Romans

In Romans chapter 16, I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in ChenTre. I asked you to receive her in the lord in a way worthy of his people. And to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me. Greek Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me.

Not only I, but all the churches of the gentiles are grateful to them. Greet also, the church that meets at their house. Greet, my dear friend, Epinitas, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia. Greek Mary who worked very hard for you. Greet, andronicus and Junior, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me, they are outstanding among the apostles.

And they were in Christ before I was. Greet amplyatus, my dear friend in the lord. Grita Barnas, our fellow worker in Christ, and my dear friend, Statis, whose fidelity to Christ has stood the test. Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus, Greek herodian, my fellow Jew, Greet those in the household of narcissists who are in the lord. Greek Trifina and Trifosa, those women who work hard in the lord.

Greet, my dear friend Perseus, another woman who has worked very hard in the lord, Greek rufus, chosen in the lord and his mother who has been a mother to me too. Greek asinciitis, Flagon Hermes, Petrobras, hermas, and the other brothers and sisters with them, greet Filologous, Julia Nereus, and his sister and Olympus and all the lord's people who are with them greet 1 another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ sing greetings. I urge you brothers and sisters to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.

For such people are not serving our lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery, They deceive the minds of naive people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you. But I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil. The god of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

The grace of our lord Jesus Christ to be with you. Timothy, my co worker sends his greetings to you as did lucius Jason and Susipater, my fellow Jews. I tertius who wrote down this letter greet you in the lord. Guias, whose hospitality, I, and the whole church here in Joy, send you his greetings. Erastus, who is the city's director of public works, and our brother, quartus, send you their greetings.

Now to him, who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel The message I proclaim about Jesus Christ in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past. But now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal god so that all the gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ. Or men? My name is Pete Woodcock. I'm the pastor of the church.

We've been going through the book of Romans. We've been in it for a couple of years. And this is our final Romans passage. Let's pray. Father, help us now.

As we look at this passage, please to hear your word. In it and from it and to us, reforming, remaking, challenging. Help us not just to sit, help us not just to be entertained, help us not to have itching ears, to hear some other word please, buy your precious word remake us and remold us for your glory in Jesus' name. Oh, man. Now, if you, if you hang around church or you hang around, Christians, it won't be long before you hear the word fellowship.

Fellowship church is fellowship The New Testament Greek word for fellowship, is Koinonia, which some of you will know. And Greek scholars tell us that it means companionship and participation and partners together and helping each other and sharing and communion. So it's it's it's a deep word. It's a lovely word. It's a family word, coinonia, a family word.

But it's an active word. It's not just a passive word. Coinonia, fellowship doesn't just happen. It had you have to be active about it. And it's active about a common cause.

Now in terms of a ship, a boat, What type of ship is a fellowship? Well, it's not a cruise ship. That's that's for sure. Which is basically a holiday on the water, isn't it? Where we're all about leisure.

The only thing that we have in common with other people on the cruise ship is our own pleasure. We might join them for the dance. We might not because we don't like them. We might go to the dinner because we like that dinner or we might go to another dinner and we choose, depending on what fits in with our holiday and our pleasure and our our leisure. A fellowship is not a cruise ship.

It's not a ferry where we just go from 1 destination to another, you know, and we happen to be on the same boat going from 1 destination to another. So a fellowship is not, you know, well, we're we're on the boat going to heaven and once we get to heaven, we can disperse. That's that's not a fellowship. But a fellowship if we're thinking in terms of ship in the Bible is more like a battleship or a rescue ship Each of us on the fellowship have different tasks and different jobs that we, need to be doing and involved with, we're fighting a common enemy, we're about rescuing the lost at sea. That's what we're about.

And in order to function on the fellowship, there has to be unity There has to be acceptance of each other. On a cruise ship, don't need unity. On a on a ferry, we don't really need unity. We're not working together. We're just going to a destination, but on a fellowship, on a rescue ship, We need unity.

We need to be unified. And that's what Paul's been talking about. From chapter 12, and we've been looking in detail from chapter 12 right up to now chapter 16. And so there's lots of phrases that we need to do if we're on this ship We need to accept each other. We need to build each other up.

