Bible Guys Classics: Romans 16 Part 1

Well, Jeff, today we're talking about Paul's friends, because Paul had friends. He has a bunch of friends, and he's like, howdy, howdy, howdy, howdy, howdy howdy to all y'all people. And that's how he ends the pay the Book of Romans, which is kind of funny. But there's some really neat names in here, in some neat circumstances. So he's Chris and I'm Jeff, and we're the Bible guys. Chris Man, it's so good to have you today. Nice Jeff, it's good to be here. That was going, it's such a delight. To be together in the studio, and I was thinking, you know, you're kind of a movie guy. I am a little bit of a movie Yeah. So I thought, what we do is, we'll do a segment called name the movie, and I'm just gonna describe it best I can and see if you can know what the movie is. Well. On my show sheet, which is different than yours, it said poor description of movies. That's what it's. Supposed to the best description I can give you. Well, it's designed to be poorly descripted. And then I'm supposed to be able to guess the movie based on a non obvious description. Okay, here it is. You got to guess the movie. Well, I'm feeling pressure. But Leonardo DiCaprio wanders a frozen wasteland in search of an oscar. In search of an oscar, Yeah, that's The Revenant. There you go, for sure. And by the way, unbelievable movie. Okay, as I remember, is that he fought a bear. Yes, a guy learns to love a girl without her Instagram filters. Wow, a guy learns to love a girl without her Instagram filters. That's something I'm totally familiar. It's a cartoon. And then he'd remotely is a talking donkey Shrek. There you go, Instagram filters. I remember, she's a princess, but then he falls in love with her when she actually turns in to an ogre. Remember, so Instagram filters wasn't literal. No, I guess not. I'm sorry, dude, Okay, who I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm confusing you. Father reunites with long lost son and wants him to take over the family business. It's a super famous movie star wars. That is hilarious. Remember one episode Yeah, well, I mean it would be episode five and six six. There you go. A lunatic in slaves entertainers and slowly kills children in front of his parents. Say it again, A lunatic in slaves entertainers and slowly kills children in front of their parents. It's a family favorite. Is this the Hungry Games? No? No, no, no, it's a kid's show from when you were a kid. Say it when we're talking. A lunatic in slaves entertainers and slowly kills children in front of their parents. I have no idea Willie Wonka in the Chocolate Fact that's Is this a great description? That's hilarious. Uh? Illegal immigrants chased by the feds. Illegal immigrants chased by the feds. That could be a thousand legal immigrants chased. By the most famous scenes on a bicycle. Oh. Et, but they weren't illegal immigrants. Well why were the Feds chasing them? Because they were? They had et. They broke them out. But that doesn't make them immigrants. Well I'm sorry, I'm just reading what's in front of me, dude. Ye, well, you know, maybe perhaps. Okay, you know, anyway, that's okay. I can't be Chris angry again, that's right, instagrams are Actually I'm not upset about that one as much as I have Instagram. Unless there was a scene in Shrek. Where did she reference Instagram? I don't know, because that would be funny. I don't know. I'm not sure real seriously. Well, Shrek was actually so long ago, I know. Right, Yes, so we should move on. Are you ready? Yes? Okay. So there's a lot of interesting things that he says a lot of times when you get into these passages that just have lists, like lots of names and lots of things, sometimes it's easy to blow over it, like it's not that big of a deal. And yet we have to remember the Holy Spirit wanted us to know these things. The Holy Spirit made sure that these were including scripture. So there's some really interesting things in here. So he's wrapping it up. This is kind of the long goodbye at the end of Romans. This chapter sixteen, he says, I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a deacon in the church at Centuria. Welcome her in the Lord as one who has who is worthy of honor among God's people. Help her and whatever she needs, for she has been helpful to many, and especially to me. Give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila, my coworkers in the ministry of Christ Jesus. In fact, they once risk their lives for me. I'm thankful to them, and so are all the gentile churches. Also. Give my greetings to the church that meets in their home. Greet my dear friend Epinetus. He was the first person from the province of Asia to become a follower of Christ. Give my greetings to Mary, who has worked so hard for your benefit. Greet andre Nikas and Junia, my fellow Jews who were in prison with me. They're highly respected among the Apostles and became followers of Christ before I did. Greet Ampiliadis, my dear friend and the lorde Urbanus are co worker in Christ. And my dear friends Steakies. Greet Apelles, a good man whom Christ approves, and give my greetings to the believers from the household of Aristobulus. Greet Herodian. By the way, I. Noticed I'm number one reading all these crazy names. Aristotleus. This is one of those This is one of those days where I'm just extremely rad at you because you're killing it. Dude, where do you go. Greet Herodian, my fellow jew. Greet the Lord's people from the household of Narcissus. Oh, you should have read that one. Give my greetings to Tripeda and Triphosis, the Lord's workers, and too, dear Persis, who has worked