Latest / The Rhett Palmer Show / Biblical Context is Everything Part 1

Transcript

Biblical Context is Everything Part 1 · The Rhett Palmer Show

0:00
SPEAKER_01: He is the great I am.
0:02
SPEAKER_01: His first friend was Abraham.
0:05
SPEAKER_02: Surely said to Abraham.
0:08
SPEAKER_02: I am that I am.
0:12
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
0:21
SPEAKER_03: Now I thought that the Jack Black ass one just like this.
0:25
SPEAKER_03: This is the mayor of the airways.
0:27
SPEAKER_03: No, no, I'm not the mayor of the airways.
0:28
SPEAKER_03: That's right.
0:28
SPEAKER_03: You know, when I went on WCNO, Jonathan Downer says, Well, here, you're no longer mayor of the airways.
0:34
SPEAKER_03: Jesus is.
0:34
SPEAKER_03: And at first I was taken aback.
0:36
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, oh, that's offensive.
0:38
SPEAKER_03: After 30 years, and I realized, oh, how are you leaving?
0:42
SPEAKER_02: He's already leaving.
0:47
SPEAKER_02: Where is the bell?
0:48
SPEAKER_02: Where's the bell?
0:49
SPEAKER_02: Remember, where's the beef?
0:51
SPEAKER_02: Where's the bell?
0:52
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
0:53
SPEAKER_02: We're talking about Bible history.
0:54
SPEAKER_02: Bible history.
0:55
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to all of our friends today.
0:57
SPEAKER_01: We're listening to another cup of friendship here.
1:04
SPEAKER_02: It's called the friendship bell.
1:06
SPEAKER_02: It keeps them from shooting me.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: Okay, Rhett.
1:11
SPEAKER_01: So far in our conversations, we've talked a lot about how we can really read the Bible and put ourselves in the audience of the Bible audience and understand it better rather than trying to take our 21st century mindset and uh living in North America and try to understand some of the things that seem to be a little bit um obscure in the biblical texts.
1:37
SPEAKER_01: We have talked about the Bible being a library of 66 books.
1:41
SPEAKER_01: It has different kinds of literature.
1:42
SPEAKER_01: There's biography, there's code law, there's poetry, there's wisdom literature, there's letters to friends.
1:50
SPEAKER_03: What about all this talk about Enoch lately?
1:52
SPEAKER_01: There's uh we'll do that some other day.
2:02
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
2:03
SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay, and no Enoch today.
2:08
SPEAKER_01: Okay, no Enoch today.
2:09
SPEAKER_01: Uh what other literature um biography?
2:14
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, prophetic works.
2:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
2:15
SPEAKER_01: So we read the Bible depending on the type of literature, it's lamentations, poetry, wisdom literature.
2:22
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we've discussed how the Bible is a complete unit, that the Old Testament and New Testament are very connected, like a hand in glove.
2:32
SPEAKER_01: You really can't understand the events like the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 unless you understand uh what happened at the first Pentecost at the base of Mount Sinai in Numbers chapter uh 19.
2:46
SPEAKER_01: So, or excuse me, Exodus 19.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: So the Bible has this uh connection between old and new, between the Hebrew scriptures and the Christian scriptures.
2:56
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus said to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so shall I be lifted up.
3:04
SPEAKER_01: We wonder, what the heck is he talking about?
3:06
SPEAKER_01: But when we go to Numbers 21, we we see that scene where the people were grumbling against Moses.
3:11
SPEAKER_01: Snakes came into the camp.
3:13
SPEAKER_01: They started uh injecting people with poison.
3:16
SPEAKER_01: Uh the people came to Moses and said, Hey, we're sorry we said all those nasty things about you.
3:22
SPEAKER_01: Can you uh talk to the man and uh see if he can do something?
3:26
SPEAKER_01: And so God told Moses to make a snake out of bronze, put it on a pole, anyone who looked with faith that God could heal them.
3:32
SPEAKER_03: And that was a foreshadowing of Jesus on the cross.
3:36
SPEAKER_03: Right.
3:36
SPEAKER_01: So there's this uh connection, isn't it?
3:40
SPEAKER_01: It's totally amazing.
3:42
SPEAKER_01: So um let's talk today about context.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: Reading the words of the Bible.
3:51
SPEAKER_01: Just because I read the words doesn't necessarily mean I understand them.
3:56
SPEAKER_01: And remember, the Bible is not written to me or you, Rhett.
4:01
SPEAKER_01: It's but it's written for me.
4:03
SPEAKER_01: We're not with Moses standing at the bottom of Mount Sinai, we're not with Jesus in the upper room, we're not sitting uh uh on the hillside at the Mount of Beatitudes.
4:13
SPEAKER_01: Um we're we're we're somewhat disconnected from the actual essence of the message because we're so far out of the culture of of that time.
4:22
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
4:23
SPEAKER_01: So let's talk a little a little bit about how culture affects maybe even you and I and our uh relationships with people here in our time.
4:32
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you an example.
4:34
SPEAKER_01: Uh when I married my wife, Laura Ueta, I really made.
4:39
SPEAKER_01: It was, but it I hadn't I realized I entered another world.
4:43
SPEAKER_01: She's a fifth Japanese, fifth fifth generation Japanese growing up in home.
4:50
SPEAKER_01: And so when I first Laura and I uh married, and I walked into her mom and dad's house with an armful of groceries, and I had my shoes on because her father looked at me and gave me this stink eye look, and then he looked at my feet, and suddenly I realized what he was saying.
5:17
SPEAKER_03: Okay, because was he saying it in English or Japanese?
5:21
SPEAKER_01: He said it with his look.
5:23
SPEAKER_03: Oh, Japan.
5:24
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
5:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
5:26
SPEAKER_01: Because in Japanese homes in Hawaii, you don't wear your shoes inside the house.
5:31
SPEAKER_03: Sign of disrespect.
5:33
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's just their custom to keep the floors clean.
5:36
SPEAKER_01: And outside of uh Ron and Jean's house in Honolulu, there's about sometimes ten or twelve pairs of shoes and slippers right outside the door.
5:46
SPEAKER_01: You have to be careful you don't trip over them.
5:50
SPEAKER_03: Um you go to somebody's house and you see all the little shoes of the children, the adults, it's kind of it says something about uh connection, society.
6:00
SPEAKER_01: It does.
6:01
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you another example.
6:03
SPEAKER_01: For uh a number of years, since the mid-80s, I have worked with the Mosquito Culture, which is an indigenous Central American uh group that live along both sides of the Coca River.
6:16
SPEAKER_01: Half of them live in Honduras, the other half live in Nicaragua.
6:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh they speak their own language.
6:22
SPEAKER_01: Their culture is very different than our culture.
