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.

Chris:
Hey everybody.

Jeff:
There you go.

Chris:
Welcome to the Bible Guys. There you go. What is that?

Jeff:
I was looking forward to it. You always go, Hey everybody. And so I was like, I hope he says it this time.

Chris:
Those who watch on video, those who watch on video, the Roland still has us using headphones on the old podcast studio.

Jeff:
Yeah, it might be time to update the Roland.

Chris:
We updated our background. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. That’s right. For those who are watching. Yeah. We have a new back.

Jeff:
We just haven’t gotten it right yet. So I like this one better.

Chris:
Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Why not? A little bit of variety. Variety is the spice of life.

Jeff:
That’s right.

Chris:
Spicy meatballs. Spicy meatballs. How well do you know them? The segment is, let’s see how well you really know Jeff. He’s going to ask you five questions about himself and we’ll see if you know the right answer.

Jeff:
And I don’t want to put any pressure on you, but I almost aced it when I had to do this game. trying to know you.

Chris:
You know why? Because I pay attention.

Jeff:
I asked you easy questions. Yeah, you did not.

Chris:
You asked me to name every one of your brothers. Oh, that was, that was one of the hard ones.

Jeff:
That was one of the hard ones. Okay, here I go. First of all, how old was I when I met Bonnie?

Chris:
Oh, gee whiz.

Jeff:
Bonnie being my wife, by the way.

Chris:
Well, she, I remember the story where she prayed for you and said, please send Jeff to this college. So I would say that you met her while you were scouting colleges, which would have met your senior year. So I’m going to say, And your birthday is in May. So I’m going to say 17.

Jeff:
I was 17. That’s right. Good job, buddy. Yeah. Yeah. I nailed it. Yeah. We met at a music competition. So, uh, when we were both seniors.

Chris:
Did I get every part of that story right?

Jeff:
Every part of that is right. Awesome. That was good. Look at me. I’m going to give you a bonus point on that one. All right. Okay. Uh, how many siblings do I have?

Chris:
This is a good one. Um, I don’t really know this one. Uh, you don’t often talk about your siblings.

Jeff:
There’s not much to talk about.

Chris:
And hopefully they don’t listen to the Bible guys. They do.

Jeff:
Do they? A bunch of them.

Chris:
Okay. A bunch of them. Well, that’s, that’s a good indicator that there’s more than just one. Uh, so I, I know you’ve, I know you’ve mentioned stories about them before, so I’m going to say three.

Jeff:
I have nine, nine siblings.

Chris:
Does this include step siblings?

Jeff:
Of course. They’re all step siblings.

Chris:
Because I’m adopted. So you have nine siblings.

Jeff:
Wow. Well, 10, but yeah, nine. So in my mom and dad’s family, I’m my mom’s. My dad was married before and has six older daughters. So high girls. And then my mom and dad together have the three younger boys. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So all four of the boys are in ministry and serve the Lord. Yeah.

Chris:
That’s so funny that, uh, and by the way, what did I guess? Did I guess four? What did I say? Five?

Jeff:
Uh, three. You said three.

Chris:
I said three, which is four total. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Jeff:
Yeah. But there’s 10 of us.

Chris:
I was way off.

Jeff:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was awful. That was a good one. Okay. Uh, uh, let me see where, where did Bonnie and I first serve in ministry? What state? Texas. Indiana.

Chris:
You went to Indiana. Oh, that’s right.

Jeff:
We served at a church in Indiana.

Chris:
You told the drive on Christmas.

Jeff:
You told that drive, right?

Chris:
Wasn’t that from Indiana?

Jeff:
Well, that was to go back to Bible college. Yeah. That wasn’t while we were working in ministry. Indiana. What city? Cedar Lake, Indiana. How long were you there? The church was 90 people. How many years were you there? Five years? No, I was there two years. Two years.

Chris:
So that was before you got to the church where you dedicated five years.

Jeff:
Yeah, that was two churches, three churches before that. Holy Christmas. Yeah. Wow. So Bonnie and I, we served, the pastor found out that I was available. I lived on one side of the lake, the church was on the other side. He came across and offered us to be the youth pastor and the worship pastor. And I really didn’t know anything about the church and I was just looking for ministry. I said, yes. And it turned out that there was five people in the choir. And there was one and a half teenagers. There was the pastor’s daughter. And then the girl next door to the church was at her mom’s house every other week. And so that was it. And we were there about 24 months. When we left, we had about 54 teenagers in the youth group. And the church was growing. Things were really great. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. That was a great ministry. That was our first ministry. We really enjoyed it. So all of you from Cedar Lake, we miss you. And then we went on from there to, where did I go after that? What church did I work at? What city?

