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I'm glad we're a congregation not afraid to sing an Easter song at Christmas time we are not uh Bound by the season of the year to celebrate
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our Lord in any manner we will focus this morning in Mark chapter 14 on verses 17- 21 but I'd like to read
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beginning at verse 12 to again set the context for the passage beginning Mark
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14:12 and on the first day of unleavened bread when the Passover Lamb was being sacrificed his disciples said to him where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover and he sent
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two of his disciples and said to them go into the City and a man will meet you carrying a picture of water follow him and wherever he enters say to the owner
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of the house the teacher says where is my guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples and he himself will show you a large upper room
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furnished and ready and prepare for us there and the disciples went out and came to the city and found it just as he had told them and they prepared the
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Passover and when it was evening he came with the 12 and as they were reclining at the table and eating Jesus said truly I say to you that one of you
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will betray me one who is eating with me they began to be grieved and to say to him one by one surely not I and he said
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to them it is one of the twel one who did dips with me in the bowl for the son of man is to go just as it is written of
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him but woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed it would have been good for that man if he had not been born let us
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pray father again we do desire that we would be among those who Praise Your Name always to acknowledge you and all all things your sovereignty your Providence
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over this world over Kings and princes but father also in our lives that we would truly be among those who Worship in spirit and Truth we ask that you
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would open our ears open our hearts and Minds to understand these things to meditate upon them and give you honor and Glory as you build us as you build the body of Christ in Christ's name we
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it's no coincidence that coincidence that the Last the Last Supper the day of Jesus death should occur on what the Jews called the
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Passover it's no coincidence that on the last night when Jesus Took bread ate supper with his
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disciples Les that there would be there in their midst the midst the betrayer the one who would eat at his table with him and actually as the
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scripture says dip his hand in at the same time that Jesus dipped his hand into the common Bowl to eat it's no
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coincidence that these things happened together the Lamb of God being slain on the same day as the
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Jews were celebrating the Feast of the roasted lamb commemorating the Passover the Jews remembering the day of their Deliverance on a day where
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Deliverance was to come for many more but what is this Passover perhaps in keeping with our
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Sunday School classs I would say if I could quote this is part of our heritage The Exodus as given to us in Exodus 12 you
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don't need to turn there but just to reiterate some of the things that the Jews were celebrating they were taught to celebrate this every year they were
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taught that this month in which they were celebrating would be to them the first month of the year this is when their year began it would probably be
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our March and April it'll be April 5th uh no April 22nd 2024 when they will celebrate the Passover again but this is the day that
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the Lord set aside for them to Remember to Remember the plagues that Came Upon Egypt because pharaoh would not let the
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people go and this is after the water was turned to blood and the frogs come and the Locust and the boils and all of
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those other nine plagues have come the 10th plague the Lord says every firstborn son in Egypt will die as well
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as the firstborn of the through Egypt carrying out the slaughter of the
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sons of the Egyptians the Israelites however were to prepare they were to prepare a meal they
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were prepare to prepare themselves to travel and to be ready for a quick getaway they were to have the meal prepared it would be a
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lamb one year old old without blemish and it would be roasted not boiled and they would serve it to all in
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the household but they would not just sit down and eat they were to have their traveling clothes on they were to have their sandals fastened to their feet and
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carry their walking staffs because they would be ready to escape given the Deliverance that God was going to give them from the bondage
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of slavery in Egypt they were to take the blood of the Lamb that was
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slain and they were to take a branch of hisp and they were to paint essentially the doorposts of the house and the
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lentil not on the floor because they could not walk in the blood but they would paint the two doorposts and the lentil as a
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sign the sign was for Jehovah and in Exodus 12: 23 we read
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right sorry I have it marked and I can't find my bookmark and you shall take a bunch of hsip and dip it in the blood which is in the Basin and apply some of the blood
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that is in the Basin to the lentil and the two doorposts and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning for the Lord will pass through
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to Smite the Egyptians and when he sees the blood on the lentil and on the two doorposts the Lord will pass over the door door and will not allow the Destroyer to come into your houses to
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Smite you now to be sure the theologians disagree on what the actual Passover means we read it and it seems to be that
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the Lord passes over that house but there are two agents here as I understand it in the story The destroying Angel and the Lord Jehovah
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and the way I read it in conjunction with Isaiah 31 that looks at the second coming that the Lord is passing over as
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in he is leaping over and he sees the avenging angel coming passing through a different Hebrew word from this one and
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as he sees the blood on the doorpost of the house he leaps over and prevents the destroying angel from entering that house to destroy the
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firstborn son but in any case he is passing over he is passing over to protect the faithful families from
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harm and they are free in the morning to escape the bondage and they're delivered from the bondage of slavery of Egypt
