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 Jeff.

Jeff:
Hey Chris.

Chris:
There it is. I didn’t even ask if you were going to do it. I just looked at you thinking. That was all week. I was thinking if you weren’t going to do it, I was going to call you out.

Jeff:
It’s the fanfare. It’s the fanfare announcing the beginning of another amazing episode of The Bible Guys.

Chris:
We need to have some sort of a jingle or something. The Bible Guys. Or that’s mailbags, isn’t it? The Bible Guys. There you go. Whatever it is. You remember Here’s Johnny? Here’s Johnny. That was very iconic for anybody who’s 45 and older.

Jeff:
I was going to say, yeah. All your stories lately have been…

Chris:
Hey, I have one life, Jeff. I didn’t live two lives. I lived my own life. So I can only reference Gilligan’s Island and such. By the way, that’s how, that’s one of the very first things I ever did as a pastor of high school students. I was only like my mid twenties, but I actually said, Hey, everybody stand up, shake hands and tell everybody your favorite cast member of the Gilligan’s Island.

Jeff:
I really said that. Back in like 1993?

Chris:
Yes, yes, it was like 94. I said it like 94. And we looked at each other and they said, Gilligan’s what? And it was one of the very first times I thought, oh, I’m old. Yeah. I’m older than the people I’m talking to. Yeah. Right. I wasn’t old, but I was older than them.

Jeff:
So Gilligan’s Island. Did you watch Green Acres? Of course. And Beverly Hillbillies?

Chris:
Yes. Yeah. And Petticoat Junction? No, I didn’t watch that.

Jeff:
Too Western for me. What else? Yeah. There were a bunch of those back then. That’s funny. Yeah. Of course, we were watching the reruns.

Chris:
Yes, of course. It was really the generation before us. It was our, my older brother’s generation. Okay. So today Desiree says this, today’s parable that we’re about to read is about the wedding dinner. So we’re going to focus today on food. Jeff is going to tell you, Chris, two truths and a lie.

Jeff:
And I missed breakfast this morning, so I’m glad about this one.

Chris:
Oh yeah. Well, it’s gonna make you more hungry. I know. About some of his grilling and cooking experiences. You’ll have to figure out which one’s a lie. By the way, for our listeners who do not know, Jeff is, in my world, I would call him a master griller. He wouldn’t consider himself a master griller. Maybe you do. But he is the grill meister, especially to our staff. So for all of the people out there who work at other churches.

Jeff:
Just come on over to Heritage Church. We’ll grill for you.

Chris:
Well, I’m going to brag on you, Jeff. I’ve never been a part of a church or haven’t even heard of a church. where when there’s a staff meeting and there’s, you know, probably what, 40 staff on our staff, you go out there and in the hot sun, in some cases, enslave and cook and delight us with some of the best food ever. And I think, honestly, that our staff doesn’t appreciate it because if this is their first church they’ve ever worked at, this is just what happens. It’s just all they know.

Jeff:
You know, the CEO always cooks for everybody.

Chris:
And here I am coming in from other places and I’m going, you do what? And I’m eating and going like, guys, this doesn’t happen everywhere else. Like this is a privilege.

Jeff:
And it’s so good, dude. And so, you know, Jesus, to show that he loved his disciples and to serve, he washed their feet. Right. And I’m never going to touch your feet.

Chris:
I will never touch your toes, Chris.

Jeff:
Ever. But I’ll grill you a steak.

Chris:
I’ll make you some tacos. Which is the 21st century, you know, it’s the 21st equivalent.

Jeff:
Yeah. So I love it. Um, it’s a, it’s, I love, so I’m kind of a recipe guy in that, uh, I’m not very innovative or I’m not, I’m not very inventive. I don’t make up a new thing, but I love to get a hold of some kind of a formula and then tweak it. Right. Make it a little better. So that that’s, that’s what I love about it. So even though cooking is so different from everything else I do, I usually cook from a recipe of sometime. And so that’s why I do that.

