And welcome back again.
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We're studying
the Gospel of John.
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Particularly we're studying
the cleansing of the temple
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in the last part of Chapter 2.
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And we are with Dr. Jon Paulien.
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And this is very exciting
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because he has a very detailed
in-depth study on this gospel.
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And, Dr. Paulien, we left off on
how this story is leading to--
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has a spiritual
emphasis towards the cross.
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It really connects with
the wedding of Cana story.
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So you can read
the chapter as a whole.
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And there's all sorts of hints
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that John drops that
all end up at the cross.
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You have the third
day in Chapter 2 verse 1.
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You have the woman, you know,
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marry who appears
again at the cross.
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You have the idea,
my time hasn't come,
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the disciples saw His glory.
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You have the
water turned into wine
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which recalls
the blood of Jesus.
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Here in the temple story,
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it says Jesus replaces
the temple with His body.
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He replaces the sacrificial
animals with His body
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which will be
sacrificed on the cross,
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so for the person who
knows the Gospel of John 2
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is full of
foretastes of the cross
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and it illustrates the point
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I was making each of the
stories in the Gospel of John
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is like a parable that
has deeper spiritual meaning.
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And the cross
for John is the place
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where God is truly revealed.
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People have a lot of
different views of God,
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but the truest view of
God is the one we see in Jesus
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in the Gospel of John.
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He is revealing God's character
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in His
willingness to die for us,
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in His willingness to be
gracious and kind and patient
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with difficult people,
people who just never get it,
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they don't understand,
they oppose everything,
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and yet He is patient with them
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and He shows
them what God is like.
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Now speaking of God's character
here in the story particularly,
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we read that Jesus was
not very happy or pleased
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with these
actions and it says that,
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you know, that He had a whip,
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doesn't say that
He whipped him. Yeah.
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But we often have
this picture of Jesus,
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you know, just
whipping everybody
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and just this feature of
just angry at the people,
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is that an accurate depiction
of the character of Jesus?
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I think it's really
important to keep in mind
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that God meets
people where they are.
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And children
need a strong parent.
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School teachers know
that if you start the year
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being sweet and nice, the
kids may run all over you.
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So parent or a teacher
starts out sometime stern
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and so on to set the
boundaries, set the structure,
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but when people are
used to that structure,
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when kids grow up and feel
comfortable in that structure,
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the parents then can back off
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and if you have
30-year-old child
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and you're still yelling at them
and telling them what to do,
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that's probably not
appropriate anymore.
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And I think God
wants to grow people.
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He doesn't want
to be threatening.
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He doesn't want to
be judgmental and so on.
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He wants to love us
and receive love in return,
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that's the ultimate goal.
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God is love from beginning
to end of the great controversy,
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you know, throughout history,
that's what it's all about.
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And yet God meets people
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where they need
Him at different times.
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And here, this
temple needed cleansing.
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It doesn't tell
us Jesus hit anybody,
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but apparently just a look
in his face was enough to feel,
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so that I'm getting out of here.
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I've got to run.
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And because the
temple is cleansed,
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now the children
could come to Him
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and it changed
the whole atmosphere.
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So going back to verse 19
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where Jesus
answered them and He says,
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"Destroy this temple and in
three days I will raise it up."
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And then verse 21, it's
the narrator that he says,
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"But he was speaking of
the temple of His body."
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So what is he talking about,
his death and his resurrection?
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Oh, yeah. That's a good point.
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I'm glad you pointed that
out because I was just saying
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that there are so many
foreshadows of the cross.
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There is another one.
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Destroy this temple, my body
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and I will raise
it up in three days.
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That's a clear
reference to the death
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and resurrection of Jesus.
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So John is pretty
plainly hinting to us.
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Hey, don't take
this as a surface story,
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go a little bit deeper and see
that it's all about the cross,
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see that there is a
deeper significance to it.
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So obviously
Jesus was not there,
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you know, pointing
to the building saying,
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you know, destroy this temple,
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but rather He was
referring to His--Himself.
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It's the whole
issue of misunderstanding.
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We handle in the
couple of programs ago
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where the people in the
story take Jesus literally
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and don't catch the
deeper spiritual meaning
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that John is pointing them.
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And the people--
and the people here,
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the Jews just did
not see that. Right.
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They just--again their
focus was on the building,
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the material
structure and Jesus was saying,
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"You know, it's really about,
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you know, again Me
and the miracle is that
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on the first day
or on the third day."
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You got it? Yeah.
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"The body would be resurrected."
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Well, it goes
back to the old story
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that the
physical presence of Jesus
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didn't have the impact
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that the Holy
Spirit did later on
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in changing
people's minds and hearts.
