The Trails Church

Romans 1:2-4 includes a brief introduction to “The Glorious Gospel of God.” The good news that reached Paul is the good news he now longs to share, so that the gospel might gladden our hearts and set us singing, dancing, and leaping for joy. We will organize our thoughts under four headings: the source of the gospel, the promise of the gospel, the message of the gospel, and the heart of the gospel.

Romans 1:1 opens with the greeting of its author, the apostle Paul. Yet even in this brief introduction, we are given more than a name. Paul tells us how he understands himself and how he sees his Savior. From this opening verse, we are invited to look a little way down what has often been called “The Romans Road,” catching a glimpse of what lies ahead in the letter and why it was written in the first place.

John 14:1–6 records a conversation on the night of the Last Supper, as Jesus comforts his disciples. Their hearts are heavy with the thought of him leaving, so Jesus steadies them with the promise of his return and the assurance that his going is for their good. We will organize the sermon in two parts. First, we will look at the text itself. Then, we will consider it theologically through the lens of the Nicene Creed.

John 3:16 captures the heart of the gospel message in one of the most beloved and memorable expressions in all of Scripture. As we continue our journey through the Nicene Creed, we also come to very heart of its confession: the One True God has made a way for sinners to be saved, to know forgiveness, life, and joy found only in him. Inside the phrase, “For Our Salvation,” we find the motivating reason behind the sending of God the Son.

John 1:14 brings us to one of the most glorious truths about our Savior: that the Son of God was “Begotten, Not Made.” We will explore this in the text and also examine how this doctrine is stated in the Nicene Creed, but ultimately my prayer is that our minds would be filled with truth about the son of God, our hearts moved with love for Christ, and our lives more clearly reflect our Savior.

To understand the true identity of the baby born in David’s City on that Christmas Eve so long ago, we must look to the book in which God himself speaks to us about his Son. In the opening three verses of John’s Gospel, we find an ocean of truth held in a thimble-sized passage. There we learn three massive truths about the second person of the Trinity.