1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,000 Season two of Love in Context podcast welcomes you. 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:10,600 Get ready for engaging unscripted conversations with your host, Ben and Spencer. 3 00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:17,120 Our mission remains unchanged to explore the Bible through the powerful lens of love. 4 00:00:17,120 --> 00:00:21,060 In this new season, we'll embark on a journey together, unearthing fresh insights and gaining 5 00:00:21,060 --> 00:00:25,440 deeper understanding of how we can love God and live out our faith in practical ways. 6 00:00:25,440 --> 00:00:30,200 So let's dive into this season of Love in Context, where love in the context of the 7 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:33,440 Bible intersect to transform our lives. 8 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:35,220 All right. 9 00:00:35,220 --> 00:00:37,680 Happy last episode of season two. 10 00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:41,440 It has been the season of mini series. 11 00:00:41,440 --> 00:00:42,440 It has. 12 00:00:42,440 --> 00:00:43,440 Yeah, it is. 13 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:47,440 We started with women in the Bible and we talked about kings and kingdoms, which is 14 00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:48,440 this. 15 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:49,440 We talked about the covenants. 16 00:00:49,440 --> 00:00:53,880 I'm not going to go through all of them because I want what you did fruit of the spirit and 17 00:00:53,880 --> 00:00:54,880 James. 18 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:56,560 Yeah, a little bit of a big message. 19 00:00:56,560 --> 00:01:01,520 It's been a long season and we are finishing up kings and kingdoms. 20 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:02,520 Yeah. 21 00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:05,680 And tonight, today we're talking about salad. 22 00:01:05,680 --> 00:01:07,440 We're talking about salad. 23 00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:08,440 Yes. 24 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:12,480 Caesar, the Caesar salad of Augustus is. 25 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:13,840 Yes. 26 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:16,880 We'll be talking about Caesar Augustus. 27 00:01:16,880 --> 00:01:22,880 Now this is not to be confused with a lot of other Caesars that were in charge of Rome 28 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:25,600 because Rome actually ruled for a very long time. 29 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:26,600 Right. 30 00:01:26,600 --> 00:01:27,600 Yeah. 31 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:28,600 So let Caesar Augustus. 32 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:32,360 You remember when we were talking about and I said, Ossowara is this kind of this title 33 00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:37,680 that they use for Persian kings and Pharaoh as a title they use for Egyptian kings. 34 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:38,840 It's very similar. 35 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:40,600 Caesar is a Roman title. 36 00:01:40,600 --> 00:01:41,600 Yeah. 37 00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:42,600 And then it's whatever their name is. 38 00:01:42,600 --> 00:01:49,640 So Caesar Augustus is a Gaius Octavius Thornus. 39 00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:52,760 By the way, some of you are going to be very familiar with this because you probably covered 40 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:57,120 world history in high school or in college or your history majors or whatever. 41 00:01:57,120 --> 00:01:59,280 So if you don't like what I have to say, tough. 42 00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:02,960 I got a podcast and you don't have to listen to it. 43 00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:04,400 Start your own podcast and refute it. 44 00:02:04,400 --> 00:02:08,440 You have your own podcast and you say, listen, this podcast I listened to, he said this thing 45 00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:10,600 that was technically inaccurate. 46 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:12,320 Okay. 47 00:02:12,320 --> 00:02:16,520 So he was born September 23rd, 63 BCE. 48 00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:17,520 Okay. 49 00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:21,360 You know what the difference is between that date of birth and every other date of birth 50 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:22,960 we've talked about so far? 51 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:23,960 What? 52 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:24,960 September 23rd. 53 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:27,080 Like we're getting real specific here. 54 00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:30,880 We have some pretty good information now. 55 00:02:30,880 --> 00:02:35,760 So he was born to a upper upper class wealthy equestrian family in Rome. 56 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:37,600 His father was a local magistrate. 57 00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:45,960 His mother, Atea was the niece of Julius Caesar, connecting Octavian to Rome's most powerful 58 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:46,960 political figure. 59 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:49,480 If you don't know who Julius Caesar is, et tu Brute? 60 00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:50,480 I don't know. 61 00:02:50,480 --> 00:02:51,760 I'll tell you. 62 00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:54,080 He was actually adopted by Julius Caesar. 63 00:02:54,080 --> 00:02:55,080 He had no legitimate heir. 64 00:02:55,080 --> 00:02:56,080 Julius didn't. 65 00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:59,020 And so he adopted Octavius as a son and heir in his will. 66 00:02:59,020 --> 00:03:07,320 And after Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44, he inherited this fortune and this political 67 00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:11,800 legacy, then stepping into the role of Caesar eventually. 68 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:17,400 So when he rose to power, you're going to hear some things. 69 00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:20,680 He did a lot of alliances and something called the Second Triumvirate. 70 00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:24,520 Now if you're starting to have some neurons click from high school, you probably talked 71 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:29,520 about this in high school because we talk about a lot of Rome in world history. 72 00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:33,240 So he formed the Second Triumvirate with a guy by the name of Mark Antony and Marcus 73 00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:34,240 Lepidus. 74 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:40,520 And it was in 43 BCE to then go and fight Caesar's assassin Brutus and Cassius. 75 00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:44,080 So Brutus and Cassius were the ones who were behind Julius Caesar's assassination. 76 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:46,200 He formed the Second Triumvirate to go after them. 77 00:03:46,200 --> 00:03:50,720 They defeat Caesar's killers at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BCE. 78 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:56,720 Now immediately after that, Mark Antony and him get into it because after defeating them, 79 00:03:56,720 --> 00:03:58,440 their tensions start to grow. 80 00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:06,640 Antony goes in the lines with Cleopatra from Egypt, Queen of Egypt, where Octavian then 81 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:13,200 takes this move to portray Antony as a traitor to Rome. 82 00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:19,160 So then he actually defeats Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Antietam in 31 BCE, securing 83 00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:21,560 sole control of the Roman world. 84 00:04:21,560 --> 00:04:27,320 Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide, leaving Octavian as the undisputed ruler of Rome. 85 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:31,840 One of the craziest things, I think we talked about this in one of the podcast episodes. 86 00:04:31,840 --> 00:04:39,680 Did you know we're closer to the life of Cleopatra than she was to when the pyramids were built? 87 00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:42,540 It's so crazy. 88 00:04:42,540 --> 00:04:46,040 It's just every time you try to think about how they built those pyramids, you know, 4,000 89 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:49,440 plus years ago. 90 00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:53,120 So he consolidated power. 91 00:04:53,120 --> 00:04:54,360 He started this transition. 92 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:59,240 So Rome had been a republic and had been largely driven by the republic. 93 00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:04,560 Julius Caesar started to try to push against this, which by the way, what got him killed. 94 00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:05,560 Part of what got him killed. 95 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:09,760 There's a lot of things that got him killed, but he starts to move them from a republic 96 00:05:09,760 --> 00:05:13,440 to an empire in 27 BC. 97 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:18,880 Octavian presented himself as restoring the Roman Republic while actually consolidating 98 00:05:18,880 --> 00:05:20,160 autocratic power. 99 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:25,160 So the Senate granted him the title Augustus, meaning revered one, marking the beginning 100 00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:27,700 of the Roman Empire. 101 00:05:27,700 --> 00:05:29,720 So he styled himself as a precepts. 102 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:32,280 Now remember we talked about precepts before. 103 00:05:32,280 --> 00:05:37,760 So many who rules a region in Persian culture, but he redefines it first citizen making instead 104 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:39,120 of king or dictator. 105 00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:44,880 So it maintains this illusion that he's serving the people. 