Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
So I've told you before.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
We have Sandre and I have three kids, are all
in their twenties now, which is wonderful. So we parents
had babies and children and middle schoolers and high schoolers
and college students and first jobbers and boyfriends and girlfriends
and all the stuff. And when we first started, when
we first had Andrew, you know, you're you're you're nervous,
and you're trying to figure out what are we gonna do?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
You know.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
So I had worked with high school students for ten
to twelve years before I became a pastor, like a
real pastor, and so I saw all kinds of family
stuff and I decided, Okay, we're not gonna do it
that way. So when we had Andrew and our kids
were old enough to have rules, we decided. I decided,
I said, in our house, we're just gonna have two rules,
just two rules. Honor mom and tell the truth. Honor
(00:45):
mom and tell the truth. I'd tell my kids all
the time. The worst thing you can do is tell
a lie. The worst thing you can do is tell
a lie. The worst thing you can do is tell
a lie. When day I'm driving and Andrew's in the
back seat, and it's in the car seat and or
he his big boy buckled up seat and he said, Dad,
I think I know something worse than telling a lot
like what because in our house, the worst thing you
can do is tell a lie, because if you tell
a lie, it breaks the relationship. You know, all this
(01:06):
preacher stuff, you know, he's not I think on the worst
in telling Alia I said what he said, worshiping the devil.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
So we added a.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Third rule, honor mom, don't tell you know, tell the truth,
and never worship anyway. So we just had these two
rules because here's what I knew that you know what,
if you if you cover the basic things, that pretty
much takes care of everything. And in family life, those
two basic things covered just about everything. Now today, in
(01:39):
our journey with Jesus, Jesus does something similar, but he
takes it even a step further.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
If you haven't been with us, we're in.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
A series where we are following Jesus from his introduction
to the world to the day that he became the savior.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Of the world.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
And we said throughout this series that Jesus was not
an end. Jesus was an Instead of that he came
to this place to replace everything that was pretty much
in place. He came to introduce something extraordinarily, brand spanking new.
He came to introduce, as we talked about last time
we were together, a new covenant, a new kind of
(02:16):
relationship between God and mankind. He came to institute the
new command, basically the fine print of the new covenant
that will talk about in a few minutes. And then
he left his new movement us the church. And throughout
his time with his guys, and throughout his three year
journey in Galilee and in Judea and in that part
(02:37):
of the world, he would drop hints.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Throughout.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
He would say things like this, you've heard it said,
But I say, you've heard it said, But I say,
And his audience would say, yeah, we've heard it said.
That's what our parents said, that's what their parents said,
that's what Moses said.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Who do you think you are?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
And Jesus would smile and say, just keep paying attention.
He claimed to be greater than the temple. Well, if
you're greater than the temple, then we don't need the temple.
But if we're we're not going to have a temple,
what are we going to have? What are you talking
about he insisted that the great people go to the.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Back of the line.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
And then in a religious system, in a religious system
that valued cleanliness physical cleanliness, Jesus insisted that the people
who had the holiest hearts oftentimes had the dirtiest hands.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
And Jesus would touch unclean people and he made them well.
He made them.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Knew it was an indication that something new was on
the horizon. But of course his upside down value system,
his kingdom that was not of this world, would be
in conflict with the kingdoms of this world. Conflict was inevitable.
And that's where we left off last time, the last
couple of times we've been together in this journey. Jesus
is on his way to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover with
(03:50):
his guys, and when the religious leaders heard that Jesus
was on his way to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, they
put spies out everywhere. The text says that the chief
priest and the Pharisees had given orders than anyone who
found out where Jesus was should report it so that
they might arrest him. And it turns out that Jesus
was easy to find, but he was not easy to
arrest because everywhere he went there was a crowd. In fact,
(04:12):
as he came to Jerusalem, people lined the streets outside
the city.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
We know they lined the streets inside the city.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
The text says that the great crowd that had come
for passoverheard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem,
and the intensity built and the excitement built, because they
assumed that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem to do something
for the nation, but in fact, Jesus was coming to
Jerusalem to do something for you and for the entire.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
World.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And then something unusual happened. One of Jesus's closest followers
broke rank. Judas got tired of waiting. It dawned on
Judas as they made their way to Jerusalem, Wait a minute,
he's not going in there to become the Messiah. I
think he's going to go in there and surrender all
this talk of the first shall be last and last
shall be first. And it finally dawned on Judas, this
(05:04):
is not going the way he always thought it would
and assumed it would, And it was time for him
to get out. But he wanted to get out with
something to show, so he broke away from the group
to run an errand he went and found the chief priest.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
And he went to the chief priest and said, you want.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Jesus, I can get you Jesus, and I can get
you Jesus when he's not surrounded by a crowd. They agreed,
and they paid him, and the text says that he
watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over when no
crowd was present. And in the end their plan would succeed,
but their objective would not be bat because unlike them,
(05:40):
and unlike me, and perhaps unlike you, Jesus did not
cling to his life all along.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
He had come to give it away.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
But before that moment, before he sacrificed himself for the world,
there were two loose ends that he needed to wrap up.
So first, as they gathered for Passover with the guys,
the first thing he did was declare that he was
establishing a new kind of relationship between God and all mankind,
between God and God's image bearing rebel race. And so
(06:10):
in the upper room, as they prepared and as they
celebrated passover, Jesus changed the tone and Jesus changed the
meaning of passover, and he said, okay, I know You've
been it this way since you were little boys.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
But from now on, when.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
You gather for Passover, you're not going to remember Egypt,
and you're not going to remember Moses.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
You're going to remember me.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
And this bread that always meant one thing, from now on,
it means it represents my body.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
And this wine that represented.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
The blood of the lamb that our you know, ancestors
put over the doorposts, from now on it is going
to represent my blood. And I'm establishing a new covenant
in my blood. And this signaled the end. And this
is such a big, big, big idea that we miss
so easily. This signaled the end of God's conditional covenant
with the nation of Israel, and it signaled the beginning
(06:57):
of a permanent, unilateral, unconditioned, unconditional covenant with all mankind,
a new relational arrangement. But just like contracts, modern contracts
come with fine print. Just like modern contracts come with
terms and conditions, so covenants, ancient covenants came with fine print.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
They came with terms and conditions.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
And this new arrangement between God and man would require
new terms and new conditions. These would replace the terms
and conditions of the old covenant. And the thing is,
jesus closest followers should have seen this coming, because all
along the way, all along the way, he hinted at
the fact that something new was coming, something big was coming,
(07:41):
and it wasn't going to be an end. It was
going to be an Instead of that, he had come
to replace again much of everything that was currently in place.
For example, months before his gathering for Passover in Jerusalem
with disciples, about ten or eleven months before that occasion,
Jesus was the move through villages and towns, teaching, and
(08:02):
they're again sort of dropping breadcrumbs all along the way,
pointing to what was coming, and the Pharisees and the
Sadducees and the teachers of the law were constantly following him.
They were constantly trying to trap him and constantly trying
to separate him from the crowd. So on one particular afternoon,
they joined forces and they drew straws to see who
would go first, because they wanted to trap Jesus with
his words in order to embarrass him in front of
(08:23):
the crowd, separate him from the crowd so that he
would lose the crowd, so that they could ultimately arrest
and get rid of Jesus.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
So here's what happens.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
This is, you know, months and months before the events
have passover. The text says that then the Pharisees went
out and laid plans to trap Jesus with his words.
But they didn't go themselves. They would be recognized. So
they sent their disciples, their underlings, and they gave them
a very very specific question. We want you to go
sit in the crowd, blend in with the crowd. When
Jesus gets to the Q and a part after his talk,
(08:53):
you raise your hand and we want you to ask
a specific question. And if you ask it correctly, you
might be the one that wraps and trips up the teacher,
the rabbi from Nazareth.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
And so here's what they said. They said, teacher. First,
they buttered him up. Teacher. They said, we know that
you were a man of.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Integrity, that you are teaching the ways of God in
accordance with the truth. And Jesus, we know that you,
like most people, you are not swayed by others because
you pay no attention to who they are.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
You know, and Jesus sees this coming.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
And then once they get him, all buttered up, and
they think he's leaning in and they think he's vulnerable.
