Closing Commendation and Greetings

Transcript

GR 2271
4/18/2012
Closing Commendation and Greetings
Romans 16:1-5
Gil Rugh

We’re going to go to the book of Romans, and then after Romans, we’ll be having a little bit of our discussion time. There are a couple things I want to share with you. But let’s go to the book of Romans, chapter 16. We’ve come to this final chapter in the book of Romans. Some of you have wondered where we’re going after this, and you’re not as anxious about that as I am. So we’ll see where we’ll go here in coming days, but we have a little ways to go. Paul is ready to wrap up this letter. It’s quite an extensive letter when you think that it had to be hand-written on something like parchment or vellum, animals skins, all done by hand, and in a way that could be legible and then carried a distance to Rome where it was read and copies were made so it could be circulated around. So many things we take for granted when we just pick up not only the book of Romans, but also everything from Genesis to Revelation, and have it with us. Some of you use your phone and you have the whole Bible right there in such a small little package. It’s amazing. What blessings we have.

Well, in the book of Romans, as Paul has brought it to this closing point, as he wraps it up, we’re reminded. Everything he said about the gospel is the gospel that brings us to salvation and God’s plan when He saves us is to join us together in a fellowship of believers in the church. Local churches being a manifestation of the church, universal as we call it, existing around the world, comprised of all believers. That completed body of Christ would include all believers from Acts 2 down to the future time of the Rapture. But God doesn’t intend us as His people to be isolated entities. Sometimes it can’t be helped. Health, physical issues, and other things that intervene prevent some from coming in to be part of the body, but they’re still part of the body. We want to reach out to one another when those times are there. We attempt to do that and many of you minister in that way. But God doesn’t intend His people… He never has. In the Old Testament, His people Israel were joined together as a nation and were to function in a unified way under His oversight in their worship and their service in a way that honored Him. That’s true with the church. And so as Paul wraps up in chapter 16, we’re going to just see something of the variety of people that he can mention in this closing letter to the Romans. Remember he’s never visited this church, yet there are a variety of people who have been involved. We don’t know in how many ways because most of them we know nothing else about other than their name is mentioned here at the end of the letter. But the Spirit of God moved Paul; it was important enough that they be acknowledged. And just a reminder for those of us who would be reading this letter like we are, 2,000 years after it’s written, of the part that all the people are playing in the plan of God.

He refers to them with a variety of expressions. Let me just draw your attention to those, running down through the first dozen or so verses. He mentions a number of people and how he mentions them, for example, in verse 1 he refers to a servant of the church. We’ll talk about that word servant. In verse 2 he called them a helper. In verse 3 and verse 9, he talks about them as fellow workers, those joined together with him. Others are mentioned here as fellow workers in the ministry of truth. He calls them beloved in verses 5, 8, 9, and 12. A reminder of the bond that there is and even though Paul is not himself personally a part of this church, he’s anticipating visiting there, and these people that he does know have become precious to him because they are loved of the Lord and we love one another. They are hard workers in verse 6 and verse 12. Some of them are fellow prisoners, outstanding among the apostles, in verse 7. They are approved in Christ in verse 10. They’ve worked hard in the Lord in verse 12. In verse 13, he’s referred to as a choice man. So even though we don’t know any more about most of them other than their name, you see the important role they played in the work that God was doing in Rome. Here we have their names recognized, but you think in heaven they aren’t noted, that God’s using each one. We’re just reminded of that as we look at this letter.

Eleven times in the verses as he closes out, down through verse 22, he’s going to use the expression that we’ve talked about in Ephesians 1, that they are in the Lord. They are in Christ. That’s what binds us all together. The expression of that most clearly is when we’re bound together in a local church and in other local churches because that’s where we are together most often and share together in the ministry regularly. In reality, we are bound in that relationship with every other person, and we will be dwelling ultimately in the New Jerusalem for eternity as fellow citizens in the work of God in eternity.

Well, let’s look at verse 1. What we’re going to do is look at these names and some of them we’ll just mention. We won’t even go through all the list. But a few stand out. They’re important for us to look at a little more carefully, and there are some issues that come around some of these opening names. Interesting, the first one that he mentions is Phoebe, a woman about whom Paul has gracious and important things to say. “I commend to you our sister Phoebe.” You see that family relationship. She’s a fellow member of the body. We are joined together in a spiritual relationship in the family of God. “Our sister Phoebe” he commends, and that was a common expression in Paul’s time for recommending someone. I’m giving testimony to her, commending her to you. She’s a sister in Christ, “who is a servant of the church which is in Cenchrea.” So this is not one that would have been known, as far as we can tell, because this is all we do know about her, what is said in these words. She’s from Cenchrea, the church in Cenchrea. Now this Cenchrea was the seaport for the city of Corinth. Some of you remember that on the map, so it’s close by. Evidently there was a church there. Paul would have visited that area and perhaps in his ministry in Corinth in that area of Greece, some of those saved started a church in Cenchrea. As we’re going to see, in those days, there were no church buildings. For the most part, church meetings would have been smaller, perhaps meeting in homes and sometimes maybe in large homes. We were in one of the places in Asia where they have house churches. It was a very small apartment, but a group was gathered there. So we’ll see about the churches meeting in the house here in a moment, but Cenchrea’s placed where Phoebe comes from.