Chris:
You just got done saying there’s three more churches. So I’m certainly not going to say Texas. So you went from Indiana, Oh, now you get me thinking that it is Texas.

Jeff:
I’m going to say Texas. It was back to Michigan. Okay. And then Texas and then back to Michigan and then to here.

Chris:
Wow. Well, next, what do you mean?

Jeff:
I served in Michigan. I’ve served in three Michigan churches, two different times. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. Okay. Wow. All right. So that was three questions. What town was I born in?

Chris:
Uh, I’m having a brain function here. Uh, it’s, it’s, it’s in Lapeer, right? So we’re talking about, uh, it’s called like, it doesn’t begin with an a, uh,

Jeff:
Yeah, I grew up in Elba, Michigan. Yeah, I was born on Lapeer, in the city of Lapeer. Okay. So you were saying the county of Lapeer. Yeah. Okay, good. Well, hey, Elba starts with an E, but yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay. And the last one is, how long have Bonnie and I been married?

Chris:
Oh, that one’s easy. Thank you for giving me one that I know. Right. So it’d be 31 years.

Jeff:
31 years. There you go. Yep. And the reason why I know that? It’s because you’ve been married.

Chris:
I’ve been married 31 years and we’re the same age.

Jeff:
That’s right. Yeah. So there you go. Hey, you got, you got a bunch and I gave you a bonus point. Yes. So you’re four for five today.

Chris:
Well, you stuck on a topic that I didn’t obviously know. So you’re like, you’re like, where’s my first church? I had no idea. And then you’re like, where’s my second church? I’m like, thank you for that, Jeff. I tried to softball you my questions.

Jeff:
I tried to softball him to you. That was fine.

Chris:
Hey, I’m proud that I got the first one so well. So it sort of made up for that disaster.

Jeff:
Yeah.

Chris:
So how cool is that? So, hey, and by the way, the longer that we continue to ask these type of segment games, the more I’m going to get to know these facts.

Jeff:
Isn’t it special? It’s got to be. I just can imagine how amazing this segment was for you.

Chris:
All right. Matthew 20 verse 29. We’re in Luke or excuse me, Mark 10 and then Luke 18.

Jeff:
Yes, that’s correct. So it says then, oh, I’m reading the wrong one. As Jesus and the disciples left the town of Jericho, a large crowd followed behind. Two blind men were sitting beside the road, and when they heard that Jesus was coming that way, they began shouting, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us. Be quiet. The crowd yelled at them, but they only shouted louder. Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us. And when Jesus heard them, he stopped and called, what do you want me to do for you? Lord, they said, we want to see. Jesus felt sorry for them and touched their eyes and instantly they could see and then they followed him In Mark chapter 10 it says in verse 46, then they reached Jericho, and as Jesus and his disciples left town, a large crowd followed him. A blind beggar named Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, was sitting beside the road. When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Be quiet, many of the people yelled at him, but he only shouted louder, son of David, have mercy on me. When Jesus heard him, he stopped and said, tell him to come here. So they called the blind man, cheer up. They said, come on, he’s calling you. Bartimaeus threw aside his coat, jumped up and came to Jesus. What do you want me to do for you? Jesus asked my rabbi. The blind man said, I want to see. And Jesus said to him, go for your faith has healed you. And instantly the man could see. And he followed Jesus down the road. And then in Luke chapter 18 verse 35 it says, So he began shouting, Be quiet, the people in front yelled at him. But he only shouted louder, Son of David, have mercy on me. When Jesus heard him, he stopped and ordered that the man be brought to him. And as the man came near, Jesus asked him, what do you want me to do for you? Lord, he said, I want to see. And Jesus said, all right, receive your sight. Your faith has healed you. And instantly the man could see. And he followed Jesus, praising God, and all who saw it praised God too.

Chris:
So this is a particular story recorded in three different Gospels where the details are actually distinctively different, right? So the first one says that Jesus felt sorry for them and touched their eyes.

Jeff:
What? Two blind men.

Chris:
Yeah, two blind men. I’m sorry. Two blind men, yeah. Because that’s another detail, right? And then in Mark it says, a blind man. And then it gives his name, which Matthew did not, right? Bartimaeus. And then it doesn’t necessarily include the detail that it says he touched him. Of course, he could have touched him, right? But it just says he said to him, go, your faith has healed you. Right? So it doesn’t necessarily mean that he didn’t touch him, but it doesn’t include that. And then, uh, as it, as, as we get to Luke, it says a blind beggar. So really Matthew was the only one that included the fact that there were two, that there were two and that he touched them, that he touched them. Right. And then, and then, uh, Luke actually includes the fact that, uh, they were praising God. They didn’t just follow him. They praise them. And then others praise them as well, which you would assume. But I love the fact that Luke included it.

