Participants: Deyvy Rodriguez & Jon Paulien
Series Code: JBOTB
Program Code: JBOTB00002B
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00:01 And welcome back again.
00:02 Dr. Jon Paulien, you were saying earlier that, 00:05 that you referring to in verse 31 of Chapter 20, 00:10 was referring to the second disciple generation, 00:16 those who had not-- those who would not see Jesus 00:19 and then you were talking about the vine and the branches. 00:23 Yeah. Like so? 00:24 Like most people I had always thought that, 00:26 you know, I am the branches and stuff, 00:28 but when you see it in the light of these two generations 00:31 that only the Gospel of John makes that distinction. 00:35 When you see it in that light then you realize, 00:37 we that the fruit isn't connected directly to the vine, 00:41 it's connected to the branch. 00:43 We didn't come to Jesus 00:45 through His personal physical ministry to us. 00:47 We came through the ministry of these disciples 00:51 through the written word in the gospels. 00:53 And so we're connected to the branches, 00:56 the branches are connected to the vine. 00:59 So we are brought to Jesus by the disciples 01:04 and that helps to explain this whole thing 01:06 about the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John. 01:10 Because He says, it's better for you 01:14 if I go away, Chapter 16 verse 7. 01:17 It's better for you if I go away. 01:19 The disciples wouldn't have believed it at that time. 01:22 But apparently there are barriers 01:26 to accepting Jesus when He is physically present. 01:29 I mean think about it. 01:30 We all think, boy, if I knew Jesus personally, 01:34 I would definitely follow Him, 01:36 I wouldn't be like those stupid Pharisees, you know. 01:38 Not so fast. 01:41 You see God recognize 01:42 if He wants to really communicate who He is, 01:45 He needs to come in person and that's exactly 01:47 what God did in Jesus Christ. 01:50 But look at it through God's eyes, 01:52 look at the problem. 01:53 The moment God becomes human-- 01:57 Now human beings have difficulty 01:59 believing this human being as God. 02:01 You see, when God's thundering on Sinai, 02:04 yeah, that's God, you know. 02:05 Scary, you know. 02:07 But when God comes down as a human being 02:09 and deals with people in kindness, 02:11 we have trouble believing that this human being is also God. 02:14 And even John said I think in Chapter 1, he said, 02:17 "To His own He came and His own did not receive Him." 02:21 Exactly, well, just imagine 02:24 you walking down the road with Jesus and it's a hot summer day 02:30 and you're about10 miles down the road 02:32 and suddenly the wind is just right 02:35 and you catch a whiff of body odor. 02:39 Are you more likely to think that this is God in the flesh 02:42 at the moment or you gonna try and say, 02:44 He's just like me, you see. 02:46 So in the very means by which God was communicating 02:50 something about self test people would take 02:53 that and find doubt as well. 02:56 So it's interesting Jesus says, 02:59 "Its better for If I go away." 03:03 That, that somehow one thing 03:05 we will notice in the next program 03:07 is that people are constantly misunderstanding Jesus 03:10 in the Gospel of John and in Mark as well. 03:14 The physical presence of Jesus created some uncertainties 03:19 for them that evidently when the Holy Sprit 03:23 speaks through us that won't be so much the case. 03:26 So I think you could make the case in the Gospel of John 03:29 that it's even better not to have the physical presence 03:32 of Jesus for us today. 03:34 So John is trying to tell us, look, 03:36 you are not at a disadvantage. 03:38 You can't see Him, you can't hear Him, 03:40 you can't touch Him. 03:41 Yet in this Word through the power of the Holy Sprit, 03:44 you have enough to have a living relationship 03:47 with Jesus, real, solid, unshakeable. 03:52 That's the purpose of this gospel. 03:56 Now it's shown in some remarkable physical ways. 03:59 Do you remember the story, "The wedding of Cana"? 