The Last Week in the Life of Christ - Part 1

Blessings to Israel presents Discerning the Times, a program committed to encouraging you to view current events through the lens of the Bible. Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, please join us for today's program. Welcome to Discerning the Times.

My name is Brian Thomas alongside cohost, Dr. Bruce Logan, who we will bring in shortly. It is a blessing to be with you once again this week. As we are leading up to the great celebration of Resurrection Day, we are today and next week, we're going to look at what we're calling the greatest week in history.

We're going to look at the last week of the life of Jesus Christ during his time on earth at his first coming. But before we get to that, I need to remind you, as we always do, that your eternal state is far more important than your current state. If you've never received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I encourage you to do so today.

Otherwise, if you leave this side of life without having received him, you will spend eternity in the lake of fire separated from God. So will you please give your heart to Jesus Christ on today? All right, well, let's bring in cohost, Dr. Bruce Logan. Doc, how you doing? I know you're looking forward to this week's discussion.

Yes, sir. I'm doing great. I'm very happy to be here. And as you said, I've actually been looking forward to for quite some time to be able to share this particular teaching with the audience. And I just can't wait to get into it.

All right. Well, I'm looking forward to it as well. So again, we're looking at the greatest week in history, the last week of the life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at his first coming. So, Doc, to get us started, let's look at, again, Jesus' final week. Let's begin with the book of John chapter number 12. I think you are going to begin with verses one through three to kick us off.

Yeah. Well, what we're discussing, just to kind of give a little bit of background, is we're talking, as you mentioned, calling this the greatest week in history, which I literally believe that that's a very accurate description or title because this week was indeed, in terms of humanity, the greatest week in all of history. And one of the things that I find interesting is that it's tradition for most churches, and I mean, churches of every denomination, of every ethnicity, they have a tradition of having a service where they give you the last seven sayings of Christ on the cross.

And they'll have a different speaker speaking on the various sayings that he had. But one of the things that has always stood out to me about that is that what that does, and not wanting to disparage that tradition at all, but what that does is it minimizes things that happened during the course of the week. Because the argument can be made that Jesus' final week, in addition to being the most important week in human history, could have actually been the most active week of his three and a half year ministry here on earth. Now, what I mean by that is that, of course, the Gospels give us accounts of his life, his ministry, and the various things he accomplished during his three and a half year time here on earth.

And even the Apostle John, he even went as far as to say that all the books in the world could not hold the things that he did. But what we do have is we have a record of, you know, what we have in the record account, which is recorded in the Gospels, is a synopsis of the things that Jesus accomplished. And among that record, this final week actually may have been the most productive and had the most activity in that entire week. And the week actually begins, and we call it the final week, and as we know in our time tables, you know, a week is seven days. But technically, we're going to be looking at an actual nine-day period. And in the first part of this lesson, we're going to be looking at day one through Tuesday.

And the week actually begins on Saturday. And so, let's take a look at what happens is that Jesus arrived in Bethany and had supper that was prepared for him. Now, Bethany was a town about two miles east of Jerusalem across the Jordan River. And Bethany was the place where Jesus kind of used as a headquarters. It was the place where he raised Lazarus from the grave.

And so, it was a place where he was very familiar with, and it was used as his final headquarters at the conclusion of each day. So let's take a look at what John tells us in John 12, verses one through three. Verse one says, Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, which would have been Saturday, he came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, who he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper, and Martha served. So there is Martha, that was her residence. But Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.

That's the same Lazarus, by the way, that he had previously raised from the dead. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. So that was the beginning of this final week where he enters into Bethany, which was, like we said, according to John 11 and 18.

Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. That's John 11 and 18. So we can see now the scenario is kind of set up. He's preparing himself. He actually knows what's going to take place here, coming up pretty soon on the Passover, and so he's preparing himself. One other note that I want to make real quickly before we move on is that, and another reason why I think this teaching about the final week is more significant than just the mere final sayings on the cross, was that this week was not, the last seven sayings was not just a culmination of his earthly ministry, but everything that went on here in this week was actually a culmination, and this is really important, and I want to emphasize this as we go through this. This was a culmination of over 4,000 years of biblical prophecies all coming to pass, all coming to fruition in this one week. For an example, just on the day of crucifixion alone, there were 33 prophecies that were fulfilled just on that one day alone. So a lot of those side revelations oftentimes goes unrecognized by a lot of churches, because we don't really get the full big picture of actually what was taking place during the course of this week. So with that being said, going all the way back to Genesis 3.15, like I said, and progressing up until this final week, we're seeing prophecies being fulfilled, one on top of another on top of another, and leading up to, of course, the crucifixion on the cross. So that was Saturday, and this is where the week actually begins.

