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:
Chris.

Chris:
Jeff. Today is another day.

Jeff:
Oh man, it’s good to be here with you. Yeah. In this place with all these people.

Chris:
With all these people.

Jeff:
All these people.

Chris:
There’s just me, you, and then the audio guy.

Jeff:
I know. And all the people that are listening. Yeah. You don’t feel like you’re sitting in the car with this person while they’re driving down the road?

Chris:
Oh, I see what you’re saying. I thought you were referring to our physical proximity. Yeah, no. Which by the way, we always mentioned Desiree who does the show sheets, but I mentioned the audio guy. It’s Josh.

Jeff:
Josh, yeah.

Chris:
Our audio guy has a name.

Jeff:
He does.

Chris:
The audio guy. And he also does the video too. He does? Woo, cool. He’s our audio video guy. Thank you, Josh. So, and I bet you he didn’t expect to get mentioned.

Jeff:
He didn’t. Yeah. He paid you 20 bucks.

Chris:
Okay, so… Hey man, my dream is to be mentioned on the Bible, guys.

Jeff:
I want some show credits. Okay, that’s not how he talks.

Chris:
What are we doing? No, it’s not.

Jeff:
Okay. So, uh, today I have some really tough ones for you, uh, law or flaw. So I’m going to read five laws and you get to figure out if they’re laws or flaws.

Chris:
I just found that, that we’re doing this about two minutes ago. And I, my first comment on my mouth is, is that there is no rhyme or reason for this, right? So there’s no way for me to even like be able to guess this intelligently.

Jeff:
So the flaws are funny because you just go, some absurd person wrote down a funny thing to say. Right. But the laws, some of these are like, who made that a law? And where do you find these things? So Desiree finds some of the weirdest laws and flaws. Here it is. The first one, everyone in Arizona. Yep. It’s illegal to have a donkey sleeping in your bathtub after 7 p.m.

Chris:
Oh, stop it. Stop it. That is so crazy. Okay. Law.

Jeff:
You’re right. It is a law.

Chris:
It is a law? No way is that a law.

Jeff:
I went against my instinct. I wonder under what circumstances did the geniuses, the founding fathers of that city determine, you know, one of the problems we got around here. Some guy was campaigning on that. Vote for me and I’m going to outlaw donkey sleeping in bathtubs. So whatever. I can’t believe I got it. Okay. In Arkansas, number two, it is illegal to sound your horn at any place where cold drinks or sandwiches are served after 9 p.m.

Chris:
After 9pm? That’s actually the only thing that makes sense. Honking at night is disturbing peace. I’m going to say law.

Jeff:
It is a law. Wow. That’s correct. You worked it out.

Chris:
Wow. Wow. Why cold sandwiches or drinks?

Jeff:
So I think the cold sandwiches and drinks probably are just a They mean nothing. If it’s illegal to honk your horn after 9 p.m. anywhere, it would be illegal.

Chris:
I’m picturing somebody like their drink is spilling or whatever.

Jeff:
Yeah. Well, I think if it’s illegal to honk your horn anywhere in the city. Yeah. After 9 p.m., then it would be illegal to honk it near a place with cold drinks or sandwiches. I think that’s just a false. Okay. One two for two. Miraculously. All right. Number three. In Georgia, it’s illegal to bite your landlord.

Chris:
That’s interesting. So oftentimes, Desiree would make all five of them the same thing, like either they’re all laws or all flaws. So I’m going to say law.

Jeff:
It’s a flaw. But I think there’s a mistake there, because I think that would be considered assault. Wouldn’t it? And assault is illegal everywhere. So I don’t know. But it’s a flaw where it’s not expressly said, you’re not allowed to bite your landlord. But officer, there’s no way, show me the law that says I’m not allowed to buy my landlord. Okay, here we go. So you’re two for three. Number four, in Pennsylvania, it’s illegal to tie a crocodile or alligator to a car.

Chris:
In Pennsylvania? Pennsylvania’s don’t have crocodiles.

Jeff:
I’m going to say flaw. People have alligators and crocodiles at home. No. That’s why they flush them down the toilet.

Chris:
They have alligators. They don’t have crocodiles. How do you know? Crocodiles are like in the Middle East. Or, well, people can buy them.

Jeff:
They’re in Australia.

Chris:
All right. No, I’m going to say, no, there’s no way. Pennsylvania. Okay. Pennsylvania? You didn’t even say Florida. Okay. I’m going to say somebody made that up. I’m going to say flaw.

Jeff:
It is a flaw. but there it is. Okay. And then number five, lastly. Boom. So you’re three for four.

Chris:
Yes. I’m very proud of myself.

Jeff:
In New York, it is illegal to shine shoes after 1 PM on a Sunday.

