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:
Man, I like that roll in.

Chris:
I do too.

Jeff:
That’s Connor O’Brien’s voice.

Chris:
Yes. And by the way, we put names to our sound guy and our video guy. That’s right. We put names to Desiree, who puts everything together. And now Connor O’Brien.

Jeff:
That’s the voice. He does such a nice job. It’s such a friendly voice. Yes. You’re listening to the Bible, guys.

Chris:
Yes. And by the way, if you attend our church, which is Heritage Church, then he’s the guy on stage with a guitar who often does voiceovers for our videos.

Jeff:
That’s right. He’s very good.

Chris:
Hey, so today we’re going to, first of all, welcome everybody. We are the Bible Guys. My name is Chris, and then my companion is Jeff.

Jeff:
Faithful companion. Your faithful companion. That’s so funny. No, isn’t that Robin? Isn’t that how they, in his faithful companion, Robin? Oh, no, no, no. It’s faithful companion Tonto. It was Lone Ranger and his faithful companion. Yeah, that’s right.

Chris:
That is true. Yeah. No, it’s, it’s, it’s a dynamic duo, I think is the coin phrase for Batman and Robin.

Jeff:
Dynamic duo. That’s right.

Chris:
Yeah.

Jeff:
So, or his, his young ward, right? Isn’t that how they, on the Batman, they’d call him, they’d call Robin, Batman’s young ward. Really? It was like his adopted son, right? What is his name?

Chris:
Grace Ward.

Jeff:
I don’t know what his name is, but Ward meaning he was under… I don’t know Robin’s real name.

Chris:
He was under his care. Dick Grayson, that’s what it is.

Jeff:
This is riveting stuff, I’ll just tell you.

Chris:
All right, so hey, we’re going to move on to a segment that Desiree put together called How Well Do You Know Them? Let’s see how well Jefferley knows you, Chris. Ask him three off-the-wall questions and see if he knows the answers. Most of your questions are off the wall. All right, here we go. Ready? Here’s the first one. So I just thought of this like literally a minute before we started. How many cities have I lived in total? But I’m going to give you a hint. You already know this answer, whether you’ve ever thought about it or not. So there’s nothing.

Jeff:
Okay. There’s nothing secret. Nope. Okay. Go name them. Youngstown. Youngstown, where I grew up. Springfield.

Chris:
Springfield, Missouri. I went to college there.

Jeff:
Atlanta.

Chris:
Just outside of Atlanta. I’ll give you that one because it’s Stockbridge, but it’s okay.

Jeff:
You’d never know that. A different town here in Michigan? Nope. You moved straight to Troy? Yep. Even though you worked in a little church here in Michigan? Didn’t you work in another church?

Chris:
No. I moved straight to Kensington.

Jeff:
Okay. So Troy. That’s it. That’s four?

Chris:
That’s it.

Jeff:
Four. I thought you worked in another church. So you’ve only worked in two churches your whole life? No, no.

Chris:
Three churches? Well, actually in Stockbridge, when I was in Atlanta, I worked in two churches, lived in the same house. And then here, I’ve lived in the same house as two churches. I’ve literally done the same thing. Wow, that’s cool. Isn’t that crazy? Yeah. But the good news is I’ve only had two houses as a married person. I’ve been married 32 years.

Jeff:
So your basement’s packed full is what you’re saying.

Chris:
I don’t even have a basement. I don’t have a basement. That’s the first question. Here’s the second one. Which, by the way, I loathe the fact that I don’t have a basement.

Jeff:
Number two. You should have asked me that. Do I have a basement? I should have.

Chris:
What is my favorite genre of music?

Jeff:
I have so many statements to make on that. Your favorite genre? Well, I think Taylor Swift is your favorite singer, so it’s got to be some kind of a pop

Chris:
Oh, I didn’t say she was my favorite. I just said I liked her. I just, I liked her. That’s all.

