Ep 168 | 'The Only Jesus Show My Kids Will Actually Watch' | Dallas Jenkins | The Glenn Beck Podcast
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 16 minutes
Words per Minute
163.14029
Summary
The Chosen creator, co-writer, and executive producer, and the director of The Chosen, Dallas Jenkins, joins Glenn Beck on the Glenn Beck Podcast to talk about the incredible success of the Netflix drama, "The Chosen," and the impact it has had on our culture.
Transcript
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Today's guest is the creator, the co-writer, the executive producer, and the director of The Chosen.
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I think it's the best TV show on there, online, on television.
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It is by far the best story of Jesus Christ I've seen in my lifetime.
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Because it's so incredibly different, and you see the story in a way you've not seen before.
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There is no shortage of hokey Jesus movies that somehow find a way to be too preachy or botch the greatest story ever told.
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Usually a PG version that completely skips over the violence that Christ endured, or just the general living condition.
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Just the white robes. I mean, I do believe it was dusty, at least.
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If you're Mel Gibson, maybe you miss the opposite reason, and you show the brutality of it all, but it also kind of misses the kindness.
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It has a chance to, because it's episodic, has two years going on its third season now.
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It does something that no other depiction of Christ has ever done.
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It shows him laughing and smiling, joking, dancing.
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But what makes The Chosen so impressive is that it is a great piece of art in the same way that, you know, the Sopranos,
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the Godfather is a good piece of art, kind of the opposite of those, but it's beautiful.
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It began with a short video on Facebook and then grew into the largest ever crowdfunding campaign for a media project.
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It aired online for free using a pay-it-forward model, an app for The Chosen, skyrocketed in popularity on both iOS and Android.
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And around that time, I had today's guest on the podcast just a few days, I think it was before Easter.
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That Sunday, 750,000 people live-streamed the season two premiere.
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From there, The Chosen has grown exponentially, from streaming on YouTube and Facebook to ranking fourth in shows searched on Roku.
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Before long, it had half a billion episode views from all around the world.
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It got picked up by NBC's Peacock and Prime Video, and earlier this year, it was added to Netflix.
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Season three debuted last month in over 2,000 theaters worldwide.
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It will be dubbed into 100 languages, subtitled into 500, and there are still four seasons to go.
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This unparalleled growth is miraculous, and it comes at a time when intellectuals are pushing the narrative that Christianity is dead and atheism is our future.
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The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God.
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The Chosen is a much-needed reminder that Christ is alive and encouraging us to walk with Him in the newness of life.
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Today on the Glenn Beck Podcast, welcome, Dallas Jenkins.
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You know, in Luke chapter 1, it's not the Jesus' birth story.
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It's actually the story of John the Baptist and his miracle birth.
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He was the one that came before the Lord to till the ground and prepare the way.
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If you believe in that and you believe the Bible, it just continually repeats.
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I think that means that the children that are being born now and in these days may very possibly be the John the Baptist preparing the way.
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That's why it is so crucial that we pay attention to what is happening with abortion.
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Do you know this audience has saved 40, 45 or 46,000 babies?
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They live today because this audience sent in some money so that these women could have ultrasounds.
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For $28 right now, you can rescue a baby's life.
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And now through a match, your gift will be doubled.
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100% of your donation is going to go towards saving babies.
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Our goal is to save 50 on the blaze, 50 on my program.
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I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
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If you are really the one who is to come, or should we look for someone else?
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I don't need you to feel anything to do great things.
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we will have no choice but to follow the law of Moses.
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You know, I was singing it before the interview.
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I remember interviewing your father on Left Behind.
