Serving God As a Helper of Many

Transcript

GR 1480
09/25/11
Serving God as a Helper of Many
Romans 16:1-2
Gil Rugh

We're going to return to our study of the book of Romans today, so if you'll turn in your Bibles to Romans 16. We broke off our study of Romans a little while ago and we have the 16th chapter to look at and it fits together as a unit. Paul has unfolded through this great letter the details of the gospel that he hoped to proclaim and anticipated to proclaim when he came personally to Rome. Paul has never been to visit the church at Rome so he wrote in anticipation of coming and told them he looked forward to being able to come and minister the gospel which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Unfolded the details of that gospel, emphasized the seriousness of our condition as sinners, the condemnation that is ours by virtue of our sin, the righteousness that God has provided in His Son through His death and resurrection, the holiness of life that is to characterize those who have been transformed by the power of God. All of this accomplished by the sovereign work of God. This salvation happens individually and personally as a person comes to hear and believe the gospel. We are saved personally and individually, but at the moment of salvation when we are cleansed from our sin and made new we are born again into the family of God. We become children of God, we become brothers and sisters together in the family of God in a relationship that transcends and supersedes even our physical relationships and our physical families, because through all eternity the relationship that we have entered into through faith in Christ with Christ and one another will go on. Our physical relationships, even those closest, dearest family relationships will not exist through eternity. But the spiritual relationship we have in Jesus Christ with one another will go on. We will be the family of God in a hundred million years. We won't have lost the relationship of those dear loved ones who are also believers, but we will have the depth of relationship with one another as God's people that supersedes all others.

We're reminded of that when we come to Romans 16 because even though we have placed our faith in Christ individually, I can't trust Christ for my children or my grandchildren, someone else can't trust Christ for a dear family member, each one must come to understand and believe the gospel for themselves. But when we do that we are brought into a relationship with others. And a chapter like Romans 16 just marks out how important that is. The Apostle Paul has never been to Rome to visit the church there, but here he has an extensive list of people that he knows at Rome, that he has had contact with, that are with him that have contacts at Rome. And you realize how the family of God is joined together. When God saves us, He doesn't intend us to continue to walk our lives individually on our own. In the Old Testament His intention was that as members of the nation Israel they walk in obedience to Him. Now in the New Testament we have the establishing of the church and we are brought into relationship as members of the family of God when we trust in Christ. Paul is going to have a list, the most extensive list found at the end of any of his letters here at the end of the book of Romans. I believe there are 33 names mentioned here. That's an extensive list, considering he hasn't been to Rome. Yet he has had this kind of interaction with people from the church at Rome, people with him from Rome that he wants to send greetings to, that he wants to mention.

It's not just passing, these aren't just names that you say, who else do you know at Rome? Let me put that down, I'll include that in the letter. You know sometimes in political speeches we have those kind of references, where someone is being used to bring a personal dimension to the speech. But they've really not had any contact with the speaker. But Paul is not that way. He mentions these and he tells something about them. We'll be focusing on Phoebe in a few moments in the opening verses of Romans 16. She's called a servant of the church at Cenchrea. Paul knows something about her, her life and ministry. She has been a helper of many, and of myself as well, he'll say at the end of verse 2. In verse 3 he'll talk about Prisca and Aquilla who are my fellow workers. Down in verse 9, Urbanus, our fellow worker. He'll talk about those who are beloved in verse 5, Epaenetus, my beloved. Down in verse 8, Amphatus, my beloved. Those kinds of references go on. Those who were outstanding, recognized by the apostles, down in verse 7. Those who are approved in Christ in verse 10. So these variety of way, he knows something about them, he knows something about their faithful service to Jesus Christ.

That becomes a key emphasis—eleven times in these verses he's going to use the expression in Christ, in the Lord. This is something that superseded everything else. We get caught up in so many things sometimes, we lose what really is the focus. For Paul, he kept that focus. Life is Jesus Christ, what matters is what we are doing in our service for Him. So he keeps talking about, verse 3, greet Prisca and Aquilla, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. Down in verse 8, the individual there is beloved in the Lord. Our fellow worker in Christ in verse 9. Verse 11, the end, these that he greets are in the Lord. Verse 12, those who are workers in the Lord, one who has worked hard in the Lord. It's in the Lord, it's in Christ. For Paul it's about our family, our spiritual family, what God is doing in our lives together, how God is using us together, the ministry that He has called us to.

