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The Ironic Necessity of Good Friday (John 18) · Prodigal Hope

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SPEAKER_00: Thank you, church.
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SPEAKER_00: Churches, this is one of my favorite services every year.
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SPEAKER_00: When I first came to Stonington a few years ago,
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I was so pleased and delighted that this was one of the
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traditions that was being
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had here where a bunch of churches get together and celebrate
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Good Friday.
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with each other i think there's no better place than to be in
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the house of the lord
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with the family of god and that's what's happening here tonight
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the family of god
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gathering under one place hearing the word of god and
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fellowshipping and worshiping
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with each other thank you for being here tonight your your
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presence here is the
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light and it fills my soul and i'm glad that we can share in
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some good songs and
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some good company and we're going to partake in communion in
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just a moment
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But I want to turn to your attention to the scripture that was
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read a few moments
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SPEAKER_00: ago to John chapter number 18.
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As we find a very fascinating scene that occurs in the midst of
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all of the chaos,
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SPEAKER_00: the quite chaotic evening that preceded our Lord's death.
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SPEAKER_00: Amid all of these proceedings that we read about,
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SPEAKER_00: if you read John 18,
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SPEAKER_00: you read John 19,
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SPEAKER_00: so on and so forth,
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what you're going to see is that there's this scene here that
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can't be overlooked.
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It's a scene that I think is filled with so much meaning and
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depth and pathos,
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if you will.
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SPEAKER_00: As you may know,
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SPEAKER_00: as you might find,
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pretty much everything that occurs here in this section
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especially is illegal,
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SPEAKER_00: essentially.
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What the Sanhedrin council is doing to Jesus is against the
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books,
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so to speak.
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SPEAKER_00: It's against their own laws, against their own protocols.
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It's not that the Sanhedrin who is bringing Jesus to trial to
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this priest and to
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SPEAKER_00: that governor and so on and so forth.
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SPEAKER_00: It's not like they had no authority or wherewithal to make decisions.
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SPEAKER_00: But by every conceivable measure,
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what we read in these particular sections about the trial of
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Jesus is that it's all
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SPEAKER_00: irregular.
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SPEAKER_00: It's all rushed.
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SPEAKER_00: It's all hurried,
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SPEAKER_00: everything is hasty,
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SPEAKER_00: and everything is tilted towards an already preconceived outcome.
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SPEAKER_00: Jesus' fate was predetermined before the first trial happened.
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And this can all be kind of seen from the very fact that all of
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these proceedings
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SPEAKER_00: are happening under the cover of darkness.
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SPEAKER_00: They all happen at night, which wasn't protocol.
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SPEAKER_00: It wasn't how the standard way of things was supposed to be done.
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Let alone the fact that all of this is happening just before
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that great high feast
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SPEAKER_00: known as Passover,
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SPEAKER_00: just the day following.
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But from the trumped-up witnesses to the fact that Jesus
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incriminates himself,
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SPEAKER_00: which was against the law,
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SPEAKER_00: so to speak,
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SPEAKER_00: to the obvious bias of the high priest.
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SPEAKER_00: If you read Matthew 26,
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SPEAKER_00: where they're trying to coax Jesus into committing blasphemy,
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SPEAKER_00: all of it is bias.
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SPEAKER_00: The whole thing is a sham.
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SPEAKER_00: It's a farce from the beginning.
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SPEAKER_00: And I think there's no better example of that being exposed,
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SPEAKER_00: of that fact,
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SPEAKER_00: that this whole thing is a sham,
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SPEAKER_00: being exposed,
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SPEAKER_00: than where we find ourselves tonight in our text,
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SPEAKER_00: John 18.
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SPEAKER_00: And again, look at verse number 28.
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SPEAKER_00: Notice what it says.
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It says,
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then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the
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governor's headquarters.
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SPEAKER_00: Now, quick note, we are not told about that scene here.
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SPEAKER_00: If you want to read about Caiaphas and all that stuff,
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SPEAKER_00: Matthew 26 or some of the other synoptic gospels,
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SPEAKER_00: Mark and Luke,
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SPEAKER_00: they'll have that scene for you.
