC Christian Fellowship is at 10:30 a.m.
at 250 South Prospect Street in Orange in the fellowship hall.
Wednesday night worship and study is at 7 p.m. at

(25:11):
4101 Noel Ranch Road in Anaheim in the library on
the second floor.
For complete details on worshiping with Orange County Christian Fellowship,
visit their website at OCCF.C. That's OCCF.C. We invite you
to join us right here at this same time tomorrow

(25:34):
for more of Pastor Brian Jamieson's study in Romans chapter 1.
We hope you'll join us. Pastor Spotlight is a production
of Kwave Radio.