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April 7, 2025 • 40 mins

Wrapping Up Romans

Romans 16 Pastor Chris Bonner

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(00:14):
Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church Podcast. If you are seeking a closer relationship with
Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you. Thank you for joining us today.

(00:37):
Let's open up to Romans chapter 16. We are wrapping up Romans. See? We're wrapping up
Romans. It's hard to believe, you know, we're finally at the end of this letter and it's
been, you know, it's just every time you read the word and study, you just learn more and more.

(01:00):
I've learned more about Romans this time than the last time. And that's just the way the Lord is.
He keeps teaching us, doesn't he, through His word. And, you know, if I had to choose a
secondary message, it would be the Kingdom Network. And you'll see why. Let's pray and ask the

(01:24):
Lord to move powerfully here. Lord, we thank you for your word. Your word and your spirit
accomplishes everything. And so, Lord, we ask you to use your word to do whatever work needs to
be done in our mind, in our hearts, in our spirits, in our souls, Lord. And in this family of

(01:48):
believers, Lord, and after we leave here, do whatever work you want to do in our lives so that
we can be that picture of you to the world. And so, Lord, I ask you, Lord, specifically,
just to give me clarity of mind and direction and that only what's necessary to be shared

(02:10):
and that's just in Jesus' name, amen. You know, Kingdom Network. And the reason is we're going to
see here that Paul, this is kind of like a farewell, but also we're going to be back together again
soon. And he's going to say a lot of names in this chapter, 26 names, you know, and actually

(02:33):
a third of them are women, which we'll talk about later. And he's going to just talk about
all these people he has met, all these relationships he has collected along the way.
While he's writing this, he's in the midst of his third missionary journey. And as he's talking to
them and remembering probably all the connections he had with them, all the experiences, just like

(02:58):
Jess and Jimmy actually had experiences in Albania that they'll never forget. And they've probably
made some relationships there that they will never forget. And perhaps they will reach out again,
you know, this side of heaven and talk to them again. And if not this side, eventually Jim will
meet this young man who accepted Christ and his friend and they'll be high-fiving each other and

(03:22):
saying, wow, that was a great time and look where it got us all, you know. And so, you
know, this kind of networking together for the Kingdom of God is so important for us to really
be part of that network. None of us does all the work on our own, right? We're part of a network
and we need communication with each other. And this is Paul writing to Rome and many of the people

(03:49):
that he served with throughout Asia and in Greece are now living in Rome. Probably one of the reasons
why he wants to get there too, because he misses them and he wants to see them again,
but he's connecting with them and he remembers all these people. He's communicating because he
doesn't want to lose contact with them. I mean, nowadays you can literally just

(04:14):
FaceTime someone in Albania or somewhere else. And as long as you get the timing, right,
that they're not sleeping, right, you can talk anytime. I mean, nowadays it's so easy to
communicate. But back then, imagine a letter that will take months to get there, okay? The difficulty
in staying in touch, but Paul realized it's important to keep that connection with people

(04:37):
so that we can help one another and expand the gospel, expand the Kingdom of God we need
to network and communicate. You know, communication is so important, isn't it? For anything, for
marriage communication, for relationships, for family members and for the workplace everywhere.

(04:57):
It's so important to be communicating and connecting so we can help one another. And especially in the
Kingdom of God, it's so important for saints to be communicating and really sharing resources
really and really sharing, participating with one another. We participate with churches even

(05:18):
in this town that we're like-minded with and we share the load with them if they're involved in
some things. So it's just a great time to really connect, to make connections, right?
And so Paul is writing to these people in Rome and he's telling them, look, I want to connect.

(05:38):
I'm going to see you again. And we have a map up here just as, again, you saw this last week,
and you'll probably get tired of these maps, but they show us a lot. So if you can recall,
Paul right now is in Corinth and he's writing to Rome and he eventually wants to get to Spain.

