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Andy Stanley - Ninety Part 1 For The World · Andy Stanley Sermons

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Speaker 1: This series is actually just a journeying with Jesus from
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Speaker 1: the time he stepped onto the pages of history as
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Speaker 1: an adult to the time that he was crucified and
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Speaker 1: ultimately rose from the dead. We're gonna look at some
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Speaker 1: of his most significant conversations. We're gonna look at his
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Speaker 1: most significant encounters, his most significant teaching, from.
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Speaker 2: His introduction to being a teacher in.
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Speaker 1: The world to ultimately going on to be a sacrifice
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Speaker 1: for the sins of the world. And the thing that
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Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about throughout this series that may be new. Honestly,
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Speaker 1: it may be a bit disturbing. When we get to
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Speaker 1: week four, you may wonder whether or not you should
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Speaker 1: continue with us. What we're gonna talk about and focus
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Speaker 1: on is the thing that I think is most missed
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Speaker 1: about the life in the person of Jesus, and it's
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Speaker 1: one of the reasons perhaps you've been so confused by religion.
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Speaker 1: Maybe why you've been so confused by church and Christianity
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Speaker 1: Jesus when you read the Gospels, it couldn't be any clear.
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Speaker 1: I don't know how we've missed that Jesus came into
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Speaker 1: the world to introduce something brand new to the world.
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Speaker 1: He did not come to extend something that was all.
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Speaker 1: He did not come to simply complete the Bible so
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Speaker 1: we'd have both a New Testament and an Old Testament.
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Speaker 1: He didn't come to create Judaism two point zero. That
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Speaker 1: he came to do something brand new to the world.
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Speaker 1: Brought something brand new to the world, and not just
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Speaker 1: to the world, but for the world, as we're going
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Speaker 1: to talk about today. Now, every headliner needs a warm
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Speaker 1: up act, somebody to come out and get the crowd
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Speaker 1: all warmed up. And interestingly enough, in the first century,
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Speaker 1: Jesus had a warm up act. He really did, from
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Speaker 1: the Jordan River basin, draped in animal skins with locust breath.
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Speaker 1: Please welcome, Okay, John the Baptist steps onto the pages
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Speaker 1: of history, really literally as the opening act for Jesus.
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Speaker 2: Now you've heard of John the Baptist.
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Speaker 1: The reason he was called John the Baptist is not
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Speaker 1: because he wasn't John the Methodist, or John the Presbyterian,
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Speaker 1: or John the Episcopalian. He was called John the Baptist
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Speaker 1: because John, as far as we can tell in history,
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Speaker 1: this is pretty significant. John is the first person who
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Speaker 1: ever manhandled another person and baptized them. Baptism at this
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Speaker 1: point in the first century was part of a multifaceted
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Speaker 1: process that another Jewish person would go through to become Jewish.
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Speaker 1: There was a meal, there were things you had to learn,
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Speaker 1: and then as part of becoming a Jewish person or
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Speaker 1: being part of the Covenant, you had to be baptized.
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Speaker 1: And baptism was a ceremonial washing where you decide, I'm
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Speaker 1: dying to my gentileness and I'm coming alive to my Jewishness.
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Speaker 1: But you did this alone, or you certainly no one
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Speaker 1: was touching you when you did this. And John the
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Speaker 1: Baptist comes to the Jordan River and he's actually physically
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Speaker 1: baptizing people, and so he got this nicknamed John the Baptist,
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Speaker 1: John the Baptizer. Now there are four gospel accounts of
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Speaker 1: the four accounts of the life.
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Speaker 2: Of Jesus, as you know, martthew Mark, Luke, and John.
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Speaker 1: And Luke, who opens his account by saying, and you're
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Speaker 1: gonna hear me say this anytime I mentioned Luke. He
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Speaker 1: opens his account by saying, I thoroughly investigated all of
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Speaker 1: these things, and I have created for you a chronological
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Speaker 1: account of the things. And I love this of the
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Speaker 1: things that happened in our mits, that happened here that
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Speaker 1: Luke was writing history. And here is his introduction to Jesus,
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Speaker 1: opening act John the Baptist. Here's how we put it.
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Speaker 1: In the fifteenth year, in the fifteenth year of the
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Speaker 1: reign of Tiberius Caesar, the Emperor of Rome, who followed
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Speaker 1: Caesar Augustus, when Pontius Pilot was governor of Judea, that
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Speaker 1: whole area, Herod Tetrarch of Galilee, that other large area,
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Speaker 1: his brother Philip Tetrarch of Iteria, and Trachonidas and Licinius
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Speaker 1: tet Trarch of Abilene during the high priesthood of Annas
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Speaker 1: and Caiaphas. Now, if you ever read the Bible, you
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Speaker 1: get to these parts and you go yah, yeah, yea, yeah, whatever.
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Speaker 1: Let's get to the good part. Right, this is extraordinary.
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Speaker 1: Let me tell you why this is extraordinary. This is
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Speaker 1: Luke saying to skeptics, fact.
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Speaker 2: Check me, I dare you.
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Speaker 1: In other words, this is not a long time ago
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Speaker 1: in a galaxy far far away. You know, it doesn't
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Speaker 1: really matter if it ever happened. I'm about to tell
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Speaker 1: you a story. This is not once upon a time
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Speaker 1: in a place you never heard of Luke saying, no,
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Speaker 1: what I'm about to tell you happened in history. And
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Speaker 1: what he does is remarkable because he so meticulous. In fact,
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Speaker 1: anytime we get to the teachings of Luke, there's there's
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Speaker 1: so much detail. He is a historian's dream. He says,
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Speaker 1: let me start at the macro level, the Emperor of Rome,
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Speaker 1: the governors of Judea and Galilee, the subgovernors of the province,
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Speaker 1: the high priest of the temple in Jerusalem. Do I
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Speaker 1: have your attention? Is everybody with me? Does everybody know
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Speaker 1: what period of time I'm talking about and who these
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Speaker 1: people are? And his first century audience was like, we
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Speaker 1: are with you, and historians who don't even take the
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Speaker 1: account of Jesus life and Luke seriously are like, this
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Speaker 1: is amazing stuff. And he goes on and he says this,
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Speaker 1: here's what happened. The Word of God came to John.
