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Andy Stanley- Youre Not Far Part 1 What Jesus Meant by Good News · Andy Stanley Sermons

0:02
Speaker 1: So one day Jesus is teaching and he's surrounded by
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Speaker 1: religious leaders for the most part, and they're always trying
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Speaker 1: to trick him. We're going to talk a lot about that.
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Speaker 1: It's so fascinating, the sort of running gun battle between
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Speaker 1: Jesus and religious leaders, and all four gospels document this,
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Speaker 1: but on this one particular occasion, as was probably often
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Speaker 1: the case, we just don't know, there was one guy
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Speaker 1: in the audience who was like really really sincere and
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Speaker 1: was listening hard, and Jesus was kind of getting to him.
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Speaker 1: And Jesus had just finished debating with religious leaders about
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Speaker 1: the feasibility of life after death, because there was a
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Speaker 1: group of religious leaders that said, we're just here to
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Speaker 1: entertain God. We're here for the goodness of God, and
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Speaker 1: then when you die, it's over. And Jesus that this
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Speaker 1: teacher was impressed with the mind bending logic of Jesus
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Speaker 1: as it related to life after death. So he's so
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Speaker 1: impressed with jesus answer, he raises his hand, he kind
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Speaker 1: of loses himself, and he asked a sincere question, and
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Speaker 1: he asked a question. If you grew up in Churich,
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Speaker 1: you've heard this before. He said, Jesus of all the commands,
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Speaker 1: because there are so many in Torah, which which one
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Speaker 1: of the commands do you think is most important? And
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Speaker 1: this was a question specifically about priorities. In other words, Jesus,
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Speaker 1: of all the things we could do, of all the values,
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Speaker 1: of all the things that you know we've been told
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Speaker 1: to do, what's most important? Because you know this when
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Speaker 1: values collide, and every single one of us have experienced
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Speaker 1: the season in life or a decision in life where
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Speaker 1: our values collide, like this is valuable, and this is valuable,
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Speaker 1: But I got to make a decision, and when values collide,
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Speaker 1: we have to prioritize because everything can't be the most
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Speaker 1: important thing, right, So he says, Jesus, of all the commands,
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Speaker 1: of all the things, which one is most important? And
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Speaker 1: Jesus begins with the way, sort of the Sunday School
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Speaker 1: answer or the Church answer to this question, because this
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Speaker 1: was not the first time anyone had asked this question.
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Speaker 1: And Jesus says, back to this gentleman, and back to
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Speaker 1: the audience what they've heard so many times. He says,
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Speaker 1: here Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one.
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Speaker 1: And they knew what was coming next. Love the Lord,
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Speaker 1: your God, with all of your heart, and with all
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Speaker 1: of your soul, and with all of your mind, and
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Speaker 1: with all of your strength. And then Jesus leaves the
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Speaker 1: script and he says, and the second or in some translations,
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Speaker 1: and the second one is like that one. The second
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Speaker 1: one is this, the second one being this isn't second
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Speaker 1: an importance, this is just second in sequence. And the
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Speaker 1: Greek here indicates that Jesus is saying, what I'm about
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Speaker 1: to tell you next is as important as the first one.
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Speaker 1: You ask for one, but there's not one. There's two,
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Speaker 1: and together these two are the one. And the second
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Speaker 1: is this, love your neighbor as yourself. And then Jesus
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Speaker 1: says this, there is no greater commandment singular, even though
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Speaker 1: there's two, there is no greater commandment than these. Now.
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Speaker 1: The teacher's response, the teacher who asked the question, his
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Speaker 1: response is really kind of funny, and we miss this.
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Speaker 1: But here's what he says. Is because he considers Jesus
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Speaker 1: a peer, he doesn't know what he's talking about. To rather,
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Speaker 1: this is a this is just you know, another rabbi
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Speaker 1: who's gotten a big crowd, but he's just a human being.
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Speaker 1: So this teacher says to Jesus, imagine this, well said teacher.
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Speaker 1: The man replied, good job. What was your name again, Jesus, Yeah,
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Speaker 1: good job, Jesus, you got it right. We're peers, imagine
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Speaker 1: saying to Jesus, good job, good answer. This is this
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Speaker 1: is what he's saying. I think Jesus must have smiled.
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Speaker 1: He said, well, said teacher, talking about Jesus. The man replied,
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Speaker 1: you are right there it is again, Jesus. You're right, Jesus, thinking,
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Speaker 1: of course I'm right, but hey, you know, I'll go
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Speaker 1: along with this. You are right in saying that God
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Speaker 1: is one and there is no other but him. And
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Speaker 1: then this, this, this teacher begins to sort of just
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Speaker 1: emote all these things he's had on his mind in
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Speaker 1: his heart for a long time. He's finally found somebody
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Speaker 1: who agrees with him to love God. He says, to
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Speaker 1: love God with all your heart, with all your understanding,
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Speaker 1: with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.
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Speaker 1: And he says this even I know, and maybe he's
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Speaker 1: kind of outing himself in front of the audience. He says,
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Speaker 1: I know that all of those two things are more
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Speaker 1: important than more important than in other words, if we
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Speaker 1: have to prioritize things, if everything can't be most important,
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Speaker 1: and I have to decide what's most important, Jesus, I
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Speaker 1: think you've given us the right answer. Those things are
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Speaker 1: more important than and this teacher agrees with Jesus' priorities.