We need to bear with 1 another. We're to use our gifts. In the service of this 1 body, of this crew, of this fellowship, we are to learn to love 1 another. We're not to be conformed to the self centered world outside the fellowship, which is all about me It's not about me. We're on the fellowship, and we're to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we live sacrificial lives under the captain on the fellowship.

So we're not allowed as Paul was saying in chapter 14 to have little issues that are gonna divide us. We've got a common enemy. We shouldn't fight amongst ourselves. We must be very, very careful to avoid that which is unimportant or just differences and treat them as if they're gospel issues when they're not. And these chapters are very on that.

We've been seeing that, haven't we? And it's been really challenging that we've gotta be accepting 1 another and bearing with 1 another and loving 1 another. But This unity isn't just for itself's sake. This unity is for our task and it's for the task of rescuing the lost. We go out into the Mediterranean pick up those refugees that are in those on those little boats.

That's our task. So we're not a holy huddle It's not just all nice and holy and we've got unity and it's all friendly and warm inside. There is unity which is based on the gospel message. The message that Jesus Christ has come into the world for all types of people including you. For all classes and and, all intellects, all types of people.

Everyone, and the crew on the fellowship is to reflect that. And our unity, that thing that's brought us to together is the gospel and we're united about the gospel. And that's why Paul has written this massive explanation of what the Christian message is about the lord Jesus Christ that we all need salvation in him. He's been banging on and on and on about that. And that brings in Jew and Gentle these incredibly different, traditions and different backgrounds of people and the rich of the poor and the wise and the foolish, it brings in that 1 gospel message of the lord Jesus is for the whole world to bring in and to demonstrate to the world that this is the message that unifies and brings into a family and brings on to the same crew people about this gospel message because god's heart, as we were seeing last week, is about uniting people under Christ for his glory.

Think a kingston in this. I mean, just think of kingston. I mean, you could go out to Kingston now and you're is full of shoppers, isn't it? Last minute panic buyers. Full of shoppers.

But then there's a shop assistance. They need reaching as well. The shoppers need reaching and rescuing. The shop assistance, the managers of those shops, The businesses and the business men and the business women, the clever, the intelligent, those at university, they all need They all need reaching, the poor, the thick, the addict, the person that thinks they're free and have got enough money to do what they like and go on holiday where they like, the council worker, the road sweeper, the policeman, the mayor, all of those need reaching with the Gough school. You go to university, you gotta get the students, but then there's the faculty members, and there's the cleaners of the university.

All of them need to come under and onto the fellowship and worship Christ and be about god's work. So that's why Paul wrote this letter. He wrote this letter to the Romans so that they could understand that this 1 message of Jesus dying on the cross rising again to bring us into the family of god is also our mission to take that message to the whole world, and that's what his letter is about. I mean, it's quite interesting. You get to the end and he tells you that the letter is about.

It's about what he's doing in his mission and his strategy and he wants this church in Rome to be united, both Jew and Gentle to be united in prayer for his work to be united in the expansion of his work because he wants to go to Spain and preach the gospel there. We saw last week what is what his immediate plans are. It was go from corinth where he's writing this letter to the Romans, to Jerusalem with money from the Gentle Christians to the Jews that are suffering persecution and a poor in Jerusalem showing the unity there between Jew and Gentle. He wants to come from Jerusalem to Rome where he's longing to see the crew on the fellowship of Rome, and he wants to go from there with their money and their support to Spain. That's why he's writing the whole book.

To raise support for that, That's why he's writing the book to remind them of the gospel, remind them of the mission, and so he can continue to do it. And so we come to chapter 16. The end of the book, the last chapter, we had some magnificent theology, haven't we? In Romans, Some of the stuff's been so mind blowing. We've we've been a bit scared of it.

Some magnificent stuff about what Christ has done for us. And we come to these greetings. And a lot of people think, well, it's just like a school teacher taking the registration. It's so boring. And the names, it's like a school teacher taking registration.

How do you say that name? You know, how do you say that? And everybody differs in how to say it, and I certainly will, and probably within this sermon, I'll say 1 name several times. But it's not just a registration. When you dig a little bit deeper, when you read it a bit more slowly, you'll see that it is a wonderful example of all that Paul has been teaching about church.

In many ways, I want to say this, it's the climax of this letter. It is what the letter is about It's the gospel in the action and it's the gospel in the church. It's what a real church is. This is a fellow ship. This is what church is meant to be.

