Hello, friends, and
welcome to this program,
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"Books of the Book."
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My name is Deyvy
Rodriguez, and I'm so pleased
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that you are able to
join us in this Bible study.
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We're studying
the Gospel of John
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and with us is Dr. Jon Paulien.
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Dr. Paulien, welcome again.
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And I have to tell you, I
didn't write this book. Okay.
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You looked like, you're a
little uncertain there for me.
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What do you gonna say?
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By the way, your
name spelled differently.
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That's right.
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J-O-N. It's J-O-N.
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There is no H in
there. What's up with that?
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That's what my
mother called me. Okay.
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Actually, it
goes back to Jonathan.
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I think the whole thing of,
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you know, David and Jonathan
in the Bible intrigued them
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and the name
means, "Gift of God."
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But as I became an
adult and author I thought,
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you know, I'm gonna
have to sign my name
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100,000 times in my life.
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I'd like it to
be a little shorter.
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So oddly enough my
wife and my daughter
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they both insist on the
long version of their names,
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even though everyone
calls them the short ones.
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So we're all
being difficult and--
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So you've save time
even while signing your name?
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Absolutely.
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You know, make it
nice and simple, J-O-N.
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2.5 seconds, okay.
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And it catches
peoples' attention, too.
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Yeah, that's
good. You're unique.
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We all are, you know.
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Did you know that no
two snowflakes are alike?
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Sounds interesting.
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If that's true and
sciences have are telling us,
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that's why I believe them.
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If that's true then
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no two human beings
are exactly are alike.
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And that means you
have a unique mission
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and something
unique to do for God.
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Amen. That
sounds very encouraging.
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I've never seen another person
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that looks like
me in this world.
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That is true.
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And then sometimes we
say, it's a good thing,
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but in your case, it will
be all right to have a twin.
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I don't know about that.
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So today we're continuing now
talking on the Gospel of John 1.
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Where are we picking up today?
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Okay, well at the
first three programs
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we were looking
at the Gospel of John
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as a whole and noticing
a lot of its uniqueness,
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but now we're coming
into the first chapter
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and that's what
called a prologue here.
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The first 18 verses
of the Gospel of John
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standout separately.
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They're unique from
the rest of the gospel.
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And you might say,
"Well, how come verse 19
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isn't chapter 2?"
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Well, it's because the chapters
were not decided by John,
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nor by us.
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They kind of
happened in the middle ages
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and they were put in
there just for convenience.
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But the reality is
the first 18 verses
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really are set apart as
something separate there.
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And so we're
gonna take this program
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to have a look at that. Okay.
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So, where are
we picking up then?
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Well, I want to
talk about the prologue
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as a whole for a minute.
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Those three things about it
that scholars have discovered
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that are really
interesting. Okay.
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Why don't you start
with the first five verses
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and just read them for us?
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"In the beginning was the Word,
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and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God.
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He was in the
beginning with God.
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All things were
made through him,
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and without him
nothing was made that was made,
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in him was life, and the
life was the light of men.
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And the light
shines in the darkness,
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and the darkness
did not comprehend it."
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Is that a little bit different
than normal writing? It does.
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It sounds like, it
repeats itself. Yeah.
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Yeah, there's a
lot of repetition here.
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You know, in the
English language,
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poetry is usually through rhyme.
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You know, the last word
kind of sounds the same.
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But in Hebrew poetry,
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it was rhythm and
repetition that made it.
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And scholars have noticed
this looks like poetry here.
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"In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God,
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and the Word was God.
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He was with God
in the beginning."
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This repletion and even
in the English translation
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you can feel like,
you're getting a cadence going.
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And then something else
happens in verses 4 and 5.
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You notice it
says, "In it was life,
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and the life was
the light of men.
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And the light
shone in the darkness,
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and the darkness
didn't comprehend."
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I called that
"Stair-step parallelism."
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It's like, you know,
you have this double mention
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here in verse 4 of life
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and then there's a
double mention of light
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and then the double
mention of darkness,
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but the life is the light
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and the light
shines in the darkness,
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they're linked together
like a staircase, climbing up.
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So you have two
different forms of poetry here.
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And what do you
think is happening here?
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You got a gospel in early book,
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why would there be
poetry in here all of a sudden?
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Any idea?
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I don't know, but it
sounds also like a song
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you could probably make
a song out of this. Okay.
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Yeah, songs-- songs
usually start with poetry.
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Where would the
early church have songs?
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Well, we know
that they sing songs,
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so possibly from the
Book of Psalms or no songs.
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Yeah, the Psalms
in the Hebrew Bible
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would probably been
sung in the synagogues.
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And we know from
Paul that early churches
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in their worship
would sing songs.
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So that was part of the thing.
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So John seems to have
taken an early Christian hymn
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and built it into the
prologue of the gospel.