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The people who are actually
there often didn't get it.
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And even the
disciples didn't get it.
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So we shouldn't
feel disadvantaged
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that we don't have the
physical presence of Jesus
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'cause the Holy
Spirit can give us
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an even deeper
conviction than they had.
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Let's go on to the
last part of this chapter
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'cause I think
it's-- it's three verses
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that are easily overlooked,
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they're
tremendously interesting.
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Verse 23.
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"Now when he was in
Jerusalem at the Passover
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during the Feast,
many believed in his name
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when they saw the
signs which he did.
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But Jesus did not
commit Himself to them
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because he knew all men,
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and had no need that
anyone should testify of man,
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for He knew what was in man."
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Now here's an
interesting piece here.
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This is what I call a
dual-directional passage.
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There's a lot of them in John.
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The wedding of Cana
is one of those too,
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because we've already seen
that it builds on Chapter 1
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that series of days
that ends in the wedding,
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but it also sets the
table for the temple cleansing
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which are all cross related.
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So the wedding of Cana kind
of links two different things.
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Here, this passage,
verses 23-25 is the link
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between the temple cleansing
and the Nicodemus story
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which we'll talk about in
the next program in Chapter 3.
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And here it says,
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"A lot of people saw Jesus doing
miraculous things in Jerusalem
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and they believed in Him."
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But here's a little piece that
you don't get in translation.
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It says in the Greek.
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"Since they
believed in His name,
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but Jesus did
not believe in them."
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He uses the
same word for belief.
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The English
translation usually changes it.
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It's the idea, these
people believed in Jesus,
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but it was inadequate faith.
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It wasn't a
full rich deep faith.
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They believed
because of miracles.
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They believed for
that outward stuff
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what we were just talking about.
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You know, that they saw
what Jesus did in the temple
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and instead of seeing
the spiritual meaning of it,
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they just said, "Oh, you know,
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he is gonna
destroy this building
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and build it in three days."
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Now how did Jesus
not believe in them
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'cause I've not
heard of that translation?
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Well, the
translation I have here
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is He did not
entrust himself to them.
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You see, in the
Greek, it's a play on words.
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They believed in Him, but
He doesn't believe in them,
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kind of it's
the surface meaning,
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and what is He did
not trust their faith.
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He did not trust
that their belief in Him.
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It was only based in miracles.
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They didn't know
who He really was.
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They didn't know
that those miracles
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would lead to the cross.
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The cleansing of the
temple would lead to the cross.
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They didn't want
to go to the cross.
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They didn't want to
take up their cross, you see.
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So that they were believing
in was a political Messiah
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who would cleanse
temples and defeat Roman armies
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and bring them lots of money,
you know, and fame and power.
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Yeah, money, fame,
power, relationships,
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that's what
people are all about,
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that's not what
Jesus came to bring.
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He came to bring
something deeper.
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It's a picture of
God and who He is,
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and of a relationship with God
that could change their lives.
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So in John, there's
three types of faith.
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There's a faith
that is inadequate.
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And Nicodemus
represents that kind of faith.
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There's a partial faith, a good
faith that's kind of immature,
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that's what the disciples
had after the wedding of Cana.
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They say this guy
is really special,
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but they still
don't know the cross.
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Then there's full
faith that understands
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the whole picture of Jesus.
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It's mature, it's
lasting, it's unshakeable.
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That's the faith
of the Samaritan woman
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in the end comes to demonstrate
and many others in the gospel.
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Mary, for
example. Mary and Martha.
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Yeah, but Jesus
says, what the Bible says
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that Jesus knew what was in men
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and probably why
He didn't trust them.
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So does Jesus
know what is in me,
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what is in my heart I spoke?
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Yes, that's right.
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For the rabbis, here is
something I wrote down here.
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For the rabbis,
there were seven things
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that no human being could know.
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The day of their
death, the day of consolation,
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in other words when God
would bring about the end.
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The depths of
judgment, one's reward,
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the time when the
kingdom would be restored,
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the time when the
Romans would be destroyed
00:10:12.69\00:10:15.16
and what is within another.
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The rabbi says, "It's impossible
for a human being to know
00:10:18.19\00:10:21.86
what's inside
another human being."
00:10:21.89\00:10:24.45
Yet Jesus knows that.
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He has already shown that
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with Nathaniel in
the previous chapter.
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He knew where Nathaniel was
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and what he was thinking
before Jesus ever met him.
00:10:32.22\00:10:36.50
He knew what was in them.