Why Paul particularly mentions her, she’s evidently coming, perhaps, with this letter, and the most common observation is she may have been carrying the letter. The letter has to get transported. This is a significant-sized letter and you’d want to be sure it’s going to get there, so Phoebe, for whatever reason, perhaps for this special reason, is carrying the letter to the believers in Rome. That would have been quite a trip. We can’t say that for sure, but Paul wants to commend her and that would fit if she was carrying the letter.

He wants them to “receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints.” Now, she is a believer, obviously. That’s clear. She’s a member of the church. She is to be received, in other words, here you have a stranger coming and people coming and going, but this is to give her an opening to be received in the church. Perhaps some of the ladies or some of the couples who would have room would have her in their home for the time she’s going to be there. He doesn’t say what her purpose is other than if she’s brought the letter, but we don’t know if she had other things to do. Lydia, who was a seller of purple, we don’t know if whether this lady had other things to do there. But Paul wants her to be received “in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints.” One thing we’ll see in this list is it’s a mixture of men and women. They are all to be appreciated and honored as the Lord’s children, the Lord’s servants. A manner worthy of the saints, God’s holy ones. She’s to get that special attention and special care.

With that in view, I want to back up to that word “servant” for a moment. Some of you have studied Romans and are aware that the word “servant” here, we get the English word “deacon” from. It’s the normal word for servant, but because of that, some would say that Phoebe was a deacon or deaconess in the church at Cenchrea. From just the word, that would be a possibility. You can read it, who is a deaconess of the church that is at Cenchrea. This is one of the passages where those who talk about how there were female deacons in the New Testament will take you to, referring to Phoebe and say that the word here is the word used for deacon, for example, in 1 Timothy chapter 3. We’ll go there in a minute.

Just a word about deacons, there was, what we would call, an official position. Like elders, there were also deacons in the early church. Acts, you want to back up to Acts chapter 6 because it’s pertinent to note here. They’re not called deacons in Acts 6, but this would be the only place where we would see that those who would fit that role are appointed, so I think it is biblically reasonable to consider this is the start. In the book of Acts we find Paul appointing elders in the churches that he established, and it would seem that here, these may well be the deacons at this time. Acts 6:1, “Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose,” and the conflict between the Hellenistic Jews and the Hebrew Jews. They’re all Jews, but the Hellenistic ones were those who’d been raised outside the land of Israel. They were part of the Diaspora. Jews for whatever reason, perhaps in the captivities, while they had been transported to other lands, over time children born and raised there… They’re called Hellenistic Jews or Greek Jews. They would have been more accustomed to the Greek practices, Greek would have been their basic language, not Hebrew. Then you had the native Hebrews as our Bibles have put it. You note Hellenistic and Hebrews, they put in “Hellenistic” and then added the word “Jews” in italics, and then “native.” That gives you the sense. There’s tension between the groups, so here you have Jews, but even among the Jews who have become believers, there’s tension because they’re different in their backgrounds and some of the customs that they have adopted and so on. The feeling is among the Greek Jews, if I can use that without confusing you, the Hellenistic Jews that are now living in Israel, they’ve become believers and have become part of the church, they don’t feel that the widows they have are being taken care of. Maybe the Hebrews didn’t see them as really full Jews, so they didn’t feel the necessity to take care of them like they do their own, so to speak. They were being overlooked. The early church took care of the widows and we’re told that the responsibility of the church to see that widows were, particularly because they’re vulnerable. The husband dying, they have no one to take care of them or provide for them. That’s one of the things the church did for believing widows.

So the twelve apostles, verse 2 of Acts 6, that are headquartered in Jerusalem and are overseeing this new church, “Summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, ‘It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.’” This is a ministry that needs to be done, but that does not need to be done by us. We have something to do in a larger way. They have the oversight in ministering the word of God, and they can’t take time away from that. We know from studying the New Testament that was a major job. Doctrine is being developed and revealed and explained, and challenges to that doctrine are coming up. In chapter 15, remember, they have to have the conference in Jerusalem to try to resolve this. So the apostles, or the disciples as they’re referred to here, have major ministry, but taking care of the tables is a major ministry, the proper distribution of the food. And this expression, serving tables, some commentators say that could be an expression that’s used more broadly to refer to the finances. It could involve, remember the money changers… Their business was at a table. So serving tables was sometimes used as an expression of handling finances. That would be involved with serving the food, obviously, making sure the arrangements for it are taken care of. Sometimes, obviously, there might be finances that have to be involved. Somebody has to pay for this and so on.