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Speaker 1: This man in this moment, even though he doesn't know
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Speaker 1: who Jesus is, he actually recognizes and has embraced Jesus'
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Speaker 1: value system. He says, those things are more important than
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Speaker 1: all the burnt offerings and sacrifices. Now, this guy doesn't
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Speaker 1: know who Jesus is yet, but he's on a trail,
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Speaker 1: He's on a track, he's on a path, and Jesus recognizes,
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Speaker 1: if this man will continue to follow this logic, and
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Speaker 1: if this man will continue on this path, and if
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Speaker 1: this man will continue to think the way he's thinking,
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Speaker 1: he is in for the surprise of his life. And
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Speaker 1: he's going to arrive at a destination that will change
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Speaker 1: his life forever. And the text says that when Jesus
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Speaker 1: saw that he had answered wisely, that he had thought
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Speaker 1: it through, that he put two and two together. And
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Speaker 1: again we don't know what happened physically, but I picture
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Speaker 1: in this moment Jesus leaning in, maybe calling him forward
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Speaker 1: out of the crowd, and whispering, just to this one gentleman,
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Speaker 1: not everyone in the audience. You are not far from
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Speaker 1: the Kingdom of God. You are not far from the
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Speaker 1: Kingdom of God, which means the Kingdom of God is
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Speaker 1: not far from you. For the next few weeks, I
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Speaker 1: want to tell you a true story. It's a true
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Speaker 1: story that should have died in Nero's Rome, but it didn't.
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Speaker 1: It is the story of Jesus as narrated by Simon Peter,
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Speaker 1: Jesus' most famous apostle, the Apostle Peter. Now, Peter's story
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Speaker 1: for Peter is an embarrassing story. It's a story that
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Speaker 1: just does not make him look very good, over and
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Speaker 1: over and over, and yet he tells this story, and
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Speaker 1: he told this story for thirty years. He followed Jesus
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Speaker 1: for jesus entire earthly ministry, and then for the next
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Speaker 1: about thirty years, Peter traveled around telling his story. And
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Speaker 1: the reason he told it anyway, and the reason he
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Speaker 1: documented his greatest failures, is because Peter's story was part
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Speaker 1: of the greatest story ever told, the story of Jesus
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Speaker 1: of Nazareth, and when Peter documents his story, he's in
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Speaker 1: his fifties. Again. He has followed Jesus when Jesus was
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Speaker 1: on planet Earth, and then for the next thirty years
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Speaker 1: he traveled around in and out of trouble, dodging being arrested,
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Speaker 1: over and over, suffering for his faith in Jesus, being
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Speaker 1: beaten for his faith in Jesus. So for thirty years
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Speaker 1: he's told his story. Anytime he would enter a village
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Speaker 1: or a town, he would be invited into the homes
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Speaker 1: of Christians or curious people or god fearing gentiles to say,
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Speaker 1: what was it like? What did he say? What was
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Speaker 1: he like? Up close? And tell us your story. Tell
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Speaker 1: us about the time win, tell us about the time,
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Speaker 1: tell us about the time when. And So now he's
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Speaker 1: imprisoned in Rome. He's awaiting a trial Nero's Rome, and
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Speaker 1: chances are he knows that he will not leave this
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Speaker 1: city alive. And so he decides to tell his story
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Speaker 1: one last time, but not to an audience of many,
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Speaker 1: to an audience of one, his traveling companion, John Mark.
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Speaker 1: We know him as Mark the Gospel writer Mark. Now,
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Speaker 1: Peter was an uneducated man. He did not have formal education.
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Speaker 1: We know that. And if he was like ninety percent
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Speaker 1: of the people that lived in rural areas, he could
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Speaker 1: not read or write. It's possible he could read a
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Speaker 1: little bit, but it's virtually impossible to think that he
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Speaker 1: was able to write, because, as you know, writing takes practice,
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Speaker 1: and writing takes time, and in this world that they
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Speaker 1: lived in, there was not time to practice. And besides that,
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Speaker 1: writing utensils were expensive. So if he could read at all,
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Speaker 1: he certainly couldn't write. And he was a fisherman. He
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Speaker 1: was a fisherman who became a fisher of men, and
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Speaker 1: in the first century he was a big fish because
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Speaker 1: he was the leader of the church. And now Nero
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Speaker 1: had him. And Mark knows that the story of Peter
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Speaker 1: and the experience of Peter with Jesus is not simply
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Speaker 1: a story for his generation. It's a story for every generation.
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Speaker 1: So one last time Peter has traveled I mean, excuse me.
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Speaker 1: Mark has traveled with Peter for the last year or
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Speaker 1: two at least he's heard him tell these stories over
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Speaker 1: and over. Perhaps he's written some of them down, but
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Speaker 1: now they're in Rome together, and he coaxes his story
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Speaker 1: out of Peter one last time, and it comes to
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Speaker 1: us as the Gospel of Mark. It's chaotic, it's out
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Speaker 1: of order. In some cases, there is excruciating detail because
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Speaker 1: he's a fisherman, he's a storyteller. He's not a teacher.
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Speaker 1: He's not been trained at teaching, so he just calls
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Speaker 1: up these memories. It's out of ordered. There's parables, there's conversation,
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Speaker 1: then it skips over. It's chronologically out of order. But
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Speaker 1: it's just like somebody who's downloading their experience, and Mark
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Speaker 1: is taking it in as fast as he can to
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Speaker 1: make sure that the next generation and the generation after
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Speaker 1: that would know these extraordinary stories from the lips of
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Speaker 1: someone who spent time with Jesus. And Peter, interestingly enough,
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Speaker 1: begins his account with his conclusion. It's almost like he says, Look,
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Speaker 1: I don't know if we're going to get to the end,
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Speaker 1: so let's eat dessert first, right, life is uncertain, Begin
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Speaker 1: with dessert. Hey, I don't know how long much time
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Speaker 1: I have, Mark, I don't know how long we're going
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Speaker 1: to have this time together. I don't know how many
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Speaker 1: times we're gonna get to sit down with each other.