Jeff:
On a couple of different occasions, I’ve heard Bible skeptics use this story, along with others, particularly around the resurrection and crucifixion, that have different details as circumstantial proof that the Bible isn’t perfect because it is inaccurate. Right. And they would say, oh, well, you know, Matthew says two and Mark says Bartimaeus and Luke doesn’t even mention this beggar. It doesn’t even say his name, just that he’s blind. And so Christians are claiming that these are all the same story and they can’t even get their own story straight. And they want to point that out and it’s very circumstantial. But I would say, To me, it proves the authenticity of scripture in that these are eyewitness accounts, or in Luke’s case, it was a researched account. He was interviewing, he says in his book at the beginning that he researched these things and interviewed people, right, for this purpose. So he’s taking eyewitness accounts. So you’ve got Matthew and Mark, perhaps were writing eyewitness accounts. Luke is going and interviewing in order to get the eyewitness accounts. And they write the stories with slightly different details, which is exactly the way that eyewitness accounts work in court. Right. If everybody, if you came in and said, and they said, what happened, Chris? And you said, I saw a blue car with license plate 1786 and it ran the red light and hit the yellow car. And then they say, Jeff, what happened? I say, I saw a blue car with license plate 1786 and it read the red light and hit the yellow car. it would sound like we rehearsed our speech because we’re giving exactly the same details. It sounds like it’s like we colluded in order to make sure we get it. We’ve been coached. And instead they’re writing their details as they remember them. So Matthew is remembering.

Chris:
They observe different things. They retain different things. And then from maybe even from a different vantage point or a different viewpoint.

Jeff:
But what none of them wrote was anything contradictory. Right. Mark and Luke did not say, there was only one guy. Right. They didn’t say that.

Chris:
And he told him, no, go away.

Jeff:
I’m not healing you. Right. And Matthew didn’t say it was Bob Johnson and Fred Flintstone. Right. And Mark comes in and goes, actually it was Bartimaeus. Right. Yeah. So, so there’s no conflicting details. So then what you do when you take these parallel passages like this, I’m sorry, but why didn’t you just say Barney rebel? Cause you said, because I said Bob Johnson first and couldn’t think of a second name. So I didn’t think Fred Flintstone first.

Chris:
I just had to address it. I just couldn’t, I just couldn’t go by it.

Jeff:
Yeah. As soon as I said, I thought this is going to bother Chris. Yeah, but it was Bob Johnson first. I can’t think of a second name, right? Yeah. So, um, you know, there’s a lot of names in the world. Sure. Sure. Yeah. Okay. So they, um, they don’t give any conflicting details. So I can read these three stories. And this is the fun of, and the interest things, interesting thing of reading in parallel is you see the different details, but they’re not conflicting. So all of them agree that Jesus, has been in or walked through the town of Jericho and on the way out he stops that there’s blind beggars. Matthew says two, Mark names one, named Bartimaeus, who might have been the loudest one. Church tradition says Bartimaeus was the loudest.

Chris:
It could be that Mark knew him.

Jeff:
or that Bartimaeus was the one that was known and the other one wasn’t known. Right? Bartimaeus might’ve been the famous beggar and, uh, you know, they might not have known the name of the other one, but yeah, but Mark may have known him. Yeah. So, so what you don’t have is anything that conflicts. And so in my mind, when you have different details of the same story that are not conflicting, to me, they’re proofs that that actually happened. Right. Because you have three different, it’s like getting, uh, uh, you know, you ever watch, If you ever, in today’s world, everybody’s carrying a cell phone around with them. And when a news event happens, people take a video. And if there’s only one video shot, you go, yeah, I don’t know if I can trust that. But when you get one from both sides of the street and one from up the street and somebody can see the explosion from way back away and they’re all getting different angles, then you go, wow, you get a really good idea of what actually happened.

Chris:
Yeah. Right. And by the way, Mark is also the only one that includes the fact that they went over and they grabbed Bartimaeus and they said, they said, come this way, cheer up. He’s calling you. Right. Because Jesus actually says, we’ll come here. And in the other ones, it doesn’t say that at all. Right. And so I love, I love the fact that Mark actually gives the most detail and which is rare for him because he’s usually the shortest writer. Yes. Yes. But anyway, all that to say, um, I, I, uh, I love the fact that Jesus didn’t walk by them. He thought they were valuable. People in society would, you know, they weren’t as outcast as lepers, right? But they were beggars, right? They were blind and they were begging because they could not work any other way. Blind people at that, you know, in the first century, they couldn’t really bring value or work. right? So Jesus, you know, He felt compassion on them. He felt sorry for them. And here they are yelling, and people are saying, be quiet, because that’s all they ever do, is say things when they speak up. When everybody else is like, stop asking me for money or for food, right? Just be quiet over there. And so, yeah. But Jesus didn’t walk by them. And I love it, because again, he’s just always giving value to the lonely, the lost, the forgotten. What does he say? When you’ve brought a glass of water to drink for those in prison, right? When you’ve served the least of these, you’ve served me.

