Transcription

Chris
So Jeff, yes, I actually sent this video to my daughter just today. Oh, listen. And like. Oh! Ah.

Jeff
Yeah. Stop it. We’re going to have to use royalties in a minute.

Chris
Right. I mean, those are some clean harmonies. And today we’re launching into a brand new series. And really, it’s the harmonies of the Gospels.

Jeff
Oh, that’s going to be great. So he’s Chris and I’m Jeff, and we’re the Bible guys.

Chris
We’re going to have a dad joke competition.

Jeff
Yes, I read through mine a minute ago and they’re not too shabby.

Chris
I didn’t read mine at all.

Jeff
Okay, these are going to be great.

Chris
Well, you go first, then.

Jeff
Okay. Uh, I have a terrible fear of tsunamis. It comes in waves. Oh.

Chris
I like my. I like my first one. Ready? Okay. What did the horse say after it tripped?

Jeff
I don’t know.

Chris
Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t. Giddy up!

Jeff
Oh, no! I liked mine better. Okay, here we go. I told my boss I was tired of being a human cannonball, so he fired me. That’s a funny one.

Chris
That is funny.

Chris
What did.

Jeff
He fired me.

Chris
Yes, I do okay. What did the triangle say to the circle?

Jeff
I don’t know.

Chris
You’re pointless.

Jeff
What do you call a hippies wife? Uh, Mississippi.

Chris
Oh, my word, that’s really funny. I like that one.

Chris
Okay. Uh, I have a friend who really hates living in central USA. She says she’s in a constant state of misery. Missouri. Missouri.

Jeff
Missouri?

Chris
Yeah, I read that. Yep.

Jeff
Go ahead. Okay, okay. Uh, what do you call a Frenchman wearing sandals? But, Philippe. Flop.

Jeff
I told you, that’s a great one. I love that one.

Chris
Okay, this one says rip boiling water. You’ll be missed.

Jeff
Oh, no. It took me a second. I’m like, what? Okay. My doctor just told me I’m suffering from paranoia. Well, he didn’t actually say it, but I could tell what he was thinking.

Chris
That’s real good. That’s good. All right. Last one. Yes. My closing experiments finally paid off. I’m so excited. I’m beside myself.

Jeff
What?

Chris
My closing experiments. Oh, I think it’s a misprint. Oh, it’s supposed to be cloning.

Jeff
Cloning? You’re cloning?

Chris
It’s written as closing.

Jeff
You’re cloning experience. Okay.

Chris
Cloning experiments finally paid off. I’m so excited. I’m beside myself.

Jeff
Spelling matters.

Chris
It really does.

Jeff
Totally changes the meaning. They’re cloning, cloning experiments.

Chris
And the funny thing is, uh, the autocorrect was like. You’re not writing cloning.

Jeff
Oh, that’s right, that’s right. Well, autocorrect doesn’t have a good sense of humor, right? So that’s a funny joke.

Chris
Yeah, it is, but we but I but I, I sort of yeah, I sort of delivered two of them wrong. Yeah.

Jeff
Well that’s the benefit of reading it ahead of time. Yeah.

Chris
Well you’re.

Jeff
Right. Yeah. Well, good. Well, hey, uh, as you alluded to or mentioned in the, uh, the rolling that we’re kicking off this new series, we just finished everything from axe. If you’ve been following us since we started the Bible, guys, we started in the book of acts. Well, actually, Matthew, uh, Jesus last words. And then from the Great Commission all the way through and we just finished up, uh, uh, John’s Apocalypse in the revelation. Right. And, um, so that was interesting. So now we thought what we would do, this would be fun.

Chris
That was interesting.

Jeff
What was the challenge, dude, to get through that in two weeks and not get bogged down because it gets easy to get bogged down in the details and that kind of stuff. So, um, so there’s this idea called the harmony of the Gospels, the fact that there’s four writers of the Gospels that tell the history of Jesus Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And sometimes they write about the same things, right? And sometimes they write about different things, and sometimes they write about the same things in different ways. So what we thought we’d do is there’s this idea called the harmony of the Gospels, and we’re going to take it in chronological order, but we’re going to read each of the passages that talk about the same issues or the same topics or something. Yeah. So harmonize these gospel stories.