At any rate, these men will be appointed, so they say in verse 3, “’Select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.’” These men are going to have oversight, and you know, this is an important responsibility. At this level, they are to be men of godly character. You know, full of the Spirit, of wisdom, with good reputation. So they find seven men, Philip we’re familiar with from later comments. Stephen’s probably the most famous because he’s going to be martyred here shortly. But these are godly men. It’s a very important position and serves under the oversight of the apostles. That’s one of the reasons we don’t have apostles anymore. We have elders and this is the way we are set up. You’ll note these are all men. I think that may be a factor when you consider their responsibility as oversight and administration. That doesn’t mean they did all the details, but they are responsible to see this is taken care of properly. I think it’s another indication we’re talking about men here.

Come over to 1 Timothy chapter 3. We’re not going to do details of this. We’ve done this when we’ve studied particularly 1 Timothy 3. 1 Timothy 3 is the most detailed discussion of elders and deacons that we have in the New Testament. You have the qualifications set out for men who would serve in the position of elder in the first seven verses here. Verse 2, “An overseer, then, must be.” Then you’ll see down in verse 8, “Deacons likewise.” It’s like the elder. They “must be,” and he gives qualifications for deacons. We’ve come here because verse 11, in the midst of talking about the qualifications of deacons, which we just had a brief summary of in Acts 6… You know, of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit. But here you have a little fuller detail and yet, when you have women in verse 11, some take that to be these would be female deacons. Some take it to be the wives of deacons. It’s not resolved by the language because the word for woman or wives could be translated either way. So they “must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things.” But then verse 12 picks up, “Deacons must be husbands of only one wife.” So I’m of the preference that the strength is that these are wives of deacons. Both sides of this, it’s clearly the men that he’s talking about. They say well, why didn’t he talk about the wives of elders, because he didn’t. I don’t have anything else to say, but maybe, perhaps, the one to clarify here since in this role the wives would be maybe more involved if they, like the serving of food or the taking care of widows, that would naturally involve drawing in women who would help in closer ways. Some of those areas would involve more, so I take it, perhaps, the wives are mentioned here, of deacons, but we would hold similar standards for the wives of elders, not that that’s not important. It may be mentioned here because of the particular way that the deacons are personally involved and their wives may be more directly involved. We have very little said about the wives of the apostles. We probably would be debating if Peter were married if it weren’t for the fact that Jesus went to his house and healed Peter’s mother-in-law. So we know he was married. Paul mentions, don’t I have the right to take about a wife as the rest of the apostles; so they indeed did have wives.

Some in good churches take this that there are deaconesses, and that’s alright as long as you don’t use that as a reason to put the women in positions that God says only men should have. In some churches, Baptist churches often, in my background, there is one elder. That’s the pastor, and then there’s a board of deacons. We want to be careful here because then, if you’re not careful, you say we have deaconesses too, and then you put them in positions of leadership that are only reserved for men. So we have women who serve in many ways. If they were called deaconesses, it would be that they function within the framework; but I think probably, there’s not enough evidence to say that there were deaconesses. That’s not changing the fact women do serve and contribute in serving in very important and serious ways. I think the mention of wives here may indicate that they do have a role here, which may be associated more directly in some of these ways.

I think that’s the end of chapter 2 of 1 Timothy for those of you who maybe are a little, or it’s been a while since you’ve studied. There are instructions. The women were to learn and were not to be in authority. They were not teaching, and so that flows into how Paul breaks down the structure for the church. That in no way minimizes the importance of the women’s ministry in the church any more than as we talked about this morning, in the Godhead. There is order and the Father sends the Son and the Son sends the Spirit, and the Father and the Son send the Spirit. That doesn’t mean that the Spirit is inferior or the Son is inferior. It’s because They are all fully God, but there is an order and that’s spiritually equal but functionally different. That is totally out of order with the world as the world sees it, and the problem is that the church gets pushed into things it shouldn’t be pushed into. We become more like the world. For example, when I was in seminary, I know, a long time ago, I was thinking about that as those young girls were ministering up here. I thought, I was probably 60 years old before any one of them was ever born. I think, oh my goodness. But there were no women in seminary. Why? Because we’re training pastors. Now it gets difficult to find a seminary that’s not training women. Oh, but we’re not training them to be pastors. They’re really a conservative seminary. What are you training them for? Are you training for something and then you tell them no, you can’t do it? Changes occur, but the word of God stays the same, so we do.

