April 22, 2018 AM A Testament To Gospel Pioneers by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Turn please to Romans 16.

Romans 16, let me read to you verses 1 through 16.

I

commend to you our sister Phoebe a servant of the church at Contrera.

That you may welcome her in the 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.

Greek Prisca and Aquila my fellow workers in Christ Jesus who risked their necks for my life to whom not

only I give thanks But all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well.

Greet also the church in their house.

Greet my beloved Epianetus Who was first who was the first convert to Christ in Asia.

Greet Mary who has worked hard for you.

Greet Andronicus and Junia my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners.

They are well known to the Apostles and they were in Christ before me.

Greet Ampliatus my beloved in the Lord.

Greet Urbanus our fellow worker in Christ and my beloved Stachas.

Greet Apellas who was approved in Christ.

Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus.

Greet my kinsmen Herodian.

Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus.

Greet those workers in the Lord.

Trophaena and Trophosa.

Greet the beloved Persis who has worked hard in the Lord.

Greet Rufus chosen in the Lord.

Also his mother who has been a mother to me as well.

Greet Asencritus Phlegon Hermes Petrobus Hermes and the brothers who are with

them.

Greet Philologus Julia Nereus and his sister and Olympus and all the Saints who are with them.

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

All the churches of Christ greet you.

And what I just read to you we find the word greet repeated some 17 times

for some 27 names.

Now I don't know really what good account does here because among the 17 greetings we have two families

that's in verses 10 and 11 an unnamed mother in verse 13 and some number of

brothers who are named with five named people in verse 14 and Then a bunch of say

the Saints associated with the verse for people who are named him later.

So amongst the 27 names that we have are also groups.

Greet this house.

Greet these Saints.

Greet the brothers who are with these people who I went and named.

So we can count 27 named, but we can only say 27 who are named.

It seems quite a larger crowd that Paul is including here.

There's a reference to one Aristobulus.

Whose household is to be greeted?

Historically he may have been a servant of the Emperor Claudius who a man who was very rich

very powerful.

And many scholars think that the greeting is to his actually actually to his former slaves.

Whether Aristobulus himself was a Christian or not is uncertain.

Paul names Prisca and Aquila well known from Acts chapter 18 as Jewish believers.

Paul met them in Corinth.

Where they plied their tent making trade together.

This couple is the one who showed Apollos the way of God more accurately.

From 2nd Timothy 419 we know that this couple was sent by Paul to help Timothy there

in Ephesus.

So we know something about these names or some of them, but most of them are obscure.

Known only to us by this list and to God by their apparently vibrant and their

Undeniable faith in Christ Jesus all that to present to you a

question.

What are we to make of these verses?

What are we to make of this list of names?

What is a preacher to do with this inventory of people?

Who might be able to be linked to some historic character might not?

With this passage which has all the excitement of a genealogy.

And He begat who begat.

And then that son begat and his mother was who begat and begotten begotten.

Well actually there is an answer to that question.

What's a preacher to make out of this list of names and these greetings that Paul would have?

Done and.

The answer is something we said back in October of 2016 when we started this series in the book of

Romans.

And we said more than a few times as we've gone through it for this almost two years.

Back, then we noted.

This is not innovative.

This is innovative.

This is in line with traditional conservative scholarship.

That the theme of this whole book of Romans is to be found in chapter 1 and verses 16 and 17.

For I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation.

To everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as is it as it is written the righteous

shall live.

By faith.

I said then in October of 2016 I think we've done a pretty fair job of staying true to this

that wherever we are in this epistle.

That this is the point.

The Apostle Paul is driving home to us the righteousness of God.

Imputed to sinners by means of faith in his son Jesus a righteousness unearned

undeserved granted by God because of his mercy a righteousness that is Christ's

own.

And we have to understand that Christ did not earn righteousness.

He is righteousness.

He didn't achieve it.

He proved it.

He came as man and as man lived perfectly before God.

So that what is imputed from him and to us is altogether a perfect righteousness.

His total obedience to God.

By faith.

Credited to sinful men and women like ourselves.

There's some small question here, which has not to do with really this list of names.

Which we're going to delve into in a moment.

