Summer in Rome || Romans 16:17-27

In the final message of our “Summer in Rome” series, Pastor Ben Kaempfer teaches from Romans 16 about the people who make up the family of God. Paul concludes his letter by recognizing individuals who served faithfully, opened their homes, shared their resources, carried the gospel, and worked alongside him in ministry. Their names and stories reveal a beautifully diverse church made up of women and men, Jews and Gentiles, leaders, servants, friends, and coworkers who are all united through Jesus. Join as Pastor Ben reads through the last chapter of Romans and brings our summer series to a close.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey and welcome to Downtown Community Church. We are so glad that you decided to listen in today. The DCC mission is to love God, make disciples, and be great neighbors. And that mission is lived out whenever people offer their time, talents, resources, and willingness to serve. Every person has something meaningful to contribute to the body of Christ. And you can do this through our website at Downtown CommunityCurch.com. Before today's message, here are a couple of important announcements of what's going on here at DCC. Our youth will celebrate its fall kickoff on August 19th. Students from 6th to 12th grade and their families are invited to mark their calendars and get ready for an exciting new youth season together. Also, beginning August 23rd, DCC is moving up to two Sunday services. Everyone is invited to worship at either the 9 a.m. or 11 a.m. service, and we are so excited to create more room for friends, both new and familiar, to worship Jesus and serve together. To stay informed about everything happening at DCC, follow DCC Tally on Instagram and Downtown Community Church on Facebook. More information about the church and opportunities to get connected can also be found at Downtown CommunityCurch.com. Today's message concludes the Summer in Rome series. Teaching from Romans 16, Pastor Ben Kempfer explores Paul's final words to the Church in Rome and the many people he recognizes as co-workers in the gospel. Paul's personal greetings reveal that the church is not simply an organization or a gathering led by a few people. It is a diverse family in which every individual has a place, a purpose, and an opportunity to participate in God's work. Whether someone serves publicly or quietly behind the scenes, their faithfulness can help create a beautiful picture of the reconciliation found in Jesus. Thanks again for tuning in. DCC prays that this message encourages every listener to follow Jesus more closely and recognize the meaningful role they can play in the family of God. Now here is Pastor Ben Kempfer with today's message.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Please remain standing for the reading of God's Word. Romans chapter 16, beginning at verse 17. I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you. But I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Timothy, my co-worker, sends his greetings to you, as does Lucius, Jason, and Sospiter, my fellow Jews. I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you and the Lord. Gaius, whose hospitality I and the whole church here enjoy, send you his greetings. Erastus, who is the city's director of public works, and our brother Cordus, send you their greetings. Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for you long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith. To the only wise God be glory forever through Christ Jesus. Amen. You may be seated, and kids you may be dismissed.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Trying to cure stuff. Trying to help out. My fault. My fault. Subrie. Church, how are we feeling this morning? Alright. Thanks for thanks, Matthew. I appreciate that. And Bo, the young fellas. So my name is Ben. I have the honor of serving as the lead pastor here at Downtown Community Church. If it's your first time here, man, we're really excited that you're here. You're actually on a on a um pretty interesting and unique day. I think it's gonna be helpful in some ways. Uh we are and have been for the whole summer traveling through Romans chapter 12 through 16. Uh, and today we are kind of kind of uh tie a bow on this. Um, and we're going to uh after this, like Gage said, um, we're gonna have a church family meeting. Uh we're gonna have a quick, you know, uh cookout type of thing, grab a hot dog, grab some chips, that type of deal, uh, and then come back in. Uh man, just really excited to share some updates about um what's been happening since we last met and talked, some progress, some things with uh some different church leadership stuff, uh, as well as what we see kind of happen in the future. Some of it is gonna have to do with what we're talking about today, kind of in in its subject matter. Um, but before we hop in, let me pray for us. Jesus, I ask that you would speak to each and every one of us. No matter where we are in terms of our relationship with you, our walk with you, our thoughts about you, for those of us who have declared that