Who He Says He Is. John Pt 2

0:06 The Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole. This guy is brilliant. I know he's my son, but he's still brilliant. But he went through the Gospel of John for six months at his church. He pastors Gallery Church in Fort Worth. Did six months series on it. I said, we've just got to sit down and do a six-part series. So this is part two of that series.

0:47 We haven't done all of them yet. Try to keep it fresh. This is a brilliant walk through the Bible and who Jesus is. John wrote this as a personal story of this is something I experienced and I want you to experience Christ also. It wasn't just a history of Matthew, Mark and Luke but John gives us something, in fact 90% of John is unique to John. It's just his personal journey with Christ. And it's done in such a way. It's written to people who didn't know Jesus, had no background in Christ, didn't have a cousin or a brother or grandmother who had seen him.

1:33 And so this is why we tell people, read the Gospel of John, because it's this beautiful story of a man who falls deeply in love with Jesus Christ and how it changes his life. So, it's going to be a brilliant session. Well, I know it is because we just taped it here in the studio. But if you desire to see the future change, we've got to mentor young men. If we don't solve the fatherlessness issue, we have tremendous problems going forward. And that's why Christian Men's Network, we're equipping men to disciple men.

2:16 Disciple dads, disciple sons, disciple families. In fact, when you see a man grow strong in his life, you know that that family has been deeply impacted. In fact, we put it this way, we are seeing men, we rescue men. When you rescue a man, you restore and save a family. So go to cmn.men, cmn.men for the tools and resources to disciple men, to see the life of men change from the inside out, from the heart to the hands. Hey, I look forward to having you be a part of this conversation right now with Pastor Brandon Cole today on the Brave Men podcast.

3:03 This is an ongoing series on Brave Men podcast on the Gospel of John. And the first one we did was awesome. In fact, I didn't even know how we were going to stop. I just finally segued into another story. Oh, we're done already? What is that? What did you get a text on your computer in the middle of our taping? That's great. I love this. I have it on Do Not Disturb, I promise. Yeah, so... But on that first one, the only way to get out of it, because there's so much, was just we went to the next story and then did a wrap. So here's the, again, coming back to the premise of why we're going through John.

3:47 Right. Is because John was written to people who hadn't been there, didn't know Jesus. You mentioned John 20, verse 31, which is that all men write all these things that you may believe in and believing in his name, you would have life. Yeah. So John writes these things so that people who didn't know Jesus didn't know about him, but basically to Greeks and Romans. You know, they didn't know anybody who knew him. And now here's John saying, bam, this. And he just starts like a thunderclap. Doesn't start with the baby in the manger. Doesn't start with, hey, here's his heritage. Here's his lineage. He just starts, bam, he's the light of the world.

4:27 Right. And just goes from that. Right. Right? Yeah. So we hit all that. Now, you said something I thought was really powerful. Not one thing. There were a few things. Yeah, come on now. That's right. And the thing, what did you say about his, it wasn't his, what got him crucified? Yeah, we, well, in the gospel, John, you know, after the, after the overture of the first 18 verses or so. Or the prologue. Yeah, the prologue. The, he, and there's a lot in John beyond just these things, but you have the, I am statements of Jesus and you have the seven signs of Jesus, usually pretty close to each other. The signs of Jesus are those things that get our attention.

5:09 They begin to show us what the kingdom looks like, what life would look like under Jesus fully. But the statements of Jesus are the things that get him crucified. Because we can believe in signs that Jesus did without believing Jesus was. And so Jesus saying... So in other words, John writes this, Gospel of John, which is... Basically, as we talked about, 90% of John is unique to him. So he writes it not just about what Jesus did, but who he is. It's an identity piece, which is why we tell people, hey, read John, because then you find out not only who Jesus is, but who you are. Yeah, and you also find out what his kingdom looks like. If Jesus is coming to announce a kingdom, right?

5:52 Because what is... Repent for the kingdom is near. Don't even say the Messiah is near. It says the kingdom is near. Well, the kingdom comes with the king. Jesus is showing up as a Messiah to do all the things... that and it's like John the Baptist in his in John 1 this is the one I was telling you about it this is the this is the thing this is this is the one who's gonna do all the things that we've been hearing about for hundreds and hundreds of years he's the one who's all fulfilled in him so in in John you're getting that you're getting that kind of tone across the board of this is this is both what the kingdom is what he does and what he will do in his people but also who he is.

6:33 And it's the who he is that causes such an uproar because who he is challenges everyone who already thinks they are. That may be a confusing way of saying anyone who thought they had authority and who thought they had the kingdom nailed down or could, or could pigeonhole what it was going to look like, or could say exactly how it was going to be, or had the rules and all the things. Anyone who had that was now being challenged by this one who was saying things like, I am the resurrection of life. Come to me and I will give you rivers of living water. I am the bread. I am the bread. And all of these would have had some connotation, right? Bread would have had a connotation to the people of Israel getting provided for. So bread speaks to this idea of provision. So he's challenging all those who are in authority who are supposed to be the provision, who are supposed to light the way, who are supposed to be the one who have a rule over death and life.

