Sermon
The Plot: Plans to Kill Jesus
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk
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about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Well, good morning. We're
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a couple of friends talk about the Bible and fun and practical way, fun
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and practical ways. You know what. I'm in the mood to be fun
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and practical okay, and I'm feeling mildly friendly today. Mildly friendly. Yeah,
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that's great. It's creeping up on me. Hey, you know,
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give me a minute. At least you're honest, right, you know it's
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important self awareness, Jeff, good job. So anyway, well, hey,
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today, we are starting with a segment that we it's a rare segment,
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but when people write in at times, sometimes they write in questions that
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they want to know the answer touestions and then they call that segment, they
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get it to us and they call it stump the pastor yes. So anyway,
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before we get into this, let me just say that if you would
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like to email us at the Bible No Info at the Bible guys dot com,
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we would absolutely love to consider your question for a future segment, right,
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yeah, so, or you know, right, you can even give
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us your feedback on YouTube and all that kind of good stuff. So hey,
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you want to tackle it. Okay, So ivy b hi ivy Hi're
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so glad that you wrote this in And this is a great question. I
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bet you lots of people wonder about this. It says I stumbled on this
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verse while reading the Bible and was wondering our tattoos a sin. According to
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Levitigus nineteen twenty eight, it says, do not cut your bodies for the
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dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the lord. If so,
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does it not conflict or conflict with Revelation nineteen sixteen, where it says
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on his robe and on his thigh he has the name, this name written
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King of kings and Lord of lords talking about Jesus. Right, So there
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you go. There it is that you have Levitgus nineteen versus Revelation nineteen.
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Oh how about that? Whoa so ahead souts versus Revelation today today, today,
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Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. That's funny. So yeah, So,
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first of all, it's just comment on the fact that twenty twenty four,
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Uh, I think we can all agree tattoos are pretty much everywhere, Yeah,
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everywhere, yeah, they're everywhere. Everybody has a tattoo. Just about
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most pastors, I know a lot of them do, a lot of them
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do. Yeah. I'm not sure if most, but I bet you it's
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I bet it's close to most. Yeah. Everybody under forty, Yeah,
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everybody. That's exactly it. That's exactly it. It's anybody under forty.
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That's why it's most, right, it's more most at the order we get
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right, that's funny. So has everybody else got the mark of the beast?
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Oh no, no, jeez? So what do What do you say
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when you don't like something? You say? Oh no, oh no,
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you say no no. By the way, if I ever tell a funny
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joke and it's right, U kind of the cutting edge, and Jeff goes,
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oh no, him subconsciously separating himself from my statement. Don't laugh,
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don't smile, don't let it touch your faith, don't don't send any approval.
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My wife does that all the time. She says funny things and I
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go, oh no, and then she knocks me for it too. So,
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okay, let's tackle the verse, or let's here we go the issue.
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So, so I think the short answer is this. The short answer
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is in Leviticus. Uh, Jesus was giving specific laws to a Jewish culture
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for Mosar. Excuse me, sorry, did I say Jesus. I obviously
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know that Jesus wasn't the one given unless you he's the word. Jesus is
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the word. Hey. By the way, I saw a podcast yesterday that
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talked about you know, uh, so you know we're talking about Moses,
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right. So God it says that he wrote the stone tablets with with his
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finger, right, and then Jesus when when the woman was caught in adultery,
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he duped and he wrote in the dust in his finger. And he
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said, I wonder if he wrote nowshot doc coument adultery or whatever. And
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he said, but either way, he said, it is the same finger,
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right, because God and Jesus are one. So technically, theologically,
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Jesus is the word. Yes, the beginning was the word, with God
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the word. Theologically, I think I could say, yeah, Moses is
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the one who wrote Leviticus. So anyway, but it was given to a
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very specific Jewish culture for specific reasons, and it was also largely connected to
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the customs and perceptions of that day, which is why it says other things
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like you know, they're not supposed to take a razor to any hair on
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their head, right, Yeah, Well, the verse rate before this says,
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don't trim the edges of your beard and don't cut the sides of your
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hair. So this is why even today Orthodox Jews, you'll see the men
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will have the big long curls on the side. Is because of that verse
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rate before this verse right, right, And then that's why they grow,
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you know, they'll grow longer beards, and the older than men are,
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the longer their beards are a lot of times right in that And that's why
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is because the very specific laws to the Jewish people at that time. So,
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yeah, there's a difference between moral law, don't kill, don't steal.
