Hello, well, I'm so
happy you're able to join us
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in this Bible study.
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We're actually
studying the Gospel of John.
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And we're with Dr. Jon Paulien.
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And I'm very happy and excited
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because he has
this unique ability
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to make Bible
study very interesting
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and we're going to
find out in a few minutes.
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Dr. Paulien, welcome again.
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Thank you, it's good to
be with you always, Deyvy.
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Okay, you know,
today we're gonna be
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talking about
the wedding in Cana.
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And by the way
if you have a Bible
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you can turn to John 2
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and we're gonna be
studying verses 1-11.
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Now Dr. Paulien, I'm
very excited about this
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because again we're
talking about a wedding
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and I say this
because I look in this topic,
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I look towards the future,
you know, for me personally
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whereas I don't know
how excited that is to you,
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may be you still, you
look towards the past,
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may be you look--
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This is the future
thing, does that mean,
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I don't--we were
still meeting each other.
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Are you married?
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I'm-- at this point, no.
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No. No.
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So may be that's why I'm
excited about this thing. Okay.
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You know, I was just
talking to a young lady
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the other day
and she was saying,
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"All the good ones are taken."
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Now I know, she's wrong.
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Well, thank
you, I appreciate it.
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All right.
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So for you,
you're looking forward
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to this idea of a
wedding and what it means?
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I, I am, you know, I am.
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And I think that
as I read this passage
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because I read it earlier.
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I found out
something very interesting
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that this couple whoever it was,
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they decided to invite
Jesus to their wedding.
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And I thought that was
very interesting because--
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if there is a Christian
person out there who declines
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to invite Jesus
to his or her wedding
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or just does not
have that good feeling
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for Jesus to be present there,
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then I think there's something
wrong with that decision,
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because it's gonna be a lifetime
commitment without Jesus.
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I can just
imagine how that marriage
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can turn out eventually. But--
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So you're planning to
invite Jesus to your wedding.
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I do plan, because I think
He was or He will be the one
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who will bring us together
and so I think it's good to,
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He should be the
first one to be invited.
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And there's
young lady somewhere,
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maybe even watching this program
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who loves Jesus as much you do
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and could
potentially be part of that.
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Well, I don't
know that's prophecy--
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I don't want to
put you on the spot,
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but here you are so.
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You already put
me on the spot. Okay.
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So-- You're embarrassed, well.
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All right then,
let's continue. Okay.
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So we have read that
Jesus was calling His disciples
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and by the time that
Jesus and His disciples,
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we'll read that they
were invited to the wedding.
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We find out that not all,
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at least the Bible does not
say that all 12 were invited,
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but at least the
first five who were called
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and help me out here I
think, it was Andrew, John,
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it was Peter and
Philip and then Daniel.
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So at least we know that five
were present at the wedding.
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So I would like to know is,
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why would Jesus begin
or begin His ministries,
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is that correct or at
least start performing His signs
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at a wedding and what's
the point of this story,
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because you said
earlier that the Gospel of John
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is a spiritual gospel
and so what's the spiritual,
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how can I say, what's
the parable of this story
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if you will,
what's the meaning of it?
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Well, that's I
think what we want to do
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in this program definitely,
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because the synoptic
gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke,
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often tell the story to
tell the story and it happened,
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so here's the story and the
key might be a saying of Jesus
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who comes at
the end of the story
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or it might be a point,
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that that story
leads to the next story
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and it's
following a progression.
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In the Gospel of John
as we saw at the beginning
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of this series,
it's very selective.
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He says there's all
kinds of stuff Jesus did,
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all kinds of miracles He did.
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Why does He pick this wedding?
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It's not casual.
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And there is a
depth here and in fact
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I've taught as much as
nine hours on this passage.
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So there is a depth
here, spiritual depths
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that you wouldn't find
in Matthew, Mark and Luke.
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So we definitely
want to get into that.
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And you
mentioned five disciples.
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Another
difference among the gospels
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is Jesus doesn't
emphasize the 12.
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From Matthew, Mark and Luke
it's important that he chose 12.
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But he mentions five
disciples in Chapter 1
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and then in 21 when He
names again there are seven.
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I mean, John doesn't emphasize.
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Yeah, in the Gospel of John
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the tweleveness of the
disciples isn't emphasized.
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And so that
would raised a question
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when you're looking at
Matthew, Mark and Luke,
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why is the 12 so important
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and we might get to that little
later if we have time. Okay.
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Let's take a look
at the passage itself.
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Why don't you start
reading it for us, pastor?
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And maybe I'll
break in ever so often
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at points some things out. Sure.
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"On the third day there was
a wedding in Cana in Galilee."
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Okay, just stop
there for a second.
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It's on the third day. Yes.
