Closing Credits

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Don Filcek; Romans 16:1-16 Closing Credits

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listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsack preaches from his series in the
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Book of Romans, A Righteousness from God. Let's listen in. Well, good morning everybody.
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Welcome to Recast Church. We're going to go ahead and get started, so if you can find your seats, that would be awesome. I'm Don Filsack, I'm the lead pastor here, and just want to say how joyful I am to be gathered together as God's people in this place here this morning.
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I hope that you're glad to be here too. It's really been a privilege over the years to see how God has built this church.
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It's been amazing, and I don't know if you guys think about it this way, but it's kind of an important thing for us to get in our minds, and that is that churches are not built by contractors, by electricians, by plumbers, by various tradesmen.
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Church buildings are built that way, but that's not the way that churches are built.
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Churches are built by God himself drawing together a variety of people who decide and determine to gather together in one local place for his worship.
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And so I hope it's as much your goal this morning as it is mine that we worship him because he has saved us from our sins through his son
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Jesus Christ who died for us. He is our savior. He is our king.
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Does everybody agree with that? Is Jesus Christ your savior and king this morning? Then let's rejoice together.
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It's true that God builds his church, but the apostle Paul made it clear in the scripture that we looked at last week that Paul worked hard in the planting of churches, but he gave the credit to Jesus Christ for the success in starting those churches.
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And he knew at the end of the day that he was just a tool that God was using in his plan to start so many churches, and he wrote that to the
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Christians in Rome, a church that he didn't start. But now this morning we're going to turn our attention to a different kind of text, a text that I have the feeling that if you were reading in your
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Bible reading and you're going through the Bible in a year, some of you maybe do that or you've read through the book of Romans before, it would be very easy to skip over this section of chapter 16.
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As a matter of fact, it might be one that you kind of go, okay, this is a freebie, and your eyes just browse the page because it's just a text that's just full of names.
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It appears at face value that that's all that it is, just a list of names. And not only that, but a list of names that we barely know anything about.
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We barely know anything about many of these people that are listed in chapter 16. And so to some degree it might be tempting for us to look at this section of scripture and think of it as just the same way, have the same attitude toward it that you might have towards closing credits of a movie.
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Now how many of you sit through all of the closing credits of all the movies you attend? Just to give credit where credit is due, right?
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You want to applaud that key grip or the sound boom coordinator or the people who did all of the costuming or the ...
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You don't really do that unless you know, and you might ask, hey, was there like a little spoiler at the end of this or is there an
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Easter egg at the end of this? And then some of you sit. Now some of you know what I'm talking about. So some of you sit through to get to the end of that.
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But there was a tradition when I was a kid, really it was kind of when I was in college, and some of you maybe do this, some of you this might be new, maybe it's new to all of you, but we used to, when we were in college we'd go out to a movie, you weren't allowed to get up and leave until you saw your name in the closing credits.
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You had to see your first name in the closing credits. Now the problem is Don is not a real common name anymore.
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So that ends up being a little bit tough. We kind of do that as a family, just kind of as a joke. It's kind of funny, but we watch sometimes the credits just looking for our first names.
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Anybody here do that? Are we the only ones? Maybe me and my college friends invented that.
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I don't know. I mean, I thought that might be a thing. But I wouldn't hold your breath as we read this list looking for your name.
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It's not likely that your name is here. Now a couple of you, actually, if I did this right and I'm willing to go out on a limb, to the best of my knowledge, we have two
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Marys here and three Julies, and you'll find your name in there. Well, Julia, actually, technically
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I think we only have one Julia, and we'll see that name is in there. But I could be wrong.
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Maybe there's an Aristobulus that's visiting us today or a Phlegon that's here. I doubt it.
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But maybe the closest thing that your family would have to the names on this list is a dog named Rufus, because we're seeing the name
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Rufus in here. So I don't know how we determine what names from the Bible get to be dog names.
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Poor Rufus. But we'll see that name. So Paul's going to mention in this short text, he's going to mention 27 names, 27 not just names, 27 people who impacted the life of the
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Apostle Paul. 27 people in 16 verses, and he's commending those who have served the church well in his generation.
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And so as we read this text that's really full of some strange names, I want you to let your mind consider a fundamental question.
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Why would the Apostle Paul take up the time to give all of these greetings in writing?
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Back in the day, parchment and scroll took up, it was costly.
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Ink was not common. And so just his application of pen to parchment to write these things took effort and time.
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And so I'll give you a little hint before we read this. I think that the answer to the question might have something to do with Paul demonstrating how central personal relationships are to the
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Christian faith. How vital it is that we conceive and think of ourselves as ministers to people, all of us, not me, not the elders, not the leaders, not the people who have volunteered this morning, but all of us ministering to others.
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That we could actually be an assist and are meant to be an assist to the entire church, which is the people gathered together.
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For chapters now, Paul has been highlighting love and care and unity for the church.
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And it is no accident that he is wrapping up towards the end of this letter a list of names of people who have blessed him.
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So let's open our Bibles, if you're not already there, to Romans chapter 16, verses 1 -16. And if you have a device, you can navigate over in that device to this text,
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Romans 16, 1 -16, recast, the very words of the
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Almighty God revealed to us this morning. I commend to you our sister
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Phoebe, a servant of the church at Kencreah, that's how they tell me how to pronounce that anyways, that you may welcome her in the
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Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many, and of myself as well.
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Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who rest their necks for my life, to whom not only
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I give thanks, but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. Greet also the church in their house.
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Greet my beloved Eponetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you.
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Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me.
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Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and beloved
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Stachys. Greet Apples, no, Apelles, I like apples, but greet
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Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus.
