Participants: Deyvy Rodriguez & Jon Paulien
Series Code: JBOTB
Program Code: JBOTB00002A
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00:20 Hello and welcome to "Books of the Book."
00:22 I'm so excited that you're able to join us in this Bible study. 00:26 My name is Deyvy Rodriguez 00:27 and we are studying the Gospel of John. 00:30 And with us is Dr. Jon Paulien, that's Jon. 00:33 We're not studying your gospel, right? 00:34 No, it's not my gospel. 00:36 I don't have an 'H' in my name. 00:38 All right, the last time 00:39 we were talking about the Gospel of John, 00:42 we left off saying that 00:45 John has a particular purpose in this gospel 00:49 and we read and that was found 00:51 in John 20:30, 31 and I'll read it. 00:55 And it says, "And truly Jesus did 00:58 many other signs in the presence of His disciples 01:01 which are not written in this book." 01:03 And the purpose is in the next verse. 01:05 "But these are written that you may believe 01:08 that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, 01:11 and that believing you may have life in His name." 01:15 Tell us more a little bit about this purpose. 01:18 In the Greek language which is the foundation 01:21 for all four of these gospels, 01:23 there are special forms for purpose. 01:26 There's actually several of them, 01:27 but one of the clearest ones is right here in this verse. 01:30 These things are written, 01:32 notice, I didn't write about lot of things 01:35 but the ones I wrote about I wrote about 01:38 in order that you might believe 01:42 and in order that believing you might have life. 01:47 So the purpose of the gospel is stated right here 01:51 that he has selected things which will help you to believe. 01:56 Now we've always taken this as all of us, 02:00 you know, well, he's writing to us. 02:03 But actually John has a more specific audience in mind 02:08 and it's when we discover that more specific audience 02:11 that I think this gospel become extremely exciting. 02:14 Then explain why it's the favorite gospel 02:18 of so many people? 02:19 Because of the purpose that John had. 02:22 So the question ultimately is 02:24 who is you, that he's referring to? 02:27 Who is the person that should read this gospel and believe? 02:31 Let's go back earlier and look at verses 24-28. 02:36 Would you read that for us, Deyvy? 02:38 We're still in Chapter 20. Still in Chapter 20, yeah. 02:40 Verses 24 through 28. 02:42 "Now Thomas, called the Twin, 02:44 one of the twelve was not with them when Jesus came. 02:47 The other disciples therefore said to him, 02:49 'We have seen the Lord.' 02:51 So he said to them, 02:53 'Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, 02:55 and put my finger into the print of the nails, 02:59 and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.' 03:03 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, 03:07 and Thomas with them. 03:09 Jesus came, the doors being shut, 03:11 and stood in the midst, and said, 'Peace to you.' 03:15 Then He said to Thomas, 'Reach your finger here, 03:18 and look at My hands, and reach your hand here, 03:21 and put it into My side. 03:23 Do not be unbelieving, but believing.' 03:27 And Thomas answered and said to Him, 03:29 'My Lord and my God.'" 03:31 Good answer, right? Mm-hmm 03:33 Okay, but what did he need to come to that answer? Faith. 03:38 He needed to do something, he needed to believe. 03:43 He needed to see. To see. 03:45 He needed to touch. 03:46 He needed Jesus physically present there. 03:50 You see that's the setting of this purpose statement. 03:53 Now come to verse 29, 03:54 Thomas says, "I'll never believe. 03:56 If I can't see him, if I can't touch him, 03:58 I'm not gonna believe." 03:59 Now look at verse 29. 04:01 "Then Jesus told to him, 04:03 'Because you have seen Me, you have believed.'" 04:07 You know check mark. He is okay with that. 04:10 But look what he says. 04:11 "Because you have seen Me, you've believed, 04:14 blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." 04:22 You see it's good. 04:25 Thomas, you know, was able to believe 04:28 now that he had Jesus present, but you and I don't. 04:31 How are we supposed to believe in Jesus? 04:33 If we held the same standard that Thomas had, 04:36 we would never believe. 04:38 So John recognizes that 04:40 there's gonna be people in the history of the world 04:44 who will not have the privilege of walking with Jesus 04:47 and touching Him and seeing Him the way these disciples had. 04:52 These people will need to learn to believe 04:56 without sight and without touch. 