True Worship & Satanic Scheme

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Be seated, and at this time I want to invite my brother Mike Collier to come up.
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We are, as I said, my intention, my original plan was not to be here this morning, so I'm thankful that Mike has offered to preach in my stead, and even though I am here, I'm encouraged to be able to sit among the congregation and hear the Word preached, so I encourage brother to come and preach now.
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Good morning, when Keith asked me and the elders to stand in his stead, I graciously said I would like to do that, so I appreciate you guys that did come to hear pastor, teacher, karate kicking, karate chopping, doctor, writer, author, Keith Foskey instead, you just get Mike.
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You can open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 26, I looked up there, and it's 1-6, it's actually 1-16, and if you want to turn your Bibles there.
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The passage today is a very taxing, emotional passage.
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It's a very tender moment, but it's also a very diabolical one as well.
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It says that the same sun that melts the snow hardens the clay.
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It's a phenomenon.
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We see those kinds of things happen, but there's also another sun that does the same thing, it's the son of God.
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He hardens hearts, and he also softens hearts.
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And as you read through the Gospels, any one of them, you will see people's lives that are touched by Jesus Christ, and they are forever changed, either hardened, or they're grown closer to Him, drawn into submission to Him, or they're turned completely away from Him, and they want to kill Him.
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And without a doubt, that Christ that we will preach on today is the same Christ that we will come in contact with.
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There are no fence riders with Christ.
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You cannot be on the middle road.
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There is no neutral ground.
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You are on one side or the other.
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You can look all through the Gospels as well, and you can just back up into Matthew and keep it in the context of its book.
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In Matthew 6, it says, No man can serve two masters, he must hate one and love the other.
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Matthew 10-34, it says, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
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In Matthew 12, it says, If you are not with me, you are against me.
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And he who does not gather with me scatters.
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This is the Jesus of this passage.
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Jesus is the most controversial man in all of human history.
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All of human history.
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He has been loved because of His death, but at the same time, He was put to death because of His life.
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Today's passage is Matthew 26, verses 1-16, and it has two bookends.
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You have verses 1-5, which is Caiaphas and the religious leaders, and they conspire to murder the Son of God.
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And you add the other bookend, which is verses 14-16, which is the instrument, they take one of the twelve, and use him as the instrument by which they murder the sinless Lamb of God.
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But if you look right there in the middle, you have verses 6-13.
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It's a tender moment, it's a tender scene.
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There's a woman from Bethany that comes, and she takes an alabaster vial, she breaks the flask by its neck, and anoints Jesus for His burial.
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But then at the other end of that spectrum, you have two men and a group of men conspiring not to break a flask, but to break the neck of the Son of God.
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What contrast.
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From one opposite string to the other.
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It's amazing.
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But as we come to chapter 26, we're going to read, this is still that great Tuesday.
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This is the Passion Week, or what Keith calls Holy Week.
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It would be Tuesday on your Gregorian calendar, or Wednesday on your Jewish calendar.
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This day was filled with much conflict and controversy.
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The religious leaders, Jesus had gone in, He had confronted them, He had cleansed the temple, He had gave many parables, He had astonished the rulers and the leaders of Jerusalem with His teaching.
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The people wanted to make Him king just a few days before.
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But it would be on this same day that Jesus would now give ethical instructions as He left the temple complex this afternoon, He would leave.
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And as His disciples looked and said, What will become of these stones? He says, not one stone will be left on another.
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This whole place will be decimated.
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He leaves, and He leaves the temple complex, and He walks over to the Mount of Olives, where He looks back and He gives His disciples pastoral and ethical instructions on how to live.
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What would be the end of the age and what would be the sign of His coming? Let's read Matthew 26 verses 1 through 16.
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Let's stand in honor of reading God's Word.
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Now it had come to pass when Jesus had finished all these sayings that He said to His disciples, You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered to be crucified, and that the chief priests and the scribes and the elders and the people assembled at the palace of the high priest who was called Caiaphas.
