Hello and welcome
to "Books of the Book."
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I'm so excited that you're able
to join us in this Bible study.
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My name is Deyvy Rodriguez
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and we are
studying the Gospel of John.
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And with us is Dr.
Jon Paulien, that's Jon.
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We're not studying
your gospel, right?
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No, it's not my gospel.
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I don't have an 'H' in my name.
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All right, the last time
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we were talking
about the Gospel of John,
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we left off saying that
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John has a particular
purpose in this gospel
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and we read and that was found
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in John 20:30,
31 and I'll read it.
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And it says,
"And truly Jesus did
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many other signs in the
presence of His disciples
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which are not
written in this book."
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And the purpose
is in the next verse.
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"But these are
written that you may believe
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that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God,
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and that believing you
may have life in His name."
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Tell us more a little
bit about this purpose.
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In the Greek language
which is the foundation
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for all four of these gospels,
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there are special
forms for purpose.
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There's
actually several of them,
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but one of the clearest ones
is right here in this verse.
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These things are written,
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notice, I didn't
write about lot of things
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but the ones I
wrote about I wrote about
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in order that you might believe
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and in order that
believing you might have life.
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So the purpose of the
gospel is stated right here
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that he has selected things
which will help you to believe.
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Now we've always
taken this as all of us,
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you know, well,
he's writing to us.
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But actually John has a
more specific audience in mind
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and it's when we discover
that more specific audience
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that I think this gospel
become extremely exciting.
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Then explain why
it's the favorite gospel
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of so many people?
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Because of the
purpose that John had.
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So the question ultimately is
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who is you, that
he's referring to?
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Who is the person that should
read this gospel and believe?
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Let's go back earlier
and look at verses 24-28.
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Would you read
that for us, Deyvy?
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We're still in Chapter
20. Still in Chapter 20, yeah.
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Verses 24 through 28.
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"Now Thomas, called the Twin,
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one of the twelve was not
with them when Jesus came.
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The other disciples
therefore said to him,
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'We have seen the Lord.'
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So he said to them,
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'Unless I see in His
hands the print of the nails,
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and put my finger into
the print of the nails,
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and put my hand into His
side, I will not believe.'
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And after eight days His
disciples were again inside,
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and Thomas with them.
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Jesus came, the
doors being shut,
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and stood in the midst,
and said, 'Peace to you.'
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Then He said to Thomas,
'Reach your finger here,
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and look at My hands,
and reach your hand here,
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and put it into My side.
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Do not be
unbelieving, but believing.'
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And Thomas
answered and said to Him,
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'My Lord and my God.'"
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Good answer, right? Mm-hmm
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Okay, but what did he need
to come to that answer? Faith.
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He needed to do
something, he needed to believe.
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He needed to see. To see.
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He needed to touch.
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He needed Jesus
physically present there.
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You see that's the setting
of this purpose statement.
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Now come to verse 29,
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Thomas says,
"I'll never believe.
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If I can't see him,
if I can't touch him,
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I'm not gonna believe."
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Now look at verse 29.
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"Then Jesus told to him,
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'Because you have seen
Me, you have believed.'"
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You know check mark.
He is okay with that.
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But look what he says.
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"Because you have
seen Me, you've believed,
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blessed are those who
have not seen and yet believe."
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You see it's good.
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Thomas, you know,
was able to believe
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now that he had Jesus
present, but you and I don't.
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How are we supposed
to believe in Jesus?
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If we held the same
standard that Thomas had,
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we would never believe.
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So John recognizes that
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there's gonna be people
in the history of the world
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who will not have the
privilege of walking with Jesus
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and touching Him and seeing
Him the way these disciples had.
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These people will
need to learn to believe
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without sight and without touch.
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Now this gets even more
exciting if we go to Chapter 21,
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because Chapter 21
gives us the context
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of this whole story and verses--
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would you read 20 through 23?
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"Then Peter, turning around,
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saw the disciple whom
Jesus loved following,
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who also had leaned on
His breast at the supper,
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and said, 'Lord, who is
the one who betrays You?'
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Peter, seeing
him, said to Jesus,
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'But Lord, what about this man?'
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Jesus said to him, 'If I
will that he remain till I come,
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what is that to
you? You follow Me.'"
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Okay, hold it right there.
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See here you have
the story that's told
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of Jesus walking on
the beach with Peter
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and they are
having a conversation.
