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Our scripture today is found in 
Matthew chapter 26 and also the 

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Gospel of John. 
Then those who had seized Jesus 

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led him to Caiaphas the high 
priest, where the scribes and 

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elders had gathered, and Peter 
was following him at a distance 

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as far as the courtyard of the 
high priest, and going inside he

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set with the guards to see the 
end. 

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Now the chief priests and the 
whole council were seeking false

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testimony against Jesus, that 
they might put him to death, but

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they found none, though many 
false witnesses came forward. 

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At last two came forward and 
said, This man is able to 

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destroy the temple of God, and 
to rebuild it in three days. 

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And the high priest stood up and
said, Have you no answer to 

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make? 
What is it that these men 

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testify against you? 
But Jesus remained silent, and 

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the high priest said to him, I 
adjure you by the living God, 

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tell us, if you are the Christ, 
the Son of God. 

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And Jesus said, You have said 
so. 

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But I tell you, from now on you 
will see the Son of man seated 

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at the right hand of power, and 
coming on the clouds of heaven. 

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And then the high priest tore 
his robes and said, He has 

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uttered blasphemy. 
What further witnesses do we 

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need? 
We have now heard his blasphemy.

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What is your judgment? 
And they answered, He deserves 

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death. 
Then they spit in his face, and 

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strucking, and some slapped him,
saying prophecy to us. 

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You, Christ, who is it that 
struck you? 

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Now Pilate knew that it was out 
of envy that they had delivered 

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him up. 
But one of them, Caiaphas, who 

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was the high priest that year, 
had said to them, You know 

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nothing at all. 
Nor do you understand that it is

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better for you that one man 
should die for the people, and 

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not that the whole nation should
perish. 

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This is the word of the Lord. 
You may be seated Who is 

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Caiaphas? 
He's only named a few times. 

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At the very end of Jesus's life 
we have infants, infants that 

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are mentioning him as just are 
just mentioning high priest. 

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But this is only 1 he is named. 
Why is he brought into this 

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picture? 
Why him? 

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He's the high priest of the 
nation, which made him the most 

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important person in the whole 
nation because he had the final 

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words. 
So we're asking ourself this 

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question, why did Caiaphas not 
see who Jesus was? 

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Caiaphas view of Jesus must 
first be seen through two other 

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sets of eyes. 
One of those is the Holy 

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Spirit's and the other is 
Satan's. 

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For you see, this trial is the 
greatest moment in God's eternal

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plan for all of history and the 
whole world. 

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Satan is happy to see the pain 
that would be inflicted on 

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Jesus, but what he does not know
is how the Holy Spirit intends 

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to use this horrible suffering. 
And Caiaphas is the key human in

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this mystery and its outcome. 
His decision sets the final 

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stage of the great battle 
against good and evil. 

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By his own free will, he chooses
to see Jesus as he wanted to see

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him. 
However, in God's Providence, we

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find that he was given every 
opportunity to see Jesus in a 

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different way. 
The Scripture tells us that 

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Caiapha had heard from the very 
beginning about Jesus's 

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ministry. 
In fact, he'd heard about John 

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the Baptist and that John was 
preaching from the prophecies of

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the coming of the Messiah. 
And this was where Jesus was 

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baptized. 
But cafes had sent his spies who

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were there. 
They heard every word and they 

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reported every word to him. 
He then began to hear of the 

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reports of Jesus, miracles, the 
words that he preached, the 

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blind who were made to see, the 
lepers who were cleansed, demons

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who were cast out, and yet he 
never went to see any of these 

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miracles himself. 
He was confronted by Jesus with 

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the hypocrisy and the violation 
of God's temple, letting the 

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money changers be right in the 
very courtyard of God, making 

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it, as Jesus said, a den of 
thieves. 

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Caiaphas had allowed all of this
to happen, and yet when he saw 

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and heard this public rebuke, he
saw it as a reason for why Jesus

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should die. 
Then came Caiaphas. 

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The biggest problem? 
When he heard the undeniable 

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miracle of Lazarus resurrection,
seen by even some of the 

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priests, there wasn't any way to
say this had not happened. 

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And now Caiaphas determined he 
had to act. 

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He had to do something. 
He knew the multiple Old 

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Testament prophecies about the 
Messiah's coming, and yet he was

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even seeing it fulfilled before 
his own eyes. 

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But he did not believe. 
And finally in that last trial 

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that he performed, he knew then 
they could find no sin in Jesus.

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And yet he planned and plotted 
Jesus arrest and his death and 

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then persuaded all of the 
leading priests it says, and all

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of the high elders that were in 
the Sanhedrin to call for the 

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death penalty. 
And they did. 