you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, that you are in fact the Christ, you are Jesus. And so, for those of us who have who have declared that and who have walked with you and followed you for a long time, would you make today helpful for us? Refreshing, challenging. For those of us who have been walking with you just a little bit of time, would you help us to see what this life is about you? For those of us who walked in the door, and we maybe are so jaded by the things that we've seen that relates to faith in you, Jesus, and God. Um we've got one maybe, maybe hand on the doorway of out of faith. Or maybe we're just skeptical about the whole thing. But Jesus, we know that wherever people were, when they saw you, when they understood you, you just changed all of that. So we pray that that would be true of us this morning, King Jesus. And it's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. So we're gonna read um Romans uh 16. And I'm gonna do it a little bit different. And honestly, let me tell you a little bit about what I think is gonna be interesting about this sermon. It's not gonna be quite as long because part of what we wanted to do is not make you sit in for a really, really robustly long sermon and then go get some lunch and then come back and have some more conversation. So we're trying to create a little bit of space and be thoughtful in that. And as I was reading through these verses, um, so one of the things is when it's your job to preach, but it's also your job to kind of schedule this stuff out and also have some times where other people come in and preach, um, there can be a tendency, and not saying this is my tendency, but there can be a tendency to say, oh, that's a boring text. Let's give it to Nate. You know? Oh, here, oh man, Nate, this is challenging. It's gonna challenge you as a communicator to think creatively and robustly, right? So here you go, buddy. Why don't you see what you can do with this one? And honestly, that's that's a little bit where I was. And as I was reading through this and thinking about today and thinking about what we're gonna go into in a little bit, I thought, man, this is just a really, really cool and beautiful and honestly perfect ending to the book of Romans. Because if you've read through the book of Romans or if you've heard about it, it is the most robust, theologically complex New Testament letter that we have in all of the Bible. The first 11 chapters, there is not as beautiful, as intricate, as interwoven, as unpacked of an idea of what this means, that Jesus would come to save us, that righteousness has now been made possible, not through what we do, but through what God has done specifically. He would talk to the Jews and say to all the Jews who grew up with the law, who grew up with the prophets, who grew up with all the things that you should do and you shouldn't do, that ought to do and ought not do. He said, You've you've seen all that, you've known all that, and you didn't do it. And the Gentiles, he'd say, All the people who who weren't of the people, weren't of the family, your your your granddad wasn't a pastor, and your grandma wasn't a you know a deaconess, and you didn't go through this whole time and lineage and person to person to person to person, right? You didn't you didn't have all this background. And he says, and if that's your background and your context, then you've probably tried to experience life on your own terms and the difficulties and the hearts and the the hangups. And his basic point is Jews and Gentiles, and we're all sinners, and God has redeemed all of us through the blood of Jesus. That because of ourselves, we were fully alienated, separated from God, because of our sinfulness, separated from God, that we were made to be in union with, but through Christ he came, he died. And what he's actually doing, and this is fascinating, and this is the kind of the point of Romans, this is why he spends, I think, 11 chapters talking about this incredible reconciliation that God, God Almighty, God of the universe, holy God, who we would not even be able to stand in his presence, right? To say that I stood in the presence of God would be the equivalent of saying I touched the sun, only that would be more believable if I touched the sun. Because he's that holy. And yet God has reconciled us to himself. And here's what he's saying: if that's true, I have reconciled you to me, I am also reconciling you to one another. That this is this radical, beautiful community of people who each one they're not seeing their gifts to themselves. They're not saying, okay, I'm gonna keep all this to me and I'm just gonna hold on to it. What they're saying is actually the opposite. Man, they're saying, I have this gift and I'm gonna use it to serve. I have this gift and I'm gonna use it to help. I have this gift and I'm gonna use it to love. And they and they continue on, and there's this radical reconciliation of people who who, when you find differentiation, when something hurts you, when something rubs you wrong, when something frustrates you about something else, when something's difficult, when you don't know if you're