Final Romans Sermon

“To Him Be Glory”
(Romans 16:25-27, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, February 26, 2006)

TODAY’S PASSAGE:
Romans 16:25-27 25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages 26 but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith- 27 to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.

God is able to strengthen you.

Can you accept what this text says – that God is able to strengthen you? An admission of weakness is central to the Christian faith. We are not those who are able to say that we hope that we will be strong enough in order to get to heaven. We know that a man’s good works can never justify him before God. We know that we are sinners from birth, sinners after birth, and still sinning even after we come to faith. We are very weak.

Yet we also know that God is able. Of course that does not mean that we are not to be at work in accord with the commands of God. We are to be alert and at work – working hard to resist the devil and to put off sin. But do you believe that God is able to strengthen you? Is he able to take your weaknesses and failures and work improvement toward holiness in your life, so that you would be more firmly established in a life of goodness? These closing verses assure our weak hearts that He is able to strengthen you.

Peter writes this in 1 Peter 5:8-11: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

God is able to restore you, to confirm you in the faith, to strengthen you in your Christian life, and finally to establish you in a solid pattern of godly behavior. Not only is He able to do these things, but Peter says that after you have suffered a little while, the One who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ will do these things. You need to accept this as true.

How will He strengthen you?

But how will He strengthen weak sinners? We know that the grand finale of strengthening us comes with the return of Christ. But is there some hope that He has a way to strengthen us more even now? The Apostle Paul says here that we will be strengthened “according to” Paul’s gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ.”

Think about what Paul is saying here. There are two possible ways of thinking about the words “according to.” The first is that Paul is saying that his gospel teaches that God is able to strengthen you – “thus says” my gospel and the preaching of Christ. I am sure that is true. Paul’s gospel and the preaching of Christ are very clear about the power of God to change sinners. This is a fact that is clearly taught.

But there is a second meaning to the words “according to” that you need to appreciate. Paul is closing His letter by telling his readers HOW God is going to strengthen them. He will strengthen them “through” his gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ. That is why he goes on to specify the content of Christian gospel preaching. You are strengthened “according to” or “through” the revealing of the true meaning of the Scriptures that are opened up to you through gospel preaching. For ages, the true meaning of Old Testament prophetic writings were cloaked in the shadows of Old Covenant life as the people of Israel waited for a Messiah who would bring light. But now the Light has come. Christ has been revealed and the Spirit of God has been given to the church. This same Christ is now preached to all the nations, so that the Jewish Scriptures are expounded to Jew and Gentile – to all weak sinners who will believe.

Then a marvelous miracle happens. As the gospel of Christ is preached from the Scriptures, you are strengthened. This is HOW you are strengthened. It is according to Paul’s gospel. It is according to the preaching of Christ. It is according to the expounding of these ancient texts for your ears today according to the command of the eternal God who insists that His church do this thing, and promises that weak people will be strengthened by His power if preachers will preach and if you will hear.

I must preach. You must hear. If I do not preach or if you refuse to hear, then you will not be strengthened – at least not today. God commands that this method be followed.

What will it look like when you are strengthened?

But if I do preach, and if you will truly hear, the result will be strengthening. This strengthening is called here the obedience of faith. This is what strength looks like. Strong Christians obey the Lord based on what they hear Him saying from the Scriptures that are preached to them.

This obedience of faith is the very thing that has always alluded man. It is the thing that man walked away from in the garden when he ate the fruit in direct violation of God’s command. It is the thing that the Law of Moses could not bring about. Though we heard about the right way to go, we had no strength to have victory in attaining that goal of true obedience.

We could not strengthen ourselves toward the obedience that God calls us to simply by self-esteem talks, or by the encouragement and approval of men, or by involvement in civic activities. It was necessary that Son of God come for us. It was necessary that Spirit of God be sent to us.

The Son of God has come. The Spirit of God has been poured out upon those who would receive Jesus Christ. Therefore, the church is now being strengthened as the gospel is preached. People all over the world are growing in the obedience of faith.

To God be the glory!