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Why, with all of this knowledge 
and visible truths, why were his

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eyes so blinded? 
I think there's several things. 

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First, we have to remember that 
Caiaphas was a political 

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appointee. 
The Romans had made him the high

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priest. 
He was actually a sideline from 

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the actual line of all the 
priests, but he had his position

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because of them, and he enjoyed 
that position. 

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But he realized that that 
position could be threatened by 

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what Jesus was bringing about, 
and he might lose his favorite 

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spot. 
But secondly, he had chosen to 

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believe that Jesus was just a 
man. 

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He wasn't anymore. 
There was no way he was divine. 

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The only way they could explain 
his power was they said it came 

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from the devil, blind to what 
they were seeing happening right

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before him. 
He feared his loss of control 

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because Jesus was so popular 
with the people and therefore 

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knowingly and yet maybe even 
well for sure, unknowingly, he 

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actually prophesied this real 
truth. 

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He said it was expedient that 
one man should die for the 

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people so this nation should not
perish. 

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However, the deeper truth 
though, was that God had a much 

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greater plan for the nation and 
more and last of all, even 

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pilots saw through how fake all 
of this was. 

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And it says that he knew that 
Caiaphas was envious. 

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Why was he envious? 
He was jealous because you see, 

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Jesus had revealed who the real 
God is and what he's like. 

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Jesus had revealed truth, and 
people knew it. 

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Jesus had revealed mercy and 
compassion, and he would state 

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it boldly and do it boldly, and 
people do it, and they loved him

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for it. 
That drew the people to him, and

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he knew that they could revolt 
and turn against Caiaphas. 

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But Caiaphas, you see, had none 
of those qualities, and even 

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worse, he had not tried to 
encourage the people to see the 

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true nature of God. 
And that was his role as high 

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priest. 
The high priest was to encourage

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people to come to God. 
The high priest was the one that

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made sure they came rightly 
before God. 

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The high priest was the one who 
would direct them and the whole 

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nature in this way to know that 
we have a God who is holy, but 

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we have a God of love. 
And therefore as you bring your 

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sacrifices, you find forgiveness
for your sins. 

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But no, Caiaphas had turned the 
sacrifices into a money making 

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machine. 
All of this had hardened his 

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heart and he had refused to 
believe the very words he was 

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hearing, the very life that he 
saw. 

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But he challenged Jesus and 
Jesus respected his place as 

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high priest. 
But he said, I adjure you as the

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high priest, tell us, are you 
the Messiah now? 

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Matthew quoted as it is, as you 
say, Mark quotes it as yes I am.

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And he tears his robes and says 
blasphemy. 

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Can you imagine that being said 
to the very Son of God? 

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And yet Jesus stood there, and 
then they led him to the cross. 

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His blind eyes never united the 
hope of the nation and of all 

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the Scripture with faith that he
was indeed who he claimed to be.

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What keeps us from eyes that do 
not see? 

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What keeps us from a hardened 
heart? 

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It's actually a lot easier than 
we think. 

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Even Jesus chided his own 
disciples after they had seen 

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him feed thousands of people 
with some small baskets of food 

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and then collect a basket for 
each and every one of them. 

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And then as they go across the 
water, they start wondering 

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where they were going to get 
food next. 

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And Jesus said to them, Is your 
heart so hardened that you do 

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not see who I am and what I can 
do? 

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It's easy to begin to doubt. 
And if you don't bring them to 

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Christ, our hearts can turn us 
in a different direction. 

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But the answer to it is this. 
It is the lens of God's spoken 

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word. 
It is here that the Holy Spirit 

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thwarts the plans of the enemy 
to try to hardness. 

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You see, he combines spiritual 
seeing and thinking with 

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spiritual words that the Holy 
Spirit breathes lives into as we

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read them. 
For God's Word is living, which 

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means it continues to bring 
light to our eyes, truth to our 

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heart, and it's enabled. 
It has the ability to judge 

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what's going on down deep inside
of us, coming to us at any point

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in place where we're 
discouraged, where we're tempted

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to doubt, where Satan would love
to turn us forward. 

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A hardness and because of that 
we come to Holy Week and what he

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has done for us with a confident
hope because of his word, the 

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gift of faith, believing that 
God told us his Son would come 

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and he did. 
That we would see miracles that 

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he did, and that we would find 
help to realize that Jesus death

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was far more than just the 
expedientness that Caiaphas had 

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said. 
Rather, it was necessary for the

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whole world, not just for the 
nation. 

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And that's why John reminds us 
God loved the whole world. 

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That whoever would believe in 
him would not perish but have 

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eternal life. 
This is where our eyes can be 

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enlightened and see the beauty 
of what God is doing in that 

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amazing week before Christ died 
for us. 

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Let's pray together silently.