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He didn't entrust
himself to these people
00:10:38.42\00:10:40.26
'cause he knew
their faiths were shallow,
00:10:40.29\00:10:42.66
it was just a sham,
it was just something
00:10:42.69\00:10:45.34
they were excited
about these miracles
00:10:45.37\00:10:47.30
and so they were gonna believe.
00:10:47.33\00:10:49.34
And perhaps that's a
good place to draw a lesson,
00:10:49.37\00:10:53.35
as we come to the
close of this chapter.
00:10:53.38\00:10:56.24
Jesus knows what's inside of us.
00:10:56.27\00:10:59.92
Now that maybe scary to someone.
00:10:59.95\00:11:01.56
Let me show you a
different side of that.
00:11:01.59\00:11:03.68
If Jesus knows
what's inside of you
00:11:03.71\00:11:07.68
then nothing you could
tell Him would be a surprise.
00:11:07.71\00:11:12.48
And you see, confession of sin
00:11:12.51\00:11:15.94
is simply telling
the truth about yourself.
00:11:15.97\00:11:20.25
It's simply
saying, "Yep, I messed up.
00:11:20.28\00:11:23.61
Yeah, I've been
going my own way."
00:11:23.64\00:11:26.25
It's telling
what is actually true.
00:11:26.28\00:11:28.64
Now I've discovered
00:11:28.67\00:11:30.50
and people have
sometimes confessed
00:11:30.53\00:11:32.14
that it's possible to
even lie to God in prayer.
00:11:32.17\00:11:35.94
You know, you come to
church and you're all upset,
00:11:35.97\00:11:38.58
the family's been a
mess, you know, and so on,
00:11:38.61\00:11:40.72
and then suddenly
you get to church,
00:11:40.75\00:11:42.12
"Oh, it's time for
the opening prayer."
00:11:42.15\00:11:43.52
You have the opening prayer.
00:11:43.55\00:11:44.92
You run up there with
a big smile on your face.
00:11:44.95\00:11:46.53
It's good to be here.
00:11:46.56\00:11:47.98
Let's thank the Lord
for this wonderful day.
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That's baloney, you know.
00:11:50.46\00:11:52.40
It's not in your
heart whatsoever.
00:11:52.43\00:11:54.27
You see, so we can
lie to God even in prayer
00:11:54.30\00:11:57.67
and it tells us,
if Jesus knows us
00:11:57.70\00:12:00.42
it's safe to talk to
Him about what's inside,
00:12:00.45\00:12:04.86
it safe to confess our sins.
00:12:04.89\00:12:06.64
He is not gonna turn on
us for knowing the truth,
00:12:06.67\00:12:09.88
He already knows the truth.
00:12:09.91\00:12:12.07
So that's in my advantage. Yes.
00:12:12.10\00:12:15.54
Quickly, if that's the case,
00:12:15.57\00:12:17.15
why would I have to confess
to God if He already knows?
00:12:17.18\00:12:19.73
Oh, because I need
to, I need to come clean.
00:12:19.76\00:12:23.27
It's living a false
life that is the thing
00:12:23.30\00:12:26.04
that keeps us away from God.
00:12:26.07\00:12:27.44
And when we confess our
sins, when we open ourselves up,
00:12:27.47\00:12:30.84
we allow Him to cleanse us.
00:12:30.87\00:12:32.78
It's giving Him
permission to enter our lives
00:12:32.81\00:12:35.03
and be part of it.
00:12:35.06\00:12:36.43
If you're holding back
information from another person,
00:12:36.46\00:12:38.97
that's not a
trusting relationship, is it?
00:12:39.00\00:12:41.51
So intimacy requires, we'd be
totally honest with each other.
00:12:41.54\00:12:45.38
And that's what
Jesus is inviting here.
00:12:45.41\00:12:48.00
He knows all about us.
00:12:48.03\00:12:49.40
He is inviting us
to know all about Him
00:12:49.43\00:12:51.27
and to reveal ourselves to Him,
00:12:51.30\00:12:52.79
so we can have
depth of relationship.
00:12:52.82\00:12:55.03
And that
invitation from God is coming,
00:12:55.06\00:12:58.02
let us reason together
and let's talk about this
00:12:58.05\00:13:01.01
and I will forgive your sins.
00:13:01.04\00:13:03.07
And, friends, I
pray that you too
00:13:03.10\00:13:05.31
can come to Jesus as you are.
00:13:05.34\00:13:07.56
He knows who you are
00:13:07.59\00:13:09.01
and He's just more
than willing to give you
00:13:09.04\00:13:11.69
that what you need.
00:13:11.72\00:13:13.09
May God bless you.
00:13:13.12\00:13:14.49