All of that out of Phoebe. Come back to Romans 16 before I get off the track even more. That word “servant” is used a number of times in the book of Romans preceding this. You come to Romans 16 verse 1 and you see the word “servant” is used several times, but just look back in chapter 15. We won’t look at the prior references, but you can look them up in a concordance. Chapter 15 verse 8, “For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth.” He’s talking about Christ becoming a servant. Well, that’s what you would translate the word “servant” there. It’s the same word for “deacon,” the normal word for servant. So we’re not fudging on it. All its uses, which are eight totally in Romans, seven leading up to 16:1 are talking about a servant, so it’s not like we’re giving, you know, we’re trying to get around it meaning deacon. This is the normal way. You see it in 15:8. Look down in 15:25, “But now, I am going to Jerusalem,” Paul talking about, “serving the saints.” Again, the basic word we translate “deacon,” but it obviously means serving. Look down in verse 31, “That I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service.” There’s our word again, the same word we’re dealing with in chapter 16 verse 1. So you see, even the examples immediately preceding are talking about a servant, not the office of deacon. So I think as you read right into, remember there weren’t verse and chapter divisions, Phoebe is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea. He talked about he is a servant. He is serving the churches, so I think that’s the normal way to use the word. You can get more of that if you want in studies we’ve done in Timothy on this passage.

Come back to Romans 16:2. “You help her,” and we’re in the middle of verse 2. “You receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever matter she may have need of you.” If you see needs she has, you step in and help her. This further to me encourages the idea she may have been carrying this letter for Paul. It’s an important thing and she needs to be recognized. It’s not just that she’s on her way someplace, so she thought she would stop. There seems to be something significant here, and he really wants them to show their appreciation and also help her in whatever way she needs it. So this is more than a lady who’s visiting and he’s giving her a letter of recommendation. It seems that there’s significance here.

“You help her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she herself has been a helper of many, and of myself as well.” That word “helper,” again, with the feminist movement, and then we get a movement called evangelical feminism, which is an oxymoron… We begin to massage and manipulate the Scripture so it fits more with what the world is saying is acceptable in the world today. We want to be careful we handle the Scripture accurately in its historical context, but it takes 2,000 years to realize, oh, we have to alter some of this so we can put women in positions because the world is very offended when we say that women are to live under the authority of men. Husbands are in authority in their home, and that’s over the wives. I think the principle, we’ve talked about this on other occasions, is broader than just the home, just husband and wife. It functions in the church as it was when we read in 1 Timothy 2. That’s the way it is in the church. I don’t allow a woman to teach or be in authority over a man. But the whole foundational structure of Scripture establishes the man is in authority over the woman. Paul says we go back. The man was created first, and then the woman. That was in the first marriage, but then the working out of it through the Old Testament is consistent. It is always that pattern. There are no queens in Israel, save for one, Athaliah. You don’t want to use her as your model or example. There were no female priests in Israel, but there were in the pagan lands around them. That did not allow Israel to have them. So the principle of male leadership, which was recognized pretty well throughout the world, generally, down through in our country. That’s why there’s so much fighting back now—we have to recognize what was wrong with our country for so long, and conform to Scripture in some ways.

All of this to say, that word “helper” is sometimes in some contexts translated “leader,” but I don’t think Paul is saying at the end of Romans 16:2 that she herself has been a leader of many, myself as well. That’s reading into it. It’s a word that would normally be used of a helper, but it’s related. I think he’s got a play on words here just like we have. You help her, in the middle of verse 2, and the end of it, and she has been a helper. The Greek words, it won’t mean anything if I say them to you, have a similar sounding. Help and help her. The Greek words have that same kind of play on sound. I think Paul’s impressing on that. She has helped, and you help her. She’s been a helper, and you help her in her needs. We assume she may need some financial support in travelling like this from Cenchrea to Rome, doing things, delivering the letter, whatever. So I just mention these things because if you read commentaries those who want to move toward what’s called an egalitarian position which is men and women are equal but in the use of that they mean the same. Not equal but different but equal means the same. We follow what is called broadly, a complementarian position. Men and women compliment one another with their differences but even that position is getting compromised. Pressure of the world just continues to beat on the church and pretty soon the church is beginning to look for ways to fit in with the world more. Remember Jesus said, “I chose you out of the world,” and then we had Romans 12:1 don’t allow the world to press you into its mold but it is a constant battle because it is relentless and it grows. We’ve crossed lines we never thought we would see. I say “we,” most of you are middle aged or older, but we don’t even know what a woman is and a man is. You don’t know whether a baby that’s been born is a male or female. You have to wait until they tell you when they are old enough. They think we’re crazy. So, all of that, I wanted you to at least be aware when you are reading and not say, maybe that makes sense. Anytime somebody tells you the Greek here solves it and if you knew the Greek you would know it, if that solved it, it would have been solved a long time ago so be careful.