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who were like you if you have two rabbis you've
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of broke the internet when it happened is jesus
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majority of people thought it was beautiful but
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there were some people who have a very uh what i
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would consider to be a rigid view of jesus now to
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out what he was going to say it's not fact um the
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but there were plenty of people who thought they
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could solve it with their youtube comment and i'm
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not trying to solve it either i'm saying i think
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story where he preaches in the synagogue and he
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asserts that he's the savior yeah and it it doesn't
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go well it doesn't go suboptimal well said um and
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that's actually the moment in the in the uh the
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words we have no choice but to follow the look of
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book of moses which is when where moses said you you
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kill false prophets and jesus says i am the law of
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moses well uh in that episode we see him going to his
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childhood home he goes to his mom's house she's got
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food for him he stays in his childhood room the next
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morning they go to the the festival rosh hashanah where
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they're all celebrating it's a carnival he plays a game
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with his with his childhood friends he's lousy at
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it he was never good at sports um some of those
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things uh when when you think about like uh how much
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could jesus bench press you know was he good at sports
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right and i think sometimes we think well of course he's
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superman he's not superman he grew up in wisdom and
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stature we also show a flashback of jesus as a six
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year old and his father joseph is teaching him some of
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his carpentry and while that's happening jesus is
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learning to read and there's this moment where jesus six
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year old jesus is like reading some scripture and he's
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sounding out the words and joseph is saying i'll sound it
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out and he's like bro keen he's like broken broken he arted
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hearted you know broken what's that word what is broken
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hearted jesus says what is what is that what is broken
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hearted and joseph is saying it's a heart that's broken and
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it's not the heart in your chest it's and portraying that and
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exploring that to me i i fell more in love with jesus just even
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did he was he born knowing how to read yeah of course not
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that's the beautiful thing about the story right
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and so i do think that we sometimes don't i think we sometimes miss out on
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that and and so that to me was that figuring out what he wants to say to me
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was part of this whole beautiful story of of god
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becoming man um i don't know if you know i'm a i'm a
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never thought you know um but it's really because of the chosen
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that i because he is always he's always um he's
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but also if it wasn't for him you know it was a job
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uh he knew he knew um and if christ if he would if he wouldn't hung himself
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are you looking at him as more of a josephus kind of
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character from from history of there's a lot of false messiahs out there
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i mean the hills were full right of people saying they were the messiah
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people don't realize that jesus was just one of many at his day
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and they were all warriors all of them they were all expecting warriors
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and you see it in the second sea or yeah second season where
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they're like but why aren't we like when are we gonna build an army
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right you know um so it would be logical that he would say he's not
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the messiah right how are you going to play him
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well i can't give all of that but you're seeing the hints now so in season
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goes home to kind of settle his affairs and talks to his sister
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and his sister says exactly what you just talked about
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she's like you're you're following this messiah
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the romans don't like uh messiahs the jews don't like false messiahs
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uh they kill people who who are false prophets and and and judas says
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which is a line that people have said just broke their hearts he says if he's
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the messiah he won't be killed i mean think about the ramifications of
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that of judas saying that he really believed though there's i think
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it's unarguable that judas joined the team believing
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and healed sick like the other disciples cast out demons like the other apostles
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we show that actually in episode four of season three
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which is coming soon he uh the scenes that we're portraying of judas now
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i mean judas actually means praising god with your hands
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and jesus says yes judas says yeah praise god and jesus says
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with your hands and jesus says well so will you praise god
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absolutely judas believed that he was the messiah
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i do believe that ultimately judas was was saying
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all right i'll say this delicately poop or get off the pot
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and if you're not the messiah then we we need to know now
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because a lot of people more than normal more than normal messiahs
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so when did he actually stop believing jesus was the messiah
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are you gonna show that's what i want to paint is
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with judas and introducing you to judas i think is what's going to make
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as they're saying the first couple seasons are like i can't
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it's even worse than normal for me because i now feel like i know
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i've seen jesus laugh and dance oh my goodness i don't want to see him on the
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cross you know and that's that's what they experienced
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um and that's why it's going to be painful i'm not going to shy away from it
