Transcription

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

Jeff
All right, we’re back. Chris.

Chris
Bible guy. All right, Bible guys. Okay. No, that’s mailbags. Oh, I know, but I just that’s the only thing I can sing. I’m sorry. Okay. That one note. That’s it. Yeah. That’s funny. All right. I was thinking barbershop quartet where they go Bible guy. Yeah. You know, like that. Yeah, yeah. Anyway.

Jeff
Or one high note and then the middle note and the next note and.

Chris
The bass note. Right. Yeah.

Jeff
Okay. Well, anyways, now that we nerd it out on our fans for no doubt.

Chris
Yeah. Listeners. So the segment is this, it’s called how well do you know them. And before I’ve done this with you but you’ve never done this with me. So it reads this way. Let’s see how well, Chris, you really know Jeff. He’s going to ask you five questions about himself and we’ll see if you know the right answer. So you just learned about this about a minute ago. Yes, yes. So you came up with a sort of five pieces of trivia about you. And and you know what? If it’s a really hard question, give me multiple choice, maybe. Yeah.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah. Oh, well, I’m going to be easy because we know each other well, so this won’t be too terribly difficult. Okay. All right. I’ll start off easy. I was born in Michigan. Yep. What part of Michigan was I born in? Lapeer. Lapeer. There you go. Lapeer, Michigan, which is in the if you know, Michigan, it looks like a hand. And I was born in the thumb. Yeah, yeah, it looks like a mitten. I was born in the thumb or.

Chris
In the thumb.

Jeff
Okay. Number two. Um. Let me see. Oh, man. How many chickens did I try to raise? Two.

Chris
No no no.

Jeff
I told this story one time on the show like a million years ago. My dad came home. He got 50 free chickens for a £50 bag of.

Chris
Oh, wait a minute. I thought this was the story of you fighting the city. No, no, that was here. Okay, well, let me, let me, let me, let me. How many chickens were those?

Jeff
Yeah, that was 100 chickens. Oh, yeah, it was 100 chickens. Yeah. In raising chickens here in, in in my home. In my town. Now, that was four.

Chris
Oh, there you go. Okay, so I was close.

Jeff
So you were close. It was just a couple. Yeah. Okay. So I guess I had two different chicken raising stories I forgot.

Chris
That’s right, that’s right.

Jeff
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. How many Bible colleges have I been expelled from?

Chris
Two. Yes. That’s. That’s really funny.

Jeff
Good job.

Chris
And which, by the way, let our listeners know I declare this. I have never been kicked out of a single Bible college.

Jeff
I know, I just think you weren’t trying hard enough. Well.

Chris
The bottom line is, I never got caught.

Jeff
So. No, mine was always for pranks. It wasn’t. It wasn’t like I was doing something evil. I was just trying. I put bubbles in a fountain and stuff like that. I thought it was funny.

Chris
They didn’t. Yeah, right. I did pranks, but not. Yeah, yeah, we. Yeah. Okay. I don’t want to get into that.

Jeff
So Bonnie and I started dating on the first day of college. Yeah. How long have we been married?

Chris
Okay. You started. But wait. Those are two different things.

Jeff
I know it was a little bit of bait and switch there.

Chris
Okay. You have been married. 31 years.

Jeff
31 years. That’s right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Chris
Good job. And the reason why.

Jeff
Is because you’ve been married.

Chris
31, 31 years.

Jeff
We both got married when we were 21. Yes.

Chris
And the same age. The same age.

Jeff
So I just figured that’s what you would do is do the math on that one. Right? Okay. And was that for.

Chris
That was for. Yeah.

Jeff
One more. Okay. Uh, what is my favorite thing? Food to cook.

Chris
Well, you’ve already said this before because. Because I think my answer was protein. Yeah. That’s right. Right. Yeah. So. But which kind of protein? I would I would say steak.

Jeff
Yes. Absolutely. I love to grill a good steak. That’s it right there. All right. Well I’ve grilled I’ve grilled a few steaks for you.

Chris
Yes you have and I. Yeah I’m very devoured them. I’m very grateful.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah. There you go. See, that was five. You were four for five. That was.

