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The Sovereign Preparation for the Final Passover (Matthew 26:17-19) · Reformed Thinking

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So imagine trying to book AVIP fully catered private dining
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room in Paris. OK.
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But you're trying to do this on the very day of the Olympic gold
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medal match. Oh man, that's just a nightmare
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right there. Every hotel is booked, I mean
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every single restaurant is overflowing and you have 0
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money, no reservation at all. Yeah, good luck with that.
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And to make the situation, you know, completely impossible,
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let's add that there are political assassins actively
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hunting you in the streets. Wow.
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You can't be seen. You can't be heard.
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You just have to somehow make this dinner happen.
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That is, yeah, that is quite the setup.
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But I mean, if you are reading the historical accounts of 1st
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century Jerusalem, this is the sheer logistical nightmare
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taking place in Matthew chapter 26.
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Yeah, there really is. Because when you look at the
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final hours of a condemned man, you expect chaos, right?
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You expect a ship caught in a hurricane?
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Sure, absolutely. Typically, you know the prisoner
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swept away by the current of the state, just reacting to forces
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entirely outside their control. Right, because the authorities
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possess the swords, the gavels, the chains, the temple guards,
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all of it. Yeah, they hold all the cards.
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Right. The victim in those historical
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scenarios is really nothing more than a passive participant in
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their own destruction. They just get crushed under the
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overwhelming weight of the governing authorities.
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But then you step into the text of the final hours of Jesus of
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Nazareth. Yeah, and that state machinery
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is just suddenly broken. Yeah, completely shattered.
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We are looking at a historical and theological landscape that
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presents this massive paradox because, you know, the world
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looks at the final hours in Jesus and sees a tragic,
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helpless victim. Right, someone swept away by a
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brutal Roman execution and a clandestine Jewish conspiracy.
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But the text tells an entirely different story.
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Welcome to reform thinking. Today we are going on a deep
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dive into 3 brief verses. Matthew chapter 26, verses 17
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through 19. Just three verses, but they
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carry so much weight. Massive weight because these
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verses detail the preparation for the final Passover and what
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we will uncover is that Christ was not reacting to human whims.
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No, not at all. He was the sovereign master,
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dictating the microscopic logistics of his own death.
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Yeah, and the narrative here upends all our natural
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assumptions about who is actually holding the reins of
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the events unfolding in Jerusalem.
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You. Really have to pay attention to
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the details. Right when you slow down and
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investigate, you realize this text isn't, you know, just a
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filler scene before the passion narrative.
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Like a transition shot in a movie or something.
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Yeah, precisely. It is a brilliant display of
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absolute majesty in the midst of extreme humiliation.
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So we are going to look at how a seemingly mundane inquiry about
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a dining room secures the inauguration of the New
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Covenant. It's going to be fascinating.
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Let us unpack the historical context first, because we really
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can't grasp the scale of these verses without understanding the
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geographical and political situation of 1st century
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Jerusalem during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
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Yeah. Context is everything here.
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So set the scene for the listener.
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What does this city look like, sound like, and smell like in
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this specific moment? Well, to understand the sheer
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impossibility of what Jesus is orchestrating, you have to look
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at the historical data. OK, what do we have?
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We have records from the 1st century Jewish historian
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Josephus right, and he documented the demographics of
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Jerusalem during these mandatory Pilgrim festivals and.
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What was the baseline like on a normal Tuesday in October?
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Normally, Jerusalem was a city of roughly 50,000 inhabitants.
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OK 50,000. Right.
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It was a bustling ancient city with narrow streets and heavy
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trade, but it was manageable. 50,000 people is a crowd, but it
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functions. Sure.
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However, during the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
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Josephus notes that the population swelled
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astronomically. How?
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Much are we talking about here? We are talking about upwards of
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two and a half million pilgrims. Wait, two and a half million?
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Yeah, from 50,000 to 2 and a half million.
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That's insane. It is wild they were crowding
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into the city proper and the surrounding hillside camps.
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Two and a half million people packing into an ancient walled
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city with no modern infrastructure.
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I mean, that means every single inn, every guest room, every
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courtyard and every spare patch of ground is occupied.