6:24
SPEAKER_01: And for many years I worked uh with uh the guy who became my brother, Truman Cunningham.
6:30
SPEAKER_01: He and I uh and others started the school project in 1985-86, lasted for 37 years.
6:38
SPEAKER_01: Truman and I are walking down a trail on our way to one of our communities, came to a place where the trail split, and I looked at Truman uh with a look of asking him which trail, and he moves his lips to the left.
6:56
SPEAKER_01: And we walk.
6:58
SPEAKER_03: Well that means to the left.
6:59
SPEAKER_01: In mosquito culture, you point with your lips.
7:03
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
7:05
SPEAKER_01: So um these may not make sense to someone who's not familiar with Japanese Hawaiian culture or with mosquito culture.
7:16
SPEAKER_03: It could get confusing if they had a list.
7:19
SPEAKER_01: You know, in uh in Hawaii, I'm called a howley.
7:24
SPEAKER_01: H-A-O-L-E.
7:25
SPEAKER_01: Howley.
7:26
SPEAKER_01: Howly boy, okay?
7:28
SPEAKER_01: Howly boy.
7:29
SPEAKER_01: Howley is a word that means without breath.
7:33
SPEAKER_01: And uh the name of the one breath.
7:36
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm glad you asked that question.
7:40
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna take that bell away from you.
7:43
SPEAKER_01: And when the missionaries came to Hawaii, they did not greet each other as the Hawaiian people do.
7:52
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
7:53
SPEAKER_01: Hawaiian people, um, when you uh greet, you actually uh put your head and uh and breathe close to each other, put your to almost touch your foreheads and you breathe on one another.
8:07
SPEAKER_03: Really?
8:08
SPEAKER_01: Like this.
8:09
SPEAKER_01: And uh the howlleys stuck out their hands and shook their hand, so they were without breath.
8:17
SPEAKER_01: Mosquito culture.
8:18
SPEAKER_01: Oh, look at that.
8:19
SPEAKER_01: When I'm uh greeting uh uh a friend in the mosquito culture, especially one that's my age uh or older, the custom is that's one for you, Red.
8:38
SPEAKER_01: Um there are people uh what you do in mosquito culture is you lean over, you touch cheeks, and then you breathe in.
8:49
SPEAKER_01: You're s almost you're smelling that person.
8:52
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
8:52
SPEAKER_01: So these are different ways of greeting that are very different than the way us North Americans.
9:01
SPEAKER_03: They give three kisses in France, right?
9:03
SPEAKER_01: And in many places in Latin America, you give the baso plastica.
9:08
SPEAKER_03: What's that?
9:08
SPEAKER_01: The basoplastica is a uh a a plastic kiss.
9:12
SPEAKER_01: You kind of touch cheeks and you go with your lips like air kiss.
9:16
SPEAKER_01: An air kiss, okay.
9:18
SPEAKER_03: So we've come a long way, because I remember growing up in upstate New York, we never even hugged.
9:24
SPEAKER_03: I never got a hug from an adult, even.
9:27
SPEAKER_01: Well, words and gestures that do not make sense to us uh in our North American 21st century uh culture often to the biblical people make all kinds of sense.
9:38
SPEAKER_01: You know, God gives us his word to understand it, and he wants us to have more than just, I think, blind faith.
9:44
SPEAKER_01: He really wants us to understand uh the nuances of our relationship with him.
9:50
SPEAKER_01: And when it comes to the Bible, he gives us many examples of who he is, but he does it within the page in those pages within the context of the people that he's dealing with.
10:03
SPEAKER_01: So I think there's a great uh value in understanding the culture, the language, the geography, and the politics of the biblical setting.
10:13
SPEAKER_01: Now, context in my dictionary is uh the statement that's uh uh or part of the text that surrounds a particular word and passage and often determines its meaning.
10:27
SPEAKER_01: It's the background of it.
10:30
SPEAKER_01: Um you see, our challenge, Red, is to understand the Bible in its historical and cultural context.
10:38
SPEAKER_01: We can't just think we're talking to 21st century North American people when we're working with indigenous people in Central and South America.
10:48
SPEAKER_01: Um context is really important when it comes to understanding what the vision is behind the verses.
10:56
SPEAKER_01: Uh for example, the cultures in the uh Christian scriptures, they're primarily two cultures.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: There's Jewish culture and there's Greek culture.
11:10
SPEAKER_01: The Greeks were very missionary in their uh outlook.
11:14
SPEAKER_01: Uh they sought to uh bring their culture and capture the hearts and minds of the people in their world.
11:22
SPEAKER_01: You probably know this, but uh Alexander the Great, you know who his tutor was, was Aristotle.
11:28
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
11:29
SPEAKER_01: And so when Alexander went out to conquer uh Asia in the Middle East, he had in the mind of spreading this superior Greek culture as he was conquering these nations.
11:42
SPEAKER_01: So when Alexander conquered a city, he brought Greek culture, which involved a gymnasium, uh, athletic competitions, a theater with the drama, worship of the pantheon.
11:56
SPEAKER_01: These were the usual means of Alexander bringing his culture into an area.
12:01
SPEAKER_01: And it was very successful.
12:03
SPEAKER_01: Greek language and Greek culture spread over the entire Mediterranean world as a result of Alexander.
12:10
SPEAKER_01: But Jewish culture clashed heavily with the Greek culture.
12:16
SPEAKER_01: The worship of many gods, the morality, these were big issues.
12:20
SPEAKER_01: And for a Jewish boy to go to a Greek gymnasium and actually do athletic events meant that he would have to discard much of his biblical morality because athletic competitions were done in the nude.
12:35
SPEAKER_01: And for a Jewish uh culture, this was very forbidden.
12:39
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Jewish men, if you showed your knees uh this was a very unusual sight.
12:46
SPEAKER_01: Uh when the in the the uh parable of the prodigal son, when the father goes running to his son, all the people who are listening to the story knows that this is something special because older, respectful men did not run and show their legs.
13:08
SPEAKER_01: So this is a part of the story that the crowd would go, hmm, this guy was very excited to see his son.
13:18
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
13:21
SPEAKER_01: You know, um when these Jewish boys got involved in being part of Greek culture and going to places like Caesarea and competing in the athletic competitions, obviously they stood out.
13:36
SPEAKER_01: Why did they stand out?
13:39
SPEAKER_03: If they're doing competitions, the Greeks were nude.
13:41
SPEAKER_01: They were nude and the Jewish boys were circumcised.
13:45
SPEAKER_01: Right.
13:45
SPEAKER_01: So they stood out in the crowd.
13:48
SPEAKER_01: Rhett, there is uh archaeological evidence that there was uh a uh uh there's actually a device that has been found to reverse circumcisions in the first century.