Chris
Pretty good. That’s not too bad.

Jeff
Yeah, well that’s so enlightening right there. So people are like, why do I listen to this guy got kicked out of Bible college. Got married when he was 21. Yep. Raised 104 chickens.

Chris
104 chickens. That’s so funny. Yeah.

Jeff
Hey, guys, I just wanted to take a second and ask you if you’re listening on any of the audio platforms like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, or Spreaker. Would you do us a couple of things? One, give us five stars, of course five stars. Only five stars. If you don’t want to give us five stars, we don’t want to hear from you. But give us five stars and then subscribe, subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. And then on top of that, make sure that you click the little bell so you get notifications when we have a new episode come up. Thank you so much.

Chris
So today we’re going to pivot where Jesus is going to pivot. And we’re and he’s going to basically be talking about his death for the very first time. Right. And and I’ll just give you a hint. They’re not going to get it.

Jeff
No, it’s he has to mention it several times.

Chris
Yeah. And they still didn’t understand.

Jeff
Right. They didn’t understand till after it was all done. Right.

Chris
Until he was resurrected.

Jeff
Which which, by the way, I think that there’s a lesson in that just by itself. It’s not part of the conversation today, but there’s a lot of things, I think, that happen in our lives that we won’t understand until it’s over, right? Till we get past it and we look back and then we go, oh, I see what God’s doing right in the moment. It’s the worst thing we’ve ever experienced.

Chris
And there’s certainly things that will never understand.

Jeff
Yeah. Until we get to heaven.

Chris
Till we get to heaven. Yeah, yeah for sure.

Jeff
Here we go. Anyways, Matthew chapter 16 is the first one and it says from then on. So this is the pivot right. So now on so so Caesarea Philippi, gates of hell will not prevail against the church. And then he pivots and he goes. From then on, Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead. That seems.

Chris
Pretty clear.

Jeff
That seems pretty clear. But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. Heaven forbid, Lord, he said, this will never happen to you, which is so noble, but okay. Sure. Just then Jesus returned or turned to Peter and said, get away from me, Satan. You’re a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s. And then Jesus says, says to his disciples, if any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you’ll lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you profit or benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his father, and will judge all people according to their deeds. And I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Son of Man coming in in his kingdom. That’s the first one. Matthew chapter eight says, Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead. And as he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside, began to reprimand him for saying such things. Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples and then reprimanded Peter, get away from me, Satan! He said, you are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s. Jeff
And then calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, if any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you’ll lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the good news, you’ll save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of His father with the holy angels. Jesus went on to say, I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the kingdom of God arrive in great power. And then in Luke chapter nine, it says, The Son of Man must suffer many terrible things. He said he will be rejected by the elders, the leaders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He’ll be killed, but on the third day he’ll be raised from the dead. And then he said to the crowd, if any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways. Take up your cross daily and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you’ll lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you’ll save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but you yourself are lost or destroyed? If any was ashamed of me and my message, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in glory and in the glory of the father and the holy angels. Jeff
I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the kingdom of God. That’s pretty significant.

Chris
Yes. So let me let me go on to say this first. Just get it out of the way. Jesus makes these comments at the very end of his speeches, and he says, I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the kingdom of God arrive in great power. I have been, I’ve been told over the years, and I’ve heard preachers preach, and they and they try to connect that to the Second coming. Right, right, right, right. But but Jesus does not say, that’s right. Second coming. I’ve actually heard somebody give a whole big thing on, like somebody supernaturally walking the earth. I’m not even kidding you. Yeah, I’m not even kidding you because the word of God can’t be false. That kind of thing. Right? Right, right. Connected. It can’t.

Jeff
Be. But it’s not talking about the second.

Chris
Coming, right? Right. Right, right. So anyway, the bottom line is, is think about all the different times, you know, between now and the end of their lives where they saw the kingdom of God arrive in great power. There were there were some standing there that saw angels at the tomb. Yeah. There were some that saw, you know, Jesus ascend into heaven. Many. Right. And so there were so many things.

