Transcription

Connor
You’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Jeff
All right, Chris, this better be.

Chris
Greetings and salutations.

Jeff
That’s been almost every day this week. It’s very.

Chris
Sophisticated. I only did it once, and then we. That was the one we didn’t record.

Jeff
Oh that’s right, that’s right. We had to delete one didn’t it.

Chris
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Jeff
So that one had to go.

Chris
To greetings and salutations.

Jeff
That is fantastic. So our roll in said in fun and practical ways. So yeah, it better be fun and it better be practical today. Yeah. That’s it.

Chris
That’s the promise.

Jeff
So he’s Chris and I’m Jeff and we’re the Bible guys. That’s what they tell us.

Chris
That’s right. So today’s segment we’re going to do this Friday segment.

Jeff
So here we go. It’s the Friday segment. And so I’m going to give you a choice. Do you want it to be what made Chris happy this week or what made Chris mad this week. It’s up to you. You get to choose.

Chris
Well I already have one for Chris mad, so I might as well.

Jeff
You often say that you never get asked, so I thought once you already made up your mind, what made you mad? I thought that.

Chris
Was very kind of you too. Yeah. I am happy a lot.

Jeff
You are. You’re a happy.

Chris
Person.

Jeff
Yes, except when you’re mad.

Chris
But. But I am always angry for the world.

Jeff
That’s right, that’s right. So it’s part of the cross you.

Chris
Bear, right? It is. It’s the cross I bear.

Jeff
So you just carry anger and hostility for the rest of the planet.

Chris
So I have a half. I have a small group, okay. And it’s really a medium sized group. We have 17. Oh, wow. 18 to 29 year olds that meet in my house for a Bible study for for a Bible study every Wednesday night. And, and actually, most of them are like 18 to 24 ish. So anyway, the point is, is that I sort of feel like a student pastor again. Remember, remember when your student pastors. Yeah, I did college ministry for a long time, you know? Wow. So it’s extremely refreshing for us. But one of the things that I, that I encourage them with, I told them this story, what made me mad. And I said, I said, listen. I said, not everybody, but your generation specifically has a tendency. It’s it’s more of a challenge to look strangers in the eye at Kroger and be like, hey, how are you doing? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Whereas you and I just grew up with that. Right? Right, right. There were no screens, right? Right. And so, you know, at least not of any consequence. So so, you know, you can you could interact with people. So relational things. But but they have a tendency it’s just more difficult. And they all agreed that to.

Jeff
Not make eye contact and not address a stranger face to face.

Chris
So so what happened was we had this really big meeting, the pitch meeting that we had. I went in for like three big Starbucks carafes coffees, you know, those big boxes of coffee and, and she says, oh, it’s going to take 20 minutes. And I’m like, okay. And anyway, there’s a long story. But basically she she did everything as I was shopping. She did everything before my order. And she it was like 35 minutes or something. So like she just did not respect the fact that I was there first. Right, right, right. And so she just did it anyway. That’s beside the point. So I come back to grab the coffee. I’m going to load in the car. She’d already set one that’s completed and she was at the other two. Now keep in mind I only ordered three carafes of coffee. Right, right. That’s all I ordered.

Jeff
And it was just regular coffee.

Chris
It was just regular coffee. Nothing special, nothing special. 35 minutes later. Wow. And so as I’m grabbing this, I say to her, hey, I’m going out to the car because I’d already shopped for donuts, and I said, I’m going out in the car. Can I take this while you’re filling the other two? So she runs over and throws the other one without saying a word to me, as if like saying, take these two. So I’m like, okay, whatever. Then I took the two, went out to the car, realized one wasn’t full at all, and I opened, opened them both, realized that one was full and one was literally a third full. The one that she had brought me was wrong, a third full. Who does that? I don’t know, but I didn’t say anything. So I walked back in and I go, hey, I was so polite. I go, hey, I have a question. I go, this one seems a lot lighter. And so without even saying oh my bad, or gee, sorry that I tried to Gyp you out of three quarts of coffee. You know, she didn’t say anything. She walked over and she was super like she was in a bad mood. She was just, like, not looking at or talking, right? So she just walks over, grabs it, comes back and starts refilling it without saying a single thing. Well, then she gets done with all three of them and then sets them and she walks over. Now, granted, there’s no more customers. No. Everybody’s gone. She walks over, sets them right in front of me. Doesn’t even look me in the eye, and then just stares off in space. She’s like 22 years old. Didn’t even look me in the eye. Chris
No. Like. My bad. Sorry it took so long. Have a nice day. Thanks. And listen, normally I don’t do this right. But I was mad, okay? And I’m serious. I’m not even kidding. Like, I know, I’m. I know I’m brazen, but I do not do this. Right? Right. I looked at her, and I go, I go, I go. Thank you. And then she just glanced at me and glanced away. Didn’t even say anything. And then I go, thank you. Yeah. And then she goes, oh, you’re welcome. And I go, there you go. Yeah. Which is so obnoxious, right? It is. It is so obnoxious. And then she was like, but she was taken back and she was like, she goes, oh, like like it actually like got through. I go, I go, there you go. And then I walked out because I was so frustrated. I mean like 35 minutes, right. No apology. Right. Try to rip me off with by accident or whatever. Yeah. And then didn’t engage. Come on man. Right. And so anyway, all that to say, I blame phones.