What a wise plan to bring about the obedience of the nations! It is a plan designed to take away from us all foolish boasting. God is the one who is able to strengthen us. He does this through the simple but powerful tool of the proclaiming of Jesus through the Word preached. It is not about the eloquence or intelligence of man. It is all about the power and mercy of God working through weak vessels. What a generous gift to give His only Son that we might believe! What a secure and eternal blessing God has given to us! To Him be the glory!

Amen!

Amen? Amen! Do you know what that word means? It means, “So be it!” So be it here! So be it now!

Next week if the Lord is willing, we shall move on to the Old Testament book of Amos. It is my expectation that as I show you Christ through the preaching of the words of this Old Testament prophet, that you will be strengthened in Christ, and that you will obey Him more and more in every area of your life. This is my confidence. I will preach. You must be willing to hear. And so to God be the glory through Jesus Christ forever and ever! Amen.

The Cause of Christ – Our Common Cause

(Romans 16:20-24, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, February 19, 2006)

TODAY’S PASSAGE:
Romans 16:21-24 21 Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen. 22 I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. 23 Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you. 24[The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.]

Warm Greetings from the Team in Corinth

As we move toward the conclusion of this important letter we now consider the greeters who are sending their Christian regards to their brothers and sisters in the churches of Rome. Let me leave aside Timothy for the moment, since there is so much to say about this man whom Paul calls his “fellow worker.”

Paul goes on to send greetings from three people he calls his “kinsmen.” Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater were probably from a Jewish background as Paul was. There is little more that we can say about them, since they are only mentioned in passing in the Bible.

Next Paul sends greetings from one Tertius (which means “Third”) who may literally have had a brother with him who is called Quartus (which means “Fourth”). Some suggest that these men may have been slaves who were given names based upon their order of birth in their family. It is obvious from other passages that slaves were an important part of the New Testament church who, together with their free brothers and sisters in the Lord, served Jesus Christ in accord with the gifts that God gave them. In any case, Tertius is noted here as the scribe that Paul used in penning this correspondence. He was more than a hired “hand.” He also was “in the Lord” and greeted the Roman believers accordingly.

Also sending greetings were two men who must have been of some economic means. Gaius was the host of the church, meaning that the church met for worship in his home. He was also a host to Paul. Finally, Erastus had some role in the civil government in Corinth. It is difficult for us to tell whether this treasurer or town manager position mentioned here was a very high civil office or a middle manager spot. It was apparently notable enough that Paul mentioned it in these greetings.

Obviously as we try to understand the story behind these names there is much that we cannot know and that we really do not need to know. But do not miss this. There is contained among this huddle of people who are there together at the closing of this monumental letter, an overflowing sense of dedication and enthusiasm to a common purpose. These are people who know each other, though they are not exactly the same. They share something together.

Here they are sending warm greetings to people that they very likely do not know. Is this warmth of address just the common cause that one might find in a civic organization, or among those who share a common experience as one might find in a gathering of those from a particular branch of the military? Or is there something more going on here that has to do with a special gift of faith and with a God who works miracles? Let’s explore the answer to this question through what we know about Timothy, since there is so much that we read about this man from the record preserved for us in the Scriptures.

The Story of Timothy

In Acts 16 we read that Paul came to the towns of Derbe and Lystra. There he met a disciple named Timothy, who was the son of a believing Jewish woman and a Greek father who was not a believer. This Timothy was apparently a young man who was well thought of by the people of his church. Paul wanted Timothy to come along with the apostolic team, and so he circumcised him. We know from Paul’s letter to the Galatians that the Apostle did not urge circumcision upon the church for any religious reason. The need was a missionary one, since Paul and his team would be visiting places where circumcision would be important to those who would hear the message they were bringing.

In Acts 17 through 20 we follow the story of Paul and Timothy, along with the rest of the team as they face challenging situations in the various cities that they visit throughout the Mediterranean world. Some people who hear their message and receive it are joined into local churches. But others are angry about what they hear, and they seem to chase the apostolic troop from town to town in order to try to discredit them. Sometimes Paul leaves Timothy behind in one place, while he and others move on to the next location. Sometimes he sends Timothy back to a church that they started some time ago in order to find out how the believers are doing. For long periods of time they are together doing the work of teaching people, visiting house churches, preaching the gospel, and facing victory and disappointment side by side with the other brothers engaged in this common mission.