Then we proceed from there, we'll proceed to Tuesday. And so he begins Tuesday, I'm sorry, we go to Sunday rather, and we progress, and Sunday he enters into Jerusalem on Sunday, and is the day we refer to as the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And he enters into Jerusalem, and the crowds shout Hosanna.

Now this is, of course, commonly referred to as Palm Sunday. So notice what the Scripture tells us in Matthew 1-11, and we won't just read it all the way through, and the listeners can kind of look that entire narrative up, but I'm just going to begin at verse 8. It says, And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way.

Others cut down branches from the trees and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before and that followed cried, saying, Hosanna, the son of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest! And verse 10 says, And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth.

And so one of the things that was interesting is that he had commanded his disciples, or instructed, rather, his disciples to go to a particular location. They were going to find a donkey. They were going to tell the owner of the donkey that your master has need of this donkey.

They bring it to Jesus. Jesus rides it into Jerusalem. Now there's so much significance just behind that one event, but I just wanted to point out just one particular point, and that is that this was a direct fulfillment. Remember the theme of what I'm going to be sharing is that this was a culmination of thousands of years of the biblical prophecies being fulfilled in this one week. And notice what Zechariah had previously said in Zechariah chapter 9 and verse 9. Zechariah says, Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion. Shout and triumph, daughter of Jerusalem.

He is righteous and endowed with salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey, even a colt, the foal of a donkey. And so that kind of lets you know that again, there is this is just the beginning, and this is the culmination of so many biblical prophecies coming to pass. Yeah, it is amazing seeing these prophecies. As you said, some of these prophecies or a lot of these prophecies were given centuries earlier.

We know the prophet Isaiah gave many of them and we see Mary when she was put in the oil with her with her hair and upon Jesus, that was preparing for his burial. And then when we look at him riding in on the donkey, so you know, and we know a lot of in the Christian churches, we celebrate Palm Sunday and the significance of that. So so that leads as we continue with it into that Sunday we look at in the Book of Luke chapter 19. This is when Jesus weeps over Jerusalem. Yes.

Yes. And after this triumphal entry, he he leaves and he and he and the scripture tells us in Luke chapter 19. And I'm just going to read verses 41 to 44. It says now, as he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, if you had known even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes for days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close in on every side. And of course, this was a prophecy. We're familiar with the prophecy that he gives. And we're going to be discussing that later in during his Olivet Discourse, where he said not one stone will will be left upon another was interesting because he that was not the first time he made that prophecy. That was actually the second time he made that prophecy. And it says here in verse four, I'm sorry, verse 44 and level you and your children within you to the ground.

And they will not leave within you one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation. And it's just and if I could just park right there and I could just spend so much time because just dealing with that, because there's a lot of relevance. And this is this is really important. And I'm just I'm not going to belabel it. But the same can be said about many believers today. There's so many side. There's so much evidence that we are on a fast track to the return of the Lord here right now in this day. And so many believers are just completely oblivious to the signs of the times.

And that's not what this study is all about. But but I just felt that that's so relevant to our current time. But referring back then, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem because he recognizes that they of course, he knows that he's about to be crucified on the Passover and he was going to become that Passover lamb that would take away the sins of the world. But he also is very grieved by the fact that is the his the chosen people, God's chosen people are going to be the one who's going to call for his crucifixion. And and because of that, he's going to he's weeping, knowing what's going to happen to the to the city and to the people. Now, as Jesus approached Jerusalem for the first time before the crucifixion, he saw the city and wept. Jesus wept over Jerusalem, not primarily because of the imminent destruction of the city, but because of the city's rejection of God's grace and the opportunity for the peace that they had missed because of their spiritual blindness and rejection of God's offer of salvation by the people of Jerusalem. And of course, that's very powerful because it was those it was the people of Jerusalem and particularly the leadership, the religious leadership, who if anyone else should have been discerning of who Jesus was and what time it was, it should have been the religious leaders who should have then been advocating for the obedience to the people.

So the people, the citizenry was ignorant because of the ignorance or the hypocrisy of the religious leaders. And that's a combination that we see we've seen all through time, ever since the the dawn of the church, we've seen that come to pass. So then so we leave, Jesus leaves and after at the conclusion of Palm Sunday, Jesus goes back again across Jordan River and makes that two mile trek over to back to Bethel. I'm sorry, back to Bethany. And then comes Monday, he returns, heads back toward Jerusalem, and we begin to have another series of events.