But I want to be clear to you that this idea of righteousness this theme of the whole book of Romans and God

Imputing to us Christ's righteousness.

It does not mean that we are objectively as righteous as Christ.

Because that would mean we are literally that righteous that every thought every deed every action was

Perfect in accord with God's holiness and his righteous standards.

And of course that is not the case.

It's a subjective righteousness imputed a reckoned righteousness.

That God has chosen to see you as righteous as having fulfilled the laws having fulfilled his

holiness because of Christ Jesus.

Subjective because even right now you are thinking thoughts and I am having thoughts that are not as

perfect as God's therefore it cannot be objective a subjective righteousness imputed to

sinners.

So that God sees us through the lens of Christ as we like to say, that's what this whole books been

about and Wherever we've been in it.

In order to find ourselves a footing in order to be sure that we're on track that we are preaching that we are hearing that We are

living what God's Word has to say.

We come back to this theme.

Could almost have been the title of the book Verses 1 16 and 17 and that must be

the point of this list of names.

What has all that to do With verses 1 through 16.

Why don't you think of it this way.

Where Hebrews chapter 11 is sometimes called the Hall of Faith if you heard that term.

All the big sports basketball baseball football have their Hall of Fame.

Chapter 11 of Hebrews is called the Hall of Faith.

And if that's the case and I like that term we might then term Romans

16 1 through 16 a Testament to gospel pioneers a

Testament to gospel pioneers where Hebrews 11 speaks of faithful believers before

the cross.

Might call them Old Testament saints.

That's Hebrews 11, that's the Hall of Faith.

What do we have here in Romans 16?

Well, we have those who were gathered early around Christ's cross

the first believers if you will.

Just a few decades following Christ's death and his resurrection and ascension.

Pioneers gospel pioneers.

The theme verse 1 16 and 17.

The theme verse speaks of the Gospels power to save sinful men and women

first the Jew and Then the Greek.

What do these stand for?

Well, the Jew and the Greek are polar opposites.

In the one case Paul was talking about literal Jews and Greeks.

There's some need for him to tell that church not to let those differences.

Cause differences that were all one in Christ and Jew and Greek couldn't be more different.

You had the Greek pork -eating sexually free idol worshiping pagans versus the Jews

elect members of God's treasured possession.

Knowing God's law knowing how to obey its detailed demands in a word a Jew

so in one sense they were literally Jews and Greeks and Paul speaking them to be together.

There is no chasm between and Then we could expand that to the whole world.

That wherever we are in this scale on one end or the other and all in between the

gospel is powerful to save.

The gospel of God's mercies to us in Christ can save

Jews first then also the Greek and all in between.

This list we have of this 20 plus names if it tells us anything.

It tells us that this is true that these aren't just words.

It's not just a Marketing technique or some platitude the gospel is powerful to save them all

in this list of names.

There are Jews and there are Greeks.

It's a wonderful study, and we're not going to do it this morning.

But I commend to you the study of those names and see where they came from which ones were Romans which ones were Greek

which ones were transliterations of Jewish names and the cultural background behind these names.

It's just it's a phenomenally good study.

I commend that to you but the point here is all of

them Saved by Christ's cross all of them Jew

Gentile and all between.

Saved by faith in what God did for them through Christ Jesus.

We find here that individuals are important.

Identity when you are joined to Jesus Christ.

Your identity is not lost.

It is certainly changed.

We are now identified with Christ.

We are now identified as Christ's children.

We're now identified with each other, but individuality is not lost.

We're not some version of Star Trek's Borg where we all come together.

And we're one and we're thinking each other's thoughts together and all that kind of science fiction.

That's not what happens here brought together as one as a single body together

in Christ and Yet individually still who we were not

what we were.

Because the gospel changes everything from the inside out, but who we were.

Individuality though, it's not the same thing as independence.

We need to understand that as we look at this list of names.

Individuality and there's the individuals in there and we can see just from the short Descriptions we have of who

they were and the short things that Paul says about what they did.

They're all different.

It's not the same as being independent.

Not the same as independent and here in this Western world where independence is so worshipped.

We need to be careful of this.

That we are truly not independent of each other any more than we're independent of Christ.