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so what was it to teach the Jews well first it was to be a remembrance a remembrance of that deliverance from
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bondage when the angel passed through but there was a death of an innocent lamb the death of a lamb without blemish
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that meant that the Jews would be spared the death of one of their sons and the spring spr Ling of the blood of that
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lamb saved them from the destroying Angel and all were to eat of that lamb and by eating of the Lamb they were kept
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safe and they were to reflect on these things they were to think about these things it was to give them rest and joy and it was to give them hope for the
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future and they were instructed again by Moses in his instruction when they were to do this
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they were to invite questions from their children here he says and when it will come about when your children say to you what does this right mean to you then
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that you shall say it is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when he smokee the Egyptians but
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spared our home and they were to Bow and Worship the
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Lord and they were also to sing they were to sing the what we call Psalms 113 to 118 they called it the halel the Hallelujah to the Lord they were reminded of the one that we read today
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who is like the Lord Our God they were reminded of the hymn of depravity Psalm 116 that our coms are empty but his is
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full and they were reminded to say who is like the Lord Our God and so the disciples arrived in
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Jerusalem on this night when night when Jesus had come together to celebrate and I would call it his Passover he uses the
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word that we just we read and here where will I celebrate the Passover my where is my chamber where will I celebrate the Passover with my disciples and I think
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this is how it was viewed because even today it's the host or the leader of the family it's his Passover he is the one who leads it
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and here they come to Jesus Passover and it has been said that every sacrifice in Scripture every figure every type as one author
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put it is in the words of Paul a school Master to lead us to Christ but but this sacrifice this type of the
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Passover does it not seem a very special picture of the day of Christ's death and what are we to think as we
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reflect on the Passover and on this scene that we have before us of the disciples sitting with Jesus coming with Jesus to
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Jerusalem to the Passover they sit down with Jesus reclining at
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table it's a little foreign to us but they were to lie on these couches generally on their left side on their left hand and they would eat with with their right hand and they would be side
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by side on these couches and as they reclined at table he began to say to
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them truly truly I say to you that one of you will betray me one who is eating with me what what a statement to begin a meal
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that is supposed to be Thanksgiving and joy and joy and rest truly I say to you one of you who is eating with me now will betray me two
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things here the betrayer was one of the Apostles because they were the only ones there as far as I can
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tell and he was to be known because he would dip his hand into the common dish at the same moment as Jesus literally in company with him
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Divine prophecy and it's amazing to me sometimes how Divine prophecy is fulfilled in even the smallest details in 2 Samuel 15 we read of a man
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by the name of ayapel he was a counselor to King David but when David's son absolum
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decided that he ought to be king he says why isn't anyone coming to me and celebrating me as being the one who is
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over the land ayapel was a traitor he betrayed King David and he became an advisor to
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Absalom when absum declared himself King in place of his father David of ayapel one of the comments of
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the other advisers of absolum was generally his counsel is good but what he's counseling absum now is not good even they had some suspicions of
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him and David when he reflects later in Psalm 41 writes I believe of hiel even myo close friend in whom I
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trusted who ate my bread Has Lifted his heel against me I believe Jesus has this in mind that this prophecy in Psalm 41
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was of this night of this day when Judas would dip his hand into the bowl with
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him and how could this be well we don't know quite how the disciples were r but we do know from Luke that there was a conflict among the Disciples of who was the greatest pro
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perhaps that discussion that contention was who should hit sit at the head of the table who should sit in the honored place which would be at the head of the
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couch and I believe if I can understand the writings of the Jewish historian edim that at the as they began
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to recline that Jesus was there and John was to his right or below him as it is because he Li lies on jesus' breasts
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later on but Judas would have been ahead of Jesus or above him and they could dip into the common bowl at the
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disciples have great uncertainty can can you imagine this statement this bombshell statement that Jesus makes one of you sitting here with us will betray
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me can you imagine how their hearts must have jumped within their breasts they may have thought this is
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impossible yet could I might I have done something to betray my friend and Lord horor at the very
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thought but also I believe a genuine searching whether their love for Jesus was real whether their commitment to serve
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him was genuine whether their character was truly was truly trustworthy they were conscious to be self self
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distrusting the darkest sin that could be in each one of them to betray the Lord Jesus Christ could be in
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them as Alexander McLaren wrote the greatest sins are committed by yielding to very common motives it happened to Judas did it not the Love of
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Money the love of his Greed for wealth led him to this horrible betrayal but also other common motives
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anger Pride Envy Pride Envy jealousy James chapter 1 tells us each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust then when
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lust has conceived it gives birth to sin and sin when it has run its course brings forth death
