July 22, 2025 • 25 mins
Episode 732:
In this episode, we delve into John 13:1-17, where Jesus washes the disciples' feet. This powerful act of humility serves as a model for how we should serve others. We reflect on the significance of Jesus' love for his disciples, even knowing that one would betray him. Wesley shares practical ways we can embody this servant leadership in our daily lives, such as hosting others and expressing gratitude.
In this episode, we delve into John 13:1-17, where Jesus washes the disciples' feet. This powerful act of humility serves as a model for how we should serve others. We reflect on the significance of Jesus' love for his disciples, even knowing that one would betray him. Wesley shares practical ways we can embody this servant leadership in our daily lives, such as hosting others and expressing gratitude.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a
couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in
practical ways.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Well, welcome back to another platinum episode of The Bible Guys.
We have Wesley Woods in the studio with us today
and I'm Jeff Forster on one half of the regular
Bible Guys. But we elevated our game this week by
having you join us. Chris Sarbas out of the country
doing some really great ministry and anti human trafficking ministry
(00:35):
down in the Dominican Republic called Transform One. So we
have you with us today and this is such a
good one because today it is one of my favorite segments.
We have a segment called stump the pastor Yeah. These
are fun because our listeners sometimes will send in questions
and you can do that on info at Thebibleguys dot com.
(00:57):
You can send in questions through YouTube or any other
platform that you're watching on that lets you leave comments,
and Desiree kind of goes through those and then she
gives us the ones she thinks we can't answer.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
So yes, so today we have one. We have one
from Alexandra p so Hi. Alexandra yea, so glad that
you sent this in. And she said, and this is
a great question, she said, why are there so many
denominations if we all follow the same Bible.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, that's a good question, good one, So.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Good luck with that. I'm gonna go ahead, and we've
only been asking this question for let me see carry
the two thousand years.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yes, I think at a very I'm going to speak
from a very high level. I think what happens typically
we have God's word, we have the Bible. Most Christian
denominations believe the entire Bible. But what happens, I think
sometimes is different parties will they will read a certain
(01:56):
verse in place greater emphasis on one particular verse over another,
and then you kind of split off from there. And
again I'm speaking at a very very high level, and
we know certain things that happened through history and why
splits took place. But at a high level, I think
you read a verse and it talks about something like, oh, yeah,
(02:17):
this is a core tenet of the faith. I'm gonna
surround my belief system around that thing.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah there, ye, So there's several core elements to this one. Historically,
some denominations have a strong belief in the inerrancy of
scripture and the authority of scripture. Everything begins and ends
with God's perfect word. And God's words are perfect, especially
in the original autographs, the original manuscripts. God gave it
(02:45):
to us perfectly exactly what He wanted us to know,
and so then it has absolute authority over the Christian Right.
This isn't something that we just kind of take as advice,
but rather this is what God has said is true. Now,
there's a large segment of Christianity that believes that that
solo scripture is what it mean right, the Bible is
(03:06):
is is the final authority. There are other Christian denominations
that would say the Bible plus religious tradition, what does
the church say, what is the pope or the archbishop
or whatever, what does this leader say, and what is
it has been our tradition. So for us, for you
(03:28):
and me, for the church that we lead, we would
say church tradition is second to scripture. Scripture is as
long as church tradition aligns with scripture, then okay. But
we never have anything extra outside of what the Bible says.
And then why do we have different denominations even within
groups of Christians that believe that idea of that scripture,
(03:50):
and it's usually an interpretation things. It's going to be
how they read a sentence or how they read a word,
and how they would cross reference things. So I would say,
and I always encourage people to say, probably ninety percent
of your faith beliefs should be based on the clearly
presented words on the page.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
The Bible is its own best commentary. It's going to
explain it. So and then there is the necessary need
to cross reference, to be able to expand on an idea,
to continue to learn more and more and more about
an idea. Where God says, you know, in the Old Testament,
an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth, right,
So there should be a just consequence for bad behaviors,
(04:34):
especially criminal behaviors. But then later Jesus says, you've heard
it said, an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth,
But I say right. And then he says, on a
personal level, forgive one another, love one another right, And
so Jesus then expands this idea. So from a government standpoint,
government should always be working for justice individuals. Jesus calls
(04:57):
us always to forgiveness the Bible's its own best commentary.
The one part of the Bible explain the other part
of the Bible. Jesus doesn't go against the Bible. Jesus
just explains the Bible, right, he explains the rest of
words and so theologically. Then there are a lot of
those issues that you can read it one way and
when you only read it that way, but you don't
take it in the context of all the other times
(05:19):
that mentions it. Yeah, well, then that's where we start
to get some denominational.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Ang When I was super young and reading the Bible,
I remember a pastor talking about never take a passage
as a standalone. Oh right, you want to look at
it in reference to the chapter, in relation to the
book and the history around that book. So you just
never you can take a snapshot of anything and try
to make it be whatever you want it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
There's over thirty thousand verses in the Bible and covers
almost every facet in human life. You can make the
Bible saynything you want to say. Well, I like to
tell that joke sometimes that one guy, he didn't know
much about the Bible and he's like, God, I just
need you to tell me. Tell me what I should do,
and whatever I read first is what I'm gonna do
as a Bible and says, and Judas went out and
hanged himself, and he slammed the Bible. Oh no, no, now,
(06:07):
now God show me he opened it up in the
next phrases, go and do likewise. So if you take
sentences just a snapshot, yeah, what happens is it's easy
to take them out of context. So we have to
read scripture in context, asking what is this being said
to the original reader, the original listener, and how does
it apply in my life? And then what is the
(06:28):
truth God is saying that can be applied all the time.
