Loading summary
Transcript17 lines
- [00:00]
Dr. Manny Arango
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango, and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey.
- [00:26]
Unknown Pastor
To all my fellow pastors, I've got a question for you. Does your city know that your church exists? Listen, I get it. You're preaching, you're leading, you're discipling, you're doing ministry.
- [00:37]
Dr. Manny Arango
We are in the same boat.
- [00:38]
Unknown Pastor
And let's be honest, social media and marketing, not your strong suit. Not mine either. And that's probably the last thing on your mind. And that's why we chose to partner with Church Candy Marketing for our church Plant the garden. We out here, y'all. They help churches get more actual guests walking through the doors on Sunday without.
- [00:59]
Dr. Manny Arango
Your eye having to stress over ads.
- [01:01]
Unknown Pastor
Or algorithms or trying to crack the social media code. Right now, Church Candy is helping nearly 400 churches reach their communities with simple invite ads. And it works.
- [01:11]
Dr. Manny Arango
It's super effective. I can tell you from firsthand experience.
- [01:14]
Unknown Pastor
So if you're tired of being your city's best kept secret, how about you do this? Go to churchcandy.com Manny and book a free consultation book a discovery call. Their team will break it all down and show you how to start seeing new faces at your church this Sunday. I'm in the trenches with you trying.
- [01:35]
Dr. Manny Arango
To grow the church.
- [01:36]
Unknown Pastor
And how about we just start a whole campaign? No more empty churches. So let's partner with Church Candy and get our churches full for the glory of Jesus.
- [01:44]
Dr. Manny Arango
Let's go, family. Welcome to day 69. We're in John chapters 8 through 10, and it's a good day.
- [01:55]
Unknown Pastor
I'm so excited.
- [01:56]
Dr. Manny Arango
Okay. Because Jesus is at. He's at the Feast of Tabernacles, otherwise known as the feast of booths. And a tabernacle is a booth, so if that makes sense. Okay, well, tabernacle is a tent. And what the Jewish people would do during the feast of Tabernacle is create these little booths to kind of reinforce, enact the days where they lived out in the wilderness. Okay. Leaving the. Leaving Egypt. Okay. On the route of the Exodus, like going out to the wilderness. Okay. So we're in John chapter 8 and 10, but we've got to kind of talk about John chapter seven a little bit. So even though our reading for the day is John chapter 8 and 10, John chapters 7 through 10 is actually a block of teaching that's in John's Gospel. And some days, you know, the reading plan and the actual text of scriptures, like, really line up in terms of the blocks. But it's. It's fine. We'll dip back. If you haven't done the reading today, go ahead and make sure you read John chapters 8 through 10 so that everything that we're talking about will make sense. This platform is not designed to be a substitute for you actually reading the Bible. We want it to be a supplement to you reading the Bible. So go and do the reading if you have done the reading. Guys, let's dive into John chapters eight, nine, and ten. I'm super excited. All right, so John, chapter seven, verse one. It says this. I'm just gonna read it straight out of my Bible. John, chapter seven, verse one says, after this, Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now, the Jews, feast of booths was at hand. So his brother said to him, leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. For not even his brothers believed him. So they're not saying this with good intentions. They're saying this because they're freaking jerks. He says he's not going to go. His brothers go up to the feast. In verse 10, it says this. In verse 10, it says, but after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but in private. Okay, so we get Jesus at the feast of tabernacles, and Jesus is going to be at the feast of tabernacles all through chapter seven, all through chapter eight, all through chapter nine, all the way up to chapter 10, verse 21. So we got a lot. And then chapter 10, verse 22, it says @ that time, the feast of dedication took place in Jerusalem. Okay, so this is Hanukkah. Okay, so Jesus goes from one feast right to another in terms of, like, the narrative flow of the book of John. And so all of this content from chapter 7 all the way to 1021, Jesus is at the feast of tabernacles. So in order to have context for what's going on in this chunk of scripture, like, in terms of these passages, we really have to understand what is the feast of Tabernacles. Okay? So first thing you need to know is that the feast of Tabernacles, I'M just gonna go ahead and read out of the dictionary of Jesus in the Gospels, which behind me somewhere, I think it's, I think it's like right there is the dictionary of Jesus in the Gospels. Yeah, it is. It's the second book right there. Dictionary of Jesus in the Gospels says this. The feast of tabernacles was the most important and well attended pilgrimages, even more than Passover. Okay, so the feast of Tabernacles is a big, big, big, big deal. Feast of tabernacles is going to celebrate or commemorate three things. Okay? Number one, they're all from Exodus, by the way. Okay? Think tabernacle, okay? The construction of the tabernacle happens in the book of Exodus. So the feast of tabernacles is really centered around the book of Exodus in the events of the Exodus. Okay, so