St. John and His Amazing Book

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Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole.

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Hey, I'm Paul Lewis Cole, and this is Brave Men.

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Fired up about today, Brandon Cole unpacking the Gospel of John.

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He did a series that I thought was absolutely remarkable.

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Six months where he just jumped into every part of John.

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You know, 90%...

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of the Gospel of John is unique to John.

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He didn't do it as a history, something that said, here's what happened, here's what happened.

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He did it as a personal journey.

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He wrote it, here's what I experienced.

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So that's why we tell people when they become followers of Christ or interested in it,

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in following Christ.

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Interested in anything about God, I always say read the Gospel of John because here's a man who walked with Jesus, here's his experience.

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Really powerful.

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We rescue men.

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Go to cmn.men, click on resources.

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You can pull down everything you need.

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And then also on there is events, things that are coming up with what we're doing all over the world.

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Also on our website, you'll find our resources in approximately 18 languages, depending on which book you're looking for.

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You can look it up by language.

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So thank God for friends and partners like yourself who make this happen.

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And right now, let's go to the studio, CMN Studio, with Brandon and this conversation, this awesome conversation on Gospel of John.

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You know, I was really knocked out with the Gospel of John thing that you did.

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Like, how long did you go with that?

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Was it a couple of weeks?

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I think we did it.

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Well, we did a year.

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We didn't do... Did a year of the Gospel of John?

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Yeah, but we didn't do the exegetical, you know, line by line, verse by verse.

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We broke it up a little bit different.

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Then there's some Advent season in there and Easter and some of those kinds of things.

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But it was good.

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Yeah, I know.

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When you asked about doing this, it was like, okay, so you want me to...

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synthesize it a year's worth.

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I said, let's do two podcasts on the Gospel of John.

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Which is great.

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Because you've got some great stuff.

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And then you were like, what?

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Yeah, which, well, I didn't know which, listen, it's all great.

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It's all good.

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Yeah, yeah.

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I just want to make sure that's clear to the audience.

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No, I think we were, it just was, it's a lot.

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And there's a lot of things in there.

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That's why we always tell people to go read it.

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You were like, but I did a year on it.

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Yeah, that was my response.

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Which part do I want?

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So, but I want to start with, I want to hit this thing, which is the overview of John, the Gospel of John.

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And let me start it with this.

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Why do we tell people, like when somebody's interested in becoming a follower of Christ, or the first time they're like, yeah, I've made a decision, I'm doing this.

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Why do we tell them, go read the Gospel of John?

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I mean, I think there's a lot of reasons.

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One, it's the Bible.

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You know, that helps.

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But I think, two, is...

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It's always a good thing.

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No, I think it...

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I would say that the Gospel of John, the tone is best.

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It feels...

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It's open, the heartbeat of it.

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But I also think...

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based on what you read from the prologue from the very beginning, John one, um, that opening line that's been in the beginning was the word and the word is with God.

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I think all of those things begin to tell you immediately who Jesus is.

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And at the point of scripture and the point of our life is to follow and know and be with Jesus, then knowing him is good.

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Um, and then from the jump, John two, you jump right into the wedding at Cana, the miracle Jesus is with his first miracle declaring what his kingdom is going to look like.

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That's one of my favorite stories, too.

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Yeah, and it's a great story.

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And I've actually spoken at so many different times at churches and things that we do.

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And I've actually shared that so many times that when your mom...

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my wife goes with me to a somewhere and I'm speaking.

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She said, what are you speaking to?

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So I'll tell her and she'll go, okay, that's great.

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And then, but if I say John two, you know, the wedding can she'll go, I've heard that one.

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Yeah.

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Not impressed, not impressed at all.

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No, she goes, I love it.

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It's just that I've heard it.

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Yeah.

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But it's such a truth, man.

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So the Gospel of John, we tell people to read it because... Well, I think so.

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Like what happens then is you've got what you end up with is the seven statements of Jesus.

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The I am.

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The I am statements.

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Then you've got the seven signs of Christ.

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So these miracles starting with the wedding of Cana.

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The calling of his disciples is throughout, but you've got John 1, the overture.

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And then I think the other part is that John says in John 20, verse 31, which is kind of the basis for the whole year for us, which was, I wrote these things so that you might believe, and in believing in his name, you would have life.

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And so the gospel, the point, the purpose of the gospel of John is to...

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believe and in believing, having life.

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So if you can get someone reading the Gospel of John, your goal is that they would see the signs, believe the statements and in believing they would have life.

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Yeah.

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Part of that, you know, part of what you and I are doing here in this talking about the Gospel of John rather than just an interview.

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Hey, how'd you grow up?

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Because I knew you knew that.

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Yeah, you were a part of that.

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Yeah.

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It's like, tell me about your father wound.

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Yeah.

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Well, there are a lot of parts where you were missing, you know, so I'm sure.

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So, but when we talk about these things, we're talking about the gospel of John, you and I, you're a student of the word.

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You're a studier.

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You're a good arguer, which means you're looking for the facts.

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Well, why do we say that?

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So you pull up these things.

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Right.

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And for me...

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Really, all of this is not only for us to get a revelation of Christ, you know, in this podcast, Brave Men podcast, but it's to stir us up to read the word of God.

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And a great example of that.

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And I want to get back to John 20, 31, because I wrote a couple of notes down about that, which I think is really fascinating.

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Okay.

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About the last statement of chapter 20, even though there's 21 chapters, right?

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And then I want to get into your overture.

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Is that what you call it?

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Yeah, I want to get into that.

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Prologue, overture, which I think is all you have.

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Overture is the better way to say it.

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Prologue is the beginning of a book.

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Prologue is the OG way to say it.

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No, I.

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Overture is like younger guys have cooler words.

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No, I stole this word from an old guy.

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The prologue is, and we're jumping into it, but the prologue to me is just the beginning of a book.

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It gives a little bit of context.

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Whereas this John 1, those first 16, 17, 18 verses is an overture.

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An overture of a symphony is going to tell you the threads and the tones that you're going to hear throughout the rest of the symphony.

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So the goal of John 1 is not just to give you an introduction to the book.

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It is there to give you an overture.

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You can read those first 18 verses and know this is what I'm about to encounter.

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This is what I'm hearing.

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This is what I'm reading.

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This is what I'm discovering.

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And so it's, and I always say throughout the series, we would say this, like John is not this progressive revelation of Jesus.

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Whereas Matthew, Mark, Luke, it's kind of this progressive, like you're getting to know.

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And then all of a sudden, oh, he's God.

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But in John.

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It starts out there.

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From the jump, Jesus is.

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Yeah.

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And now you get to pull that thread.

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It's fascinating.

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So, okay.

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So congratulations on Michigan winning the national championship.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Go blue.

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Let's go.

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Hail to the victor.

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No matter when somebody watches this.

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Yeah, yeah.

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They are national champions.

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One of the fascinating little side stories is a young man named Terrace Reed Jr. Yeah.

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Yeah.

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who played for Michigan.

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And then he left.

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Okay.

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I have no sympathy.

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And then he left.

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Because you have a thing, those who stay win championships.

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Yeah, although every guy in the starting five for Michigan was a transfer.

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Okay, so then Terrace Reed goes to UConn.

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Right?

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Yeah.

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Okay, so check this out.

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So when he's at Michigan, UConn wins the national championship.

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Two of them.

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Two of them.

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Hurley, what a coach.

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So then he goes to UConn and Michigan wins the national championship.

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So Terrace Reed.

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So you would think.

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man, this is a tough moment for this young guy, right?

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And what was fascinating to me was he came out of that, and they arrived home at 5 o'clock.

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Where's UConn?

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Where are they located?

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Besides Connecticut.

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Connecticut was going to be my answer.

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I don't know.

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So they're somewhere up.

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Listen, it's a small place, so it's not like.

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It's in Connecticut.

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Yeah.

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So now he arrives back at the campus 5 o'clock.

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Spoken like a true Texan, by the way.

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Anything north of the Red River, I don't know.

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It's a small place.

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So Terrace Reed gets back 5 o'clock.

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At 7 o'clock, he goes to an Athletes in Action thing, which is pretty amazing that in the midst of it, this has got to be crushing.

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And he stands up there and he gave this testimony and they recorded it.

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Somebody posted it and I looked at it and he said this.

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And this is what's germane to the moment, actually, is he said he had gone to church.

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He had done some things.

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He had bowed his knee.

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And then he's in the weight room at UConn, I guess it was, or maybe it was Michigan.

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And he's in the weight room and the strength coach comes up and says, Hey man, I heard you talking about God.

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Terrace goes, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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You're Christian?

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Yeah, sure.

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And then the weight coach trainer said to Terrace Reed, he said, Well, do you read the Bible?

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And Reed goes, no.

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I don't.

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He was really honest with him.

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He just goes, no, I don't.

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And right then he realized I'm not really a follower of Christ.

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So when we talk about these things, part of what we're doing on Braveman podcast on this brand is you and me is stirring people up to pick this up, right?

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Pick the word up.

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And I don't care if it's in your, in your tablet or,

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or on your phone or wherever, but the Word of God's alive.

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So part of this is us saying some things, pulling some things up, where somebody goes back and goes, I don't know, was Brandon really right?

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Let me fact check this thing.

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Sometimes at work, say something so out of bounds that someone actually goes and looks, and then you're like...

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There you go.

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That's how I preach.

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Yeah.

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Job well done.

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Yeah.

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So, uh, so here, so back on the prologue.

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So that's, that sets the basis of this conversation, these two podcasts on John, which is to stir up something.

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So Paul talking to Timothy, Hey, stir up the gifts in you, stir up this thing, get into the word of God cause it's alive.

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So it changed terrorist reads life, right?

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He says he started reading the Bible and all of a sudden he's just like, okay.

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And this is what I'm about.

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Okay, back on the prologue.

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This is fascinating to me because 90% of the Gospel of John, because there's four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, right?

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Then it moves into letters and epistles and so forth.

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And then John's revelation.

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So we've got these four Gospels, which are about Jesus.

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What's fascinating about John to me is that nine out of 10, or 90% of John,

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is unique to John.

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So Matthew, Mark, and Luke are really what they call synoptic gospels or parallel.

239
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They have a lot of the same stories.

240
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John, if he's got the same story as one of the others, it's from a really different perspective because he was there.

241
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So it's a personal eyewitness sort of thing.

242
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And then the last thing that you mentioned, this verse, John 20, 31, he says,

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I wrote this so that you believe that Jesus is the Christ, Son of God.

244
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By believing, you may have life in his name, eternal life or life more abundant.

245
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And so John, what's fascinating, Matthew, Mark and Luke wrote their gospels to people, to basically to Jewish people who had either been there.

246
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or they knew somebody who had been there.

247
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In other words, there's a context.

248
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John wrote the Gospel of John to people, to the Jews and the, excuse me, to the Greeks and Romans, to people who weren't there, didn't know anybody who was there, and had no context of who is this Jesus.

249
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So to me, when we talk about, and I love the picture you talked about in terms of why we tell people to read the Gospel of John,

250
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It's right in it.

251
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Yeah.

252
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And for me, that's part of it.

253
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John is John is a student.

254
00:13:51.075 --> 00:13:54.156
John is most likely from some sort of really good family.

255
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He's got a strong background.

256
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Of course, all the young Jewish men memorize the first five books of the Bible, right?

257
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The Torah.

258
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They had that memorized.

259
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And then here's John.