14:02
SPEAKER_01: Meaning a device that actually pulls the remaining foreskin of the penis back over to try and make these Jewish boys look like the Greek guys they were competing against.
14:13
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
14:15
SPEAKER_01: Um religious Jews they they really lived apart from the the Hellenistic uh Jews or the the Greeks and Romans.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: They wouldn't even go into a town where there was a pagan temple.
14:28
SPEAKER_01: And for many years, uh historians have wondered why Peter and James and John left their home of Bethsaida and came to Capernaum to start their fishing business.
14:39
SPEAKER_01: Because you don't leave your home.
14:42
SPEAKER_01: And uh archaeologists just uh two decades ago found in Bethsaida a Roman temple that was built in 31, same year that Jesus was starting and doing his ministry.
14:55
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, the the temple was built uh in honor of the emperor's mother, Julia, and in fact the town was named for this period, Julia and not Bethsaida.
15:07
SPEAKER_01: And so this would explain how the Zebedee uh brothers and father come and leave uh their home of Bethsaida and come to Capernaum.
15:18
SPEAKER_01: Now we have the answer to that, okay?
15:21
SPEAKER_01: But um understanding Greek culture really helps us understand the scriptures.
15:27
SPEAKER_03: Did you know they recently found a they were trying to ascertain or confirm that Pontius Pilate actually existed?
15:34
SPEAKER_01: There's been now references found with his name on it.
15:36
SPEAKER_03: About a month ago, isn't that amazing?
15:38
SPEAKER_03: It's actually scrap uh chiseled into the wall of this uh whatever it was they found.
15:43
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
15:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:44
SPEAKER_01: So the more that we understand things, the the plainer the message comes.
15:48
SPEAKER_01: Now Paul says in one of his most famous verses that's uh repeated often at weddings, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, if I speak with tongues of men and angels, but I do not have love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
16:07
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
16:08
SPEAKER_01: Now we understand this to mean that if Paul doesn't have love and he's exercising spiritual gifts, he's just making a lot of noise.
16:20
SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's kind of a common modern 21st century interpretation.
16:24
SPEAKER_01: But to Paul's audience, who were very familiar with the conventions of Greek drama, they understood exactly what he was saying.
16:32
SPEAKER_03: What was he saying?
16:33
SPEAKER_01: Well, in Greek drama, you had the actors standing up on the stage and they usually held masks in front of their faces to demonstrate whatever emotion they were showing.
16:43
SPEAKER_01: The uh in the area in front of the stage, which is that circular area that was called the orchestra, this is where the dancers and those that spoke the parts stood and spoke out the parts of the dialogue.
16:57
SPEAKER_01: And many of the uh plays of uh Sophocles and Arist uh and Euripides and the others dealt with uh the conflicts between mankind and the gods.
17:09
SPEAKER_01: And so the gods, when their part was uh spoken, the actor, the hypocrite actor, would lean into a big brass drum and speak the part of Zeus, and it would sound thunderous and majestic.
17:25
SPEAKER_01: At the same time, another actor would drop a piece of uh copper on the on the pavement and make the sound of thunder, which is a convention that still happens in modern theater.
17:35
SPEAKER_01: So Paul says, if I don't if I speak with tongues of men and angels, but I don't have love, I've become a klocos echon, which is that metal drum that were used by Greek actors to simulate the voice of a god, and I've become a uh symbolon alazon, a loud uh piece of copper that's uh dropped to make a sound of simulating thunder.
18:03
SPEAKER_01: What Paul's saying is if I don't have love and I speak with tongues of angels, I'm just simulating being a Christian.
18:11
SPEAKER_01: I'm just like those actors, those hypocrites, the ones that keep most people away from church because they think we Christians are a bunch of hypocrites.
18:23
SPEAKER_01: We just mouth the words, but we really don't act, we're really not Christians.
18:29
SPEAKER_03: Now that's worth really remembering.
18:32
SPEAKER_03: Uh uh say that again, the first and second.
18:35
SPEAKER_03: The one is the second one is the symbol.
18:37
SPEAKER_01: The first one is the sounding breast.
18:38
SPEAKER_03: That's right, the sounding breasts, which is something that the theater used then, and you would speak into a drum.
18:44
SPEAKER_01: Now here's a picture of um Laura with uh Michaela and Moselle, and they're at we're at the and Bethshawn.
18:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
18:51
SPEAKER_01: Notice the front of the stage has those indentations.
18:54
SPEAKER_01: Do you notice that?
18:55
SPEAKER_03: The who what?
18:56
SPEAKER_03: Let me show I'm can you show that to them?
18:59
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
19:00
SPEAKER_01: I'm just trying to show it to you.
19:01
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
19:02
SPEAKER_01: But uh there's indentations in front of the stage where these drums were, right?
19:06
SPEAKER_01: See the indentations right here?
19:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, not done.
19:09
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
19:10
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, okay.
19:11
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
19:11
SPEAKER_01: And so that's where these big brass drums were.
19:14
SPEAKER_03: Well, how do you like them?
19:15
SPEAKER_01: And so Paul's message to his audience was we shouldn't be acting like we're Christians.
19:21
SPEAKER_01: We actually should be walking the walk and talk uh as well as talking the water.
19:26
SPEAKER_03: Plus the fakery of uh There's an insinuation of the fakery of, you know.
19:32
SPEAKER_01: This is the thing that when you when you ask people, do you attend a church?
19:37
SPEAKER_01: They'll s many of them will say, I don't want to be with all those hypocrites.
19:40
SPEAKER_01: They're just as a bunch of actors.
19:42
SPEAKER_01: And it's true.
19:43
SPEAKER_03: Why not add one more to the group?
19:45
SPEAKER_01: Our churches uh our churches uh are have been oftentimes filled with people that come to sh come to church on Sunday, they dress appropriately, they say, Bless you, brother, praise the Lord.
19:58
SPEAKER_01: But when they walk out, it's as if nothing uh uh has changed in their life.
20:03
SPEAKER_01: And the Christian life is all about change.
20:06
SPEAKER_01: And so we see them throughout the week, and they're acting just like everybody else in their culture.
20:10
SPEAKER_01: They're telling the same kind of jokes, they're running their business in the same sort of way, and uh they give God a bad reputation, and so people don't want to be around the actor.
20:23
SPEAKER_01: So this is what uh Paul is using, this illustration.
20:26
SPEAKER_03: Well, it's kind of like I went into a church uh locally uh past couple years, and they were using a smoke machine.
20:32
SPEAKER_03: And I said, I don't know if you've ever seen the Shekinah glory, but get that smoke machine out of my father's house.
20:38
SPEAKER_03: I said, That's fakery.
