Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] What we're going to do today is we're going to look at John 3. So if you'd go there with me, we are going to go into another case study in our school of evangelism. And we've looked so far at our Lord's interaction with the rich young ruler. And we have also considered our Lord's interaction with the Samaritan woman.
[00:00:30] And both of those are far different from one another. A lot of differences.
[00:00:38] And this one is going to be unique in itself as well. And we can draw some truths and principles from this that I think will help us in our efforts to get the gospel to people.
[00:00:54] So let's read John, chapter 3, verses 1 through 21.
[00:00:59] Now, as Brother Jim quoted John 3:16, some people might not know or remember that John 3:16 was a verse, first of all, spoken by Jesus himself, which is interesting. But secondly, it was a verse that Jesus spoke in an effort to evangelize Nicodemus. It was in the same conversation with Nicodemus, which is an interesting, interesting twist. So I don't think you can. I honestly don't know that you can find a better place to go for an example when you're trying to understand the best way to share the gospel and best way to talk to people about Jesus than what our Lord does with Nicodemus, because he goes through the whole gambit in John 3. So let's look at John 3, verses 1 through 21. The Bible says this. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him.
[00:02:11] Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
[00:02:38] That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit, Nicodemus answered and said unto him, how can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen. And ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?
[00:03:23] And no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven.
[00:03:31] And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
[00:03:57] He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world. And men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil, were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light. Neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. All right, let's pray together.
[00:04:36] Father in heaven, thank you so much for the opportunity to look in the Scripture. Thank you for this conversation that has been permanently recorded in the words of Scripture for us today. That we might.
[00:04:49] We might be admonished and we might learn and gain knowledge, that we might look at your example as you tried to give the truth to Nicodemus, as you tried to convince him and help him to see that which was. Was really. That he was really unwilling to see.
[00:05:06] Lord, thank you for these things. I pray for us, Lord, that are here this morning and our church as a whole. Lord, help us to be people that are serious about evangelism. Help us to be people that have a true and sincere heartfelt burden for those who do not know Christ. A burden that is strong enough to urge us and compel us to tell them not to just feel compassion, not to just feel like. Feel sorry for someone who doesn't know Christ. But it would lead us to action, Lord, that as you said, our meat would be to do the will of our Father.
[00:05:50] And so, Lord, bless our time in the Scripture. I pray that you would be our teacher and help us to understand and to derive these principles here that they might help us in our efforts to share the Gospel. So we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:06:06] All right, Nicodemus, Nicodemus famous figure. This is not. Chapter three is not the final time we'll see Nicodemus in the Bible.
[00:06:16] But it's an interesting. He's an interesting man because Nicodemus comes to the Lord as a representative.
[00:06:26] He comes to the Lord Jesus as a representative. Now, I don't know if it was they had appointed Nicodemus to go to Jesus to talk to him or if he did it on his own, but either way he did. In other words, of all the interactions that our Lord had with the Pharisees and the rulers of the Jews, this appears to be really the only one. There might be one or two others, but this really appears to be the only positive interaction with the Pharisees. And this is as Nicodemus is a Pharisee, verse one is a ruler of the Jews, verse one.
