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:
All right. Well, welcome to the Bible guys. My name is Chris.

Jeff:
And I’m Jeff.

Chris:
And here we are the Bible guys.

Jeff:
We’re the Bible guys.

Chris:
There you go. Hey, we’re going to start out with a segment today, which is a fun segment. Sometimes. Sometimes called stump the pastor. Yes. And these, these often are questions that are difficult.

Jeff:
Yeah, this is a good question today.

Chris:
It is. And so let me go ahead and say this. Whenever I think about Stump the Pastor, I think, oh, this is good. We need more questions. So if you would go ahead and email us at info at thebibleguys.com or you can write in on YouTube or comment anywhere that allows us to see your comments posted. And please, you know, just feel free to ask something that we might consider on a future episode.

Jeff:
There’s a few things you can do on thebibleguys.com, by the way. We have transcripts of the daily talks that we do. Which is new, by the way. Yeah, that’s new. A few weeks ago we started doing that. So we’d love to have you be able to take advantage of that. You can read it, just like we were sitting here chit-chatting. You don’t have to listen to us anymore. And then also you can sign up. If you give us your email address and we can inform you every day, you’ll get in your mailbox, you’ll get, hey, the podcast is available now. You can have links both to the video podcast and to the audio. And then also we’re getting ready to put out a few resources, right? Different eBooks and things that you and I’ve been putting together. and along with Desiree. And so all those resources are going to become more and more available. So if you sign up today, give us your email address. We’ll inform you when all those other resources come out. That’s cool. That’d be really great. Great. Okay. Man, you’re already bored today.

Chris:
Man, you’re boring me. I am boring you today.

Jeff:
I fell asleep when you were talking. Your trunk fell asleep, right? I’m so bored my trunk fell asleep. Okay.

Chris:
So today- Wait, are you meaning my torso or my nose?

Jeff:
Yeah, your torso.

Chris:
Like an elephant’s trunk? No, your torso.

Jeff:
I see. Yeah. The trunk of your body. I see. Right, right. So usually you have hands or feet fall asleep, but this one, your entire body goes numb. Got it. That was rough, Chris.

Chris:
I don’t refer to my torso as a trunk.

Jeff:
So, okay. You don’t have to. Some people do. Okay. Don’t judge them. Don’t judge. Joni P., here’s the question. Stump the pastor. Is it only considered tithing when you give to the church? What about St. Jude’s or Salvation Army or Tunnels to Towers, etc.? That’s a good question, Joni. That’s a great question. And good thinking.

Chris:
Yeah, very good thinking. Well, and let’s just be clear, because some people, what they do is they’ll take their tithe and they say, okay, if I’m supposed to give back, and by the way, the word tithe means 10%, and so if I’m supposed to take 10% of my income and I’m supposed to give it back to the church, what about paying for people’s groceries at the gas station? What about donating to a parachurch organization or anti-sex trafficking or a, you know, feed the hungry or dig a well, right? These are all good things, you know, supporting orphans. And a church organization like Salvation Army, by the way, is a organization that has two legs, which is, it’s an actual church organization, but Salvation Army is a donation, tax-deductible donation kind of a thing that generates money to do good. Right. Yeah. So what’s your answer to this?

Jeff:
Well, I was waiting for your answer. You just chit-chatted about it.

Chris:
Well, okay, then I’ll just say, so the Bible, the Bible, whenever it talks about tithe, it talks about bringing it to the church. It doesn’t talk about it bringing to a parachurch organization. So, therefore, we have to conclude that there’s the bride of Christ and then there’s the bridesmaids. And the bridesmaids are not the bride. As beautiful as the bridesmaids are, they’re supposed to bring glory to the bride. They’re supposed to draw attention to the bride. And bridesmaids are great. But that’s what parachurch organizations are. They’re the bridesmaids. But the church is the bride.

