Hi, I'm Glenn Russell.
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Welcome to another in the
series of Books of the Book.
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This is a series exploring
the gospel according to Matthew.
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I like you to meet our guest
teacher, Dr. Ranko Stefanovic.
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Ranko, welcome, glad
to have you back again.
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This is another in the series.
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It's been fascinating so far to
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begin to get into
this wonderful book.
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We got more ahead.
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Welcome, glad to
have you with us.
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Glenn, it's so nice.
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We were in the same
department as teachers,
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we're coming
for about nine years
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and it's so nice
now to be together here
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and open the word of God.
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Now let's ask God to
lead us in that process.
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Let's begin with prayer.
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Lord, thank You
for the assurance.
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Wherever two or
three are gathered
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You're also gathered to
teach us from Your word.
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We asked that Your Spirit
may guide us and teach us.
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In Jesus name we
pray. Amen. Amen.
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Ranko, we're talking about
the gospel according to Matthew.
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Matthew is
writing to a--originally
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to a
predominantly Jewish audience
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and he's showing that Jesus is
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the fulfillment
of all their hopes,
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all their
wishes, all their dreams.
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Just as we would say today,
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Jesus is the fulfillment
of all that we could wish for.
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But more than
that, he's showing us
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that Jesus has
a particular role,
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has an identity as
one from the Father,
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and now we've
moved through Chapter one
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with the
genealogy of Chapter two
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with his birth and now
where are we going this time?
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Glenn, I think that
it is very important
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to underscore something is.
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You see the gospel of Matthew
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was originally
written to certain people
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who were of Jewish background.
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So the language of the gospel of
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Matthew appealed to them.
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And this, similar
could be said about
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every book of the Bible.
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But, even though the Bible
was written to certain people,
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it was not
written only for them,
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it was written for all people
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including us who lived there.
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This is very, very important.
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So in order to
understand how that Bible
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speaks to us today,
first we have to understand
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the language, the issues
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that the book address
to the original readers,
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and then it replied
the message to us today.
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So there is ancient and
yet a contemporary meaning.
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It's timeless,
but it's also timely,
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it has a place and time.
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All right, what are we
going to explore this time?
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You see so far, we
saw that Jesus came,
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what genealogy couldn't do,
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Jesus came to save His
people from their sins.
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We saw last time how He came.
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He was born as a
baby in Bethlehem.
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Now the time has come for Jesus
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to begin his
public, public ministry.
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But there was
somebody who came to announce
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the coming of the Messiah.
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The name of that
person is John the Baptist.
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This is actually what we
read in Matthew Chapter 3.
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So Glenn, I would
really like to ask you,
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if you can read
Chapter 3, verses 1 to 6
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and may be in
sentence were to tell us
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what we have in
the rest up to verse 5.
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All right, but first I'd like to
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ask you very briefly a question.
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Many people would wonder,
how come there's not much
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about Jesus early life,
His years as a teenager,
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young adult, goes from
his birth to his ministry
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with John and
started there, why?
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Because the Bible does not
concern everything about Jesus.
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What the Bible
concern is, why Jesus came?
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How He came?
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See the reason that
we read about His birth
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is to understand that
Jesus didn't came like
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an ordinary human
being, born as a result of
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sexual relationships
between a male and female.
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Actually, He came because
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the Holy Spirit
made the inception, etc.
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And now we see how He came
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to save His people
with climax to the cross.
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So, the Bible is
concerned of this.
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Unfortunately,
we would like to ask
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many questions about
Jesus and the Bible is quiet,
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and that's the reason why
in the second century those
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apocryphal gospels
appear, trying to fill that gap.
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And fortunately, those
things are not in the Bible.
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Something will wait for
heaven, won't we. Yes, yes.
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Now you said
something about some silence
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and there has been some silence
for a period of centuries.
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Yeah. Okay.
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You would like us to
go now to John Chapter 3.
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3:1, 2, 2-6. All right.
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In those days John
the Baptist came preaching
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in the wilderness
of Judea and saying,
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"Repent, for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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For this is He who is spoken
of by the prophet Isaiah saying,
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'the voice of one
crying in the wilderness,
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prepare the way of the
Lord, make His paths straight.'
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"Now John Himself was
clothed in camel's hair
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with a leather
belt around his waist,
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and his food was
locusts and wild honey.
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Then Jews from all Judea
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and all the
region around the Jordan
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went out to Him and
were baptized by Him
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in the Jordan,
confessing their sins.
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But when he saw
many of the Pharisees
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and Sadducees coming to
his baptism, he said to them,
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"brood of vipers, who warned you
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to flee from the wrath to come?
