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
So anybody listening to our podcast on a regular basis hears that voice over our roll in? Yes, since we’ve changed it. And that voice, by the way, has a name, the.

Jeff
Inimitable Connor O’Brien.

Chris
Connor O’Brien. That’s right. And by the way, I love Connor’s voice for voice overs.

Jeff
Connor O’Brien is a good Spanish name. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris
Spanish. Yeah.

Jeff
I’m joking.

Chris
Okay. Okay. I was like, you’re obviously drawing attention to the Irish, but but anyway, he does a lot of our voice overs for, for videos. And I just love his voice for voice overs.

Jeff
I think his mom’s a professional voice over person.

Chris
She really? Yeah. I didn’t even know that.

Jeff
Yeah. Wow. She’s done some. Really? I don’t know if I can say what companies, but she. Yeah, she’s the voice of a couple companies.

Chris
Wow. That’s pretty cool. Yeah. Did not know that. Yeah.

Jeff
Boring yourself to death with that.

Chris
Wow. What a what a what a riveting conversation. So, so this segment given to us by Desiree is called law or flaw. Okay. There are so many weird laws in the United States and around the world. You’re going to give Jeff five laws and he has to decide for you. Well, we didn’t air it. We didn’t air it. Oh, we.

Jeff
Didn’t air that one.

Chris
Yeah. Remember that. Oh that’s right, that’s right. So that’s probably.

Jeff
Why she’s messed.

Chris
Up. Yeah. That’s why she’s giving it to us again.

Jeff
Yeah. That was the best segment we did all year. You people missed it. Yeah.

Chris
Yeah. But but now we’re going to repeat it okay here we go.

Jeff
But these aren’t the same laws. Different laws okay.

Chris
Okay. So you have to say whether it’s a law or whether it’s a law, which means it’s not a law. Okay. Are you ready? Yes. Number one. There’s five of them.

Jeff
Okay.

Chris
In Georgia, it is illegal to carry an ice cream cone in your back pocket on Sundays.

Jeff
That’s not a law. That’s a flaw.

Chris
What a random choice of things. Yes, yes, it’s a law.

Jeff
That’s a law.

Chris
Come on now.

Jeff
Front pocket.

Chris
Perfectly fine. Yeah, yeah.

Jeff
Just not in the back pocket.

Chris
It is illegal to carry an ice cream cone in your back pocket on Sunday. Okay, okay.

Jeff
That seems reasonable to me. I would agree with that.

Chris
Why?

Jeff
I don’t know.

Chris
Why. I don’t know, Georgia. Why?

Jeff
Why weirdos. So that’s a law. All right. I’m ohfr.

Chris
I lived in Georgia for ten years.

Jeff
And did you ever break that law?

Chris
I have to say, I’ve never even been tempted to. Yeah, I’ve never even had a thought.

Jeff
Because I was going to say ignorance is no excuse.

Chris
There you go.

Jeff
You might be a felon in in Georgia and not even know it.

Chris
Maybe not. Maybe so with all the different laws, right? Yeah, yeah. Number two, in North Dakota it is illegal to teach your parrot to rap. Without a permit.

Jeff
To wrap without a permit. I’m going to say that’s a flaw.

Chris
It’s a it’s a flaw.

Jeff
It’s a flaw.

Chris
Okay. Why would you say that, though? Because that actually seems way more plausible than an ice cream cone in your back pocket.

Jeff
The permit side. How would they know whether or not you know that you were teaching your parents?

Chris
You put a bunch of logic to it.

Jeff
Because if you just have a parrot in your house and you’re rapping all the time, your parrot might start.

Chris
Rapping. Yeah, but how do they know you don’t have to teach it? But how does anybody know you’re carrying an ice cream cone in your pocket?

Jeff
Well, because you got a big pocket full of mush in the back of your pocket.

Chris
All right, number three. You ready? Okay. In Utah, it is illegal to snooze on a train.

Jeff
Illegal to snooze on a train.

Chris
I guess that means.

Jeff
Let’s say that’s a law.

Chris
It’s a flaw.

Jeff
It’s a flaw. That’s not a nap on the train.

Chris
Yeah. Snooze. Snooze is a nap. Yes. Yeah. No, that is an actual made up thing. Okay, okay. All right. But. But very believable.

Jeff
Yes, I believe that. Okay. So I’m only I’m one for three. This is terrible.

Chris
Oh yeah. You’re one for three.

