Bible Guys Classics: Romans 5 Part 1

Hey, guys, today we're gonna be talking about how to

find joy?

Do you want joy? I want joy? I love joy.

Let's go.

Yeah. So we're talking about how faith brings joy, and

in this case, Paul's talking about under trials and how

even trials and persecution can actually lead to joy. So

it's going to be interesting. So he's Kyle and I'm Chris,

and today we are the Bible.

Guys.

Man, I am so excited for today's episode. I think

we got some really good content today.

But it also before we.

Even get into what we're going to read in the

scriptures today. Here, I actually want to play a quick game.

And many of you guys know this, but Chris is

a huge movie buff. In fact, I enjoy watching movies

and I thought I really was a movie guy until

I met Chris and I realized there's different levels to

this game.

That's funny. You know, so quotes so many scenes. He

knows it all.

By the way, just in case you're wondering what ends

up happening is is Desiree is our staff member who

makes these segments and she hands them to us and

we purposefully do not read them until this very moment

when we shoot. So I have not read this, and

I always feel the pressure because now you've just announced me.

Well, because this is not only you're good at movies,

but also this is kind of funny in general. I'm

going to give you a sentence description of a movie,

and it's a bad description.

How many? How many are there?

There's five of them?

All right? If I get three, i'll be good, but

my goal.

Is to at least get four. Are you nervous now

because I hyped you up too much a little bit?

Yes?

Okay, well you're gonna do great. Okay, these are funny

bad descriptions. Okay, first one, this movie is about an

elderly man who uses balloons to kidnap a small boy.

Oh that's hilarious.

That's up.

Yep, I've never heard it that way before.

That's why it's great. It's the bad description.

It's like, you know, what's like, what's that movie about?

They try to describe you, and you're like, what, that's

not what that movie was about?

Okay, First of all, that is the creepiest. An elderly

man uses balloon You kidnap a small boy? Hey, little boy?

You want to that's terrible? All right, next one.

Yes, a broke man commits identity fraud so he can

manipulate a group of school children.

Holy cow, this.

Could be a broke man commits.

Identity fraud so he can manipulate a group of school children.

School children, so somebody lies.

Oh wait a minute.

Uh oh, I was gonna say kindergarten cop. But no

he's not. He's not a broke man.

Uh came out, jack black or what is it? He's

a musician A school of rock. Yeah, buddy, that's it.

School of rock is not.

A good description, he said, school children, which was the

only thing that helped me out.

Yeah, there you go, Okay, here you go. This one.

I like this one. Okay.

Older sister ruins younger sister's chance to appear on television.

Older sister ruins younger sister's chance to appear on television.

Oh jeez, I'm not going to get this one.

It's a tough one.

Older sister ruins younger sister's chance.

To appear on television.

She ruins her chance. Why does she ruin her chance

to appear on television? You know what, I'm not going

to waste everybody's time.

What is it? Answers Hunger Games. It's just you wouldn't

think like when you think of it, you're thinking like

a pot like a you know, volunteer.

Okay, yeah, American invades foreign land and kills the local

female leader over sparkly shoes.

Oh, sparkly shoes. Wizard of Oz.

American invades foreign land and kills the local female leader

over sparkley shoes.

Is so sorry you got three out of four. That's great.

By the way, that is really cleverly written, very funny.

So I actually do not remember this this movie, so

you may not know this one. I think it's actually

pretty tough.

We save the hardest for last.

Okay, so even if you get this wrong, it's okay.

But last one is man grows potatoes.

Period. That's it.

Yeah, man, why would why would somebody say.

Man man grows potatoes? Man?

So his name's not man, so it must be mankind

grows potatoes.

Oh the Martian you do that? Yeah, that was the

main thing of the whole movie.

I don't know, man, I saw that movie and I

did this. I do not recall that part of it.

But wow, potatoes were the only thing that saved his life.

Okay, Wow, Okay, you got to look at that four

out of five. I told you he's great at this. Baby,

he's great with the movie stuff. So if you have

any you know, you see him around and ask him

about his favorite movie.