Chris:
Hey, by the way, since we already opened the can of worms about the foot never touching the feet, let me just go ahead on record. Which is coming up in a few days. Yes. Oh, that’s right. It is. Let me go on record and say, oh, well, you know what? We’ll save it for two days. Cliffhanger.

Jeff:
Okay, I don’t know that it’s two days, but it’s coming up because we’re in the last few days of Jesus’ life.

Chris:
And he does it in the upper room. Yes. Okay, so cliffhanger. I have something to say about it.

Jeff:
You have a very special story.

Chris:
Well, kind of. It’s more of an opinion about foot washing in general, but it’s a biblical opinion about why I will never do it. And by the way, for some people that is almost… It’s as big as communion and baptism. Yes! And I want to acknowledge that. I’m not saying that my way is the best way, and I’m not trying to disrespect foot washing. I’m just saying I’ll never do it.

Jeff:
Anyways, my grilling is the way that I like to serve people. So let me give you a couple stories. I have to give you two truths. Oh yeah, I thought we were done with the segment. Let me go quickly here. Yes, go ahead. So this has to be super fast. One time I cooked for about, what was it, about six people and the chicken was a little raw and everybody got sick. I one time had my grill too close to my house and I destroyed a six foot by six foot plate glass window because the heat broke the glass. I once grilled for over a hundred people.

Chris:
Those are the three instances. Okay. So, so almost killing six people with raw chicken.

Jeff:
Just sick.

Chris:
Yeah. Destroying. I didn’t kill anybody.

Jeff:
I’m being, I said almost, I was being dramatic. It was just undercooked.

Chris:
Breaking a glass window from sheer heat or cooking for a hundred people because that’s a lot of people to cook for. Right. I’m going to say the lie is cooking for a hundred people.

Jeff:
Yeah, no, I’ve cooked for 100 people. Yeah, yeah, we’ve cooked for 100 people. One of the guys in our church helped us one time and we did smoked pork for 800 people for Heritage at one time. Holy Christmas. But I didn’t do hardly any of the smoking. He did all of it. So that was great. But yeah, I’ve served 100 people. No, the lie was I’ve never had anybody get sick from my food that I know of. Nobody’s ever told me that I get sick. Yeah, but I did. You got to be careful having your grill too close to your house because you can melt siding and break windows.

Chris:
Right, right. And that’s just from the heat. And you only have to learn that once.

Jeff:
Just one time. One time. It was our second grill. And it was our very first house that we ever owned.

Chris:
Oh, no.

Jeff:
So we’d only been in a few months. We had this nice little porch that I just built on the front of it. Yeah. And then I thought, oh, the grill looks perfect right here in front of this window. Yeah. And yeah, it broke it.

Chris:
So there you go. That was it.

Jeff:
That was thrilling, by the way. It had to have been just, people are like, are you serious? Yes. Okay. So today we are reading Matthew 22, one through 14. This is the only place that Jesus tells this story specifically. And it’s, he’s telling about a wedding dinner, which is why we’re talking about this.

Chris:
Yes.

Jeff:
Jesus told them other parables. He said, the kingdom of heaven can be illustrated by the story of a King who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited, but they all refused to come. And so he sent other servants to tell them, the feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed and everything is ready. Come to the banquet. But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way. One to his farm, another to his business. Others seized his messengers and insult them and killed them. The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town. And he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honor. Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see. So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. Friend, he asked, how is it that you’re here without wedding clothes? But the man had no reply, and the king said to his aides, Bind his hands and feet, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen.

Chris:
Yeah, so if we’re connecting the dots here, the wedding feast is the kingdom of heaven. It can be illustrated by the story of this. So obviously it’s a story about heaven. It’s about the kingdom, which means that God, the father is the king, right? The wedding feast is a celebration for his son. So this is almost a continuation from yesterday.

Jeff:
Yeah. Well, do you remember a few days ago it said that he was teaching every single day in the temple.

Chris:
Right.

Jeff:
Remember he was, he was leaving every evening and going out to the hillside or Bethany or the Mount of Olives or whatever. But then he was coming in every day and teaching in the temple.

Chris:
It said he did it the first night. So we’ll have to assume that he probably did it every night.

