Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 597 | Jase Is Mystified by Dinosaurs & Why Are We Hung Up on the 'Temple Model'?

Episode Date: December 12, 2022

Jase talks about the mysterious way that the dinosaurs died and how they all seemed to die at the same time ... but why? Phil talks about the flood and the evidence that is clearly left behind for strengthening our faith. Al talks about the idea that the earth may be extremely old, while Jase and Phil agree that the earth is possibly very new. And Jase talks about the problem people have with the book of Mark, chapter 13 and why it doesn't connect with our modern culture and its understanding of location-based worship, or the "temple model." Visit https://philmerch.com and get a 20% discount on all merchandise through Christmas with code Unashamed20 The Blind hits theaters in 2023. Get updates, trailers, behind-the-scenes moments, and special opportunities here: https://theblindmovie.com - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed podcast. We got Zach somewhere out in the ether world. Hopefully he's going to join us at some point, Jase. He's technical difficulties. He has a lot of technical difficulties. He's book smart, but he's not gadget smart. He needs to hire him a young MacGyiber, techie guy, Phil. I have a lot of problems, but they're not technical issues. Trust me, my case. Well, because you just flush the whole concept down the tubes.

Look, Phil, it's admirable, I think, to just say, no, technology, I'm out. You have spoken well, my son. Phil, you are the definition of a dinosaur when it's. comes to technology. Behind the times. Yeah. But the sad thing is, there are no dinosaurs here anymore. So I don't know if that illustration is really good.

See, I have a, I have proof of a couple of degrees. That scares them. But I'm just not, I didn't go down the road of little black boxes. You had a notebook in a pen. Yeah, yeah. Which, by the way, what, what did? I'm not knocking it. I'm glad.

People have cell phones, but I'm just saying, in my humble opinion, those things will control your life. Oh, it does a lot of people. Well, I'm just, if I'm wrong, maybe so. But I've talked to a lot of them, and boy, they are all in. I saw at least three people on the way down here that was stopping traffic because they were on their phone. That's what I'm saying. It's just so annoying. It is so annoying.

When you're driving 25 and a 55, and it's. And you're unaware that there are 40 cars behind you. And when you finally get up there and pass, and you're looking and someone has their phone on their steering wheel, and they're just typing, going down the highway. That just happened. I don't know how many wrecks ensue because of that, but I would say... A lot of people.

You know what bothers me, though, is I was the only person who blew the horn. And I just... Then they look at you. like, why are you doing? I blew the horn in love because I'm trying to help you survive. And look, do you know what this young man's response was when I did that?

The middle finger. Get out of my finger. No, it wasn't the middle finger. I was shocked. It was looking at me like, arms went up. Like, what? You coming on board or not? Oh, man.

I love the phrase blowing the horn in love. I've never heard that particular. When you think about it, I'm trying to save this guy's life here. But the response was, what? I just waved. Went on, went on around him. Would you tell the one that time Jay's in the roundabout, when they had, they stopped, they were on their phone.

You said, live. I do various things. I'm in a better place. They're going to do a little surgery, whatever, minor surgery, if you can call it. Tomorrow. Phil, always remember this. It took two days. It's minor if it's on someone else.

It's major if it's on you. Well, it took two days for them to verify that I am who I am. Two days. I don't know what that means. I mean, that means you walk. get your driver license, get your Social Security card, get your health car. Oh, Phil, I wouldn't think anyone would be mistaken for being you. I think you're an original.

It was in the midst of people who said, what are you doing here? I mean, but I mean, but to sign up and for them to do a little surgery on you, a little doctrine on you, they're going to find out who you are and what is in your body. So you were having a little many appearance there in the waiting room is what you're saying. They check your scuttle from head to toe, your head, your back, your intestines. I guess they check it all. I mean, Phil, I'll tell you this, I don't know, I don't care who, what celebrity it was. If I'm in a waiting room and the guy's got a broken back, I'm not going to say, hey, man, before you go in there, let's take a picture.

I was stunned that you just couldn't do it. They just can't come. But you know why. It was the, it was what we talked about earlier. It was the dinosaur idea. You get out so little when someone sees you in their world. Because there's a lot of people that are in a lot of waiting rooms. But when they see you there, they thought we just got to, we got to approach him.

