Bible Guys Classics: Luke 23:32-49

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways. Hey, everybody. Happy Thursday. Happy Thursday. Sure. Why not? We're so excited. We can hardly stand it. Make this day the best Thursday ever. Okay. And by the way, it could be the end of the day. Yeah, I think Thursday doesn't get very good attention. Right. I mean, there's Monday. Everybody hates Mondays. Yeah, yeah. Wednesday's hump day, you're like, hey, we're over the hump now. We're halfway to the good part of the week. Yeah, Fridays are- Fridays are, thank God, it's Friday. Weekends are great. Weekends are amazing. So really, Tuesday and Thursday are the redheaded stepchilds of the week. We get forgotten. So hey, it's time for us to give honor to whom honor is due. Thursday's been standing there for us all this time. If it weren't for Thursday, we wouldn't have anything to do between Wednesday and Friday. Aw, little buddy Thursdays. All right. All right. Well, hey, today we are, before we jump into what is titled as the hardest prayer. The hardest prayer. How about that? Okay. We have a segment, and this is Stump the Pastor. Oh, cool. And Stump the Pastor is actually something that we actually collect questions. We enjoy them, and we encourage you to email us right now. So go to info, actually send an email to info at thebibleguys.com. Yeah. It'll get to us. Or just comment on YouTube. And we'll try to grab your question right there. I love questions like this. I love like just open forum Q & A kind of stuff. Do you enjoy that? Yes. Well, it shows that people are thinking. Yeah. And it shows that people care. And they're like, hey, I have a question about the Bible and I really want to know this answer. Yeah. Several times, a couple times a year, usually I'll meet with our high schoolers and just take an hour or two and say, hey, it's just any question you want to ask. And it's amazing how they'll stay sometimes for hours and hours just asking questions. So I'll tell them, I'll stay as long as your parents will let you stay. And so then they start, then all of a sudden mom and dad are all standing around. We got the crowd of people standing around just asking Bible questions. Done it a few times with our young adults. We got a hundred and something young adults in our church and we do the same thing there. We got a fly flying around us. And so do the same thing with our interns and residents will do it. I just, I love it when people are using their minds. They've come across the thing. They're not sure what the answer is. And instead of just giving up, Like I think a lot of people have grown up with a religious view or belief of don't ask questions. It offends God. Right. Right. Instead, I love it. The book of Jeremiah says, come now, let's reason together, says the Lord. God wants us to use our minds. God invented your mind. That's right. He did. Right. And he knows that you have this ability to have big questions and he's not offended when we have questions. So I love it. I love this segment. And so what's our question today? By the way, I recently learned. that Chad is more reluctant to let me do a public Q & A than you. Our executive pastor? Our executive pastor. Our executive pastor is very protective. Do you know why? Because he's— Because you go rogue? Well, he's not afraid of my theology of the answer. Right. He's afraid of my diplomacy. Oh. Or lack of it. Yeah. Right? So he's like— and I'm not even sure afraid is the word. He's just a little bit more cautious. Cautious. More cautious. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, we don't really know if Chris is going to be as diplomatic as Jeff. Oh, you would do fine. You would do fine. Because we all know that you're diplomatic. Well, it's definitely clear that you're way more diplomatic than me. At times. At times. Okay. Publicly. I can also be a bigger jerk than you. At times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So my lows are lower and my highs are higher. What? My lows are low and my eyes are harder. Yeah, yeah. That's pretty good. All right. Yeah. So this question is written by Bill T. Bill. Bill T. Yes. Hey, Bill. Yes. Not Bill T, but Bill T. Bill T. Okay. So he writes this. Is there a distinction in the Bible between justifiable and unjustifiable anger? Can Christians express anger in a righteous way, as Jesus did in the temple, or should all anger be avoided entirely? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm afraid to answer this question. I want Bill to be mad at me. I see what you did there. So, yeah, I mean, like, so I remember a sermon, you know, some sermons you remember forever, right? I don't know if you do. I do. But I remember a sermon that Bill Hybels gave at a leadership summit back in like 2006. And so we were actually at the leadership summit and he actually talked about righteous indignation. And he talked about how Jesus had righteous indignation and how he flipped over the money changers tables at the temple. So, and by the way, because- He made a whip. Yeah, because that's correct. Yes, he did. Because that's been mentioned twice, we might as well at least explain that. Sure. So Jesus actually in the Bible got angry and he got angry at the fact that He actually said, you have made my house into a den of thieves. Right. And he was referring to people who were abusing what? It was like selling sacrifices and making a profit, an unreasonable