three things that the feast of Tabernacles is going to celebrate. Number one is water from the rock. Okay, Remember, there's water, the miracle of water coming out of a rock. Number two is gonna be the giving of the divine name in Exodus chapter 3, where the name Yahweh gets revealed. Okay, I am. That I am. And number number three. Number one, water from the rock. Number two, the giving of the divine name. Number three, the pillar of fire and cloud that accompanied Israel as they left Egypt. These are the three events that are celebrated at the feast of Tabernacles. Now, how did they celebrate this stuff? Well, great. The way they celebrated water from the rock. Remember, they're standing out in the desert, okay, it's hot. In terms of the calendar year, this would be like dry season. Okay, so this is like everyone's naturally thirsty. You're out, and you're out in the hot sun. And the priests would take water from the pool of Siloam and bring it to the temple. It's like this massive water festival. And start dumping out water to reenact or to commemorate the miracle of God providing water from the rock when they were out in the wilderness. This is the context, okay? You can read about this in Exodus, chapter 17, verses 1 through 7. Like, if you're tracking. Let's think about this, okay? In the middle of that, Jesus is going to say, if anyone is thirsty, okay? So now Jesus is gonna use what's happening as like a demonstration for a revelation of his identity. When, you know, like the backdrop of actually what's happening at the festival or at the feast. Jesus words. Boom. I mean, it's like, click, light bulb moment. I remember the first time I realized, oh, what Jesus is saying is not random or arbitrary. Jesus words here are highly contextual. And then obviously Jesus promises, right, if anyone would put their faith in him, that they would have living water, that they would have living water bubbling over from the inside, that from their belly would flow rivers of living water. All right, let's actually now move to the second thing that was celebrated was the giving of the divine name. This is rooted in Exodus chapter three. And this is God saying to Moses, I am. That I am. Well, guess what? We have in John 8:24, 8:28, and 8:58, we have Jesus saying multiple times, like before Abraham was, I am. Okay, so in the middle of a festival where they're celebrating the giving of the divine name, which is I am. That I am. Jesus is going to say, I am. Okay, I am. I am. I am. This happens three times. John chapter 824, John chapter 8 28, and John chapter 8 58. And the last thing that would have happened was going to be a reenactment or a celebration of the pillar of cloud and fire. The root for this is Exodus chapter 13. Okay, so so far, we've celebrated or reenacted Exodus chapter 17, Exodus chapter 3. And now we're gonna get Exodus chapter 13 celebrated or reenacted in the feast of tabernacles. And here's how the Jews would celebrate the pillar of fire. They would put on this spectacular light show to symbolize how Yahweh led them out of Egypt. You'd have these huge menorahs, and you'd have, like, torch dancing. The high priest, the chief priests would all do these, like, elaborate torch dances. Also in everyone's booth, like, throughout Jerusalem, they would get these little, like, lanterns. Okay? And so in the middle of this, okay, Jesus says, I am the light of the world. Once you realize that, like, oh, it's an illustrated sermon. Like, although we just don't know the illustrations. Okay, all we have is Jesus words. We're not understanding that there's context for, like, why Jesus is choosing to say the things that he's saying. Okay, so that's all of our context clues. Not only did I give you one context, I'll give you three for today. Because there's three things that the feast of Tabernacles really celebrates and naturally leads into this next thing. So, like, let's think about it. Let's think. You know, you're at this feast of tabernacles, everybody's leaving their house, tons of pilgrims. Somebody's bound to end up in the wrong bed. With somebody. John, chapter eight opens. And honestly, this is like one of my favorite stories in the entire Bible. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery. And placing her in the midst, they said to Jesus, teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now the law of Moses commands us to stone her. Such women, what do you say? This they said to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him, Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. Now, I've heard a lot of sermons about what Jesus could have possibly wrote with his finger in the ground. Let me give you my hunch for what I think Jesus actually wrote in the ground. I think that Jesus would have written the passage of Scripture in the ground. Okay, that seems like something Jesus would do. And let's go to the passage of Scripture that I think Jesus would have written into the ground. It's Deuteronomy 22:22. Because remember, they are saying that the law of Moses. They're quoting the law of Moses to Jesus. I think he knows the law of Moses better than they do. Okay. It says this in Deuteronomy 22:22, which is what I think Jesus is writing in the ground. Okay. I also think he would have written down Leviticus 20:10. But we'll go to Leviticus after we read deuteronomy. Deuteronomy, chapter 22, verse 22. If a man is found sleeping with another man's wife. Both. Key word, both.
