ROMANS 16 WORK TOGETHER FOR THE GOSPEL2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Romans 16 Work Together For The Gospel

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015.

And we are here in Romans chapter 16, and very exciting. We'll get to finish up the book of Romans this evening and look at this final chapter from the Apostle Paul and the things that he has to say in closing to the church there at Rome. And so we're going to start out this evening by reading verses 1 through 16. And we're going to start out this evening by reading verses 1 through 16.

And it may not initially seem incredibly exciting to you, but I do believe that this is where God has us and he has some important things to share with us this evening. So bear with us and look forward to what God has to say as we look at these things. Romans chapter 16, and let's start in verse 1. It says, I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the church in Centuria.

that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints and assist her in whatever business she has need of you. For indeed, she has been a helper of many and of myself also. Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risk their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Verse 5.

Verse 8. Verse 8.

Verse 1.

Verse 14.

Greet Asyncretus, Philophlegon, I didn't practice these ones, Hermes, Petrobus, Hermes, and the brethren who are with them. Greet Philologus and Julia, Nerus and his sister, and Olympus and all the saints who are with them. Then verse 16, greet one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ greet you. Here, as Paul often does in his letters, he closes the book with a

greetings and addressing the people that he knows there in the church of Rome. And as we look at this, of course, we can look at this and understand, well, it's a bunch of names. And we can, you know, think that, well, there's not much here in the sense of, you know, there's not much doctrine here. There's not much theology here. There's not much going on in those kinds of things. And yet,

It caused me to consider as I was pouring over this passage and meditating on it, knowing that God would have us be here in Romans chapter 16 this evening, I began to wonder and consider why did God choose to use letters to make up the New Testament? I think it's interesting for us to consider. I think it's something important that God wants to teach us through that.

Understand that God didn't have to use letters. This was a letter that Paul wrote to the church at Rome. And so at the beginning of the book of Romans, if you remember back that far in chapter one, we saw all the introduction and Paul introducing himself and talking about his plans to go to Rome. And we talked a little bit about that last week as well. And so there's a lot of personal things

that are maybe not so relevant to us. He was telling them what his plans were and he's gonna go here and then he's gonna go there and then he's gonna go to Rome and here's his plans after that. And so all of those things are included because this was a personal letter that Paul wrote

to the church at Roman. And why would God choose to use that type of material or literature to compose the New Testament? If you compare it to the Old Testament, it's a little bit different, isn't it? The prophet Jeremiah, the book of Jeremiah is not a letter from Jeremiah to Jerusalem.

but it's a record of the prophecies of Jeremiah. It's a record of the teachings of Jeremiah and the ways that God spoke to him and ministered to him and through him. And God could have done that for the New Testament as well. Paul could have sat down and written a book on the gospel.

without making it a letter. He could have went through all of the doctrine and all the things that we've been going through for this past year and gone into all those details without making it, you know, a personal letter from him to the church itself.

Rome. And so why would God choose to do it differently here in the New Testament and to use so many letters of these men to make up the Bible that we have today? And I believe there's a message there for us in that, and that is that God wanted us to see those relationships. That Christianity is not just about just the facts or just the doctrine or just the theology. And

And the Bible is not meant to be just a book of, you know, and you'll notice the scripture is not organized that way, right? You don't turn to the book of love or the book of, you know, the doctrine of God, that it's intertwined. It's woven into the message. It's woven into the accounts and the records and the history that is there. And it's woven into these personal letters that

that Paul and Peter and James and John wrote to various people in congregations. And I believe that sincerely that God wanted us to see the relationships that were intertwined with their faith and their walk with Jesus Christ.

And I just see it as so timely. God organizes these things in an interesting way, doesn't he? Because, you know, as Corson often says, we are where we are in the word. And again, I believe this is a message that God has for us this evening, that he wants us to consider and contemplate our relationships as believers in Jesus Christ.

And so I found it extra interesting on Sunday when David Downs spoke. And then I didn't know what he was going to teach on until Sunday morning. And then he shared with me that, you know, he wanted to teach about friendship and

And he, you know, spent some time talking about the importance of friendship for us as believers, friendship with God, friendship with one another, and friendship with the world around us. And so there is this theme, you know, that God has just been presenting to us and putting upon our hearts that

that relationships are really important and that our relationships with one another are important. And he wants to do something with that. He wants to work in the midst of that and minister to us through that. And so I titled the message this evening, Work Together for the Gospel.

It's not just you and Jesus. God's not designed us to function that way. We are the body of Christ. He's designed us to be interdependent, to be needing one another and others needing us. He's designed us to work together together.