7:21 And so it's the statements. In fact, my faith is not... determined predicated upon my belief that he did signs. Ultimately, it is that he is who he says he is. Now the signs tend to prove or validate those statements. But if the signs only point to more signs, it's why Jesus says, all you guys want is more signs. And then he says, I'm the bread of life. And it's his identity that changes us. Because when the signs run out, when everything's not going the way you want, do you still believe he is who he says he is? And so that's the test of our faith. Yeah. Okay. So I've got a friend named Cliff lives down in Houston. Cliff was in the Coast Guard and your grandfather, which who helped.

8:07 who launched the ministry Christian Men's Network, wrote a book called Maximize Manhood. So I had a friend named Cliff. I meet this guy a few years ago down in Houston. Somebody says, hey, you gotta meet this guy. He read your dad's book, Maximize Manhood. So, okay, fantastic. But here's the backstory. And this is the whole, this speaks to the piece of who Christ is, is what changes everything. Right. Because Cliff thought he had his life together. He's in the Coast Guard years ago. He's got his life together. Everything's good. Yeah, I got it nailed. You know, it's just a guy. And he's in the Coast Guard, got a good job, does well. And they're out on an assignment. In fact, they're running drug interdiction.

8:48 And so they're beyond, they can't talk to anybody. You know, it's radio silence, all that. They're out in the Caribbean. They're in the middle of this thing of what they're doing, military action. And on Mother's Day, the guy who's ahead of their captain says, hey, everybody gets a five-minute phone call. We'll break radio silence. Everybody gets a five-minute phone call. And then we're going to move back to where we need to be for the drug interdiction come out of— South America. And so it's a dangerous assignment in a lot of ways. And so everybody wants to talk to somebody. So he calls his wife, Cliff calls his wife. And she got a five minute call.

9:31 In that five minute call, she says, and there's people standing around, it's close quarters in the ship. And she says, hey, I'm glad you called. When you come home, I won't be here. And I've left your stuff. but I'm gone and I'm with, and she named some guy. I'm with this guy, I'm gone, I'm out. And he's like, that's his mother's day phone call. Bam! His life is destroyed. Now, he thinks, I've got everything together. He walks into a little time the next day. He walks into a little side galley on the ship. And in that galley, somebody had left a Maximized Manhood book.

10:16 So somebody had put it on the shelf, left it there. He's looking around, doesn't know what to do. I mean, he's got suicidal ideation. Picks up that book, pulls it out, begins to read Maximize Manhood. In here, begins to find out who Jesus really is and what his response to Christ needs to be. And at that moment, he just kneels. He's read this, spends a couple of days, goes back in there and he kneels down. And he says, dear Jesus, come into my life. I don't know how to pray this. I don't know how to be different. All I know is I need you. Right? Yeah. And now he's remarried, got two beautiful daughters.

10:59 And the final statement, we did a documentary on it. And I remember the final statement was, he said, I don't know who left that book on that shelf. But I forever will be grateful of what that man left. But you know what changed his life? Wasn't like, oh, I read a book and it gave me five things to do. What changed his life was he began to discover who Jesus is. The I am. And I think that picture out of John is what to me, as you said, it's the statements. I want to go into them. And you're going to go into them, right? So it's a book of signs. We've got signs. We've got healing.

11:40 Jairus, you know, the official son, we got healing at Bethesda, feeding the 5,000, walks on water, raises Lazarus. We may get into that today. I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe next time because raising Lazarus is an awesome story. Hey, if you're not reading the Gospel of John. to go along with this, just get into the book of John. It doesn't matter what translation you use, message, New Living Translation, CSB, whatever it may be. Get into the book of John, begin to read it, and begin to let the Holy Spirit stir some things up in your life. But let's get into the I Am's. Where's the first one? Well, we can go, let's list all, again, these are the statements that begin to, these are the things you have to believe to believe Jesus.

12:22 Okay. Right. And I think that's the important part here. The signs tell you what his kingdom looks like. The statements tell you who that king is and the statements are what our belief is predicated upon. Right. And so we are believing we are people of belief. We trust faith. So I'm just going to go through the several statements and just begin to hear these and go, OK, this is who Jesus is. John is trying to establish something about who Jesus is. Number one, I am the bread of life. You can interrupt me at any point. I'm the bread of life, John 6. I am the light of the world. By the way, this is funny.

13:03 It's like it's a culture thing or it's a generational thing. You're on your computer. I printed mine out. Yeah, much less paper. I write on paper. I just. I know you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, can you go ahead and find me that quote that's on page stuff? Can we find that quote on page seven real quick? Can you find that? Yeah, exactly. Okay. I am the bread of life, John 6. I am the light of the world. Again, what does this say about Jesus and his kingdom and who he is? I am the light of the world. What does it mean for you that he's the bread of life? He's the light of the world. I am the door, right? Stressing where and how you get into the kingdom. Yeah. Yeah. I'm the door. Yep. This is awesome.

13:43 And he's contrasting that to robbers, right? I have this great AI image that I created for that series. I don't know if you remember that. Because a lot of the pictures we get of Jesus is sitting with sheep. you know, in a meadow, but that's not the context of this. But you're fighting lions. Well, the context of this isn't even lions. It's robbers. People are going to come steal the sheep climbing over. So we made this AI image of Jesus with the rod and staff, and they've got sheep, but then there's these big, burly thieves running that put darkness in the clouds, you know, all that kind of stuff. I am the good shepherd. But how did he chase them? He whack him. What did he do? Oh, we didn't. It wasn't a movie.

