St. John and His Amazing Book

0:06 Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole. Hey, I'm Paul Lewis Cole, and this is Brave Men. Fired up about today, Brandon Cole unpacking the Gospel of John. He did a series that I thought was absolutely remarkable. Six months where he just jumped into every part of John. You know, 90%... of the Gospel of John is unique to John. He didn't do it as a history, something that said, here's what happened, here's what happened. He did it as a personal journey. He wrote it, here's what I experienced.

0:50 So that's why we tell people when they become followers of Christ or interested in it, in following Christ. 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. Really powerful. Hey, cmn.men is the website, cmn.men, to get resources and tools to mentor men, to do a men's group. Just talked with Marcos yesterday, and he's got thousands of men's groups. I've got, we're with Phong Le in a couple weeks in Vietnam. Powerful, over 600 pastors using materials and resources to disciple men. That's what it's about.

1:30 Grow strong men, rescue families, build powerful churches. And that's our goal. We are CMN. We rescue men. Go to cmn.men, click on resources. You can pull down everything you need. And then also on there is events, things that are coming up with what we're doing all over the world. Also on our website, you'll find our resources in approximately 18 languages, depending on which book you're looking for. You can look it up by language. So thank God for friends and partners like yourself who make this happen. And right now, let's go to the studio, CMN Studio, with Brandon and this conversation, this awesome conversation on Gospel of John.

2:14 You know, I was really knocked out with the Gospel of John thing that you did. Like, how long did you go with that? Was it a couple of weeks? I think we did it. Well, we did a year. We didn't do... Did a year of the Gospel of John? Yeah, but we didn't do the exegetical, you know, line by line, verse by verse. We broke it up a little bit different. Then there's some Advent season in there and Easter and some of those kinds of things. But it was good. Yeah, I know. When you asked about doing this, it was like, okay, so you want me to... synthesize it a year's worth. I said, let's do two podcasts on the Gospel of John. Which is great. Because you've got some great stuff. And then you were like, what? Yeah, which, well, I didn't know which, listen, it's all great.

2:57 It's all good. Yeah, yeah. I just want to make sure that's clear to the audience. No, I think we were, it just was, it's a lot. And there's a lot of things in there. That's why we always tell people to go read it. You were like, but I did a year on it. Yeah, that was my response. Which part do I want? So, but I want to start with, I want to hit this thing, which is the overview of John, the Gospel of John. And let me start it with this. 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. Why do we tell them, go read the Gospel of John?

3:39 I mean, I think there's a lot of reasons. One, it's the Bible. You know, that helps. But I think, two, is... It's always a good thing. No, I think it... I would say that the Gospel of John, the tone is best. It feels... It's open, the heartbeat of it. But I also think... 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. I think all of those things begin to tell you immediately who Jesus is. 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. 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.

4:26 That's one of my favorite stories, too. Yeah, and it's a great story. And I've actually spoken at so many different times at churches and things that we do. And I've actually shared that so many times that when your mom... my wife goes with me to a somewhere and I'm speaking. She said, what are you speaking to? So I'll tell her and she'll go, okay, that's great. And then, but if I say John two, you know, the wedding can she'll go, I've heard that one. Yeah. Not impressed, not impressed at all. No, she goes, I love it. It's just that I've heard it. Yeah. But it's such a truth, man. So the Gospel of John, we tell people to read it because... Well, I think so.

5:06 Like what happens then is you've got what you end up with is the seven statements of Jesus. The I am. The I am statements. Then you've got the seven signs of Christ. So these miracles starting with the wedding of Cana. The calling of his disciples is throughout, but you've got John 1, the overture. 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. And so the gospel, the point, the purpose of the gospel of John is to... believe and in believing, having life.

5:48 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. Yeah. 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. Hey, how'd you grow up? Because I knew you knew that. Yeah, you were a part of that. Yeah. It's like, tell me about your father wound. Yeah. Well, there are a lot of parts where you were missing, you know, so I'm sure. 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. You're a studier. You're a good arguer, which means you're looking for the facts.

6:28 Well, why do we say that? So you pull up these things. Right. And for me... 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. And a great example of that. 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. Okay. About the last statement of chapter 20, even though there's 21 chapters, right? And then I want to get into your overture. Is that what you call it? Yeah, I want to get into that. Prologue, overture, which I think is all you have. Overture is the better way to say it.

7:10 Prologue is the beginning of a book. Prologue is the OG way to say it. No, I. Overture is like younger guys have cooler words. No, I stole this word from an old guy. The prologue is, and we're jumping into it, but the prologue to me is just the beginning of a book. It gives a little bit of context. Whereas this John 1, those first 16, 17, 18 verses is an overture. 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. So the goal of John 1 is not just to give you an introduction to the book. It is there to give you an overture. You can read those first 18 verses and know this is what I'm about to encounter.

