Welcome to the Liberty Insider.
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This is a program
that I've been working
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on for nearly 20 years
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in association
with Liberty magazine
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of which I edited for 22 years.
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It's a program
designed to bring you
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up-to-date
information and insights
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on religious liberty in
the US and around the world.
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My name is Lincoln Steed.
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And as I said, I have
been editor of Liberty magazine
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for 22 years.
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Moving on from that,
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but not moving on from
sharing religious liberty
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on this program.
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As part of the association
,with 3ABN over the years
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I was
privileged on two occasions
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to go to Israel as
part of the Holy Land tour
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that I think is still
regularly sponsored by 3ABN,
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certainly many Christian groups,
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many
Seventh-day Adventist groups
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organize these tours,
and many people are helped.
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When you get to,
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to Israel, in Jerusalem,
it's very overwhelming.
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And you find that
there's sort of the,
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the Holy Land sickness
that comes over many people.
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For some people,
it's so overwhelming,
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they almost take leave
of their critical senses,
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and you have to
sort of keep grounded.
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And to me, it was not very hard,
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because I know history.
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And I know that most
of what you see there
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doesn't date back quite
to the period of the gospel,
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certainly not too
far earlier periods.
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The so-called Tomb of
David is a rumor at best.
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And the Church of the Nativity,
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something
designated by the Crusaders,
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many, many
hundreds of years ago.
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But still you
are in the context,
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you are in the environment
of where all of those events,
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particularly in
the New Testament
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took place.
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And it's easy to empathize.
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I remember, on a Friday evening,
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on the second visit,
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we were near the
western called Wailing Wall,
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the foundations
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that are leftover
of the old temple,
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and to see the celebration,
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the exaltation of any
number of Jewish believers
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as the sun dipped, and
the Sabbath was brought in
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and the shofar
blew and young people
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from the religious schools
came surging out almost dancing
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and joyous and happy.
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You know, that's hard
not to get caught up in it.
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I was happy
enough to have my son
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fairly recently do
two recordings with me
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on this program, and
it reminded me of him
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there with us on that same tour.
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And I can
remember him linking arms
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with the young Israeli citizens
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as they happily celebrated
the seventh day Sabbath.
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And I thought,
what a wonderful moment
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when he can
grasp that enthusiasm,
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spiritual enthusiasm
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that's so linked
with that environment.
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But I want to talk for
the rest of this program
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on something that took
place on that same spot
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in very different circumstances.
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It's an incident that's
inspired me periodically
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as I've preached
sermons on religious liberty
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for over two decades,
editing Liberty magazine.
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And it relates to
those who followed Jesus.
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We don't know in total
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how many men and
women follow Jesus,
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we do know that
He had more followers
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than just the
12, the inner circle.
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There were at least 70 others
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that He sent
out in His lifetime.
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We do know that
there were many women
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that cared for Jesus
and His wandering band.
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Herod's, the wife
of Herod's steward
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is named as one of
the women that brought
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food and
sustenance and support to the,
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to the wandering
group as Jesus said,
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"The Son of Man has, like,
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you know, even
the foxes have holes
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to lay their heads
or holes to hide in,
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Son of Man has
nowhere to lay His head."
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So they were itinerant,
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religious teacher and pupils.
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For most of people's figuring,
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but a lot of what
went on revolved around
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coming to Jerusalem and
in the temple precincts.
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And when I think about Jesus,
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dealing with those
men in the inner circle,
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particularly the 12,
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it strikes me
over and over again
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and has ever since
as a young teenager,
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I tried to nut through how
am I going to serve the Lord,
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it strikes me how, like
me and you knew they were.
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They were not so
different, not so different.
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And individually,
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they might have had
things different from me.
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But together, they exemplified
all of the fallibilities
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and the weaknesses, and
the daily human reminders
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that each of us labor under.
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Peter, of course,
the Roman Catholic Church
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make much of Peter,
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not based on anything much more
than what you see in Jerusalem,
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where there's
these different places
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to make
pilgrimage to their arbitrary
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determinations
that are well meant,
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but can't be proven.
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And there's no biblical evidence
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that Peter was
anything more than
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apparently one of
the older the group
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and one favorite of Jesus,
but whether he was formally
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set up as a
protopope, not likely.
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And it also settles on,
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I think, a misapprehension
of Jesus charter to him
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there in his risen state.