We can't not approach. Well, they may be thinking, oh, he's in the hospital. I mean, he's in the waiting room. This may be the last chance I get. Yeah. Yeah, it could be. I just noticed by looking, you know, I'm sitting at kind of the back and the corner back there, but I just noticed that 95% of all individuals in their gray head, gray bag.

Yeah, you saw a pattern. I saw a pattern. I said, the body's breaking down. That's right. You need some assistance. Yeah. Well, let me tell you, I would say. I was basically seeing the beginning of the end.

Well, I'll say this. there's a 100% chance that when you're in a room like that, you're standing out as a person of interest. And I'm trying to blend in best I can. It's not going to happen, Phil. Well, that made me think, what are y'all's theories on the, what happened to the dinosaurs? I don't think we've ever had that discussion. I would say, for the most part, the flood got them. That's interesting.

Well, wouldn't there have been two of them on the boat? The ones that God decided to stay with. Or maybe they didn't show up for the call. If you want a man who's really well-versed in that, Daniel Edwards, Dan, the eunuch, he can talk some stuff for you to show you some stuff biblically about dinosaurs. Okay. Well, I'm an old earth guy, so I'm thinking they just went the way of the dinosaur

over a period of time. I'm not a, I'm not, I don't subscribe to the 24 hour day. There are piles, mountains of, of bones, dinosaurs. I mean, just on top of each other. Hundreds of feet thick. And up in a valley, you know, in a mountain range, it's just slam full of dinosaur parts. Almost as if they were running in a herd moving away from something. something, that water just kept coming up.

Oh, there was definitely an extinction event for them, whether it was the flood in the Bible or something else, there was an extinction event. But don't you find it fascinating that all these non-God views of the earth and its creatures, that they kind of centered around the, you know, the strongest will survive. And obviously,

they were pretty strong. And that's, you know, to get in my illustration about chickens, when I'm looking at the dinosaurs not making it and the chicken making it, I'm thinking, something doesn't seem right with this theory. Well, like we said before, Jay's, when you say we're evolved, our closest ancestor is a monkey, and yet we're still here, and they're running around there at the zoo, and we're like taking care of them, something doesn't ring true about that either, right?

I never figured out why they stopped evolving to the human state. They're like, well, you've got to wait millions of years. That's the answer. They're saying, give it enough time. Anything can happen. But once it started, wouldn't it keep happening? You would think. You know, that was the part where I woke up when I was hearing this.

And when I was in 10th or 11th grade, I thought, this makes no sense. Our father is God. Their father is innuendos, and this is what we think. And salt water is what made all these animals, birds. Salt water is the source of atoms. But if your theory is the flood wiped out the dinosaurs, well, the very thing that made them, saltwater, actually took them out. That is correct.

Interesting theory, film. So I don't know how we got off on that road, but I'm sure you'll probably get more emails about, let me tell you about the dinosaur. Oh, yeah. Here's how it went down. And they are mentioned in the Bible. Well, the Leviathan and Ehamoth references. I have read that. So if you want an amusing read, look that up in the Bible.

The book of Job has some interesting references. and Jobb was a very ancient person. So there's a lot about him that's in there. You know, when I was in college, though, they basically the person, the missing link, you know, the kind of part beast, part person was some bone they found over in Africa. It was interesting because they built this whole person. Her name was Lucy.

I don't know who gave her the name, some scientist. And they built the whole person out of one feet. femur bone. And I was just like, you know, that's a lot of, you're doing a lot of, you talk about faith, you're building a whole missing link, half, half, half person off of one femur bone. And you're making fun of me because God took one of the Adam's rib and made a woman. Well, it seemed like to me, you stole our idea. We're back to that again, yeah.

So at least at the end of the day, which we talked about on our last podcast, and the final analysis, it's way better to be on this side of God being the creator and an eternal being. And Jesus at the right hand of God, he has assumed the throne, than to say, well, I think one day I will dissolve into the energy of life and just be. The whole summation can be figured out in one thing. With your particular belief system, I said, what about physical death? In other words, everything we're reading here, when it comes right down to it, it's all about the resurrection of the dead. That's the power behind Jesus. Yeah, I think really it comes down to that.