Let me give you a few specifics so that you can have some sense of the depth of experience that they faced together. One of the places where they spent a great deal of time was the city of Ephesus. Paul’s great work in that place was his daily teaching of the faith for some two years. But he also performed miracles in Ephesus. We are told that “even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.”

Naturally there were other people who observed this or heard about it, and they wanted to do the things that Paul did. There was a family of itinerant Jewish exorcists who undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus in order to add to their powerful repertoire. One time when they tried to do this, the demon possessed people attacked them. They said something like, “Jesus we know, and Paul we know, but who are you?” The Bible tells us that these would-be miracle workers “fled out of that house naked and wounded.”

Naturally that created quite a stir. Remember that Paul was very well known in this city because of his daily teaching. We are told that this attack on the itinerant exorcists “became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.”

That’s not the end of the story though. Apparently there was a great deal of spiritual and magical activity in that region, and many of the practitioners became impressed by what they heard. They believed what Paul taught and they were afraid of the power that they saw. We are told that “those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.”

This was just one experience, but I hope that you get the point of all this. Timothy was there. He saw these events. He was a witness to the power of the message of Christ. He saw the response of those who believed the gospel, and he felt the anger of those who hated it. Through it all Paul was him companion, and his father in the faith.

There is so much more that could be said about this wonderful friendship. Along the way Timothy had been called by a gathering of elders to some office of pastoral and evangelistic endeavor that he gave himself to for many years. He struggled with timidity, and had to be encouraged by Paul to humbly stand for what he knew to be true in the face of opposition by those who were older and more forceful than he.

At the end of First Timothy Paul writes this: “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called "knowledge," for by professing it some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you.” There are some among the leaders of the church that have not been faithful to their Lord. Timothy has seen this as well. But Paul and his son in the faith were true to the One who bought them by His blood.

The last time we hear about this great companion of Paul, it is probably from another man’s pen. At the end of the book of Hebrews we read these moving words: “You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon.”

Timothy apparently faced imprisonment in order to stand for the truth of Christ. It is this man who, together with others in the church in Corinth, sent his warm greetings to the beloved brothers and sisters in the various churches in the capital city of the empire.

Our Common Cause throughout the Ages

There is something very special here. We see it not only in the first century of the church, but throughout the many years that have followed. In the contest of faith that we have during our brief sojourn on this earth, if we have to stand alone, we will. But we generally do not stand alone. We stand together, as a devoted team of brothers and sisters. We are willing to give our lives for the Captain of our Salvation, and we stand together.

Paul gives a wonderful explanation of this life of devoted sacrifice in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15. “The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” This is what it is all about. The experience of true Christian friendship is a wonderful thing. The power of such friendship comes from our first relationship, the relationship between Jesus Christ and His church. You are not your own. And because there are others with you who are also not their own, then you are not alone. You are together with them in the Lord

The Great Blessing of Strong Christian Relationships

On the simplest level, some people from the church in Corinth were eager to send their greetings and became a part of a letter that Paul was sending to churches in Rome. But the story is bigger than that. Those who were struggling for the cause of Christ in Corinth were partners with those living for the Lord Jesus in Rome. Looking carefully at what it meant for them to be counted as part of the Lord’s family helps us to appreciate the precious gift of Christian friendship.

You don’t have to be a Christian to want to have a close connection with someone else. There is something here that is part of being a human being. We spend all our lives yearning for companionship, and don’t always know how to find it. Even within the church, we can find ourselves longing for strong relationships. Yet we often look for friends in ways that are not particularly Christian. We focus on lesser things that we seem to have in common with others, or put inordinate emphasis on how our personalities click. We need to remember the common life we have together as those who gather every Sunday and utter these ancient words: “Our Father.”

Christian bonds of love need not be based merely on natural affinity and mutually agreed upon activities of entertainment. Of course, there is nothing wrong with finding people who share your interests. But there is a deeper common bond that we share as those who are one in Christ.

These verses in Romans 16 speak of a meaningful relationship of love with one another in Christ. I want to urge you this morning to find that love again, even if someone has hurt you, or even if you feel all alone. Do not run away from the great gift of Christian relationship. Do not try to accomplish with a common grace friendship what can only be found in Christ.