Jeff:
Right, so the good deeds. Yes. Outside of a local church. Yeah. So I think when you mentioned the tithe is always to the temple. Right, so the tithe in the New Testament isn’t referenced as going to the church, but it’s to the temple. And Malachi is where you would get that, where he says bring all the tithes into the storehouse, right? Bring it all to the temple so that my house will be full, so the table will be full, and all the resources will be there. Which would have been their church. Right, right. And so they’re church building. Yeah. Right. So the, the principle would be storehouse tithing. And I think that’s the question she’s asking is what is God’s expectation? I personally believe I’m not going to die on this Hill, but I personally believe that when he says tithe, you bring the tithe to the storehouse. That’s the local body of believers, right? Collectively. But Jesus refers to tithes, offerings, and alms. So tithes would be God’s 10%. Offerings and alms are over and above the 10%. So the 10% goes to the storehouse, that in my mind now in the church age is the church, just like it would have been in the temple before. Offerings are when you’re planning to give more than your tithe for some cause. What is this? Salvation Army, for instance, or something like that. And then alms is spur of the moment special gifts. Homeless man on the street, Salvation Army ringing the bell. right? In that moment, oh, it’s pocket change. It was unplanned. So tithes are God’s rent for living on earth. That’s 10% and all of his blessings. And he says, I’ll see if I don’t open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing on you. So tithes are the requirement. I believe that’s storehouse tithing. You bring to the local body of believers and it’s God’s, not yours, right? So you surrender it. You don’t designate it. Then the offerings would be designated gifts over and above tithe that would go over and above that 10%, that would go to a thing you’re designating, St. Jude’s or something like that. And then the alms is the ringing of the bell, the spur of the moment, homeless person, kind of a special gift, paying somebody’s bills, that kind of a thing. And so biblically, those are the three ways of giving. And so when it comes to the tithe, God doesn’t promise to bless our offerings and our alms until after we’ve done our tithe too, right? So God’s looking for that bare minimum 10%. So yeah, that’s a big one, man. Joni, that’s a great question to ask. It shows where your heart is, right? Where your treasure is, that’s where your heart is. And what you’re saying is, man, I want my heart to be for Jesus, right? That’s what you’re saying. That’s really great.

Chris:
And I also believe that it’s okay to, since we’re talking about the nuances, it’s okay to give to, not necessarily all the time, although I, I’ve always had the practice of giving like 95% of the church that I’m a part of, but we have other churches that we’re just friends with that we give as well. So we actually use some of our time, our whole lives we’ve done this. It’s a very small portion, but we actually support other, as long as it’s the church, you know, it’s not my local church, but it is a church that I believe in, but it’s a part of the church. So we do that too. So I believe that’s okay.

Jeff:
anytime my wife and I have given to other churches, it’s, it’s outside of our tithe. It’s over and above. Yeah. Because of that, I have pretty strong belief in the storehouse tithing. So, um, all those churches are not my storehouse. They’re a different storehouse. Right. And so, uh, it’s, it’s the temple that I’m a part of. That’s where I would give my tithe to, and then it’s appropriate to give offerings outside of that too. So yeah, I think we have a little bit of a difference of opinion there, but yeah.

Chris:
But either way though, I think that the church, there’s a big difference between the church and then a parachurch organization. Which by the way, as a side note, I want to poke fun at, I’m literally announcing I’m poking fun at this. I love the Salvation Army. They’re great. But I want to poke fun at their slogan. Their slogan says, you know what it is? It says, doing the most good. as if to imply, Hey, I know you do good, but we do the most good. Right.

Jeff:
And I think that’s, that’s a misquote of, uh, their founder.

Chris:
Yes. Yes. But that’s how it reads. And so if you go to any ring a bell thing, it’ll say the only thing printed underneath that logo is doing the most good. Right. As if as if to say like, hey, all you other all you other peasants out there trying to do good. I know you’re doing OK, but we do the most good. Right. So and I know that’s not what they meant. I think what their meaning is they’re about doing the the most important things.

Jeff:
Right? That’s right.

Chris:
That’s what they’re saying.

Jeff:
Right, right. So General Booth, William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army. And he has a quote, I can’t quote it exactly, but we should do the most good that we can do all the time.

Chris:
Yes.

Jeff:
Right? It’s kind of the idea. And so they shortened that piece. But the quote is a long quote. And so what they’re trying to do is remind Salvation Army people why they do what they do. And it’s because we’re trying to do the most good we can with the time we have. That’s it.