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Greet my kinsmen, Herodian. Greet those in the Lord, who belong to the family of Narcissus. Greet those workers in the
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Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the
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Lord, also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. Greet Assycritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobus, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them.
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Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympus, and all the saints who are with them.
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Greet one another with a holy kiss. And all the churches of Christ greet you.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for the richness of the text of Scripture.
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We encounter a text here that would be so easy to just skip over, and some might even be wondering, what in the world is
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Don gonna do with this? But Father, all Scripture is breathed out by you and is profitable.
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Reveal to us this morning, through your text, what you desire to communicate to each one of us. And I'm convinced that it is something of unity, something of relationship, something of connectedness.
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How well those messages correct us in an age, in a time, in an era where we are so me -focused, we are so individualistic, we're individualistic in our entertainment, in our hobbies, in the way that we work, the way that we think.
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So Father, I pray that you would correct false notions in us, encourage us where we are ready and able to receive encouragement, challenge us where we're ready, and prepare our hearts to receive challenge.
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Father, I thank you for the cross of Christ that holds us in common, that is the unifying and rallying point for your people, the place where we all have come to find hope.
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And in that hope, Father, I pray that we would rejoice together. There is something so beautiful in a culture that is so individualistic that we would come together and raise our voices to mingle together in one voice before you in this gathering.
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So Father, I pray that the reality of the way that we sing on Sunday morning would be a reality of the way that we do life with one another all week long, that we'd be a people connected, not disconnected, but connected with one another, that we would even use technology as divided as that can cause us to be, that we would use technology even in a way that is connecting us with one another in better ways.
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Father, that we would rejoice now and that you would receive our worship before you as sweet in your eyes and sweet to your ears.
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In Jesus' name, amen. And I would ask that you please keep your
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Bibles open to Romans chapter 16, verses 1 through 16. You can see that list of names there and see kind of the things that I'm saying are coming from that text of Scripture.
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And then if at any time during the message you need to get up and get more donuts or juice or coffee to keep your attention on God's Word, take advantage of that.
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Did anybody in here notice that we have new donuts, by the way? Anybody notice that? They're pretty good.
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They're pretty good. If you're into that kind of thing, I don't know. But yeah, let's keep our focus on God's Word as much as possible in the remainder of our time, again,
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Romans 16, 1 through 16. I think that Paul had an interest in dispelling any notion that he was a lone ranger.
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And I think we see that in text like this. A lot of times he would close his letter with thanks or commendation given to a list of people.
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He always had a posse with him wherever he traveled. He didn't travel alone. He networked everywhere.
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And as he went traveling around the Roman Empire, he collected people, if you will.
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I mean, he would share the gospel with people and churches would be built up. And some people, even from some of those communities, would come to faith in Christ.
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And then they'd follow Paul along in ministry. And so we see that in the course of his life.
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He built up a large group of people that he both had ministered to and then in turn had come alongside of him or had ministered to him along the way.
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But this section of greetings is unique and different when you compare it to all the other letters of Paul.
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And it's unique and different because it's so expansive. It's so big. As a matter of fact, it's so big that some scholars who don't necessarily...
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By the way, there's people who study the Bible that don't necessarily like the Bible. And there are some scholars who are almost too intelligent to believe that it's true.
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And so they study it and they study it as words, but they don't study it as truth. And how many of you know that that's a bad way to study the
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Bible? That's a rough way to study. But there are some scholars who literally believe this doesn't even belong in the Bible. They're like, well, this couldn't be
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Paul because look at the way he usually ends his letters. So you have to kind of try to explain why would he do this this way and why would this be so different than the ending of all of his other letters?
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But I think that part of the reason for this is the fact that Paul is writing to a church here. It's very unique.
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And then he's writing to a church he's never visited. How many of you know that if you were like, say you were in Florida right now and you wanted to write a letter to recast your home church, it would look different than if you were in Florida and you're writing a church to Colorado that you've never been to?
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Would it be kind of different? It'd be a very different way of writing. And so I think that that's part of the reason why.
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Now, he knows a lot of people that are there. But he's never visited Rome yet. As of the writing of this, he did not start that church.
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But despite the fact that he didn't start the church in Rome, he's encountered a lot of people during his travels.
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As I mentioned, he surrounded himself with people. He ministered to people. He sent out people. And so he's encountered a lot of people in his travels who now have settled in Rome and are part of the church there.
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So he would minister to people. And in that time and in that era, people were moving around for business, just like we do today.
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That was common in the Roman Empire. And so, obviously, people who were more wealthy were more mobile back then. But because of the
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Mediterranean Sea, there was a lot of transportation routes and things like that. So people could jump on a cargo ship and head to Rome.
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There's more business there. There's more work there. There's more stuff going on there, whatever it might be, going to visit families, relatives, all that kind of stuff.
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So it seems likely that Paul is actually asking them to greet everyone that he knows in Rome.
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It's a comprehensive list because he wants to make sure that the leadership there at the church in Rome knows that he knows a lot of people in common with them.
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And how many of you have ever done that? You find out that somebody works for a company and you're like, oh, by the way, do you know so -and -so?
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Do you know so -and -so? I know them. They work at Stryker. I know them. They work at Stryker. Well, how many of you ever have done that?
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And it's like the big joke. I've talked with a couple of guys who work for UPS and they said they would get like, oh, hey, do you know so -and -so?
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He works in Fort Worth, Texas. How many of you know that UPS is a pretty mess?
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It's probably just because you work at UPS in Kalamazoo doesn't mean you know somebody who works in Texas for UPS, right?
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It's kind of a little bit of a joke. Or really, I play that game with people often when I find out that they work at Stryker.
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That's a big company. There's a lot of different divisions even here in this community. So is it instruments? Is it medical or whatever?
