We know of a large number of people who are in the middle of the city. More cult than anything, that does this very thing. And they pray to the dead, and they do things that the Bible forbids. The first commandment is trampled. You should have no other gods for me.
Well, who do you pray to? You can only pray to someone who is divine, self-existent. You cannot pray to people, dead or alive. And if you do, you're trampling the word of God.
So, you don't let those doctrines and those who carry those doctrines function within the church. They want to visit, fine, but they better behave. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Romans.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching.
Now, here's Pastor Rick with part two of his message called Church People in Romans chapter 16. Phoebe, a businesswoman, tells Paul, I'm planning a trip to Rome. I've got some business there. Paul says to her, I have friends there. There's a solid church there.
Before you go, You come see me. And he gets to writing the Roman letter. Then she says, I'm ready. And I don't know how long it took him to write this, but he might have done it in a day. You can read it in a day.
Why can't he write it in a day? Anyway. She says, Well, I'm I'm off and he says, Well, take this to the church in Rome. Did she know the precious cargo that she had in her hand? Did he seal it?
Did she peek at it? Doesn't matter. It would not have been wrong. This is just Magnificent. that she is the one that brings this Roman letter to the Romans.
And a lot of scholars say, well, we think Phoebe did it. No, she did, no thinking, she did it. Nobody else did. She named it. She's the one, and we love her for it.
And you better not badmouth her. Verse 3. Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers. In Christ Jesus.
Now, these are the first two named. They were very special to Paul. They had been with him through a lot of tough times. Yeah. This is the first of twenty-two hellos in Verses 1 through 16, where he just says, Greet this one, greet that one.
You know, you don't have a right. To be in so foul a mood that you can't say hello to somebody. You know, my mom wouldn't let me off the hook. I was a grown man. I'd come and see her and she'd be at one of the neighbors sitting on the porch and I'd come, hey mom, you know, she's, did you speak?
And this is, yes, mom, I spoke to her. It was drilled into me. And I'm grateful for that. And so, but I say I'm pausing here because there have been so many Christians that have fellowshipped in various churches, even this one. That are really Food.
They won't say hi to people. Unless they need something. I can't think, I don't think any of them are here now. I'm pretty sure of it, not that I know of. Get me off the hook.
But there have been, and so may it not be us, you young Christians learn to honor one another. If friends are standing in a circle and you show up to the circle, Uh all of a sudden, say hi. it won't make you less of a person. It might make you a better one. Priscilla and Aquila, Jewish Christians with Latin names, they were lifesavers and lifelines.
These two. This couple has now returned to Rome, having been with Paul in Corinth, having been with Paul in Ephesus, and other travels not named. In fact, they were kicked out. of Rome. by the Caesar's edict Because of the trouble between the Christians and the Jews.
And that's how they eventually met Paul in Acts 18. The indicators are that they were Paul's lifeline to Rome. That's why he knew so much about what was going on there. There may have been others, but for sure, these two. were in close contact with Paul.
The last time we hear from them is when Paul is on death row. He's not going to survive his. Imprisonment when he writes 2 Timothy, about 10 years after he writes this Roman letter, and there he writes to Timothy, even though he's got this. Death sentence on him. He says, Greek prisca and aquila.
in the household of Onesophorus. He's still greeting people, he's on his way to death. But he doesn't forget them. We'll come back to his referral to Priscilla as Prisca. They were most likely the most influential people used by God to excite Paul about the church that he had never been to.
He loved this church without being now. He knew some of the other folks too, face to face from other experiences. But these two are outstanding. He says he calls them my fellow workers.
Well, they were tent makers also with him. but they were soul service savers with him. In fact, They were solid and Honorable in a sense when Apollos wasn't getting the message he was preaching right. They wait. They waited to pull him aside.
So there was no one going so he wouldn't be humiliated. And he said, you know, you're a little bit off in this message about the Christ. And Apollos received it. and continue to be the great Preacher that he was. Here's how Paul addressed These two special friends.
In 1 Corinthians, he said Priscilla and Aquila, as we have here in Romans 16, Priscilla and Aquila. But as I mentioned from 2 Timothy, he says Prisca and Aquila, they were just on his heart. He had probably a pet, sort of just a name that came out of his relationship with them. In Christ Jesus.
Friends forever. We would say to this church, The date You got your head in the game. This church had their head in the game. Just by what he says about the people there. Verse 4: who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of Galatia.