14:23 It was just a picture. I am the good shepherd, John 10, contrasting against the bad shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. The resurrection and the life. Well, I am the good shepherd. It's not just the bad shepherd. It's protection. Well, it's the one who would lay down his life. And sheep are idiots. Well, what do you mean? Yeah. But the point isn't how dumb the sheep are. The point is that a good shepherd would... will do what is necessary to protect, to protect, to create safety, a place where someone can live to be fed. So I'm the good shepherd is one who would lay down his life for his sheep.

15:03 Right. The resurrection of life. I am the way, the truth and the life. Right. All these pointing to and the resurrection, Lazarus calling Lazarus out of the grave. We'll get back to that. Cause I know that one. And I am the true vine. Right. I am the one John 15. Yeah. We are the branches. You don't bear fruit unless you're connected to the vine. So, which again is... My father is a gardener. Yeah, there's... some of these are his role towards us. Some of these are, if we connect to him, true vine is where I find life. Some of these are what he's done in us, the resurrection. But his provision towards us, he's lighting the way. He is the let there be light of Genesis 1.

15:45 He is that. in in the world i am the door he's the one through whom all men must come i am the good shepherd i will lay down my life i'm the resurrection and the life i will bring resurrection to you speaking after he's just healed or brought lazarus back from the dead i am the way the truth and the life in case you want to try to come up with a word that doesn't fit him while he is the way the truth and the life he's the only way yep he's the only way he's the only way he's the only way Yeah, right. You know, the confusion of this world, we tend to follow, quote unquote, truth, but truth moves. Jesus said, I am the truth.

16:26 So truth is not just a concept or a construct. Truth is a person. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Jesus. And so there's really no room for some sort of vague interpretation of this, is there? Right. There's no room for this sort of, you know, he said that, but, you know, it's you either believe that or you don't. So it comes back to that argument of... of that he was insane, he was a mystic, or he was the son of God. Right. So you have to come back.

17:06 You have to make a decision. Yeah. And he he doesn't leave any room for that. And then he says, I'm the true vine. I love that one, which is fruitfulness. It comes back to your whole piece you talked about in the overture, which is it's a Genesis piece. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Genesis piece. And the first job that man had in the garden. creation before Adam even had a wife, he was a gardener. Yeah. I mean, I love that whole metaphor of gardening. It also, if you bring that forward, you look at Mary, When she comes off, like she's all disappointed, messed up because Mary is the first one who arrives at the empty tomb.

17:54 She turns around. Jesus is there, but she feeds him. Gardener. He thinks he's the gardener. Yeah. And so there's this picture over and over and over. of who he is for us. Yeah. Right. Right. The true vine. I'm the one that brings life. I'm the one that pulls weeds. I'm the one that helps. Yeah. Right. Brings new life. I love that whole picture. Yeah. No, I think and I think that's with these with these statements, these are the things that will be tested in our life. I mean, these are the things that will be challenges we go through our days is In particular moments and at times, do we believe him still to be the resurrection?

18:36 Do we believe him still to be the light? Do we believe him still to be the bread of life? Do we still believe him to be the one who would lay down his life for us? I mean, even who he says that to is a man who'd just been thrown out of the temple. And the temple has some big doors. And here he is going, I'm the door. I'm the one. You don't get here because you went through that door at that building. You get here because of me. And so do do we trust that? Do we believe that even then you talked about being true? And I think for me, true has taken a much bigger meaning of being more than just right and wrong, but being tested. It's true is pure.

19:18 True is real. It true is is something that stood upon. And so I stand true or that that connotation of that word isn't just that, you know, the right and wrong things, which is how we tend to do it in church. We tend to make things everything about a moralistic view of life. But Jesus was our salvation. He's he's not here to just be a moralistic pattern or model. He is here to be the the way, the truth and the life. When a piece of equipment is tested. and calibrated. Let's say it's a piece of a fine equipment that needs to be calibrated, tested.

19:58 And when it's finally right, we say it's true. Right. It can be trusted. It can be stood upon. And so all these statements are statements that we hope people discover, realize, and that each of us will, at different times in our life, will have to wrestle with about the truth and the claim. Um, and will we believe because believing in his name, we will have life, which is ultimately, and we didn't talk about this in the first deal, which is ultimately the goal here. The goal of John, the goal of the gospel is life. It is life and receive eternal life. Yeah, it is.

20:38 It's the argument we just have. We just celebrated Easter, right? Just a few days ago. It is life. It is resurrection. It is now and then. And we've talked recently. Eternal life is not later. It's now. It's now and later. Yeah. I mean, that's kind of the idea. That's kind of the idea. Now we'll be experienced a certain type of way. Later we'll be experienced a very different type of way. But I'm not just hanging here hoping to get there. Right. Well, because we are all cultivators of this garden that Jesus is the curator of. That's so good. You know, I know you got to think. Hold that. Hold that. Oh, I already forgot it. Yeah. There's this song. Okay. Hopefully this dude is not watching.

21:19 But there's a song, I'm Homesick for Heaven, right now. It's like a big thing, like a big song. Like every Christian station, Homesick for Heaven, which is a very cool kind of little hook in a song. Like he did a really good job building it, Homesick for Heaven. Dude, I'm not Homesick for Heaven. Yeah. Because heaven's here. You know what I'm saying? In other words, I'm just not hanging out waiting to die. Right. Hoping, you know, that whatever that is, is pretty cool. Yeah. Jesus said it was. But the fact is, heaven's now. Yeah. Right. I'm not I'm not homesick for that.

