WWUTT 685 Q&A Justified Grace Superstars?

Isn't repentance a work that we have to do in order to be saved? What is the definition of grace?

And why should a Christian have nothing to do with Jesus Christ Superstar? The answers to these questions when we understand the text.

Welcome to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry devoted to the teaching of sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.

Find transcripts of all our videos when you visit us on the website www .tt .com.

Now here's your host, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. As my chair creaks as I lean forward here.

So how's things? You hadn't been on the podcast in like six months. No, I've totally missed this.

I'm sorry, guys. As my wife is all huddled in this big fluffy blanket.

Yep, it was almost 90 degrees today and I'm in a blanket and jeans. When we left on vacation, the weather here was cold.

Yeah, 30, 40 degrees. We were getting out ahead of an ice storm that was coming in. And then we got back to Kansas and it was 90 degrees today.

Right. Thursday was 90 degrees. And that actually means our house is colder because now we're running our

AC. Right. So especially down here in the basement, which is where I record, you know, all the videos and podcasts and everything.

This is the coldest room in the house that we're in right here. My study is the coldest room, which I love. I'm like, ah, nice and relaxing in here.

But Becky is. My teeth chatter. Becky is freezing. Her teeth are chattering. That is true.

I may have to do some editing here when it comes across the mic, this clacking. Like those little.

It's not gum. It's like those little wind up teeth. It's exactly how that goes. Yeah, pretty much.

All right. So as we get started today, responding to questions from listeners, I have a request that I want to reply to, then a correction to reply to.

And then after that, the rest of our questions have to do with what videos. So we'll play the video and then read the comments after that.

So this first email is from Moses. He says, hey, my name is

Moses and I'm writing because I would like to know if you have the videos that you share on YouTube for sale on a thumb drive.

Your videos and the information on them are great. And I would like to have all of them on video so that I can have them playing at home or to share them with friends and family when they come over or simply for educational purposes with my children.

If there is a way that I can get a hold of them to have them for when I am speaking with somebody or even play for my family at home,

I would greatly appreciate it playing them off of YouTube. Sometimes we have to wait for their commercials. I love your ministry.

Please keep being faithful to the Lord and thank you for your service to the Christian community. Well, I hope that you don't have any commercials at all, right?

Because the YouTube videos have not been monetized. So there should not be any commercials playing.

And I do that so if somebody is sharing a video in church, they're not going to get some unwanted advertisement.

So they're always supposed to be free. There's not supposed to be any commercials on them. But I understand for the sake of convenience, having them quick access, you know, can

I get all the videos that I can just save them to my computer? Well, I have not made any plans on marketing the videos, whether putting them on a

DVD or a flash drive or anything like that. However, if you want all the what videos, if you mail me a flash drive, and I've already responded to Moses email, and so I told him that he could do this, but I'm extending this to anybody.

Awesome. If you want the what videos, mail me a flash drive along with a self -addressed stamped envelope that I can drop the thumb drive in and mail it back to you.

If you mail me the thumb drive, I will put all the what videos on the thumb drive and then send it back your way.

As long as you're covering postage and everything, then I'll do that. So there you go. Sweet.

You can have all the what videos for free. That is an excellent deal. Okay. If you want them and that would be beneficial to you, then yeah, you just have to send me the thumb drive.

I guess it would be helpful for me to tell you where to send the thumb drive to. It would. I was waiting for that. Okay. Okay.

The address would be First Southern Baptist Church, 1220 West 8th

Street, Junction City, Kansas, 66441, and just make sure you put on there, attention

Gabe, or you can even put on there, thumb drive enclosed. Maybe you don't want to do that. Somebody might rip.

Yeah, I wouldn't. Yeah, something like that. Anyway, you just send it to me. It'll get to me. Yes. I'll put all of the what videos on the drive and then mail it back to you.

Do this also with the understanding that I'm not responsible for any lost mail. So if you've paid 20 bucks for a thumb drive and then you don't ever see it again, sorry.

But like I said, the videos are all going to be free as long as you handle that end of getting the drive to me.