Chris
If somebody brand new to the faith and they’re brand new to Bible reading, it’s one of the reasons why I’ve always said start in the book of John and read forward. Yeah, because when somebody reads and starts with the New Testament, for instance. And by the way, a lot of people had said, I’m going to start it’s a book. I’m going to start in the beginning, the beginning. Right, right. And they get through Genesis and then Exodus, and then by the time they get to, you know, the next book, right? Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and then they’re like, uh, okay, you know, this is a little tough to get through, right? Um, but I always tell them, start in the book of John because Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are sort of overlaps in a lot of ways. And, uh, and, you know, by the time you get to the fourth book, if you’re new, you’re like this, didn’t I just read this?

Jeff
Right, right. Sometimes. Yeah. Now they’re writing from different perspectives. And we’ll, we’ll unpack a little bit about that. You know, Mark was writing to the people in Rome, the Christians in Rome. Matthew was writing from a different perspective. Luke was writing from a different perspective. And so we’ll unpack some of that. But I think this is going to be an interesting thing. There are 250 events or moments in the four gospels. And so we’re just going to kind of go through those and see what happens. So this seems like an interesting idea to us. And we’ll see if anybody’s listening when we’re done.

Chris
We’ll see if it’s interesting.

Jeff
Right. So what we’re going to do then is if you don’t have one but you want to read along with us, grab a Chronological Life application study Bible we’re reading from the New Living Translation. And what’s really cool is like today we’re going to read the first half of Mark one verse one, and then we’re going to go on to Luke chapter one one through four. And then we’re going to go on to John one one through 18, because there’s kind of this chronological order.

Chris
We’re going to read them back to back. Yeah, yeah.

Jeff
We’ll read them back to back to back. Is that okay.

Chris
Yeah. Back to back to back.

Jeff
So here’s what it says. This is the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God. That’s Mark one one. Luke one says, many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. They use the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples, having carefully instigated or investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write a careful account for you, most Honorable Theophilus, so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught. And then in John one verse one, we’ll read to verse 18. It says, in the beginning the word already existed, the word was with God, and the word was was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. And the word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought life to this. I’m sorry his life brought light to everyone, man. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it. God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the the light so that everyone might believe. Because of his testimony, John himself was not the light. He was simply a witness to tell about the light. The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He came into the very world he created. But the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn, not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. So the word became human and made his home among us, and he was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the father’s one and only son. John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, this is the one I was talking about when I said, someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed before me. From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another, for the law was given through Moses. But God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the unique one who is himself. God is near to the father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

Chris
Mm.

Jeff
I stumbled through that reading because I memorized that passage in a different translation.

Chris
Right?

Jeff
And I kept wanting to say the words in the order that I memorized them. So sorry about that.

Chris
Yeah. That’s right. Yeah. So, uh, just to be clear, these are the very first verses of Mark. We just read one verse, actually, half of one verse. Yeah. Uh, we read only four verses from the book of Luke and then the book of John. We read 18 verses. That’s right. Okay. So, uh, so Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. So, Mark, uh, excuse me, Matthew is missing. That’s right. And the reason why Matthew is missing is it’s not included in this harmony.