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SPEAKER_00: But from that scene with Caiaphas,
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SPEAKER_00: the high priest,
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SPEAKER_00: where now they're coming over to the governor's headquarters.
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SPEAKER_00: This is Pilate's house.
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SPEAKER_00: This is his palace, so to speak.
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And they're here to sort of get a stamp of approval on what
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they want to do.
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So they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's
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headquarters.
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SPEAKER_00: It was early morning, which tells you they've been up all night at this.
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SPEAKER_00: And they themselves,
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SPEAKER_00: so the Sanhedrin,
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did not enter the governor's headquarters so that they would
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not be defiled.
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SPEAKER_00: But could eat the Passover.
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SPEAKER_00: The Sanhedrin, of course, is made up of Pharisees and Sadducees.
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SPEAKER_00: A bunch of different religious elites.
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SPEAKER_00: They are the lawyers of the day.
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SPEAKER_00: They know the Torah back and forth.
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SPEAKER_00: They are steeped in God's words.
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SPEAKER_00: They know what the law requires.
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SPEAKER_00: They know it back and forth.
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SPEAKER_00: And yet here I love the writer of this gospel, St.
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SPEAKER_00: John, the youngest of all of the disciples.
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SPEAKER_00: He pours on a thick layer of irony.
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SPEAKER_00: Did you catch it?
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A thick layer of irony when he records that they are here at
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Pilate's house.
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SPEAKER_00: But they don't want to step over the threshold.
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SPEAKER_00: Lest they be defiled.
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SPEAKER_00: Lest they be corrupted.
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SPEAKER_00: Corrupted.
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SPEAKER_00: Of course,
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this is all following the right amount of shenanigans to get
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Jesus to commit
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SPEAKER_00: blasphemy.
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SPEAKER_00: And now they're leading him to Pilate's house.
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SPEAKER_00: And yet,
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SPEAKER_00: due to their own sense of self-importance,
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SPEAKER_00: due to their own ritualism,
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SPEAKER_00: they don't dare cross that doorstep.
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SPEAKER_00: They don't dare go into Pilate's house.
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SPEAKER_00: Why?
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SPEAKER_00: Why?
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SPEAKER_00: It says they don't want to defile themselves.
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SPEAKER_00: They don't want to be corrupted.
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They don't want to be tainted,
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especially on the eve of the Passover feast.
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SPEAKER_00: Days before Passover, many of the Jews would consecrate themselves.
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SPEAKER_00: They would sanctify themselves.
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They would go through very specific cleansing processes before
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the feast got underway.
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SPEAKER_00: You can think of it like a surgeon before an operation.
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They sterilize at different stations and you don't touch them
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once they get past a
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SPEAKER_00: certain station or else they have to start all over again.
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SPEAKER_00: And now these Sanhedrin council members, it's too late in the week.
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SPEAKER_00: We can't go through that process now.
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SPEAKER_00: We don't want to get corrupted.
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SPEAKER_00: So we're not going to go through that door.
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That was that cleansing process was part of the preparation
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process that filled
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SPEAKER_00: those days prior to the meal itself.
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SPEAKER_00: And communing with, fellowshipping with a Gentile, let alone a Roman,
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SPEAKER_00: It was a surefire way to corrupt yourself.
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SPEAKER_00: You would be declared on the spot, ceremonially unclean.
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SPEAKER_00: Disallowed from partaking in the meal.
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SPEAKER_00: The meal that was,
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SPEAKER_00: if you remember Exodus chapter 12,
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was meant to commemorate God's abundant grace in delivering his
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people out of
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SPEAKER_00: bondage,
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SPEAKER_00: out of slavery in Egypt in those days.
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SPEAKER_00: I think it's downright laughable that these council members,
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SPEAKER_00: these delegates here are so beholden,
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they're clinging so tightly to their rituals and they're so
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blinded by their
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self-righteousness to the point that they think that they can
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stay clean ritually
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SPEAKER_00: even as they hatch a plot to murder a rabbi from Galilee.
