The application: Maternal gifts influence more than biological children.

Today, we celebrate mothers.

Mothers know that when you hear a child flush the toilet and say ‘uh oh’, it’s already too late. 

Mothers know a 3-year old boy’s voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant. 

Mothers know that a puddle is a small body of water that draws other small bodies wearing dry shoes into it. 

Mothers know that the top bunk is where you should never put a little boy wearing Superman pajamas. 

Mothers are also aware of two mysterious people living in the house: Somebody and Nobody. Somebody did it, and Nobody knows who.[1] 

God has gifted us with a family order. God has gifted us with mothers. Most years, I try to create a special sermon for Mother’s Day. Today, I had planned a sermon based on Eph. 6:1-3- honor your father and mother, for this is right. Last night, I realized that the sermon needed to be changed. Think about the many gifts God has given mothers; one is hospitality.

Think about hospitality:

Marcella, who was born to a noble Roman family in 325, was highly revered by Jerome, the 4th-century translator of the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible. This noblewoman offered her palace as a sanctuary for Christians who were being persecuted, and was active in leading Bible classes and prayer meetings among the other noblewomen.

Though widowed at an early age and having no children, she chose to not remarry and instead devoted herself to serving Christ and the church. When Pope Damasus commissioned scholar Jerome to make a newly revised translation of the Gospels, taking the latest available Hebrew and Greek texts and translating them into Latin, Jerome moved into Marcella’s retreat house palace for the duration of his task. For three years, he depended upon Marcella and her other house guests to critique his ongoing work, which eventually became a classic, the Latin Vulgate Bible.

Marcella founded the first convent for women in the Western church, and gave liberally of her wealth to help other Christians, clearly showing to her fellow noblewomen that greater rewards and fulfillment come from storing up treasures in heaven than from hoarding treasures on earth.

Let’s look at:

Romans 16:13 (ESV)

¹³ Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well.

My theme today is:

Paul greets Rufus’s mother.

The application: Maternal gifts influence more than biological children.

1. Context:
   16. As I share the context, notice a bonus teaching. Notice all the women in Romans 16.
   17. Romans 16 includes a passage in which Paul is extending greetings to many people.
   18. Paul has shared deep theology in Romans chapters 1-11.
   19. Paul has shared a lot about Christian living in Romans chapters 14-15.
   20. Now, Paul is giving final greetings.
   21. I have heard some share that Paul cannot say “hello” without declaring the Gospel. We see that in this section as we see some great theology in verse 20.
   22. Let’s read verses 1-2, Romans 16:1-2: I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae,² 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 has been a patron of many and of myself as well.
   23. T. Wright points out that we cannot prove it, but it is likely that the one who delivered the letter read it. In this case, that is Phoebe. This would be a woman giving the public reading of Scripture.
   24. Notice that the ministry of women in the Roman church is quite evident in this chapter. Paul referred to nine prominent women: Phoebe, Prisca, Mary, Tryphena, Thyphosa, Persis, Rufus’ mother, Julia, and Nereus’ sister.^[2]
   25. This is really powerful, how Paul commends Phoebe and calls her a servant. It could actually be rendered as “deaconess.”
   26. This also tells where she is from, “Cenchrea.”
   27. In verse 2, Paul tells them to “welcome” or “receive her,” but receive her “in the Lord.”
   28. Paul wants them to help her in whatever she needs from them.
   29. She has been a patron, or “helper” of many including Paul. Phoebe served as a patron, probably with financial assistance and hospitality.^[3]
   30. Paul sends greetings to 26 individuals (Romans 16:3–16).^[4]
   31. Verse 7: Andronicus and Junia (6 people greeted now). Paul calls them outstanding among the apostles, fellow prisoners, and they were in Christ before Him. Junia is a female.
   32. CSB: The word “apostle” can be used in a nontechnical sense, referring to a messenger rather than a commissioned apostle such as Paul.^[5]
   33. Verse 13: Rufus (16 greeted). Paul says that he is chosen in the Lord. His mother has been a mother to Paul.
2. Who was Rufus?
   1. Mark 15:21 says, “A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.”
   2. Biblical scholars generally agree that he was one of the sons of Simon of Cyrene, the man enlisted to carry Jesus’ cross (cf. Mk 15:21) and was likely saved through that contact with Christ. Mark wrote his gospel in Rome, possibly after the letter to Rome was written, and circulated. Paul would not have mentioned Rufus if that name were not well known to the church in Rome.^[6]
   3. Paul’s allusion to the mother as “his mother … to me as well” suggests deep affection for the family.^[7]
   4. I like what one source shares:
   5. In what way she acted as Paul’s mother may only be surmised—perhaps as one who had cared for his physical needs, perhaps even as a mother ‘in the Lord’ who ministered to his spiritual needs (cf. 2 Tim. 1:5). Theodoret of Cyrrhus says: ‘The mother of Rufus by nature had become Paul’s mother by grace’.³⁷ Jewett observes: ‘To refer to Rufus’s mother as “mine” indicates that she had provided hospitality and patronage in such a manner that Paul has at some point in his career became virtually a member of their family’.^38,[8]
3. The powerful influence of mothers-
   1. Think about this: here is Paul, listing all these people who supported him; he mentions one whose mother was like a mother to him.
   2. This is important.
   3. Paul was traveling the known world, he had a thorn in his side (2 Cor. 12), he had been beaten many times (2 Cor. 11), shipwrecked, and much more. Who was this woman? How much did she mean to the Apostle Paul?
   4. Did she visit him?
   5. Did she write to him?
   6. Did she support him?
   7. Was she a listening ear to him?
   8. Was she hospitable to him?
   9. Did she remind him of his mother?
   10. Can we think of someone who was a stand-in mother to us?
   11. Maybe a teacher, a coach, a friend’s mother.
   12. Maybe a grandma?
   13. Women, have you been a maternal influence on others?
   14. Maybe some of you have not had children, but you were a mother to others?
   15. Also, notice how important community and hospitality were to the apostle Paul.
   16. Can we find something good to say about others? Look at how encouraging Paul is in this passage. He is encouraging all of them. He is finding good things to say about them. He is positive.
   17. A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services regularly, stopped going. After a few weeks, the pastor decided to visit him.
       
