Romans Lesson 20

Well, welcome.

This is Pastor Bryan, and you are at Life in the Word, our verse-by-verse study of God's Word.

And today we're going to continue in our book of Romans.

In fact, we're going to finish out our study in Romans.

It's been a little over a year it's taken us to get through it, but today we're in Romans chapter 16.

Romans 16 · chapter mention

You know, several years ago I was an elder at a large church of about 11,000 people here in the Valley, Phoenix Valley.

And a pastor founded the church with only three families, but it just grew and grew and grew.

And the fascinating thing was that this pastor knew most of the names of those in his congregation for many of the years he was there.

Now other pastors from the country would come and spend a week or two following him around and trying to imitate this God-given gift that he had of remembering names because they all knew how important it was to know the names of their congregation.

And I'm always amazed, uh, it's always amazed me that people can remember so many names sometimes because it can be a very significant part of church growth.

This evening we come to the final chapter in the book of Romans, Romans chapter 16, as I said, and as you can see looking at it, Paul gives us a rather large list of names.

Romans 16 · chapter mention

And typically when we come to a list of names of the Bible, we tend to ignore it.

I'll admit to doing that myself, primarily because we don't know much about those people, and we feel like there's nothing to learn in reading their names, and often they're just too hard to pronounce.

So I think thoughts on why Paul gives us all these names is that he does so to build personal connections, to honor dedicated workers, and to encourage unity in a church, the church in Rome that he'd never personally visited yet.

Now, this list, as we'll see, includes a diverse mix of men and women, Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free people.

And by greeting them warmly, Paul modeled how the gospel breaks down social, ethnic, and gender barriers.

These names also reveal that Paul was no lone ranger in his ministry.

We understand as he did, it takes a team of people to do ministry well.

And these people that he names were critical, crucial partners in building the early church.

Names are important, aren't they?

So in verses 1 through 16 of this last chapter of Romans, I count 29 people that are mentioned.

More people are greeted, but 29 are mentioned specifically.

Twenty-eight of them are part of the church in Rome, and one is on her way to Rome, a woman named Phoebe.

Ten of them are women and nineteen are men.

So having never been to Rome, how does Paul know these twenty-eight people who are part of the church in Rome?

Well, in spite of the Roman Empire being huge and having limitations in transportation and communication, the Christians knew each other remarkably well.

Rome attracted people from everywhere, so many of the people named here were known to Paul most likely from Jerusalem and his travels throughout Asia and Macedonia.

Now these people have taken up residence in Rome and are part of the Christian church there.

The fact that Paul knew the whereabouts of so many of his friends and co-workers gives us a glimpse into the interest this great missionary had in the people to whom he ministered and who ministered to him.

That's important.

So verse one, I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who was a deacon in the church in Centrea.

Welcome her in the Lord as one who is worthy of honor among God's people.

Help her in whatever she needs, for she has been helpful to many, especially to me.

So Phoebe is the one person in these first sixteen verses who's not already living in Rome.

She's headed to Rome, okay?

And there's three reasons that I believe the purpose of her going to Rome is this.

The simplest explanation, we can't prove it, is she's bringing the letter from Corinth, where Paul is probably writing this letter from to Rome.

And there are three things that make me believe this.

First, there's no reason given for her journey at all.

And this is a massive journey.

This is going to take her months to get to Rome from Centuria.

I mean, it's 750 miles away.

So most likely she has a purpose in this, and I think, I believe, I can't prove it, that she's carrying the letter to the church in Rome to hand deliver it for Paul.

And that's how it would have been delivered all the letters.

Second, being from Centria, which is the easter port of Corinth, where most scholars believe Paul is wintering when he wrote this letter, that has a part to it.

And you know, uh third, she appears to be a woman of means from all the research I've done.

She has helped many, including Paul.

So it may be that she is a successful businesswoman like Lydia, and we saw in Acts chapter 16, who is able to travel from port to port and could be entrusted with the letter Paul wanted to send to Rome.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

Whether this is sure or not, we don't have any proof at all to back it up.