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We can get into
that in a later program.
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But in the middle
of this conversation,
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Peter notices that there's
another disciple following
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and that disciple,
we're gonna discover
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eventually is actually
the author of this book
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and here we call him John.
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So Jesus is looking
back at this other disciple
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and saying, you
know, you've talked to me
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about where I'm going
in life, what about him?
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And Jesus says,
none of your business.
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And He says, take care
of yourself kind of like.
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But now notice verse 23
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because this is an interesting
window into the history.
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"Then this saying
went out among the brethren
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that this
disciple would not die.
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Yet Jesus did not say to
him that he would not die,
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but, 'If I will that
he remain till I come,
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what is that to you?'"
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Now my version even
says the rumor went abroad.
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In the Greek it's
just a saying or a word,
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you know, saying went around.
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This is the
context of this gospel.
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You see, people evidently
remembered and told the story.
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How Jesus walking on the beach.
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Talking about John and said,
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"If I decide he
will live till I come,
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what is that to you?"
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And they thought about that
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and they said, "Hey,
John is not gonna die.
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Jesus will come
before John dies."
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So the rumor is going out.
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Now here is the
problem, John is getting old.
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We feel the gospel
is probably written
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about 70 years after the cross,
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so he might have been
90, 85, 90, maybe even more.
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So either he's gonna die
soon or Jesus is gonna come.
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What's going to happen
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if people believe
that rumor and John dies?
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It'd be devastating.
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So the context in
which this gospel is written
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is the impending
death of its author
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and he is preparing the people
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for a time when
he won't be there.
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Now who is John? He is
the last living disciple.
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All the other
disciples are dead.
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He is the last link with Jesus.
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He is the last
personal alive who saw Jesus,
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touched Him, heard His voice.
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Can you imagine the loss?
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When he dies the
church will feel like
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our link to Jesus is gone.
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What are we going to do?
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So this gospel is
address to another generation.
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The first
generation is the generation
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that walked and
talked with Jesus.
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The next
generation is a generation
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that had no physical contact,
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no sight, no sound,
no hearing, no touch
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and yet they were struggling
to go on with their faith.
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It is for that generation
that this was written.
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Now let me show
you a couple of places
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in which this occurs, John 17.
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It's very exciting
when I discovered this.
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It just blew my mind.
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John 17:2, Jesus says,
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"You have granted
Him" speaking of Himself
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"authority over all people,
that He might give eternal life
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to all those
You have given Him."
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Here in the first
part of this chapter,
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Jesus is praying and
He prays for Himself.
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"Dear Father, glorify
Me as You were glorified."
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So He prays for Himself.
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Then notice verse 12,
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"While I was with
them, I protected them
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and kept them safe by
the name You gave Me."
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Who is them?
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He's talking
about the disciples.
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Okay, so He prays for Himself,
now He prays for His disciples.
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In every other
gospel that would be it,
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but look at verse 20.
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"My prayer is
not for them alone."
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Oh, who besides the disciples
does He want to pray for?
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"I pray also for
those who will believe in Me
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through their message."
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So Jesus now prays
for a second group,
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not the ones that were with Him,
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but those who came to believe
through the disciples' message.
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How did you and
I come to believe?
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Through the disciples'
message, through these gospels,
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that's how we came to believe.
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We never touched Jesus.
We never heard His voice.
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We never were able
to see Him physically.
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Wouldn't you love to
have Jesus at your house?
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Wouldn't it be neat if
every time you get into trouble,
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you can go into the backroom
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and you can tell
your troubles to Jesus?
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He can kneel down
and He could pray for you
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and raise up His voice
to the Father in heaven.
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Every time I get
sick, I just need His touch.
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Yeah. And I'm healed.
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We somehow think
we'd be better off
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if Jesus were
with us physically.
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John is saying, "No,
Jesus already knew about you."
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He already prayed
for you when He was here.
00:11:09.51\00:11:12.15
So the first or
that first generation,
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I don't know if it's the first
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but that generation
who saw Jesus' miracles,
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do they an advantage
over us or do they not?
00:11:20.84\00:11:25.48
That's the
question of this gospel.
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No other gospel addresses
this. Paul doesn't address it.
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I don't know of any
other place in the Bible.
00:11:30.60\00:11:32.51
But here in the Gospel of John,
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it addresses this whole question
of how we had a disadvantage.