Gracious words about Phoebe. Then you have a couple mentioned next, “greet Prisca and Aquilla, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus who for my life risked their own necks, to whom not only do I give thanks but also all the churches of the Gentiles.” Why? What is Paul? The apostle to the Gentiles. What if they hadn’t stepped up to help defend and protect Paul? Look at it on the human side and we would say if God would have been sovereign He would have done something else. Yes but He uses these people and Paul credits them and God using them. All the churches should be thankful for Prisca and Aquilla. We are a little bit more familiar with them because they appear a little more in scripture. We’ll look at that a little bit in a moment. These we know more than Phoebe. Phoebe we know from here a little bit more about her. Prisca and Aquilla, or Priscilla and Aquilla as she is also known in scripture, I’ll say more about that in a moment, we know from other passages of scripture. Phoebe we only know here. Priscilla and Aquilla we will see in a couple of other passages. Then the rest of them are just names that Paul mentions. That doesn’t mean they weren’t important in the ministry and what the Lord was doing in using them, but you just can’t go into it with everybody.

Prisca and Aquilla, you want to come back to the book of Acts. We will go to Acts chapter 18. Remember Paul is writing this letter to the Romans from Corinth and Priscilla and Aquilla are associated with Corinth. I want to mention something about their names. Prisca is the formal name; Priscilla would have been a diminutive form. It would have been the familiar form. I don’t know, like Bill and Billy kind of thing. I know you have William, and it could be Bill but thinking of the names where one might be the more formal than the other. We would think Priscilla, that’s the longer name, but that would be the more familiar name. That’s why I think of something like Bill and Billy. In the south they used a lot of Billy and Jimmy and more of those familiar names rather than what we would say the more reserved. So Prisca is the more basic familiar name here, whichever one used is the same person we are talking about.

Look in chapter 18, verse 1, “After these things he left Athens and went to Corinth.” We are talking about Paul’s journey here. “And he found a Jew named Aquilla, a native of Pontius having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla,” here he refers to Priscilla. “Because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.” When we studied Acts, we talked about that and we could identify that put it in its time when Claudius decided we don’t want any of the Jews in Rome, we want Rome free of the Jews. So, we know when Claudius gave that edict. Here we meet Aquilla and his wife who are from Italy. The Jews had to leave Rome which is in Italy obviously. “So he came to them because he was of the same trade. He stayed with them and they were working for by trade they were tentmakers.” So here we learn something about them. We noted that word “tentmakers” is not limited to tents, it could basically mean leatherworkers. I’m not making an issue if they made tents that’s fine but it’s a word that can be used more broadly. Generally, of working with leather and Paul had that skill which would have been normal for the time. These had that and they are believers, and they have the same trade skills, so Paul stays with them and he contributes. This is how they are supporting themselves. They have had to leave Rome, so they come to Corinth and set up business, start making their leather goods. Paul has been skilled in that and that’s what he does so they are going to stay together. Then he is reasoning in the synagogue in verse 4, and Silas and Timothy come down from northern Greece, from Macedonia and they bring money that has been given. Remember Paul didn’t take money from the place he was evangelizing so there would be no question but from a prior place he had ministered and so on, they bring him gifts that they have collected so he can ease off the leatherworking and give more time to ministry. Down in verse 18, “Paul having remained many days longer took leave of the brethren and put out to sea from Syria and with him were Priscilla and Aquilla. In Cenchrea he had his hair cut for keeping a vow. They came to Ephesus and he left them there.” So then moved on. It’s like some of you with computer skills and people today. They can go from place to place and pretty well set up business and conduct it from where they are. Well, they could come into a new area and set up their trade there, do their leathermaking in Ephesus. There was opportunity for ministry, support themselves, but they were traveling with Paul and came to Ephesus. They are going to stay in Ephesus then he goes on to Caesarea.

Then you come further on here down to verse 24, “now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man in the scriptures came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord being fervent in spirit. He was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus being only acquainted with the baptism of John. It wouldn’t be unusual. Traveling in those days word didn’t travel and follow you. He was an Old Testament believer and he had come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. That’s what John the Baptist preached repent Messiah is coming. Evidently he had moved on out of the area but he was a saved Jew, so he was accurately handling, like an Old Testament saint, the scripture. Priscilla and Aquilla, as he speaks out boldly and he’s very adept at handling the scripture. He is at an advantage, even Paul misunderstood the scriptures, but he knew the scriptures even as an unbeliever. It would be just like as an unbeliever had memorized the New Testament, but you didn’t believe it. When you did believe and now have the Holy Spirit you have that reservoir of information that you could draw from, so this is where he is. So he began to speak up boldly in the synagogue. Priscilla and Aquilla heard him, “they took him aside then explained to him the way of God more accurately.” Then he wants to move on and he does. So you see their role here. They are solid good people. He doesn’t get into all the ways that maybe they were a help to Paul.

