December 27, 2024 • 27 mins
"Today's episode highlights Christian unity, emphasizing shared faith, doctrinal discussions, and the importance of lasting, meaningful relationships. How can we strengthen unity across denominational divides? Plays on Word does just that!"
The episode explores the profound connections among Christians across the globe, emphasizing the unity found in faith despite cultural and denominational differences. Through personal anecdotes and reflections, the hosts illustrate the importance of maintaining focus on essential doctrines while encouraging healthy conversations around secondary beliefs.
• Celebrating global fellowship among believers
• The significance of unity in Christ
• Navigating doctrinal differences without division
• Meaningful stories of faith-building connections
• Cultural insights into the Christmas story
• A reminder of our shared mission as God’s family
• Encouragement for listeners to foster lasting relationships
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Lord you know.
Hey guys, you are now listeningto Plays on Word.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Radio.
It's the best, fantastic timeof fellowship.
And here was this older womanand I was able.
We were.
You know, our paths would notnormally cross, unless they
cross in the supermarket orsomething, but here we had a
(00:25):
fantastic.
We had church, literally we hadchurch.
We were praising, praising theGod of heaven, standing in faith
in Christ.
You're the only name, you'rethe only name, you're the only
(00:49):
name.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we
discuss, analyze, work and playon the Word of God.
Thank you for joining us onthis excursion.
Today let's join Pastor Teddy,also known as Fred David Kenny
Jr, the founder of Plays on WordTheater, as he does a deep dive
into the Word of God.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, welcome to all of you listening to Plays on
Word Radio.
Amen for checking us out.
Thank you for being faithful tostream and to send this to
other people.
We have been blessed.
We've been streamed in 57countries now.
Yeah, I can't help but wonderif that's one person that just
(02:04):
is like a travel agent flyingaround all over the place, or is
it just a bunch of people?
Actually, I know better thanthat.
It's a bunch of people and wethank you.
And whatever country you findyourself listening to this
broadcast in, we are united infaith in Christ Jesus.
(02:26):
Therefore, we are familymembers, and this is really cool
.
This is a great benefit ofbeing in Christ and say you know
, some of the people that arethe closest people to me are not
(02:49):
blood relatives, are not familymembers, but people in Christ,
which is a different blood.
It's the blood of Christ thatwashes our sins away.
What can wash, what can takeaway my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
It is the shed blood of Christ,the faith we share in Him, that
(03:16):
unites us.
But I often say there's no wayI would know some of the people
that I know I would be inrelationship with some of the
people that I'm in relationshipwith.
There's no way if it wasn't forChrist.
I mean, it's just like theworld, left on its own, wouldn't
bring us together and I'm justso grateful.
(03:39):
When I look at the spectrum ofbelievers in Christ and I look
at the diverse nature of every,I mean there are people that are
super wealthy and then thereare people that are super poor.
There are people that are supertall and super short, there are
people that are super thin andpeople that are well-fed.
(04:04):
It doesn't matter.
In Galatians Paul talks aboutthis neither Jew, nor Greek
slave, nor free.
We're all one in Christ andthat is absolutely true.
And when we do these plays weget to see that really on
display.
We go to different churches.
(04:25):
It's not just Calvary Chapels.
I'm a Calvary Chapel guy, butwe've gone to Calvary Chapels.
We've gone to Methodistchurches, we've gone to
Presbyterian churches,assemblies of God churches,
christian churches, just thewhole spectrum.
Baptists, primitive Baptists.
Shout out to my man, joe Roach.
(04:47):
Oh, he's primitive Methodist.
I'm sorry, that's right, he'sprimitive.
Anyway, the whole spectrum isthe idea, and it's only because
of Christ and there aredoctrinal differences that we
have, but for the most part thescripture unites us and we come
together over the scripture andI'm not preaching secondary
(05:11):
issues, secondary doctrinalissues, and they're not
preaching secondary doctrinalissues.
And you know, when we come outor anything like that, we unite
over the scripture.
We have so much more in commonthan we have in difference
between us and you know, on thespectrum of things you could
(05:33):
take, you know the Presbyterianbrother and the very charismatic
Pentecostal brother and yet inChrist we can unite.
Christ is the uniter.
Doctrinally, there are bigdifferences between my
Presbyterian brothers and myPentecostal brothers.
There are, you know, there'sbig differences, but under the
(05:54):
umbrella of Christ, I believe,as family members we can debate
vigorously.
How about that?
We can debate with each other,but we don't have to divide over
non-essential stuff.
Now there are some things thatare essential.
You start telling me that theWord of God is not the Word of
God.
You start telling me that Goduses multiple pronouns His, them
(06:18):
, and he no, wait, hold on now.
Don't go against the Scripture.
Secondary stuff we can debatevigorously as family members do.
Whoa, don't go against thescripture, you know.
