And we're studying the Gospel
of John with Dr. Jon Paulien
00:00:01.40\00:00:04.11
And Dr. Paulien, you
were telling us about--
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it is better to
have four stories
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than one, tell us more?
00:00:09.96\00:00:12.18
Well, the ironical thing is that
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for most people it
isn't four stories.
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Here you have what I call
the Hollywood version of Jesus,
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you know, what they do
to put a movie together
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where you have four of
these different stories,
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we try to find all the
things where they agree
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and create one story
out of it and that's great.
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And that has
helped a lot of people.
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One of my favorite
books "Desire of Ages"
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basically does that.
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But the reality is we're missing
a lot when we only do that
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because each of these stories is
unique and tells a unique story.
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Let me just give you an example.
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There's three
toothpastes that are really
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basically have
the same ingredients
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but they have a
different purpose.
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One is called Colgate,
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and it has maximum
fluoride protection, you know.
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And then there's Close
Up for the romantic types,
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you know, who
like to get close up.
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And then there's
Ultrabrite for people
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who are worried
about their appearance
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and want bright shiny teeth.
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Now the question
I have for you is
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which of these
toothpaste is the right one?
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Depends on what I'm looking
for I suppose, I don't know.
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I would probably
say the cheapest one.
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Is this an advertise? No.
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but the point is this
that each of those toothpastes
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may have an audience, a
certain people will say,
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oh, I like that one, you know,
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I want to have bright teeth
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or I want to
take care of my breath
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or I want to have healthy teeth,
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you know, and get
rid of the cavities.
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So you tend to pick toothpaste,
it may be the same thing
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but you still pick
one or the other of these
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because it's
something that strikes you
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and the point is this
there is no one right gospel.
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They are all
telling the story of Jesus,
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each may impact different lives,
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but it tells me
something very important
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that I think a lot of
people haven't fully understood
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and that is
there's more than one
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right way to tell
the story of Jesus.
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And that means there's more
than one right way to think.
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I think that that
can be tough for people,
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people sort of
have the impression,
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if I'm right, you
must be wrong, you see.
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And if I know I'm right,
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then I shouldn't listen to
you because you are wrong, okay.
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But if it's possible that
two different followers of Jesus
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may both know
something right about Jesus
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just like Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John,
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each knew
something right about Jesus.
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They told the story differently
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but in telling
the story differently,
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it wasn't one was
better than the other
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or one was more
right that the other.
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They were all telling the
story of Jesus in a correct way.
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Now you can tell
the story of Jesus
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in a wrong way too,
I'm not denying that.
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But I think it's very
important for me to understand
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that if there's more
than one right way to think,
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then I need to listen to you,
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I need to be
willing to learn from you
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because you may
have a view of Jesus
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that is in some
aspects clearer than mine
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that I need to learn from you.
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And so the four gospels tell me
that God is one who is willing
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to come out of variety
of directions to reach us.
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In the Book of Revelation,
you have seven churches
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and each of them gets a
different picture of Jesus.
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People not always notice that,
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there's a picture
of Jesus in Chapter 1
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and then these churches,
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He comes
differently to each church.
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So He recognizes
that we don't think alike.
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We all come from a
different background.
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You come from Mexico, my
parents came from Germany,
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very different background
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and yet we can
listen to each other,
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share like we're doing
here, learn from each other
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and that can be
a wonderful thing
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and the Bible of
course gets to test
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whether or not
we've done it right.
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The two extremes on the one hand
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is there's only
one right way to think
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and that leads to a
lot of religious wars
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and then the other side
is where every way is okay
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and both of those
are extreme positions.
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The gospels tell us that
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the gospel is the
right way to think,
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but there's more than
one way to look at the gospel
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It's like two witnesses
or more than two witnesses
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who experience
something they've never met,
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they've never seen each
other, they tell their story.
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You have two
different point of views,
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there might be
two different stories
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but then again it all leads
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to the same experience
they met, is that correct?
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Yes, that's absolutely right.
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And I think when you get to
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
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each of them has
its own perspective.
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Now John is really
special in this sense.
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Even the
ancients recognized this,
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probably one of the earliest
Christian writers that we have
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outside of the New
Testament said that,
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you know, these
three gospels were written
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but then John chose to
write a spiritual gospel.