- [12:27]
Unknown Pastor
Both.
- [12:28]
Dr. Manny Arango
The man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. So who's supposed to get stoned? The man and the woman. Who do they bring? Only the woman. So I think Jesus is beating them at their own game. Because remember, they want to bring a charge against him. They wanna bring a legal charge against Jesus for breaking Torah. So what does Jesus write in the ground? He writes Torah. Okay, what does Leviticus 20:10 say? It says this. If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, with the wife of his neighbor, both, keyword, both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death. And so what have the chief priests done? They've broken Torah. That's what they've done. They've broken Torah by only bringing the woman. Clearly, she's not committing adultery by herself. She wasn't caught in the act of adultery by herself. She's caught in the act of adultery with someone. And they don't bring the guy. If you caught the woman in the act. Where's the dude? Clearly, the guy's there, he's present, and they chose not to bring him. Which platforms? It literally platforms. Their sexism, their misogyny. Okay, now I'm all about patriarchy. I actually think we need a resurgence of patriarchy. But when patriarchy begins to be misogynistic, this is why people have a bad taste in their mouth when it comes to patriarchy. So I'm all about patriarchy. I'm a patriarch. Like, I believe that it's my responsibility to protect my wife and my son and our future children and provide for them and protect them and be present, be a priest for my home. I'm a patriarchy. I believe that it's my job to secure property and wealth and all that for my family, for my son, for our future children. I'm all about it. But the moment the patriarchy begins to oppress women, well, now we have a problem in society. We don't typically correct. We overcorrect. I think we're seeing an overcorrection, and I hope we don't overcorrect in the opposite way. I hope we don't just keep swinging from pendulum to pendulum to pendulum. Like, I hope at one point we stop the polarization and just get to balance and tension.
- [14:49]
Unknown Pastor
Bible nerds, I have an announcement. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos releases May of 2025 in pre orders are officially open. When I began to learn Genesis in its proper context, I learned that the creation account is not primarily about God creating something out of nothing, but rather God bringing divine order to the chaos of the cosmos. That one nugget was a game changer for me because I've been preaching to all the kids in my youth group that peace was a solution for their anxiety. But really, God's solution to chaos is never peace, but rather order. Peace isn't something that you stumble into, is something that you intentionally step into. And that starts with aligning your life with God's order. I think that this book is a game changer. It's nerdy, it's practical, it provides a very contextual understanding of the book of Genesis. And if you grab a copy, you'll learn why there's a huge dragon on the COVID Head to the link in the show notes to pre order or head to crushingchaos.com to see the really dope trailer that we made for this book. I think it's time for you to crush the chaos in your life. And that starts with grabbing a copy of this book.