I'll make sure that you get it back with some videos on it. All right. This next email is a correction and I think it was the last time you were on the broadcast that we had this particular question.

Okay. So a question came in to us about how Jesus could have been in the tomb for three days and three nights.

Oh, yes. As he said he was, if he was crucified on a Friday. So if he was crucified on Friday, he could have been in the tomb for three days and three nights or in the heart of the earth, is what

Jesus said. So I gave a response to that and referenced how there was darkness over the land at the moment that Jesus died.

And so that counted as a night. Then the sun came back out. That was a day. And then at night there was another night.

Okay. So do you remember that? Okay. So this fellow, hang on. I got to scroll down. His name is Brian. He emailed me to point out that I was wrong.

He says, Pastor Gabe, there's a problem with the answer you gave concerning how to square Jesus statement in Matthew 1240 with a

Friday crucifixion and a Sunday resurrection. You propose that when Jesus died on the cross, it was still daylight.

So that portion of the day counts as day one. Then the darkness for three hours counts as night one.

When the daylight returns, that's day two. Sunset on Friday begins night two. Sunrise on Saturday begins day three and sunset on Saturday begins night three.

With Jesus being resurrected before the night is over. As the tomb was empty when the women arrived at sunrise on Sunday.

The problem with this explanation is that all three of the synoptic gospels, which mentioned the three hours of darkness, say that it began at noon and lasted until 3 p .m.

The ninth hour, Matthew and Mark explicitly state that three in the afternoon at the end of the darkness is when

Jesus cried out with the opening words of Psalm 22. Luke mentions Jesus commending his spirit to the father without explicitly giving the time it happened, though the most natural reading would place it during or at the end of the three hours of darkness.

This negates your claim that Jesus died during the daylight before the three hours darkness as he was still alive at three o 'clock at the end of the darkness.

There are things that I agree with about that correction and things that I don't. First of all, Brian is correct in that I totally got that wrong.

That Jesus did not die in the daylight and then it was night and then it was day again. It was there was already darkness over the land and there had been darkness for three hours and then it was at the end of the darkness that he gave up his spirit.

He's correct on that and that's what I get for trying to do that off the top of my head instead of going to the text to read it and give the explanation.

So in this case, I didn't understand the text, right? So going to Matthew chapter 27, here's what we read about the death of Jesus starting in verse 45.

Now, from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour and about the ninth hour,

Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lemme subock the night. That is my

God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said, this man is calling

Elijah. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink.

But the other said, wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

So the understanding would then be that Jesus died at the end of that three hours of darkness.

And then when he died, then it became light again. And so that would have been the first night.

So Jesus died during the night of the darkness. Then when he yielded up his spirit, it became daylight again. And that would have been day one.

So we have night one, day one. So then Friday night would have been night two.

Saturday would have been day two. Saturday night would have been night three. And then

Sunday morning at dawn would have been day three. And then Jesus was resurrected from the grave.

So that's how that would work out. Now when it comes down to it, that doesn't matter.

Because you could then make the argument, well, you're not even talking about solar days at this point. You're just talking about darkness versus light.

True. If you wanted to make the argument that Jesus was in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights, that's how you would work it out.

But ultimately, it doesn't matter. Because Jesus was just talking about how what happened with Jonah in the fish for three days and three nights was a sign of how

Christ was gonna be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. It's not literal.

It doesn't cross exactly, but it doesn't have to. Jesus, according to Jewish understanding of days and nights, was in the earth for three days.

It really wasn't even 48 hours when it comes down to it. Because you think about the time that he was buried at the end of Friday and then was resurrected on Sunday morning.

Yeah, that's true. But as far as a Jewish calendar is concerned, he was in the heart of the earth for three days.

Okay. So it doesn't matter that we're not talking about actual solar periods. But if you really wanted to work it out to being three days and three nights, you could make that argument pretty solidly.

So there is not any reason to believe that Jesus was crucified on any other day but Friday.

I believe that the Gospels are absolutely clear on that point. And church tradition for 2 ,000 years has followed that particular point.

It has never been anything different than Jesus dying on a Friday the day before the

Sabbath. All right. Now that we've got the request and the correction out of the way, which

Brian was right. He got me on that. And again, I didn't go to the text to read it when I was giving that explanation.