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evil and sin are progressive James says and very common things common among men and women children these types of sins can grow and can become the darkest
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sin each one of us will be tested we sometimes sing that Hymn of which some of the words are prone to wander Lord I feel it prone to leave the
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God I God I love and again the hymn that I mentioned Psalm 116 that has been labeled the hymn of human depravity the psalmist ask what shall I
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render to the Lord for all his benefits to me I will lift up the cup of Salvation and call upon the name of the Lord but what he lifts is an empty cup
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because there is nothing within man there's nothing in man which is good and righteous and capable of Salvation and we ask God we lift the cup
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to him and ask him to fill it because his son was the one who lifted up the cup of God's
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Wrath there is a possibility of a repeat of judas's sins the thought that you or I might betray the Lord
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the Lord Jesus the one who scripture says loved me and gave himself for me so we ought to do as the other 11
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did they did not question at least as I can understand it in Mark they did not question each other they didn't turn to each other who did they go to who did
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they question they question Jesus one by one he says they asked surely not surely not I it struck them to the heart they fully
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invested in self distrust to him what does the scripture say cast all
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your cares upon Him but here they bear their souls to him surely not I call to him as David does in Psalm 19
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he says clear me of hidden faults keep me from presumptuous sins lest I become
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Judas but again it's no coincidence that this night of the Passover that this day when Judas will would be known as his betrayer that Jesus lets us
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know that none of this is happening arbitrarily again that it is no coincidence for he says in verse 21 for
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the son of man is to go just as is it is written of him there there is something in his voice there's something in his
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language as he came to the hour of his death was he thinking of the bitterness of it what he would face the weight of the sin of the world upon
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him that Agony that he would have my God my God why hast Thou forsaken me or was it more
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bitterness because one of his chosen 12 was his was his traitor or as he thought of all who had followed him all of these crowds that
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just barely a few days before had taken him as king had praised him as the one entering as a
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conqueror and was he thinking as we read about some in John chapter 6 of how some would no longer walk with him because of
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things that he did and said these words are mixed emotions I believe I think on the one hand there's
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pity and there's there's a deep love because he was one of the 12 but I think there are also words of dignity and
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dignity and submission Jesus had fully set his face to go to the Cross so to Judas there was a sadness a sadness and a longing that that this man would
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have chosen a different path but for himself I think again the dignity is that we see the voluntary nature of the path that he has
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chosen and the uniqueness of the one who would lay down his life he would not be killed because of man he would lay down his life for his
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friends and this shows us that Judas and the high priests do nothing without Jesus
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approval even this tragic path was divinely planned and Jesus does not run
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his betrayer but it is as he writes he says here just as it is written of him Judas was the betrayer the traitor who is
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dipping into the bowl with Jesus because Jesus goes away just as it is written Jesus doesn't go away because he does it
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Judas dips because Jesus is to go to the cross it is to fulfill what was prophesied of him even from before the foundation of the
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world Jesus has reached I think that point of which he claims for
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himself his words unveil to us his pre-existence his divine origin and his judicial Authority we read it clearly in Matthew
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13 he tells this is what will happen when the son of man comes again he will send forth for his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling
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blocks and Those who commit lawlessness and throw them into the furnace of fire this is the judicial Authority that Jesus Christ
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has and Jesus reveals that awful state of the betrayer Judas and you you hear I think in his voice woe to that
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man and yet the truth woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed it would have been good
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literally it would have been excellent for that man if he had not
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release for the for the Jews from the bondage of slavery but for us there is redemption
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and release from the bondage of sin there's a freedom that came by the death of an innocent lamb there is life that came by the
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death of the innocent Lamb of the doorpost holds nothing to the blood of
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the Lamb sprinkled on hearts of stone and cleanses them from all
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unrighteousness the Jews were saved by feeding on the lamb we are saved by feeding on Christ by
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faith these are intentional connections between what happened in ancient Israel and what happened on that night
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in Jerusalem and it can happen for anyone who is in Christ today let us pray Our Father we thank you for these
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scriptures and again as we were encouraged to do that we ought to search the scriptures that we ought to read not just for the enjoyment of reading but
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read for understanding read prayerfully read to search to understand these things but in our understanding to come
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more and more to worship The God Who has revealed these things to us and so we ask that you would do these things that you would truly build your church in
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Christ's name we pray amen would you please rise for the
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from Peter's greeting slightly modified in 1 Peter 1 to those who reside as aliens who are chosen according to the forn knowledge of God the Father by the
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sanctifying work of the spirit that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood May Grace and peace be yours in fullest measure
