Hey everybody, it's Andy, welcome back to the North Point Community Church podcast.

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But most importantly, I hope the following presentation inspires you to take your next step

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So, and welcome all of our land area churches and for those of you who are watching really

from all over the country, all over the world once again. And as you would imagine,

with a large church, we plan way ahead. And so today's topic has been planned for quite some time.

And in some ways, it could not be more perfect with the things that are going on in the world today.

And I hope that will become clear as we spend the next few minutes together.

One of history's greatest mysteries per perhaps one of the greatest mysteries in all of history

is this one. How did a first century cult birthed in the armpit of the Roman Empire because

Judea was considered the armpit of the Roman Empire. If you were assigned to Judea, you had done

something terribly wrong. How was it that a first century cult birthed in the armpit of the Roman

Empire whose leader, Jesus specifically, whose leader was rejected by his own people and then

crucified, how in the world did it that it survived and it thrived in the face of violent,

organized, state-funded resistance? How did this happen? Or let me ask it a different way.

How did it come about that a Nazarene sect, because this is what the church, this is what

Christianity was referred to in the first century by people who were wondering what is this and how

do we make it go away? How did it come about that a Nazarene sect would eventually be embraced by

...