So I want us to climb on board this ship This fellowship is called the Church of Rome, the Church at Rome, and I want us to meet the crew, and you'll see just what Paul has been going on about in this great example. So let's climb on board. Are you ready to get the whistles, whatever those whistles and we come on board and whatever that is, why are you laughing so much? So we come on board and we're going to meet the crew in the first thing you meet about this crew is what a diverse church, what a diverse crew it is. As you board the ship, the diversity of people, he names 33 people are mentioned in this chapter 33 people plus he names 2 households are named, then there's the mother of rufus who's not named, but he particularly picks her out.

There's, the sisters of, Nereus, and then there are brothers and sisters and the lord's people There's a whole load of people, 33 names plus 2 households named. These are real people, I don't know I don't know how you were ever taught history at school. My history teacher was probably the worst history teacher you could ever get, but then all my teachers were rubbish. I mean, he made history so boring. What you've got to get about history and I genuinely love history is that they're real people If you start thinking of them as sort of slightly alien, slightly different, then you won't understand it.

When you realize that ordinary people and we are very similar and they have the same likes and dislikes and tastes and backgrounds and hardships and trials as anyone then you start to really get into the names, and that's what these are. These are real people with real names. With real backgrounds, with real trials, with real cares, with real hopes, but they're united with this common cause, and it's wonderfully united because when you dig deep, you just see how diverse their backgrounds are. Let's have a look quickly, skim over it. There's probably people from town and country brought in here.

That's how diverse. Look at verse 9. Greek Ubanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my dear friend stackis. Right. Rubanas suggests that he's from urban.

He's from the city brought up in the city. And Stachis means ear of corn. Which suggests he might well be brought up in the country. So you've probably got here in this crew on the fellowship town and country, the country yokel and the urbanite. You've certainly got slave and sovereign here, First 14, hermes.

That's a slave's name, a well known slave's name. But in verse 11, you've got herodian. And that's from the family of royalty, the Herrod family. This this 1 Greek scholar, New Testament scholar, JB Lightfoot did a lot of investigation into these names, done a lot of serious scholarly research into the names in in Roman 16. And, he he will say very clearly that that that name clearly indicates he's from the royal family of the the herods.

And, and then just look at the households named. See the 2 households in the, the second half of verse 10, the household of, Arris Dobulus, Aristobulus, and then the household of narcissus. Well, this Greek Greek scholar says that Aristobulus was the brother of herod, herod agrippa, the grandson of herod the great, if you know anything about the herods, So you've got a household of the sovereigns going on here. And narcissus, he reckons was in with the the caesars, Nero, and Claudia, and was an extremely wicked, worldly man. And yet there were people from that household there.

So you've got town and country, slave and sovereign, Dew and gentile. See the diversity verse 7. Androds androds I've got it wrong now. Andronicus and, Junior, and their fellow Jews, and some people, this but again, believes that they are actually, Paul's actual relatives. So you got them, they're Jews, Paul's relatives, maybe.

They were they became followers of Jesus before Paul did, so maybe they were the ones that prayed for Paul's conversion. And then you got verse 5. Look at it. Greet my dear friend, Epinitas, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia. You got a gentile there.

And then you got young and old in the faith. See how diverse they are? Verse 3 Priscilla and aquila, their old faithful workers of Paul, read the book of acts and you'll see them there. And then you've got Epiditas who's a new convert. He was the first convert in Asia.

And then you've got men and women mentioned there. Look at the women verse verse 1 Phoebe verse 3 Priscilla verse 6. Mary, verse 12, Triaphina, and Triaphosa, and then verse 13. You've got the mother of and then you have a whole load of men mentioned, which I desperately don't want to go through their names. But you see that this is a diverse crew when you step on to the Church at Rome, the fellowship.

Diverse. And women are as much a part of this crew as men. Do you get that? All this nonsense that people say about Paul is just nonsense. It's just it's it's making Paul something he's not when they say that Paul was a woman hater.

It's so stupid. There's no hatred for any woman here, is there? We cannot do this gospel work to take a message for all types of people without having all types of people on the crew. And women are absolutely vital to the work of gospeling. So here we are, a diverse crew.