For the gospel. And as we've been studying the gospel throughout this whole book, from the very beginning, Paul's been talking about the gospel, the need for the gospel, what the gospel is, how it works, you know, and what it does, how it impacts our life. As we saw the application and implications over the past couple of chapters. Now we wrap it up with the reminder that it's not just about all that doctrine and all those truths and all those details. It's about the gospel.

But then we're to live those things out together. And it's together that we bring forth that gospel message and develop it further in each other's lives, but then also to the world around us. And so as we look at this chapter this evening, there's four points I'll walk you through, but really focusing here in the first part in verses 1 through 16 with point number one, and that is develop many kinds of relationships, right?

And I really want to encourage you this evening to consider these things as we look at the example of the Apostle Paul. You need to have many kinds of relationships in your spiritual walk. You need to have relationships with all kinds of believers in all kinds of different contexts in order to really be fruitful.

We, of course, can consider what Jesus talked about as far as abiding in the vine in John chapter 15, and God's desire is for you to bear much fruit. And as I was thinking about that idea of bearing much fruit and being fruitful, I was also considering the idea of cross-pollination. I don't know if you're familiar with cross-pollination, but here's a quick chart to kind of just

quick briefing. And by the way, this is about the extent of my knowledge. I don't really know these things. Even though I worked the garden section at Walmart, I didn't know anything. I just made stuff up as I went. But here's some thoughts to consider. If you're going to plant a fruit tree and you want it to be fruitful, well, you have to plant not just one tree. One fruit tree all by itself will not be fruitful. In order for a fruit tree to be fruitful, it has to have other kinds of fruit trees around it. And

And it also is very dependent upon what kind of trees are around it. So you can't just have a fruit tree all by itself, and you can't have two fruit trees that are exactly the same next to each other in order for them to be fruitful. There needs to be what is this cross-pollination. That is where the pollen is brought from different kinds of trees and exchanged between these different trees.

And so there's nurseries and stuff that will give you all kinds of information about what kind of trees and what kind of vegetation you need to have around so that your tree can be as fruitful as possible. And so I grabbed this cross-pollination chart for apple trees off one of the nursery websites.

And just to kind of walk you through it. So if you look at, you know, the Braeburn apple, which I've never heard of, it walks you through. So if you have a Braeburn apple tree, you could plant a Cortland apple tree, and that would be effective at cross-pollinating and helping it to be fruitful. But you couldn't put another Braeburn apple tree next to it, and it...

expect it to be fruitful. They're not going to cross-pollinate if it's the exact same one. But you could put a Fuji or a Gala, almost anything else except for Golden Delicious, and it would be effective at cross-pollinating, and both trees then would be fruitful.

And so you can walk down the line there. You can see the Cortland and the Fuji, the Gala, all those different ones. And they all interrelate differently. They all have different aspects and are able to cross-pollinate differently. But there's one thing that's common through all of these. And I'd like to highlight that for you. If you notice the diagonal all the way across, what that's saying is that no apple tree can be with identical apple trees only and be fruitful.

So if the Braeburn apple trees, if that's all that there are is Braeburn apple trees, they will not be fruitful. Or if it's all Fuji apple trees, they will not be fruitful. Or if it's all Gala apple trees, they will not be fruitful and so on and so forth. That there has to be a different kind around them. There has to be some variety around them in order for there to be fruitfulness. And I think that paints a picture for us as we consider these greetings of the Apostle Paul.

That we also, in order to be fruitful, yes, we first of all, most important, we must abide in the vine. We must abide in Jesus Christ. Even beyond that, we also need relationships with other believers. And the picture that I'm painting here is that if we only have relationships with people exactly like us, and it's only the same people all the time, it's going to limit our fruitfulness.

And that there needs to be some variety, I believe. And so that's what I want to highlight here as we look at these. Not so much focusing on the specific people that Paul is addressing, and we often actually don't know a lot about these specific people, but looking at the types of relationships that he's referring to here and getting a better understanding for the types of relationships that we ought to have in our lives as well. So we start in verse 1.

And Paul says, By the way, I know I'm probably pronouncing all the names wrong, and that's okay. As long as you pronounce them with confidence, that's all that counts. That's all that matters. It doesn't matter if it's the original authentic way. So Phoebe is the way I pronounce it. She's from Centuria.

which is near Corinth, where Paul is as he's writing this letter. And so Phoebe actually is probably the woman who carried this letter to Rome. And so as she brought this letter to Rome, now he's commending her to the Romans and saying, hey, help her out. She's a sister. But notice it says that she's a servant of the church in Centuria.