Do you want to be a fossil? or do you want to be part of a forever family? There you go. That's what they call. Therefore, who has the best story, the best story for everybody concerned. We do. We have the best story, Jason. And even other ideologies and religions, they try to go for that same thing.

The idea that you would be part of the universe, that your spirit would become part of the great, whatever, or you'd be reincarnated as another being or person. So that these concepts still flow out of this idea of the resurrection, that there's something beyond the tomb, which I felt like the last two podcasts we did really set that up pretty well. That's nine through 12. Jesus brings it up three times. And he said, you know, they're going to spit on him, flog him,

and kill him three days later. He would rise. I mean, just matter-of-factly. No, but it's important because, you know, when we get to Mark 13, which we're a couple of podcasts away from, there are many thoughts on Mark 13 and we'll address them. But one of the central, what would you call that out, one of these, yeah, one of the central themes.

Our tenants, yeah. Hang on, Jay's, before you get into that, Let's take a break. So in Mark 13, I think people just all of a sudden lose where they're at from Jesus' perspective. Because one of the central themes or tenets of Mark is this idea of the temple keeps coming up. You know, in chapter 11, he clears the temple. And you remember that. And that happened two different occasions, I believe, right?

or it happened in different orders in some of the other gospies. Yeah, right, because John had a little bit earlier. And think about Jay's, even coming into that, the last couple of podcasts, we've talked about, we talked about the ascension and the resurrection. When Jesus comes into Jerusalem in Mark 11, he comes in as a king. I mean, the idea is the king has arrived. Now, what threw everybody off is they weren't, they didn't know what he was there to do as king. and they didn't realize he had to die.

But he comes in as king. So that kind of sets up this idea, and that's why he goes straight to the temple. Well, he does. And that leads up to chapter 13 because you notice in 1235, he was teaching in the temple courts. Now, he, you know, part of what he said is how is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself speaking by the Holy Spirit declared the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet David himself calls him Lord how then can he be his son the Lord the large crowd listened to him with delight as he taught Jesus said watch out for

the teacher of the law they like to walk around and flowing roves and be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at the banquets they devour widows houses and for a show make lengthy prayer such men will be punished most severely which is is very graphic and blunt and then he says jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money and and where they put in the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts, but a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, I'll tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more in the treasury than all the others.

They all gave out of the wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in everything all she had to live on. So in chapter 13, as he was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said, look, teacher, what massive stones, what magnificent building. So we'll get into that. But the reason I'm making a point about this is because I really believe, to reference the dinosaur talk from earlier, you know, today the idea of temples is not something we're really keen on. I mean, we don't, we don't, it's not part of our culture for the,

the most part. I mean, when you think a temple, what do you think? Oh, tall buildings. A tall building with like pillars and people view it as a place of worship, I guess. What we saw when we went to Rome and we saw Catholicism and their structures, it was amazing. But back in the day, and this day, the temple was pretty much your political your religious, everything about the culture revolved around that temple, which is why Jesus got into trouble by making the insinuation that he might do something about the temple. So I want to read that in John because I think this is a great platform to when we get to

Mark 13, because he's specifically addressing what's going to happen to this temple and look no matter how what you believe about it a few years later after this talk this temple that he was that he was walking out of and in the courts and watching the widow was decimated yeah and i believe there was not one stone left on another reduced to rubble so when was that ad 70 yeah so when you read john two he has a little more commentary on why people are so upset about this and so look at I believe it's in 212 so after this he went down to compurnum with his mother and brother and disciples and they stayed a few days

when it was almost time for the Jewish Passover Jesus went up to Jerusalem in the temple courts now this is where he just gave the same a little sermon about David and this lineage and how could he be the, how could he be referring to the Lord is his Lord? He found men selling cattle, sheep and doves and others sitting at tables exchange of money. So this same story is in Mark 11 that we, we addressed earlier. So he made a whip out of cords and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

To those who sold doves, he said, get those out of here. How dare you turn my father's house into a market? His disciples remembered that it is written, zeal for your house will consume me. That's in Psalm 69. Then the Jews demanded of him, what miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this? Which is a common theme. Who you think you are? Jesus, yeah, Jesus answered them.

