Armored Garden
It's like a sleepover with your Bible, crushed cheerios & no judgement.
Rooted faith + gritty growth = Armored Garden
Armored Garden
Easter in the Garden: The Victory of Jesus!
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✝️ The darkest day made way for the greatest victory.
In this second part of our Easter series, the girls walk through Thursday to Sunday — from the Last Supper to the cross, and finally to the empty tomb. They unpack the weight of betrayal, sacrifice, and surrender, and the unimaginable love poured out through Jesus’ final moments.
But the story doesn’t end in the grave. This episode moves from heartbreak to hope, reminding us that what looked like defeat was actually the fulfillment of everything God had promised. If you’ve ever wrestled with pain, loss, or waiting for God to move, this is your reminder: resurrection is always part of His plan.
Death didn’t win. The stone didn’t stay. Hope got the final word. 🌅
Scriptures:
Mark 14:12-16 NKJV
Mark 14:17-26 NKJV
Luke 22:14-16 NLT
Luke 22:20 NLT
Matthew 26:36-39 ESV
Matthew 26:40-46 ESV
Matthew 27:32-44 ESV
Matthew 27:45-56 NLT
Matthew 26:57-61 NKJV
Matthew 27:62-66 ESV
Matthew 28:1-7 NKJV
Matthew 28:16-20 ESV
Numbers 6:24-26 NLT
Garden of Gethsemane song: https://youtu.be/xXvm8MIfS3Q?si=9X1SjFxbH5JCYtQT
Hello and welcome back to the garden. Once again, happy Easter. We didn't anticipate making this a two-parter, but we're bang for your book.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the wheels were turning, the ball was rolling, and we just said, you know what?
SPEAKER_02We looked at our timer and said, um, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and one day.
SPEAKER_00One one episode. I mean, I feel like you could really do an episode a day. Like it's truthfully. There's so much. There's so much. And it's like touching it.
SPEAKER_02Very airplane view. Yes. If you want more, more information, more revelation, go just start on a day. Like Tony said, just do one day. Read that, read it over again, Ashmore, because there's plenty in this holy week.
SPEAKER_00I'm going to be very honest. Yeah, I'm going to be very honest with you. I don't know when this one is going to come out, but I know if this before Easter, after Easter, right now.
SPEAKER_02Probably after.
SPEAKER_00I don't know. Well, okay. U Version. If you look up on you, the U Version Bible app, they have some really good Bible reading plans that go throughout the week. And the one that I've done in the past gives you the chosen clip that matches the scripture day by day. So it's a good visual, plus you're getting the scripture confirmation that what you're watching is actually like, you know, biblically based. So I don't, I don't know. You could try looking into that if that was something you're interested in.
SPEAKER_02I'm sure it'll be there. But and which would be neat. How cool would that be? Like if you start your journey now into deep dive or studying, and then by the time next Easter comes, it's gonna be like, I know some of this stuff. That's a cool little marker of your growth in the God with God.
SPEAKER_00And I feel like your reverence for Easter just completely changes. Like you can't, like, you know, when you open a book, you can't, if you read the plot, the plot is great, but you gotta know the before and the after. So I feel like, you know, the plot is the Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Like that's the big, but what happened before?
SPEAKER_02So welcome back once again. You're going along with me, Lauren, Tony, Madison. And we are very excited for you to come and join our part two of our little Easter holy week deep dive, shallow dive. I'll call it that a shallow dive. Yes. We're not going deep, unfortunately, but we have talked amongst ourselves and we challenge you to do that, to dive deep. So let's pray. Make sure we've asked the Holy Spirit to come in and dwell us while we're reading his beautiful word. Dear Heavenly Father, great Jehovah God, we thank you so much, Lord, for just your word also. We thank you so much for all the things that you are and the magnificent, magnificent God that you are to us. But we just thank you so much that you put this book together, that you had all these oral stories and all the tradition that was all of these beautiful stories. And then you decided to put it all together for us so that now in this time of this world, we can look back on it. Whenever there's anything going on, this is where we should turn, Lord. May you give us a heart and a hunger for your word to not just read it, but consume it in a way that changes who we are. Most importantly, that tells us to return back to you, to remember who you are, who you are to be in our lives, and who you are to be to everyone else in this world. May we look at this Easter holiday and any holiday that is centered around you and your beautiful son. May we just look at it once again with fresh new eyes in a way that reminds us just of your character and your love and your grace. We thank you so much for this time. We ask that you move anything out of the way that is of our flesh that might be distracting us away from your word. And you just give us this time to sit at your feet and experience your grace and holiness. Amen. Amen. We've gotten all the way to Wednesday. So we've seen the beautiful depiction of a reverent heart in Mary and a questionable heart, tainted heart in Judas. Judas has now officially got the wheels rolling. Like we said last episode, the Pharisees and the Sadducees want to get rid of Jesus, but they said, let's wait. Passover is kind of a big deal. Lots of people watching. Let's just wait. Well, Judas, seeing the experience that they had at Simon's house with Mary breaking her alabaster jar, says, This is craziness. I don't I don't think I agree anymore. I guess is what he was probably thinking. And he then turns and goes to the priest that basically trades Jesus' allegiance and his life for how many pieces of silver? 30. 