7:56 This is what I'm hearing. This is what I'm reading. This is what I'm discovering. And so it's, and I always say throughout the series, we would say this, like John is not this progressive revelation of Jesus. Whereas Matthew, Mark, Luke, it's kind of this progressive, like you're getting to know. And then all of a sudden, oh, he's God. But in John. It starts out there. From the jump, Jesus is. Yeah. And now you get to pull that thread. It's fascinating. So, okay. So congratulations on Michigan winning the national championship. Yeah, yeah. Go blue. Let's go. Hail to the victor. No matter when somebody watches this. Yeah, yeah. They are national champions. One of the fascinating little side stories is a young man named Terrace Reed Jr. Yeah.

8:39 Yeah. who played for Michigan. And then he left. Okay. I have no sympathy. And then he left. Because you have a thing, those who stay win championships. Yeah, although every guy in the starting five for Michigan was a transfer. Okay, so then Terrace Reed goes to UConn. Right? Yeah. Okay, so check this out. So when he's at Michigan, UConn wins the national championship. Two of them. Two of them. Hurley, what a coach. So then he goes to UConn and Michigan wins the national championship. So Terrace Reed. So you would think. man, this is a tough moment for this young guy, right? And what was fascinating to me was he came out of that, and they arrived home at 5 o'clock.

9:25 Where's UConn? Where are they located? Besides Connecticut. Connecticut was going to be my answer. I don't know. So they're somewhere up. Listen, it's a small place, so it's not like. It's in Connecticut. Yeah. So now he arrives back at the campus 5 o'clock. Spoken like a true Texan, by the way. Anything north of the Red River, I don't know. It's a small place. So Terrace Reed gets back 5 o'clock. 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. And he stands up there and he gave this testimony and they recorded it.

10:06 Somebody posted it and I looked at it and he said this. And this is what's germane to the moment, actually, is he said he had gone to church. He had done some things. He had bowed his knee. And then he's in the weight room at UConn, I guess it was, or maybe it was Michigan. And he's in the weight room and the strength coach comes up and says, Hey man, I heard you talking about God. Terrace goes, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're Christian? Yeah, sure. And then the weight coach trainer said to Terrace Reed, he said, Well, do you read the Bible? And Reed goes, no. I don't. He was really honest with him.

10:46 He just goes, no, I don't. And right then he realized I'm not really a follower of Christ. 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? Pick the word up. And I don't care if it's in your, in your tablet or, or on your phone or wherever, but the Word of God's alive. 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? Let me fact check this thing.

11:27 Sometimes at work, say something so out of bounds that someone actually goes and looks, and then you're like... There you go. That's how I preach. Yeah. Job well done. Yeah. So, uh, so here, so back on the prologue. So that's, that sets the basis of this conversation, these two podcasts on John, which is to stir up something. 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. So it changed terrorist reads life, right? He says he started reading the Bible and all of a sudden he's just like, okay. And this is what I'm about. Okay, back on the prologue. This is fascinating to me because 90% of the Gospel of John, because there's four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, right?

12:10 Then it moves into letters and epistles and so forth. And then John's revelation. So we've got these four Gospels, which are about Jesus. What's fascinating about John to me is that nine out of 10, or 90% of John, is unique to John. So Matthew, Mark, and Luke are really what they call synoptic gospels or parallel. They have a lot of the same stories. John, if he's got the same story as one of the others, it's from a really different perspective because he was there. So it's a personal eyewitness sort of thing. And then the last thing that you mentioned, this verse, John 20, 31, he says, I wrote this so that you believe that Jesus is the Christ, Son of God.

12:57 By believing, you may have life in his name, eternal life or life more abundant. 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. or they knew somebody who had been there. In other words, there's a context. 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. 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, It's right in it.

13:45 Yeah. And for me, that's part of it. John is John is a student. John is most likely from some sort of really good family. He's got a strong background. Of course, all the young Jewish men memorize the first five books of the Bible, right? The Torah. They had that memorized. And then here's John. He has a scribe. Talks about at some point he's got a scribe. He's got somebody who's writing things down. So he's from a family that's sort of well placed. In other words, so when when we see that part where Peter denies Christ. Mm hmm. OK, it was in the courtyard of Caiaphas, the.

14:25 The chief priests where they're doing the mock trial of Jesus. It was John that let Peter in. So in other words, John's in. So John's got some sort of family background or something that says, okay, this guy's well placed. So this is not some inarticulate fisherman who just has this download and writes this amazing thing. This is a guy that's got some background. Yeah. He's got something to him. He's not coming out of an inarticulate background or unschooled. He's very schooled. 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.