Jeff
Well, we’ll wind up getting to it. Matthew starts right off at the very beginning with the genealogy. Right. And the genealogies will start showing up, um, once we get to Zechariah and, uh, so John the Baptist parents and or Jesus parents. Yes. So that’s that’s when we’ll get to Matthew. That’s where he starts. Yeah. So they kind of start with information beforehand. So it begins with Mark just saying this is a good news about the Messiah. So the word gospel. So we call it the Gospel of Matthew, the gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Luke, gospel of John. The word gospel comes from the word euangelion. It means good news. It’s a it’s like it’s like if a new if the emperor had a new son and they would send them, send messengers out through the cities and they’d read the scroll, hear ye, hear ye. Right. That’s the it’s a, it’s a declaration of good news that all the people would celebrate. And so this is what he’s saying. Mark says, hey, we have this good news declaration of Jesus Messiah. And then Luke says, hey, um, so you and I, Theophilus, we’ve been I investigated these things for you. And he said, I wrote my book from eyewitnesses. And that’s kind of neat because he’s acting like an investigative reporter, and John doesn’t introduce it that way at all. John just starts off with Jesus himself. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God.

Chris
Yeah. And so the one thing that Mark and Luke and John have in common is they start off by, uh, describing the validity of Jesus. Right? Right. And, and they’re talking about how Jesus was equal with God. He was God. Um, uh, he in fact, John even says he was at creation. Yes. Right. And I think it’s Colossians that also talks about that as well, how he was there for the, you know, uh, the beginning of all things. Right. And so and by the way, we know that Jesus has many names, uh, just as God does in the Old Testament. And one of the names that Jesus has is the word capital W. And, uh, and so it just goes on to talk about how Jesus is equal with God, which is, you know, pretty important to know that before you get into the events of Jesus.

Jeff
Yeah. So Luke wanted everybody to understand, or Theophilus, the guy he’s writing the book to. Excuse me, uh, Luke wanted him to understand. Hey, listen, um, I investigated these things from my witnesses so you can be confident what you heard. And John just steps up and he uses a mechanism where he’s calling Jesus the word right. In the beginning was the word, and John is driving home. So Luke says, you can trust what you what you’re reading. John is saying, listen, uh, this is the guy. This is everything we’ve been looking for. And so using the name, the word for Jesus is important. But what it gets to is John, later on in his other writings says, these things are written so that you can know that you have eternal life. So all of the authors are writing these books not just because they were inspired, you know, watching a sunset at some point thought, oh, I feel really religious right now. I want to write something. Uh, instead they’re saying, we wrote these things so you can know who Jesus is and that you can have confidence as eyewitnesses that these things are true. So Mark wasn’t an apostle. He wasn’t a disciple, but he certainly knew Jesus personally. Uh, you know, Luke wasn’t a disciple. Uh, but he investigated and interviewed the living eyewitnesses. John was an eyewitness and was a disciple. So it’s great that we get these interesting perspectives from three different groups. Um, there’s a note. Can I read this about the, um, from the New Living Translation, the life application Bible? I’m gonna.

Chris
Okay. Yeah.

Jeff
Um, it says about the word it says. What does John mean by, quote, the word. The word was a firm used by theologians and philosophers, both Jews and Greeks, in many different ways. In this day, in Hebrew scripture, the word was an agent of creation. It was the source of God’s message to his people through the prophets and and through God’s law. It was his standard of holiness. And then in Greek philosophy, the word was the principle of reason that governed the world, or the thought still in the mind, while in Hebrew thought the word was another expression for God. So it’s interesting he’s using both a Greek mechanism to talk about the source of all knowledge in the universe, and he’s using a Hebrew mechanism at the same time, same word, to say this is the source of everything we can know about and the power of God. It’s really kind of a neat way to describe who Jesus is.

Chris
You know, as you were reading through that, I was thinking about one of the most overlooked verses, uh, spoken by Jesus in the New Testament, uh, Matthew 28 at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, verse number 18, it said that Jesus came to them and said, it’s not on the screen, but it says, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Yeah, yeah. So so think about it. Jesus is making the claim and he says all authority. Yeah, right. And then he says, in heaven and on earth. Yeah. In other words, everything everywhere right has been given to me. Yeah. And when we recognize that, then we, we it just sort of right sizes our view on, you know, the words of Jesus that means that everything that Jesus says should be equated to God the Father, which means if you’re a person who loves the Old Testament at that time and you’re committed to the Torah, right, you know it. You know, if you believe what he says is true, then that’s a pretty big claim. So you.