So I read all these verses and we've done all this to get to this point, which goes to what Phil said before. Jesus said, destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days. Well, the Jews replied, it has taken 46 years to build this temple. Now, they're obviously referring to the temple, which was the lifeblood of this culture at this time, not for their religion. And this is where God is.

You know, they had a once a year, the high priest goes in there. But, you know, the common man can't go there, but we have the dwelling place of God here. And they've turned it into not only religion and politics, but also commerce. I mean, they're making money. This is the lifeblood. So the Jews, they said it has taken us 46 years to build this temple. And you're going to raise it in three days. but the temple he had spoken of was his body.

And then it has this kind of parenthetical thought. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recall what he had said, then they believed the scripture in the words that Jesus had spoken. No, that's powerful. And it shows you the clear contrast of what Jesus was bringing to the table.

It was the end of the complete era of temple worship, of this is where you get, you never really got absolution, but this is where you're going to get your sins passed on to the next year. That whole system was going down, and what he was saying was,

I am the new system. Yeah, because think about it. That's why he said all authority, post-resurrection. As soon as he was resurrected, the first words out of his mouth is that I am the one there's, you know,

in heaven and on earth, All authority has been given to me. Go make disciples. And amazingly, making disciples was the new temple, the people who made up, put their faith in Jesus at his authority to raise the dead. He proved it by being raised from the dead. He was saying, we are the temple, which you talk about a leap, a leap. Just think about that, Al, bringing in the Gentiles tube, bringing in.

bringing in the Gentiles too. Well, the Jews just went nuts over that. They still are. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. And hang on, let's take another break. Well, when you think about it, though, there's a lot of similarities. That's why I said for us, I think the reason we have trouble with Mark 13 in our culture and in churches is because we're just not familiar with the way the temple was set up, the shadow that produced Jesus,

which was his plan. Because when you go back to John 1, and the famous chapter in the beginning was the Word and Word was God, when it gets to 14, when it says the Word became flesh and made His dwelling, which is the word for tabernacle, temple among us,

we have seen His glory. And you remember all this from Moses' day, you can't look on the glory of God or you will die. and that's why they had the high priest going in the back room and this is you know they we talked about this before but they would tie a rope on him so if he died seeing the glory of god they'd fish him drag him out because if you went in there to get him the c s i in their day well all them would die yeah so but we've seen his glory we can now look look at his face i mean you could pick a verse you know the one about the, that we read last time, I think it's 2nd Corinthians 3,

we're like, we with all unveiled faces reflect the glory of God in the face of Christ. So that's what he was saying. And to your point out, they were doing all these rituals as far as like bringing sacrifices for their sins, the bulls and goats. But Jesus did something. He flipped that on its head. You don't have to bring your sacrifice. He's like, I'll be the sacrifice for you.

So it was a fulfillment of a structure becoming a man from God, Jesus. I mean, in all the verses from 1st Corinthians all the way to Revelation about we're the temple, you know, the Holy Spirit, and those all make sense now because Jesus, Jesus fulfilled that. So I think if you get that in your head and realize what the conflict and the friction that was going on over this idea of the temple, you don't come in here and start making remarks about the temple to the teachers of the law. And this is crazy talk to them. This is, we will kill you talk. But what's interesting is he set it up with that quote from David in some,

by showing that he's been around before David, during David, and after David. So they had no answer for him, but they still were hanging on to it. You know what else is ironic is that whenever the temple, of course, the temple wasn't immediately destroyed, right, after Jesus came and died and left. And in Acts chapter 3 and 4, guess where the apostles were leading people into Christ? where did they go? Temple courts. At the Temple Courts.