So Paul calls her sister, and he does so because theologically she and Paul, and you and I, have the same father in heaven, and we're all moving forward toward the same inheritance of eternal life.

So Paul tells the believers in Rome to take care of her.

She is your sister in Christ, and families take care of their own.

They take care of each other.

And the word deacon used in verse one can also be translated servant.

Her role would have included feeding the hungry, taking in the refugees, clothing the naked, caring for the sick and the imprisoned, and spending great amounts of time in prayer.

Verse three.

Give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila, my co workers in the ministry of Jesus Christ.

In fact, they once risked their lives for me.

I am thankful to them, and so are all the Gentile churches.

Also give my greetings to the church that meets in their home.

So we know a lot about Priscilla and Aquila.

That's one couple we do know about.

We know from the book of Acts and Romans and 2 Timothy that Timothy, that Aquila was from Pontus, which is now northern Turkey.

That's in Acts 18, and that he and his wife Priscilla were living in Rome until they were driven out by the Emperor Claudius in 49 AD because of all the Jews who were arguing constantly and fighting over the name Crestus, otherwise known to us as Christ.

So he threw them all out, got rid of all the Jews.

So anyway, Priscilla and Aquila then met Paul in Corinth, where they were tent makers by trade, just as the apostle Paul was, and then traveled with them to Ephesus, where they settled and had a church in their home.

Again, Acts 18.

But now they are back in Rome and have a church in their house, probably.

And later in 2 Timothy 4.19, we see that they moved back to Ephesus to do ministry, and that's the last we hear of them.

So this couple, they were movers and shakers for the Lord.

They were also risk takers.

Paul says they once risked their lives for me.

And we don't know what happened, but somehow they saved Paul's life and they risked their lives and Paul's alive and preaching to the Gentile churches because of them doing so.

And I want you to see that this was done, especially if you're a couple, that this couple did it as together.

They did their ministry together.

Paul doesn't say Aquila did it because he was the man.

It says they both did it.

They were both together in this.

They were ready to die to serve Paul in the church.

So Phoebe, Priscilla, and Aquila served a great Lord and Savior, are an excellent example to us of living to please God instead of living to please ourselves.

The rest of Paul's co-workers of friends are relatively unknown to us, but we'll meet them one day in heaven, we'll meet them.

So back to verse five.

Greet my dear friends and excuse me for not getting these names right because a lot of them are very difficult to pronounce, and I didn't spend hours looking them up, but greet my dear friend Epenetus.

He was the first person from the province of Asia to become a follower of Christ.

Verse six, give my greetings to Mary, who has worked so hard for your benefit.

Seven, greet Andronicus and Hunia, my fellow Jews, Junia, who were in prison with me.

They were highly respected among the apostles and became followers of Christ before I did.

So this couple being believers before makes us believe that they could have heard the apostle Peter preach the gospel at Pentecost.

It's possible we don't know, and were saved and baptized before returning to Rome.

But there's no evidence of that.

Verse eight, greet and playtis, my dear friend in the Lord.

This was a common name for slaves, Empletus, yet Paul had great respect for this man's walk with Christ.

You know, in March 1881, the famous archaeologist Giovanni Baptista de Rossi discovered a subterranean tomb chamber in the catacombs of Rome.

And inside this he found a prominent large lettered marble inscription reading Ampliadi, which means the tomb of Ampliatus.

While the name Ampliatus was a common name for slaves, the fact that this large, elegant, classical lettered tomb that was also adorned with rich early Christian artistry indicates that although he was a slave, this person, Ampliatus, was highly revered and important in the early church.

Was this Paul's friend?

Again, we can't really say, but several archaeologists and scholars believe it is.

So such honor given to a slave reinforces the ideal of the early church, where social status outside the church carried little importance inside the church.

We're all level at the foot of the cross, right?

So Paul wrote in Galatians 3 28, there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female.

You are all one in Christ Jesus.

Verse 9.