Jeff
Wow. Yeah, yeah. She was just in another world, going through the motions and not paying attention to the fact that she was serving a customer and like that.

Chris
But she somehow must not have learned the value.

Jeff
Did you see her name on her name tag? Should we go public with this? Where were you at exactly? What was her name?

Chris
I was at Kroger. No. No 18. No no no.

Jeff
No no no no.

Chris
But but it was the Starbucks in Kroger. Yeah, but but I’ll tell you, I just think that there’s a value there. Yeah. That was missing in her entire life. I have to imagine that, that this value isn’t instilled in her. She she’s missing this value. Right? Right, right. Which, by the way, is part of the greatest commandment that God could ever give.

Jeff
Love. God. Love people. Yeah.

Chris
How about love people? Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Jeff
Yeah. But we do. We’ve we’ve trained ourselves a lot of times to not look people in the eye to not engage. Yeah. So the thing that made made Chris mad this week was, was self-centered servers.

Chris
Yeah. She was she.

Jeff
Was looking off into never never land.

Chris
Was flooded.

Jeff
Something was going on up there. Just had nothing to do with, you.

Chris
Know, it looked like she was blank.

Jeff
It had nothing to do with you.

Chris
She was not, like, consumed with any thought. Okay. If anything, she was waiting for the time to pass. She just. I felt flooded with this, this, this thing that like, wow. Like. And that’s when you’re old, right? When you. When you start judging the next generation. Yeah. Everybody’s old when they start doing that. But I actually thought to myself, I could I’m old enough now. I could actually see it happening. Like I could actually see a generation that lacks the value of basic like basic humanity values.

Jeff
Yeah. I think it’s important for us to, to be conscious because, I mean, we all have the digital distractions and stuff too. It’s it’s very important for us to be conscious and to be present. Right. Sometimes I’ll tease our, our leadership team or whatever will be in a meeting and everybody’s texting or answering phones or whatever. And and I try personally that’s an issue for me. And so I try to put my phone down. I’ll often turn my phone off when I have a series of meetings in my office so that, hey, these, these things have turned into digital leashes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that everybody except the person in the room gets to yank your leash. Right. So one of the most respectful things I think we can do is to turn the leash off for everybody else and take time with the person in the room. Right. I agree and and but the other part of it is we get so distracted with all the other things, and we’re not engaging with the human in front of us. And then we wonder why we’re so lonely, right? Right. We need to engage. Human engagement is so important. That whole I don’t I don’t think it’s a spiritual gift, but I do think it’s an intentionality to be present where you are. Yeah. And it makes life more enjoyable, by the way, because the surprises, the human surprises happen there. Yeah.

Chris
We better jump into the scriptures because we can go on all day about that.

Jeff
Speaking engaged in in the present. Right, right right, right. So, Chris, thank you for being angry for us on behalf of all the rest of us. Yeah, you’re welcome on.

Chris
That issue, Jeff. It’s my pleasure. Thank you.

Jeff
We’re starting to think it is.

Chris
It’s not it’s.