(06:03):
So he's saying, look, I'll pass through, I'll hang out with you and I'll get to Spain someday.
And so this is the, all this purple by the first century, the second century, early
second century is all the Roman Empire right here. Notice they just basically
embrace the Mediterranean here. And so he's basically connected with so much of the Roman

(06:27):
world, right? And they are networking again to bring the Kingdom of God. And so that's
the setting here. And let's start diving into Romans 16.
Verse one, I commend to you, Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the church in Sancria,

(06:56):
that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints
and assist her in whatever business she has need of you. For indeed, she has been a helper
of many and of myself also. This is impressive, because he met Phoebe in Sancria

(07:21):
and he's saying, when I send her to you, remember, she's going to carry this letter
of Romans to Rome. I mean, this woman had some respect. I mean, think about this. Here's a letter
that we are reading almost 2000 years later that was entrusted to this woman. Now remember,
it was back in the day. It was a man's world and still some claim it is still today. But back

(07:48):
then it was like women were second or third class citizens, right? And yet he was trusting
this letter to Phoebe to deliver a letter that we are still reading today. Now, I believe God's
providence, he would get it there one way or another. He would have gotten it into our hands
regardless. But he used Phoebe to do it. And so let's talk about Phoebe just briefly.

(08:12):
Paul met Phoebe when he was on his second missionary journey. If we could show that
next map and this green represents the second missionary journey. And so while he was in
Sancria, which is right around here, he met her and he got to know her there.

(08:37):
Now this place in Sancria, we have a zoomed in map of that area. And here it is.
Okay. And so she was living there and this is where he met her. And when we look at this,
this is called the Isthmus. You ever hear of that? It's like a four mile stretch of land.

(08:59):
And it's interesting. Ships would come and deliver their goods. And if they're small enough
they would actually put them on wheels and roll them across. And then they would sail on
from there. Did you ever hear about that? It's pretty cool. It was called the Diaclos.

(09:22):
I think we have a picture of it. It was like this. They put huge cobblestones.
And they've uncovered these trails. They were built in 600 BC. And so they were set there so
that they could carry these smaller ships of merchant across this piece of land on to the next

(09:46):
gulf and move on from there. That's kind of a lame looking one. Here's another one that's
they've uncovered, which is really wide and expansive, the Diaclos. And so this is what they
did. And I bring this up just because this was an area, this point of commerce was instrumental
in bringing goods from one place on to the next to Rome. So it was a place of commerce.

(10:12):
And this was where Phoebe lived. She knew business. She knew how to wheel and deal. In fact, when it
says she was a helper, the whole meaning of that is really like she was a patroness. In other
words, she knew how to get resources, distribute them. She was an administrative, very shrewd

(10:33):
woman. And isn't it interesting how the Lord chooses someone who is gifted in that already,
and then when she gets saved, now she knows why she has these giftings. You're the same way.
If you're handy, right, and you can make things, okay, you could build things like NVU, first

(10:54):
of all, okay. And I'm very bad with that, okay. I've tried some things worked out, many things
did not, okay. Too many trips to Home Depot. It wasn't worth my time anymore, right. But,
you know, if you're handy, you know, you're just a, you're good at doing things. Suddenly,
you get saved and now it takes on a whole new meaning. You still use it to make money,

(11:16):
but your money goes into the kingdom. You're at times you can help others with this,
with this gift of yours. All of you, you know, tax accountant Steve's helping the church in accounting.
The things you're gifted at, you've been preordained to be gifted at those things.
Now when you get saved, you come alive and realize, hey, I have the gift of music. Wow,

(11:40):
I know how to use it now, right. You're using it for the kingdom of God. So here is this
Phoebe that was gifted in so many ways. And when she gets saved, now she knows how to use
this gift. You know, back to Centria just for another minute, because it's interesting. That's
the only reason. But the next slide is around 1893. Do you have that slide of the, this is

(12:06):
the Corinth Canal. You ever hear of this place? And so in the late 1800s, they actually,
remember this was the Isthmus where they drug little boats across. Well, they finally dug it out.
Now that's a, you know, a tourist attraction and a great place of goods again to pass through.
So anyway, this was the area. And so he met her there. And, you know, when I was thinking about

(12:31):
this woman Phoebe, it just reminded me, we don't have time to dig into it, but Proverbs 31
versus 10 to 31 is amazing. The whole book of Proverbs ends with what a virtuous wife looks like.
Well, the reality of it, she's a virtuous woman before she became a wife.
She was gifted in so many things. When you get a chance, read that. But it's a woman who just

(12:55):
is never idle with her hands. She's skilled. She knows how to do things. And she's always
pursuing excellence. You know, you could say, well, I'm not into that. Well, you know, but really,
this is a virtue that all of us can attain in whatever level God has called us to be.
And so anyway, this was the kind of woman that Phoebe was. And I just want to mention

(13:20):
a couple of other things that, you know, Paul knew several of these kinds of ladies that
were just gifted. And what I marvel at is again, it was back in a day that women were not respected
the way they are now. And yet they were so pivotal to bringing the gospel to the known world.
Remember Lydia with the purple, you know, that Paul met Jesus. He met some women that actually

(13:46):
financed his ministry. One was married. Her name was Joanna. She was the wife of Herod's
administrator, King Herod. And so she financed. I don't know if I don't know if her husband
knew about it, but she did. Okay. And she financed the kingdom of God. I'm sure he did.