so hard for the Lord. Greet Rufus, who names your kid Rufus. These are hysteric. I love Bible names. Greet Rufus, whom the Lord picked out to be his very own, and also his dear mother who's been a mother to me. Give my greetings to asking Cretus, fledge On Hermes, Patrobus, Hermas, and the brothers and sisters who meet with them. Give my greetings to Philologus, juliets Narius and his sister into Olympus, and all the believers who meet with them. You know, people are sitting on the edge of their seat right now, just saying read another one, Jeff. Greet each other in Christian love. All the churches of Christ send you their greetings, does it, Saint? Christian lovers with a sacred kiss? This one says, Greet each other in Christian love? Really mine sacred kiss yours? NLT. Yeah, Yeah, so's mine. That's interesting, isn't that. No, so yours is probably just a different updated version than mine. Yeah for sure. Yeah. So so we'll stop there because he's going to give some instructions at the end. Different but basically he's highlighting a couple of really really important things. One, he has a team of people. It's not just Paul the rock star. Right. He mentions, how many people say so important to me in the ministry, right, the work with me in the ministry. It's not just me, and he sees he recognizes the value of those around him. So it just proves that Paul, like we talked about before, you know, Paul was this ambitious, self centered person. You know, he had ambition, but he had a team of people to make it happen with him. And so he actually takes the time in this letter to say, I know that there are people there that I know personally and their value, and I want to communicate to you how valuable they are to me. So he you know, he goes are out of his way to praise them. There's a couple of different notes in my study Bible, and it says Phoebe was known as a deacon, or servant or helper, and apparently she was a wealthy person who supported Paul's ministry. Baby was highly regarded in the church, and she may have delivered this letter from Corinth to Rome. She's a good example of a woman who had an important role in the early Church. And it says since Sharia, the town where Phoebe lived was in the eastern port of Corinth, six miles from the city center. And I think that that's a. Pretty cool thing to see in this list, how many women there were. You know that that early on in the church. Not only did Jesus and the Gospels spend his time elevating women, and the culture in that day did not elevate women. Women had no. Rights, women were property. Women were property, They had no voice in the court of law, they couldn't give testimony, women were treated so poorly. And yet Jesus spent his time elevating women, giving them positions, you know, recognizing them, just ascribing value and worth. To them, defend defending them when people wouldn't and they would discard. And then Paul, here's here's. An and the greatest announcement in the history of humanity was the resurrection, and he announced to women before he ever went to his apostles. Right, right, Well, I always say women first of the cross, first. Of the tomb. Yeah, women, that's right, and. So and so. Yeah. So here here in the Gospels we have you know, these you know examples right there. And then also here with Paul, we see that he's listing all these people who are dear to him, that are so important, that are so gifted, that are so essential, and so many of them are women. I just think that that's a good thing to point out. Right, Well, he mentions Phoebe for one, he mentions Priscilla, and he mentions Priscilla before her husband Aquilla. Right, that's pretty rare. The only times that happens in the Bible are Mary and Joseph, Priscilla and Aquilla. Wow, that's pretty good. Yeah. Everything else is David and Bathsheba. It's Abraham and Sarah, it's Adam and Eve. Right, just start going through the list of all the husbands and wives. It's always the husband first, the woman's second. That's just a social convention. It's not like God's trying to say that's how it's supposed to be, right, But in those social conventions, there's a couple of exceptions that happen where people think of Mary first and then Joseph, and they think of Priscilla first and then Aquilla. Right, So it wasn't necessarily like a buck against custom. It was more like, that's how important Priscilla was. Yeah, Priscilla was that important of a discipler. Her and her husband disciple Apollos, who, other than Paul, was the other most famous preacher. Apollos rose above Peter as far as famous preachers go during that time. Right. So Paul at one point says, Hey, some of you are saying I follow Paul, and some say I follow Apollos, and some say. That I follow Cephis. Right, So he's kind of implying that that Percephus being Peter, He's kind of implying that Apollos was second only to Paul as far as fame goes. And it was Priscilla and Aquilla who discipled Apollos, Right, this is very significant. She was incredibly important. And then the idea that he sends this letter with a woman named Phoebe. That's church history. That's pretty established that it was Phoebe who delivers the most doctrinal book in the Bible. Yeah, it would have been. Brought to the synagogue first or to the early Church, and they would have read it there publicly, and she would have been the reader of the most doctrinal book in the letter in the Bible. And that really highlights its you know, countercultural, that really highlights how important these two women are in the ministry. Yeah. And for those who don't know the history or the background between, you