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So something
that they were singing
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and there's language in here
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that seems earlier
than the time when--
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of the actual
writing of the New Testament.
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There's actually four or
five hymns in the New Testament.
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Most famous one is
Philippians 2:6-11,
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where you know,
Jesus is with God in heaven
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and He comes down
and humbles Himself
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and then gets exalted again.
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That has all the
sound of poetry again to it.
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And all the hymns are
similar in the themes.
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You know, about God
coming down and going back,
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that's the theme
of all the hymns.
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So John takes an
early Christian hymn.
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He is connecting
with church people
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who would read this gospel.
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He is connecting with
them, right at the start.
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So that's the neat
part when you see that.
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There's another
aspect here it's a chiasm,
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and that may not
mean anything to you,
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but it comes from
the Greek letter "X."
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You know the idea of
like, a pyramid type of thing.
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Notice right at
the beginning, it says,
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"In the beginning was the Word,
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and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God."
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In verse 1 and then
if you hold your finger
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then go to verse 18,
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it says, "No one
has ever seen God,
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but God the One and Only
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who was at the Father's
side, has made him known."
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So it's about the relationship
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between God and
the Word in verse 1
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and then again in verse 18.
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But then when you
get to verse 3 it says,
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"Through him all
things were made."
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And there's a
special word about 'made'
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and you go to verse 17,
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"For the law was
given through Moses,
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but grace and truths
came through Jesus Christ."
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Now that translation
misses it completely.
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But what is your
say from verse 17.
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Actually, it
says the same thing,
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"For the law was
given through Moses,
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but grace and truth
came through Jesus Christ."
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This Greek words for
"came" and Greek words for "is,"
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this isn't that.
It's the word 'becoming.'
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And in Genesis 1,
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it uses the word
'becoming' for creation.
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It came to be, you see.
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So in verse 3, everything
came to be through the word.
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In verse 17, the grace
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and truth came to
be in Jesus Christ.
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So unfortunately,
there is one of those times
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where English
translation lets us down
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and we miss the parallels.
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Verse 1 and
verse 18 are parallel.
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Verse 3 and 17 are parallel.
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Verse 6 and 15, John the
Baptist is mentioned twice
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and those are parallel.
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So it's like a big pyramid.
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The beginning and
the end is together
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and then like a stair-step
and that points to the middle.
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Now, why is this,
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why even bother
telling you this?
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It's because in the Hebrew mind,
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they had a different
kind of logic than we have.
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In our Western
logic, A+B equals what?
00:09:04.31\00:09:09.17
C. C.
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You see, so there is a
linear kind of a thing.
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And it's going somewhere.
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So where is the climax?
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At the end. A+B,
there is the climax.
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In Hebrew logic, it's different.
A+B equals A enhanced.
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In other words,
you go from A to B
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and then you come back to
A, but the A is bigger now.
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Like a musical scale.
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You have the A key
and when you go through,
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you come back to A,
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but know
there's more vibrations.
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You see, that's
kind of like that.
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And in the Hebrew logic,
the emphasis is not on the end,
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but in the middle.
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In the Book of
Revelation I have come to feel
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that the Book of Revelation
is a giant pyramid like this.
00:09:55.15\00:09:58.98
And if that's true,
00:09:59.01\00:10:00.91
then the key to
Book of Revelation
00:10:00.94\00:10:02.57
is in the middle
chapters 12, 13, and 14.
00:10:02.60\00:10:06.00
And that's where the
crucial things are happening.
00:10:06.03\00:10:09.23
So when you
understand the Hebrew mindset
00:10:09.26\00:10:12.44
then you know where to look.
00:10:12.47\00:10:13.84
And what's in the
middle of the prologue?
00:10:13.87\00:10:15.81
It's verses 12 and 13.
00:10:15.84\00:10:18.45
"But as many as received Him,
00:10:18.48\00:10:20.50
to them He gave the right
to become children of God,
00:10:20.53\00:10:23.91
to those who
believe in His name,
00:10:23.94\00:10:26.57
who were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh,
00:10:26.60\00:10:30.67
nor of the will
of man, but of God."
00:10:30.70\00:10:33.97
So it's telling this grand
story about how God came down
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and became one of us
and then went back to,
00:10:39.19\00:10:44.12
you know, and
send it back to heaven.
00:10:44.15\00:10:46.42
And what's the point
of telling that story?
00:10:46.45\00:10:49.06
We find that in the middle here.
00:10:49.09\00:10:51.15
The point is so that
people can come to God.
00:10:51.18\00:10:54.78
They can become children of God
00:10:54.81\00:10:56.85
and then
becoming children of God,
00:10:56.88\00:10:59.83
they are
transformed become new people.
00:10:59.86\00:11:02.68
So what God did in Jesus
00:11:02.71\00:11:05.21
as here seen in the
Gospel of John for our sakes?