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Speaker 1: This is John the Baptist, the son of Zechariah, in
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Speaker 1: the wilderness, and people went out to him from Jerusalem
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Speaker 1: and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan.
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Speaker 1: Now Luke has thoroughly investigated these things, and here's what
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Speaker 1: he's saying, he saying, look, this isn't a dozen people
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Speaker 1: listening to a crazy man preach on the side of
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Speaker 1: the Jordan River. Okay, at the bank of the Jordan River.
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Speaker 1: All of Jerusalem, all of Judea. Judea is like this,
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Speaker 1: enormous area and the whole region went out to see John.
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Speaker 1: So thousands of people are going down to the middle
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Speaker 1: of really nowhere. That's difficult to get to, especially if
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Speaker 1: you're from Jerusalem. If you were in Jerusalem, it would
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Speaker 1: take you'd have to get up before sunrise, you'd get
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Speaker 1: there after sunset and hope the next day you could
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Speaker 1: find this guy. So this is not a convenient trip.
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Speaker 1: And on the banks of the Jordan River, John the
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Speaker 1: Baptist begins to preach and teach.
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Speaker 2: And thousands and thousands and thousands of people came. And
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Speaker 2: this was a problem.
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Speaker 1: This was a problem because every once in a while
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Speaker 1: in Judea or Galilee, somebody would rise up and be
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Speaker 1: a wannabe messiah, and the Jewish leaders would have to
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Speaker 1: try to calm them down before there was an insurrection,
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Speaker 1: and then Rome would have to get involved, and then
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Speaker 1: it was bloody, and then the Roman governor would have
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Speaker 1: to sit down with the temple leaders and say, look,
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Speaker 1: can you keep these people under control, because if you
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Speaker 1: can't keep them under control, we'll keep them under control.
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Speaker 1: You won't like the way we keep them under control.
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Speaker 1: And thanks to King Herod and his sons, things had
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Speaker 1: gone along pretty well for a few years, and suddenly
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Speaker 1: on the banks of the Jordan River there's this guy
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Speaker 1: who's saying all kinds of things, preaching all kinds of things,
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Speaker 1: and thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people in the
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Speaker 1: region show up to listen to him. But it wasn't
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Speaker 1: just the sermons that disturbed the temple leaders. They showed
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Speaker 1: up confessing their sins. Now, this is unheard of. Now
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Speaker 1: we read this as English Bible readers in the twenty
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Speaker 1: first century, it's like, yeah.
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Speaker 2: So what, No, this was unheard of.
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Speaker 1: You see, the Jewish people in the first century and
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Speaker 1: the centuries preceding the first century, they had a very
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Speaker 1: sophisticated system for how you confessed your sins. There was
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Speaker 1: a way you did this, there was an order of things,
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Speaker 1: and ultimately, if you lived in the vicinity of Jerusalem,
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Speaker 1: you went to the temple and you brought a sacrifice,
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Speaker 1: and there were certain sacrifices and certain things that you
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Speaker 1: sacrificed for certain kinds of sins, certain kinds of things
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Speaker 1: you had to say to the priest or the high priest,
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Speaker 1: are they not so high priest? Or the priest assistant
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Speaker 1: or you Perhaps if you didn't live close to Jerusalem,
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Speaker 1: you went to the synagogue, but you found somebody in charge,
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Speaker 1: you found an official, You found somebody with some authority,
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Speaker 1: and you confessed your sin, and you decided what you
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Speaker 1: would have to do to be forgiven and what kind
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Speaker 1: of hoops you would have to jump through, much like
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Speaker 1: many religious systems have today.
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Speaker 2: So here's a.
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Speaker 1: Nobody in the middle of nowhere, and people are confessing
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Speaker 1: their sins to him. He's acting like a walking talking temple.
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Speaker 1: You know who is this guy. But it wasn't just
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Speaker 1: confessing sins. It was the thing that gave him his
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Speaker 1: nickname that was most disturbing at all. Not only do
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Speaker 1: they confess their sins, and they were baptized by him
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Speaker 1: in the Jordan River. Now, if you're gonna be baptized
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Speaker 1: within the context of what baptism meant in the first century,
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Speaker 1: you had to have permission.
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Speaker 2: There was You couldn't just show up and be baptized.
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Speaker 2: How do we even know what that meant?
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Speaker 1: And besides that, these are Jewish people, and Jewish people
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Speaker 1: don't need to be baptized, they're already Jews, They're already
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Speaker 1: part of the Covenant of Abraham. This was so extraordinarily disruptive.
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Speaker 1: No authority, no education, no backing, nobody behind him, no explanation,
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Speaker 1: just this wild eyed, crazy preacher in the middle of
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Speaker 1: nowhere making claims. In the whole countryside.
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Speaker 2: Flocked to hear him.
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Speaker 1: The text tells us that he came John Matthew, Mark Luke, John,
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Speaker 1: not John the Baptist, John that followed Jesus that ultimately
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Speaker 1: wrote this down. He says he came John the Baptist,
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Speaker 1: came as a witness to testify, and the Greek it's
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Speaker 1: like he came as a witness to witness, or a
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Speaker 1: testifier to testify. Same word, he came as a witness
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Speaker 1: to testify concerning that light. Because when John the gospel
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Speaker 1: writer John referred to Jesus. It's so fascinating. We've talked
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Speaker 1: about this. This is John who saw the whole thing,
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Speaker 1: and we're going to talk a lot about John in
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Speaker 1: the weeks to come.
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Speaker 2: But John is an older man.