22:00 I'm not trying to I'm just not trying to get along. Right. Which is my problem with guys who get to my age who have already died. I don't mean I mean, they're still alive. Hmm. But but there's a there's an old proverb, which is a camera who said it, but it's a. Yeah. Most men die at 50. We just don't bury them till they're 85, which is that so many of us as men just quit. We just stop. We're like, okay, I'm just going to finish this job, do 10 more years. How many times have I heard that? I'm just going to do 10 more years because what happens then?

22:41 Well, then I get my full retirement. So 10 more years, then I'm vested or whatever it is, or my Roth IRA, 501, whatever thing is like, it's cranking along. It's good. And at this age, boom, I'm out. We're just marking time. That's not how we're supposed to work. A hundred percent. I think there is in what you're just saying, this kind of this idea of retirement is there is something to look forward to. Yeah. So we can't lose that. But there's also a live now. So it is a both end. And having a life that won't end should inform the life that is currently being lived.

23:24 And, you know, I think we talked recently in our church about that salvation has three tenses. And this is not an original thought, but it's three tenses as a past, present and future. You got saved, you're being saved, and you will be saved. And we should be grateful for all of those. So restore to me the joy of my salvation, of when I became a father, when I was made new, and how I'm being made new now, and how I will be made new again, and how I will walk into that new creation now. And so I think it's these all. And again, I know we're not even I don't know how we're going to dissect all of these. But there is something about that, that he's that we are going to get it done because I'm going to let you do it.

24:09 Oh, I don't. You know, yeah. No, I think it's just important for us to understand that that this is about resurrection. This is about life. And, you know, we we again, we just celebrated Easter. that sometimes we tend to relegate our faith and our walk in Christianity to this kind of moralistic, he just came to show us how to do things. And that's why these statements matter. Because I'm not just trying to live up to the signs of Jesus. I'm trying to trust in the statements of Jesus. So when Paul says, if he didn't rise from the dead, then your faith is futile. It matters not. Okay, that's pretty rich, strong...

24:50 language. Yeah. And so for me, it's to remember that he okay, he is alive. So what does that mean for me? Okay, he did rise. If him not rising means my faith is worthless, then him rising means my faith is more than— It's an unbelievable value. Right. And so you have to play both extremes. And so even in the statements, if I can trust all of these things, if I can lean into all these things, then the goal, John 20, verse 31, is that you would live. Right. That you would, that you would live, that you would believe and live and live forever. So, and you will have the promise of resurrection. We do have a promise to live into, but it's all based on the fact that Jesus is who he says he was and did what he said he did.

25:35 And that we can trust that. All right. John 635. Now I stopped you. I told you, I forgot that thought. So by the way, we have waves in the background because we, we, We do like surfing. We love the ocean. We do like the ocean. We love the ocean. We know what that wave is. And you can tell by the way it... Oh, yeah. No, it's a left. It's a hard left. That's feet. It's... Where is that? That's... I believe that. Oh, I don't know what that is. Yeah. I think it's all... Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think it's all around Fiji. Yeah. The islands of Fiji. Cool, cool. Anyway, so, oh, and also you mentioned the church that you pastor, which is Gallery Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

26:15 Yeah, Southside Fort Worth, yep. And so that's the historic Southside. Historic Southside, yeah. And so great church. And the website, we'll put in the show notes, but it's galleryfortworth.com. Yeah. Is that right? Yep. That is right. Got it right. And your mom and I are members of that church. Yeah. I mean, you know, we've had to walk a line. And we're a solid man. No, you're great. We're greeters. What else? I say we. Environments. Mom is a greeter. And then I greet with her. Yeah. You're more of a mental. Yeah. You observe. I'm the add on.

26:55 You give notes, you know, sidekick. Yeah, you guys are awesome. And then we go to dinner parties, which is the host of dinner party. Group thing. Yeah, that's that. And with Steve and Linda, which is a great segue to bread of life. Yeah, there you go. There you go. That's what I meant. And we can. And honestly, these are these are things that you should explore on your own. I mean, there's just zero chance in the next 20 minutes we're going to. cover all these. But what we can do is just quick hit notes on each of them. Because again, if these are going to be statements that you have to wrestle with, statements that you're going to build your life upon, statements that you're going to stand upon, then you should wrestle with them.

27:42 And they should inform you and your life. And honestly, these are the questions of what you're going to believe each day. What are you going to trust in each day? What is going to be the thing that you actually put your faith in? Because again, John says, I write these things that you might believe. And in believing, you would have life. And so it's a daily walk. So these things are not just these philosophical, theological sort of treatise things that we, this is like life, man. This is how we live every day. Yeah. All right. So bread of life, John six. Yeah. I mean, I think again, you know, these were whole 45 minute sermons in some ways, but We, we've become a culture built on desire.

28:28 Paul Mazur Lehman brothers wrote this years ago, said it says we must shift America from a needs culture to a desires culture. People must be trained to desire to want new things even before the old have been entirely consumed. Come on, somebody. We must shape a new mentality. Man's desires must overshadow his needs. When you think about that, we are a culture that buys a new thing before the old things actually become old. We start desiring the new thing before we even use the new thing. If you have children and you celebrated a birthday party, you know that the new thing is old quickly. And it's not because the thing is old.