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Right, Jesus is really clear. He didn't come to banish or change
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moral law. As a matter of fact, he re ups all of the
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moral laws. What Jesus came to do, though, is he fulfilled all
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of the levitical laws. So then the question is on this one, what
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is the purpose? So do not cut your bodies for the dead or put
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tattoo marks on yourselves. Traditionally, there were a lot of pagan rituals where
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they would cut themselves shed their own blood. They would have scars on their
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body acknowledging and representing the fact that they're carrying their dead people with them or
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something like that. And then the same thing with the tattoos. The tattoos
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would often either define their religious worship of dead, which there's cultures all around
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the world that still worship their dead right and so that or they would do
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the tattoo to acknowledge the ownership of the God that they have in their life
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that owns them right, So that would be a big part of that as
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opposed to decorative tattooing today might be a little bit different, but I would
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say that this probably falls I think most theologians would say this falls within the
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levitical laws, not the moral laws. Moral laws have to do with you
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and God, and you and people love God love, people, don't kill,
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don't have any other gods before me, those kinds of things, right,
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But when it comes to these kinds of things, this is probably more
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about the don't have any other gods before me. It's a pagan thing.
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But if you really want to get into it, and I think we were
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talking about this right before the show started in Rome, is fourteen, Paul
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says, you know, there's a lot of those kind of laws that you
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know, should you eat meat that's offered idols or shouldn't you? Right?
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And so these are non Jewish people, so they're not bound by Jewish law
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though, and he was a pharisee, right. The Apostles had already determined
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this in the Book of Acts, that the Gentiles weren't bound by Jewish law
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per se, the moral code, yes, but not the Jewish law.
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And so Paul is saying here then, in Rome's fourteen, just don't sin
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against your conscience. And in uh, what was it? I just wrote
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it down here a minute ago, Corinthians first, Corinthians six, he says
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in verse twelve, he says, everything is permissible from me, but not
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everything is beneficial. So that's really the issue, is Okay, on the
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one side, don't sin against your conscience, he says, for whatever does
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not proceed from faith is sin. So if you're doubting, gee, maybe
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I shouldn't, then you shouldn't, right, because you're not able to do
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it by faith. And then not everything that is that is good or not
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everything that we can do we should do, not everything that is permissible to
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us, is beneficial to us, and so I think you have to weigh
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those things. I personally don't believe it's sinful. I do think that there
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are advantages and disadvantages to tattooing, and so it just depends on your conscience
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with regard to that one. Yeah, is that consistent with what you believe?
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Yeah? Yeah, yeah, and then let's tackle Yeah, that's exactly
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what I believe. In fact, I would then add my personal feeling on
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it as well. And I believe because tattoos today, and again a lot
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of it has to do with culture. So I would imagine that back then
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tattoos were most likely only on pagan worship leader yeahs. And so if you
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saw a tattoo, then you probably almost you know, in the streets,
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you would probably say, well, that's a pagan worship leader, right,
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whereas today it is or that you are participant, that you were a participant
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participant, right, because we know it's changing peoples. They had tattoos,
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yes, So most of the time, a lot of times tattoos were identifying
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slaves. So then people would tattoo themselves to demonstrate that they were a slave
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to their gods. So Yeah, there are all kinds of reasons I ever
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thought about that. Yeah, but because tattoos culturally are are not perceived that
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way at all, And because of what you said, which is, you
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know, being under the levitical law and all things are you know, beneficial
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expedient and all those things. I personally think that tattoos can be something that's
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really positive. So I actually like them a lot. I have often thought
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about getting a tattoo. I just can't bring myself to do it, not
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because of conviction, because of the pain involved. So I just don't want
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to mess as a touch delegate. Yeah, so my wife actually makes fun
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of me and she goes, really she goes, that's why she goes,
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that's the reason why. And I said, well, that's partly the reason
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why, you know, but it's probably partly because I'm fifty, and it's
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like I've waited this long way. Why do it at fifty? Right?
