And welcome back again.
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Dr. Jon Paulien, you
were saying earlier that,
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that you referring to
in verse 31 of Chapter 20,
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was referring to the
second disciple generation,
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those who had not--
those who would not see Jesus
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and then you were talking
about the vine and the branches.
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Yeah. Like so?
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Like most people I
had always thought that,
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you know, I am the
branches and stuff,
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but when you see it in the
light of these two generations
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that only the Gospel of
John makes that distinction.
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When you see it in
that light then you realize,
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we that the fruit isn't
connected directly to the vine,
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it's connected to the branch.
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We didn't come to Jesus
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through His personal
physical ministry to us.
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We came through the
ministry of these disciples
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through the written
word in the gospels.
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And so we're
connected to the branches,
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the branches are
connected to the vine.
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So we are brought to
Jesus by the disciples
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and that helps to
explain this whole thing
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about the Holy Spirit
in the Gospel of John.
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Because He says,
it's better for you
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if I go away,
Chapter 16 verse 7.
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It's better for
you if I go away.
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The disciples wouldn't
have believed it at that time.
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But apparently
there are barriers
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to accepting Jesus when
He is physically present.
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I mean think about it.
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We all think, boy, if
I knew Jesus personally,
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I would definitely follow Him,
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I wouldn't be like those
stupid Pharisees, you know.
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Not so fast.
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You see God recognize
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if He wants to really
communicate who He is,
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He needs to come in
person and that's exactly
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what God did in Jesus Christ.
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But look at it
through God's eyes,
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look at the problem.
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The moment God becomes human--
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Now human beings have difficulty
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believing this
human being as God.
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You see, when God's
thundering on Sinai,
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yeah, that's God, you know.
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Scary, you know.
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But when God comes
down as a human being
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and deals with
people in kindness,
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we have trouble believing that
this human being is also God.
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And even John said I
think in Chapter 1, he said,
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"To His own He came and
His own did not receive Him."
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Exactly, well, just imagine
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you walking down the road with
Jesus and it's a hot summer day
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and you're about10
miles down the road
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and suddenly the
wind is just right
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and you catch a
whiff of body odor.
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Are you more likely to think
that this is God in the flesh
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at the moment or
you gonna try and say,
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He's just like me, you see.
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So in the very means by
which God was communicating
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something about self
test people would take
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that and find doubt as well.
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So it's interesting Jesus says,
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"Its better for If I go away."
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That, that somehow one thing
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we will notice
in the next program
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is that people are constantly
misunderstanding Jesus
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in the Gospel of
John and in Mark as well.
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The physical presence of
Jesus created some uncertainties
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for them that
evidently when the Holy Sprit
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speaks through us that
won't be so much the case.
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So I think you could make
the case in the Gospel of John
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that it's even better not
to have the physical presence
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of Jesus for us today.
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So John is
trying to tell us, look,
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you are not at a disadvantage.
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You can't see Him,
you can't hear Him,
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you can't touch Him.
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Yet in this Word through
the power of the Holy Sprit,
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you have enough to
have a living relationship
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with Jesus, real,
solid, unshakeable.
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That's the
purpose of this gospel.
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Now it's shown in some
remarkable physical ways.
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Do you remember the
story, "The wedding of Cana"?
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Okay. How did Jesus
turn the water into wine?
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Uh, through His word.
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Through His word?
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Um, didn't He go
over to the buckets
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and put His hand in the water
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and say, wine, wine, wine.
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You don't remember? No, I
don't remember. I'm sorry.
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Didn't mean to put you--
Is this is a true question.
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Yeah, probably didn't
mean to put you on the spot,
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but Jesus doesn't do that.
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There's nothing in the story
about Him touching the water.
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Actually these pots are huge
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which means they
probably were not carrying pots.
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They--they may have
weighed 200 pounds each.
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And so they were outside
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collecting
rainwater from the roof.
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So they were outside the house,
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Jesus is inside
the house and He says,
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"Go fill them up
with water and then draw
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from that and take it
to the ruler of the feast."
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So Jesus
doesn't touch the water,
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He changes the water to wine
as you said through His word.
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Okay, in
chapter 4, there's a guy
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who comes up from
Capernaum to Cana.
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And what does he
want Jesus to do?