29:09 It's because our desire for the new thing. Now, there could be an argument made that our desire for new things is in us. The desire for the new. Yeah, and fresh. It's the most powerful word in advertising. But one is, and this is the difference, and this is where the bread of life comes in. One is built on exterior materialistic provision. So the rat race comes to life real strong. Can I buy it? Can I get it? Can I purchase it? Can I transact for it? This statement, this bread of life is not saying he's got you, you know, Mrs. Baird's ready for you every day. It is the prayer we pray.

29:50 Lord, give us this day our daily bread. We are meant to chew upon, to be satisfied by, to have provision in Christ, which is why you would challenge everyone. We just came out of 40 days of prayer and fasting and Lent. To challenge men, fathers, husbands, to fast and pray over their family, that doesn't have to be heavy all the time. I mean, that book, Maximize Manner, that you just talked about, was written out of 40 days of prayer and fasting. I'm sustained by... Jesus. It is provision. And that's the provision we see throughout the Old Testament when the Israelites are brought out of Egypt and there's bread in the earth and it's daily bread. Daily bread. So I always make this argument because someone's like, well, because what he says is don't collect the bread for tomorrow, today.

30:34 Don't do that. Don't try to get extra. And when it's time to rest, you better rest on Saturday or Friday. We can argue about the Sabbath day, but... Grab a couple for the day of rest, grab some extra, but don't grab extra before that. And you could be like, well, golly, that's why I just want to be prepared. And to me, here's the argument. God is a God who wants to be with you every day. He doesn't want to provide for you once a week. It's new and it's fresh. He wants to be daily bread to you. It's fresh. So to me, it is a God that wants proximity regularly. Right. He wants relationship regularly rather than us going, well, why didn't you just give me a week's worth? Proximity. See, that's the word you just said right there. Proximity is what's beautiful about being a follower of Jesus Christ, about Christianity.

31:17 Yeah. is that it is about intimacy. It's intimacy with the Father. He's not just a system of government that sits up here somewhere and then we try to prove ourselves or we try to work ourselves. There's so many, it's a Tao said, believe in my word. you know, Taoism, but Jesus says, I am the word and I am the bread of life and it's daily and it's intimate. Go to the next slide. Yeah. So I think the bread of life is to, to counteract this desire culture, right? This is this, you are satisfied. That's why we pray for daily bread. I want a daily God. I want a God who is with me daily, not weekly, not monthly, not yearly, not at summer camp, not at that conference, of course at those things, but I want, I want a God who is daily.

32:01 Um, I want bread that satisfies daily. All right. The next one. John 8. Yeah. Next one is light of the world. This one we did touch a little bit. Genesis 1, 3. Let there be light and there was light. This is the statement. Remember, the I am echoes the Moses I am. When Moses, who are you? Well, I am. Well, Jesus is now echoing. Who do I tell him sent me? And so Jesus is, hey, I'm the sent one. I am. I am. I am him. Right. So the I am statement is carrying into the gospel of John. And he's saying things like, I am the light of the world. Genesis 1, 3, John 1, that this is the light that shines. And we did touch a little bit on this, but I want to read this kind of William Barclay describes it like this because he said this in a context where the Feast of Lights and where the temple was going to be illuminated at night.

32:49 And this is the way William Barclay describes it. The court was surrounded with deep galleries, erected to hold the spectators. In the center, four great candelabras were prepared. Some say they were 75 feet tall. When the dark came, the four great candelabras were lit, and it was said, they sent such a blaze of light throughout Jerusalem that every courtyard was lit up with their brilliance. Then all night long, until Cock Crow, the next morning, the greatest and the wisest and the holiest men in Israel danced before the Lord and sang psalms of joy and praise while the people watched." Jesus is saying, you have seen the blaze of the temple illuminations piercing the darkness of the night. I am the light of the world. And for the man who follows me, there will be light, not only for one exciting night, but for all the pathway of his life.

33:36 The light in the temple is a brilliant light, but in the end it flickers and dies. I am the light which lasts forever. So we are those who get to dance in that light, right? We get to live in that light. He is the one who lights my steps. He is the one who gives me view. He helps me see. And so darkness can be a scary thing, but he is the one who lights up the world. He is the one that shines brightly. Those who have been in great darkness will see a great light. It's awesome. All right. Light of the world, displacement, exponential power of the law of displacement. Light always displaces darkness. All right. So then we go to I'm the door.

34:18 Yeah. We covered. We did talk about that a little bit. Yeah. I'm the door. You know, it's the bad guy trying to climb over the wall. I'm the door. I'm the good shepherd. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Shepherd... lives for his sheep. This is a difference between hireling and calling. Your calling as a pastor is to be a shepherd, right? Because you give your life for the sheep. Jesus said, I'm the good shepherd, willing to give my life for the sheep. David. was a shepherd king. Yeah. You know, the whole picture of David, we talk about the book of Psalms over and over. You have to come back to his background as a shepherd.

35:01 Yeah. He's the shepherd. And so I love that whole thing. It's the sheep. Do you know... Jesus said over and over, my people need a shepherd. They're just like sheep. And the sheep, there's this picture. I studied this whole thing. There's this picture of if a sheep turns around and is looking, and he can be with a group, but if he's on the edge and he turns around and looks and doesn't see anybody, He thinks he's alone. And he'll just start wandering on. And then the other sheep will go, hey, where's he going? They go, I don't know. Let's go that way.