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Speaker 1: So let me just begin with the conclusion. So, as
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Speaker 1: I read from the Gospel of Mark, coming from the
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Speaker 1: lips of Peter, this is so important, especially if you're
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Speaker 1: not a believer, you're not a Christian, or maybe used
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Speaker 1: to be lost faith, or whatever reason. In fact, if
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Speaker 1: you were to tell us your story of how you
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Speaker 1: lost faith, I think all of us would say wow
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Speaker 1: if that had happened to me, if I'd heard that,
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Speaker 1: if that's what I've been told, I would probably have
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Speaker 1: lost faith as well. So that's not a criticism. But
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Speaker 1: if for whatever reason you're back, or for whatever reason
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Speaker 1: you're curious, what I'm about to say next may be
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Speaker 1: the most important thing I say to you today. As
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Speaker 1: I read this text, and as we read this text together,
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Speaker 1: please don't hear me reading the Bible. Mark wasn't writing
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Speaker 1: the Bible. Mark was documenting Peter's experience with Jesus. This
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Speaker 1: is two men sitting, perhaps in a cell or in
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Speaker 1: a home together. Their time is limited, and Mark is like,
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Speaker 1: just dump it out and I'll write it down. These
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Speaker 1: are the experiences of someone in the first century who
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Speaker 1: spent two and a half to three years with Jesus
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Speaker 1: and then spent thirty years recounting these stories. Even though
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Speaker 1: his life was at risk almost every single day following. Now,
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Speaker 1: when we get to certain parts of Peter's story, and
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Speaker 1: when Mark begins to document some of this, you know,
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Speaker 1: our modern sensibilities, We're gonna kind of eyes at points
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Speaker 1: and say, Peter, wait, wait, wait, seriously, you expect me
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Speaker 1: to believe this, Peter, really that happened, to which Peter
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Speaker 1: would shrug and say, hey, look, I'm just telling you
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Speaker 1: what happened. This is not something I read about. This
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Speaker 1: is not something I was told about. This is something
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Speaker 1: I heard myself. This is something I saw with my
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Speaker 1: very own eyes. And the stories I'm telling you, these
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Speaker 1: are the reasons I'm in chains. And it's also the
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Speaker 1: reason I have no fear. And it's also the reason
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Speaker 1: I can say with confidence that God is near, and
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Speaker 1: not only is he near me, he is near you.
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Speaker 1: It is why I've spent my life retelling these stories
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Speaker 1: over and over and over. And I hope my story
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Speaker 1: makes it out of Nero's Rome, and I hope it
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Speaker 1: makes it into the next generation. Little did he know
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Speaker 1: two thousand years later we would be reading the account
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Speaker 1: of his time and his life with Jesus. I'm Nazareth,
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Speaker 1: so Here's how he begins. He begins with the end.
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Speaker 1: He says, Mark, here it is. Here's the best way
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Speaker 1: to say it. The beginning, the beginning, the beginning, the
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Speaker 1: beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the
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Speaker 1: Son of God. Mark one, one, to which, again us
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Speaker 1: modern skeptics would say, wait, we have to stop you already, Peter, Wait, okay,
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Speaker 1: I just want to make sure we're not reading this incorrectly.
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Speaker 1: You actually believe, you actually believe that your rabbi, you
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Speaker 1: actually believe this man that you had meals with. You
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Speaker 1: actually believe this man that you spent time with, this
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Speaker 1: that you actually believe this man that you saw on
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Speaker 1: his worst days and his best days. You're absolutely convinced,
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Speaker 1: all these years later, that he was the son of God.
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Speaker 1: Are you sure? I mean, come on, Peter, you're in Rome,
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Speaker 1: you're awaiting probably execution. Are you so sure you were
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Speaker 1: right about who you believe this man is? And he
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Speaker 1: would just smile and say, am I sure. I was there, Listen,
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Speaker 1: I was there when I saw this with my own eyes,
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Speaker 1: when they hurled their insults at him. This is something
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Speaker 1: he would write later for Christians. Are he written earlier
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Speaker 1: for Christians when they hurled their insults, sults, Adam, I
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Speaker 1: was there. He didn't even retaliate. Am I sure when
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Speaker 1: he suffered, he made no threats. In fact, I saw
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Speaker 1: this with my own eyes over and over and over.
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Speaker 1: He entrusted himself. He entrusted himself. This is what Peter's
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Speaker 1: gonna call us to do. Later. He entrusted himself to
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Speaker 1: him who judges justly. Peter would say, listen, are you kidding?
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Speaker 1: When he was arrested. I resisted his arrest. He didn't
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Speaker 1: resist his arrest. I resisted his arrest. But he just
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Speaker 1: entrusted himself to the hands and the providence of his
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Speaker 1: heavenly father. And am I sure? Of course? I'm sure,
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Speaker 1: Because even though I didn't understand it at the time,
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Speaker 1: as I stood in the back of that crowd with
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Speaker 1: tears streaming down my face, thinking I've been deceived, all
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Speaker 1: hope is gone, all hope is lost, I was there.
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Speaker 1: I saw it that he bore our sins. I didn't
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Speaker 1: understand it at the time. Later it all comes together
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Speaker 1: for us. So of course, I'm sure. This is why
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Speaker 1: I've spent thirty years talking about it. He bore our sins.
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Speaker 1: Peter was saying, he bore my sin And I gotta
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Speaker 1: tell you, there were some times when I was with
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Speaker 1: Jesus I didn't know that I was such a sinner.
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Speaker 1: Now we met some sinners. In fact, one of the
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Speaker 1: most the most difficult things about following Jesus were the
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Speaker 1: people he kept inviting to follow us. And I thought
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Speaker 1: I was so much better than many of those people.