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Oh, the city was practically bursting at the seams.
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And remember the primary purpose of this festival.
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The sacrifices. Right, The sacrifices, these two
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and a half million pilgrims are bringing hundreds of thousands
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of lambs into this city. Oh man, the noise must have been
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deafening. Absolutely.
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The noise of bleeding animals, the dense crowds, the smoke from
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the altar fires and the logistical strain on the city's
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water sanitation systems would have been suffocating.
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I can't even imagine the smell. Yeah, and the Temple Mount would
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have been literally a river of blood as the priests worked
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continuously to process the Passover lambs.
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O in the middle of all that chaos, finding a vacant
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furnished upper room in Jerusalem on the specific day of
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the Passover preparation, without prior rigorous and
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expensive arrangements. It was an absolute logistical
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impossibility. Which brings up a massive point
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from our source material regarding the financial status
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of Jesus. Right, a very necessary point to
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clarify. Because the sources highlight
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that Christ possessed no earthly estate.
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He owned no property at all. None.
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She had nowhere to lay his head. Right.
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And he had to borrow a room for this monumental final meal.
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This directly confronts and refutes modern claims made by
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prosperity preachers who suggest that Jesus operated with vast
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financial resources. Yeah, the source text is very
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explicit about his financial poverty.
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The prosperity gospel claims that Jesus lived a life of
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affluence, but the biblical narrative utterly rejects that
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premise completely. In his earthly ministry, the Son
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of Man relied on the hospitality of others.
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He embraced poverty to secure the salvation of his people.
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So he didn't just walk in and drop a bag of gold on the table
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to rent this room. Out.
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No, not at all. He didn't purchase this room
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with gold or leverage A wealthy estate.
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He secured it by a divine decree.
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And the type of room itself is significant, right?
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The text specifies an upper room.
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Yes, the Greek term is catalima, or an upper room, which was an
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architectural luxury so well in ancient Near Eastern homes, an
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upper room was often built on the flat roof of a house.
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It offered a breeze. It offered privacy away from the
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noise of the street. Which, if two and a half million
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people, you would desperately need.
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Right. It was reserved for honored
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guests, So for a penniless itinerant teacher to secure one
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at the peak of the festival requires something far beyond
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human planning. OK, so we have a desperately
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overcrowded city and a penniless teacher, but let us add gasoline
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to this fire. Let's good.
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Let us look at the threat level, because this isn't just a busy
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holiday weekend. This is a highly volatile
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security situation. The sociopolitical tension is
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off the charts. You have Pontius Pilate and the
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Roman occupiers on high alert. Where was pilot normally
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stationed? Pilot would normally travel from
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his comfortable headquarters out in Sugeria Maritima down to
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Jerusalem specifically for this festival.
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Just for crowd control. Basically, he stationed himself
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in the Antonia Fortress, which physically overlooked the temple
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courts. So he is literally looking down
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at the crowds. Right.
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The Romans knew that Zealot uprisings and rebellions
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frequently ignited during these nationalistic festivals.
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Because the Jews are celebrating their deliverance from Egypt,
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they are celebrating freedom from a previous empire.
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Precisely when Jewish fervor was at its absolute peak,
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remembering their historical deliverance from Egypt, the
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Romans had their swords drawn. They were ready to crush any
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hint of an insurrection. So you have the Roman military
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just waiting for someone to light a match.
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Exactly. And the threat is not just the
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Romans. You have internal threats coming
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from the highest levels of the Jewish religious establishment.
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Oh, the Jewish religious elite, the Pharisees, the Sadducees and
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the ruling Sanhedrin. They are actively, venomously
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conspiring to murder Jesus. So the atmosphere in Jerusalem
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is thick with espionage, political maneuvering and
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visceral hatred. Yeah, they want him dead, but
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they're terrified of the crowds. Because a lot of those pilgrims
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still view Jesus as a popular prophet.
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Right, so they need a quiet, secluded place to arrest him
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without triggering a riot that would bring those Roman swords
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down on all of their heads. Brings us to the ticking clock,
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the immediate visceral crisis happening right off screen.
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Judas Iscariot has just made a deal.
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The crisis is incredibly immediate.