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Speaker 1: Looking back as he tried to wrap his mind around
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Speaker 1: the fact that Jesus, his friend, was a body, was
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Speaker 1: a physical person, and yet he contained this light that
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Speaker 1: was light for the whole world.
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Speaker 2: So he used that imagery. He came.
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Speaker 1: John the Baptist came as a witness to testify concerning
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Speaker 1: the light, so that through him all all might believe.
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Speaker 1: And John, John the Baptist, John testified concerning him. He
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Speaker 1: cried out, saying, this is John the Baptist. Now, this
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Speaker 1: is what he was preaching about. This was his message.
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Speaker 1: He cried out, saying, this is the one talking about
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Speaker 1: Jesus who hadn't shown up yet. This is the one
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Speaker 1: that I spoke about when I said, he who comes
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Speaker 1: after me has surpassed me because he was before me.
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Speaker 1: It's like, okay, what, John, You're gonna.
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Speaker 2: Have to back up.
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Speaker 1: Yes, he he who comes after me, he's not here yet,
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Speaker 1: has surpassed me because he was before me. Okay, what
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Speaker 1: are you talking about. John's like, Okay, maybe I went
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Speaker 1: through through that too quickly. I'm just telling you I
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Speaker 1: got here first, but he got here before I got here.
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Speaker 1: But you haven't seen him yet. And when he shows
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Speaker 1: up all my goodness.
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Speaker 2: Get ready.
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Speaker 1: And then a little foreshadowing, as John the Gospel writer
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Speaker 1: John describes John the Baptist message, for the law. For
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Speaker 1: the law was given through Moses. Now here comes the tension.
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Speaker 1: Here comes foreshadowing. We have tension that will follow Jesus
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Speaker 1: through his entire ministry. For the law was given through Moses.
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Speaker 1: And as you know, in the first century, the law
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Speaker 1: was everything to the Jews. For many Jews today the
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Speaker 1: law is still everything. And the law was housed in
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Speaker 1: the Temple and the Holy of Holies. It was the
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Speaker 1: place that only the high priests could go.
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Speaker 2: Once a year.
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Speaker 1: And they tied a rope around his ankle. This is tradition,
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Speaker 1: says they tied a rope around his ankle. In case
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Speaker 1: he died in there, they'd pull him out, because nobody's
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Speaker 1: going in there. And so in the Temple as the
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Speaker 1: Holy of Holies, and in the Holy of Holies, is
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Speaker 1: that whatever was left over of the Ark by this
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Speaker 1: time in history, there probably wasn't any part of the
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Speaker 1: Ark of the Covenant left, but there was some semblance
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Speaker 1: of the Word or the text or the scripture, the Torah,
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Speaker 1: the Law of God, the Law was everything. Moses was everything.
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Speaker 1: Moses was the lawgiver. Rabbis could comment on the law
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Speaker 1: of Moses, but you didn't create new laws. Rabbis could
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Speaker 1: illustrate the law of Moses, but you didn't create new laws.
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Speaker 1: You could talk about it, but you did not mess
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Speaker 1: with it. The Jewish law governed every facet of Jewish
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Speaker 1: life in the first century. People died for the Torah,
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Speaker 1: people died to protect the temple. And so John says,
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Speaker 1: looking back at this incident with John the Babbist showing
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Speaker 1: up on the river bank, he says, the law was
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Speaker 1: given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
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Speaker 2: This was a contrast.
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Speaker 1: Something new was in the works, something new was coming.
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Speaker 1: This is not an end, this is an instead of Now, this.
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Speaker 2: Was John's testimony.
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Speaker 1: This was John's testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem
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Speaker 1: sent priests and levites to ask him who he was.
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Speaker 2: So here's what happened.
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Speaker 1: So there's this big disturbance. All this stuff's going on
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Speaker 1: the Jordan river. Nobody's shopping at the temple. Everybody's shopping
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Speaker 1: down at the new mall, you know, down by the river.
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Speaker 1: So all the people up at the temple are thinking,
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Speaker 1: you know, what's going on, and all the temple leaders
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Speaker 1: are nervous. So the temple leaders, the high Priest and
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Speaker 1: his folks, get the sort of the underlings, you know,
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Speaker 1: the not so high priest and the not so cool levites,
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Speaker 1: and they say, look, it's a long way to the
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Speaker 1: Jordan River. Would you go down there and find out
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Speaker 1: what's going on, get a report and find out who
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Speaker 1: this guy is. See if you can get an appointment
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Speaker 1: with him, and then come back and tell us what's
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Speaker 1: going on, because you know, we don't want to go.
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Speaker 1: We don't want to we don't want to mess with that.
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Speaker 1: It's a long way down there, and who knows what
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Speaker 1: we would run into. And so the high Priest and
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Speaker 1: the temple in Jerusalem, you know, a little ba more
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Speaker 1: than a day's journey away, sends this group of people
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Speaker 1: to find out who is John the Baptist and what
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Speaker 1: is his message all about? And he John did not
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Speaker 1: fail to confess, but confess freely. And this is kind
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Speaker 1: of the picture. I don't know if this is accurate,
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Speaker 1: but the way it's written, it looks like John's doing
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Speaker 1: his thing.
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Speaker 2: You know, he finishes a sermon and baptize.
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Speaker 1: A few people stepped out of the Jordan river, and
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Speaker 1: he sees the guys in the black robes all coming
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Speaker 1: down with their cool tassels, and everybody's making a way
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Speaker 1: for them because they carry authority. They've come from the
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Speaker 1: Jerusalem and they're making hi their way toward him, and
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Speaker 1: John knows what they're gonna ask. They want to know
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Speaker 1: who are you and by who's authority? Are you doing
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Speaker 1: these things and preaching these messages? And are you another
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Speaker 1: wanna be pretend Messiah? Because you know those happen every
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Speaker 1: once in a while, And if you claim to be
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Speaker 1: the Messiah, you got to come to Jerusalem. We got
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Speaker 1: to ask you a few questions, and you know, find
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Speaker 1: out what's going on. So he knows what they've come
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Speaker 1: to ask, and it says, if before they get to
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Speaker 1: him and ask him the question, he goes ahead and
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Speaker 1: the answers, and he says, I am not the Messiah.