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And they plotted to take Jesus by stealth or trickery to kill Him.
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And they said, Not during the feast, lest there might be an uproar among the people.
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And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came, and having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, she poured it out on His head as He sat down at the table.
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But when His disciples saw it, they became indignant, filled with anger, saying, Why this waste? For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor.
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But when Jesus was aware of it, He says, Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for me.
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For you have the poor with you always, but me you do not have always.
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For in pouring this fragrant oil on my body, she has prepared me for its burial.
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Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will be as told as a memorial for her.
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Then one of the twelve, Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priest and said, What are you willing to give me that I may deliver him to you? And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver.
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So from that time forth, he sought opportunity to betray Him.
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Let's pray.
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Father God, we come before You right now.
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I ask that, Father, You would keep me from error.
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That, Father, You would fill me with strength by the power of Your Spirit to preach Your word with clarity and with boldness.
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And that, Father, the hearers would hear it as if You were speaking.
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Father God, I ask that You would open minds and open hearts.
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Father, that You would awaken dead spirits today through the preaching of Your word.
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That lives would be transformed and hearts would be changed.
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Father God, once again, give me the strength to do what only You can do, which is proclaim Your word.
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Father, I can do this not on my own volition.
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Father, for it's Your truth, it's Your word, and I'm standing in front of Your people.
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So, Father, empower me to do what You've called me to do.
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In Christ's name, Amen.
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There are a couple of parallel passages to this.
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Matthew 26, 1-16, Mark 14, and then you have another passage, which is a parallel passage of this, which is John 12.
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So, at times, you will hear me go back to those other passages so that we can have a full picture of what's going on.
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Sometimes we call it the synoptics where we take them together or theologians say they harmonize the gospel.
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So that you can get the full picture.
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So, at times, you will hear me talk about something in John or Mark 14.
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Just want you to know that's what I'm saying.
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Verses 1-2 says that Jesus reveals the day of His death.
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Jesus had just finished the Olivet Discourse.
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He had just gave, for the first time in Scripture, an actual date in which He would die.
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Jesus, in Matthew 16, verses 21, and chapter 17, verses 22-23, and in 20, verses 17-19, Jesus had said, Hey, I'm going to be taken up, I'm going to go to Jerusalem, I'm going to be arrested, I'm going to be betrayed, I'm going to be handed over to the chief priest, and I'm going to be killed.
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But I will rise on the third day.
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That goes right over His disciples' heads for the three times He had said it.
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Matter of fact, the one time that He did say it, Peter pulled Jesus aside and rebuked Him.
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Imagine that, pulling the Son of God to the side to rebuke Him.
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And then Jesus said, Get thee behind Me, Satan.
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Because the spirit which was speaking, and the attitude in which Peter was speaking, was an offense to Christ, wanting to withhold Him from taking and doing exactly what God had called Him to do, which was to come and to give His life.
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Well, the time frame is in two days.
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He says in two days, I'm going to be betrayed, I'm going to be handed over, I'm going to be given to the chief priest, and it's going to be at the Passover.
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Well, what was the Passover? Well, it was one of the three major feasts that would take place in the Jewish calendar.
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There were pilgrimages.
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One was the Passover.
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The other two were Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles, or in some of your Bibles, it may call it the Feast of Booths.
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And they were all dealing with the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt.
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Passover was the most significant.
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It was the major feast in which the pilgrims would make their way to the center or the temple area of Jerusalem.
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And what they would do is they would remember when through the mouth of Moses, God told him, you take a lamb, you slit its throat, you take the blood, you put it on the lintel and the doorpost, and when the death angel comes through, he's going to pass over you, and if the blood's not there, the firstborn and all of Egypt would be killed.
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And it was at that time, after the firstborn of all the Egyptians had died, that Pharaoh says, hey, it's time for y'all to go.
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Matter of fact, why don't you get out of here now? We're going to give you all this stuff so that you can take it with you.
