His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): Pastor Matt reminds us people are always watching us and God can use how we live and respond in powerful ways.

Matt VanderVen: Don't ever think your life or what's going on in your life is insignificant. You never know who's watching and what they're watching. You could go to work and you could do the same thing day in and day out, not thinking you're making an impact, but something happens. There's a trial or a storm or something that goes on and you simply behave as Christ has called you to behave.

Not because you're strong, but because you're weak and on your knees you cry out to Jesus. And they see the humility and the brokenness and the simplicity of that and they turn around and go, "That's different. That's original. That's unique. The bologna meters aren't going off." They turn around and they see this and then what happens? "I want some of that. I need some of that."

Guest (Male): Hello again and welcome to His Perfect Love online at HisPerfectLove.org. We're nearing the end of an inspiring journey through Romans. Today we have another look into chapter 16. Some gloss right over this section thinking it's just a list of names but as we'll learn in a moment they were faithful servants of God and their lives speak to us in powerful ways, encouraging us to be faithful in our service as well. Here is Pastor Matt VanderVen starting us off with a husband and wife team that God used in great ways.

Matt VanderVen: Now Paul mentioned, let's look at verse 3. Let's go through some of these names because we will see them and we've read about them before. Paul's mentioned Aquila and Priscilla, right? If you remember they were a husband and wife missionary team. Do you remember where they're from? They are from Pontus, remember that? Where is Pontus? Italy. Where is he writing to? Italy, Rome.

Wait a minute, we just fast forwarded a whole lot here on the second missionary journey. What just happened as he's writing this letter from Corinth? Acts chapter 18, verse 2 if you want to specifically read a little bit more about them in their initial calling. But he first met them on his second missionary journey after ministering some time. Paul dropped them where, do you remember? He dropped them in Ephesus. He dropped Aquila and Priscilla in Ephesus. Acts chapter 18, verse 18 is where we study the book of Acts, you may remember that.

So he leaves them there for the work of the ministry. Now some time has gone on, he's writing this letter and he's mentioning Aquila and Priscilla again. But now they're not in Ephesus. Where are they? Back in Rome. But why weren't they in Rome to begin with? Do you remember why they left Rome to go to Corinth? Persecution. Do you remember Claudius? We read about it that specifically, Claudius had come against— I guess I'll call it a decree of banishment that all Jews in that area had to leave.

And that's why they found their way over in Corinth and that area where Paul met them. And remember they had tent making in common, leather making in common like that. But then we read in history, extra-biblically, when did Claudius die? He died in 54 AD. So any ban that would have been tied to Claudius about the Jews being in Rome or Italy like that would have been what? It would have lapsed, it would have been suspended.

So what it appears to me biblically or chronologically happened is that they're serving in Ephesus. They can't go back to Italy, but obviously that's their home ministry or the place where God had originally called them to. But then they had to flee because they were honoring the government and what have you at that time. And then what happens is Claudius dies, the decree that was becomes banned, it's no longer in act, and what do they do? They return back to Italy and that's where we find them.

I don't know if you ever connected the dots before, but that's where they're back at. Now they're serving faithfully, a beautiful ministry couple, a husband and wife faithfully serving in ministry. I love it. Well look at verse 5, Epaenetus, right? Nowhere else is he mentioned in the New Testament, but we learn a lot about this man. Paul calls him the first fruits of Asia. That gives us a clue what's going on here, right? He was a convert in the Roman province of Asia.

Now I'm going to ask you again, what was the cultural center in the Roman province of Asia? Ephesus. Ephesus. So here we see this man that what Paul's recognizing, here's a man that got saved probably in Ephesus or somewhere near Ephesus, accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, and he now calls him and references him. And where is he now? Faithfully serving in Rome.

Do you see why I think it may be the latter where these may be men and women of esteem, like Aquila or Priscilla, men of influence within their ministry? And God may be using them to say, "Hey look, these are men and women that have taken their lives and surrendered and are serving Christ," and kind of lifting them up and saying, "Look, this could be an example for the eldership in Rome." I don't know for certain, but it seems to build on it because as we study some of these folks, they're prominent men and women.

And I do include women there because sometimes people say, "Well see, only men—" No. No, that's not what we read here. We see men and women faithfully serving the church. And this is a beautiful thing. And married couples, we're also going to see children as part of this, families. This is beautiful. So when people ask you where is an example of that, I love to take them to this passage and say this is a beautiful passage for that.

Mary, look at verse 6. It's a very common name. We don't know specifically who this is, which Mary this is, there's many. Verse 7, Andronicus and Junia, right? Two of Paul's fellow Jews. We know they're Jewish. Now Andronicus is what kind of name? It's a Greek name. So what does that imply? If they're Jews and they're Greek, what do you think they are? Hellenistic Jews. That's what we read between the lines here.

