Sermon Tone Analysis

- There are some people in the world that defy God to the end & make it so, as loud as possible

A Gospel For All

Date: 10-02-19 823 Echuca

- There are some people in the world that defy God to the end & make it so, as loud as possible

- Some people just couldn't care less & are willing to believe in anything

- This fellow here has a picture of a UFO & the words under it says:

“I want to believe”!

- He wants to believe in UFO's – in extraterrestrial life, but not wanting to believe in the Lord!

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- How telling is that, that a person, with no evidence at all for UFO's wants to believe in them!

- Why? What benefit is there with extraterrestrial life?

Is he looking for some kind of outside saviour?

Q.

What is this hope that aliens could be saviours?

- Nearly 90% of extraterrestrial movies, picture beings as those out to destroy you & take your planet from you

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- But the bottom line is that most people will want to believe what they want to believe, whether they have the evidence for, or against it

- We call this bias or ideology

- Human beings aren't as smart as they like to think they are

- They are swayed by the distortions of the knowledge of good & evil

- Not that the knowledge is the problem - men & women are the problem

- We were never built to be God – never had, nor ever will, have the capacity to determine good & evil without reference to God

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- As we come to the final chapter of Romans, we enter what you might consider boring stuff

- It has a lot of personal greetings & the like, but I want you to remember the opening & closing messages in this Epistle because we have here the purpose for which Romans was written

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- That purpose is about the “obedience of faith”

—5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake

—26 but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith

- Some commentators like to think here that faith = obedience

- Some commentators like to think here that faith = obedience

- But others highlight the distinction between the disobedience of the nation of Israel, in contrast with the obedience of the nations of Gentiles – only possible through the work of Jesus Christ as Paul makes clear throughout the book of Romans

- I believe it is rightly understood as a faith that obeys God

- Besides, why does he need to write to a church filled with people of faith, if faith is obedience?

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- This being the purpose of the letter, we then see how relevant this chapter is with all it's greetings to various people

- We are to see in this that the Gospel of Christ is a Gospel to all nations

- The church is ONE body & is made up of different parts

- Throughout the letter, the apostle deals with the exclusive claims of the Jews in that salvation is through the conversion to Judaism with the adoption of the law

- He roundly emphasises that a Gentile does not need to become a Jew in order to be in a right relationship with God – even the Gospels make this point clear

—8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

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- When Paul sends greetings to specific people in the church of Rome, one of the things that will strike you is the variety of people from all walks of life that are believers in Christ

1. Singles/Divorced/Mixed Marriage

- Phoebe seems to be a wealthy woman who was busy serving the church at Cenchrea

- Paul was writing this letter to the Romans from Corinth – that is a mere 13 klms from Cenchrea

- It appears that she had to make a journey to Rome, so Paul got her to deliver this letter to the Romans

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- There has been a lot of conjecture about whether Phoebe is being called a deacon of the church of Cenchrea or a servant of the church at Cenchrea

- Of my mainline translations, you have 8 that say she is a deacon or deaconess & 16 that say she is a “servant” of the church

- The problem is that the word for Deacon & the word for servant are one & the same – the Gk word, diakonos

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- Is is precarious, then, to make a strong case either way here because the same word is used in general of a servant

- The word is used of secular rulers

—4 for he is God’s servant for your good.

But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain.

For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.

- The word is also used of Christ

—8 For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers,

- Clearly, these were not deacons, as such, in the church

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- Phoebe was a woman committed to the Gospel & willing to look after others

- She has been a helper to Paul & many others he says & on that basis, the church at Rome should look after this lady & receive her in the Lord

- In those days - & probably much hasn't changed – there were impostors & charlatans & Paul was making sure, in the letter, that they welcome her warmly

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- As a helper of others, it appears that Phoebe used her wealth & position to aid Christians – it is likely, that the church met in her house where there was a room large enough to cater for a gathering

- The wealthiest Christian house would hold no more than 70-80 for worship

- To grow beyond that meant that that church split up into other house churches

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- Paul, himself, no doubt had need of people in high places in society to be an influence

- This is why Phoebe can be described (v.2) as a patron or benefactor

- Here is a woman that seems to be quite financial & in a position in society that can be of help to God's people

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- She is a part of the church – a Gentile that we could say is from the upper crust

- The Gospel was all important to her & she was obedient to the Spirit of Christ in the way she used her resources & gifts for Christ

- But what is obvious is that it goes well beyond the evidence to say that she was the pastor of the church at Cenchrea

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- We now move on from Phoebe, probably, the courier of this letter

- There is a list of people following that seem to be either single, divorced, or still in a mixed marriage – by that I mean one spouse is Christian & the other isn't

- No doubt, many of those who became Christian in a non-Christian marriage had, sadly, their spouses leave them

- It was not the ideal & Paul encourages Christians in these situations to stay in the marriage, if at all possible

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- The apostle uses superlative words to describe these people

- My beloved, my fellow worker, approved in Christ, workers in the Lord, those who have worked hard in the Lord, chosen in the Lord

- No doubt, Epaenetus was very special to Paul, as he was Paul's first convert to Christ in Asia – he calls him, “my beloved”

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- These people that Paul had known are now residing in Rome

- Most are Gentiles, but some are Jewish, as in Mary – a very Jewish name

- Often, families are involved & it is always greatly encouraging to have your family involved with you in serving the Lord

- The family bond is usually strong & having family members that are Christian, no doubt, increases that bond greatly

- We all feel the pain of having members of our family that are not Christian

- We certainly need to keep up our prayers for them, for who knows what God will do in the future

2. Married Teams

2. Married Teams

- We find, that there are 5 house churches represented here in these greetings & there are 3 married couples who have opened their home up as a meeting place for the church

- The first couple is well-known to us – that of Prisca (or Priscilla) & Aquila

- Paul knew this couple well

- They are living back now in Rome & he is sending them greetings & reminds everyone in the churches of Rome, that they risked their lives for him

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- He originally met them in Corinth & worked alongside them in the tent-making industry

—1 After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.

And he went to see them, 3 and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade.

- Aquila & Priscilla, being Jews, were expelled from Rome with the entire Jewish community

Q.

Why did the Roman Emperor Claudius expel the Jews from Rome?

- There were riots arising from within the Jewish community in Rome

- So Claudius made an edict that expelled Jews from Rome for an entire year (AD 49 – AD 50)

- The Roman historian, Seutonius, says that “the Jews were indulging in constant riots at the instigation of Chrestus”

- Historians understand that this, most likely, means that Christianity had come to Rome & was causing a stir among the Jewish community

- Chrestus, of course, is Latin for Christ

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Q.

What did Paul mean by risked their necks for him?

—18 Paul, having remained many days longer, took leave of the brethren and put out to sea for Syria, and with him were Priscilla and Aquila.

In Cenchrea he had his hair cut, for he was keeping a vow.

- So they journeyed with Paul on a ship back to Syria – it's always risky when you get on a boat with Paul – shipwreck is always a possibility

- But it was not so much the boat that was the risk, but the Jews who opposed Paul & that Aquila & his wife could receive shrapnel as a result