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Just leave.
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And that's what they're remembering.
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So it is at this time, in this celebration, that Jesus says that the most heinous crime ever committed was fixing to take place, and that would be the murder and the betrayal of the Son of God.
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But in verses 3 through 5, we see Jesus's conspirators.
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Who are they? Well, it says the chief priest.
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Now, this is debatable on who the chief priest may be.
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Some say it's just the Sadducees.
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Some say it was those who handled the orderly worship that would take place inside the temple complex.
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That's not where I land at.
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I believe it is the chief priest is speaking of two priests.
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You had Caiaphas, which we'll talk about him in just a moment, but you had Annas.
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One of them was deposed by Rome, and then Annas was deposed by Rome, and Caiaphas was installed by Rome in his place.
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So what happened is you have two high priests.
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Under Jewish law, you would have had two at that point.
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It's not how it was supposed to be, but because one had been taken out of his place and another put in his stead, under Jewish law, when did the high priest cease to be the high priest? When he died.
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So here, we have Annas still having a lot of power and control of what would take place, and Caiaphas actually being his son-in-law, was put in his place, and you would still have that interaction, and you do see that.
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I think it's either in John or in Luke when Jesus is arrested.
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Where do they take him first? They take him to Annas' house, and then they take him to Caiaphas.
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Well, why would they do that? Because of the power which Annas still had.
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Well, they gathered at Caiaphas' house.
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Well, why didn't they gather somewhere else? Why did they gather at the temple where everybody else would be, where the scribes would have been, the elders would have been? Instead, they met in a secret place where this could be done under the shroud of darkness and away from where the people could see it.
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Well, who was Caiaphas? It's the first time we see his name in the book of Matthew, and up until all the other accounts, it's the first time you see his name actually mentioned in any other gospel would be up until the time of Jesus' arrest and betrayal.
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But Caiaphas was put in his place by Rome in 18 AD, and he served as high priest until around 36.
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Just think of that.
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It was a wicked man.
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He officiated all the affairs of the temple.
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He extorted the selling of animals inside the temple complex.
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That's why he moved it from the Mount of Olives.
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And when Jesus came in and he cleansed the temple, he moved it inside from off the Mount of Olives.
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He moved it inside the temple complex to block anyone else out and wanted to keep all the money there.
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And that's when Jesus came in and he cleansed it because of the corruption.
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Caiaphas was a wicked man.
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He served only for himself, wanted his own power, and wanted the glory of his own self.
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But I want to make something very clear, though.
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I think it's 13 times Caiaphas went into the Holy of Holies.
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Once a year, Yom Kippur, and he killed the goat.
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He placed that blood on the horns of the altar inside the Holy of Holies.
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God should have struck that man dead.
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But because of the office of the high priest and who that high priest pointed to, which was Jesus Christ, our great high priest, God spared him his life in that time.
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But the meeting for this reason at Caiaphas' house, instead of being at the temple chambers, was to have a secret meeting to put to death the Son of God.
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Jesus had already came into it as the humbled king.
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He had already came into Jerusalem, people throwing down palm branches and clothing.
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Actually, they wanted to put him as king.
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And Jesus refused.
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But they would want to meet in this place to agree to kill him.
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It says in verse 5 that they would come to an agreement to kill Jesus.
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But they didn't want to do it during the feast in case there would be an uproar.
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Well, why not during the feast? Why not when this would be the best time to get Jesus? He would be in a place where you could easily grab a hold of him.
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Well, they wanted to do it after the Feast of the Unleavened and after the Feast of Passover.
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And you want to write this down.
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You can see the Feast of Unleavened and the Feast of Passover.
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They ran together, sometimes depending on the calendar, either after or before in Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23.
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But it would be at this time that the most people would be in Jerusalem.
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If you go read Josephus, who was a Jewish historian who was actually adopted by Vespasian, the emperor, to be his historian, he says that they would sacrifice during the Passover week some 265,000 lambs.