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Speaker 1: Before they got to ask the question, I know what
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Speaker 1: you're here for. No, I'm not the Messiah. So they said, well,
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Speaker 1: then are you Elijah? And the reason to ask are
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Speaker 1: you Elijah is because the last book of the Old Testament,
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Speaker 1: the Jewish scriptures the Jewish the Hebrew Bible is in
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Speaker 1: the English version of it is Malachi, and Malachi was
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Speaker 1: the last prophet. In fact, when Malachi finished, he turned
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Speaker 1: off the lights, shut the door, and left. And no,
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Speaker 1: God didn't say anything for four hundred years, or there's
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Speaker 1: no evidence or any written revelation from God for four
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Speaker 1: hundred years. But in Malachi, the prophet Malachi says, before
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Speaker 1: God does his next big thing, before Messiah, before the
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Speaker 1: great day of the Lord, there will be a prophet
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Speaker 1: Elijah that comes in the spirit of Elisha or perhaps
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Speaker 1: the reincarnated Elishah, and he's gonna come and.
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Speaker 2: Prepare the people.
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Speaker 1: So they're like, okay, well, if you're not the Messiah,
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Speaker 1: are you the guy that comes before the Messiah? Are
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Speaker 1: you Elijah? Said Elijah, but Elijah and he says, no,
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Speaker 1: I'm not him. And they said, well, then are you
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Speaker 1: the prophet because Moses and the Kumaran community had taught
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Speaker 1: that there would be some great prophet that rose up
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Speaker 1: to prepare the people before God did something greater, his
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Speaker 1: next big thing in the nation. And he answered, no,
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Speaker 1: that's not who I am either. So finally they said, okay,
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Speaker 1: enough with these silly questions. Who are you give us
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Speaker 1: an answer to take back to those who send us?
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Speaker 1: What do you say about yourself? I mean we can't
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Speaker 1: go back home and say, well, we know who he's not.
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Speaker 1: We gotta know who he is. We gotta know who's authority.
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Speaker 1: And you're in who's authority you're speaking? And where did
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Speaker 1: you get these crazy ideas? And come on, you can't
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Speaker 1: let people confess send down here at the river, you
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Speaker 1: confess sin up on the hill at the altar in Jerusalem,
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Speaker 1: you're acting like a portable temple.
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Speaker 2: What's up? Who are you?
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Speaker 1: And John replied by quoting the prophet Isaiah. He said,
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Speaker 1: I am So you want to know who I am.
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Speaker 1: I'm the voice. I'm just the voice. I'm not the guy.
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Speaker 1: I'm not the one. I'm not the person. I'm just
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Speaker 1: a voice of one calling into wilderness. That's why I'm
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Speaker 1: not in the temple. It's not why I'm up and
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Speaker 1: not on the hill. I'm the voice of one calling
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Speaker 1: in the wilderness. Make straight the way for the Lord.
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Speaker 1: In other words, get ready, get ready, get ready, get ready,
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Speaker 1: get ready. God is about to do his next thing.
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Speaker 1: I'm just the warm up act. I'm just here to
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Speaker 1: gather the people and to get people to be prepared
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Speaker 1: for what God is about to do. And those who
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Speaker 1: have pure hearts will recognize what He's up to. And
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Speaker 1: those who are ready, and those who've repented of their sin,
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Speaker 1: and those who have opened their minds and opened to
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Speaker 1: their hearts to the fact that God is about to
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Speaker 1: do something new, those will be the people who recognize
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Speaker 1: God's next move. And so that's why I'm here, And yes,
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Speaker 1: I'm allowing people to confess their sins, heads up. Something
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Speaker 1: greater than the temple is about to come.
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Speaker 2: Now.
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Speaker 1: The Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, and they said, well,
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Speaker 1: why then do you baptize If you're not the Messiah,
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Speaker 1: nor Elijah, nor the Prophet.
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Speaker 2: Okay, if you're not.
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Speaker 1: Any of these people, what about this baptism thing. I mean,
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Speaker 1: nobody's ever done that before, you've even got a nickname.
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Speaker 1: I mean, what's up with that? And he says, I
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Speaker 1: tell you what, I baptized with water. He kind of
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Speaker 1: avoided their question. I baptized with water. John reply, but
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Speaker 1: I'm telling you, among you stands one you do not know, literally,
16:22
Speaker 1: one you do not recognize. And guys, look around you
16:26
Speaker 1: think I'm a big deal. You think I've drawn a
16:29
Speaker 1: big crowd. You think I've unsettled things. You think I've
16:33
Speaker 1: made you nervous, and your boss is nervous, pilot nervous.
16:38
Speaker 1: You think this is something big. You've not seen anything yet.
16:44
Speaker 1: He the one who's to come after me, the main act.
16:48
Speaker 1: He is the one that he is, the one who
16:50
Speaker 1: comes after me and the straps of his sandals. I'm
16:53
Speaker 1: not even worthy to untie.
16:55
Speaker 2: I'm a nobody. I mean, I look like a somebody.
16:57
Speaker 1: Look at this crowd, But I'm telling you, compared to
17:00
Speaker 1: who's coming next, I am a nobody. I am not
17:03
Speaker 1: even worthy to bend down and unlace his sandals. Well
17:10
Speaker 1: that's not much of an answer. So they go back
17:12
Speaker 1: up to Jerusalem. It's like, okay, we know who he's not.
17:14
Speaker 2: We're not sure who he is.
17:16
Speaker 1: He quoted some verses from our scripture, and so the
17:19
Speaker 1: High Priest and his guys are like.
17:21
Speaker 2: Oh, okay, we're gonna have to go down there ourselves.