And thank you for emailing in. Yeah, appreciate that. So now these questions, most of which are criticisms, by the way, are in response to what videos?

The first one is about the video, What is Justification? So we're going to play that video first and then read the email.

Okay. In Luke 18, Jesus told a story about a

Pharisee and a tax collector who went to the temple to pray. The Pharisee prayed, God, thank you that I'm not like other men, unjust adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week and give tithes of all I get. But the tax collector wouldn't even lift his eyes to heaven.

He beat his chest saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus said,

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, but the other will be condemned. What does it mean to be justified?

Justification is a legal declaration in which God pardons the sinner of all his sins and credits to his account the righteousness of Christ so the sinner is made innocent in the sight of God.

What is the basis of this verdict? It's based solely on the work of Jesus Christ, His perfect obedience,

His atoning sacrifice, and His resurrection from the grave. See, God doesn't merely expunge our sins,

He expiates them. We owed a debt for our sin, and Jesus paid that price. Colossians 2 .14

says that God has forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. The debt has been paid by Christ alone.

He took our sin, and we received His righteousness, and we are justified by His grace as a gift.

How does someone receive this free gift? By faith in Jesus. Confess your sin and ask

His forgiveness, and you will be justified when we understand the text. So in response to that video, we got this from Ryan.

We've already heard from Brian, now we're going to hear from Ryan. He says, You've said we need to do the work of turning from our sins.

The Bible says sin is lawlessness, that's in 1 John. You are telling me to keep the law to be justified before Christ, plus believe in what

He did to not count my sins against me. We should turn from our sins on the other side of grace, but to make that a requirement to obtain salvation is not only unbiblical, it is heretical, and it is works righteousness.

Trust me, I've fought hard with the power of God in me to turn from sins since being reborn through the grace and mercy of God our

Savior, and it is definitely a lot of work. Please read through Acts 16, 30 -31,

Romans 4, 1 -8, Galatians 3, 1 -6. Thanks for your time and careful consideration of this crucial topic.

If you would like to follow up with me on showing me a verse to support your notion of needing to turn from sin in order to be saved,

I would happily converse with you further on the matter. All right. Now, honestly, I don't know how he's getting out of that video that I said that you have to do this work in order to be saved.

Yeah, I don't know either. It's at the conclusion of the video that I say, confess your sins, and then you will be justified.

And so maybe he's taking that, which was just a summary of everything that I said in the previous minute and 20 seconds.

So somehow he's taking that comment and isolating it and thinking that I'm saying that you have to work, you have to accomplish this work in order to achieve salvation.

When it comes down to it, repentance is absolutely necessary for faith. Oh, yeah. For saving faith, for justification.

If you do not repent, you are not saved. But repentance is the work of God. Right.

It is not your work. And I'm actually getting to that next week in our study of 2

Timothy chapter two, because we're getting to the part where Paul says to Timothy to correct opponents with gentleness, for God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.

So God is the one who grants repentance. If you've repented, it's because God granted you a heart to repent.

It has nothing to do with your work. That's still the work of God. So if in that video,

I'm telling you to repent, But you were just using Jesus' words. Right. Yeah, exactly what

Jesus said in the parable. He said, this man went down to his house justified because he confessed his sins before God.

God have mercy upon me, a sinner. But that's not how the Pharisee prayed. The Pharisee said,

God, thank you that I'm not like these other guys, or like this tax collector over here, exalting himself.

And Jesus said, whoever exalts himself will be humbled. But he who humbles himself is going to be justified.

And so this is the attitude that we should have before God. And you come to that attitude because of the regenerative work of the

Holy Spirit upon your heart. Right. You confess your sins and you repented because the work of God was upon you.

And turning from your sins is only, you're only able to do that with God. With God's grace.

Yeah, there's no other way. There's none. It is the reflection of the grace of God that has been poured out upon you.

Right. It is the result of that work of grace. It is not what affects that grace.

The grace affects your response to God. You repent because you see the goodness of God to forgive you for the unrighteousness that you've done.