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Judas has just contracted with the chief priest to hand Jesus
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over. And the price they agreed upon
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is 30 pieces of silver. Yeah, 30 pieces of silver.
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Right. Let's stop right there, because
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the significance of that specific amount is staggering.
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30 pieces of silver is not just a random number Judas
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negotiated. No, it's highly specific.
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What does that mean in the historical context of the Old
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Testament law? Who under the Mosaic Law,
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specifically in Exodus chapter 2130, pieces of silver was the
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legal compensation paid to the owner of a slave if that slave
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was gored to death by a neighbor's ox?
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Wow. So it was the price of a dead,
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mangled slave. Yes, that is the insulting,
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degrading value the religious leaders placed on the Son of
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God. And Judas accepted it.
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He did, and now Judas is desperately looking for a
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clandestine opportunity to fulfill his end of the bargain.
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He needs to hand Jesus over, away from the sympathetic
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crowds. So Judas is literally standing
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right there, blending in with the disciples, waiting for the
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itinerary. Just waiting.
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He is waiting to hear where they're going to eat so he can
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slip away, run to the temple guard and give them the
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coordinates for the arrest. The tension is sufficient.
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You have Roman swords, religious assassins, a traitor in the
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inner circle, and a city of millions.
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It's a powder keg. This is the precise context in
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which we must read Matthew chapter 26.
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So if the city is a powder keg and Judas is holding the match,
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why doesn't the explosion happen on the Sanhedrin's timeline?
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That's the big question. Because when you look at the
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literary structure of Matthew 26, the author sets up a massive
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clash of decrees. The immediate literary context
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of Matthew 26 is a masterful, divinely orchestrated display of
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sovereignty violently juxtaposed against the darkest depths of
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human wickedness. Walk us through that
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juxtaposition. Well, the chapter opens with
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Jesus explicitly predicting his own crucifixion.
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He says you know that after two days the Passover is coming and
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the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.
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So he anchors the precise timeline of his death to the
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Passover feast. He makes a definitive
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declaration about when the event will occur.
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But then, in sharp contrast, the camera pans over to the Palace
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of Caiaphas. The high priest.
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Right. The religious leaders are having
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a secret high level level meeting and they explicitly
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scheme to arrest him by stealth, stating not during the feast
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lest there be an uproar among the people.
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Notice the stark contrast between these two decrees.
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It's. Huge The enemies of Christ plan
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to avoid the feast at all costs to prevent a riot.
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But Christ decreed that his execution would happen precisely
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on the feast to fulfill the Old Testament typology.
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Yeah, and here's where the natural tension arises.
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Right, because if the Sanhedrin has the Temple guards, the
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political leverage, the financial resources, and the
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weapons, how is it that a penniless itinerant teacher
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dictates the actual schedule of his own execution?
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Exactly. From a human perspective,
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Caiaphas has all the political capital.
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Why does Caiaphas lose this scheduling conflict?
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Yeah. How does that happen?
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The answer lies in divine Providence.
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Christ's sovereign decree prevailed over the schemes of
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the religious elite. So the victorious decree does
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not belong to the high Priest in Jerusalem.
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No, it belongs to the great High Priest of Heaven.
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God's redemptive plan cannot be thwarted, delayed, or
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rescheduled by human plotting. The Sanhedrin wanted a quiet
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execution after the pilgrims went home.
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And Jesus decreed a public execution during the feast to
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demonstrate that he is the true Passover lamb.
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The decree of Jesus completely crushed the strategic plans of
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the Sanhedrin. And the narrative is structured
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so brilliantly around this theme of preparation.
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There is a narrative symmetry here that is impossible to
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ignore. You have Judas preparing to
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betray the Lord. You have the unnamed woman at
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Bethany with her alabaster flask preparing Christ's body for
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burial. And now the disciples are
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preparing the Passover. Every single actor on the stage
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is moving toward a cosmic collision.
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It is a complete, tightly constructed narrative block.
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The author deliberately transitions the reader from the
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public ministry into this intense, highly private setting.
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Judas prepares treachery. Christ prepares redemption.
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Let us get into the actual text of verse 17.
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The disciples come to Jesus with an inquiry.