106 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:49,920 He held titles such as imperator, which is commander, pontificate, Maximus, chief priest 107 00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:55,100 and console consolidating his military, religious and political authority. 108 00:05:55,100 --> 00:05:59,560 So Caesar Augustus has many, many titles and is wanting to be thought of as many different 109 00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:07,200 things as like a priest and as a representative, as a king, as a ruler. 110 00:06:07,200 --> 00:06:10,280 So what is he known for? 111 00:06:10,280 --> 00:06:17,200 Well, beating Mark Anthony, which we already talked about consolidating power, consolidating 112 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:21,280 power, centralized power in the empire and restructuring the government, concentrating 113 00:06:21,280 --> 00:06:28,040 power in the hands of the emperor while maintaining the Senate Senate as a symbolic body. 114 00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:29,880 So the Senate still exists. 115 00:06:29,880 --> 00:06:31,720 It just doesn't have any power. 116 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:35,120 It is your vacuum cleaner that's been unplugged from the mall. 117 00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:36,120 Right? 118 00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:39,880 Well, they, the, uh, Caesar's moving forward. 119 00:06:39,880 --> 00:06:44,160 They use the Senate for advice, more like a political council. 120 00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:45,160 Yeah. 121 00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:46,160 Right. 122 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:47,440 And some Caesars would take it more seriously. 123 00:06:47,440 --> 00:06:48,440 Others would not. 124 00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:50,480 Um, but yeah, basically they did. 125 00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:56,480 They held no authority to make any actual decisions at this point, but they did have 126 00:06:56,480 --> 00:06:57,480 a lot of money. 127 00:06:57,480 --> 00:06:58,480 Yeah. 128 00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:01,400 Speaking, speaking of a lot of money, he actually reformed the taxation and governance in the 129 00:07:01,400 --> 00:07:07,040 process process and he reduced the corruption and improved efficiency of actually, so more 130 00:07:07,040 --> 00:07:09,520 money was actually supposed to come his way. 131 00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:12,680 Because at that point there was a lot of money that was, let's just say leaking out of people's 132 00:07:12,680 --> 00:07:15,240 pockets on the way to Rome. 133 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:16,440 He's like, Hey, that's not going to work. 134 00:07:16,440 --> 00:07:19,880 Or cause I got this army here that'll have some words for you. 135 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:20,880 Yeah. 136 00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:23,160 Um, he also established what was called the Praetorian guard. 137 00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:27,960 Uh, think of them as like, um, I think when we talked about Persia, we talked about the, 138 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:29,280 the immortal soldiers. 139 00:07:29,280 --> 00:07:32,960 Like, that's basically his elite, his elite force. 140 00:07:32,960 --> 00:07:33,960 Right. 141 00:07:33,960 --> 00:07:39,180 And, uh, um, the, the, probably the most familiar, if I say this, almost all of you should immediately 142 00:07:39,180 --> 00:07:41,680 remember this is this thing called the Pax Romana. 143 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:42,680 This a Roman piece. 144 00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:44,920 This is one of the biggest things that Caesar is known for. 145 00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:50,040 Um, it was talking about stability, prosperity, and it's supposed to, it's like 200 years 146 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:53,280 of relative peace and stability across the Roman empire. 147 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:56,480 And the way that it's administered is through force. 148 00:07:56,480 --> 00:08:00,520 Cause if you step out of line, they're going to basically wipe you off the face of the 149 00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:01,520 planet. 150 00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:02,520 Right. 151 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:06,320 Uh, and he ended decades of civil war and expended the empire's borders while maintaining 152 00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:08,720 internal order through fear. 153 00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:09,720 Right. 154 00:08:09,720 --> 00:08:13,160 The Pax Romana, it's like, you know, like, Oh, enforced peace. 155 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:14,160 Yeah. 156 00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:17,440 It's peace, but at the edge of a sword. 157 00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:18,440 Right. 158 00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:25,240 Um, it's more like the constituents were living in fear of death and fear of punishment. 159 00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:29,280 Like if they were to step out of line at all, it was like, they knew the army was coming 160 00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:32,660 in and coming fast to take care of the situation. 161 00:08:32,660 --> 00:08:35,200 Last week you talked about Pontius pilot, right? 162 00:08:35,200 --> 00:08:39,260 In the trial of Jesus, he is trying to wash his hands of it because he doesn't want them 163 00:08:39,260 --> 00:08:40,320 to rebel. 164 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:44,120 He doesn't want Rome to come in because if they do and he quells a rebellion, what's 165 00:08:44,120 --> 00:08:45,720 going to happen to pilot? 166 00:08:45,720 --> 00:08:46,720 He's done. 167 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:47,720 Right. 168 00:08:47,720 --> 00:08:51,720 He's, he's at the very least getting shipped off to Siberia and obviously not really Siberia, 169 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:52,960 though Siberia is a cold place. 170 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:53,960 That's why we mentioned it. 171 00:08:53,960 --> 00:08:56,480 It's getting shipped out to Fairbanks just to pick on them again. 172 00:08:56,480 --> 00:08:57,480 Yeah. 173 00:08:57,480 --> 00:08:58,480 Yeah. 174 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:01,800 Um, so public works, uh, Augustus famously said, he made the statement. 175 00:09:01,800 --> 00:09:06,360 He says, I found Rome, a city of bricks and I left it a city of marble. 176 00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:11,320 Uh, he initiated these massive building projects, including temples, aqueducts, roads and mountains. 177 00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:16,300 So we're coming into, uh, we've talked about multiple times, like these, these transits 178 00:09:16,300 --> 00:09:21,200 all throughout, like, uh, Christian movement after Jesus dies are being put into place 179 00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:22,200 by Rome. 180 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:23,200 Right. 181 00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:28,280 Um, you have Herod developing ports and you have Caesar Augustus developing these roads 182 00:09:28,280 --> 00:09:32,400 and connecting all these lands and having relative peace between the, between the countries 183 00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:35,520 so that when Christianity begins to spread, Paul's actually able to do these missionary 184 00:09:35,520 --> 00:09:38,360 journeys all over the place without much of an issue. 185 00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:39,360 Yeah. 186 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:42,520 Uh, there is this thing called the arc passes that he commissioned. 187 00:09:42,520 --> 00:09:47,760 It's called the altar of peace and it symbolizes the peace and prosperity of his reign. 188 00:09:47,760 --> 00:09:51,800 So during this time, they call it golden age of literature. 189 00:09:51,800 --> 00:09:58,440 Um, he has, uh, you, you have people like Virgil Horace Ovid producing works that celebrated 190 00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:01,360 Roman ideals and Augustus achieve and Augustus achievements. 191 00:10:01,360 --> 00:10:02,360 Right. 192 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:05,000 This is the beginning of like, Rome is awesome. 193 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:08,760 By the way, I don't, you know, that meme where they're like what my Roman empire is? 194 00:10:08,760 --> 00:10:09,760 Yeah. 195 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:10,760 Yeah. 196 00:10:10,760 --> 00:10:13,840 Like it's only a meme now because Rome was so transformative. 197 00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:16,040 Right. 198 00:10:16,040 --> 00:10:22,120 And um, he started to use propaganda in the form of like art, architecture and literature 199 00:10:22,120 --> 00:10:26,920 to portray himself as the Rome's savior and to legitimize his rule. 200 00:10:26,920 --> 00:10:27,880 Right. 201 00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:29,560 He had a religious reforms. 202 00:10:29,560 --> 00:10:35,500 He restoration of traditional religion and uh, he symbolized emphasize traditional Roman 203 00:10:35,500 --> 00:10:39,940 values and religion, uh, presenting himself as a moral and religious leader. 204 00:10:39,940 --> 00:10:43,160 By the way, I'm focusing on specific things here because we're about to talk about Jesus. 205 00:10:43,160 --> 00:10:44,160 Yeah. 206 00:10:44,160 --> 00:10:47,560 And that's the reason why I keep specifying these things. 207 00:10:47,560 --> 00:10:54,240 Um, he was deified after his death and the imperial cult, the worship of the emperor 208 00:10:54,240 --> 00:10:58,360 became a central element of Roman religion. 209 00:10:58,360 --> 00:11:06,960 So uh, he rolled for 40 years and he died on August 19th, 14, um, 14 AD at the age of 210 00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:08,680 75. 211 00:11:08,680 --> 00:11:15,200 He was succeeded by his step son, Tiberius continuing this, uh, Julio Claudian, uh, dynasty. 212 00:11:15,200 --> 00:11:16,200 Right. 213 00:11:16,200 --> 00:11:21,800 After his death, August was declared a God by the Senate, by the way, which was a creative 214 00:11:21,800 --> 00:11:27,360 move on their part to now try to get some power back for themselves. 