Right. And so that's what's being said there. In no way am I communicating that you have to do this first, and then you will be saved.

It's all an evidence of that saving work. I've never heard you say that. Yeah, right. I've never communicated that. So somehow he just kind of isolated that final comment there at the end of the video and thought of that as being by itself.

Now we mentioned these other passages to read that I'm not going to go into all of them, but I am going to read Romans 4, 1 through 8, because I happen to have my

Bible open in Romans. And so it was just easy for me to go there. All right. So here's what we read. What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh?

Paul uses Abraham as an example of justification by faith and not by any works that we have done.

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

For what does Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works.

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the

Lord will not count his sin. But then Paul goes on from there.

Now Ryan just recommended we read Romans 4, 1 through 8. I'm going to go on because then

Paul talks about the works that Abraham did in obedience because of the justification that he'd received by faith.

So verse 9, is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised?

For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised?

It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.

The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well.

And to make him the father of the circumcised, who are not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father

Abraham had before he was circumcised. So he received his justification by faith before he had ever done anything to evidence that justification that he had received, that righteousness that he had received as a gift from God.

And the work that he did was the evidence of that transformation of righteousness that had happened in his heart.

So the reason why you repent before God is because justification has been given to you.

And in response, you say, God, forgive me of my sins. I am a wretched sinner. And you humble yourself before the

Lord because the Holy Spirit has worked upon your heart to convict you of your sin. And you turn from it to desire the righteousness of God, which has been given to you by grace.

Amen. Amen. All right. So I think that was about as clear as I could make it.

But I hope that's beneficial to you, Ryan. And if there is something that you're convicted of, because you talked about struggling and wrestling with sin your life, which you're going to do for the rest of your life.

But if there's something you're convicted about, take it before the Lord and continue to repent.

It's not just something you did once. But repentance and faith, we continue in. If you feel like it's necessary, get an accountability partner.

Talk to a pastor, Sunday school teacher, something to that effect. And be specific.

Man, I'm struggling with this, and I've been walking with it for so long. How can I get relief from my sin?

So let's go to the next question here has to do with the video, what is justification by grace alone?

So we're still talking about justification. Different what video? All right. Romans 4, 5 says to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly.

His faith is counted as righteousness. Justification by faith alone is the gospel.

The belief that we are forgiven our sins and made innocent before God by the atoning blood of Christ and his resurrection from the grave.

You can do nothing to earn this. It is by the grace of God. Whoever teaches that salvation is a combination of faith and works is teaching a different gospel.

The Catholic and Orthodox churches both deny justification by faith alone. Salvation is by faith in the

Eucharist or by faith and baptism. That's a different gospel. Galatians 1, 8 and 9 says that anyone who preaches a different gospel is accursed.

Galatians 2, 16 says we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law, no one will be justified.

Now when a person has been saved, they confirm their faith by obedience. If they do not obey the commands of Christ, they're still dead in their sins.

This is what James meant when he said faith without works is a dead faith. Now someone might say, well, what about faith?

Isn't that something that I do? Nope. Because as you study the Bible, you find that even faith itself is a gift from God.

As Romans 5, 1 says, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ when we understand the text. Well that video just went nicely back to back with the one we just did.

Yeah, it did. Okay. So this comes from Bill the Radical Biblicist.

Okay. That's how he introduces himself. That's the title. He says, I searched your blog for grace and I didn't find anything.

Wow. I must assume you don't know what it is.

This is typical for Calvinists. Calvinists confound mercy and grace.

Mercy is undeserved. Grace is merited. Well he doesn't even understand the definition of grace.

All right. Before I get to that, going on, if you do not merit grace, you will not be saved.

That is because the definition of grace is God's power and God's direction to those he loves.

He loves those who trust in Jesus. Anyone can trust in Jesus. He is obviously trustworthy to anyone because he has died for everyone and anyone can believe in him.

Grow in grace, which you cannot do if grace is unmerited.

You know, for a guy who calls himself Bill the Radical Biblicist, there was absolutely zero

Bible in that criticism. And his definition of grace, where does he even get that from?