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They ask, where will you have us prepare for you to eat the
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Passover? The Greek verb used there for
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prepare is hetoimazo. It is a crucial thematic word
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that indicates readiness and subjection.
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What's the significance of them asking rather than telling?
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Notice what they do not say. They do not say we found a great
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place, let's go there. They do not presume to choose
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the location. So they recognize his absolute
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authority over their logistics. Right, they are entirely
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subjected to His will. That Jesus answers them in verse
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18 with a command, go into the city to a certain man.
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We have to pause on that phrase a certain man, because the
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original Greek language here does something very specific.
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Yes, it does. The Greek word used here is
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Dina. It translates as a certain one
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or so and so. So and so that's really vague.
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What makes this fascinating is that it is highly unusual.
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In fact, this is the only occurrence of the word dena in
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the entire New Testament corpus. Wait, stop right there.
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I have to push back on this. You are saying Jesus is
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orchestrating a secret drop off to avoid Judas?
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Yes, but Jesus is God. He has all authority.
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If he wants to eat uninterrupted, why play this
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cloak and dagger spy game with a cryptic so and so address?
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That's a fair question. Couldn't he just miraculously
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blind Judas or freeze the Roman guards?
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Why rely on this secretive logistical maneuvering?
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That is a fantastic question because it gets to the core of
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how Christ operates as the mediator.
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OK, unback that. Christ is indeed God, but he is
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also truly manned, fulfilling the law on behalf of humanity.
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He does not use His divine attributes to cheat his own
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human suffering or bypass the necessity of walking through
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human history through the avenues of normal Providence.
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Has to play by the rules of humanity, essentially.
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Right. He must actively obey the Law,
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which includes observing the Passover.
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He uses his omniscience to guide his disciples, but he does not
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blast away every obstacle with raw divine interference.
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Because if he says the name out loud in front of the group,
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Judas has his window. Precisely by withholding the
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man's name, he keeps the location absolutely secret from
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Judas until the last possible second, utilizing Providence and
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human obedience. Because if Jesus says go to the
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house assignment, the Tanner on the West side of the city, Judas
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simply slips away, runs to the chief priest and says I had the
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location send the guards. Exactly the Last Supper would be
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rated before the bread was even broken.
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This masterful maneuver using this cryptic instruction ensures
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the Last Supper, the institution of the New Covenant, and the
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final high priestly discourse in John chapters 13 through 17 can
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proceed completely uninterrupted.
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This specific moment put something massive on display
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regarding the nature of Christ, the theological concept of the
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hypostatic union. It really does.
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Unpack the how and why of this concept for us, because we see
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it happening right here in a conversation about booking A
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room. The hypostatic union refers to
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the two distinct natures of Christ, His true humanity and
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His absolute deity, united in one person without mixture,
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confusion, separation, or division.
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And we see both natures active here.
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In this passage we see both blazing forth simultaneously.
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In his humanity. Jesus has a physical need.
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He requires a physical room to eat a meal.
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He experiences genuine hunger, right?
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Furthermore, he is only hours away from agonizing physical
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death. His human body will bleed,
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suffer, and die. He feels the very real human
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dread of the impending cross. That is the human side, the
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physical limitation and the impending suffering.
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But then we see the deity operating in the exact same
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moment. In his deity, he demonstrates
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unmitigated omniscience. He knows the exact movements,
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the exact chores and the exact location of an unnamed man in a
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chaotic city of millions. It's like he has a satellite
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view of the entire city. Yeah, and in the parallel
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accounts in Mark and Luke, Jesus tells them they will meet a man
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carrying a jar of water. Which was unusual, right?
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Very carrying water was traditionally women's work,
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making this man highly identifiable in the crowd.
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He knows the man has a furnished upper room.
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He commands the unseen circumstances from afar.
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So this is not a lucky guess. No, this is the omniscience of
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the Creator knowing the exact state of His creation.
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The tension there is staggering. You have the agonizing tension
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of Jesus's humanity knowing the pain of the cross via his
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omniscience, yet purposefully walking into it anyway.
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It is incredibly intense. He is hungry, Yeah.