profit. Oh, yeah. It was exorbitant. They had kind of a monopoly on the... If you were traveling hundreds and hundreds of miles to the temple, normally you wouldn't bring your sacrifice. You would take that perfect sacrificial animal. You would sell it. Bring the money to Jerusalem and buy another animal that you could do rather than trying to bring it the whole way. Right. Well, what was happening was the money changers and then the people running businesses at the temple, they were, you know, five, six, 10, 20 times more expensive than what you could have gotten in your village for the same animal. And it's because they had a monopoly on it. They were abusing people just to make money. Right. And it really made Jesus mad. So he makes a whip, he flips over the tables and sets all the animals free and spills all their money everywhere and really chews them out. Yeah. Well, I mean, Jesus with a whip is not a common painting. Yeah. Usually it's like a sad Jesus with long hair and blue eyes looking up into the stars. Who's Caucasian. Yeah, yeah, the stars. And he's holding a lamb and hugging a child. Right, right, right. You don't usually think of Jesus with his sleeves rolled up, whipping people, flipping tables. Yeah, and not only that, but like he was a strong man. Yeah, yeah. He was a carpenter. Right, that's right. And so he was a specimen. I mean, we know that just from the physical, you know, brutality of even, you know, what he endured and he endured it. Right. So. So, yeah. So, I mean, this the picture would be a strong, muscular man. Right. Angry with a whip flipping over tables. And so I almost wonder, because, again, everything to me is Hollywood, not for the sake of Hollywood, by the way, for the sake of reality. Right. Right. So Hollywood, meaning when I say Hollywood, I mean like. I can picture the whole entire scene right now. That's what I mean. Right. But I don't mean Hollywood fake or Hollywood dramatization. I don't mean any of those terms when I say Hollywood. What I mean is. You can see a movie of this event. I can see this being played out. And so oftentimes when I Hollywoodize a narrative, I will try to suppose or wonder and think to myself, like, did somebody try to oppose him? Like it doesn't say so, right? No, not at all. It does not say that somebody came up to him and he pushed them out of the way or three men were thinking about charging him and then he held up the whip and looked at them and they knew he was serious and so they backed off, right? But I'm sure those things happen, right? Because guess what? You don't come into a place and destroy people's profitability and their livelihood without opposition. Right. You just don't, right? I'm sure they caught him by surprise. And I'm sure that everybody knew who Jesus was. Right. I mean, they certainly knew who he was. So there might have been a fear of like, I don't know what to do right now. Just get out of here. I don't know. I'm a nobody. I'm a guy who's making a profit off animal sacrifices. And here's that. And I know who that is. That's Jesus. And so I don't know what to do right now. But those are the kind of things when I say a Hollywood, I think to myself, like, how did that play out? Yeah. Because certainly people had to have a reaction. To Jesus. Anyway. Right. Well, in Ephesians 4, 26. Is it 26? Ephesians 4 something. Let me find it. Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4. I know Ephesians 4, 32. I know Ephesians 4, 20. Oh, yeah. There you go. 4, 26. And don't let sin. And don't sin by letting anger control you. Right. Don't let the sun go down while you're still angry. For anger gives a foothold to the devil. Another translation says, be angry and sin not. And then don't let the sun go down on your anger. And your anger does not sin. So anger isn't the sin. Right, right. Anger is just an emotion. Where it becomes sinful is when it's self-centered. I'm angry at you because you offended me. If you just let that fester, that's why he says, don't let the sun go down on your anger. You let that fester, it's going to turn into bitterness. This bitterness gives a foothold to the devil. So you talked about righteous indignation. Man, if somebody was coming through the door to hurt my wife and my daughter in the middle of the night. That's correct. Believe me, they're going to get the full force of Jeff. Right? And the anger then is driven by the threat to what I love so dearly. So first of all, I have to really make sure I love the right things. It's not just me. It's not just my happiness and my comfort. But I love my wife. I love my daughter. I love my freedom. I love, right? There's a lot of those things. And so because of that major threats to those things, it's not a sinful thing to have that anger feeling, that rush come into you saying, I need to defend this. The Bible talks multiple times that it's the responsibility of the strong to protect the weak. to speak up for those who don't have a voice, to protect those who can't protect themselves, right? So Jesus talks about at one point, you know, the kingdom he's putting violent men will have to seize it, right? And he's not talking about like violence, like you and I think of blood and gore, but by men that just stand up in their strength and grab a hold of this thing. So I'm always cautious when people start to ask, is it sometimes okay for me to be angry? Because on occasion, I'm not saying Bill T is