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Sermon Transcript June 18, 2017

Next Step: Service Fellow Workers

Romans 16:1-16 #is message from the Bible was addressed originally to the people of Wethers+eld Evangelical Free Church on June 18, 2017 at 511 Maple Street, Wethers+eld, CT, 06109 by Dr. Scott W. Solberg. #is is a transcription that bears the strength and weaknesses of oral delivery. It is not meant to be a polished essay. An audio copy of the sermon on CD is available by request at (860) 563-8286. An audio version of this sermon may also be found on the church website at www.wethefc.com.

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Sermon Text

Romans 16:1-16

1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, 2 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.

3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 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. 5 Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the +rst convert to Christ in Asia. 6 Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. 7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. #ey are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me. 8 Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. 9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. 10 Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. 11 Greet my kinsman Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. 12 Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. 13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. 14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. 15 Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. 16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.

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Introduction

Paul’s letter to the Romans is oAen considered the “crown jewel” of all the letters in the New Testament, if not the entire New Testament. I don’t think it is accidental that Romans is the +rst letter you +nd in the New Testament. It doesn’t occupy this primary position because it was the +rst letter Paul wrote. Actually, it is not the +rst letter Paul penned by a long shot. #e letter to the Galatians was written almost ten years prior to Paul writing his letter to the Romans. But Paul’s letter to the Romans occupies this primary spot among the epistles because of its systematic presentation of the good news of Jesus Christ. If you want to know the gospel, read Romans. #e theme for the entire letter is summed up in Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel” writes Paul. Why? Because of what it is. He says, “for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew �rst and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘the righteous shall live by faith.’” #is good news about Jesus has the power to make you right with God. “For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed.” #is coming October marks the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. It was 500 years ago when a monk by the name of Martin Luther was reading Romans 1:17 and he couldn’t take his eyes oF of that phrase “the righteousness of God.” And he wrestled with what the Bible was saying about how one is made right with God. #rough Romans, Paul teaches us that is through faith in Jesus that one is made right with God. #is stood in contrast to what the church was teaching at the time. And so when Luther hung his “95 thesis” on the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, he was calling for a public debate over the selling of indulgences, which the Catholic church was claiming could purchase a soul for heaven. Luther was brought up in a system that could never bring him peace because being right with God was dependent on how he lived and what he did and didn’t do. In his heart, he knew he could never do enough to make himself right with God. But it was through studying Romans that he discovered that being made right with God is through Christ alone and faith alone. It is curious to me how the clarion call of the Reformation, “Christ Alone!” made its way into the news last week. A little over a week ago, Senator Bernie Sanders was one of the senators conducting a con+rmation hearing for Russell Vought, nominated by the President to serve as deputy director of the OIce of Management and Budget. Vought is a graduate of Wheaton College, a premiere evangelical Christian college in Illinois. Senator Sanders had come to the conclusion that Vought was unquali+ed to serve in this

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capacity solely because of his religious convictions. #e issue that Sanders zeroed in on was the evangelical conviction that one is made right with God through Christ alone. To which Sanders concluded, among other things, makes a person an Islamophobic and “hateful” and thus un+t for public oIce in a pluralistic culture. John C. Richards, who directs #e Billy Graham Center for Evangelism observed, “When it comes to religion, the word exclusive is synonymous with bigot. Even worse, Christians who communicate the exclusivity of their faith are castigated and dismissed.”1 Obviously, this caused quite a stir and many people, on both sides of the political aisle, felt that it was dangerous to use someone’s religious views as a litmus test for holding political oIce. But here is what Senator Sanders fails to see through his secular eyes. #e exclusive nature of the gospel, “Christ Alone!,” does not create “phobic” tendencies, nor does it lead to “hate.” When you put the whole book of Romans together, the +rst eleven chapters rehearse the good news that one can be made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And then, Romans 12-16 tells us what kind of people we become when we encounter God through faith in Jesus. Do you know what virtue most characterizes the person who has discovered that the way to be made right with God is through faith in Jesus Christ? It is not “hate.” It is love! In Romans 12:9-20, Paul says among other things, “Let love be genuine . . . Love one another with brotherly a%ection. Outdo one another in showing honor . . . Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality . . . Bless those who persecute you . . . If your enemy is hungry feed him . . . Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.” #is is the kind of people the gospel produces. When we are made right with God based on the grace of God, how can we not respond by loving as we ourselves have been loved? #is is the book of Romans in a nutshell. #ere is a way to be made right with God. It is through faith in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and rose again from the dead. When you experience that grace, it produces a heart of love in us. And then we come to Romans 16, the +nal chapter in this incredible treatise on the good news of Jesus and what do we +nd? We +nd a long list of names. #ere are 26 diFerent individuals that Paul personally greets at the end of this letter. In this +nal chapter, there are also three house churches he also sends his greetings to. And like we oAen do when we come to a long list of names commonly found in the Bible, our tendency is to just skip through these names, because most oAen, they are simply “names” to us, let alone names we oAen are uncertain how to pronounce. But I think this is a +tting and profound way to end this epic letter written to the Romans. #ese names aren’t just a collection of names. Rather they are the names of the people

