Do You Have Ears to Hear? (Walk Thru the Bible Week 44)

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Welcome to Walk Through the Bible, Susan Michael's 12-month journey through the most exciting

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book on the planet.

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It will transform your life one page at a time.

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Be sure to subscribe for future episodes that will ignite your faith and bring your Bible

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to life.

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Now, let's join our host, Susan Michael.

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Hey there, welcome back.

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This week we are going to talk about the teachings of Jesus, his parables and his miracles that

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he performed and the revelation of his mission.

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So it's going to be great.

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I'm so glad that you're here.

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I want to welcome all of you who are walking with us through the pages of the New Testament.

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You know, I just was remembering a few minutes ago about the first time I read through the

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New Testament.

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I was a teenager.

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I did it in two weeks.

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And I've never been the same.

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Those two weeks, I just, I closed that book and I was a different person.

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The power of God that had been at work in my life as I read through the pages of the

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New Testament, and it just was life changing.

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And it set my life on a certain direction, and that was to serve the Lord.

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And I'm so grateful for that.

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So I hope that even though we're going to read it in about 11 weeks, I still feel like

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we're really rushing through it.

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Nevertheless, enjoy every moment of it and allow the Holy Spirit to work in your life

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as we walk through the pages of the New Testament.

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So this week, we are reading in the Daily Bible the dates of October 29 through November

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the 4th, or that is the pages of 1394 through 1418.

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Remind you, my purpose isn't to teach you every lesson there is out of your reading.

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My purpose is to help you understand the story behind the stories and also to just bring

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out those little things that make the Bible come alive to you, that you understand how

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accurate and how true it is.

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So let's get started.

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So last week, we talked about Jesus' childhood there in Nazareth, his first miracle.

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He moved to Capernaum and how he ministered in the synagogues throughout the region.

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And then right above Capernaum, how that he went up on the hillside and he gave his sermon

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on the Mount.

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Now I didn't say this last week, but I was just thinking about it.

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I've been talking about how God has been setting the stage for the life and ministry of Jesus.

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But there right outside of Capernaum, it's as though God had actually created the geography

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of the earth to be prepared for the ministry of Jesus.

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Because that hillside, when you go with me to Israel, you'll see it right above Capernaum,

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is shaped like a theater, like a semi-circle.

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It goes in the hill.

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And the underground, the stone in that hill is what's called basalt stone.

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It's a stone that's from volcanic action, you know, of course, many, many, many years

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ago.

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And it's a dark stone and it amplifies the sound so well in that area that you can go

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there today and test it out, that you can stand up there at the top of that ridge and

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speak and it can be heard down on the shores of the Sea of Galilee because of the way the

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voice is carried.

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And so this is where Jesus was able to minister to thousands.

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So if people say, oh, you know, one person cannot speak loud enough to minister to thousands,

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the very earth had been prepared for Jesus' ministry.

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Isn't that pretty cool?

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So this week, we're going to talk about more about his teachings.

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We're going to talk more about his mission and a bit more about his miracles.

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So let's get started.

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Let's talk.

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I want to talk this week about Jesus' parables.

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Jesus used parables in his teaching to a masterful level because he was a master teacher.

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He was a master storyteller and he used parables probably like none other.

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But I want you to know that parables were a common teaching method in the Second Temple

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Judaism at the time.

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And the rabbis used it, it was not unusual.

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But Jesus' use of them, of course, was masterful.

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So what is a parable?

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A parable is where you tell a story using an everyday occurrence to convey a very deep

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spiritual meaning.

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So for instance, the story of a woman baking bread, the parable of the leaven.

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The deep meaning was, of course, about the growth of the kingdom of God.

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But it was an everyday story about an everyday woman baking bread.

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Or let's say the story of the man knocking on the neighbor's house.

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Everyday occurrence, but it was to portray the persistence in prayer that we need to

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have.

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Or the parable of the Good Samaritan.

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It's a parable about an everyday occurrence of a mugging alongside a road.

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But it was to teach the importance of the meaning of love and of loving one's neighbor.

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So these parables were so great at teaching the masses.

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And I want to read to you in Mark 4.

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You read this this week, Mark 4 verses 33 to 34, about Jesus' use of parables.

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And it says here, with many similar parables, Jesus spoke the word to them as much as they

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could understand.

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He did not say anything to them without using a parable.

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But when he was alone with his disciples, he explained everything.

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Well, now that's interesting.

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So why did he use parables with the public, but he didn't use them with the disciples.

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He explained things more fully.