We need this thing called Christian relationship. We need many a Paul and a Timothy. We don’t have to be the same age or have all the same interests. We just need to be together in Christ by God’s purpose. One Lord, one faith, one mission, one destiny… Christ has loved you. Brothers and sisters, love one another. And the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

The Devices and Destruction of the Lord’s Adversary

(Romans 16:17-20, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, February 5, 2006)

TODAY’S PASSAGE:
Romans 16:17-20 17 I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. 18 For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. 19 For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Introduction – The Immediate Context of Today’s Passage

In the midst of this chapter speaking of warm greetings from the church in Corinth to the church in Rome, there is a sense in which this morning’s text of strong warning seems to come out of nowhere. The preceding verses include a long list of Christians in the Roman church that are spoken of in glowing gospel terms. Following verse 21 comes a shorter list of Corinthian Christians eager to be remembered by name to their Roman brothers and sisters in the faith. There is a strong sense of family solidarity here. These folks are going out of their way to affirm that they are on the same team.

But not everyone is on the same team. We know that of course. We don’t expect those who reject faith in Christ to be in lockstep with the church. What does surprise us at times is that there are those who claim to be in the church of Christ who are apparently not on the same team as the Apostle Paul. Not everyone who is wearing the team jersey is actually helpful to the cause. As verse 18 indicates, there are those who might visit the churches in Rome who could easily “deceive the hearts of the naïve.” Paul warns the church about such people because he has encountered their opposition everywhere.

THE ADVERSARY’S DEVICES

Those who cause divisions and obstacles

Behind such adversaries of the true Christian message is a leader who has shown himself to be against God and against God’s people from the opening pages of the Scriptures. This leading adversary uses people to pursue his activities of division and obstruction.

Paul issues a strong warning here that must be heard. He writes these words not because he has heard that the Roman church is weak but because of the danger he has seen everywhere. He speaks of those who cause “divisions” and those who create “obstacles.” The word translated “divisions” is listed in Galatians 5 as a work of the flesh. The same book contains a famous list of the fruits of the spirit. In contrast to these “fruits” there are those works which come from our sinful nature.

Not all divisions are sinful. Sometimes it is necessary to stand up for the faith as a matter of holding fast to clear and central biblical truth. In such a case, it is the one who has departed from the faith who is actually the source of the division, not the one who is defending the faith. But there are many divisions in the church that are plainly sinful, and there are people that cause those divisions.

Paul also uses the word “obstacles.” This is the same word that is often translated “stumbling blocks.” Once again, not every stumbling block is bad. Christ himself is called a stumbling block to those who will not receive His message of faith and repentance. In such a case, He is certainly not at fault. But others would come into the church and plant seeds of trouble, providing occasions for sin that are like traps for the unsuspecting.

In this note on divisions and obstacles Paul is most likely referring to those who are outside the church who bring teaching that is not helpful. We know this because in verse 17 he states that these things are contrary to the doctrine that they have been taught. More on these important words later…

Last week we considered the great team of Prisca and Aquila. Our focus was their time in Corinth with Paul, but I did mention that they went on to Ephesus with the Apostle. They had a house church there and the churches in that city faced plenty of troubles. Paul spent three months in the synagogue convincing those who would listen to the Christian message. But eventually some became so stubborn in their unbelief and were speaking evil of the faith, so Paul withdrew from that setting and took the disciples with him. The Bible tells us that he was “reasoning daily” with them in what was called “the hall of Tyrannus.” We learn that he continued teaching daily there for at least two years.

Eventually he left Ephesus, but he later in his travels came near enough to the city that it was practical to call the elders from Ephesus to meet with him. Acts 20 records his emotional and beautiful appeal to them, convinced as he was that he would never see them again. As he recounts his years of ministry among them we cannot miss the importance that he placed on his daily teaching activities. We see this in the description of the pattern of his own life and also in his instruction for their future ministry, as he commends them to God and to the word of His grace. This is the way for all of us, even today, even here.

Contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught

Paul has labored to teach the doctrines of the faith through expounding the whole counsel of God in the Scriptures. The result of years of daily teaching is that there is a body of doctrine that his hearers should know to be the doctrine that they have been taught. This doctrine was not unique to Paul. He could expect that those who have been diligent hearers in the Roman church had similarly been built up in a body of Christian truth.