260
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He has a scribe.

261
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Talks about at some point he's got a scribe.

262
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He's got somebody who's writing things down.

263
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So he's from a family that's sort of well placed.

264
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In other words, so when when we see that part where Peter denies Christ.

265
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Mm hmm.

266
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OK, it was in the courtyard of Caiaphas, the.

267
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The chief priests where they're doing the mock trial of Jesus.

268
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It was John that let Peter in.

269
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So in other words, John's in.

270
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So John's got some sort of family background or something that says, okay, this guy's well placed.

271
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So this is not some inarticulate fisherman who just has this download and writes this amazing thing.

272
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This is a guy that's got some background.

273
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Yeah.

274
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He's got something to him.

275
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He's not coming out of an inarticulate background or unschooled.

276
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He's very schooled.

277
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And so this is a guy who's actually gone through critical thinking, probably learned some things from the Greek and Roman backgrounds, Greek schools, all that kind of thing.

278
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So that's John.

279
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That kind of sets him up.

280
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Yeah.

281
00:15:14.428 --> 00:15:20.453
So we don't necessarily think of him as some swarthy, rough, like a Peter fisherman.

282
00:15:20.973 --> 00:15:22.334
He's this guy that's got

283
00:15:23.322 --> 00:15:24.943
You know, he's an intellectual, if you will.

284
00:15:25.923 --> 00:15:31.245
And so when he starts out with this, he's the light right off the top.

285
00:15:31.325 --> 00:15:33.646
And I want to get into that because you've got some great stuff on that.

286
00:15:34.527 --> 00:15:36.068
And but I want to get into that.

287
00:15:36.448 --> 00:15:50.714
But when he starts with that, to me, it's like it doesn't come out of a, oh, this is just a download, even though we know this is divine, anointed and inspired writing, the word of God.

288
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But it comes from a background that questions things, that asks about things, that looks at things.

289
00:15:58.248 --> 00:16:00.789
And he says, hey, you've never heard of this person.

290
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I want to tell you who he is.

291
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Right.

292
00:16:03.610 --> 00:16:04.390
It's pretty amazing.

293
00:16:04.630 --> 00:16:04.810
Right.

294
00:16:05.310 --> 00:16:05.451
Yeah.

295
00:16:05.471 --> 00:16:16.575
I mean, I think what you read in the Gospel of John is, my personal thought is that with John, you are getting what his kingdom looks like.

296
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That's what his signs are.

297
00:16:18.276 --> 00:16:21.097
So you're seeing from, again, the wedding of Cana to.

298
00:16:21.851 --> 00:16:32.199
healing of the son to the, all the things that he does in John, they give you a snapshot of what the inbreaking kingdom of heaven, what Jesus came to bring.

299
00:16:33.080 --> 00:16:36.443
But then with his statements, I'm the way, the truth and the life.

300
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I'm the bread of life.

301
00:16:37.464 --> 00:16:38.184
I'm the light of the world.

302
00:16:38.705 --> 00:16:40.726
Those statements are telling you his identity.

303
00:16:41.347 --> 00:16:43.929
And, and I think this is really important.

304
00:16:44.830 --> 00:16:47.492
The signs of Jesus did not get him crucified.

305
00:16:47.512 --> 00:16:47.772
Right?

306
00:16:49.036 --> 00:16:51.478
The signs are not what made him be put on a cross.

307
00:16:52.819 --> 00:16:57.242
The signs were a precursor to the statements he would make.

308
00:16:57.902 --> 00:17:04.706
And the statements he made about being the light of the world, being the resurrection and the life, being I am the way, the truth and the life, be the gate.

309
00:17:05.547 --> 00:17:11.531
Those statements are ultimately what get him crucified because there is a person claiming authority.

310
00:17:13.060 --> 00:17:15.881
kingdom, that he was the one bringing it all.

311
00:17:17.102 --> 00:17:20.884
So the signs obviously catch people's attention.

312
00:17:21.604 --> 00:17:27.786
But ultimately even the reality is you don't believe in Jesus for the signs even, right?

313
00:17:27.806 --> 00:17:30.628
You don't believe in Jesus because he did some things.

314
00:17:31.068 --> 00:17:33.689
Obviously, the sign of the cross, death and burial and resurrection.

315
00:17:33.709 --> 00:17:33.949
Right.

316
00:17:34.129 --> 00:17:35.050
But that wasn't a sign.

317
00:17:36.429 --> 00:17:36.869
Well, no, no.

318
00:17:36.929 --> 00:17:37.849
I mean, that's a sign.

319
00:17:37.889 --> 00:17:41.310
I mean, I would say, but it's what comes from that.

320
00:17:41.630 --> 00:17:41.770
Right.

321
00:17:41.790 --> 00:17:45.611
The statements he's made, when I do this and because of this.

322
00:17:45.711 --> 00:17:47.691
And Paul stakes all of the statements on that.

323
00:17:47.731 --> 00:17:56.673
So for me, though, what puts Jesus on the cross is, and what puts me in a position of having to choose, of having to believe.

324
00:17:58.014 --> 00:18:04.395
Yes, I can believe the signs without changing anything about myself, without stepping into any kind of new life.

325
00:18:04.495 --> 00:18:04.835
Yeah, yeah.

326
00:18:05.395 --> 00:18:14.042
It is, it's why John tells us in John 10, 9, if you would believe, confess with your mouth, right, and believe in your heart.

327
00:18:14.623 --> 00:18:15.924
I called that a wrong book.

328
00:18:16.064 --> 00:18:17.145
It's okay.

329
00:18:17.325 --> 00:18:20.207
But that is, the idea here is Romans, right?

330
00:18:20.247 --> 00:18:21.588
Romans 10, 9.

331
00:18:21.909 --> 00:18:28.414
The idea, though, is that it's the belief in the heart and the voice, the mouth, that I would believe something.

332
00:18:28.434 --> 00:18:28.534
Yeah.

333
00:18:28.934 --> 00:18:32.138
Not just that I believe is signs, but I believe that he is the bread of life.

334
00:18:32.178 --> 00:18:34.521
I believe that he is the way, the truth, and the life.

335
00:18:34.561 --> 00:18:36.563
I believe that he is the light of the world.

336
00:18:36.603 --> 00:18:38.125
I believe that he was in the beginning.

337
00:18:38.165 --> 00:18:43.752
And so it puts us in a position of having to believe what he said.

338
00:18:44.553 --> 00:18:45.814
It's believing what he said.

339
00:18:47.035 --> 00:18:51.478
The signs were a testament or a validation of what the spoken word of Christ.

340
00:18:52.059 --> 00:18:55.862
And ultimately reading this is so that you'd get a revelation of him.

341
00:18:57.543 --> 00:18:59.564
This is the word that points to the word.

342
00:19:00.605 --> 00:19:03.307
This is the word that preaches the word.

343
00:19:04.067 --> 00:19:06.969
Jesus is the greatest revelation of God himself.

344
00:19:07.670 --> 00:19:09.791
And so as you read John again, I think that's...

345
00:19:10.652 --> 00:19:17.639
For me, it's the overture, the prologue, the statements, the signs, all of it is that it would bring about a belief.

346
00:19:17.859 --> 00:19:23.545
I believe that who he is and what he said he would do and who he said he was.

347
00:19:24.666 --> 00:19:27.629
Again, you can believe that he did the things and not believe...

348
00:19:28.390 --> 00:19:29.331
He is who he said he was.

349
00:19:29.351 --> 00:19:30.131
He is the son of God.

350
00:19:30.832 --> 00:19:35.155
So the signs are meant to point to the statements and the statements are meant to be what you trust in.

351
00:19:35.295 --> 00:19:35.535
Yeah.

352
00:19:35.615 --> 00:19:41.519
So the Bible says that everywhere Jesus went, it says he healed the sick, cast out demons and then preach the kingdom.

353
00:19:42.079 --> 00:19:42.660
So you're right.

354
00:19:42.760 --> 00:19:49.084
So the signs drew people, cast out demons, solved their medical issues.

355
00:19:50.922 --> 00:19:55.286
Solved their social issues, begin to pull people together.

356
00:19:55.727 --> 00:19:57.308
And then he preached the kingdom.

357
00:19:57.789 --> 00:19:58.189
And I think...

358
00:19:58.489 --> 00:19:59.630
So that's what John does.

359
00:20:00.031 --> 00:20:00.311
Right.

360
00:20:00.671 --> 00:20:00.872
Yeah.

361
00:20:00.892 --> 00:20:05.956
And I think that is the key position here is that do you believe what he said?

362
00:20:06.617 --> 00:20:06.717
Yeah.

363
00:20:07.618 --> 00:20:07.838
Yeah.

364
00:20:07.858 --> 00:20:10.600
So John's whole piece is not just here's what he did.

365
00:20:10.780 --> 00:20:12.481
It's here's who he is.

366
00:20:12.742 --> 00:20:12.962
Right.

367
00:20:13.182 --> 00:20:15.964
Statements are a form of identity.

368
00:20:16.244 --> 00:20:20.567
And most of these statements are would have been understood that way that I am.

369
00:20:21.247 --> 00:20:24.750
And Jesus even chastised people for all you want is more signs.

370
00:20:26.805 --> 00:20:32.248
And I think that is ultimately what causes a lot of us to stumble in our faith is that the sign didn't show up.

371
00:20:33.668 --> 00:20:35.029
But the statement still rings true.

372
00:20:35.309 --> 00:20:35.869
Wow.

373
00:20:35.969 --> 00:20:41.352
And that is the test of our faith, I think, is when the signs run out, do the statements still live?

374
00:20:42.312 --> 00:20:43.974
Is he still the bread that brings provision?

375
00:20:44.174 --> 00:20:44.474
Wow.

376
00:20:44.594 --> 00:20:49.879
And even the bread of life statement is made in the context of people wanting more signs.

377
00:20:50.320 --> 00:20:59.289
So in other words, so the way I filter that is even if something doesn't turn out the way that I think it should be.

378
00:20:59.749 --> 00:20:59.949
Right.

379
00:21:00.009 --> 00:21:00.690
He's still God.

380
00:21:01.010 --> 00:21:02.510
Can he still be the light of the world for you?

381
00:21:02.771 --> 00:21:04.211
Is he still the bread of provision for you?

382
00:21:04.231 --> 00:21:05.051
Wow.

383
00:21:05.111 --> 00:21:06.552
Is he still the resurrection for you?

384
00:21:08.172 --> 00:21:10.613
Is he still the way and the truth that you're holding to?

385
00:21:10.933 --> 00:21:11.553
Yeah.

386
00:21:12.153 --> 00:21:15.014
Because I think there's a lot of people who can perform a lot of signs.

387
00:21:15.674 --> 00:21:16.754
And I think we follow signs.

388
00:21:16.975 --> 00:21:19.655
We follow the charisma of people.

389
00:21:19.695 --> 00:21:21.596
We follow the, what can I do for you?

390
00:21:21.896 --> 00:21:27.618
Every influencer and every author, and hey, I've done these things.

391
00:21:29.438 --> 00:21:30.598
So now you should follow me.

392
00:21:31.579 --> 00:21:34.519
But ultimately what makes a person is, are the statements true?

393
00:21:35.200 --> 00:21:39.141
Even the magicians in the court of Pharaoh were able to do snakes.

394
00:21:40.461 --> 00:21:45.542
And a lot of, okay, that takes us to, okay, you want to go to the overture or the prologue, whichever one.