The barriers which divided the world back then are not allowed to divide the church. Do you see that? You'd never have a woman in the army of Rome, but you have them on this navy ship. You have them in this fellowship. So what Paul is teaching us or has been teaching us in the previous chapters is in reality here in this fellowship.

Yeah. It's it's just what all the stuff he's saying about unity and diversity. It's all here in the church on the fellowship. And you see that this diversity how they're united. They're united in Christ.

Look at verse 7 in Christ verse 11. In the lord, verse 12. In the lord, verse 13. Chosen in the lord, verse 14, the brothers and sisters, verse 15, the lord's people. If you're in Christ, You're in the church.

If you're in Christ, you're aboard the fellowship. Do you see that? It's wonderful, isn't it? This diversity? Isn't it wonderful to be part of Cornerstone church?

We're not as diverse as we want to be, but there is diversity here. It's wonderful to be part. It's 1 we've just got some new to Italians coming. How wonderful to have some Italians on board the fellowship, isn't it? That can can probably pronounce these names better than me.

Should have got them to read. Wonderful, isn't it? In Christ, it's wonderful to be part of a diverse crew of different ages. Remember when we first started at Cornerstone, we're all 1 age, weren't we? Well, I was I was the oldest person.

And now I'm not, you know, it's wonderful to have this diversity. Man and women Boys and girls, young people, different nationalities. We wanna grow in that. We wanna grow in our diversity. Because it shows a a world that is so broken and separated and having its own little cliques that actually this is the church of Christ brought together by the 1 message of Jesus.

What a wonderful thing. A diverse crew. Okay. The second thing that you see as you climb on board the fellowship is a dedicated crew, a dedicated crew. In Romans 12, Paul writes about the church being a body.

A team in the sense or a crew in the sense of being a body. And we've all got body parts. We're all different parts and the body needs to work together. In Ephesians 4, another letter Paul writes, he talks about than being the gifts of Christ to build up the church to edify the church. If the body is to fight it has to work.

Each member has to play its part and do its job. We've seen all that. If a battleship, if a rescue ship, if this fellowship is to work, then each person There's no passengers on a rescue ship. There's no passengers. Are there on a battleship?

It doesn't take that's a cruise. You don't take passengers. There might be someone down in the sick bay, of course. There may be people that have been wounded in the Goss and wounded in the life that need to be in the sick bay that we care for, but there's no passengers on board, are there? There's no passengers When a rescue ship goes out as it may well today, you know, from to go and rescue someone out at sea, it doesn't say anybody, you know, fancy having a go.

Any passengers? They don't take passengers when a battleship goes out. They say, yeah, fancy if it accrues anyone? It's a battle. Everyone is working.

Even those in the sick bay are praying, look at the dedicated crew here. Let's have a look at some of them. Phoebe. See that versus 1 and 2. I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church, in syncria or every however you say that name, I ask you to receive her in the lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help that she may need from you for she has been a benefactor of many people including me.

Top of the list, a woman who's a servant deacon means servant. She's a benefactor of many, he says, including himself, If you look that word up benefactor, it means patroness. She's a patroness. She's someone who cares for the affairs and concerns of others. That's what the word means.

She aids with her resources, particularly finances. She gives sucker like a mother gives sucker to a child. That's what the word is. She's a servant She's obviously a rich woman, a benefactor, maybe she's a business woman because it's her probably, and most people agree, that brought this letter from Paul in Corinth to the people at Rome. So she's perhaps on a business trip.

What a wonderful description of a dedicated top woman deacon, benefactor, sister, helping many people carrying the letter. Look at Priscilla and Aquila, verse 3 and 4. Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, they risked their lives for me. Not only I, but all the churches of the gentiles are grateful for that, to for them, to them. Fellow workers, that word fellow worker, when he says fellow worker there, and he uses it quite a lot of times in this passage.

It means that we've labored together but we've labored together and it has this sense of we've completed a task together. We've actually worked together to the end of a task We're fellow laborers. When it says they risk their lives, the actual translation should be they put their necks out They stretched their necks. They put their necks on the block. They were ready to be executed.

And everybody's grateful, me and all the churches for Priscilla and Aquila. You see this dedicated crew look at verse 3, Mary, works very hard. Look at verse 7 andronicus and and junior, they were in prison. They're standing amongst the apostles. That's people that took the message out.