Verse 8, Ampliatus, who is believed to be a slave or a free man. So we see those that even, you might say, were in slavery or those that were bond servants, doulos in the Greek, okay, even serving along. I love this. Those of influence, those without influence, all things in Christ, right? No one's disqualified, everyone's enabled to serve Jesus. It's beautiful.

Verse 9, Urbanus, right? Again, probably a slave or a free man but Paul seems to have known him but only by reputation, not a close relationship like maybe Ampliatus. Why do I say that? Because of the way he references. He says he's our fellow worker, kind of implying like I know Pastor Matt, I go to the church, I hear him on the radio, but maybe I don't personally know him, you know? But I know him by reputation that way or what have you. We know nothing about Stachys.

What about verse 10, Apelles? We know nothing about him other than Paul gives him what a great honor. He says he is approved in Christ, right? What's that describe? Well that describes that in some capacity in his life Paul has been able to witness that he has proven himself during a difficult test of faith or in some capacity he's a respected believer. Again, drawing to the prominence of these men and women that are being listed here.

Verse 11, Herodion, right? A free man and a Jew in the service of one of the Herods. That should sound familiar to us. Herod the Great, the whole family of the Herods, they were wicked, right? The sons and everything that we read about in the Gospels. He was a Herodion, that means he's of the family of Herod. What does that tell you and I here this morning?

It's beautiful. How many of you have folks here that are not saved in your family? Do you have folks that aren't saved, some of you? All right. Loved ones, neighbors, right? You may look upon them and say can they be saved? Is there any hope for them? I mean if you were living at the time of Christ and you watched what the Herods had done to Jesus at two years old, Herod the Great, and then also the Antipas and the whole family and what they had done, wouldn't other saints have turned around and done what? Written them off maybe because of the family line?

"Oh, he's a Herod, he'll never convert. He'll never receive Christ." Somebody loved that man enough to give him the love of Jesus Christ and they didn't judge him because of what he looked like, because of what family he was from, because of his wealth or not wealth, because of his skin color. None of that mattered. He loved them right where he was and he drew them to Jesus. That's real love. We need to have that. We need to have that stirring today. We don't need to put God in a box and limit and somehow think that we are a judge to say what can God do.

What about prodigals? Anybody got prodigals in here? You know what that is, those that are wayward in your family, loved ones, that are not walking with Christ today but you've raised in a spirit. Do you trust the word of God? Do you trust what it says that you're to pray that they will return, right? But they have to know where to return to. That means you stay the course.

Think about that in the parable or the idea of the boy that comes back to the prodigal father. The boy had to know where to return, didn't he? He went out, he spent his fortune, he did all these things, but if the boy didn't know where to find Dad or maybe Mom, okay, but you know where he know to find them? At home. Faithful, waiting, praying every day for that son to come home. Never ever giving up. That's the biblical example we have of the prodigal.

So all of you that have prodigals in your lives, don't you ever give up. Don't you ever give up praying for them. Don't you ever stop to think, "Well maybe my mother, maybe my father, maybe my brother, maybe my sister can't come to Christ." How dare you. How dare you. No one knows what Jesus can do. My God can do anything. He took a Herod and he brought him into the family of Christ. Is anything too hard for our God?

Verse 12, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. If you look in the Greek we can clearly find out these are what? These are freed women, right? These were slaves or freed women. Gender. I love gender. The Bible's not gender neutral. No matter how much they try to change the laws of the land, the Bible is not gender neutral. There are pronouns and they matter. This is the Greek. She's a freed woman. Tradition says that they may have been sisters. Persis also probably a slave or a freed woman, she's a female.

We come to verse 13, we get our boy Rufus. Think about Rufus for a minute. I love that guy. You know why I love him? Because he gives me hope for my family and my children. When I look at Rufus, do you know who he was? He was the son of Simon of Cyrene. Do you know who Simon of Cyrene was? He was the man that along the path of Golgotha as Jesus was being led and carrying the cross, when Jesus fell and was unable to pick up the cross, the Centurion turned and looked into someone in the crowd and tapped them on the shoulder by Roman Providence.

And authority means you disobey this at your life. Basically tapped him on the shoulder and says, "You will carry this man's cross." Do you know why that was so difficult? Because at that time if they had done that, remember that Centurion that might have been there that called him, there's others with them, remember, on either side of the cross there's others that are making this path up to Golgotha for crucifixion. What was his fear? That they were going to think he was one of the prisoners. That they were going to think that he was one of the criminals and that he himself could end up on a cross.