04:59 Now this gets even more exciting if we go to Chapter 21, 05:03 because Chapter 21 gives us the context 05:07 of this whole story and verses-- 05:12 would you read 20 through 23? 05:14 "Then Peter, turning around, 05:16 saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, 05:19 who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, 05:22 and said, 'Lord, who is the one who betrays You?' 05:25 Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, 05:27 'But Lord, what about this man?' 05:30 Jesus said to him, 'If I will that he remain till I come, 05:34 what is that to you? You follow Me.'" 05:37 Okay, hold it right there. 05:39 See here you have the story that's told 05:41 of Jesus walking on the beach with Peter 05:45 and they are having a conversation. 05:47 We can get into that in a later program. 05:50 But in the middle of this conversation, 05:53 Peter notices that there's another disciple following 05:57 and that disciple, we're gonna discover 06:00 eventually is actually the author of this book 06:03 and here we call him John. 06:05 So Jesus is looking back at this other disciple 06:09 and saying, you know, you've talked to me 06:12 about where I'm going in life, what about him? 06:15 And Jesus says, none of your business. 06:18 And He says, take care of yourself kind of like. 06:20 But now notice verse 23 06:22 because this is an interesting window into the history. 06:26 "Then this saying went out among the brethren 06:28 that this disciple would not die. 06:31 Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, 06:34 but, 'If I will that he remain till I come, 06:38 what is that to you?'" 06:40 Now my version even says the rumor went abroad. 06:43 In the Greek it's just a saying or a word, 06:46 you know, saying went around. 06:49 This is the context of this gospel. 06:52 You see, people evidently remembered and told the story. 06:56 How Jesus walking on the beach. 06:58 Talking about John and said, 07:00 "If I decide he will live till I come, 07:02 what is that to you?" 07:04 And they thought about that 07:06 and they said, "Hey, John is not gonna die. 07:10 Jesus will come before John dies." 07:14 So the rumor is going out. 07:15 Now here is the problem, John is getting old. 07:19 We feel the gospel is probably written 07:21 about 70 years after the cross, 07:23 so he might have been 90, 85, 90, maybe even more. 07:27 So either he's gonna die soon or Jesus is gonna come. 07:32 What's going to happen 07:34 if people believe that rumor and John dies? 07:38 It'd be devastating. 07:40 So the context in which this gospel is written 07:43 is the impending death of its author 07:46 and he is preparing the people 07:50 for a time when he won't be there. 07:53 Now who is John? He is the last living disciple. 07:59 All the other disciples are dead. 08:01 He is the last link with Jesus. 08:06 He is the last personal alive who saw Jesus, 08:10 touched Him, heard His voice. 08:13 Can you imagine the loss? 08:17 When he dies the church will feel like 08:20 our link to Jesus is gone. 08:22 What are we going to do? 08:23 So this gospel is address to another generation. 08:28 The first generation is the generation 08:31 that walked and talked with Jesus. 08:33 The next generation is a generation 08:35 that had no physical contact, 08:38 no sight, no sound, no hearing, no touch 08:42 and yet they were struggling to go on with their faith. 08:46 It is for that generation that this was written. 08:49 Now let me show you a couple of places 08:51 in which this occurs, John 17. 08:55 It's very exciting when I discovered this. 08:58 It just blew my mind. 09:00 John 17:2, Jesus says, 09:07 "You have granted Him" speaking of Himself 09:09 "authority over all people, that He might give eternal life 09:12 to all those You have given Him." 09:14 Here in the first part of this chapter, 09:17 Jesus is praying and He prays for Himself. 09:20 "Dear Father, glorify Me as You were glorified." 09:24 So He prays for Himself. 09:26 Then notice verse 12, 09:28 "While I was with them, I protected them 09:32 and kept them safe by the name You gave Me." 09:35 Who is them? 09:37 He's talking about the disciples. 09:39 Okay, so He prays for Himself, now He prays for His disciples. 09:46 In every other gospel that would be it, 09:49 but look at verse 20. 