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SPEAKER_00: That's the irony.
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SPEAKER_00: They think that they can stay clean while they get this guy murdered.
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SPEAKER_00: It's perhaps,
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SPEAKER_00: I think,
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SPEAKER_00: the clearest and the most obvious example of what happens when humanity,
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SPEAKER_00: human beings,
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SPEAKER_00: they misplace their holiness.
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SPEAKER_00: They misplace their piety as if it's just ritual.
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SPEAKER_00: The ritual still counts.
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SPEAKER_00: We've got to go through the ritual.
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SPEAKER_00: We can't be denied the ritual of Passover, so we've got to stay outside.
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SPEAKER_00: Even while we try to get this guy killed.
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SPEAKER_00: As if that's still effective.
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As if that's ritual,
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as if that still is effective enough to make their souls holy.
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SPEAKER_00: This scene has many consequences, as we're going to find.
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SPEAKER_00: But I think chief among all of the consequences that come out is just the
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SPEAKER_00: ridiculousness of ritual or mere religion as a vehicle for salvation.
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SPEAKER_00: Because again,
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SPEAKER_00: think,
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SPEAKER_00: those council members,
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SPEAKER_00: they could have followed the Passover protocols and regimen to a T,
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SPEAKER_00: but they'd still be guilty.
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SPEAKER_00: Wash their hands as hard as they want.
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SPEAKER_00: Wash their hands and cleanse themselves as much as they want.
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SPEAKER_00: They'd still have blood on their hands.
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SPEAKER_00: In fact, that's the very point Peter makes.
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SPEAKER_00: Go with me really quick, just so you can see this kind of play out.
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SPEAKER_00: Go with me to Acts 1.
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SPEAKER_00: You're pretty close to it if you're in John 18.
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SPEAKER_00: Flip over to Acts chapter number 2.
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SPEAKER_00: Watch what Peter does.
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SPEAKER_00: This, of course, is his sermon on the day of Pentecost.
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SPEAKER_00: And look at what he says.
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SPEAKER_00: Of course, this is Peter and his brashness.
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SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 2, look at verse 23.
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SPEAKER_00: It says, this Jesus...
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SPEAKER_00: Delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.
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SPEAKER_00: You, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
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The lawless men who are so beholden to their laws that they
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don't want to go inside.
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SPEAKER_00: Chapter 3, look at the next chapter.
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SPEAKER_00: Peter again preaching.
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SPEAKER_00: Look at verse number 13.
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SPEAKER_00: Acts 3,
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SPEAKER_00: verse 13,
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SPEAKER_00: Peter says,
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SPEAKER_00: The God of Abraham,
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SPEAKER_00: the God of Isaac,
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SPEAKER_00: and the God of Jacob,
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SPEAKER_00: the God of our fathers,
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SPEAKER_00: glorified his servant Jesus,
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SPEAKER_00: whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate.
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SPEAKER_00: So he's repeating the scene that we're just reading.
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SPEAKER_00: When he had decided to release him,
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but you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a
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murderer to be granted to
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SPEAKER_00: you,
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SPEAKER_00: Barabbas.
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SPEAKER_00: And you killed the author of life whom God raised from the dead.
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SPEAKER_00: To this we are witnesses.
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Imagine the boldness of Peter to say this to the very guys who
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know that they're guilty.
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SPEAKER_00: Despite all of their ritual,
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despite following all of what they wanted to follow to the
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letter of the law,
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SPEAKER_00: they would still be guilty.
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SPEAKER_00: One more place, Stephen, just so you get the point.
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SPEAKER_00: Perhaps you already have.
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SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 7, Stephen's sermon.
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SPEAKER_00: What is his sort of mic drop moment?
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SPEAKER_00: Well, he's calling this very same council, by the way, the Sanhedrin.
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SPEAKER_00: Notice what he calls them.
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SPEAKER_00: Imagine being called this, by the way.
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SPEAKER_00: Look at Acts chapter 7, verse 51.
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SPEAKER_00: Stephen declares, you stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and
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SPEAKER_00: And ears.
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SPEAKER_00: You always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did.