Jeff
Well, the temple veil was torn from the top to the bottom at his, at his, at his death. The fact that they saw the resurrected Lord, they saw him transfigured. Just in tomorrow we’re talking about the Transfiguration, right?

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

Jeff
They see all these things. What’s happening is this is the pivot, right? Remember it says from then on, right. So he he been doing miracles and teaching good things from then on. He pivots and says, I’m going to go die and resurrect. And you guys, many of you here, and you have to remember, remember one of the passages said. He turned to the crowd. Right. So he wasn’t only talking to rebuked Peter.

Chris
Right?

Jeff
He wasn’t only talking to these 12 disciples, he was talking to the whole crowd and said, some of you are still going to be alive when this begins to happen. What he’s trying to say is it’s going to happen soon, right? That he’s not talking about the second coming of Christ, which still hasn’t happened yet. Right? But I’ve heard people use all kinds of weird, yeah, weird things to say that that’s what’s happening right now. But it’s not. It’s talking about Jesus is entering into his power as God, right? He’s been walking as a man only in the power of the Holy Spirit. He’s God and man. But you know what I’m saying? They’ve only been seeing him as a man doing miracles, and now they’re going to see him walking in the power of God in a way that they hadn’t seen before. And then he’s defeating Satan at the cross. He’s overcoming death and sin and hell and the grave at the resurrection. They’re going to see him transfigured literally in the presence of some of the prophets in just a couple of days. That’s what he’s talking about. This is the beginning of the kingdom of God.

Chris
Right? And then also, we have to realize that when he’s talking about, you know, we’re going to be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and I’m going to be killed. And on the third day, we have to realize also that the people in the first century understood that he was actually fulfilling prophecies. Yeah. You know, Daniel 926, you know that the Messiah would be cut off. Daniel 927 there would be a period of trouble. 13 through 14 he would come in his glory. So he’s basically, you know, saying these things. And you have to believe that all those Jewish students and the religious teachers and everybody else who knew the book of the law are probably connecting these dots in ways that you and I may overlook.

Jeff
That’s right.

Chris
Right, right. Yeah.

Jeff
So then, you know, I love this section where he says, okay, now I’m going to die. And remember, we’ve months ago, when he started calling his disciples, he was saying, hey, they ask him, where do you where do you sleep? And they’re asking what questions? And Jesus comes and says, well, just just come and see. And then he he tells them later on, follow me. So these same disciples, they come and see Jesus. They’re just investigating. But then they go back to their life fisherman. And then he goes and meets them out there at the docks, or they’re fixing their nets and he says, come and follow me. And they do. They pack up and they leave and they follow. And then he keeps going further and further until now. Finally, he’s saying, hey, you’re going to have to take up your cross with me. I’m going to die, and you need to take up your cross daily. So he’s not saying every one of you, if you’re really going to be my follower, you have to die. He’s saying you’re going to have to be taking up your cross daily. That struggle, the difficulty, the willingness to sacrifice your life for the kingdom of God. You have to take that up every single day. And so he’s he’s continually ratcheting up the expectations and bringing them to a higher and higher level. And we’ve used this analogy before. But, you know, in old kung fu movies, there’d be an old master that would be trying to explain to the new student. There’s another level. When you get to that next level, you’ll understand, right? Suddenly the whole fight slows down and they’re able to jump higher and farther. And. And it feels like this is what Jesus come and see. Jeff
And he’s like, come and follow. And then they’re teaching him stuff. He’s teaching them stuff like, we have no idea what you’re talking about. Next thing you know, he sends them out and they are casting out demons and they are proclaiming the kingdom of God, right? That’s that’s next level stuff. And then he brings them back and he goes, okay, now I’m going to go die. Don’t talk about this until after I resurrect, but I’m going to go die. And you’re going to need to take up your cross and follow me too. There’s there’s always another level.

Chris
So I did a singles retreat, and we had about 700 single adults at this retreat. And there was some sort of level up kind of a theme. And Harvey Carey, which is a good friend of mine, is a black preacher. He’s African-American. And he, you know, he’s got that soul preaching right from, from in Detroit, in Detroit.