Well, you can't live without a neck. And they stuck their neck out to save Paul. And had God not used these two to save his neck, In those early years, We would only likely have his letter to the Galatians and nothing else. But they were there, and God used them.
So they're lifesavers. Uh and their lifelines to the Church in Rome. Lifesavers from persecutors, lifelines to Rome. And while, again, we have no specific event, Paul had already written the Corinthian church. And labor's more abundant In stripes, that means whippings.
more abo above measure, in prisons more frequently. In deaths. Often. He still hasn't gotten to Jerusalem. We're just going to catch another beating.
and be arrested and have to deal with that. Already he had stacked up behind him. If you read Second Corinthians 11. A ministry that was remarkable. Again, Christ helped himself to the life of Paul.
and Paul would have it no other way. Paul's not the only one, but he's the one we're talking about right now. Verse 5. Likewise greet the church that is in their house, greet my beloved. Eponidus.
Who is the first fruits of acacia? To Christ.
Well, the the early church had no church buildings as we have today. That didn't come along until 250 after 250 years after the ascension of Christ, somewhere around there.
So that would be mid-third century before Christians actually had their own buildings. John, when he writes to the church in his second letter, he says, If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house, nor greet him. But he's talking about the church. You're not saying if you come so if the Jehovah's Witness come to your house and you want to take them on. You bring them into your house.
You don't have to stand out in the rain or shivering out in the cold or whatever the elements are. You can bring them in and clean their clock. But what you can't do. Is bring them into the church and let them function as Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons or whatever else. They may be.
You don't bring them into the church to spread their doctrine. We know of a large more cult than anything, that does this very thing. And they pray to the dead. And they do things that the Bible forbids. The first commandment is trampled.
You should have no other gods for me.
Well, who do you pray to? You can only pray to someone who is divine, self-existent. You cannot pray to people, dead or alive. And if you do, you're trampling the word of God.
So, you don't let those doctrines and those who carry those doctrines function within the church. They want to visit, fine, but they better behave. And if they don't Then they get put out. Churches Met in private homes or sometimes in rented rooms. And that one's not a big one.
The Gentile world was not receptive to Christianity. They feared the gods. They wanted a good harvest. A good crop. And only the gods could bring that.
And if you didn't please the gods, then you would probably bring drought on us. And that's why many of the Christians were targeted and abused. The house churches were not family compounds to retreat from the influence of the world.
Well, we're not going to the church. We're going to just meet in our house. Why aren't you going to a church? Why aren't you public? Whenever the church could be public, they were public.
The church was never called to be a clan. We are to assemble. They assembled in houses because they had no other choice, and it didn't work as well as a public place. I mean, parking would be a problem, bathrooms would be a problem. There'd be a lot of issues.
I mean, how hot would it get in a room if you packed it full of people? This was not ideal.
So, when they could get their own buildings, it was a benefit, it was an improvement. And to this day, we benefit. You have H. VAC, you've got uh free coffee. I mean, how are you going to beat that?
But we have to also Um abide by the codes. to make these things happen and they're not over Overbearing.
So I'm just making the case that churches, church buildings are a step forward. And the church always met. and assembled Uh in houses Usually of the wealthy who had large enough rooms or square to do it, they were always open to the public unless they had to go underground. That means the persecution was so heavy they had to meet in secret.
So, the wealthier members of churches were the ones that usually had large enough. homes to accommodate an assembly of people. Greet, he continues here in verse 5, greet my beloved Eponetus. who is the first fruits of acacia to Christ.
Now, none of the names that he's going to rattle off other than Rufus are found elsewhere in Scripture, but. Acacia. Is uh Corinth, that area where Corinth and Cancrea is.
Now we have a problem here, though. Because some of you are using Well, let me put it back up a little bit. Your New Testament essentially comes from two sources. The original manuscripts are long gone. Their ink would not have been preserved.
So, what they did is they made copies of the original, and we call them manuscripts. Yeah. And we have two sources primarily, and I'm boiling this down. You have your Egyptian source and you have a Syrian source.
Well, the Syrian source is where most of the manuscripts. have been preserved from There are hundreds into the thousands of fragments and whole Bible books of the New Testament. Only talking about New Testament at this time. Those are the most reliable. But scholarship Won't allow that.
It goes back to Nestle Land, other scholars, who, when an archaeologist named Tischendorf, Found these manuscripts in our Monastery ready to be burned. He recognized them as manuscripts. He said, Save those. And they began largely a part of that Egyptian source. that we have for our New Testament.