Greet Ubanus, our co-worker in Christ, and my dear friend Stachis.

Verse 10.

Greet Apellus, a good man who Christ approves, meaning whatever he did, he did it well.

Wouldn't you like to be had that said of you?

Whatever you did, you did it well.

And give my greetings to the believers in the household Arist Aristobulus.

Now the name Aristobulus appears in the historical records as the brother of Herod Agrippa I and the grandson of Herod the Great.

And while Aristot Aristobulus is not directly mentioned as a leader or convert to the church, the mention of his household highlights the penetration of the Christian faith into influential and possibly aristocratic circles in Rome, which could have facilitated the spread of the gospel message.

Verse eleven.

Greet Herodian, my fellow Jew.

Greet the Lord's people from the household of Narcissist.

Now Narcissus was probably not a believer, but some of his household were.

This name appears in the historical records that he was the secretary of Emperor Claudius, remember who kicked all the Jews out of Rome in 49.

And since he controlled access to the emperor, he became wealthy from what I've discovered, bribes and to other benefits of his position.

Narcissus orchestrated the execution of Claudius's, Emperor Claudius' third wife, Messalina, and advocated for Claudius to marry Agrippina.

Now Agrippina had a son named, and you know his name Nero, and then compelled the powerful imperial secretary Narcissus to commit suicide in 54 AD, don't know how or why, because he was a direct threat to her son Nero's succession after Emperor Claudius was suddenly poisoned.

There's a whole soap opera here.

Narcissus had openly championed Claudius' first or Claudius' first son, Britannicus, to be the next line to Emperor, not Nero.

So again, a big soap opera, and uh only God can deal it all out and deal with it, and I'm sure he has.

Verse 12, give my greetings to Trifina and Triphosa, the Lord's workers, and to dear Persis, who has worked so hard for the Lord.

Here Paul greets three women, Trifina and Triphosa, their names mean delicate and dainty.

And all the other, and excuse me, and the other was Persis, which means a Persian woman.

All three were noted for their work for the Lord.

Verse thirteen, greet Rufus, whom the Lord picked out to be his very own, and also his dear mother who has been a mother to me.

There is another Rufus mentioned in the New Testament, and we find that in the Gospel of Mark in chapter fifteen, verse twenty one, specifically that identifies Simon Asyrene, the man who carried the cross for Jesus, as the father of Alexander and Rufus.

So here in Romans 16, the Apostle Paul sends a specific message greeting to Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother has been a mother to him.

And the mention of his prominent mother and the distinct name match uh leads most commentators to connect the two.

But again, is this the same Rufus?

We can't be sure.

Verse 14.

Give my greetings to Asyncritus, Philegion, Hermes, Patrobus, Hermes, and the brothers and sisters who meet with them.

This sounds like a house church that Paul knew about in Rome.

Verse 15.

Give my greetings to Phylogus, Julia, Nere Nerius, and his sister, and to Olympus and to all the believers who met with them.

So evidently Paul is addressing another house church, and one name appears in the historical record, a certain Norius, who managed the household of Flavius and Domatila, who were two of the most important people in Rome condemned for being Christians.

So it's possible that this slave Nerius led his masters to Christ who paid for it with their lives.

Again, possible, but we don't know.

Verse 16, greet each other with a sacred kiss.

All the churches of Christ send you their greetings.

So does this mean that in order to obey the word of God we should all pucker up?

Well, Paul concluded three other concluded three other letters the same way, but no, it doesn't mean we have to pucker up in church.

Throughout human history in many cultures, a kiss on one or both cheeks has been a common greeting between friends.

I've been in those countries and I've had people come up and kiss me, and I have no idea what to do.

It was practiced in the early church as a way of confirming the sibling bond of love between believers in Christ.

And from Paul likely refers to it as a holy kiss to set it apart from other kinds of kissing.

Now, Christians' greetings always should be warm, loving, and intentional, and demonstrating unity.

And so today this might be expressed best through handshakes, hugs, or welcome greetings.

