Participants: Deyvy Rodriguez & Jon Paulien
Series Code: JBOTB
Program Code: JBOTB00011B
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00:01 And we're back.
00:02 We're talking about eschatology in the Gospel of John. 00:06 And we said-- what Dr. Paulien said 00:09 that the father raises the dead 00:12 and gives life to them the time is now. 00:16 So this time referring to is that spiritual revival. 00:20 This passage is divided into two parts. 00:22 You have verses 21 to 25 and verses 26 to 30. 00:27 Both of them are introduced with the same Greek words just as 00:31 and then the father gives life and then Jesus gives life. 00:35 So both of them start the same way, 00:37 but it's clear that they're not exactly the same 00:40 because the one is now and the other is later. 00:43 The one is spiritual and the other is physical. 00:46 So the eschatology has two parts, 00:49 there is a present tense to it and there is future tense to it. 00:53 Most of us when we think of end time 00:55 theology or eschatology 00:57 we're thinking about the end time, 00:59 we think into the future. 01:00 You know, when Jesus comes, 01:01 but here John brings that future into the present. 01:06 That future resurrection can be present now. 01:10 So the resurrection of Jesus not only predicts 01:14 that all of us will be resurrected at the end, 01:17 but resurrection power can come into our lives now 01:21 when we receive Jesus. 01:23 And that revolutionizes faith I think. 01:26 Because we come to realize 01:28 that there is a real and living power. 01:30 The word of Jesus brings real 01:32 and living power into our lives today. 01:36 So we can experience that resurrection of life now. 01:39 Now, that's right. 01:41 Now the old age is still here. 01:43 You know, the works of the devil are still here. 01:45 So it's not a complete freedom from life as it now is, 01:50 but it's a joy and a taste of that future 01:52 that's present right now. 01:55 And so where are we are picking up now then. 01:58 Well, what I like to do is review quickly 02:00 some of the different eschatologies of the Bible. 02:03 Many people read the Bible as a whole, 02:06 you know, Genesis to Revelation 02:08 and try to construct a single theology 02:11 and that is good and very, very helpful, 02:14 but what we sometimes miss 02:16 is the perspective of different eras of the Bible. 02:19 So you go back to Moses and you say to Moses, 02:22 okay, "What's the end going to be like? 02:25 What is your view of the end?" 02:26 And Moses says it's like this Deuteronomy 28, 02:30 if Israel obeys and does what God asks them to do. 02:34 They'll become more and more prosperous, 02:37 they'll be more and more peace, 02:38 their enemies will be defeated. 02:40 Gradually, heaven will be come on earth. 02:44 In other words, it won't be a dramatic entry. 02:47 It will just be a gradual process 02:50 of getting better and better, happier and happier 02:53 sin more and more being dealt with. 02:56 If Israel disobeys, things are going to go downhill, 02:59 instead it's going to get worse and worse 03:01 until they end up going into exile. 03:03 So Moses has a conditional eschatology, 03:06 he gives them two paths. 03:08 Your future can go either way depending on how you choose. 03:11 So it's a conditional future, 03:14 it's a gradual process kind of future, 03:17 that's the end time through the eyes of Moses. 03:21 Now when you get to the prophets, 03:23 you know Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and so on. 03:27 I think it's getting pretty obvious, 03:29 Israel is not going to obey, 03:31 they're not going to achieve that positive end time. 03:34 And so the prophets add to the idea. 03:37 They say things are going downhill here, 03:40 but some day God is going to break into history. 03:44 He is going to come either with a Messiah or Himself, 03:48 there's this two different ways of expressing it. 03:51 He is going to come and break into history. 03:53 He is going to transform history, 03:55 transform the nation. 03:56 He is going to transform our hearts. 03:58 He is going to transform the environment 04:01 and then that gradual path toward 04:04 the future blessing is going to start. 04:07 So God will break-in into history, 04:09 into geography, into the world as we know it. 04:12 And gradually develop this perfect world 04:14 that Moses promised. 04:17 You get passed the Old Testament 04:18 and you get into the Jewish apocalyptic writers 04:22 and I think, the sense is just, 04:24 you know, even if God broke-in this world is too hopeless. 04:30 And so when the apocalyptic writers-- 04:32 you start getting this vision that when God does break-in, 04:36 He's going to completely destroy the old. 04:38 He is going to just smash it to bits. 04:41 And He's going to start all over, 04:43 create a new heaven and a new earth, 04:45 reestablish everything, resurrect the righteous, 04:48 plant them there, and move on. 04:51 So in the Jewish apocalyptic writers 04:53 between the Old and New Testaments 04:55 you have the idea of two ages. 04:57 There's the present evil age, 04:59 the age in which everything's messed up, 05:01 God will destroy that 05:03 and He'll create a brand new age, a new earth 05:06 in which everything is going to be different, all right? 05:10 Which of these views that the New Testament writers 05:13 accept in a sense all of them, 05:16 but particularly the Jewish apocalyptic view? 05:19 The idea in the Book of Revelation 05:21 God doesn't step in here 05:22 and gradually make things better. 05:24 He smashes it at the end 05:25 and it's a new heaven and new earth. 