And they were helping lead them to conversion out of the old system into Christ. And that they were doing it. Changes being made like they had never heard of before. That's right. I mean, do you see what I'm saying? Yeah. And then the church becomes part of the kingdom that Christ came to firmly established, which when we were talking about that whole podcast we had with Larry about the ascension,

And to me, Jace, it sets up Mark 13 so importantly because it shows you that Christ is king. He is ruling. He is on the throne. We're not waiting for that to happen at the end of time. It's going on right now. When Jesus came down, this became personal. God became personal. It no longer became some kind of building, a system where you had to go through a

ritual to do these things, to punch your card, to try to do what was required, and then you go out and live the best you can't. It wasn't a personal relationship with God. I mean, I guess that's what most pastors say, but I don't know, I can't think of a phrase that depicts what Jesus brought because it did. It became something way more intimate. When that curtain, that rip started, it came all the way to the floor. When that happened, that pretty well was God saying, I'm out of here. Well, access is now being given. It's like, what's that?

The Romans 5 says that, you know, now that we've gained access, is that what it says? Let me look at that real quick. Therefore, since we've been justified through faith, we have peace with God. through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into His grace in which we now stand, which is, was my point about not only did he bring the presence of God in his body, you know, you got Colossians 2, all the deity lives in bodily form in Jesus, but he also brought the sacrifice for our sins. We didn't have to bring it.

he brought it which was his body and then guess what he he rose three days later i was just thumbing through the songs and the kicker is you look up one day and it wasn't very long either by 70 a d they looked up and saw titus and the romans coming but that wound it up as far as and it has not been replaced since that time since 70 ad the temple is gone why didn't they build them another one. It was beyond repair, Al. That's right. Well, what's ironic is, Dad, what Jesus said, he said, I'm going to destroy this thing. The same time period that it took to build it, he said, you know, they said 46 years. It was about the same time frame that it took to get to the point of destroying it for when Jesus was here, right at 40 years, which was kind of

ironic. Yeah, what I wanted to bring up is, I mean, I was just thumbing through the Psalms while we were talking here because David gave hints of this even in the Psalms and one of my chose or I looked at here is Psalm 11 so watch what he says he says in the Lord I take refuge how then can you say to me flee like a bird to your mountain and he's he's saying this because of it just seems like in our world we're outnumbered and it's you know best thing to do is just get away from it. Bad things happen. There's violence. There's so and watch what he says.

For look verse two, the wicked bend their bows. They set their arrows against the strings to shoot from the shadows at the upright and heart. When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do? And so watch this verse four is what I. I want to highlight on. The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord is on his heavenly throne. So you think about it.

In that one verse, he's like, when it looks bad and you're outnumbered or when difficulties happening or when he seems surrounded, he went with two things. The Lord is in his, is that the right hand? He is the king of kings, Lord of Lords. And he's in his temple, which gets to that action. we have the personal relationship. And I know that to be true, because when you keep reading, he said,

He observes the sons of men, his eyes examine them. The Lord examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence, his soul hates. On the wicked, he will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur. A scorching wind will be their lot. For the Lord is righteous. He loves justice. Upright men, and here's the phrase I wanted to get, will see his face. which is the exact contrast,

which is why they had to wear veils under the old temple system. But that, this is Psalm 11. He's, he's gotten the whole picture way before the picture had unfolded, is my point. And so what seems weird to me is that I think we have time, we have a hard time understanding when he's talking about the temple. because everybody immediately, when they go to Mark 13,

starts talking about the second coming of Jesus, but they're missing an important fact that God designed is that the temple system by which you obtain your religion and your confidence in who you are, he tore that down. He became the temple for us when he came to earth in who Jesus is. And what Jesus did on a cross and the resurrection

gave us way more intimate access into God looking into our hearts than anything that was ever going to be produced by a temple worship. Jesus saying, destroyed this body, and I'll raise it up in three days, the temple, that being the temple, that doesn't move the needle in the religious world today. But to them, that was the most. outrageous statement they'd ever heard you know we we have our few like where it says you know the only sin that's unforgivable well that we get that gets our attention because we're like well

what is it i don't ever do that but what it was just as outrageous to their culture for him saying you you destroy this temple i'll build it back three days what that that what they you got to be insane. They looked at the temple and looked around. Well, that's why when I, you know, I didn't read it, but I mean, I want to, but when he, when he got to Mark 13, too, Jesus said, do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another. Everyone will be thrown down. So whatever he's going to after that, and when you tie on what he said in John 2, Jesus was saying, I'm the temple of God. right here. That's what he was saying. Yep. It's a heavy load for many. Well, to me, that's a way better story.