30 pieces of silver. That's good friends right there. They can tell you how much Jesus' life was worth in the Bible. So we have now come to Thursday, which is a huge day, especially for all of the disciples, because if you've ever gone through a holy week or researched a holy week, you might wonder where the Last Supper fits. It is this day on Thursday. And it's an extremely, I think, um, like sobering day for us reading it back because it's where you officially kind of are like, like he's telling them, it's now. I've told you I'm gonna die. Because it's not the first time he's told them that. I when I was reading Matthew and I did a really deep dive with some of my Bible study versions, and I thought, how crazy he keeps saying it. Like, I'm gonna die. The son of man must die. And they're just like, Yeah, yeah, whatever. Yeah. And now he's saying, No, like now, I'm dying now. And they're like, Well. So that's where we find Jesus. He has now left Bethany, come back to Jerusalem because it is time for their Passover meal. They are in what a lot of people refer or called the upper room all together to enjoy supper together, their last supper.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So I'm gonna go ahead and read in Mark. Yeah, I'm still in Mark. Okay. And it is 14, and this is 12. I'm gonna start in 12. And it says, Jesus celebrates the Passover with his disciples. Now, on the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, Where do you want us to go and prepare that you may eat the Passover? And he sent out two of his disciples and said to them, Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him wherever he goes in. Say to the master of the house, The teacher says, Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples? Then he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared, there make ready for us. So his disciples went out and came into the city and found it, just as he had said to them, and they prepared the Passover. So I'm gonna stop there for a second. Um we kind of talked about like in the previous episode how the Lord has to literally orchestrate all these details. And just like when he said, like, go out and get the colt, there's gonna be a cult tied to its mom. Tell them, you know, he need he needs this, and he'll say, Okay, here you go. Like they're just walking up to this random man with a pitcher of water. Hey, may we borrow your upper room? And the guy's like, sure, let me show it to you. You know, me and my 12 friends. Yeah, yeah, there's only 13 of us. Thank you so much. Do you mind? So now uh in the evening, he came with the twelve. Now, as they sat and ate, Jesus said, Assuredly, I say to you, one of you who eats with me will betray me. And they began to be sorrowful and to say to him one by one, It is I, and another said, Or I'm sorry, Is it I? And another said, Is it I? He answered and said to them, It is one of the twelve who dips with me in the dish. The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been good for a man if he had never been born. And as they were eating, Jesus took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, Take it and take eat, this is my body. Then he took the cup, and when he had given them given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And he said to them, This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many. Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Mark's kind of a shortened version, because I know Matthew probably has a few more details in it.
SPEAKER_02Matthew actually doesn't get super. I was reading Luke and I forgot I like Luke. I think I like Luke's and John spends like three whole chapters on it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You can tell. And I think not saying that Mark didn't care or whatever. I just the gospels are such a picture of that particular disciple.
SPEAKER_00Like what well, and also who they're writing to.
SPEAKER_02That's very important. So like Matthew's speaking to the Jews, so not saying they didn't need convincing, but they understood the weight of the Passover meal. Right. Other people probably needed a little bit more. Yeah. But I do like the way Luke, when they begin, so obviously Jesus knows because he has the Holy Spirit, so he knows what's about to happen. And while he's been warning the disciples, this might happen, this is gonna happen, the proverbial rubber has met the road and he knows his death is imminent. And so he says, in this is in Luke 22, um, where he's sitting down at the Last Supper, and this is verse 14. When the time came, Jesus and the apostles sat down together at the table. Jesus said, I've been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. For I tell you now that I won't eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. This meal is the picture, and it was his establishment of what we call communion, right? That we now honor and give reverence to his body being broken for us on the cross, his blood being spilt for us, and this was the establishment of the new covenant, us drinking of them having the wine and drinking the wine, and him, and and he said, Now this is in John, and John, I think he actually says it. I don't know if Luke does or not. Oh yeah, he does. This is verse 20 in Luke 22. After supper, he took another, so he's already broken the bread. This is my wadi broken in for you. Verse 20 says, After supper, he took another cup of wine and said, This cup is the new covenant between God and his people, an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you. So there is the establishment of something that probably a lot of people might do or have been a part of, but you didn't honestly even know why. I mean, I've been young for sure and not known what this little piece of bread was I was eating, and little did you know what you might not have understood exactly what it meant. But then when you as you grow so much closer to the Lord and you realize, and that I uh every time I think about the holy week, that's all I can kind of imagine. We go about our weeks just like I'll eat a Monday, Tuesday. He knew what the end of that week was gonna be like, and he didn't obviously he's perfect and sinless, but he didn't get upset with the disciples because he didn't completely understand. He's uh perfect in his patience, and but I mean he's also fully human, knowing what was coming, and maybe not even knowing, I'm sure he understood what uh they were gonna do to him, the Roman soldiers and things, but I mean it's kind of hard to anticipate pain. He knew he was gonna be in pain, but it was a lot of pain.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So they enjoy their supper, they he tries to establish something, and this is also where he calls out, like Madison read, the particular disciple that would be his betrayer. Little did Judas know kind of what his future would look like. Now, obviously, Judas has already traded. Right.