15:11 So that's John. That kind of sets him up. Yeah. So we don't necessarily think of him as some swarthy, rough, like a Peter fisherman. He's this guy that's got You know, he's an intellectual, if you will. And so when he starts out with this, he's the light right off the top. And I want to get into that because you've got some great stuff on that. And but I want to get into that. 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.

15:51 But it comes from a background that questions things, that asks about things, that looks at things. And he says, hey, you've never heard of this person. I want to tell you who he is. Right. It's pretty amazing. Right. Yeah. 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. That's what his signs are. So you're seeing from, again, the wedding of Cana to. 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.

16:33 But then with his statements, I'm the way, the truth and the life. I'm the bread of life. I'm the light of the world. Those statements are telling you his identity. And, and I think this is really important. The signs of Jesus did not get him crucified. Right? The signs are not what made him be put on a cross. The signs were a precursor to the statements he would make. 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. Those statements are ultimately what get him crucified because there is a person claiming authority. kingdom, that he was the one bringing it all.

17:17 So the signs obviously catch people's attention. But ultimately even the reality is you don't believe in Jesus for the signs even, right? You don't believe in Jesus because he did some things. Obviously, the sign of the cross, death and burial and resurrection. Right. But that wasn't a sign. Well, no, no. I mean, that's a sign. I mean, I would say, but it's what comes from that. Right. The statements he's made, when I do this and because of this. And Paul stakes all of the statements on that. 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.

17:58 Yes, I can believe the signs without changing anything about myself, without stepping into any kind of new life. Yeah, yeah. 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. I called that a wrong book. It's okay. But that is, the idea here is Romans, right? Romans 10, 9. The idea, though, is that it's the belief in the heart and the voice, the mouth, that I would believe something. Yeah. Not just that I believe is signs, but I believe that he is the bread of life. I believe that he is the way, the truth, and the life. I believe that he is the light of the world. I believe that he was in the beginning.

18:38 And so it puts us in a position of having to believe what he said. It's believing what he said. The signs were a testament or a validation of what the spoken word of Christ. And ultimately reading this is so that you'd get a revelation of him. This is the word that points to the word. This is the word that preaches the word. Jesus is the greatest revelation of God himself. And so as you read John again, I think that's... For me, it's the overture, the prologue, the statements, the signs, all of it is that it would bring about a belief. I believe that who he is and what he said he would do and who he said he was.

19:24 Again, you can believe that he did the things and not believe... He is who he said he was. He is the son of God. So the signs are meant to point to the statements and the statements are meant to be what you trust in. Yeah. So the Bible says that everywhere Jesus went, it says he healed the sick, cast out demons and then preach the kingdom. So you're right. So the signs drew people, cast out demons, solved their medical issues. Solved their social issues, begin to pull people together. And then he preached the kingdom. And I think... So that's what John does. Right. Yeah. And I think that is the key position here is that do you believe what he said?

20:06 Yeah. Yeah. So John's whole piece is not just here's what he did. It's here's who he is. Right. Statements are a form of identity. And most of these statements are would have been understood that way that I am. And Jesus even chastised people for all you want is more signs. 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. But the statement still rings true. Wow. And that is the test of our faith, I think, is when the signs run out, do the statements still live? Is he still the bread that brings provision? Wow. And even the bread of life statement is made in the context of people wanting more signs.

20:50 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. Right. He's still God. Can he still be the light of the world for you? Is he still the bread of provision for you? Wow. Is he still the resurrection for you? Is he still the way and the truth that you're holding to? Yeah. Because I think there's a lot of people who can perform a lot of signs. And I think we follow signs. We follow the charisma of people. We follow the, what can I do for you? Every influencer and every author, and hey, I've done these things. So now you should follow me.

21:31 But ultimately what makes a person is, are the statements true? Even the magicians in the court of Pharaoh were able to do snakes. And a lot of, okay, that takes us to, okay, you want to go to the overture or the prologue, whichever one. I know the prologue is what's in there. It says prologue. I'm looking at it. It says prologue in your HCSV. I just like overture gives me a better. I like overture. I'm going with that. But even that idea, you just said the magician. Yeah, yeah. And N.T. Wright says this about John, that he is, even in the overture, you get a sense that John is writing a new Genesis. So even when we taught this, we called it a new Genesis.

22:11 Yeah. Because what John is doing in a lot of ways is saying creation starts again. Right. Right. And that's what we that's that is the gospel. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. There is a creation story in all of us. And that should never stop. And what John is doing with Jesus, even in the overture is even as you read it in the beginning. Oh, wait, I remember a phrase like that. Well, it's Genesis 1 in the beginning. He talks about being the light of the world. He talks about all things being made through him. He talks about that darkness cannot overcome it. So the chaos and the light shows up. So everything about the overture is John saying, okay, it starts here.