Secondary stuff we can debatevigorously as family members do,
and we don't have to divide.
I don't have to say you're notpart of my family because I
don't agree with yourinterpretation of whatever or
your translation of the Biblethat you use, you know.
(06:39):
Okay, we don't have to divide.
I'm not going to say you'reapostate or anything like that,
as long as you know we're withinbounds of the essential, not
even within bounds, we're on themoney.
When it comes to the essentials, you know the inerrancy of
Scripture, that the Word of Godis triune.
Nature of God is an essential,and the reason I say that is
(07:09):
because if you start telling methat Jesus is the spirit brother
of Lucifer, now we've got aproblem.
If you start telling me thatJesus is created, we have a
problem.
That's insurmountable.
That's insurmountable.
There's a big difference betweena Presbyterian and say, like a
Methodist or a Pentecostalbrother, when they're debating
(07:32):
the spiritual gifts and stufflike that.
There's a big differencebetween that and saying, no,
jesus was created and God is aman whose span of his hand is
nine inches and he lives on aplanet.
No, no, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Wait a second, hold on.
Or that Jesus was, you know, inthe beginning, was the Word,
the Word was with God and theWord was a God in the.
You know, like the, in onegroup's translation that's a.
(07:56):
Those are, those are structuralissues that we we need to deal
with first, because you have adifferent Jesus.
The Methodist and thePresbyterian have the same Jesus
.
They're just squabbling overwho's going to be seated on his
right and who's going to beseated on his left.
(08:17):
Now, of course, no doubt you canfind some people from those
camps that would arguevigorously against what I'm
saying and want to debate meover it.
And we have established a playson the word suggestion box.
There's a shredder rightunderneath that.
It's under the slot.
But I'm just joking, don't hateme all over that either.
(08:39):
Some of you are getting that.
Some of you are saying thisguy's talking too fast, I don't
know where he's going.
Merry Christmas, you guys.
So, anyway, back to my mainpoint.
Lydia, I'm getting back to thepoint here.
I'm going to stay on track.
I know you're telling me, I canfeel you telling me I'm
wandering away.
So you guys can send thank youmail to Lydia.
I'm back on the track here.
(09:00):
The people we see at these playsthere is just such an
incredible spectrum and we get achance to go and see the
greater body of Christ.
For whatever reason, the Lordis letting us debate and hash
out non-essential stuff,non-essential to salvation.
(09:23):
Okay, might be essential to youbecoming part of their
denomination that you affirmcertain things.
Yeah, you know what?
Okay, fine, you know, it's allgood, but the the unity we have
in Christ is the key and that'swhat we like to focus on.
And one of the beauties ofbeing plays on word is that we
(09:46):
get a chance to go to thesedifferent places and utilize the
word of God.
Now, we did have a group thatwanted us to come out and then,
when they found out we weren'tusing King James only, they said
no, thanks, I mean, I thinkthat was you know, okay, fine,
and that's their prerogative.
You know they want to do that.
(10:06):
Um, my answer to them was Iactually, uh, what, what, what
manuscripts?
Uh, you know, would you like tolook at?
You know, because I'm going,I've got better manuscript
evidence where I'm coming from.
I'm not taking just onetranslation, I'm going back to
the Greek and the Hebrew, so,but, it's okay, you know, it's
fine, you can.
(10:27):
If that's your thing, then fine, good for you.
God bless you and I'll leave itat that.
Let me just leave it there.
But yeah, we had one group thatyou know.
They said no thanks when theyfound out we were not going to
recite in the ElizabethanEnglish.
You know, we weren't going todo the whole play in the English
(10:51):
that most people wouldn'tunderstand.
I mean, hey, I'm using Ebonicssometimes up there, heresy,
heresy, alert, heresy, okay,okay, okay, up there, heresy,
heresy, alert, heresy, okay,okay, okay, okay.
I mean you can pull your chinand go Pharisaical on me all you
want, but we're using thelanguage to communicate the Word
(11:13):
of God to people and that'swhat Jesus did.
He used the language of the dayand he spoke Aramaic.
Jesus didn't speak Greek theway we have the Greek
manuscripts.
They spoke Aramaic.
When it was put down, it wasput down in Greek.
So, even going back to theGreek of the New Testament,
you're going back to a renderingof what was originally said in
(11:36):
a different language.
Anyway, much more could be saidon that.
I'll leave it there for now, butI just wanted to get across the
idea that we see a greatspectrum of people and the
biggest blessing is the unity inChrist and you know, when
you're with another brother orsister, that is filled with the
(11:57):
Holy Spirit.
There is a common unionDramatic pause there for you to
think about it.
There is a common union that weshare.
Yes, light bulbs are going off,bing bing bing, that's right.
Communion.
Yes, there's a common union anda fellowship because of the
(12:21):
Spirit of God and we get achance to see that.