SPEAKER_00He's already paid.
SPEAKER_02He already knew what he had done, and yet he still asked me. I always thought that was kind of crazy that he was like so bold and to be like, you know, it's like when your kid does something, you're like, Me? Like, yeah, I know you did it. I watched you. And Jesus is like, you know, I know. And then poor Peter's over here, like me? Oh my gosh. So concerned. I would never do that. I would never deny you, and he ends up doing it too. Yeah. And then we roll into so now that we talked about Peter's now, that's another, I think smaller part of the week, but I think for some people it might mean a lot. Peter, a disciple that loved him greatly, who said he would kill for him, do whatever he needed to do for him. He tells Peter, You are going to deny me. And Peter's like, How dare you? I would never. I love you. And it's begin it part becomes part of the week that he does and he tells him he's gonna do it. He's not like, Peter, don't worry, but he does tell him, like, I know you're gonna do it. And I still love you. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Because the first time, maybe you know, wasn't enough, but for him to say I was gonna do it three times.
SPEAKER_02So knowing where Jesus and what was happening to him. Like he wasn't yet, he was probably he was being already taken and whatever once he starts denying, and we'll get into that in the next couple of days. But he knows what's happening to Jesus. He he knows at least that Jesus has been taken for them at that point when he denies him. Then we roll into still the same day. We're still on Thursday, so obviously I have no time frame. I mean, the Jesus the Bible doesn't give us any like 3 40 p.m. We're not really sure. But Jesus asks for as he again, the perfect picture of a surrendered life. He knows he needs time with his father, he knows he needs to kind of go and speak to his father. And I think this is probably one of those sections of the Bible that people get such different stuff out of. And that's when he takes to his own and he leaves the upstairs room and he wants to go and he spends some time with God in his on his own in the Garden of Gethsemane. Can you imagine what that place feels like going there? I'm sure people visited it, but oh my goodness, the way that area must feel in the weight of what's happened in there. So Luke doesn't go too much into the garden. I don't know which gospel speaks the most of it.
SPEAKER_01I was saying John goes into a lot of it, but also before he does go into the garden, Jesus, I do want to touch on this, he um washes the disciples' feet, which to each of them was just very shocking. Like he's like saying they're a rabbi. Yes, and even Peter was like, No, let me do that. And he was like, Are you denying me? And like, so Jesus or Peter's like, Okay, okay, I'll sit down, I'll let you wash my feet, you know. Like, but even that was such um symbolism there of like just the servant heart that Jesus was, and um, because I know in the last episode we talked about like this king that they were imagining and picturing, and how he humbly rode in on a donkey, and then the next thing they know he's washing their feet now, and so everything, and even when Mary pours out the alabaster jar, like he's they're looking at him like, what is going on? Like, what is going on, you know? Um so I just love that depiction, and I won't, I don't know, we don't for time's sake, we said this is an airplane view, but even just that act of washing their feet is just so beautiful. Of like, because I mean, y'all, if you ever thought about washing somebody's feet, you're like, I don't want to do that. Well, in a culture where they walked everywhere, they didn't have closed-toed shoes, like they weren't wearing socks and closed-toed shoes, like they were walking with their feet out in the mood. And it matched the custom.
SPEAKER_02He was saying, like, I I'm not, I'm not, I can serve. You can serve, I can serve. Right. I'm just giving you one all the way till his death, he gave the perfect picture of everything that we are supposed to do. Yeah, and we're not saying go off and just start washing random people's feet. I mean, if the Lord tells you to, then go just make sure you're very prayerful about that. Yeah. But it and honestly, we've had our feet washed by someone that we care about very deeply. And it was, I don't know, y'all. That moment for me was like amazing. Yeah. It was right before our women's conference, and it was something none of us honestly expected. And then when it happened, you're like And at first I was like, nope.
SPEAKER_01I don't like touching my feet. Were you not? Were you here that he's done that before um during a church service? All of them, like everybody in the church, and it was no amazing.
SPEAKER_00Well, no, it's like it just reminds you, like, but when you close your eyes and you just like envision yourself in the world. And that's what he calls us to do.
SPEAKER_02He said, I I'm not doing this, correct? It's Jesus doing this, yeah. And just a reminder of his tenderness and his love for you, right? But not tenderness to the point of passivity, like you can do whatever you want. Like, I love you.
SPEAKER_00There's parameters, there's guidelines. And for him, Jesus, Jesus in this moment, knowing this is the last thing that he can do for his disciples, too. You know, he knows that time's up, that the clock, the clock has hit, it's time to go. Yeah. So what a powerful way to leave them. Yeah. Instead of saying, I'm, you know, leaving as high and mighty, he went as low as he could go in the servanthood department and washed their feet. Yeah. So it's very beautiful.
