WEBVTT 00:00:06.660 --> 00:00:10.580 This is Verses We Missed, your midweek breath of Scripture and grace. 00:00:11.120 --> 00:00:13.260 I'm your OG Godcaster, Steve Webb. 00:00:13.980 --> 00:00:18.740 Every week we slow down and spend time with the quieter parts of Scripture, the verses 00:00:18.860 --> 00:00:23.520 we may have read a thousand times before, but somehow didn't really see them. 00:00:24.200 --> 00:00:30.320 When we look at a great work of art, let's say a towering cathedral or a massive marble statue, 00:00:31.100 --> 00:00:33.960 we sometimes think about the genius behind the creation. 00:00:34.830 --> 00:00:35.820 We think of the architect. 00:00:36.510 --> 00:00:38.460 We think of the master sculptor. 00:00:39.100 --> 00:00:43.080 But rarely do we stop to think about the people who made the work possible. 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:48.640 We don't think about the man who spent his life mixing the mortar that holds the stones together. 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:54.400 We don't think about the laborers who built the scaffolding so the artist could reach the ceiling. 00:00:55.860 --> 00:00:58.820 In the history of the Church, we have our Michelangelos. 00:00:59.470 --> 00:01:06.160 We have the giants like Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, John, and the Apostle Paul. 00:01:07.520 --> 00:01:09.500 Their names are in the who's who of the Bible. 00:01:10.310 --> 00:01:14.920 Their words, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, are the foundation of our faith. 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:22.820 But today, I want to introduce you to a man who was the scaffolding for the most important letter ever written. 00:01:24.140 --> 00:01:28.680 We're going to the very end of the book of Romans, possibly my favorite book in the Bible, 00:01:29.300 --> 00:01:33.220 a book that Martin Luther called, The Clearest Gospel of All. 00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:38.220 We're looking for a name that shows up once and then disappears. 00:01:39.180 --> 00:01:45.680 It's Romans 16.22, and if you're reading too fast, you'll step right over the man who held the pen. 00:01:46.340 --> 00:01:49.720 Before we read the verse, let's step into the room where it was written. 00:01:50.460 --> 00:01:55.140 It's roughly 57 AD, and the Apostle Paul is in the city of Corinth. 00:01:55.960 --> 00:01:58.480 Now, we actually do know what time of year it was. 00:01:58.980 --> 00:02:03.240 In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul mentioned his plan to winter with them to 00:02:03.580 --> 00:02:06.300 avoid the dangerous storm season on the Mediterranean. 00:02:07.160 --> 00:02:12.140 The book of Acts confirms he stayed for three months, leaving just before Passover in the 00:02:12.320 --> 00:02:12.500 spring. 00:02:13.720 --> 00:02:16.600 So picture a cold, rainy winter in Greece. 00:02:18.120 --> 00:02:23.780 Inside the home of a believer named Gaius, the atmosphere is a sharp contrast to the chill outside. 00:02:24.760 --> 00:02:29.600 It's winter in Corinth, but inside this small room, the air is thick and warm. 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:36.260 In the corner sits a bronze brazier, which is a small metal stand filled with glowing coals, 00:02:36.680 --> 00:02:41.080 placed there to take the bite out of the air and keep the dampness away from the parchment. 00:02:42.140 --> 00:02:47.840 In this cramped space, the heat makes the air feel heavy, carrying the sharp scent of burning 00:02:48.060 --> 00:02:54.120 oil from the flickering lamps mixed with the dry metallic tang of the fresh iron gall ink. 00:02:54.960 --> 00:03:00.160 Paul didn't write his own letters, at least not most of them. Whether it was because of his failing 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:05.580 eyesight or because his mind simply moved faster than a pen could travel, he used a professional 00:03:05.740 --> 00:03:11.460 scribe, known as an Emanuenus, and, sitting across from him, hunched over that low table, 00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:17.940 is a man named Tertius. I want you to really think about the labor Tertius is performing. 