being used or not, but they're in the people in the family of God. He says, I want you to intentionally make space for that person. What he would call the weaker brother. And as we talked about, the obvious reality is that for all of us we have areas where the weaker brother and the stronger brother. But here's the point that he's making in all of this stuff. This is the reconciled community, the people of God. This is the church. This is not just a leader, this is not just a leadership group, this is not just a team. This is a people, this is a family, this is a community. This is a group of folks who all have received the same identity and have chosen to partake in the same death in Romans 12, 1, that says, My life, my life, in view of God's mercy, in view of the mercy that he had on me when he saved me, in view of the mercy that he continues to have on me, as he invites me into this new life, this new humanity, this new reconciled community. Man, it gives me an identity that I'm not just a church member or an attender. I'm part of the community and the people and the family of God. In Romans 16, Paul gives his relational conclusion. And the reason I want to lead with all of that is because you have to see what he's communicating here. If you ever read this, this is again the part that you read through and you're like, name, I don't know how to pronounce, name, I don't know how to pronounce, name, I don't know how to pronounce cool. Interesting section about, you know, don't let any other people come in and say some stuff. Name, I don't know, name, I don't know, name, I don't know. But I was reading through this and I was thinking, you know, man, this is actually beautiful because if you actually read it through the lens of the humanity, then you actually begin to see that Paul is talking to a group of people. It's just a church. And what I want us to see in this letter, in this last section, is I'm gonna read it a little bit more relationally. I'm gonna do kind of honestly a hybrid read through. Now, this is not by any means an inspired version of this. This is just your boy saying, This is how I would say it if I was Paul, I was writing this letter. And here's why. Because Paul was a person and he was writing to people that he knew with relationships. Right? Paul is writing, and he's like, it's like as if I'm writing to I don't know, the Blumenthals, the Garrett, as if I'm writing to the Warrens, as if I'm writing to the Currens, right? As if I'm writing to the group, maybe whoever, right? It's as if he's saying, okay, these are the people that I know. I want you to read this. Matthew Jar, sorry, Romans chapter 16. Starting at verse 1. He says, So I commend to you our sister, Phoebe. Now, why does he say that? She's a servant of the church of the century that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and help her in whatever she may need from you. For she's been a patron of many and of myself as well. Now here's what he's saying. This this lady Phoebe was probably a businesswoman. She was probably traveling to Rome, and they said, actually, while you're going there, Phoebe, will you carry this letter for us? In fact, you've done a ton of stuff, and Phoebe, in fact, she was a patron, which means that she was the she was the financier of much of the early church. And she just happened to be going to Rome. And so he's saying to her, All right, I'm sending to you guys and I'm commending to you, Phoebe. Now she's a servant at this church. I mean, she's done an amazing job. She is serving the church. Some people look at that's that servant, that's that's the idea of deacon. What's interesting is this entire chapter, this is about the only place where you could arguably put in that he is putting an actual position or an office of deacon. And she's serving the church. She's currently doing that. He says, Man, y'all welcome her. Help her, man, whatever she needs, because you don't realize that she has been a patron. She has helped so many of them. In fact, she's helped me. Now, Paul, by the way, has never been to Rome. But he starts talking to all these people, these saints that he's come to encounter with, that he knows as at Rome. He says, you know, greet, you know, Prissa and Aquila. My fellow workers in Christ Jesus, Prissa and Aquila, they were these two people that Paul met one time as he was traveling, as he was going to all over the place in the Gentiles, and they happened to be in the same business. See, Paul wasn't just an apostle, Paul was a tent maker. And they were also tent makers. And they traveled with Paul as they would make tents and go to Gentiles, and they would oftentimes stick up for Paul. They would oftentimes be a group of people that stuck their neck out. In fact, this is what Paul says. Paul says, Man, say what's up to Prissa and Aquila. Man, they are incredibly hard workers. In fact, they risked their necks for my life. To whom not only I give thanks, I'm thankful for, but man, also the churches of the Gentiles. Like, bro, half the reason the Gentile churches of the Gentile churches are saying are because of a Prissa and Aquila. Also, dude, say