17:23
Speaker 1: Now, this was a really bad decision on their part,
17:25
Speaker 1: but they decided to do it anyway. So they get
17:27
Speaker 1: up Waly in the morning and they probably come with
17:29
Speaker 1: a caravan with tents and food and all. I mean
17:32
Speaker 1: it's an entourage for sure, all tricked out SUVs. You know,
17:35
Speaker 1: they're this is because they're like the guys, you know,
17:37
Speaker 1: and the people have so much respect for these people.
17:40
Speaker 2: I mean the high priests.
17:41
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the guy that gets to go
17:42
Speaker 1: into the Holy of Holies. I mean, this is like
17:44
Speaker 1: when this group shows up, everybody gets out of the
17:46
Speaker 1: way and they kind of bow. I mean, these are
17:48
Speaker 1: the people that when you bring your grain offering and
17:50
Speaker 1: your goat offering and your kids to the temple for
17:53
Speaker 1: the first time, it's like there's so and so, and
17:54
Speaker 1: there's so and so, and they're perfect. They smell good,
17:57
Speaker 1: they look good, they dress well, they keep the law.
18:00
Speaker 1: If God was gonna, if God was gonna do anything
18:03
Speaker 1: in the world, this would be the first group to know.
18:06
Speaker 2: And so they show up.
18:09
Speaker 1: And again John's doing his thing and he's preaching and
18:11
Speaker 1: teaching and baptizing people, and he sees up on the
18:13
Speaker 1: hill here they come and kind of snake in their
18:15
Speaker 1: way down to the Jordan River basin.
18:17
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a whole bunch of people and they're
18:19
Speaker 2: all riding donkeys and mules.
18:20
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a big deal. I mean that
18:21
Speaker 1: first group that was kind of a big deal. This
18:23
Speaker 1: is like a really big deal. And the people are
18:26
Speaker 1: stirring and they're talking. They're looking over their shoulder because
18:29
Speaker 1: they've never seen these folks even leave the city of Jerusalem,
18:34
Speaker 1: and here they are to see John. I mean talk
18:37
Speaker 1: about gifts John some status. I mean they came to him.
18:40
Speaker 1: He didn't even have to go to them and make
18:42
Speaker 1: an appointment. This is a big deal, a big day.
18:44
Speaker 1: The crowd parts and they make their way toward John.
18:49
Speaker 2: Imagine this moment.
18:51
Speaker 1: And there's John with his disheveled hair and his overgrown
18:54
Speaker 1: beard and whatever animal skins he's wearing, smells like he
18:57
Speaker 1: used to live his whole life outdoors. And here comes
19:00
Speaker 1: the most sophisticated, buttoned up, oiled hair group of people
19:04
Speaker 1: that you know in the nation. And as they get
19:07
Speaker 1: closer and closer and closer, before they're close enough to
19:12
Speaker 1: have a private conversation.
19:14
Speaker 2: Here's what happened.
19:16
Speaker 1: But when he saw many, not just a few, many
19:19
Speaker 1: of the Pharisees and Sadducees, two groups of people will
19:21
Speaker 1: talk about later, who didn't even get along coming to
19:25
Speaker 1: where he was, He said to them out loud, in
19:29
Speaker 1: front of everyone, you brewed of vipers. I mean, a
19:36
Speaker 1: hush went over the crowd. Nobody talks to these guys
19:40
Speaker 1: like this, Are you kidding? I mean, these are the
19:42
Speaker 1: holiest of holy These people their full time job is
19:45
Speaker 1: to be good.
19:46
Speaker 2: That's what they do. What do you do?
19:47
Speaker 1: I'm good, I'm just good. I'm so good that if
19:49
Speaker 1: God were to do something, I would recognize it. I'm
19:51
Speaker 1: a good person. And he says to them, you brewed
19:54
Speaker 1: of vipers? Who warned you? Because see, everybody coming to
19:58
Speaker 1: the Jordan River was coming to be baptized repent of
20:00
Speaker 1: their sins, and all of a sudden, it looks like
20:02
Speaker 1: they're coming to be baptizing to repent of their sins.
20:05
Speaker 2: He knew better.
20:06
Speaker 1: The people wondered, who warned you to flee from the
20:09
Speaker 1: coming wrath? Something is coming? You think I'm something, I'm nothing.
20:13
Speaker 1: Something is coming. Who warned you to flee from the
20:15
Speaker 1: coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Now talk
20:19
Speaker 1: about a dig I mean there was a murmur in
20:22
Speaker 1: the crowd. Essentially, John the Baptist is telling the holiest
20:24
Speaker 1: men in the whole country repent of your sin, and
20:27
Speaker 1: don't tell me you prayed some magic prayer in the
20:29
Speaker 1: privacy of your home.
20:30
Speaker 2: I want to see fruit, I want to see evidence.
20:34
Speaker 1: These are the law keepers and Jesus and then John
20:37
Speaker 1: the Baptist was saying, you're law breakers, and I know
20:41
Speaker 1: what's in you. And here's the tension, here's the friction,
20:48
Speaker 1: here's the grit that would be part of the story
20:50
Speaker 1: of Jesus of Nazareth throughout his public ministry. It started
20:56
Speaker 1: right here because John the Baptist was given everybody a
20:59
Speaker 1: head up. In fact, he's given you a heads up,
21:02
Speaker 1: giving me a heads up. He was given his audience
21:05
Speaker 1: a heads up that the days of compassionless, the days
21:10
Speaker 1: of compassionless loophole religion.
21:14
Speaker 2: We're coming to an end. We're coming to a close, the.
21:19
Speaker 1: Days where you can hide behind your walls and pray
21:21
Speaker 1: secret prayers and give secret money and nobody knew what
21:24
Speaker 1: you were doing. And then, you know, have a lack
21:26
Speaker 1: of compassion because well, no wonder she's sick, and no
21:28
Speaker 1: wonder he's dying, and no wonder he's blind because he's
21:30
Speaker 1: sin or his parents sin. And you know, I don't
21:32
Speaker 1: really have to take care of my aging parents because
21:34
Speaker 1: what do you know, Mom and Dad, I'm so sorry.