Paul wrote to the believers in Thessalonica, we were like children among you.

We were like a mother feeding and caring for our own children.

We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God's good news, but our own lives too.

First Thessalonians chapter 2.

1 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

So Paul's loving challenge here, challenge or example here challenges us, doesn't it?

We are to be people persons.

People are to be a priority.

We're to be caring and encouraging and loving to one another, especially believers.

I mean, what a difference it can make in this cold and different world that we live in.

I once read a story about an 87-year-old widow in Grand Rapids, Iowa, who had appealed to the state of Iowa to place her in a nursing home.

She wanted to be in a nursing home.

She said, I don't blame people for not taking the time to see me.

I'm not very interesting, she said.

Everybody I knew is dead or moved away.

I'd just like to talk to somebody who's alive.

I'd like to have some company.

This was a very lonely person, and that's very common today in our society, I believe.

The local newspaper reported on her situation and went on to state that except for a shopping trip once or twice a month, this widow rarely left her apartment.

Author Charles Reich writes in his book The Greening of America.

America is one vast, terrifying anti-community.

The great organizations to which most people give their working day and the apartments and suburbs to which they return at night are equally places of loneliness and alienation.

Protocol, competition, hostility, and fear have replaced the warrant of the circle of affection which must might sustain man against a hostile universe.

The problem, of course, is that the church is oftentimes as cold or even colder than the world, I find.

Sometimes strangers can't even uh get a smile from regular attenders.

I mean, it's sad.

Hospitality in the church is important, but why is it so neglected?

I I I think because few really care.

You cannot grow a church without hospitality.

I've experienced that in two churches.

You know, good hospitality is an outworking of the gospel.

In the gospel, God is hospitable to us, right?

And throughout Scripture, God has seen caring for his people.

So it's imperative that we remember that people are important.

I mean, the absence of agape love in the typical church should burden our hearts.

We must reach out in love to all those around us.

The richest people in town are always those who love the most.

They're people persons, the affectionate, those who remember names and pray for them.

And they also receive the most.

So anyway, Paul is going to end this letter to the Roman Church with one more exhortation to emphasize what's on his heart.

And this thing is here in chapter 17 that he's stressing.

And now I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters.

Watch out for people who cause division and upset people's faith by teaching things that are contrary to what you have been taught.

Stay away from them.

So here I'm going to tell you, God hates division.

And I don't mean math problems.

God hates division that is caused by things like envy, jealousy, pride, and selfless ambition.

And this is the kind of evil, or excuse me, evil kind of division that Paul is referring to here in chapter 16.

His last words of instruction to this church is you better be watching out for people who cause division.

And he says, I want you to notice them, call them out and avoid them.

That's how serious this is.

Of all the things that Paul could have emphasized in his closing statement of the church, he emphasizes this.

He says, I want you to be on your guard against people who cause division.

And this text is specifically about people who cause division by teaching doctrines that are inconsistent with Scripture.

He says, things, he says, teachings that are contrary to what you have been taught.

So that's the context.

Where there are people, whether in a home or business or a church, there's potential for division.

We know that.

And divisive people can destroy whatever they belong to.

And if you're not on your guard about it, it will destroy whatever you're a part of.

Divisive people don't care what they destroy.

And the reason is they don't care about the larger group that they belong to.

They care about themselves.

They are driven by selfish ambition and personal interest.

Verse 18, such people are not serving Christ our Lord.

They are serving their own personal interest.

By smooth talk and glowing words, they deceive innocent people.

Deceptive people do what they do because it benefits them.

They don't care about others.

Let me give you a couple examples from Scripture.

One example is all the way back in the book of Numbers.

You don't have to turn there.

It's in Numbers chapter 16.

Numbers 16 · chapter mention

It's about a guy by the name of Qorah.

Qorah was opposed to Moses' leadership during the time period when Moses was the prophet of God, appointed by God to lead the Hebrew people out of slavery after 400 years in Egypt.

