24 Paul’s Roman Yearbook (Romans 16)

SPEAKER_00: So we are in Romans 16. Hard to believe. We've come to the end of this chapter of the Book of the Letter, and we have this long list of names, which is a great challenge to a teacher. It's like, what do you say about all these names? And if I could give you an analogy, it's like you remember in high school you get your yearbook, and at the end of the year you ask everybody to sign the back of the yearbook or write you little notes. I mean that that's essentially what we've got here. This is like the end of the yearbook, and Paul is is signing it or talking to people. And just like you know, your high school, you have all these building blocks and these these years from which you spring into adulthood. It's kind of like we've gone through this great theology and now he's got these names. Um and he also has some very personal kind of memories that aren't explained and some experiences. So we're gonna do what we can with these. And we're just gonna jump in. Let me start with um the first two references are the longest. So we're gonna do those one through five. I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the Church of Centria, that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever way she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well. Greet Prissa and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risk 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 and their house, and I'm gonna stop in the middle of the verse there. Um these are the two longest references, and we actually know the most about these people. We have an individual in one uh Phoebe, and then a couple in another, and in some ways they kind of represent the rest of the people because there are two groups of names. Um there are the people who are in Rome to whom Paul is writing and sending greetings, and um Phoebe represents that group, she's headed to Rome, and then there are the people in Corinth, the place where he's writing the letter from, who he's talking about in sending greetings. Now wait, did I get those backwards? Um Phoebe's in in Rome, or Phoebe's in Corinth with Paul, and she is the one that's actually going to carry this letter to the Romans. And then um Priscilla and Quilla, who were in Rome, and they're people he's writing to. Okay, so I I did, I said those backwards. So let me talk about Phoebe a little bit. Um and Centria, I have no idea how to pronounce that, was a port that's located just off the city of Corinth. So it's like the greater, you know, Corinthian metropolitan area or whatever it was. So she would have been known to Paul because she was in the region in that port city. Um and notice the first person mentioned is a woman. And as we go through these names, that's the other thing I want you to notice is the variety. There are men, there are women, there are people who seem to be slaves, there are people who are high government positions, there are husband and wife teams. I mean, there are all kinds of people, and that I think is interesting to note, just the variety of the people that were in the church that he's writing to. So he says of Phoebe, I commend you our sister Phoebe, and it's literally a diaconos of the church of Centria, and it is the word where we get deacon from. It literally means a servant or one who serves. And it was usually used of somebody who was recognized as having a gift of service. Um, you know, someone who not just, I mean, everybody serves occasionally, but someone who really seemed called and have this gift of service. Now, this creates a lot of controversy because there are people who say, because of this verse, that we ought to ordain women deacons because Paul uses this term. And what I want to suggest to you is this verse does not decide the issue either way. Um, and we're not going to get into that issue. Sorry, we only have 30 minutes. But just from a Bible study methodology, you cannot definitively say, yes, there were women deacons the way we think of women deacons today, nor can you rule it out. So just from a methodology standpoint, this is a piece of evidence, but it is not a conclusive piece of evidence. That because he calls her a servant does not mean that she had an office in the way we think of the office today. In the same way you'll see other instances of people who are called apostles in Acts, and they were not one part of the twelve, they were just people who were sent to do something. So we have precedent for that. So we don't know if Phoebe was a deacon the way we think of deacons today or not, at least not from this verse. What we do know is that she served and that she served the church and was recognized for her service. Whether she was ordained in the way we think of ordination or not, we don't know. But it's a high compliment to give her, to call her that word, and then the next word he uses is the patron of many people, including me. That word is not just someone who gives money, although she may have been a wealthy widow or someone that could give money, but it's it's also used of people who provided support, like foundational critical support. I couldn't have done the job without you, kind of support. Um, someone who would help establishing