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169: The Hour of Darkness

S7 E169 · Normal Goes A Long Way
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For thousands of years God's people have had no trouble getting into trouble. They've repeatedly gone their own way, sinned on grand scales, and tested the patience of a very patient God. Now the time has come for God's wrath to be unleashed. But instead of punishing the ones who deserve it, he sacrifices his own son.  

Today, we'll see Jesus in all his humanity. He experiences betrayal, desertion, and incredible agony as he awaits the fate that will finally reconcile us to our creator. Join Pastor Jim Mueller in this week’s episode to reflect on the events that reveal the deepest love we will ever know.

If you’d like to dig deeper, check out these discussion questions. You can complete them on your own, with your Community Group, or with family and friends.

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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
The following podcast is a Jill Devine Media production.

Introduction: Focus on Crucifixion & Resurrection

00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome back to Normal Goes a Long Way. I'm your host, Jill Devine. And this week is Chapter 26, The Hour of Darkness. This has been an interesting series because, you know, normally ah you don't preach Christmas in August and you don't usually focus on the crucifixion or the resurrection in August, but we're doing that because that's the

Deviation from Traditional Church Events

00:00:34
Speaker
flow of the story. Normally we're doing those things in accordance with the church year.
00:00:39
Speaker
So, you know, you you wait till Advent during the month of December and of course Christmas happens and Epiphany Sunday after that. but it' So it's been kind of neat to do that and even kind of neat to sing, like we did today, ah and a hymn that typically would be sung around Holy Week or something like that, and like we did with Christmas just a few weeks ago.
00:01:00
Speaker
So today we are in chapter 26 of the story, and we are looking at the hour of darkness.

The Last Supper: Humility & Symbolism

00:01:06
Speaker
And it begins on Monday, Thursday, and Jesus and his disciples are in the upper room.
00:01:12
Speaker
And this meal is supposed to be the most important meal in history because Jesus' journey is coming to an end. This one final night, one final night with his friends, see they had come into Jerusalem like rock stars on Palm Sunday.
00:01:30
Speaker
They were like rock stars. But Jesus is not gonna be treated like a rock star tomorrow. If he wanted to, he could have snapped his fingers He could have bound the Roman soldiers and nothing would have happened to them.
00:01:43
Speaker
He could have brought mountains down on them even. But instead, Jesus spends that night preparing to take away the sins of the world. And before the meal, Jesus suddenly stands up and he silently and slowly strips off his outer garment.
00:02:03
Speaker
And then He has a towel that's secured around his waist and he gets on his knees in front of his disciples. And one person at a time, the story tells us that Jesus filled his hands with their feet.
00:02:18
Speaker
None of their feet are particularly pretty. Probably none ours are either, but I mean, they literally walked around barefoot and or in sandals and have sanitation will look like like we do. And so feet were especially ah gross I'm sure they were blistered, it's rocky terrain out there.
00:02:35
Speaker
They were always climbing uphill or somewhere else, calloused, maybe torn. And yet, Jesus cradles each foot as if it's precious.
00:02:50
Speaker
And this, this to me, like reminds me of the cross so much. And this is why. He takes away their filth and he rubs it onto his own hands. He takes their filth and he takes it on.
00:03:04
Speaker
Now he's the dirty one and they're the clean ones. Like, what could be a better explanation for what the cross is? The theological term we use is substitutionary atonement.
00:03:16
Speaker
You substitute places. You change places. You take his atonement instead of what you ah deserve based on what you have done. And he does it before the meal, right?
00:03:29
Speaker
because he's trying to help them understand the meal. And then he wants them to understand what he's going to do eternally from the cross.

Teachings on Love & Betrayal

00:03:38
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See, he's temporarily wiping away filth, but from the cross, he can eternally wipe it away.
00:03:46
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The feet of Thomas, who's gonna doubt him. The feet of Peter, who will deny him. The feet of James and John, who keep arguing about who gets the best chair.
00:03:58
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And, of course, Jesus then comes to Judas. He bows his head. and I just imagine his neck is exposed.
00:04:10
Speaker
I mean, Judas could take him out right now if that's what he wants to do. Stick a knife in him. Jesus just kneels and takes a handful of feet.
00:04:23
Speaker
It's like he's telling the disciples, he's telling us, this is how you're supposed to treat your enemy. It's not normal, it's not natural, but it is the right way to treat your enemy.
00:04:35
Speaker
um This is the right way to treat your enemy, even though he's a sellout, even though he's a betrayer, the work of a disciple is the work of the Lord, and his work is washing feet.
00:04:47
Speaker
And so the question that I think, whenever we look at Maundy Thursday, we look at this day, is the question that we're being asked, who does God want you to wash?
00:04:58
Speaker
Who does God want you to embrace to bring closer than they deserve, to treat better than they deserve? Who is God calling you ah clean?
00:05:11
Speaker
When Jesus kneels before his friends with their feet in his hands, he is doing far more than cleaning. He's sizing them up for shoes, running shoes, metaphorical running shoes.
00:05:25
Speaker
But this is why Romans 10 is true. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.