The only thing it has given to us is confusion and doubt. Those Egyptian source materials have added nothing to the church. It's very easy to prove this. And why so many scholars back it up? Because those manuscripts are older, they must be better, that's not true.
The younger ones are better because and more because they were so good. They kept them in circulation. They kept copying them.
So you only have 100 or so from Egypt, but you've got, again, Thousands. uh of fragments and whole books From the Syrian source.
So that brings us to the modern translations that you have of your New Testament, your American Standard Version, your New American Standard Version, your English Standard Version, your NIVs. All of these are using that Egyptian source material mainly. It also has some other ones like the Latin Vulgate, which brings us to this verse.
So Jerome, who was a scholar, He decided, rightfully so, that he was going to translate. The Greek New Testament into Latin. the common language of the l of the Latin. Uh the Vulgate.
So when he gets to this verse. He gets confused. He doesn't admit that. And I can't tell him because he's been dead for over a thousand years. But What he says is, well Eponidus Is said here to be the first fruits of Acacia, but in 1 Corinthians 16, Stephanus is said to be the first fruits of Acacia.
And in his mind he's saying, well, they both can't be.
Well, he's wrong. There's no reason to this this Roman letter was written years after the Corinthian letter. Eponinus was probably in Rome, just like Aquila and Priscilla were in Ephesus and Corinth and all over the place. And Paul probably met Eponetus. in some other location.
And so, for Jerome to take the liberty to assume, oh, this can't be Acacia, this must be Asia. That sort of Translation license, interpretive translation is unacceptable. 'Cause it's a theory.
Now translators from time to time have to use Interpretive license because things are not clear in a particular verse or word, but the context gives them the foundation to do that. He has no foundation here. And I point all of this out because some of you are still using the N SAB and NIVs and such like that. And it won't affect your your You'll gossip the gospel.
So, you know, it's still an acceptable document, and sometimes. The translations are superior. But the source is foul.
So, I only point that out so that you'll know if you come to this verse and it says Asia, but I'm reading Acacia. I'm right and you're wrong. One more thing. About these source materials. If you go to, don't go now, I'll go there for you.
If Mark's gospel, and this is what I meant, chapter 16, when I said it has not added anything to Christianity. Using these uh manuscripts that have come to us From the Egyptian source. When you get to chapter 16, Their manuscripts end the Gospel of Mark at verse 8 hour verse 8. And the last word, the last characterization of the apostles they stick us with. is fear.
And they said, For they were afraid. And then they say, anything after that, somebody else added. which makes you now doubt your New Testament.
Well, what else have they done to the New Testament? But they didn't add that. Actually, those in the Egyptian area took it out, lost it in some way. How careless of them. From nine forward, we get such things as go into all the world and preach the gospel.
We have found other documents older than the Egyptian manuscripts that have quoted these verses from Mark. Sixteen. Forward of verse 9. And so you have a little footnote. Other manuscripts have added this.
No, they haven't. You've taken it out. All right, so we finished that up, and I really enjoyed that, I have to tell you, because you know, as a Christian, when I came to Christianity and I began to study these things, wait a minute. Who who would add this? That's corrupt.
You can't do that. And then I found out: oh, there's another side of scholarship that doesn't belong to the side that promotes the Egyptian source, that promotes, they promote the majority text. From Syria to And their reasons make a lot more sense. In the end.
Okay.
Well, I've taken enough time on that. It is typical of scholars to pull stunts. Jerome pulled one here. And again, He's wrong. Verse And with great satisfaction, too much satisfaction, I say that.
I don't want to be, you know, I don't want God to get me. I don't care what you think. I don't want God to get me. Verse 6. Greet Mary, who labored much for us.
Say hello to Miriam.
Now, see, the original has Miriam.
Well, Mary is a derivative of Miriam, that Old Testament heroine from the book, you know, Moses' sister. A lot of the Jewish women, in particular, would name their daughters Miriam, and when they were Hellenized, or part of the Greek. Culture got in there. Mary was what they would go with. And that's why you have got so many of them in the New Testament.
Anyway. He says to greet Mary, she labored much for us. The word labor is better translated. toiled. and elsewhere it is translated.
Ma uh Luke's Gospel chapter 5. Same Greek word. This is when the apostles were fishing, and Jesus shows up on the shore, and he says, Throw your net on the other side.
Well, Peter. Thank you, Peter, steps up. Master, we have toiled. Same Greek word, all night and caught nothing. hauling in those nets back and forth.