They're outstanding workers. Look at verse 9. Ubanos is a fellow worker. Again, that hardworking to completion. Look at verse 12, Trifenor and Trifosa.

I mean, they're interesting because if you look up their names, their names means date, dainty, and delicate. You know, here comes dainty and delicate. They'd fit in with the modern youth, wouldn't they? It says, snowflakes. Here comes dainty and delicate.

You think, oh my goodness, are they gonna become members of the church? Dainty and delicate? I've only got say 1 word and they're gonna be, oh, I gotta write a letter of complaint, you know, Dainty and delicate. I mean, my goodness, but he says, I mean, he's playing with words, Dainty and delicate, who works hard, women, who works hard in the lord. Dainty and delicate hard workers.

Yeah. Wonderful. Look at verse 13, Ruthher's mother, mother, Paul, Paul loves being mothered by rufus mother. Rufus most people think was the was the son of Simon of cyrene who carried the cross of Jesus. Look at verse 21.

Simon co worker, fellow laborer. Look at verse 21, tertius, He's doing a completely different job, but he's writing down and editing Paul's letters and getting it out. Yeah? So do you get this whole picture of a diverse group of people, but they're a dedicated crew. A group of people that at any costs were about the church and the gospel and they were willing to risk their lives and use their gifts.

And do you notice the women there again? So this whole idea that Paul was anti women that ch ch ch could be anti you know when people say they they say some very derogative things over churches full of women. What the world offers it. But but what's wrong with that? If we've got women like this, bring more in.

We want the church full of these women, don't we? The feebears and the Priscillas and the mares and I mean, these are amazing and even the dainty delicate ones. Bring them in if they're gonna be hardworking. They're well worth it on the crew. Women here are integral in Paul's list to gospeling.

So here's the the crew. Do you see it? It's a brilliant crew, isn't it? They're actually really very, very dedicated. There's a vibrance.

There's a dynamic movement going on here. Everyone pitching, isn't it wonderful? Be part of a church that's dedicated isn't it? Isn't it? See, church work is always teamwork.

It's never 1 man, never 1 woman, never 1 person, I mean, take the Carol service. Who's who's organized? Who who sorts the Carol service out? Millions of people. It's never down to 1 person.

Never. It's all with so many people. You know, someone's gotta put the chairs out. Someone's gotta lug the all the sound equipment. There's the music group.

You know, it's not the music group isn't just Phil. Phil doesn't play every instrument. He's not a 1 man band. So, you know, going, I'm a 1 man bam and he's trying to do everything and sing and who's the choir? It's not Anne.

It's not Anne just there with a whole load of photographs of a choir walking along and pretending to sing. It's it's it's not just a preacher. It's not just a leader. It's just 1 thing in the church. It's so wonderful to be part of a church that is dedicated, isn't it?

About proclaiming the gospel and using all those gifts to do so. So you've got this diverse crew, this dedicated crew, but another thing you'll notice as you walk the gangplank onto the fellowship is the third thing is it's an affectionate crew. It's an affectionate crew. You won't come on board this fellowship, this church at Rome, and you don't just pick up that they're hardworking duty bound and we've gotta do it. Head down, don't care about it.

I'm doing my job. There's affection and acknowledgement of each other. You don't just want a crew that, you know, ignore each other and just do there's affection here The word greet. You noticed that? 19 times, greet greet each other.

The fact that Paul knows all these names and he's not yet visited Rome is extraordinary, isn't it? I read something about Paul that said, Paul was an academic therefore he didn't like people. If you're an academic, do you not like people? But what what what are you talking about? Just because you're an academic writing this crud, and which is un academic, I think.

Just because you don't like people, you have to force it on everybody else. It's clear he loves people. There's close association and close affection going on here. Spurgeon writes, on these verses great, Victorian preacher, he says, Paul loves them too well to forget them. Christians should love 1 another and should bear 1 another's names upon their hearts even as the high priest wears the names of all the saints upon his bejeweled breastplate.

Yeah. If you know anything about the old testament, you know what that's talking about. The priests would wear the people of god, the tribes of god, when he entered into the presence of god and spurgeon saying that's what Paul is like. He loves these people. When he comes to Christ in prayer to god in prayer.