In heaven, I believe there's going to be recognition individual recognition even memory of our lives together.

We're intertwined with each other in this body together now, and we will be then.

I believe Paul himself was not Independent and we could see just how much he needed these

people these individuals and what they did for him.

In helping him in the gospel work and missionary work that he was doing.

You remember last week as we finished chapter 15.

How dependent the Apostle Paul was on prayer?

He practically begged for the prayers of the Saints.

He said here's my needs pray with me for this.

I beseech you to pray with me for these things not independent.

So let's look at this Testament of gospel pioneers that we have here.

These people intertwined together and individually using the gifts that God gave them for the

good of the gospel.

The first one we have is Phoebe and she seems to have proven her grit in having been a patron and a hostess for

the church in Cantrea.

Which is a suburb of Corinth and was the portal the commercial portal to Asia.

And we might think of her as matron Lee and many do the description of her as a patron suggested.

She had great wealth but take note.

She was the one entrusted to deliver this letter and to be entrusted with that sort of Responsibility

suggests something more than wealth.

This was a woman of substance.

This was a woman that you wouldn't want to tangle with too easily.

She had a bearing she has stature.

They would say okay.

I'm not going to approach lightly and whatever she has in her hands.

Which would be this letter these 16 chapters written down though not in chapter and verse back then but you take my

point.

You wouldn't just walk up lightly to her one might think of a

Catherine Hepburn.

Who could steal a scene with the from the best of them like a Spencer Tracy or a Humphrey Bogart?

I think she was that kind of woman not someone to take lightly and she must have really proven her metal to the Apostle

Paul.

To have been entrusted to deliver this letter.

Think of Prisca and Aquila Fellow workers who risked their necks for Paul.

We don't know the circumstances of this how they risked them but it sounds like they put at risk

their own heads and Some in some incident where they defended the Apostle Paul.

They came to his defense.

They spoke for him something like that and Had they been condemned as the Apostle

apparently was at risk for having happened to himself.

They would have lost their heads.

You know the gospel is really the only thing worth dying for.

When Paul says that they did that for him, it's clear that it was for Christ's sake.

He was the bearer of Jesus name at that time, but the investment they were willing to make was a benefit to Paul.

But not in that sense for Paul.

It was for Jesus.

But still when someone saves your life, even if it was really for a reason other than your life.

But for the one that you represent, I mean a thanks would be appropriate would it not.

It's interesting To note that all the churches of the Gentiles join in

thanking those two for having saved the Apostle.

They knew that the gospel came to them because someone had saved the Herald's life.

How'd you get here Paul?

Well because those two stood up for me.

Those two risked their own heads in order that I should be alive to bring this to you.

May I think of unintended consequences are usually negative aren't they?

Here they're positive.

Aquiline Prisca, they they could only have guessed how far their commitment would have its effect.

We need to keep in mind that a good deed here or a gospel offer over there can have eternal

consequences beyond anything that we imagined.

That cup of cold water in Jesus name.

And how many decades later might a person come to Christ and remember the kindness of a Christian?

Unintended consequences we usually think of them as something we have to deal with in the negative sense.

But in God's providence in God's sovereignty in God's wonderful and wise plan.

We never know.

Could Prisca and Aquila have known for sure.

That they're risking their own heads on behalf of the Apostle would have resulted in all those churches after that being

founded by him.

Epianetus is in there.

His name means praiseworthy.

He was sort of like Asia's Abram.

The first to answer the call of Christ to leave mother and father and brother and sister and go to a land that God had

showed Him a good land a large land the land of knowing God by faith in Christ.

He was the first in Asia.

We have Mary the hard worker.

We have Andronicus and Junia these they were fellow Jews.

These are a couple of those names you can trace back to Jewish roots.

They were Paul's kinsmen and Seems they shared some prison time with him.

Back then the gospel was not a defanged and safe religion.

Rome wasn't a land where whatever works for you is good for you.

And whatever works for me is just as good and we're just gonna get along and be happy about it.

Not then not there.

That first couple were talking about Prisca and Aquila.

They risked execution because of the gospel and Now these two Andronicus and Junia

they're in prison for it.