What about his wife? What about his two boys? He had two boys with him, Rufus being one of them. You don't think they were watching? You don't think they were worried about Dad knowing that this could be a reality? I mean after all, what did they do? They just came to Jerusalem for feast day, for Passover. They were just being good Jewish boys in a family. They were coming back as the Jewish faith teaches them to only find themselves in a situation like that. Can you imagine? I mean that's not part of the plan. You know, we all have plans. That's not part of the plan.

You go on vacation only to find out that now you're put in— I mean you're put in a situation like that. You just never know what the Lord has. But here's this father, Simon. He doesn't cower away from it. He picks up that cross and he carries it. I don't know how many steps to the rest he gets to Golgotha. It gets laid down. He sees this man beaten like nobody else has ever been beaten or scourged. The God-man Jesus for you and I. We put him on that cross, our sins.

And he looks upon this man and he sees this man. He sees these two other thieves and neither one of them were beaten anywhere close to what Jesus was beaten as we're told in all of the accounts and extra-biblical accounts in Josephus and everybody, how he was beaten like that. And here he is, he's looking. And Simon looks upon this man and something happened in Simon's heart. He didn't get a great gospel preached to him like Peter in Acts chapter 1 and 2 where the sermon goes forth. Well then what do we do? And they got saved in 3,000 or 5,000, 8,000 by the end of the week get saved and come into the church.

It was because of one man's life. Because the testimony of a life. Because of Jesus Christ and there was no denying it. Even the Centurion eventually, we see even he after piercing the side of Christ, he himself fell and began to believe because he knew there was something different with that God-man that nothing in all the crucifixion— I mean they were experts at this. This is what Rome did, thousands and thousands of them. But there was something different that day. They knew.

They knew. And somehow Simon, he sees this and his boy Rufus is watching it. This is all unfolding before his eyes and Dad's there. And what do I do? It's my Dad. Do you know why this gives me great hope? Because more is caught than taught. It means that I could turn around and I could teach, I could give the best sermons I can do this, but if I don't live it, if I'm not living my life as a Christian, as a true disciple of Christ.

And the converse of that, if I've fallen short but I'm a born again believer now, maybe some of you had children and you were— you raised your children but you weren't saved when you raised them or you weren't really walking with Christ. And you wonder, Lord, is there hope for them? I want you to think a little Rufus. Because Rufus was right there. Rufus watched Dad. Rufus watched the commitment of all that and because of that Rufus got saved.

And not only did he get saved, Rufus went into the ministry. And he ended up moving to Rome and leaving that whole area for Christ. You never know. Don't ever think your life or what's going on in your life is insignificant. You never know who's watching and what they're watching. You could go to work and you could do the same thing day in and day out, not thinking you're making an impact, but something happens. There's a trial or a storm or something that goes on and you simply behave as Christ has called you to behave.

Not because you're strong, but because you're weak and on your knees you cry out to Jesus. And they see the humility and the brokenness and the simplicity of that and they turn around and go, "That's different. That's original. That's unique. The bologna meters aren't going off." They turn around and they see this and then what happens? "I want some of that. I need some of that." And Rufus, his boy gets saved and becomes— and now Rufus' kids, they're going to watch Dad grow up.

Any PK kids? How many pastors, their kids end up— that's why this is a hope for me. Because no matter if I blow it, if my teachings, a sermon, whatever, if I can live for Jesus, if I'm dead to myself, if I can live to Jesus, I believe even if my kids go wayward they will come home. That's my only hope. All my kids are walking with Christ, praise God right now. One's going off to college. We're going to find out where his faith is. We're going to find out what he believes.

Because without the tests you don't really know where you are. Don't hate the pop quizzes. We all hate pop quizzes in school, didn't we? You know, your stomach gets all anxious, you get the butterflies. Or some of you are just like, I don't care, you know, you just— I'll just draw on it. I'm not going to tell you which one I was. But some people get nervous and they worry about the test, but I'll tell you what, it's during those tests you find out who you are because of that self-examination.

You find out more about yourself. You know, when you think you've conquered anger and you think you've conquered sin in certain ways and then something happens and you're in a storm and you feel it come out or bubble. Where did that come out from? I didn't know that was in there. You learn more about yourself during those moments. My pastor told me that and I'm never going to forget it. I'm never going to forget it. Nobody's arrived. Don't hate the tests. You want to pass the tests because unlike James, you don't want to do it over and over again, right?