21:36
Speaker 1: I devoted everything to God. Now I get to live
21:39
Speaker 1: off of it. But I can't help you because I
21:41
Speaker 1: gave all my wealth to God. Good luck in your
21:43
Speaker 1: old age. John, the badness gives him a heads up
21:46
Speaker 1: that is coming to a screechy halt, that is coming
21:50
Speaker 1: to an end.
21:51
Speaker 2: Prepare yourself for the wrath of God. Oh you religious leaders. You.
22:00
Speaker 1: It was a very short conversation, and they turned around
22:05
Speaker 1: and the left, and then it happened. The moment the
22:10
Speaker 1: nation had been waiting for, the moment the world, even
22:13
Speaker 1: though the world didn't know, had been waiting for. Here's
22:18
Speaker 1: how it went down. Then at all this all happened
22:21
Speaker 1: at Bethany.
22:21
Speaker 2: Noticed the detail.
22:23
Speaker 1: This all happened at Bethany. Well, Bethany, Oh, yeah, on
22:25
Speaker 1: the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing the.
22:28
Speaker 2: Next day after they left.
22:29
Speaker 1: Apparently the next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him.
22:36
Speaker 1: No animals, no caravan, no food, no tents, no entourage.
22:43
Speaker 1: He saw Jesus coming toward him. Now, let's just pause
22:45
Speaker 1: in this moment and imagine, in this moment, there's Jesus,
22:52
Speaker 1: who knows who Jesus is, and.
22:54
Speaker 2: There's John the Baptist, who knows who Jesus is. And
22:57
Speaker 2: in this.
22:57
Speaker 1: Moment, perhaps time could stand still for just a moment,
23:01
Speaker 1: and John sees Jesus, and Jesus sees John. And this
23:05
Speaker 1: is the hinge, this is the transition. This is an
23:10
Speaker 1: encounter that would ultimately change the world because in this encounter,
23:13
Speaker 1: Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, steps into history
23:18
Speaker 1: as an adult God in a body for the first
23:22
Speaker 1: and probably last time, is about to go public.
23:25
Speaker 2: And things would never be the same.
23:27
Speaker 1: In fact, regardless of whether you're a religious person or not,
23:30
Speaker 1: or a Christian, or maybe you're part of another religion
23:32
Speaker 1: or no religion, or you used to be you grew
23:34
Speaker 1: up in church and something happened. Here's what's undeniable in
23:38
Speaker 1: this moment, in this moment, in this moment, things begin
23:44
Speaker 1: to change and they would never go it would never
23:47
Speaker 1: go back in the box. And we are here today
23:50
Speaker 1: and there are people all over the world today gathered
23:52
Speaker 1: in the name of Jesus, and this was the moment
23:55
Speaker 1: it all began. And think, this is the part I
23:59
Speaker 1: can't get over. I don't even know if I know
24:00
Speaker 1: how to talk about it accurately. Think about how fragile
24:05
Speaker 1: this moment is. It's just two men. It's just two
24:09
Speaker 1: men in a world where people's lives can be snuffed
24:12
Speaker 1: out with no accountability and no trial afterwards, just these
24:15
Speaker 1: two men. The whole thing hangs in the balance of
24:18
Speaker 1: there's two men. And all eyes are on John the Baptist.
24:23
Speaker 1: They've been on him for a while, and.
24:26
Speaker 2: He says, I love this.
24:30
Speaker 3: He says, look, look, not believe, not imagine, not pretend,
24:45
Speaker 3: not check your brain at the door, not.
24:49
Speaker 2: Don't look over there.
24:50
Speaker 1: You might not like it and may not like what
24:52
Speaker 1: you see. John the Baptist invites his audience.
24:56
Speaker 2: I think he invites you. I think he invites me.
24:59
Speaker 1: He says, look, and everybody turns, and he says, look
25:06
Speaker 1: the Lamb of God. And for those who had grown
25:10
Speaker 1: up in Jewish Sunday school, they all knew the story.
25:12
Speaker 1: Maybe their minds went to that story they've been taught
25:14
Speaker 1: as children, when Abraham was going to sacrifice his own
25:17
Speaker 1: son and God provided a lamb, And John says, look,
25:21
Speaker 1: the lamb of God. The lamb that literally, the lamb
25:23
Speaker 1: that comes from God, literally, the lamb that God provided,
25:27
Speaker 1: that God has provided Look, there's the lamb of God
25:33
Speaker 1: who takes away, who lifts up and carries off And
25:36
Speaker 1: everybody in that audience knew what what the point of
25:39
Speaker 1: providing a lamb was, Who lifts up and carries off
25:43
Speaker 1: the sin?
25:44
Speaker 3: The sin?
25:44
Speaker 2: Wait?
25:44
Speaker 1: Wait wait, John, wait, this is going too fast for us. Okay,
25:47
Speaker 1: you were baptizing.
25:48
Speaker 2: That was weird. We were confessing our sins.
25:50
Speaker 1: We are so many miles away from Jerusalem, We're so
25:52
Speaker 1: many miles away from the temple, were so many miles
25:55
Speaker 1: away from the altar. And now you're saying that God
25:57
Speaker 1: has provided a lamb. And he didn't provide the lamb
25:59
Speaker 1: at the all in the temple the way it's supposed
26:01
Speaker 1: to go down. He's provided a lamb way out here,
26:03
Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere for a whole bunch of nobodies.
26:07
Speaker 2: This is this is moving too fast. It's all so new.
26:11
Speaker 1: But that was nothing compared to what came next. If
26:14
Speaker 1: all their categories had not been blown up until that point,
26:18
Speaker 1: this is where they just could no longer suspend their imagination.
