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
I think you should. You should, you should.

Chris
You should welcome.

Jeff
No, I think it’d be a good idea. Just. Just say something like. Jesus.

Jeff
Welcome.

Jeff
Hey. There you go. Hi.

Chris
Jesus is the light of the world.

Jeff
He’s Chris, and I’m Jeff. We’re the Bible guys. So today we have a really important segment.

Chris
Yes, yes. Well, it’s not just Jesus talking about being the light because he’s done that I think, before. Right?

Jeff
I was talking about the dad joke competition. Oh.

Chris
I thought for sure you were going to segway into the topic of the day. That’s really funny. All right.

Jeff
Okay, well.

Chris
There you go. Well, hey, let’s get to the let’s get to the fun stuff. The important stuff? Yeah, the really important stuff. The dad jokes.

Jeff
Yeah. So, dad joke competition.

Chris
That’s really funny, dude.

Jeff
Okay, here you go. Here’s my first one. Can I do my first one?

Chris
First, let’s remind the readers we’ve not read these yet.

Jeff
We have not read these yet. Okay, so these are did.

Chris
I say remind the.

Jeff
Readers? Remind the readers, listeners, this is a rough morning. Let me just say, buddy. Okay. We’re going to keep it though.

Chris
Yeah.

Jeff
Here you go. Ready? Yep. I told my wife she should embrace her mistakes, so she gave me a big hug.

Chris
Uh, that’s funny, because you’re the mistake.

Jeff
I’m the mistake? Yes.

Chris
All right. Did you hear.

Jeff
About. Do you think it’s funny that I’m the mistake? Or just that that was the way the joke went?

Chris
No, the way the joke went.

Jeff
Oh, okay. Okay. I thought you were being mean.

Chris
No. Uh, did you hear the one? Did you hear the one about the circus fire? No. It was intense.

Jeff
Oh, no, it was terrible. That’s terrible. I went to buy some camouflage pants, but I couldn’t find any.

Chris
Oh, I like that. I actually like.

Jeff
That. Okay, you like that one?

Chris
Okay. How do you follow Will Smith in the mud? Oh, no. You follow the Fresh Prince.

Jeff
Oh, no. No.

Chris
That’s really funny.

Jeff
Okay. Did you hear about the restaurant on the moon? Great food, no atmosphere.

Chris
That’s actually. That’s actually.

Jeff
Really good.

Chris
Okay, okay. All right. I used to have a job at a calendar factory. I got fired because I took a couple of days off.

Jeff
Yeah, well, there’s that calendar factory. Yeah. Why did the math book look sad? Why? Because it had too many problems.

Chris
Oh, that.

Jeff
Was a rough one. That was a rough one. Rough one.

Chris
All right. How do you deal with a fear of speed bumps? I don’t know. You slowly get over it.

Jeff
I like that one. Okay. Best one. Best one of the day. Right here. All right. I was going to tell you a joke about time travel, but you didn’t like it.

Chris
Oh. That’s great. That’s really clever. That’s really clever. That’s a good one right there. I think I’m.

Jeff
Just going to declare myself the winner in advance.

Chris
Wait a minute. I got one more. I know.

Jeff
But it was a time travel joke. All right, hang on, I know that I won.

Chris
All right, here we go. This is it, buddy. Buckle up. Here it comes. Buckle up. All right. Okay. What are the strongest days off the. Wait, what? What are the strongest days off the week? What are the strongest days off the week?

Jeff
How about of. It’s probably a misspelled word. What are the strongest days of the week?

Chris
Oh, that’s what it is. You think so? Yeah. Well, it’s definitely spelled off.

Jeff
Let me help you out.

Chris
But I bet you it’s up. Yeah. Okay, let me start over there.

Jeff
Spelling is off, right?

Chris
Exactly. The spelling is off.

Jeff
Yeah. There you go.

Chris
All right, here we go. Let’s start over. Okay. What are the strongest days of the week?

Jeff
I have no idea, Chris.

Chris
Saturday and Sunday because all the other days are week days.

Jeff
Oh, no. Oh, no. Yeah.

Chris
Your time travel.

Jeff
Wins. Totally. Totally going with the time travel joke.

