BB Xtra: The Didache Part 4

Dive into the fascinating world of early Christianity through the Didache, an ancient church manual that offers a glimpse into how the first believers lived out their faith. This Bible Breakdown Extra explores chapters 10-11 of this remarkable document, written around the same time as the New Testament, which served as a practical guidebook for new Christians navigating communal life.

Pastor Brandon reveals how the Didache provided specific instructions for post-communion prayers and thanksgiving, emphasizing the spiritual significance of this sacred practice. But the most compelling insights come from the manual's guidance on discerning true spiritual leaders from false ones. With striking clarity, these ancient Christians established boundaries that protected vulnerable believers from exploitation while remaining hospitable to legitimate traveling ministers.

"Not everyone who speaks in the spirit is a prophet, but only the one who behaves like the Lord." This powerful statement from the Didache reminds us that authentic spiritual leadership has always been verified through consistent character rather than eloquent words or charismatic performances. Pastor Brandon shares personal stories that affirm this timeless wisdom, recounting how his father evaluated traveling evangelists not by their pulpit prowess but by their conduct around the family dinner table.

The episode also includes important updates about Bible Breakdown's evolving formats and future plans. Learn about the new website hub at thebiblebreakdown.com, designed to bring together the podcast's growing community across various platforms. Discover what's coming after the current Didache series concludes and how you can contribute to this ministry simply by engaging with and sharing the content.

Whether you're fascinated by church history, looking for practical wisdom on spiritual discernment, or simply wanting to understand how the earliest Christians put their faith into practice, this episode offers valuable insights that bridge ancient teachings with modern application. Subscribe to Bible Breakdown, leave a review, and join our discussion groups to continue exploring God's Word together.

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Chapters

• 0:48 Welcome to Bible Breakdown Extra
• 4:35 The Story Behind Bible Breakdown
• 9:11 Website Updates and Future Plans
• 11:13 Introduction to the Didache
• 15:59 Communion Prayers and Thanksgiving
• 19:18 Testing Traveling Teachers and Prophets

Transcript

Speaker 0: 0:24

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today is a Bible Breakdown Extra and we are walking through the Didache, and so this is more of a laid-back kind of idea, and we'll explain why the Bible Breakdown Extras even exist in just a moment. But if you are ready, we are going to jump right in. But while you're doing that, as always, we have to tell you to take just a moment to like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast and make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown discussion on Facebook. You can find the links for all those things at thebiblebreakdowncom. Now what I want to do is kind of start to pivot this a little bit. We've only got a couple of Bible breakdown extras where we are covering the Didache. Then we're going to jump into something new. But we have had people from time to time who have asked us just a lot of questions about why we do the extra and then ask us just for updates on what's going on. How do I get more involved? I'm new around here all that good stuff and so I don't know exactly what this is going to look like yet, but we're going to be pivoting these Bible breakdown extras a little bit. That will be half working on it instead of in it, and then the other half is going to be just kind of an update, just letting you know where we are asking any questions that we've been getting, just really turning it into just a kind of a family meeting, if we can put it like that, once a month and so to kind of give you a bit of a background. And then we're going to jump into today's idea of working through the Didache. The reason why we do a Bible Breakdown Extra every month is, with the current way we do the Bible Breakdown, now you can go to thebiblebreakdowncom and get all of this. You can get our Bible reading plan, all the stuff. We are slowly turning that into the hub for all things Bible Breakdown. But you can go there and get that.

Speaker 0: 2:16

And if you read along with us, what you'll see is we have factored into our Bible reading plan two catch-up days, one on the 15th and one on the 30th, and the reason for that is is because a lot of people who are reading the Bible with us are new to reading the Bible every single day. They don't really have a daily habit of reading an entire chapter. We have people who either don't read their Bible or they have been reading their Bible, but they've been doing it more to conquer the content rather than letting it conquer them. Or maybe they are used to reading a small devotion. So the idea of consistently reading a chapter of the Bible day in, day out is relatively new, and so that gives an opportunity to kind of let off the gas a little bit, also to just enjoy digging into something else. But the other reason why we do this is on the 30th what we wanted to do is have a space where we could dig into knowing the how-tos of living the Christian life, and we do that in various ways.

