Latest / The Bible Study Podcast / #955 - Luke 20:1-26 – Trying to Trap Jesus

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#955 - Luke 20:1-26 – Trying to Trap Jesus · The Bible Study Podcast

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio The Bible Study Podcast, Episode nine and fifty five. Today,
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  Speaker 1: The Bible Study Podcast continues the study of the Gospel
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  Speaker 1: of Luke. As we start chapter twenty. Welcome to the
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  Speaker 1: Bible Study Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. Chapter twenty.
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  Speaker 1: Here we're in the middle of Holy Week, that week
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  Speaker 1: in between Palm Sunday and Good Friday, and we'll continue
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  Speaker 1: that right after a word from this sponsor. Verse one,
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  Speaker 1: the authority of Jesus questioned One day, as Jesus was
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  Speaker 1: teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the
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  Speaker 1: good News, the chief priests and the teachers of the law,
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  Speaker 1: together with the elders, came up to him. Tell us
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  Speaker 1: by what authority you are doing these things? They said,
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  Speaker 1: who gave you this authority? He replied, I will also
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  Speaker 1: ask you a question. Tell me John's back. Was it
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  Speaker 1: from heaven or of human origin? They discussed it among
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  Speaker 1: themselves and said, if we say from heaven, he will
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  Speaker 1: ask why didn't you believe him? But if we say
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  Speaker 1: of human origin, all the people will stone us, because
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  Speaker 1: they are persuaded that John was a prophet. So they answered,
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  Speaker 1: we don't know where it was from. Jesus said, neither
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  Speaker 1: will I tell you by what authority I am doing
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  Speaker 1: these things. So Jesus has a way of turning things
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  Speaker 1: around on people a couple different famous times, and this
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  Speaker 1: is one of those where he turns their question into
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  Speaker 1: a question that they cannot answer. And it's not that
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  Speaker 1: they don't have an answer for it, it's they're very
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  Speaker 1: careful what they say because of how people will reply.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if you know, but this it strikes
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  Speaker 1: me as their politicians, if you will, there are people
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  Speaker 1: with power who are trying to hold onto power, and
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  Speaker 1: so they're saying they don't want to say something that's
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  Speaker 1: not popular, even if it's what they believe is true,
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  Speaker 1: because it would be a threat to themselves, even if
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  Speaker 1: the people wouldn't actually stone them. They don't want to
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  Speaker 1: lose face with the people. And that is a difficult
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  Speaker 1: position to be in. And I don't know if you
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  Speaker 1: have found yourself in that situation where the truth is here,
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  Speaker 1: but you say something else. I remember being at work
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  Speaker 1: one time and we went off and we did a
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  Speaker 1: two day seminar, a two day seminar and how we
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  Speaker 1: might work better as a team at the particular company.
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  Speaker 1: I was at and I won't rat out of the
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  Speaker 1: particular company, it's one you've heard of. And the person
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  Speaker 1: who was leading the seminar I thought had some good
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  Speaker 1: things to say in terms of how we should behave
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  Speaker 1: towards one another and how we could be a better
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  Speaker 1: team of managers at this company. And then the end
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  Speaker 1: of the two days, we went around the table. It
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  Speaker 1: was a fairly large table, and the question was, how
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  Speaker 1: is this going to change things when we get back,
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  Speaker 1: And as one person after another said, well, we're going
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  Speaker 1: to go back and we're going to change the whole company.
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  Speaker 1: And we were just a division, so it wasn't even
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  Speaker 1: that we had interactions with everybody in the company. And
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  Speaker 1: as it got closer and closer to me, I thought, well,
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  Speaker 1: that is not what I think is true. Came my turn.
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  Speaker 1: I said, well, we haven't shown that we can do
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  Speaker 1: what we have talked about in this particular webinar, so
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  Speaker 1: I think it might be a little premature to say
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  Speaker 1: that we're going to change the whole company. I didn't
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  Speaker 1: think that that was particularly controversial. It was certainly what
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  Speaker 1: I thought was true, but I was surprised the number
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  Speaker 1: of people who came up to me afterwards and said,
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  Speaker 1: I can't believe you had the guts to say, basically,
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  Speaker 1: to not go along with the party line. And I
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  Speaker 1: wonder how many times we do that, And I see
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  Speaker 1: the chief priests and the elders doing that here, and
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  Speaker 1: I don't think it actually comes from a position of strength.