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If you go back to the Mosaic law, you could not have more than 10 people to that lamb.
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So just do the math.
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You're talking at Passover, somewhere near 3 million people, the place would be exploding.
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So what they wanted to do was not take Jesus at this time, because he was the most popular man in all of Judea, was he not? He was going about doing nothing good.
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He was doing everything that was good.
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He was going about healing people.
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He was going about preaching the gospel of the kingdom.
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They were watching people's lives change, lepers being healed and dead people getting up and walking.
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No doubt, he was the most important figure at that time to the Jewish people that came in Judea.
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And they did not want to do anything with Jesus.
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One, he was a Galilean.
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You know anything about the Galileans? They were the backwoods rednecks.
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He didn't mess with them.
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They were kind of rough around the edges.
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And as when Jesus came into the city, he was coming in with the Galilean pilgrims.
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And they didn't want an uprising with him.
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What would happen to the city of Jerusalem had an uprising taking place for taking Jesus captive? Rome was going to squash it.
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And they did not want Rome to come in with their iron heel and smash it.
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So what they wanted to do is, verse 5 says, they wanted to wait until the feast was over.
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Wait a couple of weeks.
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After it was gone, people would be leaving.
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They would take Jesus by stealth at night, however they planned to do it.
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And then they would put him to death.
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But then we get to verse 6.
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And it's kind of an odd change in the passage.
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And if you have the outline that I made for some of you, the Sunday school class for a harmonized Passion Week, this passage, verses 6 through 13, is not there.
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And the reason why it's not there is because it didn't take place this time.
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Matthew is using a strategic time to put an event that took place to show you the sharp contrast between religious leaders and the followers of Christ.
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Sharp contrast.
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And how do we know that this is not when it took place? You can flip over to John chapter 12.
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And I'll go ahead and read this passage.
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John chapter 12, beginning of verse 1.
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It was six days before the Passover that Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus, who had been raised from the dead, was at.
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And they made supper with him.
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Martha served them, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table.
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And then Mary took a pound of very costly oil, spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrant oil.
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So it says here this was six days before the Passover.
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So there is a change in time frame.
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So actually, if we were looking when this would have taken place, it would have been taken place yesterday.
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The day before is triumphal and free.
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The day before today.
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So this is not the same anointing that takes place in Luke chapter 7, verses 36 through 50, where Jesus was anointed by another person, by another woman, in a man named Simon the Pharisee's house.
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Okay, so this is not the same one.
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That is a very moving scene as well, honoring Christ as well.
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But this is not the same one.
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What we're going to do now is focus on 6 through 13, and on what takes place with Jesus, and how Jesus is anointed for his burial.
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It says, Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper.
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And a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table.
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But when his disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, Why have you wasted this? For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor.
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But when Jesus was aware of it, he said, Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for me.
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For you have the poor with you always, but me you do not have with you always.
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For in pouring out the fragrant on my body, she did it for my burial.
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And surely I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached to the whole world, what this woman has done will be a memorial to her.
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This is what they were saying at the house in Bethany, having a supper at the house of Simon the leper.
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Simon the leper.
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What do we know about Simon the leper? Not a whole bunch.
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But what we do know is that he was very significant.
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One, he was a leper.
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What was a leper supposed to do? Well, one, he was not supposed to be in a covenant community.
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He was not supposed to be in this town or this city.
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So we know that with the disciples and Mary and Martha and Jesus and his disciples sitting there eating with him and Lazarus eating with him, was Simon a leper anymore? No.
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It's very clear that he's not a leper anymore.
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But he was looked at as his title as Simon the leper.
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And there's no doubt that we can say this, that Jesus is most likely the one that healed him.
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And this is a time of honoring him, a time of putting him in there to feed him, having a meal with him, where they would come around with one another and enjoy a time together.
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And knowing that Simon had been excluded from times with people, what a time together with Jesus, the one that healed him with Lazarus, Mary and Martha, and his disciples just before the Passover.