- [15:57]
Dr. Manny Arango
Now back to the podcast. Okay, let me get off my soapbox. So what do I think Jesus is writing? I think context would suggest he's. He wrote Deuteronomy, chapter 22, verse 22. He wrote Leviticus, chapter 20, verse 10. Because how do they respond? They drop their stones and they leave. Because I think they realize there's no legal charge to actually stone the woman. These two passages of scripture are actually the only thing to me that really makes a lot of sense. Then we're gonna get into John 10, which Jesus in John 10 is going. We're gonna get these famous verses about the good shepherd, okay, Is gonna get contrasted with the thief that comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Now, here's what we love to do in church. We take this verse out of context, and we act like it's talking about the devil. The reality is not talking about the devil. Okay? When the Bible says that the thief comes, this is verse number 10, John 10. 10. The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy. I come that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Now, the reason that people interpret this as talking about the devil is because they don't understand the context of the passage. This is our nerdy nugget, by the way, for the day. And it is Ezekiel. Well, really, our nerdy nugget was what did Jesus write in the dirt? So our context was the three key events from the Exodus that get celebrated or reenacted in the feast of Tabernacles. That's our context clues. Our nerdy nugget is what Jesus wrote in the dirt. And I'm adding in an extra nerdy nugget. When I go to Chick Fil A and I order eight nuggets or six nuggets and. And there's an extra nugget in there. I'm not mad. You know what I'm saying? Ain't nobody mad about extra nuggets. So with our extra nugget is we're gonna go to Ezekiel, chapter 34. Ezekiel, chapter 34. And once I read just a couple of verses, you'll get, like, why we needed to go to Ezekiel, chapter 34. Here's what it says. I'm gonna read it from my iPad. Ezekiel says this. The word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Shepherds. Whoa. Didn't we just read in John chapter 10 that Jesus is saying he's the good shepherd? Contrast it with these thieves. Ah, maybe There's a clue here. Okay. Prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to them, this is what the sovereign Lord says. Woe to you, shepherds of Israel. Oh, this is not good. Who only take care of yourselves. Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds. Curds are produced by the sheep. Clothe yourselves with the wool, wool taken from the sheep. Slaughter the choice animals. But you do not take care of the flock. You take care of yourselves. You don't take care of the flock. Okay? You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You're not caring for the ones that aren't valuable to you. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally so. They were scattered because there was no shepherd. My sheep wandered. Blah, blah, blah. Verse 7. Therefore you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord as surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord. Because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals. And because my shepherds did not search for my flock and cared for themselves rather than my flock. Therefore you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says. I'm against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I'll remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths and it will no longer be food for them. Wait a second. So who is the thief that comes to kill, steal and destroy? Oh, it's these evil shepherds From Ezekiel, chapter 34. Who are the evil shepherds from Ezekiel, chapter 34? Religious leaders who should be acting like good shepherds, but instead are acting like thieves. Which means when we get to John 10:10, who's the thief that comes to steal, kill and destroy? Ah, church leaders who feed themselves on the tithe and offering and money that people give in church who care more for themselves than they do the people who don't care for the sick or the broken or go after the strays of the lost. It's pastors and leaders and church staff who would rather line their own pockets and have selfish interests than be sacrificial and lay down their lives and die for God's people. Yeah, it's easier to believe it's about the devil because once it's about me. Now I have to look in the mirror and ask God, am I being a thief? Am I being a good shepherd? Because Jesus doesn't just say he should be the only shepherd. He's saying, this is the model that's a precedent. When Jesus reinstates Peter at the end of the Book of John, he's going to say to Peter, feed my lambs, feed my sheep. He's going to instate Peter now as an under shepherd, as someone who is supposed to shepherd the flock like Jesus shepherded the flock. John 10:10, not about the devil. Now, can it get applied to the devil? Sure. The devil does steal, the devil does kill, the devil does destroy. Okay? But pastors and leaders who spiritually abuse people, that's also what they do. Okay? And so this verse, when you put it into context, actually is saying something that is really challenging. Okay, so what's our timeless truth? Timeless truth is pretty easy today. Are you the thief? Are you being a thief that comes to steal, kill, and destroy, or are you following the good shepherd? I think for every pastor and every leader, if you are in ministry, if you get a check, if you get any form of payment from a church, you're the audio engineer. If you're the graphic designer, I don't care what you do at a church. You need to ask yourself the question, people's tithe. There are people tithing off of welfare checks, tithing off of their unemployment check. People are tithing so that I get paid. Is God gonna hold me accountable as a thief? Am I a thief or am I a good shepherd? That's our timeless truth for the day. And that's all the time we got. Hey, guys. Man, talk about a solid day 69. Tomorrow we got day 70. We're going to jump into John chapters 11, 12, and 13. Obviously, I'll be here to guide us on that journey. I'm so proud of you. If you got a streak going, don't break the streak. Stay strong, stay consistent. I'll see you right here tomorrow. Love you. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at the Bible Department and on Instagram Hebible Department. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.