I'm sure I love you man Kind Grows Potatoes.

Yeah, that was. That was That's really cool.

That's right. Hey.

One thing we would love for you to do, if

you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and comment. Let us

know some thoughts about your favorite movie. Let us know

some thoughts about Chris's his awareness of you know, just

movie trivia, anything, just anything you want to share with us,

go ahead and do that on YouTube at this time.

But today we'll be reading in Romans five.

You want to just share some quick context for anybody

who was not caught up with us.

Chris.

Yeah, so we're walking through the Book of Acts and uh,

and chronologically we're breaking whenever Paul decides to write a

letter chronologically throughout his life. In this case, he's writing

to Rome, and he he's never been there. He's writing

through the church in Rome, and so because he's never

been there, he's hoping to go there on his way

to Spain, he's going to stop at Rome. That's his goal.

But he is introducing himself in the letter. He doesn't

you know, we've sort of been through all of that.

But what he's doing is he's laying down his theology.

He's laying down what he stands for, what he wants

the church to understand about their faith, because this is

one of the very few churches where he has not

started it it actually started. It's mostly Jewish, but it

has some Gentiles in there too.

Yeah, and so we're talking about joy, like we mentioned earlier,

and how to find that joy. So, starting in verse one,

we're reading from the NLT version says, Therefore, since we

have been made right in God's sight by faith, we

have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ, our Lord,

has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has

brought us into this place of underserved privilege where we

now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to

sharing God's glory. We can rejoice too when we run

into problems and trial, for we know that they help

us develop endurance, and endurance develops strength of character, and

character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope

will not lead to disappointment, for we know how dearly

God loves us, because He has given us the Holy

Spirit to fill our hearts with love. When we were

utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and

died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be

willing to die for an upright person, though someone might

perhaps be willing to die for a person who was

especially good. But God showed his great love for us

by sending Christ to die for us while we were

still sinners. And since we have been made right in

God's sight by the blood of Christ, we will certainly

save us. He will certainly save us from God's condemnation.

For since our friendship with God is restored by the

death of his son, while we were still his enemies,

we will certainly be saved through the life of His son.

So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship

with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us

friends of God. Now I love this because the verses

we're kind of covering this week actually like what something

we would refer to as like a Roman's road, kind.

Of walking through the steps of salvation.

It's kind of the gospel that it's the good news

of Jesus and we kind of cover one of those

verses in here, but we'll probably get to that in

a second. But what stands out to you from these verses, Chris, Well.

Yeah, I would just say, first of all, the chapter

starts with the word there for, and you know, everybody

who has been around Bible reading knows that when you

see the word therefore, you have to ask the question,

what is it there for? Right? And it's there because

it is connected to his previous thought, because after all,

Paul didn't have chapters and verses. We created those to

find you know, where we are in his letter. So

just remember that, like this sentence, this thought is directly

connected to the last one. So he's talking about you're

made righteous in God through faith, not by works, which

was yesterday's podcast. Even Abraham is the primary example. So

he says, therefore, since we've been made right by in

God by faith, we have peace with God because of

what Jesus has done for us and because of our faith.

And then he starts going on, well, here's what I

here's what I love is he basically talks about the

same thing that the Book of James talks about. You know, remember,

remember the Book of James Chapter one, where it says,

count it all joy when you fall into trials and temptations,

because faith, when it completes its work, it brings about,

you know, patience, and patience when it's completed, you know.

So Paul is talking.

About the same kind of concept, and he says, when

you have problems in trials, they develop endurance, and endurance

developed strength of character, and character in our brings our

confidence of hope of salvation. And then this hope will

not lead us to disappointment, but it gives us joy.

So I think that that's really an interesting stepping stone.

It is, you know, so trials and temptation, which.

Almost seems like an oxymoron, right, like like it's like, hey, suffering,

it's good, you know, right, we don't that way.

And it's the same thing that James passes. So let's

go all the way back to the fact that he's

really the subject of the matter is trials and.

In problems.