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What about those people
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who don't have a
living disciple with them?
00:11:41.92\00:11:43.69
Can words on a page
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make that much of a
difference, you see?
00:11:47.50\00:11:50.30
When you go to Chapter 15,
00:11:50.33\00:11:52.95
and we won't take
time to do that right now,
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but in Chapter 15,
Jesus tells a story.
00:11:54.86\00:11:58.51
He says, "I am the
vine, you are the branches."
00:11:58.54\00:12:04.73
Who is He talking to? He
is talking to His disciples.
00:12:04.76\00:12:10.62
Now you and I tend to
read that story and say,
00:12:10.65\00:12:13.80
oh, He's the
vine, I'm the branches,
00:12:13.83\00:12:15.89
I got to stay close to Jesus.
00:12:15.92\00:12:17.31
Follow the whole story.
00:12:17.34\00:12:21.19
He says, "I am the
vine, you are the branches."
00:12:21.22\00:12:25.57
Who's He talking
to? His disciples.
00:12:25.60\00:12:29.13
If you could
stay connected to Me,
00:12:29.16\00:12:31.99
if you remain in
Me, you will what?
00:12:32.02\00:12:36.03
Bring forth a lot of
fruit. Who is the fruit?
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They are the people who believed
from the disciples' testimony.
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The disciples believe
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'cause they are
connected to the physical Jesus.
00:12:47.46\00:12:50.00
We have come to believe
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'cause we are
connected to the disciples.
00:12:51.43\00:12:52.86
That's interesting
because I always thought
00:12:52.89\00:12:54.50
that the fruit
represented more like
00:12:54.53\00:12:56.36
the fruit of the sprit,
joy, love, peace, patience--
00:12:56.39\00:13:00.56
you know, and so
now you're saying
00:13:00.59\00:13:03.72
that the fruit
represents other disciples
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that by their word
they bring to Christ.
00:13:06.95\00:13:09.76
Well, in John 10:16, Jesus says,
00:13:09.79\00:13:12.50
"Other sheep I have,
which are not of this fold."
00:13:12.53\00:13:16.76
You know the disciples are only
part of who's He ministering to.
00:13:16.79\00:13:20.00
I thought the same thing, Deyvy.
00:13:20.03\00:13:22.17
But when I came to realized
00:13:22.20\00:13:24.13
how John is focused in
on the second generation,
00:13:24.16\00:13:28.02
it changed everything.
00:13:28.05\00:13:29.42
Now I suddenly realize,
00:13:29.45\00:13:30.82
yeah, He is
talking to the disciples
00:13:30.85\00:13:32.38
and saying, "You
stay connected to Me
00:13:32.41\00:13:34.75
and then you will
be able to bear fruit."
00:13:34.78\00:13:37.64
That fruit is the
second generation.
00:13:37.67\00:13:39.73
In Chapter 21, the
disciples are out fishing,
00:13:39.76\00:13:43.07
Jesus directs
them. And what happens?
00:13:43.10\00:13:46.72
They catch 153 fish.
00:13:46.75\00:13:49.49
See the disciples are the ones
going out collecting the fish.
00:13:49.52\00:13:53.75
We are the fish.
00:13:53.78\00:13:55.24
The second
generation is the fish.
00:13:55.27\00:13:58.41
They are the ones that have
no direct connection with Jesus,
00:13:58.44\00:14:01.20
but it tells us Jesus is
directing their conversion,
00:14:01.23\00:14:05.30
even though He is
not physically present,
00:14:05.33\00:14:07.11
He is at a distance,
but He can still accomplish
00:14:07.14\00:14:10.72
everything we need
even at a distance.
00:14:10.75\00:14:13.47
So do you think it
would be fair to say that
00:14:13.50\00:14:15.59
that generation had no advantage
over let's say for example us.
00:14:15.62\00:14:20.81
I think before we're done
with this particular program,
00:14:20.84\00:14:24.26
we might discover
that it's an advantage
00:14:24.29\00:14:27.31
not to have Jesus
physically present.
00:14:27.34\00:14:29.88
I want to know more about that.
00:14:29.91\00:14:31.28
All right. Okay.
00:14:31.31\00:14:33.06
Well, we're gonna continue
picking up on the Gospel of John
00:14:33.09\00:14:36.16
with Dr. Jon Paulien
after this short break.
00:14:36.19\00:14:39.83