know, behind Priscillaicuila, my notes say this, Prisillonicuila were a married couple who had become Paul's close friends. They, along with other Jews, had been expelled from Rome by the emperor and had moved to Corinth. And there they had met Paul and invited him to live with them. And they were Christians before they met Paul and probably told much, probably told him much about the Roman Church. Like Paul, Prisilinicquila were missionaries. They helped believers in Ephesus in Rome, where they were allowed to return again and eventually back. An emphasis and second Timothy chapter for right, So very cool. Yeah, and then they have a church meeting in their home, which I think, I think more Christians need to be thinking of that because we're kind of messed up with the idea that what happens on Sunday morning is the church. I'm going to church. We kind of think then that we minimize the gatherings in our homes sometimes. But he's saying that there's this group of Christians that are gathering regularly in their home and where you might not be the Paul in your world, right, maybe one of our listeners, you know, Chris Zarba is your Pall. Okay, that's great, but you can still have a group of believers that are gathering together. You're helping disciple, and that's what's happening here. That's what home fellowships are. That's what you know, small groups are. That's what you know. Maybe you're doing a Discovery Bible study, or maybe you're starting a house church. You can do that and not have that be contrary to the larger gathering that you're a part of, right, And that's what they're doing there, And he mentions it a couple times. I think there's somebody else that has a house church meeting too. He mentions, but yeah. In verse number seven when it says, greet Andrew, Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who are who were in prison with me. You're highly respected among the apostles and became followers of Christ before I did. So. My sting notes say that they may have been a husband and wife team, much like Priscilla and Aquila. The fact that they were highly respected among the apostles could mean that they had distinguished themselves as apostles. Paul also notes that they were fellow Jews and at one time been in prison with him. Yeah, so just another little insight about those people. He mentions, Yeah, the other one, so Junia would be a female. And then in verse fourteen, it mentions, give my greetings to a syncretous fledge on Hermes Petrobus and Hermas. Hermas would be the feminine version of Hermes, right, And so you've got another woman there that and he says, and the brothers and sisters who meet with them. So these people also seem to be this group seemed to be leaders in a lite fellowship Christian fellowship there in Rome. Hey, I would like to go back to verse number eleven when it says, greet the Lord's people from the household of narcissists. And you said, and you said, you should have read that. One well, I just thought, I thought, narcissist. What do you mean, what do you mean? I don't know what you mean. Yeah, that was good. I just felt like I was hogging all the good words. That's what it was. Hey man, I thought was funny. So so yeah, so so basically, another thing that we could, you know, take from this is that it's another great picture of how God designs the church because you know, after all, you know, all of this is written within the context of the church, and every person that Paul mentions has an important role, you know, of of moving the gospel forward, establishing the ministry and everything else. And you know, Paul is also the writer in First Corinthians, where you talk talks about is it first or Second Corinthians. He talks about the hand needing the foot? Yeah, yeah, yeah, twelve, Chapter twelve, Yeah, chapter twelve, where he talks about, you know, how the church has different people serving different positions and all have different needs. It's just a great reminder that, like, you know, when for those of us who don't know, he says, you know, the hand can't say to the foot, I don't need you. And what if the whole body were an eyeball, you know, then where would the hearing be, and so that they're just the body as many members. We all have different roles, we all have different parts, and one can't say that the other member is not important because they all work together for the one body. And then he you know, talks about how the church is one body, and it's just a great picture how we as listeners. You know, let's just say we're getting up today having our coffee, ready to head into work. Just know that you are an important role in the church. You may have the gift of pastoring where you know, which means the caring gift, and you want to use that at the office. Today, right. Or you may have the gift of evangelism, which is one of the outward gifts of pushing the gospel forward and just telling people about Jesus and inviting the men to an environment like that or whatever it is. Maybe it's just as simple as encouragement, where people, you know, eventually get to the place where they look at your life and say. How could you, how could you be so encouraging. I was watching Black Widow last night with my wife, you know, the Black Widow Marvel movie, and you know, she had this really bad past and rough past, and the girl looked at she callet Johansson and said, how is it that you have kept your heart? Like? How have you not lost your heart in all of this? And that's what people do. They eventually get to the place where they look at our lives and they ask why. Right, you know, it's living a life