SPEAKER_01So that leads into Gethsemane and What a place. Yeah. I just think about all the prayers that came out of this, like, or honestly, the chapters in the Bible. Because like John 15, where he talks about the true vine and all the things, it's just oh, so good. But I can't even imagine.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I could start reading. Yeah. Matthew, I'm in Matthew 26.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Matthew does it really good.
SPEAKER_00Verse 36. Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, Sit here while I go over there and pray. Take with him Peter and the two sons, and he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful even to death. Remain here and watch with me. And going a little further, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass for me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. But at the end, not of my will, but of your willing. And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, So could you not watch for with me for one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again for the second time he went away and prayed, My father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done. And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going, see, my betrayer is at hand.
SPEAKER_02Have you heard multiple people? Because I think that section, my father, if it is possible, this is verse in verse 39. If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine. So I've heard some people actually use that saying, like, see, he wasn't fully God, because he should have been able just like take it or whatever. And then I've heard people revert back, like go back at that, well, he was also fully human. Right. And to me, the cup of suffering that he's talking about, and I'm just this is Lauren theology, not whatever. I don't have enough of a framework to like, I'm not gonna say I've studied this, but he's talking about the death that he knew that would come when God had to look away. Like, that's the cup. I'll take the pain, I'll take the because all throughout when we get to the next day, we'll talk about what how he reacted to his torture, and it was not what we would oh no, and he's saying he's not saying that suffering. To me, what he's saying is, I know there's gonna come in time where we are, and he's never been separate from him ever, his entire life. Hidden the womb through birth, through his life, through his ministry, he's never had to feel separation from God. But God had to look away because he was sinful.
SPEAKER_00So when you find yourself in a moment of suffering, like you kind of have two choices. You can truly surrender to the Lord and say, never like you can ask him to take it, but nevertheless, you know, not your will, but not my will, but yours be done. So that's kind of just like have you ever come into a moment where you're like, man, this isn't what I envision for myself. Like this is my cup of suffering. So that's just kind of a big question. What cup are you asking to pass? And how can you echo the nevertheless your will be done in that? And he'll get so much glory through it. I mean, it's not your natural reaction to just truly surrender to God when things aren't going your way. But when you do, he just know that he is literally picking you. Up and carrying you within his righteous hand, and he is with you through it all. You know, I never thought about that.
SPEAKER_02That the also a Jesus is he's leaving them and he loves them. And they've been like his whole world for three years, and it's kind of like you know, the moment I would imagine. I don't know, we all got two young kids. But the like one of those realization moments of your children are now on their own. Right. And how while that might fill you with pride that you've done and you've prayed and you've prepped as much as you think, now it's their turn.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02And you're like, oh my goodness, I hope, I just hope they choose, I hope they choose the right things, and I hope they remain in the Lord. Well, essentially he's sitting there going, I hope they choose me because I am leaving. And while he already knows that they're gonna struggle, and like he already told Peter, you go in an army, right? Be prepared, right? But what a um, what a beautiful picture once again of a father of our good father who's like, I'm about to go through this, and yet I'm also grieved because I know that means I leave you. I love that. I never thought about that. After Thursday comes Friday, and while we refer to it and many refer to it as Good Friday for a believer of Jesus Christ, it is definitely one of the is the saddest day of the Bible. Heavy for sure. Heavy, definitely. Obviously, once again, the gospels all cover this. We're gonna kind of be focused in Matthew, and a lot has transpired because you have to also remember while Jesus is prepping the disciples and getting them ready, the Pharisees are actively they're going to the Roman authority of this area in Jerusalem, telling him, you've got to deal with him, he's a problem for you. So all this is kind of happening at the same time. Pharisees and the Sadducees are plotting, Judas is assisting terribly, and the disciples are also trying to, I think now getting a picture of, oh my goodness. Okay, if y'all can't tell, it's raining. Uh, we are in a building with a tin roof, and we just feel like this is a truthfully like I'm I don't know, like a little godwink. I that's what I like to call them usually, of talking about one of the saddest days in the Bible, and it was a day that for God, for our Father, our Creator, is such a sorrowful day. There's probably many people talking about Good Friday at different times, but we are diving into a day that for him is extremely sad, and he's letting us know it hasn't rained all day long at all. We've been here all day, and there were no clouds in the sky, truthfully. I just was out with the boys, and it was not just it's pouring.
SPEAKER_00And we live in Florida, we are in desperate need of rain, so and I know um we've been leading reading a lot of scripture because we just want to give you guys a really good picture, but we will be reading through the whole crucifixion and the death of Jesus and Jesus being buried. So hang with us. Um maybe whatever you're doing, kind of just take a pause and just kind of in reverence, really make sure you're not just listening, but that you're hearing.
SPEAKER_02Like Tony says, put what you think you remember. Yeah. There's been many movies, many shorts, many videos on this particular day. Put all that to the side for just a minute and listen to what the word of God says. They were in Gethsemane. That's where he was arrested. Judas accompanied the authorities to Gethsemane, arrested Jesus in Gethsemane, and he is now at the mercy of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Roman authority at the time.