26:24
Speaker 2: Who comes to take away the sin of the world? Okay, John, Wait, Wait, wait, wait, wait.
26:32
Speaker 1: God, God, God's gonna forgive all the sin in the world. Yeah,
26:38
Speaker 1: even I mean even non Jewish sin, like the sin
26:44
Speaker 1: of our enemies, Roman sin. John, why would he do that?
26:53
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, John, you're a good Jewish boy.
26:55
Speaker 1: You know this, Jesus, hang on.
26:56
Speaker 2: For just a second. We gotta we gotta talk about this, John.
26:58
Speaker 3: Look.
26:58
Speaker 1: Look, our entire religious system, John, you know this, Our
27:03
Speaker 1: entire religious system is designed to keep us separated from
27:07
Speaker 1: the world. We don't eat their food, we don't wear
27:11
Speaker 1: their clothes, we don't marry their daughters. Their sons don't
27:15
Speaker 1: get to marry our daughters. We don't even go in
27:18
Speaker 1: their homes. They don't even come into our homes. In fact,
27:20
Speaker 1: up at the temple there's only a little bitty area
27:23
Speaker 1: that they can even go into either the rest of
27:25
Speaker 1: it's you know, designed just for Jewish people or people
27:27
Speaker 1: who've converted to Judaism in the first century kind of way.
27:30
Speaker 2: I mean, come on, John.
27:31
Speaker 1: Our whole history is marked by struggle against the other nations.
27:35
Speaker 1: Our whole history is marked by struggle against foreign gods,
27:39
Speaker 1: in fact, foreign nations. In fact, anytime there are foreigners
27:42
Speaker 1: on our land, we just assume we're under the judgment
27:44
Speaker 1: of God. And if God were for us, he would,
27:46
Speaker 1: you know, throw them out of our land. I mean,
27:47
Speaker 1: come on, we're waiting for a messiah. This like Joshua,
27:50
Speaker 1: who's gonna come expel the enemy. I mean, our whole
27:53
Speaker 1: frame of reference is us and them, and God is
27:55
Speaker 1: for us and he's not for them. And you're telling
27:57
Speaker 1: us that God has provided to Lamb to take away
28:02
Speaker 1: the sin of the whole world, that instead of being
28:09
Speaker 1: against somehow we're to believe that God.
28:14
Speaker 2: Is four.
28:16
Speaker 1: This was the tension that Jesus stepped into. This was
28:20
Speaker 1: the tension that created so much conflict, and as we're
28:24
Speaker 1: going to see, this is a tension that continues to
28:26
Speaker 1: create conflict for some of us today because perhaps this
28:31
Speaker 1: is the part No one told you that Jesus was
28:34
Speaker 1: a bridge between two covenants, that Jesus was a bridge
28:38
Speaker 1: between two value systems, that Jesus was a bridge between
28:43
Speaker 1: two different sets of laws and commandments, that Jesus was
28:47
Speaker 1: a bridge between two different world views, and that God,
28:51
Speaker 1: long before Moses, had promised Abraham that he would become
28:54
Speaker 1: a family that would become a nation, and through that nation,
28:57
Speaker 1: the entire world would be blessed. Through the centuries that ensued,
29:01
Speaker 1: the nation of Israel somehow lost sight of the fact
29:04
Speaker 1: that they were not the end. They were simply a
29:07
Speaker 1: temporary means to a glorious world wide end. That they
29:12
Speaker 1: were God's chosen people. But they were God's chosen people
29:15
Speaker 1: as if they were a cocoon, and.
29:17
Speaker 2: From that cocoon would be birthed life and light for
29:20
Speaker 2: the whole world.
29:22
Speaker 1: And John the Baptist point was to prepare people and
29:25
Speaker 1: to cause them to think back and to remember that
29:28
Speaker 1: we are a.
29:28
Speaker 2: Means to an end.
29:29
Speaker 1: And the good news is the end has come, that
29:32
Speaker 1: God is finally going to do that thing that we
29:35
Speaker 1: prayed for, looked forward to, and celebrated as we thought
29:39
Speaker 1: about the future.
29:42
Speaker 2: That he was the bridge between.
29:43
Speaker 1: An old and new covenant, and he was born under
29:46
Speaker 1: one to introduce the other. He was born under one
29:50
Speaker 1: covenant to introduce and ultimately, as we'll see, to cancel
29:53
Speaker 1: out the other. The first covenant was a covenant between
29:55
Speaker 1: God and a nation that was instituted on Mount Sinai
29:59
Speaker 1: when God I brought Moses up and gave Moses all
30:01
Speaker 1: the commandment, six hundred plus commands, and said, this is
30:04
Speaker 1: how you are to operate.
30:05
Speaker 2: This is how the civil law is to be.
30:07
Speaker 1: This is how the nation is to operate as I
30:09
Speaker 1: prepare them for what I will ultimately do in the world,
30:14
Speaker 1: because ultimately I will establish a new covenant, not with.
30:17
Speaker 2: The nation, but with all the nations.
30:22
Speaker 1: But come on, you notice from personal experience, transitions are hard,
30:25
Speaker 1: aren't they. Transitions are stressful, that old ways die hard,
30:30
Speaker 1: that those who profit most from the status quo are
30:34
Speaker 1: least inclined to let it go, isn't that true? And
30:39
Speaker 1: when Jesus showed up this is difficult for some of us,
30:41
Speaker 1: maybe because of how we were raised. But when Jesus
30:44
Speaker 1: showed up, the temple system was very wealthy, very powerful,
30:48
Speaker 1: and according to Jesus, it was totally.
30:51
Speaker 2: From top to bottom corrupt.
30:53
Speaker 1: Jesus never had one good thing to say about the
30:57
Speaker 1: temple or the temple system in his ministry.
30:59
Speaker 2: This, this is difficult for us. For those of us
31:01
Speaker 2: who grew up in Sunday School, we know that.