00:11:05.24\00:11:08.12
That we could
understand God as He really was
00:11:08.15\00:11:12.13
that we could appreciate
00:11:12.16\00:11:13.83
something different
about His character.
00:11:13.86\00:11:16.88
If you ask the average person,
00:11:16.91\00:11:18.42
what God is like?
What would they say?
00:11:18.45\00:11:22.56
I don't know.
00:11:22.59\00:11:23.96
The most people think of
God as kind of out there,
00:11:23.99\00:11:28.76
scary, maybe judgmental,
00:11:28.79\00:11:34.79
maybe even arbitrary.
00:11:34.82\00:11:36.77
You know, you have
all these views of God
00:11:36.80\00:11:39.56
that people who
don't know Him, have it,
00:11:39.59\00:11:41.71
and sometimes
even Christian people
00:11:41.74\00:11:43.67
think of God in that way.
00:11:43.70\00:11:45.87
How is God gonna disabuse
us of all of those views?
00:11:45.90\00:11:50.29
By revealing
Himself in a human being.
00:11:50.32\00:11:53.49
And that's what the
Gospel of John is all about,
00:11:53.52\00:11:55.43
is this revelation of
what God is really like.
00:11:55.46\00:11:59.65
What is Jesus like?
What is Jesus mean to you?
00:11:59.68\00:12:03.49
Well, Jesus to me, is
a close personal friend,
00:12:03.52\00:12:07.78
He is my-- Not scary?
00:12:07.81\00:12:09.86
No. Okay.
00:12:09.89\00:12:11.26
I don't have any scary friends.
00:12:11.29\00:12:13.37
You know, if somebody scary,
00:12:13.40\00:12:15.23
you don't want
to miss the friend.
00:12:15.26\00:12:16.63
Right. It's a logic there.
00:12:16.66\00:12:18.64
What is that say
about a relationship to God?
00:12:18.67\00:12:21.24
Right.
00:12:21.27\00:12:22.64
If we have a scary God,
00:12:22.67\00:12:24.04
we're not gonna wanna
be close to Him. Right.
00:12:24.07\00:12:25.44
Yeah. Right.
00:12:25.47\00:12:27.74
And that's how I view God
that He is a close friend.
00:12:27.77\00:12:32.22
When I pray I open my
heart to God as to a friend.
00:12:32.25\00:12:36.16
And I hope that even
those who are viewing
00:12:36.19\00:12:40.81
perhaps do not
have that view of God.
00:12:40.84\00:12:45.20
That the God is someone up there
00:12:45.23\00:12:47.92
and just pointing
fingers at our sins
00:12:47.95\00:12:50.89
and that He's
far distant from us,
00:12:50.92\00:12:54.67
but He is not,
He is close to us,
00:12:54.70\00:12:58.18
and He wants to
draw closer to us more.
00:12:58.21\00:13:03.23
This is good.
00:13:03.26\00:13:04.63
And that's what the
Gospel John is all about.
00:13:04.66\00:13:07.30
That view of God
is possible for us
00:13:07.33\00:13:10.59
because of the
God we saw in Jesus.
00:13:10.62\00:13:13.48
And that's the key to this book.
00:13:13.51\00:13:16.03
Everybody else is experiencing
Jesus is a human being.
00:13:16.06\00:13:19.88
It's only the reader
through the Holy Spirit
00:13:19.91\00:13:22.50
that sees this deeper
dimension who Jesus really is.
00:13:22.53\00:13:25.69
And Jesus came to
reveal God's character.
00:13:25.72\00:13:28.23
Is that right? That's right.
00:13:28.26\00:13:31.40
It says a very explicitly
00:13:31.43\00:13:32.80
in this gospel
over and over again.
00:13:32.83\00:13:34.74
So in this chiasm then,
00:13:34.77\00:13:38.15
He is connecting
with Hebrew minded people,
00:13:38.18\00:13:40.89
Jewish people who may
have had a view of God
00:13:40.92\00:13:44.35
as somewhat distance
00:13:44.38\00:13:45.75
and sometimes
terrifying like, Mount Sinai.
00:13:45.78\00:13:48.47
And He wants now for them to see
00:13:48.50\00:13:50.77
that God doesn't
want them to be slaves,
00:13:50.80\00:13:54.34
He wants them to be friends.
00:13:54.37\00:13:56.52
And you know that's the move
00:13:56.55\00:13:58.59
that happens in
the Gospel of John.
00:13:58.62\00:14:01.06
It was good to
have you with us again
00:14:01.09\00:14:02.99
and this time
we'll take a quick break
00:14:03.02\00:14:05.12
and then we'll come
back to the prologue,
00:14:05.15\00:14:07.35
you may want to
read it during the break.
00:14:07.38\00:14:09.03