And on their way to the promised land, and somewhere in the middle of this journey, Qurab recruits a few of his homeboys, Dathan and Abram.

And these three guys are like, we don't like Moses.

We don't like his leadership.

It's taking too long to get where we're headed to.

And so Qarah leads this divisive rebellion.

It's like a coup against Moses, and Qarah basically says, Moses, who made you leader?

And Moses says, uh, God did.

And Quran says, Well, we don't think you're doing a very good job.

You're an old man.

Moses was 80.

You're too old to lead us.

It's time for you to sit down and let somebody else come in and take over.

Anyway, at this point, God steps in and says to Moses, Step aside from the tents of these divisive people.

I'm about to smoke them.

And that's what God did.

He called these men together who were leading this country.

Against Moses, and the Bible says he opened up the earth and they fell in.

And then he closed the earth back up.

Qorah was divisive, and God hates divisiveness.

He hates division.

Give you another example.

In 2 Samuel chapter 15, there's a guy named Absalom.

2 Samuel 15 · chapter mention

He's one of King David's sons.

But Absalom thought he could do a better job as king.

So Absalom positions himself at the entrance to the city gate of Jerusalem as people are coming by.

I mean, he's kissing babies, he's shaking hands, he's the premier politician standing out there glorifying himself.

The people would come by and Absalom would say, I feel your pain, I empathize with you.

If I were king, I'd do a much better job than my father.

If I were king, I'd do things differently.

So he raises up a rebellion, he causes division, and it says in 2 Samuel 15, 6 that he stole the hearts of the people of Israel.

But eventually he came to a very tragic end because God hates division.

And so Joab, David's general, took ten of his elite fighting men and they hunted Absalom down and killed him.

God hates division, because division is contrary to the nature of God, and the all the source of division is Satan.

Listen to Proverbs 6, excuse me, chapter 6, verse 16.

Proverbs 6, 16.

These are six things the Lord hates.

No seven things he detests haughty, proud eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, excuse me, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who sows discord in a family.

God hates division, and Satan is behind all division.

He was the very first divisive being in all of the universe, and he still incites people today to follow his example.

I mean Satan was originally created as a majestic, marvelous angel, and scholars believe that he was probably in charge of all the angelic beings.

And his original name was Lucifer, and it comes with a word that means light bearer.

The Bible describes him in Isaiah and Ezekiel.

It says the beauty of his create, it talks about his beauty of his created body.

This angelic creature served God, but one day it says pride.

The great sin of pride entered his heart, and he decided he could ascend to the throne of God.

He decided he was as good as God, even better.

And he led a rebellion in heaven.

And a third of the angels went with him, and God judged and expelled Lucifer and his followers from heaven and sent them to earth.

Okay?

Satan was expelled because he sowed seeds of division and discord.

Then he divides Eve from Adam.

He divides Adam from God, and sin enters the picture.

The first thing Satan did when he was expelled to earth was he brought division.

And what was the first thing God did when sin entered the human race?

He implemented his plan of reconciliation as seen in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

He did so because God is about reconciliation, not division.

Look at, excuse me, look at all the division in our nation right now, in our countries, but country to country right now.

We're all divided by so many things, economics.

We're divided racially, politically, socially.

And this is the hard truth.

If you're a divisive person and you're not operating in the spirit of Jesus, you're operating in the spirit of Satan.

Divisiveness is Satan's game, and he loves to recruit people to do his dirty work, especially those who would call themselves Christians.

I mean, as a pastor and elder in past churches, I've had to fire a few staff people, even pastors, that were causing division in those churches.

It was awful.

I hated it, but it had to be done because it was going to destroy those churches.

Jesus says in Matthew 12 25, every kingdom divided against itself is doomed.

In Titus 3 10 it says, If people are causing divisions among you, give a first and second warning.

After that, have nothing to do with them.

For people like to have like that have turned away from the truth, and their own sins condemn them.

Warn them twice, then have nothing to do with them.

Jude Jude verses 18 says, They told you that in the last times there would be scoffers whose purpose in life is to satisfy their ungodly desires.