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SPEAKER_00: So do you.
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SPEAKER_00: Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?
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And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of
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the righteous one whom
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SPEAKER_00: you have now betrayed and murdered.
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SPEAKER_00: You get the point.
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SPEAKER_00: All of their ritualism, all of their following the letters of the law.
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SPEAKER_00: We can't go inside, but we still want to get this guy killed.
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SPEAKER_00: That cannot make them whole.
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SPEAKER_00: Religion by itself cannot accomplish redemption.
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SPEAKER_00: They cannot cleanse your soul.
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SPEAKER_00: It's as the Lord says through his prophet Jeremiah.
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SPEAKER_00: This is Jeremiah 2 verse 22.
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SPEAKER_00: He says this through his prophet Jeremiah.
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Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap,
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the stain of your guilt is still before me.
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It's almost as if those words could be said to these council
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members here in John chapter 18.
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SPEAKER_00: Use as much soap as you want.
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SPEAKER_00: It's not going to come out.
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SPEAKER_00: Stains are still there.
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SPEAKER_00: Stains are still on your hands.
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SPEAKER_00: You know, it's striking to me to imagine this group.
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SPEAKER_00: We don't know how many were actually there at the house.
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SPEAKER_00: The Sanhedrin had a lot of council members.
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We don't imagine that there was a dozen,
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dozens and dozens of them at the front porch of Pilate.
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SPEAKER_00: But I just can't help but picture that scene.
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Let's say there's half a dozen,
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a dozen of them,
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and they have Jesus with them.
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SPEAKER_00: They brought him here, there, and now they're finally at Pilate's house.
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SPEAKER_00: But they're on his steps.
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SPEAKER_00: They're on his front porch.
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SPEAKER_00: Hey, Pilate, come on outside.
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SPEAKER_00: We can't go inside.
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SPEAKER_00: You've got to come to us.
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SPEAKER_00: You've got to come talk to us.
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SPEAKER_00: Can you come talk to us, please?
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SPEAKER_00: We have something important that we want to talk to you about.
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SPEAKER_00: And to his credit, by the way, Pilate does that.
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SPEAKER_00: He,
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SPEAKER_00: despite the inconvenience,
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SPEAKER_00: remember it's early morning,
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SPEAKER_00: despite the inconvenience,
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Pilate rolls out of bed and he allows this plan to sort of
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unfold as it will.
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SPEAKER_00: Verse 29, back in John chapter 18.
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SPEAKER_00: So Pilate went outside to these guys who are not allowed to go inside.
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SPEAKER_00: He goes outside.
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SPEAKER_00: And said, what accusation do you bring against this man?
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SPEAKER_00: He asks a very natural question.
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You've come to me with wanting to do something to this guy you
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say is a criminal.
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SPEAKER_00: So what's the charges?
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SPEAKER_00: What's his crime?
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And I love,
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again,
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try and picture just a little bit of the dark humor here.
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SPEAKER_00: Because listen to their very unconvincing response.
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SPEAKER_00: What's his charge?
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SPEAKER_00: Well, they answered him.
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If this man were not doing evil,
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we would not have delivered him over to you.
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SPEAKER_00: They don't really answer his question.
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SPEAKER_00: They don't list law section code B. No, they just, he's evil.
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SPEAKER_00: Trust us.
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SPEAKER_00: He's a bad guy.
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SPEAKER_00: Just trust us, Pilate.
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SPEAKER_00: We don't want this guy around.
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SPEAKER_00: And Pilate's reply, his further up,
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His further reply to them tells us basically everything we need
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to know about Pilate.
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He says,
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verse 31,
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Pilate said to them,
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take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.
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SPEAKER_00: And the Jews said to him, it is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.
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SPEAKER_00: As a prefect or we could say a governor of Rome.
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SPEAKER_00: Who's been put there by Caesar.
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SPEAKER_00: Pilate had very little we could say to no interest.
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SPEAKER_00: In upholding or maintaining the laws of Judaism.
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SPEAKER_00: That didn't really matter to him.
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SPEAKER_00: This is why he is very dismissive of them.