Jeff
Yeah. Yeah.

Chris
All right, here we go. Are you ready?

Jeff
Okay, okay.

Chris
On Staten Island, you may only water your lawn if. If your hose is held in your hand. It says if you hose, but it’s supposed to be your hose.

Jeff
So you’re not allowed to hook it up to a sprinkler and walk away. Correct. You have to hold the hose in your hand.

Chris
So another way to say it would be only hand watering is allowed. Okay. On Staten Island.

Jeff
All right. I’m going to say that’s a law.

Chris
It is a law.

Jeff
That sounds like a good law. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yep. Wow. And then that way, people aren’t just soaking their lawn for three days, right? Right, right. Unless you have nothing else to do. I mean, I guess you could still water it at the same level, but.

Chris
Right, right, right, right. And then number five.

Jeff
And to. I’m only. But you really?

Chris
You really concerned about this, aren’t you?

Jeff
Well, I am. I want to have a winning record here.

Chris
Okay, well, then then it all comes down to this. Yeah. Okay. Because you’re two for two. Okay, here it is. Ready? And Arizona hunting camels is prohibited.

Jeff
In Arizona, hunting camels is prohibited. I’m going to say that’s a law. It is a law. Okay. There you go.

Chris
You are betting. All right, 700. What is it? 656.

Jeff
Yeah. Six. 660. Just 600. Because it was five. There’s five and.

Chris

600. Yep. You’re betting.

Jeff

600. Okay, so bat in 600. That’s good. I’ll take that.

Chris
Yeah yeah, yeah. Good job man.

Jeff
Man I just can’t tell you how fulfilled I am right now. By the way, I feel complete.

Chris
By the way, I’ve hunted camels in Arizona before. Have you?

Jeff
I believe you. Yeah.

Chris
Well, you did, I didn’t realize. Yeah, I didn’t realize that was, you know, I was setting out the carrots. Yeah. You know, they like carrots. I’m just kidding. I don’t know what they like.

Jeff
I don’t know what they like either.

Chris
Yeah. So John chapter, I.

Jeff
Like to complain. Have you. You’ve ridden camels before? Have you?

Chris
I have actually not.

Jeff
You’ve never ridden a camel? No, dude, I have got to get you on a camel.

Chris
Yeah, well, that would be the best video I keep on saying. Invite me that. Would you just leave me here? You leave me in the States and you’re like, I’m off to the ends of the world.

Jeff
We took. We took a group. We took a group.

Chris
Where’s Jeff? Jeff, Jeff.

Jeff
I’m I’m almost to the point where I never want to ride a camel again. I love camels, I think they’re funny, but they just complain all the time, and they stink. But. And they’re really uncomfortable. But it feels dangerous when they’re going up, because you have to lay almost completely down on their back because they stand up their rear end first and then their front, their front feet. Oh, and so you’re sitting on the front end of their hump, right. And so you have to lay down as they as they stand up. And then you sit back up. So and then they do the same thing. When they sit down it’s front front knees first and then back. Wow. And so then you got to lay back while they’re going down. So we were in Israel and there were some camels. We go to these Bedouins out in the desert. They had some camels. And so a bunch of our people wanted to ride camels. And I’ve got a video of a lady in our church screaming at the top of her lungs, oh, Jesus, save me.

Chris
That’s so funny.

Jeff
It’s one of the funniest things a camel saw. Yeah. Okay, I got to get you on a camel and we’ll post that video someday, all right?

Chris
Okay. That sounds great.

Jeff
We’ll do it.

Chris
So John seven one through nine, the topic is simply this Jesus’s brothers ridicule him.

Jeff
Oh. Good thing that never happened to you.

Chris
Right? I have four other brothers.

Jeff
So here you and Jesus are just alike on this.

Chris
Surprised I wasn’t sold into slavery like Joseph? Yeah.

Jeff
Okay, so this is just nine verses today, so this isn’t very long, but I think there’s a lot to talk about here in John chapter seven one through nine. He’s the only one who covers this. By the way. He says, after this, Jesus traveled around Galilee and he wanted to stay out of Judea, where the Jewish leaders were plotting his death. But soon it was time for the Jewish festival of shelters. And Jesus brothers said to him, leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see your miracles. You can’t become famous if you hide like this. If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world. For even his brothers didn’t believe in him. Jesus replied, now’s not the right time for me to go, but you can go anytime. The world can’t hate you, but it does hate me because I accuse it of doing evil. You go on. I’m not going to this festival because my time is not yet come. After saying these things, Jesus remained in Galilee. Yeah, and Jesus brothers, a little sassy.

Chris
Yeah.

Jeff
You miracle worker. You fame, you famous guy. Just going for more clicks, right? That’s kind of what they were doing, right?

Chris
Yeah. You can’t. You can’t become famous if you hide like this. If you do what I said on the show. So his brothers didn’t believe in him? You know, it’s it’s interesting how his brothers, actually, there’s sort of a hint of of them really, truly wanting him to go out and show his miracles, though.

Jeff
You think?

Chris
Well, it depends. Let’s read it again.

Jeff
If they’re being sassy, right, then they’re mocking him, going, but we can’t you can’t become what they’re accusing you of is he wants to be famous. They’re accusing him that he’s doing these tricks for the purpose of because they didn’t believe in him.

Chris
Oh, I see the tone you’re reading into it. Well, it’s hard to read tone in the text, isn’t it?

Jeff
Except it does say, for even his brothers didn’t believe in him. So if you read it with that, then everything is sarcastic.

Chris
So let’s read it again. It says his brother said to him, leave here and go to Judea where your followers can see your miracles. You can’t become famous if you hide like this, if you can do such wonderful things. Oh yeah, you’re right. It does read that way, doesn’t it? If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world. Exclamation mark!

Jeff
So if you read.

Chris
It, even his brothers didn’t believe in him. If you read.

Jeff
It like they’re trying to help him out, they go. You know what you should do? You should leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see all your miracles because you can’t become famous if you hide like this. Right. But if you’re reading it like they don’t believe him, they’re like.

Chris
Well, become famous was never the goal anyway. Yeah, right.

Jeff
But that’s what they’re. That’s what they’re accusing him of. Right? Right. You’re only doing this to become famous, right? Right. You’re doing this for attention. And and you know, that’s I think the way brothers would see it, they’d be a little bit jealous. It’s natural for because, I mean, they were they grew up in the same little village of about 300 people that Jesus did. And now everywhere he goes, there’s thousands of people.

Chris
So the notation says in my Bible, Jesus’s brothers had a difficult time believing in him. Some of these brothers would eventually become leaders in the church. James, for example, Simon too. But for several years they were embarrassed by Jesus. After Jesus died and rose again, they finally believed. I would think so. Yeah.

Jeff
Yeah. Feeding people, walking on the water that that’s not he’s doing.

Chris
Some kind of trick. He’s doing. Come on, come on. Grapes and mirrors.

Jeff
But, you know, getting out of the tomb is a whole other.

Chris
Level we have it continues on and says we today have every reason to believe because Jesus. Excuse me? Believe because we have the full record of Jesus’s miracles, death and resurrection. We also have the evidence of what the good news has done in people’s lives through the centuries. So don’t miss this opportunity to believe in God’s son. Yeah, I think I think it’s interesting as well. At the very beginning of the scripture, it says he wanted to stay out of Judea, where the Jewish leaders were plotting his death. Yeah. Right. Right. And yet that’s where they were telling him to go leave here and go to Judea. Right. So isn’t that weird a little bit?

Jeff
I don’t know that they would have known that they were plotting his death. Jesus knew, right? You know how many times we’ve talked about how he knew it was in their hearts, right? So his his brothers may not have known. His brothers may not have been super sophisticated. They, you know, the Holy Spirit wasn’t telling them, whereas I think the Holy Spirit’s communing with Jesus going, yeah, now’s not your time, because that’s what he’s saying is it’s not my time. Right? And so he knew what the what his brothers didn’t do, but his. So this festival comes about six months after Passover. According to the notes here, it’s the the the festival of shelters. You find that in Leviticus and it commemorates when the Israelites were Israelites, were wandering in the wilderness for so long, and God had given them places to stay. They had these shelters, and he gave manna and quail and those things. And so they’re kind of remembering that, that wandering time. Yeah. And so this is not which, by the.

Chris
Way, they still do today. Yeah. Yeah. They still have they still have the festival shelters even today. Yeah. Yeah. Like the Jewish, the Jewish culture.

Jeff
So Passover moves a little bit and so, so so does this festival. But September and October have a lot of Jewish festivals. And so just because Jesus wasn’t going to this festival doesn’t mean he’s throwing off all the festivals, right? Right. Because there’s a whole bunch of festivals in September and October. And so he he just said, no, right now’s not the best time for me to go. And you know what? There there’s a certain amount of wisdom in knowing the right time. You can do the right thing, the wrong time or the wrong way and get the wrong consequences, even though it’s the right thing. Right? So he’s he’s doing he’s choosing to make a choice to say now’s not. He’s choosing to make a choice. That was deep. Yeah.

Chris
Let me write that down. I’m a.

Jeff
Wordsmith.

Chris
Slow down, Copernicus.

Jeff
I’m a wordsmith, man. He’s choosing to make a choice here, but he’s he’s making a choice to make sure that these things are all done at the right time and the right place, because he’s going to die at Passover. Well, that’s six months away, right? So he can’t do it now. He can’t go down there now. They’re going to kill him now.

Chris
And so yeah, now I like how he gives. A statement to his brothers. But this statement is applied to you and me too, because he makes a statement that says the world can’t hate you, but it does hate me because I accuse it of doing evil. You go on. I’m not going to this festival because my time is not yet come. Well, as he’s talking to them personally. Aren’t there other parts in the Bible where Jesus says exactly the same thing for you and me, and he says, the world is going to persecute you? Yeah, they’re going to hate you. The world is going to hate you because they hate me. That’s right. Right. And so and so he’s he’s saying something to his brothers that seem, you know, like it’s only to his brothers. But at the same time, this principle now translates for you and to me. So I think that I think that there’s a lesson there too. You know, actually, there’s many lessons. The first lesson is a prophet has no honor in his hometown. Yes.

Jeff
Jesus already said that.

Chris
Yeah, right. Yeah, he’s already said that. So? So the idea, by the way, I have a story about this. So really? Yes, yes. So I’m in my I’m in my hometown and I’m with my brothers and this is when I was I mean, I’ve been a pastor at this time for like at least ten years. Right. And I’ve been a pastor for 30 years now. So this is quite a while ago. And my brothers go, and I and I knew a lot of people from my hometown. And he goes, hey, he goes, let’s, let’s stop at Hooters and let’s go to get some wings. And I said, you know, I’m just really not comfortable with that. I said, I just know a lot of people. And I had a really strong reputation, and I’d only been sort of gone from Youngstown, Ohio for like ten years. And a lot of people that I knew sort of were still there, and I just didn’t want to be seen there. You know, it’s not there’s nothing wrong with the restaurant itself, but it’s just associated with certain things. And so I said, I just don’t want to do it. And he goes, oh, come on. And my brothers are just like giving me this hardest time. And we’re talking like all my brothers were there except for my other pastor brother. Right. So it’s Chuckie, Donnie, Tommy and me. All right. Right, right. And they’re just giving me the hardest time. And then I had a I had, like, an epiphany. So my brother at the time was attending a church on Kirk Road. And his pastor, his name was Pastor Alfred. Now, Pastor Alfred was an older man, right? He was like in his 60s. Right. Chris
And here I am in my like late 20s. I said, hey, Chuckie, let me ask you a question. I said, what if we walked into that restaurant and you saw Pastor Alfred there? I said, would you think that anybody who went to your church would want to see him there? And he paused and got very quiet. And he goes, well, no. And I said, do you realize that there are thousands of people who would think the same thing about me because I’m their pastor? And he goes, oh, I never thought about it that way. And what he’s really saying is he never thought of me as a pastor. He didn’t think of me as Pastor Alfred. All right? I’m his little brother. Right. Who he used to beat up frequently. Almost every single day. Right? Right. Right, right. I don’t carry the same authority. I don’t carry the same position or title or respect right in his eyes, because I’m his little brother. Right. And so think about it. If your brother is the Messiah. Oh, sure. So everybody is like, he’s the Messiah, the long awaited one. And his brothers are like, no, he’s my older brother who.

Jeff
And I think a lot of siblings out there have a sense that there’s a favorite in the family. Yeah, right. And you got to know when Jesus never gets in trouble and you guys are getting in trouble, right? And Jesus always gets straight A’s, right, and Jesus always obeys. Mom. And Jesus always does everything right. He even has a little glow about him. I’ve seen the paintings, right, right, right. I’ve seen.

Chris
The paintings. Right.