(14:09):
But so anyway, this is just truly amazing. This woman is carrying this letter to Rome.
So let's read on greet. Now, again, when he says greet, just to make it clear,
he's saying greet someone who is there in Rome. Many of the people he had done ministry with
have now moved to Rome. And the one is a couple named Aquila and Priscilla.

(14:36):
So he says, greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own
necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
Likewise, greet the church that is in their house. So here Aquila and Priscilla went

(14:59):
back to Rome and started a church in their own house. So I just love these connections of humanity.
So Paul met Aquila and Priscilla while he was in Corinth, where he is right now. They had since
moved to Rome. So we have a picture here. Again, I think of the map. And so on his

(15:21):
second journey here, he met them in Corinth. And they again later moved to Rome, but he was there.
And while he was there, he met them. And we have the verse in which where he met them
in Acts chapter 18, verses two and three. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila born in Pontus,

(15:44):
who had recently come from Italy and his wife, Priscilla, because they were cast out by
Emperor Claudius. And he cast them all out. And he stayed with them because he was of the same trade.
He stayed with them and they were working for their trade was to make tents, tent makers.

(16:06):
So if you ever hear, oh, I'm a tent maker. There's so many tent makers. You're probably a tent
maker because those who are working in the outside world and also serving the kingdom of God,
that's the healthiest place to be. It really is really in, in the community, in the real world

(16:28):
and making your living in that and doing things in the real world. That's where you're meeting
people. That's where you're making an impact for the gospel. You know what happens when you
become just isolated in an echo chamber, in a bubble of Christianity, you're not useful anymore.
You start to become less and less useful to the outside world, right? And so it's really good

(16:52):
for us to be tent makers thinking, you know, I'm going to do what I do, but I'm going to do it
out in the field to meet people and actually show them what Jesus looks like while he's
swinging a hammer, okay? While he's doing taxes, okay? While he's doing whatever you do, that's

(17:13):
what Jesus looks like when you're doing that, right? And so that's the idea. So he hung out with them
and then from there, they, he left there with them and went to Ephesus. And I hope I'm not
worried with this, but we'll get through it. So he goes, he hops on a ship with Aquila and Priscilla

(17:36):
and heads to Ephesus, okay? As you know, because they're on their way back now on this second journey.
And then when they get to Ephesus, he leaves them there. We have this verse in 1818.
So Paul still remained a good while. And then he took leave and brought Priscilla and Aquila,

(18:01):
were with him and he had his hair cut there. He had an oath for he had taken a vow and he came
to Ephesus and he left them there in Ephesus, right? Now, what did they do in Ephesus?
They started a church in their house. In fact, we see this when Paul wrote back to Corinth

(18:21):
from Ephesus in 1 Corinthians 1619. He says, the churches of Asia greet you, Aquila and Priscilla
greet you heartily in the Lord with the church that is in their house. So here Aquila and Priscilla
were church planters. Now they're doing it in Rome. Then they were doing it in Athens. So you're

(18:43):
seeing the movement of people, but they're always doing the thing for the kingdom, right?
And so from there, Paul left them. While they were there in Athens, suddenly this guy comes along
who's very gifted at speaking. And he knows the Word of God inside and out. And he even understands

(19:07):
who Christ is, but he never became born again. There's a lot of people like that.
They know a lot of things. We were having a conversation about that yesterday with some friends
about how many, so many new podcasts and other things are coming out where people seem to,

(19:29):
are they a believer? Are they? They're almost there. And I say that because they understand
a lot, but they haven't died yet. You have to die to live, right? You can keep packing in
knowledge and knowledge and knowledge. I think you know all kinds of things, but until you die,
you're still dead. You're not alive. You have to die to live. Strange concept, but it's the gospel.