20:40
SPEAKER_03: Don't don't mimic what God is.
20:42
SPEAKER_03: Wait for the real thing.
20:43
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
20:44
SPEAKER_03: Or change something.
20:45
SPEAKER_01: I am so with you.
20:45
SPEAKER_03: I want to ask you one other thing, though, just as an aside, you might know this.
20:48
SPEAKER_03: So I'm listening to some report, maybe I'm listening to the Bible on tape.
20:52
SPEAKER_03: I don't know what I was listening to recently, this past week, and it said, Take my burden is light, uh something about he is meek, meek and gentle, or gentle and what is it, gentle and lowly.
21:03
SPEAKER_03: Uh the Lord said that.
21:05
SPEAKER_03: And I immediately thought, you know, gentle and lowly.
21:08
SPEAKER_03: And I don't know if you've ever heard the voice of the Lord, but uh uh when I heard him, and I will, and I'm not gonna deny it, it was definitely in the speaking, like a nice speaking tone, like you're speaking to me now.
21:20
SPEAKER_03: And I have an abhorrence towards these people that yell.
21:24
SPEAKER_03: And it says that he is gentle and meek.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's in uh Matthew chapter 12.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: Or excuse me, Matthew 11.
21:32
SPEAKER_03: And in Samuel it says, Thy gentleness hath made thee great.
21:35
SPEAKER_03: In the book of Psalms it says, Thy gentleness.
21:37
SPEAKER_03: So maybe my proclivity for not liking these guys on TV that scream at you, I just never liked it.
21:43
SPEAKER_01: Well, you wonder you you wonder what's behind that.
21:46
SPEAKER_01: And of course, uh on TV you don't really get to know the personality.
21:50
SPEAKER_01: All they're seeing is uh kind of a snippet of life that actually the people that are listening and watching us, they're seeing our little snippet of life.
21:59
SPEAKER_01: They're probably wondering.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: And I wonder what Mike does when he leaves the studio and he goes back to work.
22:04
SPEAKER_03: I wonder how you do how many children do you have?
22:06
SPEAKER_03: Four?
22:06
SPEAKER_03: Four.
22:06
SPEAKER_03: And I wonder how you respond to them and the lessons you've learned from having four children.
22:10
SPEAKER_01: Well, and this is uh am I actually walking with the Lord or am I just appearing to and see this is the thing that I want to encourage uh all of us that it's really important that we're part of a local congregation, a local body where we can actually get to know people.
22:28
SPEAKER_03: It's not pleasant that we can iron sharpened iron.
22:31
SPEAKER_01: We can get to know our the ones that are leading us, we can actually observe their life because there's a lot of power in observing the life of your leaders, and especially when they are doing God's work and doing it in just the way that He would have them do it.
22:46
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of power and a lot of uh reasons.
22:49
SPEAKER_03: How do you treat that poor lady that sits in the front row that really doesn't have even enough to tithe?
22:54
SPEAKER_03: How do you well Jesus said this?
22:55
SPEAKER_03: He said, If you say you I say he says, if you say you love the father whom you have not seen, and don't love the brother whom you have seen, you're a liar and there's no truth in them.
23:05
SPEAKER_03: In other words, I oh praise Jesus, oh praise God, hallelujah! Hey, uh you, uh Michael, get out of my way.
23:11
SPEAKER_01: Well, as James says, uh, when you see someone that has need, and you just say, uh bless you, brother, be warm, be fed, be filled, and you don't do anything, he says, What is the value of your faith?
23:21
SPEAKER_01: You say you have faith, I'll show you my faith by my works.
23:25
SPEAKER_01: Let me get let's get back to culture, okay?
23:28
SPEAKER_01: Greek culture.
23:29
SPEAKER_01: There's that's one instance.
23:30
SPEAKER_01: Yes, thank you.
23:33
SPEAKER_01: So, Greek culture, you go to the theater, Paul uh says something that all the theater goers would understand, but we in the 21st century we we miss it.
23:43
SPEAKER_01: Ummunion is something that Christians often do.
23:48
SPEAKER_01: It was uh done with uh Jesus at the Last Supper, and he broke the bread and he passed the wine, and and uh these are uh very special moments when we do this in the remembrance of his name.
24:03
SPEAKER_01: But imagine that we are sitting in the room with Jesus, and he picks up some bread and breaks it and passes it to us, and then picks up a cup and drinks from it and passes it around.
24:13
SPEAKER_03: This looks very familiar to a Jewish man.
24:15
SPEAKER_03: Why?
24:15
SPEAKER_01: Well, it does look familiar because this is something that was part of their culture.
24:20
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you an example.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: When a young Jewish uh man decided to marry the girl of his dreams, the first person that he went to was her father.
24:30
SPEAKER_01: And usually he would say something like, Jacob, I your daughter came out in the fields uh with uh where my sheep were the other day, and your daughter is so ugly that all my sheep scattered.
24:45
SPEAKER_01: It took me three days to find them.
24:46
SPEAKER_03: He's begun the negotiation.
24:49
SPEAKER_01: She's only worth two cows, not twenty.
24:51
SPEAKER_01: Right.
24:52
SPEAKER_01: So this is the beginning of the negotiation for the price of the bride that this young man.
24:57
SPEAKER_03: So the father does not take offense, he understands.
24:59
SPEAKER_01: He goes, uh, you're mistaken, my son.
25:01
SPEAKER_01: She's a very beautiful girl, okay?
25:04
SPEAKER_01: So now there's a negotiation.
25:06
SPEAKER_01: How many barrels of olive oil, how many sheep, how many bushels of weed, how many jugs of wine is this young man going to pay for the bride?
25:15
SPEAKER_01: While this negotiation is going on, the young lady and her mom are standing outside the room.
25:20
SPEAKER_01: And finally, when the details of the uh arrangement are completed, the young lady comes in with a tray, and she has bread and wine.
25:33
SPEAKER_01: She sets it down on the table, the young man takes the bread, he breaks it, he blesses it, he eats uh a piece and passes it to the young lady.
25:42
SPEAKER_01: Then he brings up the cup of wine, he holds it up, he blesses it, he takes a sip, and now in cultural language, as he's passing the cup to the lady, by that gesture he's saying, I love you, I want to spend the rest of my life with you.
25:57
SPEAKER_01: Will you be my bride?
25:59
SPEAKER_01: If she accepts the cup and drinks from it, now the betrothal is complete and the marriage is on.
26:10
SPEAKER_03: And the marriage, for the marriage actually has already taken place, but then they fulfill it publicly after that.
26:15
SPEAKER_03: That's what I was told.
26:17
SPEAKER_01: No.
26:17
SPEAKER_03: No.
26:18
SPEAKER_01: This is the proposal.