And this is the crazy thing.
We've seen it across the world,not just in the States or in
the Northeast area where we werebefore.
We've seen it all over theworld where we were before.
We've seen it all over theworld when I was in Albania, you
(12:43):
know, to have fellowship withsomebody I can't even completely
carry on a full-blownconversation, I can't carry, you
know.
I can't ask them.
Hey, man, can you give medirections to the nearest
7-Eleven?
Actually, for those of youlistening, in the South you
probably don't have that many7-Elevens, but in New Jersey it
was like a convenience store.
Now they got gas.
(13:03):
Actually, there was one downhere in North Carolina.
They had gas.
It was clean, the bathroomswere clean.
I couldn't believe it.
And they were open on ChristmasEve.
I told the person there.
I said I'm so glad you're open.
It was after we did this playand I needed some water or
something.
I needed water, I needed somewater and yeah, but being in a
(13:25):
foreign country, you can't, youknow, I couldn't ask, I couldn't
carry on a conversation withthis person.
Yet if I said hallelujah, theyknew exactly what I was saying
and we praised the one who isworthy of praise.
Together we had fellowship.
It was quiet, not a lot ofwords, but we were saying words
(13:50):
without opening our mouths.
We were praising the God ofheaven together and
unfortunately, the world can'tcompletely grip that.
They don't understand that.
You know, I've told this storybefore.
We recently did a play atCalvary Chapel of Monmouth in
Leonardo, new Jersey, and PastorShaw, who just had his 92nd
(14:13):
birthday hallelujah, pastor Shawand his wife, nancy, and she's
with Jesus right now.
And, lord, we ask you to justsay hello to Nancy for us,
please.
She, I met her.
I was working for Comcast atthe time as a technician, like
(14:35):
years ago as a technician, and Iwas sent her telephone wasn't
working or something like thatand I came into the house.
She invited me in and somehowwe ended up talking about Jesus
and you could just, I could justsense that she was a
spirit-filled believer.
(14:56):
At least I was hoping so,because I was like man.
I think she's a believer.
Then we started talking aboutJesus.
I don't even know how he cameup I might've said amen or
something like that and we endedup talking about Jesus and I
got our phone fixed and we endedup having a fantastic time of
fellowship.
And here was this older womanand I was able you know, our
(15:22):
paths would not normally crossunless they cross in the
supermarket or something.
But here we had a fantastic.
We had church.
Literally we had church.
We were praising the God ofheaven, standing in faith in
Christ and just enjoying life.
And it's because of thatintroduction that the Lord
(15:45):
engineered that.
She went and talked to herhusband, who was a pastor, and
said and I think Plays no Wordhad just started.
I don't even think it wascalled Plays no Word yet.
It was like I was just doingthese biblical plays, I was
trying to just be faithful towhat the Lord did.
And I told her about this playit might've been a few months in
(16:06):
and they invited us to come out.
Yeah, because of that.
And it established a fantasticrelationship with Pastor Shaw
and Becky and Larry, her husbandthat's their daughter and
son-in-law, who's the assistantpastor there, and the fellowship
there, frank Rosato and thewhole team those guys you know,
(16:32):
we have establishedrelationships that now extend
into eternity.
It's because of the unity inChrist and who he brings
together.
I'm always amazed.
You know my dear brother, johnBoyle, who's the assistant
pastor at Calvary Chapel, livingWater we've talked about it,
you know over things we have incommon are not enough to like we
(17:09):
would be an unlikely friendship, but yet in Christ we're dear
brothers.
Like dear brothers, I can callhim and talk to him about
whatever is on my heart,whatever I might be going
through, and he can do the samewith me.
You take Christ out thatequation.
(17:29):
We're not even going to texteach other, but with Christ in
the equation, we absolutely loveeach other, pray for each other
and have a bond that is closerthan physical blood, and so it's
just always a blessing we getto see that, and my wife is
(17:50):
always blessed to see thegreater body of Christ in its
fullness, and that's what we getto do, and some of you guys
know what I'm talking about.
You know that we would not be.
We wouldn't be, have eachother's contact, we wouldn't be
confidants.
It's just improbable.
(18:10):
So, yeah, I just wanted torelay that thought.
I just wanted to relay thatthought to you guys and just
share how spectacular the bodyof Christ is and it's growing
daily, hourly, and our family isgetting bigger and bigger and
(18:31):
when we get to glory we're justgoing to be like hallelujah man,
look at this, I knew it, I knewit.
And some of you guys are goingto be like, wow, he was right.
Some of you guys are going tobe like he didn't tell me the
half of it.
Either way, glory is now closerthan when we first started this
(18:55):
radio program.
Amen, amen to that I wanted toshare.