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SPEAKER_00: And why his first impulse is just to tell them to go away.
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SPEAKER_00: Go handle this on your own.
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SPEAKER_00: This is really your area.
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SPEAKER_00: Just handle it yourselves.
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SPEAKER_00: But of course,
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SPEAKER_00: Pilate,
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SPEAKER_00: if you read a little bit about him from ancient historians,
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SPEAKER_00: they all kind of have the same sort of caricature of him.
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SPEAKER_00: He was a cold and calculating opportunistic politician.
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SPEAKER_00: Aren't they all?
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SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
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SPEAKER_00: But especially Pilate.
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SPEAKER_00: He was an antagonizer.
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SPEAKER_00: He loved to sort of antagonize those who were under him.
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SPEAKER_00: And realizing.
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SPEAKER_00: Here, we have to think about, he's realizing what the Sanhedrin is after.
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SPEAKER_00: They're after a death sentence.
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SPEAKER_00: And not just any death sentence that we're going to see.
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But he's taking the opportunity to sort of rub it in their
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faces that they are
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SPEAKER_00: still subjects of the Roman Empire.
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SPEAKER_00: They don't have the wherewithal to just do what they want.
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SPEAKER_00: Capital punishment like this is outside the purview of the council.
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SPEAKER_00: It's not lawful for us to put him to death in this manner for this way.
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SPEAKER_00: We need your approval, Pilate.
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SPEAKER_00: And you can just imagine.
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SPEAKER_00: This is just me imagining.
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But I imagine Pilate sort of grinning,
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smirking wryly and self-confidently.
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SPEAKER_00: Almost as if he wants them to admit that.
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SPEAKER_00: He wants them to admit the elephant in the room that you want Jesus dead,
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SPEAKER_00: but you can't do it by yourselves.
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SPEAKER_00: Because you can't put Jesus to death.
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SPEAKER_00: You can almost imagine Pilate saying, I want you to say it.
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SPEAKER_00: Say it.
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SPEAKER_00: Say you need me.
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But what's more,
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what this does is it tells us what the Sanhedrin is actually
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after.
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SPEAKER_00: Because they didn't just...
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SPEAKER_00: They didn't want to just get rid of Jesus.
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SPEAKER_00: They wanted to get rid of Jesus.
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SPEAKER_00: But they wanted more than just getting rid of Jesus.
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SPEAKER_00: Again, we're not going to read it.
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SPEAKER_00: But fast forward a couple of years after this moment.
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SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 7 again.
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SPEAKER_00: What does this same counsel do to Stephen?
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SPEAKER_00: They stone him to death.
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SPEAKER_00: And they don't wait for Roman approval to do that.
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SPEAKER_00: Because again, they're handling it under their laws.
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SPEAKER_00: They're handling it under their protocols.
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SPEAKER_00: Here,
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we understand that the scribes and Pharisees who are sitting on
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that council,
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SPEAKER_00: they weren't just out for blood.
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SPEAKER_00: They're out for humiliation.
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SPEAKER_00: They're out for shame.
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They're out to absolutely embarrass anyone and everyone who has
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ever associated
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SPEAKER_00: with Jesus of Nazareth.
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SPEAKER_00: He is going to be tried as a Roman traitor, an enemy of the state.
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SPEAKER_00: They wanted a legal trial.
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SPEAKER_00: They wanted to go through the process.
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One that would put a curse on whatever pathetic following that
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Jesus had acquired
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SPEAKER_00: up to that point.
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SPEAKER_00: It's sheer malevolence and hatred and vitriol.
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SPEAKER_00: It's a moment that shows us the depths of human depravity.
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SPEAKER_00: And again, don't just vilify them.
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SPEAKER_00: These are not just Disney villains in a Disney movie.
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I would imagine that none of them thought that they would have
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ever had the
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SPEAKER_00: capacity to conspire to commit murder before this moment.
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SPEAKER_00: They had been in religious schools.
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SPEAKER_00: They had been taught the Pentateuch.