Judas' Betrayal & Biblical Significance

00:05:35
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This prophecy from the Old Testament is now being fulfilled.
00:05:39
Speaker
Paul declares it in the book of Romans. Proclaiming good news is Jesus' way of fighting back evil. I think a lot of us, when we think of fighting back, we think of like getting revenge.
00:05:53
Speaker
Getting revenge on somebody who wronged us. um And revenge can be fun. The problem is it always leads to death. Revenge is the way of the devil, not the way of the Lord, not the way of God.
00:06:09
Speaker
It keeps us on the same path as the bullies that are out there in the world. You want somebody to share your tears. But here's the thing.
00:06:19
Speaker
God has come to wipe away tears, right? not to make people share tears. He wants to remove all the disgrace from the earth. And Jesus, he's washing them, he's feeding them, and then he says one of them is going to betray them.
00:06:37
Speaker
And then he tells Judas, right to his face, go do what you're gonna do. Like he lets it happen. The disciples don't even really know what he's talking about. They don't know that Judas is about to do something evil. And so Judas leaves.
00:06:53
Speaker
and I've always thought, you know, Jesus is the son of God. Everything he teaches, i like all his teachings, the things he does, but couldn't he have done a better job picking disciples?
00:07:05
Speaker
I mean, right? mean, not that good of a job. I mean, right at the beginning of Mark in chapter three, it introduces Judas as the one who's going to betray Jesus.
00:07:17
Speaker
Like Jesus knew it was gonna happen the whole time. not Not a good choice. Unless, and I thought about this this week, unless he picked Judas precisely because he knew he'd betray him.
00:07:36
Speaker
And maybe he put him in charge of the disciples' money bag precisely because he knew Judas was greedy.
00:07:45
Speaker
Like the time a woman poured perfume on Jesus' feet to honor him, and she did honor him, and Jesus said she honored him. But Judas complained. He said, that's worth a year's wages.
00:07:58
Speaker
We could have given that money to the poor. But look at what his friend John says about him later on when he recalls the story. say this because he cared about the poor. He did not say this because he cared about the poor.
00:08:12
Speaker
but because he was ah thief. As keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. He was stealing but from Jesus way before he betrayed him.
00:08:26
Speaker
So his greed helped lead to his betrayal, which led to Jesus being arrested, which is exactly what Jesus wanted. Jesus was here on a mission.
00:08:40
Speaker
a mission that's gonna lead to a cross. That's how you save the world. And so he's telling his betraying friend, go ahead and do what you're gonna do.
00:08:51
Speaker
Then in Matthew 26, it says, one of the 12, the one called Judas Iscariot went to the chief priest and asked, what are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?
00:09:02
Speaker
So they counted out for him 30 pieces of silver. And from then on, Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over. Now, I'm going to warn you about something. I really believe the scriptures are true, which means when you walk into this church, you're going to see us lean in to find out more.
00:09:23
Speaker
Because I don't think a number like the number 30 is random. If it was random, he would have just said like a bag of coins or a lot of money. He's very specific. 30 silver coins. I want to argue it cannot be 20 and it couldn't be 50 and it couldn't have been 100.
00:09:42
Speaker
and it's because 30 is an important biblical number. 30 was ah the minimum age that you could be to be a priest or a rabbi, kind of like we have a minimum age to be a president.
00:09:54
Speaker
They had a minimum age to be a priest or a rabbi, and that was 30 years old. And Luke's gospel tells us that Jesus was about 30 when he started his ministry.
00:10:05
Speaker
What's Luke saying? He's saying Jesus is of age to be a rabbi. And so he was. Like if you go buy a beer after church, because ah I don't know, the sermon was a little boring.
00:10:19
Speaker
And then they ask you, are you 21? You don't say, no, I'm 22. You say yes, because they're not asking if you're 21. They're asking, are you the minimum age? That's what they're really asking.
00:10:32
Speaker
So Luke is telling you Jesus is the age of a rabbi. 30 was also the accepted amount of time to mourn someone special who has passed away. 30 days of of mourning.
00:10:45
Speaker
Saul was 30 when he became the king of Israel. David was 30 when he became the king of Israel. King Solomon's temple was 30 cubits high. 30 was also the price of a slave.
00:11:01
Speaker
Now stop for just a second. The Bible does not endorse slavery, but it does describe it. It talks about what humanity is willing to do to other people, but it does not endorse it.
00:11:14
Speaker
In Exodus 21, it says, if the bull gores a male or a female slave, the owner must pay 30 shekels of silver to the master of the slave, and the bull is to be stoned to death.
00:11:25
Speaker
30 pieces of silver, therefore, was kind of like the price of a human being in a court of law. its It's the same price that Hosea the prophet had to pay ah to buy his wife out of a brothel.
00:11:39
Speaker
She had gone back into this the sex trade and and he wanted to rescue her, wanted to to buy her out. Well, they made him pay 30 pieces of silver, but he didn't have enough. So he brought 15 shekels of silver and then he added some barley because he didn't have enough cash.
00:11:55
Speaker
And he bought his wife back. ah The prophet Zechariah, he spent some of his ministry shepherding animals, and once he was asked for his paycheck, and he was paid 30 pieces of silver, and then he gave that to the potter.
00:12:11
Speaker
you This seems like a reference to Judas to me because ah Judas was paid 30 pieces of silver, and then the money was used to buy the potter's field, which is where Judas hung himself. It's like the story just comes around and around.