I know last week, with our 100thepisode, we did the entire
Christmas Joe, but I wanted toshare just one little segment of
what we did because we wererecently at Calvary Chapel,
clayton, north Carolina, whichis two hours and some change
(19:19):
from where I live, and PastorKevin Edwards is the pastor
there and he didn't know what toexpect.
I just met him earlier thisyear.
He wasn't sure what to expectto have us out and most of the
people did not know what toexpect to have us out.
And most of the people did notknow what to expect and they
(19:40):
seemed extremely blessed when webrought the Christmas Joe play
to their Christmas service.
We were inserted into what theywere already doing and we did
our Christmas Joe play there andyeah, he was just so blessed
and he mentioned that he and afew people mentioned they want
(20:02):
us to come back and do our Peteplay.
So, god willing, we'll go backand bring them Pete, which is
well, christmas Joe is a half anhour play and then if you get
the full Plays on Wordexperience it's a half-hour play
with about a 40, 45-minuteconcert.
So maybe a little longersometimes because I can talk and
(20:27):
I'm sure Dino let me know.
Dino will let me know how longwe went when we were at his
church.
It might have been closer to anhour of music, I don't know.
Maybe Roy will let me know.
Anyway, yeah, we're going to goback and do our Pete play, god
willing, and maybe even GenesisJoe.
(20:47):
So we are setting up our Petespring tour now.
So those of you that arepastors and you want us to come
out, please reach out.
Let us know, because we have alimited amount of time, the way
we can set up this tour, how farI can be, how long I can be
away from Calvary, southport andall that kind of stuff, so let
(21:12):
us know.
But I wanted to play somethingand just get your thoughts on
this, so take a listen.
You know, every summer I comedown here to Bethlehem and I
participate in the Davidicwoodcutting ceremony for the
temple.
We chop wood for the temple, meand my clan members, my family,
the house of David, where I'mfrom.
(21:34):
I know all my family here fromBethlehem, david where I'm from,
I know all my family here fromBethlehem.
And you know, tonight, when wecame down here, no one from the
house of David let us in.
We were knocking on my familymembers' doors and nobody let us
in.
They all said there was no roomand every house has an upper
(22:00):
room Specifically for familymembers that are traveling to
the temple.
Every house has a room and notone from the house of David Let
us in, except this kind man wholet us stay down here with the
animals, and I was kind of upset.
(22:21):
Okay, so that's pretty dramatic, although it's very possible
that the way we look at thisChristmas story this part of the
Christmas story is what was theword I'm looking for
(22:41):
Sensationalized a little bit.
This section, and even in theChristmas Joe play I leaned
towards the, you know, the ideathat they were in the barn in
the back with the animals.
Actually, though, in theChristmas Joe play, my effort to
be somewhat accurate.
I say no one let us in, exceptfor this kind man who let us
(23:06):
stay down here with the animals.
And so the idea and I hope Idon't bust anybody's bubble here
, but the idea that there's abarn in the back with the
animals and Joseph and Mary werecompletely alone, that is
probably not accurate.
(23:27):
There's a really good book, it'sa scholarly book.
It's called Jesus ThroughMiddle Eastern Eyes Jesus
Through Middle Eastern EyesCultural Studies in the Gospels,
by Kenneth E Bailey, and hegoes into detail about what he
calls the Christmas myth, notthat Jesus is mythological in
(23:49):
any kind of way, but what it'sbecome.
So let me give you an example.
This whole story, this ideaabout there's like a holiday inn
and it was all the rooms werefull at the Holiday Inn and no
one would let them in.
That's not probable.
The word listen to this, theGreek word that is used in Luke
(24:16):
to tell the story and it saysthere's no room in the inn is
Cataluma and the definition ofthat from Strong's definition,
something that is for breakingup a journey, that is by
implication a lodging place, aguest chamber, an inn.
(24:37):
So if we let the Bible show usa little something about.
Where else is this word used?
Listen to this.
I'll just stick in Luke.
I'll stay in Luke.
You're going to get a kick outof this.
So in Luke 2, 7 is where we arein Christmas Joe.
Then she gave birth to herfirstborn son and she wrapped
him in swaddling cloth, laid himin a feeding trough that's the
(25:00):
manger Because there was no roomfor them at the lodging place
right.
And in Luke 22, the same booklater on, when Jesus sends the
guys to go set up for thePassover meal in the upper room,
he says tell the owner of thehouse, quote the teacher asks
(25:22):
you where is the guest roomwhere I can eat the Passover
with my disciples?
This idea of the upper room isthe same word, kataluma.
And you drill down even farther.
And you drill down even farther.
(25:54):
Many houses have a guest.
Yes, all the guest rooms werefull, but they stayed downstairs
and she placed him in themanger, which was the feeding
trough, not the whole barn.
The downstairs was probably thebarn.
Much more could be said aboutthis and maybe we'll commit the
next podcast to this because Ithink it's fascinating.