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Somehow he saw the
other three gospels
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not as spiritual
gospels, but something else.
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And what I think he meant was
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these were
narratives about Jesus.
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The stories were told
because they happened.
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But John isn't just telling
stories because they happened.
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Yeah, Jesus went to a wedding.
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Yeah, He cleansed the temple.
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Yeah, He fed the 5,000.
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But John is
telling a spiritual story
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and one of the
exciting things you discover
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in the Gospel of John,
there's no parables in it.
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Matthew, Mark and
Luke, Jesus tells parables.
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These stories,
sort of made up stories
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that have a powerful point.
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Why are there no
parables in the Gospel of John?
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Because the stories
themselves are the parables.
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The stories themselves
have spiritual impact,
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so when you're
reading the Gospel of John,
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you don't just say, "oh,
Jesus went to a wedding,"
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nice, I guess weddings are okay.
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No, no, no, there
is depth in that story
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when we get to
the wedding of Cana,
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we'll spent the whole half hour
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just exploring some of
the depths in that story.
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So John's gospel is
different from the other three
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and particularly is
attempting to bring us
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the powerful spiritual message.
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So then it's more like
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rather than
narrative as you were saying.
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It's an application,
a spiritual application,
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okay, so this is what it says,
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now let me tell you
what it means. Yeah.
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And how that will
fulfill your need,
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your spiritual
need. That's right.
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So the Gospel of John often
has been the most powerful,
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most popular
gospel for many people,
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because it touches the heart
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at a deeper level
sometimes than the others.
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And John, I've found,
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is even deeper than
the Book of Revelation.
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Some of the depths in
there are harder to come at
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than the Book of Revelation.
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We gonna be exploring
some of that together.
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You know, it's like a church,
like let's say the presenter,
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or the speaker, the preacher
is he's giving his sermon,
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but if there is no
spiritual application to me
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to say okay, this is what
it means in my personal life.
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This is how I should
spiritually change or focus
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and that's what
I want rather than
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okay, well, I know the facts,
I've read that story before
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but what does it mean to me
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and how can I grow
in my spiritual life.
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So then John emphasizes
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the spiritual
aspect of the gospel.
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Yeah, now let me show you
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one of the ways in
which this happens.
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In the Gospel of John itself
there are three Passovers.
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You can find the
first one in John 2:13
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where it says,
"When it was almost time
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for the Jewish Passover,
Jesus went up to Jerusalem."
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So you have a Passover there
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right at the
beginning of the book.
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Then John 6:4,
and this is later on.
00:08:01.30\00:08:09.22
In John 6:4, it says,
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"The Jewish
Passover feast was near."
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So this is at least a year later
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because the Passover
is only once every spring.
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And then in John 12:1,
notice what it says there.
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In John 12 and Verse 1,
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it says, "Six days
before the Passover,
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Jesus arrived to
Bethany, where Lazarus lived,
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whom Jesus had
raised from the dead."
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These are three
different Passovers.
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Three different
Passovers, you see.
00:08:41.13\00:08:43.02
So you can divide
the Gospel of John
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with these three
different Passovers.
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So you have some sense in John
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more than the other
three of a passage of time.
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Now here's where
it gets interesting.
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The first year takes 116 verses,
00:08:56.32\00:09:01.67
so from the first
Passover to the second,
00:09:01.70\00:09:03.42
there's 116 verses.
00:09:03.45\00:09:05.35
Now watch this,
00:09:05.38\00:09:06.75
from the second
Passover to the third,
00:09:06.78\00:09:09.53
there are 295 verses.
00:09:09.56\00:09:13.35
So what's happening here?
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The narrative is slowing down.
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It took 116 verses
to cover the first year
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but it takes 295 to
cover the second year.
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Then comes the death of Jesus
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and that story is
told in 293 verses.
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What's happening here?
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The narrative is slowing down.
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It's getting slower and slower
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until by the time
he get to the cross,
00:09:38.24\00:09:40.04
it almost grinds to a halt.
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What's John doing?
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The cross is what
this is all about.
00:09:43.83\00:09:45.93
The cross is the
heart of this book.