These people are the ones who are creating division among you.

They follow their natural instincts because they do not have God's spirit in them.

People who cause division in the church, who disrupt the harmony and the unity of a family, a church or an organization have to be recognized.

And understand this, the Bible doesn't tell us to fix them.

It tells us to confront them and to warn them, and if that fails to have nothing to do with them.

Distance yourself from them.

Yes, pray for them.

Pray that God will fix them because only He can.

Verse 19.

But everyone who knows that you are obedient to the that you are obedient to the Lord, this makes me very happy.

I want you to be wise in doing right and to stay innocent of any wrong.

Verse 20.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

So Paul expresses in this one verse, the two verses, that the longstanding idea that there is a spiritual battle going on between good and evil, between God and evil.

And we are caught right in the middle of that battle.

But God is fighting for his children, and that's why Paul says here that the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet soon.

The great legendary football coach Fitch Lombardi would begin every football season by gathering his players together.

These were guys that played football all their life.

He would hold up a football and say, Gentlemen, this is a football.

He wanted to get back to the basics.

And I feel that way when we talk about spiritual warfare.

We need to start at the basics.

So what is spiritual warfare?

Well, spiritual warfare has to do with the unseen spiritual forces of evil led by Satan, otherwise known as the devil in the world today, to tempt, deceive, discourage, afflict, and even harm people.

Satan and his demonic minions are destroyers, liars, and we need to be aware of this unseen enemy.

In 1 Peter 5 8, Peter calls Satan a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3 calls Satan the tempter.

1 Thessalonians 3 · chapter mention

John in Revelation 12 calls Satan a dragon, a serpent, and one who deceives the whole world.

Jesus calls Satan a murderer, a liar, and the father of lies in John 8.

So you put all this together a lion, a liar, a tempter, a murderer, a dragon, a serpent, and one who deceives the whole world.

And you can clearly see that Satan does not have your best interest in mind.

In fact, he doesn't intend for any good for you, but only harm, especially if you are a follower of Jesus Christ.

Satan hates you because you look like your father when you get saved and act like Jesus.

You take on his attributes.

I mean, if you're a follower of the world, you're just living for the world.

Satan is probably going to leave you alone because you're, quite frankly, on the same team.

You're eternally lost and will die in your sins, separated from God from hell.

That's exactly what Satan wants.

Satan wants to destroy your marriage, your faith, and your church.

He's working behind the scenes to bring strife, division, mistrust, lies, and sin into all situations.

So this is the enemy we're fighting.

Next we need to understand that the spiritual forces of evil originated when Satan led this rebellion against God that we just talked to, when they were thrown out of heaven.

Ephesians 6.12 says, For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities in the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly realms.

Some of them might be right now whispering in your ear, don't believe any of this nonsense, pastor, telling you.

You know, I know there are many Christians and pastors who don't believe in demons.

I know there are some seminaries in this country that teach their students that Satan and demons don't exist.

I once had a senior pastor of a very large church who boldly made a statement on a Sunday morning sermon, and he made that very statement.

But scripture makes it clear that demons are here, unseen in the spiritual realm, and they're wreaking havoc on people all over this world, particularly Christians whom they hate.

Satan wants to destroy God's church, and he's doing a pretty good job of it today, I have to tell you.

God's word has been perverted in many, many churches today, in this country and around the in this country and around the world.

And this is leading people to a false faith and a different Jesus than the Jesus in the Bible.

And hell is filling up quickly with false converts.

Today we have people engaged in things like witchcraft, mediums, tarot cards, and other occult practices that open doors for people to be attacked and even possessed by demons, and it does happen.

I've experienced people with that.

I mean, can true Christians become demon-possessed?

Absolutely not.

We have the Holy Spirit within us.

And now there are books out there that will say otherwise, but the book I believe, the Word of God, says no.

The Holy Spirit does not share residence with anybody.

So many Christians today constantly, I see, constantly blame the devil for every bad thing that happens.