05:27 So that kind of language is drawn from the prophets 05:30 but has a deep meaning from the developments 05:34 in the intertestamental period. 05:36 So along comes Paul 05:40 and Paul believes we're living in the old age 05:43 but at the very end of the old age Messiah's going to come. 05:48 Messiah's going to reign for a period of time, 05:50 it's actually 400 years and then He's going to die. 05:54 And when Messiah dies God will destroy the whole thing. 05:58 We actually have documents that teach this. 06:01 Destroy the whole world, 06:03 they'll be seven days of primeval silence 06:06 and then the new world will come, 06:09 so there is a distinct gap between the old and new 06:12 they don't mix together at all. 06:14 Now you can understand why Paul would reject Jesus, 06:17 as Saul of Tarsus, 06:19 because if he believes that Messiah 06:21 is the last event of this old earth 06:25 and that when Messiah dies this old earth is destroyed. 06:31 How would he know that Jesus is a fraud? 06:33 Because Jesus dies and nothing happens, 06:36 the world is still here, nothing is changed, 06:39 Satan is still busy. 06:41 He's saying come on this is a fraud. 06:44 What changes his mind? 06:47 Why does he suddenly change in his mind 06:48 and say, yes, Jesus is the Messiah, 06:51 because on the road to Damascus he meets Jesus Himself 06:56 and then he goes to Simon the Tanner's house 06:59 and for three days, his theology is messed up. 07:02 He has got to figure out, how do I fit this Messiah 07:05 into the reality that the old age is still here? 07:10 And Paul develops the New Testament 07:13 view of eschatology then. 07:14 He is the most clear exponent or even perhaps, the first. 07:18 In that the new age has come back into the old 07:23 and the two are now side-by-side. 07:25 With the coming of Jesus the new age has come 07:29 and it overlaps the old, so you have in a real sense, 07:34 the new has come. 07:35 Heaven is present now, but in the real sense also 07:38 the old is still here so there is a tension between them. 07:42 And I think this is what Christians experience, 07:46 when they recognize that, 07:49 you know, I want to follow Jesus, I love Him, 07:52 I give my life to Him and yet my life is still messed up. 07:55 There is that tension inside of you 07:56 because Christ has entered your life 07:58 and yet Satan is still at work and trying to trouble you. 08:02 So Christians can live in a life of turmoil. 08:05 And that's the story of the New Testament that's normal. 08:08 It's the way things are in the present evil age, 08:12 but you can begin to taste the life of heaven now, 08:17 right now in what Jesus brings. 08:20 So for the New Testament writers 08:22 the end has already come in one sense, 08:26 and has not yet come in another sense. 08:29 That's kind of hard to bend your head around, 08:31 but over time it becomes clear 08:33 and it helps to explain some of the struggles 08:36 we have, in following God. 08:38 In Romans 8, Paul says, 08:39 you know, "We groan within ourselves longing for the end." 08:42 You know the things that are not quite, 08:44 we have the taste in us of eternal things 08:47 and yet we're often stuck 08:49 in the mundane things of everyday life. 08:52 So when you come back to the Gospel of John, 08:55 John is the New Testament writer 08:57 that most strongly emphasizes the present reality, 09:01 heaven has come, the judgment has already passed. 09:05 We are already accepted with God, 09:07 we have present tense eternal life. 09:11 And it's real and it's here right now. 09:14 Yes, there is still something coming 09:15 in verses 26 to 30 get into that, 09:18 but in reality the power of the resurrection is a present tense. 09:23 Now the term judgment often sounds very frightening 09:28 for many people, 09:29 how can someone take courage in facing the judgment? 09:36 Well, the good news about the judgment is, 09:38 it isn't just a negative thing. 09:40 We think of judgment as God coming down 09:42 and smacking us in the face, 09:44 you know, or spanking us or throwing us in prison 09:46 or killing us or something like that. 09:48 But now judgment is not just reckoning 09:53 that some person has not, 09:56 you know, reached the level that they should be. 09:57 Judgment is also saying, look, in Jesus Christ, 10:01 you have an eternal life now, you are acceptable to Him now, 10:04 when you receive Jesus 10:06 that faith brings you into this new age. 10:09 And now you have a reality that you didn't have before. 10:13 So judgment in the New Testament 10:15 sense is not a frightful thing 10:17 because judgment also protects us from the evil one, 10:21 judgment also acknowledges 10:23 that we are with God and where God wants to be. 10:26 And there is a security, a stability there. 10:28 It's says you have eternal life. 10:30 You have passed over from death to life. 10:33 Now you will not come into condemnation at the judgment. 10:37 So we can have an assurance now 10:40 that when the judgment comes it will be positive for us. 10:43 So judgment then is to our advantage. Exactly. 10:46 We should not be afraid of it. Exactly. 10:48 It's a metaphor of what God has already determined to do for us. 10:52 Yeah, and we can have the assurance of that now, 10:55 so we don't have to be worried 10:57 about the judgment in the future. 10:58 And how can I have that assurance now? 11:01 In Jesus Christ. 11:02 When you give your life to Him 11:04 and have that trusting relationship. 11:06 Dr. Paulien, thank you again 11:08 for being with us in this Bible study. 11:09 And, friends, I pray that you accept Jesus Christ today. 11:13 And have that assurance of eternal life in Him. 11:16 God bless. |
Revised 2014-12-17