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
Welcome every listener listening.

Jeff
It is so wonderful to have you. We can’t believe you’re back.

Chris
Yes, thank you for tuning in or watching on YouTube. It’s amazing.

Jeff
Well, so today we are talking about one of my favorite moments in Jesus life. He’s in Caesarea Philippi and he talks about the gates of hell. It’s pretty, pretty amazing.

Chris
So wow, that’s a big one.

Jeff
It is. It’s so exciting.

Chris
So, so today, what is our segment for today? I want to make sure.

Jeff
Dad joke competition. Yeah is what we have. This is like my favorite one other than you know what made Chris mad this week. But this is my other favorite one. I love dad jokes.

Chris
So we haven’t read these out loud. We’re you know, we’re just reading this for the first time, right? That’s right, that’s right. You want to read the first one?

Jeff
Okay, here we go. Yeah. It’s what’s the difference between a clown and an athletic robot rabbit. Let me read that again. What’s the difference between a clown and an athletic rabbit? What? One is a bit funny. The other is a bit a fit bunny. Oof! That was rough.

Chris
It was rough.

Jeff
That was rough. Can I try that one again?

Chris
It could have been good.

Jeff
What’s a difference between a clown and an athletic rabbit? I don’t know, Jeff. One is a bit funny. The other is a fit bunny. Hahaha.

Chris
That’s. Yeah, that’s true. That’s a long time getting there.

Jeff
Oh man, that was rough.

Chris
How about this one?

Jeff
It’s a little bit of a tongue twister. Yeah it.

Chris
Is. I opened my birthday card and loads of rice fell out. I knew right away it was from Uncle Ben.

Jeff
Oh, okay. I’m getting a reversible jacket for Christmas. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

Chris
Okay. All right, all right. I think my phone is broken. I pressed the home button, but I’m still at work.

Jeff
Wouldn’t that be so cool?

Chris
Yeah, it would be.

Jeff
Wouldn’t it be? I spent a lot of time on planes the last couple of days, and we were just talking about, you know, they got the cell phone thing, the tricorder. They got so many things. Now they got AI. You can talk to the computer, whatever, whatever. They’ll answer your questions. Yeah, all the cool stuff from Star Trek, except being able to transport from one place to another. Yes, I need that one. That’s awesome. Just put it on your. On your phone. Here you go. My wife told me if you buy one more stupid gift, I’m going to burn it. And so I bought her a candle. Oh, wow. Okay. Over here, aren’t I?

Chris
Yeah. These aren’t great jokes you’re telling them. Well, though, other than the first.

Jeff
The first one I told the first one three times and barely got it out.

Chris
Okay, why can’t pirates finish the alphabet? I don’t know, they get lost at sea.

Jeff
Okay, good.

Chris
That’s pretty good.

Jeff
Okay. A broken drum is the best present you can give because nobody can beat that. That’s. I like that.

Chris
One. That’s a good one. That is a good one. That’s a good one. Good one. Okay. All right. To start a zoo, you need at least two pandas, a grizzly and a polar. It’s the bare minimum.

Jeff
Okay, I like that one. That’s a mere minimum. It’s the bare minimum. Okay. You see my joke there?

Chris
Yeah, it was okay. It was a joke.

Jeff
Okay. Yeah. My wife asked me why I wanted to be cremated when I die. And I told her it’s because it’s my last hope for a smoking hot body.

Chris
Oh, that’s pretty good. That’s a.

Jeff
Little gross. Yeah. Why do I have to tell that one, by the way? Yeah, yeah, because you’re getting skinny, that’s why.

Chris
All right, so here’s here’s number five. Last one. Ladies, if he can’t appreciate your fruit jokes you need to let that man go. Yes.

Jeff
Oh, no. Okay.

Chris
Let that man go.

Jeff
So there’s some dating advice right there.

Chris
Hey, before we move on with our Bible reading stuff, I just want to say, if you’re watching on YouTube, share it with somebody. Share the Bible. Guys. In fact, take just a second and say, you know what? I’m going to pick? Even the people that I don’t like, I’m going to go ahead and send it to them because they need the Bible guys, just like we all do. So we would really appreciate it. Subscribe and leave us a message. We’d love it. Thanks so much. Well, today my my subtitle says The Messiah restores sight.

Jeff
Sure.

Chris
Yeah. So we’re talking about that’s the.

Jeff
First five verses.