215 00:11:27,360 --> 00:11:31,200 And his legacy was celebrated as one of Rome's greatest leaders. 216 00:11:31,200 --> 00:11:35,480 Uh, so where are we dealing with this in the Bible? 217 00:11:35,480 --> 00:11:37,080 Last week we talked a lot about taxes. 218 00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:38,080 Right. 219 00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:40,600 So making sure that these taxes are actually being paid. 220 00:11:40,600 --> 00:11:44,200 This is where we see a lot of Roman influence that's happening in here. 221 00:11:44,200 --> 00:11:49,040 So um, there's, there's a famous question that Jesus takes about our, do you pay taxes 222 00:11:49,040 --> 00:11:51,080 to Caesar or to God? 223 00:11:51,080 --> 00:11:52,080 Right. 224 00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:57,360 And, uh, Jesus, um, actually I want to talk about the story just real quick because I 225 00:11:57,360 --> 00:11:59,880 think the story is fascinating to me. 226 00:11:59,880 --> 00:12:01,520 So they're in the temple Mount. 227 00:12:01,520 --> 00:12:02,520 Yeah. 228 00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:06,440 You're not supposed to have Roman money there anyways. 229 00:12:06,440 --> 00:12:09,500 And they're like, should you pay taxes to Caesar or should you use this to give money 230 00:12:09,500 --> 00:12:10,500 to the temple? 231 00:12:10,500 --> 00:12:15,640 Jesus says, give me one of the coins and somebody hands him the coin. 232 00:12:15,640 --> 00:12:19,800 Now the funny thing is they've just told him where their allegiance lies because they're 233 00:12:19,800 --> 00:12:21,960 not even supposed to have it there. 234 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:26,420 Um, I was, I was talking to a friend of mine and a good friend and he's like, it's like 235 00:12:26,420 --> 00:12:30,140 you're having this conversation with somebody about, you know, is it, is it sin to look 236 00:12:30,140 --> 00:12:31,700 at pornography or not? 237 00:12:31,700 --> 00:12:32,700 As long as you don't act. 238 00:12:32,700 --> 00:12:35,040 And you said, well, I don't know, hand me the magazine and they pull it out of their 239 00:12:35,040 --> 00:12:36,560 back pocket. 240 00:12:36,560 --> 00:12:39,200 They've already told you what they believe, right? 241 00:12:39,200 --> 00:12:42,480 Like they've, they've like, it's, they pull it out of their back pocket. 242 00:12:42,480 --> 00:12:43,800 Like they've already told you what they believe. 243 00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:46,920 So you already know how to get into this conversation and have this conversation. 244 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:48,120 Right. 245 00:12:48,120 --> 00:12:53,040 And, uh, and Jesus, the cover, he takes the thing and he says that with the name on head, 246 00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:57,080 then he says, you give Caesar what is Caesar's. 247 00:12:57,080 --> 00:12:58,080 Yeah. 248 00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:02,640 The implication of that statement is you give Caesar what is Caesar's, but you never give 249 00:13:02,640 --> 00:13:12,880 Caesar what is God's, which is you, your devotion, your, your life, your faith, your trust. 250 00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:16,680 You can give Caesar his money, but you never give him the things that belong to God. 251 00:13:16,680 --> 00:13:17,680 Yeah. 252 00:13:17,680 --> 00:13:18,680 Yeah. 253 00:13:18,680 --> 00:13:19,960 And then it's a, it's a brilliant move by Jesus. 254 00:13:19,960 --> 00:13:23,080 It's almost like he had, like he's a God, right? 255 00:13:23,080 --> 00:13:26,360 Like he knows what's going on that he had help from the Holy spirit and you know, and, 256 00:13:26,360 --> 00:13:30,000 uh, and the father and that move, right? 257 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:31,120 And it's, it's really great. 258 00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:36,280 So that, by the way, if you look at that story, that's Matthew 22, Mark 12 and Luke 20 is 259 00:13:36,280 --> 00:13:38,600 where they show up. 260 00:13:38,600 --> 00:13:42,860 One of the other places that we see in the new Testament and kind of indirectly is this 261 00:13:42,860 --> 00:13:44,680 movement of Roman authority. 262 00:13:44,680 --> 00:13:49,320 So Augustus laid the groundwork for Roman political structure that continued during 263 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:50,320 Jesus life. 264 00:13:50,320 --> 00:13:54,200 A good example, Pontius pilot, we talked about him, Roman governor who presided over Jesus 265 00:13:54,200 --> 00:13:58,860 trial operated under the authority of the Imperial system established by Augustus. 266 00:13:58,860 --> 00:14:03,720 So the most direct reference to Caesar Augustus is in Luke two, one, where it says in those 267 00:14:03,720 --> 00:14:08,120 days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 268 00:14:08,120 --> 00:14:09,120 Yeah. 269 00:14:09,120 --> 00:14:10,120 Right. 270 00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:12,040 Pretty direct reference right there. 271 00:14:12,040 --> 00:14:17,440 Um, this, uh, this decree, this census is actually about taxation. 272 00:14:17,440 --> 00:14:21,480 They need to know where the people live, where their hometown is, what their profession is 273 00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:23,320 so that they're actually able to tax these people. 274 00:14:23,320 --> 00:14:27,440 And also they have an accounting of, of their, uh, subjects. 275 00:14:27,440 --> 00:14:34,720 Um, so that's actually, uh, and that plays into this, this, um, conversation about why 276 00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:39,440 Jesus is actually born in Bethlehem as told by Micah is because that's where Joseph is 277 00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:40,440 from. 278 00:14:40,440 --> 00:14:41,440 That's where they go home to. 279 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:42,440 Yeah. 280 00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:43,440 To be counted. 281 00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:44,440 All right. 282 00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:46,960 So this is, this is who Caesar is. 283 00:14:46,960 --> 00:14:53,880 Um, he is, they're going from this thing of like having a Senate where they're advising 284 00:14:53,880 --> 00:14:59,840 to really Julius Caesar moving more towards I'm an emperor, Caesar Augustus, um, Gaius 285 00:14:59,840 --> 00:15:02,200 is moving into this even more. 286 00:15:02,200 --> 00:15:08,000 And he's instituting this Roman rule at the, at the end of a, I'll smash it if you don't. 287 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:09,000 Yeah. 288 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:12,840 He is, uh, changing the taxation system to make sure the money is actually coming my 289 00:15:12,840 --> 00:15:13,840 way. 290 00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:15,560 He's making all things look like Rome. 291 00:15:15,560 --> 00:15:17,560 He is, he is the chief priest. 292 00:15:17,560 --> 00:15:18,600 He's the pro council. 293 00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:19,600 He's the emperor. 294 00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:20,600 He's the king. 295 00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:26,400 And he sends his people out into all these places to bring his eunuch Gileon, his good 296 00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:33,260 news, his good news to the entire empire of his packs from Anna and of his, of his peace 297 00:15:33,260 --> 00:15:38,540 and of the prosperity of Rome and how everything's going to be good because of the might of Rome 298 00:15:38,540 --> 00:15:44,080 and the power of Rome and the knowledge of Rome and, and all these different things. 299 00:15:44,080 --> 00:15:52,880 And then you enter this guy born in a stable who ultimately he has his coronation event 300 00:15:52,880 --> 00:15:59,240 is going to be crucified, beaten, buried and resurrected. 301 00:15:59,240 --> 00:16:00,240 Yeah. 302 00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:01,240 Right. 303 00:16:01,240 --> 00:16:03,920 And Rome at the time, they're going to think it's nothing. 304 00:16:03,920 --> 00:16:06,120 They're not going to think of it anything. 305 00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:07,120 Yeah. 306 00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:09,640 But if you're reading this, um, like here, here's some crazy thing. 307 00:16:09,640 --> 00:16:10,640 Okay. 308 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:13,440 I'm just, I just to hear in Jesus and Caesar titles of divinity. 309 00:16:13,440 --> 00:16:17,240 So you, you to play the play the side of Jesus here. 310 00:16:17,240 --> 00:16:22,920 Caesar Augustus was often referred to as the son of God after being adopted by Julia Caesar, 311 00:16:22,920 --> 00:16:25,740 who was possibly declared a God by the Roman Senate. 312 00:16:25,740 --> 00:16:29,000 This gave Augustus the diva philis philis us. 313 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:30,000 Woof. 314 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:31,000 That's son of the divine. 315 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:36,280 He was also called savior and Lord in description and imperial propaganda, claiming that his 316 00:16:36,280 --> 00:16:40,620 rule brought peace and salvation to the Roman world. 317 00:16:40,620 --> 00:16:43,360 And you have Jesus called what? 318 00:16:43,360 --> 00:16:49,880 Son of God, son of God and the son of man and Lord of all Lord of all savior, Lord of 319 00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:50,880 Lords. 320 00:16:50,880 --> 00:16:52,080 Right. 321 00:16:52,080 --> 00:16:57,360 And he's also referred to as in Philippians, Philippians two 11 as Lord and as the one 322 00:16:57,360 --> 00:17:04,160 who brings true peace and salvation, but their pieces are very different. 323 00:17:04,160 --> 00:17:05,760 Right. 324 00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:11,240 Speaking of pieces or Augustus celebrated for his passion on a period of period of stability 325 00:17:11,240 --> 00:17:13,160 and safety. 326 00:17:13,160 --> 00:17:15,760 This achieved through military conquest and political control. 327 00:17:15,760 --> 00:17:19,960 And then Augustus hailed as a benefactor who ended civil wars and brought order to the 328 00:17:19,960 --> 00:17:23,840 world, which by the way, the disciples thought Jesus was going to be. 329 00:17:23,840 --> 00:17:26,240 They, this is who they thought he was going to be. 330 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:33,560 When are you going to rise up and take out Rome so that the kingdom can be restored? 