Jeff:
But, but it did say he was teaching every day in the temple. Yes. And so, um, these are the teachings in the temple.

Chris:
So it could have been a different day.

Jeff:
Yeah. Yeah. This is, or it could have just been last hour I taught you this one and this hour I’m teaching this one.

Chris:
Right. Right. Something similar, which he sometimes did to reinforce the same point.

Jeff:
But this is all from the teachings in the temple is what I’m, what I’m saying there. So, yeah.

Chris:
And then, uh, so, so it’s sort of left to assume that, uh, the same application of yesterday’s podcast, you know, the ones he invited, you know, killed and murdered and seized the messengers, that would be the prophets, right? They didn’t come to the feast, they didn’t come to the celebration of the sun, which means they’re not receiving the sun, right? So it’s just like the stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone kind of thing. And then he goes out to the highways and the hedges. He goes out to everybody and he invites them. And so he’s going to other nations. That’s just like yesterday’s podcast or topic. And then he finds one guest without wedding clothes. And so what do you think that represents?

Jeff:
So that’s the biggest topic in this whole thing. So I personally believe that, well, one, so just understand it was customary when a king would invite people to his party, that he also would do a couple things. It would be multiple invitations. The reason being the first one would be the invite, would you come? And then you affirm, yes, I will come. Okay, we’ll let you know when it’s ready. Because they didn’t have microwaves and timers to be able to, they’re cooking over fire. Right, all that kind of stuff. So it takes a long time to prepare and it’s not very precise. And so, okay, I’ll send my servants back to come and get you when it’s ready. And so that’s why there’s two invitations. There’s a first one, would you come? Second one, hey, it’s ready, come. In the second one, or in the first one, if you agree, then in the second one, you would receive wedding clothes. because nobody had the resources that the king has, right? So you’d receive wedding clothes from the king, and that would be like showing your ticket. The fact that you were wearing, you’re not wearing peasant clothes like everybody else wears. You come walking in wearing clearly whatever the outfit was that we’re supposed to be wearing for the feast. So if that is the analogy he’s using, that the king is the one who provides the wedding clothes, that’s why he would have noticed that somebody wasn’t wearing wedding clothes. Right? Hey, I sent out specific stuff and I didn’t send that. So in that case then, I think it refers to, personally I think it refers to where the Bible says, like in Romans chapter 8 verse 1, there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Over and over and over again it talks about, the Bible talks about when we’re truly saved, we are in Christ. As a matter of fact, it talks about how we’re clothed in his righteousness, right? And we put on his garment of righteousness. And so that would be the thing, is that what he noticed was that this guy’s an imposter. Everybody else was clothed by the king, and he is not. This is an imposter trying to sneak in.

Chris:
He could be an enemy. He could be from a foreign land. He’s definitely not someone who… And again, to me, by the way, side note, It makes more sense if the king was the one providing the clothes and they were the ones who refused the clothes. Meaning, you know, we preach the gospel, those who receive it, receive it. Those who reject it, reject it.

Jeff:
Yeah. Because this story is not saying this guy tried real hard and just didn’t have good enough clothes. Right. Right. It’s that the tradition would be that the king provides the clothes.

Chris:
And not only that, but it’s also, they go out of their way to say the man had no reply. Because if he was a person who said, hey, I tried. I just don’t have any clothes. I’m just poor. That’s not what he’s saying here. The man had no reply. So he had no excuse is what it’s saying.

Jeff:
And so many are called, but few are chosen. The chosen ones were the ones who showed up in the clothes they were given. Right. Right. That’s what that’s really referencing there.