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Now remember John is
the one who's constantly
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marking off days
and periods of time.
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Let's just file that away.
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That just may not be as
unimportant does it seems.
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We'll come back to it. Yeah.
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"And the mother
of Jesus was there,"
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so not only the
disciples and Jesus
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but the mother of Jesus.
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"Now both Jesus
and His disciples
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were invited to the wedding.
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And when they ran out of wine,
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the mother of Jesus said
to Him, 'They have no wine.'"
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Well, see there it's important.
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Mother is there, why is
she there and Jesus, both?
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Part of it is
that Cana and Nazareth
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were almost like twin cities.
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So apparently people
between with these towns
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knew each other quite a bit,
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so that's one
piece of the background.
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Why does she care
if the wine runs out?
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So these are
questions that come up
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and I think they're intentional.
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I think they're
placed in the story,
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and the story is told in a
way to evoke reader's questions.
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So that's how
we're gonna do together.
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Go ahead. Keep reading.
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Jesus said to her, Woman,
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what does your
concern have to do with Me?
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My hour has not yet come.''
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His mother said to the servants,
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"Whatever He
says to you, do it."
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Now there were set there
three waterpots of stone,
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according to the manner
of purification of the Jews,
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containing twenty or
thirty gallons apiece."
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Okay, let's stop there a minute.
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Would you want to
carry one of these pots?
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It depends how heavy it is.
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How heavy it is-- Okay.
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Well, twenty or thirty
gallons. How much is a gallon?
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I would say, five, six pounds.
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Okay, that's close I think
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it's eighth and a quarter
something like that. Okay.
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So if you have twenty or
thirty gallons in one pot
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that pot is gonna
weigh about 200 pounds
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with the water in it,
not counting the stone.
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These are stone jars,
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200 pounds of
water in a stone jar,
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I don't think even Mr. Universe
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is gonna carry
these very far, you see.
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So these were not carrying pots,
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these were cisterns at a place
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may be where you don't
have caves underground.
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You can use pots like
this, there is series of pots
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to collect rain
water from the roof
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and the purpose
of all this water
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was for Jewish
ceremonies of purification.
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So John is sort of
making the point here,
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you know the Jewish
were really concerned
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about purification at that time,
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so they had lots and
lots of water for doing that.
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And so rather than bringing
the pots over to the person,
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you would have
to bring the person
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over to the pots and get them--
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Not too practical
to bring the pots over,
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so when Jesus
says fill the pots,
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He's not having them come by Him
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and you know, engaging each pot.
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The pots are
probably outside the house.
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And He is telling them to
go out there and do this task.
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Okay. Verse 8 says,
and He said to them.
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"Draw some out now and take
it to the master of the feast."
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I should've skipped verse
7. Yeah, I was thinking that.
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Jesus said to them,
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"Fill the water
pots with water."
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And they filled
them up to the brim.
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And He said to
them, "Draw some out now,
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and take it to the
master of the feast."
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And they took it.
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When the master of
the feast had tasted
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the water that was made wine,
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and did not know
where it came from,
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but the servants who
had drawn the water knew,
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the master of the
feast called the bridegroom.
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And he said to him,
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"Every man at the beginning
sets out the good wine,
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and when the guests have
well drunk, then the inferior.
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You have kept the
good wine until now."
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You should probably note
a couple of things there.
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First of all, Jesus
doesn't touch the water.
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Remember, we've talked about
that in our earlier program
00:10:01.04\00:10:03.50
that in the Gospel of John
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when He does this
miracles he doesn't touch it.
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The pots are outside.
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He tells them go
and fill those pots
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and then draw out some and take
it to the master of the feast.
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Master of the feast
would be like a caterer
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or a wedding
planner in today's context.
00:10:17.55\00:10:21.97
So we can ask the question,
you know, what's going on here,
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why is it so surprising
to the master of the feast
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that this water is pretty good.
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And it tells us
that he did not know
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where the wine came from.
00:10:39.80\00:10:41.74
So these are all little
details when you think of this--
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the story is a real story.
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It really took
place but for John,
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he emphasizes
things in the story
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that serve his
theological purpose
00:10:52.59\00:10:55.19
and that's what we want
to get to before we're done.
00:10:55.22\00:10:58.31
Now you said in
a different program
00:10:58.34\00:11:01.45
that the gospel again the Gospel
of John is a spiritual one.
00:11:01.48\00:11:05.73
My question is "What
is the purpose of Jesus
00:11:05.76\00:11:09.46
performing this miracle where
the water is turned into wine
00:11:09.49\00:11:15.07
compared to other
miracles where He heals someone
00:11:15.10\00:11:18.71
either physically,
spiritually, emotionally,
00:11:18.74\00:11:21.42
there is some
benefit to mankind?" Right.