Problems in trials. Now, in this particular case, if you

followed Christ in the first century, you were under persecution.

The church was still under persecution, and so you know, Paul,

who was the chief persecutor, by the way, let's not

forget that, you know, he knows this more than anybody.

For those you know listeners who don't remember Acts Chapter

nine is when Paul was converted way back you know, jeez,

how many podcasts ago where he was actually a person

who was commissioned by the Sanhedrin and by Caiaphas himself,

who committed Jesus to death, and he was actually writing

letters and giving Paul permission to, you know, put the

same practices in the city of Damascus that he had

already put in place in Jerusalem by rounding up Christians.

And some people would even say killing Christians certainly, we know,

persecuting them, uh, you know in Rome to.

Like the type of the you know, the way they

were killing them was just gruesome.

Yes, yes, I mean the Colosseum, right, I've seen the

Colosseum in person. So anyway, bottom line is is, uh,

just understand the context in which these people are receiving it.

So we're talking about not the kind of trials and

persecutions that we have. We think of cos and persecutions

we think of first world problems.

Yeah, no, that's true. It's true.

When I read that, I was thinking that our view

in American twenty twenty three is so different than what

Paul was writing. People read this, this felt like like

a message of hope. Yeah, you know, because they're reading

their love. They can they can like they're there. They

understand the obstacles, they understand the challenges. I think we

read this, and you're right. First world problems are like,

you know, not enough people like my Facebook posts when

I or well the ones people share this prayer your

Facebook you know post you know, as far as far

as like like our actual faith.

Uh.

First problem, Yeah, I have too much dip from my chips. Yes,

and if I opened if more chips, I'll have too

much ships from a diplous.

Hey, here's a straw, suck it.

Up right, here's a bridge, just get over it. So hey,

so this you know what this reminds me of. So

let's just give our listeners a little bit of context.

You and I both have been to Cuba, yes, and

so you know, there's not too many places I think

that we've both been.

Uh you know and developed a witness stuff like that.

And developing countries. But Cuba you've been there as well.

And I got to tell you I actually went to

Cuba before the country opened. I actually went there under

religious visa where nobody was allowed. Americans were not allowed

in Cuba, and that's the first time we went. So

when we were planning on going in, we had to

pretty much lie, right, We had to lie, which you know,

you know, it is what it is, right.

People people think it's worth it.

People people lied all the time in scripture for God's glory, right,

and so pretending to be something they weren't, you know,

fooling people, the enemies kind of thing. So anyway, under

this oppress of government of Fidel Castro, we we we

we were there to do certain things. So anyway, we

went in there and I remember that we almost didn't

even get in the country. And then when we actually stayed,

we stayed at the Copo Cabana, you know, the.

Famous Yeah.

So, uh, there was a Copo Cabana in in uh

in the United States and that what's his name? Who

sang it? Oh, come on, Barry Manelone. So uh. Anyway,

but that was actually patterned after the Copa Cabana that

Americans experienced during the prohibition in Cuba. So this is

the original Copo Cabana. But anyway, this was a government

owned hotel, and the locals said, the reason why we're

putting you at this hotel is because when you get

through the country, when they ask you where are you staying,

if you say the Copa Cabana, they will feel relieved

like you're not here on some sort of a religious mission,

because the Copa Cabana is a well known, uh government

owned hotel that actually has it's bugged. So you know,

in America you can't bug somebody's hotel room.

No, right, you can't do that. Yeah, but the locals,

and I don't even.

Know if it's true because I actually looked for bugs,

actually was in my room and I was looking like,

is there a.

Camera, microphone, camera, a microphone? But I'm telling.

You that the locals just said absolutely, if you're in

the room, you cannot say the word Jesus. Wow, you

cannot say it. And so we got so comfortable after

five days that my buddy Seth and I were in

the room and we were doing interviews with Christians and

secret secretly and we were saying, oh, yeah, you know,

he was talking about Jesus. And all of a sudden,

Seth WOULDOK at me at these big eyes like changes changes.

Wow. Because and we did pass.