this guy, but on occasion, it's people who have trouble with their anger and they're trying to justify it and win an argument with their spouse later. Right. Right. Or if they're an angry person in general, they may be generally concerned about their demeanor. If you are having trustworthy people, spouses, children, friends saying, boy, you seem like you're pretty angry lately. Then maybe you're starting to cross the line between being angry and sinning not. Right. You need to get back to that don't sin. So let your anger drive you to do something good. So right now, for instance, one of the ministries you're really focusing a lot on lately has been child trafficking. Right. Right? So how does that make you feel? You drive through those neighborhoods and you know what's happening. In Dominican Republic, their parents are selling their own children. I'll actually make a statement. When I went on a tour and I actually saw, I saw it with my eyes. I saw it. I saw the child. I saw what was happening and the men protecting it. And I saw a person go up and inquire about it. I have never felt more anger in my entire life, in my whole life. And I've gotten angry about a lot of things, but I've never felt more anger than that. So God is not calling you to be Batman, become some vigilante, come swooping in, kick the doors down necessarily. But that anger has driven you to start helping build a system to rescue those kids, raise the money through Transform One and actively begin working towards a good solution. And that may not be repaying evil with evil, right? It's repaying evil with good. And so how do you go solve that? Which by the way, since you already mentioned it, I wasn't going to say it, but by the time this goes on the air, we will be two weeks out from our 5k. And if you want to make a small. Donation, Or a big donation. Or a big donation. We don't want to limit your donation. If you'd like to make a donation. I would love it. If somebody who normally isn't a part of Heritage, because, you know, a lot of people who listen to this are part of our community anyway, and they're like, I've already heard about this. Yes. But there has to be thousands. Thousands of people who don't know what we're talking about. Who don't know what we're talking about. Would you do me a favor? Go to HeritageChurch.com slash 5K. Everything's on there. So if to donate or watch the video, find out more about it, heritagechurch.com slash 5k, make a donation. That'd be awesome. Yeah. So if you're asking the question because you've had people tell you, you seem really angry lately, then let that be God's way of saying, hey, you're starting to cross a line. Yeah. Right. Don't use Bible verses to justify your anger. But if you're feeling a holy anger or a righteous indignation towards some kind of wrong thing in society, and you're wondering, am I sinning? Well, no, you're not sinning necessarily as long as you direct that in a way that causes you to then address this issue in a healthy, godly way, right? So people are not your enemy. Satan is our enemy. That's right. And so we don't fight people. We fight the actions of Satan in society. And that's what we do. So yeah. That's great. That's great. Hey, thanks, Bill. Good question, Bill. Yeah, it's great. All of those answers are people... People wonder about those. So that's why they're called Stump the Pastors. And sometimes Stump the Pastors are, I don't know. Right. Because depending on the question, but this is something I've heard so many times. So thanks, Bill, for asking. I've thought several times it would be fun to do a Stump the Pastor week. Oh, yeah. If we could get enough people to write in questions. If we could get like 100 questions, we could do three or four a day. Let's announce it right now. After the Dangerous Prayers series, let's do a five-day stint where we do a Stump the Pastor. Make the whole episode. I was going to say the one question may not carry us the whole episode. Yeah, but if we get 100 questions, we could just filter through them and find the ones that would fill up the 25 minutes every day. I think it'd be fun. Yeah, it'd be fun. Okay, so there it is. There's your assignment, people. If you want to see this series come into fruition, then comment on YouTube right now. Or comment online or email us at info at thebibleguys.com. And we would love to get your Stump the Pastor questions. Cool. Wow. That's neat. Well, there you go. All right. Now we have permission from Des. Right. Right. Because we only have the appearance of being in control of this podcast, but we know who the real puppet master is. Yes. Yeah. You know, even no matter how angry we get, we are still commanded to forgive. Oh, you're right. And that leads us to this next segment or this next passage where Jesus forgives. Yeah. Well, good transition. That was actually a good transition. That was not a bad transition. No, that was a very good one. So we're going to pick up on Luke chapter 23, verse 32. It says, two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. Talking about Jesus. Yeah. Right. And when they came to a place called the skull or Golgotha, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified, one on his right and one on his left. Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing. And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. The crowd watched and the leader scoffed. He saved others, they said. Let him save himself as if he really is God's Messiah, the chosen one. The soldiers mocked him too by offering him a drink of sour wine. They called out to him, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. A sign was fashioned above him with these words, This is the King of the Jews. One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, so you're the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself and us too while you're at it. But the other criminal protested, don't you fear God even when you've been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn't done anything wrong. And then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus replied, I assure you today, you'll be with me in paradise. By this time, it was about noon and darkness fell across the whole land until three o'clock. The light from the sun was gone as suddenly the curtain in the sanctuary of the temple was torn down the middle. Then Jesus shouted, Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands. And with those words, he breathed his last. Wow. There's a lot in there. Yes. Well, I think the big, the dangerous prayer is Father, forgive them. Yeah, that is definitely the focus of the topic. And we can go on forever about everything else that's in there. Uh, but, uh, I don't know why I just got super emotional thinking about the criminal, you know, he, you know, here's this criminal who's doesn't have a name. He's just known as the criminal. Yeah. And, uh, one day we're going to one and criminal too, right. We're going to get to heaven. And I'm, you know, there's a lot of questions. I think that God will indulge us with these questions. I do. I do. I think, I think we'll have time obviously to explore every question that we have and, uh, that we have now on this earth. And I think that, uh, I would, I would love to talk to this criminal. The, the idea that, that one of them, you know, is scoffing. And then the other is completely recognizing that in believing that he's the son of God and saying, don't you fear God? He's saying, how dare you talk to God this way? I mean, he is, he is a believer. You know, keep in mind that it did say that there were so many people there at that, uh, What am I trying to say? Passover week? Yes. Passover festival? Yeah, the city was just bursting at the seams at this point. And it said many were there because they had heard that he had raised Lazarus from the dead. So his popularity had grown to such a degree to where people had heard his claims to be the Messiah. At this time, he held nothing back. And so he had done nothing wrong. Everybody knew it. This is even a testament of the public. You know, sometimes... When something happens and there's a patsy, it's like you can't sort of, I just watched it yesterday. I watched a movie where everybody knew that what was happening was unjust. And this person who was the patsy didn't deserve to get fired from his job. But everybody knew it. Everybody knew it. But nobody wanted to talk about it because everybody was afraid of the authorities. That happened just last night. And so here it is. This man makes a statement that represents, like, everybody here knows that this man is innocent. Everybody here knows he's done nothing wrong. And this man recognizes Jesus. Anyway, that's not the focus of the dangerous prayer. I want to point out one interesting thing to me. This guy on the cross, maybe in this specific moment in history, had the most faith of maybe everybody else on the planet. Because Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God. And when you're naked and nailed to the cross, the kingdom seems like it should be over. Yeah, everybody lost hope. All the disciples lost hope. And only the guy on the cross next to him said, I still believe in your kingdom. Is that an original thought right now? Isn't that neat? Because that's incredible. Yeah. That's incredible. Peter lied and denied. James and the Marys, they're standing back in the crowd. Out of fear. Yeah. And everybody can't believe or understand. Yeah. And it says that they didn't understand. They didn't remember his words. They didn't know what was happening. Right. And it says only after he was resurrected, then they remembered the promise he told them, right? So they had lost all hope. They were motivated out of fear. They all ran. They were all in hiding. Wow. And this guy, this one guy said, Jesus, remember me when you show up in paradise. Before the veil rents into, before the earthquake. Yeah. Because the Roman soldier made a statement. The only thing he had heard Jesus say was, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they've done. And he had no hope for forgiveness except that. Wow, Jeff. What a thought. What a thought. Yeah. What a thought. Anyways, Jesus says, Father. Now I really want to meet this guy. This is kind of clear. I really want to meet this guy. I'm going to find this guy. So, yeah, maybe you guys will be neighbors in heaven, maybe. Yes, maybe so. Maybe God will honor that. So the prayer, Father, forgive them for they don't know what they are doing. Charlie Kirk's wife prayed that. Yes. Yeah, we saw it all over social media. Yeah. And what an unbelievable thing. So the nation right now reacted and are marveling at the fact, like, how can anybody forgive God? The shooter of your husband. Yeah. And we've heard stories like this. I mean, it doesn't even have to be Charlie Kirk's wife, which is