00:11:21.45\00:11:23.75
Where in this case
it almost seems like
00:11:23.78\00:11:27.09
He's performing a
miracle for the sake of service,
00:11:27.12\00:11:31.54
for pleasing the
guests in this case so.
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I don't know if
you-- what's the connection
00:11:35.41\00:11:36.78
then the
spiritual of this miracle?
00:11:36.81\00:11:39.50
Well, you know, the
other three don't mention
00:11:39.53\00:11:43.13
the story at all
Matthew, Mark and Luke
00:11:43.16\00:11:45.08
don't mention the
story of wedding at Cana
00:11:45.11\00:11:46.59
perhaps for that very reason,
00:11:46.62\00:11:48.74
that it doesn't have an
obvious spiritual purpose,
00:11:48.77\00:11:52.82
but John is not afraid
to put something in here
00:11:52.85\00:11:54.96
that doesn't have an
obvious spiritual purpose,
00:11:54.99\00:11:57.13
because the whole story is going
to have a spiritual purpose.
00:11:57.16\00:12:01.39
And in this particular
story our number of details
00:12:01.42\00:12:07.19
that when you go
to little bit deeper--
00:12:07.22\00:12:08.59
let me just give you an example,
turning water into wine.
00:12:08.62\00:12:13.32
Is there any
Old Testament story,
00:12:13.35\00:12:16.77
that sounds
little bit like that,
00:12:16.80\00:12:18.91
as a story of
transforming water?
00:12:18.94\00:12:21.93
I can think of the time in
Egypt the water turn into blood.
00:12:21.96\00:12:26.64
Yeah, yeah. Is that--
00:12:26.67\00:12:28.04
Yeah. Okay.
00:12:28.07\00:12:29.44
Moses turns water into blood.
Can you think of any other?
00:12:29.47\00:12:33.59
Mmm, you gonna have
to help me over here.
00:12:33.62\00:12:36.83
Do you remember Elisha? Okay.
00:12:36.86\00:12:38.71
He comes to Jericho,
and the water in Jericho
00:12:38.74\00:12:42.45
is messed up, its poisonous,
00:12:42.48\00:12:46.02
they can't drink it and it's
really hurting the community,
00:12:46.05\00:12:48.50
because there's not a
whole lot of options there.
00:12:48.53\00:12:51.72
And so He sprinkles
some salt in the spring
00:12:51.75\00:12:55.15
and it turns to water sweet.
00:12:55.18\00:12:58.00
So it's a transformation miracle
00:12:58.03\00:12:59.80
again from salty
water to sweet water,
00:12:59.83\00:13:02.76
you know
Jericho's by the Dead Sea,
00:13:02.79\00:13:04.73
so there's lot of
salty water around there
00:13:04.76\00:13:06.77
and to have
sweet water coming out.
00:13:06.80\00:13:08.26
By the way I've drunk
from that well in Jericho
00:13:08.29\00:13:10.69
and the water is very good.
00:13:10.72\00:13:12.94
It's still sweet?
Yes, oh yeah, sweet.
00:13:12.97\00:13:14.80
I'm still here.
00:13:14.83\00:13:16.24
That was 20 years ago, so yeah,
the poisonous water has gone.
00:13:16.27\00:13:20.18
So you have these two
transformation miracles
00:13:20.21\00:13:23.00
and one part of the story,
you see, when you go deeper
00:13:23.03\00:13:26.96
one part of this might
be, perhaps it's hinting
00:13:26.99\00:13:30.13
that the Exodus
story and the Elisha story
00:13:30.16\00:13:32.47
may somehow be
important in the Gospel of John.
00:13:32.50\00:13:36.16
I give you
another little key here.
00:13:36.19\00:13:39.14
Joshua and Elisha
mean the same thing.
00:13:39.17\00:13:44.75
To us they're
totally different name
00:13:44.78\00:13:46.27
but Joshua means,
Yehovah is my savior,
00:13:46.30\00:13:49.32
and Jehovah is my savior.
00:13:49.35\00:13:51.42
Elisha means, God is my savior.
00:13:51.45\00:13:54.27
So they're cognate names.
00:13:54.30\00:13:56.22
They're two different
names that mean the same thing.
00:13:56.25\00:13:59.11
So those two are tied
together by their very names
00:13:59.14\00:14:02.79
in the Old Testament already.
00:14:02.82\00:14:04.58
So this story is told in a way
00:14:04.61\00:14:06.72
to bring those
two stories to mind.
00:14:06.75\00:14:09.19
Okay. We're gonna continue then
and pick up where we left up.
00:14:09.22\00:14:13.24
Friends stay with
us after this break
00:14:13.27\00:14:15.21
we are studying
the wedding at Cana.
00:14:15.24\00:14:18.51