He's got the people in his heart. It's teamwork and teamwork always brings affection. You know what it's like when you hear of the old war veterans, and they go on about their comrades that they knew 50 years ago, perhaps even died 50 years ago. They still have a tear in their eye when they remember them. Why?

Because they fought on a team in a regiment together. That's what that's what a crew does. When you're on a team, you know that. Some of you that go off on Beach missions or missions or even to Belarus. You're working together with a common enemy.

We haven't time to fight each other We're working together and when you're on a mission. Just it may be 1 week you've formed very strong friendships, don't you? Even people get married on those. It's contagious. Which is a youth thing that we run.

You know, contagious, there's loads of people who have met their husband or their wife. There we are. There's 1 there. Darusian, my daughter met this bloke on contagious. Why?

Because it's a weak It will it's a year of ministry in 1 single week. And so when you get a year of ministry in studying the scripture together, you're joined together in this fellowship. I used to work for London City Mission. I worked for 2 years. In London City Mission, those blokes that I lived with and worked with and suffered with, and some of them on at least 2 occasions nearly got killed with in gospeling.

Are they they're my mates? I love them. I hardly ever see them. I long to see them but there's no time because they're gospeling. My mate right up in the highlands in Scotland and Goldby.

Gosling since those days, bringing people to Christ preaching right now. My friend in leads who planted a church a few years ago in leads, Paul, He's their gospel in preaching the gospel, my make down engraved end that's held a church together in in difficult circumstances. They're got they these are my mates. I hardly ever see them, but I love them. They're they're they're on my in my heart.

We fought together. That's what happens when you're in a crew, and you have a common enemy and a common cause. 1 of the reasons there can be no affection in a church is because people don't do anything together 1 of the reasons that people can feel no affection is that they just sit behind other people or sit in front of other people. And look at that at the back of heads of people and count the hairs. Sometimes that's easy, sometimes that's hard.

Or how have they got dandruff? If the only thing that holds a church together is coming and sitting in front or behind someone, sing a few songs together and then criticizing the sermon together. If that's the only thing that we have in common, then there won't be affection, of course not. And a lot of people are unhappy in churches because they just never get involved. It's the outward looking outward that drives us to have inward affection so that we become a crew, a team on the fellowship working together You see, the trouble is if we just sit, we will be critical.

That's why we have to work together. When we see what our job is, it doesn't matter so much how big your ears are. But if I got nothing to hold me together and I behind you, I'm measuring your ear. Yeah? I'm trying to flick things at your head to see if I can get it in your hair.

If I'm sitting behind you. Anyway, that's what I do, but, you know. But look at this. There's affection here. Look at verse 16.

Greet 1 another with a holy kiss. That's affectionate, isn't it? Or we're coming to that verse? All the churches of Christ send their greeting. Greek 1 another with a holy kiss.

It's It's a biblical expression to love and have affection. And in this case, to embrace each other, Now I know what's gonna happen at this point. IJ is gonna come and say because she's always trying to kiss me. Oh, I've got biblical reference now. Come on, piss me and I'll be running away.

It's got to be done in a warm sexually appropriate way. We are different characters. Kiss. Imagine a Jew kissing a gentile. My goodness, that's extraordinary, isn't it?

Or a Jew being kissed by a gentile. My goodness. See, what what a difference authentic Christian affection makes to a cold sterile in different world out there when people climb aboard the fellowship, they should see this affection. A holy kiss. This is at this point.

I was gonna get you all to stand up. And go and see something you don't know and give him a kiss. I'll read the word of god again then. Greek 1 another with a holy kiss. There we are.

Phil's just come in. Let's all go and kiss him. JB Phillips, I I don't know much about him. I he did a translation, Paul Whitfield will probably know. I guess he did a paraphrase, didn't he back in the fifties, 19 fifties?

Be that sort of thing. It was a paraphrase of the the Bible. He paraphrased this verse because he was a very English gentleman. He paraphrased this verse instead of, greet 1 another with a holy kiss, he says, give 1 another a hearty handshake. Every everything in me likes that.

I'm quite old school British. You see the French they wanna kiss? I don't know how many times they kiss. Which way do you go? Is it right?