In verse 2, he says that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints and assist her in whatever business she has need of you. For indeed, she has been a helper of many and of myself also. And so Phoebe is...

a servant of the church. She's involved in ministry. She's engaged in ministry. And so I'm going to call this first group fellow workers in Christ. This is the kind of relationship or one kind of relationship that we need to have. We need to be friends with, we need to interact with, we need to know and engage with those who are fellow workers in Christ. Do you have someone like Phoebe in your life that, that,

It says, you know, she's been a helper of many, including myself. That she's a servant. She's involved in the ministry. And she's been involved in helping you. Now, it doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a woman. But

But do you have someone like that in your life, someone who's a fellow worker? And perhaps even more, as we look at the next couple, Priscilla and Aquila, someone that you've actually engaged in ministry with. In verse 3, he says, Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, verse 4, who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.

And so here Paul greets Priscilla and Aquila. Now this is a strong, solid couple. I mean, this is as strong and solid as they come. We have them mentioned six times in the New Testament. They were significant. They were part of the work of God and a great blessing to the Apostle Paul. But then he also says to all the churches of the Gentiles. And so this was a couple that just really made an impact. And they really ministered to a lot of people.

They were originally from Rome, and we know this from Acts chapter 18, but they left Rome when Caesar Claudius drove out and commanded that all the Jews depart from Rome. But now they've been able to go back. But since that time, they've been with the Apostle Paul, they've been in Ephesus, they've been in Corinth, and they've been to these different places, and they've really made an impact. Now, we know from the book of Acts chapter 18 that they were tent makers like Paul, and so they

They were co-laborers in the sense of they were making tents together. But even more importantly, they were co-laborers because they did ministry together. They worked together. They reached out together. They discipled people together. They ministered to cities together and brought the gospel to new places together. They were engaged in ministry. They were fellow workers in Christ.

In verse 5, it goes on to say, likewise, greet the church that is in their house. And so now as they've gone back to Rome, they've continued that ministry. And they've established a church that meets in their home. And whether or not they were leading that or pastoring that, we don't know exactly. But they were hosting it at the very least. And the people were meeting there in their home. And they were being ministered to there in Rome.

And so this is a strong couple, a solid couple, fellow workers in Christ. And I would ask you to consider if you have a couple like that,

in your life? Do you have a husband and wife team in your life that you're friends with, that you know, that you spend time with, that you engage with, that they're just solid, that they minister, that they bless, that they work together with you perhaps and help accomplish or that you come alongside them and help accomplish ministry and bring the gospel or do the things that God has called us to do as the church. Do you have that kind of relationship in your life, that kind of couple in your life?

Well, going on in verse 5, he says, "'Greet my beloved Eponidas, who is the firstfruits of Achaia to Christ.'"

And so the first group we looked at is fellow workers. And these are people where we work together. And here at Living Water, I think we're real comfortable amongst that group. We have a lot of that because we all work together. We join together. We do things like light the night. And we do things like Meridian and different events, the Christmas play, all those things. We join together frequently. And so perhaps that's one that kind of comes easy for us, those fellow workers working

in Christ. But here's another one to consider, Eponatus. He said he's the first fruits of Achaia to Christ. Now, Achaia was a region where Paul was at in Corinth. And as Paul went there and ministered, Eponatus was part of the first people to respond to the gospel message. And so now we can look at perhaps another group we would consider as disciples.

Those who we've ministered to, those who we have discipled, those who we have raised up, younger believers that we have been an instrumental part of their relationship with God and helping them to grow. And I see this as an important aspect for us as well. Do you have someone like this in your life? Do you have someone that is younger in the faith? Someone that is, well, their spiritual walk is, of course, not perfect.

you know, you're doing because it's all the work of God and the Holy Spirit, right? But at the same time that you've been instrumental, that God has allowed you to be a part of bringing them to relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ.

God has used you to, you know, disciple them and teach them maybe some of the basics of the Christian faith or how to have devotional life or how to, you know, spend time with God or seek the Lord or get involved and discover what gifts they have and how they're, you know, able to be used by the Lord or, you know, whatever the case may be. But you've been part of their formation, their spiritual foundation, right?

Do you have someone like that in your life? And I would suggest to you that we need people like that in our lives. As we're ministering and raising up and building up others around us, that's something that God uses tremendously in us to refresh us and refine us and to develop us even further as we're pouring into someone else. And of course, it is the great commission to make disciples. And so I would encourage you to consider this. Who are you

pouring into? Who is your disciple? Not that you're teaching them, you know, to be exactly like you, but you're teaching them to follow Christ in the same way that you seek to follow Christ. You need to have some disciples. You need to have someone that you're pouring into and raising up like Eponatus, the first fruits of Achaia to Christ.