Gethsemane: Struggle & Acceptance

00:12:27
Speaker
So after the upper room, the next scene is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane with his sleeping disciples. And he's waiting for Judas and the guards to show up and to arrest him.
00:12:40
Speaker
How does he prepare? no No self-defense, no no self-defense weapons on him. um those No ah defense attorney to help him.
00:12:52
Speaker
No, the Bible says he just prays. It says he prayed three times. And that each time his disciples were falling asleep and they weren't praying with him. And all three times he prays about his cup, his cup.
00:13:07
Speaker
ah This is the first one in verse 39. ah Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and he prayed, my father, if this is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.
00:13:20
Speaker
And then in verse 42, he went away a second time and he prayed, my father, if it's not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done. And then verse 44, so he left him and he went away once more and he prayed the third time saying the same thing. Why does he keep talking about this cup?
00:13:40
Speaker
um Throughout scriptures, but also in the ancient Near East, very common in other cultures too, ah the cup functions as a metaphor for an individual's fate.
00:13:52
Speaker
Your cup is your fate. It's what's gonna happen to you. um And so the Bible talks about the cup of wrath or the cup of salvation, basically saying, like, you're gonna find out your future.
00:14:07
Speaker
So where did these cups of divination or telling the future, where did they start? Way back in the early part of the Bible in Genesis, around 1750 B.C., there's a story of Joseph in Egypt.
00:14:23
Speaker
And his brothers come to Egypt because there's a famine in Israel.
00:14:29
Speaker
But they don't recognize him because now he's a part of the royal court. I mean, their little brother has grown into a leader and a man. And Joseph tells his men to put a silver cup in the bag of the youngest brother because he wants to convince the other brothers to bring their father back.
00:14:49
Speaker
That way he can be reunited with his father. But then he accuses them of trying to steal from him with that silver cup. It says it's the cup that Joseph uses for drinking and for his divination.
00:15:05
Speaker
have a feeling his servants probably thought he was practicing Egyptian divination, but of course, Joseph would not have done that. The Bible's clear that he was faithful to the Lord his whole life. um He didn't need it to receive prophecy. He prayed and God talked to him.
00:15:21
Speaker
God gave him prophecy that way. He just had to listen to the spirit. But he did have this royal cup and they were made of silver ah because it's highly reflective.
00:15:32
Speaker
And they would sometimes drop oil in the water to see how it moved. And they would think that would tell them what the future is going to be. Or sometimes they drop other objects in there with sayings on them. And depending on the reflection, they would interpret it ah one way or another on the surface of the water.
00:15:48
Speaker
So the again, the idea is that the cup ah tells you your fate. Kings literally had cupbearers who guarded their cup and everything that was put in it because there was always a threat of poisoning.
00:16:02
Speaker
um Trophies. Trophies have historically taken the shake the shape of a cup. Why? It's because they would ah they were told the fate of the games.
00:16:13
Speaker
If you had the trophy, the cup, then that said that the fate was on your side. And if you think about it, in the ancient world, like civil age civilization required water.
00:16:27
Speaker
Civilization only existed where there was water. ah We live in a world of water treatment and wells and tap water, but back then, whether you had water in your cup determined whether or not you would even live.
00:16:43
Speaker
um So Jesus is waiting his fate, and he's struggling between his human will and God's will, and so he's praying about his cup. But you want to know what the most powerful word in those three prayers he prayed is?
00:17:00
Speaker
Nevertheless. Nevertheless. The problem is it's scary to pray nevertheless because you're trusting somebody else's will,
00:17:14
Speaker
instead of your own will. Think about the movie Rapunzel. Have you ever seen the Disney show Tangled, anybody?

