Participants: Deyvy Rodriguez & Jon Paulien
Series Code: JBOTB
Program Code: JBOTB00006A
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00:20 Hello, well, I'm so happy you're able to join us
00:22 in this Bible study. 00:24 We're actually studying the Gospel of John. 00:27 And we're with Dr. Jon Paulien. 00:29 And I'm very happy and excited 00:31 because he has this unique ability 00:35 to make Bible study very interesting 00:38 and we're going to find out in a few minutes. 00:41 Dr. Paulien, welcome again. 00:43 Thank you, it's good to be with you always, Deyvy. 00:45 Okay, you know, today we're gonna be 00:46 talking about the wedding in Cana. 00:50 And by the way if you have a Bible 00:52 you can turn to John 2 00:54 and we're gonna be studying verses 1-11. 00:58 Now Dr. Paulien, I'm very excited about this 01:01 because again we're talking about a wedding 01:04 and I say this because I look in this topic, 01:08 I look towards the future, you know, for me personally 01:11 whereas I don't know how excited that is to you, 01:13 may be you still, you look towards the past, 01:15 may be you look-- 01:16 This is the future thing, does that mean, 01:19 I don't--we were still meeting each other. 01:21 Are you married? 01:22 I'm-- at this point, no. 01:24 No. No. 01:26 So may be that's why I'm excited about this thing. Okay. 01:29 You know, I was just talking to a young lady 01:31 the other day and she was saying, 01:33 "All the good ones are taken." 01:35 Now I know, she's wrong. 01:37 Well, thank you, I appreciate it. 01:40 All right. 01:41 So for you, you're looking forward 01:43 to this idea of a wedding and what it means? 01:46 I, I am, you know, I am. 01:48 And I think that as I read this passage 01:51 because I read it earlier. 01:54 I found out something very interesting 01:56 that this couple whoever it was, 02:00 they decided to invite Jesus to their wedding. 02:04 And I thought that was very interesting because-- 02:08 if there is a Christian person out there who declines 02:13 to invite Jesus to his or her wedding 02:18 or just does not have that good feeling 02:23 for Jesus to be present there, 02:25 then I think there's something wrong with that decision, 02:28 because it's gonna be a lifetime commitment without Jesus. 02:31 I can just imagine how that marriage 02:34 can turn out eventually. But-- 02:37 So you're planning to invite Jesus to your wedding. 02:39 I do plan, because I think He was or He will be the one 02:45 who will bring us together and so I think it's good to, 02:49 He should be the first one to be invited. 02:52 And there's young lady somewhere, 02:54 maybe even watching this program 02:56 who loves Jesus as much you do 02:59 and could potentially be part of that. 03:01 Well, I don't know that's prophecy-- 03:03 I don't want to put you on the spot, 03:04 but here you are so. 03:05 You already put me on the spot. Okay. 03:08 So-- You're embarrassed, well. 03:11 All right then, let's continue. Okay. 03:13 So we have read that Jesus was calling His disciples 03:20 and by the time that Jesus and His disciples, 03:23 we'll read that they were invited to the wedding. 03:27 We find out that not all, 03:29 at least the Bible does not say that all 12 were invited, 03:32 but at least the first five who were called 03:34 and help me out here I think, it was Andrew, John, 03:37 it was Peter and Philip and then Daniel. 03:41 So at least we know that five were present at the wedding. 03:45 So I would like to know is, 03:48 why would Jesus begin or begin His ministries, 03:53 is that correct or at least start performing His signs 03:58 at a wedding and what's the point of this story, 04:02 because you said earlier that the Gospel of John 04:06 is a spiritual gospel and so what's the spiritual, 04:12 how can I say, what's the parable of this story 04:17 if you will, what's the meaning of it? 04:20 Well, that's I think what we want to do 04:22 in this program definitely, 04:24 because the synoptic gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke, 04:28 often tell the story to tell the story and it happened, 04:32 so here's the story and the key might be a saying of Jesus 04:36 who comes at the end of the story 04:38 or it might be a point, 04:39 that that story leads to the next story 04:42 and it's following a progression. 04:44 In the Gospel of John as we saw at the beginning 04:47 of this series, it's very selective. 04:51 He says there's all kinds of stuff Jesus did, 04:53 all kinds of miracles He did. 04:55 Why does He pick this wedding? 04:58 It's not casual. 05:00 And there is a depth here and in fact 05:02 I've taught as much as nine hours on this passage. 