A room by the way where there was a bunch

of cameras. It was like three hundred cameras, and we

barely glanced in this room at the hotel, and the

thought are there cameras in the rooms? Like what are

these three hundred cameras? Anyway, bottom line is this, I'm

sharing this long story. When we were interviewing the Christians

in secret that we were we had the camera set

up in the middle of the street, and the locals

were telling me that people are paid to turn in Christians.

And so what happened was You're sitting there interviewing and

you're hearing somebody mention the word Jesus. And then this

little old lady who's like eighty years old, she's walking

by and she stops and she starts listening to the conversation.

And I'm just thinking she's a pastor, by sweet old lady.

And then they all look at each other and said, okay,

pack it up, we got to go.

Pack it up. We got to go. And I was like,

what are you talking about?

And they said, they're going to turn us in because

they get money, because everybody's poor in Cuba. They're going

to turn us in, they're going to get paid, and

they're going to come arrest us. So we packed it

up and had to run.

Well, I had a situation we were I was there

in twenty nineteen with our young adult ministry, some people

from there, and you know, they told us that they said, hey,

just you know, you have to be care like even volume,

be careful when you're like preaching. So myself and our

executive pastor where there were doing some train for the

local leaders in the area, the church leaders they had,

and it was kind of going through some purpose driven

church stuff. Anyways, they said to us, like, there was

a guy who was our translator who was very on edge,

and it was interesting. He was making me on edge.

We're talking and he's kind of pacing the room, he's

kind of walking around a circle, he's looking out the windows,

is whatever. And I'm very aware that this guy, I mean,

I have ADHD. Anyways, I think we're both kind of

the same way. So I see him kind of walking

around the room scoping things out. And finally we get

done with that little session, he's like, hey, He's like,

just you know, there may be a time very soon

where we have to quickly pack it up and move upstairs.

And so we ended up having to do that because

what he said is there was just government officials walking

around and then he just had us. So in the

next spot we go to, we moved to a different location,

same thing, there was a different like person. So it's

one of those things where you begin to realize that

we were going door to door and we're sharing our faith,

which is kind of what we were doing there is

we're going and sharing our story, God's story and how

it can impact their story. And just seeing like the

people there, this was new news to them, right and

brand new news, this hope that could be found in Jesus,

and they had face trials, like real trial.

It's like you, I mean, they're living not in great

look at you know what I'm saying.

They're growing up in a certain you know, political environment

that's not very advantageous. And I think that the hope

of Jesus was legitimately like life changing for a lot

of people that I had talked to and experienced. And

that's why even like there's a verse actually that's in

here that's like one of the famous verses of this

section here it says while we were still sinners, Christ

died for us.

And Paul puts that in there.

I feel like, strategically right after talking about trials and

suffering and he's like, hey, you're going to face these

trials and it's going to produce these things. But also

while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And

I just love that She's reminding that is where that unspeakable,

unshakable joy comes from, is remembering that one simple truth

that like, it wasn't before you got your stuff together.

It wasn't before you you know, made it all right,

before you got fixed up and cleaned up. No, it's

while you were still sinners. Christ is willing to go

and die for you. I just love that.

I like how Paul said Christ died at the right

time for sinners, and he said most people will be

would would not be willing to die for an unjust person,

although someone might be able to die for a person

who's especially good.

So if you think about it, like, yeah, would you

die for your wife, would you die for your kids?

Right, But then if you're going to die for you know,

you're going to jump in front of the bus for

your wife or your kids, But you're going to jump

in front of the bus for somebody who is you know,

think of like the lowest. Uh, you know, the existence

of a life like that guy is just a scuzz

you know, whatever what he's done, who he is, he'll

never change, you know, the world'll be better without him.

That kind of thing, right, And who would jump in

front of the bus and push him out of the

way and give their own own life. That's sort of

the thought of what Paul's saying. Paul saying, Hey, someone

might die for an upright person, but nobody dies for

somebody who's unrighteous, somebody who would you know who is? Uh,

you know, the sinners and so and so think about that,

the idea that Jesus died for us. So we always

think about sin, and uh, you know, you and I

can breathe easy because we know that we are under

God's grace. We know that Jesus paid for our sins,

that penalty is gone.