(26:17):
So until we meet again nextweek.
I'm sorry, time's up.
Please forgive me, lydia.
I tried my best to stay on time.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shineupon you and be gracious to you
.
The Lord lift up hiscountenance upon you and give
(26:38):
you peace.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
This program was made possible by the Plays on Word
family of supporters.
To find out more, check out ourwebsite at playsonwordorg.
Lord you know.
Hey guys, you are now listeningto Plays on Word.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Radio.
It's the best, fantastic timeof fellowship.
And here was this older womanand I was able.
We were.
You know, our paths would notnormally cross, unless they
cross in the supermarket orsomething, but here we had a
(00:25):
fantastic.
We had church, literally we hadchurch.
We were praising, praising theGod of heaven, standing in faith
in Christ.
You're the only name, you'rethe only name, you're the only
(00:49):
name.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we
discuss, analyze, work and playon the Word of God.
Thank you for joining us onthis excursion.
Today let's join Pastor Teddy,also known as Fred David Kenny
Jr, the founder of Plays on WordTheater, as he does a deep dive
into the Word of God.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, welcome to all of you listening to Plays on
Word Radio.
Amen for checking us out.
Thank you for being faithful tostream and to send this to
other people.
We have been blessed.
We've been streamed in 57countries now.
Yeah, I can't help but wonderif that's one person that just
(02:04):
is like a travel agent flyingaround all over the place, or is
it just a bunch of people?
Actually, I know better thanthat.
It's a bunch of people and wethank you.
And whatever country you findyourself listening to this
broadcast in, we are united infaith in Christ Jesus.
(02:26):
Therefore, we are familymembers, and this is really cool
.
This is a great benefit ofbeing in Christ and say you know
, some of the people that arethe closest people to me are not
(02:49):
blood relatives, are not familymembers, but people in Christ,
which is a different blood.
It's the blood of Christ thatwashes our sins away.
What can wash, what can takeaway my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
It is the shed blood of Christ,the faith we share in Him, that
(03:16):
unites us.
But I often say there's no wayI would know some of the people
that I know I would be inrelationship with some of the
people that I'm in relationshipwith.
There's no way if it wasn't forChrist.
I mean, it's just like theworld, left on its own, wouldn't
bring us together and I'm justso grateful.
(03:39):
When I look at the spectrum ofbelievers in Christ and I look
at the diverse nature of every,I mean there are people that are
super wealthy and then thereare people that are super poor.
There are people that are supertall and super short, there are
people that are super thin andpeople that are well-fed.
(04:04):
It doesn't matter.
In Galatians Paul talks aboutthis neither Jew, nor Greek
slave, nor free.
We're all one in Christ andthat is absolutely true.
And when we do these plays weget to see that really on
display.
We go to different churches.
(04:25):
It's not just Calvary Chapels.
I'm a Calvary Chapel guy, butwe've gone to Calvary Chapels.
We've gone to Methodistchurches, we've gone to
Presbyterian churches,assemblies of God churches,
christian churches, just thewhole spectrum.
Baptists, primitive Baptists.
Shout out to my man, joe Roach.
(04:47):
Oh, he's primitive Methodist.
I'm sorry, that's right, he'sprimitive.
Anyway, the whole spectrum isthe idea, and it's only because
of Christ and there aredoctrinal differences that we
have, but for the most part thescripture unites us and we come
together over the scripture andI'm not preaching secondary
(05:11):
issues, secondary doctrinalissues, and they're not
preaching secondary doctrinalissues.
And you know, when we come outor anything like that, we unite
over the scripture.
We have so much more in commonthan we have in difference
between us and you know, on thespectrum of things you could
(05:33):
take, you know the Presbyterianbrother and the very charismatic
Pentecostal brother and yet inChrist we can unite.
Christ is the uniter.
Doctrinally, there are bigdifferences between my
Presbyterian brothers and myPentecostal brothers.
There are, you know, there'sbig differences, but under the
(05:54):
umbrella of Christ, I believe,as family members we can debate
vigorously.
How about that?
We can debate with each other,but we don't have to divide over
non-essential stuff.
Now there are some things thatare essential.
You start telling me that theWord of God is not the Word of
God.
You start telling me that Goduses multiple pronouns His, them
(06:18):
, and he no, wait, hold on now.
Don't go against the Scripture.
Secondary stuff we can debatevigorously as family members do.
Whoa, don't go against thescripture, you know.
Secondary stuff we can debatevigorously as family members do,
and we don't have to divide.
I don't have to say you're notpart of my family because I
don't agree with yourinterpretation of whatever or
your translation of the Biblethat you use, you know.
(06:39):
Okay, we don't have to divide.
I'm not going to say you'reapostate or anything like that,
as long as you know we're withinbounds of the essential, not
even within bounds, we're on themoney.