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that make up part of the church in Rome. It is one thing to talk about the power of the gospel that is able to make a person right with God. It is one thing to talk about how love is what Kows out of a person who has been made right with God. But it is another thing to actually see it and touch it. #rough these names, through the visible church, you have a tangible expression of God’s love. When you get to Romans 16, it is not just theology. When you get to Romans 16, it is not just theory. When you Romans 16 and see all these names, you discover that the power of the gospel and the love of God is real. #is is what the gospel does. It forms us into family. It moves us into service. And through common people, like you and me, God advances his kingdom.

Meet the Family

Let me begin by introducing you to this church family and some of the people who are part of this church. As you begin to discover who these people are, you quickly realize that the early church was marked with a wonderful diversity. It was a testament to how the gospel tears down the dividing walls oAen prevalent within a culture or a society. Clearly there was a racial diversity found within the Roman church. At the very least, this church was comprised of Jew and Gentile. In verse 7, Paul says, “Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen.” Do you notice how he goes on to say about this couple, “+ey were well known to the apostles and they were in Christ before me.” #ey were part of the church in Jerusalem that Paul was persecuting before his own conversion. He also mentions in verses 10-11 “the family of Aristobulus” and his “kinsman Herodion.” Not only are these Jewish names, but they are connected to royalty. Aristobulus was the grandson of King Herod the Great. Herodion was possibly a slave or a freedman who took on the name of his patron, which was common in those days. Clearly there is a signi+cant Jewish presence in the church in Rome along with many Gentiles. Obviously, there is both male and female in the church in Rome. But there wasn’t just a presence of men and women in the church. Both men and women had prominent roles to +ll in the church. In verse 1, we are introduced to Phoebe. “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae.” She was not a part of the church in Rome. Rather, she came from a city in Corinth. Most likely, she was the one who delivered this letter to the church at Rome. She is referred to as “a servant of the church.” #at word for “servant” is the word for “deacon.” She was most likely a deaconess in the order of what we +nd in Acts 6. Prominent ministry couples such as “Prisca and Aquila” in verse 3 along with missionaries “Adronicus and Junia” in verse 7, also demonstrate the