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Yeah, that's right, Well why would you ruin this incredible canvasy this canvas?
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But anyway, so I actually think the tattoos are pretty awesome, and
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I think that they a lot of them. I don't want to say that
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all tattoos are awesome, right, like the guy who put the Lombardi trophy
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and said lines, oh yeah, yeah, that was terrible, bad choice.
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But across or something like that, right, where it's a testimony thing.
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Ye, yeah, So I would I would go back to the one
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phrase. I would not dismiss any of the Old Testament laws as being cultural.
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I think that that happens sometimes. So it's not because it was just
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a cultural thing back then, and culture. I was pointing out that the
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cultures right, right, So culture, culture doesn't change God's word. God's
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word should change culture, right, right. But what I'm saying is,
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in this context, it was written specifically for the Jewish society, right.
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It was written for them to them as an act within the levitical portion of
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the law, not the moral code, but within the levitical portion of the
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law, which had to do with being set apart from the rest to the
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world. That's the Jews. We're set apart from the rest of the world.
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They were supposed to be God's holy people. They were supposed to be
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different in every way, which we are too. Certainly right, come out
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from among them and be separate, says the Lord right, and Paul reaffirms
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that idea. So we're not supposed to be just like the world all the
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time. If you're doing it so that you're like the world, that would
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be I think wrong. If you're doing it for the purpose of testimony or
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because of some significant event in your life, and it's not that you're identifying
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with a pagan thing. I think as gentiles we are not bound by that
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levitical law. That would be the thing. So it's not a cultural thing.
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It's are we bound by that portional law or not? And for some
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people, I think, in for all of us, I think it can
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be a little confusing when you look into that. So that's why Paul would
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say, especially you have to do it by faith and don't sin against your
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conscience, and then consider is this the beneficial thing for what you're trying to
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accomplish in your life. And then it also says the second verse, which
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is Revelation nineteen sixteen, because she asks a follow up question, Yeah,
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yeah, yeah, so's it's Lividicus nineteen versus Revelation nineteen Yeah, that's right.
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And so she's saying, how does it how does it not conflict or
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conflict with this verse? And again it says on his which means Jesus's robe,
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and on his thigh he has the name written King of King's the Lord
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of Lords. I would just say. So some people would say Jesus has
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a tattoo, right, which, by the way, it doesn't say tattoo.
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I've actually whenever I've read that verse, I've always pictured war paint.
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Yeah, because you know it's it's in that you know him coming again,
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right, So yeah, that's that's what I was. It's on his robe.
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It could be a logo, yeah, a name tag, not like
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that. But it doesn't say it's a tattoo. It could be a sharpie
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marker for all we know, yeah, sharpie. Right. The story it
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doesn't say on the skin of his thigh, right, right, So it
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could be on his robe at his thigh, right. It could be that
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it could be Hannah or something where it's just a temporary tattoo. It could
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be that he used carcole and explain for people what head has. It's a
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temporary tattoo, That's what I said. I know it's common in India,
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sure it was. It's common all of the Middle East. My wife got
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one in uh Morocco on her hand, it's really pretty okay, But the
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idea being it does not say it's a tattoo and does not say it's in
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his skin or that it's permanent. Right, So, I know sometimes people
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would want to use that as justification. It's not. So it's not like
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we're pitying jesus tattoo against whether or not you can have a tattoo. Then
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it also doesn't say just because Jesus has his name on his right side doesn't
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mean you have to have your name on your right thigh. Then if you're
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gonna get really specific, say well Jesus has his name on his right thigh,
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I should be able to get a tattoo too, Okay, then you
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have to put your title on your thigh. That's all. That's the only
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thing to be permissible. Right, So if you're going to start parsing words
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or using specific things like that, well then it has to be precise.