When it comes to the essentials, you know the inerrancy of
Scripture, that the Word of Godis triune.
Nature of God is an essential,and the reason I say that is
(07:09):
because if you start telling methat Jesus is the spirit brother
of Lucifer, now we've got aproblem.
If you start telling me thatJesus is created, we have a
problem.
That's insurmountable.
That's insurmountable.
There's a big difference betweena Presbyterian and say, like a
Methodist or a Pentecostalbrother, when they're debating
(07:32):
the spiritual gifts and stufflike that.
There's a big differencebetween that and saying, no,
jesus was created and God is aman whose span of his hand is
nine inches and he lives on aplanet.
No, no, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Wait a second, hold on.
Or that Jesus was, you know, inthe beginning, was the Word,
the Word was with God and theWord was a God in the.
You know, like the, in onegroup's translation that's a.
(07:56):
Those are, those are structuralissues that we we need to deal
with first, because you have adifferent Jesus.
The Methodist and thePresbyterian have the same Jesus
.
They're just squabbling overwho's going to be seated on his
right and who's going to beseated on his left.
(08:17):
Now, of course, no doubt you canfind some people from those
camps that would arguevigorously against what I'm
saying and want to debate meover it.
And we have established a playson the word suggestion box.
There's a shredder rightunderneath that.
It's under the slot.
But I'm just joking, don't hateme all over that either.
(08:39):
Some of you are getting that.
Some of you are saying thisguy's talking too fast, I don't
know where he's going.
Merry Christmas, you guys.
So, anyway, back to my mainpoint.
Lydia, I'm getting back to thepoint here.
I'm going to stay on track.
I know you're telling me, I canfeel you telling me I'm
wandering away.
So you guys can send thank youmail to Lydia.
I'm back on the track here.
(09:00):
The people we see at these playsthere is just such an
incredible spectrum and we get achance to go and see the
greater body of Christ.
For whatever reason, the Lordis letting us debate and hash
out non-essential stuff,non-essential to salvation.
(09:23):
Okay, might be essential to youbecoming part of their
denomination that you affirmcertain things.
Yeah, you know what?
Okay, fine, you know, it's allgood, but the the unity we have
in Christ is the key and that'swhat we like to focus on.
And one of the beauties ofbeing plays on word is that we
(09:46):
get a chance to go to thesedifferent places and utilize the
word of God.
Now, we did have a group thatwanted us to come out and then,
when they found out we weren'tusing King James only, they said
no, thanks, I mean, I thinkthat was you know, okay, fine,
and that's their prerogative.
You know they want to do that.
(10:06):
Um, my answer to them was Iactually, uh, what, what, what
manuscripts?
Uh, you know, would you like tolook at?
You know, because I'm going,I've got better manuscript
evidence where I'm coming from.
I'm not taking just onetranslation, I'm going back to
the Greek and the Hebrew, so,but, it's okay, you know, it's
fine, you can.
(10:27):
If that's your thing, then fine, good for you.
God bless you and I'll leave itat that.
Let me just leave it there.
But yeah, we had one group thatyou know.
They said no thanks when theyfound out we were not going to
recite in the ElizabethanEnglish.
You know, we weren't going todo the whole play in the English
(10:51):
that most people wouldn'tunderstand.
I mean, hey, I'm using Ebonicssometimes up there, heresy,
heresy, alert, heresy, okay,okay, okay, up there, heresy,
heresy, alert, heresy, okay,okay, okay, okay.
I mean you can pull your chinand go Pharisaical on me all you
want, but we're using thelanguage to communicate the Word
(11:13):
of God to people and that'swhat Jesus did.
He used the language of the dayand he spoke Aramaic.
Jesus didn't speak Greek theway we have the Greek
manuscripts.
They spoke Aramaic.
When it was put down, it wasput down in Greek.
So, even going back to theGreek of the New Testament,
you're going back to a renderingof what was originally said in
(11:36):
a different language.
Anyway, much more could be saidon that.
I'll leave it there for now, butI just wanted to get across the
idea that we see a greatspectrum of people and the
biggest blessing is the unity inChrist and you know, when
you're with another brother orsister, that is filled with the
(11:57):
Holy Spirit.
There is a common unionDramatic pause there for you to
think about it.
There is a common union that weshare.
Yes, light bulbs are going off,bing bing bing, that's right.
Communion.
Yes, there's a common union anda fellowship because of the
(12:21):
Spirit of God and we get achance to see that.
And this is the crazy thing.
We've seen it across the world,not just in the States or in
the Northeast area where we werebefore.
We've seen it all over theworld where we were before.
We've seen it all over theworld when I was in Albania, you
(12:43):
know, to have fellowship withsomebody I can't even completely
carry on a full-blownconversation, I can't carry, you
know.
I can't ask them.