You know as you read a list like this you are reminded, sometimes Romans is called the greatest theological treatise that has been written, perhaps the greatest theological treatise in our Bibles. He unfolds in such meticulous detail under the inspiration of the Spirit the details of the wondrous gospel of Jesus Christ. You understand he is writing to ordinary people, everyday people, a variety of people. Here we have a variety, men and women alike mentioned who are involved in the ministry. He writes this letter with them in mind. It's a letter for everyday people to grow in their understanding. We talked in recent studies, God gave His Word so that we would know Him, so that we would know His will. He communicated in a way that He intends to be understood. And that's our privilege. The book of Romans has sections you keep coming back to and back to, to study again and again because of the depth that is there. We come back with the awareness, God intends us to understand this, to grasp it and to put it into practice.

We're going to pick up this list of names with a woman called Phoebe. And we're going to spend some time talking about here. You'll note the first two verses are about Phoebe and she gets more attention than anyone else mentioned here. She is mentioned first, there is more said about her. And interestingly enough this is the only place that Phoebe is mentioned in the New Testament. You might think the way she is referred to here by Paul and the part she has played and she has been a helper of Paul personally. Well as a servant in the church, and yet this is the only place she is mentioned. And we are reminded that the ministry that Christ is carrying out in the world is done through a variety of people. Paul gets a lot of recognition and attention, but really the ministry being carried out is being carried out as God uses all the people that He has called to Himself for serving Him.

It may be that Phoebe is the one who will be carrying the letter. We'll see some of the reasons as we look at these first two verses. She is going to be traveling from Cenchrea which is right next to Corinth, it's the seaport for Corinth, about eight miles from the city of Corinth. She is going to Rome and that's partly why Paul will mention her. She may have been the bearer of the letter, that would account for the way Paul refers to her and encourages them to welcome her. What a remarkable responsibility given. Little does she know, if she is the bearer of the letter, that what she had was such a precious treasure. How could she know that 2,000 years later believers all over the world would read the letter, intensely study the letter? Somehow we don't know how important the little things we are doing are in the overall plan of God. How important it is to be faithful with the little things. What's the difference? Does it have to be done well? It's done for the Lord, it's done to bring honor to Him, to be pleasing to Him. So some of these things you can't help but think about.

It starts out Romans 16, I commend to you our sister Phoebe. New Testament times, biblical times and much later it was common to give a letter of commendation, a word of commendation. And this word, I commend to you, it's a standard word. It might be used in other letters a person wrote. In those days you couldn't pick up the phone and find out about someone. So if you were coming to a city, to an area and you were going to meet people you hadn't met before, you carried with you a letter of commendation. We see this in historical situations that we'll watch in a movie or on TV about something that happened maybe in the early days of our country. And here you'll have this individual coming to someone. And you'll have a letter of commendation he gives them because how else would you know who this is. You couldn't pick up the phone and call and to send a letter might take weeks and weeks for it to get there. So you carried that letter of recommendation. That's one indication that Phoebe may be the bearer of this letter because it includes a special commendation for her to be well received.

I commend to you, I recommend to you our sister Phoebe. That relationship, our sister Phoebe. Now obviously Phoebe is not known to the church at Rome. If she were well known to the church at Rome, she wouldn't need the recommendation, they already would know about her. Paul has to tell them about her. And one of the things he says right away, she is our sister. You haven't met her before, but she is our sister, my sister and your sister because of her relationship in the family, having been born again through faith in Christ. She is a child of God, she is our sister. I want to commend to you our sister Phoebe. That right away opens the door. She is a family member, she is a precious sister and I am commending her to you.