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Speaker 1: But at the end, I realized what a sinner I was.
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Speaker 1: And I was there when He bore my sins in
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Speaker 1: his body on the cross. Am I sure? Absolutely, I'm
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Speaker 1: sure because I've experience over these thirty years that he
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Speaker 1: has given us new birth into a living hope through
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Speaker 1: the resurrection from the dead. Of course, I'm sure. I
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Speaker 1: had conversations with my living, breathing, resurrected Savior and Rabbi
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Speaker 1: I peered into the empty tomb. So yes, I'm confident,
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Speaker 1: and no, we haven't lost. Actually we're winning. I've been
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Speaker 1: fishing for men and women for thirty years, and the
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Speaker 1: gospel is spreading all around the Empire, all around the
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Speaker 1: Mediterranean Rim, in provinces and towns and villages all over
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Speaker 1: this known world. Men and women are gathering in the
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Speaker 1: mornings in the afternoons to worship the resurrected Savior. So yes,
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Speaker 1: I'm convinced, and no, I wouldn't have chosen this for
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Speaker 1: my end. But now I'm not about to give up hope.
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Speaker 1: Now I can't not because of what I believe. It's
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Speaker 1: way better than that, because of what I've seen and
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Speaker 1: what I've experienced, and it's spreading now. He would say,
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Speaker 1: let me get back to my story. One of the
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Speaker 1: first times that I actually heard Jesus teach, he was
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Speaker 1: sitting next to me on my boat. And then in
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Speaker 1: March like, okay, we're gonna get the story of how
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Speaker 1: you met Jesus, and then Peter leaves. He just can't
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Speaker 1: stay with the storyline again. He's just all over the place.
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Speaker 1: He just tells stories, and instead of describing the incident
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Speaker 1: in detail, he skips it and he goes right to
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Speaker 1: the bottom line of jesus message. He goes right to
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Speaker 1: sort of the big the big idea. And it's easy
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Speaker 1: for us to miss because when we read the Gospels,
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Speaker 1: we kind of get fascinated with the chaos of the story.
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Speaker 1: In fact, our challenge in reading the Bible, if you
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Speaker 1: read the Bible, is that when you read the Bible,
16:36
Speaker 1: we read it devotionally basically, right. We don't like to
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Speaker 1: follow the storyline unless it's an Old Testament story and
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Speaker 1: it's kind of encapsulated into a couple of chapters. When
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Speaker 1: we read the Bible, we go looking for application, Right,
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Speaker 1: what do I do? We read the Bible we look
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Speaker 1: for inspiration? You know, how can I find hope in
16:51
Speaker 1: the midst of a difficult time? Are we go looking
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Speaker 1: for direction? God? I need to make a decision. It's like,
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Speaker 1: you know, pick it up, open it. You know, we're
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Speaker 1: just gonna show me what to do. So we like
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Speaker 1: the story of the prodigal Sign because you know, God
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Speaker 1: forgives and God is like the father who took the
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Speaker 1: son back. We don't want to be like the older brother.
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Speaker 1: We like the story of the woman caught in adultery
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Speaker 1: because Jesus forgives her and says, don't send anymore. It
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Speaker 1: doesn't allow the religious people to condemn her. We love
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Speaker 1: that story. We love the story of the good Samaritan,
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Speaker 1: right because this person shows mercy to someone who may
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Speaker 1: not have shown him mercy, and it's like a great
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Speaker 1: example for all of us. But those are just illustrations
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Speaker 1: of the bigger picture. Those are just illustrations of the
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Speaker 1: overarching message of Jesus pointing to this broader and more
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Speaker 1: cohesive message. Those are just illustrations that point to the
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Speaker 1: big idea of the message of Jesus and the individual
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Speaker 1: narratives that we love. Some of our favorite stories in
17:43
Speaker 1: the New Testament are all like puzzle pieces that fit
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Speaker 1: into a grand picture or a grand narrative. And at
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Speaker 1: the very outset of his story is he's giving dumping
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Speaker 1: his story out and is being coaxed out of him
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Speaker 1: by Mark. He decides that he wants us to know
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Speaker 1: how all the pieces fit together. At the very beginning,
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Speaker 1: there's a sense of which he holds up the lid
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Speaker 1: to the puzzle box to say, Hey, when I'm finished
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Speaker 1: with my account, this is what it's going to look like.
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Speaker 1: This is the context for everything that follows. Now back
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Speaker 1: to us for a minute. See when I was growing up,
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Speaker 1: and if you grew up in church like I did,
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Speaker 1: I grew up in a great church. If somebody had
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Speaker 1: asked me growing up, or maybe even in college, hey, Andy,
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Speaker 1: what's the big idea of Christianity? What's the big idea
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Speaker 1: of Jesus? I would have said what many of you
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Speaker 1: would say, Well, the big idea of Christianity is that
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Speaker 1: Jesus died for my sin, and if I put my
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Speaker 1: faith in him, I get to go to heaven when
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Speaker 1: I die. Oh yeah, And in the meantime, I'm supposed
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Speaker 1: to be a good boy, or a good college student,
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Speaker 1: or a good husband or a good father. So Jesus
18:38
Speaker 1: died for my sin. I mean, that's what it's all about.
18:40
Speaker 1: And then if I put my faith in Jesus, I
18:42
Speaker 1: get to go to heaven. In the meantime. I just
18:44
Speaker 1: I just need to behave myself right. And if we
18:47
Speaker 1: had said to Peter, Peter, we don't even need you
18:49
Speaker 1: to tell us what the big idea is. We know
18:51
Speaker 1: the big idea. Jesus died for our sin. We put
18:53
Speaker 1: our faith in Jesus, and then when we die, we
18:55
Speaker 1: go to heaven. I mean, we got it. Peter would
18:59
Speaker 1: have looked at you like your it's crazy, not because
19:02
Speaker 1: that's not true, but because that's not the point. So
19:06
Speaker 1: right up front, Peter, lets us know, here is the point.