Jeff
Not. Okay. Good. Here we go. So Jesus predicts his death a second time. So, you know, the disciples kind of are slow sometimes to understand what it is he’s talking about. So he repeats himself often. So it says in Matthew chapter 17, after they gathered again in Galilee, Jesus told them, The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He’ll be killed. But on the third day he will be raised from the dead. And the disciples were filled with grief. Remember before Peter steps up and goes, no, Lord, we’re not going to let it happen, right? And he says, get behind me, Satan. So they all learn we’re not going to talk about it. We’re just going to grieve over it. Right? Right. Then in Mark chapter nine, it says, leaving that region, they traveled through Galilee, and Jesus didn’t want anyone to know he was there, for he wanted to spend more time with his disciples and teach them. He said to them, The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He’ll be killed three days later. He’ll rise from the dead. They didn’t understand what he was saying, however, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant. Remember? And then in verse. Luke chapter nine says, while everyone was traveling or was marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to the disciples, listen to me. Remember what I say, the Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies, but they didn’t know what he meant. Its significance was hidden from them, so they couldn’t understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about it. And then it says in Matthew chapter 17, totally different topic, but this is also part of our reading today. Jeff
It says on their arrival in Capernaum, remember, they’ve been traveling through Galilee. On their arrival in Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and asked him, doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax? Yes, he does, replied Peter. And then he went into the house. But before he had a chance to speak, Jesus asked him, what do you think, Peter? Do do kings tax their own people or the people they’ve conquered? They tax the people they’ve conquered? People replied, well then Jesus said, the citizens are free. However, we don’t want to offend them. So go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch and you’ll find a large silver coin. Take it and pay the tax for both of us.

Chris
Yeah. Which is amazing. Yeah that’s great. So let’s in.

Jeff
And I’ve referenced.

Chris
That in typical fashion. Yes. Yeah. In typical fashion let’s there’s two stories here. Yeah. So let’s, let’s, let’s bank on the first three gospels stories about his death. Yeah. Yeah. First. And then we’ll get to the coin thing later. So by the way, we mentioned this just two days ago, but it seems a little weird for us to read at face value why his disciples were confused when it when it is written so plainly, so plainly. Right. Hey, I’m going to die, right? And then the Son of Man, which is what I called myself for three and a half years with you, is going to be raised again in three days, right? And they’re like, I wonder what he means by that. Yeah. But keep in mind that he often spoke in metaphors and symbolism, and he would say things like the yeast of the Pharisees and they’re like, I don’t get what you’re saying. And he says, how could you not understand what I mean by the yeast of the Pharisees? Right? Or, you know, how could you not know that the thorns represent, you know, the cares of this world and all these different things? So he often metaphorically, you know, spoke in these ways. And so it sounds very reasonable to me that they would say, like, I wonder what he means by that. Like, does he really? And they probably contemplated the literal sense. Yeah. Like, like, did he really mean he was going to die? Right, right.

Jeff
And these, these guys, probably because they had not been chosen by other rabbis, which was usually the goal of most Jewish parents. Right? Was to have their sons go up through the temple school or the synagogue school, and they get chosen by a rabbi. That’d be like elite level. Oh, my kid gets to go to Harvard kind of idea, right? Right, right.

Chris
Which, by the way, side note, which is why that was so significant when Jesus said, follow me, right, right, right.

Jeff
Because he chose them when they hadn’t, they’d been passed over by everybody else. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that may also be a slight indication that these guys weren’t the significant reasoners and thinkers.

Chris
They weren’t in the top of their class.

Jeff
Right? They weren’t at the top of their class on this one. And so Jesus would have to highlight for them again or be a little bit more specific with them. And for me, that’s not looking down on the apostles. That gives me hope for me. Right, right, right. That he uses just normal guys, right? These are normal people. These are not the top of the class kids. These aren’t the elites. These are everyday, normal guys.

Chris
And most, most of most of the people in the Bible are pretty normal, right?

Jeff
And I mean, you’ve got kings and you have Solomon and you have some of them, but you’ve got, yeah, flawed people. And God uses these guys. Now, he does extract Paul from out of his own time and uses Paul. So he does choose elite leaders and elite thinkers too.

Chris
David was pretty elite. Yeah, yeah, Paul was elite.

Jeff
Daniel was elite. Joseph was elite. Yep. So there are some Moses was elite. There were some elite people.

Chris
Well, Moses even said, I’m not a communicator. I’m not smart.

Jeff
He was incredibly humble, but he grew up in Pharaoh’s home.

Chris
That’s true.

Jeff
So he was highly educated. Yeah, that’s true. And very capably trained. Yeah.

Chris
You’re right, you’re right.

Jeff
So, you know, he’s he’s one of those guys who has all the privilege. And he goes, I don’t have any privilege.

Chris
Right, right, right right right right.

Jeff
So, so if you and I went knocking on Pharaoh’s door, we wouldn’t have gotten in. Right? And he just walked in, right? He said, oh, hey, God’s sending some judgment. So yeah, he had some elite there. God does choose elite people, so he uses everybody. But one of the things I think is fabulous is that these 12 disciples, they’re blue collar everyday guys. So business guys, you know, Matthew, but you got fishermen, you’ve got political zealots, you’ve got these these, you know, run of the mill salt of the earth guys. And so sometimes I think that’s part of the reason why they didn’t always understand Jesus is talking like a rabbi would talk. Right. And they’re thinking like fishermen would think, yeah.