They ask him an irs question seriously. Jesus responds with
a coin trick, and he sends them scurrying back to
their handlers. So the Pharisees are sitting in the back
of the crowd. Their guys come back. They've embarrassed themselves,
as Sadducees say, we're up next, And so the Sadducees
(09:44):
approach Jesus, blend into the crowd, Q and a stand
up in. One of the sadducees asked this question, teacher,
they said, Moses told us because they're always trying to
divide the people around the idea that Jesus was against Moses,
and Jesus stood in contrast to Moses. So now Jesus,
Moses told us that if a man dies without having children,
to follow this, if a man dies without having children,
(10:06):
his brother must marry the widow his wife and raise
up offspring for him. Now, if you are ever tempted
to embrace the Old Testament and live by the Old Testament,
this law in and of itself is a reason not
to okay. When you think about the implications of this,
And by the way, the New Testament says, if you're
going to do any of the law, you got to
do the whole thing. And this is probably illegal, you know,
(10:28):
in some capacity, especially if you're already married. But the
idea this was a good law in ancient times because
women were so vulnerable. So if a woman's husband died
and she didn't have any children, her husband's name wouldn't
be carried on.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
There would be no one to take care of her.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
So this was a good law. So her husband's brother
would then have to marry her. He'd have multiple wives
and then produce children through her so that his brother's
name could be carried on. So wasn't a bad thing.
But this was a law. So they tell Jesus the law.
Jesus already knew all this, and then they turn it
into a of sorts. Now there were among us. There
(11:04):
were seven brothers among us. They're just making this up.
There were seven brothers among us. The first one married
and died, and since he had no children, he left
his wife to his brother.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
So they get married.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
The husband dies, the wife marries the brother, and then
they say, and then the second brother died and she
married the third brother, and then the third brother died,
and she married the fourth brother, and then the fourth
brother died, and she married the fifth brother. The fifth
brother died, she married the sixth brother. The sixth brother died,
and she married the seventh brother, and then the seventh
brother died, and then she died. Now, every riddle has
(11:38):
a question at the end, So here's the question. So
when she got to heaven, who is she married to?
And the crowd was like, wow, that's a good question.
Who would she be married to in heaven?
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Now, the point of their question was to show how
ridiculous it was to believe in an afterlife, because the
Sadducees did not believe in the afterlife. That's why they
were sad, you see, Yes, okay, So they believed that
we all aren't you glad you came to church today
and you're glad you're watching the things you learn? Yes,
So they believe that we lived for mankind womankind. We
(12:12):
live for the pleasure of God, and when our lives
are over there over and that's okay, because we live
for the pleasure of God, not for ourselves. So they
were just showing how ridiculous it was that there was
an afterlife, which offended the Pharisees and was contrary to
what Jesus taught. So they asked him this trick question
that Jesus smiles and he tells says to them the
thing they hated when he said, he said.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Have you not read the scriptures?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
We other think that's pretty much all we do is
he said, if you not read the scriptures, then he
skips over Moses, goes to Abraham, makes an incredible point
based on the tents of a verb, and sends them
scurrying off to their handlers as well, and.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
The crowd goes wild.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
They love it when Jesus humiliates the hypocritic religious leaders
who were constantly putting a burden on them that they
weren't willing to carry themselves.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Here's what the text says.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his
teaching and hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the
Pharisees decide to reload, so they sent their guys in.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
That didn't work.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
The Sadducees went in. Now the Pharisees have reloaded. They've
got a really good question. They are sure, this is
the one that's going to trip him up. And they
choose one of their best guys, he's actually a lawyer,
to blend into the crowd, wait for Q and A,
raise his hand.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
And ask his question.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Now, this question is a question you've probably heard before
if you were raised in church. But this is an
extraordinary moment in jesus teaching ministry, and he uses it
to point to what is about to come.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Here's what happened.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
One of them, an expert in the law, tested him,
so he wasn't there sincerely was this was part of
a setup? Tested him with this question, teacher, which is
the greatest commandment in the whole law again, the law
of Moses, which is the greatest commandment, and all the
laws that Moses broke brought down from Mount Sinai, which
is the greatest commandment.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Now, everybody in Jesus'.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Audience pretty much knew the answer to this question, because
there was a standard Sunday school answer to this question.
But Jesus saw this as an opportunity to point the
way forward to where he was eventually taking all of
his followers. And Jesus replied, and everybody in Jesus audience,
for the most part, could have mouthed along with Jesus
the answer to this question because this was there was
(14:18):
a stock, standard theological answer to this question, because this
wasn't the this wasn't the lawyer's real question. He had
a question behind the question, and once he got Jesus
to commit himself to the standard answer, he had a
zinger that was going to you know, not Jesus back
on the ropes, or so he thought. Jesus replied, love
the Lord your God, with all your heart. Everybody's like, yeah,
(14:39):
we know this, and with all your soul and with
all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment.
And the lawyer is about to ask his second question,
and Jesus says, and the lawyer's like no, no, no, no, no,
no no. And if you ann that's gonna miss this
thing up. Because see that was the setup. Then I
got my question, and Jesus is.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Like and and the second is like it.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
The second is like it, The second is equal to it.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
This is important.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
The second is second in sequence, it is not second
in greatness. The second law is just as great as
the first law. They go together, and the second is
like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. Now, this is
the first time in all of recorded history that anyone
that we know of took a verse from Deuteronomy and
(15:29):
this verse from Levitigus and put them together in this way.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
The two greatest.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Commandments are love God with all your heart, soul, mind,
and strength, and your neighbor as your self. And this
signaled a very important shift, a shift that Jesus had
been signaling all along.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
But this was a big clue.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
This signaled a shift when it came to religion, that
things were shifting from a vertical orientation to a horizontal
orientation in the religious world in which Jesus lived, in
the religious world perhaps in which you were raised east,
a person could love God and treat people poorly. A
(16:06):
person could claim to be good with God and mistreat
other people. And when they were confronted, they say, oh, no,
God and I are good. I've confessed my sins. I
go to church, I'm in ministry, I serve Yet but
do you see how you're treating your wife. Look how
you listen to the way you talk to your son,
Listen to the way that you respond.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
To people at work.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I know, but me and God are good. This was
the religion of the first century, my friends. This was
every religion of pretty much every century. And Jesus says,
something new is on the horizon that is about to
change with me. And then he says, this all the
law and the prophets, all the law and the prophets. Now,
(16:47):
law and the prophets. In the first century, that meant Bible.
That's their Old Testament scripture. They didn't have the Bible
that came later. But they would call their scripture. They
would call it the Law and the prophets. This was
Genesis all the way basically through Malachi. There was no
formal canon yet, but basically, these are all the sacred scriptures.
So Jesus says, your entire sacred body of literature, your
(17:07):
entire Bible.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Hangs on these two commands.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Now, if Jesus had had a screen at that point,
I think this is what he would have shown them.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Next.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
It would look like this. He'd say, love God, love
your neighbor. All of your Old Testament prophets, and all
of your Old Testament law, and all of your Jewish
scripture hang on these two things. If you're reading along
in Isaiah and you get confused, Just go back to here.
If you're reading along in Daniel and you kind of
get confused, just just go back here.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
This is the starting point.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Everything else is history, explanation and commentary. In other words,
love for God this is his point. Love for God
is best illustrated, demonstrated, and authenticated by love for others.
And in this moment, Jesus reduces all of the Jewish
commands to two big ideas that he says are equal
(18:00):
in value. But he wasn't through the problem at this
point is that for a first century Jewish person, a
neighbor had a definition, and a neighbor was another jew
In fact, Levitgus nineteen eighteen that says love your neighbor
is yourself. It actually in that passage defines what a
neighbor is, and a neighbor is another Jewish person.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
So Jesus takes it a step further.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Many weeks later, he's in a similar situation and another
lawyer comes and asks him another trick question, and in
response to that question, Jesus changes the definition of neighbor
for every generation and in every nation, and he tells
the story the parable of the Good Samaritan, and at
the end of this parable. At the end of this parable,
(18:42):
he answers the question who is my neighbor? And he
changes the definition of neighbor. And from this point forward,
Jesus says, the new definition for neighbor is not simply
another Jew, not someone who's like you, and not someone
you like. From now on, a neighbor is anyone anywhere
with a need that you can meet. This was new, indeed,
(19:06):
that now love for God. Love for God is best illustrated, demonstrated,
and authenticated by love for those who are.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Nothing like you and may not even like you.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
This was so new, But unbeknownst to his audience, these
are breadcrumbs. Unbeknownst to his audience, these are all signs
pointing in a specific direction, hinting at the new terms
and the new conditions for the new covenant. And then
he chose passover as the moment for the official reveal.