35:42 And that's how sheep end up getting lost is they follow. They don't know where they're going. And then the guy who doesn't know where he's going goes somewhere. And then the people who don't know where they're going follow him. Right. So that's why we need a shepherd. We need somebody who says this is the track. Right. Well, and even in this one, we spent two weeks on this because there's the gate and the shepherd, the door and the shepherd. I am the gate. I am the good shepherd. And one of these is the context of this is the part that I thought was really, really good. The man gets healed. They start questioning him, putting him on trial, essentially.

36:23 Oh, yeah. His parents in John 9, 22, it says his parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. And this is the line that I wrote. And it says it says just as there were gatekeepers. Right. Someone who says if you are a real writer or you are a real athlete or you are real whatever, if you are a real influencer, if you have X amount of followers or you. And the reason we do that as people, we all are gatekeepers somewhere in our life. All of us. Yeah. We all validate something at some point. We're all fundamentalists somewhere in our life, right? We all, all of us, we love to tell people, other people they're extremists until we get to something that we're extreme about. And so like we, so like there's, we're all gatekeepers at heart. We all want to, and the reason is, is because we feel like if we can eliminate the amount of people in, we can cement or concrete our position.

37:11 Right. So our self-righteousness is the default mode of the human heart. We are good enough. And so there's guys going, no, no, hold on. You can't heal. You can't do this. You can't prove that. And so these parents go, oh yeah, no, you're, yeah, I'm sorry. I don't want to make you guys upset. The more people in the less of a person I am is kind of the way we think. And so we, so what Jesus is doing in this moment is saying, no, no, hold on. I'm the way I'm the gate. I'm the one who gets, this is how you get in. It's not, no, here's a guy who's just been healed. They're all trying to disqualify it, saying it's not a thing. And Jesus is going, no, no, hold on. I'm the one who decides. And he's taking self-righteousness out of it because if Jesus is the one that makes you righteous, then other people don't get to decide if you are.

37:58 And so Jesus is becoming the gate, the one through whom we all must enter, right? Which can sound limiting until we realize that if we don't enter through him, we're going to spend our entire life trying to please the wrong people. Wow. We're going to spend our entire life trying to enter through wrong doors. We're going to find ourselves knocking and knocking and knocking or busting doors down. Or we're going to enter this door, then we're going to leave, and we're going to go enter another door. And all of them trying to provide something that they cannot provide. And limiting that audience. The first 100 people. Right. So Jesus, the good shepherd who opens the way and the door. And those are in the same kind of and you can't you can detangle them, but it's very hard to to do that.

38:40 I find them we spent a couple of weeks on them. I am the door. I am the good shepherd. Ultimately, what he's saying is there's robbers who are trying to steal life. I'm the one who gives life. Yeah. So, and I'm the one who will do anything to steal, kill and destroy. But I came to, you would have life and life overflowing. Any, any, any foreshadows, right? I, I'm a, I'm the shepherd who will sacrifice. I will lay down my life for you. Right. So, um, and then that feeds perfectly into resurrection. I am the resurrection and the life. It's John 10 was the door and the shepherd. John 11 is the resurrection. Again, we said this in the last episode, which is John is a Formula One car. We are not driving your mom's sedan.

39:22 Like this is this is as fast as it gets. He is letting it ride. And and so we're going quick from sign to statement to sign to statement to to all kinds of things that are happening. I am the resurrection. Life happens with Lazarus being raised from. All right. And I want to hit that one. Go for it. Finish this episode with that one. So sixth one is I am the way, the truth, and the life, which we've hit. Well, we haven't hit. Well, we did sort of hit that, didn't we? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. But we're stirring guys up. Yeah, it's all good. We're just trying to get you to read it. So that's John 14, John 15. I am the true vine, which is where we are connected to him. So we have life.

40:03 Yeah. So, uh, so I'm going to hit John 11 and I want to draw out a couple of things here because this to me is one of my favorite parts of the Bible because I look at Lazarus a little different than a lot of people because it says he lived in a place called Bethany. If we fast forward to when Jesus came in, what's called the triumphal entry, the week of his passion, when he comes in riding a donkey and he fulfills prophecy and he comes riding a donkey into Jerusalem. The road that he's taking is actually from the house of Lazarus. It's actually from Bethany into Jerusalem.

40:45 And there's all these different things going on at the same time. But people were waving palm branches, which is a sign of his royalty. And they were also putting their jackets on the ground, which is a sign of my identity as their jacket. It was my identity, because particularly in that culture... Yeah, you recognize someone by the... By what they wore. Yeah. Okay, that's why blind Bartimaeus, when he got up, when he was healed, it says the first thing he did was he took off his jacket because it was his identity as a beggar. And the prodigal son. Gets the robe put back on. Paul uses that phrasing of put on your new nature. There's a real sense of, yeah. So everybody throws those. So to me, when they threw that, their identity on the ground in front of Jesus and they wave the palm branches, those people, and this is just my take, Bran, those people aren't the same people that killed Jesus the next day.