Trust in God's Will

00:17:22
Speaker
Yeah, okay, good. I have three daughters and a two-year-old right now, so I literally watch Rapunzel all the time.
00:17:29
Speaker
And I see Tangled all the time. um But here's the story. Poor Rapunzel is raised by a wicked woman in a tower. She claims to be her mother, ah but that um and that she's protecting her and providing for her, and that's why she has to stay in the tower. But of course, she's really keeping her locked up because she's selfish.
00:17:48
Speaker
She's using Rapunzel's hair ah to heal her and to keep her living. And poor Rapunzel doesn't know about her. She's deceived. She thinks it's really her mother, and she's not.
00:18:02
Speaker
Now think about the song she sang to her. She says, skip the drama, stay with mama. Mother knows best, right? Actually, it's pretty catchy song. Stays with you.
00:18:13
Speaker
And in principle, I agree with the premise. Like, kids, you should trust your mothers. and Kids, you should trust your fathers. That's a good thing. But not in this case.
00:18:24
Speaker
Because she's not really her mother. And her will is not for Rapunzel's good. She's manipulating her. She's manipulating her with imaginary fear.
00:18:37
Speaker
And anytime I think about somebody wanting to manipulate a child, like it just makes my skin crawl. And yet I have to admit, that's how so many people see religion.
00:18:49
Speaker
So many people see religion as ah manipulative. And ah listen to this quote, for example. Religion is regarded by the common people as true.
00:19:02
Speaker
By the wise as false and by rulers as useful. col Karl Marx said religion is the opiate of the people.
00:19:16
Speaker
Like we're keeping them drugged so we can manipulate them. He thinks religion it's just so the strong can keep deceiving the weak. Its purpose is to control them.
00:19:30
Speaker
which is terrible, of course, and it doesn't remind me of Jesus at all. It's not the way of Jesus. When I was a kid, I was told that cussing ah was was breaking a commandment. It was taking the name of the Lord in vain, um which, of course, isn't true at all.
00:19:48
Speaker
It has nothing to do with cussing. There's other Bible verses about no foul language being in your mouth, so by all means, keep it clean, but that's not what the commandment is. says, do not take the name of the Lord's name in vain.
00:20:02
Speaker
um You take the the name of the Lord in vain when you use the name of God to justify your agenda, to flatter your vanity, to manipulate his name for your purposes.
00:20:20
Speaker
um So think about a man who... I don't know, quote scripture as a grounds for demeaning his wife or a pastor who inspires hate and fear of outsiders or a mother who manipulates her children with threats from an angry God.
00:20:42
Speaker
Think about holy wars and crusades and things like that. Rulers have found ways to use God's name for their own agenda. That's taking the name of the Lord seriously.
00:20:54
Speaker
in vain. You've got made God into an idol for your purposes. We should never use God's name to control other people for our purposes. But that doesn't mean that religion is the opiate of the people.
00:21:10
Speaker
And that doesn't mean that we can't trust the true God, but because of course we can. In that one word, nevertheless, Jesus not only prays to the Father, but he's teaching us something.
00:21:23
Speaker
In that one word, Jesus is telling you something. God is a good father. And his will and your will are not always gonna line up.
00:21:37
Speaker
And you might not always understand why.
00:21:41
Speaker
but it's okay. Because he's good. And so sometimes, always, you can pray nevertheless, your will be done, God. Um...
00:21:54
Speaker
You can trust him. Even when your situation seems full of darkness and suffering, God is going to take care of it in ways, it's gonna be beyond your understanding.
00:22:08
Speaker
Because it's especially when your cup, your fate, your cup is filled with wrath, that's when you need God the most.
00:22:18
Speaker
Think of the mom with tweezers. Like when you're a kid, you're like, mom, leave the splinter alone. Don't touch the splinter. and It hurts, but not as much as when mom starts tweezing. Is tweezing a word? I don't know Mom starts tweezing. But if you just let her do it for a second, in just a few seconds, the pain goes away.
00:22:38
Speaker
you leave that thing in there, it's gonna get worse and worse and harder to remove, and it's gonna get worse in the end. Like, you know this. Mother knows best. So does God the Father.
00:22:52
Speaker
yeah Jesus is in agony. He's literally sweating blood through his pores. But still he prays, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. And then, of course, the soldiers show up, and Peter pulls out a dagger, and he cuts off one of the soldier's ears.
00:23:08
Speaker
He's trying to defend Jesus. But Jesus does a very Jesus thing. He tells Peter to put the dagger away, and then he picks up the ear, and he sticks it back on Malchus's head.
00:23:22
Speaker
and heals him. The Gospel Luke actually tells us the soldier's name. His name was Malchus. um The other Gospels tell you that one of the disciples cut off an ear, but they don't say who the man was, and they don't say that Jesus even healed it.
00:23:39
Speaker
They just moved on. Luke's the only one that tells us that Jesus healed it, and he gives us his name. It's a miracle right before his trial and crucifixion. One last miracle.
00:23:52
Speaker
before he dies for the sins of the world. Well, why does Luke tell us this? I have a theory. Luke's account of Jesus's life
00:24:05
Speaker
is written for outsiders. Like Luke, more than any of the other gospel writers, highlights stories where Jesus befriends and heals outsiders. people Women, he highlights and befriends and helps women. Jesus raises their status in Luke's gospel. Children, Jesus raises their status in Luke's gospel. People with diseases, Jesus is not afraid to touch them.