Chris:
New York. Okay. Well, first of all, on a Sunday wouldn’t matter because New York of all States, I would imagine wouldn’t care about Sundays in the way that somebody in the South would. Does that make sense? Yeah.

Jeff:
But it’s only 1 p.m. after 1 p.m. on Sunday. So you can shine your shoes for church.

Chris:
I’m going to say law.

Jeff:
It’s illegal to shine shoes after 1 p.m. on a Sunday. I’m going to say law. It’s a law. It is a law. Wow. Awesome. Yeah. Good job, Chris. So four for five. Four for five. That’s pretty good there. You should be proud of yourself. You should call your mom.

Chris:
By the way, on two of those, I went completely against my instinct. I thought I was going to say flaw for the last one. And I almost literally, as I was saying the word flaw, I just said law. And I thought, because I’m always get these wrong.

Jeff:
Right. So you just said the other one. Yeah.

Chris:
And George Costanza. I’m doing the opposite. Right? I don’t know if you saw that episode of Seinfeld.

Jeff:
2241.

Chris:
It’s so great.

Jeff:
Okay. Well, good. Good job, Chris. We are so proud of you. It’s one of the reasons why we listen to you is because we feel like your authority on all the important things in life.

Chris:
Well, that’s so kind of you to say.

Jeff:
You’re an expert. So today our reading is in three different passages, Matthew 22, Mark 12, and Luke 20. and the religious leaders cannot answer Jesus’ questions. So they’ve been asking him questions, now he flips the script. And while he answered all theirs, they’re a little befuddled. Befuddled is a good word.

Chris:
Thanks for bringing that out of the archive.

Jeff:
That’s a great one. So Matthew 22, 41 says, then surrounded by the Pharisees, Jesus asked them a question. What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he? They replied, he’s the son of David. Jesus responded, then why does David, speaking under the inspiration of the Spirit, call the Messiah my Lord? For David said, the Lord said to my Lord, sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies beneath your feet. Since David called the Messiah my Lord, how can the Messiah be his son? No one could answer him and after that no one dared ask him any more questions. There it is again. There it is again. He’s just shutting them down.

Chris:
Dude, he’s shutting them down left and right.

Jeff:
Yeah, yeah. Well, they quit asking him questions, so now he’s coming after them. Mark chapter 12 verse 35 says, Later, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple, he asked, Why do the teachers of religious law claim that the Messiah is the son of David? For David himself, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies beneath your feet. Since David himself called the Messiah my Lord, how can the Messiah be his son? The large crowd listened to him with great delight. how they knew what he was doing and then in Luke chapter 20 verse 41 it says then Jesus presented them a question why is it he asked that the Messiah is said to be the son of David for David himself wrote in the book of Psalms the Lord said to my Lord sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies making them a footstool under your feet since David called the Messiah Lord how can the Messiah be his son So it seems like two of them are straight up Jesus going after the Pharisees. The one in the middle, Mark, seems to be after he does it, he goes and tells the crowd what just happened. Right. Right. Which is funny.

Chris:
Yeah. And it says the large crowd listens to him with great delight. Because it would be delightful to watch Jesus put the Pharisees in their place, wouldn’t it? So I would imagine that would be very delightful.

Jeff:
Well, they kind of functioned a little bit like the morality police, right? So we know this in some of the Muslim countries, they have clothing police and hijab police and, you know, all those things. And they go around and punish people who aren’t following the rules exactly right when it comes to morality stuff. And the Pharisees wouldn’t do that with regard to violence all the time, but they would be the ones that would incite it. somebody got caught in a thing, they’d be the ones that would incite the violence against them. They would shame people for not following the law exactly right or not living exactly like they lived. And so, yeah, the people would have, they would have admired them on one level while those are holy people. And they also would have been frustrated. It’s the way, I had a friend that went to a private school that was led by nuns back in the day. And when he would talk about the nuns, he would talk about how holy they are and how with God, connected to God they are. And at the same time, same time, he talked about how mean they were to him, smack in the back of his hands with rulers. And so he admired them. and resented them at the same time. And I think that’s very, very similar to the way that the people viewed the Pharisees. They admired them for being so holy, better than me, but they also were frustrated because they were always being shamed and punished by them. And so they delighted when Jesus would catch them, right?