395
00:21:45.643 --> 00:21:46.803
I know the prologue is what's in there.

396
00:21:46.823 --> 00:21:47.503
It says prologue.

397
00:21:47.523 --> 00:21:48.163
I'm looking at it.

398
00:21:48.823 --> 00:21:50.044
It says prologue in your HCSV.

399
00:21:50.064 --> 00:21:51.904
I just like overture gives me a better.

400
00:21:51.924 --> 00:21:52.724
I like overture.

401
00:21:53.165 --> 00:21:53.865
I'm going with that.

402
00:21:54.005 --> 00:21:57.286
But even that idea, you just said the magician.

403
00:21:57.306 --> 00:21:57.546
Yeah, yeah.

404
00:21:59.067 --> 00:21:59.307
And N.T.

405
00:21:59.327 --> 00:22:07.936
Wright says this about John, that he is, even in the overture, you get a sense that John is writing a new Genesis.

406
00:22:08.676 --> 00:22:11.079
So even when we taught this, we called it a new Genesis.

407
00:22:11.779 --> 00:22:12.080
Yeah.

408
00:22:12.620 --> 00:22:17.065
Because what John is doing in a lot of ways is saying creation starts again.

409
00:22:17.085 --> 00:22:17.305
Right.

410
00:22:17.885 --> 00:22:18.045
Right.

411
00:22:18.085 --> 00:22:20.187
And that's what we that's that is the gospel.

412
00:22:20.707 --> 00:22:21.548
The old things have passed away.

413
00:22:21.588 --> 00:22:22.709
Behold, all things have become new.

414
00:22:23.409 --> 00:22:25.771
There is a creation story in all of us.

415
00:22:26.411 --> 00:22:28.152
And that should never stop.

416
00:22:28.292 --> 00:22:33.276
And what John is doing with Jesus, even in the overture is even as you read it in the beginning.

417
00:22:33.616 --> 00:22:36.598
Oh, wait, I remember a phrase like that.

418
00:22:36.918 --> 00:22:39.219
Well, it's Genesis 1 in the beginning.

419
00:22:40.280 --> 00:22:41.761
He talks about being the light of the world.

420
00:22:41.781 --> 00:22:43.502
He talks about all things being made through him.

421
00:22:43.542 --> 00:22:45.743
He talks about that darkness cannot overcome it.

422
00:22:45.763 --> 00:22:47.304
So the chaos and the light shows up.

423
00:22:47.684 --> 00:22:52.146
So everything about the overture is John saying, okay, it starts here.

424
00:22:53.107 --> 00:22:58.290
Yeah, this is, and for us, 2 Corinthians 5.17, Paul's letter to Corinth.

425
00:22:58.750 --> 00:23:02.232
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.

426
00:23:03.307 --> 00:23:05.349
Old life has gone, new life has begun.

427
00:23:05.829 --> 00:23:09.212
Well, and every person who trusts in Jesus gets a new Genesis, right?

428
00:23:09.272 --> 00:23:10.393
It gets a new creation.

429
00:23:10.573 --> 00:23:16.157
And Jesus is, and so this is why it's important because Jesus is not just from the beginning, he is the beginning.

430
00:23:16.277 --> 00:23:17.739
In the beginning was the beginning.

431
00:23:17.939 --> 00:23:19.880
That is the way you should read that statement.

432
00:23:20.301 --> 00:23:22.362
In the beginning was the beginning.

433
00:23:22.543 --> 00:23:26.045
That's, he started it all because he was at the beginning of it all.

434
00:23:26.566 --> 00:23:30.449
And so John is echoing the story of Genesis in the creation story.

435
00:23:31.290 --> 00:23:34.312
And so what is Jesus to you and I?

436
00:23:36.174 --> 00:23:36.974
He is the beginning.

437
00:23:38.676 --> 00:23:39.917
Our life starts with Jesus.

438
00:23:41.358 --> 00:23:46.322
Any follower of Jesus, anyone who trusts in Jesus, he is now your beginning.

439
00:23:47.243 --> 00:23:50.105
That's why Paul says, Christ lives in me.

440
00:23:50.565 --> 00:23:51.526
I no longer live.

441
00:23:52.127 --> 00:23:52.947
Christ lives in me.

442
00:23:53.067 --> 00:23:55.049
I am a new creation in Christ Jesus.

443
00:23:55.109 --> 00:23:56.010
It's a fresh beginning.

444
00:23:56.030 --> 00:23:56.330
Yeah.

445
00:23:56.490 --> 00:23:59.451
And so the creation— He's a god of do-over.

446
00:23:59.551 --> 00:24:04.654
And the language of creation should give you an imagination too, right?

447
00:24:04.774 --> 00:24:07.835
All of this should make you go, oh, wow, okay, there's more to this.

448
00:24:07.915 --> 00:24:11.197
Because in the beginning was the beginning, and at the beginning is me with Christ.

449
00:24:11.637 --> 00:24:13.057
He is the new beginning of me.

450
00:24:13.337 --> 00:24:15.418
I am starting again.

451
00:24:16.259 --> 00:24:19.420
The Living Bible says, before anything else existed, there was Christ.

452
00:24:19.640 --> 00:24:23.382
William Barclay says, when the world had its beginning, the Word was already there.

453
00:24:23.882 --> 00:24:25.783
We are in the beginning people.

454
00:24:26.850 --> 00:24:29.672
When we wake up every day, the mercies are new.

455
00:24:29.792 --> 00:24:33.275
There is a new beginning to the way I live my life.

456
00:24:33.796 --> 00:24:39.480
That isn't even to say, because I think sometimes we can read this and we can even be these New Testament people who go, well, the Old Testament doesn't matter.

457
00:24:39.520 --> 00:24:39.820
No, no, no.

458
00:24:40.220 --> 00:24:42.502
John is echoing the Old Testament story.

459
00:24:42.842 --> 00:24:46.145
So when Moses has, again, they can do all the signs.

460
00:24:46.305 --> 00:24:50.909
Okay, well, Jesus doing signs, but then he begins to say, and what does Moses do?

461
00:24:51.249 --> 00:24:53.451
The great I am statement, right?

462
00:24:53.531 --> 00:24:54.711
I am who I say I am.

463
00:24:54.852 --> 00:24:55.152
I am.

464
00:24:55.432 --> 00:24:56.132
Who are you?

465
00:24:56.272 --> 00:24:56.592
I am.

466
00:24:57.392 --> 00:25:01.713
Here's Jesus now taking that same phrasing and saying, I am.

467
00:25:01.894 --> 00:25:09.195
So Jesus, even in saying it that way, is echoing what we've always known about the Old Testament, is that God is.

468
00:25:09.315 --> 00:25:10.075
Well, Jesus is.

469
00:25:10.436 --> 00:25:12.236
So Jesus is as God is.

470
00:25:12.716 --> 00:25:16.837
And so this whole, and I think that's, again, why we read the Gospel of John.

471
00:25:16.937 --> 00:25:19.618
You are, the whole thread's coming together.

472
00:25:19.638 --> 00:25:20.178
It's all being

473
00:25:25.699 --> 00:25:26.520
Yeah, he.

474
00:25:26.680 --> 00:25:29.243
OK, let me read the first five verses.

475
00:25:29.303 --> 00:25:30.164
Now I get into John.

476
00:25:34.232 --> 00:25:35.213
Listen, two episodes.

477
00:25:35.733 --> 00:25:38.515
You might need to bump it up a little bit.

478
00:25:38.535 --> 00:25:39.576
Get through the first three verses.

479
00:25:39.596 --> 00:25:44.759
Because, well, we're going to get to John the Baptist, which is in the first chapter of John.

480
00:25:44.799 --> 00:25:46.060
He talks about John the Baptist.

481
00:25:46.500 --> 00:25:48.121
In the beginning, the Word already existed.

482
00:25:48.141 --> 00:25:48.981
The Word was with God.

483
00:25:49.001 --> 00:25:49.802
The Word was God.

484
00:25:49.822 --> 00:25:51.523
He existed in the beginning with God.

485
00:25:52.184 --> 00:25:54.345
God created everything through Christ.

486
00:25:54.425 --> 00:25:57.027
Nothing created except through Him.

487
00:25:57.147 --> 00:26:02.270
The Word gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to God.

488
00:26:02.665 --> 00:26:03.345
To everyone.

489
00:26:04.986 --> 00:26:06.287
The light shines in the darkness.

490
00:26:06.327 --> 00:26:08.167
Darkness can never extinguish it.

491
00:26:08.207 --> 00:26:14.490
That's the exponential power of the law of displacement that when you leave this room, you don't turn on the dark switch.

492
00:26:15.150 --> 00:26:15.410
Right.

493
00:26:15.710 --> 00:26:15.870
Yeah.

494
00:26:16.051 --> 00:26:17.091
You just turn off the light.

495
00:26:17.491 --> 00:26:17.711
Right.

496
00:26:18.271 --> 00:26:21.433
And so light always displaces darkness.

497
00:26:21.873 --> 00:26:22.073
Right.

498
00:26:22.773 --> 00:26:26.195
So that's why for us in our lives, we just need more.

499
00:26:26.975 --> 00:26:27.976
of him.

500
00:26:28.036 --> 00:26:31.679
And Jesus does say, not to tie it, Jesus does say, I'm the light of the world.

501
00:26:32.420 --> 00:26:35.423
He said it at a festival where at that night they would have lit up the temple.

502
00:26:36.043 --> 00:26:42.529
The temple would have been, I mean, the candelavers that were probably, you know, anywhere 50 to 70 feet in the air just lit up.

503
00:26:43.330 --> 00:26:45.311
And you would have seen it all throughout the city.

504
00:26:46.092 --> 00:26:52.015
And Jesus, in that context, is saying, I am the light of the world.

505
00:26:52.215 --> 00:26:52.575
I am.

506
00:26:52.955 --> 00:26:55.257
He is saying, I'm brighter than the temple.

507
00:26:55.697 --> 00:26:56.557
Wow.

508
00:26:56.798 --> 00:26:57.718
I am now the light.

509
00:26:57.738 --> 00:27:02.141
And again, he's not chastising or diminishing the temple.

510
00:27:02.161 --> 00:27:05.943
He is saying that what we do in the earth cannot...

511
00:27:06.523 --> 00:27:13.391
come close to who he is, he is supplanting that as it is a testimony of who he is.

512
00:27:14.151 --> 00:27:16.114
And so Jesus saying, I am the light of the world.

513
00:27:16.474 --> 00:27:20.679
Again, all these statements are not just, they are, they are declarations of identity.

514
00:27:20.859 --> 00:27:21.179
Right.

515
00:27:22.460 --> 00:27:25.203
And, and so I think this is why,

516
00:27:27.502 --> 00:27:33.223
John 1, and really the first few verses, I'm the light of the world, in the beginning.

517
00:27:33.363 --> 00:27:36.704
All these things matter so much, and they are throughout the book.

518
00:27:36.944 --> 00:27:38.544
They're throughout the story of John.

519
00:27:38.584 --> 00:27:43.025
He is tying all of these things together, right?

520
00:27:43.125 --> 00:27:45.825
He's making them all work.

521
00:27:46.666 --> 00:27:53.287
And it's why that overture, right, the symphony within the symphony, is so important.

522
00:27:54.191 --> 00:28:02.679
I, you know, John nine, I did a message that you asked me to go, you know, as we did all this, as you went through John, you asked me to do John nine.