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He's omniscient. He is about to be arrested, yet
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he is commanding the city. That leads us right into the
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message he tells the disciples to deliver to this unnamed man.
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Right, the message is key. Jesus says my time is at hand.
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Let's look at the theology of time here, because he's not just
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talking about the dinner hour. The concept of time in the
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biblical text is vastly different from how we often
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perceive it today. You know.
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I was trying to think of how to explain this distinction to you,
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the listener. It is the difference between
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checking your watch to see the passing minutes, just the
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cantical ticking of the clock versus the moment a judge
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strikes a gavel in a courtroom to deliver a verdict.
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Oh, that is a phenomenal analogy.
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Because 1 is just tracking seconds, right?
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But the other is a singular, decisive, world altering event.
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The gavel drops and reality changes entirely.
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The gavel drops and reality changes, and the Greek text
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actually backs up your gavel analogy perfectly.
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Really. Yeah, when Jesus says my time is
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at hand, he does not use the word Kronos.
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Kronos refers to passing chronological time, the ticking
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of the clock you mentioned. So he's not saying it's 6000PM,
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no. Instead, he uses the word
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Kairos. Kairos a completely different
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category of time. Yes, Kairos, this word denotes A
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divinely appointed epoch. It signifies A decisive crisis
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in redemptive history. A moment decreed before the
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foundation of the world. Exactly.
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Throughout the gospel accounts, Jesus repeatedly says my hour
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has not yet come. He slips through hostile crowds,
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crowds. He evades premature arrest
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because the Kairos had not arrived.
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But now the king issues the final decree.
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My Kairos is near the cross is not a tragic accident, it is the
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apex of the Divine Kairos. If this is the Kairos, the
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appointed epoch, we have to look at what is actually being
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fulfilled in this upper room. We are moving from shadow to
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substance. That's a massive.
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Trace that redemptive historical progression for us, going all
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the way back to Egypt. Well, to grasp the magnitude of
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this Passover meal, we have to look backward. 1500 Years to
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Exodus Chapter 12. OK, take us there.
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On the night of the final plague in Egypt, the Lord commanded the
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Israelites to select a spotless lamb, slaughter it, and apply
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its blood to the doorposts and lentils of their homes using a
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branch of hyssop. Right, the original Passover.
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When the Angel of Death passed through the land of Egypt, it
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saw the blood and passed over the house, sparing the first
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born. So the blood was a covering.
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Yes, and since that night, millions of lambs have been
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slaughtered in Jerusalem. Rivers of animal blood flowed
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from the brazen altar every single spring, but all of it was
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a type. It was a shadow.
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It was a graphic, bloody illustration pointing to
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something greater. Because the blood of bulls and
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goats could never actually take away sins, right?
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Those Old Covenant sacrifices were a temporary shadow pointing
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forward to the ultimate substance.
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They were a placeholder until the true sacrifice arrived.
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Let us talk about the actual mechanics of the Passover meal
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itself, because Jesus is about to completely override a 1500
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year old tradition. He is.
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What did this meal look like and how does He change it?
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The traditional Jewish Passover meal, the cedar, followed a very
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specific liturgy. What were the elements?
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It involved the consumption of the roasted lamb, bitter herbs
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to a call, the bitterness of slavery, unleavened bread
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representing the haste of their departure from Egypt, and four
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specific cups of wine representing the four promises
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of redemption in Exodus 6. So it was a highly structured
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memorial. Very rigid.
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But when Jesus sits down in this upper room, he takes the
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elements of the Passover, the bread and the cup, and he
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radically repurposes them. Oh, so he takes the bread and
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says this is my body. He takes the cup and says this
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is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for
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the forgiveness of sins. Wow.
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He makes himself the center of the meal.
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The substance has finally arrived in the upper room.
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When Jesus sovereignly arranges this final Passover, He is
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declaring the termination of the shadow and the arrival of the
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substance. He is the true Lamb of God.
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He is establishing the new covenant right there at the
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table. This connects directly to the
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doctrine of definite atonement. It absolutely does.
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His sovereign preparation points to His active vicarious
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obedience. Explain the how and why of
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definite atonement in this context.
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Well, Christ was not a helpless martyr taken against his will.