He says, grace is God's power and God's direction to those he loves. But he's sure to specify that grace is merited, meaning that you have to work to receive grace.

The very definition of grace is that it is unmerited favor.

That's right. He throws your sins as far as the east is from the west. And remembers them no more. Exactly.

You do nothing to receive this gift. Absolutely nothing. God will have mercy on those whom he will have mercy and he will have compassion on those on whom he will have compassion.

Did I say that right? I think so. He kind of stumbled in the middle. It is as he wills, not as we will.

That's exactly what grace is. Now, mercy is when we deserve to be destroyed, but God doesn't destroy us.

That's what mercy is. Do you have Bible verses to back it up? Do I have Bible verses to back up mercy and grace?

Oh, yeah. Well, in Romans chapter 9, for he says to Moses, Romans 9, 15,

I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. And then going on in verse 19, you will say to me then, why does he still find fault for who can resist his will?

But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me like this?

Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

What if God, desiring to show his wrath and make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory?

Exactly. There is grace. And there it is. And it is unmerited. You do nothing to earn it.

God shows grace to those on whom he will show grace. There I go again, where I'm mixing up my...

Yes, you are. My verbs, my adjuncticated articles in the middle of it.

I'm just making up words now. Anyway, so Bill seems to be insisting here that grace is something that we have to do in order to earn, whereas mercy is undeserved and grace is merited.

So, see, he's trying to make them kind of opposite. Mercy you don't do anything to get, but grace you do do something to get.

His definition of grace is do -do. So that worked out okay. So anyway, because he died for everyone,

Bill says, and everyone can believe in him. No, clearly not. For the illustration is given here in Romans 9 of Pharaoh.

For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up that I may show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

So then he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens whomever he wills. So could

Pharaoh have turned from the evil that he was doing and follow God? No. Wasn't God's intention for Pharaoh.

And so anyway, Bill the Radical Biblicist, you need a little bit more Bible. Next video is

Jesus Christ Superstar. Okay. You ready? Sure. We got a few comments about this particular video that was in response to the

NBC version of Jesus Christ Superstar that aired on April the 1st.

Okay. April Fool's Day is a good day to air Jesus Christ Superstar. This year? Yeah, it was this year.

That was Easter. Yeah, it was a live broadcast. Did you not know about this? No. Oh, okay. I thought we talked about it.

Maybe. Well, I did the what video on. A lot has happened. I am very, very busy at the moment. Yeah, we've even crossed several states over that span of time.

So anyway. Time zones and everything. Yeah, crossed into different time zones. So there was a live presentation of Jesus Christ Superstar, kind of a modern updated version of the classic musical from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice who wrote the original rock opera.

So they performed that on April 1st. Alice Cooper played the role of Herod. John Legend was the role of Jesus Christ.

I don't remember any other names. I don't think any of the other names were really all that famous. But yeah,

I don't keep up with pop culture that much anyway. So somebody's going, what?

Nobody else was famous. You didn't know so and so? No, apparently I don't. Anyway, here was the video alerting people to the problems with that musical and how unbiblical it was when

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice originally wrote this back in the 70s. What?

Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera written by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. The musical has been popular ever since its debut in 1970, from Broadway to Going On Tour, several films and a live concert version that aired

Easter Sunday on NBC. In case the mainstream success of Superstar is not a dead giveaway, the theology is a blasphemous mess.

It comes across as a story told from the perspective of Judas, who opens and closes the opera with the first and last numbers, but even

Mary Magdalene refers to Jesus as just a man. There is nothing miraculous or even caring about this

Jesus. When the sick come to him for healing, he gets angry and tells them to leave him alone. When his disciples ask him about the future, he's annoyed and says he doesn't know.

At the last supper, he tells them, for all you care, this wine could be my blood. For all you care, this bread could be my body.

In his prayer in the garden, Jesus says he's uninspired and doesn't understand his purpose. He says being a martyr would be better, so he tells

God, take me now before I change my mind. And then he dies and becomes a superstar, but doesn't rise from the dead.

As lyricist Tim Rice said, it happens that we don't see Christ as God, but simply the right man at the right time at the right place.