[00:07:05] So when he goes to Jesus, he is representing that sect. Now just a little bit of background that in first century Israel you had basically three sects of people, three groups. You had the Pharisees, which was the largest group, the most well respected group. All right, The Pharisees would be essentially the ones who were doctrinally orthodox, if you will, doctrinally pure. Paul was a Pharisee. I'm referring to doctrine. Now, like the Pharisees believed the Scripture. Right? They were serious about that. So you had the Pharisees, the largest group, the one the people most revered. Then you had the Sadducees. They were the ones related to the priesthood. And the Sadducees were like theological liberals. They were not believing people as far as the scriptures are concerned. And then you had a third group. Well, you could also add a fourth one in there. The fourth one would be ones that were in alignment with Rome, Jews that were in alignment with Rome. But really the other group, the last group was the one it was not directly mentioned in Scriptures called the Essenes. And they were sort of like John the Baptist. They're very ascetic and they had a lot of fasting and they did not live near people. They lived in the wilderness, away from people. But some people think John the Baptist was or kind of came up in that group. But it's irrelevant to our purpose. But so those are the Three primary groups, religious, civic, political groups, which those are all mixed up together. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. Our Lord, though not a Pharisee, Our Lord aligned with the Pharisees in doctrine. You'll notice he said that in a few places he says, whatever the Pharisees tell you to do, do it. But don't do what they do. Do what they say. Which says a lot about the Pharisees. But so this man comes as a representative, essentially of the Pharisees and a representative of the ruler of the Jews. This is Nicodemus, his position in life.
[00:09:30] And with that association, he called himself a Pharisee. With that association and with that identity, scripturally speaking, come some characteristics that are found in the New Testament of Pharisees. So before we even go to verse two and following, there are certain characteristics about the Pharisees in particular that we find in Scripture that can help us understand, by comparing Scripture with Scripture, help us understand the mindset behind Nicodemus. And when we do that, when we understand what he's likely thinking, although we don't know about him as an individual, but generally speaking, it can help us understand the text we're looking at. So let's do that very quickly. Go to Matthew, chapter 23.
[00:10:23] And of course, this is the chapter where the Lord pronounces woes upon the scribes and the Pharisees.
[00:10:32] The scribes were people not everyone was able to read and write in this time in history. The scribes were ones who were able to copy Scripture. That's one thing they did. If you needed a letter written or something like that, you would go pay a scribe and he would write it for you, that kind of thing. They were the ones who copied the Scripture, and as a result, they were closely aligned with the Pharisees who had a high regard for Scripture. Right?
[00:11:00] So in Matthew 23, the Lord denounces the Pharisees.
[00:11:06] If anyone thinks, you know, Joseph prophesied by quoting Matthew 7, which is what we're going to talk about this morning in the service, which is judged. You know, it starts with judge, not that you be not judged. But if anyone thinks that Jesus never judged or never took a hard line, or that Jesus was always kind of passive and kind of a pushover and always sweet, and that they are grossly mistaken. They are grossly mistaken.
[00:11:39] What's different about our Lord as compared to what we see in humanity is it's the reverse. Humanity always gives high praise to people that are wealthy, high praise to people that are smart, high praise to people that are religious, right, The Pharisees.
[00:12:00] And humanity tends to condemn and look down upon people that are, you know, you might say less fortunate. People who are people of poor reputation and those kinds of things. People with a past, with history. And yet we see the Lord speaks kindly to those and reserves his most harshest, his harshest criticism for those that humanity praises the most. You know, it reminds me of the verse that says, that which is highly esteemed in the sight of men is an abomination in the sight of the Lord.
[00:12:37] And So in chapter 23, we see some of the just.
[00:12:46] These are. These are harsh words for the Pharisees. But I just want to point out a few things. Just as we go through this chapter very, very quickly, notice verse 4. Speaking of the Pharisees. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
[00:13:06] Verse 6. They love the uppermost rooms at feasts and chief seats in the synagogues. You see this kind of pride, right? You see this desire to. Desire for praise of men. Now, the Lord is painting with a broad brush here. He's describing the characteristics of the Pharisees and The scribes.
[00:13:30] Verse 7. They love the greetings in the markets and to be called of men. Rabbi, Rabbi. So these people's reputation and these accolades are very important. The way they appear to men is very important.
[00:13:44] And then you go down to verse number, verse number 13.
[00:13:50] The Lord says, ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. For ye neither go in yourselves, nor suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Here's the thing. The Pharisees were not in God's kingdom. You might say, although this verse doesn't mean this, the kingdom of heaven is not the same as going to heaven. But in this verse, they're not in the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, they for sure were not going to heaven. If they're not going to heaven, they're going to where?