He mentions them if you want to come over in 1 Corinthians 16:19 because we’re not going to get beyond this in Romans 16, but we’ll cover a lot of verses next time because they are just names so we will make up ground. 1 Corinthians 16:19 “the churches of Asia greet you. Aquilla and Prisca” so you see Paul could go back and forth referring to them. He calls her Prisca, “greets you heartily in the Lord with the church that is in their house.” I think it was in third century when the churches began to be built so before that they had to meet someplace, a meeting hall, as the church grew but it would be normal to meet in homes. I don’t think we would think of the churches as vast as we have now. It would depend on the area. Some of those would be able to rent facilities and that. Here you see Aquilla and Priscilla, they are connected with churches of Asia. They have ministered there. They have been in Greece, they have been in Asia, Ephesus. What I really like is the last reference. Come over to 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 19. This is Paul’s last letter as he is waiting his execution. What I think is significant, he says in verse 19, “greet Prisca and Aquilla, and the household of Onesiphorus.” They have been faithful throughout Paul’s ministry. If you back up to the early part of 2 Timothy you will see Onesiphorus, verse 16 “the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus” so he’s mentioned there, Prisca and Aquilla, “for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains” because verse 15 has a sad tale, “All those who were in Asia turned away from me.” But there are faithful ones, those from Asia that could have stood with him most of those bailed, found a reason to go. Up earlier in chapter 4 he said, “Demas having loved this present world has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” The pressure builds, builds, builds, and that’s what pressure does. It produces character and it reveals character. We all think we’re strong. Here’s how I’d handle it. It’s when the pressure comes, we all know what that’s like, I don’t know if I can do this but Prisca and Aquilla they are here with him at the end of his life. They are not in danger right here, but Paul appreciates the fact they are there. They are with him. They are standing firm.

Just and introduction and those are the ones we know about. The rest will be names. We will move through some of the things that are said and then how Paul pulls that together, in our next study.

Let’s have a word of prayer then I want to go over a couple of other things with you. Thank you Lord for faithful people. Lord we are mindful of Your grace and every one that You brought into salvation in Christ and placed into the body of Christ by the ministry of Your Spirit has a place in the body, a responsibility in the body, a contribution to make. Lord it is all essential and necessary for the Church to function as You intend it so thank You for the way You have blessed us as a congregation. Lord the many You have brought together and the commitment they have and the faithfulness and the part each one plays. What a blessing it is to serve You together as Your body in this place. We give You praise in Christ’s name. Amen.

I was at a bible study this past week and a question came up that we talked about there, but I thought that’s a good question for me to also address. I didn’t have charts there, but I will review the charts I have. It had to do with the resurrections and just he reminder when the different resurrections occur and then what about the judgments. So, I’m just going to put up the chart on the resurrections that you would be familiar with that we have gone through. What I want to do is just point out the resurrections. It is important we realize the different times of the resurrections. Then I will go back and point out the judgments that go with that and then go back and list the judgments, so you have them both together. Connected with resurrections are judgments.

Let me just walk through this. First judgment coming is the Church at the rapture. That’s why we have the arrow, the Church as you can see it there, caught up to meet Christ in the air. We are told “the dead in Christ shall rise first then we who are alive will be changed in the twinkling of an eye.” So there is a resurrection that occurs at this point and then a translation of believers that is the resurrection of the Church. The judgment there is a judgment of rewards. It’s called the “bema” seat. We would bring it into English b – e – m – a. That’s a reward judgment like the judges stand at an athletic event or awards and rewards are distributed. We are not going to be judged to be condemned for our sin but we can suffer the loss of rewards. Just like in a race you didn’t run well and you get certain detractions with that. I was watching golf and someone got penalized two strokes while doing that. 1 Corinthians 3 does say there are losses of rewards so we want to give full commitment because we want to full rewards. That’s the first resurrection. Christ is the first, I’m assuming that with you. But you have it on the chart, He’s called the first fruits in 1 Corinthians 15, you have the references there on these resurrections. So, that’s the church. We’ll be rewarded for judgement. Then seven years later, Christ returns to earth and there’s a judgement here, before resurrection, not including a resurrection, however I want to put that. The Judgement of the living will take place here. In other words, Christ is coming to earth to establish His Kingdom. There’s going to be a judgement of all the living people. That’s in Matthew 25 for example. On the main references in the New Testament, you have the other lists there. Jews will be judged and Gentiles, these are people who have lived through the seven years and are alive when Christ returns to earth. This judgement is going to determine who is going into the Kingdom, a thousand-year millennium. All unbelievers who are at this judgement of the living, are killed. Their sentence is to hell. The final sentencing is future but they are condemned to hell at the judgement. There’s a resurrection at this time also. The resurrection of Old Testament saints and the resurrection of tribulation saints. And the Old Testament saints, that’s everybody prior to the Rapture. Everybody prior to the Church I don’t have, the Church would fit here just after the cross in Acts 2, the Church is started, Pentecost, so we’re just a little over a month almost two months, fifty days after. The Church is Raptured, but everybody before that, believers, Old Testament believers we would call them, or including through the gospel period, anybody who died. And anybody who died in the seven-year period who was a believer. Tribulation saints, people who believed who were martyred, they also get their resurrected bodies here at the second coming. This is when David will be resurrected, get a glorified body. So, he can reign in the Kingdom. And so on.