41:36 It wasn't like, ah, the crowd that praised them then killed them. It's a very easy thing. These people are the ones who got saved at Lazarus's house because the Bible says that when the chief priests and those guys plotted to kill Jesus, they say, hey, and let's kill Lazarus, too, because on account of him, many have become followers of Christ. All right. Right. Right. So those people. So let's back this up even further. So Lazarus, then, if if you look at the context of the life of Christ, the interaction with Lazarus, and his two sisters, Martha and Mary. I look at it as Lazarus was actually, possibly the closest friend of Jesus.

42:20 Because he's got, who are the closest? John, the writer who talks about himself, and John says, you know, the one Jesus loved. Talking about himself. And then who else? Who's the closest? Peter. Yep. James. Yep. Right? So you got Peter, James, and John, the three. You got the three, the 12, the 72. You've got this close inner core of these three men. But every time, so here's the way I look at it is this. Every time Jesus is with those people. He's on. He's got to be on. Like he's teaching something. He's sharing something. He's going like, hey, you know, they're a campfire.

43:00 Somebody says something. They're talking. And Jesus goes, oh, yeah. Okay, here's the deal. It's like this. But with Lazarus, he's able to just hang out. Lazarus is, see, I think Lazarus is his best friend. But he didn't make him a disciple so he could just hang out with him. You don't have to be on. And he's got two sisters, one that can cook and one that's dangerous. So, you know, there's Martha, she can cook. And if you're gonna, you know, so anyway, so in this story, what happens here, the raising of Lazarus, Martha and Mary, you know, they're real strong in this picture.

43:43 So Lazarus gets sick. And Jesus hears about it. He's about a six hour walk away and he doesn't go. And he doesn't go the next day. He doesn't go the next day. Then these guys are going, hey, hey, what are you doing? What's good? Let's go. And Thomas, we call him doubting Thomas. Jesus called him a twin. Because basically he'd be like you, a full believer, but he likes to argue and he wonders what's really behind it. So Jesus is like, yeah, you're full on, but you also have all these questions. Yeah. Right. So he calls him a twin. Like you're the same. It's not like he has a twin brother. That's his nickname for him.

44:23 Right. You've got these different things going on. So then when Jesus shows up, finally, Lazarus is dead. And Martha comes out, slams her foot on the ground because she's they've got a personal relationship. And she knows, hey, the guy in they say, hey, the man you love, Lazarus, he's dead. He's about to die. He goes, no, he's just sleeping. So then Jesus says to her, hey, Martha comes out. and says, hey, if you'd been here, he would have lived. And Jesus said, no, your brother will rise again. And Martha says in verse 24, yeah, when everybody else does, he'll rise again at the end, at the last day.

45:08 And in Peterson's translation of the next interaction, Jesus says this to Martha. He says, no, no, no, Martha. I am right now the resurrection and the life. Not somewhere distant. And this is a picture for you and me and for us as men. Is that Jesus isn't the resurrection and the life somewhere. That whole thing about I'm heaven bound. That's great. Homesick for heaven. Cool. But heaven's here now. The kingdom is here now. And Jesus says, I am right now, the resurrection of life, no matter what has died in your life, no matter what dream has been messed up, no matter what problem you're in the middle of, Jesus says, I am right now.

45:59 Yeah. Resurrection of life. Good. And then he goes and heals Lazarus, says, uh, Where have you put him? Jesus cries over him. I mean, this, this is real life. Yeah. He shows up, the guys in a tomb, Jesus knows what's going to happen. And yet there's this grief moment. It says he cries over this man that, that, and that everybody had to go through this and that his sisters are there crying. And he says, Lazarus, come out. And I love this because, you know, this is this is one that I heard at camp growing up from preachers. The reason he said Lazarus, because if he had just said, come out.

46:42 All the dead people would come alive. So I love that whole piece. But I also think it's personal, which Jesus is. He's personal. Says Lazarus comes out, comes out. And here the last. Part of this, verse 44 of chapter 11, comes out in his grave clothes, and Jesus turns. And to me, Bran, this is brotherhood. This is why we need friends. This is why we need a band of brothers. This is why we need community. Because he says this, okay, this guy has come back from the dead. And he turns to the men around him and says, you unwrap him.

47:23 You unwrap him. and let him go. In other words, we are our brother's keeper. We are the ones who unwrap those who have been brought back from death to life. But how does he find his next step? been in the grave for three days. His muscles have atrophied. You know, something's not working right. What does he need? He needs a man on his right and his left. He needs a man to unwrap him. And that's our job as men to help other men get unwrapped from the things that have them constrained, have their life killed and dead and gone. And Jesus is, Bam, there's a revelation, there's light.

48:05 It's all the things we talked about. Yeah. And then we as men help that man into new life. Yeah. Well, I mean, it echoes what Jesus would have done at the Last Supper, washing the feet. You know, we wash the dirt off people's feet. We don't point it out. So good. We have to see it. Yeah. Right. It's got to be revealed. It's got to be open. It's got to be honest. But but but when we hear it, when we see it, it's we get on our knees, grab a towel. And the same, you know, I always remember talking about whenever you see because this is one of those scriptures you teach all the time, especially as a youth pastor. You're like, oh, I got this. He didn't prepare. You know, you stayed up too late with your buddies playing video games because you're a youth pastor.