a program or a life or an encouragement in some way. So he's speaking of her very highly as someone he counts on, who's recognized for her service and her support. And when, as Libby said, if you're going to be in the Bible, this this is the way to be recognized. And um she was, we think, the person who actually carried this letter from Paul to the Romans. And that's why he says, I commend you to her. In other words, when she comes and she brings you this letter, take her in, treat her, you know, well, show her hospitality. It was just a pretty important task. I mean, if you think about it, the whole history of of uh well, on two continents was changed by this letter, and at some point it was in Phoebe's backpack, you know, trucking down the road, and it was all on her shoulders. So she had a she's one of those people that had a very important job to do, but nobody knows who she was in in that sense. Um but he's personally grateful for her, he counts on her, and she's she's really highly praised. Then we get Priscilla and Aquila. Prissa is the formal name, Priscilla is like a diminutive form of it, so you know, like we have Kate and Katie or something when you add that familiar kind of ending to the end. That's what's going on here. And more often than not, you see her referred to as Priscilla rather than Prissa. And we know actually a fair amount about these two because they're mentioned in the New Testament about six or seven times. And in four of the times they're mentioned, Priscilla's name occurs first. And that has led to a lot of speculation. Some people speculate that she was a noblewoman and that she married a slave, and so her name came first because she had essentially married beneath her, even though the two went off and ministered together. Other people speculate that she was the more charismatic, kind of outgoing, vibrant personality of the two, so that when you thought about this couple, you thought about her first. And then other people have speculated that she was the Bible teacher because her name comes first, and that Aquila was a teacher as well, but not the predominant one. And so that is in the debates about what women shouldn't do, people point to this and say, oh, well, see, Priscilla was the Bible teacher. And what I want to suggest to you, just like Phoebe, this is not conclusive evidence. This you can't just from a Bible study methodology standpoint, if that's what you're basing your argument on, you're on shaky ground. That's not enough uh evidence. I mean, if you saw things in our church litter that said Krassan and David or David and Krissan, how many what conclusions would you draw from that? You you couldn't build a whole theology on it. It just might be the way they typed it. Um I just wanted to acknowledge that controversies out there, but I wouldn't put much stock in it as a persuasive argument. What we do know about this couple, though, is that they did minister together, and they were always together in ministry as far as the references we have of them. And it is clear from their New Testament passages that they did have a teaching ministry, and it seems pretty clear that both of them were active in that ministry. So as a couple, it's kind of fun to go through and look at their mentions and look at their lives and look at how they ministered together because they appear at various cities. They seem to move either by choice or by persecution from uh all around the Mediterranean. Sometimes they're in Ephesus, sometimes they're in Corinth, sometimes they're in Rome, and they seem to kind of go where they're needed, but they always go together. Um I think they went to Corinth where they met Paul and then they go back with him to Ephesus, and then he leaves, but they stay in Ephesus, and then later on they come back to Corinth, and now we find them in Rome. And everywhere they go, they are mentioned as having people in their homes, people in their houses, and and teaching ministry. So that's kind of encouraging because I like to think about, you know, it's nice to see another example of a married couple ministering and serving together. Um and then Paul says they risked their lives for me. They were willing to do all these difficult and hard things in service of the gospel. And they seem to be Jewish and primarily ministering to the Gentiles. Um and notice he says, greet the church that meets in their house. That's again characteristic of them. Wherever they are, they seem to be a gathering spot for believers and Christians. They were hospitable when it was dangerous, when it wasn't safe to be, and they were hospitable when it was safe, when it was um, you know, when there weren't persecutions going on. Okay. Those are the easy names in this chapter. Now we're gonna go through the rest of them, and I'm going to refrain from reading them just so you won't have all this laughter at how I mispronounce these names. So we're gonna look at 5B through 16, which is one group of people, and these are the people who are in Rome who he is sending greetings to. And again, you know, if you've picked up my high school yearbook and you looked at all the names in the back and the people that, you know, had signed things and you saw, you know, Janet