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,