Is it left? It's also confusing. A hearty handshake. Pushes the person away keeps them at a distance keeps their germs at a distance. You can wash your hand later.

You know, it's all very look, we're all different on this, and we all have different cultures, and we're all diff you know, all kinds of different things, and and not all of us are love is. I I I find it quite hard when you go to that sort of church where everybody's a love. Oh, lovely living. You know, I never I stand like this. I never quite know what to do.

It's the way I was brought up, but nevertheless, we are to greet each other in an affectionate way. That's what he's saying. There's affection. Now there will be different cultures, and we've got to work that out, and we don't divide on those things. But we should be affection, affectionate.

I don't know. I find myself sometimes, walking because I've got things on my mind and walking up this corridor because this is such an awful layout this building. You know, you've got to come through those doors, walk up here, you're trying to go and do some test for the mic and then someone snip the cable, and you've got all these things on your mind. It's very, very easy to walk past brothers and sisters that Christ has died for and not even say hello to them. And that's a rebuke to me.

I I must we mustn't be like that. We must greet each other. There are some cultures here in Britain. I can go, alright. Because it's just like dogs sniffing each other.

That's what Britain's are like. We're a dog. We're running around, you know, the field. We see another dog. Sniff and then off we go again.

That's what British are like, but I'm told other cultures. If you don't give them, you know, you know, if you give them less than 20 minutes just standing next to them. They think you're rude. We gotta work this out. We gotta work out how we greet each other, how we're to each to each other.

And the more diverse we are, the more we've got to understand that. Some of the Koreans that, you know, they bow down. I know, I don't know what, when I meant to bow down, our heads hit? What are we meant to do? Yep.

Write down. Well, that's the way they do it. Am I meant to do that or do as they down, does my hand go up? Or do I try and do French, you know, to kiss them when they're down and sort of try and kiss them? You know, what's going on here?

I heard of 1 nation. Don't know whether I should say this, that I think this is probably the best, and it's bottoms together. Personally, I would love to go to a church like that. How are you? Yeah?

But, you know, it's it's wonderful to have affection, and there is affection in this church and it's growing and we want it to grow more. We want to love each other. We're not just workers. We are to be affect and we need to work that out fourth thing though. It's a discerning church.

It's a discerning church. Look at verses 17 to 20. I urge you brothers and sisters to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned, keep away from them. For such people are not serving our lord but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery, they deserve the minds, they deceive the the minds of naive people.

Everyone has heard about your obedience. So are a joyce because of you. But I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil. The god of peace will soon crush satan under your feet. The grace of the lord Jesus Christ be with you.

We need to be a discerning church, and the church at Rome, Paul is warning them, be a discerning church. You're you're You're a diverse church. You're a dedicated church. You're an affectionate church, but watch out for the divisor, the the dividers. There are people that are not part of the crew that are on the ship.

If a battleship or a rescue ship has unity, the enemy's won. It's interesting that, over this whole theological letter, this is the first time Paul's mentioned Satan here. It's interesting, isn't it? And Paul's saying you gotta protect yourself. There's satanic work that's going on.

And there are people that will cause division. They're non crew members. They're not team players. They're divisive. They've snuck on board somehow.

They don't submit to the captain and the plan or the task Watch out, Paul says for those people. Just look at them verse 17. They put obstacles in your way. Well, you don't want that on a ship, do you? Running up and down, doing the work that a rescue ship has to do.

You don't want on the decks because you'll trip up and fall in. And there are people that are putting obstacles in the way. Now whatever those obstacles are, but there are a lot of them You take your mind off what the job you're doing. Start arguing about you didn't put that rope that way. Instead of the task of getting the rescue ship out, there are obstacles.

Be aware of those that put obstacles in the way of the captain and the ship and where we're supposed to be going. Watch it. They're always wanting to discuss irrelevant things. There are many people that have tried to come on board Cornerstone Fellowship that when you hear, you I've said to them, you wanna you wanna go to, you wanna go to another church. Because if you're coming here with those obstacles, you'll destroy the ship that we're trying to to sail, which is to go and rescue people.

So be careful. And then they're false teachers. That's how they divide. Division doesn't just happen. It happens through false teaching.