19:11
Speaker 1: Here is the big picture. If you don't hear anything else,
19:14
Speaker 1: I say, Peter would say, if we get interrupted, if
19:16
Speaker 1: I'm executed before I finish my story, Please understand, this
19:21
Speaker 1: is what the arrival of Jesus was all about. And
19:25
Speaker 1: yes it's personal, and yes there is an eternal component,
19:29
Speaker 1: but there is something for you in the here and now.
19:34
Speaker 1: You can live every single day of your life with
19:37
Speaker 1: this assurance that God is near. So he says, okay, Mark,
19:44
Speaker 1: let let's back up. After John, John the Baptist, after
19:48
Speaker 1: John the Baptist was put into prison, Jesus went into Galilee.
19:53
Speaker 1: Now real quick, how many of you love maps? Any
19:54
Speaker 1: map lovers? You love maps? My wife loves mapps. Yeah. Map.
19:57
Speaker 1: So we're gonna use a map during the series. And
19:58
Speaker 1: here's why this is super important. This is the kind
20:01
Speaker 1: of the Holy Land. The way we think about the
20:02
Speaker 1: Holy Land, Sea of Galilee, dead Sea, Jordan River got it,
20:06
Speaker 1: Mediterranean Sea. Everybody got your bearing. Okay, So what's so interesting.
20:10
Speaker 1: The way that Peter tells this story is he basically
20:13
Speaker 1: takes Jesus after John has been beheaded, John the Baptist
20:16
Speaker 1: baptized somewhere around here. It's about you know, if you
20:19
Speaker 1: got up way early in the morning, you could walk
20:21
Speaker 1: from Jerusalem to where John was baptizing, but you would
20:23
Speaker 1: get there after dark. It was a long way to
20:25
Speaker 1: long walk. So John the Baptist is baptizing somewhere down
20:28
Speaker 1: here on the Jordan River. He's arrested, and he's actually
20:30
Speaker 1: put into one of Herod's prisons, and somewhere down here
20:34
Speaker 1: in the desert when this happens, Jesus begins to make
20:37
Speaker 1: his way all the way back up to Galilee, and
20:40
Speaker 1: all the way back up into this region, right up
20:42
Speaker 1: here above the Sea of Galilee. So after John was
20:45
Speaker 1: put into prison, Jesus makes his way to the top
20:48
Speaker 1: of the Sea of Galley, and all along the way
20:50
Speaker 1: Peter tells us he was proclaiming the good news of God,
20:55
Speaker 1: which is and again here's where we get confused, because
20:57
Speaker 1: if I were to say to you, what's the good
20:58
Speaker 1: news of God, we would all I'll give the same answer. Well,
21:01
Speaker 1: the good news of God is that Jesus came to
21:03
Speaker 1: this earth and died from my sins, and if I
21:04
Speaker 1: put my faith in him, I get to go to
21:06
Speaker 1: Heaven when I died. But that wasn't Jesus' message, because
21:10
Speaker 1: that hadn't happened yet. In fact, the death and resurrection
21:14
Speaker 1: of Jesus, as we're going to see in this series
21:16
Speaker 1: that Peter is going to make it so clear to us.
21:18
Speaker 1: The death and the resurrection of Jesus simply punctuated what
21:22
Speaker 1: Jesus taught throughout his earthly ministry, and what he taught
21:26
Speaker 1: throughout his earthly ministry is to impact the way we
21:29
Speaker 1: live our lives on planet Earth because God is near.
21:37
Speaker 1: So here's the message. Here's the message that Peter heard
21:40
Speaker 1: Jesus preach over and over and over. Here's what Jesus
21:44
Speaker 1: said the tyree where he went all the way from
21:47
Speaker 1: the Jordan River valley, all the way up to Galilee
21:50
Speaker 1: and all around the Sea of Galilee, and eventually in
21:52
Speaker 1: the city of Campernaum. Here was the message that Jesus taught.
21:55
Speaker 1: The time has come, Jesus said, The time has come.
22:01
Speaker 1: In other words, the world has been waiting for this.
22:04
Speaker 1: The world has been looking for this. Everything and every
22:07
Speaker 1: pagan religion and everything in the Jewish religion actually pointed
22:11
Speaker 1: to this moment in time for what's about to happen
22:14
Speaker 1: on planet Earth. Everything before was preparation, Everything before was
22:18
Speaker 1: a hint, everything before was foreshadowing. The time has come.
22:22
Speaker 1: You ready for this. The Kingdom of God has come near.
22:30
Speaker 1: The Kingdom of God, God's kingship. That's the best way
22:34
Speaker 1: to understand the phrase, the Kingdom of God, God's kingship,
22:38
Speaker 1: his rule, his right to rule. The kingdom is near
22:43
Speaker 1: because the king is in town, and wherever the king goes,
22:49
Speaker 1: the kingdom goes with him, to which Peter would have
22:53
Speaker 1: stopped and said, and I'm telling you, when the first
22:55
Speaker 1: time I heard Jesus preach this, I didn't know what
22:57
Speaker 1: he was talking about. What do you mean the kingdom
22:59
Speaker 1: is now? The Kingdom is here? I mean Rome is here.