26:19
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
26:20
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
26:24
SPEAKER_01: Now the young man.
26:27
SPEAKER_01: The young man returns to his father's house.
26:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
26:30
SPEAKER_01: And he builds a room on the father's house.
26:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
26:35
SPEAKER_01: And when the windows are in and the plumbing's in, the air conditioning's in, the father's sort of the building inspector, and he says, I go to prepare.
26:43
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the boy goes to prepare a placement.
26:44
SPEAKER_03: I go to prepare placement.
26:46
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus uses this image.
26:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
26:47
SPEAKER_03: He says, I go to prepare a placement.
26:49
SPEAKER_01: Many rooms in my father's house, okay?
26:52
SPEAKER_01: So when everything is ready, now the young man can go and bring his betrothed.
26:59
SPEAKER_03: So when you take the body and blood of Christ, you're actually agreeing with the covenant that you are now becoming the bride of Christ and you're married to Jesus.
27:10
SPEAKER_01: This is what I think.
27:11
SPEAKER_01: If we were sitting in the room, I think when Jesus does this and passes the wine, the bread and the wine to us, we're going, wow, this is, I'm sure, Peter, this is what I did when I asked my wife to marry me.
27:23
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
27:24
SPEAKER_03: You know?
27:24
SPEAKER_03: What is this about?
27:26
SPEAKER_01: He is proposing a relationship that's based on marriage.
27:32
SPEAKER_01: It's the most intimate relationship.
27:35
SPEAKER_01: So when I learned this about uh Jewish culture, suddenly every time I took communion, it became, it took on a different, completely different nuance, a very personal one.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
27:48
SPEAKER_01: So as you mentioned, you know, afterward the church uh called themselves what?
27:54
SPEAKER_01: The bride of Christ.
27:55
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna have the gathering of the body of Christ at the marriage supper of the Lamb, as the book of Revel Revelation says.
28:04
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
28:06
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Do this often in remembrance of me.
28:11
SPEAKER_01: Do this often in remembrance of me.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: In our culture, when you propose marriage to your beloved, you often give her a token of that.
28:19
SPEAKER_01: It's called an engagement ring, right?
28:22
SPEAKER_01: She puts it on.
28:24
SPEAKER_01: Why is the engagement ring important?
28:27
SPEAKER_01: So when she's out with her friends and some other man comes up and and she can look at her hand and go, I'm engaged.
28:37
SPEAKER_01: It's don't forget who you're engaged to.
28:39
SPEAKER_03: So, in other words, the ring is something uh sacrific he had to work for it.
28:45
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's her it's a reminder of the covenant that's being made.
28:49
SPEAKER_01: And I wear, oh I actually have two wedding two wing rings celebrating my uh marriage.
28:56
SPEAKER_01: This one was from 1988 when Laura and I married.
29:00
SPEAKER_01: This was our 30-year anniversary.
29:02
SPEAKER_01: I had a friend make this ring.
29:04
SPEAKER_01: So I'm constantly reminded, I am married to Laura Uetta.
29:09
SPEAKER_01: She is the love of my life, and nothing is going to distract me from that.
29:14
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
29:15
SPEAKER_01: I think when we do this often in remembrance of him, it's a reminder.
29:19
SPEAKER_01: Don't forget who you're engaged to.
29:22
SPEAKER_03: What about if you say the if you take the body and blood of Christ uh, you know, unrighteously or something?
29:28
SPEAKER_03: Is that I mean, I take that to mean that before I go forward in a in a in a service or mass or whatever people want to call it, that, you know, I need to be broken and contrite of heart and sorrowful for my wrongs.
29:40
SPEAKER_03: And also, if I have aught against anybody, if I want to be forgiven by him, I need to say, okay, I forgive everyone who's ever hurt me to the best of my knowledge and ability before I go and ask for forgiveness from the Lord.
29:52
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
29:52
SPEAKER_03: What do you have to say about that?
29:54
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you're gonna ask somebody to marry you, but you're not committed to the relationship and you're fooling around with other women, it's not quite a covenant.
30:03
SPEAKER_02: No.
30:03
SPEAKER_01: It's not.
30:04
SPEAKER_01: But if you're true to your commitment and your profession of love, you're not gonna look in any other uh at any other women.
30:13
SPEAKER_01: Um I think what Paul says is when you come to the Lord for the marriage, for the uh communion, for the Lord's Supper, you should just take an inventory and say, wait a minute.
30:24
SPEAKER_01: Have I been unfaithful to my betrothed by the way that I've acted, by things that I've done?
30:30
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord, please, please wipe my slate clean.
30:33
SPEAKER_01: Please forgive me of this thing.
30:34
SPEAKER_03: It's okay to have material things, but am I putting those before the Lord, then I'm not worthy of it.
30:38
SPEAKER_01: So I think your comment about uh a self-examination, Paul says this.
30:42
SPEAKER_01: Uh it's a good thing to examine yourself.
30:46
SPEAKER_01: He said in some of the congregations, people were coming to those Lord's Supper celebrations.
30:52
SPEAKER_01: They were getting drunk, they were just doing things that were not part of what God would have them do, and he said, as a result of that, some have fallen asleep, some have died.
31:01
SPEAKER_01: Remember Ananias and Sapphira.
31:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah uh those pretty sobering moments of how we are um expected, if we have a covenant relationship with our king, to behave.
31:13
SPEAKER_03: Well, keeping their word.
31:14
SPEAKER_03: The thing is, if they didn't want a tie that they didn't want to give to the church, that's okay.
31:19
SPEAKER_03: But it would be like telling me, uh, okay, I'm going to uh I'm going to give you this amount of money if I sell a piece of land.
31:25
SPEAKER_03: And you know, I didn't have to tell you that.
31:27
SPEAKER_03: But then to tell you that and not to fulfill it, that becomes a lie.
31:31
SPEAKER_03: And as Jesus said, no liar shall enter the kingdom of God.
31:35
SPEAKER_01: Right.
31:35
SPEAKER_01: So for me, when I'm taking communion, I'm now reflecting on those disciples when Jesus passed the first communion bread and wine to them.
31:47
SPEAKER_01: I kind of want to be in that room.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: And I want to be in that mindset.
31:51
SPEAKER_01: And so understanding the culture really helps me get the gravity of what was actually happening.
31:58
SPEAKER_03: Now you were in that very room, weren't you not?
32:00
SPEAKER_01: Well, no one's looking, we're not sure.
32:02
SPEAKER_01: No one uh uh we know approximately the location of where it probably happened.
32:08
SPEAKER_01: When you go uh to Jerusalem and they take you to the upper room, it's a building that was built hundreds of years later.
32:15
SPEAKER_01: Uh so it's well that's not it, it's but it's in the same geographical location.