[00:14:25] That's kind of hard to say. He says in the end of the chapter, he says, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? A characteristic of the Pharisees, that they did not know God. They were not in God's kingdom. They were not going to heaven. They were lost. All right, then you go down a little bit further.
[00:14:44] Verse 14. You devour widows, houses.
[00:14:48] What is that talking about?
[00:14:51] I was talking to Brother Vernon before the service, you know, he was talking about, you know, fixed income and people that get older on Social Security or their retirement, you know, and it's. You don't have a lot of flexibility. The 1 in 1.7% increase per year, whatever it ends up being, you know, doesn't add up to a whole lot. Well, imagine you're a widow and whatever living you have has been devoured by Pharisees who are already wealthy. So you see this wicked covetousness, this wicked love of money that is using religion to extract, not unlike TV preachers, to extract from the unsuspecting and the naive, every last penny that they have. No matter even though they themselves own airplanes and, you know, that kind of thing. The Pharisees were men who loved money. They were covetous. Verse 15 describes, they compassed land and sea, sea and land to make one proselyte.
[00:15:57] They had great religious zeal, but the zeal was not with an eye upon the person that they were proselytizing. Their zeal was on their religion. It was a mark of victory, a notch in their belt to have someone join their religion. They would do whatever is necessary so that they could brag and boast. You see the pride there again.
[00:16:19] But they were very zealous. You think of Paul as well, Saul, Tarsus at that time.
[00:16:24] Then in verse 16, they say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing. But whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor. Notice their emphasis on money and possessions.
[00:16:39] Then go down to verse number 23.
[00:16:44] Ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith. Notice that they were, you might say the word comes to mind, is punctilious. They were extremely detailed in their observance of the rules, right? And they had many, many rules, but they were extremely detailed. And they derived their own sense of self righteousness from keeping these rules.
[00:17:16] I mean, even down to herbs that they received in their garden.
[00:17:23] One leaf, one leaf for the Lord, nine leaves for me, kind of thing. And you think that is ridiculous, but they did it. This was their self righteousness.
[00:17:34] This is their self righteousness. Then in verse number 25, you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
[00:17:45] You have what? This is hypocrisy. So you have these people who want, you know, they love the praise of men. We already saw that. And they want to appear righteous. They're putting on a show. They want on the outside to appear righteous. Now inside we've Already seen. They weren't. They were just corrupt through and through. But they wanted to appear, and indeed did appear righteous to people on the outside.
[00:18:13] They had a great sense of and desire to do showmanship.
[00:18:19] Notice this.
[00:18:31] Then in the last part, starting in verse number 29, we see that the Pharisees were those that Jesus describes as full of hatred.
[00:18:40] Full of hatred. In other words, the Pharisees were the children of those that killed the prophets.
[00:18:49] Man, that is quite an indictment, especially considering that in that society the Pharisees had the highest regard of the people.
[00:19:04] They were the faithful church members. If you compared it to our society and the Lord says you, you are the children of the murderers of the prophets. Unbelievable. And we know they filled that. They filled that. They fulfilled that as well because they were the ones primarily driving the crucifixion of Christ.
[00:19:23] So in summary, look at what we've seen about now. Remember I said all that to say, what was Nicodemus like, this man that comes to Jesus, what was he like? Well, he was self righteous.
[00:19:38] He was a man who had a tendency of toward hypocrisy and showmanship. He was a man who despised others.
[00:19:47] He was a covetous man. He was a man full of pride and religious zeal and not a good kind.
[00:19:56] He was a man who is spiritually blind. That comes from this passage where the Pharisees are referred to as blind guides.
[00:20:03] He was a man who held to legalism. What an abused term these days. But if there was someone who held to legalism, it was the Pharisees.
[00:20:15] All the laws, all the rules. And then thinking that those laws and the keeping of them made them right with God.