Many men whose finger is on the pulse and are better informed than myself.

Think that we're not far behind this sort of treatment in our own nation.

We need to understand just as Joseph prayed that this is a letter to us today.

Not just some dusty old relic.

Verses 8 & 9 there are two who are called Beloved Ampliatus and Saccas.

Sandwiching between them a man named Urbanus a fellow worker.

Now if I could send a quick text to Paul, I would have asked him so I could tell you just what the fellow worker did.

Did he hand out tracts?

Did he arrange for interviews?

Was he was he the teamster for the travel cart or did he preach?

What did this guy do this fellow worker?

We don't know only That he put his shoulder to the plow and he

worked for the gospel.

Under it seems Paul's direction Appellus in

verse 10.

He's an interesting case.

He's the one who was approved in Christ.

And I look at that and I say aren't we all?

If you believe in Jesus Christ, aren't you approved by God because you're in him?

Doesn't Romans chapter 14 verse 18 say whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God

and approved by men.

What makes him so special.

Well Hendrickson helps us out here he says and I quote Approved in Christ

meaning that amid difficult circumstances.

He had remained true to the faith.

I Know that helps that makes some sense here.

These are people these greetings to these people who have proven their determination.

To stay true to the faith that they have in Christ Jesus.

Let's move on.

We already discussed Aristobulus in verse 11 says of Herodian that he is

Paul's kinsman a Jewish convert.

We know nothing of the family of narcissists except what we have here, which is very very little.

Verse 12 lists out some workers and another beloved one.

This persis verse 13 singles out Rufus and his mother.

Who was that a mother to Paul as well?

Makes me wonder maybe she cared for Paul in some serious illness.

Or maybe after one of his beatings or stonings or floggings.

She nursed him through the injuries.

Says chosen in the Lord.

It's just a general way of saying he was saved.

No more or less chosen than anyone who has faith in the Lord Jesus Christ if you've repented of your sins as you

must.

If your faith is in Christ Jesus as it must be.

If you are one of those whose faith and hope and trust is in Christ and the word that he has given

us.

Then as much as anybody.

You're chosen in the Lord.

There's what Paul means here chosen the Lord a true believer.

Verses 14 and 15.

Has a list of even more names it gives us nothing more than the names.

Other than that there are brothers with the group of verse 14 and there are saints with the group of verse 15.

There's a couple of more greetings here, and we're really going to move very quickly and see if we can apply this.

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

All the churches of Christ greet you.

That's verse 16.

So what do we have here?

Well greet these people.

Greet each other and you are greeted by the churches.

You know as many places where names are recorded one might think of First

Chronicles 11 and the listing by name and by deed of King David's mighty men.

Or think of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah where it was crucial for them to know who is allowed to do what

and then what they were doing.

And.

The point there especially in Ezra was to make sure that only the Levitical priests Would enter

into the temple and perform the duties of priests so they had these long genealogies these lists of names.

The names of Romans 16 1 through 16 are this sort of

vanguard of the early church.

We stand on the shoulders of Giants.

Men like Martin Luther and John Calvin men like Augustine and Athanasius or like John Owen

men and women who suffered for the gospel people with brilliant minds who worked through the issues for us.

But those are the extraordinary ones.

We stand on other shoulders as well.

Not just the Martin Luther's the Augustine's the John Calvin's

we stand on other shoulders.

And they're far more of these kinds of shoulders.

Shoulders of regular everyday Christians who held nothing back for

the gospel.

Shoulders of everyday mundane average people like you and me who gave

it all to Christ.

And What do we say they had skin in the game all

the cards were on the table.

Whatever expression you want.

These were those people.

Just common everyday regular folk.

Completely given over to the expansion of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There certainly were more.

Who could have been named?

This was just for this letter in Rome.

How many others who names whose names are never recorded stood against beasts and

Persecutors and judges yet never wavered from their faith.

Never denied the Lord Jesus Christ.

God knows them all.

Paul doesn't have to list them in Romans 16 for us to know that they are there that they did that and that God

knows of them.

And We we today we here in the 21st century when we stand firm.

When we refuse to join the jokes that blaspheme our Lord's name.