331 00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:37,700 And Jesus is like, I'm actually not just going to take them out. 332 00:17:37,700 --> 00:17:40,880 He's like, we're going to spread this gospel to the whole world. 333 00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:46,320 And at this, at this point in history, you have to remember that the, their knowledge 334 00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:49,640 of what the whole world was, was limited. 335 00:17:49,640 --> 00:17:50,800 Right? 336 00:17:50,800 --> 00:17:57,240 Like they didn't have the Americas and weren't known right at the time. 337 00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:00,120 I don't think Australia was really known at the time either. 338 00:18:00,120 --> 00:18:05,080 Like there was, there was large chunks of the world that just were unknown. 339 00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:06,080 Yeah. 340 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:07,600 You're just dealing with the known world at that point. 341 00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:08,680 You're dealing with the known world. 342 00:18:08,680 --> 00:18:15,660 So like what they're thinking of as a known world is a lot smaller than what we know now. 343 00:18:15,660 --> 00:18:19,960 And so, but God has the whole world in his sights in this moment. 344 00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:20,960 Yeah. 345 00:18:20,960 --> 00:18:21,960 Right. 346 00:18:21,960 --> 00:18:26,600 So he's saying, okay, Caesar can bring peace quote unquote to his kingdom, but peace is 347 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:29,200 not about military conquest. 348 00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:31,280 It's about reconciliation with God. 349 00:18:31,280 --> 00:18:32,280 Yes. 350 00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:33,280 It's about spiritual wholeness. 351 00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:37,800 And in fact, when Jesus is born in Luke two, two, one, it's our two 14, sorry. 352 00:18:37,800 --> 00:18:44,320 He says, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased. 353 00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:51,200 Well, and, and then, but the reality is, is that God does take back the Roman empire. 354 00:18:51,200 --> 00:18:52,360 Yeah. 355 00:18:52,360 --> 00:18:53,640 Right? 356 00:18:53,640 --> 00:19:03,120 Like Rome, the emperor was 300 years later or so converts to Christianity and uses that 357 00:19:03,120 --> 00:19:04,920 power to spread the gospel. 358 00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:05,920 Yeah. 359 00:19:05,920 --> 00:19:10,080 So we can have conversation about whether or not some of those things are good or bad. 360 00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:11,080 Yes. 361 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:12,080 But regardless, it spreads. 362 00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:13,080 Yes. 363 00:19:13,080 --> 00:19:18,160 Uh, you, you could look at that and be like, well, how he did it wasn't really fulfilling 364 00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:20,040 of how the gospel should have been spread. 365 00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:25,560 I was like, okay, you could also say the same about maybe some of your local churches. 366 00:19:25,560 --> 00:19:26,560 Okay. 367 00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:32,760 Um, so we could, we could sit here and we could play judge or we could say, you know 368 00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:36,040 what, God has a great track record of using broken people. 369 00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:42,680 This man, his word, I love this idea of peace. 370 00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:47,440 Jesus says in John 14, 27, now John writing, of course, after all the other gospels are 371 00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:50,880 written, he's writing in response to some heresies and some different things about the 372 00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:55,120 identity of Jesus and helping people really understand what he is, right? 373 00:19:55,120 --> 00:19:57,560 Who he is that you can have faith in who he is. 374 00:19:57,560 --> 00:19:59,920 He says, peace, I leave with you. 375 00:19:59,920 --> 00:20:00,920 Yeah. 376 00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:03,600 Okay, Pax Romana is where you think of peace, right? 377 00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:07,880 My piece I give to you, not as the world gives you. 378 00:20:07,880 --> 00:20:09,200 Do I give it to you? 379 00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:10,200 Yeah. 380 00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:11,200 My piece is different. 381 00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:13,360 It's not about just civil unrest. 382 00:20:13,360 --> 00:20:19,140 You can be in the middle of a gladiator den about to be mauled by lions and tigers or 383 00:20:19,140 --> 00:20:21,080 killed by gladiators. 384 00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:23,640 And my piece is right there in the middle of you. 385 00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:24,640 Yeah. 386 00:20:24,640 --> 00:20:25,640 Right. 387 00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:28,480 Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds. 388 00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:29,480 Right. 389 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:32,880 My piece is something different with Jesus. 390 00:20:32,880 --> 00:20:38,840 Caesar and Caesar was not the first one because like Alexander the great did this to and other 391 00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:41,960 Kings, but they would have what is called the Ewan Gillian, right? 392 00:20:41,960 --> 00:20:44,320 It's Greek for good news. 393 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:49,600 Gospel is how we translate it about his accomplishments, his divine status and the peace he brought. 394 00:20:49,600 --> 00:20:53,000 So he'd spend these people around and they would, they would go and they would proclaim 395 00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:59,880 this good news of the kingdom of Alexander or the kingdom of Caesar or the kingdom of 396 00:20:59,880 --> 00:21:04,320 and this good news for the world in the beginning. 397 00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:05,880 Like this is good news for you. 398 00:21:05,880 --> 00:21:06,960 Right. 399 00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:10,880 And Jesus in the new Testament repeated, uses the same term you on Gillian that they're 400 00:21:10,880 --> 00:21:13,760 very familiar with because every conquering King has brought that in. 401 00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:17,460 Every Caesar has their good news about their great things. 402 00:21:17,460 --> 00:21:24,280 And his message is the kingdom of God is here and ready to interact with you. 403 00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:25,560 Yeah. 404 00:21:25,560 --> 00:21:27,640 Do you want to be a part of it? 405 00:21:27,640 --> 00:21:28,640 You're welcome. 406 00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:32,400 Mark one, one, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God, the good 407 00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:34,020 news of Jesus Christ. 408 00:21:34,020 --> 00:21:35,800 What is the good news of Jesus Christ? 409 00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:38,920 That the kingdom of God is here and is accessible through the death, burial and resurrection 410 00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:39,920 of Jesus. 411 00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:40,920 Right. 412 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:45,760 Um, one of the things that the apostles before Jesus died, he says, go and preach the good 413 00:21:45,760 --> 00:21:47,800 news to the lost sheep of Israel. 414 00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:48,840 Yeah. 415 00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:53,320 Go and preach the good news, uh, which you and I have had fun with people in the past 416 00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:59,680 where they would say, what do you think that the gospel is that Jesus preached? 417 00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:02,640 And I, and you know, what's, what's the answer we do usually yet? 418 00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:06,720 Uh, that he came and died for her sins. 419 00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:07,720 Yeah. 420 00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:11,600 And I was like, so you think that's the gospel that Jesus preached when he was walking the 421 00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:15,680 earth because we see the gospel, the gospel, the good news is. 422 00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:18,720 Repent for the kingdom of heaven is here. 423 00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:22,840 And uh, now the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus is the access point. 424 00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:23,840 Yeah. 425 00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:26,880 But the, the good news is that the kingdom of God is here and ready to interact with 426 00:22:26,880 --> 00:22:27,880 you. 427 00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:30,920 And we're not downplaying death, um, burial and resurrection. 428 00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:33,000 I actually believe I'm elevating it. 429 00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:34,320 Yeah, absolutely. 430 00:22:34,320 --> 00:22:38,960 Um, uh, but you have to look at it and be like, what did Jesus actually preach when 431 00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:39,960 he was here? 432 00:22:39,960 --> 00:22:40,960 Yeah. 433 00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:43,060 Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. 434 00:22:43,060 --> 00:22:45,600 Come back to who you're supposed to be. 435 00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:48,440 The kingdom of heaven is here and it wants you in it. 436 00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:49,440 Yes. 437 00:22:49,440 --> 00:22:51,520 Blessed are the poor in spirit. 438 00:22:51,520 --> 00:22:52,520 Yes. 439 00:22:52,520 --> 00:22:53,520 Blessed are the meek. 440 00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:54,520 Yes. 441 00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:57,920 These people are being welcomed into this kingdom. 