Chris
Yeah, yeah. And then he goes into the accessory. Okay. Yeah. So Mark chapter eight and then and then we’re also including.

Jeff
Matthew 16.

Chris
Matthew 16, Mark eight, and then Luke nine.

Jeff
That’s correct.

Chris
So that’s the reason why that’s why.

Jeff
Yeah. Yeah. So only Mark eight tells the story of Jesus restoring the blind, the sight to the blind. So we’re.

Chris
Sort of talking about two.

Jeff
Things. And then all three, Matthew, Mark and Luke tell about the gates of hell. Yeah. So there’s two things. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris
All right, buddy.

Jeff
Okay, so let’s jump into that. Then we’ll start reading Mark chapter eight, verse 22, and it says, when they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus. And they begged him to touch the man and heal him. And Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, then spitting. On the man’s eyes. He laid his hands on him and asked, can you see anything now? That caught me off guard there for just a second. Spitting on the man’s eyes. Right, okay. The man looked around. Yes, he said, I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around. And then Jesus placed his man, his hands on the man’s eyes again, and his eyes were opened. His sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly. And Jesus sent him away, saying, don’t go back into the village on your way home. So that’s the first one.

Chris
Now, do you want to stop and talk about that since there’s two different things?

Jeff
Sure. Do you want to?

Chris
Sure. Let’s do that. Yeah. That’s fun. Good. Do it. So? So gross. Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff
Okay. Thank you. All right. And then we’re going to go on to Matthew chapter 18.

Chris
You know it’s just you know we’ve said it before, but like I think there was even another place where we actually saw where Jesus had taken saliva and put it on the man’s eyes. Right. So this is not his first time doing this.

Jeff
That’s right. And he stuck his fingers in the guy’s ears, right? Yeah. He talked about.

Chris
What, Willie. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So but you know, the bottom line is, is Jesus, you know, makes a personal connection number one because he’s able to touch him because we’ve talked about that. But also in this case it’s a little unusual because it seems like, you know, do you ever like, um, do you ever like it reminds me of, like, do you remember the olden days where you’re sort of on the roof, moving the antenna? Yeah. And you’re like, is it clear now? And they’re like, little more, and you move it to the left and you’re like, is it clear now? You know, it’s like it’s it’s Jesus is like, how is it now? Okay. No, you need a little more touch. Right? Right. Isn’t that a little unusual?

Jeff
Yeah. Well, this is the I think it’s the only miracle Jesus does that. There’s a gradual healing.

Chris
As opposed to an instantaneous.

Jeff
Everything else was instant. And then there’s this one. Right. And I think that there’s a couple.

Chris
Things like Lazarus sort of crawls out of the tomb.

Jeff
Yeah. The guy, he tells the guy, get up off the mat and walk, and he gets up and falls.

Chris
Right.

Jeff
And he just can’t walk yet. Yeah, yeah. So none of those things happened, right? Right. So everything was instantaneous. And then there’s this one. Can you see? Well, kind of he can see better than he could. But people are blurry and stuff. And so there’s one I think it was for the benefit of the disciples to understand that some healing takes time. So I think that’s part of it. The other thing I think maybe, and I think it comes up in the notes here in the Life Application Bible, is this idea that. Uh, before Jesus left, the man was completely healed. So not all spiritual truth is always clearly perceived at first, right? But then before Jesus was done, the guy was completely healed. So if you’re taking spiritual understanding and experience along with this healing, if you’re kind of equating those two things, then sometimes it’s a gradual thing. But before Jesus is done with you, he’s going to he’s going to completely finish what he starts. Yeah.

Chris
Yeah. You know, you mentioned notes from the application study Bible Life application. There’s one note as well that says, why did Jesus touch the man a second time before he could see this miracle was not too difficult for Jesus, but he chose to do it in stages, possibly to show the disciples that some healing would be gradual, which is what you said. Wow. Uh, rather than these notes rather than instantaneous, or to demonstrate that spiritual truth is not always perceived clearly at first. But Jesus, before Jesus left, the man was completely healed. That’s right. Another note says that he was considered because he made sure that this man’s sight was fully restored. Yeah. You know, some, some, some stories are written factually like this. They’re just giving us the facts. But, you know, I wonder what the vibe was there in in the room, I wonder, I wonder, you know, the intentionality behind Jesus continuing to work with him until his sight was restored. But, you know, I did have one other thought before we move on. And that is, how did the man even know what trees look like exactly?

