Romans 15:30

Romans 15:30

Romans 15:30-32 says, "Now I beseech you, brothers, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, That I may be delivered from them which do not believe in Judea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints; That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed." In this verse intense prayer is likened to a struggle, because Paul asked them to strive with him in their prayers. The emphasis is placed upon the importance of the desire and the will of man to approach unto God and seek his assistance. It says in James that the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. In other words, sometimes the answer to prayer is dependent upon how much you really desire help. Someone calling for help from a burning building will spare no energy in making those calls for help.

We are never invited to half-heartedly worship God and neither are we invited to half-heartedly pray to Him. One of the lessons to be learned from the life of Jacob in the Old Testament is that sometimes it involves a struggle for a human being to reach out to God. The flesh lusts against the spirit. Genesis 32:26-28 says, "And God said, Let me go, for the day is breaking. And Jacob said, I will not let you go, except you bless me. And God said unto him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. And God said, Your name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince have you power with God and with men, and have prevailed."

Paul knew that the Christian life was a spiritual war, and one of the most important battlefields of that war will be your prayers. In Ephesians Chapter 6 when Paul described the Christian’s armor for the spiritual warfare, he included prayer and said in Ephesians 6:18, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit..." There will be obstacles to keep you from praying. There will be temptations to keep you from praying. There will be responsibilities and other priorities to keep you from praying. There will be doubts and fears to keep you from praying. And there will be spiritual forces that will try to keep you from praying. Sin will definitely keep you from praying. Confess your sins. Wise is the person who is able to put these things aside and to pray: pray as if he or she means it and pray as if the world depends upon it. Paul asked the believers in Rome to struggle and strive in prayer with him.

Do you have enemies? Pray for them because Jesus told you to. If God be for us, who can be against us? Do you have obstacles? Pray that God would remove them, because Jesus said that with faith we could remove mountains. Do you fear something that might happen in the future? Then pray that God would take away your fears, because it is not His will that you fear anything. Jesus said to Peter when Peter saw Him walking on the water, "Fear not, it is I. Be not afraid."

We know that God answers our prayers and that when we pray about something; it can make a difference. Jesus said, "Ask and you shall receive." He also reminded us that if our children ask for bread, we do not give them a stone; but we give them what they ask. God loves us more than we love our own children, and the implication is that we can depend upon God giving us what we ask for. We know that we have the petitions that we desire of Him. In the book of James we are reminded that Elijah prayed that it would not rain, and it did not rain for 3 1/2 years. Then he prayed again for rain, and it rained. We have the same invitation to come to God and talk to Him about issues in our lives; and we know that He hears us, and we know that He cares about us, and we know that He has promised to give us what we ask.

But in spite of all that, we know that we must always qualify what we pray with the attitude, "May thy will be done." That is what Paul said in his prayer request here in Romans 15:32. He said to pray these things "by the will of God." When Jesus taught us how to pray in the Sermon on the Mount, He said to always pray, "May thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." And then when Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane before His crucifixion, He prayed to the Father, "May this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." We can ask whatever we want, but God is sovereign. He has the final decision: sometimes He says "yes" and sometimes He says "no" to what we ask. He knows what is best.

After Paul asked the Christians in Rome to pray with him, he said in Romans 15:33, "Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen." In these verses, peace follows prayer. That is always the sequence of things. Talking to God through Christ with faith about the things in your life results in peace. Philippians 4:6-7 shows the same sequence of events: prayer and then peace. It says, "Worry about nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thankgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ."

This is how things can work in the life of a believer on a daily basis. Throughout the day you are in contact with the Lord Jesus on a continual basis, ready at any moment to speak to Him about circumstances or issues that arise in your life or in the life of others. You are full of confidence that He hears you and cares about you. You know that when you make specific requests of Him, He may do the very things that you ask, but if He does not, you know that He has a good reason for it, and that He will work all things out for good. You are at peace with God, you are at peace with the world, and you are at peace with those around you because you have put all things in God’s hands. Now you take rest and comfort in the fact that God is going to handle all things according to His will. And no matter what happens, good or bad, you are thankful to God for how He chose to work things out.

Romans Chapter 16 is the conclusion to the book of Romans. It is largely made up of personal greetings from Paul to individuals that he knew who were at Rome. The first person that he mentions is a woman by the name of Phebe. He says in Romans 16:1-2, "I commend unto you Phebe our sister, who is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea: That you receive her in the Lord, as becomes saints, and that you assist her in whatsoever business she has need of you: for she has been a helper of many, and of myself also."