Yeah. And, you know, when you look back at when you were just talking about Jesus weeping and he's pointing out to them, what's going to happen, what's going to come upon them because they did not know the time of their visitation. And, you know, he said to the Pharisees and Sadducees, as you said, the religious leaders, you can discern the weather, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. And as you said, we are seeing the same thing happening today where Jesus told us things to look for concerning his second coming. But many are oblivious to it, including, unfortunately, the religious leaders. So as we get into Monday of this final week of the life of Jesus, he curses the fig tree in Matthew, Chapter 21.

Yeah. And Matthew on Monday, rather, we began in Matthew 21 and Matthew records two very significant events that takes place on Monday. And the first is that he curses the fig tree. And that account is recorded in Matthew 21, verses 18 through 19. And it says, Now in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry.

Now he was returning back to the city of Jerusalem from Bethany, which was, as we saw, it was a two mile journey across the Jordan River. And seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it and found nothing on it but leaves and said to it, Let no fruit grow on you ever again. Immediately, the fig tree withered away. Now, this is interesting because there's so much symbolism in this particular act. But just to give a brief analysis, Jesus cursing the fig tree actually symbolizes the spiritual blindness of the religious leaders of Jerusalem. And I want to just stick a pen right there just to point out that Jesus often, not just in this final week, but throughout his ministry and all of his parables and many of the examples that he would give, was always for a point.

He was always trying to use natural events or natural imagery that would ultimately illustrate a spiritual or kingdom or more significant or powerful or broad meaning. And so in the instance of him cursing the fig tree was another example of that in which he was trying to commit a symbolic act to show the religious leaders of Jerusalem their barrenness and their lack of fruit. Now, it just goes on to say, in addition to, along with this symbolizing the spiritual barrenness of the religious leaders of Jerusalem, and by the way, they outwardly appeared so pious but lacked true faith and lacked good works. And so this was directed directly at them.

The withered tree serves as a warning of God's judgment on those who fail to bear spiritual fruit. Now, that's just so powerful right there because that's also significant to us. Now, initially, this was primarily pointed to those in Jerusalem. But as we're going to learn later that because they rejected him, that the baton was passed on to the church.

And so we'll take a look at that a little later. But just by the fact that the baton was passed on to the church, the same principles still would apply to the church, and that would mean to us today. So in terms of bearing fruit, and so we'll talk about that also later, but that's another important symbolism. Now, the fig tree in context, as I said, represents the nation of Israel, of course, and particularly its religious leaders and the temple in Jerusalem. So, you know, so there's a broad significance, a broad symbolism that Jesus was kind of illustrate here. The tree's lack of fruit symbolized the spiritual barrenness and the lack of genuine faith among those who outwardly, and that's the key word, outwardly appears to be religious.

And I could elaborate on that, you know, till the Lord comes back, those who outwardly appear religious. But I'm sure that we can see the significance of that even in our day because there's an epidemic, in my opinion, of those who outwardly appear religious, but who actually are not. Now, there's also a biblical background as it relates to fig trees. In the Old Testament, fig trees often represented the prosperity and well-being of the nation of Israel.

That was an analogy that was often used. The fig tree was often associated with prosperity and well, you know, and because the figs in the Old Testament, that was a symbol of that. Now, prophets, for example, like Jeremiah and Micah, used the image of a fruitless fig tree to describe the spiritual state of the people of Jerusalem. And Jesus' actions echoed these Old Testament themes, highlighting the importance of bearing spiritual fruit. And he also talked about that to his disciples, which that message is relaying down to us.

He gave parables about trees, about those who don't bear fruit. And so that's one of the things we want to take away, among other things, as we embark on this Christian life. One of the acts of maturity is that we want to be able to bear fruit. And one of the things we have to be able to distinguish and differentiate is that there's a difference between being saved by works.

That's not what we're talking about. That's not what Jesus was talking about. But when it comes to bearing fruit, we're saved by grace through faith. And as a result, our heart's desire should be to bear fruit.

So, you know, that's something that we should be really, really cognizant of. Amen. Amen. Absolutely.

Yeah. When you're saved, you're following the Lord, you should bear good fruit is and we should inspect the fruit. That's how we can tell if we to be able to know whether someone is of God, the message that they're bringing. Is it really of God?