Who is she? She is a servant of the church which is in Cenchrea. As I mentioned, Cenchrea was about eight miles from Corinth. It was the seaport for the city of Corinth. Paul writes the letter to the Romans from the city of Corinth. Paul has much involvement in Corinth, a place that he has brought the gospel to, a place that he spent 18 months ministering the Word, a place that he writes the letter to the Romans from. He got to know Phoebe through his ministry there. And you can be sure the church at Cenchrea was a carryover from the Apostle Paul's ministry, being only eight miles from Corinth. He brought the gospel to Greece, remember, and to Corinth. Perhaps people from Cenchrea in Corinth heard Paul preaching and established the church there. Perhaps some who had been reached in Corinth moved to Cenchrea, they are close enough to commerce. It was a regular part of it. We're not told anymore about that aspect. She is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea.

Now we have to talk a little bit here about, we're going to talk about the word servant and then later talk about another word, the word helper. We're not digressing, but I want to address here an issue that we want to be clear on. We recently talked about the Bible is the Word of God and the importance of interpreting the Bible correctly. That becomes a great issue here. You cannot believe the volume of material produced on these two verses about Phoebe and the theology that is developed out of this. There is a viewpoint sometimes called evangelical feminism. It's an oxymoron. It's hard to be truly evangelical as I understand it and also be a feminist. But remember we said you have to interpret the Bible historically grammatically. And you have to be careful because when you interpret the Bible historically grammatically theologically, you read a predetermined theology into certain passages. And that happens here.

Let me talk to you about the word servant, diakonon. Sound familiar? Diakonon, we get the English word deacon from it. So this becomes a raging debate. Phoebe who is a deacon of the church which is at Cenchrea. So from this some who are in the evangelical feminist position come to the conclusion that Phoebe held the office of deacon and in that role she would have been a leader in the church at Cenchrea and a teacher there. Some hold that she was the pastor of the church at Cenchrea by virtue of the fact that she is a deacon. And it is the word we get the word deacon from. It means a servant. Now does that mean she held the office of deacon? It really doesn't make a difference in the understanding of this passage except what is read into the passage.

Come over to 1 Timothy 3. The office of deacon is mentioned twice in the New Testament. Then we have the passage we're discussing in 1 Timothy, whether it is the office of deacon or is just the word servant. In 1 Timothy 3 you have the unfolding of the requirements, the character requirements of one who would be an elder, then one who would be a deacon. The other passage is Philippians 1:1, where Paul writes to the Philippians and including in that address to the Philippians specifically the elders and deacons. In 1 Timothy 3 Paul begins to talk about the office of overseer or elder and he gives the requirements there through the first seven verses. And included in that they have the responsibility of oversight of the church, the leadership and the teaching responsibilities committed to the elders. Then in verse 8 he picks up, deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not double-tongued and so on, down through verse 13. He gives the requirements. Now what you ought to note is the deacons are not given the responsibility of leadership or teaching. That's not part of their responsibility as deacon. That doesn't mean a deacon can never teach, but it's not part and parcel of being a deacon. That's the elder's role. Now part of the problem we get into is some churches have given deacons the responsibilities of elders.

For the early years of my Christian life I was part of a Baptist church. I was baptized as a believer in First Baptist Church in Willingboro, New Jersey. In the Baptist setting there is one elder in the church, the pastor. And then there is the board of deacons and they are the ones who have the oversight of the church and they function in leading the church, in teaching and so on. Well, the use of terminology there can create some problems because now we have given deacons the responsibility that the New Testament gives to elders. And we say it's just terminology, I don't want to battle over the terminology. But when you begin to confuse the terminology, pretty soon that can get to be an issue.

In 1 Timothy 3:11 you'll notice it says women likewise must be dignified. And the marginal note in my Bible says either deacons' wives or deaconesses. And that is a discussion of interpretation. When he mentions the women here is he talking about women who are deaconesses? Or is he talking about the wives of deacons? Just let me say it doesn't matter on the point we are talking about because deacons are not given the responsibility to lead and to teach.

In 1 Timothy 2:12 Paul says, I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man. It would be hard for a woman to be, for example, on the governing board of the church, providing the leadership and being responsible for the doctrinal input and so on. It's not a problem even if they are deaconesses because that's not a role given to deacons in the New Testament. So you see that's not an issue whether Phoebe was a deaconess or not. It wouldn't mean that therefore she was a leader, perhaps the pastor of the church at Cenchrea. That's not the role given to deacons.