and Crystal or Richard or whatever the names are, they wouldn't mean much to you. And if they were little jokes or things, oh, remember that, you know, high school basketball or whatever, you wouldn't necessarily know what they were talking about. And that's essentially the situation we've got here. But what I want to suggest to you is there are kind of five themes that if you look at these names, I'm just gonna organize them around five themes the way Paul draws them together. Um the first is people whom with whom he had a specific memory that he's referring to or a specific experience. So I'm gonna pull those out. The first one is Epinatus in five, my dear friend, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia. Now that's a good thing to be memor remembered for. And I think what's going on here is Paul had, you know, he'd gone on two missionary journeys and he tried to get to Rome, which is in the province of Asia, and he was unable to do so. The first missionary journey I think ended before he attempted going to Rome, and the second one, the Spirit specifically told him, don't go stay in, where was he, Ephesus. And eventually on his third missionary journey, he was allowed to go there. And I think what he's remembering is I finally got there, and here was my first convert. How exciting was that? So it's interesting, you probably have people in your life that you remember being there when they the light bulb went on and they suddenly got it about Christianity, and you remember them fondly, especially if the doors were closed for a while, or you, you know, it seemed um impossible, and then finally the doors were opened. I think that's what's going on here. Then in verse 7, he mentions Andronicus and Junius, um, and these are people he calls my relatives. There are six people throughout this chapter he refers to as relatives, and we don't know exactly how they're related. It could be anything from brothers to, you know, second cousins twice removed. We really don't know. Um it's a generic term. These uh, and it's kind of interesting to think about Paul having relatives. You always think of him as kind of this lone ranger, itinerant preacher who traveled all over and you know dropped out of the sky. Nobody really loved him or knew him, and yet here he has six people who are related to him in some way. And Andronicus and Junius may be husband and wife, or they may be two brothers. The difference is the Junius in some max manuscripts is Junius without the S, and that's the difference between a male name and a female name. So with the S it's the male name, without the S it's a female name. And it just kind of depends on the textual evidence which one you think is um the the stronger evidence, and I'm not sure it really matters whether they were husband and wife or two brothers or cousins. Um we know they were related to each other somehow and related to Paul. And I think I was looking at the versions. I think the New American Standard goes with the male name and the um NIV goes with the female, is that right, or the other way around? Anyway, the two kind of main versions switch. I don't have the NIV here. It has the S. Okay, the E the ESV, the new one has the goes with the female name. King James has too. Yeah, we um we just don't know. We don't know exactly how they were um if that's uh the second one is male or female. Um we do know they were in prison with Paul and um they were let's see, that he's grateful for their service. Um the man in verse 10, Apellus, says he is tested and approved in Christ. So that's another uh nice thing to be remembered for. We don't know what the test was, we don't know uh if it was some kind of persecution or just demands or whatever it was, he didn't quit. And then notice in verse 13 he greets Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother who's been a mother to me too. Um and do you you remember the story of Jesus' crucifixion, how he was arrested, and he spent the night among his tormentors and was beaten and bleeding, and then he's weakened from all of that, and he's carrying his cross to Galgotha, and he stumbles and falls. And it says that there was a man from Cyrene, which is in Africa, so he would have been a black man, is pressed into service to carry the cross. Um, and his name was Simon, and we know from the Gospel of Mark that he later became a believer. Most people think that Rufus is this man's son, Simon's son. So I don't know how I I found at least four or five different commentators who made that claim, and I could not find why they made the claim. I don't know where the evidence is from that, but a lot of people seem to know where it is. But that's kind of interesting, which means this man was probably a black man if he was from Africa or descended from Simon who was from Africa, and he would have been come to the line of faith because his father had been pressed into service to carry the cross. So at some point he crossed paths with Paul, and his mother becomes like a mother to Paul, which is another wonderful kind of relationship to think about. And it's interesting he doesn't name her probably because Paul thinks of her as mom, you know. I mean, when you think about your own mother, you don't think, you