The Bible says that when the fullness of time had come, God sent his son, Jesus, to seek and save the lost and redeem them by his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave.

Whoever believes this gospel will be forgiven their sins and have eternal life. Whoever does not believe will not be saved, but the wrath of God remains on them.

Accept no imitation when we understand the text. So see Becky missed out on a great play.

Apparently. Yeah. But I saw the old one. Yeah. We did watch that one. We did. Yeah. Like the, what was that, 70s or something?

It was the one that came out, oh, two or three years after the musical debuted on Broadway. Right.

And then they did the theatrical production. So Becky and I watched that because that play was being done in our own community.

Right. And we'll talk about that here in a moment. I don't want to, I don't want to kind of spoil the ending on that. So the first comment about that particular video comes from Josh and he says,

I know you probably get this a lot, sir, but thank you. Your videos are awesome. And I aspire to be as succinct, faithful, and directed my, my communications as you are in yours.

Oh, that's so sweet. I appreciate that, Josh, but take a lesson from me and don't do what I did when

I gave my response to Jesus being in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. Get out your Bible for every answer.

That's right. Make sure you understand the text. Right. And remember it all. And this one's from Billy.

I don't think Billy's the same as Bill, the radical biblical biblicist. Okay. But he says it's also a second commandment violation.

Jesus Christ superstar, a second commandment violation because it is the pictorial presentation of Christ.

We've addressed that before as to how, you know, in our what videos, when sometimes we'll have a picture of Christ, a painting of Christ or something like that in there, how it's not a violation of the second commandment.

And as I've said before, if your conscience is affected by that, that's different. If you feel like you can't share one of the what videos or well, what videos.

Yeah. Some people are calling it. It's what most people call it. Oh, do they really? Because of Todd Freel. Right. Okay.

And even the, okay, I'm just going to give away the license plate on my car is WWU TV.

And when people say that, that's what they say. When they see it, they'll go. Well, what? Oh yeah. They do. That's so true.

They do. Everybody responds to it that way. Except for our church. I think I'm the only one. Right. I'm the only one that calls them what videos, but it's only because I'm trying to eliminate a syllable out of there, but, uh, and that's, yeah, that's the way

I say it at the start of the videos. Uh, anyway, if you feel convicted to not share a what video, because it has a picture of Christ in it, then don't share it.

Don't, don't go against your conscience. If you feel like that's a second commandment violation, but I have explained before how it's not.

And my conscience is not affected by that. Right. Um, I try as sparingly as I can to not include those images, but sometimes

I do. Well, when it has to do with the context. Yeah. Yeah. If it's in the context of, and the, uh, which by the way, every single what video has a picture of Christ in it.

It's in the very introduction. It's just small enough that you probably don't notice it, but in which case you may be convicted to not share any what videos.

But again, that's between you and the Lord. Um, and then the next comment, this one comes from Sue Ann.

Now we get to some more negative comments. Okay. She says, Christ was God and man.

No argument there. I have always thought Jesus Christ superstar brought his human -ness to the forefront.

He had doubts. He got annoyed and impatient like men do. Way to cherry pick this fine presentation.

Well, if I have to be terribly critical, let me just say,

I don't even think Jesus Christ superstar is a well -written musical. Now Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote an absolute masterpiece in the phantom of the opera.

That is a fantastic opera, but Jesus Christ superstar is awful. The music's not even good.

The lyrics are terrible. And Tim Rice otherwise is a, is a very incredible lyricist wrote a lot of songs with Elton John.

I think he wrote the lyrics to all of the songs in the lion King. Those were all Tim Rice.

So he's a brilliant lyricist, but Jesus Christ superstar is awful. I mean, it's just bad. If I, if I was looking at it from a music critic or a play critic point of view,

I would just say it's just a bad musical. I just don't even think it's good. Let alone yet. It's so popular. Yeah.

Incredibly popular. It's incredibly popular because it's blasphemous. That's exactly the why, the reason why it's popular.

If you are just adoring a presentation about Christ that the world also adores, that's a good reason to kind of take a step back and go, wait a minute.