22:53 Yeah, this is, and for us, 2 Corinthians 5.17, Paul's letter to Corinth. This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. Old life has gone, new life has begun. Well, and every person who trusts in Jesus gets a new Genesis, right? It gets a new creation. And Jesus is, and so this is why it's important because Jesus is not just from the beginning, he is the beginning. In the beginning was the beginning. That is the way you should read that statement. In the beginning was the beginning. That's, he started it all because he was at the beginning of it all. And so John is echoing the story of Genesis in the creation story. And so what is Jesus to you and I?

23:36 He is the beginning. Our life starts with Jesus. Any follower of Jesus, anyone who trusts in Jesus, he is now your beginning. That's why Paul says, Christ lives in me. I no longer live. Christ lives in me. I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. It's a fresh beginning. Yeah. And so the creation— He's a god of do-over. And the language of creation should give you an imagination too, right? All of this should make you go, oh, wow, okay, there's more to this. Because in the beginning was the beginning, and at the beginning is me with Christ. He is the new beginning of me. I am starting again.

24:16 The Living Bible says, before anything else existed, there was Christ. William Barclay says, when the world had its beginning, the Word was already there. We are in the beginning people. When we wake up every day, the mercies are new. There is a new beginning to the way I live my life. 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. No, no, no. John is echoing the Old Testament story. So when Moses has, again, they can do all the signs. Okay, well, Jesus doing signs, but then he begins to say, and what does Moses do? The great I am statement, right? I am who I say I am. I am. Who are you?

24:56 I am. Here's Jesus now taking that same phrasing and saying, I am. So Jesus, even in saying it that way, is echoing what we've always known about the Old Testament, is that God is. Well, Jesus is. So Jesus is as God is. And so this whole, and I think that's, again, why we read the Gospel of John. You are, the whole thread's coming together. It's all being Yeah, he. OK, let me read the first five verses. Now I get into John. Listen, two episodes. You might need to bump it up a little bit.

25:38 Get through the first three verses. Because, well, we're going to get to John the Baptist, which is in the first chapter of John. He talks about John the Baptist. In the beginning, the Word already existed. The Word was with God. The Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through Christ. Nothing created except through Him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to God. To everyone. The light shines in the darkness. Darkness can never extinguish it. That's the exponential power of the law of displacement that when you leave this room, you don't turn on the dark switch. Right. Yeah. You just turn off the light. Right. And so light always displaces darkness.

26:21 Right. So that's why for us in our lives, we just need more. of him. And Jesus does say, not to tie it, Jesus does say, I'm the light of the world. He said it at a festival where at that night they would have lit up the temple. 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. And you would have seen it all throughout the city. And Jesus, in that context, is saying, I am the light of the world. I am. He is saying, I'm brighter than the temple. Wow. I am now the light. And again, he's not chastising or diminishing the temple.

27:02 He is saying that what we do in the earth cannot... come close to who he is, he is supplanting that as it is a testimony of who he is. And so Jesus saying, I am the light of the world. Again, all these statements are not just, they are, they are declarations of identity. Right. And, and so I think this is why, John 1, and really the first few verses, I'm the light of the world, in the beginning. All these things matter so much, and they are throughout the book. They're throughout the story of John. He is tying all of these things together, right?

27:43 He's making them all work. And it's why that overture, right, the symphony within the symphony, is so important. 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. 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. 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. Oh, you brought, that's right. You got a bunch of sunglasses.

28:23 I brought sunglasses for everybody because I said your future is bright because this man was a dark past. Yeah. But he now has a bright future. And that's what Jesus does, brings light to us. Okay, let's go into John 1. And I'm fascinated by this part, which is where John the Baptist came as a testimony. Now, John is writing about things that... We're received from Christ. So this first overture, what did you do? Spend six weeks on the overture? Yeah, I think we did actually. I think we spent and I'll say, let me read this line because Leonard Sweet is one of my favorite guys. 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?

29:07 And because it's easy to to miss this. He just said this. The end product of a biblical Christianity is a person. 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. 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. And that's the desire. So even as you read this overture that has all this poetic, I mean, most quoted scriptures in history. And John is quoted very often, right? He's got a few good ones. He's got a few bangers. 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.

29:53 And then you want to, okay, John the Baptist. Yeah, because you liked it. one key part, which I think is really good. Yeah, no, I think it's great because it's got a great illustration. 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? He starts with the creator of all things. He starts with a lightning bolt, right? It's like, bam, he's the light of the world. Right. This already was. So then here's John the Baptist. And John the Baptist is going around saying, you know, getting people baptized. Yep. He's proclaiming that the Messiah is coming. He's proclaiming the year of the Lord.