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He went backwards and forwards
to Peter to get him to profess,
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again, his love and
dedication to the Lord,
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but in a way that
would undo the past
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because Peter had
a checkered history.
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And, you know, you think
about Peter something that
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people don't dwell
on much, two occasions,
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before the denial
that everyone knows about.
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Peter sort of showed a
rather unspiritual attitude
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toward all that was going on.
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On one occasion, when
Jesus started to reveal
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who He really
was, and Peter said,
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"Oh, you know,
you're the Christ."
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And Jesus said, "Well,
this wasn't given to you.:
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You know, naturally,
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this was given
to you spiritually,
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so he commended in there.
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But Peter said, close
to that moment, he says,
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"You know, you're not gonna die,
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you know, this
shouldn't happen to you,
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don't think about it."
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And Jesus says,
"Get behind Me, Satan."
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I haven't had too many ministers
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or parents or
teachers ever call me Satan.
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Obviously, Jesus
was doing it for effect.
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But Peter was
showing a total tone
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deafness about the
ministry of Christ.
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Then, on another occasion,
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a great occasion when
Jesus was transfigured
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on the mount
with Elijah and Moses.
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I mean, you'd think
that it'd be a heavy scene.
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And most people
don't make much of it.
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But Peter was impressed.
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He says, "Let's build a
little house for you here."
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He didn't understand.
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And then in spite of
his professions of loyalty,
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you know, at the Last Supper,
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I never will
betray you, Lord, never.
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Then that before it was all over
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before the cock
crew in the morning.
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Three times he with
profanity and vehemence said,
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"I never knew the man.
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I never knew him."
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But it wasn't just Peter.
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What about James and John,
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the sons of
Zebedee, sons of Thunder?
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Impetuous guys, like
nearly everyone in their teens
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or perhaps early
20s has a taste of it.
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You're not seasoned by
experience or spirituality,
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you know, move
ahead before you think it
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through with the
energy and the testosterone
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that comes with
being young and energetic.
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You know, they wanted the lot.
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They wanted to
bring the fire down
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from heaven of God on
those that rejected Jesus
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on one occasion, and
then in an infamous moment,
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and you can bet your life,
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mama was speaking for the boys.
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Their mother went
to Jesus and said,
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"You know, I have a request.
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Can my two boys be at
Your right either side,
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your left and your right hand
when you sit in Your kingdom."
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And it gave Jesus the
occasion to remind everyone,
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you don't know
what you're asking for?
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That you don't know idea,
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what you have no
idea what's ahead for us.
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And, of course,
Judas, his betrayal
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didn't turn out so well,
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but I'm not so sure
Judas was any weaker
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or worse than the others.
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But he failed to come
back in tears to the Lord
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and ask for forgiveness
and try for redemption.
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But one way or
another, even John,
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the beloved disciple
fled naked into the night.
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Not even ready to go
back and get his clothes
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when they were ripped
off by the bushes, hid.
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Although it appears
he was at the cross there
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when Jesus passed his
mother over into his care.
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But they were not
men of inherent bravery,
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intelligence, or perception.
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And Jesus sure
took the time with them.
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It says in the New Testament
00:10:17.68\00:10:19.51
that Jesus often
spoke in parables
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and we all love those parables,
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and I've heard many are
well meaning preachers say,
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you know, these
parables are deep,
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and they explain things clearly.
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I don't think so it myself,
because it does say that Jesus,
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in the words of Jesus,
00:10:35.70\00:10:37.03
He spoke in
parables to essentially hide
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some hard things from people,
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only those that
thought long and hard on it
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would understand what
the parable stood for.
00:10:46.61\00:10:48.88
But it says to
His own disciples,
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to His apostles,
He spoke plainly.
00:10:51.05\00:10:56.58
And even
speaking plainly to them,
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as He prayed His
incredible long prayer
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for oneness with the
Father and with His followers.
00:11:02.92\00:11:06.36
They said,
"What's He talking about,
00:11:06.39\00:11:07.73
going away coming at once?
00:11:07.76\00:11:09.53
What does this all mean?"
00:11:09.56\00:11:11.27
They didn't understand.