in recent news. But it could be, you know, like, I'm sure you've heard this. Have you read or seen YouTube or even documentaries where the victim's wife forgives the criminal? Sure. I've actually seen a documentary where they became best friends and she led him to Christ. And he was on death row. And she mentored him and walked him through. And he was there for a couple of years. And eventually she was a part of the appeal to get him off of death row. Yeah. I mean, like, which is an honor. It's hard to wrap your head around that kind of thing. So forgiveness. And I've told my story many times coming from a life of abuse and those kinds of things. Early on, my biological father was a very bad man before he became a Christian. And my My dad adopted me and my life changed, right? So everything was different between my biological father and my dad. And my dad just went to heaven here recently. So I miss him. I just ran across some photos of him at my desk yesterday. Thought about him for a while. But my biological father was violent towards my mother and I. Very, very abusive for a very long time. For 30-something years, I never heard anything from him at all after he gave me up for adoption. One day he reached out. He sent me an email. said that he'd seen all my messages online, seen what God was doing in my life. And he said, I hope that you believe in redemption because God's changed me over the last several years. He got sober and gave his life to Christ and his life had changed. And he said, I hope you can forgive me. So then when I met him, met him one time, he confessed how he treated me and my mom and that it was wrong and that And he said, you know, I don't think you could have been who you grew up to be if you'd stayed in my life. You know, I would have destroyed that. But God had to take you away from me. And that was the best thing. But I hope you can forgive me. And I told him the words, I do forgive you. But I don't know that I felt like I forgave him until I found out after that conversation, maybe 30 minutes later, he told me that he was dying of cancer and asked me to do his funeral. And then I was faced with that when he did die of cancer. I was faced with that whether or not I was going to do his funeral. And I realized forgiveness, like Charlie Kirk's wife just did or whatever publicly, is not saying what you did is okay. Correct. It's not. It's not saying, oh, no biggie. It was a big deal. It was a devastatingly big deal. This is the most devastating thing. You nearly ruined my life. Right? That kind of thing. And then your mom. But what I realized was in Romans chapter 12, he says, don't repay evil with evil, repay evil with good. And then he says, because vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I will repay. What I realized is forgiveness really is just me giving up my right to prosecute you and judge you and execute you. Right. And I'll give that over to God. God, you do what you need to do with him. You know what he did? He did die and he did have to go stand before his maker. And he did have to give an account. Right. Right. And that released me on that day when I realized I'm not saying it's okay. I'm saying it's God's business, not mine anymore. I'm giving them. And dude, I got set free from the bitterness and the resentment that I'd had in all that time prior when I finally realized, okay, I'm not God. I'm going to give him over to God and God's going to do what God's going to do for justice. Not me. Right. Yeah. And that's what sets free. And so, When Jesus says, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. Jesus is actually leading on behalf of those who deserve judgment. And that's a whole other level, man. Yeah. Right? Personal forgiveness is, I don't have to judge you. But this is, he's advocating for them now. Yeah. And that's next level. Yeah, that's definitely next level. And really, there's so much in that statement because he's saying they don't understand. Almost implying like if they understood. Yeah, yeah. it would be a whole different thing. Yeah. Right? So Father, forgive them because they're acting in ignorance. Yeah. Right? It was the alcohol in him that was doing it. He wasn't that way when he was sober. He was just that way when he was drunk. It was just the problem was he was drunk all the time. Right. Right? And Jesus is understanding we're drunk on our sin. We are consumed by the evil that is in us to the point we don't even really know the depths of our hearts. Really. Right? We're not very self-aware. And Jesus is just like, they have no idea what they're doing. So forgive them. He looked at us. He looked at the soldiers, his killers. He looked at them with a compassion that I hope we can find in our own hearts. They're like children. They're just stumbling around, consumed by evil. They have no idea how this is ruining them and everything around them. And if we can start to have that kind of compassion towards the evils we see in society... Maybe we can come with far more power because it was right after that prayer that this criminal goes, Jesus, I want what you have. Yeah. Right? Man, the world will want what we have when we step up and we're able to say, God, you fix it. Yeah. Wow. What a great podcast. I rate this top notch. All right. That was a good one. Yeah. It was a good conversation. Good conversation. All right. Well, hey, hopefully we will see you tomorrow on The Bible Guys.