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  Speaker 1: Continuing on the parable of the tenants, he went on
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  Speaker 1: to tell people this parable a band planet a vineyard,
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  Speaker 1: rented it to some farmers and went away for a
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  Speaker 1: long time. At harvest time, he sent a servant to
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  Speaker 1: the tenants so they would give him some of the
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  Speaker 1: fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and
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  Speaker 1: sent him away empty handed. He sent another servant, but
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  Speaker 1: that one they also beat and treated shamefully and sent
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  Speaker 1: away empty handed. He sent a third and they wounded
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  Speaker 1: him and threw him out. Then the owner of the
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  Speaker 1: vineyard said, what shall I do. I will send my son,
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  Speaker 1: whom I love. Perhaps they will respect him. But when
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  Speaker 1: the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. This
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  Speaker 1: is the heir. They said, let's kill him and the
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  Speaker 1: inheritance will be ours. So they threw him out of
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  Speaker 1: the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner
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  Speaker 1: of the vineyard do to them, He will come and
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  Speaker 1: kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. When
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  Speaker 1: the people heard this, they said, God forbid. Jesus looked
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  Speaker 1: directly at them and asked, then, what is the meaning
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  Speaker 1: of that which is written? The stone that the builders
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  Speaker 1: rejected has become the cornerstone. Everyone who falls on that
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  Speaker 1: stone will be broken to pieces. Anyone on whom it
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  Speaker 1: falls will be crushed. The teachers of the law and
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  Speaker 1: the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately,
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  Speaker 1: because they knew he had spoken this parable against them,
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  Speaker 1: But they were afraid of the people. So again we
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  Speaker 1: have the teachers of the law who are constrained by
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  Speaker 1: their fear. Here. But Jesus is talking about real estate.
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  Speaker 1: He's talking about a vineyard that somebody rents out, and
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  Speaker 1: he rents it out to some bad people who are
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  Speaker 1: beating up the people. He sends to collect the rent,
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  Speaker 1: right since one sends another sense a third and they're
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  Speaker 1: not just treating them badly, not just being rude, but
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  Speaker 1: they're beating them up and injuring them, And so he
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  Speaker 1: sends his son, and these evil tenants actually kill the son,
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  Speaker 1: thinking that they will inherit the vineyard, And of course
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  Speaker 1: they won't. They're going to die, right the owner of
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  Speaker 1: the vineyard, he will come and he will have those
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  Speaker 1: tenants killed. Now, what he is talking about is Jerusalem
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  Speaker 1: and Judah and the prophets and himself. And I don't
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  Speaker 1: know how much the teachers of the law understand the specifics,
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  Speaker 1: but they know that he's talking about them. The stone
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  Speaker 1: the builders rejected will become a cornerstone. The one who
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  Speaker 1: they are rejecting, who is him, will become a cornerstone.
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  Speaker 1: But remember this is the same Jesus who in the
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  Speaker 1: last chapter was looking on Jerusalem and was mourning for it,
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  Speaker 1: knowing that it was going to be destroyed. Jerusalem, how
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  Speaker 1: you have killed the prophets. You've killed the prophets that
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  Speaker 1: were sent to you to get you to repent, and
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  Speaker 1: now you're even going to kill the heir. And this
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  Speaker 1: is almost a summary of this Holy Week, of all
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  Speaker 1: that's going to happen. Here is in this story here
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  Speaker 1: both the destruction of Jerusalem after Jesus' death, but also
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  Speaker 1: this rejection of the one whom God has said. And
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  Speaker 1: then one last story that we will do today, and
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  Speaker 1: that is paying taxes to Caesar, keeping a close watch
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  Speaker 1: on him. They sent spies who pretended to be sincere.
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  Speaker 1: They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so
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  Speaker 1: they might hand him over to the power and authority
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  Speaker 1: of the governor. So the spies questioned him, teacher, we
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  Speaker 1: know that you speak and teach what is right, and
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  Speaker 1: that you do not show partiality, but teach the way
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  Speaker 1: of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right
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  Speaker 1: to pay taxes to Caesar or not? He saw through
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  Speaker 1: their duplicity and said, to them, show me a denarius
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  Speaker 1: whose image and inscription are on it Caesar's, they replied.
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  Speaker 1: He said to them, then give back to Caesar what
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  Speaker 1: is Caesar's and to God what is God's. They were
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  Speaker 1: unable to trap him in what he had said. They're
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  Speaker 1: in public, and astonished by his answer, they became silent.
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  Speaker 1: There's numerous times that they're trying to do the same
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  Speaker 1: thing to Jesus that he has done to them, in
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  Speaker 1: the sense that they want Jesus to either get in
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  Speaker 1: trouble with the people or in trouble with the law.
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  Speaker 1: They want him to say something that will be revolutionary,
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  Speaker 1: as the people suspect he is, so that they can
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  Speaker 1: have him arrested. And so the natural thing here is
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  Speaker 1: will ask them is it right to pay taxes to
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  Speaker 1: this occupying country Rome? Because clearly if he says yes,
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  Speaker 1: the people will hate him and then we can get him.
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  Speaker 1: Or if he says no, then the Romans will hate
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  Speaker 1: him and the Romans will get him theirselves. So this
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  Speaker 1: is something he can't possibly get out of, is what
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  Speaker 1: they're thinking. And yet he answered with wisdom, give to
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  Speaker 1: Caesar what is Caesar? And to God what is God's
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  Speaker 1: and they can't trap. There's still going to be some
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  Speaker 1: more questions as we continue on with this chapter and
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  Speaker 1: in this week before we get to Good Friday, but
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  Speaker 1: we're going to end right there and continue with the
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  Speaker 1: rest next week. So with that we'll end this episode
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  Speaker 1: of the Bible Study Podcast. If you have any questions,
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  Speaker 1: send an email to Chris two exit gmail dot com,
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  Speaker 1: or better yet, leave a comment on this episode at
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  Speaker 1: the Bible Study Podcast dot com. And is always thanks
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  Speaker 1: so much for listening. I want to take just a
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