05:06 So there is a depth here, spiritual depths 05:09 that you wouldn't find in Matthew, Mark and Luke. 05:12 So we definitely want to get into that. 05:14 And you mentioned five disciples. 05:16 Another difference among the gospels 05:18 is Jesus doesn't emphasize the 12. 05:21 From Matthew, Mark and Luke it's important that he chose 12. 05:26 But he mentions five disciples in Chapter 1 05:29 and then in 21 when He names again there are seven. 05:32 I mean, John doesn't emphasize. 05:33 Yeah, in the Gospel of John 05:35 the tweleveness of the disciples isn't emphasized. 05:38 And so that would raised a question 05:41 when you're looking at Matthew, Mark and Luke, 05:43 why is the 12 so important 05:45 and we might get to that little later if we have time. Okay. 05:49 Let's take a look at the passage itself. 05:51 Why don't you start reading it for us, pastor? 05:54 And maybe I'll break in ever so often 05:57 at points some things out. Sure. 05:58 "On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee." 06:02 Okay, just stop there for a second. 06:04 It's on the third day. Yes. 06:07 Now remember John is the one who's constantly 06:10 marking off days and periods of time. 06:13 Let's just file that away. 06:15 That just may not be as unimportant does it seems. 06:18 We'll come back to it. Yeah. 06:20 "And the mother of Jesus was there," 06:22 so not only the disciples and Jesus 06:24 but the mother of Jesus. 06:27 "Now both Jesus and His disciples 06:28 were invited to the wedding. 06:30 And when they ran out of wine, 06:31 the mother of Jesus said to Him, 'They have no wine.'" 06:35 Well, see there it's important. 06:37 Mother is there, why is she there and Jesus, both? 06:41 Part of it is that Cana and Nazareth 06:43 were almost like twin cities. 06:46 So apparently people between with these towns 06:48 knew each other quite a bit, 06:50 so that's one piece of the background. 06:53 Why does she care if the wine runs out? 06:56 So these are questions that come up 06:59 and I think they're intentional. 07:01 I think they're placed in the story, 07:03 and the story is told in a way to evoke reader's questions. 07:07 So that's how we're gonna do together. 07:09 Go ahead. Keep reading. 07:11 Jesus said to her, Woman, 07:13 what does your concern have to do with Me? 07:15 My hour has not yet come.'' 07:18 His mother said to the servants, 07:19 "Whatever He says to you, do it." 07:23 Now there were set there three waterpots of stone, 07:28 according to the manner of purification of the Jews, 07:31 containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece." 07:34 Okay, let's stop there a minute. 07:37 Would you want to carry one of these pots? 07:40 It depends how heavy it is. 07:42 How heavy it is-- Okay. 07:43 Well, twenty or thirty gallons. How much is a gallon? 07:48 I would say, five, six pounds. 07:52 Okay, that's close I think 07:53 it's eighth and a quarter something like that. Okay. 07:56 So if you have twenty or thirty gallons in one pot 08:01 that pot is gonna weigh about 200 pounds 08:03 with the water in it, not counting the stone. 08:06 These are stone jars, 08:08 200 pounds of water in a stone jar, 08:11 I don't think even Mr. Universe 08:12 is gonna carry these very far, you see. 08:15 So these were not carrying pots, 08:18 these were cisterns at a place 08:20 may be where you don't have caves underground. 08:24 You can use pots like this, there is series of pots 08:26 to collect rain water from the roof 08:28 and the purpose of all this water 08:31 was for Jewish ceremonies of purification. 08:35 So John is sort of making the point here, 08:39 you know the Jewish were really concerned 08:40 about purification at that time, 08:42 so they had lots and lots of water for doing that. 08:45 And so rather than bringing the pots over to the person, 08:48 you would have to bring the person 08:50 over to the pots and get them-- 08:51 Not too practical to bring the pots over, 08:53 so when Jesus says fill the pots, 08:56 He's not having them come by Him 08:58 and you know, engaging each pot. 09:00 The pots are probably outside the house. 09:02 And He is telling them to go out there and do this task. 09:07 Okay. Verse 8 says, and He said to them. 09:11 "Draw some out now and take it to the master of the feast." 09:15 I should've skipped verse 7. Yeah, I was thinking that. 09:18 Jesus said to them, 09:19 "Fill the water pots with water." 09:21 And they filled them up to the brim. 09:23 And He said to them, "Draw some out now, 09:26 and take it to the master of the feast." 