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Therefore bear
fruit worthy of repentance
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and do not say to yourselves,
we have Abraham as our father,
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for I say to you
that God is able to
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raise up children to
Abraham from these very stones."
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Yes. Quite a character.
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So a very
unusual person appeared,
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by the way this
very unusual person,
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unknown person in
the gospel of Matthew.
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We want to learn
more about that person,
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we have to read those
at the gospel of Luke.
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He was actually a
relative of Jesus.
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Was it common in
this time period for God
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to be sending prophets, Ranko?
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See the problem is when we read
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the Jewish writings
from the time previous to--
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prior to this
period we read that
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they said this is
the time of Malachi.
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They said, there has
not been a prophet among us.
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The Jews believe
strongly we have so many
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indications in our
writings that actually
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the last prophet,
the prophetic voice,
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the last time was
called prophet Malachi.
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So can you imagine
now a person appeared
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dressed as the Old
Testament prophets.
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His message that
he started preaching
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was the message of
the Old Testament prophets
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and the results were the results
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of the Old Testament prophets,
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immediately people recognized
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that God once
again visited his people.
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So there's a continuity
and God is at work again.
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Yes. Because
something has happened.
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But you see the question
is why John the Baptist,
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of course, we always say,
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he came to prepare
the way for the Messiah.
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But there is one expression,
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actually metaphorical section,
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the John, he use when
people ask him, who are you?
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Actually, this
is another quotation
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from the Old
Testament prophecies.
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This time from
the book of Isaiah.
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He says, "the
voice of the one crying
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in the wilderness make ready
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the way of the Lord,
make his path straight."
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And I know, the casual readers
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they don't see
anything significant,
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but if we lived in the first
century and those ancient times,
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we would easily catch the
significance of this statement.
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By the way I'm coming
from the part of the world
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that it's border
between the west and the east.
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So I lived among the people
with that eastern mentality
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and I myself, I lived
within that mentality.
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Actually I was in
one part of the world,
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I lived for about two
years and my brother took me
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to one place to see something.
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We were driving for
about, let's say about 10 miles.
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It was a fantastic
road, but not maintained.
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There was a lot of grass
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and I said to my
brother, there is no single car.
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He said, just
wait you will see it.
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We came to the end of that
road beautiful pavement, etc.
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and there was a
house, it was a mansion.
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Beautiful, then
there nobody lived there.
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Some windows were broken, etc.,
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so I said, what's going on?
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This road, this
road just led only
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to this house,
there's nothing else.
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He said, you know,
when the US President
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came to visit here this country,
this road was built for him
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and this mansion
was built for him.
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So when he left,
it was abandoned,
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nobody lived there and
suddenly this text came to me.
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You see in ancient
times when the king,
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when the ruler would go to visit
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a part of his
kingdom what did people do?
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They actually fixed the roads.
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There are some roads they were
very, you know, curved, etc.
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They tried to make it straight.
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They provided
good pavement, why?
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Because the king is coming.
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When the king is
coming, you've to fix the road
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so that the king
has safe, you know,
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journey and travel to
that part of his kingdom.
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Actually, the saying
from the prophet Isaiah,
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that Matthew
inspired by the Holy Spirit
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implies to John
Baptist was exactly there
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by keeping in mind
that ancient custom
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that is used
here metaphorically.
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The messiah is
coming and the role of John
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the Baptist was actually to fix,
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to prepare the way for
the coming of the Messiah.
00:10:02.45\00:10:06.09
All right, so the idea
of his preparatory role,
00:10:06.10\00:10:09.62
of course that means if somebody
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is coming after,
if you're preparing.
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You're preparing for something,
00:10:12.68\00:10:14.04
but let's
explore a little bit more
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about this role
of John the Baptist.
00:10:15.77\00:10:18.41
He's dressed a certain way,
00:10:18.42\00:10:19.82
he's eating certain
food, he has a certain message.
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Let's explore that
little bit more, Ranko.
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John appeared evidently like
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Prophet Elijah of
the Old Testament.
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You know that
Elijah he lived some
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isolated place there, etc.,
00:10:39.16\00:10:41.94
and we have in the conclusion
00:10:41.95\00:10:45.18
of the Hebrew
Scriptures, The Book of Malachi.
00:10:45.19\00:10:49.10
You know, the last
verse of our Masoretic
00:10:49.11\00:10:54.05
text of the Old
Testament is that before
00:10:54.06\00:10:57.38
the terrible day
of the Lord comes,
00:10:59.08\00:11:01.17
God will send Mosses and Elijah
00:11:01.18\00:11:04.39
and they will turn the hearts of
00:11:04.40\00:11:05.85
parents, fathers,
toward their sons,
00:11:05.86\00:11:08.68
and sons with their fathers.
