There are very few incidents from Jesus’s life before His ministry started when He was about thirty years old which are recorded in Scripture and it is easy to read those that are simply as a historical narrative account. Stephen spoke from Luke 2:41-52 this morning, looking at the incident when Jesus stays behind in Jerusalem to learn more of His Father.

The Jewish custom, we read, was to go to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. Traditions may easily tie us up, but it is good, nonetheless, to make special time to meet with God, to listen, to hear, to give Him our undivided attention. We don’t read much about what happened in Jerusalem, but the focus on the journey home soon turns to wondering where Jesus is. It’s every parent’s nightmare. To lose a child, even for a few minutes, can be terrifying.

We can journey on in life and not notice that Jesus is missing. We can be easily distracted and lose our vision and the focus of our lives. If that happens, we need to retrace our steps, just as Mary and Joseph did, and go back to find Jesus.

They found Him in the temple. He was learning more about God, listening, asking questions, wanting even at that young age to be about His Father’s business. He was in the right place at the right time. Everyone was astonished at His understanding and learning. He knew what it was to put His relationship with His Father first. We too need to learn that.

It has taken a long time to work through the book of Romans! We started the Bible studies in October 2010 and finished them in March 2012. Admittedly we haven’t done this every week, for often we have held prayer meetings or had holiday weeks with no studies, but even so, it has taken a long time to work our way through one of Paul’s most comprehensive New Testament letters.

It’s perhaps good, therefore, to have a summary at the end of our studies of all we have learned.

Chapters 1-4 look at the seriousness of sin: the pollution of sin, the penalty it carries and the provision God has made for sin. In these chapters, we have seen the pervasive nature of sin and how ultimately all mankind is in the same boat. We are all sinners and all need a Saviour!

Chapters 5 and 6 look at grace – its benefits and our responsibility as a result of grace.

Chapter 7 talks about law and freedom and reminds us that we are now free to choose the right way. Freedom is not a licence to do as we please, but we no longer have to submit to sin’s tyranny. We have a new Master!

Chapter 8, probably the most famous (and most quoted!) chapter in Romans, talks about the ‘goodness’ of the law and about our present suffering and God’s choosing/predestination. Here we see God’s ultimate purpose for mankind: that we should become like His Son.

Chapters 9 – 11 look at Israel and about the nature of faith and God’s purposes.

Chapters 12 – 15 look at worship and its outworking in our ordinary, everyday lives. As Kutless sing, ‘It’s all Yours anyway!’ God has done so much for us that to offer our lives as a living sacrifice to Him is the only right and proper way to live.

Chapter 16 looks at the worshipping church, naming individuals and showing us the importance and value of each person to God (and to each other) and exhorts us to keep to the true faith.

Now all we have to do is live it out!

Paul concludes the letter to the Romans with some warnings and advice. He has written to them outlining the true nature of the gospel so that they can hold fast to the true faith. He warns them “to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.” (Rom 16:17) It is vitally important that we are aware of truth and that we learn to discern the false from the true. Jesus taught His disciples that true disciples could be recognised by their fruit: “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognised by its fruit.” (Matt 12:33) Here, Paul talks about ‘smooth talk and flattery’ and urges the Romans to “be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil” (Rom 16:19), again echoing Jesus’s words to be “as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” (Matt 10:16) We don’t have to have experiential knowledge of evil, but we do need to be shrewd, wise and discerning about all that is good. Naivety and cynicism are both extremes to be avoided.

Isaiah 43:2 tells us “I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” Romans 16, the concluding chapter of a long letter through the seriousness of sin, the wonders of grace and the challenges of sacrificial living, is full of names. Most of these names are not found anywhere else in the Bible and we know tantalisingly little about these people. Paul is greeting people in the Roman church with all the familiarity and affection of a friend and fellow believer. The names, unfamiliar to us in form as well as in detail, are many and varied: Priscilla, Aquila, Epenetus, Mary, Andronicus, Junia, Ampliatus, Urbanus, Appelles, Aristobulus, Herodion, Narcissus, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Rufus and his mother, Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas and others. People with Paul send their greetings too: Tertius, his amanuensis, Timothy, Gaius, Erastus. Both men and women are mentioned. Some details are there, but we know remarkably little of how Priscilla and Aquila risked their lives for Paul or why Adronicus and Junia are ‘outstanding among the apostles’.

The Bible teaches constantly and persistently that we are more than a National Insurance number or a statistic on someone’s database. It teaches us the value of each human individual. It teaches us that God knows us by name, numbers the very hairs on our heads and knows everything about us. It teaches us that no man is an island but that we need each other. Eugene Peterson says, in his commentary on Ephesians called ‘Practise Resurrection’, “church is the textured context in which we grow up in Christ to maturity. But church is difficult. Sooner or later, though, if we are serious about growing up in Christ, we have to deal with church… Many Christians find church the most difficult aspect of being a Christian. And many drop out… There are certainly plenty of warts in any church.” (Eugene Peterson, ‘Practise Resurrection’, P 11).

Romans 16 reminds us of the context of church. Church is made up of real people, often unnoticed by the world, often unnamed in the wider context of fame. But for every ‘named’ Christian leader or artist or ‘famous’ person, there are many more, labouring behind the scenes, praying, serving faithfully, loving graciously. Read any foreword in a book or the inlay card of a CD and you will see the artist’s thanks to people we will never meet. Nonetheless, these people support, love, envision and inspire others.

Never for one moment imagine that your life is insignificant or unnoticed by God. Take comfort from Romans 16, this glimpse into the lives of people about whom we know virtually nothing, but who were vital links in the Christian chain as far as Paul was concerned. We are not alone. Think of Hebrews 11, that great chapter on faith, where some of the names tucked in there with the spiritual giants of the faith are mentioned casually, in passing. God knows each one of us, calls us by name and values each one of us.

Work has been going on to install a new projector for use in the main worship room.

First of all, the scaffolding had to be re-assembled:

Then there was drilling for the new screen:

Cabling has to be hidden:

Cleaning can be done while we’re here!

Screen’s up!

Working on the old projector:

A hive of activity…

Last night, we dedicated baby Jenson to the Lord, giving thanks for his life and praying God’s blessing on all those who will be involved in bringing him up.

Dave then preached on the heartaches and joys of motherhood, looking at Mary, the mother of Jesus. It can’t have been easy for her to receive the angel’s announcement as a young girl, knowing that she would face the scorn of others and risking rejection from Joseph. But Mary embraced all that God wanted her to do. Even though there must have been times when she did not understand her son, even though she had to watch his suffering and death, she also received the joy that comes with love and in Acts 1:12-14 we see that she is there with the disciples, now a follower of her own son. Jesus, even in the midst of His own suffering, thought of His mother on the cross. Motherhood may bring heartache and financial difficulties (it costs, apparently, £24.44 per day to raise a child to 18 in our modern society, amounting to £160,140 over 18 years!), but is also brings joy and unconditional love.

We also had two birthdays to celebrate!