23:02
Speaker 1: We haven't been an independent state, you know, in hundreds
23:05
Speaker 1: of years. I mean, what do you mean the Kingdom
23:07
Speaker 1: of God is here? I thought the Kingdom of God
23:09
Speaker 1: was the Kingdom of Israel, and very quickly interested. Jesus
23:11
Speaker 1: is talking about something entirely different. He wasn't talking about
23:15
Speaker 1: a future event. This was no longer something we were
23:17
Speaker 1: to hope for, to look for. He was saying, the
23:19
Speaker 1: future is now. This is fulfillment. It's a kingdom without borders.
23:25
Speaker 1: It's a kingdom without a common language or even a
23:27
Speaker 1: common ancestry. We would discover later that the Kingdom of
23:31
Speaker 1: God was a kingdom of the heart. It was a
23:35
Speaker 1: kingdom of conscience. It was a kingdom of conscience informed
23:41
Speaker 1: by the teachings of a king who had come to
23:44
Speaker 1: reverse the order of just about everything. In fact, Peter's
23:48
Speaker 1: gonna tell us that, you know, time after time we
23:50
Speaker 1: sat and listened to Jesus teaching, we would think, surely
23:53
Speaker 1: you don't mean that, Surely you can't be saying that.
23:56
Speaker 1: And when we would withdraw from the crowd, we would say, Jesus, okay,
24:00
Speaker 1: explain that to us, did we hear you rite? And
24:03
Speaker 1: throughout their time with Jesus they had such a difficult
24:06
Speaker 1: time like we do, because they'd grown up with an
24:08
Speaker 1: understanding of what authority was and what a kingdom was about.
24:10
Speaker 1: Now he was introducing the Kingdom of God, and they
24:12
Speaker 1: were so different. He was a different kind of king
24:15
Speaker 1: introducing a different kind of kingdom, a kingdom that is
24:18
Speaker 1: now not in the future, because the king had come
24:25
Speaker 1: to town, a kingdom, as he let that teacher know
24:29
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the message, a kingdom we're loving
24:33
Speaker 1: God and loving others. A kingdom we're loving God and
24:38
Speaker 1: loving others. A kingdom we're loving God and loving others
24:43
Speaker 1: was the ultimate priority, and he would say, Peter would say,
24:48
Speaker 1: this is the picture. This is the picture into which
24:51
Speaker 1: all the pieces fit, including the final peace, the death
24:56
Speaker 1: of a king, the death of a king who came
24:59
Speaker 1: to ge we give his life for his subjects instead
25:01
Speaker 1: of requiring his subjects to give their life for him.
25:08
Speaker 1: We missed this. But the arrival of Jesus was the
25:12
Speaker 1: beginning of a brand new age, a brand new era.
25:16
Speaker 1: The old was passing away. Something new had come, something
25:20
Speaker 1: better had come. It would culminate in a brand new
25:23
Speaker 1: covenant that we'll talk about at the end of the series,
25:25
Speaker 1: a brand new covenant, a new arrangement between God and
25:28
Speaker 1: all of mankind. In fact, one of the shocking things
25:31
Speaker 1: for Peter and the Disciples was when Jesus introduced the
25:33
Speaker 1: new covenant. He didn't say it's a new covenant between
25:35
Speaker 1: God and Israel. He said, this is a new covenant
25:38
Speaker 1: between God and many, between God and the world. And
25:43
Speaker 1: again they weren't as shocked at the end as they
25:45
Speaker 1: would have been at the beginning, because throughout his time
25:47
Speaker 1: and throughout his teaching, Peter saw Jesus continue to open, open, open, open, open,
25:52
Speaker 1: open the gates of this new kingdom and invite all
25:55
Speaker 1: kinds of people to participate. But there's a gotcha. The
26:02
Speaker 1: good news, the good news of the arrival of the
26:05
Speaker 1: king who came to establish a brand new kind of kingdom.
26:08
Speaker 1: It required something. And the message that Jesus were taught
26:12
Speaker 1: over and over, and the message that Peter heard him
26:14
Speaker 1: teach over and over, the message that Peter puts right
26:16
Speaker 1: up front so we don't miss it in case he
26:18
Speaker 1: doesn't get to finish his story. Two imperatives. Two imperatives
26:22
Speaker 1: are two thou shalts that no one should take seriously.
26:25
Speaker 1: No one should try to apply until you get to
26:27
Speaker 1: the end of the story, because it's just too much
26:31
Speaker 1: without knowing how the story ends. He said, here are
26:33
Speaker 1: the two things that you have to do. The time
26:36
Speaker 1: is come, he said. This is jesus message. This is
26:38
Speaker 1: his whole sermon, reduced down to a few sentences. The
26:41
Speaker 1: time has come, Jesus said, the Kingdom of God has
26:43
Speaker 1: come near. And what's our response? Peter said, we heard
26:46
Speaker 1: it over and over and over. Jesus would say to
26:48
Speaker 1: the audience, repent, repent, repent, and believe the good news.
26:54
Speaker 1: Now when we see the word repent, we immediately hear
26:57
Speaker 1: you see a prophet rattling and shaking and calling bolts
27:00
Speaker 1: out of the sky. Repent. Repent, you know you shall
27:02
Speaker 1: not pass you know, repent anybody get that? Okay, anyway, repent.
27:07
Speaker 1: And so we think about repent as turning away from sin.
27:10
Speaker 1: Peter says, Okay, it can mean that, and there were
27:12
Speaker 1: times when it meant that, But that was not the
27:13
Speaker 1: point of jesus message. That was John the Baptist message.
27:16
Speaker 1: Get ready to get ready, get ready something greatest coming.