00:09:45.96\00:09:47.76
That's the place that really
makes a difference, you see.
00:09:47.79\00:09:51.65
So he's using the narrative
speed going through the book
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to point
everything toward the cross.
00:09:56.40\00:09:59.79
And we'll find out later on
00:09:59.82\00:10:01.21
that even when we're in
the beginning of the book,
00:10:01.24\00:10:02.78
we're still
heading toward the cross.
00:10:02.81\00:10:06.16
Now John above all other
gospels was concerned with time.
00:10:06.19\00:10:11.07
You have days mentioned.
00:10:11.10\00:10:12.75
For example, if
you go to Chapter 1,
00:10:12.78\00:10:16.67
it tells the story
of John the Baptist
00:10:16.70\00:10:19.14
in Verses 19 through 27
and then verse 29, it says,
00:10:19.17\00:10:25.24
"The next day, John saw
Jesus coming toward him."
00:10:25.27\00:10:29.32
Then in verse 35, "The next day,
00:10:29.35\00:10:31.69
John was there with
two of his disciples."
00:10:31.72\00:10:33.91
In verse 43, "The next day,
00:10:33.94\00:10:36.02
Jesus decided to
leave for Galilee."
00:10:36.05\00:10:38.70
And in Chapter 2:1,
00:10:38.73\00:10:40.10
"On the third day,
a wedding took place."
00:10:40.13\00:10:43.25
John marks time
off in the gospel,
00:10:43.28\00:10:47.71
none of the others
do it quite this way.
00:10:47.74\00:10:50.26
Now if you take seriously
these years in the text,
00:10:50.29\00:10:55.76
there's more than a thousand
days that Jesus is ministering,
00:10:55.79\00:11:00.13
but only 29 are
actually mentioned.
00:11:00.16\00:11:04.22
Only 29 days actually appear
00:11:04.25\00:11:09.17
in the Gospel of
John, so what is he doing?
00:11:09.20\00:11:12.36
He's being extremely selective.
00:11:12.39\00:11:15.89
At the end of the book, he says,
the very last verse, he says,
00:11:15.92\00:11:20.41
if everything
about Jesus was written,
00:11:20.44\00:11:22.36
it would fill the whole
world with books. Right.
00:11:22.39\00:11:24.83
So this book is
selecting certain things
00:11:24.86\00:11:28.21
and in Chapter 20, I want
you to look at this with me.
00:11:28.24\00:11:31.28
Why don't you read it
for us, Chapter 20:30 and 31.
00:11:31.31\00:11:36.58
It says, "And truly Jesus did
00:11:36.61\00:11:38.84
many other signs in the
presence of His disciples
00:11:38.87\00:11:41.50
which are not
written in this book."
00:11:41.53\00:11:44.74
There's many
things not written here.
00:11:44.77\00:11:46.49
So, what's written?
00:11:46.52\00:11:47.89
"But these are
written that you may believe
00:11:47.92\00:11:49.58
that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of a God,
00:11:49.61\00:11:52.05
and that believing you
may have life in His name."
00:11:52.08\00:11:56.00
So John has a
purpose. He's being selective.
00:11:56.03\00:12:01.24
He's chosen only a few
days out of Jesus ministry,
00:12:01.27\00:12:04.11
only a few miracles out
of whole Jesus ministry.
00:12:04.14\00:12:07.04
He has a purpose.
00:12:07.07\00:12:09.89
The Gospel of John is
being written for a purpose
00:12:09.92\00:12:12.70
and that purpose is that
you and I might believe. Amen.
00:12:12.73\00:12:18.70
So as we look carefully
00:12:18.73\00:12:21.07
at how John is different
from the other gospels,
00:12:21.10\00:12:23.69
we'll also discover
his unique picture of Jesus
00:12:23.72\00:12:27.22
and that's the one
we want to draw out
00:12:27.25\00:12:28.62
in the series of programs.
00:12:28.65\00:12:30.02
And I'm looking
forward to seeing
00:12:30.05\00:12:31.60
those unique pictures of Jesus
and I hope you too, friends,
00:12:31.63\00:12:34.95
have and find the gift of
eternal life in Jesus Christ.
00:12:34.98\00:12:39.20