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prominent role women played in the early church. In verse 12, “Tryphaena and Tryphosa” are singled out. Most likely they are sisters, possibly twin sisters. #eir names mean “dainty” and “delicate.” And yet these “dainty” and “delicate” women are described as workers in the church at Rome. #e church in Rome was also made up of people from diFerent socio-economic backgrounds. In verses 8-10 you +nd names that were commonly held by slaves or slaves who had been freed. “Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ.” Some of these names have been found inscribed in the catacombs, or on inscriptions from imperial households. When Paul calls Urbanus a “fellow worker” it would suggest that this slave or former slave rose to a level of leadership in the church. At the same time you have people of means and substance. We already noted the family connected to Herod. But you also had in verse 3, Pricilla and Aquila. #is Jewish couple were originally from Rome, but according to Acts 18, they Ked to Corinth when Claudius commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. It was in Corinth that they met up with Paul. #ey were business people and they were in the same business of tent-making that Paul was doing to support his ministry. And so they opened up their home to Paul and he stayed with them. When Paul went to Ephesus, they went with him. In fact he leA them there as he completed his second missionary journey. #is successful business couple were also good evangelists, and they were instrumental in helping Apollos come to understand faith in Christ alone. Apollos became a leading voice for the gospel in Asia. #ey eventually moved back to Rome and in verse 5, we discover in our passage that a church met in their home. And then Paul says in verse 5, “Greet Epaenetus, who was the �rst convert to Christ in Asia.” Most commentators think that this man came to faith in Ephesus under the inKuence of Pricilla and Aquila and he came back with them to Rome to assist in the church there. And so you have this couple of means, opening their home wherever they happen to live—Corinth, Ephesus and Rome—and they are found proclaiming the gospel of Jesus wherever they happen to live. I also get a sense from this passage that the diversity of the body of Christ in Rome is not just found in the individuals, but in the churches. I think there are at least three house churches identi+ed in this greeting from Paul. We already saw that there was a church meeting in the home of Priscilla and Aquilla. But the way verses 14 and 15 end, suggests that there were other house churches being greeted as Paul says, “the brothers who are with them . . . and all the saints who are with them.

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#is is what the gospel of Jesus Christ does. It takes a diverse group of people and forms them into a family. Paul says of the church in Galatians 3:28, “+ere is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” We see in this greeting the theme verse for Romans on display in living color, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew �rst and also to the Greek.” #at unity within diversity is badly needed in our divided culture. As a church, we have an opportunity to demonstrate a kind of unity that everyone seems to long for but can’t +nd. It is part of our stated “Way of Life.” Each week we commit to unity when we say, “we will maintain unity with our brothers and sisters in Christ.” Why? It is because the testimony of Jesus is at stake through our unity. Jesus prayed in John 17 that the church would be one. He prayed for our unity. Why? He said that through our unity, we give demonstration that God has indeed sent the Son and that through the church God’s love is experienced. #ere are great terms of aFection all throughout this greeting. He refers to these people as being beloved and he calls them brothers and sisters. When he tells the church in Rome to receive Phoebe as she delivers this letter to them, he says something very interesting in verse 2. He says that they are to “welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints.” In other words, this is who we are. #is is what we do. As God’s people, we welcome one another. We help one another. We love one another. #is is what the gospel of Jesus Christ does to us. It forms us into the family of God. It is through our love for one another, people experience the love of God and come to know that God has indeed sent his Son in the world and that Jesus is truly the Son of God. May we maintain unity with our brothers and sisters in Christ for the sake of the testimony of Jesus. We are sons and daughters of God through faith in Jesus, brothers and sisters.

Look at their Activity

#e other thing you discover about this church in Rome through Paul’s greeting is that they were an active congregation. #is is the other thing that gospel of Jesus does in our lives. Once it moves us into community, it then moves us into service. We serve one another. #at is what we do. #at is what the gospel does to us. It is how we express the love of God to each other. Just like Jesus did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped, rather he humbled himself and took on the form of a servant. In the same way, we too, consider others better than ourselves by serving. It is also how God accomplishes the mission of building his kingdom on earth. It is through people like you and me, united together in Christ and serving one another.