31:03
Speaker 1: God ultimately established the sacrificial system. He didn't establish the temple,
31:07
Speaker 1: but he established the sacrificial system and the ark of
31:10
Speaker 1: the Covenant and the tent of Tabernacle and all those
31:13
Speaker 1: things that were to remind Israel that they were his
31:15
Speaker 1: special people. But when Jesus showed up, it was so
31:19
Speaker 1: corrupt he had nothing good to say about it. And
31:22
Speaker 1: this very system what ultimately joined forces with the kingdoms
31:26
Speaker 1: of this world Rome and crucify him. But what was
31:31
Speaker 1: designed to be an end was only the beginning of
31:37
Speaker 1: something brand new. Jesus came to establish three new things,
31:44
Speaker 1: and we'll close with this, because this is basically what we're.
31:47
Speaker 2: Going to talk about for the next few weeks.
31:48
Speaker 1: He came to establish, as I've already said, a brand
31:51
Speaker 1: new covenant, a brand new arrangement between God and mankind,
31:56
Speaker 1: a brand new arrangement between God and you. He came
32:01
Speaker 1: to replace the old one with a new one. And
32:03
Speaker 1: here's the part that we'll struggle with for the next
32:05
Speaker 1: few weeks. He came to replace the value system and
32:08
Speaker 1: the teaching of everything between Exodus and Malachi in your
32:12
Speaker 1: English Bible, in fact, the version of faith that you
32:15
Speaker 1: grow up with, it was perhaps confusing, and you read
32:19
Speaker 1: the New Testament and the Old Testament, and you think,
32:20
Speaker 1: how do these two things go together?
32:22
Speaker 2: And if your.
32:23
Speaker 1: Pastor was like so many pastors, pastors have a tendency
32:25
Speaker 1: to shave off all the rough edges of the New
32:27
Speaker 1: Testament and shave off all the rough edges of the
32:29
Speaker 1: Old Testament to try to make them work together. And
32:33
Speaker 1: we're going to discover that Jesus never suggested any of that,
32:36
Speaker 1: that Jesus was gonna say, as we'll see in week four,
32:38
Speaker 1: you can put a fork in it, you can put.
32:39
Speaker 2: A bow on it. It's done. It's over.
32:43
Speaker 1: The new has come and the old has passed away.
32:49
Speaker 1: The Bible is God's word, but every word in the
32:55
Speaker 1: Bible is not for everybody. And when we think it is,
33:00
Speaker 1: we create unnecessary confusion. In fact, if you think it is,
33:03
Speaker 1: it may be the reason you left the Christian faith.
33:06
Speaker 1: In fact, I'll say this, as I've said so many times,
33:09
Speaker 1: if you left the Christian Faith for anything in the
33:11
Speaker 1: first half of your Bible, I think you may have
33:13
Speaker 1: left unnecessarily to stick around. The second thing that Jesus
33:16
Speaker 1: came to introduce that was new was a new command.
33:18
Speaker 1: This is so powerful. We'll get to this that Jesus.
33:22
Speaker 2: And this was such a point of contingent.
33:23
Speaker 1: And again, as English twenty first century Bible readers, we
33:26
Speaker 1: missed this. This was such a point of contingent because
33:28
Speaker 1: there was.
33:28
Speaker 2: Only one lawgiver and the lawgiver was.
33:30
Speaker 1: Moses, and Jesus kept setting himself up against Moses, and
33:34
Speaker 1: they would be like, who do you think you are?
33:36
Speaker 1: Moses said, Moses said, Moses said, And in Jesus' most
33:40
Speaker 1: famous sermon, he said, you have heard it said, but
33:42
Speaker 1: I say, you have heard it said? But I say,
33:44
Speaker 1: and they're going, yeah, we've heard it, said Moses said it.
33:46
Speaker 2: Who are you to set yourself.
33:48
Speaker 1: Up against Moses? There is only one lawgiver? Who do
33:51
Speaker 1: you think you are?
33:52
Speaker 2: And Jesus would come along. This is so powerful.
33:55
Speaker 1: Jesus would come along and take six hundred plus commandments
33:58
Speaker 1: and reduce it to two, and then and then, in
34:01
Speaker 1: his final act, he reduced it to one, a single
34:07
Speaker 1: command a single commandment that would serve as the unifying
34:12
Speaker 1: ethic for his brand new movement.
34:17
Speaker 2: You me the Church.
34:23
Speaker 1: So Jesus makes his way down to the water. He says, John,
34:29
Speaker 1: my friend, baptize me. And John's like, are you kidding?
34:32
Speaker 1: I've just told all these people I'm not even worthy
34:35
Speaker 1: to untie your sandals.
34:36
Speaker 2: I'm not going to baptize you, I think.
34:39
Speaker 1: Jesus smiled and put his hand on his shoulder and says, John,
34:42
Speaker 1: you must do this because this people, these people must
34:45
Speaker 1: know that I'm willing to identify with the new that's coming,
34:48
Speaker 1: the new that you've introduced, that we together are introducing
34:52
Speaker 1: something new.
34:53
Speaker 2: And so I'm a part of you as you're a
34:54
Speaker 2: part of me. So baptize me, my friend. And he did,
35:00
Speaker 2: and so it began.
35:02
Speaker 1: God's promise to Abraham would finally be fulfilled through a
35:08
Speaker 1: man who came as a lamb to take away the
35:12
Speaker 1: sin of the world, your sin, my sin. But before
35:18
Speaker 1: we get to that, there are sermons to preach, there
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Speaker 1: are stories to tell, there are diseases to heal, their
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Speaker 1: crowds to feed, and there are tables to topple.
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Speaker 2: And why did Jesus do all of that? He did
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Speaker 2: all of that so his audience would know with certainty,
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Speaker 2: so that we could know with certainty that God was
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Speaker 2: up to something new for you, for me, and for
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Speaker 2: the world as ass