Romans 16 and Ephesians: From the Gospel’s People to God’s Great Purpose
We have spent several weeks walking through Paul's letter to the Romans.
It has taken us from the terrible reality of sin to the glory of justification by faith.
We have considered grace, faith, suffering, God's sovereignty, Israel, salvation, Christian worship, transformed living, love, freedom, conscience, and the unity of believers.
Last Sunday, Romans 14 and 15 brought us to an important conclusion:
The gospel does not merely save individuals. It creates a people.
Now Paul gives us something rather unexpected.
He gives us their names.
Romans Ends With People
Romans 16 is sometimes treated as little more than a list of names that stands between the theology of Romans and Paul's closing words.
It is much more than that.
Paul begins:
“I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church in Cenchrea.”
Then the names begin.
Priscilla and Aquila.
Epaenetus.
Mary.
Andronicus and Junia.
Ampliatus.
Urbanus.
Stachys.
Apelles.
The household of Aristobulus.
Herodion.
The household of Narcissus.
Tryphena and Tryphosa.
Persis.
Rufus.
His mother—and Paul's.
Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas.
And the list continues.
These are not footnotes.
These are people.
Behind the great theological argument of Romans stood men and women who had believed the gospel, suffered for Christ, served His church, opened their homes, traveled, worked, prayed, and remained faithful.
Paul knew their names.
And God has preserved many of them in Scripture.
Phoebe Carries the Letter
There is a particularly interesting detail at the beginning.
Paul commends Phoebe, who was associated with the church at Cenchrea, the eastern port of Corinth.
He asks the Roman Christians to receive her “in a manner worthy of the saints” and to help her in whatever matter she might need.
It is entirely possible that Phoebe was the person who carried Paul's letter to Rome.
Think about that.
The letter that would become one of the great theological documents of Christian history may have traveled from Paul's hands to the church at Rome through the hands of a Christian woman named Phoebe.
Romans begins with Paul longing to visit Rome.
Romans ends with people carrying the gospel across the Roman world.
The gospel was moving.
And ordinary believers were carrying it.
Priscilla and Aquila
Then Paul mentions Priscilla and Aquila.
We have met them before in Acts.
They had worked with Paul as tentmakers. T
hey had been forced to leave Rome because of Claudius's expulsion of the Jews. They had met Paul in Corinth. They later worked with him in Ephesus.
Now, by the time Paul writes Romans, they are once again associated with the Roman church.
Paul says they “risked their lives for me.”
That little sentence gives us a glimpse into the cost of the early Christian mission.
The church was not built by people who merely attended meetings.
People put their lives on the line.
They opened their homes.
They traveled.
They worked.
They suffered.
They served.
And Paul remembered them.
The Church in a House
Paul sends greetings to Priscilla and Aquila and to “the church that meets at their house.”
That is another small detail with enormous significance.
The early church did not begin with impressive buildings.
It gathered in homes.
The gospel moved from Jerusalem into houses, workshops, marketplaces, synagogues, streets, prisons, and cities.
God was building His church one congregation, one household, and one person at a time.
And that brings us back to what Paul said in Romans 15.
God was bringing Jews and Gentiles together into one people.
Romans 16 shows us what that looked like in real life.
Names.
Families.
Friends.
Workers.
Men and women.
Jew and Gentile.
People who might never have belonged together naturally—but now belonged to Christ.
Paul's Final Warning
Near the end of the chapter, Paul gives one final warning:
“Watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned.”
Notice the balance.
Romans 14 and 15 taught patience concerning matters of conscience.
Romans 16 reminds us that not every disagreement is harmless.
Christian love does not mean abandoning Christian truth.
There are things worth standing for.
There are teachings that are contrary to the gospel.
Paul's message throughout Romans has never been:
“Believe whatever you wish.”
It has been:
Believe the gospel.
Stand in grace.
Walk in holiness.
Love one another.
And guard the truth that has been entrusted to you.
And Then Paul Ends With Praise
After sixteen chapters, Paul returns to where everything began:
God.
His final words are a doxology:
“To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.”
That is a fitting ending.
Romans has told us what God has done.
Now Paul gives God the glory.
The theology becomes worship.
The doctrine becomes praise.
The argument becomes adoration.
And that is where Romans leaves us.
But Paul is not finished writing.
And the next letter takes us somewhere different.
Ephesians — A New View of the Church
Using our chronology from Acts, we now move forward to approximately 60 AD.
Paul is no longer writing the great theological explanation of the gospel that we found in Romans.
Instead, we are going to hear something that sounds almost like Paul stepping back and looking at the church from heaven's perspective.
Romans asked many questions about salvation:
How can sinful people be justified?
What has God done about sin?
What is the place of Israel?
How should the believer live?
How should Christians live together?
Ephesians opens another window.
It asks us to consider:
What has God been doing all along?
And what does it mean that He has brought us into Christ?
From Salvation to God's Eternal Purpose
The opening of Ephesians is remarkable.