And what we should be doing as humans 2,000 years later, is to have this intimate dwelling with God through Jesus and his spirit in dwellingness, then to be building dinosaur temples on the earth. Look, and going through a ritualistic setting of, We can be over there under them overcuped trees, oak trees in the middle of the woods. But the temple of God, he's there too. He just is.

Jace, you mentioned the unforgivable sin, which, by the way, the only one that's unforgivable is to cut out the very one who ushers you into the presence of God, the Holy Spirit. I mean, we're not laughing because a lot of people, you know, have trouble. understanding this. But it's like, and I've had many arguments, but it's really helped me doing this with y'all going through this systematic, you know, March study where you're like, there was a lot of conflict and a lot of activity over what was going on in this temple.

And he's trying to prepare their minds and hearts for something so shocking. everything in their life and world and culture was fixed to come tumbling down. And granted, it was going to be almost 40 years from now, but he was like, this is better because I'm the temple. If I had been there and I was roughly 30 years old, 40, or about what I am now, 76, and I had witnessed these events, I just wonder how many, 40 years later roughly, from the time he said to destroy this temple,

and I'll raise it up in three days. But if you look at it out, I mean, the ones who were still there and looking at what the temple was, when there was not one stone left on top of another, just a pile of rubble, 40 years later, you said, boy, did this thing, 40 years, not all that long,

but that would have been within my, lifetime if I had been there at the time. I just wonder what impact. I guess we're looking at the impact, Al, from the time Jesus said that until present day. But what happened when Titus did destroy it? I mean, the Roman Empire. I mean, they didn't leave one brick on top of another one. It came down. Never to be rebuilt. No. It's never been the same. And it was that way on purpose, which is kind of interesting because even the 40 years, though, really that was a grace thing by God because you remember Paul was so passionate like in the book of Romans when he was like, I'm doing everything I can to get my brethren, my kindred Jewish brothers to see who Christ is. Because he knew he was so hard-headed and hard-hearted. I mean, he had to be struck down on the road before he would give up the temple.

But then he knew, right? And so then he led other people, which was powerful, which is really what happens to us. Let's take another break. I was just going to say, I was wondering what people do with that Acts 1724 where it says the Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples built by hands. Yeah. Why would he make that statement? Yeah. Yeah.

Because he figured out, oh, Jesus is the temple. He's tabernacle. He's tabernacleing, if that's a word. It is now. It is now. It was that dwelling, you know, he's, he made his dwelling among us, John I, we have seen his glory, full of grace and truth. I mean, that, that was the plan of God.

And Jesus is, which is what led him to his death because this threatened them. But remember, that's why in Ephesians 2.11 been following, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and caused uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision that done in the body by the hands of men, remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise without hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away, these Gentiles, think about it, have been brought near through the blood of Christ. He himself is our peace, and he's made the two, one, Jew and Gentile, and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh the law with all those commandments and regulations.

His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached to you who are far away and peace to those who were near. For through him, we, Jew or Gentile, both have access to the people. the Father by one spirit. Boy, what a read. That ties it all together, Al. No, that's good. And something you said, Jason, about Acts 17, which was fascinating.

When he made that statement about God not living in temples built by human hands, he was in Athens, and he was on Mars Hill, and up above him, and Dad and I have been there, up above him, the Acropolis is what he was referring to. And that was Greek worship. You know, that was Gentile worship. It wasn't the temple in Jerusalem. So it was really interesting. He was even addressing that to Gentiles at that moment, but at the same time, but also applied to Jews. And when you get over to Acts 21, he goes into Jerusalem, gets on the temple steps, and guess what he does? preaches the same sermon. And of course, they tried to kill him just like they did Jesus

because he was saying it's not about the temple anymore. It's about Jesus. It's about who he is, which is powerful. I'll give you another example of it. So when you go to Colossians 2, and he makes this statement, because you've got to realize, well, the reason the Jews were having so much trouble with this