523
00:28:03.239 --> 00:28:11.086
And what came to me out of the man being healed of blindness is this is a man who had a dark past and now has a bright future.

524
00:28:11.746 --> 00:28:21.255
So when we talk about the light, that whole theme, in fact, what was funny is that Sunday and people still, in fact, your mom still wears her sunglasses.

525
00:28:21.895 --> 00:28:22.896
Oh, you brought, that's right.

526
00:28:22.916 --> 00:28:23.576
You got a bunch of sunglasses.

527
00:28:23.596 --> 00:28:28.140
I brought sunglasses for everybody because I said your future is bright because this man was a dark past.

528
00:28:28.260 --> 00:28:29.141
Yeah.

529
00:28:29.381 --> 00:28:30.842
But he now has a bright future.

530
00:28:30.862 --> 00:28:32.583
And that's what Jesus does, brings light to us.

531
00:28:32.643 --> 00:28:34.705
Okay, let's go into John 1.

532
00:28:35.325 --> 00:28:42.971
And I'm fascinated by this part, which is where John the Baptist came as a testimony.

533
00:28:42.991 --> 00:28:45.733
Now, John is writing about things that...

534
00:28:46.972 --> 00:28:48.352
We're received from Christ.

535
00:28:48.372 --> 00:28:50.813
So this first overture, what did you do?

536
00:28:50.873 --> 00:28:52.293
Spend six weeks on the overture?

537
00:28:52.653 --> 00:28:53.674
Yeah, I think we did actually.

538
00:28:53.694 --> 00:29:00.095
I think we spent and I'll say, let me read this line because Leonard Sweet is one of my favorite guys.

539
00:29:00.315 --> 00:29:05.996
But he said this and I think this is this would be a good way to sum this up, because why do we read the Gospel of John?

540
00:29:07.517 --> 00:29:09.757
And because it's easy to to miss this.

541
00:29:10.077 --> 00:29:10.597
He just said this.

542
00:29:10.617 --> 00:29:13.398
The end product of a biblical Christianity is a person.

543
00:29:13.758 --> 00:29:20.063
Not a book, not a building, not a set of principles or a system of ethics, but one person in two natures, divine and human.

544
00:29:20.463 --> 00:29:29.531
Again, so what we want, our hope, our desire, when you're reading the Gospel of John, is that you have a revelation of a person in Christ who is now reigning.

545
00:29:30.411 --> 00:29:32.972
And that's the desire.

546
00:29:32.992 --> 00:29:39.013
So even as you read this overture that has all this poetic, I mean, most quoted scriptures in history.

547
00:29:39.473 --> 00:29:41.473
And John is quoted very often, right?

548
00:29:41.493 --> 00:29:42.273
He's got a few good ones.

549
00:29:42.293 --> 00:29:42.973
He's got a few bangers.

550
00:29:43.613 --> 00:29:52.135
But there is something important that when we read these things, statements, signs, all the above, that we get a revelation of Jesus, of the person.

551
00:29:53.815 --> 00:29:55.536
And then you want to, okay, John the Baptist.

552
00:29:55.556 --> 00:29:56.256
Yeah, because you liked it.

553
00:29:57.854 --> 00:29:59.555
one key part, which I think is really good.

554
00:29:59.635 --> 00:30:02.215
Yeah, no, I think it's great because it's got a great illustration.

555
00:30:02.636 --> 00:30:11.599
You know what, what we're talking about here, when you talk about chapter one, it's John doesn't start with a baby in a manger, right?

556
00:30:11.619 --> 00:30:14.940
He starts with the creator of all things.

557
00:30:15.180 --> 00:30:17.741
He starts with a lightning bolt, right?

558
00:30:17.841 --> 00:30:20.321
It's like, bam, he's the light of the world.

559
00:30:20.741 --> 00:30:20.942
Right.

560
00:30:20.962 --> 00:30:22.042
This already was.

561
00:30:22.642 --> 00:30:24.463
So then here's John the Baptist.

562
00:30:24.503 --> 00:30:29.486
And John the Baptist is going around saying, you know, getting people baptized.

563
00:30:29.706 --> 00:30:29.906
Yep.

564
00:30:30.546 --> 00:30:33.248
He's proclaiming that the Messiah is coming.

565
00:30:33.328 --> 00:30:34.928
He's proclaiming the year of the Lord.

566
00:30:34.948 --> 00:30:38.010
He's proclaiming salvation.

567
00:30:38.310 --> 00:30:38.510
Yep.

568
00:30:40.051 --> 00:30:40.631
Eating locusts.

569
00:30:41.312 --> 00:30:42.092
Eating locusts.

570
00:30:43.333 --> 00:30:44.873
Wearing, I don't know.

571
00:30:45.454 --> 00:30:46.514
He's not wearing Dockers.

572
00:30:48.015 --> 00:30:50.596
Well, maybe that was the year.

573
00:30:50.636 --> 00:30:51.437
Maybe it's quality.

574
00:30:53.280 --> 00:30:54.283
Yeah, John the Baptist.

575
00:30:54.323 --> 00:30:56.550
I think the part you liked, the part that...

576
00:30:56.630 --> 00:30:57.974
Honestly, the part that I liked...

577
00:30:59.267 --> 00:31:00.868
was he's doing all the baptism.

578
00:31:00.928 --> 00:31:05.531
He's proclaiming, he's baptizing them in a river that they weren't allowed to be baptized in because it was dirty.

579
00:31:06.651 --> 00:31:07.632
I love the symbolism here.

580
00:31:07.752 --> 00:31:08.372
There's a lot of metaphors.

581
00:31:08.392 --> 00:31:13.855
Jesus gets baptized in the river that nobody, outside the city, in a river that is dirty.

582
00:31:14.135 --> 00:31:15.036
Nobody's allowed to go in there.

583
00:31:15.136 --> 00:31:21.059
And here's Jesus identifying with the dirtiest parts of, you know, people's view, at least.

584
00:31:21.840 --> 00:31:23.281
Well, the religious people.

585
00:31:23.681 --> 00:31:25.262
Yeah, and John, yeah, right.

586
00:31:25.322 --> 00:31:25.642
Well, yeah.

587
00:31:26.409 --> 00:31:28.950
Yeah, but sometimes we all agree on what we think is dirty.

588
00:31:29.490 --> 00:31:32.431
What we all think is like, I wouldn't go on that.

589
00:31:32.911 --> 00:31:37.492
And so John the Baptist is saying things like repent, right?

590
00:31:37.532 --> 00:31:37.973
New kingdom.

591
00:31:38.553 --> 00:31:39.433
Something else is happening.

592
00:31:40.713 --> 00:31:46.335
And he's doing it while looking a little bit unkempt, right?

593
00:31:47.135 --> 00:31:48.576
He is a little bit radical.

594
00:31:48.856 --> 00:31:49.896
Yeah, for sure.

595
00:31:49.956 --> 00:31:51.037
He's just a radical.

596
00:31:51.057 --> 00:31:52.817
But he is declaring something new.

597
00:31:53.157 --> 00:31:54.638
And he is the forerunner of it.

598
00:31:55.738 --> 00:32:02.880
And he's baptizing, which is something reserved for a particular type of person and a religious leader or teacher of the day.

599
00:32:03.440 --> 00:32:05.240
And so people are upset about it.

600
00:32:06.281 --> 00:32:08.321
And so they show up and they ask him a question.

601
00:32:08.341 --> 00:32:11.462
This is the part that you and I both really resonate with.

602
00:32:11.522 --> 00:32:19.304
And it's not the part that people tend to focus on because the progression of the statement is—and this is honestly interesting about John 1.

603
00:32:19.324 --> 00:32:24.305
Because John 1, you've got this brilliant overture about Jesus in the beginning and all these things.

604
00:32:25.405 --> 00:32:25.985
Okay, here's John.

605
00:32:26.666 --> 00:32:29.447
And it's quick, and then it's calling disciples, and then it's into signs.

606
00:32:29.847 --> 00:32:34.350
That's John the Baptist, or sorry, John's gospel is running at a rapid rate.

607
00:32:34.690 --> 00:32:37.832
Like, it is not as, it's fast moving.

608
00:32:38.132 --> 00:32:39.913
It's, you're into the story immediately.

609
00:32:40.633 --> 00:32:46.376
And so we're going overture, you know, we're feeling all the vibes, and then, okay, here's this dude.

610
00:32:46.936 --> 00:32:48.377
And it's the same way even in the overture.

611
00:32:48.397 --> 00:32:51.699
You've got this random moment where it's, and there was a man named John.

612
00:32:52.259 --> 00:32:54.299
And then it goes back into the poetic, right?

613
00:32:54.339 --> 00:32:57.360
It's a very kind of random moment to introduce John.

614
00:32:57.440 --> 00:32:59.341
And I think this is, but that's us, right?

615
00:32:59.421 --> 00:33:06.422
We get to be introduced into the story of this incredible poetic storytelling God who's doing all these things.

616
00:33:06.522 --> 00:33:10.163
And then he puts Paul and Brandon in the middle of that story.

617
00:33:10.683 --> 00:33:16.084
That is the testament of the gospel is that you and I get thrown in to be these people who

618
00:33:16.184 --> 00:33:40.063
are forerunners foretellers we prepare the way right and so when john the baptist is doing this they come and ask him and this is i'll just read it because i think this is one of my favorite parts uh this is john's testimony when the jews from jerusalem is john 1 verse 19 sent priests and levites to ask him who are you he did not refuse to answer so that's interesting he didn't like plead the fifth he didn't go like oh i don't i don't want to get in trouble

619
00:33:41.715 --> 00:33:43.576
which is what they're kind of alluding to.

620
00:33:45.076 --> 00:33:46.856
He says, who are you?

621
00:33:47.036 --> 00:33:50.217
He did not refuse the answer, but he declared, I am not the Messiah.

622
00:33:52.217 --> 00:33:55.658
I just, that's the weirdest answer to that question.

623
00:33:55.718 --> 00:33:56.338
Who are you?

624
00:33:57.518 --> 00:33:59.659
If someone came to me and goes, hey, who are you?

625
00:33:59.679 --> 00:34:01.479
And I'd be like, I'm not my dad.

626
00:34:02.739 --> 00:34:03.680
That's the first statement.

627
00:34:03.700 --> 00:34:04.320
Or who are you?

628
00:34:04.400 --> 00:34:06.260
I'm not Ian or Jesse.

629
00:34:06.480 --> 00:34:07.921
Or like, who are you?

630
00:34:08.261 --> 00:34:09.341
I'm not that person.

631
00:34:09.661 --> 00:34:09.881
Yeah.

632
00:34:10.804 --> 00:34:11.084
What?

633
00:34:12.305 --> 00:34:13.145
Not Michael Jordan.

634
00:34:13.526 --> 00:34:15.527
And I think what it's... Yeah, right.

635
00:34:15.707 --> 00:34:16.548
Well, that one...

636
00:34:16.648 --> 00:34:18.048
It was close.

637
00:34:18.889 --> 00:34:21.911
But I think that one is... You were a one, he was a two.

638
00:34:22.231 --> 00:34:23.152
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

639
00:34:23.892 --> 00:34:24.753
Well, maybe flip those.

640
00:34:25.293 --> 00:34:27.194
But, oh, yeah, point guard, I get you.

641
00:34:27.234 --> 00:34:27.594
I see you.