Jeff
Well, maybe people had explained them to him or described him.

Chris
Or maybe he wasn’t born blind.

Jeff
Yeah, maybe.

Chris
Maybe he became blind later became blind.

Jeff
I don’t know, but, yeah, I think that’s really neat. It’s a great thing. But this idea of, you know, when you’re going to Jesus, if you don’t get exactly what you need from him, immediately hang in there with him right when by the time Jesus is done with you, he will have finished what he started, right? To complete what he started. So that’s a big part of it. So then we’ll move on from there. Matthew chapter 16. It says, When Jesus came to the region of Sassari, of Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? Well, they replied, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah. Others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. Then he asked them, but who do you say I am? And Simon Peter answered, you are the Messiah, the son of the living God. And Jesus replied, you are blessed, Simon, son of John, because my father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. Now I say to you that you are Peter, which means rock. And upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. And I’ll give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven. Then he sternly warned the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. In Mark chapter eight, verse 27, Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and went up to the villages near Caesarea Philippi. And as they were walking along, he asked them, who do people say I am? Well, they replied, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah. Jeff
Others say that you’re one of the other prophets. And then he asked them, but who do you say I am? Peter replied, you are the Messiah. But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him, which is so weird. Yeah, right. Again, I think that’s a crowd control issue. Let’s not make a big deal about that here, right? I think that’s what he’s doing anyways. And then Luke chapter 19 says, one day Jesus left the crowds to pray alone. Chapter nine. Oh, what I say.

Chris

19. Jeff
    Sure, I like nine better.

Jeff
For this specific story. For this story, yeah.

Jeff
I prefer it way better out of out of chapter nine. One day Jesus left the crowds to pray alone. Only his disciples were with him and he asked them, who do you say I am? Well. Or who do people say I am? Well, they replied, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah. Others say you’re one of the other ancient prophets risen from the dead. Then he asked them, but who do you say I am? And Peter replied, you are the Messiah sent from God. And Jesus warned his disciples not to tell anyone who he was.

Chris
So yeah, there it is. So, so this is an amazing moment for Peter, right? Yeah. And so and he says, he says Simon of Simon, son of John, because my father in heaven has revealed this to you. So he’s indicating he’s like, he’s like, this wasn’t you did not learn this from any human being. He says. So he says, God has revealed this to you. There’s a sermon in there. Right there. Right. Just the the actual illumination where God actually reveals to us his wisdom. It’s the discernment. You know, we’re in a series right now called James where it talks about heavenly wisdom versus earthly wisdom. We literally just learned about that last night in small group. And so we talked about it. But it’s the idea that, like, here’s everybody taking their earthly guesses. Uh, you know, maybe you’re a reincarnated John the Baptist, which, by the way, is pretty silly since John the Baptist was they had crossover lives there, right?

Jeff
They actually saw.

Chris
Yeah, they saw each other. Right.

Jeff
While Jesus was there. Right?

Chris
Right.

Chris
It’s crazy.

Jeff
But what they’re saying is that some of the people were saying that. So they weren’t saying that the disciples know.

Chris
Right? Right, right. Yeah. That’s the.

Chris
Buzz. Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff
The buzz is some people think maybe you’re.

Chris
And I can’t even imagine trying that, by the way, walking up and saying, hey, what are people saying about me? What are they saying about me? But Jesus, Jesus wants to know. And rightfully so. And so the biggest misconception in the universe, it feels like, is sort of centered around this passage of scripture. Yeah, yeah. Where where he looks at Peter and he says, I say that you are Peter, which means rock. And upon this rock I will build my church. And over the years people have been taught, and I was raised to believe that Jesus was implying that the church will be built on Peter. Right? Because we translated from the original Greek into English the word rock, right? Right. But those are two different Greek words in the same family. So when he says, Peter, you are rock. It literally translates better, translated into little stone, right? Which means stone that you could hold in your hand. That’s right. And then when he says, upon this rock, I will build my church, he says, upon this mountain, upon this mountain side, it means like cliff. Right? And so he’s.

Jeff
This massive stone.