30:34 He's proclaiming salvation. Yep. Eating locusts. Eating locusts. Wearing, I don't know. He's not wearing Dockers. Well, maybe that was the year. Maybe it's quality. Yeah, John the Baptist. I think the part you liked, the part that... Honestly, the part that I liked... was he's doing all the baptism. He's proclaiming, he's baptizing them in a river that they weren't allowed to be baptized in because it was dirty. I love the symbolism here. There's a lot of metaphors. Jesus gets baptized in the river that nobody, outside the city, in a river that is dirty. Nobody's allowed to go in there.

31:15 And here's Jesus identifying with the dirtiest parts of, you know, people's view, at least. Well, the religious people. Yeah, and John, yeah, right. Well, yeah. Yeah, but sometimes we all agree on what we think is dirty. What we all think is like, I wouldn't go on that. And so John the Baptist is saying things like repent, right? New kingdom. Something else is happening. And he's doing it while looking a little bit unkempt, right? He is a little bit radical. Yeah, for sure. He's just a radical. But he is declaring something new. And he is the forerunner of it.

31:55 And he's baptizing, which is something reserved for a particular type of person and a religious leader or teacher of the day. And so people are upset about it. And so they show up and they ask him a question. This is the part that you and I both really resonate with. 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. Because John 1, you've got this brilliant overture about Jesus in the beginning and all these things. Okay, here's John. And it's quick, and then it's calling disciples, and then it's into signs. That's John the Baptist, or sorry, John's gospel is running at a rapid rate. Like, it is not as, it's fast moving.

32:38 It's, you're into the story immediately. And so we're going overture, you know, we're feeling all the vibes, and then, okay, here's this dude. And it's the same way even in the overture. You've got this random moment where it's, and there was a man named John. And then it goes back into the poetic, right? It's a very kind of random moment to introduce John. And I think this is, but that's us, right? We get to be introduced into the story of this incredible poetic storytelling God who's doing all these things. And then he puts Paul and Brandon in the middle of that story. That is the testament of the gospel is that you and I get thrown in to be these people who 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 which is what they're kind of alluding to.

33:45 He says, who are you? He did not refuse the answer, but he declared, I am not the Messiah. I just, that's the weirdest answer to that question. Who are you? If someone came to me and goes, hey, who are you? And I'd be like, I'm not my dad. That's the first statement. Or who are you? I'm not Ian or Jesse. Or like, who are you? I'm not that person. Yeah. What? Not Michael Jordan. And I think what it's... Yeah, right. Well, that one... It was close. But I think that one is... You were a one, he was a two. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Well, maybe flip those.

34:25 But, oh, yeah, point guard, I get you. I see you. I see you, Dad. 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. I'm here to make much of Jesus. And I think in the context, the reason we were doing that was we were doing a series called The Making of a Disciple. And I don't know about you, but I'm sure you've had some I am not him. My son will do this if he does a good place. Like a new phrase. No, I want to hear this one. 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.

35:05 I am him. Define it however you want. Like, you made one shot, dude. Like, relax. But I'm him. It started with a bowler. Oh, I didn't know that. These are the random things. I don't. That statement started with a guy who's bowling. And he's just been getting hassled by people. And he kind of gets a little crude in it. But he hits this strike to win this game against some guy coming back. And he just turns around and goes, I'm him. Like, you know, you guys talk about all this stuff. Well, it's a desire that lives in all of us to validate ourselves.

35:48 Yeah, right. To be the reason we are awesome. To somehow be the reason our life is good. To be the reason we're successful. To be the reason we have a status. There's all kinds of, and even now, most of the advertisements you see, And there's a great marketing program, which is like the marketing is that the business is the guide and you're the hero. So everything, even about marketing now is about the person being the hero. So like we're fed this idea over and over again that we are him. Yeah. And so tell them what, what, what, uh, Gray did though. Oh, I don't know. I think he's done I'm Him a few times. I think you're talking about he's a bit of a gamer.

36:29 He's the quietest kid. You won't get him to shake your hand. He's a quiet kid until he gets on a basketball court. And he's actually pretty decent. He's really good. 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. He's nine, so he likes to go where he likes to go. Parents are yelling. And so there's dad on the other side saying, he's going to the right, he's going to the right. I think the third or fourth time I kept hearing it, I wasn't going to tell Gray. I was going to let him figure it out. And Gray immediately switched hands and dribbled from the right side. You know, he's at half court. Yeah. Dribbled his left hand all the way to the other side. And I hear the dad go, I think he heard me. Yeah.

37:09 And, uh, And then the other time is in the championship game, which we ended up losing, which is a bummer. I think the coach failed. I'm the coach. And he made a good play because these guys were loud and yelling, and it's all right to do that. And Gray, instead of just coming off the court clapping – He turned to the parents and started just clapping. So I've got, you know, listen, I'd rather him. So he's got that little thing of I'm him. Yeah, a little bit of I'm him. I'm him. But we all do that, and we all want to be able to do that. We all want to be able to validate our own breath and existence, and somehow we're the ones who made us. And here comes John. And so John the Baptist is saying to you, I'm not him.