[00:20:26] And that goes back to self righteousness. And then finally we see they were the ones who totally had a capacity for the utmost hatred and bloodthirst.
[00:20:37] Now going back to John 3, that gives us a little more context when we look at verse number one and we see Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews. Now again, we don't know if all of these characteristics applied to Nicodemus in full measure as they did others. We don't know.
[00:20:57] But no doubt some of them did.
[00:21:00] And some of them are present in this passage. Now look at verse number two.
[00:21:06] The same came to Jesus by night.
[00:21:11] He came to Jesus. Why do you think he came to Jesus by night? Why not in the day? You know, back in this time it was hard work to do things at night. You know, I've been talking to several people in our church who are having A hard time driving at night. It's becoming an issue. And that's why sometimes we don't see them on Sunday night or Wednesday night because they don't feel safe driving at night. They don't see that as they used to. All right, but imagine this time, like at least we have lights, street lights, headlights, none of that.
[00:21:49] He's going out of his way to get out at night.
[00:21:52] Not like our time. He's going out of his way.
[00:21:55] Why?
[00:22:01] Everybody says in unison so that nobody sees him. Right? Obviously.
[00:22:08] But the fact that Nicodemus came to Jesus by night indicates something about him, that he has a concern for what others think of him.
[00:22:21] Well, that matches what we read in Matthew 23, right? This desire to appear a certain way to others and to be greeted and Rabbi, and all that.
[00:22:33] The concern for what others thought of him was one of his primary considerations.
[00:22:39] Alright, so think about this.
[00:22:42] Even with that. And that's not a good thing, right? Even with that, though, here's what you have to remember. Now we're looking at the idea of evangelism. We're trying to like focus on this one topic.
[00:22:54] Even though he's not coming to Jesus, the motives that are probably right, at least he's coming.
[00:23:03] At least he's coming.
[00:23:06] Listen, I just want to tell you something, man.
[00:23:11] Any interaction a person can have with Jesus, right?
[00:23:17] Any interaction whereby they approach him, they ask questions has to be good, right? That's a good thing. And imagine how much grace God has when people come to him afraid, ashamed, ashamed of him, ashamed to be talking to him.
[00:23:38] And yet he receives them and says, let's talk. He looks past all, all of that. Imagine what the Lord looks past whenever someone approaches him.
[00:23:51] You see, you can see the grace of Christ when Jesus comes to him, even though it's at night, even though all, even though all of his history, all of those things, at least he's coming. At least he's having a conversation. Because by having a conversation, by asking a question, he's going to get some truth and he's going to get a full measure of truth in this, in chapter three, at least he's coming. So with the bad, there's some good there, like he's seeking out a little bit.
[00:24:25] What would be wrong is to do this, to take a man who is timidly and secretly coming to ask a question. And this happens to us too.
[00:24:34] Some people have such an aversion or a hostility to Christianity that they don't want to have any public affiliation with it. They don't Want to be seen with it, they don't want to be associated with it. And a lot of times it's not Christianity. It's. They are of a certain religion or denomination or whatever, and they don't. They will not come to church.
[00:25:01] They will not come to church because that's just a bridge too far. They just. They don't want to come. They have a lot of reservations and hostility even toward it. But maybe, maybe at a family get together, maybe in private, maybe they would come and just ask a question. And sometimes the question will be kind of hostile and kind of unpleasant.
[00:25:27] Who is it? I hope you don't mind. Ms. Elsie has a relative that's like that.
[00:25:33] What's her first name again? Sarah. Been trying to pray for Sarah and you know, Ms. Elsie, Sarah is not friendly on this matter. She's friendly to talk to, but she's not friendly about Jesus. She's kind of hostile, Contrary. Right, But I told Ms. Elsie, I said, but at least she's talking to you.
[00:25:56] She probably would not want to be associated with our church or any other church, you know, as far as that goes, she would not want to be known as someone who goes into a church and sits and listens.