Some see it as wives of deacons because he is talking about the men in 1 Timothy 3:10, these men, referring to deacons, must be first tested. And then in verse 12 he says, deacons must be the husband of one wife. So he doesn't go and talk about men and then talk about women who might be deaconesses. He seems to be talking about men through this. And that causes some to think he's talking about the wives of deacons.

I don't want to try to resolve that here, it's not our point. The point is we want to understand what the New Testament says deacons are and their responsibility is to be. For example, in early church history, say 400 years after Christ, the church did have deaconesses. And we can read and see what was their responsibility. You'll have laid out what deaconesses were to do. They had responsibilities like assisting the women who were going to be baptized and helping them get ready. Other realms that would be consistent with a woman's activity and a woman's ministry. So in that sense it is not a conflict or a difficulty.

Come back to Romans. Now it says that Phoebe is a deacon of the church or a servant of the church. You'll note we've translated that word in the version I'm using, New American Standard, as servant. We have a #1 before that word if you're using the same translation and you have in the margin or deaconess. Because it's the Greek word, as I mentioned, deacon. It can mean servant. It's used, I believe, 29 times in the New Testament. The only time it is used of the office of deacon is in the passage we just looked at in 1 Timothy 3 and in Philippians 1:1. There is even discussion about Philippians 1:1, but we say that is an office there, elders and deacons, ______ do that. And then this would be the third time it is used. So obviously the overwhelming use is a reference meaning servant.

Come back to Matthew 20. We're just going to look at one reference outside of Romans and then how the word is used in Romans. Matthew 20 is an example, and I'm just including here the various forms of the word deacon. I'll just say deacon but it might be used as a verb, to be serving, to serve. Matthew 20, Jesus is speaking. The mother of the sons of Zebedee, mothers like their sons to be given special treatment. And the mother of the sons of Zebedee wanted Jesus to say when he established His kingdom on earth, one of her sons would sit on the right hand and one on the left. That's what precipitates the discussion, we won't further with that, about mothers. Oddly enough, my mother didn't think I was the best preacher. As I've shared with you, she told me one time that I preached a really good sermon. And I said, thanks, Mom. But, she said, it would have been a great sermon if it had been 10 minutes shorter.

Matthew 20:25, Jesus speaking, you know the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. Their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your deacon. We translate it servant because that's what it means. We transliterate deacon to get the English word deacon, we just take the Greek letters for the word and translate it over into English. So we have deacon. But we don't translate this, shall be your deacon because the word means servant. Verse 28, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve. Again we have the word deacon used twice there, a form of the word deacon. It obviously means to serve, it's just the basic word for serve. A deacon was a servant or one who served.

Come over to Romans, let's look at how the word deacon is used is the book of Romans. We'll pick up with Romans 11, this is the first use of the word in the book of Romans. Verse 13, but I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry. That's a translation of the Greek word deacon, a form of the word deacon. I magnify my ministry, my service. He's not talking about being a deacon as we would think the office of deacon in the church. The church has deacons as we know it, but he's talking about my realm of service.

Look at Romans 12:7, he's talking about the spiritual gifts ____________. Each of us has been gifted by God in a specific area and we ought to exercise that gift to the fullest. So in verse 7, if your gift is service then you function in serving, there is deacon. Well, we're not talking about an office here, we're talking about a gift, like the gift of exhortation, the gift of teaching and giving and so on. So if your gift is serving, then you serve. We have to remember the Greek word behind this is the Greek word deacon.

Romans 13:4, he's talking here about political rulers, governing authorities, not even believers. In verse 3, rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior but evil. In other words God has established human government, appointed governing authorities to keep order in society. We appreciate that. We have laws and those who enforce the laws, and that's for our good. Verse 4, it is a deacon of God to you for good. Well, they're not even believers. It's not a deacon in the office sense, it's a minister, a servant. English translations go back and forth between minister and servant. I sometimes think it would have been easier if they had just said a servant of God and been consistent. It's said again toward the end of verse 4, for it is a minister of God, a servant of God, a deacon of God. When you translate from one language to another, you don't just usually carry the words over. We have certain words, we've done that with baptism, we just transliterate the Greek word, baptizo, baptism and carry it over into English. Usually we translate it. So deacon used of a servant, being a servant, or to serve and its various forms. So we translate it to serve or to minister.