SPEAKER_00So we're gonna start in Matthew 27 and verse 32. As they went out, they found a man of sirene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. And when they went, and when they came to a place called Galgotha, which means the place of his school, they offered him wine to drink, mixed with Gal, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments amongst them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there, and over his head they put the charge against him, which read, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. If you are the son of God, come down from that cross. So also the chief priests with the scribes and the elders mocked him, saying, He saved others, he cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel. Let him come down from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God, let God deliver him now, if he desires him, for he said, I am the Son of God. And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled in him, also reviled him in the same way.
SPEAKER_02Mine said ridiculed. It's like making fun. Reviled is ridiculed. Verse 45. At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o'clock. At about three o'clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, Ela, Ela, Lemme Sebakten. So apologize for the pronunciation of that. Which means, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah. One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink. But the rest said, Wait, let's see whether Elijah comes to save him. Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. They left the cemetery after Jesus' resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people. The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the crucifixion were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened. They said, This man truly was the Son of God. And many women who had come from Galilee with Jesus to care for him were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, and the Mary of James and John, the sons of Zebedee.
SPEAKER_01Now, when the evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who himself had always become had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his new tomb, which he had hon out of the rock, and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and departed. And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary sitting opposite the tomb.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. If you that was the answer to a lot of that was the torture, the torture was what they did with a lot of people that committed crimes. Jesus was amongst other criminals and they were thieves or what have you, but it was a common practice, something that was done a lot. So I've had someone tell challenge me before, like, well, he didn't die any differently than many people. And I said, You're so right, but he was different. He mattered more. That's the difference. It's the man, not what they did, but the man.
SPEAKER_00Well, he also was probably the only one who died on a cross. That was quickly followed by an earthquake and dark in the middle of the day, and a veil being the veil being torn. So bodies raising from the dead. Yeah. Yeah. A little different. Um, do you want to touch on that? So if you're um not very familiar with what the veil is and the cur or the curtain of the temple being torn, if you're not sure what that is, is at the time in the temple, there was the Ark of the Covenant, which we had the veil, because the veil separated God from everyone else, because the God is sinless, he is blameless, he cannot be with sin. So there was this huge, thick four-inch, I think they say it's like four-inch veil of material that covers the Holy of Holies, the place where they kept the Ark of the Covenant, which held God's presence. That the high priest could only go in there once a year. And for the high priest to go into the place in the temple, the Holy of Holies, to make his annual sacrifice for the people, he had to rich, there was like steps. He had to do a ritual cleansing, he had to make a sacrifice for himself. Then he had to go and make a sacrifice for his people. Then he had to get the blood and put on the special outfit. And then they would literally, like this is not, they would tie a bell to his leg so that when they walked, the people outside could hear the bell. So as he's if he messed up one of those many steps to going into the Holy of Holies to enter behind the veil, he was the only person who could do this. And they heard that bell stop ringing, they also would tie a rope to his leg because they would literally that if the bell stopped ringing, that means he died. Unfortunately, he didn't get right. He skipped step three. I don't really know. Um, so he wasn't presented himself correctly, and they would drag him out by the rope because nobody, whoever else, they no one else could go in there because they would also die. So that is how separated and how powerful and how how I don't even know. Magnificent the presence of the Lord was in that place. That is where he dwelt. He wanted to dwell with his people, they built him a tabernacle, the tabernacle, then they built him a temple. The temple was destroyed, they built him a new temple. So the here he is dwelling, and the veil is what separates him from his people. So when Jesus made that final sacrifice for all of our sin and he took it with him, the veil it says was torn from top to bottom in a way that I mean, the way that material was and how thick it was, no human man stuck in, snuck in there and put a little rip in it. How wasn't it? It'd been like that for ye long time. I mean, all the way back to Moses and Moses in Exodus when they built the tabernacle. So this was not like this was for sure. I mean, it's not just a sheer curtain that you might have hit hanging in your home and it just a little rip in it. Like from top, no man-made rip could have been made. Um, so to just understand that what that means is that Jesus took that separation away. The separation that had existed from the garden when Adam and Eve took that first bite, and God just constantly trying to dwell with his people in all of these different ways. This was the final sacrifice that was needed for him to not just now he doesn't just dwell with us. If you believe and you accept him as your savior, he dwells in you. So that same power that would knock that high priest to the ground the second that he didn't do something right is the same power that lives inside of us. I mean, to even wrap your mind around that is hard to put into earthly words, I feel like.
SPEAKER_02For sure. I love the um that you could also do a little, we're just creating extra rabbit holes for y'all, y'all, but y'all y'all. Like, yeah, yeah, and sand law or something over here. The word that he says at the very end to tete last day is it is finished, and it's so much more than just okay, I'm done my earthly business. It was for legal purposes, it was for um through their faith, like it even met certain Jewish rules and laws and things like that. That word is the Lord saying, God's purpose in me is done, and because I completed my purpose, now you have a purpose, a new purpose. Your purpose is to now accept the Holy Spirit. I that's who I left you, because he kept telling his disciples that I've got to go. I've got to go because there's someone better coming. There's something better coming. Little did they know. And that's him saying, It's all done. I've created a way legally for you, I've created a way spiritually for you, physically for you. I've left this amazing example of life, not for you to condemn yourself through, but to look to, like, okay, let me keep looking back to the model, to the picture, to the picture. And he's saying, I the Lord's will is done. I came and I did the Lord's will, and was happy to do it.