Jeff:
That’s right. And then there’s something to be said about just seizing an opportunity. This is an opportunity of a lifetime. And when you have an opportunity for a lifetime, there’ll always be critics, there’ll always be somebody who wants to shut you down. And they didn’t. They kept calling out to Jesus. And there’s something, I think, to just be said about that, that don’t give up. They had the dream their whole life. They knew immediately. They didn’t have to think. They didn’t have to think, Jesus, OK, what do you want me to do for you? Oh, gee, wow, that’s a good question. They knew what they wanted.

Chris:
Like Kevin on The Office, when he sits on Michael’s lap in Santa Claus, and he goes, what do you want for Christmas? He goes, I didn’t know you were going to ask me that.

Jeff:
He goes, what did you think was going to happen? So they were prepared. They knew what they wanted. They knew what they needed. They went to the very most important thing. And they were very clear in what they wanted from Jesus. And so having a dream, having a goal, taking advantage of an opportunity in a good moral way that puts God first, and then Jesus says in both Mark and Luke, your faith has healed you. Yeah. Right?

Chris:
Yeah, and let’s be clear, the faith wasn’t them wanting to see. The faith was acknowledging the fact that He was who He said He was.

Jeff:
That Jesus could do it.

Chris:
Son of David, right? That is connected to Scripture. That is a Messiah reference, right? Son of David, have mercy on us. Lord, capital L-O-R-D, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us. Meaning, we believe you can heal us, we believe that you’re Lord, we believe that you’re the son of David, we believe all those things. And their acknowledgement of their faith of who he was, was what saved them.

Jeff:
Yeah, he recognizes Jesus. It’s interesting that a blind guy who’s not a theologian could see that Jesus was the Messiah, but their religious leaders couldn’t see that he was the Messiah. Right. I think that’s just a really great concept and idea. So we have to keep our eyes open and see him for who he truly is. So I hope that our listeners really take this passage and this idea that we talked about in parallel and understand that’s the value of this whole exercise that we’ve been going through on these 250 events in the life of Jesus, going in parallel, is to realize that when you do that, it confirms for you the details of these stories. And so when you’re watching Discovery Channel or you run across some website that says, well, there’s a lot of contradictory things, they’re going to go to passages like this. But if you have an honest and open reading of it, you’re going to realize these aren’t contradictory. It’s possible to have one blind guy named Bartimaeus with a buddy. It’s possible. It’s possible that Jesus spoke out loud and at the same time they brought Bartimaeus over to him. It’s possible. It’s possible that Jesus said, that Jesus touched their eyes, which only Matthew says, And it’s possible that he says, go, your faith has healed you. That’s right. Which Mark and Luke say, but they don’t say that he touched them, right? It’s possible that all those things, none of those things are contradictory. And so I think you can have great confidence when you read in parallel like this, that the word of God is true.

Chris:
Yeah. Hey, one last piece of encouragement before we go, maybe, and that is, I was just glancing at the notes here in the Life Application Study Bible, and it says, we do not know how long Bartimaeus had been blind, but it only took a moment for him to decide to call upon Jesus to help. Jesus had met many spiritually blind people, religious leaders, just like you mentioned, right? family members, people in the crowd, though their eyes were fine, they could not see the truth about Jesus, but blind, Bartimaeus had heard the report that Jesus was coming and boldly cried out. So, we need to overcome our doubts and take the step to call on Him. I like the fact that in that note, what it was saying was, even though he had been blind so long, it only took him a moment to call out on Jesus, And it’s really a great reminder for all of us, no matter how much you’ve been discouraged, no matter how long you’ve been depressed, you know, no matter how long you’ve been rebelling against God and living your own way and doing things that, you know, you don’t feel good about. It only takes one second to go back to God. God is one step away. He’s one cry away. And His salvation and His healing power, His forgiveness, His grace, all of those things are just one cry away. So I just think that it’s a great sermon. It’s a great lesson for all of us. No matter how long you’ve been discouraged, just know that God’s only one prayer away and He’s only one step away from giving us healing and hope.

Jeff:
Yeah, we’re all blind beggars that desperately need a touch from Jesus. And that comes when we have the faith to ask. How much faith does it take? Enough faith to ask. That’s great.

Chris:
We’re all blind beggars. I love that. That’s good. All right. Well, hey, that’s a great place to end. And we will see you next time on The Bible Guys.