So is there a command to obey? Is there a
promise to claim? Is there a sindo avoid right? Those
kinds of things, So we would ask those, But then ultimately,
when it comes down to the big picture, for a
biblically centered Christian, whether regardless of the denomination they come from,
(06:52):
usually it's it's peripheral issues. It's secondary issues that we
disagree about, right, it's not court is the core issues
are Jesus Christ is the virgin born son of God.
He lived a sinless life. He taught us the best
way to live. He paid the price for our sin
(07:13):
with his blood on the cross. He took the punishment
for our sin and his body on the cross. He
was buried for three days and rose again. He ascended
back to heaven after giving us the commission to go
and tell everybody the gospel, the good news. They can
have relationship with Jesus. He taught us at salvation is
by grace through faith, not by works. And someday he's
(07:35):
going to come back and judge us. Right, We're going
almost all Christians believe, you know, Biblical Christians believe those things. Yes,
And then it's going to be the peripheral edges where
we disagree music styles, preferred translations, certain behaviors or worship
(07:57):
rituals and things like that. That's a lot of it,
or sometimes core doctrinal things with regard to application of
certain doctrines. So then Augustine back in the six hundred
said he had a really great statement. He said, with
with regard to non essentials, we have liberty. With essentials,
(08:21):
we must have unity. But in all things we must
show charity. And back then charity would have meant love, love.
And so when it comes to those things, like I
mentioned the things virgin born, son of God, salvation by
grace through faith, you know, death, burial, resurrection, those kinds
of things. Those are essentials, right, Like you're not a
Christian if you don't believe those those are essentials. We
(08:41):
have to have basics, right, We have to have unity
on those things, or then you're just religious but not
a Christian. But on the non essential things like music
styles and those kinds of things, we have liberty. So
then we can give liberty but to everybody. But in
all things we show love to one another. There and
(09:01):
I was with I'll give this one last statement because
I think we have the time for it. I was
with a with the Pope of the Coptic Church. His
name is Pope Tauadro's the second we were doing some
work in Egypt, and he had leveraged some of his
influence to protect some non Coptic Christians in Egypt, and
so I thanked him for it. And we had spoken
(09:24):
for hours. I'd met with him two different times, so
probably an hour and a half of talking with him
only through a translator from English to Arabic. And then
I thanked him for this, and he was shaking my
hand as we're going to leave, and he stepped in
and in crystal clear English, I'd forgotten that he graduated from
or attended one of the universities in London or in England,
you know. But in chrystal clear English, he said, the
(09:46):
names on our church signs only serve to tell other
Christians why we disagree with each other. Wow, but the
blood of our martyrs is mingled. And he said it
was during the Isis times. And he said, when Isis
goes to cut a man's head, he doesn't ask him
are you Coptic or Baptist? He asks what about Jesus?
(10:07):
And then he cuts his head. And he said, so,
anybody who's willing to die for Jesus, I'm willing to
try to protect for Jesus. And there's something about that
that phrase, though, that the names on our church signs
only tell other Christians why we disagree. Lost people don't
know the difference between a Baptist and a Pentecostal. They
don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
And lost people, to be completely honest, don't.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Care, No, they don't.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
They just want these for their ailment. That's all they're
looking for, that's right.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
So instead of getting obsessed about the peripheral issues and
making those the primary issues. Right, we have to keep
the main thing the main thing. Jesus is the virgin
born son of God, who lived a sinless life. He
paid the price on the cross, he rose again, salvations
by grace through faith, and we were all given account
to God someday. Those are the really the major cored doctrines.
The rest are the things that we do to kind
(10:50):
of adjust between a Presbyterian and a Methodist. And that's
just those things will sort it out. This is the
challenge of theology, theos theologies two words ology. The study
of theos is God, so it's the study of God.
There is no perfect theology on this planet because theology
(11:11):
is a man's attempt to understand God, and none of
us have complete understanding of the incomprehensible it's not possible.
So then that means that even though people have very
strong opinions are willing to fight and quit fellowshiping with
each other over certain things, nobody has perfect theology. We're
going to get to heaven and every single theologian on
the planet will stand before God, and God's gonna say
(11:31):
you are right here here and here, and you were
way off on this one. In this one, right, that's
what's going to happen. So I think theologians and Christians
in general we need to be humble about what we
don't entirely understand and open to discussing things as long
as we believe Jesus is the only way salvations by
grace through faith.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, yeah, that was good. That was a good one, Alexander.
That almost took over the whole episode.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, that was good. Yeah. Yeah. Like you said, this
is something that has been discussed for hundreds and thousands
of years.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah, yeah, and Jesus set the example on these things, which,
by the way, that's what we're talking about today. In
John chapter thirteen, we're going to read John thirteen one
through seventeen. He says, before the passover celebration, Jesus knew
that his hour had come to leave this world and
returned to his father. He had loved his disciples during
his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to
(12:19):
the very end. It was time for supper, and the
devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Is Scariot,
to betray Jesus and Jesus knew that the Father had
given him authority over everything, that he'd come from God
and would return to God. So he got up from
the table, took off his robe, wrapped the towel around
his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he
began to wash the disciples feet, drying them with the
(12:40):
towel he had round him. When Jesus came to Simon Peter,
Peter said to him, Lord, are you going to wash
my feet? Jesus replied, you don't understand what I'm doing,
but someday you will.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
No.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Peter protested, you will not ever wash my feet, Jesus applied.