642
00:34:27.814 --> 00:34:28.435
I see you, Dad.

643
00:34:29.615 --> 00:34:39.982
But I think what John is doing with John the Baptist in this moment is, and what John the Baptist is doing, and what he's saying is, it doesn't really matter.

644
00:34:41.291 --> 00:34:42.552
I'm here to make much of Jesus.

645
00:34:43.532 --> 00:34:49.435
And I think in the context, the reason we were doing that was we were doing a series called The Making of a Disciple.

646
00:34:50.456 --> 00:34:55.158
And I don't know about you, but I'm sure you've had some I am not him.

647
00:34:56.119 --> 00:34:57.980
My son will do this if he does a good place.

648
00:34:58.020 --> 00:34:58.840
Like a new phrase.

649
00:34:59.120 --> 00:35:00.061
No, I want to hear this one.

650
00:35:00.081 --> 00:35:05.884
There's a new phrase that's around now that's like if you do something, you turn around, you let the crowd know I'm him.

651
00:35:05.904 --> 00:35:07.605
I am him.

652
00:35:09.319 --> 00:35:10.280
Define it however you want.

653
00:35:10.480 --> 00:35:11.761
Like, you made one shot, dude.

654
00:35:11.801 --> 00:35:13.462
Like, relax.

655
00:35:13.962 --> 00:35:14.763
But I'm him.

656
00:35:14.783 --> 00:35:16.064
It started with a bowler.

657
00:35:17.005 --> 00:35:17.765
Oh, I didn't know that.

658
00:35:17.785 --> 00:35:19.127
These are the random things.

659
00:35:19.287 --> 00:35:19.567
I don't.

660
00:35:19.727 --> 00:35:23.110
That statement started with a guy who's bowling.

661
00:35:23.750 --> 00:35:26.752
And he's just been getting hassled by people.

662
00:35:27.573 --> 00:35:31.176
And he kind of gets a little crude in it.

663
00:35:31.816 --> 00:35:37.101
But he hits this strike to win this game against some guy coming back.

664
00:35:38.005 --> 00:35:40.846
And he just turns around and goes, I'm him.

665
00:35:41.606 --> 00:35:45.547
Like, you know, you guys talk about all this stuff.

666
00:35:45.587 --> 00:35:48.428
Well, it's a desire that lives in all of us to validate ourselves.

667
00:35:48.468 --> 00:35:49.088
Yeah, right.

668
00:35:49.229 --> 00:35:50.869
To be the reason we are awesome.

669
00:35:51.249 --> 00:35:54.410
To somehow be the reason our life is good.

670
00:35:54.510 --> 00:35:56.251
To be the reason we're successful.

671
00:35:56.271 --> 00:35:58.872
To be the reason we have a status.

672
00:35:59.332 --> 00:36:03.073
There's all kinds of, and even now, most of the advertisements you see,

673
00:36:03.873 --> 00:36:08.357
And there's a great marketing program, which is like the marketing is that the business is the guide and you're the hero.

674
00:36:08.377 --> 00:36:11.599
So everything, even about marketing now is about the person being the hero.

675
00:36:11.639 --> 00:36:16.363
So like we're fed this idea over and over again that we are him.

676
00:36:16.383 --> 00:36:16.884
Yeah.

677
00:36:17.104 --> 00:36:20.627
And so tell them what, what, what, uh, Gray did though.

678
00:36:21.167 --> 00:36:21.788
Oh, I don't know.

679
00:36:21.888 --> 00:36:23.611
I think he's done I'm Him a few times.

680
00:36:23.651 --> 00:36:29.078
I think you're talking about he's a bit of a gamer.

681
00:36:29.158 --> 00:36:30.200
He's the quietest kid.

682
00:36:30.420 --> 00:36:31.902
You won't get him to shake your hand.

683
00:36:32.283 --> 00:36:35.487
He's a quiet kid until he gets on a basketball court.

684
00:36:36.008 --> 00:36:37.210
And he's actually pretty decent.

685
00:36:37.630 --> 00:36:39.071
He's really good.

686
00:36:39.211 --> 00:36:46.555
And so I think the crowd was, I think two different weekends in the playoffs, one guy was taunting because he would always go to the right.

687
00:36:46.595 --> 00:36:48.897
He's nine, so he likes to go where he likes to go.

688
00:36:49.117 --> 00:36:49.997
Parents are yelling.

689
00:36:50.017 --> 00:36:54.400
And so there's dad on the other side saying, he's going to the right, he's going to the right.

690
00:36:54.860 --> 00:36:57.441
I think the third or fourth time I kept hearing it, I wasn't going to tell Gray.

691
00:36:57.461 --> 00:36:58.402
I was going to let him figure it out.

692
00:36:58.902 --> 00:37:02.964
And Gray immediately switched hands and dribbled from the right side.

693
00:37:02.984 --> 00:37:04.184
You know, he's at half court.

694
00:37:04.364 --> 00:37:04.525
Yeah.

695
00:37:04.585 --> 00:37:06.545
Dribbled his left hand all the way to the other side.

696
00:37:06.565 --> 00:37:08.326
And I hear the dad go, I think he heard me.

697
00:37:08.526 --> 00:37:08.847
Yeah.

698
00:37:09.207 --> 00:37:09.647
And, uh,

699
00:37:09.947 --> 00:37:13.552
And then the other time is in the championship game, which we ended up losing, which is a bummer.

700
00:37:13.612 --> 00:37:14.533
I think the coach failed.

701
00:37:14.793 --> 00:37:15.234
I'm the coach.

702
00:37:15.854 --> 00:37:21.401
And he made a good play because these guys were loud and yelling, and it's all right to do that.

703
00:37:22.443 --> 00:37:25.146
And Gray, instead of just coming off the court clapping –

704
00:37:25.947 --> 00:37:30.569
He turned to the parents and started just clapping.

705
00:37:30.989 --> 00:37:33.210
So I've got, you know, listen, I'd rather him.

706
00:37:33.230 --> 00:37:35.410
So he's got that little thing of I'm him.

707
00:37:35.430 --> 00:37:36.571
Yeah, a little bit of I'm him.

708
00:37:36.591 --> 00:37:36.911
I'm him.

709
00:37:36.951 --> 00:37:39.432
But we all do that, and we all want to be able to do that.

710
00:37:39.472 --> 00:37:43.473
We all want to be able to validate our own breath and existence, and somehow we're the ones who made us.

711
00:37:43.493 --> 00:37:44.413
And here comes John.

712
00:37:45.114 --> 00:37:48.115
And so John the Baptist is saying to you,

713
00:37:48.995 --> 00:37:49.576
I'm not him.

714
00:37:50.757 --> 00:37:55.843
And honestly, and it was the first week of our making of a disciple because a disciple is here to make much of Jesus.

715
00:37:55.943 --> 00:37:57.465
So when someone says to you, who are you?

716
00:37:57.525 --> 00:37:58.867
Well, I'm the one who lives in Christ.

717
00:38:00.168 --> 00:38:04.413
And I know that can be a bit of an ego hit because, well, but God's given me gifts.

718
00:38:04.674 --> 00:38:07.177
And I'm not telling any of you that that's not true.

719
00:38:07.797 --> 00:38:08.617
That's not real.

720
00:38:09.118 --> 00:38:14.619
But what we can often forget or drift from is that I wasn't the gift giver.

721
00:38:15.119 --> 00:38:17.260
And I wasn't the one who—I'm not the teacher.

722
00:38:17.740 --> 00:38:18.340
I'm the student.

723
00:38:18.480 --> 00:38:21.561
I'm the one who—I'm not the one who sent the Holy Spirit to me.

724
00:38:22.662 --> 00:38:26.603
I'm not the one who gave myself eyes that blink and a mouth that breathes.

725
00:38:28.484 --> 00:38:33.366
I am a created person, and I am not the one who's going to save the world either.

726
00:38:33.886 --> 00:38:38.248
Even as a dad or as a husband, as a pastor, as a friend, I'm not the Savior.

727
00:38:38.288 --> 00:38:39.309
Can I be of assistance?

728
00:38:39.529 --> 00:38:40.049
Can I help?

729
00:38:40.929 --> 00:38:41.170
Yes.

730
00:38:41.570 --> 00:38:48.353
But the greatest way for me to do that is to do what John the Baptist is doing here, is he's setting them up to say, I'm not the Messiah.

731
00:38:48.793 --> 00:38:49.774
Well, who are you?

732
00:38:49.874 --> 00:38:50.554
Well, are you Elijah?

733
00:38:50.574 --> 00:38:50.994
No, no, no.

734
00:38:51.114 --> 00:38:51.895
Are you this guy?

735
00:38:51.915 --> 00:38:52.215
No, no, no.

736
00:38:53.258 --> 00:38:54.900
I am the one who's telling about him.

737
00:38:55.020 --> 00:38:56.962
He still hasn't even introduced himself.

738
00:38:57.902 --> 00:39:02.307
The first three or four statements out of his mouth are all to point to Jesus.

739
00:39:02.747 --> 00:39:08.192
And one of the greatest ways for you and I to mess up our identity is to root it in ourselves.

740
00:39:09.393 --> 00:39:14.738
And there's a lot of, like, we do need to be self-aware and we need to know ourselves.

741
00:39:14.758 --> 00:39:16.380
But we don't need to be self-obsessed.

742
00:39:17.272 --> 00:39:17.812
Wow.

743
00:39:17.933 --> 00:39:21.035
Because it... We live in a culture that's very self-obsessed.

744
00:39:21.415 --> 00:39:21.956
Yeah.

745
00:39:22.216 --> 00:39:23.397
Individualistic kind of thing.

746
00:39:23.457 --> 00:39:26.519
But I also think there's a culture that's beginning to realize it doesn't work.

747
00:39:26.919 --> 00:39:27.600
Right.

748
00:39:27.660 --> 00:39:29.862
That thing begins to fall in on itself really, really quickly.

749
00:39:31.363 --> 00:39:34.866
But I think what John is doing is he doesn't have a Messiah complex, right?

750
00:39:35.146 --> 00:39:36.187
I am not...

751
00:39:36.887 --> 00:39:37.107
Him.

752
00:39:37.247 --> 00:39:48.114
Jesus' response reminds us that as important or even critical as it is to know who one is, it may be just as or even more important to know who or what one is not.

753
00:39:49.215 --> 00:39:52.417
I don't need to start by saying, I'm good.

754
00:39:52.517 --> 00:39:54.338
I need to start with, he's good.

755
00:39:54.979 --> 00:39:55.879
I am not the Messiah.

756
00:39:56.040 --> 00:39:57.400
I'm not the one who has to save everyone.

757
00:39:57.521 --> 00:39:59.582
I'm not the one who has to figure all of these things out.

758
00:39:59.762 --> 00:40:00.723
I'm not the bread of life.

759
00:40:00.803 --> 00:40:01.783
I'm not the light of the world.

760
00:40:01.863 --> 00:40:02.864
I'm not the resurrection.

761
00:40:03.024 --> 00:40:04.245
I am not the way, the truth, and the life.

762
00:40:04.705 --> 00:40:05.426
I am not him.

763
00:40:06.705 --> 00:40:13.067
And in that humility, and in is a great discovery of who I can be in Christ, right?

764
00:40:13.087 --> 00:40:14.588
And how I can live into that.

765
00:40:15.448 --> 00:40:23.691
William Barclay says this, he is the great example, John the Baptist, of a man prepared to obliterate himself in order that Jesus Christ may be seen.