09:51 "My prayer is not for them alone." 09:55 Oh, who besides the disciples does He want to pray for? 09:59 "I pray also for those who will believe in Me 10:04 through their message." 10:09 So Jesus now prays for a second group, 10:13 not the ones that were with Him, 10:14 but those who came to believe through the disciples' message. 10:19 How did you and I come to believe? 10:22 Through the disciples' message, through these gospels, 10:26 that's how we came to believe. 10:28 We never touched Jesus. We never heard His voice. 10:31 We never were able to see Him physically. 10:35 Wouldn't you love to have Jesus at your house? 10:38 Wouldn't it be neat if every time you get into trouble, 10:41 you can go into the backroom 10:43 and you can tell your troubles to Jesus? 10:46 He can kneel down and He could pray for you 10:49 and raise up His voice to the Father in heaven. 10:52 Every time I get sick, I just need His touch. 10:55 Yeah. And I'm healed. 10:57 We somehow think we'd be better off 11:01 if Jesus were with us physically. 11:03 John is saying, "No, Jesus already knew about you." 11:09 He already prayed for you when He was here. 11:12 So the first or that first generation, 11:14 I don't know if it's the first 11:15 but that generation who saw Jesus' miracles, 11:20 do they an advantage over us or do they not? 11:25 That's the question of this gospel. 11:27 No other gospel addresses this. Paul doesn't address it. 11:30 I don't know of any other place in the Bible. 11:32 But here in the Gospel of John, 11:34 it addresses this whole question of how we had a disadvantage. 11:40 What about those people 11:41 who don't have a living disciple with them? 11:43 Can words on a page 11:47 make that much of a difference, you see? 11:50 When you go to Chapter 15, 11:52 and we won't take time to do that right now, 11:54 but in Chapter 15, Jesus tells a story. 11:58 He says, "I am the vine, you are the branches." 12:04 Who is He talking to? He is talking to His disciples. 12:10 Now you and I tend to read that story and say, 12:13 oh, He's the vine, I'm the branches, 12:15 I got to stay close to Jesus. 12:17 Follow the whole story. 12:21 He says, "I am the vine, you are the branches." 12:25 Who's He talking to? His disciples. 12:29 If you could stay connected to Me, 12:32 if you remain in Me, you will what? 12:36 Bring forth a lot of fruit. Who is the fruit? 12:41 They are the people who believed from the disciples' testimony. 12:46 The disciples believe 12:47 'cause they are connected to the physical Jesus. 12:50 We have come to believe 12:51 'cause we are connected to the disciples. 12:52 That's interesting because I always thought 12:54 that the fruit represented more like 12:56 the fruit of the sprit, joy, love, peace, patience-- 13:00 you know, and so now you're saying 13:03 that the fruit represents other disciples 13:06 that by their word they bring to Christ. 13:09 Well, in John 10:16, Jesus says, 13:12 "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold." 13:16 You know the disciples are only part of who's He ministering to. 13:20 I thought the same thing, Deyvy. 13:22 But when I came to realized 13:24 how John is focused in on the second generation, 13:28 it changed everything. 13:29 Now I suddenly realize, 13:30 yeah, He is talking to the disciples 13:32 and saying, "You stay connected to Me 13:34 and then you will be able to bear fruit." 13:37 That fruit is the second generation. 13:39 In Chapter 21, the disciples are out fishing, 13:43 Jesus directs them. And what happens? 13:46 They catch 153 fish. 13:49 See the disciples are the ones going out collecting the fish. 13:53 We are the fish. 13:55 The second generation is the fish. 13:58 They are the ones that have no direct connection with Jesus, 14:01 but it tells us Jesus is directing their conversion, 14:05 even though He is not physically present, 14:07 He is at a distance, but He can still accomplish 14:10 everything we need even at a distance. 14:13 So do you think it would be fair to say that 14:15 that generation had no advantage over let's say for example us. 14:20 I think before we're done with this particular program, 14:24 we might discover that it's an advantage 14:27 not to have Jesus physically present. 14:29 I want to know more about that. 14:31 All right. Okay. 14:33 Well, we're gonna continue picking up on the Gospel of John 14:36 with Dr. Jon Paulien after this short break. |
Revised 2014-12-17