09:28 And they took it. 09:30 When the master of the feast had tasted 09:32 the water that was made wine, 09:34 and did not know where it came from, 09:35 but the servants who had drawn the water knew, 09:39 the master of the feast called the bridegroom. 09:42 And he said to him, 09:43 "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, 09:46 and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. 09:51 You have kept the good wine until now." 09:54 You should probably note a couple of things there. 09:56 First of all, Jesus doesn't touch the water. 10:01 Remember, we've talked about that in our earlier program 10:03 that in the Gospel of John 10:04 when He does this miracles he doesn't touch it. 10:06 The pots are outside. 10:08 He tells them go and fill those pots 10:11 and then draw out some and take it to the master of the feast. 10:15 Master of the feast would be like a caterer 10:17 or a wedding planner in today's context. 10:22 So we can ask the question, you know, what's going on here, 10:27 why is it so surprising to the master of the feast 10:31 that this water is pretty good. 10:35 And it tells us that he did not know 10:39 where the wine came from. 10:41 So these are all little details when you think of this-- 10:45 the story is a real story. 10:47 It really took place but for John, 10:50 he emphasizes things in the story 10:52 that serve his theological purpose 10:55 and that's what we want to get to before we're done. 10:58 Now you said in a different program 11:01 that the gospel again the Gospel of John is a spiritual one. 11:05 My question is "What is the purpose of Jesus 11:09 performing this miracle where the water is turned into wine 11:15 compared to other miracles where He heals someone 11:18 either physically, spiritually, emotionally, 11:21 there is some benefit to mankind?" Right. 11:23 Where in this case it almost seems like 11:27 He's performing a miracle for the sake of service, 11:31 for pleasing the guests in this case so. 11:35 I don't know if you-- what's the connection 11:36 then the spiritual of this miracle? 11:39 Well, you know, the other three don't mention 11:43 the story at all Matthew, Mark and Luke 11:45 don't mention the story of wedding at Cana 11:46 perhaps for that very reason, 11:48 that it doesn't have an obvious spiritual purpose, 11:52 but John is not afraid to put something in here 11:54 that doesn't have an obvious spiritual purpose, 11:57 because the whole story is going to have a spiritual purpose. 12:01 And in this particular story our number of details 12:07 that when you go to little bit deeper-- 12:08 let me just give you an example, turning water into wine. 12:13 Is there any Old Testament story, 12:16 that sounds little bit like that, 12:18 as a story of transforming water? 12:21 I can think of the time in Egypt the water turn into blood. 12:26 Yeah, yeah. Is that-- 12:28 Yeah. Okay. 12:29 Moses turns water into blood. Can you think of any other? 12:33 Mmm, you gonna have to help me over here. 12:36 Do you remember Elisha? Okay. 12:38 He comes to Jericho, and the water in Jericho 12:42 is messed up, its poisonous, 12:46 they can't drink it and it's really hurting the community, 12:48 because there's not a whole lot of options there. 12:51 And so He sprinkles some salt in the spring 12:55 and it turns to water sweet. 12:58 So it's a transformation miracle 12:59 again from salty water to sweet water, 13:02 you know Jericho's by the Dead Sea, 13:04 so there's lot of salty water around there 13:06 and to have sweet water coming out. 13:08 By the way I've drunk from that well in Jericho 13:10 and the water is very good. 13:12 It's still sweet? Yes, oh yeah, sweet. 13:14 I'm still here. 13:16 That was 20 years ago, so yeah, the poisonous water has gone. 13:20 So you have these two transformation miracles 13:23 and one part of the story, you see, when you go deeper 13:26 one part of this might be, perhaps it's hinting 13:30 that the Exodus story and the Elisha story 13:32 may somehow be important in the Gospel of John. 13:36 I give you another little key here. 13:39 Joshua and Elisha mean the same thing. 13:44 To us they're totally different name 13:46 but Joshua means, Yehovah is my savior, 13:49 and Jehovah is my savior. 13:51 Elisha means, God is my savior. 13:54 So they're cognate names. 13:56 They're two different names that mean the same thing. 13:59 So those two are tied together by their very names 14:02 in the Old Testament already. 14:04 So this story is told in a way 14:06 to bring those two stories to mind. 14:09 Okay. We're gonna continue then and pick up where we left up. 14:13 Friends stay with us after this break 14:15 we are studying the wedding at Cana. |
Revised 2014-12-17