Sermon Tone Analysis

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of anyone else—Charles Dickens.

is about the picking up of one another’s burdens.

Is it fitting… The gospel, which is our theology, is about sacrifice, serving, helping, protecting, blessing and all this freely without expecting something in return.

Sacrifice is where we find ourselves this morning with Phoebe .

Paul wants Rome to accept this outsider.

Why?

Because she is an insider 16:1b.

Paul wanted Rome to accept a Christian servant.

She was probably serving Rome this letter .

“A patron of many and Paul himself,” she was no doubt a busy lady.

The gospel put her to work.

There is no greater point in life than this— serving the church.

In our modern world, life is consumed by so much, but the only life worth living is found here:

v3, “fellow workers in Christ Jesus”

v6 “worked hard for you”

v9 “fellow worker in Christ”

v12 “workers in the Lord.”

The only life worth living is the life working for Christ and his church.

What kind of work?

Patronage: We find homes opened up to strangers; We find mothers mothering those not their own.

What we find is hospitality.

The word most often associated with hospitality in the NT is xenos.

Xenophobia is the dislike or fear of strangers.

In the NT one who receives visitors is said to be philoxenos, i.e., a “lover of strangers.”

Is this not the essence of the gospel?

For God so loved…

The garden is the place of hospitality, where we will dwell… When Israel’s prophets looked… ().

According to Isaiah, this great banquet would be spread for everyone on earth: “On this mountain the Lord of Hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wine … He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces …” Jesus echoes this feast when he pronounced that many would come “from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” ().

How did Jesus end his ministry with the disciples?

Our God is a God of hospitality.

This is our salvation.

We were saved to enjoy God’s hospitality.

Hospitality is eschatological.

Practicing it is a foretaste of heaven .

Hospitality is our Christian duty.

The church in Rome was to “welcome” which… Because Phoebe is in the Lord she deserved Rome’s welcome.

They were to welcome her in a certain way, “in a way worthy of saints.”

Phoebe knew this, “for she has been a great help to many people and to me personally.”

What kind of hospitality is this?

She was traveling from home in service of Paul and would need help in a foreign place.

She would need protection and provision.

This welcoming, “Greet pricsca and Aquia… Greet Mary… etc” is hospitality.

Word and Deed greeting (danger)

They needed service.

Hospitality is work.

There is a lot of work in this text.

Hospitality is our Christian duty.

It is work and It is intimate.

Hospitality is work.

It will not always be easy.

Why?

Because the church is made up of strangers.

Take Phoebe for example.

“Bright” Pagan mythology (Artemis)

Well to do (names)

Phoebe was a converted Pagan, which is not surprising… Paul commends this well-to-do ex-pagan because she was now “a servant of the church.”

Phoebe was a converted Pagan, which is not surprising to those who know the gospel.

Killing off pagans is what the gospel does best.

By faith we have died with Christ.

Any exPagans here?

You know this story, “I was once blind, but now I see.”

Paul commends this well-to-do ex-pagan because she was now “a servant of the church.”

The word servant is the Greek word for “deacon.”

So, the question has been asked since antiquity, “Was she an official deacon?”

Is this a prooftext for deaconess?

Now we cannot rely on the word alone because the word diakonos, is applied in Scripture to just about every Christian.

All Christians are servants.

Luther said it best, “We are free from all and servants of all.”

This word has many applications for Christians in general and it is even twice used to describe Christ.

Only in and , does the word denote the “office” of deacon.

So in the debate on deaconess we really have to lean elsewhere for answers and when we do, we don’t find the ordination of women anywhere in Scripture.

Biblical ordination takes us back to the Garden, where ordination becomes a creational ordinance.

This is important because ordination has nothing to do with the fact that women can do whatever men can.

Its not science or politics here.

If you know my ministry, then you know it hardly ever is.

What is it then?

Theology, ordination is 100% theological, spiritual, and covenantal.

Deacon and ,

The word servant is the Greek word for “deacon.”

So, the question has been asked since antiquity, “Was she an official deacon?”

Is this a prooftext for deaconess?

Now we cannot rely on the word alone because the word diakonos, is applied in Scripture to just about every Christian.

All Christians are servants.

Luther said it best, “We are free from all and servants of all.”

This word has many applications for Christians in general and it is even twice used to describe Christ.

Only in and , does the word denote the “office” of deacon.

So in the debate on deaconess we really have to lean elsewhere for answers and when we do, we don’t find the ordination of women anywhere in Scripture.

Biblical ordination takes us back to the Garden, where ordination becomes a creational ordinance.

This is important because ordination has nothing to do with the fact that women can do whatever men can.

Its not science or politics here.

If you know my ministry, then you know it hardly ever is.

What is it then?

Theology, ordination is 100% theological, spiritual, and covenantal.

The point is hospitality by and for strangers.

She was of a certain social cast, but that did not keep...

In the ancient church there was a great social and economic gap, nevertheless that gap was closed at church.

The point is hospitality by and for strangers.

She was of a certain social cast, but that did not keep her from serving those lower than her.

In the ancient church there was a great social and economic gap, nevertheless that gap was closed at church.

We are not a cast society but we do have social and economic gaps.