00:11:11.30\00:11:13.74
So to me, what I
want to share with you
00:11:13.77\00:11:15.87
in the few minutes
left of this program
00:11:15.90\00:11:18.57
has deeper meaning
00:11:18.61\00:11:19.94
when you
understand the back story,
00:11:19.97\00:11:21.74
the type of men
we were dealing with,
00:11:21.78\00:11:24.45
and yet changes
by the type of men
00:11:24.48\00:11:27.18
that Jesus was the god man.
00:11:27.22\00:11:29.85
There's a story that's
told in Acts Chapter 3,
00:11:29.88\00:11:32.89
and the verses that follow
00:11:32.92\00:11:34.26
and runs over
into Acts Chapter 4,
00:11:34.29\00:11:37.53
but it takes
place at that temple.
00:11:37.56\00:11:40.56
Now only a
foundational remainder
00:11:40.60\00:11:43.60
with a foreign or an
alien form of religion
00:11:43.63\00:11:47.84
packed on top of it.
00:11:47.87\00:11:50.67
It's sort of the festering
sore religious animosity
00:11:50.71\00:11:55.14
in the Holy Land where the,
00:11:55.18\00:11:57.88
that sacred
precinct for the Jews
00:11:57.91\00:12:00.78
now so laterally
come back to David's city.
00:12:00.82\00:12:06.15
And they find that sitting
atop is the Al-Aqsa Mosque,
00:12:06.19\00:12:10.69
erected by the
conquering Muslim groups,
00:12:10.73\00:12:14.66
the Muslim, the
Bedouin successors
00:12:14.70\00:12:19.37
hundreds and
hundreds of years ago,
00:12:19.40\00:12:21.20
but on purpose,
00:12:21.24\00:12:22.60
and Christians have done it too.
00:12:22.64\00:12:24.31
Often when one
religion and the society
00:12:24.34\00:12:27.24
and the political
power that goes with it
00:12:27.28\00:12:29.18
when they deposed another,
00:12:29.21\00:12:30.78
they purposely
erect their temple,
00:12:30.81\00:12:33.75
their holy place on
the top of the other,
00:12:33.78\00:12:36.12
not even by accident.
00:12:36.15\00:12:37.52
The Christian missionaries
in the South Pacific
00:12:37.55\00:12:39.65
nearly always built
their mission compound
00:12:39.69\00:12:43.22
on top of the
ancient burial grounds
00:12:43.26\00:12:45.13
in the spirit
temples of the ancient gods.
00:12:45.16\00:12:48.76
It's a way to show
neither that you fear them,
00:12:48.80\00:12:52.20
nor are they dominant anymore,
that you have superseded them.
00:12:52.23\00:12:56.14
And, but in those precincts,
00:12:56.17\00:12:58.54
remember where Jesus
fatally came in conflict
00:12:58.57\00:13:02.08
with the authorities.
00:13:02.11\00:13:04.78
It was what led to the cross.
00:13:04.81\00:13:06.95
He stayed back
till His time had come.
00:13:06.98\00:13:09.98
Then at the
time of the Passover,
00:13:10.02\00:13:11.95
He went down and
spoke powerfully,
00:13:11.99\00:13:14.52
cleansed the temple,
spoke powerfully and openly,
00:13:14.56\00:13:17.69
and there was a visitation
00:13:17.73\00:13:19.16
or manifestation of God's power.
00:13:19.19\00:13:21.16
And He says, "Now is
the kingdom of this earth,
00:13:21.20\00:13:23.10
or the prince of
this earth cast down."
00:13:23.13\00:13:25.80
He announced victory
and upgraded everyone.
00:13:25.83\00:13:29.14
And the next
night or in the night,
00:13:29.17\00:13:32.57
shortly
following that He was taken
00:13:32.61\00:13:34.21
by the temple authorities
condemned before Pilate,
00:13:34.24\00:13:37.88
was unwilling
on the whole event,
00:13:37.91\00:13:41.02
and crucified.
00:13:41.05\00:13:43.35
And then the disciples fled.
00:13:43.39\00:13:45.45
But in Acts Chapter 3,
00:13:45.49\00:13:46.82
a story is told that
inspires me powerfully.
00:13:46.86\00:13:51.96
Let's take a break and
we'll pick up the story
00:13:51.99\00:13:54.20
in Acts Chapter 3.
00:13:54.23\00:13:55.56
Stay with us.
00:13:55.60\00:13:56.93