When taking his name in vain is clearly an offense to us.

When families refuse us because of Christ.

When husbands refuse to appreciate a wife's godly submission or a wife her husband's Christlike love.

How do we keep going?

How do we push through it?

By remembering that God knows.

God knows this list in chapter 16 of Romans.

No more or no less than he knows the list of all those others whose names are never recorded in any epistle or book or

letter ever.

How do we keep going?

By knowing that God knows.

By name God knows.

By deed by remembering that God simply knows.

You may not be at the end of an earth -moving letter like this a

Letter that when Martin Luther looked at it and finally understood it changed the course of history.

Now your name my name we're not at the end of something as dramatic as that but God has a book.

Recorded all over Scripture.

God has a book and his eyes are on it.

And if you are in Christ if you have repented of your sins if you have come to him by faith God is looking

at your name.

Consider also the power of the gospel that bind us together in

Rome.

Jew and Greek labored for the gospel with their livelihoods putting even their lives at hazard.

Former slaves and their former owners.

Together repudiated earthly things and gave their all for Christ and this powerful gospel.

The mix of man and woman Greek Roman and Jews slave free rich poor all derived

just by studying the names themselves.

Some of which can be pegged to historical figures within and without the Bible most cannot but it is a

testament.

To the diversity and the unity that God uses to make up his church.

Look around at us.

We're such a small church and look around see how different we really are all of us.

Economically financially education the work we do how many kids we have.

Where we brought up where we came from our ethnicity

this gospel.

This righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ.

It's a cement binding together these diverse groups then

and now and Brethren if we're not unified in love

together.

Because of our unity and love for the Lord Jesus Christ.

We have to ask ourselves.

Do we really even understand this gospel?

We're not a cult.

No true church is.

But we're bound together as a body.

Responsible for each other interested in each other caring for one another.

Weeping and rejoicing together because this is a brother.

This is a sister.

This is a part of my body that is weeping and rejoicing and

all these differences that we have.

The more we let them be barriers.

To true vibrant loving fellowship with each other.

That mimics no more than mimics that is the same as that true and loving and vibrant relationship that we have with Christ

himself.

The more we let differences impede that I Would suggest

The less we really understand this gospel and what it has done what it must do

in God's people.

It's the very righteousness of God.

We're just going through this list of names.

If all I did was read those names you go boy another list begat begot begat begot know

Greeks and Romans and rich and poor and slave and free all bound together all commended by the

Paul also greet these people.

All of them not just Phoebe because she seems to have been wealthy.

Prisca and Aquila seemed to have been very well -off Aristobulus that man who was

a servant of Claudius the Emperor Claudius his household was great in Rome.

Not respecters of persons here the great leveler is this

gospel and let nothing come between us dear ones as

We seek to have me with you and you with that person behind you and you with that person to your right or

to your Left that same relationship with each other because it is Christ Jesus who brought us together here.

Just as in this list of diverse names from all over the map ethnically

religiously.

Economically,

let's be sure.

That we were really understanding this gospel.

That this righteousness of God.

The scene in this list of names and what this righteousness of God what this faith in Christ did with all these

people.

That Paul is a group says commit greet these people.

Well, finally, I Want to assume with you that the letter -bearer

Phoebe.

That she was welcomed the way Paul would have wanted her to be welcomed.

It's somewhat the same as we do here when people transfer to us.

We call their church and we ask for a letter of transfer.

We ask for a recommendation and so we get something like we the elders of this church commend to you

our brother Aquila or sister Phoebe or whoever it is and We ask you to welcome them to yourselves

in the name of the Lord or words to that effect.

I Wondered a long time about this list of names.

Maybe I was just being stubborn.

I said well we've gone through every verse in this book and I'm gonna find a way to preach every verse in this book including this

list of 27 names and as I pondered it as I prayed about this

Passage as I meditated upon as I went to God said, okay Lord.

You don't have words in here that are superfluous.

It is all for our good is for my good to study.

It is for their good to hear it.

I wondered a long time about this list of names.

And commentators have as well.

The general consensus is that Paul knew a lot of people at that church.

Now I try hard.

I really do try hard to not be innovative.