Notice they're smooth talking. There's flattery this deceit. Watch out for those smooth tongued people. You don't want a smooth tongue preacher or a flatter 1 who uses deceit, don't don't listen to smooth tongue people. Be careful of them.

So we've got to beware about being divided over the things that don't matter, but we've gotta be aware of being deceived over the things that do matter with their false flattery. There's a third thing he he says. They don't serve Christ but their own appetites. You see it in verse 18? It's the exact opposite to what fellowship is about.

They're on board serving themselves. They think it's a cruise ship. And so what does Paul say Keep away from them. You don't give them a holy kiss. You're not affectionate to them.

The exact opposite. You move away from them. Divisive people move away. Don't greet. Don't kiss.

And in order to do that, he says in verse 19, we need to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil. We need to be applying the scriptures and the gospels and the captain's words and what we're about and keep on working that through so that we're not naive so that we're wise in how we deal with people. Watch out for the enemies people in the crew. There's a fifth thing you'll see. So a diverse church is so wonderful.

You have a a dedicated church. You have an affectionate church, a discerning church, but the last 1 is all full circle. It's a missionary church. You see that in verse 25 to 27? Let me just read it.

Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with the gospel. He starts off with those words in Romans. He's writing this letter to strengthen. It's the same word, establish in the gospel and when you're established in the gospel, then you'll be about the gospel work. The message I proclaim about Jesus Christ in keeping with the revelation of the stree hidden for long ages past but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal god so that all the gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith.

To the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ are men. That is his mission to take that 1 gospel to the world to bring disobedient people into obedience to bring them aboard the fellowship. That's what he's about that they would know what it is to be people born into the kingdom of god loved by Christ forgiven their sin and established in that, and we establish ourself as we take this rescue ship out to the loss as we pray as we preach, as we give, as we use our time and our gifts about this work. Christians are not just receivers. We're servants.

We're slaves of this message. We receive all these wonderful gifts of forgiveness and bought into the family of god and brought the fellowship, but in order to take the ship out of the harbor into the world. Look at verse 20. I love verse 20. The God of peace will soon crush satan under your feet.

It's really talking about what Jesus says in Matthew 6 where he he says that we're going to build the church and the gates of hell will not prevail. We're going to Satan's territory. We'll take the rescue boat into Satan's territory and he was going to Spain. We're gonna go there to preach the gospel and we'll stamp Satan under our feet by the power of the good news of Christ. And as we rescue people and bring them in the ship, from from Spain and other places where they're floating in the Mediterranean and desperate for help.

We go there crusading out on our ship and getting the rescue sirens up and the beacons up. We're here. We're here to rescue. We go out and bring them. We crush satan under his feet.

As we bring in the gospel of peace of the lord Jesus Christ. And 1 day, we will sail in on the fellowship into the into the haven of heaven itself into the harbor of heaven. And we'll put down our work and there'll be a great feast on board, the new creation. We come off the off the fellowship and onto the new creation and eat the wonderful feast. This is a wonderful thing.

So join the crew, my dear friends. Join the crew. Join our crew. Join our motley crew. Join us about this work.

Let's be about it. Get on board. I was going through with Anne this morning. How many people we we we thought of that they've come to cornerstone and they say things like, oh, we love you and then we never see them again. And what where are they?

And then you ask other local churches, where are they? Where are these people? We had a bloke that came to us once liked us but wanted to look around and he then started looking around at other churches 6 months later, he came back and said I'm still looking. And I said to him that you either stay here or go. Don't come back again because you are ruining your soul because if you are in Christ, you're on the fellowship, and you're floating around looking for a better boat So really, you know, unless you come or don't come.

We're not that bad. And if you think we are, then go to Chestington. Yeah? Or hook. I'm always sending people to other churches.

Join the crew. Let's get stuck in. And there'll be affection and diversity and dedication and discerning and a missionary church. Father god, we thank you for this amazing book of Romans. We thank you for this last chapter, which is is really the example of all that he's been saying.

And we long that we would be even more dedicated and diverse and affectionate and discerning and missionary minded. We thank you for Cornerstone. We really do. We thank you for the effect and the diversity and the dedication that we see. And we wanna we wanna grow.

We wanna rescue more We want teams of rescue boats pulling in people that would join us on the way to heaven. So please help us in Jesus' name, amen.