Chris:
Yeah. So in my mind, whether or not the king provided the clothes or whether or not it was just absolutely customary. And again, I’m a believer that the king did supply the clothes, by the way. But whether or not they just it was just absolutely. an insult against custom to show up without the proper clothes. Either way, what he’s saying is you have to be, the parable is you have to be clothed in a certain way to be part of the wedding banquet, which again could represent salvation, right? So whether the King provided the clothes or didn’t, I don’t even think even really matters, but it makes way more sense that the King would provide and that they would reject. But the point is, is that there is one at the dinner party who refused to, um, uh, to put on the right clothes. So, and then had no reply. Right. So I think that, you know, the, the, the word picture is clear. So, you know, Jesus talks about he, in John chapter 14, he says, I’m the way the truth and the life, and no man gets to the father except through me. And if there’s anybody listening now on the podcast, maybe around the world who, who doesn’t, uh, think that that’s a, uh, you know, a reasonable claim. You know, we’ve said this before in the past, well, Christianity is the only one, you know, that is all-inclusive. Right. Right? It’s for everybody. It’s for everybody. Because in other world religious systems, there’s no passing grade. There’s no clarity on how many good deeds are enough to get to heaven. But in Christianity, it’s true that everybody is invited, everybody is qualified, and everybody gets in the same way. Everybody can make the cut, everybody’s invited, and everybody gets in the exact same way. And no other world religion is that actually true. So it’s not an exclusive

Jeff:
And everybody that gets in, gets in through the gift of the Father. That’s right. Through the gift of the King. It’s not, it’s not that they bought their way in. Right. Because they’re clothed in his righteousness.

Chris:
Because only in the story of Jesus does God himself pay for our sin. Right. Right. We don’t have to pay for it ourselves. We don’t have to do good deeds because God himself loves and sacrifices for us. So it just requires faith. It requires belief. And so it’s not an exclusive claim to only get to God through Jesus. It’s the most inclusive invitation that exists in mankind.

Jeff:
In Ephesians chapter five, it talks about, it says, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, right? But then it goes on and it talks about how he clothes his bride in the cleanest and holiest of gowns, right? Well, the Christianity, the church is the bride of Christ, right? So when you get to the book of Revelation, when he’s talking about the church of Sardis, he talks about how they soiled their clothes. Their clothes were dirty clothes. He had to give them white robes, holy robes, right? Because the church had walked away from him and back into the world. And then he’s like, no, I have to clothe you again in my righteousness. And then when you get to the final thing, and this is what I just looked up in Revelation chapter 19, verse 7, it says, let us be glad and rejoice Oh, now let me go above verse six. It says, praise the Lord for the Lord, our God, the almighty reigns. And it says that this is a vast crowd of people singing. Sounds like the roar of a mighty ocean waves that crash a loud thunder. So just shaking the whole thing. Right. And they’re singing, praise the Lord for the Lord, our God, almighty reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and let us give honor to him for the time has come for the wedding feast of the lamb and his bride has prepared herself. She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear, for the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people, right? And so the only people, I believe that this story is alluding to that final great feast, the great banquet, right? The marriage supper of the lamb. And it was, it’s, the groom gave the bride the clothes.

Chris:
Yeah. Well, it definitely would support that. Right. Right. Yeah.

Jeff:
So I think it’s the same because there will be no imposters at that point. Right. And that’s what I think Jesus is talking about here personally.

Chris:
That’s very cool. Yeah. And it’s a pretty clear indication that there is an eternity separation from God. There’ll be weeping and there’ll be gnashing of teeth. There’ll be casting into outer darkness. You know, when people want to erase the idea of hell, it’s really hard when you hear parables like this and you’re like, um, what does that mean? Right. Right. So, you know, that’s why, that’s why it’s so imperative when God says to share my message with other people, to, you know, let everybody know about God’s radical love and his grace for them. The reason why you are so adamant about, you know, this, this initiative around the world more than most, you know, you’re a part of an organization that concentrates on planting churches, starting churches in villages and in places where there’s no churches.

Jeff:
Our goal is a church in every village everywhere. Achieve. The first letter of each of those. A church in every village everywhere. Achieve. We want to achieve. Achieve.