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He wants Jesus to comeback
with him to heal his son.
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Jesus won't do it.
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So he tells Him and just
go away your son will live.
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At the very moment
Jesus turns him away,
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the son is healed 16 miles away.
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In the story of the blind
man or a paralytic, chapter 5.
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Do you remember The
Pool of Bethesda story?
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Yeah. Okay, in chapter 5,
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this paralyzed man, you know,
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He doesn't grab him
raise him up to his feet,
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heal, you know, no.
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He stands there
and He says get up,
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pick up your bed and walk.
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I mean, He's like He is standing
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at a distance
and He says go ahead.
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In chapter 9, He
puts mud on the guy's eyes
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but the guy isn't healed.
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He sends him to
the pool of Siloam
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which is more
than a kilometer away.
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The guy is healed at the pool,
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Jesus is over
here by the temple.
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What's going on?
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He is telling these stories,
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the miracles in
the Gospel of John,
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Jesus never touches anyone.
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Because he's
trying to make the point,
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Jesus' word is as
good as His touch.
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Jesus' word is as
good as His presence.
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You don't need
Jesus physically there.
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He can do anything He
needs to do from a distance.
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Lazarus, He
stands outside the tomb.
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He doesn't go in the
tomb grab him by the shirt,
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shake him, come
on Lazarus, wake up.
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He calls him
from outside the tomb.
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So what you notice
in the Gospel of John
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is that every one
of the miracles Jesus
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is at distance and it's His word
that accomplishes the miracle.
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That's the beauty of the
story in the Gospel of John.
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Distance is no barrier
and it's the word of Jesus
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that accomplishes everything.
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So even today this generation
does not need as you said,
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the physical presence of Jesus.
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If I am sick, if I
need some divine assistance,
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some help I can
ask God in the same way
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as if He were here
or as if He wasn't here,
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He would do
according to His will.
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So then what I'm understanding
again is emphasizing
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is that that generation
did not have an advantage.
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And you said it
yourself, it's actually better
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that He were not here for us.
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Because His physical
presence would raise doubts,
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you know, simply
just say, you know,
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He smells funny, He looks like
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didn't comb is hair whatever.
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You know we let
things get in the way.
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Yeah, and you know I
often read the Bible and I say,
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if I--as you just said,
if I was just there you know
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I would believe,
but then I see others
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who did not
believe and I say, well,
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I wonder if I'm-- I
would be part of that group
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rather and be unbelieving.
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Now I have to tell you,
one day I was driving down
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the road and there's this guy
walking across in front of me.
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I don know wasn't--I just
looked, I didn't like him.
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I've never seen
him before in my life.
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I don't know what he was wearing
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or the color of
his hair or what.
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I just saw the guy
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or the way he
walked, I didn't like him.
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I said, well,
what's going on here.
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But it helped
me to realize that,
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that what we see in other people
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often colors are
thinking toward them
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and that happened with Jesus.
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Lot of people
didn't believed in Him.
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And they also had other
expectations from Him, right.
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They wanted a Roman deliverer
and he came in humility.
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Yeah, He didn't fit the
pattern they were expecting.
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Take a look at John 14:26.
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"But the
Helper, the Holy Spirit,
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whom the Father
will send in My name,
00:09:08.25\00:09:10.62
He will teach you all things,
and bring to your remembrance
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all things that I said to you."
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Did you notice
what it's said there?
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No other gospel says this.
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It's only the Gospel
of John that says this.
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And that is that, He will bring
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to remembrance
the words of Jesus.
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The mission of the Holy Sprit,
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it's better for
you if I go away,
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because the Holy Sprit
will remind you of the words
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that you need
just when you need it.
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In the Gospel of John
it's the words of Jesus
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that accomplish everything.
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There was a lady who
heard me talk about this once
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and she had wanted to
have a devotional life
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for a long time and she
says, that doesn't does--
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I'm gonna spend
time with Jesus everyday.
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So she laid out her Bible
to the Book of Romans that,
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you know Saturday
night and she laid out
00:09:59.84\00:10:02.81
Luther's commentary of Romans.
00:10:02.84\00:10:04.21
She said I'm gonna read
Romans and read the commentary
00:10:04.24\00:10:06.56
and I'm gonna
have devotional time
00:10:06.59\00:10:07.96
with Jesus tomorrow morning.