Come down to Romans 15:8, I say that Christ has become a servant. Here is our word deacon, a deacon, but the English word of that would be a servant to the circumcision. Down in verse 25, but now I am going to Jerusalem, serving the saints. The translation is a form of the word deacon. Down in verse 31, that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea so that my service for Jerusalem, the word deacon.

You come to Romans 16:1, I commend to you our sister Phoebe who is a servant of the church. All the other uses of this word and forms of this word in Romans have been translated servant. That's what their meaning is, there is no disagreement in the context. So be careful about stressing that all this has to be deaconess and male interpreters, that's the feminist position—often the Word of God has been colored by men interpreting it. And so they were reluctant to translate this as deacon because of their male bias. Has nothing to do with that. I mean, it's the normal word for servant. And most often used that way throughout the New Testament. The question is, do you have a bias in trying to drive a point that it is a deaconess here. If it is so, it's the only individual in the New Testament identified specifically as an individual deacon or deaconess. But as I say, from one standpoint if she is functioning as a deaconess in the church, she has to function consistent with the Word of God as a deacon. And that would not include teaching or being in authority.

So I mention that because it is a driving issue in the debate. And this permeates evangelicalism. It becomes one of the reasons, they usually say, well, there is enough disagreement here, we don't make an issue of it. And so women are put into positions that the Bible says they shouldn't be in. Paul is clear, I do not allow a woman to teach or be in authority over a man. But they come to a passage like Romans 16:1 and they try to overrule that. And they aren't even faithful with what a deacon or a deaconess would have been in light of what the Scripture says they are to do. We want to be careful we handle the Word correctly.

The thinking of the world gets absorbed into the church and this whole issue of the role of men and women, it's going to come up again in the next verse and then it will come up again when we get down to verse 7 and the issue over whether a woman is called a preeminent apostle or not. Churches have gone this way, evangelical seminaries have gone this way, schools have gone this way. If I mentioned some of them, you would recognize the name. What happens? The Word of God is clear. We come to the Word of God with an agenda and then we want to see if we can interpret this passage in a way that we can make it fit with our predetermined theological position, that woman are no different than men, and they ought to be able to do everything that men do in the church. There is spiritual equality between men and women. In Christ there is neither male nor female and so on in Galatians 3:28. But that does not mean that God has given us the same role, the same function and the same ministry responsibilities.

All right, Romans 16:1, I commend to you our sister Phoebe who is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea. Why is he commending her? In order that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints. Receive her, welcome her, show her open hospitality and love and friendship. Receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints. Paul has a high opinion of believers. He holds them in high honor. Receive her in a manner worthy of the saints. You don't know her, but it's enough to know she is a saint. He'll start it out addressing the church at Rome, and they are saints, called saints. Phoebe is a saint, what more do you need to know about her? She is our sister. Receive her in a manner worthy of the saints, the holy ones of God. She is precious already. You don't have to know anything more. Receive her in a manner worthy of the saints.

You know, just a reminder of how we ought to look at one another. It's easy to develop attitudes and opinions. We all have our weaknesses, we all have our shortcomings, we are all growing and maturing and none of us have arrived at that perfect maturity. But we can look at one another and appreciate the fact, this is one of God's saints and I want to treat them accordingly. And that has a breadth of meaning and Paul is going to apply some of it here.

Receive her in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her. The first thing I want you to do is give her that kind of welcome that she'll feel she is at home. Just like you come home to your family, she is one of you, she is one of us. And that you help her in whatever matters she may have need of you. Help her, give her whatever aid she might need. You know, you come to a strange city and in biblical times you didn't make reservations at one of the hotels or motels. The most desirable thing was that there would be someone there that would welcome you into their home, provide a place for you to stay, provide meals for you. So it can be inconvenient, you know. Everyone has his regular routine and now someone else is going to come in and come into our home and now we have to plan around them, make provision for them, provide meals for them. That's part of the hospitality. I'm not saying we ought to go back and you can't stay in a hotel, but in biblical times this was part of the hospitality. We may reflect our hospitality a little different, but it ought to be just as genuine there in our dealings with one another. Help her in whatever matters she may have need of you. Whatever you can do for her, do; whatever help she may need, be ready to render it. You see Paul goes out here to emphasize the importance of a good welcome, good reception and adequate provision for Phoebe.