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SPEAKER_00: They had put it to memory.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: And now they're sitting on this council.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: And now here they are feeling very justified.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: Right?
18:58
As they subject Jesus to the most appalling and horrific and
19:04
gruesome death ever
19:06
SPEAKER_00: conceived by human beings.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: Crucifixion.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: is the absolute worst.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: One historian says it like this pretty succinctly,
19:17
SPEAKER_00: I might add,
19:18
SPEAKER_00: that no death was more excruciating,
19:20
SPEAKER_00: more contemptible than crucifixion.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: And of course,
19:24
you might know this if you've read about that very way that
19:28
criminals were put to
19:28
SPEAKER_00: death.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: It's a death that's full of shame and ridicule and agony.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: And all of that is doubled.
19:42
tripled it's magnified by the fact that the one who is going
19:45
through all that the
19:46
one who is going through the pain and the agony and the shame
19:49
of being put to death
19:50
on a cross is the fact that now you're not just dying on a
19:53
cross your name is
19:55
cursed what does the jewish law say deuteronomy 21 cursed is
20:01
everyone who is hanged
20:02
on a tree and who who would want to affiliate or associate with
20:09
anyone who is
20:09
SPEAKER_00: cursed
20:11
SPEAKER_00: This is what they're after.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: This is what they are after.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: And the point is.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew what they are up to the whole time.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: And he let it happen anyway.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: He watched it all unfold.
20:31
He looked on in silence as all of these Sanhedrin council
20:35
members deluded and
20:36
deceived themselves into thinking that they would be on the
20:39
right side of history
20:40
SPEAKER_00: when all of this unfolded.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: He let all of those dastardly delegates do their worst.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: Knowing that.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: What they wanted.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: His death.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: is precisely what the world needed.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: Again, John 18, look at verse 32, because I love this.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: All of this is occurring.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: Again, all of the scandal, the shenanigans, the corruption...
21:13
SPEAKER_00: The self-righteousness of all of these guys that evening.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: And look at verse 32.
21:18
And this was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show
21:24
by what kind of
21:25
SPEAKER_00: death he was going to die.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: This is not the first time, by the way, John has used this phrase.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: Flip back with me to John chapter number 12.
21:38
Folks from Stonington might be aware that this is our text from
21:41
this past Sunday.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: Palm Sunday, the triumphal entry.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: And right after that moment, look at what Jesus, look at what happens.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse number 27.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is talking to the crowds.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: The crowds that just shouted Hosanna to him.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: Same crowds, by the way, that on Good Friday shouted crucify.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: And look at verse 27.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: Verse 27.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, now is my soul troubled.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: And what shall I say?
22:08
SPEAKER_00: Father, save me from this hour.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: But for this purpose, I have come to this hour.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: Father, glorify your name.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: And that a voice came from heaven.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: I have glorified it and I will glorify it again.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: And the crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: And others said, an angel has spoken to him.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus answered, this voice has come for your sake, not mine.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: Now is the judgment of this world.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: Now will the ruler of this world be cast out.
22:37
And I,
22:37
when I am lifted up from the earth,
22:39
will draw all people to myself.
22:42
And he said this,
22:44
notice,
22:45
he said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: So now, by John's and Jesus' own assessment...
23:01
SPEAKER_00: All of these events that are unfolding,
23:03
SPEAKER_00: they're unfolding according,
23:05
SPEAKER_00: not to happenstance,
23:06
SPEAKER_00: not to chaos,
23:07
SPEAKER_00: not to random chance.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: This isn't circumstantial.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: All of these things are unfolding and unraveling according,
23:13
SPEAKER_00: we can rob Peter's words,
23:15
SPEAKER_00: according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: Peter says that.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: This is what is so important to keep in mind,
23:25
SPEAKER_00: especially as all of these events just seemed chaos.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: It just seemed chaotic.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: It seemed so circumstantial.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: They're all just kind of happening.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: And yet before his death and after his resurrection,
23:39
SPEAKER_00: we are told over and over again the necessity of the cross.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: It's not an accident.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: It's a necessity.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: The kind of death he was going to die.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: Of course, it refers to that announcement.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: That announcement that soon, soon I am going to be lifted up.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: Which is a euphemism for the cross.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: A euphemism for being put on a Roman tree.