Chris
Yeah. Okay. I couldn’t get past the other thing. I couldn’t get it. Yeah, yeah, but it’s off, okay.

Jeff
It’s off of of off.

Chris
Yeah. Well, you know what? Hey, that that sort of revived our calendar or our our podcast. Yeah. Our morning. So, so.

Jeff
So if you’re wondering why we’re stumbling through our words is we started an hour early today.

Chris
Yes.

Jeff
Yes. And we are people of routines.

Chris
I woke up at 6 a.m.. Yes. It’s actually 558. Yeah. And then my wife’s like do the dishes. How do you think.

Jeff
The people who are listening to this at like 530 feel like getting up at.

Chris
Six? We’re heading into a manual labor job. That’s right, that’s right. We’re thinking to themselves, man, you guys are losers. Yeah, yeah. So I apologize right now. I follow my sword. Yep. I follow my sword.

Jeff
But it’s just it’s just different. And for for speaking like this. Do you have a routine on the weekends when you speak? Do you have, like, a the way it’s supposed to go for your morning?

Chris
Um, it’s pretty simple, I would say. I would just say everything is completely done to where all I have to do is get up, get ready and be there exactly on time for my first required time to be there. Yeah.

Jeff
I’m not a very routine oriented person. Like I despise routine, except on the weekends. On Sunday, I have a very, very precise kind of a routine and if anything messes it up, I just feel out of kilter, especially for the first service. I don’t know why. So it’s really weird for me. So I’m just going to blame all the fumbling that we’ve done up to this point on the fact that we’re here an hour early and it messed up our routine.

Chris
Okay, I accept it, right? Right. Okay, I’ll allow you accept it. I’ll allow.

Jeff
It. Okay.

Chris
Do you remember when do you remember when Tony Stark was in Doctor Strange’s thing in The Avengers? It was in Infinity Wars. And he. And he touches, like a piece and Doctor Strange whack. And he hits his hand, and then Tony Stark goes, I’ll allow that. That’s so good.

Jeff
Hey, we’re going to give you a mission. Project to do. Would you like us? Follow us on Facebook. And would you then share us on Facebook with all of your friends and family? Because we know Facebook needs Jesus. Facebook needs a little bit of the Bible guys, so make sure you do that today. So we are in John chapter eight and we’re going to read 12 through 20. So it’s only eight verses. And it’s interesting because Jesus said words like this before with a totally different meaning. So let’s look at it.

Chris
And side note, because we’re in the series about the harmony of the Gospels, where we’re taking a look at all the Gospels, recording the same events, because we’re only in John today, it means only John recorded this particular one.

Jeff
That’s right. Well, we’re kind of on a streak here of only John. Yes. Right. It’s been that way. Yeah. And then this week it’ll be quite a bit of only John as well. So John wrote a lot of things that the other gospels didn’t include and vice versa. So here we go. Says Jesus, spoke to the people once more and said, I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness because you will have the light that leads to life. The Pharisees replied, you’re making those claims about yourself. Such testimonies not valid. Jesus told them, these claims are valid even though I make them about myself, for I know where I came from and where I’m going. But you don’t know this about me. You judge me by human standards, but I do not judge anyone, and if I did, my judgment would be correct in every respect because I’m not alone. Wow. The father who sent me is with me. Your own law says that if two people agree about something, their witness is accepted as fact. I am one witness and my father who sent me is the other. Who is your father? They asked. Jesus answered, since you don’t know who I am, you don’t know who my father is. If you knew me, you would also know my father. Jesus made these statements while he was teaching in the section of the temple known as the Treasury, but he was not arrested because his time had not yet come. Oh, this is such a cool move from him.

Chris
Yeah. And and what’s what’s the biggest thing that stands out here is he’s sort of saying that those particular Pharisees that were with them don’t know God. Yeah. That’s what he’s sort of saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And now I don’t think that’s a blanket statement about all Pharisees.

Jeff
Right. But the turn of words here.

Chris
Yes.

Jeff
Is so clever because they knew what he was talking about. They were trying to force him to say it, because if he had said, my father is God, right? That’s full on blasphemy. And he would have been saying it in public. I mean, he’s at the Treasury, right?

Chris
And his time had not yet come. Yeah, right. So he uses clever words. Right.