what's up to all the people in their house. Because if I know one thing, they got a crew. They got their community group, they're hanging out, they got a whole bunch of folks there. So will you make sure you say what's up to them? Also, also, say, say hey to um my beloved man. I love this guy. Epinacius. In fact, y'all remember, he says, he was the first to convert to Christ in Asia. Right? This is him just saying, hey, you you remember, you remember when when Epinacius, he was the first one in Asia and he came to know Jesus. And so make sure you tell him hello. Also, say hey to Mary. Man, I love Mary. She worked hard. He's almost like he's like saying, you know, think about this. Mary, man, she's been grinding, she's been working hard for them. I mean, she has been up long hours, late night. She works hard for you. This is this is like um, there's plenty of people in our church that this resembles. One thing I might think of is uh I did not ask permission for anybody, so I promise it's only gonna be positive, okay? It's like Emily Warren, who showed up at VBS and said, give me a day and a label maker, and I will help to organize, and I will give you as many days and as many labels as you need to do that, right? And one of the things that's been beautiful is over the last, you know, several months, as our staff has gotten smaller, you'll see Delaney up here some days with a bandana on, just uh cleaning, organizing, moving, removing, cleaning out so that way we have an orderly place to have church. And Emily's come up here, she's brought family up here, right? And she's helped serve. It was cool. The other night she came up here, she was helping to serve, and she was doing some stuff. Khalil was out of town, and so Nicole, who was also up here, said, Oh my gosh, that's incredible. Thank you so much for helping. Can I bring you some dinner? Right? These people who are like working, and she said, Okay, so make sure you say hey to them, man, because those people are my people. Like, I've been there when they worked hard. Say what's up to Andronikus and Junior. My my my kinsmen. He's like, those people are like my family. In fact, they're my fellow prisoners. They've been with me, they've been with me through some stuff. It's like, man, say what's up to Jay and Hope Collie. They're like family, and boy, they've they've seen some stuff with us. In fact, they're well known to the apostles. They were saved before I was saved. In other words, they were in Christ before me. I love Ampalace. And that dude is a love in the Lord. Say, I hate an Urbanus. My fellow worker in Christ. Right, say? Because one thing I know about Urbanis is Urbanis worship. Urbanis is always there. Right? This is like uh, you know, uh a while back in around the summertime, we had this uh this thing where we we let to go help and to pick up folks and do a bunch of things like that, and we had our our van, which is a part of that kind of that that process, and it went down because it had to need a new battery, and and sure enough, this is like Urbanis, he's like Sam Branson, who came and helped. With no notarization, no glory, no hey, I'll do it, no sign up on a sheet. He just came, helped, replace the battery. Wasn't big, wasn't massive, but it's this fellow worker, it's this co-working of the gospel. Greet Urbanis, my our fellow worker in Christ, and I love Statius. Greet Atlas, who is approved in Christ, greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus, Aristobulus. Also, my family Herodian. Greet my family Herodian, my kinsmen Herodian, greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus, greet those workers in the Lord, Chipania and Triphosa. These are two women. He says, All right, so say what's up to trip and trip for me, by the way. Y'all remember them, right? They were helping, they were doing a bunch of stuff. He says, So, so so those workers in the Lord, I mean, they were they were out there and they were they were co-workers in the gospel. Greet, greet the beloved. Oh, I love Persis, man. Persis, Jesus has my heart, who has worked hard in the Lord. Also, greet Rufus, chosen the Lord. Everybody knows of Rufus, right? It's like we're all called. Rufus is like chosen, chosen. You know what I mean? Like saved, saved. The other person in the Bible study, you're like, dang, I wish I could be like Rufus. You know? Well, Rufus is Rufus. Here's why Rufus is Rufus. Also, say what's up to Rufus, chosen the Lord. Also, his mom, who has been a mother to me as well. Don't you know if Rufus is chosen is because his mama was there? She wanna say that. He's like, man, she's been like a mother to me. And then he just goes and gives a ton of names. Essentius, Plagon, Hermes, Petrobus, Hermaz, and the brothers who are with him. Greet Philologus, Julia, Nerus, and his sisters, and Olympus, and all the saints who are with him. He's saying, just tell everybody, tell all the saints that you see, tell them I said hello. And what's crazy is Paul lists about 29 different names here. What I love about this is Paul is both speaking to the individuals as the individuals that make up the aggregate of the church. And we