Jeff
Right. He’s a great.

Chris
Guy. And I remember he was telling a story about, you know, this is quite a while back. This is in the early 2000 when Remember The Matrix, the first movie. Okay. Well, that video game had just been released like 3 or 4 years before that. And he was talking about how he was at home and he and his son and he was trying to play this matrix game. And he basically said, he goes, I got to a level where he goes, I couldn’t get past it. He goes, I couldn’t get past it. And he goes, and I couldn’t figure out how to level up, he says. And then he goes, one, one day he goes, I was walking through the room and I saw my son, and he goes, and he was on like three levels ahead of me, and he was flying a helicopter. And I thought to myself, I didn’t even know that that was possible. He goes, that is a brand new thought.

Chris
He goes, he goes. That’s how you kill the people. That’s how you win against the agents, because you get to fly in the helicopter and and he goes, he goes, he goes, I got to find the helicopter. But anyway. But the whole point is.

Chris
Is he was talking about how, you.

Chris
Know, what you just said, right? There’s a whole new.

Chris
Level that you know nothing about. Right. And Jesus is calling them to that.

Jeff
Well, that’s one of our hopes for our listeners, is that you get inspired to understand there’s more there’s more to the spiritual walk with Christ than you’ve experienced up to this point. And so you need to, he says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, right? When you get hungry and you thirst, Jesus is not going to leave you hungry. He’s not going to leave you thirsty. He’ll take you that next level. Now that also is going to require more commitment, right? It doesn’t come cheap. And so he says, take up your cross and follow me. And then there’s this incredible statement where Jesus said, listen, if you if you try to keep your life, you’re going to lose it. But if you’re willing to give all of you yourself to me, you’re going to really find your life. And again, I don’t think he’s only talking about death. He’s not talking about martyrdom. He’s talking about if you’re trying to constantly hoard and you’re trying to figure out how to make you and your life better, it’s always going to be less and less enjoyable. But when you start to give your life away for my kingdom, it’s going to be so much more enjoyable. So let me tell you a quick story. I got back from Iraq yesterday and we had lunch with a sheikh, which is kind of cool. And he is a tribal leader, essentially the chief of 10,000 people.

Chris
And you don’t mean like a vanilla sheikh?

Jeff
No no no no no, like a shake, shake.

Chris
Like because I was like, yeah, I’ve had shakes for lunch before. No, no.

Jeff
No, I’m talking to my.

Chris
Guy wearing the my wife blends him.

Jeff
Wearing the white robe and the Rolex and the, you know, the hat and all that stuff. So we have dinner, we’re sitting on the floor, we’re eating this incredible meal. And he’s a not a Christian, but he was very friendly and very open. And so my friend has had a long term relationship, friendship with him. And so we were back and he was so gracious. And he’s open to spiritual conversations, very, very open. And so we were talking back and forth and he was talking about his faith. We talk about Jesus and. He said. Why? He said something along the lines of why are you so compelled? You do so many good things and why? And my friend said, quoted this verse and said, listen, if you just live your life to hang on to all of your life, all the stuff in your life, you’re going to lose it eventually. You’re going to die. You’re not going to have any of it left. And so I have more of an eternal view. And instead I want to give my life away for for the benefit of Jesus and for the benefit of all the people around me. And I give it away through love and service, because then I’ll have real life, right? And the guy said, that is incredible. That’s what I want. Isn’t that neat? So here you have this guy who’s a ruler at 10,000 people. He’s. His family has been freely leading this tribe for over a thousand years. And he’s the he’s the son. And eventually one of his sons is going to lead. And they have collected and accumulated and they have power and they have so many things. And he immediately understood what Jesus was saying there. Jeff
If you just try to hang on, there’s not much to it, and eventually you lose it. Because he had just talked about succession, right? Eventually this won’t be his kingdom either. Right? Right, right. And so we were just talking about there’s more to live for and than just our own kingdom.

Chris
And it’s also an indication that he understands wealth and luxuries really don’t satisfy. Right, right. There has to be more because he has it all. Yeah.