Jeff:
Yeah. So I would say, I wanted to say show tunes. That’s what I wanted to say. Oh my goodness. Yeah.

Chris:
Pop. Wow. You’re going for the Swifty. You’re going for the show tunes.

Jeff:
Yeah. Either, yeah. Pop or country. Pop.

Chris:
It’s country. Is it country? It’s country. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I lived in Atlanta for 10 years and they grew on me. Yeah. Yeah. So that’s it. And then here’s the last question. Okay. What is the number, you don’t have to name the actual countries, but what is the number of the, as many international missions trips that I’ve taken in total?

Jeff:
International missions trips that you’ve taken? Yeah. These are either like vision trips as leadership or service trips. I would think it’s 27.

Chris:
Really close. 24. Oh, wow.

Jeff:
Yeah. Yeah.

Chris:
So the breakdown is Cuba, Haiti, Kenya, and Costa Rica. I went all of them four times. Wow. And then once each, I went to India, Brazil, South Sudan, South Africa, Tanzania, Egypt, Israel, and the Dominican Republic.

Jeff:
Wow. Wow. That’s it. That’s great. Well, we’re getting ready to go back to Dominican Republic. We are.

Chris:
Yeah. Just in a couple of weeks. Yeah. So, okay.

Jeff:
There’ll be another one. There you go. Awesome. Then that’ll be 25.

Chris:
Yes. Just round it off.

Jeff:
Just make sure you ask me that question again next time.

Chris:
There it is. Hey, so if you care about me at all. All the amazing things. It’s just we’re plumbing the depths. You know more about Chris.

Jeff:
Of the person, of the mystery that is Chris Zarba.

Chris:
That’s it. The music.

Jeff:
It’s very fulfilling.

Chris:
I can imagine it would be for you.

Jeff:
So today we are in Matthew chapter 24. I’m just moving on. So today we’re going to be in Matthew chapter 24. And do you remember, those of you who’ve been listening over the last week or so, we started off and we’re reading about all these comments that Jesus makes about his return and being watchful, right? And so it winds up being three very long passages in Matthew chapter 24, Mark chapter 13, and Luke chapter 21. So what we decided to do is go halfway on each of those three passages. And now we’re coming back and we’re picking back up in Matthew 24 and we’ll get the second half today. of that one, and then we’ll go to Luke, second half of that one, and then Mark and then Luke.

Chris:
So technically, just to say it another way, that means we will have done six podcasts on three chapters, which are the same parallel story. One big topic. One big topic.

Jeff:
That’s right. Yeah, so it’s just so many verses. This one chapter has 51 verses in it in Matthew chapter 24. Zoinks! Yeah, so we’re not going to read all 51 because we’ve already read 25 of them, but we can pick up right there. Matthew chapter 24 verse 26 says, So if someone tells you, look, the Messiah is out in the desert, don’t bother to go and look, or look, he’s hiding here, don’t believe it. For as the lightning flashes in the east and shines to the west, so it will be when the Son of Man comes. Just as the gathering of vultures shows there’s a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near. Immediately after the anguish of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will give no light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth, And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet. They will gather his chosen ones from all over the world, from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven. Now, learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branches bud and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things, you can know his return is very near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass from the scene until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear. However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the son himself. Only the father knows. When the son of man returns, it’ll be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days, after the flood, or before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up until the time Noah entered his boat. People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. And that is the way it’ll be when the Son of Man comes. Two men will be working together in the field and one will be taken, the other left. Two women will be grinding flour at the mill, one will be taken, the other left. So you too must keep watch, for you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. Understand this, if a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he would keep watch and not permit his house to be broken into. You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected. A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the Master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there’ll be a reward. I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns. But what if the servant is evil and thinks, my master won’t be back for a while, and he begins beating the other servants and partying and getting drunk? The master will return unannounced and unexpected, and he’ll cut the servant to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So Jesus is saying, hey, he’s coming back at any minute.