That's gonna that's toil. Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the net. And I wanted to keep that part in there because it shows Peter. Bullheaded as he was. Still submitted to the Lord.
They're not that bullheaded. And we read in 2 Thessalonians about. Toiling, but nothing to do with the word itself, just the action. Paul writes But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good.
Now remember, if the Bible tells you do not grow weary, it's because the work is wearisome. You say, I'm, oh man, I'm on the ushers list, I'm tired. Weary in the work, don't get weary of the work, as D.L. Moody was noted for saying. Verse 7: Andronicus and Junea, my countrymen and fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who are also.
or who also were in Christ before me. They're probably older than Paul. Likely a married couple. The name Junia is a unisex name, however Other ancient documents outside of scripture use the construction of her name of Juneau. Always in the feminine.
So this is a woman. And probably the wife of Andronicus, and that's why he couples them together. When he says, My countrymen, fellow Jews at the least, possibly Benjamites, but not kinship. And I point these things out because I read what others write, and you have studied Bibles, and I know where they get their information and what they do with it. And I don't agree with them a lot of times, and I hope I can always back up why I don't agree with them.
I don't think there's any license to say, well, these were family members of Paul. He would have said, my nephew, my niece, my uncle, etc., as he did in X chapter. I think it's. It's one of those chapters in Acts. and my fellow prisoners.
The Greek word fellow prisoners, co-captives. I mentioned to you that there were more things that happened to Paul than we know about. Again, 2 Corinthians 11, in prisons more frequently.
So there's a reference to jail time at some persecution. And at some point, these two minister h to him or shared a cell with him. That wasn't uncommon when he writes the Hebrews. Letter he says to them, You had compassion on me in my chains. Joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods.
In other words, When I was persecuted as a Christian, you were persecuted as a Christian, and you still weren't ashamed of me. You ministered to me.
So we knew a lot of this was going on. Just because we don't have it documented as we do other things doesn't mean it wasn't. all over the place. He says, who are of note amongst the apostles? The apostles knew them.
That's what he's saying. The apostles not only knew them. But admired them.
Some will get into, well, we don't know if they were, they weren't apostles of Jesus Christ. There were only 13 men in your New Testament. that are singled out. Personally, by Jesus Christ, and appointed to the office. Even Matthias was not singled out by Christ.
The apostles came up with that. They cast lots to do that. We never read of them casting lots again. That's like sort of pick a straw, roll the dice, kind of a way to get to the heads of tails. Um It it you know, it put God in a difficult position.
In the sense that, well, what's he supposed to do now? Say, Matthias, you're, you know. unserviceable, I'm not using you. No, he wasn't going to do that because Matthias was a was a great Christian.
So he honoured their Guffoonery Goof goofy and Buffoonery in the same word. And so Matthias became an apostle, but he was not ever singled out as the other 13 were. Paul was. Even Barnabas was not singled out. Oh, nor James, the brother, the half-brother of Christ.
Well, anyway, they suffered persecution. who were also in Christ before me. They were very possibly saved at Pentecost. or by other Jews from Pentecost, They were believers for at least 25 years. They were veterans.
Verse 18, greet Amplias, my Beloved in the Lord. Verse nine, greet you Urbanus. Our fellow worker in Christ, and stay kissed, my beloved.
Now we have to pause here, even though 10 and 11. 9, 10, 11 go together. We have to pause here. The term of endearment My where he says Amplius My beloved verse Eight. Amplius, Urbanus, Stacus, and Apelles were common slave names.
We know that because we have other materials. Outside of the scripture That list slaves, and these were common names, which may indicate that they were slaves. There are slaves in this church. Verse 10. Greet Apelles, approved in Christ.
That's what I want to be, approved unto God. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus, verse 11. Greethedrion, my countrymen, greet those who are of the household of Narcissus. who are in the Lord.
Now we take 10 and 11 together. Approved means faith in action. In verse 11, Herodian. I don't know if I pronounced it, I may have mispronounced it when I said it a minute. It's Herodian.
The name means heroic. And it has nothing to do with it except that I just like that. Or imagine if that were my name. I wouldn't want to be called Herodian, but I'd like to be called heroic. I'm not there yet, but I'll let you know, because I'm humble enough to be able to suppress it until it happens.
Mm. Yeah. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Virginia. We're currently going through the book of Romans.
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Pastor Rick will be back next time in the book of Romans here on Cross Reference Radio. Uh