SPEAKER_00And I love too at the end um of where we just read, says there were also many women there looking on from a distance who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. So just how Jesus had this, you know, especially in biblical times, women were a much lower rank on the status of, you know, the rankings of people. So for them to be looking, for them to, for Jesus to entrust them to have been there. And also if you go a whole nother other rabbit hole, um, before all of this, which it says um Mary the Moses of James and Joseph, James and Joseph's mom came up to Jesus in their ministry and he's like, Can you put like my can when you guys get to heaven, like, can my sons be at your right hand? And Jesus said, like, are they going to be able to take the cup that I drink? And at the time, she had no idea what he was talking about. But then for him to explain the cup in the Garden of Gethsemane, for him to, and now for her to fully see, like that, I'm sure it clicked, like, this is what I was asking for my sons. So just to see why the Lord doesn't answer our prayers sometimes. Like, we think we know what's best. She thought she just wanted her sons to be at the right hand of Jesus. They were faithful followers of him. They devoted the rest, you know, their from this point on, the rest of their lives to him. But for her to see what she was really asking for, to be like, oh. Which many of his disciples do end up being dying and being a martyr. And I'm pretty sure all but John. Yeah. Both of them do. Well, is this this not John? No, yeah. No, the So this is a different John because the John is okay.
SPEAKER_02John that wrote Revelation and all that, and he's the only one that did not get martyred. Was not was not martyred. So I always go back to um, I think it was a couple of years ago, and we watched rolling up to Easter. I don't know, especially if you're a believer of Jesus Christ, you're rolling into Easter, you just feel, I think, weight to just be very conscious of Jesus and his sacrifice and obviously what he experienced. But if you've never watched clips like from the Passion of the Christ or things like that, and you don't have a full picture of exactly the physical torture that Jesus went through, I cry every time I watch it. But a couple of years ago, we were watching not that part, but I think it was in Chosen or whatever we were watching. It's the Passion of the Christ is definitely not for children, right? There are versions of that you can watch with children around, but our children are all very small, so they were definitely not. But my brother-in-law was there and he asked me, he was like, Why are you crying? I'm like, How can you not just watch the beating that he took and then have and then and it isn't it is not exaggerated to say his organs were falling out of him, he was so disfigured, you could not tell if he was man or woman. His mom could not recognize his face. There's plenty of other people who have been crucified, but to the extent that they basically slowly murder Jesus is you cannot ever forget. And not only was that happening, that was all happening at the bottom of the hill. Then they're like, oh, here, carry your cross, 300-pound cross. No human can do what he did. We it would not be possible. So he carries his cross, then hangs on the cross, is nailed to the cross, and then they when they offered him that gall. I was listening to someone not too long ago, and they were talking about that a lot of be I did not realize that that was for pain relief. That that's like to the wine, and they mix in that bitterness, and it kind of I'm guessing it does something to your, you know, like a drug or some sort of thing that kind of relieves the pain, and he wouldn't take it. He knew, he knew it had to be all. He had to take it all. And then for the Lord to have to look away. What a day. What a day.
SPEAKER_00And that's what you were you talked about it in the last episode, I think. Um thunder about how that moment, where where does it trying to find where he like that moment of separation? So he didn't speak that whole time, but when he said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? His for the veil to tear, he had to be separated for that short amount of time. And that was what caused the pain.
SPEAKER_02And then how much do you think the God had to experience in that too? While he is the sovereign God and the creator and the knower of all, to look down on your, I mean, Jesus is his son just as much as Blaze is yours, clay is yours, and rigor is mine, and to look upon your son, not only knowing what he just experienced, but that it's part of you knew it had to be part of the plan. Right. Like our God's amazing. Yeah, our Jesus is amazing. And while that day is sad in the events of the day, what that day then created and made and has now come into.
SPEAKER_00He did all of that. I mean, just the right, like the from that moment, all that comes for us, like everything ties back to the cross. Like everything he ever needed to be done was literally finished on that day. That's where our righteousness comes from. That's where, you know, all of the thing, all of our identity in Christ, the adult, it's all our debt, our debt being paid from that moment. Like all of our sin, if we repent of it, is completely thrown from the east to the west. No more sacrifice. I mean, they spent years and years and years sacrificing these animals to atone for their sin, and it's done for us. Like, and to live on this side of the cross to for us to not have to know what any of that was like. Yeah, is just a burden I feel like we don't even fully understand until you really start to learn and dive into what that was like. So Friday's events have happened, and now we're moving into Saturday, which You'd think would be exciting. Yeah. But so not a whole lot happens in the scripture on Saturday. Matthew 27 is where I'm going to read from, 62 to 66. The next day, that is, after the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, Sir, we remember how the imposter said while he was still alive, after three days I will rise. Therefore, order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and seal him away and tell the people he has risen from the dead, and the last fraud will be worse than the first. Pilate said to them, You have a guard of soldiers, go, make it as secure as you can. So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard. So that was Saturday. That was Saturday.