Jeff
So, so what he says is, well, if you don’t know who I am, you don’t know who my father is, but they know who he’s talking about. They know he’s talking about God. Right. But then this is kind of like a backhanded slap in that. Oh, well, if you don’t know, if you don’t know me, then you don’t know my father. And so what, you’re trying to bust me on now? You can’t unless you acknowledge the fact that I’m claiming it’s my father. Is God in heaven, right. So you have to be able to say that. So it’s such a clever way of him getting out of which he does several times. Several times he backs them into a corner where he’s going to force their hand when they think they’re being so slick and forcing his. It’s such a great move. But anyways.

Chris
And he he addresses their, you know, their tenascin ity of trying to frame him or corner him or get him to, you know, blaspheme himself. And so he addresses that by saying, I’m not judging you, you’re judging me. And if I were judging you, by the way, my judging would be absolutely perfect. Your judgment is bad. Yeah. That’s right. That’s really what he’s saying. Yeah. And it’s just incredibly, you know, bold. Yeah. He’s in their house, so to speak. Right. Even though it’s not his, their house. It’s Jesus’s house. Right, right. But but they don’t know that. And at least they’re not not acknowledging it. And so yeah Jesus is very strong here. And it’s actually great.

Jeff
So he’s in the area of the Treasury which is in the court of women, which is also, I think, just another interesting, you know, he was there another time when the widow dropped the mite in the little offering basket. So according to the notes here in the Life Application Study Bible, there were 13 collection stations, half of them were for the temple tax or their tithe. Right. And then the other ones were for special offerings just to give extra. And so it’s interesting that he’s hanging around where the money is. He’s not intimidated by that. That’s not kind of weird to him. He’s also in the area where the women were and a lot of the devout, really, really, really holy leaders wouldn’t go where the women were. So that’s an interesting thing that he’s in this court of women, because beyond that point, only men were allowed deeper into the temple. Right? Right. And so he’s standing out there making these proclamations, challenging the Pharisees. So they probably were not all of them, but many of them maybe wouldn’t have even normally been there, except for the fact that they’re just chasing Jesus and harassing him. Right. And so they’re giving him a hard time, and he makes this declaration that he is the light of the world. Right? Which is I mean, that’s what Jesus point was. And then they come in and they’re like, oh, well, you don’t even know what you’re talking about, blah blah blah. And it turns into this other conversation. But this idea that I’m the light of the world and if you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness because you have the light that leads to life. And he’s you’ll find several times now from here towards his crucifixion, where the Bible talks about how he looks at people and he has compassion on them because they’re like a shepherd or like sheep without a shepherd, or like they’re lost and they don’t know where they’re going. Jeff
And this is kind of one of those, right, that he’s seeing these multitudes of people because, remember, he grew up and did most of his ministry in small, small towns. Right? And now he’s in Jerusalem, the biggest town in the region, the biggest city in the region. So he’s just seeing these herds of people, flocks of people. And he’s like, these people are just lost. They don’t even know where they’re at, man. If they just knew, if they just knew that I’m the light and my light will show them the way. If they just knew that. Right. So that’s what he’s trying to say to the people, especially all these women in the, in the court of women near the Treasury, all this kind of stuff. If you just knew, if you just knew what I had. And how often have you had that in your life where you were with somebody who just seemed so confused and you just wish they could understand who Jesus is and what Jesus could bring to them? Yeah.

Chris
Well, for me, the first thing that comes to my mind are funerals. Oh, yeah. So, you know, I often times get phone calls from funeral homes who, you know, in our generation now. So we’re 50 years old, 50, 52. Yeah, we’re 52. How did that happen? And so and so in our area, in our particular area, it seems like the people who are in charge of funerals, it seems to be like their parents were the ones that went to church. And then they currently don’t go to church. Yeah. And they want some sort of God centered religious funeral service, but they also don’t really know what religion to, to call because, you know, different members of the family are loosely connected to different denominations, right? So what they do is they end up calling a non-denominational pastor, right? And so the funeral home will call me and they’ll say, oh, I got just the guy, you know, Chris Zarba, you know? And so then they’ll give me a call and I’ll go in. And then sometimes, of course, well, all the time I ask all about the deceased, hey, tell me about this person so I can represent them well. And then when I get to the end, I always phrase it very casually because I don’t know what the answer is, and I always say, so let me ask you a question. Have any one of you ever had a conversation with this person about their faith? Do they believe in God, go to church, anything like that? So I’m trying to be very loose about it. Yeah. And of course if they do, then I dive right in, right? But if they don’t, I think to myself, where’s the hope? Yeah. Like and oftentimes I think the exact same thing I’m thinking I wish that they could know. Chris
I wish that they would understand. I wish that they. Because where how could you possibly have peace? How could you have any hope for the future? You think it’s just blackness or or something worse than that, right? Yeah. Yeah. And and that’s that’s the most of the time. That’s how I think it I think I think I can’t believe these people don’t know. Yeah.

Jeff
I can remember being in a place where it had all blackout curtains, and I knew that there were toys in the living room. Yeah. You know, and it was dark and very dark in there and just trying to find. And you’re just waiting for that pain. You’re waiting and you’re trying to find an edge.

Chris
Stepping on a Lego. Yeah.

Jeff
You know what I’m talking about. And you’re trying to find an edge. You’re trying to find something you recognize. I’ve been in places before where it was so dark and I thought I was going one way, and I end up in a totally different way. Oh, yeah. And then I’ve been in places. One time, my brother and I were hunting up north, and there were bears in the area where I was hunting. I was hunting on the ground and it was very dark, so it was cloudy. There was no full moon. So there was no moon. It was very cloudy. So there weren’t any stars. And so when I turned off my light, it was just blackness, just dark. And I’m sitting on the ground. And I knew that there were several bears kept showing up on my trail camera. And so I’m sitting on the ground and I’m telling you, every stick that I heard, every acorn that fell out of the tree was a bear. I’m about to be mauled, right. You know what I mean? The terror that begins to happen when you can’t see right? And it’s just darkness. It becomes very scary. So? So you can’t find your way. You’re afraid of the pain that’s going to happen. Sometimes you wind up in the wrong place. And then if you start paying attention to the darkness, the terror that comes from that, the fear that comes from that. And I think that that’s a lot of the compassion that Jesus is having for people is so many of the things going on in our life are the result of the darkness. And so here’s. Jesus and he comes to bring this battle, engage in this battle between light and dark. Jeff
Mm.

Chris
Yeah. That’s great. You know, let’s go back to the idea that Jesus was in the court of the women in the Treasury. I knew there were different stations to drop off money. I did not know that there were 13.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I didn’t either.

Chris
Yeah, that’s that’s pretty interesting. And then, you know, this is just another example of Jesus valuing and elevating women. Whereas the Pharisees may not have gone in that section of the temple. Jesus spends time there. Because remember back then, you know, to our to our listeners, women’s testimony was not valid in court. They were seen as less than and and a lot of other parts of the world. It’s actually that way now. Yeah, sure. And and by the way, in America, we don’t really often get exposed to that. In America we’re like, what are you talking about? Women still are oppressed. And, you know, like the equal rights and equal this and equal that. And, you know, equality is all those all those conversations. Right? And yet when you go into other parts of the world, you recognize that it’s it’s flat out primal, isn’t it? It’s like it’s primal in other parts of the world. Yeah, sure. And anyway, but back then, in Jesus’s time, it was certainly that way. And and so Jesus often paid respect and lifted up the, you know, value of women. And he often did things like, he is here. So I just think that that’s really worth noting. Yeah, that Jesus spent his whole entire career in life elevating women and trying to teach the people of their culture about the value of women.