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So we play that game commonly now. And I think that's exactly what, that's the game that Paul is playing here to some degree.
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By the way, church, I know these people that are in your midst. I've worked with them. I know them personally.
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So he's going through that list intentionally. And in doing this, I think he's killing two birds with one stone.
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He's commending those he knows to the church. Say, these are good people. These are good folks.
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These are good men and women who have worked alongside of me, who I can commend and recommend to you. They are people who have blessed me.
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And he wants them to be thanked publicly. How many of you would love that if you were thanked publicly in the words of scripture?
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That's a pretty big deal, isn't it? That's pretty powerful. And so he's thanking them, but he's also letting the church in Rome know that he has a lot of friends there who could vouch for him.
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He's on his way. His hope is to visit them someday. And so he's establishing some kind of rapport with the local church there.
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He knows many of them before he even goes to visit them. And so in verses one and two, we're going to just kind of jump in and see this list of people and kind of walk through a little bit of who they are and how they impacted
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Paul. And then we'll kind of wrap it up at the end with a way that we can apply this list of names.
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How in the world do we apply a list of names? Well, I think there's some practical things that God has intended to bring you here to hear this morning so that you might be empowered to go out and do some things that are a little bit different this week as a result of encountering this text.
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But in verses one and two, Paul commends to them someone he knows very well. He knows this individual very well.
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As a matter of fact, it's the last person he handed the letter to Rome to before she went off to jump on a ship and head to Rome to deliver it.
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She's the one who's carrying the letter from Paul, who writes this from, most scholars believe, in Corinth, which is in modern -day
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Greece. And he's in Corinth writing this, and he's writing it to the city of Rome.
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So he needs to get it to the city of Rome. Now, they didn't have mail service back then.
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There weren't ships. There wasn't UPS. There was no way to naturally send a letter.
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And so what it would have entailed in that time would have been Paul waiting until someone was probably already heading to Rome, either to visit family or on business.
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They were already on their way, and then he would say, okay, I'll send the letter with them. So the lady's name is
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Phoebe, and whatever was taking Phoebe to Rome, Paul encourages the church to provide for her needs while she's there.
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He says, could you take her in? Could you support her? Could you help her out? She's doing this great service to the church. She's bringing you this letter that I've written, so could you take care of her?
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And she's identified as a, some translations have deacon, some translations have servant. I like the word deacon in this, and she's a deacon of the church of Cancreia.
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Deacon is just taking the Greek word diakonos over into English and just kind of bringing it straight over, but it just means to serve.
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It's a servant kind of word. And so the use of that word throughout the New Testament makes it a little bit hard to exactly understand in what kind of capacity she served the church in Cancreia.
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It's not exactly clear what her day -to -day week looked like in terms of serving that church, and many people, by their bias, want to have her doing various things in order to support their views or disapprove of a different view or whatever.
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And I just can't even go there with this because at the end of the day, it's very unclear exactly what her role was.
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But we know that she was a servant in that church who helped out significantly. Now, Cancreia is the closest port city to Corinth.
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Corinth is on an isthmus, which I'm challenging your geographical knowledge of. It's a landmass that has two bodies of water really close to it.
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So it's a thin body of land between two bodies of water, and Corinth is smack dab in the middle of that, and you would have to travel just a mile or two over to Cancreia, which was a port city, the primary port city for Corinth.
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And so she is serving in that church while Paul is in Corinth working there, and she obviously has business in Rome or something.
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She's going to carry the letter. And most scholars believe that she did indeed have some kind of formal responsibility in that church in Cancreia.
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There's some kind of formalizing that she's designated as this deacon of that church. I think that it could possibly be that she's like Ginger here at our church, who is a children's director, and she has an area of responsibility, or maybe
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Aaron Garnott, who is in charge of the hospitality team, and comes in early and sets up the crew that comes in early and makes the coffee and greets at the door and stuff like that.
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I don't know exactly what she did, but she had some kind of a formal responsibility in that church. And Paul highlights her service for the church.
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And then he encouraged the church in Rome to give her some good old -fashioned church hospitality.
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And I want to make much of two statements that Paul says in verse 2. Two statements that he's encouraging the church to do something, and he says,
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I want you to welcome her first in the Lord. I want to highlight that for us.
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He wants the church to welcome her in the Lord. She's a fellow believer. He reminds them that they have
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Christ in common. They've never met each other. So in what way would you greet somebody that is a complete stranger?
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You've never met them. You don't know where they're coming from. In that ancient time, there was probably a lot of fear in the early church.
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We're going to see here in just a moment that in Rome, the Christians had been literally kicked out. This church is recently established.
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Within a year or two, it's been okay to be a Christian in Rome at the time of the writing of this. So there was a lot of fear and a lot of persecution during that time.
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So how many of you would be really eager to have somebody just show up to your church in that context? Or you don't know where they're coming from.
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You don't know if they're a Roman person who is trying to infiltrate the church.
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You don't know what's going on. And so there would have been a lot of fear. So he says, she is in the Lord. You guys can trust her.
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She's in the Lord. Greet her that way. You have the Lord Jesus Christ in common. But he goes on to add the second phrase.
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Welcome her in a manner that is worthy of the saints. Welcome her in a manner that is worthy of the saints and help her with whatever she needs, which of course we know what some of the basic needs are.
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She needs shelter and she needs food at the very least. And so he's at least saying, take her in and meet her needs.
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Help her out. She's a sister in Christ and help her in a certain way. And I want to point out that what he's getting at here in this phrase is that there is a
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Christian hospitality. There is supposed to be a Christian hospitality.
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There is a hospitality that he's saying is worthy of the saints.
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He's delineating that from other types of hospitality. Now people in that day and in that age would have been hospitable to one another.