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What a time to spend with the Savior in honor of him.
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He was supposed to have been a defiled person.
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He was supposed to have been someone who was not to be in any contact.
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His life was a picture of sin.
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If you were to look in the Old Testament and look even through some of the New Testament, a person had leprosy, it was a sign that they were a gross sinner.
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That it was a direct result of something that they had done.
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Although that is not the case.
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Anytime someone gets sick does not mean that this is a direct result from their sin.
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But he had this horrible incurable disease.
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But Simon obviously had been cured.
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He had been restored back to his covenant community.
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And he was sitting with the disciples of Jesus.
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This scene is very moving here.
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It says that Jesus, the twelve disciples of Lazarus, who had been raised from the dead after four days, the Simon the leper are all sitting there with a meal that had been prepared by Martha and being served with Mary.
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And as Jesus reclined at the table, they were not sitting in chairs.
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They would be sitting on a low top table, leaned on their left arm with their feet away from the table, eating with their right hand.
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And it says that a woman in verse 7 says that a woman with alabaster flask, a very costly fragrant oil, she poured it on his head as he sat at the table.
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It says in John, as we read a second ago, that this person was Mary.
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Mary came and she poured this alabaster flask of fragrant oil on Christ.
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John's account tells us that it was spikenard.
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And it was a very costly oil.
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It was an alabaster flask.
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What's an alabaster flask? An alabaster flask was made of gypsum.
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It was very small and cylindric.
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And what they would do is they would polish it.
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They would put whatever this costly perfume or aromatic oil in it.
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And then they would either put gypsum back over top of it and polish it, or they would seal it with wax.
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So what it was, this was very, very expensive.
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The oil is said to come from the nard plant in John.
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Well, does anybody know where a nard plant grows? It grows in the Himalayas.
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You know how far the Himalayas is from Jerusalem, from Bethany? 2,600 miles.
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So you can imagine why this was so costly.
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With no UPS, no FedEx, and no UPS, I mean, no United States Postal Service, how do you think it got there? It got from men and women and caravans trekking it either on the backs of camels and horses or carrying it.
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So Mary takes this alabaster flask.
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She snaps the neck of it.
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It says in Matthew and in Mark that one says he pours it on his head, and the other one says it pours it on his feet.
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And we get the full picture.
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What did she do? She poured it from his head to his feet.
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She poured it all over him.
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And this expensive oil was poured from his head to his feet as he climbed at the table.
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And breaking that flask at its neck was saying she was not going to save any of it.
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And she just poured and let it gush all over the Son of God as she was preparing it for him as a time to honor Jesus, the Son of God.
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One, she was honoring Him because He is the one that had raised her brother from the dead.
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She had saw Jesus Christ stand in front of the tomb and said, Remove the stone.
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And He said, Lazarus, come forth.
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And Lazarus busted forth.
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His heart began to beat.
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His skin became like new after being decaying for four days.
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And she had no other time.
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She said this would be the best time to honor the Savior.
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Then it says that she bowed down on her knees and she begins to wipe her feet with His hair.
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She just begins to wipe it all over it.
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What a moving scene.
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A moving scene honoring the Son of God.
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And the fact that Mary was willing and ready to do this in the presence of all these other men, all these other people, was to show her humility and how she held Jesus in high regard.
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It showed her devotion to Him and her gratitude.
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There is no doubt that Mary had heard these words.
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Come unto me, all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
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No doubt Mary had heard the words.
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If a person's not willing to hate his mother, his father, his sister, his brother, hate him in his own things, in his own life, he can have no part of me.
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She knew it was Jesus who had healed Simon.
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She knew it was Jesus that had restored him back to the covenant community.
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She knew that it was Jesus that had resurrected her brother from the dead and as an act of adoration, compassion, and honor.
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And indebtedness.
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She took this very costly oil and just let it gush all over the Savior.
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Matthew and John tell us that this was priced at 300 denaria.