His concern in today’s passage is that some might come teaching doctrines that were contrary to the truth that the church had been taught. There are two ways that this might be done. First, there could be those who would directly contradict the doctrines of the faith. If someone came here and told you that the Trinity was not true, that would be a direct contradiction of the faith that you have been taught. I don’t suppose that most of you would fall for that. The second way to attack the teaching of the church is more subtle. You can end up being an enemy of Christian truth by minimizing the central doctrines of the faith. Divisive teachers most often (however inadvertently) achieve this by appealing to your passion for the things that you long for in this passing world – your children finding the right spouse, your nation having the best government, and many other such things.

How would you know it if someone came to you – not denying the doctrines of the Christian faith, but subtly leading you away from them? The text tells us that false teachers would deceive the hearts of the simple. You must not be so simple that you are unaware of where you are, and of the teachings that your church holds to be central to the faith. You must know the doctrines of the faith if you are to have any hope of recognizing appeals that would slowly pull you away from this body of truth. You must study the Bible and understand the doctrinal statements that your church believes are Scriptural.

Watch out… Avoid them.

Paul warns the church here to watch out for false teachers and to avoid them. We all need to be a part of a church that holds to biblical doctrine with a biblical sense of proportion. If the written doctrines of your church are not biblical, find a doctrinally sound church that you can support in good conscience. But if you believe that the teachings of your church are biblical, then you need to stay close to those teachings.

Many of the teachers who seem to be moving people away from the central doctrines of the faith today come to us through a remote location. They do not come in here on Sunday morning and ask to share a message. Instead they produce monthly journals that are mailed to your homes, or tapes and CDs that are passed from friend to friend. Some (both of those who are alive yet today or of others from the past who have left us written materials) would bring you Christian teaching that would actually deepen your knowledge of the doctrines that your church teaches. But others would lead you away from the faith.

You are told here to avoid this second group. Here is a good question that you can ask yourself if you believe that the teachings of your church are solidly biblical:

Will following a new “teacher” lead you away from peace in your church?

If the answer to that question is yes, then do yourself and your church a big favor. Throw out that tape.

By the way, do not expect such diversionary teachers to identify themselves. They seem to be strongly biblical people who just like to focus on other things that the Westminster Divines chose never to write a chapter about in their confession – like tax policy, and educational choices, and courting procedures, and how American morality can be restored. Naturally such a teacher doesn’t say that this tape or book will lead you to hate people who love you – the people of your own church. But the evidence is plain. As you become overly passionate about secondary this-world issues, you will not care very much about “little” things like the Covenant of Grace, and Christ the Mediator of that covenant, and the Cross of Christ, by which our sins have been atoned for. After only a matter of months you may feel that you are especially passionate about other things that the rest of the church does not see to care about the same way that you do, and the dirty deed has been done.

THE ADVERARY’S DESTRUCTION

What will God do?

Thankfully, this is not the end of the story. Our subtle adversary does not have the last word. Just as we learned from the opening of the Bible, the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. In the process the man that would be a descendant of Eve would himself be hurt.

This has already happened. Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the Covenant of Grace has destroyed the devil through His great work on the cross. A whole kingdom of darkness has been mortally wounded, and a new Kingdom has come. The battle has been won by Christ alone in His atoning death. The justice of God is satisfied. We who were guilty sinners go free. The spotless Lamb of God faced the wrath we deserved, and the plot of Satan to destroy the fellowship between God and man is utterly foiled.

Yet there is also a sense in which this new Kingdom which is already here, is at the same time not yet here. We are told here by Paul that this adversary who would send divisive and entrapping emissaries into our midst will himself soon be crushed under OUR feet. (We must not be surprised when we find that we are badly wounded in the battle, though we shall live.)

Note carefully what Paul tells the church here. Our feet are being used to further defeat the defeated foe. But look who is even now defeating the father of lies who comes to steal and to kill and to destroy. It is the God of peace Himself who will crush Satan under our feet shortly!

Being aware then of the enemy’s devices, and committed to applying biblical countermeasures, we move ahead with confidence in God. So now, brothers and sisters, “I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” Stay close to Jesus. Do not move away from the message of the cross. Hold fast to the doctrines that you have been taught. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.