32:21
SPEAKER_01: So you're in the airspace, good enough.
32:24
SPEAKER_01: So culture is a big consideration when it comes to uh getting the full flavor of the Bible.
32:32
SPEAKER_01: Now, another consideration is geography.
32:35
SPEAKER_01: Where is the Bible story located?
32:37
SPEAKER_01: You know, um I think the form of the land, the roads, the trade routes, the vegetation, the rain patterns, I think they come in really help us to understand what the big message of the Bible is.
32:49
SPEAKER_01: For example, you know, weather patterns in Israel, uh, it's really wet and green in the north and the west, but it's brown and dry in the south and the east.
33:01
SPEAKER_01: And so this is important to remember when Elijah confronts the priest of Baal, where does he confront them?
33:08
SPEAKER_01: On Mount Carmel, which is the wettest, greenest corner of the country.
33:14
SPEAKER_01: He chose that.
33:15
SPEAKER_01: Remember, there was a three-year uh drought, there was no rain.
33:19
SPEAKER_01: And so he goes to Mount Carmel and he confronts the priest of Baal, and he has them built uh an altar, and uh and he builds his altar to Yahweh, and they and he says, Okay, call out the gods to light your fire.
33:37
SPEAKER_01: And of course, that doesn't happen.
33:39
SPEAKER_01: He pours water on his uh wood, fire comes down, it consumes the wood, and then the uh Elijah orders that the people seize the uh prophets, and of course they do.
33:57
SPEAKER_01: There's some death, uh they killed them.
34:01
SPEAKER_01: And then Elijah says to Ahab, You better get something to eat and drink, because I hear a mighty rainstorm coming.
34:11
SPEAKER_01: And of course it did.
34:13
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
34:15
SPEAKER_03: And he said prior to him lighting the fire?
34:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, after all this.
34:19
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
34:20
SPEAKER_01: So now Ahab is in his chariot, heading back across the Jezreel Valley.
34:26
SPEAKER_01: And the text says in 1 King 18, and the soon the sky was black with clouds, a heavy rain brought the terrific storm, and Ahab left quickly for Jezreel.
34:37
SPEAKER_01: Then the Lord gave special strength to Elijah, he tucked his cloak into his belt, and he ran ahead of Ahab's chariot all the way to the entrance of Jezreel.
34:47
SPEAKER_01: So I've often wondered how did Elijah run faster than King Ahab and his chariot?
34:56
SPEAKER_01: And uh the Bible says the Lord gave him special strength.
35:01
SPEAKER_01: Well, I had some greater understanding on this text a few years ago because we were uh there in that Jezreel Valley during the uh wet season, during uh December, there was a lot of rain.
35:14
SPEAKER_01: And uh right around the town of Afula, which is on the route going uh east to where Ahab and Elijah were both going, I noticed there were a lot of cars and trucks that were stuck in the mud because that area floods.
35:32
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're in a chariot and it's raining hard and you're on a dirt road, your chariot might get stuck in the mud, and it's a lot easier to go on foot.
35:43
SPEAKER_01: But I think the weather patterns sort of help me understand that.
35:48
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
35:51
SPEAKER_01: Um look at the trade routes, for example, coming through uh the nation of Israel.
35:59
SPEAKER_01: The main road from Egypt comes up the coast, it passes through uh just south of uh Carmel through the valley of uh Megido, it passes down the Jezreel Valley, and then it goes down to the largest body of freshwater in the Middle East, the Sea of Galilee.
36:20
SPEAKER_01: And the the road heads along the northwest corner of that lake and then climbs up the Golan Heights to Damascus.
36:28
SPEAKER_01: Now, this was the main trade route for commerce between Syria and Egypt, and it passed right through the the land of uh Judah J Judea and Samaria.
36:39
SPEAKER_01: Where did the Romans put their tax station to uh put to tax all the caravans and the merchants?
36:49
SPEAKER_01: They put it in Capernaum, which is the town right on the northwest corner of the lake.
36:55
SPEAKER_01: We know there was tax uh a toll booth on the freeway there because Matthew is a tax collector in Capernaum.
37:04
SPEAKER_03: And why do we care about this?
37:05
SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus went from Nazareth to Capernaum to start the ministry.
37:11
SPEAKER_01: Why would he go to Capernaum?
37:13
SPEAKER_01: Why?
37:14
SPEAKER_01: Because number one, it's like uh having uh your ministry set up at one of the toll booths on the Florida Turnpike.
37:23
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
37:23
SPEAKER_01: Everybody has to stop.
37:24
SPEAKER_01: Now we don't do that anymore, but we used to have to stop and pay a toll when people would take our money.
37:29
SPEAKER_01: Now you just go under the sensor and it reads your little uh transfer.
37:32
SPEAKER_03: This is why you have a coffee house in a place where a lot of people travel around the world down in South America, and so they will stop and have coffee, and you can subtly proselytize the gospel of Jesus to them.
37:44
SPEAKER_01: It's a strategic location.
37:47
SPEAKER_01: So all the caravans stop in Capernaum, the Romans look at their goods, they tax them.
37:54
SPEAKER_01: Okay, a lot of travel to this area.
37:57
SPEAKER_01: Jesus goes there and he starts teaching at the synagogue.
38:01
SPEAKER_01: People hear about this teacher.
38:02
SPEAKER_01: He starts healing people.
38:05
SPEAKER_01: People hear about this.
38:06
SPEAKER_01: He starts casting out demons.
38:09
SPEAKER_01: People hear about it, and as they travel, they tell the story of what Jesus is doing.
38:13
SPEAKER_01: So this was a very strategic uh location for Jesus to start his ministry.
38:19
SPEAKER_01: And so understanding the geography, go, oh yeah, it makes sense.
38:22
SPEAKER_01: So now we have a story uh recorded in John chapter four where one of the royal officials in Capernaum who's heard Jesus, he's seen him heal people, his son gets sick.
38:39
SPEAKER_01: Now, Jesus is it up in Cana where he turned the water into wine, which is very close to Nazareth.
38:46
SPEAKER_01: So the royal official leaves Capernaum and walks up to Cana.
38:52
SPEAKER_01: And he tells Jesus, My son is sick, please come back down with me.
39:00
SPEAKER_01: And you remember the story.
39:02
SPEAKER_01: Uh Jesus said, Uh, will you bl never believe me unless you see miraculous signs?
39:09
SPEAKER_01: The official pleaded, Lord, please come now before my little boy dies.
39:14
SPEAKER_01: Jesus told him, Go back home, your son will live.
39:18
SPEAKER_01: And the man believed Jesus and started home.
39:21
SPEAKER_01: While the man was on his way, some of his servants met him with the news that his son was alive and well.