24:06
So we're made to understand that Jesus understood how all of
24:12
this was going to end for him.
24:14
He understood every single moment of his life,
24:17
he understood what was looming.
24:20
He wasn't caught off guard when the most religious organization
24:25
of his day
24:26
SPEAKER_00: conspired to get rid of him.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't surprised by the plot to have him crucified.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: From the moment he was born,
24:37
he knew that his life would end with nails through his wrists
24:42
and through his feet
24:43
SPEAKER_00: and a crown of thorns put on his head.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: The cross was always in the cards.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: Flip back.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll just read it really quick.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, remember John chapter 3?
24:55
He's talking to Nicodemus,
24:57
a Pharisee,
24:58
a member of the Sanhedrin,
25:00
by the way.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: What does he tell him?
25:03
SPEAKER_00: John 3, 14.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: And as Moses lifted up the serpent.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: That's Numbers 21.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: As Moses lifted up the serpent of the wilderness.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: So must.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: Must is a good word.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: You should underline it.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: Must the son of man be lifted up.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: That whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: That word must be.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: It means that it's necessary.
25:31
It is a right and a proper and it is a divine inevitability
25:37
that all of this should happen.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: Flip back to the gospel of Luke and look at chapter number 24.
25:46
Which,
25:47
by the way,
25:47
just so happens to be my favorite chapter in all of scripture.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: And notice how often this word appears.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: Luke 24, look at verse 7.
25:58
SPEAKER_00: The angels are talking to the women at the empty tomb.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: Look at what the angel says.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: I'll read verse 6.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: He is not here but has risen.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee?
26:12
SPEAKER_00: That the Son of Man must.
26:16
It was necessary that he be delivered into the hands of sinful
26:20
men and be crucified.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: And on the third day rise.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: Must.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 26.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: Verse 26.
26:29
One of my favorite scenes,
26:30
the scene with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus schools them quite literally on how to read the Bible.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: And he says,
26:39
SPEAKER_00: verse 26,
26:39
was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
26:46
and enter into his
26:47
SPEAKER_00: glory?
26:48
SPEAKER_00: Wasn't it?
26:49
SPEAKER_00: It was a must.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: It was a necessity that all of this should happen.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: Verse 46, jump down.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: Now the risen Lord is with his apostles.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse, well, I'll read verse 45 to get into it.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: It says,
27:04
SPEAKER_00: then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them,
27:11
SPEAKER_00: thus it is written that the Christ should,
27:13
SPEAKER_00: actually the Greek word is better,
27:15
SPEAKER_00: that Christ must suffer.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: And on the third day rise from the dead, must suffer.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: It was a necessity.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: In other words,
27:29
SPEAKER_00: what seemed so dour and dark and dismal,
27:34
SPEAKER_00: what seemed so unfortunate,
27:37
SPEAKER_00: it was not an accident.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't an accident by any stretch of the imagination.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: God the Father,
27:43
SPEAKER_00: God the Son,
27:43
and God the Holy Spirit knew that humanity's rebellion would
27:47
lead precisely to
27:49
SPEAKER_00: this.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: And so in the depths of his wisdom and in the depths of his grace,
27:56
SPEAKER_00: God, who is three in one, allowed all of these events to unfold.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: So why?
28:02
SPEAKER_00: So that his son could become the curse for us.
28:07
Galatians 3.13,
28:07
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a
28:13
curse for us.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: On Good Friday, we gaze on the one on the cross.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: And as we do so, we are made to see who?
28:25
SPEAKER_00: Him.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: The founder and the perfecter of our faith.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: The very one,
28:31
SPEAKER_00: as the writer of Hebrews says,
28:33
who endured from sinners such hostility and wrath and conflict
28:37
against himself.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: Why?