[00:26:07] But at least she's talking, right? What would be wrong in this case when you know someone is sensitive like that, is to be harsh or to out them or to shame them, you know, they're trying to keep it secret and yet you're going to shame them. That's contrary. That's not going to help their soul. It would have been counterproductive. If Jesus think a man of reputation, a man of authority, a man that's a leader in his religion, and if the Lord had gone back and said, yeah, oh, yeah, you Pharisees, you always say this and that and the other, but one of your guys, Nicodemus, came to see me last night. That would not have helped, right?
[00:26:56] If someone is shy, at least they're asking a question. Deal with that thing privately. Talk to them privately.
[00:27:04] Now, when a person gets saved, the Bible says, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. That's different.
[00:27:12] If someone makes a profession of faith and is unwilling to confess Christ, that is a strong indicator that they didn't get saved. That's a very strong indicator according to Romans chapter 10. So.
[00:27:26] But that's not what we have here. If a person comes to us to ask questions privately, speak with them privately, and sometimes we can learn that the way that a person approaches us to ask questions, you know, can tell us something about where they are. In the case of Nicodemus, it revealed what his values were, what his considerations were when he came to Jesus. And so that's helpful to help us understand Proverbs 29, verse 25. You know this verse, the fear of man bringeth a snare. That's where Nicodemus was. He didn't know that. He thought he was a great, you know, a grand, righteous, you know, leader. And he was a big shot. And all the while he's like. He's a dog with a tail between his legs coming to Jesus, crawling up to Jesus at night, afraid of what men might think of him.
[00:28:25] Right? Terribly cowardly. But the Lord just says, I'll talk. I'll talk.
[00:28:34] What's interesting is in John 7, verse 50, and in John 19, verse 39, we see Nicodemus again. We won't look at those, but we see Nicodemus again publicly associating with Jesus. In John 7, Nicodemus spoke up for Jesus in the council, and it didn't make a huge difference in the end, but he did speak up publicly to those same rulers. And then in John 19, he was there when Jesus was buried publicly.
[00:29:06] So, man, Lord, give us hope. Just because it starts one way doesn't mean it's going to end that way.
[00:29:16] The broad principle we can take from verses 1 and 2 is this, is that we should try and know our audience as much as possible.
[00:29:26] Because we know about the Pharisees as our Lord described them and denounced them in Scripture, we can have a basic understanding of our audience.
[00:29:36] One of the greatest things you can do when you're trying to share the gospel with people is learn people. You know, the best place to learn people?
[00:29:49] The Bible.
[00:29:51] The Bible.
[00:29:54] You learn people from the Bible.
[00:29:58] Because again, we're not talking about how to. How to be friends necessarily, not in that social setting, but learning people for a spiritual goal, how to witness what their responses will be. That's in the scripture. That's what you see here. And so if we learn people, we learn man's nature, we learn the way people act. We see these different case studies, and we see the way different people act in different circumstances that are recorded in Scripture. We can have a basic understanding of our audience, and that will then guide us into the proper way and the best way to share gospel truths with them. Now look at verse number two again, notice what Nicodemus says. Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God.
[00:30:43] Who's we?
[00:30:47] Pharisees?
[00:30:49] Raise your hand if you think it's the Pharisees, everybody kind of sheepishly in the context, is probably referring to the Pharisees, the rulers of the Jews.
[00:31:03] Now, did every one of the Pharisees agree with Nicodemus with this statement, we know that thou art a teacher come from God? I don't know, but certainly there were others.
[00:31:14] Certainly there were others that believed what Nicodemus is saying, which indicates.
[00:31:22] Think now, just. This is what I'm talking about. Just listen. What is he saying?
[00:31:28] They're having conversations about Jesus in private.
[00:31:33] Here is the thing. They're having conversations about Jesus in private.