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They would have welcomed other people into their homes, family, friends that were traveling or whatever. But he's saying, welcome her in this way.
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Welcome her in a manner that is worthy of the saints. And this is, by the way, not about breaking out the fine china.
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It's not about analyzing your house and making sure that there's ample space for large greetings or only people with large houses can have hospitality or only people with really nice houses can have hospitality.
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Or to do hospitality in a Christian way is to make sure that every corner and nook and cranny of your house is completely spotless before you.
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That's not what this is about. This, folks, is about love. It's about loving others, caring for others, meeting the needs that flow out of being in the
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Lord together. It's not about a particular brand or a particular type of, you know, making sure that everything is clean and all prim and proper.
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We are to be hospitable to all. That is true. But how many of you know that there's a bit more in common between two believers?
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And there's a fellowship that is implied in this welcoming other Christians, welcoming them in and being hospitable with one another.
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Well, it isn't until we get to the end of verse two that we realize exactly some of the details about who this lady is.
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Phoebe is actually a wealthy businesswoman. And that probably gives us a little clue maybe why she's traveling to Rome.
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But the reason we know that she's wealthy is because the word that's used for her is patron or benefactor, depending on your translation.
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She's wealthy enough to be able to give and support many others. So she's been a benefactor, a patron of many people, including
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Paul himself. Paul himself has benefited from the generosity and probably likely the hospitality of this woman,
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Phoebe. In other words, she has been a giver of hospitality.
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And he wants her now to receive hospitality and kind. And I think as we just think about this first name on the list, it would be good for us to even apply just this first one right here, right now, and that is to think and consider who are the
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Phoebes in your life? Well, what do I mean by a Phoebe? And I'm not talking about Phoebe from Friends here.
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Some of us, maybe that's the only Phoebe you know. But people, think about people who have been a blessing to you.
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Think about people who have been a blessing, who have helped you out in a time of need. And then they are in turn in need of some encouragement or some blessing themselves.
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Who has given you time, recast? Who's given you encouragement? Who's given you care?
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And I would suggest to you that even just a phone call of thanks or a text this week might be a timely encouragement to someone who has blessed you in the past.
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You don't know when, how many of you ever had this experience where you just, by God's grace, something just pressed on you, you sent somebody a text and they're like, that's exactly what
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I needed today. Super down, super discouraged, and your message just reminded me to keep going.
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We don't know when we're gonna be that, but I would just encourage you to think through it and consider who needs a blessing from you that has formerly blessed your life.
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But moving on, we find that Paul has a couple of really close friends that now live in Rome. Surprisingly, I mean, we've encountered this couple before.
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I preached through the book of Acts and we talked about them then. It was a long time ago, but Prisca and Aquila are mentioned here.
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Prisca is short for Priscilla. We see her name, Priscilla and Aquila in the book of Acts.
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I think that Prisca is probably a little better than Prissy, I don't know. But they call her
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Prisca. And they're a couple that Paul first met in the city of Corinth a long time ago, but they traveled with him.
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So he connected with them. They were already in Christ. They were already ministering alongside of Paul in Corinth.
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And then when he traveled to Ephesus, they jumped on the ship with him and went to Ephesus and helped start the church in Ephesus alongside of Paul.
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So they have done ministry together. He knows Prisca and Aquila very well.
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And then he left Ephesus to head back to his church in Antioch. And he left
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Prisca and Aquila there ministering to the church in Ephesus during that time.
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A young and growing church that they helped to establish and helped to grow. So the book of Acts gives us some details about their life.
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In just a few short verses, it really does zero in on this couple. So it gives us a little bit more of a rich background than many of the other names on this list.
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But it's a fair assumption that they're a married couple. The text tells us some detail about them, but not even as much as to say, yes, this is a married couple, but the fact that they're put together in this way could possibly be brother and sister, though I believe that they were married.
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We'll find out someday. But they fled from Rome under the reign of Claudius. The book of Acts tells us the reason that he encountered them in Corinth was because under the emperor
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Claudius, he had booted, he had given the kick to all the Christians in Rome.
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He said, Christians, get out of here. So the city of Rome had been vacated of Christian presence as much as possible.
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Of course, there were probably some people who rejected that and stayed there underground, but by and large, Christians fled the persecution under Claudius there.
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And so during his reign, they skipped town. So there was a period of time of a lull in the city of Rome where there was no church presence.
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And so we find out also in the book of Acts that Prisca and Aquila were tent makers by trade. So that means that they were fabric workers sewing tents and making tents, like literal physical tents.
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And so they hit it off with Paul because that was Paul's trade too. We find that out in the book of Acts that he was trained to build and make tents and to sew them together.
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And so they worked together in Ephesus, both making tents and planting a church there. But by the time that Paul wrote this letter, they've obviously made it back into Rome.
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At the end of the reign of Claudius, his reign ended in 54 AD. And that actually helps us to date some of the letters, including the book of Romans.
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So we know that the writing of the letter to the Romans was after 54 AD. And many of the things in the timeline indicate that it's probably about a year after that return to Rome that the book of Romans was written.
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And so Rome was Prisca and Aquila's hometown. And he credits this couple with risking their lives in the text here, commending them to the church in Rome.
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He says, they stuck their necks out for me. Well, I don't know if you ever have used that phrase, or do you know what the phrase stuck your neck out is?
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For somebody, it means to risk yourself. Well, it literally comes from Roman times where literally the risk was the sword on your neck.
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And that's an image from this text. Like that's where it comes over into English is out of this.
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But there's a reality at some point in their history, Prisca and Aquila risked their life and put themselves on the line for the apostle
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Paul. We don't know exactly when that was or what that context was, and he doesn't spell it out here. But when they first came into Ephesus, there was a riot that rose up.