We just need to look at their fruit. And also on that same day, on that Monday, this is when Jesus in Matthew 21, 12 through 17, when he drove those out of the temple, those who were in there doing the money changing and selling the doves, that is when he drove them out. He said, my father's house is supposed to be a house of prayer, but they've they've turned it into something otherwise.

Yeah, that is that is correct. In Matthew 21, verses 12 to 17 records and the account of Jesus casting the money changers out of the temple. And interestingly, this is not the first time that he did that.

It was actually the second time. And, you know, that kind of give you a little bit of a background about it is that if you notice that there were people called money changers in the temple and that, you know, in order to worship and make sacrifices, you know, you had to have special or particular type of animal or a particular type of dove to be sold and to be sacrificed. It had to be spotless.

It had to be without blemish. And so you had citizens who did not have the proper or the correct sacrifices for the temple. And so you had these money change. You got to remember that you had you had people from all over Jerusalem. And this is just like a very important historical biblical kind of kind of point. And that is, is that when you have when you have people converging on Jerusalem because this was the week of the Passover, you have people converging on Jerusalem from all different parts of the Middle East or Jews, rather, from all various locations in the Middle East. And they were bringing in coinage from their home locations. And many of the coinage, much of the coinage from various locations had the image of an individual might have an image of the end of an emperor or general or had had a human image. And well, that image, having a human image into their eyes was you were not allowed to use that money to to change in order to make purchases in the temple. And it's kind of an example I often use as an example of anybody who ever been out of state.

I'm sorry, out of the country. If you ever been to Canada, for an example, you have to go to these money exchanges where they where you have to take American dollars and exchange it for Canadian money. And I've been to Niagara Falls and Toronto a number of times and we had to do that every time. And so this was kind of similar, but only with a lot more significance to it. You weren't allowed to use or exchange coins that had any type of images on it. And so what these money changes were doing is that they were exchanging money at a very highly inflated rate, which kind of just kind of show you this human corruption just when it comes to economics goes way back. But yeah, that's what they were doing. And so Jesus recognized it and he called them a you've made it into a den of thieves.

This is my father's house, but you have made it into a den of thieves. And that's literally what they were doing, that they were like robbing the people from other other regions who were coming, who wanted to sacrifice and worship at the temple. And but they needed to exchange money in order to buy the proper sacrifice.

Then they were being charged inflated at exorbitant rates. And so in verse 12, I'm sorry, in verse 14, it says, then the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. Now, before we get to that, I just want to make this quick point. You know, we hear about just Jesus who is love and we hear sermons about his grace and mercy and so forth, which is all true, 100 percent. You know, he so loved the world that he gave himself, you know, to sacrifice, to be to be a sacrifice for many, for to be to sacrifice of him to be that Lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world. But by the same token, he was also a lord of judgment and a lord of vengeance.

And and he kicked the money chambers, money changers out, turning the tables over physically. And also he whipped them out when they took a whip and beat them as they was kicked, kicked, chased them out of the out of the temple area. And so that same Jesus later went on to sacrifice themselves for the 10 sins of the world. But if you can just kind of picture this in your mind and we go to verse 14 after he chases them out, then it goes on to say, then the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. So after he did that, after the corruption of the money changers, he turned around and started healing the blind and the lame and the sick. But then in verse 15 and says, when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple and saying Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant.

And of course, right then and there, they they knew that they had to plot to get rid of them because now their authority in the temple was being were being was being challenged. And so in verse 16, it says and and said to him, do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, yes, I hear.

Have you never read out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants? You have perfected praise. Then he left them and went out of the city and he went back to Bethany and he lodged there. So he so again, he concluded that day he goes back to Bethany. And now that was the end of just Monday. So now we're just we're just two days in and already, you know, Jesus has made a lot of noise. Oh, yeah, absolutely. So, yes, as you said, that leads into Tuesday. So that's when they began to question the authority of Jesus. So speak to that.

Yeah. Now, now, again, he comes back to Jerusalem again on Tuesday, and Tuesday was this actual last and final day at the temple itself or inside the temple. As a matter of fact, on Tuesday was a very busy day for Jesus. He spent all day in Jerusalem, sparring with the religious leaders, teaching parables and healing the sick. And that was and then during Christ's last days at the temple. In addition to his second cleansing of the temple that previous day, he taught several parables and exposed the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, which ultimately led to his arrest, trial and crucifixion. And that does not even include the fact that he gave one of his most famous addresses, which was his Olivet Discourse, which encompasses in Matthew all of chapters 24 and chapters 25. And so all of that took place on Tuesday.