I want to find myself when I come to my own conclusions in the scripture and I double -check them against the

Scholarship that we have available to us, which is tremendous.

You've heard this from me before.

If I'm out of line with them I question me first.

We don't say well John Calvin got it wrong.

I wish he had figured this out the way I did.

We don't do that.

I try hard to stay in line with them.

I do my work and I double -check myself against them.

The minds that have worked on this list of names are better than mine.

I respect them greatly, but I wonder.

I wonder if the people mentioned were even at the church in Rome.

The descriptions of what they had done.

It sounds more like introductions to me.

If Phoebe who brought the letter clearly was unknown to that church.

But think with me for a moment about Prisca and Aquila.

Greet the neck riskers he says.

Should they have turned to this couple if the couple was there this couple that they knew.

Well, would they say something like well Paul greets you and say when did that neck risking thing happen?

You didn't tell us about that.

Now I hold this a little bit loosely.

But I wonder if those 27 names were the contingent said along with Phoebe to deliver

this letter.

I Mean it would make sense that Paul wouldn't send a woman even one who I think was in as impressive.

As impressive as she must have been all the way from Corinth to Rome by herself.

Travel then even under efficient Roman policing was a dangerous thing.

As I was wondering maybe this is the group.

Maybe these names here in these 16 verses of the group that went with her to Rome that

accompanied her that Gave her some safety on the road.

However, she got there and if this is correct if this is even credible.

Then the unity that we have in Christ Jesus is all the more clear.

Once the legitimacy of the letter was established and the messengers credit credentials were confirmed all

Barriers to fellowship are erased.

Paul saying here are these people here is what they have done.

Here is their credo in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The impaired the idea might even be consistent with the imperative to show hospitality to strangers.

Because you might actually entertain an angel.

I just throw that out as an idea.

But I think it makes sense That those weren't members at the church in Rome there people who came

with the letter and were there by in the letter introduced and

Again if that is the case Consider again the power of the gospel

to unite us into a powerful force with a singular aim.

Not one of those in the chapter 16 of Romans Was introduced for anything

other than Their commitment to this gospel this one who's worked hard on your

behalf.

Perhaps working hard to get the Apostle there perhaps working hard in prayer.

We don't know but consider the force

that the gospel has.

To bring us as a body as diverse as we are as diverse as they were.

Together into a sharp arrow with a singular aim a laser point a laser like

Aim at a single target, which is the expansion of this gospel.

Paul says greet them and here are their credentials now greet each other.

You're all the same.

You're all one in Christ now know the greeting of all the churches.

Perhaps even represented by these 27 names all One in Christ Jesus all

bound together in this righteousness of God, which is the gospel of Christ chapter 1 verses

16 and 17.

Now that's the power of the gospel for salvation for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

That's the power of the gospel that makes a brother of a Roman Jew with an Asian Gentile.

That's the power of the gospel that exchanges holy kisses between strangers who now by their common

faith in one Lord are Bound as a family in ties stronger than birth.

Because it's the blood of the Savior Jesus Christ and he alone who can do this.

I think this is the vanguard of the gospel.

This list who must have been amongst the earliest of believers.

This man who was the first in Asia the Abram of Asia to leave his country in his home.

So we have these pioneers coming together all of them from all these backgrounds.

Different statuses in society and yet all one in Christ.

I think that's one way that the righteousness of God in the gospel of Christ shows forth just even in this

list of names and The greetings that Paul would have them receive when they finally got to Rome.

It may be that way for us again.

Let us be that people that allows nothing to impede Between us no

artificial barrier.

That would slow down our love and the vibrant relationship that were to have with each other because as you

love Christ Jesus as You are committed to him.

So the scripture would say you're committed to each other we must be if that's the

righteousness of God that is brought us to salvation and Founded this church which

God willing all that it is.

Amen.

Heavenly Father.

Thank you again for the day that you've given us for the time that we have together for Christ Jesus our Lord who binds us

together in perfect unity.

I Thank you father for this list of names and for the reminder that we do stand on the shoulders of

these Ordinary people who gave their all for the gospel of Christ Jesus.

I pray father you by your spirit would help us to be the same for asking in Christ's name.

Amen.