“Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia.”
(Romans 16:3–5 ESV)
In the day in which we live, we often strive to gain influence by means of fame. We believe that we have to establish a following. And we set out to do just that.
This is true not only in our day-to-day lives, where everyone wants to be Instagram famous. It’s true also in the church. It’s true of our ministries.
We believe that, if we’re to reach people for Christ, and if we’re to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth, we have to become well-known and establish a following. And we set out to do just that. We try to get a following on YouTube. We try to get a following on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and every other social media app in existence. We create podcasts and we write books.
Don’t misunderstand what I’m trying to say. There are legitimate uses of these avenues. And they can certainly be used for ministry in a healthy way. But, quite often, it becomes more about us than it is about Christ.
However, we can also have a sizable influence outside of these avenues. We can faithfully carry out our ministry apart from them. And this becomes clear as we look at the above passage.
Honestly, this passage is one that we tend to read over as we come to it in our Bible. We look at it as irrelevant. After all, it’s simply a list of greetings.
But, as we look at it, we see something interesting. We see that Aquila and Priscilla, with whom Paul worked in Corinth, were involved in the church at Rome. In fact, they had a church meeting in their home. And we see that Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia, was also at Rome.
If we read further in this passage, we see other interesting connections. Rufus, addressed in verse 13, obviously had a close, and even an intimate, connection to Paul. I say this because of his comment that Rufus’ mother had been a mother to him. And, at this point, Paul had never been to Rome.
We see from this that, as Paul ministered to various people in various places, not only did they come to faith in Christ. And not only did they grow in that faith. They also began to serve the Lord. We see that his ministry became their ministry.
And several of these people ended up in Rome. They were now associated with the church of Rome. Even though Paul had never set foot in that city, and although he hadn’t yet preached in that city, his ministry had a big influence on its church.
Although we rarely think about it, we can see the same thing if we look at our own congregations. We find that people who came to Christ in our congregations, and who grew in faith in our congregations, are now engaging in ministry in another area. Even if they aren’t pastors, they are involved in the ministry of a church in their new area.
Those who were once influenced by us are now influencing others. Those who received the gospel from us are sharing it with others. And those who learned the Word of God from us are now teaching it to others.
In this way, our congregation, and perhaps even we ourselves, have influenced the ministry in distant locations. In this way, we’ve influenced the ministry in another part of the country. We have done so, in fact, in distant parts of the world.
Our name may not be attached to it. But that doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that Christ’s name is proclaimed. The only thing that matters is that the gospel is proclaimed. The only thing that matters is that the ministry, entrusted to us by Christ, is carried out.
My point in this is that, as we faithfully carry out our ministries, as we do so in a small church in a small town, in a sparsely populated state, we have a greater impact than we could ever realize. We don’t have to be famous to reach people outside of our area. All we have to do is be faithful in what the Lord has assigned to us.
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