04:03 Okay. How did Jesus turn the water into wine? 04:07 Uh, through His word. 04:09 Through His word? 04:11 Um, didn't He go over to the buckets 04:13 and put His hand in the water 04:15 and say, wine, wine, wine. 04:18 You don't remember? No, I don't remember. I'm sorry. 04:21 Didn't mean to put you-- Is this is a true question. 04:23 Yeah, probably didn't mean to put you on the spot, 04:26 but Jesus doesn't do that. 04:28 There's nothing in the story about Him touching the water. 04:31 Actually these pots are huge 04:35 which means they probably were not carrying pots. 04:38 They--they may have weighed 200 pounds each. 04:40 And so they were outside 04:42 collecting rainwater from the roof. 04:45 So they were outside the house, 04:47 Jesus is inside the house and He says, 04:48 "Go fill them up with water and then draw 04:52 from that and take it to the ruler of the feast." 04:55 So Jesus doesn't touch the water, 04:59 He changes the water to wine as you said through His word. 05:04 Okay, in chapter 4, there's a guy 05:07 who comes up from Capernaum to Cana. 05:12 And what does he want Jesus to do? 05:15 He wants Jesus to comeback with him to heal his son. 05:21 Jesus won't do it. 05:24 So he tells Him and just go away your son will live. 05:27 At the very moment Jesus turns him away, 05:30 the son is healed 16 miles away. 05:35 In the story of the blind man or a paralytic, chapter 5. 05:42 Do you remember The Pool of Bethesda story? 05:44 Yeah. Okay, in chapter 5, 05:48 this paralyzed man, you know, 05:49 He doesn't grab him raise him up to his feet, 05:53 heal, you know, no. 05:55 He stands there and He says get up, 05:59 pick up your bed and walk. 06:00 I mean, He's like He is standing 06:02 at a distance and He says go ahead. 06:03 In chapter 9, He puts mud on the guy's eyes 06:08 but the guy isn't healed. 06:10 He sends him to the pool of Siloam 06:11 which is more than a kilometer away. 06:14 The guy is healed at the pool, 06:16 Jesus is over here by the temple. 06:18 What's going on? 06:20 He is telling these stories, 06:22 the miracles in the Gospel of John, 06:24 Jesus never touches anyone. 06:26 Because he's trying to make the point, 06:29 Jesus' word is as good as His touch. 06:33 Jesus' word is as good as His presence. 06:36 You don't need Jesus physically there. 06:38 He can do anything He needs to do from a distance. 06:42 Lazarus, He stands outside the tomb. 06:45 He doesn't go in the tomb grab him by the shirt, 06:48 shake him, come on Lazarus, wake up. 06:50 He calls him from outside the tomb. 06:52 So what you notice in the Gospel of John 06:54 is that every one of the miracles Jesus 06:56 is at distance and it's His word that accomplishes the miracle. 07:03 That's the beauty of the story in the Gospel of John. 07:07 Distance is no barrier and it's the word of Jesus 07:12 that accomplishes everything. 07:15 So even today this generation does not need as you said, 07:21 the physical presence of Jesus. 07:23 If I am sick, if I need some divine assistance, 07:29 some help I can ask God in the same way 07:35 as if He were here or as if He wasn't here, 07:37 He would do according to His will. 07:41 So then what I'm understanding again is emphasizing 07:44 is that that generation did not have an advantage. 07:47 And you said it yourself, it's actually better 07:50 that He were not here for us. 07:53 Because His physical presence would raise doubts, 07:57 you know, simply just say, you know, 07:58 He smells funny, He looks like 08:00 didn't comb is hair whatever. 08:01 You know we let things get in the way. 08:03 Yeah, and you know I often read the Bible and I say, 08:06 if I--as you just said, if I was just there you know 08:09 I would believe, but then I see others 08:12 who did not believe and I say, well, 08:15 I wonder if I'm-- I would be part of that group 08:17 rather and be unbelieving. 08:19 Now I have to tell you, one day I was driving down 08:22 the road and there's this guy walking across in front of me. 08:25 I don know wasn't--I just looked, I didn't like him. 08:27 I've never seen him before in my life. 08:29 I don't know what he was wearing 08:31 or the color of his hair or what. 08:33 I just saw the guy 08:34 or the way he walked, I didn't like him. 08:36 I said, well, what's going on here. 08:38 But it helped me to realize that, 08:40 that what we see in other people 08:42 often colors are thinking toward them 08:44 and that happened with Jesus. 