got to think this whole time, we've been thinking in this broad categories of people. In this entire time, Paul has been talking to individuals. We've been thinking Jew, Gentile. You know what's beautiful about this? If you actually go through, and in these 16 verses, of the 27 to 29 people that he names, actually what's fascinating is it's incredibly diverse. At least nine of them are women. He he actually goes through in approximately, you know, uh roughly half are Jews, and there's a uh about a half that are kind of Gentile in their background in names. So he's talking both to Jews and to Gentiles. He's talking to women, he's talking to men, and he's not talking to anybody in a position as if to say, hey, this is the family, this is the people of God. And they've all worked, they've all done, they've all helped to make this beautiful picture of who Jesus is. So he says, So I appeal to you, brothers, watch out for those who cause division, create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that have been taught in the words, and somebody's gonna kind of try and try to mess this whole thing up. For such persons do not serve the Lord Christ but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery that deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise as to what is good, and innocent as to what is evil. In other words, and God has begun doing this work, and you've been participants of the work because. It's who you are. And so I want you to stay in this spot where your obedience. Man, we're rejoicing, and it's known to all because I want you to stay at the spot where you're doing what's good and all those things that are evil, just I want you to be completely innocent of that. Stay away from it. Because the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. And the Lord of our Jesus the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. He almost pauses here and goes back into, but this isn't necessarily Paul writing and saying hi to them. This is now some of the people that Paul have been writing with. Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you. So do Lucius, Jason, Socapator, my kinsman. By the way, if you're looking for a baby name, there's some real interesting ones in here. So I wanted to put that out there in case you're like, oh, I was thinking about Socapator or Sesapater or you know, whatever. Verse 22, can I tell you? Verse 22 is actually where the first place that I realized this sermon. Because in verse 22, Tertius, he says, I, Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. I don't know why it was this. And sometimes I think, you know, this is, I don't, I don't, this is clearly not definitive as to what happened in that room. But these letters were difficult to write. They would take years to write. They would take, they would, at times they would it would be an iteration of that's what I wrote to Galatians, and so now I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna and I'm gonna take some of those thoughts and I'm gonna weave them together and I'm gonna create them. And what's interesting is Terchist is a scribe. Paul who would dictate, who would orate, who would sometimes read from what he'd written on sand or whatever it was, he would then say these things, say these thoughts. Terchist would write this down. Did you know this is the only place in the New Testament where a scribe introduces himself into the letter? It's as if Paul was in the room, and I don't know this would happen. This is if Paul is in the room and saying, No, Turchish, you need to say, Okay, too. You are a part of this. This thing that is going to be here for generations, this thing that's in the book of Romans, this is going to be not only that Paul had any concept of that, but it's almost like he's saying, This is the part of the family of God. This is the part of ministry of our creator to the creation, redeeming the creation to him and to one another. And Turchish, you're a part of it. And I love this because I don't think that Turkish, who, when you would go through scribe school, it would take five to ten years. I mean, you would have to learn how to have to document how to write complex things, complex grammatical things, stuff like in chapter 12, verses two and three, when he says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and that be transformed is not the active voice, it's the middle voice, which means not that I am transforming myself, but I'm allowing myself in the passenger seat to be transformed. One says, I'm driving to the grocery store. The other one says, I'm allowing myself to be driven to the grocery store. And Tar in Turchish, who is the scribe, would have known that, would have seen that, and would have understand that's the exact right congregation to explain what spiritual maturation is in sanctification. I don't think he knew that year two of scribe school. I don't think he thought in 2026 there's gonna be people in Tallahassee, Florida, that are talking about Romans chapter 16 and verse 22, and they're gonna give me a shout out. Man, it was just the people of God, the family of God, the saints, the co-workers, carrying the mission of God, with whatever they had, with whatever was in their hand. Gaius who's host to me, and the whole church greet you. In fact, he's like, Man, we got Erastus too, the city treasurer, and our brother Corsus, and we all greet you, and it's almost like he now lifts back up into his apostolic calling, and he just prays a blessing over the church. Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages. In other words, according to this reality that throughout the entirety of the nation of Israel, which we would look back at as the Old Testament, God had a promise. It felt like a mystery, it felt like a secret. But God has revealed this secret, this mystery in the person of Jesus. But now has been disclosed through the prophetic writings, has been made known for all nations, according to the command of the eternal God to bring about the obedience of faith. To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ. Amen. And that is the Apostle Paul's letter. To the church at Rome, to the church at Rome who was in deep need of reconciliation, to the church at Rome who was in deep need of empowerment, to the church at Rome who needed to understand the way to which God and his death for us reconciled us to him. And it's in view of his mercy that he had on us that we present our bodies, our lives as living sacrifices back to him, and what he creates with these people is no longer conforming to the patterns of this world, of segmenting and ordering ourselves around each other in preference and likeness. But it's to engage, to embrace, to love, to serve, to bring this message of hope and truth. How we wanted to end this service is a couple ways. One is just to know that as Paul's writing this, this is a group of people who all individually know, love, and follow Jesus, who communally are creating this place. That's not defined by Jew, it's not defined by Gentile, it's not defined by man, it's not defined by woman, it's not defined by leadership roles or rankings, it's not even defined by how long someone's been in the faith. It's simply defined by this: a group of people who said, My life in view of God's mercy is a living sacrifice for you. God, if you would die for me, I will give everything for you. And it's through that identity and through that death that God makes us into the people He's called us to be, transforms us. I want us to continue to live into that. And as we do, never forget that it's not because we're good, great. It's simply because we are a living sacrifice who has a great God creating fruit in us. So the end of this is not, church, go do, go be, go create, go reconcile. Before we do anything, let's remember. Remember his death. Remember his blood. Remember his body that was broken. We took this communion this way last time. And to be honest, I'm hesitant to do it again the same way because in church, when you do something the same way twice, everybody expects it till eternity. But I just honestly thought this was a beautiful way for us as a church family to end this series in summer together. So I'm gonna invite, I'm gonna invite some folks. There we go. Yeah, some mushers. You guys forward. I'm gonna step down. How we're gonna receive communion is they're gonna pass these out. Here, let me give these to you guys to display among yourselves or disperse. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 30:34

There you go.

unknown 30:47

Stop there.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

Alright, so they're gonna go ahead and pass out communion. Um, something I we want you to know is is as they're passing it out, we're gonna be a place of contemplation. If you can take it out, go ahead and do that and hold on to it because we're all gonna take it at the same time together as a church. Um if you're here and you're not a Christian, you don't you don't know and follow and love Jesus and you're trying to figure that whole thing out, we'd ask you to just allow the plate to pass as it goes by. Because what we're about to do in a second is as a whole church family, say, we're in. Jesus, you would do this for me. You died for me. And now I'm doing this to remember that and to participate in that. So as these things are being passed, we want you to be in a mode of contemplation and prayer. And in a second, we'll take communion together. On the night Jesus died, or the before he died, he got his closest disciples together, and they ate a meal. And he looked at him and said, I'm establishing a new covenant. And so often as you gather and you do this, I want you to remember this. Me. My body, which was broken for you, and my blood, which was shed. So in a second, we're all gonna take and eat. Church, all together, the body of Christ broken for you. Seeing the love and the mercy poured out from our Savior, Church, the blood of Christ broken for you. Father, we ask and pray as we remember your death, your sacrifice, made to redeem us, save us, sanctify us by calling us your church, the bride of Christ, the people of God, a holy nation and a royal priesthood. Because your body was broken and your blood was shed. Thank you, King Jesus. Amen.