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300 denaria would have been 300 days wages.
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300 days wages.
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I would ask you, has any one of you ever put a whole year's salary in the offering plate? That puts it in perspective.
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It really puts it in perspective when this is a daily work, daily pay, daily food society.
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She was not wealthy.
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She had to do it with lots of savings.
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This mostly likely would have been something that would have been her 401k if you want to say.
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It would be all the savings that she had.
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And what did she do? She snapped it and she poured it on the Son of God as an expression of her love for the Savior, as she stood behind Him as He reclined at the table.
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What a tender moment of adoration.
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What a tender moment of expression of love and compassion for her Savior.
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But then you hear these words, why the waste? What are you doing wasting it? Disciples begin to scold her.
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They begin to have indignation and wrath towards her for pouring out this expensive aromatic oil on the Son of God.
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And if you look in John 12, you know who leads the charge? Judas.
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Judas leads the attack and he attacks the criticism and clothes it in what's good for the poor.
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You know what he wanted it for? John tells us.
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He wanted it so that they could sell it and he could put the money in the coffer so that he could skim off the top.
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That's why Judas did what he did.
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Judas clothes his greedy criticism and that of helping the poor.
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The other disciples, out of a true concern and a desire to help the poor, they fall into that critical trap as well.
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Can you imagine telling someone, you have wasted it all on the Savior? You've wasted it.
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You realize it's impossibly too devoted to Christ? Do you understand that? You understand you gave every dime that you ever made to the work of the Gospel.
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If you gave every ounce of your being, every fiber and cell that is within you, and every ounce of energy that was in you, you were to give it to serving the Lord, it still would not be enough.
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I want to make that very clear.
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You are still indebted to Jesus Christ.
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It would never be enough.
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You could never be too devoted to the Son of God.
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You could never be too committed to the Son of God.
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But then you hear these words.
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Leave her alone.
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Why do you bother her? We see Jesus our Advocate, Jesus our Defender, Jesus our Intercessor, and He stands up.
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And I read these passages, it goes in my mind, I picture Jesus getting up from a reclined position, and He stands up and He points at Judas and He says, you leave her alone.
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He was the accuser of the brethren.
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Satan would enter Him.
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He was going to be possessed by the devil.
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We can see right here, Jesus already being the Intercessor, Advocate, and Protector of His.
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As He stands and He says, leave her alone.
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Why do you bother her? Mary had been listening to the words of Jesus.
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Mary also had incredible insight and understanding because it says that this costly perfume had been sold and could have been given to the poor.
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But she knew that there was something more important than giving this money to the poor, at least at this time.
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Jesus says what she has done was good.
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And it's a beautiful work.
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It says that Jesus didn't say don't worry about the poor.
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He didn't say don't give to the poor.
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He says, but for this time, at this particular moment, this was the most important thing.
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And why was it the most important thing? Because the poor you have with you always.
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But Jesus, you will not have with you always.
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He says, I'm not going to be here, at least not in the same manner.
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But right now, this is the most important thing.
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And Jesus says to Mary what she has done, she could have possibly have not done more.
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Mark 14 verse 8 says there was nothing else she could do.
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She had given everything that she had.
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It says that we know that she had heard the words of Jesus of giving all, denying self, and giving up to follow Christ.
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And as Jesus reclined, and she poured out that costly fragrance on Him and on His body, Mary got it.
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Mary knew and she had heard the words that Jesus was going to be betrayed.
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Jesus was going to be mocked.
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Jesus was going to be spit on.
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Jesus was going to be scourged.
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Jesus was going to be delivered up, and then He was going to die a criminal's execution.
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She knew this was the only time in which she had to honor Christ in His burial.
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When a person was executed, it was very quickly.
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It's not like today.
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You're condemned to death and you go somewhere and you sit for years, weeks, months on end until you're executed.
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You're condemned to death.
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They lead you out and they crucify you.
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There would be no time.