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He was the great High Priest, actively offering himself on the
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altar. He is in control.
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Yes, he willfully submits to the exact requirements of the law on
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behalf of a specific people and notice the massive upgrade in
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the redemption provided. Compared to the Exodus.
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Right. The blood of the Passover lamb
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in Egypt only saved the Israelites from the temporal
22:13
wrath of the destroying Angel. It saved their physical lives
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for one night. It was temporal salvation.
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It did not save their souls. But the true Lamb does something
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entirely different. The blood of Jesus Christ saves
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from eternal wrath. It satisfies the justice of God
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completely. This establishes a finished once
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for all sacrifice. So.
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There's no need to keep doing it.
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Exactly. The sources point out that this
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reality actively refutes the concept of a perpetual repeated
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sacrifice. When Christ died, the veil of
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the temple was torn. It was done.
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He arranged this meal to institute the memorial of a
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completed atonement. He is not being sacrificed again
22:52
and again. It is finished.
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What? Does this all mean for the
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disciples standing there listening to him give these
22:58
instructions? Let's look at verse 19.
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OK, let's look at. It it says and the disciples did
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as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover.
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The verb used there for directed or appointed is cintasa.
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What is the nuance of that specific word?
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Cinta test is a strong term. It implies A strict military
23:17
command or a divine ordinance. It's not a suggestion.
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No, it requires absolute, immediate and unquestioning
23:25
compliance. It is the kind of word used for
23:27
an army lining up in rank and file based on the general's
23:31
orders. And that is exactly what we see
23:33
happening in the text. The disciples did not form a
23:37
committee to discuss the budget for the room.
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No, they didn't they. Did not run a demographic focus
23:41
group to see which neighborhood in Jerusalem would yield the
23:45
best optics or be the most secret friendly for the meal.
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Right, They didn't look for a cheaper room on the outskirts of
23:50
town to save money either. No, they yielded absolute,
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unquestioning compliance to a command that frankly, sounded
23:56
incredibly cryptic and counterintuitive.
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They recognized the voice of the commander.
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The historical sources apply this directly to modern church
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practices. The text radically repudiates
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pragmatic approaches to worship and obedience.
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Let's break that down. What does that mean in this
24:12
context? Let's talk about the regulative
24:14
principle. Why does human pragmatism fail?
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And how do the disciples act as a blueprint here?
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Pragmatism relies heavily on sociological data, marketing
24:24
algorithms and human ingenuity to determine how the Church
24:27
should operate. Like trying to figure out what
24:29
works best for the crowd. Right.
24:31
It looks at the cultural data, the perceived needs of the
24:34
audience, and decides the methods based on what seems most
24:37
effective to humanize. But that's not what the
24:39
disciples did. If the disciples were
24:41
pragmatists, they would have argued with Jesus.
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They would have said Lord word. Sending us to find a random guy
24:47
with a water jar is a terrible strategy.
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Let us just go to a reliable innkeeper we know.
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Yeah, that would make more sense logically.
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But the standard presented in Scripture, which the disciples
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embody here is the regulative principle.
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And the regulative principle dictates that if God has not
25:03
commanded it, the church has no business doing it.
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We worship and obey based solely on biblical warrant, not human
25:10
creativity. Spot on.
25:12
The disciples did not engineer human events to aid God's
25:15
Kingdom. They heard the clear directive
25:18
of the Word of God and they executed it.
25:20
Florida State. Because the sovereign God
25:22
requires no pragmatic assistance.
25:24
Human pragmatism fails because it assumes we know better than
25:28
the Creator how to reach his creation.
25:30
The disciples act as a blueprint for the church.
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God decrees and his servants obey even when the command seems
25:38
contrary to human logic. Let's consider the original
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audience reading Matthew's Gospel.
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Matthew is writing to 1st century Jewish Christians.
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A very specific audience in a very specific trial.
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These are people who are being actively haunted.
25:53
They're facing severe persecution from the Jewish
25:56
religious establishment. They're being kicked out of
25:58
their synagogues, ostracized by their families, losing their
26:01
businesses and being threatened with imprisonment.
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It was a brutal time. When you are reading this text
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in that environment, it is so easy to miss the sheer panic of
26:10
the situation. Think about it.