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Prisca and Aquila would have been there. Paul was there. Paul's life was threatened, and it very well may be in the process of that riot in Ephesus that Prisca and Aquila had an opportunity to put their lives on the line and save Paul.
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But he wants to be sure that all of the churches who would read, including our church, that all of the churches would know that he is very grateful to Prisca and Aquila and all the
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Gentile churches are grateful to Prisca and Aquila for saving Paul's life.
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So everybody needs friends like Prisca and Aquila. I hope you have some friends like that, friends who have been to battle with you, friends who have gone to bat for you.
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It's good that Paul publicly thanks this couple. Think about this. These are real people.
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These are real people who in the heat of the battle risked significantly for their friend Paul. And he publicly thanks them.
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And it's so good, it is so good and so rich, Recast, that we would know their names and see his commendation to them centuries later as they faithfully serve the church alongside of the
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Apostle Paul. And what a model they are, even as we know so little about this dynamic duo because they ministered in Corinth for Jesus, we know as much.
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They ministered alongside Paul in Ephesus for Jesus, we know that much. And now they are, as of the writing of this, the last time we see them mentioned in scripture, they are leading a house church in Rome for Jesus.
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Like Paul. Apparently they caught, I think they probably caught it from Paul, but they model the never done with ministry, always have a next step kind of mindset.
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I see this couple as another example of what we talked about last week, that everyone has a next step in ministry.
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And they're an example of a couple who, wherever God planted them, wherever God called them, they ministered for Jesus there.
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Wherever that was, they ministered for Jesus. Now it's a bit of a speculation, but as we move through this list, it seems likely that Eponetus, who is mentioned in verse five, probably went to Rome with Prisca and Aquila.
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The reason I say that is because of the proximity in the list, yeah, but that's not all, that's not enough because there's a lot of people here that are in close proximity to each other that there's no indication, but it says he was the first,
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Eponetus was the first convert to Christ in the Roman province of Asia. But guess what the largest city is in Asia, the province of Asia?
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It's Ephesus. It's the place that Prisca and Aquila would have most recently come from. They were in Corinth where they met
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Paul. He then moved them to Ephesus where they ministered. And now Rome is back open again, so they head back to Rome.
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And it happens to be that the very first convert to Christ in Asia is also there in Rome with them.
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They would have definitely known each other in that context, in that early church setting. So despite the fact that Paul has never been to Rome, his work is being felt there.
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Paul discipled people in the east that are now serving in the central part of the Roman empire in that city that is so significant, the seat of all power during that time.
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And most of these people he now goes on to mention, just fill out a bigger picture of Paul's wide network.
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We don't know a lot of detail about them, but there's this wide network of fellow ministers and acquaintances of Paul that are now in Rome.
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And I wanna make sure that we don't allow the fact that we know little about them get in the way of the importance and the value of naming them.
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They're people. There are people serving the people of God. There are people serving the people of God who are mentioned in Scripture.
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What an honor. What an honor that they would be named here among us. And I wonder if this particular
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Mary was shocked to see her name mentioned in this letter. You gotta remember that this is read in the gathering.
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Paul wrote this, hand delivered by Phoebe to the church, read in the gathering.
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And I imagine that whoever this Mary was, she was like, am I the Mary that he's talking about here?
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Because I imagine some kind of humility on her part. She has worked tirelessly, the text says.
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The Greek goes over the top to talk about how hard she has worked on behalf of the Roman church.
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And she's there at the reading going, I imagine a little bit of a blush on her face as he mentions, oh, by the way, greet
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Mary who has worked so hard for you. And I think we can probably identify some people here in our midst who have worked hard for us as well.
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What a glory and a beauty that Paul would identify people by name here and commend people for the work that they have done.
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He goes on to Andronicus and Junia. They were both Jewish and so Paul calls them his kinsmen.
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It's not that they're actual blood relatives, they're kinsmen in terms of their relationship to the old covenant, they're both
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Jewish. But the interesting thing is Andronicus and Junia, one of the most interesting thing is they have a past.
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They have a past with Paul because it says that they were imprisoned together. How many of you know that that might draw a couple people together?
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Pretty close. When you're in jail, you spend a little bit of time in jail together or it could put you apart.
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Depends on who they are. But they spent time in jail. We don't know the context again. Some of these things, we don't know the exact context, what happened, how it all came down.
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These will be great conversations on the new earth. Meet Andronicus, meet Junia, talk with them about it. Get a chance to talk to Paul and figure out what in the world was going on and at what point.
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But Paul had been imprisoned already by the time that he wrote Romans a couple of times that we know of, maybe even more that we don't know about.
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And so it's really hard to pinpoint at what point Andronicus and Junia were in jail with him. But this couple had come to faith in Christ, it says in the text, even before Paul.
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They are older in the faith than him. And they are well regarded by the apostles as a couple who has served
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God in missionary work and in church work. Even sent out messengers for the cause of Christ and working together with Paul.
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Ampliatus, it says, is a good friend of Paul and so is Stachys. Paul and Urbanus have done some ministry together, he says.
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Apelles has proven himself to be in Christ, which might have a bit of a story and be a bit fun to ask
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Paul someday because singling out a man and saying, oh, by the way, don't forget, he's approved, may indicate that at some point that was in question.
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Do you know what I'm saying? Like to say, okay, by the way, Apelles, he's approved, you can let him work. So there's some backstory there that's kind of, it's kind of interesting and a mystery to me.
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But the fact that Paul doesn't greet Aristobulus is kind of a little bit of a next stop in our thinking in terms of application and understanding.