Inclusive Love in Luke's Gospel

00:24:30
Speaker
or to heal them. ah Prostitutes, Jesus befriends them. Gentiles, Roman soldiers. These are all the very people that the religious elite were telling you you need to avoid them. They're like cancer.
00:24:45
Speaker
They'll ruin you, ruin your morality, ruin your life. The religious elite are warning you all the time, stay away from these people.
00:24:56
Speaker
But yet Jesus loves them. So why does Luke highlight them? Because he himself was a Gentile, an outsider, somebody who was new to the Jewish faith and therefore was new to expecting a Messiah.
00:25:14
Speaker
And then Jesus changed his life. He was an educated doctor, and he met the Apostle Paul, and he sold out for Jesus. He went on missionary trips with the Apostle Paul.
00:25:25
Speaker
He told other outsiders that Jesus was for them too in places like Turkey and Greece. um This isn't a gospel trying to convince Jewish people that Jesus fulfilled the Jewish Bible. That's what Matthew's gospel does very well.
00:25:41
Speaker
It says, Jesus did this, fulfilling this prophecy. Jesus did this, fulfilling this prophecy. Luke's not interested in convincing you of anything in the Old Testament. um Luke is a gospel that tells outsiders, God is for you, not against you.
00:26:01
Speaker
God loves you. So yeah, the soldiers are gonna arrest Jesus, but not before Jesus can heal one of them because Jesus believes it's by loving our enemies that we can save the world.
00:26:14
Speaker
So did Malchus, I've always wondered this, did Malchus start following Jesus after having his ear healed? You'd think he would. we don't know. But the fact that Luke mentions his name gets specific.
00:26:30
Speaker
Kind of makes me wonder If this is a guy that became well-known in Christian circles later on, you mention his name because people know the guy.
00:26:43
Speaker
But of course, the soldiers aren't the only ones there, right? Judas is there too. Judas Iscariot, betraying his rabbi with a kiss.
00:26:54
Speaker
So why is Judas called Iscariot? Iscariot comes from two Hebrew words that are pushed together, ish and karioth. The word ish is the word for man.
00:27:07
Speaker
So he is the man from the region of karioth. He's a man from karioth. It's identifying where he's from. um The gospel also mentions the name of his father, Simon Iscariot.
00:27:21
Speaker
Kind of wonder if his dad wanted to change his name after what happened. um There's another disciple named Judas, by the way, but in our English translations, they always write Jude for his name.
00:27:34
Speaker
um After what Judas did to Jesus, I'd want people to start calling me Jude as well.