00:11:08.69\00:11:10.91
So the Jewish people
could easily recognize
00:11:10.92\00:11:15.40
in the coming of
John the Baptist,
00:11:15.41\00:11:18.68
in the message that He preached.
00:11:18.69\00:11:20.75
The fulfillment of
this Old Testament prophecy
00:11:20.76\00:11:24.25
and that's why you
have a lot of people
00:11:24.26\00:11:28.38
running there to listen
to John Baptist message.
00:11:28.39\00:11:30.94
So there is a
tremendous surge of expectation.
00:11:30.95\00:11:34.90
What they've been hoping for,
00:11:34.91\00:11:36.23
longing for, this
Messiah, his deliver.
00:11:36.24\00:11:40.04
Now something is happening
00:11:40.05\00:11:41.60
is giving him
idea He's coming soon.
00:11:41.61\00:11:43.69
Actually, when
you see the context of
00:11:43.70\00:11:46.59
John the Baptist
message, it's actually
00:11:46.60\00:11:49.38
the content of Elijah's message.
00:11:49.39\00:11:52.26
I mean it's
really cut to the truth.
00:11:52.27\00:11:54.48
What is the key word of
John the Baptist message?
00:11:54.49\00:11:57.76
Said, repent for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand.
00:11:57.77\00:12:03.82
I know Christians are using
very often the word repent.
00:12:03.83\00:12:09.20
And we have all kind of ideas
00:12:09.21\00:12:11.06
and so many times
people are asking me,
00:12:11.07\00:12:12.89
what is the
meaning of repentance?
00:12:12.90\00:12:14.62
Is that repentance
a genuine repentance,
00:12:14.63\00:12:16.97
un-genuine repentance,
so called repentance?
00:12:16.98\00:12:19.47
You know people
have, we've to understand
00:12:19.48\00:12:21.66
that Hebrew word shuv
simply means turn around.
00:12:21.67\00:12:27.47
A person is going
in certain direction
00:12:28.80\00:12:32.65
like in the parable
of the prodigal son.
00:12:32.66\00:12:35.93
And the person
comes to his senses
00:12:35.94\00:12:38.75
and the person makes turn around
00:12:38.76\00:12:42.03
and going back to God,
that's what repentance.
00:12:42.04\00:12:43.90
So it's a
U-turn and about phase.
00:12:43.91\00:12:45.97
In the New Testament, metanoia,
00:12:45.98\00:12:48.93
it means to change your mind,
00:12:48.94\00:12:50.92
you follow after
your mind changed.
00:12:50.93\00:12:52.70
This is in the prodigal son.
00:12:52.71\00:12:53.92
He came to his
senses and he said
00:12:53.93\00:12:57.05
I'm going back to my Father.
00:12:57.06\00:12:59.53
This is what repentance is.
00:12:59.54\00:13:00.99
So, John the
Baptist message was,
00:13:01.00\00:13:03.60
you are away from God.
00:13:03.61\00:13:06.15
You're disobedient to God.
00:13:06.16\00:13:07.81
You see they were not --
00:13:07.85\00:13:09.97
they once
welcomed the messiah, etc.
00:13:09.98\00:13:12.21
So, John the Baptist
said you have to make
00:13:12.22\00:13:14.34
that significant
around in your life.
00:13:14.35\00:13:17.16
You've to come back
to God and that's how
00:13:17.17\00:13:20.17
the coming of the messiah
will be meaningful to you.
00:13:20.18\00:13:23.57
And so that whole message is
summed up in that second verse,
00:13:23.58\00:13:26.44
"repent for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand."
00:13:26.45\00:13:29.86
It was calling for a
radical change of Abraham.
00:13:29.87\00:13:32.65
They expected others to repent,
00:13:32.66\00:13:34.51
but this is a
message you need to repent.
00:13:35.89\00:13:39.41
And then, and then,
if you see the rest,
00:13:39.42\00:13:42.63
all kind of people
were coming to listen
00:13:42.64\00:13:45.32
to John the
Baptist, but his message was,
00:13:45.33\00:13:49.05
turn around in your
relationship with God,
00:13:49.06\00:13:52.36
look into the world in
completely different way.
00:13:52.37\00:13:55.31
Change the course of your action
00:13:55.32\00:13:57.68
and try to correct the things
that you have done in the past.
00:13:57.69\00:14:00.44
That was actually the
message of John the Baptist.
00:14:00.45\00:14:02.27
And we're gonna
get much more into
00:14:03.53\00:14:04.72
the meaning of repentance
right after our break.
00:14:04.73\00:14:06.96