39:27
SPEAKER_01: He asked them what the boy had begun to get better, and they replied, Yesterday afternoon at one o'clock, his fever disappeared.
39:35
SPEAKER_01: Then the father realized that was the very time Jesus had told him, Your son will live.
39:41
SPEAKER_01: And he and his entire household believe in Jesus.
39:44
SPEAKER_01: Now, we read the story, we go, okay, it's a good story.
39:49
SPEAKER_01: But understanding the geography even gives us a more deeper meaning to this.
39:56
SPEAKER_01: Because you can walk from Capernaum to Cana, and the route is you go down the west side of the lake, you come to the foot of Mount Arbel.
40:06
SPEAKER_01: There's a valley there with the road that winds up this valley.
40:10
SPEAKER_01: It takes you up to the plateau, and a couple miles in front of you is the site of Cana.
40:16
SPEAKER_01: You're walking up from seven, about six hundred and sixty feet below sea level to about a thousand feet above sea level.
40:25
SPEAKER_01: So you're climbing about fourteen hundred feet going up.
40:29
SPEAKER_01: Walking up, and my friend Randy Smith has done this with some of his students, it takes seven hours to walk up to Cana, but it only takes five hours to walk back downhill.
40:41
SPEAKER_03: Because you're moving faster.
40:43
SPEAKER_01: Well, you're going downhill.
40:45
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
40:46
SPEAKER_01: You can leave Cana you can leave Capernaum right before dawn, and you can be in Cana at noontime.
40:54
SPEAKER_03: Did you do this?
40:54
SPEAKER_03: I haven't done it.
40:56
SPEAKER_01: And you can then return and be back to Capernaum before sunset.
41:01
SPEAKER_01: Now the man comes, he conf he begs Jesus to come.
41:07
SPEAKER_01: It's about one o'clock at noontime, midday, and Jesus says, Your son is healed.
41:15
SPEAKER_01: No.
41:16
SPEAKER_01: The man did not return to Capernaum that night.
41:20
SPEAKER_01: He maybe he hung around.
41:23
SPEAKER_01: Maybe he spent some time.
41:25
SPEAKER_01: The text says he headed uh he headed home, but he took his time.
41:33
SPEAKER_01: And now when he's walking back the next day, the servants are meeting him on the road.
41:39
SPEAKER_01: You see, what John wants us to know is this man had great faith that Jesus healed his son.
41:44
SPEAKER_01: There was no more urgency for him to get back to see his face.
41:50
SPEAKER_03: Just a little aside here, without ringing the bell, Dr.
41:53
SPEAKER_03: Norman Vincent Peel, the power of positive thinking, Marble Collegiate Church, New York City, he said towards the end of his life, I believe the whole of it is that we're here to learn faith.
42:04
SPEAKER_03: I believe that's the whole reason we are here.
42:06
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
42:07
SPEAKER_03: And says it's impossible to please God without faith.
42:10
SPEAKER_03: Why?
42:12
SPEAKER_03: Mary believed the angel, and therefore her faith was given unto her as righteousness.
42:18
SPEAKER_03: Abraham believed the word of God.
42:20
SPEAKER_03: Jesus we met in the desert, the I am.
42:23
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
42:23
SPEAKER_03: And so he believed it, and that was counted, his faith was counted as righteousness.
42:27
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
42:28
SPEAKER_03: Why wh why why is this why is this faith so important to God?
42:33
SPEAKER_01: Well, we talked about this uh I think last week we talked about this.
42:38
SPEAKER_01: That it's always been about faith, that salvation has always been not by offering sacrifices in the Hebrew scriptures.
42:44
SPEAKER_01: It's always been about the faith that we have in God and believing the promises.
42:50
SPEAKER_01: In Abram's case, God said you're going to have uh this many descendants.
42:54
SPEAKER_01: Look at the stars, see if you can count them.
42:56
SPEAKER_01: How will I know that I uh uh can believe you?
42:59
SPEAKER_01: And then he told him to k kill the animals, split them in two, and then God has between uh never heard that before.
43:07
SPEAKER_01: He's making a covenant.
43:08
SPEAKER_01: This is how you made a covenant in those times, and we see this in Jeremiah uh mentions this, okay?
43:15
SPEAKER_01: But context.
43:18
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
43:19
SPEAKER_01: Geography sometimes helps us uh understand the message of the Bible.
43:25
SPEAKER_01: North of the Sea of Galilee, right at the foot of Mount Hermon, is the city of Caesarea Philippi, which is now known as Banas.
43:33
SPEAKER_01: And this was a Greek city during the time of Jesus.
43:36
SPEAKER_01: Um it's one of the nicest places to go, Brett.
43:39
SPEAKER_01: There's waterfalls.
43:40
SPEAKER_01: Because this is right literally at the base of a snow covered mountain, a 9,400 foot mountain.
43:46
SPEAKER_01: There's snow on it year round.
43:48
SPEAKER_01: The snow's melting, it's coming.
43:49
SPEAKER_03: Where is this again?
43:50
SPEAKER_01: North part of Israel in Galilee.
43:54
SPEAKER_01: Galilee?
43:55
SPEAKER_01: And the mountain is Mount Hermon, but at the base of Mount Hermon is a city called Called Banyas.
44:01
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' time, it was called Caesarea Philippi.
44:05
SPEAKER_03: How many times have you been to Israel?
44:07
SPEAKER_03: Just a guesstimate.
44:09
SPEAKER_03: Thirteen, seventeen.
44:11
SPEAKER_01: But we live there for uh Oh, you lived there.
44:15
SPEAKER_01: Uh for four or five, four four months one time, three months another.
44:18
SPEAKER_01: We've been there for a month, six weeks at other times.
44:21
SPEAKER_03: This is still when I well, I went there only once many years ago.
44:26
SPEAKER_01: Did you go to Banyas?
44:27
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you did.
44:28
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
44:28
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
44:30
SPEAKER_03: But I will tell you this it's still the idea of going back is there's no excitement to someone who's been converted and had a real experience with the Lord to walk where he walked.
44:40
SPEAKER_03: Right the fragrance, the arid environment.
44:43
SPEAKER_03: I agree.
44:44
SPEAKER_03: I bet you right now you long to go back.
44:46
SPEAKER_03: I do.
44:47
SPEAKER_01: Well, I have friends there.
44:48
SPEAKER_01: Um the the Bible becomes really alive when you're in the airspace.
44:53
SPEAKER_01: There's something special about it.
44:56
SPEAKER_01: Um and so what I'm trying to do, because the Lord has allowed me to be there and work there.
45:01
SPEAKER_03: You give that as a gift to others.
45:02
SPEAKER_01: That I, you know, that's why I guess I'm so passionate about.