So, you have that resurrection. So, in resurrections, you have the Rapture of the Church, Christ is the example of it and the guarantee of coming resurrection. Then you have the second coming to earth. That’s when Old Testament Saints, Abraham, the prophets, all Old Testament saints, and those believers who died before the establishing of the church will be resurrected. They are not part of the bride of Christ that was raptured. So, by that time, everybody who’s a believer has been resurrected. Now, some who are believers at the second coming, they’ll go on into the Kingdom in their physical body. That’s essential. We talked about those who believe in what is called a post-tribulation rapture, that believe the church will be raptured at the second coming to earth. This second stage. They don’t believe in the first stage. They believer the church will go through the tribulation and then be raptured after. They believe believers will be caught up to meet Christ in the air. All believers and then turn around and come back down to earth with Him. The problem is, that means every believer has a glorified body. And all unbelievers are going to be executed. They are going to die when Christ comes down to earth. That means only people in glorified bodies go into the Kingdom. Who’s going to populate the earth? Who’s going to rebel against Christ at the end of the thousand years? A number like the sands of the sea? So, those kinds of issues are important as you analyze and look at these issues. I was reading a book this week, and the person would say, we just didn’t like that we divide over these non-essential prophetic matters. Well, they are not non-essential prophetic matters! They are very important. If you think we’re in the Kingdom now, then you’re doing Kingdom work, which involves all kinds of social programs. Getting involved in political things. If you’re post-millennial, you’re really out to lunch. But, there are post-millennialists, and they thing we’re going to be doing all we can because we’ll promote enough revivals around the world, that the world will be transformed and the Kingdom will . . . So, prophetic matters have to do with today. Because they effect what we are doing today and not. So, this is the resurrection, by the time the resurrection here at the second stage, including Old Testament saints and tribulation saints, all believers have been resurrected.

Now we go through the thousand years. And we’ll go into the thousand years in our glorified body. As will Old Testament saints, tribulation saints. We’ll all have glorified bodies. During this thousand years, there’s no death, there’s no pain, no suffering. And people who went into the thousand years, believers who were saved during this seven-year period, remember the 144,000 in Revelation 7? 12,000 from each tribe have been sealed and been preserved by God during this time? Guarantees that there will be a significant nucleus, 12,000 from every tribe to repopulate Israel. And there will be from different nations as well. They’ll go in in physical bodies, we’ll go in in glorified bodies. They’ll repopulate the earth and it will be a population explosion. And no pain, no deaths, no infant mortalities, nothing like that. All the babies born during that thousand years are born with a sin nature, because that’s carried on. Those who went into the tribulation, unbelievers, and then the people that God saved, whoever they are, during that seven years, they’re born sinners. When they go into the millennium, they carry their sin nature with them. And they produce little sinners. What happens here, and we find evidences of resistance and rebellion, but open sin is not tolerated during that thousand years. Someone who dies at one hundred years of age will be thought accursed, because there would be no good reason for them to die at one hundred years unless their sin required the intervention of the King, to bring about their death.

So, at the end of the thousand years, Satan has been bound for that thousand years. Don’t want to get into all the details. He’s loosed, He goes about to deceive the world like He’s deceiving today. Now the people have a choice again. I can choose to have Christ as my King or I can choose to have Satan as my King. And that’s where in Revelation 20, we find a number like the sand of the sea choose Satan. They are moved by Satan to come up to surround Jerusalem to try to dethrone Christ. Now, they’ve lived a thousand years in a perfect environment. No social injustices, no racial injustices, no financial problems. But that hasn’t changed the heart. This is where again, it becomes eschatology is important. Many Christians are confused. They think we have to, you know, do these things, you can not improve the heart from the outside. God has to do it on the inside.