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He doesn't greet Aristobulus, but does greet his family. And it makes it likely, think about this, he mentions
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Aristobulus, but it makes it likely that Aristobulus was not a follower of Christ, but his family is.
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He does the exact same thing with Narcissus as well. Christianity has always divided families.
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Jesus Christ said that he himself came and he would divide families.
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Sometimes parents believe and their children don't. Sometimes children believe and their parents don't.
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Sometimes siblings are divided. I know some of you in this room have even asked me, could you please pray for my fill -in -the -blank relative?
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Some of you are grandparents who are praying desperately for your grandchildren. That's, I mean, we need that.
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And it's interesting to note that the early church knew this tragedy well. This is not a new thing.
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This has been going on since the very beginning. Even here in this letter, we see it spelled out for us.
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Some in his family did not believe, and Paul wants to greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus, implying that there are some in his family who are not in the
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Lord. There are some in his family who are not believers. Paul greeted another fellow named
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Herodian, which is a very Jewish name, and we can kind of see that he's a fellow Jew just by his name, but Paul mentions it as well.
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Tryphaena and Tryphosa and Persus are all female names, and all three of them are commended for working hard in the
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Lord, and it's clear that Persus has become a good friend, a very important and dear friend to Paul, beloved.
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The only other time we see the name Rufus in scripture is to tell us the name of one of the sons of Cyrene.
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Of Cyrene, we see Jesus is carrying the cross to his death, and a man who is identified as Simon, his name is
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Simon, and he has two sons. It's not necessarily clear whether they were present with him at that event or not.
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Probably likely they were, Alexander and Rufus, and it seems quite likely that this is indeed the very
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Rufus that was the son of Simon of Cyrene who carried the cross of Jesus to the hill.
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Calvary, where he was crucified. And so it's quite possible that this man, whose father had such a close role in the sacrifice of our
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Savior, came to faith in Christ and is now ministering for the cause of Jesus in Rome.
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But at any case, regardless of how that all plays out, Paul calls him chosen in the Lord and says, greet your mother,
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Rufus, who has also been like a mother to me. Rufus' mom had ministered to Paul.
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Again, not very clear what context, but probably providing hospitality, providing some meals for Paul, helping him along the way, maybe some financial support here or there.
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And so he says, boy, commend your mom too. She has really ministered and met needs in my heart as well.
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And lastly, Paul greets two house church gatherings here in the text. It's likely that he's getting out near the edges of his acquaintances here.
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He doesn't even know the name of Nereus' sister. He says, oh, by the way, Nereus' sister, could you greet her too?
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But he doesn't even name her by name. Verses 14 and 15 likely represent two house churches that gathered.
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When you think about these early churches, you can't think in terms of a gathering like this. They didn't have spaces like this.
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It wasn't as common. And so the idea that the church in Rome was just one big group of people, that's not what you need to have in your mind.
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They would gather together for worship in people's homes, in smaller groups, much like we have community groups that meet during the week.
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But they would rarely be able to get a large gathering like this, or obviously larger.
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And certainly the church in Rome would be larger than this gathering, but they wouldn't all be able to get together at the same time.
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And so we see that those two house churches are mentioned there. And I think Paul, again, is just connecting at the heart level as much as possible with the people that he knows there.
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And he says, I know these two house gatherings that are there. Now, those of you that know me and have been around here for a while, you probably know one thing that I've tried to make abundantly clear.
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I'm not a hugger. Did you guys know that? A couple of you already knew that.
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But how many of you knew that already? You knew that? How many of you try to push against that? I know some of you do.
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Yeah. If I haven't made that clear enough, I'm saying it again.
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But I kind of half joke about it. But here Paul takes it up a notch for us. And it gets a little steamy.
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He says, greet one another, greet one another, greet one another with a holy kiss.
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And I'm saying, nuh -uh. Nuh -uh. Okay, hugging is out past the edges for me.
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So he's pushing this. He's taking it up a notch. He offers the church in Rome greetings from all the other churches that he planted.
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And he tells them internally, he says, you church, greet one another with a holy kiss. Now this was really intriguing to me.
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It's something I've never done before. But in the commentary, one of the commentaries that I read this week, there was an excursus, a section that was an extra at the end of a chapter.
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And it actually identified a little bit of a history and a review of kissing in Scripture.
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So it literally went down through and just kind of identified all the different places that kissing is mentioned in Scripture. And it's very clear that the vast majority of mentions of kissing are nothing romantic or erotic.
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There is nothing about that at all. Now I just want to point out that in a couple of months, we're going to be blushing our way through the
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Song of Songs. Those are romantic kisses. Those are erotic kisses. And so that book really stands as an exception to an understanding of what we're talking about when we're talking about kissing in Scripture.
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Jewish culture was a culture that didn't have a lot of personal space. I like my personal space. Not everybody does.
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And certainly that ancient Jewish culture did not have. By the way, did you know that everybody, every culture has a little bit more of that?
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When my son and I last spring break, we traveled a little bit around Europe. There is not as much personal space in Europe and especially in Italy.
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Not as much personal space there as we would like to have here. And so Americans, I think, are one of the cultures that maintains the greatest amount of safe space around us.
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But different cultures do it differently. The Jewish culture was one that was just always up in each other's business.
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So everybody is greeting everyone in the Old Testament with a holy kiss all over.
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Now that I mention it, you'll see it. Yeah, that feels about right right there.
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So then that tradition from the Jewish tradition came over into that early church.
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And there is nothing more meant by this than what you and I would mean by shaking hands with the greeter at the door.
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Except that we recognize that a handshake can be a pretty significant thing. Maybe you don't think about it that way.
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Maybe it's because there's not animosity between you and the greeter that it's not a big deal. But how many of you know that if the person greeting at the door is the same person that you feel like just defrauded you, that becomes a more significant handshake?