Betrayal as Part of Divine Plan

00:27:40
Speaker
Kind of like if your surname was Hitler, might have to go to your dad and say, Dad, I think we all need a name change.
00:27:49
Speaker
For many of us, it's also the way that Judas betrayed Jesus that feels just gross. Our translation says that Judas came to him and said, greetings, Rabbi.
00:27:59
Speaker
ah But the Greek word there is karos, which really means something like rejoice, teacher. It's just icky.
00:28:08
Speaker
In fact, the the Greek words for joy, rejoice, and grace, they all the same share the same root as that word. So when you have joy in your heart or you're rejoicing in worship, um it's a response to the literal grace of God.
00:28:25
Speaker
and course, not only does he say rejoice, teacher, but then he betrays him with a kiss. And the Greek word ah for that word indicates that it wasn't just a peck on a cheek, it was ah is an intimate kiss, like a parent to a child.
00:28:39
Speaker
um There's a related story in the Old Testament when Joab, Joab in the Old Testament comes up to um a guy named Amasa, and he grabs him by the beard, he kisses him, and then he stabs him with a dagger.
00:28:55
Speaker
And it says his intestines emptied out.
00:29:00
Speaker
The exact same Greek word is used in the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, for the word kiss. Same kind of kiss. By the way, when Judas hung himself, what happened to his body?
00:29:16
Speaker
His intestines were emptied out. It's like the story keeps coming back again, keeps coming around again. um And Jesus responds to the kiss and the betrayal by calling him his friend, which is a very Jesus thing to do.
00:29:38
Speaker
And then, of course, Jesus is taken to a sham trial and then hung on a cross, crucified for our sins. He could jump off at any moment. He didn't. and so The text says he gave up his spirit, which is a very, very powerful phrase.
00:29:55
Speaker
Give up. Giving up so the soldiers would win, the cross would win, the nails would win. He waited till his suffering was enough to atone for every single sin in the world.
00:30:08
Speaker
And then he gave up. And they buried him. Now the gravesite was more like a jail cell. There were armed guards that were left outside the big stone. I wonder if Nicodemus, one of the men who buried him, I wonder if he recalled his first conversation with Jesus. Because Nicodemus was a Pharisee.
00:30:29
Speaker
Nicodemus was a part of the Sanhedrin. Nicodemus was one of those religious elite people. But now he's following Jesus. Secretly, he's afraid. But now he's following Jesus.
00:30:43
Speaker
wonder if he was recalling when Jesus said, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life.
00:30:56
Speaker
Powerful words that Nicodemus, maybe maybe at that tomb, is still hoping might come true, but it's not looking good. you believe? Do you believe?
00:31:09
Speaker
That Jesus died for you and in so doing has given you that very gift of eternal life? I hope you do.
00:31:21
Speaker
i want to see you there. See, Jesus believed winning eternal life for you was worth his life. Maybe Jesus let this happen because he knows our tears at funerals.
00:31:36
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one last funeral to beat all other funerals. One last grave so that all graves would open.
00:31:46
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Whoever that face is that you're thinking about right now, for me, to be my dad.
00:31:55
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Whoever that face is that you're thinking of one right now,
00:32:01
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maybe Jesus let this happen because he remembers how you felt at that funeral.
00:32:09
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One last grave so that all graves would open. One last cry so that all the crying would stop. See, that's why Good Friday's good. It's a weird word to put in front of that Friday. But that's why it's good.

Good Friday: Sacrifice & Resurrection

00:32:21
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Because the most terrorizing part of the story is not the end of the story. This is the hour of darkness that we talk about this week. Literally, an eclipse happened that Friday. Darkness.
00:32:32
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As if the earth itself was saying, this is so wrong. How could you guys put him to death?
00:32:40
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And on that Friday, death won, but heaven was just counting to three. Friday, Saturday, and of course, Easter, Sunday. Let's pray.
00:32:52
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How, Jesus, how did you submit to the Father's will like that within hours of your executions?
00:33:00
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We're thankful. Don't leave us during our hour in need. Lord, would you be present when we're tempted? Would you strengthen our faith when our trust is weak?
00:33:14
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Let us lean in on your prayer in the garden, Jesus, and may we... May we pray, not as I will, but as you will. Church, repeat after me. Jesus, not as I will, but as you will.
00:33:29
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Amen. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
00:33:40
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Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil.
00:33:52
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For that is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Now may the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his favor upon you and give you his peace.
00:34:08
Speaker
Amen. Please join us again on Thursday of this week as Ms. Hannah and Ms. April take this week's chapter and sermon series and present it in kids form. And you can learn more about this right now at normalgoesalongway.com.
00:34:24
Speaker
We really appreciate you hitting play on this week's episode and can't wait for you to come back on Thursday.