08:46 Lot of people didn't believed in Him. 08:48 And they also had other expectations from Him, right. 08:52 They wanted a Roman deliverer and he came in humility. 08:58 Yeah, He didn't fit the pattern they were expecting. 09:02 Take a look at John 14:26. 09:06 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, 09:08 whom the Father will send in My name, 09:10 He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance 09:13 all things that I said to you." 09:15 Did you notice what it's said there? 09:18 No other gospel says this. 09:20 It's only the Gospel of John that says this. 09:23 And that is that, He will bring 09:26 to remembrance the words of Jesus. 09:29 The mission of the Holy Sprit, 09:31 it's better for you if I go away, 09:32 because the Holy Sprit will remind you of the words 09:35 that you need just when you need it. 09:39 In the Gospel of John it's the words of Jesus 09:43 that accomplish everything. 09:44 There was a lady who heard me talk about this once 09:47 and she had wanted to have a devotional life 09:49 for a long time and she says, that doesn't does-- 09:53 I'm gonna spend time with Jesus everyday. 09:55 So she laid out her Bible to the Book of Romans that, 09:59 you know Saturday night and she laid out 10:02 Luther's commentary of Romans. 10:04 She said I'm gonna read Romans and read the commentary 10:06 and I'm gonna have devotional time 10:07 with Jesus tomorrow morning. 10:09 So she wakes up in the morning, 10:11 she got a splitting headache, she can't do it. 10:15 So she is sitting there at the desk. 10:17 She was-- I promised to spend time 10:19 with you got this headache, you know. 10:20 So, Lord, please take the headache away. 10:24 Didn't go away. Prayed again. Didn't go away. 10:28 But then she remembered 10:29 what did each of these people do? 10:32 They acted on Jesus' words. 10:36 When Jesus said, "Go fill up the thing with water 10:38 and draw it and take it to the feast." 10:40 They did it. When He said to this guy, 10:44 go your way, he did. 10:47 We'll discover that he went the slow way home, 10:50 he got home twice as late as they expected. 10:54 It was a four hour trip it took him like 12. 10:57 Because he believed if Jesus' gonna heal him, 10:59 I don't have to rush back and find out. 11:01 He believed he acted on Jesus' word. 11:05 That the guy picks up his bed and walks away. 11:08 The blind man goes to the pool and washes. 11:10 Lazarus comes out. 11:12 In each case Jesus gave the word some one acted on the word 11:17 and then when they acted on it, the miracle took place. 11:19 So she remembers this and she says well, 11:24 if I believe that Jesus wants me to doing this, 11:26 I need to accept that word and do it. 11:30 So she began to study and 10 minutes later at dawn 11:35 and the headache was gone. 11:37 You see, so what this story is telling us, 11:41 is that the word of Jesus can become active in our lives. 11:44 And I have just got a quick four here, 11:46 realize you have a problem that's what each of these did. 11:49 They brought a problem to Jesus. 11:51 Number 2, well, when they realized 11:53 they had a problem they brought it to Jesus, 11:55 they heard His word in relation to the problem 11:59 and then they acted on it. 12:01 And that was dynamic that produced 12:04 the result in all this cases. 12:05 It's not just faith or law but actually acting upon that faith. 12:09 Faith made flesh, you know faith is not just an idea. 12:14 When Paul say, "Righteousness by faith" 12:16 he doesn't mean, I think I'll accept this. 12:19 No, it's trusting that God did what you need. 12:22 It's accepting this is the Word of God 12:25 if I act on it everything will be well. 12:28 Dr. Paulien, I think that is very encouraging 12:30 to know that Christ sent a helper 12:33 or counselor to remind of these things. 12:36 And friends, I also want to thank you 12:38 for joining us in this program 12:40 and I hope that you too seek the counselor. |
Revised 2014-12-17