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If you've just been at, if you've just been butting heads and you've been like totally on their Facebook just like lashing out at them, and it turned into messages, personal.
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Do you know what I'm talking about? If that's what just happened last week and then you encounter them here, what does a handshake mean in that context?
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So we can't say it's just a handshake. And we can't say in this context that it's just a holy kiss.
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It still had significance to them. At the end of a conflict or when there's been infighting and hostility or when forgiveness and reconciliation is being established, a handshake can mean a lot.
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It can be a powerful agreement to get along between two people who don't get along. Just take for example,
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I don't know how into politics you are, how many of you watched the State of the Union Address? About probably 24 to 48 hours after that event, it still was hitting the news cycle that two people refused to shake hands.
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I don't even need to mention who it is. I think most of you know. But there were two prominent individuals who when they made eye contact on the big screen, did not extend a hand to shake each other's hand.
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And that was news. That's how significant shaking hands with someone can be in our culture.
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Greeting one another with a holy kiss was a way of showing welcome to one another. And a way of burying the hatchet, especially between Jews and Gentiles within the same church.
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And Paul, by the way, I mean, literally a Jew wouldn't touch a
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Gentile. How about kissing? I mean, at least between Trump and Pelosi, it wasn't a kiss that was being called for.
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That's an image you didn't want in your mind. I don't care which side of the aisle you're on. You did not need that image.
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That wasn't in my notes. Paul has been all about the gospel that brings an undeserved righteousness to us.
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It is, there is only one power of salvation. And it is to all who believe.
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To Jew, to Gentile, various races, to men, to women, to everyone.
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And that is being demonstrated in the text by a holy kiss. And in our culture can be demonstrated by a handshake, and yes, even by a hug.
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So how do we put into practice a long list of names? What do we do? What would I ask of you?
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I mean, we've kind of just blazed through this, probably got a little bit more detail than even some of you wanted.
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And it's been a little bit like a college lecture here with these different names and stuff. But let me just say, the most practical and imminent thing,
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I think it's obvious enough that maybe some of you have already gone there in your mind. But I hope the Holy Spirit might press on you the benefit of what
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I'm about to say. Make your own list. Make your list. Literally, make your list.
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Take a half an hour. Take an hour if you need an hour to sit down and make, who makes your list?
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Who is there that has blessed you? Who is there that deserves some honor? Who is there who has walked alongside of you in life?
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A good place to start if you're a little bit stymied by this project and you're like, I don't even know where to start. Well, just start with how you came to faith in Christ.
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Well, some of you, it might just be simply, I've heard some of your testimonies. You were literally watching Billy Graham or you were listening to him on the radio.
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Well, he should be on your list. The producer of the radio broadcast should be on your list. Or the person who was in charge of your
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Awana group. You know, I look back and I know a guy, I haven't seen him in 30 plus years, but Jim Foot was his name.
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I've looked him up on Facebook. I haven't found him. But in Middleville, Michigan, he was my Awana leader and he prayed with me to receive
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Jesus Christ. I just thank, I'm thankful to God for him. I don't know where he is.
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I don't know if he's still alive. I don't know if he's moved, if he's in California or if he's in the Middle East as a missionary. I don't know where he is.
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But I know that because of his faithfulness to serve, he could have been doing dozens of other things that evening, but instead he prayed with me.
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Who is it for you? Make your list. And then who's helped you to grow? Who's helped you to continue on in your faith and put their names down?
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And do what Paul did too. Add a little note beside it. Annotate it. Don't just write the names one through 30, but annotate it.
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Giving thanks beside them. Who's provided for your needs during a downtime?
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Who's been there to encourage you at a time where you were down and in a dark place? And I'm suggesting to you that you make a literal list, not unlike Paul's.
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Reflect on the course of your life and make your list. Let me also add then to share your gratitude.
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Don't hide your list. Don't keep it to yourself. Share it with those who need that encouragement.
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They have meant something to you. They have made a difference in your life. I've routinely looked back with gratitude at several people who have invested in me.
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I mentioned Jim Foote, but I also just would mention my youth pastor, Steve Jackson. Around the time that I was entering high school, he was hired by Whitneyville Bible Church.
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He invested a lot of time and energy in me. I don't know how he did it. I would imagine that from my perspective as a teenager,
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I don't know if he ministered to anybody else in the youth group. It felt like he was always at my soccer games. He was always at my track meets.
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He was always hanging out with me. He would literally grab me and say, hey, I know you're off. I know you got a half day of school this afternoon.
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I'm running up to Grand Rapids to pick up some curriculum. Would you like to ride along with me? I just invested in me, just brought me along.
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And I'm grateful for him. I do not believe, I say this with all sincerity, I don't think
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I'd be a pastor today if it was not for Steve Jackson and his faithfulness to invest in me. My coworker in England, Andy Stivel, my wife and I were missionaries there for a couple of years.
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He came alongside of me and showed me a passion and a zeal for ministry that I had never and have not encountered since then.
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That man loved the gospel and loved Jesus Christ. And he would share that message with anyone so that we would go to the fish and chips.
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And there was no worker in that place that didn't know the gospel by the time we left. Great fish and chips and great gospel conversations.
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We would go to the tandoori and get some shawarma and everybody, every
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Pakistani in the place would gather around us and he would share the gospel with them. Faithful servant of God.
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Passionate with a zeal for the gospel. And he didn't make it weird. That was the crazy thing. It was just a gift, it was just natural.
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It wasn't like he came in with a two by four like a bull in a china shop just crushing stuff. It was just a very attractive calling in his life.
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Just a passion for God and Christ. I'm thankful for Dale Kurdi. He's preached here a couple times but a lot of you guys don't know how far we go back.