Jeff
Have Matthew. Mark and Luke are writing in a way that kind of shows the discovery that Jesus is God by his disciples. His disciples and his followers eventually discover that Jesus is God. But John is writing from the position Jesus was God from the very beginning. Right? And so John’s writing this first chapter to me is one of my favorite chapters that he writes in the Bible. And the reason is, here’s a guy who knew Jesus as a human. But it’s trying to describe him to us as God, simultaneously man and God. And so how do you do that? Right. And so that that mechanism that he’s using there, I think is, is really fabulous. Now, to Jewish readers, they would have read this as as a heretical statement, right? This would have been blasphemous to Greek readers. The idea that the word or that a God became human was unthinkable. But to John, this new understanding, uh, was exactly who Jesus was. And this is the good news that God became a man, right? That’s what he’s trying to tell us.

Chris
I love it, I love that his opening words are in the beginning. Yeah, that Jesus already existed.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah, yeah. How cool is.

Chris
That? In the beginning and in the beginning is how the Bible starts. Yeah. So those who know the Torah and know the know the books of the Bible, the Bible scholars that would be listening or reading this, uh, you know, this letter that, uh, that Mark has written in the beginning. God, Jesus already existed. Yeah. That is just a really strong opening statement.

Jeff
No lie, you know. Right.

Jeff
Well, it’s kind of cool because it’s consistent with, uh, Moses writings where he talks about how it was the voice of God, the word of God, that creative thing. Right. And God said, let there be right light, let there be whatever. And, uh, through the six days of creation, it was always God speaking. And so then we get to John one and it literally calls him the Word of God. Um, in the book of Colossians, Paul tells us that nothing was created, uh, that Jesus didn’t create. Right. Everything was created by Jesus. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. So that’s John’s statements very similar to Paul’s statement. And then he said the word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. And that light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

Chris
So I’m, uh, I’m trying to binge watch The Chosen. Oh, I’m only on, like, the third episode of season. The newest season. I think that’s three. Right. Okay. Um, and, uh, and so this verse right here where it says, uh, he came into the world that he created verse number ten, and the world didn’t recognize him. Oh, yeah. He came to his own people and they even rejected him. Uh, it was the moment in the, in the Chosen, the episode where Jesus, uh, claimed to be the Messiah in his hometown in Nazareth. And, you know, they added a lot of humanity to it. Oh, yeah. And they added, like, a lot of reaction of people who knew Jesus, who grew up with Jesus. And this is the statement that he made where he said, uh, as it you know, as it is said, uh, a prophet has no honor in his hometown, right, right. And I just, you know, I think this verse reminds me of that because the moment was so powerful that it was so much tension in the air. And then he ended up leaving, uh, the temple. And then everybody in this family was upset. Mary was crying. And they added this humanity conversation where Jesus was like, yeah, it’s it’s time. Like the time is coming. And it was just incredible to because, you know, we read statements like this, uh, he came into the world and the world knew him not. But it’s like, think about all the dialogue, right? And all of the and all of the experience of people of Jesus saying, I’m the Messiah and people saying blasphemy and going back and forth and who there’s just a lot there. Well, right.

Jeff
From the get go, none of the authors of the gospels intend to let you just go. Jesus is a nice guy, and he said a lot of nice things, right? Right. So Luke says everything you’ve heard about Jesus is true. He really is God. Mark is saying, this is the good news of the Messiah, the one we’ve all been looking for. And John uses both offensive language for both Greeks and Hebrews, saying, you know, so the Hebrews would have considered what John was saying was blasphemous. Um, this is the claim is not that Jesus was a good guy, that God liked and sent us good messages. And if we just keep the golden rule, the world will be better. It’s the claims of the Gospels are Jesus is God in the flesh? Um, verse.