Chris:
He is. And that last word picture is a heck of a word picture. Yeah, absolutely. Holy Christmas. Yeah. Yeah. So there’s a lot in there.

Jeff:
Yeah. Well, I read Jesus is coming back at any minute. You don’t know when. And that’s why I live by the motto, eat dessert first.

Chris:
Eat dessert first.

Jeff:
Jesus is coming back at any minute. And so I say that all the time. Eat dessert first. And people who’ve gone out to eat with me, you know that it’s true. A lot of times I’ll eat dessert first because last thing I want to do is if Jesus comes back, I’m sitting there with a mouthful of broccoli and I knew dessert was coming. I’d be like, are you serious? Right? So eat dessert first. Jesus will come back at any minute.

Chris:
Just be ready. That’s really funny. Yeah. So, um, when he says, uh, this generation, I tell you the truth, this generation.

Jeff:
Oh, we’re going to get right to it then. Thanks, Chris.

Chris:
Oh, well, yeah, no, no, no, no.

Jeff:
It’s just, it’s the hardest thing on this whole page. I’m just making fun of the fact that you chose the hardest thing to talk about. Oh, well, there’s an asterisk there. Yeah.

Chris:
Yeah. Let’s do it. Yeah. And, and, and the asterisk, I was just going to point out that the life application study Bible has a note that says it translates into this age or this nation. Right. So, so, uh, sometimes I think what happens is when we, when we, uh, take a word translated into English and we take it so literally without doing the work of the original Greek, we can say, Oh, that must mean, you know, the people listening to it in the first century, by the time their generation would die off. Right. Yeah, I wouldn’t think that that would be the hardest thing on here.

Jeff:
No, no, it’s just, that’s the most complex thing in this. Everything else you can read pretty much surface, and now you go, what? Right? So I was just making fun that that’s the first thing we went to.

Chris:
Well, you know, we limped into it with the dessert comment.

Jeff:
You were trying to redeem the conversation here. No, no, no. It’s really funny. I like it.

Chris:
I like it. Well, you know, we’ve always, we’ve said this in the past, you know, last time we talked about the book of Revelation has been good, goodness gracious, what months and months and months ago, right? On this podcast. So I sort of told a story about, you know, those billboards where I’ve driven by and, and, and people have actually in the past, I’ve seen it where it was pretty popular where there was a group of people who rented out, which is quite expensive. spaces on billboards and saying, here’s our prediction. This is when the second coming is coming. And they would predict a date. Yeah. Right. And then, and then I remember, you know, the date would come and go. And then I remember what’s absolutely, I mean, I want to say hilarious, but like, it’s kind of sad too. Sure. Somebody else rented the billboard and, and, and wrote, well, that was awkward right after that, right? And it was so, it was so like funny, but at the same time, it’s like, it’s like, it’s sort of like makes us all look bad, right? The Christians of the, of the world that are interpreted as sometimes fanatics.

Jeff:
Well, the way that you know that nobody knows is because even Jesus doesn’t know. Right. He literally says in verse 36, he says, not even the angels in heaven or the son himself. Right.

Chris:
Only the father knows. And then he said, actually, he will come when it’s least expected.

Jeff:
So it’s not going to be the date on the billboard.