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but the judas stuff is especially painful and uh
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if we if if we skipped over it and just tried to
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and then judas betrayed him and then he hung himself
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um because i think we need to feel the weight of it
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as as flawed sinful human beings of who he was dying for
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to tell you if you believe troubled times are coming
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or a simon peter who yeah who denied and denied him
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i mean think and when you betray portray that it's gonna hit home to people i think
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for people who who for for for guys who saw his miracles ate with him
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knew saw his miracles and still when a couple of them when faced with
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right now i'm trying to just get season four written
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and uh and at the end of season seven i'm going to take a year-long nap
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but um season seven will go past his resurrection yes
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all the book of acts where all the disciples are
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that that will that'll be another show or series of movies
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we're talking about that now but uh i'm trying not to get the cart before the
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horse um it's really really hard to do a tv show and to have it be good and
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and uh so i got plenty to work on now but but yeah i i think if if if god
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calls me to be telling bible stories the rest of my life i could do a lot worse
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so we'd love to tell those stories the apostle paul uh
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obviously one of the greatest stories in the history of humanity uh potentially just second
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only to jesus in terms of the impact he had on the world he wrote the majority of the new
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testament uh and if you want to talk about a great conversion conversion story a drama i mean
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you know there's no better drama than death to life than blindness to sight than
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and killing to to being killed for the same cause it's something so yeah i'd love to tell that story
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but uh but i gotta figure this out first thank you for what you've done with nicodemus too
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yeah i love that character yeah and kind of quickly mentioned in the bible but you've really made him
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um real yeah what a great actor too eric who plays him in that season one he's just he's astonishing
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but but yeah i think it is also one of the reasons we chose him as a main character was
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um kind of the double agent that nicodemus clearly was in scripture and this is this goes to an
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important point you mentioned he's briefly mentioned in scripture this if you want to know like how does
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the show how does the chosen get made you you can look at nicodemus because we look at what's
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mentioned in scripture and then we work our way backwards and we then we build around that so we see
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him first meeting jesus in secret uh asking him all these questions clearly believing that jesus is
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the son of god but not knowing what to do with it not fully understanding it but saying look i've seen
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it the miracles you clearly are from god but he can't admit it publicly because he's a pharisee and
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he's part of this group of people who actually are opposing jesus so he meets with jesus under cover of
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night the next time we see him is when jesus is being discussed by the sanhedrin in jerusalem and
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they're going what do we do with this guy i think we need to kill him and nicodemus kind of goes hey
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maybe we should consider giving him a fair trial like we normally do you know like he doesn't come
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out and say hey i've met him he's the son of god i've seen the miracles he's like hey would you
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consider uh yeah just a fair trial how about that still not willing to come out of the shadows
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jesus dies and then what nicodemus then i believe uh almost like a guilt offering contributes tens of
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thousands of dollars worth of perfumes and spices helps bury the body now there's no being in the
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closet about this and i believe you can the the the secret is in john chapter three john chapter three
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jesus is talking to nicodemus and mentions moses and that during the time of moses we actually
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portrayed this moment in in as a flashback in the episode that uh that people the israelis were dying
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of serpent bites and god had moses fashioned a pole that was shaped like a cross actually that's how you
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when you read it in the in the hebrew and he lifts it up and all you have to do is look at it
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and you're saved from the serpent bites and you're healed he told that to nicodemus so you can
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imagine when nicodemus is at the crucifixion and seeing jesus up on a on a cross and providing
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the redemption that he had told nicodemus he was going to provide that nicodemus went oh
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moses he's the new moses he's better than he's he's above new covenant the new covenant and like so
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the opportunity to kind of portray that we can do that and actually stay very true to scripture
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this is not this is not doesn't take a whole lot of artistic imagination to go john chapter three
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later in the book he shows up again and he's completely committed to jesus not hiding it anymore
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that's a fascinating storyline to portray and very i believe relatable to us today
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because there's plenty of people who are religious and who are practicing something
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and who really don't truly know jesus and i think that's those are the ones who can identify with
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nicodemus thank you for everything you've done oh thank you for for having me i i uh i've i've loved
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i've chatted with you about this a few years ago right when the chosen was first coming and
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you seem to be kind of in on it pretty quickly like i think you i think you seem to to sense i was
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something was something yeah yeah there's um very few filmmakers um that could uh say i'm going to
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make the jesus story that had the credibility that you had i mean i just it's beautiful it's just
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beautiful well honestly i mean it's very kind of you to say but it's also uh i think some of that
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credibility may come from abject surrender i mean i i i i am i may if any credibility i have is
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because i believe i'm the only credibility i have comes from from him you know so it's a
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billy graham told me once everything i've done that was great or worthy that was all his work
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every mistake all mine all mine yeah yeah well thank you
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just a reminder i'd love you to rate and subscribe to the podcast and pass this on to a friend so it