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So if he's the king of kings, then you'd have to be the prince
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of princes, right, you know what I mean? What could you write
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if you're going to just justify because it's not saying he has a picture of
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I know a guy who was having a rough night and went and got a
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tattoo of what's that Looney Tunes guy that spins the Tasmani Tasmanian Devil? Yeah
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yeah, And then nothing in his life would would indicate that he would get
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a cartoon character for a tattoo. He was just drunk. He got a
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dumb tattoo, right, Yeah. So it's not that we can just go
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put anything on our bodies if you're going to try to use Jesus' name on
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his thigh as being a justification for it, So it's it's a slippery slope
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if you're going to try to use that as proof. So so this segment
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went long. We had to move on before we do. It is radically
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interesting that you mentioned Tasmanian devil with tattoos, huh, Because when I was
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in Bible College, a friend of mine who's still a pastor, whose name's
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JJ, he came to me because I draw a little bit, and he
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said, I want you to draw the Tasmanian Devil for my tattoo on my
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arm, and I want you to have him flex like this because he had
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he had he had some guns, right, and he said, I want
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I want that, I want him to be in his tornado, but I
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want him to be flexing. So I drew that and he took it to
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a tattoo artist, got it on his arm and still has it. So
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has it And then like instant message me and he was like, hey man,
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remember this, like thirty years later he still got it. Well that's
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the nature of tattoos. If he did it thirty years ago, you still
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got it right, right, yeah, but so interesting, It's like I
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forget all about it, right because for me it was a twenty minute,
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you know, thing of me drawing something. Right, for him, it's
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a thirty year thing. So so summarize, it's a levitical law directed right
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at Jews. You probably are a gentile and not bound by that law.
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And then so then is it going to be beneficial to your life? And
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are you sitting against your conscious to be the two big ones? Right?
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And I think the Jesus argument is irrelevant? Ye, all right, Well
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let's move on because we have screw. So the news is we could take
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a long time on that one because this passage, we're going through the two
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hundred and fifty events in Jesus' life yep. And while every event is important.
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This one doesn't have a ton of depth in it. So we're going
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to read three passages, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And here's what
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it says. In Matthew, chapter twenty six one through five says, when
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Jesus had finished saying all these things, remember all the things he's been teaching
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every morning and every afternoon in the temple. When he said all these things,
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he said to his disciples, as you know, Passover begins in two
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days, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.
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At that same time, the leading priests and elders were meeting at the residents
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of Caiaphas, the high Priest, plotting how to capture Jesus secretly and kill
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him, but not during the Passover celebration, they agreed, or the people
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may riot. In Mark chapter fourteen, verse one, it says it was
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now two days before Passover, in the festival of the unloven Bread. The
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leading priests and the teachers of religious law were still looking for an opportunity to
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capture Jesus secretly and kill him, but not during the Passover celebration, they
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agreed, or the people may riot. And then Luke chapter twenty two says
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the festival of unleavened Bread, which is also called the Passover, was approaching.