(19:42):
They just finished the meal we talked about that last
time we were together. They just finished the meal. Then
he humiliates them by washing their feet.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
They are so off balanced.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Then suddenly Judas gets up and leaves with no explanation.
And then Jesus, having replaced Moses, as the covenant maker,
because Moses was the one that established the covenant between
God and the nation of Israel, and now Jesus has
just established a brand new covenant between God and all mankind,
even though they didn't understand it at the time. Now
Jesus not only takes on the role as covenant maker.
(20:12):
Now Jesus steps into the role as law giver and
the new covenant, the new covenant, like the one that
he just replaced, would have its own set.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Of thou shalts and thou shalt not, but not six
hundred and not even two.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
This is one of the most important moments in the
life of Jesus, and it's heartbreaking to me that for
centuries and centuries and centuries it has been so underplayed,
if given such little emphasis. Because what happens next would
ultimately change the world. Jesus says to his GUIs again,
(20:54):
who had no idea the significance of these words. He says, gentlemen,
I now get you a new command. Now, if they'd
been thinking straight, they'd say, wait, wait, wait, wit Jesus, Jesus,
you can't give us any new commands. Okay, only God
gives commands, you know. The story Moses went up to
Mount Sinai, God gave Moses the law, Moses brought it
(21:16):
back down. So Moses delivered the law. But Moses didn't
originate the law. So Jesus, okay, if you're saying that
you're giving us a new command once again, and you
do this all the time, it says, if you're stepping
in between us and God, it's like you're playing the
role of God.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Who do you think you are?
Speaker 2 (21:33):
I think we're sort of getting the idea of who
you think you are, and that's disturbing to us. Jesus,
I'm going to give you a new command, into which
they might have said, okay, but we don't need any
more commands.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
We have enough.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Besides, okay, besides, you've already reduced six hundred.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Plus to two. So now there's like a third command.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
There's like love the Lord your God with all your
heart and mind, soul and strength, and love your neighbor
as yourself. And if you can't be with the one
you love, love, that's probably not it. So what you know,
what is the third command?
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Man? Maybe three is good.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
I mean tens a lot, six hundreds a lot. And
you gave us two threes the perfect number. So you're
gonna give us like the third command to go with
the other two. Is that what we're doing? But Jesus
had not come to add to. Jesus had come to
take from. Jesus had come to reduce even two to one.
(22:25):
If the church gets this right, everything changes. A new command,
I give you love one another, to which they thought,
that's not new, to which Jesus would have said, I'm
not through. There's a stipulation, as I have loved you, oh,
(22:49):
so you must love one another. And in this moment,
he could have gone around the room from person to
person to person to person, and perhaps he did and
no one recorded it, because he could have paused at
this moment and says, as I've loved you, you must
love one another. Matthew, you remember when we met, Yes, sir,
you remember what you were doing? Yes, sir, say it
(23:10):
out loud. I was a tax farmer. I was a
tax collector. And do you remember when we met? Do
you remember what I said to you? Yes, sir, you
invited me to follow you. And Peter would have spoken
up and said, I remember.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
I was not happy.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
In fact, none of us were happy about Matthew following you,
because if Matthew follows you, he tails around with us
and it's embarrassing Jesus. Like, Matthew, remember where we went
after I asked you to follow me? Yes? Or we
went to my house Peter's like I remember that, Peter. Matthew,
for the rest of your life. The grace I extended
(23:48):
to you that day, I want you to extend that
to every single person you meet for the rest of
your life. Matthew, it's not the Golden rule. Were stepping
it up as I have loved you. That's how you
to love other people. Nathaniel, Yes, sir, you remember when
we met, Yes, sir? Remember what you said about my hometown,
(24:09):
my parents, my stickball team, all my friends, Nazareth, Nazareth,
what good thing could come from Nazareth?
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Do you remember that, Nathaniel? Yes, sir? Do you remember
how I responded?
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Yes, sir, you invited me to be one of your
closest followers.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
That's right, Nathaniel.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I want you to extend that same kind of grace
and that same kind of acceptance to everyone you meet,
regardless how they treat you. Guys, you remember that afternoon
that I didn't have my best day, I will admit it.
When I preached that sermon about drinking my blood and
eating my flesh, and people got nervous because they couldn't
go with the illustration, and people started leaving. You remember
that afternoon. You guys were all sitting around looking at
(24:46):
me like you're paying attention, but I saw you glancing
off to the side.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
We started losing the crowd that day. Do you remember that, guys? John?
Speaker 2 (24:52):
You do?
Speaker 1 (24:53):
You wrote it down right? We remember?
Speaker 2 (24:58):
And do you remember how I responded when I busted you?
Do you remember, Peter? I looked at you guys and said,
you don't want to go too? Do you? And you
were smart enough ought to lie to me because by
that time you knew I would know you're lying.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Remember when I said, do you want to go too?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Because I knew every single one of you, every single
one of you, in spite of all I've done for you,
every single one of you, wanted to blend into the
crowd and disappear. Do you remember that day? Yes, sir,
Do you remember how I responded? You wanted to unfollow me,
But I never chose to unfollow you, and I never
brought it up That's how I want you to treat
(25:32):
each other and the people that you meet for the
rest of your life.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
And this is just the passover meal. You know what
he could have said.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
And guys, you think you've seen love, you ain't seen
nothing yet. Two days from now, three days from now,
four days from now, I'm gonna take this to a
whole other level. And I want you to remember this
night because your responsibility is to love other people the
way that I have loved and am about to love
(26:04):
you by this one thing, By this one thing, By
this one thing, everyone will know that you are my disciple.
If you love one another, not if you love me
because I'm leaving, not if.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
You love God.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Nobody knows if you love one another. His point being
that your love for me and your love for your
heavenly Father will be demonstrated by how well you love
each other and how well you love the people that
are difficult to love.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
And compared to.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
The extraordinarily complicated system of laws that they had grown
up with.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
This was far, far, far.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Less complicated, but it was far more demanding. Now let
me try to illustrate why, and I would rather just
not leave the room. Okay, So this is just between us.
If you give me a list of rules, I can
find a loophole. In fact, the more rules you give me,
the more space there is and the more potential for loopholes. Right,
(27:11):
And it's not just me. If I give you a
list of rules, you can find a loophole. If you're
a parent, and you have parented through the middle school years,
you get this. If you can remember middle school, you
get this. Well, Mom, you didn't say exactly. Well, Dad,
you said to be home, but you didn't say where
at home. Dad, you said I couldn't play, but you
didn't say.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
You didn't say. In other words, you didn't give me
the Dad. You know you're gonna have to spell this out.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
We're gonna have to have tiny print anytime you ever
say anything to me, Because Dad, I'm twelve years old,
I'm thirteen years old. I'm gonna find a loophole. Because
where there are rules plural, there is space, there are cracks.
In fact, it's worse than that. And this is the
part I really don't want you to tell anybody.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
If you give me a.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Bible and I get to use the whole Bible, I
can find a loophole for just about anything you want
to do, especially if I get to use the first half,
because some of the people who wrote the songs we
sing on Sunday did some horrible things. One of them
was a man after God's own heart.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Well, there you go.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
This is why you know people like me get questions
like this all the time. You've asked this question or
some question like it, Well, what does the Bible say
about because I want to do A? Does the Bible
say anything's wrong with A? Because I want to do A?
And if the Bible doesn't say A specifically, okay, that's
not exactly Okay, that's like B I'm asking about A.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
So I'm good to go? Right?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Is there anything wrong with Does the Bible say there's
anything wrong with?
Speaker 1 (28:31):
All those questions?
Speaker 2 (28:32):
I mean, I understand what's behind the questions, but often
what's behind the question is, look, this is what I
want to do, and I don't want to do anything
that God's absolutely against. But if he doesn't spell it
out specifically.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Am I good to go?
Speaker 2 (28:44):
And the answer is, give me a Bible, and I
can find you an opportunity to be good to go,
because give me a list of rules, give you a
list of rules, you'll find a loophole, you'll find some
wiggle room. Jesus walked into a religious environment where the
religious leaders were professional loophole creators, and the hypocrisy was overwhelming,
(29:05):
and it drove people away from the very God that
had created them to worship them. New Covenant love, New
Covenant love. The New Covenant command closes all the loopholes
because there's only one command. You can't slide in between them.
(29:29):
There's not an M, It's just one. This was the
brilliance of Jesus. Besides, after all, I'm not always sure
what to believe, I'm not always sure who to believe,
but I almost always know what love requires of me.