There might be something wrong with this. Yes. A good, a good cause to have to check yourself on.

The road is narrow. Yeah. So not everybody is going to like it. Majority is going to not like it.

If you are. If it's on the straight and narrow. Right. If it's of the world, the world is going to love it.

Exactly. If you are presenting an actual biblical presentation of Christ, the world will hate it.

The reason why the world loves Jesus Christ Superstar is because this is a very worldly presentation of Jesus.

Somebody who actually said to God, hey, you better show me what it is that you're doing.

I'm going to give up on this. So take me now before I change my mind. That's not at all what

Jesus prayed in the garden. Oh, no. And Sue Ann's comment that he had doubts. No, he didn't. No. No.

And you've got to show me from the Bible where you see that. Where does it say in scripture that Jesus had doubts?

He did not doubt. No. And the humanness that we see from Christ, I don't take anything away from that.

I mean, we see that he got tired. He was asleep in the boat when the storm came upon the boat and the disciples are going, wake up,

Jesus. We're all going to die. Right. So we know that he got weary. He did get frustrated with people, got frustrated with his own disciples.

He said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. Exactly. Had to thump him around a little bit.

So certainly he got irritated with things like that. We saw his anger come out when he cleansed the temple, not once, but two times.

Right. And we also see the emotion and love that he has for people when the people came to him and asked for healing and he was moved with compassion for them, so he healed their diseases.

Right. Or when after he rode into Jerusalem in the triumphal entry, the book of Luke records him going up on the hillside and weeping for Jerusalem.

Right. Because they did not know who he was. And then one of the biggest ones is in Matthew chapter 26, when

Jesus prays in the garden of Gethsemane, verse 36, Jesus went with them to a place called

Gethsemane and he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. And taking with him

Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. And then he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful even to death, remain here and watch with me.

Jesus' heart so overcome with emotion that he felt like he could have died at that very spot. Yeah.

That was how overwhelmed he was with what he knew was about to happen. And going a little farther, he fell on his face.

Whereas most movie depictions of Christ show him just kind of walking into the garden and just kind of bowing down and folding his hands, you know.

But he walks into the garden and was overcome with emotion and falls on his face.

And he prayed saying, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as you will.

And let me say in relation to that, in those words, Jesus' voice was filled with more emotion than you have ever showed in your entire life.

True statement. Because Jesus, who knows what he is there to do and what is about to happen, is yet asking

God, is there any other way? Right. Is there any other way to bring about the fulfillment of what you've predestined from before the foundation of the world?

If there is another way, will you please, will you please give me that other way? But not what

I will. Right. But what you will. And that is unbelievable to consider about what he experienced in his humanness, was everything more than what we experience in our own humanness.

He was more man than I am man. And he was God, which

I am certainly not. Right. Jesus was God and man. And he experienced everything that, and even more than what

I experience. The book of Hebrews says he became like his brothers in every respect so that he might become for us a perfect high priest.

But he did not sin. He did not sin. Right. Doubting. Doubting God is sin.

Is sin. Worry is sin. And Peter says that Jesus entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

So he had no reason to doubt and he had no reason to worry. His soul was troubled and he was filled with sorrow, as we read about here in the

Garden of Gethsemane, because he knew of what was about to happen. Not because he doubted, but because he knew what was coming, which was why he prayed the way that he prayed.

So it's absolutely blasphemous to say that Jesus Christ superstar is a wonderful, thoughtful depiction of Jesus' humanness.

Absolutely not. Read your Bible more. Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jesus Christ Superstar is him being angry at God.

And that is absolutely what we do not see here in the way that Jesus prayed in the

Garden of Gethsemane. No way. So it is a horrible, blasphemous play. And please have nothing to do with it and certainly do not apologize for it and try to defend it.

Last comment on Jesus Christ Superstar comes from N .D., that's all I have, just a couple of initials.

And he says, we get it, Christians hate art and literature. No. See what a cop -out that is.

Not true. Like, I don't have to consider your argument because you're a Christian and you hate literature and art.

So that's really what the issue is here. Not that there's anything wrong with Jesus Christ Superstar, there's just something wrong with you hating literature and art.