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Leading priests and teachers of religious law were plotting how to kill Jesus,
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but they were afraid of the people's reaction. So there. Yeah, So
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so Passover would have began on a Monday, No Saturday, right, would
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have been on Saturday. Would have be done on a Friday evening. Friday
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evening and goes to a when Saturday evening. So then Sabbath begins on Friday
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and ends on Saturday. The passover feet the passover a week was only two
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days. No passover weeks a week, that's fat. I was like,
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what are you talking about? But the Passover it would have been that that
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Sabbath, the Sabbath of a passover would be okay. So there's there's a
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difference between the festival that's just a week long celebration, that's correct, and
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the actual observance of Passover, sure, which would have taken place on the
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Sabbath. There's there's the Sabbath that is the culmination of the Passover. Yes,
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I think is what I was trying to say. Yes, okay,
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so it begins a week earlier, right, okay, So what's interesting about
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this is that all the teaching that we've done for the last what two three
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weeks, yeah, happened in the first four days of the Passover celebration,
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right, right, So we've been teaching for weeks on what Jesus says in
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the first four days, and then now Jesus is on his fifth day saying,
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hey, in two days is the Passover. That's that's why I was
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confused. Yes, okay, so the whole week is Passover week, right,
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but he's saying, hey, in two days, Passover begins, okay,
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which is why I was asking, which, by the way, that
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itself is worth the price of admission there you go, right, So and
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so anyway there, so they're plotting to kill Jesus and it says that they're
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meeting in Caiaphas's house. Isn't it true that you got the opportunity to go
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to Chias's house? No, it was closed when we were there. Oh
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no, oh yeah, we went to the ancient city of David instead,
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which is right near there. Okay, So I had the opportunity to go
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into Kivas's house and there's a lot of you know, they always rate the
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accuracy of the sites. Yeah, you know, they always give it like
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a one, two, and three, And they rated Kivas's house as a
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one and they said that they said that they were certain that this was the
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house of Caiaphas for these reasons blah blah blah, and and you know,
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it's just a magnificent structure. And back then, a lot of the houses
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would be sort of they utilized cave structures, and they utilized the cool of
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you know, the rock around them, which, by the way, it's
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amazing, isn't it. How you could be out in one hundred and twenty
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degree heat and then you could walk down into this cave and you would think
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that it'd be hotter in a cave, but it's actually really cool, like
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to the point where hey, do you have a sweater? Yeah? Like
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isn't that crazy? By the way. But anyway, so a lot of
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Kivs's house was actually slightly built into the rock, and so you get to
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sort of see where that dwelling was. It was magic, magnificent in big
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but there was also this like spiral staircase that was built later that you were
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able to walk down into the dungeon where prisoners were held before trial in Chives's
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house. So when Jesus was taken to trial and he was being held at
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Chives's house, he would have been there right before he went through the crucifixion.
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Wow. And so it was actually extremely emotional. So, you know,
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you get to go down this spiral staircase and you're standing in this this
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pit made out of a cave, and you're looking up and you're thinking,
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this is the only dungeon in Chives's house where prisoners are held before trial.
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Jesus was there, which means Jesus was pretty certain that Jesus was here in
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this pit awaiting his crucifixion. So, and by the way, and I'm
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talking like it was not why it was like it was I don't know how
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to say this, maybe five by five, yeah, right, So,
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but it was round, and it was actually pretty emotional. It's a really
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powerful thing to be able to walk into places that you knew Jesus was standing
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and was that. Let me read this note as we wrap up this episode
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today, Luke, chapter twenty two, verse one. The note in the
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Life Application Bible will bring clarity to the conversation. We were just having a
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second ago. I misspoke a little bit. It says all Jewish males over
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the age of twelve were required to go to Jerusalem for the Passover festival,
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which was followed by a seven day celebration called the Festival of Unliving Bread.
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Right, So there's the Passover and then there's the festival on loven Bread,
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which was still what they would call the festival the Passover, right, those
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were, so it kind of gets a little convoluted there, but it was
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followed by so Passover begins and then the seven days follows the beginning of Passover.
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Does that? Does that make sense? So I was saying it was
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ahead. It's after for these festivals, Jews from all around the Roman Empire
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would converge on Juru some to celebrate one of the most important events in their
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history. Right. And we'll talk more and more and more about this,
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because now now that we're entering in everything has significant symbolic meaning all connected to
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the Passover. So we'll be talking about that over the next couple for certain.
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So okay, well, that's great. We spent a lot of time
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on the stuff the pastor but again, them plotting to kill Jesus isn't new
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right. Yeah, this has been a theme, this is. But they
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were you know, the only new information here is is that they didn't want
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to do it when the crowds would riot. Right. But it turns out
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that they eventually get to the place to where they're gonna have Jesus crucified right
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on the tail end of this correct. So all right, Well, that's
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all the time we have and we will see you next time. All the Bible guys