[00:31:38] And Jesus doesn't know anything about it. Of course, he knows everything. But humanly speaking, I knew one of you theologians would be like, ah, but he does.
[00:31:48] But humanly speaking, he doesn't. He doesn't know anything about it. Let that be an encouragement to you try to witness to somebody, even if it goes. Even if it goes poorly. You don't know what kind of conversations they're having behind closed doors on that subject.
[00:32:04] It happens.
[00:32:06] How many of you have witnessed to someone and later you found out that they were talking about it?
[00:32:14] A little bird told you, you know what that tells you that whatever they're hearing is doing something.
[00:32:28] You could read a novel. You can have a conversation about the inauguration or whatever, whoop de doo, right?
[00:32:37] But when you give somebody the word of God, you can rest assured that the God of the Word is working. And sometimes that comes out like you see here, behind closed doors. That should be an encouragement, Lord. And that should guide our prayer. Lord, I don't know how. I don't know. I don't know how you'll do it. But Lord, remind them of this. Bring this back up to their mind and to their heart. And you can see that he does it. He does it. He does it.
[00:33:07] But the we is referring to the Pharisees and rulers, no doubt. And so, as I said, there were some that were in that number.
[00:33:16] Notice the admission, though. We know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
[00:33:28] Notice this admission about Jesus, his origin, which is key, pivotal to who he is, Right? This admission, though, was not given publicly. This was a whispering conversation among the Pharisees, man.
[00:33:49] The Pharisees wanted to appear critical of Jesus publicly, right? They always did. But even. Okay, please, please, please get this. This is. This, this will help you, I promise. It's helped me. It'll help you, I promise.
[00:34:04] Publicly and outwardly, they were. They were acidic, they were difficult they were obstinate, they were critical. They were trying to catch Jesus in his words. But here we find behind closed doors, they are admitting, but they dare not do it publicly. So here's what that tells you, that just because someone is contrary and is unwilling to listen even, or is difficult and hostile to what you try to share the gospel with them, that does not mean that that's what's in their heart.
[00:34:47] There's more behind closed doors, in the heart of hearts, there might be something there that is totally actually polar opposite to what they're showing on the outside.
[00:35:00] You have no way of knowing. You know what that means? That means we witness by faith, right?
[00:35:05] We pray by faith for these people that we try to share the gospel with.
[00:35:13] Sometimes people know things inwardly that they resist outwardly.
[00:35:22] And when that happens, listen, we need to try and speak to what's on the inside of that person and not the way they're reacting outwardly to us.
[00:35:33] You can't always know, but whenever you do know.
[00:35:38] But consider, lastly, consider this.
[00:35:42] Consider this admission.
[00:35:44] We know that thou art a teacher come from God. How serious a statement.
[00:35:51] These Pharisees hate Jesus to death. Now, this is early in Jesus ministry. This hatred is going to build. But these Pharisees will. Their hatred for the Lord will grow to the point that they want to spill his blood and take his life from the earth. That's how bad it gets.
[00:36:11] But inwardly, they knew that Jesus was from God. So that means what? That means the way they're acting outwardly and the way what they know on the inside, they are committing a grave sin.
[00:36:25] A grave sin by knowingly opposing one they know to be from God.
[00:36:35] You know what? And this goes to evangelism, and it goes to it later in the chapter, but here's why. Because even though Jesus doesn't talk to Nicodemus about whether he's a sinner, whether he's committed adultery, whether he's blasphemed, or whether he's, you know, all of those things may be from the law. Yet over them was looming this ugly, wicked, vile, condemning sin where they were opposing one that they knew to be from God. That alone should bring great conviction upon them.
[00:37:07] You see? So even in this case, Jesus is dealing with sin.
[00:37:13] He's dealing with the matter of sin.
[00:37:17] It's just.
[00:37:20] I'll just say it like this. We'll have to finish. Jesus was a master at this, obviously, right?
[00:37:26] Let's pray together.