Speaker 0: 3:14

Many times we will go through a book, encourage you to read it with us and kind of sum up each chapter. There's a lot of different things that we do, and one of the things that we have done is we went through 12 truths that prove Christianity is true. We got that from Dr Norman Geisler's book wonderful book. Right now we're going through the Didache. We're going to explain what that is in just a moment and then, when we finish the Didache, we're actually going to go through a book called Tactics by Greg Kokel and it is the idea about how to share your faith with other people, and that's the idea behind the Bible Breakdown Extras is to really kind of pull back a little bit and to dig deeper into how we go about doing that. But then also we want to give you some information. So I'm going to give you about three pieces of information. Then we're going to dig into the Didache. So three things to know. Number one is you have probably been hearing me talk about a little bit more the website thebiblebreakdowncom. I want to explain to you what that is. First of all, this website is a way to try to find an opportunity to bring the different aspects of the Bible Breakdown community together.

Speaker 0: 4:15

When we first started doing the Bible Breakdown and still primarily, it was for people reading the Bible with us as part of the real-life church community in Bowling Green, kentucky, we started this idea of reading the Bible. Here's kind of the story, if you don't know the background. And as we were reading the Bible, we decided to go New Testament book, old Testament book, new Testament. You know this was Matthew, then Genesis, mark, then Exodus, and then it was, excuse me. We went to wherever it was. We got to Leviticus as you can tell, this is me just trying to be off the cuff and we got to Leviticus.

Speaker 0: 4:49

And as we got to Leviticus, my wife said peace out. She's like I will see you when we get to another book of the Bible, but I am not reading Leviticus. I was like, why not? It's awesome, it's great. She said no, it's not. She said I don't understand it, able to read it unless you literally sit here with me every day and we go through each chapter together. I'm like, well, I'm not going to do that, because we would do our personal devotion times different times of the day Not going to happen. And I said, well, what if? What if I recorded it and gave it to you? And she's, I'll do that.