that leads to why when somebody around you says how can you be this. Way or why do you act this way? Maybe that's your part of influence because because that's what God has placed in you. Yep. The other thing I really enjoy when you read a passage like this, when Paul just unloads with all these people. He references here several different fellowships that are gathering, and he's writing to another one. He's writing to the church in Rome. You can see there's no competition. It's not like he's saying, hey, I like this church, but watch out for those people over there or whatever. Right, He's just he's not trying to compete at all. He's not implying that maybe some are good and some are bad and all that kind of stuff. He's just saying, man, everybody that's in Rome, that's for Jesus I'm for them, and I think that as Christians we should be that way. You know, I've told a lot of different stories about how, you know, easy it is for us to the names on our church signs really serve to tell Christians why we disagree with each other, whether it's Baptist or Lutheran or you know, Methodist or whatever. And Paul doesn't really have that sense here. Paul's just saying, we're all believers, we're all landed on the line, we're all risking our lives for God's kingdom, and I just want you to love. I want you to learn to love Phoebe like I love Phoebe. I want you to learn to love you know, Aristoculus or whatever, Ampliatus, whatever. I want you to learn to love those guys as much as I have, because they're all just towing the line for the Gospel. They're all working together on this. And I think that we should in all of our communities, we should not look at the church down the street as being a threat, right right. We shouldn't look at the Christians, you know, who do things a little bit differently than us, as some kind of a threat that we need to correct them. We need to rise up like God's given us the responsibility of a prophet to call them out and bring judgment on them instead. You know what, you know, if they're for Jesus, we should be for them, right, if they're for salvation by grace or faith, we should be for them. And you know, I think that to some extent, we have that in the community we live in, right that a lot of the significant churches in the area and a lot of the smaller churches, we we great together and we want to be on the same team, and we want to encourage one another and share resources and things. And I think that's really kind of what you see as the standard in Paul's life. On occasion, he'll call somebody out who's doing really wicked things, But most of the time he's like, I'm for that guy, and I'm from that girl, and I'm for that couple, and I'm for them, and I'm for him, and I'm for that church and for that little fellowship. I'm for all of them. Man, he's just pro Christians. Well, this might be a big surprise to anybody around the world that is a part of a church, but my previous church that I worked at, there was a guy named Steve who led that organization of that movement. And I remember, like my third week there, there was another pastor who had come in from another area and he was starting a church right down the road from us. And believe it or not, it was in the exact same city that we were planning on launching our own church like a year from now. So think about this. So our church had. A group of like four hundred people that were itching to for us to launch a campus in this area. Well, this is where this guy was launching, right And so he comes up and he stands on the stage, and for the first time in my entire life, I heard a pastor say this. He got up in front of the whole group and he said. Hey, he goes, this guy's launching a church, and we believe in new churches. And he said, so. It'd be the best thing in the world for like five hundred of you to leave our church and go follow this guy and help him start plant this church. And I remember thinking, and that's and you know, at that season of that church's life, the spirit of open handedness was so strong, and I remember thinking to myself, that can't be true. Like that come on, what pastor says that, What pastor says, you know, I'm going to be willing to give up my resources, my people, you know, all the stuff that comes with people and my numbers and everything else, just to resource other churches. And that's when I really started to learn that the church down the street, whether slightly different or maybe even disagrees on some things. You know, Listen, we are as long as we believe in Jesus Christ, and we center our doctrine around that, which is most important. We are much more alike. Than we are different, right right, We're on the same team, right right. And so and I remember thinking to myself, that is one of the most inspiring things I've ever seen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's not threatened by the women serving, he's not threatened by the husbands and wives serving, he's not threatened by all the other churches. And then he just kind of wraps it up there saying, all the churches of Christ send you their greetings, meaning all those churches of Christ were cooperating together, loving each other, and rooting on this other church. Right. So that kind of unity, I think is the kind of unity that we should be working towards. All the time. That's awesome. Yeah, and that starts individually Christian to Christian to Christian, and then the churches because the churches are just made up of individual Christians. That's great. Ye. Well, that's a good word and that's a good place to end and we will see you next time on the Bible. Guys,