Unless I wash you, you won't belong to me. Simon
Peter exclaimed, Then wash my hands head as well, Lord,
not just my feet, Jesus replied, person who has bathed
all over does not need to wash except for the
feet to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean,
but not all of you. For Jesus knew who would
(13:11):
betray him. That is what he meant when he said,
not all of you are clean. After washing their feet,
he put on his robe again and sat down and asked,
do you understand what I was doing. You call me
teacher and Lord, and you were right, because that's what
I am. And since I your lord and teacher, have
washed your feet, you ought to wash each other's feet.
I have given you an example to follow. Do as
(13:31):
I've done to you. I tell you the truth. Slaves
are not greater than their master, nor is the messenger
more important than the one who sends the message. Now
that you know these things, God will bless you for
doing them.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, that's a good pass.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
There you go. I well, talking about the traditions, those
peripheral things. There are churches that still do foot washing.
Yeah right, yeah, Yeah, anyways, go ahead. This is a
side note, Jeff. But the fact where I think this
is still in verse one. It says he loved his
disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved
(14:05):
them to the very end. Yeah. How great is that?
Speaker 1 (14:09):
I love that. In terms of the person I'm thinking of,
there's probably someone who stumbled across this podcast. They're listening,
their their life is far from God right now, they're
trying to figure things out and just the hope of
knowing that Christ loves me to the end. Yeah, there's
nothing that you can do that would make him stop
(14:30):
loving you. Now, he may not like your activities or
what you do, but he loves you. And I just
think that gives tremendous hope that Christ loves us to
the end. Yeah. I just think that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
He even loved it. So it says he loved all
his disciples in this statement.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
After that, it says he knows who the one was
that was going to betray him.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Yeah, so even loved Judas.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Even Judas was included. Yeah, yeah, which, which is really amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
So you know, I love the life application study Bible.
I'm always highlighting that one, and now they don't pay
us to say that. I just think everybody needs a
good study Bible because you can't always have a preacher
with you, and I don't always advise searching the meaning
of a thing on the internet. You'll get anything if
you're not if you're not a substantial Biblical Bible student already,
if you already have deep understanding, it's hard to filter
(15:18):
what's true and what's not true on the internet. But
if you have a deeply evangelical, theologically centered study Bible,
you can get so much more from something that's trusted,
rather than just randomly entrusting your belief to an algorithm.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
So anyways, it says here that there's a note for
this passage, and it says Jesus was the model servant,
and he showed his servant attitude to his disciples. Washing
guest's feet was a job for a household servant to
carry out when guests arrived. And the reason was they
wore sandals, and they walked so much, and you know,
(15:54):
the exhaust from the donkeys and the goats and the
and the the oxen walking down the street was a
little gross. So you can imagine how dirty their feet
would be just walking everywhere and open toad, sandals, all
those things. And so when you'd come into a home
it was a sign of honor to wash your guest's feet.
But usually it was the lowest servant that had that
(16:16):
job of washing everybody's gross feet. Right, But Jesus chooses
to do this, And so Jesus wrapped a towel around
his waist, as the lowliest slave would do, and washed
and dried his disciples feet. Even he God in the flesh,
serves so willingly we his followers must also be servants
willing to serve in any way that glorifies God and
(16:36):
ask what would that kind of service mean in your home,
or your workplace or your ministry. Are you willing to
follow Jesus example as serving who can you serve? Today?
Jesus blesses those who not only agree the humble services
Christ's way, but also follow through and do it. Isn't
that great? So powerful? Because that's the point. Jesus isn't
saying you need to wash people's feet. Jesus is saying
(16:57):
culturally and socially, you need to be willing to take
the lowest position to serve the people that need to
be served.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Which is kind of counterintuitive to how society operates. Oh yeah,
society operates by me first. I'm at the front of
the line. I'm the boss. You know, you do what
I say. No, this is very counterintuitive to how most
people would think and how most people would operate. Yep,
yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
So he he's down on his knees, he's washing their feet,
and Peter goes, oh no, no, no, no, yeah, Jesus,
you cannot because Peter's recognizing you can't be a slave
to me.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
But I love how Peter is always the one.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, he's always well he's the oldest. Yeah, so that's
part of it. You just kind of step into the
role when you know. But he is very impetuous. Yeah,
and I think he's a little bit of I think
he's very emotional, right, so he gets he gets really
aggressive sometimes. Yeah, And in this one he jumps like,
go Jesus, you can't wash my feet. Yeah, and Jesus says,
you don't understand what I'm doing, but someday you will.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Yeah. But imagine telling Jesus what he can and can't
you do. That's what's just kind of funny to me. Well, Jesus,
you can't do that.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
So there's a chance Peter was older than Jesus. It's
very likely that Peter was older than Jesus, which is
kind of a funny funny thing. But yeah, so he's like,
oh no, well, then if you're going to wash my feet,
wash my head, wash my hands, wash my whole body. Yeah,
And what what Jesus is trying to say is, listen,
you've already been washed, You've already been made clean spiritually.
You don't need that, but you need others. You need
(18:25):
servants to help you be completely clean, right, particularly even
on a physical standpoint here, that's what he's trying to do.
Peter's like, nope, I'm not gonna let you wash my
He says, if I don't wash your hand or your feet,
then you know you're gonna have some trouble there. So
he he he then comes and says, listen, you guys
call me teacher, and I get that, but listen, the
(18:47):
servant isn't greater than his master. If I'm willing to
do this, you should do that. So it's a little
confusing to us when he says, since I your lord
tears wash your feet, you also ought to wash each
other's feet. It's it's a little confusing when he says
slaves aren't greater than their master. All he's saying is, listen,
if the boss is willing to step down and do this, yeah,
(19:07):
then everybody should be willing to do this. That's what
he's saying. And it's hard.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Which was Jesus posture all the time, you know, even
when he rode in on a donkey. You know, if
I was Jesus, I would have rolled in on a stallion,
you know, with you know, yeah, trumpets. But that was
his posture twenty four to seven. Yeah, three sixty five, yeah, yeah,
so oh yeah, go ahead. Well, the only thing I
(19:32):
was going to say with that verse fourteen, And since
you kind of rif that, I have given you an
example to follow do as I have done to you.