(29:51):
The old Covenant question was this question, what does the
law require? The modern version of the Old Covenant covenant
question is what does the bi require? The New Covenant question,
the Jesus question is what does love require of me?
(30:12):
And here's something our middle school students and our high
school students and our college students need to know. And
here's something we all need to know. But here's something
that has to become more foundational in.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
The teaching of the church.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Is simply this that every New Testament imperative of an
imperative is like a command. Right, Every New Testament imperative,
every New Testament imperative, especially those that follow the resurrection,
Every New Testament parative is simple. Imperative is simply an
application of this new Covenant command. In other words, the
(30:44):
New Testament is not full of a bunch of rules.
The New Testament is full of one rule with hundreds
or dozens rather of applications.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
In other words, if we had.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
A new chart, it would look like this love just
as I've loved you, And everything else is explanation. Everything
else application, everything else's history, everything else's background, everything else
is commentary to what you say.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
It can't possibly be that simple.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yes, it became because the Savior of the world waited
until the time was right to deliver this final blow
to our ego, in this final blow to our selfishness,
and this final blow to that thing and me and
that thing and the thing in you that wants to
have my way but wants to justify it.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Because I found a gap. I found a loophole.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
I'll tell you who saw this. We miss it, the
church misses it, preachers miss it. But I tell you
who didn't miss it the Apostle Paul, the first church planter.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
He did not miss this.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
The Apostle Paul applied this one New Testament New Covenant
command to everything.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Here's a few examples. He wrote this.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
You've heard this before. Be kind and be compassionate to
one another, forgiving each other. Well should I forgive?
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Because the Bible says so? Paul says, what's a Bible?
Oh yeah, you didn't have a Bible.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
So, Paul, are we.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Supposed to be kind and compassionate because you told us
to be kind and compassionate? Paul's like, are you kidding? No, Well, Paul,
why should we be kind and compassionate? Paul says, oh, well,
let me finish the statement, just as two of the
most powerful words in the New Testament. And you find
him throughout his letters, just as in Christ, God forgave you.
Why should I forgive because the Bible says forgive? No,
(32:24):
you forgive because you're forgiven. Why should I be patient?
Why should I be patient with her? Why should I
be kind? He's not kind to me? Why should I
be patient with her? She's not patient with me? Why
should I be kind? Why should I be patient? Show
me the verse.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Paul would say, what's a verse? Oh yeah, they didn't
have those yet.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Paul would say, No, here's why you should be patient.
Here's why you should be kind, because love is patient,
he wrote, and love is kind, And those are your
marching orders. Love does not dishonor others. Here, Essentially, love
does not dishonor Here essentially is the core ingredient of
the New Testament sexual ethic. You never do anything to
(33:04):
dishonor another person, even if it's consensual. If you are
a Jesus follower, Well, is there any verses that don't
have a verse? Honor him, honor her, Honor her husband,
honor his, Honor his wife, honor his children, Honor her
future relationship, honor his future marriage.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
You put other people first. You don't need a verse.
Love is the mandate. Love is the command.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
There is no wiggle room, there's no space to cheat,
there is no loophole. It is so uncomplicated, it's so
extraordinarily compelling.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Paul goes on.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
He says this, He says this in your relationships, Oh yeah,
tell us about relationships. In fact, I'd like to do
an eight week series on relationships. And if you just
do an eight week series on relationships. You can you know,
Paul would say, you don't need eight weeks in your
relationships with one another. Just have the same mindset as
Christ Jesus. You don't need a series. You need a
three by.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Five card and just put this somewhere that when you're.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Wondering how to respond to your husband, you go, oh, yeah,
I'm to respond to my husband the way that God
through Christ responded to me when I was an idiot
and when I was an honest and when I was insecure,
and when I did the wrong thing, and when I
you know, was trying to cover for myself.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
That's it. I mean, you don't need a series.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
You just asked, Okay, what did God through Christ do
for me? That's what I'm supposed to do for other people.
Then here's another one. Okay, this is the church in Ephesus,
Paul writes, Follow this is kind of mushy. You want
to hear some you know, you feel like you're gonna
hear love song in the background. Follow God's example, therefore,
is dearly love children, to walk into the way of love,
the way of love. It sounds so romantic, Paul, what
(34:36):
do you mean the way of love. Oh, let me,
let me explain, just as Christ loved us and gave
himself up for us. Oh that sounds hard. Yeah, there's
no loophole. There are loopholes and romance. There are no
loopholes and this kind of love. Again, I could go
on and on and on and on and on. Paul
does not give Christians a bunch of things to do.
Paul gives Christians a bunch of applications for jesus Knew
(35:00):
Testament command, his New Covenant command, which was simple, as
I've loved you, so are you, so you are to
love one another.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
That's it. That's the one commandments. That's it.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
This is the fine print of the New Covenant. These
are the terms and these are the conditions. This is
the overarching ethical move This is the sort of the
overarching ethic for jesus brand new movement the Church. This
is you've heard of the ark of the Covenant. This
is the mark of the Covenant, and his first century
(35:34):
followers got it. In fact, his first century followers got
it their other's firstness, their willingness to put other people
before themselves in the in a culture that you know,
recognized and embraced violence. It was absolutely appalling. We talked
about this a couple of weeks ago. In a culture
that worshiped victory and strength, the idea of putting other
people first seems so weak. But this upside down kingdom
(35:57):
that Jesus introduced, eventually it became appealing, and then eventually
it became contagious, and it circled the globe. And we
are here today because a group of first century Christians
got this and against all odds, and I mean against
all odds, sandwich between the Temple and the Roman Empire,
with no territory, no authority, no military, they survived and
(36:17):
they thrived, and they were fueled by this single idea.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
As I've loved you, so you must love one another.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
By this all people will know that you're my follower.
By this one thing, people will know that you're my
follower if you love one another. You see, when we
get this right, people want to work for us, even
though they don't want to believe like us. When we
(36:51):
get this right, people want us to work for them,
even if they don't believe like us.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
When you get this right, people are so happy. There's
a new church in town.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
When we get this right, people are so happy that
their daughter or their son is dating a Christian.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
I mean, they believe some interesting things, but my goodness,
the way they treat people.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
What a night that was for those guys. I mean
they showed up thinking, oh, we're gonna have Passover. And
when the night's over, I mean their heads are spinning. Okay,
we're not doing passover anymore. You made this all about you.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
That's weird.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
And then you like cancel it out, Moses whole covenant,
everything we grew up with, and you put on there's
gonna be a new covenant and it's in your blood.
But Jesus, I checked, you're not even bleeding. What does
that even mean? And it's not gonna be the Bread's
gonna be your body, but your body isn't broken. And
then you washed our feet. That was like the worst
moment of my life. I was so embarrassed.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
And then Judas.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Left and now you've decided you're the lawgiver and there's
just one law.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
I mean, their heads are spinning.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
There's no way for them to understand what had just happened.
And Jesus says, okay, I'd like to go now and pray,
let's go to the garden that we always pray. Oh
guess somebody, let's go to guess. It's dark, people won't
see us moving.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Through the streets. Try to be quiet. Let's go to
guest semony.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
So I mean, they're murmuring and whispering as they make
their way to guest semony.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
What in the world's going on? I find?
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I mean, we haven't even really celebrated passover. He changed
all the terms, he changed all the rules. It's so confusing.
And they get to the garden. Jesus, as you pray here,
I'm gonna go pray by myself. He checks on him,
They're asleep. He wakes him up, he prays, He checks
on him.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
They're asleep.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
And then Judas shows up, and the text says he
showed up with a large cohort, probably several hundred people,
several hundred temple henchmen, several hundred guards from the temple,
and Jesus is arrested and his eleven followers flee for
(38:45):
their lives. He's taken the caiaphas at home for trial.
None of his guys show up to be witnesses.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
There are other.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
Witnesses testifying to things that Jesus never said, and that
Jesus never did. But the guys who had been there
the whole time, who could have told the truth, they don't.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Show up for the trial. And then they hear that
Jesus has been taken.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
To Pilot, and that can only mean one thing, because
any other punishment that the religious leaders who would want
to inflict on Jesus they had the right to do.
The only reason they would need Pilot is that they
wanted Jesus put to death. So when the guys heard
that Jesus had been taken to Pilot's palace, they knew
(39:25):
it was over, and they knew they were probably next.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
And so we will pick it up there next week.