Jeff
Yeah. So this is where they receive the offerings. So the Pharisees and the men would have gone passed through that space. And as a matter of fact, Jesus accused them often of, you know, you make your offerings in big public, grandiose ways, right? So there would be a big procession. There would be a do, do, do, do look at me. And then slowly pouring all his coins into the box, click, click, click click click click click click click. You know what I mean? Kind of kind of one of those things. So they would make a show in that place, but they would pass through that place to get into really where the holy places were. Right. And so they wouldn’t stop. The fact that Jesus stops here and wants to teach the women is very significant, because rabbis didn’t teach women. Typically women could sit around and here, right, but they weren’t being taught. Right. And then like in a synagogue or something, and women to sit on the women’s side and they could hear what the, what they were talking about, they just weren’t supposed to talk and all this stuff. So the fact that he pauses there to teach and then the other one in know Luke, was it 21? Is that what they said? Luke chapter 21. When Jesus is standing there watching people give offerings and he comments on this widow, he doesn’t comment on the rich people. He comments on the widow giving. He just has an engagement with both men and women on a on a level that everybody has access to the gospel. Everybody has access to the power of God. He wants everybody to have access to the light that Jesus brings. Now, this statement, I am the light of the world is in contrast to Matthew chapter five and six, where Jesus says, you are the light of the world. Jeff
Isn’t that interesting? So he says, I am the light of the world here. And if everybody just knew about me, you’d have the light that leads to life. And on the other way, in Matthew chapter five, he says, you are is it six? No, it’s Matthew five five. Matthew five you are the light of the world.

Chris
It’s actually Matthew 516. There you go.

Jeff
Boom, there you go. You are the light of the world. And so I think that’s a really cool thing to think about, that it’s not our light, it’s his light. If we would think of ourselves, if he’s the sun, we’re the moon, right? The moon has no has no light of its own. Instead, the moon reflects the light of the sun. And that’s what a Christian is supposed to do, right? Is we don’t save anybody. Every once in a while. You’ve had people say, oh, Pastor Chris, you saved me, right? Right. And we didn’t save anybody. It was Jesus. We just reflected Jesus light in their life. Right. And you can just go on and on and on with all those metaphors. And so I think it’s really cool that early in his ministry, he says, you are the light of the world. Later in the ministry, he says, actually, the light comes from me. I’m the light of the world.

Chris
So I’m eating humble pie. I was right, and it was Matthew 516. But that was the end of the passage. It’s actually starting in Matthew five 1414. So you are the light of the world.

Jeff
I can’t tell you how disappointed I am.

Chris
I know you know.

Jeff
You just let me down. You ruined the illusion for me.

Chris
As soon as as soon as I said, as soon as I said, it’s actually 516, I thought, wait a minute. I actually think it starts earlier than that in my mind. I actually said, I actually questioned, I said it’s actually 13, but it’s actually that’s where it says you are the salt of the earth.

Jeff
Salt of the earth.

Chris
That’s 13. And then 14 is you’re the light of the world. And then he goes on about the city, and then 15 is the lamp on the candlestick. And then 16 is in the same way, let your light so shine. Yeah. Yeah. Right. That was the one that.

Jeff
My mind. So I think it’s interesting because, you know, didn’t we just read was it last week where Jesus says, you know, to was it last week or was it just study? Anyways, Jesus says his goal is to bring glory to the father, right? I don’t do anything on my own. I only know these things because the father. My goal is to bring glory to the father. And so it’s interesting. Then Jesus says, I’m the light of the world. In that passage he says, you are the light of the world. And in that passage he says, so let your good deeds so shine before men, that they’d see your good deeds and glorify my father in heaven. So all of Jesus goal for himself and for his followers is to glorify God. The way we do that is by letting the light shine in front of Los people, right?

Chris
So every time that I talk about God’s rules for our lives, God’s commandments, God’s invitations to follow him, I always say they’re always for God’s glory and our benefit. Right? So think about it. That’s God’s end game. Yeah, God’s end game is always for his glory, and it’s for our benefit. So no matter what he asks us to do, no matter whether it doesn’t seem like there’s an earthly benefit, it’s it’s in the end going to put us closer to God. It’s going to it’s going to grow, grow us in our faith. It’s going to develop us as God wants to, you know, develop us. And so whenever God gives you an instruction or, you know, an invitation or an encouragement, it’s always for his glory, no doubt, but it’s always for our benefit.

Jeff
So when when you’re following somebody, you have the benefit of going where they’re going, but then you also have the benefit of hearing what they’re talking about. Right? So he says, if you follow me, you won’t have to walk in the darkness. So he leaves it up to us, right? Right. It’s not like he’s just shining his light on our life all the time, right? He says, if you follow me. And so he leaves this choice to us. And I think that if you leave with nothing else today, the big goal would be, let’s just decide this is the week. We’re just going to lean in. We’re going to listen to everything Jesus has to say. We’re going to walk with him and see if he doesn’t shine more light in our life.

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