766
00:40:24.271 --> 00:40:27.972
He was only, as he saw it, a finger post pointing to Christ.

767
00:40:28.573 --> 00:40:33.694
God give us grace to forget ourselves and to remember only Christ.

768
00:40:35.790 --> 00:40:36.410
So strong.

769
00:40:37.130 --> 00:40:38.851
So, uh, okay.

770
00:40:38.871 --> 00:40:39.651
This is great.

771
00:40:39.671 --> 00:40:48.414
So we're stirring things up is what we've talked about in the brave men podcast, stirring things up so that we look into the word of God.

772
00:40:48.474 --> 00:40:49.414
We can see Jesus.

773
00:40:49.534 --> 00:40:49.754
Yeah.

774
00:40:50.254 --> 00:40:58.737
So that Christ in us, us in Christ, so that we begin to live following Jesus.

775
00:40:59.920 --> 00:41:05.367
with his mindset in us, the Spirit of God in us.

776
00:41:05.467 --> 00:41:10.934
Jesus said, I send a comforter, the Holy Spirit, who will lead you into all righteousness.

777
00:41:11.615 --> 00:41:14.639
And so we live in a world that's full of crisis.

778
00:41:14.679 --> 00:41:15.560
We live in a world that's...

779
00:41:16.321 --> 00:41:23.684
You know, in the United States, every culture of the world, fatherlessness is a leading indicator of of what's happening in culture.

780
00:41:23.704 --> 00:41:25.525
It's a leading indicator of poverty.

781
00:41:25.965 --> 00:41:30.207
We live in crisis and chaos, wars and rumors of wars.

782
00:41:31.158 --> 00:41:36.883
You know, right now, because when we're taping this, of course, there's things going on in the Middle East and Iran and all that.

783
00:41:36.903 --> 00:41:49.514
But, you know, there's over 100 other armed conflicts happening right now, whether it's southern Philippines or Eritrea or in Yemen or, you know, on the border of Thailand and Cambodia.

784
00:41:49.534 --> 00:41:51.635
They just kind of stopped, sort of, maybe.

785
00:41:52.096 --> 00:41:55.579
Pakistan, Afghanistan, they're fighting each other right now.

786
00:41:55.859 --> 00:41:58.942
These guys are shooting at each other in the midst of everything else.

787
00:41:59.622 --> 00:42:02.803
So there's always these sorts of things going on.

788
00:42:03.023 --> 00:42:08.464
And in the midst of this, where do we find our place of identity?

789
00:42:08.984 --> 00:42:11.144
Where do we find the place of peace?

790
00:42:11.664 --> 00:42:16.325
Where do we find the place of who I am, this solid rock?

791
00:42:16.845 --> 00:42:18.125
And we find that in Christ.

792
00:42:18.665 --> 00:42:24.206
I want to finish this particular episode in John 2, the wedding at Cana.

793
00:42:24.486 --> 00:42:24.686
Okay.

794
00:42:24.866 --> 00:42:27.887
Because this is a picture.

795
00:42:28.867 --> 00:42:30.488
And this is the beauty of what I like.

796
00:42:30.508 --> 00:42:31.209
This is a wedding.

797
00:42:31.809 --> 00:42:34.611
This is his first sign when we talk about the signs.

798
00:42:34.731 --> 00:42:37.613
And then the next episode, we'll get into the I am's.

799
00:42:38.074 --> 00:42:38.294
Okay.

800
00:42:38.474 --> 00:42:45.759
And all of that, what I'm hoping is for our friends and brothers watching, you'll get into the word, get into John.

801
00:42:47.020 --> 00:42:50.422
Hey, do you recommend you quoted N.T.

802
00:42:50.462 --> 00:42:50.763
Wright?

803
00:42:50.803 --> 00:42:51.743
You quoted some other people.

804
00:42:51.763 --> 00:42:53.665
Who do you recommend reading John?

805
00:42:53.685 --> 00:42:54.165
Oh, man.

806
00:42:54.265 --> 00:42:54.665
I...

807
00:42:55.681 --> 00:42:56.682
No, I think just read it.

808
00:42:56.822 --> 00:42:59.605
I don't know that I would—none of those are—I mean, N.T.

809
00:42:59.625 --> 00:43:01.607
Wright would have stuff on John for sure.

810
00:43:01.647 --> 00:43:04.910
William Barclay is a study Bible, so that's great.

811
00:43:05.010 --> 00:43:05.391
Okay.

812
00:43:05.531 --> 00:43:07.413
It's more written like a devotional.

813
00:43:07.633 --> 00:43:08.974
It'll take three verses and expand it.

814
00:43:08.994 --> 00:43:12.338
So reading the Gospel of John, I've got the NLT, New Living Translation.

815
00:43:12.538 --> 00:43:13.959
But William Barclay would be great.

816
00:43:14.119 --> 00:43:18.524
Grab his daily study Bible, and he's got a lot of interesting insights and stuff.

817
00:43:18.924 --> 00:43:20.765
So you take John.

818
00:43:20.845 --> 00:43:22.206
You can use a study Bible.

819
00:43:22.246 --> 00:43:23.707
I've got also a study Bible.

820
00:43:23.847 --> 00:43:30.130
Usually what I do is I'll go on to Bible Gateway.

821
00:43:30.230 --> 00:43:30.790
Gateway Bible.

822
00:43:30.810 --> 00:43:31.170
What is it?

823
00:43:31.671 --> 00:43:32.951
Yeah, BibleGateway.com.

824
00:43:32.971 --> 00:43:33.992
Blue Letter Bible.

825
00:43:35.272 --> 00:43:37.033
And I'll research different things.

826
00:43:37.073 --> 00:43:39.013
And what does this mean?

827
00:43:39.673 --> 00:43:45.454
And then you quoted Leonard Sweet, who's been my professor in my doctoral program.

828
00:43:45.734 --> 00:43:49.075
And Len's always got great stuff on his thing.

829
00:43:49.135 --> 00:44:00.997
So, man, my deal is when you begin to saturate yourself with the Word of God and with people who speak the Word, then out of your life, out of the overflow, comes the Word of God.

830
00:44:01.357 --> 00:44:01.577
Right.

831
00:44:04.638 --> 00:44:08.719
You know, there's this great picture of a guy who got healed of being demon possessed in Mark five.

832
00:44:09.560 --> 00:44:11.660
And it talks about how he went.

833
00:44:11.860 --> 00:44:13.381
Jesus said, go tell everybody.

834
00:44:13.401 --> 00:44:15.001
Well, what did he have to tell him?

835
00:44:15.681 --> 00:44:18.342
The only thing he had to tell him is I have an experience.

836
00:44:18.482 --> 00:44:23.704
My experience is with Christ and the overflow of that is what changed people's lives.

837
00:44:24.324 --> 00:44:26.525
Now, John chapter two, this is a wedding at Cana.

838
00:44:27.065 --> 00:44:29.425
I love this because there's a whole lot of little things that went on.

839
00:44:29.465 --> 00:44:30.826
This is his first miracle.

840
00:44:31.746 --> 00:44:34.369
And in that, he's at a wedding.

841
00:44:34.710 --> 00:44:37.272
He's got some of his disciples with him.

842
00:44:37.292 --> 00:44:38.814
It says the wine ran out.

843
00:44:39.715 --> 00:44:46.643
And Jesus' mother, Mary, comes to him and says, they don't have any more wine.

844
00:44:46.943 --> 00:44:48.405
This is a really funny moment.

845
00:44:48.845 --> 00:44:49.787
You know, the hey, hey.

846
00:44:50.601 --> 00:44:51.682
They don't have any more wine.

847
00:44:51.702 --> 00:44:51.942
Yeah.

848
00:44:52.543 --> 00:44:59.269
And now the translation, we've got to remember the guys, the first guys who translated this are, you know, guys in the 1700s.

849
00:45:00.009 --> 00:45:00.229
Right.

850
00:45:00.590 --> 00:45:02.612
You know, in England, they're a little stiff-necked.

851
00:45:03.272 --> 00:45:05.254
And you go, dear woman, that's not my problem.

852
00:45:05.955 --> 00:45:06.735
My time hasn't come.

853
00:45:07.336 --> 00:45:08.337
I think it's more like this.

854
00:45:08.557 --> 00:45:13.581
I think it's interesting because why would she even bring this to her son?

855
00:45:14.602 --> 00:45:14.822
Right?

856
00:45:15.323 --> 00:45:16.624
Like, hey, you got some money.

857
00:45:16.644 --> 00:45:17.365
You can go to the store.

858
00:45:17.405 --> 00:45:17.685
What's it?

859
00:45:19.146 --> 00:45:20.787
She goes, hey, they don't have any wine.

860
00:45:20.867 --> 00:45:24.989
So she's looking at him to solve a problem at this wedding.

861
00:45:25.189 --> 00:45:26.509
He's now 30 years old.

862
00:45:26.849 --> 00:45:28.090
He's got some disciples.

863
00:45:29.010 --> 00:45:29.991
And she comes to him.

864
00:45:30.331 --> 00:45:32.832
And for me, the conversation sort of goes like this.

865
00:45:33.492 --> 00:45:34.793
She goes up to Jesus.

866
00:45:35.373 --> 00:45:40.355
She says, hey, listen, you and I know who you are.

867
00:45:41.416 --> 00:45:43.097
You and I know you're the Messiah.

868
00:45:43.577 --> 00:45:44.317
You and I know.

869
00:45:44.337 --> 00:45:47.859
And he's like, mom, I'm not telling anybody that yet.

870
00:45:48.600 --> 00:45:49.461
I'm not doing that yet.

871
00:45:49.681 --> 00:45:51.242
I just got the first few disciples.

872
00:45:51.902 --> 00:45:54.384
And then she says, OK, but here's the deal.

873
00:45:54.784 --> 00:45:56.465
These are really close friends.

874
00:45:56.826 --> 00:45:57.806
These are family friends.

875
00:45:58.027 --> 00:45:58.687
We all know them.

876
00:45:58.787 --> 00:45:59.888
They ran out of wine.

877
00:46:00.148 --> 00:46:01.249
Just do something.

878
00:46:02.109 --> 00:46:06.432
And so he says, she turns to the servant.

879
00:46:06.973 --> 00:46:12.517
So the next scripture turns to the servant and says, hey, whatever he says to do, do that.

880
00:46:13.760 --> 00:46:16.442
Now, there's so many levels right here.

881
00:46:17.262 --> 00:46:25.508
But for me, the beauty of it is Mary says to you and me, hey, whatever he says to do, do that.

882
00:46:26.789 --> 00:46:31.892
And then he says to the servant, he says, hey, let me look.

883
00:46:31.952 --> 00:46:32.413
Hang on.

884
00:46:32.733 --> 00:46:34.314
There's six stone water jars.

885
00:46:34.354 --> 00:46:37.536
And these are the jars that they would wash people's feet with.

886
00:46:38.717 --> 00:46:39.838
So they wash their feet.

887
00:46:40.478 --> 00:46:41.259
They do all this.

888
00:46:42.399 --> 00:46:44.841
as people are coming in and out, six stone jars.

889
00:46:44.881 --> 00:46:46.402
So they're half full, maybe.

890
00:46:47.502 --> 00:46:50.464
And Jesus says to the servant, yeah, go ahead and fill those up.