What's one practical way that the listeners could wash someone's feet?
So again, we're not talking about physically going and getting
a basin and washing someone's feet, but how could someone
practically humble themselves, yeah, and do what Jesus is saying
(19:56):
to do?
Speaker 2 (19:58):
You know, from my wife and I practically we have
been hosting people at our home and fixing a meal
for them and spending a lot of money on those
meals or expensive meals, and saying, you know, taking half
a day prepping for them, and then just everybody's sitting
(20:19):
at the table. We can fit ten people at our
dining room table. And to just say, listen, there's no
agenda other than to say thank you. And it's all stakeholders.
It's all people who are really helping carry the load
and the ministry that I'm serving in. And you know,
we have a large church with thousands upon thousands upon
thousands of people and it takes hundreds of leaders to
(20:41):
be apart in order to make it go. I can't
make this happen myself, and so I think I'm not
always great at saying thank you because I'm always moving
on to the next thing. I don't celebrate a lot.
I've just I get the thing done. I know whether
or not it was a success. I'm satisfied with success.
I move on, and what happens I forget to say
thank you. And so for me, practically, my wife and
I have decided we're going to multiple times a month
(21:01):
if possible, host you know, half a dozen people or
you know, eight ten people in our home at a time,
give them a good meal. And I always say I
think you were you at one of them when I said,
he listen, I'm never going to wash your feet. Culturally,
that's not a thing. Yeah, but I am going to
say thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't do
this without you, And this is my way of I'm
(21:24):
going to serve you, and I want you to know
this is my way of lifting you up and me
being your servant. Right, I'm going to fix you an
amazing meal that maybe you wouldn't even spend that kind
of money at a restaurant. And then when you're all done,
we're going to clean up and we're going to do
the dishes, and we're going to do all those things.
And we prepared for you, and we thought for you,
thought about you, and we usually have a little gift
(21:44):
and I usually write a handwritten note to every person
just to say thank you. And I think that's what
Jesus is saying, is be willing to take the lower place.
Another one was when I was an assistant pastor. You know,
I ran the teen ministry. I ran the children's mystery
has in charge of all the worship and the adult
discipleship stuff, but as also the janitor and so on
(22:06):
Fridays I was I was changing out the urinal cakes
and cleaning the restrooms and emptying the garbage.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
That's a side of ministry most people don't see.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
And every time, almost every time, because I felt grumpy
about it. Why don't we just have a janitor?
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
And then the Lord this passage.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Pastor, Jeff, you're telling me that pastors just don't speak
on Sunday, And that's it.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
No.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I had a lady say that to you. She said,
what do you do like during the week, I'm like, well,
I have a regular job like you do.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yeah, well your job. A lot of people don't know
Heritage Church. You're kind of our controller. You're the one
who manages make sure the money goes where it's supposed
to go. All the times we have tons of checks
and balances. Nobody actually has all the control of the money, right,
And so there's the people who manage the inside going in,
the ones who manage it going out, and the ones
who manage the accounting. So there's always multiple eyes looking
(22:57):
at it. Because God's business is the greatest business. It's
the most important business, and it deserves the greatest attention
and the highest level of integrity. And you kind of
help manage that. And that's why you're always going to
Cabo for vacation, right.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
I am not going to.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Those aren't related yet, No, I'm joking, but yeah, you
help manage the integrity of the of the process and
just fantastic. And that's one of your ways of serving
the people.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
So you're great on stage, you're great preacher, you're a
great leader. You do all those things. But during the week,
what you're doing is you're serving the people by making
sure that we're able to keep the promises we make
about the integrity that we have with regard to the
resources God gave. And then that allows us because of
the integrity that you drive us towards, that allows us
to minimize our expenses and maximize the impact of our
(23:46):
resources in the community. We serve thousands and thousands and
thousands of people with food and hungry people, and care
in every area, counseling, all those kinds of things. And
you're because of you being so focused on serving in
that way, giving you what you can do, that allows
the whole church to have a greater ministry impact. Right,
(24:06):
So that's what I think he means washing feet. It's
not the washing the feet. It's using what you do
well as a gift to others and then letting them know,
I'm giving this to you as a gift to serve
you because you matter and I love you. Because it
started off with I love you, Yes, right, he loved
his people and then he got down on his knees
and washed their feet, and so it's it's a it's
(24:28):
an overt demonstration of I love you and I want
to serve you. I'm grateful for you being in my life.
Whatever way you can do that, that's a that's a
I have a friend who comes to me and says, hey,
I love you and your family and we have a
lake house and they let us come visit their lakehouse.
Or I've got another friend, I love you so much
and he's a farmer, or whatever. He said, I'd love
(24:50):
to have any everybody pays to hunt on his farm.
He said, I love to have you come and hunt
on my farm. Right, And that's his way of saying,
I want to serve you. He does a thing that
he can do else can do.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Not everyone's is the same, right, you know. That's his
way of that. You're humbling himself and showing love.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
That's right. So it's not an overtly spiritual you're gonna
get up and preaching an amazing message and have a
great eulogy. It's it's that you're just choosing to demonstrate
your love through action.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
It's good. Well, Hey, I think we're going to wrap
up there and go find somebody to love today. Show them, demonstrate,
don't just say it, Demonstrate love for the people around you,
and we'll see you tomorrow on the Bible guys,
You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a
couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in
practical ways.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Well, welcome back to another platinum episode of The Bible Guys.