Chris
Which, by the way, wasn’t it C.S. Lewis who said, yeah, uh, he’s either Lord or he’s a liar or he’s a lunatic? That’s right. Because those are the only three options, right? Right.

Jeff
And you don’t have to follow a lunatic, and we shouldn’t follow a liar, right?

Chris
Right.

Jeff
So if he really is who he says he is, he drew a line in the sand. We don’t have any option but to choose to be for him or against him, right? We can’t just be generically supportive of his nice, positive words, right?

Chris
Right, right.

Jeff
Um, so verse 14 and John one says, so the word became human and made his home among us. That’s a pretty clear statement, right? And you think, wow, that’s pretty great. Um, in the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God. Okay. This word guy was God. Then we get to verse 14, the word became human. Okay, what’s that about? But then you get to verse 18 and it’s calling him the unique one, this word who is himself. God is near to the father’s heart and he has revealed God to us. The reason Jesus came was to show us what God was like, to show us who God is, and to show us how to get to God. Right? That that was his whole. When we couldn’t get to him, God came to us. That’s the whole concept of the good news of the gospel.

Chris
Yeah. That’s right, because God sent his sent his only son to us, right? While we were yet sinners. God reached out to us. Yeah, yeah. Um, you know, I absolutely love John 117 where, uh, he says the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth were revealed through Jesus Christ, and they were brought through Jesus. And that statement is saying, like God, like Moses. Yes. Moses was the authority of the day. Uh, when this was written, uh, if you would ask anybody about who’s the authority, everything was about Moses. And so he says, no, the law was given through Moses. But Jesus comes to bring two dynamics, you know, truth and grace. And, uh, you know, you sort of think about that. And I remember going to a class one time and going through a whole seminar through a, through a company that we had, and they renamed those concepts truth and Grace, and they called it Invitation and Challenge. Right. Invitation and challenge. So Jesus was the person who looked and said, uh, neither do I condemn you. Right, right. You know, uh, that’s the invitation part. That’s the relational part. But then he says, now go and sin no more. And that’s the challenge. Whoa. Like, that’s a hard truth, right? You know, so, so he so he he both has the relational capacity and the grace and the love, but he also has the hard truth, which is, uh, you know, this is what God says, and this is this is God’s standard, and these are God’s commandments. And so grace and truth, that’s what John is saying. John is saying Jesus came to bring both dynamics and both are needed. Right? You can’t you can’t lean one way and you can’t lean the other way. Chris
You have to accept it for who he is.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah. Well, and then he kind of tells you how to accept it, right? In verse 15. I think we have to wrap up here, but in verse 15. Is that it? No. Verse 12, but to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. So there’s this belief part of it. Uh, hardly any, uh, well, no, no real mainstream, uh, historians or archaeologists rejected the guy. The person Jesus Christ existed. Right? Um, uh, Josephus, Herodotus, a several other extra Christian, um, authors and historians wrote about that. This guy named Jesus had a following in Israel. So, so historically he existed. Um, so believing that Jesus existed is not the threshold, but just believing the stories in the Bible aren’t necessarily the threshold. There has to be this moment when you receive the gift. God came into this world not to just inform us of things, but he came to give us a gift. And that gift is a relationship with him. So we have to receive that gift, believe in our heads and receive it in our hearts. And that really is the transition between it being just news and being good news.

Chris
Yeah, well it reminds me of that old, uh, remember when they used to pass out tracks? Remember the little pamphlets?

Jeff
My dad gave his life to Christ because of a track?

Chris
Yeah. That’s awesome. And, uh, one of the tracks talked about missing Heaven by 18in.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah.

Chris
Which is the distance between the average distance between the head and the heart. Yeah. From it to go from knowledge to belief.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah. So I think that that’s the most important thing is we hope that this journey leads you to a place of not just believing in the facts, but having received the gift that Jesus brought to us. That is a relationship with God.

Chris
Awesome. Well, we will, uh, pick up from there tomorrow and we’ll see you then on The Bible Guys.