Paul begins blessing God:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”
Before Paul tells us what Christians should do, he tells us what God has done.
And the list is astonishing.
Chosen in Christ.
Adopted as sons.
Redeemed through His blood.
Forgiven.
Given wisdom and understanding.
Shown the mystery of God's will.
Given an inheritance.
Sealed with the Holy Spirit.
This is not merely a list of Christian benefits.
Paul is revealing a divine plan.
He writes that God is bringing everything together under Christ:
“things in heaven and things on earth.”
There is a much bigger story taking place than any one congregation can see.
The Mystery
One of the great words in Ephesians is mystery.
Paul does not mean something spooky or unknowable.
He means something that was once hidden but has now been revealed by God.
And one of the great mysteries revealed in Christ is that God's purpose includes bringing Jew and Gentile together into one body.
We have already seen this beginning to emerge in Romans.
Now Ephesians will take us deeper.
Paul will eventually write that Gentiles are:
“fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
Think back to Romans 15.
Paul told the Roman believers that Christ had come so that both Jews and Gentiles might glorify God together.
Ephesians takes that truth and opens it even wider.
God is not simply saving scattered individuals.
He is creating one new people in Christ.
The Church Was Not Paul's Idea
There is another important feature of Ephesians.
Paul speaks about the church in terms larger than any local congregation.
The church is Christ's body.
Christ is its head.
The church is being built together.
The church is God's dwelling place.
The church displays the wisdom of God.
That last thought is astonishing.
Paul says that God's wisdom is being made known “through the church” to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.
In other words, the church is part of God's demonstration of His wisdom.
The world may look at the church and see imperfect people.
Paul sees something much larger.
He sees what God is building.
From “I” to “We”
There is also a wonderful change of perspective.
Romans often brings the gospel down to the individual:
I am a sinner.
I need justification.
I must believe.
I must present my body to God.
I must walk by faith.
Ephesians certainly does not abandon those truths.
But now Paul repeatedly speaks about us.
We have been blessed.
We have been redeemed.
We have been brought near.
We have been made one.
We are being built together.
We are members of one body.
The Christian faith is personal.
But it was never intended to be private.
The Church in Ephesus
And there is another reason this transition is especially appropriate.
We are moving toward a church Paul knew personally.
Ephesus had already played an important role in Paul's ministry.
Acts tells us that Paul spent substantial time there, and the ministry eventually reached far beyond the city itself.
Ephesus was a major city of the Roman world.
It was a place of commerce, religion, wealth, intellectual activity, and pagan influence.
And right in the middle of that world, God planted a church.
Not outside the world.
In the world.
People who had lived under the influence of another culture were now learning to live under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
That makes Ephesians intensely practical even though its opening language soars into the heavenly realms.
Where Romans Leaves Us
Romans ends with people standing together around the gospel.
Ephesians begins by showing us why those people belong together.
Romans tells us:
We are justified by faith.
Ephesians tells us:
We have been brought into Christ.
Romans tells us:
We are to offer ourselves to God.
Ephesians tells us:
We are God's workmanship.
Romans tells us:
We belong to one another.
Ephesians tells us:
We are one body.
Romans tells us:
Welcome one another.
Ephesians tells us:
Christ has broken down the wall that divided us.
The two letters are not competing messages.
They are different views of the same gospel.
A Larger Story
Perhaps this is the best place to begin Ephesians.
Not with a list of doctrines.
Not even with a list of commands.
But with a vision.
Before we were born, God had a purpose.
Before the church had buildings, programs, denominations, or traditions, God had a purpose.
Before Paul wrote Romans or Ephesians, God had a purpose.
And that purpose centers on Jesus Christ.
Paul wants us to see that our salvation is not an isolated event.
We have been caught up into something much larger.
God is gathering a people.
God is reconciling what sin divided.
God is bringing Jew and Gentile together.
God is building His church.
God is making Christ known.
And ultimately, God is bringing all things together under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
That is where Ephesians begins.
And perhaps that is exactly where we need to begin with it.
Romans has taken us from sin to salvation, from salvation to surrender, and from surrender to unity.
Now Ephesians will take us higher.
From the people of God—
to the purpose of God.
And at the center of it all stands Jesus Christ.
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.”
That is where we begin.
And there is much more to see.
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THE CHURCH'S ONE FOUNDATION
1. The church's one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord,
She is His new creation
By water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her,
And for her life He died.
2. Elect from every nation,
Yet one over all the earth;
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.
3. Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed,
Yet saints their watch are keeping;
Their cry goes up, "How long?"
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song.
4. The church shall never perish,
Her dear Lord to defend
To guide, sustain and cherish,
Is with her to the end
Though there be those that hate her,
And false sons in her pale
Against a foe or traitor,
She ever shall prevail
5. Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace forevermore;
'Til, with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blessed,
And the great church victorious
Shall be the church at rest.
6. Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won.
O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with Thee.
Samuel John Stone
Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household
of God; And are built upon the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being
the chief corner stone; - Ephesians 2:19-20
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