is because Jesus was basically given them the impression that what they were doing was not real. It was a shadow that he was fulfilling this temple worship in a ritualistic setting. But this was their life. And so he took great pains to do this carefully, but he was blunt about it. I mean, he just said, you people walking around thinking you're high and mighty, you're going to be punished severely. But in Colossians 2, he says in verse 17 kind of talking about having the old law and the system and what he liberated us from you know canceling the written code down it to the cross that's in verse 14 he gets to 17 he said these are a shadow of the things that were to come the reality

however is found in christ so when he gets to chapter 3 it's It's amazing to me what Paul, he does something similar to what David did in Psalm 11 that I read. He focuses on the same two things about Christ being king at the right hand and Christ dwelling intimately with us in a temple setting. Watch what he says in chapter 3, 1 through 4. Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above. where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also appear with Him. And here's that word again, glory. God's glory became available to us through Jesus. That was the whole plan. because God is so much bigger and so much more powerful, even in our fleshly human state, there was not a way to coexist without you being evaporated. And so Jesus becomes a man to bridge the gap for us so that we could live together,

which I think this is an upgrade. I mean, just think about how putting this in perspective. If your whole life is about going to a building and doing anything and then you die, that wasn't much of a life. No. That wasn't much of a life. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.

How much simply could you get? Acts 17, that's what the Apostle Paul told the Greeks. They had all these statues of going to the other direction. He said, God did live in those. Over. That's all over. Can you imagine? I mean, they're so used to all that junk they had built.

They're the ones who built it. They dug the home, buried them, and they did the whole thing. Then turned around and bowed down in front of what they had built instead of reaching out for Jesus, You know, it's interesting. When Stephen was preaching his coffin sermon, in 48, he says, the most high does not live in houses made by men. That's it. As the prophet said, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstress.

What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord? And what did that eventually lead to? They had their hands over their ears, screaming at the top of the lungs, and they're picking up Brock's going to kill him. And what did Stephen do? The same thing Paul did in Colossians in writing, the same Psalm that David wrote in Psalm 11, he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God and full of the Holy Spirit.

He literally imitated Jesus by saying, what did he say I think he said forgive them said what did he say yeah verse 59 while they were stoning him Stephen prayed Lord Jesus received my spirit

then he fell on his knees and cried out do not hold this sin against him he literally became Jesus all right so intimate of a relationship that even though he's trying to get them to live eternally and have this joyous experience of experience in the God of the universe.

Even with him killing, he became Jesus in such a way, focused on who Jesus is, where he said the same words Jesus did when he was crucified. It's pretty awesome. Yeah. And as we mentioned before, in the moment of that happening, here's the guy who would take the gospel to the Gentile. world was the big pumba given his approval of Stephen's death in that moment before he was led to Christ by Jesus himself. So it really is just continues to unfold as you go through this

process of seeing how it all started, which is amazing. I mean, and we're the results of the results 2,000 years later. We're still here. And I guess it was like you were saying, though, days earlier, I think, I guess in the modern vernacular, it wouldn't be as much about temples, but people do the same thing with what they would call a house of worship or a building. Recently, I was visiting a place in our town, and it had been built in the 40s. And at one time, this was vibrant. And I mean, they had packed houses, standing room only, and this church had an interesting history.

But it was down to 10 people. and so, you know, they obviously couldn't keep, they couldn't even, you know, keep the lights going. And so I went into this place and what they finally decided to do is donate it to one of our ministries. But as I was walking around, I looked in there and I saw blankets and I saw people's Bibles, you know, on the pews. And I just thought, you know, it's just a place. I mean, it's been, it's been there for 80 years. But now there's no, there's no life. There's no people.

There's no, there's no vibrancy. just a shell, it's a husk. And so really you could say the same thing about this idea of the temple in the first century is the same thing about people looking at mortar and bricks as being the thing. It's not. It's just a place where the people of God gather, right? Well, we're out of time, but I want to, in overtime, Jase, we didn't get into the Jesus uses an illustration about what kind of hearts he's looking for. And I think that's what he's talking about by the teachers of the law versus this widow. So I want to flesh that out. a little bit in overtime. If you want to follow us over, it's blazedtiv.com

slash unashamed. And you can sign up and get our overtime. So we'll see you there. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to Blaze TV at blazedtv.com slash unashamed.