Chris:
Well, you know, I always view the people’s view of the Pharisees based on the evidence in the scriptures. I always viewed it as similar, really not that much different than today. So for instance, somebody, you walk up and tell somebody that you’re a pastor, right? Immediately somebody will go, oh goodness, and they’ll pay you respect or something. And they’ll like literally change their demeanor or they’ll say, I didn’t know you were a pastor. Sorry for that joke I just told. And they’ll backtrack or something like this. And immediately there’s like a reverence thing happening, right? Or a respect thing, I guess. And then at the same time, there are people who just will actually resent you for being a pastor, right? I’ve run into my share of people, even one time at a wedding, somebody, you know, it was just such a weird interaction where people just scoffed at me because they thought that pastors would judge their lifestyle, that kind of thing. And so anyway, I just think that it was sort of that way. I think that people who felt, you know, who were angry and felt really repressed by the Pharisees, the morality police, they just hated them. And then there are probably people who absolutely respected them and loved them. And I don’t think it’s that much different than today. I really don’t. Hey, let me tell you a real quick story, just for fun. So I was in college and I remember coming home on Christmas break to Ohio. And I was at home visiting my girlfriend, who’s now my wife. And I remember driving from her house to my house. And it was about two in the morning, right? I had stayed over there watching movies with their family. And so as I’m driving home, I’m really sleepy, right? And so I ended up weaving, and as I’m weaving, an officer pulls me over and I literally get out of my car. I don’t know why I was out of my car, because I don’t think he was doing the walk the line test, but I think he wanted me out of the car and maybe he was about to do the walk the line test, right? But anyway, here’s what happens. He looks at me and he goes, Hey, he goes, were you drinking? And I go, well, no, I wasn’t drinking. And he goes, it’s two in the morning. This is when the bars get out. And I go, I wasn’t drinking, and this is Youngstown, right? I mean, if you’re at a two in the morning, you’re coming from a bar, right? And I said, no, I said, I don’t drink, sir. And he goes, you kidding me? He goes, you’re like 21 years old. He goes, you’re prime drinking age. And I said, sir, I’m a Bible college student, right? I don’t drink. And he looked at me and he started laughing and he goes, you’re not a Bible college student. And he just starts cracking up. Like this is the most absurd lie ever. And I said, look, and I pointed to the back of my car and in my window, I had like a sticker that said Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri. And so I go, look. And so he grabbed the light and he shined it. And as soon as he saw that, he goes, I’m so sorry. He goes, I’m so sorry. You know, he goes, then just, just stay safe and get in your car and go home. And at 21 years old, I thought to myself, I can’t believe that worked. And I can’t believe that he changed his entire demeanor. A police officer immediately showed me respect. And I guess it’s because looking back at it now, he probably hears everything, right? And he probably thinks, wow, I’ve actually come across somebody who’s innocent.

Jeff:
But isn’t that crazy? That’s funny. Yeah. So in this then, the Pharisees are, you know, Jesus turns the tables on the Pharisees and he’s challenging them. Now, let me ask you a question, because they have been for quite a while trying to trip him up. And if you remember, you know, it’s been several days since this happened, but Jesus kind of went on a string there of of him telling the people, I am the Messiah, right? As he’s coming into Jerusalem, he mentions it several different times. If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father, we read that passage. There’s a bunch of these things where he’s claiming to be God. And in this one, there’s not maybe a better argument among the religious leaders that Jesus is claiming to be God than right here. because they knew that the law, or not the law, but the prophets had said that the Messiah would be from David’s family, right? Now they’re looking for a political Messiah, and Jesus is trying to say, you know, it’s not the return of the king. You’re not looking for some, you know, exiled king who’s, they were just going to sneak the crown out and polish it off and do, do, do, do. I’m taking over Rome. Right. But instead he says, well, then why does David refer to the Messiah as his Lord? Right. And they’re like, what? And what he’s saying is David was claiming that the Messiah was going to be God. And this is the exact same test that, there’s a note here, where did I see it? There’s a note here in the Life Application Study Bible that says, Jesus quotes from Psalm 110 verse 1, that the Lord said to my Lord, sit in a place of honor at my right hand, right? And to show that the Messiah would be greater than David, which is a shock, because people don’t view at that time, they didn’t view the Son as being greater than the Father. Right. Hebrews 1 verse 13 uses the same text as proof of Christ’s deity. Isn’t that interesting? So Jesus uses it later on the book of Hebrews uses it to say, no, what he’s saying is the Son is the Lord and the Son of David are, it’s God who’s coming from David’s family, right? He’s going to be born in David’s family. And this is one of those declarations of the deity of Christ. And clearly the Pharisees understood what he was saying. They didn’t have an answer because David said it, right? And they hadn’t even ever seen that passage that way before. You ever had that? You’ve had somebody bring up a verse and you’re like, I’ve never… Yeah. I never noticed that before, right? That’s what happened.

Chris:
It’s happened on this podcast with us. Yeah. Yeah. Right. In fact, the one that just aired that I watched where you’d said, Hey, I’d never seen this before, but it said when he overturned the money changes, you just like, and the other political leaders.

Jeff:
Right. Yeah. Never seen that.