Hey, man, can you give medirections to the nearest
7-Eleven?
Actually, for those of youlistening, in the South you
probably don't have that many7-Elevens, but in New Jersey it
was like a convenience store.
Now they got gas.
(13:03):
Actually, there was one downhere in North Carolina.
They had gas.
It was clean, the bathroomswere clean.
I couldn't believe it.
And they were open on ChristmasEve.
I told the person there.
I said I'm so glad you're open.
It was after we did this playand I needed some water or
something.
I needed water, I needed somewater and yeah, but being in a
(13:25):
foreign country, you can't, youknow, I couldn't ask, I couldn't
carry on a conversation withthis person.
Yet if I said hallelujah, theyknew exactly what I was saying
and we praised the one who isworthy of praise.
Together we had fellowship.
It was quiet, not a lot ofwords, but we were saying words
(13:50):
without opening our mouths.
We were praising the God ofheaven together and
unfortunately, the world can'tcompletely grip that.
They don't understand that.
You know, I've told this storybefore.
We recently did a play atCalvary Chapel of Monmouth in
Leonardo, new Jersey, and PastorShaw, who just had his 92nd
(14:13):
birthday hallelujah, pastor Shawand his wife, nancy, and she's
with Jesus right now.
And, lord, we ask you to justsay hello to Nancy for us,
please.
She, I met her.
I was working for Comcast atthe time as a technician, like
(14:35):
years ago as a technician, and Iwas sent her telephone wasn't
working or something like thatand I came into the house.
She invited me in and somehowwe ended up talking about Jesus
and you could just, I could justsense that she was a
spirit-filled believer.
(14:56):
At least I was hoping so,because I was like man.
I think she's a believer.
Then we started talking aboutJesus.
I don't even know how he cameup I might've said amen or
something like that and we endedup talking about Jesus and I
got our phone fixed and we endedup having a fantastic time of
fellowship.
And here was this older womanand I was able you know, our
(15:22):
paths would not normally crossunless they cross in the
supermarket or something.
But here we had a fantastic.
We had church.
Literally we had church.
We were praising the God ofheaven, standing in faith in
Christ and just enjoying life.
And it's because of thatintroduction that the Lord
(15:45):
engineered that.
She went and talked to herhusband, who was a pastor, and
said and I think Plays no Wordhad just started.
I don't even think it wascalled Plays no Word yet.
It was like I was just doingthese biblical plays, I was
trying to just be faithful towhat the Lord did.
And I told her about this playit might've been a few months in
(16:06):
and they invited us to come out.
Yeah, because of that.
And it established a fantasticrelationship with Pastor Shaw
and Becky and Larry, her husbandthat's their daughter and
son-in-law, who's the assistantpastor there, and the fellowship
there, frank Rosato and thewhole team those guys you know,
(16:32):
we have establishedrelationships that now extend
into eternity.
It's because of the unity inChrist and who he brings
together.
I'm always amazed.
You know my dear brother, johnBoyle, who's the assistant
pastor at Calvary Chapel, livingWater we've talked about it,
you know over things we have incommon are not enough to like we
(17:09):
would be an unlikely friendship, but yet in Christ we're dear
brothers.
Like dear brothers, I can callhim and talk to him about
whatever is on my heart,whatever I might be going
through, and he can do the samewith me.
You take Christ out thatequation.
(17:29):
We're not even going to texteach other, but with Christ in
the equation, we absolutely loveeach other, pray for each other
and have a bond that is closerthan physical blood, and so it's
just always a blessing we getto see that, and my wife is
(17:50):
always blessed to see thegreater body of Christ in its
fullness, and that's what we getto do, and some of you guys
know what I'm talking about.
You know that we would not be.
We wouldn't be, have eachother's contact, we wouldn't be
confidants.
It's just improbable.
(18:10):
So, yeah, I just wanted torelay that thought.
I just wanted to relay thatthought to you guys and just
share how spectacular the bodyof Christ is and it's growing
daily, hourly, and our family isgetting bigger and bigger and
(18:31):
when we get to glory we're justgoing to be like hallelujah man,
look at this, I knew it, I knewit.
And some of you guys are goingto be like, wow, he was right.
Some of you guys are going tobe like he didn't tell me the
half of it.
Either way, glory is now closerthan when we first started this
(18:55):
radio program.
Amen, amen to that I wanted toshare.
I know last week, with our 100thepisode, we did the entire
Christmas Joe, but I wanted toshare just one little segment of
what we did because we wererecently at Calvary Chapel,
clayton, north Carolina, whichis two hours and some change
(19:19):
from where I live, and PastorKevin Edwards is the pastor
there and he didn't know what toexpect.
I just met him earlier thisyear.
He wasn't sure what to expectto have us out and most of the
people did not know what toexpect to have us out.