442 00:22:57,920 --> 00:22:59,220 It looks different. 443 00:22:59,220 --> 00:23:02,900 It's exactly opposed to everything you think is powerful. 444 00:23:02,900 --> 00:23:05,160 You look at Rome and you see these things. 445 00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:06,520 I'm going to tell you the exact opposite. 446 00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:11,800 In fact, if you go through the blessed art, that list is almost a direct opposition of 447 00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:12,800 Rome in general. 448 00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:13,800 Yeah. 449 00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:14,800 Right. 450 00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:18,080 It's pure in heart peacemakers, right? 451 00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:19,080 Meek. 452 00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:20,080 Meek. 453 00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:21,080 Yeah. 454 00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:23,040 It's sons, you know, sons of God, right? 455 00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:24,040 Like all these different things. 456 00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:28,560 Like it's not, um, it's not Rome there. 457 00:23:28,560 --> 00:23:29,960 It's like the opposite of Rome. 458 00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:30,960 Yeah. 459 00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:35,240 In God's, or Jesus says that this right here, this is a light on a hill. 460 00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:36,240 Yeah. 461 00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:38,040 This is a salt in your food. 462 00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:41,000 This is light in the dark, right? 463 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:45,400 Going this way is actually what's going to set the kingdom on fire. 464 00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:47,400 Like in a positive sense. 465 00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:48,400 Yep. 466 00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:54,100 I think it's really hard because, um, a lot of times we're like, Oh, we got to do something. 467 00:23:54,100 --> 00:23:55,740 We got to conquer. 468 00:23:55,740 --> 00:23:59,240 And Jesus is like, actually you need to lay yourself down on behalf of others. 469 00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:02,600 That's hard. 470 00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:07,460 I was having a conversation with a guy I was at my office the other day and we were talking 471 00:24:07,460 --> 00:24:10,920 about, I said, you know, Jesus went and he laid hands and he would hear you. 472 00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:14,760 He would heal people and he would go and he would preach the good word and people would 473 00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:15,760 respond. 474 00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:18,840 Jesus also got whipped and crucified. 475 00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:22,520 And if we're going to be followers of him and live in his step, it's me. 476 00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:25,520 Sometimes we're going to go, we're going to be involved in people's healing. 477 00:24:25,520 --> 00:24:27,780 Sometimes we're going to be involved in people hearing the good word. 478 00:24:27,780 --> 00:24:31,600 And sometimes we're going to get whipped on behalf of the kingdom. 479 00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:36,480 Well in, in following Jesus and Jesus says, pick up your cross and follow me. 480 00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:41,700 Now I've as growing up in church, I always heard that I was like, yeah, like guy be ready 481 00:24:41,700 --> 00:24:43,360 to follow Jesus wherever. 482 00:24:43,360 --> 00:24:47,120 And then they would just kind of skip over the whole, like, what is the cross? 483 00:24:47,120 --> 00:24:48,120 Yeah. 484 00:24:48,120 --> 00:24:51,900 Like in Roman culture, what is a cross? 485 00:24:51,900 --> 00:24:56,520 It's the, it's the most brutal, disrespectful way that you can kill somebody. 486 00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:58,320 It's an instrument of death, right? 487 00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:01,420 A super disrespectful instrument of death. 488 00:25:01,420 --> 00:25:05,080 It's meant to humiliate and make you look like a fool. 489 00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:09,160 So, so like in turn, like, would you actually look at this, pick up your cross and follow 490 00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:10,160 me. 491 00:25:10,160 --> 00:25:13,880 Jesus says, you're getting this message of like, Hey, if you're going to follow me, you're 492 00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:15,760 going to look different. 493 00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:17,240 You're going to look like a fool. 494 00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:21,800 You're going to look just not like you're supposed to. 495 00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:22,800 Yeah. 496 00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:23,800 Quote unquote. 497 00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:24,800 I do. 498 00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:28,160 I do love, I'm going to quote from my good friend, Brian Qualls here because I think 499 00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:31,080 it's great. 500 00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:34,080 Don't suffer because you made bad choices. 501 00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:35,960 Suffer because you're following Jesus. 502 00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:36,960 Right? 503 00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:40,800 Like, I mean, even if you suffer from making bad choices, God can use us. 504 00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:41,800 Yeah. 505 00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:46,080 But let's try to make the suffering because you follow Jesus, not because, and, and there's, 506 00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:49,360 there's nothing wrong with suffering, but suffering has a purpose to bring the kingdom 507 00:25:49,360 --> 00:25:50,840 of God to people. 508 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:51,840 Yeah. 509 00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:52,840 Right. 510 00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:57,600 And so like I would, I gladly suffer on behalf of Jesus because I know that when I do that, 511 00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:00,600 when I'm part of his plan moving forward, that it brings the kingdom of God. 512 00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:05,000 We were talking to, it may have in the last episode or this episode, we talked about Christians 513 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:08,640 all around the world who don't have freedom. 514 00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:11,920 And when they disobey, they might get cut off from their family or their business or 515 00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:12,920 their life. 516 00:26:12,920 --> 00:26:13,920 Right. 517 00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:18,840 And yet the kingdom flourishes there because their suffering isn't wasted. 518 00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:19,840 It moves the kingdom forward. 519 00:26:19,840 --> 00:26:22,480 Well, have you ever read the book, the hole in the gospel? 520 00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:24,080 Who's that by? 521 00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:25,080 It sounds super familiar. 522 00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:29,040 I forget who wrote it, but we're just really on it. 523 00:26:29,040 --> 00:26:32,680 We find it and put it in our notes in our, in our comments. 524 00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:35,320 But anyways, the hole hole in the gospel is this guy. 525 00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:40,680 He went, and I'm going to butcher a lot of this, but he went and he interviewed, uh, 526 00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:45,200 people who were in prison because of the gospel and, and like a lot of the question and questions 527 00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:50,080 that he would often ask would be like, how do you maintain your faith in, in these like 528 00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:53,360 turbulent times of persecution? 529 00:26:53,360 --> 00:26:56,040 And they're like, I don't understand the question. 530 00:26:56,040 --> 00:26:57,040 Yeah. 531 00:26:57,040 --> 00:26:58,840 They're like, this is part of the deal. 532 00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:00,200 This is just part of the deal. 533 00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:02,160 They're like, I don't, I don't get what you're saying. 534 00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:03,160 Yeah. 535 00:27:03,160 --> 00:27:05,880 And they're like, well, but you know, when like hard times come, like it can be easy 536 00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:06,880 for our faith to waver. 537 00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:10,640 And they're like, again, I don't understand what you're saying. 538 00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:15,080 And, and I think one of the guys in the book study interview, he, it was, it was like, 539 00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:18,560 I don't think, I think he phrased it like, I don't think that you follow the same Jesus 540 00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:20,800 I do or something like that. 541 00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:24,080 Um, I haven't read it in a while, so I might've butchered a lot of that. 542 00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:28,080 So, so if some of you are like, actually, this is what it says, please let me know. 543 00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:29,080 Yeah. 544 00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:30,480 Also go read the book because it sounds fantastic. 