So I've told you before.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
We have Sandre and I have three kids, are all
in their twenties now, which is wonderful. So we parents
had babies and children and middle schoolers and high schoolers
and college students and first jobbers and boyfriends and girlfriends
and all the stuff. And when we first started, when
we first had Andrew, you know, you're you're you're nervous,
and you're trying to figure out what are we gonna do?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
You know.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
So I had worked with high school students for ten
to twelve years before I became a pastor, like a
real pastor, and so I saw all kinds of family
stuff and I decided, Okay, we're not gonna do it
that way. So when we had Andrew and our kids
were old enough to have rules, we decided. I decided,
I said, in our house, we're just gonna have two rules,
just two rules. Honor mom and tell the truth. Honor
(00:45):
mom and tell the truth. I'd tell my kids all
the time. The worst thing you can do is tell
a lie. The worst thing you can do is tell
a lie. The worst thing you can do is tell
a lie. When day I'm driving and Andrew's in the
back seat, and it's in the car seat and or
he his big boy buckled up seat and he said, Dad,
I think I know something worse than telling a lot
like what because in our house, the worst thing you
can do is tell a lie, because if you tell
a lie, it breaks the relationship. You know, all this
(01:06):
preacher stuff, you know, he's not I think on the worst
in telling Alia I said what he said, worshiping the devil.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
So we added a.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Third rule, honor mom, don't tell you know, tell the truth,
and never worship anyway. So we just had these two
rules because here's what I knew that you know what,
if you if you cover the basic things, that pretty
much takes care of everything. And in family life, those
two basic things covered just about everything. Now today, in
(01:39):
our journey with Jesus, Jesus does something similar, but he
takes it even a step further.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
If you haven't been with us, we're in.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
A series where we are following Jesus from his introduction
to the world to the day that he became the savior.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Of the world.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
And we said throughout this series that Jesus was not
an end. Jesus was an Instead of that he came
to this place to replace everything that was pretty much
in place. He came to introduce something extraordinarily, brand spanking new.
He came to introduce, as we talked about last time
we were together, a new covenant, a new kind of
(02:16):
relationship between God and mankind. He came to institute the
new command, basically the fine print of the new covenant
that will talk about in a few minutes. And then
he left his new movement us the church. And throughout
his time with his guys, and throughout his three year
journey in Galilee and in Judea and in that part
(02:37):
of the world, he would drop hints.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Throughout.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
He would say things like this, you've heard it said,
But I say, you've heard it said, But I say,
And his audience would say, yeah, we've heard it said.
That's what our parents said, that's what their parents said,
that's what Moses said.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Who do you think you are?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
And Jesus would smile and say, just keep paying attention.
He claimed to be greater than the temple. Well, if
you're greater than the temple, then we don't need the temple.
But if we're we're not going to have a temple,
what are we going to have? What are you talking
about he insisted that the great people go to the.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Back of the line.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
And then in a religious system, in a religious system
that valued cleanliness physical cleanliness, Jesus insisted that the people
who had the holiest hearts oftentimes had the dirtiest hands.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
And Jesus would touch unclean people and he made them well.
He made them.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Knew it was an indication that something new was on
the horizon. But of course his upside down value system,
his kingdom that was not of this world, would be
in conflict with the kingdoms of this world. Conflict was inevitable.
And that's where we left off last time, the last
couple of times we've been together in this journey. Jesus
is on his way to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover with
(03:50):
his guys, and when the religious leaders heard that Jesus
was on his way to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, they
put spies out everywhere. The text says that the chief
priest and the Pharisees had given orders than anyone who
found out where Jesus was should report it so that
they might arrest him. And it turns out that Jesus
was easy to find, but he was not easy to
arrest because everywhere he went there was a crowd. In fact,
(04:12):
as he came to Jerusalem, people lined the streets outside
the city.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
We know they lined the streets inside the city.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
The text says that the great crowd that had come
for passoverheard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem,
and the intensity built and the excitement built, because they
assumed that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem to do something
for the nation, but in fact, Jesus was coming to
Jerusalem to do something for you and for the entire.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
World.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And then something unusual happened. One of Jesus's closest followers
broke rank. Judas got tired of waiting. It dawned on
Judas as they made their way to Jerusalem, Wait a minute,
he's not going in there to become the Messiah. I
think he's going to go in there and surrender all
this talk of the first shall be last and last
shall be first. And it finally dawned on Judas, this
(05:04):
is not going the way he always thought it would
and assumed it would, And it was time for him
to get out. But he wanted to get out with
something to show, so he broke away from the group
to run an errand he went and found the chief priest.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
And he went to the chief priest and said, you want.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Jesus, I can get you Jesus, and I can get
you Jesus when he's not surrounded by a crowd. They agreed,
and they paid him, and the text says that he
watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over when no
crowd was present. And in the end their plan would succeed,
but their objective would not be bat because unlike them,
(05:40):
and unlike me, and perhaps unlike you, Jesus did not
cling to his life all along.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
He had come to give it away.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
But before that moment, before he sacrificed himself for the world,
there were two loose ends that he needed to wrap up.
So first, as they gathered for Passover with the guys,
the first thing he did was declare that he was
establishing a new kind of relationship between God and all mankind,
between God and God's image bearing rebel race. And so
(06:10):
in the upper room, as they prepared and as they
celebrated passover, Jesus changed the tone and Jesus changed the
meaning of passover, and he said, okay, I know You've
been it this way since you were little boys.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
But from now on, when.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
You gather for Passover, you're not going to remember Egypt,
and you're not going to remember Moses.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
You're going to remember me.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
And this bread that always meant one thing, from now on,
it means it represents my body.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
And this wine that represented.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
The blood of the lamb that our you know, ancestors
put over the doorposts, from now on it is going
to represent my blood. And I'm establishing a new covenant
in my blood. And this signaled the end. And this
is such a big, big, big idea that we miss
so easily. This signaled the end of God's conditional covenant
with the nation of Israel, and it signaled the beginning
(06:57):
of a permanent, unilateral, unconditioned, unconditional covenant with all mankind,
a new relational arrangement. But just like contracts, modern contracts
come with fine print. Just like modern contracts come with
terms and conditions, so covenants, ancient covenants came with fine print.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
They came with terms and conditions.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
And this new arrangement between God and man would require
new terms and new conditions. These would replace the terms
and conditions of the old covenant. And the thing is,
jesus closest followers should have seen this coming, because all
along the way, all along the way, he hinted at
the fact that something new was coming, something big was coming,
(07:41):
and it wasn't going to be an end. It was
going to be an Instead of that, he had come
to replace again much of everything that was currently in place.
For example, months before his gathering for Passover in Jerusalem
with disciples, about ten or eleven months before that occasion,
Jesus was the move through villages and towns, teaching, and
(08:02):
they're again sort of dropping breadcrumbs all along the way,
pointing to what was coming, and the Pharisees and the
Sadducees and the teachers of the law were constantly following him.
They were constantly trying to trap him and constantly trying
to separate him from the crowd. So on one particular afternoon,
they joined forces and they drew straws to see who
would go first, because they wanted to trap Jesus with
his words in order to embarrass him in front of
(08:23):
the crowd, separate him from the crowd so that he
would lose the crowd, so that they could ultimately arrest
and get rid of Jesus.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
So here's what happens.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
This is, you know, months and months before the events
have passover. The text says that then the Pharisees went
out and laid plans to trap Jesus with his words.
But they didn't go themselves. They would be recognized. So
they sent their disciples, their underlings, and they gave them
a very very specific question. We want you to go
sit in the crowd, blend in with the crowd. When
Jesus gets to the Q and a part after his talk,
(08:53):
you raise your hand and we want you to ask
a specific question. And if you ask it correctly, you
might be the one that wraps and trips up the teacher,
the rabbi from Nazareth.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
And so here's what they said. They said, teacher. First,
they buttered him up. Teacher. They said, we know that
you were a man of.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Integrity, that you are teaching the ways of God in
accordance with the truth. And Jesus, we know that you,
like most people, you are not swayed by others because
you pay no attention to who they are.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
You know, and Jesus sees this coming.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
And then once they get him, all buttered up, and
they think he's leaning in and they think he's vulnerable.