Chris
Maybe I don’t know the scriptures as well as I thought, yeah.

Jeff
Would you connect those two things to me? I think that that’s what’s really important for Bible teachers. The most important thing is not to amaze people with the words you say. The most important thing is that they understand what you said.

Chris
Do you ever do you ever have somebody think about your olden days? Even when they prayed out loud, they just pontificated yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. You know.

Jeff
And they’re talking like they’re, you know, quoting, quoting Shakespeare while they’re praying.

Chris
Yeah yeah yeah, yeah.

Chris
And, and and that was anyway I don’t want to the segment of what made Chris mad is over.

Jeff
So but he is telling them I’m going to die. This is the first time he tells them he’s going to be betrayed. Yeah, right. So that could have been confusing because he’s mentioned before he’s going to die, but now he’s going to be betrayed. This is starting to sound pretty bad, right? And part of their confusion might have been, what about us? Sure. If if Jesus can get killed, what about us? Because he’s only saying he’s rising from the dead. He doesn’t say we will rise from the dead, right?

Chris
Right.

Chris
So just let you know we’re all in trouble. But I have Jesus powers.

Jeff
Right? So. So it could have just been that. And they were afraid to ask.

Chris
It’s really funny, right?

Jeff
So then we’ll move on. So the coin in the fish’s mouth, you know. Sure.

Chris
Yeah. Now, now. So you went on the Sea of Galilee when you were there just a few months back. And now did you go to the restaurant? Peter’s restaurant. Right.

Jeff
Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah, yeah.

Chris
Did they serve you fish? Fish? Yeah. And they put the coin in the mouth.

Jeff
No, we didn’t have coin in the mouth.

Chris
Okay, okay. So when we were there, you know, back in 2009, we went and had the big whole fish and then they and they put it in front of us, and they put a coin, like a plastic coin in the mouth of the fish, which was just super clever. Super funny. Right? Yeah. But yeah, just the idea of, you know, that this happens is just pretty incredible. And there’s a lot of little sermons in here, right? Yeah, absolutely. So the first one is you had mentioned about the age of Peter, right. Why don’t you talk about that?

Jeff
So the typical expectation was that Jewish males would have to pay a temple tax every year. They had all kinds of taxes. Right. But there was a temple tax. And normally that tax would be for people over 20 and so men over 20. So the idea that Jesus went and had him, it was a one drachma tax. So Jesus sends him to go catch a fish and he gets a two drachma coin. And that was enough to pay the taxes for him and Peter. But it doesn’t. It literally says it paid the tax for both of us.

Chris
Right. And he was talking to Peter.

Jeff
Yeah. But earlier it says they all arrived in Capernaum. Right? Right. And at the end, it’s just only there’s only two of us that pay taxes. So it appears that the rest of the disciples didn’t need to pay tax, which means they were young. These guys are probably under 20, so we’re guessing at that. It might have only been that the other disciples went on to, you know, stop off at Starbucks before they came over to Peter’s house. And it was only Peter and Jesus together when the tax was being collected. It could have been that right. But the other side of it is, we do know that John was a teenager and a young teenager at that, and very likely the rest were very young men. The only other one that would be of question maybe, would be Matthew, unless he was working in his father’s tax. If he was a like a a tax collector apprentice. Right, right. It could have been something like that. But so that one, it would be the one reason why you might think that the other disciples weren’t with.

Jeff
Jesus and the.

Chris
Political zealots. That shows a little bit of.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah, but young men tend to be zealots.

Chris
That’s true. That’s right, that’s true. Yeah.

Jeff
And then you have to remember, they didn’t live long either. So by the time you’re 20, you’re you’re a good, good way to halfway through your life. Right, right. Maybe at least a third of the way through your life. And so, you know, they would start earlier. They would, you know, in business and in the real world. But oftentimes you weren’t a real adult until you were 30. You were taxable at 20. You weren’t a real adult until you were 30. And a lot of their minds, so who knows. But that might be an indication that most of Jesus followers were very young men. And so we shouldn’t overlook the next generation, you know? So on one end, we kind of, you know, we’re getting old enough to go that those young people. Right? You’re just.

Chris
Starbucks. Starbucks. Yeah, girl.

Jeff
But on the other side, it’s important for us to remember that even Jesus is only 30 something here, and the rest of his followers, except for Peter, are much younger than him. Right? And so, you know, we have to really believe that Jesus believes in the next generation. We need to too.