Speaker 0: 5:20

That was the beginning of the Bible Breakdown podcast is. It was me trying to explain to my wife that Leviticus was worth reading, and it wasn't that she didn't want to read it. She just didn't understand it and had trouble with it, right, and so we started passing it off to people. That is also why we haven't actually read Matthew and Mark until recently is we were finishing it up, right? Well, as we started doing that, we first put it on YouTube because it was free, right. Well, as we started doing that, we first put it on YouTube as just because it was free, right. And then we wanted to put it actually on a podcast channel and that's where we got the podcast. So we so then we had two different groups. We had the OGs really was what I call. Even though we started it on YouTube, it really was a podcast. So we had the OGs the podcast, always my favorites and we got some of you folks man, I want you to comment, I want you to go to YouTube and comment. If you are a real one, right, give me a one in the comments if you were one of the first people that started listening way back in the day. These are the OGs, right. And so we had YouTube over here, we had podcast over here, and then we started a Facebook discussion group where we wanted to just do devotions on helping people learn how to soap. That's a Bible study method through the Bible. And so now we have three different groups of people, because we have some people who don't actually listen to the podcast or watch YouTube video, just read along, which is fine with me, but then we have three different groups of people, and so thebiblebreakdowncom is a way for us to try to provide a central hub for everybody, so that, wherever you are, there's a place where we can meet. Because the other thing is is as our audience, let's say it like that, our community has grown. We have more and more people who don't do you know Facebook or whatever, and so that's what that is. Number two is this. Number two is people have asked what are you going to do when you get finished reading through the entire Bible? Well, we still have a ways to go to do that, but the goal is, once we've read through the Bible, once, it's to do it again and to do it again, make it a habit for our life. Because, can I tell you something? The only thing better than reading through the Bible all the way through is doing it again. Because as you read the Bible, you start to remember things, and, for instance, when we read through the book of Isaiah, there were certain things that he would say that you are going to read later and you're going to go. Wait a minute. Isaiah prophesied about that. Now it's showing up here in Matthew. This is really cool and, as you read, you're going to start to notice that. So we're going to do it again. But we also have some ideas that we want to start some other podcast called the Bible Breakdown Apologetics, and the Bible Breakdown Deep Dive. Apologetics is learning how to defend your faith Deep Dive. What I want to do is I want to go back over the Bible again, but we're going to go deeper into things. Right now we kind of scratched the surface, but I want to go way into different things. So that's the second thing is what are we going to do in the future? Number three is how can you help? We have people who have said things like well, hey, I want to find a way to get my hands dirty, I want to be part of the Bible Breakdown community. Can I tell you the number one way that you can help seriously is to go to YouTube and to subscribe. It's free, comment on the videos, engage with us and then share the video with other people, because it tells the algorithms that this is worth sharing. Number two is leave a five-star review on the podcast, comment on it, let it know and then share it with people. That's the best way you can help us. We really want to get the Word of God out to people and to explain it in a way that makes sense, so that people can know God more. Those are the three things. Okay, all right, now let's talk about the Didache. Now, if you've been joining us over the past few Bible breakdown extras, we've been going over this thing called the Didache, which is really cool because it is the teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles through I misspelled through through the 12 disciples. Now what happened was through I misspelled through through the 12 disciples. Now what happened was is it was an amazing thing that was written right about the time that the Gospels and the letters of Paul were written, and so we don't actually know who wrote it, because that wasn't really the point. The point wasn't that the point of it, the goal was that it was a church manual for the early church and it was probably written either in the late first century or the early second century, and so we kind of have lost the thread of this over time. What we think about now? Because we have 66 books of the Bible 27 New Testament, 39 Old Testament. We think it's always been that way, but it wasn't, even though most of the books of the Bible that we have now, the New Testament was already in circulation. There were some places that didn't have access to all of them because they started off as letters to churches, and so what somebody did was they took the essential teachings kind of the cliff note teachings from the Gospels and the letters of Paul and the different ones, and put them into this didache, and didache literally means teaching, so it is a Greek word that means teaching or to teach, and so what it is is it is a quick synopsis of the literal how to's of operating within a local church setting. It would be almost like so if you are part of the real life church community, which is where all this started from, then it would be like attending our RLC Connect, and at RLC Connect we try to give you a snapshot of what it looks like to be part of the local body here. That is what the Didache was. It was. This is standard operating procedures on what you do. We've been covering different chapters and it's amazing how they really had something to say about abortion and about baptism and all this different stuff, because those things were around back then, and today we're going to cover chapter 10 and chapter 11 with some other things that they would tell you to do Very specifics. So, if you're ready, chapter 10 of Didache says this final prayers after communion. Now, if you remember before, it would say to receive communion in a very specific way. It was considered to be a holy time because it was a reminder of the cross. And then it was saying now, today, it's saying after you receive those prayers, those communion, this is what you do. After you finish the meal, give thanks like this you give food and drink to people for their enjoyment so that they may give thanks to you, but to us you've given spiritual food and drink and eternal life through your servant, jesus. Above all. We thank you because you are mighty. To you be glory forever. Remember your church, lord, to save it from all evil and make it perfect in your love. Gather it from all the four winds into your kingdom that you have prepared for it. May grace come and may the world pass away Hosanna to the God of David. If anyone is holy, let them come. If anyone is not, let them repent. Maranatha, that means the Lord comes. Amen, but allow the prophets to give thanks however they wish. So in other words, chapter 10 was saying to make sure that when you receive communion so there is this assumption they're telling these churches hey, you know what We've been learning from the apostles and what we've been learning from the life of Jesus we're going to do communion. Communion is important. So when you're finished with communion, don't be like okay, we're done, but finish it with a prayer just thanking God and bringing glory to God. But he says hey, listen, you have some prophets, just let them pray however they wish, but the idea is that they are, they're truly close to God, and so they may want to pray a little differently. They're going to have something to do. They're going to do it. Okay. Chapter 11 says this Instructions about traveling teachers and prophets. Now pause. So during the time, once again, what you're going to have is a traveling preacher will be someone like Titus. You know, like missionaries, paul would send Titus to do the things and stuff. Silas was one, timothy, for a little while, was