Paul said that Phebe was a servant of the church at Cenchrea. Cenchrea was a small town right next to Corinth, and was actually a part of the Corinth metropolitan area. She was obviously traveling from Corinth to Rome on some kind of official business in regards to the work of Paul the apostle. Paul calls her a "servant" of the church. The word "servant" comes from the same Greek word as the word that is elsewhere translated "deacon". She was a deaconess in the church. Someone who has the gift of serving others or ministering to others in practical ways is called a deacon or a deaconess. God has given to the church pastors and teachers, and He has also given other servants who serve with their unique gifts in more practical ways. People who have the gift to serve and to help are very important to the work of God. One person may be able to preach or to teach, but he will be able to do only so much on his own. In order to be able to do more, there must be those behind the scenes assisting with the practical things that must be done. Phebe was one such person. Her work was very important because Paul said that "she was a helper of many and of myself also."

In Romans 16:3-4 Paul said, "Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles." We know more about Priscilla and Aquila than we do about Phebe, because Priscilla and Aquila are mentioned elsewhere in the Bible. Priscilla and Aquila are always mentioned together, which probably indicates the unique bond that they had as husband and wife. They were not only husband and wife; they were bonded in a special way as co-workers in the work of God. Not every marriage ends up with this kind of commitment, bond, and cooperation. But when we see it, we can only say that is the way a marriage should be. Some people have to work at their marriages harder than others. For some marriage is a struggle that requires prayer and effort to hold things together. For others there is a unity and a bond that is so magical and so complete that no human effort could have ever created it. Evidently, Aquila and Priscila had this kind of a marriage.

When Paul wrote the letter of First Corinthians from the city of Ephesus, Aquila and Priscilla were in Ephesus also. Paul said to the Corinthians in First Corinthians 16:19, "The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscila salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house." Later when Paul traveled from Corinth to Jerusalem, the Bible says that he was accompanied as far as Ephesus by Aquila and Priscila. They stayed in Ephesus while Paul continued on to Jerusalem. And while they were in Ephesus, they met Apollos and they helped to instruct him in sound doctrine. Apollos was gifted as an orator and he had a lot of zeal to serve God, but there were doctrinal things that he needed to learn, and it was Aquila and Priscila who taught him. You can read about these things in Acts 18:18-28.

Romans 16:5 says, "Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my well-beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ." In speaking about Aquila and Priscilla when they were in Rome, Paul said to greet the church that is in their house. In other words, one of the meeting places for a group of believers in Rome was the house of Aquila and Priscilla. This helps to explain the concept of a church. Notice that the building was not the church. The church had a meeting place, but the church was the people and not the building. Peter made the great confession to Jesus and said, "Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus said in response to the confession, "Upon this rock I will build my church." There is only one church. It is the church that Jesus started and it is made up of all the believers in Jesus. There are many meeting places where members of this one church gather together. The meeting place is not the church. The people are the church. One of the meeting places of the church during the time of the Apostle Paul was the house of Aquila and Priscilla, both when they lived in Ephesus and when they lived in Rome.

Romans 16:6-11 says, "Greet Mary, who bestowed much labor on us. Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. Greet Amplias my beloved in the Lord. Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ, and Stachus my beloved. Salute Apelles, approved in Christ. Salute them which are of Aristobulus’ household. Salute Herodian, my kinsman. Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus, which are in the Lord."

One thing that we learn about Paul from these salutations is that he was very appreciative to those who helped make it possible for him to carry out the work that he did in traveling from city to city with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He did not take such assistance for granted. Evidently Paul was very close to these people, because they were fellow believers in Jesus, because they had labored with him in the past and done things for him, and because some of them had even been prisoners with him according to Romans 16:7.

Paul called some of them his kinsmen, a term that he used in verse 7, verse 11, and verse 21. This refers to the fact that others were Jews, just as Paul was a Jew. This is one way in which the early churches were different from many of the churches today: the fact that a good number of the believers were Jews who also became believers in Jesus. As a matter of fact, Paul pointed out in Romans 16:7 that Andronicus and Junia had become believers in Jesus even before Paul did and he calls them his kinsmen. Which may mean that they were originally from Jerusalem or another part of Judea before they came to Rome; and because Paul says that they were of note among the apostles, it may also mean that they worked closely with the other apostles before they came to Rome.

Romans 16:12-16 says, "Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis, who labored much in the Lord. Salute Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brothers who are with them. Salute Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with them. Salute one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you."

There is one other reference to the name of Rufus in the New Testament. When Mark wrote his account of the gospel of Christ, Mark said in Mark 15:21, "And they compel one Simon, a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross." Alexander and Rufus were obviously known to the Christians to whom Mark was writing when he wrote his gospel, but we have no way of knowing for sure if it is the same Rufus that is mentioned here in the book of Romans.

The same is true about what Paul said in regards to the Rufus who was at Rome. Paul said to salute "his mother and mine." We do not know if Paul was talking about his real mother or not. Perhaps he was talking about an elderly woman with whom he had a close relationship, so that they were like mother and son. That kind of thing can and does happen even today. You may not have had the relationships with people from your own family that you would have liked to have had, but God can fill the gap with other relationships and other friendships with those from the family of God. Sometimes Jesus takes those who are barren and gives them spiritual children. And sometimes God takes those who did not have a family in this life, and makes up for it through the family of God.

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