37:50 And honestly, and it was the first week of our making of a disciple because a disciple is here to make much of Jesus. So when someone says to you, who are you? Well, I'm the one who lives in Christ. And I know that can be a bit of an ego hit because, well, but God's given me gifts. And I'm not telling any of you that that's not true. That's not real. But what we can often forget or drift from is that I wasn't the gift giver. And I wasn't the one who—I'm not the teacher. I'm the student. I'm the one who—I'm not the one who sent the Holy Spirit to me. I'm not the one who gave myself eyes that blink and a mouth that breathes. I am a created person, and I am not the one who's going to save the world either.

38:33 Even as a dad or as a husband, as a pastor, as a friend, I'm not the Savior. Can I be of assistance? Can I help? Yes. 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. Well, who are you? Well, are you Elijah? No, no, no. Are you this guy? No, no, no. I am the one who's telling about him. He still hasn't even introduced himself. The first three or four statements out of his mouth are all to point to Jesus. And one of the greatest ways for you and I to mess up our identity is to root it in ourselves. And there's a lot of, like, we do need to be self-aware and we need to know ourselves.

39:14 But we don't need to be self-obsessed. Wow. Because it... We live in a culture that's very self-obsessed. Yeah. Individualistic kind of thing. But I also think there's a culture that's beginning to realize it doesn't work. Right. That thing begins to fall in on itself really, really quickly. But I think what John is doing is he doesn't have a Messiah complex, right? I am not... Him. 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. I don't need to start by saying, I'm good. I need to start with, he's good.

39:54 I am not the Messiah. I'm not the one who has to save everyone. I'm not the one who has to figure all of these things out. I'm not the bread of life. I'm not the light of the world. I'm not the resurrection. I am not the way, the truth, and the life. I am not him. And in that humility, and in is a great discovery of who I can be in Christ, right? And how I can live into that. 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. He was only, as he saw it, a finger post pointing to Christ. God give us grace to forget ourselves and to remember only Christ.

40:35 So strong. So, uh, okay. This is great. 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. We can see Jesus. Yeah. So that Christ in us, us in Christ, so that we begin to live following Jesus. with his mindset in us, the Spirit of God in us. Jesus said, I send a comforter, the Holy Spirit, who will lead you into all righteousness. And so we live in a world that's full of crisis. We live in a world that's...

41:16 You know, in the United States, every culture of the world, fatherlessness is a leading indicator of of what's happening in culture. It's a leading indicator of poverty. We live in crisis and chaos, wars and rumors of wars. 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. 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. They just kind of stopped, sort of, maybe. Pakistan, Afghanistan, they're fighting each other right now. These guys are shooting at each other in the midst of everything else.

41:59 So there's always these sorts of things going on. And in the midst of this, where do we find our place of identity? Where do we find the place of peace? Where do we find the place of who I am, this solid rock? And we find that in Christ. I want to finish this particular episode in John 2, the wedding at Cana. Okay. Because this is a picture. And this is the beauty of what I like. This is a wedding. This is his first sign when we talk about the signs. And then the next episode, we'll get into the I am's. Okay. And all of that, what I'm hoping is for our friends and brothers watching, you'll get into the word, get into John.

42:47 Hey, do you recommend you quoted N.T. Wright? You quoted some other people. Who do you recommend reading John? Oh, man. I... No, I think just read it. I don't know that I would—none of those are—I mean, N.T. Wright would have stuff on John for sure. William Barclay is a study Bible, so that's great. Okay. It's more written like a devotional. It'll take three verses and expand it. So reading the Gospel of John, I've got the NLT, New Living Translation. But William Barclay would be great. Grab his daily study Bible, and he's got a lot of interesting insights and stuff. So you take John. You can use a study Bible. I've got also a study Bible. Usually what I do is I'll go on to Bible Gateway.

43:30 Gateway Bible. What is it? Yeah, BibleGateway.com. Blue Letter Bible. And I'll research different things. And what does this mean? And then you quoted Leonard Sweet, who's been my professor in my doctoral program. And Len's always got great stuff on his thing. 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. Right. You know, there's this great picture of a guy who got healed of being demon possessed in Mark five. And it talks about how he went.

44:11 Jesus said, go tell everybody. Well, what did he have to tell him? The only thing he had to tell him is I have an experience. My experience is with Christ and the overflow of that is what changed people's lives. Now, John chapter two, this is a wedding at Cana. I love this because there's a whole lot of little things that went on. This is his first miracle. And in that, he's at a wedding. He's got some of his disciples with him. It says the wine ran out. And Jesus' mother, Mary, comes to him and says, they don't have any more wine. This is a really funny moment. You know, the hey, hey. They don't have any more wine. Yeah.