891
00:46:50.504 --> 00:46:54.426
He didn't say clean them out, purify them, change anything.

892
00:46:54.767 --> 00:46:57.388
Just fill them up, right?

893
00:46:58.469 --> 00:47:00.650
And so they fill them up, so now they're full.

894
00:47:00.670 --> 00:47:05.133
And he says, okay, take a cup of that and take it to your boss.

895
00:47:06.454 --> 00:47:10.256
Now, the beauty of that to me is the servant who did that,

896
00:47:11.449 --> 00:47:14.056
I'm figuring is basically working hourly.

897
00:47:14.216 --> 00:47:15.058
He's a gig worker.

898
00:47:15.900 --> 00:47:17.865
He's like, I don't like this guy anyway.

899
00:47:17.885 --> 00:47:18.427
Yeah.

900
00:47:18.797 --> 00:47:19.957
I'm not getting paid that much.

901
00:47:20.738 --> 00:47:25.059
So he's going to reach in there and he's going to take what is dirty, right?

902
00:47:25.119 --> 00:47:31.020
Because this is right on all the like you think about the rags that they use to clean people's feet, their hands.

903
00:47:31.040 --> 00:47:34.661
So everybody had a jar of water at the front of their house.

904
00:47:35.562 --> 00:47:41.663
And so as you came in off the dusty road and off all those things, all that you'd have to constantly clean that.

905
00:47:42.043 --> 00:47:43.084
But they hadn't cleaned it.

906
00:47:43.224 --> 00:47:44.724
It's just these jars have gone down.

907
00:47:44.764 --> 00:47:48.145
They're full of dirt and muck and debris from the road.

908
00:47:49.441 --> 00:47:52.562
And he says, and they fill it up so it's still all in there.

909
00:47:52.582 --> 00:47:53.982
He says, yeah, take a cup of that.

910
00:47:54.803 --> 00:47:56.023
Give it to your boss.

911
00:47:56.143 --> 00:47:59.064
The guy's like, yeah, okay.

912
00:47:59.184 --> 00:48:00.664
Takes a cup of that, gives it to his boss.

913
00:48:01.224 --> 00:48:06.446
He takes it, drinks it, and then he says, this is the best wine ever.

914
00:48:08.006 --> 00:48:12.588
And at that point, the picture for me is that Jesus takes...

915
00:48:13.509 --> 00:48:20.538
the debris of our life, the dirt of our life, the things of our past, and makes it into something beautiful.

916
00:48:21.659 --> 00:48:23.081
And that's the picture.

917
00:48:23.322 --> 00:48:28.428
When we talk about the signs, the first sign of Christ doing something.

918
00:48:29.269 --> 00:48:39.173
for others is a picture of what he does in our lives as the light, the word, and the Messiah and who he is in our lives.

919
00:48:39.574 --> 00:48:39.834
Yeah.

920
00:48:40.094 --> 00:48:40.934
John chapter two.

921
00:48:41.074 --> 00:48:41.675
That's pretty good.

922
00:48:41.795 --> 00:48:42.575
Have you preached that before?

923
00:48:42.895 --> 00:48:43.896
Yeah.

924
00:48:44.256 --> 00:48:45.396
Yeah.

925
00:48:45.736 --> 00:48:46.577
A couple times.

926
00:48:47.137 --> 00:48:49.978
I love that because it's the picture of Jesus.

927
00:48:50.198 --> 00:48:51.059
It's what he does for us.

928
00:48:51.699 --> 00:48:53.840
Yeah, I think it's a lot.

929
00:48:53.860 --> 00:48:59.103
I think when you think about these signs, and I think that's absolutely true, the same way that John the Baptist is inserted in.

930
00:48:59.143 --> 00:49:01.984
Now, obviously, John the Baptist is a pretty important character.

931
00:49:02.004 --> 00:49:06.947
But I think, you know, we can tend to do this where we can kind of centralize ourselves in some of these stories.

932
00:49:07.427 --> 00:49:11.950
And I think one of the challenges for us as we read all of this is to always centralize Jesus.

933
00:49:11.990 --> 00:49:21.976
And what you're talking about is that Jesus, that's such the challenge is when you centralize or prioritize Jesus, there is something that happens in you.

934
00:49:22.156 --> 00:49:23.177
There's something that happens to you.

935
00:49:24.518 --> 00:49:32.045
But I would say this on the other side of Pentecost Sunday is to say that when Jesus ascends in our life, the Holy Spirit descends.

936
00:49:32.205 --> 00:49:36.630
And obviously there's some phrasing there that you could wrestle with doctrinally and all the things.

937
00:49:36.650 --> 00:49:41.274
But the point being that when I lift up Jesus, the Holy Spirit begins to do something in me.

938
00:49:41.294 --> 00:49:42.175
It renews my life.

939
00:49:42.435 --> 00:49:45.078
Because that's what you were talking about, Genesis.

940
00:49:45.298 --> 00:49:45.498
Yeah.

941
00:49:45.938 --> 00:49:47.379
That's the whole piece right there.

942
00:49:47.659 --> 00:49:50.379
We're a new beginning people, and the Holy Spirit was that creation.

943
00:49:50.459 --> 00:49:50.659
Wow.

944
00:49:51.080 --> 00:49:52.660
I think I would say this.

945
00:49:52.860 --> 00:49:53.500
There's a couple things.

946
00:49:53.560 --> 00:49:56.181
I was just looking over my notes as you were sharing.

947
00:49:58.382 --> 00:50:01.142
The miracle's weird.

948
00:50:01.322 --> 00:50:06.684
I say that to say when I look at all the other miracles, they're really a lot more impressive.

949
00:50:08.614 --> 00:50:10.356
They change the status of people.

950
00:50:11.979 --> 00:50:14.262
They change the physical ability or health of a person.

951
00:50:14.342 --> 00:50:14.582
Right.

952
00:50:15.443 --> 00:50:18.167
They answer a really, really important need.

953
00:50:19.149 --> 00:50:23.134
And the first miracle Jesus does is like keeps the party going.

954
00:50:25.535 --> 00:50:26.756
Maybe there's a picture right there.

955
00:50:26.776 --> 00:50:33.221
The worst thing that could have happened is, oh, yeah, we went to Phil's wedding and they ran out.

956
00:50:33.261 --> 00:50:34.422
On the third day.

957
00:50:34.462 --> 00:50:36.663
Yeah, we only got to drink for three days.

958
00:50:37.424 --> 00:50:37.784
Two days.

959
00:50:38.004 --> 00:50:40.106
And Jesus shows up in that moment.

960
00:50:40.426 --> 00:50:44.889
The first miracle that John— There's a picture right there.

961
00:50:45.009 --> 00:50:51.334
Well, I think one of the things, okay, and one of the things that I find really disheartening sometimes is—

962
00:50:52.935 --> 00:50:55.316
is that we don't treat Jesus as a God of joy.

963
00:50:56.296 --> 00:51:00.877
And yet the very first miracle he does is keeps, is keeps the joy going.

964
00:51:01.077 --> 00:51:02.138
It is, it is it.

965
00:51:02.938 --> 00:51:06.839
I don't think you can follow Jesus and remove joy from your vocabulary.

966
00:51:07.499 --> 00:51:14.601
I, I, I, that isn't to say that you get to, that you immediately also remove difficulty or challenge or pain or right.

967
00:51:14.641 --> 00:51:20.503
That's not the point, but it is to say that Jesus does somehow, some way in all things bring joy.

968
00:51:21.874 --> 00:51:25.459
Joy, happiness in and of itself can be a bit of a miracle.

969
00:51:25.640 --> 00:51:27.282
He brought light and lightness.

970
00:51:27.743 --> 00:51:27.923
Yeah.

971
00:51:28.344 --> 00:51:29.045
In that sense.

972
00:51:29.205 --> 00:51:31.749
I always tell people, people do really bad math with Psalms.

973
00:51:32.722 --> 00:51:33.222
Right.

974
00:51:33.622 --> 00:51:42.646
Lately it's become, and I know why, because there's a kickback against how there's been kind of this fake positive thing in the church where you can never talk about hard things.

975
00:51:42.726 --> 00:51:43.066
Right.

976
00:51:43.746 --> 00:51:48.107
So I know why people do this, but they'll go, well, a third of the Psalms is lament.

977
00:51:48.408 --> 00:51:48.648
Yeah.

978
00:51:49.088 --> 00:51:49.968
And I think that's true.

979
00:51:50.248 --> 00:51:51.469
And I think we should learn from that.

980
00:51:51.809 --> 00:51:57.311
I think my challenge is that it's bad math to live by that because two thirds of it isn't.

981
00:51:58.223 --> 00:51:58.703
Correct.

982
00:51:59.024 --> 00:52:02.127
And there is at least another third that is all praise.

983
00:52:02.347 --> 00:52:03.027
It's all praise.

984
00:52:03.308 --> 00:52:07.852
It's all God is, and he's great, and he's above, and he's defeated, and he's doing all these things.

985
00:52:07.932 --> 00:52:12.556
And even the lament ends up with, oh, soul, why are you passed down?

986
00:52:12.636 --> 00:52:13.477
Well, here's the lesson.

987
00:52:13.517 --> 00:52:15.959
To get true joy, you have to be willing to deal with true lament.

988
00:52:16.479 --> 00:52:20.643
You actually have to deal with the pains, and you have to be honest, and you have to look things in the face.

989
00:52:20.663 --> 00:52:22.184
You have to deal with the dirt in the jar.

990
00:52:22.284 --> 00:52:24.867
In the same way that these guys had to look at Jesus and go,

991
00:52:26.344 --> 00:52:30.388
You know, like mom had to go, hey, I kind of want to keep going.

992
00:52:30.868 --> 00:52:31.829
This has been good.

993
00:52:31.849 --> 00:52:34.332
I've just started a great convo with Susie over here.

994
00:52:34.392 --> 00:52:37.094
And like, I'd really like to keep that convo going.

995
00:52:38.155 --> 00:52:39.857
Can you do something about this?

996
00:52:39.937 --> 00:52:41.859
And Jesus is going, well, it's not my time yet.

997
00:52:42.620 --> 00:52:43.420
Mom's saying something.

998
00:52:43.781 --> 00:52:44.361
I think it's great.

999
00:52:44.502 --> 00:52:50.908
The other thing that's interesting, though, about this miracle is that it's on one, it's not nearly as impressive as the others.

1000
00:52:52.277 --> 00:52:53.437
In that sense, yeah.

1001
00:52:53.798 --> 00:52:54.238
Yeah.

1002
00:52:54.518 --> 00:53:03.041
I mean, it's just not – like, if I – if we put – you know, it's like stat, player A and player B, you know, ghost out their faces and then read their stat lines.

1003
00:53:03.361 --> 00:53:07.203
If you were like, okay, player A made some water into some wine –

1004
00:53:08.248 --> 00:53:08.528
Yeah.

1005
00:53:08.849 --> 00:53:11.752
And then you do player B and they're like, he raised that dude from the dead.

1006
00:53:11.812 --> 00:53:13.213
He raised somebody from the dead.

1007
00:53:13.233 --> 00:53:15.335
Like, which one are you picking for your team?

1008
00:53:15.696 --> 00:53:18.178
You'll take both of them, but you're picking the one, right?

1009
00:53:18.238 --> 00:53:19.780
I take the guy raising from the dead.

1010
00:53:19.900 --> 00:53:22.343
And Jesus uses this as his first introduction.