45:06
SPEAKER_01: Let's get in the room, let's understand, okay?
45:08
SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that Jesus did is he took his disciples, it says in Matthew 16, to the region, district of Caesarea Philippi.
45:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
45:18
SPEAKER_01: Now, Caesarea Philippi was a place that there's a big rock formation.
45:25
SPEAKER_01: In fact, here's the picture that I have uh in uh the vision behind the verses.
45:30
SPEAKER_01: And this rock formation, if I can uh let's see, how can I do that?
45:35
SPEAKER_03: I'm sorry, I can't really do a good job of You know, as we improve this, and we're going to be doing some improvements over here.
45:41
SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's great.
45:42
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
45:42
SPEAKER_03: As we do some improvements over the next year, you know, we'll be able to probably be able to put it.
45:47
SPEAKER_01: So here's this rock formation.
45:48
SPEAKER_01: There's the temple of to Augustus, there's the court of Pans, there's the temple to Nemesis, and there's the altar of the dancing goat.
45:55
SPEAKER_03: That's a severe drop from the mountain.
45:57
SPEAKER_01: And there's a big rock formation that is there.
46:00
SPEAKER_01: And when you come up to Caesarea Philippi, this is where you came to worship.
46:05
SPEAKER_01: You're worshiping the goddess, god Pan, that's why it's Banyas.
46:10
SPEAKER_01: He's uh portrayed as half man, half goat.
46:13
SPEAKER_01: You have the court of the temple of Nemesis.
46:16
SPEAKER_01: If you want to curse somebody, you take a piece of pottery, you write their name on it, you walk to the back of the temple, there's a just a cave that drops down, and you throw this pottery down and it breaks, and that releases the curse.
46:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh next to that is the court of Pan and the nymphs, and there's some sort of sexual work.
46:34
SPEAKER_03: But you don't believe in any of this stuff.
46:36
SPEAKER_01: Of course I do.
46:36
SPEAKER_03: Well, what'd you want to make that clear?
46:38
SPEAKER_03: Well, there are people listening to me and you might be able to do it.
46:40
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a pagan.
46:41
SPEAKER_01: This is what the Greeks and Greeks and Romans do.
46:44
SPEAKER_03: There might be some vulnerable young lady who's listening to this, you know.
46:47
SPEAKER_03: Uh um we don't want to pull anybody into the occult inadvertently.
46:52
SPEAKER_01: Well, this is where Jesus took his disciples.
46:56
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
46:56
SPEAKER_01: Now the the uh the uh the altar of the dancing goats.
47:02
SPEAKER_01: The priest would take a goat and they would shave the hoof.
47:06
SPEAKER_01: The altar was a metal uh platform with a fire underneath.
47:11
SPEAKER_01: The goats would start dancing because it's hot.
47:14
SPEAKER_01: The priests were standing there with swords in their hand, and if a goat jumped out, they would lop off one of its limbs and then throw it back on the hot metal grill.
47:23
SPEAKER_01: And now you got a three-legged goat squirting blood that's uh uh running around.
47:28
SPEAKER_01: Another one jumps out and you lop off his leg, and now they're dragging uh themselves around on this hot metal grill with blood splattering, and this is how they worshiped the god Pan.
47:40
SPEAKER_01: They're offering sacrifices.
47:42
SPEAKER_01: Oh, horrible.
47:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
47:44
SPEAKER_01: This is this is pagan culture.
47:47
SPEAKER_03: That's probably why God sent his son and it had to be a bloody death, so he said, Enough of this stuff.
47:51
SPEAKER_03: Let's get this finished, and that's why Jesus at the end of it all says, It is finished.
47:56
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
47:58
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus, you ask a good question.
48:00
SPEAKER_01: Why would Jesus take his disciples in?
48:03
SPEAKER_01: Okay, um let's read the text.
48:05
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
48:06
SPEAKER_01: Now when Jesus came to the district of Caesarea Philippi, he was asking disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is?
48:14
SPEAKER_01: And they said, Some say John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
48:20
SPEAKER_01: He said to them, Final exam question, but who do you say that I am?
48:26
SPEAKER_01: Simon Peter answered, Blessed you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
48:30
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to him, Blessed are you, Simon, son of John, Barjonh, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
48:41
SPEAKER_01: And I also say to you that you are Peter.
48:44
SPEAKER_01: And the word is small, it means a small rock.
48:48
SPEAKER_01: But upon this large bedrock, Petra, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overpower it.
48:58
SPEAKER_03: Because the Catholics believe that the public rocketra was uh Peter.
49:02
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so the question is, who do you say I am?
49:07
SPEAKER_01: Now Jesus re uh Peter replies, You're the Christ.
49:12
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus says, Well, it wasn't uh you didn't come up with that, my father in heaven told you that.
49:17
SPEAKER_01: Now, Peter, you're a small rock, but upon this bed rock or this big rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overpower it.
49:27
SPEAKER_01: Now, of course, as you mentioned, the Catholic Church thinks this is a time that uh Jesus is giving uh apostolic authority to Peter and his descendants to be the rulers of the church.
49:41
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
49:42
SPEAKER_03: Now you don't want to say something.
49:43
SPEAKER_03: I can't believe a whole hour's gone by.
49:45
SPEAKER_03: So we have only about thirty seconds.
49:46
SPEAKER_03: Can you sum this up until our next visit?
49:50
SPEAKER_03: This is amazing.
49:53
SPEAKER_01: And we know from the history of the Catholic Church that there were a lot of corrupt popes.
49:57
SPEAKER_01: So during the time of the Reformation, the 15-1600s, the Protestants who read this said, it can't be that Peter is and his ascendants are being made the authorities in the church, because look how corrupt they are.
50:10
SPEAKER_01: So what God or what Jesus must be saying is upon this rock I'm going to build my church must be the truth that Jesus is the Messiah.
50:19
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
50:20
SPEAKER_01: But if you're standing there, Rhett, and you're looking at this big rock formation where all this pagan uh worship is going on, and the cave is uh the the water is coming out, it's called the gates of hell by the locals.
50:34
SPEAKER_01: What you realize is Jesus maybe is saying, I'm gonna build my church right on top of this pagan worship.
50:42
SPEAKER_01: And the gates of hell are not gonna be able to overpower it.
50:45
SPEAKER_01: Now, you and I, we were worshiping idols at some point in our history.
50:50
SPEAKER_01: We were those people that were there at Banias running around and doing all of those things.
50:56
SPEAKER_01: And I believe that Jesus is saying, I'm gonna build my church right on top of these.
51:02
SPEAKER_01: These guys are gonna become my disciples.
51:06
SPEAKER_01: I think geographically, when you're standing there looking at it, you get the message.
51:12
SPEAKER_03: Thank you very much.