know, Jane or June or Marion or whatever. You think mom, and I think that's why he doesn't name her, but he she's just like a mother to him, and so he thinks of her that way. Um okay, so that group of people he has specific experience with, the second one uh refers more to the feelings he has as opposed to events. So you have um you'll see he used the phrase uh several times, dear friend, or greet Ampellitus, whom I love in the Lord. Um we don't know anything about him except Paul had affection for him, my dear friend in verse 9 again, and then uh Persis, who is another woman he also calls my dear friend, and who works very hard. And notice they're both if you go through the list and just pick out who he calls as friends, they're both men and women. And um again, Paul's often accused of being kind of patriarchal and chauvinistic, and yet he commends women quite strongly in this list and calls them as dear friends. So the third group of people are characterized by their service. Then the phrase they worked hard comes up. In verse 6, he has Greek Mary who worked hard for you. We don't know how he knows her or which Mary this might be. She's in Rome, but it's a good thing to be remembered for working hard. And then in nine, Urbanus, our fellow worker. Again, he too is highlighted. And then the names in verse 12, Trophina and Trophosa, but those women work very hard in the Lord. And a lot of people speculate that these ladies were twins, they're female names, and they think they were twins because it's the kind of names you give to twins. You know, they're kind of related and have that um repeating continence. And it's interesting, their names literally mean dainty and delicate, and they're recognized for their hard work. So I don't know. If you think, oh, dainty and delicate, you kind of picture them, you know, knitting doilies or something for the church, and yet they're they are recognized for how hard they work in the Lord. Um, again, probably sisters, but we don't know exactly, could be twins, maybe elderly, maybe younger, we don't know. And then Persis, again, we've already seen she was also mentioned as working hard. Um, and then there's groups of people, the fourth group, they um they're mentioned because of the they belong to a group. So in verse 10, he says, greet those who are in the household of Aristib Aristibulus, and again, greet the in 11, greet those in the household of narcissists. These were probably slaves, because what would happen in those days is when a slave owner died, if the family was impoverished and could not maintain all the slaves, Caesar would take them into his household and they would become part of his, like, you know, can't pay the taxes, well, he'll take all the slaves. And so they, if when that happened, those groups of people would be designated as the household of whatever the patron was who would own them. So scholars think that the household of Virtubulus and the household of Narcissus are probably slaves who are now working in Caesar's court, and he doesn't want to mention them by name because they could get in trouble. I mean, these are believers close to the seat of power. And probably means they were some of the most educated and valuable people in the court because the Romans tended to trust their slaves for their loyalty more than their kinsmen or other people who might have ambitions. So they tended to train the slaves and educate them and count on them to do a lot of the responsibilities of the court. So slaves actually, in the at least in Caesar's household, had a lot of influence and a lot of power. And it's likely that he said, you know, greet those of these households without naming them by name because he didn't want their names to be known as these are believers in the seat of power, and yet he's aware of their service. The names Aristobulus and Narcissus do appear in secular history, and both of them appear in Roman history as having power and influence and being near Caesar's court. We don't know if those people in secular history are the same ones here or not, but they could be. Okay, and then the last group of names he mentions are just a whole bunch of names. In 14 and in 15, he lists. It's one, two, three, four, five male names, and then the brothers with them. Um some people speculate that these are like interns of some sort or some kind of fraternity, or maybe like our Trinity fellows, people who are all young single men who are in training together for some kind of ministry, and he mentions them as, you know, together because they're all in whatever program they're in, some kind of internship perhaps. We don't really know. And then in 15 is probably another house church or community that's a mixed sense uh group of names. And we don't know anything about them really, except he says, give them my best. So one of the so what do we learn from that? I I'm not sure we learn a whole lot, but one thing is how diverse the group is. There's men and there's women, there's single people, there's married people, there's probably slaves, there's people who had positions of influence, and the church ought to reflect that, reflect that kind of diversity. The other thing is notice that everyone isn't commended for