Chris:
Which means when somebody says I think he’s gonna come here in my mind. I go Okay, that probably means that date is not when he’s gonna come. Yeah, right because I take Jesus pretty literal, right? And when he says it’s gonna come when it’s least expected I would guess that everybody who studies and predicts hey, I got a sort of a sad story But I think it’s worth telling tell it everybody loves sad stories Well, my friend just passed away, and he was, at one time, an extremely good friend of mine. When I lived in Atlanta, we just talked about me living in Stockbridge, Georgia. When I lived there, I was a pastor of high school students, and one of my best friends in the world was this guy named Chris. And he was like a helper in my youth group, you know? Anyway, super great friend. And then we lost touch for years and years after I moved to Michigan. Well, then we get reconnected and he’s this huge, the only way I could describe it, I guess, is like a huge revelation type person, right? Whereas like every conversation, yeah, every conversation, we couldn’t get off the phone or get off text without talking about the second coming. Okay. And so anyway, and then what happens is, and this is the sad part, this is extremely sad, like is what he says. Hey Chris, I’ve developed a disease, and he’s pretty much drank himself to death. So what is that? Sclerosis of the liver? Yeah, that’s exactly right. And so he’s like, but I’m not going to stop drinking beer. And I was like, why? He said, I just love it too much. And I was like, but the doctor said that if you stop, there’s a chance perhaps that you would add years and years to your life. And here’s what he said. He said, it doesn’t matter because I already know I’m not going to live very long anyway. None of us are because Jesus is coming back. And he also said, and I’ve got a bunch of money. He’s like, and I really don’t care about saving it because I don’t care about passing it on because Jesus is coming back. This man was so absolutely convinced, which is not a bad thing to be convinced that Jesus is coming back. Right. Yeah. But he was cashing all his chips, putting it in this basket because he decided to not take care of himself and not plan financially for the future. And so then eventually his wife texted me. and said, I just want to let you know, you know, Chris passed away. I was so sad. And that conversation still rings in my ears. And so when I read a passage like this, how could you not think about your friend? Oh, right.

Jeff:
Right. Yeah. So he had it right in that we should be living our life like Jesus is going to come back at any minute. Yes. But Jesus intent of letting us know he’s coming back at any minute is not that we would drink more beer and blow all our money. I’m not trying to make fun of what I’m saying. Stop trying.

Chris:
Stop preparing. Stop witnessing.

Jeff:
Instead, he’s telling us because it’s coming and it’s coming. You won’t even know. It’s like a thief in the night. He talks about that. He talks about the boss that comes home early. I used to work for, at the time, one of the richest men in Michigan, right before Bonnie and I got married. Worked on his estate. is about 500 acres total.

Chris:
Did he live there or was it a place that he visited?

Jeff:
Well, so yeah, he lived there part-time. So he’s probably there half the year he lived on that estate. And great big giant a huge home and we had probably a 10 acre formal gardens and it was just, it was magnificent, right? So we did all the work on that. So we had like three or four college guys that were just working, you know, summer workers, but he had several year round adult employees. Some people that managed the ranch, he owned a big cattle ranch next door, some that just managed his property there. And my boss was one of those guys. He made good money, had a company pickup truck, and he was that big cowboy kind of guy. He’d just live in that cool life. The home he lived in was on that estate, all that stuff. Just living around this, he had access to the pool. Whenever the big dog wasn’t in town, he just free reign of the whole complex. But he was a total jerk. And he never did anything unless the boss, the owner was in the area. And so it had come up. I didn’t throw him under the bus, but one of the other employees had mentioned to the owner, Hey, you know, if you’re not around, he doesn’t do anything. He just, he goes into town. He just spends money. He sleeps. And so one day the owner came into town. Unexpected. Unannounced. And rolled in, hey, where’s Bill? And we were like, well, he’s not here right now. And the owner got upset and said, you tell me where is that? I know you guys are covering for him. And so we said, well, and Bill had an entire little apartment up in the hayloft in one of the barns that he had built himself just to be able to take naps. And he was in there watching TV, not working. And the boss fired him on the spot. He lost the best job he ever had in his life. Wow. Because the rich man showed up and said, Hey, you’re being unfaithful. So he’s squandering, he’s spent so much money. There’s a big investigation about all the waste. So when I read that, that’s what I think about. There’s going to be a day when Jesus shows up or when the King shows up. And so, Hey, what have you been doing for me? Have you been getting your work done? Have you been doing what I told you to do? So he doesn’t tell us all these things so that we like, you know, talking about your friends so that we drink more and spend more and just blow off all the important things of life. Instead, what he’s trying to do is he’s trying to focus our mission. Hey, there’s work to be done. Yeah, the opposite is probably true. I need you to stay focused and be ready because there’s lots of people who don’t yet know that I’m coming back. There’s so many people who don’t know that they’re about ready to stand the judgment. You need to go tell them all and then you just have to be working like it’s tomorrow. Work like it’s tomorrow. Work with that kind of urgency to bring lost people to faith in Christ, to lay up treasures in heaven, as Jesus said, to make a difference with your life. You have to work like I’m coming back tomorrow, because when I do show up, I’m going to, he says, he’s going to then, he’s going to hold us accountable. There’ll be judgment.