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So we have two different kind of reasons given for this.

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And it can look conflicting.

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So this is why I want to bring it out.

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This week you read Matthew 13 verses 34 through 35.

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And it says here, Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables.

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He did not say anything to them without using a parable.

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So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet.

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Quote, I will open my mouth in parables.

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I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.

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That quote comes from Psalm 78 verse 2.

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So here Matthew is saying that Jesus used parables to reveal hidden secrets, hidden things

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that just hadn't been known before.

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And so that's a wonderful thing.

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But then Luke has a slightly different twist on it.

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And so Luke says here, after Jesus told the parable of the sower, which I'm not going

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to read, but then Jesus says this in verse 8.

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When he said this, he called out, whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.

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His disciples asked him what this parable meant.

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And he said, the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you.

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But to others I speak in parables.

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So that quote, though seeing they may not see, though hearing they may not understand.

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This is the meaning of the parable.

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And then he goes on to explain to his disciples the meaning of the parable.

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So Jesus here quotes Isaiah to say that the parables are used so that they won't understand.

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That's the way it reads.

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That's the way it sounds.

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So it's a little bit confusing.

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And I want to talk about it for a minute.

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So I want to explain parables here.

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Now parables, obviously, were not an explanation.

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Parables were a story.

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And to the disciples, he then explained it.

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So in a way, you could say they did hide truth.

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They hid the fuller explanation which he gave to his disciples.

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But what Jesus is saying here is that the parables are for those who have ears to hear.

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And that's really the issue here.

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It's not that Jesus was trying to hide anything from people.

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But parables were used like prophecy was used.

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And prophecy was used.

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The prophets spoke to the people.

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They acted out things.

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They used illustrations.

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They used stories.

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They knew a lot of the people were not going to listen.

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They weren't going to obey.

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But they did it for those that would.

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Those that had an ear to hear.

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Those that would heed the warning.

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Those that would heed the teaching.

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They were for them.

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But for those that were going to reject it.

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For those that did not have the ear to hear, it was a sign against them.

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God could always say, I told you.

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I told you so.

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But you just didn't hear.

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And so parables have the same kind of usage that for those that were hungry and had hearts

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to hear that had ears to hear and hearts to understand, they would understand the parables.

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And they would want more.

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And they would go after more.

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And that's where we all should be.

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My question to you, do you have ears to hear?

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Do you have that heart that wants to understand?

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And if so, then drink it in as you're reading the teachings of Jesus.

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But if it's confusing to you, then ask the Holy Spirit to open your ears and open your

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heart.

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Ask Him to reveal the truth to you and He will.

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But He may be waiting for you to invite Him in and to say, yes, I'm one of those.

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I want to hear.

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I want to know.

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Please teach me.

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It's always a wonderful practice to pray that prayer anytime before you open the Bible

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so that the Holy Spirit will teach you.

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Now let's talk about Jesus' mission.

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Last week we talked about that Jesus understood his mission was not to oppose Rome.

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He was there to reveal the heart of the Father to his people and to pay the price for their

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sin, to be rejected and to die.

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That was his mission.

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Now this week, though, we find another aspect of his mission that I want to bring out.

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We read this week in Matthew 15, 24, the most shocking little section of Scripture here

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where this Canaanite woman, which means she's Gentile, she may be pagan, she's not Jewish,

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she's Canaanite, and she comes to Jesus and he kind of rebukes her and his answer to her

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is here out of verse 24.

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He answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.

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My friends, a lot of us have been told that's like the old covenant was for the Jews, but

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Jesus came for the world.

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And while that is true later on, Jesus came as the Jewish Messiah.

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He came to the Jewish people.

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He came to initiate the new covenant with Israel and the house of Judah.

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But thankfully, we as Gentiles are able to enter in through the blood of Jesus and tap

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in to that rich history that belongs to the Jewish people.

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We can tap in to their covenants, to the law, to the worship in the temple.

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We are able to claim their Messiah is our Messiah.

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But always remember the context of Jesus is that he came to the house of Israel, to the

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lost sheep of Israel.

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And it's interesting that just a few verses before that in Matthew 10, when he sent the

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twelve disciples out, this is what he told them in verses five through seven.

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These twelve, Jesus sent out with the following instructions, quote, do not go among the Gentiles

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or enter any town of the Samaritans.

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Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel and as you go, proclaim this message, the kingdom

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of heaven has come near.

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So even the disciples were sent to the lost house of Israel.

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Jesus knew that it was going to go to the Gentile world eventually, but now is not the

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time.