27:19
Speaker 1: The great that was coming was now here. And when
27:21
Speaker 1: Jesus said repent, he was saying, look, I want you
27:24
Speaker 1: to change your way of thinking. I want you to
27:26
Speaker 1: change your worldview. I want you to turn in a
27:28
Speaker 1: different direction. I want you to turn in the direction
27:31
Speaker 1: of a brand new kingdom with a brand new kind
27:34
Speaker 1: of king that is establishing itself on planet Earth. Because
27:37
Speaker 1: you've been invited to participate in it. And until you
27:39
Speaker 1: change your mind, and until you change your worldview, and
27:42
Speaker 1: until you embrace this, you're gonna miss it. And embrace
27:46
Speaker 1: this radical new way of viewing the world, embrace this
27:50
Speaker 1: radical new way of viewing yourself, and to embrace this
27:53
Speaker 1: radical new way of understanding and experiencing the presence of God.
28:00
Speaker 1: Because the kingdom is near and you're not far. Then
28:04
Speaker 1: he uses this interesting Greek word, he says, and I
28:06
Speaker 1: want you to believe pistio. It means I want you,
28:10
Speaker 1: Jesus would say. Not only do I want you to
28:12
Speaker 1: believe that it has happened and that it has come.
28:15
Speaker 1: I want you to entrust your self to it and
28:18
Speaker 1: with it. I want you to give your self to it.
28:22
Speaker 1: I want you to fully surrender and submit to the
28:25
Speaker 1: new world view and the new rules of this brand
28:29
Speaker 1: new kingdom led by a brand new king And what
28:34
Speaker 1: this change of direction and trust entailed was the focus
28:38
Speaker 1: of the rest of Peter's account of his time with Jesus.
28:40
Speaker 1: But again, one thing would become abundantly painfully clear. In fact,
28:47
Speaker 1: what became abundantly painfully clear may be the best news
28:49
Speaker 1: for you, depending on where you are in your life
28:51
Speaker 1: and what's going on right now. What became abundantly clear,
28:54
Speaker 1: and it was so disturbing to Peter, and it was
28:58
Speaker 1: so disturbing to Andrew and to as into John, was
29:02
Speaker 1: that this brand new kingdom. One thing about this brand
29:05
Speaker 1: new kingdom was that everybody was invited to participate. And
29:11
Speaker 1: now again Peter is just chaotic when you read Mark,
29:14
Speaker 1: He's kind of all over the place. I think Mark
29:16
Speaker 1: is he's trying to get this down. He's trying to
29:18
Speaker 1: put it in some sort of chronological order. It's like, okay, Peter, okay,
29:20
Speaker 1: stop with all the introduction. Okay, go back. Tell everybody,
29:24
Speaker 1: how did it happen that you became one of jesus disciples?
29:28
Speaker 1: You spent all your time with him when Jesus was
29:29
Speaker 1: on earth, you spent the last thirty years talking about it.
29:32
Speaker 1: So how did this start? And I think Peter probably
29:35
Speaker 1: sat back and said, oh, yeah, the day that changed everything.
29:40
Speaker 1: Here's how it happened. Jesus was actually walking beside the
29:45
Speaker 1: Sea of Galilee, not too far from where I live.
29:47
Speaker 1: Peter would say he was walking along beside the Sea
29:50
Speaker 1: of Galilee, and he saw Simon Peter, and he saw
29:53
Speaker 1: his brother Andrew casting their nets into the lakes. Peters
29:57
Speaker 1: that were casting our nets to the lake, because yeah,
29:59
Speaker 1: we were fit bushman. And Jesus just walks up to us,
30:03
Speaker 1: according to Peter's you know, synopsis of this occasion, and says, hey,
30:07
Speaker 1: come follow me, and I'm going to send you out
30:09
Speaker 1: Peter to fish for people. And Peter says and when
30:12
Speaker 1: Jesus invited us to follow him, we just dropped our
30:15
Speaker 1: nets and followed. Peter smiled because he knew there was
30:19
Speaker 1: more to the story. But for whatever reason, Peter doesn't
30:22
Speaker 1: want to focus on Peter, and he skips the details.
30:25
Speaker 1: He skips the details that Luke captures for us that
30:27
Speaker 1: there was more to the story, because before Peter dropped
30:30
Speaker 1: everything to follow Jesus, he actually took Jesus fishing. Peter's like,
30:33
Speaker 1: that's not important. We got to get back to the
30:35
Speaker 1: main storyline. And I wasn't the only one because after
30:38
Speaker 1: we'd walked a little bit further, he saw some friends
30:40
Speaker 1: of mine, and when he had gone a little further,
30:42
Speaker 1: he saw James. And maybe I don't know when Peter
30:49
Speaker 1: says James, maybe he pauses, because about twenty years before
30:55
Speaker 1: Peter gives his account to Mark, James had been executed
30:59
Speaker 1: by hair Heard the Great's sons, and Peter had to
31:04
Speaker 1: have felt a little bit of remorse because there was
31:06
Speaker 1: this strange incident where James had been taken prisoner by
31:10
Speaker 1: herod Agrippa I think it was herod Agrippa and decides
31:13
Speaker 1: to have James executed one of Jesus' apostles, and then everybody,
31:17
Speaker 1: the people who are anti Christian at the time, anti
31:19
Speaker 1: this new Nazarene sect, were so excited that that Herod
31:23
Speaker 1: had actually killed one of Jesus' apostles. He has Peter arrested,
31:27
Speaker 1: and Peter, of course assumes, and all the Christian community
31:29
Speaker 1: assumed that if they took out James are going to
31:31
Speaker 1: take out Peter. And Peter was miraculously freed. And Peter
31:37
Speaker 1: thinks back, and he wonders, like you wonder, and I wonder,
31:40
Speaker 1: why me? Why not him? Why to him? Why not me?
31:46
Speaker 1: And suddenly the normal mystery of the randomness of life,
31:49
Speaker 1: things that don't make any sense, they settle in over Peter.