They ask him an irs question seriously. Jesus responds with
a coin trick, and he sends them scurrying back to
their handlers. So the Pharisees are sitting in the back
of the crowd. Their guys come back. They've embarrassed themselves,
as Sadducees say, we're up next, And so the Sadducees
(09:44):
approach Jesus, blend into the crowd, Q and a stand
up in. One of the sadducees asked this question, teacher,
they said, Moses told us because they're always trying to
divide the people around the idea that Jesus was against Moses,
and Jesus stood in contrast to Moses. So now Jesus,
Moses told us that if a man dies without having children,
to follow this, if a man dies without having children,
(10:06):
his brother must marry the widow his wife and raise
up offspring for him. Now, if you are ever tempted
to embrace the Old Testament and live by the Old Testament,
this law in and of itself is a reason not
to okay. When you think about the implications of this,
And by the way, the New Testament says, if you're
going to do any of the law, you got to
do the whole thing. And this is probably illegal, you know,
(10:28):
in some capacity, especially if you're already married. But the
idea this was a good law in ancient times because
women were so vulnerable. So if a woman's husband died
and she didn't have any children, her husband's name wouldn't
be carried on.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
There would be no one to take care of her.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
So this was a good law. So her husband's brother
would then have to marry her. He'd have multiple wives
and then produce children through her so that his brother's
name could be carried on. So wasn't a bad thing.
But this was a law. So they tell Jesus the law.
Jesus already knew all this, and then they turn it
into a of sorts. Now there were among us. There
(11:04):
were seven brothers among us. They're just making this up.
There were seven brothers among us. The first one married
and died, and since he had no children, he left
his wife to his brother.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
So they get married.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
The husband dies, the wife marries the brother, and then
they say, and then the second brother died and she
married the third brother, and then the third brother died,
and she married the fourth brother, and then the fourth
brother died, and she married the fifth brother. The fifth
brother died, she married the sixth brother. The sixth brother died,
and she married the seventh brother, and then the seventh
brother died, and then she died. Now, every riddle has
(11:38):
a question at the end, So here's the question. So
when she got to heaven, who is she married to?
And the crowd was like, wow, that's a good question.
Who would she be married to in heaven?
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Now, the point of their question was to show how
ridiculous it was to believe in an afterlife, because the
Sadducees did not believe in the afterlife. That's why they
were sad, you see, Yes, okay, So they believed that
we all aren't you glad you came to church today
and you're glad you're watching the things you learn? Yes,
So they believe that we lived for mankind womankind. We
(12:12):
live for the pleasure of God, and when our lives
are over there over and that's okay, because we live
for the pleasure of God, not for ourselves. So they
were just showing how ridiculous it was that there was
an afterlife, which offended the Pharisees and was contrary to
what Jesus taught. So they asked him this trick question
that Jesus smiles and he tells says to them the
thing they hated when he said, he said.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Have you not read the scriptures?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
We other think that's pretty much all we do is
he said, if you not read the scriptures, then he
skips over Moses, goes to Abraham, makes an incredible point
based on the tents of a verb, and sends them
scurrying off to their handlers as well, and.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
The crowd goes wild.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
They love it when Jesus humiliates the hypocritic religious leaders
who were constantly putting a burden on them that they
weren't willing to carry themselves.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Here's what the text says.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his
teaching and hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the
Pharisees decide to reload, so they sent their guys in.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
That didn't work.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
The Sadducees went in. Now the Pharisees have reloaded. They've
got a really good question. They are sure, this is
the one that's going to trip him up. And they
choose one of their best guys, he's actually a lawyer,
to blend into the crowd, wait for Q and A,
raise his hand.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
And ask his question.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Now, this question is a question you've probably heard before
if you were raised in church. But this is an
extraordinary moment in jesus teaching ministry, and he uses it
to point to what is about to come.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Here's what happened.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
One of them, an expert in the law, tested him,
so he wasn't there sincerely was this was part of
a setup? Tested him with this question, teacher, which is
the greatest commandment in the whole law again, the law
of Moses, which is the greatest commandment, and all the
laws that Moses broke brought down from Mount Sinai, which
is the greatest commandment.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Now, everybody in Jesus'.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Audience pretty much knew the answer to this question, because
there was a standard Sunday school answer to this question.
But Jesus saw this as an opportunity to point the
way forward to where he was eventually taking all of
his followers. And Jesus replied, and everybody in Jesus audience,
for the most part, could have mouthed along with Jesus
the answer to this question because this was there was
(14:18):
a stock, standard theological answer to this question, because this
wasn't the this wasn't the lawyer's real question. He had
a question behind the question, and once he got Jesus
to commit himself to the standard answer, he had a
zinger that was going to you know, not Jesus back
on the ropes, or so he thought. Jesus replied, love
the Lord your God, with all your heart. Everybody's like, yeah,
(14:39):
we know this, and with all your soul and with
all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment.
And the lawyer is about to ask his second question,
and Jesus says, and the lawyer's like no, no, no, no, no,
no no. And if you ann that's gonna miss this
thing up. Because see that was the setup. Then I
got my question, and Jesus is.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Like and and the second is like it.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
The second is like it, The second is equal to it.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
This is important.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
The second is second in sequence, it is not second
in greatness. The second law is just as great as
the first law. They go together, and the second is
like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. Now, this is
the first time in all of recorded history that anyone
that we know of took a verse from Deuteronomy and
(15:29):
this verse from Levitigus and put them together in this way.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
The two greatest.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Commandments are love God with all your heart, soul, mind,
and strength, and your neighbor as your self. And this
signaled a very important shift, a shift that Jesus had
been signaling all along.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
But this was a big clue.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
This signaled a shift when it came to religion, that
things were shifting from a vertical orientation to a horizontal
orientation in the religious world in which Jesus lived, in
the religious world perhaps in which you were raised east,
a person could love God and treat people poorly. A
(16:06):
person could claim to be good with God and mistreat
other people. And when they were confronted, they say, oh, no,
God and I are good. I've confessed my sins. I
go to church, I'm in ministry, I serve Yet but
do you see how you're treating your wife. Look how
you listen to the way you talk to your son,
Listen to the way that you respond.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
To people at work.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I know, but me and God are good. This was
the religion of the first century, my friends. This was
every religion of pretty much every century. And Jesus says,
something new is on the horizon that is about to
change with me. And then he says, this all the
law and the prophets, all the law and the prophets. Now,
(16:47):
law and the prophets. In the first century, that meant Bible.
That's their Old Testament scripture. They didn't have the Bible
that came later. But they would call their scripture. They
would call it the Law and the prophets. This was
Genesis all the way basically through Malachi. There was no
formal canon yet, but basically, these are all the sacred scriptures.
So Jesus says, your entire sacred body of literature, your
(17:07):
entire Bible.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Hangs on these two commands.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Now, if Jesus had had a screen at that point,
I think this is what he would have shown them.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Next.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
It would look like this. He'd say, love God, love
your neighbor. All of your Old Testament prophets, and all
of your Old Testament law, and all of your Jewish
scripture hang on these two things. If you're reading along
in Isaiah and you get confused, Just go back to here.
If you're reading along in Daniel and you kind of
get confused, just just go back here.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
This is the starting point.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Everything else is history, explanation and commentary. In other words,
love for God this is his point. Love for God
is best illustrated, demonstrated, and authenticated by love for others.
And in this moment, Jesus reduces all of the Jewish
commands to two big ideas that he says are equal
(18:00):
in value. But he wasn't through the problem at this
point is that for a first century Jewish person, a
neighbor had a definition, and a neighbor was another jew
In fact, Levitgus nineteen eighteen that says love your neighbor
is yourself. It actually in that passage defines what a
neighbor is, and a neighbor is another Jewish person.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
So Jesus takes it a step further.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Many weeks later, he's in a similar situation and another
lawyer comes and asks him another trick question, and in
response to that question, Jesus changes the definition of neighbor
for every generation and in every nation, and he tells
the story the parable of the Good Samaritan, and at
the end of this parable. At the end of this parable,
(18:42):
he answers the question who is my neighbor? And he
changes the definition of neighbor. And from this point forward,
Jesus says, the new definition for neighbor is not simply
another Jew, not someone who's like you, and not someone
you like. From now on, a neighbor is anyone anywhere
with a need that you can meet. This was new, indeed,
(19:06):
that now love for God. Love for God is best illustrated, demonstrated,
and authenticated by love for those who are.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Nothing like you and may not even like you.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
This was so new, But unbeknownst to his audience, these
are breadcrumbs. Unbeknownst to his audience, these are all signs
pointing in a specific direction, hinting at the new terms
and the new conditions for the new covenant. And then
he chose passover as the moment for the official reveal.