The devil did it, the devil made me do it.

I mean, when I was a youth pastor, I heard that all the time from our youth.

The devil made me do it, Pastor.

I didn't want to do it, the devil made me do it.

And I know a lot of people blame things on Satan, and they don't take, and they do it because they don't want to take responsibility for their own flesh.

So let me speak to you about my opinion for whatever it's worth.

When bad things arise in my life or in the life of the church, I don't default first to spiritual warfare.

It's a close second, but not first.

Often I believe many of our difficulties or challenges are caused by people who don't understand their Bibles, who don't really care about others, and are reluctant to acknowledge their part involving conflicts in the church.

Yes, I believe in spiritual warfare, absolutely, but I also know my experience from experience that sometimes we can be our own worst enemies.

And Satan knows that well.

He doesn't always have to cause our conflicts.

He knows Christians are good at causing them on their own.

We all have that old sin nature inside of us that sometimes we let come out.

But listen, Satan is alive and well, and he wants to destroy God's church.

In the Christian life, we battle against the powerful forces of Satan and his demons who are vicious every single day, don't we?

So let's move on.

Verse 21.

Timothy, my fellow worker, send you his greetings as do Lucius, Jason, and Sosaphatur, something like that, my fellow Jews.

Verse 22, I, Tertius, the one writing this letter for Paul, sends my greeting too as one of the Lord's followers.

This is the first time that the writer of this epistle is mentioned.

Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, dictated the letter to Tertius, who then wrote it down.

Verse 23.

Gaius says hello to you.

He is my host and also serves as host of the whole church.

Erastus, the city treasurer, sends you his greetings, and so does our brother Quartus.

Verse 24.

Do you have a verse 24?

Versus my Bible does not, but I know some of my other versions do.

Verses like verse 1624, which appears in the King James Version, is not present in most modern translations and often is of a particular interest and discussions with King James only.

From their perspective, modern translators have deleted or removed a whole verse of the Bible, thus altering the Word of God.

They assume that the verse was originally part of the biblical text and that modern translators have removed it.

This verse, verse 24 in the King James Bible, says, May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

Amen.

So it has nothing to do with anything theologically or doctrinally.

It's just a greeting or saying goodbye and giving grace praise to God.

This verse, though, is not present in the earliest manuscripts, and many modern scholars believe that it was actually added in later later by scribes.

Thus, modern translators are not trying to remove anything.

They're simply translating from an ancient Greek manuscript text that does not contain this verse.

They believe it was not part of the original letter written by the Apostle Paul.

Verse 25.

Now all glory to God who is able to make you strong, just as my good news says.

The message, this message about Jesus Christ has revealed, about Jesus Christ has revealed his plan for you Gentiles, a plan kept secret from the beginning of time.

So Paul had explained his gospel at length in this letter to the Romans.

Paul's gospel was the proclamation of Jesus Christ, and Paul knew that the gospel and Christ himself would establish, strengthen, and stabilize the faith of believers at the church in Rome.

A church, again, he had not visited.

Parts of God's plans of salvation were kept secret from the very beginning of time.

A mystery for many ages hid in the Old Testament.

Verse 26.

But now, as the prophets foretold back in the Old Testament, and as the eternal God has commanded, this message is made known to all Gentiles everywhere, so that they too might believe and obey him.

This was the ultimate goal.

All part of God's plan from the very beginning.

All of the Old Testament prophecies are coming true, and God is using Paul as his instrument to tell the good news.

Verse 27, all glory to the only wise God through Jesus Christ forever.

Amen.

God's glory is displayed through Jesus Christ.

That is the end of the book of Romans, our study.

I'm glad and I hope you enjoyed it as I did.

And I hope you'll join us next week as we'll begin a brand new study that I'm really excited about.

We're going to be studying the book of Mark.

And I've been into it for months now, and I'm really excited to share what I've learned from this with you.

So have a wonderful week, and I hope you'll be back to join us next week as we begin the book of Mark.

Blessings.