Chris
This massive rock, right? This, this bedrock. Right. And so and so the question is, what do you mean? Like, you know, was Peter the first pope? And, you know, he did he did say, Peter, the keys of the kingdom of heaven are yours. And he’s really he’s really saying, Peter, you have been given knowledge from from our heavenly Father, right? And not only that, but Peter was the an instrument to start the first church, wasn’t he? Right. So but but but but the idea that Jesus was going to build his church on a person is, is what I was raised to believe. Until you do the study and you realize these are two different things. And by the way, what makes more sense? Does it make more sense that Jesus was referring to the statement, the truth that this whole conversation was centered around, who do you say that I am? Well, you’re the son of the living God. Okay, upon this rock, I’m going to build my church. That’s what the church is built on. Right? So if there’s a religion out there that, you know, doesn’t claim that Jesus is the way to heaven, then it’s not really a true church or a true faith, right? But if there’s all sorts of churches and there are plenty of denominations, in fact, if you think about it, all the different denominations that are, you know, Christian that disagree about certain things, you know, we all have different ways that we dress, different ways of doing communion. We have different colleges we send our kids to. We even we may have had different ways to do baptism, right. We may have different ways to worship. We may have different music styles and different different different different, different different. Chris
But put us all together in one room. What is the only thing we have in common? We all would say Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the son of the living God. And on this church I will build on this rock. I will build my church. It’s on this bedrock truth, this mountainside truth. Yeah. And so in Peter being the one who said it, you know, and he and Jesus gave him the nickname rock, but it’s stone that you can hold in your hand. So anyway, I just I think that there is a very big thing that has, you know, that has happened in our society where we think that Peter is is the guy one of the.

Jeff
Accusations Jesus gives the the Pharisees and the religious leaders is that they kind of block people from the kingdom of God. Hold people out. Those religious leaders thought that they held the keys to the kingdom. And it’s interesting that Jesus used Peter to be the one to open the gates, even for the Gentiles. Right, right. And that’s really kind of what he’s talking about there. But you’ve been to Caesarea Philippi. Have you been to Caesarea?

Chris
I have, yeah.

Jeff
So there’s a cave there, and it has a bottomless pit inside the cave. You can throw a rock in there and it never hits. You never hear it hit bottom. And so the ancients, the Canaanites, and then eventually Alexander the Great’s people, you know, when the the Greeks came through and then the Romans, they all believed that that was the entrance into Hades was that area. And one of the reasons was because out of that cave also flowed. The beginning of the Jordan River comes out of that used to come out of that cave. An earthquake altered that. But that’s what they used to believe. And in the middle there was a rock. In the middle it’s flat. It looks like an altar. And so there’d be like this little tiny, this island, it would be a big rock, but it would be an island in the middle of that river. And they would sacrifice goats on that island in order to start the spring rains. And if they didn’t, if it didn’t work after a whole series of sacrificing goats, they would sacrifice children on that, that rock. And they were trying to appease the gods, because the Greeks and the Canaanites and the Romans all believed that the gods came up from the waters during the different solstices. That’s that’s what they believed. And so you have a bottomless pit and a water coming out. They believe that was the entrance to hell. And then they worshipped Pan. Pan is that half man, half goat god, right. And he didn’t live in Hades. He lived in the forests. And he’s kind of like the boogeyman kind of a thing. They they liked him because he played pranks, but they were terrified of him because he was scary at night. Jeff
And so they had a temple to pan. They had a temple, I believe, to Zeus, a temple to Aphrodite. And, you know, the Greek and Roman worship was all sexual. So the idea to have they would have male and female prostitutes in the to and goats in the other. So let your mind run wild. And that was the kind of worship they had. This was an unbelievably godless city. And this is the last place Jesus takes all these young men. Remember, he only paid taxes for one. It was him and Peter. All the other guys are very young. These Jewish boys would never have gone. This is Las Vegas times a thousand. These good Jewish boys would have never gone to this pagan worship city. And Jesus takes them there to talk about the kingdom, right? It’s so powerful. Let me let me tell you, the kingdom of God. Even this, the gates of hell will never prevail. The most evil thing you can possibly experience will never prevail against the gates, against heaven, right? The gates of hell never prevail against the kingdom of God. And then he says, So I’m going to give you the keys, and you’re going to unlock the kingdom for the whole world, not just for Jews, but for everybody. And then he says, but don’t, don’t go tell people now. And I think one of the reasons there’s a note in here, too, that I just saw, but this is exactly the reason. So I made a joke saying it’s partly crowd control, but I believe he’s also trying to say, you don’t totally understand because this is the pivot. Jesus is just been doing miracles and teaching good living things. And now, from this moment on, he pivots. Jeff
He begins to explain to them, I’m going to die, right? And but they didn’t understand that yet. So they’ve already declared he’s the Messiah because of what he did, the miracles that he did, and the good things he taught. But they did not fully understand the substitutionary death of Christ, the real sacrifice, the shedding of blood that he would give this innocent lamb for the guilty. Right. So he took them to the most wicked place, accessible to them. And and then begins, because tomorrow we’ll start talking. He begins to tell them, I’m going to die. It’s going to be my blood that’s going to be shed, and I’m going to be the one to come and come, and I’m the one here that’s going to here to rescue the world. And they didn’t totally understand that if they had started running around yelling that Jesus was the Messiah, they would have only been talking about the fact that he did miracles and taught nice things, but they didn’t understand the real sacrifice and the power of the resurrection that was coming. So he’s like, don’t get too crazy yet, right? Don’t go tell everybody, because there’s a little more to this. But I love the fact that Jesus was not afraid to take these young men into the most horrific place and stand, look the evil right in the eye and say, the gates of hell cannot prevail against the kingdom of God. Yeah. Wow. It’s such a cool thing.