(19:54):
Unless you lose your life from me, you won't find it, right? And so Paulus comes along,
he's preaching everything. All of a sudden Aquila and Priscilla are kind of like watching him
and saying, I think he's missing something here. He doesn't get it yet. And so we have this
when they spoke to him in Acts chapter 18 verse 26. So he, Apollos began to speak boldly in the synagogue

(20:19):
and when Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God
more accurately. When you hear someone and they're almost there, even though like Jimmy was
mentioned, that one kid he was talking to knew a lot, but he wasn't quite there. You know,
push them over the edge. I say that lovingly. When you know the right at the threshing floor of

(20:44):
understanding say, but did you ever surrender your life to Jesus? You have to just give it all. You
can know a lot, but until you die, you can't live. And they saw this in Apollos and they spoke to
him and because of their ministry, Apollos went on to be dynamic for the gospel. In fact,

(21:07):
Paul even said, you know, I sow seed. Okay. I'm a planter, but Apollos man, he comes along and he
waters it. He really, he brings that like connection of application because he's so gifted at that,
you know, and there was no competition. He was welcoming the follow up of Apollos behind him

(21:30):
to even further water the seed that he planted. That's what it's all about is about working
together for who, for the glory of Jesus Christ, right? We work together, right? We're a network,
right? And so let's read on from there. So he's saying, greet them. And then he's going to say,

(21:51):
next, greet my beloved Apinatus, who is the first fruits of Achaia to Christ. Now, so this guy
was the first one saved in Achaia. Let's just show this map up there again real quick.
So this is basically Greece. Okay. So as Paul was coming through, he met this Apinatus and he got

(22:16):
saved. And so he's saying, greet him because where is Apinatus now? He's up in Rome. Okay.
Greet him too. So let's read on.
Greet Mary, who labored much for us. Greet Andronicus and Junia. My countrymen and fellow prisoners
who are of note among the apostles who also were in Christ before me. Now, these next few are

(22:44):
probably either still slaves or just recently freed. Greet Amplius, my beloved in the Lord.
Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ. And Stakus, my beloved. Greet Apelus, approved in

(23:05):
Christ. These were names that were actually found in the list of servants in the emperor's
empire. Okay. They actually found these names written near each other in this list. So
they were probably slaves at one time. And so there they are in the empire serving again.

(23:28):
And then he goes from there and he says, greet those who are of the household of
Aristobelus. Okay. Greet Herodian, my countrymen. Greet those who are of the household of
Narcissus who are in the Lord. I didn't know our Narciso was in the Bible. Is he here today?

(23:49):
Anyway, greet Trefina and Trefosa. They're probably sisters who have labored in the Lord.
Greet the beloved Persis who labored much in the Lord. Greet Rufus. I thought you love that
name. Rufus. Okay. Chosen in the Lord and his mother and mind. So this was a woman that he

(24:13):
considered his spiritual mother. Rufus was probably the son of Simon the Cyrene
who actually carried Christ's cross. You know, I always thought you saw that the passion probably,
right? Imagine like actually that connection to Christ who actually carried his cross part of

(24:35):
the way to the savior of mankind. I just can't imagine. Like you're carrying this holy cross
and you're seeing a holy Jesus bloodied with all the torture that he already went through
and this crown of thorns and the blood just streaming down his face. And you're probably like,

(24:59):
like you don't know what to make of it. I always wonder what happened to him?
Well, probably he got saved and his son Rufus did too, because now we see his name mentioned.
Was it the same Rufus? Well, I'm going with it. Anyway, chosen in now chosen the Lord. Greet.
There's so many stories behind these people. So I don't want to go too long with this, but

(25:22):
greet Asyncratus, Flagon, Hermes, Patrabas, Hermes, and the brethren who are with them.
Greet Philagoras. I'm glad that's not my name. And Julia and Narius and his sister
and Olympus and all the saints who are with them. You know, these are all like he misses

(25:44):
these people because he served with them. He was there when they got saved. They were there
mentoring him, you know, because like he said, he met some people that were already saved.
And so from there, verse 16, greet one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ greet you.
You know, what's a holy kiss? We're in this culture. We're not much into kissing.

(26:08):
You know, I'm kind of glad, you know, we don't really kiss each other all the time. And,
you know, you know, but we hug. I love hugging, you know, sometimes it's difficult
when I hug a big guy because I'm like, you know, I'm buried in their belly with my face.
That's not the most fun thing, but no offense. I want to do it anyway, because I love you guys,
right? But like we hug, okay? And that got us in trouble sometimes around COVID. You people

(26:34):
keep hugging six feet. But anyway, that's another story. But like hugging, I love hugging,
you know, because like you care about the person. It's that connection, you know,
when the Middle East, of course, they kiss on either side of the face and all that.
But what's a holy kiss? And as I was contemplating this, I love Psalm 8510.
Mercy and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed.