00:03:18.780 --> 00:03:24.900 The book of Romans is roughly 7,000 words in the original Greek. Imagine the painstaking focus 00:03:25.340 --> 00:03:32.100 required of him. This wasn't a quick note. This was a test of endurance, hours of exacting labor, 00:03:32.740 --> 00:03:40.019 leaning over a scroll, ensuring that every word was captured perfectly. He's using a reed pen or 00:03:40.040 --> 00:03:46.500 a calamus, which he has to hand-cut with a small knife to keep the nib sharp. If he makes a mistake, 00:03:46.620 --> 00:03:51.320 he has to carefully scrape the ink off of the expensive papyrus with a pumice stone. 00:03:51.980 --> 00:03:58.220 Think about the intimacy of that room. Paul is pacing the floor. He's weeping over the state of 00:03:58.520 --> 00:04:05.559 Israel in chapter 9. He's shouting with joy over the grace of God in chapter 11. And every time 00:04:05.580 --> 00:04:09.740 Paul takes a breath. He waits for the scratching of Tertius' pen to stop. 00:04:13.500 --> 00:04:18.820 Tertius is not just a secretary. He is the first person in the history of the world 00:04:19.180 --> 00:04:26.160 to process the book of Romans. Every word of this masterpiece had to travel through Tertius' ears, 00:04:26.640 --> 00:04:33.040 through his mind, and down his arm before it ever reached the page. When you think about it, 00:04:33.100 --> 00:04:37.480 He was the first listener to one of the greatest sermons ever. 00:04:38.780 --> 00:04:41.360 Now, let's look at the verse we missed. 00:04:42.380 --> 00:04:46.300 Romans is a 16-chapter book, and there are only a few sentences left. 00:04:47.180 --> 00:04:51.200 It's covered justification by faith, the struggle with the flesh, 00:04:51.820 --> 00:04:55.100 the sovereignty of God, and the ethics of the Christian life. 00:04:55.900 --> 00:04:58.420 And now, Paul is sending his final greetings. 00:04:59.280 --> 00:05:04.400 He's listing the names of some of the men he's met and sometimes even worked with in his travels. 00:05:05.100 --> 00:05:08.180 Timothy, Lucius, Jason, Sosipater. 00:05:08.880 --> 00:05:11.020 And then the dictation stops. 00:05:11.980 --> 00:05:13.360 In verse 22 we read, 00:05:13.880 --> 00:05:18.700 I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord. 00:05:20.100 --> 00:05:22.240 Well, this is a fourth wall break. 00:05:22.940 --> 00:05:25.060 It's as if in the middle of a grand film, 00:05:25.580 --> 00:05:29.620 the cameraman suddenly stepped in front of a lens to wave at the audience. 00:05:30.520 --> 00:05:34.960 But it's even deeper than that. Let's talk about the name, Tertius. 00:05:36.200 --> 00:05:41.800 In the Roman Empire, if you were a citizen of status, you were given a tria nomina, 00:05:42.280 --> 00:05:46.800 a three-part name that signaled your family heritage and your social rank. 00:05:47.540 --> 00:05:52.820 But if you were a slave, someone viewed you not as a person, but as a living tool. 00:05:53.200 --> 00:05:56.880 You often weren't even given a name at all. You were given a number. 00:05:58.060 --> 00:06:04.980 Tertius is the Latin word for third. It's highly likely that this man was born into slavery or was 00:06:04.980 --> 00:06:11.480 a freedman, a former slave who had found a trade. To the rest of the world, he was just that third 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:19.080 guy. He was the third servant in the house, the third unit of labor on a ledger. He was a number, 00:06:19.620 --> 00:06:27.880 not a name. But look at what Paul does. In any other ancient document, the scribe was invisible. 00:06:28.640 --> 00:06:33.500 They're never allowed to speak. They were meant to be silent instruments of the author. 00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:41.440 But Paul is practicing what he has just preached. He had just spent chapters arguing that in Christ 00:06:41.800 --> 00:06:50.280 there is no slave or free. In this one verse, Paul confirms, no, he proves that he believes it. 00:06:51.040 --> 00:06:57.160 He stops the dictation and says, go ahead, Tertius, tell them hello. He, in essence, 00:06:57.820 --> 00:07:04.420 hands the microphone to the man who's been serving in the shadows. He gives a first-person eye to a 00:07:04.520 --> 00:07:10.320 man the world called number three. This isn't just a greeting. It's a theological statement. 