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Notice how oAen Paul refers to their “work.” In verse 3 he refers to Pricilla and Aquila as “my fellow workers.” He greets a woman by the name of Mary in verse 6 and he says of her, “who worked hard for you.” In verse 9, Urbanus, a slave or freedman, is elevated to the same status as Pricilla and Aquila, “our fellow worker.” #en there is those “twin sisters” in verse 12, “dainty” and “delicate” and yet he says, “Greet those workers in the Lord.” In the same verse he says of Persis, that he “worked hard in the Lord.” Let me just single out two examples from this passage of the kind of work they did. I already introduced you to Andronicus and Junia in verse 7. #is is the Jewish couple who were part of the church before Paul came to faith in Christ. At that point, all you had was the church in Jerusalem. It was just beginning to spread throughout the region at this time. So why is this couple from Jerusalem now in Rome? #e Greek is a bit uncertain in his verse. Was this couple “known by the apostles” or “among the apostles?” Even to suggest that they were “among the apostles” does not mean that they were one of the Apostles with a capital “A.” #e word apostle can also refer to one who has been sent like a missionary. #e fact that they are “fellow prisoners” with Paul may not even mean that they were in prison with Paul, but like Paul, had experienced imprisonment because of their missionary eForts. And so this couple is on the front line of advancing the gospel in the city of Rome. I think they are missionaries. But there are also people working hard “behind the scenes” in the church. In verse 13, Paul greets a man by the name of Rufus. Most commentators think this is the son of Simon of Cyrene, the man who carried the cross of Jesus. In Mark’s gospel he tells us in Mark 15:21 that “a passerby, Simon of Cyrene” was compelled by the soldiers to carry the cross of Jesus. Many think Mark’s ministry was in Rome. In talking about Simon of Cyrene, he says that he was “the father of Alexander and Rufus.” Why else would he say something like that, outside of the fact that this family was well known to the early church in Rome who he was writing to? But then Paul says this in his greeting to Rufus. “Greet . . . also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well.” Somewhere along Paul’s journeys he met up with this woman and no doubt she oFered hospitality to him. It is the same kind of hospitality he calls the Romans to oFer to Phoebe as she seeks a place to stay when coming to Rome. #ey were to help her with whatever she may need. #is kind of work is implied all throughout the latter half or Romans and throughout this greeting. #ey worked hard at meeting each other’s needs and serving the body of Christ in Rome. Whether is was through advancing the gospel through evangelism, or providing hospitality for those in need, this active congregation was mobilized to serve the body of Christ.

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I mentioned at the beginning of the message this morning that Romans is divided into two sections. In Romans 1-11 you have this systematic presentation of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. #en in Romans 12, we see the impact that the gospel has on those who come to know God through faith in Jesus. It forms us into people who are marked with love. Do you know what the +rst application of that love is in the book of Romans? It is using the spiritual giAs God has given us in the body of Christ. Paul says in Romans 12:4, “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, . . . Having gi4s that di%er according to the grace given to us, let us use them.” #at is what you see in living color in the names listed in Romans 16. Here at WEFC we describe our “Way of Life” together through a series of questions: Who are we? We are sons and daughters, servants and stewards What do we do? We love God, love people and make disciples How do we do it? Worship, Community and Service In other words, we want “this group of people at WEFC” to look like “this group of people in Romans 16.” A diverse group of people who are uni+ed through faith in Jesus and committed to serving each other by working hard at using the giAs God has given us. And so we encourage all of you to take a “next step” and serve the body of Christ here at WEFC. According to our database, our church is comprised of about 520 adults. As best we can tell, almost 50% of our adults are engaged in service within the church. OAen you hear the phrase that 20% of the church does 80% of the work. #e good news is that we have about 50% of our people engaged in some kind of service. In addition to that, we have 25 teens who are serving in some capacity as well. #is means that we also have an opportunity. #ere is a pool of people ready to take that next step into service. Some of you may be serving in a ministry where you serve one Sunday morning a month. Perhaps, now is a time to increase that commitment and frequency of service. In Romans 16 we see the ministry of hospitality highlighted. We need that ministry of “welcome” here when we have services on Sunday. We need ushers. We need greeters to welcome people as they come into the church. We need people with medical backgrounds to sit in the back during a service in case there is a medical need. #e convenient part of these ministries is that you are already here to worship. But these are ministries that are necessary to help people experience the love of God. From nursery through senior high, we have about 200 children in this church family.