(27:01):
Isn't that a beautiful verse? And you think about, look at that wonderful, beautiful verse.
Mercy, we are people of mercy. If you're a believer, you know what mercy is, right?
You know, boldly a throne, boldly a throne, boldly approach the throne of grace where you will receive

(27:25):
mercy, right? And find grace. Like we know what mercy is. His mercy is new every more. I mean,
we are subjects of his mercy. You know, we need, we just embrace his mercy. And then we find the
grace, which is even getting what you don't deserve. God's riches at Christ's expense.

(27:46):
We are people of truth. He is the way, truth and the life. We wear that belt of truth because we
know what truth is. Jesus Christ is the truth. He's the one who holds all things together. He
is truth. Jesus Christ, the creator of all things. Without Jesus, you have nothing, right?

(28:09):
Apart from him. With him, you have everything you need for life. Next is righteousness. We are the
righteousness of Christ. He who knew no sin became sin on the cross so that we would become his
righteousness. We wear the breastplate of righteousness because that's who we are.

(28:30):
We are righteous. We are in right standing with God, even when we're not acting like it.
We're still the righteousness of Christ. We are, we know peace. You know, the prince of peace.
Behold, I give you peace. I do not give as the world gives, but I give true peace. I used to love that
shirt that said, no peace. No, wait, what was it again? But it said no peace. Now I'm forgetting it.

(29:00):
Okay. Yeah. No, no K and O W peace. Okay. Nope. I don't know. I just thought of it now. I should
practice these things, but no peace. If you, you won't have peace unless you know the peace of Jesus.
That's the whole point of it, right? But really we, and so when we can hug, we don't kiss. We can if

(29:26):
you want, but, you know, but when we hug, we hug with a holy hug because we, we are the subjects
of mercy, truth, righteousness and peace. Amen. All right. We're gonna, we're going off the
exit ramp here now. So we're on verse 17. Now I urge you brethren, know those who cause divisions

(29:47):
and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you learned and avoid them for those who are such,
do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but serve their own belly and by smooth words and flattering
speech deceive the hearts of the simple. That doesn't mean stupid. It actually means harmless

(30:11):
and trusting. And so he's saying, be careful, watch out for these people with false doctrine.
You know, they feed their belly and the whole, we could see what he's saying.
They're, they, they preach new weird things, right? So that people say, Oh, let me hear what
he had. I've never heard this before. You know, be careful. If you start to hear a gospel,

(30:34):
you've never heard before a new idea. I mean, really, I shouldn't have a brand new idea about
something that's never been thought of before because it's the same Holy spirit, right? If
I suddenly come out with this cockamamie idea about something, you know, you should start
being subject of this because the Holy spirit has taught generation after generation of generation

(30:58):
of students who dug and dug and dug deep into the word of God. And we should at least sound similar
to them, right? Because it's the same Holy spirit. It's the same word of God. If there's suddenly
this epiphany that I have, be careful. You know, that's how the Mormon started. That's how Jehovah's

(31:18):
witnesses started. It's they had this epiphany that someone else spoke to them, you know,
and he's saying, be careful of these because most of them are in it for what?
Themselves, their own belly, their own way of life, their own lifestyle, you know,
so that they could buy the big cars or eat the good food or live in the big houses.
It's not about Jesus Christ, right? So he's saying, be very careful. Paul says this in another

(31:43):
place in Philippians 3, 18, 19, for many walk by whom I told you often and now tell you
weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction, whose God is
their belly and whose glory is in their shame. So set who set their mind on earthly things.