(19:42):
They just finished the meal we talked about that last
time we were together. They just finished the meal. Then
he humiliates them by washing their feet.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
They are so off balanced.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Then suddenly Judas gets up and leaves with no explanation.
And then Jesus, having replaced Moses, as the covenant maker,
because Moses was the one that established the covenant between
God and the nation of Israel, and now Jesus has
just established a brand new covenant between God and all mankind,
even though they didn't understand it at the time. Now
Jesus not only takes on the role as covenant maker.
(20:12):
Now Jesus steps into the role as law giver and
the new covenant, the new covenant, like the one that
he just replaced, would have its own set.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Of thou shalts and thou shalt not, but not six
hundred and not even two.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
This is one of the most important moments in the
life of Jesus, and it's heartbreaking to me that for
centuries and centuries and centuries it has been so underplayed,
if given such little emphasis. Because what happens next would
ultimately change the world. Jesus says to his GUIs again,
(20:54):
who had no idea the significance of these words. He says, gentlemen,
I now get you a new command. Now, if they'd
been thinking straight, they'd say, wait, wait, wait, wit Jesus, Jesus,
you can't give us any new commands. Okay, only God
gives commands, you know. The story Moses went up to
Mount Sinai, God gave Moses the law, Moses brought it
(21:16):
back down. So Moses delivered the law. But Moses didn't
originate the law. So Jesus, okay, if you're saying that
you're giving us a new command once again, and you
do this all the time, it says, if you're stepping
in between us and God, it's like you're playing the
role of God.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Who do you think you are?
Speaker 2 (21:33):
I think we're sort of getting the idea of who
you think you are, and that's disturbing to us. Jesus,
I'm going to give you a new command, into which
they might have said, okay, but we don't need any
more commands.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
We have enough.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Besides, okay, besides, you've already reduced six hundred.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Plus to two. So now there's like a third command.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
There's like love the Lord your God with all your
heart and mind, soul and strength, and love your neighbor
as yourself. And if you can't be with the one
you love, love, that's probably not it. So what you know,
what is the third command?
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Man? Maybe three is good.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
I mean tens a lot, six hundreds a lot. And
you gave us two threes the perfect number. So you're
gonna give us like the third command to go with
the other two. Is that what we're doing? But Jesus
had not come to add to. Jesus had come to
take from. Jesus had come to reduce even two to one.
(22:25):
If the church gets this right, everything changes. A new command,
I give you love one another, to which they thought,
that's not new, to which Jesus would have said, I'm
not through. There's a stipulation, as I have loved you, oh,
(22:49):
so you must love one another. And in this moment,
he could have gone around the room from person to
person to person to person, and perhaps he did and
no one recorded it, because he could have paused at
this moment and says, as I've loved you, you must
love one another. Matthew, you remember when we met, Yes, sir,
you remember what you were doing? Yes, sir, say it
(23:10):
out loud. I was a tax farmer. I was a
tax collector. And do you remember when we met? Do
you remember what I said to you? Yes, sir, you
invited me to follow you. And Peter would have spoken
up and said, I remember.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
I was not happy.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
In fact, none of us were happy about Matthew following you,
because if Matthew follows you, he tails around with us
and it's embarrassing Jesus. Like, Matthew, remember where we went
after I asked you to follow me? Yes? Or we
went to my house Peter's like I remember that, Peter. Matthew,
for the rest of your life. The grace I extended
(23:48):
to you that day, I want you to extend that
to every single person you meet for the rest of
your life. Matthew, it's not the Golden rule. Were stepping
it up as I have loved you. That's how you
to love other people. Nathaniel, Yes, sir, you remember when
we met, Yes, sir? Remember what you said about my hometown,
(24:09):
my parents, my stickball team, all my friends, Nazareth, Nazareth,
what good thing could come from Nazareth?
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Do you remember that, Nathaniel? Yes, sir? Do you remember
how I responded?
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Yes, sir, you invited me to be one of your
closest followers.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
That's right, Nathaniel.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I want you to extend that same kind of grace
and that same kind of acceptance to everyone you meet,
regardless how they treat you. Guys, you remember that afternoon
that I didn't have my best day, I will admit it.
When I preached that sermon about drinking my blood and
eating my flesh, and people got nervous because they couldn't
go with the illustration, and people started leaving. You remember
that afternoon. You guys were all sitting around looking at
(24:46):
me like you're paying attention, but I saw you glancing
off to the side.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
We started losing the crowd that day. Do you remember that, guys? John?
Speaker 2 (24:52):
You do?
Speaker 1 (24:53):
You wrote it down right? We remember?
Speaker 2 (24:58):
And do you remember how I responded when I busted you?
Do you remember, Peter? I looked at you guys and said,
you don't want to go too? Do you? And you
were smart enough ought to lie to me because by
that time you knew I would know you're lying.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Remember when I said, do you want to go too?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Because I knew every single one of you, every single
one of you, in spite of all I've done for you,
every single one of you, wanted to blend into the
crowd and disappear. Do you remember that day? Yes, sir,
Do you remember how I responded? You wanted to unfollow me,
But I never chose to unfollow you, and I never
brought it up That's how I want you to treat
(25:32):
each other and the people that you meet for the
rest of your life.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
And this is just the passover meal. You know what
he could have said.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
And guys, you think you've seen love, you ain't seen
nothing yet. Two days from now, three days from now,
four days from now, I'm gonna take this to a
whole other level. And I want you to remember this
night because your responsibility is to love other people the
way that I have loved and am about to love
(26:04):
you by this one thing, By this one thing, By
this one thing, everyone will know that you are my disciple.
If you love one another, not if you love me
because I'm leaving, not if.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
You love God.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Nobody knows if you love one another. His point being
that your love for me and your love for your
heavenly Father will be demonstrated by how well you love
each other and how well you love the people that
are difficult to love.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
And compared to.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
The extraordinarily complicated system of laws that they had grown
up with.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
This was far, far, far.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Less complicated, but it was far more demanding. Now let
me try to illustrate why, and I would rather just
not leave the room. Okay, So this is just between us.
If you give me a list of rules, I can
find a loophole. In fact, the more rules you give me,
the more space there is and the more potential for loopholes. Right,
(27:11):
And it's not just me. If I give you a
list of rules, you can find a loophole. If you're
a parent, and you have parented through the middle school years,
you get this. If you can remember middle school, you
get this. Well, Mom, you didn't say exactly. Well, Dad,
you said to be home, but you didn't say where
at home. Dad, you said I couldn't play, but you
didn't say.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
You didn't say. In other words, you didn't give me
the Dad. You know you're gonna have to spell this out.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
We're gonna have to have tiny print anytime you ever
say anything to me, Because Dad, I'm twelve years old,
I'm thirteen years old. I'm gonna find a loophole. Because
where there are rules plural, there is space, there are cracks.
In fact, it's worse than that. And this is the
part I really don't want you to tell anybody.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
If you give me a.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Bible and I get to use the whole Bible, I
can find a loophole for just about anything you want
to do, especially if I get to use the first half,
because some of the people who wrote the songs we
sing on Sunday did some horrible things. One of them
was a man after God's own heart.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Well, there you go.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
This is why you know people like me get questions
like this all the time. You've asked this question or
some question like it, Well, what does the Bible say
about because I want to do A? Does the Bible
say anything's wrong with A? Because I want to do A?
And if the Bible doesn't say A specifically, okay, that's
not exactly Okay, that's like B I'm asking about A.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
So I'm good to go? Right?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Is there anything wrong with Does the Bible say there's
anything wrong with?
Speaker 1 (28:31):
All those questions?
Speaker 2 (28:32):
I mean, I understand what's behind the questions, but often
what's behind the question is, look, this is what I
want to do, and I don't want to do anything
that God's absolutely against. But if he doesn't spell it
out specifically.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Am I good to go?
Speaker 2 (28:44):
And the answer is, give me a Bible, and I
can find you an opportunity to be good to go,
because give me a list of rules, give you a
list of rules, you'll find a loophole, you'll find some
wiggle room. Jesus walked into a religious environment where the
religious leaders were professional loophole creators, and the hypocrisy was overwhelming,
(29:05):
and it drove people away from the very God that
had created them to worship them. New Covenant love, New
Covenant love. The New Covenant command closes all the loopholes
because there's only one command. You can't slide in between them.
(29:29):
There's not an M, It's just one. This was the
brilliance of Jesus. Besides, after all, I'm not always sure
what to believe, I'm not always sure who to believe,
but I almost always know what love requires of me.