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If you were one of those early Christians, you would be
26:14
terrified. Absolutely.
26:16
How does reading an account about Jesus booking a dinner
26:18
reservation help them survive that kind of fiery trial?
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Well, it provides the most massive pastoral comfort
26:25
imaginable. This is the anchor of
26:27
Providence, Yes. Think about the fear those early
26:30
Christians faced on a daily basis.
26:32
They might be tempted to believe that the Roman Empire or the
26:35
Sanhedrin held the upper hand. The world looked chaotic,
26:40
violent, and entirely out of control.
26:42
Just like it looked when Judas was quietly making his deal for
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30 pieces of silver while everyone else was completely
26:48
unaware. Exactly.
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But Matthew intentionally inserts this explicit
26:53
demonstration of Christo's absolute sovereign control right
26:57
before the horror of the Passion narrative.
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To show who is really in charge. If Jesus is the Sovereign Lord,
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who can perfectly control an unnamed man with a water jar in
27:06
a crowded city of millions orchestrating a secret meeting
27:09
during the chaotic Passover festival to execute his own
27:12
redemptive timeline? And he certainly controls the
27:15
raging persecution facing the early church.
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Yes, he holds Caesar. In his hands.
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He holds the Sanhedrin in his hands.
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He holds the local synagogue leaders who are persecuting them
27:24
in his hands. He is never caught off guard by
27:27
their suffering. The application for the original
27:30
audience was unshakable comfort. Their suffering was not a sign
27:33
that God had lost control or abandoned them.
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It was superintended by the sovereign King, who ordains all
27:38
things for his glory and their good.
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Precisely. Think about how this applies to
27:43
your own life today. We look at the news, we look at
27:46
the culture raging around us, and the world often feels
27:50
completely chaotic. It really does.
27:52
It feels like the machinery of society is just crushing
27:55
everything in its path. You might be facing financial
27:58
ruin, illness or relational breakdown, and it feels like
28:02
you're being swept away by the current.
28:04
But this text proves that God has never caught off guard His
28:07
Kairos, His appointed epoch is always on schedule.
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And the sources challenge us with a very specific
28:14
application. Here you are called to abandon
28:16
autonomous planning. That's a hard pill to swallow
28:19
for a lot of. People, we are so prone to act
28:21
like pragmatic planners, relying entirely on our own wisdom, our
28:24
own bank accounts and our own strategies to secure our future.
28:27
Right, trying to control the uncontrollable.
28:29
But the call here is to trust his Kairos to execute his
28:33
commands precisely, just like the disciples did, without fear
28:37
of the hostile surroundings. When you realize that the Lord
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of the Passover is the Lord of your circumstances, it strips
28:43
away the panic. It brings peace.
28:45
It demands A restful trust in His timing and a zealous
28:49
obedience to His Word. You do not need to manipulate
28:52
your circumstances to survive. You need to obey the command of
28:55
the King and trust His Providence.
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We have covered massive ground today.
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To briefly summarize, we took what seemed like a mundane
29:04
logistical conversation about securing a room for dinner, and
29:08
we saw the majestic calm of the Savior.
29:10
It's just incredible narrative. While the geopolitical world
29:13
raged, while traitors plotted, and while the religious leaders
29:17
conspired in secret, Christ was actively orchestrating his own
29:21
substitutionary sacrifice. Every detail, down to the
29:24
unnamed man in the overcrowded city, bowed to his decree.
29:28
The class was not an accident, it was the flawless execution of
29:31
a divine rescue mission. Caiaphas thought he was in
29:34
charge. Right.
29:35
And Judas thought he was making a shrewd financial deal.
29:37
But they were simply instruments in the hands of a sovereign God
29:40
who was securing the salvation of his people.
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And that leaves us with a final thought for you to Mull over as
29:45
we close. It's the darkest, most unjust
29:48
and violent event in human history.
29:50
The crucifixion of the sinless Son of God was Florida State,
29:54
orchestrated down to the minute by divine decree to secure the
29:57
greatest good the world has ever known.
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How does that reality force you to reinterpret the confusing,
30:02
seemingly out of control hardships in your own life
30:04
today?