Well back to our passage here. So clearly, you know, Rufus is the man. Verse 14, we know nothing specifically about these five folks here, Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, and Hermas. Verse 15, Philologus and Julia. Philologus was obviously with this feminine person, Julia. It suggests to most scholars that they were husband and wife. And because we see this connection in the Greek, the way it's written, Nereus and his sister Olympas describes to us what we would believe to be their children. This is a ministry family.

So when you're looking for a ministry family, look at verse 15. When you're looking for a husband and wife, look at verse 3 and verse 15. But it's all through scripture. Verse 16, now Paul— and I love Paul, he adds this catch-all phrase, right? Greet one another. Just in case he forgot anybody, right? Just in case there was somebody he should have been 27, you know, or 28. He just puts it in there, you know, and he says to greet him with a kiss.

Now some of you know at the fellowship here we don't do that. We don't greet each— you all can, but we don't greet each other, leadership, elders, pastors don't greet anybody with— we don't hug, right? Why? We're against the appearance of evil. We don't want any possibility of that to even erode the church. No matter what we do, I assure you there will always be accusations. There will always be things that will be brought no matter what you do.

Because even when you say I don't want to hug a woman that way, right? Please don't any of you ever be offended. I love you all. I'm just not going to hug you, but I'm doing that for your protection and for mine so that we can stand before Christ blameless and so that if there's a brother or sister in the flock that could stumble because of that they're not stumbled. Beautiful, right?

But for some of us that's difficult, isn't it? I'm Italian, right? In my family growing up we kissed everybody, right? Kissed them on the cheek. I kissed my dad on the cheek, my dad kissed me on the cheek on the way to school. It's just what we did. Some of you don't have to be Italian. You're adopted Italian. You did the same thing in your German family or whatever you are, right?

You just express your love, there's nothing wrong with that. At that time, very, very important, that was culturally norm and specifically if you were a Jew as well, very affectionate. When it came time for a shalom, for peace, you would in the first century like that, you would greet each other with a kiss. And it was always a kiss on the cheek, a brotherly or sisterly kiss. It was to be a kiss of affection. And he says you're to do that. There's nothing inappropriate here. It's a kiss of peace and that's what it meant. And if you think back to Jesus, what was he betrayed with? A kiss. It's interesting.

Verse 17, now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause division and offenses. Again, what just happened? Hang on. We just went through this list of names, you're just going, okay, we're closing, things look like it's coming to the end. You all are like, "Yes, Pastor Matt's finally done." No. But we're closing and then all of a sudden he goes, "Wait a minute, brothers and sisters, hang on." This is very unique and very important that he did this because he's— I believe it was for you and I today. I believe this very much for you and I today.

He says now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause division and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you learned. What's he saying? Contrary to the Bible, contrary to what you have learned, contrary to your discipleship, he says watch them. And he says I want you to do something. He's very clear here and I know this is difficult. What's he say to do? You're to avoid them.

For those who are such do not serve— he gives you two reasons here. He says they don't serve the Lord Jesus Christ first but their own belly, with smooth words and flattering speech deceiving the hearts of the simple. For your obedience has become known to all, therefore I am glad on your behalf, but I want you to be wise in what is good and simple concerning evil. And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ will be with you. Amen.

And so what do we see here? Paul gives a warning, a promise, and a prayer. That's the three things we see in this one section. Some of you may have this broken out in your Bibles. Some of you may have it all in one section in your Bible. I break it out in mine because I see what the Holy Spirit's doing here to me, it's like three different sections in one section. The first one is obviously he's warning of false teachers, verses 17 through 19. You see that?

The second one is he talks about this promise of deliverance that will come and that's in verse 20 or has come already really. And then the prayer of grace that we see in really verse 20 but latter half of that passage B. And it's interesting, again remember I mentioned in my introduction, Paul doesn't specifically name the pastor or the under shepherd here or the heretic. He doesn't specifically do that. Why? Paul was not shy. Paul was not afraid to go, it's a Judaizer or it's this person or it's Peter or it's whoever, right?

"Peter, why are you not eating? You're being hypocritic. How come all of a sudden when the church from Jerusalem come to eat you now won't sit with the Gentiles?" Paul was not shy. Okay that way, he was respectful but he wasn't shy. What do we see here? Well first, I don't think he uses specifics because he'd rather categorize them. That way you and I today can use these same categorizations to be Bereans, to be on guard, to be watching for these things.

Guest (Male): We'll hear more about this warning, promise, and prayer next time on His Perfect Love when Pastor Matt VanderVen will conclude this book of Romans. I'll remind you each study in the series have been archived for you at HisPerfectLove.org and OnePlace.com. And if you enjoyed today's message we'd like to know. Email us at our website HisPerfectLove.org and be sure to include your prayer requests.

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His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.