44:52 And now the translation, we've got to remember the guys, the first guys who translated this are, you know, guys in the 1700s. Right. You know, in England, they're a little stiff-necked. And you go, dear woman, that's not my problem. My time hasn't come. I think it's more like this. I think it's interesting because why would she even bring this to her son? Right? Like, hey, you got some money. You can go to the store. What's it? She goes, hey, they don't have any wine. So she's looking at him to solve a problem at this wedding. He's now 30 years old. He's got some disciples. And she comes to him. And for me, the conversation sort of goes like this.

45:33 She goes up to Jesus. She says, hey, listen, you and I know who you are. You and I know you're the Messiah. You and I know. And he's like, mom, I'm not telling anybody that yet. I'm not doing that yet. I just got the first few disciples. And then she says, OK, but here's the deal. These are really close friends. These are family friends. We all know them. They ran out of wine. Just do something. And so he says, she turns to the servant. So the next scripture turns to the servant and says, hey, whatever he says to do, do that.

46:13 Now, there's so many levels right here. But for me, the beauty of it is Mary says to you and me, hey, whatever he says to do, do that. And then he says to the servant, he says, hey, let me look. Hang on. There's six stone water jars. And these are the jars that they would wash people's feet with. So they wash their feet. They do all this. as people are coming in and out, six stone jars. So they're half full, maybe. And Jesus says to the servant, yeah, go ahead and fill those up. He didn't say clean them out, purify them, change anything.

46:54 Just fill them up, right? And so they fill them up, so now they're full. And he says, okay, take a cup of that and take it to your boss. Now, the beauty of that to me is the servant who did that, I'm figuring is basically working hourly. He's a gig worker. He's like, I don't like this guy anyway. Yeah. I'm not getting paid that much. So he's going to reach in there and he's going to take what is dirty, right? Because this is right on all the like you think about the rags that they use to clean people's feet, their hands. So everybody had a jar of water at the front of their house.

47:35 And so as you came in off the dusty road and off all those things, all that you'd have to constantly clean that. But they hadn't cleaned it. It's just these jars have gone down. They're full of dirt and muck and debris from the road. And he says, and they fill it up so it's still all in there. He says, yeah, take a cup of that. Give it to your boss. The guy's like, yeah, okay. Takes a cup of that, gives it to his boss. He takes it, drinks it, and then he says, this is the best wine ever. And at that point, the picture for me is that Jesus takes... the debris of our life, the dirt of our life, the things of our past, and makes it into something beautiful.

48:21 And that's the picture. When we talk about the signs, the first sign of Christ doing something. 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. Yeah. John chapter two. That's pretty good. Have you preached that before? Yeah. Yeah. A couple times. I love that because it's the picture of Jesus. It's what he does for us. Yeah, I think it's a lot. 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. Now, obviously, John the Baptist is a pretty important character.

49:02 But I think, you know, we can tend to do this where we can kind of centralize ourselves in some of these stories. And I think one of the challenges for us as we read all of this is to always centralize Jesus. 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. There's something that happens to you. 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. And obviously there's some phrasing there that you could wrestle with doctrinally and all the things. But the point being that when I lift up Jesus, the Holy Spirit begins to do something in me. It renews my life.

49:42 Because that's what you were talking about, Genesis. Yeah. That's the whole piece right there. We're a new beginning people, and the Holy Spirit was that creation. Wow. I think I would say this. There's a couple things. I was just looking over my notes as you were sharing. The miracle's weird. I say that to say when I look at all the other miracles, they're really a lot more impressive. They change the status of people. They change the physical ability or health of a person. Right. They answer a really, really important need. And the first miracle Jesus does is like keeps the party going.

50:25 Maybe there's a picture right there. The worst thing that could have happened is, oh, yeah, we went to Phil's wedding and they ran out. On the third day. Yeah, we only got to drink for three days. Two days. And Jesus shows up in that moment. The first miracle that John— There's a picture right there. Well, I think one of the things, okay, and one of the things that I find really disheartening sometimes is— is that we don't treat Jesus as a God of joy. And yet the very first miracle he does is keeps, is keeps the joy going. It is, it is it. I don't think you can follow Jesus and remove joy from your vocabulary.

51:07 I, I, I, that isn't to say that you get to, that you immediately also remove difficulty or challenge or pain or right. That's not the point, but it is to say that Jesus does somehow, some way in all things bring joy. Joy, happiness in and of itself can be a bit of a miracle. He brought light and lightness. Yeah. In that sense. I always tell people, people do really bad math with Psalms. Right. 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. Right. So I know why people do this, but they'll go, well, a third of the Psalms is lament.