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:13.060 It's the gospel in a single sentence. 00:07:15.500 --> 00:07:17.460 So why does this matter to us today? 00:07:18.080 --> 00:07:23.780 It matters because many, maybe most of us, feel like the third guy most of the time. 00:07:24.560 --> 00:07:30.140 In our world, we elevate the Pauls, the people on the stage, the people with the large social 00:07:30.540 --> 00:07:35.080 media followings, the people whose names are on our television shows and sports venues. 00:07:35.960 --> 00:07:38.360 We live in a culture that rewards the visible. 00:07:39.240 --> 00:07:42.920 But the kingdom of God is full of those in the tertius class, 00:07:43.640 --> 00:07:45.680 the people who do the ink-stained work. 00:07:46.580 --> 00:07:51.900 It's the editor who spends weeks in the painstaking process of polishing a manuscript, 00:07:52.500 --> 00:07:56.080 fixing the flow and the logic so that when the book hits the shelf, 00:07:56.580 --> 00:07:58.060 the author looks like a genius. 00:07:58.780 --> 00:08:00.520 The author gets the signing to her. 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:03.060 The editor remains in the margins. 00:08:04.080 --> 00:08:06.300 It's the stagehand in the black shirt, 00:08:06.880 --> 00:08:10.220 moving sets in total darkness with exacting precision. 00:08:11.020 --> 00:08:14.660 If they do their job perfectly, you never even know they were there. 00:08:15.060 --> 00:08:17.240 You only see the magic of the performance. 00:08:18.680 --> 00:08:21.240 It's the parent who quietly, day after day, 00:08:21.740 --> 00:08:26.120 pours the word of God into their children when no one is watching and there's no applause. 00:08:27.140 --> 00:08:28.560 You might feel like a tertius. 00:08:29.140 --> 00:08:33.479 You might feel like your contribution is just clerical or background noise. 00:08:34.219 --> 00:08:36.700 You might feel like you're just a number on a payroll. 00:08:37.520 --> 00:08:44.620 But, beloved, don't miss this. God made sure that for two thousand years, every time someone opens 00:08:44.620 --> 00:08:50.300 the book of Romans, the most important letter in history, they have to encounter the name of the 00:08:50.420 --> 00:08:56.440 humble man who held the pen. Paul provided the voice, but Tertius provided the bridge, 00:08:57.080 --> 00:09:03.699 and without that bridge, the voice would never have reached Rome. Your service is not a footnote 00:09:03.720 --> 00:09:11.440 to God. Your quiet, repetitive, invisible work is part of the sacred text of what God is doing in 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:18.160 the world. He doesn't just see the apostle. He sees the scribe. He doesn't just see the sermon. 00:09:18.820 --> 00:09:25.420 He sees the hands that made it possible. A perfect example of a Tertius in my own life 00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:32.680 is my late father-in-law. His name was Basil, but everyone called him Rip. He was a soft-spoken, 00:09:33.080 --> 00:09:39.460 easygoing guy, and most of the time he had a smile on his face. He was the guy at church who mowed 00:09:39.460 --> 00:09:45.640 the lawn, pulled the weeds, vacuumed the carpets, cleaned the bathrooms, changed the light bulbs, 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:51.480 washed the windows, made the coffee on Sunday mornings, and he was there whenever the doors 00:09:51.540 --> 00:09:56.759 were open. And when they were shut, he had the keys to open them so that the church would look 00:09:56.780 --> 00:10:03.840 its best for the next event. Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Monday men's group, Tuesday women's 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:10.820 ministries, Wednesday Bible study. To sum it up, Rip was the guy who, if there was a need, 00:10:11.300 --> 00:10:16.640 he would fill it. And he was always in the background with that gentle smile on his face. 00:10:17.720 --> 00:10:21.320 Oh, how I loved that man. 00:10:23.640 --> 00:10:28.480 One of the greatest gifts the Lord ever gave me was to have Rip Collins as my father-in-law. 00:10:29.140 --> 00:10:30.460 What an example he was. 00:10:34.160 --> 00:10:35.200 Let's go to the Lord in prayer. 00:10:36.520 --> 00:10:39.660 Heavenly Father, we thank you that your eyes are not like ours. 00:10:40.580 --> 00:10:44.020 We so often look for the loud, the large, and the legendary. 00:10:44.740 --> 00:10:48.360 But we thank you that you are the God who sees the scribe in the corner. 00:10:49.220 --> 00:10:51.960 You are the God who knows the name of the third guy. 00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:56.420 Lord, I pray for that person listening right now who feels like a footnote. 00:10:57.260 --> 00:10:59.980 I pray for the one who is weary from the quiet work, 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:03.460 the work that no one applauds and few even notice. 00:11:04.620 --> 00:11:08.640 Would you remind them that their ink-stained hands are beautiful in your sight? 00:11:09.400 --> 00:11:12.300 Would you show them that the scaffolding that they are building 00:11:12.800 --> 00:11:15.260 is holding up a work of eternal significance? 00:11:16.079 --> 00:11:20.660 Father, give us the heart of Tertius to be content in the margins, 00:11:20.680 --> 00:11:27.360 knowing that our greatest joy is simply being used to carry your word to a world that needs it. 00:11:28.360 --> 00:11:32.220 May we rest tonight in the knowledge that we are not just numbers to you. 00:11:33.040 --> 00:11:34.040 We are your children. 00:11:34.800 --> 00:11:36.460 We are your co-laborers. 00:11:37.040 --> 00:11:39.140 And our names are written in your book. 00:11:39.920 --> 00:11:41.420 Lord, meet us in the quiet. 00:11:42.040 --> 00:11:43.140 Meet us in the margins. 00:11:43.920 --> 00:11:45.940 And may we find our rest in you. 00:11:47.040 --> 00:11:48.280 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:11:49.380 --> 00:11:49.600 Amen. 00:11:57.980 --> 00:12:03.700 Beloved, before I go, I want to thank those of you who support the show with time, talent, or treasure. 00:12:04.720 --> 00:12:06.340 Pray for the show and me. 00:12:07.010 --> 00:12:08.300 Tell a friend about the show. 00:12:09.100 --> 00:12:13.080 And Verses We Missed is financially supported only by the Lifespring family. 00:12:13.640 --> 00:12:14.640 That means you. 00:12:15.320 --> 00:12:17.100 I don't call you listeners, you're family. 00:12:17.480 --> 00:12:23.080 So, if you've found value in these closer looks at the Word, I invite you to return that value. 00:12:23.780 --> 00:12:28.340 You can help keep this show in your podcast app by visiting LifespringMedia.com 00:12:29.399 --> 00:12:32.220 and choosing a support option that works best for you. 00:12:33.180 --> 00:12:34.660 Your support means the world to me. 00:12:43.160 --> 00:12:47.540 Well, beloved, next time you're reading through those lists of names at the end of Paul's letters, 00:12:48.030 --> 00:12:52.340 the parts we usually skip to get to the end, I want you to slow down. 00:12:53.070 --> 00:12:58.540 I want you to remember that every name represents a story, a sacrifice, and a signature. 00:12:59.660 --> 00:13:01.900 Thank God for the Pauls who speak the truth, 00:13:02.300 --> 00:13:06.900 but thank God for the Tertius class who make sure the truth gets written down. 00:13:08.040 --> 00:13:11.540 This is a weekly show released every Tuesday at 10 p.m. Pacific. 00:13:12.120 --> 00:13:14.820 It's your midweek breath of Scripture and grace. 00:13:15.780 --> 00:13:19.520 Until next time, may you allow God's Word to meet you where you are. 00:13:20.140 --> 00:13:25.480 May you be honest before Him, confident in His mercy, and at rest in His care. 00:13:26.300 --> 00:13:29.600 And remember, your work is seen and your name is known. 00:13:30.620 --> 00:13:31.840 May God bless you richly. 00:13:32.600 --> 00:13:33.720 My name is Steve Webb. 00:13:34.680 --> 00:13:34.820 Bye. 00:14:02.740 --> 00:14:03.700 Bye.