That kind of thing.

But once again, it's like what we talked about in

the three days ago, where we talked about the fact

that just because we have grace, it doesn't make sin

less serious. So the seriousness of our sin put Jesus

on the cross, the fact that he had to go

through it. You know, think about Good Friday, think about

the agonizing prayer that he's praying. You know, he's saying, Father,

if there's any other way, let this cup pass from me.

And by the way, that was referring to when you

sit around the fire and everybody passes a cup, and

what you do is you basically share the wine and

you pour a cup, and then you pass it around

and you drink of somebody's cup. It'd be just like

me saying to you, come to my house for dinner,

share of the bread, of the loaf of bread, share

of my cup, and and I hand you my cup.

And so a lot of times, if you're sitting in

the circle, you either partake of the cup or you

let the cup pass. He said, no, thank you, I'm

not partaking. I'm letting it pass. That was that was

what it meant to break bread together. And so what

Jesus was saying is let this cup pass from me.

I do not want to partake. I do not want

you know, I do not want to receive what is

given to me.

That's what that means. Yeah, and so Jesus prayed that

he prayed.

You know, I don't want this to happen.

Now.

The only reason why God, who you know, had all

his Jesus powers, he's a hundred percent God, but he

was one hundred percent man as well. The only reason

why he would pray that is because it was the

most excruciating, painful, awful thing. And Jesus became our sin

spiritually and he died physically. Yes, right, And so.

That's that's what Paul is saying.

All of that is wrapped up in because remember this

had only happened several years ago. Paul wrote the Book

of Romans in fifty seven AD. So Jesus dies somewhere

around you know, thirty three twenty nine later, Yeah, twenty

nine AD to thirty three a d right, So here

here it is twenty years later. People remember, they know

the stories. They still see people crucified. Yep, they see

the brutality. I just thought of this, but Romans see

the brutality more than anybody else, right, so they know

the brutality of this reference.

Yes, it's interesting.

I want to share too, just as an encouragement to

our listeners today. Maybe you know you're feeling like you know,

when it come to sharing your faith, we have people

out there who are sharing their faith currently and maybe

you feel some trials and tribulations with that. You feel struggles,

You feel like maybe your coworkers think you know your

your stories, you know your faith in Jesus is a joke.

Maybe you think your family nobody gets you. You feel

like you're all alone, you're facing that Trouch tribute. I

just want to encourage you today, wherever you're at on

your journey, to read and to really soak in the

words that Paul has to say, as somebody who's writing

to the people in Rome, and he's writing to this church,

and he's reminding them that as they share their faith,

as are being pierce persecuted, as they become these martyrs,

to in that hope that can be found in Jesus,

that while we're still sinners, Christ died for us. And

so again just want to encourage you. You know, if

you are somebody who's sharing your faith, there's somebody you

feel like you're on the outsides, that there's a God

who's walking alongside you can put our hope in that today.

That's a great word.

I think that's probably a good place to end, And

I would just say, it's a privilege to share your faith.

It's a privilege to identify yourself with Christ. Just think

about the privilege that we have in America that other people,

like people in Cuba don't have. Yes, uh and and

it's and it's easy to be able to say, hey,

you know you want another reason why I behave different,

Why I act different, Why I'm able to, you know,

not get mad like you get mad. The reason why

I forgive my boss when you have.

A hard time forgiving.

Why I'm not vindictive, why don't talk back the way

that some people do. Is because I'm a Christian. Yes,

because I know Christ. And hopefully you live a life

the where you can qualify that.

Yeah, just being bold, Yeah yeah, yeah, because we have to.

We have to, you know, let God change our lives.

And hopefully people will ask you and you'll be able

to say with absolute confidence because it is a privilege.

So that's where That's a good place to end.

And we will see you tomorrow hopefully on the Bible guys.

Mhm m m m