We have Wesley Woods in the studio with us today
and I'm Jeff Forster on one half of the regular
Bible Guys. But we elevated our game this week by
having you join us. Chris Sarbas out of the country
doing some really great ministry and anti human trafficking ministry
(00:35):
down in the Dominican Republic called Transform One. So we
have you with us today and this is such a
good one because today it is one of my favorite segments.
We have a segment called stump the pastor Yeah. These
are fun because our listeners sometimes will send in questions
and you can do that on info at Thebibleguys dot com.
(00:57):
You can send in questions through YouTube or any other
platform that you're watching on that lets you leave comments,
and Desiree kind of goes through those and then she
gives us the ones she thinks we can't answer.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
So yes, so today we have one. We have one
from Alexandra p so Hi. Alexandra yea, so glad that
you sent this in. And she said, and this is
a great question, she said, why are there so many
denominations if we all follow the same Bible.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, that's a good question, good one, So.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Good luck with that. I'm gonna go ahead, and we've
only been asking this question for let me see carry
the two thousand years.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yes, I think at a very I'm going to speak
from a very high level. I think what happens typically
we have God's word, we have the Bible. Most Christian
denominations believe the entire Bible. But what happens, I think
sometimes is different parties will they will read a certain
(01:56):
verse in place greater emphasis on one particular verse over another,
and then you kind of split off from there. And
again I'm speaking at a very very high level, and
we know certain things that happened through history and why
splits took place. But at a high level, I think
you read a verse and it talks about something like, oh, yeah,
(02:17):
this is a core tenet of the faith. I'm gonna
surround my belief system around that thing.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah there, ye, So there's several core elements to this one. Historically,
some denominations have a strong belief in the inerrancy of
scripture and the authority of scripture. Everything begins and ends
with God's perfect word. And God's words are perfect, especially
in the original autographs, the original manuscripts. God gave it
(02:45):
to us perfectly exactly what He wanted us to know,
and so then it has absolute authority over the Christian Right.
This isn't something that we just kind of take as advice,
but rather this is what God has said is true. Now,
there's a large segment of Christianity that believes that that
solo scripture is what it mean right, the Bible is
(03:06):
is is the final authority. There are other Christian denominations
that would say the Bible plus religious tradition, what does
the church say, what is the pope or the archbishop
or whatever, what does this leader say, and what is
it has been our tradition. So for us, for you
(03:28):
and me, for the church that we lead, we would
say church tradition is second to scripture. Scripture is as
long as church tradition aligns with scripture, then okay. But
we never have anything extra outside of what the Bible says.
And then why do we have different denominations even within
groups of Christians that believe that idea of that scripture,
(03:50):
and it's usually an interpretation things. It's going to be
how they read a sentence or how they read a word,
and how they would cross reference things. So I would say,
and I always encourage people to say, probably ninety percent
of your faith beliefs should be based on the clearly
presented words on the page.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
The Bible is its own best commentary. It's going to
explain it. So and then there is the necessary need
to cross reference, to be able to expand on an idea,
to continue to learn more and more and more about
an idea. Where God says, you know, in the Old Testament,
an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth, right,
So there should be a just consequence for bad behaviors,
(04:34):
especially criminal behaviors. But then later Jesus says, you've heard
it said, an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth,
But I say right. And then he says, on a
personal level, forgive one another, love one another right, And
so Jesus then expands this idea. So from a government standpoint,
government should always be working for justice individuals. Jesus calls
(04:57):
us always to forgiveness the Bible's its own best commentary.
The one part of the Bible explain the other part
of the Bible. Jesus doesn't go against the Bible. Jesus
just explains the Bible, right, he explains the rest of
words and so theologically. Then there are a lot of
those issues that you can read it one way and
when you only read it that way, but you don't
take it in the context of all the other times
(05:19):
that mentions it. Yeah, well, then that's where we start
to get some denominational.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Ang When I was super young and reading the Bible,
I remember a pastor talking about never take a passage
as a standalone. Oh right, you want to look at
it in reference to the chapter, in relation to the
book and the history around that book. So you just
never you can take a snapshot of anything and try
to make it be whatever you want it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
There's over thirty thousand verses in the Bible and covers
almost every facet in human life. You can make the
Bible saynything you want to say. Well, I like to
tell that joke sometimes that one guy, he didn't know
much about the Bible and he's like, God, I just
need you to tell me. Tell me what I should do,
and whatever I read first is what I'm gonna do
as a Bible and says, and Judas went out and
hanged himself, and he slammed the Bible. Oh no, no, now,
(06:07):
now God show me he opened it up in the
next phrases, go and do likewise. So if you take
sentences just a snapshot, yeah, what happens is it's easy
to take them out of context. So we have to
read scripture in context, asking what is this being said
to the original reader, the original listener, and how does
it apply in my life? And then what is the
(06:28):
truth God is saying that can be applied all the time.
So is there a command to obey? Is there a
promise to claim? Is there a sindo avoid right? Those
kinds of things, So we would ask those, But then ultimately,
when it comes down to the big picture, for a
biblically centered Christian, whether regardless of the denomination they come from,
(06:52):
usually it's it's peripheral issues. It's secondary issues that we
disagree about, right, it's not court is the core issues
are Jesus Christ is the virgin born son of God.