545 00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:31,480 Yeah. 546 00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:32,480 Yeah. 547 00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:35,040 And so it's, it's, it's just, it's just this series of interviews, but it's basically these 548 00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:38,920 pastors in prison being like, what do you, what do you mean? 549 00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:39,920 What do you mean? 550 00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:42,760 I'm going to lose sight of my face in persecution. 551 00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:43,760 Yeah. 552 00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:47,480 Like I'm here because of it and I'll be here again because of it. 553 00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:53,600 I think it's a, yeah, it's really, yeah, we lose sight of that a lot of times. 554 00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:57,720 Well, and, and Jesus's message is just so counter everything. 555 00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:00,840 So in a lot of ways, America is, is very Roman. 556 00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:04,160 Like there's a lot of things in our culture that are very, very Roman. 557 00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:07,720 Um, and, uh, and Jesus pushes against those things. 558 00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:11,280 And so like, what I don't want you to hear is that everything in Jesus's life is narratively 559 00:28:11,280 --> 00:28:12,280 put up against Rome. 560 00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:15,520 It, it, there are things that are there because the writers are doing two things. 561 00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:18,560 They're connecting the old Testament to who Jesus is, the God of the old Testament to 562 00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:24,660 what Jesus is doing, but they're also giving a rebuff of culture in who Jesus calls him 563 00:28:24,660 --> 00:28:25,880 to be like that. 564 00:28:25,880 --> 00:28:29,520 That's both of those things are happening simultaneously as they're going through. 565 00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:36,120 Um, like another place that, um, shows up is in the life of like Julius Caesar is like 566 00:28:36,120 --> 00:28:37,400 his birth, right? 567 00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:41,960 Uh, it's celebrated as a monumental event, uh, poets and historians at that time, like 568 00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:47,360 they described it as his birth is divinely ordained, written in the stars, right? 569 00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:50,160 And uh, is a turning point for the world. 570 00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:55,440 Well now the story of Jesus, they, like when the writers are writing that, like they take, 571 00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:59,800 like what happened, but then they also talk about this star, this specific star that goes 572 00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:01,680 and dwells over Bethlehem, right? 573 00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:05,480 That's not an accident that they emphasize those details because they're, they're pushing 574 00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:11,080 back against this narrative and they're like, Hey, you, uh, you're talking about how Caesar 575 00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:12,560 Augustus is all this. 576 00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:14,600 Jesus is greater, right? 577 00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:19,780 Um, you have in this idea of universal rule, like, uh, Augustus was celebrated as the ruler 578 00:29:19,780 --> 00:29:23,520 of the known world and he's taking all the territories and uniting them and Jesus is, 579 00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:28,000 how about we take every person, every tongue and every tribe and we combine them as, as 580 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:33,000 one follower, one body, Philippians two, nine through 11, all of this. 581 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:38,960 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so 582 00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:44,840 that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. 583 00:29:44,840 --> 00:29:48,880 So also a lot of times when you read that, we read that of like, Oh, it's just above 584 00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:49,880 everything else. 585 00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:54,720 Also, the name that is put above every name in Roman culture, Caesar. 586 00:29:54,720 --> 00:29:56,120 Yeah. 587 00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:59,520 One of the things that, uh, people really struggle with in, in the book of Romans, it 588 00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:03,760 says, if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. 589 00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:08,900 Now if I say Jesus is Lord, what am I saying? 590 00:30:08,900 --> 00:30:12,220 Caesar isn't right. 591 00:30:12,220 --> 00:30:18,000 It's not just a word or a phrase that you say you're actually, uh, you're actually turning 592 00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:20,160 from something else too. 593 00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:24,520 Like if Jesus is Lord, Caesar isn't. 594 00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:25,960 And I think that's a really important thing. 595 00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:28,880 Like when you were reading those types of things is because Paul's not saying if you 596 00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:31,320 just say Jesus is Lord, you're saved. 597 00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:39,240 It's a, it's a placing your faith in because you're saying, I don't care what it costs. 598 00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:40,240 This is truth. 599 00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:41,240 Yep. 600 00:30:41,240 --> 00:30:45,320 I'm I, this is where my allegiance goes. 601 00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:51,400 One of the things I, I was last pieces I was getting here was like, uh, a lot of the Roman 602 00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:55,600 propaganda obvious size that Augustus has rise to power was part of a divine plan to 603 00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:56,600 save the world. 604 00:30:56,600 --> 00:31:01,280 His leadership was presented as a solution to chaos and division. 605 00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:05,800 Galatians four, four through five here, here, Paul now in the middle of this, doing this, 606 00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:06,800 right? 607 00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:11,180 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman born under 608 00:31:11,180 --> 00:31:15,280 the law to redeem those who were under the law. 609 00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:16,280 Right? 610 00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:17,560 Paul's not making an accident. 611 00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:19,200 He's subverting what's going on out there. 612 00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:23,080 I really wanted to go through and I wanted to really like contrast this idea of the kingdom 613 00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:25,080 of God versus the kingdom of Rome. 614 00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:26,080 Right? 615 00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:33,320 And so Jesus proclaimed a spiritual eternal kingdom that was based on, based on love, humility, 616 00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:34,320 reconciliation. 617 00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:35,320 Right? 618 00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:36,320 That wasn't Rome. 619 00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:42,640 No, Rome was based on authority, dominion, and more so pressure than anything else. 620 00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:43,640 Yeah. 621 00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:44,640 Right. 622 00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:48,040 So we want you to live and if you don't like that, well, we can just wipe you out. 623 00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:49,040 That's okay. 624 00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:53,120 And like Jesus comes and he brings what we call Shalom, which is like this piece, this 625 00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:59,880 kind of a peace with God, peace with humanity that is built on reconciliation with God and 626 00:31:59,880 --> 00:32:00,880 others. 627 00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:01,880 Yeah. 628 00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:05,040 And Rome actually brings in more fear and hatred than anything else. 629 00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:06,040 Yeah. 630 00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:11,040 And also just brings in the appearance of status because as Rome actually expanded further 631 00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:17,040 north and further west, they actually would build these cities and put barely anybody 632 00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:20,760 in them just to be like, Hey, look how powerful we are. 633 00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:23,680 And then that's actually what began their downfalls of people being like, wait, you 634 00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:26,600 say you're powerful, but there's like 30 people here. 635 00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:27,600 We can take this. 636 00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:31,240 Well, and so, and like that plays into like this whole idea of humility and pride because 637 00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:35,720 Rome then they celebrate pride, self-glorification, deification of emperors. 638 00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:36,720 Right? 639 00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:42,440 And Caesar being called the son of God and like given all these titles and in the kingdom 640 00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:44,400 of God, it's the opposite. 641 00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:45,400 Yeah. 642 00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:46,400 Right. 643 00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:47,400 We're not celebrated for being prideful. 