Chris
It’s extremely cool. And I could have I could have covered that, but not nearly with as much memory as you did. That’s that was amazing.

Jeff
It is.

Jeff
It’s what I was just there. So that was part of.

Jeff
It, right? I was.

Jeff
There in May so.

Jeff
Many months ago.

Chris
Yeah. And I was there in 2009. So I have a pass. I was.

Jeff
Riveted. And then you want to know another neat thing. Yeah. So there’s always new archaeology discoveries right. And a several years ago they discovered the tiles to a church that was from. Like a thousand, more than a thousand years ago, built right there. There was an earthquake that stopped the flow of that river, and they came in and built a church right at that altar.

Chris
Wow.

Jeff
So literally, the gates of hell cannot prevail against my church, right? They built a church right at what they perceive to be the gates of hell.

Chris
Yeah, there you go. Which is such a cool thing, right? Yeah. That is. Yeah.

Jeff
So they found that recently. Recently. And yeah, you can still tour where the temples were and all that kind of stuff. But it is cool that Jesus had no doubt at all that his kingdom would last, right? And that he only is going to use these 12 guys after his resurrection. There were only 120 of them, right? He went and visited in the upper room. He visited 500 more after his resurrection. So what? He got six, 700 believers and they transformed the world. And I just got back from Iraq. And, you know, ISIS did their best to kill every Christian they could find. They marked their homes, they taxed them, and then they beheaded them over and over and over and over and over again. And yet the church is thriving and there’s so many Christians and they’re talking about how do we start new churches, how do we reach people who don’t know Jesus? And, you know, the ISIS did the best they could, right? And dude, if ISIS can’t do it, I really believe more and more and more when Jesus said, the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. Now we run a little scared because our boss might be a little grumpy about the fact that we talk about our faith, or our schoolteachers or whatever. But man alive, stand up, be strong, because the gates of hell cannot prevail against you.

Chris
You know, it reminds me of about 15, 17 years ago. We at the church I was a part of launched like a missionary guy. It was really a pastor who was planting a church. But he did it on the strip in Las Vegas. Yeah. And it was and it was. And it was called Verve Church.

Chris
I think it’s.

Chris
Yeah. Remember, I think it’s still there. And and just the idea that, that, that you would plant a church there.

Jeff
Yeah. One of the most wicked places in the country.

Chris
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And it’s just, it’s just unbelievable. So I think that, you know, it’s it’s really appropriate that Jesus did this for these men. Just saying, like, the church will prevail over all these things. I think he.

Jeff
Was also demonstrating for them. I’m not afraid of a place like this. As long as you’re walking in the spirit, you don’t give in to the lust of the flesh. Here. We don’t have to be afraid of going there, because these young Jewish boys would have never gone there, right? They would have gone to the other easy places where they were good, sweet people that just needed Jesus.

Chris
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jeff
And he took them. The last big ministry thing he does in Galilee. He takes them to the worst place and says, we’re going to go to these places, too. We’re going to reach these people, right? Not to go indulge, but to bring light into the darkness.

Chris
Yeah.

Chris
That’s great. Well, that’s sounds like a great place to end. And we’ll pick up next time and see you next time on The Bible Guys.