He lived a sinless life. He taught us the best
way to live. He paid the price for our sin
(07:13):
with his blood on the cross. He took the punishment
for our sin and his body on the cross. He
was buried for three days and rose again. He ascended
back to heaven after giving us the commission to go
and tell everybody the gospel, the good news. They can
have relationship with Jesus. He taught us at salvation is
by grace through faith, not by works. And someday he's
(07:35):
going to come back and judge us. Right, We're going
almost all Christians believe, you know, Biblical Christians believe those things. Yes,
And then it's going to be the peripheral edges where
we disagree music styles, preferred translations, certain behaviors or worship
(07:57):
rituals and things like that. That's a lot of it,
or sometimes core doctrinal things with regard to application of
certain doctrines. So then Augustine back in the six hundred
said he had a really great statement. He said, with
with regard to non essentials, we have liberty. With essentials,
(08:21):
we must have unity. But in all things we must
show charity. And back then charity would have meant love, love.
And so when it comes to those things, like I
mentioned the things virgin born, son of God, salvation by
grace through faith, you know, death, burial, resurrection, those kinds
of things. Those are essentials, right, Like you're not a
Christian if you don't believe those those are essentials. We
(08:41):
have to have basics, right, We have to have unity
on those things, or then you're just religious but not
a Christian. But on the non essential things like music
styles and those kinds of things, we have liberty. So
then we can give liberty but to everybody. But in
all things we show love to one another. There and
(09:01):
I was with I'll give this one last statement because
I think we have the time for it. I was
with a with the Pope of the Coptic Church. His
name is Pope Tauadro's the second we were doing some
work in Egypt, and he had leveraged some of his
influence to protect some non Coptic Christians in Egypt, and
so I thanked him for it. And we had spoken
(09:24):
for hours. I'd met with him two different times, so
probably an hour and a half of talking with him
only through a translator from English to Arabic. And then
I thanked him for this, and he was shaking my
hand as we're going to leave, and he stepped in
and in crystal clear English, I'd forgotten that he graduated from
or attended one of the universities in London or in England,
you know. But in chrystal clear English, he said, the
(09:46):
names on our church signs only serve to tell other
Christians why we disagree with each other. Wow, but the
blood of our martyrs is mingled. And he said it
was during the Isis times. And he said, when Isis
goes to cut a man's head, he doesn't ask him
are you Coptic or Baptist? He asks what about Jesus?
(10:07):
And then he cuts his head. And he said, so,
anybody who's willing to die for Jesus, I'm willing to
try to protect for Jesus. And there's something about that
that phrase, though, that the names on our church signs
only tell other Christians why we disagree. Lost people don't
know the difference between a Baptist and a Pentecostal. They
don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
And lost people, to be completely honest, don't.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Care, No, they don't.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
They just want these for their ailment. That's all they're
looking for, that's right.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
So instead of getting obsessed about the peripheral issues and
making those the primary issues. Right, we have to keep
the main thing the main thing. Jesus is the virgin
born son of God, who lived a sinless life. He
paid the price on the cross, he rose again, salvations
by grace through faith, and we were all given account
to God someday. Those are the really the major cored doctrines.
The rest are the things that we do to kind
(10:50):
of adjust between a Presbyterian and a Methodist. And that's
just those things will sort it out. This is the
challenge of theology, theos theologies two words ology. The study
of theos is God, so it's the study of God.
There is no perfect theology on this planet because theology
(11:11):
is a man's attempt to understand God, and none of
us have complete understanding of the incomprehensible it's not possible.
So then that means that even though people have very
strong opinions are willing to fight and quit fellowshiping with
each other over certain things, nobody has perfect theology. We're
going to get to heaven and every single theologian on
the planet will stand before God, and God's gonna say
(11:31):
you are right here here and here, and you were
way off on this one. In this one, right, that's
what's going to happen. So I think theologians and Christians
in general we need to be humble about what we
don't entirely understand and open to discussing things as long
as we believe Jesus is the only way salvations by
grace through faith.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, yeah, that was good. That was a good one, Alexander.
That almost took over the whole episode.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, that was good. Yeah. Yeah. Like you said, this
is something that has been discussed for hundreds and thousands
of years.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah, yeah, and Jesus set the example on these things, which,
by the way, that's what we're talking about today. In
John chapter thirteen, we're going to read John thirteen one
through seventeen. He says, before the passover celebration, Jesus knew
that his hour had come to leave this world and
returned to his father. He had loved his disciples during
his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to
(12:19):
the very end. It was time for supper, and the
devil had already prompted Judas, son of Simon Is Scariot,
to betray Jesus and Jesus knew that the Father had
given him authority over everything, that he'd come from God
and would return to God. So he got up from
the table, took off his robe, wrapped the towel around
his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he
began to wash the disciples feet, drying them with the
(12:40):
towel he had round him. When Jesus came to Simon Peter,
Peter said to him, Lord, are you going to wash
my feet? Jesus replied, you don't understand what I'm doing,
but someday you will.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
No.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Peter protested, you will not ever wash my feet, Jesus applied.
Unless I wash you, you won't belong to me. Simon
Peter exclaimed, Then wash my hands head as well, Lord,
not just my feet, Jesus replied, person who has bathed
all over does not need to wash except for the
feet to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean,
but not all of you. For Jesus knew who would
(13:11):
betray him. That is what he meant when he said,
not all of you are clean. After washing their feet,
he put on his robe again and sat down and asked,
do you understand what I was doing. You call me
teacher and Lord, and you were right, because that's what
I am. And since I your lord and teacher, have
washed your feet, you ought to wash each other's feet.
I have given you an example to follow. Do as
(13:31):
I've done to you. I tell you the truth. Slaves
are not greater than their master, nor is the messenger
more important than the one who sends the message. Now
that you know these things, God will bless you for
doing them.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, that's a good pass.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
There you go. I well, talking about the traditions, those
peripheral things. There are churches that still do foot washing.