Chris
Yeah. That’s great. And then the miracle itself. Let’s talk about the miracle itself. Yeah. How cool. So so Peter, again, we have to keep in mind expert fishermen. Right. The odds are like gazillion to one, right? Right, right. He’s like he’s like, I need to play the odds here. I need to go to I need to go to the I was going to say Las Vegas and play play the play a lotto ticket or something. Right. But what was the town? That was the city of Philippi. Caesarea. Philippi? Yeah. I need to go to Caesarea Philippi and show my luck here, because I just happened to throw the line in, and the first one I caught was the one that Jesus told me to catch. Right? Yep. So I just think that that’s pretty amazing. And then, you know, for God to do that is also sort of a, um, uh, indicator that he’s going to be involved in our lives. Think about it. So the fishing experience was because God could have done anything he could have. God could have said, there’s a coin behind your ear, Peter. Right. You could do anything. Right? But what does he do? He makes Peter go fishing. And Peter’s probably thinking, why is he having me go?

Jeff
Do what you.

Chris
Know, Peter, go.

Chris
Do what you know. Right.

Jeff
And I’ll bless that.

Chris
And so think about this. So God chose to do this miracle in a way that seemed quite unnecessary. But he entered into Peter’s world, and it’s almost as if what God is saying, how I read it, is this I can do amazing things in your world. I know more things about your life and the nuances of your life. And I could do miraculous things even when you would think it’s impossible. I could enter into your profession. I could enter into your family, your history, your legacy, your tendencies, your addictions. And I could do great things right where you are. And I could still amaze you if you just trust me. Yeah. And that’s what it seems like to me. Like Jesus went out of his way to create something miraculous in the world that. A Peter new to perhaps send a message to Peter that I could still amaze you.

Jeff
Jesus isn’t worried.

Jeff
About financial trouble. So here’s a guy who says, I don’t even have a pillow to lay my head on. I don’t have a home to live in. But he’s not worried about it. And so he’s inviting these guys into this very spiritual thing, walking with the Messiah. But then when it comes to the practical things of life, he’s not frustrated with them. He said, go do what you know to do, right? And oh, by the way, God will step in to what you’d normally do, and he’ll do the supernatural and provide. But I think there’s another element. We’ll close with this. Jesus had called Peter to leave fishing and said, come with me. I’ll make you a fisher of men. But when we’re doing what God says to do, the coin will be in the fish’s mouth, right? And so God provided for him in the very thing he was choosing to do. I’m going to train you. There’s a whole other level of this fishing thing, but you do have this skill set. I’m going to use that skill set to provide for you while you’re following me, while you’re becoming a fisher of men. The coin will be in the fish’s mouth, and God will always provide. As you’re going forward with him, he’ll provide in ways that often most never will you ever really understand, but he’s not going to do it, I don’t think, in some weird, obscure way where suddenly you’re just going to stumble and trip over a bag of money out in the field. You’re going to have to go do the thing you know to do, and then God will just quickly. They didn’t have time to wait for three days of fishing, right? So he just goes out and poof, there’s the there’s the fish ready? Jeff
Yeah.

Chris
Yeah.

Chris
So I love that. And there’s also another sermon in here where it’s just sort of like, you want to know how valuable money is to me. Jesus says yeah. Like pulling it out of his pocket would mean like, oh, does he, does he have some cash stored? Is he making cash as a minister? He’s like, no, no, no, no no. This money here, it’s it’s like the pebble in the bottom of the sea, right. Yeah. And so yeah, I just think that there’s something to, you know, what.

Jeff
Else fish ever watch fish swimming around in a in a fish tank? Yes. And when one fish goes to the bathroom, the other fish comes and grabs it.

Chris
Yes. Right.

Jeff
That’s in his mouth. Well, to Jesus, that’s how he thinks of coins.

Jeff
So it’s just.

Jeff
It’s just it’s the kind of. Dirt and crap that fish just grab.

Jeff
Yeah, that’s of interest to me.

Jeff
That’s of interest to you brainless fish. Just grab it.

Chris
Yeah.

Jeff
And that’s what’s in his mouth at the time.

Jeff
That’s how Jesus is viewing. Viewing the importance.

Jeff
Of this tax.

Chris
There’s all kinds of sermons in.

Chris
There, right? Yeah.

Chris
Yeah, that’s pretty creative. All right, well, listen, that’s that’s about our time. So we will see you hopefully next time on The Bible Guys.