28th December 2023

28th December 2023


Pray (ACts)


Read (Romans 16v23)


Message (Scott Woodburn)


It is thought that Paul wrote his letter to the Romans from the city of Corinth and this is given credibility by the fact that Paul is hosted by someone called Gaius. Who was Gaius? There was a man named Gaius who hailed from the city of Derbe which was situated in the region that we now call Turkey. This Gaius had been a travelling companion of Paul and was with him when a riot broke out in Ephesus (Acts 19).


However if Paul was writing from Corinth, it seems likely that the Gaius in verse twenty-three was the same man that Paul had once baptised during his ministry to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 1v14). It would appear that not only did Gaius love the Lord but he also put his money where his mouth was and hosted both Paul and the church in Corinth. We have become accustomed to every church having their own buildings but in Paul's day many fellowships depended upon the financial generosity of men like Gaius who allowed their homes to be used for church gatherings.


Another individual named by Paul was Erastus who probably was the same man described as Paul's helper (Acts 19v22) who eventually remained at Corinth (2 Timothy 4v20). In today's verse the Apostle tells us that Erastus had risen to the position of city treasurer in Corinth and there is tantalising (but not solid) evidence that Erastus was another man of wealth. Was the city treasurer well paid? We have no idea and some argue that the position was significant while others say it was minor.


Even so, several years ago during an excavation in Corinth, an inscription was uncovered which said “Erastus in return for his aedileship laid (the pavement) at his own expense.” An aedile was an elected official in the days of Rome and this has caused many to wonder if Erastus the city treasurer and Christian had also paid to provide a solid pavement for his fellow citizens. We can't know for sure and it isn't greatly important but I allow myself to imagine that perhaps both Gaius and Erastus were men who were hearers and doers.


As a new year approaches let me remind you of James 1v22-24 which says "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like."


I'm not calling you to make a grand list of mighty deeds that you achieve in 2024, instead I gently ask you to make a commitment to regularly hearing the Word of God read and preached. Brothers and sisters, God has given us His Word and the foolishness of preaching in order to convert us to Him and to grow us up in the faith. Read and hear the Word in 2024 and then go and do what it says. Don't be the person who makes big plans and doesn't do them. Don't be the person who loves a good sermon but leaves his faith in the church pew. Don't be the person who hears the Word and immediately forgets what it said.


I doubt you'll pay for a new pavement for the people of Ballynahinch and I suspect Edengrove will not need to meet in your conservatory. But that's okay. In small ways and in big, don't just hear the Word but also do, for Christ's sake. Amen. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q27 Wherein did Christ’s humiliation consist? Christ’s humiliation consisted in his being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross; in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time.
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