SPEAKER_02Which is probably the quietest yet like heaviest day, because the disciples are probably like, uh, okay. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01You did when you're coming, come on back.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. But and even his mom liked to be preparing his body and all that.
SPEAKER_00Like well, they kind of had a choice to make, really. They could either hold on to that hope in the silence.
SPEAKER_02They could have left, I guess.
SPEAKER_00Or they could have just been like, Well, that it's over. That sucks. Three years for nothing. It's over. True. So, like, in your waiting season, what choice? Holding hope in the silence.
SPEAKER_02On your silent Saturday, how does it feel sometimes? Welcome to Sunday, a day that has been prophesized, and poor Jesus has been preparing his basically his entire life. He's been preparing the disciples for three years.
SPEAKER_00The fairies and Pharisees and Sadducees thought they've had it covered because they even went. They probably loved it. It's like Saturday. Yeah. Loved it. Yeah. This is the best day ever. Well, and they even said, just in case this crazy guy, you know, this is what he said. So let's really guard the tomb.
SPEAKER_02Which makes no sense, honestly. If you didn't believe anything of what he said, but yet they're watching. Yeah. Why put a rock in soldiers? Like, why? Yeah. Because you know you knew. You know you messed up. This today is lovingly referred to as Resurrection Sunday. And while Easter bunnies and eggs and carrots are fun and cute and festive. This is the purpose of Easter. You want to know anything about our Jesus? This is what the whole purpose of our Jesus that he died a sinless life, perfect and pure, for us, for our sins, stayed in the tomb till Sunday, and was resurrected by the power of God.
SPEAKER_00Amen.
SPEAKER_02Period. End of story. We could end up with it. We're going to read the story. A little bit, just to give you a good ending part. And this touches into some ladies that we love dearly too. So you gonna read, man?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you want me to? Mm-hmm. Now, after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow, and the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. But the angels angel answered and said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who is crucified. He is not here, for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay, and go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead, and indeed he is going before you into Galilee. There you will see him. Behold, I have told you. So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to bring his disciples' word. Do you want me to keep going? No. Okay.
SPEAKER_02So these same women who unfortunately had to watch and experience the torture and death and burial of Jesus are still there. Yeah. This is one of our favorite parts when we did our devoted series. I thought, my goodness, what faith. Yes. Like, and some of them, Mary Magdalene had the experience to come along with them. Right. Obviously, Jesus' mom knew him, but it was also just they just they knew. Like what he said is true.
SPEAKER_00For Jesus to appear to them first. Yes. And then the other disciples.
SPEAKER_01And I think that's so beautiful because kind of like we said, like the men had to go and study the word, had to go and study the law. Whereas like the women, these women were being taught directly by him.
SPEAKER_02Such they looked at it as an experience while they looked at it as tasks to do. Right. Like, oh no, I get it. Like he's just you learn him and you live him, and then you you love him. That's it.
SPEAKER_01And I really think that's such a beautiful depiction of like not only their life of devotion, but like his devotion towards us. Like, and just the fact that he sees right where we're at.
SPEAKER_02And this is the victory that we're talking about. If ever you hear us, probably in multiple episodes, we always say we fight, we are positioned from a place of victory. This is the victory we're talking about. There has been no prophet, there has been no other person that leaves any religion that has done what Jesus Christ of Nazareth did.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_02He died a sinner's death, brutal and awful, while living a sinless life, and then was raised again. This is the Jesus that we follow, that we love.
SPEAKER_00And just as Jesus appeared and made himself known to Mary and then goes to his disciples, he's putting the same challenge on us to carry the same good news and to share it and to have that same um faith that they had to just believe and to go and to tell and to spread his word and to help kind of shepherd other people into believing the same thing because it truly does change the way that we live the rest of our life. This, this store, these stories that we have been reading, specifically this passage of scripture that we did Sunday, Friday, and Sunday changes everything about who we are and the power that we have and the authority that we have.
SPEAKER_02And then he can then, like Tony said, his it's a command from him. Red letter words at the very end of Matthew, he gives us what you might recall or have heard of the Great Commission that now you the job is not to just worry about my sacrifices and worry about how I'm going to know the book and all that, and all those things kind of add in there. But the commission is to go and make disciples.
SPEAKER_00So before we end, um he spent 40 days on the earth after he rose from the tomb with his disciples. So we're gonna read Matthew 28. I'm gonna start in verse 16. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So his last words spoken here on this earth before he goes to his throne with his father. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. And they did. Amen. And that was the Mount Mount of Olives, right? Which he will return to once again. You flip all the way back to the very end.
SPEAKER_01Go to the end. Sneak peek, it happens.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that was a cool journey. I like that.