1011
00:53:22.523 --> 00:53:23.504
So that's number one.

1012
00:53:23.624 --> 00:53:31.389
Is that his primary thing to start was that he was, and people would have recognized this, the people of the day would have recognized that he's marrying.

1013
00:53:32.070 --> 00:53:33.751
He's come to be the bridegroom.

1014
00:53:34.511 --> 00:53:39.054
He's come that we would be those who understand our relationship to him.

1015
00:53:39.194 --> 00:53:39.735
A wedding?

1016
00:53:40.455 --> 00:53:42.216
We are the bridegroom of Christ.

1017
00:53:42.256 --> 00:53:43.876
We are the bride of Christ.

1018
00:53:43.916 --> 00:53:44.917
So many metaphors.

1019
00:53:44.937 --> 00:53:45.637
There's all these things.

1020
00:53:46.397 --> 00:54:00.282
And then what's happened is he's also, and people always catch this, because we don't have any evidence that somehow, like, that from this moment everybody finds out that it was Jesus.

1021
00:54:02.472 --> 00:54:03.073
Oh, yeah.

1022
00:54:03.293 --> 00:54:03.853
No, you're right.

1023
00:54:04.033 --> 00:54:12.080
The only person we know that knows it's Jesus that did this is the servant you're talking about and his buddies who were sitting there with him.

1024
00:54:12.120 --> 00:54:12.320
Yeah.

1025
00:54:12.480 --> 00:54:14.201
So it wasn't like the whole party got sent.

1026
00:54:14.221 --> 00:54:17.684
So this was not one of those, oh, I raised him from the dead and everybody saw me.

1027
00:54:17.704 --> 00:54:19.285
And it's a sign to preach the kingdom.

1028
00:54:19.325 --> 00:54:20.967
He didn't even preach.

1029
00:54:22.383 --> 00:54:26.384
This was in many ways an introduction to his disciples, those closest to him.

1030
00:54:26.404 --> 00:54:27.684
Hey, guys, here's what we're doing.

1031
00:54:27.864 --> 00:54:28.724
This is legit.

1032
00:54:28.844 --> 00:54:29.784
I am who I said I am.

1033
00:54:29.904 --> 00:54:31.085
This is about to happen.

1034
00:54:31.405 --> 00:54:37.246
And he had just told, and we don't know exactly the time gap, but he had just told Nathaniel, you will see greater things.

1035
00:54:37.906 --> 00:54:40.726
You think it's cool that I knew what you were thinking under the fig tree?

1036
00:54:40.866 --> 00:54:42.867
Okay, cool.

1037
00:54:43.867 --> 00:54:44.407
Watch this.

1038
00:54:44.727 --> 00:54:46.147
And then he does this miracle.

1039
00:54:46.167 --> 00:54:48.748
And he's got these guys around him, and he's going, hey, this is...

1040
00:54:50.354 --> 00:54:51.375
This is what's happening.

1041
00:54:51.435 --> 00:54:52.736
So I love the speed of this.

1042
00:54:52.756 --> 00:54:54.158
You were talking about the speed of John.

1043
00:54:54.178 --> 00:54:59.823
It goes right from there to the Passover and clearing the temple grounds.

1044
00:55:00.504 --> 00:55:01.164
Nicodemus.

1045
00:55:01.805 --> 00:55:02.145
Boom.

1046
00:55:02.345 --> 00:55:02.586
Yeah.

1047
00:55:02.726 --> 00:55:03.026
Right.

1048
00:55:03.727 --> 00:55:10.533
And just keeps cranking along because it might be between in the same chapter, chapter two.

1049
00:55:10.773 --> 00:55:10.953
Yeah.

1050
00:55:10.973 --> 00:55:13.976
There might be three months between verse 12 and 13.

1051
00:55:15.002 --> 00:55:15.382
Yeah.

1052
00:55:15.763 --> 00:55:17.024
Well, Chelsea Harmon writes this.

1053
00:55:17.044 --> 00:55:18.385
She's one of my favorite.

1054
00:55:19.025 --> 00:55:27.291
She writes that together, the cleansing of the temple and the provision of wine at the wedding come to be the symbolic representation of every sign or miracle Jesus will perform while on earth.

1055
00:55:27.812 --> 00:55:39.641
Every promise God makes and then keeps every human need met with way more than enough and some needs being met before they are even really recognized.

1056
00:55:39.841 --> 00:55:42.143
So there's a reason those are smashed together.

1057
00:55:42.923 --> 00:55:44.685
I do think it's of note here.

1058
00:55:44.785 --> 00:55:50.129
And again, this is when I go back to this idea of like, if you're going to follow Jesus, you cannot follow Jesus and reject joy.

1059
00:55:50.549 --> 00:55:52.631
You cannot follow Jesus and lack levity.

1060
00:55:52.651 --> 00:55:54.773
You cannot follow Jesus and avoid rejoicing.

1061
00:55:55.834 --> 00:55:59.377
But also you have to remember is that this is the first sign we see.

1062
00:55:59.397 --> 00:56:03.340
And in that sign is Jesus provides this joy.

1063
00:56:04.750 --> 00:56:05.691
and more than enough.

1064
00:56:06.111 --> 00:56:07.272
More than, yeah, true.

1065
00:56:07.492 --> 00:56:08.272
And the best of.

1066
00:56:08.292 --> 00:56:10.253
Six, yeah, six jars, best ever.

1067
00:56:10.273 --> 00:56:12.515
It's the same thing I always tell people with five loaves and two fish.

1068
00:56:13.235 --> 00:56:13.435
Yeah.

1069
00:56:13.455 --> 00:56:17.658
Like Jesus didn't just provide enough for the people on the hill.

1070
00:56:19.040 --> 00:56:20.281
He had baskets left over.

1071
00:56:21.121 --> 00:56:23.963
And what is the promise of Christ?

1072
00:56:24.523 --> 00:56:28.446
That if you believe in me, you would have life and life overflowing.

1073
00:56:28.806 --> 00:56:32.108
Now, we can begin to define that in certain types of ways.

1074
00:56:32.128 --> 00:56:37.151
They get really weird and obnoxious to people or painful because they're not true of everyone.

1075
00:56:37.231 --> 00:56:38.692
Everyone's not going to have that thing.

1076
00:56:41.133 --> 00:56:42.194
The stream is coming.

1077
00:56:42.314 --> 00:56:44.654
Even when he says, come and take a drink, right?

1078
00:56:45.295 --> 00:56:47.475
Come and take a drink, and I will give you rivers.

1079
00:56:47.975 --> 00:56:50.216
The math doesn't make sense.

1080
00:56:51.156 --> 00:56:51.997
Come and take a drink.

1081
00:56:52.017 --> 00:56:52.637
Just get a drink.

1082
00:56:52.657 --> 00:56:53.417
That's singular.

1083
00:56:54.317 --> 00:56:56.198
And I'll give you rivers of living water.

1084
00:56:56.218 --> 00:56:56.998
That's plural.

1085
00:56:57.178 --> 00:57:03.060
And drink and river are meant to be a contrast in quantity and quality even.

1086
00:57:03.978 --> 00:57:11.603
And so Jesus is at the miracle of Cain, like one, is showing to his disciples, hey, this is about to get real.

1087
00:57:12.803 --> 00:57:13.984
No, it's, you know what?

1088
00:57:14.284 --> 00:57:15.045
It's I'm him.

1089
00:57:15.245 --> 00:57:15.605
I'm him.

1090
00:57:16.065 --> 00:57:17.526
Yeah.

1091
00:57:17.846 --> 00:57:21.429
And he's also saying that my kingdom will be one of joy.

1092
00:57:22.349 --> 00:57:24.451
My kingdom will be one of more than enough.

1093
00:57:25.191 --> 00:57:28.174
And that's even when things are tough, I will be more than enough.

1094
00:57:28.314 --> 00:57:31.176
Even when you're walking through the valley of shadow of death, I will be there.

1095
00:57:31.717 --> 00:57:32.477
I am you.

1096
00:57:33.178 --> 00:57:34.499
I have a good shepherd.

1097
00:57:34.519 --> 00:57:36.060
I lack nothing.

1098
00:57:36.480 --> 00:57:36.901
Come on.

1099
00:57:37.181 --> 00:57:44.587
So again, those are all things are statements that we then have to wrestle with in our faith and walk through and discover and find those moments.

1100
00:57:44.647 --> 00:57:47.189
But we all know that we've found Christ to be more than enough.

1101
00:57:47.289 --> 00:57:50.872
When we are most aware of,

1102
00:57:51.822 --> 00:57:52.463
of our lack.

1103
00:57:53.663 --> 00:58:05.532
When we don't have enough, and when it's really tough, and we turn the lights off in our bedroom, and we're just feeling all the things, and that's where God meets us and says, I'm the bread of life.

1104
00:58:06.503 --> 00:58:07.123
I'm your provision.

1105
00:58:07.443 --> 00:58:08.344
I'm the light of the world.

1106
00:58:08.464 --> 00:58:09.924
I'm going to shine on this.

1107
00:58:09.984 --> 00:58:10.444
Don't even.

1108
00:58:10.884 --> 00:58:12.044
We'll do the seven.

1109
00:58:12.105 --> 00:58:12.885
We'll do all that later.

1110
00:58:13.265 --> 00:58:14.125
That's a good segue.

1111
00:58:14.245 --> 00:58:15.045
I did that on purpose.

1112
00:58:15.205 --> 00:58:16.666
It goes, Jesus clearing the temple.

1113
00:58:16.706 --> 00:58:17.686
Let me just finish with this.

1114
00:58:18.226 --> 00:58:20.787
Because it goes right from the wedding to Jesus clearing the temple.

1115
00:58:21.887 --> 00:58:24.328
And this is for me.

1116
00:58:24.408 --> 00:58:25.188
Here's the picture.

1117
00:58:25.728 --> 00:58:28.269
Jesus clears the temple, chases out the bad guys.

1118
00:58:29.193 --> 00:58:40.224
You know, it's it's that whole makes a whip out of some rope, chases these men out where these men were, was called the court of the Gentiles.

1119
00:58:40.284 --> 00:58:41.586
It's the outer courtyard.

1120
00:58:41.626 --> 00:58:49.293
It's the only place that you could go if you were not Jewish and fully, you know, able to go further in.

1121
00:58:50.154 --> 00:58:53.656
So the only place that most people could go is in this courtyard.

1122
00:58:53.716 --> 00:59:01.261
And they had filled it up with all kinds of merchandising and really ripping people off and all of those sorts of things.

1123
00:59:01.661 --> 00:59:04.963
And what Jesus did was make room for people.

1124
00:59:06.064 --> 00:59:11.007
And the thing that Jesus always does is make room for people.

1125
00:59:11.528 --> 00:59:11.708
Yeah.

1126
00:59:12.388 --> 00:59:13.309
And I love that picture.

1127
00:59:13.349 --> 00:59:14.690
Hey, great session.

1128
00:59:14.850 --> 00:59:15.230
Thank you.

1129
00:59:15.630 --> 00:59:16.251
Yeah, so good.

1130
00:59:16.271 --> 00:59:16.451
Awesome.

1131
00:59:16.471 --> 00:59:16.751
Awesome.

1132
00:59:20.308 --> 00:59:26.315
This has been Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole, sponsored by the Christian Men's Network.

1133
00:59:27.216 --> 00:59:31.701
CMN resources for discipling men are at cmn.men.