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He hadn't died yet.

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He hadn't paid the price.

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And for now, it was salvation is to the Jews first and then the Gentiles.

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They were sent to the house of Israel.

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That was Jesus's mission.

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Okay, let's talk about some of his miracles.

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Now we have one of my most favorite stories, favorite miracles of Jesus.

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We read this week where the woman with the issue of blood of twelve years goes, pushes

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her way through the crowd and says, if I can but touch the corner of his garment, I can

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be healed.

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And he senses that somebody has touched him.

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He felt the power go out.

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He said, who is it?

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And it was her.

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And he said, your faith has made you whole.

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I love this story because my heart goes out to this woman.

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That secondly is because why did she reach for the hem of his garment?

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Why didn't she try to touch his foot?

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Why did she think that if she just touched his cloth, his clothing, and that's because

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of the scripture of Malachi we just read it a couple, three weeks ago.

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Malachi four two, where it says this, the son of righteousness will rise with healing

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in his wings.

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In this scripture, the word wings is the Hebrew word, Knaf, which means corner.

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But when they went to translate this verse, most the time it's translated as the corner.

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Like the corner of the garment is where the tassel was, the Knaf.

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But a few places it is translated as a wing.

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But in this scripture, it just really doesn't make sense that healing in his wings, but

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because of this verse and a more accurate translation of the word Knaf, it was expected

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within the Jewish people.

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It was a tradition that when the Messiah came, there would be healing in the tassels of his

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garments, which are at the corners of his prayer shawl.

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And that's what they expected.

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And that's why this woman, because of her belief that Jesus was Messiah, she wanted

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to touch the hem of his garment, the tassel at the corner of his garment.

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And when he said, your faith has made you well, I don't know, he doesn't say faith

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in what, but I think it was her faith in Jesus as Messiah that she knew that healing

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would be there.

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It wasn't just faith in healing.

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It was faith in who he was and therefore, because of who he was, that healing was there

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for her.

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I love the story.

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Another great story is when Jesus and the disciples are on the Sea of Galilee and they

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are crossing over to the other side.

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And Jesus falls asleep in the boat and this huge storm comes about.

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We all know the story.

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We learned it in Sunday school.

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The kids learned it in Christian school because when Jesus calms the waves, it is such a demonstration

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of his power, it's such a demonstration of his divinity and that he had power over the

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seas and the waves.

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So I want to point out two things here.

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One is, of course, that Jesus was asleep.

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That's not the story that bothered him at all, but secondly is that when he did calm

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the storm and calm the waves, he was definitely demonstrating his divinity because the Jewish

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people knew from the Old Testament that only God could calm the waves.

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And so in Psalm 89, I want to read to you verses 8 through 9.

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Who is like you, Lord God Almighty?

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You, Lord, are mighty and your faithfulness surrounds you.

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You rule over the surging sea and when its waves mount up, you still them.

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So the Jewish people knew God had the ability to calm the waves and when Jesus did it, his

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disciples' response is sort of, who is this man?

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They realized then only God could have done what Jesus had done.

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He had definitely exhibited his divinity.

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Now as I said in the beginning, they were crossing over the Sea of Galilee to the other

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side and I want to point out to you, when you go with me to Israel and you see the Sea

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of Galilee, we'll explain all of this, you'll understand it, but on the western side of

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the Sea of Galilee was where the Jews had settled and it was a very Jewish area.

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But on the east side of the Sea of Galilee, it was part of the Greek area known as the

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Decapolis and so it was a pagan area.

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And so when Jesus crossed over to the other side, he was going into the pagan area and

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he would usually do it quite on purpose.

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Sometimes it was to get away from the Jewish crowds.

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He just had to go where it was quieter and get away from all the people.

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In this instance though, we have this very interesting story that takes place that we

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don't recognize just from reading it, what's really taking place here.

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Jesus is crossing over the Sea of Galilee to the pagan area, which is full of Baal worship.

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And Baal is known as the fertility God and also the God of Agriculture, which means he

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is the weather God because if you're going to bless people's agriculture, the weather

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has to be right.

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And even Baal is depicted as the weather God with a vein of lightning in his hand.

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And so here Jesus is entering into the territory of Baal and the weather whips up this horrible

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storm.

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And Jesus is as peaceful.

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He's just asleep.

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It doesn't worry him at all.

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But when he quietens that storm, he is confronting Baal and he's entering into Baal's territory.

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And then when he gets there, he is confronted by a demoniac who it says had been in the

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caves.

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He had a legion of demons inside of him and he was self mutilating himself.