644 00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:49,200 We're celebrated for being selfless. 645 00:32:49,200 --> 00:32:54,000 We're not celebrated for being a boastful about how great and mighty we are. 646 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:57,840 We're celebrated for serving our servitude towards others. 647 00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:00,720 One of the things that shows up in Paul's writing a lot, definitely dealing with Roman 648 00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:07,320 culture and specifically in the book of Romans is this idea of they valued authority control 649 00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:09,080 dominating over others. 650 00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:10,080 Right? 651 00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:14,000 Like having like even there, like there's these things where they're talking about, like they 652 00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:18,200 talk about sexual dominance and like other types of things that Romans did right. 653 00:33:18,200 --> 00:33:19,280 That were over other people. 654 00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:24,000 And Paul's like, no, no, no, that's not who you are. 655 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:27,040 Well, you look at the kingdom of, you can look at the kingdom of God. 656 00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:34,720 There's greater value put on serving the least of these, the imprisoned, the slave, the homeless, 657 00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:37,640 the adulterers, so on and so forth. 658 00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:39,960 Like you look at the conversations Jesus had, right? 659 00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:43,280 Like when he's washing feet, right? 660 00:33:43,280 --> 00:33:44,640 Takes on the least servant. 661 00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:45,640 Yep. 662 00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:46,760 Takes on the least of the servants. 663 00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:50,920 You look at other people that he conversed with. 664 00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:54,680 You have the woman at the well in John four, right? 665 00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:59,240 You have the prostitute who was caught in the act of adultery. 666 00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:02,280 Ironically, she was the only one who was going to be stoned. 667 00:34:02,280 --> 00:34:03,520 Where is the guy? 668 00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:07,080 We demand to know. 669 00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:10,520 But she was caught in the act and they're like, we must kill her. 670 00:34:10,520 --> 00:34:13,800 And Jesus is like, well, if you're sinless, go for it. 671 00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:14,800 Yeah. 672 00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:20,600 So you have this model of, I'm actually going to be there for the people, not just be, not 673 00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:22,280 put them under my thumb. 674 00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:27,040 Well, and what you're talking about there is God, Jesus is for the marginalized, the 675 00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:31,920 women, the slaves, the Jews, the non-Jews, the tax collectors, the sinners. 676 00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:35,640 He's for all of these people, even the Romans, right? 677 00:34:35,640 --> 00:34:40,280 Whereas Rome has this very strict hierarchy, right? 678 00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:43,000 If there's one thing you can say about Rome is they have a hierarchy. 679 00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:44,000 Yeah. 680 00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:45,000 Yeah. 681 00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:50,280 Like they're a hierarchical system and like, you know, you're moving up or moving down. 682 00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:53,720 And it's a lot of, a lot of problems. 683 00:34:53,720 --> 00:35:00,120 And Rome, Rome, Roman ideals is all, is a lot of like self-preservation, conquest, personal 684 00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:06,560 gain where we're actually the ideals of the family of God or, and this actually goes back 685 00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:09,680 to Judaism ideals as well as more family centric. 686 00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:10,680 Yeah. 687 00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:11,680 Right. 688 00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:16,760 A lot of times I've actually heard people do this and this is my quick like 15 second, 689 00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:17,760 be careful with this. 690 00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:26,160 I've heard people like take Roman societal structures and impose them into Judaism societal 691 00:35:26,160 --> 00:35:30,480 structures and been like, well, but this is what the Jewish culture was like. 692 00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:34,400 I was like, actually you just hybridized Roman culture and Jewish culture. 693 00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:35,400 Yeah. 694 00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:36,400 Which I mean can happen. 695 00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:38,400 There's a place for that. 696 00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:39,400 Yeah. 697 00:35:39,400 --> 00:35:44,160 But, but like, for example, for example, in Jewish culture, if someone was getting married 698 00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:48,240 back in that day, they usually just added onto the father's house, right? 699 00:35:48,240 --> 00:35:49,560 That's not a thing in Roman culture. 700 00:35:49,560 --> 00:35:50,560 Right. 701 00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:51,560 Right. 702 00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:54,200 So we'd often like kind of hybridize these things and be like, oh, well there's this 703 00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:58,760 hierarchy in Jewish culture where they could work their way up, work their way down. 704 00:35:58,760 --> 00:35:59,760 Yes and no. 705 00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:00,760 Yeah. 706 00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:05,560 But because there's so much more family centric, you, if you were, you either were educated 707 00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:07,920 or part of the family business more or less. 708 00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:11,880 Contextual analysis is always so difficult because people are like, well, you know, there's 709 00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:12,880 this instance. 710 00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:16,040 Okay, but is it an instance or is it a norm? 711 00:36:16,040 --> 00:36:17,040 Yeah. 712 00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:18,040 And those are the questions. 713 00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:19,040 Yeah. 714 00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:21,480 So that's why even like when I say there's like five major responses coming through the 715 00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:27,120 silent periods to Jesus, there was more, but these are the five big ones. 716 00:36:27,120 --> 00:36:28,120 Yeah. 717 00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:29,120 Right. 718 00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:32,480 And, and what more than we're trying to help see, like, how does the narrative move? 719 00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:33,520 Yeah. 720 00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:40,080 One of the things that I think is the big difference is that Rome is, is looking at 721 00:36:40,080 --> 00:36:44,240 this, they're looking like the way they go through their packs from on and all these 722 00:36:44,240 --> 00:36:45,240 different things. 723 00:36:45,240 --> 00:36:49,560 It's, it's all about security in the, in the life now, right? 724 00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:55,400 Security in, in like your house, your country, your community. 725 00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:58,360 And that's not really what Jesus is talking about. 726 00:36:58,360 --> 00:36:59,960 It's not a hope in earth. 727 00:36:59,960 --> 00:37:00,960 No. 728 00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:03,720 So they're talking about a temporary security, right? 729 00:37:03,720 --> 00:37:04,720 Yeah. 730 00:37:04,720 --> 00:37:06,880 And Jesus is talking about eternal security. 731 00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:07,880 Yeah. 732 00:37:07,880 --> 00:37:12,920 So it can be in the moment, but it's more about equality with God. 733 00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:14,440 I would, I would say it starts in the moment. 734 00:37:14,440 --> 00:37:15,440 Yeah. 735 00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:16,440 Right. 736 00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:17,440 Yeah. 737 00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:18,440 Like when you say yes to Jesus, eternity starts now. 738 00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:19,440 Yeah. 739 00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:20,440 It doesn't start when you die. 740 00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:22,440 It starts now. 741 00:37:22,440 --> 00:37:28,680 But, but if you're not having Jesus in your life, everything is a temporary security. 742 00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:29,680 Yeah. 743 00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:35,840 So some of my takeaways, like when I look at Caesar Augustus, cause we could go hours 744 00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:38,520 on everything that's going on in this culture. 745 00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:44,680 But one of the things I want to, I want to pick on, like, especially for myself is, um, 746 00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:47,360 am I trusting in this kingdom of God? 747 00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:51,080 This one that lays down behind their self down on behalf of others. 748 00:37:51,080 --> 00:37:56,240 This one that is self giving, self sacrificing this one that goes to coronation on a cross. 