For she herself has been a helper of many and of myself as well. Now we have another word we have to deal with here—she has been a helper. Some translations say a patrom, one who has provided support. Now where we get here, the same people who want to make an issue over Phoebe being a deacon take this last statement, she has been a helper, a prostatis, and say that means she has been a leader of many. And you can find lexicons that would give that as one of the meanings. The basic meaning of being a helper, a support, sometimes one who has provided support for someone else. Well, it sounds like it is being carried over to being a leader and so here is a woman who is a deacon of the church, the feminist position would be, and here she is said to have been a leader of the many, even of Paul himself. Now that ought to raise questions. Paul said he didn't lead or follow even the other apostles, and now we're going to try to make a case out of the end of this verse that here is a woman who comes out of nowhere and for some reason now Paul says she has led me. He never said that about Peter, never said that about John, but all of a sudden Phoebe has led me. That ought to say something, shouldn't it? And again, it permeates so much of what is called evangelical feminist writing, interpreting this passage. I mean, she has been a helper of many. What did he say earlier? You help her.

Now it's not the same word, it comes from the same root so the play on the sound of words here, perhaps, because in Greek if you heard the words they sound alike. They both come from the same root word, even though they are different words they are built on the same root as some of you would understand and know about.

And you help her because she has helped many. It seems in the context, and it may be involved some financial support if she needs it. I have no problem at the end of verse 2, she has been a helper of many and of myself as well. It could be Phoebe was a wealthy woman who had her own resources. Remember there were women who provided support for Jesus and His disciples during His earthly ministry. Doesn't mean they provided leadership. We've had women in our congregation who have been generous givers, who have had their own resources and generally given. What does that have to do with being a leader of men in the church and a teacher. You know, we try to take an element here and build a theology out of it. That's reading our theology into the passage. Most of you would read this passage and say, why are we spending time on this. I mean, it's pretty clear.

It's amazing how many places are being confused by this kind of teaching and it ends up the church say, we don't take a position on it because there is so much disagreement. What do you mean? There is not disagreement if you interpret the Bible as we talk about it literally, historically grammatically. Because the devil comes in and fills the room with smoke, we say there is so much smoke around, I guess we shouldn't take a position. Well now there are people who claim to be evangelicals who deny the substitutionary atonement of Christ. They are bringing confusion. And pretty soon the church will say, we shouldn't take a position on the substitutionary atonement of Christ because there is a lot of confusion and disagreement on it. The devil loves to bring his alternative.

You know, Paul warned Timothy that the time would come when people in the church would give ear to doctrines of demons. It's demonic when you begin to twist the Scripture from it's normal, natural meaning to build a case that is in open conflict with what God has clearly said in other places.

So none of this is to minimize the role of Phoebe. She is an outstanding woman and she has been used greatly in serving in the church at Cenchrea. She has been used in significant ways in the lives of many believers. Paul himself has benefited from the help of Phoebe. What a testimony. How marvelous. We fail to appreciate what God says about this woman by trying to make her into something that the Scripture doesn't say she was. Isn't it adequate to have the commendation of God for faithful service, for being used of Him in the lives of many and in the life of Paul? ________try to make a case that this shows that women could do whatever Paul did? We're twisting the Scripture with an agenda. That always opens the door to ruin. We say, it's just a few passages of Scripture. Once you begin to misinterpret and misuse the Scripture, where do you end up? We now have a school that calls itself evangelical, they do not allow anyone on the faculty who does not promote the feminist position. So if you would hold the position that we would hold, you are not allowed on the faculty of that evangelical school. A man who was invited to be the visiting professor, he is one of the foremost Greek scholars in New Testament Greek, has written some good commentaries, some Greek grammars. He taught what the Bible says about the role of men and women. They had such a uproar on campus, the dean had to come and ask him if he would apologize. Teaching the Scripture in a school that says it is evangelical? That bears the name of the man who in past history was known for his evangelical preaching?