one. You know, paul was a church planter and traveler. So there were people who were traveling and we already know in earlier they had some kind of things to do and not to do, and so there were people going around. Some people were from God and we know in Philippians 1, some people were not from God. They're just looking for ways to kind of be important, you know. And so there's some clear boundaries about what this is, and here's the reason why it's also important. Now let's just be real honest about something that is this Not everybody who calls himself a Christian is one or has pure motives. And can I tell you, the most gullible people in the world are well-meaning Christians because they love Jesus so much and they want to serve God so much that they will let themselves be taken advantage of, and that is terrible and that is sad, and so they are trying to help these people. So here we go. Chapter 11 says this instruction about traveling teachers and prophets Welcome anyone who comes and teaches you. All that has been said before. But if the teacher turns aside and starts teaching something different that doesn't match the teachings that you have received, don't listen to them. But if the teacher teaches in line with what has already been taught, then receive them as you would the Lord. Now about apostles and prophets Treat them as high and respected figures in our community. Let every apostle who comes to you be welcomed, like the Lord himself, but he shouldn't stay more than one day, two at the most if absolutely necessary. If he stays three days, he is a false prophet. When the apostle leaves, he should take nothing except food for the journey. If he asks for money, he is a false prophet. Now pause. Now the reason why that was is because God had told him to live this way. But at the same time, when you would receive a man of God, your job was to take care of that traveling man of God. Now, that doesn't mean your local pastor at the time. Your job was to take care of that traveling man of God. Now that doesn't mean your local pastor. You know, at the time, your local presbyter is what it would be. It was people who were traveling through. So they would say while they're traveling and they're with you and you notice that they are an apostle or a prophet or whatever, take care of them, feed them, give them a place to stay. But if they stay longer than three days, then they're just looking for a handout. Or if they ask you for money, they're asking for a handout. So in the early church they were having to be very, very careful and they were saying this is how you can tell. All right, here we go Next. It says don't judge every prophet who speaks in the spirit. Let God be the judge. However, you'll know a false prophet if he teaches something that goes against what you have been taught or if he lives in a way that contradicts his teaching. Every true prophet who acts in line with the Lord's way should not be judged by you. His judgment is in God's hands. In the same way, do not test or judge any preacher who speaks in the Spirit, unless it's obvious that he's speaking falsely. Not everyone who speaks in the spirit is a prophet, but only the one who behaves like the Lord by their behavior. Then will a false prophet and a true prophet be known. A prophet who asks for a meal in the spirit is not to be judged, but if he asks for money or something else, he is a false prophet. So what's going on at the time is you've got people who are going around claiming to be something and they're trying to find boundaries to fix this. Because think about it and I get to experience some of this as a young church planter of a non-denominational church the good thing about denominations and there's a lot of good things about denominations is they have set rules and boundaries for how you are to do things, but we're in a non-denominational church. You have to set these rules and boundaries. And the reason why I say that Christians can be some of the most gullible people is because I are one. I've gotten a lot better, but I was like that I thought, well, man, surely nobody's going to come here trying to do anything bad. And I thought, well, man, surely nobody's going to come here trying to do anything bad. And then I learned differently. And so they're trying to set boundaries, to go hey, listen, I know that you got a lot of people and they all claim to be this, you know, this thing, whatever. And to be honest with you, they're even just kind of saying here's the thing. They all sound good, it all sounds right, it all sounds beautiful and flowery and lovely. How do you know it all sounds beautiful and flowery and lovely? How do you know? By how they live? And I got to see this a lot when I was a kid, because so I grew up in a denomination in the state of Alabama where they had these people called evangelists who would travel all over the state of Alabama and they would go and they would preach at churches, and it gave the pastor kind of a break, but then also was intended to be someone who would come in and would encourage the people. Well, because of just the way the whole process would work, they would be around us the pastor's family, pretty much the whole week. And if you didn't get to know them and you just would kind of see them on the revival services, what they call them, you would think they were all wonderful because they all were charismatic people and they all had a lot of great things to say and they all claim to be of God. But after seeing them for a few years in a row, what you would start to learn is you would start to learn which ones were of God and it wasn't because of what they proclaimed in the church, it was how they lived in the home. And you would start to go oh, you know, and there was one particular guy. My dad would have come every single year and, to be honest with you, there were some people that did not love the way he preached and they would kind of get not frustrated with my dad, but they would say, hey, maybe you should get somebody else because he's really not that engaging and not that whatever. And my dad would. They would say, hey, maybe you should get somebody else, because he's really not that engaging and not that whatever. And my dad would defend them and defend this guy, whatever. But the number one thing I think my dad knew we never really talked about this, but the thing is is because what would happen after church is my dad would have dinner waiting and they would talk until like midnight or later, like every like every night. It was like crazy. But the thing is is over the years you started to notice this guy loves j. He acts the same way in church as he does around the dinner table. This guy is the real deal and that was why my dad would have him come back over and over again. And so what the Didache is doing here is he's saying there's a lot. It is saying, hey, there's a lot of people that's going to come around you. It's going to talk a good game. As a matter of fact, there's going to be some people going to come around you and you're going to assume that there are prophets because of how good they are with the crowd, but that's not how you're going to know if they're of God and they even kind of go this way and they kind of say and they may even say a whole bunch of true stuff, still you're not sure. The best way to know is to see how they act when they get off stage. That's how you know. That's powerful and that is very convicting. Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that we all live in this spiritual community and you want us to have healthy boundaries in healthy places, so that we can know what's real and what's not, that we'll never be a victim of somebody else's schemes, but rather we can have healthy boundaries so that we can live in freedom. I'm thankful for books like the Didache that give us a window into what they were going through, what they were learning, what they were dealing with in the early church. I pray you will help us, lord, to remember, if nothing else, that even then they didn't have it all figured out. And if they don't, it's okay that we don't too. We just live closer to you every day. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen and amen. I love doing stuff like this and going through some of these things. I mean, I've had people ask me if we could go through the book of Enoch and different things like that, and maybe we'll see. But for now