Well, then in verse 6, he says, And so I'm going to put Mary in the fellow workers in Christ category as well and say she was another woman who is part of the work. She was joining with Paul, and she did much to bless him. Do you have that kind of person in your life? Someone who's come alongside of you? Someone who has been involved and engaged in the work of the Lord with you? Verse 7 says,

Here, Paul introduces another couple, Andronicus and Junia. He says, they're my countrymen, which probably means that they were fellow Jews. And so it's a husband and wife team again. And he says that they are of note among the apostles. Now, that could mean two things. And

Bible scholars are kind of divided between what their opinion is on this. It could mean that they're called apostles.

that Andronicus and Junia are apostles, and not in the apostle sense, you know, as we might think of as Peter, James, and John, and that, but like missionaries, and they're called the sent out, they're church planters. And so they are ones who are, you know, appointed to be missionaries and church planters by the Holy Spirit. And so, you know, they're noted, you know, amongst all the missionaries, they stand apart. They're of note among the apostles. And

but it also couldn't just mean that they have a good reputation among the apostles. So if you ask Peter, James, and John about them, they'll say, oh yeah, that's a good couple. They're really strong. They walk with the Lord, you know, that kind of report that they might have among them. So you could take your pick and take it either way. But the part I'd like to highlight here is at the end of verse seven, he says, who also were in Christ before me.

And I think this introduces for us another group of people that we need to have in our lives, and that is older believers. And just like we need to have those younger believers and those that we are discipling, you need to have some older believers in your life. Those who are older, not necessarily by age, although often that goes along with it, but those who have some maturity, some season of spending time with God for life.

Well, a longer duration than you have. They've walked with God for longer than you have. You need those kinds of people in your life. Those who can speak into your life with experience. Not just life experience, but experience with the Lord and experience with the things of God. And the practical application of the word of God is one of the amazing ways that older believers can really help us to go forward in our relationship with God. That they've

had to figure out how these things impact them and apply to them. And so there's that need for that to be communicated on to us as well. And Titus, well, when Paul was writing to Titus, you remember he told the older women to be teaching the younger women how to do the things, how to live out the Christian life. And there is that need for the older believers, the more seasoned believers to be teaching and training the younger believers to

But even if that's not happening for you, well, then there's opportunity for you to seek out those who are more seasoned in the faith, those who've been walking with the Lord for a long time. And I would encourage you to make sure that you develop relationships with those who are older in

in the faith. Those who've been around for longer than perhaps you've even been alive, but they've been walking with the Lord, right? And it's really important for us to have those kinds of people. Do you have someone like that in your life? Someone who can teach you from experience, from walking with God for many years? Well, then in verse 8, we go on. He says,

And I see this as another group that we need to also have in our lives. And that is, we need to have some beloved friends. You know, we have mentors. We have those that we're discipling. We have those that we're raising up. Those are all important. But we also need to have just really good friends.

Friends that we just love. Friends that we just care for. That meeting together, gathering together is not necessarily, you know, a discipleship session or, you know, we have to work through something or go through something or, you know, but we can just be beloved friends and share a love for one another. And I don't believe that Paul uses this word beloved lightly, that he's just kind of throwing it around. But this is someone, we don't know anything about him, but this is someone that Paul loved.

This is someone that was dear to his heart. This was someone that he cared for greatly. And we need to have those kinds of relationships as well. Do you have someone like that in your life that you would say, that's my beloved? I mean, maybe it's kind of awkward for us as guys, you know, especially like, hey, my beloved Harvey. But at the same time, we need that. We need that.

We need to grow in that love for one another and in developing those relationships. Now, having a beloved friend doesn't happen overnight. And it doesn't happen by saying hi. And then after service, you say hi. Nice to see you. And then you hit the car and you leave.

beloved friends, that's developed over time together, that you're spending time together, that you've gone through things together, that you've held each other through difficulties and rejoiced together through victories, and you've experienced things together, and that bond is created, and that love is, you know, grown in those ways, and so it's not something that just you just do. Okay.

I need to get a beloved friend today. Found one. All right. Check that off and move on. No. It's something you're going to be working towards and working on and bringing people near and being vulnerable. And it's all those kinds of things which can be really freaky for us. But it's such a need. You need to have some beloved friends. And as we talk about these kinds of relationships, if it's not clear, if it's not already automatic, let me just make it clear and state these need to be believers.

You need to have beloved friends who are believers, other Christians that you can walk with, that you can share the realities of who you are and what you struggle with and what you rejoice in and all of those things. You need to have those kinds of relationships. Do you have someone like that in your life?

Well, going on to verse 9, he says, And so these are groups that we've talked about already. Fellow workers in Christ, Paul had a lot of those. He always had people around him, and we'll see that even further in the passage this evening. And then another beloved, Stachys. And this is someone that Paul loves. And so he had these relationships of beloved friends and fellow workers. Verse 10.

And then verse 11.