00:10:07.99\00:10:09.48
So she wakes up in the morning,
00:10:09.51\00:10:11.67
she got a splitting
headache, she can't do it.
00:10:11.70\00:10:15.94
So she is sitting
there at the desk.
00:10:15.97\00:10:17.34
She was-- I
promised to spend time
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with you got this
headache, you know.
00:10:19.25\00:10:20.81
So, Lord, please
take the headache away.
00:10:20.84\00:10:24.24
Didn't go away.
Prayed again. Didn't go away.
00:10:24.27\00:10:28.16
But then she remembered
00:10:28.19\00:10:29.56
what did each
of these people do?
00:10:29.59\00:10:32.61
They acted on Jesus' words.
00:10:32.64\00:10:36.02
When Jesus said, "Go
fill up the thing with water
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and draw it and
take it to the feast."
00:10:38.44\00:10:40.51
They did it. When
He said to this guy,
00:10:40.54\00:10:44.12
go your way, he did.
00:10:44.15\00:10:47.18
We'll discover that he
went the slow way home,
00:10:47.21\00:10:50.76
he got home twice as
late as they expected.
00:10:50.79\00:10:54.37
It was a four hour
trip it took him like 12.
00:10:54.40\00:10:57.21
Because he believed
if Jesus' gonna heal him,
00:10:57.24\00:10:59.01
I don't have to
rush back and find out.
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He believed he
acted on Jesus' word.
00:11:01.23\00:11:05.44
That the guy picks up
his bed and walks away.
00:11:05.47\00:11:08.25
The blind man goes
to the pool and washes.
00:11:08.28\00:11:10.61
Lazarus comes out.
00:11:10.64\00:11:12.46
In each case Jesus gave the
word some one acted on the word
00:11:12.49\00:11:17.21
and then when they acted
on it, the miracle took place.
00:11:17.24\00:11:19.96
So she remembers
this and she says well,
00:11:19.99\00:11:24.08
if I believe that
Jesus wants me to doing this,
00:11:24.11\00:11:26.62
I need to accept
that word and do it.
00:11:26.65\00:11:30.26
So she began to study
and 10 minutes later at dawn
00:11:30.29\00:11:35.36
and the headache was gone.
00:11:35.39\00:11:37.84
You see, so what
this story is telling us,
00:11:37.87\00:11:41.42
is that the word of Jesus
can become active in our lives.
00:11:41.45\00:11:44.43
And I have just
got a quick four here,
00:11:44.46\00:11:46.42
realize you have a problem
that's what each of these did.
00:11:46.45\00:11:49.16
They brought a problem to Jesus.
00:11:49.19\00:11:51.34
Number 2, well,
when they realized
00:11:51.37\00:11:53.91
they had a problem
they brought it to Jesus,
00:11:53.94\00:11:55.73
they heard His word in
relation to the problem
00:11:55.76\00:11:59.13
and then they acted on it.
00:11:59.16\00:12:01.33
And that was
dynamic that produced
00:12:01.36\00:12:04.33
the result in all this cases.
00:12:04.36\00:12:05.78
It's not just faith or law but
actually acting upon that faith.
00:12:05.81\00:12:09.82
Faith made flesh, you
know faith is not just an idea.
00:12:09.85\00:12:14.37
When Paul say,
"Righteousness by faith"
00:12:14.40\00:12:16.54
he doesn't mean, I
think I'll accept this.
00:12:16.57\00:12:19.06
No, it's trusting
that God did what you need.
00:12:19.09\00:12:22.74
It's accepting
this is the Word of God
00:12:22.77\00:12:25.03
if I act on it
everything will be well.
00:12:25.07\00:12:28.76
Dr. Paulien, I think
that is very encouraging
00:12:28.79\00:12:30.51
to know that
Christ sent a helper
00:12:30.54\00:12:33.44
or counselor to
remind of these things.
00:12:33.47\00:12:36.73
And friends, I
also want to thank you
00:12:36.76\00:12:38.91
for joining us in this program
00:12:38.94\00:12:40.56
and I hope that you
too seek the counselor.
00:12:40.59\00:12:44.10