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He's a fellow worker in Christ for decades now we've known each other. He stood with Lynn and I in our wedding.
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Just a faithful man of God. Again, very gospel oriented. And I go back to a time in my mind when
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I think about Dale Kurdi, a time when we just, we were in our 20s. This is gonna sound really geeky to a lot of you.
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But in our 20s we just set out to canvas a neighborhood in Battle Creek doing door to door for Jesus.
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Just literally knocking on doors, doing surveys, passing out Bibles to anybody, sharing the gospel with anybody who would listen.
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Now you know what I did in my 20s, okay? We didn't have a church telling us we had to do that.
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We just went out and we did it because we wanted to be faithful to the call to share the gospel with others. And we were just a couple of young guys trying to follow
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Jesus and getting shut down and rejected together. And it was a lot more fun than it sounds. It was fun.
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But who's on your list? Make your list. People who have ministered to you, people who have ministered alongside of you, people who have helped you grow, people who have helped show
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Christ to you. And then the second thing is to be that connection for others now. And I'm not just saying to get on their list, but it is a question.
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It's a worthy question to say, whose list would I be on? Am I doing my part to be that for others?
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Am I helping others to grow in their faith? Am I putting myself in a place where I could be on somebody's list?
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And maybe somebody would be a pastor in the future because of an investment that you placed in their life.
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Or maybe they would be an electrician for the glory of God. Or maybe they would be a doctor for the glory of God. But they would draw closer to Jesus because you were in their life.
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Be that. The reality is nobody is a Lone Ranger. I think it's funny that we use Lone Ranger because even the
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Lone Ranger wasn't a Lone Ranger. He wasn't alone. It's dangerous to go alone.
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So take this on. We are made to build into the lives of each other.
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We've been brought into God's family to show a different kind of togetherness. The world understands togetherness.
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I don't wanna act like the church is the only place you can get connection. You can get connection at the local bar.
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I mean, anybody ever watch Cheers back in the day? You can get connection and relationships in a variety of places.
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Improv group. You can get together at Kiwanis or the Lions Club. There is fellowship, there is connection, there is community out there.
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But we're talking about a different kind of togetherness. Where we have the ultimate things in common. Humanity is indeed made for relationships.
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So we see the world valuing connections, valuing community. But what is meant by welcoming one another in the church is a different thing altogether.
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Why would Paul tell the church to welcome Phoebe in a way that is worthy of the saints? Because we are to care more.
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We are to share more. We are to love more. We are to forgive more. We are to give more of ourselves to the body of Christ.
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A calling on each one of us. Where do you need to invest yourself more? In the love of others here, recast.
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And the last thing is to keep the big picture in mind. Keep the big picture in mind. So maybe we heard from God this morning and we go on to make a list and then we offer thanks to God for it.
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And then we go on to the next steps of considering who we are supposed to be blessing in the present. And then maybe we forget why any of that matters to begin with.
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Because we could become so focused on the little picture of what God is doing in our narrow slice of the world.
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And for this reason, I would encourage you to come back to the big picture of what God is doing. God isn't just doing something in Rome in our text.
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Paul wouldn't let them think that. God is working his gospel ministry all around the world.
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And in this list, he highlights it. You see, Paul highlighted in his list people who were saved before him.
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He highlighted people who worked hard for the kingdom of God. He highlighted people who were saved in various places. He highlighted men.
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He highlighted women. He highlighted Jews. He highlighted Gentiles. And the common thread is the biggest picture of the ultimate mission of God.
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He is bringing together a people from all around the world into community through the cross of Jesus Christ.
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And he's using us to do it. So as Spencer comes to lead us into communion, let's keep the big picture in mind.
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It's good for us to think specifically about the way that God has blessed us through people and the way that he's calling us to be a blessing to others.
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But bigger than that is the awesome glory of the son of God who is redeeming us.
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That text was a great reminder that God has designed us to be a community of people who build into the lives of each other.
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As Pastor John said, we are not made to do life alone. God has adopted us into his family and then provided us with a spiritual family where we're to care for one another and love one another and serve one another.
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And one of the things that God expects us to do as a family is to take communion together. You know, there's a lot to communion.
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First and foremost, we're supposed to remember that Christ sacrificed himself for us. But sometimes
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I lose track of all the other things that God has taught us about communion in his word. And over the years,
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I have found it helpful to think of the word look when I take communion. And this morning, since we've been talking about being a community,
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I would encourage you as you take communion this morning, think and take time to look around, look around.
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In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul gives a lot of instructions about communion. And apparently the church in Corinth there had been struggling.
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There was a lot of divisions. There was a lot of fractions. They were broken. They were giving preferential treatment to some people and not to others.
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And in the midst of that, Paul came to them and he wrote them this letter. And he said to them, when you sit down and you take communion together,
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I don't want you to just look at Christ, but I want you to look around. And I want you to examine the relationships that you have in this body to make sure that you are functioning as a loving, healthy member of the family that I have placed you into.
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And so as the band plays this morning, if you have placed your faith in Christ, please feel free to get up whenever you're ready and head to the back.
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We have four tables with communion supplies and we have a cracker back there that we'd like you to grab representing the body of Christ that has been broken for you.
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And there's a cup of juice representing the new covenant that has been made in Christ's blood. And when you grab that,
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I encourage you to head back to your seat and then take it whenever you're ready. Reflect, though, while you're waiting on Christ's death, but also reflect on the reality that he has placed you into a body with other people.
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And so take a few minutes, examine your relationships here at Recast. God might just be calling you in these few moments to mend a relationship.
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And we do that by first examining where we are at. So whenever you're ready, you can get up, head back and partake of communion.