       It was a chilly evening. The pastor found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for his pastor’s visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a comfortable chair near the fireplace and waited.
       
       The pastor made himself at home but said nothing. In the grave silence, he contemplated the dance of the flames around the burning logs. After some minutes, the pastor took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone then he sat back in his chair, still silent.
       
       The host watched all this in quiet contemplation. As the one lone ember’s flame flickered and diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more. Soon it was cold and dead.
       
       Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting. The pastor glanced at his watch and realized it was time to leave. He slowly stood up, picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow, once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it.
       
       As the pastor reached the door to leave, his host said with a tear running down his cheek, ‘Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the firey sermon. I will be back in church next Sunday.’

David Jeremiah writes:

This “family rule” is well illustrated in the story “The Old Man and His Grandson,” from the collection Household Tales by the Grimm brothers:

There was once a very old man, whose eyes had become dim, his ears dull of hearing, his knees trembled, and when he sat at the table he could hardly hold the spoon, and spit the broth upon the table-cloth or let it run out of his mouth. His son and his son’s wife were disgusted at this, so the old grandfather at last had to sit in the corner behind the stove, and they gave him his food in an earthenware bowl, and not even enough of it. And he used to look towards the table with his eyes full of tears. Once, too, his trembling hands could not hold the bowl, and it fell to the ground and broke. The young wife scolded him, but he said nothing and only sighed. Then they bought him a wooden bowl for a few half-pence, out of which he had to eat.

They were once sitting thus when the little grandson of four years old began to gather together some bits of wood upon the ground. “What are you doing there?” asked the father. “I am making a little trough,” answered the child, “for father and mother to eat out of when I am big.”

The man and his wife looked at each other for a while, and presently began to cry. Then they took the old grandfather to the table, and henceforth always let him eat with them, and likewise said nothing if he did spill a little of anything.^13,[9]

 

 

 

[1] Adapted from: https://firstbaptistscottcity.org/2014/05/12/sermon-romans-1613-rufus-mother/

^[2] Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Ro 16:1.

^[3] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2184.

^[4] H. L. Willmington, The Outline Bible (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999), Ro 16:3–16.

^[5] Paige Patterson, “Salvation in the Old Testament,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1805.

^[6] John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), Ro 16:13.

^[7] R. C. Sproul, ed., The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015), 2009.

³⁷ ‘Interpretation of the Letter to the Romans’ (ACCSR, 374).

³⁸ Jewett, Romans, 969.

^[8] Colin G. Kruse, Paul’s Letter to the Romans, ed. D. A. Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England; Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2012), 570.

¹³ Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales (Digireads.com, 2009), 185.

^[9] David Jeremiah, God Loves You: He Always Has–He Always Will (New York City, NY: FaithWords, 2012).