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And all of this sounds like Baal worship and a demonic presence that would be there after

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Baal worship.

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They, the use of the caves, the self mutilation, the demonic and also the pigs.

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So the pigs were sacrificed to Baal.

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And when Jesus drove the demons out of the man and into the herd of pigs, it wasn't

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just that he was damaging the business of these farmers that had this herd of pigs.

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It's that he was destroying the Baal worship.

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You get it?

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He was a direct confrontation.

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He was showing his power over Baal and he was destroying the worship of Baal.

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And the farmers came to him and said, please, leave.

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They knew what this meant, business-wise in all respects.

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And he tells the demonic who is now of sound mind and completely healed.

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And what does he tell him?

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Go tell everybody.

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He wanted the word to spread far and wide, the power that he had had over Baal and the

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healing of this demonic.

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Now at other times in your gospels, you're going to read where Jesus is over on the Jewish

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side and he tells the people not to tell anybody.

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He's trying not to whip up some kind of revolt against Rome.

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And so he's trying to keep things under control and every once in a while he'll just leave

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and go to the other side, to the pagan area to talk to his disciples.

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And so we have another example of that where we're going to read this week where he takes

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the disciples to the area of Caesarea Philippi.

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And Caesarea Philippi was the epicenter of pagan worship there on the northeast side of

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the Sea of Galilee.

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When we go to Israel, I'll take you there.

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You can see the cave where they used to throw the animals in.

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You can see the remains of lots of pagan temples that were around the area.

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It's kind of an icky area to go to.

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But it was outside of this town.

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Now Jesus did not enter the pagan area, I promise you, but it was outside of Caesarea,

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in the region of Caesarea Philippi.

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He gets his disciples away from the crowds and away from all the Jewish people coming

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in for healing, coming in for teaching.

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He gets them there where it's quiet.

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And that's where he has the conversation.

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Who do you say that I am?

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And they come up with their different theories.

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And then it's Peter that proclaims him as the Messiah.

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And when you read it this week, I want you to understand the context.

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And right after this, Jesus then goes up on the mountain and right above Caesarea Philippi

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is the highest mountain in all of Israel.

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It's called Mount Hermon.

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And the Mount Hermon is pretty, it's off in the distance.

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It's very, very high.

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But there's a whole range of hills that come down from Mount Hermon that run into what's

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called the Golan Heights.

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It's a very high area with lots of hills.

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And so it seems that Jesus went up on one of those hills that's part of the Mount Hermon

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range.

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And it was up above Caesarea Philippi.

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They might have been able to actually see down into Caesarea Philippi from there.

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And it's there that he has the transformation.

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And they see him with Moses and Elijah.

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Now why Moses and Elijah?

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Because Moses represented the law.

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And Elijah represented the prophets.

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And here is Jesus fully supported in fulfillment of the law and the prophets.

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And he appears with them.

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So these are the stories you're going to read this week.

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I want you to get the feeling for the geographical location where it's all taking place.

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Really, I hope you can go with me to Israel and see it for yourself.

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In today's show notes, we have a link for a tour interest list.

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Please sign up, get on the list.

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It doesn't commit you to anything, but when we have our next tour scheduled and a package

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to offer you, we'll let you know about it.

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See if you can go.

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Begin saving your money now so that you can make it on one of those tours.

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And also, I want to tell you that for more information on Jesus' ministry there in the

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Galilee, I have two resources for you.

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One is to listen to my 3D Jesus series.

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We'll link to that also in today's show notes.

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Episode number four is about his Galilee and ministry.

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Take advantage of that extra teaching.

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And then also, we have a great little DVD that we're offering for sale.

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We'll link to it also in today's show notes.

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By our good friends at the Christian Broadcasting Network, it's called House Written in Stone,

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Jesus of Nazareth.

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Here it shows you these locations that I try to describe to you.

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And it tells you the stories of what Jesus did in these locations and the archaeological

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finds that we have today.

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And it's a great, very, very cheap little DVD.

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Please take advantage of it.

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Orders yours today.

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And I hope you're enjoying your reading this week.

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I pray the Lord bless you.

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And I look forward to seeing you back here next week.

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Until then, God bless.

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If this is the first time you've listened to the Out of Zion podcast in our Walk Through

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the Bible series, you'd like to join us, please download our New Testament Reading Guide so

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that you can be reading along with us each week as we are walking through the pages of

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the New Testament.

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Go to www.outofzionshow.com and request your New Testament reading guide.

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Do it today and we'll see you back here next week.