So it does matter. There are people who think we are too narrow on the role of women and the position of women. I was on a Christian network a number of years ago and I was doing a Q and A. You know when I got done the board of that network called me in and said, we would never have you on our program again. You've raised such controversy here. I said, I would appreciate if you tell me, I haven't taught anything that your school did not traditionally teach. Where have I departed from Scripture? Well it is so controversial. Well of course, the Scripture is controversial, isn't it? I mean, isn't salvation by faith alone in Christ alone controversial? Of course it is. We as Christians get intimidated and we back off and say, I think they are good Christians. They have a different interpretation. Well then we have to search it out because we aren't both right. If you have a different interpretation than I have, we have to clarify it because we're not both right. Christians resolve it by saying let's just be open to both views. Do you know what that says? Let's be open to a wrong view and a right view. Do you know what happens as soon as you are open to the wrong view of Scripture? You've opened the door and it's just a matter of time until the wrong view permeates. Look at our denominations, how did it start? A battle over one issue and soon people tire over that battle and say, we can allow the fact that he loves the Lord, he claims to believe the Bible, he just has a different view on that. There is no allowance for that.

So these matters are important. Phoebe is a wonderful woman, she is greatly used of God. She wasn't the pastor of the church at Cenchrea. If she was a deacon or a deaconess, and that's highly doubtful in how we've seen the word used even in Romans. But if she was it doesn't change anything about her role. She functioned as a deaconess, doing the things that a woman is called to do in the Word of God. And she has been a helper of many. She didn't lead the Apostle Paul, she didn't lead men. But she was a helper of men, used of God in Paul's ministry and in others.

Let me give you a few points here. Women play a very important and key role in the ministry of the body of Christ. Every time we do something like this some would say, putting down women. No, they play a crucial role. There are going to be a number of women mentioned in these 33 names in Romans 16. They are co-heirs of the grace of God. Our church would be impoverished and all but nonfunctional if we took the women and the part they play out. We would be crippled. It's God's intention that women play a key, vital role in His work in the world today. But it's to be done according to His direction and instruction.

To be a servant of the church is an exalted position. Why do we fight against that? We're like what we read back in Matthew 20, to just say she's a servant of the church. What a high honor. I'll be fine to be introduced in heaven before the throne of God as a servant of the church. Jesus said that's what He came to do, to serve. We act like it's a putdown. It's an exalted position.

We are to respond to fellow believers in light of our mutual relationship in the Lord. Receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints. Part of the unique relationship we have, we are in the Lord. And so we receive her in a manner worthy of the saints and we should one another.

We need to be ready to help the faithful servants, encourage them in whatever way we can, however God gives us opportunity. You know it would be a great testimony to bear, we've been a helper of many. Many of you, all of us ought to have that testimony—we've been a helper of many. How many little ways are we involved in one another's lives. What a blessing. Words of encouragement, coming alongside of, being available. Those little things. We think the big things. Phoebe, what all did she do? I don't know. She did enough to be classed a servant, a helper. She may have carried the letter to Rome, I don't know. But I know she has been commended by God through the Apostle Paul and it is settled in the Word of God. What a blessing. So yes, we want to honor Phoebe, we don't want to dishonor by trying to alter the Scripture so that she can be what we might want her to be to fit our agenda. We are to give her the honor that is due her because of what is said about her in the Word of God.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your gracious work in using us, men and women alike, sinners saved by grace, born again by the living and abiding Word. Lord, brought into a relationship with you as our heavenly Father. We have become part of our family. What a blessing, what a privilege. Lord, we are growing together, we are maturing together, we are being used by You in one another's lives. Whatever we do, it is to be an act of service, serving one another and doing so serving you. Serving your church because Jesus Christ our Lord is head of the church. We are His body. Lord, thank you for Phoebe, thank you for the testimony of her life, thank you for the reminder, Lord, of your grace and the importance of committing ourselves, being used of You however You choose to use us. Bless us now as we go about the work You have called us to. We pray in Christ's name, amen.