Yeah right, yeah, Yeah, anyways, go ahead. This is a
side note, Jeff. But the fact where I think this
is still in verse one. It says he loved his
disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved
(14:05):
them to the very end. Yeah. How great is that?
Speaker 1 (14:09):
I love that. In terms of the person I'm thinking of,
there's probably someone who stumbled across this podcast. They're listening,
their their life is far from God right now, they're
trying to figure things out and just the hope of
knowing that Christ loves me to the end. Yeah, there's
nothing that you can do that would make him stop
(14:30):
loving you. Now, he may not like your activities or
what you do, but he loves you. And I just
think that gives tremendous hope that Christ loves us to
the end. Yeah. I just think that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
He even loved it. So it says he loved all
his disciples in this statement.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
After that, it says he knows who the one was
that was going to betray him.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Yeah, so even loved Judas.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Even Judas was included. Yeah, yeah, which, which is really amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
So you know, I love the life application study Bible.
I'm always highlighting that one, and now they don't pay
us to say that. I just think everybody needs a
good study Bible because you can't always have a preacher
with you, and I don't always advise searching the meaning
of a thing on the internet. You'll get anything if
you're not if you're not a substantial Biblical Bible student already,
if you already have deep understanding, it's hard to filter
(15:18):
what's true and what's not true on the internet. But
if you have a deeply evangelical, theologically centered study Bible,
you can get so much more from something that's trusted,
rather than just randomly entrusting your belief to an algorithm.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
So anyways, it says here that there's a note for
this passage, and it says Jesus was the model servant,
and he showed his servant attitude to his disciples. Washing
guest's feet was a job for a household servant to
carry out when guests arrived. And the reason was they
wore sandals, and they walked so much, and you know,
(15:54):
the exhaust from the donkeys and the goats and the
and the the oxen walking down the street was a
little gross. So you can imagine how dirty their feet
would be just walking everywhere and open toad, sandals, all
those things. And so when you'd come into a home
it was a sign of honor to wash your guest's feet.
But usually it was the lowest servant that had that
(16:16):
job of washing everybody's gross feet. Right, But Jesus chooses
to do this, And so Jesus wrapped a towel around
his waist, as the lowliest slave would do, and washed
and dried his disciples feet. Even he God in the flesh,
serves so willingly we his followers must also be servants
willing to serve in any way that glorifies God and
(16:36):
ask what would that kind of service mean in your home,
or your workplace or your ministry. Are you willing to
follow Jesus example as serving who can you serve? Today?
Jesus blesses those who not only agree the humble services
Christ's way, but also follow through and do it. Isn't
that great? So powerful? Because that's the point. Jesus isn't
saying you need to wash people's feet. Jesus is saying
(16:57):
culturally and socially, you need to be willing to take
the lowest position to serve the people that need to
be served.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Which is kind of counterintuitive to how society operates. Oh yeah,
society operates by me first. I'm at the front of
the line. I'm the boss. You know, you do what
I say. No, this is very counterintuitive to how most
people would think and how most people would operate. Yep,
yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
So he he's down on his knees, he's washing their feet,
and Peter goes, oh no, no, no, no, yeah, Jesus,
you cannot because Peter's recognizing you can't be a slave
to me.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
But I love how Peter is always the one.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, he's always well he's the oldest. Yeah, so that's
part of it. You just kind of step into the
role when you know. But he is very impetuous. Yeah,
and I think he's a little bit of I think
he's very emotional, right, so he gets he gets really
aggressive sometimes. Yeah, And in this one he jumps like,
go Jesus, you can't wash my feet. Yeah, and Jesus says,
you don't understand what I'm doing, but someday you will.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Yeah. But imagine telling Jesus what he can and can't
you do. That's what's just kind of funny to me. Well, Jesus,
you can't do that.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
So there's a chance Peter was older than Jesus. It's
very likely that Peter was older than Jesus, which is
kind of a funny funny thing. But yeah, so he's like,
oh no, well, then if you're going to wash my feet,
wash my head, wash my hands, wash my whole body. Yeah,
And what what Jesus is trying to say is, listen,
you've already been washed, You've already been made clean spiritually.
You don't need that, but you need others. You need
(18:25):
servants to help you be completely clean, right, particularly even
on a physical standpoint here, that's what he's trying to do.
Peter's like, nope, I'm not gonna let you wash my
He says, if I don't wash your hand or your feet,
then you know you're gonna have some trouble there. So
he he he then comes and says, listen, you guys
call me teacher, and I get that, but listen, the
(18:47):
servant isn't greater than his master. If I'm willing to
do this, you should do that. So it's a little
confusing to us when he says, since I your lord
tears wash your feet, you also ought to wash each
other's feet. It's it's a little confusing when he says
slaves aren't greater than their master. All he's saying is, listen,
if the boss is willing to step down and do this, yeah,
(19:07):
then everybody should be willing to do this. That's what
he's saying. And it's hard.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Which was Jesus posture all the time, you know, even
when he rode in on a donkey. You know, if
I was Jesus, I would have rolled in on a stallion,
you know, with you know, yeah, trumpets. But that was
his posture twenty four to seven. Yeah, three sixty five, yeah, yeah,
so oh yeah, go ahead. Well, the only thing I
(19:32):
was going to say with that verse fourteen, And since
you kind of rif that, I have given you an
example to follow do as I have done to you.
What's one practical way that the listeners could wash someone's feet?