something that is obviously spiritual. I mean, we think of Paul that he must just, you know, praise them for their theology or something, and yet he praises them just for his affection he has for them, or the memories he has of them, or um, relatives that he was just close to. So it's I think that's an indication that um the church pervades not just spiritual things, but every aspect of life. Um the Lord fills it all, all of it, all these people cared for each other and um Grew it together. And it's interesting, someday we can ask them. We, you know, we can go up and find Trophina and Trophos and say, What exactly did you do? You know, what was your hard work? Or ask Ephenadus, how did Paul convert you? How did that happen? Um it's it's interesting to think that yes, there are names in the back of a yearbook who essentially may be lost, and yet they're names that are not lost because they're in Scripture and they're in heaven, and one day we can ask them about it. Okay, let me skip um the uh skip down to 21. I want to skip that little paragraph in 17 for a minute and just finish up the rest of the names, because these are the people who are in Corinth with Paul that he's sending the greetings uh from. So, and as opposed to two. So the first one, Timothy, my fellow worker who greets you as do Lucis, Jesus, and whoever you pronounce it, Saucipator, my relatives. Uh, Timothy, of course, is one of the great kind of figures of the New Testament. He became the pastor at Ephesus, was one of Paul's proteges, and then the last three are people he recognizes as his relatives, and again, we don't know how they're related. And then you get this interesting statement in 22. I, Tersus, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord, Gaius, who is host to me, and to the whole church, uh, greet you, Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus greet you. As I mentioned, slaves tended to be well educated and well trained because they were pressed into service that required it. And it's interesting, Tersus is Latin for third, and he mentions his brother Quartus, which is Latin for fourth, which probably means these people were slaves, or at least born into slavery, because those are the kind of names they gave to slaves. You know, they were first, second, third, fourth. They weren't given the honor of kind of an ordinary human name. And Paul's habit when he wrote was to dictate his letters to someone who would write down, so he'd like probably be pacing, thinking out loud. Um, he mentions he has trouble with his eyes. Some people speculate that he never recovered from the blinding on the road to Damascus, that that there was always some residual problem with his eyesight. So it would have been hard for him to hand write his letters, and so he usually had a secretary dictate them. And in this case, it's Tertius who is writing down the letter, and so we get to the end, and Paul probably said, Okay, Tertius, you say a few words to your friends in Rome, and he gets to add his little um verse to this one of the greatest letters ever written. Um it's interesting to me because again, we think, oh, a slave, he must have led a horrible life, and yet here he is sitting at the feet of the Apostle Paul, uh writing down one of the greatest letters ever written, getting that kind of truth, being well educated, and now he has a chance to add his own uh original material. Okay, so let me go back then up to 17 and let's look at that little paragraph. 17 through 20. I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught. Avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent, and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. He's now, these are kind of his final warnings to the Romans. He commends them for their obedience and for what they've already learned, and he basically says, Watch out. There are those who will deceive you, there are those who will distort the gospel. And it's interesting if you look through Paul's letters, many of them have the same warning in them to watch out for people who are trying to divide instead of build unity or to put obstacles in our path. And I think as a church, we ought to say, expect that. It's going to happen. There will be people who will come along that will want to create more heat than light. And notice his advice to them is not, you know, radically go out and search the pews and stamp them out. His advice is ignore them. God will take care of it. Now I think we ought to be careful we don't give them a voice, we don't give them um, you know, a platform from which to create divisions, but neither do we need to ostracize them or um, you know, go after them with a vengeance. His um Paul's encouragement is this God will take care of it. God will eventually crush them. As he said, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. I think he needs all those divisions, all that strife, all that stuff. God's going to take care of it. Okay, so in conclusion, let's look at the last verses of the book. And this is a this is the my favorite part of this chapter. Um, because we're moving away from the kind of the ordinary greetings to the ordinary people or you know, all the signatures in the back of the yearbook, and he's reminding them of of what he's taught. And in some ways, this little benediction is a summary of the entire book. Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed through the prophetic writings, and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith, to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ. Amen. Now he starts this now to him who is able to strengthen you, and I think some translations have established you. The idea is to put you on solid ground. So if you think, you know, have you ever sat at a table that wobbles and you've got, you know, you're like trying to wedge a napkin or something under one of the legs to get it to hold still, or you put a book under there. Um the picture is to put it on firm ground so it doesn't wobble. So it's God is able to plant you solidly, to make you steady and establish you. And that's the idea behind him who is able to strengthen you. So he has the idea of unlike a rocking table, you are planted firmly and solidly on the ground so that when the hurricanes of life come along and try to blow you over and all the frustrations and the persecutions and the dangers and the anger and the resentment and all of that stuff, you're planted firmly and you will not be shaken. And notice who he's counting on to make that happen. Him who is able to establish you. He doesn't say, okay, now you've read this letter, go out and do it right, go out and uh and try harder, go out and and you know get your life and your act together. It's the there is a God behind all this, and he is going to bring it about. It is his responsibility to plant you on that firm ground. Now, obviously we we long for it, we hunger and thirst for it, but the message of the gospel is not try harder, the message of the gospel is trust God, wait, um, hope in him, count in him. He is able to finish that work, he is able to strengthen you, and he's promised to do it. So now to him who is able to establish you my by my gospel, don't misunderstand that phrase. I don't think he means by my gospel like mine as opposed to Peter's and James, or mine as opposed to John and Jesus, or the other writers of Scripture. Um He answers this accusation in 1 Corinthians very directly. Some people say, you know, that it's in that section of some are following me, some are following Apollos, and he says, You've got it wrong. We all have the same gospel. You're making too much of it. So I think what he means by my gospel is the gospel I've just taught you, the things that I've just laid out here. Not that it's a unique gospel, but the one that he's explained, the one that he teaches, the one that he's proclaimed, the one that was given to him. So, just look what he goes on to say in 25. According to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages and been disclosed through the prophetic writings. So it's not my gospel, it's this gospel that was revealed in the preaching of Jesus, that was in accordance with the Old Testament prophecies that was that has now been explained through his life and ministry. So he's not saying my gospel as opposed to somebody else's, but the one that I have proclaimed to you, the same one that Christ preaches and was in the rest of Scripture. And if you take all that out and just boil this down to the essentials, what he said is, what he says is now to him who is able to strengthen you according to the gospel, to bring about the obedience of faith to the only wise God. And that's the gospel. God is able to strengthen you, God is able to bring about the obedience of faith to the only wise God's be glory forevermore through Christ Jesus, amen. And that, I think, if you learn nothing else from Romans, that's the message to learn. God is able to strengthen you. God has promised to strengthen you. He will bring about the obedience that we long for one step at a time. Maybe not by Friday. You know, you can't count on it in every instance. But all the hard things, the redundant things that we've studied, or the challenging passages, the obscure passages, everything that comes up in life, it's all in God's hands. It's in his power to write it on our hearts, to make us the kind of people who are faithful more and more often and obedient, and he's promised to do that. So he says, God is able to strengthen you, to bring about your obedience, and then um to him be the glory forevermore through Jesus Christ. It's a great way to end that letter. So let me that's the end. Can you believe we made it? Well, let me just pray and then I'll give you a chance to respond. Father, thank you that you are God who is able to strengthen us, and that you've promised to strengthen us, and that you save us from our sinfulness, save us from our hopelessness, and give us a destiny and a calling. We pray that you be building us into the church that you want, building us as individuals, as people, as a community and families, making us more and more people who trust you, follow you, and long to know you. And we pray that you would take all the words through this whole semester and write them in our hearts and throw away anything that was confusing or misleading or not according to your words, and just be bringing about your work in our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen.