Hey, everybody, it's Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible Hour podcast, and today we are going to start with an illustration from Lord of the Rings.

We have to be judicious when deploying Lord of the Rings likewise, as though, because I'm told this is a little bit overused by people who talk about the Bible and preachers.

I guess people who like the Bible also really like

Lord of the Rings. And we don't want to be a cliche. So I'm only doing this because it's exactly

the right likewise for today. There's a scene in Fellowship of the Ring where little Bilbo Baggins,

he's got a ring, it's a troublesome ring, he's had the ring for too long, and he likes the ring, pits the ring, he strokes the ring, and Gandalf is like, I think you've had that a little too long. Gandalf is like an old grandpa-a-type wizard, if you've never read these books or seen the movies. And Bilbo, who's usually a pretty mild manner, nice guys like, I don't know, why should I? It's my ring and he clutches all up and

Gandalf does not take well to that. a pretty mild manner, nice guys. Like, I don't know, why should I? It's my ring. And he clutches all up.

And Gandalf does not take well to that. And he says, I'm having to go back and conjure cheap tricks.

I'm not trying to rob you. I'm trying to help you. And then Bilbo softens and it's like, oaky dokey, here's the ring. And that's how it works out. I saw a meme the other day, by the way, of this exchange between Gandalf and Bilbo, the I'm not trying to rob you, I'm trying to help you meme, where Gandalf says his line, I'm not trying to rob you. And then there's a picture of a dog with his tennis ball, but he doesn't want to give the tennis ball up. And Gandalf is like, I'm trying to help you. And then the meme doesn't conclude. I assume the dog did not give him the ball. Because dogs just don't give you the ball. Do you want to play fetch or not? What's the matter with you? The point is this. John, who's writing the gospel of John,

he's pretty grandfatherly at the time that he's making his contributions to the Bible,

with the gospel of John, first, second, and third John, which are letters and Revelation,

which is an apocalypse. I don't know, we'll get to that maybe someday. And throughout the five

books of John, there is a very grandfatherly

Gandalfi tone. He's the only one of Jesus' disciples who made it to old age. The rest of them all

died horrific martyrs, deaths. But yeah, here's John, living near Ephesus, you know, on the island

of Patmos very late in life.

He's writing this stuff down, and just all of that vim and vigor of youth is gone,

and it's replaced by the patience of a gentle old man who knows what it is to get things right and get things wrong.

And I love the gentle urging and tone of John. And I feel like

we're getting that gentle urging here at the beginning of John with this prolog, especially as it

pertains to the Jewish portion of John's audience, who John is trying to convince that Jesus is their

Messiah. They should believe in Jesus, and by believing

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