Chris:
There’s a good chance that maybe somebody who works for the organization of Salvation Army is listening. And I would just say, please talk to somebody because what you’re doing is you’re announcing your arrogance.

Jeff:
It’s what it seems like. So they’re not announcing their arrogance. They’re quoting their founder who’s saying, we’re going to do everything we can to do the most good with our life.

Chris:
I’ve already said, I think I understand what they’re meaning.

Jeff:
So this is kind of a Christianese moment. There’s times when we say what we know what we mean, but the rest of the world doesn’t perceive it the way we know what it means. And that’s what’s happening for you right now.

Chris:
So it’s not arrogant. I’m saying what you’re saying is not what you’re meaning. Because what you’re saying sounds arrogant. uh, in my mind.

Jeff:
Yeah. So I don’t, I don’t think it sounds arrogant, but we’re doing the most good.

Chris:
Yeah. We’re doing better than anybody else. Doesn’t matter who else does good.

Jeff:
So, so I think you think there’s a judgmentalism in it and I don’t think so.

Chris:
No, it’s a claim. There’s no judgmental. Yeah. It’s just a claim that we’re best.

Jeff:
Yeah. No. So we’re doing the best we can is, is what I hear it saying. I do not hear that they’re doing better than me.

Chris:
That’s what it, that’s how it reads.

Jeff:
I think it’s an indicator of your heart. No, it’s what it says. I think that you’re easily offended.

Chris:
I’m not easily offended at all. Absolutely.

Jeff:
Why not believe the best? You’re choosing to believe the worst. No, I believe words. So if you read a thing like that from people who are good, they’re literally sacrificing their life, ringing a bell, taking care of homeless people.

Chris:
Don’t believe me. I love it. So you have to just choose to believe the best.

Jeff:
When you don’t understand a thing, maybe you don’t have complete understanding.

Chris:
All you said to me was, overlook their bad slogan. That’s all that means to me. And all I’m saying is change your slogan.

Jeff:
Maybe just misunderstand it.

Chris:
You shouldn’t have to have somebody believe the best in your wording.

Jeff:
Well, we have to rely on people believing the best in us all the time.

Chris:
Well, just choose different wording. That’s all I’m saying. That’s all I’m saying.

Jeff:
This guy. So, hey, by the way, for our listeners, you also got an episode of what made Chris mad this week.

Chris:
That’s right. Hey, somehow I turned it into a rant against the Salvation Army.

Jeff:
I don’t know if that’s a winning strategy, dude.

Chris:
Dude, I already said I love it. I just, I don’t like their quote.

Jeff:
So, so good job, Joni. Thank you for your question. That’s fantastic. Yeah. Tithes rent for living on earth. 10%. God says, I’ll bless you. Offerings over and above you designate it. Alms spur the moment, give to people in situations in need. Right. That’s it. So good job on that. So we are reading, actually, we were able to take 12 and a half minutes on that segment because this may be, Maybe. We were just talking about this before it started.

Chris:
The least amount of content in a single episode. Let’s be honest.

Jeff:
Let’s call it for what it is. So we’re both scrambling going, what are we going to say on this one? We have some good thoughts though, I think. We have thoughts. We’ll let the listeners be the judge of whether they’re good thoughts or not. Okay. So we’re reading Matthew chapter 27 verses 62 through 66. That’s it. And it says, the next day on the Sabbath, remember they took Jesus’ body down off the cross, Joseph Arimathea, Nicodemus, Mary, the two Marys are watching, they put the body in the tomb. The next day on the Sabbath, the leading priests and Pharisees went to see Pilate. They told him, sir, we remember what that deceiver once said while he was still alive. After three days, I will rise from the dead. So we request that you seal the tomb until the third day. This will prevent his disciples from coming and stealing his body and then telling everyone he was raised from the dead. If that happens, we’ll be worse off than we were at first. Pilot replied, take guards and secure it the best you can. So they sealed the tomb and posted guards to protect it.

Chris:
That’s it. There you go. So the content says, Hey, post some guards and pods said, okay. Okay. Okay.

Jeff:
All right. Go ahead.

Chris:
But there are several sermons.

Jeff:
There’s some really neat things in here.

Chris:
Yeah, for sure. So let’s talk about the seal in itself. So the seal in itself, the reason why it’s such a big deal when it is broken is because when Pilate puts a seal or any Roman officer for that matter, puts a seal on something, and in this case, a tomb, if it’s broken, it meant death for the guards. It’s a death penalty. It’s a death penalty. Right.

Jeff:
For the person breaking it and for the ones guarding it.

Chris:
Yes. So that’s important. So that part becomes important later on during the resurrection, which would be like, I guess, on Monday. Right. Number two.

Jeff:
Well, the resurrection is on Sunday, but we’re going to talk about it on Monday.

Chris:
Correct. Correct. Yeah. That’s what I meant to say. See, words are important. I know they are. Slogans. Sure. All right. So the point is, is that So that’s important. And then also we have the fact that they really paid attention to Jesus’s words. Like they knew Jesus had made the claims that he was going to rise again on the third day.

Jeff:
Right. The Bible says his disciples often didn’t understand he was saying he was going to rise on the third day. But these guys are smart enough. They knew what he said and they knew what he meant. Right. And they were a little intimidated by it.

Chris:
Yeah. Well, there’s a lot of things here, right? So they’re afraid that perhaps it really would be stolen and that his disciples would leverage that to create some sort of a spooky ghost and a legend. But at the same time, you could almost sense that they’re like, the last thing we want is another Lazarus or another blind guy seeing or another, you know, layman being healed or whatever, because we’ve seen it. And so it sort of freaks us out. So we know that you’re the most powerful force in the world. If you place guards and a seal, that’ll make us feel a lot better.

Jeff:
And you know, you never find the Pharisees or the religious teachers of the law, you never find them saying, Jesus didn’t do the thing. They always acknowledge the miracle was done. He just did it in the power of the devil. Right. Right. So they never reject the miracles. They acknowledge the miracles. They just say he was doing it in the power of the devil or he was some kind of charlatan or whatever. And so in this situation, they may have believed, Hey, maybe, maybe, maybe the devil will bring him back to life too. Can you imagine though? Well, there’s a couple of things. One, we totally blow over the fact that on the Sabbath, they’re doing business.

Chris:
Which is considered a form of work. What? Right.

Jeff:
Right. Do as I say, not as I do, I guess. Politics is that important? I think for a lot of Christians, politics is more important than their faith.

Chris:
There’s a sermon right there.

Jeff:
Let’s move on.

Chris:
But in this situation… You said more than my slogan rant. Right? Because that carries with it huge implications.

Jeff:
But hey, you tell me if you don’t know Christians who, their religion is their politics.

Chris:
Yeah, it’s pretty bad. It’s pretty bad.

Jeff:
Their politics or their religion. So anyways, here, politics were so important that they were willing to go ahead and walk the edges of, if not break, the Sabbath. on the Passover to go make sure that they can keep this guy in the grave and that’s a big one but then can you imagine how nuts Pilate must have thought these people were really so you want to kill a guy because he’s a little nuts claiming that his kingdom isn’t of this earth and I did that for you. I tried to let him go, and you start a riot to get me to kill him. Okay, so I killed him. It’s another life. Who gives a rip about another life? And now you’re afraid he’s going to come back to life, or that somebody’s going to come and steal the body. Are you flipping serious?

Chris:
And it doesn’t end with Pilate, because he tried to wash his hands. He tried to say no. He tried to release Barabbas. He tried everything. He didn’t want to do it, but he’s worried about the people. He’s worried about keeping peace. It’s his only job. Well, his job is actually collect taxes. Herod really was more of the keep the peace guy. But Pilate’s job also is to keep the peace and the whole riots and everything else. And then, remember when they said, hey, change the sign? Yeah. It says King of the Jews, but the changes to say that Jesus claimed to be the King of the Jews, don’t actually give him the title King of the Jews. And Pilate’s like, I’m so sick of you. And so what he says is I have written what I’ve written, right? You already forced me to kill him. I’m not changing the sign.

Jeff:
Quit pushing me on this stuff.

Chris:
I’m not changing the sign because, you know, because of your, I’m not accommodating you.

Jeff:
And so they’re coming back the next day going, yes. Hey, we need a, we need an official seal.

Chris:
Yeah, and what does he say? He’s thinking to himself, okay, if that does happen, that would be chaos. It would be way worse. And that’s what they’re trying to tell him. And he’s like, well, I got to keep the peace. So I could imagine his disgust and saying, go ahead.

Jeff:
So just take some guards and secure it the best you can. He’s like, I’m just done with this. You guys are nuts.

Chris:
Well, everything about Pilate’s attitude, his conversations, and his responses indicate that that would have been exactly his demeanor. And he’s done with this. Okay, so we have that. And then let’s talk about this. There’s another sermon hidden in here, and that is all the people who, throughout their entire lifetimes, for 2,000 years, who have tried to disprove Jesus’ resurrection. Right? Think about that. That’s a whole nother sermon. Oh yeah. Because there are people who have, so we have friends, good friends who we know who have basically spent their entire lives, you know, trying to disprove Jesus. And it was during that pursuit that they understood that, you know, Jesus’s life defied mathematical odds, fulfilling the prophecies that his resurrection can never be disproven. And people have spent, you know, and by the way, there’s a lot at stake trying to disprove this.

Jeff:
Oh, absolutely. I have a friend. He was in Baghdad. He was a student in Baghdad when the second US invasion happened and he got sucked into a pretty radical group of religious radicals and began to coordinate hits against American soldiers in the green zone. And he started feeling guilty about that and couldn’t do it anymore. He had befriended an American soldier and was coming up to assassinate him. And when the soldier saw what was happening, He said, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I pray for your country every day. And it was the first time my friend had ever heard that phrase. He goes, what do you mean you pray for my country every day? And he said, I’m a Christian, and I just want peace in Baghdad. And so I love you, and I love everybody here. And it doesn’t have to happen this way. Of course, they’re pointing guns at each other. And he said, it was like God just froze his hand, and he couldn’t pull the trigger. And so he walked away, and he lived that day. And then he was moved by the fact that he couldn’t kill this guy who said, I’m praying for you. He said it never dawned on him that Christians prayed. So he went back to his religious leader and he was a journalism student. And he said, you know, I don’t think I can kill anymore, but what can I do? And this religious leader said, well, okay, you’re a journalism student. Let’s disprove Christianity. And we’re gonna write all these books and pamphlets. We’re gonna spread them all over. We’re gonna convert the American soldiers. And so he became a researcher and he started investigating churches and all these things and he said it was the resurrection that hung him up to the point that he’s like, I think I’m convinced, the Holy Spirit began to convince him of the authenticity of the resurrection. And this is exactly what the religious leaders are saying here. If the tomb is empty, if that happens, we’ll be worse off than we were at first. We know, hey, if the resurrection happens, if this tomb is empty, it’s going to destroy everything we’re trying to build against Jesus in this moment. And that’s what happened was that my friend came to the conclusion that the tomb really is empty through his efforts to try to disprove Christianity. And then the last thing that happened was a neighborhood had burned down, a Christian neighborhood, was torched by radicals, and he went to the church in that neighborhood, and the pastor was, they were singing about God’s blessings, which, what do they have to sing about? He said that blew his mind, how God blesses them. And then the pastor got up and said, hey, we love those who hate us. And so we’re going to receive an offering. There was a Muslim widow whose house also burned. And the very first offering the church took up to rebuild the neighborhood was for the Muslim widow first. And he just starts crying. And he said, that was it for me. So the resurrection is real and it changes lives. These people are different than me. And he said, I realized I was full of hate. And what I needed was the hope that comes in through the resurrection of Jesus. And he gave his life to Christ. and radically transformed him to the point where now, you know, he shares the gospel everywhere. God’s used him in significant ministry all over the Middle East and with Middle Eastern people here in the U.S. now. So it’s really, really a phenomenal story. But it was the power of the resurrection that got it for him.

Chris:
That’s great. Well, I mean, those are the details leading up to what’s about to happen. And yes, Jeff, it does happen on Sunday, but we will pick up our episodes on Monday. So hopefully we will see you then next time on The Bible Guys.