Chris:
Yeah. Never seen that before. Right. Hey, by the way, the son of David could be the root of the entire line of thinking of misunderstanding. Because let me ask you this, and I actually don’t know the answer to this. How many years at this point in time, because this is right around like what, 33 AD-ish, right? Yeah, yeah, roughly. Roughly. So how many years had it been since Israel had an actual king?

Jeff:
because the Greeks defeated Israel, and then the Romans defeated the Greeks. So I mean, it’s hundreds of years. Yeah. Yeah. It would have been the 400 years between, between Malachi and Jesus. Okay. Yeah. So probably somewhere in there.

Chris:
So maybe 400 years, maybe a little bit longer. Yeah. So, so, so, you know, Israel wanted a King from the beginning, remember? And, and, and actually God, it was not God’s desire. to give Israel a king. But Israel wanted to be a nation just like every other nation, right? And so what ended up happening was because of their relentless desire to have a king, they chose a king among themselves who was by his stature, and they chose Saul, remember? And then God raises up David. Right? And so David becomes, you know, the greatest king that’s still referred to here in this case, hundreds of years later, hundreds and hundreds of years. And there was a promise attached to David where, you know, it said, Hey, the Messiah will come from David. Now, when they say the son of David, they don’t literally mean one generation. They mean the lineage of David. right? Which is why in the book of Matthew, he actually includes the lineage of, is it Mary, right? Where he actually ties the mother of Jesus all the way to David. Because I think Matthew and then the other one comes from Abraham, right? And goes all the way to Joseph. But anyway, what they’re really doing is they’re saying that the Savior of the world will come from uh, the lineage of King David. Well, this is the reason why, and I may have gotten that wrong, but you know, you know what I’m saying? There’s two lineages and both of them lead one leads the Mary one leads to Joseph.

Jeff:
One comes from David. One goes all the way back to Abraham.

Chris:
Okay.

Jeff:
And, and, uh, and anyway, the son of Abraham and he’s the son of David was the point. Yes.

Chris:
That’s right. Anyway, here’s my rambling on point. My rambling on point is, I could almost completely see why they thought that the Messiah would be just the restoration of an earthly King. Yeah. Right. Because after all, he’s the son of David. And so if he’s the son of David and the Messiah is going to come from, you know, the son of David, that means eventually God is going to give us a king to restore our kingdom, to make us, again, a great nation. And you can’t have two kings, which means our king will overthrow the king of Caesar, right? And so that is what, you know, it’s almost understandable, right? And so when Jesus is challenging their notion of the Messiah, whose son is he, they’re saying the son of David, Jesus is trying to right-size the understanding. And he’s trying to say, yeah, it’s from the lineage of David. He is nicknamed the son of David, but he is David’s Lord. You understand what the Messiah is? The Messiah is the Lord.

Jeff:
And even David acknowledged it.

Chris:
Yes. Right. Yeah. So, and it’s really interesting too, because after all, this is the, you know, this is, after they were yelling Hosanna, right? You know, son of David. They were marching him in as the next king during the triumphal entry just recently.

Jeff:
And they just didn’t realize that his role was far greater than just being an earthly king, right? Yes. So the note for Luke chapter 20 verse 41 through 44 says, the central issue of life is what we believe about Jesus. Other spiritual questions are irrelevant unless we first decide to believe that Jesus is who he said he is. The Pharisees and Sadducees could not do this and they remained confused over Jesus’ identity. So that’s really the issue. You might have lots of other spiritual questions, but the first question you have to settle is, is Jesus who he claimed to be? All the other things we can resolve, we can work through, but the only one that really matters is, is Jesus who he claimed to be? And Jesus claimed to be the Messiah. He claimed to be God in the flesh and eventually he winds up proving it by, you know, dying on the cross, paying for our sins and rising again. So that’s really it. All the other questions are irrelevant until you answer this one. Is Jesus who he claimed to be?

Chris:
Yeah. Yeah. There’s a book called, who is that man? Have you ever read that book? I don’t know. Who is that man? And, uh, gee whiz, I forget who wrote it. Is it, is it a CS Lewis book?

Jeff:
Uh, I don’t remember that one.

Chris:
Uh, but anyway, uh, who is that man is a, uh, a book that I read in college. And it talks about, uh, answering that question. Uh, you know, who was Jesus? Was he an earthly figure or was he more than that? And it’s a beautiful book.

Jeff:
It’s awesome. Did you ever read the book more than a carpenter? by Josh McDonald. It’s kind of that book too. That’s the same idea. If you ever want to read a quick book that’s built around that idea, he’s more than a carpenter.

Chris:
Yeah, that’s great. All right. Well, hey, that is right at our time. So we will see you next time on The Bible Guys.