So it could be said that next to what the with the exception, of course, of Friday, the crucifixion day, that Tuesday was actually the most eventful day of that entire week. So so he goes to the temple, he returns back to the temple in the beginning and Matthew, chapters twenty twenty one, beginning in verse twenty three. Now, when he came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted him. Now, notice who's confronting him, the chief priests and the elders of the people. That's very important.

We don't want to lose sight of that. He was teaching and said and he confronted him as he was teaching. And they said, by what authority are you doing these things and who gave you this authority? Now, Jesus turned around and he answered and said to them, I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things.

Now, of course, they were already indignant because they were their authority was being trampled by the Lord. I mean, he was just Jesus was actually just on Tuesday. You know, you could if you was kind of looking at it in modern modern terms, you could say that Jesus was taking the scribes and the fairs fair Pharisees to the to the verbal woodshed.

Right. But yeah, but but and so in verse twenty five, he says the baptism of John, where was it from? Jesus asking the question to the scribes and Pharisees from heaven or from men. And they reason among themselves saying, well, if we say from heaven, he will say to us, why then did you not believe him? But, you know, him being why did you not believe John? But if we say from men, we fear the multitude for all count John as being a prophet. And verse twenty seven says, so they answered Jesus and said, we do not know. And he said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. And so he was just really playing with them. And, you know, they they had no idea how to deal with Jesus. And so, you know, it led to the fact that the only thing we can do is we this guy got to go.

We have to get rid of him. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So Jesus here, we see, as you said, he's he's given teachings on some of the most well-known messages from the gospels. And this was the time also on Tuesday when he taught of the parables of the two sons, the vineyard and the marriage feast.

So so what do you what do you have on that? Yeah. And after after this particular confrontation that we just we just spoke about that he had with the with the religious leaders, he went on to just eviscerate them verbally in just many different ways. He started out by sharing while they were there.

Now, mind you, he was doing this to their face, which was kind of amazing. And he taught three parables. And you know, Jesus, whenever he taught a parable, as I said earlier, that he was he would use natural examples that everybody would be able to identify with in order to convey a spiritual point. And and just to summarize, he gave three, three parables to the parable of the two sons, the parable of the vineyard and the parable of the marriage feast. And I won't I won't just read and go into all of those, but I'm just kind of just want to summarize, you know, what were these parables all about, that Jesus told these three parables again, the parable of the of the two sons, the parable of the talents and the parable of the wedding feast in order to expose the hypocrisy and unbelief of the religious leaders and remind you, he was doing this to their faces and emphasizing the importance of genuine faith and obedience to God and to foreshadow the coming judgment and the nature of God's kingdom. So there was a multitude of spiritual analogies that he was trying to portray as he began to share these three parables.

And the first parable was the parable of the two sons, which can be found in Matthew chapter 21 verses 28 through 32. And this is well, I mean, to give you an illustration, just kind of an overview of what the parable was, because we won't just read through the scripture for the sake for the sake of time. But this parable illustrates the difference between outward obedience and genuine obedience.

Outward obedience and genuine obedience. One son initially refuses to work in the vineyard, but later he does, while the other son outwardly agrees but doesn't follow through. Jesus uses this to highlight the hypocrisy of the religious leaders who outwardly observe religious practices, but lack genuine faith and obedience. And mind you, again, I want to just reemphasize, he was saying this to their face, but not only was he saying these parables to their faces, they knew that they were talking, as we'll see in a moment, they knew that he was talking specifically to them. Then the second parable was the parable of the talents. This parable, and it's found, of course, in Matthew 21, 33 through 36.

And he just rolled just telling one after another. So this parable depicts a land owner who sends his servants to collect fruit from his vineyard. But the tenants representing the religious leaders, that's who that represented, mistreated and killed the land owner's servants. Jesus uses this to foreshadow the rejection of God's messenger, messengers rather, including himself. And this goes all the way back to his messengers in the Old Testament, included John and also included himself, and the ultimate judgment that will come upon the religious leaders.

Again, he's saying this to their faces, and they knew that he was talking about them. Then of course, which was the parable of the wedding feast, which is recorded in Matthew 22, verses 1 through 14. And this parable, of course, tells of the king who prepares a wedding feast, but those who invited refused to come. The king then invites others. So the original invitees refused to come. The king then invites others, but the one guest is not properly dressed and is cast out. Jesus uses this parable to foreshadow the rejection of the gospel by the Jewish leaders and the coming of the Gentiles into God's kingdom. So in other words, in that example, the Jewish leaders rejected.