Jeff
So, you know, there would be a little bit of, you know, he’s kind of a kiss up, right? And then on top of that and he’s, oh, he thinks he’s better than us. And then. He doesn’t even start his ministry. He’s not doing any miracles until he’s 30. So he’s just a super good guy, right? But there’s no there’s no sense of of him doing miracles. There’s nothing in the Bible that he did any miracles at home or anything like that until he’s 30, and then suddenly he starts doing miracles. And at first it’s like, really? Right? And maybe he maybe he’s faking. Maybe they planted that guy with that demon possessed son in the crowd.

Chris
Right, I can hear can you? Yeah.

Jeff
Can you? Yeah. Were you really deaf before?

Chris
Right.

Jeff
Right, right. I can see. Right? Yeah. So those things. And then just rumor that he had walked on water. Right. They didn’t see it. Right. Those kinds of things. And so you can kind of see the skepticism that now he’s got some kind of scam going. Yeah.

Chris
Right.

Jeff
And that he’s bringing, he’s bringing shame on the family, all these kinds of things so resentful early on. And then he’s got he’s running some kind of game right now and they’re really resentful. So it wasn’t until the resurrection that they went, oh yeah, wait a minute.

Chris
Well, and we have to also keep in mind that back then, you know, there, there it wasn’t um, how can I say it like, okay. For instance, remember when Moses threw down his staff and it became a snake? Yeah. And then the Pharaoh said, well, that’s no big deal.

Jeff
I can do the same thing.

Chris
Our sorcerers could do the same thing. And then you know what the Bible says. They did it. Yeah. Yeah. Right, right. So, so so there obviously, you know, if there’s women who can tell the future that that Paul rebukes. Right? I mean, there’s things that are supernatural.

Jeff
They were accustomed to the occult. Yes, around them. And they’re not seeing that Jesus is doing this in the power of God.

Chris
And we’re talking about the real occult. Yeah, yeah, we’re talking about supernatural things that you can physically see, for instance, staffs turning into snakes. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Or fortune tellers. The Bible didn’t say they pretended to tell fortunes. The Bible says they told fortunes.

Jeff
Yeah. In the book of acts that said a demon was was was helping this girl tell. Yes. Tell the future.

Chris
Yeah, yeah. So so there’s another thing to see. So Jesus does miraculous things, but I have to believe that if they’re well-traveled enough or certainly back then, it was all stories. Yeah. Yeah. Right. There’s a story of a man of three towns away, right? Like they probably heard all those things. Yeah. And so and so. Yeah, I’m sure that, you know, even though that their brother, you know, has done miraculous things, it’s different for him to be involved in things that they may have seen somewhere else or heard about somewhere else. And then him being the long awaited messiah that the human population has been waiting for. Right, right, right, right, right. And there.

Jeff
Good Jewish boys. They’re going to the festival. Jesus isn’t right. So they’re good Jewish boys, and they’re looking forward to the Messiah, which means they’ve.

Chris
Read the Scripture. They’ve read the Scripture.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah. And so one of the things I love about it is Jesus is not offended by them. Right. That’s good. So they didn’t trust him. They didn’t believe him. And he doesn’t fight them at all. He just goes, no, now’s not my time. You don’t get it. And that’s okay. And maybe one of the best things we can do with our siblings when they don’t believe in the transformation of our faith, you know, the is to just go, I get it, you don’t get it yet. But that’s okay, right? So he’s patient with them. But two of his greatest proponents after the resurrection are James. He becomes the main leader of the church in Jerusalem. He writes the book of James and Simon. Right. And then Jude. So Jude writes the book of the Bible. Simon Paul mentioned Simon is one of Jesus brothers, and he’s married. And then you’ve got James. So three of his brothers become significant leaders, prominent leaders mentioned in the Bible after the resurrection, perhaps, I don’t know. The Bible says that Jesus appeared to his disciples many times, but it said he appeared to over 500 others, and it would make sense to me that he’d go home and spend some time with his mom and his brothers. And they went from, yeah, we saw you beat to an inhuman. Like we couldn’t even tell you were human. And now you’re alive. We saw you dead and now you’re alive. And that encounter with Jesus so transformed them that they went from being his biggest skeptics to his biggest supporters. Right. And so I think the most important thing would be to allow your siblings to see the transformation in you and be consistent in it, and that will what they see in you is going to be way more than any words you can tell them.

Chris
Yeah that’s great. Well, that seems like a great place to wrap this conversation up. So hopefully we will see you next time on Monday on The Bible Guys.