48:49 And so you preach this one. And but one of the things that I always remember talking about was I always used to make a point that Jesus didn't roll the stone away. Like he asked someone else to do it, you know, and how awkward it would have been if the stone hadn't been rolled away and he's called for Lazarus to come out. Like kind of a messed up scenario, you know, dead man walking around inside a dark room trying to get out, busting against the rock, you know, can't see anything. But that Jesus wants us to create space where we want to be people who roll stones away. Also, the word resurrection to me says something about the kingdom of God as well. because it is a big deal.

49:31 We always say that there's patterns of Jesus, and one of them is death and resurrection, that for us to live in resurrection life, death has to be part of it. And you cannot, you know, again, we just celebrated Easter. You can't get to Sunday without Friday. And both of them are necessary. You can't do the resurrection without the cross, and you can't do the cross without the resurrection, or it makes both of them null and void. So I think for us— this resurrection piece is that he is the resurrection and the life. And it's interesting that those are separate words. Why would he say the resurrection and the life? Yeah, that's good. Why didn't you just say I'm the life? Right. Okay, cool. No, no, I'm the resurrection. I bring dead things to life. I bring dead things to life.

50:12 But again, this is also the promise of his church, of his people, is that he would, it's 1 Corinthians 15, it's the argument Paul makes. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Jesus isn't risen. If Jesus isn't risen, then faith is futile. So it is this idea that resurrection is part of the kingdom, which means that I die to myself. I identify with Christ in his death that I might be risen to life. Jesus is the only Savior of any religion that came to die. And let that be the crowning victory. That's it. That's the coronation of the king. The death of Christ is the coronation of the king.

50:55 The resurrection is the... It's the outworking of the kingdom. The outworking of the kingdom. So it's like, it's, it's so for us to read, when he says he's the, he's the resurrection in the life we are looking at it's, it's where he begins. One writer talks about it is, it is, it is where this begins to pivot to, to glory. Where now Jesus in the gospel of John is going to begin to work towards not just the book of signs, but a book of glory where we're elevating Christ, where he is becoming the one. And so, But raising Lazarus from the dead is, and look, like you said, there's a lot of other dead people there. So it's not as, like, that is the tension. Well, it's only the tension when we think of this life as the only one.

51:39 And the life that Christ is bringing is one, yes, that starts now, but will be glory to glory to glory, including... when the resurrection happens again, when Jesus returns, when new creation is culminated, when we become life and life as it's intended. And so, yeah, I think that resurrection, the life, the Lazarus miracle, I also think it's also the thing that is frustrating about God. It is. That he would show up if... after Lazarus died and say what he said. And she goes, I know about the resurrection of the dead. You're misinterpreting what I'm trying to say here.

52:20 Like you said, it is resurrection now. And so I do think there's dead things that are resurrected now, but I also think it is speaking to this macro idea that it is dead. The dead will return. They will be resurrected in Christ. Those who put a trust in him. And so, um, I think we have to let things die. We have to die so that we might live in resurrection life. So good. Well, okay. So I've got 185 pages left. Yeah. We're going to cover the book of John, but the beauty of it is, and what I love about what we're doing, brand is that we're stirring things up in us so that we're We look at this, get it into our hearts and spirits so that our identity is in Christ.

53:10 Yeah. And man, I love that. What was that movie about? I see dead people. Sixth Sense. Wow. Sixth Sense. And I thought I see dead people. But I thought of this. The movie of Jesus is I bring dead things back to life. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and again, that phrase, Bonhoeffer said, every time God bids a man, he bids him to come and die. But here's the promise though. Die now or die later. Yeah. And that sounds, whoa. But death is always coming for all of us. But we change the nature of it by basing where we die and in whom we die.

53:53 I die in Christ that I might live in Christ. And so when I approach death, that isn't a final word and it doesn't have sting because sin has been removed. And so it's... The bid is, the calling is to come and die, to be Lazarus, to be wrapped up in all your stuff. Die in Christ, in the cross. So good. So that when he brings you back, here's the thing about all these miracles. And sorry, did Lazarus live the same? We don't know totally different. We know what happened next because people started coming to his house and he's like, dude, let me tell you what happened. Right. It's the same. I always make the joke about, uh, I didn't even know I was dead.

54:36 I was just dead. Well, I always make the joke. Did you have? I didn't have any faith. I was dead. That right. Yeah. Hey, that'll preach. But Peter walked on water and everybody talks about how, um, uh, gosh, man, I can't believe he drowned. And I'm like, are you serious? I can't believe he walked. like yes i like do you think i i know i was like does peter get to the other side and i'm sure he's at one point going man i wish i would just kept my eyes on you but is there at least a little part of him is like no no no where the disciples the disciples are going geez peter you drowned he's going uh no sir i walked i walked yeah yeah but those are the things that it's like the death and resurrection thing it's Die now so you can live life.

55:17 And so you can be one who's come out of a grave. You've seen it. Now you live. And Lazarus didn't live the same. Why? Because it's the same dude breathing. He's breathing the same way. It's the same stuff. But he's a different person. And so the resurrection is that we live in that. Now... And now it's, you know, it's maybe not as stark as actually being wrapped up, put in the grave, but we would, we would be different because we trust in the sayings and statements of Jesus. In a sense, it's not as stark, but it is the same. It is. And that's what we, that is why this is all John 20, verse 31, that you would believe. And in believing, trusting, building your life upon this, you would have life.

55:58 Great session. Great podcast. 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.