Chris:
In verse number 29 when it says immediately after the anguish of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will give no light, the stars are far from the sky, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. He’s actually quoting there Isaiah 13 10, and then it says 34 4, 34 4, and then it says see Joel chapter 2 verse number 10. So, you know, here these, you know, Jesus is now connecting the Old Testament, right, with what, you know, is going to happen with himself. And by the way, I love the imagery of saying the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Because, you know, think about this, Jesus is about to surrender his life, right? He’s about to give his life to, you know, to be handed over. Those guys who are listening don’t necessarily know that it’s going to be literal and it’s going to come any second, right? Right. But, you know, they’re about to see Jesus uh, be overpowered supposedly. Right. But Jesus isn’t, you know, he, he let them overpower him. He says, you know, nobody’s taking my life from me. He’s about to say, I give it willingly. Right. Right. Uh, but you know, think about the imagery that they’re, that they’re going to see, you know, just the, the picturing the final days of Jesus. And so this imagery of him talking about him coming back one day is just glorious in this moment. That’s really cool.

Jeff:
It reminds me of the lyrics to that old southern gospel song, When Jesus Steps Out on the Clouds. You ever hear that song? Oh, no, it’s a great song. Sing it for us, Jeff. I’m not going to sing it. Come on, Jeff. I’m not going to sing it. I know you can. I can, but I’m not going to. There is a phrase, the very first sentence that we read here, verse 26, so if someone tells you, look, the Messiah is out in the desert, don’t bother to go and look. On a semi-regular basis, a couple times a year, somebody will give me their book that they’ve written about when Jesus is coming back. Really? Right. Oh yeah. It happens to me either a handwritten, I’ve had multiple handwritten books where, so this is the manuscript that they wrote and it’s about, they’re pretty sure they have a good idea of when Jesus is coming back. And then I would say probably once every year, every other year, I get somebody who gives me a book that they actually had printed. Right. Where they’re really, really confident that they know when Jesus is going to return. And Jesus says here, someone tells you, look, the Messiah’s out, don’t even bother and go look. Right. So, Hey, would you read this? And I’m like, probably not.

Chris:
Right, right.

Jeff:
So if you want to give me a book about when Jesus is going to return, because you’re pretty sure you know it, and you wrote that book, don’t give it to me. Give it to Chris. He’ll read it.

Chris:
I will be happy to take it and pass it on. to my other friends, like Chris, you know, my former friend.

Jeff:
But I’m joking on that. I’ve read many, many times people would write a thing and then I’d come back and go, Hey, have you thought of this? Have you thought of that? Right. And we just can’t know. I just literally, today, before I came into the studio, I had a meeting with a person who, this is what they wanted to talk about specifically, trying to figure out my theology, the way I view Jesus coming back and all those things, the importance of it. And it’s a big deal. We should take, Jesus took a long time to talk about this. And he continues on, right? He keeps going with this topic. Before he left, one of the really big things he wanted his disciples to know is, it’s all going to come to an end. Right? And I want you to know what it’s going to be like. And he didn’t tell you to scare you. He told you so that you’d be ready. And that’s really the intent behind all of this. Just be ready. And we’ll keep talking about this. This same topic goes on for the next couple of days.

Chris:
Yep. Okay. Well, that’s a good place to end. That’s about our time. So we will see you hopefully tomorrow on The Bible Guys.