So, judgement comes, and those who that come up, all unbelievers are destroyed. But that’s not over. This physical body is eternal, for believer and unbeliever alike. So, the unbeliever will now be resurrected with a resurrected body. Not a glorified body because its not a body to fit them for the glory of God’s presence for eternity. But it is a body that can never be destroyed, but can suffer the eternal fires of hell. We say, I just can’t even imagine that. No, but God tells us. My finite mind has limits on everything. Things have a beginning, things have an end. I step into eternity going back and going forward, how do I grasp that? How do I grasp God has existed eternally? He had no beginning. How far back can you go? We won’t get into the side lights but here, unbelievers are resurrected. Why the resurrection? Why don’t we just leave. . . Well, their body has to be resurrected. When God created Man as male and female in the Garden of Eden, it was the intention they would live forever. It was the same with Angels when He created Angels. They are spirit beings but they will live forever. Hell was prepared for the Devil and His Angles. Human beings will live forever in this body. The body they have, transformed, durable. How do you put it? They can be sentenced to Hell and you see the rich man in Hades, which is a foreboding of Hell in Luke 16. I am tormented in this flame. Revelation 14 says “the smoke of their torment ascends into the ages of the ages.” There is no end to it. There is a resurrection there. It is important that we understand. The unbelievers, they don’t but their bodies are going to be brought back to life too. When we get to this point there’s no bodies in the grave anymore. Everybody’s been resurrected. No dead bodies there. Some enter into glory and some into the fires of hell.

Those are the resurrections and the judgments. The Great White Throne judgment occurs at the end of the thousand years. It is the judgment of all unbelievers that is described for us at the end of Revelation chapter 20. “The great and the small, the rich and the poor.” You take the wealthiest people in the world today; they’ll be at that judgment. They won’t be any more important than the poorest person and they won’t get a pass. This is the judgment by the Judge whose judgment is perfect. They are resurrected and just like there are rewards for believers, and I take it varying responsibilities given to us because of the rewards given, so for the unbelievers. There are evidently degrees of hell because Jesus said those who knew the master’s will and didn’t do it will suffer more than those who didn’t know. How we put all that together, God will. But it is a serious thing to hear the truth and not believe it. That puts a person under greater condemnation than those who never heard. People are going to hell because they are sinners. We want to be careful. Again, my recent reading, a good theologian, I like most of what he says, but he said people go to hell because they haven’t trusted Christ. That’s true. I was reading that his week again but be careful because then some people have said, well those who never hear the gospel then won’t go to hell because they didn’t have a chance to trust Christ. People go to hell because they are sinners. God is not obligated to give them salvation or even offer it, to expose them to it. Romans 1 said what? They are exposed to the revelation of creation and they all unanimously reject it. That shows their condition. There is revelation available to them. It’s not enough revelation to save them but it is enough revelation to condemn them because it shows they reject. Well God ought to give them more. What? If you give someone a hundred dollars and they light a match to it and burn it up you are obligated to give them two hundred? God is not obligated. He is obligated to be righteous and just. We use the angels as the example. Hebrews makes the point. There is no salvation provided for angels that’s why they are looking into what God is doing in the Church today as we will see in Ephesians and we’ve referred to. Seeing the marvel of His grace in saving sinners. They are not complaining, why didn’t He do that for angels? He had no obligation to. When angels sinned that was it for eternity and they show their character by continuing in their rebellion. Those are the judgments.

Put up that list of the judgments so you can see the list we have here. The Church at the rapture, the living at the second advent, the resurrected at the second advent, the living unbelievers at the second advent, and resurrected unbelievers at the Great White Throne. So important. The scripture distinguishes and some views of prophecy they just say well it’s all together and you know the joke. I’m a “pan-millennialist.” It’ll all “pan” out in the end. Why did God spend this time talking about it? This man whose writings have great influence and he’s a good man, we ought not to be dividing over these non-essentials. He abandoned dispensationalism because he though these are non-essentials. But they are given by God to have an effect on us now. They are not just so we’ll know what we’ll get in the future. We are to live now in light of these things and a correct understanding keeps us individual believers and us as the Church on track. That’s why we want to be careful that discern and handle as accurately as possible. We are all growing and we want to keep growing.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for Your word. Again it is a clear word. We believe You spoke to us with the intention that we understand You are a God who has created language. You are the God who communicates with a purpose. Those who do not understand are accountable for their failure just as those who reject the revelation in creation are accountable. Lord we who have been entrusted with Your word, the treasure of the word. Lord we want to count it dear, precious, worthy of our careful attention, our zeal as we study it with a desire to handle it accurately. Thank you for the blessings of coming together today to look into the word, for the blessings that we have through the week as we meet together in various settings. Then Lord may we be living out these truths being used of the Spirit accomplishing Your purpose in these days in a world that needs so desperately to be confronted with the light of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the one in whose name we pray. Amen.