And most of the people did notknow what to expect and they
(19:40):
seemed extremely blessed when webrought the Christmas Joe play
to their Christmas service.
We were inserted into what theywere already doing and we did
our Christmas Joe play there andyeah, he was just so blessed
and he mentioned that he and afew people mentioned they want
(20:02):
us to come back and do our Peteplay.
So, god willing, we'll go backand bring them Pete, which is
well, christmas Joe is a half anhour play and then if you get
the full Plays on Wordexperience it's a half-hour play
with about a 40, 45-minuteconcert.
So maybe a little longersometimes because I can talk and
(20:27):
I'm sure Dino let me know.
Dino will let me know how longwe went when we were at his
church.
It might have been closer to anhour of music, I don't know.
Maybe Roy will let me know.
Anyway, yeah, we're going to goback and do our Pete play, god
willing, and maybe even GenesisJoe.
(20:47):
So we are setting up our Petespring tour now.
So those of you that arepastors and you want us to come
out, please reach out.
Let us know, because we have alimited amount of time, the way
we can set up this tour, how farI can be, how long I can be
away from Calvary, southport andall that kind of stuff, so let
(21:12):
us know.
But I wanted to play somethingand just get your thoughts on
this, so take a listen.
You know, every summer I comedown here to Bethlehem and I
participate in the Davidicwoodcutting ceremony for the
temple.
We chop wood for the temple, meand my clan members, my family,
the house of David, where I'mfrom.
(21:34):
I know all my family here fromBethlehem, david where I'm from,
I know all my family here fromBethlehem.
And you know, tonight, when wecame down here, no one from the
house of David let us in.
We were knocking on my familymembers' doors and nobody let us
in.
They all said there was no roomand every house has an upper
(22:00):
room Specifically for familymembers that are traveling to
the temple.
Every house has a room and notone from the house of David Let
us in, except this kind man wholet us stay down here with the
animals, and I was kind of upset.
(22:21):
Okay, so that's pretty dramatic, although it's very possible
that the way we look at thisChristmas story this part of the
Christmas story is what was theword I'm looking for
(22:41):
Sensationalized a little bit.
This section, and even in theChristmas Joe play I leaned
towards the, you know, the ideathat they were in the barn in
the back with the animals.
Actually, though, in theChristmas Joe play, my effort to
be somewhat accurate.
I say no one let us in, exceptfor this kind man who let us
(23:06):
stay down here with the animals.
And so the idea and I hope Idon't bust anybody's bubble here
, but the idea that there's abarn in the back with the
animals and Joseph and Mary werecompletely alone, that is
probably not accurate.
(23:27):
There's a really good book, it'sa scholarly book.
It's called Jesus ThroughMiddle Eastern Eyes Jesus
Through Middle Eastern EyesCultural Studies in the Gospels,
by Kenneth E Bailey, and hegoes into detail about what he
calls the Christmas myth, notthat Jesus is mythological in
(23:49):
any kind of way, but what it'sbecome.
So let me give you an example.
This whole story, this ideaabout there's like a holiday inn
and it was all the rooms werefull at the Holiday Inn and no
one would let them in.
That's not probable.
The word listen to this, theGreek word that is used in Luke
(24:16):
to tell the story and it saysthere's no room in the inn is
Cataluma and the definition ofthat from Strong's definition,
something that is for breakingup a journey, that is by
implication a lodging place, aguest chamber, an inn.
(24:37):
So if we let the Bible show usa little something about.
Where else is this word used?
Listen to this.
I'll just stick in Luke.
I'll stay in Luke.
You're going to get a kick outof this.
So in Luke 2, 7 is where we arein Christmas Joe.
Then she gave birth to herfirstborn son and she wrapped
him in swaddling cloth, laid himin a feeding trough that's the
(25:00):
manger Because there was no roomfor them at the lodging place
right.
And in Luke 22, the same booklater on, when Jesus sends the
guys to go set up for thePassover meal in the upper room,
he says tell the owner of thehouse, quote the teacher asks
(25:22):
you where is the guest roomwhere I can eat the Passover
with my disciples?
This idea of the upper room isthe same word, kataluma.
And you drill down even farther.
And you drill down even farther.
(25:54):
Many houses have a guest.
Yes, all the guest rooms werefull, but they stayed downstairs
and she placed him in themanger, which was the feeding
trough, not the whole barn.
The downstairs was probably thebarn.
Much more could be said aboutthis and maybe we'll commit the
next podcast to this because Ithink it's fascinating.
(26:17):
So until we meet again nextweek.
I'm sorry, time's up.
Please forgive me, lydia.
I tried my best to stay on time.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shineupon you and be gracious to you
.
The Lord lift up hiscountenance upon you and give
(26:38):
you peace.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
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family of supporters.
To find out more, check out ourwebsite at playsonwordorg.
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