Jeff
Well he had it all and lost it all. So I ISIS came through and obliterated Mosul and his family lost everything. Okay. And so he has a lot still. But his tribe, let me say his tribe lost everything. And so most of his tribe lives in refugee camps. We went to the refugee camps and spent time with them. And so he’s seen it when when they had everything. He’s seen it when they had nothing. They’re in the process of rebuilding all those kinds of things. But what he realized is kingdoms come and go, right? They do. And we’re building our own little kingdoms, right? We’re trying to build our own little kingdoms inside the fence and on our little half acre. And, you know, we’re trying to build our own little kingdoms that our workplace or at our school or or, you know, in our friend group or whatever we’re trying to collect. We’re trying to. And if you become self centered, you’re going to lose your life even while you’re living. You’ll lose it. And then when you die, none of it mattered. Or you can give your life for his kingdom. And when you die, it never ends, right? And he could see that. He could see that man. If there was some way to make my life matter beyond my life, that’s what I want to be a part of. Oh, he’s so close. Pray for my friend. He’s a chef. I’m not going to say his name. I don’t want to put him in danger. But pray for my friend, the Sheikh. He’s. He’s close to the kingdom of Jesus.

Chris
That’s awesome. You know, I think I mentioned this before, but I actually this was the verse that I built my youth ministry around. Oh, really? So take up your cross and follow me. For what good is it if you, you know the whole world, gain the whole world and lose your own soul? So? So it was. It was painted right on the wall, you know, it was just. And it was there. And everybody in the powerful, in the youth group, they learned it and they knew it and and everything else. And so but the concept of that, it really is just like a theme for your life. Yeah. You just have to mentalities. If you if you try to hang on, you’re going to lose it. And if you let go, you find it, you hang on to it. Right? It’s just it’s just it’s counterintuitive. And the only reason why we’re able to pursue things that are counterintuitive to our fleshly desires, our, you know, our natural instincts. You know, our selfishness is through the power of God. Yeah. Right.

Jeff
I find myself I don’t know, you know, we were talking about leveling up. This level seems to be my spot right now where I’m trying to. I feel like I vacillate back and forth because I’m at 52. The Bible says that a wise man prepares for his old age. Right? Well, I’m at the peak of my earning time. Right?

Chris
Are we at 52 already?

Jeff
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Wow.

Chris
So that’s 51.

Jeff
Is it 51 or 52? 52. We’re 53. 52. Yeah. 52. Dang it. I had to think about it. That’s how old we are. We can’t remember when you when you were 11, you said, I’m 11.5. I’m 11.75. And now you’re like, I can’t remember. I’m somewhere in my 50s. Right? But but at this age. So I find myself. I want only the kingdom when I’m, when I’m, you know, serving people and doing those things. And then when I’m home and I’m working out, you know, my retirement, all those things. Now all of a sudden I’m thinking, I got to make these decisions. And the Bible says that a wise man does prepare for his old age and prepares to take care of himself. And so I find myself. I feel like I’m phasing back and forth between the necessities of this life and the kingdom only, and I keep going back and forth between these two things. And and I don’t want to be I want to be faithful for my family and take care of them and provide for them. I just don’t want to be only focused on the kingdom I can build here. I want to be more focused on those things that last forever. Right? So I have to be faithful in the everyday things. You’ve got to pay the house and, you know, upkeep and all those kinds of things. And those are necessary and good. They’re not bad. I just can’t live for them. I live for the eternal things while I those things help me live. There’s a difference. Those things help me live. But I’m really living. My life is for the other. So I have friends who think, man, you know I can’t serve God because I’m not in the ministry. Jeff
I’m like, your job is for two purposes. One, to help you live and to, you know, pay the bills, all those things. And for your ministry. Right. Use these things for ministry. And so if we can start to figure out how to use our every day life as ministry instead of us hanging on to it, rather being open handed and giving our life away while we’re still providing for ourselves. There’s there’s something there, and I really do feel that’s the next level up that I’m working on right now in my life. That’s great.

Chris
Yeah, well that’s cool. That’s a that’s a great place to end. And we’ll see you next time on The Bible Guys.