And so here in these two verses, of course, we have a couple individuals, Apellas and Herodian. These are people that Paul knew and fellow Jews, approved in Christ. They're co-labors with him. But what stood out in a new group for us to consider here in verse 10 and 11 is families, Christian families. He says, those who are of the household of Aristobulus in verse 10. And then in verse 11, he talks about the household of Narcissus.

You know, there's an interesting dynamic when you're around a Christian family. It's one thing for me and Richard to go hang out, have lunch together, and we could be beloved friends.

to hang out and be together as family or be part of their family or be gathering together as families, it's a whole different dynamic. And I see it as important. I remember this growing up as I was raised in a Christian home. My parents always sought out other families that we could spend time with, and that's

big part of the reason why we actually came to Living Water. Because one of the families that our family developed a relationship with was Pastor Tom's sister, Cindy and Ron, and their kids. And we were friends, and we gathered together. And we would get together, seriously, like three or four times a week, apart from church. Like, we were all homeschooled, and so it was real easy for us. And we would just...

you know, be together and we would learn and grow and develop and minister to one another and encourage one another. But we'd also get to see

The different dynamics of a family, of how a husband and wife relate to one another, and how mom and dad relate to the kids, and how all of that functions and works. And it portrays for us. It shows us so many truths and teaches us so many important things about our relationship with God and walking with God and the way that God works. And so I would encourage you, do you have any families like that in your life that you're able to just hang out with the whole family that's believers? It's not always the case.

But there are those families that they're saved. They're walking with the Lord. And you've got old to young and all kinds of different things happening in each of the different age groups and the different seasons of life that they're in. And there's an element of great truths that are found in there. There's things that God will teach you through that. And it's important to have those kinds of families in your life as well. Well, then in verse 12,

He says,

These are also fellow workers in Christ. All three of these names are ladies. And it seems like there was a lot of ladies who had, you know, important roles and significant impact in ministry. We've already seen a few of them. Here's three more. We saw the ladies in the ministry of the life of Jesus as well. And so just a quick reminder, you know, ladies, you have an important part of the plan of God, the work of God, and God wants to use you greatly in the kingdom of God.

Verse 13, greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. And I think this introduces for us another group, not focusing on Rufus, but his mom. And I don't know about you, but I've had throughout the years my share of spiritual moms. And I think we need that. We need those moms in our lives, those who will care for us, those who will, you know, maybe we'll

minister to us or speak to us in ways that only moms can. Moms have a way of being able to kind of cut to the heart, but in a gentle way. And moms have a way of speaking with great authority and yet being so soft about it and being able to bring correction or instruction or insight in a way that is important. And so we don't know anything about Rufus. Paul

Paul is not saying that him and Rufus are brothers and this is his mom biologically that he's talking about. This is someone he's hung out with, Rufus, and he spent time with him. And Rufus's mom as a believer has ministered to Paul and been like a second mother to him or maybe a third or fourth or fifth mother. But you get the point. She's fulfilled that role in his life and ministered to him in that way. And he's received that and he's able to express that

And so he's been impacted by her. And so I would encourage you to consider that as well. Do you have someone like that in your life? Do you have a spiritual mom, maybe some spiritual parents, you know, people who can speak into your life in a different way, you know, in a way that your parents perhaps would speak to you or minister to you, but, but

but in the body of Christ, there are those who would be able to come alongside of you in that role of mom or dad and minister to you in a different way than some of those other relationships.

Well, then in verse 14 and 15, I'm not going to try to butcher their names again. But he says, greet all these people and the brethren who are with them. And then verse 15, greet these other people and all the saints who are with them. And here I'll just put the final group, and that is people you know by name. There's a lot of variety in our relationships, right? And sometimes the only thing we know about each other is the name, you know? And so you see that person, you know their name, and it doesn't go beyond that. And that's OK, right?

But my encouragement to you this evening is you need to have all these kinds of relationships. And so if you only have people that you know by name, so you see their face, you know their name, you know, you maybe know if they're a Dodger fan or an Angel fan, but that's about it based on, you know, the clothing that they're wearing or whatever. But

But if that's all that you have as far as relationships with other believers, then you're going to be limited on your fruitfulness. And again, going back to the example or the parallel of the fruit tree, the apple trees,

The apple trees, they need a variety of different trees around them. It can't just be the same type of tree around it in order for it to be fruitful. And the same is true for us. You need to have a variety, many kinds of relationships. Those that you link arms with to do the work of ministry, fellow workers in Christ, you join together with them and you're accomplishing things that God has set before you.

those that you are not so much linking arms with to do the work, but you're pouring into to help build them and teach them how to walk with the Lord. But then also those who are older than you that are able to help you navigate the season of life that you're in and develop the things in you that need to be developed. And the beloved friends where, you know, it's not necessarily that we have to work or do something together.

