Hi friends, welcome to a very special week on the that sounds fun podcast. I'm your host

Annie F. Downs. I'm so happy to be here with you this week. It is holy week the week

between Palm Sunday and Easter and each day I will be reading the stories from the

gospels. That's Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that coincide with this exact day. Today

is Tuesday and I will be reading from the new living translation. I'm going to read the

same story and Matthew, Mark and Luke a little bit of a different story and John. But you're

going to hear some of the same stories over and over and that will actually happen all

week. And part of the reason I want to read all four to you is I want you to hear the

little details that each person noticed and recorded that may be different than what one

of the other writers noticed. It's the same as if four of us were at the exact same dinner

party and retold the dinner party the next day. We'd remember the main idea is exactly

the same who was there, what we ate, but there would be details that each of us would

notice differently. And I think you'll really enjoy hearing the difference between Matthew,

Mark, Luke and John's point of views, personalities and perspectives. So today we start in Matthew

chapter 21 verse 23 to 23 verse 39. When Jesus returned to the temple and began teaching

the leading priest and elders came up to him. They demanded, by what authority are you doing

all these things? Who gave you the right? I'll tell you by what authority I do these things

if you answer one question, Jesus replied, did John's authority to baptize come from heaven

or was it merely human? They talked it over amongst themselves. If we say it was from heaven,

he will ask us why we didn't believe John. But if we say it was merely human, we'll be

mobbed because the people believe John was a prophet. So they finally replied, we don't

know. And Jesus responded, then I won't tell you by what authority I do these things.

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