(32:09):
See, they see all this enjoyment of the saints and they're like, how do I tap into this?
Remember Simon the Sorcerer sees Peter laying hands on people. They're falling out,
they're receiving the Holy Spirit, they're praying in tongues and Simon's like saying,
how can I capitalize on this? You know, it's like there's something happening here

(32:29):
and I want to benefit from it. That's the whole idea. You know, and he's saying, be careful of
those things. Verse 19, for your obedience has become known to all. Therefore, I am glad
on your behalf, but I want you to be wise in what is good and again, simple, a different

(32:50):
version of simple, simple concerning evil. This again doesn't mean stupid, it actually means
unmixed, uncontaminated, unblended with evil. He's saying, you know, be careful of these things
because I want you to really be pure, pure Christ, not adulterated with these other

(33:12):
teachings. I want you to be wise. I love what Jesus said to the 12 disciples as he was sending them out
in Matthew 10, 16. He says, behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves,
so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. You know, as believers, we should know the

(33:38):
tactics of the devil and say, not that we study him, but realize he's trying to
contaminate my walk or someone else's walk. You know, there's a lot of teachings out there
that are gradually pulling people away from a walk in the Holy Spirit with Christ, right?
And so again, he's warning them. And then finally, let's finish up.

(34:03):
And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
be with you, amen. Crush Satan under your feet shortly. When Jesus was sending out the 70
disciples, remember first it was 12, then it was 70 and he would send them out before wherever

(34:26):
he was about to go. Okay, so they could kind of mess it up a little bit and then he could
clean it up. No, I'm kidding. You know, he could, they would go out and spread the word so that when
he came, wow, this is him, right? And so he sent out the 70 and he said this in Luke 10, 19 and 20.
Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions. Think about that.

(34:53):
You know, there's a lot of analogies to that obviously. These could be symbolic, okay,
allegorical because in scriptures, they talk about these things really being symbolic of
evil spirits and Satan. Okay, I have given you authority to tread on them and over all the

(35:21):
power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you. Do you believe that? Like, are you afraid of Satan?
I heard a cool quote this morning. I was listening to a message and he said,
the only time I address Satan is when he's in my scope. I like that anyway, but maybe you don't,
but he was a hunter. So nevertheless, do not rejoice in this. So even through the fact that

(35:50):
we are impervious to the devil, if we stay surrounded and empowered by the Holy Spirit,
you know, and we wear the armor of God, we're impervious to the devil. He cannot have at your
life. Isn't that amazing? He cannot penetrate God's protection. The angel of the Lord encamps

(36:12):
himself around those who love him. We have a force field around us that is impervious
to the devil. Isn't that awesome? But don't even celebrate that. Rejoice in this, that the spirits
are subject. Don't rejoice in that, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Isn't that
amazing? You know, yes, it's great to have power down here and we do. We're going to start preaching

(36:37):
about power, you know, the power that the saint has in this world to bring the gospel,
that the enemy cannot penetrate you unless it's by God's permission for a specific reason. Remember
Paul with the thorn in his side that was a messenger from who? Not from God, from Satan,

(36:59):
but it was designed to make Paul even greater than he already was. If the if the Lord allows
something in, it's to make you greater. Isn't that amazing? Not you for yourself,
you greater for Christ to bring glory to God as as the worship team comes up
and they start to give out the elements.

(37:25):
I'll just finish this as they're coming forward. Timothy, my fellow worker and Lucius,
Jason and Sop, Sosipater. There we go.
My countrymen greet you. I, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, greet you in the Lord. So of

(37:48):
course Paul, you know, used scribes to write, especially with his eyesight. He needed that,
but many of them did anyway, probably because they were at what pace or thought and pondered
what they wanted to write and the scribe was there to capture it. And then from there he says,
Gaius, my host and the host of the whole church, greet you. Erastus, the treasure of the city.

(38:16):
Paul was making some impact. I mean, he was influencing friends and winning enemies, right,
for the kingdom. He's actually writing on behalf of the treasure of Corinth.
Can you imagine what a significant position that is in Corinth, which was the crossroads of
trade between Rome and the Mediterranean? I mean, that was impressive. And yet,

(38:40):
Paul not only knows him, but he serves with him. He greets you and Quartus, a brother.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
And then finally, now to him who was able to establish you according to my gospel and the

(39:04):
preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the
world began, but now made manifest and by the prophetic scriptures made known to all the nations
according to the commandment of the everlasting God for obedience to the faith to God alone,

(39:28):
wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Paul certainly has a way to end the letter,
doesn't he? I think he has the longest run on sentences ever, but it's powerful. You know,
Paul grasped what he was given and he grasped the, the magnificent connections he was making

(39:53):
for longevity, for eternity. I mean, just imagine, you know, the impact he was making
and yet he realized it's not about me. It's about Jesus Christ.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss his word.

(40:16):
Don't forget to join us for worship live Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day.
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