but we can have sweet fellowship together. And we have that closeness, that love between one another. And then the families and the relationships that's there, the moms or dads. And then, of course, there's all the people that we know by name. And as we have these different kinds of relationships in our life,

God uses all of those in different ways in us to help produce fruit. The Holy Spirit is at work. And of course, the Holy Spirit produces fruit, right? Galatians chapter 5 says. But I think often we think of just, you know, ourselves. Okay, I just have myself. I have my Bible. I have Jesus and I have the Holy Spirit in me. And so now this fruit is going to be produced. And then sometimes we wonder why we're not fruitful. Well,

I believe that God wants us to have these kinds of relationships in our lives, that we need these kinds of relationships. And again, these things, many of them, they don't happen overnight, but they're things that we have to pursue. They're things that we have to work on and go out of our way. And so if we only, you know, connect for two or three minutes before service or after service or, you know, see each other on Facebook and that's the extent of our relationship,

There's not going to be that depth. There's not going to be that fruitfulness. There needs to be some more depth. Now, we can't have that kind of depth with everybody, but there needs to be those that we're able to really connect with and minister to and receive ministry from them. Well, he goes on in verse 16 to say, greet one another with a holy kiss, the churches of Christ.

greet you. And this was their custom in their culture. You know, they would greet one another with a kiss. That still continues with many cultures today. In fact, with my wife's family, many times at Christmas or at Thanksgiving when we're together with the family, it's a little bit awkward for me. But, you know, sometimes the greeting will be with a kiss. And it's interesting. It's not normal. But, you know, typically we here do hugs or handshakes or fist bumps or, you know,

pinky promises or anything. You know, we do all kinds of variety of things, but that's the idea. It's just to express that love for one another, to greet one another, to express, you know, the care for one another is something that's important. And so we need to work together for the gospel in order for that to happen. You know, to apply all the things that we've been studying through Romans, we need to develop love

these different kinds of relationships, to cross-pollinate in the very cleanest sense of the term, that we're to have these interactions with one another as believers in Jesus Christ. And so consider these relationships. And if you don't have them, if there's maybe some that are missing, I would encourage you to seek those out, pursue those, and see what God might open up for you to be able to minister to and receive ministry from different believers in the body of Christ.

Well, let's move on in the chapter. We'll go through the rest of the chapter a little bit more briefly. Verses 17 through 20, we have point number two, and that is to avoid those who destroy relationships. And so it's kind of the counterpoint to what we've just been talking about. Our relationships with each other are very important to God.

that he desires for us to have these kinds of relationships, and it's offensive to him when these relationships are broken, when there is division among them. You might remember in John chapter 17,

In Jesus's prayer for his disciples, this was as he was headed to the cross, his kind of final prayer, checking in with the father. One of the main themes of his prayer was unity between believers. In John chapter 17, verse 20, Jesus says, I do not pray for these alone, talking about his 12 disciples, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.

that they all may be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. Jesus here in his final prayer, he prays specifically for this oneness. And this is just a little snippet of it, but you can see this woven throughout his whole prayer.

And as he prays for this unity, for this oneness, he also prays so that as we are one and united together, that the world may believe that you sent me. The world believing in Jesus is united.

partially the result of the unity and the oneness of believers. And so this is something very important to Jesus. He spent his final prayer focusing on this oneness and these relationships that we're to have with one another and the impact of the gospel that that will bring to the world around us. And so because we see this as such an important thing to Jesus, of course, we should not be surprised that

that if there is a division or a break of those relationships, a break of that unity, that, well, that it's something that God is against. And if God is so for these kinds of relationships, it's also not a surprise if it's strongly opposed by Satan. And there is consistent, continual attempts by the enemy to bring division into the body of Christ. And so that's what Paul addresses here. Let's look at verse 17 through 20. It says, now,

Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you learned and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly. And by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.

Verse 20. Now again, since we see this unity in these relationships are very important to God.

It's not surprising that the enemy will come against them very strongly. And yet, as the enemy makes this attempt, Paul has some confidence in verse 20. He says, Satan is going to come in and attempt to remove peace. But God, the God of peace, will crush him under your feet.

And so we need to pay attention to those times when there is an attempt to divide us, recognizing this is not a work of God, but this is a work of Satan. This is a work of the enemy. Paul tells us in verse 17 to take note of those who cause divisions and offenses. So you're watching Dave Burnt and you start taking notes.