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And she knew that in just a few days that Jesus was going to be executed.
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Mary didn't know all that there was to know about Christ and what it entailed.
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But she believed that Jesus' death and burial were very significant and she wanted to honor Him in that way.
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Mary knew that this was the last chance she would have to honor Him.
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And Jesus says, what this woman has done will be known in all the world wherever the Gospel is preached.
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Wherever the Gospel is preached.
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And we can say that is being fulfilled today in your presence.
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Why? Because we're reading that passage today.
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We're reading that passage today, 2,000 years reserved, going, here it is, the Gospel is being preached and here it is, this is being as a memorial to what Mary has done.
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Verse 13 says that the Gospel will be preached in the whole world.
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Understand that He is already telling you what the purpose of the church is going to be long before He ever gave the Great Commission.
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He's saying the Gospel is going to be preached in all the world.
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In all of the world.
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It's going to go to all the nations.
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Mary could have definitely sang these words, love so amazing, love so divine, it demands my soul, my life, my all.
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She poured out all that she had to the Savior.
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She gave everything that she could just as the widow gave her two mites in Luke 21.
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Mary's act of expression in love and gratitude to Christ was so pleasing to the Lord that until He returns, we will be talking about this memorial.
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What a time of compassion.
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What a time of honor and respect to the gracious Son of God.
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But back to verses 14 and 16.
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Back to the diabolical scheme where Jesus reveals the betrayer.
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We're back at the conspirator's meeting.
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It says that then one of the twelve called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priest and said, what are you willing to give me that I may deliver him to you? They counted out 30 pieces of silver.
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And so for that time, he sought an opportunity to betray him.
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What happens next in this scene would have shocked the chief priest, the scribes and the Pharisees.
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Understand, here's what they hear.
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They go to the door.
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It's one of the twelve.
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Caiaphas says, let him in.
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And he lets him in.
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It's one of the inner circle, Caiaphas.
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He says, let's talk to him.
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Listen to who this person was.
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His name means praise, praise to Yahweh.
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And he was named after one of the patriarchs, the son of Jacob.
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He was one who healed the sick.
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He was one who went out and cast out demons.
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He was one who preached the gospel of the kingdom.
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He was one who walked beside Jesus Christ for three years.
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Understand, the knock at the door was not a Pharisee.
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The knock at the door was not a Sadducee.
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The knock at the door was not the Roman procurator here to take Jesus away from being an insurrectionist.
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It was Judah.
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It came from a Hebrew city of Kiriath, some 30 miles south of Jerusalem.
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His Greek name is called Judas, Judah of Iscariot.
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We have the Germanic or the Anglo-Saxon version on our Bible, Judas.
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Judas Iscariot.
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Let me read to you in Luke chapter 22.
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Now the feast of the unbleavened bread drew near, which was called Passover.
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And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill him, for they feared the people.
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Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve.
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And he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and the captains of how he might betray him to them.
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And they were glad.
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You see that? It says that they were glad and they agreed to give him money.
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So he promised that he sought to an opportune time to betray him to them in the absence of the multitude.
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Judas' loyalty was superficial.
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Judas was a turncoat.
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Judas was a traitor.
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Judas sold Jesus Christ, the Son of God, for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a common slave or a hurt ox.
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The chief priests, the scribes, and the elders, their response was open hatred, insubordination to Christ.
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They were always hostile.
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They were rebellion and blatant.
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They said they would not have any part of him.
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They even specifically said in one passage in Luke that they would not have this man rule over him.
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Judas' sin was rejection.
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His sin was rejection and it was very secret.
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It was greed.
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It was the love of money.
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Therefore, his rejection was deceptive and it was hidden.
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Judas hated the words, you cannot serve two masters, you must love one and hate the other.
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Why did the chief priests and scribes and Judas reject Christ? Because men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are wicked.
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Everyone who practices evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his wicked deeds be exposed.
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I want you to look at these similarities.
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In closing, both Mary and Judas saw the compassion of Christ.