51:48 Yeah. And I think that's true. And I think we should learn from that. I think my challenge is that it's bad math to live by that because two thirds of it isn't. Correct. And there is at least another third that is all praise. It's all praise. It's all God is, and he's great, and he's above, and he's defeated, and he's doing all these things. And even the lament ends up with, oh, soul, why are you passed down? Well, here's the lesson. To get true joy, you have to be willing to deal with true lament. You actually have to deal with the pains, and you have to be honest, and you have to look things in the face. You have to deal with the dirt in the jar. In the same way that these guys had to look at Jesus and go, You know, like mom had to go, hey, I kind of want to keep going.

52:30 This has been good. I've just started a great convo with Susie over here. And like, I'd really like to keep that convo going. Can you do something about this? And Jesus is going, well, it's not my time yet. Mom's saying something. I think it's great. 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. In that sense, yeah. Yeah. 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. If you were like, okay, player A made some water into some wine – Yeah. And then you do player B and they're like, he raised that dude from the dead.

53:11 He raised somebody from the dead. Like, which one are you picking for your team? You'll take both of them, but you're picking the one, right? I take the guy raising from the dead. And Jesus uses this as his first introduction. So that's number one. 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. He's come to be the bridegroom. He's come that we would be those who understand our relationship to him. A wedding? We are the bridegroom of Christ. We are the bride of Christ. So many metaphors. There's all these things. 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.

54:02 Oh, yeah. No, you're right. 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. Yeah. So it wasn't like the whole party got sent. So this was not one of those, oh, I raised him from the dead and everybody saw me. And it's a sign to preach the kingdom. He didn't even preach. This was in many ways an introduction to his disciples, those closest to him. Hey, guys, here's what we're doing. This is legit. I am who I said I am. This is about to happen. 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. You think it's cool that I knew what you were thinking under the fig tree? Okay, cool.

54:43 Watch this. And then he does this miracle. And he's got these guys around him, and he's going, hey, this is... This is what's happening. So I love the speed of this. You were talking about the speed of John. It goes right from there to the Passover and clearing the temple grounds. Nicodemus. Boom. Yeah. Right. And just keeps cranking along because it might be between in the same chapter, chapter two. Yeah. There might be three months between verse 12 and 13. Yeah. Well, Chelsea Harmon writes this. She's one of my favorite. 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.

55:27 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. So there's a reason those are smashed together. I do think it's of note here. 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. You cannot follow Jesus and lack levity. You cannot follow Jesus and avoid rejoicing. But also you have to remember is that this is the first sign we see. And in that sign is Jesus provides this joy. and more than enough. More than, yeah, true. And the best of.

56:08 Six, yeah, six jars, best ever. It's the same thing I always tell people with five loaves and two fish. Yeah. Like Jesus didn't just provide enough for the people on the hill. He had baskets left over. And what is the promise of Christ? That if you believe in me, you would have life and life overflowing. Now, we can begin to define that in certain types of ways. They get really weird and obnoxious to people or painful because they're not true of everyone. Everyone's not going to have that thing. The stream is coming. Even when he says, come and take a drink, right? Come and take a drink, and I will give you rivers. The math doesn't make sense.

56:51 Come and take a drink. Just get a drink. That's singular. And I'll give you rivers of living water. That's plural. And drink and river are meant to be a contrast in quantity and quality even. And so Jesus is at the miracle of Cain, like one, is showing to his disciples, hey, this is about to get real. No, it's, you know what? It's I'm him. I'm him. Yeah. And he's also saying that my kingdom will be one of joy. My kingdom will be one of more than enough. And that's even when things are tough, I will be more than enough. Even when you're walking through the valley of shadow of death, I will be there.

57:31 I am you. I have a good shepherd. I lack nothing. Come on. 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. But we all know that we've found Christ to be more than enough. When we are most aware of, of our lack. 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. I'm your provision. I'm the light of the world. I'm going to shine on this. Don't even. We'll do the seven.

58:12 We'll do all that later. That's a good segue. I did that on purpose. It goes, Jesus clearing the temple. Let me just finish with this. Because it goes right from the wedding to Jesus clearing the temple. And this is for me. Here's the picture. Jesus clears the temple, chases out the bad guys. 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. It's the outer courtyard. It's the only place that you could go if you were not Jewish and fully, you know, able to go further in. So the only place that most people could go is in this courtyard.

58:53 And they had filled it up with all kinds of merchandising and really ripping people off and all of those sorts of things. And what Jesus did was make room for people. And the thing that Jesus always does is make room for people. Yeah. And I love that picture. Hey, great session. Thank you. Yeah, so good. Awesome. Awesome. This has been Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole, sponsored by the Christian Men's Network. CMN resources for discipling men are at cmn.men.