Look what he's doing in dividing, putting Harvey against Richard and causing there to be friction, causing there to be enemies within the church. Paul says, note those who cause divisions and offenses. And then at the end of verse 17, he says, and avoid them. So he says, look, pay attention, have your eyes open and take note. Think about, pay attention to when there's conflict within the body of Christ, pay attention to that. And as you take note of it,

Well, learn to avoid those who are causing those things. God wants you to value friendship and to value unity so much that you're willing to separate from those who would damage it.

It seems kind of contradictory, right? Love unity so much that you're willing to separate. But that's the reality is that the enemy, we're not living in the spiritual fantasy where everybody's always friends and everybody always does the right thing and has the right motivations. We're living in the midst of a battlefield and the enemy will seek to bring in those who will disrupt and divide and cause problems within the body of Christ, right?

And so we need to take note of those who cause divisions. When there are people who are instigating problems and difficulties and issues within the body of Christ. Now, he does make sure to point out here in verse 17, he says it's contrary to the doctrine which you learned. And so as we talk about our fellowship and our friendship and our relationships with one another, it's centered around doctrine. Specifically, centered around the gospel doctrine.

And believing the gospel and having the truth of the gospel is enough for us to be friends. But when there is a division or offense or contention that's contrary to the gospel, then that's where the real issues lie.

And so we need to be careful that we're not just saying, you know, if there's any kind of disagreement, you know, note that person never, you know, no, no, no. We can have disagreements and we can have different opinions and we can, you know, even feel strongly about those opinions.

but we should still love one another and maintain friendship with one another until there's an issue with the doctrine, until there's an issue with the core elements of the Christian faith. And when there is the, the cause or the, the attempt to bring division and offenses regarding the things that are core to us as believers, the gospel message is,

Well, Paul says, you need to pay attention to that. That's serious stuff. And stay away from those who would try to bring in those kinds of divisions and offenses.

And so you can have different opinions. You can root for the Angels or the Dodgers, and you can disagree and shout at each other all you want over that. But we do need to be careful about those who would come in and cause us or call people to choose sides. And that's what the idea of divisions is.

that there's many times I've seen it in my time in the church. There are those who try to call people to themselves and try to make a division between different groups within the body of Christ. And that's a ploy. That's an attempt. That's a technique of the enemy. Paul warned the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20. He says, look, after I leave, I know savage wolves are going to come in. They're not going to spare the flock.

And they're going to speak all kinds of vile things, perverse things to draw people after themselves. And so he says, so therefore watch, pay attention, take note, because there will be those attempts. And so as we have these relationships, we need to have the beloved friends. We need to have the moms and the older, you know, believers and the disciples that we're raising up. And it doesn't mean that we're always on guard and we're always fighting and we're always, you know, ready for battle, that kind of thing. But

But we need to have our eyes open and be aware that not everybody that we relate to is actually a sheep, but there are going to be some savage wolves. And take note when you see those kinds of things happening, when you see divisions start to take place, when you see people calling for a separation between people or calling people to choose sides or offenses. Now, Paul's writing to a group of believers in Rome who are Jews and Gentiles, right?

And we've dealt a lot with that over the past couple weeks as we talked about the liberties in Christ and the Jewish context versus the Gentile context. And they would be radically opposed. And there would be lots of opportunity for people to call each other to one side or the other. Like, hey, which side are you on? Can you drink alcohol or not? Which side are you on? Can you eat this meat or not? And these battles could easily develop.

And so Paul's saying, look, love one another and have these relationships together. And if someone's inciting division and calling for people to choose sides and pitting Christians against one another, take note of that and have no part of it. Take a step back and make sure that you're not involved and engaged in the divisions that are taking place or the offenses that are going on. So he says, avoid them.

Avoid them. Now, he doesn't say you have to mount up a campaign against them and lead the charge, you know, to fight back. You don't have to announce it on Facebook or make it a big deal. Just take a step back. Just avoid interacting with those who are engaged in that. And if they notice and ask you why, well, you can just point them to Romans chapter 16, verse 17 and say, hey, you're causing divisions and offenses against

And the scriptures say, I'm to avoid that kind of person. Now, it's interesting. It's different instruction here as he writes to the church in Rome, to a church in general, versus writing to a leader within the church. You might be familiar with Titus chapter 3. As Paul writes there to Titus, who is called to be a pastor, a leader, there an elder within the church, or the church is uncreated.

And he deals with a similar subject. In verse 10, he says, And so it's the same thing, this separation from a divisive person. But here he tells Titus, you have to admonish them first. So there's a first admonition. Then there's the second admonition. Attempt to correct, attempt to reconcile, attempt to make things right a couple times, right?