So again, we're not talking about physically going and getting
a basin and washing someone's feet, but how could someone
practically humble themselves, yeah, and do what Jesus is saying
(19:56):
to do?
Speaker 2 (19:58):
You know, from my wife and I practically we have
been hosting people at our home and fixing a meal
for them and spending a lot of money on those
meals or expensive meals, and saying, you know, taking half
a day prepping for them, and then just everybody's sitting
(20:19):
at the table. We can fit ten people at our
dining room table. And to just say, listen, there's no
agenda other than to say thank you. And it's all stakeholders.
It's all people who are really helping carry the load
and the ministry that I'm serving in. And you know,
we have a large church with thousands upon thousands upon
thousands of people and it takes hundreds of leaders to
(20:41):
be apart in order to make it go. I can't
make this happen myself, and so I think I'm not
always great at saying thank you because I'm always moving
on to the next thing. I don't celebrate a lot.
I've just I get the thing done. I know whether
or not it was a success. I'm satisfied with success.
I move on, and what happens I forget to say
thank you. And so for me, practically, my wife and
I have decided we're going to multiple times a month
(21:01):
if possible, host you know, half a dozen people or
you know, eight ten people in our home at a time,
give them a good meal. And I always say I
think you were you at one of them when I said,
he listen, I'm never going to wash your feet. Culturally,
that's not a thing. Yeah, but I am going to
say thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't do
this without you, And this is my way of I'm
(21:24):
going to serve you, and I want you to know
this is my way of lifting you up and me
being your servant. Right, I'm going to fix you an
amazing meal that maybe you wouldn't even spend that kind
of money at a restaurant. And then when you're all done,
we're going to clean up and we're going to do
the dishes, and we're going to do all those things.
And we prepared for you, and we thought for you,
thought about you, and we usually have a little gift
(21:44):
and I usually write a handwritten note to every person
just to say thank you. And I think that's what
Jesus is saying, is be willing to take the lower place.
Another one was when I was an assistant pastor. You know,
I ran the teen ministry. I ran the children's mystery
has in charge of all the worship and the adult
discipleship stuff, but as also the janitor and so on
(22:06):
Fridays I was I was changing out the urinal cakes
and cleaning the restrooms and emptying the garbage.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
That's a side of ministry most people don't see.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
And every time, almost every time, because I felt grumpy
about it. Why don't we just have a janitor?
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
And then the Lord this passage.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Pastor, Jeff, you're telling me that pastors just don't speak
on Sunday, And that's it.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
No.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I had a lady say that to you. She said,
what do you do like during the week, I'm like, well,
I have a regular job like you do.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yeah, well your job. A lot of people don't know
Heritage Church. You're kind of our controller. You're the one
who manages make sure the money goes where it's supposed
to go. All the times we have tons of checks
and balances. Nobody actually has all the control of the money, right,
And so there's the people who manage the inside going in,
the ones who manage it going out, and the ones
who manage the accounting. So there's always multiple eyes looking
(22:57):
at it. Because God's business is the greatest business. It's
the most important business, and it deserves the greatest attention
and the highest level of integrity. And you kind of
help manage that. And that's why you're always going to
Cabo for vacation, right.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
I am not going to.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Those aren't related yet, No, I'm joking, but yeah, you
help manage the integrity of the of the process and
just fantastic. And that's one of your ways of serving
the people.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
So you're great on stage, you're great preacher, you're a
great leader. You do all those things. But during the week,
what you're doing is you're serving the people by making
sure that we're able to keep the promises we make
about the integrity that we have with regard to the
resources God gave. And then that allows us because of
the integrity that you drive us towards, that allows us
to minimize our expenses and maximize the impact of our
(23:46):
resources in the community. We serve thousands and thousands and
thousands of people with food and hungry people, and care
in every area, counseling, all those kinds of things. And
you're because of you being so focused on serving in
that way, giving you what you can do, that allows
the whole church to have a greater ministry impact. Right,
(24:06):
So that's what I think he means washing feet. It's
not the washing the feet. It's using what you do
well as a gift to others and then letting them know,
I'm giving this to you as a gift to serve
you because you matter and I love you. Because it
started off with I love you, Yes, right, he loved
his people and then he got down on his knees
and washed their feet, and so it's it's a it's
(24:28):
an overt demonstration of I love you and I want
to serve you. I'm grateful for you being in my life.
Whatever way you can do that, that's a that's a
I have a friend who comes to me and says, hey,
I love you and your family and we have a
lake house and they let us come visit their lakehouse.
Or I've got another friend, I love you so much
and he's a farmer, or whatever. He said, I'd love
(24:50):
to have any everybody pays to hunt on his farm.
He said, I love to have you come and hunt
on my farm. Right, And that's his way of saying,
I want to serve you. He does a thing that
he can do else can do.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Not everyone's is the same, right, you know. That's his
way of that. You're humbling himself and showing love.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
That's right. So it's not an overtly spiritual you're gonna
get up and preaching an amazing message and have a
great eulogy. It's it's that you're just choosing to demonstrate
your love through action.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
It's good. Well, Hey, I think we're going to wrap
up there and go find somebody to love today. Show them, demonstrate,
don't just say it, Demonstrate love for the people around you,
and we'll see you tomorrow on the Bible guys,
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Fudd Around And Find Out
UConn basketball star Azzi Fudd brings her championship swag to iHeart Women’s Sports with Fudd Around and Find Out, a weekly podcast that takes fans along for the ride as Azzi spends her final year of college trying to reclaim the National Championship and prepare to be a first round WNBA draft pick. Ever wonder what it’s like to be a world-class athlete in the public spotlight while still managing schoolwork, friendships and family time? It’s time to Fudd Around and Find Out!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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