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Talk about a mission +eld. #at is our +rst mission +eld! Right now we have three summer interns who are in college and they each sense the call of God on their live for vocational ministry. All three of them grew up in this church. When we ask them to share their faith stories, they speak highly of the people of this church who ministered to them at early age. So whether it is receiving a baby in the nursery or working with children’s Sunday School, you are making kingdom impact. We need women to invest in our girls in our Wednesday night ministry to girls in Grades 1-5 and Ryan needs women to minister to our Jr. and Sr. High girls. We need men to invest in the young men of our church. Rarely do I baptize a teen where I don’t hear of the impact that a youth worker had on their spiritual lives. #is is just a sample of how you can serve in the body of Christ. Take the brochure in your bulletin and consider the options listed before you. Contact the church oIce and take that next step and serve.

(e Kingdom of God Advances

Given that this list of names if from the early church in Rome, I can only assume that all of these names are +rst generation followers of Christ. Each of their stories were most likely the product of the ministry of the church in Rome. #is is why we serve one another. In doing so we demonstrate that Jesus is truly the Son of God and that by believing in him, there is life in his name. #is is not just about +lling a slot. #is is about advancing the kingdom of God. Consider the story of Sarah Irving-Stonebreaker. She grew up in Australia. She got her Ph.D. in history at King’s College in Cambridge. She, herself, was an atheist and aAer she got her doctorate she attended a lecture at Oxford University given by a renowned atheist, Peter Singer. #is atheist said something in his lecture that shook her to the core and began to reevaluate her entire worldview. One day at a dinner, a Christian professor, simple and pointedly asked her, “Do you believe in God?” She claimed to be agnostic. To which he said, “Do you really want to sit on the fence forever?” She decided that if she cared about the human value, this issue of God was not incidental. In 2008 she became an assistant professor at Florida State University. Listen to what she wrote, “With the freedom of being an outsider to American culture, I was able to see an active Christianity in people who lived their lives guided by the gospel: feeding the homeless every week, running community centers, and housing and advocating for migrant farm laborers. One Sunday, shortly before my 28th birthday, I walked into a church for the +rst time as someone earnestly seeking God. Before long I found myself

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overwhelmed. At last I was fully known and seen and, I realized, unconditionally loved – perhaps I had a sense of relief from no longer running from God. A friend gave me C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, and one night, aAer a couple months of attending church, I knelt in my closet in my apartment and asked Jesus to save me, and to become the Lord of my life.”2

Her is the story of an intellect who went from atheism to faith in Christ. #ere were a lot of components to her story. But don’t underestimate from her story what she saw and tasted when she came in contact with God’s people. She the love of God on display through the unity of the church. She saw what lives look like “guided by the gospel.” AAer a couple of months of seeing the evidence of the love of God in the living color of his people, she became a follower of Jesus. #is is why we do what we do. Our lives are guided by the gospel and therefore we demonstrate a unity in the midst of our wonderful diversity. In Christ alone we are one. And then we serve one another and work hard at doing our part to build up the body of Christ. In doing so, we see the kingdom of God advance to the glory of God.

_______________________ 1John C. Richards, “One Path Evangelism: #e Scandalizing Exclusivity of Jesus www.christianitytoday.com May 12, 2017 2Sarah Irving-Stonebreaker “How Oxford and Peter Singer drove me from atheism to Jesus” www.veritas.org May 22, 2017

© by Dr. Scott Solberg - All rights reserved

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Sermon Title: Fellow Workers Sermon Text: Romans 16:1-16 Sermon Date: June 18, 2017

1. Share the name of a person who has had spiritual impact in your life. How so? 2. How has this community group been a blessing to you? 3. Share one thing from the sermon that stood out to you.

4. Read Romans 16:1-16. What is your overall impression of all these names? What does this tell you about the value of people? What does this list tell you about the unity of the church? Do any of the people highlighted on Sunday stand out to you? What is it about them that stands out? 5. Read Romans 16:1-2. How were they to receive Phoebe? What do you make of the phrase, “welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints”? What is the implication of this statement? 6. Notice how oAen the word “worker” or “work” is used. What is the implication of the use of this word? What does the use of this word communicate about what it means to be part of a church family? 7. How have you served in the church? What are joys and the challenges to serving in the church?

8. When it comes to serving, what do you think is your next step?

Getting To Know Me Questions

Diving Into The Word

Taking It Home