But if they insist on continuing in that line after those corrections, then reject, then avoid. It's not that the whole church is responsible for this, but the leaders in the church need to take note of those who are divisive as well. But

We have a responsibility as leaders to bring correction and to attempt to address the situation where the general body of Christ, Paul says, just take a step back, avoid them, and let the Lord deal with that situation. And so there needs to be this separation. Why? Verse 18 says,

He says the reason why we avoid them, the reason why there's separation is because they're not serving Jesus. They have their own belly in mind. They have their own profit, their own gain in mind, and they're bringing deception and deceiving the hearts of the simple.

Paul says, note those who do that. He tells Titus, that kind of person is warped and sinning and being self-condemned. And so if there's people bringing division between believers, putting believers against one another, understand that is not of the Lord and you're not to have any part of it. Separate yourself from those things. He says, I want you in verse 19 to be wise in what is good and simple concerning evil.

And I see this in the same context. He's dealing with this. He's saying, look, you don't have to go figure out all the details and be wise in what is evil. Be simple concerning evil. Just separate yourself. You don't have to figure it out. You don't have to deal with it. Be wise concerning what's good and invest yourself and fill your time with, fill your mind with the things that are good.

Don't fill your mind with all the nonsense trying to chase down, you know, why someone is causing division and bringing all these problems and offenses within the church. Don't even deal with that. There are leaders who have to bring admonition to those, but generally for the body of Christ, just be wise concerning what's good and be simple concerning evil and separate yourself from those things. Trusting that, verse 20, the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. You see,

Someone who's bringing division in the body of Christ is directly attacking the Lord. It's his body. He pays attention. He knows it's a serious thing to him and he's going to deal with it. And so speaking generally, it's not up to us to fix every problem or to fix every, you know, our responsibility is to step back.

and let God handle that situation. And so as we work together for the gospel, that often will involve avoiding those who destroy relationships, those who try to come in and bring a division betwixt believers. Betwixt, that's a nice word. I think I just made that up.

All right, finishing up the book, and again, moving along more rapidly. Verse 21 through 24, here we have point number three. Keep developing new relationships. So in verse 21, he says, Timothy, my fellow worker, and Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my countrymen, greet you. Aeturchus, who wrote this epistle, greet you in the Lord. Gaius, my host, and the host of the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, greets you. And Cortus, a brother, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

be with you all. Amen. And here I'll just make the simple point. Paul had all these relationships and all these greetings that he sent to Rome in the first part of the chapter we looked at. That wasn't the end or the extent of his relationships. He always had these people around him. And so as he's writing this letter, he's got different people around him, new people. Some of them have been with him. Some of them we haven't seen before in his letters and in the book of Acts. They're

He's just always got people around him. And so they're with him as he's writing this letter. He's developing new relationships. And we need that as well. It's not like a baseball card collection where it's like, OK, I already got that one. I don't need another mom in my life. So just move right along. But no, keep developing new relationships and seek out those opportunities where God has placed people in your life. And then finally, point number four, verse 25 through 27 says,

He concludes saying, to God be the glory. He concludes with a doxology or a praise to the Lord. Verse 25. Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began.

but now made manifest and by the prophetic scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God for obedience to the faith to God alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Paul concludes with a great word of praise, glory to God who is able to establish you according to the gospel, according to the preaching of Jesus Christ forever.

taking all the things that we've been studying in the book of Romans and saying, God will establish you in these things. It's a great mystery, but he's brought revelation and he's going to do the work. And so we can put ourselves in God's hands so that any of us, our relationship with God is not to our own credit.

to God be the glory. The work of salvation is not to the credit of any person. It's to the credit of the wisdom of God, to God be the glory through Jesus Christ. It all centers around this gospel message, what God has done for us, what God has done in us, and what God will do through us as we walk by faith, believing in Jesus Christ. God will establish you, and to him be the glory.

And so the conclusion of a really incredible book, the book of Romans, it's been a great journey together. And we conclude it, we walk out together looking at the importance of working together for the gospel. And I would encourage you, develop these kinds of relationships and let God open up those things in your life. I know for many, you know, it can be difficult, it can be scary, it can be hard, but we need God.

to love one another. Jesus said that the world would know that we're his disciples by our love for one another. And so let me encourage you, develop some new relationships, develop some deeper relationships, get some other kinds of people in your life. Don't just hang out with people exactly like you that believe or exactly see everything or have the same experiences as you, but mix it up and get to know some other believers and allow God to do a work through them in your life. Let's pray.

Lord, I do pray for us as a body here at Living Water, and I pray that you would do this work in us, that you would draw us nearer to you. Lord, as we walk together, as we learn of each other, as we speak to one another and develop these relationships in our lives, I pray that you would establish us, Lord, by faith in you, that you would do the work and that you would be glorified.

So Lord, fill us with your spirit and give us a great love for one another. Help us, Lord, to walk together in this relationship with you that we might bear much fruit and fruit that remains. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.