So I'm getting ready to offer the invitation to the Gentiles, which of course includes you and I and all of those who are believers and who are listening to this episode. Amen. Yeah.

Yeah. That's very powerful teachings. And as you said, Jesus, he didn't pull any punches. He didn't hold anything back.

He just told him straight the way it was. And I really loved that. And that should be a message to a lot of the preachers of today, the ones that just want to give these soft cushiony messages so that everyone will feel good and like them. That's not the way Jesus brought it back then. And so we need to take note of that.

All right. So we're going to wrap it up for this week here shortly, but before we do speak to the woes that Jesus gave on Tuesday. Now following him giving this, you would think now, now put it in, in, in, you know, just modern 21st century terms, you would think that the lashing that he gave to them would have been sufficient, but he wasn't even done.

You know, he, he, he was just, that was just a warmup lashing. So now he's getting ready to really, I mean, he's getting ready to really come out with the cat and nine tails now because he gives them, he had, he pronounces seven wolves or seven series of a series of seven condemn nations on the scribes and the pharaoh Pharisees highlighting their hypocrisy, the legalism, and, and their neglect of justice, mercy, and faithfulness, ultimately calling them hypocrites and blind guides. And, uh, I'm just going to just kind of highlight really quickly because there were seven of them.

So we will, we'll just kind of briefly highlight each one. Woe one was woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you shut the door of the kingdom of heaven into people's faces. You yourself do not enter nor will you let others enter, uh, who are trying to, so that's woe number one. Woe number two, you travel on, still talking to the scribes and the Pharisees, you travel over the land and sea to win a single convert. And when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you.

That's some hard language right there. You know, he's condemning the woe in other words for condemnation. Uh, so instead of seven woe, you could also say seven condemnations. So the third condemnation is you bind, you blind guides. You say, if anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing, but anyone who swears by the, by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath. Condemnation number four, you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, which is justice and mercy and faithfulness.

And of course, if we had time, we could just just park right there. And because that's a mouthful, uh, uh, condemnation number five, you claim the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. And in other words, that's an example of, you know, you emphasize cleanliness on the outside or exterior or external cleanliness, but on the inside, your heart is dirty. And uh, and of course there are some other practices that are surrounding that, that I won't take the time to go into.

Um, but that has a lot to do with the, with the Jewish law of cleanliness, which maybe we'll talk about at, at, at a future time. Um, but then you had condemnation number six, you are like whitewashed tunes, which appear beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of bones and of dead, I'm sorry, bones of the dead and every kind of uncleanness. And finally, well, number seven, you are like snakes.

Think about that. You are like snakes, like vipers. You are full of deceit and wickedness. He's saying this to them, to their faces.

How then can you escape the judgment of hell? Now, first of all, I mean, one more, I want all the listeners who are listening to this. I would like to ask the question that maybe you can maybe, uh, record it in the comments. When was the last time anybody had heard a sermon over a modern pool pitch like this? I can't remember the last time.

No, no. You know? And so, uh, but this, yeah, but this was what he was sharing with the scribes and the Pharisees to their very faces. And, and he, uh, uh, did not hold back, did not pull any punches. And it was at this moment where they knew that, you know, they had to get rid of them. They had to crucify him. He was gaining way too much power and coming at them like that to their faces.

I mean, you know, their pride was very much wounded at this particular point. And, and one last thing, this was before all of these events occurred prior to him has given his most famous address, which is all of it discourse. Yeah. Yeah.

So, yeah. So we're going to land the plane there for this week. And what we'll do is we'll pick up next week with the way in which Jesus concluded Tuesday, as you said, with the Olivet discourse, a, a message that we often go to and talking about Bible prophecy, the last days and things leading up to the return of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. So a great teaching, uh, it's, it's just so good to reflect back on the things that were happening in the life of Jesus. Again, in that last week, leading up to his crucifixion. And as we prepare our hearts to celebrate the death burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. So doc, thank you so much for taking us through that this week.

And I look forward to picking up next week with the Olivet discourse. Amen. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in. Please come back and join us next time as we continue to discern the times by view of life through the lens of the Bible until then remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel until the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Thank you for tuning in to discerning the times. Please come back and join us next week as we continue to encourage you to view current events through the lens of the Bible until next time. Remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.