Apparently. As a matter of fact, I'm very involved in the art scene in my own community. And I'm not going to explain why or how.

But let me just say that, as I said before, Jesus Christ Superstar was performed in our own community.

Right. And I was contacted and asked if I would play a certain role in that play. And I had a conversation with the person who contacted me about that because they wanted my baritone for a certain role.

And I said, I can't be a part of that play and here's why. And I explained to him all the blasphemous problems with Jesus Christ Superstar.

And knowing that that play was coming to our community, Becky and I watched it one night. Right. So that I could be properly equipped to respond to some of the things that were going to come up in that play.

Mm -hmm. And from the get -go, the first songs that I was listening to, I was going, boy, this is obnoxious.

Ugh. I don't even like this one bit. I didn't like it either. So there are musicals that I love and adore.

I watch musicals with my kids. That's right. I have done theater -related stuff with my kids.

My daughter has taken ballet. We frequent museums. Right. A lot.

Yeah. We love listening to classical music. My wife loves to paint and she is very gifted at that.

Aw, thanks. She painted a wonderful painting for me for Christmas, which is still hanging in our living room, which

I have to move to my office over at the church. That's where it's got to go. Why hadn't

I done that yet? There was a reason for that. I don't know. There's a reason why. Well, you hung it up in there as, wasn't that the gift?

Because we kind of hung it in the living room. No, I hung it so it wouldn't get destroyed. Oh, that's what. Let me hang it up somewhere so nothing will happen to it.

Yep. But anyway, so we love the arts. Oh, yeah. And literature.

And literature. You should see his bookshelves. Oh, my goodness. And I'm currently reading a biography.

But anyway, so it's just a, it's a slanderous statement. It is. It's just so you don't have to pay attention to the arguments that were presented.

So anyway, you know, one of the other things about Jesus Christ Superstar that I didn't say in the 92nd video is that Judas gets a resurrection scene in the rock opera.

But Jesus does not. Right. Isn't that crazy? Isn't that absurd? It's like, oh, dear.

Jesus just dies. He doesn't come back from the dead. But Judas gets to come back after he hung himself and sing about what

Jesus could have done better. Right. Instead of doing it the way that he did it. So Judas gets a resurrection.

Jesus Christ does not. It's just not one of my favorites. Not at all. Not anywhere close.

Not at all. All right, folks. Well, thank you so much for your questions, your time and your comments.

We appreciate it so very much. You can email your questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Let's conclude with prayer. Yes, please. Our wonderful God, we thank you for all of the great gifts that you have given to us and music being one of those gifts.

How wonderful it is to sing songs and sing songs of praise to our God and even be creative in the way that we write songs and form music and play instruments.

And we are moved by such eloquent creations because it is it is a gift of God.

It is something that God has given to us to enjoy and we can appreciate your creation.

And so we are moved whenever we see it. And we're moved whenever we see great works of art.

But no work of art is greater than what it is that you have made. For all of creation sings the praises of God.

So help these small occasions in which we experience good art. Let it roll up into praise to our

Lord who has given us all good things in Christ Jesus. Everything is good if it is received with thanksgiving.

And so we give thanks to you, God, for all of the wonders that you have shown to us through Jesus Christ, our

Lord, including the salvation that we have by the blood of his cross and the resurrection from the grave.

We ask that we would continue to grow in knowledge of these things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Play ball! Play ball! Play ball! We want a pitcher, not a belly itcher.

There's no crying in baseball! Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy. Swing, batter.

Swing, batter, batter, batter, batter. Swing! All right.

Isn't it, we want a catcher, not a belly scratcher? That's not the way

I heard it. No? No. Oh, probably not. Give him the high heat!

Throw him the high stinky cheese! What? I have no idea what you're talking about now.

Left field. You sent me out in left field on that one. I play right field.

Yes, there we go. It's important, you know. You gotta learn how to catch. You gotta learn how to throw.

You're not on key with me here. Nope, I'm not. That's why

I play in right field. Way out where the dandelions grow.

Doesn't he watch the butterflies or something and then the ball comes? The ball fell right into my glove.