(29:51):
The old Covenant question was this question, what does the
law require? The modern version of the Old Covenant covenant
question is what does the bi require? The New Covenant question,
the Jesus question is what does love require of me?
(30:12):
And here's something our middle school students and our high
school students and our college students need to know. And
here's something we all need to know. But here's something
that has to become more foundational in.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
The teaching of the church.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Is simply this that every New Testament imperative of an
imperative is like a command. Right, Every New Testament imperative,
every New Testament imperative, especially those that follow the resurrection,
Every New Testament parative is simple. Imperative is simply an
application of this new Covenant command. In other words, the
(30:44):
New Testament is not full of a bunch of rules.
The New Testament is full of one rule with hundreds
or dozens rather of applications.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
In other words, if we had.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
A new chart, it would look like this love just
as I've loved you, And everything else is explanation. Everything
else application, everything else's history, everything else's background, everything else
is commentary to what you say.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
It can't possibly be that simple.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yes, it became because the Savior of the world waited
until the time was right to deliver this final blow
to our ego, in this final blow to our selfishness,
and this final blow to that thing and me and
that thing and the thing in you that wants to
have my way but wants to justify it.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Because I found a gap. I found a loophole.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
I'll tell you who saw this. We miss it, the
church misses it, preachers miss it. But I tell you
who didn't miss it the Apostle Paul, the first church planter.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
He did not miss this.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
The Apostle Paul applied this one New Testament New Covenant
command to everything.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Here's a few examples. He wrote this.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
You've heard this before. Be kind and be compassionate to
one another, forgiving each other. Well should I forgive?
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Because the Bible says so? Paul says, what's a Bible?
Oh yeah, you didn't have a Bible.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
So, Paul, are we.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Supposed to be kind and compassionate because you told us
to be kind and compassionate? Paul's like, are you kidding? No, Well, Paul,
why should we be kind and compassionate? Paul says, oh, well,
let me finish the statement, just as two of the
most powerful words in the New Testament. And you find
him throughout his letters, just as in Christ, God forgave you.
Why should I forgive because the Bible says forgive? No,
(32:24):
you forgive because you're forgiven. Why should I be patient?
Why should I be patient with her? Why should I
be kind? He's not kind to me? Why should I
be patient with her? She's not patient with me? Why
should I be kind? Why should I be patient? Show
me the verse.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Paul would say, what's a verse? Oh yeah, they didn't
have those yet.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Paul would say, No, here's why you should be patient.
Here's why you should be kind, because love is patient,
he wrote, and love is kind, And those are your
marching orders. Love does not dishonor others. Here, Essentially, love
does not dishonor Here essentially is the core ingredient of
the New Testament sexual ethic. You never do anything to
(33:04):
dishonor another person, even if it's consensual. If you are
a Jesus follower, Well, is there any verses that don't
have a verse? Honor him, honor her, Honor her husband,
honor his, Honor his wife, honor his children, Honor her
future relationship, honor his future marriage.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
You put other people first. You don't need a verse.
Love is the mandate. Love is the command.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
There is no wiggle room, there's no space to cheat,
there is no loophole. It is so uncomplicated, it's so
extraordinarily compelling.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Paul goes on.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
He says this, He says this in your relationships, Oh yeah,
tell us about relationships. In fact, I'd like to do
an eight week series on relationships. And if you just
do an eight week series on relationships. You can you know,
Paul would say, you don't need eight weeks in your
relationships with one another. Just have the same mindset as
Christ Jesus. You don't need a series. You need a
three by.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Five card and just put this somewhere that when you're.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Wondering how to respond to your husband, you go, oh, yeah,
I'm to respond to my husband the way that God
through Christ responded to me when I was an idiot
and when I was an honest and when I was insecure,
and when I did the wrong thing, and when I
you know, was trying to cover for myself.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
That's it. I mean, you don't need a series.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
You just asked, Okay, what did God through Christ do
for me? That's what I'm supposed to do for other people.
Then here's another one. Okay, this is the church in Ephesus,
Paul writes, Follow this is kind of mushy. You want
to hear some you know, you feel like you're gonna
hear love song in the background. Follow God's example, therefore,
is dearly love children, to walk into the way of love,
the way of love. It sounds so romantic, Paul, what
(34:36):
do you mean the way of love. Oh, let me,
let me explain, just as Christ loved us and gave
himself up for us. Oh that sounds hard. Yeah, there's
no loophole. There are loopholes and romance. There are no
loopholes and this kind of love. Again, I could go
on and on and on and on and on. Paul
does not give Christians a bunch of things to do.
Paul gives Christians a bunch of applications for jesus Knew
(35:00):
Testament command, his New Covenant command, which was simple, as
I've loved you, so are you, so you are to
love one another.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
That's it. That's the one commandments. That's it.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
This is the fine print of the New Covenant. These
are the terms and these are the conditions. This is
the overarching ethical move This is the sort of the
overarching ethic for jesus brand new movement the Church. This
is you've heard of the ark of the Covenant. This
is the mark of the Covenant, and his first century
(35:34):
followers got it. In fact, his first century followers got
it their other's firstness, their willingness to put other people
before themselves in the in a culture that you know,
recognized and embraced violence. It was absolutely appalling. We talked
about this a couple of weeks ago. In a culture
that worshiped victory and strength, the idea of putting other
people first seems so weak. But this upside down kingdom
(35:57):
that Jesus introduced, eventually it became appealing, and then eventually
it became contagious, and it circled the globe. And we
are here today because a group of first century Christians
got this and against all odds, and I mean against
all odds, sandwich between the Temple and the Roman Empire,
with no territory, no authority, no military, they survived and
(36:17):
they thrived, and they were fueled by this single idea.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
As I've loved you, so you must love one another.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
By this all people will know that you're my follower.
By this one thing, people will know that you're my
follower if you love one another. You see, when we
get this right, people want to work for us, even
though they don't want to believe like us. When we
(36:51):
get this right, people want us to work for them,
even if they don't believe like us.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
When you get this right, people are so happy. There's
a new church in town.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
When we get this right, people are so happy that
their daughter or their son is dating a Christian.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
I mean, they believe some interesting things, but my goodness,
the way they treat people.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
What a night that was for those guys. I mean
they showed up thinking, oh, we're gonna have Passover. And
when the night's over, I mean their heads are spinning. Okay,
we're not doing passover anymore. You made this all about you.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
That's weird.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
And then you like cancel it out, Moses whole covenant,
everything we grew up with, and you put on there's
gonna be a new covenant and it's in your blood.
But Jesus, I checked, you're not even bleeding. What does
that even mean? And it's not gonna be the Bread's
gonna be your body, but your body isn't broken. And
then you washed our feet. That was like the worst
moment of my life. I was so embarrassed.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
And then Judas.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Left and now you've decided you're the lawgiver and there's
just one law.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
I mean, their heads are spinning.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
There's no way for them to understand what had just happened.
And Jesus says, okay, I'd like to go now and pray,
let's go to the garden that we always pray. Oh
guess somebody, let's go to guess. It's dark, people won't
see us moving.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Through the streets. Try to be quiet. Let's go to
guest semony.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
So I mean, they're murmuring and whispering as they make
their way to guest semony.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
What in the world's going on? I find?
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I mean, we haven't even really celebrated passover. He changed
all the terms, he changed all the rules. It's so confusing.
And they get to the garden. Jesus, as you pray here,
I'm gonna go pray by myself. He checks on him,
They're asleep. He wakes him up, he prays, He checks
on him.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
They're asleep.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
And then Judas shows up, and the text says he
showed up with a large cohort, probably several hundred people,
several hundred temple henchmen, several hundred guards from the temple,
and Jesus is arrested and his eleven followers flee for
(38:45):
their lives. He's taken the caiaphas at home for trial.
None of his guys show up to be witnesses.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
There are other.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
Witnesses testifying to things that Jesus never said, and that
Jesus never did. But the guys who had been there
the whole time, who could have told the truth, they don't.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Show up for the trial. And then they hear that
Jesus has been taken.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
To Pilot, and that can only mean one thing, because
any other punishment that the religious leaders who would want
to inflict on Jesus they had the right to do.
The only reason they would need Pilot is that they
wanted Jesus put to death. So when the guys heard
that Jesus had been taken to Pilot's palace, they knew
(39:25):
it was over, and they knew they were probably next.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
And so we will pick it up there next week.
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