Chris:
Yeah. And the Timothy Initiative is what you’re chairman of on the board. And it’s like, and there’s other organizations that are like that. None, by the way, as effective as the Timothy Initiative, side note. But the reason why is because of this. It’s because that’s our mission. That’s our goal. Our goal as Christians is to first primarily chief priority above anything else is to give the gospel and tell the story of Jesus. Which, by the way, is exactly why we choose to use our weekend services, and we gear it toward those who don’t know God. Right? Now, not everybody does that, right? I’ve always said, our good friend Nick says, there’s all kinds of churches for all different kinds of people, right? And so I don’t, you know, People can actually have their own opinions, and that’s fine. And they say, like, oh no, the church on Sunday morning should be geared for worship and the Christians and everything else, and of course it’s for the Christians.

Jeff:
And what we’re talking about is the worship service or what’s happening on Sunday morning, the gathering. So my big answer to my board when they were asking this, when I was like 34 years old and I had just got 35, I just come here to church, and they were asking, what is the purpose of the church? Is it for lost people or is the church for Christians? And you said, right. And I said, well, I think that the question itself is faulty. I think what you’re asking is what is the purpose of the church services, right? That’s what you’re asking. Because we are the church, and we are here for the world. So then my question was, if that’s the case, we are the church, the people are the church, not what happens for an hour on Sunday morning, but we are the church. The building is not the church. We are the church, and God left us on this planet to reach the world, to invite everybody to the banquet, right? That’s our job. We’re here for the world. Then that changes the question because now I’m asking what should I be doing together as the church at different times during the week? What’s the most strategic time in our community to bring people to Christ to hear the gospel? And we did a survey. We surveyed 500 people. I don’t know if you knew that. We went to the mall and we just went around and asked people, hey, are you a regular church attender? And if they said yes, we’d say, okay, thank you, you know, and whatever. But we had 500 people who said, no, I don’t go to church regularly. I’m not really big on faith. I’d say, okay, if you wanted to get right with God, let’s just say suddenly there was this moment and you want to get right with God, what would you do? And I’m telling you, I don’t remember the exact number now, it was like 475 said, I would either go talk to a priest or a pastor, and I’d go to church. So of the ones, 400 of them told us I’d go to church. They asked, when would you go to church? They’d say, I’d go on a Sunday morning. What time? What time’s the best time? Oh, I don’t know. What time do they go? Like 10 or 11? Right. And so then I go back to my leaders and I say, in our community, this isn’t in every community, but in our community, if a lost person says, I need to get right with God, and they don’t know where to go. They’re going to show up at a church building somewhere in the middle of the morning at 10, 11 o’clock.

Chris:
Well, you had to back up your answer.

Jeff:
I did. Well, I’m that guy, though. I’m the guy who goes and gets evidence. I don’t just argue. Right, right, right. And so I went and got the evidence and came back and said, hey, 400 people told me that they would go to church, they’d go to a church building. So I’m not saying that everything the church should do is at and for. non-Christians, but our 10 o’clock, our 8.30, our 10, our 11.30, and our one o’clock gatherings on Sunday morning, we target at lost people. They’re not for lost people, but we’re targeting them at lost people. We are aware that lost people in the room, everybody benefits, right? We’re aware that they’re there. We’re translating it. We’re trying to capture people’s attention long enough to capture hearts for Jesus, but everybody benefits. Lost people can’t worship. They can’t do those things, but they can enjoy the music. They can be inspired by the message.

Chris:
Yeah, my favorite thing to say is when Jesus told us to go be fishers of men, the biggest question is, did he want quantity of fish or quality of fish? And the answer is yes.

Jeff:
Yes. He wants both. He wants both. I want lots of big fish.

Chris:
Right. Lots of big fish, which means that Sunday morning should be for both. By the way, you can do both. But it takes incredible intentionality to make certain that everything gets funneled through the eyes of the first-time guest, which is what we do. Anyway, all that to say, it’s because of passages like this, because the importance of it, right? So when it talks about how the stakes are high, how souls are at stake, and eternity is at stake, and then God gives us the mission, it’s like, how could you possibly not include that somewhere prominent in your ministry somewhere? And for us, it’s on Sunday mornings. So anybody who attends Heritage or knows about Heritage, this is just a great reminder for us of why we do what we do and how we do it.

Jeff:
That’s fantastic.

Chris:
So, hey, I think that’s a great place to end and we’ll see you hopefully on Monday on The Bible Guys.