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Both Judas and Mary saw the many healings both of them sat under his teachings.
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They both were companions of Christ.
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They both saw him raise Lazarus from the dead and many others.
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Both heard the words that he would go to Jerusalem, he would suffer and he would die.
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Here's Mary's response.
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Out of love and gratitude to this Christ, she gave all that she had monetarily to honor Christ.
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She gave all that she had.
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She gave her life to him.
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She saw nothing more important than Jesus Christ and the love that he had for her.
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She knew that she loved him because he first loved her first.
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Listen to Judas' response.
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Out of the love of money and greed, he rejects the kingdom of God, he sells Christ for thirty pieces of silver and becomes the instrument by which Christ would be handed over to be crucified.
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The application is very clear.
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Who are you? Who are you? Do you see Jesus Christ as all the lovely? Are you willing to hate your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, hate even your own life? Are you willing to lay your life down for the cause of the gospel? Or are you going to be like Judas who came with strings attached? It is said to be that Judas was part of the zealot group.
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History says that.
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Makes sense.
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The zealots were those who wanted to overthrow Rome.
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And when Jesus many times says, my kingdom's not of this world.
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And at the same week, Jesus had also said, you give to Caesar what is Caesar.
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You submit to the authorities that are put over you.
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And he says, I will not.
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Who are you? Have you come to Christ with strings attached? If you are, you're not a Christian.
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If you're not attached to Christ first, if you're attached to your boyfriend, if you're attached to your girlfriend, if you're attached to your job, if you're attached to money, if you're attached to anything other than Jesus Christ first, you're not a Christian.
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And I know that might be harsh on the ears.
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But Jesus says you can't serve two masters.
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You must hate the one, love the other.
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Is Jesus Christ lovely and pleasing to you? If he is not, you're not a Christian.
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I would ask you, what words do you want to hear on that day? Come and enter in that which was prepared before the foundation of the world for you.
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Or do you want to hear it apart from me? I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness.
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And then Jesus also said this about Judas.
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It would have been better for that man to have never been born.
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Is those the words you want to hear? Are those the words you want to hear from the King of glory, the judger of the living and the dead? It's very clear.
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We're all breakers of God's law.
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We violated God's law.
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We are offenders of His law.
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He reaches out to us with love and mercy and grace through the shed blood of His Son.
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Now He's called every man everywhere to repent.
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He's going to judge the world in righteousness by that man, Jesus Christ.
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Who will you be? Will you be an example like Mary? Or will you be a Judas? Let's pray.
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Father God, thank you for your Word.
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Thank you for this narrative that you put in there.
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Father, we can see the sharp contrast of what your Son is very divisive.
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Father, I pray that as the Word was preached, that, Father, it went forth.
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And now we know that, Father, you're going to do what you say your Word's going to do.
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It's either life unto life or death unto death.
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And, Father, that's in your hands.
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I pray, Father, as we prepare to take the Lord's Supper, Father, as we drink up the cup and we eat the bread, Father, we will remember what you did for your elect.
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That you drank up the chalice full of wrath.
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That wrath being so full and shimmering in the cup that you, even in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus, even recoiled and said if there was any other way, please let it pass.
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But nevertheless, not my will but thy will.
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And then you submitted yourself to the Father, submitted yourself to His wrath, and you bore the judgment and punishment that your people deserved so that we could be forgiven.
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Father God, this time of examination, I pray, Father, that we would examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith.
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Make sure our calling and election is sure.
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And, Father, if there's someone in this room that does not know you, and we know that they are here, that today would be the day of salvation.
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For there is no other name given among men by which men must be saved than that of King Jesus.
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Amen.
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Well, thank you, brother, for spending so much time and preparation to bring a message to really kick off our Holy Week celebration and to be reminded of the separation between the two extremes, but there are really only two, those who are for Christ and those who are not.
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Well, as we get ready to celebrate communion, let's stand together and sing.