28:39
SPEAKER_00: So that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted, he says.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: There he is.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: On the cross, the guiltless one.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: Being bathed in your guilt and mine.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: The sinless one becoming our sin.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: And the holy one, he's there dying in agony and shame.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: There's your savior.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: And the point is, this is what your sin demanded.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: Nothing less than this could lead to salvation.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: As we've seen, ritual can't clean you up.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: It can't remove your guilt.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: You can't be holy enough on your own.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: You can't be good enough on your own.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: You don't have the capacity to make yourself right with God.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: No amount of ritual will work.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: No amount of religion.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: No amount of doing that's not powerful enough to redeem you.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: Only,
29:36
SPEAKER_00: only the stoop of God in the flesh,
29:41
SPEAKER_00: willingly surrendering himself to death,
29:44
SPEAKER_00: only that will do.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: Only that will cut it.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: Our only hope is this that is occurring right in front of our very eyes.
29:53
Our Lord Jesus giving himself over to death to deliver us from
30:00
the present evil
30:01
SPEAKER_00: age,
30:01
SPEAKER_00: Paul says in Galatians.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: This is how he is authoring our redemption.
30:07
This is how he is making a way for you and I to be saved by
30:13
exposing himself to the
30:15
SPEAKER_00: grief and the affliction of the cross.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: He knew what they were after and he let them do it anyways.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: Because he knew that he was going to bear all of our griefs.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: He was going there to carry all of our sorrows.
30:32
He was going there,
30:33
as it says in Isaiah,
30:34
to be crushed for your iniquities and for mine.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: Why?
30:40
SPEAKER_00: As the prophet says, so that by his wounds we might be healed.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wasn't the victim of circumstance.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: This didn't just happen.
30:55
As that verse in Galatians,
30:57
this is Galatians 1.4,
30:58
you know what it says?
31:01
That Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins to deliver us from
31:05
the present evil age
31:07
SPEAKER_00: according to the will of God our Father.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: According to his will.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: Or as the prophet Isaiah in chapter 53 says the same thing.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: He says, quote, it was the will of the Lord to crush him.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: So that out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied.
31:32
The Sanhedrin,
31:33
that council,
31:36
they might have thought that they were winning that night.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: Getting Pilate's stamp of approval.
31:41
SPEAKER_00: They might have even did a little fist bump.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:44
They might have cheered as their plans are coming together to
31:47
get rid of this Jesus
31:49
SPEAKER_00: of Nazareth who is causing them so much headache.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: And the devil too, he surely fist bumped all of his minions.
31:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Jesus is being put to death.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: But the only one who triumphed on Good Friday,
32:06
SPEAKER_00: the day that we now call good,
32:07
is the one who was there heaving and bleeding and dying for the
32:12
sins of the world.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: He's the one who's triumphing.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: He's the one who's winning.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: Even as he's being defeated.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: Every nail.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: Every taunt.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: Every agonizing breath that Jesus took.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: What was happening?
32:25
SPEAKER_00: It was the will of God being carried out for you.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: For the sake of his people.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: So that by his wounds you might be healed forever.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: It was all for the glory of God and for the good of you and me.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: For you as you are,
32:46
SPEAKER_00: even with all of your failures,
32:48
SPEAKER_00: all of your guilt,
32:49
SPEAKER_00: all of your regrets,
32:50
SPEAKER_00: all of your baggage.
32:54
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have a lot of that.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: All of your sins that stick so closely.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: For you, just as you are, Good Friday has a message for you.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: You cannot carry all of that by yourself.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: You weren't meant to.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: You can't forgive yourself.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: You can't clean yourself up.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: You can't, but Christ can.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: And he did when he went willingly to the cross with you in mind.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: The son of man must be delivered up.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: He must be lifted up.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: And he has been.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: He's been lifted up on the cross and he's been put in a tomb.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: And now we are certain that there's nothing left for us to prove or earn.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did it all.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: It is finished, he said there.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: It is finished.
33:53
SPEAKER_00: So now we, because of that, we look to him.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: And we cling to him.
33:59
And trust that everything that was necessary for your salvation
34:04
and for mine.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: Has already been done.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: By the one who went to the cross for us.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: Let us bow our heads and close our eyes as we pray.