31:52
Speaker 1: And yet it did not undermine his faith, because a
31:58
Speaker 1: king had come, a brand new kingdom had come, and
32:01
Speaker 1: he had not been called to understand it. He had
32:04
Speaker 1: been called to embrace it. And he says, thirty years later,
32:09
Speaker 1: it's still the thing I'm most excited about. Thirty years later,
32:13
Speaker 1: I'm more confident than ever. Thirty years after losing James,
32:16
Speaker 1: thirty years after losing multiple of my friends, thirty years
32:19
Speaker 1: wondering when is the world going to wake up and
32:21
Speaker 1: realize what's happened. I'm still confident because of what I saw,
32:26
Speaker 1: because of what I heard. He saw James, son of
32:30
Speaker 1: Zebede and his brother John in a boat preparing their nets,
32:34
Speaker 1: and without delay he called them and they left their
32:37
Speaker 1: father's Ebedy in the boat, which we knew more about
32:39
Speaker 1: that story right with the hired men, and they followed him.
32:44
Speaker 1: And Peter could have added and Mark, we had no
32:49
Speaker 1: idea what we were getting ourselves into, but how could
32:52
Speaker 1: we say no? The king had come. They went to Capernaum.
33:00
Speaker 1: They walked over to this major kind of city right
33:02
Speaker 1: here at the top of the Sea of Galilee. They
33:05
Speaker 1: went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went
33:09
Speaker 1: into the synagogue and they went with him. And they've
33:11
Speaker 1: been to synagogue their whole lives. They knew exactly what
33:13
Speaker 1: the protocol was. This. In fact, this was probably their
33:16
Speaker 1: synagogue because their little town was so small it probably
33:18
Speaker 1: didn't have one. They show up with this new Rabbi,
33:21
Speaker 1: Jesus of Nazareth to the synagogue, and they know pretty
33:24
Speaker 1: much everybody there. In fact, they know their families. I
33:27
Speaker 1: used to date her sister. You know, this is like
33:29
Speaker 1: a very small community. Everybody knows everybody, and for whatever reason,
33:33
Speaker 1: the people who ran this that particular synagogue asked Jesus
33:37
Speaker 1: if he would like to speak. He's the new rabbi
33:39
Speaker 1: in town. Peter says. It was unbelievable. It was unbelievable,
33:46
Speaker 1: and it wasn't just unbelievable to me. This is what happened.
33:49
Speaker 1: Mark write this down. The people were amazed at his teaching.
33:54
Speaker 1: We'd heard teaching all our life. We had heard tour
33:56
Speaker 1: all of our life. We've been over and over, most
33:59
Speaker 1: of us had memorized so much of this, But when
34:02
Speaker 1: Jesus stood to teach, it was like we were hearing
34:07
Speaker 1: it for the very first time, because he taught not
34:12
Speaker 1: as they did, but as one who had authority, not
34:15
Speaker 1: as the teachers of the law. And it was so
34:19
Speaker 1: extraordinary that news about him spread quickly, and the whole region,
34:25
Speaker 1: the entire region of Galilee, heard about the new rabbi
34:31
Speaker 1: from Nazareth, and so it began. Now I don't know
34:37
Speaker 1: what kind of religious home, or what kind of religion
34:40
Speaker 1: you were raised in or brought up in, if any,
34:42
Speaker 1: maybe notine of all, And obviously I don't know what
34:45
Speaker 1: version of Christianity you were raised in. And as you know,
34:48
Speaker 1: there are multiple versions and approaches to Christianity. But here's
34:54
Speaker 1: what Peter, who spent time with Jesus and then spent
34:58
Speaker 1: thirty years living it out, what have you know? And
35:01
Speaker 1: have me know that the arrival of Jesus was good news.
35:10
Speaker 1: So if your version of Christianity is not good news,
35:14
Speaker 1: you don't have Peter's version. If the version of Christianity
35:19
Speaker 1: was such not good news that you left it a
35:21
Speaker 1: long time ago, or you left it recently, my hunch
35:24
Speaker 1: is this, Peter would say, if it was that easy
35:26
Speaker 1: to leave, if it was that easy to walk away from,
35:29
Speaker 1: if it was that easy to stop believing, would you
35:31
Speaker 1: just give me one opportunity to let you know what
35:33
Speaker 1: my version looked like. Because it's not something I heard about,
35:37
Speaker 1: it's something I experienced. And the reason Peter would say
35:42
Speaker 1: it's such good news is because God came near, which
35:48
Speaker 1: means you are never far. That God came near to
35:56
Speaker 1: establish something here in the here and now, and whether
36:00
Speaker 1: you recognize it or not realize it, or not feel
36:03
Speaker 1: it or not, you are not far. And if you
36:05
Speaker 1: have doubts, I understand that. But we're just getting started.
36:09
Speaker 1: And I think Peter would raise his hand and say,
36:10
Speaker 1: can I say something? I'd say, sure, Peter. Peter would say, Look,
36:13
Speaker 1: if you've had doubts, let me tell you I had
36:16
Speaker 1: doubts as well. If you've walked away, you need to
36:20
Speaker 1: understand that's part of my story. I walked away as well.
36:24
Speaker 1: And then I experience the mercy of the king. But
36:32
Speaker 1: that comes later. For now, it's enough to know. But
36:37
Speaker 1: the time has come, the Kingdom of God has come near.
36:45
Speaker 1: The question for you, the question for me is will
36:48
Speaker 1: we turn in that direction? Will we be open enough
36:52
Speaker 1: to explore? Would we be willing to turn in this
36:56
Speaker 1: direction and repent and believe the good news? And if so,
37:03
Speaker 1: everything changes and we will pick the storyline up there
37:07
Speaker 1: next time in part two of Your Not Far