SPEAKER_00That was cool. My brain hurts a little bit, but like in the best way possible.
SPEAKER_02And yeah, total little disclaimer. That was once more a very high, high, elevated altitude, bear plane view. Like we were sitting here chatting in between. We probably could have spent an episode on each day. Yeah. Because there was many things that happened. The they let one of the thieves go, and then they could have traded Jesus' life and they didn't. There's so much more, but that's just a window and a reminder that there is never, there's never enough. No. Even as much as you think we might know, there's never enough.
SPEAKER_00Don't think that, please. Never.
SPEAKER_02And if the but if these pages, these particular pages in this particular section, every time you read it, I feel like it should grieve your heart. Yeah. Like it's not in a not in a sad way, but just a reverent way. Yeah. Right. A way of like of all. He loved me so much.
SPEAKER_00What he was thinking, sp like on that cross, he was specifically thinking this I'm doing this for Lauren Thompson. Yes. I'm doing this for Madison Hamlet. I'm doing this for what enter your name into the blank. It wasn't just so for my people of Israel. This is to no for everyone.
SPEAKER_02That veil was torn. No more Jew Gentile. Every he did that for everybody. Right. And that is that when I think of that thing too, of like that when you decide to say, no, I'm not gonna accept that, that's what you're saying. That his sacrifice wasn't enough. Right. It's not enough. And it definitely is. We all believe that. But every time I read these words or watch any kind of it, like it grieves me, but in such a reverent way. Right. Not a sad way, but like a dang.
SPEAKER_00Like you just feel like roll the song. I am on the songs today. What a guy. I know.
SPEAKER_02Oh, if you've never was a garden of Gethsemane, remember we found a glass in the seamless. Oh, we'll tag that one in the bottom. That one shook us. We were like, whoa. It was good. That's a good in your prayer closet, quiet, dark. That's me.
SPEAKER_00No, you don't have to be in your prayer closet, but do we want a song of a song, a daily song for Holy Week?
SPEAKER_02There you go. That would be cool. Maybe we'll share that on our social media. Maybe thank you so much for coming and growing with us in the garden. It was really growing for us. I want to decide. I grew a lot. Yeah. Especially because we are all people that have experienced Easter in young life and middle life and adult life. And now our children are experiencing Easter, but it's one of those things that once you just never know enough. And then when you go back and think, you have to again be mindful of dang, this this is an important, beautiful week.
SPEAKER_01Well, how awesome that we get to like what are our traditions going to look like with our children versus what we had.
SPEAKER_02So that's a neat way to like, yeah, if you're especially if you're breaking off some stuff in your own family, and it's a week that it used to mean so much different things. And now it's like, whoa, this week means a lot. The actual meaning. Yeah. Thank you so much for coming and growing with us in the garden. We hope you enjoyed it. Make sure to always send us an email if you have any praises that you would like to share. We would love to read those. Prayer requests, we would love to come alongside you and pray with you for something that you we would love to intercess on by your behalf. Our email is on the bottom. Be also sure to check out our socials. We have an Instagram and a TikTok at armored garden. And don't forget to like and subscribe so you get that happy Wednesday alert that there is a new Armored Garden to go listen to. We enjoyed this so much. We pray that you got great revelation from it, that you were able to experience Easter just maybe in a different light this time this year. And that now next Easter, oh, we're gonna go all out. Be nice. We're gonna be deep diving for weeks. Literally. It's kind of in the middle of our Bible study too. It kind of fits. We're like, dang. Yeah, this is we're all about Jesus the next couple like seven weeks. So this is good. Tony, will you praise out?
SPEAKER_00I will, dear Lord. We just um come with reverent hearts, God, with thankful hearts, God, with hearts that are just full of awe and awe for what you've done and the sacrifice that you made, Lord, with just such a heavy spirit, God, but in the best way possible, just completely trying to wrap our minds around the sacrifice that you made for us and how you did it in the most personal way possible, thinking about every single one of your children when you were up there doing, making the final sacrifice for us, Lord, that so that our sins could be washed completely clean off of us, Lord, so that you could now see us as white as snow and that you get to not just dwell with us, Lord, but you get to dwell in us, God. And that you made our bodies your temple, Lord. And now that we have your Holy Spirit to guide us and direct us and to teach us and to love on us, God, and to um comfort us when we grieve and to celebrate us when celebrate with us when we're happy, Lord. That um I hope that everyone listening realizes that the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us, Lord, that it is um our very best friend, God, our the greatest companion that we could ever have walking on this earth, Lord. And but because you dwell within us, Lord, the authority and the identity that comes with that is beyond a magnitude that we could ever describe. We love you so much. We thank you, and we are just um so grateful to be your daughters in Jesus' name. Amen.
SPEAKER_02Amen.
SPEAKER_00Read numbers over you.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Numbers six. Tony. I forgot. May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace. Happy Easter later. Boop. That's really loud.
SPEAKER_00Oh gosh, no more rabbits. No more rabbits. Hop away. So I'm gonna start saying