749 00:37:56,240 --> 00:37:57,240 Yeah. 750 00:37:57,240 --> 00:37:58,240 Right. 751 00:37:58,240 --> 00:38:01,160 Or do I really trust my own packs for manas in my life, right? 752 00:38:01,160 --> 00:38:06,960 Or I enforce peace at the, at the end of like effort or, uh, forcing things. 753 00:38:06,960 --> 00:38:07,960 Does that make sense? 754 00:38:07,960 --> 00:38:08,960 Yeah. 755 00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:09,960 Yeah. 756 00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:12,720 Because I think that's a really dangerous place that we don't recognize in our lives. 757 00:38:12,720 --> 00:38:17,160 Like when we're trying to force things that God isn't actually bringing in our life. 758 00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:18,160 Yeah. 759 00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:19,160 Yeah. 760 00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:24,040 And when looking again, every time I read these types of stories or look at these characters, 761 00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:31,480 I have to remind myself that even if, even if this person's not following God, God is 762 00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:35,040 still using them to advance his kingdom. 763 00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:36,040 Yeah. 764 00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:37,040 Right. 765 00:38:37,040 --> 00:38:42,560 He's still, uh, he is still implementing things that allow his kingdom to advance further, 766 00:38:42,560 --> 00:38:46,480 advance faster, advance far, like so on and so forth. 767 00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:50,520 Like, uh, you look at the infrastructure that came from Rome. 768 00:38:50,520 --> 00:38:51,520 Yeah. 769 00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:52,520 Right. 770 00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:56,280 And then you look at, uh, that allowed the gospel spread so fast. 771 00:38:56,280 --> 00:38:57,280 Yeah. 772 00:38:57,280 --> 00:39:02,160 Um, you, so, I mean, and then you look at how that gospel had an influence to where 773 00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:09,080 Rome who's still the world's superpower, 300 years later had a Caesar who was like, I'm 774 00:39:09,080 --> 00:39:12,280 actually going to follow Jesus. 775 00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:17,000 I was thinking about when I, when I'm looking at Caesar at Gus, I love all that by the way. 776 00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:19,160 Um, I'm actually jumping off of that. 777 00:39:19,160 --> 00:39:21,480 Um, in case anybody listening didn't catch that. 778 00:39:21,480 --> 00:39:23,680 I actually loved what Spencer had to say. 779 00:39:23,680 --> 00:39:25,760 You can mark that down as one time out of a thousand. 780 00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:26,880 I'm just kidding. 781 00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:29,960 Three years in first time. 782 00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:36,760 Um, with Augustus, he is, he is like, you think about like up to this point, maybe, 783 00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:41,080 maybe Nebuchadnezzar, but like Rome was much bigger than Babylon. 784 00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:44,800 He established as a vast, powerful earthly army. 785 00:39:44,800 --> 00:39:50,480 Um, it's, you know, I took bricks and I made the marble and, but it was ultimately temporary. 786 00:39:50,480 --> 00:39:51,480 Right. 787 00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:56,240 It, despite everything it does, eventually it fell. 788 00:39:56,240 --> 00:40:00,920 And his rule reminds us that there's this fleeting nature of human power and institutions 789 00:40:00,920 --> 00:40:06,460 where, whereas when we're followers of Jesus, we're not investing in things that fade away. 790 00:40:06,460 --> 00:40:10,940 We're investing in a kingdom that doesn't go away that we actually exist in and continues 791 00:40:10,940 --> 00:40:12,120 beyond us. 792 00:40:12,120 --> 00:40:15,720 And we prioritize the eternal over the temporary. 793 00:40:15,720 --> 00:40:20,100 Like how often are we focused on the mess mess somebody makes today rather than who 794 00:40:20,100 --> 00:40:22,480 will become over the next 80 years? 795 00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:23,480 Right. 796 00:40:23,480 --> 00:40:28,720 Uh, John 18, 36, my kingdom is not of this world. 797 00:40:28,720 --> 00:40:29,720 Right. 798 00:40:29,720 --> 00:40:35,280 Hebrews 12, 28, therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. 799 00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:36,280 Yeah. 800 00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:37,840 Cause it doesn't exist in this war. 801 00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:39,840 Like it's here, but you can't touch it. 802 00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:41,120 You can't shake it. 803 00:40:41,120 --> 00:40:42,120 Right. 804 00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:45,680 Uh, while we can engage and improve the world around us, our ultimate focus should remain 805 00:40:45,680 --> 00:40:48,480 on God's kingdom moving forward. 806 00:40:48,480 --> 00:40:49,480 Yep. 807 00:40:49,480 --> 00:40:50,480 And that's what's called a shakeable. 808 00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:51,480 It's cool. 809 00:40:51,480 --> 00:40:52,480 Yep. 810 00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:53,480 It's great. 811 00:40:53,480 --> 00:41:00,480 Well, I think that concludes our Kings and kingdoms and season two. 812 00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:01,840 Can you believe we got through season two? 813 00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:04,360 I know you guys are going to be so excited. 814 00:41:04,360 --> 00:41:06,240 Guess where we're going in season three. 815 00:41:06,240 --> 00:41:10,760 Um, we are actually going to be talking about the dinosaurs. 816 00:41:10,760 --> 00:41:13,360 Um, and I'm just joking. 817 00:41:13,360 --> 00:41:17,120 If you're not on YouTube, you can't see the fact that I just closed my eyes and rolled 818 00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:20,280 so hard at Spencer. 819 00:41:20,280 --> 00:41:24,000 No we are actually, just so you know, I bet you pastor Nick would be super excited if 820 00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:26,240 we randomly started talking about dinosaurs on this podcast. 821 00:41:26,240 --> 00:41:30,240 Oh, I have a, I have a pastor friend who is huge into paleontology. 822 00:41:30,240 --> 00:41:31,240 Yeah. 823 00:41:31,240 --> 00:41:35,200 And if I texted him and was like, Hey, next season of the podcast, we're going to be talking 824 00:41:35,200 --> 00:41:36,200 dinosaurs. 825 00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:38,800 He'd be like, I'll, I'll be there. 826 00:41:38,800 --> 00:41:41,840 And we would probably just have a list of questions and let him talk for 45 minutes 827 00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:43,840 a shot because you and I know nothing. 828 00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:44,840 Yeah. 829 00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:45,840 Yeah. 830 00:41:45,840 --> 00:41:47,320 So we'll just have a list of questions in the ground. 831 00:41:47,320 --> 00:41:50,960 Uh, something with an asteroid maybe I would go chat GPT. 832 00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:53,640 What questions should I ask a biblical paleontologist? 833 00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:54,720 Uh, yeah. 834 00:41:54,720 --> 00:42:00,400 Um, but, uh, we're going to be talking about the life of Jesus, life of Jesus and, uh, 835 00:42:00,400 --> 00:42:04,600 trying to just have real conversations about what does it mean to follow Jesus understanding 836 00:42:04,600 --> 00:42:08,400 of Torah, understanding everything that came before life of Jesus. 837 00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:12,280 And then what does it actually mean for us Gentiles following today as, uh, not Jews, 838 00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:13,280 but maybe Gentiles. 839 00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:14,280 Yeah. 840 00:42:14,280 --> 00:42:15,280 And as all followers. 841 00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:19,840 We'll be looking at some of the nuances between one gospel count and another gospel count. 842 00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:24,280 Cause sometimes it might seem like things don't line up quite as well as they should. 843 00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:26,000 And we'll actually talk about some of that stuff. 844 00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:28,280 So we have enjoyed it. 845 00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:31,760 Thanks for being here with season two and hopefully we'll see you again in season three. 846 00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:33,760 Well, actually we never see you. 847 00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:37,160 You only see us, but we'll see you in season three. 848 00:42:37,160 --> 00:42:38,160 Yep. 849 00:42:38,160 --> 00:42:46,240 And that's a wrap for today's episode of love and context. 850 00:42:46,240 --> 00:42:50,160 We hope you enjoyed this engaging conversation and gained valuable insights into the powerful 851 00:42:50,160 --> 00:42:52,160 message of love within the Bible. 852 00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:55,280 We'd love to hear from you and continue the conversation. 853 00:42:55,280 --> 00:43:01,640 Connect with us by sending us your questions, thoughts and suggestions to loveandcontext.gmail.com. 854 00:43:01,640 --> 00:43:06,240 We greatly appreciate your feedback and ideas for future episodes. 855 00:43:06,240 --> 00:43:10,520 Stay connected with us on social media for updates, behind the scenes content and additional 856 00:43:10,520 --> 00:43:11,520 resources. 857 00:43:11,520 --> 00:43:16,320 You can find us on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook at loveandcontext. 858 00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:19,340 Don't forget to hit that follow button to stay up to date with the latest episodes and 859 00:43:19,340 --> 00:43:21,440 join our growing community. 860 00:43:21,440 --> 00:43:24,000 Thank you for being part of the love and context family. 861 00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:26,800 Remember love is at the heart of it all. 862 00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:31,700 Until next time, keep seeking wisdom, embracing love and living out your faith in the context 863 00:43:31,700 --> 00:43:38,700 of today's world.